June 19, 2023 • 39 mins
Jason Middleton hosts your Monday, Juneteenth Wake Up Call. ABC's Jim Ryan joins the show to talk about how "friendly fraud" is on the rise in the retail industry. Then, Jason 'gets businessy' by looking at the markets, what moved, and what we can anticipate this week economically. ABC's Steve Roberts has more on the GOP Primary state-of-play, one week post-Trump indictment. And Trevor Raffauf comes on to reflect on the PGA U.S. Open that was played at LACC over the weekend, crowning a new victor for the first time in their career.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Camp. I am six forty.You're listening to wake Up Call on demand
on the iHeart Radio app. It'stime for your morning wake up call.
Here's Jason Middleton. Good morning everyone, Monday, June nineteenth, juneteenth federal
(00:29):
holiday markets closed and have more onbusiness and the market's a little bit later
this hour. This is your wakeup call. My name is Jason Middleton.
Got a new dishwasher yesterday for Father'sDay. Yeah you did, Yeah,
I did. And my wife installedit because that's that's her jam.
She does all that stuff. Nice, Okay, it's outstanding. It was
(00:49):
fantastic. I had to check itto make sure it was on. It
was so quiet. I'm not evenjoking. It was. They have an
indicator light so that you know thatit's actually working, because otherwise you can't
hear it. Right. Yeah,No, they've gotten tremendously quiet over the
years. For sure. I havenot had I've not had a new appliance
honestly in decades. I can't rememberthe last time I lived with a dishwasher.
(01:11):
Yeah. So I've been for you, man, I thank you.
I've been doing everything by hand.It's been. It's been that that's kind
of cathartic and like mesmerizing. Youknow, you do a little podcast listening
and get you get the dishes doneand whatnot. Anyway, kitchen's my domain.
But she was very very lovingly putin a new dishwasher. Next up
is a fridge hopefully. Um.The US Open was this weekend as well.
Watched a little bit of that.We're gonna have more from the golf
(01:34):
pro at Wilshire Country Club later thishour to talk about that. Help us
unpack it. And uh boy,I bet, I bet. Golf fever
is just sweeping your cross la thisweek, So everybody's gonna be flooding tea
times everywhere you play golf, Tyler, I do. I dabble with golf.
Yeah, I actually shot some yesterday. Oh okay, cool, unimpressively,
but I still did it. Hey, hey, that's great. I
played twice a year. Okay,that's it. But tobably be on the
(01:57):
same wavelength of skill then okay.Cool. But I mean when we have
this guy home, we can askfor some pro tips or something. Yeah,
you'll take notes you want me to. Let's just roll on it and
then we'll revisit it later. Let'sget a few headlights out before we get
into the show. Secretary of StateAnthony Blincoln has been in China for high
level meetings and things are looking alittle bit better. A meeting with President
(02:17):
Jijn Ping had not been confirmed beforeBlincoln arrived in Beijing, and now it's
confirmed and it's teeing up one possiblylater this year in November, when Jijunping
is in San Francisco. Dozens ofletters with suspicious white powder inside have spurred
and FBI investigations. The letters landedin Kansas late last week. Some GOP
(02:38):
congress people are saying that Republicans arebeing targeted. Everything so far, though,
is conjecture. It's pretty early inthe investigation. It was a violent
weekend across the US. At leastfive people are dead and dozens injured in
several shootings. More than twenty peoplewere shot, one fatally in a shooting
at a gathering near Chicago. Othershooting has claimed victims in Washington State,
Saint Louis, Southern California, Baltimore, in Pennsylvania, where a state trooper
(03:00):
was killed during an attack on statepolice bearings, and some war headlines and
some other news coming out of theKFI twenty four our newsroom, where we
always do lead local. The Speakerof the House has visited Orange County to
protest a visa waiver program that allowedthree hundred and fifty thousand Chileans to enter
the US last year with no backgroundchecks. I have memories of shattered glass
(03:22):
and emptied drawers scattered everywhere. Thiswoman spoke of the gathering that included multiple
Republican leaders about being part of thenational spike of Chilean gangs burglar rising homes.
I feel like I'm living a nightmare. What if we had been home?
How Speaker Kevin McCarthy says, ifthe visa program's not fixed this week,
Congress will cut its funding. Herecalled one story Friday about Chilean robbers
(03:43):
who actually did get arrested. Twodays later, they get a call from
a police chief in Washington say,those are the people we were trying to
catch because they were robbing us too. They're already out and when they're just
provided a date to come back,do you think they show up? No,
Because of the criminal friendly laws makesRange County d a tot. Spitzer
says, some robbers wearing camouflage Gilliesuits to sneak in home still get out
(04:05):
on zero bail. And guess whatthe Chileans we have filed on in our
prosecuting. We have one hundred percentno show at future appearances. Big shocker
at the Orange County DA's office,Corbin Carson, kf I News. Ukraine
made small advances in its counteroffensive amidheavy fighting along the front line in the
country south. That's according to Britishintelligence. Russia's defensive operations were relatively effective,
(04:29):
it also said, but a Russianappointed official acknowledge that Ukraine had recaptured
several villages so far in the counteroffensive along the one thousand kilometer six hundred
and twenty mile front line, andfighting is very heavy there. We do
have ABC's Jim Ryan on the linewith us. Good morning, Jim,
Hey Jason, Let's talk about thisonline shopping phenomenon known as friendly fraud.
(04:51):
I've not heard it turned that way. Why is it coming up now?
Yeah? I haven't either, Butit's just really a matter of proportion.
More people since the endemic, Iteven before the pandemic, more people were
shopping online. You know, they'vethey've kind of trended away from the brick
and mortars and moved to doing theirshopping through services that they can reach out
to other computers. So they orderstuff, the stuff is delivered to them,
(05:14):
or sometimes it's not delivered to them. People are satisfied with what they
bought and what came delivered, orthey weren't satisfied. But it's what happens
next that really has concern among merchantsbecause a lot of customers decide that,
you know what, I'm just goingto go ahead and contact my credit card
company instead of reaching out to themerchant. About seventy two percent of consumers
(05:34):
say that the bank chargeback is justan alternative to asking for a refund from
the merchant. Well, the merchantends up paying anyway, right, I
mean, the chargeback goes back tothat company. If you, for example,
order an item and it doesn't comefor a week or so, and
you say, you know what,this thing's not coming at all. So
you contact your credit card company andsay, hey, this item didn't get
(05:57):
delivered. To take the charge offmy credit card. So they do,
and then the next day the itemcomes. Right do you contact the credit
card company and say, hey,it came, go ahead and reinstate the
charge. Probably not. Do youreach out to the merchant? Probably not
the merchant though, is you knowit loses the sale and loses the merchandise.
Well, okay, I understand thisphenomenon, and I'm going to assume
(06:19):
the best in humanity and say thatit's an oversight on the consumer's part sometimes
most of the time. How doretailers combat this though? I mean,
it seems like it would be reallyeasy to manipulate the system in favor of
the recipient. Well, and itis so a lot of retailers now they're
requiring signatures. So you order anitem and they require a signature before it's
delivered to you. That way,you can't contact the credit card company and
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say, hey, it never came. Merchant reaches out and says, yes,
it did come, and here's theproof right here. It's also VISA
is stepping up and also trying tostep in and help the merchants in this
process as well, to ensure thatpeople aren't ripping off the company's intentional like
sometimes it happens as an honest mistake. Other times, you know, the
(07:02):
consumer is unwitting as to what thewhat they're doing. They don't realize that
this is costing merchants a lot ofmoney. So I think it's it's kind
of public education as well to letyou know, if you are a customer
of a company and you like thatcompany and you want them to stay in
business, you want to make surethat they're paid for the services or goods
that they render. It makes senseto me. And now in my personal
(07:23):
experience, I know that I've gottensomething's delivered and I've said, hey,
this isn't really working, Um,how do I send it back because I
didn't get one of the autoprint labelsthat often come with those purchases or U
and the vendor said, you knowwhat, just just keep it. Yeah,
you know, And is that anotherpractice that maybe VISA would want to
look at, because that's if that'sit's not okay, no, because you're
(07:44):
dealing with the merchant directly, andthat's what merchants want. They want you
to deal with the seller, theretailer, the merchant one on one and
say and let's work this out betweenthe two of us, you consumer,
me merchant, or the other wayaround, as opposed to going to the
credit card company. The credit cardcompany just sees a charge thing it off
they charge it back to the companyand they're done with it. Then you
know, the company can the merchantcan challenge that, but then you're talking
(08:07):
about a long drawn out process thereand more fees. So that's that's the
preference of any merchandise that you dealwith them directly as opposed to going to
the credit card company. Yeah,you mentioned fees right there, So Visa
and other credit card companies. Youknow, there's there's a there's a bit
of vig on every transaction, andso I would imagine that chargebacks are gonna
maybe force all everybody's fees to goup for these well including the consumers and
(08:31):
fig I like that in nineteen fortiesGangs com movie. But yeah, chargebacks,
according to a company that watches thesethings in a company called Chargebacks nine
one one says that that that process, so that practice, chargebacks are costing
e commerce one hundred and seventeen billiondollars this year alone. So that's in
lost merchandise, that's in lost sales, and that's in the fees that are
(08:54):
paid to the companies. It lookslike I did a story over the weekend
on my other show, Online Salesand Inflation Online inflation is down when you
compare it to the CPI, theConsumer Price index, which is more,
you know, bigger, higher level, top of the funnel kind of stuff.
