Mike Allen in for Sloanie 12-30-25

Seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in again for Scott Sloan. Happy to do it.

I don't want to be outdoors today, man, that is brutal. I got here in the weather sheet eighteen degrees. I don't know if that's the current temperature, but eighteen degrees feels like four degrees. And if I'm not mistaken Sunday, I mean we were like mid sixties. It's typical Cincinnati weather. It's the reason why I think everybody gets sick here. We got a great show for you today. I'm going to talk a little bit again about the Minnesota situation. It is the grift that keeps on giving. At nine

I'm looking forward to this.

Dan Horne, reporter, great reporter, longtime reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, did a really good piece on the kind of change in religious feelings in the country, and it's also demographically was able to break down Greater Cincinnati, so we'll see how we compare with the rest of the country. At eleven o'clock, Christopher Smithman, former Vice mayor of the City of Cincinnati, always always has something interesting to say men.

At eleven thirty J.

Ratliffe, aviation expert. We're going to talk to him, kind of get an idea where we are travel wise, and some other things that happened in the year twenty twenty five in aviation. But first, the drum beat continues in Minnesota. As I said, it is the grift that keeps on giving. We have not heard the last of it.

I know.

I talk a lot about it. Reason I do, because it's a big story, one of the biggest. I've ever seen this thing already, and again I've probably about that million times I've said this. We've only scratched the service already. I think, without question. It is the biggest scandal money wise, are probably otherwise in this country's history. And again it's just the tip of the iceberg. Just a couple recent

I think probably a smart move.

This freeze includes over five point five million bucks in annual support to resource partners while the agency investigates are you ready for this and estimated four hundred and thirty million dollars in suspected paycheck Protection Program PPP fraud across the state. And you know, of all the COVID related giveaways, this one seems to be the one that has the most criminal problems. So they suspended money to that wisely so.

So it's going and it's going to keep continue.

Reports on December twenty ninth, just yesterday, I think, yeah, it would have been yesterday, detailed claims from over Listen to this four hundred and eighty Minnesota DHS workers who alleged that Governor Walt's administration ignored or covered up years of warnings regarding the exploding fraud schemes. That is beyond belief. It really is how you're the governor of the state, how you turn a blind eye to this? And you know, I think we all know why he did it. He

Okay. Indictment totals.

As of late December twenty twenty five, at least ninety two people have been charged in the years long investigation, with at least sixty convictions secured to date. Tell you the US Attorney's office, the trial lawyers that they have some of the best in the country. They don't fool around. But something that I heard yesterday, it's just unbelievable. I about fell out of my chair. Okay, So we've got this woman by the name of Marcia Gay. She is

If you could play that clip please.

The question is, you know, why is this a priority? In a different kind of way, the politicization of the DOJ and the FBI is undeniable, So whether they are reliable narrators is the big question. And this is what happens when you weaponize and politicize federal agencies that are not meant to be, you know, politicized. And I think the American people are right to ask the question, well, can we trust you? And that's a sad thing to

Americans know that. Of course.

The other factor here is that because it looks like the Somali population in Minnesota, the Smali immigrant population may have been at some involved in some way, these people are being scapegoated, and that community is being scapegoaded in a way that certainly serves the far right. And so that's also something to keep an eye on, and that's inappropriate.

Absolutely can you believe that? I mean really, can you? I'm not going to use the word I want to use. I like my job too much, but can you believe that this woman gets on I think she was on morning job that part of the MSNBC family, I guess, and she says that that the Somali community are being scapegoaded.

Unbelievable. Listen to this, Listen to this. Okay, so far you have not.

Ninety eight people charged in this thing, eighty five of them are of Somali descent. So who's being scapegoated here? It's just these people. I've always wondered, Still haven't gotten the answer. Still haven't figured it out if they really convince themselves of these things and they actually believe them, or if they just bald face lie to the American people scapegoating the Somali community. Ninety eight people charged, eighty five of the ninety eight are of Somali descent. G

You know, they seem to forget that.

I would bet a chalkolate Sunday to anybody that she probably remained silent while all of their the Biden administration's weaponization happened. It's exhibit a, folks, really of just the blatant bias of the mainstream media. I mean, for her to sit there and say that the Somalian immigrants are I think her quote was involved in some way. They're involved in a pretty big way about it so far in counting a nine billion dollar way. They just don't get it. Well, I take that back, I think they

And they have this case.

I don't know how long it took, but my guess is is that it probably was a lengthy case. Jury deliberates, jury comes back, I don't know how long they were out. Jury comes back with a finding of guilty, a unanimous twelve person finding of guilty. In every criminal case in this country, it has to be unanimous, not on civil cases, but on criminal cases.

Well, what does her honor do? I mean, what does Judge Wes do?

She does something that in all my years in the criminal justice system, I've only seen a couple of times. The amount of times I've seen it, I could count on one hand. I wouldn't need all my fingers. It is extremely rare for a judge to say, you know what, ladies and gentlemen, the jury, all twelve of you, you didn't get it. You know, you didn't get the right verdicts. So by God, I'm gonna do it for you. Is it legal? Yes in Minnesota, Yes, in Ohio, probably every state.

It should not have happened.

And I hope someone is putting her under a microscope because I don't have specifics. I don't know that there are any specifics yet. She's kind of tied in with these people, the Somalian community that might have been involved in this in some way. But I don't want to say anything more about that because I don't have any specifics. Okay, you probably know who Andy McCarthy is. He's a former US assistant attorney. He's always on Fox News. He said

Yeah, I'd say so.

That's what he told Fox News, noting that a judge who believes the evidence is legally insufficient supposed to stop the case before it reaches a jury. There are things in Ohio. It's rule twenty nine. After the government's case, you can make a rule twenty nine. It's a motion for judgment of a quid and the argument is, judge, you know, it's just not there.

It's just not there. Judge, you got to stop it now.

And that that's still very infrequent, but it happens.

It happens.

But this judge, for whatever reason, let the jury deliberate, and they did. And you know, jury verdicts in our system are sacred.

