In this insightful conversation, John Rush and Ammon Blair explore the impact of cultural shifts on physical fitness standards in the military. Against the backdrop of increasing obesity rates among National Guard members, Blair advocates for innovative solutions, including a proposed military bill for better soldier health oversight. Discover how these systemic challenges affect recruitment, readiness, and national security in this thought-provoking episode.
SPEAKER 06 :
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 04 :
With your host, John Rush.
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My advice to you is to do what your parents did.
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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 felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 16 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, and we are back. Hour number two, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Thank you all for listening. Our next guest today is set a moment ago. Welcome, and you’ve been with us many times. Ammon Blair, welcome back. How are you guys? By the way, I should have started off that way, but I’m reading text messages and trying to talk at the same time. That doesn’t work out very well, by the way.
SPEAKER 05 :
No worries. Thank you for having me back.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, we’re going to talk about overweightness in the National Guard. And one thing I just got, and this is the message I was reading to try to be prepped for you. It says, I served in the Texas National Guard, Army National Guard, Black Hawk Company commander for three years. One thing to note, like Alaska, which used to be majority native Alaskas, Texas is largely Hispanic. Another BMI tends to run higher in those individuals than it does in Caucasians. So I wanted to throw that out there as we got started talking to you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, sure. I think that’s just an excuse. Look, there was a report that recently just came out, I think it was in July, that stated that the National Guard is 68% overweight or obese. Okay. And it’s all due to a few things. One, National Guard soldiers are typically not given the opportunity like active duty. They don’t have a gym. They don’t live on a base or a post. Everything is on their own discretion. They only go to drill one week in a month. And so as a non-commissioned officer or an officer, you have to try to do as much as you can to try to get them to motivate themselves. to conduct PT on their own or eat healthy. And really, there’s no incentive to do so when the rules are quite lax. And what I mean by that is a majority of the Texas Army National Guard soldiers that are currently on deployment came from Operation Lone Star on the border. And when you’re on the border, you’re on state active duty orders, not regular active duty orders like Title 32 or Title 10. Therefore, you were only covered by workers’ comp. You’re not covered by military health insurance. So a majority of these soldiers, thousands of soldiers that were on duty, were only covered during duty hours. Meaning if you did PT or anything else like that, you were not covered if you got injured. Therefore, it was a directive by the general officers in Texas to not mandate soldiers to conduct PT. So now… you have a massive amount of soldiers and airmen inside the Texas Army and Air National Guard that do not meet our height and weight policies. A lot of them didn’t conduct the same training as the ones that were continuing to do drill. They weren’t doing PT. And so you have this case now that they’re on Title 32 orders and they must meet these requirements that they’re supposed to meet even if they’re on state active duty orders. But now they don’t. And so now you have a situation where they go and they deploy to Illinois or they deploy to another state to conduct force protection on federal facilities and against as well as federal agents. And now they can’t even meet their own standards in the military.
SPEAKER 08 :
And again, and by the way, I understand what the text you’re saying, and I get it. There are certain individuals where their BMI might be a little higher than average. On the same token, Ammon, I have experienced numerous individuals have friends of different ethnicities and so on, and I also recognize realize that a lot of that does come down to, and you stated it, it does come down to how active are we? Are we eating correctly? Are we being incentivized to do so? Are we doing our PT like we need to? In other words, I’ve known all sorts of different individuals, even those that struggle with weight, that can still maintain and do what they need to if they’re careful about it. If they’re incentivized, maybe is a better way to say that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, 100%. You know, we actually drafted a MAHA military bill here in Texas. We drafted it to make it so that way all National Guard soldiers actually have an app where they have a customized meal plan. They have a complete online persona where it goes and tracks everything from food to workout sessions to everything so that they can meet all the requirements. But what was interesting is when – and any of your listeners can look this up. What was interesting is when I testified on it, the Texas Military Department came in not in support of it. And the reason they did that is because they would have direct oversight by our Texas legislature for mandating them to meet federal requirements. Now, the requirements that are given to each and every airman and National Guard Army soldier – are done through the federal government, through the Department of War. And it is the state’s responsibility every drill weekend. It is the state’s responsibility to oversee that they actually meet the federal requirements. And so actually, if you do not meet federal requirements, the federal government can actually pull funding from you. And so a lot of times what will end up happening is soldiers, noncommissioned officers and officers will then pencil whip the the grading system of the pt standards and put it into a management system called dtms that shows that they are 100 in compliance and so there’s really no oversight and so this bill would then create oversight by our state legislature Meaning, no, you’re now going to have to show that your soldiers are 100 percent meeting the readiness standards as required by the Department of War and that you are ready and willing for war. But they did not like that part. They did not like the oversight from the state.