Online sales and inflation, I mean, inflation down, sales up.
(09:15):
Do we have an idea and canyou can you recap that number, that
cumulative number you gave us a littlebit earlier. Yeah, So one hundred
and seventeen billion, one hundred andseventeen point four seven billion dollars this year
alone. That's according again to chargebacksnine one, So you know, looking
through their lens, that's what theysee happening out there. Friendly fraud constitutes
about eighty six percent of all chargebox and it's it's called friendly fraud because
(09:39):
you know, richards don't want tomake customers too mad by call and by
accusing them are fraud. But atthe same time, some people are doing
this intentionally. Okay, Jim,thanks a lot for this. Thanks Jason,
didn't know about it. ABC's JimRyan right there talking with us about
friendly fraud aka chargebacks. Um Imentioned the prices though online prices online and
May twenty twenty three fell two pointthree percent year every year, so that's
(10:01):
the biggest decrease in inflation and inprice increases since the pandemic started. And
it's the ninth straight month of year. Every year price decreases for online and
we get that from Adobe Analytics.Let's get back to some of the stories
coming out of the kf I twentyfour hour news room. The Small Business
Administration says more than forty five businesseshave applied for help following the fatal mass
(10:22):
shooting in Monterey Park. It's oneof the only times the SBA's made special
natural disaster money available to businesses.Lawmakers pushed the SBA to offer low interest,
long term loans to businesses and nonprofitsimpacted following the attack that killed eleven.
The SBA says as of last week, it received forty seven applications at
a special service center in Monterey Park. So far, two loans have been
approved, totally five hundred ninety fivethree hundred dollars. The money can be
(10:46):
used for payroll, supplies and upgrades. Loan applications will be available through January
if next year. Steve Gregory tafI news. Firefighters in Riverside County are
planning a controlled burn to clear onehundred and ten acres of vegetation at Lakes
Skinner. The Fire Department says driftsmoke may be visible from nearby communities,
but that it will disperse quickly andis not expected to be a health hazard.
(11:07):
States along the Gulf Coast hit byrecent storms and tornadoes are preparing for
more severe weather. Thirty million Americansalready under heat alerts from Texas to Mississippi,
with record heat possible in Dallas,New Orleans, and Houston. It
could feel like one hundred and twentytwo degrees in some areas. ABC's rhiannon
Ally says more storms are also expected. The extreme heat and humidity have fueled
(11:31):
severe thunderstorms in North Texas, Oklahoma, the Lower Mississippi Valley, and parts
of the Deep South. Self describedoutsider Vivic Ramaswami is not lacking confidence as
he rolls out his run for presidentsin twenty twenty four. The thirty seven
year old businessman said on Fox Newsyesterday he not only expects to win the
Republican primary and the presidential election,expects to win in a landslide. He
(11:52):
compared his poll numbers to where formerPresident Trump's were in twenty fifteen. At
this time golfer Wyndham Clark is celebratinghis first major championship. Clark finished a
top the leaderboard yesterday at LA countryClub ten under par to win the US
Open, second PGA Tour victory forthe twenty nine year old. His previous
best in a major was seventy fifthplace, so this is a major upgrade
(12:16):
for him. We're going to havemore on that later this hour with the
golf pro from Willshare Country Club tohelp us break that down. And The
Flash is the winner of the weekendbox office race despite rather disappointing performance.
I saw the flick. It's ratherdisappointing flick two. The DC film made
fifty five million dollars this weekend,much lower than the expectations of seventy million
(12:37):
dollars. More on movies too.We're going to get ABC's political editor Steve
Roberts at the bottom of the hour. He's going to be with us to
recap the weekend news, slash yakshows and how the indictment of former President
Trump is playing. After a weekin the news, Let's get some more
stories before we get to the businesstime. LA is offering a free summer
lunch program for kids at city parks. The LA Department of Recreation Parks will
(13:00):
serve lunches to kids ages one toeighteen at about one hundred different parks throughout
the city. The city's Bertha Calderonsays the program was created to make sure
kids get at least one free mealwhen they're out of school. The lunches
indeed to be eaten at the parkand its first come, first serve,
but they usually serve usually like eleventhirty to twelve. Calderon says lunches will
(13:22):
be served Monday through Friday through Augustfourth. Chris Adler ka FI News.
Secretary of State Antony Blinkett has metwith Chinese President jij And Ping following a
two day visit to Beijing. Beforethe visit, Blincoln emphasized the importance of
diplomacy. Intense competition requires sustained diplomacyto ensure that competition does not beer into
confrontation or confidence. President ge saidthe two sides made progress and reached agreements
(13:46):
on some specific issues, but hedid not elaborate. Disagreements between the two
countries range from Taiwan to human rightsand Russia's war in Ukraine. Blincoln's visit
was originally scheduled for February, butyou might remember that balloon that floated a
of the United States that kind ofdelayed things. A car company is adding
a completely useless feature, and it'snot autonomous driving. Toyota engineers are working
(14:07):
on an electric car with a fakemanual transmission. The engineers say it'll serve
no purpose and would just be forpeople who like shifting gears for fun,
you know, like children. Driverswill even be able to experience the shake
and buck feeling if they select thewrong gear. Engineers say the car's computer
will limit how far the shaking willgo to avoid damage on the battery.
Toyota hasn't announced when the fake shiftingelectric car will be sold or how much
(14:28):
real money they'll charge for that feature. Mark Ronner KFI News, Well,
Mark touched on something I'm going tofollow up with a Mercedes Ben's announcement they're
going to integrate chat GPT into thevoice control system in the vehicles, and
the idea is that this is goingto improve the existing voice assistance ability to
understand natural language and provide richer responsesto commands. US owners and Mercedes vehicles
(14:52):
equipped with the Mbux infotainment system,which I believe originated on The Simpsons back
in the day, the word infotainment. Anyway, it's going to be available
to opt into a three month trialprogram by the app or by saying,
Hay, Mercedes, I want tojoin the beta program. If you're in
your car right now, I apologize. I will say that Mercedes could use
(15:13):
a lot of help when it getsWhen it comes to its voice control system,
not good. I'm hoping it'll helpwith a navigation system as well.
Also not great when you have torely on your phone being plugged into using
Google instead of wanted built into yourdashboard. Box Office Elemental Pixar's latest release
suffered the worst opening weekend in thatstudio's twenty eight year history. Despite favorable
(15:35):
reviews, that animated Flick brought inonly thirty million dollars in ticket sales in
North America. Pixar's last release,Light Year, was also a flop,
and the results heat more pressure onDisney this year, and Pixar's beleaguered parent
company, Disney is also looking attrimming costs. So heads up in Emeryville,
(16:00):
up stories that I want to getto. As far as the Wall
Street situation goes now. Stocks fella little bit on Friday, but for
the week, pretty strong gains acrossthe board. Of course, the Federal
Reserve did pause its interest rate hikefor the first time. Ten straight hikes
and now we get a pause.FED Chair J. Powell said skip during
a talk, and a nomenclature matters. Jargon matters because a skip implies a
(16:25):
finality. So a skip means thatat least implies that July is going to
see another interest rate hike of probablya quarter of a point. But he
corrected himself, but it was toolate. It was already out of his
mouth. The reason that you knowthat matters is because when J. Powell
said, well, we just dida skip, markets immediately dropped. Wall
Street reacts very quickly, and it'svery emotional. And then he said,
(16:48):
well it's going to be I shouldn'tstay skip, I should say pause.
That's a quote, and it lookslike the likelihood of a July rate hike
of a quarter point or maybe evena half a point, although that's that's
less likely, but a point isjust above fifty percent expected for next month.
And then you have to look atthe credit card debt too. So
this is an update to a storywe did last week on this because this
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mountainous credit card debt is something that'sgoing to have to be addressed at some
point. According to the Federal ReserveBank of New York, there are twelve
different Federal Reserve banks, the onein New York did this research and consumers
now owe a record of nine hundredand ninety billion dollars on their cards.
That's up seventeen percent from a yearearlier. And when you're up seventeen percent
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and the interest rate is north ofseventeen percent, that number is definitely going
to increase over the next two tothree quarters. The steadily rising feature did
take a little bit of a breakwhen it comes to credit card debt,
but now it's getting back to onetrillion dollars and that's causing a little bit
of a jittery zeitgeist on Wall Streetand throughout the economy. Now this coming
week, Chair Jay Powell is goingto be on Capitol Hill. I think
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he has to do that twice ayear. I think that's mandated. It
has to do that twice a year. So he's on Capital Hill to face
questions from the House Financial Services Committeeand the Senate Banking Committee. Regional banks
are not necessarily out of the woodsfrom the rattling of that market we had
earlier this year, Silicon Valley banks, think at your bank first. Republic
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investors are also going to be watchinga momentum for highly shorted stocks as well
this week. I won't get intowhat shorting and all that stuff is.
It doesn't really matter, but thereare some earnings reports this week that can
be indicative of where the economy isheaded and what we feel like. And
so you gotta watch FedEx that comesout tomorrow, FedEx and Lazy Boys.
