August 15, 2025 • 29 mins
(Friday 08/15/25)
Former Chief Washington correspondent for Bloomberg Kevin Cirilli joins the show to share what we should expect from the Trump-Putin Alaska summit. Newsom calls for special November election; Border Patrol agents show up in force at Newsom rally. L.A. Olympics will be the first to offer venue naming rights. The ‘Godfather of AI’ reveals the only way humanity can survive super intelligent AI.
Former Chief Washington correspondent for Bloomberg Kevin Cirilli joins the show to share what we should expect from the Trump-Putin Alaska summit. Newsom calls for special November election; Border Patrol agents show up in force at Newsom rally. L.A. Olympics will be the first to offer venue naming rights. The ‘Godfather of AI’ reveals the only way humanity can survive super intelligent AI.
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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.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
KFI AM six forty Bill Handle.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Here.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
It is a Friday morning, August fifteen, and man, we
have so much to talk about right now. President Trump
is on Air Force one on the way to Alaska
to meet with the President of Russia, mister Putin. And
(00:35):
what's going to happen? First of all, it's a seven
hour flight a little bit more from Washington to Alaska
where he is going to be meeting Putin and Putin
right us out of Anchorage at a joint military base.
And Putin is on a flight from Moscow to Alaska.
The flight from Moscow is nine hours all the way
(00:58):
across Russia. Russia has ten time zones. It is just insane.
So what's going to happen there? Well, it has changed
dramatically from what President Trump has said. It's gone from
and we go back to the campaign, I am going
to stop I am going to stop the war in
(01:19):
Russia between Russia and Ukraine day one.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Now it is I am.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Going to stop the war when I meet with Putin,
or it was, and now it's okay, I'm not going
to be able to stop the war. But we're going
to set up a meeting after our beating.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
And which we will have our ceasefire. All right with us?
Is Kevin with us, by the way? Or not? All right?
Kevin surreally?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Former chief Washington correspondent for Bloomberg, a expert on Russia.
He's been studying this for years. Kevin, thanks for joining us.
So speaking from your side of this, this story, and boy,
you know this cold.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
What do you see happening here? What is your take?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well? I remember meeting in Helsinki with President Trump and
covering his meeting and press conference with Vladimir Putin in
twenty eighteen during the Helsinki summon. And if you can
think back to twenty eighteen, it was a very different
time for President Trump where he was facing intense scrutiny
during the domestic political season about his relationships with Russia.
(02:32):
Flash forward to twenty twenty five, and you have Vladimir
Putin who has been significantly crippled by the West's economic sanctions,
led of course by the United States, and also the
death toll. Vladimir Putin has lost more than one million
lives since his thuggish war in invading Ukraine. And so
this is a much weaker Vladimir Putin and a much
(02:54):
stronger President Trump, at least as it relates to this
current moment in time, Ladimir Putin, and you're staring down
the political tea leaves in the US over the next
two and four years. This might be the moment to
try to broker some type of deal. Because President Trump
is the second term president. We're about a year out
(03:14):
from the midterms, which could change the dynamics of the
US posturing as it relates to the political breakdown. And
this war has already cost Vladimir Putin a significant amount.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
All right, So let me throw a couple questions at
you when we talk about sanctions. I'm going to ask
them both and then if you answer afterwards we talk
about sanctions against Russia, what are those sanctions? What are
we hitting Russia with? And how much does it cost economically?
And do the people of Russia have access to all
(03:52):
of the news, Do they know there were a million casualties?
Do they know how much it's costing or do they
buy into what I assume is propaganda coming from the Kremlin.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
As it relates to the sanctions, they're economic sanctions that
target everything from the financial services and banking to technology
sectors that really go after the oligarchs in Russia and
their banking system and really isolating them from the global economy. Now,
some would argue that it has forced them to cozy
up to other bad actors, including the Chinese Communist Party.
(04:26):
I call them the totalitarian twins, the Vladimir Putin and Shijingping,
who by the way, have been conducting military drills off
of Alaska for the past several months. So, yes, President
Zelensky won't be president today in Alaska. But if you're Shijingping,
that's another third party that I'm carefully watching because the
US breaking up that romance is definitely in the US
(04:49):
interest and it's not good for Shijingping, thankfully. Definitely. As
it relates to whether or not Russians, Russians have access
to information, No, they do not. They'd have zero access
to information. They're living with a thug as a president
who is you know, leave it there, and what I said,
I don't think I can say what I want to
say given the being on radio, so I'll snap back in.
(05:12):
So you know, you can't trust his approval ratings. You
can't trust what they say. They control all of the information.
I mean, he's an authoritarian that said, you know, we've
seen in the past that there have been certain protests
in Russia in the past not related to this, and
so he's got a weak economy and so at some point,
(05:32):
when you have that week of an economy, you have
to look at your long term picture. This was not
the war that Putin thought he was going to get.
He thought that the NATO Alliance was going to crack.
It didn't. He thought that the US was not going
to support Ukraine. That didn't happen. He thought that the
Ukrainians did not have the technology capabilities to send themselves
(05:55):
and to put up such a fight. That was a
gross miscalculation. If you look at even the robot that
the Ukrainians haven't deployed. I focus a lot on the
future of technology. The robotics that they've deployed have really
pushed Russia back, so it has shifted the geopolitical landscape.