SPEAKER 08 :
So where do we go from here? You know me. I’m kind of a solutions-oriented guy. I know you are as well. Given what Pete Hedset just announced here just a few weeks ago, a couple weeks ago is all it was, I’m on. At the end of the day, where do we go from here, and how do we get even what he’s talking about among the armed forces he’s in control of? And this is where you’re more of an expert than I. Does he have control over National Guard? How does that work?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, he does. So the majority of all National Guard soldiers, even when you go to drill weekend on the weekend, you’re on Title 32, meaning that you are your funding is federally is from the federal government. It’s not from the state. The state is then given the charge to conduct the training so that you make the meet their lease out requirements that exit is talking about and then readiness requirements. But if you continue to fail to meet those requirements, there needs to be repercussions to National Guard leadership. And one way that you can do that is what we do when we deploy for war, you go and typically you go to a pre-deployment site where they grade you. A third-party unit, usually like First Army, an active duty unit, will then grade you to see if you can meet the war, the requirements to meet your military occupation, especially. So like if you’re infantry, can you meet the basic standards of team, squad, and platoon level infantry battle drills? And so what we can do and what may end up having to, that he has to do is do third party testing on all National Guard soldiers, which is unfortunate. And that kind of shows that can we really trust our NCO Corps? Can we really trust our military men and women to do the right thing and be honest. You know, when I, when I was in the border patrol, when we first went into DHS, all of our PT, um, when we went into UPT, it was video recorded. It had a recorder. So there was no, uh, you couldn’t contest it. Um, and so we’re going to need some third party accountability because unfortunately, as you saw what happened when they deployed to Illinois, uh, The pictures can show that it wasn’t just, oh, they’re Hispanic, so their BMI is a little much. No, they were severely overweight or obese. And so you can go down to the border now and you can see that on Operation Lone Star. You can clearly see that they’re not meeting height and weight standards in the military. And so really probably just like when you deploy overseas, you may need to have a third party or active component to conduct your PT test and standards.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. And again, for all of you listening in Ammon, you’ve got, you know, direct history as you’re talking about right now, but Texas Public Policy Foundation, you guys watch these things on a routine basis. And, and I guess, You know, lastly, because there’s always going to be some naysayers and folks out there where they’re like, well, wait a minute. Don’t a lot of these guys now sit in, you know, drone operators, for example. They’re not really out active duty doing anything. There’s a lot of, you know, behind the scenes things that happen. And there’s guys that are maybe they just drive the truck or whatever the case may be. You know, why would they have to pass all these same standards? I mean, I know the answer to that. But what would your answer be to those folks that would say that?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. So first and foremost, there’s a direct correlation between your mental capacity and your physical capacity. Correct. The higher your physical capacity, the better your mental capacity is. So at the end of the day, the Department of War, just like PXS is, is to close with and kill the enemy. When you go to combat, regardless of what military occupation specialty you are, whether you’re a truck driver or not, unfortunately, you may end up meeting the realities of war. We saw that during the Iraq War where mechanics And truck drivers went out there, and they got lost. And guess what? They were bombed. They were hit with IEDs. They were ambushed. And so you never know at what point in your military career, if you end up going overseas and continue operations, regardless of what military occupation specialty you are or what job you do, you may end up in a situation where you have to uh defeat an enemy and in order to do that you need the full mental reservation possible and you need to meet the certain requirements um uh and in order to do so you need to have such a high level of physical capacity so that way you can you can attack any situation under the the stresses of combat and so every single person has to go to basic training where you have to meet these requirements everyone has a baseline now there are certain um But baselines that are more, like if you’re in combat arms, if you’re an infantryman, you should have a higher baseline than, say, a truck driver. Especially if you’re in light infantry like I was, you’re going to be carrying your house on your back, right? You’re going to be rucking everything with you. And so there are special requirements for certain MOSs and for combat specialties. But just like you know and a lot of your audience will know, to all those naysayers, The best way that we can make sure that our young men and young women of the United States are level-headed and have the full mental capacity is to make sure that they are completely healthy and have the full physical capacity to conduct these operations.
SPEAKER 08 :
And again, and I know for there’s some folks listening that are, you know, trying to chime in, Ammon, that, well, you know, there needs to be some exceptions for certain people. And maybe there’s somebody who’s got a lot more muscle mass and the BMI is not. And I agree. BMI is not always the exact measurement. It is a tool. And I will say that it’s sort of like ASE testing in the automotive world. It’s a baseline. No, it doesn’t give you every single thing that you need out of that. And, yes, there can be some variations of, and those are the one-offs. But in general, I think it’s a pretty decent starting point for most men and women. Am I right in saying it that way?
