12-31-25 Mike Allen in for Scott Sloan

Mike Allen fills in for Sloan discussing the fraud in Minnesota and now Columbus. Also looking at the 2025 political year, and previewing tonight's Cotton Bowl.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you want to be an American Indio.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
News Radio seven WW Mike Allen in for Sloaney today, tomorrow,
and a couple of days next week too. Well, I'll
tell you what the beat goes on with the situation
in Minnesota. It's this one thing after another with this
and it grows daily. I mean it literally grows daily.

(00:29):
Oh boy, I'll tell you. Yesterday a surge of federal
officers from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
They were deployed to Minnesota to investigate new allegations of
fraud at the childcare centers, many operated by some Holly residents.
I would probably change that from most operated by Somali residents.

(00:55):
Cashptel and DHS Secretary Christy Knowam they announced that they
are going to increase operations to quote dismantle large scale
fraud schemes exploiting federal programs. This follows an earlier federal
prosecutor's allegation that up to half of the approximately eighteen

(01:18):
billion dollars in federal funds allocated to Minnesota since twenty
eighteen may have been stolen across various programs. That's probably
the understatement of the decade this thing. Yeah, and we've
talked about it a lot this week and probably continue
to talk about it too. It's, without question the biggest

(01:41):
government victim. The government's the victim here fraud scheme that
I've ever heard of, and probably the biggest in this country.
You know, we're kind of standing pat here at nine billion,
talking to people that have covered this journalist pretty closely.
It's the general consensus that that's the tip of the

(02:02):
iceberg and it's only going to go up from there.
And you know, some people might be saying, well, who cares?
You know, it's it's not my money, it's the taxpayers
of Minnesota. The overwhelming majority of this money is from
federal sources, which means, guess what you and I are
paying for it. I'll tell you what. I saw something

(02:25):
late last night that just got my hair up in
a wad and the hair on the back of my
neck to stand up. And no surprise here, it's the
New York Times. You know, you got people out there
concerned about this. The mainstream media pretty much is just
taking a walk on it. And the New York Times

(02:46):
probably has the biggest investigative force, if you will, of
alleged journalist in the country. There is an article in
Yesterday's New York Times that I printed out. I don't
want to talk about a little bit. It's unbelievable. It
is by Ken Benzinger and Nesto Londano. The headline is

(03:08):
an intense White House response from a single viral video.
Just the first couple sentences, a video purporting to expose
extensive fraud at childcare centers in Minnesota shows the relationship
between the Trump administration and self described citizen journalist. So

(03:32):
right from jump, you know where this thing is going.
After reading that first sentence, I said, well, we'll see
where this goes. I think I got a pretty good idea.
They're pod because you got citizens out there are doing
the damn job that they were supposed to do. And again,
a video purporting to expose extensive fraud and a childcare

(03:56):
center in Minnesota or childcare centers plural is in Minnesota
shows the relationship between the Trump administration and self described
citizen journalist. Well, let me ask you, why is that
a bad thing? Why is that a bad thing? You know,
A young man with a cell phone, it took it

(04:21):
put together a forty two minute video. He did the
job that The New York Times, the Washington Post, all
of them couldn't do or wouldn't do, I think, more appropriately,
wouldn't do. Why is that a bad thing for a
citizen watchdog to keep an eye on the federal government. Well,

(04:43):
it goes on. A forty three minute video posted online
in the past week purporting to expose extensive fraud at
a Somali run childcare center Somali run childcare centers in
Minnesota has been viewed by millions of people. It has
also set off a suit of events that showed the
symbiotic relationship between the Trump administration and self described citizen

(05:08):
journalist and the Washington Post. They don't like that at all. No,
they don't like it at all. Talking about of course,
Nick Shirley. He put this forty three minute video together.
I watched it again last night. It's on YouTube. You
can find it, and I'll tell you if you care
about where your taxpayers money dollars are going, just watch it.

(05:31):
It's only forty three minutes. It's really really it kind
of gives you a good idea of where we're at. Anyway.
It was posted two x and on YouTube the day
after Christmas by Nick Shirley, a twenty three year old
who's made a name for himself in the past two
years by producing viral content. Are you ready for this?

(05:52):
That aligns with mega policies where we couldn't have that.
In the video, mister Shirley is accompanied by a man
known only as David, who claims to have uncovered fraud
worse than anywhere else in history. And buddy, he's right
about that, so he says. It goes on. The New
York Times could not verify the claims made in the video. Okay, well,

(06:16):
let me pose this question. Do they really want to
Is that something that they want to get involved in?
They didn't. They had the opportunity to do it, but
they're not covering it. They did cover it a little
bit in the beginning. Anyway. Let me see who said

(06:36):
top Republican officials said this. Oh, this is from the
Vice President. I'll tell you what. He just kind of
described this thing perfectly. This is from the Vice President
yesterday talking about Nick Shirley. This dude has done far
more useful journalism than any of the winners of the
twenty twenty four Pulitzer Prize Center Prizes He's absolutely right,

(06:59):
absolutely right, twenty three years old with a cell phone camera.
He did have another camera with him, cameraman, amateur dude.
But I mean he did the job that The New
York Times, the Washington Post, CBS, NBC, ABC should have
been doing. And they're covering this now finally, I mean

(07:21):
they have to. But they were real slow, real slow
to the dance on this. Well, the article goes on
the scale of the reaction to mister Shirley's video has
few precedents, but it highlights the way the White House
seeds narratives about key issues and then rewards sympathetic creators

(07:41):
who deliver viral content. Okay, again, I would pose the question,
how is that a bad thing? And it goes on
to say that the content need need not be new
or revelatory, or even particularly revelatory to succeed. Watch that

(08:02):
forty three minute video and ask yourself, is this relevant?
Is this revelatory? As the New York Times says, I
think it is? I think it is. Well, where does
the New York Times go, of course, to get so
called expert comment on this? Where would you think they
would go? They would go to Darryl L. Linnville of

(08:26):
the Media Forensics Hub whatever that is at Clemson University,
who tracks how social media is used to disseminate propaganda.
That's where you know, you'd figure they would go go
to a college professor. I guarantee you he'll give it
to you straight right down the line. There'll be no

(08:47):
liberal bias there. It goes on to say this guy,
Daryl Linnville, professor Lindeville, they all have goals that aligne
and they're all pointed in the same direction. And that
is because again, you New York Times won't do your job,

(09:07):
so citizens have to do it. And I know you
don't like it because at some point, hopefully at least,
it's going to put you out of business. They hate
this well anyway, over the past, it goes on. Over
the past two years, pro Trump content creators have covered
dozens of protests, political rallies, and natural disasters, and they've

(09:30):
actually marched with are you ready anti Muslim activists? Oh no,
and embedded with immigration officials on raids. How is that
a bad thing?

Speaker 3 (09:42):
You know?

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Citizens ride with cops all the time.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Again, with the situation with Ice, what do they have
to hide? Why wouldn't they want to do something like that.
But again, this all boils down to New York Times
won't do their job, not be because they can't. I mean,
like I said, They've got investigative reporters out the wazoo,
but man, they ain't touching this because guess what, it

(10:08):
doesn't fit with their narrative. They could care less about
the truth. They could care less about informing the public.
The story goes on to say in September, talking about
mister Shirley, he confronted a group of men selling what
appeared to be counterfeit watches in Lower Manhattan, calling them
quote illegal scammers close quote. Less than a month later,

(10:32):
the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency arrested several of the
same men in a targeted rate and New York Times
let me ask you, how is that a bad thing?
How is that a bad thing? You're not doing your job.
Somebody has to step up and do it well. And
it goes on. Little has proved as viral as his

(10:56):
portrayal of Somali's in Minnesota. Mister Shirley traveled to the
state in July to cover what he called the quote
rise of Islam close quote with on the street interviews
with Somali Americans. Is there a problem there with that?
He returned soon after. He returned soon after. Mister Trump,

(11:17):
during a televised cabinet meeting early this month, called the
members of the dysphoria garbage who had ripped off taxpayers.
You know, honestly, I don't know that I would have
used that word garbage, but I don't have any problem
with the President using it. Garbage who ripped off taxpayers.

(11:37):
I'd say that's pretty accurate, isn't it? Nine billion dollars
and counting. Mister Shirley's latest video appears to have been
filmed on December seventeenth in and around Minneapolis, where he
knocks on the doors of numerous childcare and autism centers.
In some cases, there is no answer. When someone does

(11:58):
open up, Mister Shirley demand to see whether there are
children inside, but has never shown any. That's why the
New York Times, the Washington Post, ABCCBS, NBC, that's what
they should be doing. That's what they should be doing.
But this twenty three year old citizen journalist, if you will,

(12:22):
has done more on this story than all of those
outfits combined. And it's not even close. That goes on
to say prosecutors have exposed financial abuses in Minnesota's social
safety Net program for years. They brought charges in twenty
twenty two and have since said they believe that more

(12:44):
than nine billion dollars was stolen across several of the programs. Okay,
let me read this sentence to you for all of
you that think you know this is just up piling
on blaming everything on the Smalley community. Again, I repeat,
this is the New York Times reporting to date, ninety
eight people have been charged, nearly all of them Somali Americans.