They've the Russians sent into North Korean troops. I mean,
(06:16):
they're very desperate. Excuse me, but no, to again answer
your question, they don't have access to the information, all.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Right, last question before we bail. Unfortunately, we're going to
be out of time in a minute. What do you
see happening as a result of this summit.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I think that it's a step positive, a net positive
for the US. I think that they have the upper
hand heading into these meetings. The risk is that Putin
tries to throw a temper tantrum, in which case President
Trump has said publicly that he would just walk out
and then the meeting. But I do think eventually there
will be a peace agreement and the US is economically
(06:54):
intertwined with Ukraine for decades to come. I think of
the pre deal that was made between Zelenski and Trump.
They've been talking about a reconstruction fund, and so the
US is not going anywhere, which again is a gross miscalculation,
because there's the war that on Russia's behalf. There's a
war that's happening in Ukraine, but there's the economic war
(07:15):
playing out on multiple fronts, and the US is winning
the economic war against Russia.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
All right, You mentioned that that you figured that you
are prognostic hiding there will be a piece seal. Does
that mean that Ukraine is no I understand that, But
does that mean long term that Ukraine will give up
parts of eastern Ukraine to kind of deal with Russia.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
You know, I think landsofts are on the table, I think,
but I think the economic intertwinement is something that is
a net loss for Russia. They thought they were going
to be able to go in and take all of
the land and to be able to put Europe on
their back pedaling, and that just did not happen. It
did not happen the way that they calculated. So I
(08:01):
also think that this idea that Ukraine in the next
in our lifetime is not going to join NATO is
really a wrong presumption. I do predict, based on the
analysis and the reporting over the years, that Ukraine ultimately
does join NATO, and I think that that is another
miscalculation for Putin. I think history will not be kind
(08:22):
to how much he miscalculated this war at all.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
All Right, Kevin, thank you for joining us and giving
your thank you for having me. Oh yeah, no, it's
really good stuff. Yeah, that's an expert who knows what
they always talking about.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
That's kind of nice.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
All right, all right, a story about what's going on,
what happened yesterday. Well we start, well, first of all,
the good folks from Ice showed up at a rally
that the governor had in downtown LA at the Japanese Center,
and it was all about this special election coming in November.
(08:56):
So let me start with that, okay, And it starts
with Texas. Texas just pass some legislation that brings the
redistricting of congressional districts mid term, actually mid census. The
way it is, the way it works is every ten years,
(09:18):
the United States takes a census.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
We count ourselves. That's in the constitution.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Based on the census, you have the redistricting. How many Republicans,
how many Democrats? Where the line of the districts are now.
California years ago passed a law that says redistricting will
be done by an independent commission that is totally nonpartisan.
(09:44):
Has democrats, has Republicans on it, by law, cannot look
at partisan politics. They just draw the maps on a
practical basis.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Texas doesn't have that.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Just passed its law saying why don't we ignore the
census and do it in the middle of the census.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Why the big terms are coming out.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
By the way, this was the president who asked for this,
and of course President this president asked for it. The
Republicans fall right in line. Whatever Trump wants, they give them.
So they are going to redistrict and effectually effectively carve
five Republican districts, create one, and then draw the map
(10:30):
so all the Democrats in a given area are in
one district and the swing votes the swing districts become Republican.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Okay, which gives them five new districts.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Which will it virtually guarantee the Republicans stay in power
in the House. It certainly won't hurt and it could
be over the edge. So here's what California does, is
what Newsom does. It's tit for tat. You pass the
law that says you're going to create five new seats
Republican seats.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
We're going to do the same thing.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
However, remember the law that says we can't that it
has to be an independent commission, and it has to
be every ten years based on the sentence on the census.
And what he wants to do is do it just
like the Republicans are doing, and do it in the
middle of the census period. Can't do it right, well,
by a special election. We can do it if the
(11:25):
people of California vote a new way of doing it,
following the model of Texas.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Then guess what California becomes Texas.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Five Democratic seats are created, and all the rest of
the states are looking at this. Republicans are going to
do the same thing in red states. Democrats are going
to do the same thing in blue states.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
And what means is there will be no more swing districts. None.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
If you can imagine, it would be more polarized than
it is today.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Almost impossible, but that's the way they're going to do it.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
So the Republicans are fighting it like crazy, and they're
coming into California and saying this is illegal what California
is doing.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
They're breaking the law by doing this. What we did
is legal.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Therefore, you'll see lawsuits being filed by Republicans stopping California
from doing is saying it is illegal. And then my
question is, okay, it is illegal.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Even if you have.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
A special election and the people of California vote to
mimic what's happening in Texas, that becomes illegal in the
mind of these people, see, we can't do it, but
they can do it. The hypocrisy is absolutely stunning. This
(12:51):
reminds me of when Kamala Harris was nominated for as
a presidential candidate. Do you know there was a lawsuit
Republicans file saying that that nomination was illegal because she
didn't go through the primary. I mean that's crazy. I mean,
that's completely insane. We put President Trump, former President Trump
(13:16):
on the ballot, that's legal. But what you're doing putting
Kamala Harris is not. Because you didn't follow the procedures
in terms of all the primaries.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I mean nuts.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
We are allowed to readistrict and create new districts, Republican ones,
but you are not allowed to do that because even
if you pass the law undoing the previous law, effectively
we don't believe in democracy when it comes to democrats.
