In this engaging episode of Rush to Reason, host John Rush is joined by Tanner Haas, the CEO and founder of Freedom Chat — a messaging app designed to put privacy back into the hands of users. Tanner takes us through the landscape of digital messaging, revealing the startling truths behind so-called ‘private’ messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal. Discover why Freedom Chat stands out as the world’s most private messaging app and how it achieves unparalleled privacy protection. The conversation delves deep into the critical need for privacy in digital communication in today’s world. Tanner discusses the
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It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, we are back. Hour number two, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Myself, Andy Pate with me as well, and our guest right now joining us, Tanner Haas. Tanner, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 12 :
I’m good. Thank you so much for having me on, John.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, I appreciate it very much. You are from Freedom Chat, the CEO and the founder. Talk to us about, I guess, first off, Tanner, what is Freedom Chat?
SPEAKER 12 :
Freedom Chat, to put it in plain terms, is the world’s most private messaging app. with end-to-end encryption, meaning no one other than the intended recipient can read what you send. And there’s a lot of other apps that claim that. And if you want, we can break it down on why that’s not true. We don’t store messages on our server. So as soon as the message is successfully delivered, it is removed from our server and only managed on each user’s device. And we have absolutely no commercial use of user data. We also prevent screenshots, screen recordings. You can edit, unsend, self-destruct. I mean… We have built Freedom Chat from the ground up to be the world’s most private message app on the planet, period, full stop.
SPEAKER 13 :
And again, thank you, by the way, for joining us and for giving us that description. What separates you from the WhatsApp, the signals, the even iMessage that comes built into the iPhones and so on? Are you there, Tanner? Did we lose you?
SPEAKER 12 :
Nope, I’m right here.
SPEAKER 13 :
Sorry. We got you. So what separates Freedom Chat from some of those other what they call, quote-unquote, private chat apps, I guess is what I’m trying to say, chat apps?
SPEAKER 12 :
So let’s take WhatsApp. Let’s do a side-by-side comparison. So it’s the three pillars of privacy, I like to say, and then encryption. We have true privacy. End-to-end encryption. WhatsApp claims they have end-to-end encryption, right? If you go to their website, it’s all over the place, but they have one of the best marketing teams in the world. It’s Facebook, Instagram. So, of course, they’re going to go with the tide. But end-to-end encryption is supposed to mean that no one under any circumstance can read your message other than the antenna recipient. For WhatsApp, you can actually back up somebody’s device on another device and read their messages. You can report a user, and they can see the last five messages. And if you really think that WhatsApp can only see the last five messages, you’re kidding yourself. So it’s not actual end-to-end encryption. It’s encryption or end-to-end encryption, but when does it end? It ends sooner than people think, and they can see a lot more than people think. The other pillar is do they store messages on a server? And the answer is yes. They store your messages on a server. They support linked devices. Linked devices have been shown to be a vulnerability. It was reported by the Washington Examiner, the New York Post. So storing messages on a server often indefinitely just opens risk. I mean… The longer something is stored on the server, the greater the likelihood that something is going to happen at some point in time and it’s going to get out. And really quick. We don’t store any, yeah, of course.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, I was going to say, really quick, linked devices, meaning they’ve got the ability to use an iPad or their regular desktop computer, laptop, whatever. That’s what you’re talking about with linked devices, correct?
SPEAKER 12 :
Correct. And so that’s great for convenience, but the problem is, And Freedom Chat does not support linked devices. You could log in with your phone number on an iPad if you enter your PIN, but none of those conversations will carry over.
SPEAKER 13 :
It’ll be on the iPad only, not on your iPhone.
SPEAKER 12 :
Correct. And these other apps, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, they support linked devices, and that has been shown to be a huge vulnerability. There’s been Russian and Chinese phishing attempts, and they’re often successful where somebody can simply… Hey, they redirect an SMS code. They’re able to get into the back door. That’s how they get into these accounts. That’s how they see these other messages. So I just think link devices, you need to put a cap on it. If you’re going to allow link devices or do what, I mean, you can’t allow somebody with one phone number to log into Facebook. an unlimited number of devices. They can log in here in Russia, China, Phoenix. It doesn’t matter. That’s ridiculous in my point of view. So we don’t support that. And that is a huge, huge selling point. And that is one of the reasons that nobody else can compete with us. And then the other, which is consumers need to pay more attention to this, is does that company have commercial use of user data? And for FreedomChat, the answer is no. For all these other companies, the answer is yes. And what that means is Well, yeah, we might keep your conversations private or so. They claim to do that. But if they take every piece of metadata, so who you’re talking to, when you’re talking to them, where you’re talking to them from, your device, your diagnostic data, your political affiliation, financial information, is that really private? And the answer is no, of course not.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 12 :
That’s how we stack up with WhatsApp, but you can go through the same exercise with the Telegram. Telegram doesn’t have end-to-end encryption by default. They store every message on a server. They have an immense amount of user data used for commercial purposes. They don’t prevent screenshots, screen recordings like FreedomChat. You can do the same exercise with Signal. It really, when you break it down in that way, that is what separates FreedomChat. I don’t like the claimed… that, oh, we should be able to break it down, and we can break it down very succinctly. And one of my other problems with Signal for anybody that’s in this space is, one, they support linked devices. Two, and I guess this stems from my hatred and distrust of the healthcare industry, but I really, really do not like fakeness, meaning I don’t like when a company claims to be a nonprofit, but clearly operates as if they are a I believe in, I’m a hardcore capitalist, you want to start something, you want to make, you have every right in the world, but be honest about it. So don’t say you’re a non-profit, let’s signal, get a $100 million grant from the same guy that started WhatsApp, pay your CEO millions of dollars and sell it. Just say you’re a for-profit company, period, full stop.
