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Discover the unique insights of The Kim Monson Show as Kim and her esteemed guests tackle pivotal topics, from the evolving landscape of Denver’s iconic 16th Street and its implications, to the intricate policies of zoning regulations. Listen in as the conversation scrutinizes the influence of powerful agendas at play within local and global politics, always through the critical lens of freedom versus force—an ongoing fight to uphold the principles that form the bedrock of democracy.
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It’s the Kim Monson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
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An early childhood taxing district? What on earth is that?
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The latest in politics and world affairs.
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I don’t think that we should be passing legislation that is so complicated that people kind of throw up their hands and say, I can’t understand that.
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Today’s Current Opinions and Ideas.
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And it’s not fair just because you’re a big business that you get a break on this and the little guy doesn’t.
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Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
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Indeed. Let’s have a conversation. And welcome to the Kim Monson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You’re each treasured, you’re valued, you have purpose. Today, strive for excellence. Take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history. And thank you to the team. That’s Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. Happy Friday, Producer Joe. Happy Friday, Kim. We’ve got a three-day weekend. We have prerecorded the show for Monday. A great guest, our number one, the featured guest is Colonel Bill Rutledge, retired United States Air Force, 96 years young. We’ll be talking about Eddie Rickenbacker, An Amazing Life. He was a Medal of Honor recipient. He was a World War I flying ace. He was the owner of Eastern Airlines, the Indianapolis Speedway, which the Indianapolis 500 is raced on Memorial Day. And so really an amazing man. And of course, Colonel Rutledge really brings that to life. And then second hour is Drew Dix, who is a Medal of Honor recipient for actions that he took during the Vietnam War. He is a co-founder with Brad Padula of the Center for American Values, which is located in Pueblo. And it’s a really important interview as well. And we want to remember and reflect and honor those that have given the last full measure of devotion. You might check out that song as well. You might do a quick web search on last full measure of devotion and something to listen to this Memorial Day. And so great shows planned for you. And so be sure and check that out on Monday. The show comes to you 6 to 8 a.m. Monday through Friday. The first hour is rebroadcast 1 to 2 in the afternoon. The second hour, 10 to 11 at night. And this is on all KLZ platforms. That’s KLZ 560 a.m. KLZ 100.7 FM, the KLZ website, the KLZ app. You can say Alexa, play KLZ. And then after that, it is on Spotify and iTunes as well. Check out the website, which is Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Make sure that you are signed up for our weekly email newsletter that goes out on Sundays. That way you’ll get first look at all of our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays. You can email me at kim at kimmonson.com, the text line, and I want to hear from you. And Ron, if you’re listening, I’d really love to have you call in at 617 regarding your comments on what we were talking about regarding South Africa. And didn’t get to that yesterday and would really like to do that. And of course, that call in number is 303-477-5600. And again, the text line I want to hear from you is 720-605-0647. And thank you to all of you who support what we’re doing here. We are an independent voice. And what that means is I buy my airtime. And so I have full control of guest selections, subject selection. I do consult the good Lord about that. And we’re blessed with amazing guests. But I support or I really appreciate all of your support. So we’re an independent voice on an independent station. Crawford has, I don’t know, 24, 27 stations throughout the country and a pretty amazing group of people to work with. So thank you for your support. What we do on the show is we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force. Force versus freedom. Remember, it’s never compassionate nor altruistic to take other people’s stuff, whether or not it’s their rights, their property, freedom, livelihoods, opportunities, childhoods, or lives via force. And force can obviously be a weapon, but it’s policy, an unpredictable and excessive taxation, fear, coercion, government-induced inflation. The agenda by the World Economic Forum, globalist elites, and plays out through the United Nations, this Colorado State Legislature carries the water for that agenda. And nothing happens down at the Colorado Legislature without politics. Basically, Governor Polis’s blessings. There’s a few things that he vetoed, but that could also be very political because he wants to make a run for president. So all that’s playing out here in Colorado. But they use land use codes and zoning regulations. And we’ll talk in the second hour. Our featured guests are Natalie Minton and Mike Rolick, who are really citizen advocates and experts in just kind of what zoning can do. It can either be used to protect property rights or it can be used to usurp property rights, and we’ll talk about that. But then again, there’s forced fees and conservation easements. Biden was using national monument designations. These transmission lines, easements, as well as CO2 pipeline easements, all of this is taking property via force. And so that’s why we are looking at these issues. Remember, if something is a good idea, you should not have to use force to implement it. And the other thing on the show is we focus on these issues. And we’ll mention the people pushing these issues, but we are really working diligently to stay out of all the personality fighting that can occur. in life, in politics, in eighth grade, all of those things. So I wanted to say a thank you, first of all, to Laramie Energy for their gold sponsorship of the show, because it’s reliable, efficient, affordable, and abundant energy from oil, natural gas, and coal that powers our lives and fuels our hopes and dreams. And that industry is under attack. And I’m certainly for all sources of energy. But we need to get government subsidies, government tax incentives, all of that stuff out of there and let all of these energy sources compete in the free market. And when that happens right now, it is oil, natural gas and coal. that can provide something that really works for our lives. So we continue to shed light on that. And one of the things I’d suggest that you do this weekend is check out A Climate Conversation, which is the documentary that I had the great honor to moderate. It is the brainchild and also stepped up and financed it. And that is Walt Johnson. And we also have a great series of podcasts with experts there. And it is very, very informative. So be sure and check all that out. Our word of the day is criteria. And I selected it because we used it in one of our quotes earlier this week. And it is a noun. It is spelled C-R-I-T-E-R-I-O-N. And it could be a standard rule or test on which a judgment or decision can be based. It could be… let’s see, a standard of judging any approved or established rule or test by which facts, principles, opinions, and conduct are tried in forming a correct judgment respecting them. And I would say that the criterion for any rule, regulation, ordinance, city ordinance, state law, federal law is this litmus test, the criterion of our vision of our declaration. that all men are created equal. So that means that judge anything regarding the courts should be impartial. So we’re all created equal and that we have these rights from God of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, which liberty is the responsible exercise of freedom. And so the criterion of all of these things should be the Declaration and the Constitution. Our quote of the day comes from the Center for American Values, and they are located in Pueblo on the beautiful Riverwalk. And on Fridays, we share from their Medal of Honor quote book one of the quotes from one of our Medal of Honor recipients. And this is from James N. Sprayberry. He was born in 1947. This is actions that were taken on April 25th, 1968. This is his citation. And it says, For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, an action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, Captain Sprayberry, armor, U.S. Army, distinguished himself by exceptional bravery while serving as executive officer of Company D. his company commander and a great number of the men were wounded and separated from the main body of the company a daylight attempt to rescue them was driven back by the well-entrenched enemy’s heavy fire captain sprayberry then organized and led a volunteer night patrol And that word right there, volunteer. So these are guys that said, okay, I’ll do it. And he led this night patrol to eliminate the intervening enemy bunkers and to relieve the surrounded element. The patrol soon began receiving enemy machine gun fire. captain sprayberry quickly moved the men to protective cover and without regard for his own safety crawled within close range of the bunker from which the fire was coming he silenced the machine-gun with a hand grenade and then identifying several one-man enemy positions near by captain sprayberry immediately attacked them with the rest of his grenades He crawled back for more grenades, and when two grenades were thrown at his men from a position to the front, Captain Sprayberry without hesitation again exposed himself and charged the enemy-held bunker, killing its occupants with a grenade. Placing two men to cover his advance, he crawled forward and neutralized three more bunkers with grenades immediately thereafter. Captain Sprayberry was surprised by an enemy soldier who charged from a concealed position. He killed the soldier with his pistol, and with continuing disregard for the danger, neutralized another enemy emplacement. Captain Sprayberry then established radio contact with the isolated men, directing them towards his position. When the two elements made contact, he organized his men into litter parties to evacuate the wounded. As the evacuation was nearing completion, he observed an enemy machine gun position which he silenced with a grenade. Captain Sprayberry returned to the rescue party, established security, and moved to friendly lines with the wounded. This rescue operation, which lasted approximately seven and a half hours, saved the lives of many of his fellow soldiers. Captain Sprayberry personally killed 12 enemy soldiers, eliminated two machine guns, and destroyed numerous enemy bunkers. Captain Sprayberry’s indomitable spirit and gallant action at great personal risk to his life are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army. And this is what he said. He said, And again, that’s James M. Sprayberry, Medal of Honor recipient. You can get all of these quotes from the Medal of Honor quote book at the Center for American Values website, which is AmericanValuesCenter.org. That’s AmericanValuesCenter.org. And we have these discussions because we have sponsors. And the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance team knows that life can be challenging. and it’s their mission to maximize your financial security as you manage the risks of everyday life. So call Roger Mangan at 303-795-8855 for more information. Like a good neighbor, Roger Mangan’s team is there.