(13:51):
I mean, where are we going with this? It drives
me completely nuts. I just truly don't get it. So
now the issue becomes will it hit the ballot? The
proposal has to be put in, The procedures have to
all be done by I think August thirty first, then
the special election happens in November, and then if Californians
(14:17):
vote to redo the rules of congressional redistricting, the governor
of course is going to sign it. Instantly, and come
the mid terms, we are going to have five new
Democratic districts.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Oh I think there are only half.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
A dozen Republican districts anyway, maybe a dozen, so they're
going to be five fewer. So the super majority here
in California becomes a super duper puuper majority, where no
other state has this much of a super majority even close.
(14:53):
It's fascinating stuff. Now, a word about the Olympics. One
of the things about the Olympics. Well, first of all,
a quick factoid, and that's the only time the Olympics
have ever made money, and that costs tens of billions
of dollars for a city hosting the Olympics has been
in last Los Angeles twice nineteen thirty two, nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
The Olympics made money. And why is that? Because of sponsorship.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
For the most part, Peter Ubroth started He did it
in nineteen eighty four and he sold sponsorships and so
we've had those for a while. One of the sponsors
of the Olympic Games Coca Cola, and that's we're used to.
(15:39):
That the sponsorships what we're not used to, and this
is what the Olympic Committee is going to do. It
is going to sell venue naming rights much like Sofi Stadium,
Honda Center, and temporarily it will be at the whatever.
(16:02):
The name of the company that's advertising, for example, so
Far is no longer so Fi. During the Games of
the Olympics, it will be a sponsor's name. They've never
done that. And naming rights for major venues. That is huge.
(16:22):
Why because every the sponsorship brought to you by Coca
Cola is mentioned once twice and they're almost like paid commercials.
We're doing something here at let's say McDonald's just a
hypothetical at the McDonald's Center, and that happens over and
(16:43):
over again.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
When they go in, they go out of spots.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
And that is not only new, makes sense, but fairly
big money. Now individual events, they're negotiating for that right now.
For example, there are negotiations going on between the Olympic
Committee and medical ed firms to sponsor the po Vault,
(17:10):
for example. Everybody shakes their head. So naming rights for
major venues, what is?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
What's it?
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I'm trying to think how much did so Far pay
for the naming rights for that stadium? I think one
hundred million dollars or something for ten years. I mean
that is not unusual their names. I mean that those
naming rights are crazy. You also, I mean here at KFI,
we haven't done this. Uh, but it's live from the
(17:49):
insert name. H No, I think we do do that. Yeah,
we do the Galpin Motors news center. I think we
do that. Yeah, we do name rights. Twenty five million,
six hundred and twenty five million dollars.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Twenty years, six hundred and twenty five million dollars for
twenty years. How is that one for some serious money?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
So even if you have two weeks of naming rights
for the venue, keep in mind that what a couple
of billion people watch the Olympics, And if you have
a multinational company, look at the amount of advertising that
you would get and the amount of money, and all
(18:36):
of a sudden you have a an Olympics that can
go right over the top in terms of profitability. So
Casey Wasserman, LA twenty eight chairman, the local chairman that's
putting the Los Angeles part of this together, which is
basically all of it. He said, and this is a quote.
Our job is to push and our job is to
(18:58):
do what's best for the Olympics in Los Angeles. Our
job in those conversations, and this is with the IOC,
was to explain why this is more than just about money.
It was about experience and value and opportunity.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
That means it's just about money.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
It's that simple, and they are going to make some
big money.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
It is not easy to make money on the Olympics.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
The city in many cases builds infrastructure, builds stadiums, puts
in roads, builds up that builds people moving systems, new rails,
light rails, that goes from let's say the airport to
(19:48):
whatever venue. I mean, it is expensive what Beijing did,
what China did with that huge stadium which is empty now.
They spent a couple of billion dollars just on that.
One of the things that's going to make Los Angeles
probably profitable is the fact that they're not building any
new venues. We have all the venues they'll use so far.
(20:11):
They'll use the coliseum, they'll use the Aquatics center, what
is it downtown or south of the airport. They'll use
the velodromes, which I think are in the San Fernando Valley.
The swimming pools all about are in place, so they
don't have to build anymore.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Are they building any new roads and subways?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Well, I think they are, but that's on track for
what was going to happen anyway, and so infrastructure is
not a big deal.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
However, what makes Olympics today.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
So insanely expensive is security and the number of people
that have to be hired. And in security you will
see every cop. I think they're going to bring in
the National Guard. This is where federalizing the guard makes
all the sense in the world. You're going to see
maybe the military being brought in for security and no
(21:05):
one's going to argue with that. But all in all,
changing to naming rights for the venue as well as
the price of the tickets. Do you know that it
was ticket prices in nineteen thirty two that was it
that made the Olympics profitable. And they built the coliseum
(21:26):
for the Olympics, and you could go up and I
I don't remember who I was interviewing, but you could
go up to the coliseum for a track and field
event and pay a quarter at the gate and walk
right in and see the event. And what is a
(21:50):
quarter today? Worth a few dollars?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Right? Not very much?
