Mike Allen in for Bill Cunningham -- 11/28/25

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Mike Allen in four, the great American Willie Cunningham, who's
getting a well deserved day off here. Well, i'll tell
you what. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I
know that I did, of course. Now we've got Black
Friday upon us, and I just stacked my neck out
a little bit. You can see Kenwood Mall from the
studio here, and I mean it's crowded, but it doesn't

(00:30):
look that bad. Put it this way, it looks manageable. Hey,
we'll be able to talk about all of that at
nine point thirty, but we're getting right to work here.
Our first guest, he describes the six Democrats that really
had the gall to really, I think, encourage service members

(00:50):
to disobey orders. He calls them the six donkeys, and well,
you could even make it worse than that. They say that, hey,
the individual service member, if you feel that the order
is illegal, you can disobey it. And our next guest,
he calls that. He refers to it as reckless, irresponsible,

(01:12):
and dangerous, and man, it's hard to argue with that description.
And here to talk about it is mister Greg Rabido.
He's a filmmaker, a teacher, and an attorney. He's co
founder of Vaalmar Films. Greg, welcome back to seven hundred WLW.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Thank you sir, Happy belated or day after Thanksgiving?

Speaker 1 (01:33):
You too, you too.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
This is the way I look at this thing, Greg,
when it came out, just when you think there's no
way that they can become the Democrats more irresponsible than
they already have been, you see something like this. I mean,
this is incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I tell you. It goes just about as close to
the line of treason as you can get. And then
I've been listening to some of the commentary and some
of the some of the walking back they're doing. But
then also in the same breath, whether it's Delugio or
Alyssa Slodkin or Kelly Senator Kelly doubling down, you know,

(02:14):
and saying, well, it's our duty to do this under
the Constitution as they always wrap themselves, isn't it. But
then I'm thinking, okay, but what was the intent? In
other words, if you did that and I did that,
I think a fair question by someone to be okay, hey, guys,
the you took a real tough stance here, controversial to
tell what are legal orders? And then if you, and
I couldn't come up with anything specific, but it was

(02:36):
sort of as vague, Well, it was our duty. Then
I think you really got to ask, okay, truly, what
was your intention? And I've heard it referred to as
a soft coup. To be honest with you, the intention,
it's hard for me. I'm trying to be objective here,
but it's hard for me to see another intention other
than weakening any kind of loyalty or obedience that soldiers

(02:59):
and service members men and women have to the commander
in chief, which, once you start doing that again, puts
you right down the slippery slope of being treason as
what is your intent to do that? Because United States
Code of Military justices you, I'm sure you know every
service member men and women when they get that in.
There is certainly line about if you feel you've been

(03:22):
given an order that you feel you for some reason
you absolutely cannot execute for whatever reason, or you feel
as absolutely unconstitutional would break your oath you take you
have a judge, Advocate general JAG officer that you can
go to privately and explain. They know that they don't
need to be reminded by six Democrats who are trying
to make political pay out of something. They don't need

(03:43):
to be reminded of that, but that it s sure
weakens the structure. You can't weaken the command, the chain
of command, and the structure of loyalty in the military.
You simply cannot. You're asking for chaos. Is that what
they want? I guess is my quaer, is that what
they wanted to see happened? If they want to uprising
in our military at this point, is that what they want?

Speaker 1 (04:03):
You know, I just think they didn't think it through.
And the guy that surprises me is Kelly. I mean
he's got prior Well, they all had prior service, I guess,
but his was somewhat I mean celebrated.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
I guess.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
I don't get it. I spent ten years in the
Army Reserve, in the jag Corps. And the one thing
that one of the things they beat through our head
is all military orders are presumed to be legal and
all service members are required to obey them. And like
you just said, Greg, none of them could come up

(04:35):
with a specific law that they were trying to persuade
these people to ignore, because it's all just a bunch
of crap. I don't think they've helped themselves with this.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Do you No, I absolutely don't. And you make a
really good point about the presumption of legality. You have
to presume the laws. That's why the Supreme Court presumes
every law in every case that's brought to them. They
have to presume that, if it's a congressional law, that
it is constitutional, because we don't have, like other countries,

(05:06):
this sort of non binding advisory opinion that some courts do,
like in France for example. So if you and I
were thinking of making a law we had questions about
maybe what the commander in chief was saying to a
military we could write up almost like a hypothetical and say,
well that if this was the case, and if we
challenge right with, what would the court do. We don't

(05:27):
have that system, and thank goodness we don't, because it's
just it so's doubt. If you have that system, you
have to presume it's signal. Now, if these sick the
capital six, the six donkeys, the seditious sick, pick which
one you like, really had deep sincere doubts. There are
many other avenues that they can do as lawmakers to

(05:48):
question it. They can question on the floor of the Senate,
the floor of the House. They can send letters to
the Secretary of Defense, they can demand a meeting public private.
They a lot of paths, but they chose this, And
so you got again say, well, what was your intention.
I can't think of any other intention other than it
was to do what they always are doing, which is
try to weaken and undermine President Trump, which is very dangerous.

(06:13):
Whoever the president.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Is exactly And speaking of that, I looked it up.
I mean, in the oath that service members take enlisted.
I wasn't able to find the officers one, but the
enlisted oath they swear that they will quote obey the
orders of the President of the United States and the
officer who the officer appointed over me. I mean, that's

(06:37):
pretty damn clear. The president says, you do it, you
do it.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
I mean, you know, well, because it's not for them
to question, as you well know, having a military background,
you cannot have a system of obedience loyalty in the
military if everything's put to a vote. That's not how
it works. That's also why they're not considered a civilian.
They don't have a choice. Now if the president does

(07:01):
issue some sort of absolutely unconstantently prima facie case on
its face, unconstitutional.

Speaker 5 (07:08):
Illegal order.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
The enlisted won't be the one necessarily the questioning it.
It'll be the officer, to be the generals, it'd be Congress,
It'll be someone else in a position of authority that
can question it. It'll be reviewed and then guess what
if it is, then it won't necessarily be followed, or
it can be rescinded. But that's not it built in
this we in other words, we have safeguards built in

(07:31):
the system. And the safeguard we have built in the
system is not six democrats going public on social media
and TikTok basically reminding wink wink in a nod. If
you think it's illegal, you don't have to follow it.
In other words, gee, join us in being disobedient and
disloyal to the president, because you know, wink wink, nod, nod,
he's not really the president. It's the same stuff, and

(07:53):
it's the same playbook as you know that they started,
my goodness, the minute after he was sworn in the
first it's the same playbook. Don't beat them on popy,
don't beat them on issue, don't try to find better solutions.

Speaker 6 (08:07):
Just try to attack.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Them that way. And I'm telling you what, it doesn't
help anybody.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
It doesn't and you know, and all the crazy stuff
that they do. You think, man, there's got to be
some consequences. But there has to be some consequences for this. You,
being the good lawyer that you are, you found eighteen
United States Code twenty three eighty seven, which makes it
a federal crime. And I'm quoting here from the statute

(08:32):
to advise urge or attempt to create insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny,
or refusal of duty among members of the United States
Military with the intent to interfere with American operations. I'll
tell you what. Applying the law to the facts, as
we're taught to do as lawyers, pretty damn clear to me,

(08:53):
isn't it.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, it's hard to find a gray area there. I mean,
it's pretty much that is the code and that is
the language. And then you have your fact pattern here
and you simply apply it now politics being politics and
social media and then sort of walking it back and
them saying no, no, that's not what we meant, and
keeping it vague enough, right, they kept keep it vague enough,

(09:15):
so that if I had to bet, And I'll tell
you what, I'm not a big betting man, although I
will say, for the record, I did beat my brother
in law yesterday on the Chiefs Cowboy game. But I'm
not going to glow too much over that. But I
tell you what, if I if I was a betting
man that way, I would say, sadly, I don't think
there are going to be consequences. There should be. There

(09:36):
should be, because you know, if I'm sitting in China,
if I'm sitting in North Korea, if I'm sitting in Russia,
if I'm sitting in Iran, I'm going, oh, look, it's
my goodness. We couldn't I think I put in my blog,
you couldn't buy that kind of negative propaganda against you.
If my goodness that the leaders of America are trying
to turn the military against their own leader. Gosh, you
couldn't buy that kind of propaganda against your enemy. And

(09:59):
here it is the Democrats are handing it to him.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
And you're right about that. I mean, I presume the
statute's probably a felony. I think it applies, but there's
no way that they're gonna get charged. But I guess
with Trump, you never know, I mean a letter of
censure or something, because Kelly, I think my understanding is
Greg is that if you are active duty and you
violate the UCMJ, you can be recalled the active duty

(10:25):
and technically prosecuted. I don't think that's going to happen either,
but by god, something has to happen, because you just
can't have this with the military, and the military is
going so good now with Trump, you know, the recruitment
is through the ceiling loyalty. It's a shame.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, no, I agree. I think I think to your point,
I think he's probably the only one, Kelly, we're talking
about Mark Kelly Senert Arizona. I think he's the only
one that's vulnerable in terms of getting any kind of
sanctions or punitive action because being the most outspoken, being
the highest profile, being the one who's come out the strongest.

(11:08):
I think they could bring him back, put him put
him back an active duty, but you know what, at
most probably just some sort of inebstensive type ruling, some
sort of letter. So maybe they could knock off metal
or downgrade do something in terms of the status, but
it will just be dismissed and blown off by by him.

(11:29):
In the Democratic Party, they'll just say, oh, it's just
you know, Trump's administration, and they've already attacked uh, the
Secretary of Defense, he said, as he's not really THEGITIMENTI with.
They'll find a way, in other words, in the public
opinion the arena to somehow diminish it anyway. But I
tell you what, it really such a terrible precedent, and

(11:51):
I hope people are. I hope people are restrained enough
and see to your point though, that's why there needs
to be some accountability, so we don't just keep doing
this now because they've done it to the Supreme Court
as you know. You know, they constantly hurt their credibility,
talk about expanding it and how they're just back of

(12:12):
its judges and terrible judges of course, unless it's decisions
they like. I don't like it when they either party
attacks the judicial system like and the Supreme Court that way,
because it really does hurt the credit in the institution
far too, far too much. So whatever political gain you
make today is going to be hurting the country long term.
So I'm not crazy about that either way. And so

(12:34):
here I hope neither party thinks this is a good
strategic move to do because they get away with it.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
And you know, Greg, that's the thing that really worries
me is that if the United States people, if the
citizens do a collective shrug with this, then I think
we're in trouble. And again I'm not saying lock them
up in jail, although you know it probably would be deserved.
But the American people have to be concerned about this,

(13:01):
especially those with prior military which is a hell of
a lot of people in this country.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
No, they should, to your point, which I think is
spot on, they absolutely should. And that's why I hope
that the Department of War under heccept does not just
let it go. It doesn't seem like they're going to.
I'm just not sure politically speaking, how far they can
take it until there's such a backlash again that any
then it looks so politically colored and so much politicized

(13:31):
that then you've got, you know, again, half the country
just saying oh, it's all about politics, and not looking
a little further and trying to be rational and going no, no,
this is not good for anybody, And it wouldn't be
good if the Republicans did it to a democratic president.
I mean, that's why the impeachment they ruined. Impeachment they
took out with the founders, you know, as you know

(13:52):
believed was this is the safeguard and you know kind
of like, don't hit it unless it's a true emergence,
don't break the glass unless it's emergency. And they're breaking
the glass because you know, they don't like a phone call.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
No question about it. One more question and then I
want to find out what's going on with you? What
you got cooking? But it's probably an impossible question. I mean,
I asked a question, what will they do next? I'll
ask you that, Greg Rabido, do you have any idea
how they can top this one?

