You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand this Malfi.
AM six forty more stimulating talk and on demand anytime the iHeartRadio app. All right, Imagine that you own a company and for years you've been trying to find your lane. You've been really nailing that brand. You don't worry so much about the others. You're really trying to You're really trying to.
Own your lane.
You think of you think of some big brands out there, and you go, okay, Taco Bell is gonna own the cheap, fast Mexican food lane.
Boom.
Now they've got competitors, but Taco Bell nationwide, they're the big ones.
Right, So imagine that you own that lane and you own it hard.
And then imagine, just imagine if Taco Bell's owners came out and said, you know what, we don't really like Mexican food. We want to support all of the non Mexican food things out there. In fact, we're really gonna start pushing sushi. Probably not great for Taco Bell's brand.
Should something like that happen, right, Is that fair to say if all of a sudden, the owner of Taco Bell came out and said, my food is great, but also I'm gonna put all of my effort into pushing sushi, probably not gonna be really good for Taco Bell, especially if part of the push for sushi is to limit things like I don't know, for holes. That's basically what's happening when you look at what's going on in DC, which is why we're seeing the stock prices and the
sales more importantly dropping for Tesla. Tesla's being protested as people are upset with Elon Musk.
They're taking it out in his business.
They can't protest Starlink because it's tough to get protesters in space A lot of people would like to, it's very difficult to protest some of the other stuff the SpaceX. But what they can do is they can show up but Tesla's showrooms and start protesting.
And that's exactly what people are doing nationwide.
There are about two hundred people lined up here along Colorado Street, which is in front of the Tesla's.
Showroom by the way, NBCLA.
The protesters were demanding that people sell their Tesla cars and stock. Now, these protests are happening all over the area. We also saw one in Glendale held by the same group. They were holding signs and encouraging drivers to hank and support as they went by. The group. Rally for Democracy is organizing these protests. This movement is in response to Elon musks position in President Donald Trump's administration and roll
in the Department of Government Efficiency. Similar rallies are taking place around the world, which started back into February.
What I don't understand, I just I get it.
We have turned vehicles and this is one of the things that makes in the American car culture so great is that vehicles are part of our identity.
Right.
If you drive certain cars, we make certain assumptions about someone, and someone who has certain character traits will purchase they're attracted to certain cars. For instance, if you're driving a mini van that has a bunch of stick figure stickers in the back window, we assume that you are a family oriented person and obnoxious. If you drive a lifted pickup truck, we assume that you are a dude and obnoxious. If you drive a sports cars your daily driver, we
assume that you have some insecurities and are obnoxious. If you drive a subar ru, we assume that you eat granola and you support LGBTQIA initiatives, right, and you probably want to coexist sticker.
Elon's pivot to Maga.
Would be akin to Subaru declaring that they need to stop hippies and end LGBTQYA initiatives.
They would never do that because they know they're lane.
Elon's pivot is the worst marketing pivot ever. It's worse than when Coke did the whole New Coke thing back in the eighties. It is the worst ever. And so that's why last week you saw President Trump with Elon on the on the lawn at the White House. Come on down to Crazy. Don's use Tesla lot. We got Tesla's they're they're great. Tesla cars and Tesla cyber truck.
They're great.
You should buy one today to support Elon, and not buying one should be illegal.
You can't boycott our Tesla truck. That would be illegal and un American.
You should go back to boycotting other things like cancel Culture and bud Light, but not Elon. Buy is cyber truck today, maybe delivered soon, unless it's not. Because also in the news, el On Musk's Tesla has been forced to halt sales of cyber trucks because metal panels keep falling off. Yeah, customers that are posting on the Cyber Truck Owners Club website as well as on Twitter, they say that the deliveries are on hold.
The website electric.
So the decision was taken amid increasing instances of trim and panels flying off.
The supposedly bulletproof electric truck.
Now, imagine if you have spent the last few years saying that electric vehicles and the push to electric use is bad for the country, and you've been saying that we have to have fossil fuels and you'll never buy one of those golf carts, and you've been taking this tack for years, and then all of a sudden you're told up everything you've been led to believe in the Church of Petrol was false. Now you should buy the evs. You should buy them because it's the American thing to do.
Also, they're one hundred grand who's doing that? Who has the extra one hundred thives.
It's one thing if you want to show your support by buying a red hat that cost you twenty five bucks. Twenty five bucks doesn't make or break things. One hundred thousand dollars to somebody in the middle of Arkansas to buy a truck whose parts fall off to replace their lifted f one fifty to get stuck in the mud without a charger nearby for one hundred grand. I don't see that making up for the damage that musk is
doing to the brand. It's just not happening. Take a check on news KFI AM six forty Chris Merrill live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
I Am six forty on demand anytime the iHeartRadio app.