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Let's say four dollars, five dollars, eight dollars, whatever that is,
ten dollars. How much does it cost to go to
an Olympic game today? What's gonna what's the cost going
to be for opening ceremonies? And I think the opening
ceremony is going to be in two venues, uh, coming
up in La. So they're they're gonna make it. They're
(22:17):
gonna make it happen. Okay, we're done with that. The
LA Chargers take on the Rams for preseason action this
Saturday at SOFI Stadium, kickoff at four. Get complete schedule
details at Chargers dot com slash tickets. Listen to all
games on k f I A M six forty Go Bolts. Also, you,
(22:42):
if you have a chance, since Ann is going to
be there and she works the game, stop buying and
say hello to An.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
She'll be easy to spot. She'll be there.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Maybe put a carnation on a lapel. All right, we
don't come looking for me, don't come looking for her,
she says, that's good. That's what Neil and I are.
October eleventh event at the Anaheim White House Restaurant.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
As I said, come on, say.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Hello, if you're there, I'm going to ignore you, and
Neil is going to ignore you too. Now an AI story,
and this one dives a little bit deeper into what
AI is. This is two thousand and one a Space
Odyssey hel Hello, hell oh, I'm not going to turn
(23:34):
myself off.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Hell.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Jeffrey Hinton the godfather of AI, and he is a
Nobel Prize winning computer scientist. And what he did is
he developed the neural pathways when the Nobel Prize for it,
of which AI is built on. And he says that
the technology fears, the technology he helped build could wipe
(23:59):
out humanity, and the tech bros, all the major players
in AI are taking the wrong approach to stop it.
He warned that in the past there was ten to
twenty percent chance that AI wipes out humans.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
He has increased that dramatically.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
And he expressed doubts about how the tech companies today
are trying to ensure.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
That humans remain dominant.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
The first rule harm no humans, right, he says that's
not going to work. They're going to be much smarter
than us. They're going to have all sorts of ways
to get around any rules we establish harm no humans.
In the future, he says, AI systems might be able
to control humans just as easily as an adult can
(24:50):
bribe a three year old child with a bribe. And
we already have seen this year examples of AI systems
willing to deceive, cheat, steel to achieve their goals, not
just being wrong going through the Internet and manufacturing, manufacturing sources,
et cetera.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
But we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Specifically willing to deceive, cheat, and steel to achieve their goals.
That is scary stuff, to say the least. There was
one AI model tried to blackmail an engineer about an
affair it learned through emails going back and forth, and
what he is saying, Jeffrey Hinton, is saying, there really
(25:33):
is only one way that we are going to save
our asses, and that's to put into AI maternal instincts
where the AI models the computer loves us and wants
to keep us around because of maternal instincts, and we
(25:55):
can put that into these systems. That's the only way
this is going to happen, because if we don't, we're
done and AI is going to completely replace us. We
did that story, We did that segment where AI did
a segment, a handle segment, and it was pretty good
(26:21):
and it's getting much better. And if we kept on
doing it and just having the AI model chat, GPT, etc.
Do more and more segments of this show replacing me, which,
by the way, there's a very big call for that.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I might add, it's going to get so good because.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
It learns that it's going to be better than I
do the segment because I roll off on tangents, I stop,
I grope for words.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I mean, you know how this show works. Maybe you
know what.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Maybe it does it itself. Maybe the AI model mimics
me or mimics you to the extent where you won't
be telling the difference.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Now.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
He did say, here's the good news. We're gonna see
radical new drugs. We're gonna get much better at cancer treatment,
for example. We're going to live a lot longer. Not immortality,
but just a lot longer. And then he said, let's
look at the moral aspects, the ethical aspects of a
(27:26):
world run by two hundred year old white men.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
If I'm the white guy that's two hundred years old,
I'm okay with that. This is pretty scary stuff. We
really don't know where this is going. As of this moment.
AI is kind of stupid. It does make mistakes, but
it learns. It learns from its mistakes over and over again,
(27:52):
and is one of the learning models. That the existence
on this earth is better off with AI because we've
I think, reach reached finite resources. So having people live
an extra fifty years, which I think is easily easy
to do, and people are still being born, you run
(28:16):
out of resources. We know the future is going to
be water wars. We know that's a given. AI wars, yeah, probably,
Or are AI models going to connect with each other
and have these I guess familiar connections treaties between each
(28:39):
other to destroy humanity. I know that sounds crazy. That's
a science fiction film, isn't it. The experts are saying, hey,
look at the possibility. I don't know if I scared
you or not. Sounds interesting to me, I know, Neil
shaking his head. We don't even know where all of
this going. We have no idea where this is going.
