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Crooked River Cast Show 40
63 Plays16 days ago
Merry Christmas!
Crookedrivercast.com
Crookedrivercast@gmail.com
- Trump’s address to the nation.
- Ohio Labor endorses Acton.
- Why has Dewine not endorsed Vivek?
- Dave Yost say early endorsement of Vivek was “wrong choice”
- A new comer in the Governor’s race!
- Ohio Treasurer race begins.
- Ohio farmer lose on tariffs.
- Lorain Mega site update.
- Report links data centers and cancer.
- EPA wants to streamline data center water permits.
- Can you legislate a stronger music industry?
- Cincinnati city council approved BML settlement.
- Cleveland in the dark.
Good Things:
- Unclaimed funds returns more money than ever this year.
- Ohio New restaurant of the year.
- Special Christmas Display.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Hosts' Overview
00:00:12
Speaker
This is the Crooked River cast. I am Robert and joining me every week is Tom and we are two guys Northeast Ohio just trying to figure out what's going on in Ohio.
00:00:23
Speaker
This is show 40 recorded December 20th, 2025. Another week has gone by. we've got some stuff to discuss. So let's do it.
Challenges of Ohio Weather
00:00:42
Speaker
In the morning. In the morning, Rob. How you doing? Not bad? Got a good night's sleep? Well, that's going to help. Yeah. That's going to help.
00:00:53
Speaker
A couple cups of coffee. I got some energy. Oh, yeah. Extra. Extra. A little bit. I got some energy because I... Wait, that doesn't make any sense. But...
00:01:05
Speaker
What? Just enough time. I had some energy, so I had just enough time. That's where i was going. I had just enough time with the weather to wash my truck. Ah. and like fit right in this little slot.
00:01:16
Speaker
It got like 50, I washed it, and then it was snowing. Yeah. Well, least it's leasas not the salty rain. Oh, it was so bad. Yeah. it's like my My truck's looking awful.
00:01:27
Speaker
You know, when you can't close your car door or truck door or whatever without getting your hands dirty, probably time to wash it. You walk away, everything on you is like white. What do you mean? i How did I?
00:01:39
Speaker
What's all this? i never truck I never touched my truck, I swear. Well, the evidence would show that. you Yeah. Same. Yeah. it's It's like, oh, I can't even. That was fun. At least so we got to 50 for a minute, melted everything.
00:01:52
Speaker
And now we just start all over again. Yeah. I think today's going a little warmer, right? Yeah, it's going to go up and down. Hey, I don't know. I'm just counting the days. like You're almost out of here. Almost out of here in another week or so. We're going to a little trip to a warm climate.
00:02:07
Speaker
Nice. See the Arizona desert for a minute.
Music Choices for the Younger Generation
00:02:10
Speaker
ah But I do have an update. I wanted to update the listeners. I'm sure they were just chopping it. But I couldn't probably couldn't sleep this whole time figuring out what CD I was going to get my daughter for Christmas.
00:02:21
Speaker
Ooh, okay. Okay. ah yeah i was I was tossing and turning thinking about that. I'm i'm sorry. I should have let you in on it, but that's that's my fault. Anyway, so they I went a couple different routes. I wasn't sure where to go. and And so suddenly I had an epiphany.
00:02:39
Speaker
um Here I'm in trying to shove all these old bands down her throat. yeah is she Is she going to relate to them? Like, how how do you like music? Why do you like music? I started looking, kind of thinking about this. and how Well, you relate. so a lot of times you relate to the song. You relate to the lyrics. You relate to the person singing.
00:02:55
Speaker
Let me ask this, because i i was thinking about this. Believe it or not, I wasn't tossing and turning, but I was thinking about this. Man, I was right. I didn't lose sleep over this, Rob, but...
00:03:06
Speaker
I was thinking about it because our listener wrote, you know, about not a great assist album and all that. yeahp And I thought, yeah I thought he was correct. But after I thought about the age of your daughter that you're giving this to, I thought he was wrong because she's a little too young to get it.
00:03:28
Speaker
Oh, I could. Yeah. Okay. I i think if she was 15 or 14, even 13, even thirteen Then then i would go for the album rock or you know album.
00:03:41
Speaker
Sure. But at her age, I think, I don't know if she's ready for that. Sure. that's That's a valid point. I would go with eventually she will be, in which she'll have that album.
00:03:54
Speaker
Yeah. And not the greatest hits. So maybe that's, ah you know, look think like kind of future-proofing it, maybe. you know Yeah. ice in there I was thinking that her age, a greatest hits album would be a good wouldn't turn on for at her age. And then, you know, if you see that she likes the music...
00:04:12
Speaker
Then you're like, all right, cool. Yeah. What song what was that album off of? Right. she really likes get that song. And then introduce the album for, you know, more of an album format. I don't think there's a wrong way to do it. Yeah, not really. just depends. Like, I think what you even said in the email was like, depending on what you're trying to do, like okay what are you trying to accomplish? Maybe, maybe that was me. i don't know.
00:04:33
Speaker
ah like Depends on what you're trying to accomplish with these albums. know, if you try to give them some insight on where music came from, where rock and roll came from, this and that, then maybe go a different route. I don't know. I don't know. i don't know if there's a wrong way to go. I i think you're right. That's a good point. it Being that young, maybe it doesn't really matter.
00:04:50
Speaker
Yeah, I just don't think they get the concept of album rock. Especially now. Because you've got to sit through some what you might feel are clunkers... In the, big you know, like when you listen to it the first time, you're like, oh, this kind of sucks.
00:05:05
Speaker
Yeah. Because a lot of albums grew on me. Yes. Most of them do. Yeah. Most of them did. Right. you You kind of bought it because there was a, well, either it's your favorite band or you heard a song that you really liked. Right. And then you put the album on, you're like, oh, this kind of sucks. But then you hear it, you know, three or four times, five times, whatever. You're like, oh, no, there's there's some really good stuff on here.
00:05:27
Speaker
Actually, one of the things I'm trying to teach her is like, you got to give it a minute. Sometimes the first time you listen to an album, it's you you may not like it all that much. Right. But give it a couple of listens and you start. OK, then I'm getting in it. ah For me, a lot of albums are that way. A lot. Almost all. Most most of them, I would say.
00:05:41
Speaker
But I went a different route. OK. Sort of different route. I thought, again, relating how how at her age she's listening to, what is she listening to? so she's She's listening to Taylor Swift. She's listening to and all that kind of pop music.
00:05:57
Speaker
But it's all one, there's one common denominator that I see. Female. Female, yes. Yeah. So I went, okay. So that's when I went, okay, i read you can relate to the lyrics of a song that anybody sings, but girls sing about girl things and guys and boys sing about boy things.
00:06:16
Speaker
women and guys and all that we all kind of, we you can obviously there's tons of overlap. So that's, that's the, and then conveniently enough on my feed, um I think it was my YouTube feed, a band that I have not listened to in quite a while popped up almost like they're listening.
00:06:32
Speaker
yeah They are Rob. Um, well, yeah, it's wa it's another show. It's a whole nother. Yeah. It's a couple of shows probably. They, uh, um, so this band is, uh, maybe you remember them, uh, Evan essence.
00:06:44
Speaker
I remember the name. i don't remember the song. had because that Was that kind of like a one-handed wonder? No, actually, they had two hit albums. Amy Lee is a singer.
00:06:57
Speaker
ah Going Under is one of their songs. The title track, oh no, it was the first track off their album. That was their first hit. um Bring Me Back to Life is a second one.
00:07:07
Speaker
ah My Immortal is a third one. that was They had three hit singles off their first album. They have a second album, which had a couple on it. Yeah, don't I don't. Yeah.
00:07:17
Speaker
Oh, so you're going the metal route. It's heavier. Yes. Yeah. yeah Okay. That was one route. So I went that I bought their first album because first I like, I think it's, I think she, she's killer. Her vocals are, she's a, I guess a classically trained pianist and, and she's got, she's got some pipes and she's 45 years old and still singing.
00:07:37
Speaker
exactly the same way. And as far as I can tell, with no help. 45 is not that old. I know. just But to hit hit what she's hitting, I think. Okay, yeah. I'm not familiar. Yeah, she's got got some... it I shouldn't say I haven't heard any anything different. She still sings to me just as good.
00:07:56
Speaker
So that was the album. That was Fallen, I think. Yeah, Fallen's name of the album was her first album. And the second one, I i went, what's how how can I get some pop? Like something pop-ish, pop-y, but still have an actual band.
00:08:11
Speaker
Right. No doubt. Oh, that's a good one. No doubt. Their first album. ah Crap, i forgot what it's called. ah Shoot.
00:08:25
Speaker
but If you're going... Tragic what tragic something or other. ah ah No doubt. I'm not... i mean, I always liked... That's Gwen Stefani. Gwen Stefani. I always liked her.
00:08:36
Speaker
mean, not her singing, but you just... No. Well, yeah, she's hot too. She's cute, yeah. ah No, her and Tom Bukovac just did an album. I'm kidding, really? really really i don't know if it's a No Doubt album that he's playing on, and I think he's helping produce. ah So I'm not really looking. i think it's I think it's her album. Is she the one...
00:08:58
Speaker
Maybe I'm getting some... Is she the one who married a... Basically a cowboy? she Yes. yeah okay yes yeah Yeah, that's who this is. Because I think she lives in Nashville now. Or Texas, I forget. so Oh, I see.
00:09:11
Speaker
No doubt. Yeah. Just trying to see what their first album was. No doubt first album was...
00:09:20
Speaker
why i mean, why would it say that? The Beacon Street Collection? Maybe yeah yeah the it was not their first album. Oh, here it is. Tragic Kingdom. It's not their first album, I guess.
00:09:30
Speaker
Tragic Kingdom is the album I got. Right. 30 years old. but Yeah, you know, it's an oldie. it's Another one that she might like is like a Cyndi Lauper's first album. Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benatar.
00:09:45
Speaker
Oh, that's a good one too. i mean, if you kind of want a little bit
Debating SNAP Benefits
00:09:48
Speaker
more rock. Yeah. Pat Benatar, then. um ah Don't forget about crap with the, sweet, sweet dreams are made of. Yeah. ah I forget the name. Yeah, i know exactly what you're talking about.
00:10:03
Speaker
uh your rhythmix is it there yeah rhythmix yeah rhythmix i forget her name yes so that's why i just went with two and she got a couple i'm gonna stop there and i think we're gonna start taking trips to the music store oh that's cool let her and dig through the cds so i went and bought no doubt at the exchange and the i actually signed up for the rewards program figuring i'll probably use this a little bit more
00:10:32
Speaker
cool stuff out there. I that walk in that place. It's like, keep my wallet in the car, please. There's a lot of cool, they got a lot of used gear there and stuff. It's kind of cool. like Oh, the exchange. exchange and Yeah. Used to be the record exchange. Yeah. I'm all over the place. pretty cool.
00:10:47
Speaker
Uh, speaking of that, so that's one daughter. We'll speak of the second daughter real quick too. So, uh, my other, my older daughter, the high schooler, I think we mentioned that she was, she had a debate. Oh yeah. It's beach class. It turns out it was her midterm final was this, was this debate. So the age had a great break into groups of four and her story was basically they couldn't come up with a, all four of them had to agree on the topic and they were having problems. So she brought up abolishing snap.
00:11:14
Speaker
Nice. I was like, oh my gosh.
00:11:19
Speaker
It's happening. Anyway, so she, you know, she came to me with one of and those who have teenagers will real understand what this means when you say, dad, I need some help. What? Oh my gosh, it's happening.
00:11:32
Speaker
So she actually needed some help with homework and she's, she's pretty smart. So she almost never asked us for help for homework. And we went through this whole debate thing and long story short is she won.
00:11:45
Speaker
So they had a grading scale. It's eight people grading the debate. and She won six to two her side, not just her and her partner. and The other side, shockingly, just just had no facts.
00:11:56
Speaker
It was all emotion. what her her That was her quote. Dad, it was very, they were all, they had no facts. it was all, and I said, let me guess, emotion? She goes, yeah. I go, you'll find that a lot.
00:12:07
Speaker
You'll find that a lot. and got to explain to her though, as they get older and they so keep debating, they'll understand how to manipulate you with those emotions emotions or, or, um, you know, well, how do you, do you think this is wrong? you know, using an emotion to make you feel like you're wrong. It's like, she has to learn that that's a, I think ah a typical debate strategy, you know?
00:12:39
Speaker
Yeah. And that's, and she's seeing, and I don't know, I'm not sure. I have to worry all that. I mean, I think she's pretty, but from what I heard, she handled that pretty well when they were doing that. and And the other side was one of her friends. So was like, are you guys still friends?
00:12:55
Speaker
I go, you have to understand, it's just a debate just because you guys disagree. And that's kind of good a a lesson for them. But the two of them, I would bet, at that age. It is a very good lesson, but it's it wouldn't be a bad idea if she actually fought, debated the other side of the debate.
00:13:13
Speaker
Or her stance. Oh, yes. you know id I'd sent her an article, too, and asked her to look at the other side. I sent her a couple of things pro-Snap benefits. Yeah. yeah yeah because well i But it would be good to try to debate it, not just figure out what they're going to say.
00:13:28
Speaker
Because now she learned that all they used was emotional um ah sloganeering, basically, but probably. and ah But to actually argue with facts from the other side.
00:13:42
Speaker
yeah And that if you if you understand those and actually argue them, because if you understand, you know, I'm talking like I've done it. ah But I think if you actually understand the facts from the other side, you have a better understanding of how to argue ah from the side that you're, you know, you're, that you are actually. Yeah, you'll know their argument better than they will.
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah. And that's kind of some of things that you got to know their argument better than they know it. And I think I've been, this has happened to me, but only really out of force because I've heard the argument so many times.
00:14:17
Speaker
ah This depends on what it is from the other side of it. I of already know what it is, but yes, coming coming from a different angle. You know, one of the one of the pieces of information i kind of stumbled upon was a new YouTuber.
Backlash against Financial Criticism
00:14:30
Speaker
Have you heard, and he's just hitting the and the viral memes lately. Have you heard of Caleb Hammer? No. no He does ah financial audits.
00:14:43
Speaker
And when I was looking around on YouTube and I think I've i think i've seen something about that. Yep. He's on Twitter. Yeah. Yep. He's getting hot cause Caleb, what Caleb hammer. Oh, there it is. Okay. And he, one of the things I was pulling up, just trying to find, actually I was looking for was some PragerU videos cause they have short videos that are pretty to the point and they have a lot of graphics. And I did find a couple on snap and the history and all that stuff. And one of the things I found was Caleb hammer and I started watching him a little bit, man,
00:15:12
Speaker
and I can see why he's getting, so here's a little clip. I just wanted to show this, make sure I do this right here. Yeah. Better than last week. Um, Here's a little clip and you'll find out really quick why he's getting hammered. And just posted on x or whatever a week, ah a few days ago saying, I'm i'm getting hammered now and it's all from one side. It's all from the left and I've had enough of you. And he's not a right guy.
