In this episode of Rush to Reason, host John Rush dives into some controversial topics plaguing the trucking industry today. From illegal drivers to the advent of self-driving technology, discover how these issues impact the safety and employment of truck drivers across the nation. With a critical lens, John examines the companies and states that allow these practices and the government’s recent efforts to address these challenges.
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This is Rush to Reason.
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You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 07 :
With your host, John Rush.
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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.
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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.
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Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
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It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
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All right, welcome back. Rush to Reason. Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Hopefully you all are having a great day. And weather outside isn’t half bad today. It’s supposed to be a fairly nice weekend. And, again, we’ll be getting into the snow and weather and cold and all of that in the not-too-distant future. Future. So in the meantime, you guys enjoy the weather that we’ve got right now because it won’t last forever. And don’t forget to time change, which this particular time change when we fall back, which is Saturday night into Sunday. It’s actually Sunday at like 2 a.m., but most people change clocks, which anymore. Unless you’ve got like a manual clock like on your stove or your microwave or whatever, typically everybody else uses digital clocks now to where it automatically does its thing. Even most cars today, even in the past 20 years, most of them have a daylight saving time setting or you can go in really quick inside the car and change it if need be. But it’s not like it used to be where you run around the house and change every clock. I have two analog clocks at home that every year – Twice a year you have to make the change, but again, for us, it’s not something where you’re going to lose track of time because of the time change. But that is this coming weekend, meaning that the time change makes, in the wintertime, things get dark a lot earlier at night, which… I hate I get you get a little bit more daylight in the morning. Right now, it’s not getting light until about 715 to 720 or so. And I understand that that’ll be, you know, 615 to 620. But as we get further and further into the winter, that still becomes roughly seven o’clock or so. when it’s all said and done, and then it’s dark by 4.30 at night. So that’s the downside of where we live. The farther north you get, the worse it gets. So those that are down south that are listening to me further south, and we have folks that listen from all over the country, Yeah, you don’t have as much of an issue there as we do, but yeah, we notice longer daylight days in the summer, but shorter daylight days in the winter. The day itself is always the same. It’s always funny when people say, well, the days are getting shorter. No, just the daylight day is getting shorter. The day itself is still 24 hours in a day, and it’s equal for everyone. So anyways, all that being said, there’s a crackdown right now. I was going to talk about this on on um saturday on on drive radio as well but there’s a crackdown right now happening and there was a press conference even as we were talking in the last hour with dr kelly i noticed some things coming across my feed where there’s some things going on even in washington right now to where there’s going to be an illegal or there’s going to be a crackdown on illegal alien truck drivers it’s becoming a large problem with these quote-unquote sanctuary states, California being one, I think Colorado, we do similar things here as well, whereby you can get a commercial driver’s license, a CDL they call it, and it doesn’t take much to get one. I watched a video early this morning whereby there was a particular officer that had pulled somebody over and they were trying to get this particular individual, this commercial driver’s licensed individual, gentleman, to pass an English proficiency test. Nothing more than, can you tell me what this sign means? Can you tell me what this sign says? And in this particular case, they couldn’t. Meaning, I’ll just say it straight up, they have no business being on the road. If you don’t know what the basic road signs mean, why are you driving? And I had another – one of you listeners asked me this morning that if this going on and AI in trucks and self-driving trucks and is there a correlation between this and the self-driving trucks and so on. And I said, yeah, there absolutely is. There is a shortage of workers across the board in a lot of the trades, truck drivers as well. So, of course, there’s going to be a big push to have self-driving trucks because it eliminates having to have a driver in the truck. On top of that, it eliminates a lot of these companies, by the way. And let me back up for a moment. It’s not the good, solid truck driving or the trucking companies. It’s not the solid trucking companies that abuse this. It’s what I call the fly-by-night trucking companies that do this. And I talked about this, oh, I don’t know, a month, month and a half ago when the Sikh individual, and no, not Sikh as in sick, but Sikh, I guess I should say it that way. It’s Sikhs, not Sikhs. But the Sikhs, there was the issue that was down south where the two Sikh drivers made the U-turn in the middle of the road, in the middle of the highway. The minivan came in, collided with it. Everybody in the van died and so on. And I gave the explanation as to what was going on with that particular situation, and it’s still happening. In fact, a lot of these accidents that you’ve seen of late have been the same type of drivers because they abuse it. And by the way, these are trucking companies that not only abuse the drivers as far as having them driving trucks when they’re not legally