The conversation also highlights the importance of going above and beyond basic job requirements. While many might argue, “That’s not my job,” Richard suggests that seizing opportunities and undertaking challenging tasks that others avoid can set you apart as a valuable asset to your company. His advice is clear: be willing to do what others won’t to advance your career.
Equally significant is the notion of lifelong learning, a recurring theme in Richard’s advice. He champions the idea that continual education and skill acquisition are pivotal. By learning from both personal experiences and the experiences of others, individuals can keep pace with industry changes and ensure they remain valuable contributors to their teams and employers.
Alongside technical skill development, Richard underscores the importance of softer skills – maintaining a positive attitude and being a team player. He states, “You can accomplish anything positive with a negative attitude,” underscoring how attitude affects professional longevity and personal happiness.
In addition to these principles, Richard stresses the value of being a giver rather than a taker. Encouraging and uplifting others not only fosters a positive working environment but also builds strong professional relationships that can support career progression.
Ultimately, Richard concludes with a unique perspective on workplace dynamics with his “lifeboat exercise,” illustrating how consistently adding value positions you as a crucial member of the team. As John Rush sums it, being invaluable in your organization is not just about surviving but thriving in the face of professional challenges.
In this engaging episode of Rush to Reason, host John Rush is joined by Richard Battle to explore actionable tips for maximizing your value in any organization. As they discuss the significance of going beyond just performing your job, Richard emphasizes the importance of a lifelong learning mindset, under-promising and over-delivering, and being an encouraging figure in your team. Tune in to discover how cultivating these habits can lead to increased opportunities and resilience against professional setbacks.
SPEAKER 07 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 14 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you're scared. And you're scared because if you try and fail, there's only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 07 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 14 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did.
SPEAKER 04 :
Get a job, sir. You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same, and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 09 :
Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 07 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 05 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, and Electric, where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Thanks for tuning in. Hour number two, Richard Battle joining us now. Richard, hope you had a great holiday.
SPEAKER 13 :
Good afternoon, John, and Happy New Year to you and all the KLZ listeners. I did, and I saw a politician today. It was so cold. I saw a politician with his hand in his own pocket.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, there we go. Good one. Good one. Yeah, and you're not near as cold as we are right now. I think right now we are a whopping 40, but it's going to be really cold tonight down in the single digits.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, y'all are tougher than we are.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, well, luckily for us, that doesn't last very long. Yes. Luckily, luckily. All right, so let's get into it. Increasing our value for success, impact, and security as we start off 2025. Great topic.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, I thought the timing would be great, and I have a daughter who graduated from graduate school last summer, and so she's in her first real-life professional job. And as I talked to her about doing it, I consistently reinforcing to her things she's doing that she's raising her own value. And so I thought it would be great to share some of those with the listeners, because the more we increase our value to an organization, company, team or family or whatever, the more rewards we'll get and the less likely we will be to be cut loose if bad times come.
SPEAKER 11 :
And by the way, some of what you and I are going to talk about through this, because I watched some videos and things through the holidays on this very topic. I don't know why sometimes things just pop up for whatever reason, Richard, but at the end of the day, we're going to talk about some things that some may not necessarily agree with. What I mean by that is there's some folks out there listening— I'm not sure how many, but listening saying, you know, why would I do that? At the end of the day, I'm not getting paid for that. So why would I do that?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, that's a short term attitude, I think. And so I think the first thing I recognized when I got into the workplace and it helped me a lot is I realized I was my own boss and that my customers funnel money to my company and then the company would pay me. But the more I acted properly, the more rewards I would get long term. And so I think we have to be thinking long term for our entire career in what we're doing to establish a reputation and build opportunities for ourselves.
SPEAKER 11 :
And what you just said along those lines, which I know is in our notes, but I want to make sure we throw this in early, is as we, those of us that do these things, learn to do that, as you said earlier, you're now your own boss, you're setting your own destiny, and whether you're getting paid for that or not, the reality is you're making yourself more valuable to every single thing you would do in the future.
SPEAKER 13 :
That's exactly correct. And it's amazing sometimes when we're doing something above and beyond, and we don't think we're getting rewarded for it, I guarantee you we will be rewarded sometime in the future. It just may not be evident that time.
SPEAKER 11 :
Great point. All right, so let's get into it some of the way. What are some of these ways we can increase our value?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, I think if we want to be more, we have to do more. That's the number one and the simplest thing. And so many times people will say, well, that's not my job, or they don't want to do anything above and beyond their job. And the more we do like that, it benefits us in growth, but it also demonstrates to other people that we want to be more valuable in an organization.
