HR2 Keisha Toni Russell: Uncommon Courage: Defending Truth & Freedom Before It’s Too Late 4-14-25 by John Rush
SPEAKER 09 :
This is Rush to Reason. You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush.
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My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job, sir. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
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SPEAKER 12 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 19 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560, hour number two. We’ve got a guest that we are trying our best to get lined up, but if we don’t, as I always say, the show goes on. Got plenty to always talk about, and I can dovetail into really what I was talking about as I closed out the last hour. And again, I don’t know exactly… how you would message this, because I get the fact that the federal government has to be careful in overstepping, not overstepping its bounds. Yes, I believe that the federal government serves a purpose in a lot of areas. They are there for, of course, national security. There are certain things that are overarching that matter to each state, transportation, of course, being one of them. And we can go down the list of several different things that I do believe the federal government should have their hand in. I’m also one, though, that would tell you that I don’t think the federal government should be involved in everything on the state’s end of things. I do think that states have rights. I talk about that all the time, and I don’t want the feds interfering in state issues, although I say all of that to say that when it comes to certain things that we want to try to encourage and foster, that’s where I think you have to start drawing the line, and I can come back to that here as we get rolling through the show, but Keisha Russell joining us now. Keisha, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 10 :
I’m doing well. Thank you so much for having me on.
SPEAKER 05 :
I appreciate it. You’ve been a federal law clerk on the Fifth Circuit of Appeals. You’re a constitutional lawyer, First Liberty Institute, the largest legal organization in the nation defending religious liberty. Your laundry list of things you’ve done is very long. Let’s just say that.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of amazing experiences.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, A, I appreciate the work that you have done. And I guess, you know, it’s funny. We just had a gentleman on from one of our local school districts. He’s a superintendent of, and there’s a lawsuit going on here in Elizabeth, Colorado. ACLU is suing the district because the district has found through parents’ communication and so on, that there are books on the shelves in the library that, frankly, are very pornographic in nature. They shouldn’t be there. Some of the books even say these are, you know, these are intended for audiences that are, you know, 17, 18 years of age and older. And yet these are in the middle school library. So they’ve gone through and purged some of the books. And of course, ACLU. Got wind of that, and they are now claiming that that is a freedom of speech issue, that the school district doesn’t have a right to do so. This is liable to go farther up. This is in the 10th Circuit now. Liable to maybe even go above that. We’ll see how things go. But that’s a lot of the stuff that you have worked on, am I correct?
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, yeah. You know, as you mentioned, I was a former educator, a former teacher, so a lot of the cases that I take at First Liberty are education-related. And so people do send me, you know, curricula from across the country, and I’ve seen a lot of those horribly pornographic books in some of our schools, as young as elementary school, frankly. Hmm. And so I’m glad that conservatives are trying to do something about this. I think we’ve given over our public education system to the liberals for far too long now.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I won’t disagree with you on that. I’m also one that I’m a big school choice believer, and I think school choice would cure a lot of the things that we talk about there because public schools would have competition, which, let’s face it, Keisha, they really still don’t have.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, they don’t. They don’t have it. I mean, 90% of students are in public schools. and I do fully support education freedom and school choice and all of that. I’m not sure if at this point we can completely get rid of public schools. I think they’ll always be there, frankly.
SPEAKER 05 :
I agree with you. I think they’re ingrained. But are there ways to make them better? And that’s more of a question for you than me.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right. Yeah, I think so. I think what we’re seeing right now from the administration and sort of taking a hard stance, against a lot of like, you know, what’s going to Columbia, taking a hard stance against that anti-Semitism, ensuring that school districts are going to, you know, follow the law and follow parents’ rights and parents who don’t want their kids seeing certain things in school or discussing certain things with their teachers. All of that needs to be respected. And unfortunately, it’s been a long time, you know, where the liberals have had a stronghold on this, you know, area in our country. And so it’s going to take some time for us to get it back. But I think we will.