(29:02):
I did commercials once for a guy named Corey Han
and we did it for a bunch of years. And
he is a computer expert, I mean, a visionary early
early days of the Internet, and was a billionaire with
the money he made I once asked him, Corey, you
know as much about computers as anybody out there, and
where do you think it's going to go with computers?
(29:23):
And this is before AI, he said, Bill, I have
no idea, but I will tell you that what is
going to happen with the world of computers and technology
is beyond your wildest imagination and my wildest imagination. That
makes you think KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
KFI AM six forty Bill Handle.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Here.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
It is a Friday morning, August fifteen, and man, we
have so much to talk about right now. President Trump
is on Air Force one on the way to Alaska
to meet with the President of Russia, mister Putin. And
(00:35):
what's going to happen? First of all, it's a seven
hour flight a little bit more from Washington to Alaska
where he is going to be meeting Putin and Putin
right us out of Anchorage at a joint military base.
And Putin is on a flight from Moscow to Alaska.
The flight from Moscow is nine hours all the way
(00:58):
across Russia. Russia has ten time zones. It is just insane.
So what's going to happen there? Well, it has changed
dramatically from what President Trump has said. It's gone from
and we go back to the campaign, I am going
to stop I am going to stop the war in
(01:19):
Russia between Russia and Ukraine day one.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Now it is I am.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Going to stop the war when I meet with Putin,
or it was, and now it's okay, I'm not going
to be able to stop the war. But we're going
to set up a meeting after our beating.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
And which we will have our ceasefire. All right with us?
Is Kevin with us, by the way? Or not? All right?
Kevin surreally?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Former chief Washington correspondent for Bloomberg, a expert on Russia.
He's been studying this for years. Kevin, thanks for joining us.
So speaking from your side of this, this story, and boy,
you know this cold.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
What do you see happening here? What is your take?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well? I remember meeting in Helsinki with President Trump and
covering his meeting and press conference with Vladimir Putin in
twenty eighteen during the Helsinki summon. And if you can
think back to twenty eighteen, it was a very different
time for President Trump where he was facing intense scrutiny
during the domestic political season about his relationships with Russia.
(02:32):
Flash forward to twenty twenty five, and you have Vladimir
Putin who has been significantly crippled by the West's economic sanctions,
led of course by the United States, and also the
death toll. Vladimir Putin has lost more than one million
lives since his thuggish war in invading Ukraine. And so
this is a much weaker Vladimir Putin and a much
(02:54):
stronger President Trump, at least as it relates to this
current moment in time, Ladimir Putin, and you're staring down
the political tea leaves in the US over the next
two and four years. This might be the moment to
try to broker some type of deal. Because President Trump
is the second term president. We're about a year out
(03:14):
from the midterms, which could change the dynamics of the
US posturing as it relates to the political breakdown. And
this war has already cost Vladimir Putin a significant amount.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
All right, So let me throw a couple questions at
you when we talk about sanctions. I'm going to ask
them both and then if you answer afterwards we talk
about sanctions against Russia, what are those sanctions? What are
we hitting Russia with? And how much does it cost economically?
And do the people of Russia have access to all
(03:52):
of the news, Do they know there were a million casualties?
Do they know how much it's costing or do they
buy into what I assume is propaganda coming from the Kremlin.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
As it relates to the sanctions, they're economic sanctions that
target everything from the financial services and banking to technology
sectors that really go after the oligarchs in Russia and
their banking system and really isolating them from the global economy. Now,
some would argue that it has forced them to cozy
up to other bad actors, including the Chinese Communist Party.
(04:26):
I call them the totalitarian twins, the Vladimir Putin and Shijingping,
who by the way, have been conducting military drills off
of Alaska for the past several months. So, yes, President
Zelensky won't be president today in Alaska. But if you're Shijingping,
that's another third party that I'm carefully watching because the
US breaking up that romance is definitely in the US
(04:49):
interest and it's not good for Shijingping, thankfully. Definitely. As
it relates to whether or not Russians, Russians have access
to information, No, they do not. They'd have zero access
to information. They're living with a thug as a president
who is you know, leave it there, and what I said,
I don't think I can say what I want to
say given the being on radio, so I'll snap back in.
(05:12):
So you know, you can't trust his approval ratings. You
can't trust what they say. They control all of the information.
I mean, he's an authoritarian that said, you know, we've
seen in the past that there have been certain protests
in Russia in the past not related to this, and
so he's got a weak economy and so at some point,
(05:32):
when you have that week of an economy, you have
to look at your long term picture. This was not
the war that Putin thought he was going to get.
He thought that the NATO Alliance was going to crack.
It didn't. He thought that the US was not going
to support Ukraine. That didn't happen. He thought that the
Ukrainians did not have the technology capabilities to send themselves
(05:55):
and to put up such a fight. That was a
gross miscalculation. If you look at even the robot that
the Ukrainians haven't deployed. I focus a lot on the
future of technology. The robotics that they've deployed have really
pushed Russia back, so it has shifted the geopolitical landscape.
