Join John Rush as he dives into the complex world of current political discourse, examining the fundamental differences between democracy and a republic. Featuring a lively discussion with Jim Papp of the Conservative Caucus, the episode covers everything from the ongoing government shutdown to the anti-Trump protests, offering both perspectives and solutions for the issues at hand.
SPEAKER 14 :
This is Rush to Reason. 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. With your host, John Rush. My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job, sir. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 08 :
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 06 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 15 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 10 :
And we’re back. Hour 2, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Jim Papp joining us now, conservative caucus. Jim, how are you? I’m well. How are you doing, John? Always a lot going on. And we went through a weekend of, you know, no kings. We’re still in the government shutdown. We’ll talk a little bit about Russia, Ukraine, potentially, and maybe Middle East last. But the no kings protest, which I talked about that earlier in the week. Honestly, Jim, I think the majority of people that are actually protesting, they should just call it the anti-Trump protest, because most of these people have no idea what they’re protesting.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, yeah, you know, their goal is to make sure we have no things. And that was confirmed over the weekend. Of course, they didn’t have to do the protest for that to be confirmed. And, yeah, it’s just a Trump protest. It’s not people who are expressing concerns, real concerns. over real problems we have. You know, Donald Trump will make this or that mistake here or there like any president does. But the reality is he’s reestablishing the rule of law by following every freaking stupid, even legal order that comes from any court. And he appeals it and goes through the system and moves forward. This is really, in my opinion, as a libertarian-minded kind of guy, this is the most libertarian presidency ever. And there are a few things that I have this or that disagreement with, but we’re in really good shape. We may just be able to save this republic, and it’s because of what Donald Trump’s doing. Whereas these people, if they got into power, or the people they’re supporting got back into power, We are going into authoritarianism. It might not be quite king-like, but it will be 10x worse than the Biden administration with censorship, with, as we know now, enemies list. They went after all the senators and were going after their phones, et cetera, et cetera. That’s the kind of stuff we’re going into, 10 times worse than we’ve ever seen it before.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, ultimately, Jim, and everything you said can’t can’t disagree with any of that. The only thing I would add is what we really would have would be because this is what these people talk about all the time. We’d have a democracy, which then turns into all of the other bad things that are out there. And it’s the one thing our founding fathers wanted to make sure we didn’t have at the end of the day. And it drives me crazy when people talk about how Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. I hope he is actually.
SPEAKER 03 :
I hope we would be able to destroy every bit of small-D and large-D democratic sentiment in this country, and defined as the type of democracy that existed in ancient Greek times, which really did fall apart, which was the main example of the problem of democracy that the founding fathers were so… unwilling to have anything to do with there are dozens of quotes by founding fathers who said no way do we want a democracy we will not have it the famous quote of benjamin franklin walking out of the constitutional convention asked you know what did you all do in there and he said we gave you a republic if you can keep it you know the very fact that he used that word is emblematic of precisely what the Founding Fathers wanted to do, and frankly, the best system of government that mankind has ever created, even with all of our weaknesses and our fallen sin nature before God and the fact that we all sin. So this is a good thing if we can get back to it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Absolutely. No, I fully agree, which, you know, the whole government shutdown is another one where you’ve got a bunch of individuals that literally, Jim, I’ll say it straight up. They’re lying. They’re lying about what really is going on. They’re lying to their constituents about what’s going on. The Democrats are literally lying through. their teeth. I mean, anytime their lips are moving, they’re lying because the reality is they’re trying to blame all of this on Donald Trump and Republicans. And the reality is it’s them that are causing this. And the reason they’re causing this, as you know, is because they want far more than we’re willing to give. And yet they’re blaming it on us.
SPEAKER 03 :
And we’re faced with still a $1.8 trillion deficit this year, even though Donald Trump has put us in a quarter of surplus like we haven’t seen in a long, long time, maybe all the way back to the 1990s. We had a couple of these quarters in the Obama-Bush years, but they were very tiny. This is really fantastic. But the other thing that Donald Trump’s doing is not only getting all this kind of stuff right and – Everything that he’s doing right, as you rightly point out, Democrats are lying about. But now he’s running circles around them. You’ve got two major visual things that happened this week, one being the beginning of the demolition of the East Wing and the construction of the ballroom. But in that one, you know, they’re saying, oh, this is an analogy of the Trump administration. It’s tearing down. down these historic things, as they were tearing down monuments. But even more than that, when this thing gets built up and looks beautiful, it won’t be an analogy of the Trump administration. He’s breaking down all the major problems that we had and building something much better back up in our government. But the second thing that he did If he said, I want $230 million from the DOJ for all the legal expenses that I had to go through because of the lawfare. And he’s running circles around them. He’s not going to get that money. Everyone said this is the most corrupt thing they’ve ever heard, blah, blah, blah. But what’s going to happen at the end of that while they’re screaming and yelling is everyone’s going to remember. The guy probably did pay something like $230 million in legal expenses. I have no idea what it actually was, but it was really expensive. And people are going to remember that. forever. And he’s going to make them make people remember it because the guy has been treated so poorly. And we need to thank him for all that he’s gone through and the hard work he’s doing to try to get it straight again.