SPEAKER 05 :
No, 100%. We also have the tape tests, but also now our secondary. You can now opt in to get a bod pod. It’s no longer just the BMI. And now finally, finally, the government has shifted to a more credible services and understanding how much body fat you actually have. And so you can actually go like here at Camp Mabry in Austin, Texas. They have bod pods that you can come and get tested. And so you have the ability now to actually get the body fat percentage of what you are. But if you’re stating that, OK, I do have a high BMI. you still should be able to pass the bare minimum physical requirements. To be honest, the physical requirements now is less than when I came in the military. Look, I was during that transition, I was a drill sergeant during the Obama era, and we saw that shift from old school Army PT to a PRT. which was dramatically different and less because they kept saying that the culture of the new generation is a weaker culture, and so therefore we must weaken the standards when they come into basic training. And so I saw this shift all the way back in 2008 when I went to drill sergeant school. And then when I was a drill sergeant from 2008 to 2010, we already started seeing that shift. But unfortunately that Overton-Winnipeg shifted so much that then now it’s led to where we’re at today, where the military kind of looks like what society is.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, good point. Well, and I think, you know, not to keep going here because I know we’re short on time, but I think what you just said, you know, we need better examples even for how— you know, the rest of us live. And I talk about this every Wednesday. I do health and wellness on Wednesdays here on my program. I spend an hour each week talking about the very thing you and I are talking about right now. And you’re right. We have an entire society. Colorado happens to be healthier, one of our healthier states. But the reality is you can go to a lot of other places, including here, and see a lot of folks that aren’t so healthy, quote unquote, because of the things that we I’ll just say it right now, Ammon, the things that we eat. It’s interesting. My dad’s had some issues going on, and he’s in memory care, so we spent some time with him this weekend. I don’t watch a lot of TV. I’ll just be straight up honest. Not somebody that watches TV. But I was commenting to my wife that as we were watching a little bit of TV over the weekend because it’s just on in the room, I was mentioning to her that every single food ad, every fast food ad that came on, Ammon, every single ad for food was crap we shouldn’t eat.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, 100%. And it’s so funny that it’s all sponsored by organizations that also sell the pharmaceuticals when you’re sick.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, no comment.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, so like when you go to combat, it’s like buying your bandages from the same people that are selling you the bullets.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know? Right.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, no, people don’t realize this, but way back in the late 70s, early 80s, the tobacco companies, knowing they were going to lose out on the cigarette end of things, bought up food companies.
SPEAKER 05 :
Go figure. It’s so interesting. So, like, when you kind of peel away the skins of the onion, you’ll find out these organizations want to stick so that we have to buy their solutions.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. Well, and unfortunately, you know, circling this back around to what’s happening in our military, National Guard included, it’s affected them as well. This is a widespread problem. It’s not just limited to civilians. It’s across the board.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, across the board. And now you can look at it in our recruiting as well. So over 70% of the people that try to get in the military can’t. Wow. It’s because of their physical fitness standards and also their mental health.
SPEAKER 08 :
Gotcha. Gotcha. All right. How do folks find your organization? I’ve got the website in front of me, but give folks what it is so they can find you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Sure, yeah. If everyone wants to go to TexasPolicy.com, you can see what we talked about, my op-ed there that I wrote for the Daily Wire about this specific issue, and also the bill that we helped carry in the state legislature. It’s the Maha Military Bill. It can all be found on our website.
SPEAKER 08 :
Ammon, it’s always a joy having you. I appreciate it. You’re always a great resource. I learn something every time you’re with us.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you so much for always having me.
SPEAKER 08 :
You’re very welcome. Appreciate you. We’ll talk again soon.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, talk to you soon.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, have a great night. Again, just a great—I was going to call him a young man. He’s older, but younger than me, so I enjoy talking to him. He’s always an inspiration, and I enjoy having him on on a regular basis. Veteran Windows and Doors coming up next. Speaking of veterans, and somebody that I, by the way, would tell you that agrees with everything we just talked about is Dave Bancroft. He’s an old Marine, and he understands how all this works. and that’s why it’s Veteran Windows and Doors. Cuts out the middleman, gets those windows and doors to you at a much better price than you’re going to get somewhere else. Give him a call today. Find him at klzradio.com.