(13:09):
Once again, to date, ninety eight people have been charged,
nearly all of them Somali Americans. By the way, the
specific count as I have it, there were ninety eight
people charged, as they said, eighty five of them five
out of ninety eight are of Somali descent. So I

(13:32):
think that's about the only accurate, only accurate thing that's
in this New York Times story. They're quoting someone here.
Who are they quoting. We don't know if children were
or were not present at the time the video was taken.
That's what the Department of Children, Youth and Families said.
In a statement regarding the video, When our licensers have

(13:55):
conducted visits to the buildings, it added, there have been
children present. Well again, take forty three minutes out of
your day to watch Nick Shirley's forty three minute video.
These guys he shows up, and Shirley does, He's got
another guy with him. He shows up there, and there's

(14:15):
some Maloy's milling around out there, and he said, hey,
do people go to these schools? None of them can
answer anything. Where are the kids? None of them can answer.
They can't. And these buildings that they went to, these
so called learning centers, they all have their windows blacked out,
you know, with some kind of covering. So you me

(14:38):
and a citizen that wants to help with respect to
wasting tax dollars. He tries to go there. He can't
see anything in there. I mean, everything's okay, though, you know,
no reason to worry about it, no reason to get
all riled up about this New York Times. Anyway, I
watched the video again, forty three minutes. You know you

(15:00):
got New Year's even New Year's Day. It's worth your time, okay.
In a statement, Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman said
that quote, the country should be deeply appreciative to surely
for shining a light on this issue. And here we go.
The legacy media should have taken notes. And it looks

(15:22):
like the New York Time has based on this article.
But it's what you would expect. No support for the guy,
no words of encouragement for the guy, you know, just criticism,
and they have. This is the New York Times article
again in parentheses. Among the news organizations that have covered
the issue extensively are the Minnesota Star Tribune, the Minnesota Reformer,

(15:47):
Sahan Journey Journal, whatever the hell that is. Oh, and
here's one this outfit's going to give it to you.
They're gonna give it to you straight, with no bias.
Minnesota Public Radio and they do have local television stations,
some of which, it would appear, did some good reporting
on this. But you know, according to this New York

(16:07):
Times article, we should all rest assured, not worry about it,
and we don't need citizen journalists because the Minnesota Star Tribune,
the Minnesota Reformer, Sahan Journal, and Minnesota Public Radio are
all over it. They're all over it. Anyway. I could
go on and on on this and if I had time,
I would, but I want to hear what you have

(16:29):
to say about this. I've been talking about this in
the last two three days and people are really interested.
Seven four nine, seven thousand, eight hundred. The big one
are the numbers. The lines will be open, so please
call let me know what you're thinking. Mike Allen seven
hundred WLW Hey, right back, Mike Allan, impoor sloany, seven

(16:58):
hundred WLW Well. During the break, my very industrious producer
Dave Keaton found a video that I guess was released
yesterday in Columbus, so all that anticipation was accurate. There
is they are alleging something up there, and the Columbus Dispatch,

(17:19):
I mean, you have to pay for it if you
want to read their articles does have a headline Ohio
GOP lawmakers seek daycare fraud investigation after viral claims. It
goes about two and a half minutes. So David and
I decided we're going to play it for you now
I'm hearing it for the first time, as are you,

(17:40):
So Dave, could you please play that. It's Anthony Rubin
from the muckraker who did this as a daycase saying
by Somalias and.

Speaker 5 (17:50):
Stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Have you ever seen any kids in this place here?

Speaker 2 (17:54):
No, not that I know.

Speaker 6 (17:55):
I've just seen it the building itself. I've never seen
nobody come out the building or go into building.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Ever seen anybody over there.

Speaker 7 (18:02):
So right now we are in front of the Great
Minds Learning Academy. This is one of the many daycare
centers learning centers here in Columbus, Ohio that are associated
with the Somali community.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
As you know, Nick Shirley.

Speaker 7 (18:16):
Put out a bomb show report about all these fraudulent
daycare facilities in Minneapolis, Minnesota. So we wanted to come
out to Columbus, Ohio and investigate what might be going
on in the second largest Somali community in the United
States of America.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
So this place here is the first place.

Speaker 7 (18:37):
We're gonna knock and we're gonna see if anybody picks
up or answers the door.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Let's see.

Speaker 3 (18:52):
So it's locked.

Speaker 7 (18:55):
We're ringing the doorbellt here, knocking on the door. Nobody's
picking up, so we're not sure what the hell's going
on here, Bud. We're gonna we're gonna get out of here.
Now there's somebody over there.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
How you doing, sir.

Speaker 7 (19:07):
I'm sure you see the reports over the weekend about
all the daycare centers in Minnesota.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
We just wanted to see what was going on. Did
you you know anything about this place here?

Speaker 2 (19:14):
It's a daycase center everybody some alliance and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Did you ever see any kids there?

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Not?

Speaker 8 (19:20):
Because they used the back door, so I won't to
know if they is they used the back door.

Speaker 5 (19:24):
Yeah, I've never seen nobody come in, but they used
the back door.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
But but have you ever seen any kid you live
around here?

Speaker 8 (19:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, in this building right here?

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Hey, you're in this building. Yeah, you're in this building too.
Let me ask you. Have you ever seen any kids
in this place here?

Speaker 4 (19:39):
No?

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Not that I know.

Speaker 6 (19:40):
If they used the back so I've never seen nobody
come out the front. You've never seen anybody over there.
I've just seen it the building itself. I've never seen
nobody come out the building.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Or go into the building.

Speaker 7 (19:51):
So it came to the back, just like those guys suggested.
And there's nothing here. You know, we can keep poking around,
but there's so many of these centers to go to.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
We're just getting started, so we're gonna go around the city.
We're gonna go to a few more of these places.
We're gonna see if we can get anybody to talk
to us.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Stay tuned. Well, there you go. I'm unbelievable. I mean,
it seems to me that one. It's shorter, but it's
worse than the one that Nick Shirley did. You know,
no kids. I think he went to two of them,
if I was listening to it correctly, No kids at

(20:30):
the Great Minds Learning Academy. So I guess they went
to a second one daycare center and they asked a guy.
It sounded like he was just maybe kind of a
bystander or something, who I guess has an office. And
again I didn't see it. I just heard it for
the first time. Doesn't see any kids, and the kids

(20:50):
use the back door. Now gee, why would that be?
You know, I mean, this is unbelievable. Now, I wonder,
I just wonder if the New York Times would be
concerned about this, or they would send one of their
liberal biased reporters to cover it. See, it doesn't fit

(21:13):
their narrative, the narrative of Trump bad. No matter what,
you know, we can't keep an eye on where our
tax dollars go. Anything that has to do with Islam, race,
or anything along those lines, we ain't touching. We're not
going to touch that because God forbid, somebody might call

(21:36):
us an islamophobe or a racist. It stinks. It stinks
billions of dollars of our tax money, and you gotta
have citizen journalists go uncover it. They're the only ones
in the journalism world. Except for the notable exception of

(21:58):
The Epoch, Time and Janis Heisel, no other major media
outlets are truly covering this. ABC, NBC, and CBS. You know,
I haven't seen the latest figures from the Media Research Center,
but at the beginning of this thing, I think two
out of those three gave them zero minutes of coverage.

(22:19):
The other one I gave them like three. I just
can't bring myself to watch any of those three stations.
So there you have it once again. And I do
believe I could be wrong about this. I think Governor
Dwine did make some kind of statement. I'm going to
check that out, and if I'm wrong, I'll let you know.

(22:39):
But you know, here we go again, And I know
I sound like a broken record. I get it, I do.
This is is sir, Tippitty Iceberg. It really is. Now
you know what city is next?

Speaker 4 (22:53):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Maybe Springfield, Ohio. It has a very large, comparatively so
Somali population. I guess we'll see. But darn it, we
just ought to stop picking on those Somalis. We really should.
It's not fair. I mean ninety or excuse me, eighty
five of the ninety eight people charged so far happen

(23:17):
to be of Somali descent. But hey, that doesn't matter.
That doesn't matter. You can raise the R word anytime
you want, Jess, throw it on out there. You know,
who cares if it's accurate, who cares if it's based
on any kind of facts at all. Let's just throw
it out there. I'm telling you right now, you cannot

(23:39):
have these people, and by these people, I mean these liberals.
You cannot put them in charge of things like this.
You just can't. You can't because they're not gonna watch
your backs, they're not gonna watch your money. They are
more concerned, and they've proven this time and time and
time again in for illegal immigrants, they're more concerned with

(24:04):
them than they are you and I ordinary American citizens.
And I think people have had just about enough of it,
and boy, this thing is just gonna drive the whole
message home and drive the nail further into their coffin figuratively,
I said, figuratively, I'll tell you what, I gotta take

(24:26):
a short break or I'm gonna have a heart attack.
Mike Allen seven hundred WLW nine fifty News Radio, seven
hundred WLW Mike Allen in for Sloany on New Year's
Eve and callers say, hey, wait a minute, it's New
Year's Eve. Y'all should be doing fluff stuff. And I

(24:46):
hear you, But boy, I tell you what, when there's
a story like this, you gotta do it now. I'm
on tomorrow, and unless something blows up, I got a
lot of good fluff stuff. It really is some kind
of interesting stuff. You know, that Year in Review twenty
twenty five, that kind of thing. So anyway, we'll do
the fluff when there's not a big story that should

(25:08):
be covered, and honestly, just be honest about it. It
really urinates me off for the New York Times on
their freaking high horse say, oh, this citizen journalist, he
didn't do this, he didn't do that, Well, why didn't
you do it?

Speaker 4 (25:25):
Then?

Speaker 2 (25:25):
And you know they're not going to did have to
make a correction, though, and I'm happy to do it.
If I say something wrong, I want to be corrected.
I said the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. And you know,
I think I've told you. I've been using AI quite
a bit and I've found it to be accurate. So
I googled are there some Alians in Springfield, Ohio? AI

(25:48):
came back, Yes, there are Somali's in Springfield, Ohio, though
the community in that city is smaller and less prominent
in public discussions compared to the much larger Haitian immigration population.
So anyway, mistake made, Mistake corrected. Let's go to the

(26:08):
phones here. Let's talk to Fred in Saint Petersburg. Hey,
good morning, Fred. Are you there? We got Fred. I'm
not hearing anything, so I guess Fred. Oh, there you go. Fred.
How you doing.

Speaker 9 (26:28):
I'm doing fine.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
Hey.

Speaker 9 (26:29):
You mentioned the New York Times saying that the newspapers
up in Minneapolis and there in those areas have been
covering this. That's a lie. That is a bold based lie.
They haven't been. They only started covering this in the
last three or four months.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
That doesn't surprise me. It does.

Speaker 9 (26:47):
I'm serious. That's that's a bold faced lie. And another
another thing, the Columbus mess. Now, Uh, there was a
guy that up and uh got convicted for this rod
up up there in Minnesota. And in the trial, I
think it was he mentioned he bought with some of
that money a restaurant in Columbus.

Speaker 5 (27:09):
Oh.

Speaker 9 (27:11):
I don't know where I heard this. It may have
been you, I don't, I don't remember, but somebody was
talking about these somalis were they would open the store,
a little convenience store, and across the street or next
door or something, they'd open a restaurant and the people
with smiles would come in there and with their ev
T cards buy a bunch of food, and then they'd

(27:34):
taken over the restaurant and sell it. You heard about that?

Speaker 2 (27:38):
I have not, But you know what, I'm serious. Nothing
surprises me. Nothing surprises me. You know. I think you
told me earlier in the week, Brad, that you heard
something about something brewing in Columbus. A lot of people
have heard that in Lo and behold here we go.
Not a lot known yet. I don't know if you
had a chance to listen to that video that I

(28:00):
just played there but sounds like something very very similar
to what's going on in Minnesota.

Speaker 9 (28:08):
Oh yeah, I heard it. And you know what, that
Shirley guy, he does a lot of videos, not just
this right in the past, he's done videos about riots
or whatever. I can't remember exactly, and he does a
lot of shorts too. This Tribali things just just blowed up,
you know. I mean, well, I think it's wonderful that

(28:28):
this is coming out. And one more thing, Yeah, one
more thing. What Trump has been doing trying to fix
all this in the last year. So there's one common
denominator that boils down to all this problems we've had
in his Democrats. You know, I hate to say that, but.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
It's true everything.