supposed to. Now, they get them a driver’s license. I understand that. But you get where I’m going with this. They’re really not qualified drivers. But these companies don’t care. They really don’t care. Now, I would go as far as to say that a lot of these owners of these trucking companies, they’re the ones that really need to be brought to justice because they’re doing this completely wrong. They are literally putting others’ lives on the line. They knowingly are doing it, but I’ll just be straight up honest. They don’t care. These are literal fly-by-night trucking companies. A lot of them seek owned as well. And what they do is they bring other Sikhs in, sometimes through a slavery-type process. In other words, there’s indebtedness there. So they come here to work off that indebtedness. They end up driving a truck. As I stated in the last time I talked about this, they literally cut holes in the floor of the truck where they use the bathroom through the floor of the truck. They put two drivers in the truck. The truck never stops. They do very little maintenance to the truck. They literally run it into the ground, and then they go get another one and start all over again. And these guys driving the trucks are literally slaves to that particular company driving the truck. And I’m not exaggerating, by the way, in anything I’m saying. You’re not seeing this publicized near as much as it should be. But what I just said is the truth. That’s what’s happening. And again, why it’s not being talked about more is beyond me because it should be. It’s modern day slavery in the trucking industry. Not by the legitimate trucking companies, but by these fly-by-night, you know, what I call fly-by-night trucking companies. And what I mean by fly-by-night is they’ll run until their safety record gets found out or they have enough accidents, and then all of a sudden, you know, that LLC is gone. They start another LLC up, and it’s very similar to the last LLC. And in this particular case, Volvo is a trucking company that continues to lease them trucks, and the cycle continues. And it doesn’t stop. Well, it might be now. Because currently, the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, and all of her allies are actually going to now start going after some of these individuals and the companies that actually employ these and the states that are allowing this to happen. It’s about time, by the way. Finally. I mean, some of you have probably experienced some of this by driving around. And I know at times I sound like I’m really hard on truck drivers. I’m not hard on all truck drivers. I’m hard on the ones that are knuckleheads. that are like this, that don’t drive properly, that hang out in the left lane and they shouldn’t be there in the first place, that come down the mountain far too fast and run into another semi-truck like what happened last week coming down I-70 around the Golden area. I mean, these are the things that are happening on a routine basis, and those are the ones that I’m after. Absolutely. And those of you that are really good, solid truck drivers, there’s times where you’ll criticize me for being hard on the trucking industry. You should be applauding me because I’m there to help you. Because if you get rid of all these fly-by-night guys, you make more money. Because it’s the fly-by-night guys that are driving the costs down, meaning you don’t make as much money per mile as you should be. So all in all, I’m on your side. I’m on the side of the good truckers and the good trucking companies, not the bad ones. It’s the bad ones that give everybody a bad name. And you guys know where they’re at. And I can tell by looking. I’m sorry. I’m going to say this. I can tell by looking at times that some of these guys driving these trucks haven’t the foggiest idea what they’re doing or where they’re at. But yet, they’re behind the wheel. So I’ll talk a little bit more on this probably on Drive Radio over the weekend, but that is happening as we speak. It’s becoming a bigger and bigger deal. It’s high time that we finally, as government finally started looking at this and enforcing some of the things that, by the way, all the rest of you have to abide by. Why do these companies get by with it and everybody else can’t? So it’s about time they started coming down hard on these individuals, these trucking companies, and it looks like right now, They are. And again, it’s not just the trucking companies, it’s the states that allow this. California, for example. So I’ll have more on this, I’m sure. I only saw a little bit and pieces of some of this before coming on air today as far as what they’re doing, as far as getting some of these individuals off of the road. But you’re going to see more of this starting to happen. And if you’re one of these companies and you’re listening to me and you’re running a bunch of illegal drivers that technically can’t pass a commercial driver’s license test… you should probably rethink what you’re doing. Because trust me, you’re marked. You’re going to be sought after when this is all said and done. And by the way, rightfully so. Golden Eagle Financial coming up next. Al did a great interview of late. Listen in. You can always find Al at klzradio.com.
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This is TJ with KLZ Radio, and once again, we have Al Smith with us from Golden Eagle Financial. And Al, we’re coming up on the end of the year, and I figure there’s probably quite a few things that a retirement planner has to do to prepare for the new year, yes?
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Well, there are a couple of things that have a 31st deadline that we talk to some of our clients about. If people are thinking about converting part of their traditional IRA to Roth, they’re That needs to be done before December 31st. And we don’t usually wait till the last week in December because the financial companies get really busy. So it’s a good idea to address that in November. And usually by then people have a pretty good idea how much money they have earned, and we can guesstimate their tax bracket.
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So you’re just basically helping them reach out to figure out what sort of distribution they should get from an investment?