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Dealing with estate jewelry doesn’t have to be complicated, and you certainly don’t have to go into a pawn shop and feel totally uncomfortable. David here with Mile High Coin, and we help hundreds of clients each year with their jewelry and watches. Whether it’s high-end hallmark pieces like Tiffany, Cartier, or Rolex, or mid-range brands as well, or even damaged or broken pieces that you don’t wear, most people are surprised with what their jewelry is worth. Gold is at an all-time high, and we highly encourage people to take advantage of the market. There are options when it comes to selling your jewelry, and we will educate you on which option is best for you. We work with people who have lost loved ones and need help sorting through the valuables that were left behind. We also work with people who are simply downsizing and getting rid of the unused or unwanted items. Call our office today at 720-370-3400 or visit our website milehighcoin.com and complete our contact form and we will call or email to schedule an appointment. Our office is safe, private, and we guarantee that you will enjoy the experience. Putting reason into your afternoon drive, this is John Rush.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, we are back. Now, this is more of a PSA. I think I’ve got time to say this in the next five minutes. Richard’s going to join us here at the bottom of the hour. So this happened to me personally. So if it’s happening to me, I know it’s happening to others. And I got two calls. In one of the first call, I actually called back, and I kind of felt like it was not on the up and up, and it was in a day where I was super busy and didn’t have time to really do anything else, so I just hung up and didn’t worry about it. Well, they got another phone call. And this is a call supposedly from Chase. Yes, I’ve got some Chase credit cards. So this is supposedly a call from Chase about a dispute that I’ve got on my credit card, which I did have a dispute several months ago. In fact, I had one where somebody had used the card. It wasn’t me. So they sent me a new card. On and on we go. You know the routine. Any of you out there that have had any of this happen, you watch your transactions, and if something comes up where it’s like, yeah, I didn’t do that, you call and say, hey, that wasn’t me. They take care of it, and off you go. By the way, it’s why you use a credit card versus a debit card. All that to be said, I got a phone call from supposedly Chase that came on a phone number that I use only for work purposes that’s not associated with my Chase Bank card. And it had the old number of the card I had prior to the new card being issued. Those were all my red flags. And so I actually called it the one day, and I said, is this a scam? Are you guys for real? No, if you don’t think this is real, just call the back of your card. And I’m thinking, okay, well, maybe these guys are real. So they called again today. And the first time they called was last week. So they called again today. And I actually did call this time. And I went a little further. And here’s where this gets really interesting. Scary, in a way, for people that don’t know better. Because I did actually end up calling the actual number on the card after I did this. And here’s the scariest part. Both greetings identical. The scammers had to have recorded literally same tone, same everything, word for word. They had to have copied somehow digitally through, you know, just listening on hold. Had to have copied that exact greeting because it’s the exact same greeting you get when I called the scam number. And as I’m going through this phone call with the scammers, they’re asking me, you know, my name, which I wouldn’t give. They’re asking me the card number, which I wouldn’t give. So I’m thinking to myself, well, they should already have all of this. They should know me. In fact, when you call Chase, your number is kind of already recorded and they know who you’re calling, what you’re calling from and so on and so forth. And it’s kind of automatic at that point. Anyways, I wouldn’t give them any information. Now, here’s the other thing that’s kind of an indicator. Normally with the credit card companies, there will be a menu of push, you know, one for this, two for this. That didn’t exist on the scammer call. You just went through the whole message thing, and then somebody answered. And they start asking you for your name, your card number. You know, you’re calling about a fraud incident, et cetera, et cetera. So they’ve got a certain amount of this correct, and they probably have – because of the original scamming that went on, that card’s probably on the dark web, and so they’ve acquired it some way, somehow. And they’re wanting you to call them, and probably, I didn’t go through the whole process, but I’m guessing at some point, they would have asked me for the new number. I didn’t get that far, because I realized what was going on, and I didn’t want to be on phone any longer than I needed to be, but I’m guessing you would have got to that point. Here’s my whole point with the PSA. If you ever have somebody call you from so-called bank about such and such, grab your card, call the number on the back of the card only. Don’t call whoever they left you a message, you know, what number to call back on. Only call the number on your card. And in my case, I did. I got a hold of somebody that got on the phone and I said, I’m calling you because I got another phone call telling me to call them because there was an issue with a chargeback and so on and so forth. And the guy’s like, well, let me check a few transactions. Let’s double check to make sure everything’s OK. And he read me the transactions like, yep, those are all good. No problems. And he’s like, I see nothing else on here that had to be a scam call. I’m glad you called me. There’s nothing you need to do. We’re all good on our end. Everything right now is secure. There’s no issues. Thank you for calling. My point is you could have easily. gotten scammed on that, given them all