Speaker 2 (14:21):
That's that's tough, that's question, boyd. I'd have to get
into mind. I think they're honestly, I think they're looking
closely at this to see if there's accountability, and I
think if there's not really any kind of accountability, I
think they will both keep up the attacks on the military,
whether it's the bombing of the Narco terror's boats coming

(14:44):
out of Venezuela or any other thing. Keep in mind
Trump President Trump Briesey said that would take the war
against the narco terarifs to land. So I got to
believe with the strategic movements they're doing that they're targeting
what we see as you know, a non legitimate, illegitimate
leader there in Venezuela. I'm sure they will use that.

(15:04):
And then my guess, if we take some action against Venezuela,
they'll take the side of the Venezuelan dictator, like they
take the side of immigrant illegal immigrant criminals, like they
take the side of narco terras, like they take the
side of sex traffickers. It sure seems like they take
that side, and then you'll see an impeachment. Yeah, I
think that would be their next move, honestly, if that happens.

(15:25):
And in the meantime, they'll continue to step up a
tax on ice if they don't see accountability with their
attacks on the military.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
And you know, the American people, a lot of them
may be majority, they meet this with a collective shrug
of the shoulders, and that to me is the worst
news out of all of this. Hey, we got about
a minute left. What you got going, Greg, What are
you working on?

Speaker 2 (15:47):
Hey, We're working on We're working on an original script
of God called The Road to Redemption. So that's about
an aging sheriff on a border town who's kind of
both crippled physically and from a police standpoint from things
as he did against this this sort of this gang
that's taken over town. So he calls in a Native
American woman, borrows her from a reservation, and she kind

(16:10):
of takes the rein, so to speak, to try to
fight against this drug gang and sex trafficking this border town.
We'll get that going. And then we got a documentary
that we're working on in terms of campus radicalization and
what our campuses are really like. So we're working on
those two projects. And Valmarfilms dot com or Greg Thefilmmaker
dot com always invite people to check us out there

(16:33):
and give us a holler and let us know what
we're doing or if there's something you want to see
us do. We're open to that too.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
Well, we're looking forward to it. Greg has always appreciate
you giving us your point of view on this.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Thank you, Yeah, my pleasure man. Keep up the good
work here.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Thank you, all right, Greg Rambadil. I love that guy, man.
I mean, he just puts the cheese on the crackers
if you will. And he's, you know, a lawyer, not
that that matters, but filmmaker. A lot of things going on,
but man, you talk about some conservative common sense. That's Greg.
So anyway, we'll be hearing more from him. Hey, we

(17:07):
have to take a break, but we will be back.
Mike Allen in for Willie's seven hundred WLW twelve thirty
seven News Radio, seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in for
the Great American Willie Cunningham today. You know, I tell
you what I don't know about you, but I'm in

(17:31):
a bit of a food coma today. Man. I had
a great turkey dinner, everything else, all the fixings, as
they say, are in Kentucky. It was really good, really good,
And I walked out of the place with about a
shopping bag full of leftovers. Too exaggerating that a little bit,
but now it was a good day. It really was

(17:53):
in the Bengals, how about that? I mean the return
of Joe Burrow. You know, I'm one of those guys
I don't I might have to rear range by thoughts
on this, but I was one of those guys that thought, now,
wait a minute, they've got almost no chance of making
the playoffs. Why why are they playing him when Flacco's
playing so well and they've got virtually no chance to

(18:15):
get into the playoffs. So, just for the heck of it,
I googled that exact question, I guess and AI. I'm
starting to use AI some in my research. I found
it to be accurate for the most part, and pretty
fair too when you're looking at political issues. But at
any rate, according to AI, I think this is after

(18:39):
last night, but there's a chance it could have been before.
It says the Cincinnati Bengals have a slim chance of
making the playoffs, with various analyzes giving them between a
two point two percent and eighteen percent chance of a
wild card spot. I don't know. I think that might
be a little bit too optimistic, but I mean, it

(19:00):
would be nice to see the season salvaged.

Speaker 4 (19:04):
But Burrow looked sharp.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
What was he twenty four or forty six passes for
two sixty one yards? Good numbers. He's capable of a
lot more than that. There's just so much riding on
that guy, though, but he doesn't seem to be affected
by the pressure of it. But anyway, great to have
him back again. Reading between the lines. A lot of
the things I heard was there were some of the

(19:27):
Bengals management that thought, you know, like I was just saying,
Flacco's doing okay, you know, we don't want to risk it,
we don't want to risk it with Burrow. But then
one of the commentators that I heard, I forget who
it was, said that they heard that Joe Burrow is
the one that's pushing it and the Bengals management needs
to stand up and say, Joe, you're too valuable. I

(19:49):
kind of amend my thinking on that. I'm glad he's
in and we'll see what happens. What a story it
would be if they make the playoffs like the Cincinnati
Reds did. At any rate, though, you know, talking about
some serious things, and it doesn't get any more serious
than this. A sad day on Wednesday, of course, with

(20:10):
the death of one West Virginia National Guard member and
the serious wounding of another. And that soldier is hanging
on from everything I've been able to see, very very
critically wounded, and you just scratch your head and ask
yourself why. I mean, I think I know the reason

(20:31):
get there in a minute. But the soldiers are army.
The decedent Army specialist Sarah Beckstrom, all of twenty years old.
She died yesterday. She was an Army Military Police soldier.
She volunteered to work in d C. Again, she's West
Virginia National Guard, but they got a unit up there.

(20:52):
They do worked volunteered to work in DC over the
Thanksgiving holiday so that others could be with their family.
Sounds to me like a typical American soldier putting self
before everybody else. And the soldier that is still struggling
actually not a soldier, Airman Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolf.

(21:15):
He is twenty four, remains in critical condition, and he's
fighting for his life after undergoing surgery for multiple gunshot wounds.

Speaker 7 (21:24):
You know, she is.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Dead and Staff Sergeant Wolf is in critical condition because
and I don't have any compunction saying this, because of
the Biden administration, because they let just about anyone into
this country and we are paying for it, and I'm
telling you we're going to be paying for it for
a long long time now.

Speaker 7 (21:49):
You know.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
The deal with this one is, I guess these are
Afghan or the guy that they caught is an Afghan
national who was led into the country under some I
don't know, potential parole program. You'll remember the botched pullout
in twenty twenty one that the Biden administration. It was

(22:10):
their production and I watched that thing and I had
just made me sick, you know. And people said, well, Trump,
Trump wanted to get out too. Yeah he did, and
I support him on that, and I think just about
everybody did. But do it in an orderly fashion. That
was awful. I mean, in addition to the loss of

(22:31):
life and the serious wounding of individuals, how many billions
of dollars of military equipment did we leave behind because
of that? And you know that should have been enough
for Joe Biden's legacy right there. And I'm not just
saying that because I'm partisan, I am, but that was

(22:51):
actually inexcusable, inexcusable. Well, what they're saying now is that
those people were, including the the guy we're talking about here.
His name is you know what, I don't really care
what his name is. I probably couldn't even here. It
is Ramanola Romanola Lalkandal, probably mispronouncing that. I'll probably be

(23:15):
called islamophobic for it. Good pile it on. I'll where
it does. A badge of honor. I don't care. He's
twenty nine years of old. Just not properly vetted at all.
I mean, it's just such a sloppy process that they
put into play with this thing. And again we're all
paying the price for it. Now, we're paying the price

(23:38):
for it. You know, by some estimates, and I don't
know what's actually accurate or not, but by some estimates,
Biden let twenty million people into this country illegally. I
just sat there while it was happening. I read something
I didn't get a chance to see if I could
find it again a couple of years ago, right after

(23:59):
this happened, that they thought that there may be twenty
thousand Chinese men, Communist Chinese men and women of military
age that got into this country. Where are they? What
are they doing? Like I said, We're going to be
paying for this with our blood as Americans for a

(24:21):
long time to come. Just the height of irresponsibility. Well
there's an arklond Fox. He's really good. One that I
saw this morning. You may recognize the name of Nicole Parker.
She is the former FBI special agent who is a
commentator now on Fox. She talked about this. Apparently she
must have been involved in it when she was in

(24:43):
the FBI, and she referred to the so called screening
process that they had after the bungled withdrawal as I'm
quoting her a free for all. I think she's probably
being charitable there. It goes on to say tens of
thousand of Afghans were evacuated to the US in the
wake of the withdrawal and subsequent Taliban takeover of the country.

(25:08):
The chaotic nature of the operation raised concerns at the
time from Republicans and in official reports that some evacue's
were not being properly vetted and could have and that
could have catastrophic consequence. You think, you think, just awful. Well, anyway,

(25:29):
Josh Holly got involved in the thing. In the story,
he revealed that a whistleblower said three hundred and twenty
four individuals had entered the country with what he refers
to as derogatory information, while a twenty twenty two report
by the Department of Homeland Securities Office of Inspector General

(25:51):
separately found that the Department failed to properly vet Afghan
evacuees entering the US, creating a potential national secure risk.
Now I'm gonna be honest with you. At the time,
you know, it was an abomination. But I was saying,
and a lot of other Americans were saying, Hey, if
there are Afghan citizens that helped us, that were helpful

(26:13):
to the United States of America, and those people are
going to truly be in danger with the regime change there,
we ought to help them. And I stand by that.
But my god, the willy nilly nature apparently, and that
just abject sloppiness and negligence within which they did this.

(26:33):
It's just unbelievable. Let me get back to former Special
Agent Parker. She says, there were individuals that were not
being recommended to come to the United States, yet they
were being this is this speaks volumes. Let me read
it again. This is her quote. There were individuals that
were not being recommended to come into the United States,

(26:54):
yet they were being overridden by the Biden State Department.
It was a free and no one was being vetted. Well,
you know, what do you think is gonna happen when
you do things like that? And this is gonna be
the last one either. Just the height of negligence, and

(27:14):
that's being charitable. You just can't have that. She goes
on to say that records were scattered, databases were in complete,
Screening teams were processing people at a pace that made
perfect vetting impossible. I get that, I get that, and
it can't be perfect. But apparently this situation, it was

(27:35):
almost no vetting at all. Many times it felt like
anyone was allowed to come into the United States from Afghanistan,
regardless of who they were. What happened to our National
Guard service members is a direct result of vetting, or
let me just kind of put a punctuation, or direct

(27:57):
result of lack of vetting. And that is an absolute,
one true statement because of the negligence of the Biden administration.
Those two service members one died, Pray to God that
the other one doesn't. But that airman is, if he
does survive, is going to be seriously injured. Just a

(28:20):
couple more things here, because I really think she put
the cheese on the crackers here, so to speak. She
went on to say, oh, no, wait a minute, this
is Jeanine Piro. Oh man, she's not somebody to be
messed with. She is the US attorney now for the
District of Columbia. This is what Judge Piro has to say,
and she was a judge before she got the fox,

(28:40):
I guess. But anyway, whatever their cause or motive may be,
we should not have to live in fear in the
nation's capital, especially by one who came here from a
foreign country and though and through a process that was
so absurd that he came through and was released into custody.

