A weird night in the Southwest: the FAA locks down El Paso airspace with a “special security” TFR… then backs off hours later. The show digs into what may be behind it, and why it matters.
John Rush talks with Ammon Blair about the drone reality on the southern border—surveillance, smuggling, airspace swarms, and cartel tactics evolving fast. Blair argues the real crisis is lack of domain awareness and agencies operating in silos, plus procurement and acquisition bottlenecks that keep modern counter-drone tech from getting deployed quickly.
The hour also rolls through listener commentary on aviation safety and mountain flying, plus
SPEAKER 09 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 18 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 09 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 12 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job first. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 15 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 18 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, hour number three, Rush to Reason, Denver’s afternoon rush, KLZ 560. And I appreciate you all listening. Thank you very much. Ammon Blair joining us now. Ammon, how are you? Good, sir. How are you? I’m doing great. Always a joy talking to you. And when I saw that, again, know you very well, you’ve been on our program many times, when I saw that you probably had some insight into what the FAA did last week in El Paso and New Mexico, and they were going to shut that down originally for 10 days, didn’t end up being 10 days, but what all was going on at that time?
SPEAKER 16 :
Oh, man. All right, so… You know, what’s hard is we’ve been trying to highlight this problem on the southern border for actually a long time. You know, it was a few years ago that the Rio Grande Valley sector chief testified in Congress and stated that drones were actually her greatest threat in the Rio Grande Valley. Last year, they had over 40,000 drone incursions just in that sector alone. And And so typically what we see on the southern border are drones that are utilized for surveillance, drones that are utilized for narcotic smuggling, and then drones that are swarmed the airspace so that way our own air support can’t fly. And now what we see below that is actual war. And so the Mexican cartels actually sent their cicadillos to the battlefields in Ukraine and Russia. And they did that for a very specific reason. They fought on the Ukrainian side. And they sent them there to learn about drone warfare, drone technology, counter UAS, you name it. And so now they brought that back into Mexico. And that’s why throughout Mexico, there’s actually a map that just was published this week showing all the cartel attacks. And the majority of them are actually from Cartel Jalisco New Generation, the largest and most violent Mexican cartel that has now surpassed Sinaloa cartel. And so when you look at that, and they’re utilizing technology that we currently don’t even have to be able to defend ourselves in the southern border. They’re using fiber optic systems as opposed to radio waves to control the drones. That way we can’t use electronic warfare. They’re 3D printing a lot of their drones. And so this level of airspace domain or operation control in the air domain is really what we saw. And so Department of Homeland Security is so far behind in terms of being able to have 100% domain awareness of the southern border, of what’s coming across, as well as being able to take it down. And so a majority of the technology that they do have is through a signed agreement through the Department of War. And what we’re seeing, what we saw, is they thought that they saw another drone incursion. They thought it was going to be hostile. They utilized the Department of War’s technology to try to take it down, and it looks like it may have been just a balloon. And what I want to highlight is this. Because we don’t have 100% domain awareness of the border, the NORAD or U.S. NORTHCOM commander even came out on 60 Minutes and said that we don’t even have domain awareness around our military installations, that drones can make incursions into our military installations, and we couldn’t even identify them. So let alone our military installations, but our southern border. That’s a problem. A huge problem. And because of that, we have no idea who, what, where, why, how, or when. Everything is coming across that southern border. And so when this happens, you have three competing agencies that are trying to figure out the airspace domain, as well as whose job it is to take it down. Is it going to be DHS through the Border Patrol? Is it going to be Department of War in the National Defense Areas? Or is it going to be the FAA in who regulates, who can and cannot do it? And so you have all these agencies that are operating in silos trying to figure out what’s actually happening at the southern border. And then we end up with what just happened in El Paso.
SPEAKER 13 :
Got it. So a lot more going on than what meets the eye and, of course, what the press said. And I guess the thing I’m trying to wrap my head around is given the dominance that we have as a country, all the things we do around the world, our air superiority and so on, why can’t we get the – what’s the stumbling block in getting a handle here?
SPEAKER 16 :
Great question. It is our procurement, our acquisition, and then the transfer of current technology products. Look, there’s a company that, if you know Joe Lonsdale, he was the co-founder of Palantir Technologies. He’s here, actually, here in Texas. He’s an investor of a company called Epirus, E-P-I-R-U-S. I would tell all of your listeners to go look them up. They actually just came out with the technology to counter the fiber optic drones that we’re seeing in the Ukraine battlefield and that we’re seeing in Mexico. But The biggest question is if we have technology now that can be utilized, just like you said, why aren’t we? What are the gaps to get the actual technology in the hands of our warfighters in this critical time to be able to not only counter what’s coming across but actually understand what is coming across? And that is and has always been the acquisition and procurement process. And that’s why I like Steve Blank out of California tried bridging that gap by creating Hacking for Defense, a university program where they could hack or they could create or solve problems at the speed of a startup using the lean startup and also the wicked problems like out of Carnegie Mellon and try to figure out a way to bridge that gap. Now, the Special Operations Command figured out that they could do that by creating an organization, and I tell everyone to go on here as well, and it’s called Softworks, S-O-F-W-E-R-X. And it’s a C3 where they do the procurement process for the federal government at the speed of a startup. So they offer challenges, hackathons, and then they bring in and actually have a competition, and then who does? They sign an intermediary agreement with the Department of Works, And then that way they can transfer that technology in months as opposed to years. And so that process really doesn’t exist with DHS. They are so far behind Department of War in terms of the acquisition of getting what’s necessary to be on our southern border.