Speaker 9 (28:51):
I mean, you name one thing since Obamacare, back when
Obama was president. Name one that's not the Democrats vault.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
It's hard, anybody, it's hard to do that, Fred, and
I agree with you, and I agree with you also.
You hate to paint with a broad brush. Sometimes it's appropriate. Though,
where are the Democrats in the House, the Senate wherever,
screaming about this. I haven't heard any of them. If
anything cries out for bipartisan support. It's fixing this stuff,

(29:27):
but they won't do it. They sure won't do it
in Minnesota because they don't want to lose that Somali vote.
And that stinks. It stinks to high ebn.

Speaker 9 (29:37):
Yes, and you know we need to start shunning Democrats.

Speaker 5 (29:42):
Yep, I just shut them.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
You know.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
You look at things and I guess the for the
mid terms in the House, it's about fifty to fifty.
Fifty percent Republican support Republicans fifty percent support Democrats. I
would never u strongly criticize someone in this country for
their political positions. But what in the hell are they thinking? Yeah,

(30:10):
you don't like Trump, we get it. He says things
that make people angry that he doesn't have to say.
We get that, But how can you not support what
he's doing. Just hold your nose, close your eyes, you know,
and vote for the man. I don't understand that, and
that's worrisome to me. You know.

Speaker 9 (30:30):
I try to pay attention and a lot of people
don't pay attention. I get that, But paying attention if
you're a Democrat, I would be so embarrassed. I know,
I'd hang my head in shame. I get it, and
I wouldn't want to be seen in public.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
But maybe Fred, maybe this is the thing that tips
the scale. I mean, you just can't have this stuff.
I appreciate the call, Fred as always, thank you, you know,
and I really do wonder about that. How can someone
you know, democrat, goes out, works every day, puts food

(31:07):
on the table for his family. You know, kids go
to school, wife probably works too. I mean, how can
they look at what's going on in this country and say, gee,
I want to vote for Nancy Pelosi. I want to
vote for you know, Chuck Schumer. I just I don't
understand it. I respect the fact that I'm not always right.

(31:30):
Conservatives aren't always right. However, in this situation and so
many others, it is overwhelming. It really is overwhelming. And
one thing about a liberal, and I've said this for years,
over and over and over again, the main trait of
liberalism is arrogance. Arrogance in that they can never admit

(31:55):
when they're wrong. They will never listen to anyone else's
point of you. They are right by God, and don't
try to tell them that they aren't. And because in
their mind their cause is so just, they're allowed to
do anything to further it. You know, you're an elected
official in the state of Minnesota. You're the governor, you're

(32:18):
the attorney general, and you're not going to comment on
this thing or do anything about it. Of course, now
Walt's oh, he's doing all these things because you are
afraid that you might be labeled a racist or an
islamophobe fobe. That's bull, you know what it is. And

(32:38):
the people in this country are getting darn tired of it.
They really are. And you know, as I just said,
this may be the thing that finally brings people together
in that they say, We're not going to take this anymore.
I work too hard for my money, you know, I
don't want to see it nine billion in counter of

(33:00):
it wasted on stuff like this, daycare centers that can't
even spell learning. It was the leering LAA RNG center.
Daycare centers that don't have any kids, but they're getting
millions of bucks. Daycare centers where they have to put
black paper on the windows so you and I average

(33:23):
citizens or citizen journalists, they can't look in and see
what the heck's going on. At some point, you know,
the center is just not going to hold for these people.
It's not at some point, and you know what, I
don't understand why we really haven't reached it a long
time ago. But like I said, perhaps this is what

(33:45):
drives people over the edge. I guess we'll see. Hey,
we got to take a break, but I do want
to say that we will have open lines from ten
thirty to eleven this morning. But when we come back
at ten o'clock, we're going to talk to attorney and
legal analyst Steve Gooden. There's a situation again Minnesota brewing
up here. Maybe it's not just the executive branch up

(34:10):
there that has some problems with truthfulness and honesty. Perhaps
it might be at least one judge, perhaps two more,
and that is starting to come out now and Steve
has looked at it. He's going to give us his
opinion when we get back. Mike Allen in for Sloane,
seven hundred WLW. I want to be an American idiot,

(34:34):
Kenna Wait News Radio, seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in
for Scott Sloan. But continuing with the narrative that is
coming to play with respect to the Somali community in Minnesota,
and now we find out in Columbus that's just starting

(34:54):
to break the corruption in Minnesota may not be limited
to the executive branch, to wit, Governor Tim Waltz and
Attorney Keith I Love Louis Farrakahan Ellison. It may also,
and I underline may, it may also bleed over to
the judicial branch as well. Just bear with me here

(35:15):
because I want to lay this out for you, and
then we're going to get Steve's take on it. This
is from the Daily Mail. I think it lays it
out pretty good. The story a judge in Minneapolis had
sparked rage after she decided to overturn a taxpayer fraud
conviction that saw a husband and wife go down for
robbing seven point two million people seven point two million

(35:38):
dollars from people. Guy by the name of him going
to try to get this right. Ab Abdefada Yusuf. He's
forty four, was found guilty of robbing innocent taxpayers through
a home healthcare company called Promise Health. In August, a
jury found that he and his wife lu Ahmed rem

(35:59):
a dec eful medicaid fraud scheme out of a mailbox.
Like so many of these are at the so called
medical company and use the money for lavish shopping sprees,
including trips to name to name brand designers like Coach Canada, Goose, Nike,
Michael Cors and to purchase high end cars. That's according

(36:23):
to prosecutors. But in a shocking twist of events, and
months after Yusuf was found responsible for directing the massive scam,
Judge Sarah West decided last week that the jury was
all wrong and he should be let off the hook.
And that's exactly what Judge West did. Here to talk

(36:47):
about it is legal analyst Steve Gooden. Steve as you
know if you're a regular listener to this channel. He
is a former state prosecutor, worked for me in the
Prosecutor's office, former federal prosecutor for former Army Jack military prosecutor,
and longtime criminal defense attorney with the law firm of
port Wright where he handles complicated civil and criminal cases. Steve,

(37:11):
sorry for taking your thunder there, but I just wanted
to lay it out for people.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
Well, it is complicated, and I'm glad you took the
time to set it up because it really is. And
again we don't know everything that's happened here, but just
from a thirty thousand foot view, it really is outrageous.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
Well not going to rupt you. I promise this'd be
the only time. You have a hell of a lot
of experience. You've been around a long time like me.
How many times have you either been involved with or
even heard of, a judge taking away a jury verdict
after way after the fact. How many? And I'll tell you,

(37:52):
I've been in the system in one way, shape or
form for fifty one years. I've never seen it.

Speaker 3 (37:59):
Well, I'm I'm in my twenty sixth year. I know
of one case where it happened. It wasn't my case,
and it was overturned on appeal, Okay, once out of
the hut. I mean it was in a civil case
and it was in a dispute over jury instructions. Never
in a criminal case, and never ever ever in a
criminal case. I mean, occasionally you'll hear something like this

(38:21):
happened once in a blue moon in a civil case,
you know, a big dollar civil case where the jury
instructions are complex, and then really deligation and appeal just
moves to the jury instruction. To occasionally hear something like that,
But then a criminal case. Never, And it's just absurd
to me. I mean, I mean, what we really have,
You've got a couple of different big things going on.

(38:43):
I would note this is an elected state court judge,
and we know in that area, and I've been out
to Minnesota. I've actually handled a couple of cases out
there over the years. Of Minneapolis, you know, it's a
city between that and Saint Paul. It's very much kind
of like what we have here. Henhamton County is a
lot like Hamilton County in.

Speaker 5 (39:01):
A lot of ways.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
But they have had this influx of Somali immigrants over
the years, and they really have really flexed their political
muscle in that area. You've seen sort of Governor Waltz
cow howing to them and you know, bringing the Somali
flag famously, you know, into the governor's mansion at one point.
And you see that the mayor of Minneapolis absolutely chases

(39:23):
those votes and goes to There's all these videos of
them online dancing at Somali festivals and you and eating
Somali food and so forth. So it's a big voting
block as well. So I you know, I don't want
to cast dispersions on this judge about the politics of it,
but it does as we see other elected officials really
chasing the Somali vote in Hennipon County. You make sure

(39:47):
wonder what's going on here, And also note that this judge,
she's one of three. There are now three state court
judges who have tossed some of these convictions on very
strange grounds. I mean, basically, all she says in her
decision is that, well, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence here.
And I'll tell you, having litigated financial crimes on both
sides in criminal cases, I can tell you that they're

(40:10):
almost always circumstantial crimes. I mean no, I mean, they're
paper crimes. There's never like one witness. These are elaborate
scams that play out over months and years at times.
They are all driven by paperwork and false paperwork, and
that's just what they are, by their nature circumstantial. So

(40:31):
I mean, you know, there's very rarely just one person
in a room who sees it. You know, the difference
of direct evidence, you know, for the circumstantial evidence. Direct
evidence is there's a direct witness or an admission or
something of that nature. Circumstantial is when you go back
through and piece together what happened through documents and other things.
And that's classic what they do here. In fact, I
love this. In Minneapolis, they call this we don't have

(40:53):
this terminal Ohio, they call this theft by swindle. These
guys were convicted of theft by sweaty. Yeah it is,
and it's absolutely on point. I mean, you know, and
I've seen these and I've worked on some of these cases.
You know, you have tremendous amounts of federal dollars that
go into different programs for home health care and trialcare

(41:15):
and things of that nature. The whole healthcare is a
really big one right now because we have a lot
of aging baby boomers who we're trying to stay in
their homes, and they really just aren't enough government agencies
to manage those funds, so they end up hiring these
independent contractors. I went through this with my dad a
few years ago, where he had someone coming in a
few days a week.

Speaker 5 (41:34):
Through his Medicaid.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
And there's nothing wrong with it unless you have some
fly by night company that is dummying the time sheets
or not even providing the services and just getting the
Medicaid which dollars, which is.

