Dive into an insightful conversation on Snap benefits and the underlying implications of government dependency. Host John Rush is joined by Ammon Blair, Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, to discuss how government assistance programs have evolved from being a temporary safety net to a permanent fixture in many lives. They delve into the socio-economic shift caused by such programs and how this molds society’s views on self-reliance and independence.
SPEAKER 05 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 06 :
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 05 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 06 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did.
SPEAKER 18 :
Get a job first. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 12 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 18 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 15 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 16 :
All right, we are back. Hour number two, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Ammon Blair joining us now. Ammon, welcome back. How are you?
SPEAKER 08 :
Good, sir. How are you? Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER 16 :
I’m good. Senior fellow at Texas Public Policy Foundation. And I didn’t plan the day to do this, but last hour I got to talking about, you know, SNAP and EBT and all sorts of things. And that led into call after call after call after call because most people feel like I do that far too many people on it. We need a lot less. I think a lot of people that are on it have. have become, you know, frankly, Ammon pawns of government. I hate to say it that way, but that’s literally they become a slave to government. And at the end of the day, government has no money. It’s my money that’s supporting all of this. And yet right now, and I don’t know where things are. I haven’t looked at the news today, but there were, you know, quote unquote, threats of riots and, you know, stealing other people’s groceries. You know, these particular individuals that are not going to get their SNAP benefits now. Where are we at with everything? Give us an update.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, great question. So 100% Secretary Rawlins came out and said that 29 states came out and showed that the SNAP data was also being given to illegal aliens across the United States. that it’s not just to citizens that are not wanting to work. It’s also to illegal aliens. 21 states have refused to give that data as well. And then two of them actually sued the USDA for even asking to look into their programs. So I think it was in the 1970s where one in 50 were on SNAP benefits. Now it’s less than one in 10 that are currently on SNAP benefits. We have gone completely to the ideas of like your victory gardens of World War II to fight inflation, for self-reliance and self-independence to now becoming dependent on the federal government. And all this is by design.
SPEAKER 16 :
Absolutely it is. Yeah, no, no, really. Ammon, really quick, what I told people in the first hour, and I’m sure you’re going to agree, it is by design because when the Marxist movement came in and I had a conversation with somebody last night along these lines, when the Marxist movement came in, oh, it’s been now – 70, 80 years ago now when it really first started. It got going heavy about 60 years ago. But reality is, Ammon, that by design, the Marxists came in. They slowly infiltrated education. They continued to expand, expand, expand. We now have known Marxists like Mondami that’s actually running for mayor of New York City. They are not hiding this anymore. It is, as you said, all by design.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, to talk about that, I think a couple of good books for your audience to read is The Naked Communist that was written around, I think, in the 1960s or 50s in regards to that communist threat. And then today, The Anti-Communist Manifesto by, I can’t even remember his name. But those two books is who I highly recommend your audience reading in terms of the exact step-by-step process to make us dependent on food. And if we remember, like in the 1970s, Henry Kissinger, there was a document that the government had that Henry Kissinger wrote to show that to control other populations of nations, and to control nations to do our bidding, they do so by food. And that to control people, all you need to do is control the food supply. And so that’s kind of what we’re seeing here. They know that so long as there’s chaos in the streets, so long as there’s this idea and concept that they have to become dependent on the federal government or the state to feed them. They control them through voting. They can control them through the streets. If they want to be the Mao’s Red Army or what we see today, the communist inaction like through Antifa in our streets.
SPEAKER 16 :
That’s right. No, you know what? And the whole control of the food, 100% correct. And My numbers aren’t off. I believe the last time I looked, Ammon, and you can tell me if it’s right, but, you know, 40 million Americans on some sort of a, you know, quote unquote, I’m going to call it what it is, handout programs. Others would say, no, it’s not a handout. Yeah, it is. It’s not a handout, but it’s a handout. So at the end of the day, it’s a handout by us as taxpayers. And at 40 million, that means over 10% are on some sort of assistance.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, you’re 100% correct on the data. And unfortunately, when we tackle this idea, imagine getting someone addicted to crystal meth and then taking that away from them. Good point. The people in the United States are now reliant on a socialist government. or communist government complete handouts just for living, just because they feel entitled to it. So when you take that away, that’s why you’re going to start seeing negative reactions, especially like in urban centers, in certain suburban areas where it’s poor. You’re going to start seeing them raid Walmarts and CVSs and stores and you name it. Because we’ve done the same thing. We’ve got them addicted, and now we’re taking it away.