They really are.

Twelve citizens listen to all of this stuff, and I'm gonna find out how long they deliberated and came to a conclusion on this. And the conclusion was that this guy was guilty. But I guess the judge, I don't know what her decision was, what it was based on.

But here's another thing too. If I can find it.

Okay, So the jury for person a person by the name of Ben Walfut. What happens is with a jury, they go back. The first thing that they do is elect a four person. But anyway, this guy, the four person of this jury, told the media there that he was quote shocked close quote by West's decision and said the jury's conclusion quote was not a difficult decision whatsoever.

So I mean, there you go. What's going on there.

I have no specifics other than what I just said, but I think it still bears investigation.

Stay tuned on this. I'm gonna keep talking about it.

Not just this, but I'm gonna keep talking about it on my Saturday show, especially because this thing is building up to something that no one has ever seen before in this country. How in God's name this could have been going on and Waltz and the Attorney General sitting on their butt doing nothing. Waltz, if he had any kind of public feelings for his electorate, will just resign and just say, look, you know this is a little bit too much. People have lost faith and trust in me.

Spotify, and Apple.

He is also the author of the acclaimed book two thousand and eight, What Really Happened?

Todd? Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

Mike, it's a pleasure to be with you.

Hey, let me ask you first if you could explain to my listeners and me, really, what exactly is the National Secure Already strategy? I know, standing alone, it kind of speaks for herself, but I mean it's an actual document, is it not.

Yes, this year it was a report that was right around thirty pages long. Okay, it's required by Congress. It's supposed to come out every year. It doesn't necessarily come out every year, but usually, you know, at least once every couple of years in administration will put one out that kind of, you know, sets the tone for what their strategy is, you know, in the international arena.

I think the Trump administration surprised some people on this, maybe not because he hasn't had a lot good to say about Europe, I guess since he started his second term. But can you kind of explain what the issue is and what the problem is. And you make the point in your article that both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal criticized the report. I guess are saying it's an abdication of our traditional role as the world's policeman.

Could you kind of expound on that, please.

Yeah, that's kind of both the thinking I think reflected in their perspectives and in general.

You know, it reflects.

Almost one hundred years of history in Europe and even more if we go back to our founding ideals, but if we focus on the twentieth century, and I'll try and be very brief with this, you know, through World War One, World War two, and the Cold War, you know, we built up a coalition with Europe to try and defend democracy in the arena where it was most relevant obviously to Europe, but also to us because of the threats to Western Europe and the need for the United

Soviet Union in the Cold War.

And you know, we developed a mentality out of that, and Europe certainly did where there was this very you know deeply connected alliance between the two sides that was crucial to maintaining peace and balance throughout the world. And I think the fact of the matter is which Trump has recognized, but I think the traditionalists have not, and you know, have a hard time letting go of on

And I guess a big part of it is withdrawing some of the troops from Europe over there. I know we have done that throughout that I think the past twenty or so years. My father was in the Air Force. He was a civil engineer, and he was there in Germany about five years from about nineteen fifty five to nineteen sixty working on rebuilding. And you know, he said that Americans, especially the.

Troops, were everywhere.

And I guess the thought is makes sense to me, is that it's time to kind of shift focus to perhaps the two bad guys, if you will, communists China and Russia.

Is that kind of the gist of it.

Yeah, that's a very big part of it. And I think one of the things that's very important to keep in mind is Russia today is nowhere near the threat that was posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And that's one of the things I think that the left and the right, you know, the critics haven't quite fully accepted today.

Russia's GDP, which is, you.

Know, their gross domestic product, which determines how much economic resources they can put into their military operations. Today they're about the size of Italy or Canada, so they are significantly smaller. Yes, back in the fifties and the sixties, they were roughly two thirds you know, the GDP of the United States, the Soviet Union i'm speaking of, they

And what's going on here and.

So what's happened is Russia is so.

Much smaller, you know, their lack of power and their lack of a threat for example, to the United States is reflected in what happened in the War with Ukraine where they went in. Ukraine's even much smaller than.

Russia is, and yet.

Here we are four years later where.

They're struggling to make advances. So that should be a regional conflict that Europe should be responsible for dealing with. And unfortunately, they have mismanaged themselves.

So much that even countries like you.

Know, Great Britain, France, Germany, who are much larger economically than Russia is today multiples of what Russia is, you know, they're basically kind of sitting back and waiting for the United States to come in and play the leading role in dealing with what is really a relatively it's not minor to the people. I don't mean to diminish it from that perspective, but from the global perspective and certainly from the.

United States' perspective, this.

Should be a relatively minor conflict in Eastern Europe that Western Europe should be responsible for dealing with.

And I think that's what the Trump.

Administration is driving at with, you know, with this new strategy and with their approach to Europe. Is like, hey, guys, it's time for you guys to deal with things like this so we can focus on our own hemisphere and today's real threat, which is China.

You know what.

And Trump say what you will about him, but the guy says what he's going to do, and he does it. And that was part of the campaign to kind of take a new look at it, you know, in your and you mentioned it just before.

It's really it's staggering.

Russia's economic resources, their GDP less than those of Italy and Canada, and you know, no better indication of their military decline. Now the one thing that Russia does have, and you know, I think it's sickening. Apparently Vladimir Putin could care less how many Russians he sends into battle and are killed. I researched it a little bit. This is from AI, which I find to be usually accurate.

Half a million.

Doesn't that the fact that he can do that, can get away with it kind of still make him a threat and Russia by extension because he's not going anywhere unless they throw him out.

Yeah, I think they are a threat over time, and they do have You're exactly right, that's very important what

So I do think their threat. It's not like we should completely.

Ignore what's happening over there. But but Trump has not been ignoring it.

You know, they've been selling rush weapons to Ukraine now being purchased by Europe, which is appropriate. They've been willing to make some long term security guarantees to Ukraine to try and halt Russia in their tracks if we can get a peace settlement, which I'm a little skeptical that that Putin's going to be willing.

To do that.

But yeah, we need to be vigilant.

