Kruser & Crew 7-7-26

Yeah, it is in short supply these days. Isn't it an honesty, a little Billy Joel? I mean, how old is that song? And he's singing about how honesty being in short supply. And that's what we want. That song's got to be what? 40 years old, probably. Somewhere in there, 30, 40 years old. Anyway, National to Tell the Truth Day. Well, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, but the truth on this program. This afternoon is Cruiser and Crew at 97.3 FM and 590 a.m. WVLK. Good afternoon and welcome. Nice to have you with us. Our phone number, if you'd like to be a part of the program, 859, 253-559, that's also the number for the Stugart Motors text line. And the email address is Cruiser at WVLKAM.com. A little bit later on, we're going to talk to Nick Storm. Nick is the communications director for the Secretary of State, Michael Adams, and out of the Secretary of State's office. They're launching a time capsule project, a Kentucky time capsule. Now, this will be different than the one than the national time capsule where we made a contribution. This will be exclusively Kentucky. This will, you won't have to wait as long to have it opened. It'll be opened in 2015. And the time capsule is actually going to be a modified traditional Kentucky bourbon barrel. And it's going to tour the state and all that. And I guess, I don't know, can we, we maybe put some stuff in it, you and I. So anyway, Nick will join us. And then once again, it is Burger Week. Lexington Burger Week, 40-some-odd restaurants have created a special burger that's $7 or $8, I guess, depending on where you go or how extensive the burger is in terms of how much, some of these burgers. This is sponsored every year by Smiley Pete. Although, now we have the head guy, one of the founders, one of the big honchos over there, Smiley Pete, going to join us later in our 5 o'clock hour. Talk about Burger Week. I don't know. This thing may be franchised now because Louisville's got a burger week going on this week. And so, but anyway, a lot of restaurants are offering these special burgers while supplies last each evening. for seven or eight bucks, and it's a customer. Hey, I'm Chris Van Fleet. Go behind the scenes and beyond the headlines with the biggest names in pro wrestling and beyond. Mr. Sandman, all I ever wanted to be was a pro wrestler. So I got to live my life and make people really happy. The heartbreak kid himself, Sean Michaels. Do you think there's anybody better than you were? I think I was great at what I did. And I think other people were great at what they did as well. Greatness is more of mindset, I think, than anything else. Mindset, motivation, insight with Chris. fan fleet follow and listen on your favorite platform to made burger just for this week but some some of these restaurants put so much stuff on it you can't eat it like a burger because there's just so much stuff crammed between two open-ended buns anyway we'll get into all that a little bit later on this been going on for a while and it's obviously quite successful sounds like more restaurants this year than maybe what we've had over the last year or two So those guys will be coming up a little bit later on the program. What do we got here? Let's see. Let's start, I guess, with the Mitch McConnell stuff. Well, evidently, I guess some people have been talking to Mitch McConnell. Yesterday, reportedly, I don't know that these gentlemen have confirmed it, but there was some report that I saw that Mitch McConnell had talked to a couple of GOP leaders, John Thune, and I can't remember his first name, but Barrasso.