SPEAKER 11 :
One of the best ways to get on my bad side as an employee was to tell me something to the effect of, that's not in my job description, because nothing grinds on me worse, Richard, than that.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, exactly. And the corollary to that always is never be too big to do a small job. Because I've seen people that would say, well, that's below my pay grade. Yes. And the best people I know have at one time or another done the smallest jobs in building themselves to be the biggest leaders.
SPEAKER 11 :
Richard, I can really quick tell this story. One of the reasons, there's several, but one of the reasons I've never smoked in my entire life, and I don't belittle those that do because it's a very hard habit to break, but one of the reasons why I never smoked was because at a very early age, 11, 12 years of age, working around my family's dealership, one of the grunt jobs I had was cleaning up. After people, cigarette butts out of urinals and ashtrays and out of the cars and just everybody smoked back then. This was the 70s. So, you know, there's ashtrays everywhere and they'd be in the parking lot because people would just throw them out. And reality is I learned at an early age and sorry for those of you that do. I'm not trying to offend, but it is one of the filthiest habits you could probably ever have. And I learned that at an early age because to your point, Richard, I was doing a very, you know, menial task. It was very important to do, but it also taught me a life lesson. Don't smoke.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, yes, and most of us have had to do pretty dirty tasks in our careers, and as my grandmother taught me, a little work never hurt anybody, regardless of how bad it is sometimes, and the life lessons are what's important, not what we had to do to earn them.
SPEAKER 11 :
Absolutely. Okay, so really quick, before we move on, because I said this earlier, this we must do more, because I always taught my kids, outwork the guy next to you and you'll always have a job, but most of the time what you're going to hear back is, well, they're not paying me to do that. Why should I work any more than what I'm being paid? And again, Richard, the whole synopsis of what you and I are talking about right now is increase your own value. You'll be more successful. You'll have more impact and more security.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, exactly, and we have to convince people to look long-term, not short-term. not what you get today, but what you're building for the future. And the next step in that is being a lifelong learner and learning all the things you can as early as you can. And as I've said, smart people learn from their experience. Brilliant people learn from the experiences of others. And the example, since you were in automotive, remember back to manual transmissions and the people who didn't progress to learn how to service automatic transmissions, work themselves out of jobs because they didn't learn new skills.
SPEAKER 11 :
Very, very true, which goes to this whole be a lifelong learner. You can never stop learning.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yes. And so, and then next, be the first in the office and the last one to leave. When you're starting out, you want to show value. You don't want to be the last one there and the first one to leave. And it's noticed by management or whatever team you're on. If it's a baseball team or a Girl Scout troop or your family or whatever, if you're there early and leave late, it's always noticed.
SPEAKER 11 :
Absolutely. Next one, which I talked about this during health and wellness, is having a positive attitude, Richard. Not only does it help you in your work life, it helps you in your personal life.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, yes, and I heard that. I agree 100%. I believe you can accomplish anything positive with a negative attitude. And I've seen people in my life as well who had a negative attitude, and I don't believe they lived as long as they certainly had no happiness in their life.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, these next two correlate exactly to what I talked about in the 3 o'clock hour as well. Give them to us.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, be a giver, not a taker. And I believe everyone's one of those two type people, and no one wants to be around takers. Everyone wants to have givers as friends, for example. And if we're a giver... it will always come back to us when people will return the favor back to us as well. And the one that goes with that is encouragement. We've talked about it before. I'm a great believer that encouragement is the greatest gift we can give anyone. It doesn't cost us anything. We can't pull a muscle. There's no calories in it, but it can change other people's lives. And when we encourage them with good words, we never know how that will impact them. and they'll remember us for doing so.
SPEAKER 11 :
One of the things I try to do, and I'm not trying to boast in this at all, so all of you listening, please, that's not why I'm saying this, but it correlates to what you're talking about, Richard. So when Charlie and I leave, typically it's late at night, and most of the regular workforce is gone, and the cleaning ladies... and in this case they're all ladies, they've now entered the building and they're starting to do their things. And one of the things that I do my very best in when leaving, and if I get a chance to see any of them face-to-face, is I thank them for what they're doing on my way out the door, because without them we don't have a clean place.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, that's exactly true, and there's nothing more fulfilling than thanking people who are not used to being thanked.
SPEAKER 11 :
And most of these people are used to getting yelled at, frankly.