SPEAKER 10 :
Speaking of hard work, the things that he’s working on right now between, you know, Russia, Ukraine, sanctions, of course, have gone up. You saw oil tick up a little bit today because of it. Not too worried about that. I don’t think it’s going to make a whole lot of difference when it’s all said and done. Oil will come up some.
SPEAKER 03 :
by the way, off of very low prices.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, yeah. I said today that if it gets above even, I don’t know, Jim, I would say if it gets above WTI, if it even approaches the high 60s, I’ll be surprised. You might see a $4 or $5 bump when this is all said and done, but that’s about all it’s going to be. But in the end, this is really having an effect upon Russia, because I even read today, and again, I can’t verify these things. I just go off of what I read, that China has even already pulled back purchasing from Russia as of today. So that’s a big sting for them. That’s a big hurt.
SPEAKER 03 :
It is. The prices are a hurt for them. I mean, they make a relatively good amount of money off of $50 to $60 range prices. If they get below $55, they’re really hurting. And remember, we’ve been running in the 70s and 80s, certainly all the way through the Biden administration, we were running that way. And it hadn’t been since the first Trump administration that it was as low as it is now and for a short time even lower. But yes, that hurts Russia. And it may be a signal that China is dealing with Donald Trump if they really did pull this these oil purchases back today because Trump is demanding it. Of course, they’re bringing in the sanctions, and I’m not the biggest fan of sanctions, but it is one way to go after Russia in this situation because Putin is intransigent, and that thing needs to get dealt with. We’ve got to stop that freaking war. But the only thing that sustains our economy is Putin’s corruption and oil sales, and that’s it. People say they have this great economy, and not everybody’s horrible, but it’s nowhere near anything in the West. And every bit of this that happens hurts them. So hopefully the war goes away. But the great thing is we’re pumping oil at record levels, even above what was happening in the Biden administration. And that was a pretty high numbers. And we’ve got arrangements happening around the world that are doing more. So these prices are going to continue to go down. And I’m going to get excited to get back to paying less than two dollars a gallon for gasoline. That’ll be fun.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. And so for all of you that might, you know, you’ve seen some news today where, oh, you know, prices are going to go up because the sanctions, this, that and the other. Yeah, you might see a little bit of a teeny uptick. In fact, I just looked at prices a moment ago. They were up a little bit this morning. They’re actually back down a little bit right now, still hovering around. WTI is about $61 a barrel. So, folks, even after all of what happened today with the announcements, they frankly, honestly, Jim, haven’t changed much.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, don’t forget, if the prices don’t go anywhere, Saudi Arabia can ramp up the production very quickly and at good prices. So they’re going to make money. So, yeah, if Russia doesn’t have it on the market, there are a lot of other places in the world where that production can go up, including here. We’re starting to get our capacity growth up.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, we’re finally – I mean, we’ve been at 13 million barrels a day roughly. We’re now at about 13.6 a day. So to your point, you keep looking – you look at the graph, and it just keeps – it went down some when Biden, of course, got into office. And you look at trajectory. When Trump was in office, we were pushing about 13 – just a little bit under 13 – A million a day. And right now we’re about 13.6. And keep in mind, that’s after a recovery through the Biden administration where it drew it way down. Not way down, but way down below what it was right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and keep in mind, in this part of the world, we have to keep drilling wells to keep the production up.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 03 :
In Saudi Arabia, they still do have to drill wells, but their wells last a lot longer because of the way it’s situated there. So they’re able to ramp it up pretty quickly. Correct. And they’re quick at doing exploration anyway. So they’re really good at pumping the numbers up quickly. We’re a little slower in that move, but it works. And I think everything’s going to be okay on the oil front because you have a Middle East committed to peace as well right now, thankfully, for the first time in my life. And Donald Trump’s doing a good job in the oil production here in the States.
SPEAKER 10 :
Absolutely. All right, Jim, how do folks get a hold of you at Conservative Caucus?
SPEAKER 03 :
They go to theconservativecaucus.com. That’s theconservativecaucus.com.
SPEAKER 10 :
Awesome. Jim, as always, I appreciate you. Have a good rest of your day. Thank you, sir. You betcha. All right, appreciate it. All right, let’s do this. Up next, Golden Eagle Financial. Al did a great interview. Listen in. If you need Al directly when it comes to financial help, just find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 05 :
This is TJ with KLZ Radio. Once again, we’re back with Golden Eagle Financial and the wonderful Al Smith. Al, how are you today? I’m doing great, TJ. How are you? I’m doing well. Hey, we work a lot with estate plans and things like that, and that’s a natural part of retirement plans. I know you’re not an attorney, but what do you do where it’s related to estate plans?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, a large part of estate planning is the simple end of it, which is beneficiary designations on various financial products, such as IRAs or life insurance or investment accounts, because as people name those beneficiaries, There’s a feature called per stirpus for contingent beneficiaries. And essentially what that means, let’s say if there’s a married couple and one of their children dies before the primary spouse and then the spouse passes on, then when the primary person passes, rather than having it be divided equally between the children, it would go only to the one who didn’t pass on, and then the grandchildren would be disinherited. I hope that’s not too confusing, but essentially the word per stirpus in a beneficiary designation would mean if that person beneficiary died, his or her share would pass down the bloodline to the grandchildren.
