Tony Perkins talks with former National Security Advisor John Bolton about the ongoing issues surrounding Russia and Ukraine, and the potential impacts of recent discussions. Further, Ambassador Bolton provides his take on recent US diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, exploring the implications of President Trump's visit and the delicate balance America must maintain with Gulf states. Additionally, learn about faith-inspired initiatives like the FRC's 21-day family Bible challenge, aimed at encouraging deeper engagement with biblical teachings.
SPEAKER 28 :
from the heart of our nation's capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation's leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.
SPEAKER 20 :
The One Big Beautiful Bill passed the House Budget Committee last night, bringing it one step closer to final passage. The One Big Beautiful Bill is perfectly named because it represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver on the Make America Great Again agenda responsible for President Trump's landslide victory on November 5th.
SPEAKER 09 :
That was White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt earlier today. Welcome to this May 19th edition of Washington Watch. Thanks for tuning in. We're coming up, Kansas Congressman Ron Estes, a member of the House Budget Committee, joins us with the details of this weekend's vote and what's next for the one big, beautiful bill. And former National Security Advisor John Bolton joins me to talk the Middle East and the latest on Russia and Ukraine. Also, not that it is news, but rather an admission that former President Joe Biden's condition was kept from the American public.
SPEAKER 26 :
We were told he was sharp as a tack. He had a photographic memory. He was intense and brilliant. And what's amazing is the sources of this book were the same sources that told us that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. It's a stutter. Stop talking about him. The fact is they were managing his decline in a nursing home in the White House.
SPEAKER 09 :
Jared Bridges and Suzanne Bowdy joins me to take a look at this weekend's stories. That, of course, was Reince Priebus, former chief of staff to President Trump in his first term. All of that and a bit more coming up on this edition of Washington Watch. Before we jump into our first interview, there's a lot competing for the family's attention right now. But no voice matters more than the words of Jesus. And that's why we're inviting your family to join FRC for a 21-day family Bible challenge through the book of Matthew. It starts June the 11th. As a part of our Stand on the Word Bible reading plan, it's a 21-day plan. You and your family can walk together through the life of Christ with a study guide, weekly discussion questions, kid-friendly activities, and more. We want everyone to engage with the transforming power of the Scripture. Maybe you're already on this journey. this would be a great opportunity to invite someone else to join you as well. So to join us on this Matthew challenge, simply text the word Matthew to 67742. That's Matthew to 67742. Well, after being stalled on Friday night when four Republicans voted against the one big beautiful bill, the House Budget Committee advanced the measure late last night after a weekend of talks and negotiations. The bill has one more stop in the Rules Committee before advancing to the House floor for a vote. just ahead of the Memorial Day deadline set by House Speaker Mike Johnson. Here to discuss this is Congressman Ron Estes, who serves on three House committees, including the Budget Committee. He represents the 4th Congressional District of Kansas. Congressman Estes, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us after a long weekend.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, thank you, Tony. It's great to be back.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, so let's talk about the process. Late last night, after a weekend of negotiations, the bill passed. What concessions were made to conservatives to get this bill across the line?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, you know, this was a great next step that we took last night in the Budget Committee, moving towards passing this one big, beautiful bill. There's so many good components in this in terms of focusing on how do we make sure we increase funding for the defense? How do we help support with all the illegal immigration and border security here? How do we start to work on the deficit reduction as well as making sure Americans don't get a 22 percent tax increase? And over the weekend, I think a lot of the work was done, particularly the discussion from most of the budget committee members were talking about how do we get more deficit reduction and focus on some of those policies, particularly some of the ones the way the bill was originally structured in the different committees was a lot of the spending increases was up front in the first few years.
SPEAKER 09 :
of the 10-year window whereas a lot of the reductions were in the latter part of that so a lot of the work was how do we bring some of those reductions forward as well so that we can help work and address the deficit as it stands right now well and i think that's important for people to know because there's a lot of budget gimmicks that are used and you can push things out you know to the 10-year window the end of that 10-year window and you're not going to have control over it so what you can control is only what is happening in this congress or maybe the next Congress you'll have influence. So I think it's right for conservatives to push this up, especially in light of Moody's rating cut of the U.S. sovereign credit rating, down one notch. I mean, they're concerned about America's continuing deficits and our big debt.
SPEAKER 08 :
That's right. And Moody's hasn't always gotten it right, but there's certainly some indications here that our spending is out of control. You look back, going back to 2019, our spending has gone up 70 percent, even while revenue has gone up 50 percent. But spending has just gotten so large at the federal government level. And, you know, Moody's missed the boat earlier when they were talking about the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, when they said that that would not cause inflation and it would lead to a lot of jobs. And that did not happen. And so we want to make sure that as we pass the one big, beautiful bill that it helps focus on how do we keep the economy going and lowers the deficit as we move forward.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I mean, you're right on Moody's. But I think we all can recognize that when we're carrying nearly $37 trillion in debt and we're adding almost $2 trillion a year now at the clip that we're running at, we cannot sustain this. And so I applaud the work of conservatives on the Budget Committee and the Republicans as a whole. But there's been a lot of give and take. I was actually talking to the speaker over the weekend. And as we accommodate the conservatives here, what's going to happen next with the moderates who are wanting an increase in the deduction for local estate and local taxes? Are they going to get a bigger deduction for that from the blue states?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I think that is one of the difficulties as we go through this process because there's so much good in this bill that we're looking at and we're trying to focus on so many things. Obviously, there's lots of dynamics that affects different districts as well as affects different senators in different states. So we want to make sure as we're structuring the bill that we address it and we keep moving forward with deficit reduction as well as making sure that we don't have this huge tax increase next year.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, those are two very significant items you just brought up. Number one, the tax increase, which if this is not passed, almost every American family that pays taxes is going to feel it. But that deficit reduction, that's one that I don't think people... pay as much attention to because we've heard it so often. It's kind of like the boy who cried wolf. And people have heard it over and over again, and nothing's happened. But that doesn't mean it's not going to. I think we're reaching a point where the level of our debt that we have amassed as a nation is just unsustainable. And we're paying a trillion dollars a year just on interest, more than what we pay for national security. I'm wondering, has that awareness gripped the Congress to go beyond the parochial issues that you talked about? You got this program here, got this program there, got this state that wants this. But looking at this as a whole as a nation, have we reached that point yet?
SPEAKER 08 :
I think as we've seen over the last year and a half, as the interest costs have risen from roughly $300 billion up to a trillion dollars, there's a lot more visibility in Congress as well as across the country that it's an issue we have to address. Right now, as you said, interest is higher than defense spending. It's behind only Social Security and Medicare, and in the next couple of years, it's expected to pass Medicare costs. And so... One of the things we need to make sure is that even though people recognize it's a concern, we've got to be willing to actually address some of our issues and recognize that there's got to be some decisions made. Even though there are provisions we may not agree with 100 percent, I may not agree with 100 percent, all the provisions that end up in there. But we're trying to make sure that we get the best solution moving forward.
SPEAKER 09 :
And it's a combination, I think. You've got to address the spending side, but you also want to increase growth. I mean, you've got to increase economic growth, which is going to create more tax revenue. And a part of that, I think, is the tax cuts, because that's going to spur on, I think, more investment, more activity. So it is a combination of doing both. Frankly, I think we've been, Congress has been a little hesitant to do the spending cuts because once a program is created, rarely does it ever go away.
SPEAKER 08 :
It really is. I mean, as President Reagan said, that's almost the closest thing to eternal life is a federal government program. And it's much difficult to stop those programs once they get started because they take on a constituency of their own. But we've got to make some of those tough decisions as well as making sure that when we put policy in place, it does address those pro-growth things. Our bipartisan scorekeepers, the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation, tend to look at things mostly in a static view. And we recognize that we want to make sure that we incentivize businesses to grow. We want to incentivize having that economic growth because we know with that economic growth, we'll continue to get more tax revenue. If you look back consistently over the last several decades, our tax revenue has come in about 17 to 18 percent of our GDP. So a growing GDP means we have more tax revenue, but our spending is now ballooned up to roughly 24% of GDP, and that's where our problem is right now.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, that's a really good point. We ought to tie our spending to our GDP. So you can't have any more growth in spending than you do in economic growth, except maybe in an emergency situation, war or something like that. Congressman, just a couple minutes left here. So the bill passed last night. It now has to go to the Rules Committee. So what are the prospects there?
SPEAKER 08 :
The next steps, as you said, are going through the Rules Committee. A couple things that are being done. There's some of the final negotiations on which provisions go in for the deficit reduction, as well as some of the tax provisions as well, and looking at how do we move some of those deficit reduction provisions forward. There's also, as we have to look at it, because of the rules in the Senate, around the bird rule, we have to make sure that the bill that passes out of the House doesn't conflict with some of those provisions over there. So that's the step right now that's going on in terms of crafting a manager's amendment for the bill as it goes into the Rules Committee, and it'll be passed, and we expect to have it passed and passed the floor of the House this week.
SPEAKER 09 :
Now, Chip Roy, a congressman from Texas, is on the Rules Committee. He is also a member of the Budget Committee. He voted against it. He was one of the four that voted against it on Friday night. Last night, the four Republicans just voted present, so their vote didn't count against it. Is he going to be satisfied, you think, when it comes to the Rules Committee? Will he vote for it in the Rules Committee?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I think that's part of the process. One over the weekend. I mean, there was a lot of time being spent as they focused on what are some of the types of issues that they could do to bring some of that deficit reduction forward. And I, you know, I've talked with Chip last night and talked with some of the other members and they're focusing on how do we make sure some of these good provisions get included? That's kind of the part of the next steps as they're working towards that manager's amendment for the Rules Committee. I do expect that we'll get 218 votes on the House floor so that we can pass this legislation and keep it moving forward. It's too important for America not to. Optimistic that it will be done by Memorial Day? I am optimistic. I think it may be Thursday or Friday this week when we get that done, and they're looking at trying to schedule a vote on Thursday.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. I've got my schedule cleared through late Friday because sometimes I know these things come up to the wire, trying to get them across the line. Congressman Estes, I want to thank you for joining us. Always great to have you on the program.
SPEAKER 08 :
Great. Thank you.
SPEAKER 09 :
Congressman Ron Estes of Kansas. All right. There's still time for you to weigh in. There's still provisions in this bill that we want to make sure get across the line. That is the defunding of Planned Parenthood and also to strengthen the language to make sure that that your tax dollars are not going for gender reassignment surgeries or these experimental drug uses. to deal with gender dysphoria. The government shouldn't be doing this. So text Congress to 67742. That's Congress to 67742. All right, don't go away. When we come back, former National Security Advisor John Bolton joins me.
SPEAKER 21 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks so much for tuning in. All right, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on CBS over the weekend discussing the latest on the negotiations of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.
SPEAKER 01 :
We don't want to be involved in this process of just endless talks. There has to be some progress, some movement forward. Ultimately, one of the things that could help break this long jam, perhaps the only thing that can, is a direct conversation between President Trump and Vladimir Putin, and he's already openly expressed a desire and a belief that that needs to happen.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, earlier today, reportedly, those conversations took place. Here to discuss this and more is Ambassador John Bolton, former National Security Advisor and ambassador to the United Nations. He is also the author of Surrender Is Not an Option, Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad and the Room Where It Happened, a White House memoir. Ambassador Bolton, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER 11 :
Ready to be with you. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER 09 :
Before we jump into the Middle East and kind of what took place there last week, I want to talk about Ukraine, Russia. President Trump engaged in a phone conversation this morning with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This has been, I think, frustrating for President Trump. He thought he would have this thing resolved quickly. It's not been. Is Putin, is he being straightforward in these conversations he's been having with President Trump?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, I think he's not being straightforward if he's saying he's eager to find a way to get a ceasefire, notwithstanding that it might be in Russia's interest to have a ceasefire, given the enormous casualties that they've suffered over the three-plus years since the Russian invasion. I think Putin believes that momentum on the battlefield, slight though it is, is moving in Russia's direction. And as long as that's the case, he's happy to continue the war, notwithstanding the huge cost in life and resources to his government. I think what he really wants is to make either a ceasefire or an ultimate solution to this directly with Donald Trump. He doesn't want to have to deal with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky. He doesn't want to have to deal with all the European leaders. He would like to have basically a one-on-one resolution with Trump because he thinks he knows how to get what he wants from Trump. I think this call today was something that Putin wanted. We may see in the near future as well an actual meeting between the two of them, which Putin, I think, would like to see because it would help bring him out of international isolation.
SPEAKER 09 :
What does he want other than kind of this image makeover? Is he wanting Donald Trump, President Trump, to agree to allow him to keep the land that he's taken in Ukraine?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes, I think that's a very important point. And in comments by J.D. Vance and others in the administration, I think that's already been given to Putin, if that view holds. Vance said as far back during the campaign that Ukraine was not going to be returned to its full sovereignty and territorial integrity. Ukraine would not join NATO. NATO would not provide security guarantees, which are pretty critical elements from Ukraine's point of view, because even if they get a ceasefire now, remember, they had a ceasefire back in 2014 after the first Russian invasion, and it took the Kremlin eight years to invade again. It may take another long period before a third invasion takes place, but Zelensky wants to find a way to prevent the third invasion before it happens, which is why he's pressed so hard for security guarantees.
SPEAKER 09 :
Is that not maybe part of the rare earth minerals, that agreement that might bring American interest permanently into Ukraine that could provide some level of protection?
SPEAKER 11 :
I think that's the long range intent. I agree with that. And I think the minerals deal is a political plus for Zelensky. But digging mines is not a short term operation, particularly since a lot of the minerals we're talking about are in areas near the current front line, some of them actually behind the Russian position now. But undoubtedly, getting that minerals deal signed moved beyond what happened in the Oval Office on February the 28th. I think we're back on an even keel with Zelensky now. And for that reason alone, I think it was important to get done.
SPEAKER 09 :
Let me ask you about that, Ambassador Bolton, because it appeared there for a while that the Trump administration kind of seeing Vladimir Zelensky as the holdout here, the hard one to deal with. And it appears that now they're starting to see that it's Putin that does not want to come to a peaceful agreement.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. Well, Zelensky and the Ukrainians believe they're fighting for their freedom and independence. So you can understand perhaps why they're not inclined to trade much of that away. Putin is trying to recreate the Russian empire. This is something he said. beginning back in 2005 and repeated many, many times since then for the Russian dream of a renewed Russian empire absolutely has to include Ukraine. So there are strong reasons on both sides, not the same reasons by any stretch of the imagination. And it's because Putin thinks, rightly or wrongly, that his chances are on the upswing here that have made him really the obstacle. He doesn't want to stop when he thinks he's ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
So are we dealing with a rational individual when we're talking about Vladimir Putin in his approach to negotiations? Or is he driven by this vision that overrides what we would call a rational man view?
SPEAKER 11 :
No, I think he's rational. I've met with him any number of times over the years. First time just a month or so after 9-11, when I accompanied Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to Moscow to talk about things we needed to go after al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. And in several of the meetings I've had with him after we've discussed some issue or another on which we didn't reach agreement, Putin would say in English sometimes, which he speaks relatively well, he'd say, well, you have your logic, we have ours, we'll see which one prevails. His logic is the logic of recreating the Russian empire.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, we're almost up against a break, Ambassador Bolton, because I want to switch now to the Middle East, the president making a kind of whirlwind trip through there, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, bypassing Israel. It's caused some to speculate, is there a rift in that relationship? But talking about rational in Russia, I think there's a different element at play in the Middle East that I don't think the United States and our foreign policy have always gotten right. And I want to talk about that when we come back. So I'll give you a moment to think about that as we head into a break. My guest, Ambassador John Bolton, former National Security Advisor to President Trump in the first administration. When we come back. We're going to visit more about the Middle East and is it being remade as a result of President Trump's visit there last week? So don't go away. A lot more Washington Watch straight ahead.
SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks so much for tuning in to the website, TonyPerkins.com. If you don't have the StandFirm app, I encourage you to download the StandFirm app. That's the best way to connect with Washington Watch and the Washington Stand. All right, we're here with former Ambassador to the United Nations and former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Ambassador, thanks for sticking around. I want to go to the Middle East. Last week, the president was there. What do you make of his trip?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, I think the major emphasis was continuing a policy we've had really now for over 40 years of trying to bind the Gulf Arab states closer to the United States. We face the common threat from Iran, both its nuclear weapons program and its support for terrorism. That's the same threat that the state of Israel sees. So our interests there are really aligned. And we're also trying to continue the longstanding U.S. policy of keeping China and Russia effectively as far removed from influencing events in the Middle East as we can. So there was a lot of flash and pop about the business deals that were announced. But that's the kind of indication of the tightness of the connection between the U.S. and the three states that President Trump visited, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. So I think there it was very successful. I think there's some other aspects, notably Syria, that I think are more disturbing. But that part of it, I think, was a clear success.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's kind of a delicate dance. I mean, when you look at the history of Saudi Arabia, Qatar in particular, UAE is a little different. I mean, they're kind of a standout. They're a little more open to Western values to some degree. They have religious freedom to a degree there in that country. Saudi Arabia, not a single church. And both Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been connected to financing terrorism. How do we make that relationship in such a way, in an environment where there's an ideologically driven motive to really conquer the West?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, I think the threat coming from Iran is something that disturbs everybody else in the region, and it comes in the form of both Shia and Sunni terrorists. and people who would just as soon see us gone from the region entirely. You know, I think there's change coming across the Gulf Arab states, including Saudi and Qatar, and I think it's going to be unpredictable and hard to constrain, but there's a lot going on. I think had it not been for the Hamas attack on Israel, October the 7th and 23, I really do think that Saudi Arabia was very close to an Abraham Accord deal with Israel. I think there's still a lot going on under the surface. The structure of many of the governments there and the way the culture has evolved isn't exactly how we would do it. But I think there's plenty of room for progress on areas of mutual interest, particularly dealing with the threat from Iran.
SPEAKER 09 :
You mentioned October the 7th, Ambassador. Has Israel's success in taking on Iran and its proxies, did it set the stage for last week's historic meetings?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, I really think that beginning with the Abraham Accords, you could see how the tectonic plates in the Middle East were changing with the common view of the Gulf Arab states and Israel on the threat from Iran has even dating back to the late 20-teens, was beginning to show its effects. But now, since October the 7th, the balance of power in the region has materially changed. The Israelis have pummeled key terrorist surrogates that Iran had built up with billions of dollars of aid over the years. So, they've deeply wounded Hamas and Hezbollah. The Houthis still need some more work, but the Assad regime, a key ally of Iran, has fallen in Syria. And Israel itself has struck Iran's ballistic missile production facilities back in October, doing considerable damage. So, if you look around, Iran's strength is significantly reduced. And the real question now is, will Israel deal with the Iranian nuclear program if the Iranians don't give it up. I think that's very much a possibility in the near future, depending on how the ongoing U.S. talks with Iran go. But I think the Arab states see that this is a difference. And I wouldn't be surprised if, notwithstanding the ongoing conflict in Gaza, that other Abraham Accords are not possible in the very near future, maybe even this year.
SPEAKER 09 :
Ambassador, just about a minute and a half left. So, Iran, the common enemy, the Shiites versus the Sunni. But... When we talk about these business deals, I think history would tell us we've got to be careful when it comes to military technology, because if Iran is eliminated and we have some of these other Gulf states, and in particular you made reference to Syria and that conversation that took place between the new leader and the president, should we not be guarded about our military technology going to that region?
SPEAKER 11 :
Absolutely. And I think steps are normally taken there. We consult with Israel on any major arms shipment to the Arab states to preserve what has been called over the years Israel's qualitative edge. And I think that that continues to be the policy. But hopefully, if diplomatic recognition spreads and Israel gets more contacts, you could see a much closer relationship between Israel and the Arab states. And that in and of itself would be a real guarantee. With that conflict fading into history, the Middle East really would have changed prospects.
SPEAKER 09 :
I think you're right. I think it's something we have to go into with our eyes wide open. And it's a managed piece. I don't think it's going to be a permanent piece. That's yet to come in the future. Ambassador John Bolton, always great to see you. Appreciate your insights. And thanks for joining us today.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, thank you for having me. Glad to do it.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right. Ambassador John Bolton, we know peace is coming in that region, but it's going to be a while. In the meantime, we just need to manage it. All right, coming up next, we're going to be joined by Jared Bridges and Suzanne Valdi with the Washington stand. So don't go away. We're back with more after this.
SPEAKER 13 :
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How should Christians think about the thorny issues shaping our culture? How should Christians address deceitful ideas like transgenderism, critical theory, or assisted suicide? How can Christians navigate raising children in a broken culture, the war on gender roles, or rebuilding our once great nation? Outstanding is a podcast from The Washington Stand dedicated to these critical conversations. Outstanding seeks to tear down what our corrupt culture lifts up with an aim to take every thought and every idea captive to the obedience of Christ. Whether policies or partisan politics, whether conflict in America or conflict abroad, join us and our guests as we examine the headlines through the lens of Scripture and explore how Christians can faithfully exalt Christ and in all of life follow outstanding on your favorite podcast app and look for new episodes each week
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I'm Tony Perkins. Thanks for joining us. If you are not a part of FRC's journey through the Bible, or if you are and you want to invite someone to join you, guess what? I have the perfect on-ramp to the journey. Starting June the 11th, you can be a part of FRC's 21-day Family Bible Challenge through the Gospel of Matthew, which kicks off, as I said, June the 11th. To join us for this transformative journey through Scripture, text the word MATTHEW to 67742. That's MATTHEW to 67742. We have lots of resources available for you and your family. Maybe you want to give this to get your grandkids or your kids to join you. Text the word MATTHEW to 67742. All right, speaking of the Bible, our word for today comes from Ezra 5. Then the prophet Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Iddu, prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. So Zerubbabel and Joshua rose up and began to rebuild the house of God which is in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, helping them. Well, as soon as the rebuilding resumed, opposition arose. Look at what it says in verse 3. At the same time, Tatnai, the governor of the region beyond the river, came to them and asked, who has commanded you to build this temple and finish this wall? Well, here's something we need to recognize. Obedience to God often invites opposition from man. Why? Because whatever God calls us to, Satan will attempt to keep us from. So, what should be our response? Just like Zerubbabel and Yeshua, stay calm, obey God, and keep working. When we remain faithful in the face of resistance, we position ourselves to see the breakthroughs of God. For more on our journey through the Bible, text BIBLE to 67742. The weekend news shows were consumed with the continuing fallout from trickling revelations that former President Joe Biden was in a clear state of declining mental acuity in the final years of his administration. But are these news shows and their journalists part of the cover-up that occurred in the Biden administration's final years? Also, a lot of focus on the Supreme Court ruling of the use of the Alien Enemy Act to deport Venezuelans. Is the court letting illegals roam the country? Joining me now with a look at the news stories going into this week are two members of the Washington Stand team, editor-in-chief Jared Bridges and editorial director and senior writer Suzanne Bowdy. Jared, Suzanne, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining me on this Monday. Thanks, Tony. Let's start with something that I heard quite a bit about over the weekend. People read the headlines about the Supreme Court decision or ruling, rather, on the use of the Alien Deportation Act. Let me play a clip from one of the weekend shows. This is the ABC show with Sarah Isger. And so play clip number nine, please.
SPEAKER 03 :
Is the Supreme Court turning against Trump?
SPEAKER 02 :
The Supreme Court, including the conservative members of that court, are becoming increasingly clear to quote... Not two of them.
SPEAKER 06 :
There were two on the other... That's true.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, to quote future Metro boomin, like, we still don't trust you, that is the message they are sending to this administration. So much of that opinion was about not trusting what the administration was telling them.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, again, that was from ABC This Week. Suzanne, are people misreading the court ruling?
SPEAKER 25 :
I think it's very unfortunate that you're seeing this decision being framed as an issue about Trump, when in fact what the Supreme Court is tasked with is upholding the rule of law. And in this instance, I think the Supreme Court is being very misunderstood. If people look beyond the headlines, and unfortunately I think too many people don't, they just take the headlines at face value. what they would see is that the Supreme Court didn't say that Donald Trump couldn't deport Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act. It just said we need to take a pause and see if he's doing so legally. Those that have studied this case know that Trump gave very little warning when he was going to deport these gang members. And so what the Supreme Court is truly looking at is, one, was Trump Did Trump give the right amount of warning to these illegal immigrants, too? Did he apply his due process being applied here? And and while in the clip, you'll notice that on CNN, they said, oh, two justices are with the Trump administration. The reality is that justices Alito and Thomas are. ruled against this temporary pause but they also did rule in a previous uh case argued last month that aliens do deserve due process so they're not fully embracing this idea that that trump can do whatever he wants he also has to abide by the rule of law and i think that if we care about the biden administration following the rule of law then we need to care about the trump administration following the rule of law and that's what's at stake in this case it is it's far from finished They have not decided on the merits of the case. They've simply paused it.
SPEAKER 09 :
But to be clear, Jared Bridges, they're not opening the floodgates for illegals to come in the country or to Rome. These remain detained.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. Yeah, they remain detained, and it just puts a temporary hold on sending them back to Venezuela. So we've got the rule of law is still being upheld. They're still in place. They're not being let loose, as we've seen in previous administrations.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right. Another big news story this weekend. Revelations coming out about former President Joe Biden, kind of his cognitive decline, as if we didn't already know that. So CNN, Jake Tapper had Laura Trump on. I'm going to play this clip. Clip number eight, please.
SPEAKER 23 :
I think what we see on stage with Joe Biden, Jake, is very clearly a cognitive decline. That's what I'm referring to. It makes me uncomfortable to watch somebody on stage search for questions. It's so amazing to me that... And try and figure out an answer.
SPEAKER 05 :
A cognitive decline.
SPEAKER 23 :
But when you're trying to tell me that what I was suggesting was a stuttering... I think that you were mocking his stutter.
SPEAKER 05 :
I have no idea, Joe Biden. Yeah, I think you were mocking his stutter. And I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, I play that clip because that goes back to 2020. I play this clip because Jake Tapper, it's coming out in this tell-all book that he was actually a part of covering some of this up. Jared Bridges.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I mean, it's amazing how nearly six years later, Jake Tapper is singing a different song. And that wasn't the only instance where Tapper questioned the narrative that Biden was in some sort of cognitive decline. And he's coming out with this now in his book, Original Sin, and making big headways about it, making waves about it. The big news over the weekend that was released was the audio from special counsel Robert Herr's interview with Biden. Also, the fact that Biden didn't appear to recognize George Clooney at an event, and it wasn't because he was unfamiliar with Clooney. Clooney was one of his biggest supporters. And this all comes out today where yesterday you have President Biden announcing that he has prostate cancer in advanced stages. And that is devastating news to have to announce, to put down this narrative that was coming out just over the weekend earlier about how there had been a cover up over the president's decline. Biden's doctor in February 2024, White House physician Kevin O'Connor, right after the her report, said that Biden was fit for duty. He said he fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations. You had people like Jake Tapper and other media outlets vouching for him. They would go after the Trump administration or Trump campaign when they would make comments about or even question Biden's mental acuity. So there is a there has been something going on here where we haven't been told the entire story.
SPEAKER 09 :
So Suzanne, why now? Why are they coming forward with this information?
SPEAKER 25 :
I'm sure, to cover their own tracks. The media is responsible for actually propagating this narrative that Biden has been OK all this time in order to hang on to power for the Democratic Party. I also think not enough blame has been thrown at the feet of Democrats, including those in the White House who've been around his inner circle a lot, but also Chuck Schumer. Over the weekend or a little before the weekend, we saw him on CNN saying, look, I don't want to talk about this when he was pressed about Biden's mental ability. He said, I just think we need to move forward. Well, that's a very hypocritical stance, considering that the Democratic Party hasn't wanted to move forward when it comes to Donald Trump. When he was out of office, did we see them leave him behind? No, they pursued him with relentless lawfare. did they leave j6 behind no they did not they're still trying to make that a core issue so so there's a lot going on here be very convenient for them to put this in the rearview mirror but the matter is that they they actually put national security in jeopardy along with a lot of decisions i think James Comey's announcement last week that the House is going to investigate the cognitive decline of Biden is important because this is a man with his fingers or maybe his aide's fingers on the hand of a nuclear weapon. The auto pen signatures are also a big deal. So we need to get to the bottom of who knew what and when just for our own country's security and peace of mind that whoever's in charge actually does have the mental ability to make the right decisions.
SPEAKER 09 :
I put a pin in that for just a moment. I do want to mention that with the news that Jared mentioned that Joe Biden over the weekend released the diagnosis that he has advanced and aggressive prostate cancer. We certainly want to be praying for him and his family. And we understand the significance of those health challenges, especially someone of that age. All right. Let me go back to where I put the pin. Does this not – and I'll throw this out for both of you – does this not further erode the American trust in the media and the Democratic Party? Because now they've been caught with their hand in the cookie jar covering up.
SPEAKER 25 :
Well, I think a lot of people will be – sorry, go ahead, Jared.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, yeah, it's not just that. It's the fact that they have put their leader and not honored him properly. Leviticus 19.32 says, You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God. I am the Lord. And they have not... honored him properly. They have put him forth to run again when I think it's becoming increasingly clear that he was not able to do that. So the trust gap, you wonder why the American people didn't trust them in the 2024 election. maybe that has something to do with it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I would pin that squarely on the family. I mean, his wife should have never let him step into that public light again. They should have, like Nancy Reagan, I think was very, I didn't agree with her on a lot of stuff. But I did agree with the relationship she had with President Reagan and how she cared for his image and his that he was not in any way humiliated by stepping into the arena once that mental decline began. Suzanne, I mean, this does go right at the heart of the trustworthiness of the media and that they were covering up. They were complicit in this. And now this is coming out that they all knew this.
SPEAKER 25 :
Absolutely. And we've seen just in February when Gallup polled this question most recently, how much does the how much do the American people trust the media? And it's it's a five decade low. We're looking at only a third of the country, less than a third who actually trust the media. And one of the really sad side effects of that is as this cancer diagnosis comes out, I'm sure that we aren't the only ones wondering how long have they known about this? Is this something that he was plagued with while he was in office? Was the plan just to reelect him? And then if the cancer did get it more aggressive, would he be tossed aside for Harris? It raises a lot of questions that we shouldn't be focusing on when we should, in fact, be praying for that family. Right.
SPEAKER 09 :
And was this in fact rolled out as sympathy to cover up this new tell-all book that's out there. Jared, speaking of the, we just have about a minute, about two minutes left. Speaking of the lack of credibility and trustworthiness of the media, this past Saturday a bombing happened in Palm Springs, California at a fertility clinic. Before any of the facts were known, some in the legacy media were quick to insinuate that a pro-lifer potentially committed this act of terrorism. But in fact, it was not. It was the opposite.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, the alleged suspect, it looks like now, was an antinatalist, someone who didn't believe that humans should continue to procreate. And it just shows how Irresponsible journalism can easily lead the wrong way very quickly. On Saturday, before the facts were known of who did this, ABC News' chief investigative correspondent, Aaron Katursky, said he concluded his report by saying President Trump has pledged to expand access to IVF, but he has faced backlash from some in the Christian conservative movement who are opposed to the loss of embryos during the process. CNN as well on Saturday put a line in their article that said IVF and the practice of discarding embryos has been the subject of some conservative religious and religious criticism. Now, they didn't know who did this. It's just sort of offhanded speculation. And we know that that is dangerous.
SPEAKER 09 :
And Suzanne, there are alternatives to the legacy media.
SPEAKER 25 :
Absolutely. You're talking to two people that are part of one of those at thewashingtonstand.com, where you also have a piece up that I encourage people to read on Trump's Middle East trip. So, yes, please check out thewashingtonstand.com.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's news and commentary from a biblical perspective. are very straightforward with our worldview. Our worldview comes from a biblical perspective, and that is the lenses through which we see the news and events, and we provide our commentary. So we're not hiding anything. We're telling you what you're going to get up front. Jared, Suzanne, thanks so much for joining us, and continue to do a great job with the Washington Stand.
SPEAKER 25 :
Thanks, Tony.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, folks. And I encourage you to check out the Washington stand so that you can have a daily news feed, news and commentary from a biblical perspective. The best way to get it is to download the stand firm app, go to the app store and get the stand firm app or text app to six, seven, seven, four, two. And I'll send you the link. All right, we're out of time for today. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, I leave you with the encouraging words of the Apostle Paul, where he says, when you've done everything you can do, when you've prayed, prepared, and taken your stand, by all means, keep standing.
SPEAKER 28 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council and is entirely listener supported. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information on anything you heard today or to find out how you can partner with us in our ongoing efforts to promote faith, family, and freedom, visit TonyPerkins.com.
Join John Rush on a ride through Denver’s storms in this episode of Rush to Reason. As summer brings unpredictable weather, John discusses crucial safety tips for dealing with severe storms. From warnings about storm chasers trying to take advantage after weather incidents to advice on what to do when caught in severe weather while driving, this episode is packed with life-saving advice. The episode further explores current events with personal anecdotes, offering listeners a unique perspective on facing life’s unpredictable nature head on. Also, gain insights into historic events woven into the narrative, including questions about the reign of terror in revolutionary France and the Romanoff family’s rule of Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution.
SPEAKER 13 :
This is Rush to Reason. You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you're scared. And you're scared because if you try and fail, there's only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 03 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 13 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did!
SPEAKER 05 :
Get a job, Turk! You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 06 :
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 13 :
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 07 :
All right, happy Monday, everybody. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Hopefully all of you listening are okay from a lot of the storms that we had yesterday, and it's a reminder that this time of the year, and frankly can be this way most of summer, storms can come up. They can get really bad at times, and we talked a little bit about this last week, but be watching for those alerts. Make sure you're paying attention to those. I'll give a few PSAs here in a moment along those lines and some things that I was watching from what happened yesterday that I'll get into here in just one moment. But hopefully everybody is okay. And last but not least, and I'll talk about this when we talk about Dave Hart from Roof Savers, if you've had any kind of storm damage, the storm chasers we call them, Those will be the people that show up from other states trying to help you with whatever. Really, they're not helping you at all. They're trying to collect a paycheck when it's all said and done. And they'll come and even do things that are illegal, like waive your deductible and things like that, which are not allowed in Colorado under Colorado law. But they will work ways around that. They will. even under the table, write you checks back for your deductible as a way to get around that, all of that being very unethical, illegal activity. But these storm chasers will try to lure you in to doing business with them by making some of those offers. I'll talk again a little bit more about that as we get to Dave Hart, Roof Savers. He's coming up here in a moment. with his commercial as well. But just remember that. Call somebody like Dave first. Do not, do not, you know, we call them storm chasers, door knockers. Do not open the door for those guys. And one last little bit of advice. A lot of them will tell you that they can't get on the roof your roof and do an inspection without you signing this document. And I'm saying it that way, this document first problem is that document isn't just for them getting on your roof. It's locking you into doing business with them when you sign that. So do not sign anything. Do not let them on your roof. Call Dave instead and make sure that he can take care of things for you, which he can, and let him be your liaison, even with the insurance company, if, in fact, that's the direction that you end up heading. So impossible question from Friday. Andy actually got this one right off the bat. We kind of had a little bit of fun with this on Friday. But what device infamous during the revolutionary France time period became a symbol of the reign of terror? It is the guillotine. And then today's impossible question. What royal family ruled Russia prior to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917? That is today's impossible question. You can answer that on the Rush to Reason Facebook page. OK, going back to the storms and all of that. And again, this is just a PSA in regards to that. Number one. If you're driving and you end up in any kind of a bad storm, you can see a tornado, you're caught up in it. There's all sorts of video that was out yesterday from different parts of the country, not just here in Colorado, but folks were literally in some cases caught in the middle of a tornado. And what you want to do there is, number one, Get out of your vehicle. So pull over to the side of the road. Not at an underpass, by the way. That is the worst thing you can do is pull over at an underpass because when you do it, everybody else does. Now it's all stacked up. Now the road's blocked. Bad situation all around. Don't even do that in a hard rainstorm. People do that all the time, even in town, where it'll be raining really hard, hailing even. And the first thing they do is pull over on the side of the road under an underpass, thinking that's where they're going to be safe. Keep in mind when it comes to heavy rain and things like that, those underpasses can actually fill with water because in some cases they're a low spot. Worst place you could actually be in that particular scenario. So first things first, if you find yourself in a really bad storm, pull over and they'll tell you this. Pull over, get out of the car, go find a low ditch, go find a culvert that you can crawl into, something along those lines. Cover your head and your neck as best you can. If you've got a blanket or anything even in the car that you can take with you, by all means do so, but get away from the car, get to the lowest ground in your area possible, and just hunker down. That's the best thing that you can do in that particular scenario. You do not want to be in the vehicle. Second of all, as I said a moment ago, do not stop at an underpass. worst thing you can do in fact if you're going to stop at all make sure you're far off the road the other reason why i tell you to get out of the car is when the when the weather gets that bad and visibility can get way low your car sitting there can very well be a target it can be run into by other fast moving vehicles semi trucks and so on the last thing you want to do is be sitting in your car if something like that were to happen so when i say you know get far away from the road and go find some low place and i mean that get away from the road Go as far as you possibly can. Find that low spot. Typically, there's edges of the road where it's much lower than the road itself. Typically, roads are built up. So get completely off the road. Get down. Get away from other vehicles if at all possible because if they get run into, you don't want them falling down on you or anything along those lines. Unfortunately, most people do everything I just said the wrong way. They try to run from the particular tornado or the storm, and in some cases it can swirl around and catch you from behind or things along those lines. In other words, you try to run and there is no place to run to. All you're doing is creating a lot of havoc and traffic for others maybe that are honestly trying to do the same thing. And again, best thing to do is just get completely away from your vehicle if you're in your home. and you find yourself in this situation you can see outside and there's warnings going on and so on you want to go to a center room if you have a basement you want to go to the basement itself get into the center of the house where there's any other type of of you know structures in the basement things that you know walls things like that where you may be in the middle and have things around you that would be a protection to you you want to do that as well If you don't have a basement, but maybe you have a crawl space or something along those lines, you may actually want to go down into the crawl space. Again, go to the middle. If you've got a house with, let's say, a chimney or something along those lines, go to that very center section where that chimney would be all the way down into the crawl space and go hunker down in that particular area till the storm passes. Then you can crawl up out of the crawl space. And I know they're creepy, crawly, nasty. Nobody likes being in a crawl space, but you're better off being there than upstairs if you don't have any kind of a basement. Some places out east actually have storm cellars and things like that. If you have one, you know what you have, and, yes, that's another place that you can actually run into. If you're in a mobile home or an RV or anything along those lines, leave that mobile home or that camper. Do not stay inside of it. They are, unfortunately, tornado and storm magnets. They're very lightweight. They get lifted up and get put in places where you would not want to be inside of that when that's going on or even having the roof tore off. Again, you want to go find a low place, hunker down, wait till the storm's over, assess all of the damage and such afterwards. And then, you know, in some cases, it's so ironic or so weird, the storm will pass by and it can be just a total disaster and an hour later, the sun's shining. That's how those things can work. and bottom line we want all of you to be safe be paying attention be alert to what's going on some of you if you don't have the weather app or things like that loaded on your phone make sure that you do make sure that the notifications for those apps are turned on especially in these summer months where you can be notified of those things because they will notify you they'll tell you when there's something big coming along And you need to be paying attention to those. And by all means, be alert to what's in the sky above you. Some of these tornadoes I watched yesterday or even this morning, watch the way some of these formed. And again, now with the advent of everybody having video on their cell phone and so on, you're literally able to see some of these things, you know, literally way faster than we ever did. And my point there is, is be watching for all of those things and the way some of these things form at times. They can literally form in a matter of seconds, a minute or two at most. And it's really eerie when they're happening. So most of all, be safe. Take that advice. If you want to, please give that advice to others, some of your own family members, kids, relatives, and so on. And most of all, I want all of you to be safe. when we have any kind of storms like we had here yesterday afternoon and we could have again. Honestly, this time of the year, they can come any day, any day. And what I've learned in Colorado, living here my whole life, they're not always predicted. They're not always predicted. Weather does its best at trying to pick those things for you, the weathermen, but they're not always accurate, so you have to be alert and paying attention to what's going on at all times. So that's my PSA for today. Again, speaking of roof savers, they are up next, Roof Savers of Colorado, whereby Dave Hart can help you with everything I've talked about here a moment ago, and especially if it comes to turning in a claim or doing anything along those lines, he is there to assist you. 303-710-6916.
SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
God. Country. Reason. Now back to John Rush.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, we are back. Charlie also mentioned that depending upon where you're at, you may want to look for, depending upon the storm and what's going on, a larger tree structure, something along those lines as well. Again, just be careful because some of those can also be lightning magnets, so be very careful with some of those as well. Now, what I mean by big structures is some of you where you're out and about and you see a big concrete commercial building or something along those lines. Those actually, believe it or not, end up being very safe as I'm looking out here at some of these that are to the west of us. The old T-type concrete buildings are extremely solid. If you're out and about and you've got the ability to get in or around or, you know, even inside of one of those, absolutely. But be careful of other tall type structures, i.e. trees and things like that. They may be a safe haven or they may not, depending upon the storm and what's going on. So be careful. yeah some of those can come right out of the ground no matter how big they are so be very careful of that a lot of people think there's some safety there and sometimes there is it depends on you hail for example yes that might actually help in a hail storm but in other situations tornadoes and so on in lightning storms no those would not be the places that that i would go and run to yes i have been known to be in a hail storm and find a nice big tree to go park under because the tree will deflect a lot of those hailstones that are coming down And while it messes everything up and you end up with leaves and junk all over, yes, those can be very safe in a hard hail or rainstorm. But when it comes to tornadoes and things like that, no, that is not a place that I would actually go. Somebody else said that right now, currently in Wyoming, there is a wind warning up there on I-80 and even sent a picture of something on the road that shouldn't be there. Again, when they tell you not to do something, don't because that warning is there for a reason. One other thing that came in on the text line is, have I, this is a question for me personally, have I ever been in a storm that I have been scared to death, you know, that I've been really scared of? And, Knock on wood, no, I have not. And I'm not sure why, folks. I guess because, honestly, I do my very best to avoid some of those situations. I don't want to be in those types of storms or things along those lines. And even with some of the hard blizzards and things we've had in the past, I guess because of what I do, In those circumstances, plowing snow and so on, no, I've never really been scared of anything along those lines. Tornadoes and stuff, yeah, I wouldn't want to be in the midst of any of those. Fortunately, here in Colorado, if you live up towards the mountains, and I don't know why it is, I'm sure somebody can explain the... The reality or the reasons as to why tornadoes don't happen right up against the mountains, I guess they can, but they seldom do. And because of that, I honestly, in my entire life, as far as actually seeing a funnel cloud touch the ground, actually form into a tornado, in my own two eyes, outside of... Outside of what happens in videos and things that I have seen along those lines like I did yesterday and today, I've never seen one in real life myself. I've seen some that looked like they were going to form, but I've never actually seen a real funnel cloud in my life. Have you, Charlie, ever seen an actual real tornado? He has not either. So believe it or not, not everybody has. Again, I think it just depends on where you grew up and where you've been and so on. But no, I've never been in a situation like that where the weather just, you know, scared me to death. I've probably been the most aware, let me say it that way, running water, you know, rushing water, floods, things like that, which we've had here in Colorado. And yes, in those times, I can't say that I was scared, but are you paying extra attention to what's going on in those particular circumstances? Absolutely. But no, I've never had, you quote-unquote, scare me. Now, here's a story that I was reading before coming on air today that was in 9 News this morning. Burglary suspect shot by homeowner in Aurora. Now, I don't know what the outcome of this will be, whether this particular person will end up being charged by the intruder. You never know how that stuff works. This particular intruder set off an alarm, or sorry, set off the camera system He was in the detached garage. The homeowner went out to see what was going on, found him there, confronted him, and ended up shooting him, seriously injuring said perpetrator. Now, my thought on this is, don't break into people's homes. It's not yours. Stay away. And you won't have those problems. My other thought is, if this happened more, you'd have less of this. In other words, if perpetrators, burglars... Thieves thought this was going to happen to them when they actually entered a residence. They'd think twice about going in. So am I upset with this particular and I don't know who this individual is. Don't care. I applaud them for doing this, by the way. Yes, I know somebody was injured seriously. Again, that person should have thought about their actions prior to. That's on them. That's not on Mr. Homeowner that decided to go out into his garage. And again, I don't know what's in the garage. Maybe he had a really nice, fancy, classic car or a lot of fancy tools or things. I mean, I don't know what's in the garage. It could have been junk. It doesn't make any difference. Doesn't matter. That's the whole reality. It doesn't matter. It's his property. It's his home. And that person should not be there. And this was in the daytime, by the way. This wasn't like middle of the night where this person did this. This happened at, sorry, it was early morning, 4.49 a.m. So 5 a.m. But keep in mind, the sun's about to come up then. And how do I know that? Because I get up fairly early. The sun's up about 5.30. So it's about a half an hour before daylight. So, again, this wasn't that, you know, 1 in the morning. Again, it wasn't at, you know, 4 in the afternoon either, but still, it's early morning, and this particular person ended up being, and who knows, but was this person trying to steal a car, do something along those lines? You know, I don't know. This was in the 1200 block of Moline Street. So bottom line, this person didn't get away with anything, ended up being seriously injured, and I don't know what the outcome will be. We'll watch that story and see. But not good for the person that was the intruder, that was the perpetrator, because they ended up going to the hospital seriously injured. Doesn't say that that person has died or anything along those lines, but seriously injured. Okay. Now, big news. We've got a guest joining us here in about 10 minutes, but I think I've got time to talk about this. You guys, I'm sure if you haven't seen this, because it pretty much has been news all over the place since I believe Charlie late last night. And that is that, you know, former President Joe Biden has prostate cancer now in stage four prostate cancer, and it has moved into his bones. So it's not just prostate cancer, go in, take out your prostate, do whatever is needed along those lines. No, this has now moved into his bones, and it's always more serious when that happens, as we all know. Stage four. Stage four is serious. Most, most, not all, because there are some that can recover from stage four, but typically stage four and beyond, you're not recovering from. Not typically. Again, I know some of you will text me even that some family members or whatever. My dad had stage four cancer and colon cancer and actually survived. So, yes, I know you can and they can do some different things along those lines. But in this case, when it moves to your bones, it's not good. Now, here's the question that everybody's asking this morning. Myself and Charlie included or today, I should say. But it was starting this morning as far as the questions went. No one knew. No one knew. In other words, how many didn't cover this up, including his own wife and family? Because if any of you that are any men, well, women know this as well, but we men especially know this. we've gotten into an age today where you can even take a simple blood test and it will tell you what your psa readings are and if they start to get elevated it's time to get checked further right charlie that's typically how that works you know other exams x-rays mris things like that so you can't tell me i won't believe that several years ago even his psa levels weren't increasing I don't care who comes out. I don't care what medical doctor comes out. I don't care who was close to him comes out and says otherwise. I'm not believing it because that's not how it works. You don't just all of a sudden, one morning, wake up, stage four, and it's in your bones. It doesn't work that way. Any of you out there listening to me, you men especially, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It doesn't work that way. And yet you're going to now have a previous administration claiming that that's what happened. That's what they're going to try to make all of us believe. Oh, we didn't know anything was going on. He had a clean bill of health. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. We were all being lied to. The American public, Congress and so on, we were all being lied to. Joe's fine. No, he's not. I would guess, Charlie and I were trying to do a little bit of math on this prior to the show today, and this is the part where, no, I can't be exactly accurate, neither can anybody else, by the way, no matter what pundit you see, even a medical doctor getting up and talking about this and claiming when this would have started. Best guess, and that's all it is, is a guess, is probably somewhere in the 2020-2021 range is when they most likely started seeing some things happening. Could have even been when he was running for president in 2020. Could have been then. Could have had some elevated PSAs at that point. That's my point. It most likely did. Now, they could have been elevated, maybe not to the point of having to do a lot of other additional checks, but I guarantee you his PSA levels were rising at least four to five years ago. Am I right, Charlie? You, of all people, know about this as well as anybody, and reality is Charlie is in there nodding his head, yes, most likely they knew that far back. It's highly unlikely, highly unlikely that they found out any time after that. I'll even give some grace and say it was four years ago, so 2021. Maybe he was half a year into his presidency, something along those lines. Believe me, they knew then. And I fully believe, Richard and I were talking about this earlier, he'll be with me at 4.30, and he and I were talking about this today. Wouldn't surprise me if they didn't know all of this is going on all the way through him running for president in 2024. with the thought process that he'll win, will then be able to, once he wins, will then be able to leak this information out that he has stage four prostate cancer, therefore allowing him to step down and having Kamala step in as president. And I don't think that's too far off of a thought, to be honest with you. I could see them thinking through that and thinking that's what they were going to do. Now, as it turned out, that didn't happen because Joe was, in my opinion, failing. We all thought he had dementia, Alzheimer's, something along those lines. And by the way, he could have. It could be both. It could just be something that was happening in regards to his cancer. Could have even been the treatment of. We don't know. I mean, they're not telling us. They're not being honest with us. He could have been having treatments all along and we wouldn't know because they weren't telling us. We've been lied to by all the people that were close to Joe Biden. Those of you that are on the left, how can you justify that? How do you justify that? All we ever hear about when Donald Trump is president is his cognitive skills aren't very well. He can't pass an IQ test. He can't do this. He can't do that. Blah, blah, blah. And yet your guy's running around with stage four cancer. And who knows what else? Because, again, we're not being told the truth in regards to Joe's health, even today. Now, where I do feel bad for Joe Biden, because I wouldn't wish either dementia, Alzheimer's, I've said that before, but now stage four cancer, I wouldn't wish that on anybody. I'm not gloating in the fact that he's got this condition. Not at all. I feel very bad for him personally, because that's not a fun thing to go through. And what I feel worse for him about is he had loved ones and people near him that covered all of this up. basically propping him up to be a puppet all the way through the presidency, knowing he had stage four cancer. I mean, how evil do you have to be to do that to somebody? And those of you that are on the left that listen to me, that's my point. How evil do you have to be to prop up somebody that you supposedly love and care for and admire and honor? How do you prop them up through all of that when you know this is the condition they've got? Because trust me, it didn't just come out yesterday. That I can guarantee you. I bet you that one all day long. They've known for quite some time and all they did was prop him up throughout his presidency. Shame on the left. Shame on those that were close to Joe Biden. Shame on his doctors and shame on the news media who most likely knew as well. Shame on all of you. You guys are nothing but a bunch of crumbs. Period. To do something to another human being like that. You ought to all be ashamed of yourselves. I have no other things to say other than that. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Dr. Scott, speaking of doctors, Scott is an alternative doctor to what you would normally find in regard to the health care system. He's going to fill in for me this coming Wednesday. I've got some family things that I need to attend to, and Dr. Scott's going to fill in for me. And he's always got great things to talk about, so make sure you tune in for health and wellness and whatever questions you've got. Have all those ready as well. But you can call him directly, 303-663-6990.
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SPEAKER 03 :
The best export we have is common sense. You're listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. And we are back. And several of you texting in that. Yep, John, I know exactly what you're talking about. I've had, you know, X, Y, Z tests done in one case since this particular texture was 30 years of age. And trust me, they were doing the same thing when it came to Joe Biden. And don't forget, he had the same care even while he was V.P., So who knows what they knew even the eight years he was there at that time. But bottom line, trust me, folks knew about this, people close to him, and so on. So, again, at the end of the day, believe me, they did know exactly what was going on. So we're doing our best to get our next guest on. If we get her, great. If not, as always, we continue on. The show must go on. So, anyways, the other thing that's interesting, just a side note, about all of this information being released now, last night, is this because of the quote unquote her recordings? In other words, there's other things being released. There's a book, Tapper's releasing a book as well. You gotta wonder, the timing of this isn't by accident. The timing of this, believe me, is on purpose. And then you have to start asking the question, You know, how does this all fit together and what are they trying to diffuse at the same time? So the her recordings, by the way, are literal recordings they have right now of him and her talking to one another and some of the cognitive or lack of on. President Biden's part and so on. And then again, as I said, you've got Jake Tapper coming out with his book talking about some of these things. And again, keep in mind, it's funny. These are the same people that were very close to Biden during his presidency that have now all of a sudden, quote unquote, turned on him all so they can make a buck. Literally, so they can make a buck. Now, not that conservatives don't do the same at times because those that have been close to Trump have done the same thing. So I get that's human nature to, you know, if you can, you know, throw out some information and make a buck in doing so, then, you know, why not? But that's exactly how I see a lot of what's happening right now. So let's go to our our guests. We have Debbie. And is it Osborne? Debbie, am I saying that right? Yes, that is. Welcome. Author of Protecting Other People's Children, 120 Days to a Strong Child Safety Policy. So first things first, let's talk about the book.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much for the opportunity. I'm a lawyer. I've been advising youth-serving organizations for, gosh, three decades now as a volunteer and as a lawyer. and defending them against claims of bad things happening in their organizations. And so my co-author and I, he's been involved in child welfare, so we just distilled all of the things we've been telling our clients for 30 years into a book. Great. In hopes that we can reach more people with the same the same lessons.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, that's great. So what you're really doing in this book is instructing organizations, especially on, hey, how can we or how can you have a really good child protection policy or policies, plural, I should say, in place again so we can protect our kids. Right.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right, exactly.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, so let me back. I'm going to maybe go about this a little bit opposite of what others might do. And I guess the questions I have for you is, what do you see as some of the biggest mistakes organizations make when it comes to protecting kids?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I have always said that the second worst thing you can do is not have a policy about risk.
SPEAKER 07 :
I would agree with that.
SPEAKER 09 :
The worst thing you can do is have a policy that you don't follow.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's like businesses that have policies they don't follow.
SPEAKER 09 :
Exactly. Why have it? Well, not only that, but in my world where I come in when clients get sued, it becomes evidence against you.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 09 :
You knew this was a problem, you developed this policy, and then you set it up on a shelf and didn't follow it.
SPEAKER 07 :
You didn't follow it. Yep. No, I come out of the business community, still own a business to this day, so I fully understand what you're talking about. Nothing worse than coming up with a plan and a policy to handle something, and then you don't follow it.
SPEAKER 09 :
That's right, because the next person who will see it is a lawyer asking you questions about it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, so outside of that, they don't do a policy, or they do a policy, and then they don't follow said policy. What are other mistakes they make?
SPEAKER 09 :
The other mistakes they make is I think we have become way too focused on protecting kids from pedophiles in our organizations. That is incredibly important. But it distracts us from what is statistically the more common thing in our organizations, which is child-on-child abuse, bullying, assault, those kind of things. Okay. Statistically, those happen more often, and they can be just as devastating. So the analogy I use is, you know, my child care centers say we had kids fall off the slide, so we're going to put all the teachers over watching the slides, which means that the next three injuries they will get will be in the sandbox because all of the teachers are watching the slide.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, all the focus went one direction, and yet there's other things still going on.
SPEAKER 09 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I can see that. That makes sense. You just brought something to my attention, which I think common sense would tell you to watch for the child-on-child abuse, bullying, things along those lines. Although I will tell you that I don't think, and you know this because of your position, most organizations probably don't think that way, do they?
SPEAKER 09 :
No, they don't. They've gotten so panicked over predatory adults that they forget to watch for the kids.
SPEAKER 07 :
Which, and like you said, I get that. I mean, we want to keep kids safe. We want to keep them away from those individuals. A lot of organizations now do everything from background checks to your history and different things, which I'm a fan of. I think that's all great. The last thing you want to do is let somebody slip through the cracks and be involved in your organization that shouldn't be there in the first place. So I get that, but we do all of that and yet forget some of the other basics.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right, exactly. Or sometimes we're so focused on the sexual predators that we let somebody in with an anger problem who, Yes, backhand's a kid. We don't think about physical abuse as much as we do sexual abuse.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, so I want to go back to the child-on-child end of things. How do they develop policies around it? In other words, when does something get to the point of having to notify somebody that something's going on and it's not just kids being kids and teasing one another and so on?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, you need to develop clear policies. I call them boundaries. So what sort of touch between kids is acceptable? Be very clear with the kids about that. And then be very clear with your staff about recognizing these things. And then on some level, you have to understand that we – We really need to understand normal child development. So, you know, Tina, middle school boys, they're just gross.
SPEAKER 07 :
They are.
SPEAKER 09 :
They think penises are funny.
SPEAKER 07 :
They are.
SPEAKER 09 :
And when they start ragging each other in the locker room, that doesn't mean they're
SPEAKER 07 :
budding pedophiles or you know aggressive no boys will be boys you know whether you want to say unfortunately or not i don't say unfortunately because it's just part of what to your point is what boys do and boys will be boys now i think what you have to be careful of this is my opinion is you can typically tell when things are getting out of hand and somebody's not feeling comfortable at that point in time and you need to be aware of that right
SPEAKER 09 :
Right, exactly, exactly. And you need to spend a lot of time watching kids. And sometimes kids will go along with things because of peer pressure when they're really not okay with it. And so you have to train your staff to recognize those things as well.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. Now, some organizations, and this one I appreciate, it's in my notes, and I wouldn't probably have thought of this, but some organizations have, I don't want to say unlimited resources, but have a lot more resources than, say, a small organization or a newly formed organization would have. How do folks do this on a budget?
SPEAKER 09 :
That's what our book talks about. You leverage volunteers, people with experience in your community, parents, alumni. board members, and you put them on teams and you say, help us figure this out. And then you analyze your worst, your biggest risks, and you work on those risks. And then everything else that you can do, let's say one of the things, for example, has become really popular is in schools or camps is to have doors with windows in them. You may not have the budget to do this right away. You just put it on a list of things we'll look at later. But you can have rules now about you're never in that room with a kid with the door closed. It doesn't take any money to have a rule saying the door is always open.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, very good point. Very good point. When it comes to other things along those lines, these are questions that I just had in regards to maybe folks out there listening that want to implement some of these things, and I would encourage you, number one, get the book and start following along. So back to some of your policies on not only the open door, but should organizations really look at, okay, we're going to go take this field trip or we're going to go do an overnight stay, something along those lines. I'm assuming those are other areas where they need to be extremely careful, right?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, exactly, particularly field trips. If you're an organization that has members of the public come in to a basketball tournament, then you need to – pay attention to who has access to your kids and who's keeping an eye on the kids.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's a great point. In other words, who are we going to allow access to the kids, right?
SPEAKER 09 :
Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. And I'm guessing that's where things can get a little dicey sometimes because you've got to be careful that you're not alienating parents and relatives, but at the same time we want to keep the kids safe.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right, exactly, exactly. So, you know, I've had the issue of what do you do if you're a sports league and you have parents who are on the sex abuse registry, sex offenders registry, because, in my opinion, there are too many people on that registry because you get, for years ago, people who were charged with statutory rape because, you know, a 19-year-old had sex with a 17-year-old girlfriend. And so you have to walk through how do you deal with parents? What do you let the other parents in the league know? What rules do you have for them? So a lot of these rules have been – there are rules out there, and you just find people in your community – who are willing to go do the research and see, for example, what rules do churches have in place about sex offenders who want to attend church? You don't have to completely reinvent the wheel. You can learn from a lot of other folks.
SPEAKER 07 :
Great point. Great point. I think on top of that, common sense has to fit into some of this at some point as well, Debbie. In other words... Yeah, well, that might be a great policy for them, and they're a great large organization, and they have the ability, by the way, to put all these windows in the doors and things like that. We don't have that ability, so we're going to have to figure out a workaround.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right, exactly, exactly. And sometimes, you know, they get bad advice. They get advice that's designed for groups with huge budgets. One really common rule that I hear, and it makes me crazy because it's such a high-standard is always have two adults around with kids every time you have a group of kids. Well, I don't have many clients who can hire twice as many people as they need.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, I've been around the nonprofit church end of things enough, Debbie, to know that that's a pipe dream.
SPEAKER 09 :
It is. You're not going to hire two teachers for every classroom. Nobody can afford to do that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Nope, not going to happen. Not going to happen.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. So you're looking at what's the policy and how can you – what's the principle behind that and how can you reach it another way?
SPEAKER 07 :
Another question I had, and again, being the business guy that I am because I know how involved these folks can be and insert themselves, and I don't always agree with them either, are insurance companies. Because a lot of times insurance companies will even come out with a set of things that you must be doing or else. How much do you take that into consideration, or do you? Or do you just go about doing what you need to do on your own?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, insurance companies have a wealth of information. They have a lot of statistics at their disposal that I don't have. They can do loss runs, and they can get granular down to the X number of assaults by kids at camps in the summer months kind of thing. So I definitely pay attention to their expertise, but... again, you have to see what will work for you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, again, for example, they could easily be one of those that comes back and says, you need two for every, you know, every classroom has to have two adults in it. I could easily see an insurance company coming back and saying that. It's like, yeah, you going to pay for that?
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So, I mean, insurance companies will, a lot of them will offer discounts if you have your, your, staff go through a particular training, those kind of things are, you know, training's always... Sure. Most of the insurance companies that I've worked with don't have specific rules that you have to follow. Okay. They just have recommended, take a look at this kind of rules.
SPEAKER 07 :
Do you get into anything along the lines of, you know, security cameras, dash cams in vehicles that might be transporting kids around and so on? Is that anything you get into?
SPEAKER 09 :
I get into it to the point that cameras are not for prevention. They are if something comes up later. Because the only way they're good for prevention is if you have someone who is able to sit and look at that video to figure out what's going on. And, again, most of my clients don't.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
You only find out about things after the fact.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, no, that makes sense. Do you get into – this is something that I was always big on in the organizations I was involved in because my background is I'm a car guy, so I'm kind of coming from that end of things. And I was always big on are we transporting kids around in safe vehicles and doing things correctly? And, yes, I know that part of it can also get expensive, but a lot of times organizations will just pack – as many kids into parents' vehicles as they possibly can. Is that really the best thing to do? Do you get into any of that?
SPEAKER 09 :
No, I get into it from the point of view of what kind of waivers do you need and what kind of background checks do you need of the parents who are driving the kids. You know, you have to check for their driving record as well as their criminal record. for drivers. But again, our focus is let's look at what you... have, and it may be that buying a van, although 15-passenger vans are highly unsafe, according to statistics, but maybe you need a school bus or a smaller van. Put that on the list for later, and in the meantime, let's figure out how to have rules that you can safely use what you have.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. Makes total sense. Debbie, how do folks get a hold of the book? If there's somebody listening, and we have a lot of folks, by the way, that are in these type of organizations where they could benefit from this, how do they find it?
SPEAKER 09 :
The easiest way to find it is going to be Protecting Other People's Children. which is our website, or you can look for Protecting Other People's Children on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
SPEAKER 07 :
Awesome. I'm glad you wrote this. There will be a lot of individual organizations out there that I'm sure will benefit from this. This is something that I've been, as you can tell, been involved in some of this over the years, and I appreciate this. I don't think in a lot of cases, especially smaller organizations, really think through this like they should.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right, and that's what our book does. It just takes you through, think about this, do this checklist, think about that, and develop your policies.
SPEAKER 07 :
Awesome. Debbie, again, thank you so much. I appreciate your time.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you so much for the opportunity.
SPEAKER 07 :
and you either, A, don't have anything or you have it and don't follow it like she said a moment ago, it can get a lot more expensive than doing this stuff on the front side. So Cub Creek EDN Air Conditioning coming up next. And if you've got any problems at all when it comes to your AC or HVAC, give them a call today. Find them at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
All right, got a couple of minutes here. I want to squeeze this in. Again, more of a PSA, a public service announcement, but very important because, again, last thing I want to see happen to anybody, and it doesn't matter age, this can happen to most anybody, the scams that are out there. And this one is something I had not heard of, so I read this in the Colorado Sun. It is the cryptocurrency ATM scam, which I didn't know they were cryptocurrency ATMs, but there is because of... Things in Colorado, marijuana and so on, I guess folks can actually deposit money and get cryptocurrency in exchange because banking with that particular type of money is, in a lot of cases, illegal. Banks won't do that and so on. So there's cryptocurrency ATMs. So what a lot of scammers will do, which I didn't know this... They will find unsuspecting individuals. In the case of this particular story, it's a 91-year-old lady that had spent countless hours on the phone with some anonymous man impersonating the Geek Squad at Best Buy, demanding she send them cash. And by the time she had gotten finished with this particular scam, she fed $8,000 into a cryptocurrency ATM. She then finally got a hold of the police, felt like she was being scammed. They were able to get back a portion of that money. The problem is once it goes there and goes into the whole crypto world, you're likely to never see that money again. So point being, and this is what I want to leave folks with. Number one, no legitimate organization. I'm going to repeat this. No legitimate organization will ever ask you to turn your money into crypto. Period. Not going to happen. That is the number one red flag that it's a scam is somebody wants you to go buy crypto or do crypto or invest in crypto or anything along those lines. Number one reason you know it's a scam. Number two. Nobody like Geek Squad or anybody like that will ever require you to do anything on the front side before something is actually fixed and you meet somebody face-to-face that you know is legit. They've showed up in the van. They've shown up and done everything they need to do, and you can tell by looking at them they're in uniform. You've got a Best Buy receipt, the whole nine yards. Sure, at that point in time, pay them with a credit card. card, by the way, never a check. I've talked about that in the past numerous times. There's a reason, and there's lots of reasons, by the way, to use a credit card, not to go into debt, but for protection because of things along these lines. You can always get your money back on a scam with a credit card where you will not feeding a cryptocurrency ATM machine. So just a little PSA, anybody asking you to do anything at all with crypto, hang up the Do not respond, whatever the case, but don't get caught in those traps. Please, please, please. So I'll leave you with that. We'll be back for Hour 2 in a moment. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 13 :
Average Guys Average Guys Average Guys
In this engaging episode of Rush to Reason, host John Rush and guest Greg Merced tackle the often challenging topic of guiding children toward financial independence. Through candid discussions and personal anecdotes, they highlight the importance of teaching financial responsibility from a young age. Greg Merced brings his expertise to the table, offering practical advice on how to balance familial support with the necessary push towards self-sufficiency. Listeners are treated to stories of financial lessons learned the hard way and strategies for ensuring that children understand the value of money, the importance of budgeting, and the power of early financial planning. This episode is a must-listen for parents, educators, or anyone interested in fostering financial acumen in the next generation. Discover how to navigate the emotional aspects of financial decision-making and get inspired by stories of practical applications, from childhood savings to planning for major life changes. Whether you're a seasoned parent or just starting the journey with your little ones, this episode offers a wealth of knowledge and encouragement.
SPEAKER 08 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 16 :
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 06 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 15 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did!
SPEAKER 16 :
Get a job, Turk! You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same, and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 13 :
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 16 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 17 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, we are back. Hour two, Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Greg Merced joining us now. He is a family finance expert. Greg, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 09 :
Hi, John. I'm doing good.
SPEAKER 07 :
How are you doing? I'm doing well. So before we get started, because family finance and raising kids and all that is what we're going to talk about. But I got a quick story I want to share with you that I think goes along with our conversation today. So I had raised several kids and did raise several kids, I should say. And in one particular occasion, I went are grown. daughter had left and they had gone on their her and her husband had gone on their honeymoon and they came back and they were staying with us for just a few days before their apartment and all that was ready to go and you know how that kind of goes and so we were kind of having a conversation my my at that time you know he son-in-law and i were having a little chat and something came up about the cell phone my daughter cell phone And something to the effect of, you know, something like, you know, can we get an upgrade or, you know, I don't know. I don't know exactly how the conversation went, but I promptly piped up and said something to the effect of, you guys can do whatever you want to with said cell phone and plan because she's now on your payroll, not mine any longer. So you guys do whatever you feel like you want to do from this point forward.
SPEAKER 09 :
Wow, you're amazing. I think that's exactly what we should be doing, all of us. Okay, so question I have for you is, why don't more do that? So this is how dumb I am, okay? Here I am as a financial expert. I just switched our family over to Verizon and from T-Mobile, whatever. They gave me some credit because I did it. And I I actually went and paid off two of my son's devices, about $1,000 worth, for him. I'm thinking, what am I doing? Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing. What are you doing? This is what happens when you do emotional things.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, good point.
SPEAKER 09 :
Good point. So there is kind of this fine line, and I understand that, right? And I've done some good things. I've done some bad things. But just trying to, you know, and with cell phones specifically, it's kind of interesting because there's a lot of times that you can actually get cheaper plan if you have more people, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, they give you a group discount basically.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, exactly. So, you know, you can say, all right, you know, daughter, I'm kicking you off and good luck. And then all of a sudden they're paying $100 a month for the two of them as opposed to, you know, $40 a month. So it's kind of like, hmm. It's a little bit sticky.
SPEAKER 07 :
It is, although I'll give you my take on that, Greg, and I get where you're going, and I fully understand, and we want to try to save money and even help as much as we can, although my take on this, and maybe I'm wrong, maybe this is where you can straighten me out. I look at that and say, yeah, I get it. It could be $40 a month instead of $100, but my side of it is, well, yeah. Yeah, but at the end of the day, how do they learn to do this and budget and do things correctly? And yes, I know as parents we're trying to help them, but are they ever going to learn if I just leave them on my plan?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, no, I totally agree with you. And, yeah, you have to grow up at some point, right? And that means goodbye. You're off my plan. And so I think there's a simple answer to this. Maybe this is a meet-in-the-middle thing, right? So if that is something, we want to get the group discount, we want to save them a little money because they're just starting out, et cetera, et cetera, say, listen, I want to be very clear with you. I'll keep you on my plan, but you have to pay me. Like, you Venmo me every month, okay? And I'm not going to harass you for it. You either Venmo me or you don't, and if you don't twice, I'm just going to cancel you off. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER 07 :
You know what? That one... That one I could – and back then, by the way, Venmo – this is long enough, literally long enough in the past that Venmo, believe it or not, didn't exist at that point in time. I'm not sure that we even had some of the fancy smartphone devices and things that we have now. So a lot of things have, of course, evolved since those days. But I like what you're saying because that one's easy. You miss your two Venmo payments to me, and guess what? You'll find out really quick you're not on the plan. Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
Exactly. And maybe that's the best way to get them off. But clear expectations and try not to make it emotional like I just did. Right. And I think that's a great that's a great way to do it.
SPEAKER 07 :
OK, what are some of the... Other things that parents, especially parents, because we're entering now this time where kids will be graduating from high school or college, or they may be going on to college, or they may be going from college into the job world, and yet maybe mom and dad have been helping them through college, which I'm not opposed to, Greg. In this particular case, my rule was I will help you all the way through college, and I'll help you get where you need to go. But the minute you get married, you're on your own, including if you get married halfway through college, you can decide that's the direction you want to head. Fine. But remember, you're not on my payroll anymore. You're on your husband's payroll.
SPEAKER 09 :
I love it. So I literally have a spreadsheet that says, you know, what is the financial situation here? And it breaks it down just like that. If you're in college or if you're married. When you're married, it all goes to the other column, and I love it. I think that's a good idea. Now, when it comes to helping through college, I think all parents, well, most parents, want to try to help the kids through college. Here's kind of what I think is a good idea. Help with rent. Not with tuition. Okay, I know that might sound a little bit odd, but here's the reasoning behind it. If you help with rent, you're going to have to kind of keep them safe and protected anyways. Right. And if you do that, then they have to become scholarship experts because they're on the hook.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's true. No, you're right. Good point. I like that, actually.
SPEAKER 09 :
And there's tons of options out there. There's academic scholarships, there's sports scholarships, there's religious ones. There's a million different scholarships, and that makes the incentives align to where they have to go and hustle that. They just waitress and drive Uber and do whatever they can to make some money to pay the tuition. I don't care. But if I were you, I'd invest some time into figuring that out, and then you can pay less. I like that. I like that idea.
SPEAKER 07 :
I like that as well because the other thing they could be looking at, which is a whole other avenue I might talk about today – is the trades, because we don't have enough in the trades. That's no longer, in my opinion, Greg, looked down upon like it once was. Some folks can actually go to trade school for half the time you would normally go to college and come out earning twice as much as you would with a college degree.
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely. I think those are great. I think there's so many, you know, there's welding, there's mechanics, there's hair, there's makeup, there's all these different things. And you can do really well with those. And I think that that's right. We shouldn't, you know, say, hey, college or nothing, but also say, hey, same deal. If you want to go live at home, but be in this trade school and learn how to weld or do diesel mechanics or or just cut hair or whatever, great. You can stay home and that $500 or whatever I was going to kick in for rent at the college, I'll just help them with the tuition in that regard. Okay.
SPEAKER 07 :
I'm in for that. No, I'm in for that. That makes total sense. Here's a question for you, Greg. I mean, I know when I did this, but I'm not saying I did this correctly. How early in a child's life should you start talking about some of these financial things?
SPEAKER 09 :
Now, this is perfect. So you should literally start talking about this when they're young. I'm literally five, six years old. I know that seems insane, but I think if you can teach a kid in a very transparent way, what is going on? And it's not that hard. You're sitting on the couch watching Netflix together. You can say, listen, my phone just buzzed and I got the electric bill. And I'm in Denver. It's hot in the summer and it's $400. Just let them know that that's how much it costs. Their eyes are going to open. And these kinds of things are like... What?
SPEAKER 1 :
$400?
SPEAKER 09 :
And then all of a sudden when you ask them to go scoop the dog poop on the lawn and do all those things around the house, they're going to think, yeah, maybe I should.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, I was like you. I started the kids very early. I've got another story I'll tell. I help some of you out there listening because all of my kids are now grown and gone. My youngest, who will join me here at 430, is 33 now. So totally different playing field now for me when it comes to kids and all of that. But one thing that we did when the kids were little, and I did this on purpose, and this is going to sound really out there, Greg. In fact, some people are going to listen to me and think, man alive, John, you were like an ogre as a parent. And I wasn't. I wanted my kids to learn the financial end of things. And I wanted them to understand what a dollar was. And so when my kids were, I think my youngest, who's going to talk to me here on air shortly, he was probably no more than 10, meaning my oldest, maybe he was eight, probably eight. And the oldest was 17 or 18. So that's kind of the spread that we had. And we had seven. So I raised seven kids. And so one year... We were going on vacation and we were planning on going to a very nice place. And I'll just say we were going to Hawaii. And we told the kids Christmas time that this is what we were going to do. So we gave them plenty of time. We're going to go to Hawaii in July. There's seven months ahead of you. And here's the deal. We're going to go. But each one of you is going to buy family meal at night once, meaning we're going to be there for a week. There are seven of you. So you all are going to buy the family one whole meal on your dime, not anybody else's. And you've got seven months to save up. And we kind of gave them an idea of what those meals would cost. So they had seven months to be able to gather that money and so on. And so. My wife thought, oh, man, this is going to be crazy. And it kind of was. And where it really got crazy was when we went to pay. So we're at a restaurant. Everybody's on the same page. Everybody knew on the front side what was going to happen. They all had their own little money to be able to do this, Greg. When they actually started to pay, I think the rest of the restaurants thought we were the cruelest parents on the planet because here these little kids are, in some cases, 10, 8, 12, 14, whatever. They've got their little pocketbook out, and they're rattling out this cash to make the – and we said we'd pay the tip. All they had to do was pay the meal. We would handle the tip. That would be mom and dad's portion of this. But my point was to teach them how much vacations cost.
SPEAKER 09 :
I love it. Are you kidding me? I mean, sure, you got booed by the other people in the restaurant. We did. I mean, that's such a good thing, and I bet you they still talk about it.
SPEAKER 07 :
They do, and they understood really quickly how much those meals cost. And what was funny is they realized, oh, if I order this, this is what it's really costing at the end of the day. And in the future, I should be reminded of that when mom and dad are paying.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I love it. I mean, that's essentially what we've done. You know, I create a busy kid and now our kids just have cards that they pay with. Right. Because things change. But it's such an important thing to teach kids early in life what that means. And, you know, you swipe the card and holy smokes, the money's gone and it took me six months to save that up. Right. It's a different world now because it is invisible money, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
In a lot of ways, it is. Yes, you're right. It's not cash like it was for my example. As they were using cash, they could see it leave pretty quickly. And we encouraged them to bring enough where they could, if they wanted to buy a trinket for one of their friends or a boyfriend or whatever the case may be, they needed to make sure they had enough money in reserve. Now, I will say I gave my kids an advantage as well because I've always been self-employed. I've had businesses pretty much my whole adult career, Greg. So they had also an advantage because they had immediate ability to work in the business and earn that money as well. So they did have an advantage that way.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and that is a big thing. And nowadays, you know, a lot of kids are living in very kind of urban lifestyles, right? And it's a little bit tougher. But, you know, there are opportunities out there. You can go in Denver. You can go mow somebody's lawn. You can go walk somebody's dog. You can pet sit. Like, there's lots of stuff you can do out there.
SPEAKER 07 :
Greg, to your point, yes, there are tons. And I'm a part of some neighborhood Facebook pages and so on. And I can't believe how many times people ask that question. Where do I find a young kid that will do X, Y, Z? Because A, I need it done. B, I want to help them. And Greg, I just can't believe how much of that is available because no one does it anymore.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. No, it's totally true. I mean, a hustling kid, holy smokes, he can make a lot of money and she can make a lot of money. And it is out there. It's just a matter of entrepreneurialism, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, that's exactly right.
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely. It's a great thing. You can teach them right.
SPEAKER 07 :
When is it – let me ask it this way before I let you go. When is that time that all support is cut off?
SPEAKER 09 :
When do you stop the gravy train?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I just stepped on a rake just last week with mine, and he's 27. Okay. But I would say I think that what you talked about a little bit earlier is a great time. It's like when you get married or when you graduate college, the gravy train is ending. That is when the ride is over, you're on your own, fly on your own, done. And you have to start weaning them off that, you know, as you get closer to the station, right? As the train is slowing down, you've got to kind of start weaning them off. And I think that's a good thing.
SPEAKER 07 :
And they'll want to do it, frankly. And you know what? It's the best thing you could ever do for them. Greg, how do folks find you?
SPEAKER 09 :
BusyKid.com. We're just trying to help kids learn about money and how to manage it properly so that they can get out of your house.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. You're welcome anytime. As you can tell, Greg, you're in great company.
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely. Good job.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I appreciate you, Greg, because I think it's very important when it comes to teaching kids about finances. Yeah, for sure. Thanks, John. Thanks, Greg. Appreciate you very much. And I've got a few more things I'm going to add to that when I come back, by the way, for some of you. And, yes, some of you listening are thinking, man, John, you were hard. I was, although I will tell you that right now my kids are self-sufficient. They don't live off of me. I don't support them in any way, shape, or form. They have learned how to do these things on their own to their own credit, which I'm very proud of them for doing so. Veteran Windows and Doors is next. And Dave, by the way, would love to help you when it comes to what are the best windows and doors for you and your home. Because, no, it's not equal like a lot of other window and door companies will tell you. Call Dave today, 303-529-0720.
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SPEAKER 07 :
All right, to kind of recap that story, and I might even let Richard chime in here in a moment, but the one thing that I will tell you about that story of my kids all buying a meal on family vacation, and we did it one time, only once. After that, I never made them do it again. I just wanted them to learn what this cost was so they understood in the future what mom and dad were doing to provide these things. And I will tell you that while other patrons sort of looked at us with sort of the stink eye look, The waiters and waitresses thought that was the best thing ever. They were, A, impressed that our kids were, A, well-behaved. Keep in mind, there's nine of us doing dinner, and our kids were very well-behaved. And we would get compliments from the waiters and waitresses on that. On top of that, the kids paying, they were just ecstatic. A, they couldn't believe that a family was doing something along those lines to teach kids the value of money. And then, of course, I was giving the tip, and I always made sure that we gave 20% or more to make sure that everybody was taken care of, including the waiters and waitresses. And again, at the end of the day, we never once had a waiter or a waitress or owner even come to us and say, you know, what are you guys doing? This is just nonsense. And this is just, you know, child abuse as to what you're doing with these kids. And once we were able to have a conversation with the waiters or waitresses and explain what we had done and how much time we had given them, and they had plenty of opportunity to earn this money and so on. And they all did, to their credit. Every one of my kids came with more than enough money to handle not only dinner, but to buy whatever knickknacks and souvenirs or whatever else they wanted to do. And one other thing Charlie and I were just talking about as well, and I'm big on this, and this is just something that I highly, highly recommend and big on, We never let our boys babysit, ever, ever. Too much risk. It's just there's too much exposure there. I believe, even to this day, it was this way way back then, and it hasn't changed. If anything, it's worse now than it was then. Our girls could babysit. Our boys could not. Our boys had to figure out other ways to make money. They had to mow lawns, plow snow, shovel snow, do things along those lines. They were not allowed to babysit. Our girls could babysit and make some extra money that way, but our boys were not allowed to for obvious reasons. Obvious reasons, I should say, when it comes to that, and I'm still big on that. That was something that I had read years and years ago. I think it was James Dobson way back when that said, you know what? It is in your best interest as parents to not have your boys babysit. And that was one of those things that I just took to heart, and I still believe in that today. I don't think boys should babysit. Again, it's not in their nature. I think there's too much risk. There's too much opportunity for accusations. And not that it can't happen even with girls, because it can, but it's way worse with boys. So I'm a big one on boys should not babysit, period. End of discussion. In my world, it was don't ask because it's going to be an automatic no. And everybody that knew us knew that our boys were not going to be allowed to do that. That was just not going to happen. And we didn't allow that, nor do I think that that should happen today. But back to the whole teaching kids the money end of things. And I can still remember to this day, my son-in-law, that story I told, my son-in-law looking at me like, literally jaw dropping open like, oh, oh, I mean, I got to pony up this from now on. Yeah, you're ponying up from now on because she's on your payroll. I am no longer writing the checks. We're done. And I think parents are very misguided and wrong when they're married kids to We'll be right back. This is me talking. Some of you may disagree with me, but you are making a huge mistake in writing checks for your married kids. Period. In fact, like I said, I told Greg this. Once they graduated, they're on their own. Whether you're married or not, you're on your own. Now, most of mine were either on their way to being married or very close to, and we didn't really have any issues along those lines. But, yeah, I'm not writing the check for you any longer. You are now on your own, and you're going to be paying for these things on your own, and I'll stand by that. So, all right, I'll get a little feedback from Richard here in a moment on this and ask him a couple of questions. Golden Eagle Financial, speaking of finances, is coming up next. And much like we were talking to Greg about getting yourself prepared, financially speaking, this is Al's expertise. Call him today, Golden Eagle Financial. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 12 :
Golden Eagle Financial will help ensure that your nest egg will last. Advances in medical science have helped Americans live longer, which is wonderful. But where retirement advisors used to plan for about 15 years of income, today retirees live much longer. That means you're going to need more money for more years of living an amazing retirement. Sure, there are programs to bridge that gap, like Medicare and Social Security, but that's not the fulfilling retirement that you've always dreamed of. Al Smith and Golden Eagle Financial use financial strategies with guaranteed lifetime income to stretch your principal to last longer so you can do more of the things you want to do in retirement, like vacations with your kids, helping others, or giving to your favorite charities. People like you who are well-prepared will have a more fulfilling, stress-free retirement. We'll be right back.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, I talked during the first hour about roof savers of Colorado and the fact that some of these storms of late will create storm chasers, people that actually come from other areas, other parts of the country. They show up here and they door knock. And my point is, please don't answer the door. Don't talk to these people. Don't sign anything. Don't let them on your roof. Call Dave. Instead, he'll handle everything for you, including the call to the adjuster as needed. 303-710-6916.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 06 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive. This is John Rush.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. One of you texted in several text messages along the lines of what I was talking about earlier, by the way, which I appreciate. Thank you for all of the text messages. And one thing, too, that I was very big on and my son Richard now can attest to this is I was never one because I didn't believe in saying we can't afford that. What I would say were things along the lines and Richard, you can attest to this. I would say things like, you know, it's either not in the budget or we need to save for that or hey, you guys can help contribute to that or whatever the case may be. I am not one, Richard, you know me on this. I don't like the term we can't afford that because that's a huge negative and it makes it sound like you're poor. And in a lot of cases, families aren't.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, you know, especially in today's day and age, right? You know, you and I, obviously, you've done a little bit of traveling. A lot of people have. And one thing that you did for us that was different, this is sort of a side topic, is, you know, you did have us go visit a true third world country, right? And so there is a massive difference, Dad, in a lot of what goes on in, well, and like you say, and that's not to say that, you know, people should go out and, you know, they can afford, you know, big screen TV or whatever else it is. But a lot of times, and you and I have had this conversation many times, we afford what we want to afford.
SPEAKER 07 :
Families do. You know what? And I think, Richard, great point. I think a lot of times families will tell kids, you know, we can't afford that, but yet mom and dad just did X, Y, Z. And it's like, well, wait a minute. You're being a hypocrite in what you just said because, you know, you just did a, you know, yourselves, you as a couple just did X, Y, Z vacation, but then you tell the kids you can't afford X, Y, Z. No, wrong answer, by the way.
SPEAKER 08 :
Correct. I would. Well, and like you said, there's definitely a difference. And again, like you said, you you learn with kids, you sort of learn the verbiage because there is a difference. Right. You know, there's verbiage is key for us. For example, we in our family, we we don't say we will try our best. We will do our best is one thing that we say.
SPEAKER 07 :
Way different, by the way. Good point.
