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I am six forty the bill Handles show on demand on the iheartradioff I AM six forty bill Handle here on a Thursday morning, November thirteenth. Some of the stories, a few of the stories were covering it's going to be a weather story over the next few days, because it looks like the rain is coming in tonight and it's going to be a big one, that atmospheric river, which no one understands what that is. And then the
other big story, this is the government reopening. We know it's a matter of time, but it went forty three days of a government shut down. And the government shutdown is not just shut down. You can't do business. One of the things about the United States budget is Congress has to vote itself a budget where it cannot do business unless it accepts the budget. It's like if you have a business and you need a budget by the end of the year, you can't go beyond unless you've
accepted the budget. For example, California, you have to have a balanced budget otherwise everything stops.
Well.
The United States has much the same thing where the US government Congress says okay, and the president they sign off. We now have a budget, but it's very weird. Doesn't stop the government completely. There are certain parts of the government that are exempt the policing power. For example, you've got the Secret Service, and you have Congress stays in session and everybody gets paid, so it's certain parts of the government don't get paid. This really shuts down air
traffic controller controllers, for example. And there's two kinds of there are two types of employees with the government, those that just don't get paid period and those that have to go back to work and don't get paid air traffic controllers. So we now have a budget in place, everything goes back to normal theoretically. The politics of this have been incredible, incredible. I've never seen anything like this.
The accusations are amazing. Republicans blaming Democrats, the Democrats blaming Republicans. As a matter of fact, each side calls the shut down, the Democratics shut down, or the Republicans shut down. Now as of right now, it looks like the Republicans are getting more blamed than the Democrats. No matter what Carol Levitt is saying, no matter what the President is saying, the Democrats did this. The Democrats did this to an extent they did, because what President Trump and the Republicans
wanted is a continuing revolution resolution. Let's just say everything the same while we figure out your issues. The problem is that the issue at hand is the continuation of the ACA subsidies, the Obamacare subsidies. The continuation they they end at the end of the year. They were put in place ten porarily because of COVID by Joe Biden
and the Republicans saying it's over. Democrats are saying, hey, do you know how many people are going to lose their medical insurance or they're going to be priced out of their medical insurance by the tens of millions. And therein lies the philosophy the Republicans say, you pass this resolution, will talk about this crisis in medical care, particularly insurance. What's covered, what's not. Frankly, the Democrats don't believe them. I don't believe them. I don't believe the Republicans. They
haven't committed anything. They've committed to talking about it. This is an administration that does not like social services. It's that simple. That's a philosophy I mean. And by the way, that's not a value judgment I'm making. I'm telling you factually, because when you have a democratic administration, they love social services. You know, when you look at every one of these Democrats that are in power, every one of them share
exactly the same epitaph. Epitaph their tombstones will read much like real Will Rogers, who said I never met a man I didn't like on his tombstone, theirs will read I never met a tax I didn't like. So we have two ways of of doing government. In the meantime, the cutting of social programs, energy programs is going balls to the wall with the Trump administration. How much you think they're spending on border enforcement. It's unbelievable how much
money is being poured into that. So the Democrats said, this was the line that couldn't be crossed. We're done now. We're not going to let the government move on. We're not going to let this government be funded until we get some kind of a deal on the extension of Obama Care subsidies allowing tens of millions of people to be insured. So one of two things are going to happen now, and this is where the politics come back in.
The Republicans are absolutely going to win this one. There's no question about it, because lack of insurance happens at the beginning of next year. Lack of your groceries are happening right now, and right now, it's a little bit more important to feed the family than it is to worry about medical insurance. Okay, government is in continuing resolution has been passed only until January thirty one, and then
it starts all over again. The difference is is that those people will not have medical insurance who have it now or will not be able to afford the premiums which are going to double in certain cases. And so it's going to be a very different animal. It's not going to be the it's not going to be proactive. It's going to be happening at this moment. I'm talking about January thirty one, and so the politics are going
to go I think the other way. The Republicans are going to be blamed for the lack of subsidies, There's no question about it, and they should because that's their position. And you've got a whole lot of millions of Americans who are not going to be very thrilled with a lack of insurance or is so expensive they have been priced out, so as of right now, government's back and action. It's gonna take a little bit of time. The snap payments are going to be back.
That's the other thing.
How much are the Republicans going to get hit? How much is the Trump administration going to get hit in terms of approval rating? Stopping trying to stop snap payments, even partial stamp payments from being made. They went to court to stop it. Once the lower court said you have to make those payments. Once that decision is made, Carolyn Levitt got up on that lectern in the White House press room and said, we are releasing those payments.
This administration wants to pay those people. But you said no a week ago, and all you're doing is following the court order. Well, see, everybody takes advantage of everything that's happening. You know, you take the blame for nothing, You take the credit for everything.
Good. Okay, enough of that.
