Speaker 1: You want to be an American.
Speaker 2: Indio News Radio seven hundred WLW Mike Allen in for
Speaker 2: Slowney today. Oh, lots going on, you know. I just
Speaker 2: saw this this morning Australia. My daughter is in the
Speaker 2: in the army. She stationed there protesters in Australia. I
Speaker 2: guess what they did. They blocked a bus that was
Speaker 2: carrying the Iranian women's soccer team. Uh, they got out,
Speaker 2: they lost, and they exited the I think it's the
Speaker 2: Women's Asian Cup this week. But I guess what happened
Speaker 2: is dozens of demonstrators knelt down or they laid in
Speaker 2: front of the bus outside the team's hotel on the
Speaker 2: Gold Coast. They were chanting save our girls and waving
Speaker 2: pre revolution Iranian flags. Now, just so you know, the
Speaker 2: pre revolution flag looks a lot like the one they
Speaker 2: have now, so he got to kind of look at
Speaker 2: it closely. But here's the gist of it. Though five
Speaker 2: players asked for and were granted asylum by the Australian
Speaker 2: government after seeking safety amid fears of punishment in Iran.
Speaker 2: You think right as I was coming out the door
Speaker 2: this morning, I saw the Prime Minister of Australia don't
Speaker 2: remember his name talking about it, and he said, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, they got a home here, and so does
Speaker 2: the rest of the team if they should want to.
Speaker 2: So he is going to grant them asylum. Now I
Speaker 2: read one thing where apparently he didn't want to do
Speaker 2: that at first, but they now are going to grant asylum,
Speaker 2: as I understand it to these five more hubbub with
Speaker 2: this team in a good way as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2: This team initially refused to sing the Iranian national anthem
Speaker 2: that was before the first match against South Korea, and
Speaker 2: they did that as a gesture of protest or mourning.
Speaker 2: I guess what happened was President Trump when he found
Speaker 2: out or heard that initially they weren't going to grant asylum,
Speaker 2: he got on the Tom Tom's probably truth social and
Speaker 2: raised a bit of a ruckus and the Australian PM
Speaker 2: Prime Minister gave in. But you know what, it just
Speaker 2: demonstrates what you're dealing with here with Iran, And unless
Speaker 2: you're a total idiot, you realize this. These are horrible,
Speaker 2: horrible people. You know, I wouldn't want to be those
Speaker 2: five women if I went back to Iran. After not
Speaker 2: singing the Iranian national anthem. There's just no way, Lord
Speaker 2: knows what they would do with it. But just curiously,
Speaker 2: you know, I know this thing's only about a day old,
Speaker 2: and perhaps I missed it. I didn't hear now or
Speaker 2: any women's groups screaming about that. And don't you find
Speaker 2: that really unusual? Of course, I say all of this
Speaker 2: with tongue firmly planted in chic They don't care. You know,
Speaker 2: if it's something that's not gonna make America look bad,
Speaker 2: then they're not concerned with it. Such hypocrites. But we
Speaker 2: shall see how this plays out. But I'll tell you,
Speaker 2: I'd like to give all five of those young ladies
Speaker 2: a metal if I could, because they're brave. And there's
Speaker 2: a lot of people like that in that country that
Speaker 2: are brave, and you know, we've kind of set the
Speaker 2: table for them, and now it's time for them to
Speaker 2: take their country back. And tomorrow you probably already know,
Speaker 2: maybe you don't, President Trump is coming to Cincinnati, and
Speaker 2: here's the deal with that. And by the way, we
Speaker 2: will be talking to Janis Heisel of the Epoch Times
Speaker 2: at nine point thirty. She is covering the event. The
Speaker 2: President's visit for the Epoch time, so we'll get the
Speaker 2: download from her what she knows about it. But he's
Speaker 2: going to visit Cincinnati and Hebrew, Kentucky, Kentucky on Wednesday, Tomorrow,
Speaker 2: March eleventh, Trump will be touring the Thermo Fisher Scientific
Speaker 2: and discussing Trump are Acts a government website that allows
Speaker 2: people to buy discounted prescription drugs. And I'll tell you
Speaker 2: what I'm all for that. It's just a joke. I mean,
Speaker 2: every time I go and you know, I got to
Speaker 2: get a prescription filled, the price is different, or you know,
Speaker 2: they'll say, well, we build your insurance and they didn't
Speaker 2: cover it. And my rule of thumb on that is
Speaker 2: pretty much, if it's something that you really need, it
Speaker 2: won't be covered, So forget about it. Trump's going to
Speaker 2: be speaking at a public event while in Hebrew at
Speaker 2: Verse Logistics Contract packaging facility. Don't know the purpose of
Speaker 2: that visit so far, but here's the deal. Everybody knows this.
Speaker 2: Northern Kentucky's kind of been a thorn in the President's
Speaker 2: side for a while. The region is represented in Congress
Speaker 2: by Tom Massey, who is always on the other side
Speaker 2: of Trump in these fights in the feud has really
Speaker 2: gotten pretty bitter, so I don't know that's going to
Speaker 2: be interesting to see. But again, as I said, Janis Heisel,
Speaker 2: the Epoch Times will be with us in just a
Speaker 2: little bit to tell us about that. But anyway, he's
Speaker 2: going to speak at this pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturing plant,
Speaker 2: Thermo Fisher that's near I guess the Northern Kentucky International Airport.
Speaker 2: He's going to be there. They don't know for sure
Speaker 2: what time yet, don't have an exact time. I'll tell
Speaker 2: you what. When I was in politics, I've had the
Speaker 2: opportunity to be involved in some of these presidential visits.
Speaker 2: It is a big deal. I mean, you just can't
Speaker 2: imagine what goes into it. Coordination with traffic, security and
Speaker 2: those type of things. And President Trump kind of does
Speaker 2: things on the fly too, So I'm sure all those
Speaker 2: people got their got their things together and it'll work
Speaker 2: out fine. I wanted to talk to you just a
Speaker 2: minute because it's something that I didn't really even know about,
Speaker 2: and I try to find out what is trump Our
Speaker 2: ex Trump deal includes new direct to consumer website announcement,
Speaker 2: and as I said before, this is something it was
Speaker 2: an issue in the campaign. It's still an issue. This
Speaker 2: is something that something has to be done about it
Speaker 2: because other countries don't have the issues that we do
Speaker 2: with respect to prescription drugs. You know, they don't have
Speaker 2: to mortgage their house to be able to get them.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you what, I'm pretty much convinced the
Speaker 2: way this stuff goes is Tony is at the end
Speaker 2: of the chain here cashing in. And I say that
Speaker 2: somewhat with tongue planet in cheek, but at any rate,
Speaker 2: here's the deal with the trump RX. It's expected to
Speaker 2: launch at the beginning of next year, so it's not
Speaker 2: enforced yet. It will allow patients to buy Pfizer drugs.
Speaker 2: Pfizer's the only company that's in so far, at a
Speaker 2: discount of fifty percent on average. I'll tell you something,
Speaker 2: some of the prescriptions I've had to get fifty percent
Speaker 2: off is well, something that will be very, very welcome,
Speaker 2: and as far as Fiser goes, it will include a
Speaker 2: majority of the company's primary care treatments and some specialty brands.
Speaker 2: Pfizer's participation in trump our X is part of a
Speaker 2: greater agreement for the drug maker to lower costs for
Speaker 2: some I don't know how they figure this out, but
Speaker 2: some American consumers. As President Trump tries to reduce drug
Speaker 2: prices to match other countries, and yeah, that's like I
Speaker 2: just said, We're the only country that goes through this nonsense.
Speaker 2: You know, you have a drug that you need, you
Speaker 2: go get it. You know, of course, oh it's sure
Speaker 2: doesn't cover it. But maybe one time when you go,
Speaker 2: it's thirty dollars. Well, then the next time you go,
Speaker 2: it's thirty two dollars. But then if you got your
Speaker 2: good RX thing on your phone, they'll lop another twenty dollars.
Speaker 2: It's just a load of crap, it really is. And
Speaker 2: I am so glad that he's doing this, and I
Speaker 2: just hope that it goes beyond Pfizer. But anyway, Pfizer
Speaker 2: is also planning to invest in US manufacturing, which gives
Speaker 2: it a three year grace period. Here we go from
Speaker 2: Trump's tariffs on pharmaceutical products. By taking this bold step,
Speaker 2: we're ending the era of global price gouging at the
Speaker 2: expense of American families, and we're making America healthy again.
Speaker 2: What mister president, And I'm glad you're doing that, and
Speaker 2: hopefully tomorrow we will be able to learn a little
Speaker 2: bit more about Trump RX and what sure would be
Speaker 2: nice if he could speed it up because as they said,
Speaker 2: it's not scheduled to go online until twenty twenty seven. Hey,
Speaker 2: let's do this. Let's take a quick break and we'll
Speaker 2: be back. Mike Allen in for Slowney, seven hundred wl W,
Speaker 2: down twenty two News Radio, seven hundred wl W. Mike
Speaker 2: Gallon in for Sloaney today. Tell you what I got
Speaker 2: Fox News on obviously with the sound turndown. And I
Speaker 2: am glad I'm not traveling today, tomorrow or the next
Speaker 2: day whatever. What a freaking mess. And it all comes
Speaker 2: down to funding for the Department of Homeland Security and
Speaker 2: the Democrats league, well, we'll show them, you know, we're
Speaker 2: gon we're gonna hang this noose over their head and
Speaker 2: they'll go ahead and cave on ICE. Well, the problem
Speaker 2: is ICE is already funded. I mean, here's the thing.
Speaker 2: I really wonder whether the Democrats think we're all that's
Speaker 2: stupid and we can't figure it out. I've got some
Speaker 2: poll numbers here I'll tell you about in a minute.
Speaker 2: Kind of heartening but not surprising. But anyway, with respect
Speaker 2: to the airports agents have been grappling with partial paychecks.
Speaker 2: That's not good and soon to be empty paychecks if
Speaker 2: this shutdown persists. Here's the thing, the wait time. Now,
Speaker 2: I guess this was yesterday for travelers three point five hours,
Speaker 2: three and a half hours. You know what, I always
Speaker 2: get to the I've traveled a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 2: I get to the airport early. I don't mind doing
Speaker 2: that three and a half hours, and just for such
Speaker 2: a stupid reason. So if you go to the TSA
Speaker 2: website or their app, you won't find it because they
Speaker 2: paused operations on February seventeenth. There's something that pops up.
Speaker 2: I guess that says the site will not be updated
Speaker 2: until after funding is enacted, leaving travelers high and dry
Speaker 2: when it comes to finding wait time information. It's just
Speaker 2: it's unbelievable, it really is. I mean goes on to
Speaker 2: say some individual airports track the security lines, wait times,
Speaker 2: things like that independently, So I guess what they're doing,
Speaker 2: what Homeland Security is doing. They're just pointing people in
Speaker 2: that direction, like, hey, call the airport directly. But I'm
Speaker 2: glad I'm not traveling, and get it. I get it.
Speaker 2: You know, there are delays mechanical otherwise, but this is
Speaker 2: just stupid. It's stupid, and there's no reason for it.
Speaker 2: There's no reason for it at all. But I guess
Speaker 2: we shall see where that goes, all right, you know me.
Speaker 2: I love my polls. This one came out yesterday and
Speaker 2: it's somewhat surprising. Blood as far as I'm concerned, I
Speaker 2: like the way it came out. A new NBC News
Speaker 2: poll released I guess it was yesterday shows that President
Speaker 2: Trump currently holds a higher favorability rating than both California
Speaker 2: Governor Gavin Newsom and Kamala herself. Here's the breakdown, and
Speaker 2: President Trump as these other two jokers, Kamala and Gavin,
Speaker 2: they're all what they referred to in politics as underwater.
Speaker 2: Trump is at forty one percent positive, fifty three percent negative,
Speaker 2: and that's a net loss I guess of twelve points.
Speaker 2: Kamala thirty four percent positive, fifty one percent negative. That's
Speaker 2: a net of seventeen. Gavin new some even worse, only
Speaker 2: twenty seven percent positive, forty five percent negative, for a
Speaker 2: net loss of eighteen. So I mean, there you go.
