December 11, 2025 • 24 mins
(December 11, 2025)
How California’s county fairs have become cotton candy for fraud, theft, and mismanagement. Southern California mountain lions recommended for threatened status. Thriftmas is booming as shoppers hunt secondhand gifts to save money. Paramount wants to buy Warner Bros. What to know about the hostile takeover.
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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 (00:09):
Bill Handle Here.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
It is a Thursday, December eleven, as we are approaching
the end of the year. On Friday tomorrow at A thirty,
we engage in ask handle Anything, and that is how
we end the week A thirty to nine. And it
has to do with you helping us, because without you
that doesn't work. And ask handle Anything is all about
ask handle anything, and it's mainly meant to humiliate me
(00:34):
and you ask the question.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So here's how it works.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
During the course of the show, I have to be
during the show, you click on to you or to
the iHeartRadio app, click on the microphone in the right
hand corner up right hand corner, and then first go
to the Bill Handle show iHeartRadio app Bill handleshow microphone
and then you'll record a question Do I have that right?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I think I do?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
And they're listening to you. Then it's it'll automatically go
to us.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Oh yeah, okay, fair enough, don't have.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
To look for Bill Handle, it's going to.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Okay, never mind.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Then just listening to KFI during the course of the show.
Thank you for that microphone in the upright hand corner
and you'll record a question of any kind and Neil
will select the questions most embarrassing to me, and we
do that at eight thirty tomorrow. But you got to
do it otherwise it's Neil making fun of me as always,
as well as the rest of the crowd. Okay, California fairs,
(01:31):
First of all, there are a little bit of history
to start with. There are seventy seven local fairs in
California and they go back well, the first one eighteen
fifty four near San Francisco. It was popular, so now
six years later eighteen sixty one, Humboldt County, San Diego,
eighteen eighty, Orange County eighteen ninety La. One of the
(01:55):
later ones didn't happen until nineteen twenty two.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And I think the La.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
County fairs the largest county fair anywhere out there. And
there were two things that came to town that everybody
got very excited with. One was the circus where you
remember the Bearded Lady, but that what was only in Glendale.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Then there was the county Fair.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And the county Fair was the end all be all
where everybody got together and the animals and the rides
in the midway. Turns out that those fares are riddled
with corruption. And why is that? And there have been
some cases. I'm not even gonna go through them. There was,
I mean lawsuits. We're talking about the fair and Humboldt,
(02:41):
the former bookkeeper tried in federal court and ended up
pleading guilty to stealing four hundred and thirty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Here's the reason why fares are so.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Easily corrupted because fares are locally owned. I mean a
bunch of farmers, a bunch of county people get aboard,
and they select folks to run the fair. It's very
locally owned and operated, which leaves it wide open for corruption.
For example, the security at a fair or the concessions.
(03:14):
You know, I'll you can sell the ice cream as
opposed to you over there if you give me a
couple thousand dollars a month. And that is rife with
what's that going on? And they've had so many problems.
I'll tell you the one that is my absolute favorite, and.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
That is.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Here. It is last year, and you remember this story.
I think Amy will remember this because we covered this.
Shasta County agreed to pay three hundred thousand dollars to
settle a lawsuit brought by a nine year old girl
and her family after the Sheriff's department seized her goat.
She had raised the goat and it was a floppy eared,
(03:55):
brown and white guy known as Cedar. So there was
Cedar so cute, and she decided, you know what, I'm
not going to watch my goat, Cedar be turned into meat.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I want my goat back.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Well, the fairs Agricultural Program, which sponsored the whole issue.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
After she changed her mind, the.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Fair officials refused her to allow her refuse to allow
her to back out, and they took Cedar. And what
she did is she Cedar and her family went on
the run.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
They went on the lamb or on the goat, and we're.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Finally picked up by deputies and Cedar was brought back
to the agricultural department and Cedar became goat beat and
they settled for three hundred thousand dollars Shasta County, which
they should have and in a statement on love this
(05:00):
of course, this is Gavin Newsom talking about county fairs,
because the states actually do put money in these fares,
even though the revenue from the fars to when the
fares come from overpriced food and ticket sales and concessions
and what concessionaires pay, and so regarding the goat and
(05:23):
the three hundred thousand dollars that was paid, a spokesperson
for Governor Newsom said the state recognizes the challenges facing
some of California's fairgrounds and takes concerns about governance, accountability,
and goats. All right, he didn't put goats in there.
(05:45):
I would, but we take all of that very seriously.