According to the mayor and the LA Police Department Chief, you are safer.
Than you have been in a very long time.
Their Karen bass LAPD Chief Jim McDonald pulling a news conference yesterday and they say you are safer and you can thank us for that.
You're welcome from our friends at ABC seven.
Homicides were down fourteen percent, with forty seven less people killed in the city of Los Angeles be.
Forty seven fewer people killed, but go.
On in twenty twenty four compared to twenty twenty three. There was also a nineteen percent decrease when it comes to shooting victims felony hit and runs also saw a drop of just over six percent. Despite the progress, local leaders acknowledge there is more work to be done.
Any crime is unacceptable to us, and we know that everyone standing here today knows that we must continue to approach this issue with urgency and precision.
Oh, urgency and precision. Oh, she's saying some really important stuff there.
That is.
That's the kind of thing that gives you insight, not platitudes and talking points. Thank goodness, we've got specificity from the mayor who says crime bad.
We don't like crime, We should uncrime.
The mayor and police chief acknowledge at street racing is still a problem that they're actively trying to combat. Another issue they're dealing with hiring more police officers to join the force. As far as how twenty twenty five is looking in terms of crime, here's a police chief himself.
So far this year we've seen a reduction in all major crime categories compared to the same time last year. We're optimistic that we can continue on the trend that we're seeing. But right now we're in a good spot and.
Moving forward, to Chief McDonald says, a big focus again is on building that trust with the community so they can feel comfortable coming to police officers and speaking with them openly and building that relationship. Another focus, of course.
Sounds like a lot of community policing nonsense to me. The last thing we want to do is the community trusting their cops.
What's next, All.
Of a sudden, politicians are bad guys now, unbelievable.
Another focus, of course, on a staffing and keeping the community safe, reporting live and boil heights on that ABC seven.
I wouldness thank you so much. I appreciate that. So what do we have?
They claim homicides are down fourteen percent. Now listen, relax, I'm gonna tell you why I'm skeptical here. Homicides on fourteen percent last year compared with twenty twenty three, fewer people being hit by gunfire. Well, that seems positive. I hate the idea that we just have random people being hit by gunfire. Anyway, sitting in police officials say that
this is all there. Listen, this is our doing. But as we know, any crime is bad, and we're still going to press forward with urgency and a sense of duty and blah blah blah blah blah. They're also all excited about taking guns off the streets, including seventy six one hundred firearms from last year. They said that ten percent of those are all ghost guns. Oh, you're gonna don't know how you stop that. All you can do is take them. Oh you're gonna stop people from putting
them together. Shootings down, they say, almost twenty percent from last year. Uh, they're being proactive. With more words from your corporate bingo card. Here's the problem is that the data that we're getting is for the last year, which is fine. The department, though, switch the way they count crime.
There's there's the trouble that we're having. So as with anything, if all of a sudden you change your well, i'm not gonna say accounting procedures, but if you change the way that you're tracking things, you may see a change. If if and I'm trying to think of an example here, if all of a sudden, you go from using miles two kilometers, all of a sudden, your car is gonna look like it's traveled a lot further because the numbers have changed. The numbers have changed, but what those numbers
reflect are different. So even LAPD officials they did it, they had small print. While they were taking credit, patting themselves on the back. They said, also, year over year comparisons are nearly impossible for certain types of crimes since the department switched to a new record keeping system this year, So they don't really know, they say, we don't really know if this is true. We don't really know if this is accurate. Even by our own admission, we're not sure.
But based on what we have right now, we're just gonna take credit anyway, because politicians and why wouldn't you just take credit.
While you could. So that's what's happening. Just the same.
If there is any truth to what they're saying, that's great. We like to feel a little bit safer. The trouble is, we don't know if there's truth to what they're saying, because, by their own admission, the data is being counted differently, and they say, it's nearly impossible.
To keep track of So.
Why are you out and touting your own accomplishments, because why wouldn't you be That's what being a politician.
Is all about.
Oh, that's right, And people don't like Bass right now because she was out of the country when the fires hit, and then she blamed not knowing wind. So she's trying to try to she's trying to put some wins in her column, but it's not really working out.
It's not going great.
Okay, if I am six forty, we're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Why am I am six forty? More stimulating talk Chris Merril.