Speaker 2: If the election were held today, if jdvans I think
Speaker 2: were the candidate, I think he would win. I wouldn't well,
Speaker 2: I almost don't want to say that, but I wouldn't
Speaker 2: bet the ranch on it today. But I think that
Speaker 2: he would people, some people, not many. I think people
Speaker 2: are so busy with their jobs, with their family and
Speaker 2: other things that they just don't watch this stuff. I
Speaker 2: know they don't watch it as much as I do,
Speaker 2: because they're normal people. Anyway, these results are viewed as
Speaker 2: a warning sign, you think, for Newsom and Harris, who
Speaker 2: are both considered top potential Democratic contenders for the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty eighth presidential race. And I'll tell you what, if
Speaker 2: the Democrat Party can't do better than Kamala Harris and
Speaker 2: or Gavin Newsom, they deserve to get paddled pretty badly
Speaker 2: in the election. And of course the big thing's going
Speaker 2: to be the upcoming midterms. But again, the takeaways from
Speaker 2: this thing, and this was an NBC News poll, by
Speaker 2: the way, usually pretty reliable, it's a warning sign for
Speaker 2: Newsoman Harris. As I said the same poll this I
Speaker 2: like this too, found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement ice
Speaker 2: with a net favorability rating. It's not favor a net
Speaker 2: favorability rating of eighteen. Underwater is currently more popular than
Speaker 2: the Democratic Party, which sits at twenty two. After the
Speaker 2: hose job that the mainstream media and the Democrats have
Speaker 2: done to Ice, they are still more popular than the
Speaker 2: generic Democrat Party. You know what I mean. If that
Speaker 2: doesn't make them take pause and kind of look at things,
Speaker 2: than they deserve to lose everything. But the way Ice
Speaker 2: has been trashed and kicked around and maligned and lied about,
Speaker 2: there's still people still like them a lot more than
Speaker 2: the Democrat Party, about four points more. Getting the Trump
Speaker 2: his net favorability is higher than those two jokers I
Speaker 2: just mentioned, but his own job approval is dipped slightly,
Speaker 2: falling from forty seven percent last year at this time
Speaker 2: to forty four percent in early March twenty twenty six,
Speaker 2: which we are in. Despite the low individual favorability for
Speaker 2: Democrat leaders, voters still narrowly preferred Democrats fifty percent over
Speaker 2: Republicans forty four percent for the midterms. I saw something
Speaker 2: else yesterday too. Democrats are so ginned up for the midterms.
Speaker 2: They'll get everybody out, They'll get everybody out, and Republicans
Speaker 2: as always, are lagging behind. And if these maga Republicans
Speaker 2: don't get out and vote in the midterms. We're cooked.
Speaker 2: We're cooked. So just because Trump isn't on a ballot
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that it's not an important election. Anyway. We
Speaker 2: have to take a break for the news. But when
Speaker 2: we get back, as I said, we are going to
Speaker 2: be talking to Janis Heisel of the Epoch Times. She
Speaker 2: is assigned to cover the president's visit tomorrow. Maybe she
Speaker 2: knows more than information and I just gave you, But
Speaker 2: we'll talk to Janis when we get back. Mike Allen
Speaker 2: in for Sloaney, seven hundred wl W. They we're back,
Speaker 2: Mike Allen in for Sloaney, seven hundred wl W. Well,
Speaker 2: like I said in the opening here, we are going
Speaker 2: to have a presidential visit tomorrow. President Trump is going
Speaker 2: to a place called, uh, what's it called? Uh, It's
Speaker 2: Trump is to speak Pharmaceutical Thermo Fisher Scientific. I knew
Speaker 2: I had it. Then he's going to speak over in
Speaker 2: northern Kentucky as well, and that order might be flipped around.
Speaker 2: They didn't know for sure yesterday. But anyway, here to
Speaker 2: talk about it is the senior reporter for the Epoch Times,
Speaker 2: who is going to cover this event tomorrow, Janis Heisel. Janis,
Speaker 2: thanks so much for joining us this morning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is actually Trump's first visiting our area since
Speaker 3: his second term as president began a year a little
Speaker 3: more than a year ago, and so it'll be interesting
Speaker 3: to see how all of this shakes out. Now that
Speaker 3: first event, as you mentioned, Thermo Fisher Scientific, which is
Speaker 3: in reading, he's going to be talking about Trump RIX
Speaker 3: and I think people will say it's so this is
Speaker 3: the argument of the Trump administration. They're saying, look, Americans
Speaker 3: are paying the highest rug prices in the world, so
Speaker 3: there's they've negotiated but what's called most Favored Nation pricing
Speaker 3: agreements so that they can match the lowest price paid
Speaker 3: in other countries. And then through trump RX online, people
Speaker 3: are supposed to be able to get discounts of somewhere
Speaker 3: around forty percent up to ninety three percent again for
Speaker 3: medication prescriptions. So it'll be interesting to see how all
Speaker 3: of that really plays out. It's really relatively new. I
Speaker 3: personally haven't listened to it a whole lot yet, but
Speaker 3: that's he's going to be talking more about that in
Speaker 3: I don't know exactly the timing the visit to Thermal
Speaker 3: push and scientific getting is not open to the public,
Speaker 3: and I believe it's also closed to the press. So
Speaker 3: I'll be focusing my efforts on that second visit, which
Speaker 3: I do know a little more detail on, and that
Speaker 3: one is going to be in the afternoon. He will
Speaker 3: be at Birst Logistics, which is in Hebron, and so
Speaker 3: it's going to be I'm more like a like a
Speaker 3: like a I think a rally field to it, because
Speaker 3: public will be there, and so to be interesting to
Speaker 3: see how that also shapes out, especially because there's a
Speaker 3: little bit of a political fight going on there in
Speaker 3: that reason, because Trump and Representative Massey has left her
Speaker 3: heads with each other over a bunch of different policies
Speaker 3: and some opposition that Matthew has made, and Matthew is
Speaker 3: now facing some opposition. Trump has endorsed a former Navy seal,
Speaker 3: you know, to kind of kick him out of office.
Speaker 3: So we'll see. I'm willing to bet there's probably gonna
Speaker 3: be some aspect of that come up that I don't
Speaker 3: know that one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: I mean, do you think that president won't hold back
Speaker 2: on that?
Speaker 3: I mean, well, you never know, but to a certain degree,
Speaker 3: if you were a betting woman. I bet he's gonna
Speaker 3: think I'm kind of that.
Speaker 2: Hey, Janis, we got a terrible connection here. I don't
Speaker 2: know which side it's on. I can hear you a
Speaker 2: little bit garble, but we will soldier on and apologize
Speaker 2: to the listeners for that. I think, if anything, it's
Speaker 2: probably on our end. I wanted to ask you to
Speaker 2: as a local reporter here, have you ever covered a
Speaker 2: presidential visit or is this your first time?
Speaker 4: Well, I've actually, as you know, covered Trump's campaign for
Speaker 4: his second term, but I do think this is the
Speaker 4: first time i've covered him as while he was sitting
Speaker 4: as a president. I did him long ago for a
Speaker 4: different publication.
Speaker 3: I covered President Bill Clinton while he was.
Speaker 2: In office, Okay, but I.
Speaker 3: Haven't really covered sitting presidents, so to be something kind
Speaker 3: of newish for me, if I recall.
Speaker 2: Correctly, Yeah, it'll be interesting. Hey, I wanted to talk
Speaker 2: about some pieces, some articles that you wrote for the
Speaker 2: Epoch Times, which your usual thorough, deep dive, really good.
Speaker 2: We talked about it, I think it was on Saturday,
Speaker 2: but I wanted to talk to you again about it.
Speaker 2: An article you did Iranians in US consider airstrikes has
Speaker 2: helped to liberate their homeland. And you talk to a
Speaker 2: number of women Iranian Americans, tell us what kind of
Speaker 2: the temperature was for them. I know obviously they're supportive
Speaker 2: of what's going on over there, but just give me
Speaker 2: your thoughts on that real quick if you could.
Speaker 3: Well, actually, it was the cheap reporters that were working on.
Speaker 2: This, and we.
Speaker 3: Interviewed men and women, so three of each. That wasn't
Speaker 3: necessarily by design. We were just trying to get anybody
Speaker 3: who would talk to us, who we could find across
Speaker 3: the nation, various states, And the bottom line theme from
Speaker 3: all of them, they were just so grateful for efforts
Speaker 3: to get them out from underneath the reviews that had
Speaker 3: so oppressed their people. These are people living in the
Speaker 3: United States who either regraded from that country or have
Speaker 3: relatives there or bold and so that was the bottom
Speaker 3: line with them. And I got it too. The interview
Speaker 3: that I personally did, Like I said, so of my
Speaker 3: colleagues did interviews that I kind of wove it all
Speaker 3: together in story form. The one man a personally, he
Speaker 3: touched me veryly when he was telling me how he
Speaker 3: literally his voice was crackingly spoke to me almost in
Speaker 3: tears as he was saying how very much he respects
Speaker 3: the Irate and women who were removing the official Muslim
Speaker 3: uh you know, headcoming and body covering called a hijab.
Speaker 3: They would that removing that is a punishable offense. Yeah,
Speaker 3: if they take that off and they're not wearing it
Speaker 3: in public, and they were removing those and burning those
Speaker 3: at the risk of not only find jail time or
Speaker 3: even det and how much respects has for those women,
Speaker 3: He said, they were so courageous for doing that. I
Speaker 3: don't think people in a country have a concept of
Speaker 3: what that must have been like.
Speaker 2: Oh, I think you're right about that. We really don't.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if you saw it, Jana said,
Speaker 2: I think it broke late last night about the the
Speaker 2: five Iranian women on the on their soccer team that
Speaker 2: they are seeking and granted I believe asylum in Australia
Speaker 2: because they did not sing the national anthem or something,
Speaker 2: the running national anthem or something like that, and now
Speaker 2: the after some doubt, the Prime Minister of Australia is
Speaker 2: granting them asylum. Did you see that yet? I don't
Speaker 2: mean to spring that on you, because it's great.
Speaker 1: I did, but.
Speaker 5: Deeply into detail on that one, since I haven't written
Speaker 5: anything about that one personally, but yes, I am aware
Speaker 5: of it, and from what I understand, I do remember
Speaker 5: seeing a.
Speaker 6: Post from someone on the tree social.
Speaker 3: I think something about the fact that we're several of
Speaker 3: these women who still feel the need to go back
Speaker 3: because they're worried about their family members. They literally are
Speaker 3: going to be targeted for some severe punishment from what
Speaker 3: I understand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll tell you what, I think. I'd make Australia
Speaker 2: my home until things settle down there if I were them.
Speaker 2: But hey, I get it, they're going to be with
Speaker 2: their families. Let me ask you this, in talking to
Speaker 2: these people, the women, the Iranian Americans, do they understand
Speaker 2: that it's up to them now? The citizens ever I
Speaker 2: ran to overthrow and take over their government. I just
Speaker 2: get a feeling that that's not a message that's really
Speaker 2: being pounded into much. What do you think about that?
Speaker 2: Did you talk to any of them about that?
Speaker 6: Well?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Trump did explicitly state that more than once
Speaker 3: when psychically, according to him, it's up to you, the
Speaker 3: Iranian people, to seize this moment because it may be
Speaker 3: your only chance in like generations. So because that Iranian
Speaker 3: regime has been in control for forty seven years, investing
Speaker 3: that the forty step president is going after that. But
Speaker 3: literally under you know, the nuclear you know, enrichment and
Speaker 3: steps towards the nuclear bomb are really what President Trump
Speaker 3: had said, you know, incentivized this.
Speaker 7: But you did.
Speaker 3: Tell the Iranian people in the streets being told by
Speaker 3: the tens of thousands just for protesting, that help was
Speaker 3: going to be on its way. And then he said
Speaker 3: help was there, and they that's what they told me.
Speaker 3: They thought help was there. And I do think that,
Speaker 3: you know, they will try based on what I was told,
Speaker 3: but firepower weapons, these people who are just of I
Speaker 3: don't know any of that, so that is a big
Speaker 3: question mark as whether they will be successful, what they
Speaker 3: might need.
Speaker 6: To be successful.
Speaker 8: And I remember something It was jd Vance, the Vice
Speaker 8: it and saying, well, you never know about Israel. Whether
Speaker 8: I think he said we could not arm the people
Speaker 8: because you never know about Israel, and.
Speaker 3: Response to a report question if I.
Speaker 2: I'm not a hunt with JD.
Speaker 3: Vance, But I do remember a person in the Trump administration.
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure it was him, being.
Speaker 2: That you know, and I can see that happening too
Speaker 2: through Israel. I mean, they've got more to lose than
Speaker 2: we do. But I didn't want to just follow up
Speaker 2: on what you said. Trump's public announcements pronouncements on that issue.