(29:03):
This is what happens in this country when people who
are not properly vetted get in. And then the last
one in the story at LISTA had to say, he
puts a pretty bow on this thing. Is Cash Pattel,
who I think is doing an incredible job as an
FDI director. This is what Cash Ptel said. Quote this individual,

(29:26):
the person that murdered these two service members. This individual
is in this country for one reason and one reason alone,
because of the disastrous withdrawal from the Biden administration and
the failure to vet in any way, shape or form
this individual and countless others. So there again, you know this.

(29:49):
I'm surprised we haven't had one of these specific type
of situations before, but I guarantee you it ain't going
to be the last one. Then, just to close this out,
Alejandro Mayorcus the former Homeland Security secretary. If you follow
these things, just ask yourself this question. Have you ever

(30:09):
seen an elected official, now he's an appointed official, lie
so much as him. I mean direct, look in the camera,
look at it, and just lie, not exaggerate, not fabricate,
just lie. Okay. Twenty twenty one, after this withdrawal debacle,

(30:32):
had Senate hearings, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorcus insisted that,
and I'm quoting him here, well over ninety nine percent
of evacuees were screened and vetted before boarding flights. But
then he later acknowledged, under questioning, apparently under oath, that
he couldn't guarantee that standard applied in every case. The

(30:57):
man's capacity to lie is credible. I mean to stand
there and say that ninety nine percent of our vacuees
were screened and vetted before boarding flights. You know, obviously
I don't need to tell any of you, but I
am a partisan. But even still if I weren't, you

(31:20):
can't have this. You just can't have it, And doesn't
it seem to you? And you know, we just talked
before to our guest about what the situation is with
the six Democrats. What do he call them, pack a
six or something like that, the six Democrats who are
telling and as far as I'm concerned, encouraging service members

(31:45):
to ignore orders, what do you expect when that's the
kind of attitude that you get from these people, the Democrats.
You know, none of this should come as any surprise
to anyone. Everyone knows that under the Biden miss tration,
anyone was allowed to come into this country. Just a
complete and total, pure open border policy, you know, And

(32:10):
we'll be seeing the fruits of this, if you will,
for years to come. And again, I'll say this, and
I mean it. When you got a Democrat party who's
more concerned about the quote rights unquote of illegal aliens,
criminals that trespassed into their country, when they're concerned more
about their rights than true Americans, we got a problem

(32:33):
in this country. But I just worry that, you know,
we're just kind of giving a collective shrug of the
shoulders to this kind of stuff. And you know, we
got a service member dead who did not need to
be dead and should not have been dead. It's just sad. Hey,
we got to take a break. But when we get back,
I'm gonna talk to Jay Ratliffe. It is the busiest

(32:54):
travel weekend of the year. Gonna talk to Jay and
see how everything's going. We'll do that when we get back.
Mike Allen in for Willy seven hundred WLW oh seven
hundred WLW Mike Allen in for the Great American Willie
Cunningham on the day after Thanksgiving. Well, I'll tell you
you already know this, but anyway, it's the busiest travel

(33:17):
weekend of the year. And you couple that with the hangover,
if you will, from the shutdown, and want to find
out how things are going with our aviation expert. iHeart
aviation expert Jay Ratliffe. But Jay, before I do that,
I wanted to ask you. I see your day trading
fund billboards all over town, and I just want to

(33:38):
ask how November went.

Speaker 8 (33:41):
November pretty good? You know, most of the time I
spend my time teaching students versus trading, but had a
pretty good month. Started with fifty thousand and made thirty four,
five hundred and fifty six dollars and eighteen cents for
the month. So does that worked a month for me?
It Does'll that'll pay for the Thanksgiving food that Sherry
my wife prepares and you've eaten some of that, so
you know what about But yeah, I'm really excited for

(34:04):
our January class start. And yeah, when you got two
passions like I'm blessed to have professionally with aviation and stocks,
it's a lot of fun and obviously it's a fun
time to talk aviation as well.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Brother, Yeah, you're not kid. And I'll tell you the
question I kind of threw out there. I mean, you
couple the busiest trading weekend excuse me, travel weekend of
the year, then with the hangover from the shutdown, it
seems to me and I watch a lot of news,
it seems like things are going okay. What is it
from the experts perspective?

Speaker 7 (34:33):
Jay, you know it is.

Speaker 8 (34:35):
And one of the things that I was asked was
coming out of the shutdown, the question was, Okay, it's
the middle of November.

Speaker 7 (34:43):
We've got the busiest travel week.

Speaker 8 (34:44):
Of the year coming up in a couple of weeks,
will the airlines be ready? And to the surprise of
some but not necessarily to me, within a few days
they had pretty much everything back in line. It's a
lot like if we've got a severe weather storm that
comes through let's say the northeast sor it's a blizzard
and it shuts down a lot of the airports in
the Northeast. Once the storm passes, it's a matter of

(35:07):
just three or four days before the airlines are back
on full schedule. They've got all the you know, the
pieces in the proper place, and they're able to resume
a normal operation. And that's exactly what the airline officials
were saying right after the.

Speaker 7 (35:22):
Shutdown was ending.

Speaker 8 (35:24):
They said, look, we anticipate being you know, all hands
on deck back to a full schedule. And certainly it
was nice because we had more of the air traffic
controllers that were reporting for work. And you know, Mike,
what's important to remember is prior to the shutdown, we
were averaging because we had that you know that we
still are short on air traffic controllers. We were averaging
about thirty nine hundred delayed flights a day. That was

(35:47):
normal for us because the fact that when you would
have too many flights in the specific area, we didn't
have enough air traffic controllers. The FAA has a very
good traffic management system that slows things down out a
lot of times you might be on a ground stop
where you're on a flight in Cincinnati, you're on the plane,
they're ready to take office. They no, we've got a
ground stop for twenty minutes before we can leave for

(36:08):
Dallas or for New York. And what's happened is they
kick something in. It might be a weather that's caused it,
or it may be just from a traffic mansip. At standpoint,
there's too many planes, so they thin that out just
a bit. It's very safety oriented and it's designed for
a specific purpose. So you know, we're still dealing with that.
You know, the average of three to four thousand flight

(36:29):
delays a day, but it's not being compounded by the
fact that we have so many more air traffic controllers
that are you know, calling in because they're going to
work a job that they can get paid for, versus
showing up for.

Speaker 7 (36:42):
A job they don't get paid for.

Speaker 8 (36:43):
So, you know, and that's why I was glad President
Trump came out and said, we'd like to give these
people a ten thousand dollars bonus, those that were here
without caught. But Mike, you know, some of the people
were insulted by that.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Why, I mean, I thought they deserve it. As far
as I'm concerned.

Speaker 7 (36:58):
Oh, they do.

Speaker 8 (36:59):
But they're saying's got to sign on bonus of one
hundred thousand dollars. We should be getting more than ten.
And you know, I was reading these reports and I'm thinking, Okay,
I know how I was raised.

Speaker 7 (37:09):
I got a pretty good yea how you were raised.

Speaker 8 (37:10):
If my boss skipped in the door and says, Jay,
I'd like to give you a ten thousand dollars bonus
for a job well done, the last words coming out
of my mouth are going to be is that all?
But you know, I think some of this is unfortunately
rooted in politics. I think that had this been something
coming from President Biben, Oh yeah, I think some of
these people complaining maybe what have said it now not

(37:34):
all and I may be reading way too much into it.
And I will be the very first to say, these
men and women for the last eight nine years and
longer have not known what a five day work week is.
Because the fact that we are three thousand plus air
traffic controller shorts. They're working five, six, seven day weeks
at length, and they're exhausted. And I recognize some of

(37:57):
them are saying, look, I appreciate the ten thousand dollars,
but you know, we're exhausted. And the two things that
Donald Trump among many when he took into office saying,
we've got to address the air traffic controller shortage. But
it's not like walking over to us sink and turning
up the spicket where more water comes out, because brother,
only so much water comes out of that spicket, and
it's already cranked all the way up. We've got as

(38:19):
many training facilities as we can, we're maxing those out.
We've got a specific number of air traffic controller trainers
and we're maxed out there, and we're pushing fifteen, sixteen,
seventeen hundred a year through this, and we've got to
increase the facilities we've got, increased the number of instructors
to push that number high so that we can get

(38:40):
caught up. And sadly, as most people know, you want
the day you sign on to be an air traffic
controller and training it maybe five years before you're on
the job, working by yourself. It's a long process. So
hopefully President Trump can get that fixed before he leaves office.

Speaker 7 (38:56):
Or close to it.

Speaker 8 (38:57):
And also, the technology that you and I've talked about
so many times over the years that so antiquated. He's
saying we're gonna update that as well.

Speaker 7 (39:04):
And you know, if he does those two things as.

Speaker 8 (39:06):
He leaves office, it will impact aviation for the next
ten or fifteen years. I like it a lot to
him selecting a Supreme Court justice. He puts somebody in place,
and it's going to have an impact for the next
twenty years. And if he can make this stuff happen, Mike,
I will be thrilled because other presidents have talked about
it and done nothing.

Speaker 7 (39:26):
Yep.

Speaker 8 (39:27):
So if he follows through on this, there will be
a big time benefit to aviation where we'll see a
lot more flights. And if aviation does double over the
course the next ten to fifteen years, as we expect it,
will will be in a position to handle it, you know.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Kind of dubtailing on that question, Jay Ratliffe in watching
this and that's all I do is watch it, and
I'm not an expert like you, but it sure seems
like Sean Duffy has done a bang up job as
the director of the Transportation Department on this thing. I mean,
at least he was front and center during this whole thing,
and I was impressed. But again, I'm not on the ground.

(40:02):
I don't know for sure. I wanted to kind of
see what you thought.

Speaker 7 (40:05):
Oh, I'm a big Sean Duffy fan. I'll be honest.

Speaker 8 (40:08):
There have been some things the Department Transportation has done
recently that.

Speaker 7 (40:11):
I've not agreed with.

Speaker 8 (40:13):
But you know, he was always trying to keep everybody
update on what was going on. He was telling the
good or the bad, whatever it was. I don't think
too many things were sugar coated. Sometimes you got that
political spin on things. I didn't feel like a lot
of that was coming from him. And you know, it
was last week he said, now, you know, people need
to stop wearting the pajamas to the airport. Well, that's
really not the place of government to step in and

(40:34):
say it would be nice if you dressed up and
showed a little bit more respect to when you dress
coming to the airport, because that's not the job of government.
So please, let's go deal with more important things. Because
you know, you know, every time I see somebody shuffling
into an airplane and their slippers and their pajamas and
their pillow to get on an airplane, it's January and
I'm thinking now, if we have to do an emergency

(40:56):
evacuation in Detroit on the ramp when it was thirty degrees,
you're going to wish you to warn something a little
bit more than those little jammis that the wind will
go right through. But you know it's but yeah, I'm
a big Sean Duffy fan. I think the Department Transportations
doing a good job. And if you will, I'll tell
you something they did recently that kind of take.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Yeah, I want to I'm want to ask you about that.