SPEAKER 13 :
Great point.
SPEAKER 12 :
Oh, it makes my blood boil. I can’t argue with that one.
SPEAKER 13 :
Tell it like it is. 100%.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, Tanner, there have been so many stories about people who have lost everything because of a signal chat or lost everything because of a text, lost everything because of an email. And they’ll think that it’s something very innocent, but it gets out there and it gets them in trouble with their political party, maybe with a relationship, with their job, and they can lose a job. So many people have lost so much because they didn’t have security on their devices or on their apps. Has anybody ever had any problems through yours?
SPEAKER 12 :
There has never been a problem through Freedom Chat, and there won’t be because of the one we don’t support link devices. So if you try to log in on another and somebody sends a message and they don’t log you out of your other device, the message won’t decrypt if you try to log in at the same time. So it really is. physically impossible to see a message that is not intended for you that was intended for another device. So all these other apps like signal, yeah, it’s a hundred percent. There have been issues. One, I think it’s also, and this is, this goes back to the fakeness thing, but like signal, I think a lot of those chats that have been leaked either are related to linked devices or or it’s a values thing because whenever I see this, like, well, how come the people that have their conversations like tend to be on the conservative spectrum? Like, come on, why, how do you explain that?
SPEAKER 13 :
Right.
SPEAKER 12 :
And I’ve had, I mean, dozens of people say they’ve had something high profile individuals, something from signal got out. WhatsApp is kind of a nonstarter. You just shouldn’t even use that period. And the story telegram, Same thing. But people’s privacy, I mean, it matters. And people are starting to see that now more than ever. It’s going to continue to accelerate. Just because you said something, I mean, it can come out at any moment in time. And if you don’t think that it will or hasn’t yet, just run for office, do something to power, disagree with the powers that be.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 12 :
And you’ll see something that’s going to come out, and you’re like, wow, that was six years ago. I don’t remember saying that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and also, Tanner, you might be thinking, yeah, but I know the context of that comment. It really wasn’t so bad. Okay, now I want you to get into a political or public situation where you have to explain that context and tell me how well that sells. And suddenly you’re having to spend 20 minutes explaining the context when the problem is a comment that’s only four seconds long. Everybody remembers the four seconds. Right.
SPEAKER 12 :
And the comment was meant to be private and it’s like, well, yeah, some people, I mean, the amount of things that I’ve texted that could be taken out of context that I just, I just feel so passionate about this because I don’t think if we didn’t step up, I don’t think it was going to get done properly. I don’t like the fakeness of these other apps. Um, and everybody, I mean, privacy is, is a fundamental human right. And I view it like that, that you should be able to send me a message and, be able to send your wife, your brother, and nobody other than the attendant recipient should be able to see that there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. And the most common argument I hear, which is just utterly ridiculous is, well, what if there’s bad actors? Well, there’s bad actors everywhere on the planet. So to say you want to police everybody because a few bad actors is nonsense. There’s bad actors on Facebook, on Instagram, where they know that and they don’t do anything. So it’s just, it’s a non-starter privacy. It’s everybody’s rights. And that’s what Freedom Chat stands for. And we are, you can, if you want to do their own due diligence, I encourage you to go look at these privacy policies, these apps, just because they say something does not mean it’s true. Like dive into the actual legal documents, use the product, see who’s actually behind the product. I mean, it really gets my blood boiling. That’s what prompted me to start Freedom Chat.
SPEAKER 13 :
How long has it been around, Tanner?
