In this episode of Rush to Reason, John Rush dives deep into the societal challenges that surround America's current standing in the global arena. Joined by Steve House, they examine the outside perspective of the United States, particularly focusing on the economic and political implications under different governance styles. The conversation steers into a critique of public health systems, comparing the idealistic notion of 'free' services with the grounded American perspective on healthcare costs. They also tackle a controversial city council idea aimed at wealth redistribution, sparking discussions about economic freedom and taxation.
SPEAKER 11 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 04 :
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 11 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 04 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did!
SPEAKER 09 :
Get a job, Turk! You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same, and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 03 :
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 10 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 06 :
And welcome, Thursday edition, Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Normally we have Dr. Kelly with us during this hour. She is on a flight, I believe. She is traveling at the moment. Steve House with us, though. Steve, welcome. How are you? I'm good, John. How are you, man? Always a joy. Hope you had a great time off, by the way. We missed you.
SPEAKER 07 :
I did.
SPEAKER 06 :
Got to see a little bit of the rest of the world. Nothing wrong with that. So how is the rest of the world doing, by the way? What do they think of us Americans?
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, I think, I mean, I wouldn't say it the way Trump says it, but I think that they view America as being powerful and productive now in a way that most countries are not. I think there's some distaste for Trump itself, but then there's a bunch of envy for Trump The economy, the jobs, the different things that we have going on here versus the way it is in the rest of the world. You know, and people, you know, like there was just something recent happened at some city council meeting where a woman said that every person in America should have to publish their net worth and that they should be taxed. to get their net worth below a certain threshold so whatever that threshold is it should be maximum right okay so when you go you go to europe and you talk to people and you say you know how much you pay for health care it's free you know how much you pay for this it's free i'm like there's just no way you can possibly educate you know groups of people to understand that that's not free when we don't even we don't even have people in the u.s who look at it as anything but free. They want everything to be free and they don't think it costs anything of anyone. And I just, it's a real difficult standard to live with. And thank God we have the freedom we do because it just doesn't exist in most places.
SPEAKER 06 :
I missed that city council meeting presentation. I guess the question would be, did she say what the threshold needs to be? I mean, is it $500,000? Is it $1 million? Is it $5 million? I mean, what threshold does she feel like people need to be at or below to be, in her mind, I guess, not super rich? I think in her mind it was anybody that had a million dollars or more. Needs to be taxed so that they have less than a million dollars? Yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER 07 :
I mean, the way she said it was very direct. She said, taxes are for reducing people's wealth. Wow. It's exactly how she said it. And I was listening to this, and I probably used a few words of profanity I wouldn't use on the radio, but I'm just like, don't you get it? Don't you understand that if you tax me... above a certain level, you prevent me from doing better than that, I'm going to stop working when I get to that level.
SPEAKER 06 :
Or you'll go somewhere else where you can do that and still reap the benefits of. You'll find some other country that allows you to do that and figure – I mean, as you know, Steve, and there's no secrets here, and anybody that has any kind of a brain, I think – would know this. And by the way, I don't think people like her necessarily believe in what she's saying. I just think it's rhetoric they put out because that's part of the that's the Marxist mentality. That's exactly what they believe in. You know, get rid of all of the the wealthy, have this really do a total dual system whereby, you know, the majority of people are below a certain level. And then the upper echelon is at that higher level, which you always wonder, Steve, how long do they even last? Because true Marxism, they don't last very long at that upper level. either. But at the end of the day, you know, as you know, those people are smart. They're not going to put up with that. They'll just figure out ways around it or they'll go somewhere else. They just won't stay. They won't stay in that environment.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it's like New York. I mean, there's almost no question that New York is going to elect Mamdani to be their mayor. And, you know, he will get away with his taxes because the city council is dominated by Democrats. But The reality of it is there will be a reaction. And I don't think these people get it. I was in Chicago. I was at a foundation luncheon yesterday, and I was listening to a county foundation talking about the fact that, you know, they want all the Medicaid money returned to illegal aliens. They want all the Medicaid money. They objected to the idea that there were two qualification periods now. So you get qualified for Medicaid. Six months later, you requalify. That's going to hurt people. I'm like, why would that hurt people? I mean, you're going through the same asset evaluation at that point. The only way that hurts somebody is if their assets rise to a level that they should no longer be on Medicaid, they should actually be on Obamacare. That was the point. And so they're going to lose people because they're not going to like those two periods. I'm like, tough. I mean, really? Give me a break. If that's the hardest problem you have, well, then they spend hours getting snapped. They spend hours. I'm like, maybe you should convert that time to getting a job. Yeah, working.
SPEAKER 06 :
Amazing. Well, it's interesting you say that. I had a great doctor on yesterday during health and wellness, psychologist, clinical psychologist, doctor. Great guy, by the way. And we were talking about, you know, just everything from, you know, mental illness, depression, things along those lines, you know, things that happen to individuals. And the fact that far too many drugs are prescribed when people may not even need those in the first place. There might be other things going on that they could actually work through. And one of the things that he and I got to talking about was, you know, in a lot of cases, Steve, some of this mental illness is simply the fact that people aren't busy enough. They sit around, to your point, they sit around feeling sorry for themselves or they're trying to gain the system or they're doing this or they're doing that, and they're simply not productive. And then we wonder why we have all these mental health issues.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. I mean, that was part of the discussion yesterday that was so important. I don't know, it's so hard for me to listen to as well. It's not that I'm not embraced in reality, because I know what reality is, but the head of behavioral health in this program said, he said, we have the largest behavioral health facility from the Midwest to the West Coast. Right down the road, it's called the Cook County Jail. And I'm like, okay, so we have a whole bunch of people who have behavioral problems in sitting in that Cook County jail. And his answer to that question is let them out, give them money, make them whole and they'll be better. And I'm like, I don't think you have this right. I don't think you do. I mean, it gets a crazy notion. You know, if they don't understand, you know, like, well, they were triggered to do this and triggered to do that. I'm like, forget it. You're pretty weak if you're triggered by a bunch of stuff. And I'm not being that critical. I'm sure there are people in the audience who are going, look, you're picking on people. Well, the reality of it is the best advice I could give to anyone is you got to get tougher. The world's a hard place.
SPEAKER 06 :
You've got to get tougher. Yep. No, you're 100% correct. And that was basically what we were talking about with this. I mean, again, as you know, most psychological doctors, most doctors in that field, I guess I should say, psychologists, don't necessarily think that way. And you know what I mean by that, Steve. Most of them are in that world where Well, you know, maybe you should be doing this and maybe we need to concentrate on that. And, you know, maybe you need this pill or that pill. And on down the line we go. And I'm not bad mouthing those individuals. That's typically the way that works. A guy interviewed yesterday was completely the opposite of that. He's like, wait a minute. No, we're we're giving out far too many prescriptions. We're affecting far too many people at the end of the day. We have this crisis going on because we've created it because of some of the policies and things that we're doing as government.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, exactly right. Exactly right.
SPEAKER 06 :
And by the way, I couldn't have said it any better, and I'm not a doctor, but he was spot on.
SPEAKER 07 :
I know. I mean, there was an NIH study that came out today I was going to ask you about since I didn't share it with you, but today or last week or something recently. Sorry. It was a study that showed that if young men, in this case 15 to 40 basically, who smoked marijuana daily and spent a fair amount of time playing video games – their increased risk for schizophrenia was like 85%. Wow. And so you think of it like, all right, so yeah, we legalized marijuana. Um, yes, we invented the video game. Yes. They individually can choose that lifestyle if they want, but, You know, the first problem you have is that most people turn them into victims rather than saying, look, how can we get them out of this?
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. That's right. That's exactly right. No, it's exactly what he said yesterday. It's funny that, you know, we're still talking about this, but I was so impressed by by what he said, because, again, that is against the norm of what his quote unquote industry says. feels and preaches on a regular basis Steve and this guy's going literally against the grain saying wait a minute time out you know there's a lot of situations whereby and it's funny you say the drug side of it one of the things he said yesterday because I asked him okay what if you've got a family member that is struggling you know with mental illness what's one of the first things you should do and literally his first words out of his mouth was find out if they're on drugs or not because if they are get them off that could very well be the reason they're having the problems that they're having his words not mine Steve
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and that's exactly right. I mean, drugs have such a big effect, and we've had so many. I mean, the classification of drugs, I mean, I've done a lot of study on LSD and the stuff that was around back when we were in high school. Versus today, I mean, there are so many classes of drugs, so many different ways, and so many more people who are addicts with both alcohol and drugs. And it just tears your brain up. I mean, it just tears up your brain.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, no, he said, again, the very thing that you're talking about is exactly what... He said yesterday, I mean, if Kelly was here, I guarantee you she would be agreeing with the very things that we're talking about, because a lot of this, quote unquote, you know, mental health crisis that we've gotten to in this country, Steve, let's face it, we've created it. It didn't. And now I also I would love to have Kelly's input on this. I do think that with some of the, you know, food changes and different things we've had throughout the years, there might be something said differently. Along those lines, which, by the way, is still our fault. I mean, not saying that that's not our fault either. That is as well. But I think everything you just stated a moment ago, especially when it comes to, you know, young men, even young girls now, and some of what you just mentioned in regard to, you know, video games, drugs and so on, that's not helping at all. No, it's not.
SPEAKER 07 :
In fact, there was a couple things that happened just in the last 24 to 48 hours that I think are really illuminating on this subject. One was the Secretary of War gives a speech about, you know, we're not going to do beards anymore. They have to pass the physical fitness test. You know, we're not going to be gender neutral or whatever. You've got to do it, right? Right. So lots of people in the media look at that and go, oh, they're all going to quit, right? They're all going to hate this. You know what? They're not. Opposite. They're not. Because they have guidelines that they have to follow that they are going to strive for that is going to make them healthier, and they're going to be fitter, and they're going to feel better about themselves. It ain't going to be easy, but they're not going to hate it. And the second thing was, you know, I do a lot of stuff with AI, and I was listening to a speaker tell the story about the fact that neural networks and the different chips that are coming, the different AI stuff that's coming, he said, our biggest risk is that we have generations of people He didn't name which generations, but he said they don't like life. They don't believe it's fair. They don't believe they're paid well. They don't believe that society's right. They don't like the president. They don't like this. They don't like that. The answer for them in so many ways is someone's going to come to them and say, let's put a chip in your brain. It will take away depression. It will give you a much happier view of life, yada, yada, yada. So all of a sudden you'll have a whole bunch of people who have had implanted devices that are operational via artificial intelligence. And that's going to cause a wave of people who are expendable. You know, you don't have to account for them anywhere. They're soft, they're tender, they're controlled. That's where the danger of AI is. But it still starts out with, are we tough enough to manage our lives based on a set of standards that are really the right standards?
SPEAKER 06 :
Great way to and we'll end that segment. We'll come right back. You guys have questions or comments, things you want to add, feel free. 307-282-22. Dr. Scott Faulkner, speaking of doctors, Dr. Scott, by the way, if he was sitting in the room right now with us or on this call, he'd be saying the exact same things that we are because this is exactly the way he feels and believes and he wants to take care of you the best way possible. 303-663-6990.
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SPEAKER 08 :
No liberal media bias here. This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 06 :
And we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Steve, when it comes to – I want to talk for a moment about the whole AI end of things. I want to get into Pfizer and all of that, too, as far as what's going on with the White House. But as far as just the whole AI thing and this implants, I guess you could say, which I don't disagree with you. I think at some point in time that's where things – are headed and am i you know and you know my feelings on this am i all against ai no i am not 100 against ai that's that's not my point here in fact i think it can be a very useful tool just like a lot of other things can be although like other tools steve we need to make sure that we monitor and take care of it correctly yeah i mean um like anything else i mean there's there's good and bad i try to explain to people here's the simple analogy that most people will get
SPEAKER 07 :
When MRI came out, people in medicine said, this is going to be one of the greatest tools we've ever had access to, which turns out to be true, right? Because you can do imaging at a level you can't do with blood vessels and brains and everything else. However, the first MRIs that went in for actually for quite a while, MRIs were dangerous and they were dangerous because if you walked in the room with a screwdriver in your pocket, keys in your pocket, I mean, people weren't completely aware of how strong the magnet was and what the dangers were. AI is the same way. AI has the potential to do some really amazing things, especially process-oriented stuff and stuff that requires fast, effective education. But if you just go all the way into it, jump all the way into it, you're going to get hurt. You've got to be careful with where you go to. You've got to be careful how much it does with Human interaction as opposed to process related stuff until you've figured out how to govern it, how to do it right. And you certainly can't screw around. I mean, they're talking about putting in chips and people who have spinal cords that don't work and trying to make that work. I mean, I know Elon Musk is working on that. Those things are probably worthwhile things.
SPEAKER 06 :
Absolutely. Yeah, if you can take, in fact, Steve, if you could use, you know, things along those lines to help people with, you know, bodily functions, things that they might otherwise, you know, be struggling with, much like we do, you know, cochlear implants and things along those lines. I mean, there's, in my opinion, nothing wrong with any of those things. And I get it. It may not be right for everyone that has one of those things. But when you can, in that case, help someone hear that otherwise would not be able to, or even maybe now they're hearing in one ear, but they could hear in two ears. I mean, those are all great inventions, great things in our modern world that, frankly, ought to be used as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to steer away from those if they're done correctly. That's correct. You can't let...
SPEAKER 07 :
You can't push it over the edge where you put somebody into a robotic category because there's enough technology in them that they are no longer in control of what's happening. It's being controlled by an outside force or by artificial intelligence, which is essentially an outside force as well. It has to be done in a reasonable way. It has to be done in a practical way, but it has to be done considering human beings and what they need.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. Yeah. And again, I can't can't disagree with that. That's one of those things that maybe at a future date, you know, we can get more in depth into that. It's fascinating to me. And I look at a lot of the things that are happening in AI, the good, the bad, the ugly, by the way, because there's some things like, you know. there's some things in it that are definitely ugly just like a lot of other tools you know i say it this way steve you know whether we're talking about mri machines on the medical side whether we're talking about cars or guns i mean let's face it cars can be used for great tools they can get us from point a to point b they can also be very deadly and kill people same thing with guns i mean i could go down the list steve of all these different things that are there that have been invented over the years although i will say and i want to get your feeling on this i feel like with ai It's like being back in the early, you know, late 1800s, early 1900s with the Industrial Revolution. This is a complete game changer, and I don't think people, on average, really understand what a game changer it is.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, they don't, and quite frankly, most people are looking at AI as a large language model, which is basically a version 1.0 of AI. There was stuff prior to that, but... The 2.0 version is entirely different. It doesn't require a large language model. It does not go out and search for data the way that a large language model like ChatGPT does. The second level is all about what are called ontologies and semantics, and really what it is is It's looking at how does data or a data point, what relationship does it have with another data point? So ontologies are basically structured relationships. So it gets a lot smarter when you're not looking at a big bulk of data and say, well, our average forecast for what the data is telling us is this. We predict this. When you get to ontologies, it's very, very specific. And it's very, very deterministically. You ask it one question, you ask it that same question 10 times, you're going to get the exact same answer 10 times. That doesn't happen with large language models.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right, exactly. So there's better coming, ultimately. Oh, yeah, ultimately there is. Well, and thank you for saying that. One of the things I can encourage all the folks that I know that are even using it, playing around with it, helping it in their businesses and so on, I keep reminding them that keep in mind something that you may have tried previously month ago that you weren't really happy with the response of, realize that today, a month later, it's learned a lot in the last month. And you're liable to get something different today than you did a month ago or even a week ago. Because as you know, Steve, every moment in time, it's learning. And I know that sounds scary to a lot of people, but that's the reality of what's happening.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, yeah, I mean, I talked to one of the candidates for governor about, you know, his plan for you know, Colorado. And, you know, one of the conversations that came up, which I think was on target, was if you can teach kids in Africa in six weeks what it takes to typically learn in two years by installing an AI bot to work alongside the student, you go from two years to six weeks. Imagine the educational gaps we have in Colorado and otherwise. I mean, math scores are like 20% of, you know, grade level when they graduate. Reading is as bad as that. If you can use AI sitting alongside the student to get educated and do it at grade level or above, number one, that solves a huge problem, and I think that's worth it. And number two, virtually anybody, I witnessed this the other day with somebody I work with who knew nothing about a subject, had an opportunity, was ready to turn it down, and I said, don't do that. Go to AI, ask six questions. Here are the six questions. They asked the six questions. I said, read everything that's written there. Ask any question or ask another question on anything you don't truly understand. By the time he got done, he was basically a PhD in the subject. He bid a quarter of a million dollar opportunity and won it. There you go. So think about it. Great example. You want to be entrepreneurs.
SPEAKER 06 :
I mean, you can operate at a PhD level with AI if you use it right. You can. And I've got some of my coaching clients where we're continuing to dig more and more into it on the ability to help them inside of the business, whether that be in helping with sales, whether it's just helping in data processing. Maybe it's actually helping to write invoices, things along those lines, Steve. And if I could just get them to do more of it, what they're learning is, oh, wait a minute. You know, I could probably and whether this is good, bad or otherwise, this is the reality of where it's going. I could probably do everything that we're doing with one less person or maybe even two, depending upon the size of the organization. And Steve, that's partly what's going to happen. Now, that's scary to a lot. Although when you look at the employer sides of things where they're struggling to find really good, solid people that show up every day, that's exciting for those. It's fretful for one side, but exciting for the other. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I mean, that's the whole thing about do you have a scarcity mentality or an abundance mentality? And if you have an abundance mentality, you look at it and go, the number of opportunities that are going to be available to me is a hundredfold greater when I have the ability to become an expert. The expert is an interesting point because I would tell you that John Rush is a business and technical expert in automobiles. I can take a 25-year-old who's got an AI bot sitting beside them and I can make them an expert on almost everything in the auto business except the business and technical experience that you would use to filter what the AI does versus the 25-year-old who doesn't know that stuff.
SPEAKER 06 :
Correct. Correct. And that doesn't mean that. No, you just bring up a great point. But at the end of the day, how can they become an expert in something whereby they're now the quote unquote filter or the fact checker of AI, meaning what you just said a moment ago? You've got to be an expert enough in a field to know, is this the right answer, the wrong answer, or how do I dovetail something else into this that makes it even better?
SPEAKER 07 :
That's right. I mean, the business knowledge should both guide to more rapid adoption of the learning, but it should also stop you from things much faster, too. You know, you may say, look, no, you are not going to replace that or remove that carburetor, regardless of the fact that you have and in-depth knowledge of every piece and part that goes into it. Because what you don't understand is the match to that engine. And if you take it out, you're going to unmatch it, and then you're going to get poorer performance. So you might actually prove your principle that you know what you're talking about, but you will actually do damage you shouldn't do.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right, and that's where some of these young kids especially, but even folks that are our age, Steve, need to realize that, okay, I need to become probably even better and sharper at what I'm actually doing so that AI doesn't replace me, but I actually become its guide or I become its checkpoint, if you would. I'm the security gate, right? for it. Maybe that's the way to say it, Steve. And I think so many employees out there listening, even owners, are not looking at it that way. They're looking at it completely as the enemy, and I want to stay completely away from it, much like the horse and buggy guys did with the automobile back in the day, Steve. You can't do that. Not this time around. You do that, you're going to get left behind.
SPEAKER 07 :
You are. In fact, it used to be when we'd mentor people, and you do this for a living, but I used to mentor people in my corporate life. And There's all kinds of things you could say to them, but you come out of college, you say, well, look, you can't stop learning. You've got to keep learning. You've got to keep asking questions and do that. The time compression that they now have at their fingertips with even ChatGPT or Grok or any of the current versions of That gives them an opportunity to make themselves more valuable, not only rapidly, but continuously more valuable over time. If you don't use it, that's up to you. But I can guarantee you, you know, I would rather pay, you know, somebody who's interested in becoming better and using the tools they have at their disposal than someone who wants to just learn it slow over time, because that's not the way the world is anymore.
SPEAKER 06 :
Especially now. Now, shifting gears and going more towards the medical end of things, which, of course, is your background, and let's talk about the Pfizer deal, because, by the way, some of what we just got done talking about I think actually fits into some of what we're going to talk about in regards to, you know, Trump-RX and the Pfizer deal. And for those that maybe didn't see the announcement today, explain what this is.