SPEAKER 05 :
Sounds like a serious word. So I would also guess that you have a pretty vast network so you can direct folks to the right people to complete those, right?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, that I can do myself. That’s not a document for an attorney or anything like that. That is just a little box to check on a beneficiary designation for an IRA, an annuity, a life insurance contract, an investment account. Those beneficiary forms, they just have a person’s name, and then they have a box to check either per stirpus or per capita. Per capita means the proceeds would go to the other party who hasn’t passed on. Per stirpus means the proceeds, if the primary person who is named is deceased, then his or her share would go down the bloodline to their own children. Not to an ex surviving spouse, but down the bloodline.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s great. So folks can get in touch with you and really get kind of a total form of all their retirement stuff. Al, how do folks do that? How do they get in touch with you?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, you can reach me at 303-744-1128. If you’re driving when you hear this, get in touch with KLZ. They’ll put you in touch with me so we can arrange either a healthy conversation on the phone or for you to come into the office. We’ll have a cup of coffee and talk about whatever’s on your mind.
SPEAKER 05 :
And as always, klzradio.com slash money will get you there. Al, thanks so much today.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hey, you’re welcome. Thanks for having me, TJ.
SPEAKER 13 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive, this is John Rush.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, we are… Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Unless you’re living in a cave, some of you may not have seen this, but it’s been big news all day. I watched actually an FBI, the FBI press conference that they had early this morning on the big gambling scandal that involves some that are in the NBA. Chauncey Billups, who is actually an individual known fairly well in Colorado. He was a player for the Buffs. He was… coached and did all sorts of things around here. He’s been an NBA player, now the coach of the Portland Trailblazers. And there’s been other folk outside of him that have been named in this investigation at the FBI. Sounds like they’ve been doing for quite some time. And essentially what it is, is it’s involving… These players, they were doing some things illegally when it comes to not only betting on spot betting, basically betting on certain players and what those players would accomplish in a particular game. And in some cases, knowing how should I say this? Knowing. Knowing all of that, some of the players actually would step out of the game early, you know, fake an injury if you would. That, of course, would have effect upon the bets and, and, and. And I’m not going to get all the details because there’s probably a lot more that’s going to come out on this. On top of that, these guys ran some illegal poker games. And not only were they illegal in the nature of running them when they weren’t supposed to be in the first place, but then on top of that, they were running scams. They would bring people in because these guys were well-known figures, you know, athletes, well-known athletes, celebrities, if you would. They would bring unsuspected players in. They had very sophisticated ways of knowing exactly what cards were up. In other words, how to cheat and win at the game. They even had cards that they had a table that was an x-ray machine where they would lay the cards down. You could see what the cards were underneath. Somebody would be talking to these individuals through most likely earpieces or signals, and, and, and. Very sophisticated, by the way, when it was all said and done. And as I was reading and listening to some of this this morning, I’m just thinking to myself, this was not some small operation. Now, the mafia was also involved. They’ve named some of the different mafia families that have been involved in this. Charlie asked me earlier, you know, do I think that maybe the— Is it possible that the mafia threatened these guys in one way, shape, or another, and that’s why they ended up doing some of the things that they did? I don’t know. I don’t have an answer to that. It’s quite possible that that occurred. On the same token— When you’re a high-profile figure that’s making a good amount of money, Chauncey’s contract is in the millions as a coach annually. I want to say it’s about $3.7 million. Again, don’t quote me on that. I looked it up this morning, didn’t write it down, but it’s in the millions. I want to say $3 to $4 million. Let’s say that. A year. That’s annual. That’s not his whole contract. That’s an annual contract. And those coaches’ contracts are guaranteed. If they fire midseason, they still get paid. If it’s a five-year contract, they get paid on those five years. That’s how it works. So at the end of the day, they’re making really solid money, more money than most people would ever see in their lifetime. And on top of that, they’ve played and they’ve had other money and income and so on, and I understand that a lot of professional players blow as much as they make, and I get that. They’re not all millionaires at the end of the day because they spend more than they make, and that’s a real problem that they need to get under control, by the way. That’s a whole other conversation. But in this particular case, when you knowingly are getting involved with things where it’s not only losing your career, some of these guys, trust me when I say this, some of these guys are going to do jail time. It’s not just going to be a slap on the wrist. Now, some of them may get by with a slap on the wrist and some probation, but again, they won’t work in that capacity ever again. Chauncey Billups will never be an NBA coach again. He’s done. If I’m wrong, which I’m not, I’ll apologize and figure out what to do at that point, but I’m not wrong. He’s not going to work again in the NBA. Not going to happen. It’d be like Pete Rose. Throughout his career, he was banned from baseball, and that ban was lifted, of course, not that long ago, long after his death. And keep in mind, Pete was betting on the games he played