You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KF. I am six forty.
I was just told that's Michael Monks. Yes, was he wearing plaid pants? Did I see that? Correctly? Come on, he's actually quite fashion with yeh plaid pan. Now listen, I'll tell you what's fashionable.
Okay, you will, you most certainly will not, sir, And now handle on the news, ladies and gentlemen.
Here's Bill Handle.
He's good morning everybody. Bill Handle here on Monday morning, December twenty three. It is the day before the day before Christmas, and the day before the day before of the evening of Hanukkah. So morning to one and all. All right, Amy is not here today or for the rest of the week, and filling in for Amy is Michael Monks. Good morning, Michael.
Good morning to you. Bill.
I only can see you from the waist up because you're behind the desk. Would you stand up? Please?
Is this permitted talk in the workplace?
It is absolutely I assume Number one, I assume you have pants on, and number two, I feel like Eminem. Where the will the real Michael Monks? Please stand up? Please stand up? Oh regular pants, Michael, They're a little plaid. No, I can't see them plaid, but I can see them. By the way, the quite the fruit packete you have very impressive.
I appreciate that. Get that message out across the Yes, I will.
So, Michael is in here this entire week. Neil is not here, but Cono is uh and Cono you are not working in the rest of the week because it's this is the weird week. It's between Christmas and New Year's always the weirdest week of the year in terms of who's here and who's not. What's your schedule?
I just don't work Christmas Day in New Year's Day?
Okay, do we know who's filling in? What? What intern that is willing to work for five dollars under minimum wage? They were able to talk into working.
Sam is here one day and then Robin is here another day.
Yeah, you know Sam's working on his PhD. If you haven't, he hasn't gotten it yet, which is kind of impressive. By the way, And you're off what tomorrow and the rest of the week.
I'm off the same time you are.
Sorry tomorrow, Oh, okay, back come a sixth and then filling in for me because I'm off tomorrow, and I'm not back to the first Monday in January, and I don't know what day that is January six, six Monday. Okay, So I saw it's a long stretch. And who is well, who's filling in for me for starters? Is it Wayne? Wayne? Wayne? Okay? And who's filling in for you?
Michelle?
Michelle? Okay. I'm just out listen, I'm bringing it out. I'm asking the question. These are rhetorical sort of questions or questions I already know, but I want to get everybody involved.
Right, You do not know any of the answers to these questions.
That's absolutely correct, Kono. And that's because I don't pay attention to much. And if you were to ask me that question, if you were to ask me that question five minutes, ten minutes from now, it I wouldn't know the answer. Although there's a story I don't know. We're covering it on handle on the news about President to be Donald Trump wanting to take back the Panama Canal. And here's one Okay, Michael, this is the Gerbil going crazy in my head. Remember, I don't remember what I
had this morning ten minutes ago. How wide is the old before they put the new Panama Canal in. How wide is the original? How big? How wide can ships be?
How wide could the ships be in the original Panama Canal from the early nineteen hundreds.
Yeah, fifty three feet?
I think it's a ten feet. Would you look that up? See if I'm right or not?
All right?
Sure if I'm wrong, or the width of the canal was one hundred and ten feet. We have to look that up. And I don't know if that's true or not.
It was one hundred and ten feet, sir, Thank you very much. Well done.
Wow, Well, have no idea who's here tomorrow? But hey, what can I tell you? Life? It just continues on on the morning show, doesn't it?
It does for some of us.
I'm not all week. I can tell you that it just gets through. And you have Jesus Christ himself filling in for you on Wednesday. So that's not bad, that's true.