SPEAKER 07 :
So the president agreed with, I think his name is Borrella, who's the president of Pfizer, to do direct-to-consumer sales of the Pfizer product line for drugs. Now, it's not the first time this has ever been done. I mean, we think it is, but it isn't. It's been done for five or six years. So, essentially, Pfizer can cut out the middleman, the middleman we all know as the PBM. I mean, we've talked about it with Kelly many times. So, the middleman marks up the drug dramatically, right? I mean, so a GLP-1 should cost a fraction of what it does, But the PBM gets a hold of it, marks it up dramatically, and then puts it in your health insurance plan and gives you a copay that's, you know, $500 or more a month. And, you know, the drug probably didn't cost any more than $300 or $400. So it's great that Pfizer's willing to do that. It's great that they're willing to do it with Medicaid. But let's talk about the practical reality. If you don't buy your drug through your health insurance, if you have health insurance, then you're paying a hundred percent of the cost. Now the drug may in fact be cheaper in combination between your health insurance costs and your costs, but it's not cheaper to you as an individual. So, you know, there are some places where that may be the case with some unique drugs. So that's number one, number two, Doing it in Medicaid is interesting because, again, you know, the Medicaid, the insurance plan is not going to pay for the drug. This is direct to consumer. Health insurance plans are not required to pay for those drugs. If you buy it off of their plan, you have to pay yourself. Well, if you're on Medicaid because your income doesn't allow you to be any higher than that, a drug goes from $4,000 to your Medicaid plan to $400 to you only. Can you afford the $400? Gotcha. The answer is probably not. So there's been direct-to-consumer stuff for a while in the drug category, but it has not done all that much. The high-cost drugs, the high-cost specialty drugs, yeah, you know what? You can get it for instead of paying $8,000 for a particular immunosuppressant drug like Enabrel or something else, you can get it directly from the pharma company for $800, which is what they'll sell it on the street for at a discount, most favored nation price. But I guarantee you, You know, you're paying $150 a month for the copay. I don't think you're going to pay $800 for the drug every time you need it.
SPEAKER 06 :
You're just not going to be able to afford that. So at the end of the day, is this more optics and politics than it is actually helping people? Or what are your thoughts there?
SPEAKER 07 :
The political upside is... getting the drug companies to come to the table and to do something. This is not what I would do. I would, again, cut out the middleman but sell the drug through the health insurance company. However, the PBMs and the health insurance companies are not going to want to do that because the PBMs and health insurance company get a whole bunch of money in rebates that they won't get if the drug comes directly from pharma So they're just not going to agree to do it. Then they're going to say, look, I don't want the paperwork. I don't want to do it. On the other side of the coin, you know, philosophically, it's a good idea to have us thinking about lowering the cost of drugs, which, by the way, are going to rise 12 percent in 2026, which is catastrophic. On the other political side, though, I wonder if Trump is doing this with Pfizer or Pfizer is doing it with Trump because Pfizer doesn't want Trump. doesn't want the president to disclaim their vaccine for COVID. He's close, right? He keeps questioning it, hasn't done it yet. I think he is very, very close. When Robert provides him with the data that shows that, as we saw the other day, that more deaths than World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and Korea combined caused by the vaccine. Once that gets out there and becomes mainstream, Pfizer's going to have a problem, so is Moderna, and they want the president to protect them, and quite frankly, I don't think he should.
SPEAKER 06 :
And you know what? You bring up a great point. I hadn't thought about that end of things. I guess I should have because this is really a way to, I guess you could say, defer, soften the blow, whatever you might want to say when it comes to what you just said, and maybe that's Pfizer's way of thinking, well, if we do this, maybe we get him off our backs. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
I mean, the worst thing that could happen for the shareholders, for the owners of that company, from their point of view, would be for someone to take that COVID vaccine off the market. Yep. You know what happens to your stock when that happens? No, it tanks. Then there are questions that become, you know, when will they, if ever... face liability questions. Right. Right. And, you know, liability means multi-billion dollar, hundred billion dollar lawsuits and more and more, you know, that's the big Perala and Pfizer don't want that. Moderna doesn't want it. Should they face it? I think they should because I think they made a lousy drug. It was obviously hurting people, still is, and they didn't take any responsibility for it.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and they coerced, maybe that's the right or wrong words, Steve, but they coerced government into pushing this thing out. I think they gave them a lot of false data and false hope, by the way, at the same time gave the American public false hope. And really, you know, in a lot of ways got government and other employers to mandate this. something that frankly never should have been mandated, as we've talked over the past five years, never should have happened in the first place, but it did. Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER 07 :
And think about this. Here's the simple setup that we've talked about in pieces, but here it is. The federal government pays Echo Health Alliance to create gain-of-function research, and a COVID virus is released from a lab in Wuhan by accident or on purpose. That leads to some deaths and they shut the world down. When they shut the world down, people lose jobs, they lose their savings, they defer their mortgages, they have to pay more later, all those things. Now, because they're losing so much financially, you introduce the idea of a vaccine that will make it all go away. You add that vaccine to the schedule. You put it out. You don't quality. You don't safety check it. You don't report, in fact, on the safety problems you're having with it. People take it. A million people die in the U.S. from the vaccine or something in that order. Right. That entire cycle was born of our government. It was managed by our government and it is our government's responsibility. And unfortunately, I don't think they'll ever take responsibility, but it has driven this divisive. I don't trust the government level to the highest I've ever seen it. And I don't I don't. I don't complain on why that's happening because think about that simple cycle of what happened.
SPEAKER 06 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
The best export we have is Common Sense. You're listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 06 :
And we are back. Steve House with us today. Dr. Kelly Victory not able to be with us. She's traveling today. But Steve, we appreciate your time as well. And you're the one that really was the brainchild to set up everything between Dr. Kelly and all of us way back anyways. And we've been doing this for about five years now. might have just tuned in or maybe only been listening to us for a short time a lot of what Steve just covered we have talked about over and over again at times throughout the last five years Steve when it came to even when even when this stuff was just starting to happen when it was being developed what was you know what was really happening at the time I mean we've literally lived and I've not missed other than being on vacation I haven't missed a single day talking about all these things, even through COVID, when, frankly, a lot of other folks were buried in their basement and scared to come out. That wasn't us.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, it wasn't. And we took on the issues. By the way, I was the state chairman there in 16 and 17. I know we met during that period. You had me on the show and you and Dan and those guys. Haven't we been doing the show for 10 years? Oh, at least.
SPEAKER 06 :
At least. I mean, we started doing things, Steve, you and I, even when we were talking about even before you becoming chair, we were doing things with the Internet of Things and so on even prior to that. So, yeah, we've been doing this for probably well over a decade now.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, people ask me, what's the smartest thing you did in getting this? I said, that was the smartest part. I needed a radio guy who would actually last. You've been around for a long time. Um, you know, you've, you've been a mainstay, you've grown your, your base of, of, you know, advertisers and supporters and, um, you just done a phenomenal job. I mean, probably the best performing non large radio, um, host. I mean, you're probably doing better than almost anybody. You're not syndicated nationally, but people can listen to you nationally too. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
I can. And they do. And by the way, that's very kind of you to say. I appreciate that. And I don't take that lightly. I have a lot of respect for you. You've done a lot of things, you know, throughout your career. And for you to say that means a lot. And I appreciate that greatly, Steve. I really do. Back to this whole, you know, Pfizer thing. And I guess here's another question. Given the fact he's doing that, Trump and the White House has done this with Pfizer. Will there be any other companies that follow along as well?
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, no doubt. I mean, there's going to be pressure on him to react. I think they all know it's like, I think we talked about this one time. So Bill Gates, who's worth God knows how much money, says, I'm going to give $400 million to a cause. And what he does is he gives $40 million a year for 10 years. And you and I both know that he never runs out of the original $400 million.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, that's easy. He's getting more than 10%.
SPEAKER 07 :
Exactly, exactly. So these guys like Pfizer and other drug companies, doing this, they get publicity, they're seen with the president. It tantamounts almost to an endorsement by Trump to them. So Trump's people, the MAGA nation, et cetera, are looking at it and going, hey, Pfizer must be pretty good with the president. He's good with me. They're good with me, right? That can drive up stock prices, valuations. I mean, there's a lot of reasons why the other drug companies will do it besides just pressure.
SPEAKER 06 :
true true no no you're exactly right so in other words and and i you know this better than i how many actual large i mean i know there's a lot of drug companies but how many large companies like pfizer are there uh five six or are there more than that no it's probably more 20 or 25 that are in that sort of spectrum and they because you know one big drug
SPEAKER 07 :
And, you know, I mean, the guys that created the GLP-1s, I mean, you know, that can be a drug that changes the valuation of the company by a hundredfold.
SPEAKER 1 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Wow. I mean, just because there's so much demand. I mean, it's a process. I mean, AI is going to have a huge effect on drugs because... AI can simulate safety tests that are so close they are valid safety tests. There's other things that they can do, but AI, if AI took a year off of a drug coming to market, number one, it might help patients who really need it, and number two, it's going to change the cost structure dramatically for pharma companies.
SPEAKER 06 :
Wow, amazing. I was watching a video the other day, and this is something I was going to throw at you because you might know more about this than I do, because I have no knowledge of this. But I was watching a video on a guy who's a doctor, and some of this I don't know whether to believe or not. This is where I wanted to throw it at you, and I wish Kelly was here today because I'd throw this at her as well. But this guy was talking about how back in the day when the polio vaccine was actually – invented. This was before the invention of DNA, which came about three years after the polio vaccine had been invented. Anyways, make a long story short, this guy goes through this entire process of going through the history of and how it came about and this, that and the other and how at that time, you know, they gave out some, you know, worldwide around 300 million doses of this polio vaccine that once they learned after DNA, what was actually in the vaccine, it actually had a cancer causing dimension to it. I don't remember exactly what the code was for it. I should have looked that up and written it down. But anyway, Steve, supposedly, according to this guy's story, that polio vaccine itself actually introduced cancer more into the world today than what it did prior to that, that prior to that, you didn't really hear that many cases of cancer, and that that particular event was really the quote-unquote large cancer-causing event impacting the world. And again, I don't know if that's true or not. It might be totally totally conspiracy. This guy might be a total whack job. I have no idea, but I thought it was interesting.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, the hard part about it is you're talking about SV40.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, SV40. And this guy's name was Dr. Jack Cruz. Dr. Jack Cruz is the one talking about it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, so SV40 being in there, I mean, SV40 is actually a pathogen. I mean, it does, in fact, cause cancer being in the polio vaccine. You know, obviously, they're unaware at the time that it happened, you know, does it cause cancer? I think it's more likely that it does than it doesn't. But here again, you have these machines, these mechanisms inside pharma companies to disclaim responsibility for things. Not all pharma companies are bad. There's lots of great drugs out there, but when you make a mistake, and in the case of polio, polio vaccine to me is somewhat like COVID. I don't want to make it that direct of a comparison, but here's what I'm saying. COVID, if you take D3, if you take zinc, if you take vitamin C, if you live reasonably healthy, if you do get COVID, you're going to survive it, you're going to manage it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So do you really need a vaccine that doesn't prevent it and doesn't stop it from being transmitted? The answer is no. It's much worse than a polio vaccine because a polio vaccine is a live virus vaccine, attenuated, but live virus vaccine that usually prevents you from getting polio. But the source of polio is is almost always poor sanitation and water. And so at the point where nations solve the sanitation and water problem, certainly the United States falls into that category. Did we give polio vaccines too long? You know, the issue was, you know, they want to make sure it's eradicated for a certain number of years in the country before they stopped doing it. There's an acceptable loss scenario. There were probably some people that were, you know, negatively affected by the polio vaccine there. who took it long after they needed to take it because they set a standard based on number of cases in the country when in reality we knew what caused it and if you took care of the water and sanitation you were likely not going to have outbreaks of it again interesting when do you feel like and again this i know this is an odd question when do you feel like we should have stopped giving it shortly after we began to give it i mean the i think once we had I mean, you talk about what's possible. The U.S. government couldn't do this, but in India, they distributed and gave 60 million doses of the polio vaccine on a single day.
SPEAKER 06 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 07 :
And frankly, in India, it was absolutely necessary. In Nairobi, Kenya, where you have 400,000 people living in a slum that has no running water, has no sanitation, those places were rampant for polio because the virus thrives in that environment. So the vaccine helped in those situations far more than it hurted and And frankly, again, it's in, you know, first world nations that solved the sanitation and water problem a long time ago may have been able to get off the polio vaccine long before they did. And they just didn't.
SPEAKER 06 :
And for everybody listening, there's actually, believe it or not, there's an article about what we're talking about on the NIH's website. website talking about the very thing that we're talking about right now, Steve, and it even talks about how studies of groups of people who receive polio vaccines during 55 to 63 provide evidence of no increased cancer risk. However, because these epidemiological studies are sufficiently flawed, the Institute of Medicine's Immunization Safety Review Committee concluded that the evidence was inadequate to conclude whether or not the contaminated polio virus is or polio vaccine caused cancer. In other words, they really don't know one way or the other. And there is, I guess, from what they're saying, a chance that it did. They can't disprove it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I know. I mean, I read a CHOP study about it, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia a long time ago. And the hard part is, is that we live in a world where we question everything, right? You know, we question the conspiracy theories. We create conspiracy theories about everything because we just don't believe the government. We don't believe the intention's And this is I'm a capitalist, right? I mean, I'm profit motivated. Right. But for for profit companies in the drug category, it's for profit until they die. And they, you know, disclaim responsibility in situations like the COVID vaccine that they shouldn't be allowed to. But the system works for them and they work it. And that happens. So, yeah, I mean, after 63, there was supposedly no SV40 in the vaccine. But at the same time, SV40 is still around. And, you know, who knows exactly? I mean, unless you're. the small fraction of the number of people who actually know what the problem might have been or was specifically supposed to be, people are unaware. They just go about their day and don't even think about it.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yep. I do know this. You know me. I'm not a conspiracy theorist at all, Steve. In fact, probably err more on the side of being ultra-cautious than that, partly because of the fact I sit in front of this microphone on almost a daily basis. I have to be really careful as well on some of that. I believe I do anyways. But it does make you wonder, the amount of money that has been generated off of people having cancer. And as you know, it's one of the leading causes of deaths in America today, that and heart disease. I mean, between those two things, they claim far more lives than anything else we talk about, including gun-related deaths and other things. So at the end of the day, those two top it by a long, long way. You've got to ask yourself, I mean, almost that skeptical side of you has to say, Okay, time out. The amount of money that's been made off of that, is that SV40 end of things? You know, that story I was just talking about, could some of that have been actually real? I don't know, Steve. I don't know. It probably was.
SPEAKER 07 :
It probably was. And you've just highlighted what I think is a big problem, which is once we start down a path, we make a polio vaccine, we make a COVID vaccine, we make statins for people who they think need to lower cholesterol. we rarely revisit it. We just keep using it, right? It's like you have this, you know, regimen of things you use and, and, you know, those are, you know, things that doctors prescribe all the time and they just keep doing it, doing, doing it. And someone says, well, that's probably not good. I mean, I think it's hurting people. Nah, I haven't heard that. I haven't read that. Well, you don't have time to read cause you're too busy. But in reality, we don't revisit that stuff enough. And I think that's part of the job of HHS and the FDA is to go back and say, okay, you know, is Paxlovid a really, really an important drug in the COVID or is it damaging? Is Remdesivir, you know, is, you know, should people be taking statins? There's so many downsides to statins, but we just don't revisit it often enough. We just accept it as true. Even, even opioids, opioids originally, there were plenty of papers said they're not addictive, right? And, like, not addictive, not addictive. And they were as addictive at the beginning as they are today. That's right. And hundreds of millions have died as a result of it. That's right. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right. I'll leave it at that. Hour always goes by fast. Steve, I appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Always great info. Thanks, man. Always good to be with you. Thanks, man. Appreciate you very much. Have a great rest of your day. Steve House again. Yes, and as he stated, he was one of our previous GOP chairs. One of these days we'll talk about some of that maybe in a little bit more depth as to even what's happening inside of Colorado right now. But veteran windows and doors coming up next. And, again, cut out that middleman, much like Steve was talking about when it comes to Pfizer drugs and what's going to happen with Medicaid. Cut out that middleman. Get those windows and doors direct to you. Find Dave today. Dave Bancroft at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 11 :
It's time to leave your safe space. This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, and Steve, by the way, very—I'll say this. He's not here with me, but I can say this now. I would say if even he was listening. I'm not joking. Probably one of the smartest guys that I've ever met and run into, and as he said, literally been on this program with me for 11, 12 years. I mean, almost from the very beginning of my show here, Rush to Reason, and not exaggerating. We met here— at the station one day he was on another program and we just met and actually hit it off really well and i'll be honest i think the very first time he and i met we were not in agreement on a particular item that he was actually talking about and so we had a very nice conversation and once i gave my side and had to do had to do with transportation and cars and so on And once I gave my side, he was actually, you know, very, you know, opened his eyes and he's like, yeah, okay, I guess I could see that side of things. And since that day, we became very good friends all the way through him being the Colorado chair, GOP chair and so on, and just a great individual. And there's a lot of folks out there I know that don't look at Steve the same way I do, but there's not anything about him you could ever say wrong to me because I think everything he's done, he's one of the smartest, brightest, and most upstanding individuals that I've ever met when it comes to all the things we talk about on a regular weekly basis. So I'll leave it at that. You can always find our episodes, past episodes as well. Just go to RushToReason.com. And again, this is Rush To Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 04 :
The Rich Guy.
Join John Rush as he delves into the complexities of economic perceptions and the stark realities behind political narratives. In this enlightening episode, John and Jersey Joe engage in a passionate discussion on the misconceptions surrounding wealth distribution and the socio-economic divide. From addressing accusations of bias to exploring the impact of wealth on innovation, this episode challenges the listener to reconsider what they know about economic dynamics. As the conversation unfolds, the hosts explore political shifts and the lingering effects these have on urban centers. With keen insights into recent op-eds and socio-political commentaries, they provide a compelling analysis of the ongoing ideological battle and its implications for society at large. An unmissable episode for those interested in the interplay between economics and politics. In the latter part of the show, John's attention turns to global issues often overlooked by mainstream media. Highlighting the genocide in Nigeria, the dialogue expands beyond national borders to address the crises shaping our world today. Through thought-provoking quotes and personal anecdotes, the episode serves as a vital reminder of the power of informed discourse.
SPEAKER 11 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 05 :
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 11 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 09 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did.
SPEAKER 03 :
Get a job, sir. You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 14 :
Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 03 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 17 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right, Hour 3, Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Jersey Joe joining us now. Joe, how are you? John, I'm doing fantastic, and I hope you had a happy birthday the other day. I did. I appreciate it. I was asked, though, a moment ago, and I don't know if this is being facetious or not, but is the host also being paid to be on Team Israel and being paid off by the new car lobby to be anti-public transportation? I don't know if that's a joke or not, but I said I wish. I wish. If only.
SPEAKER 08 :
If only, if only, John. I get asked, you know, when I post on some of these liberal websites, I get the same thing. I either get accused of being a Russian troll, you know, or on the payroll of big oil or something. It's hilarious what people, when they can't, when they don't have a good argument. You know, there's a quote attributed to Socrates, never been proven that he said, he says, but when the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser. So when they can't fight you on the facts, you know, they start attacking you personally. Good point.
SPEAKER 19 :
No, that's a good point. And again, no, I guess I probably should set the record straight on this. We have a type of organization here at Crawford Broadcasting to where we have company policy where I'm not allowed to get any bonuses or anything from anybody at any time. So all of what I do as far as endorsements and all of that are concerned from our sponsors and so on, Joe, that is all done as a part of what I do daily and I'm not paid extra for any of that period.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I think people should hear that and understand that, because I think if it was anything else, John, it would hurt your credibility.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and here's the reality. There is a lot of hosts out there on a lot of other stations that every single endorsement they make, they're being paid for.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep, absolutely.
SPEAKER 19 :
And that is not what we do here. So just as a side note, for all of you listening, no, I am never paid by anybody to do anything or say anything, and I get no perks along those lines in any way, shape, or form. So there it is.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, good. John, I'd like to start off with a quote, actually two quotes from a great, it's one of the best articles I've written in a long time. This is a guy from the FE Foundation for Economic Education. And he wrote this, Mondami in New York City, the guy who's probably going to be the next mayor, he's incorporating, he wants to tax billionaires out of existence. And he's got all the poor people in the city convinced that the reason they're poor is because billionaires are rich. And, you know, he views wealth as a fixed pie, you know, because they have—the reason you have so little is because they have so much.