Speaker 2: It's in your story, Jannis. In a video address, and
Speaker 2: I don't know who got to see that or what.
Speaker 2: In a video address, Trump told around citizenry to remain
Speaker 2: sheltered until the bombing cease, and then quote, when we
Speaker 2: are finished take over your government, this will probably be
Speaker 2: your only chance for generations. And I just hope that
Speaker 2: they seize the opportunity for that, But I guess we'll
Speaker 2: have to wait and see it. What sure seems like
Speaker 2: they're primed for it.
Speaker 3: Well those were his exact words, for sure, and you
Speaker 3: know he just he just kind of shook and said,
Speaker 3: we'll see what happens. I mean, I think he says
Speaker 3: something literally along those lines right after that statement. Ye
Speaker 3: kind of like, hey, it would be out of his hands.
Speaker 2: After that shift gears on you here last week. You
Speaker 2: got this story. You've been on top of this Minnesota
Speaker 2: thing since jump and always so thorough and really let
Speaker 2: us know what's going on. They had that hearing last
Speaker 2: week March the fourth I got to watch some of
Speaker 2: it the hearing with the Governor, Tim Waltz and Attorney
Speaker 2: General Keith Allison and man to say that they got
Speaker 2: raked over the coles as an understand, and I don't
Speaker 2: mean that in a negative way, some tough, tough questions
Speaker 2: that they really should have answered a little bit more fully.
Speaker 2: I think, can you kind of tell us about that
Speaker 2: Janis and the four takeaways that you had?
Speaker 3: Sure? So, the chairman of the committee, which was a
Speaker 3: House oversight committee, basically said, you know, this is one
Speaker 3: of the most standout quotes in my memory from this
Speaker 3: hearing was while the whistleblowers were silenced, prasters got rich.
Speaker 3: And so you know, there's some argument that you know,
Speaker 3: just like a football coach or a quarterback, how responsibility
Speaker 3: for what happens with the team or freshing with the
Speaker 3: coach In the same way, the governor and some of
Speaker 3: his supporters were basically saying, you know, you can't know everything.
Speaker 3: You can be in charge of every single little thing,
Speaker 3: but at the end of the day, you know, I
Speaker 3: will say Waltz, the Governor did say that the buck
Speaker 3: stops with me. He has said that several times. So
Speaker 3: he was saying, Look, Comer was saying, look, being in
Speaker 3: charge of this. According to him and a lot of
Speaker 3: other testimony, people who were coming forward from these state
Speaker 3: departments and saying, warning, I am seeing lots of money
Speaker 3: flowing to this place, and they're not really justifying these funds,
Speaker 3: and they're just saying, well, there's Somalians who are running
Speaker 3: that business, so you know, you might be considered racist
Speaker 3: or islamaphobic if we investigate. So just basically be quiet,
Speaker 3: so you know. And they were actually threatened and surveiled,
Speaker 3: and according to a lot of testimony, and there were
Speaker 3: apparently at least thirty whistle blowers who gave testimony in
Speaker 3: private sessions to members of Comer's committee.
Speaker 2: About that eleven billion dollars. Thirty whistle blowers. Gee, I
Speaker 2: think something may be a miss up there in Minnesota.
Speaker 2: You're first out of your four things points that you make.
Speaker 2: Payments kept flowing after fraud alarms, and I've heard that
Speaker 2: ever since this thing started. Jais I mean, and you
Speaker 2: just kind of covered a little bit. They knew something
Speaker 2: was going on, but they kept throwing money at it. Anyway,
Speaker 2: Is that accurate?
Speaker 3: That was what one of the things give out of
Speaker 3: the hearing. You know, Representative Byron Donalds, who's running for
Speaker 3: governor in Florida, was saying that, you know, agency leaders
Speaker 3: directly notified the governor's chief of staff by May of
Speaker 3: twenty twenty about concerns regarding this business called Feeding Our Future.
Speaker 3: It's a nonprofit organization that was paid to get provide
Speaker 3: meals to kids. Yeah, well the payments get this went
Speaker 3: from three hundred and seven thousand dollars in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 3: which is a year before Waltz took office, to two
Speaker 3: one hundred million dollars three years later.
Speaker 5: Wow after So that would have been in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 5: a year after the flat.
Speaker 3: Alarms were raised, And donald and other people are going, what.
Speaker 2: It's just unbelievable. And I still think it's a tip
Speaker 2: of the iceberg. But we'll see, and I want we're
Speaker 2: not going to have time for all of them. But
Speaker 2: the second point, whistleblower retaliation alleged and denied. That's something
Speaker 2: that you've looked at him and we've been talking about
Speaker 2: for a while. It seems to me that that's pretty
Speaker 2: much established now, is it not that the whistleblowers have
Speaker 2: been kind of singled out. I think somebody said Tim Burchett,
Speaker 2: a Republican from Tennessee, almost thirty whistleblowers accused you and
Speaker 2: your administration of retaliation. Of course, Waltz denied it. What
Speaker 2: are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3: Well, not only those whistleblowers spoke directly to that committee
Speaker 3: behind the scenes, but there's that actually an x account
Speaker 3: that claims to represent get this, four hundred Minnesota state
Speaker 3: employees who are issuing statements over and over again. And
Speaker 3: ordinarily anybody can set up a Twitter account, right, so
Speaker 3: you know x xcs Twitter. But you know, the thing
Speaker 3: is that state legislators have spoken to a lot of
Speaker 3: these people confidentially, and they have validated that account as
Speaker 3: being legitimately made up of people who are working or
Speaker 3: were in the past working for state government agencies in Minnesota.
Speaker 3: And so there was one lady who went very public.
Speaker 3: I've seen her name, and I chose not to name
Speaker 3: her in this article for a couple of different reasons.
Speaker 2: But she was a.
Speaker 3: Lifelong Democrat and was called racist. So again, Governor Waltz
Speaker 3: is a Democrat. But this lady, despite being a standploy,
Speaker 3: a lifelong Democrat, was called racist and her she got
Speaker 3: a different job, assignment at a not such a good
Speaker 3: job right after she blew the whistle on fraud.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: You know, so that lady has been public in multiple publications.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll tell you what, there's going to be more
Speaker 2: of that too. And well that just kind of really
Speaker 2: makes you mad. Just the fear of being labeled racist,
Speaker 2: islamophobic causes people not to do anything about it, you know. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: Janis as always we are out of time, but really
Speaker 2: appreciates you spending some time with us this morning.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I just want to encourage people to follow me
Speaker 3: on Janice Heisel. Last name is h I s l E.
Speaker 3: First name is Janis j A.
Speaker 2: I see, all right, thank you so much. Janis really
Speaker 2: a great day. Mind you too. Well, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2: When she does a story, she does a story, and
Speaker 2: that's the Epoch Times in general. And again, if you
Speaker 2: have had a chance, and I'm not working form or anything,
Speaker 2: but if you haven't had a chance to look at it,
Speaker 2: you should because it's a very very thorough publication. Hey,
Speaker 2: we got to take a break, but when we get back,
Speaker 2: will it ever go away? Epstein Epstein Epstein Legal analyst
Speaker 2: Steve Gooden is going to talk to you about another
Speaker 2: Epstein issue, this one with a Cincinnati twist. So make
Speaker 2: sure you want to hear that. We will be back.
Speaker 2: Mike Gallen in for Slowny, seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1: You want to be an American.
Speaker 2: TA News Radio seven WLW. Mike Allen in for Sloaney. Well,
Speaker 2: if you think we're done with Epstein, think again, this
Speaker 2: time with a local twist, some old, old old allegations
Speaker 2: against Epstein and also President Trump. But I mean it's
Speaker 2: as thin as it can be. But again, as I said,
Speaker 2: there is a local twist to it. Here to talk
Speaker 2: about it is legal analyst Steve Gooden. He is a
Speaker 2: partner with Porter Wright and he works on complicated civil
Speaker 2: and criminal cases. Steve, thanks for joining.
Speaker 9: Us, Hey anytime, like, Hey, tell.
Speaker 2: Us about this new thing that you found. As I understand,
Speaker 2: I didn't see it, and it's not really written about
Speaker 2: very much. It was one of the ones that the DOJ,
Speaker 2: I guess lost or something like that. Can you fill
Speaker 2: us in on all that?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 10: Sure, Yeah, this is a really interesting twist and as
Speaker 10: you say, it may be absolutely nothing, but it's fascinating. Nonetheless,
Speaker 10: So the DOJ, Department of Justice released a handful of
Speaker 10: documents on Friday that were not, for whatever reason, originally
Speaker 10: produced with the rest of the Epstein files about six
Speaker 10: weeks ago. And in those documents there are additional allegations
Speaker 10: about Epstein and Donald Trump from roughly to nineteen eighty
Speaker 10: three nineteen eighty four period, and what allegedly happened all
Speaker 10: occurred on Hilton Head Island in a series of long
Speaker 10: term rentals, and there was a woman who came forward
Speaker 10: along with her friend in twenty nineteen, according to these reports,
Speaker 10: called the FBI and said, look, we were I was
Speaker 10: sexually abused there by both Epstein and by President Now
Speaker 10: President Trump provided some very graphic details I won't go
Speaker 10: into on the air.
Speaker 9: But one of the things that caught my mind my.
Speaker 10: Attention immediately in this last release is she references a
Speaker 10: Cincinnati area businessman who was involved in real estate in
Speaker 10: south in South Carolina and gives a very specific description.
Speaker 9: Of him, and he is named in the files. I
Speaker 9: won't name him here.
Speaker 10: There have been several newspaper reports in the Charleston, South
Speaker 10: Carolina area that have really delved into this and have
Speaker 10: tried to figure out, you know, whether or not they
Speaker 10: can substantiate.
Speaker 9: We ate these claims.
Speaker 10: Obviously, the person who made them has been identified as
Speaker 10: an actual person. For mother and friends have been identified,
Speaker 10: and it looks as though the FBI did do some
Speaker 10: follow up calls. This individual is also appears several other
Speaker 10: places now in the files. There are folks, you know,
Speaker 10: out on the internet who are searching through these millions
Speaker 10: of documents because it does seem as though this person
Speaker 10: who we believe most most of us believed to be dead.
Speaker 10: You know, he's someone who has described as quote having
Speaker 10: gray hair and big ears, which isn't much to go on.
Speaker 10: But this individual, this woman.
Speaker 9: Did name him.
Speaker 10: You know, most news papers are not naming him at
Speaker 10: this point because it is now substantiated. But she listed
Speaker 10: him as a Cincinnati area business person with real estate connections,
Speaker 10: business in South Carolina, and someone affiliated with the local college.
Speaker 10: I will say that some of the other folks who
Speaker 10: have dug into this, and as well as myself, you know,
Speaker 10: it looks as though the person may be may be
Speaker 10: more of a Cincinnati person than or Columbus person than
Speaker 10: a Cincinnati person. But it's fascinating, nonetheless, and I think
Speaker 10: it's going to be you know, opening up get a
Speaker 10: new sort of Pandora's box with local connections, particularly given
Speaker 10: you know.
Speaker 9: The ongoing drama.
Speaker 10: At Ohio State over the less wets Near connection with
Speaker 10: they think there is very he is much much more
Speaker 10: firmly established than this. But for the first time, you know,
Speaker 10: you plug in Cincinnati into the DJ surch engine, you're
Speaker 10: going to start to start to see some.
Speaker 2: Stuff, you know, and and it is interesting the Cincinnati connection.
Speaker 2: And obviously I won't ask you to name that person
Speaker 2: he said he passed away? Am I right about that?
Speaker 9: Well?
Speaker 10: Who most of us believe it's a very common name,
Speaker 10: and so I'm trying to talk around it because if
Speaker 10: it's if it is the individual that most folks seem
Speaker 10: to think think it is his, you know, living adult children.
Speaker 10: So again, until something is substantiated in more detail, and
Speaker 10: this person is never criminally charged or anything of that
Speaker 10: name true, but the name can be found in the unredacted.
Speaker 9: Files that were released last Friday.
Speaker 10: So if it's the person that most people think seem
Speaker 10: to think it is the person that has been deceased
Speaker 10: for some years.
Speaker 2: You know, another interesting thing in the article that you
Speaker 2: sent me from the South Carolina newspaper, I'll just read
Speaker 2: that a couple of sentences here. Months later, she was
Speaker 2: charged with six counts of forgery for writing bad checks.