Of course, they take that seriously, because every entity takes
it seriously. You can literally have a flight attendant on
a major carrier take out a change saw and take
off four people's heads in business class.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
And you'll hear the airline going.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
We take the safety of our passengers very seriously, and
we made sure that the heads were put in plastic
bags so they wouldn't drip blood all over the airplane.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I mean, it's just completely crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
So on top of all this, a lot of fair
grounds are in a state of disrepair, leaky roofs because
there's really no governance here.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
There's no regulations. But county fairs are fun.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I have been a few years, but I used to
love going to the La County.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Fair and I would go to the commercial buildings.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
You know those buildings already set where you buy all
kinds of crazy stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And I was.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I bought stuff that I didn't need. I mean, I
was a sucker. If you go to my house, you'll
see five or eight of stuff, things that I've never
bought my life, having bought four times five times.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
I bought an embroidery machine.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Did you do you? But you use it right?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I do use it. I still have it to this day.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I love it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I bought a pressure cooker for three hundred dollars that
I never used because it weighs fifty five pounds. And
I bought a that was three hundred dollars. I also
bought a two hundred and fifty dollars iron you know
the kind of you aren clothes that that was kind
of a stupid purchase. Now, some of the nicer ones
(07:25):
in my mind because they're cheaper. You know how you
make sushi and they have that roll up bamboo thing, Yeah,
you roll it up and.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You cut it.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I've got five of those and I've never used because
I always forget what I have bought.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
But you've never made sushi with one of them.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
No, it's not hard.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You should try it. It's all in the case, baby.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Oh, it's all on the sticky rice, isn't it. It's
but you have to have this. You have to have
the sticky rice. Okay, we're done with that. A story
I want to share with you about mountain lions here
in southern California and all up through California, northern California. Also,
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has recommended granting
(08:11):
threatened species status whenever you hear about a threatened or
about to be extinct, or a species is in trouble,
that is a governmental agency that makes that call.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
And there are various levels.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Not only various levels, you've got state and you also
have federal protection of animals. For example, probably the most
protected bird we have in the United States eagles. Bald
eagles are national bird and you know you can't get
near him. I don't know if you've ever tasted breast
of bald eagle. It's actually pretty tasty, but you can't.
(08:47):
I just can't do it anymore. So that is federally protected. Well,
in California, the mountain lions, and we have an indigenous
mountain lion population.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Is about to be named a threatened species.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
And why well, because you have threats freeways, rat poison
which is killing a lot of animals. You have the wildfires,
and that deals with habitats. And so it's not the
final say, by the way, it just sets up the possibility,
but it will happen that under the California Endangered Species Act,
(09:27):
mountain lions are going to be added to that list.
And mountain lions. Two things that are going on with
mountain lions. Thing number one is that mountain lions are
simply decreasing in population because of what we're talking about.
I don't know if you've ever seen a mountain lion.
They are absolutely magnificent animals. They're in the wild, you know, people,
(09:52):
if you do see them, they're incredible. Unless they're eating
your toddler. Then you don't feel quite as good about
mountain lions and you have to be a little careful.
But they're very different bobcats, cougars. Those are small but
the size of a medium sized dog. And when I
was building the Persian Palace, I ran into a couple
(10:13):
of them, and so those are kind of neat.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
They don't eat people.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Mountain lions do. So issue number one is they are
literally the population is decreasing like crazy because of the
what I told you. The other problem with mountain lions
is they have these clans. Is what they call groups
of mountain lions. I love doing that. You know, there's
(10:38):
a herd of rhino, there's a murder of crows, a
pod of whales.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Do you know what a group of owls are?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
You know what they call a group of owls and
austin a parliament of owls.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
I mean, it's kind of neat.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
What is that for peacocks? An ostentation?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
No, yeah, peacocks are an ostentation of peacocks. Yeah. There's
also a bank of jews.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Is what the is?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
What?
Speaker 4 (11:15):
No?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
No, no, they sound funny, but no, oh okay.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
In any case, because these clans are separated and they
don't intermingle, what's happening is there's a lot of inbreeding
involved and it is really hurting. There's now a one
and four chance that the inbreeding of these lions within
these clans are causing kink tails. I don't know what
(11:42):
that looks like, but malform malform sperm. And even with
this inbreeding mountain lions, if they don't ter, I don't
get married, if.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
They don't inter inter clan mating, Is that the way
I put it.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah, If they don't mate across these clans, these groups,
the experts are saying they could literally become extinct in
Santa Monica and the Santa Ana Mountains within fifty years.