And it's also very important, and this is something that many critics have either missed or outright light about in talking about the National Security strategy. The Strategy report specifically says, we need to make sure that no hostile, aggressive company or country excuse me, comes to dominate any of the major regions of the world.

We need to keep a.

Balance of power.

So they're effectively saying, we're not going to allow Russia to go too far with this. You know, we can't play the leading and the first responder role, but we will pay play a role that prevents Russia from gradually taking over too much of Europe.

Yeah, I wanted to ask you. I mean, because you pay attention to these things. Is there any thought that the Russian citizens will say at some point enough and get his ass out of there? Does anybody see that or is that something that is just not going to happen.

Yeah, you know, he has been able to maintain his power for a long time.

I think he's.

Vastly overstepped his boundaries with the Ukraine War, and that's one of the reasons why he is so unwilling to back down and make a peaceful settlement. That doesn't give him enough to be able to show his country that, yeah, the last four years and these hundreds of thousands of deaths were worth it, and that's the big problem. But I have to think, you know, at some point, the patience of the Russian people is going to give out. Their economy is in a very bad shape, is in

You know.

I saw those figures and just astounding. I mean, we lost fifty thousand, I believe in the Vietnam War. I mean, you're talking about some people's estimates ten times that we only have a few minutes left. And I probably should have asked you about this a little earlier because it's extremely important communists China. Trump has been pretty good his administration about beeping up Taiwan. I think we just sold

Yeah, And I think the same thing we.

Were just talking about, where we can't allow any hostile country to dominate any region of the world world. It applies even more so to China, Taiwan, and Asia than it does to Europe at this point in time, given the size and.

Threat that China poses.

And I think it's also very important to remember Trump in.

His first term is the one who finally started dealing with the rise of China by imposing the first round

Well, which is obviously smart. Boy. Unfortunately we're out of time. We could talk for hours about this.

Really appreciate your point of view, Todd, and appreciate you calling in this morning.

Yeah, Mike, thanks so much.

It was great to be.

Back with you.

Okay, you too. I'll tell you what. It's certainly food for thought. And boy, I think he's right on the money, and so is Donald Trump. I mean, you know, we, I don't know, use the term babysat Europe for a long long time time for them to kind of do a little bit more for themselves as a continent. Hey, you got to take a break, but we will be back with open lines and phone calls for seven nine. I'm sorry one eight hundred, the big one if you

I think it was yesterday Vice President jd.

Vance weigh in on this thing, and boy, he just hit the nail on the head. He called the Minnesota situation quote a microcosm of the immigration fraud in our system. He's stating that politicians like it because they get power, welfared cheets like it because they get rich. I mean, I think that pretty much says it all. And he's damn accurate on it. Okay, let me go to the phones here. Gabriel in Dayton has been holding on the longest. Hey, good morning, Gabriel.

Yeah, goodmore and Micah just want to say a couple of things, yourself and the great American You all do.

A great job there. Appreciate it, Thank you.

But I thought i'd heard everything when a year or so ago, Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, she got on the national news and she said that there'd been like one hundred and sixty smash and grab robbers and eli to that point, and then she said, we're going to put our foot down, We're going to stop this. I'm thinking that the tenor smashing ground is.

Why may something?

And then the US mentioned JD Vans that that interview with Martha raddits.

Yo.

You you're saying that, you know, do you recall that there was nothing bad about the Venezuela and gang. You're taking over parts of color rather, you know that, But with what the with what the woman said you just reported this morning, that probably takes the cakes hey and the down playing this, this Minnesota fraud.

Yes, that's all I've got to say.

Okay, go ahead, thank you, Gaby.

You know I mean, she says they're nitpicking and blaming it all on the Somali people. And again I'll read it again, ninety eight people charge eighty five of Somali descent. I think you can infer whatever the heck you want out of that. But appreciate the call. Gabriel. Oh he's gone. Okay, let's see. Let's talk to Jay in Centerville. He wants to talk about identity theft side of the fraud case, and well, I didn't think about that, but it is a part of the jay what you got.

Hey, Mike, I've called it in a few times. I'm the one. Let's see a refugee from the People's Republic of Portland.

Did you get a.

Chance to watch the Nick Shirley recordings?

You know what, I only saw one.

As I understand that there's a compilation of four of them on YouTube.

I have not seen that one yet.

They're absolutely amazing. He actually got physically a tackle in time tells you that he is really sniffing up the right tree. They are. They're coming after him physically, he's really turning over some bad stuff.

Well, but you know what, you.

Look at him, he's one guy with a microphone and a camera. In three or four days, he's found out and done what the Minnesota officials couldn't do in years.

I mean, it's it's incredible.

Well, you think about Keith Ellison out there. He is a radical Islamist. He supports care, he supports the Muslim Brotherhood. He is not there for the good.

He also supports.

Interrupted, but he also supports Louis Farrakhan, the biggest anti Semite in the world.

I just wanted to point.

Out he does. It's amazing and if it weren't for the Somali immigrants coming into that state, he would have never been elected to that position or to the Senate. So tells you a little bit about the change in demographics and the damage will do. But when you look at the situation of totality, and I have some access to data around this stuff through work, the majority of the fraud is happening on the provider's side. So you

Jay this morning. I don't mean to interrupt you, but this morning I saw the figure. Oh it's been a seven out of ten of them, and I'm sorry for interrupt you.

I just wanted to make sure people knew that.

Yeah. Absolutely, So when I see all these whiny people on Facebook and other places talking about kicking out the poor immigrants, number one, they're not immigrants. I have friends that are immigrants and they put a lot of work into becoming American citizens. And number two, they do have

Yep, that's what it is.

And again seven out of ten, so that kind of takes that argument away.

And you don't even do that.

I mean, if you trespassed into our country, you are a criminal. You've committed a crime. You're not a citizen of this country. You may be a temporary illegal resident.

But I don't know.

Maybe this thing in Minnesota will open people's eyes.

I don't know. I mean it should.