SPEAKER 08 :
Because, yeah, trying, right, insinuates that, well, you know, you could fail versus doing your best is you're going to do your absolute best. And that's not saying you will succeed in everything you do or you're going to get, you know, a perfect score or 100%, whatever it might be, but you do your best, right? That's sort of kind of how we differentiate that. And you're 100% correct. When it comes to affording things or spending money, you know, like you say, I think there's a key differentiation there for a lot of people to say, okay, You know, or honestly, maybe even there's a thing that is, no, we don't think it's in the best interest of the family to purchase that at this point in time. Right. And there may be reasons that go into it, right? But again, it goes back to, you know, that TV. You know, okay, we don't think it's a good idea to go spend $2,000 on that TV with, you know, we have X, Y, and Z coming down the pipeline that we need to make sure of, right? I mean, maybe a school, maybe we have a sporting event. Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
And you know what? I think, you know, Richard, to your point, I think it's very... It's very fine, it's very fair, by the way, for families to talk about those things where kids might be saying, hey, you know what, we want that next gaming console. Well, for me personally, I would be saying, great, guess what? You start saving up, you start working some extra, you start doing some things here and there. There's plenty of things for kids to, we talked about this a moment ago, there's plenty of things for young kids to do to earn that extra money. Great, you want that console? Go buy it. Go save up and buy it. You're more than welcome to.
SPEAKER 08 :
Correct. And, you know, my oldest, he's all about that right now. He's about to say, well, you know, we can do this or I'm going to go take my money and go do that. There's another piece of it, too, which is just because you have the money doesn't mean you should. It doesn't mean you should go do something. That's something that we're trying to teach them right now, which is to say, you know, maybe, yes, you got that birthday money and you've gotten some Christmas money over the year or good grades or whatever it might be, you know, because we're kind of coming to the end of the year. And, of course, the one thing you did, right, you incentivized us to get good grades because you always said that is our job, right? School is our job and it's our job to do well at it. And if we did well and succeeded, right, then you would reward us.
SPEAKER 07 :
There wasn't too many things I paid for, but I did pay for those.
SPEAKER 08 :
Correct. No, we did not get an allowance, right? We did not get paid for chores.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, you did not. That was all part of what was required to run the family.
SPEAKER 08 :
Correct, but one of the things you did was good grades, right? But back to what you're saying, and it's something that we've adopted, but as a family, yes, you can pay for things. And that's not to say that other families' priorities are the same as yours.
SPEAKER 07 :
Nope, everyone's are different.
SPEAKER 08 :
And we have this. We've got friends where they like to travel, and they do things that way. And it's so funny, right, that side note. But finances with families and with friends and stuff are like the most, like your religion is less sacred and less secretive than your finances amongst friends, right? Because no one knows, right? You see people taking trips or going here, doing this, but you don't know their faith. Some people, Dad, they will go into debt. to go, you know, they'll put things on a credit card and not pay it, whatever. They will do that in order to take certain trips or do certain things or have a certain, you know, lifestyle. But like you say, in America today, now it's not how you want to pay for it, that's a different story, but no, there's really not... things for most people, I guess kind of everyday things, that you quote-unquote can't afford. Now, whether you should or not is probably a different question versus if you can, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep. Okay, so before we move on, I did want to get this in. I know we've got to go to break here really quick because we've got some car reviews we want to... we want to squeeze in. But I told the story with our last finance guest about you kids when you were little and how we decided, okay, we're all going to go to Hawaii, which is great. But in turn, and I told you guys all this at Christmas, in turn, you guys are each going to buy one meal, you know, one meal out at night, one dinner out for everybody, the entire family. And actually, I think the way we did that was we excluded mom and dad. You guys had to pay for everybody else. You didn't have to pay for us. You had to pay for each other for that, I believe is how we did that. But roughly you needed to save, I don't know, $120, $140 to be able to do that at that time. And I told that story, and I said I would ask you, did that scar you or did that teach you how much vacation actually cost?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I will say it scarred me in a way of, I guess, scarring can be good and bad, right? Because with a scar, there's usually a story that goes behind it. And it doesn't necessarily always have to be a bad thing because you learn from it. And, yeah, for me, it was vacations are expensive. And I think I told you the other day, I don't know how we were able to do some of the things we did. And you reminded me, you know, there was lots of saving and lots of planning and looking for the best deals and things like that. But, yes, it was lots of working, lots of good grades, right, to save in order to do that. I mean, at that time, obviously, I was doing a little bit of work around, you know, that house. I think I remember you did some staining of furniture and did some, you know, sweeping of floors and things like that at the businesses. And it was starting in a good way, right, because, well, I just remember – pulling out, you know, my, you know, my little, my Velcro wallet at the time and pulling out my dollar, you know, my, my 50, my twenties at that time, I didn't even think I had a hundred, but pulling out my twenties to pay and then having to factor in tip on top of it and some things like that. So no, it was definitely a good learning experience and not saying everyone should go to do it, but man, could you imagine paying $120 for a meal for seven kids and
SPEAKER 07 :
You can't do that today. It's at least double that or more. And yeah, there's definitely been inflation. But point is, it still took X amount of time and money for you guys to earn that. And reality is you all did well. And I think, knock on wood, the majority, if not all of my kids, understand the value of a dollar, which I think is very important.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I think so, and we've got to run here, but yeah, like you say, it's those little pieces that, yeah, you can, you know, some people say, well, that's child abuse or scarring. Well, you know, it's scarring in a good way because it teaches you value, Dad, so then that way when you do get older, you do appreciate it. We appreciate right now, even with the kids, there are certain things you've got to do. You've got to go clean out the chicken coop. Do I get money for that? No, you don't get any money for that. You've got to clean out the chickens, and you've got to make sure they've got water and food, and the dogs are fed. That's just part of the cost of living in this family.
SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 06 :
We don't yell at you. We inform you. Now, back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. That time of the week where we do some car reviews. And Richard, you drove a Volkswagen Jetta not that long ago. Talk about that, if you would.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, Dad, this is one of our cars. Well, you know, we had some friends growing up that this was a really fun car, and they've changed in a good way, Dad, and I'm going to talk about it. So, yeah, 2025 Volkswagen Jetta, Dad. This is the 1.5 T SEL with the four-cylinder engine, front-wheel drive with driving mode selection. This car, Dad, all in with, I guess, let me see here. Yes, with Destination in the different paint color, which was actually a really pretty, they call it Monument Gray, is $30,680, which is hard to do, Dad. It's an updated exterior, redesigned 8-inch touchscreen. Unfortunately, there's no longer manual option available, at least on the lower trims. But, Dad, this is part of the seventh generation Jetta, and this is one of, I guess, my favorite cars to drive just in general because it just works so well. It runs really well, even on our altitude. It just operates. The Volkswagen infotainment system is easy to use. You don't have a whole lot of buttons. You're trying to figure out where this thing goes. You've got different trim levels, Dad. They've done this with the Jetta for a long time. This is the top of the line, and you can get an S, jetta dad for about 23 000 just a little bit over 23 and in this case for about 30 000 all in full equipped which is really hard in today's market that considering i think the average new car is closer to the 45 or 50 000 mark this is really exceptional fuel economy 29 and 40 for an average of 33 and that's something that we were able to achieve again 158 horsepower turbocharged one and a half liter four cylinder which works really really well um it's it's not the largest sedan out there dad but i was able to have two kids in the back seat and they were able to kind of climb in and out and do what they needed to do uh i don't know if you're going to fit four full-size adults in there but just it's again it's not meant to do that right this is Well, I guess you tell me. I don't know if you would refer to this as a starter car, but to me that's kind of how it feels, right? This is a great kind of first car starter.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I mean, it might be a little larger. I mean, it depends on the person. I guess it would be the way to look at that, Richard. Could it be a starter car? Absolutely. It's a little bigger than what probably most would use as a starter car, although not so big that it couldn't be considered one. And price-wise, yeah, absolutely it could be.
SPEAKER 08 :
And that's kind of the point for me. We could kind of sit here and talk about the features and stuff on it all day. It's very user-friendly. It's got charging ports all over the place. I already mentioned easy-to-operate system. The dash is a digital cluster, and you can kind of change it, and they've got some different views and modes on there. Honestly, Dad, if folks are looking for a car like this that gets good fuel economy, it's front-wheel drive, which here in Colorado, Dad, would operate – you know, pretty, you know, honestly, in most of the conditions that we have. It's got the eight-speed automatic transmission on this car, and you can do the different paddle shifting. I would encourage folks to check this vehicle out, Dad, because it may fly under the radar. And so if they do that, head to the local Volkswagen dealer and let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason sent you.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, the next car that you drove, which is an interesting car, and this one we can both talk about a little bit, because it's a Mazda, but it's not all Mazda because it's got some Toyota technology in it as well, and that's a CX-50.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, this is the 2025 Mazda CX-50 hybrid, and folks, and this may not apply to many of you, but if you were ever thinking to yourself, I would love a Toyota hybrid technology, but I'm not a huge fan of their interior. This may be the car for you, and I'm not joking when I say that. It's, again, the hybrid powertrain has joined the lineup for this year. It's All of the underpinnings, Dad, of the Toyota system generates 219 horsepower. Let me see here. Yep, and then there's also a naturally aspirated model, Dad, but in this one, this gives you all of the technology that a Toyota would give you in the hybrid, and we have talked about that. countless times, right? I'll just say it, how good the technology is. But one of our favorite interiors that we get to drive in and sit in down on occasion is the Mazda interior. It's just got this really nice upscale feel without the price tag. Is that a fair way to say it?
SPEAKER 07 :
That's a good way of saying it. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER 08 :
And price point, real quick, speaking of that, is $35,390 to about $41,470. And in terms of, well, I'll just say it because it is a Toyota. This is the Honda CR-V, the Toyota RAV4, that segment, Dad. And so, again, if you've ever seen a RAV4, but maybe you don't love their infotainment system or you don't like where their buttons are put, this literally is a Mazda in every other sense of the word. And you wouldn't know that it was a Toyota outside of just looking at what is going on inside of it, to be honest with you. And I really enjoyed that piece of it. And like I mentioned, I've always enjoyed Mazda's interior. They did a phenomenal job. It's got all of the creature comforts on this, I believe.
SPEAKER 07 :
You get more for your money with theirs than you would the comparable cars.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, and I believe, don't quote me 100%, I believe we had the premium plus version, which I think had heated and ventilated front seats. I know it for sure had heated seats, but it's got a lot of the other creature comforts that you'd like, Dad, right? You know, dual zone, climate control, things like that. And like you say, you get some of those comforts maybe without the price tag. Last thing I'll say is maybe it's just a user preference, right? Maybe you get into one car and you don't, and that's why we always tell people to get out and enjoy these things, because you may like where buttons are in a car, but you may get in another car that's very similarly price-pointed, but you just don't like how it feels. And there's nothing else to it. It's not a bad car. You just may not like it. So I highly encourage folks to get out, test drive it. I really think you'll enjoy it. Again, 2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid. When you do it, let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush Reason sent you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, one more that we want to squeeze in here because we usually do these on Mondays and we've got a holiday coming up. So let's do one more. The 2025 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid Calligraphy All-Wheel Drive, which we both drove.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and that's sort of a mouthful, Dad. But what I will say, and we've driven Santa phase before. I will just say this, Dad. Speaking of price point, as we just mentioned, Under $50,000, I don't know if you will find a car of this size for the same money with the hybrid technology and all of the features that kind of have come along with this. And this was, again, a rare car that you and I both got to drive. You got to drive this car, and this is the first time you've been in a new Santa Fe that they've actually – It's redesigned, I believe, yeah, for 2024, so there's no major changes for this year. But you got in it, and I believe your first words were to me were, wow, this is really nice.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it's interesting. I'm not—I'll just be straight up honest. The looks of the car, it's not my ultimate favorite. I'll just say it straight up. Although— It grew on me as I started driving it. One of the first things my wife even commented on was, wow, you know, the interior is really nice and it's spacious and love the fact that it's got, for example, dual phone chargers in the console where you both can lay your phone down magnet, you know, on the wireless charger end of things and charge both of them. They've even got some ports that you can even control or if you want to just charge or if you want to talk to the car through the cord. All sorts of little features they've got going on, Richard, that really do separate this car from a lot of its competitors. And at the same time, it runs well, the hybrid side of it. I mean, I drove it almost a week, not quite a week, on a half a tank.
SPEAKER 08 :
I was going to say it's got an estimated 36 miles per gallon, Dad, which is compared to the 24 miles per gallon on a normal Santa Fe, it's really hard to beat that. Obviously, I even drove it after you got it and drove around and took the kids to school and did some things that way, and I never put fuel in it. So when you combine your level of driving with my driving and we never had to add any fuel to it, 100 the other thing i'll say and you kind of mention is folks a lot of times we kind of get in we don't get into the nitty-gritty of these cars as far as how many car ports and or you know charging ports and some of that they have but you mentioned that this car just it felt well thought out in that like you said you can have two people wirelessly charging their their their phones But then there's also for the second row passengers, and I think even the third row, you can plug in your USB-C and get fast charging and get some of that just right into the seat back. And there's grocery bag holders on the back of the first seats, right? So when you're with the mom and you're putting that there. And there's standard third row, Dad, which, again, not saying you would necessarily use this car all the time for the third row because it's not overly spacious. But there's just a lot of well-thought-out features on this vehicle that I think maybe people may overlook at times.
SPEAKER 07 :
Agreed. No, again, I was very, how do I want to say, very impressed with this car, liked the car. Again, the looks grew on me, and the reason why I say the looks aren't my favorite is a little bit of a boxy look, and I'm not a huge boxy kind of car guy, but this car has that. Yet, I will tell you, functionality-wise, if you're looking for just a really overall finish, Functional car that works well, does everything you want it to do, gets fabulous fuel economy, and has a really well laid out interior, Richard. Tough car to beat, and I'm being very honest.
SPEAKER 08 :
Tough car. And the other thing that I'm going to add to that is, and I think we said it, maybe we didn't, all-wheel drive. And again, for a car of this segment here in Colorado, being an SUV, and yes, the looks do take a little bit getting used to depending on it. But some people that, I've got comments on that too, I had several family members that looked at the car and said they actually really liked the look of it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep, it's one of those either like it or hate it, one of the two, absolutely.
SPEAKER 08 :
And it looked like a more expensive car in a good way, right? And so they did that well. So, no, I'm with you that I think especially that if you've got a family, a family of four, maybe even five, but a family of four, you need just a little bit extra room, but you don't want to break the bank on an all-wheel drive SUV that's going to get you 36 miles per gallon. Check it out, Dad. Again, 2025 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid Calligraphy. Head to your local Hyundai dealer and let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason sent you.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. With that, Richard, I will let you go. Appreciate you being with us tonight, and have a great week. Sounds good. You guys as well. All right. We will be right back. Don't forget Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning. If you've got any issues at all when it comes to your HVAC, your AC unit especially right now, please give them a call. They'd love to help you out. Find them at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 14 :
KLZ listeners are financially wise, and that's why so many of you choose Cub Creek for your furnace and AC repair replacement. Rheem Certified Cub Creek Heating and AC understand rebates and incentives, and they give you the best price up front, working within your budget to get you the most HVAC for your dollar. The price of equipment has been steadily rising, and so have incentives for the more expensive systems. Cub Creek gets to know your needs so they can give you options that are right for you, not just the option that pays them the most. Sometimes rebates are not the right answer. Maybe you don't need the most expensive model. You know you can rely on Cub Creek to provide a comprehensive quote, and they will never pressure you to sign today. They'll give you time to consider your options without raising the price on you. Learn more about the honest and fair tax at Cub Creek Heating and AC on the klzradio.com advertisers page.
SPEAKER 06 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, we are back, and I have a minute or so left here of this particular hour, and I should mention, too, that we do have all of our reviews. They are all the car reviews. If you're looking even at a used car, we've been doing reviews for a very long time, and a lot of you will even text me questions. I'm looking at a particular car. It's got this kind of mileage on it. What should I be looking at and so on? I can answer all of those questions. I should mention this more than I do. We do that free of charge. There's a lot of folks out there that are buying services on the Internet and so on. They charge you to do those things. We do not. I do not. And one last thing, Ridgeline Auto Brokers up in Boulder, they are more than willing to help you out along the same lines as well. If they can sell you a car, great. If they can't but they can still be an assistance to you, they are there to help you with that. So between them and I, we can always take care of you. And if you ever have any questions, just send me a text message, 307-200-8222. We'll be right back, though. Hour 3 is next. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 15 :
The Rich Guy.
Is AI going to steal your job or save your business? Author and tech expert Mark Beckman joins John Rush for a high-octane conversation about artificial intelligence, automation, and how the future of work is shaping up. From VR classrooms to robot plumbers, this episode breaks down what AI can—and can’t—do. Plus, John dives deep on why young people should consider the trades over traditional college, and how guidance counselors are failing the next generation. If you've got a kid, a business, or a fear of the future—this is your episode.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is Rush to Reason. You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you're scared. And you're scared because if you try and fail, there's only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush. 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 04 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 08 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, we are back. Hour number three, Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Appreciate you all listening to us. And we've had a great two hours so far today. Mark Beckman joining us now. Mark, welcome. How are you, sir? John, good afternoon.
SPEAKER 07 :
It's great to be on your show.
SPEAKER 03 :
How are you? I'm great. I appreciate you joining us. Author of Some Future Day, How AI is Going to Change Everything, and The Comprehensive Guide to NFTs, Digital Artwork, and Blockchain, I should say, Technology. And yeah, AI continues to get bigger and bigger, as we know, Mark. And I think for some, it's very scary. They don't really know much about it. They're confused. They don't really know where we're headed. Others are embracing it. And I think there's probably some that are halfway in between.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's for sure. But there's an easy way for beginners and curious people in your audience to learn what it is and how to implement it into their life to make their careers and their finances better, to make their family life better, and to even make their city, their community, Denver, better. And that solution is really to pick up my book. I wrote this book, Some Future Day, How AI is Going to Change Everything, to give people the tools, beginners. It's not a deep tech book. It's to give beginners. the ability to figure out how they can now take steps to improve their life. So each chapter goes through different ways that they can implement AI into their lifestyle.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. So let's start with the fear that some folks have. Are fears legitimate? I mean, are some of these folks that think that, you know, robots are going to take over and they're going to end up running everything and, you know, we're going to be the minions when it's all said and done. What do you say to those folk?
SPEAKER 07 :
those people that their fear is with merit to a certain extent but in a very very small way so my opinion is that AI is going to transform the way we live American society radically for the better within three to five years but it's at the end of the day algebra it's a machine and this machine can be used as a tool and you know the way certain tools are used if the human using the tool is a bad actor and is malicious, then it could hurt us. Think in terms of like a gun, right? Like if a bad person shoots the gun, it could hurt someone. But if you're a good actor and you take care of the tool in a gentle and kind way, it can be really used for benefits and to improve the community.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know what, I'm with you on that as well. I think that goes along the lines of a lot of things that, you know, over the years that we've had, going all the way back, I'm a car guy, so going all the way back to the invention of the car when, frankly, if you were a horse and buggy maker, had been used to horse and buggy and this newfangled, stinky invention that came along and You know, it was this, you know, mechanical thing that you had to do different things with than what you were used to. And a lot of folks thought, well, that's just going to be taboo. It'll never work. It's not going to do anything. And at the end of the day, though, Mark, it was the opposite. It revolutionized travel in America.
SPEAKER 07 :
John, it's great that you bring that up. I actually just read a story about how Americans during that time period were really fearful also about losing jobs, losing their own jobs.
SPEAKER 03 :
That's right.
SPEAKER 07 :
it created a whole new ecosystem of jobs. And it opened up the economy in a huge, huge way. And I think we're going to see the same thing here with AI. I think we'll see the elimination of a lot of white-collar jobs, lawyers, advertisers, accounting, etc. But at the same time, a slew of new inventions and new jobs, new products will be invented. And I think it's going to help fire up
SPEAKER 03 :
I don't disagree with you. In fact, the one thing that I think there's some correlation with the automobile is, as you know, the reason why it also created a lot of additional jobs is because with now having transportation to where towns that weren't along the railway, They could now open up for business and do things even tourism wise that they were never able to do before because people couldn't get to them easily. As you know, it just created this whole new economy, if you would, to where towns that had never been on the map before. Now, every town, frankly, was on the map. And as the automobile end of things continued to expand and get better, which is exactly what will happen with A.I., It just opened up more and more opportunity for people to where, you know, here's where we are today and now this next huge invention. And I do look at it as an invention, Mark. And again, like the car could be used for bad, it could be the getaway car and a bank robbery on the same token. It could take you to your job every day back and forth. AI will very much be the same way.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's right. And exploration with AI, it's interesting that you're talking about exploration and freedom through automobiles. exploration with AI is really opening up as well. I have a client for example who's in academia and what she's done is created for students a fully immersive experience in virtual reality, fueled by artificial intelligence, which allows for students to go to a multitude of different places, whether it's the Boston Tea Party or the moon. And what Stanford, a study at Stanford University, showed is that the retention rate for students that participate in a VR type of immersive experience is exponentially greater than when a student is reading or when a student is lectured to. So the ability to explore all different types of things comes to life now in a way that we would have never dreamed of before.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I'm with you on that. I think, yes, it needs to be used properly. We need to, like anything, has to have checks and balances around it and so on. But at the end of the day, I just see so many things, including in the – you talked about the job end of things. Yes, it will eliminate some jobs. On the same token, Mark, to your point, it will create jobs because what it will now bring to the table that we've never had before – We're going to get down the road. I'm with you. We get down the road three to five years. We're going to look back and say, how do we ever go without this?
SPEAKER 07 :
I totally agree. And these efficiencies are valuable for people in your audience now, too. So think about the small business owners. You have so many of them that are listening to your show that would love to have budgets to advertise, to compete with their bigger companies that are in their sector. Well, now for a small amount of money and for a very short period of time, they could stand up bullish advertising campaigns to drive new revenues to their businesses. It's really an interesting time, John. It really is super compelling.
SPEAKER 03 :
It is, and I've got folks asking me, you know, maybe next segment, you know, what jobs would I recommend to young people? What field should they get into? And so I've had several different inquiries along those lines come in of late, Mark, and I've got my own thought process along those lines. And frankly, there are some jobs because of AI that I would not get into, yet there's others that I would jump into headfirst.
SPEAKER 07 :
I totally agree. If you want me to hold off... and get to that after the break. I'm happy to do so if you want me to get into that right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, we've got time. We've got a few minutes right now. Let's just do it right now. So if you were talking to a young person, looking at, you know, they're coming out of high school right now, or some maybe have even gone through college, but I'm really talking more about some of the young people that, you know, frankly, Mark, some of the folks listening might even have sophomores and juniors or seniors. Maybe they're graduating this year, trying to figure out what are they going to do next. What are your suggestions along those lines?
SPEAKER 07 :
Number one recommendation is cybersecurity. I am just absolutely astounded with the amount of cyber attacks, facial recognition, all different elements of cybersecurity that are needed here in New York City. I had New York City's chief technology officer on my show some future day, and he told me that there are actually 80 billion cyber events every single week in New York City alone. So those are attacks on our infrastructure. our water supply, our finance systems, our communications, hospitals and beyond. And the thing is that here in the United States, because we have the private sector running our infrastructure, we're not ready to defend the way that a centralized government like a communist government or a monarch type of government would be able to defend their infrastructure. So I am very, very bullish for Those graduating kids, those kids in college, to look at AI specifically in the cybersecurity sector. There are so many applications to it.
SPEAKER 03 :
I can't disagree with you at all. The other thing, folks listening, that I, because I'm in the trades and have come out of there, that I would still look at because AI, believe it or not, Yes, there's still going to be a certain amount of manual things, Mark, that have to happen. You know, certain things that have to be done by a person that, frankly, will probably never go. I say probably. I mean, at some point you might get some robots do some things that that, you know, we as humans do. But we're a ways off in that area. For example, the. HVAC, plumbing, electrical, fixing the cars that we were talking about, transportation. Those things are still going to need to be done by individuals. But where AI, I believe, Mark, and it's already here, where AI is going to come along and help those individuals make their job easier is through the whole diagnostic end of things. Where before, you know, we were, you know, I came up in the automotive world where, I was looking things up back in the day, Mark, either in a book or microfiche because computers didn't exist. And, of course, now with the advent of all of that, you've now got repair manuals literally online where you can go look at things and things along those lines. Where AI now is going to come into play is being able to feed all of these known problems into AI, or AI then is going to be able to come out and say, well, you know what? Chances are, knowing the things you've just fed me, you should look at A or B as probably being suspect as to why this particular problem exists.
SPEAKER 07 :
John, that's a great example of how AI could be used now. In my book, I talk about an invention that Google created in the medical sector to support doctors. It's a diagnosis tool called AIME. It's exactly what you described. And what they've done is they've programmed this LLM, this artificial intelligence tool, with diseases that are rare, underserved, diseases that have left society over 100 years ago, And now doctors can use Amy to diagnose diseases at almost a 100% accuracy rate. So think about the amount of lives that are going to be saved because they're quick to figure out what's wrong with the patient. Again, to your point, not eliminating the doctor, not eliminating the human, not eliminating the person, but using the machine as a tool to make the diagnosis more effective. It's going to be a good thing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and folks listening, trust me, even if it gets to the point, Mark, to where a robot can go in and do that furnace replacement or something along those lines. And by the way, that day, I do believe, Mark, that day will come. I mean, we just saw Tesla with a dancing robot. The day will come where there'll be those sorts of machines that will even assist us. Maybe it's not them doing that job fully, but typically where you'd have a robot you know master plumber and a journeyman helping them with certain things because you need four hands versus two some of those robots will replace some of those particular individuals that we're talking about which by the way there's not enough of them to go around anyway so that's a good thing but at the end of the day being able to again feed some of that information into ai get some of those answers back and then oh by the way that robot that i just mentioned mark That won't operate indefinitely. It will need to have things done and parts changed and maintenance done because it's not a human. It is, in fact, a machine.
SPEAKER 07 :
Totally. Good point. And, you know, it's interesting that you mentioned Elon's robot in particular because what he's going to do is create a certain level of democratization of this new technology. So the robots that he's creating are targeting really everyone. Apparently, they're going to try to hit a very reasonable price point. I've heard a bunch of different ranges, John. As little as 5,000, but then going all the way up to 50,000. Right, me too. Who knows where we'll really end up. But one thing for sure is that that robot might be in your house helping with all of those menial chores that everybody hates, from washing laundry to cooking food to... You know, leaving the house and going to the grocery store, picking up food, filling up the cupboard. You could see how a robot, a humanoid robot like that will run chores for a household, pop into the self, the autonomous vehicle, the self-driving Tesla and fill up those shelves while you have time as an individual to spend. working on your next invention or being with your family and loved ones and so on.
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly. No, again, I look at a lot of this as, yes, every time something new comes along, Mark, it can be a little bit scary for a lot of people. Let's face it, Mark, a lot of people just don't like change in general. And, yes, this is change, but I think at the end of the day, done properly – I do believe when it's all said and done, it will help us, frankly, just live a better life when it's all said and done. I know there's folks out there listening that think I'm crazy, but I don't think I am, Mark.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, you're definitely not. It's going to create real value for the communities. It's going to create economic value for our communities, and in turn, people will have more access to food, food security, better health care. It really will improve our society. AI is going to create, is going to be was going to serve as an underpinning across so many different business sectors, from the creative fields like art and fashion, music, to the sports industry, across into finance. I mentioned medical. The government we're going into. I talk about this in my book, a post-nuclear war period where drones are going to be fueled with AI. It's going to be a very, very interesting and exciting time for sure.
SPEAKER 03 :
Where do folks get the book, Mark?
SPEAKER 07 :
Some future day, how AI is going to change everything is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, all major booksellers. And it's a good time, John, to buy it. The book sold out. It went to number one for AI on Amazon, and it sold out of both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and it's restocked right now. So it's a good time to grab it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Mark, I appreciate your time very much. We think a lot alike, and I appreciate you joining us.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it's such a pleasure having this conversation. Very natural. Have a great day.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you, Mark. Take care. Have a great rest of your day. Golden Eagle Financial is next. Al did a great interview here of late. Stay tuned, and we'll be right back after this.
SPEAKER 14 :
Al Smith from Golden Eagle Financial and the show you love, Retirement Unpacked, is here with me. How are you today, Al? I'm doing great. How are you, TJ? I'm doing great as well. I have a couple questions for you. As a financial advisor, do you also do taxes?
SPEAKER 13 :
No, I don't prepare my clients' taxes. I do, however, spend a lot of time talking to them about taxes. To use a sports analogy, tax preparation is like doing a recap of the game. What I do is more like creating a game plan and then following up over time to see how it's working.
SPEAKER 14 :
And how much are taxes a part of that game plan that you create?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, with so many different taxes we're faced with, it becomes an important thing to take into consideration. It's not how much income you have, but how much you get to keep. In addition to federal and state income taxes, there's property taxes, state and local sales tax, and fees. And they all play a part in shrinking our income.
SPEAKER 14 :
What about people who already have really healthy balances in 401ks, IRAs? Won't they be facing significant taxes as they draw income from those accounts?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, it depends. Everybody's situation's a little bit different. There's no one size that fits all when it comes to tax planning. But often when I work with people, we'll create a strategy where we will convert traditional IRAs to Roth over time. And that not only reduces taxes in the future, but it will also lower the tax they'll be paying on their Social Security.
SPEAKER 14 :
Is that kind of strategy really only for the wealthy?
SPEAKER 13 :
Not at all. Many of my clients who have modest IRAs have chosen to convert to Roth over time. They enjoy the freedom of having a tax-free nest egg that they can access on their own timeline rather than an RMD schedule.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, that is excellent. And how can people reach you if they want to learn about their own taxation in retirement?
SPEAKER 13 :
You can reach me through KLZ or contact my office at 303-744-1128. And when you call, I'll provide you with a summary of all the tax changes for 2025.
SPEAKER 14 :
You heard it here, folks. Good things from Golden Eagle Financial and Al Smith. Again, you can reach them at 303-744-1128 or just find them on the advertisers page at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 11 :
Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, a registered investment advisor. This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, I want to continue on before we get to the bottom of the hour and, again, answer that question somebody asked me as to, okay, and I already had this in my notes. It's really ironic that some of you are texting. If you were going to have a conversation with a young person about what jobs to get into, what would you recommend they do? And I already had this in my notes. So it's really ironic that you guys are texting that while it's, and I'm not joking, already in my notes. I had a Wall Street Journal article talking about Will anyone take the factory jobs that Trump wants to bring back to America? So that kind of spurred me along the lines of, OK, if I were going to advise a young person on what to get into, what would that be? And then some of you are texting me those very questions as to what would I recommend young people actually get into? And you heard me talk about that a little bit a moment ago with our with our guest, Mark, who I really enjoyed talking to, by the way. And just a side note, Charlie and I were talking during that interview that Al Smith just that we just played. It's funny that most, if not all, of the guests I bring on, I do get a whole, just so you all know, I get a whole poop sheet on, this is the book, these are the questions you should ask, blah, blah, blah. I don't do any of that. You guys probably already know that. I don't do it. I'll be straight up honest. I don't even read any of that. I read who they are, what they've authored, where they're from, what the book is about, and that's it. I don't read any of the recommended questions. I just don't. I don't care. It's not how I do things. I just have a natural conversation, as you heard Mark say as we were ending, that he enjoyed that because, frankly, that's not typically the way interviews are done on a coast-to-coast basis. Most, if not all, hosts will read the recommended questions and, in some cases, roll right through them. I don't do it that way. I just want to have a conversation. What do you think about this? What do you think about that? And he even was willing to stay on with us and talk about what jobs should young people actually get into. So I enjoyed the conversation with Mark, and that's how I do things. I don't look at any of the notes that are given to me on any particular guest. And some of them I have on enough that I just knew who they are anyways. But a new guest like Mark, I just don't do it that way. It's just not how I do things. But back to the topic of what would I recommend young people get into? Well, you guys all know me. I'm a trades guy. I'm sort of like Mike Rowe in a lot of ways. I think the trades don't get near enough justice, and folks don't look at them nearly close enough, and if they would, they would find themselves with not only a much more fulfilling career as time goes by, but a lot more wealthy when it's all said and done as well. There's a great article that was out this weekend in the Wall Street Journal talking about those sort of silent businesses that make people very wealthy. And it was a great article. Richard had found it and sent it to me. I actually saw the headline for it as well. And it's a great article talking about some of those things that nobody thinks about that still need done that have made some people very wealthy. And, again, I would be looking at the trades in that way. Everything from, you know, working on cars, electricians, plumbers, you know, you get into the whole, you know, I'll be straight up honest. One thing my son and I were talking about last week that we struggle to find is irrigation techs. And you think, irrigation tech, what is that? Guys that fix sprinkler systems. And this is not an exaggeration. And it's not too far from this right now. You're going to find us, me, paying irrigation techs $70,000 to $100,000 a year. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that. Some of you are thinking, what? Yeah. Yeah. Because there's not enough of them, and you can't find good ones. And the thing about an irrigation tech is they not only have to understand the plumbing side of it and how sprinklers work and so on, but how do you design the right zone? How many heads do you need for that zone? Where do they need actually water? There's electrical ends of things that have to go with that. There's both sides of electrical, 12 or 24 volt and the 120 volt end of it. So there's DC and AC. So that tech has to understand all of that. And, oh, by the way, how do I find this broken wire underground? Because this particular valve's not opening. So that technician has to understand all of those things I just mentioned. And I'm not joking. In the not-too-distant future, we'll make $100,000 a year plus doing that. And it's not a bad job at all at the end of the day. Yes, you get a little muddy. Yes, you can be a little bit wet at times. Yes, it can be cold in the spring around here and a little bit cold in the fall. But keep in mind, when you're out in the summertime and it's 100 degrees and you get to go do irrigation work, that's not such a bad gig. So my point is there's a lot of things in the trades that these jobs are not going to go anywhere. I mean, if there's one thing about what I just said a moment ago, you might get a robot on down the road to work on some of the things I just mentioned, but we're a ways off for that. You've got a good decade plus to have a career in that field. And even then, you might have a robot be a helper. Hey, go dig this head up. But you're not going to have them doing all the things I just mentioned because their ability to discern and find things and figure things out and so on, we're just a ways off in that. We're decades off. So what would I recommend young people get into? You've heard me say this all the time, and I'll maybe kind of close out this particular segment with this. I am not one, and I hate the people that say, go do what you love and you'll always make a ton of money. No, you won't. No, you won't. You could have a love for music and not carry a note. How's that going to work out? You could have a love for music and not be able to play anything on any instrument whatsoever other than the radio. How's that going to work out? By the way, that's me. I love music. I don't like musicals, but I love music. I can't play a note. I can't tell you one note from another. Don't ask me. And I don't care. I don't care to know. I don't want to know what chord a particular note is in or whether that note has a little tail on it or two or three tails and what that means. And as you can tell, I don't know anything about notes because I just know they have tails on them. I know there's like quarter notes, half notes, eighth notes, and I can't tell you what. I don't even remember from when I was a kid what they do, and I don't care. I don't care. So I'm one where, yes, I love music, but don't ask me to be a musician. I would stink. I would be the ultimate loser at that. I would make no money whatsoever. I love, in some cases, certain kinds of art. Personally, I love people that can do pencil sketches. I'm amazed, and I see some of these on the Internet, where people can take a number two pencil and draw pictures that I just look at, and I'm like, how in the world do you do all of that with a pencil? the shading and the depth and they can make an image look three-dimensional and all of this out of just a pencil. And I'm absolutely amazed that people have that kind of brain power to do that because I can't draw a stick figure. So while I love that, don't ask me to do it because I can't do a stick figure. And I'm not exaggerating. Ask me to do a smiley face. That's about it. Good luck. That's about it. And I have great penmanship, but I'm not an artist. So, so many people, so many guidance counselors. I was watching a video, by the way, late last night, where a gal that I follow on social media was saying, you know, my daughter graduates high school this week, and the one thing that I'm hugely disappointed in her guidance counselor is... She not one time mentioned that she could go to the trades and be successful there. And this particular lady that I follow is a hairdresser. And so she was talking about how there's money to be made in a lot of different trades, and yet guidance counselors at schools, high schools especially, never mention them. She was talking about how her daughter was really kind of feeling a little bit down because all of her classmates were trying to figure out, you know, what school or what college were they going to go to and what were they going to study and this, that and the other. And yet there's this huge world of trades that nobody's mentioned to her other than her mom. And I'm thinking we are doing. several generations now of kids a disservice by not mentioning to them what they can actually do in the trades and how much money they could actually make there. So personally, what would I do with a kid? I did this with my own. Number one, not what do they love. What are they good at? What are they good at? What kind of talent do they have? Are they right brain, left brain? Are they a combination of? Are they good at problem solving? Do they have great critical thinking skills? Are they good with people? Are they not good with people? Are they good at figuring mechanical things out or not? Are they good with money? Would they do well on the financial end of things? On and on we go. Those are the things that I would be asking a young person as to what are they good at, not what do they love. In fact, the last thing I would ask them is what do they love. There's that old saying, well, you do what you love and you'll always be, you know, you may not make a lot of money, but you'll enjoy what you do. Well, yeah, being poor sucks. Just going to say that. Being poor sucks. Been there, done that. I don't want to go back to that. It sucks. No one wants to be poor. I don't care if somebody says, yeah, I like being poor. They're lying. They're lying. No one wants to be poor. And that person that says that is either mentally ill or a liar or both. Because no one wants that. Oh, I don't want to be rich. Think about all that money and all the things you have to hassle with by having it. Yeah, that's a poor person mentality for sure. Absolutely. Now, what's a rich person? Define rich. I don't have that definition, folks. I don't know what that is still to this day. Do you have to be a millionaire, a billionaire? You know what? That's a different term for everybody. But I can tell you this, you know, scraping by, trying to figure out how to make the payment every month and not knowing where the money is going to come from. And are you going to be able to put food on the table? No, that sucks. And yeah, that's that's my definition of being poor. Not knowing how you're going to pay all the bills next month. That sucks. Period. No one likes that. And I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Neither would any of you. So what I would encourage kids to do is, A, what are you good at? What can you excel at? What have you been good at up to this point? And I get you need to have some sort of enjoyment in what you're doing or life becomes very miserable. But on the same token, what's that individual, what's that kid good at? And some would say, well, man, he's a really great athlete. Really? Keep in mind that only less than 1%, less than 1% of all high school athletes ever go to the pros. So if you think that your kid's going to be the next John Elway, maybe, but probably not. Probably not. I mean, we just saw what happened in the draft with Deion Sanders' kid, who's really a good quarterback, but because of whatever other circumstances were out there, didn't go until the fifth round in the draft. And still has a long way to go to actually prove himself as a NFL quarterback. And keep in mind who he is. So just because your kid's good at throwing the ball and is doing really well on his particular high school team doesn't mean he's going to go to the pros and or be able to rely on that. And here's the other thing to think about. Even if they do, so let's say your kid's really good at whatever the professional sport is. Let's talk, you know, in this case, football. I've talked about this before. The average NFL player is there two and a half years. That's it, folks. Two and a half years. So they can make millions of dollars in two and a half years and come out broke, and most do. If you don't believe me, there's a series called 30 for 30, and there's an entire episode dedicated to what I'm talking about with professional athletes, especially football players. I would encourage you to watch it, especially if you've got a young person thinking they're going to be a professional athlete and then make it that way. Very few do. Very few do. There's very few, quote-unquote, you know, Caitlin Clarks of the world who is, you know, the women's basketball star that does pretty well financially speaking but, again, doesn't do what some of her male counterparts do, rightfully so, by the way. But the reality is most kids will never achieve that kind of status. And I know I said I was going to close with something else, but I'll close with this. And this is one that we were talking about raising kids and money and all of that earlier. And please, some of you may take this the wrong way. Don't. But those of you who have kids in club sports, be very careful. Those club sports can ruin a family. Let me explain. Club sports will have you dedicating your entire life to that one kid, or kids plural, and the sport they play. Could be football, could be basketball, could be volleyball, could be cheerleading, could be soccer, you name it. There are club sports for all sorts of things. And those of you that don't know what a club sport is, it's a sport that kids get involved in, and they get on these clubs, quote-unquote, that don't have anything to do with their school, per se. Now, some of their friends from school might play on the club, but it's not sanctioned by any school. It's a club. And they're all over the place. Baseball, softball, girls softball, you name it. You name it. There's all sorts of clubs. And what I know is we limited how many of those our kids could be involved in because I knew those things can wear a family out. They can ruin marriages. They can ruin families. And it's nothing against club. The club itself doesn't do it. It's a lot of the... parents and people that get involved in it, and pretty soon before you know it, the club is more important than anything else going on in your family. So be careful with club sports because, A, it's doubtful your kid will ever go on to do anything outside of that anyways, and, B, you may ruin your entire family by doing so. So I'll close with that. If you've got questions directly on club sports, ask me. I'll give you my own thoughts and processes on them, which I kind of did already, but very, very seldom. Is that a requirement for your kid to go on and be really good? If your kid's a great athlete, they don't have to play club sports for a scout down the road to understand that and still place them inside of college and or go to the pros after college. They don't have to play club sports. In fact, most really good players probably never did. They're just really good to begin with anyways. Geno's Auto Service coming up next. When it comes to AC with your car, Geno's is there to help you with all of that. They got a special right now. Go to genosautoservice.com to find them.
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All right, some of you may have been through some really rough storms here of late, and others may go through some yet this summer. If you're involved in any kind of a storm where you've got damage to your home, your roof, your siding, you name it, give Dave Hart a call. He is our certified RoofMax dealer. He can help you with whatever needs you have when it comes to your roof, commercial or residential, and he'll do all of the work for you, even with the insurance company himself. So one-stop shopping, I should say, are all under one roof. 303-710-6916.
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Wind and rain and hail, oh my. There's no place like home, and you have to do what you can to keep a reliable roof over it. Summer hail storms are here, bringing damage and door knockers. That's where we come in. At Roof Savers Colorado, we take pride in helping homeowners like you find the right solution for your situation. We strive to provide peace of mind and a quality roofing experience for every customer. From plant-based rejuvenation treatments that give new life to dry, old, or minorly damaged shingles to full roofing replacements, we want to provide the best service for you and your home. Hail season brings many out-of-state roofing companies knocking at your door, but we're here to provide you with honest inspections, quality service, and customer care. Don't wait. Call us for a free assessment before filing your insurance claim. Call today at 303-710-6916 or go to RoofSaverCO.com. That's 303-710-6916 or go to RoofSaverCO.com to set up your free inspection.
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All right, flesh law is next. Criminal, civil, I know I say that a lot, but Kevin works both sides of that. Some don't. Some attorneys are only on the civil side, for example. Some never take a criminal case. Some have never been to court, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that. Some have never been to trial, even. They may have been to court, but they've never been to a full trial. Kevin does all of that. He's not afraid to do that on your behalf. Give him a call today, 303-806-8886.
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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 Flesch understands the way the jury thinks. Call now for a free consultation, 303-806-8886.
