Join host John Rush and Richard Battle in a riveting discussion about the critical role questioning plays in society. This episode highlights how asking ‘why’ can be both a privilege and a catalyst for change. They analyze historical instances like World War II and the evolution of infrastructure in the US, drawing direct lines to the freedoms we enjoy today. With the backdrop of current events and political concerns, such as the Douglas County home rule debate, Rush and Battle dissect the necessity of informed leadership and the power citizens hold. Tune in to understand how freedom to think,
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This is Rush to Reason.
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You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
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With your host, John Rush.
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My advice to you is to do what your parents did.
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Get a job first. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
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Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
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Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
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It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
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And we are back, hour two, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Richard Battle joining me now. Why? A question only free people may ask. How are you, Richard?
SPEAKER 03 :
John, we’re doing great, and I have to… I’ll interdict here and say I appreciate this opportunity to be with you. It is the 200th time I’ve had this privilege, and we just really appreciate the opportunity to share with your audience.
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, I have enjoyed it thoroughly. I look forward to it. I learned something from you on a weekly basis and wouldn’t have it any other way, Richard, so I appreciate you as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
And that’s why we get to the question why today.
SPEAKER 15 :
Only free people can ask that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, exactly. One day I was thinking how dangerous that can be sometimes. And so it all of a sudden struck me about how the why question that little kids ask, that’s the first question they ask. Why? And people want to know. But only free people can ask that question. And when you think about that, it can change your perspective and help us to appreciate the ability to do it here. and understand what happens in countries where they can’t do that. And so I thought it’d be worth talking about.
SPEAKER 15 :
I talked a little bit about this yesterday in response to things that had gone on with Iran and what – Iran, however you want to say it. I think it’s Iran is how you’re supposed to say it. It’s an E, not an I, but Iran. And reality is, Richard, and this is the part that I think – a lot of Americans, even a lot of conservatives, and especially the press, get completely wrong. We all get concerned about the war between Israel and them, and what was going on, and what we did to end it, and so on and so forth. But what they forget about is there are millions upon millions of people in that country, to your point, Richard, that can’t ask this question because they’re not free.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s exactly correct. And so that’s That’s why I think it’s so important that we appreciate it and discuss it and make people understand the difference in that situation. We have entitled people in this country now who, when they put forth political arguments, they can’t believe it when people ask them why they believe the way they do, and they have to justify their beliefs. They expect people just to listen and accept what they say without that rationale.
SPEAKER 15 :
No, there’s a dialogue that goes back and forth, and to your point, only in America where we’re free can you have that dialogue back and forth, even with those quote-unquote – and I have to be careful how I say this – are quote-unquote leaders, because the one thing I think even at times we get – I know I get caught up in this sometimes, Richard, myself. I look at Donald Trump. He is the quote-unquote leader of the free world, and yes – We elected him to be the leader of the free world. But the way that our system in America works is we, the people, are really the leaders of the free world. He is in charge because we elected him and we have asked him to do that for us on our behalf. But really, at the end of the day, Richard, it’s we, the people, we aren’t subject to anyone. The way it’s supposed to work, I think a lot of politicians don’t understand this. We’re in charge of them. It’s not the other way around.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, that’s exactly correct. And this question applies to families in your business life as well as in a public sphere as well. I don’t think there’s any worse answer a parent can give a child when they ask why to say, I told you so. Because that curiosity about why we do things is very important. And when we train people, if we explain why before we teach them what and how, we will get much better buy-in and more successful implementation than if we just dictate do this and don’t ask any questions.
SPEAKER 15 :
That’s exactly right. And in authoritarian-type countries and dictatorships, and I can go down the list, Richard, the bottom line is only those at the top and even some of them don’t ever get to ask the question away. They might ask it quietly among themselves, but they don’t ever go to the quote-unquote leader or the person at the top and ask that question. They might get executed.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, and what happens is after one or two generations, it breeds a weakness where people are not able to think and determine what’s the best path. That’s right. And it reminds me of the story of Grandma and the Roastpan, which I think I’ve shared with you before. You have. Whereas the guy comes home, his wife’s making dinner, and he’s talking to her, and all of a sudden she pulls the cleaver out and whacks the end of the roast off. And he says, why’d you do that? And she goes, I don’t know. Mama always did it when she made roast. They call Mama, and they ask her, and Mama, why’d you do it? Well, that’s the way Grandma always did it. So they call Grandma, ask the question, Grandma, why’d you cut the end of the roast off? And she said, because it wouldn’t fit in the pan. But two generations later, people don’t know why they’re doing things. And that makes a weaker society when we don’t know why and we’re not doing the most efficient things.