So FedEx obviously delivery if it comesin okay, that means online shopping is
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still doing okay, etc. Andthen Lazy Boy that's discretionary spending usually and
so you kind of keep an eyeon that to see how people are using
those credit cards. Maybe maybe alittle bit too often. Just saying we
do have a volatility watch again thisweek too, and some investor conferences,
but that's really not too much,but I will have to add that.
Of course, we talked about theMercedes thing, and I try to watch
(19:02):
what Elon Musk does every week becausehe moves market sometimes and headlines. He
was in Paris to talk about artificialintelligence with French President mat Kron. Macron
took when he took office five yearsago, he built an entire park in
the northeastern part of Paris at justoutside off the river, and he wanted
to become a tech hub, kindof Silicon Valley for the EU, for
(19:23):
the European Union, and so he'scourting Elon Musk pretty hard. But here
in the States, Elon Musk hasnot been paying all of the bills for
Twitter, and so the office buildingin Boulder, Colorado has asked Twitter to
vacate the premises because they didn't paytheir bills on time. So I haven't
seen that happen. Maybe ever,when it comes to this, granted,
(19:47):
commercial real estate is in a bitof a crater situation, but not paying
the bills with something that Elon telegraphedon Twitter and then followed through with it,
and the landlord said, thanks forthe heads up. Now you're out
a couple of more. No,let's one more quick story here, because
the trial has started in Russia forthe jailed opposition leader Alexey Nivalny. It's
being held at a maximum Security Prisonabout one hundred and fifty miles east of
(20:08):
Moscow, where Navalni is serving anine year sentence for fraud and contempt of
court. He exposed official corruption,of course, and organized major anti Kremlin
protests before his arrest in January oftwenty twenty one. He says, the
new charges, of course, areabsurd, just choosing the right word there.
Former US Attorney General Bill Barr saysformer President Trump engages in reckless conduct
(20:30):
that puts his followers and the GOPagenda at risk. Not going to go
any farther into that one just now, because we have somebody on the line
who is much better at this thanI am. More Severe weather is hitting
parts of the US to begin theweek. Storms that devastated areas in Texas
and Oklahoma late last week moved intothe lower Mississippi Valley and the central Gulf
Coast states yesterday. Hundreds of thousandsof customers still without power this morning.
(20:52):
Wes Anderson's Asteroid City is notching thestrongest limited release opening weekend in years.
The film made seven hundred and ninetythousand dollars over the weekend, estimated to
make eight hundred and ninety thousand wheneverthey count today's box office as well.
Coming up at five fifty, TrevorRathoff will be on the line with us.
He's the golf pro at Wilshire CountryClub. I'm guessing he has some
(21:15):
hot takes on the US Open thathappened over the weekend at the LA Country
Club. I was rooting for Rory, but happy to see mister Clark winn.
Right now, we have ABC's politicaleditor Steve Roberts on the line.
It's a Monday morning quarterbacking of theweekend news shows kind of as well as
a fresh look at the post indictmentworld for former President Trump. Welcome back
in Steve, Thank you Jason,and yes, look you may. You
(21:36):
quoted an important phrase that Bill Barr, the former attorney general, is Donald
Trump's hand picked attorney general, andhe looked at the indictment, the thirty
seven count indictment, and described Trump'sbehaviors reckless. Now that is not a
legal term, you know, recklessis not a crime being reckless, but
(21:56):
it is a political crime. Andthat's one of the reasons why I think
the most important takeaway from this indictmentis not Trump's legal vulnerability, it's his
political vulnerability. Because if there's oneword that sums up the Trump's vulnerability,
it is reckless. Because that's whyhe lost in twenty twenty in many ways
(22:21):
after winning a twenty sixteen, becausea certain number of voters like his policies,
voted for him before found his behavior, his temperament, his judgment Jason
reckless, or in the words ofhis Mark Esper. Mark Esper was Trump's
own defense secretary, and on TVyesterday he called Trump irresponsible again. Irresponsible,
(22:42):
like reckless is not a legal crime, but it's a political vulnerability.
And that's why I think the realproblem for Trump is not that he's going
to be found guilty in a courtof law, but that he's going to
be rejected by the voters. That'sa much bigger fear and a much more
realistic. Yeah, that makes aton of sense. I mean, when
you think about president of the UnitedStates, you don't want to think about
(23:03):
reckless and irresponsible in the same sentenceor paragraph. So it seems like ten
days ago Steve bill Barr was thrownshade at President Trump or former president Trump,
and now it looks like he's rattlinga cage it kind of seemed like
the rhetoric from at least Barr wentup this weekend. Is that happening more
and more, well, very tentativelyby Republicans because they know that Donald Trump's
(23:26):
hand, you know, stranglehold onthe Republican primary voters is still pretty strong.
You know, you look at allthe national polls average together fifty three
percent of Republicans right now favorite Trump'sfor the nomination, and his closest competitor,
round Des Angeles, is down attwenty. But that still means that
close to half of Republicans would likesomebody else. But if you step away
(23:52):
from the primaries and look at thelarger picture, you know, Governor Sanuno
is very popularly young Republican. GovernorHampshire has said over and over again he
looks at the numbers. It saysDonald Trump cannot be Joe Biden. And
in fact, he says, ifTrump's at the top of the ticket,
He's going to drag down Republicans whoare running through the Senate, running for
governor in key states. And that'sa growing a small small Jason, but
(24:18):
growing number of Republicans are willing tosay this publicly. But the dominant feeling,
and the Republican Party is still gettingin line behind Trump because he has
the ability, he's a very powerfulfigure, and he's so prone to violent
outbursts. No one wants to crosshim. And that's still largely true.
(24:42):
But when Republicans look at the largerpicture of what it would be like having
Trump at the top of the ticket, there's a growing sense of worry about
that. You look at it.NPR poll out this week, fifty six
percent of Americans said the Trump shoulddrop out of the race cost of the
indictment, and that's fifty eight percentof independence. Those are the numbers that
(25:04):
keep Republicans up at night. Yeah, I would imagine. So let me
reintroduce you real quick. ABC's politicaleditor Steve Roberts is on the line with
us this morning. Steve, ifif the focus first of all, this
new new name is a political blueblood family name from and that I imagine
that might have some attraction eventually,depending on how long this conversation goes.
(25:25):
That goes to my next question,which is, if the focus is on
the GOP nomination right now, arethe Dems getting a free ride to some
extent, Yes, but they willthat free ride will not continue. And
we're talking about Trump's vulnerabilities, We'retalking about phrases like reckless and irresponsible.
But there are Democrats who are equallyworried about about Biden. It's no secret
(25:49):
here Jason's he keeps giving ammunition tohis opponents who say he's losing his mental
faculties, that he's increasingly frail andfeeble. Joe Biden is four months older
than me, Jason. I knowwhat it's like to be eighty years old,
and I know that with that agecomes a lot of disabilities and a
(26:12):
lot of distractions. And so forall the talk about Trump's recklessness and irresponsibility,
the flip side of that is talkabout Biden's feebleness and frailty and growing
lack of comprehension. So the bigguns on the Republican ranks have a lot
(26:33):
of ammunition to throw with Joe Bidenin the same way that their Democrats have
a lot of ammunition to throw aTrump. Which means that if you look
at the national averages, both Trumpand Biden, the two likely nominees,
are stuck in the low forties interms of unfavorable ratings. Neither one of
them comes close to commanding a positivefeeling among the majority of Americans, which
(26:55):
means as you head into this election, there are a lot of voters in
both parties unhappy with their choices,but they're going to wind up with two
guys, one who's almost eighty,one who's over eighty, with a lot
of drawbacks and a lot of negatives. Hasty, We appreciate your experience and
context here. Okay, you calledyourself out on the age thing, but
just so you know, I can't. Hey, you know I was.
(27:19):
I was the Los Angeles correspondent tothe New York Times in the early seventies.
So that tells you how long they'regoing around right on. Um,
Well, that's for another conversation anothertime. Let me ask you one quick
follow before I have to let yougo. You probably saw Vivy Ramaswamy on
Fox News over the weekend. Doyou have any hot takes on Vivy Ramaswamy.
He seems very confident in his abilities. Well, I think he's a
(27:42):
fresh voice and a fresh face,and it's it's it's striking that in Republican
ranks you have two candidates who haveIndian ancestry. You also have Nicki Hanley,
the former governor of South Carolina.You have the only black Senator,
Tim Scott, a Republican black Senator, also running for president. And that's
(28:07):
good news for the Republican Party.You know that they they're branded often as
the party of White America, butthose three candidates show that the Republican Party
has a growing appeal beyond their whitebase. Good take, Steve, always
good to talk to you. Maybewe'll talk again later this week, sure,
anytime. ABC's political editor Steve Robertsjoining us this morning. Let's get
(28:30):
back to some of the stories comingout of the KFI twenty four hour news
room this morning. LA County andthe acl you have agreed to settle a
lawsuit over in humane conditions and overcrowdingat the Central Jail Downtown. The agreement
prevents the country the county from holdinganyone at the inmate reception center for more
than twenty four hours and from chainingpeople to benches and other objects for more
than four hours. The county alsohas to provide clean and sanitary seals,
(28:55):
access to medical and mental health servicesto inmates, and increase staff. At
least five people have been killed andmore than two dozen others injured in shootings
in multiple states over the Father's Dayweekend. At least twenty three people were
shot, one fatally during a Juneteenthcelebration in Willowbrook, Illinois, and a
seventeen year old boy was killed duringa party in Saint Louis, Missouri.
