All right, the average American in for the great American on this New Year's Eve Day, twenty twenty five. And wherever you are, Happy New Year to you. People walk around they say Happy New Year all the time, Happy New Year. What was it to mean? Well for me when I say that, and I just don't say it just throwing it out everybody. I don't run into everybody and say Happy New Year. It means happy and healthy
and safe. Because if you don't have your safety and you don't have your health, it doesn't matter a bit what else you have. You can have all the money in the world, but if you're not happy, and you're not healthy, and you're not safe, well then it doesn't really matter, doesn't So that's when I say Happy New Year.
If I see you out on the street today or out someplace tonight, That's what I mean when I say Happy New Year, because I think those are the three things I think that we would wish anybody in life, and one of those three things is safety. Now, in the end, we are all responsible for our safety. We all should have our antenna up. It is just the time that we live in. Some things we need help
in achieving safety. I mean we can't certainly be attuned to everything that's going on around us, let alone around the world. And that's where the authorities come in, whether they be local or state, or federal or whatever it may be, that's their job to charge their charge with keeping us safe. And so tonight would be one of those nights when if you're out reveling, or if you're out anywhere tomorrow reveling, it would be wise for you
to walk around with the old antenna up. We know what happened in New Orleans last New Year's Eve, New Year's morning, when fourteen people were murdered as a driver who was compromised in his political beliefs by let's just say, some some far left thinking that occurs around the world, drove his pickup truck through the streets of New Orleans in the quarter, killing fourteen people, taking a gun out, and finishing off those who were not run over by
his truck. Those things, unfortunately happened, They happen in our country, they happen all over. But as we look around the world, we find that there are some cities that are just saying, you know what, We're just not going to hold New Year's Eve celebrations anymore, And to me, that's sad. It's sad on a number of different levels. It's sad for those that can't revel. But it's also said that that's what we've become as a society. But here we are.
And so as cities prepare for New Year's Eve events tonight, fear of terror attacks run high. How fearful should we be? What should we do to keep our saves as safe as possible? Standing by to join me is a guy who's been a good guest of my program good guests here on seven hundred WLW for many many years. Doctor
Alex Dale Carmen is a criminologist. He taught criminology at the collegiate level, consulting with over twenty five years of experience working with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. And it's great he can spend some time with us now here on seven hundred WLWE. Doctor, how are you on this glorious New Year's Eve day?
I'm doing great because I'm talking with you, ken.
Ah, God bless you for saying that. And I meant it. When I say Happy New Year, I meant all three of those things. And to you in particular. Look, you can't stop everything bad that may happen. The bad guys only have to be right once. The good guys have got to be right one hundred percent of the time. Again,
we saw that last year in New Orleans. But at what level do you think you, me, and anyone else that might be out there tonight or tomorrow, at what level do you think we have to be on alert on this particular New Year's Eve?
Well, I mean, I think that we always need to be on alert, right, whether there's New Year's Eve or you know, just regular day, you know, in twenty twenty six. But at the same time, I think that are there any specific threats No, are there specific areas that we
are concerned about. No, But at the same time, given what happened last year, as you know that in New Orleans, given that you know, sometimes these individuals that want to cause harm on good people are people that have an imagination, unfortunately, and they try to circumvent the efforts that are made by law enforcement. I think we always need to be on alert, especially if you're going to be out tonight
in a large crowd, you know, a condensed space. Always be situationally aware, always know where your exits, where your points of entry are, and have a plan.
Yeah, And I think that's true of anything, if not terror fear. Certainly you need to know how to get the hell out of a place where a case fire breaks out or a brawl breaks out, where's the exit do or how do I get out? We saw already this year that the FEDS had had foiled a New Year's Eve plot, a bombing plot that was in Los Angeles about ten days ago. I sense, and I don't.
I don't mean this from anything other than just a since that this particular group at the FBI that's been in place for the last six seven months, I since they've got their eye on the proverbial ball more than what the group that was in there before them. Do Do you sense that as well?
Well?
You know, Ken, I think that the FBI has been rerouted back to its original premise, right that he was fighting terrorism, and certainly after ninety eleven, you know, that was that was the mandate that the bureau you know, got, and and they have deviated from that in the past, as you know, and gone into other areas.
And I think that what's happened.
In the past six to eight months, is that they've.
Just sort of you know, begin went back to what they were originally, you know, purpose for back, you know, after ninety of it. And so I'm not used to fight terrorism, and I think that there's a more significant focus of resources and as well as people that are devoted now to ensure that we're safe and ensure that these terrorist don't get away with a killing in US in Americans.
As I sit, the FBI field office here in cincinnati's right next door to us, and it's a massive structure. It employees a lot of people. There are a lot of great people that work inside that building, not just the agents that work inside there, but other people that work inside there. What do you think cash Betel's message was or is maybe to these various field offices around
the country on this particular night. Do you think that he needed to give these people to pev talk or tell them exactly what could or may not happen and where they need to be. I'm just just wondering how that works at the FBI level.
Now.
Well, I can tell you that the bureau, you know, it's obviously hierarchical organization where the top rolls down the mission and it goes all the way to the last
agent or civilian working at the Bureau. And you know, one of the things that I'm certain that's happened is that that back, you know, six months ago, is you know that you know, these these marching orders were given and they were given with absolutely no subject to interpretation, meaning that they're basically told you need to fight thereor do whatever you can to ensure that Americans are safe and to ensure that we are going to protect the homeland.
And so what that means for tonight is that there is a strong likelihood that the Bureau has been working twenty four seven, and especially in places like New York, LA, Miami, Dallas at all, they have been working to make sure that they're behind the scenes, but that they're watching, that they're carefully monitoring, that they're sweeping social media resources just to make sure that people are going to be safe tonight. So you know, I would suggest to.
You that there is a likelihood that many agents are.
Not going to go to sleep tonight, or are not going to be celebrating New Years with their families. Instead are going to be monitoring something to make sure that people go back home safely tonight.
It is. It is great, and it is in a lot of sense, in a lot, in a large sense, thankless work because you know, when you're protected from anything, doctor, you just kind of say, okay, good. When things don't go right, that's when everybody gets up in arms. But when when when things go right, these agents that are out there, I don't think at the respect or the admiration that they deserve. Do you find that too? I
mean that's true in a lot of police work. Right when things go well, nobody walks up to a police officer and says, hey, things are going well tonight. Thanks, But if all hill breaks loose, you're yelling and screaming at the cop to come over here and do this. I think admiration for police work has greatly disintegrated here in the last several years.
Yeah, there's no question.
As I often tell police officers, as you know, hundred thousand of them for the past twenty eight years. I've worked at the FBI Academy and Quantico Service and instructor there, you know, for three years.
And I can tell you, as I often tell them.
You know, triumph has many fathers, and defeat is an orphan.
And what I mean by that.
Is that many people just don't you know, these folks are working twenty four seven and they're successful. When nothing happens, right, and as you know, you know, people are just popasetic
about it. The next day, they're going back to their business. Oh, nothing happened last night, and they don't even think about the thousands of hours and the sleepless nights that many of these young men and women in various entities in law enforcement have devoted in order to make sure that people go home that night safely.
Yeah, you know, doctor del Carmen, not that native born Americans aren't capable of carrying out heinous crimes, But I do worry about what's transpired here with regards to the invasion our country suffered under the last administration from the southern border on a number of differ levels. We just open the floodgates and let everybody in. And we let people in. We have absolutely no idea what their intentions are.
Maybe they're good intentions, who knows, but maybe it's maybe it's ten percent of the up to eighteen to twenty million I've seen the estimates of people that have been let in here. Up to ten percent could be in here doing nothing but nefarious things. And even if it is that ten percent, that's a large number of people that are in this country illegally that may have come here to do some sort of harm. That's what I
worry about more than anything else. I know the current administration is trying to get its arms around as many of these people as possible and get them the hell out of our country, but I think it will not be accomplished inside of the current admission administration's tenure, which is now another three years, and whether remnants of that administration those that follow in the footsteps of Donald Trump believe the same thing. Who knows. We don't know right here,
But that's what worries me the most. We let so many people out of this country. We have no idea what the hell they're doing here, what they're up to. That's what bothers me the most here on this New Year's Eve twenty twenty five. Am I wrong in feeling that way?
Well?
You know, I worry as a criminologist about many things, right, And one of the things that I'm concerned about, I think certainly no democracy can survive by simply opening the doors and letting people in without having an organized migration component into our country. And so I agree with you and sins that you know, we need to we need to get our act together. We need to make sure that we know who's coming in and who's getting out, and we understand the nature of what that person is doing.
So I don't disagree with that, but I do worry about many many things in addition to the individuals that are here illegally right. And one of the things that I worry about is the fact that many of these attacks are done by individuals that are long wolfers. They're people that have been radicalized, you know, at home, They're you know, reading stuff from the Internet. They're making deals with who they think.
Is ISIS or sympathizers with ISIS.
And they turn around and they go inflict pain and harm on the American public. And so for me, as a criminologist, I go where the crime is because I want to make sure it doesn't happen, regardless of who's doing it.
But what I am.
