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Discover the timeless commentary of Paul Harvey and explore current legislative trends affecting gender rights and parental authority. We’ll also introduce you to Protect Kids Colorado, an initiative aiming to place important issues on the public ballot. Learn how these topics are intertwined with the current socio-political landscape, and what that means for freedom in America.
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It’s the Kim Munson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
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That seems to me like government is establishing a religion.
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The latest in politics and world affairs.
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If you give people rights, women’s rights, gay rights, whatever, there can’t be equal rights if there are special rights.
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Today’s current opinions and ideas.
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Surveys show that people still really prefer freedom over government force.
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Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
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Indeed, let’s have a conversation. And welcome to the Kim Munson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You’re each treasured, you’re valued, you have purpose. Today, strive for excellence, take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history. And thank you to the team. That’s Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. It is a Tuesday, a beautiful Tuesday in Colorado. Producer Joe.
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Yes, ma’am, it is, and I can’t wait for the sun to finish getting up.
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I know, and boy, the mountains with all the snow, it’s just beautiful. We do live in a beautiful place. Unfortunately, the public policy is pretty ugly, but we are working to speak truth into this to reclaim this state that we love. Do check out our website. That is kimmunson.com. While you’re there, make sure you’re signed up for our weekly email newsletter that goes out on Sundays. That way you’ll get first look at all of our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays. You can email me at kim at kimmunson.com. And the text line I do want to hear from you is 720-605-0647. Thank you to all of you who support us. We are an independent voice on an independent station. searching for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And it’s not compassionate to take other people’s stuff. And it’s not altruistic either. And to take other people’s rights, their property, freedom, livelihood, opportunity, childhoods, or lives via force. And force can be a weapon. But it can be policy and unpredictable and excessive taxation, fear, coercion, government-induced inflation, the agenda pushed out by the World Economic Forum and the globalist elites through the United Nations, this Colorado’s extremist state legislature, this extremist Colorado governor. Then they use land use codes and zoning regulations and force fees and conservation easements. national monument designations transmission lines easements easements easements once you give up an easement you don’t totally own your property and so we need to be getting government back into its proper role and uh so that’s that’s why we do the show is to shed light on all of this remember if something’s a good idea you should not have to use force to implement it And on the show, we focus on the issues, not the personalities. We’ll talk about the people pushing issues, but we want to stay focused on that. So let’s see. Let’s jump over here to our word of the day. And it’s a great word. It’s fun to say. Flabbergasted. This should be easy to use today in a sentence as you’re talking with your friends and family. And it’s spelled F-L-A-B-B-E-R-G-A-S-T-E-D. And it could be feeling or showing intense shock, surprise, or wonder. Utterly astonished. I think the radical activists elitists left. are totally flabbergasted by the Trump administration and the work that the administration is doing to get government back into its proper role. And our quote of the day, and oh, I did not pull up his… Hold on just a second. His bio. Let me get you because we want to have that. There we go. It’s from Paul Harvey. And he was a radio commentator. And let’s see, was born in 1918. He died in 2009. And he was an American broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast news and comment on mornings and middays, on weekdays, and at noon on Saturdays, and also his famous The Rest of the Story segments. So from 1951 to 2008, his programs reached as many as 24 million people per week. And Paul Harvey News was carried on 1,200 radio stations worldwide. on 400 American Forces network stations and 300 newspapers. And a few weeks ago, Jenny, one of our listeners, had sent an AI-generated answer to a question, so asked AI if I were the devil. And I’m still learning about AI. We’ll talk with Kurt Gerwitz more on that on Thursday. But my understanding is it goes out and scours. The Internet goes out and scours and comes up with these answers. And so the answer that it came up with was very close to something that I’d recalled from Paul Harvey. And this is a little long, but I think it’s important. And this was from a broadcast, I think it was in 1965. And he said this, he said, If I were the prince of darkness, I’d want to engulf the whole world in darkness, and I’d have a third of its real estate. I’ll give my commentary. Does that sound like 30 by 30 that the World Economic Forum and all are pushing? So anyway, he said, and I’d have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree. So I’d set about however necessary to take over the United States. I’d subvert the churches first. I’d begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve, do as you please. To the young I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. And I think we could say worshiping the environment instead of the creator could be the case. Again, commentary on my part. I would confide that what’s bad is good and what’s good is, well, square. And the old I would teach to pray after me, our father which art in Washington. And then I’d get organized. I’d educate authors on how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. Could you say Harvey Weinstein? I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil, I’d soon have families that war with themselves, churches that war with themselves, and nations that war with themselves, until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings, I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions. Just let those run wild until before you knew it, you’d have to have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door. Within a decade, I’d have prisons overflowing. I’d have judges promoting pornography. Oh, what about Charlotte Sweeney, a federal judge who just had the ruling in the Poudre School District case to keep pornography in these school libraries? He called it. Okay, continue on. Soon I would evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in his own churches, I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money. If I were the devil, I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle. If I were the devil, I’d take from those who have and give it to those who wanted until I’d kill the incentive of the ambitious. And what’ll you bet I couldn’t get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich? I would caution against extremes in hard work, in patriotism, in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on the TV is the way to be. And thus, I could undress you in public. I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words, if I were the devil, I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing. That’s Paul Harvey. Good day. And certainly the devil’s made tremendous progress in this scenario. There is the however, and there is the however that young people, I think, are turning back to faith. I think that young people are being committed more to faith. one person. And I think we’re getting these things turned around. But Paul Harvey pretty well called it back there in 1965. I had two headlines that I wanted to mention. The first, and this is from AOL. I haven’t seen anything from AOL for a long time. But it says, Congress advances a $3.5 billion cut for California for illegal immigrant health care. Just think about $3.5 billion that is being taken from the American people for health care for people that have come here illegally. And… I guess this is the center square. This came from the center square from AOL. And it says, California largely does not get federal reimbursements for illegal immigrant health care, though it is reimbursed for emergency care under a federal law requiring hospitals receiving federal funding to treat anyone in need of emergency medical attention. The budget proposal would cut the federal medical assistance percentage to states that use their Medicaid infrastructure to provide health care coverage for illegal immigrants under Medicaid or another state-based program. The cuts would not impact emergency care reimbursements. Since California spent $9.5 billion this year on illegal immigrant health care and is repeatedly set to face a $10 billion budget deficit the coming fiscal year. It says, according to an analysis Monday morning from California Policy Center visiting fellow Mark Jaffe, cutting the federal reimbursement share from 90% to 80% would reduce California’s federal funding by $3.5 billion. And I think this is really important. We have gotten things out of control in the proper role of government. The federal government was never supposed to be this big or take that much. And each state was supposed to be its own basically sovereign state. We had the federal government to do the work. Things the federal government is supposed to do, and you can see that in the Constitution. Otherwise, the states were supposed to be these, in our case now, 15 sovereign little entities that could do things differently. So all these 50 little incubators. on how they would govern themselves. Now, each state really should make sure that we adhere to this vision of the Declaration, that all men are created equal with these rights from God of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. But everything else should be pretty separate. So what that means then is, is we have to have state responsibility. So if a state makes decisions that are bad decisions, they need to be responsible for that. So, for example, if California has all of these illegal immigrants come in because of their sanctuary policies, or same with Colorado, then each of the people of each state has to step up and cover for the decisions the people are making that are in elected office. And then, of course, the bureaucrats that the electeds go ahead and give power to. And so things have gotten so upside down in our country that California can make bad decisions, go to the federal government and have the people in Nebraska and South Dakota pay for that. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work. And so we need to get back to each state being responsible for their decisions. I love the fact that Trump is working on reducing federal monies to these different states. And I think that’s a Really great idea. The one other thing that I wanted to mention, and this is from the Daily Mail, and it has a picture of a guy out on a beach, and it says, Asylum Hotel Billionaire. It says, Britain’s first billionaire immigrant, or migrant hotel king. It says, meet the caravan park tycoon who raked in 4.0, well, it’s whatever, European taxpayers’ cash per day putting up asylum seekers. And again, this is not the way it is supposed to be to be taking money from Europeans or here in America as well, taking money from everyday hardworking people and then taking that money to house people that have come here illegally. And this is the epitome of grift. This is the epitome of cronyism, where government then chooses who they’re going to pay to do the work on this. And this guy apparently got very rich in doing so. so we’re going to we’ve got a great show planned for you today i’ll be talking with kevin lundberg in our number one in our number two we got the young guys uh producer joe producer luke we’ll be talking about our book review of the prince by nicolo machiavelli and of course we’ll talk with john boson and all this happens because of our sponsors and i wanted to say thank you to laramie energy for their goal sponsorship of the show because it’s reliable, efficient, affordable, and abundant energy that powers our lives, fuels our hopes and dreams, and empowers us to change our own personal climate to be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. And also the Roger Mangut State Farm Insurance Team strives for excellence as they serve their clients. And Roger’s been in business for 49 years. taking care of his family and his clients and giving back to the community. And give them a call at 303-795-8855 for a complimentary appointment. 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And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMunson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice, and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And in the last segment, I was talking about these different states. For example… California, apparently the Trump administration is going to reduce, let’s see, Congress is going to reduce the payments to California by $3.5 billion for allowing illegal immigrants to enroll in the state’s taxpayer-funded health care program. Okay, that’s good. I missed that particular detail. But Mark said this, yes, states are sovereign, but that doesn’t mean they can violate the U.S. Constitution. But they do. He is absolutely spot on. So that’s why we have these conversations, to get government back into its proper role. And a gentleman who has served our state and continues to serve our state, I think, very, very well, is former State Senator Andrews. kevin lundberg he’s the author of the lundberg report uh he weekly during the legislative session has talked about the different bills that are there and the session is finally over kevin lundberg welcome to the show well thank you kim it’s a pleasure to be with you always and look forward to our conversation for the next few minutes Well, and I always like to go to your Lundberg Report that comes out on Saturdays. People can find it at KevinLundberg.com, and great information there. But you thought you had coined a new word, and you found out you hadn’t, but that was transmania. So let’s talk a little bit about transmania down at the Colorado Statehouse.
