You're listening to Bill Handle on Demand from KFI AM six forty.
It is a Monday morning, April fourteenth, and we started another week.
A big story we're.
Looking at is on Friday, President Trump once again changed his mind about the tariffs. If you remember, one hundred and forty five percent tariffs on all Chinese goods coming into the country, and then he went, wait a minute, I'm gonna give you some exceptions, and that is some electronic products for example, iPhones, iPads, certain chips for example. The backlash was such that people were saying, we're we're being told that iPhones were going to cost three times
as much and it is. So he's okay, we won't do that, and he goes, but the tariff is still in place. It's just in a different bucket, which means all I'm doing is stop it or withholding it for a bit. The markets are just no one knows what to do with this stuff. It changes not day to day, sometimes hour by hour.
Okay, let me tell you what's going on. In California.
We think of illegal aliens, illegal migrants coming over the border as Hispanic Latinos Mexican primarily, but still you have Central America and they make that long trek and it's so difficult. Now it becomes impossible for them to cross the border. I mean, the one of the things about Trump is he has succeeded in effectively shutting down the border, not only physically, but making it almost impossible for anybody
to claim asylum. There was an app that used to be available for migrants asking for asylum, a program that's gone. People coming over and making it across the border and then immediately being arrested, wanting to get arrested asking for asylum gone, and so this huge number of migrants coming over.
Not so much anymore. Here's the demographic change Asians.
For the last twenty years, more Asians have immigrated to California than Latin Americanos. And we're just starting to understand it and deal with it because it takes a long time.
There are some reasons.
Why we have a hard time counting. Is because the Asians come over and they are here on H one B visas, here on student visas, so everybody knows, the government knows who they are. Latinos who come in over the border fly under the radar. They don't want the government to know that they are here. You know, for example, Silicon Valley, two percent of the residents are now immigrants, where most coming from China and India.
La County we still have.
More immigrants from south of the border. So why Well, one of the big reasons is the technology revolution. That you have these companies who hire Indians from India dot Indians, not feather Indians. And they are highly skilled people in the technical world. And there aren't enough of those highly skilled people out there.
And so what do you do. You bring in feurners.
You bring in people who have the skill level who have a hard time getting jobs. Read China, read India, Taiwan, various other countries coming in and particularly Asian countries.
And they're here.
And Trump is saying no stopping student visas. By the way, most of the student visas that come over Latinos don't come over and go to college from south of the border.
Asians coming over go to college.
The UC system has forty two thousand Asians in it. And by the way, the UC system loves foreign students because they pay foreign student tuition, which is astronomical keeping the school alive. So you've got student visas, you've got h one b visus highly technical, technically skilled people that the tech companies want.
And this is where you've got companies.
Like Google and Apple and Meta are at odds with the president because they want to keep Elon Musk is very much at odds with the President when it comes to these kinds of visas and student visas. Why because these companies need highly skilled people and there aren't enough of them. On the other side of the coin is you have agricultural workers who are primarily Latino and let's not let them in, making it impossible for them to
come over. Which understand, we've got to protect our borders, but what do you do with the great pickers and people that pick strawberries? Americans just don't do that work. And maybe it's to the point where they're going to have to pay strawberry pickers thirty five dollars an hour because that's the only way you're going to get enough people. Well, what is the cost of strawberries? What is the cost of anything? I mean, it's going to totally change everything.
When we talk about President Trump changing what we know as modern America, I don't think any of the president is going to come close to making these kinds of changes. You talk about a revolution the way this country goes. Boy, that is certainly President Trump. And a lot of it has to do with a secondary issue, and that is the immigration and what jobs are going to be filled. Keep in mind, the whole point of all of this is to bring back manufacturing jobs. By the way, manufacturing
jobs are not the greatest jobs either. I mean think about that. You know, you're in an assembly line. You're doing the same thing over and over and over again every day. I mean, that's fultifying. And why did anybody bitch and moan when robotics came in? You still kept American jobs at American assembly plants, but robotics just took over eliminated what ninety percent of the jobs in car assembly plants and other assembly manufacturing is going by way
of technology and you can't say no to that. So it's a lot more complicated. But the bottom line is Asians okay, And you're gonna see Asians going and getting those high tech jobs. Matter of fact, if you look at the ads for jobs, look at the classified and you'll you'll see right under for example engineering, Uh, you have corporate administrators, then you have mo goo guide jobs, which is right there on the classified Okay, coming up
the border patrol. Lame, pardon lame, of course, it's lame, lame, but thank you.