SPEAKER 12 :
Freedom chat has been in the works for two and a half years. So we’ve gone through, I mean, this, we have been fighting an uphill battle because if you look at our competitors, uh, signal received a hundred million dollar grant WhatsApp launched in 2009. I mean, that’s a bit of a headstart. They are now owned by Facebook unlimited money. Telegram receives hundreds of millions. So we have been fighting and we’ve raised over $2 million, but it, you can’t release something like this in a few months so two and a half months we’ve now launched our alpha product where we’ve reached feature parity so you can edit unsend you can send images videos gifts you can reply to a message share contacts i mean it is okay basically as i think it’s more user friendly than whatsapp
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay, a question I’ve always wondered, and this is – I’m an Apple guy, and I like iMessage, A, because of what Apple has at least done in the past with releasing certain information or getting phones not unlocked when government wants it unlocked and things like that. And I like the consistency or the friendliness, I guess you could say, across the platform, Tanner, and what I can do when it comes to iMessage. Why would somebody even have to have a, you know, a WhatsApp or a telegram or a signal or whatever? And I’ve always wondered, you know, for me personally, iMessage works fine, but maybe I’m deceived and iMessage isn’t as great as what I think it is. And I guess that’s where you need to school even folks like me, because I’ve always been somebody where it’s like, I don’t need all of these other messaging apps anyways, and rarely have ever used them.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, I will give one thing about iMessage is they’ve made it look super sleek, super fun, super sexy. They’ve done a great job there. Nobody can dispute that. They have done a good job of kidding people in the sense that they act like they’re incredibly private and they’re really not. I mean, when you send a message over iMessage, So they sync your search history with your message history, right? They have identifiers that they track you. They track other data, whatever that means, all that contact info, your location, diagnostics. Like it actually behind the scenes functions more akin to a social media app. And here’s one example of this, and this is 100% true story. I was messaging a friend of mine. And he has a home in Miami, beautiful home. It’s on the beach. And he’s a fitness guy. And he recently got a hot tub and a cold tub. So he sent me a video. No text. There’s no words. It was just a video. And he says, yep, look at my cold tub, hot tub. And he sent that over iMessage. This was over two and a half years ago. And then when I went to Safari, when I went to my email, I was bombarded with ads for cold and hot tubs. And I’m like, he didn’t even text me the word. He just sent the video. So iMessage does a great job of portraying all privacy that’s iPhone. I mean, it’s just not true. Look, you dive into it, John, you’ll be alarmed. You’ll be like, oh, my goodness. I mean, they automatically categorize people’s images. Like there’s been reports that women who have sent promiscuous images would have that automatically categorized, and that means those images are uploaded somewhere. I mean, it’s just not what people think it is. And that’s really a big part of Freedom Chat is education. Yeah. We’ve been deceived for far too long.
SPEAKER 13 :
Absolutely. No, again, I wanted to have you on mainly because I think this is an area, and I tend to be a little bit more techish, I guess you could say, Tanner, not that I know everything about everything, but know enough to know the language, the lingo, the things that even you’re talking about right now. And I wanted to have you on because I wanted to know more about it. Okay, so walk us through. If somebody’s interested in this, how do they get it? Is it a downloadable app? Do they go to a website? How does all that work?
SPEAKER 12 :
You can go to freedom chat.com. You can also download it on the iOS app store on the Google play store. It’s available right now, just about in any country. I mean, burying a few of them, um, go download it right now. Send your first message. If you send 10 messages on, on freedom chat, I’m confident you won’t want to use another message. You’re not that versus it feels different. Try to take a screenshot. You can’t, you see your encryption keys being generated in real time. Um, Just speaking, once you start to speak privately, you’re going to be ultra paranoid when you’re not using it. At least that’s how I’ve been. So go download the app, freedomchat.com. Send 10 messages. I don’t think you’ll want to use anything else ever again.
SPEAKER 13 :
Dumb question on my part. Is it encrypted whether the other party has Freedom Chat or not? So in other words, I’m going to download Freedom Chat. I’m going to pick 10 people to go send some different messages to, which, by the way, that happens pretty quick because most everybody messages and texts anymore. There’s hardly, you know, if you want a quick chat, you’re doing that. You’re not emailing and stuff, although I still do a lot of email. But when it comes to this end of it, Tanner, does the other person have to have Freedom Chat for what I’m using and sending to be encrypted? How does that work? Walk us through that.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yes, you do, and that’s actually a good point because privacy, security always defaults to the weakest link. So let’s say you’re using Freedom Chat, the world’s most private messaging app, and then you were using WhatsApp and we integrated with WhatsApp. It would always default to the weakest link.
SPEAKER 05 :
Gotcha.
SPEAKER 12 :
So both parties have to have Freedom Chat, but you can invite people very seamlessly when you download the app. If you share your contacts, they’re only stored on your device, not on the server. You can see who has the app, who doesn’t. You can invite them. I mean, that’s a big thing as well. Signal also, part of my distrust for them is early on, they allowed Signal to integrate with anything, which shows they were more interested in users. But why are you so interested in users if you’re a nonprofit? And we’ll never compromise our security. So there’s a few convenience things that, you know what, we might not have the convenience features, you could say, but we’re not ever going to compromise on security. our top values.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay, good. Again, the great learning lesson on our behalf. I know we went a little longer than what I even had planned, but I appreciate your time and spending time with us and informing everybody of how it works and the amount of time that you just spent talking. I already went ahead and downloaded the app and I’m doing my pen now, and I’m rolling, so we’ll see how things go. And, again, my son’s a big techie, so we’ll kind of go back and forth and play around with this a little bit. So, Tanner, I appreciate you greatly. Now, you have a premium version as well, meaning folks will have to pay for that. What does that include?