Speaker 5 (41:47):
What happened here.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
And I will note the Trump administration apparently yesterday suspended
all payments to the state of Minnesota, the whole state
until they can get a better handle on this, because
what they're saying, you know, the one the one report
that's come out is that this could be in the
billions of dollars. But these these Somali groups who've kind
of figured out that these programs are not being properly

(42:09):
monitored at the state level. It's federal dollars, but the
state administers them and then passes them on down to
these independent businesses, and it's a major loophole to swindle
the taxpayers. So, you know, it's a really bad thing
and I cannot, for the life we understand why this
judge did this absent political pressure.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
Let me let me do this, Steve, if I may.
I've got quotes from two of the jurors that I
want to read to you and get your thoughts on it. Okay,
this is reporting out of Fox News. A guy by
the name of Ben Walfoot, he apparently was the jury
for person in Usef's case, said that the decision to

(42:50):
convict wasn't a complicated one. And I'm quoting the jury
for person here. Quote. It was not a difficult decision.
What'so the deliberations took probably four hours at most. Based
off the state's evidence that was presented, it was beyond
a reasonable doubt. I am shocked. I'm shocked because all

(43:13):
of the evidence that was presented to us in the
obvious guilt that we saw based off the based off
the said evidence. Okay, then one more, I've got this.
This is out of Daily Mail. I don't think there's again, No,
there's not a name attached to this one. Another juror
on the case echoed Walflet's we just read his thing,

(43:35):
stanced telling the outlet, telling the Daily Mail quote. We
didn't take our job lightly. We went through a lot
of evidence and discussed a lot. Took our time, but
we all came to an agreement pretty easily. Now, question,
why would a judge ignore twelve citizens who you know,

(43:59):
were subject of we're dire questions and everything else, ignore
that and submit her own judgment on this. I don't.
I don't know that there's an answer, do you know?

Speaker 5 (44:13):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
I mean, the only thing that I think she glancingly
mentioned sort of in her decision is I guess there
was something. There was some thought that the guy's brother
could have been involved in the scam in some way,
but again that was for his attorneys to flesh out.
And one of the things I think is really disgusting,
and this is this isn't just in this case or
in this judge. This is a trend right now, particularly

(44:35):
among a lot of younger judges. And we see it
here in Cincinnati two. Which is this disregard for the
jury system. Yes, and we saw this in the in
this we were talking earlier this week about Elwood Jones
and what happened. It's, you know, somewhere lost in that,
you know, is this decision, you know, in the decision
to clear Elwood Jones, is the idea that twelve people
spent weeks in a room curing the evidence and made

(44:56):
a decision and that's all just been wiped out. And
it is infuriating if you were a juror and you
take time off work, and a lot of places don't
even really pay you for the time off. You sit there,
you do your civic duty, you do the stressful thing.
You sit there for eight nine hours a day, listen
to evidence, make a decision. You know, really, you know,
put your heart and soul into these cases, as most

(45:19):
jurors do, and then just to have it wiped out
with a stroke of a pen and to really have
no good explanations for why that happened. I mean, it
really does kind of strike at the heart of the system.

Speaker 5 (45:29):
I mean, I'm a big believer in juries.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
I mean, I think if you can't.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
Explain, particularly in a criminal case, if you can't explain
what happened and why it was criminal to twelve average
citizens with no real legal background, then.

Speaker 5 (45:41):
You shouldn't convict them. I mean, you know, it's that simple.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
Like, you know, it has to it doesn't just need
to be a crime that's written in a law book somewhere,
but it has to be something that actually offends, you know,
the conscience of the community. It's why the founding fathers,
you know, put the jury system right at the heart
of our system. So yeah, that is kind of this
trend among these more progressive judges right now, is that well,

(46:04):
the juries were just misled or kind of dumb or
I don't know what they're thinking here, but I mean
I think it's a really bad thing. It's such a
terrible precedent, and hopefully there's some pushback here, but it
does make you wonder, and I think it makes jurisynical
if you're going to go and put all this time
and effort into something like this, and again, take all

(46:25):
this time, make sacrifices in terms of childcare and work
or whatever else you got going in your life, and
then just be told by some judge for political reasons
it doesn't mean anything. I mean, that's a bad day.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
It really is. And you know you touched on this, Steve,
and even the judge, mistakenly, I believe, said this criticizing
circumstantial evidence. As you know from all the cases you've tried,
as I know for all the cases I've tried. In
many cases, circumstantial evidence is the strongest evidence. And you're correct, Steve.

(47:00):
In a white collar case, that's pretty much all you have.
And it's not bad evidence. More often than not, it's
strong evidence.

Speaker 5 (47:11):
Well, well, of course it is.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
I mean, I mean, you know, half the time, people
are always you know, going through these, you know, thousands
of emails thinking there's going to be some perfect email
where someone you know, among the co conspirators where they say, hey,
we're this is the precise crime we're going to create there,
and this is how we're going to do this scheme
and broad it doesn't work that way. That's not how
human beings do these things. And there tend not to

(47:35):
be documents. There tend not to be the of the
precise scam. You have to piece it together after the fact.
I mean, that's just what it is. And it's that
you know that classic thing that we always used to
use in Void Hier I guess you know in the
office of our former colleague day prem used to use
it so much we actually asked them not to.

Speaker 5 (47:55):
About the cookie jar. Yeah, I mean, do you need
to see.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
Somebody actually if you if you come home and you
had a cookie jar and the cookie jar is empty,
there's crumbs everywhere, and there's cookie crumbs on your kid's
face and chocolate on his face. Do you need to
have actually seen him get into the cookie jar to
prove that he ate the cookies. No, you can use
your common sense and make inferences from That's the classic

(48:20):
circumstantial evidence, you know, example that is used to explain
it to Jerry. So, yeah, when you see these payments
flowing in, when you see a mailbox set up to
accept them, when you see money going out in personal spending,
that these folks don't have. And when you see no
services being provided by this dummy company that was set up,
that's circumstantial evidence of a massive fraud. So you know,

(48:44):
I don't know. You don't need a confession at that point.
There is no DNA evidence in a case like this.
It is by its very nature circumstantial. And if you're
going to say you can't make these cases circumstantially, you
can't make them at all, You may as well just quit.
The Attorney general out in I was handling this out
in Minnesota is apparently furious as well. I mean, they're

(49:07):
all they're all Democrats, but at this point they've actually
turned on each other. And I know they're trying to
appeal what the judge did here, and I think that's
very appropriate under the circumstance.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
We shall see, we shall see. Hey, we only got
about a minute and a half left legal issues aside.
Just globally, Steve, what are your thoughts on this whole thing.
I'll tell you, I've never seen anything like it. I
think it's probably it's headed to be the worst scandal
financially in this country's history. But what's your your thousand

(49:37):
foot view on this? Thing.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
Well, I think it's about to come home because you know,
there is as you mentioned at the top of this segment,
that there is a very large Somali population also in Columbus,
and I know there's a lot of folks who are
you know, who are starting to look there to see
if this is a part of a pattern that these
guys did. I would note though, I mean, this isn't

(50:00):
really limited to the Somali immigrants. I mean, in one way,
it shows that you know, this kind of corruption, this
kind of swindle is unfortunately very American as well. I
think the bigger issue is that we have so many
dollars flowing into this sector that are just not properly monitored.
You know that the opportunities for what theyways called freight fraud,

(50:22):
waste and abuse are are are massive. You have a
lot of very small companies getting a lot of dollars
with just kind of based on their handwritten timesheets in
some instances. So we need to be taking a huge
look at how we do this. And I know we
set aside a lot of money. Again, we have a
very aging the baby boobier population is huge. It's a
lot of money flowing there and a lot of it

(50:44):
is going through these very small companies, so we're going
to have to take a huge look at this otherwise.
But I would I would get ready to see what's
going on in Columbus.

Speaker 5 (50:51):
I mean the I mean, I know that there's a.

Speaker 3 (50:54):
Lot of a lot of attention being paid there. I
think outside of Minneapolis, Columbus is the second bigest group
of Somali immigrants in the US. So we'll a wait
and see what's going on there.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
A guy by the name of Anthony Rubin, I guess
we found out at the top of the show and
we actually played it dropped about a two and a
half minute video similar to the one that was dropped
in Minnesota. So we'll see what happens from there. But
really appreciate your take on this, Steve, very very helpful.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
Hey anytime, Mike, Happy New Year location.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
You too, Thank you. All right, Hey, we got to
take a break. Button we get back your calls. Seven
four nine, seven thousand, one eight hundred. The big one
are the numbers. Mike Allen in for Slowney seven hundred
WLW and we're back Mike Allen in for Sloaney. On

(51:54):
New Year's Eve, we're going to take some calls here.
Our friend Bobby g or Jay, I'm sorry, Hey Bobby,
Happy New Year, buddy.

Speaker 4 (52:03):
Happy new year to you, my friend, faith, Flag, family
and collective bargaining. I'm glad they brought in the A
team today.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
Thank you. That's kind of you to say thank you.

Speaker 4 (52:12):
But hey, I tell you what, reflecting on twenty twenty five,
you know, I hate to be this way, but we
have hid it ninety five percent of the time. So
do you have anything in the Cristal ball coming up
for twenty six?

Speaker 2 (52:26):
Boy? Who knows? I mean, it's gonna be an interesting year.
I think this Minnesota thing that I've been talking about
for the last three days, that's gonna be a big, big,
big part of it. Of course, at the end of
the year, we're gonna have the midterms, which we'll tell
the tale as to whether Donald Trump is truly a
lame duck if we lose either one of the two

(52:49):
Senate or House. I think the answer to that is yes.
So that's kind of what I see, Bobby, What do
you see?

Speaker 4 (52:57):
I see We're going to go ahead and extend the
cultural a little bit more that I've discussed this summer
I think will be hot and coming into South America.
We're going to take more attention off Venezuela and put
it down into Ecuador.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
You know, I tell you that way, I'm sorry, going
to have.

Speaker 4 (53:12):
To support the no, no, no, we have to support the
Ecuador and president. We've had contractors down there, I know,
since first March, you know. And that way we got
the bottom end of Columbian we have the top end also.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
Okay, you know what, And I've heard some people grumbling
about Trump's attention to South America, but it's all about
the Monroe Doctrine and that part of the world has
been so ignored by us for so long that I
think it's a wise move that he's doing that. And
also Red China, they're making a play for a lot

(53:45):
of those countries down there too, So we got to
do it. I mean, the bottom line is he's doing
what other presidents should have been doing but didn't want
to do.

Speaker 5 (53:56):
Well.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
We have to protect the Western hemisphere. And if you
go into the Monroe and it also says that we
will stay out of European affairs.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
Yeah, well, I don't know. Yesterday, I don't know if
you were listening. I had a guest on that was
talking about just that, the situation with the strategic plan
that was just released not too long ago. Where in
the past years it's been eurocentric, this one. Yeah, still
concerns about Europe, but it's not the whole ball of

(54:23):
wax though.

Speaker 4 (54:26):
Well, it will hurt us more if we ever have
to deal with an embargo around Taiwan. Yeah, and their
landing crafts have been completed yet almost a year now,
and the three factories that they were building them in
they went ahead and done other things with them. Oh.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
Really, they're prepared. They're prepared, and that's interesting.

