Welcome back to the Nightcap on seven hundred wlw our next guest I had the chance to speak to the first time.
Gosh, it's been maybe four or five years ago.
And not because I haven't thought about having her on again since, but there's been no better time to talk about Canada to a Canadian and anti feminist of the author of Girl Wrights. What that's a YouTube channel and it's back. Karen Strawn is back on the Nightcap. Welcome back, Karen Strawn.
How are you in? Happy new year?
Oh, happy new year to you and I'm doing just great.
Yeah, mom of three?
And basically, what is the thing you say about your average feminist the radical notion that anti feminism is the radical notion that women are are actually adults.
Yeah, yeah, women are adults, or at least they should aspire to be so, right and feminism feminism doesn't help them, no, achieve that.
It takes away that notion.
Another good reason that the man who has been Prime Minister of Canada through a very dark period in your country's history is finally stepping down and he's a feminist.
He confessed it.
Oh no, no, no, here's the thing. Okay, I don't know whether how much you Americans know about Maggie Trudeau his mother. Right, So Pierre Elliott Trudeau was the Prime Minister of Canada in like the nineteen late nineteen sixties, early early seventies, right, and yeah, Maggie Trudeau his wife. Like, there's rumors going around that Justin is actually Fidel Castro's son,
which I wouldn't. I don't necessarily, I'm not that skeptical about that conspiracy theory because the Trudeau's were very friendly with Castro and visited him often, and Castro was very happy to see Justin and dandle him on his knee during a visit when Justin was just a baby. And you look at the resemblance and it's uncanny, right, he doesn't look anything like Pierre Trudeau. He looks everything like a young Sidel Castro. Right, But but you look at
you look at her behavior. You know, she's bipolar, has probably has borderline personality disorder, and she h you know, the second time her husband was sworn into office, she was busy partying with getting drunk with friends in Cancun or something, some Cabo or something like that. Then she disappeared for like three weeks or a month and people were asking Pierre, you know, the media was asking Pierre
where her wife, like where is she? And he just had to say, no comment, no comment, because she was off banging the rolling stones while they were on tour.
Right, right, okay?
And Justin Trudeau said his mother was the one who taught him what feminism was all about. Right, and that was my first red flag. The moment he said his mother taught him what feminism was all about, I was like, oh, it's about mental illness, all right, yeah, okay, and you're still embracing it. You call yourself a feminist, all right? No, no red flag.
So yeah, Well, more to the point of looking to the future. You know, we are in the United States, we are very much looking forward to next Monday and what comes after with President Trump returning to the presidency and starting to starting the office with the bang something like one hundred executive orders to undo all of the craziness and nonsense that occurred during the Biden administration's four years.
You too, are looking with a hopeful nod to the future in Canada, not necessarily to be our fifty first and fifty second state, but a new leader taking Justine Trudeau's place as Prime minister of your country and the Conservative Party, and after all of the stuff that Justin Trudeau pulled, especially during COVID and the like with the truckers, that this is going to be a major seed change politically in.
Your country, is it not?
Oh?
Yeah no, I mean, anybody, anybody in America who wants to actually find out what the new regime is going to.
You should go to.
Go on YouTube and search Pierre Poaliev.
P O I L I E V R E.
And then the video title is how do you like them apples?
Okay?
And uh, And he's dealing with a leftist reporter and he's while he's eating an apple. He's eating an apple.
I saw, I saw that. I saw that. It's amazing school.
Yeah, yeah, no, it was. It was unbelievable. I I would just I sent it to all of my friends. I was just like, you gotta watch this. This is amazing because he's just like he just doesn't put up with any bs, right, He's not going to be He's not going to back down from being called racist or sexist or this or that, you know, like bigots or you know, anti Semite or like anti Muslim or you know, transphobic or anything like that. He's he's just like, yeah.
No, no, give me an example, give me.
An you brought it up.
You have to you have to have wanted at least one example, right, And so yeah, No's he's like a no Bs kind of leader. And you know, like I don't agree with him on everything, but but as far as his ability to maybe take this country forward in a new direction, I think that that's that's a good thing. And you know, like our economy is is absolutely like we got we got hit with COVID, inflation and all of that, right, but our woes were well underway long
before COVID, Right. You know, the Trudeau government was you know, began in twenty fifteen, and and that's when housing prizes started to rise, because regulations for new housing developments just exponentially increased. And it takes like twenty one years or nineteen years or something like to get any kind of project approved at this point. And so it's basically you're looking at a situation where the government is standing in the way of progress and is doing it for like
absolutely stupid reasons. And you know, like I'm just looking forward to in March twenty fifth, Parliament is in session again and there will be a motion of no confidence and that motion will be passed, and that will topple the government and will trigger a snap election within fifty one days. That's the deadline, fifty one days at most, and then we'll have a new leader.
So well, they Trudeau said that he would stay on until the party picks a new leader. Are they waiting from word from President g and China as to who the new leader will be?
No, No, this is business. The way Canadian politics works. The new leader has to be elected by the Liberal Party, right justin Trudeau is leader of the Liberal Party, and he can't just hand off the job to his deputy prime minister and walk away. He actually actually has to
stay in office until a new leader is picked. And there are some people who are in the running, you know, but I can't some people, like notable people like I think Mark Carney, who was like the governor of the Bank of Canada for a while, and Chris jah Freeland who was deputy Prime Minister and Finance minister for a while. But you know, honestly, I don't think that there's any
salvaging the party at this point. Fifty one days is is it's I mean, like everybody's complaining Kommala only had one hundred days right to rehabilitate the Democrat brand in terms of the presidency, and none of these people who were actually involved in Canadian governance associated with Liberals are going to be able to rehabilitate the Liberals brand within fifty one days.
Well, it sounds similar in this country because many of people are saying that the Democrat Party in our country is going to take twenty years to recover. I'm not that optimistic. I think they'll come back like any scourge, like herpes and kudzu.
But I would would I would expect that the Liberal Party this coming election right whenever it's he it will probably be held in spring. I would expect that they might even be in danger of losing official part status. You have to have a certain number of seats in parliament and a certain amount of the popular vote in order to have official party status. And I have seen Liberal governments lose official party status after running a majority government.
Multiple times.
In provincial politics, right Ontario, when Doug Ford ran for premier against Kathleen Wynn, you know, and she had just governed so poorly for four years that she took She single handedly took the Liberal Party of Ontario from the majority party in government to losing official party status in like a massive landslide for Doug Ford of the Conservative.
You brought it, You brought up Doug Ford. He was quite the character, wasn't he.
Oh no, you're talking about Rob for.
Yeah, No, he was.
He was the mayor of Toronto and he was he was actually, yeah, I don't know how clean I have to keep this, so I don't necessarily know. Uh, you know what, I'm what I can say that I thought was hilarious about that guy, but there there were some
allegations and of of sexual impropriety against him. Untalented and and uh and when he talked to reporters, I I laughed so hard, right, I just like I'm alone in a room, laughing my butt off right at his response to like, you know, he said he wanted to eat blah blah, and uh yeah and uh and and then and then he says, when reporters asked him about it, He's like, why would I say that I got plenty to eat at home?
So perfect.
Karen Strawn is hard guest on the Nightcap from Alberta, Canada, where it's actually warmer there than it is here because they sent there they're cold here. So thank you. Karen Strawn. I got to ask you too about Zuckerberg's cow telling now to the new Trump administration and sucking up and committing this money to the inauguration fund and saying that he's going to get rid of DEI and Tampon's and men's bathroom at Meta. I know you had some issues in the past where you got kicked off YouTube.
And no no, I got kicked off of.
Twitter under Jack. It was one of the social media things you got kicked off of.
Are you back on X now?
Oh yeah, yes, I am at girl writes what Elon Musk reinstated my account?
Do you trust? You trust? Do you trust Mark?
Zuckerberg's a parent to come to Jesus moment with the.
Cautiously I cautiously trust him and you know why, And I'll tell you why because it it wasn't that long ago, like maybe a year or two ago, that he decided he was going to get into like jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts and working out and getting healthy and one of the interesting things about men and testosterone is
testosterone gives you confidence. It increases your ability to if your healthy testosterone increases your confidence, it loos your mood, it it increases fairness in bargaining, and it deep all serving lives. It's all documented in the literature. Okay, and okay, And what is the number one thing that boosts your testosterone levels to healthy? Winning?
Right?
Okay, winning in a way that you feel like you're winning.
Okay.
So he goes into the ring.
Right, and he's working out and he's getting healthy, and you know, his testosterone is is coming up because of that. And then he goes and he does a fight, and he wins, wins fair and square, and and his testosterone goes up.
Well.
Testosterone also increases rationality and helps you think, right, okay. So so it's it's like he may have just through this martial arts kind of I'm going to get fit and healthy and uh and a healthy testosterone level and have a healthy diet and stop eating soy and start you know, doing jiu jitsu.
He may have.
It may have changed his entire perspective on you know, how things should run.
So in fact, the fact that he is no longer cultivating man breasts on himself actually is better for all of us.
You know, well, if every man did that, we'd be all a lot better off.
So yeah, I agree. Uh, I'm down to below an a cup, so I'm in good shape.
Uh.
Well, you know, honestly, honestly, Uh, testosterone works on women in these ways too, Reduction in the telling of self serving lies, more rational thinking, greater emotional stability, and and increased fairness in bargaining.
So so tell me about what all.
Of those things are men and women.
So tell me about what you're doing these days besides being a mom and a wife and living in Alberta, Canada. What else is Karen Strawn into?
Oh?
Well, you know I'm taken after. I'm looking after my mom, and you know I'm looking after my my husband. And you know, he's he's now the crime well the soul breadwinner really in the household. And so but he's got he's got he has special needs in terms of his diet. So I do a lot of cooking and and uh, and I I've been talking about Anybody can check out my blog. It's called Owning Your s h one t but the one is actually an eye.
Dot blogspot dot com.
And but uh, you know, I did a deep dive into the m RNA vaccines and how they work and why they're causing so many problems, and you know, I I've just I've just been kind of all over the place in terms of you know, since COVID, I kind of I was like, my men's rights and anti feminist
thesis is mostly up on my channel. Anybody can go and start watching from the very beginning and see my evolution of my thesis throughout the years that I was doing that, and uh and yeah, no, but I sort of got into discussing, you know, how how the mRNA vaccines and the adino virus vector vaccines actually work and why they cause so many more problems than traditional conventional vaccines. So anybody who's interested in that can go in and read my deep dive into the mRNA vaccines.