SPEAKER 13 :
that we end up waiting years upon years, and then the Trump administration is going to be out of it, and hopefully we don’t get like a… And I’m assuming, and again, I don’t know Matt, and so I’m asking the question, is it our current situation that’s created this, or is it from four years of just being inadequately, you know, on top of things in this regard, and literally having an open, porous border?
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, I would say it’s all the above. Look, the state of Texas was requesting this the Department of Wars Technology a long time ago, and we ended up creating a system using hunting cameras. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of drawbridge camera system. No. What that is, is under the Obama administration, of course they wouldn’t do anything on the southern border, and that’s when the cartels went past becoming an insurgency and became foreign terrorist organizations and parallel governance. And so on the southern border, we’re like, hey, we’re having this incursion into Texas on our farms and ranches. What’s going to be done? Nothing was. So what Texas did is they were able to fuse hunting cameras across the entire southern border. And then those hunting cameras were then sent, all the images were sent to a central location called the Border Security Operations Center, where all these images are then processed and then delivered to the border. So really, we still use the drawbridge system today, which is crazy. We’re using hunting cameras. Wow. to try to figure out who was coming across.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s crazy. And really quick, because I’m writing some of these websites down, what was the first website you said folks should go to? I missed that one. I didn’t get a chance to write it down.
SPEAKER 16 :
Was that the SoftWorks?
SPEAKER 13 :
No, that’s the last one. I think it was the first one you mentioned.
SPEAKER 16 :
Steve Blank. I mentioned Steve Blank, the intermediary agreements with SoftWorks.
SPEAKER 13 :
So it had a P in it, I want to say.
SPEAKER 16 :
Oh, Epirus. E-P-I-R-U-S.
SPEAKER 13 :
E-P-I-R-U-S. There you go. Thank you.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yep. And that’s going to be the technology. If you just follow Joe Lonsdale, he’s also the founder of Cicero Institute here in Austin, another think tank just like ours at Texas Public Policy Foundation. But he also has 8VC. He owns a venture capital firm, and that’s one of the companies under that venture capital firm. Okay.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay, good to know. I mean, basically what you’re telling me is we’ve got a long way to go. This is not a cure yet. And one other question I’ve got, Ammon, is the cartels, I’m assuming, it’s not only drones that are running drugs and doing things along those lines, but they’re basically able to use those drones to keep an eye on everything we’re doing so they can smuggle things in easier than they would be otherwise. Am I thinking correctly?
SPEAKER 16 :
You’re 100% correct. And you know what? They actually posted on social media. they’ll post how they’re getting still to this day illegal aliens to bypass Border Patrol on the southern border, especially in Texas. And so they’ll post it online, and you’ll see that we’re still having a mass amount of gotaways. If all of your listeners also follow Lieutenant Chris Olivares from the Texas Department of Public Safety, he’s the public affairs officer for them, he’ll show you, like, every other day they’re posting another bailout or another illegal alien situation. trying to escape Border Patrol. And there’s a lot of other websites out there that are conducting open-source intelligence and showing how the cartels are utilizing the drones to get by every single one of our law enforcement as well as military on our border.
SPEAKER 13 :
Okay. So that is, in fact, all the more reason why we’ve got to get these things shut down. Yes, sir. All right. Ammon, as always, I appreciate it very much. How do folks find you? What’s the best way to do that?
SPEAKER 16 :
Sure, Mike. You guys can go to our website, texaspolicy.com. You can also follow me on X at M&S Blair. All of our research, all of our findings, all of our op-eds will be on there as well.
SPEAKER 13 :
As always, I appreciate it very much. Until next time, man, have a great evening. Thanks, Ammon. All right, sir.
SPEAKER 16 :
Thank you so much for having me.
SPEAKER 13 :
You bet. Have a great evening. Golden Eagle Financial, a great interview of late that Al did. Listen in, and if you want to talk to Al afterwards, just give him a call, find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 14 :
TJ here with KLZ Radio, and again, I’m with Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial. And some of you may not know that Al Smith has a couple of books out. Al, tell us a little bit about the books that you have for clients and what that informs folks on.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, the two books are 18 Halls to Retirement, which is about a younger person and an older person who work at the same company they’re playing golf. And the book talks a lot about the younger person asking the older person about all of his preparation he’s made for his retirement. My second book is The Christian Path to Retirement. It’s sort of about how God can guide us toward building our nest egg and also helping build his kingdom as we make that transition from work to retirement.
SPEAKER 14 :
That’s awesome. I love the financial connection to Christ, because that’s all about our lives. Tell us a little bit about, is that something that folks can go out to Amazon to buy, or do you give that to them?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, it is on Amazon, and I think it’s $10 or $11 or something. It’s not a long book, but for folks who come into the office… and schedule a meeting with me, I can certainly give them that book for free. I’ll need to be ordering a few more copies for all the enormous influx I’m anticipating after this ad.