00:15:37
Speaker
And you'll hear that in this clip. a little bit so here's Here's a look. So this is the clip that I found a part of it, I think. where he's, he, so what his story is, he brings people in who are in bad financial situation, usually younger people.
00:15:50
Speaker
And he goes through the finances and he's brutal. He's brutal. Every little nook and cranny he's going through, why you going to Chipotle? why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? And he's, and from watching his program, I think they signed a lot of NDA or a lot of releases. Like they let them know, Hey, Caleb's going to rip you a new one.
00:16:08
Speaker
So I hope you understand that. And it's going to be okay. You can't sue us and all this other stuff. So he brings him and he just, and he rips on him And it's, so this is the one I found. And this is a Missouri, I think he says, Missouri mother who's on Snap.
00:16:23
Speaker
And here's your, here's, this is like a short YouTube short. So it's cut up a lot, but <unk>s you get the gist of it. Here you go Go get a job. Work 40 hours a week, nine to five. i don't want to. There it is. Government take away her food stamps right now. Her income is a thousand.
00:16:39
Speaker
She has kids and she spends $300 a month on her competitive cheer. Guys, she gets how much in food stamps? 321. Ladies and gentlemen, we are technically, as taxpayers, paying for her to go to competitive cheer. This is an indication that we need an audit on our programs because I'm okay with spending as much as we spend, but I want to take it away from disgusting motherfuckers like yourself and give more to people that actually need it Missouri audit how you are handing out your benefits. I mean, they go based on income. Income that you're choosing because you're refusing to go work. And then you spend $300 a month, which is what we subsidize you at Competitive Cheer. I like robust social programs. I really do.
00:17:21
Speaker
you throw it out i'd love it that's that's pretty that's pretty good yeah he is and it's part of his shtick he even kind of says it in some of the interviews i've seen up outside of his shows like hey i'm i'm that's that's a lot of my personality but that's part of the show too it's why the like he's amping it up yeah yeah yeah he's amping it up and he had and you have to when you're doing it and he's and but i think a lot of it he just he he I saw one about two dreamers, two illegal immigrants, I would consider them dreamers. and
00:17:53
Speaker
they spen
00:17:55
Speaker
that She doesn't work because she just had a baby. He's working. He's a construction worker. I mean, he's he's in Texas. He's Hispanic, so no duh. But...
00:18:07
Speaker
Okay, so he spent $2,000 on a trip to Florida to see us to see a football, soccer game, football. One of the famous British, I forget the guy's name. ah It doesn't matter.
00:18:17
Speaker
so Well, I had to see him. It's the only chance to see him. So what does she do? She said, okay, well, I get to go see Shakira. So the three of them, her the the man and wife, they're not they're not married.
00:18:29
Speaker
and the And her daughter, her daughter, go to see Shakira, tells him they spent two grand. He was okay with two grand. But it was actually over $4,000. They make $6,000 a month. And she spent $4,000.
00:18:42
Speaker
thousand dollars this And but um' I'm coming down to all this. This is my freaking children, dude. These are children. He's ripping into her. And she goes, but I danced all night.
00:18:53
Speaker
had fun. You're $107,000 in debt. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I, you know what? It's quite fun. Actually.
00:19:04
Speaker
Me and my wife did something a couple of years ago. went to see a show downtown. Yeah. I think the show and and dinner and all that ended up being close to like 800 bucks, man. And I'll never fuck, fuck.
00:19:16
Speaker
Nope. I'll never, ah I'll never, it's okay I'll never forget that, man. It's, it's fine to do that once in a while, but that was for me and her to have a nice night out. and We haven't, we didn't do it for a while, but you know.
00:19:30
Speaker
ah you went to a comedy show. Like. Pardon me? They went to comedy show, you said? No, no, was just, it was a rock concert. Oh, rock concert. But with the tickets and parking. dinner and everything. And dinner, you know, and we splurged, but it's like, how do you, how do you justify like four grand?
00:19:51
Speaker
Four grand when you make, when you make 70 grand a year or 60 grand a year? Me, yeah. And me and my wife do better than that. And ah he would never, we don't, you know, have that kind of Yeah.
00:20:02
Speaker
and I'm still like, seeing it still makes me like cringe that we did that. Yeah. You know? Yeah. His view is if you've got a, if you've got an emergency fund, if you've got three to six months of bills, then maybe some of that is okay. Some. Sure. Not four grand. If you make 500,000 year, then It wasn't four It was, it was over $6,000 because he went to see soccer game.
00:20:27
Speaker
it was it was over six thousand dollars because he went to see a soccer game Right. So, yeah. And and that's what thing. like He was pissed because she lied to him. He wasn't pissed that she spent, even at $2,000, it would have been ridiculous. and She lied to him to spend four. Hey, how does she lie to you about $2,000 on your credit cards? I forgot about those extra drinks that she bought or whatever, you know?
00:20:50
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And he's ripping on her, you know, ripping on the, I mean, he rips on all of it. And that's one of the reasons he's getting so much flack is because he's just just ruthless. And he had mentioned, I think it was on, ah know, I forget the comedy comedy podcast. It's been ah like one of the Joe Rogan spinoffs. But ah he's like, yeah, I think recessions are good because it makes people realize how good they actually had it.
00:21:15
Speaker
he goes He goes, my generation, that millennial, zenial kind of thing, we haven't been through one. And we are so focused on the the crap that we're we we've got it so good.
00:21:29
Speaker
that we argue about the most minute crap, you know, whether it's, well, it could be um a month. I'm not going to get going further with it, but I would check them out. Well, I'll put his, uh, put that YouTube short in the show notes. That way you can go up on the blog.
00:21:47
Speaker
And you can maybe me dive in a little bit. it's It's quite fun to him rip these people apart. And then he he is doing follow-ups for a lot of them that he's helped. And he'll give them financial help. ah He has an app that helps you budget and recategorize everything to see what you're spending.
00:22:02
Speaker
we got therapy sessions and financial education and stuff like that if they want it. Yeah, it's it's quite quite juicy. I like it. I'm just sitting there going. And it makes me want to go, damn, I got to do my budget again. Well, it does. It's not going out to eat.
00:22:18
Speaker
Yeah, well, you know. Start looking at what you spend on fast food and all that kind of stuff. You're like, whoa. Yeah.
00:22:26
Speaker
It's always good to at least look, right? Take a look. Yeah, of course. Keep an eye on it because it gets out of hand, especially now when you go ah two people at Chipotle is $40. Yeah, it's crazy.
00:22:37
Speaker
crazy $20 burgers at a restaurant you know yeah five guys other was 13 or 14 bucks for a double double cheeseburger it's it's ground beef
Trump's Announcement and Reactions
00:22:48
Speaker
Yes. But I tell you this much, it was better than some of the $20 ones I've seen at restaurants. I get i understand that, but its still at least at a restaurant, um I have a place to, it's ah you know, you're you're also paying for atmosphere and yeah and a little bit of ambiance, I guess. Yep.
00:23:04
Speaker
Well, speaking of affordability. Affordability? what do you what How do you like that as a segue? Dang. That was actually pretty good. Trump had a speech.
00:23:14
Speaker
He had a speech? Yeah. Okay. I mean, it was, he dressed a nation, you know, was that Wednesday? It was Wednesday, I think. Yeah, I believe it was Wednesday. Yeah, it was
00:23:25
Speaker
It wasn't all that, I mean, there wasn't all that much meat in there other than. It was a state of a union address without that. Without Congress, basically. Yeah, right. Look what I've done. Sleepy Joe sucks. and here's some money for the for the troops.
00:23:38
Speaker
That was the best one. It was okay. 1776 checks for the military. Yeah. Before or after taxes. Oh, definitely. Well, you know, what that's good question. It should be no taxes.
00:23:51
Speaker
should it should be right. That's the big one. ah and just that he he went on and on about how horrible his predecessor was and and all he's doing all he's done in the last 11 months, which is, you know, all good. I just don't think there was a... I don't know.
00:24:11
Speaker
and um ah I'm kind of wondering why. it just a year-end speech he was trying to do? Oh, i yeah. i think he was... I think he's fucking getting some people he's been getting some bad press. That's a silly thing to say, but ah no, I mean, like, there's, yes, he's he always, 99% bad press.
00:24:32
Speaker
But I think people are starting to feel, feel the you know, they're not getting any relief. That's what I think is happening. And I think the administration's getting a little bit of pressure for that.
00:24:46
Speaker
I think the one thing we have to understand and hope the president and the administration understands that the American people are a bunch of whiny little bitches and they expect everything to be done now. Instant now. And short term memories. And short term.
00:24:59
Speaker
Yep. And very short term. Yeah. This inflation thing started during Trump's last year or two of his term. This all to me. No, it didn't.
00:25:10
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It the like you The trillions of dollars we spent on COVID started. That's COVID, but you said the last couple of years. but The last couple of years of his, last year of his presidency is when it started going up.
00:25:21
Speaker
I would say probably the last six months. I don't know if it, how how how much did it go up? It was starting to. It wasn't, it barely ah you made the radar in my opinion. And and it really hit about a year or two later in the middle. I'm not, I'm not, obviously not. You have to blame the, the, uh, first, what were, what were they called? The checks, the couple of grand that we got.
00:25:42
Speaker
Yeah. it's It's the one thing that someone could come to me and criticize Trump. And I'd probably agree with some of it, if not all of it. And that's, he spends like a drunken sailor at a whorehouse. Yes, yeah he does. But the, when you stopped the money, like the growth that was happening, that's, that's when the inflation really hit.
00:26:03
Speaker
Yeah. You know? Yeah. Especially, yeah. and Cause, cause the economy was just booming in 2019, man. Yep. Wages were going up and yeah all the companies are flipping out.
00:26:14
Speaker
Yeah. We have to, we have to actually compete for, for people. Oh, we don't like that. We like them competing for us. So yeah, that was, all that was a good time. So, you know, you could blame COVID or you could blame Trump or whatever, but ah most of the damage I think happened under Biden.
00:26:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think it, i yeah, I mean, it did, and he didn't help. He certainly didn't try to curb any of that. He made it worse, definitely. More spending and more checks and more, you know, but when you print seven or eight trillion dollars, this is what happens.
00:26:49
Speaker
And that's what we did during COVID. Yeah. It's just... Hey, you everybody wanted their $1,200 checks. Everybody thought it was great. And I was going, hey, hey, dumbass, it's going to come back and bite you it right in the ass. because Right. but nope Oh, just give me my money.
00:27:04
Speaker
But what I think Trump, ah I think the way Trump thinks about that is he wants to spend, but as long as there's real growth. But what Biden did was he kept spending, and then he...
00:27:19
Speaker
you know, he kind of added more regulations. this It stopped oh any type of... He killed any growth. So not only are you spending, but now you're just basically just stalled the economy yeah and spends. So, you know, you're kind of... You're screwed at that point.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah. You can't get out of it. It is a lot... it would At least under Obama, which he... There was too much regulation going on, but there was... Not enough growth, but there it was growing. It was just real slow.
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah. I think the first time Trump had, all it was, let's say it was a lot easier to just kind of spark the economy. And this time coming back after what Joe did was, it was like, oh crap. Now there's way more hurdles to go through.
00:28:10
Speaker
Well, I mean, added on to that, he's also, i have a i have a lot little side clip here about what else he's changing at the White House.
00:28:22
Speaker
So he, he um I just this came up and I had to pull it because I thought it was pretty funny. So he has a presidential walk of fame, presidential hall of fame.
00:28:34
Speaker
I think it's always been there. I think he's changed it up. but Yeah, I think so. I didn't, I, cause I'm, I'm told it's a so-called hall of fame and, but he's made some changes to it. At least he's made some changes to it and this is really making people mad.
00:28:51
Speaker
And so here's, here's a Caitlin Collins, I believe. Yeah. CNN, Caitlin Collins and what Trump has done with the so-called hall of fame. So these new plaques have just been added to the so-called presidential walk of fame. called They almost read some of them like truth social posts, including the ones under President Obama's that says he was one of the most divisive political figures in American history. Under President Biden's, it describes him as sleepy Joe Biden and also says that he was the worst U.S. president in history. There are some that are nicer, including under Ronald Reagan's, for example, where President Trump says at the end that he was a fan of Trump's long before he ran for president. The White House press secretary, Caroline Levitt, says the president actually hand wrote some of these plaques himself.
00:29:37
Speaker
No kidding. Really? You don't say. here Here's what it says. So, first of all, under Joe Biden, it doesn't have his name and on the plaque, on the the picture, because it's not him pictured there.
00:29:50
Speaker
It has, and they don't show this in the report. It's a little YouTube short that I pulled from. They don't show, they show pictures of of Bush and Obama and Trump. They don't show Biden's picture because his picture isn't there. It's a picture of the auto pen. And it says in the plaque in or on a, on a, you know, on the in the nameplate on the picture, auto pen 2021 to 2025. Yeah.
00:30:13
Speaker
I'm going to miss that so much after 2028. And I think he might be the only picture that has two plaques under it because he couldn't fit it all in one.
00:30:24
Speaker
And i I took a screenshot of it from the video because, again, they only show the bottom of the picture when you can just see the barely part of the auto pen and then it has the plaque or the nameplate. And underneath it says, Sleepy Joe Biden was by far the worst president in American history, taking office as a result as as a result of the most corrupt election ever seen in the United States.
00:30:44
Speaker
Biden oversaw serious a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our nation to the brink of destruction. His policies caused the highest inflation ever recorded, leading to US dollar to lose more than 20% of its value in four years. Talks about the Green New Deal, surrendering American energy dominance.
00:31:05
Speaker
ah Biden let 21 million people from all over the world pour into our nation ah from prisons and jails and mental institutions. His Afghanistan disaster was among the most humiliating events in American history and resulted in the murder of 13 brave American servicemen who many and many others gravely wounded.
00:31:31
Speaker
That's plaque one. black twouses Named both sleepy and crooked Joe Biden was dominated. Yeah. was dominated by his radical left handlers.
00:31:43
Speaker
ah they and their allies from the fake news media attempted to cover up his mental, he's covered up by mental decline in this unprotected use of the auto pen.
00:31:55
Speaker
that's Following his humiliating debate loss to president Trump in the big June, 2024 debate. This is literally a true social post.
00:32:07
Speaker
Let's see. Despite all that, President Trump would get reelected in a landslide to save America. End of plaque.