And that would be on Girl What Writes What or would be owning no that?
Oh yeah no, no, I would never put it on my YouTube channel. I would risk losing the entire channel. I put it on my blog, owning your you.
Know whatsh Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, Karen.
Stropot dot com blogspot dot com. Yeah, all right, thank you so much, and I hope we'll have another chance to commits maybe after your maybe after your your government meets there in March and we decide how Canada is going forward with a new leader.
I'm looking forward to that for you.
I oh god, I'm I'm so looking forward to it.
And I'm looking forward to forward to it for the rest of North America's sake to Karen.
Karen, thank you so much, thank you very much. All Right, you bet it's the nightcap and we're not done yet. Stick around. Yes, it is time for more sports for the out of sorts and to sort it out. The one and only Andy Furman who here to rock the kasma on the nightcap on this Tuesday night. Andy, you were worried about the snow showers that we were forecast to get, and I guess we got a few flakes around and that's not just in the news department, but
we had it. But as I told you just moments ago, when you've survived a foot you can handle a dusting, can't you. I know you didn't come out of your house for about you didn't come out of your house for about five.
Days, right, I bunker down pretty good, really, And the point is this, I don't want to take a shot at a profession because everybody who's a professional in life has trained to do so, and it is their love, is their passion. Correct if they're not good at and I'm not saying good bit or indifferent, but it is the greatest job in the world. In baseball, if you go three for three for ten and they got seven times in your career, you probably end up in the Hall of Fame.
Which is a three hundred hitter, no doubt. Okay.
In the weather forecasting, if you go three for ten, maybe not so good. I understand it changes. You know, you're in the mountain areas. I mean, you have different wind shifts and whatever. I get it. But it's the greatest job in the world because there's no accountability. That's why I want to have a job in life when I grow up. If I were to grow up again,
but there's no accountability. Think about it. Do you think the news director at a TV station calls the weatherman and said, wait a minute, you predicted six inches of snow and we've got a dusty You are fired. We want to get a new guy in football. This accountability. Lejana Rumo was a scapegoat at defensive coordinator for the Begels. The Bengals defense stunk. He paid for it. He lost his job. In the weather forecasting business, there's no accountability.
It's a great job. I should have won that route and I'm sure they get paid good money.
When a TV weather man is no longer on screen, it means one of two things. They've gotten a better job somewhere else, or they're retired.
That's it, because you don't.
You don't get fired for for not being able to forecast the weather if you're a media You know, I love Gary Burbank.
I loved him to death. I know you did too, and I used to love the fact.
Do we dos passed?
No?
No, So we do love Gary Burbank. But one of the things he used to do on his show all the time was refer to someone as the cheap media urologist, right instead of.
People.
I love Steve Rawley, you know, I go to the montgomer unity of Sigardener. He's a I love the man. I love all the weather people in town that they're They're wonderful. But the point is this, I think they know what I'm saying is probably true. There's no accountability there really isn't.
Well.
I mean, when there's a no doubter like what we experienced last week, they nail it to the wall so that so that I think that buys them time on the next time they forecast something and it does not come true.
It's not an easy job. Really.
You say you want to have that job, but it's not an easy job to accurately because.
When there is a big, a big weather change, these guys what they do at these the men do they take their sport code off and roll off their shirt sleeves like they're getting into the trenches really big time. And they got to put the time in. I mean, you know guys like Steve Horsmeyer. I've seen him on Channel nineteen. He'll spend the night. He'll spend two or three days at Channel nineteen. I could tell because he's wearing the same clothes for three days. You know. Really
they spend the time there. They sleep at.
The station like seg for example here.
No, he doesn't drive it. He stays home. He stays in the middle of the well. Tell me I never used to drive into the state. Look when I went at seven hundred, they didn't have the ability to do remote broadcasting. You couldn't do it from home, right, you know, I don't think he does. I think he does it by phone. There's a on Fox Sports radio. I do it from home.
There's there's a hotel right next door, Andy. You know, you could just stay in the hotel overnight so you could be ready.
Where there were big storms, the staff would stay in a hotel and the tab would be picked up at the station. Those days are probably long gone.
Well, in my particular case, I would have been staying at the hotel, but I'm broke, and nobody offered to pay for my.
Hotel, but the management would pay for them. No, no, no, that's that's not.
That's not that's not an option.
But anyway, you know, I've talked with some some friends of mine and they want to file a class action lawsuit against weather forecast Is for bad forecasts, because no, look, you plan something and then they tell you that you can't do what you would plan to do, and you put all kinds of money and time aside, and then that event doesn't happen, and the weather event doesn't happen, So then you're you're out. You're financially hurt by their
their faulty forecast. Don't you think that in our relgigious so that nobody agree with you?
And all of a sudden, the light has gone off with my small pea brain. You know it's gonna happen.
You know it's next.
They're gonna sue fans of the NFL. They're gonna sue when they do these flexing of the games, flexing of games down the stretch. When you buy a ticket maybe for a one o'clock afternoon game, maybe late in the season in Green Bay, and they decide to flex it for like a Monday or Sunday night game when it's minus seven degrees and you really don't want to sit there in minus seven degrees in green Bay, Wisconsin in November December. Well they may do that as well.
Obviously there'll be no one sitting in green Bay, Wisconsin anymore this season.
How about well, at least at least in lambeau Field.
I was really andy, let's just talk about the NFL for just a moment, since you brought up the NFL. I was I was shocked last night. I was on the air, but I was keeping an eye on the final playoff game of wild Card weekend. I was shocked to see how badly Minnesota showed after a fourteen win season, and Sam Donald and particularly showed after proving.
Critics you weren't that surprised. I don't put all the blames. Don't put the entire blame on Sam Donald. Was that authensive line was pretty weak? They really were. Now, Sam Donald had a real bad performance last week. And you know what, what you could say about Sam Donald right now is like every time he's on the field, he's losing millions. He's losing millions. Okay, because here's a guy who they talked about the comeback player of the year and the guy who had the opportunity to play and
and everything like that. I think right now there's a lot of questions in the minds of the Minnesota Vikings. Is he the guy that leaders in the future. Is he the quarterback? Is he the so called franchise quarterback, which in fact he was not anyway, because they drested the kid out of note to Dame who got hurt. So I think there's a questions. But you get fourteen wins and then they were the wildcard team. There's something
wrong with the scheduling anyway. What they should do, they should do it like the NBA has it, regardless of division that you're in. Do the rankings by teams, as far as what ranking you are, as far as the placement and standings overall, not by the division that you're in. That's what the NBA does. But I don't think they're going to change that. However, I was not that surprised. I don't tell you. Just get the Rams some credit
with that young defensive line that they have. Chris Shuler, the son of Dave Shuler, a defensive coordinator, has done a remarkable job over there. And I'll tell you something else about the Rams. They started one and four that had a slow star like the Bengals. Sean McVay is one hell of a coach, one hell of a coach, really, And I'll tell you what they may be reckoned with in the playoffs. But the big game coming up this Sunday, Buffalo playing who.
The Baltimore Ravens.
Well, that's a heck of a game. The two so called quarterbacks who may be envy, Yeah, I.
Mean if Joe Burrow had been on a playoff team. He would have been in that discussion as well as.
We well know.
But the queen had balls.
The queen you mentioned that Chris Shula, the son of Dave Shula, the grandson of Don Shula.
Correct, correct, All right, yes, you know.
Uh, coaching greatness, like a lot of other talents, generally skips a generation because David did not exactly should not exactly demonstrate his father's prowess in leading men in the National Football League, particularly in Cincinnati.
Uh.
Did Dave Sula ever have a head coaching job in the NFL after the Bengals.
I don't think he did. Did he know?
He went back, He went to the restaurant business, who were immediately after.
That's where he belongs.
And I don't want to believe with the point because the season's over. I wrote about it. It was in Sunday's inquiry about Zach Taylor is the heck of a magician.
He created magic.
He took a super Bowl potential team in seventeen weeks and could him out of the playoffs. That's that's a magician's trick, and that's what he did. So we move on over there. But here's the deal. The problem is with the Bengals, you need to hire an experienced coach. Sure, you picked Zach Taylor off the staff of Sean McVay in LA with the Rams, but he was nothing more than a quarterback coach. He wasn't even a coordinator, right, so he basically learning is learning his skill on the
job training with the Cincinnati Bengals. You know, the guys that really and truly were coaches who had success on this team were who, Okay, Forrest greg I mean, the guy was tough, had coaching background. The guys who were coaches, the guys coaching wise, guys who are coaching experience, you know, not guys who are neophytes who had no idea you know what to do. I mean, I give Marvin Lewis credit. He did well. Why he was a defensive coordinator at least,
and he had success. He did, you know, go to the Super Bowl. But he had some success.
I'll tell you what coach.
I'll tell you one coach that really hurt his legacy as a head coach and experienced coach was Dick lebou when he came from Pittsburgh and became the head coach here was that was a terrible tarnishing of a great man's career because.
No, but he went down to Tennessee became defensive coordinat He did well there as well. Was a heck of a US defensive geis he really was. But I'm looking at coaches overall. I'm seeing, you know, what's happening, the floundering of coaches. And when they come in and they're announced, everybody goes crazy. Everybody's smacking their lips. And one of those coaches right now I'm pointing a finger on it
is West Miller at the University of Cincinnati. I'm not that excited about what he's accomplished thus for he ran up ten wins on a preseason schedule. You get into that tough Big twelve conference, you know they can't compete. They're not competing. They can't compete. They look dismal against Kansas over the weekend. And I'll tell you something else. I'm going to throw something out here that's going to make your heads. Did I think it's time to bring
Bob Huggins back. How do you like that? I think it's time to bring Huggins back?
What all right?
First ball, you've thrown down the gauntlet. Now I need a moment to think about it. So we'll take a quick break and we'll we'll talk about Andy's plan to save the University of Cincinnati hoops team, and it involves hugs, Hugs Baby, Hold on a second more of than nightcap just ahead on seven hundred WLW kick. In this conversation, he suggested that Bob Huggins should return as UC's had basketball coach.
You're your reasoning in your rationale, Andy.
Well, quite obvious.