If it doesn't, I don't know why, but I appreciate the call. Okay, thanks, Yeah, seven out of ten. So you know, go figure, well, you know, when Joe Biden lets what anywhere from latest figures fifteen million to twenty million people in we're gonna be dealing with this stuff.

Thank you, Joe Biden. And I'll tell you what.

That guy has to go down as the worst president in this country's history. You know, you talk about Jimmy Carter, and I've not been charitable to him very much.

I think I should now.

But Jimmy Carter, he well, first of all, he wasn't cognitively impaired, but I truly think he thought about him Americans. Who the hell knows what Biden was thinking about anyway, Let's talk to Will in northern Kentucky. He wants to weigh in on what we talked about the National Security Survey with Todd Sheets. Hey, Will, how you doing?

Hey Mike, I always love your programs. I think you wanted to call on Saturday about that.

Anyway.

You know, the GDP of a country really doesn't matter. Think of what the al Qaeda did in ninety eleven. Here they've called the world billions billions of dollars, and they they did it with nothing. You know, Putin is If you want to know the true nature of Putin, Readill o'illy's relatively new book, Confronting Evil. Chapter nine is dedicated to him. Okay, he's a death line. He's a mass murderer. And that's what the United States always says

Oh no, no question.

He gets away with what he did looks like maybe they're coming close to some kind of agreement. I'm a little skeptical, but he does to other countries what he's done to Ukraine. I mean, I think a lot of people think that that very well could happen. When I saw the figure will of anywhere from three hundred and fifty million to five hundred excuse me, five million people killed or I'm sorry, five hundred thousand people killed. It's

I mean, that guy, I think he can boil it down. He's a thug.

He's a thug.

And if you and you know they are, to you, Russia is really just a one trick pony. Really have two tricks on me. They have not natural resources coming out to law zoom. Plus the military, the military is really only second to the United States and icb ms and fighters. They export a lot of that stuff to bad actors all around the world. Obviously, give me a perspective of that number, you know in the song and World War One, just in a three months battle, the British lost four.

Hundred thousand dead.

We lost four hundred thousand entire.

World War two.

Just put perspectives into you know, give you perspectives of numbers of the help many people die.

In these wars.

But you know Ukraine his loss tens of thousands of people.

Also you look that up.

And may have died, and he targets civilians. Yeah, but anyway, that's that's all I got to say about that. You've got great shows.

I like it.

Thank you very much, Will, and thanks for asking a question about that, because it is important. You know, it doesn't raise your blood level. I think to the extent that this the grift that keeps on giving in Minnesota. But obviously extremely important. And once again, say what you want about Trump, but he is right on the money with this thing. It's not Eurocentric anymore. And I didn't get a chance to talk to Todd about the situation

Good morning, thanks for taking my call.

And my pleasure.

Happy New Year to all of you at WLW.

A longtime listener, thank you.

Also, I want to tell you I'm a Christian conservative okay years a somewhat disabled and living on a very limited pitch income.

And I'm actually I'm calling about the.

Terror I mean the terror free by the situation there, the.

Two thousand dollars payment.

Is there any news on that.

You know, Fred, as I sit here now, I don't know, but I'm sure gonna look because he has said that, he said it, and then I know it was him or somebody else in it is in his administration backed off of it a little bit. But you know, the thing about Trump is he says he's going to do something, I mean nine times out of ten, probably more than that he does it.

But I'll drill down on that. I don't because I'm not sure.

That's what I understand.

And i want to tell you one other thing.

And I guess in the winter or spring, winter or early spring of twenty twenty two, you know, I'm a tax payer, file a taxer, turn you know, the h R block, And I was, I was of the understanding that I my people were going to get uh a fourteen dollars rebate when Biden. This is when Biden was uh uh in in office, and Uh, I want to tell you I never received any. I mean, I'm over the understanding that some people were received the fourteen hundred dollars,

So I just wanted to did they let that they say why?

They said there was a mistake, Yeah, Biden that that that that uh an hn R block uh and there was no on the only the only mistake is that I'm a conservative.

Yeah, thank.

And I want to I want to tell you another thing I had. I was in a really bad direct more than twenty years ago. Received a settlement investing money in the stock market. And I really, I really lost badge badly in the in the in the Biden years.

I really I was.

I was.

I was wiped out uh by UH by UH August the twenty twenty four I was worked out of the stock market and UH and UH I was. I was receiving income money transferred from the from the money market account to my taking account. Uh and anyway, by August of twenty twenty four, it was all gone uh and uh.

Uh.

Like I said, I'm I'm on a very limited texting I'm for this year of twenty twenty five, I've had more than five thousand dollars more going out of my checond account than an incomp coming union.

I welcome.

I really use the two thousand dollars.

It's the hangover, Fred. I think of the Biden administration. Trump's turning things around. Hey, I appreciate the car.

I know he's in the process of working, and I'm I'm very thankful to hear. I guess this is true. The seventeen hundred and seventy six dollars to uh after Milter, Is that true?

I don't know, but I'm going to drill down on our Fred, but I do have to go. I got some other callers, but thank you for that call. Let me see what I can find out. Okay, I will look at that. Hey, let's do this. Let's take a short break, come back, and then we'll have a few minutes before ten thirty.

Dan Horn, it's hang around for this.

It's about the change in religious feelings not only nationwide, but in the greater Cincinnati area. We'll do that when we get back Mike Allen's seven hundred WLW Sloaney. Hey, we got some answers, I believe to the questions that the previous caller post with respect.

To the two thousand dollars tariff rebate checks.

The Columbus Dispatch reports to that funding for President Donald Trump's proposed two thousand dollars tar freebate checks would require approval from Congress. White House Economic Advisor Ken Hassett said the administration will likely bring a formal proposal to Congress in the new year. The latest news comes after Trump announced the Warrior dividends the seventeen seventy six bonus from

Well you will, you know, why why would you do that?

I mean they're already paid, and they're pretty pretty well paid. You get up in the officer and I spent ten years in the Army Reserve in the Jag Corps. The officer ranks are pretty well paid, I think enlisted.

Not so much.