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Yeah, well, I was trying to somehow capture what they’ve really been doing. And if you go over the last several years of legislation, and now law, because to my knowledge the governor has signed everything, the legislature has handed him in this area, they have pushed this notion that that kids can change their gender by their own volition, and parents are virtually powerless to stop that. And it really, what shall I say, it really came to a head and to national attention with the last big bill they ran, 1312, which in its original form actually point blank said that if you refuse as a parent to affirm your child’s gender dysphoria, then your custody, your legal custody of that child will be called into question. And what’s that mean? Well, it means you’ll lose your parenting responsibilities And authority, if the system looks at it and says, well, you’re not affirming your child, so that’s a problem. And there are several parents in this state that have already come to the cold-howed reality of what that really means. And I gave one example in my report of a of a father in Jefferson County who was speaking to the school board saying, you were responsible for this because you allowed it to happen without my knowledge. And that’s the other side of this whole gender trans mania. Again, it’s a term I was trying to capture with something new. And I thought, well, I better look it up. And I did. And there’s a book It was published in France, and so it’s in French, so I couldn’t read the book. But they used that as the book title, and that was their whole point, too. And curiously, it was written by two women who were radical feminists. And then they realized, wait a minute, we’ve just turned our world upside down by just saying, well… Man can be a woman and a woman can be a man, and it’s complete madness and insanity, really, if you just sit down and just ask yourself what in the world is happening here, that the state of Colorado, through our legislature and our governor, have made official policy and all of the consequences that have occurred out of that. Now, that’s the bad news. Here’s the good news. People of Colorado are figuring it out. And all we’ve got to do is just make them fully aware that that’s what has been happening in our laws because of the people that they’ve been electing to these positions. And I’m really kind of upbeat that the left has really jumped off the cliff of irrationality to the extent that they will be held accountable for But we’ve still got our work to do because a lot of people just kind of blithely go through life and they have no idea. Not yet. And that leads me to the final part of this, which is Protect Kids Colorado, that I’ve helped stand up along with a lot of really hardworking people all over the state. We tried to put some initiatives on the ballot last year. We’re not successful. But what we were successful at is organizing a team that can get this done. And I’m convinced that we will get it done this year. And we actually got our first title approved this last week as well. Congratulations. A real surprise, too, because we just fought such a battle getting it through last year. And we’ve got some reinforcement legal help that I’m very grateful for. And So the first title, and we’re planning on three, and we filed the other two, but they haven’t come up for the hearing yet. The first one is prohibiting men and women’s sports, which is something that is just kind of a slam dunk. Almost everybody says, yeah, that’s nuts. Well, guess what? That’s policy in the state of Colorado. And anybody who dares question it, If the governor signs House Bill 1312, will then be, if they do it in a public way, in a place of public accommodation, they will have violated Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws and be subject to the civil penalties that are available to people to sue them over that, which, again, is just some of the total insanity that’s occurring.
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So Kevin, so this would mean like, so a public school, right? That’s a public accommodation. So that would mean that boys could compete in girls sports. Okay. So I’ve got a thought for you. The anti-discrimination laws came out of the discrimination of the Jim Crow laws out of our history. And, of course, I want to make a point that the Jim Crow laws were laws. And they were antithetical to the idea of the vision of our Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. So that you would have a law that would segregate different races. That’s what was going on. So then we had these anti-discrimination laws to push back on that. And I think probably maybe at that time that was important. But I think that those laws are antiquated now. And I actually always have thought that perhaps we could have solved discrimination in a free market situation instead of making these different laws. And I guess I’ll ask you if you think that that is possible. But what we now see, those things from back there, For something good, to get to this idea that all men are created equal, these anti-discrimination laws are now being turned on their head in 2025, Colorado and America, to push a radical… activist extremist agenda, which is antithetical to nature’s law. So I guess my question on the table is, do you think that we should get rid of these anti-discrimination laws because we can solve discrimination in the free market?
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Well, that’s kind of a complicated question because you’re quite right that they were created to to fight a social ill that we still have the vestiges of, you know, back in the 60s, really comes out of largely as far as the legislation, the Civil Rights Acts that occurred in the early 60s at the federal level that said you can’t discriminate against somebody because of their race or their creed, which means their worldview, if you will. But it assumed some things that were unimaginable back then. And that is this taking the view of humanity as not being comprised of male and female. And really, you know, you can run this down a dozen ways. you know, rabbit holes as far as some mistaken notion that occurs and now suddenly we have to formalize it and normalize it and cause it to be something that we will now enforce through the state. Let me go back to what really was within our nation’s history. One, yes, slavery set up this disparity of perception on the part of our culture. And it wasn’t just an American thing, frankly, that slavery has been and continues to be a blight on humanity worldwide. It was our nation that was established with this principle of equality among all people that really we started to fight our way out of this And if you go over to England, they did the same thing, and they did have a peaceful transition from the terrible blight of slavery, but it was still a long, long process. You can attribute that, if you know anything about the history of William Wilberforce, he was a member of Parliament back in the 18th and 19th century, who… who fought that battle diligently and almost singly for a good long while. But they finally went through without a civil war. We went through a civil war, which was another terrible problem that occurred. You know, read Lincoln’s second inaugural address where he speaks of OF THAT IN THE DEPTHS OF THE CIVIL WAR AND HOW HORRIBLE IT WAS AND HOW THEY WERE DOING THAT TO RIGHT THIS WRONG. NOW, TODAY, YOU KNOW, WE’VE GOT ANOTHER VAST WRONG THAT NEEDS TO BE RIGHTED, AND I DON’T THINK IT’S GOING TO COME DOWN TO A CIVIL WAR OF THAT SORT, BUT IT CERTAINLY IS A TOTALLY OPPOSITE VIEW OF THE WORLD THAT’S INCOMPATIBLE WITH ONE ANOTHER.
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Well, it’s a battle of ideas, Kevin Lundberg, and you’re engaged in that every day. I am as well. Let’s go to a break. We’re going to come back and continue the discussion with Kevin Lundberg. And all these discussions happen because of our sponsors. And so for everything residential real estate, reach out to Karen Levine.