I mean the guys that seven hundred plus wins, so Hall of Fame coach hasn't lost as a coach. He's built winning programs at Kansas State, built him at the University of Cincinnati, West Virginia. I mean, he's won wherever he's been at. His problem was not the coaching aspect, his personal life. Now he's been out now close to two years, going on two years. Certainly I believe he's put down the bottle. I think he's dried out. I think he's somewhat learned his lesson. He realizes he probably
missus the sport. I still think he's in an age right now, and I don't even like to bring up the term age because I think Anybody who has their wits about them, who has love for what they do, can do it. Bill Belichick will coach again in the National Football League, and he's pushing seventy three, So I got to believe that he's ready, willing. Abel will be open with open arms here, welcome with open arms at
the University of Cincinnati. I think he could do more than West Milica ever accomplished it.
Well, you know, you know what keeps Bill Belichick young at seventy three, twenty four year old? Yeah, it's a twenty four year old girlfriend. That'll definitely ask Marty Brenneman about that. Just find some young honey, some younger honey, and you know, it's like the fountain of life, because you better be ready when they're ready.
By gosh, you know what I mean.
Marty Brendan's name up because he he has one too.
No, he's got a young wife, though much younger than Amanda. Oh, you know, that's the fountain of youth right there is Your wife.
Is and my wife is nine years younger than me.
Yeah, that's about the way Christ two point zero and i Aret and and basically people call me a cradle robber. And she says no, I'm a grave robber.
I understand what you're saying.
No, But I think that I think Bob Huggins will do one thing that Wes Miller will never do. I think he'll rally the alums, rally the troops, get the fans in there and pack them. And more than that. You know, in this day and age, when you recruit a player, they don't care about if you're on TV, what schedule you play? Am I going to start? What's
my check? How much am I going to make? And I think by Huggins rallying the troops, they'll have that nil money and they'll be able to get some big time players and pay him to come to the University of Cincinnati was the only where they did.
What was the biggest knock on Bob Huggins as a coach and recruiter. He did not graduate his players under the ncua A rules of what's a graduated player and it had to be a four year senior and all this he had. He had tons of transis as far today.
The university knocked them on that the press. He got in trouble. That's how he lost his job. He got in trouble. He was always someone off the court problem. He never ever was criticized his coaching ability.
Recruiting ability.
Yeah, there were people in the beginning his first year here when he brought in the junior college players. Oh, look what he's doing junior And then you know what everybody did. Then Xavier started doing it. They were bringing into coast.
It to be.
It was ingenius. It was you know. May he rest in peace. Herb Jones was a junior college player, Terry Nelson's junior college player. Thro all these junior college players in here, and he was ripped for it, and then everybody followed suit immediate.
Here's another.
Here's more gris for the middle of your argument of bringing Hugs back, it would seem in this day and age, with the transfer of portal and the nil Huggs will be a perfect replacement.
I agree with you. I mean he would, right. I didn't throw this out.
Because because now it's all out in the open, right.
But I didn't throw it out to destroy west Miller because I personally I never met the man, and he's probably a very nice man. He went to North Carolina. He's got the good big blue hierarchy with you. William Dean Smith whatever it may. However, he's not Bob Huggins. He's not going to be a Hall of Fame coach. He never will be, and I think that he cannot. You know, he'll always be in the shadow of a Bob Huggins. He can't do what Bob Huggins could do.
Bob Huggins could take this team to the level or it should be.
One of the things I love talking to you about, Andy, and the reasons I enjoy talking to you is that you often bring up other things outside of the realm of sports, you know, in the societal vein, like the fact that you just were talking to me a few moments ago before we got into this conversation about how nobody can read cursive anymore, and there is a desperate search for people who can read cursive. I could barely write cursive, even though I was taught to in school,
which they don't even teach it anymore in school. That's one of the reasons nobody can read cursive, but I was taught it. I always had problems with the letters that had the really weird squiggles, like the capital g's and the capital z's and stuff like that.
But I can read cursive.
Fine, So you say there are jobs open for people who need to read cursive.
I just saw a new report today. I think it was on Good Morning America actually, and basically there's some documents of former presidents I don't know how many years back that are written in cursive and they can't be deciphered, and they want to hire people that know how to read cursive writing that could kind of decipher what was written. This is it's unbelievable.
Now.
Is this is opposed to documents against I don't know, Well.
This is opposed to documents written by Joe Biden that are in crayon.
People can read.
Those, but well, he chiseled them on stone. I think I don't know what he.
Chizzled them on the stone.
I don't know what he did.
So, no, you're right about the cursive thing. They stopped completely teaching cursive in schools, and that's one of the things that are argued about as far as the fall of academia in the United States, and it's been a long, precipitous fall since the institution of the Federal Department of Education in nineteen seventy nine. We went from number one in the world. Then we're number twenty four and we've spent all this money. We had this big bureaucracy federally
and it's just gone straight down the crapper. And part of it in clue the lack of teaching of cursive and the insistence that students learn how to read and write cursive. And it's just because it's hard and they don't want to challenge the students, students who are having a hard time putting two and two together. Literally, it's just too difficult to make them learn how to write and read cursive language.
What do you think, Well, here's a deal with cursive number one. I think they've eliminated with all. Some schools are bringing it back now. I think they eliminated. It's reply because when you do so much work on a laptop or regular this top computer is non cursive. That's the reason why. And if they put it in cursive, obviously people or youngers, the younger generation, you can't read it.
Then.
I used to read incursive. It's like a foreign language. But I was reading some information about the benefits of cursive writing. They say it trains the brain to learn functional specialization, it improves memory, it improves fine motor skills, meaning that's students who have illigible print often have legible cursive handwriting. It's unbelievable, and obviously it's useful for us in later life. Look, I'm going to say something that probably no one ever does anymore. You want to sign
a check you probably sign it in cursive writing. Although I don't think many people use check books anymore. You know, they do a vemo whatever. Well, except everything is done electronically. I mean they don't. They don't even have a checkbook.
That's the thing that I am proficient in.
I am proficient in cursive in signing my name, I got that. But the rest of the time you're mostly going to get block printing for me, because I'm a blockhead.
I guess.
I don't know.
No, don't say that, but I think that. I think it's important that right now, I like to find out if there are jobs available about reading cursive because I know I.
Could read curs it.
I read, I can read it all day.
About that. I never thought of the fact that if you're not teaching it, there's a real good opportunity, real good chance that people won't be able.
To read it.
You never thought that they can't. You never thought about that really apparently no, I mean nobody at the Department of Education did either. Right, Yeah, So, I mean, what do you look for next week in the playoffs. Let's a real quick Well, we got a couple of minutes here.
Uh, do the do the Bills Baltimore?
Yeah?
Do the Bills survive at home? The Bill survive at home? Baltimore is better.
I love Baltimore, I love I love Lamar Jackson. I I just wish him someone who But I just hate when the media says he can't win the big game. I mean, I understand, the position of quarterback is everything. You know, you win, it's on him. You lose, it's because of him. I mean, and you know as you go, so goes to quarterback, that's it. But you know, to put that kind of pressure on a guy like that
and what he's accomplished, I just don't think it's fair. Look, if they lose, the headline is not going to be so much Buffalo wins.
Here we go again.
Yeah, Okay, the lion The lions devour the rams, just like in nature.
Right, It's gonna be a good game.
I don't know. I mean the Lion's obviously not in full strength. I have been full strength for several weeks. But it could be one heck of the game. I just you know the Rams, when you you're in the you're in the playoffs, so you get a little bit of a momentum and you get the push. And the Rams got it, and they got it last night. Boy, I tell you what, they could be tough. Matthew Stavord's tough. I mean, and you have the storyline over there, I
mean Golf, Gad and Stafford. I mean, it's gonna be a great game to me, you know, I think I'm like the entire America is through. They all want to see the Detroit Lions win. They've become like the new America's team. So I'm pulling for the Lions. It's more of a heart overhead move. But I want the Lions to win. I think they can't.
Oh, I believe they can. And uh, you think the Bengals will win?
Yeah?
You know what, they haven't won in the lottery, to have the won in the draft, to have a one on the field. I honestly, you know when in the years past, when I when I was at the big one, when they had, like, you know, the lost years of the nineties early two thousand.
Again.
Yeah, I didn't really care, you know, Sure I do. A couple of the guys, the team and.
The vultures of the world.
You know, he was a Freid he still is and Tom Tinkles, all those guys, but I didn't.
Take it to heart.
I take it to heart now with Joe Burrow, I feel for the guy, you know, and Jamar Chase, I just feel for the bo's so good.
Those guys do not They don't deserve it. They don't deserve it. Andy, we deserve more time. But it's it's up now, So thank you very much for filling it.
Thank you all right, right, thank you.
God bless Remember, folks, you can't spell Furman without f you.
The Nightcap continues, news, traffic and weather.
News Radio seven hundred WL Cincinnati.
Hey, contentious hearing with the ten o'clock report. I'm Sean Gallagher breaking now. It was a tenth showdown on Capitol Hill today between Democratic lawmakers and President ELEC. Trump's Defense secretary nominee, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth during a Senate confirmation.
Here from the.
Outset, Democrats making their objections clear.
I do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job.
Hegccept casting himself as the victim of false and anonymous smears, but often finding himself on the defensive.
Particularly concerning the role of women in the military.
Last year, hegset said point blank women should not be allowed to serve in combat.
ABC News is Rachel Scott.
Hegseth also questioned about allegations of public drunkenness, which included drinking while on the job, sexual assault, and financial mismanagement. Meanwhile, Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee rallying around hegset Now the latest traffic and weather together right now, taking a look at the major interstates and highways, not seeing any new accidents.
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It is our Wednesday morning.
We're looking at clearing skies and a morning low of four degrees. However, when chills five to ten below zero as for our Wednesday fair and a high at twenty one, wind chills in the teens at night. Mostly clear. We dropped to twelve from your severe weather station. I'm nine first Warning Chief Meteorologist Steve Rawley News Radio seven hundred wlw's.
Mostly clear right now and our current temperature is thirteen degrees. Some schools across the Tristate already announcing delays for Wednesday morning due to the cold weather. The fullest can be found at seven hundred WLW dot com. City leaders today cutting the ribbon at the new Eastside Rec Center in Oakley at Cincinnati's first new recreation center to open since twenty sixteen. Located on Packston Avenue, It's next to the
Oakley Playground and Community Pool. Former Special Council Jacksmith and his report saying that President ELEC. Trump would have been convicted of multiple felonies had his case against Trump gone to trial over his attempt to overturn the twenty twenty election.
Suggesting his evidence was overwhelming, Special Council stating Trump directed the angry mob to the United States Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification of the presidential election.
We're gonna walk down and I'll be there with you.
Trump's supporters storming the Capitol, some channing hang Mike Pins, but Trump has maintained his innocence throughout and stated that he never intended for his supporters to commit violence.
