In this episode of ‘Rush to Reason,’ host John Rush delves into the intricate political landscape of Colorado, highlighting key statistical insights into voter affiliations and the dynamics these create in gubernatorial races. The candidacy of Greg Lopez is dissected with a focus on his stance and the potential ramifications for the broader political spectrum in the state. Through pointed commentary, Rush outlines the broader implications of independent voters and their impact on otherwise polarized political campaigns.
00:00:39 The Reality of Colorado’s Political Landscape
00:04:58 Discussion with Steve on TSA and Political Decisions
00:11:42 Rumors and Realities of Governors and Senators
00:16:56 The Implications of Elections and Candidates
SPEAKER 04 :
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.
SPEAKER 04 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 03 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did! Get a job, Turk! 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 03 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 12 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, hour number three, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Appreciate you all joining us. Text line, by the way, I should have mentioned this earlier, 307-200-8222, 307-200-8222. And you’ve got the ability to either text us or you can call in directly, have a conversation, 303-477. Now, as I said before going to break, I was going to comment on a Facebook post by one of our gubernatorial candidates. This happens to be Greg Lopez, who is, as I’ve interviewed, did that a couple of weeks ago. He is running as an unaffiliated, not as a Republican, not as a Democrat. So his post says, Says, Colorado, this is a sort of a, what do I want to say here? Not a meme, but a, what am I trying to say? A graphic. That’s the word I’m looking for. It’s a graphic that he put out. Colorado isn’t owned. Over half the state is unaffiliated. That’s not splitting the vote. That’s representing it. The reality in Colorado, 50 to 53 percent is unaffiliated, 25 percent is Democrat, and only 22 to 25 percent is Republican. Total population of 6,012,561 people. So he’s got his numbers right, by the way, and all that’s correct. I see no issues there. And he’s got, in his own words that he wrote, the reality in Colorado. Now, the reality in Colorado is, and I had this conversation directly with Greg, is he’s very misguided. while what he’s saying is true, he’s misguided in what he thinks he’s going to do and who he thinks he’s going to attract with his campaign and who’s actually going to vote for him. Now, really quick, here’s a couple of comments that were made on this post. Spoiler, thanks for getting communist Michael Bennett elected. You’re a selfish narcissist POS. You really don’t care about us Coloradans. Next person says politics is a process of collective decision making and is necessary a team effort. Most votes are a vote to put a candidate for one team into a job. And it’s all about that team. You’re 100 percent wrong. According to the 2025 survey by Let Colorado Vote, 96 percent of unaffiliated voters vote consistently for the Democrat vote. or Republican candidates, so who are you trying to fool in addition to yourself? All you’re going to do is mooch valuable votes from the party you most closely align with. By the way, I can’t say that enough. All perfect, well and good, spot on, and you are 100% correct. I’m talking about these particular comments that are coming in. Somebody else says, respectfully disagree, independent registration doesn’t mean independent voting. What do the stats say about how the independents vote? A majority is still a party candidate. You will pull votes probably from both sides, but primarily from the right, putting yourself or potentially putting Bennett in the governor’s chair with conservatives in the minority. And it goes on and on. In fact, I don’t know that there’s I went through and read probably 15 comments. I didn’t see one that aligned with Greg. Now, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some that do align with him, because I’m sure there are. But by and large, they aren’t aligning with him for various reasons, of course. And he is wrong in what he’s saying. And even Andy wrote in to me and just said his unaffiliated party is the biggest party. The problem is, though, he won’t draw from the unaffiliated party, as Andy knows full well also. So, all right, let’s do this. Steve calling in right now. Steve, go ahead. You’re up.
SPEAKER 16 :
Good afternoon, sir. How are you?
SPEAKER 10 :
I am very good, Steve. How are you, sir? Good to hear from you.