Speaker 8 (41:19):
Yeah, there was a delayed compensation rule that just a
while back that the it was announced that the Department
Transportation is not going to be pursuing And the thing
that bothered me on that was that, you know that
this was something that was about a year ago that
Joe Biden, the Biden administration came out with a cash

(41:40):
compensation rule and basically it meant that if you were
iirre delayed by more than three hours on a flight
and it's there and it's the fault of the airline,
not weather or anything like that, we could be entitled
to some cash compensation that would be several hundred dollars.
The rule would have also guaranteed meals, lodging when needed,
in ground transportation when appropriate. And even though I was

(42:02):
never a fan of the Biden administration in any regard Mike,
I was very very appreciative of how the Bide deministration
went after airlines, especially the last two years. If the
airlines were kind of doing things they shouldn't be doing.
I mean, they were getting hammered, and I loved it.
Boeing was getting hammered, as was the airlines. So then
the Trump administration comes into power, all the airline stocks

(42:23):
go up, and people said, now, Jay, you trade stocks.
Why did the stocks go up? I said, because it's
going to be a real cozy relationship between the airlines
and the Trump administration. It was the first time around,
it will be now. A lot of these airlines and
Bowing donated a million dollars each to the Trump indaugural
fund when it's yeah.

Speaker 7 (42:43):
I f all of the money, right, brother.

Speaker 8 (42:45):
So what happens here is now the airlines have a
very very powerful lobby. They're telling the government, look, this
cash compensation rule is not really good for us. So
the dot yeah, put it and drawer never to be
seen again. So that bothers me because it's the airlines

(43:05):
telling the government what to do instead of the other
way around. And even Boeing Boeing during under the Biden
administration admitted to criminal charges in UH as a result
of the two Boeing Max crashes that killed what three
hundred and forty six people, right, and they covered they
covered things up, they lied all kinds of things, and

(43:26):
they admitted you know, criminal UH in a criminal court,
you know, responsibility, right. Donald Trump's get gets elected and
what do they do. They go back into the DOJ saying,
you know, we'd like to walk back some of those
previous admissions, and sure enough they were allowed to do it.
And the never it's not going to go to court,
some out of court settlement that was done and the

(43:47):
families are just throwing a fit because they didn't feel
like it should have been. But that was also allowed
by the Department of Transportation. So that those kind of
things really bother me because when you don't have a
system in place it's going to hold airlines and Bowling accountable.
It gives them permission to keep doing the same craft
they've been doing, and airlines are going to trade this

(44:08):
like garbage and look Delta, I love they're my carrier
of choice. They had a quarter last year that they
reported a billion dollar profit in a single quarter, so
did unite it almost So they're making that much money
and they're saying this cash compensation rule.

Speaker 7 (44:23):
No, let's let's not give.

Speaker 8 (44:24):
Any of this to you a passenger. We'll throw them
five thousand frequent by myriles to try to appease them. Well,
thank you very much for that. That that's more of
an insult than anything else.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Now, and I agree with you on that. It kind
of surprised. I just wonder if Congress could override I'm
sure it's an executive order, but I don't know.

Speaker 8 (44:42):
Dead in the water, Mike, it really is, and it
just it's unfortunate. It's like if an airline is shown
to not have done certain things, nothing serious but maybe
a maintenance type thing of a minor situation on certain
aircraft by a certain date, they're fined ten million dollars. Well,
then by the time it's done, the FAA recommended of
ten million has been negotiated down to one and a

(45:02):
half million, as long as they promise never to do
it again.

Speaker 7 (45:05):
Oh thank you.

Speaker 6 (45:07):
You know that's great.

Speaker 8 (45:07):
I'm sorry, officer, I got this speeding ticket, and can
you cut it in by ninety percent if I promise
never to do it again. Those are the kind of
games that have been going on for decades with the
airline industry. It bothered me when I was a part
of it, and it bothers me now, and every single
time I see it, I'm going to speak out about
it because I just don't like it. It doesn't mean I'm
against the Trump administration. Anybody knows me knows that's not
the case. But I believe in holding airlines accountable. And

(45:31):
if people are saying, Jay, why is it that we're
treated like garbage every time we fly and airlines don't
do any better? Because there's no incentive. As long as
we keep coming back and flying packing airplanes like we're
doing right now, there's zero incentive for airlines to ever
change what they're doing. And as a result, what takes
place is they're going to continue. That's why when these
surveys come out about the best airlines in the world,

(45:53):
people want to know how many airlines from the US
made the top twenty.

Speaker 7 (45:56):
I laugh. Zero.

Speaker 8 (45:58):
We never make those look because, yeah, customer service is
non existent in the in the in this country because
of how we're treated. Go fly another carrier as in coach,
and you'll see the difference and it.

Speaker 7 (46:10):
Will blow you away.

Speaker 8 (46:11):
On wow, I actually feel appreciated when I fly Airlines
such and such internationally versus how I'm treated when I'm
going from Chicago.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
I get. I didn't think it was that bad. Hey,
just in past you mentioned Boeing. Are they recovering? Will
they recover? I think I asked you this last time
I talked to you. How's that going well?

Speaker 8 (46:32):
I mean, if you believe what they're saying, they're they're
they're moving in the right direction. But five six years ago,
when they promised that they were going to do better,
they learned from their examples, and you know, after those
lives were lost that we talked about as an idiot,
I believe them. I believe their paragraphs of promise and
all this other garbage that they said about how they
were going to become a better, more you know, uh,

(46:53):
safety driven producer of aircraft. And then we had last
January the dwarf flying off the last air Airlines flight
that wasn't even secured. So I believed them before I
will not do that now. I'll tell you in four
or five years if Boeing has lived up to their promises,
Because anytime that you're pushing airplanes through the production like
they were and telling employees go to the scrap bend

(47:16):
and pick the best failed part so we can put
it on an airplane because we don't want to slow
the production schedule.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Mike, I don't know how.

Speaker 8 (47:24):
I don't know what you can say to that that
would explain how that any of that is okay, right,
But according to the whistleblowers and the people that investigated,
that went on for a long period of time at Boeing,
and that's just wrong. So they said they've stopped doing it.
I don't know, have they I hope So I just
hope nothing happens that shows that they didn't do what

(47:44):
they said they were.

Speaker 6 (47:45):
Going to do.

Speaker 7 (47:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
Yeah, I mean, it is what it is, and you
can't justify that stuff, obviously. Hey, I wanted to ask
you too. We talked a little bit about it, but uh,
what is the biggest challenge that a traveler faces during
this week, this holiday week? And what can they do
to kind of at least try to obviate it? A
little bit.

Speaker 8 (48:04):
Well, I tell you the biggest thing is the busiest
travel day of the year is typically the Sunday after
Thanksgiving coming up. The second busiest was on Wednesday. We
had two point seven million people fly. The biggest thing
is if you get to the airport on time, two
hours before departure, which you have to do this time
of year, get to the gate, and if you find
out your flight is canceled with every flight being full.

(48:26):
If you've got a family of three or four that
are trying to get let's say to Orlando and every
flight's full, and they're telling you, I'm sorry, your flight's canceled.
We can't get you out till Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning.
One of the things that you can do is tell
the agent, believe me, who's desperately trying to get you
to your destination, say, look, can you get me instead
of Orlando to Tampa Saint Pete, Daytona Beach. I mean

(48:46):
get me to a surrounding airport. I'll check and make
sure that I can get a rental car, and if
I do, I'll pay for that. So if you can
fly me to Daytona, I can drive to my destination.
If you can give the agent three or four good destinations,
that's great. And if you're at the airport in a line,
instead of waiting until you get up to the line,
pull out social media. If you're standing in line, stay there.

(49:08):
But I go to Facebook and I'll send Delta a
message through Facebook saying here's my six digit confirmation number.
My flight's been delayed. I'm worried about my connection. What
options do I have? So either the agent I get
to first, or something through that message that allows me
to book something.

Speaker 7 (49:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (49:25):
Grow the number of agents with airlines that are addressed
to social media. If you're using the old Twitter or
you're using Facebook or any other way to reach out
to them, you don't make it a public post. It's
a private message. Nobody sees your information. But you can
just give them that six digit. Don't complain about the
last ten flights you've been on. It's got to be
very short, very brief, saying look, I'm here, here's my

(49:47):
confirmation number. Flight's been canceled. What are my options. Many
times they'll give you two or three. You pick one.
Long before you get to the front of the line.
The line, it's done, and you kind of go from there.
The other thing, Mike is don't show up at the
airport this time of year without to see this asignment,
because we have flights that are over sold, which means
anybody that doesn't have a seat assignment, technically you're on
standby waiting for them to clear you. I don't care

(50:08):
if it's a middle seat. You grab whatever seat you can,
and if you want to get to the airport and
try to move things around, you can try. But I
see so many people saying, well, Jay, they're only like
four seats, they were all middle and I didn't take
any of them. And then I hear from them they're
saying like, I almost didn't make the flight. Yeah, you
know why, because you didn't have a seat assignment. If
you're able to make it, I don't care what it is,

(50:29):
make sure you grab something so you've got a seat
assignment to go along with the reservation, especially over the
holiday travel seas.

Speaker 7 (50:35):
You got to have it.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Good advice, Jay ratlif As is all of your advice.
Really appreciate it, and thanks for joining us today.

Speaker 7 (50:44):
Looking to catch up with you soon, brother, every.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Time we will. Thanks Jay. All right, all right, I'll
tell you what I didn't know that about the seat
assignment I've had. That's really good information. I got to
tell you last year this time. That was a little
after that, traveled to Mexico around Christmas, and I told
Jay this at the time, I could not complain at

(51:08):
all about the manners, the service, the attention to detail
that TSA showed, and the booking agents at the airlines too.
You know, you go in there. I think at least
I did prepare to Oh God, what's gonna happen?

Speaker 7 (51:23):
Now?

Speaker 1 (51:24):
It was impressive. It's really been that way the last
couple of times I've traveled. So I'm gonna I'm cutting
them a brake for now. But at any rates, always
good to hear from Jay. Hey, listen, we are going
to take a break here, but when we get back,
we're gonna talk politics, and we are going to talk
politics with independent political analyst Kevin Burton. Kevin gives it

(51:45):
to you right down the line, and that's the way
I like it on these kind of things. So we're
gonna be talking about Trump and his numbers falling down,
and if the Democrats finally got interact together. We'll do
that when we get back. Mike Allen Infrawillie's seven hundred
WLW or Willie Cunningham. Well, I'll tell you what a
lot of people are asking the question after the results

(52:09):
of the twenty twenty five off year elections came in.
Are the Democrats actually showing a pulse? Here to talk about?
That is independent political strategist and analyst Kevin Burton. Kevin,
thanks so much for joining us today.

Speaker 4 (52:25):
Mike, thanks for having me my pleasure.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Okay, your answer to that question, are they showing a
pulse after a long time of not showing a pulse?

Speaker 3 (52:36):
I mean, obviously the answer is yes, you know, they
are back from the dead. I always compare it to
kind of like an NBA team where you just have
to kind of thank you know, they were in the
wilderness and now they're kind of getting back on their feet.
And we're gonna see a really interesting thing on Tuesday
that's not being talked about a lot. Is the Tennessee

(52:56):
seventh Congressional District. Oh okay, well knows, I know it's
very wonky. No, no, now, right now, it actually shows
that the polling could be almost equal where the Republican
candidate won by twenty two points.