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I mentioned earlier this week, and it’s a good segue into this because it dovetails in Richard. And this is I tried to be as you know, not that I’m always politically correct because I’m not. I mean, I just blurt things out and say it anyways. But there’s a reason why a country like let’s let’s use this one, Iran. has never invented, and they haven’t, they’ve never really invented anything. We as a free nation, free country, because men have the ability to do what you just said, think, go out on their own, be rewarded for that thought process and the things that they create and make and so on. It’s why we as a nation have created more good things for the rest of the world than any other nation probably ever known to mankind has ever done, and it’s why places like Iran are don’t create, don’t make anything because they’re subjects, Richard. They can’t think that way. It’s not allowed.
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Well, that’s exactly right. And another example that I love is from World War II, and it was the difference in the German army and the American army. The German army, when we invaded Normandy… Hitler was sleeping, and even the top generals were afraid to wake him up, to ask his permission to do something, because they were afraid of him. The Americans were held up, and many were killed because of the hedgerow country there, and a technical sergeant came up with the idea to put a blade on the front of a tank. They call it a rhino tank, and once they did that, they could bulldoze through the hedgerows, And they were able to have victory with fewer losses. And that was the difference of individual thought and knowing why we do something versus just obeying orders.
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We had this example from another guest yesterday, Richard, along those same lines. It’s why… we as a country today have the pipeline and the infrastructure that we have in this country to deliver oil, water, natural gas, and other things is because we had somebody in World War II that realized, hey, guys, we need a better delivery system of our fuel products than what we have right now. We need to do this better and thought outside the box because of the very things you and I are talking about. And voila, pipelines were invented.
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly. And when we do that and when we let people, whether it’s family, employees or in the government, we let people know why we’re doing it and what their individual contributions make to the effort. It gets people participating because they know their contributions are essential. Every person’s contributions are, and that fuels people’s why they do things for themselves and their families as well, and it makes things more purposeful all the way around.
SPEAKER 15 :
And somebody will correct me, I’m sure. Yes, there were many type pipelines and things like that all the way back into the 1800s, but nothing richer that had been used along those same lines to do the things. I mean, Rockefeller, of course, used them for oil and things like that. But that whole idea and that thought process at that time was the difference maker.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, exactly. And look here more recently with the hydraulic fracking. And the difference that’s made in the energy industry as well. And again, that comes from the ability to ask why and how can we do things better.
SPEAKER 15 :
That’s exactly right. And to your point, comes from a free nation where, even in my notes, the Bill of Rights, you know, our First Amendment, has that ability for us to question, to ask. And by the way, the reason why we can go to government and ask questions is because, Richard, as I said earlier, we are free. government. We are the ones that are essentially in charge. We are actually asking our employees, why are you doing it this way? That’s because of the way our system was set up from day one.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, yes, and we need to get the employees back to recognizing and understanding that. I hope some of the actions going on today will help do that.
SPEAKER 15 :
Absolutely. All right, give us some good quotes and some things that you’ve also got in your book along these same lines.
SPEAKER 03 :
well and robert f kennedy always he said some men see things as they are and say why i dream of things that never were and say why not so that’s another variation of that particular question that free people can ask and dream and pursue those goals and that’s the americandu spirit that we’re talking about an americandu spirit because of the freedom politically and economically is what’s made our country and what will continue to help us succeed.
SPEAKER 15 :
Let’s close with your new book that’s out, how folks can get a hold of it, get a signed copy, and so on.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, thank you. Americans Who Made America, 19th Century Growth, Division, and Reunification. It is 40 profiles from the 19th century, which follows up the 18th century. And just today we uploaded a bundle package on richardbattle.com. for three of the American’s books with a bonus book thrown in, and they are all signed. If people want them inscribed, they can email me, richard at richardbattle.com, after an order. We’re happy to do that. If you order the bundle, you can keep them for yourself or split them up and give them out. But it shares that Americandu spirit and patriotism and history.
SPEAKER 15 :
That’s awesome. Richard, we won’t be together next week because things change around with the weekend, the four-day weekend and how that works next week. But I appreciate all that you’ve done for us. We’ll talk to you the week after Independence Day and wishing you the best Independence Day ever.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, we wish you a happy Independence Day in the audience also. And remember, we say July 4th. It doesn’t really honor what it is. Independence Day. And we need to remember that and pass it down to our kids and grandkids.
SPEAKER 15 :
Absolutely. Richard, have a great rest of your day, sir. Appreciate it. We’ll do this. Golden Eagle Financial coming up next. And he did a great interview here of late. Listen in to Al, and we’ll be back right after Al Smith.
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This is TJ with KLZ Radio, and I’ve got Al Smith from Golden Eagle Financial here in the studio with me. Al and I were just talking about how in retirement he helps his clients to stretch the time in their retirement. Al, what do you mean by that? Tell us a little bit more about how time works in retirement.