Matter of fact, every Christmas Day Jesus fills in for me. I have quite often asked if I could fill in for Jesus on the Sunday Show and give marginal spiritual advice, and the answer has been a very hard, hard no. They because people who have called up and are very depressed, very and actually are contemplating hurting themselves. And Jesus works it out very well, very calm, very measured. You'd hear me scream, jump do it right now. Jump. That's why they won't let me fill in. Okay, are you guys
ready to do it? Let's do it. Handle on the news with Michael Munks, O'Neil and me lead story. Well, here's a shocker. The Matt Gates Ethics Report has come out by the Congressional Ethics Investigators, and yep, they said that everything he's accused of has, in fact i happened. He did pay a bunch of women, including a seventeen year old girl for sex, purchased, use illegal drugs including ecstasy,
dealing with sex from from his Capitol Hill office. And this was a long running investigation Gates by the House Ethics Committee. And so of course he has denied any of that. Now here was a question that since he is no longer a congress person and no longer has any connection with government in any way, there was talk of you know, why release it because in the past it hasn't been released, saying hey, the guy is out. Ah,
is this simply political retribution? Well, yeah, probably. And the good news for Gates is I don't think there is one person in Congress that likes him, not one. I think it ranges all the way from dislike to active dislike to absolute hatred and beyond that.
He has the vibe of every jerk from the eighties comedy involving college students. You know, he's got the right hair, he's got the right shiny looking face, and cut suits and all of that, so I can see why he's just naturally dislike.
He's also kind of not a nice person.
No, No, he's known as a real dick. He really is, and it is that's who he is. Sorry, let's do one more and we take a break.
Absolutely, let's did you hear about this terrible story on the subway in New York? A suspect, a Guatemalan migrant, he's been reported as a woman was killed on a New York subway train Sunday morning after a man set her clothes on fire with a lighter and what authorities are calling a brutal murder and an example of depraved behavior.
Bill, Yeah, now, I mean it's horrific. And then does it go into politics. We don't know what kind of an immigrant he is, if he is illegal, much more fodder for the upcoming administration of President Musk.
What I did see was the President Musk.
Of course, what I did see was that this this migrant did cross the border in twenty eighteen, so it would have been under the first Trump administration.
So I'm guessing that was Well, we'll find out whether he was illegal or not. And this I hope this doesn't go into a political statement as opposed to just a horrible, horrific crime. It starts and stops right there.
Well, it certainly involves a couple of political elements. One, you've got immigration, but then you've also got the general public safety component in New York in places like la as well on mass transit. And what was particularly striking outside of just this brutal murder was Governor Kathy Hokeel of New York taking a selfie on the subway system that day, talking about how much safer it had become because of some work that she had put in, and then this brutal murder happened.
Now, when she was taking a selfie, was she actually being attacked at that time or that one was deleted.
I think that Kathy Hokle had taken this before, okay.
And by the way, the fact that she was surrounded by fourteen security officers hey with guns with their uzzies drawn, that probably had a lot to do with it's the safest place in the world.
We are familiar with those types of photo ops here in La and Mentor for sure. All Right, So these drones are still up in the sky, man, I mean, people still don't know exactly what they are. Maybe the government does, maybe they don't. The military says they're not sure why or how to stop them. So this series of drone sightings over military bases across the country has renewed concerns that the US doesn't have clear government wide policy for how to deal with unauthorized incursions that could
potentially pose a national security threat. Bill, I'm sure you're comforted comforted by the fact that President elect Trump will be in office to deal with these UFOs.
Well, it's you know, the law is the law on this. First of all, it's perfectly legal to fly UFOs. Now, you can't do it in restricted airspace. And I think that the government and the military can deal with it if it is deemed to be a national security issue. So if this continues on a another week, two weeks, three weeks, I can see they are shot down with four million dollar missiles. So you take out a thirty nine dollars Walmart drone and spend four million bucks to
take it down. And there are hundreds of them. But I'll tell you they're going down.
That you think that they are coming down these drugs.
Well, I mean they're gonna do something, you know, it's yeah, they're gonna have to declare this national emergency. There's so many out there, but how many of them? And now they're investigating a lot of people are looking at these drones and they're seeing aircraft and reporting them as drones and so, but there are drones out there. I think only two guys have been arrested for flying over was it Logan Airport in Boston. I don't know the answer, but I'd like to see why not at death rate?
Don't they have death rays that can you know, just zip out, you know, zap the electronics. I don't know.
Yeah, let's just get this thing over with, you know, to go ahead and zap us all. Meanwhile, in Washington, President Biden he's still president. Biden commutes most federal death rose sentences to life in prison before Trump takes office. What were your thoughts on this today, Bill.
