Speaker 1: Seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in again for Scott Sloan.
Speaker 1: Happy to do it.
Speaker 2: I don't want to be outdoors today, man, that is brutal.
Speaker 2: I got here in the weather sheet eighteen degrees. I
Speaker 2: don't know if that's the current temperature, but eighteen degrees
Speaker 2: feels like four degrees. And if I'm not mistaken Sunday,
Speaker 2: I mean we were like mid sixties. It's typical Cincinnati weather.
Speaker 2: It's the reason why I think everybody gets sick here.
Speaker 2: We got a great show for you today. I'm going
Speaker 2: to talk a little bit again about the Minnesota situation.
Speaker 2: It is the grift that keeps on giving. At nine
Speaker 2: point thirty, we're going to talk to Todd Sheets. He's
Speaker 2: going to talk about President Trump's National Security Survey. Really
Speaker 2: raised a lot of eyes when that came out, and
Speaker 2: Todd has done a deep dive on it, and we'll
Speaker 2: talk to him.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to this.
Speaker 2: Dan Horne, reporter, great reporter, longtime reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer,
Speaker 2: did a really good piece on the kind of change
Speaker 2: in religious feelings in the country, and it's also demographically
Speaker 2: was able to break down Greater Cincinnati, so we'll see
Speaker 2: how we compare with the rest of the country. At
Speaker 2: eleven o'clock, Christopher Smithman, former Vice mayor of the City
Speaker 2: of Cincinnati, always always has something interesting to say men.
Speaker 1: At eleven thirty J.
Speaker 2: Ratliffe, aviation expert. We're going to talk to him, kind
Speaker 2: of get an idea where we are travel wise, and
Speaker 2: some other things that happened in the year twenty twenty
Speaker 2: five in aviation. But first, the drum beat continues in Minnesota.
Speaker 2: As I said, it is the grift that keeps on giving.
Speaker 2: We have not heard the last of it.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: I talk a lot about it. Reason I do, because
Speaker 2: it's a big story, one of the biggest. I've ever
Speaker 2: seen this thing already, and again I've probably about that
Speaker 2: million times I've said this. We've only scratched the service already.
Speaker 2: I think, without question. It is the biggest scandal money wise,
Speaker 2: are probably otherwise in this country's history. And again it's
Speaker 2: just the tip of the iceberg. Just a couple recent
Speaker 2: developments federal funding pause. Boy, the federal government now the
Speaker 2: Trump administration is kind of circling the wagons on this thing.
Speaker 2: And the FBI yesterday Cashpateel, he confirmed that the bureau
Speaker 2: has surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota. And I'll
Speaker 2: tell you, the FBI's had their ups and downs, but
Speaker 2: they are still, without questioning, the best law enforcement investigative
Speaker 2: agency in the world in my humble opinion. So it's
Speaker 2: not only me that says just the tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 2: Cashpateel said, it's just the tip of a very large
Speaker 2: iceberg and stated that the FBI began this surge even
Speaker 2: before the issue gained widespread social media attention. The SBA administrator,
Speaker 2: Kelly Leffler, she announced, I think it was yesterday pause
Speaker 2: on annual funding to Minnesota.
Speaker 1: I think probably a smart move.
Speaker 2: This freeze includes over five point five million bucks in
Speaker 2: annual support to resource partners while the agency investigates are
Speaker 2: you ready for this and estimated four hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: million dollars in suspected paycheck Protection Program PPP fraud across
Speaker 2: the state. And you know, of all the COVID related giveaways,
Speaker 2: this one seems to be the one that has the
Speaker 2: most criminal problems. So they suspended money to that wisely so.
Speaker 2: And Homeland Security agents were reported in Minneapolis yesterday conducting
Speaker 2: a massive investigation into the rampant fraud. That includes reviewing
Speaker 2: thousands of unanswered calls to welfare check hotlines from the
Speaker 2: past two years.
Speaker 1: So it's going and it's going to keep continue.
Speaker 2: Reports on December twenty ninth, just yesterday, I think, yeah,
Speaker 2: it would have been yesterday, detailed claims from over Listen
Speaker 2: to this four hundred and eighty Minnesota DHS workers who
Speaker 2: alleged that Governor Walt's administration ignored or covered up years
Speaker 2: of warnings regarding the exploding fraud schemes. That is beyond belief.
Speaker 2: It really is how you're the governor of the state,
Speaker 2: how you turn a blind eye to this? And you know,
Speaker 2: I think we all know why he did it. He
Speaker 2: didn't want to be labeled an islamophobe. God forbid, you'd
Speaker 2: be called that or racist. And he's on his last leg. See,
Speaker 2: you know we really I mean, and I'm just saying
Speaker 2: it's because he's a Democrat and he's a boob. I mean,
Speaker 2: I thought he was a boob long before this. But
Speaker 2: he just needs to go. I mean, he needs to go.
Speaker 2: He's running for his third term. At least, at a minimum,
Speaker 2: take himself off the ballot. But again, that would take
Speaker 2: a little courage. I don't see it coming.
Speaker 1: Okay. Indictment totals.
Speaker 2: As of late December twenty twenty five, at least ninety
Speaker 2: two people have been charged in the years long investigation,
Speaker 2: with at least sixty convictions secured to date. Tell you
Speaker 2: the US Attorney's office, the trial lawyers that they have
Speaker 2: some of the best in the country. They don't fool around.
Speaker 2: But something that I heard yesterday, it's just unbelievable. I
Speaker 2: about fell out of my chair. Okay, So we've got
Speaker 2: this woman by the name of Marcia Gay. She is
Speaker 2: an MSNBC Now. I guess they changed the name. They
Speaker 2: probably picked up two three viewers on that Marcia Gay,
Speaker 2: and I think she's also a New York Times columnist
Speaker 2: or reporter. She was on MSNBC Now yesterday talking about this,
Speaker 2: and just take a listen to what she had to say.
Speaker 1: If you could play that clip please.
Speaker 3: The question is, you know, why is this a priority?
Speaker 3: In a different kind of way, the politicization of the
Speaker 3: DOJ and the FBI is undeniable, So whether they are
Speaker 3: reliable narrators is the big question. And this is what
Speaker 3: happens when you weaponize and politicize federal agencies that are
Speaker 3: not meant to be, you know, politicized. And I think
Speaker 3: the American people are right to ask the question, well,
Speaker 3: can we trust you? And that's a sad thing to
Speaker 3: say as an American. Let's recall too that there's also
Speaker 3: other scandals in other states, for example, the Mississippi welfare scandal,
Speaker 3: and this is not unique to politics.
Speaker 1: Americans know that. Of course.
Speaker 3: The other factor here is that because it looks like
Speaker 3: the Somali population in Minnesota, the Smali immigrant population may
Speaker 3: have been at some involved in some way, these people
Speaker 3: are being scapegoated, and that community is being scapegoaded in
Speaker 3: a way that certainly serves the far right. And so
Speaker 3: that's also something to keep an eye on, and that's inappropriate.
Speaker 2: Absolutely can you believe that? I mean really, can you?
Speaker 2: I'm not going to use the word I want to use.
Speaker 2: I like my job too much, but can you believe
Speaker 2: that this woman gets on I think she was on
Speaker 2: morning job that part of the MSNBC family, I guess,
Speaker 2: and she says that that the Somali community are being scapegoaded.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable. Listen to this, Listen to this. Okay, so far
Speaker 1: you have not.
Speaker 2: Ninety eight people charged in this thing, eighty five of
Speaker 2: them are of Somali descent. So who's being scapegoated here?
Speaker 2: It's just these people. I've always wondered, Still haven't gotten
Speaker 2: the answer. Still haven't figured it out if they really
Speaker 2: convince themselves of these things and they actually believe them,
Speaker 2: or if they just bald face lie to the American
Speaker 2: people scapegoating the Somali community. Ninety eight people charged, eighty
Speaker 2: five of the ninety eight are of Somali descent. G
Speaker 2: What does that tell you? Are you allowed to make
Speaker 2: any assumptions from that? Well, the answer to that is yes,
Speaker 2: I'm doing it. A lot of other people are doing
Speaker 2: it too. Does it mean that every person of Somalian
Speaker 2: descent in Minnesota is a crook? Absolutely not, and I'm
Speaker 2: not saying that, and I don't think anybody else's. However,
Speaker 2: there is a big, big problem. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: you got the situation in Columbus. People up there are
Speaker 2: thinking that's gonna blow any minute now. I don't know
Speaker 2: what specifically it is, but any number of people have
Speaker 2: said stand by when that happens. But I don't know.
Speaker 2: And she said, this is another one. You know, if
Speaker 2: it were a Pinocchio deal, her nose would be growing.
Speaker 2: She talks about weaponizing and politicizing the Department of Justice.
Speaker 2: You know, I'd like to do some research on what
Speaker 2: she has said, miss Gay publicly, to see if she
Speaker 2: said that during the four years of the Biden administration.
Speaker 2: By the way, the administration who invented and perfected weaponizing
Speaker 2: the DOJ.
Speaker 1: You know, they seem to forget that.
Speaker 2: I would bet a chalkolate Sunday to anybody that she
Speaker 2: probably remained silent while all of their the Biden administration's
Speaker 2: weaponization happened. It's exhibit a, folks, really of just the
Speaker 2: blatant bias of the mainstream media. I mean, for her
Speaker 2: to sit there and say that the Somalian immigrants are
Speaker 2: I think her quote was involved in some way. They're
Speaker 2: involved in a pretty big way about it so far
Speaker 2: in counting a nine billion dollar way. They just don't
Speaker 2: get it. Well, I take that back, I think they
Speaker 2: do get it. They just don't care. They have no
Speaker 2: problem whatsoever with gaslighting the American people, and that's exactly
Speaker 2: what they are doing. I'll tell you there's another story
Speaker 2: that's brewing, and this thing is gonna bust at any minute.
Speaker 2: I think that's the situation with the judge. One of
Speaker 2: the judges in Minnesota, judged by the name of Joe
Speaker 2: And no, that's somebody else, judge by the name of
Speaker 2: Hennepin County Judge Sarah West. Okay, here's what she did.
Speaker 2: And I know a little bit about this stuff. She
Speaker 2: had a big, big, big trial recently. I think it
Speaker 2: was a seven point two million dollars medicaid fraud case.
Speaker 2: Shee's the trial judge there sitting in I guess it
Speaker 2: was Minneapolis.
Speaker 1: And they have this case.
Speaker 2: I don't know how long it took, but my guess
Speaker 2: is is that it probably was a lengthy case. Jury deliberates,
Speaker 2: jury comes back, I don't know how long they were out.
Speaker 2: Jury comes back with a finding of guilty, a unanimous
Speaker 2: twelve person finding of guilty. In every criminal case in
Speaker 2: this country, it has to be unanimous, not on civil cases,
Speaker 2: but on criminal cases.
Speaker 1: Well, what does her honor do? I mean, what does
Speaker 1: Judge Wes do?
Speaker 2: She does something that in all my years in the
Speaker 2: criminal justice system, I've only seen a couple of times.
Speaker 2: The amount of times I've seen it, I could count
Speaker 2: on one hand. I wouldn't need all my fingers. It
Speaker 2: is extremely rare for a judge to say, you know what,
Speaker 2: ladies and gentlemen, the jury, all twelve of you, you
Speaker 2: didn't get it. You know, you didn't get the right verdicts.
Speaker 2: So by God, I'm gonna do it for you. Is
Speaker 2: it legal? Yes in Minnesota, Yes, in Ohio, probably every state.
Speaker 2: I'm not certain though, however, extremely rare that that happens.
Speaker 1: It should not have happened.
Speaker 2: And I hope someone is putting her under a microscope
Speaker 2: because I don't have specifics. I don't know that there
Speaker 2: are any specifics yet. She's kind of tied in with
Speaker 2: these people, the Somalian community that might have been involved
Speaker 2: in this in some way. But I don't want to
Speaker 2: say anything more about that because I don't have any specifics. Okay,
Speaker 2: you probably know who Andy McCarthy is. He's a former
Speaker 2: US assistant attorney. He's always on Fox News. He said
Speaker 2: the ruling her taking away the jury verdict. The ruling
Speaker 2: veered far beyond what trial judges are normally permitted to do,
Speaker 2: underscoring just what I just said, underscoring how exceptional the
Speaker 2: move was. And here's what mister McCarthy said, verbatim, quote,
Speaker 2: it is highly unusual for a judge to overturn a
Speaker 2: jury verdict in a criminal case.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd say so.
Speaker 2: That's what he told Fox News, noting that a judge
Speaker 2: who believes the evidence is legally insufficient supposed to stop
Speaker 2: the case before it reaches a jury. There are things
Speaker 2: in Ohio. It's rule twenty nine. After the government's case,
Speaker 2: you can make a rule twenty nine. It's a motion
Speaker 2: for judgment of a quid and the argument is, judge,
Speaker 2: you know, it's just not there.