So this is something that can help those families around Christmas time. I'm all for it. Hey, just a couple of things I wanted to kind of pick up on that. Various people said on this whole situation with the Minnesota deal, the Speaker of the House weight on it, and if I could only find it, I would tell you what he said.

Well, I'll have to do that later. Let's go back to mar Gay.

She is the person from MSNBC now analyst and again, and I should check this. A New York Times reporter, which you know, what she said, would certainly indicate that that's true. And we heard that clip of her, but I still scratched my head on it. She claimed that the Somali community in Minnesota is being her words, scapegoaded in response to recent federal fraud cases related to Here we Go pandemic relief funding. The statement was made in the context of President Trump targeting the community.

That's what she says. He hasn't you know, he really hasn't said much on it.

Is an administration has and is doing something about it generated significant news coverage. See that's what you get with these people. They gaslight you, or I mean, they lie to you. A gaslight, I think is a little bit less. I don't really understand the word that much, but not as strong as a blatant lie.

Either way. Either way.

And I've always wondered, do they do this knowing what they're doing or they actually believe the garbage. I guess it doesn't matter either way. Hey, we got to break for the news. When we come back, you're gonna want to hear this. This is going to be good. Dan Horne, a long time reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, did a piece about a about I think it's about a week ago, about the change in religious feelings both nationally and in

Mike Allen in.

For Slowey, seven hundred WLW. It's ten thirty eight News Radio, seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in for Slowey. Well, I kind of gave you a preview of it a little bit this morning. Dan Horne of the Cincinnati Inquirer, who is a true journalist, he wrote a great article about a week ago titled poll finds Cincinnatians believe in Heaven and Hell but skip services and he's here to talk about it with us now. Thanks so much for joining us. Dan really appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.

Mike.

Hey, according to AI, which I don't know, if you're using I'm starting to use it pretty much. Recent data from late twenty twenty four and going into twenty twenty five seems to indicate a rise in religious influence in the United States. Is that what you found? And if you want to just kind of expound on what you found in the piece that you.

Wrote, Yeah, there, and there is some recent data out there suggesting there's been an uptick, particularly among young men in.

Some religious faith.

But the data I looked at looked at kind of

You know, and it seems too like the Greater Cincinnati area, which demographically, I guess Pugh broke that down pretty much dovetails in most cases with the national poll. Just a paragraph, short, couple sentences out of your story. Pew found sixty six percent of those surveyed here were Christians, with about two thirds identifying as Protestant and about one third as Catholic. About seven percent were members of other faiths faiths including Judaism, Islam,

Yeah, there wasn't much variation from Greater Cincinnati.

To the national numbers.

A little bit here or there, but the most part as you said, they doved heiled pretty closely.

And belief in God, that's one that obviously many people find very important. What did you find out about that both nationally and in the Tri State area?

Right?

So you know that's obviously the foundation of most religious faiths, as a belief in the Supreme Being or in God. And you know, this survey found fifty seven percent of people in Cincinnati and fifty four percent nationally were certain in their belief in God, confident that God was real. There were another twenty eight twenty nine percent who said they believe, but they're not certain. So that's a huge number that says they are either certain or they believe

Of people who say they are part of the religious faith.

Here's a big one too that you looked at, do you believe in heaven or Hell? Can you kind of tell us what you found on that one both locally and nationally that Pew.

Put out, Yeah, here are Cincinnatians actually are a little less likely to believe in heaven.

They have sixty.

Percent and national responders were sixty seven percent saying that they believed. I don't know if this is the optimism and Cincinnatians or not, but few of them believe in hell two percent that they believe in hell fifty five percent nationally. So they're more confident that there's something awaiting you if you do good in your life, and a little less confident that there's some eternal punishment.

For you if you don't.

Sure you know.

One of the things they left out, I guess that for Catholics is the concept of purgatory, which we were taught that, you know, if you're not perfect, you may have to do a stretch in purgatory. And I always thought I'll do a couple hundred years in purgatory if I eventually get to having for eternity. I don't know, I think there are some Catholics that actually feel that way.

Were you surprised?

I'm a number of skipping math That might be true.

Man, What else did you find interesting in this thing? It's all interesting? But I guess did any of this stuff surprise you?

Not? Really?

This is part of kind of a decade on trend line that you're seeing in any number of polls. Gallop does semi annual pulling on this, and you see the numbers showing some consistency and belief, but a less consistency and religious affiliation with organized faith, more people they don't follow any particular faith, newer people attending services. There is

Yeah, and you know, it boils down to, according to what you write and according to the numbers, that the importance of religion has risen a little bit, but not necessarily attending the services. I know, for the Katholic Mass, I mean, you know, when I was a kid growing up, I mean, those those churches were packed.

Not so much now. But it does seem to me, based.

On what I've read independently and what you report, that at least at least a feeling that there is a supreme being in that person. That being is important. Is that kind of what you're thinking to and what you found.

Yeah, I think.

You know, people will say that, they tend to say that they believe, but I think what we're seeing is a decline and the belief in the institutional aspects of religion and traditional religious belief. You know that in far as far as organized faith, attending mass, regularly identifying with a particular faith, that's the thing that's declined. And you know some of the reasons for that, I mean, no

Got it, And I think that's the takeaway too. Hey, I really appreciate you talking about this thing. I was fascinated by it. I would assume Dan, that you're going to follow it and maybe at some point kind of take a look at it again.

Yeah.

Well, we'll see as these surveys come out, and it's always interesting to kind of see what people believe in why they believe it. And you know, we followed you know some you know, issues on how religious feel locally is shifting, and we'll continue to look at that as well.

All Right, really appreciate it, Dan, have a happy new Year and thank you.

Thanks Mike, you too, Okay, all right.

Dan Horne of the Cincinnati Inquire. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I'm interested in this and it just seems like it's trending upwards. But as Dan pointed out, both nationally and locally here, while I forget how the question was asked, I think is religion important in your life?

Yeah?