sorts of information that would have then given them even all of the new card info so they could then keep charging and doing what they wanted to do nefariously. And that’s what scammers do. And believe me, it sounded legit. And I’m not exaggerating. It sounded legit. And part of the problem, this is a knock against Chase. I’ll just say it as it is. Because they all use foreign phone banks, everybody sounds the same. And I’m not saying that in a critical way. It’s just the truth. When I called the bad number, I got the same sounding individual that answered as I did when I called the real number. That’s what makes it so difficult. Because you can’t hardly tell from the people you’re speaking to who’s legit and who isn’t. but here’s my PSA, only call the number that’s on the back of your card no matter what message was left. And then ask them, did you call me? Do you need anything about my card and my account? Has there been anything flagged? In other words, I want to make sure that everything’s correct. Don’t call the number that somebody left you to call back. Only call the number on the back of your card, or you’re going to get scammed. So in my case, once I went through all of this, I went on my phone, I blocked that number, you know, delete that message, block that number, I’m good to go. And if they call again, I just know to ignore it, and I’m not going to worry about it. But that’s what happened, and I want you all to know that. So that’s your PSA for today. Golden Eagle Financial coming up next. Al Smith, I talked about him at 3 o’clock. Whatever you need when it comes to your financial future, call Al today. Find him at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 04 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive. This is John Rush.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. One more thing before we get going here, Richard, that my IT expert said is he might want to also announce that the other thing that they’re doing right now on the scamming end of things is they act like they’re QuickBooks calling everybody saying that they need an update on their computer, and then they respond, and now all of a sudden you’re back into that same loop that I was talking about a moment ago with Chase Banks. Again, if you ever need anything, reach out to the company that you think you’re having a problem with. Don’t let them reach out to you. And, Richard, this is a big deal.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and I was going to say is sometimes, well, and especially, you know, it’s a scammer if they make you feel bad because if you’re – Well, and again, you always get these things, right, of, you know, calls from, you know, you’ll never get a call from us, whatever it is. And sometimes I don’t know, I think people forget that, Dad, but it really is true. It’s very rarely, again, I don’t even think ever, where you actually get a call that you didn’t initiate originally from a bank, credit card company, whatever. I mean, again, even the IRS, Dad, you know, as, you know, scamish or whatever it is, they still send mail for a reason, right? It becomes official, does things that way because they don’t want you to think that. And I know there’s a variety of different people that listen to this show and this segment and everything, and I would just say… And you can’t be too cautious, right? You know, again, even you, who’s pretty well versed in technology, whatever it is, it made it seem super, super real. And I hate to say it, it’s not getting any better. And as much as you and I have been, you know, you were fans of AI and fans of technology and advancements and all the things going on. it’s going to get worse, folks. And what we mean by that is even them calling… We’re turning into Mission Impossible, right? And so for those of you who don’t know, right, you go to Mission Impossible and they make them read the statements, right? And then AI basically duplicates what you’re actually saying. And I know some of us think that that’s weird and sci-fi and doesn’t exist. No, we’re there. Well, the answer is that we are there. And so does that mean you’re scared and you don’t ever talk to anyone on the phone? No, just be careful. It just… Exactly. Just be careful. And so what that means is if you don’t know, you know, you can even tell the people, you know, I’m not sure if this is really you. I’m going to call. I’m going to call directly. Yeah. And they might say, like, by the way, in my deal, call us back.
SPEAKER 08 :
By the way, the first guy that I called him, like, you’re just a scammer, aren’t you? He’s like, if you don’t believe me, call the back of your card. I’m like, I’m going to. Well, I ended up doing that, figuring out this guy was a scammer. And they don’t like it when you challenge them, by the way. Scammers don’t like that.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, they don’t. And I know you and I have talked about this. You know, we’ve gone through a few things with family members, you know, of all varying ages. That’s right. That’s right. Young and old. And it’s something, again, folks, you know, where they’re going to remote desktop it or you get an email from a friend that you think is legitimate because it looks like it. And trust me, I’ve seen them. And you and I have both seen them. And they do really look real. They do. They look exactly like it’s come from Apple or it’s come from Windows or whatever. any number of places but at the end of the day and if you have a question most cases guys no one’s shutting your account down today right you know if these scammers you know you’ll be locked out of your account today send a screenshot to you dad right you know and you can usually look at it a lot of the times and kind of figure out if it is this game one thing i like to do dad is i like to put the number in google and i kind of see what that’s what i do too yeah good one yeah And again, I know it seems silly, folks, to a lot of you, and you’re probably like, what do you mean? Well, you can kind of put a number up, and a lot of times, again, it’s one of the benefit of technology today.