00:32:19
Speaker
End of plaque number two. ah He goes on. I mean, he's got Bush in there. Bush was okay, but, you know, some about the great financial crisis, and he he ah was a bush Bush started Afghanistan and Iraq war, which had never have happened. Oh, I'm glad. Yeah, he he he was nicer, but...
00:32:39
Speaker
and The so-called walk of fame. That's pretty good. um But yeah, so they have, well, I did all of them, but yeah, so all in the same time, you get to cut that one out.
00:32:56
Speaker
Trump speech, we got that. I think we can start with, oh, wait, I got to go with my list. Wait, check. Too much coffee this morning. Calm down, Rob. Calm down. Okay. Subscribe to the show.
00:33:08
Speaker
Send us a ah like. Wait, do we i have likes? Smash that like button? No, we can't do that. Give us a review. Four stars, five stars, eight stars, whatever it is. we're like We're like rental car places. We only take five-star reviews. If you're going to leave anything other than that, just don't even bother.
00:33:24
Speaker
But yeah, we have a website, crookedrivercast.com. You can go every Monday morning and check out the blog. as As the show drops, the blog will be there with all of our stories in it. You can follow along, read through it.
00:33:38
Speaker
Then you can email us and say how crazy we were about this and that and the other thing. Send us an email crookedrivercast at gmail.com. And thank you for listening. I really do appreciate it.
00:33:52
Speaker
It's been a fun journey so far. Speaking of that, we've got we've got some governor race. Let's figure we'll touch on the governor's race before the end of the year.
Amy Acton's Economic Plans for Ohio
00:34:00
Speaker
And this next story is Well, Ohio Labor, course, the Ohio.News story says, ohio labor union Ohio Labor Unions endorse Acton. Ramaswamy's campaign responds with criticism for of her record.
00:34:17
Speaker
It's really two unions, or four unions, not all the unions. So four labor unions endorsed Democratic Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton on Thursday for her and her presumptive Republican challenger responded by criticizing her record as the state's top health official during the pandemic until she left her post.
00:34:37
Speaker
So it is the medical medical American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. the Ohio Civil Services Employees Association, the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, the United Auto Workers, and the United Steel Workers.
00:34:57
Speaker
Yeah, just all the typical ones. Like, they weren't going endorse the Democratic candidate. Yeah. um And I don't think most United Auto Workers are lefty.
00:35:11
Speaker
I don't think they're fans of Amy, regardless of how they, I can't imagine them being, but I will say this. I will say Amy's, Amy's been getting some coaching. Yeah.
00:35:22
Speaker
Yeah. Check, check out Amy here from her, from X. You may sound a little different than last time we heard her. Whenever you're 45th in anything, especially after giving away billions in taxpayer dollars, you need to take a hard look at what you're doing.
00:35:37
Speaker
Ohio is 45th in growth in GDP, 45th in unemployment, and our biggest export is young people. Most regions are struggling to retain good jobs. The current trickle-down, pay-to-play approach is simply not working. So on my first day as governor,
00:35:57
Speaker
I will convene with leaders and communities across the state to do a full and comprehensive review of JobsOhio and require more transparency, greater accountability, so that together we can forward a new plan to grow our economy.
00:36:13
Speaker
Across government, I will focus on supporting small businesses, advancing regional economic development, and expanding workforce development and skills training. We will invest in the modern infrastructure we need to compete in the 21st century from broadband to transportation.
00:36:31
Speaker
And most importantly, when our state makes investments, we must ensure that those investments lead to good jobs for Ohio workers, for Ohio families and communities, instead of simply padding the bottom lines of big out-of-state corporations.
00:36:46
Speaker
We must learn that in the 21st century economy, building the best quality of life possible is the surest way to attract and retain the talented workers it takes to build a strong Ohio economy.
00:37:01
Speaker
And smile. Okay. ah You missed your chance, Amy. ah Apparently you got some coaching because you do sound a little bit, but a little more forceful, a little more like... Confidence. Confidence. There you go. Perfect. kind Not... Amy Hector. Well, there there wasn't one um. and Yeah. you know And that was uncut, I believe. It did not look like there was a cut in that, that I can tell. It's hard to do that in video yeah without making it. Yeah. ah But she missed her chance.
00:37:28
Speaker
She did not once mention affordability.
00:37:33
Speaker
So apparently you weren't listening too well in the meetings because that's, I mean, that isn't that your talking point now? Even Trump's saying affordability now. It's the key phrase for the midterms. Affordability.
00:37:44
Speaker
they're They're going to try to, yeah, that's going to be their, yeah. yeah The economy has to start turning around. Republicans have any chance.
00:37:55
Speaker
Yeah, and unfortunately, it really won't matter are the fine details because I have a feeling that the economy is going to be a piece of crap all the way into the until the midterms. Do you think so?
00:38:06
Speaker
Regardless if it is or not. I'm not saying it's going to a piece crap. I'm not saying all we're going to hear, it is a piece of crap. And that's kind of... I don't think that matters where they could say whatever they want. it's It's how people are feeling when they go to the gas pump, when they go to the grocery store, when they go and go to a restaurant and it's not maybe, maybe it won't be a $20 burger anymore. Maybe it'll go down to 17 bucks. you know Just wondering though, I thought inflation was good.
00:38:34
Speaker
We were told under, ah during Biden administration, inflation was good. That's my point. I was like, no, ah when inflation was going crazy and you were seeing 10 and 20% increases over six months on certain products.
00:38:44
Speaker
I know I saw it in my industry. Oh, it's good. And inflation is good. It's good. Now it's bad. Inflation bad. Very good. Nothing's affordable anymore. I agree. as Like I said, you go to two people, go to fricking five guys, you spend $45. Fricking insane.
00:38:57
Speaker
But.
00:39:01
Speaker
What does that to do with? Why is that? Do American people going to look and and figure it out? No, they're going to watch the news media and go, oh, it's Trump's bad. And you know what? He sounds like a bully too.
00:39:12
Speaker
He doesn't talk nice to people. I don't like him. I don't think that works anymore. Okay. I do. I do. I don't think it works at all. He wouldn't have won if it worked.
00:39:23
Speaker
Yes, he won. And then, well, he won three times. Right. We'll get, we'll get to, We'll, we'll follow, we'll follow that. We'll touch on that in and in a second. We'll see. Uh, maybe we'll have some more evidence.
00:39:37
Speaker
the, uh,
00:39:40
Speaker
Vivek is going on her record. So he's pushing back on her record. She's pushing. And I know you see it all over X and that it's all of the polls. Amy's good. Oh, look what Amy's doing in the polls. Yeah. Polish moles. Yeah. He's still leading by three and in the aggregate.
00:39:54
Speaker
Well, that's in that. And okay, let's go with that. Let's go with the positive, most positive one. and He's leaving it, leading by three to 5%. Yeah. yeah He's, he's never led by more. Yeah, it seems like a problem to me, if you ask me. I don't think so. i don't think so the The key thing is nobody really knows who act Acton is.
00:40:14
Speaker
So when you when you don't know the actual record of the person that's running, they have a way better chance of people liking them. yeah yeah It's kind of like, the you know, there's a commentator on ah YouTube that used Kasich when he was running for president.
00:40:31
Speaker
He called it the Kasich effect. And it was when he was running for president. No, but I think it was 2016, right? Yeah. um Nobody knew who he was, but he looked good. He was, like you know, he spoke well.
00:40:43
Speaker
Ohio was a decent stake. he He seemed like a good choice for a Republican candidate. And ah but the more they learned about his policies and the more they learned what a.
00:40:55
Speaker
uh, or a deep, you know, rhino, I guess I hate using that. I overuse that, but just kind of like what, what a wimpy guy he was. he he, he lost favorability and the same thing's happening now.
00:41:11
Speaker
So what I know Amy Acton was there, but how many people really did watch that? And how many people remember her name? it's, it's not huge. Right. You're correct on all that. I'm just wondering, what do they see in Amy? Nothing. Because she has no policies and she doesn't look, she doesn't come off with any confidence. so I mean, besides recently. But again, nobody, like, they're just asking. but she's just, she's just. ah Do you think the poll, the people that are taking polls know anything more than I'm a Democrat? I think, I think the, you could take whatever lead that ahve Vivek has and probably double it.
00:41:46
Speaker
that yeah Yeah. In the final. Yeah. Well, I meant like just because the polls are always skewed depending on who, but it sw skewed one way or the other, depending on who's who's doing the poll, in my opinion. Either skewed, they either sample more Democrats or sample more Republicans and you could you could push it two or 3% just by doing that. Yeah. i forget what those kind of polls are called, but. um She's getting, I think she's getting the unnamed Democrat.
00:42:10
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. That's like, it' it's that effect of people don't know who she really is. And once it gets closer and people learn more about her, it's yeah it's going to drop off. And the other thing is Democrats, you know, generally just vote for Democrats. It doesn't it doesn't matter.
00:42:33
Speaker
It just doesn't matter how bad they are. Look i mean look here look how many votes Kamala got. i mean, you're you were literally running a retard. Well...
00:42:44
Speaker
Wow, look at that. I just never thought of how but but how similar the Ohio election was to the last presidential election. Anyway, so i i get I guess I just think Vivek should be up by more.
00:42:58
Speaker
just Just because of the contrast in her. She's got bad... I don't think Vivek's going to get people to come out and vote. That's the problem with Vivek.
00:43:09
Speaker
Yeah, we're going to get to Vivek in a second here. but Yes. you know I just wonder. i have issues with him too, but I'm going to go vote. vote And if he if he's the candidate, then ah that's who I'm voting for. But it doesn't mean I really like it There's no way I could vote for her.
00:43:26
Speaker
Well, then that's that and that's so the next story is we've got some major Republicans in Ohio who have not voted. have not put their endorsement behind Vivek and kind of, kind of being questioned on why.
00:43:43
Speaker
think it's Vivek, like cake. Is it Vivek? Vivek. It's spelled Vivek, V-E-K. I know, but it's, it's, he's brown and he's Indian. I know. So it's Vivek. but I was spelling it. I was pronouncing it Vivek and people were telling me I was wrong. So I was no no and i looked at the spelling and I'm like, well, it does. It is spelled that way. so maybe I am wrong.
00:44:03
Speaker
No, no. it's It does happen like once or twice a year. people People do pronounce it wrong, but they pronounce it Vivek and that's wrong. I mean, but i'm I'm not going to start trying to pronounce Rama Swami. I guess that's easier than that's Rama. rolls off the Or you can just say Obama dot.
00:44:17
Speaker
Obama dot. Oh, yeah, we could do that. its That's not nice. town what's all he doesn't have a dot. Does he have a dot? He's not one of those Indians, is he? as parent as those I never understood them why do they put their garage door opener on their forehead.
00:44:30
Speaker
I don't know why you put a target on your head. Why would you put ah a spot to aim for on your head? I would never do that. um the ah So DeWine has yet to endorse the Vake and neither has GOP Attorney General or the Ohio done on g p how is State Attorney General Dave Yost And I think maybe if we hear hear this clip from them, we can get a couple of them in there.
00:44:59
Speaker
Both of them in this clip. This is from Morgan, our girl Morgan on News Channel 5. And there's a couple clips from them. And I think we can parse out why maybe after. Here we go.
00:45:13
Speaker
Back in February, Yost told us that Ramaswamy wasn't experienced enough to lead Ohio. I have a proven track record. He's got a couple of books and some speeches. Now, he and Governor Mike DeWine are some of the only party leaders who haven't endorsed Ramaswamy. DeWine wanted the voters to choose the Republican nominee, not the party. Is it bad for Ohio that there is no primary, really?
00:45:40
Speaker
ha It's what it is. i mean, you know, I've been in politics a long time and I've been in many races and most of the time, key many times I had a contest in the primary. I usually did. That's sort of a norm. It would appear at least, and we haven't hit the filing deadline yet. Maybe somebody come out and runs. Ramaswamy has previously told us that having a primary opponent would show division. We are more united as a Republican Party than we've ever been. Although Ramaswamy was neither DeWine's nor Yost's choice, both say they will end up supporting whoever the party's nominee is. Hmm.
Vivek Ramaswamy's Gubernatorial Bid
00:46:20
Speaker
So they you know they they're going to support it. They're just still in discussions with Vivek.
00:46:28
Speaker
it's the It's the old guard not wanting the new blood in their ah Yeah. And I don't, I don't think Vivek is, I think he's going to be a lot, a lot of things said, but nothing done.
00:46:44
Speaker
Very possible. As far as I can tell, but. I think it might be, i mean, I think it could be multiple things. I never liked Dave Yost. If I go, if I go back to like when I first, but you know, learned about him and saw what he was doing, I didn't really like him. I thought he was very like neocon.
00:47:04
Speaker
yeah And he changed his tune when he kind of saw the writing on the wall when Trump was kind of, when it was becoming more of a America first type of voter base, which which i which is good. I'm glad he did that. But at the same time, I wouldn't trust him for as governor, at at least.
00:47:24
Speaker
Yeah. But ah as far as Yost and DeWine go, I think it's, ah here's here's the quote from DeWine. We're still having discussions, DeWine said. i want to have i want to have a better understanding of his positions, what his vision is.
00:47:40
Speaker
And I would say the discussions have been good. And I'm sure I want to talk to him about some of the things I see as well, some other things I see as well.
00:47:51
Speaker
Have you seen that wascally wabbit? I have. ah Is that the discussion he's having? No, I think the discussion is probably more like, What have you done for me? What what can you do for me?
00:48:01
Speaker
yeah Yeah. What can you do? Maybe this is talking about. Hey, there's something awfully screwy going on around here. There's something a little screwy going around around here. But I think that's what position can you give me? What position can you give my daughter or my wife or...
00:48:20
Speaker
ah Could be, yeah. I want somebody in your administration that represents me or whatever else. Yost is a whole other story. he you know In this article, he's he's he was planning on running against, he thought he was going to run against Houston for the Republican nomination. And then right ah Vance got picked for VP and then Houston got put in his position. Now then Vivek and then he, but why'd you back out?
00:48:50
Speaker
Why'd you back out? Well, because I mean, the GOP endorsed Vivek. So he had no choice, really. He's a party. He's a party ah loyalist. Party loyalist for sure. Yeah. But Old Guard, party loyalist.
00:49:05
Speaker
Oh, for sure yeah. And I think that's that's ah that's a big part of it. i just But I think Yost wants to be his mis wants being part of his administration or wants some kind of power because right now he doesn't have anything. and I think that's part of what Dwight, that's always what it is for these guys. Well, I'm not going to endorse you until we talk.
00:49:20
Speaker
Oh, what you you really, you need to figure out what his positions are. Do you really, DeWine? I don't think you do. Yeah,
00:49:30
Speaker
yeah I think they're both looking for something for their endorsement. That's kind of where I i landed with that. And then late late in the week, we got a new addition to the race, Tom. Oh, my goodness. We got a new addition to the race.