yesterday on the phone. And then there was a post on X that came out from Scott Jennings. I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior senator from Kentucky. He's still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes about Iran, Ukraine, the unfolding situation in Maine. My visit to the TR Presidential Library. And even a little bit of Senate history, I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible. Now, of course, some of the online reaction is, I don't believe you. Just like last night when Laura Lumer was out there going, he's brain dead. Well, consider the source. So, and somebody suggested, hey, Jennings, could you put him on a speaker phone? Maybe we'd be able to hear. But now that's, this is trickling out where, okay, he's talked to a couple of his colleagues in the Senate and supposedly all up to speed on that staff. Now, I will say this, Mitch McConnell's always had a top flight staff. So if the staff has to take care of anything as far as Senate business, I know that there's certain things that only the senator can do, but the staff's always usually pretty good. around Mitch McConnell. But there are more calls about, hey, we need more communication here. The governor, if he's been in the hospital for several weeks, they Mitch McConnell's office need to communicate more directly. Senate colleague Mike Lee of Utah said they know nothing about Mitch McConnell. Now, some of this may be, and I'm just scratching my head. Are those of you that would love to see a Democrat in that role? What is a special election going to do now? that's going to change anything because, again, I think the Senate, even prior to the 4th of July, when I looked this up, I say, okay, how many more days will this current Congress be meeting? Keeping in mind, it's a midterm election year. So they're going to be out campaigning a lot. And with an election going on, they're not going to get a lot done. Now, can you have influence as a senior senator? Well, you wouldn't be the senior senator anymore. You'd be like the substitute teacher, the substitute senator. You know, you're in there for however many meetings they're going to have, and I think the Senate was only expected to convene 10 to 15 times for the rest of the year. Remember, they always take the month of August off. What would be the point? You've got an election already coming up. The governor could decide, you know, the heck with it. And we're just not going to spend the money for a special election. According to the Constitution and state law, if the seat has vacated more than three months before the next general election, a special election will be called. That deadline would be August the 3rd. So if Mitch McConnell has been speaking to people like Scott Jennings and John Thune and Barrasso, then Mitch McConnell's got his wits about him because I got to tell you, and I was thinking about this more through the day to day and just in some communication with. a couple of people, it seemed like with this storm that had, you know, he's brain dead, all that kind of, we need to see proof of life, all this stuff starting to build, you would think the pressure would get to be too, and then also some rational thought that, you know, come on, Mitch, you know, you do represent us. We pay your salary, you know, you guys owe us an explanation. What's the matter with the senator? Obviously something's wrong. Is he going to be able to return to the Senate next week when they reconvened? You know, all that, all that kind of stuff.

that they need to come clean with that. But with all the crap storm that seems to be hitting social media, and they still never came out with a public response, I'm thinking, well, maybe he really is sick. Maybe there's something serious going on. I never really bought in the idea of his brain dead or anything like that, but, you know, who knows? I got to thinking, well, maybe he really is ill. So my point now being, if Mitch McConnell is cognizant and, you know, we don't know what's laid him up for so long, but if he's able to talk to Jennings for 20 minutes and he talked to these senators yesterday, then he's cognizant enough to, and I'm thinking like I think Mitch McConnell would think, to stay in office. He's not going to go anywhere. He's not going to resign. And so I guess he'd have to die. for this to happen. So anyway, if the seat would be vacated for more than three months before the next general election, a special election would be called, and that deadline would be August 3rd. I guess after August 3rd, you're inside the three months, and so, and then the governor may still decide, you know, because special election is going to cost some money, going to cost the state some money to do this. Some political opponents even speculated that Mitch McConnell's camp may be withholding any information about his condition until then to prevent a special election in which Trump inter-party critic Thomas Massie might run. And then what, all right, so let's say it's Senator Thomas Massie. And what would he do? What's he going to accomplish between now and the end of this particular Congress? This is what I don't understand. What difference would it make? And I'm not saying, look, yeah, we need a serving senator in there. Mitch McConnell needs to be able to not just be cognizant, but it needs to be able to be on the floor and vote if a crucial vote comes up that could use his vote that, you know, it's going to be close, as a lot of votes tend to be. Now, if he's talking to these guys and talking about issues and he's up on what's going on, then that would. suggest that he's conscious and capable of serving. He still is mentally capable of doing it. But, you know, it's just, this is all speculation and then that's when you get into garbage time. You know, speculation about anything. People just kind of guessing or they heard something. See, that's the problem with so many people getting news on social media. They heard something or they're promoting an agenda or they're giving you the news through their particular prism or bias.

Laura Pettiford, the marriage and family therapist and psychiatric nurse practitioner, when a highly powerful elected official is observed publicly experiencing a medical issue, it's reasonable to expect public discussion as well as a public response from the leader. And, you know, he's not the first guy that's not. I mean, Trump has had the swollen legs and the bruised hands, but, you know, when he has a physical, I mean, there's no healthier guy on a planet, so, you know, you don't. You don't know what's out there. Plus, look, he's an individual. He's a private, he's not a private citizen, but he is, he does as an, as an American, he is entitled to his privacy. And we all got boundaries. So, but something a little clear from his office would be helpful to, if nothing else, to stop all this stupid speculation. uh that that's going on and well it's it's it's to keep massy from getting the seat well he's gonna they're gonna keep him uh it's weekend at bernie's time you know they're going to keep him propped up until august the third one And then the hill, this is, you know, this happens. They've got, you know this. The media embargoes and stockpiles obits for famous people as they start to get up there in age. So that when such and such dies at the age of, I don't know, 87 or 88, boom, the bio's already out, the obit's already written. That's long been the case. So I'm sure. Every publication's got a Mitch McConnell obit already ready to go. The Hill accidentally published theirs yesterday. Not good. The article in question screenshots it and posted to X. Nice. Ahead of its removal was entitled to look back at Mitch McConnell's time in the Senate, but was prefaced by an all caps warning to cite editors saying, do not use.