They've the Russians sent into North Korean troops. I mean,
(06:16):
they're very desperate. Excuse me, but no, to again answer
your question, they don't have access to the information, all.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Right, last question before we bail. Unfortunately, we're going to
be out of time in a minute. What do you
see happening as a result of this summit.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I think that it's a step positive, a net positive
for the US. I think that they have the upper
hand heading into these meetings. The risk is that Putin
tries to throw a temper tantrum, in which case President
Trump has said publicly that he would just walk out
and then the meeting. But I do think eventually there
will be a peace agreement and the US is economically
(06:54):
intertwined with Ukraine for decades to come. I think of
the pre deal that was made between Zelenski and Trump.
They've been talking about a reconstruction fund, and so the
US is not going anywhere, which again is a gross miscalculation,
because there's the war that on Russia's behalf. There's a
war that's happening in Ukraine, but there's the economic war
(07:15):
playing out on multiple fronts, and the US is winning
the economic war against Russia.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
All right, You mentioned that that you figured that you
are prognostic hiding there will be a piece seal. Does
that mean that Ukraine is no I understand that, But
does that mean long term that Ukraine will give up
parts of eastern Ukraine to kind of deal with Russia.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
You know, I think landsofts are on the table, I think,
but I think the economic intertwinement is something that is
a net loss for Russia. They thought they were going
to be able to go in and take all of
the land and to be able to put Europe on
their back pedaling, and that just did not happen. It
did not happen the way that they calculated. So I
(08:01):
also think that this idea that Ukraine in the next
in our lifetime is not going to join NATO is
really a wrong presumption. I do predict, based on the
analysis and the reporting over the years, that Ukraine ultimately
does join NATO, and I think that that is another
miscalculation for Putin. I think history will not be kind
(08:22):
to how much he miscalculated this war at all.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
All Right, Kevin, thank you for joining us and giving
your thank you for having me. Oh yeah, no, it's
really good stuff. Yeah, that's an expert who knows what
they always talking about.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
That's kind of nice.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
All right, all right, a story about what's going on,
what happened yesterday. Well we start, well, first of all,
the good folks from Ice showed up at a rally
that the governor had in downtown LA at the Japanese Center,
and it was all about this special election coming in November.
(08:56):
So let me start with that, okay, And it starts
with Texas. Texas just pass some legislation that brings the
redistricting of congressional districts mid term, actually mid census. The
way it is, the way it works is every ten years,
(09:18):
the United States takes a census.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
We count ourselves. That's in the constitution.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Based on the census, you have the redistricting. How many Republicans,
how many Democrats? Where the line of the districts are now.
California years ago passed a law that says redistricting will
be done by an independent commission that is totally nonpartisan.
(09:44):
Has democrats, has Republicans on it, by law, cannot look
at partisan politics. They just draw the maps on a
practical basis.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Texas doesn't have that.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Just passed its law saying why don't we ignore the
census and do it in the middle of the census.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Why the big terms are coming out.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
By the way, this was the president who asked for this,
and of course President this president asked for it. The
Republicans fall right in line. Whatever Trump wants, they give them.
So they are going to redistrict and effectually effectively carve
five Republican districts, create one, and then draw the map
(10:30):
so all the Democrats in a given area are in
one district and the swing votes the swing districts become Republican.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Okay, which gives them five new districts.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Which will it virtually guarantee the Republicans stay in power
in the House. It certainly won't hurt and it could
be over the edge. So here's what California does, is
what Newsom does. It's tit for tat. You pass the
law that says you're going to create five new seats
Republican seats.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
We're going to do the same thing.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
However, remember the law that says we can't that it
has to be an independent commission, and it has to
be every ten years based on the sentence on the census.
And what he wants to do is do it just
like the Republicans are doing, and do it in the
middle of the census period. Can't do it right, well,
by a special election. We can do it if the
(11:25):
people of California vote a new way of doing it,
following the model of Texas.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Then guess what California becomes Texas.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Five Democratic seats are created, and all the rest of
the states are looking at this. Republicans are going to
do the same thing in red states. Democrats are going
to do the same thing in blue states.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
And what means is there will be no more swing districts. None.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
If you can imagine, it would be more polarized than
it is today.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Almost impossible, but that's the way they're going to do it.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
So the Republicans are fighting it like crazy, and they're
coming into California and saying this is illegal what California
is doing.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
They're breaking the law by doing this. What we did
is legal.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Therefore, you'll see lawsuits being filed by Republicans stopping California
from doing is saying it is illegal. And then my
question is, okay, it is illegal.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Even if you have.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
A special election and the people of California vote to
mimic what's happening in Texas, that becomes illegal in the
mind of these people, see, we can't do it, but
they can do it. The hypocrisy is absolutely stunning. This
(12:51):
reminds me of when Kamala Harris was nominated for as
a presidential candidate. Do you know there was a lawsuit
Republicans file saying that that nomination was illegal because she
didn't go through the primary. I mean that's crazy. I mean,
that's completely insane. We put President Trump, former President Trump
(13:16):
on the ballot, that's legal. But what you're doing putting
Kamala Harris is not. Because you didn't follow the procedures
in terms of all the primaries.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I mean nuts.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
We are allowed to readistrict and create new districts, Republican ones,
but you are not allowed to do that because even
if you pass the law undoing the previous law, effectively
we don't believe in democracy when it comes to democrats.