Well, I mean, no surprise. He can't just pardon his son and not pardon everybody else. And he's now limited to the death penalty only being used against terrorists. That's it. The guy who was and one of the brothers was involved in the Boston bombing, Dylan Roof the attack killing nine people with the Black Church and Charleston Robert Bowers eleven worshipers at the Pittsburgh's Tree of Life and twenty
eighteen Other than that, everybody gets commuted. Communities these are they're eligible and they have been convicted and the death penalty is rendered. But you know, I mean death penalty is you know, it's just not being used. I never tell you, Michael, I saw an execution? You did, Yeah, eye witness an execution? Fabulous? One of the best days that man. You if you ever get to witness and execution, that's entertainment with a capital E.
You know, they used to invite reporters to basic witnesses. I know they still do it, and they still do by law. Yeah, we would occasionally get those invitations at other news organizations.
I've been.
I never I never got to do it. Not sure if I would have enjoyed it the way you see, if.
You would have enjoyed it. It's a lottery one. The only thing is they don't cater it. They don't give you snacks.
Was it a clean killing or was there somebody for it?
Was? Actually k if? I won twice in a row on the lottery. The first one was the last execution by the gas Chambert Robert Alton Harris, and then the next one, which I went to see, was the first lethal injection execution. William Bonnen. I tell you the first go around that gas chamber business. That is really strong. I mean that is kind of neat. Uh the one by lethal injection, Eh, you know, so yeah, not as
much action. No, no, let me see a little bit and just the cheek go out and you know, the face turns purple and you see the last breath and it's I mean, it's not bad. It really isn't. Well.
I'm sorry that President Biden rained on your parade with.
Uh, yeah, I wouldn't be invited. I don't think the same rules apply for federal executions.
I know you've moved out to the hinterlands of Greater Los Angeles, and I'm wondering if you're a big Starbucks guy, because it might get a little bit trickier out there.
I know.
I oh you do.
Yeah, I hate it. I can't stand in the coffee.
Well, the good news is you won't have to drink it. Apparently, because a lot of the workers are on strike, the union has expanded its strike to nine states, including here, Bill, right here in Burbank, we had we had a store shut down by the barisas just a couple of days ago,
So they mean business. The Starbucks Workers United Union said workers in Missouri, New Jersey, and New York began their strike Sunday, after locations in Colorado, Ohio, and Pennsylvania joined the strike that had already started right here in California and in Washington and Illinois. So do you think the Starbucks needs to start bargaining better with its baristas?
No, not at all.
In December, no wage increases at all, and a guarantee in the future and no cap on that of one point five percent. So it kind of pisses people off. Can you imagine if iHeart offered you no increase. As a matter of fact, that's exactly what they're doing. Yeah, and one point five percent increase. No, it's a one point five percent decrease if you look at their latest offer. But yeah, I think you're going to see this spread because unionism is spreading.
Yeah, we've seen it here in LA in the fast food industry in particular. Are you seeing or sensing that workers are feeling more empowered in some of these service Absolutely?
Absolutely, what's motivating that's it's very cyclical. The unions were incredibly strong in the creation of unions back at the turn of the Last Entry, actually before that with the Women's Garment Workers. That was the first big union in the a c l O acl CIO and the eight America Federal AFL, and that came into being. That's when workers were really really deprived of any rights and the
employer is just completely controlled and abused workers. And then it started coming around and the heyday United Autoworkers in the thirties with Walter Ruther and then my dad was a union employee. He was a member of IBW, the Electrical Workers Union in the fifties and sixties and unions were at the top of the heat. He was making tons of money with great benefits, and then it went the other way. You had deregulation, you had pro business, you didn't have the same sort of left wing philosophy.
And now the unions have come back. So it's cyclical and it's tough. The only people that get away with, you know, doing way and really abusing any possible unionism is strangely enough, iHeart okay, let's go ahead. And by the way, if you think I get in trouble by railing into iHeart okay, let's come back.
Michael Monks does not endorse any of the comments made. He's proudly, happily employed by iHeartMedia.
Well there you go.
I gotta tell you.