SPEAKER 13 :
Exactly. And I've never had a bad experience saying thank you to somebody. Everyone always appreciates that. And it's the least we can do for the people who are the least visible in the organization.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, what's happening now on my end, I've done it long enough now where there's a few of them that I've seen over and over and over again. The minute I see them make eye contact, they start to smile. I give them a thumbs up and they automatically know what I mean.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, that's exactly right. And it's still appreciated every time because you are the exception in that situation.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right. Talk about the hard job.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, we hit it a little bit earlier, but volunteer to do the hard job. A lot of people will run for the high grass when the hard job shows up. They want to avoid it. and they're just marking their time until the check comes. But if you volunteer to do the hard job nobody else wants, it will open doors for other opportunities, more opportunities and faster opportunities for you.
SPEAKER 11 :
I like this next one because there's not a boss or an owner out there that wouldn't agree. Be low maintenance.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yes, and as I used to tell management when I would move through organizations, my number one job is to earn your trust. and then to be low-maintenance for you and be easy so that when I need something, you'll know that it's important. If you're high-maintenance and you're always needing to be managed or being maintained, then when you really need something, the person doesn't know if it's serious or not because of your high-maintenance situation.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, these next three, fire these off because they're important as well.
SPEAKER 13 :
Under-promise, over-deliver, very simple. Perform. our duties, and then volunteer for additional work. If you're looking to do additional things, you're going to be given additional responsibilities and opportunities. And always look to benefit your team in the long run. If you're looking for short run, you're never going to be looked at for raises or promotion or long-term opportunity. But if you're looking for long-term benefit for your organization, the doors will swing open for you.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, what is the lifeboat exercise?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, I was with an organization for years, and management would run this exercise once a year where you would look at your employees by their job description, and you would rank them from one to X based on the thought that you would be sitting in a lifeboat, and if the lowest person had to be thrown out of the lifeboat to save everyone else, who would be that lowest person? And if the next lowest person had to be thrown out... You wanted to be the number one person because that's the person who would be first for opportunities. You never wanted to be the last person because that would be the first person to be let go in bad times.
SPEAKER 11 :
And then in closing, we'll always be the first to find another opportunity because of our performance and our reputation, really summing up everything we just got done talking about. And, folks, I cannot, you know, as an owner, I will tell you, Richard, everything here, 100%. Now, I get it. There might be some really bad managers or bosses or owners that don't recognize this, but they're the few. The majority will take everything we just said, and if you're that person, they'll take that to heart.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yes, and so that situation is no matter how good you are, sometimes things are so bad that not only fat but bone gets cut in a company, for example. And so the people who've done these things we're talking about, even if that happens to them, they're going to be the first people who find other opportunities because of their reputation and people giving them references for their great work.
SPEAKER 11 :
Sometimes even prior to the ship going down, I guess you could say.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yes, absolutely. And so there's nothing lost. If we're thinking about ourselves and our long-term lives, business as well as personal, we win when we perform at top levels.
SPEAKER 11 :
Richard, give us your website and how folks can get some of your books.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, thank you. It's richardbattle.com. All 11 books are there, and we sign all of them before shipping. And if someone wants inscriptions for gift copies... Email me, richard at richardbattle.com. We're happy to do that. We have Kindle and audio versions available at Amazon as well.
SPEAKER 11 :
Richard, I appreciate it. Looking forward to 2025.
SPEAKER 13 :
Always my pleasure. God bless America.
SPEAKER 11 :
God bless you, Richard. Have a great rest of your day. Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next. Dave Hart, and as I said earlier, you may notice some things right now, even with your roof, where it's like, I don't think that's quite right. I've got a downspout that's not quite right, or I've got icing in an area that I've never had before, or whatever the case may be. Take pictures, save those, call Dave, get him out as soon as possible to inspect, and then figure out a way to fix whatever that problem is. At Roof Savers Colorado, we are about more than roofs.