The Epstein files come back and back and back again to haunt the president. And as everyone knows, Jeffrey Epstein, complete cockroach is dead. He committed suicide in prison on his second go round of child molestation charges. His first time, he was given the sweetheart deal of all time. Did one year in prison, a federal prison, and it was
no one could believe it. And the other part of no one can believe it Jelaane Maxwell, who is Epstein's right hand and his buddy, a pimp, pimped for him, who was convicted of child molestation, also sex with minors. We've got twenty years in prison. Strangely got transferred to a club met actually a club fed where minimum security prison.
What is sick? Sexual offenders like this don't get transferred to places like this. How did it happen? Well, there's a whole story there.
But as far as these emails that were just released, I tell you it doesn't bode well for the president. And I have said and I think it's panning out, and I've said this for months, is I don't think the president is going to be tagged with doing anything wrong being part of the sexual exploitation.
What I think he's going to.
Be tagged with is having a whole lot closer relationship to Epstein than he has said. And any close relationship to Epstein is toxic under any circumstances. And there are a whole lot of people that are there in that category. Because Epstein, it was a real player socially, he has
a lot of money, had big parties. Look what happened to Prince Andrew So anyway, in an email he wrote to himself on February first, twenty nineteen, This was a few months before he was arrested on the sex trafficking charges the second time and was in jail and he killed himself. This is a quote from that email. Trump knew of it, referring to the sexual misconduct. And he came to my house many times during that period. He never got a massage. And this was part of this
whole tranch of documents. And Trump said he had a falling out in the mid two thousand with Epstein, and it doesn't look like it. And Trump in twenty nineteen said I had no idea referring to Epstein and the sexual misconduct. I haven't spoken him in many, many years.
Well, it looks like he did.
And on Wednesday, of course, Trump accused the Demo crats of resurfacing the scandal to distract from the forty three day government shutdown. The Democrats are using the Jeffrey Epstein hoax to try to deflect from their massive failures. In particular, the most recent one, the shutdown. Well, here's the problem. The shutdown is over and the Republicans won, Yet the Epstein emails and files continue to haunt the president and they will. This is why the administration has fought like
crazy to not have the entire file release. Department Justice is holding on to this stuff. They have all of it, and the Oversight Committee wants it. In Congress, even Republicans want it because this is we're talking about raping fourteen year olds. I mean, this is something Republicans are saying, Okay, you know what. We have to find out everything about this, every bit of it. And the Trump administration is fighting it like crazy. Why not because I think Trump did
anything wrong. I don't, but because of the radioactivity of being anywhere near Epstein. And then the argument did Trump actually know of the sexual misconduct? And I don't know about that. That one's up in the air, but I'm pretty sure that he never participated, but he was a lot closer. And of course Mike Johnson is naturally doing exactly what Trump wanted, and he is doing everything he could to keep the file secret.
And what he wouldn't do is swear in Grivalja.
Who is the congressman, I think from Arizona who just got elected, wouldn't swear her in for thirty days. He's because she is the vote that puts it over the edge to demand that the Department of Justice turn over those files. Johnson fight said, But there's a procedure which you can bypass the speaker and demand it. And that's exactly what is happening right now. So how toxic is this going to be? You know, even if it goes no further than this, I think the President can yell hoax, hoax,
hoax all he wants. You know, some stuff just sticks no matter what. All right now, what I do want to get into is what we do with our maritime fleet the United States. And this is where President Trump is saying, hey, let's revive us shipping. We don't do enough of it and we don't. Let me give you a statistic that kind of floored me, and that is, in the last ten years, the United States manufactured thirty eight large commercial vessels US shipyards.
Thirty eight of them.
China over seventy five hundred of these commercial vessels. The way the law works in the United States is horrific. The American law says that for international commercial shipping on American vessels and flying under the American flag, that means it's register in the US, follows the Coastguards regulation, employs only American citizens.
That means it's not happening. So what is the answer.
And I think the administration is right on because this is an area that has been ignored and that is working as a mariner, building more ships and working as a mariner right now as an American city, and you can go and work for well almost any fleet.
In the world.
Mariners earn over one hundred thousand dollars a year six months of paid leave a year.
Who is not going to do that.
There are seven maritime academies in the US, seven of them, six state and the US United States Merchant Marine Academy that's in New York. Now, the federal academy perfectly free to attend. The other ones, the state ones are they cost money. And let me give you another stat that's kind of just mind bending. The number of students graduating with Coastguard qualifications, okay, which all the academy give last year was eight hundred and ten. How about that eight
hundred and ten. Now, there is an organization called the Military Sealift Command. These are a fleet of ships that supply the US Navy. Those supply ships that you see with fuel and goods and material are usually civilian ships crewed by civilians.
They can't find mariners, they can't find people to work.
How about this a first officer two hundred and twenty thousand dollars along with a seventy one thousand dollars signing bonus, and you can't get enough of them? Well, first of all, you got to go to school. Okay, it's one of these four year degree things. But I don't know how many jobs out there. Right out of college you go for what two hundred grand a year? Now, the fleet, the Military Seelift Command, it took vessels out of regular service.