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Well, when you think about leaving the working world, you think about, well, it’s still going to take money to live on once I’m retired. And that nest egg, whatever that is, that’s going to permit you to do what you want to do with the time that you have sort of earned for yourself. So the nest egg is not only in dollars, but it’s also in the time that you have to do the things that you believe will be fulfilling in retirement. And when I have a conversation with people, I think it’s equally important to think about how they’re going to be spending their time as it is to accumulate a nest egg.
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You’ve got to have some pretty good examples of things that people do in retirement. So open the door for us. What sort of things can we expect?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, sure. I have one gentleman who is very much into aviation. He owns his own small plane. He actually works on that small plane. He’s within a few years of retirement. He’s retirement age. But right now, while he’s working, he takes his small aircraft, flies to locations where he investigates air disasters. I also have some people who spend a lot of time with their grandkids, some of whom live nearby and some are a little farther away. I have some who are incredibly involved with their churches and go on missionary trips and so forth.
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How do people get in touch with you if they want to stretch that time out in their retirement?
SPEAKER 14 :
They can reach me at 303-744-1128. And if they’re driving when they hear this, you can contact KLZ and they’ll put them in touch with me.
SPEAKER 07 :
Of course, as always, you can find Golden Eagle Financial on klzradio.com slash advertisers and get right in touch with Al if you’re driving and can’t write that number down. Al, thank you so much for joining us today.
SPEAKER 14 :
You’re welcome.
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putting reason into your afternoon drive. This is John Rush.
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All right. We are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. I didn’t get into a lot of the details of the Douglas County, you know, home rule vote. They wanted to, you know, change from being a non-home rule county to being a home rule county. And if you want to know what that means, go look it up. But essentially, home rule means you’ve got the ability to do some things differently than what essentially would be going on inside of the state, providing that it still aligns with certain things that the state is doing. So, for example… You couldn’t do something that is completely against what the state constitution says just because you’re home rule. Now, it does give you more freedom as a county or a city to do some things with zoning and things along those lines outside of what the state may have. And I’ll be just straight up honest. I didn’t have a dog in the fight. It didn’t really change anything for me personally one way or the other. Home rule can be something that works well. It can be something that doesn’t work well. It really comes down to those folks that are actually elected. You do end up giving your county a little more power or your city a little more power when they have home rule. For me personally, on the onset, if it’s not home rule now, why would you want it? If everything’s functioning and working well and so on, why make that change? And so that’s probably the case that I would have or that that’d be the position that I would take on it. Although in this particular case, it didn’t matter because it got shot down. Now, this is this is where I really wanted to talk about. And frankly, I think it got shot down for a lot of different reasons. And some are going to be probably mad at me for saying some of these things. But folks, when you don’t give out the proper information on what’s actually happening and why this should be done, it’s called leadership, by the way, when you don’t do that correctly, you can expect things to fail. There’s always going to be somebody in opposition to an idea that you have, much to what Richard Battle and I were talking about a few minutes ago. People that are in very dictatorship-type countries, communists and so on, they are not allowed to be free thinkers and they’re not allowed to think outside the box. There’s always somebody there telling them what they can and can’t do. And if they do start to think outside the box or draw outside the line, somebody is quick to bring them back in, meaning that they don’t even have that ability to think that way. Now, in the case of – this particular situation where you’re trying to communicate to somebody why you want to do something or not do something you better have all your ducks in a row and you better be willing to take plenty of time to actually present that case because if you just try to ramrod it through which is what i kind of feel like happened in douglas county probably not going to work out and it didn’t now on top of all of that One of the leaders, I believe it is Thiel, is claiming that the reason why this thing went down is because of the Communist Chinese Party and its involvement in the election. Now, I’m kind of laughing. I am laughing. And I love our Republicans and our fellow cohorts and so on. But when you say things like that, number one, you look like a really, really, really dumb person. You’ve taken all credit. I was talking to Andy about yesterday. You’ve taken all your credibility away now. If you had any at all, you’ve now removed all of it because you’re blaming a Douglas County election, whether you want to be home rule or not, on the Communist Chinese Party, Chinese Communist Party. Folks, let me just say this straight up. They