SPEAKER 16 :
Good. I’m a subject at the top of the hour using ICE agents, the TSA. Yes, yes, yes. You know, the Democrats are just so whack. This thing, if anything, ICE agents are overtrained. Come on, let’s face it. Even the guys that are operating the wave millimeter scanner, it’s like this. Put your feet where the footprints are on the ground. Raise your arms. Then he presses the start button. He sneaks a peek at their junk. Make sure they have no explosives in their wreck and says, go on. That takes about 10 minutes to train a guy. And when you get back, like San Francisco has private TSA. And you and I touched a long time ago on the fact that there’s a lot of TSA step gangs running around. They bust them every year. So far, years past, Palm Beach, Lauderdale, Orlando. And they steal stuff, and they know people are trying to get to a plant. So they give an 800 number to call when you get back, and everybody got the stuff sold on eBay or even land. And this has just got to be addressed. And then the other issue The way the Democrats are turning these massive fraudulent liars. Harry Reid, majority leader of the Senate way back when. He lied about everything. The big one, he lied about Mitt Romney not paying his taxes. Well, by the time that thing got cleared up and he was a proven liar, they confronted him and said, you lied. He says, so what? We made it. We passed. We got rid of him. We won the election. And they named the damn airport after him. It just bothers my brain.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, yeah. No, it does mine as well, Steve. And as Bob was saying, so rightfully so, you know, these people thinking that TSA is going to come in and kill and maim and do all those things. I’ve seen nothing but people saying kind things to them, ice passing out water to water bottles to small children as they go by. I mean, really, in fact, Steve, I said this earlier in the week, but brilliant on the part of whoever decided to put them out there. I mean, I think it’s brilliant, number one, just to give them a better face when it’s all said and done.
SPEAKER 16 :
I think Trump had a lot to do with that. He wanted to rub the Democrats’ nose in this, and literally their hair is on fire, and their panties are in a bunch. And I don’t mind seeing it one day.
SPEAKER 10 :
Nope, you are 100% correct. Nope, you’re exactly right. Steve, I appreciate it very much. Let’s take a break. We’ll come right back. Dr. Scott coming up next, and Scott wants to help you live your best life possible. There’s multiple ways that he can actually do that. And he can do that in multiple ways, as I just said a moment ago. And some of that is, as we talked even in the Health and Wellness Hour, stem cells. Don’t forget, Dr. Scott can do stem cell treatment. And by the way, he can do that treatment either on your whole body, which those stem cells are then stored in your liver and released accordingly, or he can do that on a, you know, area by area basis, depending upon what you’re needing to have done. Maybe you’ve got a bad knee, maybe you’ve got a bad shoulder, something along those lines. And what I would say is it’s worth checking with him first on any of that before you decide to do anything else, including surgery. He’s a board certified doctor. He can help you with all of those decisions. He wants you to live your best life possible. 303-663-6990.
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SPEAKER 10 :
And we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Thanks for listening. We appreciate it greatly. Okay, text line comment. And I have no way to verify this. I heard an ugly rumor that Polis is going to run for governor in California in 2028. Governor Newsom is going to run for governor in Colorado in 2028. Well, first of all, those dates don’t work. Our election is 2026. The next election in both states will be 2030. So I did respond to this and saying, you know, I’ve not heard any of this. Is there any credible sources for this? So, folks, number one, and I appreciate the text message, but I’ve not heard that. And these dates, by the way, are two years off because, as I just said, our election is this year. Governors are in their positions for four years. So in Colorado, whoever is elected this year, which right now, I’m sorry to say, will probably be Michael Bennett. He’s already made the ballot, by the way. I saw that this morning. Phil Weiser is going to go through their assembly process to get on the ballot, which he most likely will, although I don’t think that’s a shoe-in for him. So I’m not going to give you that as a guarantee. It may not happen. We’ll see. Probably will. And there will be a primary between those two. And right now, unless we make some significant changes on our side of the aisle, which I’ve said numerous times, Andy and I even did yesterday, Bennett will be your governor. So let’s just say that happens. Michael Bennett will be the governor until the election in 2030, meaning he will be the governor. All the way through. From 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, and then 2031, we get a new governor. Same thing happens in California. So if there is a rumor out there saying that our governor is going to run in California in 2028 and their governor, Newsom, is going to run here in 2028, number one, that’s false because the dates don’t line up. I don’t see either one of them doing that even in 2030. So to me, that is I don’t know who came up with that rumor. But, yeah, that’s a no go for me. It’s not going to happen. Rarely. In fact, I would have to have Charlie go through some of the, you know, Google archives. Rarely does a governor. of one state especially when they’ve been there for eight years like polis rarely do they ever switch move to another state and become governor again it just doesn’t happen folks normally what those governors do if they’ve had a successful run like governor polis has yes they can go in and become a senator Typically, they usually will not go backwards and become a House of Representatives. They will typically go and be a senator because that’s a six-year term. And it’s a move up for them because being a senator, believe it or not, being a senator, and Charlie, I don’t think I’m wrong in this, but typically being a senator is a higher position than being a governor. That’s what’s so weird about Bennett stepping out of a senatorial role being a governor. That’s a step down. Now, some would say, well, no, you’re in charge of a state. Still not the same, folks. Still not the same. And what I mean