00:49:43
Speaker
We have an American First candidate. Yeah. Enders the Ohio governor race. Challenges Trump endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy's Ohio.news story. And I think we got this, somebody sent this video to us or something, maybe?
00:49:56
Speaker
Yeah, a listener tagged me in a thing on Twitter or x that this guy is running against Vivek. i see So I guess he's going to try to primary win the primary.
00:50:09
Speaker
he's a He has a YouTube channel. His name is Casey Pooch. Pooched? Pooched? I'm not sure. I haven't. He's ah he's a YouTuber. Yeah, he's a car guy. he's He's got Casey the car guy or something. this channel? Something like that. yeah And I ran across him a month or so ago.
00:50:24
Speaker
can't remember why. Randomly. up Yeah. And it it was nothing about cars. So as he put it in some of his videos I've watched, he's been crashing out lately on his car channel talking about politics.
00:50:37
Speaker
And I think, well, I figured let's get a little bit from Casey and see, see what he's all about. I could tell you one thing. He really does not like Ramaswamy.
00:50:48
Speaker
He really does not like Ramaswamy. And I think from my view of Casey is he seems to be very much an all or nothing kind of guy.
00:51:02
Speaker
it you almost It almost feels like if you if you disagree with him on any any major issues, that you're done. You're done. But we'll get into that in a second. But here's here's what he has to say about Vivek. Here's clip number one.
00:51:16
Speaker
So Vivek... If you think being an American is all about ideals, in a sense, you're right. Because we have the ideals that we can actually work hard, create something of value, help our fellow man and have a future. And we want leaders who will protect that for us, who will fight for that to exist.
00:51:41
Speaker
We don't want some jerk that was raised by people from some foreign land with a dissimilar culture to come in and destroy our future while he pisses in our face and tells us it's rain. Yeah, he's a little hot.
00:51:56
Speaker
We're tired of you. You ran for president a couple of years ago. You didn't pull as well as Kris Krispy Kreme Christie. So you bounced out to ride Donald Trump's coattails for all of eternity while using his talking points.
00:52:11
Speaker
hopefully buying your way on every single podcast so that you can make people think you're special when you're not and you've done nothing. So you get in to do Doge, which is arguably one of, if not the most important thing for the United States, but that doesn't work for you, right?
00:52:28
Speaker
It's gonna be too hard, too much pushback. Maybe you couldn't get along with Elon and his guys. Maybe you couldn't get along with Trump and then, oh, weirdly you're out. But no, it's OK, because you spent millions of dollars campaigning on behalf of Donald to ride his coattails. So he's going to have to give you Ohio as a consolation prize. And that probably explains why all your tech bro buddies, all the podcast people that you bought out and the gutless GOPs that can't stand up to that, because at least we were happy that Donald got in when he did, because we think this is going to go somewhere, all endorsed you.
00:53:06
Speaker
And now they're stuck with you. But here's the thing. Ohio's not. Because the only thing a state is are the people.
00:53:16
Speaker
Wow, that was a rant, wasn't it? He does not like the fake. No, he doesn't. he's He's got valid points. He's got some good points. He does he does have some good points. But here's here's where I'm not sure. i I think I ran across this video because he's...
00:53:34
Speaker
He's lost his face in the Trump administration and he went on a rant at one point that I watched about MAGA and Omega and all this all this other this stuff.
00:53:45
Speaker
And then one of the other the videos I was watching, he mentions,
00:53:50
Speaker
so he took his Trump flag, pulled it off and burned it. He's like a girl. Because of, well, of course, because of Israel and the Epstein files.
00:54:01
Speaker
so Apparently, is he on the is he on the bandwagon of of Trump's a pedophile? Maybe. But definitely Israel. And here's here's another one. So here's what he has to say about the MAGA movement.
00:54:14
Speaker
Conservatives in America have found themselves split by the Republican Party. In one corner, we have a ship of thieves with a powerful engine and no rudder.
00:54:25
Speaker
In the other corner, a ship of warriors with the direction, but no engine. Which one are you in? So what are the two ships that I mentioned?
00:54:37
Speaker
Well, the one that's got a powerful engine, but no rudder, that's a ship of thieves. That's where you're finding old Trumpy. He's in that ship.
00:54:48
Speaker
He's the captain. You're finding the Zionists that have their hand so far up the ass of every politician that they're wiggling their eyeballs.
00:55:02
Speaker
And that's a bit revolting to a lot of people when you look at it objectively.
00:55:09
Speaker
The MAGA crowd fits in there as well, because it seems that they just want power, they don't really care how they get it, and are just gonna follow Trump. And that the words, make America great again, have become subjective to be whatever he wants, rather than thinking of what is specifically only in America's best interest.
00:55:32
Speaker
That's objective. But Trump and MAGA and that ship of thieves are using it to be subjective. Nothing really wrong with that. Except.
00:55:43
Speaker
With the exception of how he campaigned. And that's not what we're getting at all. None of it at all. So the other ship, the ship of warriors with the direction, with a rudder, but no engine.
00:56:00
Speaker
No wind in their sails, if in fact it was a sailing vessel. Well, I can relate to that. How many you can relate to that? Yeah. That's what i mean by all. We're not getting any of what he campaigned on at all?
00:56:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's not true. this i mean, this guy is like douchey. Yeah, he makes great points, especially on Vivek. and Like some of stuff I didn't even know. Yeah, no, no. He's he's got valid...
00:56:29
Speaker
Gripes about Vivek. This guy's like, I don't know. Something. i I like his, I like his policies. I went to his website. He's got good policies. It's mostly, um you know, make America, right? Type of policies. America first, if you want to call it that.
00:56:44
Speaker
And, uh, which is good, but I just don't think this guy's genuine. and I think he tries to get clicks. Hmm. Okay.
00:56:55
Speaker
yeah i think I think this is a good way to get Amy Acton as governor as well. Tries to run as a third party. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. But yeah actually, I don't know, because I don't think he would get more than one to one and a half percent.
00:57:10
Speaker
Yeah, um he would have to grow a lot in order to be a Yeah, which I don't think he has. that He doesn't have the charisma or the the gumption to do that. This this this guy is... I don't see that at all.
00:57:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I don't see him being governor. I don't see, I, I, you know, I, I know our listeners sent this and he was kind of excited and I just think he's kind of a, this guy's basic basically a douchey guy.
00:57:36
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, i think he's got good intentions. I just think his delivery is, well, you, you, you think maybe he's just for clicks, but I think he's just, uh, for sure he's pissed and he doesn't know how to express it correctly. In my, this is, this might be how I sound with that on the show without any discipline.
00:57:50
Speaker
I could see myself going off on, on like this, but it doesn't come across very well. And I, I like, I'm going, okay, great point, but I still want to punch you in the face a little bit. There's a lot of things that Trump. Yeah. Yeah. He, he does make you want to do that. Uh,
00:58:07
Speaker
I think yeah Trump, trump there there are things that Trump hasn't done yet that I really was hoping he would. But I mean, you know, so far overall, I've been pretty, pretty happy.
00:58:18
Speaker
i don't, the Epstein list, I told, i I don't know. Did we talk about it on on the show at all? think a little bit. And fact that, ahead. I basically said that's never really going to come out. Is there really a list? I mean, are you going to really put world leaders on, you know, in a list that what's going to happen when, you know, the, Oh, it already kind of happened. You know, one of the, wasn't one of the CEOs or board members on you know, he got kicked out basically. So what if there's like 20 more, what happens to the stock market? What happens to a world leaders that you're trying to negotiate trade trade deals with if they're on the,
00:58:56
Speaker
If they're on a list, so-called list, it's very short sighted. i want people to pay for what they've done. yeah I think we're low. I think we're too late. Yeah. That's the thing. and And the other thing is it's like just because they're in the files doesn't mean they're guilty.
00:59:13
Speaker
So why would you want to put out a bunch of names that might be in the files? Yeah. that really didn't do anything wrong besides maybe taking, using his plane or, or maybe they had dinner or something, you know, who knows?
00:59:28
Speaker
I'm yeah. I, and I, I'm following along the same as i think if there was a list,
00:59:36
Speaker
A, can you trust it at this point? It's been 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and if there, and if there was one, there's no way either it's completely gone or anybody who have any substance is already off that
Controversies and Conspiracies
00:59:46
Speaker
list. There's no, there's no way these people that have all the power. These are, we're talking about people. We don't even know who they are. Not George Soros. There's people above George Soros. I'm in my opinion that we don't even know who they are.
00:59:57
Speaker
I agree. And, and I, they're not on that list anymore. It's gone. Yeah. Yeah. That, First of all, there was no list. There's a probably, ah you know, court documents. There's some videotapes maybe and stuff like that. and Court documents, yeah. Court documents and stuff, you know, that might have names in there, but, you know.
01:00:14
Speaker
And then the Israel thing, which I don't know. i this This Israel thing's been happening for every administration. I was going to say, Trump, by the way, I'm sorry. but Trump never ran on those.
01:00:25
Speaker
on the Epstein list. He never ran on that point. Very good point. People asked him if he would, and he was like, yeah, okay. He didn't know. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. I'll release it. Yeah. Pretty much. That's what it was. Anyways.
01:00:38
Speaker
Yeah. What was I saying? Israel. Oh yeah. That's the thing. Israel. I think, I think this is happening. Has happened every, for every administration, something in Israel always happens. It's one thing you can know, as a new president, something's going to pop off in Israel.
01:00:51
Speaker
And I don't know. I think if you look at the past, It's not perfect, I think, but it it's done. It's over.
01:01:02
Speaker
Not that it's completely over. What I mean is usually this drags out for years and years and years. And with his influence, I think it's been cut short, way shorter than it was. I don't agree with everything that happens over there. I honestly don't care what happens over there to some extent, to a lot of extent, but it's not an all or nothing thing for me. Like this is...
01:01:21
Speaker
for him For me, for this seems like he's just all or nothing. and And that's fine. You don't have to agree with Trump. I'm just saying, but because of one or two things that you're like, oh, he hasn't given us anything. Okay.
01:01:33
Speaker
well I think you're wrong. That's why I think this guy is mostly. He just clicks you maybe? Yeah. Yeah. Raise money. What happens when when you raise money to run with that money?
01:01:45
Speaker
If it goes to your campaign, I don't think you could spend it on anything but campaign funds. Yeah, but after you drop out. But that's pretty loose. After you drop out. I don't... I'd have to look. I'm trying to remember off of different things.
01:01:58
Speaker
I don't know if you can spend it on yourself. I think you could spend it on other... If you can suspend your campaign, I think that's a lot of them. They suspend their campaign. That money could sit there in case you want to start a campaign again. Well, okay. And you could be for anything, though. What if you just drop out? I mean, you know, if he doesn't...
01:02:13
Speaker
Is he ever going to wrong That's a good question. i is Is your bank account all of a sudden loaded with a couple extra million dollars? i don't I want to say no, but I'm not sure.
01:02:24
Speaker
and want to say there's some rules around it. There but is. I don't think they're hard to get around. Like, like you can only pay, maybe you can only use it for campaign stuff, but new if your wife is still your, yeah if your wife is still your campaign manager and you still, can you still pay her?
01:02:39
Speaker
If you're, if your cousin, if you're whoever does that wife, but you mean? So there's ways around it, I think. Sure. But yeah, I mean, we we see that a lot with, with presidential campaigns. Sure. one They like get this big treasure trove and so yep. Sell a book or something like that. and and watch more car videos, yeah you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get more clicks. Well, yeah. yeah Get more clicks.
01:03:03
Speaker
Uh, we'll lose them some clicks too as well, but right now it's probably good. It's probably a net positive right from right now. Yeah. But if your channel starts stalling, I've seen this happen with where there was immense growth and they were making good money. And then all of a sudden you don't have the growth because you've kind of.
01:03:22
Speaker
COVID. i was always co I was going to say your channel sort of kind of became what it is and there's really no more growth. Right. i covered COVID inflated all those numbers and then maybe that's... Perhaps, but I'm thinking like i'm thinking of channels like Wrangler Star, ah yeah who got huge. And I think it was huge he was huge before COVID. Yeah.
01:03:47
Speaker
And then all of a sudden, there's really not much more you can do with homesteading. I mean, how many how many times are you going to... talk about putting up fence.
01:03:58
Speaker
Right, right, right. So then all of a sudden, then he becomes more like a survival guy who's who's shooting guns and talking about prepping and stuff like that. And then all of a sudden, it's a little bit more governor you know ah government stuff. And then it's not the same channel. because i Personally, I think channels eventually kind of plateau and it's hard to keep people coming back.
01:04:20
Speaker
Yeah, that is... That is a problem with especially YouTube channel or channels in general, as thatd be podcasts or whatever that are, I mean, you're almost a slave to the channel and everything has to be bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
01:04:35
Speaker
and And that's nothing was bigger than locking everybody down during COVID for for the the prepper channels. ah sure every Sure. Every week the apocalypse was coming and after a while you're just like,
01:04:47
Speaker
Okay, yeah no, I'm not going to click on it. It's probably a good time to start talking about government issues too. Yeah, yeah. know, censorship, all the all that stuff. that was happening. So channels kind of took a different route, but I think a lot of them just had to.
01:05:02
Speaker
Yeah. i I think, so you can say outrageous stuff and you could say harsh stuff. Trump does. But the way he does it is it doesn't, he doesn't, he doesn't sound mad lot of times when he says it.
01:05:17
Speaker
And he, and in this guy, this case, he sounds, I get it. I'm mad too a lot of times, but it it doesn't sell. the The thing is, I don't want people talking at me. Yeah, that's true.
01:05:30
Speaker
I don't like any of the people that do that. I want them to tell me what's going but I don't want them talking at me like they're right and I'm wrong or, know, there's no, there's no other opinion. Yeah, it is. Yeah.
01:05:47
Speaker
they they' I don't know. Yeah, I get it. Like I said, I don't want to just, I mean, his points are valid. A lot of them. I just, and so I don't want to. Totally crap on him. but Yeah, not yet.
01:05:58
Speaker
But maybe we'll see. We'll follow him along. We'll see what else he has to say. I mean, it I can't get through a video because it's just he just rants for 45 minutes. Yeah, yeah. No, he's he's not a very interesting ill listen. But I do want to look into some of the things he brings up. And the and before I forget, yes last time I i forgot, we last time we talked about Vivek or Ramaswamy, whatever you want to call him.
01:06:17
Speaker
I forgot to bring this up, but I've talked to some people who are...
01:06:24
Speaker
that who I respect and trust when it comes to, especially ah local politics, friends of mine, and they have great concerns about Vivek. And one of them was they feel he's been surrounded by Kasich people.