don’t care. I’ll just tell you that straight. When it comes to that particular topic in that particular area, and I know some of you probably would disagree, and you’re going to come back at me and tell me that they do. No, folks, they don’t. They don’t. They have much, much, much bigger fish to fry than whether or not Douglas County is home rule or not. They don’t care. Frankly, I don’t think anybody outside of Douglas County cares. Sorry, no one does. That is one of those things where you can be on both sides of the aisle, or I should say either side of the aisle, and have strong opinions for or against. And by the way, neither is wrong. I’m going to say that again. You could be either for or against, home rule, be on either side of the aisle, left, right, or middle, have those feelings, and not be wrong. Because there are cases where it’s great to have. And it would be an advantage. And there’s other cases where it’s not. And yes, I do know enough about home rule to know that’s how it works. And really, just like anything else, comes down to who’s leading it. Who’s in charge? Who have you elected? As I said earlier, I’m more on the side of it’s worked up to this point. Why does it need changed? Why do you need home rule now? And I get the comeback’s going to be well because the state may want to institute X and we wouldn’t have to if we had home rule. Well, not so fast. That’s not always true. That might be your thinking, but that might not necessarily be the case when it’s all said and done. It’s sort of like states wanting to do certain things that go against the feds, and the feds come along and say, well, yeah, we believe in states’ rights, but this is something that’s overarching, and yeah, no, you can’t do that. Sort of like, by the way, what the Trump administration and the EPA just did to California regarding their CAFE standards and their EV standards, not CAFE, but their EV standards and so on. They just came along and said, California, you can’t do that. You can’t set that. So we all, by the way, as conservatives especially, kind of come into where we don’t want Big Brother telling us what to do, and yet we had certain conservatives that wanted home rule in Douglas County, and you just have to ask the question, why? It worked before. Why do you need this? But lastly, to get on some sort of a bandwagon that we lost because of the Chinese and because of the Communist Chinese Party, that’s laughable. Those of you that are on that bandwagon, you look really, really, really silly. I’ll just say that straight up. And where that’s coming from is there is evidently an Asian individual, by the way, happened to be a Japanese individual. And George Thiel accused this organization that it’s organized by an Asian-American resident of Douglas County. They opposed it. the home rule end of things, and so George is basically accusing the Chinese Communist Party of funding that particular organization, and that’s the reason why they lost. George, George, George, Georgie, please, don’t be a fool. Don’t act like a fool. Don’t talk like a fool. Don’t be a fool. You make the entire party, myself included, look like a fool when you say ignorant things like that. And yes, it’s very ignorant. And somebody please pass this on to George for me. Whether he’s listening or not, don’t know. But somebody, for the love of God, pass this along. This is the kind of stuff that grinds on me so severely. It bugs the death out of me because saying something so ignorant makes the rest of us look just as ignorant. There’s no basis for it. There’s no proof of it. George’s answer is, well, prove that they didn’t give money. George, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard anybody say. And I’ll just say this straight up. George, if that’s how ignorant you are, you don’t deserve to be in charge. I’ll say that straight up. And, George, before now, I actually had some respect for you. Not a lot, but some. I don’t always agree with everything that you do, and I’m saying this publicly, but to now go after this and say what you’re saying, you don’t deserve to be in leadership. You don’t. So those of you that are around that area of Douglas County that know George, you can tell him straight up for me, he doesn’t deserve to be in charge after saying these things. Because it sounds really stupid and ignorant. It makes the rest of us sound the same way, myself included. Give it a rest, George, you lost. And again, why did you think you needed home rule in the first place? I guess I’d like to know that. Maybe somebody can call in and tell me why Douglas County actually needed home rule in the first place. But to then lose handily, by the way, handily, not a little bit, but a lot. and then blame that on China, on the Communist Party, man alive. That’s really, again, I hate to keep saying this, but it’s just so ignorant. It makes everybody else look so bad that’s on our side of the aisle. Those of you that are conservatives that are a part of the Republican Party in Colorado, this is the stuff that damages our credibility, and it shouldn’t be talked about in this way. And George actually needs to come out with an apology and say, you know, I’m sorry, I was wrong, you know, said something in the heat of the battle. I didn’t really mean it. He needs to give a retraction on all of this so the rest of us don’t look so stupid. And I mean that sincerely. So if anybody has any ability to put some of that into George’s ear for me, please do so. And George, I’m extremely disappointed. And I’ll just say it straight up. You probably should go one step further and just resign from your position. Say, you know, I’m not fit to do this. Somebody else can step in because this isn’t for me. And it’s not, George. It’s not for you. If you can’t handle your emotions and what’s going on any better than that, you don’t deserve to be in leadership. Period. You guys know my standing on leadership and how that works and so on. I talk about it every Wednesday with Richard Battle. All right, we’ll be back in a moment. Cub Creek heating and air conditioning up next. If you need help with your air conditioning system, by all means, give Cub Creek a call today. Find them by going to klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 05 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 15 :
