The Nightcap with Gary Jeff Walker -- 10/21/24

Seven hundl W How you doing, Gary, Jeff Walker. Good evening on this Monday night, October the twenty first. We are just barely two weeks away from election day, so there's a lot going on, you think, a lot at stake, absolutely, But I wanted to talk to you about something else at the top of tonight's show that has been a very very personal kind of issue for me and my family and for millions of people women and men across

Great guy.

I told this story before, but we were still in the middle of COVID protocols, especially in hospitals. We get into the room with doctor Gunther and it's just to the two of us and the doctor and a nurse and he said, do you feel like wearing these masks?

And we go no. Oh.

He said, please take them off, and he took his off and we were all more comfortable. And then he got out the monitor to show us exactly where they had located the tumor in the enhanced resonance imaging. And you know what they planned to do, the plan of attack, and he never suggested radiation or chemotherapy, not once. He didn't think it was necessary. He said, let's do the operation. And what wound up happening is the operation occurred. They

Next week every day for a few minutes.

Discolored my wife's right breasts and the hair stopped growing under a white arm, right arm. But the cancer was gone, and that's all that we cared about, truly, all that we cared about.

So in the aftermath.

It's been almost two years now since she rang the bell and was declared cancer free, and she is going back on Thursday this week for another mammogram. And the only reason I tell you all this is just another testimonial of someone who's been personally affected by it. My family, yours, maybe two. But for those who don't know and haven't gotten screened, I know there is a percentage of people, and I tend to be one of them of suiting certain things that.

Just is afraid of what they'll find out.

Well, the point of the matter is if they find out early like they did with my wife's breast cancer, you know, she may never have to deal with that. We may never have to deal with that ever again in our lives. Again, praise God moment here, but just go do it. If you're I don't care what age you are, and you haven't been screened, especially for women, if you haven't gotten the enhanced Mammograham.

Go do it.

It literally can save your life. Not everybody's outcome is the same as my wife's, and I understand that, but the early screening was the biggest component. That and having a great doctor and staff at STY and just people that really cared a lot. And all of the prayers that many of you said in petition for my wife and for us. So I thank you again for those. Mind you, if you haven't done it yet, get checked.

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Hey, it's the top ranked advisor. National Review contributor David Boonson. With the presidential election just two weeks election day just two weeks from tomorrow, there's been so much, so much discussed about who gets elected and how it's going to affect the United States economy. And we've heard all kinds of wild claims and predictions that if Trump is elected, the economy is going to crash and we're going to be in worse shape than we are now, which is

Well, it's great to be with you. Thank you for having me.

So what is what is the left getting wrong here when they say if Donald Trump wins the twenty twenty four presidential election and the economy is going to go straight into the sewer?

Let me answer that with as much credibility as I can by saying what the right's getting wrong too, which is, you know, you made the comments hard to imagine this economy being worse, Well, of course, you know you're being somewhat tongue in cheek. We've can imagine the economy being a heck of a lot worse than this. We've seen it a.

Lot well well, nineteen eighty seven, Yes, I mean I understand well.

And then also about fifty percent of years over the last fifty years of at lower GDP growth where the economy is brutal. Now, is that the wage growth we were getting under President Trump? And by wage growth, I mean real wage growth. So whatever wages are doing after factoring and inflation, that is really really slowed, and that's just terrible for lower income earners. This isn't a great economy, and the housing affordability issue is one of the worst components,

Well, and indeed, when Kamala Harris comes out with something that's clearly unconstitutional, violating every kind of civil rights law and saying that she wants to offer these forgivable loans to black men, to spore economic opportunity and then has to go back three days later when says that, you know, Tommy, you can't.

Do that because that's against the law.

You have to So now it's for everybody, according to them, these opportunity ec economy programs that she has supposed and suggested, what would that be, like, David Bonson, if all of a sudden, the federal government is handing out ten twenty thousand dollars in forgivable loans. In other words, they're forgivable for the people that are getting the loans, but they're not forgivable for the rest of the US taxpayers who are footing the bill for them.

How would that work in the economy?

Well, when President Trump did it with PPP, basically they were giving away a heck of a lot more than twenty thousand, but they had shut down the country. And so the notion of a forgivable loan is a contradiction. In terms, a forgivable loan is called a gift if it's forgiven, it wasn't. A loan alone is something that's paid back. All of us who have ever borrowed money

Wow.

And they significant, They significantly deregulated. Now we have a lot more deregulation to do. I'm not a fan of targeted terrorists trying to punish certain businesses. The business tax is still too high, but he wants to bring it down to fifteen percent from the current twenty one. There's a lot of work to do still. But every single thing Harris is talking about makes the she seeks to

That, yeah, that's the thing.

So you're going to give somebody twenty five thousand dollars or whatever the number is to buy a home, and that means that the market's going to instantly price that in to the price of the home right from.

The very beginning.

And you're right, it's basic economics. What about you mentioned the tax cuts. To me, the biggest thing that Trump did to spur economic activity in the country and to take the reins of the federal government off was all the deregulation. And you said, We've got more deregulation to do.

And I don't think that's pandering at all. I think targeting a certain profession to say I'm going to cut your taxes and not other people's taxes like that.

Like the no tax on tips thing.

Yeah, that's a great example, and there's others that have been floated out there too, And so I try my best to understand the reality of politics and the silly things people say when their campaigning. Ninety four percent of them never happen. So, you know, we political stuff is what it is. But here's the thing. Deregulation should be broad based. Most of it was in the first term. Most of it was across multiple sectors, multiple industries. He

Well, the Chevron decision in the Supreme Court last summer was huge too, as far as taking some of the teeth of these agencies and taking some of the reins off of business.

Don't you think, Well, I think it was a big deal. But I want to be clear what it did. It basically challenged the illegality of defaulting to unspoken regulation. It didn't deal with their ability to go do and clarify the regulation right, and so it kind of dared them to up the ante a little bit, which I do think is a good thing because generally when they do that, it will end up being more unpopular and it will

Next day and do it again. I'm anxious to see it. David, thank you so much for your time tonight. I really appreciated a pleasure to be with you. You got it. David Bonnson on the economy and the presidential election. I love what he said about I hate the pandering on both sides, and I would tend to agree with him more of the Nightcap in just a Moment on seven hundred WLW Monday.