SPEAKER 08 :
Known scammer or high probability of scamming, things like that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I literally put into Google, is this number legit? Like, you know, very shorthand, and it will come back with information. And so, yeah, I would absolutely encourage people to do that. And I know it seems silly, and some of you are going to look and say, even some of your more experienced listeners, Dad, they’re going to say, well, not to me. Well, you almost dot-dot. You know, not saying you did, but you were close.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, I mean, it had me questioning. I’m like, OK, wait a minute, because I had a dispute. Granted, it was a few months ago and the dispute that they gave me was on the card that I actually was disputing. So I was like, OK, well, maybe they need more questions answered about the actual dispute, even though it’s been cleaned up. I didn’t get charged for it. Chase took all of that off. And in my mind, I’m thinking, well, there shouldn’t be any real questions. But man alive when the message they leave makes it sound so convincing. And again, I was smart enough to knock. I never give anybody any info, any info out over the phone until I’m 100 percent sure I knew who I’m talking to. And in this case, I didn’t because it just seemed odd. And as it turned out, it was.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and the other big one right now is if you’re a, you know, I’ll be honest, elderly, and you’ve got grandkids or whatever it might be, and they call in and say, you know, this is this grandkid in jail or you’re in this other country. Again, most of the time you’re going to know, and the answer to that is if it feels wrong, it probably is.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and that’s where we’ve talked about this, but I want to mention this really quick before we go on to talking about sports. Have a safe word. So even if you think that’s, you know, maybe a legit word, Okay, you know, grandson, you know, we’ve got a family safe word. What is it? If they can’t produce it, you know it’s a scam.
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s a great point. And again, it seems very movie-ish, right, to kind of be able to do that. But at the end of the day, it will likely save you money, time, pain, headache, all of the things. It really will. Again, and I know a lot of people, Dad, probably look at us and say, that’s silly. And here’s the deal. That safe word, that code phrase, we’ve got one as a family. It’s something for as simple as if we send someone else to pick up the kids that maybe wasn’t supposed to pick up the kids.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s a good idea. Yep.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. And so and again, you’re not supposed to share it. You know, maybe you change it so often. And these are some things I know you talked about already radio to dad. Right. And these are some things, too, where, again, it can be something as simple as, you know, obviously there are there’s there’s just bad people out there. Right. And so, you know, you pick up that word, the pineapple, you know, whatever it might be. and just make sure that the other person knows it or uses it in the right way. That’s exactly right. And if they don’t, then you don’t continue. You hang up and, you know, you kind of have to deal with it at that point in time.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. That’s exactly right. So, again, biggest thing, just be safe. Okay, finally have a weekend where we have both CU and Broncos win.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, it was a good week. My wife will get mad at me for saying this, but painful there. Your CSU won as well. I think UNC won. Lots of Colorado teams winning this weekend. The Buffs weren’t supposed to win. They did, although you could argue they probably should have over the past few weeks. They finally kind of figured it out and put it all together. The other thing I’m going to say, Dad, is The Broncos were fortunate that they played a lowly team such as the Jets because, man, they struggled, for lack of a better word. They did not do very well at all, and it’s definitely something that if I’m the Broncos, I’ve got to do some soul-searching because they struggled. And for those that watched the game in London yesterday, it was hard, and it was a tough go for them. They needed to figure something out. And honestly, fortunately, dad, the defense was able to do that because I don’t know if you have another team or another defense or you’re playing another team. You honestly probably lose that game by, oh man, I don’t know, maybe two touchdowns the way that you played. And so you and I talk about this every single week, right? Every – you can win or you can win any time in the NFL or you can lose any game in the NFL. It doesn’t matter who you are, what it is. I actually heard someone say it the best today. The Broncos seem like that team, Dad, where they play to their level of competition. And so they are the team where they can literally beat – any team in the NFL on any given week, or they could lose to any team in the NFL on any given week. And I think that’s a very fair description and a very accurate description of where they’re at. And their defense is next-level otherworldly. One thing I would caution the Broncos, and I know Sean Payton and I know Bo Nix are going to figure this out, what I would caution them on, Dad, is if you rely too much on your defense for too long, defense is a very… effort-driven positions, right? A lot of times defense is just you’re going to go all out, whatever it is. Well, and you see time after time defenses get worn down as the game goes on, even the best of them. And if you’re not careful, you’ll sacrifice a win or you’ll have a game that you should have won, lost, just because your defense, to no fault of their own, just can’t do it anymore.
SPEAKER 08 :
and and i think that that’s something that the broncos have got to be mindful of moving forward otherwise they’re really going to be in a in a world of hurt uh and by the way somebody commented over the weekend that you know it seems like the broncos played down to the jets you know here’s the reality you know what that typically happens in a lot of things and that’s why you know excellence breeds excellence and if not it doesn’t and that’s why we want to surround ourselves with excellence because that’s typically kind of the way things are richard you’ve tend to kind of play to the level of the folks that you’re around, right, wrong, or otherwise. It’s just the way it works.