Bill is a relative newcomer to California about two years now. The sticker shock at the pump never ceases. But it is the cheapest Christmas gas since COVID in southern California. And right now, what we're being told is that across the country that's true. It's also true here in southern California. Gas Buddy told CNN it expects gas prices will average about three dollars and one cent a gallon nationally on Christmas Day?
Now, why do we even bother reporting on national gas prices? So nationally the average is three bucks? All right, when's the last time you bought read all our gas?
I think it's to make us envious.
I know it's because California law is weird, because it's just crazy, the way the summer blended all out of their crap. But it's you're right, you get sticker shock. Now. What's reasonable, though, is housing. I'm sure that when you came into southern California. Where do you come from?
By the way, I'm from a place called Kentucky. Oh you came from Kentucky? Yes, sir?
Did you have to take your car off the cinder blocks and put wheels on it when you drove out? No?
I wrote a mule to work.
I believe that.
Yeah, so we were all good, and bad things happen when you try to pump out.
You know, I've actually had pretty good tasting squirrel soup in my time, and I know that's the sort of the national the state dish of Kentucky.
It's a little party. It's a little tough to chew with no teeth.
Yeah, what well, said, see, you're you can't do that. I'm the one that says stuff like that. Michael. Okay, you are not allowed to be funny. If that's funny at all. What part of Kentucky did you I'm from.
I am from a Covington, Kentucky, which is connected by river by bridge to Cincinnati.
Okay, all right, so it's more of a.
White I mean, honestly, I'll play into your Kentucky tropes if you like. But like, I'm from the city. I've never been on a horse. I have all my teeth, they're lovely. Okay, Yeah, it's fine.
Yeah, what your sofa is on the porch and the springs have sprung.
Indeed, indeed, our state vegetable is coal. Oh okay, not bad, We're good.
Bad. Okay, let's move on. Good okay.
JP Morgan Wells Fargo Bank of America facing federal lawsuit over Zell payment network frauds. So this is a federal civil complaint that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says the banks rush to get the peer to peer payment platform to market without effective safeguards and bill.
This is something a lot of people use Zell.
I mean, if you ever hang out in the fashion district or some of these shops around town. They won't let you pay with a card, but they'll gladly take your Zell.
Yeah, and by the way, what a stunner. A major financial institution once again accused of defrauding and nailing consumers. Boy, I hadn't heard that one before.
Do you use Zell?
Uh? I don't, but no, it's mainly what do I use.
A Palvenmo.
Checks?
You write checks still with a quill? I imagine?
Yeah, I am so no, it's now I've used PayPal and it was a Venmo. H Venmo? I use uh? But uh, for some reason, not Zell.
Two US Navy pilots eject safely over the Red Sea after a fighter jets shot down and apparent friendly fire incident. So a lot of fun stuff happening over in the Red Sea. Bill, this looks like a couple of our own guys shot down by a couple of our own guys.
Yeah, and whuties of course are taking the credit for it, although I don't think that the military would lie about that that. Have a question, do you find it kind of strange that when one of our guys shoots down one of our guys they call that friendly.
You know, it's an interesting point you read. You raise about semantics. Frankly, I mean, I guess technically they're friends, but we don't know what kind of drama was going on between these folks.
All right, because when I shoot someone, I know they don't call that friendly. Okay, let's move on. Now.
Keep in mind, this is also the same military that you're going to task with shooting down those drones.
So how do you think that's going to go?
Well? The drones. I don't think that when you go and spend thirty nine dollars at Walmart for a drone, it has the ability to shoot down a US fighters.
Yet my yes, though probably true. Okay.
Questions are mounting in Germany over the deadly Christmas market attack as the suspect appears in court. Now, this is another example of how polarized our country is, because you're always looking to, you know, put this guy into one bracket of ideology.
Was this guy right wing? Was he left wing?
How do we put him into American politics? Authorities in Germany these growing accusations they could have done more to prevent a deadly Christmas market attack. As a judge ordered the suspect to be held in pre trialed attention following a late night court apparance on Saturday. Talib Al abdu Mulshin is accused of ramming a car into a busy market in the city of Madgeburg, killing five people and injuring more than two hundred bill.