Speaker 4 (53:15):
Last presidential cycle.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
So it's very similar to what we've talked about, you know,
me and you over the years. That's the greatest thing
about America. It's the give and take. When one side
gets too far the others, the people punch back, you know.

Speaker 4 (53:33):
So for the Democrats, it's kind of amazing.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
That their party leadership is just abysmal, but the last
month has been really good for them on the ballot boxes.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
That one you're talking about in Tennessee, is that the
one where the Democrat candidate said something like she hates
Nashville and all kinds of things like that, and they're
trying to clabor her with it, and it doesn't look
like it's succeeding. Is that the right? The one I'm talking.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
About, Yeah, it's the seventh district is kind of like
the Nashville area. Yeah, which you know, probably I'm not
involved in that race, but I would imagine that she's
probably trying to get the some rural votes. But it's
kind of a bold strategy to say you hate the city.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
That really makes But so we'll see.

Speaker 3 (54:19):
But you know, special elections generally always favored the opposition
party just because they're motivated.

Speaker 4 (54:27):
No, I got you, so we'll keep we'll keep an
eye on that.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
And also, you know, it goes to the presidential polling numbers,
which aren't very great right now. So for as bad
as the Democrats have been, they're only saving grace right now.
Is the number one issue that we heard from Zoran
Mindani affordability, and that's what they're running on.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
They're all over that one. Hey, before we get into
those numbers, because I've got them here and I do
want to talk to you about them. But at its core, though,
Kevin Burton, don't the Democrats have a real, what could
be long lasting problem of identity? You know, what do
you want to be? Do you want to be moderate
or do you want to be liberal? And how do
you see that playing out with respect to the the

(55:13):
midterms in twenty twenty six. It sure seems like that
problem is not going to go away.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
Well, but it's you know, it's exactly no different than
what the Republicans had to do after twenty twelve. You know,
the conventional wisdom told them to go keep pushing more
and more moderate because Romney lost, and you know, the
Tea Party movement and then the Maga movement basically wiped

(55:41):
out the establishment, and in a lot of ways, the
Democrats are feeling the exact same. They're tired of the neocons.
They're tired of you know, the Chuck Schumers. They're tired
of all these people who've been in office who sailed them.
So convinsional wisdom say that they should shift more back
to the middle.

Speaker 4 (55:59):
But I just don't see that happening. I see more
and more.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
You know, Nancy Pelosi retired because she had a millennial
running against her, basically just saying, what have you done
besides pocket yourself?

Speaker 1 (56:13):
What do you think is gonna happen? I'm sorry with
that Schumer race, I'm just curious about that. Will AOC
take him on or will he go quietly into the night?

Speaker 3 (56:23):
Well for AOC, if you know, she has it's kind
of like Lane Kiffin, She's the Lane Kiffin of She
has decided, she has decided do you want to run
for Senate, stay as a house or try to run
for president. So it's just the exact same thing where
you know, if you're advising her, there's all three avenues

(56:43):
that you could take. You know, if she announced that
she was running against Schumer, I mean, I don't think
it takes anyone with a political science degree.

Speaker 4 (56:52):
Regardless of what you think of her.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
She has the audience, she has the fandais, she has
the momentum. And you know, Chuck Schumer is he's the
other side of the coin of Mitch McConnell. You know,
for twenty plus years, these two have sold out Americans
to corporations, and frankly, people on both sides of the
aisle are just tired of it.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
Yeah, I mean, you're right, I think for both parties
it's kind of a change in opinion about that. Well,
let's get into some of the numbers here public perception
of the Democrat Party, and I wanted to ask how
they get around this. And this is the Real Clear
Politics average of polls, which is supposedly the most accurate one.
I don't know when they were in the field, but

(57:36):
it's the most recent one that I could find. Do
you view the Democrat Party favorably or unfavorably? Favorably it
was only thirty four percent. Unfaithed is sixty percent. Now
the Republicans aren't much better. But Kevin, I just I
respect what you're saying. I don't see how they get
around that, and Republicans who are sitting on their butts

(57:58):
thinking we're going to cruise through the midterms. They're wrong.
They're as wrong as uh, you know, they're as wrong
as those numbers would appear to be at least people
like you think. I don't know if that makes any sense,
but what are you think of that?

Speaker 3 (58:12):
It all comes down to affordability And it's that simple.
I mean, listen, look out throughout history.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
You know, George H. W.

Speaker 3 (58:22):
Bush lost when he was a very popular president because
inflation and the economy tanked. Joe Biden, we just saw
what happened, you know, a couple of years ago. Right now,
the majority to a two to one margin. People believe
that Trump's tariffs have caused more problems. And for the Democrats,

(58:43):
it's simply just being like, hey, I'm here. They're like,
you know, they don't have a message. And frankly, you know,
I think people on both sides were mad that Trump
and Mandonnie met with each other. But this is America.
That's what you're supposed to do, right, I mean, I
don't know why this is breaking news, Like you're the

(59:03):
mayor of the largest city and he's the president.

Speaker 4 (59:06):
Of course you should meet.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
So affordability is the number one issue going forward. Number
two will probably be healthcare. Immigration has really quieted down,
so it's really going to be those two things, affordability
and healthcare. And as the Democrats are the alternatives because
you're always going to blame the party in power. You

(59:31):
just are in Republicans control, you know, all three branches
right now.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
Yeah, And you know, for a while, and you and
I talked about it, I was somewhat optimistic that perhaps
this could be different and the party in power would
stay in power. It's such a thin majority, though, I
don't know. We'll have to see. Now. I am a
very fair individual. So we're going to talk about the
president's numbers, which are not good. Nate Silver's silver bulletin aggregator.

(59:58):
Are you familiar with that?

Speaker 4 (59:59):
It's supposed to be pretty yeah, okay, Yeah, here's.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
What it says. Trump's overall approval declined from forty four
point three percent to forty one point three percent in
the last month and change, while his disapproval rate rose
even more sharply in the same timeframe, from fifty one
point nine percent to fifty six point two percent. So
I mean you're right, his poll numbers are not going

(01:00:24):
the right way going into the midterms. And then the
other thing too, And we've talked about this, Kevin, and
this hurts Republicans. These maga voters will not get out
the vote unless Donald J. Trump is on the ballot.
That's not true of all of them, but for a
pretty good number of them. That's a problem for Republicans
when you think, well, but.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
It's no different than the Democrats with Obama. People need
to realize that Donald Trump, love them or hate them,
is a once in a generation political figure dame as
Barack Obama. You have to stop trying to emulate them
because you're not going to You're just true.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
Not that's true.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
You have to figure out you have to figure out
a different way to win elections. Like and frankly, you know,
Democrats are still kind of searching for you know, I
would say it's kind of like how you know, New
England was searching for only five years and then they
found their other star quarterback. You know, parties latch on

(01:01:28):
to their generational people. But the problem is there's a
reason that they are generational. They don't grow on trees,
and Republicans are going to have to come to terms
with that pretty soon that you know, look at Ron DeSantis.
You can try to be a maga lae, try to
emulate you.

Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
Know, Donald Trump in so many ways.

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
But when push comes to shove and it's the presidential primary,
he got squashed like a bug.

Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
Yep. I was one of the ones I thought that
he would be competitive. I mean, how wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
And you know Kamala tried to basically run as Obama,
but the voters saw through it. So the Republicans are
going to have to have a come to Jesus meeting
after the midterms that listen, like, you can't use the
Trump playbook because Trump's one of one.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
He just does true true, you know, I along those lines,
I need to ask you. It's just frustrating to me
because I don't I just don't find it important. But
apparently everybody else does. The whole Epstein Gate thing with Trump,
it seems like it's still dogging him and probably will
into the not too distant future. I mean, your thoughts
on that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
I know this is not your show, but I was
on your show what nine months.

Speaker 4 (01:02:44):
Ago when this broke and what did I say, ham
BONDI or fire cash to.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
Tell you gotta throw someone to the wool, right right.
I mean still to this day they objectively they have
bought this whole thing.

Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
Because they put they put themselves.

Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
In a corner that either the Epstein would file was
something or nothing. And they've put they're in a corner
now and now they're darned if they do, darned if
they don't. You know, For Trump, it's actually very just
fascinating because his.

Speaker 4 (01:03:21):
First term, his poll numbers for the economy.

Speaker 5 (01:03:25):
With sky high and it's.

Speaker 3 (01:03:28):
Foreign policies people did not like. And now it's the
exact opposite this time around.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
You know. And with respect to Epstein, I mean, I think,
what do I know. I mean, I'm not in the
middle of it, but they could have diffused that thing,
or at least tamped it down somewhat early on. It's
kind of the drip drip drip thing. And yes it's important.
I mean, horrible things happened to those those victims. But
don't you think, though, if they had some kind of

(01:03:55):
smoke and gun on Trump, we'd have known about it
a long time ago.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
So you are the prosecutor here.

Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
So my only thing is if it sounds like a
duck acts like a duck at the very least, it
knows something about duck.

Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
You know, they have botched this whole thing.

Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
You know, there's there is they were friends at one point.

Speaker 4 (01:04:19):
There's no way to disagree with it. I mean, when
you me and you've known.

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
Each other for ten years and I don't see any
pictures of me and you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
Dancing together, that's pretty good. No, And I hear that,
But I don't know. I think when they're teaching campaign school,
they're going to teach people that that ain't the right
way to handle it. Just let it keep dripping like.

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
That a lot of ways, in a lot of ways,
this is the Benghazi.

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
Yeah it is, and you know.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
The drip and how you're talking about it when it's
a drip, a slow stream that just ends up building
into a river that you can't stop.

Speaker 4 (01:05:00):
Those are always the hardest thing.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
In politics because when something bad happens right away and
you can counter it, people are like, Okay, yeah, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:05:07):
These things happen.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
This has been nine months and it's not going away.
And when frankly, they release whatever's released, we still have
people who think the.

Speaker 4 (01:05:17):
Moon landing's not real. JFK so it's already they've already
lost the narrative.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
Well, you know, I thought, now you correct me if
I'm wrong, that they've released with this last go round.
I mean, pretty much everything they can. I know the
Democrats will keep pounding it and I understand that that's politics,
but I don't know. And at the end of the day,
it doesn't really matter because he's got beaten up enough
about it. But again I returned to if they were
a smoking gun, they would have found it already. But

(01:05:45):
the poll numbers indicate that people are interested in that
for whatever reason.

Speaker 3 (01:05:51):
And you know, going back to Nixon, it wasn't when
nexton did. It's always the cuff up big. So they're
redactive and that you know, and we talked about this,
you know, nine months ago on your show.

Speaker 4 (01:06:06):
This is politics.

Speaker 3 (01:06:07):
Someone needed to just go find them a nice, cushy
job afterwards. But you know, this problem is gonna be
here to stay. And what's interesting is this is actually,
I think going to be something that hinders jd vance
in you think three years well, because you know, looking
at Hillary Clinton with beIN Ghazi, what did what did

(01:06:29):
the Republicans do?

Speaker 4 (01:06:31):
They kept saying the emails and ghazi.