Speaker 4 (54:46):
Yeah, and all they have to do is the embargo
around it, and they don't have to do any aerial
or attacks or anything like that. The embargo will take
care of it. And within seventy two hours, I guarantee
you the world will feel the impact because of the CHIP, no.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
Question about it. And you know, Trump, unlike some other presidents,
stood firm with Taiwan and make no mistake about it.
And I know you really realize this, Bobby. The Chinese
want Taiwan back, and they've wanted that, wanted it back
ever since Chang Kai Shek was chased by Mao over
to for most of Taiwan, and they believe strongly that

(55:25):
that is a part of Red China. They want to
do it. I also heard just I think it was yesterday,
maybe the day before, that the Chinese jets are doing
some very provocative flyovers, very very close to Taiwan. So
he's spoiling for a fight. You know, I thought, and
I said this more than once. I thought for sure

(55:48):
that that president she would make a play for Taiwan
during the Biden administration. You know, he's got to know
if he drives out with Trump, Trump's going to respond.
Biden probably wouldn't have.

Speaker 4 (56:02):
I see, it's going to be a hot summer. Yeah,
that's the best way I can put it. You can
call it a black Swan event or whatever you want to.
And I tell people all the time, be prepared for
the seventy two hour window. Yeah, they said, what are
you talking about? And I said, you don't even have
enough water in your home or anything. Provisions to go
ahead and take care of it, because if you're not
prepared for the first seventy two hours, it'll be very

(56:24):
difficult to get prepared for.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
No question about it. And you know, had you said
something like that about ten years ago, I'd say, well,
maybe that's a little bit of an overreaction, not now,
because who knows what in the heck is going to happen,
And I think people be wise to be prepared. And
obviously no real patriot wants that, but in this world,
who knows. But hey, I appreciate the call. I appreciate

(56:48):
you looking into the future too.

Speaker 4 (56:50):
The next year, Bobby, Well, God bless you your family
and all your friends this new holiday season.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
So you too, you too, thank you. Yeah, you know
that Taiwan thing, I mean, that is just so close
to blowing. But you know, I think President she good
chance he'll sit on his hands until Trump is finished,
and then, I mean hopefully we get JD. Vans, and
I believe that he would continue the president's policy for

(57:18):
strong support for Taiwan. I mean, that's the way it's
been since nineteen forty eight, and we can't welsh on
our promises. So oh, it's an interesting and dangerous world
we're living in. Let me talk to Mike in Claremont County. Hey,
good morning, Mike.

Speaker 10 (57:35):
Hey before I forget, happy New year, classmate, And did
I hear you correctly on the Saturday Show that you're
a new grandparent.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Yes, sir, I am, I am. I got a little
granddaughter and I am so happy. Her name is Estelle,
but we're going to call her Stella and it's been
a long time coming from me. And I know who
this mic is. This is a mit not only my
high school class mate, but grade school class make correct
all the way back. Yes, sir, there you go. Brother

(58:05):
spent thirty three years, I believe in the Navy, the
overwhelming majority of that on a submarine. Am I right?

Speaker 10 (58:12):
Yes, sir, power the deep and we had our own
ways to celebrate. I was out one time under underway
and but once again, let's never forget our armed forces
that are out there standing to watch during this difficult
time and separation from their families.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
You are so right, you know. I had a caller
the other day talk about the how China is really
rebooting their navy and building warships. Is that something that
you pay attention to, Mike, And do you have any
take on it?

Speaker 4 (58:45):
Absolutely?

Speaker 10 (58:45):
I retired to No. Three, but even then, pretty much
the Pacific is covered by our bases in Pearl Harbor
and San Diego, but we saw the threat even in
the late nineties early two thousands to where we now
have five deployed submarines in even one of our ssgns.
Those are the old missile carrion boats that are fully

(59:06):
loaded with Tomahawks. They're now home based in Guam, so
that cuts down that travel time. So that has always
been on the radar, and as well as we've had
bases in Yakuska, Japan, all all the way back into
the seventies, so we are definitely monitoring the situation, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
Well in Japan is re arming too, and in my
opinion that's a good thing. I mean, they need to
start holding up their end of the thing too, and
apparently they're in a big rebuilding program.

Speaker 10 (59:36):
Absolutely, And one thing that's just tremendous. It was at
the beginning of this year and actually got started in
a last administration to where but unprecedented, to where our
Australian Navy counterparts we are actually building the new Virginia
class fat attack thumbornes and they will get the exact
copy of what we have. So that shows that trust

(59:57):
with that alliance and once again realizing Holen pull and
that part of the Pacific Ocean is are they going.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
To name one of those things after you, Mike? I
think they should.

Speaker 10 (01:00:10):
We'll call it the USS Panther or the USS outdr
How about that?

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
There you go, brother, Hey, listeny real quick, Yeah, sure,
go ahead.

Speaker 8 (01:00:18):
Real quick on Minnesota if I may.

Speaker 10 (01:00:19):
You know, I'm as outraged as you are, but not
surprised because this is where all the pushback came from
DOGE when they started banging up USA. I d it's
not about the kids, it's about people that were losing
their cash cow. And the one video that I just
loved because obviously Minnesota gets a lot more snow than
we do, so a little two or three in snowfall
is not going to stop any operations up there. But

(01:00:41):
that wonderful reporter that went to one of those learning
centers or excuse me leering right, Not only was the
the parking lot not plowed, there was not one car track,
not one footprint, and he went back a couple of days.
So you know, Inspector KLUSA could have figured that one out.

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:00:59):
So I think our good auditor, mister Faber, I don't
think he'll be celebrating tonight. He better be cracking the
books open because I think, once again, to quote a
famous American being yourself, this is just a tip of
the Iceberg and Columbus.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Amen.

Speaker 5 (01:01:12):
Brother.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
I don't know if you saw or not or heard
at the top of the show. My producer was able
to find that thing in Columbus, so it's going to
break up there. But really appreciate the call, Mike, and
happy I hear to you.

Speaker 10 (01:01:25):
Happy New Year, sir.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Okay, brother, thank you. Yeah. Thirty three years in the
United States Navy and most of them on submarines. I'll
tell you what, that's a hell of a service record. Hey,
let's do this. Let's take a short break and we'll
come back and maybe just maybe even do a little
bit of fluff until we have our guest, Kevin Burton

(01:01:48):
at eleven o'clock. And boy, that's going to be interesting too.
We're going to play an end of the year political
game lightning Round. What's going to happen is I'm going
to read a political question, JI ask Kevin a political question.
He has to come up with a one word answer,
and I think it'll be fun. Hey, we will be
back Mike Allen in for Sloaney seven hundred WLW ten

(01:02:13):
to fifty four News Radio seven hundred WLW, Mike Allen
in four Scott Sloan on New Year's Eve be here
tomorrow too, and tomorrow we will do a substantial amount
of what was referred to as fluff, and it kind
of is. But let's get a little preview of that now.
CNN Believe It or Not has what looks to be

(01:02:36):
a pretty straightforward and pretty unbiased Believe It or Not
twenty twenty five. In review fast Facts starting with January,
the first appropriately enough sad story. Fourteen people are killed
in dozens injured. Oh man, I remember this when a
driver rams's pickup truck into a crowd during a New

(01:02:59):
Year's Eve celebration on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The
FBI described the event as an act of terrorism. The
driver who was killed in the shootout with police was
identified as Shamsud didn Jabbar. Imagine that forty two year
old Army veteran from Texas who just happened to have

(01:03:20):
an ISIS flag in his truck. And I remember watching that.
I mean, that was really bad. And you know, I'm
loath to criticize cops in any way, shape or form,
But the New Orleans Police Department, I think, starting with
the chief, had some real problems down there, not just that,

(01:03:41):
but other things too. I guess the big one on
that one was you know those things, those barriers that
you have that supposedly we'll keep a car from going
somewhere that the police don't want them to go. I
guess either it didn't work or they didn't have it,
but hopefully they got that situation taken care of. I'll
tell you just a personal story with respect to New Orleans.

(01:04:04):
This wasn't. This one on January first was not the
big one. Marty Gras I took with buddy. My daughter
went to school at spring Hill College, which is close
to New Orleans. Anyway, my buddy and I took the
train to New Orleans to see Marty Gras spend some
time with my daughter. It's not something i'd ever do again.

(01:04:26):
It was cool, I mean it really was just the
pageantry and everything else. But Bourbon Street is absolutely crazy,
I mean stupid, crazy, dangerous crazy, and from what I understand,
it hasn't gotten any better. I have been to New
Orleans a couple times after that, not during Marty Gras.
It's a really cool place. But anyway, it's moved right

(01:04:48):
along here in the fluff department. January seventh of this year, wildfire. Oh,
this is horrible. Wildfire swept through Los Angeles. Dozens are
killed in more than sixteen thousand structures, You're damaged. Over
thirty thousand acres are burned in the Eton and Palisades fires.
The Eaton and Palisades fires rank as the second and

(01:05:11):
third most destructive wildfires in Southern California history. That was
just awful, And if I'm not mistaken, I didn't really
pay that much attention to it. I think there's a
report out on that that just came out maybe this
week that a lot of people don't seem to be
happy with and don't seem to think that it was

(01:05:33):
really comprehensive enough. Maybe I'll take a look at that
and we can talk about that later. January seventh, same day,
Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta will adjust its content review
policies on Facebook and Instagram. Uh yeah, I remember this,
getting rid of fact checkers and replacing them with user

(01:05:55):
generated community notes, similar to Elon Musk's at Well, you know,
the thing with fact checkers are and if you follow
me this stuff nine times out of ten with alleged
fact checkers. The Conservatives get the short end of the
stick on that, so they're not really the majority, not

(01:06:15):
really unbiased fact checkers. So that doesn't break my heart
that they got rid of them. Ah, here's one. And
you know, it's just so hard to believe that this
is only one year ago. Okay. January tenth, former President
Donald Trump is sentenced to unconditional discharge for his conviction
last year on thirty four charges of business fraud related

(01:06:38):
to a hush money payment two Stormy alleged hush money.
It doesn't say that, I'm gonna put it in there,
alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. This means he
will not be in prison, No, I don't think so,
find or face probation. But his conviction still stands, and
he will enter office as a convicted felon. And now

(01:07:00):
you know what, I said something at the very beginning,
it looked like it was straightforward. It looked like it
was down the middle. But I take that back. Yeah,
that could be written a lot better and a lot
more accurately. January twentieth, Before leaving office, President Joe Biden
issues a slate of preemptive pardons. Yeah, quite a few

(01:07:22):
for prominent critics of President elect Trump. Now see now
they're making up for it by being fair. Later, he
issues pardons for members of his family to wit the
Biden crime family. Hey, we got to leave it here
because we got to break for the news. But when
we get back, we're gonna be talking to Kevin Burton.
We're gonna have the end of the year political game show,

(01:07:42):
the Lightning Round. I think it'll be fun. Mike Allen
in for Slowey seven hundred WLW.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
Do you want to be an American?