01:06:38
Speaker
That could be. Yeah. And those are a lot of people running his campaign. and The same people that ran Kasich's campaign. Okay. All right. I haven't, I haven't dug too far into it to see like at what extent this is, but just the, just the hint of Kasich makes me go,
01:06:55
Speaker
Well, you know what? we We just beat up Casey. We need to beat up Vivek a little bit because there there are... oh for sure. you know that i was i was thinking we were going to do that closer to where when the primaries are happening. Yeah, we can touch on it. Some of his gripes is, did Vivek take Soros money to get through college? yeah he He mentioned that, all right? But who cares? He was in
Soros' Family and Educational Funding
01:07:17
Speaker
college. it was it was I looked it up. it was ah it was ah from the Soros, George's brother and wife.
01:07:25
Speaker
They gave Vivek, Vivek, Vivek, whatever. Tuition money. They gave him directly tuition money from their pocket. I mean, it wasn't like from a group that they ran. it was from a foundation. Okay. It was from a foundation. It's different than the way he puts his.
01:07:36
Speaker
Yeah, no, no, it's, it's BS to put it that way because what, it was a, it was a foundation. it was tuition money for um minorities basically, I believe.
01:07:47
Speaker
So why wouldn't you take that? It doesn't mean he's, you know, intertwined with Soros. I mean, if somebody offered me 93,000 or whatever it was to pay for my tuition, you think I'm turning that down when I'm 19 years old? Yeah.
01:08:06
Speaker
There's no, there's no way. I don't care who it comes from. And at that point, did he even know who Soros is Right. Probably not that his parents, I don't know. I mean, i mean maybe, but it's i probably unlikely. Doubtful. unlike Doubtful.
01:08:20
Speaker
Maybe, but I mean, what in what what reality would anybody turn that down? unlessly Unless at 19 20, 21, whatever age you are, you're like sitting there going, I can't take this. I'm going to run for governor. They're going to think I'm part of the Soros family, you know?
01:08:38
Speaker
No, and he busts on him a lot for not making anything. What are his businesses? There's a lot of tech businesses. on on I mean, that's probably a valid point to some extent. i think his first, where he made his billion or not ah millions. he's He's like a 500 million worth, something like that.
01:08:54
Speaker
And I think it was from a pharmaceutical thing. And it was it was kind of skeevy how he made that money. which is what I wanted to kind of eventually when we beat up on him a little bit, that's kind of one of the things I want to look into. that where Where is he getting his funding? wheres he get where Where did he get his, where did he make his money and how did he do it? That's that's yeah important to me because sure important on how you're going to run the state, I think maybe.
American Citizenship and Identity
01:09:18
Speaker
Could you give me some insight? A couple things though. he He busts on him for, he's only American because he was born here. a lot of people are only American because they were born here. I'm only American because I was born here.
01:09:31
Speaker
Uh, is that right? Oh, thought, I thought one your parents was citizen.
01:09:38
Speaker
No? Okay. Yeah. No. yeah Yeah. But my father wasn't. Right. you know Yeah. But even if either of them were, you're not a citizen. i thought, I had thought about that. Cause when you said it, immediately thought of you guys and my wife, of course, yeah my wife being your sister, your sister. And, ah but it's not quite, but it's very close. And even if both your parents were immigrants, legal immigrants, I don't know if that makes you less of an American.
01:10:07
Speaker
Not if they were trying to assimilate. i mean, if you're sitting around the dole American taxpayer dollar, and and you're just kind of like, you know, some...
01:10:18
Speaker
ah refugees that aren't trying to assimilate into the community, then I might have some issues with that. but and and then and the next one is this data center thing, which i i couldn we'll talk about data centers later, and but we'll we'll probably touch on that when we talk about the governor's race a little bit more in
Candidates and Their Public Perceptions
01:10:34
Speaker
depth. But that's the other thing you brought up. but Yeah, what's what's he doing with that? Is he going to help the data centers? Is he going to so slow them down? is he goingnna you know Are we going to have a problem with that because the governor is not going to be...
01:10:46
Speaker
you know, anyway, so we'll look into it more, but this guy's pretty, you know, he's at least interesting. He's at least interesting. Yeah. and And he's, and he's bringing up good points. So I'm not, know, I'm not completely ah throwing shade on him, but I think his person, I think I, his personality makes me want to beat up on him. yeah That's why, like was saying, Trump could say some, some abrasive stuff, but the way you say it, if it, you know, it can make a difference. And I think, I think, and he doesn't care, which is great. I guess you're getting, but I mean, if you, if, if you really want people, a lot of people to vote for you you, kind of have to care.
01:11:21
Speaker
I mean, yeah you're happy other yeah you have to be like a Trump. You have to be a character. This guy's not that. Yeah. And what' we'll follow along. If he has anything on interesting, we'll bring it up. And to round election, just to touch base, we have Republican Treasurer of State.
01:11:38
Speaker
Candidate is Robert Sprague. He's put his name in the race. LaRose is term limited out for the Treasurer of the State of Ohio. So we are going to have a new Treasurer here. Right now, he is not the only candidate. There is one other candidate, Marcel Stribich.
01:11:56
Speaker
Yeah, which I like him. He's the guy from, have I seen him on on YouTube? I just like him because he follows us on ah X. Oh, no, that's the difference. Okay, that is the guy. Okay, yeah, yeah Oh, that's right. Yeah, no, it's not it's not the guy I was thinking about. But yeah, I have seen him on X. ah He is also one of the people going for the primary, Marcel Stribich.
Impact of Trump Tariffs on Ohio
01:12:17
Speaker
Right. During his ah Republican primary, he's going May 5th. The winner will face one of the two candidates from the the Democratic party Party, Brian Humbly and Allison Russo.
01:12:31
Speaker
the name you've heard before in Ohio politics, Russo. Russo. Yes. I don't know. It was like a so treasurer secretary of state or, you know, I think you used to see him on the, he's a guy who's, who's on the sticker of all the ah certifications for gas, tank or gas pumps.
01:12:50
Speaker
well Is it that guy? i I don't know if, i don't know if they're related, but that's the Russo that I know of is always on the sticker. Okay. Russo signed by whatever Russo, cause he was. Right. Right. thought it was Chris Russo or something like that. Yeah.
01:13:02
Speaker
It's not the same one. I may be related, but I don't know. um Yeah. it a common name. So it's probably, it probably not, but that's, that's what I thought of. Yeah. So he's running and he's basically, but what I could looks to kind of resume at least some of the the work that LaRosa has been doing with the voter rolls.
01:13:20
Speaker
he wants to He wants you to be upfront. and I want to move to a upfront and citizenship check. that you have to pass before you're able to be put on the motor roles in the state of Ohio. So that's like that. See what else he has to say about it.
01:13:38
Speaker
We'll keep following that along. I'm sure that'll get, once the primary comes along, we'll get a little bit more on that. And if you've heard anything you like, please let us know. CrookedRiverCast.com. CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com. You can send us an email. You can check out all of the stories we talk about and we look at and we read at our blog post every Monday on the website.
01:14:00
Speaker
CrookedRiverCast. If there's anything that you don't like, just keep that to yourself. We're good. But please, thank you for listening. Share the show with your friends. Send them a link if you know of anybody else who might be interested in some Ohio news.
01:14:15
Speaker
And two guys complaining on the internet. The guy in the gas tanks was Dave Yost before, and currently there's Keith Faber. So, yeah. Oh, so it is the ah attorney general is the one who's on that. So there was a Russo eventually. No, no, no, no. ah That was when Dave Yost was the auditor. i Oh, that auditor. Okay. I believe it's the auditor that's on. Okay. State auditor. There you go That makes sense.
01:14:38
Speaker
Yep. All right. So let's keep moving. Next, we have a story here from, where is it? Where is this story? Oh, it's from News Channel 5.
01:14:50
Speaker
And this is basically a little catch up on what's going on with tariffs. I actually have two stories here, competing stories, it sounds like. Ohio farmers see one year 74% loss in Chinese sales due to large, due largely to Trump tariffs.
01:15:06
Speaker
Report shows. And basically this report goes on and starts giving you all the lowdown and Ohio farmers lost bigly with Trump terrorists apparently.
01:15:17
Speaker
but i think i think there's a pretty good bailout coming for them. Yeah, I think there is. Yeah. I think there's also maybe some so some some, let's look in the mirror here for a second. And maybe maybe we're a little too reliant on exports. So half of, i guess half a soybean x half of soybeans that we grow in Ohio,
01:15:34
Speaker
we export 50%, which goes to international markets, which totaling about $1.8 to $1.9 billion in 2023 of soybean exports. So apparently with the tariffs, point eight to one point nine billion dollars in twenty twenty three of soybean exports so apparently with the tariffs They lost nearly 76 million of their exports to China this year compared to one year earlier. Now that's coming back because they've ironed out the tariffs. And i think that we got, there's a 20% tariffs on our soybean going to China and they are buying it again, apparently. but Yeah. Yeah. Happened about a month ago, right? Yeah. But that short, that short kind of stoppage kind of threw them for a loop.
01:16:15
Speaker
I would hope they can use this as a a teachable moment, as Obama would say, and maybe look at diversifying a little bit. Well, the minor crops are an issue. Yeah. Maybe, maybe grow something that, you know, Americans can buy and eat.
01:16:30
Speaker
Right. And on the next story, which ties in just as a counter to that is the U.S. trade deficit shrinks to five-year low as exports surge under Trump tariffs.
01:16:42
Speaker
So according to this report, trade deficits fall 35%. Exports climbed boosting the GDP by
01:16:51
Speaker
the budget gap has cut in half. It says this is basically ohio press network touting the, the tariffs that have come into play. A Trump has, has put in and, you know, it's, it's cut the trade ever since in half, which kind of his goal, wasn't it?
01:17:07
Speaker
Yep. and And anything else here that we, uh, i don't know. Things are moving. ah As far as tariffs go, they're they're all moving. and It's all moving in the right direction. It is.
01:17:18
Speaker
yes Everybody was pretty much panicking. And, you know, it made me cringe a little bit too. Yeah, it's hard to deal with. yeah But as everybody's seen, just because there's a 30% tax on something doesn't mean it's going to go up 30%. It's one part of, a you know, a thousand part, something that has 10 parts in it. So it's not...
01:17:40
Speaker
not a one-to-one thing. And everybody, you know, of course, the media freaking everybody out. Oh, you're going to pay more. are You're going to pay 20% more for your doll. Wow. And then Trump said, of course, well, maybe you don't need $14. Maybe just three, maybe just three.
01:17:53
Speaker
Maybe we need a little, maybe a little less crap in our houses and little bit more money. Maybe you don't need to spend four grand going to a concert. yeah You don't need to spend four. I mean, to your point, great, great tie in there. didn't even think about that. That's a lot of what this guy talks about.
01:18:09
Speaker
ah Caleb Hammer. It's like, what are you, oh, the biggest thing he said, trucks, truck payments. That is true. Yeah. Guy's always got to have his truck, 60,000, 70,000.
01:18:20
Speaker
sixty thousand seventy thousand Do you need a new truck? one One video that popped in probably because of the algorithm, it was a guy, it was a different channel, but a a financial guy that went to Disney to ask people at Disney while they were there, how much debt they had.
Personal Finance Tips and Economic Outlook
01:18:35
Speaker
Oh, it's quite quite an amusing. Oh, I've got $150,000 including my student loan debt. What are you doing at Disney? What are you doing at Disney? yeah How long does it take you to pay that off? Never.
01:18:46
Speaker
You're never going to pay that off. You got to take some real action to do that. Yeah, you actually have to pay on it. Yeah. And most of them weren't because it was still on the moratorium thing. Yep. yeah And you have to pay extra on it if you really want to pay it off same with Same with regular you know credit card debt. you're You're not going to get out of that unless you really try to hammer it away.
01:19:05
Speaker
And they give that to you now on a lot of these statements. If you if pay the minimum, is I think that's law now. they have to. That was a Bush thing, yeah. Yeah, you have to tell them how long. And he' he goes through it. They show, oh, this so this $4,000 debt is going to take you 15 years to pay off or something. Yeah, if you pay minimum, that's 15 years. Something crazy Eight, nine, 10, 12. It is good, but who looks at that anymore now that everything's digital?
01:19:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So I think the tariffs are working to some extent, at least. Yeah. It's not the reason why the the five guys burger is $14.
01:19:38
Speaker
fourteen dollars It's not good. I am kind of a looking forward to next year. I think, I think the economy is going to take a pretty good turn. Oh, you think it's going to turn? Yeah. Yeah.
01:19:50
Speaker
I think the national, the reserves for the the oil reserves are filling out. they're They're getting filled up. And I think they're going to get, once they're filled up, I think gas is going to drop a little bit more.
01:20:02
Speaker
I think we'll be in the 250 range, even in the summer. Or maybe where we're at now will be what's in the summer. then the winters will drop down to 250. Okay. i yeah Which, that's a big, you know, that's a big deal for as far as like overall costs for like...
01:20:19
Speaker
Well, yeah affordability. yeah lot of Food's got to get to grocery stores and it gets there using gas. Using trucks mostly. Yep. Yep. Good point. It all works. I mean, know in my in my business, it's constant. every Every couple months, they adjust the fuel surcharges for trucks. Sure.
01:20:37
Speaker
get it. Hundreds of dollars per truck, per delivery. Full truck, a full semi costs you four if final know four or five hundred bucks. Maybe not now. I think it's down in the two hundreds. Depending on the company, but at one point there were three four hundred a bucks for fuel surcharges.
01:20:51
Speaker
Right. Freaking crazy.
01:20:55
Speaker
right. So just a couple of things, I guess. ah Did I get through everything on here? um So yeah, 50% of our exports are soybean. 50% of our soybeans are exports. We're ranked 60 in the United States, but we don't just give them to China. We give them the Europe, Mexico, Egypt, Japan.
01:21:13
Speaker
So we do a lot of soybean stuff. lot of soybeans.
01:21:20
Speaker
All right, I guess that settles that one. Tariffs are, you know, ah like we talked about, they're going to be some pain, but in the long run,
Community Resistance to Rezoning for Data Centers
01:21:28
Speaker
we should be better off. and Hopefully we're getting to the long run part.
01:21:31
Speaker
Next on our list, have a little follow-up from Lorain County. um and on does it Remember, Lorain County has been going around and around with kind or the new russian new Russia Township zoning board.
01:21:46
Speaker
So the zoning board has been trying to get a it's a bunch of land rezoned for what they call a mega site, which is just code, I guess it's lame code for data centers. they want to They want to rezone it for industrial, commercial, whatever.