SPEAKER 05 :
Question for you, because you’re more the legal ease of things than definitely I am. But one of the ideas that I have had, I don’t know whether it’s constitutionally correct or if it can happen, but we’re in the process, or Trump and the administration is in the process of, in my opinion, hopefully shutting down the Department of Education. There’s still a lot of funds that will be either coming in or that are there. So the question I’ve got for you, Keisha, is would there be a way or could there be a way whereby you tell these states, listen, we’re going to continue to fund, you know, maybe not as much as we have in the past. We’re still going to pass some of that, you know, previous money that was there from the Department of Education down into each state, maybe according to student registration population, something along those lines. I’m not sure exactly how you would do all of that, but basically figure out a way which is probably going to be better than what they’ve even currently done. But with the string attached, the string attached is if you don’t have school choice, you don’t get this money.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, that would be tough, and I think, of course, yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
And the only reason I say that, Keisha, is we put strings on all sorts of money like federal highways and so on. Why can’t that apply to education?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I think it could. I think the answer is just whatever’s in the purview of the government, they can put strings on their money if they want. I personally believe that is the right way to persuade, if we can use that word, school districts, because ultimately what we’re saying is you have to follow the Constitution. Right. You have to respect parental rights. You have to respect religious liberty. You are not the parents for every child. student in the world and so you don’t get to dictate what they know or don’t know and what they get to do sexually or otherwise okay and so personally i think the the avenue would be to say look the federal government is required to ensure that states local governments follow the constitution every government entity is supposed to follow the constitution and whoever doesn’t doesn’t get their money period yeah yeah to me that’s pretty cut and dried Yeah, and I think, I mean, and as you see, it’s working, right? I mean, the Even the main governor, who is trying to peacock a little bit, is suddenly starting to realize, wow, $100 million is a lot of money.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right, money talks. Yeah, of course it is. Right?
SPEAKER 10 :
And she’s never going to get elected again if she loses it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Exactly. I mean, that old purse strings, I guess you could say, Keisha, yes, they matter to families, they matter to governments, they matter to churches, they matter to nonprofits. I mean, I hate to say that, but it is the way it is.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, and I totally believe the federal government has to… I mean, there’s really no other way at this point. I mean, I think we’ve got some great organizations that are trying to, you know, get back our schools at a local level. You know, groups like Moms for Liberty and things like that that are trying to put great, amazing conservatives who want students to learn patriotic constitutional material. And, you know, we have to do that because we need better leaders. I mean… I’m representing a 32-year veteran teacher right now, Marisol Castro. She is being disciplined because she was kicked out of school, basically, on paid leave, because she keeps a little cross in her personal space by her desk. Now, this is a product of not the law, not the Constitution. It’s a product of these very liberal administrators that think it’s their job to, you know, destroy the Constitution because they don’t like religion. Yep. The Constitution doesn’t support that, and it never did. Of course, we know the last Coach Kennedy case, Kennedy v. Bremerton, that case about the football coach who was praying on the football field after all the high school games, he won his case. And that definitely helped clarify the law for a lot of these school districts, but many of them don’t care, and they’re just going to continue to misbehave until… you know, the federal government does something and says, Hey, look, this is not, that’s not what we’re doing here.
SPEAKER 05 :
Gotcha. You talk about, you know, tyranny and the three steps to tyranny and so on. Hey, what are those three steps and where are we at in those steps?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I think we’re pretty much at the end because so there, um, number one, dividing and oscillating people is, is, is a really important tactic, right? And you have to, encourage people that they’re not going to be, that they’re superior to others, essentially. And we’ve seen this throughout history. So the liberals think we’re morally deficient as conservatives.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yep, that’s right. We’re dumb.
SPEAKER 10 :
And that’s probably the most salient example.
SPEAKER 05 :
We’re dumb. We’re Neanderthals. I’ve heard it, Keisha. I know what they say about us.
SPEAKER 10 :
And then, you know, the other thing would be, and I talk about this in many different ways in my book, but essentially… you know, training people to lose their conscience. They no longer are going to fight for things that they know is wrong or right. They’re not going to advocate because now they’re stuck behind this wall of you know, social expectation, even if they know, okay, it’s wrong to censor conservatives. It’s wrong that we treat Jewish students like this. You know, it’s wrong that they’re not going to say anything. And in fact, many of them will participate. Why? Because they want to belong. They don’t want to be ostracized, and they care more about their social status than they do about standing up for the truth.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 10 :
And the last thing is extermination. Now, extermination can be in many different forms. We’ve seen physical extermination, right? Not in Germany. They followed those steps. And we can look at a lot of these communistic regimes in the past, and they’ve all followed these steps. So it can be physical extermination, where the government is just killing people, essentially, with impunity. Or it can be social extermination, and Anyone who’s been watching what went on between even the last five years since COVID knows exactly what social extermination is.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
It means you make sure one group of people has no social power, no social capital, so much that even when they’re being treated badly, nobody’s going to stand up for them.
SPEAKER 05 :
A great example of that is those of us that chose not to be vaccinated fit into the category you just said.