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Focused and wise marketing is essential for your success, especially during tough economic times. If you love The Kim Monson Show, strive for excellence and understand the importance of engaging in the battle of ideas that is raging in America. Then talk with Kim about partnership, sponsorship opportunities. Email Kim at kimmonson.com. Kim focuses on creating relationships with individuals and businesses that are tops in their fields. So they are the trusted experts listeners turn to when looking for products or services. Kim personally endorses each of her sponsors. Again, reach out to Kim at KimMonson.com.
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It is Friday. Welcome back to The Kim Monson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMonson.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMonson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And thank you to Hooters Restaurants for their sponsorship of the show. I got to know them when I was on city council. Very important story about property rights, capitalism, and PBIs, those pesky politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties. that think they know better how to control our lives. And so Hooters Restaurants has five locations, Loveland, Aurora, Lone Tree, Westminster, and Colorado Springs. And it’s a great place to get together Monday through Friday for lunch. They have great nachos and they also have great fish and chips. And so I would recommend that you try that out. Regarding some of the news out there, first of all, on the local level, it is very interesting. They are changing the name of the 16th Street Mall here in Denver. And I don’t think changing the name is really what needs to be done. And if you have been downtown downtown, which people are not going down there because they’re very concerned about illegal immigration, trash, homelessness, crime, all of those things. But this is from Axios, and it says, the title, Say Goodbye to the 16th Street Mall. And it says that the 100… It says the 100,000 rebrand. So they’re spending $100,000 to rebrand the 16th Street Mall to the 16th Street. I think it’s just street. And it’s part of the city’s $175.4 million effort to revive the downtown strip and reshape the narrative around a corridor that struggled since the pandemic. So we have PBIs that close down businesses. And then we’ve also heard stories of businesses that customers could not get into the door because the homeless were in front of it. And so anyway, Johnston thinks he’ll spend $175.4 million of opium. Oh, that’s other people’s money. Thank you, Jenny. And it says Denver Mayor Mike Johnson made that announcement, saying that the name change, and that was earlier this week, reflects the area’s evolution from a shopping district to a mile of diverse restaurants, businesses, retail and commercial. It’s the whole downtown experience. And he said, oh, they’re calling it the Denver Way, excuse me, as a secondary name with a double meaning. It’s both a literal route through downtown, he explained, and a symbolic nod to the city’s values. And it says, so far, nine of the 13 blocks are finished, complete with 950,000 new pavers, nearly 200 trees, upgraded infrastructure, public art, and better accessibility. And so we’ll see if that $175.4 million is what was really needed to get people to go down to the Denver way. Next thing, again, Johnston is using $250,000 legal fees for his sanctuary hearing. And it says the attorneys are representing the city of Denver and Mayor Mike Johnston at a congressional hearing in March submitted a $250,000 legal bill. And it says that’s just the first invoice in a contract worth $2 million and comes as city officials prepare for a tight budget this year. And it says the request for payment from the Washington, D.C.-based firm of Covington & Burling, first reported by the Denver Gazette and confirmed by Axios Denver, is for professional services. And I think this is important to note. As you know, we’ve got our lawsuits out there that all of you helped use your hard-earned dollars to file regarding our elections. But yet here we have Johnston using OPM, other people’s money, for his particular agenda. uh next thing again this is from axios it says the city may ditch minimum parking mandate mandates and so they think that if you can’t find a place to park that you’re not going to drive someplace thereby you are going to use transit to get to these um all of these businesses that will be on the 16th street denver way Well, what actually happens is people like their cars and they’re probably going to just go to some other jurisdiction and go to those restaurants and push that tax revenue there. So it says anyway. Denver could eliminate parking minimums citywide, a move supporters say will bolster transit use, reduce housing costs and streamline local laws. And it says in a city where cars are king, dropping parking regulations could fundamentally shift how Denver’s new and much needed housing develops in the future. Opponents, including many residents, so that’s the people that live there, say the change could give developers too much leeway and potentially cause more street parking woes in neighborhoods already crammed with cars. And so again, that is Mike Johnston, I think, driving Denver into more and more decline. Yesterday, and again, Ron, if you’re listening, I’d love to have you weigh in on this. And we talked about the meeting with Donald Trump and president of South Africa. And I think it’s Ramaphosa or Phosa. And there was a video of all of these crosses by the side of a road. And I’ve not watched the complete meeting with Donald Trump and the president of South Africa. However, the article is saying that Donald Trump said that this was a burial ground. And so this is an article from the BBC saying, The title on it is On the South African Road Incorrectly Identified as a Burial Site by Trump. So I mentioned yesterday that there was an article from Reuters and an article from AP News that said that these were baseless claims in South Africa about white farmers being killed. And so what they’re trying to do is is tap down the story so that busy people, they look at that, they go baseless claims and try to discount that. And Trump had this this video, which thank you, Lisa, for sending that over to me as well. And so what had happened now, the BBC is trying to tap down this whole story as well, because and that is why it is so important to get everything absolutely correct. Because if for some reason we don’t get it absolutely correct, instead of focusing on the big issue and you can even you can when you’re in discussions with people that may be on the left, if you say something that. The big picture is correct, but you’re getting the detail wrong. What happens is, is they will hone in on that detail that is wrong instead of having this conversation about the big picture. And so the challenge then is to to clarify, get it right on the little detail. And pivot and get back to the big picture. So again, this is trying to go in on the detail. And this is from the BBC. And you need to read the whole article. But again, if people don’t, they’re not going to get the whole story. So it says, the P39-1 is an anonymous stretch of thinly tarred highway connecting the small towns of Newcastle and Normanian in South Africa, which is a four-hour drive from Johannesburg. says this week the single carriageway road, which runs mainly along the edge of farms nestled in the remote hills of the country’s KwaZulu-Natal province, has found itself at the subject of global attention. On Wednesday, it says many South Africans were among those watching live around the world as U.S. President Donald Trump ambushed, now again, this is another word that they’re using to discredit things, ambushed his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, with video making the case that white people were being persecuted. He had previously said that a genocide was taking place. So it says the most striking scene in the video was an aerial shot of thousands of white crosses by the side of the road, a burial site, President Trump repeatedly said, of more than a thousand Afrikaners murdered in recent years. I don’t think that… So I think I didn’t think it was a burial site. I didn’t think that there was people buried underneath those crosses. But anyway, that’s the issue here from the BBC. Says the president did not mention where the road was, although the film was quickly linked to Norman, Normanian. And this goes on to say that. But the people who live nearby know better than anyone that his claim is not true. Well, his claim that it’s a burial site probably isn’t true. That’s probably incorrect. So the BBC visited the area on Thursday, the day after the Oval Office showdown, to find that the P391’s crosses have long since disappeared. There is no burial site and the road looks like any other. A new grain mill has been built along one stretch where the crosses once briefly stood. What BBC found was a community shock to find itself under the spotlight and a truth about the crosses that reveals much about the delicate balance of race relations in South Africa. Then it says Roland Collier is a man who understands both. He is a farmer from South Africa. Now, this is where we get to the meat here. He’s a farmer from South Africa’s Afrikaner community. And it was the murder of his aunt and Uncle Glenn and Vita Rafferty bludgeoned to death in their home five years ago, which led to the erection of the crosses. It says their deaths at their farm by attackers who stole valuables from their home led to a public outcry by the farming community and the temporary planting of the crosses by fellow Afrikaners keen to highlight their murders among those of other farmers who’ve been killed across South Africa. So, yes, this is occurring in South Africa. The mainstream media, the BBC, Reuters and AP News are trying to tap down this. And that visual of those crosses are something that you can’t get out of your mind once you see that. And so that is why I think that they’re really working to try to discount that. And so it’s important that we continue to speak truth into all of these things that are occurring. And here in America, so an example, here these people were killed, bludgeoned in their home. And that is one of the reasons why the Second Amendment is so important here in the United States. The founders realized that, that we should have the right to keep and bear firearms so that we can protect ourselves against bad actors. And that that Second Amendment right is under is under attack. And it’s really incremental. And here in Colorado, it started back at the state legislature in 2000. And so that’s why it’s important that we shed the light on all these little things that are occurring to try to take away our right to keep in place. and bear firearms to protect ourselves against these bad actors. And that’s why I’m so pleased to have the Second Syndicate and all the great work that they’re doing as a new sponsor.