The Hill accidentally published the article clearly intended to be embargoed until he passed away. Anyway, that's kind of the latest. Now, I did see, where did I put that? This was something that I grabbed just as I was coming in here. There was a woman. She's like, you know, women for Trump or something. Now, of course, remember, you know, the diehard Trump. crowd, not real crazy about Mitch McConnell. Yeah, here it is. Kylie Jane Kramer posting on X. She is a member of Women for America First, March for Trump, an official host of the Save America rally and, you know, all that former producer for Sean Hannity. So. conservative woman, but not too happy with Mitch McConnell. This is fascinating, she says. Mitch McConnell is apparently well enough to spend 20 minutes discussing global geopolitics, but somehow not well enough to record a 30-second video reassuring the people of Kentucky in the world that he's okay. Also, his office of roughly 40 staff members still can't provide a meaningful update. Well, they're not going to provide an update unless they get the okay from him. Come on, Kylie. I mean, yeah, he's got a lot of stab members, and he'll have one less if somebody decides to give an update without the authorization of the senator himself. And it goes on to say nothing about why Elaine Chow traveled to China to meet with senior CCP officials just three days after he was hospitalized. Could have been a meeting that was already set up. And, of course, her families long had a huge business in China. Are we all supposed to accept this that had faith value? None of this inspires confidence. Okay. Well, there you go. So we have people who say they spoke to him, but I don't believe. I don't believe. So. Anyway, this is what, and I guess these days with all the suspicion and distrust, it's more important than ever that we get updates directly from the source, particularly after a reasonable period of time, like three weeks has passed. But that's what's trickling out. I mean, I think that's what, and this obviously Mitch McConnell's doing this knowing, giving Jennings, hey, yeah, yeah, go ahead and say we talk. giving the green light to go ahead and go public with it. And that's probably his way of saying, yeah, I'm still here. I'm not brain dead yet. 859, 253-559. Our phone line and Stuttgart Motors text line number, email address, cruiser, at WVLKAM.com. Anna, you're killing me here from the Stuttgart Motors text line. Honesty 50 years old. And I looked it up. Yeah, that song, Billy Joel, 1978. So, yeah, that's, well, 48. Scrolling with Haley. I'm Haley Karenia. I scroll with the homies here in the live chat because there's a lot to scroll through on X, on Instagram, on TikTok. Cutting through the clutter, one hot take at a time. Love seeing you all in the chat before the show. I tried to jump in just a few minutes before to say hello. I love the chat interaction. Thank you for helping. But I do it to get all of the videos and all of the content that you won't find anywhere else. scrolling with Haley. Just search that up and I will be there. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Years. Ooh, all right. Thanks, Anna. Opened with honesty from Billy Joel, and we were looking for honesty back of 1978 and weren't getting enough of it. How do you think we're standing with that now? What happened to tell the truth day at the Mitch McConnell office? Also from the Stu Cart Motors text line.

This afternoon. Yeah, okay. Honesty, Billy Joel's song, yeah, released from 52nd Street. And, yeah, that album did come out in 1910. That honesty may have been a single in 1979, but the album came out in 1978. All right, a little tense and terrifying situation in New York City today where a building was evacuated after support beams buckled and the floor started caving. on a midtown Manhattan high-rise building. It's the former headquarters for Pfizer. Well, I can see why they got out of that building. Evidently, I guess the construction crews there were doing a changeover on this building. My understanding is that it's going to be the largest conversion in New York City history of a building from a commercial and office use purpose to a residential conversion. considered this building one of the largest commercial to residential conversion projects nationwide. Contractors had been adding 11 new floors on top of a 22-story section of the building, according to Ahmed Tagani, who is the city's building commissioner. The compromised sections appear to be the 17th and 21st floors. Let's hear from one of the guys who was up there, proud member of the seam fitters union and tell us what's going on up there. All right. Well, you got a little commentary here from the seam fitters union guy. That guy's name is Cliff Johnson, by the way. Talking about the building crumbling and how they went out. I guess whoever is doing the reconstruction here went out and did it on the cheap. It's a 37-story building, as I said, being converted from commercial to residential use. The mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, said the concern that we've had since we've been on site in the early morning, we have seen continued shifting of the structure. I wonder how many of these big buildings and large cities have this kind of issue. And I mean, you could really, I can't show it to you, obviously, but if you see some pictures of this, I mean, there's obviously, you can see the buckled beam that led to the evacuation. It's like, I'm not in any way, shape, or form, a seam fitter or could inspect something like this. And then, I mean, it's obvious you could see this and go, this ain't right. This ain't right. The fire department chief of operations, John Esposito, the way this building is construction, it's a steel frame building, so it would not be a total collapse. It would be more of a localized collapse. Well, that makes you feel better. They had to evacuate a school. They had to evacuate a number of other. And then what about the other side of the building? There's probably problems over there, too. But the concern is it's moving. That's what Esposito said. Yeah, John, buildings aren't supposed to move. If they're moving, that's a problem when he was asked. Well, does that mean the building could collapse into itself like a pancake? And Esposito responded possibly.