SPEAKER 10 :
Perfect, yes. That’s a perfect example. And what happened five years later, we have some of these liberal media outlets finally admitting that everything that we were told during COVID, well, the majority of it, was a lie.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
And the people who they were saying were not telling the truth were actually telling the truth.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, we weren’t as crazy as everybody thought.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, yes. And of course, there will never be an apology or acknowledgement of that. Nope, nope. We have to keep fighting for our country because ultimately we’re going to end up in a position where the next generation is not going to understand the value of a republic, the power of the Constitution. Right now they’re being taught to despise everything about America.
SPEAKER 05 :
Really quick, I interrupt because what you just said a moment ago I think is really important because it’s something I talk about a lot, and you just mentioned it, and that is this—I don’t even think it’s even subtle anymore— Very, very few people even talk like you and I about us having a constitutional republic. It’s all a democracy. Unfortunately, even some of our side will say, you know, our democracy. And I love Trump, but sometimes he’ll even say that. And it’s like, guys, stop using that word because the left is infiltrating, getting people to think that’s what we have when we don’t.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, and that’s true. I think a lot of times I think people are just, you know, being general and not very specific in their language. And I don’t know if when Donald Trump says that he really means to eliminate the idea of the republic, but it’s also that’s just what the left does with language.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
They manipulate language.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
And it’s just like we look at the idea of compassion. Is it compassionate to lie to someone?
SPEAKER 11 :
No.
SPEAKER 10 :
About the truth? No. No, that’s not compassionate. That’s like the worst thing you can do to somebody.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
But that’s what we’re being taught is compassion, to lie.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good point. Good point. No, and again, I always get hung up on the whole democracy thing, because I just feel like it’s a way, you said a moment ago, that these next generations, plural, which I can already see it happening, even with not that far from, I’m 60, and even my generation, downs kind of started down this whole path where, and this problem of, we’re not a republic anymore, we’re a democracy. And while it sounds great and it sounds interchangeable, the reality is democracy, majority rules, and I don’t get a seat at the table, Keisha.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, yeah, and that’s the point, right? Because there are going to be a lot of times in history where the majority is wrong about that.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
COVID is a great example. Absolutely, absolutely, that’s a great example. So we’ve got to be careful about the language, you’re right, but ultimately, if we are able to educate ourselves students ourselves and not allow the left to completely deceive them, then they will know the difference. They will know what we mean when we say constitutional republic, and they will know what we mean when we say democracy.
SPEAKER 05 :
Amen. Keisha, as you can tell, you speak our language. You are welcome back here anytime. How do folks find more about what you’re doing and the things that you’re working on?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, you can go to Keisha, Tony Russell, TonyWithAnEye.com, and you’ll find my book. You’ll be able to um do some speaking requests if you want to do that and also firstliberty.org which is you know our concept my uh first my uh sorry law firm where i work and we you know work on religious liberty you can look at our cases pray for our clients please because maricel castro especially been teaching 32 years and now she’s on paid leave because of a cross and that’s firstliberty.org Yep, firstliberty.org. You can find out about all of our cases. We have another pastor who was convicted of a criminal violation for letting homeless people stay in his church overnight in Ohio when the temperatures are frigid. So, again, we are criminalizing compassion in many ways in our country and totally perverting what compassion actually means. So we’ve got a lot of cases that we would love your viewers to pray for.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 10 :
you know, follow along with support us any way they can.
SPEAKER 05 :
We will do that. And, again, you are welcome any time. I appreciate your time. It’s been great talking to you. And so much more even I had in my notes that we didn’t get to, but we’ll have you back and get more from you down the road. And I appreciate what you’re doing, Keisha, very much.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, happy to come back anytime. Thanks for having me on.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you very much. I appreciate it. What a wonderful lady, by the way. And if you go to her website, you’ll actually get to see some of the things that she is working on. And, yeah, she is phenomenal. I would encourage you to follow along. You heard even what she was talking about in regards to our case here in Colorado with Elizabeth. School District, you heard us talking to Dan last hour, and that’s the kind of stuff that Keisha works on on a routine basis as well. Veteran Windows and Doors is up next. You heard from Dave earlier at 3 o’clock. He added some different things to the special that he’s had, 35% off up to three windows or 40% for four or more, and now 45% on doors as well, and he’ll install those at his cost. That’s Veteran Windows and Doors, KLZRadio.com.