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And welcome back to the Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at Kim Munson dot com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And this Thursday, I’m and Teresa, our partnership liaison, will be out at the USMC Memorial Foundation’s second annual golf tournament. And we’re coming out for lunch. And so if you want to come out and buy a lunch ticket, we’d love to have you join us. If you’re a golfer, they have a few spots still open. And check all that out at USMCMemorialFoundation.com. And if you’re a golfer, you’re going to meet some great people, have a great round of golf on a beautiful golf course, and, of course, support the foundation. So, again, that is usmcmemorialfoundation.org. I’m talking with former state senator… Kevin Lundberg, you can find his Lundberg report at KevinLundberg.com. And this discussion started with what’s happening down at the Colorado State Legislature. He’s calling it transmania, which this focus on saying that boys can be girls and girls can be boys and putting this into law. And what does that mean for Colorado, which I then asked, and it’s going to go into our anti-discrimination laws in public places, which means if you don’t affirm someone in their gender dysphoria in a public place, then you would be accused of incest. Discrimination. And that got us over here to could we have solved discrimination in America from a free market? I think that we could get to a point where so so what if a restaurant’s not going to serve X, whatever? Then somebody can start a new restaurant to serve X. People may not go to the one that’s being discriminatory. I think that we could solve these things from a free market. Gets us over to the Civil War and then that Britain was able to get rid of slavery without the bloodshed of a civil war. And a lot of that was because of the work of William Wilberforce. How’s that for setting everything up, Kevin Lumberg?
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And we have how many hours?
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I know, I know.
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Well, you know, I bring up William Forrest, Wilbur Forrest, for a couple of reasons. One, he’s just such a great example of political activism in the most positive and productive way you can imagine. But if you look at his actual life, it was one of struggle. And one of, you know, real perseverance that he had to… exert. And it wasn’t just going after the slavery issue, even though that sort of erupted into the major accomplishment of his life in turning that ship around. And what he managed to do was simply stop the slave trade. That’s it. Stop the slave trade in the British Empire, which was huge. But the actual EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES AND THE ELIMINATION OF SLAVERY DIDN’T OCCUR UNTIL ACTUALLY JUST ABOUT THE TIME THAT HE DIED BECAUSE OTHERS THEN TOOK THAT AND COMPLETED IT. AND IF YOU LOOK AT OUR NATION’S HISTORY, IN OUR CONSTITUTION, IT SET UP THE END OF THE SLAVE TRADE AS WELL. IT WAS A PROCESS. But that was part of the Constitution’s rules. And if you go back to the other founding document we have, the Declaration of Independence, that established the framework of all of that. And so you can see kind of a pair. And that was in 1776, long before Wilberforce really became the, you know, before he really was blossoming because it was, well, it was in the 17, I don’t have all of my numbers correct here, but it was in the 1780s that Wilberforce really campaigned for many of these reforms. And here’s an important element, too. It’s because Wilberforce gave his life to God. He became a Bible-believing, evangelical Christian while in Parliament, and that just revolutionized his worldview. And he realized, I’m not here to establish myself and much of the greed and the other things that had really taken over the British Parliament system. No, he said, I’m here to… to make things better and to tackle the really big issues because that’s what their job was. And I believe that’s what we have to do today. And I’ll give you a little personal note here, too. When I first tackled the running for office and serving in the legislature, and as I recall, it’s right after the election, and I was representative-elect back in 2002. I went to a gentleman I had great respect for, and that was a former, at that time, former U.S. Senator, Bill Armstrong. And I said, okay, you’ve been through all of it. You were in the Colorado House, Colorado Senate, the United States House, the United States Senate. And can you tell me what I should do as just entering that process? And he had a perfect answer. I remember he kind of got up from his desk and went to a back room and picked up a book and brought it back to me and said, here, read this. And it was a biography of William Wilberforce.
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Interesting.
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And so I used that as kind of my North Star to a great deal. And, you know, now I’m kind of on the tail end. No, I never went to Congress and I was never in the U.S. Senate, but But I spent a good deal of my life working in those areas and still do. And so did he. He was still doing it after he retired. Actually, I think much of his greatest accomplishments were still ahead of him there. We had no idea he would become the president of Colorado Christian University. And if you look at my newsletter, yeah, I talk about about this trans mania, but I also talked about the graduation ceremonies for Colorado Christian University, which I attribute largely to what Bill Armstrong accomplished by building that institution into a phenomenal organization, and that they had their graduation for 1,300 people just this last Friday, and it was just You know, it’s kind of another parallel of what you ought to do when you get into public service is to serve people in every way possible. And, you know, if you look at Wilberforce’s life, I mean, he actually engaged in dozens of organizational efforts to, you know, to fix the problem of what they were doing to horses in carriages in London. You know, they thought it was fashionable for the horse to have its head up high while it was destroying the animal. And he went after that. And he was just going after the moral reform of his nation.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, and one of the things, a couple of things regarding Wilberforce, and I pull this up from Eric Metaxas had written an excellent book on Wilberforce called Amazing Grace. And the dates that they have is that says, “…as the center of his heroic life was a passionate 20-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, a battle that Wilberforce won in 1807.” And yet it was in our Constitution in 1787 where, as you mentioned, it said that it was going to outlaw the importation of slaves into the United States 20 years after. So this was all happening at the same time. The other thing that I remember reading about Wilberforce is that he worked on getting rid of the British slave trade. But also he worked on bringing manners. back to English society, people had gotten to a point where they had no good manners anymore. And I think that’s something that we’ve seen in America, that we’ve seen the erosion many times of good manners. And I think that bringing that back would be a good idea as well. And I say that However, our building is a very diverse, has all kinds of entrepreneurs. And everyone, I’ve never had anyone ever rude as we’re going in and out of doors. People are holding the doors for others. People say please and thank you. And I love that. But I think we need to make sure that we have good manners in American society today as well. I think that that would go a long way to unifying us, Kevin Lumberg.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, yeah, and I think back then, the use of the term manners, I agree with everything you’ve said there. But he was trying to capture that bigger concept of manners. In other words, how do you treat other people and why? He actually wrote a book, and the term manners was in the title. I can’t find it right now. It’s kind of scanning. some history here while we were talking. But anyway, he understood that in every aspect of life, it reflects who and what we are and why we are. Eric McTaxis’s book, Amazing Grace, is another example history of that same thing. And it doesn’t come from just yourself. You know, if the cultures that were based on just a humanistic view of moral standards, yeah, Karl Marx was pretty good at that, and what did that end up with? You know, we called it the communism, and the countries that embraced that ended up just being ruthless And we still have some today. China, this is one of the big battles in that country is they’re still run by that moral value and principle. Our country is really at a crossroads. Where do we go? And I think just like William Wilberforce, we need to turn to God for his guidance and direction in our individual lives and in our corporate lives as a nation. And let me add one other factor which we consider all this, because we talk about what happened in this country, which really predated in some ways what William Force was doing, and yet we didn’t get there fully until there was a civil war, and there were a lot of dynamics as to why it turned that direction. But in the colonial days, many of the colonies actually had outlawed slavery from the very beginning. I understand the Plymouth colony, which established the pilgrims and all of the stories we’re aware of there, that they never had slavery. As a matter of fact, I’ve heard that there was a slave ship that got blown off course and actually landed there. And when they discovered that this was a slave ship, they arrested the crew. and freed the slaves because they knew that was wrong. And most of the northern colonies didn’t have slavery at all. And so when we formed this nation, there was a strong consciousness already. And those colonies really were based on much more biblical values than we see today.
SPEAKER 14 :
And, of course, the biblical value of the golden rule, treat other people how you would like to be treated. So, Kevin Lundberg, yeah, you and I, I think we could do Lundberg-Munson unplugged, I think, several hours. But good conversation, and hopefully this is helping all of you think about these issues that we’re facing here in Colorado. And that’s one of the reasons why freedom of speech is so important. And this 1312 would compel speech. And those two things don’t match up in the American idea. We’ll be right back. We have these discussions because of sponsors. If you’ve been injured, reach out to John Bozen and Bozen Law.