SPEAKER 12 :
So we actually – the premium is – so after 150 messages – And we haven’t put this in yet. We want to continue to add features. So right now, I mean, there’s a startup we’re burning money, but the premium is you’ll after 150 messages, a pop-up will appear. And if you want to continue using exclusive features like self-destruct 4k images and videos, screenshot protect, you’ll need to pay 5 99 a month and very modest price or 52 99 a year. And if you say, you know what? No, that’s a little steep. Things are tight with the economy. Okay. exit out. You don’t have to pay. You will lose access to some exclusive features, but every message is always end-end encrypted. We never have commercial use of your data, and we never store messages on the server. So, Privacy, no matter whether you pay or not, there’s always something for someone on Freedom Chat.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay. Good to know. Again, Tanner, thank you very much. Freedomchat.com is the place to go. You can actually download it right on your phone right now as we’re speaking as well. And I’ll play around with it, Tanner, and we’ll have you back in the future. I’ll play around with it a little bit, and we’ll get you back on. I appreciate your time very much, sir.
SPEAKER 12 :
Of course. Thank you so much for having me on. Have a great day.
SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive, this is John Rush.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Thanks for joining us today. We appreciate it very much. Myself, Andy Pate. Andy, you want to talk about student loans?
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yeah, we can do that right now. Why not?
SPEAKER 13 :
Why not? We got time.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, well, let’s see here. This is from the Nine News website. It says, here’s what to know is millions of borrowers could have wages garnished over student loan debt. And it says millions of student borrowers, they could begin having their wages garnished as soon as the summer starting right now in August. A lot of these people were not able to pay student loans for the longest time. In fact, it went for about five years.
SPEAKER 13 :
Five years. So since COVID.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. And Biden kept dragging it out, dragging it out, dragging it out. I’m going to skip down into the article. I just want to read a part to you and just get your feeling on this, okay? Just quoting from the article. These offices have entire teams dedicated to constituent casework for when you have an issue with federal agencies such as the Department of Education. So you can request assistance from your member of Congress. Okay, skipping down. Until past dubents are paid or the loan’s default status is resolved, borrowers are at risk of having up to 15% of their wages deducted directly from their paychecks. The Department of Education has sent notices to borrowers warning that tax refunds and wages could be withheld starting this summer if borrowers don’t take steps to restart payments. The department hasn’t yet provided additional information on timing. Okay, here’s where it gets good. They give a personal example, all right? Rochelle Brooks, she’s 37 years old, an education administrator based in L.A. Okay. She says she received warnings and notices about the resumption of collection of her loans. Okay. For several degrees, she has several degrees, John. She still has $239,000 in outstanding debt, and she was informed her monthly payments on those loans will be roughly $3,000. Okay. Well, yeah, you ran up a lot, okay?
SPEAKER 13 :
That means if it’s $3,000 a month, she’s got a pretty hefty student loan.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, now listen, this is quoting her. I can’t afford it, she said. We just came out of the moratorium, not paying for five years. People getting these notices, they’re terrified. I’m uneasy too. Brooks says she’s an informed borrower who stays up to date on each development and who knows her options. She plans to enroll in coding classes at least half time, which could place her loans in deferment so she wouldn’t be required to make monthly payments while she makes a financial plan. Okay, in other words, she knows how to work the system, play the system. Okay, I’ll get these classes, and I can push it back, push it back, push it back. Notice it said she’s an education administrator based in L.A. She got several degrees, and that’s why she owes $239,000 in debt. She had five years of not paying on these debts, during which time apparently she didn’t save anything up toward them. Do you feel sorry for these people at all?
SPEAKER 13 :
Not a bit, no.
SPEAKER 04 :
No?
SPEAKER 13 :
Not one.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is ridiculous.
SPEAKER 13 :
Andy, no, zero.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m sorry, but stuff like this makes me angry. Now, look, I had student loans, right? Paid for half of them with my GI Bill. I served four years in the military to have that, okay? That paid for about half. The rest I paid off myself. I think I paid it early. But, John, I listen to people like this. They got five years of not paying anything, and during that time it didn’t occur to you to maybe save up a little?
SPEAKER 13 :
While you were doing that, I just typed in to try to determine, and it varies. I don’t know exactly what her circumstances is, how long her student loan payments are, 10-year, 20-year, 25-year, because it depends. So get this. If it’s a 10-year note at 4.5% interest, she had a loan of about $300,000. Okay. If it’s at 6.5% interest, about $316,000, that’s on a 10-year. If she was a 25-year note, though, depending upon how that was set up originally at 6.5% interest, it’s $476,000. In other words, she’s got a huge, huge student loan balance. Yeah, she does. A huge balance.
SPEAKER 04 :
Because she’s at $239,000. $239,000, okay. And $3,000 a month.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay, that means she’s got a higher interest rate and probably in that 10-year time frame or so, roughly.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, John, I’m looking at these young people.
SPEAKER 13 :
Meaning she’s going to pay back well over $300,000 when it’s all said and done.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yeah, totally. But I look at these people, and I’m just like, my gosh, Joe Biden babied you. I guarantee you this is a Libby. She’s an education administration person. Of course it is. Who’s probably making good money, okay? And it’s probably – No, no, no. Look, if we’re talking about somebody who didn’t save up anything over five years, do you believe that she, with her current paycheck, has adjusted her lifestyle to where there’s a portion she can set aside toward debt.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, no, no. She’s spending it all every month. What is she again? What’s her occupation again?
SPEAKER 04 :
Let me scroll up here.