Yeah, a couple things. It reported that he is a psychiatrist. When do you get that kind of news about someone who does this. Also, as I was looking at this, thinking, come on, you know, you're gonna blame the authorities because usually they have these concrete posts or metal posts around these Christmas markets. I've been to him in Germany and the security is pretty good. You can't get any vehicle
through them except this one. It's reported that he was able to take a back entrance with which was not in fact guarded or was not hardened. And that's there. And then this situation is horrific. I mean he hit two hundred people, you know, killed already five some are still life threatening. You remember it was first reported there were two, but there were dozens other that were life threatening. Well, three of those have already died and there's still others with life threatening injuries.
The dead included a nine year old boy. Yeah, and then four women forty five, fifty two, sixty seven, and seventy five years old.
Just a terrible thing to happen at the holidays.
And then it's raising questions in Germany like we have here in America over immigration. This guy was someone who was from somewhere else, and then there are questions about whose side was he on. Wish political ideology to subscribe to a pretty terrible thing all around, And that case is not over.
Do you want to do another or do you want now, let's do one more and then we'll take a break. You got it.
Joe Manchin, who's also from a West Virginia, you can make fun of West Virginia the same as Kentucky. Interchangeable, so you can get your jokes in here too as well, Bill West jokes none, just statements of statements of fact. Observations, Yeah, observations work, yeah. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin torches the Democrats on his way out the door. Joe Manchin preparing to leave Congress after nearly fifteen years. He registered as
an independent earlier this year, leaving the Democratic Party. He's further distancing himself from his former party, calling the Democratic brand toxic bill.
Is it toxic?
Yeah, well, if you're a Republican, certainly toxic, and if you're a Democrat, the Republican party is certainly toxic. Toxic. I think it's fair to say both are toxic, certainly to each other and the rest of us. Mansion was always the most conservative of the Democrats. He was only Democrat in name, and then he became an independent really in name only, and then he is a pretty right wing I mean, the guy is conservative anyway you put it.
It's a dell get dance to be elected as a Democrat in West Virginia, that's for sure.
Okay, that makes sense to you. I don't know when the last time one was, because West Virginia is a pretty red state, all right.
The FDA approves weight loss drug zep bound for obstructive sleep apnea. US Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first prescription medicine for obstructive sleep apnea. It's a weight loss drug, zep bound. This medicine is part of the class known as g LP one receptor agonist that also includes o zimpic. So we're finding a bill that these drugs can do wonders.
Oh yeah, this may very well be this class of drugs. A wonder drug originally dealt with just for diabetes. They expanded it and now in big enough doses. I mean it's weight loss. It helps not only diabetes but heart disease. I mean when you go through I talked to doctor Jim Keiney a couple weeks ago and he said, this really may be the widest drug in of its use and its efficacy and its ability to do what it is. It's basically, you know, it's snake oil, except that it's real.
Yeah, it's made from a real snake.
Yeah, exactly. You know how snake oil can deal with everything and can cure everything. This looks like it not only diabetes and heart and stroke, but now sleep app and weight and ed and baldness and oily stools. I mean, you're going to see this across the board.
What is this going to do for the dating market when we are all sexy?
Well, you know a lot of I mean.
You have to worry about I've never I've never had to say you're used to having the field cleared anyway, But you know what, what are we supposed to do.
You know you're not a bad looking guy. You know that.
I appreciate that.
I mean, I I saw you the first time I got some wood.
I hope it was oak.
Why don't we move on?
Colorado's skilift rescue. A crack in the ski lift forces a winter park gondola evacuation. Hundred and seventy four skiers in Colorado and snowboarders rescued.
Okay, this this sounds I've never been skiing, Bill, so I don't know what it's like.
Obviously, I've seen images and videos and all of that of these types of things.
I imagine you've been skiing. What would it be like?
Saying twice in my life and it didn't It didn't pan out very well for me as bad as this. Yeah, it's cold, it's well. Yeah, you always think you're gonna get stuck.
Yeah, sure you.
I always think that if I'm on some kind of a gondola or a ski lift and and you're okay when you're low and you're right near the snow line, and then you go up two hundred feet part of it, and that's scary because you know you're it's scary. It's when this happens, and they have to go up and they have to rescue you, and it's hours up there, and you freeze your you yeah, how do I put this? You know, so we're okay with the FCC. You freeze your.