Telling you is is that among many things that I worry about is that we have these sort of cells, individual cells across our country that we really don't know who they are, and law enforcement doesn't have the capability right now of being able to identify these bad actors before they show their ugly face and go out there and commit harm against Ennis and Americans. That's what I'm concerned about, for our children and for our children's children.
Doctor Alex Stalekhmon criminologists are guest. Yes, the lone Wolf. Yeah, I suppose if you're going to narrow it down to one thing, it's the lone wolf. Somebody that's sitting at home, maybe on the dark Web, maybe, as you say, conversing with someone they think is isis, or someone that's going to change them from some ideological standpoint and make their
world better. Maybe they're gamers. They're sitting on the computer as well, and they're playing games where people can get shot indiscriminately, and so, in a sense, reality and fantasy really don't have a line separating them, and all of a sudden, you've got somebody that decides I'm going to go out there and do exactly what I'm being told to do from a number of different things that are coming into my mind. I don't simply don't know how
you stop the lone wolf. I get how the FBI foiled that plot about ten days ago, because you simply had a lot of people involved in it. And the more people you have involved with something, chances are somebody is going to say something that will help you foil that plot. But I don't know how you stop the
lone wolf. I don't know how an FBI agent. I don't know how a cop in any town where you know, in Cincinnati, doctor, we're not a big city where a city made up of individual communities in towns, each with their own police force. I simply don't know how anyone
can stop a lone wolf. It has to be in my mind, it's got to be a lot of sheer luck that something or some sort of information falls into that particular police officer's lap, because lone wolves are the things that, at least for me, scare me the most. In addition to what we talked about from what occurred in the Southern Border, how do you stop a lone wolf?
Well, I think that artificially intelligence is going to really help us, believe it or not. And I know if people see it as kind of like the evil, you know, creeping up behind the scenes, but artificial intelligence has has definitely, it definitely has a role in being able to identify
individuals that have an ideological presence online. And what I mean by that is just imagine the human hours that you and I would have to spend in going over websites and various narratives that are written by people to see if certain words, if certain people are trying to say that, hey, this is my manifesto, I'm about to
go out there and cause some harm on someone. But then imagine a computer that's able to do that in milliseconds and in a matter of say, ten minutes, would give you a read out as to what individuals online are close to making threats or making threats by using certain words, or have a certain profile based on IP addresses. Law enforcement will have those tools very soon. I mean they already do it in some ways, but they're actually going to have an institutionalized very soon to be able
to identify those patterns in a matter of seconds. And so I do think that there is help coming in. Like you, I worry about what happens between now and then. And what I'm also concerned about is that, as you will know, some of these actors are overseas and where we have very limited jurisdiction and in some cases we have no jurisdiction at all, because you know, these are
countries that harbor terrorism. And I'm concerned about what's going to happen, right, But one fight at a time, as we say in my field, and you know, we need to wait to see what AI is going to do in the coming years.
Well, doctor del Carmen, I knew you from your days as an instructor, educating fertile young minds about how to solve some of the crimes that are committed inside this country and the best police work for it. Where are you now? What are you up to now, doctor del Carmen.
Well, I'm actually retiring from the academic world, but I'm doing consulting work for the next ten to fifteen years. I'm going to devote the rest of my life to work with law enforcement and try to make our community safer and better. And so I am between Dallas and Connecticut and fartments in Connecticut. So I'm closer to my growing up children now and enjoying life.
It's funny how that works, Doc. When I say Happy New Year, I hope you heard the intro. It means not just happiness, which is very important, but great health and good safety, and that's what I wish for you on this New Year's eeve. Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.
Likewise, Ken, thank you.
Combye so God that knows his business inside out, all right, it is coming up on twelve twenty six. It's the average American and for the great American News Radio seven hundred wl W, we welcome back, well love back. Three years, one year, twenty five. We have made it through yet another trip around the sun, or just about it. I don't want to get ahead of the curve here because we still have for a few hours to go less than twelve. But nevertheless we have arrived through yet another
year and on into twenty twenty six. There are a lot of people out there making predictions about twenty twenty six, how good it's going to be economically, and how the country is going to turn around, and how Main Street may eventually catch up to Wall Street. And like most predictions, you got to let them play out. I mean, you can't just sit there and pontificate about what ifs. Yeah, the indicators are to be better for all of us, certainly some of us, but I think all of us
in twenty twenty six. And you have to think that way, don't you, Because if you a don't, and what's the point of pressing on? You got to feel that it's going to be better for you financially, that it's not going to cost so much to buy a house if you're a first time homeowner, it's not going to cost so much to go to the grocery store. Prices are falling despite what the mainstream media, what have you believe?
For them, it's a lot of Trump hate, and energy prices are down for you, for me at the pump, and in terms of diesel fuel, which powers interstate trucking, interstate trucking becomes cheaper, Prices for goods and services become cheaper. It's the standard of economics internationally, though that's a different deal. The hotspots are all over the world, one of which has just popped up in recent months, and that is Venezuela.
And President Trump has been blown up drug boats from Venezuela for about the last two or three months, a blockade of Venezuela. He wants the oil that's in Venezuela. And I think that's the whole thing. I think the drug boats are just a precursor to what he really wants, and that he wants that stuff that's under the turf in Venezuela that once belonged to United States oil companies. I think it's a little bit of that and a
little bit of the Monroe doctrine. President James Monroe eighteen twenty three issues the Monroe doctrine, basically telling Europe, look, you mess with our hemisphere and we're coming after you. The Western hemisphere, he said, was closed to European colonization. Well, that's because he didn't want Latin American nations being taken over by Europe. Though it's a little bit of that as well. But there's a deeper story here, and for that we turned to a guy who's been studying things
in Venezuela for a very long time. In fact, Joshua Phillips is one of those who's uniquely qualified to talk about what's happening there and the consequences that are involved. He's an award winning journalist, senior investigative reporter at the Epic time hosts his own show Crossroads that he's here now to talk about Venezuela. Joshua Philip, how are you on this glorious.
Day doing well. An interesting step to watch.
I can say that absolutely more than interesting. What do you think Trump is up to in Venezuela.
So I predicted it and then it came out the new National Security Plan and Secretary of warpetegs that have set it publicly. Now this is about the re establishment of the Monroe doctrine, and I think we saw the examples of this because you know it started off their blowing up the drug cartel boats. There's more context to that actually that actually ties into Venezuela having been on the cusp of invading Guyana just literally a couple months
before they started bombing those boats. The latest one, though, is the intercept of this Iranian oil tanker that was violating sanctions and trading in oil and so I think I think what you're seeing now is they're not just going after like venezuel and drugs, They're going after the core parts of the Venezuelan unofficial economy and what really matters. In the new National Security Plan, they've announced that the Trump administration will once again be enforcing them in Roe
doctor which means Latin America, no foreign countries involved. If you're not there so Europe, China, Russia, Iran no involvement in Latin America. And the interesting thing with Venezuela is that Venezuela under h sorry Hugo Java is and now Maduro being of course Javas's pick, he hand picked him. Chavas actually was the one, working with Thedel Castro on Cuba who pushed the United States out of the region.
And the way they did it was they established regional pseudo powers like organizations of states that did not involve the United States or Canada. So really, toppling what Venezuela has come to represent in Latin America would be the very first step necessary to re establish the Monroe doctor.
Right.
The Monroe doctrine has been around for over two hundred years, so named after President James Monroe, who basically told the rest of the world, look, if you're thinking about colonizing any of the Americas, forget about it. This is not your territory. Okay, got that. But I still don't know what Trump's endgame is with all of this. Is what is his endgame?
The endgame, I think is power shift in power. And you know what's really interesting with Venezuela, and Maduro. Even the Biden administration had this policy and I should built the National Security Plan. I mean huge bipartisan support. It's probably going to get passed. In fact, Democrats and Repubpkins in the House joined pretty.
Heavily to pass it.
Even when Biden was president, they were talking about power change in Venezuela. They said publicly they did not recognize them as the official leader of the country. They said, he's the leader of the Cartel of the Suns, which is a terrorist organization, which means that they could justifiably do a target strike or navy seals rate or something kill him. And there's also a government in waiting for Venezuela, which both Trump and Biden have acknowledged. In fact, the
transition government in waiting. The guy lives in Florida. It's Juan Glido. And you know, it wouldn't mean he'd be in power per se. But they have a process already established because of again the twenty eighteen elections in Venezuela mass protests, and they believe there's enough popular support for that that toppling Maduro would not be a difficult process.
Okay, so Meduro is in power. The only people that want Maduro in power right now appear to be Meduro and his cronies. But Trump's got something to figure out here. I think eventually you run out of cigar boats carrying drugs to blow up, and eventually there are only so many tankers you can seize. So again, what's his endgame here? Is it boots on the ground in Venezuela. I don't think he has an appetite for that in Venezuela or anywhere.
How does he get Maduro out of power? How does he stop these cartels who basically run Venezuela at the behesta Maduro. How does he get those cartels to stop transferring drugs up to the United States? I mean, there's got to be some sort of plan here. What's the endgame?
I think?