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 12 :
All of Kim’s sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Munson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That’s kimmunson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 09 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter and email me at Kim at Kim Munson dot com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And, you know, a nonprofit I dearly love is the Center for American Values located in Pueblo on the beautiful Riverwalk. And actually yesterday we recorded one of the hours for Memorial Day with Drew Dix, who’s one of the co-founders of the Center for American Values. A great interview. But they’re focused on these values of honor, integrity, and patriotism. And you see that through their Portraits of Valor, of our Medal of Honor recipients, their educational programs, and their On Values presentations. The next one is May 28th. Get all that information by going to AmericanValueCenter.org. That’s AmericanValueCenter.org. Kevin Lumberg, former state senator, and you can find great information at the Lumberg Report at his website, kevinlumberg.com. I had Joe give you a whole bunch of things that we wanted to talk about, and we’re not going to have probably enough time to do it. But I wanted to mention William Wilberforce was very good friends with John Newton, who was a British captain of a slave ship. And after Newton gave his life to Christ, he wrote Amazing Grace, and the two of them had a great friendship. And I think it’s so interesting to connect that dot between the two men.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, yeah, and it’s just another example of that personal conversion that made such a dramatic difference in so many lives. And the fact that John Newton could influence William Wilderforce and, you know, keep him on track, if I understand it. Newton, at the time that Wilberforce knew him, was more in Christian ministry of some sort. I don’t recall a specific. Anglican.
SPEAKER 14 :
He was an Anglican. Yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. And he was working in the church and, you know, I was a as an Anglican priest, I guess.
SPEAKER 14 :
I think you’re right.
SPEAKER 10 :
I’m afraid I’m a little fuzzy on that particular point of there. But the fact that he was then passing on what he knew and the encouragement that he gave to Wilberforce, who really applied that in so many ways through his life. And another thing people don’t realize is… Wilberforce actually physically had a lot of limitations. He wasn’t a big, strong, powerful man who lived forever. He really battled with the ability to just continue on physically. But he was used by God to really reform the nation in so many ways, and we see it you know, today in the effects that he had on that blight that we started talking about, which was slavery. And now, I mean, we got back from there with another blight that we have where there’s this gender dysphoria. And I got to thinking on a conversation there. We talk about, you know, confusing boys as to are you a girl or are you a boy? But in fact… it’s gone to such madness that you can choose from a dozen different genders. Dozens, as a matter of fact. I mean, they just keep making them up, and people who are captured by this just keep buying this, that apparently humanity really doesn’t boil down to a man and a woman. It’s something different than that. And that is… That is so contrary to really how God established the human race. And, you know, it all comes back to foundational principles of who made the rules. Did you make the rules, or did the creator of the universe do it? And then let me spin this back to the state of Colorado, because the very words in the preamble to our Colorado Constitution says with let’s see, something like, with great reverence for the supreme ruler of the universe, we established this state. Let’s paraphrase, please. But they knew where truth came from, and that’s how they formed the Colorado Constitution. Even as, you know, the U.S. Constitution within that same framework and context.
SPEAKER 14 :
But God is not referred to in the Constitution, but in the Declaration, he’s referred to four different times. And I don’t have them right here. Nature’s God.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes and no. Actually, the United States Constitution talks about the— in a very indirect fashion, names the year in the year of our Lord. That was an assumption. They honestly didn’t think in terms of anything other than who was the founding father who said that our constitution was made for a moral and religious people and it just can’t be worked any other way. And it was George Washington who in his final address as president, said that religious principles are the foundation of our culture. No, they understood it clearly, and our Constitution was simply written as the technical document of how do you conduct the federal government and what’s its relationship to the state government.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, and with that, Kevin Lundberg, we’ve got about a minute left. This has been a riveting discussion because we’re talking about these foundational principles. We’re in this huge battle of ideas, and Colorado’s at the forefront, and you’re in this battle. I and my listeners, we’re all in this battle of ideas that’s raging right now. So your final thought.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I’m actually very encouraged by what I’m seeing, not from the Colorado legislature, which we never got to. You know, what happened to the session? Well, a lot of really bad stuff. Go to my report where I list the good bills and the bad bills, and you’ll discover the good things die and the bad bills flourish. And that’s because the guys that are in charge right now are on the wrong track. But I am very encouraged that we have gone so far that… We just need to kind of seal the deal, and this is why I’m working on these initiatives with Protect Kids Colorado, and I need everybody’s help on that one to get it done.
SPEAKER 14 :
What’s that website?
SPEAKER 10 :
Protectkidscolorado.org. Protectkidscolorado.org. That will help you on the road to the reformation of Colorado.
SPEAKER 14 :
Great work on that. And I think you’re going to love this quote from Paul Harvey. He said this, if pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of progress? Oh, Congress. There we go. So, my friends, today, be grateful. Read great books. Think good thoughts. Listen to beautiful music. Communicate and listen well. Live honestly and authentically. Strive for high ideals. And like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you, and God bless America.
SPEAKER 16 :
Talking about freedom I’m talking about freedom I will fight
SPEAKER 11 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s the Kim Munson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 14 :
The socialization of transportation, education, energy, housing, and water, what it means is that government controls it through rules and regulations.
SPEAKER 02 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 14 :
Under this guise of bipartisanship and nonpartisanship, it’s actually tapping down the truth.
SPEAKER 02 :
Today’s current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 14 :
On an equal field in the battle of ideas, mistruths and misconceptions is getting us into a world of hurt.
SPEAKER 02 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
SPEAKER 14 :
Indeed, let’s have a conversation. Welcome to our number two of the Kim Munson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You’re each treasured, you’re valued, you have purpose today. Strive for excellence. Take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history. Thank you to the team, Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. A very robust hour number one, wouldn’t you say, Producer Joe?
SPEAKER 17 :
Absolutely. Kevin Lundberg had very good words.
SPEAKER 14 :
It was. Yes, we were talking about trans mania and ended up over into the British slave trade and our civil war. You can hear that show today, one to two in the afternoon. Our show comes to you six to eight a.m. Monday through Friday. First hour is rebroadcast one to two in the afternoon. Second hour, 10 to 11 at night. That is on all KLZ platforms, which is KLZ 560 AM, KLZ 100.7 FM, the KLZ website, the KLZ app. And you can say, Alexa, play KLZ. And then we’re on Spotify and iTunes as well. So you can check all of that out. Check out our website. It’s Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. While you’re there, sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You’ll get first look updates. at our upcoming guests, as well as our most recent essays, you can email me at kim at kimmunson.com. The text line, love to hear from you, is 720-605-0647. And thank you to all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice on an independent station, searching for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And we’re focusing on these issues and this battle of ideas I’m trying to stay out of all the personality stuff. And we get to do that because of our sponsors. I wanted to say thank you to Laramie Energy for their goal sponsorship of this show because it is reliable, efficient, affordable, and abundant energy that powers our lives, fuels our hopes and dreams, and empowers us to change our own personal climate to be warm in the winter and cool in the summers. And another sponsor of the show is Hooters Restaurants. How I got to know them, it’s a very important story about proper role of government. But Hooters Restaurants, and you can find that at my website, that whole story. They have five locations, Loveland, Aurora, Lone Tree, Westminster, and Colorado Springs. Great place to get together with friends to watch sports, sporting events, and great specials Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner. Wednesdays, they have Wings Day, which you buy 20 wings, you get an additional 20 for free. Girls are coming over tomorrow night, so we’re going to partake in that. A great show planned for you in studio with me is producer Luke. And Luke, it’s great to have you here. It’s great to be here. And producer Joe, you guys are going to be our featured guests in this hour as we continue our book discussion on The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. So we’ll continue with that. Luke, I think you’re going to love our word of the day. It’s fun to say.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. Flabbergasted. I love flabbergasted. It’s a great word.