California has about forty one hundred mountain lions. Now, some
of those populations are really healthy. You go to north
(12:20):
West coastal forests, hail hardy, you know, eating kids with
complete impunity, just enjoying themselves down here.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Not so much down here.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Because of the separation of these clans, there is that inbreeding.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
So there they're rushing to do this.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
The California Department of the Endangered Specie under the Indangered
Specie Act, and it's the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
And then there are certain animals and it gets really crazy.
I remember the snail darterer. The snail darter was this
little tiny fish and it was deemed to become extinct.
(13:02):
That's what the scientist said, and they stopped the building
of a three hundred million dollar dam. A lawsuit was
filed and the dam was just shut halfway through.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
The money was gone finished.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Okay, a few years later, you have a bunch of
hikers that are going through the area with the dam,
and they go across a little tributary. There were so
many snail darters in there. They had to walk across you.
You had to jump over this little creek because you'd
fall into a group, this huge group of snail darters.
They aren't extinct. And who cares about a snail darter.
(13:40):
It's this little fish that you can't even eat. It's
not even a sardine. See, I don't believe that all
animals are sacri saying, God put all animals on this earth. Cockroaches, mosquitoes, Yeah,
that's something we want to house.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
They have their purposes, Yeah, to harass us, to make
life miserable for human beings.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
But that's how you know that humans weren't alive during
the time of dinosaurs, because we would have tried to
save them.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
That's probably true. It's a good point. And then the.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Excuse me, and then they would have eaten us all.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yes, the mosquitoes, the dinosaurs.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Oh not necessarily, not all of them, Okay, because there
were some small ones they probably so it took a
lot of them to eat you.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
That's correct. Okay. Now thriftness, what the hell is thriftness?
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Where there's Christmas and their thriftness, And I'll tell you
what a thing is going on.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I mean it is a thing.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
More and more shoppers are buying new and I love
this phrase gently used.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
That's used.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Okay, that's basically used, thank you very much. And they're
going to thrift stores. And for two reasons. One it's thrifty,
the other one is I I guess it's environmentally conscious.
People realize they can recycle something.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's fine.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
But in the meantime it's you can find some real
good deals. Now I have gone very very leary of going,
but I have gone to thrift stores and looked for
Hawaiian shirts and the La County Fair I had a
booth with a guy who actually collected and sold the
(15:27):
original Hawaiian shirts. I mean, we're going back twenty five
thirty years and there's nothing like wearing a shirt that's
twenty five thirty years old, of which I have many
of them.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
So Neil do you ever thrift it up and go
to thrift stores.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
I've never done it for gifts unless it is, you know,
an antique or a collectible or something. But I love
thrift stores did through my entire My mom loved me because,
you know, being a little punk rocker, I didn't want
off the rock stuff. We went to thrift stores as
a kid, and that's where I got the vast majority
of my clothes.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Well that's because you were poor, Well.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
We were, but okay, then that's why, Okay, we I
mean they can try, they can dress it up as
much as they want, Yeah, but rather it's because you
were poor to do that.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
And I still to this day love thrifting.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah, but not because you're poor. See there's a difference.
There's poor thrift and then there's I.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Think where there's I don't like being disposable, and it
doesn't mean that I don't dispose of things, but if
I can help it, or I could refurbish something that's
old and probably more well made than I'd rather do that.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Okay, Cono, it's because you don't have any money, right,
do you shop at thrift stores?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah? Okay, Amy, do you shop at thrift doors. Not really, Okay,
I don't either. Before Yeah, it's a used clothes. I mean,
you don't know if people did in those clothes. I
mean it's just kind of disgusting.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
The Goodwill in Beverly Hills is pretty spectacular.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah, I'll bet, I'll bet because you you probably.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Get a lot of designer stuff for very little money.
Will uh do you?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
First of all, don't you find clothes that are hard
to fit?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Amy? Oh see, No, I do go to thrift stores.
You go, you go to like out of the closet
West Hollywood. People work things like once or twice and
then donate them.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Well, you can get a lot of bulls we West Hollywood.
You can get a lot of bowls uh and uh
and a lot of slippers that look like white little dogs,
those puffy dogs.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
You get a lot of those. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Oh and thrift stores in your life.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
No, but I'm with Neil. I used to do them. Yeah,
when I was younger, when I was a teenager. There
are some cool vintage thrift stores that you can get.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
It's almost like a Stavenger hunt. I know people do.
I mean they go around. I mean, I know people
make a living doing this. You know, buying and selling.