(29:15):
Merit to Shara Jones appealed to parentsfor help. We must do everything we
can to keep guns out of thehands of our babies. Kyl Foreman with
the Grant County Sheriff's Office in WashingtonState, says two people there were killed
at a music festival. The shootercontinued to shoot randomly into the crowd,
(29:37):
and the suspect was eventually taken endto custody. A state trooper was killed
in central Pennsylvania when a shooter attackeda state police barracks there. At least
four Palestinians have been killed in fightingbetween Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in the
West Bank. A fifteen year oldboy was among those killed when Israeli helicopter
gunships hit targets in the region.The Israeli military says troops took on a
(30:00):
massive exchange of fire during an arrestraid and shot back at Palestinian gunman.
Officials say palest Palestinian militants also setoff a roadside bomb next to an Israeli
military vehicle. There's a new pushmaking it easier than ever to get a
higher education. California Senator Alex Padillahope to reinduce the Reintroduce the College for
All Act. The bill would allowworking class students to attend community colleges,
(30:23):
trade schools, for year colleges,all for free. And in the time
it takes me to read this sentence, a new world record was set.
A twenty one year old California manis celebrating his tenth Guinness World Record.
Actually that was about a tenth ofa second too long. Max Park solved
a Rubik's cube in the fastest timeever three point one three seconds. It
was a three by three Rubik's cube. I've seen the video. I was
(30:45):
going to talk about it last weekand I just didn't know if it would
relate. But I just that's fascinatingstuff. It's five fifty two on your
wake up Call. On the lineis Wilshire Country Club golf pro Trevor Rathoff
Welcome back, Trevor, Good morning, Good morning. Okay, so I
watched a Saturday and Sunday at leasta little bit. First think, the
(31:07):
sun came out this weekend. Thatwas nice to see. And then on
Saturday the marine layer moved back intowards the end of the round. First
of all, thanks to the golfersfor bringing some sunshine to southern California for
the first time in a while.Other than that, what really went down
yesterday? Yeah, I mean wesaw a golf course that you know,
really bounced back and got the bestof players yesterday. You know, Wyndham
(31:29):
Clark, not so familiar name outsideof his first victory about a month ago,
was able to hold on and claimhis first US Open title. Rory
McIlroy, who was in contention allday just you know, couldn't get it
done. He fought hard, andyou know, at the end of the
day, golf a tough game andyou're gonna have winners and losers, and
(31:51):
this week Windham Clark was our winner. Yeah, Wyndham Clark was. I
saw him walking up some fair waysJack Nicholas style, like he was storming
some of those. He doesn't lackfor confidence does he no? And he
know he mentioned that a lot thathis mental game has been the biggest kind
of crutch and the thing that's beenholding him back. But you know,
(32:12):
since he's gone to a new mentalcoach, he's really bounced back and been
a different player. So he saidhe was going to go into this weekend
playing cocky and still maintaining his aggressiveplay style, and it looks like it
paid off just grape for him.So when you say it the course kind
of fought back a little bit,what do you mean by that? Were
the fairways you know, narrowed ordid they move the cup placement? Yeah?
(32:38):
So, I mean the biggest thingwas the course ride out that sunshine,
the heat that we got, thecourse is gonna dry out, so
it's gonna play firmer and faster.The other thing we saw from the USGA
they put a lot more whole locationson some a little bit more severe slopes,
so you know, usually they kindof put him in some flat areas.
(32:59):
I know onund we had some pinsthat were in spots that were you
know, three to four percent gradedslope, which is a lot when you're
trying to roll a put. Soit's something you have to be a little
bit careful. You want to bebelow the hole, so placements everything,
and you know, if you geta little pin high or above it,
you know you're gonna have a slipperyput coming back where you know you don't
make it. You look at anothereight ten peacome back the other way.
(33:21):
So it creates a lot of pressureon these players to really put the ball
in a good position to be ableto attack and be aggressive. Let's pull
back a little bit, get awayfrom the play just for a second.
It's been eighty years or so sincewe had one of these opens in Los
Angeles. Is it gonna be anothereighty years before we get another one?
No, So you know the nextone, you know, oddly enough,
for the first time in the USOpen history, Elle Country Club is actually
(33:45):
signed for two US Opens, notjust one. So we'll actually see it
back here in twenty thirty nine,another fifteen years. I'm sure there's gonna
be a lot of changes between nowand then, but something they can plan
for, you know, ahead oftime, kind of learned from this first
one and make improvements to really makethe fan experience better, the player experience
(34:06):
better. And now they have anidea of how the players can perform on
this course and kind of cater itto their liking this so they can have
that final score be what they wantedto be. So when you're watching on
television, and I guess I don'tplay very often so, but but when
when somebody but you hear, youhear the crowd go getting a hole?
Right? Come on? Is thereanything else that we can say right there?
(34:29):
Are there anything that I'm missing thatpeople are saying on the course.
It might be a little more funand a little lest you know, thirty
five years old than getting the whole? I mean, it's definitely the most
common one. Another one you hear. You don't hear them telecasts as much,
but you know Howard Stern when weheard the Bob the booie, we
hear that a lot still on golfcourses. Or you hear Ripper magoo,
(34:52):
you hear a little bit, youknow, depends on the trendy, the
trend of the crowd that's walking throughthere getting the whole? I mean,
that was good when you hear themout there. But hey, as long
as they're keeping it appropriate for youknow, all the families to attend.
I'm happy, hey have you know, get the crowd into it, get
people yelling. I think it's,you know, just a great environment,
(35:14):
create some you know, great energyfor not just the players, but everyone
else around them. All Right,this question might be about golf, but
I think it could be applied broadly. It's more of a philosophical thing.
We saw yesterday eighteenth Green Royal macRory McIlroy got a lot closer on that
forty one foot put than any ofus would unless you're a pro. But
what happens when you miss a shotthat is like supposed to be an easy
(35:36):
shot and give me a six footer, let's say, five or six footer?
M how do you shake that offand get moving again as a golfer?
And then I think that's why itcan spill over into other things.
When you stub your toe. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's
it's probably one of the toughest thingsin golf. You know, So we're
watching on TV, it looks alot closer than it really is. Then
when you're there, you're you lookand you're like, wow, these guys
(35:57):
make all these puts that I missevery day. You know, that's what
makes these guys so great is thatthey're able to have a short term memory
when it comes to bad shots.They can miss a short put, you
know, hit a bad shot,maybe not recover from you know, a
chip shot or getting up and down, but they're able to bounce back on
that next toll or that next shotand really kind of capitalize and put it
(36:21):
behind them. So what they dobest better than anyone outside of their short
games is they don't compound their errorslike your everyday golfer. So mentally,
you know, their strength and fortitudeis just incredible that they can, you
know, just be far and beyondabove everyone else and just you know,
like I said, take advantage ofthe moment, put the bad shots behind
(36:45):
them, move forward, and justtry and keep playing better on you know,
each each and every shot moving forward. Trevor, thanks again for the
time this morning. I personally,I am playing a golf one of my
two times a year. I'm playingit a famous course called De Bells in
Griffith. Part of you hear tothat one, it's a part three ebody.
Hey, thanks for your time,have a great week. Hope you
(37:05):
have a great round later this week. Thank you very much, thank you
for having me. I appreciate it. Wilshire Country Club golf pro Trevor Ralfoff.
Let's get back to some of thestories coming out of the KFI twenty
four hour newsroom before we get tohandle on the news. Four people are
recovering from injuries caused by a suspecteddrunk driver during a chase that ended in
a crash in South Pasadena. TheHP says officers were trying to stop a
(37:25):
driver on the North One ten earlyyesterday, but he sped up. The
guy rear ended two other cars wherethe freeway ends at Glenarm. The CHP
says the man was not wearing aseatbelt and was killed in the crash.
A hit and run driver who allegedlykilled a woman while doing street stunts in
Long Beach has been arrested. Theguy walked into Long Beach police headquarters over
the weekend and gave himself up.The fatal crash happened Friday night. The
(37:47):
driver was doing donuts at Willow Streetand Caspian Avenue when he hit an oncoming
car, causing that driver to losecontrol and smash into a tree. The
woman was ejected. Celebrations are beingheld across the country do you commemorate Juneteenth,
which marks the end of slavery inthe US. It was designated a
federal holiday in twenty twenty one.Festivities here in southern California include festivals in
(38:08):
Lymert Park, Hollywood, and ElsaGundo, which include food, music,
arts and crafts, and cultural exhibitions. There's also a parade in Inglewood and
a concert at the Greek Theater thisafternoon, and I believe Vice President Kamala
Harris is expected at that Greek latertoday. Officials in India sa a sweltering
heatwave is killed about one hundred andseventy people in two of the country's most
(38:30):
populous states in recent days. Hospitalshave been overwhelmed, and routine power outages
add to these challenges. Northern regionsof India are known for sweltering heat during
the summer months, but the IndianMeteorological Department says temperatures have been consistently above
normal. Heighs have been one hundredand ten or above. We lead local
live from the KFI twenty four ournewsroom. I'm Jason Middleton. This has
(38:52):
been your wake up call. You'vebeen listening to wake up call, you
know You can always listen live onKIM six forty weekdays from five to six
am, and anytime on demand onthe iHeartRadio app
Camp. I am six forty.You're listening to wake Up Call on demand
on the iHeart Radio app. It'stime for your morning wake up call.