Speaker 1: It's just not there. Judge, you got to stop it now.
Speaker 2: And that that's still very infrequent, but it happens.
Speaker 1: It happens.
Speaker 2: But this judge, for whatever reason, let the jury deliberate,
Speaker 2: and they did. And you know, jury verdicts in our
Speaker 2: system are sacred.
Speaker 1: They really are.
Speaker 2: Twelve citizens listen to all of this stuff, and I'm
Speaker 2: gonna find out how long they deliberated and came to
Speaker 2: a conclusion on this. And the conclusion was that this
Speaker 2: guy was guilty. But I guess the judge, I don't
Speaker 2: know what her decision was, what it was based on.
Speaker 1: But here's another thing too. If I can find it.
Speaker 2: Okay, So the jury for person a person by the
Speaker 2: name of Ben Walfut. What happens is with a jury,
Speaker 2: they go back. The first thing that they do is
Speaker 2: elect a four person. But anyway, this guy, the four
Speaker 2: person of this jury, told the media there that he
Speaker 2: was quote shocked close quote by West's decision and said
Speaker 2: the jury's conclusion quote was not a difficult decision whatsoever.
Speaker 1: So I mean, there you go. What's going on there.
Speaker 2: I have no specifics other than what I just said,
Speaker 2: but I think it still bears investigation.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned on this. I'm gonna keep talking about it.
Speaker 2: Not just this, but I'm gonna keep talking about it
Speaker 2: on my Saturday show, especially because this thing is building
Speaker 2: up to something that no one has ever seen before
Speaker 2: in this country. How in God's name this could have
Speaker 2: been going on and Waltz and the Attorney General sitting
Speaker 2: on their butt doing nothing. Waltz, if he had any
Speaker 2: kind of public feelings for his electorate, will just resign
Speaker 2: and just say, look, you know this is a little
Speaker 2: bit too much. People have lost faith and trust in me.
Speaker 2: I'm out of here. But don't count on it. I
Speaker 2: don't think that'll happen. Hey, we got to take a break.
Speaker 2: But when we get back. And by the way, I've
Speaker 2: got open lines from ten o'clock to ten thirty this morning.
Speaker 2: Seven four nine, big one are the numbers if you
Speaker 2: want to get involved. I do have an early guest though,
Speaker 2: Boy he's a good one, Todd Sheets. Some of you
Speaker 2: may have heard about President Trump unrolling rolling out I
Speaker 2: guess the National Security Survey. It's a very important thing.
Speaker 2: It's where the a document says where the United States
Speaker 2: should be heading internationally. Todd did a deep dive on that.
Speaker 2: Not a lot of people are happy about the outcome
Speaker 2: of the National Security Survey. We're going to talk to
Speaker 2: him when we get back. Mike Allen in for Slowey
Speaker 2: seven hundred WLW slooney. You probably heard about this. If
Speaker 2: you follow current events and world events, you would. President
Speaker 2: Trump recently unveiled his national security strategy that changes years
Speaker 2: of prior strip strategy and it focuses on guess what
Speaker 2: America first imagine that, but not everyone likes it. My
Speaker 2: next guest is Todd Sheets. Mister Sheets, author to report.
Speaker 2: It was an op ed piece that and it was
Speaker 2: titled Finally Political Consensus. Everyone hates the National Security Strategy.
Speaker 2: Todd's the author of the newsletter on Wealth and Progress,
Speaker 2: currently available free of charge on Substack, also available on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Spotify, and Apple.
Speaker 2: He is also the author of the acclaimed book two
Speaker 2: thousand and eight, What Really Happened?
Speaker 1: Todd? Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
Speaker 4: Mike, it's a pleasure to be with you.
Speaker 2: Hey, let me ask you first if you could explain
Speaker 2: to my listeners and me, really, what exactly is the
Speaker 2: National Secure Already strategy? I know, standing alone, it kind
Speaker 2: of speaks for herself, but I mean it's an actual document,
Speaker 2: is it not.
Speaker 5: Yes, this year it was a report that was right
Speaker 5: around thirty pages long. Okay, it's required by Congress. It's
Speaker 5: supposed to come out every year. It doesn't necessarily come
Speaker 5: out every year, but usually, you know, at least once
Speaker 5: every couple of years in administration will put one out
Speaker 5: that kind of, you know, sets the tone for what
Speaker 5: their strategy is, you know, in the international arena.
Speaker 2: I think the Trump administration surprised some people on this,
Speaker 2: maybe not because he hasn't had a lot good to
Speaker 2: say about Europe, I guess since he started his second term.
Speaker 2: But can you kind of explain what the issue is
Speaker 2: and what the problem is. And you make the point
Speaker 2: in your article that both the New York Times and
Speaker 2: the Wall Street Journal criticized the report. I guess are
Speaker 2: saying it's an abdication of our traditional role as the
Speaker 2: world's policeman.
Speaker 1: Could you kind of expound on that, please.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's kind of both the thinking I think reflected
Speaker 5: in their perspectives and in general.
Speaker 6: You know, it reflects.
Speaker 5: Almost one hundred years of history in Europe and even
Speaker 5: more if we go back to our founding ideals, but
Speaker 5: if we focus on the twentieth century, and I'll try
Speaker 5: and be very brief with this, you know, through World
Speaker 5: War One, World War two, and the Cold War, you know,
Speaker 5: we built up a coalition with Europe to try and
Speaker 5: defend democracy in the arena where it was most relevant
Speaker 5: obviously to Europe, but also to us because of the
Speaker 5: threats to Western Europe and the need for the United
Speaker 5: States to help step in and help them fight off
Speaker 5: the Germans in the first two Wars and then the.
Speaker 7: Soviet Union in the Cold War.
Speaker 5: And you know, we developed a mentality out of that,
Speaker 5: and Europe certainly did where there was this very you
Speaker 5: know deeply connected alliance between the two sides that was
Speaker 5: crucial to maintaining peace and balance throughout the world. And
Speaker 5: I think the fact of the matter is which Trump
Speaker 5: has recognized, but I think the traditionalists have not, and
Speaker 5: you know, have a hard time letting go of on
Speaker 5: both the left and the right. As you pointed out,
Speaker 5: is that circumstances have changed dramatically, you know, since the
Speaker 5: fall of the Soviet Union in the early nineteen nineties,
Speaker 5: and it is time for us to look at all
Speaker 5: of this from a very different perspective, taking those changes
Speaker 5: into account.
Speaker 2: And I guess a big part of it is withdrawing
Speaker 2: some of the troops from Europe over there. I know
Speaker 2: we have done that throughout that I think the past
Speaker 2: twenty or so years. My father was in the Air Force.
Speaker 2: He was a civil engineer, and he was there in
Speaker 2: Germany about five years from about nineteen fifty five to
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty working on rebuilding. And you know, he said
Speaker 2: that Americans, especially the.
Speaker 1: Troops, were everywhere.
Speaker 2: And I guess the thought is makes sense to me,
Speaker 2: is that it's time to kind of shift focus to
Speaker 2: perhaps the two bad guys, if you will, communists China
Speaker 2: and Russia.
Speaker 1: Is that kind of the gist of it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a very big part of it. And I
Speaker 5: think one of the things that's very important to keep
Speaker 5: in mind is Russia today is nowhere near the threat
Speaker 5: that was posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Speaker 5: And that's one of the things I think that the
Speaker 5: left and the right, you know, the critics haven't quite
Speaker 5: fully accepted today.
Speaker 7: Russia's GDP, which is, you.
Speaker 5: Know, their gross domestic product, which determines how much economic
Speaker 5: resources they can put into their military operations. Today they're
Speaker 5: about the size of Italy or Canada, so they are
Speaker 5: significantly smaller. Yes, back in the fifties and the sixties,
Speaker 5: they were roughly two thirds you know, the GDP of
Speaker 5: the United States, the Soviet Union i'm speaking of, they
Speaker 5: were clearly the global threat. Today, the only country that
Speaker 5: is even close to that is China, which you mentioned
Speaker 5: is the place where we need to be shifting our
Speaker 5: focus as well as to the you know, North and
Speaker 5: South America to the Western hemisphere.
Speaker 7: And what's going on here and.
Speaker 6: So what's happened is Russia is so.
Speaker 5: Much smaller, you know, their lack of power and their
Speaker 5: lack of a threat for example, to the United States
Speaker 5: is reflected in what happened in the War with Ukraine
Speaker 5: where they went in. Ukraine's even much smaller than.
Speaker 7: Russia is, and yet.
Speaker 4: Here we are four years later where.
Speaker 5: They're struggling to make advances. So that should be a
Speaker 5: regional conflict that Europe should be responsible for dealing with.
Speaker 5: And unfortunately, they have mismanaged themselves.
Speaker 4: So much that even countries like you.
Speaker 5: Know, Great Britain, France, Germany, who are much larger economically
Speaker 5: than Russia is today multiples of what Russia is, you know,
Speaker 5: they're basically kind of sitting back and waiting for the
Speaker 5: United States to come in and play the leading role
Speaker 5: in dealing with what is really a relatively it's not
Speaker 5: minor to the people. I don't mean to diminish it
Speaker 5: from that perspective, but from the global perspective and certainly
Speaker 5: from the.
Speaker 7: United States' perspective, this.
Speaker 5: Should be a relatively minor conflict in Eastern Europe that
Speaker 5: Western Europe should be responsible for dealing with.
Speaker 4: And I think that's what the Trump.
Speaker 5: Administration is driving at with, you know, with this new
Speaker 5: strategy and with their approach to Europe. Is like, hey, guys,
Speaker 5: it's time for you guys to deal with things like
Speaker 5: this so we can focus on our own hemisphere and
Speaker 5: today's real threat, which is China.
Speaker 7: You know what.
Speaker 2: And Trump say what you will about him, but the
Speaker 2: guy says what he's going to do, and he does it.
Speaker 2: And that was part of the campaign to kind of
Speaker 2: take a new look at it, you know, in your
Speaker 2: and you mentioned it just before.
Speaker 1: It's really it's staggering.
Speaker 2: Russia's economic resources, their GDP less than those of Italy
Speaker 2: and Canada, and you know, no better indication of their
Speaker 2: military decline. Now the one thing that Russia does have,
Speaker 2: and you know, I think it's sickening. Apparently Vladimir Putin
Speaker 2: could care less how many Russians he sends into battle
Speaker 2: and are killed. I researched it a little bit. This
Speaker 2: is from AI, which I find to be usually accurate.
Speaker 2: Two hundred and forty three to three hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: thousand people Russians soldiers died in that war that's not
Speaker 2: even over yet, and some think as many as.
Speaker 1: Half a million.
Speaker 2: Doesn't that the fact that he can do that, can
Speaker 2: get away with it kind of still make him a
Speaker 2: threat and Russia by extension because he's not going anywhere
Speaker 2: unless they throw him out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think they are a threat over time, and
Speaker 5: they do have You're exactly right, that's very important what
Speaker 5: you pointed out. There's this completely different attitude about the
Speaker 5: importance of Indi visuals and citizens when you get into
Speaker 5: these hostile regimes you know that are run by autocrats,
Speaker 5: you know who basically almost at some point they have
Speaker 5: to go to war because their own systems become so
Speaker 5: inefficient and they're so incapable of helping their people live
Speaker 5: a better life that they have to go off to
Speaker 5: war to try and conquer somebody else's land and their resources,
Speaker 5: and to try and make the people think that something
Speaker 5: positive is happening within the country.
Speaker 4: So I do think their threat. It's not like we
Speaker 4: should completely.
Speaker 7: Ignore what's happening over there. But but Trump has not
Speaker 7: been ignoring it.
Speaker 5: You know, they've been selling rush weapons to Ukraine now
Speaker 5: being purchased by Europe, which is appropriate. They've been willing
Speaker 5: to make some long term security guarantees to Ukraine to
Speaker 5: try and halt Russia in their tracks if we can
Speaker 5: get a peace settlement, which I'm a little skeptical that
Speaker 5: that Putin's going to be willing.
Speaker 7: To do that.
Speaker 6: But yeah, we need to be vigilant.
Speaker 5: And it's also very important, and this is something that
Speaker 5: many critics have either missed or outright light about in
Speaker 5: talking about the National Security strategy. The Strategy report specifically says,
Speaker 5: we need to make sure that no hostile, aggressive company
Speaker 5: or country excuse me, comes to dominate any of the
Speaker 5: major regions of the world.
Speaker 7: We need to keep a.
Speaker 4: Balance of power.