I think what they're going to do is they're going to either force Maduro to step down or they're going to kill him. What because he's again having designated the cartel the SUNS as both a terrorist organization and as again the you know, targeted cartel organization, right and with Maduro being designated the leader of it and basically head the heads of the state and military being deemed leaders of it. What you're going to be watching is Maduro is going to be treated like Bin Laden. He's the
new bin Laden. And we don't have to engage in the full military to overthrow bin Laden. You just go in there, rate him at you know, midnight whatever, shoot him and throw him off and throw him into the ocean like you know that that could very likely happen. Trump has said publicly that he will not start a war. There is not going to be a full scale war. But Maduro's days are numbered, and it seems he has given him a will ultimatum. Step down, You're going to die.
And you know, for better or for worse. People can agree with that or not. But but now that he has designated a terrorist leader, America does have the you know, the the clearance of say in terms of like war you know, laws and so on to do that.
You know, I'm just playing through the political ramifications of this scenario if it does come to pass. I mean, you've got the Democrats right now exactly where Trump wants them. They have sided with the Narco terrorist squad. They're you know, embracing MS thirteen gang members. I can't, for the life of me believe that that's what they want to do.
But that's what they want to do. Now, if he goes into Venezuela and either the CIA or Navy seals take out Maduro, I can't imagine what the Democrats would react to there. You can't necessarily, if you're a Democrat, come out and say, hey, Maduro is our guy? You know this? Yeah, what is he doing now?
There?
You can't blow up our guy? Right?
You know, I wouldn't be Okay, this is where I think it's going to go. You're going to see the media make a stink about it, without a doubt they're gonna make you know, they're going to be indignant politically. But I think it's going to come out very quickly that this was also Biden's policy. Maybe not kill Maduro, but the Biden administration just before the twenty twenty four elections was basically saying they're going to do the same thing.
They were talking openly about forcing a regime change in Venezuela. Now does that mean killing him, you know, killing Maduro? I don't know. But but under under the Biden administration that this was also the policy, and I think the Trump administration could easily drag that back out and make
that case. But you know, the media these days, they just want to they want they want to scandal, regardless of history, and so they're going to make a big deal about it, of course, regardless, especially right before the midterms.
Yeah, you know, the media these days, particularly those that cover Washington, d c. Are populated by people who think they are the next Carl Bernstein or Bob Woodward, when in essence they couldn't find Carl Bernstein or Bob Woodward on a map. But it does serve another purpose here. If indeed he does this, and he goes into Venezuela, it would be a warning shot across the bowl of any of these South American countries who are in essence run by drug cartels himself to let's the nonsense is over.
Let's let's we're not playing that game anymore. So maybe therein is another aspect of this.
I think he wants that. And so on that point, Trump as we speak is also threatening the president of Columbia, and he's even threatening Mexico. And I mean, I don't know if you'd go and you know, do targeted tricks president of Mexico, you know that'd be pretty shocking. But if you remember when Trump was on the campaign trial, he was saying he was going to do this. This was part of Trump's campaign promise. And what do you say.
He did a very long video. I'm talking it was at least I think fifteen minutes, but it was very long, and he laid out his plan to use the entire US military, every power they had, intelligence networks, US Navy, targeted strikes, airstrikes, special forces, raids, all of this, he said to destroy the drug cartels. He said he was going to do everything we now see him being done.
And in addition to that, he said that if any government tries to stop him, he will expose the ties of that government to the cartels, which you know, Maduro is the first example of and Trump right now has made that an open threat. And the unfortunate part for a lot of those government of Latin America is a lot of them are tied to the cartails in one
way or another. And if Trump says, hey, you know, you know, he likes to tell the story where he's talking to this like terrorist guy and he shows him a picture of his house, you know, from the sky, and he's like, mister Trump why do you show me a picture of my house?
And he says, well, you know, you're gonna have to put two and two.
Together on that one, you know. But he's basically doing the same thing to most of the Latin American governments effectively. And on that point too, a lot of people say, well, didn't Trump just pardon you know the fore of the former presidents. I believe it was his Honduris I believe, who was also arrested on drug charges. That ties into what I said earlier. This is about the re establishment to the Monroe doctrine. Part of it is about drugs, but the bigger context of it is Trump is tried.
He was trying to establish loyalist leaders to America within the Latin American region to begin again re establishing US presents throughout the whole region and then from there dismantling criminal networks. Is establishing kind an American answer to the Chinese belts and Roade initiative, meaning infrastructure projects, and begin changing the region effectively.
When does all of this in Venezuela come to a head? When do we get either Maduro out or Trump puts his head on a platter. How quickly or how soon does all of this play out in your opinion?
You know that that's a good question. The way Trump is talking, you could say any day now. There's also the chance if he believes it could harm the Republicans during the mid terms, there maybe he'll wait till afterwards, or maybe he'll think it'll be strategically valuable to do it before. I think, I actually think opinion polls in terms of the media hit pieces Trump blowing up. You know,
fishing boats. Fishing boats, by the way, they're like semi submersibles or like four engine you know, you know, rocket jets. You know, of course big engines painted blue, so they blend into the ocean and they have no fishing equipment. But you know, beside the point, that's modern journalism. I think opinion polls left and form whether he thinks it's good to do it now or wait a bit.
Yeah, the always unpredictable president Donald J. Trump, the predictable Joshua Philip and I will predict that he is working on his next documentary even as we speak. That's for the future. Joshua, for your time today, Thank you.
We appreciate it always.
Thank you so much.
Drugs and oil, drugs and oil. It's all about drugs and oil when it comes to Latin American countries. We'll see exactly how this one plays out. But he's right, it could play out tonight, it could play out after the midterms. We're going to play it out here between now and three, coming up at one six. Why are women spending a fortune to have their ribs removed? Apparently this is a thing. Now I had no idea about it,
but apparently this is a thing that looks slimmer. And then down the road Jimbernaesy, former congressman, on Somali fraud in Minnesota and how deep does it run in Ohio because currently it's a problem here according to several attorneys. We'll talk to him about all of that and much much more. It's the average American in for the Great American on this day before New Year's twenty twenty six ken Brew for Bill Cunningham, seven hundred wl W. It is what are seven on this New Year's Eve twenty
twenty five? Well, come on, and it's the average American in for the Great American. As we count the final hours down to calendar year twenty twenty five, the highs and the lows and the rest of the show of twenty twenty five will go in the books, and we begin a whole new chapter in twenty twenty six. And I think that's what all of us want, as a whole new chapter. It's not that the last chapter was bad or the chapter before that. I'm sure there were
good chapters and bad chapters in twenty twenty five. But it's the future that we look at because the future is the only thing we have that well, actually it's today. It's the only thing we have to control. The future is not known in the past. Is the past? Carry that thought tonight? Is you're getting slob or notocked. This is unbelievable. You know, all of us want to look young. We want to look pretty. We want to do the things that we did at the age of fifty that
we could do at the age of twenty. We want to look in the mirror and see our best self. Some people can do that. Some people have good genes, other people have good doctors. And in the world of plastic surgery, this is apparently one of the hot new things. Women having their ribs removed, Say ken, why would women want their wit ribs removed? Well for a thinner waistline. It ain't cheap, you'll get a thinner waistline. And man,
does this sound painful? And when things sound painful, he turned to a doctor, and in this case the plastic surgeon to the stars, doctor Bruce Herman Ford certified plastic surgeon, performs a wide range of procedures and has his own weekly show called Nip Talk. Nip Talk right now, he's with us here on seven hundred wylwo Doctor Herman, Happy New Year, and how are you on this glorious day.
I'm doing great.
How are you?
Ken's good to hear from you.
Yeah, it's good to hear from you as well. Now, did you remove any ribs today?
I not do that and I will not do that. I was pretty shocked.
When that news article hit and I had to instantly go look it up because I was kind of surprised to hear that people were doing that these days. You know, that surgery has been around since the nineteen seventies, but never really caught on for the maybe obvious reasons of hey, it's kind of you know, risky to do that and also very painful. Actually dug into that article and it came from a girl who was posting on TikTok.
Of course, right, and so I tried, yeah, of course.
So I tried to figure out where she had it done because I would be surprised if she had it done in the United States.
And she and I actually had.
To do some resource so I was forced to watch like many minutes of TikTok.
This is time I'll never get back in my life.
But to be thorough, I wanted to make sure I got all the.
Information, and she actually refused to say where she got it done. I'm pretty certain she had.
It done out of the United States.
Because this is the crazy part which wasn't in that article.
I think that you.
Guys saw she actually got her ribs in a plastic bag.
They gave her the ribs and.
She was showing them off on TikTok, which is the craziest thing.
And they really looked legit, they look like the ribs would look.
And I just don't think anyone in America would do that, Like that's kind of like a biohazard to give people, you know, their body part.
In a plastic bag like that.
So this sounds like an out of the country experience that this person.
Had right, it's value added. I mean they could put that on the advertisement. You know, whatever we take out you get to take home, you can.
Add it back.
Oh.
She was showing the bob. It was one video. She was holding them with her hand.
I was like, oh my god, that's so insane, Like I kind of flabbergasted, but.
Sorry, go ahead.
I was going to say that the surgery ain't cheap. This woman, I think it's the same woman. She said she spent about fourteen thousand dollars. They took out six ribs, three on each side, and it's to shrink her waist from a from a thirty two inch waist to a twenty four inch waist. And she said it was very painful, very painful. And my question to you is doctor, you know you all go to every doctor before he specializes
and correct me if I'm wrong. You you go to the university, you go to the universal entrance to the world of medicine. Am I right about that?