Evening on seven hundred w l W.

Joining us now is all all time great Western nonfiction writer. I kind of call him the Louis Lamore of Western nonfiction.

He does so many.

Great, great historical works on the Old West and the frontier, the American Frontier, and he has a new book out called Bandit Heaven. He is also the New York Times bestselling author of Tombstone. I don't know if you've ever heard of that. Tom Claven join Us, Banded Heaven, The Hole in the Wall Gangs. In the final chapter of the Wild asked, good evening.

Good evening, thank you for having me back on your show.

Yeah.

The books on sale as of tomorrow officially thank you for my advance copy. And from what I have been able to see this, I mean this fits right into your Baileywick, your purview of great, great historical facts woven into pros that very few people can do, I think. But thank you for coming on.

Thank you.

So the Hole in the Hole in the Wall Gangs.

We're talking about roberts Rus Brown's Hole, Hole in the Wall, three hideouts that collectively were known out laws as Banded Heaven during the late eighteen hundreds, rather remote locations in Wyoming and Utah, which was like they were like sanctuary cities for criminals in today's parlan you know.

Use the word isolated. That was very true. The geography is what made these these places so important to the to the outlaws, and that you know, in the case of Brown's whole hole was another word at the time for a valley. So you had a valley that was surrounded by hills and mountains. There's only a couple of access ways in and out, so you guarded those. Nobody was going to get in there, especially you know, sheriffs

Well, I mean, and I guess part of the thinking there by law enforcement was you know, when they come out, we'll get them. They got to come out eventually, right.

They figured that out finally when a few of them got ambushed, they probably said, you know what, why don't we wait on this side because at some point they're going to run out of money, or they're going to run out of women, or they'll run out of alcohol and all three, and they're going to leave there because plus, let's face it, if you're hold up in a hole in the wall, for weeks at a time. It gets pretty done boring, not like there's a triplex there because

Were were these gangs?

Were they like the street gangs of Venezuela or MS thirteen? Were they that notorious and that blood thirsty? Were they? Would they do anything for a score, including you know, kill a man or take a woman hostage or you know bridley rate somebody and then cut their heads off. I mean what on a scale of infamy? Where were these gangs? Most of them a scale.

Together one to ten, Yeah, like maybe a four or five. There were individual outlaws who were pretty nasty people. I mean Kid Curry was part of the Hole in the Wall gang and.

He was.

But they all the time a man killer. He would shoot somebody if he felt it dangered. There were others that that John Wesley Harden was a man killer. The Dirty Day of Rudeba who was in the book is a man killer. But for the most part, the gangs did not want to kill if they didn't have to, because they feared most of the time correctly, that murder

Well, if you you're talking about if you killed somebody with the railroad, the railroad had their own security outside of outside of badged lawmen. I mean, they had like Pemberton and other security people that would they would those security agencies go out and hunt for these outlaws as well as like.

Sheriffs and law enforcement.

Yeah, that's a good point. When you had sheriffs and marshalls and their deputies and their assistants who were looking for the outlaws they were. They were kind of outnumbered, or at least they didn't match up well because many of them were not very well trained and they weren't

In your first chapter of Bandit Heaven, Tom, you talk about h the Lewis and Clark expedition off from Saint Charles, Missouri in eighteen oh four. Yes, and you know, to just find out what President Jefferson had actually bought from the French with the Louisiana purchase. Yes, and so from that point forward that it not only opened up the frontier for settlers and for people who wanted, you know, to have their peace of this this unburdened wilderness, but

Yeah?

I think two things happened. Two things happen. One, like you're talking about, is that you had people who are looking for fresh hunting grounds. I guess you could say outlaw with it. You know, they were wanted in Missouri, they were wanted in Texas, they were wanted in Oklahoma. They said, let me, let you see if I can try what what's available in Wyoming and Montana and Idahoa place like that. So there was, along with other kinds

So let me skip ahead to chapter five, the invasion. This is from the book Bannit Heaven by Tom Clayn, who was our guest on the Night Cap. And I did I really love this stuff. I love history, That's my thing. I love any kind of history. So to crack this open and to get a glimpse of American history in the in the Old West is really a treasure.

Ello Watson ull.

These These are articles portraying Ello Watson as a prostitute who accepted cattle for her favors. Is she the first prostitute in American history to get a steak dinner?

You know?

Poor Ella?

It was.

It was bad enough that she was She was trying to be a small rancher. Uh And with the help of her she was romantically involved another rancher and they tried to get to build a small matches and raise some cattle and become self sustaining. And the large ranch owners did not like that. They did not want this interloper in there. So they not only took her and her companion Jim, and took about some remote place and hung them for the impertance of trying to own their

Oh yeah, in the nineteenth century, you know what I mean, many women, many feminists would claim that it was tough in the twentieth century. Well, imagine what it was like in the nineteenth You mentioned the sun Dance Kid, Tom and I go to chapter eleven entitled Companions in Crime, and the first paragraph. If asked who Butch Cassidy's best friend and chief sidekick in the outlaw gangs he led,

Well, he was another one of those that set up to be a cowboy, not intented any kind of life of crime. But he and he became Wishcassidy's best friend for several years until he did get caught at first criminal activities and was sent off to prison. But this is this is the friend who accompanied Butch on some of his earliest adventures, and that became more and more criminal as they you know. The one one of the things that happened is that it's really hard to resist

Yeah, Well, once you get sucked in, go ahead.

Yeah, And that's what happened. And that's the elderly lad that happened to him. And he was good friends with Butch and they would start doing these bank jobs together until, like I said, he got caught. Another companion of Butcher's was a fellow named Kid Curry. His original name was Harvey Logan, but he became Kid Curry. Thought it was like the second coming of Billy the Kid, and he

That's going to read the book?

All right? All right?

Who are the Wild Bunch? Because they are referenced all through the book.

Right well, but cast you know there's there's a famous photograph which is included in the book, or the fort Worth five, and that was really the core of the Wild Bunch. Uh, you had Butch Cassidy was always always

Was just like people posting on Facebook when they're committing crimes or something.

Yeah, I know it was it was an ill advised move, but they were, you know, he was feeling very powerful and it really was kind of like at the height of their power as bandits. But it was also the beginning of the end of them as bandits.