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SPEAKER 10 :
putting reason into your afternoon drive. This is John Rush.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, we are back a few minutes before Sunny Kutcher joins us, Young Americans Against Socialism, which Sunny is not far from the Palisade fires that are going on in California. She's actually sent me some spectacular imagery videos and so on of that particular area that is really getting hard hit. But she's going to talk about essentially California and a lot of the missteps that have happened and part of what's even going on there with that. So speaking of missteps, though, by governors, because that's what Sonny's going to talk about in regards to Newsom, is New York. These are some things that I did read while on vacation. I don't normally do things along those lines, but in this case, you could not not see this. It was on a lot of TV stations and so on. And that is the congestion pricing that she has now set up entering into certain areas of Manhattan. It's designed to keep people from coming in at certain times of the day. But at the end of the day, all it's really going to do is penalize people, monetarily speaking, that have to go, they have to have a vehicle. The other thing that I saw along these lines, and I don't know all of the details, so I'm going to give you kind of the broad view of this because I did not get into all of the details. Evidently, there's a lot of first responders that use their personal vehicles, not only getting to work, but sometimes on the job. meaning they need to bring those vehicles into the city. With all of this that has gone on, they're not. So now what's happening is some of the first responders, firefighters and so on, are finding themselves short on services. Because of what I just said, and again, I don't know all the details. Some of you that are out there listening, maybe you can send me an article along these lines, but I was watching an interview. Again, I don't watch a lot of TV while I'm gone, but I happened to catch an interview of, I believe it was the police chief, or sorry, the fire chief, talking about this very subject and how badly this congestive... pricing is going to hurt some of the things that i just said again i don't understand all of the details and how they do things and so on with with some of these you know personally owned vehicles but those are the byproducts or some of the byproducts that again democrats don't ever think about now supposedly this is so that again they can regulate traffic and collect money that they're going to then use to put back into roads, bridges, and so on, which, if it's like Colorado... That money's probably already being collected. It's just being diverted to other places. Guaranteed. If I were to go look at New York's budget, New York State budget, guaranteed the money's coming in already to do the very things they're now going to collect. And I think it's up to $9, if I'm not mistaken, Charlie, on a one-way trip getting into town. So depending upon when you come and go, it could be $18 a day to come and go. And that money then is going to get funneled back into some of these road bridge projects. projects, which, as I said a moment ago, I would bet my life on is already being collected in other ways, through registrations and other things that are happening, just, again, like we do in Colorado. But in Colorado, which I guarantee you is the same in New York, we take that money that's being collected and we divert it into other things. Bike lanes, crosswalks, painting pride flag in crosswalks, stupid things like that. And I'm not exaggerating here in Colorado when I say the things that we do that literally waste the money that we're collecting that should be going to road bridge projects, but it never makes it there because that's what Democrats do. And then, though, they'll be the first ones to cry, we don't have enough money. Literally. Literally. they'll be the first ones to cry out, there's not enough money. We need to tax you more. We need to raise this fee, that fee. Colorado, we're feed to death. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that. We're literally feed to death in this state to the tune of billions of dollars every year because to get around Tabor, they establish a fee. So in turn, it passes muster with Tabor. But in turn, all of us are paying billions of dollars every year for these quote-unquote fees. Joe, go ahead.
SPEAKER 12 :
John, it wouldn't be bad if it was going into roads and bridges, because that would help the people who drive cars. 100% of it's going into the subway and the MTA train system.
SPEAKER 11 :
So it's not even going to roads. And as I said a moment ago, and you're there, I'm guessing, and I'm probably correct in this, they're collecting money for roads and bridges already that's probably going somewhere else, right?
SPEAKER 12 :
Yes. And by the way, just like Denver, that is running a huge deficit, remember your self-funding RTD, New York City... The subway system and MTA, Metropolitan Transit Authority, which is the trains coming in on New York, it is just sucking money up. John, it's a huge black hole, and that's where all this money is going, into that black hole of a public transit system, because the people who run the city, including the mayor, don't want to antagonize the voters by charging them what it really costs to take a ride on the New York City subway.
SPEAKER 11 :
Got it. So we'll do congestive pricing instead and, quote-unquote, fix it.
SPEAKER 12 :
Right, and put the burden on people who own cars so we can subsidize the people who ride the subway.
SPEAKER 11 :
So did you hear me ask about how, and I saw this interview, and I should have paid more attention, but, you know, I'm on vacation, and I'm kind of half paying attention, half not. But they were interviewing, I want to say, one of the fire chiefs, talking about how a lot of the first responders will drive their personal vehicles in for whatever reason and sometimes even use those vehicles on the job. They're losing all those vehicles now because these guys aren't going to drive in.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, because sometimes they'll report to a station. They say, hey, well, they need you over here at a different station, so I have to get back in the car and drive to a different station.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, there you go.
SPEAKER 12 :
And they typically, by the way, bring their own equipment with them, their own jacket and helmet. Right, right, right. That I get. So now when they come in, they're going to leave their stuff at one station, and they're going to take public transit in. If they need them at a different station, they're going to have to buy them a cab ride or something.