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SPEAKER 14 :
putting reason into your afternoon drive. This is John Rush.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Okay, let me finish up before we go to the bottom of the hour. I don’t know if I can get all of this in, but I think I can get a portion of my topic on what would the Trump administration need to do or need to encourage. And again, this is a question I could probably even get Keisha back on and have more conversation with her on, and that is what would or could the federal government do in regards to helping some of these companies that would like to bring some manufacturing back to certain areas. And certain states, by the way, are a lot better at this than others. It’s why certain states continue to grow and are doing better than others. And I’ll just tell you straight up, Colorado is not one of those because developing in Colorado sucks. Straight up. Far too many hoops to jump through. Far too many community meetings to have. Far too many city council meetings to have. And this is not an exaggeration. From a raw project that is just written out on paper to getting something actually built here in Colorado, and I am not exaggerating, could take a minimum of three years. Minimum three years. So, you know, Trump talks about moving manufacturing back and getting things going and so on, which I’m all for. You’ve got to figure out how to fast track what I just said. Three years to even have a building started. By the way, that’s not completed. I’m just talking about started. You could be four to five on getting something actually completed in the state of Colorado here along the Front Range, especially some of the other littler towns might be a little bit different. But here along the Front Range area, nothing happens in a year’s time. You are lucky to even get approvals in a year’s time, and I am not exaggerating. Some of these counties and the things that they require before a building would even be started to be put up, before the dirt even starts to get moved, is absolutely astonishing, and most people have no idea what’s involved in that. Most people buy a house, move in, might even build a house. They go through that process. That’s even a little simpler, although it’s still fairly convoluted, but still much simpler than building a large commercial building or even an industrial park where you might encourage half a dozen people. you know different businesses to move into a particular area where you could even share resources and so on reality is building anything along those lines uh would take literally and i’m not exaggerating before the actual thing is completed and people are actually inside working on it here in colorado four to five years if it’s done sooner than that good luck an act of god happened And it’s ridiculous that it takes that long. It should not take that long. We should be fostering and trying to figure out how to get more people, you know, more business, things like that in. And I get it. We have this mentality here in Colorado, especially along the front range. We don’t want you here. Go somewhere else. Not in my backyard. Well, the reality is that’s not how you foster growth and keep an economy rolling along by having that kind of an attitude. And unfortunately, there’s far too many communities coast to coast, not just here, but coast to coast that foster that. Now, I get it. There’s other communities, Texas, Arizona, even other places whereby they’re like, hey, move on in. We’ll give you some incentive even to do so. And by the way, I’m not one for government incentives. I am not one for TIFs, you know, tax taxpayer funded things. I am not for that. At all. But I am for streamlining the process whereby if a company wants to come in, put in a decent site production facility, you know, maybe even provide, you know, a thousand plus workers jobs. We should be fostering that. Instead, we do the opposite. We in some cases send them away. We don’t want you here. Go somewhere else. And folks, I’m talking about even projects whereby the zoning might even be correct right now for what they’re trying to do. we will still say, well, you’ve got to jump through this hoop, and we’ve had some community flack and some feedback, and they don’t want it, and, and, and. And we’re allowing communities, by the way, to overrun the property rights of individuals that may have owned property for decades. We’re allowing newbies to come in and control what goes on on that property when the property rights of that owner are getting trumped by these individuals, and they shouldn’t be. That’s the stuff I’m talking about that this administration needs to look closer at. And Trump being a developer, you would think would know full well about some of those things. And maybe his team is working on some of that and figuring out ways to whereby we can incentivize to get some of these companies to come back and build here. But us in Colorado, good luck, because we have an environment in Colorado where it’s don’t come here. We don’t want you. And I mean that sincerely. We have that type of a mentality in Colorado where don’t come here. I got to hand it to some of these developers that are out there, those of you that are listening that are. They go through all the hoops. You jump through everything necessary. You get something built. You finally get a project sold or completed or leased or whatever it might be. I commend you because it’s a huge risk in Colorado, a huge risk. And it is not for the faint of heart, by the way. So I’ll leave it at that. That’s my feeling on some of the other aspects of what we’re doing in regards to tariffs and getting companies to move back here. We have to figure out a way to streamline what I just said so we can get building done a lot faster than what it currently has done in a lot of areas, including Colorado. Golden Eagle Financial is up next. Al Smith, find out what Al can do for you when it comes to your future financial plans today. Find him at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 04 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive, this is John Rush. All right, we are back. Donovan, go ahead, sir.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, John, I’ll tell you the way to speed up these building departments is get rid of a bunch of failed architects and engineers that they hire to run them because they couldn’t make their own private practice. Get some business people in there, and it works. And I know it works. I’ve been working with building departments for well into 40 years. Colorado Springs is a regional building. It used to be run by a fellow that ran a sheet metal shop. He got tired of being in that, went in to run the building department. Guess what happened down there? At those days, you got crap through. Hmm.