by that is, number one, you’re guaranteed a job for six years as a senator, not four. And you get a lot of perks being a senator. Am I right in that, Charlie? A lot of perks. You’re now guaranteed, of course, a pension on our dime as a government worker and, and, and. And again, you’re a senator. You’re making, you know, there’s only a certain amount of you. You know, two senators of state, there’s a hundred of them. You know, it’s a very prestigious thing to become a senator of a state. Way more than governor. Because typically speaking, and Bennett is living proof of this, once you get in, you’re in. You rarely become unseated. Unless there’s big demographic changes or something happens in your state or you really screw up, the chances of you not having that job literally for life… is really something that just doesn’t happen. Andy just said, too, that most likely Bennett will put Polis in his seat in the Senate. Yeah, I could see that happening, although it’s hard to say. Maybe. Maybe. I don’t know if that’s a for-sure deal. Time will tell. Wouldn’t surprise me, but wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t put somebody else in. And here’s where I’m going with this. Somewhere along the line, The Democrats, the DNC, got with Michael Bennett and said, OK, we need you to do this. We know you can win this seat. We know this is an emotion, but you’ll probably be governor for eight years. And you’ve got a real chance to go in and help us do some things in Colorado that we need help with. We need even further along what Polis has already done. And you’re the right man for the job. And they sold him on that because, again, what I’m saying is it’s a step down. And by the way, it’s a step down because. Not just in and I’d have to go look up pay, but I guarantee you the pay is a step down. I don’t know that for sure. So any of you that have the ability, in fact, maybe Charlie, you can look that up for me. What a senator makes versus what the governor of Colorado makes, I guarantee you salary wise, it’s probably equal or a step down. But keep in mind, your perks as a senator and the amount of actual hours that you put in work-wise versus what the governor of a state does, it’s way different, folks. Believe me when I say that. It is way different. You have got a much kusher life being a senator than you have being a governor of, in this case, the governor of Colorado. Okay, so Charlie just said a senator makes about $30K more a year than the governor of Colorado does. So about $174K, $175K roughly. So it’s $30K more here in Colorado. And again, on top of that, you get a lot more perks. Your travel perks and things like that, you just have a lot more things that come your way, AIDS and so on and so forth. I get it. You have to go out and raise funds and do things like that, but you also do as governor. And so it’s really not a lot different as far as that goes. But again, you’re only doing that once every six years instead of every four years. And believe me, the perks of being a senator are much higher than that of governor. So believe me, this is a step down for Michael Bennett, meaning the DNC or somebody is rewarding him for doing this. He will most likely be the next governor of Colorado. They knew that would be a for sure deal, which, again, for all of you that are on our side of the aisle, listen to what I’m saying. Please listen to what I’m saying. They wouldn’t be making this move. He wouldn’t be making this move if he didn’t know he had a sure deal going. Now, I get it. If he loses, he still stays senator. I understand he’s really got nothing to lose, but he’ll be governor. We will not compete. I’m sorry, we won’t. Andy and I talked about that yesterday. Our messaging isn’t there. I’m not trying to be negative Nelly, but and then you throw one more thing into the mix here, which is Greg Lopez, which I talked about a moment ago, and we’re done. Greg’s screwing it up big time. He will be not the number one reason that we lose the governorship in Colorado, but a big reason. And those of you that are his supporter, please, would one of you please talk some sense into that knucklehead? Please, somebody. Make him go do something else. Because he’s not going to help us move the football forward. are showing and this is where it’s really disappointing I highly doubt we would win the governor’s race period no matter who the candidate is which Andy and I said yesterday will most likely be either Victor or Barb I’m sorry to say that’s going to be one of those two Barb Kirkmeyer or Victor Marks and I don’t know either one individually like I said on air yesterday I have no dog in the fight I’m just telling you my opinion I’m a commentator I don’t have a crystal ball these are just my comments But mark my words, I’m probably not wrong. It’ll be one of those two. And most likely, which Victor, I believe, has made the ballot, it’ll probably be Victor. He’s got a much stronger base behind him than Barb does, although Barb has a chance because she doesn’t have some of the other stigma Victor has attached to him, i.e. pastor and ministry leader and, and, and, which a lot of folks in the middle, especially even those that vote on the Republican side, won’t like. And Victor, I think, needs to figure out how to overcome that. It’s not a shoo-in. I know a lot of Victor supporters think it’s a shoo-in for him. It is not. It is not. And then you throw Greg into the mix here, and neither Barb or… Mr. Victor Marks have a chance of winning when Greg there. Sorry, that just screwed it all up. And here’s where I was going with this. Even if we have a really decent showing and we can show the Democrats that we can get within, let’s say even 10 points of them, which is a long, you know, that’s still a long way apart, by the way. But even if we can get within 10 points, that shows the Democrats a lot that we might even with a really good, strong candidate might have a chance of actually having a Republican governor. If we keep Greg Lopez in, it’s a 20 point difference. I hope you guys heard what I just said. And Andy, tell me if you think I’m right. And I know there’s a delay here, but Andy, tell me if you think I’m right, that if Greg Lopez stays in, we’re at, you know, 18 to 20 point difference. Remember, we were 18 points off with Heidi Ganahl last time around with Governor Polis. And that was without a Greg Lopez being involved. So with Greg staying in, which it seems like he’s going to, No matter whether we have Victor Marks or Barb Kirkmeyer, if Greg stays in, we lose by 20 points solid.