Speaker 3 (01:06:35):
So if I if you're the Democrats looking forward in
three years, you're gonna say, what did jd Vance know?
Why were any names redactive? Who are the redactive names?
Even if it's for the privacy, they've lost the narrative,
and you know, it's really hard to get the narrative
back once.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
It's lost, no question about it. I've only got about
a minute here, and you touched on it briefly. We've
only got a minute, but and we'll pick it up
the next time. The Trump Mondami meeting. Your thoughts on that,
and I think you gave them generally. Let me give
you mine real quick, because I've already gotten some crap
about it. I mean, I thought it was a good thing.
I mean, people want to see some congeniality. And I

(01:07:18):
think Mandamie conducted himself completely appropriately. He was respectful to
the president and of course as Trump was back to
him there night and day on policy and everything else.
But I don't know, and it might hurt it probably
will hurt Trump somewhat with his megabase. But what are
your thoughts on that? In a minute?

Speaker 4 (01:07:37):
This is America. You're supposed to talk to the other side,
right It's not.

Speaker 3 (01:07:41):
That hard, Mandaonnie's the mayor of the largest city.

Speaker 4 (01:07:44):
Trump's the president. And also they're both New York guys.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (01:07:48):
There is there.

Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
Is something about like you know if someone from Cincinnati
and you're on the opposite side and you still care
about your hometown. And lastly, they are both just they
both understand media better than anyone else.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
Very true. Well, I'll tell you what you could You
could tell that just by watching them. Hey man, we
are out of time, but we'll definitely pick this one up.

Speaker 7 (01:08:13):
Kevin.

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
Well, Hey, happy Thanksgiving and thank you once again.

Speaker 7 (01:08:18):
Mike.

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
Okay, Kevin, same to you. Appreciate it, right, all right?
Kevin Burton, Well, I like these conversations and that kind
of grounds you too. And the Trump thing, like I said,
I have gotten a little bit a grief from that,
but my god, with all the knives in everyone's back
and the and the backbiting for once, you know, people
were congenial, and you know, Kevin said at the very end,

(01:08:40):
they're both New Yorkers and I think they both love
New York. And we'll see. I mean, I if Montdommy
says what he's going to do, and if you can
pull it off. That is going to be a disaster.
But hey, we shall see. We need to take a break.
Butt when we come back, we're gonna check in with
our real estate expert, Greg Stanley, residential real estate expert,
on just what's going on in the real state market

(01:09:00):
here in the greater Cincinnati area. We'll do that when
we get back. Mike Allen In for Willy's seven hundred
WLW News Radio seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen In for
the Great American at Willie Cunningham. Be back tomorrow normal
time nine to noon for Saturday midday. But appreciate WILLI

(01:09:24):
giving me the shot here. Well, I'll tell you what
we're getting. Close to the end of the year, Christmas
is coming. We've done this throughout the year.

Speaker 4 (01:09:32):
To get an.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
Update on the local real estate market, we call on
our real estate analyst, Greg Stanley with Kobe and Shepherd Reelers. Greg,
thanks for joining us this say afternoon.

Speaker 5 (01:09:44):
Hey Mike, thanks for having me on again. Certainly appreciate it,
love your show.

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:09:49):
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (01:09:51):
I did too. I'm really starting to get into that,
are you. It sounds like you did too. Are you
starting to get that oot tide filling.

Speaker 5 (01:10:00):
I am starting to get that U tidde fellon.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Okay, that's for sure. Okay, yeah, let me ask you.
Let me ask you what is up in the local
real estate market. From following you, Greg and talking to you,
it seems like it's kind of been an up and
down year.

Speaker 5 (01:10:15):
It has, you know what, those Cincinnati continues to defy
the national numbers, right, I mean really, if you I
was looking, I was, yeah, I mean, and it's very positive,
especially for existing homeowners. Right now, I was looking compared
to last year, same time last year, medium sales price

(01:10:37):
is now at three hundred and ten thousand dollars. Now
this is for Hamilton, Butler, Claremont, and Warren counties, which
is the only four that I looked at. But it's
now at three hundred and ten thousand dollars, which is
up five percent from last year at this time. So
prices continue, I mean, people, the price of homes continue

(01:10:58):
to increase on an ongoing basis, you know. And what's funny, Mike,
is that you know, we've got there's a lot of
people sitting on the sidelines right wait for interest rates
to drop as they do that, though, the prices of
homes increase, so you know, the the net net is
probably at least a zero in terms of, you know,

(01:11:21):
if they're gonna wait for interest rates to drop, prices
keep going up at the same time. The issue is
is get in now, jump in now, be there you
can always refinance or something like that or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
Yeah, So I'm sorry, go ahead, I cut you off.

Speaker 5 (01:11:38):
No, No, that's okay. And and home sales have increased
are up three point five percent, so the price of
a home's up. Five home sales are up three point
five percent, which again defies some of the national numbers
that you're going to be seeing where where you know
they're seeing home sales drop pretty significantly. We're seeing an

(01:12:00):
increase of three point five bucking. Oh yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
Let me ask you this question. I mean, and I
ask you this every time we talk. Based upon what
you're saying and getting close to the end of the year.
Buyer's market, seller's market? Do you buy or sell or
stand pat.

Speaker 5 (01:12:16):
I would say, I would say it's it's still a
seller's market, but not like it used to be earlier
this year, Okay, it's not as we're not seeing the
over people are we're offering a lot over contract price
or over sale price, that kind of stuff. A lot

(01:12:37):
of people were over sale price, are over asking price,
that kind of thing. We're not seeing that as much anymore,
but it's still there in Cincinnati. Again, not nationally, but
in Cincinnati, it's still there. I think it is.

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
Got you now, listen. I've been wanting to ask you
this question for a couple of weeks. Here. There's a
lot of talk coming from the Trump administration, not so
much as they're used to be, and not only a
Trump administration but other places about a fifty year mortgage
home mortgage. You know, Greg, I saw that and thought,
I don't know anything about it, but that kind of

(01:13:11):
sounds crazy to me. I mean, who the hell's gonna
want to get that fifty years tied around your neck?
What are your thoughts on?

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
That?

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
Is it? And again it all comes down to affordability,
that's the deal. But I don't know what do you.

Speaker 5 (01:13:24):
Make I totally agree with you. I think that's not.

Speaker 7 (01:13:28):
The way to go.

Speaker 5 (01:13:28):
If I were when I'm representing buyers, I would never
even if it existed, I would never would never say
go with a fifty year I mean you think about that, Mike,
that is six hundred I know, payments, you know, I mean,
by the time the every average person is buying a
house today is forty years old. By the time by

(01:13:50):
the time they get to the end of the you know,
paying their house off, they're they're gonna be ninety, gonna
be ninety years old.

Speaker 1 (01:13:57):
Well they'll be, they'll be they'll be out the program.

Speaker 5 (01:14:00):
Point absolutely, you know. So you know, you know what
I would suggest is I really, I really like this
idea of this, the portable mortgage instead of this fifty
year stuff. Never would recommend that, but the idea that
you could get a mortgage on your first home and

(01:14:22):
be able to transport that to another piece of property,
another home or whatever at the same interest. Really, I mean, Mike,
you and I are of the age where we're probably
sitting on a three percent three percent mortgage.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
That's what mine was about five years.

Speaker 5 (01:14:38):
Ago, I know. And the ability the ability to take
that same mortgage and move that to another house that's
going to generate some real interest. And I hope that,
I hope we can see that through, but only time
will tell.

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
Well, now that sounds like that's something relatively new Are
people taking advantage of that or has it been around
for a while.

Speaker 5 (01:14:59):
Well, it's not available right now. They're still trying to
get their arms around it, so it's not The portable
mortgage is not available at.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
This current stage.

Speaker 5 (01:15:08):
But that's in conversation, just like the fifty year mortgage.

Speaker 7 (01:15:14):
Well, yeah, I wanted to.

Speaker 1 (01:15:15):
Ask you this question too, you know, and we talk
about this all the time too, but I think people
need to hear your advice on it. Okay, you want
to put your house, your condo up for sale. You
want to get the best return on your investment that
you can. Where do you put your money? Where do
you put the improvements? What would be the best thing
to do so you can make more money on the sale?

Speaker 5 (01:15:38):
Great question, Great question. I am Mike. I am big
on curb appeal, right, and I mean I talk return
on investment. There's some investments in your homes.

Speaker 7 (01:15:48):
If you were to redo your.

Speaker 5 (01:15:50):
Kitchen totally, totally remodel it, tear it up, put it
back together, that kind of stuff, tear out walls, there's
no return on investment there. The same thing with a
major death room thing. I'm huge on curb apeople, right,
So I mean, for a new entry door, the return
on investment there is like three hundred or two hundred

(01:16:11):
percent return on investment. Or even just painting the front door.
They say, people form an opinion of your house in
the first six seconds, so as they're walking up there,
they're looking at a freshly painted front door. Garage door
has one hundred and twenty percent return on investment, new

(01:16:32):
landscaping one hundred and twenty six. This is all curb
side stuff that you can do to your house where
you're gonna get big returns on your money, you know.
I mean, so it's like some of these things, some
of these things are just there's no ROI So be
careful what you're gonna spend your money on, unless unless

(01:16:53):
you're blessed to do it yourself, unless you've got that
ability to do it yourself.

Speaker 6 (01:16:58):
You mean you mean right, yes, exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:17:03):
I'm terrible at that stuff, Greg, That's why I.

Speaker 5 (01:17:09):
But some guy's exactly, a guy two doors down from
me redid his kitchen four pennies on the dollar because
he did it himself. Now, it took him five months
to do that, but I mean, he did a fabulous
job on this thing. Now I've seen some remodels, homemade
remodels where they're they're they're uh not done well sure,

(01:17:33):
let me just put it that way.

Speaker 1 (01:17:35):
Yeah, you know what you're doing. If you're doing something,
that's why I stay away from it.

Speaker 5 (01:17:40):
Hey, exactly, you gotta you gotta know what you're good at.
Obviously you're you're good at being an attorney, and you're
good at this talk show stuff. Thank you, stay with that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:49):
One, right, I think I will, Greg, I think I'll
leave the the real estate to you. But I wanted
to ask you this question. And it's kind of funny
because there's a personal kind of thing to this too
okay situation with the how a home value would be
affected on whether the whether the home or condo whatever

(01:18:11):
is on the flight path. Just to tell you, Greg,
this is probably about thirty forty years ago. My sister
is a psychologist PhD. She did her she did her
whole thesis on how that affects people psychologically because where
she lived at the time was over by the Westernols
Country Club, and man, I don't think it's that way now,

(01:18:32):
but they were on a huge flight path back then.
Is that something that enters into in a big way?
I guess it would be somebody's thinking about whether they're
gonna sell, whether they're gonna buy or whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:18:46):
Yeah, it's still wonder if she did her thesis on that.
Because you're you guys are West side folks. Sure, you
guys are used to that thing, that whole flight path
to Greater Cincinnati Airport, that kind of thing. I mean,
there's some areas, like in Del High if you're having
an outdoor picnic or what. Yeah, in some areas, you know,
we're talking Mount Saint Joe, they fly right over Mount

(01:19:08):
Saint Joe for the most part. You know, if you're
outdoor on a picnic, it's like hold on while this
jet flies over and then we can continue our conversation
or whatever. I mean, it's just it's accepted kind of
on the west side of town, you know, especially Dell
High that kind of stuff. And with increased traffic. I mean,
I was doing some home ork Mike, and it's like,

(01:19:30):
you know, now there's a Dahl Hub over there, there's
an Amazon Hub, a lot of cargo freight traffic, you know,
overhead freight traffic is coming in there. Now they're doing
some noise abatement things from Greater Cincinnati Airport, that kind
of stuff. To minimize that kind of thing, But it
definitely has an effect on especially if you're not used

(01:19:52):
to it, like you are being a west Side or
if you're not used to that definitely has an effect
on home home prices, that's for sure. I think it does.