You mentioned in the acknowledgement Acknowledgments to Bandit Heaven, Tom Clayn, that you know, you wouldn't have a career without the contributions of all kinds of people, librarians, curators in these Western states. How much have you extensively traveled out into these areas yourself?

You know, quite a bit, especially beginning this would be thirteen years ago, in twenty eleven. I mean, I used to take a cross country trips when I was even younger, but those are just you know, being young and getting in a car and going from one coast to the other and back again. But they really spend more time

That, and so oh, I can't.

I found it fascinating. It was just just so intoxicating to the seal as material to be fine stories that it had not been told before, he had not been told in quite a while. So I was very very fortunate to discover so much during the travels there, including in the more recent years when places like Tombstone and Dodge City and other places like that.

When you go out to places like to Wyoming, to Montana and you go to some of these enclaves that have now become big tourist attractions and big attractions for people with big money to buy up branches and pieces of land, does it make you a little uh, I don't know, a little misty. Do you feel like something is being lost a little bit?

Well?

Yes and no. I mean part of what the story of Banded Heaven is big ranches who were buying up all the land and wanting to keep the smaller farmers and ranches out. You know, a story like the TV show Yellow Yellowstone, which is you know about that Kevin Costen's character and his family trying to hold on to their massive branch and all these other obstacles that they face,

Tom Claven is the man the book has banded in Heaven. It is out tomorrow and it is my ultimate pleasure and honor to have the best selling author with us tonight. Thank you again, Tom, and great success with the books. It's on sale tomorrow.

Fun for me too, Thank you again.

You bet you.

It's the night Cap on a Monday night, October twenty first, and we continue in mere moments on seven hundred WLW. If you missed our twenty twenty four High Heart Radio

I'm doing great? Thanks for having me.

So yet a recent op ed in Blaze in the Blaze, how the CIA's dirty tricks shape us elections and you and God just just to get into this subject because it seems like the integrity that keep on using that word. The integrity of our election is being questioned and being attacked at every turn by numerous people who want the deep state to survive. So tell me once you know firsthand from your experience in the CIA, what the CIA has been doing.

Now.

I mean, there have been movies and there have been books written about.

The CIA meddling and foreign elections and being kind of puppet masters of who the deep state, of the shadow government in the US wanted in those positions overseas and foreign countries. But tell me what you know about in our own elections. I mean, I thought the CIA was an agency that only acted outside the borders of the US.

Well, it's supposed to be, but of course it's not. In the article, I go through.

Several presidential administrations and elections where the CIA has had a direct influence on the outgoing propaganda and the actual outcome of the election. And recently there's a classic example the forty two senior intelligence CIA senior intelligence officers that came out and claimed that Hunter Biden's laptop was a Russian disinformation.

Which which indeed it was not. It was actual evidence.

Those same forty two CI officials have come out and signed another letter stating that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, he must be kept out of office at all costs. And an additional let's see if a seven hundred and forty one other intelligence officials have come out and signed a similar letter. So they're already trying to affect this election in favor of Kamala Harris, which of course for many of us, would be a shocking event if she was elected, and I think a direct threat

And towards Kamala Harris. The CI does not have the legal or constitution authority.

To do that, but as we have learned over the past years, and I've spoken on many times, they could care less whether they abide by the Constitution or not.

Well, I have said, and it's pretty obvious to me and anybody who's actually objectively paying attention, Kevin Ship that Donald Trump is only a threat to the deep state, He's only a threat to the so called swamp. He is only a threat to those people who are desperately trying to hold on to power, that are unelected, that are paid by our tax dollars, and they just took they don't want to lose their gigs. I mean, because Donald Trump obviously is someone and you know, the first

Yeah, and that was very painful less remember what Chuck Schumer said, anybody that crosses the intelligence community, they have three ways from Sunday of getting at from going after them. Of course I've experienced that personally, but yeah, they test

Was this kind of stuff going on with the CIA when George HW.

Bush was there?

Absolutely, I've done programs on this too. Of course, George H. W. Bush was a longtime CIA officer, although he tried to conceal it, going all the way back to the Potta oil around the Cuban missile crist crisis. He was a CIO officer for decades.

When he was elected vice president, that was the CIA in the White House.

When he was elected president, that was the CIA in the White House, and we saw that resulted in Iran Conturan and lying to congrese.

And committing multiple felonies. George H. W.

Bush is probably the premier example of what I call the shadow shadow government, some called the deep state of the shadow government, deep state actually running the White House.

Did you do you believe that that Dick Cheney ran the White House for Bush forty three, as many people have suggested, Yeah, tell me what you know about the former Vice president Dick Cheney, who has been another anti Trumper from the word go.

Well, and of course he has to be, because he's the deep state bubblehead who was a mastermind behind a lot of the responses I'll just say, responses to nine to eleven, the nine to eleven Commission Report, which was which was a sham and was hugely behind a lot of the CIA's covert operations behind the back of Congress. He's a dark figure and that's putting it nicely.

So tell me about what you know about the CIA's involvement going back as far as the Kennedy assassination in nineteen sixty three, because there have been all kinds of accusations and conspiracy theories and the like about the CIA being involved in taking out JFK.

Your thoughts, Well.

Of course, JFK had just come out and said he was going to pull out a Vietnam, which was the CIA's crown jewel and represented about one trillion dollars in income for the CIA and its contractors, so there was a whole lot of money at taken. Secondly, the CI falsified the Gulf of Tonkin attack where they claimed the Vietnamese to attack one of our ships, when in reality no such thing happened, and they actually doctored the radar with ghost ships to make it look like the Vietnamese

Basically controlled the whole thing.

And that gives you an idea the power and the depth of control that the CIA has over our government.

Now as the CIA actually benefited America. Because I mean, I wonder all the time, Kevin about all of these bureaucracies and departments and et cetera, et cetera, and Washington d C. You know, I think that the DHS has become an obese, unnecessary organization. For example, and I you know, all all that happened during nine to eleven basically said okay, local law enforcement and the FEDS need to be need

Yeah, and by the way, may Orcus makes my blood boil. But that's another subject.

Yeah, we got that time.