SPEAKER 11 :
Cab ride, have more equipment. I mean, bottom line, all this is going to do is add cost to what they're doing.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yep, and so far, there's been no improvement in commuting time. You know, they have the average time.
SPEAKER 11 :
That started January 1, right?
SPEAKER 12 :
January 1. Actually, it was this past Sunday.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 12 :
Anyways, but on Monday morning, there was no improvement in commuting time in the congestion zone.
SPEAKER 11 :
So it didn't do any good other than collect more money.
SPEAKER 12 :
That's all it did, John, collect more money.
SPEAKER 11 :
Unbelievable. Joe, I appreciate the update. Thank you for that.
SPEAKER 12 :
You're welcome.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right. Take care, sir. All right. Sonny Kutcher will be joining us here in a moment. We'll talk about some other debacles going on, by the way, in California. The downside is at least what's happening. Well, I guess it could have some ill effect and cause deaths and so on in New York, but definitely causing some issues along those lines.
SPEAKER 10 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
Gold Eagle Financial, Al Smith, who has his own program between 2 and 2.30 every Wednesday, wants to help you in the financial future. And as I said earlier, if you haven't talked to your financial planner in quite some time, call Al today. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 10 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
Michael Bailey Law, he is our mobile estate planner, and he was on also between 2.30 and 3 with his own program. Get an appointment today with Michael when it comes to getting your estate in order. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 05 :
Your ghost of Christmas past is... You haven't gotten that estate plan done. And with KLZ's mobile estate planner, Michael Bailey, here to help you, it's going to be okay. Some of us also worry about what will happen in the future. You can deal with that ghost of Christmas future too. Get started on your estate plan now with Michael Bailey so you don't have to worry about the past or the future. Ebenezer Scrooge learned how to change his ways in the present, and you can decide to make changes too. Taking care of a will or estate plan in the present means you don't have to worry. It frees up the future to be whatever you want it to be. You can have happiness, peace, joy, love, although probably not from your estate plan, but at least you will have peace of mind knowing it's done. Let your, I should have already done this, fears and worries go. No judgment here. Just call our mobile estate planner, Michael Bailey at 720-730-7274, or go to the klzradio.com advertisers page. Back to Rush to Reason, presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, and Electric, where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, we are back. And Sunny Kutcher joining us now, as I said a moment ago, she would. Sunny, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 15 :
I'm hanging in there. How are you?
SPEAKER 11 :
Good. Are you staying safe?
SPEAKER 15 :
I am. I'm safe where I'm at. I am on the west side of L.A., but I am still pretty far away from these fires, these tragic fires.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, so before we get into some of what's even the cause of and get into some of the politics of this, which there is, just give us sort of a brief synopsis of what it's like out there on the ground.
SPEAKER 15 :
It's quite ominous, I will say. This morning, the smoke was really bad. It was coming down the coast on the west side, kind of coming down towards the airport, LAX, and videos coming out of there were just I mean, apocalyptic, but not quite apocalyptic as some of the videos I've seen firsthand videos of, you know, friends of friends who are either who live in affected areas or actually someone who's a firefighter sends videos, you know, and it is just absolutely apocalyptic. The energy on the ground is ominous. You know, I went outside early this morning to just take a walk and grab, you know, grab a coffee, kind of check out the surrounding areas. And people are, You can see it on everybody's faces. It's, you know, I think we're all trying to just stand together because this is a really tragic situation. And, you know, we're pretty close to, you know, where I'm at. So I'm sure people have friends and neighbors and community members who are being affected. Actually, a friend of mine told me that her home burned down in Pasadena. So that's going to be a fire on the other side.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, that's sad. Yeah. Yeah, and we've had some of those things here in Colorado. I lost a home here in fires we had several years ago. So, you know, we're not immune to this either, although what you guys have going on right now is really, really right. And by the way, Sonny, it doesn't matter whether it's one house or multiples. It's never fun for anybody to go through those situations. Although, much like Colorado—I'll throw this at you— We have some of what we have fire-wise because we don't take care of things on the front side like we should. In other words, we put money into things we shouldn't and don't put money into things that we should, i.e. forest and land management.