What was my was my mi cod? Now have you been to home depot lately?
And it used to be you go to home depot and there were dozens of, let you know, men who were looking for work and they would stand around. It was casual labor and the vast majority, if not all of them were illegal, and they people used to hire them. They don't now why, because there aren't any The Border
Patrol in Kern County just swept a home depot. Cal Matters investigated this, and the ACLU sued, saying that the ones that were picked up, the only reason they were picked up is because they are brown.
And so the lawsuit goes on and it sued.
The ACLU sues saying that there was violation Fourth Amendment protection against arbitrary arrests because agents targeted people solely for looking Latino or like farm workers. And how does the government respond, Well, the government came back and said, didn't deny that it happened. By the way, didn't deny it's coming in the Border Patrol swept these police these places and arrested dozens of people, and the Department of Homeland
Security said, okay, we're going to retrain. We're retrained more than nine hundred California based border patrol agents. Now they know it did not have been anything wrongdoing. They didn't do anything wrong. However, they're retraining agents, and the leader of Border Patrols Centro sector said that the agents targeted specific people with criminal and deportation histories. Now that's kind of interesting. How do they know someone that at home depot that is a criminal. Well, it turns out that
calum Matters went ahead and investigated. Seventy eight people were arrested in what was called Operation Returned to Sender.
I mean the great name. I mean, it's just I love the names the government. Oh my god, isn't that like an Elvis song?
Yeah, I know, it's hilarious. So seventy eight people were arrested. Seventy seven of the seventy eight had no criminal no immigration issues at all, and the lawsuit says they were picked up simply because they were brown, that is illegal. So at the same time that the government said, no, that's not true, we picked up legitimately because we're looking
for criminals. The DHS is arguing in court against this lawsuit that the court doesn't have jurisdiction to review border patrolled attentions, and that seems to be what's going on with the Trump administration, and that is any lawsuit that is filed. In addition to fighting the lawsuit, the argument is and the court doesn't have jurisdiction. The court has no jurisdiction over the executive branch on any matter.
And that's what it is here.
So in addition to saying we didn't do anything wrong and the court doesn't have jurisdiction, Senior Border Patrol official Sergio Guzman said, agents were issued updated legal guidance. The lawyers for the FED said, accordingly to the lawsuit, remember nothing wrong, We did everything right, and the courts don't have jurisdiction. So also in the statement or in the response, Border patrols prompt responsive and demonstrated commitment to forestalling similar
alleged violations in the future. Renders an injunction because the ASLU asked for an injunction. An injunction right there until this thing is heard. So the renders an injunction inappropriate either as a matter of mootness, which means no one's being arrested. That's you know, it's done. So that's one thing. When you bring something in front of the court, there has to be an active case. If there is no case, if there's no one being damaged, then there is no case.
And so it's a matter of mootness or lack of cognizable continued and future irrepara irrepairable injury. In other words, if nothing is happening, you can't argue injury because it's never going to happen.
It's really bizarre.
And they're training El Centro sector agents to make sure they don't arrest people just because they are brown. But wait a minute, we're not arresting people just because they're brown. We're arresting people because they're violating the law and they're criminals. Well, seventy seven out of seventy eight we're not criminals. Well, we're doing everything right, We've done nothing. But we will retrain our agents. Oh, by the way, you don't have the authority to tell us what to do, because the
courts don't have authority over this. I gotta tell you, remember when I first said and I'm going to repeat it.