I mean, well, yeah, it's plastic surgeons. We go and we get general training and then a lot of people specialize.
So I specialize in breast and body. But yeah, yeah, you're correct.
Ok Okay, So you're a doctor before you're I guess a specialist. A doctor would look at this and think, all right, there's a reason why you would have ribs on each side of your body. They're obviously protecting something. So what do you yes when you take out when you take out three ribs on each side. Yeah, I'm most wondering what are you exposing at that.
Point as you're exposing like your spleen on your left side, which is not good because the spleen is very vulnerable to injury. In fact, in car crashes, a lot of people get splinnic injuries and have to have them removed. And even more importantly, on the right side, you're protecting your liver, which that's not easy to think if it gets injured. So, yeah, there is that side of it, you know. You know, you're removing basically your body's natural armor,
which is there for a reason. Like if this lady goes and gets in a car crash, like she's much more vulnerable to like potentially life threatening injuries. I mean, there's just a multitude of reasons why I wouldn't do the surgery.
I mean, that's definitely one of them.
You know, the pain, the risk, I mean, the one thing I will say, and this is not any way an advertisement for doing this, that I am against this, but it does work. I looked at this girl's photos and I was like, wow, okay, that did make a difference. But to me, it's just too risky, Like there's just too many short term and long term risks to recommend doing this. But I will tell you I want.
Your listeners to have full information.
There is a newer technique out there, which I will not do because I still think it's too risky. But there are some plastic surgeons within the United States. They're doing a procedure called rib x CAR and what they do is they don't take out the ribs, but they make a very very tiny incision. They drill a couple holes in the rib which allows it to basically infracture and you get the same result.
But without taking out the rib. Now I would not do this.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend anyone doing this, but like, if somebody had their heart set on doing something of that nature, I would definitely do the lesser invasive procedure than removing the ribs.
Like removing the ribs entirely, to me, is a bad idea, Like.
Why wouldn't why wouldn't somebody opt for liposuction if there's if there's if there if you want to do that now I know, and I understand maybe you get skin flab or that flappy skin or whatever it is. I understand all that, but you could probably get that fixed too. I'm just I'm just wondering, why wouldn't somebody opt for that as opposed to you know, going to you know, having a rib dinner serve to somebody?
Right, Well, the reason for it, there is a reason, There is an answer to that question is because you know, liposuction removes the subcutaneous fat. But the concern and these people have is the actual structural skeletal component, which liposuction won't alter that. You know, if somebody has like a big, you know, barrel chest or wide hips naturally because of their skeletal structure, Like LiPo is not going to really change that entirely.
I mean, you can, you.
Can alter what's above the bones, but liposuction doesn't alter the structure. This this surgery alters the structure. And again I'm not saying that is the reason that people should go out and do this, because I I don't think this is a good thing, and I would never do it, but that that is the answer, is it's it's changing something more structurally deep than just the overlying fat.
So you're taking somebody is taking ribs out to get a smaller waist. That's the idea. Okay, if that's the woman I'm ringing, is she is she she wanted to feel prettier. Well, okay, I suppose maybe she has other issues with self esteem and then that's one way to fix that. I think she. I think she's got a few things going on. But but the.
Fact that man, she's had like tons of surgery done, Like her whole feed was, Like all these surgeries she's had, it's crazy.
Remember that there was one one woman that was out there, like when the Barbie movie came out, she wanted she had all that plastic surgery done to look like Barbie and like like why you know, because most guys get turned on on that could get they could get an inflatable Bardie Barbie doll and be happy. But but my point, my point in all this is no surgery is is all surgeries come with some sort of discomfort, if not pain.
If you're taking bodily structure out. If you're taking ribs out, good lord, the pain level on that has to be through the roof.
Yeah.
Absolutely, And I will add, which is one thing that's important to know. This girl did come back like three months after a surgery and said, I made a mistake.
I would not do this surgery.
Over my ribs back. Can you put them back in?
Here?
Are my ribs? Can you put them back in? No?
Sorry one way, but yeah, she came back and said, I do not recommend the surgery for anyone. So I mean that's a I guess a good thing for people to hear. Is this This person that this whole article spawned up from came back and said I made a mistake.
I would not do this again.
So yeah, you guys man, you guys in the in the plastic surgery biz. From what I can tell, you work with what God gave you. In other words, if I came into you and I said, you know, I'd really like to look like George Clooney in my aging years, you'd be said, look, I can't. I'm not I'm not a magician. I'm a doctor. You kind of work with what you got when you start messing around with structure.
I mean that's like taking that's like taking afford focus into a garage and saying, Okay, I'm going to remove this, and you got a ferrari Now, I mean you could only work with what you got. I think once you start messing around with that stuff, I think you're full of your you're you're, you're, you're just with the primal forces of nature you're messing with those things. I don't think the doctor really of any note in this country would ever do something like that, do you.
I agree with you one hundred percent. That's why I was really trying to dig to see where this happened. Yeah, I mean it all comes down to, you know, risk and reward, right, I mean I I mean there's certain surgeries that are sort of calmon that I won't do because of the risks, like the Brazilian butt lift.
And I think we talked about this one of the other times we chatted, like.
I won't do Brazilian butt lists.
Because they're risky.
And it's like to me, it's like, you know, doing something esthetic is fine if the risks are minable, but when those risks start to climb where it includes things like death, I'm out, like I'm not in for my patients dying like I'm out. And so you know, unfortunately, I don't know if every surgeon you know, adheres to that kind of you know, strict safety regiment that I do.
And so that's why you you know, you hear these stories in the news, the people who go and you know, try to change something their body and end up, you know, maimed or dead, and yeah, I just didn't. I'm not like that, man. I'll do like the easy stuff and the stuff that is you know, accepted as being safe.
But man, when he gets into stuff like taking.
Out ribs or wrists of bam with Brazilian butt lit, I'm out, man, I'm just not going to do it.
Doctor Bruce Herman, our guest board certified plastic surgeon. We're talking about how some women are now spending a fortune to have ribs removed to give them a a slimmer waistline. There's all kinds. There are all kinds of Charlatans out there, as you know, in in in your business that'll you know, you go. The Brazilian butt lift is a great thing. I think maybe you and I did a segment on how people were going to Mexico to get a Brazilian butt lift and not coming back. They were they were
apprehended by the cartels down there or whatever. I just did. Yeah, I did a segment last week with a guy who is allegedly the number one hair transplant surgeon in America. He lives in Fort Lauderdale, and we were talking about how people are getting on planes. Bald guys are getting on planes and flying to Turkey to get these plug treatments done. Where you know this guy is a legit doctor doing it. The guy the people do it in Turkey.
They may have like an operating room that's right next to a hair salon, that's like next to a rail pollard, that's next to a quick trip where you can get a salami sandwich. It's just I mean, you got to know what you're getting and if you have, if you see something that's advertised out there, yeah, come down here. It's a fraction of the cost. Well, okay, you may come back a fraction of the person that you went down there as. So I mean, you've got to be careful with these things, don't you.
Oh one hundred percent, Like I'm really against medical tourism where people go out of the country because you know, I mean.
You kind of hit the nail on the head. You know, you don't know who's doing it.
I mean, it can be hard in the United States to know who's legit and who's not when you go out of the country. I mean, you just have no idea. You don't know if the training they had is proper. You don't know what the sort of occasions they have are legitimate. I mean, anyone can make a great web page, right, I mean, a person off the street can make a web page that look like the best, you know, plastic surgeon in the world. And it's easy to deceive people.
And so you know, when you go outside of the country, you just don't know what you're getting. Plus, you know, one of the biggest problems of going out of the country is, you know, if you have complications. Number One, you typically have them after you come back. I mean you're not even the same country as your surgeon. And then two, there's no recourse. You know, recent in the United States, if you go and you have surgery somebody and you get botched, you have the ability to get
legal renumeration, right, you can sue them. You can't sue someone in Turkey, like that's impossible. And so yeah, I've been talking about medical tourism and like the dangers of it, and now you have even you know, the UK has issued a bunch of warnings because it's mostly the UK and europe people going to Turkey. We here in the United States people tend to go to South America or wherever.
But now you got the U k issuing warnings because what's happening is all these people are having complications and then they get into the NHS or the National Health Services and it's costing the government a bunch of money to like to fix these people. And so like the government now is like stepping in. So yeah, it's it's crazy out there. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, saving money is good, but it's not you know, worth your life to save you know, a thousand bucks or whatever.
So, doctor Bruce Herman, if a woman walked into your office today and said, you know what, I want to have some ribs removed, you would tell her what.
I would tell her. Please Number one, I'm not going to do it, and two please don't do it. You know, I guess if.
Like she was insistent on doing something. I might refer her to the one of the handful of actual legit plastic surgeons that are doing the minimally invasive not removal, but like you know, contouring or fracturing of the ribs.
But I wouldn't even do that. I mean, I just I just think it's too risky.
I mean personally, so, I mean I guess maybe like those those handfuls of certain the United States, I think they're having pretty good results with it, but I don't know. For this guy, it's too risky. I'm not looking to like hurting my patients. I want everybody to like have a good experience and come out okay.