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Well, not so much distribution, but if they’re younger people, they may have a longer-term strategy to convert traditional IRA to Roth. And that will add income to their income tax they pay each year. And we usually wait till near the end of the year because by then people know what tax bracket they will be in. But it has to be done before December 31st.
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Excellent. And that’s why we trust you, Al. How can people get in touch with you if they want to start their retirement planning adventure with you?
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That’s a good way to describe it as an adventure. You can reach me at 303-744-1128. And if you’re driving when you hear this, contact KLZ and they’ll put me in contact with you. All right. Thanks for joining us today, Al. Thank you for having me.
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Putting reason into your afternoon drive, this is John Rush.
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And we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. And that last topic, by the way, is a big one to me because I guess because of how much time I actually spend on the road and some of the things that I actually watch. And it’s just at times it’s absolutely frustrating when I see the way some of these truckers drive. how they drive, what they do, some of the just utter nonsense that goes on, and yet everybody else is expected to abide by the rules, and yet most of these guys don’t have to. So, anyways, sorry to kind of get off on a tangent there, but… But that stuff gets to me. It bothers me. So in other news, this one I wasn’t even following. Didn’t know we were even trying to do anything here. I guess I should have known this, but I don’t follow this type of news that closely. But Denver’s bid to host the 2030 Gay Games fell short. We are not going to host the 2030 Gay Games. Now, I don’t know what kind of revenue that would have brought in. Frankly, don’t care one way or the other. Truthfully, all of these types of sporting events and even Olympics and things like that, it’s rare that those sorts of events happen. actually pan out. Now, I don’t know about this one. I don’t know what type of things would have had to have been built or if they use exactly the same things that we’re already using and so on. Typically, when it comes to Olympics, they don’t work out so well because you spend so much money on infrastructure and the event facilities themselves and so on that very few countries, and I think, Charlie, you and I looked this up at one point in time. I don’t know. It’s been a year or so ago. Very, very few countries make out when it comes to the Olympics. Most of them actually lose a boatload of money and never recover from it. And in some cases, the Olympic game facilities lay as a wasteland on down the road. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that. Am I right, Charlie? A lot of countries do very poorly with the Olympics. So I’m not a big fan of doing it. Frankly, I think it’s one of the best things Colorado ever did was not have an Olympic game here, you know, because at the end of the day, again, it really doesn’t Now, in this particular case, over 50 prominent Colorado figures and organizers, including, of course, Jared Polis, because he himself is gay, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, they also showed their support, of course, for the Denver bid in the committee’s effort to host the 2030 Gay Games Sports Competition. Despite the challenges that face our LGBTQ plus community, which, by the way, what challenges are there? I’m sorry, I’ve got to question that particular quote. What challenges? That particular community has more rights than I have. They have more protections than I get as a white male. So I’m confused as to what are the challenges that are faced. Because anymore, there aren’t any. Newsflash, gay community, you don’t have any. No more than I have as an old white guy. So, sorry, there’s no challenges there. So I’m going to throw that one out. So, of course, that’s in this quote, but what is it you’re challenged by? So, you know, despite the challenges that show up, blah, blah, blah, Denver showed up as an inspiring proof that far more individuals are working to create unity through love. I’m going to throw up, by the way. The world needs it now more than ever, and our GGDEN supporters and bid committee should be proud, says Lisa Scheib, co-chair of Gay Games Denver. And again, do I have anything against the gay community? No, I don’t have anything against any community. But at the end of the day, why do they get special privileges? And again, I go back to this quote. What are the challenges that you guys face? You’re welcome to call in, by the way, 303-477-5600. But what do you face? I don’t. Because, by the way, we all have challenges. And in fact, I don’t get my own crosswalk painted in a lot of places in towns and cities. I don’t have special privileges. I don’t get to be treated a certain way if I apply for a job or, or, or, or, or. So how is it that you’re challenged? If anything, you’re privileged. You’re not challenged. You’re privileged. You have more rights than I have in most cases. So where is this challenge coming from, I ask? I doubt if I’ll get an answer because you aren’t. You’re getting to the point where you have far more in your corner than I have. Anyways, long story short, I guess Denver lost. They’re going to, I think it’s Perth in Australia. Again, whatever. I don’t even know what these games involve. Don’t care, to be honest. Truthfully, don’t care about the Olympics either. So that’s another one where I just don’t care. Last time the Olympics were on, didn’t watch any of them. In fact, we have Olympics come out this winter, right, Charlie? Isn’t it an Olympic winter? Again, shows how much I know. 100 days away. Thank you, Charlie. Where are they at this year, Charlie? Shows