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
Hey, we're back. Mike Allen in for Slowey seven hundred WLW.
Be in for him tomorrow as well. Wanted to tell
you at we are talking Ohio State versus Miami, which
you will be able to hear tonight on the big one,
big big game, and I'm gonna be talking to talking
about it with I'm gonna make it his surprise. But

(01:08:15):
this dude knows his Ohio State football, so that'll be fun.
We'll do that at eleven thirty. But in the meantime,
I think this is gonna be fun. We're gonna talk
to independent political analyst. We talked to him quite a bit,
Kevin Burton. But we're gonna do it kind of in
a fun way. So Kevin, thank you so much for
calling and participating in this today.

Speaker 11 (01:08:38):
Mike, thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
Okay, if you're ready, I'm ready.

Speaker 11 (01:08:43):
I'm ready.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
Okay, here we go. This is kind of, I think
a fun idea for you know, kind of an end
of the year. It's gonna be a political lightning round.
So I'm gonna mention something to Kevin, a political event
or something that happened, and he has to describe that
with one word. Of course, we can expound on it later. Okay,

(01:09:06):
let's start off with this, Kevin, pretty general, what is
one word that you would use to describe politics this year?

Speaker 11 (01:09:16):
Dumpster fire?

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
I'm sorry, dumpster fire. Well, I'll tell you what it's
It's hard to disagree with that, But tell me why
you say that.

Speaker 11 (01:09:28):
I mean, I just think you look locally, I think
you look nationally. We had stories both sides of the
aisles of just what the heck are they doing? Can
we think of any major legislation that was passed?

Speaker 5 (01:09:39):
No?

Speaker 11 (01:09:40):
No, And it's it's all for clicks. And all for attention.
I just can't think of any milestones that were passed,
you know, that are helping the American people. So my
word would be dumpster fire.

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
Okay, okay, you know what, I'd have to agree with that,
all right, moving right along, This is a good one too, boy,
This could be a lot of people who had the
worst week in politics this year. Your thoughts on that,
Kevin Burton.

Speaker 11 (01:10:09):
So I'll do one local than one national, Okay, I
think local. It has to be Victoria Parks for her
comments of they deserved it after the fight. I think
that was the worst week in politics, stand for everything.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
That you didn't like, yep.

Speaker 11 (01:10:28):
And then Nashally, I'm gonna go with Elon Musk. His
fall has been pretty substantial. You know, he's not the
Golden Boy anymore, his fallout with Trump, his you know,
the stock prices of Tesla going down.

Speaker 5 (01:10:45):
So those would be my two answers.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
You know, yeah, I agree with both a little bit
more with Victoria Parks. And you know, I don't know her,
I had never met or don't know anything about her,
but my goodness, what a horrible thing to say. And
that whole thing is still going on Kevin Is. I'm
sure you probably know. I guess they extended the time
for Frost Brown the law firm to try to find

(01:11:09):
something that she did wrong to give the city a
Cincinnati a basis for firing her.

Speaker 11 (01:11:15):
As we know, Billibool hours are undefeated, especially between Christmas
and Thanksgiving. So I mean, good for UFBT, good for
you with those hours.

Speaker 2 (01:11:27):
That's pretty good. And you're not even a lawyer, but
you do get the drill man. That's pretty good. All right,
all right, moving right along, which political story made you
see what? Wait? No, I'm sorry, wait what. I'm waiting
to hear what you say about this one.

Speaker 11 (01:11:47):
Uh, I'm gonna have to go with our mayor and
the repo that well, you know, you know, there's a
lot of things that as political consultants you can try
to stop try to plan for. Getting a car repossessed

(01:12:08):
is not one of them, you know, So that that
would be my weight what Yeah, he took a beating
on that one. My my national one would probably be
Golf of Mexico. I still I'm just like, I wait,

(01:12:30):
what but that is a less serious one.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
The Golf of America. Now, I don't know, I mean
when they're making new maps and things. Since Trump did that,
are people actually like putting in the golf of America
or Yeah? I don't know. I mean I don't obviously
he does any other power to change what people think.
But I kind of scratched my head on that. I
think it was a play to americanized things.

Speaker 11 (01:12:58):
I guess, yeah, yeah, but it's it's silly. I don't
think it's a real issue. Call it what you want.

Speaker 8 (01:13:06):
It, I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:09):
What issue are people pretending to care about? That's a
good one. I want to know what you think.

Speaker 11 (01:13:20):
Civility now that's good Ken.

Speaker 2 (01:13:23):
Do you think do you think people really don't care
about that? Because man, I sure hear a lot of
people saying, and I'm one of them, it would be
nice if we could just have a little bit of bipartisanship,
a little bit of civility. But now you're you're pretty grizzled,
I guess, and jaded is a political consultant, But you
really you really don't think people care about that?

Speaker 11 (01:13:47):
I mean, I just go back to Okay, whenever we
have a controversy or anything, the same people who want
praise for bringing the community together will pare it apart,
people keep voting Congress the exact same, They keep voting
the exact same. Right, if people wanted real change, they

(01:14:08):
would actually show with their ballot box. So until that happens,
that would be my word. And you know, me and
Mike we didn't plan this where this is just all
rapid fire.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
So no, and I get it too. And you make
a good point. If people really felt that way, perhaps
there'd be more crossover voting, which is I understand it.
There is very little, if any of that, So I
get it. I get it. Okay, moving right along here.
What issue do people actually care about? But politicians ignore.

Speaker 11 (01:14:44):
Campaign finance? Campaign limits?

Speaker 10 (01:14:50):
You know?

Speaker 11 (01:14:51):
You look, people want constitutional limits on Congress people, but
guess who makes the laws they do? So that's what
why we won't ever see it. You know, I think
almost universally we all agree that you shouldn't be in
there for sixty years.

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
Yeah, but they don't.

Speaker 11 (01:15:10):
Do anything at that well, because they're the one who
make the walls. The only time Democrats and Republicans work
together is when it's the benefit themselves or insider trading. Yeah,
insider trading. Your job is to do it for the
is to be there for the public not to get wealthy.

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
No, I get that, Thank you very much, Nancy Pelosi.
All right, moving along here, one local project, boy, I
know what mine is on this one one local project
you hear about constantly, but still don't totally understand your pick.

Speaker 4 (01:15:44):
I'm gonna go with the banks.

Speaker 11 (01:15:45):
What are we doing? Yeah, there's still there's still you know,
beams coming out of it. I mean, objectively, the Banks
has not been what we thought it was going to be.
You know, we always hear about it. It's the gateway
to you know, with the city for a lot of
entry ways, and you know, it's our entertainment section, and
it just hasn't done what it was supposed to do.

(01:16:08):
How many times have we seen bars close, their restaurants close,
their incidents happen at Stale Park. I just think objectively,
the Banks has been a failure.

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
Well you know what I mean, It's one of those
deals where if you get too much crime down there,
which I think we probably have now, like you said,
people are just going to stop coming. And boy, what
a shame that would be because so much money was
dumped in there. And really I've been down there a
couple times this summer for different things. It's I mean,

(01:16:39):
it really is kind of a show place. But I
guess we'll see. Okay, my answer to this one. And
I'm just volunteering this. I know this is your game.
One local project you hear about constantly but still don't
totally understand. Well, actually it would be two. The first one,
on a micro level would be the Western Hills Viaduct.
You know, we've been being a good West Sider. You

(01:17:02):
knew i'd do that. We've been hearing about that damn
thing supposedly getting fixed for years and years and years.
I had Bill Sites on when Bill was still in
the High Legislature. Bill was the guy that kind of
han showed that thing. And this is like two years ago.
And Bill said, and I'm not criticizing him at all,

(01:17:23):
but for Bill Sites it wouldn't have gotten done. But
I got the impression that it was gonna be like
right now. Well, we had an announcement not too long
ago that well, now, okay, you know, because of inflation,
instead of three lanes each way, we're knocking it down
to two. Oh and by the way, I think it's
twenty twenty nine. Now they're looking at SO and the

(01:17:46):
other one on the on the macro level would have
to be in you're a Kentucky guy, I think you can.
You can relate to this the Brent Spence Bridge replacing
that thing. Oh, you know it's gonna be. I'm gonna
be dead and in my grave for a long long
time when that thing is finally finished. If it is,

(01:18:06):
you know, Kentucky and Ohio finally got together on the
damn thing. And I don't know, it just doesn't seem
like any grounds getting moved or any progress is being made.
Do you have any perspective on that? Being Northern Kentuckian.

Speaker 11 (01:18:20):
Well, someone went to house in Heathern, Kentucky. I'm willing
to put my house up when they start the construction,
really because it's going to be it's going to be
a nightmare. I know that they have started to close out.
If you go into like long Worth Haul, they show
where they're gonna show do the demolition and things like that.
You know, if you've been to Lolsbo or Columbus at all,

(01:18:43):
you know what it's like to drive through traffic for
the last ten years. And unfortunately that's going to be
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky for the next ten years.

Speaker 2 (01:18:53):
It's a I tell this story all the time. It's relevant.
My father was a civil engineer and he was on
some board. It wasn't OKAYI but this is like in
the mid fifties, I guess. And he tells the story
that when they were talking about the Brent Spence Bridge
and building it, he and all of the professionals, the engineers, said,

(01:19:14):
no way, no way, no way. Three lanes is not
going to be big enough. You can't do it. It's
going to be obsolete the day it opens. And I
think he and the other experts were kind of their
point of view certainly was the appropriate one. But I
guess we shall see. But I sure ain't holding my
breath on that one at all. Okay, moving right along

(01:19:35):
what local political debate feels way bigger online? Ah, this
is good, way bigger online than in real life. Boy,
that could be anything.

Speaker 11 (01:19:46):
It was the fight the Democrats swept. They got asked,
I've got eighty percent.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
Of the vote.

Speaker 11 (01:19:51):
Yeah, it was all the Charter, on the media and everything,
but the voters didn't care. So we're doing like electoral
has to be that issue.

