You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Nice I am six forty handle here the day before Halloween, third day, October thirtieth. Quick word about ask Handle anything we do at tomorrow at eight thirty. And this is where you ask me anything and I answer virtually everything, and it's all designed to humiliate me and it generally works.
And here's what happens. You have to ask the question.
So go on the iHeartRadio app during the course of the show, click onto the Bill Handle show upper right hand corner microphone, click on that and record your question. Neil chooses them and we play them at eight thirty tomorrow. Now yesterday an interesting announcement where Donald Trump says the US will immediately start testing nuclear weapons. Now I agree with his premise that if other countries testing their nuclear weapons, then we should react to that and test our nuclear weapons.
But here's where he conflated just a little bit. First of all, we've been talking about the last major agreement was back when H. George HW Bush signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in nineteen ninety six. The Senate refused to ratify it, and all treat all treaties must be ratified by the Senate.
We are not part of it. However, we've lived up to it.
All the terms we are following, and what it means is no nuclear testing. There are a couple times. There are a couple of ways of testing nuclear weapons. One is underground, which they've been doing since nineteen sixty when I was.
In grade school.
There were two major stories that I remember when JFK was president, certainly when he was assassinated, but during the course the first three years, and I was a young guy, but I still remember this. One was Alaska and Hawaii being incorporated in the United States as states. That was nineteen sixty, by the way, it hasn't been that long ago. And number two the Test Ban Treaty that was signed with Russia, and the test Ban Treaty said there are
no more atmospheric nuclear tests. That before that, starting from World War Two right up to nineteen sixty, the testing would be in the atmosphere.
They would throw missiles up and.
Explode nuclear weapons in the sky, and everybody realized, yeah, you know, that's maybe that's not such a good idea, so they moved it to underground, where we tested probably a thousand different tests the United States did and it was underground in Nevada, which is why you don't want to be a spilunker because when you are you don't actually need those lights.
You glow yourself.
And so the testing went underground and nobody has since nineteen ninety six, we have not exploded a test. We have not exploded a weapon underground. The only people that have NUCA is North Korea. They have because they don't agree to anything, and so do they still test? Yeah, they actually do. But let me tell you how it's done. They do it with computer modeling. That's the testing that's being done. And I had a friend of mine that worked up at Lawrence Livermore Lab up in northern California
and they developed nuclear devices. They you know, technology just gets better and better across the board, so as they're new TVs and new new nuclear weapons, and the testing was always done on a computer model and that's the way it works. Well, why is Trump now saying that we are going to start testing, Well, because China and Russia are going to start testing.
Particularly Russia. But it's not testing nuclear weapons that Russia is doing.
It's delivery systems is what they're testing how to get the nuclears weapons to a given target.
That's the testing.
And so when President Trump says they are testing nuclear weapons and we are going to engage in testing, they're not what he's What he should be saying is following. What's actually happening is Russia is testing delivery systems. Therefore we should test delivery systems. And Russia talks about it's hyper missile and a torpedo so that moves so quickly that it's you can't defend against it. Now on Air Force One on the way back from South Korea, he
did say that the process will begin immediately. We don't know what that means. And because of other countries testing programs. Again, what they're testing is delivery systems, not the weapons themselves. I've instructed the Department of War to start testing are nuclear weapons on equal basis and that will happen right now. And then a reporter asked him is the world entering a more risky environment when it comes to these nuclear issues, and he said no, I don't think so. I think
we pretty well have it locked up. But I see them testing, and again he leaves out, I see them testing delivery systems, not the nuclear weapons themselves. And I say, well, they're going to test. I guess we have to test. He'd like to see a de nuclearization program, and that would be a tremendous thing. That's true, And he said it's something we're actually talking to Russia about. I don't know what they're talking to Rush about, because Putin keeps
on testing these delivery systems and he is. As a matter of fact, Russia has created a couple of ways of delivering nuclear weapons that I don't think we've come up, we've come close to.
And so you know what's going to happen. Well, I don't know.
Is Trump going to go forward and start the nuclear tests in Nevada? And the politics of that. You have Nevadians or Nevado's whatever, they all they call people citizens of Nevada, residents of Nevada's, they're not going to be happy about it. They're internationally people aren't going to other countries aren't going to be happy about it. And there are a lot of countries that are not big fans
of Donald Trump to begin with. But can you imagine starting another nuclear war, not actual war, but a nuclear testing war. I mean, we don't need it, and we have the technology. From what I understand, we have the technology to do all the testing we want by way of this computer modeling. So I don't get it now the basic premise, I agree. If the other countries, particularly Russia and China, that's what we're talking about. North Korea is going to test itself to obolivion and there's nothing
anybody can do about that. And they have maybe a couple hundred weapons. China, well, Russia and the United States have about the same over five thousand of these nuclear weapons. Are you ready for this one? You know what they used to have with the United States and Russia had. The United States had thirty thousand of them at one point and Russia is in the twenty thousands. How's that for the ability to blow up this earth into little
tiny pieces? Now it's down because we've done all kinds of treaties reducing the very weapons down to about five thousand each. United States a little bit ahead by a couple of hundred, and when you talk about North Korea, it's way down. So who are the major countries that have them? While North Korea does Unfortunately, Pakistan India developed their own Israel has had one for years and years,
although they deny it, they won't comment on it. And there's a wonderful story about Israel and one of the Israeli guys who worked at Demona, which is the plant where they make it, stealing secrets and actually giving them the United States and we had them in jail for twenty years. That's another story we want to do at some point because that's a fun one. So the bottom line is, are we really going to start testing when the other countries are not testing except their delivery systems?