Here's Jason Middleton. Good morning everyone, Monday, June nineteenth, juneteenth federal
(00:29):
holiday markets closed and have more onbusiness and the market's a little bit later
this hour. This is your wakeup call. My name is Jason Middleton.
Got a new dishwasher yesterday for Father'sDay. Yeah you did, Yeah,
I did. And my wife installedit because that's that's her jam.
She does all that stuff. Nice, Okay, it's outstanding. It was
(00:49):
fantastic. I had to check itto make sure it was on. It
was so quiet. I'm not evenjoking. It was. They have an
indicator light so that you know thatit's actually working, because otherwise you can't
hear it. Right. Yeah,No, they've gotten tremendously quiet over the
years. For sure. I havenot had I've not had a new appliance
honestly in decades. I can't rememberthe last time I lived with a dishwasher.
(01:11):
Yeah. So I've been for you, man, I thank you.
I've been doing everything by hand.It's been. It's been that that's kind
of cathartic and like mesmerizing. Youknow, you do a little podcast listening
and get you get the dishes doneand whatnot. Anyway, kitchen's my domain.
But she was very very lovingly putin a new dishwasher. Next up
is a fridge hopefully. Um.The US Open was this weekend as well.
Watched a little bit of that.We're gonna have more from the golf
(01:34):
pro at Wilshire Country Club later thishour to talk about that. Help us
unpack it. And uh boy,I bet, I bet. Golf fever
is just sweeping your cross la thisweek, So everybody's gonna be flooding tea
times everywhere you play golf, Tyler, I do. I dabble with golf.
Yeah, I actually shot some yesterday. Oh okay, cool, unimpressively,
but I still did it. Hey, hey, that's great. I
played twice a year. Okay,that's it. But tobably be on the
(01:57):
same wavelength of skill then okay.Cool. But I mean when we have
this guy home, we can askfor some pro tips or something. Yeah,
you'll take notes you want me to. Let's just roll on it and
then we'll revisit it later. Let'sget a few headlights out before we get
into the show. Secretary of StateAnthony Blincoln has been in China for high
level meetings and things are looking alittle bit better. A meeting with President
(02:17):
Jijn Ping had not been confirmed beforeBlincoln arrived in Beijing, and now it's
confirmed and it's teeing up one possiblylater this year in November, when Jijunping
is in San Francisco. Dozens ofletters with suspicious white powder inside have spurred
and FBI investigations. The letters landedin Kansas late last week. Some GOP
(02:38):
congress people are saying that Republicans arebeing targeted. Everything so far, though,
is conjecture. It's pretty early inthe investigation. It was a violent
weekend across the US. At leastfive people are dead and dozens injured in
several shootings. More than twenty peoplewere shot, one fatally in a shooting
at a gathering near Chicago. Othershooting has claimed victims in Washington State,
Saint Louis, Southern California, Baltimore, in Pennsylvania, where a state trooper
(03:00):
was killed during an attack on statepolice bearings, and some war headlines and
some other news coming out of theKFI twenty four our newsroom, where we
always do lead local. The Speakerof the House has visited Orange County to
protest a visa waiver program that allowedthree hundred and fifty thousand Chileans to enter
the US last year with no backgroundchecks. I have memories of shattered glass
(03:22):
and emptied drawers scattered everywhere. Thiswoman spoke of the gathering that included multiple
Republican leaders about being part of thenational spike of Chilean gangs burglar rising homes.
I feel like I'm living a nightmare. What if we had been home?
How Speaker Kevin McCarthy says, ifthe visa program's not fixed this week,
Congress will cut its funding. Herecalled one story Friday about Chilean robbers
(03:43):
who actually did get arrested. Twodays later, they get a call from
a police chief in Washington say,those are the people we were trying to
catch because they were robbing us too. They're already out and when they're just
provided a date to come back,do you think they show up? No,
Because of the criminal friendly laws makesRange County d a tot. Spitzer
says, some robbers wearing camouflage Gilliesuits to sneak in home still get out
(04:05):
on zero bail. And guess whatthe Chileans we have filed on in our
prosecuting. We have one hundred percentno show at future appearances. Big shocker
at the Orange County DA's office,Corbin Carson, kf I News. Ukraine
made small advances in its counteroffensive amidheavy fighting along the front line in the
country south. That's according to Britishintelligence. Russia's defensive operations were relatively effective,
(04:29):
it also said, but a Russianappointed official acknowledge that Ukraine had recaptured
several villages so far in the counteroffensive along the one thousand kilometer six hundred
and twenty mile front line, andfighting is very heavy there. We do
have ABC's Jim Ryan on the linewith us. Good morning, Jim,
Hey Jason, Let's talk about thisonline shopping phenomenon known as friendly fraud.
(04:51):
I've not heard it turned that way. Why is it coming up now?
Yeah? I haven't either, Butit's just really a matter of proportion.
More people since the endemic, Iteven before the pandemic, more people were
shopping online. You know, they'vethey've kind of trended away from the brick
and mortars and moved to doing theirshopping through services that they can reach out
to other computers. So they orderstuff, the stuff is delivered to them,
(05:14):
or sometimes it's not delivered to them. People are satisfied with what they
bought and what came delivered, orthey weren't satisfied. But it's what happens
next that really has concern among merchantsbecause a lot of customers decide that,
you know what, I'm just goingto go ahead and contact my credit card
company instead of reaching out to themerchant. About seventy two percent of consumers
(05:34):
say that the bank chargeback is justan alternative to asking for a refund from
the merchant. Well, the merchantends up paying anyway, right, I
mean, the chargeback goes back tothat company. If you, for example,
order an item and it doesn't comefor a week or so, and
you say, you know what,this thing's not coming at all. So
you contact your credit card company andsay, hey, this item didn't get
(05:57):
delivered. To take the charge offmy credit card. So they do,
and then the next day the itemcomes. Right do you contact the credit
card company and say, hey,it came, go ahead and reinstate the
charge. Probably not. Do youreach out to the merchant? Probably not
the merchant though, is you knowit loses the sale and loses the merchandise.
Well, okay, I understand thisphenomenon, and I'm going to assume
(06:19):
the best in humanity and say thatit's an oversight on the consumer's part sometimes
most of the time. How doretailers combat this though? I mean,
it seems like it would be reallyeasy to manipulate the system in favor of
the recipient. Well, and itis so a lot of retailers now they're
requiring signatures. So you order anitem and they require a signature before it's
delivered to you. That way,you can't contact the credit card company and
(06:41):
say, hey, it never came. Merchant reaches out and says, yes,
it did come, and here's theproof right here. It's also VISA
is stepping up and also trying tostep in and help the merchants in this
process as well, to ensure thatpeople aren't ripping off the company's intentional like
sometimes it happens as an honest mistake. Other times, you know, the
(07:02):
consumer is unwitting as to what thewhat they're doing. They don't realize that
this is costing merchants a lot ofmoney. So I think it's it's kind
of public education as well to letyou know, if you are a customer
of a company and you like thatcompany and you want them to stay in
business, you want to make surethat they're paid for the services or goods
that they render. It makes senseto me. And now in my personal
(07:23):
experience, I know that I've gottensomething's delivered and I've said, hey,
this isn't really working, Um,how do I send it back because I
didn't get one of the autoprint labelsthat often come with those purchases or U
and the vendor said, you knowwhat, just just keep it. Yeah,
you know, And is that anotherpractice that maybe VISA would want to
look at, because that's if that'sit's not okay, no, because you're
(07:44):
dealing with the merchant directly, andthat's what merchants want. They want you
to deal with the seller, theretailer, the merchant one on one and
say and let's work this out betweenthe two of us, you consumer,
me merchant, or the other wayaround, as opposed to going to the
credit card company. The credit cardcompany just sees a charge thing it off
they charge it back to the companyand they're done with it. Then you
know, the company can the merchantcan challenge that, but then you're talking
(08:07):
about a long drawn out process thereand more fees. So that's that's the
preference of any merchandise that you dealwith them directly as opposed to going to
the credit card company. Yeah,you mentioned fees right there, So Visa
and other credit card companies. Youknow, there's there's a there's a bit
of vig on every transaction, andso I would imagine that chargebacks are gonna
maybe force all everybody's fees to goup for these well including the consumers and
(08:31):
fig I like that in nineteen fortiesGangs com movie. But yeah, chargebacks,
according to a company that watches thesethings in a company called Chargebacks nine
one one says that that that process, so that practice, chargebacks are costing
e commerce one hundred and seventeen billiondollars this year alone. So that's in
lost merchandise, that's in lost sales, and that's in the fees that are
(08:54):
paid to the companies. It lookslike I did a story over the weekend
on my other show, Online Salesand Inflation Online inflation is down when you
compare it to the CPI, theConsumer Price index, which is more,
you know, bigger, higher level, top of the funnel kind of stuff.
Online sales and inflation, I mean, inflation down, sales up.