How important is religion in your life, those numbers increase. However, attendance at services has decreased, and you know that kind of goes along with what I have seen in you know, you try to get young people interested in going either to mass or to service, and you know, sometimes it's it's like talking to a rock. But bottom line is it would seem like it's trending upward. And again, really appreciate Dan doing the article to begin with and filling

You know what I mean.

I learned something from that last segment with Dan Horne and also from reading his article. And again, like I said, it does seem like at least interest in religion is trending upward slightly. As far as going to services for all faiths, that's kind of down. I went and looked at the poll nationally that Pugh does, and I've always found their stuff to be pretty good if you look at it United States. This is in the United States United States figures, sixty two percent identify as Christians seven

And you know, you're never too old to learn something.

And I did not know that there was any difference between an agnostic and an atheist. Apparently there is. Again, if AI is correct, and I've found it to be reliable. An atheists just flat out lacks belief in God, whereas an agnostic they believe that it's impossible to know God, which I mean is really sad you think about it.

Hey Mike, you do a good job. Thank you on there.

Thanks.

Just wonder what difference it would make the crime if we had stronger prosecutors and more governmental officials, state, local and another that would do their job be formal. Yeah, how much the crime would go down if we had tougher prosecution.

That's a really good CLIs really really good question. And you know, historically in this county, in this area, we have had strong prosecutors.

We really have.

Hamil County is changing though, and you know, some of my Republican friends give me grief about it, but I think our current prosecutor Countie Pillet. She's a Democrat. I think she's doing a pretty darn good job. Not everybody locally would agree with that. Yeah, I'm glad to hear that, as far as it's a real kind of simple proposition. In my humble opinion, having been county prosecutor, the stronger the prosecutor is, the more crime is going to get

In Hamilton County, I go down to court.

I'm retired now, but I've gone down a couple of There are not the same amount of people in those courtrooms as there was when you know, back in my heyday, if you will, in the late eighties, early nineties.

Going into two thousand, it's about half.

And I believe, and I've talked to Ken Kobra FOP president Dan Hills, it is because cops ain't sticking their nose out because they don't think they'll get back from the administration. And yeah, it sure seems like they're right about that. The stronger the prosecutor, the less crime you have. I firmly believe that. And if you take the handcuffs off the cops, if you will, that makes a lot of difference too. I hope I at least partially. Oh my goodness, if I.

Thought these guys come out. How about the bail, Yeah, it should be in jail while they're awaiting sentencing or awaiting the legal action.

Yep.

Yeah, And you're right about that, and that has trended upwards. I mean, I was a municipal court judge for about three years. And one of the main jobs you have there is arraignment and setting bail.

And I'll tell you what.

And finally it was codified by the Supreme Court. And I believe by an election that if one of the things that the court can consider is the danger to the public in setting bail, I think some of these judges don't get it.

Unfortunately, I am.

Out of time, warn and I got a break for the news, But thank you for the call. I really appreciate it. I hope I at least came close to answering it. Hey, we got to take a break. But when we get back, looking forward to this too, we're going to talk to former Vice Mayor Christopher Smithman.

We talked about a lot of things with Christopher.

I'm going to ask him if you could just do kind of an informal year in review for the City of Cincinnati from his perspective, and I'm sure lots of interesting things to say. We'll do that when we get back. Mike Allen in for Slowey seven hundred WLW.

Hey, we're back.

Mike Allen In for Sloaney will be tomorrow Thursday and Friday as well.

I think it was a good time.

It is a good time to check in with Christopher Smithman, former vice mayor of the City of Cincinnati, knows what's going on in this city. Just kind of want to see what he's thinking. Christopher, thanks so much for taking time out and calling in with us.

Hey, thanks, Mike, I appreciate it.

You know, the same things that are happening unfortunately and Cincinnati are happening, you know, across a lot of our major cities.

Yep.

And you know that you see it.

You know, we're going to have to get our head around crime no matter where you live. You know, people are tired of seeing their cars taken or we're talking about petty crimes or people breaking into their homes. You know, we're tired of the murders and the fighting in malls, you know, where people are shopping. You know, we're starting to see this craziness and this lack of accountability and judges who are failing to hold the criminals accountable, and then anybody who speaks out against it.

You know, we're there's an attempt.

To marginalize us sure as sexist, are racist, are too conservative or disconnected I've never seen anything like it, This effort to protect criminals. Well, you know, I mean, I think twenty twenty six is going to be about resetting, you know, our conversation around how we manage crime and all of our major cities across Ohio.

I think you have to and I think exhibit A of what you just described is Minnesota. It just blows my mind, Christopher, and I'm sure you're following it to the extent and the depth of the corruption in this thing. And you know, you scratch your head and ask yourself why, and you also ask yourself why there's been very very

I mean, you know, it's like every time rational people with common sense start saying, you can't steal nine billion dollars and I go away, We don't even know the size of the corruption and in I mean, we just know that it's really big. We know that it's medicaid fraud, which you and I support. It supports veterans, it supports older people, it supports children with disabilities. I mean, these are real dollars that support Americans who need safety net services.

Google, whether it's YouTube, they were.

All out there not allowing information like let's say during COVID, to fluently go out there those different opinions. So when Elon Musk purchased X and created you know created when we bought Twitter and created X, we now are actually getting information how I think it was one hundred and and seven million views on that twenty three year old who went to Minnesota and went door to door.

Oh yeah, Why.

Didn't any of the mainstream media do any of that type of basic journalism? So journalism is dead in America right now. And so this young man with an iPhone did more work than ABC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News all of them did with just like a forty five minute video that he that he that he did, put it up on YouTube or put it up on X and allowed the public to view it.

It's unbelievable. I mean, and we talked about this on the show earlier today. That young man did what all of those organizations that you just talked about didn't do in forty five minutes with a cell phone camera. I think he actually had a real camera for one of them. It's staggering. Let me ask you this, you and I get it. Do you think the majority of people out there, normal people that you know, go to work, get paid, come home, take.

Care of their kids.

Do you think they are as a guest as we are as to what's happening out there.