Speaker 5: So they're effectively saying, we're not going to allow Russia
Speaker 5: to go too far with this. You know, we can't
Speaker 5: play the leading and the first responder role, but we
Speaker 5: will pay play a role that prevents Russia from gradually
Speaker 5: taking over too much of Europe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wanted to ask you. I mean, because you
Speaker 2: pay attention to these things. Is there any thought that
Speaker 2: the Russian citizens will say at some point enough and
Speaker 2: get his ass out of there? Does anybody see that
Speaker 2: or is that something that is just not going to happen.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, he has been able to maintain his
Speaker 5: power for a long time.
Speaker 7: I think he's.
Speaker 5: Vastly overstepped his boundaries with the Ukraine War, and that's
Speaker 5: one of the reasons why he is so unwilling to
Speaker 5: back down and make a peaceful settlement. That doesn't give
Speaker 5: him enough to be able to show his country that, yeah,
Speaker 5: the last four years and these hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 5: deaths were worth it, and that's the big problem. But
Speaker 5: I have to think, you know, at some point, the
Speaker 5: patience of the Russian people is going to give out.
Speaker 5: Their economy is in a very bad shape, is in
Speaker 5: very bad condition. They've lost all these people, they have
Speaker 5: not been able to accomplish very much with the war,
Speaker 5: and so you know, I'm actually of the opinion that
Speaker 5: as long as Ukraine wants to continue fighting, you know,
Speaker 5: and we're not putting our own people over there and
Speaker 5: risking their lives, and we're selling weapons to help them
Speaker 5: do it, I'm in favor of that because I think
Speaker 5: at some point then, you know, Putin's going to have
Speaker 5: to face up to his people. They can't go on
Speaker 5: like this forever.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 2: I saw those figures and just astounding. I mean, we
Speaker 2: lost fifty thousand, I believe in the Vietnam War. I mean,
Speaker 2: you're talking about some people's estimates ten times that we
Speaker 2: only have a few minutes left. And I probably should
Speaker 2: have asked you about this a little earlier because it's
Speaker 2: extremely important communists China. Trump has been pretty good his
Speaker 2: administration about beeping up Taiwan. I think we just sold
Speaker 2: them a bunch of new jets. I mean, is that
Speaker 2: the strategy with respect to China, or at least part
Speaker 2: of it, make Taiwan, which is microscopic compared to red China.
Speaker 2: You know in geography, is that pretty much as you
Speaker 2: see a todd the strategy to make sure that we
Speaker 2: take care of our ally Taiwan.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think the same thing we.
Speaker 5: Were just talking about, where we can't allow any hostile
Speaker 5: country to dominate any region of the world world. It
Speaker 5: applies even more so to China, Taiwan, and Asia than
Speaker 5: it does to Europe at this point in time, given
Speaker 5: the size and.
Speaker 7: Threat that China poses.
Speaker 6: And I think it's also very important to remember Trump in.
Speaker 5: His first term is the one who finally started dealing
Speaker 5: with the rise of China by imposing the first round
Speaker 5: of tariffs on them. So the first round of tariffs
Speaker 5: and Trump one point zero, what he's proposing to the
Speaker 5: increases that they're pushing through right now in Trump two
Speaker 5: point zero, and the document very specifically states that, you know,
Speaker 5: we cannot allow anyone to dominate the South China seas
Speaker 5: and the shipping channels there, because too much of the
Speaker 5: world's commerce needs to flow through those channels, and we
Speaker 5: can't allow somebody like China to get to the point
Speaker 5: where they have so much control over them that they
Speaker 5: can shut down significant portions of the world economy. So yes,
Speaker 5: that is definitely where they're shifting their focus. And they're
Speaker 5: very you know, zeroed in the importance of all that.
Speaker 1: Well, which is obviously smart. Boy. Unfortunately we're out of time.
Speaker 1: We could talk for hours about this.
Speaker 2: Really appreciate your point of view, Todd, and appreciate you
Speaker 2: calling in this morning.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Mike, thanks so much.
Speaker 7: It was great to be.
Speaker 8: Back with you.
Speaker 2: Okay, you too. I'll tell you what. It's certainly food
Speaker 2: for thought. And boy, I think he's right on the money,
Speaker 2: and so is Donald Trump. I mean, you know, we,
Speaker 2: I don't know, use the term babysat Europe for a
Speaker 2: long long time time for them to kind of do
Speaker 2: a little bit more for themselves as a continent. Hey,
Speaker 2: you got to take a break, but we will be
Speaker 2: back with open lines and phone calls for seven nine.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry one eight hundred, the big one if you
Speaker 2: want to be a part of this. Mike Allen in
Speaker 2: for Sloaney seven hundred WLW WLW Mike Allen in for Sloaney.
Speaker 2: As promised, I'm going to the phones, but just wanted
Speaker 2: to read you one thing.
Speaker 1: I think it was yesterday Vice President jd.
Speaker 2: Vance weigh in on this thing, and boy, he just
Speaker 2: hit the nail on the head. He called the Minnesota
Speaker 2: situation quote a microcosm of the immigration fraud in our system.
Speaker 2: He's stating that politicians like it because they get power,
Speaker 2: welfared cheets like it because they get rich. I mean,
Speaker 2: I think that pretty much says it all. And he's
Speaker 2: damn accurate on it. Okay, let me go to the
Speaker 2: phones here. Gabriel in Dayton has been holding on the longest. Hey,
Speaker 2: good morning, Gabriel.
Speaker 9: Yeah, goodmore and Micah just want to say a couple
Speaker 9: of things, yourself and the great American You all do.
Speaker 8: A great job there. Appreciate it, Thank you.
Speaker 9: But I thought i'd heard everything when a year or
Speaker 9: so ago, Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, she
Speaker 9: got on the national news and she said that there'd
Speaker 9: been like one hundred and sixty smash and grab robbers
Speaker 9: and eli to that point, and then she said, we're
Speaker 9: going to put our foot down, We're going to stop this.
Speaker 9: I'm thinking that the tenor smashing ground is.
Speaker 8: Why may something?
Speaker 9: And then the US mentioned JD Vans that that interview
Speaker 9: with Martha raddits.
Speaker 6: Yo.
Speaker 9: You you're saying that, you know, do you recall that
Speaker 9: there was nothing bad about the Venezuela and gang. You're
Speaker 9: taking over parts of color rather, you know that, But
Speaker 9: with what the with what the woman said you just
Speaker 9: reported this morning, that probably takes the cakes hey and
Speaker 9: the down playing this, this Minnesota fraud.
Speaker 8: Yes, that's all I've got to say.
Speaker 1: Okay, go ahead, thank you, Gaby.
Speaker 2: You know I mean, she says they're nitpicking and blaming
Speaker 2: it all on the Somali people. And again I'll read
Speaker 2: it again, ninety eight people charge eighty five of Somali descent.
Speaker 2: I think you can infer whatever the heck you want
Speaker 2: out of that. But appreciate the call. Gabriel. Oh he's gone. Okay,
Speaker 2: let's see. Let's talk to Jay in Centerville. He wants
Speaker 2: to talk about identity theft side of the fraud case,
Speaker 2: and well, I didn't think about that, but it is
Speaker 2: a part of the jay what you got.
Speaker 8: Hey, Mike, I've called it in a few times. I'm
Speaker 8: the one. Let's see a refugee from the People's Republic
Speaker 8: of Portland.
Speaker 6: Did you get a.
Speaker 8: Chance to watch the Nick Shirley recordings?
Speaker 1: You know what, I only saw one.
Speaker 2: As I understand that there's a compilation of four of
Speaker 2: them on YouTube.
Speaker 1: I have not seen that one yet.
Speaker 8: They're absolutely amazing. He actually got physically a tackle in
Speaker 8: time tells you that he is really sniffing up the
Speaker 8: right tree. They are. They're coming after him physically, he's
Speaker 8: really turning over some bad stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, but you know what, you.
Speaker 2: Look at him, he's one guy with a microphone and
Speaker 2: a camera. In three or four days, he's found out
Speaker 2: and done what the Minnesota officials couldn't do in years.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's incredible.
Speaker 8: Well, you think about Keith Ellison out there. He is
Speaker 8: a radical Islamist. He supports care, he supports the Muslim Brotherhood.
Speaker 8: He is not there for the good.
Speaker 1: He also supports.
Speaker 2: Interrupted, but he also supports Louis Farrakhan, the biggest anti
Speaker 2: Semite in the world.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to point.
Speaker 8: Out he does. It's amazing and if it weren't for
Speaker 8: the Somali immigrants coming into that state, he would have
Speaker 8: never been elected to that position or to the Senate.
Speaker 8: So tells you a little bit about the change in
Speaker 8: demographics and the damage will do. But when you look
Speaker 8: at the situation of totality, and I have some access
Speaker 8: to data around this stuff through work, the majority of
Speaker 8: the fraud is happening on the provider's side. So you
Speaker 8: have these fake businesses out there. There was one that
Speaker 8: they showed where there was a restaurant that was building
Speaker 8: a state eighteen thousand meals a day for kids that
Speaker 8: didn't have access to food, and the restaurant itself help
Speaker 8: hold time. I'm thinking around twenty nine people, so somehow
Speaker 8: they were able to have eighteen thousand kids a day
Speaker 8: come through. They're never a single kid ever in that restaurant.
Speaker 8: So it's on the provider side. But when you think
Speaker 8: about the people that are getting the benefits, and there's
Speaker 8: kickbacks and all kinds of crazy things going on there,
Speaker 8: there's an identity theft element to this as well. We've
Speaker 8: talked about this before. Nearly every illegal alien in the
Speaker 8: country and This is where the bleeding hearts don't get it,
Speaker 8: are using stone identity, and that does massive damage the
Speaker 8: owners of those security numbers. And a lot of these
Speaker 8: people that Trump is arresting and deporting, they're claiming that
Speaker 8: there was no crime involved with these people. Reality is
Speaker 8: most of them had either a criminal record, a crime
Speaker 8: that they're in the process of being prosecuted for, or
Speaker 8: they had previous orders of deportation either them or came back.
Speaker 2: Jay this morning. I don't mean to interrupt you, but
Speaker 2: this morning I saw the figure. Oh it's been a
Speaker 2: seven out of ten of them, and I'm sorry for
Speaker 2: interrupt you.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to make sure people knew that.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Absolutely, So when I see all these whiny people
Speaker 8: on Facebook and other places talking about kicking out the
Speaker 8: poor immigrants, number one, they're not immigrants. I have friends
Speaker 8: that are immigrants and they put a lot of work
Speaker 8: into becoming American citizens. And number two, they do have
Speaker 8: criminal records. The mainstream media chooses to pick what they
Speaker 8: cherry pick what they share, and when they say that
Speaker 8: they don't have criminal records, they're not talking about the
Speaker 8: felonies that they have against them for re entering the country.
Speaker 8: After they've been deported.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's what it is.
Speaker 2: And again seven out of ten, so that kind of
Speaker 2: takes that argument away.
Speaker 1: And you don't even do that.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you trespassed into our country, you are
Speaker 2: a criminal. You've committed a crime. You're not a citizen
Speaker 2: of this country. You may be a temporary illegal resident.
Speaker 1: But I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe this thing in Minnesota will open people's eyes.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean it should.
Speaker 2: If it doesn't, I don't know why, but I appreciate
Speaker 2: the call. Okay, thanks, Yeah, seven out of ten. So
Speaker 2: you know, go figure, well, you know, when Joe Biden
Speaker 2: lets what anywhere from latest figures fifteen million to twenty
Speaker 2: million people in we're gonna be dealing with this stuff.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Joe Biden. And I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2: That guy has to go down as the worst president
Speaker 2: in this country's history. You know, you talk about Jimmy Carter,
Speaker 2: and I've not been charitable to him very much.
Speaker 1: I think I should now.
Speaker 2: But Jimmy Carter, he well, first of all, he wasn't
Speaker 2: cognitively impaired, but I truly think he thought about him Americans.
Speaker 2: Who the hell knows what Biden was thinking about anyway,
Speaker 2: Let's talk to Will in northern Kentucky. He wants to
Speaker 2: weigh in on what we talked about the National Security
Speaker 2: Survey with Todd Sheets. Hey, Will, how you doing?
Speaker 10: Hey Mike, I always love your programs. I think you
Speaker 10: wanted to call on Saturday about that.
Speaker 8: Anyway.
Speaker 10: You know, the GDP of a country really doesn't matter.
Speaker 10: Think of what the al Qaeda did in ninety eleven.