in for himself. In other words, he wasn’t betting so that he could throw the game. He was betting on how well he would do. Right, Charlie? He didn’t bet the other way. He bet on, hey, I’m going to win this game, or I’m going to do this, or I’m going to do that. He was betting on himself, not against himself. I’m not saying it’s okay. I’m not saying that was right. But way different than what these guys were doing. Way different. And there’s more and more are going to come out on this as far as what was actually happening and how many other people may have been involved. And there are some folks out there now that are blaming all of the sports betting that happens inside of the states and, you know, a lot of the electronic betting and so on. And, you know, they’re mad about that. If it wasn’t for that, this wouldn’t have happened. Actually, in my son Richard and I were talking a little bit about this. I would argue that I will tell you that it’s because of a lot of the electronic sports betting. These guys got caught. Because remember, all of these programs have really slick algorithms that these guys build into these things. And they can see if there’s trends and things that are going on that look like anomalies. And they’ve got programs that will even say, hey, we’ve got a little problem over here. Something’s happening here that probably shouldn’t be. This is out of the ordinary. This is out of the norm. And that’s most likely what happened here is these programs actually started seeing some of these things that probably started to raise some red flags. And all of a sudden the authorities are now investigating. And here we are. So so those people that would be out there saying that it’s the sports betting and what’s happened in regards to like DraftKings and things like that, that that’s what’s causing all of this. I would argue that, no, it’s probably the reason they got caught. it’s probably the opposite of what most people think. And by the way, I’m, I’m not a gambler. I’m not a sports better. I don’t use any of those programs. I don’t know how they work. I don’t know what they bet on. I do know that when it comes to betting in Las Vegas and things along those lines, you can bet on anything, you know, you can bet on the coin toss of a game. Is it going to come up heads or tails? Uh, when will the first penalty occur? You know, at what, at what time in the game, uh, Who will the national anthem, how long it’ll be? Yeah, thank you, Charlie. Sorry, I’m having a hard time hearing him. Yeah, how long the anthem will be down to the second, things like that. You can bet on anything. How many times will the crowd be shown? How many times will the announcers themselves in the booth be shown? How many penalties will there be? Blah, blah, blah. Literally, you can bet on anything. And that’s just football. You go to any type of sport, and there’s all sorts of bets that you can make. And believe me, folks, I don’t know why, but I’ve been watching some guys of late, some gamblers that got caught, did time, that now have podcasts that talk about all the things they used to do and the people that used to be involved and the amount of money that would flow through, and it is mind-boggling. Millions upon millions of dollars. In some cases, some of these high-profile celebrities and so on will bet a million bucks on a weekend, and I’m not exaggerating. They’ll have a line of credit of a million or two, and they’ll bet that on a weekend. And in some cases, in most cases, lose, by the way. And to me, it’s fascinating because I’m not a gambler. I work really hard for the money that I have. I’m self-employed. I feel that’s enough of a gamble as it is. You guys that are self-employed probably understand what I just said there. That’s enough of a gamble for me that I’ve never been a gambler. And I probably wouldn’t be very good at it because, again, I work too hard for it and have a hard time just giving it up. So I’m not a gambler, not against people that do, but I’m not one. You do you. So if you want to gamble, be my guest. As long as it’s legal, you do whatever you want to do. But no, that’s not something that’s in my wheelhouse. But this was a fascinating story. You’re going to hear more about it because of the connection that Chauncey Billups has to Colorado. So you’re going to hear more about it even in our news because of that. Trust me when I say that. And I also will tell you that this is going to go deeper than I think it even is right now. So we’ll wait, talk more about this, maybe something even Andy and I can get into more on Tuesday, because I’m sure Andy will be following this through the weekend. But we’ll get into more of this on Monday and Tuesday. But be watching for that news, because it is huge news. Mile High Coin coming up next. And again, Mile High Coin, if you’ve got things you’ve been kicking around, and you know, by the way, don’t gamble on what things are going to do in the future when it comes to prices. Will gold go up? Will it go down? I don’t have the foggiest idea, but at the end of the day, figure out what your value is today. And if you want to turn that into cash, you can do that. And appraisals are free with KLZ listenership. 720-370-3400.
SPEAKER 04 :
Dealing with estate jewelry doesn’t have to be complicated, and you certainly don’t have to go into a pawn shop and feel totally uncomfortable. David here with Mile High Coin, and we help hundreds of clients each year with their jewelry and watches. Whether it’s high-end Hallmark pieces like Tiffany, Cartier, or Rolex, or mid-range brands as well, or even damaged or broken pieces that you don’t wear. Most people are surprised with what their jewelry is worth. Gold is at an all-time high and we highly encourage people to take advantage of the market. There are options when it comes to selling your jewelry and we will educate you on which option is best for you. We work with people who have lost loved ones and need help sorting through the valuables that were left behind. We also work with people who are simply downsizing and getting rid of the unused or unwanted items. Call our office today at 720-370-3400 or visit our website milehighcoin.com and complete our contact form and we will call or email to schedule an appointment. Our office is safe, private, and we guarantee that you will enjoy the experience.