SPEAKER 14 :
There you go. We’ll tell folks how to get in touch with you for that meeting and maybe to get their free book.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, you can reach me at 303-744-1128. And the book also has some things that go beyond financial things that can result in a more fulfilling retirement.
SPEAKER 14 :
Very good. And as always, you can find a little bit about the book at klzradio.com slash money. And on there is a form that you can schedule an appointment with Al Smith as well. And he’ll get you in shape and ready for your retirement. Al, thanks so much for joining us today.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, you’re welcome, TJ. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER 12 :
This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, we are back. Welcome, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Steve in the Springs, go ahead. Good afternoon, Commander Rush. How are you? I’m good, sir. How are you?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, pretty good. The Epic 1000 crash, I give back to you. You know, I will respectfully dissent from J.J. Jersey Joe in that there’s nothing particularly dangerous about seeing the if you follow the procedures. And I go back, I mean, like, pre-airline, when I was flying medevac for Children’s Hospital. And that was one more problem. A lot of these mountain airports had no instrument approaches whatsoever. It was a real toss of dice. And I had friends who were flying medevac for St. Anthony’s. And the thing is about flying, when there’s no approach, doing nothing, You fly over at night when it’s snowing. You can see the airport straight down. But you get on final, and it disappears in the snow. And you do the right thing, hopefully, and you go around. And in this case, they’re flying a Mitsubishi M2. It took like 15 minutes to get there. Whatever happened, I don’t know, but they managed to smack into a mountaintop and kill all six people on board. And little hairs on the back of my neck went up, like there for the Grace of God, go you. But back then, it’s pretty primitive. We’re talking about late 70s. None of the airports, mountain airports, tell you right, level, they had instrument approaches. And believe it or not, that’s where a lot of little premature babies like to go to die. So it was really roll your own, be careful, try to survive, and you had to roll your own in terms of departure procedures and arrival. In the weather, in the middle of the night. So it’s gotten a lot better since then. Most of these airports have airship boats. Steamboat is no big deal. Thrown in and out of there many, many dozens of times. A challenging one is Glenwood. It’s short. There’s no overruns. And the overrun is good to the river. But as far as like Aspen and Steamboat, even Lenovo. Now, with the approaches, not a big deal if you follow the plan. If you do not, you’re playing with death like Cumulus Grannis. Right. And, you know, you just got to either play by the rules and exercise judgment, or you’re going to die by it.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, yeah, good point.
SPEAKER 03 :
Nope, great point. At Epic 1000, that is the highest performing signal engine turbo ever. 10 or nuts. Flies at 290 all day long. Not cheating. Jumping three minutes. Yeah, I don’t know anything about the group. I don’t know anything about who was on board.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, me neither.
SPEAKER 03 :
But, yeah, there have been some goof-up accidents in Simba.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, always a tragedy when that happens, as you know. It is. It is. Yeah, it’s too bad. Anyway, enjoy your show. Oh, Steve, I appreciate it. No, thank you. I appreciate that very much, and… All right, moving along here. I had a, or I have an article. This is interesting. Coming out of the Colorado Sun, talking about Trump endangering Colorado with his quote-unquote climate reversal policies, which, as all of you know, as I talked about last week, I applaud. I’m going to save folks money when it’s all said and done. Now, according to this article, it’s the opposite of what I’m thinking. It’s going to end up costing us money. Now, remember, folks. There is a big battle on the right versus the left when it comes to whether climate change is even real. Global warming, it’s been determined, is not. Climate change, yes. Does the climate change? Sure it does. Does it change the way that some that are in charge on the left think it does? No. No. It does not. In fact, you can go find many a study that will disprove a lot of the things that come out of the different administrations, the left, I should say, Biden, Obama, and so on. These alarmists, that’s what I call them, talking about how what Trump just did is going to, you know, really set us back here in Colorado, cost us billions of dollars and so on. And I’ll get to some of that here in a moment where some of these studies are coming from. If the left and the environmental movement had its way, and I say this all the time and I mean this, and you may not agree with me, but trust me when I say this, this is true. They don’t want us around. Humans, I mean. Not just those on the right. They don’t want their side there either. They want… Everyone gone. We’re the scourge of the earth. They love the earth, quote-unquote, so much that they just want to see us eliminated from it. We should not exist. And believe me when I say that. That’s exactly the way they view things. We are the scourge of the earth. We are doing nothing but ruining, you know, nature and wildlife and on and on we go. And their view is we should just not exist. So, yeah, they’re going to do everything they possibly can to eliminate us. And by the way, they do that all sorts of ways, making things super expensive, taxing us. You’ve seen more than likely AOC here running around talking about a wealth tax and that we as a country should be doing that and on and on we go. And that’s their idea of how you cure things. At the end of the day, it doesn’t work. It makes things