This week there was a much as a number of code talkers disappeared from military websites. The history of the code Talkers, which used to be on the Department of Defense website, vanished. If you're unfamiliar to the code talkers, especially the Navajo code talkers who the most famous. All the code talkers were used throughout history Chalk, Taus, Comanche, Navajo, others. But the Navajo code talkers basically developed a code in World War Two using their own language that the Germans
couldn't decipher. They couldn't get to it. Now, if you'll recall, the Germans were very very good. Listen, I'm getting old, and I realized about the time I hit forty. Suddenly all those World War Two documentaries on the History Channel became fascinating to me. You'll recall the Germans of World War Two were very very good at their codes, at disguising their messages. We couldn't break it. In fact, it was only after the development of the Enigma machine that
we were able to do. So it was basically the first computer. We allowed for the machine to UH to decipher it. Because the Germans had a way of changing their code every day, it seemed to be a completely random pattern. So suppose you're doing one of those ciphers in the in the newspaper or online or wherever you do it, and uh and and and you have to
try to figure out what it says. And you're and you're trying to break the code, and you're going, okay, well this squiggly line this I figured out that this squiggly line that equals a D. So then you go through all the cipher and you find all the squiggly lines and you go, that's a D. And then from there you try to figure out the rest of it. Right, that's it. Well, imagine if every time you got to one, the whole thing changed.
The whole thing changed. So no, Allan Turing was the guy.
He's kind of considered to be the father of modern computers, because he had this notion, rather than trying to get people who are good at crosswords and ciphers in the paper, why don't we get a machine that can figure out these codes, and it'll be able to do it faster than we can now. They didn't have the kind of machinery and chips that we did, obviously, because they didn't have computers then, so it was a very mechanical system.
But he made it work and they were able to use this Enigma machine to decipher the code, and that gave us an advantage on the Germans.
On the American side, we didn't have any of this.
We didn't worry about Germany's technological superiority to decipher our codes because what we did is we took a dead language. Well to the rest of the world anyway, the Navajo were still using it, which is why it was known. We took a language that the rest of the world didn't know. They had no idea, they didn't know what these different sounds meant. They didn't have any interpreters. They didn't have so they're trying to decipher a language with no key. There was no well, this sound means this
letter or this phrase could potentially mean this. They couldn't decipher it for squat And it was all based on that ancient not ancient, but that Navajo language which had been around for for hundreds of years or more. So the Navajo stepped up. The Navajo soldiers spoke in this language. The Germans couldn't decipher it, and the way that we were then eventually able to decipher their codes using our
computing expertise, they couldn't do it. So in many ways it was the code talkers who gave us an advantage in the war, including iwo Jima, six code talkers. Ewogima sent more than eight hundred messages with zero errors. Part of the reason that we had the Navajo in the military was because there was an emphasis.
On diversity in the military. They wanted diversity.
Because they knew there was strength in having people with different backgrounds who could then bring different skills, and in the case of the code talkers, they brought an entire language that nobody else could speak, and it was the most effective encryption that anyone had during World War two. And again, as I mentioned, we said this happened in the past. Choctaw World War one Comanche also in World War Two. We've seen this happen before. So President Trump
signs the DEI Executive Order. We're gonna get all diversity, We're gonna get all equality, we're gonna get all inclusion and anything that promotes those things out of the military. And so they said, we're gonna scrub all the websites of any of this stuff. And what they do, they scrubbed the website. At least ten articles that mentioned the code Talkers disappeared from the US Army and the Department of Defense websites.
Well.
As one might expect, all Hell Broke Loues people were not very excited about the fact that we've just decided to erase history because we're afraid it might be too inclusionary. After Hell breaks loose, suddenly we go, this isn't gonna
be great. By the way, there are also other DEI labels that are on the website to go this has been removed in compliance with the executive order that those would include things like Civil War nurses, Black veterans, and their units, including the Harlem Hell Fighters, the seven hundred and sixty first Take Battalion, the five hundred and fifty fifth parachute infantry, also Latino airmen who coordinated mental health support for military personnel.
That story was deleted.
The Army removed pages about the fifty fourth Massachusetts Regiment, the Women Air Force Service pilots all removed.
It's not going over very well because we go wait a minute, Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Are you telling me that this cut has been woke and that much of our history is based on wokeness? I guess that's what a melting pot is all about.
On certain topics, including Navajo Code Talkers, there's a banner on the DoD's website saying content has been revised or removed to align with the President's executive order that has to do with diversity, equity, and inclusion.
I just said that.
I've been looking at archived websites from earlier this month. An error now shows up. A DoD spokesperson told ABC fifteen they will restore the content with the Navajo Code Talkers saying had been removed. Quote during the auto removal process.
We didn't know anybody who's gonna throw a fit about this, but now that they have, we're going to get it right.