SPEAKER 10 :
Michael Bailey, he is our mobile estate planner. By the way, he is my estate planner as well. Get your estate in order today. Talk to Michael Bailey. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 15 :
In real life, you don’t want an imposter handling your estate plan. You want Michael Bailey, our KLZ mobile estate planner. You can dress up as anything you want this Halloween. A ghost, a ghoul, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or even a copper firefighter. We’ll be right back. gets to know you, what you want, who matters to you, and how you want things handled. That way, your estate plan isn’t a horror story. It’s a gift to your family. So go ahead. Have fun being a zombie, a slasher, or even Count Chocula this Halloween. But when it comes to your estate plan, don’t make it spooky. Make it Michael Bailey. Make an appointment with mobile estate planner Michael Bailey today by finding him on klzradio.com slash estate.
SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
And we are back, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Daniel Turner joining us now. Power of the Future, Daniel, welcome. How are you? Hey, it’s good to be back on the program. Thanks for having me. Always a joy to have you. And this is stuff that even came out today that, you know, when I had you booked, we didn’t know was even going to happen. And that is some of the sanctions that got thrown at Russia, which is going to change oil prices. I say slightly. I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal at the end of the day, Daniel. But, of course, the naysayers always make it a big deal. But I don’t think it’s going to be a big issue when it’s all said and done.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, it shows the importance of having our own robust oil and gas industry, right? We had four years of the Biden administration that was encouraging our foreign adversaries and even some allies to produce oil while punishing domestic oil. We’re at the point now that we’re producing close to 14 million barrels a day. And if international markets have some fluctuations or if there are sanctions on Russia, we produce enough that we’re okay. And that’s the way things should be in this industry because America has all the oil and gas reserves we need.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yep, absolutely. And by the way, that’s why I also said that I don’t see it being a huge issue. In fact, I watched – oilprice.com. Watched it go up a little bit this morning on the announcement. By the end of the day, we’re back down to where it was this morning. So really, I don’t think because of what you’re saying and folks know that, hey, if it really comes down to it between us and probably one or two other countries, we can backfill anything needed at the end of the day. And it really is, again, it’s a non-issue to us. And the one that’s really going to get hurt in all of this is Russia, of course.
SPEAKER 06 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 10 :
Which is the idea of this, by the way.
SPEAKER 06 :
exactly we have to look at how it was possible that that our bad energy prices were financing the the ukraine invasion when when you punish the oil and gas industry and you you favor opec well countries like russia get very rich and russia you know they didn’t build schools for girls they didn’t you know promote equity that they didn’t they invaded their neighboring country uk same with iran right when iran’s oil was going through the roof and we lifted all the sanctions, what did they do, right? Did they push equality for their citizens? No, they did the opposite. Exactly. They funded terrorism, and we saw October 7th, that awful attack against Israel. So it shows the importance of how we need domestic robust energy, oil, gas, etc., but it also shows how these issues are geopolitical. They are national defense. They are a world peace.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, talk to us a little bit, and this is a little bit off topic of what you and I normally do, but, you know, health care, and which, by the way, a lot of the pharmaceutical industry, of course, has run off of the petroleum industry, which most people forget. That’s a whole other conversation. I don’t know that you and I have ever had, but that’s the way it works. Talk to us, though, about health care and the shutdown and things that are going on. You wrote an op-ed in The Federalist talking about some of this.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, thanks. I appreciate the shout-out to that op-ed that I wrote for The Federalist. And I’m talking about in that op-ed of two industries, obviously energy, which is where I focus, but also health care. And we see in both of these industries two terrible pieces of legislation that Democrats proposed when they had super majorities, Obamacare some 15 years ago, and all of the green policies that came at the beginning of the Biden administration. This is terrible legislation, didn’t get any Republican votes, and it’s backstopped by endless dollars, endless tax dollars to subsidize them. And then the Obama folks or the Biden folks, when it comes to energy, they get this false talking point. Look how great it is. Look how many people are engaged in it. Look at how it’s working. But it’s not. It’s costing us hundreds of billions of dollars. And the simplest analogy I’ve been using, it’s like when you open a lemonade stand and And the lemonades and the stand and the chair and the table and the sign all came from your parents. And then your grandmother goes around and gives everybody money and says, hey, go buy my 80 grandson’s lemonade. It’s not a very viable industry. It’s not a very viable business. You feel great. You’re like, holy cow, I sold 500 glasses of lemonade. But you didn’t make any money. And that’s what we’re doing with health care and with energy. The taxpayers are subsidizing wind and solar, which is a failed product. They’re subsidizing Obamacare, which is a failed product. And that’s what the shutdown is all about.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. And to your point. This is really nice. I said this earlier, folks, make sure that you you know this. And anybody that talks about the shutdown, you’re able to defend what’s going on right now, because this is literally the the other side, the opposition wanting to literally put a bunch of pork. Let’s call it what it is. Daniel, put a bunch of pork back into the they’re already overspending that we have. And yes, we’ve cut back on that greatly. Still have to do a lot more. But all they want to do is add to what’s already there and they don’t want to give an inch.