AVCWS is Pierre Thomas College basketball Xavier tonight picking up a win over Villain Nova as they will take on Marquette on Saturday, and that'll be on fifty five KRC with tip off coming up. Will be coming up at two o'clock that afternoon, sixty nine sixty three final from Sintas Center. Meanwhile, Kentucky currently number eight in the country, beating eleventh ranked Texas A and m eighty one sixty nine at Rparina this evening. Our next update is at
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It is the Night Camp on this too day evening on seven hundred WLWGJ Dubbs at your service and Dave Hatter joins us for this half hour segment Tech Talk, whatever scary stuff out there in the world of the Internet of Things and the one that sadly we well, sadly for me because I'm a dinosaur. Dave loves it because this is what he does, and he's trying to beat the bad guys all the time, writing code and such and alerting you and me to the things we
should be wary of in cyberspace. And I tell you what, Dave, let's start with some small bean stuff, but it could be big beans for anybody who's affected. I don't know how often I have seen someone at the bar when I'm working at a restaurant or just killing time, literally killing time, saying candy Crush. Well, here's the danger in candy Crush said, I'm just playing a game. How how harmful could that be other than making your mind total mush?
But the headline is Candy Crush, Tender my Fitness Pal, which I don't know what that is, and I don't use Tender because my wife would find out, and Candy Crush just as I'm not into it. But the thousands of apps that you've got on your iPhone or on your Android that are hijacked to spy on your exact location being tracked.
Uh, let's talk about that, that element of candy crush, if you will for a moment.
Yeah, I love too, Garrit.
Yeah.
First off, Happy new Year to you and all your listeners. And you know, maybe maybe for these segments we ought to call it Scary Jeff and Doomsday Days.
No, wait, that's it. That's it from now on. Write that down Scary Jeff and Doomsday Dave and Dark Talk segment. I love that, bringing me to do You know, usually I pride myself in branding the segments on my show, but you have just usurped me as a branding genius with that, Dave Hatter.
All right, go ahead, I appreciate that.
So Wire did this story and you know this is the kind of thing so you mintioned it before Gary Jeff. Just so what it's worth. This is what I do for a living, you know, and in trust, we're trying to protect businesses and their assets from the ever increasing frequency and impact of devastating cyber attacks, amongst other things. Right, so you know I'm working in this deal every day. I'm paying attention to this stuff all the time because
I care about it for our customers. I care about it for myself and my family and my friends, and I care about it for our society. A guy I'm a big fan of, a guy named Niko Hapenden, he's a well known and cybersecurity expert, gave a Ted talk where he's standing in front of a large screen that says,
we're no longer protecting computers, We're protecting society. And because everything is digital, and because everything is interconnected, and because our supply chain is all interconnected and relies on this stuff, it's really true. So when people say to me, oh, I got nothing to hide, and why do I care if these apps are collecting data? I totally understand why
people feel that way. And I think perhaps even if you let me, you know, have thirty minutes of your time to show you all of these things and explain it, some people are still going to say, yeah, I just don't care, it's not relevant to me. But the real issue, I think, Gary Jeff, is that most people don't really understand how invasive these devices and these apps are that they're installing and putting in their house and so forth their workplace, and how this data can eventually be used
against them. So this again Wired story Repidable outlet, they're pointing out how when you download these apps to your phone. And one of the reasons why companies love apps is because they can collect enormous amounts of data. I encourage people go to the Apple App Store. A couple of years ago, Apple rolled out this Apple App Tracking Transparency framework where you, as a developer that wants to distribute apps to Apple devices, must disclose the information you want
to collect. So they have something that kind of looks like a nutrition label on the side of a can at a Kroger store, okay, and it tells you what is being collected by given apps when you go to their apples, go to the app Store, and you go to download an app, you.
Can look at this.
I don't think most people do. I don't think most people are even aware of this is a thing, but it can be really insightful because you can look at privacy family apps like Proton, which I use for email. It collects virtually nothing. And then you can look at privacy unfriendly apps or what I would describe as CCP spyware like TikTok or Tamu in your pocket and it's collecting everything. I mean, I think most people if they look at the list of things that are being collected
and then really put some thought into it. And one of the things that this Wired article is pointing out is common apps, right, Candy Crush, it's a game tender, it's a dating my Fitness Pal, it's an app designed to help you track and manage your fitness. Right. These are not designed as spyware per se, and there's no one making any allegations that these companies are necessary being
anything that ferries. But everyone needs to understand these apps are free because you are their product, not their customer. They're monetizing your data. They're collecting data for their own internal uses. They're collecting data to try to sell you stuff. It's when that data gets sold, So pick a reputable company if they're selling your data. And many of them, if not most of them, are to data brokers, which gets us to Gravity Analytics, a data broker that was
recently hacked. They specialize in location data. Well, now your data everywhere you go all the you know, is it helpful to you perhaps as let's say you're in a domestic violence situation that your ex could potentially see everywhere that you go. Probably not. Is it helpful to you when you go to get a job, for your prospective employer to basically see that you're going to places that they might not approve of and don't hire you as a result.
Probably not.
Are these realistic examples of how this data could be used?
Yes? They are.
So you know, the point that Wired is trying to make is by using these apps, which seem innocuous, you are potentially giving up information which has then sold or leaked and comes back to buy two ways that you might not understand. And if you did, you'd stop using these things.
Well, just playing Tandy crush Dave. Yeah, let's move on here.
You mentioned just before we started this evening and asked me if i'd seen the interview with Christopher ray on sixty minutes this past Sunday where he said the same things that you and I have been talking about for four years, but finally saying it out loud, about the danger of the threat from communist China. Any Yeah, you want to elaborate that a little bit just for a moment.
I do, because it's it's really disturbing stuff. And while there's not much each one of us can do as an individual, there are things we can do to, you know, try to secure our data, reduce our digital footprint, stop using apps and platforms that are coming from China where
they have access to your data and propagandize you. But you know what Director Ray has pointed out, and you know, I follow what the FBI is putting out a lot because it's important to our business intrust and our customers, and it's you know, it's important to me trying to understand where are the risks? And you know what, how can I use what little influence I have to try
to get people to take this stuff seriously? And you know, I've seen him say that he believes, based on their research, that China has like a fifty to one advantage in terms of their offensive hackers versus our defensive people. So think about that fifty to one. Obviously, no one really knows for sure. But the point is, and this is all well documented. They have made huge investments and training
people to have you know, extensive advanced cyber skills. They're deploying those people to cause havoc all around the world. They're stealing trade secrets, they're stealing military secrets. It's no coincidence that all of their new military gear looks exactly like ours. They're stealing this stuff, right, It's a lot cheaper to break into someone's network and steal some secrets that saved you years and billions of dollars in research than to do it yourself. Right, So it's it's there.
We're being attacked, I would argue Gary, Jeff honestly, you know, we're in a cold war with the Chinese Communist Party, have been for a long time, and you know, more high profile people are increasingly raising the alarm about this. And you know, he went on sixty Minutes this last week and basically kind of put it all out there. You know, I'm quoting to you from a Stars and Stripes article referencing that sixty minutes interview. I encourage everyone,
Jill watsinon themselves. China cyber program has already infiltrated critically American infrastructure and it's poised to quote Greek havoc unquote, at a whim, the outgoing FBI director told sixty Minutes during the interview with Scott Kelley. Ray said Beijing can leverage these programs to target water treatment plants, the electrical grid,
natural gas pipelines, telecommunications of other systems. China has already pre positioned malware to quote lay and wait on those networks unquote, where it can quote inflict real world harm at a time and place of their achieving unquote. And you know, we've seen these stories come out recently about now virtually every major telecom network in the country has been infiltrated.
You know.
The our security agencies have attributed that to the Chinese Communist Party. You know, and when people say, well, what does that mean, well, think about this garriage, Jeff. For years, the FBI in particular has railed against end to end encryption because it makes it very difficult for them to get information they need on law enforcement. They recently come out and said, because of the PRC infiltration in these networks, that everyone should switch to end to end and crypt
the apps like signal. So they've done a whole one eighty on this thing because this infiltration is so severe, not dimension all these telecom networks make it possible for all of these systems to talk to one another. So if you could knock out the teletom network, you would probably take down the electrical grid and gas powered transmission plants and all this other stuff because they would have no way to communicate anymore. So it's a serious problem.
And you know the answer is awareness and now pressuring your officials at every level to take this seriously and make the investments we need to stop this before catastrophally happens. And again, don't take my word for it. See what your own government say.
You mentioned and he mentioned malware already in place, laying in weight. How do you find that dormant malware before it it inflicts the damage.
Well, that's an excellent question, and it can be really tricky depending on what it is and where it's implanet.
Know.
One of the concerns that people like me have raised for a long time, and one of the reasons why I'm the big proponent of on shoring manufacturing, especially in electronics, is so that you're not getting products that have chips in them or software and then or both to have back doors and logic bombs. You know. Logic bomb is sort of an old school name for somewhere deep down inside my code, I've put something bad and either you know, I can trigger it myself, or I could set some sort.
Of future date.
At this date and time, this thing is going to happen. And if you're going to delete all the files on the server, or ecrypt all the files or whatever it's designed.
To do, the kind of like the hypnotists and says, no, when I snap my fingers, you're going to remember this and you're going to do this.
Kind of like that.
That's a good analogy. And you know, when we're buying all this equipment. Now, you know, we have banned the whole categories of equipment like Huawei, you know, in the telecom network, but there's there's tons and tons of the stuff out there. TP Link Router recently come under fire. There's tons and tons of this stuff out there. Unless you go through every line of source code, you can't
know for sure. So it's hard. And part of the garage, Jeff is having people trained to look for the stuff, having people trained to know how to remediate it and mitigate it when you find it, and you know, having the training, the resources, the money to pay people to do this before this all goes bad. And you know, the thing that's the most scary to me is not that this has happened, and you know we're probably doing
it to them as well. You know, hopefully we are for mutually assured destruction, just like you know the nuclear persons exactly. But the thing that's the most scary to me is a guy who spent twenty five years building custom software for businesses. You know what, sometimes software doesn't work the way you expect, And could you have some sort of logic bomb in there and you don't ever trigger it, but something goes wrong and it somehow goes
off on its own. Yes, you know, you could bring these systems down without intentionally doing it because of some mistake. Look at what happened with CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike is a company that makes software designed to help businesses protect their confidentiality, integrity and availability of their information and their systems. So they actually created a denial of service attack essentially because they rolled out software that had some bugs in it
and brought down roughly ten million Windows based computers. So when you say this sounds far fetched and crazy, day, Well, there's a real world example of a trusted company in the business trying to help you protect your systems to actually create a denial of service attack. So you know, if they're in there and they've planted this malware, logic bomb, whatever you want to call it, could it somehow go
wrong without it being intensely treated. Yes, it could. So to me, I hate to always be the tenfoil hat guide. But it's scary stuff and we have got to get really really serious about taking this head on, making the investments. You know, it's funny we see to have billions of dollars to send all into the world, including the countries that hate us, but nothing for our own infrastructure and for solving problems like this.