SPEAKER 1 :
20.
SPEAKER 10 :
Now, I might be off on that. It might be even higher than that. It’s going to be a dismal showing, which will really hurt us moving forward because it’s going to kill us on the national level, and people will have no hope left for Colorado when it comes to Republican running for governor. So, Greg, that’s what you’re doing, by the way. I hope you’re listening. I hope one of your individuals that support you are listening because that’s how bad you will screw things up. And I’m not wrong in what I’m saying, folks. So I’ll wait for Andy to tell me what he thinks. If not, I’ll ask him on Friday what his thoughts are. But if Greg stays in and we have one of those two as candidates, you know, one of those two as a candidate for our side moving forward, and Andy just said probably yes, so he’s agreeing with me. I don’t think we’re wrong, by the way, folks. And 20 points is a lot, by the way. That’s a huge number. So, Greg, if you’re listening, you really have to step down. If our side has any kind of a chance of a good showing at all, you’ve got to step down or you’re just going to screw things up for everybody. Dan, go ahead. I’ve got a few minutes before we go to our next guest. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
In Gilpin County, we’ve got the same issue going on. The Republicans are probably never going to win any commission position going forward. We had… caucus, I guess, in March. And don’t ask me why primary. I think we’re only going to have one person on the primary ticket. And the guy that was trying to get on the Republican ticket didn’t win. So now he’s running as an independent. So it’s going to take more away from any chance of a Republican even getting on a commission board.
SPEAKER 10 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 06 :
And he’s ran previously, this guy that’s going independent. as a Republican, and he hasn’t won. So I don’t know why he thinks he can win as an independent. He can’t. He won’t. They haven’t voted him in as a Republican. Why would they vote him in as an independent? There’s something about him that people don’t like.
SPEAKER 10 :
Dan, you’re right. I’ll let you go with that. I appreciate you saying that. You’re just confirming what I’ve been saying. And again, folks, this is nothing personal. Against Greg Lopez, nothing at all. I like Greg. You know, he and I could go to dinner, have a good time, talk, not have any problems. He and I disagree extremely in his strategy moving forward to, you know, stay in this race and do what he’s doing. And by the way, friends can disagree, you know, vehemently on all sorts of things. Not everybody’s going to agree on something. I’ve always said this this way as well. You and your wife don’t agree on every single thing that’s out there. You and your best friend don’t agree on every single thing that’s out there. That’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. But in this case, when it involves politics and what’s going to actually happen statewide, it’s more of a disagreement. And I’m really disappointed in Greg that he’s not looking at this thing in a more reasonable way, and I’m really disappointed in a lot of his followers, his supporters, because they’re blinded as well. They’re not looking at this correctly either. And I mean that, and I know some of them on a personal basis, and they’re not looking at it correctly. They’re not looking at it with a really rational mind. They’re looking at it emotionally, unfortunately. And by the way, you can’t do that in politics. You have to look at things rationally, not emotionally, or you’re going to get beat. In this case, if we continue down this path, that’s what’s going to happen. I keep hoping that Mike talking about this and trying to put some rationale into what’s being thought about on the other side with – I say other side because he’s not on our side now with Greg Lopez. I keep hoping that somebody would actually speak some sense into him. So also somebody just asked on the text line, can KLZ remove the broadcast and streaming delay in an emergency seconds matter? No, sorry, folks, we don’t control that. I wish we could. But I’ve said this so many times on air. We don’t control the streaming as far as the broadcast itself goes. Yeah, we have a delay on purpose. We have to. Yeah, we can remove an obscenity delay, for example, on streaming, but we cannot remove the buffering and the other things that are there. So we are always going to be a few seconds behind, whether it’s streaming and we’re going to be in some cases, just so you all know, up to 60 to 90 seconds of a delay when I’m speaking. So what I’m saying right now, just so you guys can tell what the delay is. So here I’m going to put a mark in as to what I say. And then you can do the math on what the delay is actually like. So it’s 531 and 45 seconds. Now you can figure out the delay on your own because I just said that a moment ago. And you’ll see on your own watch, your clock, whatever, when you get to 531.45. And it will probably be roughly at least 60 seconds, if not longer. All right. We’re going to come back, talk to Scott Garlis here in just one moment. Don’t go anywhere. Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next. Again, Dave can treat your roof, save you money, by the way, by doing so. Make your roof last up to 15 years longer. And if a replacement is needed, which I’m having him do a roof for me, by the way, if you need a replacement roof, Dave can do that as well. 303-710-6916.