SPEAKER 06 :
Exactly. And look at what this was called in health care. It was called the Affordable Care Act. Well, how has your health care been in the last 15 years? When the heck does it become affordable? And folks like Joe Biden and his former energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, they would say things like the wind is free, the sun is free, so we should have wind and solar. Well, look at your energy bills. Look at your electric bills. When does the free part kick in? So the Affordable Care Act, the free wind, the free sun, Boy, for something that’s affordable and free, it sure is friggin’ expensive. And that’s the problem that we’re facing right now. We are using tax dollars. We’re at $37 trillion in debt, and we’re using hundreds of billions of dollars every year to mask the fact that this is terrible legislation to promote terrible policies, and it has to stop.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, and this is something that I’ve talked about plenty on this show, on this show, on my show. And the reality is there’s several different legs to this, as you know, everything from, you know, drug prices to how the insurance sides of things work to the lack of health care that we do, crisis care. I mean, I can go down the list of all the things that need to be changed. But the reality, Daniel, is we’ve got to start someplace or it’s never going to change.
SPEAKER 06 :
Exactly. And I think President Trump is getting the blame. And it is not a lie. And I’ll be honest here. It is not a lie to say that prices are going up under President Trump. But that is deeply dishonest. And this is why Democrats crafted these policies. They knew that if Republicans ever had the chance to reverse it, it would be painful for them. Good point.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, you’re right about that. And I want to make sure that we mention this on an ongoing basis, that what we’re really talking about is some of what was policy already set by the Democrats. It’s going to expire at the first of the year unless something is done about it. And in turn, you’re correct, prices will go up.
SPEAKER 06 :
And what a terrible way to treat the American people, right? What a terrible way to pass these rules, pass these laws that you know are going to stink, but you know will put your political opponents in a pickle if they ever try to get rid of them. And that’s what we’re fighting about. You see, you know, the House, one of the House whips on the Democrat side, a congresswoman named Catherine Wright, I believe, and she’s from Massachusetts. And she said flat out, like, this is the only leverage we have. Yes, it’s going to be painful, but it’s the only leverage we have. So the American people are leveraged to you, right? These are not legislators that want the best for the American people. These are legislators who are looking for power at all costs. And green energy and Obamacare and SNAP and all of these government giveaways have never been good for America. They’ve been good for people who want power. And that’s a terrible way to run a country.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, you are spot on. And I guess ultimately, and this is kind of bringing it back to full circle, ultimately, like I said a moment ago, we’ve got to start someplace. You’ve got to have somebody, which I believe President Trump is doing his best to make some of these things happen, including going back to our initial conversation on what we’re doing energy-wise here. I looked at some numbers even before talking to you today. And we’re producing right now about 13, July numbers were about 13.6, almost 13.7 million barrels a day. We are the highest producer in the world. And for anybody that was listening, it was already at about 12, point eight million a day or so under Trump that went down under Biden, even those that are on the left saying, oh, we’re producing more oil now than ever. Well, in spite of Biden, it did start to tick back up even through his presidency. But the minute that Trump came in, it shot right back up again. And we’re just we’re just shy of 14 million a day. And frankly, I think we’ll hit that in the not too distant future, Daniel. And that’s because of Trump.
SPEAKER 06 :
Nobody else. It is, and it will take a little while for the effectiveness to be felt in the larger economy. So people keep talking, for example, about beef prices, and absolutely, beef prices are through the roof. You can’t buy a beef tenderloin. The idea of like, oh, this will be a fancy anniversary dinner. Forget about it. It’s expensive. Why? Well, the beef that were brought to slaughter a couple of weeks ago have been fattened on grain that was harvested last year, and grain last year was harvested on at diesel being $5.75 a gallon. Well, diesel’s down to a little bit above three right now. So next year, yes, it will get better. But this is the problem of bad Democrat policies. On the offset, they get all the talking points. Look at what we’re doing. This is going to be great. But the trickle-down effect into the economy eventually takes its toll, and it’s very hard to reverse.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, no, you’re exactly right. In fact, this is what also people forget. That is lasting effects even after this president is gone, because even as we saw with the Biden administration. Now, I will say in that particular case, he came in, immediately shut down the Keystone pipeline. Oil production started to tail off quickly. That’s probably the first time I think I’ve ever seen that, because normally the last president will have some lasting effect, unless you come in and really screw it up like Biden did.