Speaker 10: Here they've called the world billions billions of dollars, and
Speaker 10: they they did it with nothing. You know, Putin is
Speaker 10: If you want to know the true nature of Putin,
Speaker 10: Readill o'illy's relatively new book, Confronting Evil. Chapter nine is
Speaker 10: dedicated to him. Okay, he's a death line. He's a
Speaker 10: mass murderer. And that's what the United States always says
Speaker 10: tried to do, is confront mass murderers and desktops. You know,
Speaker 10: whether it's in South America or whether it's in you know,
Speaker 10: Eastern Europe at the time, you know, the just it's
Speaker 10: because Ukrainian now Ukrainian now, it doesn't mean Estonia or
Speaker 10: Lafia or Finland won't be next or Poland.
Speaker 1: Oh no, no question.
Speaker 2: He gets away with what he did looks like maybe
Speaker 2: they're coming close to some kind of agreement. I'm a
Speaker 2: little skeptical, but he does to other countries what he's
Speaker 2: done to Ukraine. I mean, I think a lot of
Speaker 2: people think that that very well could happen. When I
Speaker 2: saw the figure will of anywhere from three hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty million to five hundred excuse me, five million people
Speaker 2: killed or I'm sorry, five hundred thousand people killed. It's
Speaker 2: just staggering. He doesn't care about human life. And you know,
Speaker 2: he treats that his citizens like their bullets coming out
Speaker 2: of a gun.
Speaker 1: I mean, that guy, I think he can boil it down.
Speaker 1: He's a thug.
Speaker 6: He's a thug.
Speaker 10: And if you and you know they are, to you,
Speaker 10: Russia is really just a one trick pony. Really have
Speaker 10: two tricks on me. They have not natural resources coming
Speaker 10: out to law zoom. Plus the military, the military is
Speaker 10: really only second to the United States and icb ms
Speaker 10: and fighters. They export a lot of that stuff to
Speaker 10: bad actors all around the world. Obviously, give me a
Speaker 10: perspective of that number, you know in the song and
Speaker 10: World War One, just in a three months battle, the
Speaker 10: British lost four.
Speaker 8: Hundred thousand dead.
Speaker 10: We lost four hundred thousand entire.
Speaker 8: World War two.
Speaker 10: Just put perspectives into you know, give you perspectives of
Speaker 10: numbers of the help many people die.
Speaker 11: In these wars.
Speaker 10: But you know Ukraine his loss tens of thousands of people.
Speaker 7: Also you look that up.
Speaker 10: And may have died, and he targets civilians. Yeah, but anyway,
Speaker 10: that's that's all I got to say about that. You've
Speaker 10: got great shows.
Speaker 8: I like it.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Will, and thanks for asking a
Speaker 2: question about that, because it is important. You know, it
Speaker 2: doesn't raise your blood level. I think to the extent
Speaker 2: that this the grift that keeps on giving in Minnesota.
Speaker 2: But obviously extremely important. And once again, say what you
Speaker 2: want about Trump, but he is right on the money
Speaker 2: with this thing. It's not Eurocentric anymore. And I didn't
Speaker 2: get a chance to talk to Todd about the situation
Speaker 2: in South America, that hemisphere. What Trump's plans down there
Speaker 2: are so also the strategic plan. As Todd pointed out,
Speaker 2: people don't like it on the left, they don't like
Speaker 2: it on the right. Usually that means there's something pretty
Speaker 2: good in there. Hey, let's talk to Fred in Vansburg. Hey,
Speaker 2: good morning, Fred.
Speaker 12: Good morning, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 1: And my pleasure.
Speaker 12: Happy New Year to all of you at WLW.
Speaker 7: A longtime listener, thank you.
Speaker 13: Also, I want to tell you I'm a Christian conservative
Speaker 13: okay years a somewhat disabled and living on a very
Speaker 13: limited pitch income.
Speaker 12: And I'm actually I'm calling about the.
Speaker 10: Terror I mean the terror free by the situation there, the.
Speaker 13: Two thousand dollars payment.
Speaker 12: Is there any news on that.
Speaker 2: You know, Fred, as I sit here now, I don't know,
Speaker 2: but I'm sure gonna look because he has said that,
Speaker 2: he said it, and then I know it was him
Speaker 2: or somebody else in it is in his administration backed
Speaker 2: off of it a little bit. But you know, the
Speaker 2: thing about Trump is he says he's going to do something,
Speaker 2: I mean nine times out of ten, probably more than
Speaker 2: that he does it.
Speaker 1: But I'll drill down on that. I don't because I'm
Speaker 1: not sure.
Speaker 10: That's what I understand.
Speaker 4: And i want to tell you one other thing.
Speaker 12: And I guess in the winter or spring, winter or
Speaker 12: early spring of twenty twenty two, you know, I'm a
Speaker 12: tax payer, file a taxer, turn you know, the h
Speaker 12: R block, And I was, I was of the understanding
Speaker 12: that I my people were going to get uh a
Speaker 12: fourteen dollars rebate when Biden. This is when Biden was
Speaker 12: uh uh in in office, and Uh, I want to
Speaker 12: tell you I never received any. I mean, I'm over
Speaker 12: the understanding that some people were received the fourteen hundred dollars,
Speaker 12: but I certainly did not. I received two form letters,
Speaker 12: one from the U. S. Treasury and one form letter
Speaker 12: from Biden himself saying that I was turned down.
Speaker 2: So I just wanted to did they let that they
Speaker 2: say why?
Speaker 12: They said there was a mistake, Yeah, Biden that that
Speaker 12: that that uh an hn R block uh and there
Speaker 12: was no on the only the only mistake is that
Speaker 12: I'm a conservative.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank.
Speaker 12: And I want to I want to tell you another
Speaker 12: thing I had. I was in a really bad direct
Speaker 12: more than twenty years ago. Received a settlement investing money
Speaker 12: in the stock market. And I really, I really lost
Speaker 12: badge badly in the in the in the Biden years.
Speaker 6: I really I was.
Speaker 9: I was.
Speaker 12: I was wiped out uh by UH by UH August
Speaker 12: the twenty twenty four I was worked out of the
Speaker 12: stock market and UH and UH I was. I was
Speaker 12: receiving income money transferred from the from the money market
Speaker 12: account to my taking account. Uh and anyway, by August
Speaker 12: of twenty twenty four, it was all gone uh and uh.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 12: Like I said, I'm I'm on a very limited texting
Speaker 12: I'm for this year of twenty twenty five, I've had
Speaker 12: more than five thousand dollars more going out of my
Speaker 12: checond account than an incomp coming union.
Speaker 4: I welcome.
Speaker 10: I really use the two thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: It's the hangover, Fred. I think of the Biden administration.
Speaker 2: Trump's turning things around. Hey, I appreciate the car.
Speaker 12: I know he's in the process of working, and I'm
Speaker 12: I'm very thankful to hear. I guess this is true.
Speaker 12: The seventeen hundred and seventy six dollars to uh after Milter,
Speaker 12: Is that true?
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I'm going to drill down on
Speaker 2: our Fred, but I do have to go. I got
Speaker 2: some other callers, but thank you for that call. Let
Speaker 2: me see what I can find out. Okay, I will
Speaker 2: look at that. Hey, let's do this. Let's take a
Speaker 2: short break, come back, and then we'll have a few
Speaker 2: minutes before ten thirty.
Speaker 1: Dan Horn, it's hang around for this.
Speaker 2: It's about the change in religious feelings not only nationwide,
Speaker 2: but in the greater Cincinnati area. We'll do that when
Speaker 2: we get back Mike Allen's seven hundred WLW Sloaney. Hey,
Speaker 2: we got some answers, I believe to the questions that
Speaker 2: the previous caller post with respect.
Speaker 1: To the two thousand dollars tariff rebate checks.
Speaker 2: The Columbus Dispatch reports to that funding for President Donald
Speaker 2: Trump's proposed two thousand dollars tar freebate checks would require
Speaker 2: approval from Congress. White House Economic Advisor Ken Hassett said
Speaker 2: the administration will likely bring a formal proposal to Congress
Speaker 2: in the new year. The latest news comes after Trump
Speaker 2: announced the Warrior dividends the seventeen seventy six bonus from
Speaker 2: military members funded from the one Big, Beautiful Bill. I
Speaker 2: want to tell you, right after that last caller called,
Speaker 2: a caller called in and said that his son is
Speaker 2: a service member. He did receive the one thousand, seven
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy six bonus. I think that's pretty cool too.
Speaker 2: How they did that set it up with seventeen seventy
Speaker 2: six the only problem, And I got to think Trump
Speaker 2: and his administration doped this out. I mean, one of
Speaker 2: the reasons why. And I am not an economist by
Speaker 2: any stretch of the imagination. I'm real good at one
Speaker 2: thing with money, and that's spending it. But one of
Speaker 2: the reasons I think for the inflation, or at least
Speaker 2: it's been reported under the Biden administration, was Joe Biden
Speaker 2: dumping all this money into the economy. And I don't
Speaker 2: know the wiser wherefores as to why that would spike inflation.
Speaker 2: But you know what, if I know Trump, he thought
Speaker 2: it out. And I tell you, I don't have any
Speaker 2: problem at all. Giving soldiers, active duty soldiers seven one,
Speaker 2: seven hundred and seventy six bucks. They earn it, you
Speaker 2: know people, and you know you'll get some people that'll say.
Speaker 1: Well you will, you know, why why would you do that?
Speaker 2: I mean they're already paid, and they're pretty pretty well paid.
Speaker 2: You get up in the officer and I spent ten
Speaker 2: years in the Army Reserve in the Jag Corps. The
Speaker 2: officer ranks are pretty well paid, I think enlisted.
Speaker 1: Not so much.
Speaker 2: So this is something that can help those families around
Speaker 2: Christmas time. I'm all for it. Hey, just a couple
Speaker 2: of things I wanted to kind of pick up on that.
Speaker 2: Various people said on this whole situation with the Minnesota deal,
Speaker 2: the Speaker of the House weight on it, and if
Speaker 2: I could only find it, I would tell you what
Speaker 2: he said.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll have to do that later. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to mar Gay.
Speaker 2: She is the person from MSNBC now analyst and again,
Speaker 2: and I should check this. A New York Times reporter,
Speaker 2: which you know, what she said, would certainly indicate that
Speaker 2: that's true. And we heard that clip of her, but
Speaker 2: I still scratched my head on it. She claimed that
Speaker 2: the Somali community in Minnesota is being her words, scapegoaded
Speaker 2: in response to recent federal fraud cases related to Here
Speaker 2: we Go pandemic relief funding. The statement was made in
Speaker 2: the context of President Trump targeting the community.
Speaker 1: That's what she says. He hasn't you know, he really
Speaker 1: hasn't said much on it.
Speaker 2: Is an administration has and is doing something about it
Speaker 2: generated significant news coverage. See that's what you get with
Speaker 2: these people. They gaslight you, or I mean, they lie
Speaker 2: to you. A gaslight, I think is a little bit less.
Speaker 2: I don't really understand the word that much, but not
Speaker 2: as strong as a blatant lie.
Speaker 1: Either way. Either way.
Speaker 2: And I've always wondered, do they do this knowing what
Speaker 2: they're doing or they actually believe the garbage. I guess
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter either way. Hey, we got to break
Speaker 2: for the news. When we come back, you're gonna want
Speaker 2: to hear this. This is going to be good. Dan Horne,
Speaker 2: a long time reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, did a
Speaker 2: piece about a about I think it's about a week ago,
Speaker 2: about the change in religious feelings both nationally and in
Speaker 2: the Tri state area. And we are going to talk
Speaker 2: to Dan about that when we get back.
Speaker 1: Mike Allen in.
Speaker 2: For Slowey, seven hundred WLW. It's ten thirty eight News Radio,
Speaker 2: seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in for Slowey. Well, I
Speaker 2: kind of gave you a preview of it a little
Speaker 2: bit this morning. Dan Horne of the Cincinnati Inquirer, who
Speaker 2: is a true journalist, he wrote a great article about
Speaker 2: a week ago titled poll finds Cincinnatians believe in Heaven
Speaker 2: and Hell but skip services and he's here to talk
Speaker 2: about it with us now. Thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 2: Dan really appreciate it.
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 8: Mike.
Speaker 2: Hey, according to AI, which I don't know, if you're
Speaker 2: using I'm starting to use it pretty much. Recent data
Speaker 2: from late twenty twenty four and going into twenty twenty
Speaker 2: five seems to indicate a rise in religious influence in
Speaker 2: the United States. Is that what you found? And if
Speaker 2: you want to just kind of expound on what you
Speaker 2: found in the piece that you.
Speaker 14: Wrote, Yeah, there, and there is some recent data out
Speaker 14: there suggesting there's been an uptick, particularly among young men in.
Speaker 11: Some religious faith.