Well, Dave, Dave, they passed an infrastructure bill that did not address this one iota.
Yeah, because we're not taking it seriously, and we really need to get serious about addressing this before task if it happens, whether it's intentional or or it happens unintentionally because of the infiltration in these networks.
Talking with Dave Hadder talking with Dave Hader in the Nightcap. I'm sorry to interrupt, Dave. I want to get one more story in before we're done, and I've got about two minutes for this, so in fact, will flip the virtual coin doomsday. Dave, do you want to talk about the way moos self driving nightmare taxi ride or do you want to talk about Apple having to pay almost one hundred million dollars for Siri listening to your private conversations in your own home, which one.
Let's let's hit to Apple real quick, all right, because when people have said for years, I think my phone is listening to me. And it's not just your phone, it's any Internet of things, you know, so called smart quote unquote device that has a microphone in it.
If it's voice activated.
It must be listening to you, right. It has to be listening to you for you to say the wake word, the hot word, the wake up phrase, whatever for it to engage. The real question is how tight is the window for what it will engage on? And then what happens to the recordings of whatever you've been captured saying? And a per this lawsuit, it's a ninety five million dollars settlement, which is laughable. You know, I think they
make that much money in like an hour. You know, we're exactly about twenty dollars per person in the class action lawsuits. So that's what they value your privacy yet, and you know Android is under some similar types of allegations. But the bottom line is these things have to listen to you. The question is what happens to you? Know again, how often they activate? There was an interesting study several years ago where they put a bunch of devices in a room, turn the TV on and then monitor how
often they activated. I think if most people saw that, they would be shocked. And how loosely these things stick to the wake phrase. And I mean this just proves that for some time now again, you know, there's been arguments that Facebook and other companies are listening and serving
up ads and so forth. Clearly it's a problem, and folks need to understand if you're having a sensitive conversation in an intimate situation or whatever, if you have any sort of voice enabled devices nearby, they're possibly listening to you, and that whatever it's recording may or may not be kept, and it may or may not be kept forever. So you should take that into account. When you have these devices nearby and you know nothing else, get your fair
day cage bag for your phone. You can put it in and that'll just cut off everything.
All right, So one word answer from you, Dave Hatter, and I don't want to get you in trouble here, but Mark Mark Zuckerberg and his recent reversals of policy at Meta and Facebook.
Do you believe him? Do you trust him? Yes?
Or no?
No?
All right, that's all we need answer. But no, do not trust. Do not trust a man with a perm that looks that bad. I always say Doomsday Dave Scary Jeff with Doomsday Dave on this Tuesday Nightcap. Thank you so much, and happy New Year to you, my friend. I look forward to many, many more entertaining and revealing conversations in the year ahead, until until the technology decides to cut us off.
All right, all right man, thanks so much.
Dave Hatter with us on the Nightcap and will continue in just moments on seven hundred W l W. You won't want to miss the next segment America.
When I listen to Bill Cunningham, I feel better about America.
I feel safer.
You know why, because no one's ever been attacked by sypholtic vampires while listening to Willie No what.
Godzilla's never attacked either. Everybody knows it. Bill Cunningham with Jack ub Godzilla with his mighty fists of freedom. Bam bam bam. Take that to your chum, Bill Cunningham is all men.
Thank you, Bill Cunninghama.
Bill Cunningham tomorrow at twelve noon on seven hundred W l W.
We're definitely going to be late to the concert.
I feel like we should be there by now.
I'm just taking a little.
As we continue this Tuesday night Cap on seven hundred w LW. The conversation continues, this time with an old friend that I haven't had the chance of, haven't taken the time to be more honest to talk to until recently in the New Year. This is a guy who I was introduced to actually by twenty nine, Tracy Jones, good friend of his. He runs a well I'll let him tell you about his business, his online business. But his dad was I believe his dad was a firefighter.
So maybe some insights into fighting fires and preparedness in the wake of the terrible wildfires that have victimized so many of Southern California's citizens and palisades in Malibu and the like. Jim Lewis, Welcome to the Nightcap. It's great to have you on the air with me in Happy New Year, my friend.
Hey, Happy New Year to you too, Gary, Jeff, It's great to be on with you. Yeah, it's these fires. It's unbelievable. There's over there's fourteen thousand homes and buildings completely destroyed. Yeah, uh ahead, uh, it's horrible. Yeah, and you know my my my father. He had he was a Cincinnati fireman and he had other businesses.
When when when I.
Was a kid, and he would but he would work one one out of three days he was the fire department.
And I would see him come home.
Sometimes he'd be like in his uniform because I never saw him in his uniform because he would always go straight from the firehouse to his his companies. Uh the you know, he'd keep working. But I would see him in his uniform and he was inspecting fire hydrants. The city of Cincinnati, they have to inspect all those fire hydrants. They go there with tools, they crack them open. They make sure you're able to access the fire hydrant. You can't just leave these things alone, I mean they'll lock up.
They gotta have They check the pressure, make sure water's there, so if there's a fire and they're needed, boom, they're able to tap into it and put the fire out.
The main thing, the main thing is to make sure there's water in the fire hydrant because otherwise they're just a.
Place for dogs to lift their leg. So please continue.
Exactly well, listen to this audio.
This is Kristen Crowley.
She's the chief, the fire chief for Los Angeles.
Listen to this, Okay, Thanktally.
I believe the anchors that wanted to ask a question comments we do. If you could please ask.
Her regarding the Times article that came out that the Santana's reservoir was close to repairs and it was empty, one hundred and seventeen million gallons of.
Water could have been used in this fight. The question is about the Santa.
Emails reservoir being empty.
There's been a lot of questions.
So my stanceless is when a firefurter comes up to a hydrant, we expect there's going to be water. We don't control the water supply. Our firefetterers are there to protect lives and property and it make sure that we're properly trained in a quick that's my position on this. So if there's no water, I don't know how the water gets to the hybrants. Please defer that to DWT or whomever controls that part. But I can tell you the resiliency of our firefurters. If there's no water, they're
going to go find water. They're going to figure out a way to do the best they can with what they've got in a very dynamic situation.
Yeah, they're going to get buckets. That's the most ridiculous deflection.
I've ever heard.
Now before before she was, before she was fire chief in the LAFD, she was a deputy chief in charge of what inspections.
Inspections correct, she was, she had she had two hundred people under her and she was in charge of inspections, inspections of buildings and fire hydrants. And then she'd be she gets elevated to the chief and she completely she just doesn't even drops the ball there.
So it's like but she deflects it.
She's like, I.
Don't know how the water gets to the hydrants. We're not asking you that, but did you check the fire hydrants? And then if there's no water, she got to be clanging the bell and going berserk about you know, we need water to the fire hydrants.
This is nothing new.
They've been It's this is they drain the thing in February of twenty twenty four. So yeah, the whole reservoir they dumped it into the ocean. The whole thing's dry. There's there's aerial shots of the dry reservoir. It's it's completely dry, and.
So yeah, it's it's pathetic.
Well, at least at least in Los Angeles. In the Fire department. In Los Angeles, they have been hiring people whether they're qualified or not. That's not the main point. The Germaine point is they're hiring people when they do hire people, and don't fire people for things like not getting the COVID JAB. When they hire people, they want to make sure they're hiring people who look like the people they may be serving, which is the most ridiculous thing in the world. I don't care if I'm in
a fire and I need assistance from a firefighter. I don't care if he or she is white, black, lesbian, gay, straight, I don't care about anything. Can they do the job? And the DEI, the chief of DEI in Los Angeles in the fire department, who makes three hundred thousand plus a year, to make sure that they're firefighting force looks like the populations that they serve said famously, if if a firefighter wasn't wasn't able physically to bring a grown man out of a fire, then that man obviously was
in the wrong place. Is there a right place to be when you're stuck in the middle of a fire emergency, gym. Tell me what the right place would be, lady, exactly.
And the second thing they complain about behind the diversity, equity and inclusion is money.
They want more money.
It's like they're they're they're always complaining about money, but it's giving them more money is just giving an idiot more money. You're just making them a bigger idiot. They're they're they're derelict of their duty and giving them more money, that's you don't give them more money.
They are they are they are a microcosm of the worst of our federal government. And this is the leftist policy. Is that and it's been this way for years. If kids aren't being educated properly, then the answer is, well, we need more money, it's all. And you throw more money at the problem, and the kids get dumber and dumber every year.
And using your top you're exactly right, and that's really the once once if you solve the problem of the bureaucracy, when you start going.
Down the rabbit hole, you just tapped on it. You went to the very bottom, like real quick.
It's the education system there is that is such a difficult thing to repair and fix. That's going to take that's going to take decades because they've been working on it for decades to flip the whole thing, and you know, since the seventies, and now we're at this point where that's really the root of the problem because of what that system has produced, and we're dealing with it now.
We've had it. That's what the problem is.
We've had a leftist slide in our education system. And the data shows that the massive slide to the far left in academia began in the mid nineteen eighties. Now even centrists are disappearing according to this information I've got in front of me. I want to talk more about the fires and the absolute total incompetence of the people that are in charge of keeping the people of southern California safe, but I also want to I want to
break and we'll do the next segment. I want you to talk a little bit, if you are comfortable with it, about your personal journey with cancer, because I think it's important to know that there are now more than at any time human history, ways to ascertain if you were not only at risk, but if you actually have cancer and don't know it, because that's the most crucial thing, and treating cancer is knowing it early enough you can get a jump start on it before it master sizes
into stage four and it's spreading throughout your body. And some very important things from your own journey you have learned in this Jim, I want to impart that to the audience. So if you'll just sit back, take a break, you'll come back and talk about that with Jim Lewis tonight, a special guest on the Nightcap because he's a friend
and he's got some really good information. If you're worried about or thinking about making sure you stay healthy, and you're worried about whether you may or may not have cancer, please stick around and we'll be right back on seven hundred WLW.