SPEAKER 05 :
So I’m not wrong in everything I said, am I?
SPEAKER 07 :
No, you’re not totally right because there’s a whole bunch more that needs to be undone.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yep, you are so right, Donovan. I mean, I’m only scratching the surface on some of this stuff. It needs a complete revamp. For some of this stuff to take two and three years to get through is ridiculous.
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s stupid. You know, there’s a little town down in Texas, you might have heard it, called Houston? Yep. They don’t even have a building department.
SPEAKER 05 :
I know. I know.
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s only the private inspections. Here, pay us. Get the hell out of our way.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yep. We could do the same thing, Donovan, very easily.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, I know. It’s pathetic, Don.
SPEAKER 05 :
I agree. Donovan, thank you for reassuring what I said. You bet, man. I appreciate you very much. Richard, you’re next. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, yeah, well, that’s just what you and I were talking about earlier today, that there seems there’s a lot of waste. Well, it’s the government, right? Actually, my wife’s going through the process of getting her passport right now, and you would think that, you know, she was looking to go to the moon or something.
SPEAKER 05 :
I know. I know everything is an act of Congress to get something done. And, you know, what I was referring to is what you and I were talking about earlier today, which is, you know, Trump and the terrorists and all of that. And whether you like him or don’t like him and his idea of getting, you know, manufacturing and things back here, that’s all fine and dandy. The problem is for a lot of different areas of the country, Colorado being one of them, you know, it’s it would be five years from today before a plant even went up and started operating.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, you’re 100 percent correct. And that’s like you and I were like you and I were discussing. That is our biggest issue is there just there’s well, there’s no consistency among. I’ll just say there’s no consistency among the, you know, departments, I guess you could say. And there’s just there’s just a lot of things that are. problematic that don’t make sense, right? And like, there’s a lot of red tape involved. And, you know, you’ve got to, and I know that, I will say this, some stuff is sort of done to, well, it makes people safer, right? For example, building codes, right? A lot of new building codes these days, you’ve got to put sprinklers in people’s houses, which I can understand all, but, you know, we’re trying to bring down the cost of living for people and the cost of building houses and all that sort of stuff. And that doesn’t feel like that’s doing that, right? When you force someone to pay the extra money to put those things in.
SPEAKER 05 :
A lot of those houses that were lost on top of the hill in the East Boulder area and the fire that we had, had sprinklers and it didn’t do one bit of good on those homes. So at the end of the day, Richard, does it really matter?
SPEAKER 08 :
You know, Dad, I don’t know if it does, to be honest with you. I feel like Yeah, I feel like no. I could be wrong in that, but I feel like no.
SPEAKER 05 :
And some people would say, well, John, how do you know those were sprinkled? Because in Boulder County, if you’re over, I believe it is 4,000 square feet, and this has been going on since the early, actually late 90s, early 2000s, they had to be sprinkled. So a lot of those homes that were on top of the hill there, which is where I used to live, by the way, and the home I lived in was sprinkled, all those other homes around there that were burned up and burned to the ground into ash, they were also sprinkled.
SPEAKER 08 :
Correct. Well, and like you said, again, some of the stuff is well-intentioned. I’m not saying that, and I think that there’s improvements, right? Because some people would argue, well, you know, we have improved. You know, building codes have gotten better, and they’ve allowed people to do different things, and, you know, they’ve kept people safer. And ultimately, I would agree with that statement, right? You know, we have done a lot of things, and we’ve gotten wiser, you know, in the materials used to build things and that sort of thing. But like you said, at the same time, You know, you go from everything from, you know, essentially how fast your house or your building or whatever gets done depends on the inspector, depends on what day they’re having, basically, depends on what city you’re in. You know, no offense, it really shouldn’t matter if you’re in Denver or if you’re in, you know, up in, you know, Weld County and Greeley or you’re down in Douglas County, wherever it might be, it should be the same throughout. And I get that, you know, each, like you and I talked about, you know, it’s sort of hard because we do live in, in a free nation to where each county and each individual state in some respect, city, can decide their own code. However, how crazy is it that if you live within city limits, your code is one thing, and if technically, literally, in some cases, you go across the road, and you’re in an unincorporated part of the county, Your building code is totally different. How does that matter?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, it’s interesting you say that. Dave Hart just texted me a minute ago and said, getting a roof permit. Every city is different. It could take five minutes in one, two hours in another, $100 in one, $800 in another. There is, to your point, Richard, literally no consistency whatsoever, which is absolutely ridiculous.