The as far as the CI goes, people will say, well, you know, if you if you question the CI, because as you know, in Twilight, I'm calling for reform of the CIA and the elimination of its power of secrecy and the removal of its corporate or its covert operations. It's doing without the laws of the American people. I'm calling for that to end.

So people will say, well, doesn't the CI protect us from terrorism? Wouldn't we be at risk for that?

Well, the problem is I would say no, because they're doing things Congress does not approve.

And also, if you want to talk.

About terrorism, it was the CIA that created Osama bin Lada and al Kaeda, armed them, trained them, showed them how to blow up cars and bombs and all of that. They also helped create isis. They were responsible for the overturn of the democratically electric government in Iran, which resulted in the terrorist state of Iran.

We have today. And I can go on and on and on and on about the the fou.

Pause they have made under the incredible power they have of secrecy. So I would say no, that job can be done much better by the Pentagon or even the DEDA or someone else without the corruption, the secret budget that no one knows about except the Gang of Aiden.

They're only fed, but the CI wants them to have.

So No, if you look at the history, and I've got a long list of CI atrocities and violations, of the constitution here that are just inexcusable. So it needs to be dismantled and reformed and keep the good parts that Truman intended, like the Director of Intelligence, which is a very I worked and was trained by them, a very sharp organization for analyzing intelligences and satellite imagery and other things like that. There are parts of the say

In nineteen forty seven.

You mentioned John Brennan, one of the forty two CIA, former CIA operatives who signed on to the fact that the Russian or that the Biden laptop was nothing but Russian disinformation and they vowed that that was the true. And you mentioned John Brennan. What always astounded me was, how does someone who in there in their adult life was a card caring member of the Communist Party, how do we put him in charge of this top intelligence agency within our own government.

What was the thing about here?

I'm sorry enough to you there, Yeah, I have to take CI is an extremely progressive left wing organization, and so Brennan was kind of a good fit for that philosophy. And I remember when I was back in nineteen ninety four, way back then, when I.

Was there, we were ordered into a conference room and told that this came down from the Director.

To CIA, that no CIA employee could say Merry Christmas, and CI office spaces could not have a major scene on their desk or any decorations whatsoever on their door, or they'd face administrative penalties.

So it's been progressive and leftist sance way back then. It is now too an extreme.

We can even see the quote unquote woke side of the CIA, which is now dumbing it down even further.

So it has been left wing along the same kind.

Of ideology of John Brennan, going way way way back, so that those two were a perfect fit.

Mike Pompeo good guy or not.

You know, it's really puzzling because I understand Mike Pompeo gradually a west point from a guy who knows.

Him well, is a good man.

The problem with Mike POMPEII, and this happens when he became director of the CIA, he went rogue.

Like happens it happened to me.

For five years, they start working on you and you start seeing things their way, and they're very good at doing that, and avently to Mike Pompeo put out an order for the assassination of Julian Assange, that is the first thing. And Mike Pompeo also called Tucker Carlson, threatened him with the rest if he didn't stop talking about Assange and other things. And sadly that was Mike Pompeo that did that. Now, later he came out and said, well,

I know it's virtually impossible to do that. But so you know, it's kind of a double led sword.

There, all right.

So your book, Twilight of the Shadow Government, how transparency will kill the Deep State? How confident are you that the deep state can be unseated from you knows its covert power and be rooted out and reformed. If reform is the answer, if not dismantlement, that's a great question.

I'm convinced enough. I took the risk when I wrote From the Company's Shadows. The CIA redacted or blacked out large swaths of unclassified information that showed their criminal activity.

So when I wrote Twilight of the saut of Government, I knew they were going to do.

That again to this manuscript and black everything out against them. So I defied my CIA secrecy agreement and sent this to the publisher for publication. Anyway, and I've already got my first threat. I'm the only one that can go after because I'm the only one that signed their paperwork. But I have consciously accepted that risk so I can get this out to the American people. And that resulted in Twilight of the Shadow Government. So and in the book,

CI and that's a whole other program.

But if those Congressmen and senators don't do it, then the people need to fire them.

Tell me about the human penis with ears known as the head of the DHS.

Since you said that may Ericus makes your blood.

Boiling, you know you got two hours?

No I did. Actually I got about thirty forty seconds.

The guy has no soul, well, no ethics, no moral compass, no nothing.

He is a complete puppet.

Of the Biden administration and will do anything they say and do whatever they order him to do. He needs to be in peach sooner rather than later. And if we get a non Kamala Harris administration, I'm sure that'll be the first thing that happens.

Well.

Trump was famous for saying you're fired on TV for years, Hopefully he can do this in real.

Life with characters. So I see that Alejandro.

Majorcus Kevin Ship, former CIA agent, author of the book Twilight of the Shadow Government, How Transparency Will Kill the Deep State? And I pray that it's so. And thank you so much for being a part of the show tonight.

Kevin enjoyed it.

Thanks for having me.

You bet you it's the Nightcap and it continues in moments on seven hundred WLW you l.

W Garry Jeff welcoming back.

I guess we have had on several occasions because she's just that good. Hired Sergeant Betsy Brentnor Smith, who is the spokesperson for the National Police Association, a nonprofit that

Don't believe you're lion eyes.

And now, just like employment numbers, they've had to revise those to show that violent crime has actually been up in the last three and an half years.

And good evening.

If you want to speak to that or anything else, the floor is yours.

Welcome, Well thanks so much for having me. Isn't it interesting that even though the rest of us were sounding the alarm that crime was rising, we were told even in a presidential debate that in reality a crime was going down.

But the FBI, who.

Has unfortunately become ridiculously unreliable when it comes to things like this, they kind of lost about eighty thousand violent crimes. So in reality, robbery is up, murder is up, car theft and car jacking are up in almost every major

You got to look at businesses and what they have been forced to do in response to this retail theft. Today, Walgreens just announced they are closing twelve hundred more locations lower earning locations, and the biggest reason is because of this unchecked retail theft and the fact that they have to put everything in cased in plastic. You know who has employees to be ready with keys all around the store to make sure that you're not being stolen blind from.

And there are many reasons for this there.

The no cash bail California is the voters there are finally seeing the light about nine hundred and fifty dollars limit you can take without being arrested for anything, basically.

The figures.