On the other end, yeah, you're a guy that sticks to the breast, the butt, and the nose, right, I mean, you just you got you know, your menu is very short.
Bread and butter.
Man, the easy stuff, the stuff that's been shown.
To be safe. You know, I'm not here to take risks.
I mean, I just you know, again, I just want people to have a good experience and.
Not hav any bad outcomes. So I'm sticking to the stuff that works.
And nip talk. Where can we find nip talk? Your weekly show. Where is that?
So it's a video podcast that airs mostly on YouTube. You can find us at NIP talk Show. It does air on Facebook as well, and then the audio goes out to the various audio podcast streaming services.
So up some of your listeners to come by.
Yeah, what are you talking about this week?
Well, actually I'm off this week because the studio is closed because of the new year.
So well, last week, what did you do last week?
I'm sure it's a bad week.
Is we had Christmas bell on a bad day, so our studio was closed book So I just I gave my people a couple of weeks off. Last thing we were talking about we were talking about Kate Winslet. She was slamming anyone who wanted to get plastic surgery.
And I love Kate Winslet.
I saw Titanic three times in the in the theaters when I was a young person.
But I had a little beef.
With her because she was like, she's kind of dogging on people that wanted to get botox and.
Like simple stuff, and so.
We had to break that down.
But yeah, we talked about a lot of interesting topics, including things like I actually we'll do a segment on this rib rib reception thing, and that'll be what I'm going to talk about for sure on the next episode.
Well, good gad, we gave you the idea, and Kate winslet her boat always sink, so I wouldn't worry about you about her.
Yeah, that's right.
Anyway, Doc, thanks for your time. Doctor Bruce Herman always great having you on. You can find him at Breast and Plasticsurgery dot com Breast and Plastic Surgery dot com. All right, Happy New Year, Docs, stay.
Well, happen to you. Thank a lot. Take care.
You couldn't pay me enough money to have my ribs removed. You know, people should just love people for the way they are. Wouldn't that be a nice thing to happen in twenty twenty six? Here I am, this is look take care of myself the best way I can all. What a world that would be? One twenty five it's the average American in for the Great American News Radio seven hundred w l W. It's good handwork on this bass. You're not playing a slap base here. He's just playing
a bass. I'm guessing it's at you. I mean, Carol Kaye was a great base player, Welcome back seven hundred WLW. The average American in for the great American. On this New Year's Eve. We have Xavier basketball later on this afternoon. Connect ticket is at Xavier that will be at the Sintas Center, and that particular game we'll see a major task for the Musketeers as the number four Huskies are
twelve and one. Savior comes into this game nine and four, and we will have that game for you right here on seven hundred WLW Byron Larkin and Joe Sunderman with the call. There are other bowl games going on today, and there are things I guess that if you're a fan of college football and you don't mind seeing the teams that might not necessarily be all that good, well what the hell why not? And then, of course you've got the college football Playoff that begins our I guess
in the case of the playoff itself continues. But tonight at the Cotton Bowl, it's Miami against the Ohio State buck Guys. Last we heard from the buck Eyes, they had just been slapped upside the head by Indiana in the Big Ten championship game. They've had a lot of time off to think about this game. Tonight against Miami. And if you were listening yesterday or heard a young man by the name of Dan Hope from eleven Warriors dot com, he was one of my guests yesterday and
was asking him about that time off. That's a long time to think about a loss. It's a good time, I suppose if you're trying to heal and get players who have had nagging injuries throughout the season healthy. But it is a long time and I'm wondering, as I wondered yesterday with Hope, exactly how the buck Eyes deal with this.
Well.
The good thing is for Ohio State, they've done this before.
We saw it last year where they lose that game to Michigan, they have to sew on it for a month and then they go and have a fantastic four game run in the College football playoffs. So there's a lot of play on this year's team who were part of last year's team, who have been there.
They know what it takes to bounce.
Back from a loss, and they know what it takes to play their best football in the College Football playoffs. So I think that that's something that can really kind of guide them into this game and help them in terms of knowing what it takes to play their best football of.
The season in the biggest games of the year now.
At the same time, just because they did it last year doesn't if they're going to do it again and players are talking about that, you know, they have to work just as hard going into this game as they did going into those CFT games a year ago if they want to have the same results.
But I think the fact that you know.
Ryan Day and so many of these players have didn't prove out already last year, they have that experience of playing in a college ball playoff in winning a national championship. I think that's really valuable. It's something they can drop from going into this game.
Day is going to take over the play calling on offense, largely because Brian Hartline has got one foot out the door to South Florida to become the next head coach, and although he's still coaching obviously on the staff, he's going to concentrate on wide receivers. They took over the play calling. Why is it because Heartline is literally moving on And was it a strategic thing on Dave's part? Did he not like the way the players are being college just fill in the blanks there a little bit.
Yeah, I think he pretty much covered it.
I think it's the fact that Brian Hartline is juggling two jobs right now, and I think that Ryan Day came to realize over the last couple of weeks that having an offensive coordinator, having someone leading the offensive game plan who is not a one hundred percent invested in Ohio State right now, was not the best move for Ohio State. And I don't say that to criticize Brian Hartline. It's just the reality of the situation that you know, he's going to be a head coach somewhere else. He
has certain things he has to do for that job. Unfortunately, the way of a college football calendar is right now. I mean, I know I've read something and I think it's like eight of the teams in a college ball playoffs or something like that have a coordinator moving on.
So it's just the reality of a situation these days that you know, with the timing of signing day and a transfer portal and all that, you know, coaching hires get made before the college football playoff and so you have a lot of coaches who are finishing up a job with one team while preparing to start a job with a new team. And that's certainly the case of
Brian Hartline. But I think Ryan Day just kind of came to realize, well, you know, because of what happened in the Big Ten championship game, where you know, the offense clearly had its worst performance of the year, coming just three days after Brian Hartline was hired at USF.
I don't think that was a coincidence.
And then I think, you know, realizing is they started game planning for the cotton ball over the last couple of weeks that you know, having someone who's splitting time between two places lead the offensive game plan is probably not the best way to go about it. And so you know, and they ultimately decided that the best move was for him to do it himself.
Stay at Hope. Who was with me yesterday on seven hundred WW from eleven Warriors dot com. We got bowl games tonight. Of course that's the big one today. It's the Reliaquest Bowl Iowa against Vanderbilt. Oh my be still my beating heart on this one. This game is now at the half, Iowa fourteen Vanderbilt three. Still to come.
The Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl. Yeah, out there and they'll passo Texas, Arizona State against Duke, and then the cheese at Citrus Bowl, three o'clock kick, Michigan against Texas, the unbattled Michigan football team against Texas, and then tonight, of course it's Miami and Ohio State. What's up with the Bengals. Bengals are counting down to the end of the season, but do they have full focus on the task at hand? With the Browns? Talk a little bit
about that next no Stooge report today, segs Off. I'm just trying to fill in the blanks. Seven hundred w WELW one fifty News Radio, seven hundred WLW, The average American in for the Great American. Do you think there's this Somali fraud problem up in Minnesota? How about the Buckeye State. We may be on the verge of one as well. We're going to get into that at two oh six. Then down the road. How chocolate and coffee can help your aging process? I don't mean accelerated, I
mean pushing off the aging process. New Year's Eve twenty twenty five, great to have you with us. I want to wish a happy birthday to a loyal listener here on seven hundred W WELW young man up in Lima by the name of Silas. Silas is a dedicated listener to this radio station. We hear from Silas a lot. He is thirteen years old today and we wish him hot happy birthday here from seven hundred w wel that thirteen years old, Silas, Your entire life is a blank
canvas at this point. Paint it wisely. The Bengals are getting ready to take on the Browns, and of course at pay Corpse Stadium one o'clock kick season finale for the Bengals. Our coverage begins at nine a m. From the Holy Grail this particular Sunday morning. And does Zach Taylor just finished his news conference up here a few minutes ago, and he says he is absolutely no questions, none, no questions about his team's energy.
All you spend great energy from our guys. Helpful that we've won the last two. I think to keep the energy up at this point of year. But everybody's been great.
Got to deal with Shudor Sanders, who is not great but is playing better as the Browns have just played Merry Grounds with quarterbacks since they came back into the league. But Sanders is their guy now, is at least through the end of this year, and then we'll see what happens. And Taylor claims that he knew all about him when
he played at college. Well, who didn't. He played for his dad and everybody was kind of eyeing his dad, Dion, But Taylor at least knew who the guy was coming out of college.
You know, I'm never going to call myself a Colorado fan, and I was watching their games, you know, as a Nebraska guy, So you know, I thought that he did a great job, you know, and collaboration with a lot of other people that really did a great job at Colorado. So then for him to come in the league and
as a rookie have success things really impressive. And so again we've got a tough task in front of us, and he's done a real good job, and he's got confidence, he's he's obviously got a lot of reps in his belt now and he's been a lot of plays for these guys.
You know.
I had on Brian Diardo from CBS Sports last week on my show and we were talking about the Bengals and in twenty twenty five and how much of a bummer it was. And I asked him, is it too is it too easy to say that this all fell apart when Joe Burrow went down, because there were great numbers put up by Joe Flacco in several games in his absence. Here's the Ardo's thoughts on that. I think it's somewhere in the middle.