All right. We are back. No Sonny Kutcher today, by the way. She is busy, had another engagement. So appreciate her. She’ll be back with us here in a couple of weeks. So appreciate her. And you can always go find her at Young Americans Against Socialism. Either way, whether she’s on with us or not, you can still go there and support their cause and what they’re doing. And I would encourage you to do so. OK, something else that I was reading and. You always have mixed emotions on these sorts of things, although this one I think is more cut and dry than what the news media would want you to believe. This happened to come out of Hawaii News Now. I don’t know how it came into one of my feeds, so I picked it up. U.S. Army Purple Heart veteran was forced to self-deport from Hawaii. So when you read that headline, you think, well, geez, why? I mean, that doesn’t make any sense. So after nearly losing his life in combat, say… June, I think I’m saying that right, June Park was told by ICE he had three weeks to return to South Korea. So after 48 years in the United States, decorated Army veteran Se-Jun Park left his life, his family that was in Hawaii on Monday, not knowing if he’ll ever see them again. He self-deported to South Korea under the watchful eyes of ICE agents. Park tearfully hugged his son, daughter, parents, aunts, and friends at the Honolulu Airport. And it goes on to talk about his story and how he got involved in the military and what he did and so on and so forth. Well, he never became a full citizen. He had a permanency resident card and green card. He got that actually when he was seven years old, which allowed him to go to the military and do all the things that he did. But here’s the catch that is further down into this article. He did well, went and fought, did all those different things. Well, like a lot of vets, and I understand this, he came back, was honorably discharged, but then he suffered from severe PTSD. He turned to marijuana and some other drugs to combat that, I guess you could say. Well, in turn, he was charged with some drug offenses and spent a couple of years in prison. And in other words, he’s not squeaky clean like the article or the headline would have made it sound. And so because of that. They disallowed his continual green card. And because of his record, I’m guessing even trying to apply for citizenship probably wouldn’t work. So in that particular case, yes, even though he’s been here that long, he is now forced to leave. Now, some would say that’s totally wrong. We shouldn’t be doing that. I disagree, by the way. By the way, he could have become a citizen long before he got involved with, you know, kind of the crime end of things and doing some of the things that he shouldn’t have been involved in and so on. He could have become a citizen at that point. Had he become a citizen and even had gone through those things, he’d still be a citizen. That wouldn’t have changed. But when you’re not, this is where I think a lot of people, there’s so much misinformation out there in the press that when somebody comes to this country as a guest, in his case he was, seven years old, he gets a permanent residency card. At that point, he’s still a guest. Yes, he’s a permanent resident. He’s got a green card. He can work legally and all of that. But he’s not a citizen. He’s still a guest. He’s not, quote unquote, a member yet. Okay? Doesn’t have the member with benefits yet. And… As an immigrant, and I know lots of these, I’ve got very good friends that immigrated to this country, went through all of the long, lengthy process of becoming a citizen. And it’s arduous and it’s not fun. And frankly, I keep saying this on air and I’ve been saying this now for over a decade. We need to fix that. We need to clean that up. We need to make it easier. Shouldn’t be that hard. There should be a merit based system to make that work. But at the end of the day, you still have to go through the process. And somebody asked me yesterday if I’d been following the situation where the gal from Utah that was a student was coming through Colorado, got over to the Grand Junction area, got pulled over. That particular officer communicated with ICE, which now there’s all sorts of questions as to whether they can or can’t communicate with ICE. And at the very next exit, she gets pulled over, and then she gets sent to the detention center over here in Aurora and spent about, I think it was, Charlie, 19 days or something in detention, I want to say. Again, guys, don’t quote me on that. I don’t have the story in front of me. But, yeah, I followed that. And that’s another one where, again, I have mixed emotions. She’s another one. Her family came over from, I believe it was Brazil. And just so you all know, there isn’t anything war-torn in Brazil to whereby you can come here on asylum from a country like Brazil because it’s not a country that’s in that position. And frankly, hasn’t been. Not in her lifetime. You can’t really be an asylum seeker from a country like Brazil. Now, her claim is that her family at one point tried to go back, and there was so much violence or whatever that they then had to come back to the United States. The situation is she’s never become a citizen, had a green card, done anything along those lines, and so she’s not a citizen. She’s here illegally. Her and her folks overstayed their visa. They had a visa to come, and they