what I know. He’s thinking. Because I don’t know, folks. Is it here in America? It’s not in America, is it, Charlie? Again, I don’t know, folks. I’d have to look that up. I wasn’t planning on talking about the Olympics, so I didn’t check. Charlie Cannon telling me because I don’t know where they’re at. Again, don’t care. So it’s not that I don’t care about the LGBTQ plus gay games. I don’t care about the regular Olympics either, to be honest with you. To me personally, and I think I said this last time the Summer Olympics were on, I don’t care anymore. It’s become so political, even those that win and lose, especially in those where there’s not a set winner or loser. If it’s a subjective type of a game where there’s judges there. Oh, it’s in Italy. Thank you, Charlie. Italy, the Alps. Must be in the Alps, the Italian Alps. And I won’t watch any of them. I just won’t. Don’t care. And I’m sorry, I know there’s a lot of Olympians out there, even a lot of them that train here in Colorado Springs, and every U.S. Olympian, yes, I’m very thankful for what they’re doing, but no, I don’t care about the games. And in some cases, I feel bad for some of those that are going to try to compete because as an American, you’re already at a disadvantage. And you are. I’m sorry. In some of the, you know, again, the more artistic type, you know, events whereby there’s judges there judging you, we are already at a disadvantage. And by the way, we’ll be so more this year than probably ever. because of tariffs and other things that’s happened with the Trump administration. So I will tell you at the end of the day, I’m sorry. I feel sorry for those Olympians, those American Olympians, because they’re going to be at a disadvantage heading into those games right off the bat. That’s just the way it is. So I’m sorry to say that, but that’s the case. So, all right, we’ll come back. I’ve got more to talk about. Mile High Coin coming up next. And, again, when it comes to those things you’ve had kicking around the house, and, you know, you may have collected these things and even gone from house to house with these things, and you’re finally figuring out, you know what, about time to turn this stuff into cash. Well, it may be now. Gold’s really at a high price, so is silver. Find out what things are worth, whether you want to turn it into cash or not. David Gonzalez can help you with those decisions. 720-370-3400.
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We still have the ability to, you know, wipe you off the map, if you would. And that’s what I believe Donald Trump is doing. He’s essentially going to show others what he’s got, you know, what we’ve got, I guess the best way to say that. So. Again, when will this take place? We don’t know. Those are all, by the way, nobody will know. If anybody comes out and says that they know, it’ll either be something that was leaked out and it’s not supposed to be, and then that date will actually change, because this is all stuff that is very top secret when it’s all said and done. But the last time we did a test was in 1992. There was a moratorium then established by George Bush at the conclusion of the Cold War. Trump wrote that the process would begin immediately and was in response to other countries’ testing programs. Again, you can’t let other people, other countries do this and not have any kind of a response or retaliation. This is, again, a way of making sure that everybody else knows where we stand. So before anybody runs around, and the left especially, they’re going to be out there running around, you know, this is awful, this is bad. Look at Trump. He’s just a warmonger. You know, as usual, he’s the guy that’s out there starting all these fights. No, no, lefties. This is the opposite of that. You do these things to avoid those situations. You do those things to keep other countries in check. You do it so other people know that we mean business and we’re not here to be pushed around. That’s what he’s doing. And in doing that, you’ll avoid those situations. You won’t have some of those things, you know, the wars and things that could happen from that. So it won’t exist because you’re keeping the other countries in check. This is why you want a president like Trump around that will literally tell everybody else that, you know what, we can be on the playground, you can kick sand on my shoes, but guess what, I’m going to kick them right back. This is not going to be something where you’re going to be the big bully on the playground and we don’t retaliate. We will. We will show you what we’re made of. So when I read this at first, I’m like, oh, OK, Trump, good job. You’re basically going to show the rest of these countries that, you know what, we still mean business and we’re still we’re still the biggest and baddest on the block. And we are. And he’s going to make sure the countries understand that, because, frankly, folks, there are times when I think other countries don’t think that. And we’ve had past administrations, by the way, the Obama administration, especially in the Biden administration, whereby they ran around the rest of the world apologizing for who we are and what we do. And really, in a lot of ways, you know, defunded our military, weakened our military, you know, allowed all of this woke nonsense to be inside of our military. You saw what Hegseth did just a few weeks ago in regards to the training of our military, what their PT is going to now be and what their fitness requirements are going to be and, and, and. That is all a way to strengthen our military and show other countries we mean business. We’re still around. In fact, we’re going to get stronger, not weaker. And that’s exactly what Trump is doing in this particular situation. That’s my take on it. I don’t think there’s any other way to look at this. Now, where will these particular tests be done and how does all of that work? I don’t know. I don’t know. So at the end of the day, again, we’ll know more about