I think I think going in and I think what you're alluding to is this was a fly team with
or without Burrow, and I wholeheartedly agree. I think for me, the season was went downhill when Brown and Cake Brin came in and he didn't provide them the adequate play at backup quarterback that they needed, and you know one and three and those starts that it was so bad that they had to figure out a way to get another quarterback and um announced everybody went and got Joe flat though, and kind of a shocking, you know, mid season trade, and to me, him not being ready to
come in and go. I think it was a surprise to everybody. And he was four and three, as you know and your listeners know, as a starter a few years ago. When Burrow got hurt and there was no reason to believe that he wouldn't be as effective this time. And he was so bad that it compelled Zach Taylor to bench him and try to save the season with getting a forty year old quarterback. So, you know, to me, him not being able to come in right away and get a couple of wins, I mean we're talking.
If they have two more wins right now, they're still in it with the Steelers.
Being where they are and the Ravens being where they are. To me, that way there was to me where the season ended.
Well, yeah, in a lot of ways it did. I mean you go back and you look, which I did. So Flacco's first game here was the game against Green Bay on October the twelfth, twenty nine to forty five, two hundred and sixty eight total yards in that game, and it was obviously, you know, not a game that I would consider the Bengals to be competitive in, but at least showed that Flaco could come in here and
you know, give this team a pulse. And then Pittsburgh four hundred and seventy total yards against the Steelers, four hundred and seventy yards against the Steelers right week seven, Ingles thirty three Steelers thirty one McPherson's fueld goal with seven seconds to go. The two games that just absolutely submarine this team were, of course, the home losses to the Jets and to the Bears. You give up two
hundred and fifty four rushing yards to the Jets. The Jets haven't shown that kind of pulse at any game before that, and after five hundred and two total yards Chicago the next week, thirty seven rushes, two hundred and eighty three on the ground, five hundred and seventy six total yards on the ground. You allow Caleb Williams to throw for four touchdown passes in both of those games,
a grand total of two sacks from that Bengals defense. Now, the season really didn't go under when Burrow got hurt, but you had those Jets and a Chicago win. To what was at stake when Burrow came back. I mean, who knows what the story is. The defense is what submarine this team this year, and as well as it seemingly has played the last three weeks, it needs major work. That's the eyeball test. I've been watching this stuff for over forty years here for over forty years, almost fifty years.
That's the eyeball tenp. They're not good enough. They don't tackle well enough, and they certainly don't cover well enough, and they certainly don't rush the quarterback well enough. That's job one in the off season. It is coming up on one to fifty seven news Radio seven hundred WLW Welcome back at happen in a year I grew the average American in for the great American here on seven hundred WLW. Thank you for tuning us in today too. As you get ready to do whatever you do tonight.
You know, I going out and getting crazy those days I have left in my wake, and I since most of you have done that too. We're just I think pot people just want to stick close to home anymore. You maybe go have dinner, maybe come home. You can stay up long enough, watch the ball drop and then hit the sack for sleep or whatever. Anyway, Happy New Year to you and your family. The fraud scheme that's going on in Minnesota, I think you should know about
that by now. It is centering around a Somalian population that is the largest of any state in America. Right now. Eighty two of the ninety two defendants charged are Somalian Americans. Now, this center's around daycare centers or in one case, a leering center. How in the hell do you put up a sign over a daycare center that says leering center. Event, it's a scam to get federal money siphoned to Minnesota
for alleged daycare centers. And right now that alleged money is somewhere around eighteen billion with a B dollars, the alleged money that's been scammed by the Somalian run daycare centers. In Ohio. We have the second largest Somalian population of any state in America. Most of the Somalis that are here in this country, legal and otherwise have settled in central Ohio. And someone, I guess it was the Columbus Dispatch. They're not really doing a very good job on this story.
By the way, ask the governor about you know, well what about you know these daycare centers here in Ohio? Is is everything okay? And you know the governor said, oh no, no, no, no, this is this has been going on for a long time. We know that that this is going on. We're on it, and we crack down on it every time it pops it pops up, and I guess maybe the Dispatch was satisfied with that answer, but I'm not because it almost sounds dismissive on the
part of the current governor of Ohio. So I wanted to find out exactly what's going on in the state of Ohio from a guy that I have on my show a lot who totally listen, totally up fun about this. Jim er Dacey ran against Mike DeWine and lost, tried to primary Diwine in the Republican primary, and REDEESI lost. I don't think he has any ill ill will towards the governor, but he does have a differing opinion on what's going on in Minnesota and how it relates to
you and to me here in Ohio. So let's bring him on in. Jim er Dacy, how are you on this glorious New Year's Eve?
I am doing great, Ken, how are you?
I'm doing well? And uh, look, fraud is fraud. Let's extract Somalia out of this just for a moment. Fraud is fraud. And if somebody is stealing tax dollars from people who pay into the tax system, that should be an absolute red flag for every single person in this country, but in particular the people that serve this country in Washington, DC. So why I have so many of your former Democrat colleagues not looked at this and said, wait a minute,
this is fraud. They don't seem to be very interested in any of this, do they.
Well, I got to tell you for your exactly right, fraud is fraud, and whether it's Democrats or Republicans, Americans should be looking at this across the board, across the states.
I would never tell you that there's enough fraud to reduce the deficit, but I would tell you there's enough fraud out there that if it was extracted, we could be doing a lot better with our debts and deficits, especially when it comes to medicate fraud, because people have to realize that, for instance, in Ohio, whatever the state of Ohio spends, the federal government reimburses over ninety percent
to the state. So there's a gimmick going around the entire country, which I did try and fight when I was in Washington, which there's no reason to cut medicaid spending, for instance in the state of Ohio when ninety percent of it and plus when some of the states are very similar get totally reimbursed by the federal government, which becomes a real problem when the federal governments just fishing out dollars and states are taking those dollars and not
really being careful with them because they know that the majority of those dollars are reimbursed by the federal government.
The majority of Somalians that have landed in the United States, legal or otherwise are in the state of Minnesota and in the Minneapolis metropolitan area. The second largest group are in Ohio. Some say thirty thousand, others say it might be twice that, but nevertheless, here they are. And you just mentioned you tried to fight this in Washington, DC, and I mean, here's your good buddy, Mike de Wine.
His office said that the attempts to the fraud publicly funded daycare are not new and that the state has had safeguards up for a very long time. Do you believe that?
Well, look, I ran against Mike DeWine because I don't believe a lot of things he says, and I'm willing to say that. But let's face it, over, I just saw a report today over forty daycare centers in Columbus Ohio all opened under the same defunct shell organizations from all the Educational Resource Center began operating the exact same day with combined earnings of fourteen million dollars in twenty
twenty four a loan. So we have the same situation occurring here in Ohio, and we do have medicaid fraud throughout Ohio as well. That has been found by our honor has brought it to the attention of many people, and some people have been prosecuted, some haven't been. Let's face it, It's one of the reasons why I say be careful when you point the finger at Minnesota, because one of those fingers might be pointing right back at Ohio at the same time.
Yeah, I mean again, it almost seemed like a brush off what his office told. I guess it was the Columbus Dispatch. And then the Dispatch shose the weakest form of journalism to look into this story. They went running to one of those alleged daycare centers in Columbus and said, oh, no,
everything's good here. Everything's good here, so there must not be anything going on, rather than actually trying to dig into the story and see, well, okay, well what about this place or that place, or the overall medicaid fraud that may be going on here in the state of Ohio kind of you know, if somebody that spent their life, the majority of their life in television journalism, it just kind of hacks me off. The lack of journalistic curiosity here with this story.
Well, kay, and here's what's really interesting. An individual up in Wadsworth, Ohio that actually has three or four daycare centers, got in the car and drove down because of his frustration of how difficult it was to operate his daycare centers. And he told me today that he visited five of these Somali daycare centers. Four of them were absolutely nobody there, totally dark, and the fifth one that he visited, he was actually afraid for his life because a guy came
out and said what are you doing here? And he said, you know a what he goes, You're trespassing and he said, nope, I'm not trespassing because I'm leaving. But he felt very uncomfortable that after visiting just five locations in Ohio in these Somali daycares, but four of them were dark, and one of them, although it wasn't dark was not providing daycare was providing he said it. Look there was something else going on in the building. But that just shows
you that you're exactly right. We need to have a thorough investigation of this, and I think we're going to find the same thing. It's just a lack of oversight from our government officials, which leads to deficit spending, medicaid waste and fraud and things that could be corrected if we just were a little bit more diligent on oversight.
Yeah, I'm reading right here. According to some estimates, Somali scammers have taken more money from taxpayers in the last few years than the entire gross domestic product of Somalia the country. I mean, it's staggering. It's roughly eighteen billion that's in play up in Minnesota, and half of that is a number that adds up to the total federal funds provided by that FEDS two Minnesota since twenty eighteen
for all of federal run services in Minnesota. Look, I would never suggest this to any other politician than perhaps you, but it seems to me if you have in Minnesota a very large Somali population there and it's you're running for political offense, either for the mayor of Minnesota or for the seat that elon Omar has. If you start sticking your nose into something like this, it's going to cost you votes. And if that costs your votes, that cost you the election. How much of this do you
think is just politically driven? That Tim Walls and the mayor Fry I believe his name is of Minneapolis, and certainly elon Omar, they don't want to stick their nose into something like this because if they do, that costs them votes and they're out of office. That couldn't possibly happen, could it?