But I'm talking about as a hobby. People go around
like a state sales, right yard sales, which they call
a state sales.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
You ever see a science as a state sales? Who
are you kidding?
Speaker 3 (18:08):
It's a yard sale and I can't hear you neil
the estate sale.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
It means they don't want to bring it out to
the front yard. You have to go in the house
and look at it.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, yeah, I'm want of some stuff at a state sales.
That's me driving down and seeing a bunch of stuff.
What I normally call estate sales or yard sales are
garbage sales where you've got to go out and you
get these dressers that have three legs on them.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
It's really good stuff.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
But anyway, it's becoming more and more thriftless. Buying in
thrift stores is actually booming in a big way, and
not just because the economy, because money is tighter than
it has been in a long time, and because you
can actually get pretty good quality, in many cases better
quality than things built today. I have a microwave oven
(18:58):
that I still have that was given to me my
as a wedding gift in nineteen twenty first wedding nineteen
eighty eight and it still works beautifully.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Thank you for that, Neil. It's all stainless steel.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Now, getting parts for it are kind of difficult because
this thing is forty years old. But they're out there.
You just have to find them and tell me today.
If you can buy a microwave, it'll last you forty years.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Can't buy anything that will lasts you for forty years.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
You can't buy a person that will last you forty years.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Actually no, we're living longer than before, but our appliances aren't.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Got it all right, big doings in the world of
entertainment because as we all know, Netflix offered to sell
and look like it was accepted a bid Warner Brothers Discovery.
And this company is the stone's throw from our studio.
(20:03):
It's right there on Olive and you go down the
street and there's Warner Brothers, a big tower and it
is iconic in terms of the world of films now
because you ever ever imagine when streaming service first came out,
Netflix first came out with you remember the the renting
of the CDs or was that yeah, I think it
(20:26):
was the CD or CDC's or the sdufs anyway, that
that would one day, that that company would one day
be able to buy Warner Brothers.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And it's become this giant.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
I mean, just do you know how crazy it is,
Bill that they tried to sell Netflix tried to go
to Blockbuster at the time and sell their company for
like fifty million dollars or something, and we're laughed, not
even turned down, but laughed out of the boardroom, just like.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
You know, there's no way. And now they don't even exist.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yeah, you know, I think there's one left, one left
up in Seattle.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
It has become a tourist attraction, not because it rents
anything allergy, by the by the merchandise there, it's for
merch anyway. So Netflix, it's agreed that Netflix is buying
Warner Brothers. However, Paramount, led by Ellison, David Elison, Larry
Ellison's son, also wanted and is coming in and they
(21:30):
were in a war, and is now coming in and saying, Okay,
let's undo your purchase to Netflix and will buy you,
but we'll buy you for more money than what Netflix offered.
And now it gets really complicated because if the board
of directors already said yes to Netflix, Paramount comes in
(21:54):
and says, but we want to buy it before any
of that is finished. And that's called a hostile takeover.
It is against the wishes of the board of directors.
So the board, let's say, has agreed to and wants
to sell the Netflix Paramount is now out of the picture.
They go, oh, no, no, We're going to go in
and we are going to offer more money. But wait
(22:15):
to make the board already say no, who do they
offer the money to? Directly to the shareholders. They literally
take out huge ads in the Wall Street Journal, The Times,
the New York Times, the LA Times, send out letters
and say we want to sell your stock and you
will get thirty percent more cash. Will buy it right
(22:37):
now for cash, you don't have to worry about stocking
Netflix plus the cash deal. And that's what's going on
right now. So why is it being done well? Because
on top of all that, you have the Feds. The
Department of Justice oversees the Serman Anti Trust Act, and
the argument is, will that will the new company, Paramount
(22:59):
plus Warner brother be so big that it violates the
antitrust rules? And that's the Department of Justice. Now who
runs the Department of Justice. Well, theoretically, Pam Bondi does,
but she reports to the president. The President will probably
make the decision of whether or not this should go. Now,
(23:21):
the president's son or son in law, Jared Kushner, happens
to be part of the financial group that is in
Paramount buying Warner Brothers.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Wait a minute, isn't that a conflict?