Speaker 2: That's the mom you're talking about there, right, Okay, for
Speaker 2: writing bad checks, a crime she had been accused of
Speaker 2: in the past as well. Signing off on the charges
Speaker 2: was then solicitor, which is prosecutor then solicitor rand Hoff
Speaker 2: Buster Murdo Junior, the dude who was convicted of murder
Speaker 2: his wife and his son. So, I mean, that's a
Speaker 2: kind of an interesting little twist on that.
Speaker 10: Oh yeah, it's insane if you if you dig into
Speaker 10: the whole report, the there's this this gentleman who was
Speaker 10: either from Cincinnati or Columbus was dating her mother and
Speaker 10: then also you know, became involved with her when she
Speaker 10: was thirteen and fourteen.
Speaker 9: That's what she alleges anyway. So and then the mother.
Speaker 10: Obviously ended up going to jail for embezzling from her
Speaker 10: real estate business and later blamed the embezzlement on her
Speaker 10: need to raise money to pay off Jeffrey Epstein, who
Speaker 10: allegedly had photos of her daughter. It's very sordid. And then, yes,
Speaker 10: the prosecutor who put her in jail, for embezzlement, later
Speaker 10: went to prison himself for murdering his wife. So you know,
Speaker 10: Hilton had Charles you know that say they do things
Speaker 10: differently down there.
Speaker 2: I suppose, yeah they do. I mean everything that I've
Speaker 2: watched about that. It's interesting too, as those people kind
Speaker 2: of ruled the roost down there, the murders. But I
Speaker 2: don't know, I thought that was an interesting twist. Just
Speaker 2: a couple more questions on this and then we'll move on.
Speaker 2: Do you, I mean, what is your best guest, Steve Gooden,
Speaker 2: as to when, if ever, all this Epstein stuff is
Speaker 2: going to stop. I mean, and it's a two parter.
Speaker 2: And don't you think just as a general rule or
Speaker 2: principle whatever, that if the Democrats had something on Trump,
Speaker 2: they sure as hell would have trotted it out before
Speaker 2: the election.
Speaker 10: I mean, look, I mean, first and foremost, if there
Speaker 10: was a criminal case to bring against Donald Trump, I
Speaker 10: think that it would have been brought a long long
Speaker 10: time ago. I mean, as we saw in the pier
Speaker 10: between the two terms. I mean, they brought criminal charges
Speaker 10: against him that were baseless. I mean, I still think
Speaker 10: the mortgage fraud case was ridiculous. You know, some of
Speaker 10: the Jack Smith stuff also was totally overblown. Most of
Speaker 10: it fell apart in court. If they had an actual,
Speaker 10: live witness with credible details, you know, I can't imagine
Speaker 10: the case wouldn't have been brought forward. I mean this,
Speaker 10: according to these documents, this individual, this woman was interviewed
Speaker 10: as many as four times by the agents in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 9: So if they really.
Speaker 10: Had something there, any kind of corroborating evidence, you know,
Speaker 10: that would be I would have to imagine that that
Speaker 10: kind of a case would have been brought forward. Now
Speaker 10: that being said, there are things, you know, that do
Speaker 10: according to this Posting Courier piece, which is the big
Speaker 10: newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina, there are some things that
Speaker 10: she says that do line up. I mean, she references
Speaker 10: going to a concert and seeing Jeffrey Epstein, and they
Speaker 10: found evidence that concert actually did occur. You know, they
Speaker 10: found some evidence that supports of her mother was involved
Speaker 10: in this real estate business that she mentions, in which
Speaker 10: Jeffrey Epstein was a client and I think at one
Speaker 10: point an investor. So there are some things there that
Speaker 10: indicate some of the story is true, but so far,
Speaker 10: no one's produced any kind of flight logs or any
Speaker 10: other eyewitnesses that would connect the president there. So I
Speaker 10: don't think there's much of a question that Jeffrey Epstein,
Speaker 10: prior to having his private island, went to places, you know,
Speaker 10: like his ranch in New Mexico and places that he
Speaker 10: would rent and Hilton had to do, you know, his
Speaker 10: his illegal activities. But really, there isn't anything there in
Speaker 10: regards to the President that I don't think hasn't already
Speaker 10: been talked about. There are specifics, there are details, and
Speaker 10: again if you look at the actual documents that are
Speaker 10: now available online, that's very.
Speaker 9: Graphic and terrible.
Speaker 10: But you know, it really is something that's something that
Speaker 10: he's long denied, and that these kinds of allegations have
Speaker 10: floated around him for many many years. You know, the
Speaker 10: only thing that has ever been substantiated in a court
Speaker 10: of law really was the Egene Carroll case where she
Speaker 10: sued him Civilly prime reially for defamation in that case,
Speaker 10: but the defamation was based on his denial of whatever
Speaker 10: sexual encounter they allegedly had at a department store many
Speaker 10: many years ago. So, I mean, these things have floated
Speaker 10: around him. You know, he obviously kind of lived this
Speaker 10: playboy lifestyle and when he was younger, particularly and you know,
Speaker 10: by his own mission, and I think that that opens
Speaker 10: a person up to this kind of speculation, But there
Speaker 10: really isn't anything here that's going to change anybody's mind.
Speaker 10: And really just I think it's just a reflection of
Speaker 10: how divided the country is at the end of the day.
Speaker 10: I mean, there is actual a poll this morning there's
Speaker 10: a significant plurality of people who believe that the invasion
Speaker 10: or our attack on Iran, or Iran has been was
Speaker 10: solely designed to deflect attention from the Epstein files, which
Speaker 10: you know, I mean there's there's you know, there's something
Speaker 10: like forty percent of the public apparently believes that or
Speaker 10: if you can believe the polling. So so that just
Speaker 10: kind of reflects just how how divided the country is.
Speaker 10: And I think, you know, and wh when you look
Speaker 10: at the Epstein files, you're going to see what you're
Speaker 10: looking for. If you hate Trump, you're going to see
Speaker 10: evidence that he's a you know, a rapist and pedophile.
Speaker 10: If you if you love Trump, you're going to look
Speaker 10: at the files and you're going to see evidence that
Speaker 10: he was being persecuted and gossiped about in a way
Speaker 10: that's improper. And then there's a lot of us who
Speaker 10: look at it and and don't know what the hell
Speaker 10: to make of it all, to be honest.
Speaker 2: And then one more, a lot of us look at
Speaker 2: it and wish it would just go away, because it's
Speaker 2: a it's a side issue, if you will, and I
Speaker 2: know for the victims it's not. But the man needs
Speaker 2: to run the country and also do what he needs
Speaker 2: to do in the world. I just wish it would
Speaker 2: go away, but it's not. Hey, let me let me
Speaker 2: kind of change gears here at political of course, you
Speaker 2: being a former Cincinnati City Council member and also the
Speaker 2: chair of the Rejuvenated Charter Party, I understand we had
Speaker 2: a couple more incidents downtown over the weekend, brawls and
Speaker 2: things of that nature. I didn't see it, But tell
Speaker 2: me what you know about that, Steve, Well.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know it.
Speaker 10: It was kind of an interesting weekend and kind of
Speaker 10: what's happened, I think really since last summer when we
Speaker 10: had the horrible incident during the that became like an
Speaker 10: international incident at the Cincinnati Music Festival on Fourth Street,
Speaker 10: where you had this large brawl which is still snaking
Speaker 10: its way through the court. What's kind of happened is
Speaker 10: a lot of folks on social media now sort of
Speaker 10: tracked these fights and incidents downtown.
Speaker 9: And there are more of them, I.
Speaker 10: Think than a lot of folks realize. They don't always
Speaker 10: make it on the news, but a lot of people
Speaker 10: record these things on their phone. So there were at
Speaker 10: least two in the last seventy two hours. There was
Speaker 10: a large brawl with a bunch of teenagers down at
Speaker 10: a concert near the Brady Center. And then there was
Speaker 10: another large brawl involving about twenty to thirty people down
Speaker 10: by the library yesterday. And these are things that unfortunately
Speaker 10: you can get on Facebook or Instagram now and track.
Speaker 10: They're not making a lot of the local news, I think,
Speaker 10: and even by the time sometimes the police respond that
Speaker 10: they're they break up quickly. But there have been two
Speaker 10: more large scale brawls that have been I think very
Speaker 10: well documented. One of them did get some news coverage,
Speaker 10: the one at the concert, but it just continue used
Speaker 10: to be an issue and it continues to be.
Speaker 9: I think they're really.
Speaker 10: Really hanging around then these are these are not in
Speaker 10: the middle of the night. I mean the one yesterday was.
Speaker 10: You know, it was at three pm near a bus stop.
Speaker 10: So I mean, these are things that are occurring right
Speaker 10: in the middle of the business district, right in the
Speaker 10: middle of the work day, and it does beg the
Speaker 10: question about, you know, how the city is deploying our
Speaker 10: police department. I mean, we had a large festival called
Speaker 10: Bockfest Jim Tarbell originated to back in the nineties. I
Speaker 10: had a record turnout. I was down there on Friday
Speaker 10: to watch the parade and no issues at all.
Speaker 9: I mean they had police.
Speaker 10: Everywhere and it was very well organized and very well
Speaker 10: thought out. So we can when we when we have
Speaker 10: a large scale event, do a great safety plan and
Speaker 10: keep people safe. But you know, I didn't see any
Speaker 10: evidence of any kind of arrests or anything associated with
Speaker 10: that large scale festival. Uh So, you know, but it's
Speaker 10: continuing to be an issue. And now I think is
Speaker 10: the weather is turning. You know, we had the awful
Speaker 10: event at Riverfront Live two weeks ago. You know, we're
Speaker 10: just everyone I think is just braced to see what
Speaker 10: kind of a spring and summer we're going to have here.
Speaker 10: I don't think this, you know, this is over. I
Speaker 10: think for downtown and what it means for downtown is
Speaker 10: a very sad thing.
Speaker 2: It is. It is. I mean, the millions, billions of
Speaker 2: dollars invested in downtown and you got to deal with this.
Speaker 2: We got a couple more minutes left. Is it true
Speaker 2: that the proposed city budget will cut public safety by
Speaker 2: five percent? Because if it is, I mean, my head spinning.
Speaker 2: What do you know about that, Steve?
Speaker 9: Well, that's where we are right now.
Speaker 10: I mean, the city is facing a twenty nine million
Speaker 10: dollar deficit, and the early indicate the early plan is
Speaker 10: to cut all departments, including the police department, five percent,
Speaker 10: you know, and obviously we're going absolutely the wrong direction there,
Speaker 10: you know, especially coming out of last summer with our
Speaker 10: incredible uptick in gun violence. And I know the city
Speaker 10: argues that, you know, crime across all categories is you know,
Speaker 10: arguably down city wide, but the uptaking gun violence and
Speaker 10: Downtown OTR and Orthern OTR, especially in the West End,
Speaker 10: it was up over over fifty five percent in those neighborhoods,
Speaker 10: and it was just a you know, a rib a
Speaker 10: terrible period and really you know, resulted in ultimately, I mean,
Speaker 10: I know they're arguing otherwise, but common sense tells you.
Speaker 10: That's why they ultimately suspended the police chief and brought
Speaker 10: in n interim to try to try some of these strategies.
Speaker 10: So the idea that they're you know, that we're trying
Speaker 10: to do something with fewer officers, are actually perhaps you know,
Speaker 10: cutting even some of the technology and trying to find
Speaker 10: that five percent.
Speaker 9: We don't know.
Speaker 10: I know King Kober from the FOP has been out
Speaker 10: publicly stating that in his view, this is just a
Speaker 10: negotiating tactic. But you know, having worked on multiple city budgets,
Speaker 10: I can tell you you know, it is structurally imbalanced.
Speaker 10: There's a requirement to balance it, and they're going to
Speaker 10: be looking every way they can to do that. So
Speaker 10: the idea that we may actually have fewer resources in
Speaker 10: the police department despite this up ticking gun violence is
Speaker 10: a very real possibility, and it's just a it's a
Speaker 10: very sad, sad state of affairs.
Speaker 9: I don't know how else how else to put it.
Speaker 10: I will say this, and I never I'm not you know,
Speaker 10: we've been I've been very critical over the years of
Speaker 10: how our current city manager is shure a long handled
Speaker 10: a lout of matters. But I will say this, in
Speaker 10: your credit. She actually preemptively declined to raise this ship.