SPEAKER 16 :
And when you do, as you know, it’s like taking candy from a baby or a two-year-old, a toddler. At the end of the day, they throw a major fit. They get mad. In some cases, they may get on the floor and throw a tantrum. In other cases, they may try to go steal the candy, or they might try to hit back at the people that took the candy. I mean, Ammon, at the end of the day, that’s exactly what happens.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. And so really what we also need is a cultural shift from the bottom up. And that’s really what like Charlie Kirk was trying to do with our youth is understanding. That’s why he’s going to universities saying, hey, you can actually go and make a really good living. You don’t even have to go to the university. You can actually go make a good living in the blue car field. You know, we saw this also on the border when the Trump administration and the first administration started securing the borders between the ports of entry. It was the chambers of commerce that were actually coming out against us. And that is because the economy there and socioeconomically, they were so dependent on Mexican cartel money flowing through either narcotics or smuggling that by stopping that, it actually destabilized the region economically. And so the Chamber of Commerce is like, hey, we’re not in support of border security. Well, of course you’re not. Because you are so dependent on the illicit economy of narcotics trafficking and human smuggling that anything to stop that is going to stop your quote-unquote agenda of a better socioeconomic life for the residents. And so we saw that happen also in the previous Trump administration. When the State Department declared the area in Mexico as a travel advisory, we had chambers of commerce trying to reach the Secretary of State, even writing a letter to Ted Cruz stating, hey, decrease this level of threat because it’s going to impact our business. So it’s not just—it’s food, but it’s all forms of our society we have become dependent on from our federal government or the state government. We’ve completely forgot as a society that it’s all—that sovereignty of the—our country and nation starts at the sovereignty of the individual, and that the Constitution not only protects our rights, but also our duties and responsibilities as a citizenry. And I think we kind of forget that we all think that it’s just rights— I’m entitled to this. It’s my right. It’s my right. It’s my right.
SPEAKER 16 :
Great point.
SPEAKER 08 :
Instead of it my responsibility.
SPEAKER 16 :
That’s right. And that’s that, to your point, that’s that mental shift that needs to happen. And I read something earlier that I saw in a post today where there’s people out there that would disagree with you and I, and that by us saying that, we’re somehow now… you know, garbage individuals because we want to pull back some of these benefits and make people actually work for a living, if you would, Ammon. And no, I’m not a garbage individual. In fact, I know the best thing for these people would be to go get a job and have some dignity when it’s all said and done.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know, 100%. Look, we’re anti-slavery.
SPEAKER 16 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. Good point. And so that’s what this is. When you are held captive by the federal government to become dependent on something, you are now a slave to the system. And really the ultimate level of freedom is by getting them to be self-reliant and independent. That way we can actually be truly interdependent as a society and nation.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, I always call it, I said this in the first hour, but I’ll repeat it here. I call it the golden rule. Ammon, it’s the guy with the gold rules. And in this case, they think government is the one that actually has the gold. But in reality, it’s you and I that have the gold. The problem is there’s an intermediary, which is, you know, government, which is handling the gold, if you would. And they’re the ones that are becoming the ruler.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, 100%. And so we can see that. I mean, we can see certain cultural revolutions that are happening now. But, man, it’s really slow. Everything, unfortunately, is in the political body as opposed to in our cultural institutions, whether that is in sports or whatnot. And really, if you look back, that’s the whole reason why the Boy Scouts of America, when it came here from the U.K. to the United States in the early 1900s, was this whole idea and concept to get away from what we are now in depth to, and that is to become self-independent, to go out and have a great work ethic. to have vigor again in the body, mind, and soul. And just like what the communists wanted to do back then, they’ve done now. They’ve destroyed Boy Scouts. They’ve destroyed our cultural institutions. They’ve made everything DEI. They’ve made it so that way all things and forms and fashions make us dependent on either the judicial system, our judges, and everything else like that, our ideologies. Yep. And it has made us tribal and has made us completely dependent on the federal government and the state for everything.
SPEAKER 16 :
You’re exactly right. Ammon Blair, again, thank you for joining us. Senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. How do folks find the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Ammon?
SPEAKER 08 :
Sure. If everyone could go to TexasPolicy.com, you can follow us there. You can follow all of our social media accounts to see what we’re talking about. And right now, of course, just look at what you and your audience is talking about at SNAP Benefits. Brooke Rollins has 100% been talking about this. She’s the one who came out and said all the reports about all the illegal aliens that are accepting the SNAP benefits as well. She’s also part of our board of directors as well.
SPEAKER 16 :
All right. I appreciate it as always. You’re welcome anytime. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you, sir, for having me. You betcha, Ammon. Take care. Have a great evening. Veteran Windows and Doors coming up next. Cut out the middleman. Save money on your windows and doors today. Talk to Dave at Veteran Windows and Doors. Find him at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 05 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive, this is John Rush.