way worse. In fact, even AOC was challenged on, well, if that works, why hasn’t it worked in places like Venezuela and others where it was a dramatic failure? Of course, AOC has no answers to that because she hasn’t been prompted on what to say because, no offense, she’s dumb as a rock. She only repeats what she’s been told to say. The woman doesn’t have a brain cell, frankly, to think on her own at all. And that I do mean. She does not. She does not have a brain cell to think on her own. So their idea is just eliminate us altogether. Get rid of us. And so they’re now chatter about how much this is going to cost us in different things on down the road as Coloradans. It’s just ridiculous. I mean, they’re going as far as talking about how people will die as climate gets hotter. You know, people won’t be able to handle, you know, one or two degree temperature increase. Remember what I just said, one or two degree temperature increase and on and on we go. It’s absolutely ridiculous. And one of the studies that I was reading earlier today talking about how this is going to cost us billions of dollars now here in Colorado comes from a gal by the name of – I’m sure I’m going to butcher her name. It’s Pagajalali. P-E-G-A-H-J-A-L-A-L-I. And she’s an author and a writer, and her background is she’s an environmental policy analysis for the Colorado Fiscal Institute. In other words, and I looked this up as best I could, not a very old lady by any means, and I can’t tell she’s ever had a real job. I don’t think she has. I think all she’s ever done is something environmentally speaking. And she wrote an article here recently, or I shouldn’t say that. She didn’t write an article, but she was listed in an article here recently where her study says it’s going to cost Coloradans up to $37 billion. Now, I’d like to know, again, where the data is to support the $37 billion. Where is that coming from and what’s factoring into it? Because all data can be skewed, as you all know. You pretty much you on this type of research, you can. And Andy just said we’re a virus to the earth. Yeah. Andy, thank you. Yes, you’re correct. My point is, I’d like to know what they’re trying, you know, where the figures are coming from that say it’s going to cost Coloradans between thirty three and thirty seven billion dollars. and they’re using two different temperature bands to determine that. I’m serious. I want to know where is the actual data coming from, and where are they getting at with this? This is a quote. Across sectors, extreme heat is the dominant driver of projected economic impacts through mid-century, followed by infrastructure stress, especially building a cooling demand and bridge resilient needs and wildfire impacts. Now, wildfire impacts, by the way, I’ll just tell you straight up, a lot of that comes from the way we handle wildfire mitigation, which we don’t. We don’t do. And if we did, we’d have less impact. And keep in mind, we’re building in places today that we never built in before. So, of course, when there’s a wildfire, it’s going to have more impact than it ever has. It has nothing to do with climate change. It is what it is because we’ve built in areas we didn’t build in when I was a kid. And we’re continuing to build in some of those areas. And then you look at how closely, because of the property values in Colorado, how closely properties, you know, houses are put together and so on and so forth. And, yeah, when we have a wildfire, it’s detrimental. Absolutely. Absolutely. Sure. And by the way, those same things were there when I was a kid, some 50 years ago. I can remember helping, and my dad even going up and helping do some wildfire, not only mitigation, but fighting wildfires and so on, because it took volunteers to do that back in the day, because we didn’t have the resources in Colorado we have today. And those things were happening when I was a kid. So it hasn’t got any hotter. It hasn’t changed. We go through cycles in Colorado and other places just like anywhere else does. But yet these folks will come along and talk about how this is now going to be a $30 billion hit to the Colorado economy over the course of time because of what Trump just did. It’s lunacy, folks. Literally, it’s lunacy. But they believe in it. In fact, they believe in it so wholeheartedly that they’ll blame Trump for anything. It’s Trump derangement syndrome, of course, but Literally, these people believe in this stuff. And here’s the other thing. They believe in it enough that they will do whatever they can to find data to back up their belief. And that’s what people do, by the way. That’s a psychological thing. When somebody believes in something enough, they’ll find everything they can possibly find to validate that belief. And that’s what happens. That’s human nature. You don’t want to be wrong, so you’re going to find every single thing you can to validate that. We’ll take a break. We’ll come right back. Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next. Make sure you’re dialed in with your roof. By the way, the RoofMax product can extend the life of your roof by up to 15 years. 303-710-6916.
SPEAKER 10 :
More and more homeowners are getting letters from insurance companies canceling policies or reducing coverage over aging roofs. And heading into winter, that’s the last thing you need. Roof Savers of Colorado can help. Roof Savers can apply Roof Max, a bio-friendly treatment that restores your shingle’s flexibility and extends roof life up to 15 more years, helping you meet insurance requirements without a full replacement. And it comes with a full five-year warranty, giving you peace of mind. And if a RoofMax treatment doesn’t make sense for your roof, we can replace it quickly and professionally before the snow piles up. Call 303-710-6916 or visit RoofSaverCO.com for your free roof assessment. KLZ listeners, receive $250 off their treatment. Call today and receive an additional $150 off your RoofMax treatment through the end of December. Roof Savers of Colorado, protecting your roof, your home, and your insurance coverage all winter long.