They didn't have enough civilian employees. They didn't have enough people to run these ships. I mean, it is kind of crazy. So why do they have so few? Because when you look into it, the work is brutal. If you don't have enough mariners on a ship, which means the ones that you do have are working twice as
hard and the burnout rate is unbelievable. One of this is what this was a wall Street Journal New York Times article, and one of these guys was interviewed, Nathan Weimoth, a chief engineer on a tramper, which means it went from place to place, not a specific route that was
hired for. He said he had six months of paid short leaves, but he works so long when he was at sea that we actually look at the hours work there longer than the six months he had off twelve hours a day, six or seven days a week.
And it's total burnout.
But if you're willing to not see your family for six months at a time, which is I'd be thrilled to do that. If you're willing to not be anywhere near your home and be on a ship. The pay is pretty high and I'm assuming the benefits are pretty good. And it's just one of those fields that not enough people were going to and.
It pays huge money. So what I'm going to do.
Is, occasionally, as unemployment explodes and you're going to see it die, I believe because of AI etcetera is getting worse and worse, I'm going to be throwing in these jobs occasionally. Where it's good money, it's not very well. These are not very well known and I just love talking about employment. Okay, okay, there is a something called college direct admissions. Now you can pre register for college. They have early admission, but you have to apply direct admissions.
You don't apply. An email goes.
Out from the schools, from the four year colleges to kids who are kids you know, who are out of high school, who meet the criteria, and it says you've been admitted. And the theory is it's going after those kids who are disenfranchised, are on the lower socioeconomic ladder. They're lower on the ladder because it's just more difficult for them. You have to know how to work the system.
An application to college is not an easy thing. I mean, you have to obviously take the tests, and then you get to write the essay as to why you want to go to school and you come up with some complete lie and what you want to do for the rest of your life, and then you're in front of a admissions officer or at least the application.
Is and it's a lot of work.
Well, with these direct admissions, it is not a lot of work. Now, California has just started it. Six other states or seven other states have already done this and it looks like it's fairly successful because the number of people that are wanted, and that is first generation or second generation Americans coming from the first people to go to college in their families. I mean that, you know the story of people who it's just not easy to go to college. Well, they're getting more and more of them.
They've almost doubled those figures with a direct admission. So who is in this case, it was the cal State system that by law is now involved in direct admissions after the pilot program. I think it was at cal State Riverside. I don't even know if there is a cal State Riverside. It was one of the schools.
Is there a cal State Riverside?
I don't, Okay, I don't even know. Yeah, well, you know, I understand. But this is not for uc The ucs are exempt from this. It's not there. Yes, this is only cal State and it's cal State. San Luisbispo, for example, is exempt. They're not doing this because frankly, well it's a high end school. That's what that's about. For example, it's impossible impossible to get into UCLA, right, you can't do it, give it up. You want to go to
UC channel islands you can get in. So the cal State system is saying, and this, I guess is some kind of a pilot program or full time. I don't know if it's ever going to go to the UC system. But the schools are the entire is the entire system except two schoolers or exempt one of San Luis Obispo.
And strangely enough, cal State Northridge is not involved with this program because there was a huge move to move cal State Northridge into the community college system and remove it from California State University because Northridge gives you such quality education. Having graduated from cal State Northridge, I can see why it should be a junior college, right Kono?
Sure? Bill? Yeah? Uh? Amy didn't go off. Also, Amy didn't go to cal State Northriach. I did not. I went to Oregon State University. Yeah. I was onto cal State San Bernardino and cal State Fullerton. Yeah. Likes college. No, I do you know what I have? Actually? Are you ready for this?
I am looking at cal State Long Beach, uh for some histories. I'm thinking of getting a master's degree in history because I like history so.
Much about it.
I do because I'm just and and and well and my life is different now. I mean I used to be you know all, I used to be the surrogacy center. I work all day after the show and uh uh now I get do you I guess you call a semi retired. Does that make sense? Where I do the show and then basically by noon, Now what do I do?
Are you gonna do it? From student union? You'll do the show? Uhout be wild?
But anyway, it's uh, this directed mission thing seems to be working.
And it is designed for.
People, first of all, to make it easier to go to college, to apply for college, and to try to get those students that were just difficult to apply. I mean, I've applied well, cal Staton Northoris was not that difficult. My law school, for example, that was a tough one. I remember going in and seeing the admissions counselor at my law school, what your law school? And I was wondering, why was the admissions person putting mirrors under people's noses?
And it turned out that if you had condensation, you were admitted to the school. That was the requirement. By the way, that school is no longer there. Just to let you know, my law school is no longer It's just out there. I think Starbucks is in the building, and then I think they also have maybe an Amazon
warehouse there. Okay, we're done, all right, Joe Larsguard is coming up and we're going to talk about some how the money news and there's some fun stuff fifty year mortgage that the President just pitched and we was talking about with Joel. Does that make sense, as well as other topics, So don't go away.
This is by the way, I'm just.
Kidding about cal State northridget It really is a superb institution of higher learning. It's called Harvard of the West. All Right, KFI am six forty.
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.