SPEAKER 06 :
It is, and you’re 100% correct, Dad, in the sense that it needs to, well, like you say, surround your people with how you want to do it. And I think the Broncos are on their way, Dad, right? I think that’s a sign of a younger team at some key positions, and I think that you’re seeing some of that because there’s some youthful exuberance. But even Bo Nix is mature as I think he is and kind of trying to figure some things out. It takes some of these lessons where you’re not in the groove of things, you’re not in the game. And maybe it’s something as simple as that. I don’t think that’s the case here. Maybe it just wasn’t their best game. Well, what I would say to that is, okay, great, but you only have so many of those in the season because there’s only so many games. And the longer you mess around, then you’re going to find out. There’s kind of that old phrase, you know, mess around and find out.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. And, again, everything you’re saying, can’t disagree with anything, and I think it’s true whether we’re talking about – sports whether we’re talking about business you talk about competition that’s where you know competition breeds excellence the better the competition you know the better you get at the end of the day on that particular product that you’re trying to sell when competition diminishes so do the products that are put out because everybody right you know everybody lowers themselves rather than don’t rise to the occasion they lower themselves to that level and that’s why you need competition to make things more excellent
SPEAKER 06 :
Yep, absolutely. We talk about it even on the car side of things, right? The free market, everything in your sports is probably one of the best indicators of it, right? When you have competition, whether it be from other teams or on your own team, right? When you’ve got competition at a certain spot, right? It makes you better. And maybe the Broncos will have that because they had a backup guard in because one of their guards got hurt. He’s going to be out for about six to eight weeks here. And so maybe they’ll do that, right? Maybe they’ll end up bringing in some more competition for them. They’ll change some things around because you’ve got to do that. Honestly, Dad, it is so wide open this year that the Broncos would be silly to not take advantage of it the best way that they could.
SPEAKER 08 :
Agree. I agree. All right. That’s a great start. A stopping point. Let me say it that way. Stopping point. We’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere, guys. Ridgeland Auto Brokers coming up. Speaking of cars, we just talked about that a moment ago. If you’re looking for a good new used car, new to you, by the way, look no further than Ridgeland Auto Brokers. Just go to RidgelandAutoBrokers.com.
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SPEAKER 04 :
We don’t yell at you. We inform you. Now, back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Also that time when we play drive radio as well because we do car reviews on a weekly basis. Richard, what have you driven lately?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, Dad, so I drove a pretty fun car, or I should say a truck. I’m going to misstate it. A 2025 Toyota Tacoma. This was the TRD Pro model. And I’ve got the window sticker that I’m going to pull up here real quick. And, Dad, this is a fantastic little truck, right? They redesigned this truck. I believe it was this year, if I’m not mistaken. And they’ve made a lot of improvements, right? They changed the styling. They updated the interior. It looks like a lot of the other, you know, Toyota trucks and SUVs and all those different things out there. And what I would say is this, that this vehicle is right in line with a lot of these other midsize trucks, right? This is in line with a lot of the other manufacturers that, however, this model specifically, which again is the TRD Pro model, is made to basically be bought specifically. And then driven off-road, the minute that you buy it on the lot, you don’t have to add a whole lot to it. You don’t have to change a whole lot to it, right? It comes with everything. For example, it’s got trimmed and heated, ventilated performance front seats. The front seats that actually have, like, shock. Oh, those are cool.
SPEAKER 08 :
I actually wanted to see those. I had a crazy week where I would have seen those personally, but I wanted to see those.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. And they include a little hand pump, and you can basically change it to on-road, off-road. You can set the settings. It’s got two different shock dampeners on each side, so it’s the front and back motion and the side-to-side motion. And again, all that’s included. It’s got a TRD Pro heated steering wheel. It’s got the 10-speaker sound system. It’s also got the JBL system or the little mini speaker that you can kind of pop out as a Bluetooth option that you can take and do what you need to. Underneath the hood, Dad, this is probably the best thing, especially for our altitude. It’s got the i-FORCE MAX 2.4-liter four-cylinder turbocharged hybrid powertrain, along with the eight-speed automatic transmission. It’s got the four-wheel drive demand, part-time 4×4 system, TRD-tuned FOX system, internal bypass shocks, electronically controlled locking differential, and I can sit here and go on and on. Folks, I think you can see this thing is made to be bought and then driven off-road. And, Dad, you and I were talking kind of last week, I should say, when we had this vehicle, that this is sort of becoming a very popular segment of the market, which is these off-road-tuned or off-road-capable midsize trucks, and we’ll get to the price here in a second, that people basically can buy and they don’t have to do a whole lot, too.