SPEAKER 13 :
Plumberoos, if you’re looking for an old-time plumber, we’ve got the answer. That’s Plumberoos. Find them at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 10 :
Plumberoos is your local trustworthy plumber like you used to have when they were your plumber. When you invite someone into your home, trust matters. And that’s why Mike Jansen built Plumberoos differently. Mike is a master plumber raised in Colorado, and every job he does reflects his values. Honesty, respect, and real solutions. The team of plumbers and technicians are paid hourly, not on commission. so you’ll never be talked into work you don’t need. No matter the need, Plumberoo’s gives you clear options and lets you decide what the next step is without a sales pitch or add-ons. Unlike those big national companies, Mike and Plumberoo’s appreciate the value of providing service to their local community where they live and work, which in turn keeps your money here in Colorado. When you need a license, local company who can be your plumber. Call Plumberoos by finding them on the klzradio.com advertisers page.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, Kevin Flash, if you have any kind of legal issues at all, criminal, civil, you name it, Kevin is there for you. 303-806-8886.
SPEAKER 11 :
Here’s why you need personal injury attorney Kevin Flesch on your side. He understands the way the jury thinks. In the context of a personal injury case, you’ve been hurt by someone else’s negligence. The idea is that you’re going to try to recover so that you can get back to where you were just prior to that incident occurring. What that really means from a jurist’s perspective is that you’re going to be asking them to award you money. So when we talk about fairness, we’re talking about six people that you don’t know. Those six people view the evidence and make a unanimous decision that will decide what the fair value is. When you’re the one who’s hurt, you have a good idea of what you think it’s worth. The question is, can you persuade those other individuals whom you don’t know and were witnesses to believe that’s what the case is worth? kevin flesh understands the way the jury thinks call now for a free consultation 303-806-8886 the best export we have is common sense you’re listening to rush to reason we are back rush to reason denver’s afternoon rush klz 560 okay steve you’re back go ahead man
SPEAKER 13 :
You got to do this for John. Quick thoughts on the Iranian situation.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. I happened to marry him to the Iranian ex-flat family 29 years ago. A. B. We’ve had a lot of discussions on what’s going on over there. Yeah. And this is the first opportunity realistically in 47 years of getting rid of that regime. Unfortunately, they got the guns. We have some on-the-ground assets in Tehran that the internet cut off because they’ve got Skyline and it is abysmal. The actual death figures are 45, 50,000. Wow. Number one. Wow. Number two is unbelievable in the sense that when you go to identify your dead relatives, you go through literally dozens or hundreds of body bags to identify your dead relatives. And then, They have the audacity to charge you per bullet use on the bedroom. It’s just insane. Wow. And there’s one gal, she’s like in her mid-20s, and she was part of the protesters. Very, very nice gal. And unfortunately, her dad is a senior military official. She gets home, and he beats her up with a stick. And I said, you’ve got to get that gal out of there because he’s going to kill her. Now, senior military officials and the malls have all got their departure plans in place. Like John Denver used to say, bags are back, ready to go. And, of course, the currency, the real, has been zero for like eight weeks. No ATMs, no grocery stores, no nada. It is unbelievably brutal. So I’ve explained to these people, by the way, we’re all off. 10-year deranged jump haters. I said, you know, I think Otis 47 is going to get the stunt. But when it started out, the entire career fleet was up there in the south sea of Japan with exercises. And I said, you know, you got to understand, this has done happen overnight. This battle group does 10, excuse me, 20 knots a day, max. And you’re talking 47 miles. over to persia go so give it enough time to get the assets in place right well now they are and it is going to be one of these deals and all of these mullahs and military waking up the fact they they’re going to get their catholic whether they settle doa or paris doesn’t matter and of course as you recall way back when when obama i can’t believe it delivered one and a half billion in currency
SPEAKER 04 :
I know.
SPEAKER 03 :
In C-130s. But they hate the great Satan. Yes, so bad. They wouldn’t take dollars. It had to be Swiss francs and euros. I mean, these guys are just freaking nuts. Wow. So this is our last, maybe best hope to change that regime. and get back to what they had.