Last year, the FBI reported America's violent crime rate fell by one point seven percent, as you said, but the revision shows it's increased by almost five percent, so they're

Is that too strong?

I don't think it's too strong. You know, I've worked with FBI agents on the ground, you know, for decades, and they have terrific you know, agents that actually do police work. But you know that the headquarters in Washington.

D C.

Is incredibly swampy, and I think one of my biggest frustrations with these revised crime numbers is that initially the FBI tried to blame local law enforcement, said, well, it's local law enforcement didn't understand our new system. They changed from something called uniform crime reporting in twenty twenty two to something called DIVERS the National Incident Based Reporting System. They said, oh, local law enforcement didn't really catch on.

Don't believe the federal government right now.

Well, and then.

That's the thing, and it's the same thing with Secret Service that you mentioned with the FBI. The agents that are out there on the front lines generally are doing a great job and they care about protecting and serving.

But it's at the top in Washington, d C.

And this obese federal government that only exists to keep itself alive, basically feeding off the rest of us, that is the problem. Now, do you think, Betsy and I have a feeling the way you're going to vote or have voted, But do you think that President Trump, if elected, can you know, as he's mentioned, actually route this corruption and this lack of enforcement out.

Of official Washington, d C.

It's so large, and it's so systematic, and it's one of the reasons why the establishment in our federal government certainly does not want him to win because they don't want to lose their cake job and their power.

Well, you know, the National Police Station doesn't get involved in candidates, but I will say that the policies that I have read coming out of the Trump campaign indicate that they want to bring state, local, and yes, federal law enforcement back to its noblest nature. In other words, that federal law enforcement's job will go back to doing

I agree. Amen.

Hallelujah sister, thanks thanks for preaching the truth. The National Police Association. What are you currently doing with the National Police Association to support our law enforcement officers around the country?

I'll tell you what, if everybody we'd go to our website, nationalpolice dot org, National police dot org. We have a team of lawyers, we have a team of writers. Sign up for that newsletter, take a look at what we're doing. We even have a great free homeschool program that you can download. We have a terrific presence on social media, both on x and on Facebook. And if you can hit that donate button and help us, help not just the American law enforcement officer, but those citizens who support us.

Betsy Branner Smith, thank you so much, National Police Association.

You heard her, go to the website. Thanks for being on the show tonight, Bets.

Thanks for having me.

You got it.

Want to be debt free by January. Get rid of all that high interest debt and consolidate everything into one lower payment. Hey, it's Eddie, a media expert also has been called the PR Guru. This is that's that's a heck of a title right there in and of itself, and he's been on the show before. We welcome him back tonight for a few minutes. Michael Levine, welcome back to the Nightcap here on seven hundred WLW.

Brother, thank you very much. Oh sheerly.

Thank you for ensuring your valuable.

Thank you for assuring your valuable audience. Let's uh, let's talk straight to some good people.

All right.

You've written this piece about Generation Z gen Z, and the title of the piece is Adolf Hitler had some good ideas in heir quotes, one fifth of gen Z Americans believe according to a new poll, and we got polls about everything, and this one is extremely disturbing to me, is and it kind of goes in hand, Michael, with the fact that there's other polls which are kind of indicative of this kind of thought pattern, have shown that gen Z does not believe an absolute free speech either.

So that's what the bulls say, and it's also deeply frightening.

Yeah, I mean, I think they kind of go hand in hand with that, with that thought pattern that, Okay, maybe freedom, absolute freedom for every individual isn't isn't the best thing. We need some totalitarian control and maybe some death and maybe some maybe some ovens, you know, to get rid of the undesirables or the deplorables.

Or whatever they're going to call them.

I mean, what what did this say, and what did you write about this particular topic in your piece.

Well, friend, first of all, it is hard to get past the headline. It's hard to get past the shock and depression that one feels when they recognize.

That a large number, now not a majority, but a growing number of young people have some ideas that are deeply antithetical to the society in which we were born, and the society that most people in the world thought was the hope of humanity, that's the society called America. Unfortunately, through a process it would appear to me of either bad or no parenting parents who have made a decision to try to be their kids' friends, not their kids instructors,

Yeah, and I happen to be one of those people that have a hopeful, optimistic view of what you've just described.

This dart too hard to understand given the numbers, But go ahead.

This dark dystopian present that you're talking about and that we see on a regular basis, whether it be and.

That we created. By the way, it's so easy, isn't it for us to sit in a room, an air conditioned room, and blame politicians. But if you recognize that politics is nothing more than culture downstream, that we elected these people, we donated to these people, we applauded these people, we re elected these people, then the blame, it would seem to me, resides much more in us than in them.

It's the darkest part that you're pointing out that I'm poorting. I'm looking towards the dawn, and it's always darkest before dawn, and I believe that dawn is coming. But you're right, it has to take an act of not only God

I think, well, friend, look, I'm a political independent.

I'm not a Republican. I'm not a Democrat. I'm what I guess would be called a radical pragmatist. I want to know what the hell works for society to not only remake it great again, but to understand the fundamental principles that went into its greatness. Right, there were certain precepts and if we don't readopt some of these and throw many of the toxic notions in the garbage can

If you point out to a Marxist or a Socialist that it's never worked where it's been tried in the past, they go, well, they just didn't do it correctly.

Correct, that's right.

But if you get you're talking about the basic precepts and the principles that America was founded on, Michael, then getting back getting back to the Constitution as a literal document that was you know, set in stone. You get back to those kind of principles and you start teaching them to the next generations, then you don't have this.

I believe.

I think you're I think you're right. And I think if somebody were to go on.

YouTube today and relook at Ronald Reagan's farewell address to the Nation where he said we are just one generation away from losing it all.

I think he proved prophetic. We we got much more interested in what's a nice word for nonsense? In Netflix and Instagram and TikTok, and we turned our backs on reading history, and we turned our backs on discipline and you know, the kinds of fundamental things that made our nation exceptional. Now all people, but too many, far too many. We got a generation mostly of minorities, hooked on this idea of victimhood about as I mean, if you said to me, Michael, which do you think is worth worse

Bit, Michael Levine, My time's up? Unfortunately, okay, all.

Right, friend, till the next was of value?

Oh absolutely, Oh you're a good man.