SPEAKER 15 :
Absolutely. This is a pattern we're seeing across states where fires are a hazard and are a risk. The corrupt bureaucrats at the top are not concerned. focused on wildfire preparedness or protecting the infrastructure from any, you know, earthquake, fire, hurricane, all of these things we've seen that we've talked about on this show, the cities that have been decimated by the hurricanes, North Carolina, Florida, all of these places, Hawaii with the fires, and now it's hitting Los Angeles.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, and again, I want to make sure that we're not trying to take anything away from what's happening or anybody that's been affected by it. But the sad part, Sonny, is I'm not saying all of this is avoidable, but I will tell you firsthand there is a lot of this that is through proper management. The problem is when we, you know, in the case of Governor Newsom, we direct water to different places. We don't allow things to be trimmed back. We don't do things necessary to make – to be more prepared, I guess is what I should say on that end of things. And then we, then we sit back and wonder why these things happen. Well, I can almost tell you why they happen.
SPEAKER 15 :
These fires happen every single year. Of course, you know, the wind is a factor. This is well known for this area and it's been happening for hundreds of years. And so these are the Santa Ana winds, but mismanagement and gross, if you want to call it negligence, I personally believe that there is a level of malintent or foul play, if you want to say. But if you want to call it mismanagement and negligence, that may be true. Ten years ago, Californians approved a ballot measure to create more water reservoirs, and not one single reservoir has been built under Newsom's leadership. That is just the tip of the iceberg to the negligence and the mismanagement, like I said, of Newsom and Mayor Bass leadership. Newsom signed off on redirecting millions of gallons of rainwater and snowmelt. You've heard people talking about this in a couple days and weeks, months actually. This has been a common controversy about California because the water is flowing right into the ocean rather than being able to flow directly down the state.
SPEAKER 11 :
My feeling on it is, to your point earlier, I think it's several factors. I do think it's just total neglect, and I think it's willful neglect. I think some of it is also to prove a point, and follow me on this one, Sonny. I think there's enough politicians, the Newsoms of the world, the Democrats, the Democrats, the Marxists of the world that have this climate change agenda that they're bound and determined to prove that one way or the other. And even if people lose life and property and so on, you know, they don't care because at the end of the day, they want to prove their point. It doesn't matter who's injured in the process. That's my thought process.
SPEAKER 15 :
They don't care at all. Their actions reflect that motive 100%. Cutting $17 million from the fire department's budget, having a fire chief who is more concerned with filling her DEI quotas and protecting the tax payers, citizens of Los Angeles who pay the highest taxes in the country, support the bloated salaries of our public officials. They don't take precautions like, you know, turning off certain power wires that... The person that appointed to the L.A. Department of Water and Power, her salary sits at a nice seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. But she's not doing much to protect the people that are paying her to do so. And if that, you know, of course, we have all of the instances of at the federal level spending millions upon millions, if not billions of dollars to other countries while our cities burn down to the ground.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yep. Again, Sonny, I go back to I just feel like this is the left's way of poking an eye at conservatives by saying, see, climate change is real. This just proves it. Nonetheless, everything we just talked about, all of the mismanagement and just downright utter incompetency that goes along, you know, the whole DIA thing. DEI training and all the other nonsense that's going on in that particular – by the way, it's happening in other departments, not just that one. But the reality is they won't admit to any of that. They're going to come back. Trust me, when this is all said and done, this will be another let's blame climate change on what just happened.
SPEAKER 15 :
Absolutely. And to your point, they will – never let a good crisis go to waste, and of course they will use these instances to push their agenda of climate change because that offers them more control and more leverage against the American people, and I'm sick and tired of the American people being taken for fools. We are allowing the inmates to run the asylum, and there are radicals running our government, and I would absolutely call it willful negligence. They know exactly what they're doing. This has happened before. It will happen again. And now we're just seeing in the process just the absolute wreckage and devastation that is in the wake of truly pathological megalomaniacs driving the ship of our nation. And hopefully, you know, with this incoming administration, they will really help these states take control of their preparedness strategy and apparatus because we are in desperate need. And I mean, this fire is still growing. So that's not done yet. Yeah. This is ongoing. And it's just they're just absolutely hypocritical. And of course, they will blame climate change. We truly have to overhaul these policies. They've completely failed to protect the infrastructure of our country. And and they've sold us out entirely. And I'm sure you've heard the reports of, you know, the smart city, 2028, all coinciding with the 2028 Olympics. So, you know, it seems very eerily similar to the situation that happens in Maui and Lahaina in Hawaii today. earlier, or was it in 2024? And I'm not above saying that I put my... conspiracy hat on and say, you know, maybe they don't.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, I mean, maybe. And I think same thing in Hawaii. And I think that was 23. But bottom line, I don't I'm not saying that any of them started that nefariously. But what I will say, Sonny, is they will definitely take advantage of whatever has come along and they will rebuild according to the way that they see fit, not the way things were, because if they feel like they can put in a, quote, unquote, smart city or walkable city or whatever the case may be, that's definitely what they're going to do. And I've got a texter right now that I'm going back and forth with that says, oh, no, no, they've proven that they care about people. No, actually, Sonny, they have proven over and over and over and over again that they care nothing about people because if they did, they would be handling things completely different to the point where you sent me a tweet, an X post that went out about the LA mayor. She won't even answer any questions. She just got back from a trip to Ghana, and she won't even answer any questions about what's going on.