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Now what we've had it everything.
You're talking to the plumber's best buddy, Jim Lewis, and my good friend and Jim, just real quickly, let's get a recap of where you've been over the last three four years and the odyssey you've been on with cancer.
Sure, well, I discovered I have I had colon cancer in February of twenty twenty three, and it was it just hit me out of nowhere. My anthem required that we get a physical in twenty twenty two. So I had to get this physical in December twenty twenty two. Hadn't been to the doctor in you know, decades, and had to find a doctor. And then he's like, hey, I needed colonoscope and I kind of like, you know, just didn't look forward to doing that. And I actually
canceled the first appointment. And you know, when when I was supposed to go and put it off and UH just didn't feel like it didn't feel like.
I had cancer or anything. And uh, then I go and I.
When when I initially got the colonosophy, they didn't know that I had UH stage four, but he said he thought it could be that he wasn't sure. I had to go to a specialist. Went to a specialist and uh discovered I had stage four uh colon cancer.
So that was tough.
And then I just I didn't ut. I didn't stick with the the the first doctor that I had that I went to, I did a bunch of research and called a bunch of people.
And uh then.
You know, through a lot.
Of phone calls and a lot of talking to different people. I got hooked up with a guy that's incredible here in Cincinnati, doctor Earl Thompson.
Unbelievable guy.
I mean, this guy is if you have a cancer issue, if you can get to get him. Uh, he's he's really Uh.
By all means, here's what I here's what I found.
So I went, I went to him, I left the guy was with went to him, and then Domino started falling and uh. But the one thing I'll say is this looking back at this, like because when you you kind of like when you're when you first get hit with it, you're kind of you know, you're you're trying to you're like end up burning building and you're trying
to get out and find a door. But once I started like looking at this and what I had been through three four five years before and got a really good view of this, I will say that one hundred percent I caused my cancer. And it was one hundred percent my fault. Now out of complete ignorance. I didn't do it on purpose, obviously, but there were three things I three reasons why this happened. The number one and
the biggest one was not going to the doctor. So if I would have gotten a check up or gotten a colonoscopy five years earlier, which I should have done, this would.
Have been prevented.
That's number one.
So not going to the doctor and not getting tested was number one. Number two is diet sugar. I've cut all that out and that was that I could. That's a super long topic there, but diet and then sedentary lifestyle. So those three things. The largest of the three is the testing. So I changed all three and then now I test every ninety days.
And the big.
Arbitrage here is the blood tests. So there's you can do there. They have these broad based blood panels that they can test for specific biomarkers in the blood that certain that cancers throw out into the bloodstream.
So just like when someone.
Goes to get a the blood test for prostate, so the check for your PSA, it's a prostate specific andigen it's a protein that the prostate throws out into the blood. They don't have to do the old rubber glove test RH right. They know if you're if you have an elevated PSA and it's HI, they they know, okay, we've got an issue.
Here.
So the for colon cancer. The the biomarker that that that correlates with mine was CEA. So we checked my CEA and that was forty eight point six. Oh and another yeah, forty eight point six. And another great guy, I mean cannot say enough great things about him is.
Doctor William Barrett.
Bill Barrett.
He is phenomenal. He's you know, he's he's helped me out a lot. And you know, we we are blessed in Cincinnati that we have we can tap into people that this is one of the best cities to get cancer in.
Uh, and it.
Really is is phenomenal because the great thing about these guys like if they don't have the answer, they'll send you in the direction to go get it or they'll get it. Like they're they're just everyone I've encountered has been just phenomenal there. Ray Wilson.
Yeah, they're they're dedicated. They are dedicated to this. But I didn't know that there was actually a blood panel. So, I mean, your insurance may not want to pay for this expanded blood test, but uh, it would behoove anyone who has to have a regular blood test for their physical every year to say to the doctor, can you please check my CEA level along with my PSA. They checked my PSA once a year and thankfully, right, it's been the C right.
That's and that's a that's a fairly cheap one to add on. That's not expensive. It's just there there. Now when you go to look at like the Galleria test, I think they test for like fifty six different biomarkers. Now you're getting up the where insurance companies start to you know that you can get them done. You just have to pay for them yourselves. But but I think it's it's well worth that investment because you can and
and again it's not that it's perfect. You may get a false positive, sure it may.
But it's like, you know what I'll take.
I'll take my fire alarm going off and there wasn't a fire. I just you know, I'll accept that, or like how many security systems the alarm goes off and nobody broke in the house. It's like for for there to because there could be a false positive.
For that being.
The reason not to take the test is, uh, I just don't get the logic in that.
So good checked, Yeah.
Sugar, and.
Yet move around, man, it's excellent advice for anybody on anything, jam and thanks for being here again tonight to share some of that with us of your own personal story. And I will remember the next time I have my blood drawn, which is this March, and I will ask my doctor can you check my CEA as well? Because I'm due free?
Yeah, and I am so far cancer free. So twenty twenty three was a really tough year and that got through it.
And I've had.
Just thanks to a great team and Adam Rosean, He's another one. There's just I could go on and on with just the uh, the people here and but but the number one thing is take accountability and do everything you can do, because there's no question I caused this. It wasn't anything right, all right, I think I think, Yeah.
Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, I got hey, I gotta go brother, Happy New Year.
Okay, Hey, God bless.
God, bless you.
Pet.
It's the night cap on seven hundred WLW.
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Could relief be off the way for the southern California wildfires, but the eleven o'clock reports, I'mley mawin breaking now.
Now my Wednesday evening, Wednesday night, I expect the critical conditions to diminish, and then for Thursday into the weekend, we'll actually get back to a more normal weather powder here for this part of the country, kind of a nice onshore sea breeze during the day, bringing cooler temperatures, higher humidity, which will all help with the firefighting and fire control efforts.
Meteorologists Rich Thompson but the National Weather Service reporting on possible relief for fire crews as they continue to battle the fires, which the Pallisades Fire grows to nearly twenty four thousand acres with seventeen percent contained.
Now.
The newest push to help families who lost everything and these fires began today, reporting from the fire zone, ABC's chief national correspondent, Matt Gutman.
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Pick up some stuff hopefully we had funny enough, we had ordered my son some shoes, so I'm hoping that those are in there and.
I'll make him happy.
New shoes for for you. All goes a long way, Oh for sure, for sure.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announcing the executive order to speed up the recovery process and allowing families to rebuild their homes. As they were saying, the city can handle the rebuilding process.
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Garry Jeff at your service and next Now. For many years I was a host of a show called Breakfast with the Beatles here locally, and I always love good Beatles' stories.
I love stories about the British Invasion.
Tonight an archived interview that I did last summer with a guy named Billy J. Kramer, and it was worthy of another listen, So let's do that now as we continue on seven hundred wl W.
Did you never leave me?
I'll be in blue.
Don't you ever leave me?
I'm so in love with you?
They would be so lovely.
Let's not why Holy Dave yell to me?
And that was the first time many people heard Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. Yes, nineteen sixty three was it?
Yeh?
And he is back and he's still here. He's still doing what he loves to do.
And I think that's so cool because I'm getting to do what I love to do, which is interview people like Billy J. Kramer, Gary Jeff Walker as we continue here on seven hundred WLW.
And I've looked forward to this.
When our friend Jeff Perholtz, who's been working with you on your new album Billy, mentioned that you were going to be in town and we had a chance to do this, I was just like blown over Billy Kramer.
Really, I got to interview Billy Kramer. Very very cool.
This was the early stage of what became the British invasion. You were obviously way bigger in the UK than you were in the US, but you had hits here too, and you had the benefit of some pretty pretty prolific songwriters.
We'll get into that in a moment. But how are you.
I'm very well, thank you. I'm nice to be here.
Yeah.
What brings you to America this time? Bill?
Well, I've lived in America for many years now, Okay, you know I lived in America for like thirty six thirty seven years.
All right, So what brings you to town?
Then?
I came to town to work with Jeff Perholtz, the Holts, my friend Jeff Holts. That's what I came to town for. So how did you get hooked up with Jeff? I was doing a cruise last year, about a year ago, and they they linked me up.
It's all right.
They tied me over with Jeff and I came to Cincinnati and rehearsed for the cruise with Jeff yea a studio, and then we did a cruise together. And I was going to Abby Road to celebrate sixty years and show business on my eightieth birthday, and I got him like I have some fire with Jeff and his wife, Missy, and I invited them to come along to Abby Roll.
They're wonderful people.
I've known him for about twenty five years and actually hadn't seen him for about twenty years until we met in a parking lot for the first time in twenty years, and he just mentioned working with you, and I said, really, Billy J.
Kramer, that's so cool. And I said, well, is there any chance, since he's going to be in town we could get together? And here we are. So it's coming on city. Sixty years since you first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Sixty years on June seventh, June seventh, the year of the Great British Invasion. Yes, June seventh was when I was on The Sullivan Show. And it's come by very quick. What do you remember about that night? Specifically?
I was very nervous, I remember, you know, funny enough, it's it's a bit scary to think that, you know, you know, you stand there in front of a camera and realize that there's going to be seventy million people looking. It's a bit of a scary thought. So I'll be honest with you. I I did the rehearsal Joe on the day and then I went back to the hotel and I timed it that I just went back and just about time to walk on and do it.
So you were managed by Brian Emstein, Yes, I was who managed the Beatles, obviously many other acts right at that period in popular music in Great Britain. And how did how did that happen? How did you get together with Brian?
And it came about where there was a local paper, Mersey Beat, that all the young kids used to buy. You know, I was very very very popular music paper and there was a popularity poll and it was you know at the time, I think it's about four hundred bands around Liverpool and I came second in the popularity poll to the Beatles, and.
That's not a bad runner up.
I was joined joined second with a guy called Lee Kurs and the All Stars, and then you know I was doing shows with the Beatles. I was opening for the Beatles as it's certain shows, and then when I came second, there was like they had this show, it's like a big showcase and we all got got a price and I met Brian there because he he'd he'd given a Tour of Scotland for the highest place non professional, and I declined it because I was. I was at the time, I was, and I was training to be an engineer.
Right, you were a railroad engineer, right.
You know?
No, I was.
You know, people when you say I was an engineer on the railroad, people think that you'd rove trains. I didn't drive trains. I took them to pieces and maintained and put them back together. Okay, that was the kind of work I was doing. Now I was, you know, I was actually about to leave Liverpool and go to a place go Crew for a year, which to me, i'd been there doing gigs and I didn't fancy the idea of going there for a year. But I was.