So this is a harrowing situation above Midtown. The fire department and the police department in New York have instituted a frozen zone from east 40th to 45th streets between 1st and 3rd Avenue, barring all pedestrian and vehicle traffic for fear the building could collapse. Thank God Tate got our wedding done before this. Wow, it would have been tragic. So they've got two structural columns that have buckled inside the building's 21st floor, and then another one is showing movement. I don't know. That sounds like an unstable building to me. And my phone's talking to me. I don't know why. I found this on the web. Quit scrolling and searching the web on my phone. I don't know what that is. Anyway, that's kind of scary. I don't have that happen. All right, a couple of the things I want to get to on the program today. Of course, the World Cup ended for us on a sour note last night. And we'll talk about that. There's also curses out there. And Yuri Geller, you know who this guy is? He's claiming credit for England's World Cup success. He claims he used a supernatural alien crystal skull from a Mayan or a Mayan pyramid to shatter a curse. that helped England into the World Cup quarter finals. Now, what's goofier? That or the Trump curse, which some people think Trump brings? Trump inserts himself in the USA Belgium game last night, getting this score for the USA eligible to play last night. USA loses. The one game the Knicks lost in the NBA finals, the game Trump went to. I don't know, which is goofier. The Trump curse? or Yuri Geller claiming credit for England's World Cup success because he shattered a curse using an alien crystal skull. Oh, yes, the legendary spoonbender. So we got that. We got a couple of guests I talked about, too. Also, you've probably heard, hopefully you haven't experienced it yourself, but DUIs can be expensive. And with what auto insurance is doing these days, it's going up big time even if you don't have a DUI. You got a DUI. Kentucky's one of the most expensive states to get one of those. We'll talk about that. Gas prices, it's still warm. I've got some stories about cooling off. And your calls and text, 859, 259, 253, 5959 here on Cruiser and Crew from 97.3 FM and 590 a.m. WVLK.