SPEAKER 16 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. I did not know that most of today’s program, at least almost half of it, has been consumed with us talking about EBT and SNAP and all that, although it is the topic of today. And I started that by reading something that somebody had posted on social media that, by the way, was just an absolute loon response. I’m sorry, but it was. Anybody… that is for continuing to provide 40 million people in the country these benefits is a loon, period. There are plenty of jobs and ways to make money. The problem is, and I’ve said this a lot and I’ll continue to say it, we make this so easy. In fact, we incentivize, and if you don’t know what I mean by that, just go look it up, we incentivize people to stay in the system, to stay on Section 8 housing, to stay on WIC, to stay on SNAP, to have their EBT card. We incentivize that. It should be the opposite. We should put a time limit, and there should be incentive to get off, but we actually do the opposite. Again, because we have a lot of Marxists that are in charge that want to see it that way. And it’s all under the guise of, oh, we’re helping the poor. No, you’re not, actually. We had a caller in the last hour, Wyatt, talking about, you know, let’s not feed the animals. We have signs all over national parks that say not to because you don’t want them dependent upon humans. But yet we do it with people and government, which government has no money. I always remind everybody that it’s our money. Government has none. But it’s amazing to me how many things that I read and see on social media whereby they feel it’s not only acceptable, but it’s our duty to actually have these provisions and handouts. Now, I’m not saying we should take everything away. Everything. I mean, Andy said it earlier. He sent me a text message. It’s supposed to be a safety net, not a hammock. In other words, you’re not supposed to hang out there forever. And I’m okay with having a safety net in certain situations with certain people. But again, it needs to be incentivized to not stay on it. We actually incentivize people to be on it and end up being better than some of their folk that are counter to them that might work more, a lot more than they do. And yet because they do, they’re punished more. And end up receiving less when it’s all said and done because of taxes and other things that those folk that are on programs get don’t have to do. It’s actually totally backwards, and we don’t do it correctly at all, and then we wonder why we have 40 million people on it. I don’t wonder why we have 40 million people on it. We make it far too easy. And then we’ve got states like our own where they’re trying to figure out how to backfill some of that through various means. And it’s a joke. I mean, again, it’s a way of those that are in power, the Marxists that are in power, of keeping their thumb on these individuals. Unless we talk about it clearly like I am, it’ll never be exposed. But it is part of the Marxist plan. No matter what anybody says, it’s a part of the plan. John and Cheyenne, go ahead.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, if I can change the subject, I’ve got a curious question. Go ahead. I’ve been hearing about this for the last two weeks on different radio stations. It’s about the election in New York City.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yes, Mondani.
SPEAKER 03 :
The question I got is, how did it end up this way, and how did the Republicans became the fall guy? Because you’ve got Mondani and Cuomo.
SPEAKER 16 :
Cuomo, Cuomo, yep.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I don’t know which party is which. Cuomo is Democrat.
SPEAKER 16 :
Mondami is running as a Marxist, as a socialist, basically, as a communist party, whatever you want to call it. He’s running in that particular arena. He’s not a Democrat. He’s not running on a Democrat ticket. Cuomo is. And in New York, and again, because of the stupidity, I’ll just say it this way, John, of the Republican that’s running right now, if he would drop out, Cuomo would win. I looked at the polling numbers this morning, and Cuomo would win handily if the Republican would drop out, but he’s not going to.
SPEAKER 03 :
If I may interrupt you, sir, because the question concerns this. Was there a primary, and did Cuomo win the Democrat election? in a primary to be the lead runner for the Democrats.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
And what did Mondani run on? Independent or what?
SPEAKER 16 :
No, like I said, he ran on, Charlie, is it the Socialist Party of America? Do you remember what he ran on? Well, but see, the problem, Charlie says he may have ran as a Democrat. The problem, though, there, John, is they use ranked choice voting, so it really doesn’t matter at the end of the day.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, see, that’s my question. If I was a Republican in the city of which I am a Republican.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
If I was a Republican in the city of New York, I would still want my guy to run and I would want to vote for my guy.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, let me let me throw this at you.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I get that. Hold on. No, no. Really quick. I get that.
SPEAKER 16 :
But let me say this. What if, though, in this particular case, all the polling shows that you’re going to have a Marxist winner instead, no matter what? I mean, neither party is going to win at that point. The Marxist will.
SPEAKER 03 :
And that is what I know, and that is part of my answer. Because my primary, we elected that guy with the red banana, say, we did, out of all our candidates. But the question comes back, who did the Democrats reelect out of their primary, and why do they got two people on a ticket if they’re both Democrats? is my question.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, and that’s one where I’d have to do a little bit of being straight up honest, John. I haven’t studied the New York election stuff enough to know fully that answer. I would have to go back and research how did that particular quote-unquote primary, you know, go, and what party is Mondami running? Because I don’t know that answer.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I don’t know either, and that bugs me not knowing how that developed. And another thing is I agree with you and I agree with all the other hosts that do this and this will happen and do this and this won’t happen. But I sometimes think they made their bed and lie in it. I think the Democrats need to learn a hard lesson and let that city go to hell.
