China Imposes Their Own Tariffs

This is Gary and Shannon, and you're listening to KFI AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app. You got to know the rule to break the rules. Sometimes you do not need to be a rule follower. Okay, Sometimes you need to realize that your common sense is there for a reason, and your common sense is this cycle has gone through three times, it does not turn green. Let's go ahead and go with the other green traffic straight ahead when there's no

Didn't work out that way.

It took a while, but then when the floodgates opened, there was no stopping that line of cars through the red.

Yeah. What is the Oh? Thanks, I totually forgot my Wow.

You have people bringing you your wife.

He just brought you there.

This is a cut sheet. That's like part of the job, not bringing you water. What do you handle?

I just my big jug in the other room. I can jugs.

We get some ham and cheese.

What is the what is the allotted time for there to be a red light that doesn't turn green that you can finally go through.

I'd say one cycle of knowing. I mean, because if you go this way to get to the two ten, you go every morning pretty much. These aren't new people, so you know when the cycle is supposed to hit green. You know how it works, you know, And so I think one missed green through one cycle.

Yourself, Okay, something's wrong? And uh okay, I think this one three cycles.

And I'm a generally, I'm a rule follower, so I would be the guy who would at least wait that one.

But there's a star, I'd wait the.

One because how do you know? Then you're just running the red light?

Did you make it?

Are you?

Are you? Okay? I made it? Okay?

By hairs on my chin?

The irony of you wearing a red shirt while talking about red lights?

Also, is it a lot? That's a lot? Okay? Yeah, I apologiz. Have you planned that?

Universe planned it and you just fell prey to the universe's plan? The universe is powerful, Yeah, gave you a red light? What are the red things could happen today? I mean outside of like speaking of China's Chinese tariffs and.

Stuff China, I mean, what more could you have?

It seems like there's a lot of things going on here.

Interesting, a flesh wound, I could get a flesh wound.

Why would you do that?

Bleed from it?

Oh my blood is red when.

It comes out, as opposed to blue when it stays in.

People said, that's not really true. It's just darker red. Who cares? And why would you argue about that.

Dark red is blue? I know, yes, but the.

Idea that people will be like you guys are so lame.

Oh we got oh my god, we got one of those.

I think it was a Facebook message over the weekend and it was someone who was so pissed off with us. It's thing, Oh god, I don't know where it is now.

But I was like, sir, you don't remember what it was. It was so silly.

It was so silly, and it was like, great job, guys, we'd go like you said it was wonderbread when it was really weep bread.

Good job, you idiots.

It's a way to go. It's really donchic.

It wasn't even that. I can understand somebody getting upset with scrawling up a pronunciation or something like that, but it was something so ridiculous and it's like, clearly it was not about the milk. Well, clearly there's something going on that person's life.

Oh, cloudy this morning, this afternoon, it's going to be more cloudy. I think by late tonight is when we expect to see some rain here in southern California.

Yesterday, when we were doing show prep, it was called an atmospheric river. Today it's called a Pineapple Express.

I mean, if we could just get our fear click bait in order and be clear about what exactly it is, I would be great.

Sometimes you can just throw everything at the wall.

Sometimes have to name everything. Also, this is also just rain. It's February. But when they say atmospheric river or Pineapple Express, you start to think, well, it's gonna be several inches of rain.

That's not the case.

I mean, especially tonight's storm is you know, maybe you get a half an inch of rain in downtown LA. That's not a lot compared to by the way, Mount tamil Pious, Yeah, had ten and a half inches.

Of rain over seventy two hours.

It's got to be beautiful.

That's up in northern California and Morin because they've they've been getting rain for a couple of days now. They've actually been doing pretty well storm wise. They have hit a lot more. They're more regular when it comes to the rainfall they've had so far this season compared to southern California, where we've had nothing.

They haven't been to Mount Tamond forever.

But tonight and Thursday nights when we expect to see some rain, we'll talk next hour, we'll talk about there's there's more to it, because they're concerned about obviously the burn scars and the potential that for mudslides and debris flow and stuff like that.

Before my husband and I were married, you know, he likes to hike, and he also does not care about hiking trails. He likes to just get out there and go.

Yeah, the old people did it, I mean the way they did it in the old days, right, not the old people, right.

But old people do that too. That's why they get lost and we have silver alerts. But anyway, yeah, this was now.