overstayed their visa. Now, this is the question I’ve always had, is you’re overstaying your visa, but you can go to college, no problem. That’s screwed up all by itself. Why is that allowed? You should have a current visa or not be allowed to go to college in America, period. That one, to me, ought to be fairly easy. And why we’re not pushing that out, which we should be, you shouldn’t be allowing people that don’t have a green card and aren’t here legally to even go to college in the first place, is my opinion. Somehow she was able to do all of that and, again, was on her way back, you know, coming back to Denver for something. I don’t know exactly what. I didn’t get all the details of that. Frankly, don’t care. She got pulled over, ended up going to detention. Where does she go from here? I don’t know. I haven’t followed up on that part of the story. Maybe one of you knows and you can send me an article on that. I don’t know exactly the situation at this point. Bottom line. While I feel for some of these people, and I do believe they’re good people, I think even this particular person in Hawaii, I’m not saying he’s a bad person, but he did make some bad decisions at one point, and in turn, it ended his ability to be a citizen of the United States of America, meaning if he’s not a citizen… and you’re not allowed to be here, then the alternative is you go back to where you came from. And it’d be no different than if I or Charlie or any of you listening went to a foreign country and we overstayed or we didn’t go through the legal channels to be there legally, eventually we’d have to leave. Yeah, well, plus we go there and commit a crime. Thank you, Charlie. Yeah, you have a criminal record to boot. So that’s another whole issue here with this particular person. And, yeah, and two years in prison on top of that. So, again, while I’m sympathetic, and I am, my heart goes out to these people, but… I think the only thing that I can say is we, as a country, we have allowed this bad behavior to go on. It’s sort of like that dog that sits at the edge of the table and begs and begs and begs and begs and begs. And you feed them a little bit and you feed them a little bit and you feed them a little bit. And then you wonder why they’re still begging. Well, because you’ve encouraged that behavior. They’re going to always be there begging because you started it. We’ve done the same thing as a country when it comes to a lot of the immigrants, illegal immigrants that are here. We’re now trying to clean that up, and everybody’s mad because you’re now telling the dog, you can’t be at the table anymore. Even though the dog’s been there for the past umpteen jillion years, probably most of its life, you’re now all of a sudden saying, Fido, you can’t be here anymore. Dave, go ahead. Hey, Dave. Oh, Dave, are you there? Dave in Thornton.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, there you go. Hey, Dave, now you’re there. Yeah, just a quick comment on the South Korean guy. You know, you brought up an important thing that everyone needs to be aware of is that, you know, there’s ample time that he had to adjust his status to U.S. citizen.
SPEAKER 06 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 08 :
Once you get that green card, within five years, it’s expected of you to adjust your status and become a U.S. citizen. You’re not supposed to have a lifetime green card. You intended to become an immigrant. That means you’re coming here to be part of the whole and you should become an American.
SPEAKER 15 :
Right.
SPEAKER 08 :
Period.
SPEAKER 15 :
Right.
SPEAKER 08 :
Now, the other thing with his military service. Just because, and believe me, I support all of our military members.
SPEAKER 15 :
I do, too. I’m very thankful. You know, he took a bullet and all of that. And, Dave, I’m very thankful for all of that. But you’re talking about two different buckets here. They’re not one and the same.
SPEAKER 08 :
No. But just because you served in the military does not excuse your criminal record.
SPEAKER 15 :
Right.
SPEAKER 08 :
American citizens go out there and they commit crimes and they’ve served in the military that the judge or the law doesn’t say, oh, well, olly olly oxen free, I guess we can drop all charges against you. No. If you’ve committed a crime, you’re still subject to the law. So the thing is that when it comes to military members who are foreign nationals, what it takes to have them removed from the country is very, very, very intensive. That literally goes all the way up to Washington, D.C., and it goes through several layers of review. before someone signs off and says, yes, now this person can be removed. And so the thing is that if he went to prison for two years, he was a felon. And so that means that he’s now amenable to removal because he is a felon. Now, there’s no mitigating circumstances. He could have 10 children. He could be a Medal of Honor winner. Not that that would happen, but I’m just saying.
SPEAKER 15 :
I get it.
SPEAKER 08 :
He became a felon. And now because he chose not to adjust his status and become a citizen, now he’s going to be removed. And so the other thing that other people got to realize is that especially when you’re in the military and you’re a foreign national, those folks, believe it or not, get to go to the front of the line. We recognize that they’re serving this country. And so once they get through basic training and everything else, while they’re in the military— They can apply, and guess what? They get to go to the front of the line and adjust their status. So the entire time that he was in the military, he could have adjusted his status, and he would have gotten the benefit of the doubt and moved to the front of the line. But again, he chose not to. So, again, these people got to realize that they’ve got to take personal responsibility for their actions.