SPEAKER 16 :
The only problem with that, and by the way, I can’t totally disagree with you, although in the back of my mind, there’s still that, okay, because this is already what’s happening, by the way, other… Marxists are looking at this saying, wait a minute, we’re probably going to get one elected in New York. How many other cities can we do this in? And so now what you’re starting to see, John, is other others pop up knowing that, OK, if we can win in New York City, we could go win in some other towns across the country. And the reality is that’s going to change the makeup of things greatly. So you’re not going to see just one city screwed up. You’re going to see a lot of them screwed up. And by the way, here’s where it comes back to affect you and I. As taxpayers, federally speaking, we don’t pay New York taxes, but we pay federal taxes. Let me tell you what. This I can promise you. When New York gets all screwed up and they decide to even make a change, you know who’s going to come to the rescue financially? You and me.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. One little last thing. Why, if Ms. Manami’s a Democrat, why aren’t anybody asking one of them to drop out instead of the Republican to drop out?
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, because here’s the problem. Even if Cuomo dropped out, you’ll not get enough support for the Republican side to beat Mondami. They won’t switch over. That’s not going to happen. The only course of action to have Cuomo win is for our guy to drop out, and that’s not going to happen either, unfortunately.
SPEAKER 03 :
So we basically have the deck stacked. Being a Republican, we basically have no hope at all.
SPEAKER 16 :
In New York City, the reality in New York City, John, is it’s not much different than Denver as far as that goes. Getting a Republican mayor elected in Denver, good luck.
SPEAKER 03 :
You got me on her. You got me.
SPEAKER 16 :
And that’s the problem that we’re up against. So, yes, the deck is stacked against us, period, no matter what. I mean, really, I could go as far as to say even in the Republican Party for governor of Colorado, the deck is stacked against us. Michael Bennett is most likely going to win the primary here in Colorado. And the chances on our side, especially as discombobulated as we are in Colorado on the Republican side, our chances of beating Michael Bennett – John, probably a better chance of you becoming president.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I’ve heard you talk about that before, and yeah, I understand.
SPEAKER 16 :
Okay, so Charlie just sent me a message. He is running as a Democrat, Mondami. Mayor Adams already dropped out, leaving Cuomo, and Cuomo is the independent.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and so they’re allowed to have two people on their party to run.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, keep in mind, so the other Democrat already dropped out, so Adams dropped out because there was three Democrats, Cuomo, Adams, and Mandami. But what they decided was Mandami already went ahead, and he’s running on the Democrat ticket moving forward, and he’s the highest-ranking guy they’ve got. Cuomo came back in and said, well, you know what, I’ll do my best to beat him, but he had to do it as an independent.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I’m just scratching my head because I thought if you won the primary, you don’t have more than one person for your party. That’s what I’m scratching my head for.
SPEAKER 16 :
Gotcha. Gotcha. And Charlie just said in my ear, and they don’t now, John. So, yeah, they don’t. That’s the answer. There are three distinct parties running for mayor of New York City right now. Independent, Democrat, Republican.
SPEAKER 03 :
OK, you guys got me. I was just curious on that.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, I’m glad you asked, because honestly, I don’t think I’d ever I don’t think we ever studied it. No offense. I don’t know that. I don’t know that I cared, because at this point, unless our guy, the Republican, drops out and he’s not going to, Mamdami is your winner. I mean, the reality is that right now it’s about a I think I looked this morning. It’s like a seven point lead game. he’s got it’s just it’s not enough for cuomo uh to overcome now that might change we’ve got you know the rest of today and then they’ll start voting of course tomorrow and i guess we’ll see the outcome tomorrow john i’m not saying it’s hopeless but it’s not looking good yeah it just makes me mad and breaks my heart that um that one of those democrats um didn’t drop out and and you’re right it’s
SPEAKER 03 :
I mean, and I’m not, you know me, I’m as conservative as it gets.
SPEAKER 16 :
You know me, I’m as conservative as it gets, John, but I would take Cuomo over a Memdami all day long.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, me too, sir. Me too. Communists destroy that city. That’s right. They’ll destroy it.
SPEAKER 16 :
You’re right. Great questions, John.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, thank you.
SPEAKER 16 :
None of that was out of line at all. I’m glad you called in. We got some things straightened out that I didn’t even know, so I appreciate that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. Yeah, and a part of me would love to see… The Democrats get what they deserve, but you’re right, it would cause problems for everybody else.
SPEAKER 16 :
That’s right. You and I are going to pick up the pieces. John, as always, appreciate you, man, very much. I mean that sincerely. Thanks for calling in. We’ll come right back. Golden Eagle Financial is coming up next. Al Smith. And again, you need to know when it’s time to take Social Security. What’s the situation with your IRA? How do things work when it comes to your 401k and all of that? Talk to Al today. Get dialed in. Make sure you’ve got a plan in place. Find him by going to klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 05 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive, this is John Rush.