SPEAKER 19 :
They have so much. There's only so much to go around. In other words, you can't generate any wealth on your own. They've taken all of yours, so the only way you can have any is to take theirs.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right, as opposed to the reality, which is wealth is not a fixed pie. I mean, if a farmer discovers oil on his property tomorrow, his wealth will increase overnight, and nobody else's wealth will be diminished.
SPEAKER 19 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 08 :
So— But there's two quotes that it's a great, you know, it's a great editorial. It's an op-ed piece. But here's the first quote. He said, let's be clear. The real enemy isn't extreme wealth. It's persistent poverty. And you don't fight poverty by punishing wealth. You fight poverty by creating more of it. That's like, boom, like, you know, how about that? Hitting you in the face. And then here's the other one. Because Mondami, you know, wants to have a New York City without billionaires. And here's what he said about A world without billionaires is not a world without poverty. In other words, eliminating billionaires doesn't eliminate poverty. It's a world without Google, Microsoft, the iPhone, and many of the conveniences that define modern life. The experiments that billionaires fund, their risky bets on new technologies, pave the way for millions to enjoy what were once luxuries. And think about that. Google, Apple, Microsoft, they all got their start funded by venture capital, and venture capital, a lot of that money comes from people who are billionaires. I mean, the long list of companies that are household names today, including Tesla, by the way. I know some of the people who invested in Tesla before they were public, and these were extremely wealthy people, and they gambled.
SPEAKER 06 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 08 :
15, 20 years ago, Tesla was a gamble. And they were losing tens of millions of dollars every single year.
SPEAKER 19 :
Billions of dollars, Joe, early on.
SPEAKER 08 :
Early. And these people said, yep, I'm going to gamble on Tesla. And if it wasn't for these billionaires gambling on Tesla, you wouldn't have a Tesla today.
SPEAKER 06 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 08 :
And regarding what a world without billionaires would look like, you don't have to imagine it. All you have to do is look at places like Cuba, Somalia, North Korea, Venezuela, and Bangladesh to see what happens when your economic and taxation practices make becoming a non-ruling billionaire impossible. Obviously, the rulers always wind up rich. But so in Venezuela, maybe have one billionaire and everybody else is living in abject poverty, eating dogs and pigeons from the public park. And that's what a world without billionaires looks like.
SPEAKER 19 :
It would be awful. And I don't know – I mean, I guess, Joe, I do know where some of this mentality comes from because this is brainwashing. It's been force-fed. People that don't have – by the way, it's why it's one of the Ten Commandments. And for those of you that don't understand what I mean by that – Don't covet. In other words, don't I, don't want what the person next to you has. That's why it's a commandment, Joe, is because even God himself knows, or God himself especially knows, that that is one of the biggest diseases you could ever encounter in your life, is A, comparing yourself to others and envying what they have.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. And by the way, I'm not so sure that Mondami actually believes that.
SPEAKER 19 :
I don't think he does, Joe. No, what he is, as you know, he is a total Marxist. Marxism is creating two large classes with this huge chasm in between to where you have the haves and the have-nots, and Mondami knows that. He's not dumb.
SPEAKER 08 :
And he's just playing to the crowd. That's right. I don't think he believes 90% of what he says.
SPEAKER 19 :
No, he just knows that it's one of the core beliefs of Marxism, which he is.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. And so that's what he's spewing. But this was such a great op-ed piece on terms of... So, Joe, here's a question for you.
SPEAKER 19 :
You're much closer to this than, of course, we are being in Jersey. Once he gets elected, because I'm like you, I believe that he will, I think there's a pretty... I mean, if you wanted to bet on something, bet on him winning, because there's a high chance that that's going to happen. So that's almost a done deal. So once he does get elected... and some of these changes start to take effect and the city starts to literally crumble around and the wealthy start to move away and so on, what happens?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, the city goes into a state of decay because obviously they're not going to have the tax revenues. And by the way, just another little side note, he's already promised to make all the buses in New York City free. Now, Kansas City tried that five years ago, and what they found out is that the buses became nothing more than rolling homeless shelters. When the homeless people wanted to get out of the rain or the cold or the heat, they simply rode the bus all day. In fact, some of them even went to the bathroom on the bus, and bus ridership fell off. So I think reality is going to hit him in the face that he's going to wind up with these gaping holes in his budget as tax revenues decline and costs go up. He said he wants to spend $700 million to buy up apartment houses and turn them into low-income or subsidized housing for poor people. And I think reality is going to hit them in the face, and they're going to have a budget crisis, which could result in the city going bankrupt. By the way, Detroit went bankrupt about 15 years ago. And when Detroit went bankrupt, the union, the employees union, went to court. And the judge told the union, sorry, guys, you're a creditor. You're going to have to take a haircut. So all city employees in the city of Chicago, both retired, already retired, and those who had earned a pension but were still working, were told, You're not going to get the pension you were promised. And I could see that happening in New York City.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, it'll be interesting to see how that works. And you know this better than I. Is that a two-year or four-year deal he gets?
SPEAKER 08 :
Four-year deal. Four-year deal.
SPEAKER 19 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
So four years he's mayor. Mayor of New York City, four years.
SPEAKER 19 :
Four years, meaning he's got four years to basically self-destruct the city.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I think it'll only take them two.
SPEAKER 19 :
I don't think you're wrong in that, Joe. I think you'll see a ton of changes in the first year, and the ill effects of that will happen in year two.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. John, if we're betting, I'm betting with you, not against you.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, no, I'm sorry to say that's what's going to happen, but that's what's going to happen. Now, the only saving grace is it gets so bad, people might realize after four years that, man, we can't do this anymore.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep, and hopefully, you know, the pendulum will swing back the other way. As it has done, you look at Biden and Trump, you know, it swung to Biden, and then, you know, even the independents voted for Trump. So I think, you know, maybe you have to go through a tough time to understand, you know, what works and what doesn't work.
SPEAKER 19 :
I can't argue that. I think you're exactly right. Can't argue that one at all.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right. Nothing I want to touch on. I mentioned it very briefly last night when I called in, but I want to go back to this – Teachers Union praise of this convicted cop killer. For those who didn't listen last night, back in 1973, there was a woman, a member of the Black Liberation Army. Her name was Joanne Chesimar. She was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper and robbing a bank, and she was sentenced to life in prison. And she was sent to a woman's prison about five miles from where I live. Anyway, a few years later, with the help of some of the other members of the Black Liberation Movement, She was able to escape from that prison. They got her in a boat, and they got her down to Cuba, where she's been living in protected exile for the past 45 years. Well, she died last week in Cuba at age 78. So what did the Chicago's Teachers Union do? And this woman has no connection to Chicago whatsoever. The Chicago's Teachers Union felt it necessary to come out and publish a eulogy for her. And she had changed her name to Assata Shakur. And here's the eulogy that they posted on X. Rest in power, rest in peace, Ashada Shakur. Today we honor the life and legacy of a revolutionary fighter, a fierce rider, a revered elder of black liberation, and a leader of freedom whose spirit continues to live in our struggle. Ashada refused to be silenced. She taught us that it is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains. Never once did they mention the fact that she's a convicted cop killer.
SPEAKER 19 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 19 :
Shows you where they're coming from, Joe.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep, and this is a city where they've got 50 schools where not one high school student is proficient in reading.
SPEAKER 19 :
Okay, that's the only question that I have on, you know, all of what is involving with Mondami in New York is, you know, we see other cities like Chicago and even L.A. and other places where they just continue to elect the same knuckleheads. Denver does the same thing, Joe. You would think at some point these people would realize that, wait a minute, we need different leadership here.
SPEAKER 08 :
John, you know— You shake your head. How long can this go on before people finally put their foot down and say enough? Or are we heading, you know, we talked about a couple of months back, we had the movies. Remember Escape from New York with Kurt Russell? Yes. When the city had fallen into a lawless hellhole. You wonder if that's where it's heading.
SPEAKER 19 :
I don't know. I mean, even here in Denver, I talked, you know, even in the last hour about the pavilions here in Denver being bought by the city of Denver. The total tab on that's going to be about $45 million when it's all said and done. And yet we've got people that, you know, are not going to have jobs. We've got police officers that have to have hours cut back. On and on we go. And yet, you know, somehow or another they can dig up enough money to go do this. And on top of that, you're now going to compete with the private sector, which I'm strongly against.
SPEAKER 08 :
You and I both, John, there's a long history of the government never being able to do anything as well and cost-effectively as the private sector can because the private sector is always driven by competition. If you can't do it better, faster, cheaper – you're going to go out of business. There's no such pressure on the government to do it better, faster, cheaper.
SPEAKER 19 :
No, in this particular case, they could run with no tenants. They could have lower rents. There's all sorts of things that they could do that the private sector can't do, and it's not fair competition at the end of the day. It isn't.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely not. You can't compete with the government.
SPEAKER 19 :
Nope, you cannot. And it's why they shouldn't be in that business in the first place. Yep. All they do, as you know, Joe, and not to get off on a tangent, but all they do is screw things up when it's all said and done.
SPEAKER 08 :
John, all we can do is sit back and watch and hope for a better outcome. Hey, just little news. You remember Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the guy from El Salvador that got sent back and then we had the senator from Maryland. Had to bring him back. We had to bring him back and he was fighting. And the State Department offered him, said, look, if you agree to not contest your deportation, we'll let you go. And he said, well, you can't send me back to El Salvador because I might be killed, you know, my life would be at risk. So they said, okay, if you drop your suit, we'll send you down to Costa Rica, which is a neighboring country. They speak Spanish. But if you fight us and lose, we're going to send you to prison in Ethiopia. Well, he fought it, and the judge ruled against him. He's going to Ethiopia.
SPEAKER 06 :
Good for him.
SPEAKER 08 :
Good for him. Good place. Good place. The farther away from here, the better. The farther away from here, the better. Yep. Hey, since the shutdown is on everybody's mind, I've got a clip of Chuck Schumer. This goes back 20 years. This is Chuck. He's not talking about just the most recent shutdown, although one of the clips is. But he's talking about four or five different shutdowns over the past 20 years, including the most recent one. So here's Chuck talking why the government... why shutdowns should never be initiated over policy issues.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is the type of thing you've said about shutdowns in the past. Let's listen.
SPEAKER 09 :
What if I persuaded my caucus to say I'm going to shut the government down? I'm going to not pay our bills unless I get my way. It's a politics of idiocy, of confrontation, of paralysis. Shutting down government over a policy difference is self-defeating. We can never... hold American workers hostage again. While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse. Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down. That was you three times in the past.
SPEAKER 08 :
Go ahead.
SPEAKER 19 :
Okay, I'll stop it there.
SPEAKER 08 :
So there's Chuck Schumer over the past 20 years saying over and over and over, you should never shut the government down over a policy issue. And so what have they just done? They've shut the government down over a policy issue. And by the way, the continuing resolution, people, the left has peddled this fairy tale that the continuing resolution had all these budget cuts. The continuing resolution, all it said is we will continue to spend at the exact same level that was in the 2025 budget, zero cuts, no cuts, no reductions, no changes. So there's no cuts in the continuing resolution that the Democrats blocked with a filibuster. You know, that what they came back with and said, well, We'll agree to a continuing resolution, providing you put back all this stuff that was eliminated.
SPEAKER 19 :
And that's not how those work, as you know, Joe. That's not how it works.
SPEAKER 08 :
Not how it works. So that happened there. The other thing that most of your listeners who—I'm going to guess, John, that the majority of your listeners are Christian, that they're probably unaware of is the genocide taking place in Nigeria. Now, all these people protesting about the genocide in Gaza— I've not heard anyone protest against the genocide taking place in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, most people don't even know about it. So can we play this clip of—and again, this is Bill Maher, who I think is turning into a closeted— Man alive.
SPEAKER 19 :
You're going to start to wonder. Yep.
SPEAKER 08 :
Here's Bill Maher talking about genocide in Nigeria.
SPEAKER 19 :
Let me make sure we're up here and playing this well.
SPEAKER 04 :
This issue has not gotten on people's radar.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right, no one's talking about it.
SPEAKER 04 :
It's pretty amazing. If you don't know what's going on in Nigeria, your media sources suck. You are in a bubble. And again, I'm not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They've killed over 100,000 since 2009. They've burned 18,000 churches. This is so much more. These are the Islamists, Boko Haram. This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country. Where are the kids protesting this?
SPEAKER 19 :
And he's right. He's 100 percent correct.
SPEAKER 08 :
I've not seen one protest where all these college kids saying stop killing Christians. Stop burning churches. John, 100,000 Christians.
SPEAKER 19 :
Right. They don't exist.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. I believe that's more than more that's been killed in Gaza.
SPEAKER 19 :
I'd have to look, but I think you're seldom wrong, Joe, so I'll go with what you're saying. I can't argue that.
SPEAKER 08 :
So, and again, and probably most of your listeners were probably not aware of the genocide that's taking place in Nigeria right now. Right. He called it Niger, which is another... proper name. You know, most of us know it as Nigeria, but I think they've altered their name recently to call it Niger.
SPEAKER 19 :
Either way, and by the way, it wouldn't matter if it was Nigeria, Somalia, Ethiopia. I mean, we can go down the list. It wouldn't make a hill of beans a bit of difference, Joe. His point is, this is happening somewhere else. Why is nobody protesting that?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. And you have to wonder, John, in fact, I know better, is that a lot of these protests against Israel are funded by you know, to get the George Soros of the world are paying these people. In fact, you see the same people in different cities two days apart with the same price.
SPEAKER 19 :
That's right. No, you can see it. You're exactly right. 100% Joe.
SPEAKER 08 :
Exact same people. How did they get from city A to city B?
SPEAKER 19 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know.
SPEAKER 19 :
On a protester's budget?
SPEAKER 08 :
On a protester's budget.
SPEAKER 19 :
No, no, I was going to say it, but that's exactly what it is.
SPEAKER 08 :
And in terms of a little more genocide, did you hear about the attack in Manchester, England this morning?
SPEAKER 19 :
No, I did not.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, today is Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the Jewish year. A British citizen who was of Syrian—but he was born in Syria, he was a Syrian Muslim. He drove his car into a crowd of people getting ready to enter a Jewish synagogue in Manchester, England. And after running over a bunch of them, got out of his car with a knife and started to stab the Jews waiting to enter the synagogue. Now, the police fortunately got there and shot them dead. But, again, you've gotten more genocide against the Jews where this guy said, yeah, I think I'm going to go kill a bunch of Jews this morning.
SPEAKER 19 :
35-year-old Jihad al-Shami.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. You know, what bothers me, John, is it doesn't get the amount of press.
SPEAKER 19 :
I didn't hear anything about it until you just said it, Joe. I had to look it up. I did not see it in any of my feeds today at all.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I'm gathering, John, I mentioned this, I'm wondering how many of your listeners didn't hear it until we just talked about it. Most.
SPEAKER 19 :
I would say most, Joe.
SPEAKER 08 :
So ask yourself, if you didn't hear about this guy running down a bunch of Jews in front of a synagogue on Yom Kippur. Why?
SPEAKER 19 :
Why?
SPEAKER 08 :
Why? What's wrong with the news that you're watching?
SPEAKER 19 :
Great point. Joe, man, it's always a joy. I appreciate it very much. Thank you so much for your time.
SPEAKER 08 :
My pleasure, John.
SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560. And we are back, David Strzeski joining us now, Sound Planning Group. David, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, doing fantastic, John. How about yourself?
SPEAKER 19 :
I'm good. Been a little while since we've talked to you. I'm glad you're back with us. I appreciate you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Great to be with you.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right. So government shutdown, normally that's a big factor when it comes to the markets and so on, although hasn't really been this time around. Why is that?
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, it's kind of interesting. I think that we're sort of used to this idea. I think it's sort of a nothing burger. And just to be clear, those who are furloughed, are not going to be paid, but ultimately those who are working will get their checks every two weeks, and they'll be made up for the time just in between. So I think a lot of Americans are looking at this right now, and they're saying there's a lot of bigger things going on in this world than what the government's going to do or not do with their credit card limit. Although it is very concerning, and I think the rest of the world is looking at us right now and thinking the U.S. dollar is going to probably get weaker.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and I'm not so sure that that's – and this is a question for you. Is that a bad thing when it comes to our own exports and what we can do economically speaking that way?
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, no. We have to get a weaker dollar for sure if we're going to be able to be a net exporter. And ultimately, if we're going to be manufacturing more here at home and buying, selling, trading more at home, then really that doesn't affect us as much. So you're correct that it's maybe a little less potent than perhaps other times in this world, but that really speaks to the global shift that's been taking place here for the last, I don't know, number of years. But there's less peace, there's less transactions kind of going forward, but If the U.S. can rebalance some of this in trade, then, yeah, a weaker dollar is absolutely needed.
SPEAKER 19 :
And it overnight fell by 0.10%, so 1% basically. No offense, David, at the end of the day, that's not even enough to already talk about.
SPEAKER 07 :
True, true. No, we definitely can see, though, that if gold and silver are priced in U.S. dollars, that it takes more of those individual units to buy one ounce. And so, you know, we're definitely seeing that there's an inflation that's incurring in what, you know, I think most people would agree is the definition of money. And so, you know, these are things to be watching. And I think that we're seeing a significant structural shift right now, given, you know, gold at all-time highs, silver is just below its all-time high of 50 right now. So it's still a good deal below its all-time high. And I think ultimately just, you know, picking up here. So we'll see probably those commodities going up.
SPEAKER 19 :
I read something yesterday talking about, and I don't know what truth there is to this, talking about Trump and crypto and the fact that he's trying his best to make crypto more of a mainstream thing, therefore affecting the value of the dollar. Is there any truth to any of that? What are your thoughts there?
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, so the Genius Act is a really big deal, and I think that there's some positives to it, and then there's also some challenges that will happen as a result of it. But ultimately, one of the things that if you're in blockchain like I am and you want to get out of a specific position, you buy USDC or USDT, which is ultimately a treasury underneath that's been tokenized, and so that's the equivalent of a U.S. dollar. Well, this is actually a really good idea for America because we're ultimately able to sell a lot more treasuries where the world is net sellers of treasuries right now. So this is another way for us to continue to be able to sell treasuries that are not as appetizing right now as we're going into more of a blockchain world. But just to add another point to that, they're tokenizing gold now and able to add that into some version of a stable coin. And I think that we'll probably see other advances in this area, even with potentially in-ground assets, maybe that are at Yellowstone national park or something. Maybe they can add that to the strategic wealth reserve of the nation. I'm not sure. but it seems like there could be some movement in that direction, and ultimately that could back up the U.S. dollar as well.
SPEAKER 19 :
Interesting. Those are things that I hadn't really thought much about, and I get the whole crypto end of things. The one thing that still scares me about the whole crypto side, and get your opinion on this, is the reality that, and I get it, that people will say, well, the U.S. dollar is not backed by anything either. Well, It is. It's still backed by the U.S. government, where, no offense, David, Bitcoin isn't backed by anything other than the faith in it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Sure. Well, that is what the U.S. dollar is backed by.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, hang tight. It is, but it isn't. I mean, on the same token, we have trillions of dollars of assets in this country. Bitcoin has zero, nothing.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. But what you're going to have is, you know, mathematically only a certain amount that's available. I get that.
SPEAKER 19 :
But again, it still comes down to, and correct me if I'm wrong, still comes down to faith in the product. Am I right or wrong?