(13:51):
I mean, where are we going with this? It drives
me completely nuts. I just truly don't get it. So
now the issue becomes will it hit the ballot? The
proposal has to be put in, The procedures have to
all be done by I think August thirty first, then
the special election happens in November, and then if Californians
(14:17):
vote to redo the rules of congressional redistricting, the governor
of course is going to sign it. Instantly, and come
the mid terms, we are going to have five new
Democratic districts.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Oh I think there are only half.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
A dozen Republican districts anyway, maybe a dozen, so they're
going to be five fewer. So the super majority here
in California becomes a super duper puuper majority, where no
other state has this much of a super majority even close.
(14:53):
It's fascinating stuff. Now, a word about the Olympics. One
of the things about the Olympics. Well, first of all,
a quick factoid, and that's the only time the Olympics
have ever made money, and that costs tens of billions
of dollars for a city hosting the Olympics has been
in last Los Angeles twice nineteen thirty two, nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
The Olympics made money. And why is that? Because of sponsorship.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
For the most part, Peter Ubroth started He did it
in nineteen eighty four and he sold sponsorships and so
we've had those for a while. One of the sponsors
of the Olympic Games Coca Cola, and that's we're used to.
(15:39):
That the sponsorships what we're not used to, and this
is what the Olympic Committee is going to do. It
is going to sell venue naming rights much like Sofi Stadium,
Honda Center, and temporarily it will be at the whatever.
(16:02):
The name of the company that's advertising, for example, so
Far is no longer so Fi. During the Games of
the Olympics, it will be a sponsor's name. They've never
done that. And naming rights for major venues. That is huge.
(16:22):
Why because every the sponsorship brought to you by Coca
Cola is mentioned once twice and they're almost like paid commercials.
We're doing something here at let's say McDonald's just a
hypothetical at the McDonald's Center, and that happens over and
(16:43):
over again.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
When they go in, they go out of spots.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
And that is not only new, makes sense, but fairly
big money. Now individual events, they're negotiating for that right now.
For example, there are negotiations going on between the Olympic
Committee and medical ed firms to sponsor the po Vault,
(17:10):
for example. Everybody shakes their head. So naming rights for
major venues, what is?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
What's it?
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I'm trying to think how much did so Far pay
for the naming rights for that stadium? I think one
hundred million dollars or something for ten years. I mean
that is not unusual their names. I mean that those
naming rights are crazy. You also, I mean here at KFI,
we haven't done this. Uh, but it's live from the
(17:49):
insert name. H No, I think we do do that. Yeah,
we do the Galpin Motors news center. I think we
do that. Yeah, we do name rights. Twenty five million,
six hundred and twenty five million dollars.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Twenty years, six hundred and twenty five million dollars for
twenty years. How is that one for some serious money?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
So even if you have two weeks of naming rights
for the venue, keep in mind that what a couple
of billion people watch the Olympics, And if you have
a multinational company, look at the amount of advertising that
you would get and the amount of money, and all
(18:36):
of a sudden you have a an Olympics that can
go right over the top in terms of profitability. So
Casey Wasserman, LA twenty eight chairman, the local chairman that's
putting the Los Angeles part of this together, which is
basically all of it. He said, and this is a quote.
Our job is to push and our job is to
(18:58):
do what's best for the Olympics in Los Angeles. Our
job in those conversations, and this is with the IOC,
was to explain why this is more than just about money.
It was about experience and value and opportunity.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
That means it's just about money.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
It's that simple, and they are going to make some
big money.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
It is not easy to make money on the Olympics.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
The city in many cases builds infrastructure, builds stadiums, puts
in roads, builds up that builds people moving systems, new rails,
light rails, that goes from let's say the airport to
(19:48):
whatever venue. I mean, it is expensive what Beijing did,
what China did with that huge stadium which is empty now.
They spent a couple of billion dollars just on that.
One of the things that's going to make Los Angeles
probably profitable is the fact that they're not building any
new venues. We have all the venues they'll use so far.
(20:11):
They'll use the coliseum, they'll use the Aquatics center, what
is it downtown or south of the airport. They'll use
the velodromes, which I think are in the San Fernando Valley.
The swimming pools all about are in place, so they
don't have to build anymore.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Are they building any new roads and subways?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Well, I think they are, but that's on track for
what was going to happen anyway, and so infrastructure is
not a big deal.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
However, what makes Olympics today.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
So insanely expensive is security and the number of people
that have to be hired. And in security you will
see every cop. I think they're going to bring in
the National Guard. This is where federalizing the guard makes
all the sense in the world. You're going to see
maybe the military being brought in for security and no
(21:05):
one's going to argue with that. But all in all,
changing to naming rights for the venue as well as
the price of the tickets. Do you know that it
was ticket prices in nineteen thirty two that was it
that made the Olympics profitable. And they built the coliseum
(21:26):
for the Olympics, and you could go up and I
I don't remember who I was interviewing, but you could
go up to the coliseum for a track and field
event and pay a quarter at the gate and walk
right in and see the event. And what is a
(21:50):
quarter today? Worth a few dollars?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Right? Not very much?