SPEAKER 14 :
And it’s spelled F-L-A-B-B-E-R-G-A-S-T-E-D. And it could be feeling or showing intense shock, surprise, or wonder, utterly astonished. And I would say there are many that are flabbergasted at all the stuff that’s coming out of the Trump administration. And whether you like him or don’t, I think people could be flabbergasted on both sides of that opinion. And our quote of the day, in the first hour, So a week or so ago, one of our listeners, Jenny, had sent over an AI-generated answer to a question of if I were the devil. And it really struck a chord with each of you out there. And so I was talking with Zach about it. He says, well, what AI does, it goes out and scours, gets all this information. And I’ve got to think that it very much was referring to Paul Harvey’s address, If I Were the Devil, which was broadcast in 1965. And Paul Harvey was born in 1918, died in 2009. And he was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News. And his programs reached at one point 24 million people per week. And that’s when there weren’t as many people in America, which I I think that is pretty amazing. So that is in the first hour. And you can hear that if you listen to the that rebroadcast today in the afternoon. But he also had this quote. He said, if you don’t live it, you don’t believe it. And I thought that that was a very good quote as well, and that is from Paul Harvey. And I mentioned these two headlines in the first hour, and the first is that this is from the Center Square. A new congressional budget proposal would cut federal payments to California by $3.5 billion for allowing illegal immigrants to enroll in the state taxpayer-funded health care program. People out in California are being so overtaxed, and here they’re trying to pay for their own health care. They’re also having to pay for people that have come here illegally. And it says this budget proposal would cut the federal Medicaid assistance program to states that use their Medicaid infrastructure to provide health care coverage for illegal immigrants under Medicaid and another state-based program. The cuts would not impact emergency care reimbursements. And we had a discussion about the proper role of government. And each state is supposed to be these little sovereign incubators, but they have to make sure they adhere to our Constitution and our vision of our declaration. So if California or Colorado wants to make a bunch of dumb decisions, they need to be responsible for it. and can’t look to the people of Nebraska and Kansas and South Dakota to bail them out. They have to be responsible for their decisions. Just like on an individual basis, we need to be responsible for our decisions as well. And so that’s why we shed light on what’s happening with all of these issues. Colorado is at the tip of the spear on so much of what’s going on. And it’s important that we learn about this. And it happens because we have great sponsors. And the first thing I wanted to talk with John Bozen, with Bozen Law about, great sponsors of the show. And welcome, John Bozen. It’s great to have you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Good morning, Kim. Great segue.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah. And so much is going on. And we had this riveting discussion with Kevin Lumberg in our number one. But I have a question for you. How important is it that people know what their insurance coverage is? I think people just take it for granted. They think, oh, I have auto insurance. Oh, I have home insurance. But how important is it to know what you really have?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, you talked just a little bit ago about we have to be responsible. And we as consumers, as citizens of the state of Colorado, have to be responsible and know and educate ourselves on what’s going on out there. And part of that is realizing that we’ve got a lot of stuff happening in the state of Colorado. And one of the things that can protect us from illegal, undocumented, whatever you want to call them, drivers, that have no business being on the road is to make sure we have the proper insurance coverage because most of the folks that cause a majority of the folks that cause the accident have no insurance coverage or the state minimum insurance coverage.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, John Bozen, I thought by law, everybody that’s behind the wheel in Colorado is supposed to have insurance to Colorado law.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s true. And by law, you’re not supposed to cross borders illegally. I mean, people ignore laws all the time. And they should pay the consequences. They don’t necessarily in the state of Colorado. But you can protect yourself. And as a wise, educated consumer… You have to have and know what you have in terms of just not auto insurance but homeowner’s insurance coverage. And, again, you’ve got to educate yourself. You’ve got to have the right, I should have waited for this, but you’ve got to have the right agent that will educate you and tell you why you need the coverage you need. And without that, you risk, well, not everything but sometimes everything. That coverage, proper coverage, will cover you in the event you get hit by a driver that shouldn’t be here, that has no insurance coverage and no ability to do the right thing after they cause a horrific accident.
SPEAKER 14 :
So I’m just positing this question, but it seems like if there can be illegal, and not all uninsured motorists are illegal immigrants, but if you are hit by an illegal immigrant that is here because of sanctuary policies, because of what this legislature and this governor have done, as an attorney, is there any way that we the people could sue them for that?
SPEAKER 06 :
I think it’s waiting to happen. Really? Right person. Well, I mean, it’s going to be difficult. It’s going to be a super challenge. But that would maybe start to get some people’s attention, especially if a good judge allowed it to go forward.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, and that’s why these judge appointments are so important as well. All of this is so connected. We’re in such an interesting time. We’re in such a battle for our state and our country right now. But let’s go back to out there driving. You get hit by an uninsured motorist or you just get hit. You’re injured. And people call John Bozen and Bozen Law. How much does it cost for that initial consultation?
SPEAKER 06 :
The phone call, the initial consultation, completely free. There’s no charge. There’s no obligation, which is why there’s no reason not to call and get that advice on the front end of a situation like that that will make a huge difference going forward for folks. And that number is 303-999-9999.
SPEAKER 14 :
Again, this is John Bozen with Bozen Law. That number is 303-999-9999. And it’s just like anything in life. Take personal responsibility. Prepare. Because if you do those things, John, even if… If bad things happen, you’ve set yourself up for, I think, eventual success if you’re being proactive on a consistent basis every day in your life, which goes to this quote that I had from Paul Harvey. He says, if you don’t live it, you don’t believe it. So if you don’t live a proactive life, you don’t really believe it. And it takes conscious effort, but it sets one up for, I think, a full life in doing so. It’s interesting how we can connect all these things on this show, huh? Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, it is. Paul Harvey was a great one. Oh, my gosh, would he be flabbergasted today seeing on both sides of the aisle what’s happening. I’ve got to find a link. I’m sure I can Google it, find a link, and then send that out to my less educated colleagues and friends. I’ll put it that way.
SPEAKER 14 :
So the link that I did with what he said, if I were the devil?
SPEAKER 06 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay, I’ll get that over to you.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’ll be great. Thank you, Kim.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay. And again, that’s John Bozen with Bozen Law. If you’ve been injured, 303-999-9999. And John mentioned the importance of knowing your insurance coverage. And the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance Team will sit down with you. Again, a complimentary appointment to go over your coverage. If you bundle your insurance together, you might be able to save some money. You don’t know unless you give them a call to find out. That number is 303-795-8855. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan Team is there.
SPEAKER 05 :
it seems like we are getting squeezed everywhere inflation high taxes at the gas pump where can you save money well when you bundle your insurance coverage with the roger mangan state farm insurance team you may save money on your insurance premiums the roger mangan team will help you with a personalized plan to cover all your insurance needs for your home, auto, boat, and renter’s coverage. For a complimentary appointment, call the Roger Mangan team now at 303-795-8855. That number again is 303-795-8855. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan team is there.
SPEAKER 01 :
Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty, wrote founding father John Adams. RE-MAX realtor Karen Levine has been working diligently at the local, county, state, and national levels to protect property rights and home ownership. Karen has navigated the often challenging Colorado metro real estate market for years. Karen Levine is the trusted professional for you to turn to when you are buying or selling your home, considering a new build or exploring investment opportunities. Realtor Karen Levine. You want her on your side of the table. Call Karen at 303-877-7516. That’s 303-877-7516.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’d like to get in touch with one of the sponsors of The Kim Monson Show, but you can’t remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim’s website, kimmonson.com. That’s Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 14 :
And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMunson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice. We search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. So pleased to have as my featured guests this hour, and that is producer Luke. You produce other shows here at KLZ and other stations as well. We have four stations right here in Colorado.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and then I also do production for some in California, some in Dallas, some kind of all over the place.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay. And we’re an independent, it’s an independent company, which I love immensely about that. So, and you’ve stepped in. How this all happened, and then Producer Joe’s our other featured guest. You had stepped in when Producer Steve vacationed or something, and you and I started to have some discussions. And you’re 27? Yes? Yes. OK, and Joe will be 27 next on the 20th. So I look at you guys as the young guys. And so you and I were having these discussions and I realized we need to know what what each other are thinking and hearing out there. And so we decided to do this book review of Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson. We worked our way through that. So you suggested the next book. That was my suggestion. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. So we’re working our way through that. I think Joe still wants to do the Communist Manifesto, right? That’s your book of choice once we get through this.