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SPEAKER 05 :
The best export we have is common sense. You’re listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right. Scott Garlis will be joining us here in just one moment. And again, I appreciate Scott. And Bent Pine Capital is where he’s from. And we’ll get an update on what’s happening not only in Iran with the straight and some of the oil passing through, but how that’s affecting the markets and some of what his thoughts are along those lines as well. And Again, Andy and I kind of texting back and forth, going with what’s happening with Greg Lopez and so on. And I get where Greg’s coming from. He’s bitter. He’s hurt. He’s upset with the party. I get all of that. But that doesn’t mean that you burn the house down on your way out, which is essentially what he’s trying to do. I’m sorry. That’s essentially what he’s trying to do. He’s mad at the Republican Party, and he’s going to get even, and this is one way to do so. And you can say that he’s not. Those of you that are supporters of his can say that he’s not, but the reality is he is. Scott Garlis joining us now. Scott, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, John. Well, how are you?
SPEAKER 10 :
I’m good. Always a joy to hear from you. Hopefully you had a good time on spring break last week.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, my gosh, yeah. My kids learned how to ski. Nice. We were north of Quebec City, and I couldn’t believe they’ve had like 12 feet of snow this year.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, you should have sent some more away because we’ve had zero.
SPEAKER 07 :
We got to go dog sledding, too, which we’ve never done. That’s cool. Good for you. What an amazing experience. Yeah, yeah. Thank you.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right. Shifting gears over to Iran, there are a few ships that are going through the Strait. The problem is, or I shouldn’t say problem, but there are ships that Iran approves of, and as long as they’re not our allies, they’re allowed through. Is that correct?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, yeah, that’s correct. So again, we talked about this a couple weeks ago. When you really look at what’s going on there, the people who get most of the oil and natural gas supplies from the Gulf, or the Persian Gulf, is Asia. And in particular, it’s China, India, Japan, Malaysia. So that, you know, the U S gets less than 3%. I think Europe’s less than 4%.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 07 :
And, and so these, these boats that they’re approving are Asia bound, which is where the real problem lies. Um, and then, you know, some of the other stuff that’s going on, you’re not hearing about is the shadow fleet is coming back. Remember, um, with the stuff going on in Venezuela, we were cracking down on the shadow fleet ships that were trying to escape. uh international tracking but they turn their transponders off um so iran you know and some of those ships have just so happen to be iranian um and russian so um they’re also getting through so i i point this out because you know the the dire situation i’m not saying it’s great with oil flow right now but it might not be as bad as some of the people in like cnbc which I heard a million times today about how things are really about to get worse because no oil is getting to Asia, and that’s where the problem’s going to lie. So it might not be as bad as some news channels like that would have you believe.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and it’s funny because if it were that bad, you’d see oil right now has been fluctuating anywhere between 88, you know, West Texas, I should say, anywhere between, I don’t know, 87, 88 to right now it’s 91. I mean, it’s fluctuating up and down a little bit, which is pretty natural, by the way. It’s never going to stay consistent day after day. Some days it’ll drop, some days it’ll rise, depending upon what’s going on. And to prove your point on that, Scott, and you’re right, believe me, if the traders, because we already know how hypersensitive they are to everything, if they thought in fact that were true of what CNBC is saying, oil would be over $110 a barrel right now.