And to the opportunity.

I'm a little depressed now.

Into another hour of night cap on a Monday night, October the twenty first, twenty twenty four, Gary Jeff Walker with you on seven hundred WLW and joining us as he is wont to do on many Monday Nights is the one and only sports commando, the wild Man, Dennis Wildman Walker, How.

You doing who day and all of that? What's going on, Dennis?

Well, I'm doing real good gause. Anytime I can talk about a Bengals victory is a good thing. I mean, the vision win, a conference win, and the end of the six game losing Street and Cleveland. All is good right now and Bengal lane.

I can't believe that a franchise, any franchise in the NFL, can be as snake bit at the quarterback position as the Cleveland Browns. They do it to themselves with some of their decisions and draft picks and signings, which is kind of the case this time. The signing of Deshaun Watson, which I scoffed at from the very beginning, for the moment I heard it, They're gonna guarantee him this much money. They're gonna pay him two hundred and fifty million dollars.

It's amazing.

The football gods have not been good to the Cleveland Browns since they've you know, rejoined the National Football League. They haven't. I mean that's not the only you know, they've had some other bad decisions, but a lot of it is football related. They have had some good personnel in there. I mean, they had Bill Belichick and one time as their head coach and they let him go. So a lot of it is on ownership. They've had two ownership groups. I think since they returned to Cleveland.

How many general managers have they gone through?

Yeah?

A lot. And it is sad because I mean, I'm not rooting for the Browns when the Bengals and the Browns are playing, but I grew up as a Browns fan. I mean's you know, I grew up as a Browns fan. Man. I remember the nineteen sixty four NFL Championship like it was yesterday because we didn't have the bank. I remember watching it block of white TV. You got three channels, you know, right, Frank Ryan and Gary Collins and Jim Jim Brown the greatest football player ever ever, Jim Brown,

It's one.

It's one thing after another with this franchise. And since they've returned to the NFL to Cleveland, how many quarterbacks have been starting for the Cleveland Browns.

You know what they've had. They've had no list, They've had Morse.

They've had Morse starting quarterbacks in the time they've been back than I have had producers on my Saturday morning show in the twenty seven and a half, which is like twenty eight or twenty different producers, you know, and they're like said, Gary, Jeff, we got you a good one this time. He's young, but he should be with you for a couple of years. And he's gone in three months, either he quits or they move him somewhere else.

But it's the same thing with the Browns.

They have had more starting quarterbacks, and I've had young producers on my Saturday morning show wild Man, which is crazy.

It is bizarre. I remember seeing that total. I don't know what it's up to. I remember some of them starting quarterbacks who played maybe a three or four games, but they always seem to beat the Bengals. The's no name quarterbacks, Yeah, had no name quarterbacks would always beat the Bengals.

Do you think if instead of starting Deshaun Watson they had started the kid, the DTJ or DTR kid that came in the backup, who was the third string quarterback. I mean, they've got Jamis Winston on the roster who was.

He moved the team pretty well. And I know Dave sent Dave Lapman was saying, you know, had he started the game, it could have been a different outcome for the Browns.

Yeah, the Bengals could not get moving on offense in the first half at all.

Yeah, not for the Charlie Jones house spectacular.

Was Charlie Jones one hundred yards to start the game?

That was awesome.

Well, and you know that kickoff return was only I think maybe his third kickoff return. Says he's been with the Bengals because they've been using just on punt returns. And that scene that opened up a special teams yesterday played out standing, not only on that kickoff return here Gary Jeff, but also on that I believe it was a kickoff and they got down and the Browns kind of screwed it up, and the special teams went down and then down it on like the six yard line, which was huge.

Yep.

Absolutely, special teams were very crucial in yesterday's victory, and so was once again the defense. Nick Chubb was back for the first time in three hundred and eighty nine days.

I had to. I had to turn off. I had to turn off the game on my phone. I was watching the game on my phone. I had to turn it up because of these guys. They were just like praising like Jim. Nick Chubb was the next thing to uh, you know, to slice bread. I had to turn it off. They were so bad. So I turned the radio on to listen to h Dave Lapham and Dan Horde. And every time I had the radio on yesterday, the Bengals scored. I don't know what it was. I said, I'm going back to listening.

To the radio.

That's the one I had. Because when I had the radio off, the Bengals were struggling. I turned the radio back on. This since I turned it back on, we scored. We scored that touchdown. That touchdown pass the first one to Jamar Chase. So I just listened to the game on radio because those announcers were all Nick Chubb, were all Cleveland Browns. They were all like pulling, pulling for the Browns to beat the Bengals. I couldn't stand it anymore.

So they were they were so biased. I couldn't believe on a national TV bias. Uh, you know, how can these guys just be smooching up to Browns fans because it's there's there's more people in Cleveland than Cincinnati. I don't know what the reason was, but you're right, it was wastelanded.

That's something we noticed as well.

And I'm just kind of mystified by now. Cleveland's defense, let's give it it's due, is pretty darn good.

But it's very good defense.

I told you that they had a deep, good defense.

Yeah, very job.

At halftime, i'd have time. I wasn't in the locker room and you weren't in the locker room, but I have a strong feeling that Joe Burrow got with Zach Taylor and said, look, you know, they got a good defense, but we're gonna go down. Let's go down swinging and let me start throwing this ball. The t Higgins and Jamar Chase and what did they do? They came out they started throwing throwing the ball, did they not? Jamar and T and I got two touchdowns.

Absolutely, And I'll tell you this, and you and I have talked about this before. If Joe Burrow, if they let him be in charge of that offense, it's better than what they've been doing to this point. Joe Burrow has the kind of Joe Burrow has the kind of football IQ And I think that Joe Burrow more than likely, when he retires from playing, whenever that will be, and I hope it's not anytime soon, is going to be an offensive coordinator or a head coach somewhere in charge

Well, that's a long ways off. Let's not even go across that path. But if anything, he might be an owner ru all the money he makes.

That's a good point.

They could buy a team.

Yeah, But I mean, like you said, they opened up.

They opened up that offensive aerial display in the second half, and it paid benefits and paved the way for the Bengals' third victory of the year. Now looking ahead, the Eagles are in town next Sunday at pay Corps Stadium, and this is not an easy task for the Bengals to get five hundred.