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You’d like to get in touch with one of the sponsors of The Kim Monson Show, but you can’t remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim’s website, kimmonson.com. That’s Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
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Thank God it’s Friday.
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It is Friday. Welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. Check out our website. That is KimMonson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com and sign up for our weekly email newsletter while you’re there. You’ll get first look at our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays. And we talked with Jody Henze earlier this week, new sponsor of the show. She is the owner of Mint Financial Strategies. And she can help you with your financial freedom. She and her team really do amazing work. They’re an independent firm and they’re an accredited investment fiduciary and they put your interests first. Mint means more than money. It stands for a meaningful relationship, information sharing and a network of smart strategies and a thoughtful advisor who puts you in control. No cookie cutter plans there. Everything is tailored to you. So call Mint Financial Strategies down at 303-285-3080. And again, that’s 303-285-3080. And Memorial Day is right around the corner. And it is a day to stop and reflect about those that have given their lives for our liberty. And what is liberty? Well, it’s the responsible exercise of freedom. And I’m so pleased to talk with Don Beasley. He is the Honorable Don Beasley. He’s president of Proforma Partners Business Brokerage and has been in the business of selling your business since 1987. He’s a passionate advocate for freedom. He’s a former state representative in the Colorado House District 33. And he also served as vice president for development at the Cato Institute. Don Beasley, welcome to the show.
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Thanks, Kim. Good morning. How are you today?
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I am doing well. And you’ve written a very important piece that we will roll out in the newsletter this Sunday, and then it will be on our website. Does Memorial Day still matter? And I know my producer, Steve, who’s since retired, his blood pressure would go up several degrees, I think, because he was so frustrated with people just thinking that Memorial Day was an extra day off. and a sale, you know, furniture, mattress, whatever, and that it was just a barbecue weekend. And so he was very frustrated about it. So does Memorial Day still matter, Don Beasley?
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Well, I think it does. You know, there’s two national holidays that are really important to me. One is Independence Day, July 4th, and the other is Memorial Day. And I think these two things are very closely connected to each other. And we have to ask ourselves, what are we fighting for? Why does it matter? And it is those exceptional principles that make the United so unique, not just today, but in the history of humankind that makes Memorial Day matter.
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Well, and those principles have really been under attack, I would say, because the founders, we fought a revolutionary war, obviously. People gave up their lives for liberty, the responsible exercise of freedom. But what they put in place was this vision of the Declaration and then the Constitution that said, hey, we’re not going to settle our differences, right? We’re going to have a system within liberty that people can settle their differences without picking up arms against each other. But that Constitution has been under attack almost since the ink wasn’t even dry on it, Don Beasley.
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Yeah, it has. And I think you always have to go back to first principles. And the idea of this country is that the individual matters, that your life belongs to you, that you’re not the property of a king or a Congress. And that exceptional idea is what sets us apart. And the Declaration of Independence declared those ideas, and then the brilliant effort in the Constitution to codify those ideas into law and into a government. So in fact, we would have limited government that exists to protect the rights of individuals. And that is truly exceptional in history, and that constitutional structure is definitely under attack today from, I would argue, both left and right. We see a large bill that was just passed that really doesn’t roll back a whole lot of attacks on individual liberty, kind of ignores reality in terms of the budget, and it’s just – I think our founders would – their minds would be blown by trillion-dollar deficits and $35 or $36 trillion of debt, whatever it is today. And it’s getting back to those first principles. Remember, what is the purpose of government and that constitution that exists to protect our rights to individual liberty? And then as far as Memorial Day, those are the ideas. that we’ve sent people into horrible situations to fight for us, whether it was the meat grinder of World War I, World War II, the Gulf Wars, thinking about what is it that will protect American sovereignty. And that’s one of the points I make in the article you mentioned is American sovereignty matters because America matters. But remember, America matters because freedom matters. Those are the ideas of individual liberty, limited constitutional government, and free market capitalism. And capitalism, they tried to make a bad word, but it’s the only moral social system. It’s how we all work with each other peaceably. And as you mentioned, one of the ideas in the Constitution is to have peaceful government and peaceful transfer of power. And capitalism is a reflection of freedom and peace in our own personal lives. How do we work with each other voluntarily? and peaceably and associate with each other as we choose. And if we choose not to, that’s okay too. We can’t be forced to do so. And those ideas are what we fight for ideally when we protect American sovereignty. And that’s what Americans need to remember on a weekend like this is it’s the ideas that matter. It’s the ideas that make America exceptional. And that idea is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We own our own lives. We have a right to live in liberty, and we have to because of human nature. We have to be free to take action to improve our lives. And guess what? When our freedom is protected, you know what we do? We get up in the morning. We work hard. We’re generous. We take care of our family and our friends, and we build good communities. When that freedom is violated, things start to go south.
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Well, and Don Beasley, what we have seen is these principles have been used against us. And so, for example, Liberty, Ben Martin, I think you probably know him. He is a patriotic historian. And I went through a course on America’s founding heritage. And he has this great love for our country, West Point grad, former Army Ranger. And he always would say, liberty is the responsible exercise of freedom. So liberty doesn’t mean that you can do just whatever you want. So liberty does not mean that we would use government To, in essence, steal from our neighbors. And you can see it even at the local level. I was on city council. You were at the state legislature. And what happens is cronyists and our people, our young people have taught that capitalism is a bad word. The word that they really are referring to. and our young people haven’t understood it is cronyism or cronyists and cronyists are when government and big business or small business when people want to use government to forcibly get to a goal that they want and get in bed with each other then that’s cronyism and we don’t like that but capitalism this free exchange of value for value that’s what makes America unique.
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It is. And I love Ben’s quote about the responsible exercise of freedom. And I think that freedom creates its own values. You know, the difference between kind of cronyism and plunder, right, versus the idea of personal responsibility and personal initiative when you have freedom. And you saw this in our country for so long where we had a culture of hard work, of personal responsibility, of honesty and decency. And as you get into a more cronyist world, you see that start to erode and you start seeing people trying to think of government as how can I use it to get what I want from somebody else? How can I use it to initiate force without having to do the hard work myself? And it really does start to corrode those essential human values of personal responsibility, of hard work, and even of just rationality of like making good decisions for good reasons. and and you see it corrode the culture and and it certainly at the legislature even when you tried to make you know minor reforms to you know occupational licensing is kind of a hot button for me i don’t i don’t think you should have to ask the government for permission to to do your job you know you try to make some minor tweaks to that and and and it was met with a firestorm you know you try to liberalize it just a little bit to create a little bit more freedom a little bit more opportunity for people to work and achieve things And somebody’s like, well, wait, that could be competition. I don’t want that. So they stand up against it. And your world gets very small when you get into that cronyist mentality rather than a larger view of humanity and opportunity and flourishing and prosperity.