(09:15):
Do we have an idea and canyou can you recap that number, that
cumulative number you gave us a littlebit earlier. Yeah, So one hundred
and seventeen billion, one hundred andseventeen point four seven billion dollars this year
alone. That's according again to chargebacksnine one, So you know, looking
through their lens, that's what theysee happening out there. Friendly fraud constitutes
about eighty six percent of all chargebox and it's it's called friendly fraud because
(09:39):
you know, richards don't want tomake customers too mad by call and by
accusing them are fraud. But atthe same time, some people are doing
this intentionally. Okay, Jim,thanks a lot for this. Thanks Jason,
didn't know about it. ABC's JimRyan right there talking with us about
friendly fraud aka chargebacks. Um Imentioned the prices though online prices online and
May twenty twenty three fell two pointthree percent year every year, so that's
(10:01):
the biggest decrease in inflation and inprice increases since the pandemic started. And
it's the ninth straight month of year. Every year price decreases for online and
we get that from Adobe Analytics.Let's get back to some of the stories
coming out of the kf I twentyfour hour news room. The Small Business
Administration says more than forty five businesseshave applied for help following the fatal mass
(10:22):
shooting in Monterey Park. It's oneof the only times the SBA's made special
natural disaster money available to businesses.Lawmakers pushed the SBA to offer low interest,
long term loans to businesses and nonprofitsimpacted following the attack that killed eleven.
The SBA says as of last week, it received forty seven applications at
a special service center in Monterey Park. So far, two loans have been
approved, totally five hundred ninety fivethree hundred dollars. The money can be
(10:46):
used for payroll, supplies and upgrades. Loan applications will be available through January
if next year. Steve Gregory tafI news. Firefighters in Riverside County are
planning a controlled burn to clear onehundred and ten acres of vegetation at Lakes
Skinner. The Fire Department says driftsmoke may be visible from nearby communities,
but that it will disperse quickly andis not expected to be a health hazard.
(11:07):
States along the Gulf Coast hit byrecent storms and tornadoes are preparing for
more severe weather. Thirty million Americansalready under heat alerts from Texas to Mississippi,
with record heat possible in Dallas,New Orleans, and Houston. It
could feel like one hundred and twentytwo degrees in some areas. ABC's rhiannon
Ally says more storms are also expected. The extreme heat and humidity have fueled
(11:31):
severe thunderstorms in North Texas, Oklahoma, the Lower Mississippi Valley, and parts
of the Deep South. Self describedoutsider Vivic Ramaswami is not lacking confidence as
he rolls out his run for presidentsin twenty twenty four. The thirty seven
year old businessman said on Fox Newsyesterday he not only expects to win the
Republican primary and the presidential election,expects to win in a landslide. He
(11:52):
compared his poll numbers to where formerPresident Trump's were in twenty fifteen. At
this time golfer Wyndham Clark is celebratinghis first major championship. Clark finished a
top the leaderboard yesterday at LA countryClub ten under par to win the US
Open, second PGA Tour victory forthe twenty nine year old. His previous
best in a major was seventy fifthplace, so this is a major upgrade
(12:16):
for him. We're going to havemore on that later this hour with the
golf pro from Willshare Country Club tohelp us break that down. And The
Flash is the winner of the weekendbox office race despite rather disappointing performance.
I saw the flick. It's ratherdisappointing flick two. The DC film made
fifty five million dollars this weekend,much lower than the expectations of seventy million
(12:37):
dollars. More on movies too.We're going to get ABC's political editor Steve
Roberts at the bottom of the hour. He's going to be with us to
recap the weekend news, slash yakshows and how the indictment of former President
Trump is playing. After a weekin the news, Let's get some more
stories before we get to the businesstime. LA is offering a free summer
lunch program for kids at city parks. The LA Department of Recreation Parks will
(13:00):
serve lunches to kids ages one toeighteen at about one hundred different parks throughout
the city. The city's Bertha Calderonsays the program was created to make sure
kids get at least one free mealwhen they're out of school. The lunches
indeed to be eaten at the parkand its first come, first serve,
but they usually serve usually like eleventhirty to twelve. Calderon says lunches will
(13:22):
be served Monday through Friday through Augustfourth. Chris Adler ka FI News.
Secretary of State Antony Blinkett has metwith Chinese President jij And Ping following a
two day visit to Beijing. Beforethe visit, Blincoln emphasized the importance of
diplomacy. Intense competition requires sustained diplomacyto ensure that competition does not beer into
confrontation or confidence. President ge saidthe two sides made progress and reached agreements
(13:46):
on some specific issues, but hedid not elaborate. Disagreements between the two
countries range from Taiwan to human rightsand Russia's war in Ukraine. Blincoln's visit
was originally scheduled for February, butyou might remember that balloon that floated a
of the United States that kind ofdelayed things. A car company is adding
a completely useless feature, and it'snot autonomous driving. Toyota engineers are working
(14:07):
on an electric car with a fakemanual transmission. The engineers say it'll serve
no purpose and would just be forpeople who like shifting gears for fun,
you know, like children. Driverswill even be able to experience the shake
and buck feeling if they select thewrong gear. Engineers say the car's computer
will limit how far the shaking willgo to avoid damage on the battery.
Toyota hasn't announced when the fake shiftingelectric car will be sold or how much
(14:28):
real money they'll charge for that feature. Mark Ronner KFI News, Well,
Mark touched on something I'm going tofollow up with a Mercedes Ben's announcement they're
going to integrate chat GPT into thevoice control system in the vehicles, and
the idea is that this is goingto improve the existing voice assistance ability to
understand natural language and provide richer responsesto commands. US owners and Mercedes vehicles
(14:52):
equipped with the Mbux infotainment system,which I believe originated on The Simpsons back
in the day, the word infotainment. Anyway, it's going to be available
to opt into a three month trialprogram by the app or by saying,
Hay, Mercedes, I want tojoin the beta program. If you're in
your car right now, I apologize. I will say that Mercedes could use
(15:13):
a lot of help when it getsWhen it comes to its voice control system,
not good. I'm hoping it'll helpwith a navigation system as well.
Also not great when you have torely on your phone being plugged into using
Google instead of wanted built into yourdashboard. Box Office Elemental Pixar's latest release
suffered the worst opening weekend in thatstudio's twenty eight year history. Despite favorable
(15:35):
reviews, that animated Flick brought inonly thirty million dollars in ticket sales in
North America. Pixar's last release,Light Year, was also a flop,
and the results heat more pressure onDisney this year, and Pixar's beleaguered parent
company, Disney is also looking attrimming costs. So heads up in Emeryville,
(16:00):
up stories that I want to getto. As far as the Wall
Street situation goes now. Stocks fella little bit on Friday, but for
the week, pretty strong gains acrossthe board. Of course, the Federal
Reserve did pause its interest rate hikefor the first time. Ten straight hikes
and now we get a pause.FED Chair J. Powell said skip during
a talk, and a nomenclature matters. Jargon matters because a skip implies a
(16:25):
finality. So a skip means thatat least implies that July is going to
see another interest rate hike of probablya quarter of a point. But he
corrected himself, but it was toolate. It was already out of his
mouth. The reason that you knowthat matters is because when J. Powell
said, well, we just dida skip, markets immediately dropped. Wall
Street reacts very quickly, and it'svery emotional. And then he said,
(16:48):
well it's going to be I shouldn'tstay skip, I should say pause.
That's a quote, and it lookslike the likelihood of a July rate hike
of a quarter point or maybe evena half a point, although that's that's
less likely, but a point isjust above fifty percent expected for next month.
And then you have to look atthe credit card debt too. So
this is an update to a storywe did last week on this because this
(17:11):
mountainous credit card debt is something that'sgoing to have to be addressed at some
point. According to the Federal ReserveBank of New York, there are twelve
different Federal Reserve banks, the onein New York did this research and consumers
now owe a record of nine hundredand ninety billion dollars on their cards.
That's up seventeen percent from a yearearlier. And when you're up seventeen percent
(17:32):
and the interest rate is north ofseventeen percent, that number is definitely going
to increase over the next two tothree quarters. The steadily rising feature did
take a little bit of a breakwhen it comes to credit card debt,
but now it's getting back to onetrillion dollars and that's causing a little bit
of a jittery zeitgeist on Wall Streetand throughout the economy. Now this coming
week, Chair Jay Powell is goingto be on Capitol Hill. I think
(17:56):
he has to do that twice ayear. I think that's mandated. It
has to do that twice a year. So he's on Capital Hill to face
questions from the House Financial Services Committeeand the Senate Banking Committee. Regional banks
are not necessarily out of the woodsfrom the rattling of that market we had
earlier this year, Silicon Valley banks, think at your bank first. Republic
(18:17):
investors are also going to be watchinga momentum for highly shorted stocks as well
this week. I won't get intowhat shorting and all that stuff is.
It doesn't really matter, but thereare some earnings reports this week that can
be indicative of where the economy isheaded and what we feel like. And
so you gotta watch FedEx that comesout tomorrow, FedEx and Lazy Boys.
So FedEx obviously delivery if it comesin okay, that means online shopping is
(18:38):
still doing okay, etc. Andthen Lazy Boy that's discretionary spending usually and
so you kind of keep an eyeon that to see how people are using
those credit cards. Maybe maybe alittle bit too often. Just saying we
do have a volatility watch again thisweek too, and some investor conferences,
but that's really not too much,but I will have to add that.