SPEAKER 08 :
You are correct. And that’s sort of the frustration that you and I are talking about with a lot of this is there’s no consistency, right?
SPEAKER 03 :
Nope.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s the biggest issue that we run into. And honestly, that’s all we’re asking is consistency. And, well, I should say not all we’re asking because you and I are asking for the same thing, which is remove the red tape, right? Remove the difficult barriers that we put in place from everything from, again, for warehouses. And again, I’m not saying that you want to just throw people in these rickety buildings. But I’ll just say that we’re not China, although I sent you a video last week showing China. put up a, now again, you don’t know if all this is correct, but this is what’s reported, right? Showing China, put up a $280 million bridge that’s, I think, 2,500 feet in the air, and it’s one of the highest bridges in the world now. Right. And they’re letting cars drive on it, so I’ve got to think it’s some level of secure and safe, right? Why can they do that now? Like, you and I talked about this. It does – we also don’t want to put it to – no loss of life is acceptable for us. And I’ll just say it. In other countries, other parts of the world, it is okay, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
And it is acceptable. If they lose some lives building it, they don’t care.
SPEAKER 08 :
Correct. And so I think that there is definitely a little bit of a – There’s a little bit of give and take, right? And you and I have talked about this, and there is a balance, right? We do want to keep people safe. We don’t want people just throwing up these massive warehouses only for them to come collapsing five years later, you know, the first windstorm we get. snowstorm or whatever it might be. However, Dad, I am a firm believer that there’s a way to do it simpler. And just because, again, the whole point of DOGE, right, is to make our government operate more efficiently. And like I said, I can speak in firsthand experience of my wife getting her passport. I mean, this has been almost eight weeks now of trying to get this thing, and they’re still asking for more documentation, right? And it’s just a nonstop… And that’s just one example, right? Imagine if you’re wanting to put up a $100 million building, Dad, right? How much you have to submit, how much time goes into those submissions, all the things that they’re looking for. So, nope, I’m with you. Again, I think it needs to be changed, and it’s one of the things that we could be doing as a country that would really encourage growth, in my opinion.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, shifting over really quick to the Masters. I know we don’t have a ton of time, but the Masters, which, by the way, is a unique event in and of itself. We’ve talked about that a little bit in the past. But talk to us about the Masters, how it went. I did not get a chance. I was too busy doing too many house chores yesterday. I did not watch any of it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, Dad, so it was an interesting – well, I’ll just say it. It was interesting yesterday because it was so close to Rory giving away another – I’ll just say it. He was giving away another championship. And Rory McIlroy won it. He was up late, then he was back down, then he was up again. And then he ended up bogeying 18, had to go to a playoff. And granted, you know what? In his defense, he won. And that’s all that matters. And I will say this. CBS and the Masters probably loved it, because I think it was probably one of their highest-rated Masters ever. It was the first in 2017 to go to a playoff hole. Rory becomes just the sixth person ever to complete the career Grand Slam, which is really crazy, Dad, right? Just four tournaments, right? The Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship. Only the sixth person ever to actually complete the career Grand Slam, so kudos to him. But, Dad, man, when you turn on that Masters, I know you didn’t have any time to watch it because you’ve got better things to do, but I got a little bit yesterday to actually turn it on. And I’ll say it was really an enjoyable thing, to be honest with you. And it’s always nice to see sort of the kickoff to spring in Colorado. It was beautiful weather this weekend. But, yeah, I mean, it was crazy. You also had, Dad, PGA versus Live because Bryson DeChambeau was in the final pairing with Rory. He ended up ultimately going a little bit. Further down the train, well, not the train. Basically, he ended up faltering, right? He sort of fell down. He kind of came out hot, and then Augusta sort of got the best of him, which happens to a lot of the best golfers in the world. But ultimately, I think it was a resounding success for them. I think if they had to choose that, they would time and time again. People have been waiting for Rory to get that Masters victory. for a long, long time. And then now, to me, the question remains, how many more will he get? And the other thing, Dad, is just sort of anytime these things happen, it helps you appreciate guys like Jack and Tiger that much more just because of the consistency that they had. You know what I mean? They were just great, and there’s no other way around it.