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I had something really interesting happen. This was several years ago. Don Beasley, I was at the post office. And I really think that if you put like Chick-fil-A in charge of the post office or the motor vehicle department, things would change significantly. But, you know, a long line. And there was a guy that appeared that is probably a new immigrant to the United States. And the post office worker was just not being very helpful. And this guy, he said, but you work for me. And I was just shocked when he said that. He must have gone through courses to become a citizen where we said that we the people are in charge. And I just had to smile when he said, but you work for me. I thought that was just a precious moment.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s incredible. And people who come from other countries and have experienced things, particularly when they come from, you know, former Soviet Union or China and places like that, that they understand this relationship better than a lot of Americans do. Actually, I have an acquaintance I’m working with right now who just got his citizenship last week. And he just sent me this, you know, I sent him a congratulations and he sent me this just beautiful email that like almost brought tears to my eyes about how, and he was from Europe, about how important it was to him. And he commented on, you know, standing next to us now as Americans and how important it was to And he also referenced, because Memorial Day was coming up, you know, he referred to it as our veterans. And I was just like, I was just emotionally moved by this email. It was incredible. And he sent me a picture of him and his wife standing there, you know, at their swearing-in ceremony. And he was just so proud of it. And that pride, I think, is very unique. You know, Europeans… don’t care about their flag. They don’t, you know, they don’t, they don’t really think about their country in the way that we think about our country. And the reason we do that is because it’s exceptional because of that history of, of personal empowerment and individual liberty and opportunity and taking responsibility for your life and building and creating. We’ve just created such a unique culture. And I think that goes back to freedom, creating its own culture that, that when you’re freedom, when you’re free, you have to rely on yourself. And that builds character that builds a country’s character. And I see that eroding, but I also see hope in it because of people, his name is Jacob, that sent that email to me, because of folks like that as well as great Americans like you who are working so hard every day to affect and change the culture because it does start and end with the culture, I think, about what we actually think and believe as Americans when we get up every day. And that’s where we have to start is helping people understand that Freedom is good because freedom is right because it works. It’s human nature. We have to be free to take action and then take responsibility for that action. That builds our personal character and it builds the character of our country.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, absolutely. And our founders, I don’t think they ever knew what would happen when they founded this country with these principles or this vision that all men are created equal from our creator with these rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Well, what happened? America happened today. And so we’re going to continue the discussion with a former state representative, Don Beasley, and his piece that we will publish this weekend for Memorial Day. And it is titled, Does Memorial Day Still Matter? Well, it certainly does. And we have these discussions because of our sponsors. For everything mortgages, reach out to Lorne Levy.
SPEAKER 15 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
Call now. You’d like to get in touch with one of the sponsors of The Kim Monson Show, but you can’t remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim’s website, kimmonson.com. That’s Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You’ll get first look at our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays, which we will be rolling out. Don Beasley’s essay this weekend, Does Memorial Day Matter? One of the things I would suggest that you consider doing on Memorial Day is the USMC Memorial Foundation will be hosting an event out at the Memorial at 2 o’clock. There’ll be a swearing-in of new Marines at 1.45, and Paula Sarles and her team always do just really great events for Memorial Day. And the featured speaker is Bob Chica, who we did interview for America’s Veterans Stories, but he was on the USS Pueblo. which during the Vietnam War was captured by the North Koreans. And it was held for, I think, 11 months or so. And really a fascinating story. A lot of people don’t know about that. And so this event will be a great event to honor Memorial Day and those that have given their last full measure of devotion for our liberty. And also, I think, a very historic presentation as well. So check all that out by going to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. that’s usmcmemorialfoundation.org and the honorable don beasley is president of pro forma partners business brokerage and has been helping businesses sell their business since 1987. he is a passionate advocate for freedom and he’s a former state representative in the colorado state house district 33 he’s also was served as vice president for development at the cato institute Don Beasley, you were in the state legislature 2011-2012. And first of all, thank you. I’m going to say thank you for your service because you were down there. You saw how the sausage is really made. And boy, they were making a lot of sausage this last legislative session. What’s your comments on all that?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, you know, there was really an inflection point. My last year was 2012, and that kind of 12 to 14, 15 range was really an inflection point in Colorado. And this last session in particular has obviously been a disaster, whether it’s assaults on free speech, assaults on the right to actually defend yourself and your family. What people don’t know is there’s so many little micro things that have gone on as well. I just finished doing an annual update course for my real estate license because I have to ask the government for permission to do my job. And you wouldn’t believe the Marxist level thought that is in this legislation. And that’s just one piece of it. But controlling every little thing, the size of signs, when you can do this, when you can do that, the fact that you as a landlord can’t evict somebody from your own property basically without going through it to extraordinary lengths versus freedom and a contract and adults making adult decisions. It’s just infuriating. When I’m mad at our state government at a 10 out of 10 and it’s waning, I do that update course and it goes to 648 out of 10 because it’s micrometaling at every level controlling our lives, and it’s really Marxist ideology of trying to control property and make everyone equal on the outcome even though one person’s earned it and somebody else hasn’t.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and it is. And I think, Don Beasley, that Colorado is at the tip of the spear of this ideological battle that is going on between the Marxist communists that are controlling the Democrat Party. I think it’s important for people to understand this Democrat Party is not the Democrat Party of Tip O’Neill or JFK or your grandpa or your grandma. This Democrat Party in Colorado and nationwide is being controlled by Marxists that really want to destroy America. And so we are in this amazing ideological battle right now, Don Beasley.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and a really important thing, and you touched on this, is that the Democrat next door is not the Democrats that are in the state legislature. What’s happened over the last 10 to 15 years here in Colorado, and you see it at the national level, too, is the Democrats that are being elected are the radical activists who are active in the party and have gotten themselves into that position. The Democrat next door doesn’t know it isn’t JFK’s party anymore. Unfortunately, people don’t always think as much as they should when they vote. And so they’ve always voted Democrat, and I’m not going to argue with them about that per se. But they just continue to check that box without realizing that the folks that are actually now getting elected are not the same folks even just 15 years ago, that these are radical left-wing Marxist advocates with an agenda. And unfortunately, when Republicans have opportunity, they hesitate. When these leftist activists have opportunity, they do not hesitate. They go for everything all the time, every day. You saw that in the transgender bill, in the firearms bill, just across the board, things I referenced about just seeing in my little corner of the world, in my industry. They go all out all the time for the most – for true Marxist equity ideology. And the Democrat next door doesn’t know who they’re voting for, and they’ve got to figure it out. At least I hope they don’t know who they’re voting for.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, but it’s because these candidates don’t tell the truth about who they really are. But the – oh, gosh, what was it? I can’t remember. It was the Hillary Clinton training for female candidates, right? Text me at 720-605-0647 if you remember what it is. It starts with an E. But anyway, it was a training program for women candidates to train them to run for office and to win. And they would train them on what to say, read the audience, and then say what your audience wants to hear. And in fact, I was speaking at a Republican event in Denver and a woman was running for city council. And I thought, huh? And she sounded kind of conservative. But then I went and did a little more research and she had gone through this Hillary Clinton program. And so she was able to read the room and say what she figured people wanted to hear. And at the end there, it was difficult to figure out, was she actually a radical Democrat? And and she was. But she was able to read the room, whereas Republicans, I think, many times have a real messaging challenge because they they sometimes don’t understand the principles that are involved.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I think you’re you’re certainly right. And there is it comes back to. To achieve your – the end justifies the means. To lie to get where you want to go is okay. And people who have a kind of more conservative or Republican bent typically can’t process that, right? They can’t think about I’m going to go out and lie. I’m going to instead go out and tell you who I am and what I think is right and why I think it’s right. And which is the right way to be. But they’ve got to, you know, I think as candidates and as a political party in Colorado, the Republican Party’s had some challenges over the last few years. But as a party, they’ve got to start figuring out how to have a coherent message that connects with people and makes a difference for folks. Especially, you know, it’s majority unaffiliated or plurality unaffiliated voters in this state now, which is good. That’s an opportunity. They’re turning their back on the Democrat Party. But Republicans have to give them something to move towards. It can’t just be we’ve got to we have to expose Republicans. The evil that exists on the left, and it is evil. I mean, it is a rationality and a desire to certainly rot this country from within. But we also have to give that beacon of light, that shining city on the hill of why our vision is better and how that’s going to make their lives better. And I think sometimes Republicans challenge to make that connection. But I don’t believe Colorado is lost for two reasons. One is. Our principles are right, and reality wins in the end. So number one. And then number two, you actually even saw in this last election, we have a split on our representatives of four to four. I think it’s a purple state. I don’t think it’s a blue state. Colorado has been fiscally conservative but socially moderate to liberal for a long time, a really long time. It’s just that as these social issues became more front and center in terms of gay marriage and abortion and things like that, that Republicans sort of struggled to grapple with. That’s when when we started losing our message and losing the voter. And so I believe it’s even though, yes, it’s Democrat control and hard Democrat control to our to our detriment. And that’s why we see so many people leaving the state. But I believe it’s still at heart a purple state that is fiscally conservative because you see people uphold the taxpayer bill of rights. You see them vote for an income tax reduction. But people are more socially moderate to liberal, and Republicans have to figure out that equation so they can’t constantly be outflanked in their election rhetoric.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, that’s very good advice. And so I’d really recommend that people check out our website. We’ll have it on the website after we get it published in the newsletter. And that is, does Memorial Day still matter? Don Beasley, I so appreciate you are a very coherent voice for liberty in our state. And I really appreciate the piece that we’ll publish this weekend. So thank you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, my pleasure. And thanks for having me on and publishing that piece. And thank you so much for all the work that you do on behalf of this state, this country. Kim, you’re fantastic.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, thank you. And again, that’s Don Beasley. And our quote for the end of the show is from a known. It’s it’s this. It says our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it. So, my friends, today be grateful. Read great books. Think good thoughts. Listen to beautiful music. Communicate and listen well. Live honestly and authentically. Strive for high ideals. And like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you. God bless America. Stay tuned for hour number two.