01:22:03
Speaker
So they can attract data centers and the citizens have kind of been pushing back. They've got no mega sites, all signs all over the place to pop them up. Not the only place I've gone. I went to Toledo last week and I saw them all over. No data center, no data centers, no meta, that kind of stuff. That is good to see. Yeah.
01:22:24
Speaker
So they're pushing back. So the board of commission, the new Russia township zoning board commission, a commission did not vote on a recommendation surrounding the future of the seven parcels of land for residential and agriculture to industrial park zoning.
01:22:42
Speaker
I'll tell you what, man, I was, there was a house we were looking at a few years ago in new Russia township. He was on 10 acres. was pretty nice.
01:22:54
Speaker
And if we bought that and yeah, it might mean that this was happening. I wouldn't, I would have been fuming. I have a, a customer slash friend that
01:23:06
Speaker
is kind of, he's, he's going to be working at a data center. That's right by his house. Hmm. So he's like, okay, this is work. But it's right by my house.
01:23:19
Speaker
and So he's got a very ah very love-hate relationship with the data center that's going up in his area. And ah'll like I'm like, you know, as I keep telling everybody, and like I finally found and advantage of living in the suburbs over the rural communities.
01:23:33
Speaker
I don't have data centers popping up my backyard. Yeah, but you have no backyard. but i yeah I have a small backyard, yes. Very small, comparatively speaking to my friend. Yeah, he's got a couple acres in his backyard.
01:23:44
Speaker
Yep. So they had a ah ah zoning commissioning meeting last week, I think it was. And about 100 people, it was a packed house. And they decided to, well, i I think what they did was kick the can down the road. So let let me ah let's play the sound. This is um the clip from News Channel 5 about the the commission. They got a couple of clips or a couple of sound bites from the actual meeting. And then the end is interesting.
01:24:14
Speaker
for me at least. Here you go. News 5 first started following this story in July when County Commissioner Dave Moore talked about a $67 million dollars grant to go towards the proposed mega site. Months later, Team NEO told us the end user would bring new jobs and long-term investment, which is around the same time a petition started circulating in October with several thousand signatures and hundreds of signs saying no mega site. Now the debate continues. And I'd like to make a motion for a continuance. The special zoning commission meeting will be held on January 5th at 6 vote on this proposed plans recommendation. For News 5, I'm Remy Murray reporting.
01:24:54
Speaker
Let's see here. ah You've got 100 people or more at your board of commission or county zoning board, whatever it is, commission that you usually have nobody at. I would bet like four people usually show up.
01:25:06
Speaker
So you've got a bunch of people there. I guess I didn't pull the clip where they had the some sound bites from it, from the actual meeting from the citizens. But they decided to table it until January fifth
01:25:21
Speaker
Let me see here. um thinking might be, is it this one? Nope, this one. Hey, there's something awfully screwy going on around here.
01:25:36
Speaker
It's not Thanksgiving anymore. It's not Thanksgiving anymore. I guess I shouldn't be ah playing the gobble gobble. But so you've got all these people here. We normally have none, almost none. What is the difference? What are you going to accomplish by delaying in a week and a half or two weeks? So after the holiday, they're hoping people don't show up.
01:25:53
Speaker
January 5th, there will be almost nobody at this meeting. I think maybe not for this one because it is. No, they they're they're riled up. It's good. So it might, they might, ah but I would probably bet they're not going to get the same turnout.
01:26:05
Speaker
No, I bet you they'll get more. You think they'll more? Yeah. um I hope so. I'm kind of curious because of the the more the, the more signs pop up, the more the word gets out, they might get more.
01:26:16
Speaker
Because what one other reason is there to delay it? What information are you going to come up with over the holidays that's going to change your mind or or move the move the vote at all? Nothing. Nothing. They just want to delay. They're hoping.
01:26:29
Speaker
They're hoping. Yeah. Yeah. So they were going to keep an eye on that thing. and I hope there's a a couple of people, couple of residents, community people that are like really organizing.
01:26:44
Speaker
It seemed like in the and the meeting, there was yeah quite a few people that were speaking and made made a couple of good points. You know, what one woman said, look, this is seven parcels of land. It's not empty, vacant lots. This is all, but this land is all producing.
01:26:58
Speaker
it's It's agricultural. It needs to stay that way. It's not just dead, dead old houses that you're tearing down to make new. No, you're taking away valuable farmland. That's been yeah producing food for decades, generations. So the other the other guy was like, what's the rush? You don't know what's going to go there. Why are you rushed to change the zoning before you have anybody to even zone it for?
01:27:20
Speaker
Oh, they they see dollar signs in their eyes. Oh, yeah. And then they had the actual... ah developer was there. is like, look, we could, he he kind of made a comment that you they could actually kind of develop on it the way it is now, the way it's zoned now. So I don't know what that's all about, but I imagine it puts some handcuffs on them. So
Environmental Concerns of Data Centers
01:27:38
Speaker
maybe they couldn't do as much, but we'll keep an eye on that. Maybe that's, maybe that's, uh, the delay to get lawyers to figure out a way to do it anyways, do it anyways. Yeah. Good point.
01:27:50
Speaker
okay Might be, might be, uh, Good point. I like it. i don't know. Shenanigans. Yep.
01:27:59
Speaker
ah Oh, wait. I swear to God, I'll pistol whip the next guy that says shenanigans. Yeah, i pulled that one All right. Next one. Staying on data centers.
01:28:10
Speaker
Yes. This is a NBC looks like, oh yeah. Channel four. I'm not sure where they're out of. Which is Columbus. At least the story is out of Columbus. This is report links, Amazon data centers to miscarriages and rare cancers, drawing concerns about data centers, persistence in Ohio presence in Ohio.
01:28:30
Speaker
Hmm. So this is according to, is a report by the Rolling Stones. So there's that. When it comes to that stuff, I kind of. Environmental stuff, yes. Yeah, I'm kind of like, okay, let's hear what you got.
01:28:45
Speaker
Because if you got actual like studies, I want to know about them. Yeah, so they're saying they've got some, the report kind of bringing up health concerns in other places in the country. One of them in Morrow County in Oregon.
01:29:00
Speaker
like date Dangerous levels of nitrates in the county's water supply to the persistence presence of Amazon data centers. The report alleged that the data centers...
01:29:12
Speaker
immense water demands made nitrate seep into the area's underground water supply faster than it could be filtered out ah leading to miscarriages, rare cancers, and other complications. Amazon strongly denies the connection. I'm sure they do.
01:29:27
Speaker
They have to. Yeah. ah Data centers have been linked to health concerns far beyond the scope of Rolling Stone's report wearing some central Ohioans according to datacenters.com. Amazon has 28 data centers in central Ohio.
01:29:41
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. Mostly near New Albany, Hilliard, and Dublin. and in all data center maps uh tailed tally excuse me tallyed 133 data centers in central ohio more than half of ohio's 215 data every time i see that number it goes up it's now 215 data centers last time it was 203 years wow this depends on what stage they're in and if they're being built or projected i'm sure that changes a little bit so they don't i don't know if they have any concrete studies
01:30:14
Speaker
on that it's actually causing this. What they're saying is they have an increase in pollutants, nitrates to be specific, and it all coincides around the time that data centers started coming up.
01:30:26
Speaker
And the fact that you're they're using an immense amount of water, loads. So the video that's actually embedded in this story has nothing to do with the actual story itself, other than its it talks about data center water usage.
01:30:41
Speaker
which I did watch, and it's quite astounding the amount of water some of these places are using on a daily basis. Five million gallons a day. Could be. roll Rolling Stone alleged 68 of the 70 Oregon wells tested it had nitrate levels that violated federal safety threshold. And we kind of know, i most of the time I assume those thresholds are probably a little higher than they need to be. Probably.
01:31:06
Speaker
Of the first 30 homes officials visited, they heard of at least 25 miscarriages and six people who had kiddding aey ah kidney removed. Wow.
01:31:19
Speaker
Got to keep an eye on this. Yeah, it's almost like you want to you want to have a baseline before you before you get data centers. what's What's the water like? What's your health like? I think the residents need to fight the good fight here. Yeah, and and like in Lorraine, they are, and they're seeing this kind of stuff.
01:31:33
Speaker
One thing I've noticed about rural residents is they're very proud to be your rural counties, townships and stuff. So I hope they, ah but, but the problem is many of them, many of them don't really pay attention.
01:31:51
Speaker
So I hope they're starting to pay attention. I mean, hope listening to Crooked Rivercast. There's that. Yeah. Yeah. They need to rally and kind of round up the community and make sure.
01:32:04
Speaker
Yep. Going on down the article, it says, according to Ohio EPA's Central Ohio Regional Water Study, Central Ohio water districts with the worst water quality do see some correlation with data center hotspots.
01:32:19
Speaker
Well, there's not enough data for a deine defined connection. Well, okay. Um, Let's move on to our next story, which is tied in the same, is the Ohio EPA. This is great.
01:32:36
Speaker
The Ohio EPA looks to streamline water permits for data centers. Streamline? What does that mean? Let's listen to this idea stream. I think this is actually an NPR report, which apologize ahead of time. It is NPR. But let's see what they have to say about this Ohio data. What's streamlining mean? see.
01:32:55
Speaker
The Ohio EPA is looking to streamline the way water permits are issued to data centers as they continue popping up around the state. You're listening to 91.7 WVXU on the NPR app. I'm Isabel Nisley.
01:33:08
Speaker
The Ohio EPA has issued a draft general permit to regulate wastewater discharges from data centers. Wastewater. UC law professor Brad Mank says this is a change from the detailed individual permits data centers currently have to submit before releasing pollutants into waterways. oh General permits make it a lot easier for industry to operate without many restrictions. oh They said basically have uniform restrictions that apply to everybody. So they can just basically send a postcard saying we're operating our business and that's all they have to do.
01:33:35
Speaker
Some environmental advocates say they're worried this will leave out reviews that ensure public health and safety. The Ohio EPA says the move is necessary to support social and economic development.
01:33:47
Speaker
The draft permit is open for public comment online through Wednesday. Isabel Nisley, 91.7 WVXU. I feel like we got some common ground here, Tom, with the EPA and in the in environmental wackos a little bit.
01:34:02
Speaker
So the EPA, Ohio EPA wants to make it easier for data centers to dump crappy water into our water supply.
01:34:13
Speaker
Yeah. Can we go back to, ah let's see.
01:34:18
Speaker
According to Ohio EPA, Central Ohio Regional Water Supply, Central Ohio Water Districts with the worst water quality do see some correlation with data center hotspots. Hmm. So now they have to specify, it sounds like, what what they're dumping.
01:34:35
Speaker
So when I saw this, I was like, oh, they want to they want to get more water easier. Right. So I'm tying it into this, like this report says in the and then NBC um News Channel 4, talked about the cancer and data centers.
01:34:50
Speaker
Depending on the data center, 500,000, a million, 200, 2 million gallons a day, a day. So eventually that water, they do recycle a lot of them from what I understand, but eventually that water gets dirty.
01:35:03
Speaker
They can't recycle it forever. And then now I guess they have to stipulate what's in the water that they're dumping. or clean it beforehand. So they want to get rid of that.
01:35:14
Speaker
They want to make it easier, more streamlined. Streamlined. Yeah. That's the, that's the key word there. Streamlined. Yeah. They want to make it easier, make it a, there's two different levels, I guess, a permit and one, a very general one for just to says, Hey, we're operating a business that's going to be putting, you know, I don't know exactly, but I assumed it sounded like you know, who we're running this business and we're going to be, you know, using the sewers.
01:35:37
Speaker
And then the other one's like, we're going to be dumping. This is what we're dumping. And this is what's in the water. um Something like that. One way you have, they have to tell the state what's being dumped. And the other way, it doesn't seem like they do or as much.
01:35:52
Speaker
I don't think like what, no, what why,
01:36:00
Speaker
why don't we want to know what's going, what's in this water? It's being pumped through computers with that got all kinds of chemicals and metals and all kinds of stuff. What, what is wrong with you people? Come on.
01:36:14
Speaker
You sound like a tree hugger. I know. And it's pissing me off that they're making me sound like a tree hugger. That's what I'm, I'm stumbling over. It's like, Oh, really? You know, I think both me and you feel the same way about regulations. You need to deregulate, but this is not what you need to deregulate.
01:36:29
Speaker
You know what I mean? Yeah, I think there's we're overregulated in a lot of areas. you Right. But I think, so you know, keeping our water clean is is one of the one of the bonuses of the EPA. I think the EPA goes way too far, but there's a lot of things the EPA has done over the years to make our water better. I mean, the lakes are cleaner.
01:36:46
Speaker
So there there does need to be some rules because greedy corporations will just dump crap in the river like they did for decades in the Cuyahoga County River, in the Crooked River. And... I think that was one of the, no i you know, 30, 40, 50 years later, they've gone way too far. They're way too big.
01:37:04
Speaker
But this is the Ohio EPA too. Right. Yeah. know. That doesn't, it's not seem like a good idea, people. No, it's not. Not after that last article.
01:37:16
Speaker
No. I mean, imagine they, they pump these, pump this water through computers to cool the the the chips and processors and stuff. I mean, it's got to have some, And eventually they can't use it forever. So that means it gets dirty. i don't know.
01:37:29
Speaker
It just seems like a bad idea, people. Really a bad idea. Yeah.
01:37:36
Speaker
So I guess we can, another thing we can take a look at, maybe
Revitalizing Cleveland's Music Scene
01:37:39
Speaker
something else will pop up. that They're still debating it. um So under a general permit, eligible data centers would have to submit a notice of intent form before discharging pollutants like heavy metals or corrosion inhibitors into waterways.
01:37:55
Speaker
ah several discharge associated Several discharges associated with data centers would not be authorized by general permitting like discharge locations within 500 yards upstream of a public water supply.
01:38:07
Speaker
What was the, say what the, currently data centers must apply for individual NPDES permits. which is detailed and unique to its operations. I think it needs to stay that way.
01:38:23
Speaker
Oh, it's the National NPDES, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. Okay. ah So right now they have to apply for individual basis, sounds like.
01:38:41
Speaker
And I think we should probably know what's in that. In case we see something in the water supply, maybe somebody should be held accountable. Like the company's dumping it into the water.
01:38:52
Speaker
Making me a tree hugger. That's a bunch of crap. Well, yeah, that's a bunch of crap. I mean, I like trees and all, but they make, make good houses and stuff. All right. Keep an eye on that folks and fight.
01:39:04
Speaker
Keep an eye out. yeah I mean, watch what these data centers are doing, especially from the rural communities and they're, they're not,
01:39:12
Speaker
um I'm starting to think there're there's not much good to them right now. See, I guess. Next on this one, this one a little more closer to home. Can you legislate a music industry in Cleveland?