SPEAKER 05 :
The best export we have is common sense. You're listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. Going back to my conversation a moment ago about just kids and recommendations on what they should do. And again, I know this is a broad topic and there's a lot of different fields out there where, you know, a young person could find themselves getting into. And I've said this before, and I think most of you would agree with me that there are some kids that I do think that going to college is the right thing for them to do, depending upon what their skill set is, for example. And I had one of these as well. Maybe somebody really wants to be a doctor or a nurse and they feel really called to that and they enjoy that and they've got a skill set for that. And they're really good at, you know, biology and all the things that it takes to actually go down that path. OK, great. We need more doctors. I'm not opposed to doctors and nurses. We need both of them. And we will for quite some time. On the same token, we need folks out there that can collect trash and own trash companies. And I'm not opposed to either one of those. And, yes, that kind of goes from both ends of the spectrum, if you would, from doctor to, quote, unquote, trash man. Now, as a side note, trash men got a bad rap for a really long time, and there's a lot of really, really wealthy trash, quote, unquote, men out there. Some have made billions of dollars in the trash industry. Some I know personally, and they have made a boatload of money in the trash business. So it's not as quote unquote trashy as it once was. So again, your child, your student, your kid, may have all sorts of different talents, and I think the thing you have to do is help them zero in what are those talents, what are they really good at, and what could they turn into cash, quote-unquote, per se, when it's all said and done. That's how I would look at coaching my young person into whatever field they would like to get into. Now, one other thing that I really feel strongly about is do that sooner than later. You should be coaching your child on this when they're literally sophomores and juniors in high school. not sophomores and juniors in college... We don't want our kids taking two years in college to the tune of tens of thousands, if not hundred thousands of dollars, trying to figure out what should they be doing next. That's a waste. And by the way, that's why we have so much student debt that we have today, because nobody did this early on. It's taking kids sometimes two or three years to determine what they really want to do, what they're good at, and by then they've even had to change majors, and now it just keeps piling on the tuition. That's really bad, by the way. Kids should be growing up faster than they are right now, and they should be knowing some of this long before getting to college, I feel. These are things that we should be talking about when they're younger, not when they're older. John from Cheyenne, go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, you touched on it when you were talking about the guidance council and the trades council. Part of that is getting rid of all the different shop classes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
Because, you know, maybe a kid doesn't know how good he is with his hands. Because he's never used them. Yeah, exactly. Maybe his father's an IT guy and sits at a computer, which there's nothing wrong with.
SPEAKER 03 :
No.
SPEAKER 06 :
He's got a ton of money.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, not against that at all, Jamie. You know me. I'm not against those individuals at all. They're needed just as much as anybody else is.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, but what I'm saying is, has a kid going to know if he's good with his hands and he's got that, you know, we used to say they were mechanically inclined.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 06 :
And, you know, how much is a framing carpenter making today, a good one, or a finished carpenter, or, you know.
SPEAKER 03 :
In that world, John, anywhere from $30 to $50 an hour?
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, yeah. You know what a lineman's making coming out of his four-year apprenticeship?
SPEAKER 03 :
How much?
SPEAKER 06 :
Depending on if you work for a company or you work for a contractor, but 60 is the low end, an hour.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. It's funny you say that. I was on vacation last summer, and I don't know if I mentioned this, but I was on vacation last summer, met a lineman. We had a really good conversation and kind of hung out a little bit and chatted it up. You know how it is. You're sitting around the pool and whatever, and there's all sorts of things.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, you chat it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, you're just chatting it up and so on. And learned a lot, by the way, along those lines, quote unquote. But yeah, he made a very good living and is at the point where he, this is no joke, John, he made enough money as a lineman. He's not super old, mid-30s, has made enough money as a lineman where he's also understood what it takes to do some of the, you know, smaller excavating work and things along those lines and has since bought a dump truck and a dump trailer and an excavator and so on and he's darn near getting to the point where within a couple of years he'll be out on his own doing his own business all supplied out of being a lineman uh-huh well i we had a guy here he um went to contract and contractors make a ton of money and they make a ton of overtime and in three years now he had to travel for that but he was a single guy so that helps
SPEAKER 06 :
And he had a nice fifth wheel and a truck, so he didn't have to rent a place. He just rented a trailer park. And in three years, he was able to pay all his debt, his house that he had here that he rented out off completely, everything. And then he came back to the utility because he was just like, I don't owe any debt. I got money in the bank. I need a steady nine to five, five days a week, a little overtime here and there. but he wanted the more stability of us, you know, and that's how they make a lot of money. But, I mean, how many trades are out there that are just, what did Mike Rowe say, 7 million open trades?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think that's fairly close, and I think that's a pretty well-known, Stat today, John, and again, this is an article in the Wall Street Journal, if Trump brings more and more of these jobs back, who's going to do them? Well, my answer is we need to do a better job in the school systems, plural, in teaching kids. There is a viable option there, and there's a lot of money you can make there, and at the end of the day, do just as well as you can doing a lot of other jobs that are out there.
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, how many kids that you went to high school and I went to high school with became auto techs because they got into auto shop in their freshman or sophomore year and then loved it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Quite a few. Quite a few.
SPEAKER 06 :
And bought an old beater and fixed it all up and everything because that was all they had. In New York, and I don't know if it still exists, it used to be Grady Automotive High School. They had a specific high school that specialized in automotive where they taught the kids how to be mechanics. And a lot of guys I knew that went there graduated from high school, walked right into a job because they had... They graduated from Grady, and that was like the reputation there. If you go to Grady, you're going to get a good job coming out because the mechanics are really good.
SPEAKER 03 :
The mistake that we made, John, during that time, to your point, is we had some like that, not near enough. And unfortunately, some of the vocational schools became the dumping ground for those kids that didn't do very well in class. So a lot of the guidance counselors would just shove them out to vo-tech because they didn't think they could do anything else. So then what happened is a lot of the Votex schools got the reputation for just having nothing but, quote, unquote, you know, kids that were losers and couldn't do anything else. So then they went to the trades. And, again, we did that completely backwards. We sent the worst of the kids to the trades, and we should have been sending the best of the kids there, and we didn't.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, or like we were saying at the beginning, if there was a ninth grade, you gave them an auto shop or wood shop or machine shop, one of those, they would at least know whether they had wanted to do something like that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, my point is, and I witnessed this firsthand because I served on some of these boards where we'd have these discussions, and the kids that were getting sent to VoTech were the kids that were dropping out. They had truancy issues. They had this. They had that. So they'd somehow end up at VoTech, and at the end of the day, only maybe 1% of those were worth hiring because the rest of them did it just so they'd get their GED and leave.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, just so they could get the GED and go do something else. But that's like, you know, I always look at these kids that if you don't know what you want to do, give the military three years. You'll figure out what you want to do, and at the same time, you'll get out and have enough money to go to college. I never asked you, did your son that served in the Marine Corps use his GI Bill to go to school?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, yeah, he's actually got his own business. He's a welder now, and he went to welding school and got certified and did all of that out of that.
SPEAKER 06 :
out of that out of you know he gave four years he got sent to the middle east which was never a fun thing for any of us but he came out with the ability to go to school correct and not be in debt at the end of his welding school really quick before i let you go john somebody texted and said do we you know has somebody ever developed a test to determine what a person is good at with their career and so on
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, actually, we've had it around for decades. We just don't use it anymore. John, you probably remember this. Charlie, you do as well. It was called the ASVAB test that was done mainly in part by the military to determine what kids would be good at what if they ever did go to the military. We quit doing that because of, quote unquote, discrimination.
SPEAKER 06 :
But I think they still do it for kids that want to go into the military. They take the ASVAB.
SPEAKER 03 :
We should do it for every kid, personally. It should just be standard practice that every kid takes that test.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think it took, when I took it, and that was 1981, it took two hours.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I was going to say it was a two- to three-hour deal at that time, I believe, John. Yeah, I remember taking it more than once, by the way, because it used to be it was something that, at least in our school, granted, I went to private school, we did it every year.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, no, I just did it once when I went... Yeah, I've taken that test numerous times. And you know what? Based on your scores, they would guide you in certain directions. And, like, I knew a girl, she wanted to be a chef.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
So she went in the military, and even though they said, you've got great scores, she goes, no, I want to be a cook, and cook isn't the highest rate.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, right, right, right.
SPEAKER 06 :
She did two years to learn how to work in a kitchen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Gotcha.
SPEAKER 06 :
Then she went on, she stayed in the reserve... So she had money coming in, but she went on and used her GI Bill to go to chef school.
SPEAKER 03 :
There's a great example. John, I've got to run. I appreciate that very much. Great conversation. Let's do this. Cup Creek Heating and Air Conditioning. Speaking of the trades, they are next. Find them at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
This isn't Rage Radio. This is Real Relatable Radio.
SPEAKER 03 :
Back to Rush to Reason. All right, that's wrapping up today's show. We appreciate you all listening. And again, I should mention this, and I've done this before for folk. If you've got a young person that really doesn't know what they want to do, they'd love to have somebody to talk to besides mom and dad, I am more than willing to have those conversations. I've done that in the past, and I have no problem. Sometimes I can do it even via text messaging or even an email. It just depends on how they want to do it, but I'm always there to help young people. I love young people. I want to help them get into a career that will benefit them and their future family, and I really want to do that, so I mean that sincerely. If you've got anything along those lines you need help with, I'm always here to help in that regard. So we'll be back tomorrow, same time, same place. Have a great night. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
Explore the juxtaposition of personal health and public office as we discuss President Biden's aggressive cancer diagnosis. With speculations swirling around the Tapes influencing this disclosure, we delve into the broader narrative of political machinations and the influence of key players in Washington. This episode doesn't shy away from the complex intersection of health, privacy, and political strategy, as we analyze how major news outlets handle the delicate balance between truth and spin in a highly charged political climate. In addition, we bring into focus alarming incidents such as a recent bombing in Palm Springs, exploring the mental health crisis from a broader socio-political perspective. Hear from listeners across the nation as they voice their perspectives on the integrity and humanity often lost in the fray of power and influence, leaving us all to consider the vital attributes of compassion and justice in a world increasingly defined by political fervor and turmoil.
SPEAKER 04 :
New questions are raised after the Biden diagnosis revealed.
SPEAKER 02 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Will Haines joins me in studio. Rick Rinell will be on later on. And again, phone lines are open for you. And we want to hear from you. I ask you to be respectful and kind to our phone screeners at 1-800. 6 8 4 3 1 1 0. Of course, we're talking about the breaking news that came out over the weekend. And just yesterday, the president Biden has confirmed that he has cancer. Now, this is something that we're not taking lightly. This is not something that we are treating with any sort of disrespect. It's that aggressive prostate cancer that has spread into his bones. And that is not a good thing. It's something that is very sad. We, you know, Tell your friends and family, pray for President Biden. But of course, also over the weekend, there was a lot of information that has come out as we are just a few days away from the release of Jake Tapper's book. Of course, of all people, Jake Tapper's book where it kind of reveals the cover up that was going on about Biden's really his medical status, how he was doing either cognitively or now what it looks to be physically and how that that was a big cover up. Now, of course, that opens up a lot of doors and a lot of questions here. And again, I've asked you to be respectful when we do talk about this. But we do have to at least address these elephants in the room, if you will, because you can't just pretend that this is not happening and that this isn't the state of modern politics. Because look what likely would have happened right now. Let's say President Biden had kept running. maybe he won let's say he beat president trump now i think that would be unlikely but let's say in some world some version of this he had won you would have a likely have a president uh harris right now because i have a feeling whatever kind of treatment that a over 80 year old person going into just being around it knowing cancer seeing it uh you know through family members and everything uh this is not something that would have been you'd be able to govern the country while going through this so was that a plan was that part of this it's there's a lot of conspiracies but really we have to just look at the facts take the cancer part out of it we still are now seeing all of these leaked audio tapes things that are coming out that were just proving the point that everyone could see but really they only started to deny or they really only started to admit any of it after that debate performance
SPEAKER 03 :
Really, and then also after the loss to President Trump as well is when people like Jake Tapper, who had covered for the state of the president for so long, and we even had that term cheap fake that got coined because you couldn't believe your lying eyes when you saw performances from the former president. And really, to me, it's kind of a sad day for our country as you look at What the diagnosis that was distributed yesterday, as well as what is coming out in that book tomorrow that's released as they have kind of slow dripped some of the stories. It shows you really how cynical politics have become, that people are used as pawns for power. and even all the way up to the president of the United States. And that when you see medical experts have saying that there is no way that this diagnosis was just discovered this past week. At the stage it's at, knowing the type of care a president receives while in office, especially one that is one of the oldest presidents of all time, they would have discovered this much earlier. And yet they kept it from the public to maintain this illusion of strength and power instead of maybe figuring out a different path forward because they were afraid of the alternative of relinquishing power.
SPEAKER 04 :
What do you think? I want you to give us a call right now, 1-800-684-3010. Again, be respectful. We're not going to take calls that are being mean or demeaning to President Biden as he is going through this. But if you do have thoughts on how this all came together, what the truth is, what we're learning about it, Maybe those tapes that came out where he struggled with dates and all of that. Give us a call. I'd like to hear from you. Again, we're also going to talk with Rick Grinnell later. President Trump and Putin have been having conversations this morning, hopefully leading to an end to that war as well. And last week was a big week for the ACLJ, and we could really use your support. If you've seen the news, you know what was going on, including with pro-life health care workers and pro-life pregnancy centers and why they need us more than ever. We're going to break that down, of course, a little bit later. And you can become an ACLJ champion today. That's at ACLJ.org. It's a monthly recurring donor and it really helps us out. Welcome back to Secular. As I said, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I know a lot of you are just tuning in right now, as always happens here on the second segment. As we get rolling, we're going to restate what is going on. Obviously, the big news was that President Biden, former President Biden, announced that he has really stage four. Is that what they said? Stage four? Is that correct? Or just an aggressive form. Right. An aggressive form of prostate cancer that is spread into his bones. This is something that, again, is very sad. We shouldn't ever be talking about that in a way that's offensive to the person who's suffering. We should be praying for him and praying for his family. However... it does happen to coincide with the release of a lot of information on president Biden's ability to govern during his time in the white house. And what happened those last years, whether that was from the George Clooney reports or whether that was coming from Jake Tapper's new book, it's supposed to be released in a day and a half. And of course you have even more with the leaked audio that came out just a lot that kind of shows that the coverup was aggressive. The coverup was very intentional and, It's not that we're all shocked by that, but the facts that are spilling out even make it a little worse. And specifically, we know President Biden may have been suffering for the better part of his last year.
SPEAKER 03 :
And when you also take into account the timing of this announcement, right? When you hear doctors, there was in our break, there was an oncologist that was on Morning Joe. So not on conservative media that was talking about that. He likely knew about this or definitely had it even at the beginning of his presidency when he took office in 2021, based off of, as the oncologist was saying, the way that it grows, how long it takes, even the aggressive form of. of cancer here for it to get to his bones would take a long time, not just a past 100, 200 days situation. But yet they released this announcement two days before this devastating book, which is titled Original Sin, President Biden's decline, its cover up and his disastrous choice to run again. That's coming out from Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.
SPEAKER 04 :
We've obviously... CNN's Jake Taffer.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, one who participated in that cover-up for years, saying that taking the White House talking points, everything is fine, these are cheap fakes, leave him alone, he's doing great, he's stronger than ever. And the fact that they would take the time now to announce this diagnosis two days before the book is released is just more evidence of those people around him not protecting someone. It takes the humanity out of someone and makes them only a political puppet, which has been the criticism from the right for a long time of that Joe Biden probably shouldn't be in this position. And he is a political puppet. that people around him are not giving him humanity by forcing this to continue.
SPEAKER 04 :
At this point, making the announcement, look, you can do whatever you want. It's your decision to make as a person what you want to share. I think that saying, hey, he had to tell people, tell the American people that he was suffering from this kind of aggressive cancer. You're the president of the United States. It is different than I believe you do have now. I don't think he would have told anyone if he didn't want to. It's his personal business, his personal health business. No one needs to know that. That doesn't need to be announced. If you want to announce it, that's fine. If you want to tell people what's going on and rally people around you and hopefully get some prayers and support. Great. No problem with that. I'm not saying that. But if it was something that was intentionally being hidden, even let's again take the cancer side out of it. I really feel for that and I don't want that to be the case. But you talk about the people that are surrounding him. And when you hear things like this leaked tape with her, or you find out all this information, that the talking points that we were given were not only misleading, they were what we assumed they really were. They were accurate. Because he said, look, I didn't bring up certain topics. He did. Dates were forgotten. All of these things were brought up. And all of the proof was there. We had it there the whole time. Now, again... What really bothers me, like you said, Will, is the politics of all of this. I think there's a lot of people who have horrible people that surround them. People who are abusive, people that, and not just elder abuse, I'm talking about in general, in life, in the world, in politics, in business, in faith. You have a lot of opportunistic people who see power, who see strength, who see money, and will take advantage of a situation at hand, however they can. think that happens with a lot of people and it happens a lot of times when people are suffering or dealing with something and they're they're intellectually smart people who have some real issues going on and then surrounding them are people who are going to take advantage of those issues that is my concern with president biden and that's why i say pray for him and pray for his family and hopefully pray the people around him are good people as you said a few days before this book drops when it was the probably the number one story this weekend was those tapes and that all of this was happening and Jake Tapper's about to do this big expose and then all of a sudden it's you even saw the talking points I think a few people specifically said hey we need to make sure we calm down the rhetoric he's sick he's suffering let's not just you know ram it home and make it even worse for him I get that But that's precisely why it feels like a political move, not a real medical move, which is unfortunate. But sadly, it's kind of where we are in American politics.
SPEAKER 03 :
And when you mentioned the special counsel Robert Herr tapes that Axios received – Late on Friday, I believe, they released the tapes, the actual audio tapes of that interview that special counsel Robert Herr conducted with President Biden over his removal of classified documents and not storing them properly. Remember, this is what President Trump had been charged with by the special counsel Jack Smith. And there was a special counsel appointed to see if there was going to be prosecution against the president regarding this. And it was the firestorm that came out of this when Robert Herr wrote a report saying, I'm declining charging him. Because one of the decisions as a prosecutor you have to make is can you get a conviction? And he even put aside all of the issues of trying to charge a sitting president and said, it is my feeling that a jury would see him as a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory. And the left went crazy and they attacked him. Joe Biden attacked him and said, why would he bring up my dying son? Why would he do all these things? And in reality, when you heard those tapes, we got the transcript a while ago and you read it and it was shocking. And then I listened to the tapes and I actually didn't want to play them today because it was so much more devastating to hear it when you heard the audio. And you don't want to just continue to pound on this. We know what happened. We understand. The debate finally put it into all of the speculation that, But in reality, you hear that, and it was things that would have been easily, even the rhetoric he used, if he's like, I don't remember, or things of that nature, it was him struggling to gather his thoughts.
SPEAKER 04 :
It wasn't pleading the fifth kind of, I don't remember, I do not recall. It wasn't that. It was, like you said, as he put, a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory who couldn't really piece everything together and was running our country at that point. And you do, again, I hate to just reiterate it and push it forward, but to me, the blame does not lie on President Biden, specifically of you suffering from these issues. The blame is to be the people around him. That team of young people, if they want to say, and young meaning, I guess, under 70, who were controlling not only the narrative that he was well, but also clearly controlling a lot of the decisions that were being made. Now, that's not to say that every president doesn't have their advisors and their group. Of course, everyone does. Every business does. No one is a solo show. It's not how it works. You can't do that with AI. Maybe you're going to get there one day, but right now you can't do that. So when you have people surrounding you that don't have your best interests or the best interest of the country or think they have the best interest of the country by propping this up and creating this charade until it was too late. That was the crazy part. And you had Joe Biden last week or two weeks ago on The View saying, I don't think it would have mattered if he had gotten out earlier. Essentially, Donald Trump was going to win. I think they knew that, but the last ditch effort was saying, okay, we got to pull him and see because he beat him so badly in that debate. And now when you go, okay, was this guy suffering from an aggressive form of cancer eight months ago during that debate? Nine months ago? It sounds like it. Even if it wasn't caught, even if they didn't say it. And then does your heart change of how you feel about the guy? Yeah, probably. But really what it should do is say the people around him were bad people. People around him were abusing the situation. And hopefully those are the kind of things that can be exposed and change. I look forward to reading the book because what I hope the book says is that. I hope that Jake Tapper says, look, this guy, you're not going to like his policies. I hated almost all of his policies. But in general, he had bad people around him.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, in reality, a lot of those people were holdovers from the Obama-Biden presidency. It was the team that got elevated. And if anything, it should be that those people should never be working in the White House again. Those shouldn't be cabinet members, shouldn't be advisors, shouldn't be executive branch leadership ever again. and the democrat party already is spiraling out of control but if it's that same team that rises to the top under a new president it doesn't matter who that president is if it's that same team that's the real deep state if you want to look at it that way they should never work in in democrat politics again because of what they put forward against the country
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, phone lines are open for you. We're going to take some more calls coming up at 1-800-684-3110. We're also going to talk about a couple other topics and some ACLJ issues. I want to encourage you right now, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. We'll be right back. Welcome back to secular. As I said, phone lines are open for you. We're going to take some of those as well. We're also going to talk about some of the other news. I mean, this is the top story. We're not going to ignore it. I think that was part of our conversation this morning, which was how do we approach this and treat this with respect as we should, but also be honest and truthful. And I think there's other issues that have come up over the weekend as well, including that, uh, bombing attempt that happened in Palm Springs. And that's something we need to discuss as well, because more information, look, when you see a fertility clinic or anything like this, uh, you know under attack obviously your mind jumps to the abortion clinic attacks by the far radical uh groups from decades ago and that's where my mind went first which was oh no what what is this oh we can't get back to that look if we're going to say that pro-life pregnancy resource centers are under attack we can't be doing the opposite now that isn't doesn't seem to be what this was this seems to be someone who is very unwell who actually was a very much targeting when we say pro-life, any form of life. So when you have this, it also just shows the state of the country that there are people like this and another worrisome thing that's happening. There are people who are upset about even their own life and therefore are willing to try to take out as much life as they can right here at home. That's right.
SPEAKER 03 :
This was a 25-year-old who is that young bombed a Palm Springs fertility clinic in California. What they are saying, according to officials, that is one of the largest bombing scenes that they've ever had in Southern California. He, they believe he was trying to live stream the bombing. He died in the bombing. Fortunately, no one else was harmed. And also the lab was, that contained all of the fertility material was fine. So it was best case scenario for such a horrific terror attack. But here's where it gets to the heart of this and what we fight against at the ACLJ. is that they've found social media, manifestos, YouTube clips, audio recordings of this individual as they're piecing together, the FBI, the motive. They keep saying no motive has been declared, but that is the speak of law enforcement as they investigate. They're already releasing materials about this individual, including... that he laid out the case allegedly in a online manifesto for, quote, a war against pro-lifers. He believed himself to be a pro-mortalist as well as anti-life and anti-natalist and was upset because he had not consented to his birth. This is a very twisted, deranged, evil ideology and philosophy. that was attacking life, wanting to end life, wanting to wage a war against pro-lifers. And at the same time that this type of attack happens, we at the ACLJ are having to fight against a state government that is using taxpayer dollars to defame, to call pro-life pregnancy resource centers fraud, that they are lying, that they don't give you hope. And then you see the ordinances that are trying to silence speech around the country And then you, at the same time, you think about the discovery about how the military was training soldiers, that it were pro-life individuals, Operation Rescue, or people that had Choose Life license plate, that they are potential terror threats. But the left is pushing around the country that being pro-life is bad and that it should be silenced. and that it is a fraudulent clinic. And they are attacking it through the political spectrum, through their laws, through their campaigns, through their ordinances. And it leads to an ideology that being pro-life is bad. And then you have deranged individuals, evil individuals whose ideology is so extreme that they want to wage a literal terroristic war against pro-lifers.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I guess pro-lifers and people that just are, you know, life in general. I mean, again, a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, not where you think you'd have the most militant people going out and doing this type of things. It also is a part of the mental health crisis happening in our country where you have people who believe this and feel this. And I think Will's right that we need to make sure when we're talking about these topics that we're doing out of a place of hope, doing out of a place of Christ-like way. These are the ways these conversations can change and hopefully you can reach people's hearts and minds at the same time. Because you look at this individual and you read his information, of course, he is living out this message. uh you know deranged fringe idea of the idea of of not choosing to be alive not consenting to life himself therefore needs to take out as much life as he can this is someone who is basically a kid though you're talking about a 20 something year old 24 year old 25 i mean we've all been 25 uh you could say that a lot has changed your mental uh your mental abilities change over the next decade from there And it's hopeless and it's sad. And it should be treated that way. And it should be treated when we actually look at this saying, okay, if you're going to start attacking pro-lifers, if you're going to have that kind of rhetoric, if you're going to have Chuck Schumer out there saying, we're going to unleash the whirlwind on the Supreme Court justices that overturn Roe, these end up being the consequences. When you start saying threat to democracy, you have an assassination attempt on the president of the United States or former president running for president. When you talk this way, And I'm not just talking to the Democrats. I'm also talking to you Republicans and conservatives and you fringe people who post online, who incite violence. We saw what happened with Comey last week. We saw what happened when they, you know, you call out that violence. You got to call it all out and say, we got to change the way we're talking about it here. Because what happens is you end up happening what happened to President Biden. which is clearly you had people behind the scenes. Look, I think that when you look at President Biden's record previous to when he became president and specifically pre-Obama, he was a fairly moderate Democrat, someone who pretty much created the Hyde Amendment, someone who was pretty much considered a pro-life Democrat. And everyone thought, okay, much like a lot of them, he gets in line and he takes these fringe views. Now I'm curious how much of that was him. because you have people surrounding him. And whether, by the way, that could be people that work there, that could also be family, people that are just opportunistic, who see a weak spot. It's the same story, just told from a different point of view. Look, we get into the next half hour. We're going to discuss that a lot also with Rick Ronell, who will be joining us. He was involved, obviously, in the first Trump presidency out throughout the campaign to where Joe Biden won the presidency. And then, of course, now is a special envoy and has been part of our team for many years now. So we're going to discuss that with him coming up. We're also going to take your phone calls. If you're on hold, please stay on hold. We're going to get to you, maybe a little bit later in the show, but we will get to you with two lines open right now for you at 1-800-684-3110. As we head to the end of this first half hour, I want to encourage you to support the work of the ACLJ. Last week, we talked about all the major successes, all the major victories we had, but we have seen the news. And all of a sudden, if they can start saying that this guy, Target, was essentially a pro-life activist, which he certainly was not, But you're not hearing a lot about the real motives. You start putting the pieces together like I did. We know places like pro-life pregnancy resource centers are going to be, again, a target. And we have fought and fought for them. We've mobilized not only our legal team, but our media team across the country. Actions keep continuing to pour in. We have so much going on around the world right now at the ACLJ. I mean, it is non-stop. Whether we're at the UN Human Rights Council, whether we were talking about what's going on and working people in Nigeria, the Boko Haram situation. You have all of the Christian persecution, and I mean real persecution, life and death kind of persecution that's happening outside of our country. We're involved in that as well. And you can be a part of that team. It's very easy. Go to ACLJ.org, support the work financially, become an ACLJ champion if you can also. That's a monthly recurring donor. We've got a second half hour coming up. Make sure you're joining us live at ACLJ.org.
SPEAKER 02 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Seculo. And now your host, Logan Seculo.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome back to Seculo, second half hour. I'm glad you're joining us for it. Of course, as we say, if you're hearing this later on, the show is live every day, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time. You can work your way back wherever you live, whatever time zone you're in. We do it Monday through Friday. Of course, it plays throughout the country on Terrestrial Radio at different times during the day. We are live, and you can always watch us live at aclj.org. on our YouTube channel, on our Rumble channel. You can find us on X. We are broadcasting on most of our social media platforms. Of course, clips are posted later on in the day and great content from our incredible media team. So incredible that you had the Health and Human Services, the HHS, find one of our blogs and then form an investigation. This is pretty awesome. That's what our team is doing here at the ACLJ, creating incredible content that then gets shared to the most important people on the planet, the most powerful people on the planet. With that, I want to take some phone calls coming up at 1-800-684-3110. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us in the next segment. To restate, if you are just joining us for the second half hour, of course, we are talking about the diagnosis of President Biden, saying he has an aggressive form of cancer spread to his bones. Horrible. We're praying for him, praying for his family. But really, this, of course, comes just a day or two before the release of Jake Tapper's book that, of course, is coming from Jake Tapper, which feels ironic to begin with. It always has been. But you're talking about a book that was going to be sort of the the smoking gun, the blowing the whistle off of the truth that was going on behind the scenes for President Biden during his last year running into the election. And of course, the disastrous debate that ended his campaign. And a lot of this had to do with mental acuity, had to do with the her tapes, all those things that have come out over the last few weeks leading up to this. And then not so suspiciously, they make this announcement that President Biden has cancer and an aggressive form of cancer that they said likely would have been caught. This was not something that they found out this weekend. Now, it's no one's business. I will say that it's no one's business. if you're sick, especially if you're post. I mean, if he was president, sure. But now that he's not president, the question is, did they know that ahead of time? Were there people around him that were surrounding him and propping up someone who shouldn't have been in that position? I feel for him. I feel that there is some certainly abuse going on in terms of the staff around him. in terms of his family potentially, people who could benefit from him being president and were not willing to let that go when you had someone having severe medical issues, whether that was mental or physical or both. But here we are. And it feels like the Biden team always does this. They play politics very, very well, but also play it a little too, a little too clearly. A little too political.
SPEAKER 03 :
A little too political.
SPEAKER 04 :
Like we all can see through when you make this announcement days before a book releases, when you have just done a two, like he was on The View two weeks ago. Right. Could have said it then. I have a feeling, like you said, they probably knew a lot of this for a while. We don't know that for sure. And maybe they don't.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and based off what many of the who didn't tell him, you know, fortunately or unfortunately, in this age of nonstop news that there have been plenty of oncologists on TV shows. And we know how closely that, you know, White House doctors monitor the president. It is unfathomable at this point, according to what the oncologists are saying, that aren't his oncologists, but just oncologists on TV, about the level of this, how it has already metastasized to his bones, that this wasn't showing up in blood work, that his numbers were not elevated to a level where they would know that this was going on years ago, not just within the last couple months. So once again, the timing of it is not even thinly veiled as a political timing because of, and we can play this later, but even Van Jones on CNN talking about what's in the book calls it a crime against the Republic. That's Van Jones saying the coverup of Joe Biden's state is a crime against the Republic. He was one of the first ones, I remember, right after the debate that was like, he's got to go. And we all thought that was all planned. And if you have Van Jones making that statement, that is the exact reason why they are releasing this news today. To try and change the narrative and get some sympathy for the president, the former president, as he has an illness battle.
SPEAKER 04 :
Stop book sales, continue the 24-hour news coverage of this, end it. Look, we're going to take your calls in the last segment of the broadcast, which is just a few minutes away. We have Rick Grinnell joining us, and then we're going to take your calls. We've got one line open at 1-800-684-3110. If you are on hold, stay on hold. We will get to you. Coming up in just a few. Be right back. Welcome back to Secular. Rick Grinnell is joining us. Of course, we are talking about still, we got a lot of calls that we're good to coming up in the next segment. We're obviously talking about some of the breaking news that was happening. Not only President Biden, the announcement of his aggressive form of cancer that has spread to his bones, of course, like I said. prayers are to him and his family it's not something we take lightly here it's not something we're joking around about uh but it did open up a lot of questions and of course uh rick it has been something we've been talking about for years which means you have a team of people around you who are propping up let's just even take away the cancer side of us we saw what's going on with you know as ridiculous as it sounds jake tapper's book and the um audio that was released you have people And it's sort of a problem in politics in general, business in general, opportunistic people. It feels like they can surround people who when they need to use them, they will. And you had someone who was clearly unwell. And until the American people saw it with their own eyes for maybe the sixth time when they had that debate was when they finally were able to or they had to do something. And this is sort of a not only is it an interesting thing to study, it is kind of a sad state of how we run things in politics.
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, my reaction is that transparency is not political. However, right now it seems partisan. It feels like the Democrats don't want transparency, and it's the Republicans who are trying to come forward and doge different ideas that politicians are bringing forward in secret. We have to uncover all of this, And let the chips fall where they may. Let's, you know, have the American people see what we're spending on, see what discussions are going on. Donald Trump is the most transparent president we have ever had. And the media, they try to say, oh, you know, he's always on camera. He loves to be on camera talking. And so he invites the press in everywhere. But I think it's a... It's a decision by the president to be completely transparent. He wants the American public to watch negotiations. We've seen that going on with Zelensky, right, where these incredible discussions behind closed doors that have been spending hundreds of millions of dollars of the American taxpayer money, by the way. suddenly it's all out front. People are able to see what's happening and I think people love it. The media always mocks it because they prefer to have things done in secret than they can control it. then they are the arbiters of what's happening and people have to go to them to listen. They're the filter, if you will. And so I think that Donald Trump has completely smashed this whole system by just opening it up and being transparent. The Joe Biden team has been really running from transparency. They don't want us to know about his medical records. They don't want us to know what people actually were thinking when they were in the Oval Office with President Trump. They've spun this huge tale, and we all know that it is just not true. First of all, I'm a cancer survivor, and I can tell you that prostate cancer in particular is something that you watch and can see it slowly progress. Joe Biden as President of the United States was supposed to be one of the people that was monitored, his health was monitored more than any other person. So we just have fundamental questions to ask of the last doctor that was at the White House. Did he do a PSA test? Does he know what the results were? Did he ask President Biden about side effects? How long has Biden known? I don't believe that he just found out. I believe that if you understand the facts surrounding cancer and specifically prostate cancer, you know about this well in advance.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and Rick, even to that, and it's unfortunate that this conversation about the cynicism that we're seeing out of the Democrat political machine has to be about very serious issues about people's health and that what should be at this point, as Logan said earlier, a private matter for the former president. that he's no longer in office. This shouldn't be something that really at this point is anyone's business except for the fact of what appears to be another cover up by either people around him or if it's trying to cover up what's coming out in the book because of the timing of this announcement. And it really, for someone who watches politics, analyzes it and has been around it for so long, it really is kind of a sad moment that we're seeing the continued uh dehumanization even of politicians that the democrats seem to do because of the quest for power and to maintain that or regain that look four months ago joe biden was the president of the united states
SPEAKER 01 :
You are not gonna be able to convince me that the medical team around him, which is supposed to be the best, somehow did not know that he had prostate cancer. This didn't just pop up in a late stage. And the reality is, is that we need answers. Why was everything so secretive? Why was it so hidden? And how did they control it? I mean, everything leaks, from the federal government surrounding Republicans when they're in the White House. I don't understand how they control the system so much. And that's the scary part, Will. That is the scary part to me, is if they can control the system that the President of the United States has cancer and we're not gonna release it, because it's not the right timing, what else are they hiding? If they are that powerful and in cahoots with the media to the point where the media protect them and they can keep things completely away from public attention that should be part of the public's debate, I want to know what else is being hidden from us because this is a very slippery slope and a very scary one.
SPEAKER 04 :
I go back to the days, the COVID days, which obviously none of us really want to revisit mentally, emotionally, or physically. But think about how quickly press releases were dropped. Announcements were made from that medical team when anyone tested positive that was surrounding the president or anyone involved with him. We would find out President Biden or even earlier with President Trump, we'd find out they were speaking. And then 10 minutes later, they had to do a test. And that was public information. That was something that was tweeted out immediately. It was tweeted out because, Will, that was still when it was Twitter. So you know what? I'm not going to go after you this time. You can't go after me for that. So we know that medical team is honestly on some kind of high alert and have access to release information. And now I told Will, if it's something where President Biden genuinely found out, and of course there's questions about that, yesterday that he had prostate cancer and all of this is happening and it's getting extreme, None of our business. He's not the president anymore. Whatever. That's something that he could deal with. But if this has been this is known and this was something that was hidden. Obviously, you're a public servant. You are the head of the country. And Rick is someone I know who's gone through this and followed your journey as well. The idea that he could have been leading the country during that, it becomes abusive.
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, I had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and that comes out of the blue. That comes out as a moment where you have no idea you can feel healthy and then suddenly you've got non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. There's a lot of cancers that come out very suddenly. Prostate cancer is not one of them. And that's just my point here is that you don't have a late stage prostate cancer diagnosis, if you have been under the most incredible medical care for the last four years, it does not make sense. And so people need to start asking these questions again. For me, it's, you know, Maybe Joe Biden and his sickness could have been prevented a long time ago if we were more honest about what it was. He was the president of the United States and he could have been making decisions in his state that are very concerning. Did he really understand? You listen to the Her tapes and you think, wow, this guy is not well. And yet he was running the United States of America. It's very concerning to me that we could have that. This is the case. We could have a president of the United States that is not well. And yet the medical team, the political team and the media all work together to hide it. That's the point.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, Rick, and I think that is what we're trying to press here. We got a lot of calls, people calling in, asking a lot of questions. And some of them, look, I have to appreciate, looks like most people are being respectful of this. They understand the severity of it, but they also see the timing of it. And they see that the book was going to drop and all the news was coming, that the tapes were happening. And they're playing politics a little too, as Will said, a little too transparently. It feels like this team, that the Biden team has always done this, where the American people could see right through, right through to the narrative they're trying to present. But yeah, all right. I just realized we're running out of time, Rick.
SPEAKER 01 :
Here, you got like 20 seconds. Go ahead. Look, they get away with it because the media lets them get away with it. And so they keep doing it because they get away with it. Yep. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 04 :
Rick, always great to hear from you. Now coming up. We get to hear from you, the most important voice in the room. We got one line open, though. If you want to call in, it's a great time to call in. We'll do our best to get to you, sixth caller. We're going to try to get to these five that are on hold right now. So Lydia, Michael, Don, Greta, Dave, stay on hold. I'm going to get to you coming up here in the next segment. Of course, I want you to spend a little time on ACLJ.org, just like our HHS department. Go spend some time. Go look at some of the incredible free content we put out, by the way. Not behind a paywall like some of the others. Don't do that here. We want to make sure you have content that you can share. The only reason, though, we can do that is because people like you support us financially. So I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org, become a champion if you can. That's a monthly recurring donor. Do it today. Be right back. All right, let's take some phone calls. A lot of you have been on hold since the beginning of the show, and we appreciate that. So we'll just go in order. And look, I will say this before we do this. I know a lot of people have their thoughts, their comments. This is not a medical advice show. Will and I are not doctors. So I don't want to come across like we know anything in terms of that. We know other things. but we don't necessarily, they're not medical professionals or even pretending to be. So if you have medical advice and thoughts and comments, know that that has really nothing to do with what we do here, but understand people have those questions and concerns. Let's go to Greta in Georgia, listening on the radio. You're on the air.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hey, y'all. As a former medical doctor practicing in Communist Romania and a surgical assistant here in the United States working in an urology clinic, I know for sure every single simple doctor, like a family practitioner, after 40 years old, it is recommended a routine prostate test for every single man. Is there possible that in the United States, the president of the United States didn't have this test ever? We just wake up right now. Do you think we are so stupid?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, Greta, I think that is kind of the point, which is this idea that politics gets played so clearly and so abundantly ridiculously with, honestly, with the Biden team and how it's always been, which it's always just like clever timing. Like, let's save a diagnosis, a horrible diagnosis that all of us are really upset about, by the way, because I don't think I hate for anyone who's suffering and he was suffering from cancer specifically. But you save it till two days before a book is released, a bombshell book that's supposed to show you what was actually going on. Of course, you can see right through it. Of course, Greta, all of these kind of routine exams are recommended by doctors. I can't give medical advice, but I can tell you that is something that you know your whole life is coming, that they're going to have to start doing these tests for you at a certain age. And certainly if you're in your 80s, I would assume that that is happening.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, as well as we know how the medical team at the White House, their entire job is to make sure that everything is going well with the president as far as their health and maintaining that. So as Greta said, she mentioned that she was a medical professional in Romania before being a medical professional in the United States. And she said, this reminds me of the propaganda I grew up with. It's what she told the screener is that, yes, this timing is not highly suspect. It is
SPEAKER 04 :
blatantly obvious why this announcement was made yesterday ahead of this book release but logan i think we should go some more phone calls all right continuing on i'm just going to go into order as they came in let's go to don in utah watching on salem news channel which we're live on each and every day you can find that on pluto or on samsung and also just on their website don you're on the air thank you for taking my call yeah i i uh have a concern about uh the comments about joe biden being somehow a victim of the
SPEAKER 05 :
people he's around and i know there's some bad actors and and they're and that's clear but i don't think any of them are any worse than joe biden uh you know we're all victims of joe biden's presidency especially and even before that uh when he had his mental capacity he wasn't a a um well i think he had contempt for the the people of the united states and i'm not so sure he cared about the country at all either with the way he did with the bribing countries and things like that.
SPEAKER 04 :
So, you know, it's not like he had a clear cut presidency and I don't want to pretend like we're exonerating him from any of the issues that happened here. What I will say though, is maybe in the last year that those were exasperated to a point of, um, of abusive, uh, Now, I'm not saying I agree with him on anything. I disagreed on pretty much every decision the Biden administration made. I could say I probably disagreed with 95% of the decisions the Obama administration made, which he was part of as well. It's just a different, but it is different to look at it through this lens.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, especially when you hear the content of the special counsel interview with the president is that, yes, I agree. I don't absolve him from the policies of the Biden administration. He was the president. But also there is this does raise questions we need to know when you hear that interview. If he were operating like he was within the Her interview most days of the presidency, he wasn't doing anything to run the country.
SPEAKER 04 :
What it really shows is that George Clooney moment was accurate. He said, he didn't even recognize me. Those tapes tell you that that's true. We got to continue on, though. Let's keep going. Let's go to Michael, who's calling in West Virginia. Watch it on YouTube. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, thanks for taking my call. You know, the only way you're going to get the kind of transparency you're talking about is if you slap a body cam on every single congressman when they walk out the door at 8 o'clock in the morning and don't take it off of them until they go home at night and then tell them, go to bed. That way there are no more backroom deals and you can use it for education purposes. Study 500 hours of this.
SPEAKER 04 :
I kind of love that. I'll be honest, Michael, I don't think that's going to happen. Look, I understand that I'm maybe looking at it through rose-colored glasses going, I feel like we should have better people. Maybe that's the answer. The answer is we need to be electing better people. people you can trust, people that actually are representing the country and their state and their district and they're not just out for themselves and I feel that way or even including when you put together a team. Be much more careful with that. But Michael, put some body cams on them. That could be kind of fun. I mean, that would be great television.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'd watch it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Everyone would watch that. I'd watch it. It'd be great. I mean, we'll watch this body cam footage all the time from police. Yeah, it's in my algorithm.
SPEAKER 03 :
I know, you send me stuff all the time.
SPEAKER 04 :
You gotta see this. I know that.
SPEAKER 03 :
So what if it was... There was an alligator in the middle of the highway.