serving up facts, sarcasm, and the occasional career limiting observation. Hoosier at 97.3 FM and 590 AMW. Okay, this is not a bad idea here on the Kentucky Time Capsule. I thought of something that we could include in it. We had a couple of tickets to that performance that Elvis was going to have at Rupp Arena, but he died before it could happen. Yeah, that was the concert where nobody got a refund. Right? Everybody wanted to keep their ticket. And that's not a bad idea. I heard that everybody who had tickets for that concert kept their tickets. The text continues, even though they could have returned them for a refund. I like that idea. Anybody else got an idea? We're going to talk to Nick Storm in the next hour. He is a communications manager with the Secretary of State's office and Michael Adams' office is rolling out literally in a barrel, an enhanced barrel, I guess a technically or more, I don't know if it's more insulated, more fortified. But a super barrel where, and it's going to tour the state, and I guess stuff's going to be crammed in there as a time capsule that'll be opened. What is it in 2051, I think, something like that. So you got any ideas. I'll pass them along, 859, 25359-559. I do like that idea. I got this article from several Democratic friends that were celebrating along with Belgium that we lost. They're happy we lost because of Trump. I don't get it. It's just like I'm not celebrating the 4th of July because of Trump. It's fickle. Extremely fickle to me. Yeah, it wasn't good last night. Here's a recap of some of the scoring. It was a 4-1 game, which I don't know, that's kind of a slug fest in soccer scoring, isn't it? Got to feel bad for the goalkeeper last night. Matt Freeze desponded after his error against Belgium, helped endure his team's World Cup elimination. Freeze came out of the box to cut out a long pass and chested the ball down. Belgium player putting pressure on the goalkeeper finally or fatally hesitated. I guess it would be the best word to say it because what happened then is Freeze's attempted pass was blocked. The ball got deflected. to Hans Vonikin with Belgium who finished from long range with freeze out of the net. And, you know, it was one of those, and not knowing or understanding soccer. I admit that. I said, I guess that's why we had the director of Liza, the youth organization, the youth soccer organization on the program with us yesterday to try to explain what all was going on with the red card and everything else. But you know, when you watch a game. And it becomes pretty apparent early on that your guys, your team is just not as good as the other team. And all that red card stuff didn't matter. I don't know. Maybe it shook up the USA team. I don't know. Certainly had the crowd. I mean, Seattle, you know how much noise they make for the Seahawks. If they're not the loudest, they're certainly one of the loudest stadiums in the NFL. And for the soccer matches there, I mean, they've been extremely loud. and supportive there. So they had a supportive crowd there, but, you know, Belgians just, some of these nations, their soccer is just so ingrained and it's just the national sport. It's not the national sport here. And they're just got, you know, there's some countries that are just, well, it's like Kentucky and football. There's several SEC teams that are just year after year, even when they're having an off year. They're better than Kentucky. The organization is better. It's stronger. It's just, it's just better.

And it didn't take long later. Larry Glover kind of agreed too. It just seemed early on, U.S. out of its league here. This is going to be a tough night. And so it probably doesn't come down to anything more than that, but of course you had the... President, what was it? Somebody wrote Matthew Petty. Trump channeled his inner Karen and complained to the manager, the guy that runs FIFA. His advisors assembled lawyers and dug up a pass complaint against one of the referees for Trump to bring to the FIFA president. FIFA agreed to reverse the decision, as you know. But it didn't make any difference. It didn't make any difference. So if you're happy that the U.S. won because in a way Trump loses, that's just stupid. I mean, that's just, I mean, I'm not going to change your mind. But my God, I mean, here's part of the problem that we have these days. And here's a problem that Trump has. You and Trump are alike in that you would see sports as an extension of politics. That now the winning and losing in politics includes winning and losing in sports. So if I can tag you a leader I don't like with a losing team.

And I mean, I thought we used sports as a way to get away from politics, to get away as an aversion, as an escape. And the American players, I mean, they took it with class. You know, hey, they tried their best against Belgium, took the loss with grace. Balgun, this was the... player that was reinstated, I accepted the decision when I was given the red card, and I also accepted the decision when I was told I could play. There's not much else I can really say on the matter. I think that, I think all that being said, Belgium was a better team today. They played much better than us, I feel. That's what the leading American scores said, and he's right. And, uh, Now, our question of the day, and this has been really close, like a 51-49 kind of jam here. President Trump, did he cross the line, calling the head of FIFA about the penalized American player? That's our question of the day at WVLKAM.com. It's pretty close. Now, I mean, regardless of how you feel, you know, hey, sorry the USAA lost. Is this something that the president, and I don't think so. I would have jive it, I've been a lot more comfortable with that, with soccer, just of FIFA that's just handling this on their own. And evidently, there was already some discussion within FIFA as to whether or not the penalty was either accurately called or whether or not instant replay or slow mo was used in a way that it's not allowed to be used by these so-called vats, which is an acronym for their basically virtual referees.