01:39:27
Speaker
what do you think, Tom? Nothing says rock and roll like a bunch of suits sitting there telling me what to do with my tax dollars for rock and roll. That's totally rock and roll, man. Yeah. Yeah.
01:39:39
Speaker
Stick it to the man. The man. Wait. The man. That's. Isn't that. Isn't that. Yeah.
01:39:49
Speaker
Isn't that the Ohio task force for for live music? oh Ohio. Cuyahoga live task force was not a government thing. no And they weren't going to receive tax dollars. Now now they want to try to figure out on how to save bars. Basically.
01:40:04
Speaker
this This is ridiculous. Now, I guess the only. The only thing I would say to that is in other areas, there are, they do have similar organizations like a Tennessee and, or not Nashville. Tennessee doesn't, not yet.
01:40:22
Speaker
Nashville. yeah Yeah. No, it says it's soon. It's coming, but it oh but it's, Oh, it's coming to Nashville. Yeah. What the hell do they need a commission? for What? They need more Nashville. You know what? I gotta, gotta look that up again real quick. No, no, they got a thriving ah thing there. I,
01:40:41
Speaker
I mean, there's a tax break they're talking about for his studios. yeah It's not bad. but Tax break for studios is okay. I don't mind the tax break. I guess there was one thing I didn't like. Pending in Tennessee.
01:40:53
Speaker
In Austin, it says, and like in Austin and pending in Tennessee and Illinois, Smith wants Ohio to pass a bill that would give independent venues up to $100,000 back each year state-monitored liquor tax rebate.
01:41:06
Speaker
So basically taxes are going to keep businesses open. That's, I don't know. It's weird. i can't, I can see how it doesn't, it's not going to hurt. It's not going hurt.
01:41:18
Speaker
um You know, getting a tax break is probably not going to hurt. the cup I just don't know how much it's going to spur more.
01:41:29
Speaker
ah to me chicken More talent. it chick but more talent, but people going. going to spur more talent? I'm not saying it is. I'm saying maybe, i I'm not saying spurring talent. Are you going to get, if you even if you can get the talent here, can you get people to go?
01:41:45
Speaker
okay That's the other half of this the equation, right? There's there' is a huge problem here. We've talked about this before when this first rolled out, the Cuyahoga Live Task Force. We kind of talked about it, and I think my conclusion was that you just don't have a network of musicians in town to yep to have a thriving original music scene. You have enough talent to have a... You could have a thriving...
01:42:12
Speaker
Music scene doesn't mean original music scene, though. It's two different things. Yeah. No, yeah. That's a good point. And i guess, okay.
01:42:24
Speaker
I started playing in the 90s and played through 2010, there was a massive decline Over the years and people coming out to see the night, it wasn't, the band was still dealt, did well, but there was a massive decline in patrons to music venues or bars that had bands. Right.
01:42:47
Speaker
And that there's a couple of reasons I think we went over or one of them was a crackdown on drunk driving. The other was was the smoking band. That was huge.
01:42:58
Speaker
Yeah. But I think there was a fall even before that because i kind of always had, I was always like the younger guy in the band. And listening to the guys that were, you know, probably like a decade older than me, they always told me how great the 80s were.
01:43:15
Speaker
Late 80s, mid to late eighty s And I started in 1990 and it was still, it was booming. And you can actually go to your local pub or ah music store back then or record store when we had those and go pick up a scene magazine, which at the time was local. And it was this cool magazine that had bars advertised in there.
01:43:40
Speaker
And it was just an endless amount of coupon, you know, or let's say like business card size ads of from bars. And music venues that listed what bands are playing. So it was easy to go find somebody to go. Yeah, it was like the biggest thing. One of the biggest things you picked up a scene magazine for. You had to. Yeah.
01:43:59
Speaker
I mean, it was, it was, mean, we were young at that time, but you had to go get a scene magazine to know where to go, to go see your favorite band or maybe to go check out new bands. I just looked at the scene magazine, not a single ad from a bar,
01:44:14
Speaker
For music. And the listing of music for like from Thursday, you comes out on Thursday and and, you know, they, so they have a listing, a week's worth of music shows coming up. They're all national.
01:44:28
Speaker
ah Yeah. So there's nothing there to... to let you know. Even to your point, I know I talked to my daughter's guitar teacher. He's in a a few bands, but they're all cover bands, basically. I don't think it may be one band he They do some original stuff, maybe, or two. i don't know. But mostly it's all cover. In Cleveland, it's always been, if you want to stay like a working musician, you got to do cover. all right Yeah, covers. yeah If you want to do originals, you can mix, blend.
01:44:57
Speaker
You know, if you're in a band and you're doing covers, you can... you can add, you know, you can start mixing in your originals. I don't see what's wrong with that, but people just aren't, how many, how many gigs can you play as an original band? I mean, you're not going to play weekly because unless you go from one side of town to the other side town, and at that point you're, you're, you're, you're catering to your fans on one side of town and you go to the you know, East to West. Yeah. And then maybe you go South, but,
01:45:28
Speaker
I don't, I don't think you can have ah ah it's rare to have a big enough following to be able to do that at being an original band in Cleveland, at least. Yeah. I think it's, uh,
01:45:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think you're spot on with that. I just don't, I think if there were more, think there would be more bars playing music if there were people, if there something there, you know what mean? That's, when I was reading this, I was thinking back to the days of when I, beat right before I started ah gigging. So i was I was always picking up the music, you know, Scene Magazine, and I was looking at,
01:46:03
Speaker
ah bands and what kind of bands are playing. Man, we had so we had the Cleveland Agora because you had also the ah the ballroom there, you know? Yeah. And you had the Akron Agora. Akron Cleveland, yep.
01:46:17
Speaker
You had Flash Gordons. You had the Symposium. You had the Peabody's down under Peabody's. Front row. Front Well, that's that's for national. i'm talking about all the I'm talking about all the local clubs, Cleveland Cafe. Grock Shop, which they've mentioned in here. Yeah, Grock Shop's been around for a while, but that that place was a peon compared to what okay what we had prior.
01:46:40
Speaker
Grock Shop came on late, a little later, and that's a tiny little hole in wall. is a tiny little place. But we had actual like bars that were large that had at real stages. and was one of the flats that was on the end. They had one Peabody's, maybe? They always had a lot flat bands. No, they always had bands. And it was a good place to go see a live show. You had ah the Empire Music, and ah which turned into the Odeon, I think. But those were national concert, ah type you know smaller type of things. Yeah, I forgot about the Odeon.
01:47:12
Speaker
I never got a chance to play those. you Usually, maybe if if you opened up for somebody, you could play there. I'm just talking about all the places that we had that local bands... And most of them were cover bands.
01:47:25
Speaker
No, not really. I'm going to, I'll take that back. A lot of them, late eighties and early nineties, still, you kind of still had the hair rock thing happening around Cleveland. Oh, right, right. you So you did have a lot of bands that wanted to kind of break out of, oh they wanted to break out of Cleveland. So they were kind of, they were grinding around here to get good enough, polishing their stuff up before they leave for LA or, or oh back then it was LA, you know.
01:47:51
Speaker
That's where you had to go. Yeah. To add, and I got another, another scene story just kind of adds to it. It puts a little more background to is only one in four Cleveland independent music venues were profitable last year report says.
01:48:03
Speaker
Yeah. And that's, that's part of the problem. man That's kind of what I'm saying. If, if it feels like to me, there's not a lot of need or or demand for it. the people for some reason don't, demand don't want the live music. Cause I think, yeah, there's a whole generation, it would i think. Yeah, that's true. No, you, yeah. Yeah. It's like we talked about before the music, the way music is nowadays, it's,
01:48:26
Speaker
It's singles. It's singles and instant gratification kind of stuff. And nobody's going to see live really. Yeah, that's, that's, that's actually, there's a lot of things happening to this that they don't bring up in this article. And ah one of them is people drink, drink less, which they do mention that. Oh yeah.
01:48:41
Speaker
They do mention that, but they're also not talking about that. Young people really don't give a crap about bands, yeah younger people. And those are the, you know, let's face it.
01:48:52
Speaker
We're in our fifties. Yeah. we did this when we were in our twenties. Yeah. Twenties and thirties. That's when you're go to these places and they're just not, cause they don't have neat, they don't want, they don't, it doesn't seem like they care. I don't think there, there, there's that. And then the, you know, there's a whole generation of, uh, not only they didn't care, they also didn't care to learn,
01:49:14
Speaker
An instrument. Yeah. There's that too. And most of the ah bands now, i don't know. They don't play a lot of instruments. You know, they talk about studios. I'm like, geez, Billie Eilish recorded her first album in her bedroom with her brother. I mean, you could you could do so much without having it a ah real studio. i mean, that's a luxury nowadays. Yes, I could record an album in my basement currently if I wanted to. Yes, same here. it it would it would yeah Yes, even but even more than I could, but it wouldn't be a great album, but it would still be an album.
01:49:46
Speaker
ah To put it in perspective... Cleveland generates more more than what the independent sector generates in Oregon and 28 other states.
01:49:57
Speaker
So apparently Cleveland does better. They're trying to compare it with like Portland and why Portland is doing so good with this and we're not. But then they brought up, well, yeah they're not we're not the worst. Oh, okay. Well, least we're not last.
01:50:10
Speaker
This all sounds like a problem ban a bandaid that oh yeah doesn't, it's a way to keep bars afloat without really tackling, addressing the issues. Yeah. Music needs to come back.
01:50:22
Speaker
Music needs to come back. You need more musicians. ah You know, there's a couple there's a whiny bitch here at the end from ah the the Beachland ballroom owner, Cindy Barber, who's awesome.
01:50:34
Speaker
You know, she's she's a very, she's a huge advocate for original live music here in Cleveland. It's, you know, it's great. But she's talking about like, like this new band, Apostle Jones. And she's like, hey, look at these guys. They're, uh,
01:50:50
Speaker
He's like one of the most popular artists in town. Wouldn't it be great if we all came together and found enough money to like ah put him on tour? Shut up. Shut up. That's not how this works. Why are we going to put him on tour?
01:51:02
Speaker
Yeah, they got to do that themselves, man. wait, he doesn't have enough money. he doesn't have enough people coming to his show to make it worthwhile for somebody to to invest in his tour. Exactly. So, so the government should do it. Yes. That's what I'm, that's what I'm like so irritated about this. And it's such a soft, if if this guy really truly believed in himself, he wouldn't be here.
01:51:26
Speaker
That's a good point. Or at least be true. i mean, it's always been the fact as a, as a music, a struggling actor or struggling artist, you You got in a band, you you packed all your crap in the van, you slept in the van, you drove around the country and played and played and played and played and played. And so and so you got a following.
01:51:41
Speaker
You start to do that. It's harder now, but. She's talking about this Apostle, the name of the band is Apostle Jones. Yeah. And i i took a listen and it's a it's a talent talented bunch of musicians.
01:51:53
Speaker
they're They're not bad. But if you really want to do something, get the hell out of Cleveland and get in your band van. If you don't have one, go get one, repair it eight times on the way to Nashville.
01:52:10
Speaker
Yep. Book, book jobs going down to Nashville. and And start playing. Go go to Florida. Travel. Oh, yeah. you know I was just watching the Flea interview on Rick Beato's channel. And that's where I'm coming up with this. Because I'm trying remember who was just recently watching and talking about. Yeah, they had a, because he asked them, well, what do you think about your, you know, your rise to success and all this other stuff? He goes, we didn't really notice it. We started in a van. We slept in the van.
01:52:35
Speaker
And then, and then we got a U-Haul and got, and then we slept in the yeah U-Haul. And then when we got, we got enough money for a hotel room. So we slept in the hotel room and then we got a bus and he said, it happened so gradually. All before you know it, we were in a private jets and flying around the country. didn't realize it was happening, but but that's what they did. They got a van. All of them slept in the van.
01:52:53
Speaker
Imagine the smell of that van. Well, it's awful, dude. yeah we We called those, like, when when I... Starving artist. Well, okay, you could, that's the polite term. We called them road dogs. Mm-hmm. Because these these bands just got in their van. Just toured.
01:53:07
Speaker
They got all these festival gigs, and they would sleep in their van. you know, if they got lucky, they knew somebody in that town, maybe they can go grab a shower at their place. Yeah. And that's what you do. You grind. And that overnight success takes...
01:53:21
Speaker
10 years. Oh yeah. it's It's not, there's no such thing as an overnight success. I guess maybe if you go on American Idol, you know, there, there was that, you know, for with Kelly Clarkson and you know, a couple, couple, of yeah on there no, I don't think she was a couple of artists kind of made it with that. But now do you hear anybody about Anything from any of those people that go on that show?
01:53:44
Speaker
No, exactly. So Well, I don't, but I'm sure somebody does because they do get record deals, but they're just not, they're not popular like they used to be because the show is, you know, it's not what it is. And, you know, I don't know. Kelly Clarkson, the second one, it was another female. She was blonde. She was kind of, she was a nice looking little...
01:54:02
Speaker
Remember? yeah gave anymore Anyway, if you want live music, you got to go see it. If you want a ah ah vibrant live music community, people have to go. Otherwise, it doesn't matter how much money or how much tax breaks the state or county does.
01:54:16
Speaker
People don't go. the bars are going to close. Just plain and simple. And they should close. Like, I'm sorry, but well you want to be held up by... ah House of Cards? They mentioned this club, which I've been to a couple of times. This is not a club. It's it's a Happy Dog, is it called?
01:54:32
Speaker
Is that what they mentioned? Yeah, Happy Dog. Happy Dog and Grog Shop are the two they mentioned. Okay, so Happy Dog. You go get yourself a hot dog and tater tots and go watch a a band. This is not a music club.
01:54:43
Speaker
they They sort of kind of... billing themselves. but i Oh, they actually sell hot dogs there? I think they sell hot dogs and or they're like well known for their hot dogs and tater tots. okay that i And and and're it's actually pretty good. yeah Yeah. I've never once seen an ad...
01:55:03
Speaker
come across, yeah you know, a page, you know social media page or in, in scene magazine, anywhere that tells me who's playing there. So I, I have to go look for it.
Cincinnati Protest Settlement and Financial Implications
01:55:15
Speaker
That's what, and now they're going to try, they're going to try to give this, ah they're going to try to give them a hundred grand at the end of the year because they're not profitable. Reasons.
01:55:24
Speaker
Yeah. The reasons, Tom. Reasons. You know, go to hell. Yeah. No. and and and And the musicians that gripe about this, goga eat go eat shit. Eat a bag. um i would say, ah I would say, just a reminder, the county of Cuyahoga, Cuyahoga County is, i don't know, like a billion or two, $2 billion dollars in debt, something crazy like that. So ah yeah, keep your hundred thousand and maybe put it towards our debt.