SPEAKER 08 :
Like a new moon rising fierce Through the rain and lightning And I don’t want no one to cry But tell them if I don’t
SPEAKER 10 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s the Kim Monson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 09 :
An early childhood taxing district? What on earth is that?
SPEAKER 02 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 09 :
I don’t think that we should be passing legislation that is so complicated that people kind of throw up their hands and say, I can’t understand that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Today’s current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 09 :
And it’s not fair just because you’re a big business that you get a break on this and the little guy doesn’t.
SPEAKER 02 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
SPEAKER 09 :
Indeed, let’s have a conversation. And welcome to our number two of the Kim Monson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You each are treasured, you’re valued, you have purpose. Today, strive for excellence, take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history. And thank you to the team. That’s Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. It is Friday. Producer Joe. Happy Friday, Kim. Happy Friday to you. And the show comes to you 6 to 8 a.m. The first hour is rebroadcast 1 to 2 in the afternoon. So if you did not hear the interview with former state representative Don Beasley, you can catch that at 1 o’clock. So the first hour is rebroadcast 1 to 2 in the afternoon, second hour 10 to 11 at night. This is on all KLZ 560 platforms, which is KLZ 560 AM, KLZ 100.7 FM, the KLZ website, the KLZ app, and Alexa. Play KLZ. It’ll come in on Alexa as well. And so be sure and check all that out. And then after that, the shows can be found at Spotify and iTunes. And so check out the website. That is Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter while you are there. That way you will get first look at our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays. And you can email me at Kim at Kim Monson dot com as well. And thank you to all of you who support us. As I mentioned, we are an independent. I guess I mentioned that in the first hour. We’re an independent voice searching for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And on the show, we focus on the issues and we’ll mention the people surrounding those issues. But we really work to stay out of personality fighting. And I do want to say thank you to an amazing group of people, and that is my fellow Colorado Union of Taxpayer Board members. And you can join us by going to coloradotaxpayer.org. It is an all-volunteer group that we also pay our $25 membership to give up our weekends throughout the legislative session, or a big portion of our weekends, to take positions on different pieces of legislation. ratings report, which will come out. It’ll be several weeks before we get that done. But an enormous amount of work on getting that thing done. And so we’d love to have you join us. And again, that group is Steve Dorman, Greg Golianski, Russ Haas, Bill Hamill, Rob Knuth, John Nelson, Wendy Warner, Marty Nielsen, Ramey Johnson, Mary Jansen, Dave Evans, Corey Ohnersorg, Paula Beard, and Ray Beard. And in the 2025 legislative session here in Colorado, there were 733 bills and resolutions that were proposed. The Colorado Union of Taxpayers took positions on 261 of those pieces of legislation, and we looked at them, things that affect the taxpayer or property rights, Parental rights slash school choice and taper. Those are the four things that we really work on. And you really you need to know what’s going on. And I think many times they flood the zone with so many different things coming at us that that’s why to try to percolate all this and really get to the. principles, as Don is able to do, Don Beasley, is you got to stay on that true north. And so a tool in your toolbox that would be very helpful is to join us at coloradotaxpayer.org. And speaking of finances, taxes, all those things, financial freedom is really, really important. And so pleased to have Mint Financial Strategies as a new sponsor of the show. And Jody Henze and her team says, hey, do you have big dreams for your future, but you’re not quite sure how to get there? Well, call our friends at Mint Financial Strategies. They know your financial life is unique. And as an independent firm and an accredited investment fiduciary, they build personalized strategies that put your freedom and goals first. No sales pressure, no one size fits all approach, just thoughtful guidance built around you. Take that first step towards your future. Call Mint Financial Strategies at 303-285-3080. And I also wanted to say thank you to Laramie Energy for their goal sponsorship of the show. We get to work with amazing people. All of our sponsors, I know each and every one of them personally, and I know that they each strive for excellence as we do here at the Kim Monson Show. This whole thing with Harvard is, again, the veil is coming off. And Trump is, I think, doing a good job of starting to unpeel this onion of public and private higher education. And so one of the first things I think people have to ask is, why on earth was Harvard the getting all of this money from, I’ll put in air quotes, the federal government. Well, the federal government doesn’t create anything. The federal government lives on opium, other people’s money, our money. And so first and foremost, and we’ve learned that many of our educational institutions have been indoctrinating young people to hate America. And I saw a meme regarding other countries getting money from us. It says, why should we be paying other countries to hate us? They can actually hate us without our money. And so this thing with Harvard They have a big endowment. So people give to this endowment. And I think it’s probably considered a nonprofit. So it’s tax deductible. So this is a way of people reducing their tax burden. And I think that goes to why should we have an income tax that picks winners and losers? We need to have a tax that everybody has the same skin in the game. and so is it five percent everybody pays five percent but people start to make decisions differently when they have skin in the game if they can vote to have somebody else pay taxes that they think that they’re going to benefit from it’s human nature and that’s that’s many times what is used for a tax increase but anyway this is from bloomberg It says former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers blasted the Trump administration’s decision to block Harvard University from enrolling international students, calling on the institution to fight back. Well, first of all, who’s paying for the tuition for those 6000 students? And are they not taking the spot of an American student? But anyway, it goes on to say he says this is vicious, it’s illegal, it’s unwise, and it is very damaging. Summers, who is president emeritus of Harvard University, told Bloomberg TV, why does it make any sense at all to stop 6,000 enormously talented young people who want to come to the United States to study from having that opportunity? I still think that this is more about dollars and cents, but we’ll continue on. It says Harvard must start by resisting. This is the stuff of tyranny. I think actually the tyranny begins when we start to have institutions that teach hatred for the American idea. But it says Trump’s team has blocked Harvard’s university from enrolling international students, citing an unsafe campus environment and alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Existing international students must transfer or lose their legal status, the Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday. These international students are here as guests of the United States, and so I think the United States can probably choose the rules on that. So anyway, though, Larry Summers, big Democrat, he’s saying that Harvard should resist. Well, let’s quit, first of all, giving any of the opium other people’s money to Harvard and Harvard. And perhaps they should use their endowments for scholarships. And this is taking the spot, 6,000 spots of students from America that could be attending Harvard. So stay tuned on all this. Donald Trump is doing so many different things. He’s got a short timeframe to do this. We got to this point, it took a lot of years to get to this point. And so we’ve got to be acting fast to reclaim our country and he’s working diligently on trying to make that happen. And we have these important discussions because of all of our sponsors and the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance team. They carry my home in auto. And if you bundle everything together, you might be able to save some money. And you won’t know unless you give them a call. That number is 303-795-8855. Make that complimentary appointment to determine if you have what you need and maybe save some money. That number again is 303-795-8855. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan team is there.