that as some of these things take place. Trust me, as soon as one of these actually happens, I’m sure we’ll all know. We still have a lot of warheads in existence, by the way. So other countries need to understand that, and Trump’s doing a very good job of letting those folks know that, which, again, I am behind. I think he should. Like I said earlier, though, when you read some of the comments on some of this that gets pushed out onto the news sites and social media and so on, of course everybody’s, you know, Trump’s the big warmonger and it’s all his fault and this, that, and the other, and that’s what you’re going to get from the left. So at any rate. All right. A story that I was going to talk about a few days ago that I honestly just didn’t get to. We just didn’t have time and I wasn’t able to get to it. And this was an interesting article out of the Wall Street Journal. And the title of the article is, he won the $2 billion Powerball, which is huge, by the way. Now he’s buying up LA lots, or now he’s buying up lots burned in the LA fires. His name is Edwin Castro, and I believe he’s an Indian, American Indian. He is one of the biggest investors snapping up destroyed properties, and he wants to lead in the rebuilding of his hometown in Altenda, Altenda. It’s Altadena. Sorry, Charlie. Altadena. Oh, sorry. Okay, like Pasadena, only Altadena. So Altadena. I would have never got that, so thank you, Charlie. So this story goes in and talks about how he’s actually gone through, and because he’s got the cash now, he’s looked at some of the properties. And as I said earlier, this is not abnormal. When there are fires like this, it happens in all places, Colorado included. When a fire comes through and destroys all the property, The owners then have the opportunity or the ability, call it what you want, depending upon what they were insured for and what the property value is, they can determine whether they’re going to rebuild or in some cases just exit. So take the insurance money, pay off whatever mortgage they may or may not have had, decide how much extra money they have or don’t have. The property value is there. Do they want to cash out and move on? And it happens. I did the same thing in Granby when I lost my property up there. I did not rebuild. I looked at it. I spent some time going through the process. I looked at all the different building ideas that were there and the ability to do all of that and the cost and so on. And I finally determined I could sell the property off and be money ahead when it was all said and done. That’s what I did. And these people have that same opportunity, by the way. And again, I say opportunity. Now, in some cases, it’s a necessity. If you were underinsured and you lost a lot more than what you actually had things insured for, in other words, you lost money because you didn’t insure things properly and you need the money out of the lot to continue on with your life, well, that’s why I talk all the time on some of my other programs to be properly insured. Something that, frankly, you need to look at on an annual basis because things change. So not going down that path right now. In this particular case, there’s a lot of lots there right now that are for sale. And he’s coming in to buy these lots in Altadena. Now, he’s getting a lot of flack for this. Some out of his own community, by the way. So he’s 33 years of age. He’s already spent $10 million to buy up 15 lots. He’s one of the biggest in a wave of investors that’s snapping up scorched L.A. area properties. Again, often from displaced residents who have opted to cash out rather than endure a multi-year rebuild. Yeah, because one thing I forgot to add a moment ago is it’s not only the cost sides of this, but you’ve got to realize that to rebuild on that piece of property, it’s a year and a half to two year deal out before you move back in. And that’s if everything goes smoothly. And by the way, there’s a pecking order in a lot of what I just said as well. So bottom line, people just decide to move on. Many are farther away. There’s a San Diego developer and an Arizona fund. A Los Angeles area hospice executive has also made post-fire purchases. The purchase have raised alarms in Altadena, an unincorporated community northwest of downtown L.A. that had about 42,000 residents before the fire. Residents are afraid they’ll lose the small town feel created by the craftsman bungalows and Spanish revival homes that once dotted the streets. Yeah, you know what? Things happen. I’m sorry. It’s not going to be the way it was. That’s what happens in fires. Things will get rebuilt and it’ll be much different than it was prior. That’s the ramifications of something like that happening. And is it sad to some? Yes. Is it sad to all? Not sad to me. I don’t care. I’m not trying to be coy, but it’s never the same, folks. It’s just a fact of life. It’s not going to be the same. wasn’t in my case and it won’t be in other cases where things get burned completely to the ground it’s not going to be the same once it’s done there was a tragic thing that happened everything was lost and no it won’t be the same it’s that simple It’s property, by the way. It’s not your life you’re losing. It’s a piece of property. It’s, in some cases, an asset. And, yes, I realize that it can be very sentimental, things that are in the home and memories and so on. I understand that to a degree. You guys all know me. I’m not going to lose any sleep or cry over it. It’s just not me. it’s something that can be replaced. It’s a material possession. All material possessions can be replaced. That’s how I look at it. In my case, they’re all for sale. Yeah, and that’s exactly how I say it. Everything I own is for sale. The right deal comes along, it’s gone. I don’t hold on to anything tightly. If the right thing comes along, it’s gone. It’s sold. Because I don’t hold on to anything tightly. And some would say, geez, John, that’s harsh. No, it’s just the way I am. Always have been. If