Speaker 14: But the data I looked at looked at kind of
Speaker 14: the long game on some of this stuff. This is
Speaker 14: the data I looked at was a Pew Research Center survey,
Speaker 14: which is a periodic survey they do every half decade
Speaker 14: or so, and basically they asked people across the country
Speaker 14: about their religious beliefs, about, you know, their attendance services,
Speaker 14: how often they pray, do they believe in heaven and Hell,
Speaker 14: that kind of thing, and they can compare that over
Speaker 14: time to past results, and that trend line is pretty
Speaker 14: much shown that attendance at mass or at any religious
Speaker 14: service is down generally, but the importance of religion and
Speaker 14: people's lives is sixty four percent of people said it
Speaker 14: was very or somewhat important and only about a quarter
Speaker 14: of the people surveyed said that they attend religious services regularly.
Speaker 2: You know, and it seems too like the Greater Cincinnati area,
Speaker 2: which demographically, I guess Pugh broke that down pretty much
Speaker 2: dovetails in most cases with the national poll. Just a paragraph, short,
Speaker 2: couple sentences out of your story. Pew found sixty six
Speaker 2: percent of those surveyed here were Christians, with about two
Speaker 2: thirds identifying as Protestant and about one third as Catholic.
Speaker 2: About seven percent were members of other faiths faiths including Judaism, Islam,
Speaker 2: and Hinduism. The rest said they didn't identify with any
Speaker 2: organized religion. And you make the point, then, Dan, that
Speaker 2: compared with the rest of the country, Greater Cincinnatians of
Speaker 2: all faiths felt more strongly that religion was an important
Speaker 2: part of their lives, with forty two percent saying that
Speaker 2: it was very important, compared to thirty eight percent for
Speaker 2: the country. Overall, it seems like we in the Greaterst.
Speaker 2: Cincinnati area are kind of paralleling what the country's saying.
Speaker 14: Yeah, there wasn't much variation from Greater Cincinnati.
Speaker 7: To the national numbers.
Speaker 14: A little bit here or there, but the most part
Speaker 14: as you said, they doved heiled pretty closely.
Speaker 2: And belief in God, that's one that obviously many people
Speaker 2: find very important. What did you find out about that
Speaker 2: both nationally and in the Tri State area?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 14: So you know that's obviously the foundation of most religious faiths,
Speaker 14: as a belief in the Supreme Being or in God.
Speaker 14: And you know, this survey found fifty seven percent of
Speaker 14: people in Cincinnati and fifty four percent nationally were certain
Speaker 14: in their belief in God, confident that God was real.
Speaker 14: There were another twenty eight twenty nine percent who said
Speaker 14: they believe, but they're not certain. So that's a huge
Speaker 14: number that says they are either certain or they believe
Speaker 14: that God is real. And yet you see the numbers
Speaker 14: for people who actually put that belief into action by
Speaker 14: attending weekly services is still about one in four.
Speaker 11: Of people who say they are part of the religious faith.
Speaker 2: Here's a big one too that you looked at, do
Speaker 2: you believe in heaven or Hell? Can you kind of
Speaker 2: tell us what you found on that one both locally
Speaker 2: and nationally that Pew.
Speaker 14: Put out, Yeah, here are Cincinnatians actually are a little
Speaker 14: less likely to believe in heaven.
Speaker 6: They have sixty.
Speaker 14: Percent and national responders were sixty seven percent saying that
Speaker 14: they believed. I don't know if this is the optimism
Speaker 14: and Cincinnatians or not, but few of them believe in
Speaker 14: hell two percent that they believe in hell fifty five
Speaker 14: percent nationally. So they're more confident that there's something awaiting
Speaker 14: you if you do good in your life, and a
Speaker 14: little less confident that there's some eternal punishment.
Speaker 11: For you if you don't.
Speaker 1: Sure you know.
Speaker 2: One of the things they left out, I guess that
Speaker 2: for Catholics is the concept of purgatory, which we were
Speaker 2: taught that, you know, if you're not perfect, you may
Speaker 2: have to do a stretch in purgatory. And I always
Speaker 2: thought I'll do a couple hundred years in purgatory if
Speaker 2: I eventually get to having for eternity. I don't know,
Speaker 2: I think there are some Catholics that actually feel that way.
Speaker 1: Were you surprised?
Speaker 14: I'm a number of skipping math That might be true.
Speaker 2: Man, What else did you find interesting in this thing?
Speaker 2: It's all interesting? But I guess did any of this
Speaker 2: stuff surprise you?
Speaker 6: Not? Really?
Speaker 14: This is part of kind of a decade on trend
Speaker 14: line that you're seeing in any number of polls. Gallop
Speaker 14: does semi annual pulling on this, and you see the
Speaker 14: numbers showing some consistency and belief, but a less consistency
Speaker 14: and religious affiliation with organized faith, more people they don't
Speaker 14: follow any particular faith, newer people attending services. There is
Speaker 14: some variation in that. But you know, just the most
Speaker 14: recent Gallup poll found across the board declines and religious
Speaker 14: service attendance among or among Christian faiths over the last
Speaker 14: twenty five years. And just from you know, Protestant mainline Protestants, Presbyterians, Methodists,
Speaker 14: that sort of thing, Evangelicals and Catholics. You know, it's
Speaker 14: part of a trend that we've seen for some time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, it boils down to, according to
Speaker 2: what you write and according to the numbers, that the
Speaker 2: importance of religion has risen a little bit, but not
Speaker 2: necessarily attending the services. I know, for the Katholic Mass,
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, when I was a kid growing up,
Speaker 2: I mean, those those churches were packed.
Speaker 1: Not so much now. But it does seem to me, based.
Speaker 2: On what I've read independently and what you report, that
Speaker 2: at least at least a feeling that there is a
Speaker 2: supreme being in that person. That being is important. Is
Speaker 2: that kind of what you're thinking to and what you found.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think.
Speaker 14: You know, people will say that, they tend to say
Speaker 14: that they believe, but I think what we're seeing is
Speaker 14: a decline and the belief in the institutional aspects of
Speaker 14: religion and traditional religious belief. You know that in far
Speaker 14: as far as organized faith, attending mass, regularly identifying with
Speaker 14: a particular faith, that's the thing that's declined. And you
Speaker 14: know some of the reasons for that, I mean, no
Speaker 14: one knows for sure. I mean, the surveys are all
Speaker 14: over the place on some of that, but you know,
Speaker 14: among mainline Protestants you see some splintering over issues like
Speaker 14: gay maryorg. Among Catholics certainly still see struggling from the
Speaker 14: fallout from the clergy abuse scandal, and some of the
Speaker 14: faith in the institutions. You know that that created and
Speaker 14: then just you know, politics in general has become more
Speaker 14: and it kind of infused with religion, religious beliefs, and
Speaker 14: whether it's abortion or immigration or any other culture war issues.
Speaker 14: Sometimes people get turned off by some of that. So
Speaker 14: you know, no one knows for certain why it's happening,
Speaker 14: but you know, there does seem to be some consistency
Speaker 14: in the belief in the Supreme Being, but less consistency
Speaker 14: in attaching that belief to a particular faith.
Speaker 2: Got it, And I think that's the takeaway too. Hey,
Speaker 2: I really appreciate you talking about this thing. I was
Speaker 2: fascinated by it. I would assume Dan, that you're going
Speaker 2: to follow it and maybe at some point kind of
Speaker 2: take a look at it again.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 14: Well, we'll see as these surveys come out, and it's
Speaker 14: always interesting to kind of see what people believe in
Speaker 14: why they believe it. And you know, we followed you
Speaker 14: know some you know, issues on how religious feel locally
Speaker 14: is shifting, and we'll continue to look at that as well.
Speaker 2: All Right, really appreciate it, Dan, have a happy new
Speaker 2: Year and thank you.
Speaker 7: Thanks Mike, you too, Okay, all right.
Speaker 2: Dan Horne of the Cincinnati Inquire. I don't know, maybe
Speaker 2: it's just me, but I'm interested in this and it
Speaker 2: just seems like it's trending upwards. But as Dan pointed out,
Speaker 2: both nationally and locally here, while I forget how the
Speaker 2: question was asked, I think is religion important in your life?
Speaker 11: Yeah?
Speaker 2: How important is religion in your life, those numbers increase. However,
Speaker 2: attendance at services has decreased, and you know that kind
Speaker 2: of goes along with what I have seen in you know,
Speaker 2: you try to get young people interested in going either
Speaker 2: to mass or to service, and you know, sometimes it's
Speaker 2: it's like talking to a rock. But bottom line is
Speaker 2: it would seem like it's trending upward. And again, really
Speaker 2: appreciate Dan doing the article to begin with and filling
Speaker 2: us in with it. Hey, we'll take a short break,
Speaker 2: but we'll be back. Mike Gallen in for Slowey seven
Speaker 2: hundred WLW WLW Mike Allen in for Sloaney today, tomorrow
Speaker 2: and Friday.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I learned something from that last segment with Dan Horne
Speaker 2: and also from reading his article. And again, like I said,
Speaker 2: it does seem like at least interest in religion is
Speaker 2: trending upward slightly. As far as going to services for
Speaker 2: all faiths, that's kind of down. I went and looked
Speaker 2: at the poll nationally that Pugh does, and I've always
Speaker 2: found their stuff to be pretty good if you look
Speaker 2: at it United States. This is in the United States
Speaker 2: United States figures, sixty two percent identify as Christians seven
Speaker 2: percent identify with other religions. Then you got a big
Speaker 2: group twenty nine percent identify as religiously I don't know
Speaker 2: if I said that right, unaffiliated, And you look at
Speaker 2: it and the others when you talk about that, the
Speaker 2: religiously unaffiliated atheist five percent. Again, this is nationally atheist
Speaker 2: five percent, agnostic six percent, nothing in particular nineteen percent.
Speaker 1: And you know, you're never too old to learn something.
Speaker 2: And I did not know that there was any difference
Speaker 2: between an agnostic and an atheist. Apparently there is. Again,
Speaker 2: if AI is correct, and I've found it to be reliable.
Speaker 2: An atheists just flat out lacks belief in God, whereas
Speaker 2: an agnostic they believe that it's impossible to know God,
Speaker 2: which I mean is really sad you think about it.
Speaker 2: So there is that difference, I guess. But when you
Speaker 2: break down the religions, the sixty two percent that I
Speaker 2: was just talking about nationwide, Evangelical Protestants make up twenty
Speaker 2: three percent of that mainline Protestants eleven percent, historically Black Protestants,
Speaker 2: five percent, Catholic nineteen percent. Now I would have thought
Speaker 2: that would have been a little bit more in your
Speaker 2: countries in South America and Mexico, those kind of countries.
Speaker 2: I think the Catholic numbers would be way up there.
Speaker 2: And actually they even have some Mormon Latter day Saints
Speaker 2: two percent, Orthodox Christian one percent, Jehovah's Witnessed one percent,
Speaker 2: and other Christian one percent. So anyway, I do think
Speaker 2: it's impossible. It makes sense to go and to keep
Speaker 2: track of those things at least stay interested in it.
Speaker 2: So thanks to Dan for doing that. Hey, we got
Speaker 2: a few minutes here and I got a call. Let's
Speaker 2: talk to Warren in Dayton. Hey, good morning Warren.
Speaker 6: Hey Mike, you do a good job. Thank you on there.
Speaker 1: Thanks.
Speaker 6: Just wonder what difference it would make the crime if
Speaker 6: we had stronger prosecutors and more governmental officials, state, local
Speaker 6: and another that would do their job be formal. Yeah,
Speaker 6: how much the crime would go down if we had
Speaker 6: tougher prosecution.
Speaker 2: That's a really good CLIs really really good question. And
Speaker 2: you know, historically in this county, in this area, we
Speaker 2: have had strong prosecutors.
Speaker 1: We really have.
Speaker 2: Hamil County is changing though, and you know, some of
Speaker 2: my Republican friends give me grief about it, but I
Speaker 2: think our current prosecutor Countie Pillet. She's a Democrat. I
Speaker 2: think she's doing a pretty darn good job. Not everybody
Speaker 2: locally would agree with that. Yeah, I'm glad to hear that,
Speaker 2: as far as it's a real kind of simple proposition.
Speaker 2: In my humble opinion, having been county prosecutor, the stronger
Speaker 2: the prosecutor is, the more crime is going to get
Speaker 2: punished like it should get punished. This whole concept of
Speaker 2: the George Soros prosecutor where he just flooded these liberal
Speaker 2: lawyers running for prosecutor, that has done i think, not
Speaker 2: irreparable damage but close to it to the criminal justice system.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, and I've been involved in it
Speaker 2: in one way, shape or form now for fifty one years,
Speaker 2: and it's just such a basic concept. And you know,
Speaker 2: you put law enforcement in there too. The more cops
Speaker 2: you have on the street, the less crime you have.