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s not higher, I agree. And you’re exactly right. What’s going on with the price of oil, they’re starting to realize it’s maybe not as tight as some of these guys would have you believe.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and for everybody listening, and I’ve talked about this in recent days, Scott, because of what even, you know, we’re producing. And now we’ve got Venezuelan oil back online, which, by the way, doesn’t have to go through the Strait. And we’ve got oil coming out of Canada, of course, and Mexico’s got oil. And we look at what just this, our continent all the way down in South America produces. And I get it. Middle East is big. They produce a lot. And keep in mind, too, that the other thing that’s a factor here that nobody in the news media is talking about, and I looked this up yesterday, the pipeline came on early in March, and the Saudis are pushing 7 million barrels a day through their pipeline, which avoids the Strait altogether. So the reality is, Scott, the world is figuring out ways around having to ship this oil through the Straits, and that does nothing but harm Iran.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and so that east-west pipeline you’re talking about, the Saudis, it goes to the Red Sea, I believe. That’s right. Five, five and a half million of that maybe goes out to the global market. So that’s a quarter to maybe 30% of what would normally come out of the Persian Gulf. Right. So, yeah, that’s a big deal, I think. And to your point, I think part of what’s going on is the media has gotten people really worked up about what a disaster this is. It’s going to be economic catastrophe. So there are traders and speculators out there like, well, hey, if this is going to go on, I’m going to make some money off of it. So they have run oil prices back up. But I think the reality check is starting to set in that it’s sort of the, in this case, it’s buy first, sell later, right? issued first ask questions later right you in wall street sometimes you sell first that’s why they stocks initially sell off and then as the details and the facts really start to come out that’s when you start to put money back to work investing and so you’re seeing that with oil they ran the prices up and now as some of this is coming out they’re starting to sell oil off again
SPEAKER 10 :
And keep in mind, too, for a lot of you that are listening, these oil prices, these are on futures. So what I’m talking about right now, it’s 9105, and those are May contracts. So those are well over a month out. And I don’t know exactly when in May that is. I’d have to go look that up to be exactly sure, Scott. But again, this is not what today’s price is. That’s what they’re buying for May.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, yes, that’s correct. And so that contract, when it expires, like, look, if you’re buying it in anticipation of prices going one way or the other, you don’t want to own that contract when it expires because you have to be able to take physical delivery of oil. Right, right.
SPEAKER 10 :
Good point.
SPEAKER 07 :
So anybody – and I – I wanted to buy after COVID. My buddies and I, we looked into it because there was a point where the price on futures contracts got so low. I think they went to negative.
SPEAKER 10 :
They went to negative 40, I believe. I’m not correct.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. So in other words, it would pay you to take delivery. I’m like. I started looking into the rules because I was like, I’ll take delivery of barrels of oil if somebody will pay me. But you can’t. You got a place to put it. Yeah. Because I thought the same thing.
SPEAKER 10 :
You know what? I wasn’t too far off. My memory is pretty darn good, Scott. It actually, West Texas crude in 2020 got as low as negative $40.32. I missed it by 32 cents.
SPEAKER 07 :
We literally had this conversation. We looked at, like, can we buy contracts and take delivery? Because we’re going to get paid to take oil. Why wouldn’t we? But, yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
But to your point, you have to have a – and by the way, for those of you listening, you’re not buying a barrel. You’re buying a lot of it. And you better have a place to put it, Scott, at the end of the day.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and there’s probably a lot of permitting involved, and there’s a lot of, yeah, it’s not just as easy. Yeah. But I think, to your point, as you get closer to that contract expiring, the guys that are speculating will start to get out because they’re not interested in taking delivery of barrels of oil. And that’ll help. And then, you know, some of the other stuff going on. So there’s a lot of back and forth, like, You get what Trump says, hey, we’re talking to people to get a deal. And then you have the Iranian media comes out and says, no, no, no, we’re not talking to Trump. This is not true. Well, you’ve got two factions in the country that sort of run it. There’s the hardliners and then there’s the religious zealots, which are the clerics. And so the hardliners, they think more with their pocketbook. And the religious zealots… They’re emotional. Yeah, and they would die a thousand deaths. That’s right, they’re emotional.
SPEAKER 10 :
They are running everything strictly off of emotions. They are maybe in the back of their mind looking at the financial wherewithal of it, Scott, but that is not at the forefront, not at all.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, so I think that what we’re seeing and part of where the confusion lies, and you keep getting stories like, oh, no, no, no, they’re not… The hardliners, the guys who are thinking about what’s the power play, what’s the survival play, what’s the pocketbook play, they’re reaching out probably, and they’re the ones that want to cut a deal. And they know the religious zealots aren’t interested in cutting a deal. And so you’re probably— Yeah, they’re battling internally.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, everything you just said we actually talked about on our podcast, National Crawford Roundtable. We did that—do that on Wednesday mornings. We had the exact same conversation, Scott. What’s happening in Iran right now, for everybody listening, the reason why you’re getting differences of news reporting coming out of there is literally, Scott, they are fighting among themselves right now.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s exactly right. And so one group is being left out, and they’re trying to put on their best face and say, no, no, no, that’s not true, because they don’t want the public to think, hey, we’re being cut out of this. I would surmise, and I could be wrong, but I think that’s exactly what is starting to go down, and that’s why you’re getting two very divergent stories coming out of Iran right now about negotiations or not negotiations.