SPEAKER 07 :
It does come down to faith in the product, and there's a lot of nations around the world. Let's just say that you're in Argentina right now who's experiencing 20% or 30% of monthly inflation. So what are you going to do with your dollar when you get your paycheck? You're going to go buy some groceries. As quickly as you can. And then you're going to leave it. You're going to get out of it, and you're going to go someplace with it. And so Bitcoin is one of these things that it's finite. Right. You know, there's essentially been 20 million of the 21 million possible coins that have already been mined. So there's really only a million left. The one thing that people miss with Bitcoin, though, is that it is not very quick at transacting. And so I don't believe that anybody who owns Bitcoin is going to go out and buy lunch with it or groceries with it tomorrow. I think that what they're going to do is continue to spend U.S. dollars, which is the most liquid markets in the world, and they're going to continue to do that. Also, if I believe that it's deflating like it is, then I'm going to want to retain other assets that potentially hold value, like gold, silver, platinum, palladium, potentially Bitcoin and other assets like that. But a lot of what I see in the crypto market today are more like the algorithms for technology that are going to be fueling things in the future. So kind of like the Internet early, you know, there's a lot of technology that goes into our smartphones and how technology all comes together. And so a lot of those really are, in my opinion, the wave of the future for that.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, I read something on this as well. As you can tell, I read a lot. It's what I have to do for this program on a daily basis. And I read and I was watching a little bit of a blurb the other day on Bitcoin and how will it continue to make money once everything's mined. And essentially, and I don't think these guys are wrong, essentially it'll come down to just like every other credit card company that's out there, it'll come down to the transaction fees. And essentially that's how the money will be made in Bitcoin once everything's mined. Your thoughts?
SPEAKER 07 :
Sure. We call it gas tax. And so Ethereum as an example is one of the larger functional coins out there. It's called the layer three. And, uh, and so basically it can become very expensive to transact if everyone's trying to do it at the same time. Um, so, you know, also if we think about Nvidia chips versus other chips, we've not really gotten into the conversation of efficiencies, the amount of energy that it takes to run it versus what's the output and the actual needs that we have. And so whether you're talking any of this new technology, I think that we're just at the beginning places of identifying what is really a good idea and what is not as good of an idea. I mean, there's even a theory here where supercomputers can crack the Bitcoin and it's maybe not as secure as everyone believes. And so I'm not saying that it's either good or bad. I'm saying that it's something that people should consider and should look into. And one way I like to think about blockchain is that, you know, if I'm right, Then then, you know, maybe if you look at, you know, taking your wife out or something for for a nice weekend, if you would just instead just stay at home, do some other things and put that money inside a blockchain, maybe in the next 10 years, that's grown to something that ultimately, you know, can impact your retirement in an awesome way. Or you just lost one weekend with your wife, and you probably don't even remember that loss.
SPEAKER 19 :
Good point. No, no, no. I don't know that I can argue that. And I own just a little bit of Bitcoin over the years, and it has gone up as time goes. has gone by. And in my case, it's not something that I have to have to make my next meal by any means. Frankly, I wouldn't have put that money into it if that were the case, because I don't believe in doing that either. And yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens as time goes by. And again, all of this stuff, to me, is just fascinating, because between it and AI and where things are headed, I mean, I am one where, I guess, David, I look at this maybe a little differently than others do. I think the future is grand. In fact, I think it's bigger than most people realize I look at AI as a tool only. I don't look at it any other way. Yes, it can be good. Yes, it can be bad. Depends on how it's used. But I look at it, and I said this earlier in the program today, it's very much like the Industrial Revolution that came in in the late 1800s, early 1900s, only I think this one might even be bigger.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, yeah. No, this is literally the space race right now. And, you know, AI today is just a speed reader. And to be clear, in my opinion, is that AI is going to be your doctor in the future because we've got a big problem right now with so many primary care physicians over the age of 60 that are nearing and entering retirement. Got plenty of cash. But also, AI can read your entire profile, not just what was in the chart and prescribe you something that you had last time. And so there's some really great advances that are probably going to take place here in medical use, for example. But, you know, the hacking that can happen and some of those other challenges that can be nefariously used, I mean, could be a real problem. And so it's kind of, you know.
SPEAKER 19 :
No, no, this is going to be – by the way, I like what you said. I'm right there with you, and I look at it exactly the same way. And as it continues to learn, it could become more, quote-unquote, nefarious, but on the same token – David, the reality is we've had a lot of nefarious things that we've always dealt with in the past. Yeah, this could be bigger. I say could be, depending upon how we control and handle it. of, oh, you know, no, that's of the devil, that's of Satan, I don't want to be involved in that, I can't be involved in that, blah, blah, blah. And I've heard people actually say that, and my fear of that, David, is if we're not careful—and I know your background, so I think you'll understand what I'm going to say here—if we're not careful, we as Christian conservatives and the Church in general are going to find ourselves doing exactly what we did with music, what we did with Hollywood, and what we've done with a lot of other things over the years. If we stay silent and back away and have nothing to do with it, it'll be to our detriment.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. And really what I think God wants to do is he wants to bring the right stewardship to those that have the same faith and have the ability to do that. I can tell you right now that I'm involved with quite a number of projects in AI and in blockchain that are very significant. And the thing that we're trying to identify is how to be ethical, how to be effective, but ultimately how to bring prices down, how to actually affect real families in a real way that can actually make a difference. So we want to bring out the best side of this while also limiting the negative side of this. So it's really important that... that Christians and people with the right worldview are involved with these projects, because they'll steward it right into the future.
SPEAKER 19 :
Amen. You're preaching to the choir. I'm glad you said that. There's very few of us that I feel believe this way, David, and I want my audience, who a lot are on the Christian right, and I want them to understand what you just said, because this is one of those areas we cannot be silent in, we cannot back away from.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, and I'd just even say, you know, try to even create some prayer points for the nation by just talking into chat GPT or Grok. And you'll be pretty, you know, like I said, this is a speed reader. You might be, you know, pleasantly surprised with what you can actually create and what you can come up with, even from a faith side, because, again, it knows all languages that have ever been written.
SPEAKER 19 :
There you go. David, how do folks find you, sir?
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, myspg.com is where our firm... We do, you know, quite a number of things here in our community and education about finance and how to retire, how to invest. And we got information up there, a lot of things going on. You can find me on YouTube, et cetera.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, I always appreciate it. It's always a joy. We have great conversations every time you're with us, and I always appreciate it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Pleasure's mine, John. God bless you. Thank you, David.
SPEAKER 19 :
You bet. Have a great night. Appreciate him very much. Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next. Rejuvenate your current roof, therefore making it last longer, saving you money across the board, and in some cases, keeping your insurance policy in effect. Give Roof Savers a call today, 303-710-6916.
SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
The best export we have is Common Sense. You're listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right. Something I didn't get a chance to mention with David because we had to take a break and make sure I get caught back up here on our breaks as we're a little behind here with where we're at. But at any rate, Charlie sent me an article earlier today coming out of Fortune talking about some individuals writing about the U.S. economy and the fact that in most cases, some of these economists that, by the way, have been predicting a really slow economy and we're going to have ill effects from the Trump tariffs and Liberation Day and so on. Basically, this is an article from Fortune talking about how all those economists owe the United States public an apology because they've been wrong, which Andy and I, by the way, have been talking about some of this now for quite some time. And we predicted exactly where we would be, not trying to take any credit here, but literally we predicted that we would be exactly where we're at. And I'll go one step further. We'd be farther ahead. You guys have heard me say this a gazillion times now. We would be even much further ahead if you could have got Fed participation. So economy actually is not doing too bad. Could it be doing better? Absolutely, especially in the housing end of things, it could be doing much better. But all of the naysayers that were talking about how, you know, tariffs were going to ruin this and tariffs are going to ruin that and all the prices are going to do this and all the prices are going to do that and, you know, it's going to kill this, it's going to kill that. Reality is, in some areas... You're really even starting to see some stagflation, which we don't want. I was going to ask David about that, but again, we were running out of time. I couldn't do it. I'll get him back here at some point and ask that question. But in some areas of the country, you're seeing even some stagflation, meaning things aren't doing anything. That's not good either. And anybody that understands economies at all, you need a little bit of inflation to keep things rolling along. It's not a bad thing. And you're not seeing that in some cases. In fact, if we're not careful, you might very well see us go the other direction. So, again, one of the things we've got to be careful of, but it's an interesting article that was in Fortune that Charlie sent me, and basically saying that, you know what, some of these economists need to give some apologies out to the American public because – They've been dead wrong. All right, got to catch up on breaks. Golden Eagle Financial, speaking of finances and where you need to head in your life and where you need to be, making sure you've got a plan, sticking to that plan. Give Al Smith a call today. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 13 :
That's why you need a sound strategy from Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial. Al's relational approach to retirement planning means he'll get to know the whole you, including your goals and history of saving. And Golden Eagle will help you utilize financial products that will best benefit you. Saving taxes, helping you defer taxes where it makes sense, and skipping them altogether if or when that's possible. Tax evasion is illegal, but tax avoidance is encouraged by the IRS. So let Golden Eagle Financial help you figure out how to avoid taxes where you can, using Roth IRAs and other products, and be strategic in your plan for retirement. Find Golden Eagle on the advertisers page at klzradio.com and send out a message for a free, no obligation consultation. That's klzradio.com slash money. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Golden Eagle Financial Limited are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right, Kevin Flesch, he is my attorney. He'd love to help you with all of your legal needs as well. 303-806-8886.
SPEAKER 15 :
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SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
It's time to leave your safe space. This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right, getting things wrapped up for today. EV credits, federal-wise, ended, of course, on Tuesday, September 30th. Now, here's what Colorado is doing. EVs are here to stay. Colorado is increasing its electric vehicle incentives after the federal ones expire. So the state credit prior was, I believe, $6,000. It's now going to $9,000. and new electric vehicle purchases and leases. That's on the new side, by the way. Used side will be $4,000 to now $6,000. I wasn't expecting that, to be honest with you, although I'm not shocked. Now, the question is going to be for how long can they do that? You know, Polis basically said in a press release that EVs are here to stay. Let's make that clear, blah, blah, blah. Well, there's only so much money to go around. So the question is, how long will this last? I don't have an answer to that. Now, keep in mind, this is statewide. Each state will do some things on their own. What's interesting, though, is I got a notice, I believe, a text message from one of you, whereby... Hyundai, on some of its EVs, just discounted them $10,000, meaning the $7,500 federal tax credit you were once getting, they upped that. And Richard and I were talking about this on Monday. This is going to be interesting to see what happens with EVs from the manufacturer's sides of things because the only way they're going to continue to move those is to get them priced accordingly where they will still sell them. Now, this is the interesting part. They're losing money. on those cars not across the board but they're losing money there's there's but a few ev manufacturers tesla being one of them that's actually making a profit on their evs most are losing money now fortunately for the majority of the manufacturers they've got enough other revenue generating divisions whereby they can offset some of the losses they have on the ev side and make that up the question is for how long can they do that And I don't have that answer, folks. And by the way, it's not a standard answer. It'll depend. That probably is the answer. It depends. Because it's going to come down to each manufacturer and how deep their pockets are in other divisions that they have and what they're selling worldwide. Because remember, they've got deep pockets that go worldwide, not just here in the United States of America. And that includes all of them. Hyundai included, like I just mentioned. Hyundai is actually the maker of Hyundai and Kia. Just like General Motors has Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, you get the drift. Okay, that's exactly the way that the Hyundai sides of things work. So how is this going to work with the EVs moving forward? As Richard and I predicted, and exactly what we predicted is happening, the manufacturers, in this case, the state of Colorado, but manufacturers are kicking in to continue to make sure that they can move those EVs because there's a lot of them still out there. And again, like I talked about with the state of Colorado and those credits, how long can some of these manufacturers continue to do that until they start making a profit on those cars? That I don't have an answer to. As with any product, though, keep this in mind, as they produce more and all the R&D sides of things gets paid for and they're able to then reduce the cost, just like big screen TVs, when they first came out, they were five, six, ten grand when they first came out. You can now buy, I'm not exaggerating, you can now buy a 75-inch, not a 55. You can buy a 75-inch big screen for, what, Charlie, $1,000 or so now? I'm not exaggerating. Now, it may not be the highest quality of a 75-inch. You're still going to pay probably a couple of grand for a really high-quality, well, I don't even think you pay that. I think you can buy a really high-quality 75-inch for about $1,600 now. Far cry from what they once were because, again, as that R&D is done and they can now start adding the quantity of production back in, it reduces the price. That's why early adopters always pay a higher price. And, by the way, you should thank early adopters. Most people are very envious of early adopters. You should thank early adopters. They're what make most products work. Without them, most products would stay expensive forever. But because there's people out there that actually buy things when they first come out because they like that technology or they like having that newest piece of whatever, they actually help support all of the others. It goes back to Joe's talk about billionaires being in a city. That's a great thing. They help drive the price of a lot of things down because they're willing to invest and buy things nobody else will. Those are good things. Despite what folks on the left will tell you, those are good things. So where do we head with EVs and all of that? It seems like I always kind of come back around to this. I don't know, folks. I do know this. Despite all of the naysayers, they're here to stay. I will agree with Governor Polis on that. They're not here to stay because of what he thinks. They're just here to stay because certain people, once they understand the value of and the convenience of, maybe I should say it that way, when people really understand the convenience of, yes, they'll own one. And they are convenient. Despite what a lot of folks on the right feel, they are convenient. In fact, that's the best-selling feature they've got, the fact that they're fast and they're convenient. Those two things alone will continue to sell them, providing they get the price at the right value where that end user, that end customer understands that and can actually make that work. All right, let me do this. Before we go to our last break, let me give you the question of the day. Yesterday's was which American hockey team made history in 1917 by becoming the first U.S. team to win the Stanley Cup? That was the Seattle Metropolitans. Today's impossible question. Name the 2009 storm that was canceled. Sorry, sitcom, not storm. Make my eyes work right here. The 2009 sitcom that was canceled after airing just one episode. Okay? Just one episode. Hint. It immediately followed American Idol. So there's your hint. We'll be back here in just one minute. Dr. Scott is up next. He is my doctor. He'd love to be yours as well. And he is there to make you feel better and live the best life you possibly can health-wise. 303-663-6990.
SPEAKER 01 :
Tired of rushed appointments and cookie cutter care? At Castle Rock Regenerative Health, Dr. Scott Faulkner offers true concierge medicine. Personalized, unrushed, and on your schedule. Not the schedule of big health care. No crowded waiting rooms. No waiting weeks to be seen. Dr. Faulkner isn't tied to the limitations of traditional practices, so he can focus on what matters most, you. He takes the time to really listen, understand your goals and customize care to fit your body and lifestyle. From regenerative therapies and IV nutrition to integrative whole body health solutions, you'll get advanced options designed to help you truly heal and stay healthy. And for those experiencing changes in energy, mood or vitality, ask about our personalized hormone therapy. We'll help you restore balance and feel your best at every stage of life. Ready for a different kind of health care? Visit CastleRockRegenerativeHealth.com or call 303-663-6990 and start your journey with Dr. Scott today. You can also find Dr. Scott at RushToReason.com.
SPEAKER 18 :
Stay up to date with Rush to Reason after the show on Twitter at RushToReason.
SPEAKER 19 :
All right, we're wrapping up today. Tomorrow, we have got movies, NFL reviews, and, of course, Movie Rental Hour. And the three movies tomorrow that Andy's reviewing, The Smashing Machine, Good Boy, and Coyotes. Now, Movie Rental Hour in honor of Good Boy and Coyotes is going to be Howlers, movies with dogs or wolves. So be sure to send me those if you would like on our text line, 307. 282-22. But guys, be safe. Have a great evening. We'll be back tomorrow for Friday. This is Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
In this insightful episode of Rush to Reason, host John Rush welcomes Matthew Gonzalez, the Consumer Energy Alliance Southwest Executive Director, to discuss the pressing energy demands driven by advancements in AI. As technology progresses, the energy requirements are skyrocketing, and Colorado stands at a critical juncture to meet these demands. John and Matthew delve into the challenges the state faces, such as a complex permitting process and reliance on traditional energy sources, and discuss the consequences of not adapting quickly enough.
SPEAKER 10 :
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, sir. You haven't made everybody equal. You've made them the same and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER 08 :
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 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 09 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 03 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, hour two, Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Matthew Gonzalez joining us now, Consumer Energy Alliance Southwest Executive Director. Welcome. How are you? Hey, I'm doing great, John.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thanks for having me on.
SPEAKER 04 :
Always a joy. AI, which I talk about quite a bit on our program, unlike maybe other programs, because I understand where we're headed, how big it's going to get, and so on. But the reality is it's going to take a lot of energy. As we all know, Matthew, I don't think there's any secrets there. It's going to take a lot of energy to continue down that path with AI. Am I right or wrong?
SPEAKER 07 :
That's right. Yeah. You're looking at anywhere from three to five times as much just to do your old typical Google search. You're talking about a lot more energy to do that. Yes, sir.
SPEAKER 04 :
So where do we get that from?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, so right now, you know, for a long time we had this competition between energy sources. I would say now with the growing demand, there's really not that competition anymore. It's a matter of how quickly can we get energy online. We've got an incredibly slow permitting process. So it's going to be really, really important that we start to streamline some of those processes to allow for this infrastructure to get online. Because with data centers and AI coming online, states like Colorado, here in the Southwest, they're looking at the Southwest heavily. We have an opportunity to attract those, but we're going to have to make sure that we have the energy demand they need. So it's going to mean all of it, especially things like natural gas. Natural gas right now is a clean fuel in the state of Colorado. It fuels out of three out of four homes. So it's a big, big part, and it's going to be important that we make sure that people have access to that.
SPEAKER 04 :
I agree, and I'm native here, grown up my whole life, and remember even at an early stage, my dad talking about we have some of the cheapest energy in the country, and for the longest time here in Colorado, we enjoyed that. It's gotten progressively higher and higher, which I'm not going to go down. Well, I guess I could go down that path, Matthew. There's no reason for it. We have an abundance of here in Colorado, and frankly, there's no reason why we're not tapping into more of it. And in turn, since we're not, it does push the prices up. It's the old supply and demand.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's right. That's right. Well, you know, the other thing, too, is we've also got some of the cleanest energy. The Rocky Mountains produce some of the cleanest energy molecules anywhere around. I mean, sometimes our regulatory environment can be difficult for operators, but at the same time, we also can be proud of the fact that we operate under the strictest environmental standards. So when it comes to energy that we're producing in these Rocky Mountain states, like we're doing it better than anyone and we really are leading the way.
SPEAKER 04 :
So how do we get more of it? I know one of the challenges here in Colorado, one of the things that frustrates me to no end, is we have a philosophy governmentally and activist-wise whereby coal, natural gas, oil itself, all bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. We need to have solar and wind, which, by the way, there's no way can keep up with even what you and I are talking about, not only in the AI world, end of things, not only in that race, but it can't keep up even on a day-to-day basis, powering the homes we have in Colorado. And yet we've got these groups, if you would, and government included, which, by the way, listens to a lot of these groups and shouldn't, but they do. But we've got these groups, which I consider to be nothing more than a bunch of knuckleheads because they really don't, how should I say this? I think they know full well what they're doing, but at the end of the day, don't care. Am I saying that right?
SPEAKER 07 :
I think you're spot on. I mean, they're performative at best. I call them performative environmental groups. They'll tell you that they want to accomplish X, and for a long time it was, we need to get our carbon emissions down. Now that we've figured out a way to really drive down emissions, now you're hearing that story change, that narrative is changing, and they're shifting it. And for them, it's really about no longer utilizing traditional fuels like oil and gas, no longer having mining in our country. And that's really what they're focused on. And sadly, We see this a lot. The areas that are producing the energy and producing the minerals are at odds with your urban areas because the urban areas are so far removed that they forget what it takes to put into these industries. And so they don't realize that they're hurting jobs. They're hurting local economies. And I live in New Mexico. We closed down the San Juan Generating Station. And we saw childhood homelessness in that region, which is largely Navajo, go up almost 600%. You don't see that headline. You don't hear them talking about that when they shutter these coal plants. And so we've got to do a better job. And that's what CEA does. We focus on highlighting those voices, those consumer voices in the regions, helping them be at the table, helping them come up with smart energy policies that work for them because we're never going to – there's so many people with too much time on their hands that are going to oppose everything, and that's all they want to do is just say no. We've got to make sure we're giving our politicians or our elected officials cover to say these are good things. Here's how we're going to meet environmental regulations. Here's what it's going to mean for jobs. Here's what it's going to mean for local school districts. We can do that, but we have to be more active. We can't continue to sit at home idling.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, I agree with you 100%, and you are spot on. And this whole, you know, not in my backyard, the whole NIMBY approach, which, by the way, to your point, doesn't work. I mean, people that are just sitting in their own little glass house, if you would, saying, well, you know, we don't need this, and we don't need that, and we should have this, and we should have that. And not to, you know, clear off topic, but much like the reintroduction of wolves, these are coming from people that, frankly, Matthew, have no clue, no idea about. how the big picture of things actually works. Most of these folks, by the way, have no idea how the natural gas and electricity even enter their home, but yet they're going to make decisions on how that is done that affects everybody.