I can make money on it, I’m going to. That’s my goal at the end of the day. I’m not sentimental about things. So if there’s a way to turn that into cash, I’m going to. Now, that’s kind of what’s happening here, by the way. So I said that to these residents that are here that are now upset about what’s happening. You shouldn’t be. If you don’t like it, then go round up enough money and get involved with some of the developers and investors and do it yourself if you don’t like it. I don’t know how else to say it. I mean, I know that sounds really rude, but that’s the facts. That’s how this works. And I’m also, and this is where I’m going with this whole article, I’m a huge private property rights person. If you own it and it’s yours, it’s yours to do what you want to with it. In fact, I am one where I think we have far too much control from cities and counties and zoning and a lot of other stuff. And I get while they’re there and you try to get cities and stuff to be run correctly and you don’t necessarily want residential on top of commercial or next to it. And I understand all of that. Although, and I’m okay with a little bit of oversight, but there’s far too much for most cities and counties. Far too much. And it hinders personal property rights. which, as I said, I am a big proponent of. It’s yours. You own it. No one else should be telling you what you can and can’t do with it. In this particular case, this gentleman has bought up 15 lots, and it’s my opinion, my belief, that he’s got every right to build whatever he wants to on those 15 lots and sell it and make money if he wants to, which, by the way, is what he’s going to do. That’s what everybody’s so mad about. So he’s of Native American descent, and I think a lot of people are thinking that because he won this big Powerball jackpot that he should just be giving this stuff back out to the folks that are there now. Folks, it doesn’t work that way. And it also shows to me that the guy’s got a little bit of common sense when it comes to money because he’s not just giving it away. He is actually going to make money on the money that he’s made on the Powerball. Good for him. He won’t be one of those that, you know, Dan, when he was here with me, Dan Muir, when he was my co-host here for years, we used to talk about because we read a story way back in the day of a guy that won the lottery, made a boatload off of the lottery, but ended up living in a container in his own feces. And so we used to joke about guys that won the lottery, you’d end up living in a container in your own feces. Well, this guy won’t. Because he’s doing smart things with his money. And here’s the crux of this. Yet he’s getting criticized from the residents there in doing this. So, again, I understand their frustration because they want things to be the way they were before the fire. But the fact is it’s not going to be. and it never will be. He even goes on to say that his rebuilding efforts aren’t charity. He’s mostly planning single-family homes. He wants to sell at market value. The profit margin doesn’t need to be huge, doesn’t need to be outlandish, he says. But I’m not just building homes to give them away either. So in other words, he’ll build fair-priced homes when it’s all said and done, meaning people, if they want to buy them, can. He’s not going to get extra rich off of doing so. He’s going to be smart with his money. And by the way, he’s providing a service. Let’s not forget that. At the end of the day, he’s going to build some homes, have it turnkey ready where somebody can come in, buy that home, move in, and off they go and not have all the headache of having to build it. And he should be rewarded for doing so, by the way. Something that a lot of developers don’t get enough credit for. And it’s not that I am pro or anti-developers. There’s some really good ones and there’s some really bad ones, just like there is in every industry. But developers take huge risk. I don’t think most people really understand the risk that developers take. They go through an entire process, and unless you’ve done this, and you’ve taken especially commercial property, and you’ve taken it from a raw piece of dirt and then put something up on it, which I’ve done, if you’ve never done that, you have no idea what you’re talking about as to how much risk is there in doing so. And by the way, most haven’t, and most have no idea what that takes to do. The amount of effort and money and tenacity and patience and time and hassle and everything you go through with the cities and counties, unless you’ve done it, you have no idea what that takes. It is one big, huge, gigantic hassle plus risk. And again, I commend most developers that go through and do that because it’s not for the lighthearted by any means. It takes a lot of tenacity to make that happen. So a lot of locals appreciate his goals, but believe it or not, there’s a lot of folk there that don’t like what he’s doing either. And again, I picked this one out because I really looked at this and thought, you know, we’re getting to the point in America, and it’s happening over and over again. Granted, this is California, but it’s happening in a lot of places. Nobody has the right to do with their property anymore what they want. Everybody else is going to tell them what to do. That’s what’s happening in America right now. That was my whole point of reading you guys this story is it’s happening there and it’s going to happen in a lot of other places. It’s happening here in Colorado as we speak. The community, quote unquote, the democracy, which we don’t want, is deciding what somebody can do with a piece of property versus their rights for that property. And it’s a bunch of nonsense. And it happens all of the time. You know, a bunch of community people will get together. There’s going to be a new development, a new commercial development, a warehouse of this or that. And it’s going to go on on a piece of property. It’s probably, and I know of one of these where it’s already zoned commercial. It’s been that way for the last 60 years. But all of a sudden, This property is going to now get developed because it’s time and there’s enough money in it that it can actually happen and it can be made to work now where it maybe couldn’t have 20 or 30 or even 10 years ago. But now it can. And all the neighbors get upset because they thought that was just going to be an empty field forever. And so they’re mad. And so they now go together. They get organized. They go to City Hall. They start to fight this developer. And frankly, they’re all wrong. 