Of course, we talked about theMercedes thing, and I try to watch
(19:02):
what Elon Musk does every week becausehe moves market sometimes and headlines. He
was in Paris to talk about artificialintelligence with French President mat Kron. Macron
took when he took office five yearsago, he built an entire park in
the northeastern part of Paris at justoutside off the river, and he wanted
to become a tech hub, kindof Silicon Valley for the EU, for
(19:23):
the European Union, and so he'scourting Elon Musk pretty hard. But here
in the States, Elon Musk hasnot been paying all of the bills for
Twitter, and so the office buildingin Boulder, Colorado has asked Twitter to
vacate the premises because they didn't paytheir bills on time. So I haven't
seen that happen. Maybe ever,when it comes to this, granted,
(19:47):
commercial real estate is in a bitof a crater situation, but not paying
the bills with something that Elon telegraphedon Twitter and then followed through with it,
and the landlord said, thanks forthe heads up. Now you're out
a couple of more. No,let's one more quick story here, because
the trial has started in Russia forthe jailed opposition leader Alexey Nivalny. It's
being held at a maximum Security Prisonabout one hundred and fifty miles east of
(20:08):
Moscow, where Navalni is serving anine year sentence for fraud and contempt of
court. He exposed official corruption,of course, and organized major anti Kremlin
protests before his arrest in January oftwenty twenty one. He says, the
new charges, of course, areabsurd, just choosing the right word there.
Former US Attorney General Bill Barr saysformer President Trump engages in reckless conduct
(20:30):
that puts his followers and the GOPagenda at risk. Not going to go
any farther into that one just now, because we have somebody on the line
who is much better at this thanI am. More Severe weather is hitting
parts of the US to begin theweek. Storms that devastated areas in Texas
and Oklahoma late last week moved intothe lower Mississippi Valley and the central Gulf
Coast states yesterday. Hundreds of thousandsof customers still without power this morning.
(20:52):
Wes Anderson's Asteroid City is notching thestrongest limited release opening weekend in years.
The film made seven hundred and ninetythousand dollars over the weekend, estimated to
make eight hundred and ninety thousand wheneverthey count today's box office as well.
Coming up at five fifty, TrevorRathoff will be on the line with us.
He's the golf pro at Wilshire CountryClub. I'm guessing he has some
(21:15):
hot takes on the US Open thathappened over the weekend at the LA Country
Club. I was rooting for Rory, but happy to see mister Clark winn.
Right now, we have ABC's politicaleditor Steve Roberts on the line.
It's a Monday morning quarterbacking of theweekend news shows kind of as well as
a fresh look at the post indictmentworld for former President Trump. Welcome back
in Steve, Thank you Jason,and yes, look you may. You
(21:36):
quoted an important phrase that Bill Barr, the former attorney general, is Donald
Trump's hand picked attorney general, andhe looked at the indictment, the thirty
seven count indictment, and described Trump'sbehaviors reckless. Now that is not a
legal term, you know, recklessis not a crime being reckless, but
(21:56):
it is a political crime. Andthat's one of the reasons why I think
the most important takeaway from this indictmentis not Trump's legal vulnerability, it's his
political vulnerability. Because if there's oneword that sums up the Trump's vulnerability,
it is reckless. Because that's whyhe lost in twenty twenty in many ways
(22:21):
after winning a twenty sixteen, becausea certain number of voters like his policies,
voted for him before found his behavior, his temperament, his judgment Jason
reckless, or in the words ofhis Mark Esper. Mark Esper was Trump's
own defense secretary, and on TVyesterday he called Trump irresponsible again. Irresponsible,
(22:42):
like reckless is not a legal crime, but it's a political vulnerability.
And that's why I think the realproblem for Trump is not that he's going
to be found guilty in a courtof law, but that he's going to
be rejected by the voters. That'sa much bigger fear and a much more
realistic. Yeah, that makes aton of sense. I mean, when
you think about president of the UnitedStates, you don't want to think about
(23:03):
reckless and irresponsible in the same sentenceor paragraph. So it seems like ten
days ago Steve bill Barr was thrownshade at President Trump or former president Trump,
and now it looks like he's rattlinga cage it kind of seemed like
the rhetoric from at least Barr wentup this weekend. Is that happening more
and more, well, very tentativelyby Republicans because they know that Donald Trump's
(23:26):
hand, you know, stranglehold onthe Republican primary voters is still pretty strong.
You know, you look at allthe national polls average together fifty three
percent of Republicans right now favorite Trump'sfor the nomination, and his closest competitor,
round Des Angeles, is down attwenty. But that still means that
close to half of Republicans would likesomebody else. But if you step away
(23:52):
from the primaries and look at thelarger picture, you know, Governor Sanuno
is very popularly young Republican. GovernorHampshire has said over and over again he
looks at the numbers. It saysDonald Trump cannot be Joe Biden. And
in fact, he says, ifTrump's at the top of the ticket,
He's going to drag down Republicans whoare running through the Senate, running for
governor in key states. And that'sa growing a small small Jason, but
(24:18):
growing number of Republicans are willing tosay this publicly. But the dominant feeling,
and the Republican Party is still gettingin line behind Trump because he has
the ability, he's a very powerfulfigure, and he's so prone to violent
outbursts. No one wants to crosshim. And that's still largely true.
(24:42):
But when Republicans look at the largerpicture of what it would be like having
Trump at the top of the ticket, there's a growing sense of worry about
that. You look at it.NPR poll out this week, fifty six
percent of Americans said the Trump shoulddrop out of the race cost of the
indictment, and that's fifty eight percentof independence. Those are the numbers that
(25:04):
keep Republicans up at night. Yeah, I would imagine. So let me
reintroduce you real quick. ABC's politicaleditor Steve Roberts is on the line with
us this morning. Steve, ifif the focus first of all, this
new new name is a political blueblood family name from and that I imagine
that might have some attraction eventually,depending on how long this conversation goes.
(25:25):
That goes to my next question,which is, if the focus is on
the GOP nomination right now, arethe Dems getting a free ride to some
extent, Yes, but they willthat free ride will not continue. And
we're talking about Trump's vulnerabilities, We'retalking about phrases like reckless and irresponsible.
But there are Democrats who are equallyworried about about Biden. It's no secret
(25:49):
here Jason's he keeps giving ammunition tohis opponents who say he's losing his mental
faculties, that he's increasingly frail andfeeble. Joe Biden is four months older
than me, Jason. I knowwhat it's like to be eighty years old,
and I know that with that agecomes a lot of disabilities and a
(26:12):
lot of distractions. And so forall the talk about Trump's recklessness and irresponsibility,
the flip side of that is talkabout Biden's feebleness and frailty and growing
lack of comprehension. So the bigguns on the Republican ranks have a lot
(26:33):
of ammunition to throw with Joe Bidenin the same way that their Democrats have
a lot of ammunition to throw aTrump. Which means that if you look
at the national averages, both Trumpand Biden, the two likely nominees,
are stuck in the low forties interms of unfavorable ratings. Neither one of
them comes close to commanding a positivefeeling among the majority of Americans, which
(26:55):
means as you head into this election, there are a lot of voters in
both parties unhappy with their choices,but they're going to wind up with two
guys, one who's almost eighty,one who's over eighty, with a lot
of drawbacks and a lot of negatives. Hasty, We appreciate your experience and
context here. Okay, you calledyourself out on the age thing, but
just so you know, I can't. Hey, you know I was.
(27:19):
I was the Los Angeles correspondent tothe New York Times in the early seventies.
So that tells you how long they'regoing around right on. Um,
Well, that's for another conversation anothertime. Let me ask you one quick
follow before I have to let yougo. You probably saw Vivy Ramaswamy on
Fox News over the weekend. Doyou have any hot takes on Vivy Ramaswamy.
He seems very confident in his abilities. Well, I think he's a
(27:42):
fresh voice and a fresh face,and it's it's it's striking that in Republican
ranks you have two candidates who haveIndian ancestry. You also have Nicki Hanley,
the former governor of South Carolina.You have the only black Senator,
Tim Scott, a Republican black Senator, also running for president. And that's
(28:07):
good news for the Republican Party.You know that they they're branded often as
the party of White America, butthose three candidates show that the Republican Party
has a growing appeal beyond their whitebase. Good take, Steve, always
good to talk to you. Maybewe'll talk again later this week, sure,
anytime. ABC's political editor Steve Robertsjoining us this morning. Let's get
(28:30):
back to some of the stories comingout of the KFI twenty four hour news
room this morning. LA County andthe acl you have agreed to settle a
lawsuit over in humane conditions and overcrowdingat the Central Jail Downtown. The agreement
prevents the country the county from holdinganyone at the inmate reception center for more
than twenty four hours and from chainingpeople to benches and other objects for more
than four hours. The county alsohas to provide clean and sanitary seals,
(28:55):
access to medical and mental health servicesto inmates, and increase staff. At
least five people have been killed andmore than two dozen others injured in shootings
in multiple states over the Father's Dayweekend. At least twenty three people were
shot, one fatally during a Juneteenthcelebration in Willowbrook, Illinois, and a
seventeen year old boy was killed duringa party in Saint Louis, Missouri.