SPEAKER 07 :
That's exactly right. I saw a statistic once that said there's tens of millions of Americans that think that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. And it gets back to that point that people are far removed from the farms. They're far removed from these places that the production is happening. And it hurts us when they are happy to push a narrative that doesn't impact their bottom line or impact them in any way, shape, or fashion. So, yeah, it makes it difficult, and it's hard because I deal with these communities that – People like to they love to hold them up and say these are frontline communities. But when those same frontline communities, if you will, are saying we want more economic opportunity, we want more jobs, we want to look at how we transition to new industries. There's roadblocks every step of the way. And so incredibly difficult. But that's exactly what we're up against. And we try to help those groups in those communities really be at the table and make sure their voice is louder than than the opposition.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I appreciate what you guys are doing. How do we find you guys and even support Consumer Energy Alliance?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, so it's real easy. Go to consumerenergyalliance.org. That's our website. We recently released a report called Powering Progress, How Natural Gas Fuels Colorado's Communities. But let me be clear about this. We support all energy types. We don't pick winners and losers. We think they all have a place in this energy mix. I like to give the example that you think of those puzzle pieces. Puzzle pieces, they don't always fit together, and it makes the puzzle look wonky. It takes all of these puzzle pieces working together for the puzzle to be complete. So we need all the energy types, so we try to advocate for that, talk about cleaner, talk about affordable, reliability. All that's got to be front of mind because we've got those within our communities that are the most vulnerable. We've got to make sure we're thinking about them, too. So check out our website. Connect with us. We'd love to help you engage in the energy conversation.
SPEAKER 04 :
You're awesome. I appreciate it. You guys are welcome anytime, Matthew. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, John, thanks so much for your time.
SPEAKER 04 :
You bet. Have a great night. We'll be right back. Golden Eagle Financial. And Al did a great interview of late. Listen in. We'll be right back. And, by the way, to reach Al, just go to klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 12 :
TJ here with KLZ and Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial. And Al, I have a question for you. I've been putting money away for a while in a savings account or maybe a couple of investment accounts. But what am I doing wrong and what can you do better than that?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I think a savings account is important because all the financial gurus, including myself, agree you should have three to six months savings that you have ready liquid access to. But retirement planning is a bit more long term and it's a bit more strategic. We want to take a look at the sum of money you'll need way into the future. And we want to look at how that money can last by providing you income for as long as you live.
SPEAKER 12 :
What kind of planning or strategy do you provide for folks with that that have a big savings but haven't made that next step?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, that's a good question. If someone has a large amount in savings, one of the things I do is we have a conversation about their risk tolerance. Nobody's comfortable losing money, but having money in the market over a long period of time is a mechanism to accumulate wealth. And so we talk about the different levels of risk and the different products that are available. And we don't put everybody into one box, but I have an enormous assortment of financial products. And it's not that there's good ones or bad ones. It's there are some that are more appropriate for some people, but not for others.
SPEAKER 12 :
And that sounds excellent. How can folks get in touch with you for that meeting?
SPEAKER 09 :
You can reach me at 303-744-1128. And if I'm not there, it goes to voicemail, but I return my voicemails promptly. And we could have a conversation in the office. If you live a considerable distance away, we can have a long phone conversation or a Zoom call, whichever you would prefer.
SPEAKER 12 :
And as always, you can find him at klzradio.com slash money. Al, thanks so much for joining us today.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, thank you, TJ. Thanks for the conversation.
SPEAKER 12 :
You bet.
SPEAKER 16 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive. This is John Rush.
SPEAKER 04 :
We are back. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Bob, you're next. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 15 :
I think you know that I'm originally from Buffalo, New York, and I want to talk a little bit about cheap energy. The cleanest, uninterruptible, and greenest energy energy comes out of right near those seven miles from where I lived as a child, Niagara Falls. Well, the problem with that is that New York State and that whole region has collapsed the industrial base of that western New York. For instance, when I was born in 1950-ish, The population of Buffalo was 750,000. It's now 250,000. And all the industries are gone. So the electricity that they were producing from Niagara Falls, most of it now goes to Toronto. So that's one thing that New York has done. I don't know if you're familiar with Kathy Holcomb. Yeah. Yeah, she's buddy-buddy with these two, this married couple, Terry and Kim Pagula. And they made all their money, billions and billions of dollars, from drilling natural gas in Pennsylvania, even though there's an enormous pool over New York State, but they can't drill it there. And they were able to buy the Buffalo Bills, the Buffalo Sabres, a couple other sports teams. and get Kathy Hochul to kick in state and county money for their new football stadium for the Bills. Now, the Broncos are talking about building another one. No government money, none. So that's what New York is doing to themselves. It's just they drive out, you know, they could drill their own natural gas plant
SPEAKER 04 :
uh in new york state but oh no no no that that's no no we're not far from that here in colorado that's the whole point of you know last conversation bob is you know we've got this oh you know this this bigger need for energy in regards to not just ai but just you know the growth of everything else that's going on and the simple fact that you know wind and solar aren't cutting it and the reality is we live in a state right now that don't want to see that
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, yeah, I mean, I left that area 52 years ago, and I didn't have any of this knowledge then. But looking back on it, I can see what they have done to their industry base. The biggest employer when I was a kid was Bethlehem Steel, and they employed 40,000 people at one location. They've been abandoned, bankrupt, and gone 30 years.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, that's right. You're spot on. Absolutely. Bob, appreciate it. As always, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Along those lines, there was an announcement, I believe, yesterday. It might have been today. If it was yesterday, I might have missed it, but there was a lot of news on this today. There's another person that has thrown their hat into the ring on the Republican side for the gubernatorial race. This particular individual's name is Victor Marks, which I didn't know a lot about Victor until I started doing a little bit of research on him. I saw a social media post the other day that he was going to make a big announcement on. Again, I think it was yesterday, October 1st. So Victor made an announcement. Yes, he's going to toss his hat in the ring. And for those of you that might not know, his background. He runs an organization, a ministry in Colorado Springs that basically rescues kids and folk that have been involved in the sex trafficking end of things, they're abused, whatever the case. He's got quite a history himself of being abused as a child, and he took all of that after coming to know the Lord, took all of that and started a ministry, and by the way, has had A great success in that and saved kids from ISIS, has saved them from, again, the sex traffic end of things, cartels and so on. And he's got a great story, a testimony that, quite frankly, I don't think there's anybody else running right now for a governor of Colorado that has a story like his now. Is that all it takes to run for governor? Of course not. I fully understand that. Now, I will say this. I do think that his story in regards to a lot of folks that are in the middle, even though he's a solid, hardcore Christian and has a great message along those lines, I think because of – his background and what he's come from will resonate differently, especially with folks in the middle, than maybe a lot of the other candidates, even some really hardcore Christian candidates that are also running. And I'm not saying this because I'm putting my hat in the ring behind him, folks. It's too early for me to do any of that along any lines for any particular candidate. I'm just giving you who he is. Now, I also will say this. This is probably one thing, though, that I do like about him is all the Davidians that Andy calls, they hate him. They don't like Victor. Hate maybe isn't the right word, but, you know, I might go as far as to say that when it comes to him because they are so mean, especially on social media. They are dead set against him because he's not doing this the proper way. He's not going through caucus and assembly. He's going to petition on, basically. And they don't like that because they feel like he's buying his way onto the ballot, which, by the way, that's not how this works at all. And Andy and I have talked about this many, many, many times. He will actually have to persuade and get in front of more people to get his name on the ballot than going through caucus and assembly. OK, it's that simple. Any of you that would like to differ with me on that, feel free. That one I can argue all day long. You're not going to be right because you're wrong. If you feel like somebody that goes through the primary process and and ballot petitions on, if you would, or petitions their way on, not ballot, but if they petition their way on. that they somehow have bought their way onto the primary ballot, and that's just, folks, it's not the case. You're sorely mistaken if that's what you believe and feel. Again, you have bought into the whole, you know, Kool-Aid of the hardcore Davidians that are out there, and you really, I'm going to be straight up honest, you don't know what you're talking about. You're really mistaken when you say things like that. And by the way, you look really stupid when you say that, so stop doing that. If you want to have any credibility on that side of the aisle, I know it's an aisle inside of the Colorado GOP. I understand it's not right or left. It's really nutty people that are on the far right in Colorado versus sane voters that are in Colorado. That's what I'm going to start saying. I don't know how else to say it because you're total nutjobs. Some of you guys that are on that Davidian far right end of things, you're total nutjobs. And I don't know any other way to say it, but here's another example. I continue to see posts on social media from the likes of them where they talk about how we've got to end mail-in voting in Colorado or we're never going to win again. No. Again, that's got to be one of the dumbest comments out there. Would I love to see regular in-person voting show an ID and do it that way in Colorado? Absolutely. But is mail-in voting the reason why we lose in Colorado? No. No. And some of you would say, well, John, how can you prove that? How do you know? Folks, I picked in the last gubernatorial race, Andy and I even had a little contest on who would be closer in our picks as to who would win by what margin, and I was only a point off. Now, how could I only be a point off in the governor's race especially, but I picked even some of the other races, but how could I only be a point off in the spread of if mail-in voting was the reason we lose. You know, I'm not cheating. I don't know what's going on when it comes to people and their votes and so on. There's no way for me to know what's happening on that level, but I know from the candidates that we run and how well they debate and how well they perform in public and so on, that part I do know. And I can tell you based on that how well are they going to do in the upcoming election. Folks, this isn't rocket science. So why is it that so many of you on that Davidian side of the aisle can't understand what I just said? And why do you post literally ignorant things that say, if we don't get rid of mail-in voting, we'll never win again in Colorado? That's an ignorant statement. I'm sorry to say that, but it is. It's ignorance. You're dumb. You're not looking at the full picture when you say things like that. And you're in denial. You're in denial of the fact that we don't run the right candidates to win. Now, is Victor the right candidate? Folks, I don't know. I can't answer that. Time will tell. I do like, I will say this, I do like not only his background, I like his speaking style. How well will he do in debates? I don't know. That part we haven't got to yet, so I don't know. Although I will tell you that I think he's enough of a fighter in what he's had to do in his own life internally to even get where he's at, that I don't think any kind of a debate or anything like that's going to ever scare this guy and or worry him and or chase him off. I think he'll, frankly, I think he'll do just fine. Again, time will tell. I really have no idea. But time will tell. And my point is there's another person now that's thrown their hat into the ring. I think that now makes – I've got to count again, Charlie. I apologize. 16 or 17 that have thrown their hat in. I think there's been two of late that have thrown their hat in the ring. One I didn't even mention because some of these are – some of these – and Charlie mentions this to me because I always ask him, why do some people even put their name in? And it's simply – and Charlie says it all the time – it's simply to get name recognition. They know that they don't have a snowball's chance of winning. But even if they get a little bit of press out of having their name out there, even for three, four, six months, whatever it happens to be, they get some name recognition that in the future, when it comes to running for office, any way, shape, or form, could be dog catcher, but they now get some name recognition because people have known their name from before, and it helps them in that way. Believe me, they know they don't have a chance of winning. But it gives them a larger platform, and it's free press for the most part. You throw your hat in the ring, and you're going to get some press out of it one way or the other, and you're not paying for it. Victor's not paying me right now to talk about him. He's getting free press. That's what I'm talking about. So some of these people that throw their hat in the ring, frankly, they know they don't have the slightest chance of winning. Yet they still throw their hat in the ring because they know at the end of the day they'll get some recognition out of it that they wouldn't get otherwise. It's fairly smart on their part, although you have to kind of wonder at what point, you know, are we going to have 20, 25 candidates running for governor as Republicans? I mean, that's just ridiculous. As it is, we've got far too many. Right now we should have three, four people that we should be choosing from, not 15 or 16. Now, I will say this. There's probably only a handful that actually have even the slightest chance of winning. And by the way, I will say this. From everything I've read and seen about Victor, he's right up there. Even though he's putting his name in kind of late, it's really not late, but we're a year away. But it's late considering everybody else that's already put their hat in, has put their name in. He's late in that regard. But everything I've read and the videos that I've seen and so on, does he have as good a chance as anybody else that's put their hat in the ring? Yes, he does. I will say that. not taking anything away from anybody else that's put their hat in the ring. I've interviewed a couple of candidates already. Scott Bottoms, Mark Baisley, I've already interviewed both of those. I've known Greg Lopez for, you know, gosh, last several years. So do I consider Victor to be kind of in the midst of all of those individuals and have a chance? Yes, I do. Now, there's already been some criticism out there that, you know, why is Victor doing that when there's some other solid Christians running? If he's really a good, solid Christian, he should be putting his name behind somebody else. Folks, again, that's another lame, lame thing to say. Just because you're a fellow Christian and you like another individual, if you don't feel like they're strong enough to win, of course you're going to put your hat in the ring. Again, these are dumb statements by those of us that are on the right. I get it. The entire world doesn't see these particular posts, but enough people do that some of you really need to think twice about what you're posting before you post it, before you hit that post button, the send button, whatever it is. You should be really careful about what you're actually typing out and think twice about hitting the, you know, let's post this button. So anyways, just an announcement. Victor Marks, he's out of Colorado Springs. He has thrown his hat into the ring. I'm sure Andy and I'll have more to say about that here in the coming days. Mile High Coin is up next. 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SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Somebody sent me a text message also stating that Barb Kirkmeyer had put her hat in the ring for the governor's race. Yeah, I announced that two weeks ago. And what I really said was, unfortunately for Barb, she did her announcement the same day Charlie Kirk was assassinated, which she may be reannouncing because that probably got buried with everything that happened. The day, you know, Charlie was assassinated. So and I feel bad for Barb. I'm not saying that any mean spirited way. But, yeah, she announced her candidacy, I believe, that morning and by noon or so. Anything that anybody had said literally went out the window. And so thank you for sending that. But, yes, I had announced that Barb had thrown her hat in the wing. ring literally two weeks ago because I'm not joking. She literally announced that the same day that Charlie Kirk was assassinated. Somebody also called in and said that I am being paid off to not talk about nuclear. By the way, nothing could be farther from the truth. I talk about nuclear constantly from the small nuclear power plants that I have even given Bill Gates credit for because he's invested a lot of his own money into some of the smaller plants to help run AI and so on. And I don't like Bill Gates. But I do like that aspect of things. The biggest problem nuclear has across the board is getting approval from state, city, agencies, federal, all of that. In fact, what I think might have to happen, and I'm not a big proponent of this because I like state and local rights to a point until it starts to affect a lot of us on a day-to-day basis. For example, the energy sides of things. And this is an area where I'm OK with the federal government coming in and saying, you know what, guys, you're going to loosen up regs when it comes to even oil and gas and also on top of that nuclear. You're going to have to get more friendly when it comes to these three sources, oil, gas, nuclear. and by the way, even hydro can get held up when it comes to permitting and so on in a big deal. Bob was talking about hydro being the cheapest form, and he's correct, but even it can get held up with all of the goofy permitting and everything else that has to happen. That's one area where I do feel like federal government should come in and say, wait a minute, time out. This is affecting more than just you because the grid outside of Texas, the grid, well, even Texas, you know, it spans nationwide, but Texas has its own quote-unquote grid. you guys know what I'm talking about. So power is shared. It's sort of like roads and transportation, like interstate roads. Okay, and I get it that there's co-ops and there's, you know, Xcel Energy and so on that own distribution and so on, and it's not necessarily like the highway system that is owned publicly. I get that, but public utilities, quote unquote, which are managed by the PUC, the Public Utility Commission, I get it. They're not necessarily public, but they're providing services to the public. So they're regulated differently. And I'm not going to go down that path. But I do think this is an area where the feds can come in and say, guys, time out. Yeah, we need some small nuclear plants around some of these major areas that are going to have some of these big server farms and so on for AI. Some of you that are struggling to have enough power, we need some supplemental power in the grid. And yes, you guys need to put a nuclear station in, even if it's one of these mini stations. So Whoever said that I'm being paid off to not talk about nuclear, you need to call Charlie back and apologize, by the way, because you're sorely mistaken. In fact, you're a moron. You haven't listened to me very long at all to know where my stance is on nuclear because I've even interviewed people over the years from the Nuclear Commission. Yes, I've interviewed people that most anybody else in town has not along those lines. So you're completely wrong in stating that I'm somehow against it and I'm being paid off to not talk about it. You're a fool. I'm sorry to say, but you're a fool. I don't normally talk to you guys directly this way, but whoever called in and talked to Charlie, you're a fool. You have no idea what you're talking about, and you haven't listened to me for any length of time whatsoever. Because, yes, I am probably, when it comes to somebody on air, I'm probably one of the largest proponents of nuclear as to anybody else out there. And I mean that sincerely. So whoever sent that, you're completely wrong. I want to read another text message. Let me see if I can grab this. Some prospective candidates also want to raise issues and bring attention to their causes. Yes, I can't argue that. In other words, some people that throw their hat into the ring are doing so because they've got their own little pet project or pet whatever it is. that they want to make that more well-known, and so they throw their hat in the ring as well. Yes, you are 100% correct. I cannot disagree with that. You're right. What is—I do think this— What's Victor's motivation? I think he stated it pretty well. His motivation is he doesn't like the direction that Colorado is headed, spiritually speaking, politically speaking, economically speaking. He doesn't like it, and he wants to see a reversal of it, and that's what he said. Is it because he wants to promote his own ministry? Frankly, I doubt it because he's already done that so well and he's already got a pretty good name built for himself along those lines that I don't really see that being an issue for him in particular. I just had a good friend of mine message me, by the way, and said that they heard him speak not long ago at a particular function that they had. And by the way, he's a very close friend or was a very close friend of Charlie Kirk. Victor was. So he's actually spoken here of late along those lines and might have been another reason why he's just now decided to throw his hat into the ring sort of late in retrospect to all of the others that have already put their name out there. So Dan and Blackhawk, go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, so if you're against nuclear and you're being paid off, who would be paying you off? And I'm not – what group of people would be paying you off not to talk about nuclear? It would be the greenies, right? The environmentalists.
SPEAKER 04 :
Who I badmouth almost daily, Dan.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right, right. And that's my point. The global warming, climate change yahoos is what I call them, idiots, zealots, they would be the ones paying you off, but yet you would be speaking out against the money that's paying you off because you don't agree with them enough. at all in their climate change stuff. So if you're being paid off, those are the people who would pay you off. Because the other side, the people that are for nuclear oil and gas, they wouldn't pay you off to have you not endorse nuclear. So whoever called Charlie and told you you're being paid off, didn't think this through, or like you said, haven't been listening to what you stand for.
SPEAKER 05 :
And it's
SPEAKER 06 :
And unfortunately, that's how a lot of people in this country think, is they're quick on the trigger without taking time.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right.
SPEAKER 06 :
To verify their target.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. And unfortunately, Dan, it's not just the other opposing side, the left, for example, that does that. Our side, unfortunately, as you know, is as quick to do some of that as the left is. And I wish we would be smarter on our side than to do that, because really, like I said a few minutes ago, we should be slow to post reading everything that we're actually saying about a topic or someone before. But we just fly off the cuff and do it, Dan. It's ridiculous. I don't know why we do that.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think it's just human nature. It doesn't matter if you're right, left, or in the middle. I think that's just how we are as individuals. And you're right. I mean, we want to emphasize the left and then flying off, but at the same time we've got people in our camp that do the same thing. And, you know, we try to think that we're more— logically thinking and thinking through, but not necessarily on something.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I think, Dan, and you bring up a great point. I think what I desire for our side is for us to be more analytical, be a little less slow on the trigger. Let's make sure that what we're saying really matters. You know, those sorts of things. You know, for example, let me read you this. This one you're going to laugh at. I got this off social media today as well. We're being reminded for future disclosure that 45-47, the dash matters. In other words, that's Trump's, you know, Trump 45, Trump 47, but the dash matters. He acknowledged it in his recent speech. Trump did, I guess. Trump did not lose the 2020 election. He staged the laws to expose the system while under emergency powers and military continuity and that protocol. He maintained control behind the scenes while Brandon acted as the visible head of state. Trace it back to Executive Order 13-848. Do your research. Dan, I can't think of a more idiotic thing to go post.