SPEAKER 16 :
And we are back. Rush to Reason, Devers Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Richard, talk to us about… Hey, we had several things that happened over the weekend. Let’s talk about the Dodgers win to begin with. I watched the ending, and I will say straight up, not the hugest of Dodgers fans, although your uncle and my brother was a huge Dodger fan, so I guess to honor him, I sort of was rooting for them a little bit. But I was rooting for them, to be honest with you, because… I am so sick and tired of Canadians right now. I’m sorry to say that, but I just am. They are the whiniest, sniveliest bunch of individuals I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Not all of them. There are some good, solid Canadians up there. But the reality, Richard, is they’re all a bunch of sniveling people. you know, thin skinned individuals. So to watch a team that I get it, not all the members of the team are Canadian, but the team is owned by Rogers, which is their big cell network up in Canada. So at the end of the day, yes, in fact, it’s Canadian owned and ran and so on. And yeah, I wanted them to lose.
SPEAKER 10 :
You know, this is one issue where you and I are opposite on, even like you say with my uncle’s feelings on them or on the Dodgers. I just can’t bring myself to root for the Dodgers. It’s like rooting for the Lakers, and I just can’t. I can’t do it. And they’re just, you know, a Colorado sports fan in me. And I know a lot of people are like, well, America versus Canada. I just couldn’t do it. I could not stand. I can’t stand the Dodgers. You’re literally the best team money can buy, Dad. Right.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, no, you’re leading into what I wanted to talk about, which is you are right. And one of the problems that MLB has and why I maybe watch 10 and literally I might watch 10 or 15 minutes of baseball. And that’s about all I did when it came to the World Series, because I only watched like the last couple of innings. Maybe I watched a half an hour or so. But again, at the end of the day, very little baseball watching, because to me, it is so unfair the way the entire structure is. I just I have no I have no desire to watch it, period.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, it’s something that where baseball, if they would figure out, so this was actually the most watched MLB game I think since the 1996 Game 6 World Series, something like that. So obviously in almost 30 years, their most watched game, it was the most watched Saturday sporting event outside of the NFL and Olympics because the NFL is still king, we know. But outside of the NFL and the Olympics, even more than NCAA football and everything that’s going on, It was the most, it drew like 26 million viewers, I think, here in the U.S. That’s not counting Japan, right, which we’ll get to in a second. So there’s people that still, and I’ll just say this, people, not even sports fans, yourself, right, where you will watch a compelling game, and that’s what it was. It was, you know, game seven, you know, it’s one team down, you know, down to their final, you know, basically three outs. You know, they come through with the homer, ties it up, and then, You know, Yamamoto comes in, does his thing. It’s just an insane game, insane cinema. It was fantastic, and it’s something what baseball can be.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, and the last play of the entire series that shut it down was a fabulous play.
SPEAKER 10 :
It was, and it was great. And, again, baseball can still be that. And everyone’s talking about the old cliches. How can you not be romantic about baseball and all these things?
SPEAKER 16 :
Because the team with the most money wins. That’s why it’s not romantic anymore.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, generally speaking, outside of the pace of the game and just the stars and the guaranteed money and all the stuff that goes on, next year is likely the last year of baseball as we know it because the owners will likely lock the players out because a lot of the owners, Dick Monfort included, and it’s one where I can’t disagree with him on this. I can disagree with him on a lot of things, on the idea that there probably needs to be a salary cap in baseball.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 10 :
similar to the NFL. And it provides parity. It provides your team can potentially have a shot to win it. And in baseball, you just don’t have that, right? I mean, the Dodgers have done what they’ve done, and they are… They bought themselves two World Series in a row is essentially what they did.
SPEAKER 16 :
Now, I get it. Other teams have tried as well. But at the end of the day, they’ve spent half a billion, well, actually on two World Series, a billion dollars to win two World Series.
SPEAKER 10 :
Basically, yeah, because by the time you factor in their tax penalties and all sorts of stuff that we could bore everyone with, you are correct. And unfortunately, it’s the name of the game. There’s not any way of getting around it. It’s just kind of how it is. And here’s the deal. I don’t hate the Dodgers for it because they’re taking advantage of it as it sees fit. And I will say this, Dad. I don’t think Major League Baseball will go to a full salary cap like the NFL. They will likely go to a cap similar to what the NBA has. where there’s a salary cap, there’s different levels that you can go up to and exceed, but then if you exceed it for certain points in time, you lose draft picks in certain things, and that’s likely what will happen, because there’s no way that you’re going to get the players to go from basically no salary cap to a strict salary cap.