100% wrong. They don’t own it. If they want it to be left alone just like it is now, then pony up the money and buy it and turn into whatever you want to. But they don’t do that. They get together. They use the power of government to try to shut down any type of a developer that would come across that particular land and develop it out because it’s what they want, not what’s best for the landowner. And it’s happening over and over and over again. It’s one of the things I am dead set against. If it’s your property, you develop it and do whatever you want to with it. If the people around you don’t like it, I guess they can move. Or they should have done a little bit of due diligence on who owned it before they ever moved in. That’s on them, not the developer, not the person building out the property. In fact, sometimes it’s not even the developer. It’s the person that owns the land that’s deciding to do it now. My thing always is buyer beware. Do your own due diligence. And don’t rely on some realtor to tell you what’s happening, by the way, because that empty field probably isn’t going to be that way forever unless it’s open space. If somebody owns it, it’s liable to get something built on it at some point in time. Cub Creek heating and air conditioning coming up next. By the way, make sure that your furnace tune-up is done and handled. It’s a $56 off right now. There’s three to choose from. Talk to Cub Creek today. Find them at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 15 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, before I take John from Cheyenne, a couple of you even gave suggestions as to examples, I should say, of developments and things like that whereby the community gets it wrong. Buc-ee’s, Palmer Lake, great example. Somebody else said, look at Bandimere’s in the Speedway there and what they went through. And yeah, by the way, that’s an example of where conservatives got it wrong. in a big, big way. I talked about that when all that was going on. And it’s a great example of where people don’t understand how things work. And even in that case, or especially in that case, conservatives got it way wrong. John and Cheyenne, go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, I was going to point out the Marshall Fire. How many of those people had to just take the money and leave?
SPEAKER 09 :
A lot. It’s funny you say that because I was thinking of that as well, John. If you drive through that particular area now and look at the way things have been rebuilt versus the way it was before, it’s not even close to the same.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. Well, from everything I read and listened, and I think you talked about it a while back, what Boulder County did to those people was despicable. Because all of a sudden, they had a house that was built, say, 10 years ago. Now here’s all these new building codes that you’ve got to abide by. And you just increased the building cost by $50,000, $75,000 additional dollars on top of what it would have cost to rebuild.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 06 :
Because of all their green New Deal stuff.
SPEAKER 09 :
Correct. You’re right.
SPEAKER 1 :
100%.
SPEAKER 06 :
Part of it was, and I read this, they had all those open green spaces in those areas. that had never been maintained, and they helped the fire move along in the grass.
SPEAKER 09 :
It did. You’re correct. I grew up in that area, lived in that area before moving over to Golden, where I live now. And, yep, I can attest to that. In fact, my old house was right on the edge of the fire itself and was one of four homes that lived.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, survived.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yep, lived, survived, whatever you want to say. Yep, it was one of the only four in that area that actually survived the fire.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right, but I’m sure there was damage.
SPEAKER 09 :
Believe it or not, there was some damage to the fence and some things on the property itself, but nothing to the house.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, nice. But the people in California that are complaining about it now, California is doing the same thing to those folks that Boulder County did to the Marshall Park people. They’re not letting them rebuild the way it was. Like a lot of those houses, what I’ve read, were so old that they still had septic and stuff. You’re not letting them use any of that, you know. So the other thing, at the beginning of the hour, you were talking about the truck drivers. And one of them got arrested here in Wyoming by the highway patrol. They pulled him over for driving stupid, speeding and something else. And he couldn’t even read and had no papers, no, you know. And he was illegal. And they impounded the truck and Our governor told the highway patrol, if you get an illegal, let’s drive in a truck, or for whatever reason, call ICE and hold them and let ICE take them. So they did. But the Sikhs, as you were talking about, they even have their own truck stops. Yes. They bought one here. There was an old gas station, been there forever, between Cheyenne and Laramie, Beaufort, and it was sitting vacant for like a year and a half. And they bought it up, and they opened up, and I don’t know what their quality gas is. It’s usually the cheapest gas on the highway.