Speaker 10: They just reviewed, you know, they reviewed her and gave
Speaker 10: her a great review with with with much of which
Speaker 10: I would respectfully disagree.
Speaker 9: But I will say to her credit that.
Speaker 10: You know, unlike we we've had other city managers over
Speaker 10: over the years, who have you know, who've been you know,
Speaker 10: pretty consistently always bumped up and paid based upon you know,
Speaker 10: the metrics and city users. But I thought her doing
Speaker 10: that actually was a signal that they are really looking
Speaker 10: at making some cuts and and uh and trying to
Speaker 10: try to get out in front of that and actually
Speaker 10: being cognizant of the morale issues that these cuts could
Speaker 10: cause at city hall. So you know, I want to
Speaker 10: give credit where it's due if they really are in
Speaker 10: a budget cutting mode where it looks like they're going
Speaker 10: to have to be her foregoing any kind of increase.
Speaker 10: You know, it did send I think a powerful signal
Speaker 10: that they're serious about.
Speaker 9: That, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and surprising too, Steve. We're out of time, but
Speaker 2: is always really appreciated, and please.
Speaker 9: Keep us posted absolutely you take care of it.
Speaker 2: Okay, you too, thank you. Thanks, you know, talking about
Speaker 2: cutting a police budget by five percent, that means layoffs,
Speaker 2: and having been on the receiving end of a police
Speaker 2: layoff back a million years ago, that ain't fun. It's
Speaker 2: just not But I guess we'll have to see what happens. Hey,
Speaker 2: we got to take a break, but when we get back,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk to Mark Tapson. This guy has
Speaker 2: a op ed piece out that defines the left and
Speaker 2: liberals in general better than I have ever seen before,
Speaker 2: and I'm looking forward to talking to him. His name
Speaker 2: is Mark taps We will talk to him when we
Speaker 2: get back. Mike Allen in for Sloany, seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 2: It is ten thirty eight News Radio, seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 2: Mike Allen in for Scott Sloan. I'll tell you what
Speaker 2: this next guest. If you were here, I'd be giving
Speaker 2: him a medal. He put together for Front Page magazine
Speaker 2: a piece entitled the Left is a Basket of Miserables,
Speaker 2: and I just want to read the first paragraph of
Speaker 2: it and then we'll talk to him. When hockey player
Speaker 2: Jack Hughes slapped the winning goal against Canada recently to
Speaker 2: bring home Olympic gold for the United States for the
Speaker 2: first time since the nineteen eighty miraclew on ice, all
Speaker 2: America exalted, all except, of course, the bitter miserables of
Speaker 2: the left. And with that, let me enter Mark Tapson.
Speaker 2: He is the Shilman Fellow on Popular Culture at the
Speaker 2: David Horowitz Freedom Center. And I'm telling you, Mark, that's
Speaker 2: as good a description as the left the whole article,
Speaker 2: as I've ever seen.
Speaker 11: Thanks Mike, Yeah, you know, I was kind of playing
Speaker 11: with the the pejorative that Hillary Clinton infamously slapped on
Speaker 11: the right, which is that we're a basket of deplorables,
Speaker 11: which is a horrible thing to say, but it occurred
Speaker 11: to me, especially after this Olympic victory, that the left
Speaker 11: should be referred to as a basket of miserables because
Speaker 11: these people are relentlessly discontented. They're relentlessly bitter and relentlessly
Speaker 11: angry that they live in a country that does not
Speaker 11: match the utopian vision they have of a social justice
Speaker 11: perfect world, and that kind of politicize, that kind of
Speaker 11: political forever drives them to politicize every single aspect of
Speaker 11: their lives and our lives too now, because we're dragged
Speaker 11: into it. Remember that slogan from the seventies, the personal
Speaker 11: is the political and vice versa. That's what has brought
Speaker 11: our country to this current situation where Americans can't even
Speaker 11: be brought together anymore by sporting events that were divided
Speaker 11: on every single thing, from sports to bathrooms. And that's
Speaker 11: the reason that the left is miserable all the time.
Speaker 11: It's because leftism, by its very nature, requires its adherents
Speaker 11: to be to live in this kind of perpetual grievance
Speaker 11: and discontent about everything. So it's yeah, So while conservatives
Speaker 11: exulted over this Olympic victory, the left had at best
Speaker 11: mixed feelings about it. They have this kind of cognitive dissonance,
Speaker 11: as they called it, about simultaneously feeling good about your
Speaker 11: country and feeling proud of the Olympic team and and
Speaker 11: hating at the same time the Trump administration.
Speaker 2: And they got to bring that in. Let me ask
Speaker 2: you this, Mark, were you surprised by.
Speaker 9: Any of that?
Speaker 2: Not at all.
Speaker 11: But it's in fact I found it kind of amusing
Speaker 11: the degree to which they they were wringing their hands
Speaker 11: over how to deal with this cognitive dissonance. There was
Speaker 11: a huff Post article that I was kind of spun
Speaker 11: off of which talked about this cognitive dissonance, and the
Speaker 11: writer even spoke with a few clinical psychologists. One of
Speaker 11: them said that that it was an increasingly it was
Speaker 11: one of the main topics that she held space for,
Speaker 11: as she called it, in therapy. And I thought, well,
Speaker 11: it's because progressives are They live in this kind of
Speaker 11: psychological turmoil constantly. They can't just live normal lives. And
Speaker 11: the right understands. You know, this is a major difference
Speaker 11: between right and the left. The right understands that the
Speaker 11: government is not America, that political administrations come and go,
Speaker 11: but America, the country that we love, is sort of
Speaker 11: above and beyond all that. The left cannot make that distinction,
Speaker 11: and so they struggle with the fact that they live
Speaker 11: in under this fascist, totalitarian Trump and yet they're supposed
Speaker 11: to feel good about the Olympic victory. So it's a
Speaker 11: real psychological conundrum for them, and unfortunately, the right tends
Speaker 11: to get dragged into it.
Speaker 2: Yep. Well, and here's the other thing I know from
Speaker 2: my years of being involved in all this stuff. If
Speaker 2: you get into an argument or even a discussion, although
Speaker 2: that's rare because they turn it into an argument with
Speaker 2: a liberal, they will never admit they are wrong. About anything,
Speaker 2: And you can't have a constructive dialogue with somebody that
Speaker 2: just sits there so arrogantly and well, you're wrong about that,
Speaker 2: you're wrong about that, And I don't know what you
Speaker 2: do about it, or if you can do anything about it.
Speaker 11: I don't think you can do anything about it. Actually,
Speaker 11: as someone put it, and I can't recall who. I
Speaker 11: think it may have been, Victor Davis Hanson, but you
Speaker 11: can't reason someone out of a position that they didn't
Speaker 11: reason themselves into.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 11: I think even you know, people like Charlie kirk Aside,
Speaker 11: who you know, was able to go out and and
Speaker 11: try to debate people and actually changed a few minds.
Speaker 11: Apart from that, I think it's literally impossible to have
Speaker 11: a reason debate with the left because, as you put it,
Speaker 11: they they simply cannot admit and will not admit that
Speaker 11: their positions might be wrong. Right, Yeah, it's they and
Speaker 11: they also so they just they never play defense. They
Speaker 11: never are thrown on the defensive. They always always play offense.
Speaker 11: And that's that's a lesson that conservatives actually need to
Speaker 11: take the heart, no.
Speaker 2: Question about it. And you know, I mean I've been
Speaker 2: arguing with them for a long time. And you know
Speaker 2: one other thing too, and I can personally attest to
Speaker 2: this unfortunately, I mean, it even infects families and relationships
Speaker 2: between family members. And you know, let's just say, oh
Speaker 2: it's me if I say, you know, family is way
Speaker 2: up here and politics is way down there. That's just
Speaker 2: a foreign concept to them. You know, it's like you said,
Speaker 2: everything has to be about politics.
Speaker 11: Well, you know, every holiday that rolls around, especially Thanksgiving,
Speaker 11: when families across America tend to get together and you know,
Speaker 11: celebrate this country. Every time a holiday like that role around,
Speaker 11: the left puts out a bunch of articles about this
Speaker 11: is how you should talk to your your racist uncle
Speaker 11: about why he's wrong, and it's it's so tiresome and
Speaker 11: it's so antagonistic, that is, it's really pretty disgusting. But
Speaker 11: their aim, of course, I mean, the far left's aim
Speaker 11: is to divide and conquer, and it's especially hell bent
Speaker 11: literally on dividing and breaking up families because that's that's
Speaker 11: the that's the ultimate goal of neo cultural Marxist is
Speaker 11: the abolition of the family, as Karl Marx put it
Speaker 11: very bluntly. So that's every time a holiday rolls around.
Speaker 11: You're reminded that they have made politics the center of
Speaker 11: their lives, and if you disagree with them, even if
Speaker 11: you're related or even closely related, they'll cut you off
Speaker 11: if you don't reject the opinions they disagree with.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you that is you wouldn't know how
Speaker 2: accurate that is, just the way they are. And one
Speaker 2: thing about them too that I enjoy, and I've enjoyed
Speaker 2: through the years, it's fun to piss them off. And
Speaker 2: it's really kind of easy too. I get people calling
Speaker 2: into this show and my Saturday show Lives, and every
Speaker 2: once in a while they'll call, and I like when
Speaker 2: they do. But you know, when they start yelling and screaming,
Speaker 2: it's really easy to set them into orbit. And you
Speaker 2: know that's kind of fun.
Speaker 11: Well, Conservatives tend to come at them with facts, yeah,
Speaker 11: and you know, real world concepts, and that's not the
Speaker 11: world that the left lives in the world lives. The
Speaker 11: left lives in this world of this utopian vision of
Speaker 11: theirs in which everything can be deconstructed and reconstructed according
Speaker 11: to the way they believe the world should be. So
Speaker 11: human nature, for example, which conservatives just accept as a
Speaker 11: fact of life.
Speaker 2: That's not a real thing for the left.
Speaker 11: The left believes that there is no such thing as
Speaker 11: human nature, that everything is socially constructed, and therefore you
Speaker 11: can anything that's faulty about human nature, you can break down,
Speaker 11: deconstruct it, get rid of it, and socially engineer a
Speaker 11: more perfect society. And so they live in this impossibly
Speaker 11: unrealistic world that just drives them to constant bitterness and
Speaker 11: frustration and discontent.
Speaker 2: No question about it. There are so many things in
Speaker 2: this op ed piece that I absolutely love. But just
Speaker 2: bear with me. I want to read another paragraph. It's
Speaker 2: a relatively short one, talking about Trump derangement syndrome. One
Speaker 2: such Trump derangement syndrome sufferer tweeted about the Olympics. Quote
Speaker 2: Trump did this. He made it impossible to be proud
Speaker 2: of anything American. It's straight up embarrassing and shameful to
Speaker 2: be an American. Now, f Trump f ice this whole
Speaker 2: corrupt administration, The Bitter Miserable concluded. The Bitter Miserable concluded
Speaker 2: in the less profane in articulate style. And you are
Speaker 2: so so right about that, Martin. I mean, it's always
Speaker 2: got to be tinged with either obscenity or some kind
Speaker 2: of anger. I mean, you've got to give them one thing.
Speaker 2: The Left, they're consistent, consistently wrong.
Speaker 11: Yeah, the whole profanity thing. I'm constantly pointing out. Part
Speaker 11: of the reason for that is because they despise bourgeois
Speaker 11: or middle class values and they love profanity.
Speaker 2: They're constantly spewing it.
Speaker 11: Because they love to sort of throw that in the
Speaker 11: face of more restrained, conservative minded middle class people.
Speaker 2: They love to attack that value.
Speaker 11: And also the other thing is they're just not good
Speaker 11: at articulating their positions because because they can't rationally defend
Speaker 11: those positions, so they're just reduced to spewing f words
Speaker 11: every chance they get. And it's it's completely ineffective as
Speaker 11: a as a debating tool. But because it's just that's
Speaker 11: the point of it is that it kind of shuts
Speaker 11: down debate.
Speaker 2: You're right, and we're getting so crass in this society,
Speaker 2: not just politically but everything. And you know, I mean fifteen,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five years ago, if you would have seen that,
Speaker 2: my god, I mean, the FCC probably would have jerked
Speaker 2: the license of a talk show host that said something
Speaker 2: like that. But you know, it's acceptable now, let me
Speaker 2: ask you this, It's probably the hardest question of all.