SPEAKER 04 :
We have 24-7 AOC. You know, it's crazy. All right, let's continue on. We only got a couple minutes. We got two calls. Lydia, you're on the air. That was very close because you guys were really close on when you called in. Lydia in California, go ahead.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thank you for taking my call. First and foremost, we proclaim to be one nation under God with liberty and justice for all. Let me tell you what is this and why. In Zechariah chapter 7, it starts with verse 8. Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying, Thus has the Lord of hosts said, dispense truth, justice, and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor, and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. And also in Malachi, 3, chapter 3, verses 16 through 18. Then those who fear the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem his name. And they will be mine, says the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER 04 :
preach lydia i i really appreciate you calling in and i appreciate those verses and i agree with you 100 i appreciate that i'm only cutting you off because we are running out of time and i really want to get to this next call real quick uh dave is calling in texas but lydia thank you so much dave you're on the air hey gentlemen thank you for taking my call you got about a minute dave go ahead sorry i was running out of time
SPEAKER 07 :
I am a physician in Texas and I've been a physician for 25 years. I know for a fact that Joe Biden had dementia in 2019 and probably before prostate cancer is extraordinarily slow growing. They have a stage four that they had to have been going on for at least five years. So his White House position, we can add Ronnie Jackson, former White House position, but his White House position was either incompetent or was gagged by the media.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think we'll find out, Dave. I really do. And to Dave's point as well, this is the same crowd that was covering up for President Biden, was the same crowd that was yelling about we need the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump because they disagree with policy. Then when the 25th Amendment talks about when a president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, if they wanted a real conversation, it would have probably been around something like this. But instead, they make everything in the Constitution political.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think in those last days, they probably were telling him they were going to do that. Right. And that's what ended up having him step down from running. I think they probably said, look, we're going to take this because they knew what was going on and they knew that they were going to get beat handily. And of course, that still happened. Either way, it was a little too late. It probably wasn't going to happen in general. That's going to do it for our show today. We appreciate it. It's a fast-paced show. If you're brand new here, by the way, you're watching on YouTube or Rumble, subscribe. Do that right now. We do the show each and every day. If you can become an ACLJ champion, become an ACLJ champion, someone that supports life, liberty, all across the world, not just here in America. We are protecting your values worldwide. Talk to you tomorrow.
Dive deep into the mission-driven life with Carl Barrett who has spent a significant part of his journey volunteering in some of the world's most challenging environments. From prison walls to the epidemic of loneliness affecting today's youth, Carl shares compelling insights and experiences that underline the importance of faith, obedience, and selfless service. Listen as he and Angie uncover the truth behind steadfast hope and the guiding principles of purposeful living.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here's Angie.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey there, friend. Angie Austin with The Good News along with Grace Fox. And we're talking about the book, her book, Fresh Hope for Today, Devotions for Joy on the Journey, one of my favorites. And we're moving to 152, the devotion titled Beyond Imagination. Welcome to you, Grace Fox.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thanks again for having me.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, before we do the devotion, I was thinking, you know, I love to talk about all your travels and all the countries you've been to and your ministry and the work you do in speaking around the world. And I was like, oh, as soon as like I've got one, you know, one left in high school, basically. And so one's graduating in a few days. And then my son's a freshman at college just finished. And I just I was thinking, well, I guess in two years, that's when I'll have like the total freedom right to travel, you know, a lot more. And I don't know if like you, I'd travel for ministry because at this point, I don't really have one that I would travel with. But I guess I could travel with yours.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I was thinking, have I got opportunities with you?
SPEAKER 05 :
But I thought, you know, as soon as she graduates, I'll have that freedom because I'm in this group because I have a pass with Frontier Airlines. It's not a high-end airline, but I have elite status, and so I get free luggage and seat selection, and I board first and things like that, and a lot more freedom to change my reservations and stuff. But this pass, I book 24 hours in advance or 10 days in advance for international flights. But in the country, one day in advance, and I can pretty much just fly to New York and go to a museum if I want. So I'm all excited about doing that, but I don't have as much freedom with all the kids. But maybe next year, you know, because I'll just have the one at home. But I just was thinking then I'll be I can be more like you and find because I haven't even been to Europe yet. You know, here I am, like practically a senior citizen. I haven't even been to Europe yet.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, you just have a whole future ahead of you, and it'll be really fun to see how that unfolds for you as the kids get older.
SPEAKER 05 :
I know. I know. It will be fun. I'll miss them, but I'll still take some tricks with them, too. I've got the girls. We're going to Nashville because one of my daughters is going to go to school there, and she has a camp. She's helping all the volleyball players in college help the younger kids at a camp, so I figured, oh, I'll take my little one, but she's going to miss a little bit of her basketball. So we're plotting. This is terrible. We haven't told my husband yet because my little one wants to go. And the coach said, you know, I don't like to change my entire life because the kids have sports like she should. If she wants to go to Nashville and see some of the live music, like I want her to go, but she'll miss a few days of practice. Right. And so we're afraid to
SPEAKER 04 :
to tell my husband because we know we're going to be in trouble it's terrible but I said to her I'm like I'm going to leave it up to you because your coach did say don't skip vacations and stuff during the summer but we're both nervous to tell her dad so we haven't told him yet and we leave in the middle of June we're so bad I sound like I'm a teenager but we just don't want to make him mad Oh, you'll figure it out. We will. All right. So let's get into our devotion beyond imagination. What do you teach us in this?
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, this is just one of my favorites. This is a great story. So Ephesians 3, 20 and 21 says, Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. And I love that, that God is able to do immeasurably more than anything we can even imagine. So there was this one time when my husband and I had to go to Slovakia for a staff conference with our ministry. And we wanted a niece of ours to come along. She owns a hair salon. And we thought if we could just bless our missionary staff with free haircuts, that's just one way to love on them. And so our niece said, yeah, I'll come. But can I bring another family member? This other one of my cousin's kids worked for my niece in this hair salon. And Amanda, my niece, wanted to bring her along. And we said, of course. So now we had two hairstylists come into the staff conference. We thought that is so fantastic. So here's the thing. I had to fly with a friend who had never flown before. She was a massage therapist, and she was coming along to bless our missionaries with that. She had never flown overseas, so I left from Vancouver with her. My niece and my cousin's daughter left from Alberta, and our flights left within about two hours of each other, and we both were headed to London. So we're going to meet up at the London Heathrow Airport. And if you've ever, if anybody's ever been there, this place is massive with several terminals and you catch a bus to go from one terminal to the next. It's like a city. So, you know, trying to meet up with somebody there is no small feat. But anyways, we land and there had been fog. So there was havoc everywhere at the airport, like hundreds of incoming flights that day were delayed. And their flight was delayed, ours was delayed. And all I'm thinking is, How in the world are we ever going to meet up with them now? Because, like, our plane sat on the tarmac for probably 45 minutes or an hour after we landed, just waiting for a gate to open for us to go in.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wait, so this is back when they used to do that white paging telephone. You know, Grace Fox, please go to a white paging telephone for a message. Like, back when it was like that, when you didn't have any way to reach anybody but that overhead-like system thing.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, we had cell phones then. This was not that long ago. But it was like, we're sitting on a plane and they're sitting on a plane. And how are we going to find each other in this airport? Except, you know, we'll be able to somehow figure it out. But really, how is this going to work out with hundreds of thousands of people in that airport in that one day alone? So we end up having to go through passport control, and you have to do that when you enter the country. So there's masses of people, and the line zigzags back and forth like it does at Disneyland, you know?
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, my goodness.
SPEAKER 07 :
So anyways, we head to a line on the right, and a security guard just stops me with his hand and points to the left. And so I went, okay, I go that way, obviously, so... So I'm standing there with my friend, and we're talking, and I'm, you know, looking at my phone and thinking, now I've got to text. But, you know, the phone rates, everything changes as soon as you hear it.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, right. That's right.
SPEAKER 07 :
So you don't want to do this if you don't have to. But anyway, so my friend and I are talking, and I just happened to glance up for a second, and I look at the head of this one woman standing in front of me. She turned sideways to talk to the friend beside her, and I realized this is my niece.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, my goodness.
SPEAKER 07 :
With my cousin's daughter standing right in front of us and, you know, going through passport control at the same time, even though our flights came in, we were delayed sitting on the track. I mean, a mass of traffic in the airport. The chances of landing right behind them in passport control were zero to none. Yeah. And this, you know, this was critical because I don't think she'd ever traveled overseas and neither had my cousin's daughter. So if we missed each other, I would be responsible for three people who really didn't have a clue what they were doing. And I just felt so responsible for them. But it was like, this is an example of what God is able to do when you just commit your work to him and you say, I need your help here. I got to get this right, you know, for the sake of these people and everything. You need to come through and do something that's bigger than I can even imagine right now.
SPEAKER 05 :
I love your prayer. God, please answer my prayers in a way beyond imagination and bring glory to your name. Like I can't even imagine your relief in a, you know, an airport that big where you're taking buses from terminal to terminal and there's hundreds of thousands of people and there's havoc because of the fog. And so it's overwhelmed with them for people that have been, you know, delayed and sitting on the tarmac, et cetera. Oh my, and flights then not leaving because they've got more people clogging up the system because they can't leave because of the fog. Oh my goodness. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
It was totally an example of God's immense goodness that day. All of us, like we just looked at each other and our jaws just kind of dropped and I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Why do we not believe it when we prayed for God to do something amazing, right? But that's just the human band says, whoo, how did that happen? Well, because we prayed and God came through. We needn't be so, so shocked when he does, but yeah, But it's just so much fun to be involved in a situation like that where it's God or nothing.
SPEAKER 05 :
I love that, God or nothing. That is so cool. Well, I was recently praying for something that we've been kind of working on for about six months. I don't know if I mentioned it to you last week or not. And we are waiting for a couple of things to come through that take like a month to get answers on and paperwork and testing and this, that, and the other. And so I thought we'd have to really take it up to the wire and not know until later on this summer. But we got the answer early through like other people kind of helping us. And they're all Christians in this group that we are working with. So I was really relieved because I was starting. Oh, I did talk to you a little bit about just when the anxiety starts to get to you. And you're trying to disqual that anxiety like we talked about last week and how we're not supposed to feel that way. We talked about when your baby was born and you were in Nepal and you had to stay in Nepal and your husband had to take the sick newborn infant back, you know, and you didn't even know if you'd see her again. And so I was like, well, that's a little more stressful than what I'm going through. So I've got to kind of lean on Grace's advice on this one.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. And, you know, in cases like that, it's hard to not feel stressed. So it's not wrong to feel stressed, but it's so important with what we do with it. Because if we let those stressful thoughts take up residence in our mind, if we just decide to camp on those stressful thoughts, that's when we hit start. heading down the wrong trail and we want to maybe step into control and we start to try to manipulate things and we try to, or we start losing sleep and it affects our bodies in a physical way. But it's recognizing that stress and then choosing to not camp on those stressful thoughts, but choosing to recite what we know to be true based on the word of God and letting our thoughts camp on those truths.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, my friend used to call it, or she used to say, don't give those thoughts free rent in your head, you know, that they shouldn't be able to reside there for free, you know. And I think about your journey with your husband and how long he's battled his health issues and, you know, all the things you've gone through with that and waiting for answers and testing. I mean, it's been several years, hasn't it?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, he's doing so much better. He had the treatment for, it was prostate cancer, and, yeah. You know, he had been diagnosed 10 years prior and the doctors had just kept a good close eye on things and frequent testing. And when the numbers started all of a sudden escalating, they said, okay, now's the time. You have to take action on this. And he did. But it took probably 10 months for recovery from the treatment that he had. And, yeah, that was a journey. That was a long journey for him, a very active person to all of a sudden, you know, need help. so much more sleep and just a lot of other side effects that he had to deal with, but doing so much better now for which was great.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, but even the 10 years and in the 10 months, so the 10 years and then the 10 months of treatment recovery, but the 10 years of not letting that stress take, you know, have free rent in your head, you know, for both of you, you know, and so that's when you really have to lean on your faith. Okay. So what's the next book coming out for you?
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, I'm so excited about this one. It's Names of God, Knowing Peace. So it's the first one in the book series, Names of God, Living Unafraid. We talked about last week how it just won the Editor's Choice Award 2025 for, they say it's a prestigious award for quality writing and like flawless editing and So I'm just really, really thrilled with this book. But the second one in the series is the one coming out in July, Names of God, Knowing Peace. So taking a deep dive into seven biblical names of God and really exploring them and then seeing what do they mean, where do they show up in the Bible, how have I experienced God by those names, how have other women experienced God by those names, so interviews that I've done, but also how did Jesus fulfill those names, and then What do we do with this? So how do we get it from our head to our heart and start applying this? What difference does this knowledge make in our lives? Because nobody needs more head knowledge. We're getting knowledge from everywhere. We need to take that knowledge and apply it for absolute transformation in our lives. And so questions and free video teaching for every chapter, it's all there to make it super simple for small groups to use.
SPEAKER 05 :
I love it. GraceFox.com. Thank you, friend. Thank you.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
Fort Morgan is listening to the mighty 670 KLT Denver.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey there, friend. Angie Austin here with the good news, along with the author of God's People Count. Carl Barrett is joining us. Welcome, Carl.
SPEAKER 03 :
Good morning, Angie. How are you doing? Thank you for having me on your program.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, you are welcome. All right, so just give us kind of an overview as we get started here in the interview of your book, God's People Count.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, God's People Count is all about the guide through the book of Numbers. And what you really see, a lot of people... As you look at the books of Leviticus and Numbers, and they don't see a lot of underlying messages that apply to us today, but Numbers is a beautiful portrait of how God is now starting to bridge the gap from the time that he gave the law, his laws to the Israelites. Now he's going to bridge that gap all the way to the promised land. But what you discover in the book of Numbers is a journey that should have taken 11 days is now going to take 38 years, all because... the two key components that lay in this particular book is being faithful to God and obedience to his laws and commands. God even tells that generation, that second generation of Israelites, because of the failings of the first generation from the Exodus, that you'll be counted righteous if you will obey all my commands. This book is going to show us how We could be faithful and obedient to God, but we could also look at the ramifications and consequences if we test God's patience, as you see throughout the drama of this unbelievable book.
SPEAKER 05 :
So again, God's People Count, Connecting God's Dots, A Guide Through the Book of Numbers. Now, one interesting thing is I was reading up on you in the book is that you volunteered. I'm sure everyone asks you about this inside one of the most dangerous prisons in the States. So why did you do that? And what did you learn? First of all, why?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I surrendered to preach back in 1978, Angie. And I was a licensed preacher in an association. And I served in various capacities in the church and ministry in the field. But there was this something that I felt like there was a void in my life. There was something missing. I felt like God was calling me to do something else. And what little did I know, I grew up in a very, very dysfunctional family. This could be a story for another day on your program, but I grew up in a family with a lot of verbal, sexual, physical, drug, and alcohol abuse. But what little did I know, Angie, is how God would use that in a ministry that he called me to there in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the New Mexico State Penitentiary. And when my wife saw the posting in the church bulletin, she said, I think this may be for you. I looked at it, and I did not hesitate, Angie. I said, I want to learn all the do's and don'ts, and I didn't care what kind of facility it was. And I got to tell you, when you walk into a compound like the New Mexico State Penitentiary, like you said, one of the most dangerous penal institutions in the entire United States, and those doors slam shut, I'm here to tell you, it'll send goosebumps up a dang spine. But I'm here to also tell you that when you are out to serve God, And you are wholeheartedly committed to him. He will protect you. He will guide you. And he will provide you with the wisdom and the knowledge and insight and the right words as you're spreading the good news to anyone and everyone, no matter who they are, what they've done, or where they are in life.
SPEAKER 05 :
So this is your wife. She sees this in the bulletin to volunteer with one of the most dangerous prisons in the U.S. This is a wife that's like you? She likes you? This is a wife that likes you and you're still married? Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, yes. I served. This is our 44th year this year to be married. And so, yeah, we're still married. But she knew there was something that the Lord was calling me to. And it's amazing how God's timing was so perfect on that one Sunday morning. And I haven't looked back. And I got to tell you, I have served in a state penitentiary. I have served in a detention center. I've served in minimum security, and I've even served in the most challenging, I think, of all. I know we're talking about one of the most dangerous prisons in the United States, but I've got to tell you, one of the sad, most difficult, challenging prisons. ministries is juvenile detention, Angie. That is really challenging.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I can imagine. I grew up in a dysfunctional family, too. And one of my brothers was in a juvenile detention facility. And then another one of my brothers was murdered when he was in his early 30s. And the one that was in juvie, that was scary. I mean, it was full lockdown. And you're right. It's like these kids are so hurt. hurt. It's just unbelievable, uh, the environment. So I can imagine that that would be challenging. I mean, as a woman, I think I deal, I, I view going into a very dangerous prison a little differently maybe than a man would. But I remember them telling my mom and I, at the time I was a teenager that we couldn't meet with him inside because it'd be too dangerous for me. So we had to meet him like outside at a picnic table, you know, behind the fence, of course, but I couldn't go in the building.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Yeah. It's, it's, uh, When I was for years, Angie, I mentored with men that were between the age of 20 and 65. Now, all of a sudden, I'm mentoring with young men, young boys that are between the ages of 5 and 12. And the mindset is different. The intellect is different. And then you're talking to an 8-year-old boy who's been in and out of halfway houses and orphanages and foster homes. since the age of one, and he has no recollection of who his real mom and dad is. I mean, it's just so sad. And one of the things I learned as an instructor for National Fatherhood Initiative, that is 90%, 90%, think about this, Angie, 90% of homeless teenagers come from a fatherless home. Wow. That is so staggering. And that's part of the epidemic that we're seeing today with a lot of what teenagers are struggling with loneliness and even hopelessness and helplessness because they're not searching in the right places because they've had no biblical, spiritual guidance in their lives. And we see a lot of that in the book of Numbers because God, what you see in the book of Numbers is that you start to see God is a God of order, but He also, because what we talked about earlier with the first generation, now there's a hope for the second generation. So It's a powerful book that people just don't really see the personal life application that can apply to your life even today.
SPEAKER 05 :
Now, when you do talk about that loneliness, obviously the epidemic of loneliness affecting many, but what do you think are some of the factors contributing behind the epidemic of loneliness in teens and young people?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you know, part of that is the lack of biblical and spiritual guidance in homes. I mean, in my fifth book that I'm working on right now, it all starts with parents. I mean, in one survey by the Barnard Group, 70% of parents are concerned that their children, when they reach the age of 18, Angie, will walk away from the faith. And I think, really, a Christian parent, 70% of you, are concerned that your children will walk away when they're 18 from the faith, then that tells you what was their lack of as far as active involvement and engagement since the early stages of their consciousness. So it all starts in the home, whether you're a mother, father, guardian, any type of family leader. It all starts in the home. And here's what's happening. Now there's new statistics saying that Almost 60% of teenagers are in a state of loneliness. I believe it. There's a lot of variables that can lead to that, and social media and technology is a crushing part of that problem. Because a lot of people, they can't connect with people in society because for whatever reason they're looked down upon. And then what happens is they start looking at falsehoods. other areas like social media and technology where they get, they can easily get deceived and caught into this realm, this, this, this world that you're not connecting to the way that the, that the Lord wants us to connect. And, and, and it goes back to what we talked about in the homes. It's just a sad statistics of what's, what's leading to, that's why it's so important that you see it in my book, finding that common ground, how we can connect with people because it's, I'm here to tell you, Angie, there's a lot of people. It could be in your own family, your friends, your neighborhood, your community, even your church and schools. There's a lot of hopeless and helpless people out there that are crying out for help.
SPEAKER 05 :
You said you felt like something was missing in your life when you saw that posting in the church bulletin about volunteering at the prison. I want to ask you two things. What do you say our calling in life is supposed to be as followers of Christ? And then I want to know a little about what the experience was like actually volunteering in the prison. So what do you say our calling in life is supposed to be as Christians?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, number one is we need to be imitators of Christ, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 5, verse 1. and then we need to be fulfilling the Great Commission. I'm a firm believer that if you follow the greatest command, love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbors equally as yourself, then what you'll do is you'll start to find out that you're starting to connect with people because you want to fulfill the Great Commission. I mean, but I'll tell you another big part of it, and you're seeing it in churches today, Angie, is that people don't do what Paul tells us to do in 2 Corinthians chapter 13. We're not doing a genuine self-examination of our Christian walk, our spiritual life, to where we can really determine where our true faith doesn't really lie in the promises of Jesus Christ. And I will tell you this, and I think this may help, is that so many times in mentoring sessions, an inmate who just became a new believer in Christ will say, Carl, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, I... The Word of God is so full of depth and richness. I don't know where to start. I'm going to make it really, really easy. On a comprehension level in the prison, you have to do this. Look at Galatians chapter 5. In there lies a true measuring stick for each and every one of us, starting with the fruit of the Spirit, from love all the way to self-control. Nine key elements in our daily life. All of us either will excel, or we either fail in many of those areas every day. And what we need to do is we need to do a self-examination like Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians, and we need to determine what are our strengths, what are our weaknesses, what are the opportunities for us and connect with people to where we can be genuine followers of Christ, where people see faith, love, obedience, and hope in our life. And then we need to look for those threats that the enemy, those tactics and strategies that he's putting out as far as barriers in our life that prevents us from using those gifts and even our talents for being a genuine follower of Jesus Christ. So I know that was a long-winded explanation.
SPEAKER 04 :
Are you still volunteering in the prisons, by the way?
SPEAKER 03 :
I'm sorry?
SPEAKER 05 :
Are you still volunteering at the prison, by the way?
SPEAKER 03 :
No, I retired three years ago and I retired in Tyler, Texas, uh, for family reasons. Uh, unfortunately, uh, because of a lot of caregiving that we're having to do for family members, that's sort of taken precedence in my life. Uh, unfortunately, but that's, that's our calling for right now. So, but going back to that boy that you were talking about, I still needed to find something to do, uh, outside of writing books in the morning. I still need something to do in the afternoon to get me out of the hole and out of caregiving that can keep me connected with people. So now I deliver pharmaceutical items to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and people at their homes who may be in hospice to where I can still connect with people that are in dire need for that need for hope and help. Because I'm here to tell you, Angie, it's not just in the prison laws. Outside the prison walls, going back to what I said earlier, there are people in our neighborhoods that are living in a state of isolation.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, yes. I want to have you come back, Carl. I hate to cut you off so abruptly. The time got away from us. Give us your website real quickly, please.
SPEAKER 03 :
It is www.mondayblues2sundaypews.com. Pretty simple, mondayblues2sundaypews.com.
SPEAKER 05 :
And that's God People Count, and that is Mr. Carl Barrett. Thank you, Carl. Thank you, Angie.
SPEAKER 04 :
Appreciate it.
SPEAKER 02 :
You bet. Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
In this episode of America's Veterans Stories, Kim Munson dives into Kirk Ophel's past – from his upbringing on military bases to navigating the clandestine world of submarines. Ophel's tale unfolds through his struggles and victories, shedding light on the indomitable spirit that propelled him to redefine himself amid the rise of the Internet and AI. His insights on wrestling provide a metaphor for the human spirit's capacity to overcome adversity and strive for excellence in all pursuits.
SPEAKER 04 :
World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and our other wars and conflicts. America's fighting men and women strapped on their boots and picked up their guns to fight tyranny and stand for liberty. We must never forget them. Welcome to America's Veteran Stories with Kim Munson. These stories will touch your heart, inspire you, and give you courage. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Here's Kim Munson.
SPEAKER 10 :
And welcome to America's Veterans Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure and check out our website, VeteransStories.com. And the show comes to you because of a trip that I took in 2016 with a group that accompanied four D-Day veterans back to Normandy, France for, at that time, the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day landings during World War II. and return stateside realizing we need to know these stories. Every story is unique, and we need to hear them, we need to archive them, and so hence America's Veterans Stories. I'm really pleased to be talking with Kirk Ophel today, and our theme is From Deep Dives to Data Centers, Creating a New Mission for Veterans in the Digital Age. So Kirk Ophel, welcome to the show, and tell me a little bit about yourself.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, thanks, Kim, and it's an honor to be on your show. Gotta say thank you for all the things that you do for the veterans. So, as I begin to talk about myself, it's challenging, but I started as, I'm the son of a Vietnam veteran. My father did two tours in Vietnam, and I'm the youngest of a bunch of boys. I have a brother in every branch of service.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
The benefit of growing up on a military base, I was born and raised in a military base, military hospital, I felt like that gave me an advantage, especially having nothing but older brothers. Helped me get into a sport called wrestling. And wrestling is just nothing more than a street fight with rules. But it does offer you the ability to understand pain, grit, sacrifice. But the thing I took away from it the most, I think, was discipline. So I used those two things. to help me find a career in the Navy. So I enlisted in the Navy in my early 20s and I found a home for myself in the nuclear submarine program. And I got to be on a fast attack submarine. I deployed for about 288 days a year on about three and a half years. And I had a chance to visit about 16 different countries. So I got to do all the things that submariners get to do. And then when I got done with that, I left the military to finish. When I did that, I found a job where I just basically stumbled into this new emerging industry that's still probably one of the best kept secrets in the world. And it's called the data center industry. It's actually referred to as the mission critical industry. And mission critical was defined by any company or enterprise that that could quantify the downtime of their technology in one second by either a loss of revenue by $1 million or death. Coming from the submarine community where we also have a very deep mission-critical background, it's not measured in downtime, it's measured in our own mortality. So I got a chance to kind of play in this space, and I grew my career when I got out of the military. sitting front row and watching the World Wide Web get created, and then I got to watch what's called the Internet of Things get created, which led us to e-commerce. And then I, again, was riding the wave as we started building these things called the cloud. I spent a good half of my career building the sky for the cloud until we stumbled into this new era, which is called AI data centers. So I get a chance to be a part of all those things, but it all comes back to what I learned being born and raised on a military base, being born within a military family, and then serving in the military myself.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, that's quite a story. And so let's jump in here. In the information that your publicist sent over, you said that you actually had a challenge, a health challenge somewhere in all of this.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, ma'am. So again, you wake up some days and you You're a young, ambitious person, and there's a lot of things in life you're trying to pursue. But I was blessed at an early age with the cancer that's referred to as sarcoma, specifically MFH. And I've never had sarcoma. I've never had cancer in my life. I've never even heard that word. And the blessing of getting that type of cancer is in life. There are so many distractions we have, whether it's our own ambition or the circumstances of our family situations. But for me, being blessed with cancer early helped me understand what was my life, and it shifted everything back to Top Dead Center. So I do think that I credit my survivability with my cancer to the lessons I was born and raised with in a military home and the tenacity and the grit that was conditioned and taught to me while I was in the military. The military is not only a leadership tool. It's also the home for the most advanced weapons machinery built. So for me to work in a service like this, silent service of the submarine community, I had to endure a lot of learning and a lot of pressure testing or stress inoculation, which between what I learned in the military and what I learned growing up on a military base and the things that the sport of wrestling itself had taught me, All those things combined prepared me into my battle with cancer. And I ended up fighting it in a way in which I raced in about 70 to 80 different ultra-endurance races from half Ironmen to Spartans and trifectas. And I did it to raise money for cancer research. But while doing those things, I really learned how to reinvent myself as a human being. So I fell back on all the charlatanry. and the training I learned in wrestling to be a cancer survivor that I am today.
SPEAKER 10 :
Boy, that's a remarkable story. And I grew up in a little town in western Kansas, and wrestling was one of the sports. And we had state championship teams and state championship wrestlers. And so I've watched a lot of wrestling. But the thing about wrestling is you can't hide. It is you. Absolutely. And so you are responsible for preparing. You're responsible for what happens out on the mat. You're responsible with how you react to that. You can't blame anybody. It all comes down to you, which I think it makes it a rather remarkable sport.
SPEAKER 03 :
There's no greater sport than the sport of wrestling because it holds you accountable to how much discipline you can impose on yourself. And whatever it is, it's typically proportionate to how successful you are in the sport. But The sport is incredible, and you should be surprised or you may be surprised to know that we have more CEOs in the Fortune 500 that have been on a wrestling mat than have ever been on a court. Wrestling also is the primary sport, and that represents the largest demographic of those that join any special warfare community with any branch of service. They tend to recruit more from the wrestling community simply because we impose pretty high levels of expectations on ourselves, and with those expectations, we bring standards. And that's something that, again... And having that wrestler before I got into the military and then having the military really refine and optimize those skills allowed me to not only become a cancer survivor and thriver, but it helped me start the business that we created today.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and Kirk Ophel, for people that may not really know a lot about the sport of wrestling, the wrestling that you're talking about is different than what a lot of people see on TV with pro wrestling, right?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, absolutely different. But one day we'll hopefully see collegiate wrestling more prevalent on television. But it's one of the oldest Olympic sports, Greco-Roman wrestling is where it began. And wrestling is a foundation basic sport, meaning fundamentally – There's only one objective to the sport of wrestling, and that is to improve your position on the mat. And the most famous wrestler from our community of all time is perhaps a man named Dan Gable. And Dan Gable is made famous by a simple quote that says, wrestling is life. And, and, and I, I, I taught my sons that which were wrestlers. And I use that ethos for everything that I do in business, which is the entire, your entire life. You're going to be thrown on your back at some point, and you're going to have to learn how to fight off that or that teaches you endurance. And it teaches you grit things that you're going to need to have to endure a community like the submarine community. And those two things combined give you an advantage. If you have to ever endure something with your own health, such as cancer.
SPEAKER 10 :
I think it's remarkable how you've connected all of this together. That happens in life. All these things, we get them connected. But anything else regarding the wrestling component? Because I then want to move over to being on this nuclear sub. I'm not sure that I could go underwater for a really long time. So we'll get to that. But anything else regarding wrestling that you want people to know?
SPEAKER 03 :
No, not necessarily. Other than it's a... It's a sport that I think everyone should because the number one objective of that sport is to teach people how to improve their position at all times. And that applies to the civilian community. It applies to non-wrestlers. Everybody that's working for a living should be trying to figure out a way to improve their position. So I do believe wrestling is a constitutional sport for character. But I do think that it also helped prepare me for during the training I had to go through to get into a submarine.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, so I want to talk a little bit about that. And so we've got maybe about four minutes in this particular segment. So what kind of training? Well, let's start with how did you decide that you wanted to be a crew member on a nuclear submarine?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, fair question. The answer is television and TV and movies like Top Gun or Crimson Tide or The Hunt for October do an amazing job to help recruit from the military, as they should. And for me personally, My father was 24 years active duty in the military, turned 18 in Vietnam loading bombs and F-4s in Southeast Asia, came out with a bachelor's from Boise State, a master's from OU, and all of his sons joined both the officer and enlisted in different branches. So being born on an Air Force base, I knew what I didn't want to do. Not that I'm trashing what my brothers and sisters in the service.
SPEAKER 10 :
Be careful.
SPEAKER 03 :
I know, but I got half my family's Air Force. But at the same time, you know, I think most young boys growing up want to be commandos or they want to be soldiers. And I got to another point where I feel like that was fulfilling enough for me. So I started having conversations with my father early on and said, hey, I watched a few movies. I watched Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington and Crimson Tide, and I said, I can do this. And my dad, thank God, he was stationed in the Pentagon for a bit, and he has a small network within the military and happened to know a few guys. And it opened up an opportunity for me to ask while I was done. It was a no-brainer. I realized that I was meant to be on a submarine.
SPEAKER 10 :
And what was the training like to try to get onto the submarine?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, you know, when you go and you take the Armed Service Vacational Aptitude Battery, otherwise known as the ASVAB, they rank you based on aptitude, and then if you... can get into some more technical qualified type of opportunities they use. And for me, I knew I wanted to go in and get something that was a technical background that would apply to a professional job skill, a trade or a craft when I left the military in the event I didn't want to go back to college. So I just looked for what I thought would be one of the hardest jobs to do. And the options were aviation, naval special warfare or submarines. And And if you're a wrestler, you're going to go to where they come from. So I just felt like the greatest opportunity to reinvent myself could be found on a fast attack submarine.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay. And so I want to understand more about this submarine. I'm talking with Kirk Ofel and a remarkable story, how everything is connected in his life. But before we go to break, I did want to mention the Center for American Values, which is located here. In Pueblo, Colorado, it's on the beautiful Riverwalk. And the center is co-founded by Drew Dix, Medal of Honor recipient from actions he took during the Vietnam War, and Brad Padula, who is an award-winning documentary maker. And they realized that they wanted to have a place that, first of all, would honor our Medal of Honor recipients. So they have the beautiful Portraits of Valor, but also... to instill in our children views of honor, integrity, and patriotism. So they put together some great educational programs, as well as they have a great On Values series as well, bringing in great speakers. So for more information regarding the center, go to their website. That is AmericanValueCenter.org. AmericanValueCenter.org. We'll be right back with Kirk Ofeld.
SPEAKER 08 :
Remax Realtor Karen Levine helps bring to life the individual stories of our servicemen and women. With her sponsorship of America's Veteran Stories with Kim Munson, Karen honors the sacrifices of our military and is grateful for our freedom. As a member of the National Association of Realtors Board of Directors, Karen works to protect private property rights for all of us. Karen has a heart for our active duty military and veterans and is honored to help you buy or sell your home. Call Karen Levine at 303-877-7516 to help you navigate buying or selling your home. That's 303-877-7516.
SPEAKER 02 :
All of Kim's sponsors are in inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Munson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That's kimmunson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 10 :
And welcome back to America's Veterans Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteransStories.com. And I'm talking with Kirk Ofell, and he ended up serving on a fast attack submarine. And so we want to talk more about that. But before we do... During break, you had mentioned that we're recording this on the anniversary of VE Day, which was the Victory in Europe Day in World War II. And I had mentioned that I had uncles that served in World War II. One of them was a bombardier. on a bomber, and I actually got to take a little fly with one of these bombers, and I was a little shocked at how cramped the quarters were, looking at what the bomb bay was like, and they would just scurry around on the plane, and I just couldn't believe what these guys did. But you said that was nothing compared to the guys that served on the submarines.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I don't want to trivialize what the air crews did. I mean, to have an Air Force back in those days, it was Army Air Corps. And what was asked of them and what was expected of them would, in today's terms, by all accounts, be considered unreasonable. And the same could be said about the submarine community. So I was blessed to get onto a fast attack submarine that was stationed in the submarine capital of the world, which is New London, Connecticut. And and that's where that's where the Cold War was real submarine community. And and and I got a chance to meet so many World War Two veterans that had served on those tin cans back in those days. This was long before the nuclear program was established in the submarine community. And these people would go to sea in very, very tight and incredible living conditions that I couldn't even imagine trying to live through today. And they would go to sea, and they wouldn't come back until they offloaded them all the easy way, right? And the conditions they had were there was no guarantees that they were going to be coming back. So just like in the planes, they're up in the air. They can always hit the ground. And if you're in a submarine, you have one wrong problem, a steam line rupture, a flood of some kind, that ship ain't coming back to the surface. So it's just as equally dangerous.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, very dangerous. And I can't remember. I think that I did interview one guy that served on submarines. And didn't they normally kind of go out by themselves? No.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, so submarines, well, there's a fair question. So we have battle groups, and those battle groups are led by carriers, and those carriers have a lot of supporting staff around them. And there's always going to be, every time you see an aircraft carrier, just imagine there's a submarine doing donuts right under it, right? But in the most part, we have different types of submarines. You have the ballistic missile submarines, which if one of those submarines were to beach itself on any country other than Russia or America, that could happen. that country would have the third most powerful weapon arsenal in the world. So there's those types of submarines that go out, and they're the nuclear deterrent. We probably have less than 80 submarines in the fleet, and they represent probably 50% to 60% of the nuclear deterrent. That being said is there's a fast attack submarine fleet that exists as well, and that's what I got to be a part of. And those ones definitely go out on their own. They are hunters, but every now and then they'll be assigned to a battle group. I fortunately was assigned to a submarine that got to go do missions that submarines are designed to do.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, so how many crew members on a fast attack submarine?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, anywhere but 120 at that time with the 688, and I'm sure that some of those numbers have slid around, but that would be the whole crew, and then sometimes, depending on the mission, we'd bring on people as well, either people from the Naval Special Warfare community, from the intelligence community, or other. So it's not unusual to have 135 people on a submarine that's 360 feet and 4 inches long, so it's still pretty compressed. It's a tight space to operate in, but it's amazing to see how much they're able to accomplish.
SPEAKER 10 :
So if you can, tell me what a typical mission might look like.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, there's a few different campaigns or applications for submarines. Obviously, submarine-to-submarine warfare, submarine-to-surface warfare, and then we have the ability for vertical launching systems. So sit off the coast of some country, and we can launch weapons without being detected. So there's... a slurry of those things, and then there's always unconventional missions as well, like counter-drug interdictions that will help to support certain groups or neighboring partners on. So I got to be a part of three of those types of missions, right? So I got to do what submarines are designed to do and what they write books about.
SPEAKER 10 :
I bet that was pretty exciting, yes?
SPEAKER 03 :
I think that it's incredible how And it's when you're 20 years old and you're driving a multibillion dollar warship, it's hard to relate to your counterparts that are stuck in college still because they're telling you party they went to last night. And you're talking about how you were driving a submarine at test depth for the last three months and you were parked off the coast of some third world country. Right. So it's hard to relate. what you do there, because one, you can't talk about what you do on submarines. And because of that, even if you could talk, most people wouldn't believe you or understand anyway.
SPEAKER 10 :
And how long were the missions normally?
SPEAKER 03 :
In my time, the average or the longest duration of deployment I went on was just a little bit over six months. But some of the deployments could be three months. We went underneath the Northern Ice Pack. That was three months. I sailed around the world in 12 minutes, I can say that. You go down and you do other things, maybe in the South Caribbean or other parts of the country, those mission days as well. Traditionally, most submarines don't go out to sea for more than six months with a click, but a submarine by nature is designed to be able to steam for one million miles or 20 years without a refuel.
SPEAKER 10 :
This is a nuclear submarine, right?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, ma'am. So the nuclear Navy is now 76 years old. And back when I was more intimately involved with the programs, we had 30, 40 accurate propulsion plants. So the discovery of fission and fusion took place 76 years ago. And now we have hundreds of submarines that not only hit the fleet, but I bet you we have submarines that have been refueled since they've hit the fleet. And these are incredibly efficient, not only machines, but crews. So we are trained and conditioned to endure long missions that are untenable to typical people, for sure, because we remove ourselves from the face of the earth. And that does do things to humans, right? So for us, you're also surrounded by some of the best sailors the fleet has to offer and they are sent to some of the most advanced training you could ever imagine. Very safe at all times on one of those ships.
SPEAKER 10 :
So Kirk Ophel, when I was in Normandy, and one of the guys was 101st Airborne, dropped in behind enemy lines on D-Day. And they all had to have their packs, they had to parachute, they had to have their clickers, they had to have rations, all of that stuff. And it was the first time I really started to appreciate the logistics to make sure everybody had what they needed. So how do you have enough food to be out there? What does that look like to get supplies onto a nuclear submarine?
SPEAKER 03 :
Excellent question. And that is the only thing that, I mean, you want to impact the mission, you have to impact the quality of life, and the best way to take care of that is... So submariners in the U.S. Navy are sometimes considered the best fed sailors in the Navy because it's the only way that you can improve our quality of life. So we have a pretty... Interesting storage. When you go to sea, you fill the submarine up. Every compartment you can has food, even the walkways you're walking on cans. And you kind of go out of them deployments, and you're removing components. You're removing components along the way, and you kind of eat your way through the submarine so that what you're doing is you're walking through compartments to where it's too crammed or too packed right now, but if you stay in that compartment long enough, All the canned food and all the stored food that you have there will be consumed. And you have to imagine, we go to sea for a long time, so perishable stuff only lasts a few weeks. And we make powdered milk. We use powdered eggs. We use a lot of things that are either frozen, canned, or powdered to make it through. And then on occasions, we may pull into some country, and there's a byproduct of that. They have fresh produce. Or, you know, we could get a refreshment of our ship stores. And it's not uncommon for us to have a really good supply officer on a submarine that has the ability to go out, negotiate with the locals when we get into different countries and find us things that are, you don't typically eat reindeer as an example, but if you pull into Norway, you get a chance to.
SPEAKER 10 :
What about refuse? Because you're probably going to want to be undetected. So you're not obviously throwing cans off, you know, out of the submarine or also the human refuse. How nuclear submarine?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, we just don't let people go to the bathroom. It's that simple. No, what we do is you have I mean, people don't realize that a submarine isn't designed to sink. So we have to purposely and intentionally sink it. And that means we have hard tanks and soft tanks like ribs spread throughout the submarine. And we put all of our sand waste into hard tanks, and then we would, depending on which depth at sea we're at or which waters we're operating within, we could just pressurize those tanks harder than the pressure on the outside of the submarine, and we could discharge that waste out. And then we also have... a trash disposal unit or a TDU machine, which is hydraulically operated, where we have to take sheets of metal, we have to run trash cans like torpedoes, and then we have to compact as much trash into that as we can by simply weighing it down. And then we have to weigh it to make sure that it'll sink all the way to the bottom. And then what we do is we We have a center on the submarine where you put your trash in a can that you made, you flood, you close the hatch, you flood it, you pressure it, and then you just with some impulse there, you jettison it, and it dumps out all the trash down to the bottom somewhere into the abyss where you'll never see it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Wow. Well, and how deep can a nuclear submarine dive? Wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, that's a good question. There's some books out there called the Book of James. I always recommend people go take a look at that. Whatever they publish is kind of the, that's the script that submariners tend to... The test depth of submarines vary between each submarine, and they're also incredibly secret. So one thing that they teach you when you get to the submarine community isn't just what you're going to be doing, but what you are and are not allowed to talk about. So test depth is one of those things that we typically don't talk about. But I think if you look at the Book of James, on average, you'll probably see a submarine functions with the capacity without issues. Okay.
SPEAKER 10 :
OK, we're going to continue the discussion. I'm talking with Kirk Ophel and a remarkable story. Grew up as a son of a Vietnam veteran and was a wrestler in school and was able to take the things that he learned to become a crew member myself. on a fast attack nuclear submarine. We're going to talk about his career here now in just a little bit. But all this happens because we have great sponsors. And one of those sponsors is Hooters Restaurants. They have five locations, Loveland, Aurora, Lone Tree, Westminster, and Colorado Springs. And how I got to know them is a really important story about, I call them PBIs, politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties, and the proper role of government. It's all something that happened when I was serving on city council. So be sure and check out Munson.com and you can find that whole story. But again, I really appreciate their sponsorship of the show and we'll be right back.
SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
And welcome back to America's Veteran Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteranStories.com. And I'm talking with Kirk Ophel, and he is a son of a Vietnam veteran and wrestled in high school, well, in school, and then served as a crew member on a fast-attack nuclear submarine in the United States. and I'm fascinated with the submarine. Is there anything I missed asking you regarding serving on the submarine? And then we can move over to what you're doing now.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, you know, it's a really small community, and it's a great place to be from. Sometimes it's a hard place to be because the deployments can be very taxing and take a toll on you. But I do think regardless of how hard it is to be in that community, it is absolutely worth it because if I wasn't a submariner, I would have never found the career that I've found since I left active duty in the world of technology. And I credit my submarine community and my submarine training to being able to give me the opportunity to thrive in an emerging technology world and environment that we live in today.