SPEAKER 15 :
No, absolutely. No accountability for the American people, for the people who just lost their entire homes and livelihoods. It's absolutely insane, and I agree. I don't even think it's that they don't care about us. We've talked about on this show that the way that America is structured as it is, you can't just have a communist dictatorship and come in, the New World Order just ushers in, and we just, oh, okay. This is a slow, gradual process, so if they are able to take advantage of of situations that occur and crises that occur, they can absolutely use that as a stepping stool to, OK, you know, clear out this area. One more opportunity for us to usher in our agenda because they have to destroy from the ground up. They have to rebuild. That is exactly what the socialist, Marxist, communist, whatever you want to call it, ideology is all about rebuilding because the way that's our freedom protects this country and the way that we have our country, you know, the infrastructure of it rather cannot allow for that.
SPEAKER 11 :
Thank you for saying that, by the way, that, that everything you just said, our complete infrastructure in this country, the way things were built, the freedom to drive to and from get on a highway, go coast to coast, our intercoastal highways, you know, our highway system, our interstates, I should say at the end of the day, Sonny, they would love to dismantle all of that because their goal is, is to never see someone leave a city.
SPEAKER 15 :
Of course. That is how they have ultimate control over human beings. That's it. We see what's happening with the disparity between these gigantic corporations that have a backdoor through the government, and that's truly what's happening. We've talked about how this is going to be a different type of communism. In fact, Lenin said that he envisioned a technocratic system a communist technocratic state of the future, and that's kind of similar to what we see. We have self-driving cars here. We have smart homes. And soon enough, but meanwhile, they can't stop a fire. So why don't you use that technology to stop the fire, right? Just make it all make sense, please.
SPEAKER 11 :
Cut the budget. And again, when it comes to fire mitigation, there are so many ways to handle the fire end of things. I'm not going to spend the rest of our time together going through that. I've done that before, even here with some of the fires that we've had locally. But no, to your point, at the end of the day, they can't build what they want with the way things currently are, so they literally have to start over from the ground up, and that's where a lot of these quote-unquote, you know, smart cities and things like that come from. You see it when redevelopment happens. You see what cities make developers actually do when it comes to building and so on. And it is all with an agenda in mind. And by the way, for those of you that maybe don't believe me, go look up Agenda 21 from the UN and tell me I'm wrong.
SPEAKER 15 :
You said it. You said it, John, and I couldn't agree more. There is an underbelly of the radical left, I should say. And honestly, it goes beyond left, right, anything you want to call it. These people want power and control, and they will stop at nothing to get it. And if we have public servants who are allowing homeless people who are mentally ill, who are addicted to drugs, and then criminal gang members rampaging through our city of L.A., and that they won't do anything about. The murders and the rapes and the horrific acts of crime that are being perpetrated on the American people, at what cost? If they're not willing to do anything about that, what makes us think that they would, A, be prepared for another fire that happens every year that goes out of control and it makes national news, or has the ability to stop the fire once it gets out of control? It's just we are... Not people are finally seeing the picture. Unfortunately, it takes these situations in order for people to see the full picture and to wake up.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, that was my next question is, you know, will this change some of the voting that goes on? Because unfortunately, in California, these people keep getting elected over and over again. A lot of that's because of the handout giveaway programs that they, you know, will foist upon the people. And that's how they buy votes. But at some point in time, Sonny, people have to wake up and realize that. Wait a minute. Just because you're offering me this while taking that away, at the end of the day, I need to quit voting for you and vote for someone else. I hope there'll be a wake-up call.