Speaker 2: But the proviso being, you let those cops do their job,
Speaker 2: and if for some reason they get in the jackpot,
Speaker 2: if you will, you back them up if it's not
Speaker 2: something that's egregious. And until we have that, I think
Speaker 2: we're going to continue to have the problems. And you know,
Speaker 2: in Hamilton, County, and I hope I'm not veering too
Speaker 2: far off from what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: In Hamilton County, I go down to court.
Speaker 2: I'm retired now, but I've gone down a couple of
Speaker 2: There are not the same amount of people in those
Speaker 2: courtrooms as there was when you know, back in my heyday,
Speaker 2: if you will, in the late eighties, early nineties.
Speaker 1: Going into two thousand, it's about half.
Speaker 2: And I believe, and I've talked to Ken Kobra FOP
Speaker 2: president Dan Hills, it is because cops ain't sticking their
Speaker 2: nose out because they don't think they'll get back from
Speaker 2: the administration. And yeah, it sure seems like they're right
Speaker 2: about that. The stronger the prosecutor, the less crime you have.
Speaker 2: I firmly believe that. And if you take the handcuffs
Speaker 2: off the cops, if you will, that makes a lot
Speaker 2: of difference too. I hope I at least partially. Oh
Speaker 2: my goodness, if I.
Speaker 6: Thought these guys come out. How about the bail, Yeah,
Speaker 6: it should be in jail while they're awaiting sentencing or
Speaker 6: awaiting the legal action.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you're right about that, and that has trended upwards.
Speaker 2: I mean, I was a municipal court judge for about
Speaker 2: three years. And one of the main jobs you have
Speaker 2: there is arraignment and setting bail.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2: And finally it was codified by the Supreme Court. And
Speaker 2: I believe by an election that if one of the
Speaker 2: things that the court can consider is the danger to
Speaker 2: the public in setting bail, I think some of these
Speaker 2: judges don't get it.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, I am.
Speaker 2: Out of time, warn and I got a break for
Speaker 2: the news, But thank you for the call. I really
Speaker 2: appreciate it. I hope I at least came close to
Speaker 2: answering it. Hey, we got to take a break. But
Speaker 2: when we get back, looking forward to this too, we're
Speaker 2: going to talk to former Vice Mayor Christopher Smithman.
Speaker 1: We talked about a lot of things with Christopher.
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask him if you could just do
Speaker 2: kind of an informal year in review for the City
Speaker 2: of Cincinnati from his perspective, and I'm sure lots of
Speaker 2: interesting things to say. We'll do that when we get back.
Speaker 2: Mike Allen in for Slowey seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1: Hey, we're back.
Speaker 2: Mike Allen In for Sloaney will be tomorrow Thursday and
Speaker 2: Friday as well.
Speaker 1: I think it was a good time.
Speaker 2: It is a good time to check in with Christopher Smithman,
Speaker 2: former vice mayor of the City of Cincinnati, knows what's
Speaker 2: going on in this city. Just kind of want to
Speaker 2: see what he's thinking. Christopher, thanks so much for taking
Speaker 2: time out and calling in with us.
Speaker 11: Hey, thanks, Mike, I appreciate it.
Speaker 15: You know, the same things that are happening unfortunately and
Speaker 15: Cincinnati are happening, you know, across a lot of our
Speaker 15: major cities.
Speaker 8: Yep.
Speaker 11: And you know that you see it.
Speaker 15: You know, we're going to have to get our head
Speaker 15: around crime no matter where you live. You know, people
Speaker 15: are tired of seeing their cars taken or we're talking
Speaker 15: about petty crimes or people breaking into their homes. You know,
Speaker 15: we're tired of the murders and the fighting in malls,
Speaker 15: you know, where people are shopping. You know, we're starting
Speaker 15: to see this craziness and this lack of accountability and
Speaker 15: judges who are failing to hold the criminals accountable, and
Speaker 15: then anybody who speaks out against it.
Speaker 11: You know, we're there's an attempt.
Speaker 15: To marginalize us sure as sexist, are racist, are too
Speaker 15: conservative or disconnected I've never seen anything like it, This
Speaker 15: effort to protect criminals. Well, you know, I mean, I
Speaker 15: think twenty twenty six is going to be about resetting,
Speaker 15: you know, our conversation around how we manage crime and
Speaker 15: all of our major cities across Ohio.
Speaker 2: I think you have to and I think exhibit A
Speaker 2: of what you just described is Minnesota. It just blows
Speaker 2: my mind, Christopher, and I'm sure you're following it to
Speaker 2: the extent and the depth of the corruption in this thing.
Speaker 2: And you know, you scratch your head and ask yourself why,
Speaker 2: and you also ask yourself why there's been very very
Speaker 2: scant media coverage. What it seems to be is these
Speaker 2: elected officials, appointed officials and media people are they're afraid
Speaker 2: to call it out because they're going to get the
Speaker 2: big R racism label or the big I islamophobic And
Speaker 2: that's really a prescription for disaster. I think, thankfully it's
Speaker 2: not here. I don't think Christopher yet, obviously not to
Speaker 2: that degree. But it's something that's a problem. Would you agree.
Speaker 15: I mean, you know, it's like every time rational people
Speaker 15: with common sense start saying, you can't steal nine billion
Speaker 15: dollars and I go away, We don't even know the
Speaker 15: size of the corruption and in I mean, we just
Speaker 15: know that it's really big. We know that it's medicaid fraud,
Speaker 15: which you and I support. It supports veterans, it supports
Speaker 15: older people, it supports children with disabilities. I mean, these
Speaker 15: are real dollars that support Americans who need safety net services.
Speaker 15: And I think it's important to not lose sight of
Speaker 15: if this money had not been stolen, it would have
Speaker 15: impacted Americans who really needed it. Yeah, and so that's
Speaker 15: what blows me away from seeing Democrats who will say
Speaker 15: this is their brand, but they seem to be okay, right,
Speaker 15: unwilling to report on whether it's CNN, ABC, MSNBC, CNBC,
Speaker 15: they're just not doing this deep God. And by the way,
Speaker 15: if Elon Musk had not purchased X, we wouldn't even
Speaker 15: have the depth of the information we're having right now,
Speaker 15: because we know that those social media platforms, whether it
Speaker 15: was Facebook that's now called Meta, whether it's.
Speaker 11: Google, whether it's YouTube, they were.
Speaker 15: All out there not allowing information like let's say during COVID,
Speaker 15: to fluently go out there those different opinions. So when
Speaker 15: Elon Musk purchased X and created you know created when
Speaker 15: we bought Twitter and created X, we now are actually
Speaker 15: getting information how I think it was one hundred and
Speaker 15: and seven million views on that twenty three year old
Speaker 15: who went to Minnesota and went door to door.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Why.
Speaker 15: Didn't any of the mainstream media do any of that
Speaker 15: type of basic journalism? So journalism is dead in America
Speaker 15: right now. And so this young man with an iPhone
Speaker 15: did more work than ABC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News
Speaker 15: all of them did with just like a forty five
Speaker 15: minute video that he that he that he did, put
Speaker 15: it up on YouTube or put it up on X
Speaker 15: and allowed the public to view it.
Speaker 2: It's unbelievable. I mean, and we talked about this on
Speaker 2: the show earlier today. That young man did what all
Speaker 2: of those organizations that you just talked about didn't do
Speaker 2: in forty five minutes with a cell phone camera. I
Speaker 2: think he actually had a real camera for one of them.
Speaker 2: It's staggering. Let me ask you this, you and I
Speaker 2: get it. Do you think the majority of people out there,
Speaker 2: normal people that you know, go to work, get paid,
Speaker 2: come home, take.
Speaker 1: Care of their kids.
Speaker 2: Do you think they are as a guest as we
Speaker 2: are as to what's happening out there.
Speaker 15: I think they are, and I the problem is that
Speaker 15: so many Americans like you and I look at this
Speaker 15: and for us it fires us up. Well, for some
Speaker 15: people it breeds. It breeds this lack of I don't like,
Speaker 15: I don't I can't do anything about it. And so
Speaker 15: what we've got to do is educate people, saying, look,
Speaker 15: we have a mid from life. Come it up in
Speaker 15: twenty twenty six. It's really really big. And what all
Speaker 15: of us should be doing over the holidays is talking
Speaker 15: to our eighteen year olds or those who are going
Speaker 15: to turn eighteen, like my daughter in February, saying it's
Speaker 15: important to register to vote, it's important to participate in
Speaker 15: the process. I mean, we need to make sure that
Speaker 15: our young people are being indoctrinated at these college institutions
Speaker 15: that hey, these things don't matter, because you and I
Speaker 15: know that when we look at our federal taxes, they
Speaker 15: continue to go higher.
Speaker 11: We continue to send money away, whether people.
Speaker 15: Are doing r and ds out of their retirement accounts,
Speaker 15: whether they're doing distributions from their pensions, whether they're doing
Speaker 15: distributions from rollover IRA accounts, they see those federal taxes
Speaker 15: coming out. We don't want to see ninety eleven billion.
Speaker 11: Dollars of federal dollars wasted in Minnesota. That's just there.
Speaker 15: You and I know that the medicaid fraud right is
Speaker 15: probably in many different states. Right, We're we're just touching
Speaker 15: the kind of the scratching the surface. And so how
Speaker 15: do we get voters engaged and ready for twenty twenty
Speaker 15: six as an action and that this doesn't breed empathy?
Speaker 15: I mean apathy, excuse me, apathy where someone says I
Speaker 15: really can't do anything about it, Mike Allen, when they
Speaker 15: really can. It's that individual voter.
Speaker 11: Out there that says, enough enough. I'm not going to
Speaker 11: get caught up in race. I'm not going to get.
Speaker 15: Caught up in sexuality and gender and all of these
Speaker 15: things that divide us and distract us. I'm going to
Speaker 15: focus on what matters crime. How can I be safe?
Speaker 15: How can I go to my car, start my car
Speaker 15: on a winter morning, think about this and that, comeback
Speaker 15: and in my drive in my car is still sitting there.
Speaker 15: People know that if they go out and start their
Speaker 15: car now, in some parts of our country, their car
Speaker 15: can be stolen. Their car can be taken away from them,
Speaker 15: driven away just within the five minutes of it being
Speaker 15: warmed up. Or you go to a mall or a
Speaker 15: home depot, or you go into a store and you
Speaker 15: see people just snatching iPhones off the table and running
Speaker 15: out of the store with clothes and and electronics, and
Speaker 15: they're not being held accountable by these judges. Judges are
Speaker 15: all elected, as you know, prosecutors are all elected. Yeah,
Speaker 15: so what are we going to do as a country,
Speaker 15: Mike Allen? Making sure that we're focused and not getting distracted,
Speaker 15: and we're getting ready to participate in the twenty twenty
Speaker 15: sixth election. That is the penophilic that's what we have
Speaker 15: to do. And we cannot let these other politicians distract
Speaker 15: us who are wanting to.
Speaker 11: Hold on the power.
Speaker 2: You know, you mentioned the twenty twenty sixth election, the
Speaker 2: midterms yesterday, I believe it was. I talked to Alex
Speaker 2: Tchant to feel you who you know, he's the chair
Speaker 2: of the state Ohio Republican Party, And I asked him
Speaker 2: exactly that and said, you know, with the midterms coming up,
Speaker 2: Trump ain't on the ballot. If these mega people, if
Speaker 2: these Trump supporters do not get out to vote, we're dead.
Speaker 1: We're dead.
Speaker 2: And man, he latched onto that like a dog with
Speaker 2: a bone and made it very clear that they know
Speaker 2: that at the Ohio Republican Party, and he didn't want
Speaker 2: to tell me what they're gonna do.
Speaker 1: I get that, and they're gonna do what they got
Speaker 1: to do to get those.
Speaker 2: People out because if they don't, Christopher, we're going to
Speaker 2: lose the House. We potentially could lose the Senate. Trump
Speaker 2: is a lame duck, a real lame duck for the
Speaker 2: rest of his term, and stuff's not gonna get done.
Speaker 1: Do you agree?
Speaker 11: I agree?
Speaker 15: I mean we have to say that the election is
Speaker 15: not about talkie talkie. It's a Dewey Dewey. So people
Speaker 15: who are talking around bars and restaurants about how frustrated
Speaker 15: they are, but they're not willing to show up the vote, right,
Speaker 15: you're just talking. You're not Dewey Dewey's right, And so
Speaker 15: you know elections are about Dewey Dewey's I mean showing
Speaker 15: up on election day and actually casting a vote and
Speaker 15: making sure that you're protecting your community from fraud, that
Speaker 15: you're protecting your community from crime. You're saying you want
Speaker 15: to make sure you're infrastrate ructure, like your bridges. You
Speaker 15: want to make sure that your school systems are properly funded.
Speaker 15: Like these are the things that.
Speaker 11: We're voting on.