SPEAKER 10 :
So, Kirk Ofill, you've been able to take this, all of this, to launch Overwatch Mission Critical. So tell us about that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, ma'am. So that's what we use because it's a military term. It traditionally means a sniper, but if you look at the definition, it's defined by simply something like this. It's when a smaller unit disrupts the dynamic on the battlefield while simultaneously supporting a much larger unit. And that's what Overwatch is set for for snipers is they're typically able to, with one sniper, they could hold back two platoons because... No one wants to step in the range of where that could be. And for us, we created a technology incubator for labor. And we wanted to be disruptors. So instead of giving the industry another fleet, we wanted to give it SEAL Team 6 for what we do. So the mission critical vertical, as I said, is an industry that's measured in downtime. If you lose your technology, if Amazon.com went dead for one seven, who can they lose? If you're an airline and you can't Maintain your e-commerce. How much revenue do you lose? I started in Mission Critical by building hospitals and by building FAA towers, things in which Mission Critical wasn't measured by revenue. It was measured by downtime and death. And I think the reason why, as this industry began to emerge, it really embraced. Transitioning military back. Every day that we are deployed at sea or in station with what we do in other branches, we are putting ourselves in harm's way and we are in a mission critical environment. The difference is, is we're also in a leadership incubator. The entire military is trained from a left seat to right seat cockpit mentality, meaning Regardless of what your rank is, wherever you arrive at, your job is to learn the job of the person above you by teaching the job to the person below you. And that is what we built the ethos for our business on. And we did it trying to support and serve an emerging industry that I think will have a greater impact on humanity than powered flight.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, so a question, because you're probably, these data centers and AI, there's a lot of talk out there about that, that AI is dangerous or it's a great opportunity, dangerous, all these things. What's your thoughts on that, Kirk Ophel?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, it's all fair concerns. I mean, why wouldn't we? you have to think about ai today what data centers are and and let me tie a few things together if i can because people think data centers and they don't know And let me try to explain it. I always use a phrase. I go, it's the sky for the cloud. Right. But what it really is, the data center is like going into a Home Depot. But instead of roads upon roads with home improvement equipment, it's like a server farm. It's just set up with every all this technology. And that's what the cloud is. The cloud means someone else's data center. So whatever technology that you're not keeping on your premise or on your site. phone or your computer is going, and that somewhere else is a data center. That data center is the sky for the cloud, but it's also the home for AI. The entire technology engine that supports all of cloud and all of AI comes from one data center. Every app on your phone is a data center. So every time that someone touches their phone to buy anything online, to stream something online, to upload or down something online, they're touching not only a data center, they're touching multiple data centers. And the data center industry really didn't start. Some people will say it started in 1994 when Amazon.com went live with their website because they represented about 60% of the internet traffic. But this whole industry itself is what 2025 is in AI. Think about the AI that we're using today. 2025 is for AI is what 1925 was for the automobile industry. And what I'm telling you is as much as we think the AI that we're using today is great, It's not even as efficient as a rotary phone. That's how bad the AI is today that we're working with. And it's only going to get better. And of course, with the adoption rate of any form of emerging technology, there's going to be concerns and threats and risks. Benefits of what AI will do specifically for the middle class is going to have a greater impact on anything else we've seen from technology.
SPEAKER 10 :
So question, there are those that say that these data centers require a lot of energy. And, of course, there's all these narratives around affordable, reliable, efficient, and abundant energy. Is nuclear going to be the thing for these data centers?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, ma'am. So it's a really interesting thing because we're talking about energy, we're talking about technology, but we have to look at it through the lens of national security as well. So I'll give you an understanding. So painting with a very broad stroke at a very high level, today we build what's called hyperscale data centers, and that means it's going to be 100 megawatts of power, okay, a minimum. That means you need 40 acres of land. That means you're going to, on 40 acres of land for 100 megawatts of power, you're going to consume between 1 and 1.5 gigawatts. gallons of water flushing through a closed loop system a day. And for every megawatt of a data center that you build, you typically leave one person behind to manage it. So it's gonna create jobs for people that operate the data center that are left behind. But it creates about 1400 jobs that last anywhere between one and five years to build. And it creates a lot of career growth and career opportunity for people that are looking to get into alternatives to college or the military or other alternatives such as the trades. And one of the things of emerging technology, specifically driven because of the demand for AI, has allowed us in recent quarters to discover that the rate in which we use and deploy energy in the United States today is no longer tenable. And what I mean is, we need more energy to support the demand of AI than what we can get from the grid. So there are, we're 12 years behind the United States on transmission lines, and there are probably 10,000 grid interconnection requests throughout the United States right now for power from a utility provider. And at the same time, as we're trying to simultaneously reduce the usage of dirty fossil fuels. We are trying to figure out a way to adopt a stepping stone to get us closer to nuclear, because nuclear is the safest, scalable, and most sustainable form of energy we can provide. And we haven't created nuclear reactors here in the United States for quite some time, but China has. In fact, they've commissioned 10 nuclear reactors every year for the last three years, with the exception of last year, in which they commissioned 11. And they will still build 100 coal-fired power plants this year in China alone, just to support for energy so they can try to catch America by 2030 on the race for AI. And you have to remember, AI is not a consumer. We use it as consumers, but you have to imagine it being the most advanced weapon machine in tech ever built. and it's going to be primarily used for national defense and safety and security first. So knowing that we have now put such a huge demand on the United States grid, and now realizing that no matter what we're doing without nuclear, we'll never be able to catch up, until we figured out nuclear, we started adopting natural gas. And according to Goldman, we'll probably put 45 gigawatts of renewable energy on the grid, between now and 2030, and 60% of that are roughly 27 gigs alone. So you'll see us going and building data centers in markets outside NFL cities where the energy is at, because now when we build AI data centers, they just need a lot of aggregate energy, but they don't have to worry about network latency. So we don't have to worry about putting them close to where all the eyeball content and video caching from consumers and humans are. out somewhere where no one gets to see them because these large language model AI data centers are just learning data centers. And we are feeding it so much information that we don't need to worry about it communicating to other things because we create more data on this planet every nine months than in the history of the world combined prior to that. So data is the number one most valuable commodity on this earth. And we are using now to shore up national security, find greater means and methods for adopting and utilizing energy. And ultimately, it's going to be used primarily for health care after that. So we have no choice but to shift to nuclear because we don't have enough energy on the infrastructure today. And if we just fire more coal-fired plants, that doesn't solve the problem for all of you, right? At some point, we're going to have to help consumers understand the dichotomy between nuclear weapons, which we all don't like, and nuclear energy, which is the safest, most sustainable and scalable solution for energy we could put on this earth.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay. So, Kirk, on this then, do you think that you might have a nuclear power right next to these AI centers? Is that what you envision?
SPEAKER 03 :
The future will require us to have a small modular reactor, an SMR. within an adjacent vicinity of where the infrastructure for data centers will be put, and you'll put them in a way in which you wouldn't even know they're there. Think about this. Whenever our fast attack submarine, which had a less than 30 megawatt reactor, And just to put it in perspective, enough to power Chicago for the entire day, the minimum. So we have a 30-megawatt reactor we pull up to some third-world country, and we actually will hook up to their shore power, and we will move the needle to the left. So we will steam while sitting at the pier and put energy back on the grid for these countries sometimes when we pull into them. What people don't realize, specifically right now, if you're in the United States and you're within a military base that has carriers or submarines, you're already sitting right next to nuclear reactors. But it is so safe that we don't ever hear of disasters on U.S. nuclear submarines because the amount of training and the amount of conditioning and the amount of education that goes into training a fleet to be able to maintain and operate that nuclear reactor in a safe environment. way it's into our brains to make sure that we do it without compromise. And that's why we don't have any compromise since the integrity of our reactors. So I think that there's just a lot of people that have followed propaganda their whole life that had been told nuclear is bad across all fronts. And the reality is it's not, it's actually incredible. And it was, it'll be the only way to reduce the carbon footprint. That's the reason why I'm telling you today that there's a demand for data centers, capabilities, such as cloud or AI. Those two demands on data centers will force us to shift our entire economy into a different form of energy, a safer, more reliable form of energy. And that is the only way we'll reduce the carbon footprint. And that's why I'm telling you that the data center world isn't just going to have the greatest impact on humanity since powered flight. It's going to create jobs than anything we've ever seen. And those jobs will bring back and strengthen our middle class.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and I want to talk about that. And Kirk Ophel, I need to give a little bit of a disclaimer because my listeners know that I normally am just on the radio doing audio work. But I was asked to moderate a documentary called A Climate Conversation. And it's a whole series of podcasts. And I've become convinced that carbon dioxide is actually... beneficial it's something that plants need so i i wanted to just give a disclaimer that i don't think carbon is bad i like carbon or carbon dioxide is bad i like it so i just needed to give a disclaimer and yeah but i wanted to make that comment yeah but too much of a good thing is a bad thing i think if you go to china right now and you see what they have to do because the two-thirds of the world's population sits between china and india
SPEAKER 03 :
But they represent 85% of the world's pollution because that's where lion's share of the manufacturing takes place. And if you look at the carbon outputs that they have, it's pretty chronic. So when people want a nuclear, they should go watch a show from – there's a movie on Apple TV called Nuclear Now. And that show is a documentary that bifurcates the differences between all types of forms of energy. How dangerous is nuclear versus how dangerous is coal and everything in the middle. And you'd be surprised. I challenge all of your listeners to go watch that objectively with an open eye. I was born and raised with propaganda through all the media and the news that said this is good and this is bad and don't do all these things. But now, you know, the best thing about technology is the Goldilocks model of technology. It was too hot before it was too cold. And right now in the fifth industrial revolution, it's just right. Right now, we're in the fifth industrial revolution where we as humans are meant to have a healthier, more harmonious relationships with machines and technology in our lives. And I believe it's the technology that we're building in these data centers has given us more transparency and visibility into the truthful matter of things that are either beneficial or harmful to us. So we get to really learn. We don't have to listen to... traditional NBC. We don't have to listen to certain things. We could go out and there's so much information out there. We could find it ourselves and we could educate ourselves. And I think over the course of time, people will realize, good, not everything we were told is bad is bad, but there is some things that are in the middle.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay. So with that, again, what is that movie?
SPEAKER 03 :
Nuclear Now. And it's from Oliver Stone. You don't have to be an Oliver Stone fan, but he's very objective in how he rolls out the differences between nuclear energy and nuclear weapons and if we could go back in time the sahara club greenpeace all the first ones the lineup and protest against nuclear they're the first proponents for it today and it's because we just needed to educate ourselves i mean Think about it. Up until, what, 1967, we were still doing lobotomies for the last 60 years. So it just takes time before we start understanding what is really good for us. But the technology that we're building is allowing us to have more visibility into the things impacting us. And Nuclear Now is an example of how everybody should be educated by watching something like that. Because you can challenge it all you want, but you cannot challenge the science itself. And I'm a person that looks at objectivity and everything.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay. So, again, that movie is Nuclear Now. And then I'd also recommend that people check out our documentary, Climate Conversation. We will continue the discussion with Kirk Ophel at CINETI. And I did want to mention the USMC Memorial Foundation, which is another nonprofit I highlight on a regular basis. The official Marine Memorial is right here in Colorado, and they're raising money for the remodel. It was dedicated in 1977, so it's time for a remodel now. and get more information, go to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That's usmcmemorialfoundation.org. We'll be right back with Kirk Ofell.
SPEAKER 06 :
That's 303-880-8881. Call now.
SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
From the mountains to the prairies,
SPEAKER 10 :
And welcome back to America's Veterans Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure and check out our website. That is AmericasVeteransStories.com. And I'm talking with Kurt Ophel. And he was a submariner on a fast attack nuclear submarine. He was a wrestler in school. And in fact, in between segments, you said that you actually wrestled out here at UNC, yes?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, ma'am. I graduated from high school in California. I wrestled in Southern California. And then I ended up Getting on to one of the best schools in Division II at the time, University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, which is now one of the best schools in Division I wrestling. And I made it three whole semesters there before I enlisted in the U.S. Navy. So I loved Colorado. It's such a beautiful place and such an amazing wrestling team. They have an incredible program even to this day.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and I know that they have a great reputation. But let's talk about the work that you're doing with data centers and AI. And these data centers, it seems to me like it's a great way to reinvigorate many of these little towns throughout America that have been in decline.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, for sure. If you think about it, when we in the 80s and the 90s really began to outsource all of our manufacturing to companies, We really outsourced a lot of the jobs, the professional skilled and trained workforce of the middle class. And I don't think we knew it at the time, but what we're doing now is we created so much of the internet, 8,000 data centers on this planet, about 5,500 of them sit right here in the United States, which means we are the largest manufacturer of the worldwide web, the internet of things, of the cloud environment, and of the AI. So the sky for the cloud is primarily in the United States. Same with the headquarters of AI. So the largest headquarters in the world for cloud is Northern Virginia, because it's the headquarters of the largest company in the United States, which is the federal government. And the largest headquarters for AI in the world will be in Texas. Stargate is a great example of that. But what's happening is when we started shipping a lot of these manufacturing jobs outside of the United States, it had a massive negative impact on the local communities and society in orbit of that. And now you look at the largest players in the internet, like Facebook and Apple, Microsoft and Google and Amazon, Oracle, IBM, those players represent 80% of the cloud in the world, basically. And they have, like Google is an example of an incredible steward, where what they've chosen is they will not go into a market where they can't have a positive impact on society immediately, meaning they will want to repurpose a distressed asset of infrastructure in a town and need to convert coal-fired power plants into natural gas power plants to support the data center load or another healthier, renewable, or sustainable form of energy. But what they want to do is they want to help create a ton of jobs that build back the middle class. So what you're going to see is building these data centers and markets where manufacturing was the most prevalent throughout the United States, particularly hit is the Midwest. And what you're going to see is us go build data centers in not only those pockets where we could do a lot of prefabrication and warehouses where we could build modular parts of data centers, because data centers are almost built like Legos in the field now, but with a higher level of QA and QC, you know, stabilized labor force, What we're doing is we're going to create so many jobs in the middle class because the largest thing to manufacture on planet Earth right now is an AI or cloud data center. It's the largest demand user of energy and labor. And because America represents the lion's share of these data centers, and just to be clear, if you were to add up every data center on planet Earth outside of the United States, it still would not be as much as what we have in the United States. So the number one thing to manufacture on Earth right now is a data center. It is the sky for the cloud. It is the home for AI. And we as consumers wouldn't even be talking to or listening to podcasts or radio shows like this without a data center. So data centers are the most omnipresent thing in our world that we use today as consumers, and we just don't even know it. All we use is touch and application, but we don't realize that application sits in the home of a data center. These data centers are going to be built in markets that were distressed because of outsourcing and manufacturing. And the jobs that we're going to bring back will be the manufacturing. We outsourced our components of technology to China and India, which represents two-thirds of the world's population, 80% to 85% of the world's pollution because of the manufacturing they do there. But we will be bringing the manufacturing of the assemblies to create data centers back to the United States. And that labor force is going to exist here. And it's going to allow for a lot of people to – to look at options outside of going to university or going into the military or going into the traditional trades. Now the opportunity exists for them to go out and make a really great, healthy living, $75,000 to $300,000 a year potential in one of the nine different job domains that exist within the data center industry. And those nine job domains represent 285 different types of jobs that are available. So this data center sprawl of demand is only going to create more opportunities for us to go back to middle class. And we're going to go build them in markets that were the most distressed as a byproduct of outsourcing so much manufacturing prior to that.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and the other thing is, is in these distressed markets, the numbers that you're talking about, 75,000, 100,000, you can buy homes, nice homes in those areas. And so that will make housing affordable for these people to own their own property and own their own homes, which is great. We've got about, oh, gosh, maybe about six minutes left. And I want to talk about what you're doing with your company, though, with veterans, because this is a fast-changing industry now. And I know that you've really working with veterans with your company.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, it's the reason why we started our company. We started our company for one reason. Our mission as a business is to help our clients unleash emerging technologies that have a positive impact on everyone around the world. And that's what technology does. But our purpose is to stop the cycle of suicide within the veteran community. Period. Full stop. Right now, when we started our business, 22 veterans were killing themselves every day, which is a number that's insane. incredibly unacceptable so when you join the military you don't do it to make money you do it to make a difference and we feel like those transitioning veterans if they don't find an opportunity to transition into something of meaningful significance again they're higher likelihood of harming themselves combat infantry or those exposed to combat have a higher likelihood of harming themselves so what had happened was is i had people that had worked for me for years And I worked throughout this industry for years, and one day I woke up and heard a story about how I potentially could have put a veteran at risk because they were at high risk of harming themselves, but they had the opportunity to learn about a job in data centers first, and that's what stopped them. So we went out and we created a business under a couple different rules, but they're very similar to what we had in the military. The first one was, much like all of us that once took an oath, I refused to work for, work with, or work for anyone that I wouldn't die for again. And that's the oath we took when we were in the military. The other part is... I wouldn't work for a company that didn't have the opportunity to have a positive impact on stopping the cycle of suicide within the veteran community. And that's what we're here to do. So we believe that these people that serve in the military in uniform have the ability to serve this demand of industry that we have right now with the same level of integrity and character they showed when they were active duty. You have to remember the military isn't just an incubator for leadership because we adopt left-seat, right-seat cockpit training. The military is the home for the most advanced weapons, machinery, and technology ever built. It is the ultimate mission-critical environment already. We don't measure that environment in downtown. We measure it in our mortality. So I think that what we have is a golden ticket to where we see this emerging industry that's just becoming massive. It took 46 years before one in four Americans adopted electricity. It took 27 years before one in four Americans adopted connectivity or a copper wire in their home. This technology has been around for 30 to 40 years. We're not too far away from watching the tipping point before this industry becomes mainstream, and this will be the largest industry on Earth. Every other industry will serve adjacent to this to support the growth of this one vertical of industry. And veterans are coming away. 40,000 veterans are transitioning out of the military every month, and they are already pressure tested and trained as leaders, and they've been exposed to advanced weapons machine attacks. The only thing we need for experience in this industry are people that have the ability to learn in an insane curve. And people that join the military have demonstrated their ability to do that. So we know that if we give people transitioning out of the military an opportunity to grow a new career and reinvent themselves here, they're less likely to hurt themselves. And that's the way we contribute to reducing the cycle of suicide within the veteran community.
SPEAKER 10 :
So if someone is listening to this and they want to take some action, what should they do?
SPEAKER 03 :
Visit us at www.weareoverwatch.com and start learning about what data centers are. Do some Google research. Use your AI on your phone. Ask some questions and try to take it upon yourself to learn what a data center is. Don't think of it as a piece of technology. Just think of it as another language. And like any other language, you can learn it through immersion. Give yourself the chance to understand the data center technology world and understand that the greatest opportunity that you have to grow your career will be here. In fact, the job that you're going to have in three years from now, it hasn't even been invented yet, but you're going to learn about it right now because this industry reinvents itself every month right now. And it's going to open up more opportunities for careers every day.
SPEAKER 10 :
I think this is so exciting, Kirk Ophel, regarding our small towns and our veterans. The work that you're doing is really amazing. We've got about 45 seconds left. Your final thought for our listeners.
SPEAKER 03 :
If you are someone that's transitioning on the military and you're not sure what to do in that transition, give us a call. Because not only is this industry valuing your talent, they demand it because they need it. So there is so much opportunity. Reach out to your fellow brothers and sisters and your soldiers and sailors and airmen and let us help you in this transition. When we get to the top of the wall, it's always our job to reach back and grab the hand of those behind us. And if you're not looking in the military and you don't want to go to college, look in the data centers. You don't need a college degree to make $150,000 to $200,000 a year in this industry. You just need to be able to work hard. That's all you've got to do, and you have to be willing to reinvent yourself. This industry evolves at the same pace in which we adopt technology. So the world's all wide open.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, I love it, Kirk Ofell. Thank you so much. Thank you for all you're doing. That website is weareoverwatch.com. And let's stay in touch.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you so much. I appreciate this.
SPEAKER 10 :
And my friends, indeed, we stand on the shoulders of giants. So God bless you and God bless America.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you for listening to America's Veteran Stories with Kim Munson. Be sure to tune in again next Sunday, 3 to 4 p.m. here on KLZ 560 and KLZ 100.7.
SPEAKER 01 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
In today's engaging session, we address the significant market moves over the past week and unravel the potential impacts of the US credit rating downgrades. Dive deep into discussions about the robust performance of shipping stocks, and discover detailed analyses on tech stock recoveries. Tune in as our hosts provide expert commentary on strategic investment approaches amidst the current financial conditions, introducing a broad spectrum of insights into market dynamics.
SPEAKER 04 :
He's been seen on CNBC, the Fox News Channel, and the Fox Business Channel. His articles can be found on MarketWatch, Seeking Alpha, TheStreet.com, and many other places. He's the author of the weekly Best Stocks Now newsletter and the inventor of the Best Stocks Now app. He's president of Gundersen Capital Management. Here is professional money manager Bill Gundersen.
SPEAKER 02 :
Good morning and welcome to the Monday, May 19th edition of the Best Stocks Now show. I am Barry Kite, planner and analyst here at Gundersen Capital Management. Sitting in for Bill today, who's traveling. He took the early morning flight to Cleveland. And we'll be packing our bags later this afternoon to get out there. So he's beating us there. Of course, market-wise, not a ton going on at least. On the tape here, we've got the S&P down about 0.4% to start after just a huge week last week that we'll get to. NASDAQ down 115 points, just above 19,000, down 0.6%. And the Dow basically flat, down 30 points at 42,624. And gold, about the only green on the screen here, up $17 at $3,221. That's up half a percent. We've got Bitcoin down just under 3%, down $3,121 at $103,381. Good morning again and welcome to the Monday, May 19th edition of the Best Docs Now show. I'm Barry Kite, planner and analyst here at Gunderson Capital Management. We've got Bill traveling to Cleveland today, getting a jump start on that, and also excited to have Jeff Webster joining me on the show. Good morning, Jeff. Jeff's an advisor here at the firm. How's it going? Doing great, Barry.
SPEAKER 03 :
How are you today?
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, doing well, doing well. Looks like, you know, of course, from last week, pretty huge moves, especially when it's always nice doing the Monday edition. You've got the weekend to kind of crunch some of the numbers. And, of course, the market had a pretty miraculous week last week, I would say, right? Absolutely.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I was wondering what it was going to look like this morning with the – You know, the credit downgrade, things are looking flat. I wouldn't be surprised if they turn green here soon.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right, it's... I guess we'll be the downgrade edition of the Best Stocks Now show today. We'll certainly get to that. Of course, the Dow market ended on a five-day win streak. All the major indices were up on Friday. You had S&P finished the week up 0.7%. I think the Dow was up 0.8% and the NASDAQ up 0.5%. And when you crunch the numbers for the week, of course, to go back in time, and we'll talk about some of the trade progress too, but you had Besant meeting with the Chinese group officials in Switzerland last weekend. Of course, and then we had market took off on Monday, and then the technicals or the tech names really took off on Tuesday. And so when you crunch all the numbers, we've got what the S&P was up over 5.2% last week, the Dow up 3.4%. Really, the headwind there would have been UnitedHealth. And the NASDAQ was up 7% last week. And so just a huge weekly move. The MAG-7, Magnificent 7, if that still gets followed. I don't know if it really still exists, Jeff. But at least the MAG-7 was up over 9% last week. So just some sizable, certainly sizable moves there. You had, you know, we even had a big options expiration on Friday, which, you know, interestingly enough, went, you know, basically it was uneventful, which is always a plus from the volatility standpoint. And, you know, the market even shrugged off a kind of a poor consumer sentiment survey on Friday. But just, you know, really a special move in the market since the lows started. But it's certainly still volatile out there. And I think that's one thing in terms of talking to clients, in terms of Bill kind of picked out a bottom there, but you're still tiptoeing back in the market. It's not like you're kind of... flashing the all-clear signal, right? I mean, the markets will tend to retest that low, you know, in the next, you know, say within three months of kind of putting one in. So that's, you know, as we see this market, you know, gain, it's also, you know, you're working back in after, you know, what was a brutal, you know, pullback from February 17th or so. But, and then, yeah, and I mean, that's what, you know, and so then, you know, obviously overshadowing kind of that is, of course, you know, pretty much right at the end of the market on Friday, we had the news of what, you know, Moody's. essentially downgrading U.S. debt, which is something that's really been alluded to by them for a while. The country's credit rating essentially went from AAA to, I guess, AA1 would be their ratings. And so now the United States, I guess, no longer holds a perfect credit rating from any of the three major indices. Isn't that right, Jeff, from what we were talking about historically where we've had those, I guess, just to be in the third downgrade since 2011?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and you think about, you know, as consumers, when our debt, our credit rating goes up and it's, you know, it's a function of, Our income is a function of how much credit we have out there, how much we're utilizing, what our payment history is. And if you look at why things downgrade from a federal perspective, it usually is related to ballooning federal debt, interest rate going up. you know, persistent budget deficits. And, of course, you know, it's like we're at like a $1.8 trillion deficit right now. Yeah, annually. Yeah, and then the one that certainly I think Moody's has expressed concern over is just the erosion of governance, you know, the U.S. government's ability to, to manage its fiscal responsibilities because of the various political polarization that's happening out there as it relates to, you know, the debt ceiling and tariffs and all these different things.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, because you had, you know, S&P, you know, downgraded, you know, basically took the AAA rating from the U.S. in 2011. Fitch, you know, kind of, you know, but wasn't too long ago where Fitch, you know, did it after the, that was the debt ceiling battle in 23, where it was just, you know, kind of the uncertainty, of course, you know. We figured it out at the end, but it wasn't pretty, and so they pulled it there. So this is kind of the third time Microsoft necessarily comes as a surprise to the markets. Of course, in 2011, it was a surprise. It didn't. I think looking back historically, and you might have done some stuff on this, Jeff, already, but in terms of the markets, they kind of shrugged it off each time. Of course, the first one being the most shocking, but in terms of this particular move, it's something that they've essentially seem to have alluded to right over time. We all know that we have a 20, you know, whatever trillion, whatever number the trillion dollar debt is out there. And we know we're running a $2 trillion deficit every year, or at least almost this year. Of course, interest costs go up. And so all of those considerations and just, you know, politicians having the will, right, to you know, actually cut budgets, right? We saw the pushback that Elon got for Doge, right, in terms of, you know, it's just cutting things is not really the popular avenue for elected officials, no matter what side of the aisle they're on, it seems. But, you know, but it's obviously a very, a big note. Um, I mean, you, you're basically all over the financial news this morning. Um, you know, you can kind of, you know, tilt it in, in direction you want. I think, um, you know, in terms of, uh, heard Besson speak on it and he was, uh, you know, essentially, um, you know, looks at it as a lagging indicator because, you know, essentially when you think about, uh, you know, Oh eight Oh nine, of course the credit agencies didn't get that right until after the fact. Um, and so they are, you know, it is a lagging indicator. Um, And so from his perspective, right, I mean, you know, he's looking at, you know, the Biden years, right, as a big spending period. Of course, you know, even the Trump years going in really a lot due to COVID. It's a huge budget deficit. So you've had continuous, you know, deficits on top of deficits, which as you know from me, you know, compound interest standpoint, right? Compound interest always wins. And that number, you know, continues to get larger. And that, you know, feeds into where we're at now. And hopefully it'll give Washington a kick in the pants a bit. But we're just getting started here this morning. And we'll take a look at the markets and see what's going on out there. We'll be right back. It's Best Docs Now show.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 02 :
And welcome back here to the Monday, May 19th edition of the Best Stocks Now show. I am Barry Kite, planner and analyst here at Gundersen Capital, taking the wheel for Bill today while he makes his way to Cleveland. And we've got Jeff Webster joining me on the show. Jeff's, of course, you guys know, advisor here at the firm at Gundersen Capital Management. But Jeff, how are you doing? It's looking like we've got only green on the screen here. I see right now, Jeff, we've got oil up 11 cents to 0.18%. We've got gold up 0.7% after a pretty rough day last week, up $24 to $3,227. uh dow basically is dead flat here minus uh six uh six point seven so that's it that's point zero one five seven percent that it's down and we've got the uh s&p down about a quarter percent in the nasdaq uh staying right around that uh down 40 basis uh points range so we'll keep an eye on that as we get through the show um you know hopefully uh Things will be a bit quiet out there. Of course, on the debt side of things, the 30-year was up above 5 a minute ago or a little earlier this morning. It's at 4.99% now. Of course, that 30-year, you know, that's a key number for mortgages. I know Bill's been talking about, you know, mortgage rates on the show and, you know, ideally then coming down, I think, you know, with some of the moodies and some of these downgrades you're going to get, You know, it really affects the bonds further off, right? So that's why you've seen this move in, you know, I don't think we're worried about the U.S. necessarily going bankrupt in five or ten years, right? It would be, you know, those 30-year debt, right, in terms of, you know, things that you would be more worried about and require, you know, the market's going to require a higher interest rate, right, for bonds. uh, for that potentially. And so those, you know, with the 30 year, that's what, you know, I kind of worries me in terms of, uh, potentially keeping, you know, keeping mortgage rates there. Cause you know, even in a, in a very popular, uh, area that we're here in, in, in, you know, Mount Pleasant, Charleston area. I mean, you, you noticed, you know, Jeff little, you know, some less activity in terms of less houses for sale. You've also seen houses sit, you know, a little longer, uh, than usual, uh, And so that's, I guess, my biggest concern, I think, in terms of what I see from a market perspective today. You're not really seeing much of a move in the equity markets in terms of the downgrade, but it's really that, you know, keep an eye on that 30-year mortgage rate. Of course, we've got the 10-year up at 4.52%. You know, a little bit above four and a half there. So it's certainly important to look at it. These aren't issues that you can fix overnight. They're things that you've got to make incremental change over an extended period of time. We'll see how, you know, what the political will really of the people are to do it at some point in time. It's either the market's going to make us do it or, you know, folks will, you know, vote pocketbook in a different way, I guess. One person who is cutting is the Federal Reserve. I don't know if you saw this, Jeff, where the Federal Reserve is going to cut their workforce by 10%, mainly through attrition. So they're going to, you know, looking to reduce their headcount by 10%. They're going to, I think they're offering some voluntary deferred resignations if you want to, you know, kind of retire as of, I think you can retire as of December 31st, 2027 is what I saw here. So, you know, it's that there's things like that where, you know, you've got to cut some Some places, we've, you know, on the opposite end of that, right, we had Trump's, you know, tax bill advanced through, you know, through the finance committee, you know, late last night, narrow vote. It was, you know, I think it was 17 to 16 in the budget committee. But it, you know, got through. So it'll get some more attention. additions and subtractions before I'm sure things get much further down the line but I did see something in there where they were going to in terms of the SALT which is local tax deduction which is kind of a big Certainly a big piece for a lot of folks out there. Good deduction increase from potentially 10K to 30K. I know some representatives were certainly wanting more, but that's one piece I did see in the bill to maybe help sweeten it up for folks, or at least more palatable from a voting standpoint. On the economic calendar, the good news is it seems like a pretty quiet week on the economic calendar, and we're kind of winding down earnings season here. So hopefully sometimes when Bill gets on the road, the markets tend to jump around and get a little wild. So hopefully this week will be a bit of a more quiet market. I'm looking at the earnings.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I'm looking at the earnings calendar right now. Some things that jump out to me this week. You know, closing business today, we have Agilisys, which provides hospitality software. They're reporting tomorrow. Pre-market, we've got... Bill's My Little Tony reporting, Home Depot will be reporting. We've got Palo Alto Networks, Toll Brothers.
SPEAKER 02 :
Workday, I think, is on the list. I know that's up your alley in the software world.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, Intuit, Deckers, you know, are a good – one that we like at Gundersen Capital. You know, he's got Arquette, one of the quantum stocks that actually has an application they're reporting. Snowflake, you know, big data warehouse, data management company reporting on Wednesday's Zoom. You know, everyone knows Zoom. I don't think they are what they were three years ago. So it'll be interesting to see you know, what people are doing now. We've got a couple of Spanish banks.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, we've got Baidu, actually, China, Xping, which is the XPEV. That's the old electric vehicle company in China. Zim, the shipping company, they just reported this morning, actually, up 10% right now in terms of market. I'm sure they've got some numbers that we'll get into in terms of some of the shipping numbers since the deal a week ago. From China's perspective, but I did see all three of the terminals on the Wando side of the river and the port here in Charleston were filled up yesterday as I drove across the bridge. So it makes sense that the numbers... That I looked at this morning makes sense that some of those shipping numbers are through the roof. And Zim, from an earnings standpoint, they went before the bell this morning. It must be a good report, up 11%. Those shipping stocks have been on a tear. since last weekend. Well, we're getting through the first half of the Best Docs Now show. We'll come back and get into some specific names, hit some more earnings in terms of what we saw last week and what we've got coming up this week. Stick with us. We'll be right back.
SPEAKER 08 :
This is Bill Gunderson.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for tuning in to today's Best Stocks Now, Best Inverse Funds Now show. Now, back to the second half of the show.
SPEAKER 02 :
and welcome back here to the second half of the monday may 19th edition of the best docs now show um barry kite planner analyst here at gunderson capital um serving as relief captain for bill this morning while he's uh traversing his way through the air to Cleveland. So looking forward to getting down there and seeing some folks over the next few days. So Bill's getting there planting the flag first, and Edie may already be down there as well. But, you know, got Jeff with us here on the show as well. helping us along. And also, of course, if you want to stay up to date with Bill's thoughts, our thoughts on the markets, feel free to get Bill's newsletter at gunnersoncapital.com. Or if you want to have a discussion with Jeff or myself, feel free to give Edie a call at 855-611-BEST. That's 855-611-2313. seven eight we're here to be a resource and uh you know always uh that's our that's uh that's our primary hat here at the firm right jeff is talking with the folks and uh and helping uh helping helping folks identify and meet their goals there so absolutely best part of the job yeah i mean you know it uh Everyone has a story, and we're lucky enough to get to hear those and help folks particularly to certainly where we can. And that's kind of bill on the road. That's why we want to get out. We're certainly comfortable with geographic separation in terms of, you know, clientele. I think we've got clients in all 50 states. And so, you know, you want to, you know, it's always nice to get out there and see some folks. Uh, good news is on the economic calendar, I was saying all we pretty much have is a bunch of, uh, must be lecture season on the, uh, the federal reserve because, you know, pretty much if you look, uh, you know, I think we've got a couple of minor data points. We've got the leading economic indicator that came out of this morning at 10. I haven't peaked at that number yet, but, uh, We'll, of course, get the weekly jobless claims. But other than that, you pretty much have a bunch of Fed speak this week, which maybe, I guess, maybe with that U.S. debt downgrade, maybe they've all got to rehash their notes for the speeches or Q&A, for Q&A at least, right? So we'll see how that goes. But it should be fairly quiet.
SPEAKER 03 :
I was going to say, Barry, most of the pundits that I've been watching this morning and listening to, you know, they're kind of reading this credit drop as to some extent as a non-event. Yeah. I mean, we'll see.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, they're the third one. That's the thing. They're also the third one to the table, right? We've named off two other ones, the only other two. So it's not like we haven't seen this before. And I'm with you. It seems like a lot of shoulder shrugs, right? It seems like as you hear some of the pundits talk about it. But, you know, I think that, you know, a lot of this stuff is importance, right? It's also, you know, the growth end, right? So, you know, one of the reasons why. the U.S. has been able to run, right, these sizable deficits is, you know, is because of the fact that, you know, the underlying business, right, of the U.S. economy. And so, you know, as we certainly, you know, trade deal, you know, all the trade, world trade has a big place big into that in terms of growth and And I think as we kind of progress through the first week of, like I said, of the Besant-led China kind of reduced trade tensions deal, I don't really want to call it a deal, just at least it seems like we really kind of reduced some tensions there. We're essentially, what, I think about a third through the 90-day pause with other countries, right, when that was announced roughly 30 days ago. That was the day that the market went up, what, 12%, I think, in one day, at least on the NASDAQ. So as we kind of... You kind of get through these. You want to see some progress. And I think, as Bill has mentioned, the biggest deal is going to be the China-U.S. deal, right, in some form or fashion, if they can get to one, and what that looks like and how that shapes out. Of course, I think the reason that countries trade, you go back to Economics 101, is that it's beneficial for both in some ways. In some capacity. And so, you know, I think, you know, it's important, you know, both countries, I think, you know, need some type of deal, right? Because the fact that it is beneficial for both in terms of us and China and investments mentioned, you know, doesn't want to decouple, really only wants to decouple strategic industries to where you've got a more diversified supply chain and To me, that just makes good common sense there. But what we've seen is kind of the pain a little bit on each side, whether it's the consumer sentiment numbers were some of the kind of poorest numbers we've had in a while that came out on Friday, right, as we started the show on Friday. A lot of those, you look at the inflation's expectations, right, jumped to 7.3%. And, of course, that's just surveys of how people feel, right? That's not necessarily hard data. And on the other end, in China, you do have some hard data. We've got some numbers that came out today where you've got somewhere growth industrial output slowed to 6.1%. percent year over year, and that's from 7.7 percent in March. Their retail sales rose less than expected in China for the month of April. And so, you know, you're saying we've talked about, you know, kind of pain on each side. particularly if you get into some layoffs on the Chinese side. But, you know, so beneficial for both to do some trade. I think we've talked about containers, the container ships. Jeff, in terms of them being, you know, there was one... Big one over there yesterday evening filled up. So the terminal here, boots on the ground, was filled up. And it looks like the trade at the spot price rates rose 31% last week in terms of what the cost of a container was. Those rates are still below April of last year. But, I mean, you know, you've seen we talked about Zim and some of those other cargo. There's not too many of them, but those other cargo names really, you know, shooting up the charts and starting to show up on some of the Best Docs Now rankings, too.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, they actually – You know, one of the key metrics that they look at in that business is what's called 20-foot equivalent units, PEUs. Most of those container units are 40-foot, but they use the 20-foot equivalent unit. And while a lot of these companies are saying, you know, we anticipate demand going down, you know, that the cost for each one of those units to ship is going to be going up, and that's You know, I think what's providing, you know, folks that choose to invest in those stocks some optimism that they're going to continue to do good. You know, they're going to continue to effectively, you know, manage those freight rates. They're going to continue to effectively, you know, manage their vessel operating costs, you know, which is their fuel, the crew wages, maintenance, you know, the port fees. all those types of things, and try to continue to be as efficient as they possibly can with their, you know, with their reliability and performance.
SPEAKER 02 :
And it's a demand, a function of demand, right? It's, you know, as, you know, when you had this slowdown in shipping, right, so you had, you know, the supply was, you know, outweighing demand and you had, you know, the rates going down and there's a map of, I know Verizon does some of the tracking. I mean, not Verizon Vision, but with a Z, does some tracking where you can look at all the ships, basically where they're at around the globe, and they're I think the seven-day average was up like 277% over the last week. So a big jump there. I would imagine they're going to be busy at the ports for the next couple of months. They're trying to get stuff in here, particularly if you're doing it before a big deadline. You know, some of the other side of that trade, you know, trade, uh, potential, uh, truce there, uh, last week, right. Was, uh, was gold. I mean, you know, gold, uh, you know, had one of its worst weeks. I think it was, you know, um, I want to say it was still up 21% year to date, but I believe it was one of the worst weeks in a while for, uh, for gold. I had the number here. I mean, Oh yeah. One of the worst weekly drops in, in, in almost four years. Uh, so that's the other side of the equation where, um, as Some tensions ease up. Then the safety trade, the fight to safety, kind of moves back over to the risk side of the equation as well. Well, we're blazing through three-fourths of the way through the Monday edition of the Best Docs Now show, and we'll be right back for fourth quarter here.
SPEAKER 1 :
We'll be right back.
SPEAKER 07 :
Go where you want to go, do what you want to do with it.
SPEAKER 02 :
And welcome back to the final segment of the May 19th edition of the Best Docs Now show. I'm Barry Kite, planer and analyst here at Gunderson Capital, sitting in for Bill today as he's headed to Cleveland. And we've got Jeff Webster here on the show as well, advisor here at the firm, holding down the fort. a bit this week. And so, let's see, we've got, I was hoping we were going to get to some green numbers before we got done with the show. But the only thing that's really made a bit of a comeback is Bitcoin, only down about 2.25%. And so everything else, except for gold, gold's up $30 today to $3,234. The Dow is doing the best, I guess, just basically down 0.12% today. Speaking of, talking about the Dow, when we went through the weekly numbers, the Dow certainly didn't participate nearly as much as the other two. uh, indices last week. And we had, uh, do you see where, uh, United Health, which we've got, you know, United Health, uh, uh, headquartered in, uh, in the Minneapolis area. So we've got, uh, you know, good number of listeners, uh, you know, in, in Minneapolis. But we had, uh, the new CEO, of course, uh, you know, rough rough week this week for for united health and it's been a tough uh tough tough six months for them uh made a tough year probably ever since the uh the murder of the ceo uh the co-ceo um but uh they named uh named steven hemsley uh last week well he bought 25 million shares of uh 29 25 million dollars worth of the company company shares last week jeff would you uh If you were in charge, would you want to catch that falling knife?
SPEAKER 03 :
I don't know. Maybe the board said, hey, we're going to offer you the job, but here's what you need to do. You need to buy $25 million worth of shares to demonstrate to the market that you're all in on this.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I need to know. I kind of need to know the impetus. And Bill's mentioned before in terms of insider trades, right? Sometimes they can mean something. Other times they don't mean anything, especially on the sell side where you'll have somebody who, say, a big CEO, right, sells some. you know, number of shares in the market. It's like, oh, you know, CEO sold this many shares. And, you know, next thing you know, they're paying taxes or buying, you know, some palatial property in, you know, Malibu. And it's like, oh, well, that makes sense of why they sold the shares. They had some other transactions.
SPEAKER 01 :
Just like all of us.
SPEAKER 02 :
The buying side is important. You're putting your money where your mouth is. But I need to know where the money came from. It's like, oh, by the way, we give you a $25 million signing bonus. And then he puts the $25 million on the shares. Then I don't have as big of, you know, I'm not as excited about that. But bottom line is, you know, hey, he bought, you know, basically average price of around $288. So we'll see how that works out for him. I didn't realize, but he did lead the company in. 2016 and 17. So he's obviously been in the system, knows the stock better than all of us do. The CFO, John Rex, actually, he made a $5 million purchase as well last week, and a few board members made about $1.6 million worth. But I just thought it was interesting to note. Yeah, I mean, we'll see where they go. So we'll keep that 288. I'm going to keep that one, write that one down over here and see how they work out. The good news is hopefully they're in control of their own destiny, right? We'll see what happens. NVIDIA, how about last week, just a big... Big move there. I haven't looked at them as closely.