I think they are, and I the problem is that so many Americans like you and I look at this and for us it fires us up. Well, for some people it breeds. It breeds this lack of I don't like, I don't I can't do anything about it. And so what we've got to do is educate people, saying, look, we have a mid from life. Come it up in

We continue to send money away, whether people.

Are doing r and ds out of their retirement accounts, whether they're doing distributions from their pensions, whether they're doing distributions from rollover IRA accounts, they see those federal taxes coming out. We don't want to see ninety eleven billion.

Dollars of federal dollars wasted in Minnesota. That's just there.

You and I know that the medicaid fraud right is probably in many different states. Right, We're we're just touching the kind of the scratching the surface. And so how do we get voters engaged and ready for twenty twenty six as an action and that this doesn't breed empathy? I mean apathy, excuse me, apathy where someone says I really can't do anything about it, Mike Allen, when they really can. It's that individual voter.

Out there that says, enough enough. I'm not going to get caught up in race. I'm not going to get.

Caught up in sexuality and gender and all of these things that divide us and distract us. I'm going to focus on what matters crime. How can I be safe? How can I go to my car, start my car on a winter morning, think about this and that, comeback and in my drive in my car is still sitting there. People know that if they go out and start their car now, in some parts of our country, their car can be stolen. Their car can be taken away from them, driven away just within the five minutes of it being

Hold on the power.

You know, you mentioned the twenty twenty sixth election, the midterms yesterday, I believe it was. I talked to Alex Tchant to feel you who you know, he's the chair of the state Ohio Republican Party, And I asked him exactly that and said, you know, with the midterms coming up, Trump ain't on the ballot. If these mega people, if these Trump supporters do not get out to vote, we're dead.

We're dead.

And man, he latched onto that like a dog with a bone and made it very clear that they know that at the Ohio Republican Party, and he didn't want to tell me what they're gonna do.

I get that, and they're gonna do what they got to do to get those.

People out because if they don't, Christopher, we're going to lose the House. We potentially could lose the Senate. Trump is a lame duck, a real lame duck for the rest of his term, and stuff's not gonna get done.

Do you agree?

I agree?

I mean we have to say that the election is not about talkie talkie. It's a Dewey Dewey. So people who are talking around bars and restaurants about how frustrated they are, but they're not willing to show up the vote, right, you're just talking. You're not Dewey Dewey's right, And so you know elections are about Dewey Dewey's I mean showing up on election day and actually casting a vote and making sure that you're protecting your community from fraud, that

We're voting on.

I mean, remember, Ohio is about to elect the many states are about to elect governors. So vik Ramaswami, who I'm endorsing and I support, to be the next governor of the state of Ohio.

It's critical.

But when you talk to Democrats and the challenger on the other side, who was involved with shutting down schools, however keeping bars and liquor stores open, I mean Democrats, there are a lot of Democrats out there who don't care about that.

They're so partisan ye that they're just going to still vote for her no matter what her record is. So the election, I would say to Alex trumph and Felo if he was listening to this, it really, unfortunately, is not going to come down to it's going to be bad. It's not going to come down to public policy. It's going to come down to getting your voters out and making sure that they participate. And so if the Republicans.

Across the state don't have a ground game, they're gonna lose the election. Yep, this is about organizing door to door, walking list, making sure your precinct executive executives are organized, making sure that every precinct is covered on election day, making sure that you don't turn your nose up to early voting.

That's the new world we live in. And so if you.

Walk away from early voting and you're not stacking up those votes during early voting, the Democrats will absolutely be victorious in the state of Ohio.

And across the country.

But if the Republican parties wake up and say, hey, we're gonna we're gonna have a conversation about not talkie talkie, but dow we do we and put people on the ground and run a very strong ground game. Whether it's the individual kendidate or whether it's the party themselves. Hey, they're gonna be victorious because it's about getting your voter to the ballot, I mean, to the to the polling location and that they actually.

Cast a vote, you know.

And as I said after talking to him yesterday, I mean, he got really animated about that question. And there is no doubt in my mind that he knows how important that is and is going to do what he can do to get the people out and you know what, Chrisopher, I mean, it's not all that difficult to understand. I mean, if we don't keep the House, if we don't keep the Senate, Donald J.

Trump ain't gonna be able to do much.

I mean, the only thing he could do, I guess is executive orders, and those things, as we all know, get tied up in court. But I did want to ask you this too, because this really blew me away. I had Ken Koberra on I think it was the Saturday Show and we're talking and he said that they have money, and they have funding. I forget what the number was, maybe thirty or fifty new cops. And he said they're not filled, that those things aren't filled.

I asked him why. He said, they can't.

Find people that want to do that, which is just it's the mirror opposite of a million years ago when I was involved in that Hell, they give a police test, they filled the convention center with people that wanted to do it. I mean, is that something that you're hearing about too? And what would you say is the solution to that? Because it's really hard to believe. I mean, I believe Ken, but man, it's people used to be lining up for that job.

Well, President Kober is right, and we also have to.

Know that the you know, police officers in Cincinnati have a really great contract, so they're also you know, paid well, great overtime benefits, great off duty detailed benefits. So like, even with great contracts, it's been difficult for our Sinnaty Police Department and police departments across the country to do the kind of recruitment that they have to do. And

That's the reality that we live in. And it's a nightmare out there.

And now you have states like Ohio talking about they want to take away immunity. Right, don't think that the person out there, you know, like, I'm not going to put my entire life on the line. So what happens here is that elections have consequences. Mike Allix, we just elected the mayor, all these members of of of city council in our city. We did it, you know, we

That's that's where we are. And the president knows it. And guess what, I know it. So if I got a son he says, hey, I want to be a police officer, Right, I go, I don't know, maybe not a police officer. Maybe you choose the military because son, you could get out there and make a bad decision and it ended up destroying your whole life.

And we're about out of time. But that is a shame. I'm sorry that and finish your thought there. But you are absolutely one hundred percent right, and that's a damn shame because that's not the way it used to be.

No, and we have so many the police department, let me remind everybody, is the most diverse city department that Cincinnati has. And that's true, like you know, with women.