Speaker 1 (01:20:02):
It's a lot better than it used to be. But
do you think the average buyer factors that in, because
it sure sounds like they should, But do.

Speaker 5 (01:20:10):
They unless if you're not familiar with the West Side.
That's why I always say, spend some time over there're
not familiar with it. Some of them forget to do
that right, and it's like that's where it comes. You
got to be a good realtor and and you know,
set expectations in terms of traffic that kind of stuff.

(01:20:31):
But you know what's funny. I was thinking my father
in law, he was certainly a West Side guy, and
he was a retiree from ge aviation. He used to
love to sit out in the backyard and watch the
airplanes go over.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
There are people like that, Greg, there are.

Speaker 5 (01:20:50):
Typical west Side It's like pull up the garage door,
sit outside your garage and watch traffic or watch watch
the jets.

Speaker 1 (01:20:58):
Fly over you and I have a mutual friend who
loved to do that because it's free. You know, it
doesn't have to pay anything.

Speaker 5 (01:21:06):
Yeah, I know who you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:21:11):
Different quirks for different people.

Speaker 5 (01:21:13):
I guess that cold ones that.

Speaker 1 (01:21:17):
Could factor into it. You never know, but you know what,
there really are people like that. But I just wondered
if people really think about that when they're buying, and
like you said, over on the West Side, they should. Anyway, Hey,
we are out of time. Greg really appreciated and I
hope we can call on you in the new year.

Speaker 5 (01:21:37):
Hey, not a problem, thanks Mike, and bring in that
Utai feeling.

Speaker 7 (01:21:42):
I am.

Speaker 1 (01:21:42):
I am every day I try.

Speaker 5 (01:21:45):
All right, Broke appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:48):
Okay, bye bye. All right. That's Greg Stanley of Komy
and Shepherd. And that's a really interesting question that h
that he put forward about the home sales. And I
remember my sister doing that and doctoral dissertation is a
big deal, and man, she researched the hell out of it.
And on her street it was a street called mid
Forest over there kind of by where Western Midills Country

(01:22:10):
Club is. I mean, those people were not happy about it,
and some of them, not in a big way, but
in a relatively minor way affected them psychologically. So something
to think about when you are buying a home, especially,
like Greg said on the West Side, Hey, we got
to take a break, but when we get back, we
are going to talk to none other. And it's a

(01:22:32):
shame he's leaving the one and only Bill Sites. We're
going to talk to him about the Western Neils Viaduct.
Maybe you saw it once again. The project is getting postpone,
not called off or anything like that. Bill Sites is
the guy mainly for his efforts that we're even getting
a new one. I just wanted to ask Bill about that.

(01:22:53):
We'll do that when we get back. Mike Allen and
for Willie seven hundred WLW, I'm about that. That's kind
of my error usually if it's not before, I don't know,
nineteen sixty five. I struggle a bit at any rate. Seriously, folks,
if you are a West Sider, you know just how
important the Western Hills Viaduct is, and you also know

(01:23:16):
what an absolute mess it is. It has been declared
this is kind of a scary thing, declared functionally obsolete.
Yet cars go over daily. Quite a few of them,
thanks in large part to my next guest efforts. The
existing Western Hills Viaduct is going to be torn down.
They're going to get a new one that's going to

(01:23:37):
be built, But as I understand, I'm going to build
a new one and then tear down the old one. Well,
we found out last week that, according to the Cincinnati
Inquired did a pretty comprehensive story on it. The subheadlines
are inflation has caused the new Western Hills Viaduct project
to shrink in scope and increase in cost. The new

(01:23:58):
design will have three lanes in each direction instead of
the four lanes and one walkway path for people that
it had before then. Well actually there were two before then.
The project's costs will exceed the previous estimate of three
hundred and ninety eight million, though a new total has
not been announced. Bill Sites is the Ohio House member

(01:24:18):
from the thirtieth House district on the West Side. He's
the guy that I mean this because I was watching
the whole thing as it played out. He's the guy
that finally made it happen for the Western Hills Viaduct.
Because you know, so many people in government, he got
them all together. We got it done. Unfortunately, Bill will
be leaving the Ohio legislature soon due to term limits,

(01:24:41):
and I don't know that's a damn shame. But anyway,
here to talk about it is State Representative Bill Sites. Bill,
thanks so much for joining us this afternoon.

Speaker 6 (01:24:51):
Hey Mike, I'm I'm delighted to be with you. I
was actually turned out of office at the end of
twenty twenty four. Oh to correct that. For the record, however,
I want.

Speaker 1 (01:25:01):
To get you back in there for a year though.

Speaker 6 (01:25:03):
Well you know how term limits are.

Speaker 1 (01:25:05):
You got to say sorry about that, real fella.

Speaker 6 (01:25:08):
Yeah, there's a great fellow named Mike Odiosa that took
my place.

Speaker 1 (01:25:11):
Good man, job, good man.

Speaker 6 (01:25:14):
But let me let me walk you through this. Over
a period of time from twenty sixteen through twenty twenty,
we put all the building blocks in place to get
this done with the estimated cost of four hundred to
four hundred and fifty million dollars. We allowed the county

(01:25:34):
and the city to increase their license plate fee by
five dollars each. The county and the city. We raised
the gas tax that provides more money for infrastructure, and
we also increased the percentage of that gas tax that
goes for the benefit of local governments like the county
and the city. We passed a law that gave the

(01:25:57):
city the authority to seek vote approval for a TRANPT
tax member. We raised the sales tax, cut the income tax,
and I insisted as part of that law that twenty
five percent of those proceeds must be used for infrastructure,
for infrastructure over of roads over which busses would travel.

(01:26:19):
So that was the key to selling the thing, because
you know how things are out here in Green Township.
I don't think too many people would have voted for
just a bus levee, but putting the infrastructure angle in
their help. And then finally, after all that was put
in place, we had to change the law to allow
the city to sell the railroad that runs the Southern

(01:26:39):
Railroads that runs down to Chattanooga. And as part of
that legislation, we insisted that every single dime that the
city gets be spent to repair existing infrastructure. So with
all those building blocks building a little by little, we
put the whole funding thing in place. And then what happened, well,

(01:27:04):
Bide inflation, Oh yeah, and Biden inflation because all of
the stuff I'm talking about was put into place before
that kicked in, and the enquire said they didn't know
what the new cost was. I believe Eric Beck, the
county engineer, told me a few months ago it's going
to be north of eight hundred million, no wow, instead

(01:27:25):
of instead of the four hundred and fifty million that
we were looking at, because construction costs have skyrocketed, just
like everything else as a result of the significant inflation
that has happened since the year twenty twenty.

Speaker 7 (01:27:40):
And you all know why.

Speaker 6 (01:27:41):
I mean, it's pretty simple. So they have had to
scale the program back. They've scaled down the number of lanes,
they've scaled down the number of walkways, and you know,
I think they're still scratching their head wondering where the
rest of the money's going to come from. But the
but the trans attack money is in place, they can

(01:28:01):
allocate twenty five percent of that money to fix infrastructure
like the Western Hills viaducts. The railroad sale money can
be used for repairing existing infrastructure like the Western Hills viaducts.
So hopefully that will be the vehicle by which we
finally get this done. The completion gate Mike has been
pushed back to we all like to have all this. Yeah,

(01:28:25):
we had hoped to have all this done by the
year twenty twenty nine. Well, now the latest I see
in the paper there that you quoted, I believe they
said twenty thirty two.

Speaker 1 (01:28:34):
It was twenty thirty two. Yeah, you know what, let
me ask you this bill real quick. You know you're
a west side or you probably hear it. I know,
I do. What I hear is Well, there they go again,
sticking it to the west side. If this was over
Hyde Parker Mount, lookout, it'd be freaking done by now.
I mean, do you ascribe to that too? That's the feeling.

Speaker 6 (01:28:52):
Well, okay, in fairness, it's tied up also with the
construction of the new Prince Spence Bridge, which is another
big project that's been delayed through the room because the
approaches to the new brand Spence Bridge will actually start
way back where the Western Hills Viaduct comes in. And

(01:29:14):
that's not surprising either, because anybody that goes down South
seventy five now seems that the traffic often backs up
well past the Western Hills Viaduct and in some cases
well past Opple Street. So so you know, the new
approaches to the brand spence have to be coordinated. The

(01:29:34):
construction of those have to be coordinated with the construction
of the viaduct because the two of them connect. As
you well know, right, you can get off of sety
five either north or south and come across the viaduct.
Although when you come southbound and you go under the viaduct,
watch out for falling concrecte.

Speaker 1 (01:29:53):
I'm telling you that's frightening, Bill, It really is. I mean,
it's got those nets up there, I think still, I mean,
I don't know. I trust the engineers and the other
structural engineers, those people that, yeah, they wouldn't put us
on there if they didn't think it was safe. But
it still is. It's kind of scary to look at it.
Let me ask you this. Do you think maybe in
about three years from now, I'll be sitting here with

(01:30:15):
another politician saying, Hey, what happened. This is supposed to
be done in twenty twenty three.

Speaker 6 (01:30:22):
Well, like I said, they've already pushed the estimated completion
date back to twenty thirty two, much of my chagrin.
The cost has gone up almost double. And you know,
I'm not in office anymore, so I guess it's going
to be somebody else's problem. But it's a significant you know,
It's the thing was starting construction in nineteen twenty nine.

Speaker 1 (01:30:45):
I know it will be one hundred.

Speaker 6 (01:30:46):
Years old in twenty twenty nine or twenty thirty. And
something that significant, that carries that much traffic, it seems
to me you're really pushing the envelope, saying let's leave
it up for a few more years after it's been
up for one hundred years.

Speaker 1 (01:31:01):
You know, you would think so, Bill, My brothers might
have told you my grandfather was a civil engineer and
he actually participated in the work on it, And you're right,
it goes that all the way that far back. I
don't know it just again it just seems like one
thing or the other, and it's just so so necessary.
But again, you know, inflation, what are you going to do?

Speaker 6 (01:31:22):
You know, well, stop inflation is what you're going to do.
And that means rein in federal government spending that went
out of control during and after COVID, and when there's
too much money chasing too few goods, that's called the
recipe for inflation, and that's exactly what we saw. You
see it in healthy prices. You see it all over them.

(01:31:45):
You see it in the price of beef and the
prices they pay at the grocery store. I mean, inflation
has really knocked the socks off a whole lot of
people here in the last couple of years.

Speaker 1 (01:31:54):
It is, it has well, you know what, I tried
to give you an extra year bill, and I know
Mike Odeosa is doing a great job, But how are
you liking it? Are you still practicing law?