I was about to pack up the music business altogether, because part of the training was you went to crew for a year to rolls Royce and I was about I told the guys in the band I was. I was going to pack it all in and Brian came about about months before I was gonna go. Brian came along and off me offors have management.
Well tell me about obviously through your association with Brian Epstein, how uh, how a mess the Beatles.
Yeah.
Well, and the fact that they gave you songs. They were so prolific at writing songs. They had a lot of songs that they never recorded, and they kind of threw you those bits and and you turn them into hits.
That that's wonderful. That tell me. Tell me about John and Paul and what it was like to work with them or to you know, open for them, What it was.
Like so over for them. You know, it's it's more when I look back now, it's more of a big deal to me now than what it was then. I think, you know, it was like when you share dressing rooms with people, people share your hebbrush and stuff like that. You don't you know, to me, it was you know, I mean I never thought anything about it, you know. Paul McCarney, like what I did that Christmas show? I remember we used to do with this like pancake makeup
just to slap. We used to call it slap. And it goes, well, can I go, where's your slap, billy? I Can I buy you a hairbrush? And you know it's like I never looked at it. You know. The funny thing is I never eat all the times with the Beetles, which is many songs. I never even asked for an autograph, right, No, I just.
Thought, well, if you'd have known what we all know now, I probably would have saved some of Paul's here from my hair brush.
Yeah, you know what I mean, you know, but I never thought about it. Yeah, you know, it's like you know, people say to me, like when I did like set and Lennon McCartney songs and the lyrics were that that they've written out by hands. I never I just like roll them up in the ball and throw them a waste paper. But I never nobody thought it was gonna I don't know, I never thought about it.
So tell me about this new work that you're doing now. You you've continued to record and obviously play all these years. Yes, and you and I were talking about what a what a blast it is to do what you've always wanted to do in life. Yes, you know, I was seven years old and I wanted to be on the radio, and from nineteen until now, you know, I've been blessed enough to be able to do that. And you've been in music now for this sixty year period.
Well, I mean I feel very blessed. You know, like I send to you earlier, I've never considered this to be a job. You know, we don't get a goal watch after so many years. It's something. It's like I remember my sister, you know, she's older than me, she's ninety four, and she said to me, like, why do you do all this?
You know?
Now, you know why? How come you know you make these records and you do this and you do that. And I've said, it's because it's what I do.
I've told people for years, Billy that my retirement plan is death. You know, do people add as you you're you going to hang it up?
You know?
I mean, I'll be honest with it. We've put a tremendous amount of work into this album, you know what. I'm delighted with it. I said to Jeff yesterday, what are we going to do next?
That's right, you're thinking about the next project.
He says to me, Let's get this one out of the wake first. But that's the way I am. Yeah, all right, exactly, you know. I mean it's like, you know, I'm easy, and people go, you know, why you're still doing this just because it's what I do?
Well, look pretty damn good for Adie. I'll tell you that, Billy, thank you probably better than I look at sixty three.
Well, you know, do you attribute that to clean living?
Yes?
I mean, I'll be honest with it. I mean I wasn't always clean living. I used to drink, used to drink and smoke and stay out late and all those things, all the stuff. But I quit all lots of forty years ago. Really, I quit all lots of forty years ago.
Yes.
Well, that's that's a tribute to you and also a testament to what that kind of life can give you, this longevity. There's a lot of different pretty famous people playing on this album too. You want to talk about some of the sidemen that you've got working with you.
Well, there's Steve Holly.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was a great drummer. It was with Paul Lawrence Jupa playing guitar. Alan Thompson, it's a bass player with Jeff Hotel. Wow.
You know I met Ian Anderson once? Yeah? Have you ever met Ian?
No?
I met Ian he was doing something.
He was in town, doing something across the country called the Rubbing Elbows Tour, and it was so neat because we were on a stage at Music Hall and there was a big couch in front of the band on stage, and Ian had some local musicians who were playing the songs with him, and he'd do a song and then we we'd sit and do an you in front of the audience about the next song and talk about then, and then you'd get up and perform again. It was very cool experience.
But it's you know, it's that is a I do a similar thing, now, do you where I do this this acoustic songs and stories and I have somebody like a DJ interviewed me and asked me questions about different songs, how I acquired them. Keep me in mind the next time you're in Cincinnati, Billy, I will you know songs that I acquired, how I recorded them? Any for these stories about them? And I talk about that and then I sing the songs.
So were you ever married?
I've been married twice. Yeah, yeah, I was married. I always say we're all insightles, so make one mistake. Yeah, you know I didn't get I'll be very honest with you. I didn't get it right the first time. Neither did I the second. My second marriage was tremendous. I was married to a girl from Long Island, New York. Ronnie married for over thirty years. Unfortunately she passed away. I'm sorry to hear that. So you say you've been in the United States now for thirty six years living here. Yes,
what prompted you to move from I met huh? I met you?
Met her?
I met her. I was I was over doing until in the United States and I met Ronnie.
Aren't the girls wonderful on tour?
Billy? I know that's it's It's strange because you know, I think we had an argument the first time I met she was to get it out of the way. She was into like photography. That's how I met it. She come to take some.
So that's another thing you had in common with Paul Linda, Right, So did you keep touch with the boys and the initial I'll be honest with that.
In the early days I told with the beatles of loss and then you know, I'll be honest with that. I got to a point where, you know, I didn't want to hang on to the hotels. You know, I used to stay at this place in the Russell Square in London, the President Hotel, and I used to see Neil Aspinall and male Evans. Then they go. He come to Paul's to night and Saint Johnson Wood and I was going, no, I'm taking some chick out, some dancer, you know, good for you, And I'll be honestly, I
sort of like backd azz. I think, you know, I also have a life, sure you know, Oh absolutely, And that's that's what I mean. From time to time over the years, I've seen the Beatles, you know. The last time Paul came to Long Island, I got together with him. But I'm not going to call him up every day.
Of the week and ask confirm oh no, no, no, no, no, no, I didn't. I didn't think.
That she's driven crazy.
You know.
I'll be honest with you, he's probably crazy counting as mine, you know, I was.
I was with a lady friend at Christmas time. We were going through some big department store and I said, you know, Paul can't do this. Yeah, you're right, And I thought, you know, I wouldn't want that. I like going places. I like going stores, and I like, you know, I like being in show business. I like performing, I like making music. But would you like to be somewhat anonymous when you're rist to me? I'm like, I always say that Billy J. Krame is someone that I take
out of a suit bag. So you've got a new single coming from this new album. What is the title of this? So we have a single after the moment?
Right?
Are you with me?
But there's a new one coming.
There's a new one coming which is written by Mark Uson Oh It's called I Couldn't have done it without you. Well again, the benefit of a pretty darn good songwriter. You know, he's a heck of a songwriter. I've done a lot of shows with Mark. I'm funny enough. When we were like compiling what songs we're going to do Abby Road, I'd spoken to Mark about a year before. We we had talked about ideas and then I'd sort of like made a list of ten songs I so
be good to do. And then a week or two before he called me up and he says, you know this song we was talking about. I said yeah, He said, well, I finished it. I'll send it to you. It was so flipping good. I thought, you know, what can I take out and puts this one in?
So the album, though, is debuting, correct, when does that happen?
It's going to come out at the end of May beginning view all right, and the title of the album is are you with Me? Well we are today and it's been a joy. Thank you.
It's been an absolute joy. So you're gonna do videos and everything for the song?
Yeah.
We we did a great video one Jeff and I went to Liverpool after after we did the Abbey Road thing going and Jeff Conny did a great video which is a lot of fun.
Is there something about is there still something about the mystique about Abbey Road Recording? There is there something to that, you know? Is it just a studio or is it something there.
Is something special about it? But you know, I'll be honest with you. I have we have this wonderful party and my best day and everything there. But you know, it's like there was so much going on. The only thing is I'll be honest with Somebody came up to me and was what does it feel like? And I looked across them and remembered exactly where John Lennon was when he sat at the piano and played bets to me and I call your name, and where Paul played
from a window. And I'll keep you satisfied. And you know, yeah, it's a bit like a bit melancholy.
You know, well, I love I love even the old stuff. I mean we started with the Bad to Me, which was your first big one, and Little Children is a fantastic song too, and I'm looking forward to hearing the album Are You with Me by Billy J. Kramer comes out end of May, first of June, and we'll keep you posted.
Thank you very much, anything else, anything else, No, it's just being a pleasure. It's being great to be here in Cincinnati. It's been wonderful to have met Jeff and Missy Oh I do this album. They're very very special people. Oh they're great people. And on top of that, they're phenomenal musicians, absolutely phenomenal, and I just feel blessed to meet such people at this time.
Meanwhile, when the Untented Forest, the Princess holds us sorrow Mary for the movies.
And watch for Billy J.
Racky.
Why thank you?
This is quite the honor.
Now what this is it? I mean, we don't get a castle or anything. What you get is to go back to the radio station and entertain your millions of listeners. See oh body beat it. Wow, that's one cranky princess.
I heard that Buster, Eddie and Rocky, give Your Day a fairy Tale, and.
Eddie and rock Tomorrow afternoon and three on.
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Twenty twenty five Here on seven hundred WLW Garry Jeff welcoming in author Michael Kanal. A new book just out today, and I will tell you if you were a fan or you're a devotee of anything mafia and a police involvement, whether it's Wise Guys or good fellas, you like that stuff, you like the Martin Scorsese stuff, You're going to love this book because it's the real story of two decorated detectives in the NYPD who basically were mob lookouts. They
performed murders for the mob. They moonlighted as wise guys while they were behind the badge. It's called Blood and the Badge, the Mafia. Two killer cops and a scandal that shocked the nation and something that only really came to light all the details didn't come to light until the nineties and then the two thousands, when dedicated to active in his own right, decided to look in to this open case and all these open cases that occurred in the nineteen eighties with these two cops, Lewis Epolito
and Stephen Kara Kappa. Michael Knell, welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks for having me.
Yeah, you bet. Is this something that you generally write about? Is this your genre or what was the jenet?
What?
What was it?
Now?
I didn't say it.
Yeah, I didn't set out in life to be to be a mafia chronicler, but it's kind of turned worked
out that way. I wrote a book about the first case of criminal profiling, and then a book called The Brotherhood Betrayed about murder incorporated the assassination arm of the mafia in the nineteen thirties and forties, and in a way, this book Blood in the Badge is a sequel to that in a funny way, because in the nineteen thirties and forties is when organized crime got organized, and this period the late eighties and the early nineties is when
organized crime became disorganized and the mob started to fall apart as Rudy Giuliani and other prosecutors used the Rico.