SPEAKER 10 :
You know what? That’s 100% correct. That’s exactly right. By the way, we need to mention that because there’s a lot of folks out there that are looking at one news story or another trying to figure out which one’s right. Well, you know what? They both could be. It just depends on which side you’re listening to.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and it’s interesting, too, to see that Iran is even asking some of these ships if they’re willing to let them go if they’ll give them money, too. They also came out the other day and said there’s no need to mine the Strait of Hormuz. See, the story is really changing, and so… You know, what that tells me is more oil is going to keep slipping out of Hormuz, and it’s just the concerns there are going to keep bleeding lower.
SPEAKER 10 :
I agree. Well, in fact, well, I’ve said this, and we’ve talked about this for the last several weeks, not only you, but just on air in general. When this is all said and done, You’re going to have a totally different Middle East. It’s not going to look the same. You’re going to have different people controlling and in power. It doesn’t mean that things are going to be 1,000% stable at all times, but it’s going to be a lot different than what it’s been in the past because even currently right now, Scott, to your point a moment ago, they’re fighting amongst themselves, and we always know how that ends. Not well. One of them will become victorious, and I can guarantee you it’s not going to be the religious zealots because they’re not thinking correctly. The money side guys, the money guys, they’re going to be the ones that win.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, you’re right. I mean, we can go back through history, and that’s probably the case in a whole lot of instances.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and really quick, Scott, and you know this, and those of you listening, I would hope you would know this, because it’s called the golden rule, Scott. The guy with the gold rules. That’s how it works. So these guys that end up figuring out the money side of it, they will rule when it’s all said and done.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, and I would think at that point, When things split, the Army’s probably going to go where the power is. Of course. I would think they’re going to stamp out the other. If they take over the country in this way, they’re not going to want to leave their competition sitting there to rise back up and come back out. No.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. You know, Scott, everything you’re talking about, I think that’s you’re spot on. That’s exactly what’s going to happen. That’s exactly how it’ll end up working out. They’ll end up doing some of their own, quote unquote, dirty work, if you would. And believe me, our intelligence agencies, the White House and so on, you and I are talking about this. They already have been.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, and when I hear these generals go on TV and talk about, like, you know, look, we’ve effectively wiped these guys out, it’s a big deal. You know, the other thing that’s interesting here as well, Elon Musk recently turned off Starlink for the Russians. Now, the Russians were apparently using it to get a lot of satellite imagery and track things, so… And so they were apparently passing this information on to Iran. So it wouldn’t surprise me if that has thrown another twist into this equation, too, that’s leading us down this road of ending it. All right.
SPEAKER 10 :
You put out a newsletter every day. For all of you listening, I would highly suggest you subscribe to that newsletter. There’s a lot of great information. You talked about the money manager pessimism today. Talk about that for a moment.
SPEAKER 07 :
yeah so it really ties in with all this um back at the end of the year uh money manager optimism was pretty high they were there’s a national association of investment managers they put out puts out an index on a weekly basis it got to 100 which means these money managers were basically fully bought in and now you know two and a half three months later almost uh with what’s going on iran These guys are saying that their positions or their exposure to the stock market has dropped down to 60 from 100. Now, that’s a big deal because that’s below the long-term average. And we’re talking about records that go back to, I believe, it’s like 2006. So now I went and looked at all this data whenever that has happened. And what I found was it’s happened about 25% of the time since they’ve been tracking these numbers. And a year later, you get an average gain of 12.3% in the S&P 500. And that’s on a dividend reinvested basis. Now, typically, the index averages a 9.7% total return gain since, I believe it is 1928. Wow. So what that tells, yes, that’s some, to me, like 3%, that’s pretty nice outperformance.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, in other words, all this pessimism is just that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, and so when you start to see developments like what we’re talking about right now, all these guys that have gotten out are all of a sudden going to be like, oh my God, I need to get back in. And you’re starting to see some of this over this week, right? When Trump came out Monday and said, hey, we’re talking, we want to strike a deal, and this conversation keeps moving forward. You know, on top of that, you have hedge funds that are the most short they’ve been in the stock market since last April. Wow. So all these guys are starting to say, wait a second, might be time to get while the getting’s good. And if you see a deal struck, you’re going to see the stock market take off.