SPEAKER 15 :
I agree. And by the way, David, if somebody wants to petition government to put a new law immigration-wise whereby if you go and serve for four years and whether you… Take a bullet or not, but if you go and put in X amount of time, that will speed up. To your point, that either gives you some sort of automatic citizenship, you still need to go pass your test, do the things necessary, and so on. But if you want to do that as soon as you get out, we’re going to allow you to do that in a much faster process than we would anybody else. You know what, Dave? I’m all for that, but that’s not the system we have right now. Did I lose you, Dave? I think I did. I got to take a break anyways, but I get where Dave is at with that. And again, folks, what I would say is if that’s something that needs to be changed in the immigration system, then let’s petition. Let’s get that changed. Let’s make that happen. But I’m one where I look at a lot of these cases. I read a lot about a lot of these individuals. And again, folks, I do mean this. My heart goes out to him. I get it. In this particular case, he’s been here for several decades. He’s raised a family. I understand all of that. But law is law. Folks, if we just start bending the rules all of the time to accommodate anything willy-nilly that comes along, we don’t have a rule of law anymore. It’s a rule of, well, how do we feel today? Who are we going to give a pass to today? And I get it. We have a lot of things that aren’t fair at times where somebody gets off with something that they shouldn’t have and so on. Nothing’s perfect. No legal system is perfect. But ours is pretty darn good when it’s all said and done. And, again, I look at a lot of these cases that the media highlights, by the way. They tend to highlight these things because it bodes well for them. They highlight these things, and it’s always the woe is me thing. You know, look at what we’re doing to immigration. Woe is me. And they find the, you know, one-off stories, if you would, that can sensationalize their side, and that’s exactly what happened here in Hawaii News. Now, I get it. It’s a big story. I understand that. But at the end of the day, he didn’t do things correctly, and now he’s paying the price. No different than what all of you and I would have to do if we did something we weren’t supposed to, and we finally had that day of reckoning, I guess you could say. Mile High Coin coming up next. And again, folks, if you’ve got a collection of anything kicking around and you’re just wondering what is its value, you can get a free appraisal at Mile High Coin. And then if you decide to turn that into cash, David Gonzalez can help you with that as well. 720-370-3400.
SPEAKER 06 :
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SPEAKER 15 :
All right. Michael Bailey Law is up next. He’s always on here, by the way, on Wednesdays, his own program between 2.30 and 3. Michael’s mobile. He’ll come to you, but I’ll tell you right now, if you want to get your estate plan done, updated, whatever, by the end of the year, get your appointment in now. Go to klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 17 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
All right.
SPEAKER 15 :
For a lot of you, this is going to be like pouring gasoline on a fire. I apologize, but this is what’s coming. We all use DMV. At one point or another, we use it for you name it. There’s going to be increases to the cost at the DMV coming, I believe, Monday, June 30th. This is what’s going to happen. Driver’s license was $30.87. By the way, who came up with that nice round number? It now goes to $32. Learner’s permit, 1852, goes to 19. A state ID, either a new or renewal, was 1267. It goes to 13. A commercial driver’s license was 1708, goes to 1750. By the way, these aren’t huge increases. In fact, some of these, it’s just almost rounding up, except for, this is weird, the duplicate license. It was 12, now it’s 1230. Why don’t you just make it 13 or 1250? Who’s coming up with these numbers? A driver’s license, the second one, or subsequent, if you’ve lost your first one, you’ve got to get another one. Which, okay, just as a side note, it doesn’t cost them anything. Any more to make the first, the second, the third, or the hundredth. The cost is the same. There is no difference. But yet, the second time around, if you need a duplicate, it’s $12. If you need it again, it’s $16. Or it was. Now it’s going to go to $12.30, $16.40. A vehicle record search, which sometimes you need to determine title and so on on a vehicle, was $2.20, goes to $2.25. That’s a bargain, by the way. Just saying. A minor driver’s license, once you get past the permit, it’s 33 or was 33, now it’s 34. And then there’s a couple of other ones that have to do with ID cards and so on. They’re going up about a buck, buck and a half a piece is all, 50 cents a piece maybe. And again, who came up with these round numbers? I have no idea. These all will, and there’s actually going to be some license plate fee increases as well. Those go into effect on July 1st. Let me give you some of those. The embossed regular plate, the current fee is $291. It’s going to $369. The embossed set, which I don’t know what that means because you’ve got to buy a set no matter what, was $583, now $738. Specialty plates were $470, now they’re $564. Specialty plate set, $940, going to $1127. uh the mounting boards which if you have a permit you know the board that it goes on uh they’re going up by a penny is all each which is again why bother i mean i guess over the millions upon millions of those do i guess a penny will finally add up right charlie i guess that’s how they’re looking at it you do it you know you do a penny a million times over do the math yeah and the penny’s going away yes it is charlie absolutely SMMR tags going up about $0.28. DPA blanks with tabs are going up a penny. Electric vehicle decals are going from $0.25 to $0.69. Inoperable vehicle tags from $0.45 to $0.78. Low power scooters, $0.25 to $0.39. And the collector tax, $0.25 to $0.26. Now, registration