Of course I have hiking trails and maps coming out my ears when I go on a hike with him. But this was back when I was like, okay, whatever, and I would just follow him hiking. And there was a forty nine er game on that afternoon that we started hiking him out tam and let's just say, we just went, let's just go. I think we're the words. And the hike ended up being a much longer hike than one wanted because someone wanted to be home for kickoff and someone was not. And fact like.

There's a lot of people in this story when there's really only two people, right, huh.

Anyway, so let's just after that day, we know where the trail ends, we know how long it's going to take, and we don't go on Sunday.

The tariffs were not imposed on Canada, as we kind of predicted yesterday during the show.

There was a phone call.

There was a discussion between Justin Trudeau and President Trump. So they've paused the tariffs against Canada for another thirty days, similar to what we saw with Mexico. But the ten percent additional tariffs were imposed on China, where we will start seeing those price increases.

It was probably in our drug cabinet.

Yeah, it looks like prescription drugs pretty much across the board when it comes to generics. I had no idea how many generic prescription drugs were made in China. We'll tell you which drugs specifically, could you see the changes in pretty much within the next couple months. I say that these drug companies have contracts that expire every six months or so, so it may take a couple month, but you will see hike in those generic prices. RFK Junior's nomination for head of the Department of the HHS

She actually got a couple of people, Todd Young I believe, out of Indiana and Maine Susan Collins, have said that they would vote to confirm her, So she may actually get out of committee, despite everybody saying that she wouldn't.

What I have discussed is we'll have some good meetings with China. We have meetings planned and we'll see what happens. But that was just an opening salva. If we can't make a deal with China, then the tariffs will be very, very substantial.

So Beijing fought back.

We imposed ten percent terraffs on a bunch of different ten percent additional tariffs on a bunch of different products. As of midnight Eastern time, and they announced a broad package of economic measures to target the UNIS United States to hit back at those terriffs.

They say this will likely drive up the cost of generic drugs and the US. About half of generic drugs we take here in the United States, including cancer drugs, antibiotics, blood thinners, are made entirely overseas. Obviously, manufacturing is cheaper there, and even greater share of active pharmaceutical ingredients are called APIs used in these drugs comes from abroad eighty percent up to eighty percent. Now, China is obviously at the forefront of making these materials.

How do we not look at those numbers and think to ourselves.

We've got a problems based on our relationship currently with China that that's not a national security issue. What happens in the event that China says we're not going to send any of these drugs or the precursors for these drugs pharmaceuticals specifically, we're not going to send you prescription drugs or the precursors for these prescription drugs anymore.

Do you have any idea Did you know that that that high of a percentage of drugs I knew.

It was significance, okay, but until this, until this issue came up about the tariffs, I didn't.

Realize that it was mean too.

I had a feeling that that's what was happening, but I didn't know it was that high. That would be the number one, by and large, head and shoulders above anything else that would piss people off in this country. If you mess with people's drugs, people's pills, holy health.

And I mean, yes, it's anger inducing, but also then what happens to people's health?

Right?

I mean, if these drugs are life saving, many of them are. They're not all, but many of them are life saving, and we cut off that supply immediately. There's no way that we can replicate that quickly. There's no way you can stand up an entire pharmaceutical industry quickly to keep the people healthy.

The only thing I can think of in terms of the how does this happen? How do we let this happen? Question, is that China needs us as much as we need them. We need them to make the pills cheaper, They need us for a variety of Financially.

Yeah, they have us to buy it exactly.

I just I feel like My wife and I have this conversation all the time because we have scintillating conversations like this, isn't it possible that China is just trying to drug us into lethargic?

I had the exact same thought. The processed foods, yes, the screens, the AI, the drugs, I mean, all the things that make us sheep and thoughtless brainstems are coming from China.

And the plastic.

Yeah, I think that's I think that's sexy conversation.

I mean plastic in the in the idea of go to a go to a store and I'm not going to name names, but go to a discount store where you could buy things four oh slightly under a dollar something like that.

The majority of the things.

That you're buying are made in China and are all we're doing is then shoving it into a garage or a storage facility so that the tanks come rolling off of the amphibious vehicles at Oxnard and we're tripping over plastic and we can't defend ourselves.

Well, speaking of plastics, we're going to get into it. There was an article in the Washington Post that found that we have at least a spoonful of plastics in our brain. Because of how common these plastics are. I don't even know why we're calling the microplastics anymore.