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Hell, yes, that's a conflict, of course. I mean, this
administration is conflicted up to its eyeballs. You know, this
is the only presidency that has not put that. Donald
Trump did not put his assets into a blind trust.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Every other president does.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
He just said, I'm letting my children run this and
I've got nothing to do with it.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
In the meantime, he will decide whether or not the
Netflix deal is a violation of the antitrust, but the
Paramount deal will not.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Be, mind you. That's what's going on. We'll talk more
about that coming up.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
All right, KF I am sixty. 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 fortyfi.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Bill Handle Here.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
It is a Thursday, December eleven, as we are approaching
the end of the year. On Friday tomorrow at A thirty,
we engage in ask handle Anything, and that is how
we end the week A thirty to nine. And it
has to do with you helping us, because without you
that doesn't work. And ask handle Anything is all about
ask handle anything, and it's mainly meant to humiliate me
(00:34):
and you ask the question.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So here's how it works.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
During the course of the show, I have to be
during the show, you click on to you or to
the iHeartRadio app, click on the microphone in the right
hand corner up right hand corner, and then first go
to the Bill Handle show iHeartRadio app Bill handleshow microphone
and then you'll record a question Do I have that right?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I think I do?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
And they're listening to you. Then it's it'll automatically go
to us.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Oh yeah, okay, fair enough, don't have.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
To look for Bill Handle, it's going to.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Okay, never mind.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Then just listening to KFI during the course of the show.
Thank you for that microphone in the upright hand corner
and you'll record a question of any kind and Neil
will select the questions most embarrassing to me, and we
do that at eight thirty tomorrow. But you got to
do it otherwise it's Neil making fun of me as always,
as well as the rest of the crowd. Okay, California fairs,
(01:31):
First of all, there are a little bit of history
to start with. There are seventy seven local fairs in
California and they go back well, the first one eighteen
fifty four near San Francisco. It was popular, so now
six years later eighteen sixty one, Humboldt County, San Diego,
eighteen eighty, Orange County eighteen ninety La. One of the
(01:55):
later ones didn't happen until nineteen twenty two.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And I think the La.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
County fairs the largest county fair anywhere out there. And
there were two things that came to town that everybody
got very excited with. One was the circus where you
remember the Bearded Lady, but that what was only in Glendale.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Then there was the county Fair.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And the county Fair was the end all be all
where everybody got together and the animals and the rides
in the midway. Turns out that those fares are riddled
with corruption. And why is that? And there have been
some cases. I'm not even gonna go through them. There was,
I mean lawsuits. We're talking about the fair and Humboldt,
(02:41):
the former bookkeeper tried in federal court and ended up
pleading guilty to stealing four hundred and thirty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Here's the reason why fares are so.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Easily corrupted because fares are locally owned. I mean a
bunch of farmers, a bunch of county people get aboard,
and they select folks to run the fair. It's very
locally owned and operated, which leaves it wide open for corruption.
For example, the security at a fair or the concessions.
(03:14):
You know, I'll you can sell the ice cream as
opposed to you over there if you give me a
couple thousand dollars a month. And that is rife with
what's that going on? And they've had so many problems.
I'll tell you the one that is my absolute favorite, and.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
That is.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Here. It is last year, and you remember this story.
I think Amy will remember this because we covered this.
Shasta County agreed to pay three hundred thousand dollars to
settle a lawsuit brought by a nine year old girl
and her family after the Sheriff's department seized her goat.
She had raised the goat and it was a floppy eared,
(03:55):
brown and white guy known as Cedar. So there was
Cedar so cute, and she decided, you know what, I'm
not going to watch my goat, Cedar be turned into meat.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I want my goat back.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Well, the fairs Agricultural Program, which sponsored the whole issue.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
After she changed her mind, the.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Fair officials refused her to allow her refuse to allow
her to back out, and they took Cedar. And what
she did is she Cedar and her family went on
the run.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
They went on the lamb or on the goat, and we're.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Finally picked up by deputies and Cedar was brought back
to the agricultural department and Cedar became goat beat and
they settled for three hundred thousand dollars Shasta County, which
they should have and in a statement on love this
(05:00):
of course, this is Gavin Newsom talking about county fairs,
because the states actually do put money in these fares,
even though the revenue from the fars to when the
fares come from overpriced food and ticket sales and concessions
and what concessionaires pay, and so regarding the goat and
(05:23):
the three hundred thousand dollars that was paid, a spokesperson
for Governor Newsom said the state recognizes the challenges facing
some of California's fairgrounds and takes concerns about governance, accountability,
and goats. All right, he didn't put goats in there.
(05:45):
I would, but we take all of that very seriously.