fees. This one, I think I’ve got enough time to go through some of these. This is where not huge increases, but keep in mind, when you go get your car registered, and I’ve had so many of you send me your documents and complaining, good night, it’s like a ticker tape. All the different fees and things you pay when you go get your vehicle registered. Yes, it is. So here’s some of your new fees. Plug-in vehicle registration fees are going from $5719 to $60.05. Commercial electric road use fees from $5513 to $5789. Commercial electric usage fees, larger scale, 16,000 pounds to 66,000 pounds is going down. It’s coming from $119.25 to $115.76. And then the more than 26,000 pound commercial electric road use is going from $165 to $173. So most of those aren’t affecting… uh maybe a few of you driving electric vehicles that might affect there’s not too many electric fleets to be honest with you so i’m again i’m not sure who set these and why or where these came from this came out of a revised statue 43-1-128 so if you go to the dmv next time around and think prices went up ever so slightly, you will be correct because they are. And I get it. They have operating costs and so on. And if they can offset some of that, their taxpayer employees, if you would, all those DMV sites and so on, they all work for us. So if we can offset some of those costs by collecting more revenue to offset their cost, I’m okay with some of that, providing it’s all in line. My beef, and you guys all know this already, my beef with all of the license plate registration stuff is, To get around Tabor, they just keep adding fee after fee after fee after fee because they talk to any Democrat. They’ll tell you that this state’s biggest biggest holdback when it comes to raising more money to give away to all of their special interest programs is Tabor. Every Democrat will tell you that. And that’s going to be a big deal that we have to continue to fight against every single round because every Democrat out there. I don’t think I’m exaggerating. Every Democrat out there wants to do something with Tabor. Now, some will tell you they don’t want to change it a whole lot. Some will tell you they just want to go away completely. Some will tell you that the reason why we don’t have better grades in our schools and we don’t do this and we don’t do that is all because of Tabor, because we can’t fund it the way we’re supposed to. Yes, there are Democrats in this state that will say exactly what I just said. It’s a lie, flat-out, bold-faced lie. But they’ll run on that, and they will get everybody that they can to try to come over to their side, believing that Tabor is somehow a bad thing, and it’s what’s limiting us as a state in doing the things necessary in the state that we need to be doing to care for all the different things we have going on. I’m here to tell you, and I’ve said it a gazillion times, that’s not the problem. The problem is they spend money like a bunch of drunken sailors, and I mean that sincerely. They spend more money continually, and if they had more, they’d spend more. Tabor is literally the only thing that keeps them from overspending. They still overspend. In a lot of areas. But it’s the only thing that keeps things in check in Colorado and keeps it from being just a runaway train. And we have got to make sure we keep that intact because I’m here to tell you, folks, they’re going to continue to fight on that and fight. There are Democrats out there telling everybody that it’s unconstitutional even for us to have Tabor in this state and limit how much they can actually raise their budget year after year. And for those of you that are new to the state, Tabor is based upon an increase in population and inflation. It’s that simple. It’s not that complicated. They can only raise their budget by X depending upon what those two things do. So, in other words, if we have a population decline… And even if the inflation is flat, for example, they may not get as much budget that year as they normally would. They actually could go the other direction. So that’s why the left, the communists, they hate, the Marxists, they hate any kind of a control, a reining back of their spending because they would give every ounce of money away that they possibly could because it’s how they keep getting elected. Never forget that when it comes to the left here in Colorado. All right, Roof Savers of Colorado. Dave informed me again this morning that while he’s had a 15-year workmanship warranty, he is also adding on to that now a 15-year material warranty, meaning that you’re getting a full 15-year warranty on your roof. It is one of the best warranties, if not the best warranty, in the industry right now. So if you’ve had any kind of storm damage of late, you want to know what’s going on, you’d like to look at the product that he does, the RoofMax product that will extend the life of your roof. And for a lot of you listening where you might be in an HOA, have commercial buildings, whatever the case may be, Dave can look at all of those things for you as well. 303-710-6916.
SPEAKER 09 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 15 :
All right, wrapping up hour number two. And again, appreciate you all listening. Thanks for the text messages. Somebody said that maybe the reason why Dave from Thornton dropped off is the cell service and the storms and the things that are happening in northern Colorado are worse today than they actually were yesterday, even though they predicted them to be the opposite. They actually predicted yesterday to be worse. But right now, I guess in a lot of places, it’s worse now than it actually was yesterday. So First of all, be safe out there. If you’re driving around and you see anything at all, inclement weather-wise, tornadoes, things like that, be safe. You guys know what to do. I don’t need to reiterate that. You guys that live in those areas know exactly what to do. So be very, very careful. Be alert to what’s going on around you. And Hour 3 is next. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 12 :
Thank you.