Who the hell knows? No idea. Okay, now we're going to have fun escape monkeys. There was that story about the escape monkeys. There was that truck in Mississis that overturned and had it was a trunk. It was a truck full of Recis monkeys on the way to be tested.
And where were they going.
Well, they were actually going to a movie set where they were filming the next film of Night at the Museum. That's actually not true because those are Cappachin monkeys, not Reciss monkeys. But I had to go there because it's a nice visual. In the meantime, there's all kinds of controversy about the monkeys themselves. Originally the truck driver said that they were infected with herpes and hepatitis because of
the testing is what they do. And then we find out that's not true, and one monkey was had escaped, and it turns out there are three monkeys and a number of monkeys were quote destroyed. That's the term they use after they got loose. You ever noticed when anybody is executed that what they should do is we have destroyed the inmate, because that basically works. Okay, So the controversy is they were coming from the National The school
said that it's National Biological Research Center. It provides primates monkeys to other research organizations to quote advance science, and the monkeys were in fact not in fact that Okay, that's the news story. And then I go thinking about the animal rights people who have a real problem with animals being used for testing. They've successful, they've been successful, and for example, rabbit testing for makeup products no longer
rabbit eyes are being used to hurt the animals. But when it comes to diseases, that's a very different thing. And so there was a woman just right next to this story who has just found guilty of well, removing four chickens from a processing plant. Four chickens, and she did it and said she was removing them from cruelty.
She didn't deny taking them.
Matter of fact, her organization the direct Action everywhere DX filmed.
It, they didn't un it and released it.
She was there, and she was there to prove that animals were destroyed cruelly. And so she breaks into this processing plant where there are millions of chickens, grabs four of them, puts them in buckets, which is what the story tells us. Ironically enough, the buckets they put them in they got from the back of a KFC store that were put into the dumpster. So she is now convicted of stealing the four chickens. And her attorney and by the way, her attorney said, oh, we're going to
appeal the conviction. Her attorney said that the prosecution look at what the prosecutors look at what the county did spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to prosecute this case because the animal rights people were throwing tons of money into this legal action.
Into the defense.
Well, the prosecution is right, and that is we're not doing this because you're an animal rights person or you believe in, you know, stopping animal cruelty.
We did this because it broke in. That's what it's about.
You broke into a facility, and it doesn't matter what the motivation is, and it doesn't. I mean, can you imagine if they don't prosecute based on the fact that the motivation is to save animals from cruelty. By the way, does anybody think when they're gnawing on a chicken leg that somehow it's cruel to animals?
I try not to think. I don't. I mean, I don't do that.
I mean, there are people that na on people's legs that don't think that it's cruelty.
The people read Jeffrey Dahmer different story. The point is, that's what animals are.
But we as human beings, are put on this earth, and we are the primary species, and we eat both.
Animals and we eat plants. That's what we do.
We were designed to do that by God, if you are into God. We were also designed to listen to rock and roll and to get high on drugs and to engage in all kinds of crazy ass sexual escapades.
That's what human beings do. So you can.
Argue all day long that chickens have to be saved from poulsry plants. Now, I wonder which of the four chickens were the lucky ones. You talk about winning the lottery. There's two million chickens. We'll grab these four. You ever seen a chicken smile? Okay, all right, let me talk about restaurants. And then Neil talks about restaurants all the time. And this is how restaurants have changed completely. It's a new model and it started in the early two thousands.
And what it is is delivery. It's not people coming into the restaurant anymore. It's delivering food. And you mix that up with technology. I mean, even delivery has been around involved forever. I remember as a kid in the valley there was pizza Man that would deliver and that was and by the way, that failed miserably only because the pizzas were horrible and it was basically pizza again.
I still have Pizza Man.
Oh wow, you go back a long way. Well, the point is it's gone from pizza delivery, which has sort of been the end all be all for pizzas, into anything you want, I mean anything. Some of the most high end food that is delivered to your door, and you're never on the phone. You never talk to anybody, is you just you're clicking through on your device or on your home computer and the order comes in and
then the mechanism starts on the other side. And what has been happening, I think Neil will back this up. What has been happening is that the focus of restaurants is moving away from people walking into restaurants and having the restaurant experience to having the food delivered at home. Now there's some downsides to that too, which I'm going to get into, but just get I'm going to start giving you some stats, and I want to start.
Giving you some names.