Of course, they take that seriously, because every entity takes
it seriously. You can literally have a flight attendant on
a major carrier take out a change saw and take
off four people's heads in business class.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
And you'll hear the airline going.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
We take the safety of our passengers very seriously, and
we made sure that the heads were put in plastic
bags so they wouldn't drip blood all over the airplane.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I mean, it's just completely crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
So on top of all this, a lot of fair
grounds are in a state of disrepair, leaky roofs because
there's really no governance here.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
There's no regulations. But county fairs are fun.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I have been a few years, but I used to
love going to the La County.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Fair and I would go to the commercial buildings.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
You know those buildings already set where you buy all
kinds of crazy stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And I was.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I bought stuff that I didn't need. I mean, I
was a sucker. If you go to my house, you'll
see five or eight of stuff, things that I've never
bought my life, having bought four times five times.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
I bought an embroidery machine.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Did you do you? But you use it right?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I do use it. I still have it to this day.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I love it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I bought a pressure cooker for three hundred dollars that
I never used because it weighs fifty five pounds. And
I bought a that was three hundred dollars. I also
bought a two hundred and fifty dollars iron you know
the kind of you aren clothes that that was kind
of a stupid purchase. Now, some of the nicer ones
(07:25):
in my mind because they're cheaper. You know how you
make sushi and they have that roll up bamboo thing, Yeah,
you roll it up and.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You cut it.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I've got five of those and I've never used because
I always forget what I have bought.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
But you've never made sushi with one of them.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
No, it's not hard.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You should try it. It's all in the case, baby.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Oh, it's all on the sticky rice, isn't it. It's
but you have to have this. You have to have
the sticky rice. Okay, we're done with that. A story
I want to share with you about mountain lions here
in southern California and all up through California, northern California. Also,
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has recommended granting
(08:11):
threatened species status whenever you hear about a threatened or
about to be extinct, or a species is in trouble,
that is a governmental agency that makes that call.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
And there are various levels.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Not only various levels, you've got state and you also
have federal protection of animals. For example, probably the most
protected bird we have in the United States eagles. Bald
eagles are national bird and you know you can't get
near him. I don't know if you've ever tasted breast
of bald eagle. It's actually pretty tasty, but you can't.
(08:47):
I just can't do it anymore. So that is federally protected. Well,
in California, the mountain lions, and we have an indigenous
mountain lion population.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Is about to be named a threatened species.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
And why well, because you have threats freeways, rat poison
which is killing a lot of animals. You have the wildfires,
and that deals with habitats. And so it's not the
final say, by the way, it just sets up the possibility,
but it will happen that under the California Endangered Species Act,
(09:27):
mountain lions are going to be added to that list.
And mountain lions. Two things that are going on with
mountain lions. Thing number one is that mountain lions are
simply decreasing in population because of what we're talking about.
I don't know if you've ever seen a mountain lion.
They are absolutely magnificent animals. They're in the wild, you know, people,
(09:52):
if you do see them, they're incredible. Unless they're eating
your toddler. Then you don't feel quite as good about
mountain lions and you have to be a little careful.
But they're very different bobcats, cougars. Those are small but
the size of a medium sized dog. And when I
was building the Persian Palace, I ran into a couple
(10:13):
of them, and so those are kind of neat.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
They don't eat people.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Mountain lions do. So issue number one is they are
literally the population is decreasing like crazy because of the
what I told you. The other problem with mountain lions
is they have these clans. Is what they call groups
of mountain lions. I love doing that. You know, there's
(10:38):
a herd of rhino, there's a murder of crows, a
pod of whales.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Do you know what a group of owls are?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
You know what they call a group of owls and
austin a parliament of owls.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
I mean, it's kind of neat.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
What is that for peacocks? An ostentation?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
No, yeah, peacocks are an ostentation of peacocks. Yeah. There's
also a bank of jews.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Is what the is?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
What?
Speaker 4 (11:15):
No?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
No, no, they sound funny, but no, oh okay.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
In any case, because these clans are separated and they
don't intermingle, what's happening is there's a lot of inbreeding
involved and it is really hurting. There's now a one
and four chance that the inbreeding of these lions within
these clans are causing kink tails. I don't know what
(11:42):
that looks like, but malform malform sperm. And even with
this inbreeding mountain lions, if they don't ter, I don't
get married, if.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
They don't inter inter clan mating, Is that the way
I put it.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah, If they don't mate across these clans, these groups,
the experts are saying they could literally become extinct in
Santa Monica and the Santa Ana Mountains within fifty years.