Speaker 2 (01:20:01):
No question, no question, you know. And I was one
I mean, there was some pretty uh I think, pretty
good Republican candidates for city council. Of course, a Christopher
Smitheman comes to mind, Liz Keating and others too, Steve Gooden,
Dondree House. But boy, at the end of the day,
what a whooping. And I've made this bold prediction. Uh,

(01:20:24):
you know, I don't want it to be true, but
I think it's going to be. We're not going to
see a Republican elected mayor or council in the rest
of my lifetime. I mean, what a butt whipping that was.
Let me ask you, Kevin, you always shoot straight. Did
you think it was going to be that bad for
the Republicans?

Speaker 11 (01:20:45):
I thought I thought the Democrats were going to win
at least seven, if not eight, of the these. I
thought Liz and Snetherman were really the best chance. But ironically,
of having a dree House and all these legacy names,
they actually split the vote between themselves and the Democratic

(01:21:08):
ticket just I mean, you saw it. They voted ninety
eight percent together. And that's the machine. And that's a
compliment to folks like Eddie Davenport, Alex Lindsner, the chair
who's built just the machine over there, no.

Speaker 2 (01:21:26):
Question about it. I mean, obviously wasn't what I wanted
to see, but it was impressive and well, even going
back to my term as chairman of the Republican Party
in the mid nineties, Democrats always had their act together.
The slate card as strong as the Republicans used to
be and still are, I think, county wide. But it

(01:21:47):
is an impressive operation to watch. I have to admit
that one thing though, this is kind of off the point.
You know, when I was chairman of the Republican Party,
Tim Burke was chairman of the Democrat Party and that right, well,
thank you. I agree with that greatest of all time.

Speaker 10 (01:22:03):
That man.

Speaker 2 (01:22:04):
Love him tail off, and right when he leaves, that's
when things, you know, kind of start to turn around.
I hope people in the Democratic Party are giving him
his props because he certainly deserves him. And as an adversary,
he was absolutely great to work with. You know a
lot of times on issues, you know, judicial races and

(01:22:25):
things like that, Tim and I go out and get
a cup of coffee or lunch or something and just
discuss it and kind of come to an agreement on things.
But I'm sure that doesn't happen anymore. But anyway, I
just wanted to throw that out last question. Will next
year be crazier?

Speaker 3 (01:22:41):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (01:22:43):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:22:44):
Or absolutely yes?

Speaker 11 (01:22:47):
Absolutely yes. It's the midterm years. The whole Tim Waltz
scandal is just getting It's like an onion right now.
It's going to dive deeper and deeper in next year
will be crazy. It's midterms, so every single issue is
going to be amplified. City stuff will probably be less

(01:23:08):
quiet because there's not an election national and state. You
got governors races. It's gonna fill a lot of radio slots,
so advertisers better pay up.

Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
Yeah, the station loves that time of year.

Speaker 3 (01:23:25):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:23:26):
You know what, this was really fun. I think it
was uh yeah, I think it was enlightening and entertaining too.
And I'm gonna let my listeners know that at ten
o'clock tomorrow morning, we're gonna do something similar the end
of the year political awards, Winner of the Year, Loser
of the Year, Worst Week award, and you know what,
I'll be ready for that one, Kevin. I'll have some

(01:23:48):
picks on that too, But really appreciate you doing this
and hope we can make it an annual thing.

Speaker 5 (01:23:55):
I hope so too.

Speaker 11 (01:23:56):
I hope the listeners enjoyed it and everyone have a safe,
happy New Year's.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
Okay, but you too, all right, Kevin Burton, Boy, that
was fun, you know, and the guy's tuned in, he
really is, and I love you know what. It's just
like a regular interview or something like this, because you
do get that other perspective, and I think it's important
to do that. Hey, we got to take a break,
but we'll be back, Dave, do I have any time

(01:24:22):
coming back? Or we'll go right to news. Okay, We're
gonna go right to news, and then when we get back,
we're talking Ohio State Miami. And we'll do that one
where you turn Mike Allen in for Slowey seven hundred WLW.
It is eleven thirty seven News Radio, seven hundred WLW,

(01:24:43):
Mike Allen in for Sloany on New Year's Eve. Well,
I'll tell you what I think I know where a
lot of people on one of them is going to
be about seven thirty tonight, and that is watching the
game the Cotton Bowl Ohio State Buckeyes twelve and one,
that heartbreaking loss to Indiana versus the Miami Hurricanes. They

(01:25:05):
are eleven and two. Buck guys are rated number two
in the country and the Hurricanes are number ten. This
is going to be a great game here to talk
about it is a guy that I think knows more
about Ohio State football, probably just about anybody else in
this city. He just happens to be my son. Mike

(01:25:27):
Allen Junior, heard here Sunday Nights on the Big One. Mike,
thanks so much for joining us.

Speaker 5 (01:25:33):
Hey, thanks a lot. Dan, happy to be talking to you.

Speaker 2 (01:25:36):
Okay, Well, let me you know I got you know,
I gotta tell the story. Growing up, Mike and I
kind of split our allegiance between Ohio State and Notre Dame,
and we got the ancient sweatshirts to prove it. Mike
kind of segued pretty strongly some years back to Ohio State.
Before we begin the questioning here, Mike, tell us all

(01:25:59):
why you did that.

Speaker 8 (01:26:01):
I think it was when I was able to buy
my own.

Speaker 5 (01:26:03):
Clothing that I stopped buying or cheering for. I don't
remember cheering for a Notre Dame.

Speaker 8 (01:26:08):
I do remember you buying me the stuff in encouraging
me to wear, and I'll put it that way.

Speaker 2 (01:26:12):
Well, just being a West Side Catholic boy, I guess
I figured it. Oh yeah, but you know what, I
love Ohio State too. My father, your grandfather, graduated through there,
so we're behind him now. But let me ask you,
and I know, I know how strongly you follow these guys.
What do you think I guess stylistically, what are you

(01:26:33):
looking at tonight? How do you think it's going to
be high scoring? Low scoring? What do you think?

Speaker 5 (01:26:38):
So Ohio State wants structure.

Speaker 8 (01:26:43):
This is about, you know, chaos versus control, so to speak.
And Ohio State wants controlled. They want to win the
line of scrimmage, they want to control the tempo, they
want to play clean. I hate to say this almost boring.

Speaker 5 (01:26:55):
What do you hate? Esque football?

Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
Yep?

Speaker 8 (01:26:58):
And make Miami earn out absolutely everything.

Speaker 3 (01:27:01):
Now.

Speaker 8 (01:27:01):
Miami is gonna want disruption. They're gonna be really emotional.
They're gonna be hoping for big plays, sudden changes, momentum swings.
It boils down to it because Ohio State just has
a more talented team. If they keep this calm and
methodical and like I said, boring, I think this turns

(01:27:22):
into the type of game they want now and if
Miami comes out and they start playing fast and loose
and emotional with turnovers. That's where you know, an even
more talented football team can feel really uncomfortable really quickly.
And that's something Miami is really good at is getting
people off schedule with their defensive line. I mean, they're

(01:27:42):
they're their front guys are unbelievable. But I think whoever
dictates the style early is going to be is going
to be who dictates the whole night.

Speaker 2 (01:27:50):
Really and you know, yeah, ask you this question. You
think the game is more about the buck guys offense,
you know, making plays or their defense setting the tone.
But before he answered that, I mean they're pretty even.
It looks like in the quarterback department for yeah, buck eyes, Yeah,
Julian saying, listen to this man, he's got three and

(01:28:13):
twenty three yards. Then Carson Beck OSU He's at three
thousand seventy five. So they're about even. I guess, yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:28:21):
And the thing that that Julian saying doesn't do that
Carson Beck tends to do is is Beck will trust.
I mean, he's got a cannon. He'll make you pay
if you're late on anything. But he gets a little
he gambles. So Ohio State, especially with a guy like
Caleb Downs playing safety.

Speaker 5 (01:28:40):
He's he's the guy.

Speaker 8 (01:28:41):
He's the glue that holds them all together back there,
and he's what allows Ohio State to blitz their corners
a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:28:48):
Caleb Downs is going to try.

Speaker 8 (01:28:50):
To make is going to try to force Carson Beck
into mistakes. Marvel Reeves as well, the linebacker for Ohio State,
he's the guy that that gives you control. This is
going to be about Ohio State's defense setting the tone.
And those two guys as well, Caleb Downs and linebacker r. L. Reech,
they those are two folks that they that people want

(01:29:10):
to see in Cincinnati next year. Those are two guys
that are going to go in the first round. And
I know a lot of Bengals fans, especially Caleb Downs,
they really like that. And I think the other thing
too that storyline is Brian Hartline, the Buckey's offensive coordinator,
is now in Florida. He's gone, and that was I
think a lot of the issue with with Ohio State

(01:29:32):
not putting a lot of points up against Indiana was
that now Ryan Day is going to go back to
calling the plays tonight, and there's been mixed results with that.
But what I will say is when when he's got
extra time to prepare. I mean, they haven't played a
football game in a month.

Speaker 5 (01:29:46):
It feels like.

Speaker 8 (01:29:48):
He usually does pretty well. So but if I had
to say this, I mean, Ohio State's defense is the
most important unit on the field tonight. I mean, they're
gonna be the ones that determine if Carson Beck is
going to chuck it to that freshman receiver all day
or if this is going to be a slow grind
for for Miami.

Speaker 2 (01:30:03):
You know, and that makes for a good game too.
Let me ask you this, I mean, when you look
at Miami, you know, Ohio States favored, I think by
a fair amount. I don't get the whole betting deal
lot anyway, they are favored. But when you look at Miami,
I mean, what do you think their realistic path to pulling.

Speaker 5 (01:30:21):
This off is momentum? I mean that's that's the one
thing they can.

Speaker 8 (01:30:26):
Do is get on Ohio State early and try to
force you know, an early turnover to keep maybe take
Ohio State's crowd out of it, but keep Ohio State
off schedule.

Speaker 5 (01:30:37):
You know they're gonna.

Speaker 8 (01:30:37):
Want explosive big plays, short fields, emotional swings and again
getting getting on Ohio State quickly. And that's going to
start with Carson Beck being comfortable. They got a heck
of a running back to Mark Fletcher. He'll keep them
on schedule. And then that, like I said, the freshman
on the outside malachay TONI and and force one turnover.

Speaker 5 (01:30:59):
That's the man. As if if.

Speaker 8 (01:31:01):
Miami can get Julian Saying to make a mistake, maybe
get lucky on a fumble, maybe maybe pull something off
on special teams, those momentum swings again, they'll make the
more talented team uncomfortable. And I think that, you know,
if they can get on them early and maybe you know,
if Ohio State gets a long drive at the beginning,
force hold them to a field goal. You know, I

(01:31:24):
think that would be the way they do it. But
it's gonna have to be you know, they're gonna have
to get a turnover here and there.

Speaker 5 (01:31:29):
They're gonna have to.