SPEAKER 17 :
I think it will have some riveting conversations.
SPEAKER 14 :
I think we, they always are. So Luke, I asked which chapters you wanted to go over and you said chapter five. And so when I opened it up to do my homework, I’m thinking it’s just two pages, but you said there was a lot there.
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s a very, it’s a very short chapter. It’s one and a half pages, but it is very dense, I think, with sort of its implications. So I think it’s worth a, worth a show.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay, and the title of it is The Way to Govern Cities or Dominions That Previous to Being Occupied Lived Under Their Own Laws. So set this up for us.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I’ll set it up by just reading the first paragraph. Because while it does kind of indulge in some historical context, I think a lot of the methods sort of it employs are still relevant. And it begins with – Oh, and let’s set this up.
SPEAKER 14 :
This was written back in – oh, gosh.
SPEAKER 07 :
We need to have a little sticky note.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, we need to have a sticky note on that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Late 1500s, early 1600s.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, so this was before America.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, pre-America.
SPEAKER 14 :
1513. OK, I’m going to write this down. So there we go.
SPEAKER 07 :
I remember that one.
SPEAKER 14 :
OK.
SPEAKER 07 :
The chapter begins whenever those states which have been acquired, as stated, have been accustomed to live under their own laws and in freedom. There are three courses for those who wish to hold them. The first is to ruin them, the next is to reside there in person, and the third is to permit them to live under their own laws, drawing a tribute and establishing within it an oligarchy which will keep it friendly to you. And I think the way it opens is so interesting, and it’s kind of convenient that you guys were talking about that piece, If I Were the Devil, because I feel like The last sentence of this is, you know, if you want to sort of take over, acquire, and keep a nation, you know, if you want to control a nation that is used to living under freedom, well, then the thing you got to do is, you know, permit them to live under their own laws, draw tribute, and then establish within it an oligarchy, which will keep them friendly, which is, if you think about it, it’s kind of what has happened in part in America, right? I think we’ve sort of worked ourselves, or rather some bad actors have worked themselves into an oligarchy at the very upper levels. And it feels almost like they’re controlling America. And I wanted to… I mean, if you disagree, by all means, but… You know, you look at, you’ve said before, you know, big business really loves big government. You have these, you know, mega, mega, you know, multimillionaire, billionaire, you know, senators and, you know, people in the House. These people who are supposed to be our elected representatives who are, you know, lining their pockets at the cost of the American taxpayer, right? You have these huge, huge businesses, these big megacorporations buying elections and swaying policy in their favor to fit their agendas. It’s an oligarchy that’s weaseled its way into the upper echelons of government. And it is, you know, we are allowed for the most part our freedoms, but they are taking their tribute and they’re ensuring that they kind of remain on top and continue to influence these elections and policies. And it’s very interesting to see, you know, Machiavelli wrote this before America existed without the idea of America, though he’s stated before that republics have existed. But to see that we’ve kind of, in essence, gone almost full circle in this. In the time he wrote this book and it was published for all to read, America was founded, established, and then kind of worked its way back into the same issues that are outlined in this book.
SPEAKER 14 :
I think that’s a really interesting point. So let’s go over to Joe. And then I want to go back to this first statement that was made. So, Joe, your thoughts on on this?
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, I just I agree with Luke. And I find it funny that the oligarchy that got established, Jay Davison will say, like, the government doesn’t. It is all money provided through taxpayer dollars and that still pays for this oligarchy. I think that’s completely unreasonable kind of leading into all of it.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay, so oligarchy, this is from the Britannica. It says, It’s a government by the few, especially despotic power, exercised by a small and privileged group for corrupt or selfish purposes. Oligarchies in which members of the ruling group are wealthy or exercise their power through their wealth are known as plutocracies, I guess. Plutocracies. Thank you. Plutocracies. OK, that’s going to have to be one of our word of the day. I know that Richard, the limo guy, he’s really good with words. And there’s days that I think that he probably almost wrecks with some of my pronunciations. So plutocracies is the word. OK, thank you. OK, so would you indulge me and read that first sentence again? Because you’re reading it off of your phone. I have a written copy of the book. What are you using, Joe?
SPEAKER 17 :
A mixture of ChatGPT and my book.
SPEAKER 14 :
So those are online as well? Yes. OK, so then I have the old fashioned thing. Gentlemen, this is called a book. It has paper and different pages.
SPEAKER 07 :
So I have two versions of the book at my house. I just don’t want to mark them up because I love them too much.
SPEAKER 14 :
OK, so let’s let’s you read that again, because the reason I want to set this up is because I think that there is a key word that is missing on the online version and that they’ve changed a word to oligarchy. So that’s why I’d like you to read that again.
SPEAKER 07 :
Interesting. All right. The online version, which I should probably mention, is coming from… We are at the Florida Center for Instructional Technology. It’s an educational website based out of Florida, it appears. And it begins… Whenever those states, which have been acquired as stated, have been accustomed to live under their own laws and in freedom, there are three courses for those who wish to hold them. The first is to ruin them. The next is to reside there in person. The third is to permit them to live under their own laws, drawing a tribute and establishing within it an oligarchy which will keep it friendly to you.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay, there’s two things I want to bring up. So in the printed version, it says, when those states which have been acquired are accustomed to live at liberty, under their own laws. I think that that’s big, that that’s not in your version. There are three ways of holding them. The first is to ruin them. The second is to go and live there in person. The third is to allow them to live under their own laws, taking tribute of them and creating there within the country a state. It doesn’t say oligarchy. It says a state composed of a few who will keep it friendly to you. Gentlemen, I find that interesting that the words at liberty are not in there and that they’ve changed state because I think so many young people, well, even though Paul Harvey in this, If I Were the Devil, he had said in there that instead of worshiping God, we would worship religion. So I just, I find it interesting because words matter. So Luke, I’ll get your comments on that. Joe, we’ll get your comments, then we’ll go to break.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. I think it’s very interesting and it’s cool that we, I think, get to see the distinct difference. I’ll go home and I’ll check my two other books. I have two other books because this was originally not written in English, right? It has since been translated by different groups who have picked it up. So I imagine you’re going to get different words based off of the different translations. But it’s kind of unique to see how the words have been changed because I think the difference between liberty and freedom is significant and the difference between state and oligarchy is the most significant because one sort of implies malice. Oligarchy kind of by definition is rule by the few for the purpose of corrupt ends. And then a state – I don’t have the Britannica definition in front of me, but a much broader definition – To see that in a book specifically like The Prince, which has founded itself as this text that is used to reveal what bad actors are doing to you, in essence. The design of the book is to say, hey, you the people, here are the things that these people are doing to keep you suppressed. So to change it from oligarchy to state is very interesting because it impacts that perception.
SPEAKER 14 :
I know.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, I agree. And the leave out at liberty, I find that curious. Joe, your comments?
SPEAKER 17 :
I agree. I find that curious that they left out liberty. But I also think in the definition of state there, it just kind of centralizes it because like we can say oligarchy and that’s kind of overarching for the whole of America. But as we say state, it’s kind of more centralized to where we live for each person individually.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay. Okay. Great discussion. My brain is going 90 miles a minute. So is the text line. I want to hear from you. 720-605-0647. These intergenerational conversations, I think, are so, so important. I appreciate the fact that you guys are up for it because I learn so much in these conversations. All this happens because of our sponsors. And I’m so pleased to have the Second Syndicate as a sponsor of the show as well. They’re doing amazing work. trying to bring all these different voices and organizations together to protect our Second Amendment rights, to protect ourselves against bad actors.
SPEAKER 17 :
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SPEAKER 12 :
All of Kim’s sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Munson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That’s kimmunson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 14 :
And welcome back to the Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And this Thursday, I will be out at the USMC Memorial Foundation Center. uh golf tournament as well as Teresa Irby who is our partnership liaison for lunch I’m not a golfer but I want to be out there for lunch and would love to have you all join us you all I want to say you all join us when I was down at the state house and Senator uh Julia Gonzalez was addressing all of the constituents and was calling us y’all I thought I need to So I would love to have you all join us out there on Thursday. And more information to get your ticket, you can go to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. And I think that they’ve got a few spots for golfers as well. So, again, that’s usmcmemorialfoundation.org. In studio with me is Producer Luke, Producer Joe. And we’re doing our book review of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. And this is the book that Producer Luke wrote. This book has been used, I think, by a number of young people, have kind of dusted this off, and it was published in 1513-ish. And so it’s been something that I think a lot of young people have been reading. Yes, Luke?