Over and over again.
President Trump gets re elected and we're in for a roller coaster ride.
There are no guard rails now. First term, there were.
He sort of paid attention to what the norms and the guard rails and the law was about. In terms of presidential actions. This time around, not even close, not even close. He has put his followers, He has put to people that are one loyal to him above anything else, and those are the people that are running the government now.
I mean, that's what's happening. Okay. Now, marketing.
I always find marketing fascinating, particularly in the world of food.
And Twinkies is well, it's not as big as it used to be. JM.
Smucker owns Twinkies, by the way, also ding Dongs and Doughnuts, and it's trying to figure out how do we get Twinkies back on the front burner. And so there's a group of people out there. There's a demographic that they're now reaching with the Munchi Mobile. The motors Mobile launches April twentieth, oh Marijuana Day to promote to promote hostess brands like the Twinkies and ding Dongs, and so clearly who are they going after. They're going after the stoners, that's who they're going after.
Now.
A few weeks ago, I took a gummy thinking that it was candy.
Lindsay eats gummies because she suffers her pain.
Yeah, she's married to me and takes so I grabbed one thinking it was candy.
I got just stoned out of my mind. So what did I do? Well?
I went to the cupboard and I picked up a pack of Twinkies that I had, well, I originally bought as a teenager, and for some reason, it was packed over and over and over again. And uh, anyways, we pulled that out of a box and I dived into it, and you know what, you know what the munchies are like. But this is the first time I ever heard of a company going directly after the munchie crowd.
Wait wait, wait, don't you remember that Jack in the box? I think it was Jack and Bucks did Fourth Meal.
Did too?
Way that it was like, wasn't talk about I can't remember, but someone did Fourth Meal late night, like basically saying, hey, when you're up late and you're smoking pot.
Well they didn't say when you're smoking pot, no, but it was it was inferred. This is a straight out munchie mo deal mobile. When do you get tell me when you get the munchies? And it isn't directly connected to smoking pot.
It's the munchies and they're recognizing it.
And it's a big enough market that they're saying, we're going for it. And so it's not gonna be in California, it's going to be in some of the eastern seaboard states and it has to Smuckers bought this company and paid four point six billion dollars for it, and all of a sudden, maybe maybe not such a good deal. So they're scrambling and the company's Smuckers chief marketing officers said, consumers don't do three meals.
A day anymore.
To your point, Neil and Amy, they're actually doing mini meals throughout the day. So snacking has become something as critically important for them that is pot smokers.
And so it's.
Creating new products, mini version of Hostess snacks. It's going to bring back Susie cues, the steaks, I mean the cakes.
Not the steaks. I feel like you know Linda McMahon here, do you?
But you know, Bill, Once they get purchased and bought out and all that.
The cakes have been getting smaller.
Anyways, how much smaller can they make them for snack size at this point.
That's a good point.
And they're costing a whole lot more well, like everything else. And the company is also scheduling digital ads to pop up around snack times, around munchie times, like after lunch, after dinner, that's straight out snack time, that's not particularly stoner time, and using geo targeting technology, the ads to consumers you might be passing, driving close to a grocery store, walking near a convenience store, up comes the the.
The ad up at pops.
Smucker is also given hostess packaging, a sleeker designed and there's now an advertising campaign called Speaky Snacky. Oh that's going to do well, isn't it? Who came up with that? You fire someone who comes up with that.
I mean, that's kind of stupid. Now here's what they're gonna do.
The Munchimobile is going to drive around and this is a it goes back to the Wienermobile, going back to when I was a.
Kid, still out there were little Oscar.
This is for Oscar Mayer Wieners little Oscar, who was a dwarf little guy, a fat dwarf, a fat little guy, would go around and he would give out these whistles, you know, and you would go, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener and you could play that little tune on your little whistle in the shape of a hot dog, and that became iconic. Now they still have wienermobiles, and they hire college kids to spend a year driving
around the country and hanging out these whistles. What the Munchimobile is gonna do is you get a free hostess snack if you recite designated phrases love I bet you dollars to donuts, I have the munchiesh again, I would fire whoever says that, But it's a phrase that pops up on social media, and it is something that if you repeat that phrase to someone in the Munchy Mobile, you get a free ding dong or you get a cupcake. All right, I can't wait to see that one.