SPEAKER 13 :
Agree. Can’t argue that, Steve. Those are my thoughts. Nope, I can’t argue that. Thank you, by the way. Thanks for the input. Yeah, great insight, by the way. And, yeah, I can’t disagree with anything that Steve just said. It’ll be interesting to see how this all shakes out. Just to jump back to our last question, Topic I was talking about before we went to the bottom of the hour break and all of the lefties that are out there now just crying, literally crying over what Trump did in regards to, you know, reversing some of the things that were in place. EPA and, you know, all the different things that were going on as far as that goes. It’s actually kind of funny in a way. And there’s even politicians out there, my own representative, Brittany’s talking about, it’s Pedersen talking about Trump guts climate protections. Okay, first of all, Brittany. There is no such thing. There is no such thing as a climate protection. But see, this is the way the left thinks. Government can protect you. No, government can’t. And if you think for one second, and I’ve always said this, if we as mankind think for one second, we have the ability to protect one another against climate things that happen, weather, I mean, think again. I mean, that is really thinking highly of ourselves as humans, by the way, you know, putting us up on a God level, if you would, saying we’ve got the ability to somehow control the climate. No, we don’t. No, we don’t. We have a very warm winter happening in Colorado right now. Has it happened before? Yes, it has. Did it happen when I was a kid? Yes, it did. I can also remember winters when it was brutally cold and wet and had snow and had snow almost every weekend. I’ve seen that as well. Not that long ago, by the way. Will we get back to that? Probably will. Will it cycle around? Yes, it does. I mean, it wasn’t that long ago Charlie and I were sitting here in the polar vortex trying to figure out how to get home one night. So will we go back to that? We most certainly can and will. Will it cycle? Yes, it does. Is it going to stay like this? No, folks, it won’t. I’ve lived here my whole life. It won’t. And the issue is there’s a lot of these individuals, by the way, that are out there basically, how should I say this, scaring others into thinking that, yeah, this is now some sort of a crisis. And what Trump just did is some sort of a major deal when, in fact, it’s going to save all of us money, including those that are against Donald Trump. It will save us money when it’s all said and done. And by the way, it will happen in various ways. And some of that is just on the automotive sides of things. I talked about this on Saturday. Just the ability for manufacturers now to build a car that meets the demand of the market without having government interfere on, you need start-stop technology, by the way. You need to have this fuel economy. You need to do this, that, and the other. When that goes away and manufacturers can actually build what the customer wants, you save money. because they don’t have to add things that aren’t needed. And I’m not saying that everything that we do in the auto industry that government has forced is a bad thing. I don’t like force, though. I think naturally some of those things could occur. But government forces all sorts of things, you know, backup cameras, airbags, the start-stop system, regulations on fuel economy and so on, the CAFE ratings. I mean, just go down the list. And to the point where it literally drives the price of vehicles up. And it started all the way back. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. It started all the way back with mandating seatbelts. And it just went from there. Prior to that, there wasn’t a ton of mandates on things. Now, there still were, but, you know, lighting and things like that. And I get there needs to be some consistency when you’re building things, i.e. vehicles where, you know, you’re not having some rogue person out there, you know, rogue manufacturer whereby, you know, their vehicle is so different from everybody else that it’s a nuisance to the rest of the drivers. And I get we need to have some standardization in how things are built so that – Again, a manufacturer just doesn’t go rogue with lighting, for example. I get the need to have certain regulations along those lines to a point. The problem is, as with government, it doesn’t become to a point. It just becomes overbearing to the point where manufacturers are now putting as much money as they possibly can into meeting the needs of government and not into the needs of the client, you, the driver. So, again, at the end of the day, while some of these changes that are happening right now in the Trump administration when it comes to, as this particular representative would say, climate protections, I guess she thinks that we’re no longer protected. But this is a person, by the way, that believes government can protect you. I don’t. I’ve never looked to government to protect me on any level. I don’t need government to protect me. I can do it myself. But I have a different mindset than the other side has. I don’t need government involved in my life. In fact, less government is better, if you ask me. I’m different that way. Most folk on the left, though, would counter that with me. They think government needs to be there to protect them. Look at what happened during COVID. I don’t see it that way, folks. I’m not one of those. And you guys all know that. In fact, I never will be one of those. So let me take a break. I’ve got several things to talk about here before we finish out the show. Oh, that’s okay. Charlene is in a minute. Let me do this. Cobra Keating and air conditioning. Let me give them a little spot here because Hunter was on earlier. And yes, it’s been seasonally warm, as I just said a moment ago. Doesn’t mean that you’re still not using your furnace at times and doing things with it and making sure that things heat up when it’s cold at night. And… We’re not out of the woods yet, folks. Hunter and I talked about that. Folks thinking that it’s going to be like this all the way through May, again, I’ve been in Colorado long enough to know that, no, it will change and we will have colder weather. So point being, make sure that your furnace is doing what it needs to be. If you’ve got any issues at all, give Cup Creek a call. They’ve got a $56 tune-up special right now, off tune-up special, I should say, when it comes to servicing your furnace. Give Hunter a call today. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 07 :
Cub Creek Heating and AC can help you cover the cost of replacing your furnace to meet the new low nitrogen oxide regulations. With any new regulations comes incentives, rebates, and programs that can save you real money if you understand them. These rebates change this year and Cub Creek Heating and AC stay current on every update so you don’t have to. Hunter and his team know how to stack state programs, rebates, and incentives in the most beneficial way for you, sometimes covering a significant portion of the furnace cost so you’re not left in the cold and broke this winter. If your furnace is more than 10 years old, call our Rheem-certified pro partners, Cub Creek Heating and AC, now. They’ll shoot straight with you and partner with you to find the right solution for your home and your budget. Mention this ad on KLZ and you’ll get a free one-year maintenance agreement, a $350 value when you purchase a new furnace. Find Cub Creek Heating and AC at klzradio.com slash HVAC.
SPEAKER 13 :
Dr. Scott Faulkner, and if you’re looking to have your best life ever and live the best healthy life you can, call Scott today, 303-663-6990.
SPEAKER 02 :
What if you could get over 110 lab biomarkers tested, just like Dr. Mark Hyman advertises, but for a fraction of the cost and with a doctor who actually explains the results? At Castle Rock Regenerative Health, Dr. Scott Faulkner has recreated this powerful biomarker test panel at a substantial savings. We have a special price for both men and women. Just $689. That’s a savings of over $2,500 over the standard price. And here’s the difference. With Hyman, you get numbers on a page. With Castle Rock Regenerative Health, you get Dr. Faulkner and his team walking you through every result, showing what’s off and creating a personalized plan to fix it. What’s even better, you don’t even have to be a concierge patient to get this pricing. This is open to everyone. Think about it. Most people’s deductible is higher than this special price. And your regular doctor, if he could get approved by your insurance, would never order this many tests, let alone know what to do with them. Call 303-663-6990 today or visit CastleRockRegenerativeHealth.com. Take control of your health at Castle Rock Regenerative Health.