SPEAKER 05 :
With less equipment than what we have today.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes. Well, yeah, Jack did. Obviously, he sort of came into it on his own, but you’re 100% correct.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yep. Yeah, it’s amazing. All right. Stay tuned. We’ll come back here in a moment. Ridgeline Auto Brokers is up next. If you’re looking for a new used car, look no further than Ridgeline Auto Brokers. They’re there to take care of you. And if there’s a vehicle, by the way, that you’re looking for they don’t have, they’ll find it for you as well. RidgelineAutoBrokers.com.
SPEAKER 15 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
All right, Affordable Interest Mortgage. Kurt will join us for a Monday Mortgage Minute here in just a little bit. In the meantime, his direct line, 720-895-0500.
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SPEAKER 05 :
All right, and we are back, and today we are going to do some car reviews. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560, and Richard, before we get started here, sounds like today we will have the battle of the minivans.
SPEAKER 08 :
We will. I was jumping ahead in our earlier conversation, but why don’t you go first, Dad? You drove one recently and kind of came to show it to the grandkids. They loved it, as always, but an exciting segment that we are entering into here.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I drove a 2025 Kia Carnival SX, the prestige package on this particular car. And I will tell you, first off, the thing about this particular car, and I’ve got a couple of listeners that actually own these. But first things first, it does not look like your typical car. a minivan it has a different look to it’s got more of a nose to it and in in one of the comments that i got from a lot of different people looking at it was that does not look like a minivan this thing comes in at 56 000 sorry 55 255 3.5 liter direct injection v6 engine 8-speed automatic transmission and i’ll tell you what richard as far as usability comfortability All of the creature comforts known to man are inside of it. The rear seats fold down into the floor, which make that really convenient. The two center seats recline all of the way. They’ll adjust in and out depending upon what you’re actually trying to do inside of the car itself. I mean, this thing’s got a laundry list of things that it comes with, all again, for $55,000, and it’s a lot of car for that, Richard.
SPEAKER 08 :
It is. Got to see it this weekend a little bit, and we’ll kind of compare it. But a lot of great features. That second row is awesome, especially if you’ve maybe got some older kids. Or even not, maybe just you and the wife, I don’t know, want to go hang out someplace, or your spouse, whatever it is. Like I said, fully reclining, the integration of the infotainment system, or I should say the entertainment system. There you go. That second row, Dad. Works really, really well. You can kind of slide those seats around however you want to position them. Really comfortable.
SPEAKER 05 :
Great travel car, Richard, to your point a moment ago. Let’s say you’re traveling. You want to pull over, have a little break. You don’t really want to stay in the hotel. Realistically, if you want to take a four- or five-hour nap and just pull over for a little bit, this is the car you can do that in.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely, it is, Dad. And like I said, I was really impressed with it, really impressed with what they’ve done, the infotainment. They have sort of the bird’s-eye-view camera, which we’re going to talk about in our next review as well, that it’s got, which, again, I know for you probably doesn’t matter, but for me as a parent and for my wife, it does matter because instead of having to look around at the kids, you can just basically push this button. The rear section pops up on the screen, folks, and you can kind of see what the kids are doing. You can control everything from up front. You’ve got heated and ventilated front seats, which is fantastic. Man, if you could honestly get massaging seats out of that second row, I’m not sure if you’d need one of these other fancy cars.
SPEAKER 05 :
I’ll tell you what, and again, for all of you listening, everything from Apple CarPlay to Lane Keep Assist, all the collision device, the anti-collision stuff, I should say, that are on it. wireless phone charging, heated and ventilated front seats. Again, on and on we go. I mean, I list, Richard, again, the list is very long. The car works extremely well. Very quiet inside. A lot of minivans, by the way, of old that a lot of folks used to have, they were thinking, oh, you know, they’re kind of noisy and clunky and so on. Yeah, not anymore. The other thing about this car, Richard, it’s 21 average, 18 city, 26 highway average. But I was in that 26 range all of the time. I literally drove everywhere in this thing that past week. And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. And I used one tank of fuel, and that was it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and again, we’ve talked about that, that this is the segment that, especially with some of these that are going with the hybrid powertrains in a lot of cases, you’re able to really get up there. They’ve done a really good job at sort of maximizing their frames per se, right? They sort of get the most out of these engines. They’re relatively aerodynamic with how they do it. And so, no, it’s a great, like you said, a great value. And for something where, and you know this from all the kids obviously growing up, It pays off as a parent when you don’t have to stop as often for fuel.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. That’s right. Just keep rolling. Exactly. Anyways, those of you listening, if this is something you might be interested in, go check one out. I would say test drive one. If you haven’t driven one of these in quite some time, go to your local Kia dealer, ask about it, drive it, tell them that John and Richard Rush, both from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason, both sent you. All right, Rick, Richard, the second half of, again, the minivan, I guess you could call it, challenge. You drove a Honda Odyssey, which is Honda’s version of what we just talked about.