But there's some people that all Trump's World Cup intervention shows his sore loser philosophy. Well, you know, I would suggest that sports, politics is too much a part of your life. I mean, if you're happy the U.S. loss because then by extension, Trump loses, aren't you doing what Trump's doing when it comes to sports and seeing sports as an extension of your political approach? And then the phrase, Trump curse flooded social media after the U.S. team was booted from the tournament by Belgium and that 4-1 loss in Seattle. That he's a jinx when he shows up. Of course, there's no such thing. Oh, you know, but Cruiser, he was the only game the New York Knicks lost was the one he showed up for. I know. This is just, this will give you a good idea of how good Belgium is. Belgium rested two of its biggest stars. They didn't put two of their biggest stars in the game. You're playing in hostile territory. You're playing in the United States. You're playing in Seattle. Yeah, we can rest our two biggest stars. We're not too worried about these guys. Now, that just would show you how far away we are from the soccer elite. You know, it's just, as I said, Kentucky's never, football has never been among the elite SEC football schools, or at least not in the last half century. or so. It's a hard shell to crack if you're not there. This just coming in, a flash flood warning being issued for Fayette County along with Clark and Madison. I'll get the details on that here. Just a second. We'll give you those details. But this was a game last night that was pretty much over before it started. I'm sure Fox got a good rating on it, a good number on it. A lot of Americans probably tuned into last night's game. And we got as far as we pretty much expect to get in this World Cup tournament. And I guess as far as we got the last time the World Cup was here. Now World Cup visitors leaving the United States. I guess Hidden Valley or some of these other places now have already the breakout star of the tournament is ranch dressing. It was close. You know, Buckees and Taco Bell was up there. And, you know, there were the roller coaster on top of the Burger King in Niagara Falls. I mean, there was just, there was a lot to choose from. But. Anyway, ranch dressing became so popular that the TSA had to advise travelers to keep their carry-on condiments to 3.4 ounces or less. Well, in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, there is a store there that's actually selling bottles of ranch dressing alongside other World Cup memorabilia. So, hey. If we turn you guys off with our hard power, and I've got, speaking of a turn off of hard power, maybe we'll get to this after the break. There's been an extensive study that's been done of Americans and Canadians about how we feel about one another. Get to that in a second. But I mean, if you're uncomfortable with our hard power, here's our soft power, ranch dressing, Taco Bell, big old, big old cheese steak sandwiches that would choke a horse.

That's our soft power right there. So our global reputation may be mixed at best these days. But we got, when it comes to the soft power and the fun food and the junk food and the ranch dressing. In fact, one Reddit user who identified himself as a European tourist wrote, quote, ranch dressing should be a human right. Don't they have ranch dressing? I don't order ranch dressing. So I don't know. When I was in Switzerland, Germany, I didn't see it, but then I didn't ask for it because I don't like ranch dressing. I can't eat mayonnaise or anything like that. You don't have, they don't have Hidden Valley. Wake up Hidden Valley. Good, God. I mean, you've had this huge audience over in Europe and you had no idea. I can't imagine you can't get ranch dressing in Europe. Do I have to go back to Europe and find out? Okay, well, when I go to Iceland, I'll look for it. 859-253-959. All right, let me get to. Let me get the skinny on the whole weather here deal, because it looks like, and if we got flood issues, then that would tell me maybe rain. There are some storms in the vicinity. Okay, not seeing anything right here. We'll check this. 89 right now feels like 97. And do look for a few showers probably to move into the area, or at least in some parts of Lexington. Can't guarantee we'll all get one sometime during the afternoon rush hour. It's 89. Feels like 97 right now. Chance of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon. Slight chance of a shower early evening if it's going to happen. Hello tonight, 68. And then another chance for showers and thunderstorms. Pop up showers and thunderstorms again Thursday, too. Highboat days, mid-80s. Shows and thunderstorms likely on Friday. And once again, we have, let me check on this warning one more time. We'll check it. 89 feels like 97. Right now at 97.m. and 590 a.m. WVLK. All right. Here we go. Hang on here. Hang on here. Flash flood warning until 645. This evening. National Weather Service in Louisville is issued a flash flood warning for southeastern Fayette County, along with west central Clark County, Jessamine, Northeastern Jessamine County, and northwestern Madison County until 645. Doppler radar indicating thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area between one and two inches of rain have fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. And we're looking at Lexington Veterans Park. This may affect our listeners more in the southern portion of our, of Fayette County. Certainly the southern portion of our listening area, Fayette, Jessman, Madison, Clark County. So there it is. Flash flood warning now until 645. Pouring rain now at Brandon Crossing, according to Danny on the Stuttgart Motors text line. Lights on Flash, a man of war at Tate's Creek. So there you go. There's some rain coming down pretty good. Right now, downtown it's dry. Cruiser and crew at 97.3 FM and 590 a.m. WV.L. Okay. From these two-carbutter's text line, Europe doesn't even eat peanut butter either. What's the matter of these people? I mean, yeah. I love peanut butter.