SPEAKER 16 :
You’re going to have to step into it, but something needs to happen, or here’s what’s going to happen to those guys, and this is what they don’t understand. They’re very short-sighted. If something doesn’t happen, baseball will be destroyed over time.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and it already is. I mean, it’s already losing market share units. It’s losing, you know, you’ve got lots of kids, you know, that play little leagues, that sort of thing nowadays. But at the same time, it’s getting to be just a real, it’s not enjoyable to watch anymore. And they’ve tried to, you know, help pace with play and things like that. And I know it’s one of the things that’s prevented you and I from always getting into it. It’s just, baseball’s just slow. Like, don’t get me wrong, the playoffs, it’s one of the craziest things because everyone is literally hanging on two seconds snippets of what’s going on right from the time the pitcher right you know enters his motion to the time it gets there you’re less than two seconds and then obviously you have what happens in the course of the play and craziness there but that’s ultimately all it is at the end of the day right is you kind of got these short snippets so i think baseball has to do it but you’re good for them it was a really compelling series arguably and i think it is a really good case for the best game seven of all time, and it’s not to say there hasn’t been any games, because there’s been lots of good ones, but just the cinema, the action, everything that went into it, it was pretty phenomenal, and it made for great TV.
SPEAKER 16 :
Which, the other thing that made for great TV, and it seems like the Broncos are on a run this way to win the game in the very closing minutes of the game, did it again yesterday.
SPEAKER 10 :
They did, and I know you and I talked about this a little bit yesterday, and a win is a win, and we can sit here and talk about the offense has got to figure it out, and honestly, I was kind of sitting there today thinking, you know, are the Broncos that bad on offense? You know, like they can’t do it, or do they just play, you know, we talked about this with Andy, where they just play to their level of competition so consistently that when they play bad offenses, and that was kind of what was yesterday, that that’s sort of what happened. Because they played I would say the second best defense in football, because I think the best defense is the Broncos. You saw that yesterday. But they played the second best defense in the NFL, and they came through, and they had to. And that’s all that matters.
SPEAKER 16 :
My wife was asking me a little bit yesterday about, you know, why do some of these things work that way? And, you know, and I know enough about football to say, well, you know, number one, it’s a lot more complicated than people think. Could it be that the Broncos could have played better the first three quarters of the game? Well, of course, or even the first two quarters of the game, the first half, of course. But on the same token, Houston’s not a bad team. They’ve actually got their home field advantage at that point, which that 12th man does matter at the end of the day. And then on top of that, the other thing I explained was teams do a lot of things to figure out what the other team’s doing on the front side. And a lot of those adjustments don’t happen until In other words, the Broncos don’t make adjustments to a lot of things that they have seen until that halftime regrouping. You’ve been there. I’ve been there. We know how that works. So then you come out for the second half and you have a different game plan, different from probably what you planned on the front side because the other team showed up and did things differently than what you anticipated them doing. And those are the changes that happen. And in the NFL, they’re huge.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, they are. And you’re not wrong. There definitely is that at play. And, again, I think with the Broncos, there’s something about Sean Payton and Bo Nix where, I don’t know, Sean just doesn’t trust Bo all the way to finish everything. You obviously trust him to finish, but I don’t know if there’s a little bit lacking in that regard. At the end of the day, Dad. Bo Nix kind of reminds you, and folks are going to think I’m crazy for saying this, but if you look at the similarities that are there, of John Elway of his early career. And what I mean by that is, and you remember this, Dad, Elway played pretty awful at times in his early career. He did. He threw interceptions.
SPEAKER 16 :
He did all kinds of dumb things.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, keep in mind, his rookie year, he basically got benched. He actually got pulled for, oh, I forgot. But he actually got pulled, right? Because he was just playing that bad. And with Bo, I don’t even think that’s the case. Honestly, I think Sean could be doing more. They were actually running the ball really well yesterday. They didn’t run it near enough. Bo ended up passing 37 times, which is crazy. And I don’t think that that should happen, to be honest with you. But at the end of the day, Bo made the plays when it counted. The offense came through, and you won, and you advanced. And in today’s NFL, one thing that is interesting, last year the Broncos were terrible in one-score games. I want to say they were like 2-9 or something last year. That’s crazy. This year, it’s like the exact opposite. Last year, the Chiefs’ stats were like 11-0 in one score game. That’s why a lot of people were worried about them coming to the Super Bowl. This year, that’s sort of evened out. I think the Chiefs are like 0-4, 0-5 in one score game. Same thing’s happening with the Broncos. This year, as far as that goes, take advantage of it, right? Because you’re likely going to regress to the mean next year. You’re going to go back to what’s average, so you might as well take advantage of it while you can.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, and okay, that’s a good closeout. I won’t even talk about the Buffs. I mean, that’s a whole other conversation. We could spend an hour talking about what they’re doing and what’s next for Deion and all that. Man, they got a lot of things they got to work on. Holy cow.