SPEAKER 06 :
Um... Yeah, I can't... I have no words. I don't know where the... It makes no sense. It really doesn't, because they want to... I mean, look, things happen the way they happened in 2020, and hopefully we, as conservatives, learned our lessons and learned how to deal with it. It's like you want to shortcut things because you don't want to take the time, like you say, to research.
SPEAKER 04 :
So this whole idea that the that the dash means that Trump was in power throughout, you know, Biden's presidency. I mean, Dan, again, this is coming from folks on our side. And these are I hate to say this, but these are mentally ill people on our side, because if that's truly what you believe, you got to screw loose.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. I mean, why? Whatever. I have no words.
SPEAKER 04 :
I know. I don't either. I mean, literally, these are the sorts of things, Dan, and I'm trying to be nice here, but these are the sorts of things that literally psychotic, mentally ill people say, and if that's truly what you believe... You need help in a very bad way. I don't know how else to say it, Dan, but you really need some mental help if that's what you believe, because it's not the truth. It's not there at all.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, it isn't. I guess it's just a way of them to find that. They liked Trump or something, so he was still in power behind the scenes.
SPEAKER 04 :
I liked Trump, too, but he wasn't in power. I mean, you can look at the executive orders and a lot of the other things that came down the pike through the four years. You can look at what happened with the economy and on and on we go. And, Dan, I can tell you right now that if Trump were really in power and he really wanted to do the things that he wanted to do, he wouldn't have allowed those things to happen because it hurt a lot of Americans. He wouldn't do that. Right.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right, it doesn't fall in line with his character. No, it does not. You're exactly right. Because he cares about, even though the left and the liberals want to say that he's a dictator and fascist and Nazi, the reason why they do it is because they can't defend, they cannot argue a point to, I don't want to say convince, but their arguments don't hold water. So they just end up being... childish and calling people names, you know. Right. You know, sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. But yet they've got enough people that are not thinking logically or let's call it what it is, critically think, not being critical of what you're thinking, but critical thinking to think these things through and say, this does not hold water, does not make sense. It's just You know, they do that in the financial world. If the return seems too good to be true, it probably is not true.
SPEAKER 04 :
Good point. Oh, you're right. You're right. And, you know, that statement that, you know, Donald Trump's been president all along, that he never, you know, he really won the 2020 election. He did stay in power. He did that through some sort of an executive order that, you know, in the military and so on. OK, again, Dan. We now have a complete overhaul of the military. We saw that with the meeting that he had, you know, he and Pete had here just a few days ago. We saw exactly what they did when it came to the internal workings of military and how these guys are now going to look and act and so on, you know, the physical sides of it included. At the end of the day, Dan, if he was really in power those last four years, why did he just now institute that? Yeah, he should have done that on day one. Thank you. Precisely. I mean, again, just simple fact that, no, he wasn't in power. Trump was not. And, no, this wasn't some sort of a shell game that he was playing. I know Trump does a lot of things. He makes a lot of maneuvers. He's thinking far ahead. I get that, and I'll give him credit for that. But, no, he did not stay president those four years from 2020 to 2024. It didn't happen. Right.
SPEAKER 06 :
I don't care what anybody says, Dan. All the lawfare against him in that four years.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you. Absolutely. I mean, that's just... Again, the problem, though, Dan, is these are people that are on our side of the aisle that there are probably some out there that look at and know that, man, there's a conservative for you. And then, frankly, we're the butt of all jokes at that point, Dan.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. And then we got what's going on in Colorado and, you know, like the small percentage and... there's a lot of people that probably don't want to vote Republican because of it. Correct. So they end up voting for Democrat or they vote for some independent, and we end up losing the elections because of a small group of people.
SPEAKER 04 :
That are nutjobs. Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER 06 :
And like Andy said on Tuesday, we all have a common goal. It's how you go about it. And I don't think the way they're going about it is the way to do it because we're pushing people away. I mean, we've got... I don't know how the young base is here in Colorado. It's probably more liberal-leaning than anything. But the assassination of Charlie Kirk is a perfect opportunity for the conservatives in Colorado. And I hate to say it, but it's an opportunity for us to get things changed in this state. But yet we've got a small group of people that want to be fanatical about what they believe in, that they're willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yep. Yep, absolutely. Spot on, Dan.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, so I don't know. Hopefully, I don't know. I was thinking when I was listening to you guys on Tuesday, I wonder if we can get a younger... There's got to be... Well, my three kids, you know, I imagine your kids are probably more on the conservative side. Oh, absolutely. But they have a perspective... With the younger generation that we may not have, that they might be able to communicate with them. I mean, I run in conservative circles, so I see all the younger generation, my kids' age, and they're all pretty much conservative. But there's got to be, you know, there's other people, younger generations that are liberal, but they probably have more of a platform approach. to discuss with them the issue that they... Right, right.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, you're right. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 06 :
And that's what we need in the Republican Party. I've dealt with some higher-ups out pheasant hunting, and, well, I'm going to go in and I'm going to fix it. I don't remember the guy's name, but, you know, you're right. They're rich people that just keep getting rich off of people, the normal working people that are trying to make a living. They don't have time to get involved in... Well, we can, but that's one comment I heard is we'll go back to making money and then the liberals will get back into power because we're too busy trying to make money and make a living. That's right. Yep. You're right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And their machine is more well-oiled than ours is. I'll say that straight up. That's true. Dan, I appreciate you, man. As always, thank you for your comments. Always great. Always good to hear from you. I appreciate that greatly. Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning. Again, the Furnace Tune-Up Special going on right now. Talk to Cub Creek. Find them at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 16 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560, closing out this hour. I was going to talk about this yesterday, but I didn't get a chance to, and that is the city of Denver buying... Shopping areas on 16th Street Mall. The renaissance of the pavilions is what this particular article is titled. So the pavilions, which has been on the 16th Street Mall for, gosh, since I was a kid probably, Charlie, two blocks long. Those of you that have been on the 16th Street Mall, I have not been for a number of years because of everything that happens there. That's another conversation probably for another day. But the Denver Downtown Development Authority – was joined by Denver Mayor Mike Johnston on the 16th Street Mall on Tuesday to announce that the board was well on its way to purchasing the Denver Pavilions. It's a shopping district that takes up two city blocks between 15th and 16th Streets, between Welton and Tremont Streets. On Tuesday afternoon, the leaders announced that the Denver Downtown Development Agency plans to purchase the site for $37 million. Another $8 million in DDA funds has also been made available for property improvements, leasing, and redevelopment planning, according to the city release. Now, Here's my problem with all of this. Not only the money sides of it, which Denver's already laying off people, they're cutting back on staffing and salaries and police officers and so on and so forth. We're feeding the homeless and illegal immigrants and so on and so forth. I mean, that's one side of it. This, in my opinion, doesn't help with any of that and frankly shouldn't be done. But even if everything there were peachy keen, everything was great budgetarily speaking. We weren't feeding and dinking around with the homeless and the illegals and so on. Let's just say that everything in Denver was perfect. Would I still be okay with them buying this property? Absolutely not. And here's the reason why. Not the proper role of government, period. Period. I've said this. If I've said it once, I've said it 100 times. Government entities, cities especially, should not own anything that they're competing with their own taxpayers on. Period. Period. Shouldn't happen. Meaning, cities should not own shopping malls. They should not own any type of amusement parks. They shouldn't own any kind of a park whereby you're charging admission. Now, I get it. They shouldn't own Winter Park, the resort. Thank you, Charlie. I know there's others that would even say, well, what about the zoo? The zoo. Again, no. Sorry. Those are things that should be privately owned. Not the proper role of government, period. You guys have even heard me say this. I don't think they should own the airport. I think every airport that's owned by a city should be privatized. A, it would be run better. B, your cost of travel would go down. I can go down the list of the benefits of having it privately run versus government run. I should probably write those out at some point in time and go through all of them because there's many. You literally, you would go to the airport and see your cost of everything, including concessions, go down if it was privately run versus government run. So I don't believe government should be in the business of doing any of that, period. There are a few things government should be doing, and that's it. Nothing else. And this is not one of them. I am hardcore on this. This is not the proper role of government. Denver should not be owning anything on the 16th Street Mall, period, other than the streets and the maintenance of. That's it. That's all they should own. Maybe the sidewalks, depending upon how things are structured, as far as that goes. But the asphalt... In this case, 16th Street Mall has all the cobblestone and so on. And, yes, that's a common area. Yes, they should own that. And, frankly, all of the tenants there should actually be pitching in to help take care of and maintain and handle that. Again, that's another conversation for another day. But they should not be owning and leasing property out to tenants and so on. Just like City of Westminster has done over the years and other cities around town have done, not the proper role of government is not what government is supposed to be doing, period. As I've said before, government should not be competing with their private sector taxpayers. Period. End of discussion. Yet they do it continually. This is a great example of, and it shouldn't be happening. Those of you that are in the city of Denver that are paying city of Denver taxes, you should be irate like I am. This is absolute total garbage. And I know there's people like in this case, this is a Fox 31 news announcement. I'm sure there's people inside of the media that are just applauding this thing. Oh, it's the greatest thing ever. We'll now get some improvements we wouldn't have had otherwise. Not true, by the way. Not true. So I could go into more of this, might talk about this a little bit more with Andy on Tuesday. But yeah, this is a bad idea and frankly should not be happening. Hour three is next. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you. Rich guy.
In this episode of Washington Watch, Jody Heiss steps in to navigate the intricate world of politics, bringing you a comprehensive view of current issues. We delve into the latest developments from the Middle East as President Trump's 20-point peace plan receives unexpected attention. With insights from Dr. A.J. Nolte, we decode what Hamas's acceptance could mean for the region amid ongoing tensions.
SPEAKER 01 :
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. Sitting in for Tony is today's host, Jody Heiss.
SPEAKER 03 :
They have taken hostage the federal government and by extension the American people who are the only losers in this. Everybody's talking about who wins and who loses and who gets the blame. That's not what this is about. This is about what's doing in the best interest of the American people.
SPEAKER 10 :
That was Senate Majority Leader John Thune earlier today accusing Democrats of prolonging the government shutdown as it now enters its third day. Welcome to this October 3rd edition of Washington Watch. I am your Friday host, Jody Heiss. Thank you so much for tuning in today. All right, coming up. Earlier today, President Trump gave Hamas a Sunday deadline to reach a deal for a ceasefire and to release all of the remaining hostages. And, well, it appears that Hamas has responded to that deadline. We'll discuss this in just a bit with Washington Watch reporter Casey Harper, and then we'll dive more into it a little bit later in the program when I'm joined by Dr. A.J. Nolte. of Regent University. And then there's some more breaking news today, one that's been a long, long time in the coming. The FBI is cutting ties with the Southern Poverty Law Center. And Tyler O'Neill from the Daily Signal will join me later to dive deeper into what led to that breaking news. Also coming up today, David Claussen will join me for our weekly Biblical Worldview conversation. We'll be discussing things like human trafficking, as well as a new abortion drug, and a whole lot more. So we've got a lot coming your way on this upcoming edition of Washington Watch. First, we start with some big, big news coming out of the Middle East where Hamas terror groups has reportedly responded to President Trump's 20-point peace plan. And joining me now is Washington Stand reporter Casey Harper, who's been following this as well as other stories. Casey, what are the headlines telling us right now?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, that's right, Jody. This is a big development. The day started off with a clear message from President Trump sent on Truth Social. He gave Hamas a firm deadline. Accept this 20-point peace plan by Sunday evening, or you're going to face some unprecedented consequences. Now, Trump's peace plan, it includes an immediate ceasefire, full hostage release, importantly, the disarming of Hamas, and a transitional government. Well, breaking news, Hamas has now responded. In a rare shift, the group says they are open to a prisoner exchange and even handing over Gaza's administration to a nonpartisan Palestinian authority with backing from Arab leaders. Now, Hamas appears to support a cease-fire and Israeli withdrawal, of course, but it continues to reject some long-term accountability, and they are insisting on broader issues that be handled through internal Palestinian channels. So, critics say that this is actually just a tactical move to buy time, rather than a genuine step forward for peace. But details are still coming out in this major development, Jody.
SPEAKER 10 :
Wow, really is big, big news, and we'll certainly be unpacking this more as the program unfolds. In fact, Dr. A.J. Nolte of Regent University will be joining me. But, Casey, let me turn now to some more domestic news, specifically the government shutdown, which I mentioned a while ago is now in its third day, and it appears— The lawmakers at a total standstill. The Democrats pushing for more expansion of Obamacare subsidies. And the Republicans digging their heels in, saying, no, we're not going there. So what's the latest on the government shutdown?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, Jody, what Republicans are saying enough is enough. And Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who you played at the top of the show, he said today at a press conference that Democrats are effectively holding funding hostage with their one point five trillion dollar spending demand.
SPEAKER 03 :
Their partisan proposal demands more money. Think about this more money than our entire defense budget just to keep the government open for four weeks. That's not a credible proposal. It's a far left wish list.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, meanwhile, President Trump, he's taking a hard line on spending, Jody. He's already frozen funds to Democrat projects in blue states, and he's pushing to streamline the federal workforce. Essential services are still running, but the shutdown will leave about two million federal workers without pay. Now, two Senate votes failed today, which all but guarantees that through this weekend, we're not going to reach a deal, Jody.
SPEAKER 10 :
Wow. So it continues. Let me ask you this. More domestic news. We've all been watching a lot, Casey, on the attacks taking place on various ICE facilities, I think in Chicago and Portland. What are you hearing on those issues, what's happening with ICE?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, Jody, tensions are ratcheting up. So protests outside a Chicago ICE facility, they turned violent earlier today, and there was actually at least 12 arrests. Now, this is the fifth consecutive week of demonstrations just like this one. In Portland, federal officials are reporting over 100 nights of attacks on their ICE building in the city, and those attacks are getting worse. That includes bottle rockets, shattered windows, and threats against staff. And the local police aren't doing very much about it because of the obvious politics involved. Now the ICE director, understandably, he's calling the situation frustrating as the violence and the harassment continue to rise.
SPEAKER 10 :
Wow. So much going on. Let me give you one more, Casey. Hearing a lot about what's happening in China. The recent report coming out saying that China is literally making billions and billions by forcing ethnic minorities into labor camps and a host of other trafficking-type scenarios. What are the headlines telling us about this right now?
SPEAKER 06 :
NICK SCHIFRIN Yeah, sure. So, the State Department, they released their 2025 report, and it names China among the worst human rights abusers, putting them right up there with Iran, Russia, and North Korea. So, China, they're driving a brutal state-run system. They target the Uyghurs and other minorities, and they put them into forced labor and mass detention. So the Chinese Communist Party, they're profiting off this, though, to the tune of billions of dollars by forcing these minorities into labor camps, and they're calling it a poverty alleviation plan. But these abuses, Jody, are tied directly to global supply chains, which is raising the question, are U.S. companies benefiting from the Chinese Communist Party's cruelty? And that's why the Trump administration is cracking down on this. They're expanding the sectors of the economy that are prevented from using this Uyghur forced labor under the Uyghur forced labor prevention act.
SPEAKER 10 :
Wow. Really, really a disturbing story in every way. In fact, we'll be discussing more about that with David Claussen a little bit later. Casey, thanks so much. Appreciate you giving us the headlines in a nutshell. Thanks, Jody. All right. I want us to turn now to the government shutdown and get the latest from a Capitol Hill perspective. And joining me now is Congressman Marlon Stutzman. He serves on the House Budget Committee as well as the Financial Services. He represents the third congressional district of the great state of Indiana. Congressman Stutzman, welcome back to Washington Watch. Always great to have you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Always great to see you. Thanks for having me on.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, listen, I do want to get to the government shutdown, but I'm sure you've heard by now the latest is what's happening between Hamas and Israel. Wanted to know, before we get to the shutdown issue, if you have any reaction to what's happening in Israel right now.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, well, first of all, Hamas is a brutal regime. that have killed, of course, thousands of Israelis and have held the Gazan people captive in the Gaza Strip for the last several years. And I honestly believe that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu put this proposal together. This is probably their only way out. unless they want to continue to fight and that the end is not going to be good for them. And so I'm glad that they are accepting this proposal. I think it's a win for Israel and for the people in Gaza. And it's also a way out for Hamas. But I tell you, at the end of the day, Jodi, we all know that this evil thinking that Hamas carries about eliminating Israel and the Jews, and of course, death to America still exists, but we need to continue to fight in wherever it's at. And my hope is that Gaza can start now rebuilding and come into the opportunity of having a legitimate government, a government that supports the people and also supports the relationship with Israel as well.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, absolutely. And I agree. I think this is the only way out for them. Let's bring it back home, if I can, Congressman Stutzman. The government shut down. There were more failed votes that took place today. What does that tell you about where we're headed here?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, Speaker Johnson just sent us all a text about an hour ago saying that we're not planning on any votes again next week until the Senate passes the continuing resolution that the House passed a couple of weeks ago already. And so this is against Senate Democrats. holding up the American people and the government of the American people for their leftist agenda. They want to continue to fund healthcare to illegals. They want to continue, of course, to double down on all the criminal policies that they've been supporting over the past several years. It makes no sense, Jodi. I don't understand the Democrat Party of today. This is not the Democrat Party anymore. And so I think that until a lot of the pressure is on Senate Democrats, three Senate Democrats, I believe so far, have voted for the CR, the extension, which they, of course, voted on last spring. This cloture vote in the Senate is really the hurdle that is keeping good policy from passing in the Senate. And I know, you know, we've talked about this before, but At some point, we don't have that same rule in the House. And of course, the Senate continues to abide by it. Really, I don't believe reflects the will of the American people when they put a particular party in control of the Senate.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, that's really true. And I agree with you with all this. I want to underscore something that you said there, though. I mean, what the Republicans put forth was a clean resolution. It's just like, let's just keep status quo. Let's keep going as things are right now. Don't change anything. Let's just keep going for a few more weeks and we can negotiate some of these other things. But the Democrats, describe for us the difference between the Republicans' clean resolution and the Democrats' plan.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, so, you know, we, of course, passed the big, beautiful bill since the last CR earlier this spring. And in the big, beautiful bill now, the Working Family Tax Cut Act, we said in that bill that you were not going to allow for able-bodied individuals, illegals, to have access to Medicaid benefits and health care benefits. I think if you talk to the average American anywhere in the country that is working hard every day, raising their family, when they hear that The American government, our taxpayer dollars, are going to spend, we're spending those to and giving those dollars to illegal non-citizens in this country, benefits, free health care. Most are offended by that. But that's where the Democrats have doubled down. I'm sure you've seen the clip of the debate that popped up from a recent presidential primary on the Democrat side. But every one of them said they would be their health care plan. would give illegals health care benefits. That's coming from hardworking Americans that are just trying to make ends meet right now after a very tough four years under the Biden administration and the inflation that was caused by the Biden administration. And I think it's very offensive to the American people.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, it really is. And it's just stunning to me how they're digging in all of this. And, of course, there's abortion stuff in there. There's tons of things in the bill that they're trying to put forward. And yet they claim that they're looking out for the American public very closely. very difficult to understand their logic. It's as though they're willing to hurt the American people so that they can claim that they're going to come back later and help them. It's just unbelievable upside-down logic to me. Thank you so much, Indiana Congressman Marlon Stutzman. Always great to see you, my friend. Appreciate you joining us on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you, Charlie. Have a good evening.
SPEAKER 10 :
You too. All right, we've got much more coming your way today. You don't want to miss it right after the break. Dr. A.J. Nolte is going to be joining me, and there is breaking news coming out of Israel. We'll let him unfold all of that for us right after the break, so don't go anywhere. We'll be back.