Speaker 2: Where do you see this headed Mark taps and is
Speaker 2: it ever going to be where they're I don't want
Speaker 2: to say reconciliation, but maybe at least you're able to
Speaker 2: have a discussion with someone on the other end of
Speaker 2: the political spectrum, or do you think it'll get worse? Well,
Speaker 2: I hate to be I wish I could be more.
Speaker 9: I'm a little more.
Speaker 7: I mean, I'm.
Speaker 11: Personally kind of optimistic in the long run, but in
Speaker 11: the short run, I'm very pessimistic. I think we're headed. Look,
Speaker 11: we're we're already in a hot civil war. We're not
Speaker 11: you know, we're not just at each other's throats or
Speaker 11: verging on civil war. We're already in a civil war
Speaker 11: in which one side is waging violence against the other side.
Speaker 11: So I think it's just going to get worse until
Speaker 11: the far left, which currently controls the Democrat Party, is
Speaker 11: somehow burns itself out, or we just or the right
Speaker 11: just successfully confronts it over and over again until it's spent.
Speaker 11: Because there's no reconciliation. There's currently no reconciliation between right
Speaker 11: and left. Were with each other on every single issue.
Speaker 11: There's a grand canyon sized gulf between us at the moment.
Speaker 11: It just cannot be bridged by dialogue alone. I think
Speaker 11: the far left has to be destroyed and we have
Speaker 11: to get back to a country in which.
Speaker 2: We might be at odds with each.
Speaker 11: Other, even vehemently so, but that we're not in a
Speaker 11: civil war and we're not committing violence against each other.
Speaker 2: That's got to go, no question about it. I'm going
Speaker 2: to end this interview with again just reading a couple
Speaker 2: of paragraphs. That's the end of your piece, which again
Speaker 2: I will tell my listeners it is from Front Page magazine.
Speaker 2: The left is a basket of miserables. Okay, here's the
Speaker 2: end of it. As one conservative ex user commented about
Speaker 2: the about the where do they get okay, about the
Speaker 2: purporting cognitive dissonance, and you were talking about that. If
Speaker 2: you can't separate things, you need to work on your
Speaker 2: adulting skills. Sound advice. This is this is the weenie.
Speaker 2: If you will, Oklahoma Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, and
Speaker 2: he's the one that will now be he'll have the
Speaker 2: job that Christy Noam had with respect to Ice. Senator
Speaker 2: Mark Wayne Mullen responded on next to the huff Post piece,
Speaker 2: and as you said, that's where you know you were
Speaker 2: kind of answering that quote. And this is Senator Mullen.
Speaker 2: If you can't be excited about winning gold at the Olympics,
Speaker 2: including in overtime versus Canada, you don't have a pulse.
Speaker 2: Some people will pick victimhood and being miserable over having
Speaker 2: an ounce of patriotism. Good luck, And the last thing
Speaker 2: response to that, Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, was a
Speaker 2: little more blunt. Get the hell out of my country, USA, USA, USA.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Mark for right reading that. I'm
Speaker 2: tempted to take it home and frame it, and I
Speaker 2: want as many people as I can to read it,
Speaker 2: because in I don't know, four or five short pages,
Speaker 2: you nailed it, absolutely nailed it. Thanks Mike.
Speaker 9: I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: Okay, anything you want to say before we get out
Speaker 2: of here, How people can get ahold of you?
Speaker 11: Well, a couple of places. One you could go to
Speaker 11: my substack. It's Mark Tapson dot substack dot com. And
Speaker 11: also go to front pagemag dot com, which is the
Speaker 11: flagship website of the David Horwitz Freedom Center, which I
Speaker 11: write for.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you so much, and hope we can call
Speaker 2: on you again.
Speaker 9: Sounds good. I'd look forward to it.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you all right. You know, I can tend
Speaker 2: to maybe exaggerate sometimes I'm not I'm not on this one.
Speaker 2: I read so much of this stuff, but this one
Speaker 2: just nails it, absolutely nails it with respect to the
Speaker 2: Left and how they conduct themselves. And we're never going
Speaker 2: to have any kind of dialogue with one, not budging
Speaker 2: an inch because they think they're always right about everything.
Speaker 2: It just ain't gonna work anyway. We need to take
Speaker 2: a break. But when we get back, boy, I'll tell
Speaker 2: you what I used to think. There were two places
Speaker 2: in the world where you had to behave yourself. One
Speaker 2: is church and the other is a courtroom. Not so anymore.
Speaker 2: When we get back, we're going to talk to Judge
Speaker 2: Brad Greenberg about what's going on down the courthouse, not
Speaker 2: just our courthouse, but all around the country. We'll do
Speaker 2: that when we get back. Mike Allen in for Sloaney
Speaker 2: seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1: Do you want to be an American Idiot?
Speaker 2: Home of the Reds seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in
Speaker 2: for Sloaney. Well, you know, like I said in the
Speaker 2: intro coming out of the news or before the news here,
Speaker 2: I always think there are two places where you have
Speaker 2: to behave yourself. You have to behave yourself. That's church
Speaker 2: and the other one is a courtroom. Well you can
Speaker 2: throw church out now with Don Lemon and others invading
Speaker 2: a church, and the court room is having their problems too.
Speaker 2: Here to talk about it is Judge Brad Greenberg of
Speaker 2: the Hamilton County Municipal Court. He served in UNI court
Speaker 2: since two thousand and six. He also presides over the
Speaker 2: Hamilton County Veterans Court, which is a great great court.
Speaker 2: He represents Judicial District five, and I think people should
Speaker 2: know the districts and which judges you can vote for.
Speaker 2: District five include Sycamore Township, Simms Township, Loveland, Blue Ash, Montgomery, Sharonville, Madera,
Speaker 2: Indian Hill, Reading, Deer Park, Springdale, Glendale, Evendale and Terrace Park.
Speaker 2: Here to talk about a great piece that he authored
Speaker 2: just I don't know about a week or so ago,
Speaker 2: a little bit more than that. It's entitled there must
Speaker 2: be zero tolerance for violence in our courts, And he's
Speaker 2: so right judge, thank you so much for joining us
Speaker 2: this morning.
Speaker 12: Hi Mike, thanks for having me on and it's great
Speaker 12: to be with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Judge, Tell me what prompted you to write
Speaker 2: the op ed that you did. I know there was
Speaker 2: an incident a few weeks before that where people really
Speaker 2: got out of hand at the courthouse, but before anything.
Speaker 2: I mean, I agree with you one hundred percent, but
Speaker 2: what prompted you to write it?
Speaker 9: So you're right.
Speaker 12: On February twenty fourth, there was a big crowd in
Speaker 12: Judge Robert Winkler's courtroom as a defendant was pleading guilty
Speaker 12: in a murder case and he was being sentenced to prison.
Speaker 12: And as the defendant was being escorted out of the courtroom,
Speaker 12: a member of the victim's family actually attempted to attack
Speaker 12: him in the hallway. And at that point it was
Speaker 12: on and we had a full fledged melee at the courthouse.
Speaker 12: And I'm sorry to go eighteen deputies.
Speaker 2: They responded, WHOA wow, it's a heck of a lot
Speaker 2: of deputies that maybe not that bad, but this is
Speaker 2: becoming something that is a problem. Now. I started going
Speaker 2: in courtrooms a million years ago, and man, you've never
Speaker 2: saw anything like that. But across the country, it sure
Speaker 2: seems like we're seeing more of it. Why do you
Speaker 2: think that is?
Speaker 12: You know, it's like all things across our society, just
Speaker 12: behavior has been getting worse. You see it on airplanes,
Speaker 12: you see it in churches, and unfortunately, you see it
Speaker 12: in the courthouse.
Speaker 9: You do.
Speaker 2: And I did a little research for this, and according
Speaker 2: to AI, surge in judicial threats. There is a surge
Speaker 2: in this, and it is it's getting to be a
Speaker 2: situation where more and more judges in every court are
Speaker 2: going through this. I mean, does the Sheriff's office, I'm
Speaker 2: sure they do, but does anybody keep tabs on how
Speaker 2: many we have of these? In Hamilton County?
Speaker 12: The sheriff McGuffey is keeping tabs on it. We've met
Speaker 12: with her, had discussions about it. And you're right, the threats,
Speaker 12: the emails, they've increased over the years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I mean, I don't know, It's just something
Speaker 2: that I had hoped i'd never see again, but it's
Speaker 2: something that happens all the time. UNI court's a little
Speaker 2: bit different. I used to call it, respectfully, the McDonald's
Speaker 2: of the justice system, because you got to crank it
Speaker 2: pretty fast, but you got to do it right. So
Speaker 2: it tends to attract a lot more people. If someone
Speaker 2: judge acts up in your courtroom, is it an automatic
Speaker 2: contempt citation from you or do you think about it?
Speaker 2: Because I know from my three years on Unie court
Speaker 2: sometimes that's kind of a hard decision to make.
Speaker 12: Can be a hard decision, but I think the duty
Speaker 12: is on the judge to order right. The sheriff's do
Speaker 12: a great job, but the judge plays a role too.
Speaker 6: And if someone is really acting up and creating a
Speaker 6: danger in the courtroom, in my courtroom, at least, I
Speaker 6: would normally hold them in contempt of court and they
Speaker 6: would face a jail sentence if it's a first offense,
Speaker 6: up to thirty days in jail.
Speaker 2: Hey, tell us what contempt. The penalty for contempt is.
Speaker 2: I know it's somewhat fluid, I guess, but let's just
Speaker 2: say somebody acts up in your courtroom and you think
Speaker 2: it's inappropriate and want to do something about it. What
Speaker 2: is the penalty for criminal contempt?
Speaker 12: So for a first offense, the maximum is thirty days
Speaker 12: in jail in a two hundred and fifty dollars fine,
Speaker 12: and then for a second offense up to sixty days
Speaker 12: in jail or five hundred dollars fine, and then for
Speaker 12: a third offense in any subsequent offense, ninety days in
Speaker 12: jail in one thousand dollars fine. But it is rare
Speaker 12: that contempt a coret sentences are imposed, but it is
Speaker 12: a possibility.
Speaker 2: And it's getting more frequent. I'm afraid you know. I
Speaker 2: did a little research for this year, honor, and found
Speaker 2: a from June twenty seventh, twenty twenty four, an article
Speaker 2: from judges dot org. Over half of judges report threats
Speaker 2: environment affecting mental health. And the whole purpose of this
Speaker 2: this piece is that this is something that's putting a
Speaker 2: strain on judges. Just let me quoted one. This is
Speaker 2: one random judge quote. Society continues to be less civil
Speaker 2: in the norms of respecting authority, or figures that represent
Speaker 2: authority are being eroded close quote. I think that's something
Speaker 2: that pretty good, don't you.
Speaker 12: I agree it does, and you know we I understand
Speaker 12: emotions can run high in the courthouse. It is important
Speaker 12: that decisions are being made that affect people's lives. But
Speaker 12: there's no excuse to act a fool in the courthouse.
Speaker 12: And you know if you do, you should be expect
Speaker 12: to face some consequences.
Speaker 2: Do you, And I don't want you to get in
Speaker 2: any trouble with your fellow judges, But do you believe
Speaker 2: that some judges just let it go and don't do
Speaker 2: anything about it, which of course is their call to make.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I do.
Speaker 12: We have a lot of new judges in the in
Speaker 12: the courthouse over the last several years, and you have to.
Speaker 12: As I said, it's the main responsibility is on the
Speaker 12: sheriffs to keep the peace, but the judges have a
Speaker 12: duty too, and we have to to back the sheriffs
Speaker 12: h and help maintain order in the courthouse. And judges
Speaker 12: should be imposing contempt to court inappropriate circumstances. And also
Speaker 12: the offender should also be prosecuted to the fullest extent
Speaker 12: of the law if they commit a crime while they're
Speaker 12: in the courthouse.
Speaker 2: Yah, you just you have to. I mean, in some
Speaker 2: murder cases up in common and please that I've been
Speaker 2: involved in and others that I just heard about, it's
Speaker 2: really a problem up there because of a judge you know,
Speaker 2: gives you a healthy sentence, you know, twenty to life
Speaker 2: or whatever. It's going to rile some people up and
Speaker 2: just the thought of well, I'm not going to take
Speaker 2: this out in the hallway and talk to my family
Speaker 2: member friend, I'm going to just open my mouth and
Speaker 2: start running my mouth right here. And we did have
Speaker 2: a former sitting judge do that. I was there to
Speaker 2: see that, and I'm talking about Tracy Hunter. That was
Speaker 2: just appalling for the public to have to see that.