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Let's say four dollars, five dollars, eight dollars, whatever that is,
ten dollars. How much does it cost to go to
an Olympic game today? What's gonna what's the cost going
to be for opening ceremonies? And I think the opening
ceremony is going to be in two venues, uh, coming
up in La. So they're they're gonna make it. They're
(22:17):
gonna make it happen. Okay, we're done with that. The
LA Chargers take on the Rams for preseason action this
Saturday at SOFI Stadium, kickoff at four. Get complete schedule
details at Chargers dot com slash tickets. Listen to all
games on k f I A M six forty Go Bolts. Also, you,
(22:42):
if you have a chance, since Ann is going to
be there and she works the game, stop buying and
say hello to An.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
She'll be easy to spot. She'll be there.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Maybe put a carnation on a lapel. All right, we
don't come looking for me, don't come looking for her,
she says, that's good. That's what Neil and I are.
October eleventh event at the Anaheim White House Restaurant.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
As I said, come on, say.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Hello, if you're there, I'm going to ignore you, and
Neil is going to ignore you too. Now an AI story,
and this one dives a little bit deeper into what
AI is. This is two thousand and one a Space
Odyssey hel Hello, hell oh, I'm not going to turn
(23:34):
myself off.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Hell.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Jeffrey Hinton the godfather of AI, and he is a
Nobel Prize winning computer scientist. And what he did is
he developed the neural pathways when the Nobel Prize for it,
of which AI is built on. And he says that
the technology fears, the technology he helped build could wipe
(23:59):
out humanity, and the tech bros, all the major players
in AI are taking the wrong approach to stop it.
He warned that in the past there was ten to
twenty percent chance that AI wipes out humans.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
He has increased that dramatically.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
And he expressed doubts about how the tech companies today
are trying to ensure.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
That humans remain dominant.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
The first rule harm no humans, right, he says that's
not going to work. They're going to be much smarter
than us. They're going to have all sorts of ways
to get around any rules we establish harm no humans.
In the future, he says, AI systems might be able
to control humans just as easily as an adult can
(24:50):
bribe a three year old child with a bribe. And
we already have seen this year examples of AI systems
willing to deceive, cheat, steel to achieve their goals, not
just being wrong going through the Internet and manufacturing, manufacturing sources,
et cetera.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
But we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Specifically willing to deceive, cheat, and steel to achieve their goals.
That is scary stuff, to say the least. There was
one AI model tried to blackmail an engineer about an
affair it learned through emails going back and forth, and
what he is saying, Jeffrey Hinton, is saying, there really
(25:33):
is only one way that we are going to save
our asses, and that's to put into AI maternal instincts
where the AI models the computer loves us and wants
to keep us around because of maternal instincts, and we
(25:55):
can put that into these systems. That's the only way
this is going to happen, because if we don't, we're
done and AI is going to completely replace us. We
did that story, We did that segment where AI did
a segment, a handle segment, and it was pretty good
(26:21):
and it's getting much better. And if we kept on
doing it and just having the AI model chat, GPT, etc.
Do more and more segments of this show replacing me, which,
by the way, there's a very big call for that.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I might add, it's going to get so good because.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
It learns that it's going to be better than I
do the segment because I roll off on tangents, I stop,
I grope for words.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I mean, you know how this show works. Maybe you
know what.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Maybe it does it itself. Maybe the AI model mimics
me or mimics you to the extent where you won't
be telling the difference.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Now.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
He did say, here's the good news. We're gonna see
radical new drugs. We're gonna get much better at cancer treatment,
for example. We're going to live a lot longer. Not immortality,
but just a lot longer. And then he said, let's
look at the moral aspects, the ethical aspects of a
(27:26):
world run by two hundred year old white men.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
If I'm the white guy that's two hundred years old,
I'm okay with that. This is pretty scary stuff. We
really don't know where this is going. As of this moment.
AI is kind of stupid. It does make mistakes, but
it learns. It learns from its mistakes over and over again,
(27:52):
and is one of the learning models. That the existence
on this earth is better off with AI because we've
I think, reach reached finite resources. So having people live
an extra fifty years, which I think is easily easy
to do, and people are still being born, you run
(28:16):
out of resources. We know the future is going to
be water wars. We know that's a given. AI wars, yeah, probably,
Or are AI models going to connect with each other
and have these I guess familiar connections treaties between each
(28:39):
other to destroy humanity. I know that sounds crazy. That's
a science fiction film, isn't it. The experts are saying, hey,
look at the possibility. I don't know if I scared
you or not. Sounds interesting to me, I know, Neil
shaking his head. We don't even know where all of
this going. We have no idea where this is going.
(29:02):
I did commercials once for a guy named Corey Han
and we did it for a bunch of years. And
he is a computer expert, I mean, a visionary early
early days of the Internet, and was a billionaire with
the money he made I once asked him, Corey, you
know as much about computers as anybody out there, and
where do you think it's going to go with computers?
(29:23):
And this is before AI, he said, Bill, I have
no idea, but I will tell you that what is
going to happen with the world of computers and technology
is beyond your wildest imagination and my wildest imagination. That
makes you think KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The Bill Handel Show News
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