(29:15):
Merit to Shara Jones appealed to parentsfor help. We must do everything we
can to keep guns out of thehands of our babies. Kyl Foreman with
the Grant County Sheriff's Office in WashingtonState, says two people there were killed
at a music festival. The shootercontinued to shoot randomly into the crowd,
(29:37):
and the suspect was eventually taken endto custody. A state trooper was killed
in central Pennsylvania when a shooter attackeda state police barracks there. At least
four Palestinians have been killed in fightingbetween Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in the
West Bank. A fifteen year oldboy was among those killed when Israeli helicopter
gunships hit targets in the region.The Israeli military says troops took on a
(30:00):
massive exchange of fire during an arrestraid and shot back at Palestinian gunman.
Officials say palest Palestinian militants also setoff a roadside bomb next to an Israeli
military vehicle. There's a new pushmaking it easier than ever to get a
higher education. California Senator Alex Padillahope to reinduce the Reintroduce the College for
All Act. The bill would allowworking class students to attend community colleges,
(30:23):
trade schools, for year colleges,all for free. And in the time
it takes me to read this sentence, a new world record was set.
A twenty one year old California manis celebrating his tenth Guinness World Record.
Actually that was about a tenth ofa second too long. Max Park solved
a Rubik's cube in the fastest timeever three point one three seconds. It
was a three by three Rubik's cube. I've seen the video. I was
(30:45):
going to talk about it last weekand I just didn't know if it would
relate. But I just that's fascinatingstuff. It's five fifty two on your
wake up Call. On the lineis Wilshire Country Club golf pro Trevor Rathoff
Welcome back, Trevor, Good morning, Good morning. Okay, so I
watched a Saturday and Sunday at leasta little bit. First think, the
(31:07):
sun came out this weekend. Thatwas nice to see. And then on
Saturday the marine layer moved back intowards the end of the round. First
of all, thanks to the golfersfor bringing some sunshine to southern California for
the first time in a while.Other than that, what really went down
yesterday? Yeah, I mean wesaw a golf course that you know,
really bounced back and got the bestof players yesterday. You know, Wyndham
(31:29):
Clark, not so familiar name outsideof his first victory about a month ago,
was able to hold on and claimhis first US Open title. Rory
McIlroy, who was in contention allday just you know, couldn't get it
done. He fought hard, andyou know, at the end of the
day, golf a tough game andyou're gonna have winners and losers, and
(31:51):
this week Windham Clark was our winner. Yeah, Wyndham Clark was. I
saw him walking up some fair waysJack Nicholas style, like he was storming
some of those. He doesn't lackfor confidence does he no? And he
know he mentioned that a lot thathis mental game has been the biggest kind
of crutch and the thing that's beenholding him back. But you know,
(32:12):
since he's gone to a new mentalcoach, he's really bounced back and been
a different player. So he saidhe was going to go into this weekend
playing cocky and still maintaining his aggressiveplay style, and it looks like it
paid off just grape for him.So when you say it the course kind
of fought back a little bit,what do you mean by that? Were
the fairways you know, narrowed ordid they move the cup placement? Yeah?
(32:38):
So, I mean the biggest thingwas the course ride out that sunshine,
the heat that we got, thecourse is gonna dry out, so
it's gonna play firmer and faster.The other thing we saw from the USGA
they put a lot more whole locationson some a little bit more severe slopes,
so you know, usually they kindof put him in some flat areas.
(32:59):
I know onund we had some pinsthat were in spots that were you
know, three to four percent gradedslope, which is a lot when you're
trying to roll a put. Soit's something you have to be a little
bit careful. You want to bebelow the hole, so placements everything,
and you know, if you geta little pin high or above it,
you know you're gonna have a slipperyput coming back where you know you don't
make it. You look at anothereight ten peacome back the other way.
(33:21):
So it creates a lot of pressureon these players to really put the ball
in a good position to be ableto attack and be aggressive. Let's pull
back a little bit, get awayfrom the play just for a second.
It's been eighty years or so sincewe had one of these opens in Los
Angeles. Is it gonna be anothereighty years before we get another one?
No, So you know the nextone, you know, oddly enough,
for the first time in the USOpen history, Elle Country Club is actually
(33:45):
signed for two US Opens, notjust one. So we'll actually see it
back here in twenty thirty nine,another fifteen years. I'm sure there's gonna
be a lot of changes between nowand then, but something they can plan
for, you know, ahead oftime, kind of learned from this first
one and make improvements to really makethe fan experience better, the player experience
(34:06):
better. And now they have anidea of how the players can perform on
this course and kind of cater itto their liking this so they can have
that final score be what they wantedto be. So when you're watching on
television, and I guess I don'tplay very often so, but but when
when somebody but you hear, youhear the crowd go getting a hole?
Right? Come on? Is thereanything else that we can say right there?
(34:29):
Are there anything that I'm missing thatpeople are saying on the course.
It might be a little more funand a little lest you know, thirty
five years old than getting the whole? I mean, it's definitely the most
common one. Another one you hear. You don't hear them telecasts as much,
but you know Howard Stern when weheard the Bob the booie, we
hear that a lot still on golfcourses. Or you hear Ripper magoo,
(34:52):
you hear a little bit, youknow, depends on the trendy, the
trend of the crowd that's walking throughthere getting the whole? I mean,
that was good when you hear themout there. But hey, as long
as they're keeping it appropriate for youknow, all the families to attend.
I'm happy, hey have you know, get the crowd into it, get
people yelling. I think it's,you know, just a great environment,
(35:14):
create some you know, great energyfor not just the players, but everyone
else around them. All Right,this question might be about golf, but
I think it could be applied broadly. It's more of a philosophical thing.
We saw yesterday eighteenth Green Royal macRory McIlroy got a lot closer on that
forty one foot put than any ofus would unless you're a pro. But
what happens when you miss a shotthat is like supposed to be an easy
(35:36):
shot and give me a six footer, let's say, five or six footer?
M how do you shake that offand get moving again as a golfer?
And then I think that's why itcan spill over into other things.
When you stub your toe. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's
it's probably one of the toughest thingsin golf. You know, So we're
watching on TV, it looks alot closer than it really is. Then
when you're there, you're you lookand you're like, wow, these guys
(35:57):
make all these puts that I missevery day. You know, that's what
makes these guys so great is thatthey're able to have a short term memory
when it comes to bad shots.They can miss a short put, you
know, hit a bad shot,maybe not recover from you know, a
chip shot or getting up and down, but they're able to bounce back on
that next toll or that next shotand really kind of capitalize and put it
(36:21):
behind them. So what they dobest better than anyone outside of their short
games is they don't compound their errorslike your everyday golfer. So mentally,
you know, their strength and fortitudeis just incredible that they can, you
know, just be far and beyondabove everyone else and just you know,
like I said, take advantage ofthe moment, put the bad shots behind
(36:45):
them, move forward, and justtry and keep playing better on you know,
each each and every shot moving forward. Trevor, thanks again for the
time this morning. I personally,I am playing a golf one of my
two times a year. I'm playingit a famous course called De Bells in
Griffith. Part of you hear tothat one, it's a part three ebody.
Hey, thanks for your time,have a great week. Hope you
(37:05):
have a great round later this week. Thank you very much, thank you
for having me. I appreciate it. Wilshire Country Club golf pro Trevor Ralfoff.
Let's get back to some of thestories coming out of the KFI twenty
four hour newsroom before we get tohandle on the news. Four people are
recovering from injuries caused by a suspecteddrunk driver during a chase that ended in
a crash in South Pasadena. TheHP says officers were trying to stop a
(37:25):
driver on the North One ten earlyyesterday, but he sped up. The
guy rear ended two other cars wherethe freeway ends at Glenarm. The CHP
says the man was not wearing aseatbelt and was killed in the crash.
A hit and run driver who allegedlykilled a woman while doing street stunts in
Long Beach has been arrested. Theguy walked into Long Beach police headquarters over
the weekend and gave himself up.The fatal crash happened Friday night. The
(37:47):
driver was doing donuts at Willow Streetand Caspian Avenue when he hit an oncoming
car, causing that driver to losecontrol and smash into a tree. The
woman was ejected. Celebrations are beingheld across the country do you commemorate Juneteenth,
which marks the end of slavery inthe US. It was designated a
federal holiday in twenty twenty one.Festivities here in southern California include festivals in
(38:08):
Lymert Park, Hollywood, and ElsaGundo, which include food, music,
arts and crafts, and cultural exhibitions. There's also a parade in Inglewood and
a concert at the Greek Theater thisafternoon, and I believe Vice President Kamala
Harris is expected at that Greek latertoday. Officials in India sa a sweltering
heatwave is killed about one hundred andseventy people in two of the country's most
(38:30):
populous states in recent days. Hospitalshave been overwhelmed, and routine power outages
add to these challenges. Northern regionsof India are known for sweltering heat during
the summer months, but the IndianMeteorological Department says temperatures have been consistently above
normal. Heighs have been one hundredand ten or above. We lead local
live from the KFI twenty four ournewsroom. I'm Jason Middleton. This has
(38:52):
been your wake up call. You'vebeen listening to wake up call, you
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am, and anytime on demand onthe iHeartRadio app
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