You know what I think I lost, Christopher. Well, we are almost out of time anyway, so let's take a break. When we get back, we are going to check in with I Heart Aviation Expert Jay Ratliffe, going to see what the travel situation is. We'll do that when we get back. Mike Allen in for Slowey, seven hundred WLW News Radio seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in for Sloaney. Well, I'll tell you what. We're still in the holiday season, have a few more days left of it, obviously, big

Jay, thank you so much for calling in.

It's a convenient time, brother, so always fun to talk. And the deal is you work, I work. That's been the forever and ever and ever.

Brother, You're a good man. Hey, before we get into aviation, I wanted to ask you. Every time I talk to you, I like to get an update.

How are your day? Trading students doing?

Been a pretty lonely day.

The opening bout range at nine thirty with a stock that dropped doubled twice, So I had students putting five six, seven hundred bucks on a stock that walked away with about three thousand dollars. And after five or eight eight minutes they're done, they hit their goal and leave. So you know, I'm sitting back here twelve of my thumbs thinking, wow, today was supposed to be a pretty busy day and

No, And I hear you, well, I'm one of the ones that you're talking about with respect to the pensions. I mean, I've had a lot of years in public service and I'm getting a pretty good pension.

But you're right, I was thinking of you when I when I was saying.

That, right.

You know, mostly it's like the looming storm of social security. People know, six seven years, we're not going to have as many people contributing as taking something's got to be done. But people are just skipping along blindly like it's okay. The national debt. Who cares if it's thirty eight trillion?

Yeah?

Again, people just oblivious to, you know, some of the coming financial storms that we're looking at, and it's it's scary.

Let me ask you this, and it's not aviation related, but I want to hear your thoughts on it. What are your thoughts on this absolutely wild, crazy and pathetic thing going on out in minnes I mean, are you as blown away by that as I am?

Mike?

When I saw you could vouch for people to sign them up to vote vouch, are you kidding me? I there's no way. You know, when you and I do do shows and different things and reports, we always like, okay, we got to verify this to make sure it's sure. It's not a you know, some sort of a satirical piece where people are having fun with us. And the more you look at it, the more just just incredulous

It's the tip of the iceberg.

Jay and I've talked to a number of people both on the air and off the air this week, and actually a state senator too who called in that there's some something that a lot of people believe is brewing up in Columbus with the Somalian community, and it's pretty much stay tuned, you know, But I guess we'll see.

I'm glad you're on top of it, Mike, I really am, because the only way we're going to know about it is that people like you continue to keep us updated because you know, all of us have busy lives doing a g bazillion different things, and you know, sometimes we're guilty just skimming across the headlines and picking out what affects us or doesn't affect us, and it's another state, doesn't really affect me. But as you point out, yeah,

Let me ask you.

I mean, people are still a lot of people are still traveling. Any tips, any warnings, anything you want to say to those people that'll help them.

We're getting through the Christmas end of year travel season pretty good. The TSA is reporting two point eight two point nine million people flying every day as we expect through this week up until next Monday, Tuesday and so on.

You know, twenty twenty five looking at the Year in Review. One story that's obviously not a good one are the plane crashes. I mean, wow, what it was is a situation. Is there any reason that people are forth as to why that's happening?

You know, Mike, we went from February of two thousand and nine until this last this January without a single accident as far as an airplane disaster. Now, we did have a passenger that died I think it was Jennifer reared In on a Southwest flight where the engine fell apart, decompressed, and you know, she died as a result of that happening. But as far as the last commercial jet accident where

I mean, just please, yeh, that's.

Beyond asenine, so just shut up. But the point is that we have gone so long, so far that the FAA typically will confuse the idea that we have had no accidents as we're as safe as we need to be,

Now took the.

Attacks of nine to eleven before the FAA decided, Okay, we've really got to do something. Now we're going to start screening luggage. But even after the bombing of Panem one or three over lockerby Scotland, all those lives were lost, the National Transportation Safety Board, the all star team who I cannot speak highly enough of, comes out and says we need to start screening check bags. And the FAA said, well, we'll take it under advisement. We're not going to but

There our actual.

Wording.

It's hard for me to even think this that's going to reduce the restrictions even more. In DC, it was so bad the National Transportation Safety Board chair came out and said, time out, this is wrong.

Mike.

I can't tell you that anytime I ever remembered in the last thirty to forty years that an NTSB sitting chair has come out to comment on something legislatively that's taking place. But she did, saying this can't happen. And I really hope that we don't allow the airlines or airports to tell the government what to do the other way around, because we simply can't be put in a position where we're going to make things worse than what they've been. There's just no issues for that.

Not a good idea, Jay, I know, you know that the one thing that I'm hearing a lot just from people that travel, and I know the airlines continue to make frequent flyer programs harder. Do you think we're headed towards where they just get rid of them?

Well, they don't. They can't get rid of them. They make so much money. Mike, you ahead of time when airlines couldn't make money at all. Then in twenty twelve they start these ancillary fees where we're going to now start forging you to check a bag and seating all this, And then they started up with the credit cards and kind of became banks where you know every dollar you charge it's a frequent flyer mile. And airlines are starting

Of a billion dollars.

Now they don't get that by hauling us from here to Orlando and back. They're getting that from a lot of these other types of things that are connected with these freekom flyer programs. Now, airlines are the most arrogance entity that you can think of, and they've continued to make things harder and harder to achieve the upper status that so many frequent travelers have been able to achieve

There you go.

Hey, we're out of time, man, I appreciate this. It's been very helpful. Thank you so much time. Good to talk to you. Okay, thank you you too. Yeah, I tell you what. It's an adventure anymore flying. Although I've had some pretty good luck lately.

I don't know.

It just seems like they're just they're out to get your money anyway they can coming up, like Jay said, with these things. Oh we got a charge of this much for this bag. And I'll tell you I'm old enough. You remember when flying was a big deal, man, People got dressed up for it, the stewardess as if you will. I know they don't like that. And there's some men now were very complimentary and they did their job too. Times have changed. That's not the only thing. But it's