SPEAKER 12 :
So many people in the Denver area were affected by the recent power outages. For some, the best case was a loss of food in the refrigerator or freezer. But for others, it was a challenge to earn a living and some people unable to care for their family. One great solution, the house battery. When your power goes off, It comes on. And the great news is, all who sign up for at least one house battery get a $5,000 rebate check if you have Xcel Energy. Call Allen Davis at 303-378-7537 and make power outages a thing of the past for your home. Email Allen at davis at omnipower.solar.
SPEAKER 01 :
Call Paul Leningro at GIA Insurance and his team of Medicare specialists today. We’ll help you find the right plan for your needs. Call 303-423-0162, extension 100, or go online to e-gia.com.
SPEAKER 09 :
This isn’t Rage Radio. This is Real Relatable Radio. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right. You hear me talk about Mike Rosen periodically. No hiding the fact that he was one of our best, I think, talk show hosts in the Denver area for a very long time. And I would listen to Mike on a, for the longest time, pretty regular basis. And then off and on, even after that. But I have a lot of respect for Mike. I think he’s a solid guy. And he and I agree on every single thing. Not every single thing, but in most cases, yes. He wrote an article, Denver Gazette, the torture of Denver motorists is intentional. Bicycle lanes in Denver are much more than a nuisance or much more than just a nuisance for motorists. They’re a small but glaring symptom of the radical progressive mentality of Democrats that have grossly mismanaged Denver government in recent years. This is a sad reflection of Denver voters. that have brought this on themselves. Worse than useless and being ridiculously underused, they obstruct traffic and pose a safety hazard for bicyclists and pedestrians. The lanes on Broadway north of Speer Boulevard are positively laughable, repositioning cars that were parked out at the curb now out into a former traffic lane and inserting the bicycle lane in its place. Vehicles making the left turn crossing the bicycle lane do so at the peril of the cyclist, which can also be said of the bicycle rider in downtown Denver traffic. He goes on and on and by the way, He is spot on. He basically talks about how we’re not Europe, nor do we want to be Europe, and it’s ridiculous some of the things that we’re doing. And Andy and I talk about this a lot, by the way. These are things, in my opinion, that I get it. There are some in Denver that think this is great because of some of the things I just mentioned a moment ago. It’s kind of why I dovetailed into this article, this editorial that Mike wrote, dovetails into one another. But the reality is most people, most people would look at these things and say, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. Why are we doing that? And I, again, I feel like our side, conservatives in Colorado, Republican Party, if we get out of our own way for a change, could we collectively get together and some of our candidates run on some of the things that we’re talking about here? Yeah, I think you can. In fact, I think these are commonality things or common things that a lot of voters look at and say, man alive, yeah, okay, I’d vote for that. I’d go for that. But as Andy and I talk about, and we’ll probably talk about some tomorrow even, we tend to, as a party, worry about things that, I’ll just be quite honest with a lot of you listening, no one cares about. You care about it, but no one else does. And I mean that sincerely. So the reality is we need to get out of our own way and figure out what is it that that middle-of-the-road voter that we have to have on our side, that unaffiliated voter, what is it that we can find some common ground on that at the end of the day we can get them to vote for our side? And this is one of those things. Traffic, the movement of traffic, these stupid bike lanes that even bicyclists, I don’t think, like these things. In fact, I rarely see, I drive some of these areas on a routine basis. I rarely see anybody using them. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that. They’re underutilized. Charlie lives in areas where he sees this more than I, and they’re underutilized. And it doesn’t matter what the weather’s like outside, they’re underutilized. And at the end of the day, they’re not helping. But yet some Democrats, some person thought these would be great. And as I talked earlier, and Andy even talked about this, that we’re really a virus on the planet. Keep in mind that the left would just as soon see, first of all, all cars go. And then if the people followed, they’d be happy. But for the most part, I know there are some exceptions to everything I say, but for the most part, you don’t find car people being Democrats. Not hardcore car people like I am. I mean, most car people, not all, because there are some Democrats in the automotive world, journalists especially, because they’re dodo heads. But generally speaking, folks that are really involved in the car world are conservatives. Not all. I know there are exceptions, but in general they are because they believe in transportation and freedom and the things that it brings and so on. Now, it’s been corrupted, as everything else, churches included. The left gets in and they corrupt things. They’ve done it in the auto industry. They’ve done it in churches. They’ve done it in all sorts of other areas of life as well, and they’ll continue to do so. My point is people that are into cars are typically conservatives because they believe in freedom. And cars, especially in America, mean freedom. Now, I talk about this more on Drive Radio than I do here, but let me back up for just a moment just to prove my point. Before Henry Ford, and yes, we’ll give Henry a lot of credit because he didn’t design the assembly line, but he perfected it. And he made it something that is utilized even in production today in a lot of areas, not just in cars. He made the production line what it was. In turn, and it was his goal, he made a car everyone could afford. meaning the average everyday person at that time, family, could own a Model T. And he sold millions of those. A boatload. In fact, Henry’s thought was, you don’t need anything