California has about forty one hundred mountain lions. Now, some
of those populations are really healthy. You go to north
(12:20):
West coastal forests, hail hardy, you know, eating kids with
complete impunity, just enjoying themselves down here.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Not so much down here.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Because of the separation of these clans, there is that inbreeding.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
So there they're rushing to do this.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
The California Department of the Endangered Specie under the Indangered
Specie Act, and it's the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
And then there are certain animals and it gets really crazy.
I remember the snail darterer. The snail darter was this
little tiny fish and it was deemed to become extinct.
(13:02):
That's what the scientist said, and they stopped the building
of a three hundred million dollar dam. A lawsuit was
filed and the dam was just shut halfway through.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
The money was gone finished.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Okay, a few years later, you have a bunch of
hikers that are going through the area with the dam,
and they go across a little tributary. There were so
many snail darters in there. They had to walk across you.
You had to jump over this little creek because you'd
fall into a group, this huge group of snail darters.
They aren't extinct. And who cares about a snail darter.
(13:40):
It's this little fish that you can't even eat. It's
not even a sardine. See, I don't believe that all
animals are sacri saying, God put all animals on this earth. Cockroaches, mosquitoes, Yeah,
that's something we want to house.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
They have their purposes, Yeah, to harass us, to make
life miserable for human beings.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
That's correct.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
But that's how you know that humans weren't alive during
the time of dinosaurs, because we would have tried to
save them.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
That's probably true. It's a good point. And then the.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Excuse me, and then they would have eaten us all.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yes, the mosquitoes, the dinosaurs.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Oh not necessarily, not all of them, Okay, because there
were some small ones they probably so it took a
lot of them to eat you.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
That's correct. Okay. Now thriftness, what the hell is thriftness?
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Where there's Christmas and their thriftness, And I'll tell you
what a thing is going on.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I mean it is a thing.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
More and more shoppers are buying new and I love
this phrase gently used.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
That's used.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Okay, that's basically used, thank you very much. And they're
going to thrift stores. And for two reasons. One it's thrifty,
the other one is I I guess it's environmentally conscious.
People realize they can recycle something.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's fine.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
But in the meantime it's you can find some real
good deals. Now I have gone very very leary of going,
but I have gone to thrift stores and looked for
Hawaiian shirts and the La County Fair I had a
booth with a guy who actually collected and sold the
(15:27):
original Hawaiian shirts. I mean, we're going back twenty five
thirty years and there's nothing like wearing a shirt that's
twenty five thirty years old, of which I have many
of them.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
So Neil do you ever thrift it up and go
to thrift stores.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
I've never done it for gifts unless it is, you know,
an antique or a collectible or something. But I love
thrift stores did through my entire My mom loved me because,
you know, being a little punk rocker, I didn't want
off the rock stuff. We went to thrift stores as
a kid, and that's where I got the vast majority
of my clothes.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Well that's because you were poor, Well.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
We were, but okay, then that's why, Okay, we I
mean they can try, they can dress it up as
much as they want, Yeah, but rather it's because you
were poor to do that.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
And I still to this day love thrifting.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah, but not because you're poor. See there's a difference.
There's poor thrift and then there's I.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Think where there's I don't like being disposable, and it
doesn't mean that I don't dispose of things, but if
I can help it, or I could refurbish something that's
old and probably more well made than I'd rather do that.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Okay, Cono, it's because you don't have any money, right,
do you shop at thrift stores?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah? Okay, Amy, do you shop at thrift doors. Not really, Okay,
I don't either. Before Yeah, it's a used clothes. I mean,
you don't know if people did in those clothes. I
mean it's just kind of disgusting.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
The Goodwill in Beverly Hills is pretty spectacular.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah, I'll bet, I'll bet because you you probably.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Get a lot of designer stuff for very little money.
Will uh do you?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
First of all, don't you find clothes that are hard
to fit?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Amy? Oh see, No, I do go to thrift stores.
You go, you go to like out of the closet
West Hollywood. People work things like once or twice and
then donate them.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Well, you can get a lot of bulls we West Hollywood.
You can get a lot of bowls uh and uh
and a lot of slippers that look like white little dogs,
those puffy dogs.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
You get a lot of those. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Oh and thrift stores in your life.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
No, but I'm with Neil. I used to do them. Yeah,
when I was younger, when I was a teenager. There
are some cool vintage thrift stores that you can get.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
It's almost like a Stavenger hunt. I know people do.
I mean they go around. I mean, I know people
make a living doing this. You know, buying and selling.
But I'm talking about as a hobby. People go around
like a state sales, right yard sales, which they call
a state sales.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
You ever see a science as a state sales? Who
are you kidding?