SPEAKER 09 :
I’m sure it is. You’re right. Because everything they do is that way, John.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yep. But is it worth it to put in your car?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, in those guys’ case, they don’t care because, like I said earlier, they run those trucks to the ground. Once they are, they’ll lease another one, and off they go. All they look to do is to get their three to four years out of a lease, out of a particular semi, and off to the next one they go.
SPEAKER 06 :
I don’t know if you saw it, but our county sheriff, he did a story on two trucks that he had his deputies. He had 25 of his deputies sworn in as trained ICE officers, I guess you would call it, as like an alternate that they get enforced. He had two trucks taken off their own. One was a tractor-trailer, again, that they pulled over with no papers, and the guy was illegal. And the other guy was driving a dump truck for one of the local company’s No CDL, no nothing. Pulled them over for speeding on a county road, and they impounded the trucks both times. But I don’t know if they could keep them. I would like to see them. If your company hires an illegal to drive a tractor-trailer and your truck gets pulled over with it, I’d like to see it impounded and sold at all.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I would, too. And in this case, John, I’m going to go as far as to say that I don’t know this for a fact, so don’t quote me on this, but I would be hard-pressed not to believe that everybody in that trucking company is most likely illegal. I would be shocked, John, if any of them are legal.
SPEAKER 06 :
I’m figuring the owners are probably legal, but that’s about it.
SPEAKER 09 :
But they don’t have to be. They can form an LLC as an outside person. In other words, you don’t have to be legal to start an LLC.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, you don’t, but… And then they just close it down. That’s right.
SPEAKER 09 :
They close it down, start another one. That’s exactly right, because there’s nothing that prevents them from doing that.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, and I would love to know the ones that killed those people in Florida. Yes, yes. I would love to know if the LLC that owned that company went bankrupt.
SPEAKER 09 :
The predictions was it would, but it would fire back up within a day or two.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, yeah, under another name, but I’m wondering if they already did go bankrupt.
SPEAKER 09 :
That one I haven’t followed enough to know. That one I don’t know.
SPEAKER 06 :
I haven’t either, and I haven’t heard about it because it doesn’t fit the narrative, so it drops off of most of the news sites because it was illegals. But, yeah, and for the people who don’t like neighbors, do what I did. Buy 50 acres in the middle of nowhere.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
Where you can’t even see your nearest neighbor.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s the other option you’ve got. Yep.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, there’s plenty of open space. You just have to be willing to… deal with the hardships that come with living in the middle of nowhere.
SPEAKER 09 :
You got it. I’ll leave it at that. John, I appreciate it. I’m going to take a quick break. Come back, Bob. I’ll try to squeeze you in here right afterwards. Roof Savers of Colorado is up next. The Roof Max treatment extends the life of your roof. Call Dave today, 303-710-6916.
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SPEAKER 07 :
This isn’t Rage Radio. This is Real Relatable Radio. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 09 :
Bob, I got one minute. Go for it, sir.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, you know, that Marshall fire that John just mentioned. Right. You know, a lot of those people aged out of their homes anyway. They probably were there 20, 25 years when they had a family. And they probably be like me. Well, I’m single, 75 years old. I live in a 4,000 square foot house. house with a three-car garage. If this place burned down, do I want it? No.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. No, I can’t disagree with you on that.
SPEAKER 05 :
And by the way, Bob— I want a 10-car garage with a 1,000-foot house.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and some of those people, by the way, because I lived there, I knew some of those people firsthand, and it wasn’t even 20 or 25 years, Bob. Some of those people probably lived there 50.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I mean, you know, but they went through a generation.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, yeah, or two.
SPEAKER 05 :
Empty nesters, why would they even want the house?
SPEAKER 09 :
Great point. Nope, can’t deny that. Bob, I appreciate it. Great comments. Nope, you are correct on that. And again, those are things that happen when these type of devastating things, natural disasters happen. And there’s all sorts of things that happen afterwards. And the point being is, no, it’s not going to look the same as it did prior to that. That’s just the way it is, unfortunately. We’ll be back. Hour 3 is next. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
The Rich Guy.
No Kings, No Clue: Protest Logic Falls Apart