Used to be easier, Bill, when you could just you know, objectify and humiliate a little person.
Do you remember that twinkies were second most to What's gonna or Who's Gonna survive? After a nuclear blast. Cockroaches were number one, Twinkies were number two.
No Share was number two, and then tweekis do you remember what the original Twinkie flavor was?
Well, custard was a banana, wasn't it nana?
Yes?
It was banana.
Yep, Amy, you are gagging at this point. All right.
Trial starts today and it is a big one. It's against Meta. The US government is going to trial against Meda. It's a blockbuster, a blockbuster and I trust case alleging that Meta illegally built a social networking monopoly through years of anti competitive conduct. And what happens if this If the judge rules against Meta, why not could be forced to break itself up by selling Instagram and WhatsApp? And all the other tech giants are looking and going, oh so,
who is pursuing this case? The Federal Trade Commission, which has operated with historically remarkable independence. Well, those norms have blown up. Of course, while this was being put into place, While this trial was basically being put together, Zuckerberg has bent over backwards to get close to Trump, private dinners,
public appearances, changes to metas platform. Zuckerberg was recently spotted at the White House April two, and New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported he was pressing Trump to resolve the FTC case. Meta donated a million dollars to
Trump's inauguration. Now here's the interesting part. The case against Meta was actually started during Trump's first term, and the FTC commissioners appointed by Trump, Trump with nearly every state attorney general's office, investigated Meta's past acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp and filed the lawsuit in December of twenty twenty.
The suit was thrown six months.
Later Meta one, but the FTC, by then under Biden's appointees, came back with an even stronger complaint, and the judge assigned to the case rejected metasbids to dismiss the lawsuit. He is also presiding over the trial because there's no jury.
So where does Trump come in personally?
Well, he has attacked the judge as a radical left lunatic and called for his impeachment. Now, under normal circumstances, a president's personal relationships and opinions would have no bearing on a federal trial. But these are not normal times, right, He fired two Democrats on the FTC even though a nineteen thirty five Supreme Court ruling ruled that a president cannot fire any FTC commissioner without cause.
They went ahead and did it. There was a sixty minute piece a few weeks ago in.
Which Inspectors, General, Oversight, Committee on oversighte people on virtually every single cabinet, every single agency. They are getting fired.
And these are the.
People that root out the fraud. They're the ones that are there overseeing. They're independent, they oversee gone. And the law is real clearer they cannot be fired without cause. And a memo was shown, you are terminated, period, no cause. Oh there was a thank you for your service line and that was it.
And so last.
Year Trump acues Zuckerberg of plotting against him in twenty twenty and said if he does anything illegal this time, he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison, as well as others who cheat in the twenty twenty four presidential election.
This is in anticipation of the election.
So we're going to see what happens against While Trump is sort of kind of befriending Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg has been at the White House, has been at mar A Lago. Trump is still sitting back and at this point, the FTC is going balls to the wall against Meta, and we'll see what happens.
Because you never know what the president is going to do. No one has any idea.
I don't know if he has any idea what he's going to do tomorrow when he goes to bed tonight.
Okay, coming up the next election.
The next election is now being attacked, and I'll explain why that is going on.
These are such strange days. It's like impossible to keep up with him.
I'll talk about that, and then a story about grandparents and a personal issue.
I'm sort of, you know.
Dealing with it with my daughter Barbara, who wants to be a mom. Oh god, seriously, I know parents like having grandparents, you know, with their kids.
I don't get it. I don't get it.
I'm offering her a lot of money not to be a mother, and that is going up and up and up. She's negotiating and doing a great job. We'll be back KFI am six. You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show. Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.