Speaker 15: I mean, remember, Ohio is about to elect the many
Speaker 15: states are about to elect governors. So vik Ramaswami, who
Speaker 15: I'm endorsing and I support, to be the next governor
Speaker 15: of the state of Ohio.
Speaker 11: It's critical.
Speaker 15: But when you talk to Democrats and the challenger on
Speaker 15: the other side, who was involved with shutting down schools,
Speaker 15: however keeping bars and liquor stores open, I mean Democrats,
Speaker 15: there are a lot of Democrats out there who don't care
Speaker 15: about that.
Speaker 11: They're so partisan ye that they're just going to still
Speaker 11: vote for her no matter what her record is. So
Speaker 11: the election, I would say to Alex trumph and Felo
Speaker 11: if he was listening to this, it really, unfortunately, is
Speaker 11: not going to come down to it's going to be bad.
Speaker 11: It's not going to come down to public policy. It's
Speaker 11: going to come down to getting your voters out and
Speaker 11: making sure that they participate. And so if the Republicans.
Speaker 15: Across the state don't have a ground game, they're gonna
Speaker 15: lose the election. Yep, this is about organizing door to door,
Speaker 15: walking list, making sure your precinct executive executives are organized,
Speaker 15: making sure that every precinct is covered on election day,
Speaker 15: making sure that you don't turn your nose up to
Speaker 15: early voting.
Speaker 11: That's the new world we live in. And so if you.
Speaker 15: Walk away from early voting and you're not stacking up
Speaker 15: those votes during early voting, the Democrats will absolutely be
Speaker 15: victorious in the state of Ohio.
Speaker 11: And across the country.
Speaker 15: But if the Republican parties wake up and say, hey,
Speaker 15: we're gonna we're gonna have a conversation about not talkie talkie,
Speaker 15: but dow we do we and put people on the
Speaker 15: ground and run a very strong ground game. Whether it's
Speaker 15: the individual kendidate or whether it's the party themselves. Hey,
Speaker 15: they're gonna be victorious because it's about getting your voter
Speaker 15: to the ballot, I mean, to the to the polling
Speaker 15: location and that they actually.
Speaker 7: Cast a vote, you know.
Speaker 2: And as I said after talking to him yesterday, I mean,
Speaker 2: he got really animated about that question. And there is
Speaker 2: no doubt in my mind that he knows how important
Speaker 2: that is and is going to do what he can
Speaker 2: do to get the people out and you know what, Chrisopher,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's not all that difficult to understand. I mean,
Speaker 2: if we don't keep the House, if we don't keep
Speaker 2: the Senate, Donald J.
Speaker 1: Trump ain't gonna be able to do much.
Speaker 2: I mean, the only thing he could do, I guess
Speaker 2: is executive orders, and those things, as we all know,
Speaker 2: get tied up in court. But I did want to
Speaker 2: ask you this too, because this really blew me away.
Speaker 2: I had Ken Koberra on I think it was the
Speaker 2: Saturday Show and we're talking and he said that they
Speaker 2: have money, and they have funding. I forget what the
Speaker 2: number was, maybe thirty or fifty new cops. And he
Speaker 2: said they're not filled, that those things aren't filled.
Speaker 1: I asked him why. He said, they can't.
Speaker 2: Find people that want to do that, which is just
Speaker 2: it's the mirror opposite of a million years ago when
Speaker 2: I was involved in that Hell, they give a police test,
Speaker 2: they filled the convention center with people that wanted to
Speaker 2: do it. I mean, is that something that you're hearing
Speaker 2: about too? And what would you say is the solution
Speaker 2: to that? Because it's really hard to believe. I mean,
Speaker 2: I believe Ken, but man, it's people used to be
Speaker 2: lining up for that job.
Speaker 11: Well, President Kober is right, and we also have to.
Speaker 15: Know that the you know, police officers in Cincinnati have
Speaker 15: a really great contract, so they're also you know, paid well,
Speaker 15: great overtime benefits, great off duty detailed benefits. So like,
Speaker 15: even with great contracts, it's been difficult for our Sinnaty
Speaker 15: Police Department and police departments across the country to do
Speaker 15: the kind of recruitment that they have to do. And
Speaker 15: the reason is the elected in those areas. I mean,
Speaker 15: they act as if we, you and I the public
Speaker 15: are crazy, Like you understand that if an officer out
Speaker 15: there makes a split second decision, it could be the
Speaker 15: not just the end of their job, but the end
Speaker 15: of their families. I mean, because people show up to
Speaker 15: your house, they try to destroy your whole life. They
Speaker 15: put your information out on the internet, you know, they
Speaker 15: put you up like you're this this terrible person, and
Speaker 15: you're like, hey, I was in a dark alley, I
Speaker 15: was chasing a guy. He turned around and he had
Speaker 15: a pellet gun. It looked real. I couldn't see the orange.
Speaker 15: Pity I fired, took a life, and now you got
Speaker 15: a jury of its peer saying you made it. You
Speaker 15: made a bad decision.
Speaker 11: That's the reality that we live in. And it's a
Speaker 11: nightmare out there.
Speaker 15: And now you have states like Ohio talking about they
Speaker 15: want to take away immunity. Right, don't think that the
Speaker 15: person out there, you know, like, I'm not going to
Speaker 15: put my entire life on the line. So what happens
Speaker 15: here is that elections have consequences. Mike Allix, we just
Speaker 15: elected the mayor, all these members of of of city
Speaker 15: council in our city. We did it, you know, we
Speaker 15: did it in Anderson Township. We did it across the county,
Speaker 15: We did it across the states here where we had
Speaker 15: a we had a shut down, you had you know,
Speaker 15: King's Day and all that kind of stuff. And Democrats
Speaker 15: really knew what they were doing. They were getting up,
Speaker 15: organizing their base and getting them the early vote. The
Speaker 15: reality of it is is we have elected people Mike
Speaker 15: Allen who won a defund and reimagine the police department.
Speaker 11: That's that's where we are. And the president knows it.
Speaker 11: And guess what, I know it. So if I got
Speaker 11: a son he says, hey, I want to be a
Speaker 11: police officer, Right, I go, I don't know, maybe not
Speaker 11: a police officer. Maybe you choose the military because son,
Speaker 11: you could get out there and make a bad decision
Speaker 11: and it ended up destroying your whole life.
Speaker 2: And we're about out of time. But that is a shame.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry that and finish your thought there. But you
Speaker 2: are absolutely one hundred percent right, and that's a damn
Speaker 2: shame because that's not the way it used to be.
Speaker 15: No, and we have so many the police department, let
Speaker 15: me remind everybody, is the most diverse city department that
Speaker 15: Cincinnati has. And that's true, like you know, with women.
Speaker 2: You know what I think I lost, Christopher. Well, we
Speaker 2: are almost out of time anyway, so let's take a break.
Speaker 2: When we get back, we are going to check in
Speaker 2: with I Heart Aviation Expert Jay Ratliffe, going to see
Speaker 2: what the travel situation is. We'll do that when we
Speaker 2: get back. Mike Allen in for Slowey, seven hundred WLW
Speaker 2: News Radio seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in for Sloaney. Well,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what. We're still in the holiday season,
Speaker 2: have a few more days left of it, obviously, big
Speaker 2: holiday coming up New Year's Day. Wanted to check in
Speaker 2: with iHeart Aviation Expert Jay Ratliffe, to see how it's
Speaker 2: all going.
Speaker 1: Jay, thank you so much for calling in.
Speaker 16: It's a convenient time, brother, so always fun to talk.
Speaker 16: And the deal is you work, I work. That's been
Speaker 16: the forever and ever and ever.
Speaker 2: Brother, You're a good man. Hey, before we get into aviation,
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask you. Every time I talk to you,
Speaker 2: I like to get an update.
Speaker 1: How are your day? Trading students doing?
Speaker 7: Been a pretty lonely day.
Speaker 16: The opening bout range at nine thirty with a stock
Speaker 16: that dropped doubled twice, So I had students putting five six,
Speaker 16: seven hundred bucks on a stock that walked away with
Speaker 16: about three thousand dollars. And after five or eight eight
Speaker 16: minutes they're done, they hit their goal and leave. So
Speaker 16: you know, I'm sitting back here twelve of my thumbs thinking, wow,
Speaker 16: today was supposed to be a pretty busy day and
Speaker 16: I'm working and everybody else's leaving. But you know, you know, Mike,
Speaker 16: I look at I read a report the other day
Speaker 16: that forty seven out of fifty states have underfunded pensions.
Speaker 16: These are state pitchons where eight hundred and thirty two
Speaker 16: billion dollars underfunded, And this is what people are counting
Speaker 16: on for the retirement. And when we see the mess
Speaker 16: that's going on in Minneapolis or Minnesota, and you know
Speaker 16: what's going on across the country, the idea that people
Speaker 16: are counting on those kinds of things for retirement, knowing
Speaker 16: what states are doing, that's one of the reasons that
Speaker 16: when you know Northwest Airlines kicking me to the curb
Speaker 16: all those years ago, I wanted to find a way
Speaker 16: that I didn't have to count on those people. So yeah,
Speaker 16: Lord willing, as long as I've got my right brain
Speaker 16: about me, I'll be I'll be flipping stocks because I'm
Speaker 16: through waiting on other people to take care of me.
Speaker 2: No, And I hear you, well, I'm one of the
Speaker 2: ones that you're talking about with respect to the pensions.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've had a lot of years in public
Speaker 2: service and I'm getting a pretty good pension.
Speaker 16: But you're right, I was thinking of you when I
Speaker 16: when I was saying.
Speaker 8: That, right.
Speaker 16: You know, mostly it's like the looming storm of social security.
Speaker 16: People know, six seven years, we're not going to have
Speaker 16: as many people contributing as taking something's got to be done.
Speaker 16: But people are just skipping along blindly like it's okay.
Speaker 16: The national debt. Who cares if it's thirty eight trillion?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 16: Again, people just oblivious to, you know, some of the
Speaker 16: coming financial storms that we're looking at, and it's it's scary.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this, and it's not aviation related,
Speaker 2: but I want to hear your thoughts on it. What
Speaker 2: are your thoughts on this absolutely wild, crazy and pathetic
Speaker 2: thing going on out in minnes I mean, are you
Speaker 2: as blown away by that as I am?
Speaker 8: Mike?
Speaker 16: When I saw you could vouch for people to sign
Speaker 16: them up to vote vouch, are you kidding me? I
Speaker 16: there's no way. You know, when you and I do
Speaker 16: do shows and different things and reports, we always like, okay,
Speaker 16: we got to verify this to make sure it's sure.
Speaker 16: It's not a you know, some sort of a satirical
Speaker 16: piece where people are having fun with us. And the
Speaker 16: more you look at it, the more just just incredulous
Speaker 16: it becomes. And you know, it's just like in New York,
Speaker 16: where people are going to vote for and did for
Speaker 16: somebody that says I'm gonna give, give, give, without the
Speaker 16: first thought of where there's all this money coming from.
Speaker 16: You've got states like Minnesota with a governor who's either
Speaker 16: clueless or so arrogant. I don't know which that all
Speaker 16: of these billions of dollars are going out the door.
Speaker 16: It takes some kid that's I don't know how old
Speaker 16: of you is that does that investigative video that's you know,
Speaker 16: nine ten million views. Where's the state state representatives? Where's
Speaker 16: where's the congressman and senators? Where's the elected officials that
Speaker 16: you count on to oversee this from stepping forward and
Speaker 16: saying wait, you know, bull whistle time out. Something's going
Speaker 16: on here. And Mike and I are old enough to
Speaker 16: know that when you start to see something like this,
Speaker 16: it's like an iceberg. There's a whole lot more there
Speaker 16: than what you see, and it just makes you wonder
Speaker 16: not only there, but how many other states are guilty
Speaker 16: of this, and just how bad has it been?
Speaker 1: It's the tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 2: Jay and I've talked to a number of people both
Speaker 2: on the air and off the air this week, and
Speaker 2: actually a state senator too who called in that there's
Speaker 2: some something that a lot of people believe is brewing
Speaker 2: up in Columbus with the Somalian community, and it's pretty
Speaker 2: much stay tuned, you know, But I guess we'll see.
Speaker 16: I'm glad you're on top of it, Mike, I really am,
Speaker 16: because the only way we're going to know about it
Speaker 16: is that people like you continue to keep us updated
Speaker 16: because you know, all of us have busy lives doing
Speaker 16: a g bazillion different things, and you know, sometimes we're
Speaker 16: guilty just skimming across the headlines and picking out what
Speaker 16: affects us or doesn't affect us, and it's another state,
Speaker 16: doesn't really affect me. But as you point out, yeah,
Speaker 16: it very well could. It's our money. Hey, Before we
Speaker 16: do the twenty twenty five year in review aviation wise.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you.