SPEAKER 12 :
Three years ago, the Supreme Court issued its historic Dobbs decision, a ruling that overturned Roe versus Wade, which for nearly 50 years imposed abortion on demand, silencing voters and bypassing the democratic process across the country. The Dobbs decision was a huge step forward against abortion, but it didn't outright ban it. It returned the power to the people. Now, 29 states have laws on the books protecting life. However, there's a catch. Abortion numbers since Dobbs have actually gone up with an increase of 12% since 2020, climbing from 930,000 to over 1 million in each of the most recent years. So how can this be? The answer is simple. The abortion drug. Today, over 60% of US abortions involve abortion drugs, many of these without medical oversight. In 2021, the Biden administration quietly removed bare minimum longstanding safety protocols for the abortion drug that have existed for 20 years to protect women from life-threatening risks and ensuring informed consent. The Biden DOJ then declared that they would not enforce the Comstock Act, which prevents the mailing of anything that causes an abortion. This is not only illegal, but also dangerous. A study shows nearly 11% of women who take the abortion drug end up in the emergency room with serious complications. Unless the Trump administration reverses these reckless Biden-era policies, pro-life laws will remain largely symbolic. Without a full review and repeal of Mifepristone, unborn lives will remain in grave danger, and pregnant mothers will remain at risk. Let's stand for life and end this mail-order abortion drug pipeline. Sign the petition urging the Trump administration to take action at frc.org slash stop chemical abortion.
SPEAKER 17 :
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Family Research Council invites you to join our Stand on the Word Bible reading plan as we reflect upon the life of Jesus, the Word who dwelt among us. Come with us and discover the glory of the Word. Read the Gospels and witness the life-changing story of Jesus, His life, death, and resurrection. Come read how Jesus transformed the lives of common people and how those same people transformed the known world through the power of the Holy Spirit. Come with us for 10 to 15 minutes a day and read the entire New Testament before the new year. Find our Bible reading plan in daily devotionals from Tony Perkins at frc.org slash Bible. Join us in Stand on the Word.
SPEAKER 10 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Hope you're having a great day. I am Jody Heiss, your Friday host, and thank you so much for tuning in with us today. All right. Earlier this morning, President Trump posted on Truth Social that Hamas has until this Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern Time to accept the terms of his 20-point policy. plan that would end the war there in Gaza. In fact, you may recall that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actually accepted that deal earlier this week during his White House meeting with President Trump. Well, now it appears as though at least it's being reported that Hamas has responded. So what are they saying? Joining me now to discuss this and more is Dr. A.J. Nolte. He's the associate professor and director of the Institute for Israel Studies at Regent University. Dr. Nolte, welcome back to Washington Watch. Our honor to have you as always. Jody, it's great to be here. Thank you for having me. Okay, we've got this news that literally just broke within the last hour or two. Seems as though there is a response from Hamas to President Trump's 20-point plan. What do you know so far about what they're saying?
SPEAKER 08 :
What we're hearing is that Hamas is agreeing to a release of the hostages on the schedule that Trump laid out. Now, in the plan, it calls for a release of hostages within 72 hours of Israel accepting the deal. Trump has already apparently given them an extension. But then there's a phased commitment as the hostages are released. Then there would be a release of prisoners. I'm also seeing reports that Hamas has agreed to a technocratic body, quote, in accordance with the will of the Palestinian people or drawn from the Palestinian people that will govern Gaza. It seems like that. they're probably thinking they will be able to somehow get some of their folks put in. And of course, the devil will be in the details. But it looks at this point as though they are, in fact, agreeing to President Trump's deal. And that actually makes a couple of things that have happened in the past month or so that didn't really make sense, make a lot more sense.
SPEAKER 10 :
Wow. Are you at all surprised by their response to this point?
SPEAKER 08 :
I absolutely did not expect that Hamas was going to accept the deal until yesterday, because yesterday we saw the release of President Trump's executive order in the sense of, you know, with respect to Qatar. Right. So he releases an executive order saying that the United States is going to protect the territorial integrity of Qatar. Less than 24 hours after that, we see Hamas doing this deal. And so when that was released, it seemed like this was a unilateral decision. Like, why is President Trump giving Qatar something and not getting anything in return? I think we now see what Trump has gotten in return, which is that Qatar basically pressured Hamas to accepting this deal in exchange for protection of its territorial integrity from the United States and a promise that... Basically, Israel is not going to strike on Qatari soil again. And so this what this looks like is a brilliant example of good cop, bad cop by Trump and Netanyahu in hindsight over the past couple of months.
SPEAKER 10 :
Wow. Extremely good point there. I didn't pack that up. So your understanding, or at least your opinion, what you're seeing here is the Qatar deal is directly related to what we're now seeing with Hamas apparently accepting the peace deal.
SPEAKER 08 :
I mean, Donald Trump is never somebody who gives something for nothing. And if he's giving away something as sort of out of character for a lot of the trajectory of this administration as an open, unilateral guarantee of Qatar's security, like the very strong decree or guarantee that was put in this executive order yesterday, then he's got some sort of quid pro quo that he's going to get in exchange for that. And I hadn't really thought about it, but I think Trump actually was able to gain some leverage by protecting Qatar, which then Qatar, which was one of the major outside supporters of Hamas, is actually pushing Hamas and basically recognizing that their survival and their security guarantees they want from the United States are dependent on their ability to pressure Hamas into accepting this deal. And so that, to me, looks like what's happening. I don't have any inside information on that, but that just kind of makes sense as I connect the dots. In real time, as we're getting this.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, it really does make a lot of sense. And look, I mean, Qatar is an ally, but there are some things to keep in mind here, aren't there? I mean, there's some things to kind of keep a pulse on and have some degree of concern.
SPEAKER 08 :
I would describe Qatar as a frenemy, to use a term that some of the younger crowd listening to this might really understand, in the sense that, yes, they will cooperate with us. Yes, they see us as part of – we are part of their security guarantees, and they are part of our security architecture. But they also play both sides against the middle. They've been doing it for years. They supported a bunch of Islamists during the Arab Spring. Al Jazeera has been a Hamas spokesman. outlet, for lack of a better term, throughout this conflict. And of course, Al Jazeera is very tightly tied to the Qatari regime. And you also have, you know, Qatar has had a very complex dance with Iran. So they are definitely wanting to be intermediaries here. But what President Trump and Netanyahu, I don't know if this is intentional or not, but what they basically did was they were able to play good cop, bad cop after the Israeli strike on Qatar. And now it seems like President Trump was able to gain leverage over Qatar by very strongly saying that we need to protect them without condemning Israel, without attacking Israel. In exchange for that, it seems like Qatar has been pressuring Hamas to accept Trump's deal. Because obviously, if Trump had given them this security guarantee, and then Hamas had not accepted the deal, this would have been a massive loss of face for Qatar. So I was talking to a friend. Absolutely. You know, my odds of Hamas accepting the deal went up to about 50 percent after the Qatar executive order. And it seems like that is, in fact, what has happened.
SPEAKER 10 :
Very, very interesting. We only got about a minute left. What are the next steps? Where does all this go from here?
SPEAKER 08 :
The devil is in the details. There's a lot of good, bad, and interesting in Trump's plan, but now it looks like we're going to move on to the implementation phase. I would expect Hamas to try to preserve as much of a footprint for themselves in the Strip covertly as they can. The U.S. and Israel is going to try to prevent that. The real question is, who's going to end up rebuilding Gaza? Are we going to be able to build a peaceful, stable, prosperous future? And will there be an entity in Gaza that is willing to live in peace with Israel? And so those are the things to watch in the weeks ahead. But it does look like if Hamas actually follows through this time, we could be coming to the end of this very long war.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, that was the first thing I thought when I got the news breaking here an hour or two ago, whenever it was, that this could indeed be the beginning of the end of this whole thing. Thank you so much, Dr. A.J. Nolte of Regent University. We love having you on the program and your insights always very, very up to date and well thought out. Appreciate you joining us. Thank you for having me. All right, we still have a lot coming your way on Washington Watch, so don't go anywhere. Coming up right after the break, FBI Director Kash Patel shared some great news today, and that also was some breaking news. Well, what was it? Well, stay tuned. We'll let you know on the other side of the break. We'll be back.
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Thank you for your support. It is so critical to the work that we at Family Research Council are doing day to day as we support and strengthen the family. So thank you.
SPEAKER 10 :
Good afternoon. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I'm Jody Heiss, your Friday host. Always an honor to have you joining us. Okay, earlier today, our friends over at the Daily Signal reported some very, very welcome news to get our Friday off and running. According to their exclusive reporting, the FBI confirmed that it has severed all ties with the Southern Poverty Law Center. Now, you may recall that just before the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the SPLC actually had placed his organization, Turning Point USA, on their so-called hate map. which, by the way, FRC is also on their list as well. But now the FBI is severing relationships with the SPLC, and what does all that mean in practice? Well, here now to discuss more is Tyler O'Neill. He is actually the one who broke this story. He's a senior editor at the Daily Signal and author of Making Hate Pay, the Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Tyler, welcome back to Washington Watch. We appreciate you joining us. Thanks again for having me, Jody. All right. This has been a long time coming. So for those who may not be aware, share with us the impact that the SPLC has had on the FBI and others for that matter.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, so I think many of your viewers will probably remember when the FBI's Richmond office released that memo targeting radical traditional Catholics and telling agents to develop sources inside houses of worship, particularly targeting those specific Catholics. more traditional Catholics, they were citing the Southern Poverty Law Center in that memo. And this is just one of many instances where the Biden Justice Department had been working closely with the Southern Poverty Law Center. Just today, actually, America First Legal is out with even more evidence, more documents showing this relationship. One of the things that really stood out to me most was that R.G. Cravens who is a staffer at the SPLC who recently was the guy they picked to defend their decision to add focus on the family to the hate map earlier this year. R.G. Cravens was himself advising the Department of Justice and prosecutors at one of these Department of Justice gatherings. under the Biden administration. So the SPLC has had tremendous impact in the Biden administration. And now we are finally seeing, I mean, thank God Kash Patel is coming out there and saying this. By the way, the statement is not just that they cut off ties with the SPLC now, but that they have not been using SPLC data or engaging with the SPLC since the beginning of the administration. So this is a great step forward. This reminds me of when Attorney General, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions, told a group of us who had gathered for a Religious Freedom Summit with ADF back in 2018 that the DOJ would never work with the SPLC again. Unfortunately, that promise was broken by the succeeding administration. But hopefully we can see a DOJ and an FBI meeting that will completely distance themselves and remain distanced from such a horrific organization.
SPEAKER 10 :
Absolutely. Tyler, do you think that the assassination of Charlie Kirk was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, in regard to finally removing the SPLC influence from the FBI?
SPEAKER 18 :
Yes, I think that the fact that, and I mean, you know, talking with you about this, the Family Research Council was first targeted after the SPLC put it on the hate map, and then you had the horrific terrorist attack against you. Then, of course, there was the act of violence at the congressional baseball game where the shooter had liked the SPLC on Facebook, and now... The SPLC puts Turning Point USA on the hate map, and then a couple months later, Charlie Kirk is assassinated. I mean, this really raises important questions. And I think the Southern Poverty Law Center needs to stop defaming conservatives and Christians. And this moment has been an awakening. of how dangerous the SPLC is. And the FBI has now officially set separated ties from them. By the way, this is also when the FBI is cutting ties with the Anti-Defamation League, which I don't know if you'll remember this, but back in 2024, they had they were doing a report on terrorism in the past year, and they said that the transgender shooter who targeted the Nashville church was not, the Nashville school, sorry, the Christian school in Nashville, was not an instance of left-wing terrorism. And they really bent over... backwards to rewrite history. Meanwhile, the ADL was also saying that critics of gender ideology are a threat to other Americans. And they were going and going to the FBI and other law enforcement saying, you need to monitor these critics of gender ideology.
SPEAKER 10 :
Wow. Really is great, great news. We've got less than a minute. What happens next? What do you think needs to happen next?
SPEAKER 18 :
Well, I've already been speaking with senators and with congressmen who are reiterating a concern that Senator Tom Cotton had back in 2019. Tom Cotton wrote a letter to the IRS asking them to revisit the SPLC's tax status. We also have more evidence of the SPLC working kind of hand in glove with Antifa, not just keeping Antifa off their hate map, but also hiring a woman who is described as Antifa's secret weapon. And then, of course, an SPLC attorney was arrested at an Antifa riot in 2023 and charged with domestic terrorism. So we might be hearing an investigation into the SPLC, and I'm hoping that we can have some real accountability and some real answers to what else they're doing.
SPEAKER 10 :
We are all hoping that, and I think your idea of an investigation is in big order. Tyler O'Neill, Senior Editor at Daily Signal, thank you so much. All right, friends, coming up next, our Biblical Worldview segment. Stay tuned.
SPEAKER 11 :
Family Research Council is committed to advancing faith, family, and freedom from the East Coast to the West. So FRC is going to Southern California for this year's Pray, Vote, Stand Summit, October 17th and 18th at Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills. Join us for this powerful gathering of Christians desiring cultural renewal and spiritual revival. The Pray, Vote, Stand Summit brings together Christian leaders, issue experts, and government officials for a time of prayer, inspiration, and action. Together, we will seek God's guidance for our nation and engage in meaningful discussions on the intersection of faith, government, and culture. If the spiritual foundations and the cultural walls of our nation are to be rebuilt, we all have a role to play. May we each find our place on the wall as we build for biblical truth. Register now at PrayVoteStand.org. That's PrayVoteStand.org.
SPEAKER 04 :
Jennifer, it's so exciting to be here with you today talking about our new book, Embracing God's Design. Who is actually going to benefit from reading this book in your view?
SPEAKER 15 :
There are so many different audiences that can benefit. The first one are counselors themselves, right? Because we have some material in there where we really address the gender dysphoria diagnosis and what is wrong with it. We have information for people who are wanting to go back to embracing God's design for their life.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is really magical to have the therapist and the individual who suffered come together and write about why this is happening and why we're seeing this.
SPEAKER 15 :
And we brought all of that experience to the table. We want to see people walking in the fullness of who God has called them to be and not a false identity.
SPEAKER 18 :
Order today at embracethedesign.com.
SPEAKER 14 :
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 in all of life. Follow Outstanding on your favorite podcast app and look for new episodes each week.
SPEAKER 10 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I am Jody Heiss, your Friday host, and thank you so much for tuning in with us. By the way, before we carry on, I have to take just a moment. When we were talking a little bit ago with Tyler O'Neill about the FBI severing ties with the SPLC, Many of you are aware of the fact that we here at Family Research Council, we reached out to the Department of Justice to thank them for doing what they did. And we asked them, and I want to tell you this because many of you did this, we wanted to thank them for what they did, but we also wanted to deliver the petitions where over 30,000 Americans, many, many, many of you watching and listening right now, signed on to that. And we wanted to deliver all those petitions and names to them. They were incredibly responsive and gladly received us this afternoon for that delivery. Those of you who are viewing, seeing some pictures right now of that. So I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who signed that petition. for taking a stand with us. It just means so much for us to be able to work together. And this is really, really, really big deal for all of us. It's a big deal for our entire country. Now, before I bring on my next guest, let me just, speaking of big deals, remind you that two weeks, folks, we're just two weeks away from the start of our PrayVoteStand Summit taking place in Chino Hills, California on October 17th and 18th. literally just right around the corner. And I want to encourage you to come join us as all of us together are making a big deal in our country. We are praying, we are voting, we are standing for righteousness. You can get details as well as register by going to PrayVoteStand.org. That's PrayVoteStand.org. And one other real quick thing while I'm talking about these other issues before I bring on my next guest, the StandFirm app, FRC's StandFirm app. is just a tremendous app to keep you informed as to what's happening in our country and our world from a biblical worldview perspective. You can get the app at the App Store or Google Play, wherever you get your apps. You can also get it very easily simply by texting the word APP to 67742. All right, now as we enter into our final segment, I think each of us who are followers of Christ know very well, we know personally, that God created each of us with inherent dignity. He made us in His image, but we also are keenly aware that the fall, the fall brought sin and into each of us, into all of mankind. And quite frankly, absolute depravity is what it brought. And there are certainly times when that depravity is in full display in all of its ugliness. And we are seeing that in the U.S. State Department's 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report. A horrifying report where, quote, these are their words, traffickers exploit and profit at the expense of adults or children by compelling them to perform labor or engage in commercial sex. horrifying, absolute depravity. Truly a disturbing report to read, but it is important to shed light on this stuff. So joining me now to discuss this as well as other news of the week. For our Biblical Worldview discussion is David Claussen. He's the director of the Center for Biblical Worldview here at FRC. He's also the author of the recent book, Life After Roe, Equipping Christians in the Fight for Life Today. David, thanks as always for joining us for this Biblical Worldview segment.
SPEAKER 05 :
It's great to be with you, Jerry.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, we've got a lot to discuss before we jump into it, though. I know you literally just got back from Arkansas. Share with us real quickly what you were doing out there with the Biblical Worldview Workshop.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely, Jody. So yesterday, my colleague Joseph Backholm and I, in partnership with the Family Council in Arkansas, we did a one-day worldview workshop, and it was just wonderful. We did eight kind of 45-minute sessions on topics ranging from abortion to critical theory to marriage to kind of the state of worldview in the church in America. It was a delight to be there, over 100 pastors and ministry leaders, including several folks who came up to me and said they watch Washington Watch on a regular basis. So just a real joy to be there. And I would just say for listeners and viewers, if you're interested in learning more about our Worldview workshops, you can go to frc.org slash worldview. And there's actually an interest form because we're taking it on the road and it's just a lot of fun.
SPEAKER 10 :
Absolutely. And fantastic information that you guys bring forth. So thank you so much. All right. Let's jump into some news if we can. I was just mentioning coming into this segment, the disturbing report. The State Department released its annual trafficking in persons report. They identified 13 countries which have consistent patterns of human trafficking. So David, why don't we begin there? Can you kind of walk us through the findings that came out of this report?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Jody, I I WOULD BE HAPPY TO. I SPENT SOME TIME TODAY GOING THROUGH THE REPORT THAT WAS REALLY JUST RELEASED A DAY OR TWO AGO. THE TOP LINE NUMBER IS THAT THERE ARE 17.4 MILLION PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD THAT ARE EXPLOITED FOR THEIR LABOR. YOU SEE THIS IN VARIOUS agriculture, manufacturing, but that top-line number of 17.4 million, of course, that's not uniformly spread over the globe. It's concentrated particularly in the 13 countries that were mentioned, China being the leader of that, but then Russia, Afghanistan, North Korea, Belarus, some typical kind of countries that you see. What was really just shocking to me is that 3.9 million people, according to the State Department, are exploited because of state-imposed forced labor. 3.9 million because—and many of them in China, so this would be Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghur Muslims, really those who are part of minority groups there in China. But across the world, 3.9 million people are being trafficked by state actors. And that's just alarming. One other top-line number, Jody, is that that labor, by the way, results in $236 billion in illegal proceeds. And so, again, this is an absolute assault on human dignity, the fact that people are viewed as resources to be exploited rather than as the precious individuals that they are made in God's image. This is something that should have the attention of really Christians, of course, but of all Americans. And I'm grateful the State Department is shining a bright light on this.
SPEAKER 10 :
Boy, I am too. It's just horrifying statistics here. So David, this is our biblical worldview segment. So let's try to drive this home, if we can, specifically to Christians. Some of the takeaways that Christians need to hear about this, and certainly we need to pray for the freedom of these people, the release, for the entry of the gospel. But what would you say some of the biggest takeaways for Christians are here?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, a fundamental tenet of a Christian worldview, and I would say kind of a Christian anthropology, so how Christians understand humanity, is that we are made in the image of God, so that our worth, our dignity, our value is not bestowed upon us by a government. It's not bestowed upon us by the United Nations. It comes to us from God. Our dignity as human beings is inherent. And what trafficking does is really assaults that dignity. And I think that's important for us to realize. It assaults that dignity by reducing people made in God's images as really objects that can be exploited and mistreated and abused. You know, the Bible, Proverbs 31, tells us as Christians, we're called to protect the vulnerable. And of course, as Christians, we know the whole reason that government exists is to promote good and to restrain evil. This is Romans 13. And I guess another thing that we should be aware of is something you said in your opening. This is just another... Kind of shining a light on the fact that we really do live in a Genesis 3 world. We live in a world that has been corroding under the effects of sin. Romans 8 tells us that creation itself groans under the weight of sin. And, you know, trafficking is fueled by greed and it's fueled by lust. And so ultimately, at the root of this, Jody, it is a spiritual problem. And it's a spiritual problem that can only be remedied by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I think as Christians read this report, these are some kind of theological principles and categories that are worth keeping in mind.