01:55:56
Speaker
Because it's not going to help. It's all it's going to do is delay the inevitable, unfortunately. Yeah. Until music comes back. Until yeah and two music comes back to the younger generation. I think we're kind of stuck where we're at.
01:56:08
Speaker
Yeah. It is what it is, man. Yeah. Yeah, it is. I mean, yeah. So the answer is no. You can't. You can't legislate the music industry. So let's move on and wrap up these final two stories here because they're both similar. we're both just going to make fun of the city of Cleveland and the city of Cincinnati. We'll start with Cincinnati.
01:56:29
Speaker
So the the great city of Cincinnati has agreed to pay $8 million dollars settlement to BLM protesters from 2020. I think they're paying it to the lawyers.
01:56:44
Speaker
Well, they're definitely paying it to lawyers. Oh, with the lawyers lawyers always get the the lion's share. But in according to the story that most protesters would get between $10,000 $13,000,
01:56:56
Speaker
for being arrested when they weren't supposed to be. Apparently the scandal is the the mayor at the time had put a curfew in place and these people were arrested because of curfew violations. And that curfew was designated unconstitutional.
01:57:13
Speaker
So they should get 13 grand. Okay. Hey, city money, not my city. I would love to know who took push this. I had, I bet it was the lawyers because they're making 2 million.
01:57:26
Speaker
on this. Oh, at least. Oh yeah. doesn't say that there. Yeah. It says it here. Here is here's the question I have. Well, according to the city of Cincinnati, they were at no fault.
01:57:40
Speaker
It was not their fault, but I have, why are they paying? Well, there's a question. Here you go. Here's the clip. The settlement also included changes for CPD. Now, officers are required to use a standard dispersal order during civil disturbances. Councilman Scotty Johnson still backs the actions of officers. The Cincinnati police did absolutely nothing wrong.
01:57:58
Speaker
And he questions why Hamilton County, which operates the Justice Center, isn't paying nearly as much as the city. I don't understand why this allegedly all took place in the Sally Port, the part of the jail that the county controls.
01:58:13
Speaker
Why Cincinnati is paying the brunt this. got a question. The county is only paying $65,000 of that settlement. Why are you paying anything if you didn't do anything wrong? unanimous approval by the county or by yeah by the city unanimous why you didn't do anything wrong they said it over and over again the report we didn't do anything wrong but we're going to pay eight million dollars here's a kicker to it they're borrowing the money they're putting bonds up for the money because they don't have it so how much is actually going to cost since today 10 mil after an interest
01:58:49
Speaker
They have $1 billion in gross debt. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And so, yeah, they're going to borrow $8 million to pay these yahoos Drop in the bucket, Rob. Drop in the bucket. Yeah. Most, most of from went from the report I saw, most just young white women, actually. There's Black Lives Matter protests with all white people there, which makes sense.
01:59:14
Speaker
So this was during a George Floyd and all that fun stuff. 479 protesters were arrested for curfew violations during this protest. And yeah, his question is, why is the county only paying 60 grand? I'm like, why are you paying anything?
01:59:28
Speaker
Dumas. And then, ah so there's Cincinnati. Go have fun with that. You get to pay, you know, a bunch of bunch she unemployed college kids got, they now get a check for 13 grand.
01:59:41
Speaker
I hope they open and go, where's all my money? Taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes, and the lawyers taxes. and Well, I think that's after the lawyers are going to get 13 million lawyers are going to get the rest. 13,000, 13,000. Yeah. 13 million. I would have put my name. in yeah I'd be like, what protest? Where?
02:00:01
Speaker
It was mostly peaceful. Come on. Generally peaceful as they burnt cars that are grown on. I don't think they did that. No, they didn't. Let's see George, not George Floyd, Elliot. Yeah.
02:00:13
Speaker
Elliot Isaac was the police chief at the time, and that was before they have the wonderful Teresa Theitage.
02:00:23
Speaker
Oh, and the settlement keeps protesters' names confidential. Of course. Huh. Those protesters can go to a couple of concerts. So when your city's woke...
02:00:35
Speaker
Go ahead and sue them because you're going to get it. Yep. That's what this was. None of them want to do. I mean, you could tell these people were not happy about it, but hey, we're just going to say yes because that's what my handle has told me to do.
02:00:46
Speaker
Yep. So have fun with that, Cincinnati. That sucks, but I'm sure like Cleveland, Akron, Columbus, same thing would happen. yeah Same thing would happen. Not just your city. It's all of them.
02:00:59
Speaker
And speaking cities in Cleveland, this one, this is a final one
Cable Theft and Urban Safety Concerns
02:01:03
Speaker
here. ah Parts of Cleveland are in the dark after thieves steal thousands of feet of streetlight wiring. I'm telling you, crime, crime is fine.
02:01:15
Speaker
Nothing going on here. oh wait, I think I even have, wait, wait for it. Yep, I got it. This is what's going on in Cleveland.
02:01:31
Speaker
As they're wrapping up thousands of feet of wire. So here's a, here's a clip. We have a clip here from the, uh, the county. I think it's a city official. I think it says here in the report, one of the county, uh, board members are dark in Cleveland here.
02:01:48
Speaker
Ward 12 Councilwoman Rebecca Maurer says she was shocked when she learned that thieves were responsible for the darkness. Oh my gosh, we have been struggling for the last six months in Slavic Village with thefts of copper wires that have been connecting all the streetlights along Broadway. 4,000 feet of copper wires, what we have been told, has been ripped out of underground conduits between the different streetlights. City leaders say about 70 pulls up and down Broadway Avenue were damaged. Some repairs were made, but thieves appear to be breaking into pull boxes and ripping the wires out, which contains scrap metal like copper.
02:02:26
Speaker
Our three news cameras spotted this one in the neighborhood. i see here This youth football team, the Southside Seahawks, had to stop practices at Morgana Park when it started getting darker this fall because there were no street lights.
02:02:40
Speaker
Coach Jamal Sani told me they hope to be back on the field under the lights and soon. Councilwoman Marar has been working with him and many Slavic Village residents. We need to get these streetlights turned back on and we need CPP to offer the neighborhood clarity about whether they're going to reline all the all that copper wire, whether they restring it. Gives the neighborhood a date that we can be accountable to and make sure that these lights get turned on by 2026.
02:03:06
Speaker
Now we reached out to Cleveland Public Power and there's been no word back at the time of this broadcast. In the meantime, Councilwoman Mara says she hopes for a full investigation into these deaths.
02:03:20
Speaker
Russ? Okay, see you, New Yorker, here in the studio. Thank you. Thank you. Have fun with that, getting that investigation. so i just have to ask. How does 4,000 feet of copper wiring, this is not light. I'm sure it's not just so your normal 12 gauge wiring in your house or whatever.
02:03:37
Speaker
How does that go missing without anybody noticing? Nobody catching them. There's no video of anything. And the way they would have been, the way they're showing it, how did nobody see, how are there no cameras that saw this this happening?
02:03:51
Speaker
so So one side of the street, the lights come on because the they're the style that are on the telephone pole. and Right. The ones that are out are the old, they're like, they look antique-ish. They're like old short, like old style street lights when they first, we first had street lights apparently. So I'm guessing that's what it is. Those are the ones that they're stealing all because they can just open the box right there and just start pulling the wire out from the ground conduit. I mean, i'm i'm I'm picturing somebody sitting there with like a, ah like a piece of wood, just winding copper wire around it for like 20 minutes. Like how long does it take to get 4,000 feet wire out of conduit? I was going to say, you know how hard it is to pull that stuff out of conduit? Generally not easy.
02:04:34
Speaker
Yeah. Especially 4,000 feet. of that's I mean, what's a mile? Like 5,200 feet or something? Tie to the end of your truck. Yo, your ex truck axle and start driving for 4,000 feet. I'm telling you, there's nothing. Cleveland is fine.
02:04:49
Speaker
Just fine. Just fine. May or may be doing a hell of a job. Hell a Yeah, is that is that considered, I know it's Cleveland, but is that like under Bibb's Slavic Village? Is that under Bibb's rule there? I guess it would be, right? Cleveland, if it's in the city of Cleveland. I got yeah imagine it is.
02:05:06
Speaker
but but Yeah, I can imagine having a business there when it's dark out and and you're in the city of Cleveland.
02:05:14
Speaker
I had i had ah somebody call me up. Hey, he lives down south of Akron. He goes, hey, um I got to come up to see a family something Christmas show or something in Cleveland.
02:05:26
Speaker
are you allowed to conceal carry in a school? it Really? like that Yeah. when He was driving. he He was driving and he's like, well, you know, you'd be the person to know. Let me call you. So he calls me up. I'm like, no, you can't.
02:05:38
Speaker
Yeah. Unfortunately, you can't. I said, but you know, it's the city of Cleveland. So, you know, carry at your own risk. Rather be judged by 12 than carried by six.
02:05:52
Speaker
there I mean, yeah, you could, it could be a, Could be a time when you find it necessary to and take a risk, take a chance. Well, chance it's not advice. Not advice. Don't do it.
02:06:03
Speaker
It's illegal and I would never do it. But,
Increase in Unclaimed Fund Claims
02:06:07
Speaker
you know. All right. So we are we we are on to... Dang, and I did it again.
02:06:17
Speaker
um horrible. There it is. Look there.
02:06:24
Speaker
We got to figure something out here, Rob. Oh, it's just me. I'm just terrible at my my pads. But if you're if you're wondering ah where you can find me on X, me love cookie. There's all a little tip for you.
02:06:36
Speaker
Good things. Good things. Good things story list is this morning we'll start or today we'll start with. There we go. So apparently one of the side effects of the Browns getting $600 million dollars borrowed from the unclaims fund is a lot more people know about the unclaimed fund and a 435% increase year over year on the unclaims fund, which really, again, doesn't really tell you a whole lot other than it was probably really low on how many people actually took advantage of it every year.
02:07:09
Speaker
I think they streamlined the process. process Yeah, they did. They did. I think they put that in a budget or something like that. um Maybe the numbers showed 122,964 total claims and the in compared to at least they put it in this article. its just good Because most time they don't.
02:07:27
Speaker
ah By comparison, there were only 22,989 claims in 2024. That's quite a difference. 100,000 more people figured it out. did you get Did you get some out of there? I think think I looked into it.
02:07:40
Speaker
Oh, I had like 75 cents, three three different things for like 20-something cents. I think we had one that was just under 20 bucks. I'm even sure. It wasn't me. It was my wife. I'm not even sure she...
02:07:51
Speaker
think my wife got hers and i you know, uh, my parents, I think have something in in there too. I got it. Not much, just yeah probably around the $20 mark. I got to talk to them about that or my sister can, I guess.
02:08:07
Speaker
Yes. It's probably, uh, just reading through to make sure there's nothing else. Yeah. But so basically a lot more people known about it and Hey, good for them getting some money back, but still probably doesn't make a dent in the Can you see how much is in there still?
02:08:23
Speaker
I think there was like $10 billion dollars or something crazy. They even say, come on, this is news channel three with the article. Yeah, of course they wouldn't report. Why would you put how much is in there? I thought it was like, it was like, it was a lot, 10 or 15. Like most of it was over three years old or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy.
02:08:42
Speaker
So nobody's, where How do you get an unclean fund if you've got a security deposit for ah utility and you cancel that utility and then you disappear? they have They can't take it. They actually have to put it somewhere and this is where it goes.
02:08:57
Speaker
Stuff like that.
Local Achievements in Food and Community Events
02:09:00
Speaker
Next we have, let's see, we have Check Out, Northeast Ohio's New Restaurant of the Year. I've heard of i heard about this one. We did a story.
02:09:10
Speaker
It was a good thing's story. It was the still one, or it came in second, I think, for like a national um booze contest. I forget which one their...
02:09:24
Speaker
yeah Things won. There's three different restaurants there. So it's Gervaisi Vineyard Restaurant and Spa in Canton. There's the Bistro, the Crush House, and the Still House. And the Still House won. so it wasn't a bourbon they won with. it was a vodka, I believe. Oh, that's right.
02:09:41
Speaker
I think. I'm thinking that. so It was ah one of our first shows, actually. I think we talked about that. Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right. I'll go back and look at the the show notes. I bet it's still there. Let's see. Yeah, so they recognize him. So I think each one of their restaurants has won an award. No, I think they were saying that somewhere in the report.
02:10:00
Speaker
I guess I got to go. i haven't been yet. Sounds... Sounds like somewhere to go, I think. Yeah, check it out. So they won new restaurant of the year for Northeast Ohio.
02:10:12
Speaker
And they are in the Canton area, Gervais Vineyards. They grow in their stuff in Canton? Or is that just where the... restaurant no no they they have in they have a vineyard in uh ashtabula i've been you know geneva around there i've been to that one or i've been to a wedding there which it was very good the the food was good i would i think i do would like to go there uh just to have a meal and try out some of their wines it's a good it's a nice place it's really nice so i imagine this place is really good too
02:10:44
Speaker
Sounds like it is. Like it is. Lastly on our list is a one last little tip bit or tidbit for careful there for Christmas lights. Got a special Christmas lights display in North Royalton on Applewood drive.
02:11:01
Speaker
And as you you see some pictures of it, you'll see it in the show notes. if You check out the blog. And they they ain did a, it looks like a really good job. They didn't overdo it. a lot of people overdo these things, but they're whole.
02:11:13
Speaker
Yeah, very tasteful. they're They've added a bunch of stuff and now they're collecting money for charity. So you can drive past their house and take a look on Applewood Drive in North Royalton. That's crappy article.
02:11:24
Speaker
10,020 Applewood Drive. ten thousand twenty apple would drive and What charity? i i read I listened to the report, ah but there the article from Channel 3, it's literally the caption of the picture is the article. Well, you have to go there. i think there's like one or two charities they're actually donating to. yeah So check it out. there's They're raising money for charity and it's a good thing. And you go see, if you're going to go see Christmas lights, check them out. If you're the area, Applewood Drive and North Royalton, they got out there. mean, they laid it out. looks pretty cool.
02:11:55
Speaker
And ah on that happy note of Christmas lights, I think that that's kind of the show. I think we've droned on enough about Ohio stuff and we can wrap it up. i think I thank everybody for listening.
02:12:09
Speaker
Thank you very much for spending your time with us on a weekly basis. We really do appreciate it. Please share the show. Go to CrookerRiverCast.com. CrookerRiverCast.gmail.com. Send us an email.
02:12:21
Speaker
gmail.com. Send us an email and check us out on X and send us a message. Send us a line. Tell us what you think. If you can help out with any news in your area, I think we should cover Let us know. We'll take a look at it.
02:12:36
Speaker
And for that, that is show 40. I thank you everybody for listening. We'll see you next week. Peace.