SPEAKER 06 :
Exactly. And look at what President Trump is doing. And I know you have a lot of oil and gas folks out there. I hope they check us out at PowerTheFuture.com. But if you’re in the oil and gas industry, it was not very long ago that the leaders of your industry were hauled before the House and the Senate. And Democrats yelled at you and called you greedy and profiteering because oil was $135 a barrel. Well, now the big oil guy is president once again, and oil is at $58 a barrel. And yet the industry is happy. The industry would prefer this presidency. And that’s the amazing thing about freedom. When freedom is allowed to live and reign and free markets are allowed to operate, The oil and gas industry produces more for less for a great number of people. All these accusations of price gouging and greed have all disappeared.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right. A question for you along those lines. This is something I’ve been wondering, and maybe you can answer this for me. But everything you just said, when you have the president like we have now and you deregulate things, and I realize that oil right now, as I said earlier – anywhere from – depending upon what oil you’re buying, West Texas or whatever, Brent, it’s about 61 to 64 a barrel roughly right now, which typically those producers, they like it to be around 70 because they feel like they make a little – Or do they? And here’s where I’m going with this. Because we have a president right now who’s lessening the regulations that these guys actually have to do. In other words, they don’t have to jump through as many hoops as they normally would, even when it comes to putting in a well. My question is, because of that, is that why they’re somewhat happier at lower prices? Because they know, well, yeah, prices are lower, but it also doesn’t cost us as much, and we don’t have the hassle factor we once did to actually produce it.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, I think this is an industry that would way prefer to operate on volume, right? You can be more successful at more wells at a lower price point. And the way to get more wells is to get permission. It’s to get a permitting. It’s to get land access. It’s to get Gulf of Mexico access. So if you’re in this industry, there’s no doubt like $135 a barrel oil is really lucrative. Absolutely. But you do much better at three wells at $60 a barrel than one well at $135 a barrel. And so you’d rather ultimately have more production at a lower price point because it is sustainable. True. And it is better and it’s more lucrative for your company. True. So, yes, the Biden surge. Absolutely. They made money. You remember one of the accusations they got was was stock buyback. Well, what else are you supposed to do with the money? I can’t invest in more wells because you’re denying.
SPEAKER 10 :
You’re not allowing me to drill. So what do you expect me to do?
SPEAKER 06 :
What else do I do with that?
SPEAKER 10 :
You’ve cut all my leases off. Even the leases that you’ve given me are untappable, I guess you could say. You gave me leases that made you look good, but at the end of the day are unusable. So, yeah, what else am I supposed to do?
SPEAKER 06 :
And it’s the same thing as these Obama subsidies. It’s the same thing as the green subsidies. It’s treating the American people like children. It’s telling the CEO, you made all this profit, but I’m not going to let you reinvest it. So you’re going to give yourself a bonus. And then I get to yell at you and call you greedy. Why do we treat the American people this way? And we always talk about we need to have an honest conversation about X, Y or Z. If we had an honest conversation about energy, the Democrats would not be able to have a seat at the table because what they’ve done is they have destroyed this industry that is at the beginning of our conversation. It is world peace. It is geopolitics. It’s the American economy. It’s beef prices. It’s jobs. It’s everything.
SPEAKER 10 :
Energy is everything. No, you are a thousand percent correct, and you’re right. If you had a quote-unquote honest conversation, yeah, all sorts of things would come out, because I firmly believe not the lemmings that follow, Daniel, but those that are in charge, quote-unquote, of… funding and getting the money set aside and and and those that are really in charge i guess i could say of green energy they know right up front that it’s ineffective it doesn’t work and it costs more money now the lemmings that are following them and are are the the servants if you would they don’t understand any of that they think it’s the best thing ever they have no idea that the costs of it and and its ineffectiveness are there Those aren’t the people you bring to the table. If you brought the guys to the table that are actually, quote-unquote, designing it, yeah, I believe you’re right. They would have to admit that, yeah, we know that good old black oil out of the ground is still best.
SPEAKER 06 :
Exactly. Warren Buffett, who is by no means a Republican. Oh, no. He is a known Biden supporter, a known Obama and Hillary supporter. And Warren Buffett is on the record of saying that they only make sense because of the tax subsidies and the credits. He’s like, there’s no money in these businesses being wind and solar. We only do it because we get taxpayer benefits.
SPEAKER 10 :
And you’re right. He is not anybody on the right side of the aisle at all.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, not at all. And this is just the reality. No, I don’t know what the future is going to be. I don’t know. I mean, I called my company Power of the Future for a reason. One day we may turn the corner and all of these things kick in and they work. But that day has not yet arrived. No, and I don’t think…
SPEAKER 10 :
You know, and the reality there, Daniel, just to take a second here, is I don’t think it’s anywhere in our near future either because the reality is oil is still abundant. It’s cheap. It’s effective. We’ve made it clean now. I mean, the reality is, you know, we’re doing so much better with it than we even were, you know, a decade ago. Reality is there’s just nothing else out there that replaces it on the same level, period. It doesn’t exist.
SPEAKER 06 :
No way. And fossil fuels had a banner year last year, and this year they’re going to do more. Coal consumption worldwide is up year on year. And if anything, coal is the most evil of all the fossil fuels from the left’s perspective. I started Power of the Future because of coal miners in Appalachia. But coal is up. Why? Because all of the things that we’re talking about, EVs and wind and solar and batteries, are all made from coal. And they’re all made in natural gas-powered plants, and they all require products that come from petrochemicals. So it’s kind of silly that we pretend, hey, rather than eat bread, we’ll eat dinner rolls, and that way we’re having less wheat. But no, you’re just using it differently and making it worse in the process.