See, I didn't know, but I didn't order peanut butter when I was in Europe, so I'll take your word for it that they don't have it. But I'm assuming they don't have ranch dressing because these Europeans came over here and said, what is this? God forbid, the president of the country goes to bat for one of his citizens when they get screwed. Then went to bat for the American team. I think that in a sport like soccer where a zero-zero tie is not completely uncommon reads this text and low scores are often the case. We really got a whipping. I kind of think Belgium ran up the score a little bit in a way, same way that Florida used to do against Kentucky and football. The Florida coach's name is escaping me right now, but I believe he was an assistant at the University of Kentucky. Was it Spurrier you're talking about? Steve Spurrier? He was an assistant in Kentucky got fired. Then he went to Florida and did really well, so he'd always thump Kentucky every year in football. I think it's Steve Spurrier is who you're talking about, isn't it? And yeah, they'd have our number all the time. And they were doing that Trump dance. In the locker room, you see that? Maybe they did it on the field. I don't know. The clip I saw today was they were doing, you know, how Trump dances to YMCA by the village people. They're, you know, trying to rub it in. Which was the chance of Trump was going to take? I don't think he cares, but, of course, everybody was going to jump on him if the USA went out and lost. Belgium beat the USA five to two, six months ago.

So, yeah, and then somebody confirming it was, East Berger, then I'm talking about. Okay, this is kind of an interesting and yet troubling piece from Axios this morning looking at some new Census Bureau population estimates. And, of course, we talk about how, and the whole world is talking about how they've got to get their birth rates up, including us. Birth rates are too low. Well, and they've been too low for a while in this country, and this is where it's going to come and start biting us in the butt. America has a missing middle. Our 45 to 64 year old population is shrinking. Now think about that. Think about yourself. When were you earning the most money in your career? When were you finally beginning to realize perhaps some career or vocation success? Or maybe your business. Maybe you started a business. Or several businesses, and you finally latched on to one or you've had success. Usually in that, right, that, you know, mid-40s to 50s, man, now you're feeling it. Maybe it starts a little bit earlier. I don't know, maybe at 40, upper 30s, late 30s to 40 to where now, those are your earning years. The U.S. population. Of Americans between 45 and 64 fell by almost 2 and 3 quarter million from April 1st of 2020 to July 1st of last year, according to these Census Bureau estimates. The group declined 3.2% nationally, so it went from 84 million to 81.3 million. The Northeast had the biggest drop, 7.1%. The Midwest fell 6.2%. The West fell 2.7. The South was the only region where the 45 to 64-year-old population grew barely, adding one-tenth of 1% just about 18,000 people. Not much. Now you got boomers, younger boomers moving into retirement age. Older Gen X-X cohorts are filling in behind them. Gen Xers refers to people who were born from 1965 to 1980. They pick up where the baby boomers left off. They're now between the ages of 45 to 61.

But it's a smaller group, this Gen X group, smaller than the baby boom because it was born during the baby bust that followed the post-war birth surge. Birth rates fell sharply in the 1960s and 1970s. Why? The biggest thing that started the sexual revolution. It wasn't Hugh Hefner. It was the pill. That's my take. Birth control. Conception. You could have sex now without worries. Without worries of pregnancy. You could control your family. If you did it right, you could control if you had kids or how many kids you had. Now, I understand some women couldn't take this medication, but if you could and you timed everything correctly, you could pretty much control your family, at least in terms of numbers. And, of course, on top of that, women delayed marriage and childbirth and divorce, and new family structures became more common. Couples living together, not getting married, probably not having kids in that kind of situation. So what the troubling part about this is for all of us in terms of the municipal tax base or contributions to programs like Social Security and so on, this demographic of the 45 to 64, the missing middle, as Axios called it this morning, typically represents people in the peak of their earning years. These are people also that have decades of institutional knowledge. So this could thin the ranks of experienced workers as the older workers retire. The younger workers are coming up. Maybe not as many of them. Certainly not as experienced. Certainly don't possess decades of institutional knowledge. This could thin out the ranks of experienced workers, caregivers like doctors and nurses and civic leaders. And... Well, I mean, we can start having more kids now, but this issue with the missing middle is here to stay with us, this missing, or at least not missing, but shrinking, 45 to 64 population. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. Soccer Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Klingerberg. One thing I promised you is an all-access pass that you wouldn't get on any other show. And we found out that whoever comes on scores a goal. Burhope, Freeman, trustee. U.S. soccer podcast magic is real people. We still got plenty of coverage all throughout this World Cup. Okay, let's get into it. The U.S. soccer podcast. Presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite. platform.