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, I don’t know. I know younger people are familiar with it. In my circles, at the very least, it’s a text that’s come up in passing because it’s been referenced a lot, though I don’t know if too many people have read it. I think they’re more familiar with its contents, though I don’t know how many people have actually turned the pages.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay, that’s why what we’re doing is so interesting. But all three of us just have this perplexed look. We have this flabbergasted look on our face. Perfect. John Bozen, good job on using that. Regarding the fact that there was some keyword that was changed, and there was the keyword at liberty was left out, and state was changed to oligarchy. And you were, during the break, had some interesting commentary on that, Luke.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. I was stating that the purpose of Machiavelli’s text and a lot of the books sort of have this prelude that mention that Machiavelli is often falsely attributed as the author of evil, someone who has conjured up these ideas in a vacuum on how to manipulate people. Uh, that’s not the case, uh, given his history and, uh, sort of a lot of what, you know, far more intelligent people than I have researched into him, uh, is that he felt burned. Uh, you know, he felt, uh, disparaged by a lot of these forces. And so when he wrote this text, wrote it in a way that, reveals the methods that the people in power employ to keep its citizenry down, right? It’s very much pulling back the curtain to reveal the man behind it for a lot of people. So to have certain key words changed is interesting. It kind of I guess proves the point that he was trying to make, that people can and will change his text, change his words. People have in many times, you know, sort of used Machiavelli as a scapegoat, as a here is this crafter of evil. Don’t look at me. Look at him. Right. He’s the bad guy who conjured these things up. And to see that sort of in action right now, that his words are still being sort of warped and manipulated and twisted for the benefit of someone, surely, right? Someone has to benefit from these changes. It’s very interesting to kind of see that happen live in studio.
SPEAKER 14 :
It is. And Joe, when we were doing our pre-show call, I said I had done my studies on this, and I thought this was interesting, that they were talking about liberty. And you said you had some good comments on that.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, I just find it interesting in kind of defining liberty. It’s our own personal ability to determine our rules and laws. So we don’t actually have to follow the government, but the government employs these rules and laws that – force us, kind of like Luke’s saying, where it forces us into kind of being pushed down. And that’s what Machiavelli was kind of alluding to. But I also find it interesting that Luke’s book is coming from an educational source. And that’s another way that they’re employing that control against liberty.
SPEAKER 14 :
So, and our friend Ben Martin, who is a patriotic historian, has said that liberty is the responsible exercise of freedom. So liberty doesn’t mean that you get to do whatever you want to do. There is a responsibility there. Gentlemen, let’s… Well, I’d love to go to the last sentence, because in my book, it refers to liberty. But let’s see if it does in your… You want to skip to the very last? Yeah, let’s just see if they have the word liberty in there, and then we can go back to the middle.
SPEAKER 07 :
Let’s see.
SPEAKER 14 :
So the very last sentence.
SPEAKER 07 :
Let’s see here. There’s a lot of commas and semicolons. But in republics, there is more vitality, greater hatred, and more desire for vengeance, which will permit them to allow the memory of their former liberty to rest, so that the safest way is to destroy them or to reside there. So yours also says…
SPEAKER 14 :
So this is what mine says. It says, but in republics there is greater life, and you had a different word, greater hatred and more desire for vengeance. They do not and cannot cast aside the memory of their ancient liberty. So yours does use liberty there. So that the surest way is either to destroy them or reside in them. So again, interesting slightly different.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I think mine sort of transposes some of that sentence to the next to the first segment we were talking about, which sort of details the establishment of an oligarchy. The next section therein kind of details some historical context and, you know, certain rulers having employed certain strategies in different areas. The next sort of piece I want to dig into, which I think is very interesting because it kind of strikes home to me because this is something I feel very deeply about. It says here, “…and he who becomes master of a city, accustomed to freedom, and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it. For in rebellion it is always the watchword of liberty, and its ancient privileges as a rallying point.” And so this sort of idea that If you come in to a nation to try and take over, to try and rule over a people who are used to liberty, who are used to freedom, will always rally behind that freedom and will in turn turn to destroy you. Machiavelli states that the only way to conquer a nation that is used to freedom is to destroy it or to reside there. Which, again, having not experienced America’s founding, to see those ideas made true in the American Revolution, to see that people have experienced freedom and did exactly that. Good point. Okay. Others have come in and tried to do something, and they rallied behind freedom. They will continue to rally behind freedom. And I think if historical context gives us anything, gives me some hope for the future, that we will continue to rally behind freedom and not allow ourselves to be taken over or destroyed by oppressive forces.
SPEAKER 17 :
So, Joe, your thoughts. Well, it makes me think about the World Health Organization and all of the research. And I put air quotes around that, that they’ve done for like the climate problem. Well, but we have determined and because we were free, we are able to kind of go against the World Health Organization, even though when Joe Biden was in office, he was following them kind of like a lost puppy.
SPEAKER 14 :
So this then gets into force with the whole – the climatism, and we had Steve Goriman yesterday, is that instead of making the case in the free market, they used that narrative to take money via force, via taxation and debt – To push that green agenda, which I have that in air quotes because the green agenda is the green that’s gone into PBIs, politicians, bureaucrats and interested parties, which I think could be noted as an oligarchy.
SPEAKER 07 :
Very much so.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
So almost by definition.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah. Yeah. And and that group. That oligarchy has worked to try to take control of so much. Joe, you have a point?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, that’s kind of where Nick Machiavelli alludes to. And so it is what he is saying is ruin the country so that you can maintain hold.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. Yeah. I mean, it’s interesting that you mentioned that, too. It plays right into the next segment where he says where cities and countries are accustomed to live under a prince. And then I’ll paraphrase the next few segments here. And then that previous administration is removed. It is easier for a new prince to come in and secure themselves in that seat of power because the people will become disorganized and slow to take up arms. The prince can gain themselves and secure much more easily. So it kind of plays into this establishment of an oligarchy where it feels like the strategy Machiavelli is talking about here and the strategy we’re watching be currently employed kind of upon us is to establish this seat of power, establish this oligarchy, establish this rule so that you, the citizen, may become used to being ruled so that you are slow to take up arms as that power transitions.
SPEAKER 14 :
I think Jefferson even realized that, and I’m going to try to pull out my Declaration of Independence, where he basically says people will put up, and I’m going to paraphrase, they’ll put up with a lot until they get to a point where they say enough is enough. Joe?
SPEAKER 17 :
And I agree with the establishing oligarchy, because think about how many appointed representatives were put in place by Joe Biden. Okay, they weren’t represented as appointed bureaucrats, right? My apologies. Thanks for correcting me. But they didn’t even have to go through an election process really to get put to be representatives for this. And that leads to the definition of oligarchy where it is for corrupt purposes.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, and to be fair, it’s not just the Democrats that have been part of this whole moving us to a bureaucratic administrative oligarchy, if you will, where our elected representatives have abdicated their responsibilities to Because they want to – they like being – I’ve been – I was – I guess it was last April. I was back in Congress or back in Washington, D.C. and walking through the halls of Congress. And you see the different congressmen or women and there’s – and the senators. And there’s a whole entourage around them. And you can see that they’re held in very high esteem. And there’s this human nature component that you like that. And, gosh, if you can keep that – and push off the difficult decisions to appointed people who don’t have to stand for election. That’s where we’ve gotten to, I think.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. I mean, they’re like… They’re sort of shifting the burden of responsibility. I mean, just look at any ballot that’s come about in the past eight years where it is. Here’s a here’s a new ballot initiative for a new board of unelected people who are going to start determining what you should do with your life. I mean, even in like the administration, we will elect someone to office. You know, we’ll put someone there. Well, what do they do? They go out and they grab their friends and their nieces and nephews and everyone that they’re close to and friends with, everyone who put them there, and give them seats of power and give them positions on boards and give them directorial oversight on certain projects. And it’s all very everyone’s hands and is in each other’s pockets. And it feels like
SPEAKER 14 :
That’s well, and that’s really that’s what the Biden administration did.