SPEAKER 08 :
Honda’s version, Daddy, I got to kind of take it around, drove it everywhere. Again, whenever the kids get it, we move the car seats and such around, and it makes it work. It’s got latches everywhere. For those of you that don’t know what that is, it’s the little metal points that connect to the frame of the seats in the vehicle that lets you, you know, more securely fasten your car seat as compared to, you know, just using the seat belt for that matter, right? Okay. This has a similar camera to the other vehicle that we talked about. It’s called Cabin View. It’s also got cabin talk on it, which means that you can just press a button and instead of turning around and yelling at those little rascals to quiet down, or even if you just instead of want to yell to get to the back seat because cars are noisy no matter how good they do, you can basically talk to that. And it comes through the speakers. And you can actually choose an option to have it come through the headphones at the same time. It does have an infotainment rather than some of these other cars where it’s got the, I guess, the more common data kind of screens in front of each second row passenger. This has got just kind of one big screen up above. They had a fire stick in it. I’m not sure if Honda’s got their own system, but I’ll tell you with the Wi-Fi hotspot that’s in it, And the fire stick combination, and honestly, Dad, my kids are as good at using that thing anymore as anything else. It works really well. Super easy to operate. The headphones work really, really well. Second row seats in this one did not fully recline, as you kind of mentioned. However, Dad, what was really nice is this has a removable, fully removable second row. And that means that you can take out the center console and kind of give yourself just some captain’s chairs. You can leave the center console in there. You could actually remove one of the seats. or both of them, for that matter, if you wanted to, and storm in your garage or wherever. And you’ve got the ability to slide these seats in and out. And I’ll tell you, my daughter loved that because she got to sit next to her baby brother when she normally is across the aisle from him, right? And so ultimately, and this was the Honda Elite or the Odyssey Elite, so kind of the creme de la creme, top of the line, all of this and all of the creature comforts up front that you would expect to as far as heated and ventilated front seats. front seats, heated steering wheel, Honda’s kind of adaptive cruise technology, Dad, with some of their safety features, all of that for pretty much kind of what we were just talking about, a little bit over $52,000 for this price, Dad, which with some of these other larger SUVs that are similar passenger capacity, Dad, you’re basically getting, you know, you can buy too many events for the price of one.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know what? You can’t argue with that at all. Not at all.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, and again, folks, everyone kind of gives us a hard time. They all laugh. But I will tell you, if you’re looking for functionality, and maybe looks aren’t there, but you just want the best functionality that you can get, this is a vehicle I would highly recommend that you check out. You go look at it. Get yourself in it. Get your friends in it. Get your family in it. whoever you’re going to do, because ultimately, Dad, that’s what’s going to matter. And I would give two thumbs up, again, to the 2025 Honda Odyssey Elite. It really opened my eyes to what can be done. So if you want to head to your local Honda dealer, Dad, check it out. And when they do that, let them know that John and Richard Rush from Rush to Reason and Drive Radio sent you.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, guys. With that, I’ll let you go, Richard. Thanks. Sounds good. Thanks. All right. And for those of you listening, we’ve got lots of reviews that we have done over the course of many years now. You can find those on our website. Go to RushToReason.com. There’s a car review link. You click that. It actually takes you to another website where there’s a collage where, you know, Producer Anne does a good job of putting all of those together. So those of you even looking at used cars where you’re thinking, hey, what do the guys think about such and such? And by the way, you can also always email or text me. I take those text messages and emails very seriously. If you’re interested and you’re looking at a car, you’ve got a Carfax on a car. Is this a car that you would look at? Is this a car that I should be looking at? Or what should I be looking at? I help people with that on an ongoing basis, by the way. For free. We don’t charge for that at all. So if you need help buying a car, please, by all means, reach out and let us know. Up next, Cup Creek Heating and Air Conditioning. Any problems at all with your HVAC system, give Cup Creek a call today. Find them at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, that is it for hour number two. I know a lot of folks are calling in wanting to talk more about the building codes and all of that. I’ve got Kurt Rogers joining us. Of course, for our Monday Mortgage Minute, we may or may not have a guest at 515. So just stay listening. If we do, I’ll take those calls right after that. Otherwise, I will take calls where that interview was supposed to be. We’ll be right back. Hour number three is next. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
I’m a rich guy.
Media Narratives vs Reality: Data That Changes the Story. Iran, Oil, and Global Power.