SPEAKER 03 :
The big news is that Jensen Wang is at a trade show in Taiwan and apparently he's opening up their AI platform to developers. I haven't had a chance to read the full. I saw some headline that basically stated that he's opening things up and saying, hey, look, this is a great time to partner with us.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I think he made a quantum investment-wise there. I think they might have bought a quantum company. I saw another little tidbit of information that went by the ticker a little bit earlier this morning. But, yeah, so last week, NVIDIA finally, you know, they're now turned positive for the year. So they're the latest member of the Magnificent Seven to move into positive territory, the others being Meta. In Microsoft, Meta for the year up 10%, and Microsoft up I think 7% or so for the year. So NVIDIA back above $3 trillion, at least they were $3.3 trillion as of yesterday, I believe. That stock, you had a really big recovery. Last week was interesting where you had really broad participation. It was just on Monday you had a lot of the laggard kind of names really popped and then of course Tuesday rally continued through to the To the tech side of things, and it's really been, you know, I mean, last week was really kind of a broad-based move across the board. And, you know, from a kind of risk standpoint, you've had a number of firms taken, you know, took the chance of recession. I know Apollo Global, you know, Apollo, who we follow and have owned off and on over the years, they you know, took recession off the table after the, um, you know, pause of, uh, you know, some of the tariffs or at least the, the size of the tariffs with, uh, with China from last weekend. So, And you've seen it in a lot of the names that you follow. I mean, the energy names last week, right, the nuclear names.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, even some of the quantum names were kind of getting a bit of a boost last week, right, which means, you know, it's kind of look at some of the quantum names is almost like the new biotechs. Exactly.
SPEAKER 03 :
They report later this week. I mean, they're up. What are they up today?
SPEAKER 1 :
17%.
SPEAKER 03 :
I'm trying to figure out what's going on with them. Again, they're the one quantum that actually has a specific application, their security. So curious what's going on there. Of course, you look at some of their fundamentals, and it says they have like $20 million of cash. It's like, that makes me worry a little bit, but I'm not sure what's going on there.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. And then CoreWeave had a huge day on Friday. That's CRWV up another 6% here today. That's kind of what a big... You know, cloud player, software player, and a lot of those names that will show up in the app. But thanks for getting with us. You can always follow us at Gunderson Capital. Give us a ring at 1-855-611-BEST, 855-611-BEST, and we'll be on the road. We'll be calling from Cleveland tomorrow. Have a great day, everyone.
SPEAKER 05 :
This show is not a solicitation to buy or sell any securities. Bill Gunderson or clients of Gunderson Capital Management may have long or short positions in stocks mentioned during the show. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Gunderson Capital Management is a fee-based registered investment advisory firm. All accounts are held at Charles Schwab. Schwab is a member of SIBC and FINRA.
Join us for an insightful journey as we uncover the dynamics of political agendas and their impact on communities. From the courage of independent stations like ours, striving for truth amidst noise, to the powerful influence of words and policy, this episode sheds light on both the local and national fronts. Kim converses with young visionary Broden Daniel, emphasizing the value of alternative educational models. We also delve into pressing political topics, including the controversial sanctuary policies and U.S.-China trade relations, with a call to action for responsibility and truth.
SPEAKER 02 :
It's the Kim Munson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
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The socialization of transportation, education, energy, housing, and water. What it means is that government controls it through rules and regulations.
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The latest in politics and world affairs.
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Under this guise of bipartisanship and nonpartisanship, it's actually tapping down the truth.
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Today's current opinions and ideas.
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On an equal field in the battle of ideas, mistruths and misconceptions is getting us into a world of hurt.
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Is it freedom or is it force? Let's have a conversation.
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Indeed. Let's have a conversation. And welcome to the Kim Munson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You're each treasured, you're valued, you have purpose. Today, strive for excellence, take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body, my friends. We were made for this moment in history. Thank you to the team, Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and everybody at the Crawford Broadcasting Team. Happy Monday, Producer Joe. Whoops, I couldn't hear you, but I know you were talking to me. So let's go ahead and check out the website. That's Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. And while you're there, make sure you're signed up for our weekly email newsletter that goes out on Sundays. That way you'll get first look at our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays. You can email me at Kim at Kim Munson dot com. And the text line is 720-605-0647. Thank you to all of you who support us. We are an independent voice. on an independent station, searching for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through this lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you should not have to use force to implement it. And it's never compassionate nor altruistic to take other people's stuff, whether or not it's their rights, their property, freedom, livelihoods, opportunities, childhoods, or lives via force. And force can obviously be a weapon, but it can be policy, unpredictable and excessive taxation, fear, coercion, government-induced inflation, the agenda by the World Economic Forum and the globalist elites playing out through the United Nations, this Colorado state legislature, this Colorado governor, land use code, zoning regulations, forest fees, conservation easements, national monument designations, transmission lines easements, CO2 pipeline easements, The list goes on and on. We've got to be getting all of this back into the proper role. And on the show, we focus on the issues and we'll talk about the people pushing those issues. We're trying to stay out of all the personnel, personality fighting stuff that's going on. Our word of the day is antithetical, and it's spelled A-N-T-I-T-H-E-T-I-C-A-L, and it could be being in direct and unambiguous opposition to something. And the agenda by the woke, progressive, extreme, radical left that has taken over the Democrat Party. This is not the Democrat Party of JFK or Tip O'Neill or your grandpa and your grandma. This is a radical group, particularly here in Colorado. I was talking with someone that was visiting from California yesterday, and they said, my gosh, I think Colorado's worse than California. And I said, yep, and it's taken some real doing to make that happen. But what is happening here with this radical activist, radical, well, I say it twice, extreme group that's taken over the Democrat Party is It's antithetical to this founding of America and the idea, this vision that all men are created equal with these rights from God of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. And, of course, the Constitution has been put in place to work towards that ideal and of the vision of America. And so that's why we always need to be checking our gut on is something constitutional or not. And so again, your word of the day is antithetical. A-N-T-I-T-H-E-T-I-C-A-L. And our quote of the day, I went to Confucius because our featured guest in our number one is Helen Raleigh. And she is an author. And she grew up in China. but she is a proud American citizen and she writes extensively and for the Federalist and a variety of other publications Wall Street Journal and then she does do a lot of national news as well so I went to Confucius is born they think let's see here 551 BC and died 479 BC. He was a Chinese philosopher of the spring and autumn period. And he is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the philosophy and teachings of Confucius. His philosophical teachings called Confucianism emphasize personal and governmental morality, harmonious social relationships, righteousness, kindness, sincerity, and a ruler's responsibilities to lead by virtue. And he said this. He said three things. cannot long be hidden the first is the sun the second is the moon and the last is the truth and so that's why we must continue to search for truth in all that we do so again confucius said this three things cannot long be hidden the sun the moon and the truth And very excited to have on the line with me Broden Daniel. He is a student out in Holyoke, a homeschool student. And this evening, Inklings Academy is having a great event. And Broden wanted to tell us about that. Broden, welcome to the show. Hello. How are you? Good. How are you? I am well. So Broden, tell me a little bit about yourself. How old are you?
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I am 11 years old, and I am homeschooled. I do Bible quizzing, soccer, theater, and I am on the Holyoke Swim Team.
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Okay, fantastic.
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And I met you when I was out at Holyoke giving the keynote at the Lincoln Day Brunch. which, of course, the food was fantastic out there. And you came up, and we have our picture taken together. And you said, hey, could you come out for our awards ceremony, which I would have loved to, but I tell you, three hours out, three hours back, and a 6 a.m. hit, that would make it really difficult. So I said, how about you come on the show? So tell us what's going to happen tonight out in Holyoke.
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So tonight is our annual achievement day, but it's only our second year doing it. We are having an Italian-themed dinner with the serving. We also have an end-of-the-year concert tonight. After our musical performance, we have time to get certificates for doing the program this year and from our teachers and from our parents. We have a play show for everything we have done this year and our art show.
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Well, that sounds like a pretty great evening out there. So how many people do you think might be attending this evening? Over 100. That is great for a little town like Holyoke. And so that's pretty exciting. So what would you say is one of the, well, what's your favorite subject?
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In the co-op, I think it's, Either logic and speaking class or music.
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Okay. You know what?
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Speaking is such an important skill to have. And I wish I would have taken more speaking and debate in school when I was in school. I have worked to try to make up for that. But I would really recommend each student do that because communication is so important, Broden Daniel. Yeah. Definitely. So and then refresh my memory. What did you say? What activities are you in?
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I Bible quizzing, soccer, acting and swimming. So you're pretty busy out there. Yeah.
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OK. What is what is the thing that you would like to say to the people of Colorado today?
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That. i think what the co-op is doing is good and kids are learning a lot and next semester we're getting like four new families and i think people around everywhere should homeschool because it is very good in teaching your kids
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actually teaching them and i think that will be better for the next generation okay and so you have a homeschool co-op so you do uh do some things with other other kids as well i think that's one of the things people don't understand about homeschool is that actually there are many times families that are working together yeah okay like
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People think that homeschoolers, they live in their house the whole time and they aren't socialized. But there are co-ops around the world where homeschool families come together and they do like specials like art, music, science, like writing and history, speaking and logic and ethics and etiquette.
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That sounds like a great classical education, Broden Daniel. Broden Daniel, I so appreciate you letting us know about this great event for Inklings Academy this evening, and I congratulate you and wish you continued success. Thank you. And that is just awesome. And that was Broden Daniel from Holyoke, Colorado. And we get to do all of these things. As I mentioned, we are an independent voice, independent station. So we get to do lots of cool things. And that is one of those great, great things we get to do. So and it happens because of all of you and our sponsors. And I wanted to say thank you to Laramie Energy for their gold sponsorship of the show. It is reliable, efficient, affordable and abundant energy that powers our lives today. and fuels our hopes and dreams. And then also the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance Team knows that life can be challenging, and it's their mission to maximize your financial security as you manage the risks of everyday life. So call Roger Mangan at 303-795-8855 for more information. Like a good neighbor, Roger Mangan's team is there.
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And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMunson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We're an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. I did want to mention Hooters Restaurants. They have five locations, Loveland, Aurora, Lone Tree, Westminster, and Colorado Springs. Great sponsors of both the Kim Munson Show and America's Veterans Stories, how I got to know them. It was when I was on city council. It's a very important story about the proper role of government and PBIs, those politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties that – really getting out of their lane, trying to control things. And so you can check all that out. And again, great specials at Hooters restaurants for lunch and for happy hour. So many of you may have seen this. And let me get to this headline. This happened on... And as president of CUT, I had Channel 7 reached out. They wanted to get a statement from us regarding, this is from, let me make sure that I pull that correct here. Yes, this is from Denver 7. And this was on Friday morning. It says, Denver joins lawsuit filed against Trump administration for improper termination of FEMA funds. And it says, according to the suit, the complainants are accusing FEMA of unlawfully and unconstitutionally revoking federal funding that was awarded to these three jurisdictions in 2024. And let's see here. In addition to Denver, it's the city of Chicago and Pima County, Arizona that are in this lawsuit. And all three claim that the federal government's actions are unconstitutional and attempts to override Congress's constitutional authority to appropriate the funding and that the Trump administration has violated the Administrative Procedure Act by not providing a reason for the rescission. And let's see here. The city intended to use these millions of dollars to help offset the costs incurred when nearly 43,000 of the newcomers arrived in the city between 2022 and the fall of 2024. So to that, the statement that we provided for Channel 7 was that Mayor Mike Johnston, his administration and prior city administration's agendas regarding welcoming people to Denver who have come to America illegally, is significantly hurting Demerites. Mayor Johnston has looked and is looking to the federal government, which is money collected from citizens across the country in federal debt, to bail him out and fund his ideological agenda. It is time for Mayor Johnston to grow up and learn that there are consequences to his poor decisions. Instead of using Denverites' hard-earned money to sue the federal government, Johnston should cut spending, lower taxes and fees, reverse course on his sanctuary city policies for illegal immigrants, and begin to find real solutions for the issues facing the people of Denver. And that is our statement from the Colorado Union of Taxpayers. And with that, I do want to mention my fellow board members. We are working on our ratings report, which will come out. It's an enormous amount of work. And again, this is all volunteers. And we also join, which means we pay $25 to get to give up our weekends throughout the legislative session to take positions on bills. And I want to say thank you to this group. Steve Dorman, Greg Golianski, Russ Haas, Bill Hamill, Rob Knuth, John Nelson, Wendy Warner, Marty Nielsen, Rami Johnson, Mary Jansen, Dave Evans, Corey Onizorg, Paula Beard, and Ray Beard. And when you see these folks out there, say thank you to them. And also show your support. for us by joining. You can go to coloradotaxpayer.org to join us, and we would greatly appreciate that. Next thing is Jared Polis, Governor Polis signed a House bill 25, 13, 12 into law. And that is, of course, the Transgender Activist Bill. They call it the Kelly Loving Act. And this again, the left is so good with words, because we all want to be loving people to each other. And apparently Kelly Loving was killed in the attack down at the nightclub in Colorado Springs. And so, of course, in their marketing, they would choose to use that particular name to name that act. It's House Bill 1312. And so, again, this is from KDVR TV 31. It says the Kelly Loving Act was signed into law by Governor Jared Polis, expanding legal protections for transgender people in Colorado. And I would like to right there say that here you have Fox 31. Instead of calling it what it is, House Bill 251312, we're having this whole play on words. This article goes on to say, known as House Bill 251312, actually it was house bill 25 13 12 it wasn't just known as that that's what it was is the legislation passed through the colorado house and senate with bipartisan support after several amendments address concerns raised during their legislative process involving child custody decisions and protections for parents assisting their children on in obtaining Gender affirming care. I've got to figure out who that bipartisan support is. And obtaining gender affirming care is actually what it is, is actually using either pharmaceuticals or surgery to cut off healthy body parts of your children. And it says the bill was named after a victim of the Club Q mass shooting in 2022. And this article says the bill approves measures including anti-discrimination policies that consider intentionally misgendering or deadnaming someone as discriminatory acts under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. And deadnaming, what that is, is calling someone by their name that they were given at birth. And so just think about what this could mean for trial attorneys. They are going to love that. And this is going to be very difficult for businesses. It says educational policies that require schools to adopt policies regarding chosen names and dress codes. So for example, schools that like to have school uniforms, the discipline of that, it looks like that may come under fire as well. and it says identification documents that allow people to change their gender marker on state issued ids without the need for a court order so what does that mean let's say somebody's committed a crime and you have all this information on this person that committed a crime and then they can just go over here and they can just change their id uh their um and what what does that mean for voting as well are they going to get possible multiple ballots what does that mean And it says this legislation came about after a survey of more than 500 transgender Coloradans found areas where transgender people still face discrimination, harassment, and abuse. And so, again, Jared Polis signed that. And I do think that Colorado is at the tip of the spear of crazyville with all that is going on here. Let's see, another headline that I wanted to mention, and I actually probably want to talk with Helen Raleigh about this as well. It says, Trump wins the deal. It says, tariffs deliver a blow to China's manufacturing. And this is from the, give you the source on this, KNEWZ, which I'm not quite sure what that is, but it says, it's reporting that the U.S. and China agreed to decrease tariffs on each other's goods for 90 days. The U.S. will lower its overall tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, while China will cut its levies on American imports from 125% to 10%. Oh, so they were charging us 125%? Hmm. I think that that's important that we understand that. It says prior to the deal, China's manufacturing sector has faced a major slowdown as U.S. tariffs have increased costs for exporters. The Purchasing Managers Index has dropped to 49, showing a clear contraction. Major banks have already lowered their outlook for China's growth. And I know that from a free market standpoint, there's been concern about the tariffs and what that does to the American consumer. But I think it's important to understand that China's been charging tariffs on our stuff going in there. and I think Trump is just trying to level the playing field, and it looks like he may be successful in what is occurring there. We're coming into, I can't believe it, and Memorial Day is pretty early this year, but there is going to be a great event out at the USMC Memorial, and the foundation is hosting it, and it will be on Memorial Day, which is May 26th, And let's see. Oh, Bob Chica will be the speaker for that. And that's going to be pretty amazing. He was one of 83 crewmen aboard the USS Pueblo when it was captured by the North Koreans in January of 1968. One crew member was killed in that capture, and Bob was severely wounded. We did interview Bob for our America's Veterans Stories show as well. It says the crew spent just under a year in North Korea enduring deplorable conditions and unspeakable brutality. And I was at an event this weekend and ran into General Joe Arbuckle, who was our featured guest last Friday. And he was giving us an update on what was happening with the military. Very pleased with what's going on under Secretary Hegsteth and the Trump administration. But we talked about Memorial Day. And I was also talking with his wife about it. And Memorial Day and producer Steve, this would just drive him crazy, is it's not about sales, mattress sales and different sales, but and barbecues. And certainly that can occur on Memorial Day, but it's important that all of us understand what Memorial Day is really about. When I was talking to General Arbuckle, he said 97,000 Americans gave their lives in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. to really stand for liberty, to fight communism. And so we need to stop and reflect on what that actually means, Memorial Day. And so I'd encourage you to talk with your family, your children and your grandchildren about this and do something special for Memorial Day. And I'd highly recommend that you might consider going out to the Marine Memorial, which is out at 6th and Colfax. New Marines are sworn in at 145. The formal ceremony begins at 2 p.m. You can get more information by going to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That is usmcmemorialfoundation.org. And again, Memorial Day is a day to stop and reflect about those that have given the ultimate sacrifice so that we can live in liberty. And what is liberty? Liberty is not something to just get to do whatever you want to when you want to. It is the responsible exercise of freedom. And all of these discussions happen because of all of our great sponsors. And for everything residential real estate, you'll want to reach out to Karen Levine. She and Lauren are going to be in in second hour to talk about just some of the stuff that's going on from a political standpoint or public policy standpoint regarding housing. And again, for everything regarding residential real estate, you want Karen Levine on your side of the table.
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All of Kim's sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Munson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That's Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
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And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at Kim Munson dot com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We're an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. Something's a good idea. You should not have to force people to do it. Our next guest, Helen Raleigh, was born and raised in communist China, and she came to the U.S. as a college student. She knew no one and had less than $100 in her pocket. Like millions of immigrants with a craving for freedom, her pocket was light, but her dreams were rich. And through a combination of hard work and scholarships, Helen earned her master's degree in business economics from the State University of New York. the College of Oneida, and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Wyoming. She's the author of several books and a senior contributor at The Federalist, and her writings have also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, City Journal, Fox News, National Review, Newsweek, and other national media. Helen Raleigh, welcome to the show. Good morning, Kim. How are you? I am well. It is great to have you, and it's been a little while since I've seen you, and I guess the reason is is because you've got a new book out, and it is Not Outsiders, Asian Americans' Political Activism from the 19th Century to Today. So I did not realize you were writing this book until you and I ended up with these different emails. So it's just been released recently, yes? Yes. Yes, just be released at end of April, just in time for Asian Heritage Month of May. Okay. And so tell us about the book, because there is a real long history of immigrants coming from China. So set this up for us.
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Okay. Well, I was motivated to write this book because since 2020, the summer of racial reckoning, the progressive left is starting to using a term that is white adjacent to describe Asian Americans. And among all the racial slurs against Asian Americans, I found that term is especially offensive. because it really carries a weight of discrimination against Asian Americans. It robbed us of our agencies and dignity. It discounted our own histories in America and histories of being, you know, discrimination, segregation. And also it erased our significant contribution to the civil rights movement as well as other political engagement. So that's why I decided to write this book. And this book, as the book title, subtitle indicated, it covers from the 19th century, the history of 19th century to the present day, mostly focused on political activism. And it's not just about Chinese Americans. It also covered Korean Americans, Japanese Americans, as well as Indian Americans. It's just one... from one aspect to showcase the diversity within the Asian American community. But this book is not just about the history of immigration, but mostly focused on the political activism, such as the labor strike, the lawsuit, especially several lawsuits that went to the Supreme Court, as well as the pushback against the progressive war on marriage in modern day. So there are many, many cases that involved in this book. And it was divided in three time periods. So from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, it was one wave. And then from World War II, the Japanese-American internment, to the mid-19th was another wave. And the third wave starts from the 2000s to present day.
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Okay. So you said this term, Helen, is white adjacent. Am I hearing that correctly? Yes. Okay. And... I think that Asians have always, I think of just the success, for example, for you. Coming here, $100 in your pocket, and then as my father would say, you applied yourself. You looked at, you saw different opportunities. You worked hard. I remember that you had told me that you had worked cleaning at Chinese restaurants to have money to live. And so you believed in hard work. You believed in meritocracy. And it seems that the progressive left does not want people to succeed because they're doing their best. They want to control people and put them into different groups. And so do you think that's why there is this attack upon Asians? Because I think generally I think that I just think of hardworking people that have come here for the American dream.
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Yes. So basically, if you look at Asian Americans as a group, especially based on like a pure research, if you look at Asian Americans as a group, Asian Americans have much higher education attainment rate than average American households. Asian Americans also have a higher household income compared to average American households. And so based on these success measures, Asian Americans basically stand out against, you know, basically defeated the progressive narrative that America is a systemic racist country. It always has been. It has never changed. So minorities and immigrants basically have no chance in this country. And then you look at Asian Americans. That's basically defeated every narrative this progressive has about America, essentially. So the attack against, the progressive attack against Asian Americans is really attacking AGAINST AMERICA. BECAUSE ASIAN AMERICAN SHOWS UNITED STATES IS NOT A RACIST, NOT A SYSTEMIC RACIST Immigrants and minorities actually have a chance here, like you said, you know, through education, through education attainment, through hard work. And by the way, education, value education and hard work are not Asian American values. These are values, Kim, I know you share, I know other people share. I know if you ask any Americans, regardless of their skin color or ethnicity, if they are successful in America, if you ask them, how did you get here? unless they were born with a silver spoon, most likely they will tell you they worked hard, they value education, they take a risk, they did something with their life, and that's how they get here. So by calling Asian American white adjacent, What this term means, Kim, is basically progressive left basically saying Asian-American success does not come from their individual effort. It comes from they're just standing next to white people. They share white people's values. That's how they get there. That's why I said at the beginning this term, white adjacent, is particularly offensive. It rob us of our own agency and dignity.
SPEAKER 07 :
Wow. Okay, so let's go through these three different waves, though. So you said that was the 19th century to the early 20th century. Was this a time that people from China came over? Was that to help build the railroads? Or what was that for?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes. So it's actually included Japanese Americans, too. So Japanese Americans during this time, they emigrated to Hawaii to help build the sugar plantations. So most of them stayed in Hawaii. That's why their history was not well told during that period. And then, yes, so for that period, mostly it were Chinese Americans emigrated. came to the United States. They came here to look for gold. They didn't find the gold, but they helped build the railroad. But it's not just, they did not just build the transcontinental railroad. After transcontinental railroad, because their skill sets were so well known, that they also, they helped many states build their state-level railroad. So many railroads that Americans travel today, especially if you take Amtrak, like in New York, you know, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, most likely those railroads were initially built by Chinese immigrant workers.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. What else should people know about that immigration, you know, regarding your first wave?
SPEAKER 08 :
There's a lot of discussion. Besides the railroad, they also, in California, they also help drain the swamp. That's where drain the swamp started. They drain the swamp in the Delta region and build, like, reclaim the farmland, help build orchards, and turn that into... BASICALLY BREAD BASKET OF AMERICA. BUT I REALLY WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW IS DURING THIS TIME THERE ARE ALSO SEVERAL SIGNIFICANT SUPREME COURT CASES. SO DESPITE ASIAN AMERICANS AT THIS TIME MOSTLY CHINESE AMERICANS BE SERIOUSLY DISCRIMINATED BASED ON RACE, there were several cases reaching the United States Supreme Court. One of them has a significant impact today. So in 1882, the U.S. government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This was the first immigration act to target a single ethnicity, basically prevent the Chinese immigrants to come to the United States. And for those who are already here, they can never become naturalized U.S. citizens. But this act was passed after the 14th Amendment. And so there was one case that a young man named Wong King Ark. He was born here. His parents came here, you know, during the mid-19th century. They worked hard. They started a grocery store. And after the Chinese Exclusion Act, his parents... So he was born here. His parents moved back to China. And he was born here. So he had a natural... YOU KNOW, BASED ON THE 14TH AMENDMENT, HE HAD A BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP. SO HE WENT TO CHINA TO RAISE THEM. ON HIS WAY BACK, HE WAS STOPPED BY SAN FRANCISCO'S CUSTOMS BECAUSE THE CUSTOM OFFICERS SAID, YOU KNOW, BASED ON THE EXCLUSION ACT, YOU'RE NOT A U.S. CITIZEN. ANYWAY, INSTEAD OF JUST, YOU fall back on the wayside, he decided to fight it. And his case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And the U.S. Supreme Court eventually rooted in his favor. And the Supreme Court interpretation is the 14th Amendment basically decided that the interpretation is everybody who was born here have a birthright citizenship. Now, that clause is now, you know, is very controversial. It's under debate. understand and that's not what this book is about but what i wanted to say is he got a favorable ruling from the supreme court in the 19th century at the height of racial discrimination against chinese americans and this just this this case actually gave chinese americans many hope and all asian americans many hope because It showed what America is about. Yes, there was racial discrimination, actually systemic racial discrimination against the Chinese Americans back then still. This country is based on rule by law. So someone who's from a race that's heavily been discriminated could still file a case and actually won in this environment. So that's what gives the Asian Americans hope, and that's really prompt political activism from them.
SPEAKER 07 :
That is fascinating, and I realize I need to ask the next question. We're going to go to break. I'm talking with Helen Raleigh, and this is her new book, Not Outsiders, Asian Americans' Political Activism from the 19th Century to Today. And a fascinating conversation and how that matches up with today as well. So we get to have these conversations because of our sponsors. For everything mortgages, reach out to Lorne Levy.
SPEAKER 12 :
Bye. Bye. Bye. If you'd like to explore what a reverse mortgage can do for you, call Lauren Levy at 303-880-8881. That's 303-880-8881.
SPEAKER 14 :
Call now. You'd like to get in touch with one of the sponsors of The Kim Monson Show, but you can't remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim's website, kimmonson.com. That's Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 15 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
And welcome back to the Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can do that at Kim Munson dot com. And thank you to all of you who support us. I'm talking with Helen Raleigh and she is has written a new book. A new book out at the end of April, Not Outsiders, Asian Americans' Political Activism from the 19th Century to Today. So, Helen, you mentioned the Supreme Court decision in 1882 that was at the height of discrimination against Asians at that time and eventually was ruled in favor of this young Chinese man. He was born here.
SPEAKER 08 :
uh parents went back to china of course this begs the question how does this relate to today uh his parents came here legally i assume well it was not a 19th century so there was really no legally or illegally you know that differentiation and that's why that's why this ruling you know is has been controversial in our days, and that's why the Trump administration challenged it. But that's not what this book is about. I think the book was about, by the way, the ruling was in 1893. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882. So there is a 10-year gap. Yeah, but I think what this case illustrated, why this case gave Agent America hope was he filed this case at the height of racial discrimination against Chinese Americans, actually systemic, you know, because there's a national law, there's a law that would provide the Chinese immigrants to become naturalized citizens in this country. Yet he was able to file a Supreme Court, file cases, fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court actually ruled in his favor and reinterpreted the 14th Amendment in his favor. And not only he won this case, but millions of babies born since 1894, they were able to become U.S. citizens, have birthright citizenship because of this case. So while we are debating birthright citizenship nowadays, actually, I support Trump's proposal that birthright citizenship should only be granted to babies who are born to at least one parent is U.S. citizen or at least a green card holder today, but you will look at a case back in the 19th century that shows that we are a country of rule of law. As long as we are a country of rule of law, that gives hope to society. Everybody, regardless what your skin color is, what your ethnicity, I think that that's the lesson we should take from this. So this book, it has a title about Asian Americans' history, but it's really about America's history. That's why I say the progressive attack against the Asian Americans is really an attack against America, America's value.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. Let's talk about the second segment of the book regarding World War II to the mid-'90s. Tell us about that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, so this one also, I focused on several significant areas. One of them is obviously Japanese internment. That actually has a close relation to our state, Colorado. As you know, during World War II, after Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt issued a notorious E.O., basically put Japanese Americans into different camps in Mountain West. And Colorado actually had those camps and hosted Japanese Americans. And so Japanese Americans also decided to challenge this, what they consider unconstitutional yields. By the way, in my book, I gave a very extensive history prior to Japanese Navy's attack on Pearl Harbor. The Roosevelt government actually did research, and they found that there's no incidence of Japanese Americans helping Japanese government, yet Roosevelt still decided to prepare the EO and put Japanese Americans into the camps after the Pearl Harbor attack. So at least the four Japanese-American cases challenging the constitutionality of the EO reached the Supreme Court. One of them, the only woman who filed the plaintiff, her case won, but it won also came close to the end of the World War II. Still, it was a win. And again, it showcased that we are a country of rule of law. At the time, there were challenges for different groups, but eventually the truth and justice came. And so that's one significance. And there are a couple other things also. It ends with... 90s, the LA riots. I don't know if you remember. I wasn't here, but the LA riots that the Korean Americans tried to defend themselves on the rooftop with guns because they were left all by themselves. They felt like they were targeted. They were alone. But after the incidents, they also learned that they must be politically involved. So they started running for political office. and become more engaged with the local community. So again, that just shows another strain of how different immigrant groups came to this country, learned to become American, learned to become part of this American fabric through political engagement to become part of this society. Okay.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, Helen, one thing, when we say rule of law, I think it's important that we realize that the laws that are being put into place really need to be constitutional. And with the Colorado Union of Taxpayers, as we're watching legislation, there's all kinds of things that have happened, I think, down here at the Statehouse that are not constitutional. And so we need to be electing people that represent us and will adhere to the Constitution and have that passed. that north star of the vision of the Declaration that all men are created to equal with these rights from God of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. And so next thing, what is the last wave on this book? Where are you focused at on that?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, last thing on this book really focused on, you know, what's happening now. Asian Americans are at a forefront to push back the progressive war against the merit, as well as to try to impose... The progressives, we've witnessed that for a couple of years, pushing DEI and CRT, the critical risk theories throughout American society. And Asian America is actually at the forefront to push this back, both through pushback legislation in Washington state and California, as well as the Supreme Court lawsuit through the Students for Fair Admission against Harvard.
SPEAKER 07 :
Harvard's been in the news a lot, hasn't it? And how could it be that the premier institution or one of the premier institutions in America is now known as being anti-Semitic? And then also, I'd forgotten about this a couple of years ago on this lawsuit regarding Harvard and Asian-Americans. How did this happen here in America, Helen Raleigh?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I think the progressives for decades have been very successful. They basically took over all the great institutions in this country and totally flipped their mindset. You know, you mentioned earlier about technology. the law needs to be constitutional. Yes, our constitution is the law of the land. And when I say rule of law, as I mentioned earlier, the Chinese Exclusion Act passed by the U.S. Congress, signed by the president, it was the rule of law, but it's unconstitutional. That's why Chinese people challenged it. Same thing as the Japanese internment. So yes, we must follow the constitution. And Harvard really has a long history of behaviors that are unconstitutional. And remember back in the early 20th century, Harvard had this racial cap against the Jewish students. Basically, they capped Jewish students to a certain percentage. No matter how qualified you are, they do not want to have too many Jewish students. That's what Harvard has done to Asian American students. And of course, when we witnessed, since October 7, 2023, the brutal attack by Hamas terrorists against Israel, that all the protests in the Harvard campus and other elite school campus, it shows that how much the progress mindset has conquered Harvard and all our elite institutions. That's why we must push back, challenge the constitutionality of their Lose their regulations and their behaviors. And I totally support a cut their funding because Harvard has a $56 billion endowment fund. They should learn from Hayesville. If they want to continue discriminating people, then they do not deserve taxpayer dollars.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I don't think that I really don't think that we should be using taxpayer dollars for these colleges and universities at all. I think that's one of the reasons how it's gotten so expensive. And as I was reading your bio, it included a word in there that I think that. We don't hear that that often. It used to be people would work hard to get scholarships. And that was on merit. And I remember when things moved to need. And when that happened again, it took away some of the meritocracy on all of that. So, Helen Raleigh, this is absolutely fascinating. What is your we've got about a minute left. What's your final thought that you'd like to leave with our listeners?
SPEAKER 08 :
I first want to make an announcement. I'm going to have a book launch event this coming Saturday at the Bounds and Knowables in Littleton by Wadsworth and Bowles. So it's in the afternoon between 3 to 6 on May 24th. So anybody who's available, I encourage you to come. I'll do a little book reading and answer questions. And also, I just want to reemphasize that the It's not just a book about Asian America. It's really a book about America from the 19th century to today. Asian America has always been a fabric of this country and will continue to be a fabric of this country to help make this country more just and more beautiful, more prosperous.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and I thank you, Helen Raleigh, and you are really the example of exceptionalism, of American exceptionalism. So thank you so much, and good luck. I'm going to be out of town, so I'm not going to be able to make that on this weekend. But certainly, again, one more time, where's that at?
SPEAKER 08 :
It's at the Barnes & Noble by Wadsworth and Bowes, and it's May 24th between 3 to 6 p.m.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. Helen Raleigh, thank you so much. Thank you. And our quote for the end of the show is from Confucius. And he said this, all the darkness in the world can't put out the light of one candle. So today, be grateful, read great books, think good thoughts, listen to beautiful music, communicate and listen well, live honestly and authentically, strive for high ideals, and like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you. God bless America. Stay tuned for hour number two.
SPEAKER 18 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
SPEAKER 02 :
It's the Kim Munson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 07 :
The socialization of transportation, education, energy, housing, and water, what it means is that government controls it through rules and regulations.
SPEAKER 02 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 07 :
Under this guise of bipartisanship and nonpartisanship, it's actually tapping down the truth.
SPEAKER 02 :
Today's current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 07 :
On an equal field, in the battle of ideas, mistruths and misconceptions is getting us into a world of hurt.
SPEAKER 02 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let's have a conversation.
SPEAKER 07 :
Indeed, let's have a conversation. Welcome to our number two of the Kim Munson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You're each treasured, you're valued, you have purpose. Today, strive for excellence, take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history. And thank you to the team, that's producer Joe Lundgren, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. I so appreciate each and every one of them. Check out the website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You'll get first look at our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays while you're over there. At the website, you can email me at Kim Munson. That's M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Text line, I do want to hear from you, 720-605-0647. And I'll tell you what, everybody, I did something. Somehow I deleted all of, I like to have all of the text messages, and I deleted everything. So we're in a fresh new text line here. But I want to hear from you, 720-605-0647. And the show comes to you 6 to 8 a.m. live Monday through Friday. First hour is rebroadcast 1 to 2 in the afternoon. Second hour, 10 to 11 at night. And that's on all KLZ platforms, which is KLZ 560 AM, KLZ 100.7 FM, the KLZ website, the KLZ app. And you can say, Alexa, play KLZ. After that, you can find us on Spotify and iTunes. And our word of the day is antithetical. And it could be being in direct and unambiguous opposition to something. And I would say that what's happened down at the Colorado State Legislature overall was antithetical to the vision of our founding, that all men are created equal with these rights from God of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and a lot of stuff down there. It was unconstitutional as well. Our quote of the day is from Confucius. He was born in 551 B.C., died in 479 B.C., and he said this, three things cannot long be hidden, the sun, the moon, and the truth. And that's why we search for truth and clarity every day. I did want to mention the Center for American Values located in Pueblo on the beautiful Riverwalk. And they're going to, in honor of Memorial Day, on the 28th, they will have an On Values presentation with Colonel J.E. Jeff Chostner from United States Air Force. And that will be at four o'clock at the center. And so more information, go to AmericanValueCenter.org. That's AmericanValueCenter.org. I am pleased to have in studio with me. I'm Karen Levine, Remax Realtor for Everything Residential Real Estate. It's great to have you here.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's great to be here on a Monday morning.
SPEAKER 07 :
I know, bright and early. And Lauren Levy, Everything Mortgages. Great to have you, too. Great to be back. So we're going to be talking a lot about, there's a lot happening regarding housing here in Colorado, and I've got all kinds of questions for you on that. But one thing, let's see, I wanted to get to this. Denver Mayor... Mike Johnston has sued the Trump administration using our taxpayer dollars regarding – and this is from KM – let's see, Denver 7. And they reached out on – Friday, and they wanted a statement from cut from the Colorado Union of taxpayers and so we did provide that so the story is this is Mike Johnston, city of Denver, along with city of Chicago and Pima County, Arizona are suing the Trump administration because the Trump administration said because of your sanctuary policies. uh you're not going to get some of this FEMA money and so we responded with this uh we oh darn it hold on just a second we have too many too many things going on here I had uh there we go hold on multitasking here. Okay, here's the statement that we provided. Mayor Mike Johnston, his administration and prior city administration's agendas regarding welcoming people to Denver who have come to America illegally is significantly hurting Denverites. Mayor Johnston has looked and is looking to the federal government which is money collected from citizens across the country and federal debt to bail him out and fund his ideological agenda. It's time for Mayor Johnston to grow up and learn that there are consequences to his poor decisions. Instead of using Denverites' hard-earned money to sue the federal government, Johnston should cut spending, lower taxes and fees, reverse course on his sanctuary city policies for illegal immigrants, and begin to find real solutions for the issues facing the people of Denver." And pretty hard hitting, but that's how we feel about it. And we're going to continue all these discussions. And another great sponsor of the show is the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance Team. And I'm pleased to be talking with Roger Mangan with the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance Team. And we seems like we're getting squeezed everywhere at the grocery store. Everything is costing more. Actually, it seems like the size of the things that we're buying is shrinking and people are looking at ways to save money. And Roger, I had a friend of mine that this was probably over a year ago. that is a listener to the show and reached out to you, and you were able to bundle her insurance together, and she saved, I think, at least $1,000. It was pretty significant. So what should people know about bundling insurance?
SPEAKER 17 :
You should definitely consider doing that. I do know people who shop separately for their insurance, so they're not obligated to stay with, for example, State Farm or American Family, whomever, because they can get a better rate by individually going out there and shopping. If that's your forte, then so be it. But I can tell you, based on your example, Kim, Bundling is important. Insurance companies give significant discounts. So when we talk about bundling, we're talking about bundling your home, your cars, your umbrella liability policy, and even life insurance. All of those things. filter back and create a discount that can be significant. For example, I'm looking at a quote we did not too long ago on an $850,000 home, and the claim record rating part of that quote, we gave a $673 discount because of the claim history of that person applying for insurance. And you all know what's happened to your homeowners insurance rates over the last, I would say, seven years specifically, or especially in the last three years. And most of this rate increase is a result of inflation. And by the way, insurance companies People think, well, they make all this money. Well, I can tell you that for every dollar we're collecting today, we're spending about $1.20, so a 20% loss. We're spending more than we're collecting in premium. The only thing that keeps a good insurance company going is their investment income, which they use then to put into reserves and to run the business. So... What I see happening with bundling is your rates go down. They never go down as much as you'd like to see them, but that's a technique that certainly should be utilized by you as a consumer.
SPEAKER 07 :
And so if somebody wanted to check this out, they could set up a complimentary appointment with one of your team members, yes?
SPEAKER 17 :
Absolutely. And we have... wonderful team members that are very experienced so please give us a call you can reach us at 303-795-8855 we've been in business in littleton area and we write in arizona as well as colorado so anywhere in colorado you live or arizona we can give you a quote That number is 303-795-8855. And like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan team is there.
SPEAKER 01 :
Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty, wrote founding father John Adams. RE-MAX realtor Karen Levine has been working diligently at the local, county, state, and national levels to protect property rights and home ownership. Karen has navigated the often challenging Colorado metro real estate market for years. Karen Levine is the trusted professional for you to turn to when you are buying or selling your home, considering a new build, or exploring investment opportunities. Realtor Karen Levine. You want her on your side of the table. Call Karen at 303-877-7516. That's 303-877-7516.
SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
You'd like to get in touch with one of the sponsors of The Kim Monson Show, but you can't remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim's website, kimmonson.com. That's Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 07 :
And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMunson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We're an independent voice on an independent station searching for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. Something's a good idea. You should not have to force people to do it. I did want to say thank you to Laramie Energy for their goal sponsorship of the show. It's reliable, efficient, affordable, and abundant energy that powers our lives, fuels our hopes and dreams, and empowers us to change our own personal climate. That means being warm in the winter and cool in the summer. And also Memorial Day is right around the corner. And I really recommend that you stop, reflect, talk with your... children, your grandchildren, about what Memorial Day really is, and that's remembering those that gave their lives that last full measure of devotion for our country. And a great event that's going to be occurring 2 o'clock out at the USMC Memorial is a great event, and I would recommend that you consider that and go to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That's usmcmemorialfoundation.org.
SPEAKER 09 :
in studio with me everything residential real estate karen levine everything mortgages lauren levy karen levine spring selling season i see signs out there for houses for sale so what's going on uh it's the spring selling season and there's lots of choice more choice than we've seen in probably a decade but the colorado association of realtors april Housing reports came out, and what I was feeling is what they relayed in their reports, which is buyers are being a little cautious. They're a little concerned just a lot about uncertainty, uncertainty in the financial markets, uncertainty in the job market. And so they're being cautious. But in their cautiousness, that creates uncertainty. Opportunity for those who want and are willing to take a little bit of risk, which means because there's more choices, there's opportunity for potential more negotiation. We're also seeing sellers who are more motivated taking some sizable price reductions and seeing values more affordable. So I think I used the example of a new listing I had priced at $500,000. That got a lot of activity, a lot of activity and multiple offers. But homes in, oh, the mid-6s, low-7s, not seeing as much activity unless they are priced appropriately, well-prepared, and maybe have some... above average updating or location.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. So are we starting to see significant decreases in the values of housing in the metro area?
SPEAKER 09 :
Actually, no. The data showed that the average and median prices in the metro area stayed stable or went up. So it's uncertain. It is uncertain.
SPEAKER 07 :
So what does that mean, Lauren Levy, regarding mortgages? So like a reverse mortgage, there's still opportunity on that because the values are holding up.