SPEAKER 08 :
Exactly. No. And for those of you listening in our area, one of the hottest trucks probably still sold in our area. Resale value because of that, I should say. Resale value very high. One of the few vehicles, Richard, that you can buy that you really don’t lose a lot of money on when it’s all said and done.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, Dad, you can buy these vehicles, you know, again, obviously there was the older V6, you know, editions of these that, you know, they had 200,000 miles on them, Dad, and they were still about 60% of the value of when you bought them, right? These things just really stand up to the test of time. This vehicle, as it sits, Dad, because people are going to want to know. 67,410. And so, yes, folks, a Toyota Tacoma is 67,000. However, if you compare that to the competition, Dad, with how they are outfitted and everything else, and this is not… a standard Tacoma, right? I just want to make sure that people know that. This vehicle is not just your run of the mill, even limited, whatever it might be. This is an off-road variant that they are kind of a special edition. Like you said, they have those special editions at times, and not special in the sense of they’re making a limited run, but just special with a lot of the features that are on there. They tend to do better in the resale market. And on this vehicle, which, like we talked about, we’ve driven other models, I can say, Dad, that this thing runs well. It looks fantastic. It was a really pretty kind of sand brown color to it. They’ve got some different fenders on it, which are nice. It’s got some steel bumper. steel bumpers that make it great, some different colors. It’s just this vehicle stands out in the right ways, and I would encourage folks that if you’re interested to go check it out because, again, yes, is that price point high? Yes, but if you were to go buy a standard Tacoma, Dad, and then outfit it the way that you maybe would want to, you’re probably in the same ballpark, and obviously you did that for years. You know, when it comes to outfitting these vehicles, it can get expensive.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, yeah. No, your aftermarket bill gets extremely high. And, by the way, much higher than it even used to be. A lot of that now is included from the factory. And, again, you can still personalize after that if you want to do certain things that give you that ability as well. But, no, to your point, Richard. taking a stock truck, turning it into something that in this case is already done for you. The already done for you is still the cheapest way. And on top of that, you get all the warranty that comes from the factory along with it.
SPEAKER 06 :
I was just going to say, you get the factory warranty. You’re not going to get any questions about it, what went on, anything like that. And again, Dad, the nice thing that they’ve done is there’s really not a whole lot of options on this vehicle. They’ve given you a towing technology package, which includes wireless camera system. You’ve got courtesy delivery, rear differential skid plate, some things like that. Real quick, Dad, fuel economy, 22 and 24 for 23. About the only real negative I can have on this vehicle, and it’s more of just you’ve just kind of got to get used to it, it’s got a pretty small fuel tank so i was actually less than 300 miles of range in terms of you know when i was actually able to drive it so i had to kind of fill up midweek just because the average driving around colorado that folks know you’re going further than maybe you are in other markets but is that something that will prevent me from buying this vehicle no and again if you’re looking to buy something that can go off-road can do a little bit of minor towing some things of that nature i would highly recommend this vehicle and honestly that i would say to Anyone who’s interested, maybe you’ve seen this vehicle, you’ve admired it from afar, head to your local Toyota dealer, test drive them, see what they’ve got on the lot, and I would encourage you to really get your friends and your family in it because I think that you’ll be really pleased with what Toyota’s done. Again, 2025 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro. Let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason sent you.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, with all that said, too, I know some of you are going to comment and say, well, hasn’t Toyota had some quality issues as of late and so on and so forth? Yeah, as has everyone else. So, you know, unfortunately, no one is immune. I say this all the time, even on Drive Radio on Saturdays, because of the way the parts are supplied to the OEM manufacturers, the reality is… Yes, they can all have issues at different times. I get the report from the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration every Monday. And, Richard, the reality is not a single company, no matter whether they’re an RV maker, they’re a motorcycle, it’s BMW, it’s Ferrari, everybody has recalls and problems because parts are not perfect and the men making them are infallible as well. Or fallible, I should say. In other words, they’re human. Right.
SPEAKER 06 :
Correct. Parts, people, everything, Dad, and especially when they’re making as many of these things as they are, you know, from whatever manufacturer, there’s going to be issues. And, yeah, do they try to minimize them? Absolutely. I would just encourage folks, honestly, a lot of these recalls, too, Dad, are, I’ll just say, protecting stupid people in a lot of cases. In some cases, they are. Yes. And encourage you to do a little bit of research before you just kind of dive into the news and say, oh, my word, they have a bunch of recalls. Well, just do a little bit of research and put your mind at ease.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely. All right. I’ll let you go with that, Richard. Appreciate that. We’ll leave it at that. And we’ll be back here in just one moment. Cove Creek Union Air Conditioning. Again, make sure you’re dialed in when it comes to your furnace. In fact, a few people have called in and said, yep, I need to get them out. Some things didn’t fire up the way they were supposed to. I got funky smells, whatever the case. Give them a call. Furnace tune-up special right now. Find them at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 04 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, that’s it for hour two. Hour three coming your way. We’ve got a person who’s going to join us and talk about the Antifa roundtable that Trump had with cabinet members. This particular person was a part of that meeting. We’ll hear directly from him on how that went and what they spoke about. We’ll be back here in just one moment. Hour number three is next. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 07 :
The Rich Guy.