Because they're any bitty If.

They're a spoonful in our brain. How many spoonfuls do you think you've got up there?

Couple couples. I had a lot of.

Well you've got the lead in there too, process.

What does that mean?

The lead from the paint? Yes, ah, I think there was a lot of leaded paint around. I letted fuel maybe, but not leaded paint when I was here.

Oh, come on, you don't think you've been expected. I mean, do you went to public school in the eighties. We were all exposed to leaded that's all it was.

That and't as best as floors. Oh my god, he.

Used to walk around, roll around on the floor, play with the little fibers.

Oh yeah, we'd lick that lead paint right off the walls.

You went to a different school than I did.

The jokes right themselves, don't they It's almost like we can't even make them because they're too easy.

Well, I understand the idea of a former president and the speaking tour that would be expected, right, I mean Bill Clinton has made millions of dollars.

Bill Clinton was the president in his early mid forties and was a great speaker from go. Joe Biden's never been a great speaker. It's not his thing. He's a guy who reaches across the aisle. Everyone loved Joe Biden, That's why he had such a long career in the Senate. But being a great orador is not his situation.

Would heyst what if.

He does a whole corn pop movie, like sells the rights to a corn Pops.

These are the jokes I was speaking of, although I did not get that far in my creativity process. I'm in like a corn pop like maybe Dennis Quaid's in it as Joe Biden kind of made for TV Hallmark situation. He plays a lot of those religious made for TV movie type le okay, So I see him as maybe the middle aged Joe Biden looking back at the young

Oh yeah, because he talked about he was yelling at him, Hey, there, get off of that board up there.

You can't do that, right, I don't remember.

There's got to be a public pool in the valley with a diving board. Yeah, and like a ledge where he could put his legs, legs. Yeah, kids, gangs. Wasn't corn pop in a gang.

I don't know if it was an organized gang, but yeah, it was a gang.

Quick fire update.

The donations are still coming in, but organizers of that fire aid benefit concert from last Thursday night said that they will probably end up raising more than one hundred million.

Dollars for wildfire recovery.

The first round of the fire a G grants should be awarded by mid February, and today a banner day for spaceflight. They're expecting five different rocket launches around the world in the next twenty four hours. SpaceX launched a batch of Starlink satellites this morning, Blue Origin that's Jeff Bezos's group helps to send up an uncrewed research capsule.

Do we think do you think we could have your wife on to break down the Baldoni Blake Lively fight, because I keep seeing deep dives on it and I'm intrigued. But I want the cliff notes version, Like I don't want to put time and effort into reading through all the things. I just want someone to hit me at the highlights. Too much time, So just an idea, speaking of your wife.

Or likely respond to your text in mine?

Really she gets mine.

All the time.

Well, maybe you shouldn't send her superfluous messages.

Like the word superfluous.

Yes, it's speaking of your wife. It's a big day in the Hoffman household. Something for everybody on Capitol Hill. You've got RFK and Tulsi Gabbart.

Here was was fourteen eyes thirteen nays. The boat was fourteen thirteen. The nomination is reported.

Are you guys just gonna throw on c SPAN and have dinner and watch that look together?

Candle just romantic music in the background. I don't think.

Oh wait, honey, Tulci's coming up.

She speaks. Yeah, So Kennedy's out of the Finance Committee.

It's likely that rfk's nomination to take over as HHS Secretary goes to the full Senate next week, and it was a surprise. Bill Cassidy, a doctor, this was the committee member that they were most concerned about voting no. And while he is a doctor and as a doctor, apparently had some issues with the vaccine thoughts of RFK Junior. He eventually decided that he was going to go with RFK Junior to vote to move him out of committee

Today.

He represents a state that went for Trump by twenty two points, and if Bill Cassidy's up for reelection anytime soon, that's going to be something that he's going to want to pay attention to. You do not go against the president when the president wins by twenty two points in your state. Tulsea Gabbard maybe a different issue. This was her from her confirmation hearing last week, is.

Edward snowed In a trader to the United States of America.

As someone who has to go on in combat, I understand how critical our national security.

Farely you don't.

She kept it calm, but didn't really answer the question about Edward Snowe.

That's one of the things.

But the Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to vote today and vote to pass her on to the floor session, to the floor of the Senate for Director of National Intelligence. There were two key Republicans who had come out and suggested that they would in fact vote to confirm her, Republican Senator Todd Young from Indiana and Senator Susan Collins out of Maine. She's probably the more Commons. She actually

But both of those final votes are.