other than the Model T. It almost was to his demise, and it took Edsel to come along and convince him that we needed other vehicles besides the Model T, otherwise Ford’s going to die, because Henry believed in the Model T so much that you didn’t need anything else. Point being, the Model T meant freedom for America. It really did. Now, the car I know in general did, but the Model T really opened up that freedom end of things more so than probably anything else that ever came along, even more than the train. And let me explain. Prior to the train, people got from town to town with horse and buggy, a carriage, or just simply on horseback, or foot, I guess you could say. But that’s what they did, and that was the only way they had of – the only mode of transportation they had. There wasn’t anything else that existed. Then the train came along, and cities started to pop up along the train tracks. Because the train, again, in a way, brought freedom and it started to develop cities and towns and so on across the country. The more track we laid, the more cities opened up and so on. Now, what Henry Ford did with the Model T was he made rural America great. You can almost say he made rural America great again. Because what he did was he gave access to parts of the country that were really inaccessible prior to that. In a quick fashion. Yeah, you could get there with horse and buggy, but the automobile made getting away from the train tracks more accessible, meaning a lot of towns were able to pop up and become vibrant because of the Model T. Because the Model T created freedom. So the point that Mike’s trying to make here is the left is taking that freedom away. They take lanes away. They put bike lanes in instead. They screw things up because basically they are the enemy of transportation. He titles it, The Torture of Denver Motorists is Intentional. Yes, they’re torturing the motorist. It’s a good way of saying it. And they torture us with all of their stupid, idiotic things they decide to do. Roundabouts. Changing intersections around where it’s just stupid. Lights that don’t coordinate properly, which is my biggest pet peeve. And on down the line we go. And a lot of it’s unintentionally, by the way. They do that to frustrate the motorist because the more frustrated the motorist is, they’re hoping you won’t drive anymore. And trust me when I say that. That’s their hope is you just will stop driving. Because the left would just as soon not have you drive. It’s fine. You can get on their train. You can get on their bus, but don’t drive. In fact, the left with UN agenda would just as soon you not go anywhere outside of your little circle that they build for you. shopping where you work, and you live where you work and shop, and you don’t travel more than maybe a mile or two ever to do anything, and that’s really their utopia. You don’t have to go anywhere. You just live and eat. And anytime you hear a young person talk about how great that is, correct them on that and tell them that that’s not freedom, that’s prison. That’s total control. That’s total control of a population. Putting you inside of a one or two mile square area whereby you’re never really allowed to leave because you don’t have transportation to do so, that’s not freedom, that’s prison. That’s taking freedom away. And don’t let anybody tell you different. Now, they’ll try to sell you on, oh, it’s convenient. Oh, you live where you work and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it’s really, it’s the future. No, it’s not the future. It’s the future if you want to be in prison. But ultimately, folks, that’s what the left wants. So on this President’s Day, whereby we’re celebrating some great men that did some great things for freedom in this country, never forget that it’s the left that wants to take that freedom away. And I mean that sincerely. It is their desire, their goal, to strip you of that freedom because they believe in control, not freedom. Veteran windows and doors, by the way, where you can control everything in the entire process, by the way, with veteran windows and doors from beginning to end is… Get rid of that middleman. Go straight to Dave. Find out what he can do for you when it comes to windows and doors. Save money in the process. And by the way, still plenty of time to get things done here in the next, I don’t know, month and a half to two months max. We talk to Dave all the time, and he assures me he can get that done. So if you’re looking for windows and doors and want to save a lot of money, go straight to the source. That’s Veteran Windows and Doors. Find them at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 05 :
Our trusted partner, Veteran Windows and Doors, can install your new windows and doors even in the winter. No one wants to wait until summer to replace their failed windows. You’re feeling the cold now, and your energy bill is too high because you’re paying for heat that is escaping through insufficient, failing windows. With Veteran’s cold weather installation process, when they install windows and doors in the winter… They take special care to close off and isolate each room as they work to minimize any heat loss. You want to be comfortable when replacing your windows. And that’s why we trust veteran windows and doors. They guarantee your windows and doors will be the right ones to keep the weather outside and your comfort inside. Don’t let the cold weather keep you from replacing your old windows. Get energy-efficient windows now with veteran windows and doors. Find them at klzradio.com today.
SPEAKER 09 :
Suck it up, buttercup. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, and yes, I hope you all had a fabulous President’s Day. A lot of you had the day off. As you all know, I didn’t, which is fine. I didn’t want the day off. I worked and wanted to today and enjoyed being with you. Thank you for all the phone calls, text messages, and so on. Andy and I, of course, will be back tomorrow. We’ve got lots to talk about. We’re going to talk about the SAVE Act. And then I’ve got Mark Mix joining us. We’ll talk about some things going on with labor unions and that as well. But guys, have a great, safe night out there. Traffic should be lighter tonight with President’s Day. So enjoy Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