Speaker 3 (18:08):
It's a yard sale and I can't hear you neil
the estate sale.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
It means they don't want to bring it out to
the front yard. You have to go in the house
and look at it.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, yeah, I'm want of some stuff at a state sales.
That's me driving down and seeing a bunch of stuff.
What I normally call estate sales or yard sales are
garbage sales where you've got to go out and you
get these dressers that have three legs on them.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
It's really good stuff.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
But anyway, it's becoming more and more thriftless. Buying in
thrift stores is actually booming in a big way, and
not just because the economy, because money is tighter than
it has been in a long time, and because you
can actually get pretty good quality, in many cases better
quality than things built today. I have a microwave oven
(18:58):
that I still have that was given to me my
as a wedding gift in nineteen twenty first wedding nineteen
eighty eight and it still works beautifully.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Thank you for that, Neil. It's all stainless steel.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Now, getting parts for it are kind of difficult because
this thing is forty years old. But they're out there.
You just have to find them and tell me today.
If you can buy a microwave, it'll last you forty years.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Can't buy anything that will lasts you for forty years.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
You can't buy a person that will last you forty years.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Actually no, we're living longer than before, but our appliances aren't.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Got it all right, big doings in the world of
entertainment because as we all know, Netflix offered to sell
and look like it was accepted a bid Warner Brothers Discovery.
And this company is the stone's throw from our studio.
(20:03):
It's right there on Olive and you go down the
street and there's Warner Brothers, a big tower and it
is iconic in terms of the world of films now
because you ever ever imagine when streaming service first came out,
Netflix first came out with you remember the the renting
of the CDs or was that yeah, I think it
(20:26):
was the CD or CDC's or the sdufs anyway, that
that would one day, that that company would one day
be able to buy Warner Brothers.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And it's become this giant.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
I mean, just do you know how crazy it is,
Bill that they tried to sell Netflix tried to go
to Blockbuster at the time and sell their company for
like fifty million dollars or something, and we're laughed, not
even turned down, but laughed out of the boardroom, just like.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
You know, there's no way. And now they don't even exist.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yeah, you know, I think there's one left, one left
up in Seattle.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
It has become a tourist attraction, not because it rents
anything allergy, by the by the merchandise there, it's for
merch anyway. So Netflix, it's agreed that Netflix is buying
Warner Brothers. However, Paramount, led by Ellison, David Elison, Larry
Ellison's son, also wanted and is coming in and they
(21:30):
were in a war, and is now coming in and saying, Okay,
let's undo your purchase to Netflix and will buy you,
but we'll buy you for more money than what Netflix offered.
And now it gets really complicated because if the board
of directors already said yes to Netflix, Paramount comes in
(21:54):
and says, but we want to buy it before any
of that is finished. And that's called a hostile takeover.
It is against the wishes of the board of directors.
So the board, let's say, has agreed to and wants
to sell the Netflix Paramount is now out of the picture.
They go, oh, no, no, We're going to go in
and we are going to offer more money. But wait
(22:15):
to make the board already say no, who do they
offer the money to? Directly to the shareholders. They literally
take out huge ads in the Wall Street Journal, The Times,
the New York Times, the LA Times, send out letters
and say we want to sell your stock and you
will get thirty percent more cash. Will buy it right
(22:37):
now for cash, you don't have to worry about stocking
Netflix plus the cash deal. And that's what's going on
right now. So why is it being done well? Because
on top of all that, you have the Feds. The
Department of Justice oversees the Serman Anti Trust Act, and
the argument is, will that will the new company, Paramount
(22:59):
plus Warner brother be so big that it violates the
antitrust rules? And that's the Department of Justice. Now who
runs the Department of Justice. Well, theoretically, Pam Bondi does,
but she reports to the president. The President will probably
make the decision of whether or not this should go. Now,
(23:21):
the president's son or son in law, Jared Kushner, happens
to be part of the financial group that is in
Paramount buying Warner Brothers.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Wait a minute, isn't that a conflict?
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Hell, yes, that's a conflict, of course. I mean, this
administration is conflicted up to its eyeballs. You know, this
is the only presidency that has not put that. Donald
Trump did not put his assets into a blind trust.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Every other president does.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
He just said, I'm letting my children run this and
I've got nothing to do with it.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
In the meantime, he will decide whether or not the
Netflix deal is a violation of the antitrust, but the
Paramount deal will not.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Be, mind you. That's what's going on. We'll talk more
about that coming up.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
All right, KF I am sixty. 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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