Speaker 2: I mean, people are still a lot of people are
Speaker 2: still traveling. Any tips, any warnings, anything you want to
Speaker 2: say to those people that'll help them.
Speaker 16: We're getting through the Christmas end of year travel season
Speaker 16: pretty good. The TSA is reporting two point eight two
Speaker 16: point nine million people flying every day as we expect
Speaker 16: through this week up until next Monday, Tuesday and so on.
Speaker 16: The weather's been decent, it's not been horrific. We've not
Speaker 16: had any computer meltdowns like we had with the Southwest,
Speaker 16: you know three or four years ago, when the entire
Speaker 16: week of Christmas their computers were down the toilet, and
Speaker 16: most people seem to be showing up at the airports
Speaker 16: on time. The TSA is doing a good job of
Speaker 16: moving people through. No viral stories there. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 16: just kind of hoping for the next week we can
Speaker 16: continue to have decent not perfect, I mean it's weather,
Speaker 16: it's winter weather, but you know, decent enough weather that
Speaker 16: we can kind of sneak through this without any great problems,
Speaker 16: because we got through the week of Thanksgiving other than
Speaker 16: that last weekend with issues, and that's the busiest travel
Speaker 16: week of the year, followed by the last two weeks
Speaker 16: of December, and so far, so good. We just wanted
Speaker 16: to continue once we get January first, second, third right
Speaker 16: in there. That begins the slower January typical travel season
Speaker 16: that a lot of people that are looking for a
Speaker 16: bargain will travel because it's where you know, airfares are
Speaker 16: cheaper and you've got cheaper car rentals, cheaper hotels. It's
Speaker 16: like May in September months that very few people travel,
Speaker 16: and it's where you get the best deals and if
Speaker 16: you're flexible, yeah, save money and travel when other people aren't.
Speaker 2: You know, twenty twenty five looking at the Year in Review.
Speaker 2: One story that's obviously not a good one are the
Speaker 2: plane crashes. I mean, wow, what it was is a situation.
Speaker 2: Is there any reason that people are forth as to
Speaker 2: why that's happening?
Speaker 16: You know, Mike, we went from February of two thousand
Speaker 16: and nine until this last this January without a single
Speaker 16: accident as far as an airplane disaster. Now, we did
Speaker 16: have a passenger that died I think it was Jennifer
Speaker 16: reared In on a Southwest flight where the engine fell apart, decompressed,
Speaker 16: and you know, she died as a result of that happening.
Speaker 16: But as far as the last commercial jet accident where
Speaker 16: a life was lost was sixteen years ago. So we
Speaker 16: get real complacent in thinking, Okay, it's routine, it's a
Speaker 16: routine routine, and then all of a sudden in January,
Speaker 16: we had sixty seven people dying that DC plane crash
Speaker 16: on January twenty ninth. Then we have just days later
Speaker 16: February six that the Baring flight four forty five in
Speaker 16: Alaska where ten people were killed. And then days later
Speaker 16: in Toronto we had that airplane land short of a runway,
Speaker 16: rolls down the runway. You know, nobody died, but eighteen
Speaker 16: people injured, and you're thinking, oh my gosh, what's going on.
Speaker 16: And of course the idiots in DC were like, well,
Speaker 16: ever since President Trump's been elected blob.
Speaker 7: I mean, just please, yeh, that's.
Speaker 16: Beyond asenine, so just shut up. But the point is
Speaker 16: that we have gone so long, so far that the
Speaker 16: FAA typically will confuse the idea that we have had
Speaker 16: no accidents as we're as safe as we need to be,
Speaker 16: and that is so dangerous. I remember talking with a
Speaker 16: lot of FAA and airline officials prior to nine to
Speaker 16: eleven about the fact we weren't screening check luggage and
Speaker 16: the huge security implications that were existing domestically when you
Speaker 16: had you know, two million people a day flying and
Speaker 16: not a single piece of luggage was being X rayed
Speaker 16: at the time, and there was a time before positive
Speaker 16: passenger bag match, which means if you didn't get on
Speaker 16: the plane your bags, then you can actually check in
Speaker 16: for a flight and go home and your bags are
Speaker 16: on the plane unscreened. And the FA officials that I
Speaker 16: constantly were battling, said Jake, the fact that people think
Speaker 16: they're being screened is enough, because we really can't screen
Speaker 16: bags because then you'd have to have passengers showing up
Speaker 16: five hours in advance. The lines would be horrific. It
Speaker 16: would impact aviation to a way that it would change
Speaker 16: things where we could not manage it. So we're not
Speaker 16: going to do it. And I was holding my breath
Speaker 16: anytime there was a plane crash thinking is this the
Speaker 16: first of fifty to come out of the sky.
Speaker 8: Now took the.
Speaker 16: Attacks of nine to eleven before the FAA decided, Okay,
Speaker 16: we've really got to do something. Now we're going to
Speaker 16: start screening luggage. But even after the bombing of Panem
Speaker 16: one or three over lockerby Scotland, all those lives were lost,
Speaker 16: the National Transportation Safety Board, the all star team who
Speaker 16: I cannot speak highly enough of, comes out and says
Speaker 16: we need to start screening check bags. And the FAA said, well,
Speaker 16: we'll take it under advisement. We're not going to but
Speaker 16: here's what we're going to do. Instead of screening bags
Speaker 16: like we should. This is the perception of let's do
Speaker 16: something versus doing something. We're going to ask passengers three
Speaker 16: very probing questions. Did you pack the bag yourself? Has
Speaker 16: it been in your possession? The whole time, has anybody
Speaker 16: unknown to you come up and given you anything to
Speaker 16: put in your bag like some terrasts is going to
Speaker 16: absolutely say every single thing, honestly, And that's that's how
Speaker 16: we responded with the perception of doing something versus making
Speaker 16: things safer. And thank god now we do screen check bags.
Speaker 16: But Mike, when it comes to the DC plane crash,
Speaker 16: we knew for years that the military traffic in the
Speaker 16: commercial air traffic was so entwined that we were on
Speaker 16: borrow time. The fact that you had airplanes that were
Speaker 16: landing with aircraft coming across the water, there a lot
Speaker 16: of them shuttling important so to speak, congressmen and women
Speaker 16: back and forth to where they needed to be. That
Speaker 16: even though pilots said, this is one of the worst
Speaker 16: airports to land in, it's one we've got to divert
Speaker 16: more at the last minute than any other airport. You
Speaker 16: had the situation where you know, this helicopter is not
Speaker 16: where it should be. Get a pilot that wasn't really
Speaker 16: responding to the instructor trainer that was with her at
Speaker 16: the time, and you end up having an aircraft that's
Speaker 16: not where it should be, impacting an arriving American Airlines
Speaker 16: Regional Jet, and you have sixty seven lives lost in
Speaker 16: an airport that we knew we had problems with. Then
Speaker 16: they come out with the big beautiful bill that President
Speaker 16: Trump has put forward. Mike was in there, there's a provision.
Speaker 16: This is a three thousand page thing that's landed on
Speaker 16: the desk and cucked within.
Speaker 1: There our actual.
Speaker 7: Wording.
Speaker 16: It's hard for me to even think this that's going
Speaker 16: to reduce the restrictions even more. In DC, it was
Speaker 16: so bad the National Transportation Safety Board chair came out
Speaker 16: and said, time out, this is wrong.
Speaker 8: Mike.
Speaker 16: I can't tell you that anytime I ever remembered in
Speaker 16: the last thirty to forty years that an NTSB sitting
Speaker 16: chair has come out to comment on something legislatively that's
Speaker 16: taking place. But she did, saying this can't happen. And
Speaker 16: I really hope that we don't allow the airlines or
Speaker 16: airports to tell the government what to do the other
Speaker 16: way around, because we simply can't be put in a
Speaker 16: position where we're going to make things worse than what
Speaker 16: they've been. There's just no issues for that.
Speaker 2: Not a good idea, Jay, I know, you know that
Speaker 2: the one thing that I'm hearing a lot just from
Speaker 2: people that travel, and I know the airlines continue to
Speaker 2: make frequent flyer programs harder. Do you think we're headed
Speaker 2: towards where they just get rid of them?
Speaker 16: Well, they don't. They can't get rid of them. They
Speaker 16: make so much money. Mike, you ahead of time when
Speaker 16: airlines couldn't make money at all. Then in twenty twelve
Speaker 16: they start these ancillary fees where we're going to now
Speaker 16: start forging you to check a bag and seating all this,
Speaker 16: And then they started up with the credit cards and
Speaker 16: kind of became banks where you know every dollar you
Speaker 16: charge it's a frequent flyer mile. And airlines are starting
Speaker 16: to make so much money. You'd Delta Airlines United last
Speaker 16: year that within a single quarter reporting a profit.
Speaker 1: Of a billion dollars.
Speaker 16: Now they don't get that by hauling us from here
Speaker 16: to Orlando and back. They're getting that from a lot
Speaker 16: of these other types of things that are connected with
Speaker 16: these freekom flyer programs. Now, airlines are the most arrogance
Speaker 16: entity that you can think of, and they've continued to
Speaker 16: make things harder and harder to achieve the upper status
Speaker 16: that so many frequent travelers have been able to achieve
Speaker 16: over the years. And what it used to be is
Speaker 16: if you are a top top top frekome flyer and
Speaker 16: you booked a coach ticket, you could show up and
Speaker 16: because of your status and how much money you give
Speaker 16: the airlines every year, if there's a seat in first class,
Speaker 16: they will complementarily put you there as they thank you
Speaker 16: for being a loyal, top top frequent flyer. But not anymore.
Speaker 16: Now the airlines are boarding these individuals. They're getting on
Speaker 16: a plane after being told they can't be upgraded. They
Speaker 16: sit down and coach and see empty seats in first class,
Speaker 16: and airlines are saying, no, no, no, You've got to
Speaker 16: pay for those. Either burn some miles or pay extra
Speaker 16: bucks to sit in a seat that we used to
Speaker 16: give you for free. Airlines are taking off. Airlines at
Speaker 16: customers so much, making it harder to get the miles,
Speaker 16: harder to use them. And Mike, we're filling up their planes.
Speaker 16: I mean eighty half percent of the flights are filled.
Speaker 16: There's zero incentive for airlines to stop treating us like crap.
Speaker 16: So as long as we keep showing up, I mean,
Speaker 16: they're laughing at us. And that's why when these surveys
Speaker 16: on customer service come out ranking the world's top twenty airlines.
Speaker 16: From a customer service standpoint, I laugh when people say, hey,
Speaker 16: did any US carriers make that top twenty on how
Speaker 16: many did? I'm like, we're nowhere near the top twenty
Speaker 16: because the customer service means you're going to be treated
Speaker 16: like you're appreciated, and Mike, they don't do it, and
Speaker 16: it just aggravates me to no end. And that's why
Speaker 16: I tell people, if you've got to complaint with an airline,
Speaker 16: don't you dare complain to the airline. Go to dot
Speaker 16: dot gov in the upper box at the top, just
Speaker 16: type in airline complaint. Very easy to fill out online
Speaker 16: forum appears takes just a couple of minutes, put in
Speaker 16: your confirmation number and briefly explain what happened. Then your
Speaker 16: complaint goes to the Department of Transportation, who then goes
Speaker 16: to the airline on our behalf. Now, I'm on national
Speaker 16: shows all the time and I mentioned this, and I
Speaker 16: hear from airline friends all over the country saying, Jay,
Speaker 16: shut up. Stop telling people that there's too much paperwork involved.
Speaker 16: And my response is, stop treating us like crap and
Speaker 16: I'll stop talking about it, but as long as you do, yes,
Speaker 16: dot dot gov is the place you need to go.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: Hey, we're out of time, man, I appreciate this. It's
Speaker 2: been very helpful. Thank you so much time. Good to
Speaker 2: talk to you. Okay, thank you you too. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: tell you what. It's an adventure anymore flying. Although I've
Speaker 2: had some pretty good luck lately.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It just seems like they're just they're out to get
Speaker 2: your money anyway they can coming up, like Jay said,
Speaker 2: with these things. Oh we got a charge of this
Speaker 2: much for this bag. And I'll tell you I'm old enough.
Speaker 2: You remember when flying was a big deal, man, People
Speaker 2: got dressed up for it, the stewardess as if you will.
Speaker 2: I know they don't like that. And there's some men
Speaker 2: now were very complimentary and they did their job too.
Speaker 2: Times have changed. That's not the only thing. But it's
Speaker 2: just a good idea. The service has been cut in
Speaker 2: so many things. Hey, speaking of cutting, I'm going to
Speaker 2: cut out of here. We're done. I will be back tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Mike Allen in for slowly seven hundred WLW