Either, not at all, not at all. Berkley, what one hundred and seventy yards yesterday against the Giants, Well, that was that was that was some Giants.

That was some grudge running yesterday against the Giants.

Barkley still a damn good running back. He really is. Yeah, he really is a dam good running back. Bengals haven't won a home game yet. I think got to get that monkey off their back.

Yeah, how is that?

I mean they can go in and win on the road against teams that they're supposed to beat. Can you imagine how difference is the season would be if the Bengals had been ready to go in Week one and taken care of the Patriots, taking care of the Patriots

You have the only victory this year by the England Patriots against the Cincinnati Bengals h Aay Horse Stadium. That's I like to say, unbelievable, anthy Mack. But hey, we gotta move on. We gotta go on worrying about that. I gotta take care of business. Comes Sunday against Eagles.

So what do you think about the Bengals chances? Now, they did improve their playoff chances a little bit by percentage by history with the victory yesterday to get to three and four they get, they get to four.

It you're talking about.

What I know. I know, but hey, that's true. That's let's not even think about that. They're not thinking about that right now.

Playoffs and that's a playoff.

Playoffs. Let's get let's get to five hundred and then you know, then take then then the Raiders come to town and then you know, then you got the Ravens, then you got the buy Let's let's not let's take one game at a time. Hearing, I don't even think about the playoffs. Every team, you know, I said this last week, on any given day, you can get beat Yeah, becas have got to take care of business. I don't the defense. Hey, if you will look for some positive,

What I have seen around the NFL so far is that the Lions are just absolutely they are so hungry and they are so good. And Dan Campbell has them on a projection with what they did to Minnesota yesterday. I mean, they did wind up winning a game, didn't they The Lions.

Absolutely they did.

Yeah, right, and then Baltimore and you want to talk about within the division, wild man, boy, that that team just frightens me to death as a fan of any other team in the AFC. I know they've got two losses, but it's like they gave the rest of the league a two game head start by losing those games.

You know, I forgot to mention Jerry Jeff I forgot to mention this to you. The two touchdown passes that Joe Burrow through yesterday. Yep, they were a thirteenth and fourteenth of the season. Oh now has fourteen touchdown.

He's having a remarkable offensive season.

No, he has fourteen touchdown pass Oh I'm sorry again, I'm sorry.

We're talking about Pete Rose again. By the way, you sent me a picture of your son who you named after Pete Rose, who was at some concert. He's like reliving the old man's wild days, going to see Jesse James Dupre Yeah.

Out there in Illinois. Yeah, Jesse hooked him up with the VIP pass. Sitting at table fourteen fourteen happening. That's weird, two weird, that's excellent. Yeah.

I mean, do you see anybody else in the NFL that you think is really on track to do some marvelous things postseason and beyond?

What do you see those.

I watched that Chiefs game last night, and they demonstrated the other number one team in football. They might they might go undefeated the Chiefs because this was supposed to be a tall task against the forty nine ers and the forty nine ers. It was like one step forward, three steps back yesterday afternoon. The Chiefs are very tough. The lot of the Lions, like you said, the Ravens. Those are the three top teams right now. I mean, look around. I mean that's let's be honest. Those are

And the undefeated season hasn't been done since those nineteen seventy two Dolphins.

So watch out history.

That's right, that's right. The champagne that they want to put it on ice.

Well, you know that the Chiefs.

The Chiefs are my team, wild man, and have been for six years. So what what has really really got me giddy is the fact that Kansas City keeps on finding different ways to win every game, and different scenarios come up, and it doesn't matter.

They find a way to win.

Uh the tow on the line at the end of the end zone and it's it's called no touchdown. You know, just thing after thing after throwing, week after week after week. The Chiefs find different way to win. But the common denominators Olas Patrick Mahomes and an very improved defense.

And Andy Reid. Andy Reid, without a doubt, I mean, he's put that team together. They've got a great, great, great defensive coordinator there bag Nola Oh, he's outstanding. But it starts at the top. They've got great management at the top, and they've got a great quarterback. There's a Hall of Famer, without a doubt. Today he decides to hang it up, and they know how to win. They know how to win.

Wild Man real quickly. The World Series is set. Yankees Dodgers. Who you got?

Oh boy, when you break it down here, you know, as a baseball fan, as a Reds fan, my attitude was if the Reds never won the Pennant, I'd always root for the American League. And I'm going to root for the New York Yankees. Why because Paul O'Neill does the television. Aaron Booner is a former Red He's the skipper they've got. But Luke Weaver has been their closer. He pitched, he couldn't get anybody out, but now he's

All right, there you go, Yankees and six. How many touchdown passes does Joe Burrow have this year so far?

Wild curly right now? Fourteen? There's that number again.

Have a good night, brother, Thank you, thank you, sir. You got it.

It's the wild Man Walker on the night Cap. And we continue in moments on seven hundred WLW the political season of twenty twenty four. We stand just two weeks away from election day. And a guy who knows all about election days and elections and getting people elected, and political strategist and Arthur author of The Trail of the Serpent, Stories from the smoke filled Rooms of politics, a guy who sat in a lot of them. Carter Wren joins us. Carter, good evening, and welcome to the Nightcap.

How are you good evening, da.

So we obviously are in the middle of what is being called the most consequential election ever, which I hear a lot in my lifetime. Election Yeah, and what appears to be a very very tight race.

And you are in Raleigh, North Carolina.

You were instrumental in helping President Ronald Reagan win primaries and eventually get elected. You've worked on too many campaigns to even mention in the short time we have here together tonight. But from a historical perspective, Carter, from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump. Donald Trump has been compared to Reagan in many ways, and I see I see the similarities just from a standpoint of the left or the other side calling them the devil and threatening nuclear war

First, well, Reagan, the issue that dominated that his campaigns was winning the Cold War. Yeah, that was created a we lost the Vietnam War. A lot of shocked World War Two veterans, swats, Russian tanks rolling into Saigon, and they thought, my lord were losing the Cold War. And bear in mind they'd lived through World War II. And that created a river of people that elected Reagan three times or twice eighty and eighty four elected him in the North Carolina primary in seventy six. The odd thing

Yeah, well, there are a lot of things that are playing in this election. Sadly, a natural disaster has played a part in this upcoming election, just because of the timing of when the storms hit and how fast people can recover. Since you're in North Carolina, Carter, I've got to ask you, what is the situation in the tar Heel state and are people going to be able to get out and vote because of the damage of Helene.