Speaker 6 (01:32:05):
I think right, Oh yeah, I'm practicing law. I'm also
Governor to Wine appointed me to the State Board of
Tax Appeals, which is a three person board that hears
all appeals when people aren't happy with what the border
revision did or aren't happy what the County Budget Commission did.
We hear all those appeals, three people. And I'm doing

(01:32:26):
a little bit of lobbying through our Dinsmore Shal affiliates
lobbying affiliates. So I'm doing a little bit of that.
And of course the governor had also appointed me this
summer to co chair the Governor's Property Tax Working Group,
which was a select group that he put together and
I co chaired it with Pat T. Berry, a former

(01:32:47):
congressman from the Columbus area who down runs the business
Roundtable in Ohile. And so that was an intense period
of two months of weekly meetings trying to get to
the bottom of that mess. And you know, property taxes, God,
everybody's patties in and uproar too. So we came up
with twenty solid recommendations. Some of them have been adopted

(01:33:08):
by the legislature. Some of them they sort of cherry picked,
and I wasn't too happy about that, but sure, nonetheless
they did some of it. So we were feeling like
our work was not in vain. But I'm keeping plenty busy,
good And I guess you got to keep busy when
you're as old as me, because you don't want to
just sit around and do nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:33:29):
I'm right behind you, brother, I'm right behind you. You
know one thing I want to tell you anything. I
told you this before, but it bears repeating. You've done
so many things in the legislature, both in the House
and the State Senate. I think one of your major
things was, and it's something that I'm retired now, thank goodness,
worked with on a daily basis, is criminal justice reform,

(01:33:51):
not just reform. Just for the sake of reforming things,
but some really good ideas and changes in our criminal
justice system. And I know a lot of people in
the system, most people in the system sure appreciate that.

Speaker 6 (01:34:04):
Bill, Well, I appreciate your comments because you're right, that
was the principal focus of mine. And it's not soft
on crime. It's basically what I was doing was making
it easier for convicted criminals who have served their time
to be able to find housing and a job, to
give them a second chance. And we passed some very

(01:34:25):
significant legislation on both of those areas. And we also
passed some very significant legislation that widens the use of
DNA and helps people who are wrongfully convicted be exonerated
when the DNA does not prove their guilt. So those
are all good things. We're not talking about, you know,

(01:34:46):
no bail or any of that stuff. Absolutely not, I know.
We're talking about, you know, good, good, solid criminal justice
reforms that protect the innocence while punishing the guilty. And
that's what the system should all be about.

Speaker 1 (01:34:59):
Right, You're exactly right, And people on the on the
law enforcement prosecution end realized that too, Bill, Like you
said it wasn't you know, get out of jail free
and that kind of stuff. It was things that are needed,
you know. So anyway, as I know a lot of
people appreciate that. Bill, Hey, I appreciate you taking out
time for us, and hope we can call.

Speaker 6 (01:35:20):
On you again anytime, anytime. Mike, we've been friends for many,
many years. Oh yeah, I hope you had a good
Thanksgiving and all your listeners did too. And and how
about them Banks?

Speaker 1 (01:35:31):
How about that night?

Speaker 2 (01:35:34):
There you go?

Speaker 7 (01:35:34):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:35:35):
Thank you?

Speaker 6 (01:35:36):
All righty, okay, bye bye?

Speaker 7 (01:35:39):
See it? Bill?

Speaker 1 (01:35:39):
Thank you. Oh that's a good man right there, and
a great public servant. I can't believe I gave him
an extra year. The person that came in for Bill,
and I should have known better on that. Mike Odioso,
good saint savior guy. Mike taught out there. Maybe he
still does. I'm not sure. So we lost a good one,

(01:36:00):
but we got a good one too. Hey, we got
to take a break. We'll be back for a few
minutes after that, and then we'll be out of here.
Mike Allen in for Willie's seven hundred wlw rolling Stones. Hey, listen,
we just have a few minutes left here before I
got to get out of here, but I will be
back tomorrow for Saturday midday, probably be pretty close to

(01:36:22):
exclusively politics. I think that's what people want to hear
out of that show. And I'll tell you what you know.
When I first started doing that show, I guess it's
about I don't know, seven eight years ago. Honestly, in
thinking about preparing the show, you know, I'd have to think, well,
I'm going to talk about this or what can I
talk about? Now it has changed to where I have

(01:36:44):
to do it by process of elimination because there is
so much going on, not a whole lot of it
being good too. It's a funny thing though, and I
know I say this all the time people get tired
of hearing it. But you know, when some of these
things happen, like what we were talking about before with
respect to that, just the horrible, horrible death of well

(01:37:07):
one so far, hopefully the other one survives. Those two
West Virginia National Guard people. One was an airman, the
other was a National Guard member, all of twenty years old.
All of twenty years old. They're just gunned down in
the street by someone who was in this country and
had no right to be in there. I mean, how

(01:37:30):
does that stuff happen? Why does it happen? And why
does the other side And this is the thing that
baffles me. Maybe someday I'll figure it out. I guess
it's just a I hate to say it, the way
things are just going to hell in a handbasket for
certain members of our society. But why is it that

(01:37:52):
Democrats and those on the left and those in academia.
And I'm not exaggerating, which I'm prone to do on
it ocasion, but why are they advocating for people who
are not citizens of this country and really taking the
side against people that are. I don't understand that. I don't.

(01:38:17):
And you know what, you want to come to this
country because you know you're suffering prejudice in your own country. Whatever,
do it, man, that's what we're here for. But do
it right, Do it right. I have talked to so
many people that have done it right. You know, they
do the courses, they take the tests, and they are

(01:38:38):
then naturalized citizens. And I don't have I ever said
this before. I think I did, But you know, I'm
an attorney and I was out a federal court. This
is five or six years ago. And my case wasn't
coming up for a while, so I just ducked in
a courtroom. They had one of those ceremonies there, the
naturalization ceremony. Were the people who did take the time

(01:38:59):
and the effort to do it right were sworn in
as American citizens. And you would not believe the pride
in those people and what they did. And you know,
here we let twenty million in that had no business
coming in. But anyway, I'll get off of that high
horse for now. I'll probably get back on it tomorrow morning.

(01:39:20):
But it's the way it goes. Hey, I am out
of here. I really appreciate Willy giving me the chance
to sit in for him. It's kind of a different
a different time of day, but it's still fun doing it,
and I really appreciate Willy giving me the opportunity. Mike
Allen seven hundred WLW.

Speaker 2 (01:39:38):
News Traffic and Weather News Radio seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati.

Speaker 9 (01:39:46):
Waiting in some lines on roads and also at check
out registers with the three o'clock report. I'm Jack Crumbley
breaking now.

Speaker 1 (01:39:54):
Please keep your keys with you.

Speaker 9 (01:39:56):
Lieutenant Paul Nabor with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office trying
to make sure thousands of Black Friday shoppers are safe
on this big sales day. The mall in Kenwood is
one of the busiest spots in Hamilton County.

Speaker 10 (01:40:07):
We've increased our patrols withinside the Town inside the Town Center,
multiple different ausers are going to be within there and
to hand on any kind of calls for service withinside
the mall, and.

Speaker 9 (01:40:19):
That also means streets and highways are busy with people
trying to drive to the shopping areas looking to buy.
Tracy Schwegmann with Sycamore Township Trustees, we ask folks.

Speaker 1 (01:40:28):
To pack their patients. We encourage them to really follow
the signage that's going to be in and around the
interstates on the main arteries. Sometimes that entrance that you're
used to typically going into may not be the fastest
access to the mall. So if it's telling you to
go left when you're used to going right, take the left.

Speaker 4 (01:40:47):
Let's check the latest traffic and weather together.

Speaker 11 (01:40:51):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. You see Health's Epilepsy
Center is leading the way toward better days for people
with epilepsy. With access to clinical trials from leading neurologists,
expect more at u Sehealth dot com. On northbound seventy
five before town, they center lane blocked from an accident.
Traffic backed up from Norwood Elateral. Not too bad though,

(01:41:12):
minute or two worth of delays at the moment. Another
accident on the Red Bank Expressway that's over at Hetzel Street.
Northbound seventy one seventy five at Donaldson Rode an accident
off on the right shoulder. Plenty of slow spots around
town as well, including southbound seventy one traffic. There's stop
and go between Fifert and Montgomery Road up to a

(01:41:33):
ten minute delay. I met Ezelak on news radio seven
hundred WLUBLE.

Speaker 9 (01:41:37):
Also Montgomery Road approaching seventy one, both directions backing up again.

Speaker 4 (01:41:40):
That is Kenwood Mall traffic now.

Speaker 12 (01:41:43):
The latest forecast from the No Fear Dentist Weather Center
Advanced dentistry the thought of the dentist making you a
nervous wreck. We're here for you, No Fear Dentist dot Com.

Speaker 13 (01:41:53):
Cold and sunny today across the tri State, but a
winter storm system is moving in Saturday morning. Snow starts
around a break for our western counties Across Southeast Indiana.
Good see some light accumulation, and then we'll see a
switch to arrange snow mix as temperature rise after the
noon hour. A trace to a few inches certainly possible
where we have the early onset of snow. Meanwhile, cold

(01:42:16):
and windy into your Sunday from your severe what the station.
I'm nine first one and meteorologist Kjjcobs's ready the seven
hundred WOW.

Speaker 9 (01:42:24):
Radar show sunny skies in the tri State thirty four
degrees right now. News is a service of Low T
Center and a Doren Window Company. One of the two
National Guard members shot near the White House Wednesday has
now died. The suspect now facing a first degree murder charge.
He's been identified as an Afghan national brought to the
US in twenty twenty one with a special immigrant visa

(01:42:45):
and then granted asylum this year. In April, the CIA
saying that he worked with the US government in Afghanistan
during the war. Here's former Acting under Secretary for Intelligence
at the Department of Homeland Security, John Cohen.

Speaker 14 (01:42:57):
Based on what we've learned thus far is that this
is an individual, like thousands of other Afghanistanis who worked
closely with the US military and intelligence community, not only
as interpreters, but also to fight terrorists in Afghanistan. That
means that while he was there, he would have been
heavily vetted by the CIADOD and other authorities to make

(01:43:17):
sure he was not an insider threat and posed a
risk to our forces.

Speaker 9 (01:43:21):
President Trump claimed the man wasn't vetted at all and
called a reporter stupid for asking about it.

Speaker 4 (01:43:26):
Seven hundred WLW Sports.

Speaker 15 (01:43:30):
It's a Bengals update brought to you by Good Spirits,
Wine and Tobacco and Party Town with thirteen convenient northern
Kentucky locations. Bengals with that big road win over the
Ravens last night Cincinnata and now four and eight on
the season, three and one in the AFC North. Players
had the weekend off up next to Buffalo next Sunday.
High school football Ohio and Kentucky State semi finals tonight
in Ohio, Saint x Middletown, Anderson and Indian Hill in

(01:43:52):
action in Kentucky, Ryle Lloyd and Beechwood College basketball Tonight
Texas A and m Corpus Christi versus Xavier at five
thirty Here on seven hundred WLW Bill Edison, seven hundred
WLW Sports.

Speaker 9 (01:44:04):
I'm Jack Crumley. Our next update at three point thirty
Breaking News Anytime News Radio seven hundred WLWE.

Speaker 1 (01:44:10):
This report is sponsored by AT and T. Connecting changes
everything

Speaker 5 (01:44:15):
This holiday season at AT and T learn how to
get the all new iPhone

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