Speaker 12: It is you know, we have jurors that come to
Speaker 12: the courthouse, we have victims that come to the courthouse,
Speaker 12: and everyone should feel safe when they come to the
Speaker 12: courthouse and not to not have to see or be
Speaker 12: a witness to crime or foolishness or misbehavior. And the
Speaker 12: judges need to step up and maintain order themselves.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this. I mean, this is something
Speaker 2: from the research I've done, this is something that is
Speaker 2: going up. Also, the actual threats to judges. Obviously a
Speaker 2: judge has to take those seriously, but it seems to
Speaker 2: be there's an increase in that. Have you ever had
Speaker 2: that situation judge that you want to talk about or
Speaker 2: do you think that's something that's increasing too.
Speaker 12: It is increasing. I think it's judges are much more
Speaker 12: accessible because of the Internet, so it's very easy to
Speaker 12: find a judge's email or even a judge's home address.
Speaker 12: So it's pretty common now for judges to receive threatening
Speaker 12: emails or harassing emails, and it's just part of the job, unfortunately,
Speaker 12: is having to deal with that, and judges need to
Speaker 12: be able to protect themselves.
Speaker 2: There's no question about it, and I think be vigilant too, Judge.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know the mental state of some of
Speaker 2: the people that come before you as a judge, and
Speaker 2: that's not a knock on people that are having problems,
Speaker 2: but I don't know that from the judges I've talked to,
Speaker 2: it just seems like it's increasing. Judge, Do you have
Speaker 2: anything else to say on this subject. I'm going to
Speaker 2: turn it over to you at this point because I've
Speaker 2: asked the questions I wanted to ask.
Speaker 9: Well.
Speaker 12: I appreciate the opportunity to talk about this because, as
Speaker 12: you said at the beginning, you know, church and court
Speaker 12: are the two places where you're expected to behave and
Speaker 12: it's unfortunate that things have been trending in the wrong
Speaker 12: direction the last thirty years. I've been in the courtroom
Speaker 12: for thirty years. The last pointy is a judge, and
Speaker 12: things have been going in the wrong direction. But you
Speaker 12: know it's up to the judges to maintain order. And
Speaker 12: if you, you know, come into my core room and
Speaker 12: you are planning on causing trouble, you better bring a toothbrush.
Speaker 2: I like that. I like that. I lied one more question.
Speaker 2: Are you seeing I don't know, say, over the last
Speaker 2: ten years or so, a decrease in the number of
Speaker 2: cases in municipal court.
Speaker 12: We have seen a decrease and that's probably some of
Speaker 12: that is a good thing. We get less d UI's
Speaker 12: in court, and I think that's a function of uber
Speaker 12: and left and just general education about the dangers of
Speaker 12: drinking and driving. So I think it's a good thing
Speaker 12: when there's when there's less less.
Speaker 2: Cases, no question about it. And with respect to DUIs
Speaker 2: my twenty years of a criminal defense practice, in the
Speaker 2: last ten years or so, they have really dwindled because
Speaker 2: I think these young people are smart enough to you know,
Speaker 2: call an uber or find another the way home. Besides that,
Speaker 2: and again, uh, if you lose, if you lose clients
Speaker 2: that way, it's a good thing. Judge. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate you coming on. You have an open
Speaker 2: invitation to come here and talk to me and my
Speaker 2: listeners anytime something comes up.
Speaker 12: Thank you, Mike, thanks for having me on my pleasure.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Judge by by all right, Judge Brad Greenberg,
Speaker 2: And I gotta tell you I didn't want to embarrass him.
Speaker 2: He's definitely one of the good ones. I appeared before
Speaker 2: him a number of times as a criminal defense attorney.
Speaker 2: And you know, he's not a guy that talks a lot,
Speaker 2: and judges the less they talk, the less they get
Speaker 2: themselves in trouble. But fair, Uh, you know, the old thing,
Speaker 2: fair and firm. And I just can't say enough about
Speaker 2: Judge Brad Greenberg. And I know he's up for election
Speaker 2: coming up soon.
Speaker 10: Uh.
Speaker 2: That wasn't the reason I had him on, because it
Speaker 2: is a very good topic. But anyway, bottom line, I
Speaker 2: take a heck of a lot of the Honorable Brad
Speaker 2: Greenberg of the Hamilt County Municipal Court. Hey, we got
Speaker 2: to take a break, but we'll be back. Mike Allen
Speaker 2: in for Sloaney seven hundred WLW. Hey we're back, Mike
Speaker 2: Allen in for Sloaney, seven hundred WLW. I'll tell you
Speaker 2: what Judge Greenberg was great, and I just I can't
Speaker 2: say how much that I admire him for the job
Speaker 2: that he does. And unfortunately, I think you're going to
Speaker 2: see those things, the incidents in the courtroom continuing, and again,
Speaker 2: as the thing that I've read from my research, it's
Speaker 2: a function I think of the society becoming more violent,
Speaker 2: more crass. I mean, if you can't stand before a judge,
Speaker 2: I don't care if it's for a parking ticket or
Speaker 2: a homicide case. You just behave yourself, you know. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's not that much too much to ask. And I
Speaker 2: was glad to hear him say that. The response to
Speaker 2: what happened, the one we've talking about a few weeks
Speaker 2: before that, eighteen deputies responded to it so and I
Speaker 2: can't say enough about them too. I mean, the deputies
Speaker 2: that are in the courtroom every day, they've got a
Speaker 2: tough job, and people are screened as they come in,
Speaker 2: but I mean, you never know when something is going
Speaker 2: to get through, and judges need to know, lawyers need
Speaker 2: to know, Litigants need to know that they are being protected,
Speaker 2: especially when it comes to jury trials. I mean, you
Speaker 2: think it's hard getting jurors now if this thing continues,
Speaker 2: it's going to be even more difficult to get them.
Speaker 2: They just don't want to serve, They don't want to
Speaker 2: go down there. And then they read things like was
Speaker 2: in the paper a couple of weeks ago from Cameron Knight.
Speaker 2: Families fighting at the Hamilt County Courthouse on February twenty
Speaker 2: fourth drew a large police response and resulted in multiple charges.
Speaker 2: Good Two groups of people at the courthouse for a
Speaker 2: hearing had a confrontation inside, prompting police and SHARE's deputies
Speaker 2: to respond to help courthouse staff. And you know, that's
Speaker 2: what happens, and it's usually families. You got one family,
Speaker 2: then you got another family. You know, I guess, kind
Speaker 2: of like a Hatfield McCoy's deal. And if it doesn't
Speaker 2: go to one the way one of the families wants, well,
Speaker 2: then you know, let's act up in the courthouse. And
Speaker 2: you know, as the judge said, you have to come
Speaker 2: down hard on people like that. You have to. When
Speaker 2: I was a judge, I mean, it's gosh, I guess, oh,
Speaker 2: from probably eighty nine, no, yeah, eighty nine to I
Speaker 2: guess ninety three or something like that. I don't remember
Speaker 2: ever seeing one of those things. Happen in my courtroom.
Speaker 2: Maybe it did and I forgot about it, but you
Speaker 2: just didn't see it then. And especially in Room Ay,
Speaker 2: that's the big room where they do all the arraignments,
Speaker 2: where you could have two three hundred cases on the
Speaker 2: docket in one morning. That's where people tended to act up.
Speaker 2: But again, you just got to come down hard on
Speaker 2: them and make sure you make an example of them.
Speaker 2: And I think judges are starting to get that. You know,
Speaker 2: the one thing I got into with the judge a
Speaker 2: little bit, but are threats to judges online, threats, letters
Speaker 2: to their home and that type of thing. That is
Speaker 2: something that is extremely serious, and I think law enforcement
Speaker 2: realizes that, hey, we got to take a break, but
Speaker 2: when we get back, we're going to talk to Christopher Smithman.
Speaker 2: Haven't talked to him in a while and want to
Speaker 2: kind of catch up with him. I want to ask
Speaker 2: him too about the goings on in city council. A
Speaker 2: lot of things happening with The one thing that that
Speaker 2: Steve Gooden kind of tipped me off on is the
Speaker 2: proposed five percent cut. I'll tell you what I know
Speaker 2: this from personal things that happened to me in nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy six. The first thing they go after is the
Speaker 2: police budget, so I certainly hope there's not going to
Speaker 2: be layoffs. But anyway, we'll talk to Christopher about that
Speaker 2: and other things. Mike Allen seven hundred WLW. Hey, we're back.
Speaker 2: Mike Allen in for Scott Sloan. We haven't checked in
Speaker 2: with our friend Christopher Smithman in a while and wanted
Speaker 2: to see how he's doing. I need to get his
Speaker 2: opinion on some things. Christopher, thanks so much for calling
Speaker 2: in this morning.
Speaker 7: Mike, Thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 2: My Pleasure, My pleasure. Hey, I gotta ask you, and
Speaker 2: I know this isn't obviously a local topic, but I'm
Speaker 2: really interested and I'm sure my list are too. Your
Speaker 2: thoughts on the war that broke out, and I know
Speaker 2: everybody is praying for, you know, the people involved in it,
Speaker 2: but your.
Speaker 7: Thoughts, well, my heart first goes out to the seven
Speaker 7: Americans that lost their life in Kuwait, and that's a
Speaker 7: part of war, and we don't we don't often see
Speaker 7: American soldiers, servicemen, men and women coming home. So my
Speaker 7: heart like yours, and I know that a lot of
Speaker 7: those a lot of those servicemen and women came from Iowa,
Speaker 7: not all of them, they certainly are bearing a burden here,
Speaker 7: so my heart goes out to their families. My other
Speaker 7: connection is I have a son that's that has served
Speaker 7: and is in the Guard himself now, and my father served.
Speaker 7: I have a brother.
Speaker 6: Who has served.
Speaker 7: I have not served, But I think this is that
Speaker 7: moment where all of us as a country have to
Speaker 7: wrap our arms around being an American and support the
Speaker 7: White House and support our country in this moment. You know,
Speaker 7: I've been watching the senators and the congressional members who
Speaker 7: seem to continue to second guess what is happening. Let
Speaker 7: me just remind everyone that this has been going on
Speaker 7: for forty seven years through many different presidents, Democrats and Republicans,
Speaker 7: and this is a country that whatever the account is
Speaker 7: of the number of civilians that they killed who were
Speaker 7: protesting ten thousand to thirty six thousand, we really don't
Speaker 7: know what the number is, but we know that it's
Speaker 7: tens of thousands of people who are slaughtered in the streets.
Speaker 7: So there's a humanitarian issue going on. We know that
Speaker 7: this is a country that has been sponsoring terrorism all
Speaker 7: around the world, but specifically targeting Americans and specifically American
Speaker 7: servicemen and women. And this is a country that said
Speaker 7: that they wanted a nuclear weapon and wanted long term
Speaker 7: missiles in order to reach the United States and anybody
Speaker 7: who stood against them, including Israel. My point in saying
Speaker 7: all of that is that we have to, as Americans,
Speaker 7: in my opinion, carry the flag today. You know, respect
Speaker 7: those who are losing their life and who are on
Speaker 7: the front lines and have the potential of loss of
Speaker 7: life our military, and support the president in this decision
Speaker 7: to go in and decide that he and and those
Speaker 7: in the CIA, those generals that are around him, that
Speaker 7: this was the moment that we needed to take. And
Speaker 7: I don't like second guessing our country. These are tough
Speaker 7: decisions with a lot of movie parts that I don't
Speaker 7: have enough information. That's why we elect people and put
Speaker 7: them in positions like Alan to make these decisions for us.
Speaker 7: But what I will tell you is I'm all American.
Speaker 7: I'm on the American team. I'm not on the team
Speaker 7: of Iran. I'm on the team of this country. And
Speaker 7: I want to see us win. I want to see
Speaker 7: us to get out as like everybody probably listening I
Speaker 7: want us to get out as quickly as we possibly can,
Speaker 7: but I want us to spend the time that we
Speaker 7: need to be there so that we don't have to
Speaker 7: come back and do this again.
Speaker 2: No question about it. I've got a daughter. She's a captain.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, well should get mad. She's promoted to major
Speaker 2: in the Jag Corps. She's stationed in the Wow.
Speaker 7: Look, don't don't mess up her rank.
Speaker 2: That she's she's in the jag corts. And and the
Speaker 2: thought would be initially, well, you know, lawyer, they're not
Speaker 2: going to do anything. I'm gonna tell you something. The
Speaker 2: Army now takes their jag officers with them when they
Speaker 2: go out in the field for the real deal. So
Speaker 2: you know, she's obviously in my in my thoughts and
Speaker 2: of course in my prayers.