Laws to bust the mob.
So the mob in part was using these two corrupt cops as.
A lifeline.
They were these two cops, these two decorated detectives, were feeding sensitive police information to the mob. Who was under surveillance, whose phones were tapped, who was about to be arrested, and most importantly, who in the mob was secretly cooperating with the government. And then the mob would hire these detectives to facilitate the murder of the rats or the squealers in their ranks.
The head of the Luksey crime family called them his crystal ball, which is very telling now, Epolito and I found this out just from a short run through of the book The Blood and the Badge, Epolito, you know, it's one of those apple doesn't fall far from the tree stories. Really, he became a cop in spite of his family connections to the mafia.
Right, Yeah.
He was born into a prominent mafia family. His father was a captain or a capo as they called it in the Gambino crime family. His father was known as Fat the Gangster, and his uncle was known as Jimmy the Clam.
I loved.
I'm sorry, I loved Jimmy the Clam. When I read that, I just laughed out. Some of the mob names and nicknames are hilaireious. And when you talk about Vinnie the Chin, for example, in actual mobsters back in the day, had all these wonderful names that have been paried, parodied or talked about in in mob movies.
But please continue, his.
Names are like right out of the Sopranos. Yes, so, Epollito was born into this mafia family.
His father was kind of an abusive character. No, no surprise, and uh it was.
He grew up in a violent household and his way of rebelling against his family was to join the police department. When he joined the police department, nobody could believe it. It was an act of rebellion, and he became a successful cop. He became a decorated detective who earned headlines for his work. But his family, as as is often the case, his family drew him back in and he and his best friend and partner in the police force
began working for the Lakesy crime family. They were on the they were on the payroll.
It's amazing Uh, now does this book at all?
I've not gotten deep into it, so I'll just ask you, does it get into when you talk about a time of disorder? It seemed to coincide not only would Juliani's prosecution and crackdown, but also it seems to intersect with the the ero of John Gottie and characters like Sammy the Bull.
Are those guys mentioned in the book.
They are mentioned in the book, and the reason they're mentioned is that.
The cops worked.
For an underboss known as gas Pipe Caso. He was the one who paid them for their services. Gas Pipe Case has spent most of his adult life kill informants and then he became an informant himself, and the Feds intended to use gas Pipe to testify against these two cops. Something unexpected happened, and that is that gas Pipes started to bad mouse the other informants, including Sammy the Bull,
who was critical to the prosecution of John Gotti. Right, So, the federal prosecutors had a problem on their hand, and the way they solved it was to tear up gas Pipes, plea agreement and send him to Supermax prison.
Nobody heard from.
Him again until he died of COVID four years ago in prison. So who was the beneficiary of this Epolito and Kara Kappa, the two corrupt cops because there was no longer gas Pipe was no longer around to talk about what they had done and testify against.
Well, I don't want to jeopardize a key part of the book, but a key part of them finally being found out to be the absolute dastardly criminals that they were was another detective who was on his way out the door, basically was going to be retiring, and he saw these open cases and these files and just wanted to close the case, so he tracked it down.
Tell me about this dude for a minute.
Yeah, Tommy Dads, I mean, if if I should be so lucky as to have this made into a movie someday, I'm told I told Tommy Days, I think Bruce Springsteen should play him. Tommy Dads is an amazing guy and a very charismatic detective who was very close to the
mothers in the cases that he worked. He was he was the son of a single of single woman, a single mother, and in his in his professional life, he tended to be very close to the mothers of both the victims and the perpetrators, and one of the mothers of the uh a young man that these two cops abducted and was subsequently killed. She figured out who abducted her son, and she shared that information with Tommy Dates.
And that's that's really how they got caught, is that Tommy Tommy began to investigate them long after everybody else had forgotten about this case.
I see.
I noticed one chapter that just caught my attention, and I didn't get too far into it, called the Botched Hit. I didn't know that the mafia didn't always comp fleet the connect the dots and stuff like that, but apparently they do.
In a story in this book, Blood and the Badge.
Yeah, I mean, gaspit.
Casso, the underboss of the Lukse crime family, was nearly assassinated while he ate an ice cream cone outside of a strip mall in Brooklyn.
It was a little feud that he had with another mob member.
He escaped.
He ran into a restaurant and hid in the refrigerator in the basement, and then devoted himself to tracking down the people who tried to kill him.
And so he.
Relied largely on these two corrupt cops to help them with that.
It's an amazing I really can't and I'm not a voracious reader. Michael, I'll be honest with you, but I can't wait to crack into Blood in the Badge, the Mafia, two killer cops, and a scandal that shocked the naked nation. The author Michael Knell, and thank you so much for the time. I wish you great success with the book. I think this is a can't miss. I really do thank you.
I really appreciate that.
You bet you. The night cap continues as we wrap up in moments on seven hundred WLW.
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Tuesday evening, we bring you the author of land Rich Cash Poor. He's a guy who grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. His family farms, and he's very, very concerned about the family business and that should concern us all as consumers about what the farms bring to us on a daily basis. Brian Reisinger, welcome back to the Nightcap.
It's been a few months, but we did have you on a little while ago, and things just continue to get worse for the family farm and especially consumers of staples like eggs, and the price is just keep going through the roof, and bird flu is playing a major role. Welcome to the show, Happy new year, and tell me what we can expect as twenty twenty five progresses.
Brian, absolutely well, thanks for having me back on.
I appreciate Happy new year to you too.
You're absolutely right, and I think you know we don't see some changes to the way our food system works. We're going to continue to see high prices and eggs. We may see higher prices in milk.
And here's what's going on. As you mentioned, bird.
Flu is hitting you know, facility that raise chickens that produce eggs. And the problem that we have is we've got such an integrated food system because we were wiping out so many of our family farms now for so long forty five thousand a year for the past century, on average, annually.
We've been losing know all about that.
We've been losing forty five thousand family farms a year.
Amazing, isn't it?
On average for the past century, we've lost forty an firee thousand a year, and that is seventy percent of our family farm. So we wonder why eggs and other things are so expensive. There aren't enough places where people can go get eggs. When you got a disaster like the bird flu, it hits and all the places where we normally get our eggs through. You know, you get a big processing plant or a big distribution center that goes down because of bird.
Flu or what have you. It causes huge problems.
If we had more family farms to plan more food locally, we wouldn't have the egg prices going through the roof like we're experiencing.
Well.
I have heard different things about this avian flu. One is is that it's really not that virulent, and it just makes chicken sick. It's not killing other animals, it's not jumping speceis And then I hear exactly the opposite. What do you know about the latest on bird flu in America?
Yeah, it's such a great question, because you do get all that information flying around. You know, from what I can tell, there is concern and there's risk that it could you know, jump into our milk supply as well, and that that is a real and valid concern. Here's the issue, however far it can spread, and however much we should be concerned about, whether it's a lot or a little, we do know that it is very clearly
affecting the supply of our eggs. It is wiping out the supply of our eggs and stores, you know, stores all across the country. People can't find eggs in the first place. If they can, it's far more expensive, and in some cases those egg prices are record breaking, you know.
More expensive than meat.
And so we've got to understand that, Yes, we've got to deal with the bird flu, but more importantly, we've got to stop this trend of disappearing farms, and we've got to find a way for more of our farms to be able to supply more of our food because we do have even though we've lost so many, we
do have nearly two million farms left. If more of those farms could play an active role in providing food to the American dinner table, we could make it so that when Burkel or something like that strikes, it's not as big of a threat to our food supply chain.
Right.
I mean, are you a fan of the government paying farm subsidies. I've always wondered about why do we need if this is such a noble profession and farmers know what they're doing, why do we need to pay farmers not to grow certain crops or to grow certain crops to prop up prices here and there. What's your feeling overall on subsidies for farms?
Are they necessary?
You know, I'll tell you.
We could debate each individual program.
Here's the reality.
What we need more so the government subsidies, is we need new entrepreneur opportunity.
For our farms.
We got all of those farms that are left, and nearly two million, most of them are small farms. That surprises people, and the reason is the big farm supplier food the smaller farms, they try to supply some of it, but they aren't able to farm full time because they're not even like a full time living, and so they're working two three jobs in addition to work in the farm. What we need to do is have new entrepreneur opportunity in this country. We got more people who care about
where our food comes from than ever before. We got all these family farms that are working hard supplying food where they can. If they could be growing entrepreneuri adventures again, then to do a hack of a lot more than a government program would for them.
Brian, I think I've told you before.
My beloved late uncle Jerry Maybeus was a huge farmer in southeastern Iowa his entire life, and it was he was about a fourth generation of the Maybiest family that farmed this land. They just kept on growing it and growing it growing. It was a family farm and it still is. But people don't understand you talk about working two or three other jobs. He worked sixteen hours a day every day pretty much most of his life to
keep that going. And he had a lot of acreage, mind you, it's a large farm, pigs, cows, had his own pork processing plant right across the road from his farmhouse, where all the meat was prepared and shipped off to market and whatever it was packaged and everything had chickens and the like. So it was a big operation. But it is so labor intensive as a profession. I don't know why anyone would want.
To do it, you know, it really is.
It's a lot of work.
It's sun up the sundown on a normal day and then you got you know, if you've got a time of year planting or harvest where you're in the fields, it can be the sky's the limit terms of the hours a day.
And that's true.
It's a lot of hard working. It's economic hardship to it as well. It's also a beautiful way of life.
You know, you grow up working with your dad in the time you can walk see the cow dog running up the pasture bringing the cows into the box, still coming down through the meadow. I mean, it is a beautiful thing. You get down in your blood, your bones. And what I always say to people is they are all these farm families still work in their farms, whether
they're a farm like that. That's a full time operation and it's taken every moment they got, or whether they're trying to keep their farm going on the side while they're pulling factory shifts and pouring concrete or whatever else they're doing. These are people who are working so hard to try to feed our country, and they're doing it even though it's a you know, it's an economic situation.
It doesn't really work for him anymore.
Imagine what we could accompts in this country who have made it work.
Well.
You know, I love this topic because again, I've never been involved in the farm work myself, but I have plenty of relatives and family ties. Brian Riisinger land rich, cash poor, my family's hope, and the untold history of the disappearing American farmer. All I can do is pray that what you are petitioning for comes true.
Brian, take care, Thank you so much, Thank
You, And in honor of America's farmers and America the national anthem, the Star Spangled banner on seven hundred WLW