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SPEAKER 15 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
You’d like to get in touch with one of the sponsors of The Kim Monson Show, but you can’t remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim’s website, kimmonson.com. That’s Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s right!
SPEAKER 09 :
It is Friday and welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMonson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And on Memorial Day out at the USMC Memorial, the foundation will be sponsoring an event. The speaker, the featured speaker is Bob Chica, who was a prisoner during the Vietnam War. The North Koreans captured the USS Pueblo. and he’s going to share his experiences on that. And the event starts at 2 p.m. at 145. New Marines will be sworn in, and you can get more information about all that by going to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That is usmcmemorialfoundation.org. On the line with me is Natalie Minton. And she is a citizen advocate. She served on the RTD board as a director. She is a director with the Tabor Foundation and really understands these issues that are facing the citizens here in Colorado. And she works tirelessly to protect our pocketbooks. So Natalie Minton, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER 07 :
Glad to be here, Kim.
SPEAKER 09 :
And Mike Rolick, I think it was Natalie that introduced us, Mike. And you have been really a watchdog of a lot of things that were happening down at the state legislature. And you and I, you were on, gosh, a week or so ago. We were talking about it. And we talked a little bit about zoning. And I said, well, gosh, we should do a show on that. And he said, I’m up for it, but I’d really like Natalie Minton to join us on that. And zoning, Mike Rolick, can be used to protect property rights, but it can be used to usurp property rights as well. So Mike Rolick, welcome.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, good morning, Kim. Thanks for having me here. Thanks for having Natalie as well.
SPEAKER 09 :
So property rights, Natalie, property rights are inherent in the American idea. And when there’s new development, and I think when I was on city council, I had to go through this journey. And that is, I believe people should be able to do with their property what they want, if they need to do that responsibly, with consideration, I think, for their neighbors. But then what I saw is that if there is like a new development, it can affect the property rights of the people that are already living there. It could be traffic. It could be water. So how would you like to set this up for us, Natalie?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, it’s a very complex issue, so that’s a difficult question to start the morning with. Land use to me is one of the most complex issues. uh, issues out there for, for somebody, especially does believe in the, the property rights. And, um, you know, I think, I think in the big picture here, what, what we’ve got for our discussion was that like when you opened up your, um, your, your, it’s a statement that you repeat through most of your shows. If it’s a good idea, you shouldn’t have to force people to do it. And that’s a very good statement to start with. I think, um, What we’ve got is a situation where we’ve seen this in the works over the last few years where the governor has been very driven to force state mandates down on local jurisdictions about zoning basically comes down to increasing the amount of dense housing in Colorado. Now that would be perhaps acceptable at some level, except that for me, I have to look at the financial end. And what we’ve got is a drive for subsidized housing at that dense level. That’s a lot of what it boils down to. It’s not a free market system that’s been set up. So in the big picture, we’ve got started with Senate Bill 213, which was a monster bill And it was the state handing down a bunch of heavy mandates. The constituents, the community, just said, no way. And they were furious over it. The bill died on the last night of the session. I was down there and it was right till the end.
SPEAKER 09 :
And that was last year, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
No, that was prior. That was prior year. So it was, as I say, a monster bill, Senate Bill 23213 is what it would have been. So prior to – so we’re going two years back. Since that one exploded, well, Polis wasn’t going to give up. The governor wasn’t going to give up and those supporting this. So they broke that bill into pieces. A big chunk of those went through in the 24 session. and then a couple remaining pieces went in or got passed this year. Now POLIS is getting a lot of pushback again because of bills, especially like one of the biggest examples would be 24-1313, the housing and transit-oriented communities. And it has gotten so bad that multiple cities, public entities, are now suing the governor to stop the state from forcing these mandates on down. So, you know, you talked about a general question. I don’t want to dominate too much here at the beginning, but zoning has always been kind of regarded as a local issue. And here in the state of Colorado, that carrot that government thought will let locals do it, has turned into now where Senate Bill 213, the big monster one, has broken into, it’s basically just a big club or stick being used to force his will down on local jurisdictions. And because of this lawsuit that just came out earlier this week, it’s obvious this matter is not settled. And I’ll stop there. That to me is where we kind of go with
SPEAKER 09 :
a discussion but it’s such a big subject it’s so dense it’s so complex i’ll let you go from there as to where you think we should go okay so mike rollick uh last week uh governor polis this was in the headlines uh said that he will shut off millions in state grants to cities and counties that do not show that they’re enacting this recently passed state housing law. And so, first of all, I think a big takeaway that people need to look at is the government giveth and the government taketh away. And so we should not be, and one of our listeners said, said this, our listener, Ginny, and I don’t know if this is original or not, so let me know, Ginny, but she said that these PBIs, politicians, bureaucrats, and interest parties are addicted to OPM, and that’s other people’s money. So Polis has all of this other people’s money that’s really taken via force, and it was for Again, I have this in air quotes, affordable housing, as Natalie has taught me, affordable housing means subsidized housing, which means government housing. And we know that that hasn’t worked out very well anywhere because there’s no property rights that are inherent in that. But anyway, Polis says he’s going to not give money unless people obey him. What do you think about that, Mike Rollick?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, that’s an interesting topic because fundamentally, if you peel back the layers of the onion, we have a taxation system where individuals send money upwards, right? Sales tax might go to county, some sales tax or other youth tax might go to local, and then taxes then go to state, and then a lot of our income tax obviously goes to the federal, and then they all have that ability. We’ve seen this before, whether at a federal agency or state government that says, you know, you’re not doing what I want, therefore I’ll remove your money. So fundamentally, trying to get taxation again to be A, limited, and B, To the local level is interesting. So, for instance, you know, I posited this question a while back. If someone was going to say, well, we’re not going to send state money to fix roads, could the citizens then volunteer on a Saturday to fix their local roads? Well, the answer was no because of insurance and engineering and all this kind of stuff, which is layers. But it would be an interesting experiment to see, well, gosh, the state says you don’t get money because you’re not following our way. And the local community says, well, we like this way better. And they say, well, here’s your punishment. And if the citizens had a way to say that’s OK. We’ll do it ourselves on a Saturday. We’ll fix the road. We’ll do what we have to do. We just don’t want to be under that sum. So how do you peel back all those layers of the onion? It’s a great question, but I think fundamentally we’ve set a taxation system up that shoves all our money towards the top, and then we wait for it to come back in form of grants or project money. So I think that’s a fundamental problem right there. I don’t like how it is to be told, well, if you’re not going to do what I like, or the law is, then we’re gonna hurt you with money.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and then there are those that would say, well, guys, Trump is doing the same thing to Mike Johnston, mayor of Denver, saying that he’s not going to give some of the millions of dollars of FEMA money because of the sanctuary policies. So what would you say to that, Natalie? Because I like that. But yet I guess there is the fundamental question, I guess. The fundamental question is where we really need to go to, and that is how does the federal government have, first of all, that money, and how is it that Mike Johnston, mayor of Denver, doesn’t follow the law? Do you think those are the two questions to ask?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I think Mike hit on a good point, and it is who ends up with the money, because money, to me, money equals power, and I think it’s displayed here. I think it’s displayed in both, frankly, both situations. But what Mike hit upon is, is it appropriate that we’re setting the money up there? So we had the feds with a system that I don’t know how far back this goes to what presidential era it would have come from, but where the federal government was reimbursing states for bringing in those who are undocumented. And that in itself is a principle is why is the federal government reimbursing city and county of Denver or state of Colorado for some of these expenses? And in the same way, why, you know, what kills me, I’m getting off track here, so sorry, is that the government constantly says we don’t have enough money, we don’t have enough money. That is a priority problem in where they choose to spend the money. So I think there’s certainly a problem with the state of Colorado issue going on, and it’s hard to track right now and identify specifically. You took in this money from sales tax paid to the state of Colorado, and now instead of going into a Colorado highway or a variety of the judicial system, Health and Human Services. Why is that money then being earmarked for a certain purpose and then, which is a very small, very, it’s not a statewide type of issue, really. Why is the money being directed there in the first place? And then it’s being diverted from what many of us would consider a higher priority and what the money was intended for. I’ll give an example. We’ve got gas taxes, road taxes, going into what’s called the National Highway Trust Fund. It used to be called the Trust Fund. It depends who you talk to. But that money is being diverted to transit projects, which are meant to bring in more population. And I’m going to start ending up with agreeing with Mike. First, the taxation, because that puts the power in the hand of the politicians. then instead of using it for the purpose it was thought to go towards, they’re using it as a stick. And in the case of immigration, I mean, we’ve got 45 minutes. No, we only got a half hour left. I don’t know how we fit in some of these very complex issues. I think the fact that Denver declared itself a sanctuary city, the state of Colorado went along with it. Many There’s other, I’m not going to say many, other jurisdictions in Colorado that have decided to become sanctuary practices. That’s a problem in itself. If we have law and order, the rule of law, then that should be abided by. Why are we putting money into it? Why is there not a process? Why are people getting cheated in the line they’re raiding in? And then public money goes towards… giving them catered meals at a hotel. There’s something fundamentally wrong with that. So I kind of see different points. Okay, super interesting. I’m going to stop.