Speaker 7: But really, let me thank her for her service, Mike
Speaker 7: Allen publicly for everyone, because anybody that is serving, because
Speaker 7: when we're talking about incident of drones attacks, which is
Speaker 7: what happened on Kuwai Base, anybody is at risk. So
Speaker 7: we thank your daughter for her service to our country.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Hey, I wanted to talk to you too.
Speaker 2: I had Steve Gooden on earlier we talked about some
Speaker 2: legal things. But of course Steve a former Cincinnati City
Speaker 2: Council member and chair of the Revitalized Charter Committee, so
Speaker 2: he knows what's going on down there. He's talking about
Speaker 2: a five police cut, well, a five percent I think
Speaker 2: across the board cut. And I know you're not down
Speaker 2: there anymore, former Vice mayor and chair of the Law
Speaker 2: and Public Safety Committee. But your thoughts on that, Christopher, Well, you.
Speaker 7: Know, the first responsibility of the mayor and members of
Speaker 7: council is the public safety. And we've seen a big
Speaker 7: spike in violence even over the last ten days, the
Speaker 7: mass shooting that we had of nine people approximately, I
Speaker 7: think eleven people shot in the last seven days. Three
Speaker 7: did and so this is not the time for counsel
Speaker 7: or for the mayor to say we need to reduce
Speaker 7: funding in public safety. It's the exact opposite. And because
Speaker 7: we're having issues with retention, meaning our ability to recruit
Speaker 7: is one issue, but our ability to keep those seasoned
Speaker 7: officers right now who are in drop and a lot
Speaker 7: of people don't even know what drop is, but we've
Speaker 7: got officers that are two years and three years in
Speaker 7: the drop. They can walk away right now. Today if
Speaker 7: they want to. And so what we're seeing is we're
Speaker 7: losing more officers than we are bringing in our recruit classes,
Speaker 7: and we're having a difficult time doing recruitment. And it
Speaker 7: doesn't help when you have a mayor and a council
Speaker 7: and an administration that in the most subtle ways and
Speaker 7: sometimes the most obvious ways, Mike Allen, they send the
Speaker 7: message that they don't support our police officers. And so
Speaker 7: families out there like mine. You know, if I had
Speaker 7: a child, of course I won in the military that
Speaker 7: said hey, I want to serve, I want to be
Speaker 7: a SINSI police officer, I certainly would support it. But
Speaker 7: I would absolutely say, listen, you've got to know what
Speaker 7: you're getting into. Oh yeah, because you know what you're
Speaker 7: making that split second decision right the entire your entire
Speaker 7: family could be on the line here the way people
Speaker 7: go at you when you're making those decisions. So I
Speaker 7: think this is going to be a very dangerous summer
Speaker 7: based on what we're seeing happening coming out of the
Speaker 7: winter already, the violence, and I think it's the wrong
Speaker 7: message and the wrong time for this councilor mayor to
Speaker 7: talk about cutting five percent of police or fire.
Speaker 2: You know, I mean, if that happens, and I can
Speaker 2: attest to this from personal knowledge about one hundred years ago,
Speaker 2: if it's across the board five percent cut, cops are
Speaker 2: going to get and firefighters too are going to get
Speaker 2: laid off, and just the opposite is needed in this city.
Speaker 7: No, it absolutely is. And what you'll see in the
Speaker 7: summer is, you know, it's almost like schizophrenia because then
Speaker 7: you'll see them increasing overtime and demanding that we've got
Speaker 7: to put a million dollars in overtime.
Speaker 9: But you're you've.
Speaker 7: Already released so many police officers, so there's no one
Speaker 7: there to actually get the overtime. This is a big decision.
Speaker 7: And let me let me clarify to the public.
Speaker 12: You know, when you hear.
Speaker 7: Someone say, well, don't do the five percent cut, and
Speaker 7: Mayor John Crolly and I would go through this all
Speaker 7: the time. Where do I think we should do some
Speaker 7: reducing Where were some of those reductions happened in order
Speaker 7: to save money. Well, one is operating the streetcar. This
Speaker 7: was a topic of discussion over a decade ago, and
Speaker 7: the discussion was around two points. One was how do
Speaker 7: we build it so we issued ninety four plus million
Speaker 7: dollars of debt, which we charged them our credit cards
Speaker 7: to the max in order to do that. And then
Speaker 7: the operation Mike Allen of the streetcar, which is now
Speaker 7: north of five million dollars per year. And so that
Speaker 7: is a that is arecked competition to the operating budget
Speaker 7: operating the streetcar. And so if this council and mayor
Speaker 7: are really serious about making changes, they would say, listen,
Speaker 7: our pet project down here. We're spending five million dollars
Speaker 7: a year. Is operating the streetcar more important than police
Speaker 7: and fire? I would say, if you went out and
Speaker 7: talked to our fifty two neighborhoods, they would say, let's
Speaker 7: make sure that our safety is first. Let's cut the
Speaker 7: operation of the streetcar, if we even have to bring
Speaker 7: it down to zero operation, but let's reduce the hours
Speaker 7: so we at least show the public that before we
Speaker 7: raise their taxes, we're willing to make some serious decisions.
Speaker 7: We also know that contract to Irish ROLLI another six
Speaker 7: hundred and fifty thousand dollars going out of the door, right,
Speaker 7: but with very little oversight or understanding of what our ROI.
Speaker 7: So I'm saying you can get your arms almost around
Speaker 7: six million dollars just in those two decisions. So it's
Speaker 7: difficult to say we need to cut five percent. We
Speaker 7: need what the City Hall and City Council, what they
Speaker 7: really need to do is make some tough decisions.
Speaker 2: Mike allup, no question about it.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 2: I'm just sitting here thinking with respect to the streetcar,
Speaker 2: I just wonder if there's a way that the city
Speaker 2: could privatize that. I mean, not only to you know,
Speaker 2: not have to spend all that money on it, but
Speaker 2: also maybe recoup some money. Has that ever been talked
Speaker 2: about or in your opinion, is that something that's feasible.
Speaker 7: I'm smiling and I'm saying I don't think it's feasible,
Speaker 7: but let me can I'm trying to make you laugh
Speaker 7: when I say, let's the two of us pull our
Speaker 7: money together. Do you think that we would pick a
Speaker 7: street car? Because no, I don't know, man. I think
Speaker 7: it's a losing proposition. I don't think there's too many
Speaker 7: people out there that would say, hey, man, I'm stepping
Speaker 7: up to buy the street car, privatize it, and we
Speaker 7: think we're actually going to get our money back. I
Speaker 7: think it's I think it's a money pick.
Speaker 2: That's a good point, and you are one of the
Speaker 2: premier financial advisors in this city. I'll take I'll take
Speaker 2: it at that, Christopher.
Speaker 7: All I'll say, Mike is that that that city council
Speaker 7: has to look at our budget. I understand as a
Speaker 7: thirty one or thirty two million dollar deficit. So we
Speaker 7: understand that, but what we don't want to do is
Speaker 7: impact the basic services that the public we really depend on,
Speaker 7: and that sanitation, that's our fire department, that's our police department,
Speaker 7: and all of us know that these contracts are up
Speaker 7: for renegotiations. So what happens also, Mike calend is the
Speaker 7: city starts posturing that they're poor for two reasons. One,
Speaker 7: they have a desire to raise taxes. So part of
Speaker 7: this is to scare us into a position if we
Speaker 7: put something on the ballot it says that we need
Speaker 7: to raise taxes, we need you, the public a support,
Speaker 7: or we're going to cut your police and fire. So
Speaker 7: some of this is grand standing from the mayor of council.
Speaker 7: The second and the second thing is that they know
Speaker 7: that the police, the union and fire and our ass
Speaker 7: from union and our code unions they're all moving into
Speaker 7: the position of starting to negotiate their contract. So what
Speaker 7: also happens is the city starts posturing I'm poor, I'm broke,
Speaker 7: I don't have any money, and you're going to see
Speaker 7: those those people who are arbitrating. This discussion sable. But
Speaker 7: you're spending say one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for
Speaker 7: this outside contractor we don't know you're operating the streetcar
Speaker 7: at five million dollars. You say you want reparation here
Speaker 7: for housing, and you're moving five million dollars over that.
Speaker 7: How are you saying that you're broke but you continue
Speaker 7: to spend all of this money out here. You've got
Speaker 7: a mural outside of your city hall that says, hey,
Speaker 7: black lives matter. Maybe you're going to spend a million
Speaker 7: dollars to bring that back to Like, my point is
Speaker 7: that when we get into those negotiations, the city always
Speaker 7: positions themselves as if they're broke, and you and I
Speaker 7: know that they're not. There are pet projects that they
Speaker 7: have to say we can't do in order for us
Speaker 7: to focus on the things that the fifty two neighborhoods
Speaker 7: in Cincinnati say they believe in.
Speaker 2: Right now I get that. Let me ask you this,
Speaker 2: and this is I'm just out of curiosity. The railroad money,
Speaker 2: I know that has to be used for capital, and
Speaker 2: obviously police and fire aren't capital. But is there a
Speaker 2: way that the city could perhaps move some money around? Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, you see what I'm saying, to get some
Speaker 2: capital funds, but also you know you would be able
Speaker 2: to free some up for police and fire. Does that
Speaker 2: make any sense?
Speaker 7: No, they can't. They can't do it. Those capital dollars
Speaker 7: from the railroad I think there were thirty four million
Speaker 7: we were getting a year. I was absolutely against sale
Speaker 7: of our railroad for one point six billion dollars. But
Speaker 7: it's it's it's water under the bridge. Now they've done it.
Speaker 7: But those dollars are for for for capital on projects.
Speaker 7: They can't pull that money in for operating. So that's
Speaker 7: just a hard no. Those those are two zebra pots,
Speaker 7: and those are restricted dollars for our for our capital.
Speaker 7: The problem that you and I are seeing is our
Speaker 7: roads are horrible. Driving down the streets, Mike Allen and
Speaker 7: I feel like officer is going to pull me over
Speaker 7: for a DUI because I'm dodging potholes. I don't want
Speaker 7: to blow my tires out. And I know if I
Speaker 7: blow my tire out that the city is not going
Speaker 7: to repair my tire. So I'm saying our roads in
Speaker 7: the city of Cincinnati. There are two things that if
Speaker 7: any member of council listening to me and they care
Speaker 7: what I think about are are this? Are are our
Speaker 7: current mayor. One is our potholes in our streets need
Speaker 7: a lot of attention, yep, and that would be very helpful.
Speaker 7: And number two, our city is dirty. We need to
Speaker 7: clean up Cincinnati. I travel other places and I go
Speaker 7: why is our city? I'm talking about our highways, our
Speaker 7: our individual cut throughs, our roads in the city, say
Speaker 7: to say, why are we living in such a dirty
Speaker 7: city and a city where our infrastructure.
Speaker 9: Seems to be falling apart.
Speaker 7: So my point is that those railroad dollars, there's a
Speaker 7: big use for them. We need to get them out
Speaker 7: the door, to be of those dollars out of the door,
Speaker 7: and we need to get our roads repaired. I am
Speaker 7: tired of dodging potholes.
Speaker 2: Mike Allah, Yeah, you're right. And the one that they
Speaker 2: did finally do after so much complaining was Sunset Avenue.
Speaker 2: But that's about the That's about the only one I
Speaker 2: could see. Anyway, Christopher, really appreciate catching up with you,
Speaker 2: and we'll definitely do it again soon.
Speaker 7: Well, Mike, people can follow me on the X. I
Speaker 7: say this because I want people to connect with me
Speaker 7: and I want to connect with them at vote Smitherman.
Speaker 7: Thanks Mike, Alla follow me on.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you, my friend. All right, thank you brother,
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you. Take care too. Always good to
Speaker 2: catch up with Christopher. I'll tell you what. I just
Speaker 2: wish that man was mayor, or at least on city council.
Speaker 2: But hey, my grandmother, my old Irish grandmother, had a
Speaker 2: saying that went wish in one hand, I'm not going
Speaker 2: to say in the other and see what which one
Speaker 2: fills up first. So anyway, we are out of here.
Speaker 2: I want to thank my producer Dave Keaton uh and
Speaker 2: thank Scott for letting me feel in for him. Mike
Speaker 2: Allen seven hundred WLW