Balls off, but then you just take a zep bound and your balls grow back?
Is that what? I?
No, you're wrong? Or well here's a contradiction. What do you do? Do you take zep bound so your testicular activity increases, and do you counter that with steroids so your balls look like there's a size of raisins. It is all very complicated, But why don't we move on?
Let's indeed, because I think we're hitting some very sensitive places for some of our listeners. Passenger attempts to bring extremely concerning items through TSA through TSA at no place other than lax itself. TSA officers shocked by what they found a gamut of banned items in a woman's carry on last week. Dozens of fireworks, replica guns and knives. I mean, look, you can't even get through there with your laptop with being questioned.
So eighty goodness, eighty.
Two fireworks consumers. I mean it's just in one carry on bag. Yeah. Yeah, this one's a genius, that's for sure.
This is probably someone who doesn't fly a lot. I mean, how do you not know the rules? After all of this time? She was flying to Philadelphia? Now do you think that's a connection to anything here? Any comments about East Coast?
No? Not. You know, I'm tired of making fun of everybody. Give me, give me a respite for a minute or two.
All right, well, let's do this. Let's let's celebrate the people who are due some money from the government. A rare case of the government having to pay the people. A million taxpayers will soon receive up to fourteen hundred
dollars from the IRS. It's not all of us, obviously, but they're distributing about two point four billion dollars to taxpayers who failed to claim a recovery rebate credit on their twenty twenty one tax returns, and also people who missed one of the COVID stimulus payments or had received less than the full amount they were able to claim this credit.
Are you getting this check? Bill?
You know, I don't even know whether I whether I got one or not, because it's I get auto deposit from the IRS. So ideal with them electronic. So frankly, it's it's you know, my stuff is. I don't even go into it because it's pretty complicated stuff, so I don't know if I got it or not. Yeah, that's how much I pay attention. Thank you.
Well, you've got people for that.
I got people who have people who have people for that.
And I guess these people did not have people. Maybe they went to some very quick tax service because this was all very common to do during the pandemic on how to handle this stuff on your taxes.
Well, the vast majority of people did get it, the vast, vast majority. But you're still talking how much total that were that's going to give a million people, But then how many taxpayers are there? One million, one hundred and twenty million. Yeah, so not a very big percentage. I think we have time for one more.
Well, let's let's see. I've got two to choose from here. Let's do this one. Let's talk about Vladimir Putin. He's holding talks with the Prime Minister of Slovakia and this is a rare visit to Moscow by a leader in the European Union. So you know that situation in Eastern Europe is still going on. And do you think with the change in geopolitics that we're going to see other people cozying up to Vladimir Putin?
Yes and no. But look at it this way. Slovakia gets Russian gas, gets Russian natural gas, and it's a pipeline that goes through Ukraine and it's still flowing because Zelenski is honoring a treaty, a deal with Russia and Slovakia that ends. What is the end at the end of the year, is that it it ends in a few days. And what Zelensky is saying, that's gonna We're gonna live up to the deal and then we're gonna
cut it off. We're done. And so now you've got the Slovak Prime minister saying we have to get natural gas, and he's meeting with Russia because that's one of the few things that Russia still exports and still has, I mean the rest of it. A lot of sanctions going on Russia, but not so much on the gas X exportation because Europe relies on Russian natural gas.
And we don't think of Slovakia as a world power that I mean, but these are This is a nation, a sovereign states with its own leadership. Is there any type of influence that a country like that could have on now?
Really, it's just I think the news is that you have a member of the EU that's meeting with Putin, and Putin and the EU have become ardent enemies. And I've ever seen Slovak women. I don't think one of them weighs under three hundred pounds in osh, very you.
Was that true before or after the split from the Czech Republic?
You know what? I don't remember, because no, it was true before because even though Czech women are very heavy set in the amen of themselves, the Slovaks taken it to another extreme. By the way, we'll get emails from Slovakia the people that are of Slovakian descent. Oh yeah, you know, Okay, fair enough, We're done, guys. All right, this is KFI AM sixty. 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.