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, super interesting. I’m talking with Natalie Minton and Mike Rolick about, well, zoning is where we began, but we get into taxation. The fruits of our labor are money. is property. And so we’re seeing this attack upon property and certainly through taxation, subsidizing housing, moves this away from a free market. And again, as Natalie mentioned, then that puts power in the hands of those PBIs, politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties. And we need to remind people that are elected, they’re not elected officials, they’re elected representatives, and we need to remind them to do that. I did want to say thank you to Laramie Energy for their gold sponsorship of the show because it’s reliable, efficient, affordable, and abundant energy from oil, natural gas, and coal that powers our lives and fuels our hopes and dreams. And also, for anything regarding residential real estate, you want Karen Levine on your side of the table.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 17 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
And welcome back to The Kim Monson Show. Check out our website. That is Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at Kim Monson dot com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And very pleased to have the Second Syndicate as a sponsor of the show. And Alicia Garcia and Teddy Collins are working to bring all of these different organizations together to work together to protect our Second Amendment, which is our right to keep and bear firearms to protect ourselves. And so you can support them. by going to their website, which is the second syndicate, so the number two indie, syndicate.com, and support them. Because instead of having us fight with each other on these important issues, we need to come together. So they’re doing really great work on that. And they will be our featured guests next Friday in the second hour. They’re both traveling today. And so that’s why we’re not hearing from them. But on the line with me, is Natalie Minton. She is a citizen advocate. She is a fierce protector of TABOR, Colorado’s Taxpayers Bill of Rights, former director on the RTD board. Also talking with Mike Rolick, who is a citizen activist as well, and really watching many things that are happening down at the legislature. So Mike, when I was on city council 2012 to 2016, I connected dots. So I’m going to do my best on this. I believe in property rights. I believe that people should be able to use their property as they want to. They have they really have a duty to be responsible on how they do that. But property rights are so important. So I would look at these big apartment buildings that were coming out of the ground and thinking, well, gosh, that developer has the property right to develop that property as he sees fit. But then what I learned was, and it’s really the World Economic Forum, the idea to have people in very dense housing and be able to only ride around on trains and buses and bicycles and walk. that it wasn’t just a free market on these apartment buildings, that zoning laws or ordinances were possibly being changed. So people may have bought the property across the street and the zoning said that it was the same for everybody and then that zoning changes. But also with these big apartment buildings, we’ve realized that government is pushing that through maybe favorable financing, changing zoning laws. So some municipalities have said, well, we’re not going to do that. And now Polis and the state legislature said, oh, well, you municipalities don’t get to make that choice. The state’s going to make that choice. So the problem is, is there’s coercion with all of this dense housing. It’s not that the developer says, oh, this is a great idea. It’s government trying to use zoning to make these, you know, push this agenda. Your thoughts on that, Mike?
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s an interesting thought there. I wanted to kind of frame this whole thing via a Milton Friedman discussion, if I could. February 1999, he was on the Take It to the Limits show. And just because I know we’re all always seeking maximum freedom. So the host had mentioned that the typical definition of libertarianism, in my mind, is that a libertarian wants a smallest least intrusive government, and then Milton comes in with consistent with the maximum freedom for each individual to follow his own ways, his own values, as long as he doesn’t interfere with anyone else who’s doing the same. And that is that division of where your freedoms end and my begin, right? So in the idea of – this is an interesting one because we’re looking at comprehensive master plan changes, and comprehensive master plans are – are necessary under Colorado state law. So if I move into an area because the comp plan might say, you know, agricultural, rural, and I like horses, say, so I have my horses there. And then over the next 10 years, there’s a density creep. And then there becomes a derivative precedent of, well, you know, we did allow half acres, so we should allow quarter acres, we should allow quarter acres, we should allow you know, multifamily, multifamily, then turn to apartment buildings and you’re stuck with that horse farm. And you’re like, well, I had this plan that was promised to me and I bought this plan with this plan in mind. And now I have to move on my property. My value might’ve changed for the better or for worse. Uh, so my freedom has been truncated by the fact that this would might’ve been my nest egg. And it has changed, uh, rights of way, easements, things like that. Utilities could have come and encroached. And then also just the basic fact that, um, You don’t really have a protection of a view shed per se, but you do have certain rights to clean air, sunlight, things like that. And so the idea of building, say, the skyscraper next to the single-family home might seem like a ridiculous idea on its face, but it really hits in that point of have your freedoms with your property truncated mine. And I just also want to hit this one idea here. We usually own land in C-simple. Very few states and very few areas of states have Elodio title, which would be free from those encumbrances of easements, rights of way, eminent domain, S-sheet, things like this. So, you know, in a way, we have a bundle of rights and interests in our property, but do we truly own it fully? Nevada and Texas actually have or had some provision for Elodio title. So when we look at land… I don’t know if we truly have full ownership. You know, I have to let the internet services go to my backyard, even if I’m not home because they have an easement or right away back there. So with that in mind, when we look at these comp plan changes, we’re told, well, it’s progress and progress is going to happen, but progress only goes one direction. It’d be a far cry for anyone to say, let’s go to downtown Denver and decide to put a farm there unless you can secure it on top of a rooftop. It’s not going to happen. You might get a little community garden here or there, but you’re not going to get a ranch or a farm. The progress only goes one direction, out towards where people have more rural lifestyles and those folks who used to enjoy the freedom of living with less neighbors. That changes. If it’s proper or not, that’s something for the citizens to decide. And local land use, I think, should remain local. I was looking at this as well. Oh, gosh. Let’s see. It was – no. Yeah. Okay. I lost my place on this, but I was looking at certain court cases. Cherry Hill’s. a resort development company versus the city of Cherry Hills. And it talked about not only due process, but how things should be, especially under a home rule charter city, a matter of local concern. When the state or even the federal takes over, you lose freedom. I like this balance and division of powers. If the state wants to fight with the city on who gets to control zoning, I think that’s good and it should be heard in courts. I agree with more local control because if I don’t like how my city is going, it’s much more easy to pick up and move from city to city, though I wouldn’t want to. But if I’m in a state or even in a country, it becomes pretty prohibitive.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and so what do you think about this, Natalie Minton, regarding how this zoning can be used for property rights and changing zoning changes property rights as well, and then state control versus local control?