Okay, this guy, but then na Colin Wallace in two thousand and six wanted a snack in the classroom and he had delivered long classes and he did it by talking on the phone, ordering for the restaurant and then waiting for the delivery.
It was the Georgia Tech and he goes, that's kind of neat.
So he started a company that then was eventually acquired in twenty eleven by grub Hub. He was at a leadership at this company that would go on to change restaurants forever. And so, as I said today, you can get anything, literally anything ice cream Sunday, martini, wagou steak delivered to your door and whatever you order. It comes from a business that used to operate as a restaurant,
and now it's more like a pickup counter. And there's no experience there, restaurant experience, although eating at home and in front of your TV that's kind of an I mean, there's some downsides to that delivery. And now I don't like delivery at home. I mean, I think Lindsay has door dash and we have it delivered, you know, once a blue moon. But the food is always cold. You never get hot, piping food delivered to your table.
That's a given.
The best you're gonna do is lukewarm plus and the food steams. You order tacos, for example, from that taco restaurant up the street from US, which has great tacos, these crispy tacos that are just wonderful. Well, once I ordered from them and they wrap it up in aluminum foil by the time it got to my house, and by the way, only a few minutes later.
Because this thing is quarter mile from it from me.
The tacos were all soggy, they had steamed in their containers. And even the way the restaurants are using many dishes, they're not using much cutlery. What they're using is lots of plastic, lots of paper, lots of rappers. And it's changed completely, totally, completely, basically. One of the restaurant restaurant tours and a critic as well as an expert in the world of restaurant says, what's happening is less of experience and this has become a commodity.
That is the shame of it.
National Restaurant Association keeps track of restaurants nationally.
Wine a whild name. In twenty twenty.
Four, nearly three out of every four restaurant orders were not eaten in restaurants. And when you look at millennials and Generation Z man, here are the stats. More than half of adults under forty five use delivery at least once a week.
I shouldn't do that. How come I has that to me?
They use delivered at least once a week, thirteen percent use it every day. One in eight boomers use the delivery once a week, which is last time a Boomer. We're order inners or inner orders, and DoorDash was just acquired by a British delivery service, delivery, I mean delivery. How's that for a name? They paid three point eight six billion dollars for door Dash. So, Neil, you have seen this happen. You've been talking about food for what
twenty years and you have fifteen or more? Okay, you have you know you have seen this happen before your very eyes.
Oh yeah, we all saw it unfold and then explode, you know, tenfold or more during the pandemic. It just has been Now it's the norm. I mean, whether it's groceries, which is one thing, or whether it's restaurants, which is a whole other thing, because they're still paying unless they have a ghost kitchen, which we've talked about before, which is just a kitchen, no storefront, no vibe, no atmosphere, nothing inside. You never walk in it. All this ghost
kitchen does is produce food to be delivered. That's one thing. But if you have an actual restaurant that you've paid designers to come and design to make a vibe and all of those things, you've got people paid to go in there and serve you, or make cocktails or do any of these things. There's a massive amount of cost in there. And I know it looks glamorous and like
everybody's you know, a celebrity chef, but it's not. They're very small margins, and those margins are consumed by the typical charge fifteen to thirty percent of the total order price by the company that is, the third party company or app that is delivers.
But let me throw something back at you.
The cost of producing the meal and having it delivered for a restaurant, is that more profitable than it is for a sit down restaurant, considering labor, considering rent, considering overhead, because.
If you're trying to do both, which they are because that's the only way they can stay alive, and some of it they're still paying for the lighting, the air condition everything, if that restaurant's empty.
No, And that's my point.
So what I'm asking is, if a restaurant can successfully move over to delivery only for the same food, will they make more money.
No, Because some of the best items, some of the higher end items stake and things like that, they don't travel well. I was saying, And you're not going to buy a fancy meal and have it delivered to your house.
Except that's happening now, why rare occasions? All do something?
If I'm you know, if it's just me and I'm sitting home and Max and Tracy are at visiting family or something, then I might treat myself to something like that. But at that point I'll make it myself. It's not a great model the way it is. They've tried to switch to first party where they invite you. Restaurants invite you to order off of their website, and that saves them some money, but still it's a rough model all the way around. And I think deliveries continues to get
worse because now they're batch. They're batching deliveries if you notice, and so it takes longer for you to get yours because they're making multiple stops for other people's foods. So the quality goes down.
I think the.
Way it's designed or being utilized now, they're going to have to they're gonna have to change that a little bit. But it's hard to have a restaurant and try and live off of just delivery.
Yeah, and look at people who deliver, they're ten ninety nine employees. No one is a cardiovascular surgeon that delivers food. They are told to move quickly, not particularly safely.
Remember what was it.
Domino's used to deliver in half an hour guaranteed until one driver plowed into a car and made the other driver, the kid, a quadriplegic. Okay, they stopped doing the half hour guaranteed and driving.
And I didn't know this.
Driving for a delivery service is one of the most dangerous jobs in America.
I didn't know that either.
Really, I didn't either.
That's according to the story out of the Atlantic. Okay, we're done, guys. 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.