SPEAKER 13 :
Sorry, I missed that. I was trying to figure out what her loan balance was because it’s enormous.
SPEAKER 04 :
Her name is, it’s R-I-C-H-E-L-L-E, Richelle Brooks. She’s 37 years old. We’re not talking, she’s not 25.
SPEAKER 13 :
So she’s 37 years old, and what is she?
SPEAKER 04 :
An education administrator based in Los Angeles.
SPEAKER 13 :
So she’s probably making, what, $150 a year or so?
SPEAKER 04 :
Probably. For several degrees. She has several degrees. In other words, she’s a professional student. So while this guy over here is busting his tail and this girl over here, she’s busting her tail, right? Right. They’re either working in the trades or they’re serving waiting tables or doing whatever, right? And they’re making all kinds of, they’re making money and getting by week by week by week. She’s been a professional student who didn’t have to pay dime one on any of these loans for five years, didn’t save up anything to pay it. And now she’s whining and saying, I can’t afford this. And I say to her, will you please look at these people over here who have been running their tails off making a living?
SPEAKER 13 :
This will shock you. I just did a research really quick on what she probably makes given all of her degrees and what her position is and so on.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
Probably under $100,000 a year, which means for all of that education and all the money she spent, that was not a good investment, Andy. Well, yeah, but that means she chose bad degrees. Absolutely. That’s exactly what I’m saying.
SPEAKER 04 :
How is that the taxpayer’s fault?
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s not, Andy. That is not our fault.
SPEAKER 04 :
You see?
SPEAKER 13 :
None of our fault.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is all on her. This is like we were talking in the first hour on Snap. You know, I’m on Snap. I should be able to get what I want with it. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. It’s not the taxpayer’s fault.
SPEAKER 13 :
Not the taxpayer’s fault that you racked up several hundred thousand dollars of debt of student loan.
SPEAKER 04 :
And you had five years.
SPEAKER 13 :
Five years to figure out what you’re going to do because you had a reprieve. And you’re mad now because you can’t afford it because your job doesn’t fit what the education was you went and received. That’s on you. That’s your fault. That’s not my fault. That’s your fault.
SPEAKER 04 :
And by the way, in L.A., if they’re in L.A., she’s making more than that, I think.
SPEAKER 13 :
I just did a search with AI looking at all of the Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, all of that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Sure.
SPEAKER 13 :
Most of the job searches right now, it’s under $100K, Andy. Okay. Well, guess what? The highest percentile makes 126.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, but you know what, John?
SPEAKER 13 :
But again, not my problem.
SPEAKER 04 :
First of all, not my problem, not your problem. But secondly, she’s living in L.A. Okay, guess what? Then you get a roommate, and you live in a little place, and you get a roommate. You live cheap, and you should have been doing this. Not now, but for the last five years, you should have been saving up money. And you should have been saying, hey, here’s a thought, John. I’m making money. I have a job. I’m making money as I go along here. Right. Haven’t had to pay a dime one for the last five years.
SPEAKER 13 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
I will save toward this when it hits. She didn’t. I will think ahead.
SPEAKER 13 :
She didn’t. She could have tucked money away for this, Andy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. But this is what most bipeds have to do, John. They have to think ahead, okay? Gee, I think my car’s going to run out in a couple years. I think I better save up some money for that down payment, right?
SPEAKER 13 :
They don’t think that way, Andy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, well, guess what? You need to think that way if you want to be in the real world.
SPEAKER 13 :
They don’t think that way. I’m with you on this. These people aren’t in the real world. I have zero, and after doing a little more research on this gal, not her specifically, but her type of situation, I have no sympathy.
SPEAKER 04 :
No.
SPEAKER 13 :
Zilch. You got yourself into this situation. You figure out how to dig yourself out.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. I’ll tell you what. Nobody gave me five years to take off from paying loans, paying my student loans.
SPEAKER 13 :
Nobody’s ever come along, Andy, and said, here, let me help you with your mortgage.
SPEAKER 04 :
I served the country for four years in the military. Do you think she did?
SPEAKER 13 :
Nope.
SPEAKER 04 :
Nope. She didn’t do a thing.
SPEAKER 13 :
I have no sympathy. All right. Speaking of degrees, Dr. Scott, who actually has a medical degree, he is an internal medicine doctor, and he would agree with everything we’re talking about right now, by the way. And mainly because Scott did serve his country in the Air Force. That’s where his medical degree came from was because he got that while he was serving our country at the same time. And he understands the medical end of things better than anyone. He is not beholden to big pharma and big insurance. Call him today. He’s going to be our host tomorrow, by the way, filling in for me. So be sure to tune in then. 303-663-6990.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
Roof Savers of Colorado. And as I said earlier, Dave has been up to Wyoming, has crews up there. Those of you that are in Cheyenne that may need some help when it comes to your roof and the damage that happened last Friday, don’t call your insurance agent or the adjuster. Talk to Dave first. 303-710-6916.
SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
Call in to the KLZ studio line, 303-477-5600.