SPEAKER 07 :
They did it so much.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yes. And gosh, Paul Harvey had something a great quote. As I was looking at quotes, it was something along the line of we’re in a lot of trouble when you think that I’ll see if I can find it where we can make a living by having our hand in our neighbor’s pocket.
SPEAKER 07 :
And then, I mean, I wouldn’t be – I mean, I’m already offended by it, right? I mean, this sort of idea that all of these people are doing all this. But I’m even more offended when you look at the people who are supposed to represent you, your elected representatives, the people that we are actually voting for. And, you know, they’ll vote by proxy and not read the bills and they’ll have their staffers and interns look at the pieces of paper living in their, you know, $50 million mega mansion eating a caviar dinner while, you know, the blue collar workers, you know, breaking his knees working on the roads that were taxed to be fixing. It’s crazy.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, and that’s an oligarchy.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 14 :
And I would actually love it if we had people that were fixing the roads.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, they’re not. I guess that’s the problem.
SPEAKER 14 :
But the money’s going somewhere.
SPEAKER 07 :
So probably that caviar dinner.
SPEAKER 14 :
Definitely. So, OK, I found this quote by Paul Harvey. We’ll go to break. It was self-serving politicians who convinced recent generations of Americans that we could all stand in a circle with our hands in each other’s pockets and somehow get rich. And so I thought that was an interesting quote. I’m talking with the young guys, producer Luke, producer Joe. And these discussions happen because of our sponsors. And one of those great sponsors is Lauren Levy.
SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at Kim Munson dot com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And we’re at mid-May, and Memorial Day is right around the corner. And both the USMC Memorial Foundation will be having a memorial event out at the memorial. And then the next day, after, well, let’s see, it would be on the 28th, so I guess two days after, the Center for American Values will have a great On Values presentation in honor of Memorial Day. And you can get more information about that by going to AmericanValuesCenter.org. The center is located in Pueblo on the beautiful Riverwalk. And as the kids are out of school, you should put it on your bucket list this summer to get down to the Center for American Values. In studio with me is the young guys, and that is Producer Luke, Producer Joe. We’re going through the book review of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, which was written in 1513, Chapter 5. The way to govern cities or dominions that previous to being occupied lived under their own laws. Okay, we have just one segment left here. Luke, what else should we talk about?
SPEAKER 07 :
I mean, Joe had brought up this interesting little story during the break. And I think it played well sort of running off the back of this discussion where… Our elected representatives aren’t really representatives anymore. It has sort of created this almost like pseudo-oligarchy of politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties, as you say all the time. And it’s interesting. I was thinking about it during the break that I wonder if a lot of this is a sort of byproduct of size. where back in the days of the founding fathers, where there were a couple thousand people to a town, you, for the most part, would know the person you were electing personally. You know the measure of their character. You are intimately familiar with the operations of this one individual, and you are putting them in this seat of power because you trust them. And I feel like Today, just given the size of everything, you don’t know your representatives. You don’t know the people you’re putting into power. It’s not a measure of their character. It’s a measure of their capacity to market themselves. We’re not electing the best people for the position. We’re electing the people who are the least visually offensive in their campaign promotions.
SPEAKER 14 :
You know, and I think that’s a bit on us. We’ve gotten lazy in demanding to know what these people that are running for office are doing. I think your point is well taken, but I think we’ve gotten lazy, Producer Joe.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, and I think it’s due to the explosion of just the availability of information as well, right? We have the Internet now, and so we can see halfway across the world what they’re doing at a moment’s notice. I can pull out my phone right now and look up what’s Japan got going on and find out. And it’s just so easy to get all that information. It’s an information overload by this point.
SPEAKER 14 :
So to that point, as you all know, I’m president of the Colorado Union of Taxpayers. I don’t think I’ve said thank you to them. We had our board meeting last night. Let me do that quick like because this is an amazing group of people. Steve Dorman, Greg Golianski, Russ Haas, Bill Hamill, Rob Knuth, John Nelson, Wendy Warner, Marty Nielsen. Ramey Johnson, Mary Jansen, Dave Evans, Corey Onozorg, Paula Beard, and Ray Beard. And when you see these folks, say thank you. So in doing so, first of all, I think we have an oligarchy here in Colorado as I look at our state legislature. 733 bills and resolutions were introduced this year. There is no way that your representatives can get through all of that. So if somebody is going to put into law they have a responsibility as our representative to read it, to ruminate on it, and to think about the far reaching consequences. So we have gotten to a position where we don’t have representative government and they’re giving a lot of power to these unelected, these PBIs. The Colorado Union of Taxpayers took positions on 261 of those bills. So first and foremost, you need to be informed. So join us. It’s $25, $2.08 a month. But I have frustration with, when you talk about our elected representatives, I would go through and I would see Republicans, we make this whole big thing about protecting TABOR, Colorado’s Taxpayers Bill of Rights. And then I would see that they would have their name on pieces of legislation that would move things into either an enterprise zone or to mess with our TABOR refunds. And what that is, is the government has overcollected our money And they don’t want to give it back. And I think that Republicans have to take us and unaffiliated libertarians and moderate Democrats. We have to take a hard stand and say, no, if you say you protect Tabor, you protect Tabor. What do you think?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I agree. And it’s so interesting to sort of bringing up these different things. I wonder and I’d love to hear your opinion on this. I know we don’t have a whole lot of time. How much of this sort of oligarchy is from bad actors who are You know, entering these places to try and do bad. And then how many of these sort of oligarchical forces are a sort of circumstance of not being fit for power? You look at any HOA board, right? You know, someone gets a modicum of power and it goes straight to their head. So I wonder how much of this is people intentionally being malicious versus people who weren’t suited for this position, letting the power get to their head.
SPEAKER 17 :
Excellent point. Okay, Joe. Well, I’m kind of piggybacking off what Luke said, but they know they’re doing wrong. That’s why they’re attacking our Second Amendment right in the first place. It’s to disarm us so now we can’t go against them anymore.
SPEAKER 14 :
Oh, my gosh. Gentlemen, as always, I think we’re going to have unplugged with Kevin Lundberg and unplugged with you guys. So there are those that know exactly what they’re doing, Producer Joe. And then there are those that are naive enough to think that if you take away the right for everyday law abiding citizens to have guns that they think. that the bad guys will get rid of their guns too. No, that’s not going to happen. That’s just, that’s naive. And then I’ll try to answer your question quickly. What happens is I think people get into office and they have not read the declaration, not read the constitution, and they start to think that they work for the institution, the HOA, the city, the county. And instead of realizing that their responsibility is there to represent the people to do just a limited amount of things that government is supposed to do and then get out of the way. And I think they forget that.
SPEAKER 07 :
I don’t know. I think I’d agree. I don’t know if they forget it. I think the manipulators will manipulate the naive. Those who are bad will turn those who are naive towards the bad. And then once they’re in the same boat, you can’t do much because now if I go down, you go down.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay, so that’s why elections matter and informed electorate matters. Gentlemen, we only have enough time to say thank you. Luke, I love the fact that you’re game for all this.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, thank you for having me. It’s been a great time.
SPEAKER 14 :
And Producer Joe, same with you. These conversations are important.
SPEAKER 17 :
I really enjoy these book reviews, and I just want to reiterate that’s why the local level is one of the most important pieces because those people are the ones trying to represent us.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, and they’re our neighbors, but we have to be engaged in that as well. So we’ll continue the discussion next month. You’re going to love this quote. Joe’s heard it. I don’t know if you heard this, Luke. This is from Paul Harvey. If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of progress? Hmm. That’s pretty funny.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 14 :
So my friends today, be grateful, read great books, think good thoughts, listen to beautiful music, communicate and listen well, live honestly and authentically, strive for high ideals, and like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. You are not alone. God bless you, and God bless America.
SPEAKER 11 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