SPEAKER 10 :
The only thing that I see that we do have available, the problem is it’s such a divider politically, and even some on the right I don’t think firmly believe in nuclear. I am. I’m a big believer in it. I think we could do so much with it even on a smaller scale, Daniel, not on the scale of driving your car, but you could do a lot when it comes to power. empowering cities, empowering towns, and even empowering individual plants, if you would, if you could get past all of the stigma that it has. Reality is, to me, that’s the next level, but I’m not sure that the human heart in America will allow that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Which is unfortunate because even if you go back to the very end of the classic movie from my teen years, Back to the Future, when they come back to the future and his car is running on Mr. Fusion and he’s got it built into the car that it’s running, we should be able to have small modular nuclear reactors in our basements. I agree. Electricity should be an afterthought because nuclear power is pervasive and we know how to use it. And look, countries like France generate 80, 90 percent of their electricity from nuclear power. And by God, if the French are not afraid of nuclear power, we shouldn’t be. Why the hell are the Americans? That’s right. Great point.
SPEAKER 10 :
Great point. Daniel, as always, I appreciate it. How do folks find you, sir?
SPEAKER 06 :
Powerofthefuture.com. And next time, let’s talk about pharmaceuticals and all sorts of industries that rely on chemicals. I’d love to.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, we’ll do it. I’ll put that in my notes. We’ll definitely do it, Daniel. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER 06 :
God bless.
SPEAKER 10 :
You’ve been having a great night, and I always enjoy talking to him, by the way. It’s always a little longer segment, and he is awesome. I appreciate him greatly. Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning coming up next. Speaking of heating your home, which we got done talking about a moment ago, talk to Cub Creek today. Ask them about their $56 off tune-up special when it comes to your furnace today. Find them at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 10 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560. And we are back. Rush to Reason, Debra’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Just to follow up on our conversation with Daniel, because you’re going to hear some things on this over the next several days. The left, by the way, they’re going to hit hard, the media especially, on these sanctions in Russia, and it’s going to raise prices, and Donald Trump promised you’d have lower gas prices, and this, that, and the other, and you’re going to hear all that nonsense, and it is just that. It’s nonsense. At the end of the day, I don’t see a huge spike in prices. You might see a little bit of a bump, just like I saw today. But at the end of the day, it came right back down, and we can overcome that. Not a huge issue when it’s all said and done. Again, this is one of the tools that Donald Trump is using when it comes to ending that war. Is it his only tool? No. Well, it’s probably the biggest tool that he’s got right now, whether you like sanctions or not. There was a conversation that some folks were having. I even talked about it on the program, I believe, last week, whereby there was some scuttlebutt that maybe we’d let Ukraine have some Tomahawk missiles. I read this morning that, yeah, that’s not going to happen. The training alone, and this is Trump in our Department of Defense’s, you know, this Department of War, I guess I should say, this is their statement. Six months to train Ukrainians to be able to even use that weapon. I don’t think they want to wait that long for this war to even go that far. And the other thing about it or the other thing that was said was it’s either six months to train a Ukrainian or we have to do it instead and we’re not. Those were Trump’s words. I’m paraphrasing a little bit, but essentially what Trump said was we either need to train Ukrainians how to fire the weapon or we have to and we won’t. We’re not getting in that end of things period. You know, Russia is not going to be able to come back to us and say, yeah, look at what you did. No, we’re not doing that. So Donald Trump has already said that we’re not going to send Tomahawks for that reason, that reason alone. There was some scuttlebutt again going on that we might be doing that. That’s a very advanced weapon, by the way, something that no other country has, by the way. No, even though it’s old, I guess you could say it’s old technology, but it’s not. It’s still very sophisticated. Nobody else has anything that even competes with that. So at the end of the day, there was some talk that we might allow the Ukrainians to use that to help defeat Russia, but that’s not going to happen. So I think what Donald Trump is looking at is, okay, what other ways do we have to sort of stiff arm Russia, if you would, get them to come into compliance and let’s sit down and have a conversation. And that’s what’s happening with sanctions. Now, I think Trump understands fully that you defund sanctions. Russia. In other words, you cut off one of their major cash supplies, and it’s going to have an impact. Actually, fairly quickly, because they have to have cash to keep the war machine moving forward. So cut off that cash supply, which is what they’re doing. And sounds to me like, according to things I read today, other countries, China included, are agreeing to that. They’re not going to buy oil from Russia, meaning you’re cutting off their basically their food supply, their cash supply. So we’ll see how this plays out. My point is, when it comes to the oil sides of things, you’re going to hear the left and some on that folk talk about how it’s going to increase prices at the pump and this, that, and the other. Yeah, not by much, if at all. So stay tuned. We’ll be watching for that, but I don’t think it’s going to have much of an impact when it’s all said and done. All right, another full hour coming your way. Don’t go anywhere. This is Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
I’m a rich guy