SPEAKER 15 :
You know what? I think that a lot of these people who live in these areas actually do have quite conservative values. What they are seeing, what they have seen throughout the years of this push towards the left, the LGBT agenda, the DEI, the cancel culture, all of these things, These people have been affected about it. You know, I know a lot of people, oh, this is just a rich area. You know, they'll rebuild their homes. That's not what this is about. This is about the principle of it. And part of me is saying, well, maybe they didn't vote for, you know, Kamala. So they, you know, they're they're they they you know, there's a whole conspiracy about that. I don't you know, you that can go down a whole rabbit trail. But my point only is that I think. People have been affected that actually do have the voice to say something, and people are going to hear that. They've seen what happened in North Carolina. And if you haven't noticed, celebrities were pretty quiet about the election up until the end. up or or just say nothing, basically. And so I think truthfully, these people who have been affected are going to say, wow, this is directly linked to all of these reports coming out about the failed policies of the left. And maybe they're going to be fed up enough to actually speak out. So maybe they didn't. You know, in private is one thing. Now we have to band together in public because this isn't about left or right, again, it's about policies that are failing the American people. You know, fire when it's coming, burn your house down, doesn't care who you voted for.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right.
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, and I will also add finally that there is there is an element of this, too, that's very interesting, because in, you know, recent years, California has implemented socialist style price controls to cap the insurance rates. And so that resulted in policies being canceled. Yep. and a shortage of insurance companies that are available in California because they're leaving because of the regulations. So they don't want to operate here.
SPEAKER 11 :
We've had the same issues here in Colorado, things happening right along those same lines. So, yeah, we're very familiar with what you're talking about along those lines. And, again, at the end of the day, as we start off saying, this affects the little guy more than anyone, and yet that's the person that the Democrats keep talking about, they're the most concerned about, but yet their actions prove otherwise.
SPEAKER 15 :
Absolutely. It is quite reflective. You know what they say, actions speak louder than words. These people have the ability to that their entire job is to protect us, is to do, you know, in good faith, to do their due diligence in making sure that the people of their city remain safe and well and prosperous. And, you know, California had the what is it, the third largest economy in the world, I believe.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 15 :
Some of these businesses, they're not going to come back. These restaurants, there's a restaurant called The Real Inn on the Pacific Coast Highway. That's not coming back. It's been there for decades. They're not going to rebuild this historic restaurant that's been owned by a couple for decades. It's just these are the things that you have to see. They're destroying small businesses, decimating small communities that are tight-knit, vibrant communities. It's just devastating. The consequences are truly devastating. And it's I mean, it's happened across the country. Right. And I think every day people are saying, where is it? Where is the next disaster going to be?
SPEAKER 11 :
Can't argue that. All right. How do folks find you, Sonny?
SPEAKER 15 :
Thank you again. I appreciate the time and to be able to share, you know, some more in-depth stories about what's going on. You know, I'm from Young Americans Against Socialism and we want to expose people. The radical left, show them that these types of policies are what wreak havoc on societies and communities and populations. Communism has killed over 100 million people. So we want to spread the word about that and how important American values are. We need to reclaim our freedom. This is how we save our country. It's truly the only way. Unfortunately, we can see, or I guess fortunately, the silver lining in these types of disasters is that people do band together and link arms and say, you know, how are we going to fix this? And we need to recover from this and communities band together to rebuild and recover. But you can find our resources at YAS.org, Young Americans Against Socialism. We put out articles. social media content, interviews with survivors of socialism and communism and create educational resources for kids and all Americans to learn about all these different topics. So we're so grateful if you are inclined to support, you know, tax deductible as always. And we thank you so much for the opportunity to share and to be a part of this community with you, John.
SPEAKER 11 :
Likewise, Sunny. Thank you very much. Stay safe. Let us know if you need anything and hopefully we'll talk next week.
SPEAKER 15 :
Talk to you soon.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, Sonny. Take care. Have a great evening. Young Americans Against Socialism. High Five Plumbing is next. Don't forget, they've got a $75 off garbage disposal and installation, by the way. Call them today. High Five Plumbing and Electrical 877. We high five.
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SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
All right, that is about it for this particular hour. And, again, I appreciate Sonny coming on. And if you would like to support what they do in really educating young people on a lot of the things that we talk about here on a daily basis, just go to Young Americans Against Socialism and give them a little donation, if you can, that would help them out as well. And they appreciate it as well as I because they do a lot of things with young people to get – this message out that, frankly, you, I, and others of my age, anyways, struggle to do. They do that for us. We'll be back. Hour number three is next. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
I'm a rich guy