Expected if Gabbard is passed by the committee today.

The full vote is expected sometime next week.

A new study shows microplastics are making their way into brains, which means cognitive decline.

Gary Shannon kfi AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeart Radio of Top of the Hour, we'll talk about what we can expect when it comes to rain. Also sort of a fire round. Up State Farm is now complaining that those little sausage rolls. Do you see those little sausage roll about the puff paste? Don't say no, sweet and salty piggies in a blanket?

Yes, okay, those are those are on the list.

Are they really on the list? Don't tell me they're on the list.

If they're on the list, Wow, I've had the recipe already. She told me. She's the one who told me about it.

Oh my god.

Yeah, I'm really excited.

So we got to write that down State Farm. What they want a high insurance rates because they have to pay up. And then Rick Caruso is acting very responsible. I mean, he's starting this new foundation called Steadfast LA and he's doing things that the government can't do but should do. I'll actually hear from some of his interviews of the last couple of days.

Hey, guys, adults are not supposed to drink milk after a certain point. It's not good for your digestive system. But anyways, there is all kinds of different almond milks and oat milks My favorite, and it's actually really healthy for it is the oat and almond milk combined. We've got good protein in there and none of these unhealthy stuff for adults.

I just feel like those milks, almonds and oats and coconut and all that sort of stuff, it's just a lot of chemicals. That's That's an impression I get. And I don't know if that's true or not.

Hey there does to say. Man, you guys just can't stop the fear mongering. I mean, it's incredible. You know, the amount of drugs we get from India is far greater than what we get from China. And yeah, we can actually gear up and make all that stuff pretty quick. Gear who wanted to maybe we're going to have.

To now, Okay, well, if we could, that's great.

China actually represents about twenty five percent of the pharmaceutical imports to the United States. Mexico is second at about nineteen percent. India is third at about fifteen percent. So we don't just make things up. It's not as I mean, some of it we do well.

The dumb stuff.

Dumb stuff is easier to make up. I can't fact check our dumb stuff.

A paper published yesterday and Nature Medicine found that tiny fragments of plaids sticker passing the blood brain barrier and into our brains, and that the amount of microplastics in the brain appears to be increasing over time. And I don't want to be a fearmonger here, but the plastics

Might be part of it.

Scientists were examining the brains of twelve deceased patients who have been diagnosed with dementia and found that they those deceased patients with dementia they had three to five times as much microplastics as other brains. The reason they call them micro plastics they're less than five millimeters in size, smaller than a pencil eraser, and they said they're either manufactured or they actually slough off of plastic objects. Nano plastics are even smaller than that and can be a

Testicles. They burrow in testicles.

They can I mean they end up there. That's not like, how do they end up there circulation. Have you ever seen a human body?

Yeah, okay, oh, so it goes into But they're talking.

About the smallest, smallest, little particles of plastics potentially due to your testicles. Probably nothing nothing good. I mean, it's a foreign object. I'm going to google that what do microplastics do to your Researchers looked at brain samples that went back to nineteen ninety seven and found that they followed the same trend. More recent samples had much higher volumes of microplastics. They found no correlation with how old the person was when they died.

Do you want to hear about the effects on testicular health? Sure, studies show that there has been inflammation that microplastics trigger inflammation and stress in the testicles, which may damage testicular tissue, which may be one of the things that goes into the low birth rate, low sperm count, right, hormonal distribution. I'm not just bringing up balls because I'm trying to be cute or for the sake of bringing up balls.

Not necessarily, but well it's used to.

Create your baby exactly. Yeah. They There have been numerous studies in animals that suggest that the microplastics do reduce sperm count and quality. So how do we eradicate the plastics from our lives.

Well, for one thing, we stop building playgrounds with giant pressed plastic molds for our slides and go back to those hot metal ones that we used to do as kids.

The hot metal ones were great because you were rolling the dice. Am I going to get a third degree burn? Maybe? But will I have fun doing it? Yeah?

Well, I leave a giant skid mark of raw skin on this on the slide.

Maybe it's possible.

If you missed any part of our show, you can always go back and listen to the podcast. Go to KFIAM six forty dot com, slash Gary and Shannon, or just type in Gary and Shannon wherever you find your favorite podcast.

You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show.

You can always hear us live on KFIAM six forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio ap