SPEAKER 10 :
I’ll say the only thing I’ll say there, Dad, and I was at the game on Saturday night and sat there for half of it. make changes. I know he came in after the game and said, you know, don’t blame me, or you’ll blame me, don’t blame the players, don’t blame the other coaches, blame me. And while that’s admirable, and I can totally appreciate what he’s saying, at the end of the day, that’s Someone’s got to follow the sword. And you can’t go into next year with the same staff. You’re not going to go in the same players. That’s just not the college football that it is today. But you’re not going to go in there. You can’t go in there with the same staff. Whatever changes you’ve got to make, you’ve got to do something. Because, honestly, otherwise, another year of this, as crazy as it is, Deion will likely be fired. He’s safe this year. 100%. But if he doesn’t make any changes and you get the same results next year, you’re done. You’re done.
SPEAKER 16 :
I don’t care who you are. No, you’re right. Absolutely. All right. We’ll take a quick timeout. We’ll come back right after that. Ridgeland Auto Brokers coming up next. New used car they’ve got you taken care of. And if you need to either trade your car, sell your car, cash it in, whatever you need to do, and or you’re just looking to get a car purchased, they’re there to help you get all that done. Financing available. Talk to them today. Just go to RidgelandAutoBrokers.com.
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SPEAKER 16 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. That time of the week, we try to do this every single week. And Richard looks like he dropped off, but he’ll be back joining us here in a moment. This time of the week, we do car reviews. He’s got one that we’ll do here in just one moment. Before that, though, I’m headed off to our annual, how should I say this, industry trade show that’s in Las Vegas. And I just looked it up, the Automotive Industry Show. is a $1.2 trillion industry in the U.S. I’ll talk about that more here in just a minute. But Richard’s back with us. Richard, let’s do our car review like we do each week. And what have you driven lately?
SPEAKER 10 :
You know, drove a really fun car. Dad actually kind of still in it right now. And that is a 2026 Mazda 3. This is the hatchback version, the carbon edition, which I’ll kind of talk about here in a second. This is the 2.5S hatchback, and it’s all-wheel drive, Dad. And so, again, yes, this is a hatchback that is all-wheel drive with a turbocharged engine, Dad. And obviously for our… uh i guess our climate here that’s a really valuable thing in my opinion that you can have and and yes are you going to go through eight inches or a foot of snow with this thing no you’re probably going to be a snowplow at that point in time but is this going to handle most of what we get here dad as far as you know a three to four even five inch snowstorm with some good tires on it being an all-wheel drive vehicle absolutely it is which i really really like As far as kind of this vehicle itself, Dad, it’s part of the, I think it’s a fifth generation now that was introduced back in 2019. It’s a little bit crammed in the back seat. I’ve been driving around two kiddos, and they are a little bit tight. You definitely got to, especially if you’ve got a taller one, you’ve got to move it forward. I would be a little bit reserved to put a full-size booster seat in the back seat of this car. Outside of that, Dad, everything that we’ve come to expect from Mazda, and you know exactly what I’m talking about, which is you get a lot of really, I think, luxury-type feels, Dad, as far as soft-touch materials. Just the way the buttons click, folks, and I know some of you are going to say, Richard, what do you mean? Just how you push these buttons and kind of it feels, Dad, it doesn’t feel cheaply made. And I just don’t know how else to put it. than that is it just feels really nice it feels like you can you know push a button and it’s not going to fall off it’s not going to continue to make whatever it might be really great in that sense of the word um the infotainment system is easy to use it’s got a lot of standard safety features as part of it dad as this vehicle is priced dad with some options And delivery on here, $33,860. And you can get this car, Dad, kind of starting at just the 2.5 S trim level for about $26,000. And so I would say, when you and I had talked about cars, I think what the average price of a new car these days is almost $50,000.
SPEAKER 16 :
$50,000 plus now. It’s over $50,000.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. And real quick, Dad, fuel economy, $25,000 and $34,000 for an average of $28,000. Does it have a very big fuel tank? No, it doesn’t. But again, you’re also getting a smaller… this in the sedan if you fit depending on how you want to option this car out you can go all the way up to the turbo premium plus dad which get almost forty thousand dollars depending on what you want on the car i just think this is a really great car for folks who maybe live in an urban setting maybe you’re looking to kind of get that first car or maybe you need something to tool around right and you want a good all-wheel drive vehicle to do so dad mazda if and i will say this If folks haven’t driven a Mazda in a while, Dad, and I think you’ll probably second this, I would encourage folks to get out and test drive them because I think that they’ve really made some improvements over the past few years that not a lot of people would know about.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, no, and I will say this. Mazda’s always built a solid car. I’ve got some really good friends that, you know, Dan, who used to be my cohort here, driven Mazdas for years and years and years. I mean, once you become a Mazda owner, typically you don’t change out of it because it is a very solid quality car at the end of the day. And for the money, I should add that into it, for the money, it becomes a very competitive car. So, yeah, absolutely, Richard. I have nothing bad to say whatsoever on any of their cars.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, I absolutely don’t. Again, it’s one thing where I really enjoy driving this car. Again, the acceleration, that’s the last thing I’ll mention. At this altitude, the looks of this car, it’s a really exciting vehicle to kind of be in and drive in and kind of get looks from people. So I encourage folks that head to their local Mazda dealer if they’re interested. Test drive this vehicle. Get in it. Again, check the room because that’s maybe one of the complaints is it’s a little bit smaller than some of the other competitors in the past. but that may not matter for you. So we encourage folks, get out, test drive this vehicle. When you do that, let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason sent you.