Well? You know, and I know that votes are the main thing. It's one of the reasons why nobody wants to look at Medicare. Nobody wants to look at Medicaid, nobody wants to look at social security fraud. And you start looking at all these programs and benefits and you start digging into the fraud, you're going to find things. You know. I was on the Medicare Medicare Subscommittee. I was on the Social Security subcommittee. There was ongoing fraud
investigations all around the country. And these are things that do cost people votes. There's no doubt about it. Just like you said, if it's your district and there's a lot of that population and you're worried about getting reelected, absolutely you're going to ignore it as long as you can. Sure.
And the first thing they're going to say is you're a racist. You know you must be a racist if you're looking to the No, I'm looking for my money. You know, you write me a check and give me my money back. You can go about your business any way you want. But I you know, I think is this gets gets rolling and despite the best efforts of ABC, NBCCBS, and it will because I think you're going to finally get some action in Washington, d C. That may be a rallying point for the GOP in twenty twenty six.
I think when you turn rocks over on all of these places, you're going to be surprised of what you find in terms of fraud. Now you might have served with this guy. I don't know, Jim. I didn't look at the lap over on your tenure there. But the House majority with Tom Emmer from Minnesota, now's yelling and screaming and calling for the denaturalization and deportation of Somali's
in Minnesota who defrauded taxpayers. Well, okay, I think that's a step maybe after you actually get to who shepherd the fraud and who knew about it and didn't do anything about it. It's one thing to say that's what we're going to do, but I think you got to get to that first step, don't you.
Well, absolutely, And I did serve with Tom Emmer. He's a good friend of mine. And you know, look those are such face. That's a political claim he's making. It's a great political claim and it's a great rally cry. But you're exactly right. We've got to start looking at these states. It's the same. And I use Ohio only
because I know Ohio. If Ohio was not getting anything reimbursed from the federal government, zero reimbursement, they'd be very careful on how much they're spending in the medicaid program. And one of the things every state we should be looking at is how do we how do we make the states more accountable when it comes to Medicaid. The best way, of course, is to eliminate their federal match.
And you know, you want to fix a state like Minnesota, just say okay, we're going to eliminate your federal match. But you got to remember, you just can't pick on Minnesota. And that's what I keep trying to tell people. You can look at Minnesota and as a Republican administration, the Republican president, we could say we're going to go after Minnesota until it becomes a problem in Ohio, whether it's a Republican administration. So if you're going to do this, you got to do it across the board.
I don't know what to get you into a you know, another public urinating contest with the wine. But he doesn't seem interested in it. I mean just by his statement and the statement that came out of his office up there, it's like, oh, yeah, this isn't now, We're on it. We've got our antenna. It doesn't seem like he has an appetite to take this thing on. Does it seem that way to you.
Well, look, it's a controversial issue. He should be on top of it. No, he's not going to worry about it. And it's one of the reasons Iran against him. And again it's but I've said this time and time again, our state has not gotten any better in the six years he's been governor. In fact, we've fallen behind in a lot of places. And this is another issue. In fact,
he's increased medicaid funding across the state. He has added to the medicaid debacle that we have in our state, which means, you know, if you assume that medicaid has five, ten percent, whatever the number is fraud. Governor Gwin has increase the amount that Ohio spends in Medicaid, which means he's probably in avertly increase the amount of fraud as well, just because whenever there's money rolling into the state, there's going to be a percentage that's fraudulent.
Where do you see this thing going, Jim, Not just here in Ohio, but you know across the country. It's Minnesota right now, it's the holiday season. It probably isn't getting a lot of attention from the general public just yet, but you know January and the cold months of winter's still await when people are in front of television sets and whatnot. Where do you think this goes and how quickly do you think it goes? Knowing it's an election year coming up.
Well, because it's Tim Walton, because it's a Democrat state, I think you're going to see President Trump and many in the administration going after Minnesota. At the same time, as I said all along, I think it's going to backside and hit Ohio as well. Because you said this and I agree. The second greatest population of Somolians is in Ohio. So we're going to get that backlash in Ohio. And I think in the end, it's just going to make people more unhappy with our political system and our
politicians and our elected officials. And we've got a November election coming up. If you start to play the cards, eventually people are going to say, I just want to get everybody out of there that's in office. We saw that before. The sad thing is we have a majority of Republicans right now, but they will pay the price if that's the attitude of voters come November twenty twenty six.
Happy New Year, Jim, And what I say happy New Year, I mean happy and healthy and safe and you and I will visit in twenty twenty six.
Thanks same to you and all your listeners. Happy New Year.
So there's a conservative lawyer and a Republican strategist named mahet Cook, and Maheck Cook told Fox News earlier this month that Minnesota just the tip of the spear, and many Somalians in Columbus are great people, law abiding citizens who came here legally, he went on to say. She went on to say, the problem today is not the community,
it's actually the criminals within the community. It doesn't matter whether it's Somalians or pick another country, people from Ireland, Italy, Canada, Mexico, China, Ubekistan. It doesn't matter. Fraud is fraud, and they're taking our money. And if that doesn't get you lit underneath the butt, I don't know what will tax money taken from US Congress. Better get quick on this seven hundred WLWT.
Two thirty six.
News Radio seven hundred at WLW welcome on it final half hour festivities. It will be Jason Williams and Dan Carroll after the news at the top of the hours. Take it straight straight till Xavier basketball Xavier and connect Ticket four thirty year Time five o'clock tip on seven
hundred WLWT. To build off the Jim Ornacy interview. It's awfully interesting to me that the exposure of fraud by Somalians in Minnesota has happened by citizen journalists and independent journalists, and that those working for major media outlets have either completely ignored the story for whatever reasons, maybe political ideology or maybe because they were too stupid to find out that there was something going on. Who knows. Journalistic curiosity
in this country is dead. But it was these citizens journalists and these independent journalists that have uncovered these things. And it's not just in Minnesota's it's apparently across major major cities in Maine, Pennsylvania, Washington State and right here as we just talked about with Reneesi in Ohio. So he's right in the sense that, Okay, make a campaign issue out of that. Bang on Tim Walls, and Tim
Walls is Elmer Fudd with dancing hands. Bang on him all you want, but it may come home to haunt in some of these states that have Republican governors as well. We'll see where it goes. But it's you know, it's your money, and it's my money. It's federal money. That's what I would be screaming if I was on the radio in Minnesota. This is our money. This is why every April fifteenth we have to pay federal income tax.
We work hard for the money. As the song once went ESPN reporting that there is yet another New England Patriots player that has been arrested on assault and battery charges. This time it is Christian Barmore. Now, apparently this incident stemmed from August the eighth, all the way back then, but it has only been since December sixteenth that it wound up in front of the police, and Christian Barmore is scheduled to be arraigned in a Massachusetts courtroom on
February third. This on the heels of what Stephan Diggs has been accused of doing. So not so many fun and games off the field for the New England Patriots as they are going through an historically successful season on the field and in college football right now. And I want to make sure I get this right, because you know, these bowl games anymore, they're not just this is the Relyoquest Bowl. I'm sure that there was just a large appetite to see the Relioquest Bowl. End of the third quarter,
Iowa twenty four Vanderbilt seventeen. Still to come tonight, A couple of more of these ballgames, Arizona State, Duke, Michigan, Texas, and then of course Ohio State Miami in the playoff seven thirty tonight in the cotton Bowl. Do you like dark chocolate and coffee? Well, those are two of my obsessions. And apparently this is a good obsession I have because dark chocolate and coffee not necessarily consumed together. But dark chocolate and coffee have been linked to a reduction in
cell leader aging. Cell leader aging. Who doesn't want their cells to slow down a little bit, so we don't all get old Cragley and die. Well, we're all going to die, but I mean ahead a schedule. People with higher blood levels of something called theobromine seem to have slowed cell lead aging, and this is a result of a study that was done hon a significant group of people over in the UK. Healthy living, we know, may not make it a last longer, but it will make
you last healthier. And you want to stay healthy, right. You don't want to be somebody that's just chair bound or bedbound or whatever it may be in the final five or ten years of your life. You want to be you want to be young, You want to be vibrant. At least that's what Paul Fulford tells me. He is a healthy living expert. He is with Sinoshore or maybe it's sino Shure. I'm not sure which way it is pronounced, but Sinoshure Sinoshore Electronics, which is a leader in the
field of medical treatment systems. And he's another guy that says, look, there could be something to this chocolate coffee thing. And anybody that carves out time to be with us on this New Year's Eve we appreciate, and we appreciate. Paul Fulford, how are you on this New Year's Eve?
I'm doing wonderful. How are you doing, Ken.
I'm doing well. Is it Sinoshure or Sinoshore?
It is sino Shure Electronic.
And I also have a podcast called Optimized Outcomes where we discuss all kinds of topics like this, healthy living, anti aging, biohacking, health wellness, mental, physical performance, all pushing the outcomes.
Yes, wow, what is bio hacking?