SPEAKER 13 :
Now, back to Rush to Reason. And we are back, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Text message came in, says that education administrator is a good example of the quality of our education system. No one understands math or finance or pretty much anything else. Yes, well said, by the way. Yeah. That’s exactly right. And yet, it still expects us to pay for it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. You are in charge of education administration. Right. Wherever she is. Right. And you are over kids. Okay. Who you are supposedly, at least you are part of the system that is trying to teach them how to make it through life. Right. And this is how you’ve handled your life. You’ve been given five years to not pay a single dime on your bills and didn’t think ahead. And you are helping lead our kids. Right.
SPEAKER 13 :
Never should have allowed government to get in the financing of student loans in the first place. That is part of the mistake that was made here, folks. It did nothing but jack up the cost of an education and gave people loans for educations they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise in the private sector. So in the private world, I should say, never should have gone down that path. And it’s something that I really hope somebody has a bug in President Trump’s ear, because frankly, that needs a complete revamp, needs to go back to the private side. The government needs to get out the student loan business and if they do stay in it they need to run it much like they do the SBA for those of you that don’t know this when you go to get an SBA loan any business goes to get an SBA loan a bank underwrites and handles that loan the processing and so on SBA finally approves it but here’s the catch SBA puts the bank on the hook for a portion of said loan, meaning that they’re going to have some skin in the game so that when they go and find this particular client that’s going to have an SBA loan, they vet them as well as SBA does because the bank’s going to be on the hook for about 20% of that loan. So if that loan goes bad, we the taxpayers are on the hook, but so is the bank, meaning not a lot of those loans go bad because at the end of the day, the bank has skin in the game. That’s what they should have done with the education thing with schools. The school should have had some skin in the game. Meaning, if that student loan doesn’t get paid back, there’s a chargeback. In fact, we’re going to hold some funds out for you each college, depending upon how many student loans we’ve written for you. We’re going to hold out a certain amount of that, knowing that if any of these loans go bad, we’re going to draw from that fund, and you’re not going to get all of that money at one time.
SPEAKER 04 :
See, I think that’s a good idea.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s what they should have done. Anyways. Yeah. Okay. I’ve got another story here that Andy’s sort of wrapping his head around, like, okay, how are you connecting these two together? So I’m going to talk about how the MLB baseball and the GOP, have, especially the Colorado GOP.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, they’re both three letters.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s true. Both three letters. How they have some things in common. So bear with me here. In this story, I basically, in my little pea brain, was thinking, this all stems from the Savannah Bananas. If you don’t know who those guys are… Go look them up. They’re like the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball right now. Probably the best way for me to say that. And there’s a headline in Wall Street Journal today basically talking about how the Savannah Bananas are reinventing baseball. One crazy sellout at a time. They are packing stadiums. They’re cheap seats. It’s a social media firestorm. If you’ve ever seen them play, it’s absolutely the funnest thing you’ll watch play. That’s a baseball game. This is the point here. I don’t like baseball. Not that I don’t like playing it. I love playing it. I always did as a kid. But I hate watching it. It has to be one of the most boring sports out there. It is so stinking slow. It’s just like, would you throw the stinking ball? Any time now, Mr. Pitcher, I’m ready. Because I want this thing to move along because I’m bored. And I know there’s a lot of you baseball diehards out there that are hating what I’m saying, but bear with me. I can’t stand watching baseball, especially on TV, because it has to be one of the most boring things you could ever watch. It’s better in person because there’s more things going on you can actually see, plus you can people watch. So at least you have that part of it going to the ball, you know, going to the stadium or the ballpark, I should say. But watching it on TV has to be one of the most boring experiences of all. The Savannah Bananas are curing that for people like me. They’re making it fun to watch because there’s always something going on. And I get it. It’s for fun. It’s not serious. They’re not out there trying to make millions of dollars, you know, and they’re not paying pitchers a gazillion dollars and so on and so forth. I get that. That’s not what they’re doing. But they’re changing baseball and they’re making it fun and interesting. And frankly, MLB might actually profit from this because they’re bringing people in to watch a baseball game that might not ever otherwise watch one.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, what’s different about the game?
SPEAKER 13 :
Who do they play against? It’s like the Globetrotters. They have kind of their own internal teams they play. The generals? Yeah, that make it fun, and they do all sorts of dancing and different things, and it’s a blast to watch them. It’s absolutely a hoot.
SPEAKER 04 :
Basically, it’s a performance.
SPEAKER 13 :
They’re coming to Denver, and it’s already sold out.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 13 :
Maybe they’ve already been to Denver. I didn’t watch to see exactly when that game is scheduled. I should have done that prior. I didn’t. But regardless, they’re going around the country, literally selling out stadium after stadium after stadium, all because they’ve made baseball fun to watch. Here’s my point with the GOP. We have to do the same thing, Andy, because no offense, we’re boring. Yes, we are. We are so boring. This is why Trump is so special. You go to any of and sorry, folks, and I know you guys are going to hate me for saying this, but go to any of the local county meetings, different things and so on. It is it is. I’ve been to them. I’ve spoken to some of them. I love all of you guys, but they are some of the most boring things you’ll ever go to in your entire life. Watching a caterpillar crawl across the pavement is more exciting.