Yeah, it's hard to know the answer to that question. The western part of the state, which is a Republican area got hit pretty hard by the hurricane, and they started early voting here yesterday or two days ago, something like that, and they had a huge early voting turnout, more than they've ever seen. But you really don't know how much of that was in the West, and you don't know how many of those families you know that had their houses flooded, and there were a lot of them are going.

To be able to vote.

Technically they can, and they've made some changes in the voting rules to make it easier, but that's avaiable. We don't know the answer to that could end up impacting the election.

Money always matters in these situations, Carter. But in twenty sixteen, for example, Hillary Clinton had twice as much money spent on the campaign than Donald Trump, and it still didn't move the needle in her direction enough to get her elected. The Kamala Harris campaign has a lot of money in their coffers. How much does money matter and how much does being on the ground and pressing the flesh matters when it comes to a presidential campaign.

In a presidential campaign, money matters, but it matters less than, say, in a governor's.

Campaign or a Senate campaign.

There is so much media coverage of presidential elections that people get more information from media like.

Your radio show, or like.

Fox News or CNN, then they get out of advertising paid ads. So I saw that when Steve Forbes ran in ninety six. Yeah, I remember, we spent a ton of money in Iowa, more than anybody else. But once the media locked in on the race, it just was more effect than any ads. And so I think the media is more important in the presidential races than in other races. You're running for governor or senate. There's just not as much media coverage, and so ads make a

Points in the polls.

So media had a lot more pact than down knocking. So I think that I think the media is going to be the crucial thing in the presidential race.

At the end of the day.

How did global events like the Iran hostage crisis and COVID nineteen pandemic sway elections? And we've seen that both in our lifetimes, obviously, and both had a lot to play. I would say the Iran hostage crisis was important for Reagan, but everything else was going south for the Carter administration. The economy and the interest rates and everything else was just it seemed like it was a perfect storm of

Even it was a toss up, but.

There was a big group of undecided voters at the end and they all went to Reagan and he won forty four states. That was the Iron hostage crisis' impact on that election, you think, so you know they yeah, they looked at that and said, we're losing the Cold War. We can't handle the Iran crisstage ran hostage crisis. Boom they broke for Reagan and everybody was surprised on election.

Night by how much he won.

COVID I think had the same impact on Trump. Uh, you know, he had a pretty good three years and then boom, COVID hit. And yeah, I don't want to be critical, but I don't think he handled it all that well. He told people, it's going to go away, at it under control, The tests are going to be fine. Then the tests didn't work. That was something that was outside of everybody's control. Nobody anticipated because nobody could stop it. And so I think that hurt Ragging a lot. I

Yeah, yeah, that's another thing.

Has Kamalad done a good enough job of hiding because now she's come out of hiding and doing more appearances, and she is going down in the polls.

Carter, Well, you had to take the polls today with a grain of salt. You know, a good poll is a good thing in politics, but they cost a lot of money. Most of the polls you see in the media didn't cost money, and the purporters tend to miss the margin of era. You could see a poll Harris is up by one, Well, that means she could be down by two or up by one. And I think what you basically this turned into once Biden got out. You had two polarized groups, Republicans and Democrats that lined

Well, they all show it's close.

But there have been a lot of reports that Democrats are internally freaking out because the polls aren't going their way. I mean, Hillary Clinton had what kind of at this point in the campaign in twenty sixteen, had a huge lead. Joe Biden had a bigger lead, and it turned out to be just a matter of ten or twenty thousand.

Votes in twenty twenty that swung the.

Election, really, and they were also prize on Hillary's side of the ledger. And she is still complaining that she thinks she won in twenty sixteen, which I think that makes her an election denier.

Don't you.

Well, it was a shock that Trump won in sixteen. The post did show her way ahead, but you you had a river of people in Michigan and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, in swing states that went for Trump, and that had to do with the fact they looked at Trump and they looked at Hillary, and they saw Hillary as a politician and they didn't like politicians, and the polling missed all that.

And so.

Polls are a good thing, but you've got to take them with a grain of salt because they can be pr polls or they can be real polls. And so yeah, don't ignore them, but don't don't make a bet based on a poll.

So that's what you've learned as a political strategist, is I mean, you don't really pay attention to polls when you're helping with the campaign.

Carter, No, I pay a.

Lot of attention to polls. But bear in mind if campaign takes a poll, they're going to spend a lot of money on it. Take a poll in a state like Ohio, it's going to cost you thirty thousand dollars and you're going to need somebody to interpret five hundred pages of numbers that knows.

What they mean.

Very few media outlets do that when they do polls. So a lot of the polls today are we're going to do a poll so we can put publisher story and get, you know, some people to read our newspaper or watch our TV program. I think you've got it to trust most of the pulse. There are good pollsters out there, but not many.

The book is The Trail of the Serpent. The author is Carter Wren, who knows a little bit about political campaigns, and that's the understatement of the year. Carter, I appreciate your time today very much, and no, no matter what happens in the election, I'll still want to talk to you afterwards.

That would be fine. I'd look forward to it and I wish you the best. All right, you as well, sir. Great luck with the book. Carter Wren with us on the nightcap. Back to close, in just a moment on seven hundred WL.

As we close this nightcap, a conversation came up last week at Tabar that I thought i'd mentioned. We're talking about the names of people that I've been blessed to know in my thirty years in radio in Cincinnati, and one of the names that came up was Sensible Don. Don Lewis my dear dear friend Don Lewis, or at one time a dear dear friend, and I mentioned at the end of the conversation there with Carter Ran, no matter what happens in the election, I hope we have

It hurt me greatly.

It still hurts me greatly, and I prayed about it to what happened with my friendship with sensible Don Lewis. It's a wound that is still open, obviously, and I just needed to vent and get it off my chest. I miss him so much. I miss his wit, his sense of humor, the wisdom that he did have and

In my opinion, in my experience. And with that, we leave you with

The national anthem, Donna America on the Nightcap on seven hundred WLW