By the way, Basically, if you think about it in terms of like a computer, where you're hacking a computer software, the body has an operating system, right, And everything that we have when we look at our biomarkers is in essence, you know something that we can hack, and it's something that you know is signaling right, So and what we're talking about sort of in this topic is different signaling, like with with what coffee and dark chocolate can do,
and if we can interrupt that signaling. You know, for some reason, sometimes our DNA as we get older decides not to repair itself as it did when we were in our twenties and thirties. Right, So if we can hack that and send the proper signaling to you, so then we can actually, you know, forty forty is now the new sixty.
Basically you can you can fliplop it. Well, excuse me, sixty is the new forty.
Yeah, yeah, ninety is the new seventy. It's just it's all about aging. It's all about cellular aging. And I'm reading here dark chocolate or coffee both can reduce celluator aging. Okay, so explain that I like chocolate, I like coffee. Do I eat more of those things and reduce my cellutor aging and therefore all live to be one hundred and forty.
I love where your head is that ken? So the headlight is fun.
You know, the science is interesting, but if you know, we've got to keep it honest here, right, there's a there's a new study that the doubts. That shows that there's an association, not proof that that chocolate is a thought of youth. And what it does suggest is people with higher levels of the compound called field bromine tend to show signs of slower biological age.
I'm certain at the genetic clocks.
Okay. So the study that was done, I guess research was done in the UK. They had participants in two groups. There were like five hundred women in one group and eleven hundred and fifty men and women in another group. Both had the average age of sixty. So they started with that baseline, and then of course they they jimmy the test so that one would get these I guess THEO one of the theobromines that would that would increase the likelihood of cellular aging being put on slow and
others did not. What are we to make of that? Is it a big enough test to say, Okay, I'm going to, you know, maybe increase my intake in chocolate, increase my incake and coffee, or at the very least make it part of what I do on a diet basis, on a weekly or monthly level, that I can continue getting those particular things into my bloodstream and into my body. What are we to make of this test?
Well, I mean if you look at that one that we're talking about, and like, there's other ones we can point to. But there were two big groups of people right mostly around sixty one cool heart was the Twins UK with about five hundred and nine women, and the other one was the Cora cool Heart in Germany.
That had eleven hundred and sixty men and women.
And they measured the theobromine in the blood using different tests, and they looked at the DNA methylation patterns that ran the epigenetic clock models and so in playing English, they looked at chemical tags on DNA that shift when age can be used to estimate biological aging.
This so I was just gonna say, but this this alkaloid, this theobromine, theobromine, I'm glad to believe that's more of something that's in chocolate then it is in coffee or tea. In other words, if somebody's listening to this and they're thinking at oh, chocolate, yeah, it's going to slow down the aging, or coffee it's going to slow down my aging. And you know, they start downing triple shot lattes four or five times a day. Their heart's going to explode.
So I guess what are we talking about moderation here, Paul?
So you know, you don't, You're You're exactly right.
They don't need to start pounding expressos or eating bricks of dark chocolate tonight, right.
You know, if you if you do that, you're.
Gonna feel young for about forty five minutes.
Then you're gonna die. Then your your heart rate at two am is going to be serious.
Right, So the study does not tell us you know this, you know, in the studies don't tell us how much chocolate or coffee to consume. It didn't even really reliably track coffee intaking a peru tice way. It looked at the biomarker in the blood one point at a time.
Right.
So that's the big limitation with this stuff. And again that's why in the in the beginning we were talking about them. It looks like something that you want to you know, implement, but it's there's not like a lot of clinical evidence showing there's there's associations not you know, basically, this is not a prescription for something, so to speak.
Right, No, exactly exactly and I think with a lot of these things that pop up from time to time on poll pop culture, that's the way they should be taken as things that, look, this can do your body some good, but anything in excess can do your body harm. And so keep that in the back of your mind. There are a lot of people tonight, right now, today, probably for the last few days, that have been thinking about, Okay,
how can I live healthier in twenty twenty six? And you know, the normal things come to the top of the list. Get some sleep, go to the gym, even if you just go out for a walk every day is going to help you in some way, shape or form make you feel healthier. But what about eating? Because you can't run away from a bad diet. We can talk all we want about exercising, it's not going to be You're not going to be able to exercise your
way out of a bad diet. What should people be thinking about tonight today, whatever it may be, about living healthier in twenty twenty six.
Well, that's a great question, and it is you know, right on time as far as what time of year we're in, and it is it is.
You know, I talk about this a lot.
You know, like we talked about with the things that I do, and uh, there's a couple of different things I find myself going to run. You know, we were talking about biohacking earlier, and it's in the tech world. It's it's garbage and garbage out. If you have bad inputs, you're going to have bad outputs, right, So if you're if you're eating, you know, I don't care what side
of the aisle somebody falls on. Make America Healthy Again as an importing initiative, and we're looking at a lot of the things with the food supply when it as it relates to how somebody should be eating. There's kind of like a rule of thumb where it's like ninety thirty fifty, where it's ninety grams of protein, thirty grams of healthy fats, and fifty grams of nutrient dent. You know, carbs are in your whole foods, right, and it's.
Also calories in calories out right.
You've got a lot of things out now with GLP ones and those are a big buzzword with people losing weight, which you've got to mitigate those. There's actually a lot there's been a study and it's now a Netflix show called Blue Zones, and they look into these centurions and in these different pockets of the world where people live the longest, and they have three basic things in common.
One they have.
They eat nutrient dense whole foods, right, no garbage, nutrient dense whole foods. They have regular levels of activity, and that can just mean not necessarily hardcore working out. It could be regularly walking, they're performing pasts on a regular basis, they're taking stairs, they're not taking elevators, They're doing all these regular things. And then the third thing is having a sense of community, having emotional connections. Those three things
people that live the longest in the world have. And if there's two areas that people can look at and dial in for longevity, it's making sure that gut health is down in and that they have some muscle that they're working on building muscles. Those are your two biggest markers for identifying longevity.
What are nutrient dense foods? You said nutrient dense foods. I think before when you were breaking it down, it was protein, and then I think you said something with regards to dense carbohydrates. If I'm not mistaken, what do you know about those things.
So when I say that, I mean like if you think about like a Mediterranean diet, right, you look at eating the rainbow as far as the vegetables can be concerned, right, you want things that are Again, again, it's more expensive beat this way. And I think that's why the food supply piece is a great thing, because if we can find ways to make food better, healthier and more accessible, that's better.
But you want to eat.
Your complex carbs, right, you want to eat things that are You're better off eating a sweet potato versus a white potato.
There's as far as nutrient dnse.
Whole foods, there's a lot of things where like if you go to Costco, it's like practical examples. They have these jackfruit chips where they are something that you can have that's crunchy, something that has a lot of very minimal colork intake with a lot of nutrient dense aspects to it.
So there's a wide range of nutrient dnse whole foods that we can eat. Right.
That also, eating those things fills you up longer, Especially protein definitely fills you up longer.
And when you're eating.
Foods, it also requires you to consume energy and calorie is to process those foods, right. So nutrient dent is kind of a broad word that speaks to eating basically whole organic fruits and vegetables that are consuming and filling that will provide that either carb to carb the sugar conversion, and again, getting your sugar from fruits is a lot better way to get your sugars versus drinking sugar in your coffee, right, because that's what our body uses for energy.
No, I mean all of that makes sense. The other thing that makes sense to me, and it was told to me many many years ago. And every time I walk into a Kroger, which is a major grocery chain here in Ohio and Kentucky, I walk in there and I was told shop the perimeter of the store because invaribly, that's where the healthiest foods are. And then as you get into the aisles, you get into the things that if you actually read the label, some of those things
would absolutely shot as to what's in those foods. And if you don't understand what's on the label of something you're buying, it probably shouldn't buy it. But the is the store is where the healthiest foods.
Are you know ken that's that did one hundred percent. I've said that same statement many times, right, And then when you are in the aisles, you one hundred percent have to look at the labeling because if it's something you can't pronounce, you shouldn't need it. Right, And there's a big push now with again because and it has to do like you look at the marketing for the companies and I'm not knocking their hustle.
They have to move product, but they switch. Right. It was for the longest time it was low fat, no fat. Then now then there was the gluten free push. Now it's high protein.
There's protein in everything because of the need for protein with people on these glp ones and everything else. So the sourcing of the materials and if you can't pronounce it, I mean, the fewer the ingredients, the better you one hundred sending me out it with shop the perimeter and when you go into the aisles, you've got to read the labels and have your phone so that you can look it up.
Yeah, you've got Paul Fulford Sino shore Elutronics. Sino Shore Leutronic is where you can find him. And again the name of your podcast that has all that great stuff that you were talking about. Where do people what's the name of it, Where do people find it?
It's called Optimized Outcomes and it's on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.
As they say, all platforms. Paul, good stuff. Happy new Year to you, Happy healthy new year to you. I sense I don't have to say that, but in any event I will. Happy healthy new year to you, and thank you for your time today. We appreciate it you as well. Thank you, Kenn you. Yeah. I'm going to run out tonight, have the biggest piece of chocolate cake I can find and wash it down with a I'll
make it a decaf, you know. Got to get to sleep at some point two fifty four on this New Year's Eve, twenty twenty five, News Radio seven hundred w l W