SPEAKER 04 :
Am I wrong, Andy? No, you’re right. As you know, I was in a statewide meeting a couple weeks ago. The whole point of being there was simply to vote on the new vice chair. There were only two candidates. Each was given eight minutes to speak. And all we had to do was cast our vote online, which is instantly tabulated. The meeting took two and a half hours. Right.
SPEAKER 13 :
Wrong.
SPEAKER 04 :
Now, granted, that was because of the Davidians. They came as a protest group, and they were allowed to protest, protest, and raise a million concerns. Beyond the fact that they were just being terrible, they were using all Democrat techniques. They were no different than Antifa blocking bridges. Setting all that aside, they were also boring. It was all boring. It was tedious. That’s my point. It was lifeless. It was just like, you’ve got to be kidding me. We have to go through all this to vote on who’s going to be the vice chair? It’s not even the chair. Right. Okay, so this is going to be somebody else that we’re never going to hear about because it’s not her, right? It’s not Britta Horne. And we are here two and a half hours to decide this, and it was only kept that short because Britta forced the vote. What I’m saying is all these meetings, I’ve been to far more than you are. They’re boring.
SPEAKER 13 :
They are incredibly boring. So my point with this particular story and the first thing I thought of is, okay, Savannah Bananas are doing for baseball – To Andy’s point, really what Trump did for the GOP, but we need to further that along. You can’t just rely on one guy to make the entire change for the party. We’ve got to keep that going, and we’ve got to make, maybe that’s the way to say it, Andy, we’ve got to make the GOP fun again, because frankly, it’s not. It’s a bore.
SPEAKER 04 :
Let me give you another example. Caucus night. Pure pain.
SPEAKER 13 :
Total pain.
SPEAKER 04 :
Pure agony.
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s no fun, Andy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Most of it is shuffling paperwork, and then you have the people because our party in Colorado is so divided into two sides. So you have people from both sides trying to recruit you to vote for their person who can go forward and either vote for or against Dave or whatever. And the bottom line is this. It’s boring. You’re just like, how is any of this? We are spinning our wheels like this on these boring nights, and we’re getting crushed across the state.
SPEAKER 13 :
Correct. On election night, especially, we’re getting crushed. That’s what I mean. Yes, yes. It’s going nowhere. Yes, absolutely. And by the way, our statewide candidates have been boring, too. My point is, we need, as a GOP, especially in Colorado, we need a little Savannah banana. in the GOP in Colorado because we don’t have any of that. And if you guys all don’t know what I’m talking about, go watch them. And by the way, you can go find them on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. Just go look at a clip of what these guys do. You don’t have to watch the whole game. Just go find a few clips on YouTube and watch what they’re doing. And literally, they are a social media firestorm right now. All you have to do is go type in – you wouldn’t even have to get all the way spelled out Savannah – And you’re going to find Savannah Bananas. And I know it’s a catchy name and all that. Yellow uniforms, by the way. They’re in yellow. Everybody else will be in an opposing color, by the way. But it’s a hoot. There’s a guy that we were watching the other night on TV. There’s a guy that they actually recruited some young kid that played baseball in high school. They recruited this kid because he was a pretty good pitcher in high school. And he was able to be on stilts. So he’s actually a pitcher on stilts. It’s the funniest thing you’ll watch. Some pitcher that’s on, like, these six-foot stilts that’s a pitcher. And, no, he doesn’t pitch that well. The ball’s all over the place. And the umpires are all in this. They’re having a ball. I mean, the whole thing is just fun to watch, Andy, at the end of the day. It makes baseball fun again, is my point.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, but how would we make the Colorado Republican Party fun again? Because, let’s be honest, I have dealt— No, seriously, I have spoken at a lot of these groups— And I have been pulled aside many, many times by people who said I was the funnest speaker they’ve had. And you know me. Look, I’m no pro. I’m not a comedian. I’m not this huge funny guy. But they would say, this is the most fun I’ve ever had. Most speakers are deathly dull. Why? Because they’re not trained in this. I’m not getting down on them. They’ve been a businessman for 20 years. You know, this is what they are. But our candidates are boring. Our leadership is boring. Not bad people, good people, but they’re boring. They’re not inspirational at all.
SPEAKER 13 :
And that’s when it has to change, Andy. Again, for all of you that are listening, trust me when I say this. Take a little bit of your time. You won’t need a lot, by the way. Take 10 minutes, 15 minutes. If you’ve got an hour, take an hour, whatever. Go watch some clips of this particular baseball team. And it’s not a real team. I get it. Nobody come back and say, John, they’re not even in the MLB. I understand that. That’s not the point. But they’re still making baseball fun again. The MLB actually should be kicking some money back to these guys because they’re bringing awareness to baseball because baseball’s been dying. For all of you diehard MLB fans, newsflash, your sport is dying. Sorry, there’s a few teams out there that have really good draw, even when the Rockies have a game and somebody like the Yankees show up. Yeah, there’s a good draw because they just showed up. Otherwise, it’s a stalemate at the stadium in a lot of cases. There’s not a lot of people there. Baseball in and of itself, go look at any of the ratings, even on the TV side, and the World Series doesn’t even come close to doing what the Super Bowl does in football. They are not, Andy, at one point in time, they were fairly close to one another. NFL has so far surpassed MLB, it’s not even funny. By the way, the only reason why the MLB even has half of the revenue that they’ve got is because there’s 500 stinking games in a year.