SPEAKER 13 :
On the mortgage side of things, we don't get too involved. We're not there yet. There could come a time when someone is under contract and a house under appraises. Technically, we're not anywhere near that. So that's where it could possibly affect your mortgage. But as far as we're concerned, and it's because refis aren't screaming hot either right now. So it's not like a lot of people are trying to refinance and need that higher value. So we're not running into that a ton. Appraisals are fine for mortgages right now. Everything's normal. I think like Karen's saying, it's just some properties that... are trying to compete and get sold because there's more availability and buyers are kind of not sure right now that they might need to lower their price if they're not as quality as another listing.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right, so if a home is dated, that's going to probably affect it a little bit, yes?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, I mean, there was a time when anything was selling hot, right? I mean, no matter where it was. And now if you don't have that prime location or you're not as updated as a competitive listed property, then you may have to lower your price to get more competitive.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. And, Karen, location is always really important. Are you seeing different parts of the metro area are softer or stronger than others? Yes. Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
Real estate is local, and so you do see communities that people are looking for homes to come on the market, and there has been very little inventory. So when those come on the market, they have a lot more activity because people have been on the sidelines waiting for a home in that neighborhood. So it's also interesting, we talk about location, a property in Arvada in a very, I would consider middle class, middle America community, very desirable. it came on the market and backed open space. Again, an opportunity doesn't present itself every day, and so it had lots of activity, and it was well-updated. Sure, it had some... compromises as every house does we never know when we go to buy a house what we're going to compromise on because there's no perfect house right um but that got good activity and i'm sure that they got their asking price if not better because of their location but the tougher locations are going to need to know that they're going to probably have to be more aggressive in their pricing okay what are some of the tougher locations well backing to a busy street okay you know um That's a key.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's a key one.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, that's a key one. Sometimes your neighbor's on either side of you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
You know, if they're not taking good care of their home, a buyer might say, you know, that might not help my property value. Gosh, you can't do anything about that, can you? Can't really do anything about that, which, again, that's freedom of homeownership, you know, property rights, so.
SPEAKER 07 :
But there is a responsibility, and that's another thing about freedom is the responsible exercise, or liberty is the responsible exercise of freedom. I did an airport run yesterday, and I noticed that there's a bunch of new development out there. It looks like probably single-family homes.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and there's actually some really good affordability out by the airport. I, of course, laugh at that. how human behavior is. You know, Stapleton was kind of out there, our old, old airport, and then we built housing around it, and then they complained about airport noise. Again, we put the airport way out there, and now there is more affordable housing out there. There's actually a lovely 55-plus community out there as well. Well, they can't hear us. Well, maybe, maybe, right? They can't hear the airport. Yeah, and it's nice to see because it provides good affordable housing really for a lot of airport employees, you know?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and if you travel.
SPEAKER 09 :
And if you travel, you know, come and go.
SPEAKER 07 :
You can put white noise on probably when you're sleeping.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and the reality is I live by Rocky Mountain Regional Airport. Mm-hmm. It's it's like anything you become used to it. I don't notice it unless I
SPEAKER 07 :
A rare occasion. So on new bills, people just, if they want to look at that, they need to have representation on their side of the table. So they just need to call you first if they're going to consider that, right?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes. And what people need to understand is builders have sales representatives at their model home complexes or at their sales complex, whatever. And Those people work for the builder. Their job is to represent the builder, to market the amenities of the home and the community to the consumer, to the buyer. And that's great. They're very, very knowledgeable. But if you don't have someone like myself representing you as your agent, as a buyer agent, you don't know what opportunities may be available to you and things to watch out for and You know, the busy street thing or the thing that may affect your property down the road, those type of things.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's important to think about that. Yeah. OK, Lauren, on these new bills, I know sometimes the builders may have a mortgage packages for people. Yes.
SPEAKER 13 :
Is that a good idea, bad idea?
SPEAKER 07 :
It's kind of part of the whole... Oh, it's a great idea for them. Is it?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, it's... I belong to all these mortgage forums and things, and you run into people that are either new to the business or just haven't dealt with it much, and they'll be like... They'll put a question out there like, I don't understand. How can I compete with this? I got a buyer that's getting a 499 interest rate from this builder and came to me to compete. And people just write back, you can't. It's a different segment of the business. Those guys oftentimes either own their own mortgage company. Or are so tied in with one that they just have more ways of making money with their markups. So they can say, we'll pay $20,000 in fees for you to cover your mortgage because they'll bill you $75,000 in their design center and it doesn't cost them $75,000 to do that. So they'll make it up somewhere else, whereas as a mortgage person, we don't make $20,000 on a loan ever to cover a fee for someone like that. I'd love to be able to say, oh, I'll just give you that $499 also, and then I'll cover the $20,000, but I'm not going to lose $17,000 on the transaction.
SPEAKER 07 :
Sure, because you won't stay in business for very long. No, like a day.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah. So they just have other ways to make up for it, the builders do, whether they own the loan and they'll just keep it and they'll collect the interest, or they'll make up for it somewhere else in the process.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. And I think just adding to that, it's, of course, my preference is to work with a partner like Lorne because I trust him. I know his pricing is very competitive in the marketplace. But it's very hard for me to tell my buyer client that when a national builder, and it could be a local builder as well, but a national builder has their own mortgage company, their own title company, everything is in-house, and they're going to buy their rate down to below the current market rate, that it isn't wise for them to use that. Sure. You know, and you have to look at the pros and the cons.
SPEAKER 13 :
And I tell them the same thing.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
When they call me, they say, you know, and listen, I've had people that I've worked with for months, months, getting them pre-qualified, doing all the work, you know, they've looked at this home and this home and this home and this home, and then they call one day, like, well, we found a home. can you do this?
SPEAKER 07 :
And it's a new boat.
SPEAKER 13 :
And they drifted onto a new construction. Yeah. And I'm like, well, it was nice working with you. Okay. And they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, I'm just being honest. I can't touch what those guys are doing. Okay. I can't finish your basement for you for free.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
And they will, you know, so enjoy.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, it's all, yeah. It's all packaged.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, but...
SPEAKER 07 :
So is there any pitfalls that a buyer should consider?
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, for them. I can give you an example.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 13 :
I won't name names, but I had a client that this was happening to. And they came to me because they were having trouble dealing with the builder's lender. They just weren't communicating with them. So they came to me to see if I could help them. And in their contract, it said that they were not allowed to switch lenders once drywall was up. Inside the house, they were stuck. They also were told that they had to use a specific homeowner's insurance company.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, my heavens.
SPEAKER 13 :
According to the contract. I had the contract right in front of me. And the homeowner's insurance alone was $6,000 a year on a home that was probably $500,000. And this is two years ago or so. So homeowner's insurance hadn't spiked like it has yet now. So I told them, I'm like, look, you signed this agreement. You can't switch lenders right now. So what I did is I waited until about... three weeks before they were going to close and I started to refinance for them and the minute the loan closed they bought it they went with that insurance company and did all the things and then about I had to wait a little bit you have to wait for the mortgage to record and things but about 30 days in we refinanced them out of that loan and switched their insurance company
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 13 :
And saved them thousands.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. And you were able to save them money by doing so.
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, we took their insurance alone from $6,000 to like $3,500.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
Wow. So that's why having me on your side of the table is critical because those are the things I'm going to point out to you in a contract. I want you to be aware of the risk. This is the risk. And I don't know if they had representation. No, they didn't. And so those are things I know to look at in a contract. There are several builders that their contracts are 100 pages long. And as consumers, you're like, well, if I want the house, I have to sign it, which is true. You can't revise their contracts. But let me at least point out to you what your exposure and your risk is.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. And have you ever seen somebody being able to change the contract? No, that's what I'm saying. You can't change them. Okay. No. Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
No. But the choice is, is this the house I want and this is the risk I'm willing to take? Okay. Or would I rather move on?
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, got it. So, hey, Karen Levine, what's your phone number if people want to reach you?
SPEAKER 09 :
If they want to reach me, pick up the phone and dial 303-877-7516. That's Karen Levine, 303-877-7516. And, Lorne, what is your phone number? Mine is 303-880-8881.
SPEAKER 07 :
Again, Lauren Levy, 303-880-8881. We're going to continue the discussion. I saw something here. Governor Polis, and send this over to Karen and Lauren, wanted to talk with them about it. This is from CPR News. Governor Polis will shut off millions in state grants to cities and counties that don't comply. Comply is that force word. with state housing policies. And so it is true, what the government giveth, the government can taketh away. And we have these discussions because of our sponsors and very pleased to have the Second Syndicate as our sponsor.
SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 12 :
The current level of interest rates is causing challenges and creating opportunities. For nearly 20 years, mortgage specialist with Polygon Financial Group, Lorne Levy, has helped individuals realize their hopes and dreams of homeownership, fund kids' educations through second mortgages, and access capital by utilizing reverse mortgages. Lorne's not constrained to work with just one lender. Because he works with many different lenders, Lorne offers you choices for your individual mortgage needs. Knowledge is power and preparation leads to success. Call Lauren Levy at 303-880-8881 so that you are prepared for the opportunities in the mortgage market. That's Lauren Levy at 303-880-8881.
SPEAKER 04 :
is essential for your success, especially during tough economic times. If you love The Kim Munson Show, strive for excellence and understand the importance of engaging in the battle of ideas that is raging in America. Then talk with Kim about partnership, sponsorship opportunities. Email Kim at kimmunson.com. Kim focuses on creating relationships with individuals and businesses that are tops in their fields so they are the trusted experts listeners turn to when looking for products or services Kim personally endorses each of her sponsors again reach out to Kim at Kim Munson calm
SPEAKER 07 :
And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We're an independent voice, and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And I did not put my checkmark that I mentioned these things. Did I give the word of the day earlier today? uh yeah antithetical okay good okay great checking myself that voice was karen levine and the other voice was lauren levy karen levine for everything residential real estate and lauren levy for everything mortgages okay i saw this headline and it is true what the government giveth the government taketh away and this is from cpr news it was published on may 16th governor polis will shut off millions in state grants to cities and counties that don't comply there's your force word right there with state housing policies. And it says that it would require cities and counties in Colorado to show that they're enacting recently passed state housing laws in order to be eligible for more than $100 million in state grants in areas like transportation and energy. Those are two things that we really like. And so they're going to use that as the lever. And it says Polis has made housing affordability, increasing housing capacity top priorities for his administration. So the new order is a way to ensure local communities are following the law. And so he's usurping local zoning. So Karen, what's your comments on this? After you've had a chance to review it.
SPEAKER 09 :
That's a little broad question. But I know the challenge in Colorado and the challenge in the Front Range is bringing more housing to our communities. And we've talked about the fact that when we were short on inventory and we were seeing multiple offers and prices being drove up, It was because we didn't have enough inventory in the marketplace because builders had left the market during the Great Recession. They were afraid to start building back up. They got into the market, started building. We were behind in production. But a lot of that... delay in coming back into the market, I believe, was somewhat because of public policy and the things builders are required to do. So adding more levels of government is generally not the answer. Rolling back some government would be super helpful in the housing market, but in an attempt, and I would say our House representatives and Senate representatives, and For instance, the Colorado Association of Realtors are trying to find solutions to how do you bring more product to the market and bring it, quote, unquote, affordably. Is this the answer? There may be some good pieces in here, but I also see what cities are doing to respond to things like one of the – What do I say? Billet points in this article was prohibiting residential occupancy limits. So local governments have said you can't have more than three or five unrelated people in a residency. And now the state is saying you can't do that. And we have municipalities who are like, well, how do we address this? So for instance, Lakewood is discussing limiting square footage of a single family home. Now, shouldn't that be market driven?
SPEAKER 07 :
One would sure think so.
SPEAKER 09 :
You would think so. So instead of a typical, whatever, 2,500 square foot home, we're going to make a 1,000 square foot home so that only three people can live in that home to usurp, as you would say, prohibiting residential occupancy limits. I don't think that makes sense.
SPEAKER 07 :
So is Lakewood actually saying that you would not be able to build a house bigger than 2,000 square feet?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I don't know what their square footage limits are, but yes.
SPEAKER 07 :
Good gracious. What do you think about this, Lorne Levy?
SPEAKER 13 :
I think, when I read it, I think two things. Immediately I came to mind what you've been saying for years about these city planners and trying to force everybody to live along the light rail. Because that's basically what that's talking about is putting them near the trains and maximizing the housing along the train tracks and where people don't need cars and freeing up parking lots to build on. So I read that and I'm like, people want their cars. I was talking to a buddy this weekend about it. But the other thing is I try to look at these things from the holistic side of things. For example, builders' land is more expensive. Everyone that owns a home loves the fact that the home values have gone up, right? Everybody wants to make as much as they can at their jobs. And you look at states like here and in California where we've raised minimum wage to try to help people make more money. Same thing, the contractors that build homes, their employees need more money. You know, you're paying them more per hour. So these homes, and then you put regulation on top of that. These homes are more expensive to build and builders aren't going to build them to lose money. And so they try to make them affordable, but I think the way to make them affordable would be to entice builders to build them through some sort of grant program or something rather than just saying you have to build cheaper homes. They can't.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, but I push back on... Anything involving grants, yes, that's choosing winners. Because if we would reduce rules and regulations, I ended up debating Mayor Mike Johnston in person regarding his sales tax increase for affordable housing, which the people of Denver did not approve, which is a really big deal. And in doing that research, now I can't quite remember, but it's at least 25% of the cost might even be higher of a residential new build. 25% of that goes to rules and regulations and I think even more for multifamily housing. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to lower those rules and regulations, but then the PBIs lose their power.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, I was involved. I have another side business we've spoken about, and I was involved in the construction level of that building, and I happened to be dealing with the city of Centennial versus Arapahoe County. And I knew someone else that was rebuilding a restaurant that had had a fire, and we were able to get the building that we did open way faster. Their fire had already happened before we even started doing our thing. And I was like, what is taking you guys so long? Like, the difference is in Centennial, you call an inspector. On a Friday, you have an appointment Monday morning. Like, we call an inspector on Friday. We may have an appointment by the following Friday. Like, just dealing with two different government agencies. And I've heard, like, Denver. You hear about it in California. One of the things with these Palisades people is they talk about... How long the permit process is. When you have a loan for construction and you're paying interest on that loan.
SPEAKER 07 :
Time is money.
SPEAKER 13 :
Time is money. And they burn time. There's your price.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right there. So that's a big thing.
SPEAKER 13 :
There's a chunk of it right there. It's literally all interest payments and things like that that builders aren't going to lose.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. So you have a good experience with Centennial.
SPEAKER 13 :
I had a good experience. They went fast. They're quick. Okay. And that saves money.
SPEAKER 07 :
Should we throw the other?
SPEAKER 13 :
It was just Arapahoe County.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, it was Arapahoe County. Interesting.
SPEAKER 13 :
Just down the road.
SPEAKER 07 :
Huh, wow, that is really interesting. So there are things that can be done. There are free market answers to this. And the other thing that I've learned from both you, Lauren and Karen, is that all of these apartment buildings along light rail They are getting favorable interest rates and things from the government to build that, to incentivize that, which, again, a builder is going to look at that. And, Karen, you said you had a friend that was going to build a multifamily – is it called multifamily housing, right? And he wanted to do condos. He wanted to do a project where people would own something. And it was – what, he was told that he couldn't?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, through the granting process and – He qualified for affordable housing, he and his development group, and they were redoing some redevelopment. It's taking place over, I believe, by Sloan's Lake. And this project, I believe, is now five to six years in the making. And during that time, what has happened to interest rates... And that's money. Money. What has happened to interest rates... Every time they think they're moving ahead, the government imposes another level of something, another level of policy, another level of requirements, like this was just signed and so they were bringing out X amount of ownership units and that continues to get cut back because the available funds really are supposed to go to rental units because they changed the guidelines and you look at that rhetoric who's ever you know in this position as a developer builder you say to yourself this is a market I do not want to do business and
SPEAKER 07 :
I was at an event on Saturday, and I was talking with a woman. They have four children, and they were hoping that their kids would come back to Colorado and partake in the family business. And the two oldest, the other two are too young, the two oldest said, we're not coming back to Colorado. And Colorado used to be a place that people really wanted to come, Lauren Levy.
SPEAKER 13 :
I agree. I mean, it doesn't surprise me. Karen, as a realtor, would know a lot more than I do as far as where people are buying. But I have friends of mine that just listed their house.
SPEAKER 07 :
Are they moving out of state?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, they will. They listed it now. Their financial person told them it was a good time to do it. I didn't even know they were doing it. because now they're going to rent because they have a child that has one more year of high school. Okay. So they're not leaving yet. So we're all like, oh, you listed your house? I saw the sign, you know. But they're, because they thought this was top dollar is what they were thinking. And they got their price, but they're moving to outside of Charlotte.
SPEAKER 07 :
And North Carolina's been a place that people have moved. So I wanted to just mention this article, and we'll continue the discussion, and I'm going to try to get to these text messages as well. And I think it's Lee that had called in regarding the issue on smart meters, and we also had another caller. And Lee, we want to make sure that we have your phone number. So I think Joe's figured out a workaround to get that. But if not, you might just give Joe a quick call at 303-477-5600. And so this is from the CPR article. It says these are some of the bullet points requiring local governments to investigate and report on their unmet housing needs regularly. Well, that's going to cost something. Prohibiting.
SPEAKER 09 :
And why is that?
SPEAKER 07 :
A proper role of government. Yes. The market should figure that out.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. And if a city doesn't have the housing needs that they need, they need to change their policy to be able to meet their housing needs.
SPEAKER 07 :
That sounds like a good idea.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's very logical, right? Sorry. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, prohibiting residential occupancy limits, allowing accessory dwelling units, putting in place, oh, I missed this.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, this is not, wow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right of refusal policies that would give local governments a better chance of purchasing affordable housing before it converts to market rate. I thought that was out of there. No.
SPEAKER 09 :
No. Now, I would say that there was a lot of amendments made to this, and maybe we got the best that we could have expected, which is that big developers, apartment owners, which generally are big corporations, conglomerates, those type of things, If they are looking to sell and they have received, they have received government assistance when they were built and they're under an affordable, under the umbrella of affordability, they then must offer to the government the first right to buy it.
SPEAKER 07 :
And so how does the government have money to buy this? Where does the government get the money to buy this, Karen?
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, I think that I write them a check on an annual basis, maybe. Oh, yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER 13 :
Or every month.
SPEAKER 07 :
Or every two weeks.
SPEAKER 09 :
Or quarterly or whatever, right.
SPEAKER 07 :
So they take money and then they, because government, oh, I can feel my blood pressure going up on this discussion, you guys. And then this came in from Susan. This is part of Agenda 2030, the limited square footage requirement. We're going to continue the discussion. Text line is 720-605-0647. In studio with me, Karen Levine, what's your phone number? 303-877-7516. And Lauren Levy, Everything Mortgages, what's your phone number? 303-880-8881. And I get to work with amazing people as my sponsors, as you can see from these two people that strive for excellence. And another great sponsor of the show is John Bozen and Bozen Law.
SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 20 :
All of Kim's sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Munson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That's Kim Munson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 15 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
And welcome back to The Kim Munson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMunson.com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You can email me at Kim at KimMunson.com as well. Thank you to all of you who support us. We're an independent voice and we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something's a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And also, in honor of Memorial Day, check out the Center for American Values in Pueblo, located on the beautiful Riverwalk. They're going to have a great On Values presentation in honor of Memorial Day on the 28th, which is Wednesday. In studio with me is Karen Levine, Remax Realtor, and Lorne Levy, Everything Mortgages. And I want to hear from you on the text line 720-605-0647 today. Karen, I don't know the answer to this. Do you? How can the governor do that to home rule cities? I don't know the answer.
SPEAKER 09 :
I don't either.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. Yeah. We'll have to see. I wonder if there'll be a lawsuit that cities would have to use their money for that. Mm-hmm. On some of the other things that was on the show, this came in right after Broden Daniel was on the air. He called in regarding, let's see, it's Inklings Academy and their great event out in Holyoke tonight. And this listener said, I'm so impressed with Broden. He's going to do well in life. Another listener regarding Helen Raleigh. And Karen, I'd not heard this white adjacent. Had you heard that?
SPEAKER 09 :
I hadn't. That was really interesting. I was listening to Helen on the way in. Yeah. And I had not heard that terminology, but I can understand why the Asian community would find it inappropriate, offensive.
SPEAKER 07 :
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yes. So I would say white adjacent is antithetical to the American dream. But this came in. Let's see. The hypocrisy of discriminating against Asians while passing alleged anti-discrimination laws for transgenders, picking and choosing categories of people to prop up and put down, says white adjacent is a pejorative term for hardworking, successful, and assimilated people. And another listener said, Helen Raleigh is a great American treasure. And so, yeah, pretty interesting on that. Regarding this, again, the title just, again, Government Giveth, Government Taketh Away. Government has made housing more and more expensive through all these rules and regulations. And then this, I think that was Prop... Was it Prop 123? Was that what it was? Yes. And we were hard no on that. We made the right argument, I think, on that. Because what the government giveth, it will take away. And so Polis says he's going to shut off millions in state grants to city and counties that don't comply with state housing policies. They will not give up on this transit. And very seldom, Lauren Levy, do I see people on these – rail platforms wanting to ride the train. The trains have become dirty and dangerous, but they're continuing to double down. It says in this CPR article that he also would require denser housing developments near transit and eliminate minimum parking requirements for new construction near transit hubs. So they think if they can take away and make it so inconvenient to drive your car and that you will give up your car, right?
SPEAKER 13 :
You'll move closer to the rail.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. So all these young people that have come to Colorado to hike and to ski, snowboard, how are they going to get to the mountains?
SPEAKER 13 :
In like a clown car. Like the one person that maintains their vehicle, I guess.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
Give them all a ride.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, start charging them.
SPEAKER 13 :
They'll probably be... I don't know.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. So how...
SPEAKER 09 :
Sort of on the pushback. I think that we, as wanting to be the big city, wanting to do the things that the New York and the San Francisco markets did. I don't want to. But Kim, you've got to roll it back a decade. And you've got to look at what we were looking at and why we thought it was a good idea. And I think mass transit does have a place in our society and in our communities as it does around the world. We, the United States, haven't embraced it and done it as well as other places. So with that said, if you're going to do density, the place to do density is a long transit. So to me, that's very logical. And I believe it was our young people who came to Denver and wanted to be in the walkable city and do the walkable thing and be on transit. And then they realized their freedoms had been taken away and thus the pushback and no one on the train. But I will tell you that if we're coming downtown and a group of friends are coming downtown to hop on the Gold Rail to come to Union Station for dinner, It's really quite nice, and it's very easy, and the train wasn't dirty. So with that said, there's got to be a balance, and choice and freedom are both important to play in that.
SPEAKER 13 :
And there can also be more condos, though, and not apartments.
SPEAKER 09 :
And ownership, yes. Yes, ownership units. That's an ideal place.
SPEAKER 13 :
Because then you could build wealth along the rail, and maybe more people would want to do it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. What about, I know people have been a little afraid of condos because of the condo fees. What would you say to that, Lorne?
SPEAKER 13 :
I mean, the condo fees are real, but it's like... I think people would still buy them because it's a great way to – real estate is the number one way to build wealth. And if you could own your condo near the rail, you might be more enticed rather than paying someone else rent. If you want to go build wealth through real estate, you kind of have to go away from the rail because they're all rental units.
SPEAKER 07 :
So one has to ask why rental units? And again, I think this is part of, okay, I'll put on, got my tin hat here. This is part of Agenda 2030, where you will own nothing and be happy about it. Remember when you and I did that show?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and that, you're right in line with that, which is we have made it impossible to build condominium for sale ownership units in our state. And so thus, if you're going to build housing, it ends up being rental along the transit corridors. And Lauren's right. If we could return to a marketplace that could build condominium housing ownership units um that then were affordable and they're not affordable because of construction defect legislation so no one builds them yes you have hoa dues but this is the part people misunderstand about hoa dues hoa dues are paying for the insurance on the building They are paying for maintenance on the building. In some cases, they are paying for utilities on those buildings. So those are costs that you are going to pay in a single-family home, but they're combined. And initially, or the vision, is that when you're buying more, you get a better pricing, right? Okay, okay. But then you... bring in management companies who with minimum wage are now having to pay their employees more money, which means the management fee goes up. So again, as we continue to add policy and Regulations. Regulations. The costs go up.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 13 :
And that's another thing you can shop around for. When you go out with Karen looking for a condo and you find one you like, but you find the HOA dues are too high, you go somewhere else. Find one with lower HOA dues. Eventually, no one will be buying those units and something will have to adjust.
SPEAKER 07 :
But that would all be free market. So these things, mass transit, I remember when I was on city council, they were taking money that was coming to Colorado for, say, your federal gas tax. That was supposed to go to our roads and bridges. Oh, okay. I missed that. Thank you, Joe. But yet they were shaving money off of that for mass transit. We've got Action N. I bet there's something coming up. We've got about 30 seconds. What's on your radar?
SPEAKER 21 :
Well, I just wanted to mention that when Helen Raleigh talked about the case that she has in her book, that we had clear immigration policies in the 1800s where you had to apply immigration. to enter this country. You had to have a sponsor. You worked five years to prove your productivity, and you had to disclaim your country of origin. So I don't know if she's going to address that in her book, but we had clear immigration policies in the 1800s where she's talking about the case that was won under the SCOTUS ruling.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, good for you. Good for you. Excellent point, Ann. I really appreciate that. And if you could email over that information to me, that would be just great because I'd like to talk with Helen about that. Okay. Okay. Bye. Okay. Sounds great. Okay. We're just about out of time. Karen Levine, Everything Residential Real Estate. Quick final thought.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, if you're thinking about buying or selling this spring, there is opportunity. And yes, you're hearing, you know, some challenges in the marketplace, but I am here to help you navigate those challenges.
SPEAKER 07 :
Phone number? 303-877-7516.
SPEAKER 09 :
And Lauren Levy, a quick final thought.
SPEAKER 13 :
To tag along with Karen, I think we always say you need to work with someone you can trust. So if you need financing on a home, I would suggest to give us a call. Even if it's with a builder, we'll tell you if we can't meet that deal and just you're in a good spot. We'll always be honest and can help you navigate these choppy waters, especially with things going on with the rates all the time.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. And that number? 303-880-8881. Well, it is an honor to get to work with both of you, and I greatly appreciate you. Our quote for the end of the show is from Confucius, says this, all the darkness in the world can't put out the light of one candle. So today, be grateful, read great books, think good thoughts, listen to beautiful music, communicate and listen well, live honestly and authentically, strive for high ideals, and like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you, and God bless America.
SPEAKER 10 :
To the rain in lightning Wandering out into this great unknown And I don't want no one to cry But tell them if I don't
SPEAKER 18 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
In today's episode, Rick Hughes emphasizes the necessity of understanding biblical truths and applying them as problem-solving devices. With an engaging narrative, he explains the importance of recognizing your spiritual gifts and leveraging them to achieve spiritual maturity. Packed with wisdom and insights, this episode encourages listeners to prioritize God's word in everyday life, highlighting the promise of pleasant circumstances and peace when following His path.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you'll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I'm your host, Rick Hughes. For the next few minutes... I'd like to ask you to hang around, listen up, pay attention because this show is giving you some wonderful, wonderful information without any type of manipulation. We're not trying to con anybody. We're not trying to solicit money. We're not going to ask you to join anything. We're not going to ask you to give up anything. We're just here to remind you of some biblical truths and introduce you to a new way of learning, studying God's Word. No manipulation, like I said. No solicitations. Just 30 minutes of education, motivation, inspiration. letting me identify God's plan for you and hopefully you will be able to orient and adjust to the plan. I don't know where you are this morning, what city that you're in. We play this show in multiple cities across the United States every Sunday morning, same time on your station. But I'm very grateful that you're listening and I appreciate it so very much. It's always a chore, a task, a challenge to get this information out and to get it right and to pray and see what God would have me to present to you. It's not an easy thing to do. Every Sunday, 14 years, we've been doing this now. And there's a lot of distractions. But my job is to get it to you accurate and get it right. Your job is to hear it, apply it, and learn it. Remember what I tell you every Sunday? God gave you two ends. One of them you sit with, one of them you think with, and heads you win, tails you lose. Remember that? So we want to learn what God has for us, what God's plan has for us. We're not talking about ritual without reality. We're not talking about the nod to God crowd. We're not talking about... the organized religion that people play sometimes in their local churches. We're talking about the real deal Lucille, the real Christian life, the real true way to live the Christ-centered life. And that's what the FLOT line is all about, giving you information. FLOT stands for the Forward Line of Troops. It's always been that, F-L-O-T. And it means that there are some wonderful problem-solving devices found in the Bible. And when you learn them and when you use them, they protect you just like a main line of resistance in the military would keep the enemy out of the fort. Well, these 10 problem-solving devices are not new. They're not anything great breakthroughs. We're not trying to sell you a book about them. but they deal with rebound, number one, the filling of the Holy Spirit, number two, the faith rest drill, number three, grace orientation, four, biblical orientation, five, having a personal sense of destiny, six, personal love for God, seven, impersonal love for all of mankind, eight, sharing the happiness of God, nine, occupation with Christ, number 10. When you learn these, when you use them, when you stand on them, then you have a lifestyle of wisdom, a lifestyle of wisdom. That's what they are. They are the wisdom of God put into a military metaphor so you can understand how the Christian life functions and operates. That's what we do. We are trying to present biblical truth that can be used as problem-solving devices every day in your life. And they are called God's wisdom of the ages. They allow you to function within this devil's world with impunity if you learn them and you use them. And by the way, you can hear us not just on this radio station, But you can also hear us on our newly created podcast. If you have a phone, you can go to Spotify, the website Spotify, download it free, and type in The Flotline. Or you can go to the Apple podcast and type in The Flotline. And you can hear our show, any of the shows we present, over and over again at any time of the day you wish to hear them. they're all there they're all free and i hope you'll take advantage of that because my job is to get you some information and gear you in the right direction i'm not your pastor i'm just like a window a breath of fresh air trying to direct you to a great pastor where you can grow spiritually and learn to be the person god intended you to be but my challenges are for this for you to acquire the wisdom of the ages There's only one reason you would want to do that. Hopefully the reason you're listening to my radio show today is you love God. If you love God and you have reverential respect for God, then you're going to fulfill God's plan for your life. Listen to 1 John 5, 3. This is the love of God that we keep his mandates and his mandates are not a burden. This demonstrates you love him. It's called obedience, obedience. And in Proverbs 1, 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And that word fear doesn't mean that you're afraid of him. It means reverential obedience. So if you're going to grow as a Christian, if we're going to survive in the devil's world, if we're going to glorify jesus christ to the max we must learn god's plan you can't operate on a shoestring it's not your way highway it's god's way highway thy way highway not my way highway thy way highway and that means you have to learn something and so in proverbs 1 7 the fear of the lord is where it starts Obedience, reverential obedience is the beginning of knowledge. Nothing comes without knowledge. You must have knowledge to understand what God's plan for your life is. But the problem is the Bible says in the second half of Proverbs 1.7 that a fool doesn't want any knowledge. It says fools despise wisdom and despise instruction. That's the arrogance of a fool. You can't teach a fool anything. He's so arrogant, he thinks he knows it already. You may know a few people like that. And you may have some children like that that think they know it already. They don't need your advice. And that's a sad state of affairs, I know. But only a fool would claim they did not need instructions on how to live in the devil's world. Yep, that's right, the devil's world. We live in the devil's world. John 12, 31 through 33, just to remind you, now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. This is Jesus Christ speaking about future time. And he said, when I'm lifted up from the earth, I will draw people to myself. That's the cross. That's speaking of him, manner of death, he would die. And he called Satan the ruler of this world. John 16, 11, of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged already. That's the Holy Spirit's ministry, judging of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Matthew 4, 8, Satan tried to tempt the Lord to worship him and said, I'll give you all these kingdoms of the world. and I'll give you all of their glory if you will worship me. It's his, we live in the devil's domain. This is not our home, we're just passing through. And so reverence for God, reverential obedience for God, And obedience to his plan is the foundation for a life of happiness and fulfillment. No obedience, no happiness, no fulfillment. Matter of fact, Jesus Christ himself said, happiness belongs to those who hear my father's word and keep it. So if there's no respect for God's word, there's no reverence for God. then there's a guarantee that you're going to have a life unfulfilled and full of frustration. There are many Americans that I'm talking to now that care nothing about the Bible, that care nothing about God. They think they've got it made. They think they got a better deal. They think they got a better way. And they are going to continue to butt their head against the wall until they bleed to death because they can't move the wall with their head. Only God's word can give you the path. Only God's word can show you the way around that wall. So when you have a lack of respect and a lack of reverence for God's word, you can book it. You are going to have an unfulfilled life full of frustration. If you have no reverential respect, the Bible says you're a fool. In Proverbs 10, 27, the respect for the Lord or his plan prolongs your life forever. but the years of the wicked will be shortened. Did you hear that? The respect for the Lord, his plan, prolongs your life. but the years of the wicked shall be shortened. And then it goes on to state fools die for a lack of understanding. Proverbs 10 21. There you go. There's a death certificate for the Dumbo fool that ignores God's word. Won't pay attention to it. Not interested in it. Doesn't believe that Jesus Christ is the anointed son of God. He's living in the devil's world, trapped in the cosmic system, thinking satanic concepts of evil. And he's a fool. And the Bible makes that very clear, very clear. So the wisdom of God gives you understanding. Understanding. Wisdom doesn't come overnight. Wisdom must be learned and acquired. And that's when you have a desire for knowledge. If you have a desire for knowledge, it's like a desire for cake or a desire for ice cream or a desire for a cookie. You want it, you like it, you want another one. When you have a desire to learn God's word, you get wisdom. Over a period of time, learning gives you wisdom. And what wisdom does, once it gets into the bank of your soul, it gives you understanding and discernment. Why you're here, what you're tasked to do while you're here, why did God send you here, what does God want you to do? This kind of wisdom is your most valuable asset. Proverbs 3.15 says that according to wisdom, talking in the feminine style here, she, that's wisdom, is more precious than jewels and nothing you desire compares with her. Why? Because she will extend your life. You can't buy more time with jewels. You can't buy more time with pearls, but you can buy more time with God's wisdom. How? Well, you won't self-destruct. You won't destroy yourself by being a fool and ignoring the plan of God. your job and my job is to receive the instructions of wisdom that lead us to justice in our life righteousness in our life and equity proverbs 1 3 the writer solomon said i write this so you can receive instruction in wise behavior righteousness justice and equity now what's this righteousness stuff well remember god is absolutely righteous There are none righteous, no, not one, the Bible says. All of our righteousnesses are like a filthy rag in God's eyes. I don't want to tell you over the radio what the Hebrew word for filthy rag is. You don't want to hear it. It would be embarrassing to you. God put it in the Bible. Maybe I should. I don't know. You can look it up for yourself. But here's the deal. Your righteousness, your good deeds, your church attendance, your money you give, the sweet, nice things you do won't get you to heaven. That's just all human good. It's human righteousness, and it's a filthy rag in God's eyes. There are none that are righteous. not even one. Now, how do we get righteousness if we can't manufacture righteousness? If we can't live up to the righteous standards of God, how do we get it? Well, the Bible says simply, he who knew no sin was made sin for us so we could be made the righteousness of God through him. You are made righteous through Christ so that when God looks at you in Christ, he sees righteousness, the righteousness of Christ imputed to you. Just like when he looked at Christ on the cross, he saw sin, my sin, your sin imputed to him. So God is absolutely righteous and you can be absolutely righteous to through Jesus Christ. That's your position, not your experience and your experience in time. You will be unrighteous every day. You will send daily, but in your position in Christ, you are absolutely righteous. So God's absolute righteousness is one of the things you must understand with wisdom. You can't buy righteousness. You can't manufacture righteousness. You only receive it through Jesus Christ. So he wrote these proverbs so we can receive instruction in wise behavior such as righteousness, justice, and equity. God's absolute justice. Here's something my pastor used to say years ago. Either you adjust to the justice of God or the justice of God will adjust to you. That's up to you. I mean, either you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and receive him as your savior, which is what God provided for you, or you will force God at the great white throne of judgment to cast you into the lake of fire, which is not his plan. He's not willing that any should perish, the Bible says, but that all should come to repentance to change their minds. So he's absolutely righteous, he's absolutely just, and he's equity, it means fair. And this means that we are to avoid judging and avoid slandering, avoid maligning, avoid criticizing, give other believers their privacy. That's key to it. So Proverbs 1.3, this wisdom gives you instruction in wise behavior, which is righteousness, justice, and equity. And an invaluable tool for you and for me is to understand this. This understanding the Bible offers that comes out of wisdom includes discernment Once we get wisdom, then we have the understanding, and then the discernment or the special ability to see what lies ahead, what's dangerous. Now let's go back. How do you get wisdom? How do you get wisdom? By learning, by learning. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Scripture, scripture, learn, learn, study, grow. You don't get wisdom singing praise and worship songs. You get wisdom by listening to the instruction of the word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word, the Bible says. Now, you think you're going to get it when you take your Bible and you go sit out under a tree and you read it. And that's fine. The Holy Spirit can speak to you. But he gave the gift of pastor teacher. This book you call the Bible, I call the Bible, the Holy Scriptures of God is a textbook. And it's designed to be taught to us. It was written in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, designed for you to understand what's here. No mistakes, no compromises. That's why it's critical that you don't try to do it on your own, but you get under the ministry of a great pastor who understands the languages and can teach it to you. So then you can apply it into your life. So understanding includes discernment, or the ability to see what lies ahead. Listen to Proverbs 1.5, a wise man will hear, a wise man will increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel. So if you have some wisdom, you have some understanding. If you have some understanding, you have some discernment. If you have some discernment, you go to people that are smarter than you, people that have been around longer than you, and say, what do you think I should do? Give me your opinion about this subject. That doesn't mean that God calls out people to counsel you. You've got to live your own spiritual life. But there's nothing wrong with seeing a more mature person, a person that is grown further along, especially a wife. If you're a wife and you're getting married, newly married wife, the Bible says it's okay for the older women to teach your younger women what they're supposed to do and how they're supposed to do it. You seek counsel, you seek wisdom. That's what I have to do in my life, in my ministry as I began and still even to this day. I mean, I call friends and pastors and ask them, what about this? What about that? How does that apply to my life? What does that mean? That's what we do. We seek understanding. Okay, wise counsel. So a person with reverence for God's word and a person who possesses understanding of God's word is a very blessed individual. And he has a life of pleasantness and a life of peace, not a life of conflict. Proverbs 3, 17, the ways of wisdom are pleasant ways and the path of wisdom is peace. There it is. Now, God's offering you a life of pleasant circumstances and a life of peace, not conflict, if you seek wisdom, his word, understanding, discernment, insight. Guidance through the maze of this life is the very promise of God's wisdom. He will guide you through the maze of this life in the devil's world. In Proverbs 3, 6, in all of your ways, acknowledge him. and he will make your path straight. You're talking about your own personal tour guide through life. By means of God the Holy Spirit using the word of God, there is your tour guide in life. That's why wisdom is important. That's why understanding and insight are so important because we live in a battlefield. We are on a battlefield. Spiritual warfare daily, whether you realize it or not, it's going on every day and it's towards you. It's an attack towards you to discourage you, to defeat you, to discredit you. Because if the enemy can do that, then he can malign the name of God. Look at that person. That person said they're a Christian. Look at the way they're acting. Look at those losers. That's what Satan does. He goes before the throne and maligns you before God. And then our Lord Jesus Christ steps up and says, wait a minute, Father, he's mine. I'll deal with him. Listen to this battle, Ephesians 6, 11 through 17. Maybe this will help you understand why things are so rough sometimes. Put on the full armor of God so you'll be able to stand firm against the strategy of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness, even in heavenly places. Because of this, take up the full armor of God so that you'll be able to resist in the evil day. And having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm because of this, having girded up your loins with truth. There's wisdom. Put on the breastplate of righteousness. There's the plus R, God's righteousness. Having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. That's sharing the good news of Christ. And in addition to all of this, taking up the shield of faith, that's the faith thrust drill problem solving device. Number three, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Those are the attacks that Satan will force on you. And for 17, six, 17, Ephesians take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The helmet of salvation is your security in Christ. One of the things the devil's good at doing is telling people they're not really saved, you're not really saved, you're gonna lose your salvation. Listen, the security is in Christ Jesus. He said, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. He said, I give unto them eternal life and they will never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my Father's hand. And the word of God, the Bible says, pick up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The Bible is your weapon and you can't use it if you don't have wisdom and you won't have wisdom. If you don't have hunger, if you don't have knowledge, And you won't have knowledge until you're pleasant to receive it, until you're ready to learn on a daily basis, until you're ready to grow spiritually, until you see that as priority number one in your life, you're never going to be able to fulfill God's total plan for you. Yes, you're a believer. Yes, you're going to heaven. Yes, you'll have some sort of impact, but not what you could have had if you did what you should have done. Make the Word of God priority number one. Stay filled with the Holy Spirit. Get under the ministry of a qualified pastor. Take in God's Word every day. Represent Jesus Christ in your community and represent Jesus Christ through your life. That's what it's all about. So we are in a war, a spiritual war. The Bible goes on to say in Romans 8, 35 through 37, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall disaster or anguish or persecutions or economic depression or privation or danger from warfare? All these things, and in all of these things, we win the supreme victory over through Christ who loves us. There's your guaranteed protector. There's your guaranteed way out. Remember your own personal tour guide? There it is. The wisdom of God is called spiritual solutions, and the attainment of this wisdom is called spiritual growth. So if you take the spiritual solutions of the word of God and learn them, spiritual growth, This gives you spiritual skills to live the spiritual life. You hear that? I know there's a lot of spirituals there. Let me say it again. The wisdom of God is called spiritual solutions. And the attainment of these solutions or wisdom is called spiritual growth. When you have spiritual growth, you develop spiritual skills that give you the ability to live the spiritual life. And what are those skills? Well, self-esteem, spiritual self-esteem one, spiritual autonomy two, and eventually spiritual maturity. Spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and eventually spiritual maturity. These include you identifying your spiritual gift and you utilizing the resources that God gave you, the spiritual resources. What are your resources? Well, listen to 2 Corinthians 10. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, I'm talking about your spiritual resources now, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, the truth, the wisdom of God, and we're taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. The mind is where the battlefield is. The war is for your thoughts. The war is for your thinking. That's why the Bible says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. So in this passage that we just looked at, wisdom is a teacher. In this passage, wisdom is an anthropomorphic metaphor. In other words, it's describing wisdom as a human teacher, human abilities, or a father. So what is wise behavior? Righteousness, justice, and equity. Well, let's get some principles down. I want to get all these principles as quick as I can because this is the main core of this message and I'm already running out of time. Wisdom's a teacher. That's the first principle. Secondly, what is wise behavior? It's righteousness, justice, and equity. Thirdly, God's wisdom will give years to your life if you learn it and use it Proverbs 3, 2, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. There it is. And fifthly, God's wisdom will allow you to live at peace with him and with others. Peace with God is an amazing thing. And sixth, divine mandate for wisdom is trust. It's found in Proverbs 3, 5 through 6. Here it is. It's the mandate. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, look to him, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. There you go. So what's the value of God's wisdom? How blessed is a man who finds wisdom. Proverbs 3.13. Wow. For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. Wisdom is more precious than all the jewels in the world and nothing you desire compares with her. Why? Because you have insight and discernment and understanding. Wisdom is not inherited. It must be sought after and it must be learned. I hope you've been challenged. I hope you're listening and understand the importance of the Word of God in your life, the importance of learning these problem-solving devices. They are the wisdom of God. Until next week, I'm your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you today for listening to The Flatline.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you'd like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.