SPEAKER 16 :
All right, and closing out, we’ve got a couple of minutes left, Richard. I’m headed to SEMA tomorrow, and some people will ask, they’re like, okay, what is this? It’s like a big trade show. I’m like, yeah, it’s the second biggest trade show in Vegas and one of the biggest shows in the entire world, and I’m not exaggerating. And I don’t think folks really at times understand the impact of, that the auto industry has, Richard. So I looked it up a minute ago, and I knew it was a big number, but the auto industry in the U.S. of A., not around the world, but just in the U.S. of A., it’s a $1.2 trillion annual business inside of the U.S., and I don’t even know if they include all of the small ancillary things that may go along with that, but it is a huge industry, and that’s why this show is as big as it is.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I was going to say, Dad, and a lot of things, and you said this for many, many years, a lot of the things that you see at SEMA are almost introduced as concepts, but then they are adopted. I don’t know what the average rate is, but if you were to do an official study, it’s pretty high.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, really quick for everybody listening, I’ll give you a good example of that. So on a lot of the newer pickup trucks, they’ve got the fold-down steps. We open the door, the steps fold down. You climb in, you close the door, the steps go back up. And those particular steps, by the way, are pretty standard now on a lot of trucks. All different makes models. It doesn’t make any difference. I mean, it could be on a GM vehicle. It could be on a Ram truck. It could be on a Ford truck. And those were called back in the day when they first came out, AMP, A-M-P, Ram. was the company that actually designed and sort of patented those back in the day. And so I was one of the original installers, and we sold those things back in the day, did a lot of R&D for that particular company. I’ll be straight up honest. They were garbage when they first came out. They’d get wet. They wouldn’t work. We’d have problems. But as time went by, they got better, and they continued to perfect things, and they made them to where it’s a very stable accessory. That now comes from the fact you can still buy them in the aftermarket, but they come factory now. That’s a great example of what you just said, Richard.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, absolutely. And to your point, something that didn’t work out so hot, it came from the aftermarket world, kind of gave the manufacturer a good idea to say, hey, maybe we should start doing some of this. And even on pickup trucks where that used to not be a thing, right? Pickup trucks were rugged and you wouldn’t want to put these things on there. Now it’s coming on everything from your pickup trucks to a 4Runner we were in just the other day had one of these on there, Dad. So no, absolutely. And I’ll be curious when you come back next week, kind of what you actually have to say. I think that’ll be a good part of our conversation.
SPEAKER 16 :
segment to be able to kind of say some of that again a lot of what you see and we’ll even talk about may not be on a car you know this year next year but in a few years absolutely real quick i did look up the the job multiplier in the auto industry so for every direct job in vehicle manufacturing there’s 10 and a half other american jobs that go with it
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, it’s why it’s one of the things that, you know, Trump has tried to kind of figure out the most of all of the, you know, with tariffs and everything else is trying to get those automotive jobs and some of that figured out. That’s right. Well, and different thing is we need to talk more about, you know, the EV thing, which, by the way, when you’re going there, check that out, too, because this will be the first year for SEMA in a while where the federal credit and stuff is gone. I’ll be curious what the EV third party market is sort of coming up with.
SPEAKER 16 :
Okay, that’ll work. I’ll leave it at that, Richard. Thank you, as always. Have a great rest of your evening. And Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning coming up next. Any issues at all you’ve got with your furnace, and don’t forget to get it tuned up. There’s a great special right now, $56 off. Find them at Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning. Find them at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 05 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 16 :
All right, that’s it for hour number two. Got another full hour coming your way. And yes, as Richard stated, I will talk about what I see at the SEMA show Saturday, by the way. I’ll be back by Saturday, so I’ll be doing drive radio and all of our weekend shows that way. So I’ll have a little bit of an update, but update you all here on Rush to Reason Monday as well. All right, hour three is next. Don’t go anywhere. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 06 :
Ordinary average guy Ordinary average guy
No Kings, No Clue: Protest Logic Falls Apart