SPEAKER 04 :
John, it used to be in order of popularity, baseball, basketball, football. It is now football, basketball, baseball.
SPEAKER 13 :
Am I right, though, that even their revenue numbers, a lot of that is because there’s so many stinking – what do they play, 120 game or something? No, 162. 162 games. Right. 162 stinking games. It’s just the number of games. It’s ridiculous. Nobody needs to play that many.
SPEAKER 04 :
You also have a lot of costs that go into 162 games.
SPEAKER 13 :
correct you do but my point is they do that if you ask me in a lot of cases just because I know they have the seven game series and blah blah blah I get all of that but at the end of the day holy cow make it fun it’s not it’s a bore sorry John from Cheyenne because he’s a big baseball guy but it’s a bore Andy I don’t care anybody says it’s a bore make it fun again I’ll okay and we got the same problem on politics on our side of the aisle because it’s a bore as well it’s no different
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, before we go to break, or maybe you can talk about it in the next hour, tell me who is fun on the Republican side of the aisle.
SPEAKER 13 :
We’ll do this. Golden Eagle Financial coming up next. Al’s got a great interview that he just did. Right after that, it’ll be Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning, which, again, it is hot right now. 98 degrees right now at 454 in the afternoon on August the 5th. So, yes, it’s hot. It’s that time of the year. Make sure your air conditioning is working great. If you have any problems at all, give Cub Creek a call. Find them by going to klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 15 :
TJ with KLZ. And again, I am with Al Smith from Golden Eagle Financial. Al, we talk a lot about how relational you are with your clients. Why don’t you take us through what an initial visit might look like, whether that’s in the office or over a Zoom call or whatever that is. What does that look and feel like for one of your clients?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, first we kind of get to know one another a little bit, have a little bit of small talk. And once we move slightly beyond that, I often ask a question, what is your and your spouse’s greatest concerns as you move into toward retirement?
SPEAKER 15 :
What do you think people’s main fear is when they come to see you and how do you help to quell that with them?
SPEAKER 11 :
Many of the people who come in have been listening to me on the radio for years. And often there is some event that the reason they want to talk to me. Maybe they have concerns about taxes. It may be they’re concerned about the volatility of the stock market. And so by asking them about their concerns, we can zero in specifically. Because usually people have something on the back of their minds as the reason that they came in rather than having a cookie cutter form that I complete for everybody. I try and dive in more specifically to what is an individual or a couple’s primary concern that brought them in the office.
SPEAKER 15 :
We love that relational aspect and we love Al Smith from Golden Eagle Financial. Al, why don’t you tell folks how to get in touch with you for that meeting?
SPEAKER 11 :
Easy way, 303-744-1128. If you’re driving, you can reach me through KLZ. KLZ has all my contact information. And once you reach out to them, they will reach out to me and I will contact you by phone or email so that we can have that conversation, whether it’s on a Zoom or a long phone conversation or here at the office.
SPEAKER 15 :
Excellent, Al. Thanks for joining us. Of course, you can find Al on klzradio.com slash money. Al, thank you so much.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, thank you, TJ. Look forward to our next conversation.
SPEAKER 09 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
This isn’t rage radio. This is real, relatable radio. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, Andy, you asked me before we went to break who’s fun in the GOP.
SPEAKER 04 :
Nationally.
SPEAKER 13 :
And nationally. You know, you’ve got some guys that are out there. Jesse Waters, Gutfeld. I think the Trump team itself. I think there’s a lot of folks there that enjoy having fun. You look at Carolyn Leavitt and even how she runs press conferences and so on. I mean, she’s a lot more fun than what we’ve ever had in the past as far as that goes.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, she’s a lot more high. High energy.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. High energy, fun. I mean, you can just tell that there’s a lot more going on there. It makes it interesting, by the way, because of the intellect and so on than what we’ve had in the past from even the Biden admin.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you know, Charlie Kirk, I think, is fun. Great guy.
SPEAKER 13 :
Funny guy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. He’s obviously brilliant, but he also seems pretty fun. I think… Look, the side of the aisle right now that has a lot more fun is our side. The other side is all rage and anger. But we need to promote that more. By the way, it’s not just because they’re out of power. They were rage and anger under Biden. That’s right. You’re right. Part of the reason they’re out of power is rage and anger.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, that’s why they lost this last election.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. We’re the fun side.
SPEAKER 13 :
And we need to keep promoting that more. I mean, fun, for example, when you see Trump show up at a UFC fight. That’s fun.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
I mean, those are the types of things that I’m talking about. Now, we need to take that on a national level locally here in Colorado.
SPEAKER 04 :
We think Sidney Sweeney in ads is great.
SPEAKER 13 :
Right. So how do we get that? Maybe we can talk about this the last hour, Andy. How do we get that? on to our side. We’ll talk about that. We’ve got another full hour coming your way. Don’t go anywhere. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
Rich guy. Rich guy.