President Trump previously hosted Code talkers in the White House commending them.
Nava, that's true.
In fact, I had that audio and since deleted it because I'm terrible at saving audio. He did have them at the White House and he commended them, and he was very thankful, and then he pointed out that Elizabeth Warren is Pocahontas Navajo Nation.
President emphasized they should not be lumped into DEI initiatives.
We have different unique relationship with the federal government is a sovereign to sovereign relationship. It's not based upon race, and it's more of a political relationship.
It's currently unclear when the content will be fully restored.
You can look at this and say, these are just you know, small incidents that are happening, but when you add them up, and as a historian, you know, especially of World War Two, seeing this, it's downright scary.
I Melanie Dow ABC fifteen, Arizona.
What so we don't learn our history? What could possibly go wrong? Okay?
If I AM six forty, we're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
AM sixty more stimulating talk Chris Merrill no More ratty kids, it's your a hotel.
Hey goodness, I am a grump.
I love kids in small doses, and certainly not when I'm trying to sleep. There is a resort in Encinnitas that has recently come recently become Southern California is only adults only ocean front resort, according to the La Times. Now some are saying, well, that's illegal. You can't do. You can't ban kids from hotels. So now you've got a bunch of others that are trying to figure out is this legal?
Is it not legal?
Attorneys, consumer advocates, travelers, all this stuff. Is this a violation of civil code? And I thought it was an interesting conversation that we could have because if you're like me, you'd love to go to a resort that doesn't have a bunch of kids running around. If you go to Las Vegas, they have places like adults only pools, they have places where you.
Are not allowed to bring kids.
I don't know that there are adults only hotels in Vegas though, anybody are they are adult only hotels in Vegas?
You know there should be, right, Well, kids aren't allowed like in the gambling areas.
Nope, And they're not allowed. There's some adult only pools absolutely adult. Yeah, right, so they should.
And I think in some ways what these hotels and resorts in Vegas are doing is they are they are de facto becoming no kids allowed, as opposed to just posting no kids allowed. So this uh, Alila, Maria, I'm sure I'm pronouncing that wrong. Beach resort in Encinita's, part of the Hyatt Hotel Empire, announced that they would exclude children as overnight guests. They have become the self described only adults only ocean front resort in southern California, and
some people are saying that is a no go. They say, we cater to adults only because that's kind of our vision. So what's is this not discrimination? Is this not age discrimination?
Well? Is it age discrimination?
If you're twenty three years old and you can't rent a car, is that age discrimination? California courts have decided that the Act does prohibit landlords from refusing to rent to families children. So you may have a landlord that says no kids in my complex and parents GOP. You can't say that it's already been checked out. You have to read to us. Even though we have horrible children.
I'm not saying all children are horrible. Just when they're on vacation and they're not mine, that's when they're horrible. Of Course, there is another way around this, and there are times that I think some people take capitalism in the free market too far. For instance, RFK says that we should allow the bird flu to run rampant so we can figure out who the strong chickens are. I'm paraphrasing,
but that's pretty much the gist of it. Then they will develop their own natural immudities and they'll be stronger chickens.
Is that okay?
Should we just say, sure, lase a fair spread the bird flu and then let's weed out the weak ones. Darwinism at its best, That is a capitalism gone a little too far right. However, I do think there's an opportunity for capitalism and the market to correct this issue. If you've got an adult's only hotel, couldn't you have other places to say they're going to institute family only bookings and why.
Not think about this?
If you go to if you go to some of the football games, could be a college game, could be a program. They have those sections that are called the family sections in the stadiums.
Those are the family sections. The family sections.
There's no alcohol allowed, right, that's the whole the family sections. No alcohol allowed, and you're definitely going to get the look have you start swearing at the other team because there's gonna be kids around there?
The whole idea family section. What does that mean?
The rest of the stadium is not strictly no kids, but it's definitely discouraged because you've been encouraged.
To go to the family section.
So why not have your hotel be family only bookings? My wife and I had a short term rental and we promoted the heck out of the fact that it was five bedrooms, Bring all the family, bring the kids, kids, We were pet friendly. We wanted everyone there because we wanted our booking to appeal to the broadest audience.
That's it.
So if you have a place, if you're a Disney resort, you're promoting that you want kids there fin out. So why wouldn't we allow for the market to dictate that If a company's avenue is we want no kids, we want adults only.
What's the issue? Well, that's not fair.
Little Johnny wants to be able to pee in everyone's pool. I'm not for it, not for it. I think this is a great opportunity for the market to sort things out. Take a check on News KFI AM six forty Chris Merrill live everywhere in the iHeartRadio KFI AM six on demand