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, you’ve got to say there is some merit, I think, to when you do buy a property and it’s zoned in a certain way, which That makes the assumption I’m agreeing with the original zoning, which is not necessarily the case, that you have bought something with a certain expectation of what that is going to provide in the environment. You know, I guess for me, there’s two parts that I boil this down to, this discussion that’s been going on for at least three years. It goes back further than that COVID thing. which, frankly, I blame the government for that, has created so many additional problems. Again, it is so often now I hear, oh, we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to raise taxes because of COVID, we’ve got to do this because of COVID, da-da-da-da-da. When I try to boil all of this down, this very complex subject, it really comes down to two parts. First of all, because it’s the most important, water. How are we going to support all the growth, They’re expecting. They say that dense developments will get around this problem and make it less of a problem for water, the infrastructure. But the water source, where are we going to get that? And one of the good things in all of these bills, there’s seven bills that for those who don’t know, that were passed regarding this zoning, occupancy limits, parking requirements, all these things. So there’s seven bills in here. A couple, at least one, I’m going to say, actually, of the featured bills in here, 1313, does state a local government doesn’t have to do this if they cannot support it with the water and the infrastructure. And we continue to forget about that. We have been fairly blessed. with the amount of precipitation, rainfall that we have gotten in the state of Colorado. That was a hard one there. And we still have problems coming. And we continue to divert more water from things that actually produce, keep life alive. And it’s going into housing, other different things, which one could argue that keeps you alive also. But if we don’t have food, if we don’t have water, Those are the two basics. So the water thing is a big part of it to me. Second big part of all this big picture boiled down is the money. We have gotten out to where government says it’s okay to take from neighbor A to give to new neighbor B because of for some reason they are owed that and property owner A must pay more. And when we look at the subsidized housing, Generally, that means no property taxes are generated. That means neighbor A is going to be paying more because there is a higher demand. Now we have household B over here. And those are the two – it sounds very generic, but to me that’s the best way to boil it down into my brain. And when we’re talking then about property rights, if – Somebody has the right to develop, develop, develop. Well, where is the water being countered into that, and are we cutting our own throat, cutting off our own food supply, limiting it? As I said, to me, over all the years, this is the most complex and hard subject, and it almost has to be taken by an instant at a time or a situation that and then apply some of these things to, okay, where are the property rights here? Is it about being able to build as much as you want so you want to put 1,000 people on that property? Or is it about the water impact that’s going to affect the farmer who has had property rights for a real long time too? Where do we build all those things in and then figure out what is fair, what is right, and what is about liberty and not harming somebody else For instance, if they can no longer turn on the tap and get a glass of water.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. Boy, these are such important points. I’m talking with Natalie Minton and Mike Rolick, and it is complex. And I really appreciate the two of them being up for trying to unpack all of this stuff. And so I did want to mention the Center for American Values down in Pueblo. On the 28th, they’re going to have an event in honor of Memorial Day. It’s one of their On Values presentations today. And it’ll be at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. And you can get more information about what that event looks like by going to AmericanValueCenter.org. That’s AmericanValueCenter.org. And another great sponsor of the show is John Bozen and Bozen Law.
SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
And welcome back to The Kim Monson Show. Check out our website. That is Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMonson.com as well. On the line with me is Natalie Minton. She is a former director on the RTD board. She is a citizen advocate. She is on the Tabor Foundation Board. And then also talking with Mike Rollick, who is a citizen activist, really watched a lot of things this last legislative session regarding privacy. But we’re talking about zoning. And Natalie said it’s such a complex issue. There’s two things that are really important to consider, and one is water and one is money. And so regarding water, just think about the amount of water that a multifamily apartment building that is subsidized is going to use versus the amount of water that a single family home would use. I think that multifamily units going to use a lot more water. And as my friend Ivana said, you can’t have water conservation unless you have water storage. And so instead of going down and trying to take water from our farming communities, I think that these PBIs need to get serious about some water storage. But the other thing is money. And that is, is that many of these multifamily apartment buildings that we see up and down the transit corridor are receiving favorable zoning benefits. They’re receiving government money, tax incentives, favorable interest rates. That’s not a free market microlic. And I think that’s important that people understand that.
SPEAKER 06 :
I would agree. And the third thing I would mention is crisis. Every time there’s a potential crisis, and that could be in quotes, I’m doing air quotes, things seem to change rather quickly. And I want to put this frame in the context of cell phone towers for a minute, and then we can get back to Holmes. But I’m not sure if you had dealt with when you’re on city council any kind of planning and zoning decisions on placement of cell phone towers. But that used to be something that maybe not a city council, but at least a planning and zoning division would do. They would take a look at the site, the height, the placement, the aesthetics of a cell phone tower. I used to help a cell phone antenna team in San Diego, and there was a lot of rules on how to make it look and how to hide it and what have you. But none of the rules ever really affected the EMF, the radio frequencies. So in 2018, because we needed to, apparently, the FCC came out with the small – And that basically said the need for commission action. 5G wireless services in particular will transform U.S. economy through the increased use of high bandwidth and low latency applications and through the growth of the Internet of Things. And then here it says the commission has acknowledged an urgent need to remove any unnecessary barriers to such deployment, whether caused at federal law commission processes, local and state reviews or otherwise. And then they go on to go through certain cities, like a city in Texas that said you can’t put a 5G tower in a right-of-way and on and on and on. So the issue here is the crisis of needing this Internet of Things to said the federal government can take this power away from local jurisdictions. A local jurisdiction might actually listen to us about EMF and if we’re sensitive or not, maybe move that power a little bit for health. Good luck with a very large organization like the federal government. In fact, the city of Portland sued over this, and the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of the federal government in 2020. And as such, now, the cities and counties basically have zero power to say where these can go. In fact, you can put a 5G right in residential areas. So if you have any question about how zoning can possibly protect you, there it was, and now it’s gone. And in fact, we even have a state law that passed this year, 1056, That says if a local jurisdiction can’t get to a cell antenna zoning application or not zoning, but just an application within 90 days, it’s considered as approved because we need to rush these things through even more. So we see continually this rush towards a crisis situation. usurping local authority and then local authorities closest to personal authority right because we might know our city mayor a city councilor but good luck you know talking to the president or the governor so i want to frame it matt one more The CSU Fort Collins new bat vivarium, which is a BSL level two, with room potentially to go to a BSL level three, as said during the county process, only needed what they call a location and extent process, a kind of zoning decision, but just basically does the county say the location and extent fit the need, and then it becomes mostly a use by right. And that’s it. Now they can have a BSL level two and work on importing bats from Thailand right to Fort Collins. So zoning could have protected that, but it didn’t.
SPEAKER 09 :
Wow. Okay, Mike, that’s a lot of really important information. We have a couple of minutes left. Natalie, what’s your thoughts about Mike’s perspective on what’s being used, pushed down from the federal government? And so what’s your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I, I guess I would have to agree that there’s merit to it, what he has stated. With the limited amount of time that we’ve got, I just want to close with something I didn’t mention earlier, and I want to definitely bring it up. Where did this series of things start with this zoning and what we’re talking about with the density? Part of the problem is because voters passed Prop 123, in year 2022. Many people were not real aware of it. It’s called the State Affordable Housing Fund. And in itself, there were a couple problems. One, they were not very clear in the ballot title in what that really meant. For the average person, they thought that meant, oh, my taxes are going to go down or I’m going to get cheaper housing out there. At the end of the day, what it was was about subsidized housing. Prop 123 passed. Governments had to increase density to get part of this money. They had to increase density by 3% per year. In that, I think there’s been resistance and maybe that they’re not seeing the density that they want, which has now created seven bills that will be like the foundation for what these governments actually have to do beyond the specifics of increased by 3%. It reminds me of why I got on RTD, because there was a huge property-taking issue. We’ll go back to eminent domain. And the whole goal was to make this transit system work, make all your dollars work. We have to build an incredible more density around these systems to make them work. And I just will end with, I think that sums it up in a round picture that when we give government money and it sounds like it’s going to this, that is not necessarily what it really is. And it was a PR person who spent a bunch of money on polling, figured out the words that were going to persuade the voter to fill in the yes box. And voters need to think, need to do more digging on the impact of these things before they do that. Absolutely. Leave it at that.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, Natalie Minton, thank you. Mike Rolick, thank you. Great discussion. And our quote for the end of the show is unknown. It says, Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it. So, my friends, you’re not alone. God bless you, and God bless America.
SPEAKER 10 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