Speaker 8 (01:31:30):
Hit big plays because if Ohio State is allowed to
just play old school Ohio State football against Miami, I
don't think Miami's really got a shot. So I will
say this though Miami defensive line is unbelievable. I mean,
there they've got a cast of characters that are just disruptive.

Speaker 5 (01:31:48):
But but yeah, I mean.

Speaker 8 (01:31:49):
If Ohio State can find a way to keep their
defensive line and check and run the ball, I think
I think they'll be in good hands. And if if
Miami can force a shootout, you know, Ohio State might
have to worry a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:32:02):
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. Now if you're an
Ohio State fan, which you obviously are, and you kind
of just covered this, but what worries you most about
Miami being an Ohio State fan, especially if you like
boil it down to individual players and matchups and things
like that.

Speaker 8 (01:32:20):
Yeah, And like I said, Carson Beck, I mean I
think this might be his third or fourth team he's
played with, so he's seen it all in multiple conferences.
What worries me is if Miami, you know, when plays
break down, he's so good that if he gets that
extra second or has to roll out a little bit,
he's gonna punish you if you're just a little late.
And again, that running back Fletcher, you know he can

(01:32:42):
keep them and you know, second and manageable third and
rational downs all night, not you know, keep my Another
thing for Miami too is keeping it in second and
third and normal not not you know, losses on first
down and just trying to find a way to stay
on track.

Speaker 5 (01:32:59):
But yeah, Carson Beck worries me.

Speaker 8 (01:33:01):
And again Ruben Bain Junior is the guy for Miami
that just terrifies you. He is disruptive up up front.
He's going to force Ohio States offensive line to move quickly,
you know. And and if he starts getting after Julian saying.

Speaker 5 (01:33:17):
And their D line starts getting after.

Speaker 8 (01:33:19):
Ohio States offensive line, this game is gonna feel a
lot tighter.

Speaker 4 (01:33:23):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:33:24):
Miami is is dangerous when it turns to you know,
they they have a way of making really solid, fundamentally
sound football teams uncomfortable and you know, get out of wax,
so to speak.

Speaker 2 (01:33:37):
So I'll be.

Speaker 5 (01:33:38):
Honest with you.

Speaker 8 (01:33:38):
I think the two you know, higher state pion two
in Miami being ten, that's that's a little bit deceiving here.

Speaker 5 (01:33:45):
I mean that they're they're a good matchup against the Buckeyes.
So it's gonna be a heck of a game.

Speaker 2 (01:33:50):
It sure looks like it. And as you point out,
the quarterback situation is almost even one more question, well
almost one more, and you've kind of addressed this already.
When it's all said and done, what do you think,
bottom line, what do you think is going to decide
this game?

Speaker 5 (01:34:08):
Turnovers and tempo.

Speaker 8 (01:34:09):
Man if if Ohio State can play clean football, you know,
control the run game, and that's that's someone else that
that we got to mention Bo Jackson, I mean Ohio State.
It feels like every single year just has a horse,
I mean a guy that you can give the ball
to over and over again, especially late in games, that'll
just churn the clock out and for all to talk about,

(01:34:32):
you know, Ohio State, you know in the air raid offense,
so to speak, chucking the ball and how it's nothing
like Jim Dressel and what he hayes if if people
remember that first couple of drives when things kind of
got off the rails against Michigan, Ohio State just started saying,
you know what, We're gonna line up and we're just
gonna run it down your throat. We're bigger, we're stronger,
we're meaner. And I think if Ohio State can do that,

(01:34:55):
especially early, settle the nerves a little bit and just
say hey we are the number two team and aar
the number ten team We're just bigger, meaner, stronger, and
faster than them.

Speaker 5 (01:35:04):
I think they'll be okay.

Speaker 8 (01:35:05):
But man, if Miami gets an early turnover, you know,
they get a big play early to get get them
emotionally hyped up and take take Ohio State's crowd and
possibly the players out of it. Anything can happen, man,
I mean, that's the beauty of college is I mean
any I hate to say it, rub it in my
buddy's face, my Michigan fan buddies, but even an appolass

(01:35:26):
and State can go into.

Speaker 5 (01:35:26):
The big House and be Michigan.

Speaker 8 (01:35:28):
I mean literally, anything can happen. So that's the beauty
of it. I'll be honest these games, I don't really
enjoy watching them. I'm just it on pre dere life.
But hopefully it gets boring for the Buckeye fans at
the end.

Speaker 2 (01:35:40):
We shall see a two part or an easy one
if you care to venture. A final score number one
and number two. And I think I know the answer
to this. Where are you going to be watching the game?

Speaker 5 (01:35:52):
Man, I'll be sitting in my living room with my infiant.

Speaker 2 (01:35:54):
That's what I thought. That's what I thought.

Speaker 8 (01:35:56):
Yeah, tanged knipers, Well, what I will say, man, is
I think, I honestly think it's going to be kind
of boring.

Speaker 5 (01:36:02):
I think twenty one seventeen Ohio State.

Speaker 2 (01:36:04):
There you go.

Speaker 8 (01:36:05):
I think I think Ohio State runs the ball.

Speaker 5 (01:36:07):
I think I think Miami hangs on.

Speaker 8 (01:36:10):
But I don't think it'll be as close as that
two thousand and one game.

Speaker 5 (01:36:13):
Man, that was something else.

Speaker 2 (01:36:14):
That really was I remember that. Hey, thanks so much
for doing this, and uh, I'll like that. Reconnoiter with
you tomorrow and we'll talk about it.

Speaker 5 (01:36:23):
Hell yeah, take it easy, man, Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:36:25):
Thank you, all right, bye bye bye bye. All Right,
Mike Allen, ju're giving us his take on the Ohio
State Miami game tonight. And I told you, man, he
knows Ohio State football cold. So we shall see what happens. Hey,
I'm going to take a real short break and then
we'll come back and I'll give you kind of a
preview of what we're going to do tomorrow on the show.

(01:36:47):
Mike Allen in for Sloaney seven hundred WLW. Hey, we're back,
Mike Allen in for Slow seven hundred WLW. Well that
was really cool. That's the first time I've ever interviewed

(01:37:07):
my son on the air, and I'll tell you what,
for a dad, that's a big deal. And he did
mention that he's going to be watching the game from
home tonight because brand new father just a couple of
weeks ago. I'm a brand new grandfather, little girl, And
I'll tell you what, there ain't nothing like it, you know.
I kind of have a theory with respect to Christmas.

(01:37:28):
Christmas is fun when you are a kid, it's fun
when you have kids, and then I think it's going
to be fun again with grandkids. So looking forward to that. Yeah,
I mean, if your kids are grown up and they're
out of the house and it's Christmas, it's kind of like, man,
when is this going to be over? You know? But

(01:37:50):
I think it's going to be different now and I'm
obviously enjoying it now and looking forward to it. Got
a great show for you tomorrow. We are going to
be doing, as one of the callers stated today, we
are going to be doing a lot of fluff stuff,
which is appropriate for the end of the year. You
know who did this in twenty twenty five? Who did that?

(01:38:12):
So looking forward to that. Also, we got some good
guests lined up too. Attorney James Bogan, James. He keeps
up on stuff with respect to you know, boys and girls'
sports and other things like that. We'll talk to James
about those issues, what happened with that kind of stuff
in the previous year. And also Kevin Burton. Kevin's coming

(01:38:36):
back again. We are going to do another political game
Top Political Stories of the Year, So I'm looking forward
to that and back and clean up at eleven thirty tomorrow.
Man by the name of Judd Dunning, I've had him
on before, really really a great guest, and he's going
to be speaking on what I feel is a very

(01:38:56):
very important topic and probably appropriate to close out the
year with it standing with Israel moral clarity in an
age of manufactured confusion. And boy, i'll tell you what.
He hits that right on the head. A big story,
uh this year obviously with Israel and the raids and

(01:39:18):
how they kind of put the arm on Hamas. Finally, yeah,
i'll tell you. I'm reading a book now, the first
book out by and I forget his name. I just
started the book. One of the hostages that was taken
hostage over there. Thankfully he was released in good health
now and it's just it's unbelievable. What happened to those people,

(01:39:43):
what Hamas did to those people. And for these people
that want to talk about you know, uh, let's march
on campus with the Palestinian flag. They it is. It's
not a big book, it's kind of thin. They ought
to take some time and read that, because I think
would bring some reality to the debate there. But we

(01:40:04):
shall see. But I'm looking forward to talking to him
about that. So we'll have plenty to do. Getting the
Year in review will do that, you know what. I
think I will continue on with CNN because they think
they did it pretty fairly. And just looking at it now,
a couple things here January twenty third, and so much

(01:40:24):
of this is about the Democrats. Law fair on President Trump.
They're the ones that started it, they're the ones that
perfected it, and they're getting it back, you know. And
I said at the time, it's a shame it has
to happen. It really does. It's inappropriate, but you know what,
the political world is dog eat dog, and if somebody,

(01:40:47):
if your opponent, does it, you're gonna do it. So
Democrats should stop crying about it and thank themselves for
the phenomena of this kind of thing the warfare we
have now with the legal system and judges and everything else.
But all right. January twenty third, a federal judge says

(01:41:08):
that President Trump's executive order ending birthright constitutions birthright citizenship
is blatantly unconstitutional, and that judge issued a tro temporary
restraining order to block it. On July tenth, US District
Judge Joseph Leplant certainly probably a either Obama or Biden appointee,

(01:41:32):
probably shouldn't say that, I don't know for sure, he
agrees to issue a new nationwide block against the executive order.
Everything Trump tries to do with respect to immigration, especially
everything else has to end up in federal court. You know,
it never used to be like that. It really didn't.
But oh boy, here's a sorry story. I remember this too.

(01:41:55):
January twenty ninth, sixty seven people are dead after an
American the Airline's regional jet on approach to Reagan National Airport,
New DC, collides with a US Army black Hawk helicopter
in mid air, sending both aircraft into the Potomac River below.
Sixty four people on board on the plane and three

(01:42:17):
soldiers on the Army helicopter now, I don't know if
the NTSB, National Transportation Safety Board, or any other organization
has come to a conclusion as to fault there, But
I think one thing that the experts can agree on
is that's a busy, busy airport, and you got military

(01:42:38):
craft like helicopters flying and out of it too. So
you know, it's a situation where hopefully they get that thing,
they get that thing fixed. One last thing here, February third,
Elon Musk reveals President Trump as signed off on shutting downs.
One of the best things he did shut and one
of the first things shutting down the USA Agency for

(01:43:00):
International Development. That's it. I'll see you tomorrow. Mike Allen
in for Sloaney seven hundred WLW