SPEAKER 10 :
I agree. Well, you saw this week, even it floating up and down. Anytime good news came out, you saw it immediately go up. So, no, Scott, what you just said, 1,000% correct. And I can’t predict. I have no idea what things are going to. Look like, you know, any given day, although I do think you’re seeing signals from both sides. In fact, Wall Street Journal right now, here’s a headline. Most of Iran’s missile plants are damaged or destroyed. That’s what we’re saying. And by the way, I think we’re pretty credible on that. I mean, bottom line is, you know, they can’t keep this up for much longer. And the fact that they’re infighting right now means it’s getting close to the end.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, I think Iran has done a great job for the rest of the world, putting on the toughest possible face they can. I mean, what else would you do, right? But yeah, I think exactly to your point, it looks like there’s infighting starting to happen with the ruling faction. And when that happens, that’s usually a sign that things are going pretty much ending.
SPEAKER 10 :
Fully agree. Scott, man, I’ll let you go. How do folks find you?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, sure. LinkedIn, Twitter, or Substack, C. Scott Garlis.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, Scott, I appreciate it. I will let you go. Up next, it is Golden Eagle Financial. Anything you need when it comes to financial advice, just like you heard from Scott, give Al Smith a call. Meet in person. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
And don’t forget, you can make an appointment with Cub Creek online at their website as well, which you also find at klzradio.com. Veteran Windows and Doors also, same place. Find them at klzradio.com. And cut out that middleman, save money on Windows and Doors. Talk to Dave today. Find him again, klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
This isn’t rage radio. This is real, relatable radio. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right. Before we end today’s program, interesting article that I read the other day about Elon Musk. Speaking of Elon Musk, we were just talking about him with Scott Garlis in the war itself. And for some of you, maybe you know this, maybe you don’t. But he owns, of course, several companies. But one of the companies he owns is called The Boring Company. And what they have done is in Las Vegas, and because I go to conventions there, years ago they started doing some boring where they could connect hotels and a convention center and different things along those lines, and they do it with underground tunnels. And the way these underground tunnels work is they’re wide enough for a single car, in this case Teslas, because they don’t put ventilation and all that in so you can run regular vehicles. And that way it keeps the inside of the tunnel cleaner and so on, and they run Teslas. And I did ask one of the drivers last time I was in Vegas. It’s called The Loop, L-O-O-P, The Loop. And by the way, it’s fascinating. It’s one of the coolest things you’ll ever do. If you get a chance to ever go to Las Vegas and ride the Loop, it’s well worth riding just for the experience because it’s very cool how they did it. I mean, one machine, and they bore through, and then, of course, the concrete case around it. And it’s really cool how they do it and just the whole process. And there’s examples of the drill bit and so on there. Anyways, before I run out of time, they used Teslas. And they make them big enough where you can even run a Tesla Cybertruck down them, but typically they run the smaller Teslas through. And I asked one of the drivers last time I was there, just this last November for the SEMA show, are there plans to run any kind of train-type system where you have maybe an electric vehicle in the very front that tows multiple cars? And the answer I got back in a long conversation with this particular driver was, no, there is no plans for that. They’ve done so many demographic and different studies that the majority of people that get into the loop have a single destination they want to go to. And everybody has a different destination that they’re going to. So they find it’s easier to run a single car with up to five people in the car, including the driver. And that works out better for people than running some sort of a train system. So essentially in Vegas, the way it’s going to end up working is they’re going to end up having a tunnel all the way from the airport down to hotels, the convention center and so on. And it makes the transportation to things actually pretty cool and enjoyable and is frankly one of the most fun, quote unquote, public transportations. It’s really not public because he’s running it. So it’s, I guess, a private public transportation or sharing of rides, if you would, and it works great. Well, he just revealed that he may very well do that in our area, Ball Arena to Eledge Gardens. And, of course, once that gets started, who knows where that ends up going. Folks, that’s a big deal. That’s probably a bigger deal than most people think. It will actually change things as far as transportation is concerned. And that one, people will actually use. It’s convenient. It’s inexpensive. It’s easy. You go exactly where you want to go. You’re not hanging around waiting for a train to show up like you do now or a bus to show up. It’s pretty much instantaneous. Again, if you ever get a chance to ride the Loop in Vegas, I would highly encourage you. to do so. All right, tomorrow, Dr. Kelly Victory and Steve House will be with me in hour one. We have got a lot to talk about, including one of the things Dr. Kelly wanted to talk about is this meningitis outbreak. She’s going to get into some details of that and how serious is that when it’s all said and done. So we’ll talk about that tomorrow on the program. Guys, have a fabulous night. Be safe out there. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
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