SPEAKER 10 :
Wow. It is horrifying, and I just want to encourage. Do you know of a place, by the way, where people can see that report?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Jody, it's listed on the State Department's website, and it went up right before the government shut down. So honestly, just a quick Google search of the annual human trafficking report, State Department, it should pull right up.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay. I want to encourage you to do that, those who are viewing and listening right now. And we've got to engage this thing through prayer and otherwise. David, thank you so much for giving us that perspective theologically, how we as Christians need to look at this. If I can switch gears with you, though, to another subject, the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, really rather quietly, I think is the best way to say it, approved a generic version of the abortion pill Mifepristone. And quite frankly, I think this caught a lot of people, myself included, by surprise. It did so just before the government shut down, by the way. But you've written a lot about chemical abortion in your book and so forth. What is your response to this development? I know this probably caught you off guard as well.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Jody, and let me just preface this by saying, you know, I'm someone who has praised and championed the Trump administration going back to the first administration as far as the approach they've taken for life. President Trump has used the bully pulpit of the presidency in his first term and the second term to promote life. He's focused on it in his appointments. His policy prescriptions have largely moved in the direction that pro-life Christians would want to see. But we have talked about it. Jodi, you and I have had this conversation that this administration can and must do more, specifically on chemical abortion. It was just a week ago that Bobby Kennedy and the Health and Human Services Department announced—kind of confirmed, really—that they were doing this safety review of mifepristone, the chemical abortion drug. And that's what's so—it just feels kind of like whiplash. They announced they're doing this safety review, and then they come out with this announcement that they've approved a generic version of basically the same pill. I think it was Josh Hawley the other day noted that even under the Biden administration, this application for this generic version of the drug was not approved, even though it had been sitting there for four years. And so there really is something about this that stinks. You know, people talk about the deep state and bureaucrats. And so my encouragement is that Christians need to be really paying attention to this. My hope is that the Trump administration will reverse course, that President Trump will be made aware of this, that Bobby Kennedy will be made aware of this, because Christians Chemical abortion, again, Jody, accounts for 63 percent of the abortions that take place in this country. These pills are always lethal for babies. They're also dangerous for women who take them. The FDA has always admitted this. But this spring, we learned these pills are much more lethal than we even realized. And so this is—we need more information about this, but this is something that has surprised a lot of pro-lifers, and it's something the administration needs to walk back.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, absolutely. And I'm so grateful you brought that up. And Josh Hawley, you brought him up. I think he said, and correct me if I'm a little bit off, but I believe it was somewhere in the ballpark of one out of 10 women who take this drug end up with serious health complications, many of whom end up in the emergency rooms. And yet we are also watching how this abortion drug is impacting pro-life states because the drug is being shipped across these states and causing people really to violate the laws of their individual states. So there's so much to deal with here that Christians need to be engaged in this whole process. David, finally, I want to ask you a Gallup survey showing that trust in the media has fallen to an all-time low. Just, in fact, 28% of Americans say that they trust the media, and the numbers are even lower among Republicans. What's your take on these findings? How should a biblical worldview shape the way that we think about the media and truth?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Jody, the number for Republicans who trust the media is actually 8 percent. So, again, it's incredibly low. Even Democrats who are more prone to trust the media, whether this is television or print, I think is at 51 percent. I think the perception is out there, especially amongst Republicans, that the media basically exists to help elect Democrats and hurt Donald Trump. And I think there's probably some truth to that narrative. You asked, though, Jody, about a biblical perspective. And I think for Christians, we care about this issue because truth matters. We're the people that care about truth. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 25 tells us to put away falsehood and to speak the truth. Christians are people who love the truth. We live by the truth. We want to point people to truth. And the media kind of ecosystem that we live in is not one that kind of really tells the truth in many situations. We could point to so many different stories. And so again, my encouragement to Christians is We need to be discerning consumers when it comes to media. That's why FRC launched the Washington Stand to provide trustworthy news from a biblical worldview. And finally, we should model this integrity even in our own conversations and the way we share news, whether that's on social media or in conversations. But ultimately, Jody, as Christians, we are people of the truth, which is why we care about it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Absolutely. David Claussen, Director of FRC's Center for Biblical Worldview, as always, thank you so much. All right, friend, let me just, by the way, don't refer to the media as a mainstream media. There is nothing mainstream about the media. Just keep that in mind. All right, have a fantastic weekend. We'll be back next week with you right here on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 01 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council. To support our efforts to advance faith, family, and freedom, please text GIVE to 67742. That's GIVE to 67742. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information, please visit TonyPerkins.com.
Join Logan Sekulow and his guests as they navigate through a whirlwind of recent events, from President Trump's impactful discussions with international leaders to compelling insights from top experts like Rick Grinnell and CeCe Heil. This episode shines a light on the critical issues facing society today, including the complex relations in the Middle East and the often overlooked persecution of Christians globally. Gain valuable perspectives as the team reflects on a week filled with engaging content and deep dives into the stories that matter.
SPEAKER 07 :
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 09 :
Welcome to Sekulow. We got a great show lined up for you today. All this week, we've had some incredible content. I just wanted to make sure that none of it got lost, that if you weren't part of the show through Monday through Thursday. So some of this content is some of the best of this week. So I'm glad you tuned in. We are obviously President Trump. stated he was going to give Hamas two or three days to have an agreement with Israel to finalize the end of the war. We are really approaching on that day three. So we will see how things play out later on in the day. But in the meantime, I wanted to go through a couple really good segments. Today, you're going to hear stuff this week from Rick Grinnell. Rick, you know, has been a member of our show for a long time. He runs the Kennedy Center. He was a former ambassador to Germany, former director of national intelligence, really someone who is invaluable in terms of his point of view here at the ACLJ because he has such incredible insights, also a special envoy currently for the Trump administration. We are also going to dive in to that letter that came out from Trump. Charlie Kirk to Benjamin Netanyahu. A lot of people were thinking this was going to be the letter that was going to say it all. That was going to say how Charlie Kirk turning point had been at the moment where they were going to say we are disavowing ourselves from Israel. And of course that letter comes out and it says quite the opposite. It actually says what we've been saying here for a very long time. which is Israel does a very poor job at the PR game. They do a very poor job at getting their message across. They succumb very easily to the press that comes out of the left. And unfortunately, that has now seeped in to a lot of the right. We are combating that. I don't know if you heard our show yesterday. You should go back and listen to that with Steve Wiggins, who really gives you a great breakdown of even the biblical reasons why you should be supporting the modern state of Israel. I think there are plenty of non-biblical reasons as well. But let's just start with those. I mean, the modern state of Israel, by the way, is the only really Western culture in the entire Middle East. The only American-style culture. It was closer that you're going to find to being at home is going to be there in Israel. But, of course, that's too much, too much for the surrounding nations. Now, the surrounding nations have shown support for President Trump's concept here, so we'll see where that goes. We're also going to have CeCe Heil on. CeCe Heil is one of our senior attorneys here at the ACLJ. She has been for many, many years. And we have been discussing, obviously, the incredible and horrifying persecution of Christians in Nigeria and around the world. And finally, that is starting to get some mainstream attention. Bill Maher brought it up on his broadcast on Realtime. That is, again, he has become oddly enough. I mean, I think people are pretty shocked. Bill Maher has been one of those sources that now will speak up for those, for Christians and those that are being persecuted around the world. When you have probably the biggest, the most devout atheist who maybe now is wavering a little bit. Now he says he doesn't believe in God, but now he says that kind of an I don't know. We pray for him and pray for everybody involved. But he is the one bringing this up to the mainstream media. So we're going to talk with her about that. And that report on Quiet Skies, you remember that program that our friend, former colleague Tulsi Gabbard was put on, essentially a terror watch list. uh where you get extra screen screening they had people on planes very uncomfortable situation for her uh that she was put under and now the details have emerged of course most of those people if not all of them that were targeted were those who were either republicans conservatives or supporting president trump so it's a very interesting time as all of those details are unveiled so we're going to go through all of that but we will be back next week as well with brand new content i want to make sure you know we're not going anywhere i just wanted to make sure you saw This great show that we put on all week. It's very easy. When we put on a daily show, you may skip some, but you may not be able to catch all of it. So this is a bit of a best of this week. And I also encourage you to go back and listen to yesterday's show because there's some great content there as well. That being said, I want you to support the work of the ACLJ. We are hard at work each and every day, though this show may be a bit of a best of. Know that our crew is right now in the studio working on our show. Our legal team right now is in the courts right now. And none of that happens without you. So if you want to take a moment, I encourage you, go to ACLJ.org. Become a supporter, become a donor, or become an ACLJ champion. You can easily subscribe for free on YouTube. You can give right now at ACLJ.org. Opt in to become a champion. Some of the gives on a monthly basis. And here you go. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow.
SPEAKER 1 :
Sekulow.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to Secular. We do want to take your phone calls also at 1-800-684-3110 right now. Of course, we're also talking about President Trump and Netanyahu were meeting yesterday. We did pretty much most of the show on that. But they released what would be their plan and their plan, and we talked about it. And it seems to be getting more traction than maybe we were going to potentially give it credit for. It seems like we're headed towards some form of deal.
SPEAKER 10 :
Big news out of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority is welcoming this deal. And part of this deal requires the Palestinian Authority to basically stand down as well. Now, Mahmoud Abbas, who leads it, is 89. We looked it up. Looks decent for 89. He's billions of dollars in corruption. He can go to Dubai. He could probably stay in the West Bank if he wants. But what they're saying is new leadership. after that international community remember tony blair's been doing this for two or three decades so he's got a lot of trust on both sides he's not a young man either and they're saying although it's not going to be much of an israeli component it's going to be most all all arab countries yeah so uh the citizens of gaza the people in gaza and the west bank are It isn't like Israel's going to be... It's the opposite. Israel's going to immediately withdraw if you accept these terms. And all they really have to do is stop fighting, give us back the people who are alive and the bodies that you've got, and you're not going to be killed, you're not going to be arrested, and the prisoner release... is an unbelievable concession by Israel. So if you don't think that Prime Minister Netanyahu, all those people say he's a warmonger, and all those conspiracies about Jews, if he's willing to release that many hardened killers to get to peace for the children of Gaza... that's not a hardened hater of Eric.
SPEAKER 09 :
I saw a lot of people posting yesterday, and I'm pretty connected to that world, sort of the Zionist influencers, if you will. And a lot of them were just sort of like, you know what? If this is what it takes, this is what it takes. And most of them were not happy with a lot of the concessions, including me. That's concessions. But they go, if this is what it takes to end it and to get the hostages home. What they were showing a lot was a lot of people saying... Say no to this. They're showing the other side saying, say no to this deal. This deal is not a good deal. You're not getting what you want here. It's like, oh, so really it wasn't about the children. It really was about, you know, Hamas and destroying Israel.
SPEAKER 10 :
You can demilitarize Gaza. and the West Bank, which has some still pockets of very radical... I mean, areas where if you went in as an Israeli, it's different terror groups, but they're there and they kill you.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, in the last couple of days, they actually found a munitions factory in the West Bank that was owned by Hamas. But once again, that's under the control over the oversight of the Palestinian Authority.
SPEAKER 10 :
Kind of, because Janine and some of those places, I think Hebron as well, like... The Palestinian Authority basically can't even go in. The times I've been in the West Bank when Hamas was coming up, when they took control of the Gaza Strip, the police in the West Bank for the Palestinian Authority, who have a good working relationship with Israeli police forces, they were all masked. because of the same concerns like our ICE agents have here right now, which is that there's enough Hamas operatives walking around that if they're unmasked, they're going to be killed in their place they're protecting. So I know there are very good... and great Palestinian people because I've worked with them my entire career. And I've been praying for a moment like this. I wish it didn't take so much loss of life and horrible attacks on October 7th and then the war that followed to get to even this discussion. But the fact that the Palestinian Authority is saying this looks pretty good, I mean...
SPEAKER 09 :
What happens, though, to the Hamas? I mean, they're saying, yes, they have to say, I'm not going to be violent.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, there's going to be an international force there of Arabs.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, true. It does feel a bit pipe dreamy.
SPEAKER 10 :
But remember, that international force is there until they're demilitarized. But it won't be Jews or Israelis, IDF, fighting back Hamas. It will be...
SPEAKER 09 :
arab countries it'll be kind of like a un peacekeeping mission made up only of uh of people who speak the same language and follow the same faith and i'm hoping that this is a moment where the tide turns uh when you have the letter from charlie kirk coming out that kind of debunks the narrative that was out there saying that he was uh pressure being pressured to uh really turn on israel now your pressure to the he wanted to turn on israel uh which is what they were saying that he was getting pressured not to uh when you have this full-fledged letter which i think we can break down even more and then you have this uh really a very moderate agreement coming out of the of israel uh one that you could say is uh like i said has a lot of concessions in it um it kind of starts changing that narrative and i was like i was watching the house of david last night i was watching that it's like man this has been going on You know, for thousands and thousands and thousands of years, you know, in the fight for Israel's safety. And I know some people will argue with me and say different Israel, different time. But you know what? When you look at the struggles that were going on even then, not so different, not so different at all.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well. And when you go back to this letter, one, it debunks what some of the conservative influencers like Candace and Tucker have been lying about or making up about that one that, you know, he was changing his mind. No, this entire thing is actually how to combat the rhetoric coming from some of these influencers that have turned their back on Israel and play into these wild thousand-year-old anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracy theories.
SPEAKER 09 :
The best thing is they haven't just turned their back on Israel or said, you know what, that's not an issue I care about anymore. I'm America first. I don't care about what goes on in Israel and the Middle East. That is one thing. And I'm not for that either, but I can at least say that's it. That is saying I no longer want to be affiliated with this political issue, war, and these kind of things. It's when they start adding in all of the tropes and all of the conspiracy theories. and all the things that don't just loop in Israelis. They loop in the Jewish people as a whole. And look, and I will tell you, from just the content I've seen, and I've seen quite a bit from them, it's not that, we're not, you know, bloviating here, that the right, this sort of extreme right, was starting this process. And looping it in, lumping it in with a lot of their issues with immigration, a lot of issues with a lot of things, support of Israel started coming in.
SPEAKER 10 :
Benjamin Netanyahu had to come out and say, we didn't kill Charlie Kirk. And in fact, Charlie Kirk, how many visits he had made, he talked about this letter, the support, how he was trying to help Israel. And people said he was trying to steal the moment. No, he only had to do that because a bunch of people with huge microphones in the US were blaming Jews for killing Charlie Kirk and specifically Netanyahu.
SPEAKER 08 :
And then gaslighting the American people or their audience when, oh, why would he say that? Why would he have to come out and say that? No one was saying that. It's like, yes, you actually were inferring that. You directly were. And this is a part I think, once again, it goes to what you and Jordan and everyone at the ACLJ has said for a long time on this broadcast and in our work with ACLJ Jerusalem about Israel needing to find a better way to present themselves to the world, especially to the American audience. But this even pushes back that, you know, the Israelis were trying to buy him. That's been a narrative that's been pushed disgustingly after his death and assassination. But it says he gives some examples of things he's hearing at his events from conservatives that are coming to his events. And then he says above are just a sampling of the negative Israel Jewish comments and questions I confront on college campuses. I am accused of being a paid apologist for Israel when I defend her. Does that sound familiar? However, if I don't defend Israel strongly enough, I'm accused of being anti-Semitic. I know you've got a seven-front war, and my kvetching pales in comparison. Are you serious? But I'm trying to convey to you. Dennis Prager played a huge role in his life. And he mentions that. He says, but I'm trying to convey to you that Israel is losing support even in conservative circles. This should be a five alarm fire. And then instead of saying, so you deal with it, I'm out of here. He gives, this is a seven page letter. examples and plans like here's some i know these are unsolicited recommendations but my team and i suggest this to you if you're open-minded about a communications reset starts giving him a playbook of how to speak to american conservatives because as you mentioned sometimes it gets lost in translation when you're trying to speak to an american conservative audience and unfortunately some people with big platforms and big microphones as jordan said are going to tell lies to get their point across in their dollars people think
SPEAKER 10 :
APAC does this? APAC plays very down the middle. It's a bipartisan group to just try and keep U.S. support from Israel by both Republicans and Democrats. They're not the right group to be doing this for a specific conflict. What he's saying is we need, which conservatives, we've always known this is why we have CPAC. It's why we have the Leadership Institute. Prager is doing the education. He was saying you need to put together these surrogates who aren't you.
SPEAKER 09 :
yeah and educate us on and so we can educate you too on messages that will actually resonate to the people we're talking to in America understand we've been on those calls and emails with people in Israel for decades about this conversation this is an ongoing conversation because Israel somewhat knows they lose this battle it is does get lost in translation because a conservative Israeli is very different than a conservative uh American They have similar political views, but it's definitely not one-to-one. It's not one-to-one culturally. It's not one-to-one socially. There's a big difference. So you have to figure out how to talk to people about these issues. I am going to address something real quick as we go to break. There's some people in the YouTube chat saying they want to super chat to help support this channel and everything. What I'm going to encourage you to do is actually go to ACLJ.org. and make a donation we'll know that if it's coming in in this hour that it was because of this show and know that we appreciate that that's tax deductible that helps us out a lot more more money gets to the right people if you make that donation through aclj.org you can cut out youtube as a middleman you know google takes their cut and all that if you do super chat nothing wrong with doing a super chat we appreciate it but if you're just looking to financially support the organization and this show go to aclj.org if you do it today know right now if you're doing it during this show we'll know it's for this we'll know it's for this reason and look for all the other people who are on there the haters on there we understand too you know what you've been brainwashed a little bit we'll do our best to help fix that call in 1-800-684-3110 either side i'd like to hear from you yep very back Welcome back to Steculo. We are going to take your calls and comments on this because we had a lot of people calling in. Do you want to give an update on the Quiet Skies situation?
SPEAKER 10 :
We had our team, obviously, you know, we not only Tulsi Gabbard worked with us here before. Again, her job is DNI. And of course, we have Rick Grinnell, who was the former DNI. But we also represented her. as she was working at ACLJ with us as part of the time period when she was out of elected office and really kind of explaining to people her full move out of the Democrat Party, why she felt like she had no place left and kind of actually didn't just feel like she needed to be independent, but felt like the Republican Party was her new home.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it was two steps. She went independent, released the book, and then said, you know what?
SPEAKER 10 :
And then, of course, while that happens, she travels a lot. She's fairly high profile, doing a lot of speaking and events. And she's noticing she keeps getting that designation on her boarding pass. I've gotten it before. My wife has gotten it before. It's supposed to be random. Random. And again, to get it over and over again, to have agents on the plane, And it was getting kind of personal too, like going through her personal belongings in front of people. So you would go through security, and then oftentimes she would have to do it again at the gate. And sometimes they would take her to a back room. But again, this is just, it's personally, you feel like, listen, I didn't do anything wrong, so nothing's going to actually happen to me. But I'm being actively spied on. Mm-hmm. And then we find out three more Republican members of Congress, only Republican, this was happening to also. So you have the government using a power that is supposed to protect us from terrorists to surveil and kind of, I think, kind of make life tougher, just like, you know, kind of show them, hey, we're the ones in charge. Using power in the worst way. because of people's politics. And again, when the government ever faces any moves like this over politics, Logan, I mean, that's the worst of the federal government. And so what I love about the hearing and the ACLJ's work on this, and let me thank our donors again, because these are tough, complicated cases, especially we took it on in the administration that was in charge. And Rand Paul said, Senator Paul said, this was only uncovered because of Tulsi. And we uncovered it with her right here on this broadcast. And now that we uncover it, we fought back and represented her.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, absolutely. We actually have a bite from earlier this year. So this is from January this year of Tulsi Gabbard speaking about this, speaking about specifically the Quiet Skies program. When was this and where was this? Just so I know, so I can give people information. This was during her confirmation hearing. Okay, so let's take a listen to Tulsi Gabbard.
SPEAKER 03 :
Biden, the FBI abused its power for political reasons to try to surveil Catholics who attend traditional Latin mass, labeling them as quote unquote radical traditionalist Catholics. Personally, just 24 hours after I criticized Kamala Harris and her nomination, I was placed on a secret domestic terror watch list called Quiet Skies. Sadly, there are more examples. The bottom line is this. This must end.
SPEAKER 09 :
Remember, this is what we were living through. I mean, I think it became very normal for all of us. And maybe you're very quick to forget. You're very quick to move on. It's why, you know, we've always had to say the only thing difference is like when we start talking about the FBI now or the DNI and those kind of things. I have to reframe my mind to not immediately think of corruption and it's like, what are we talking about? Because so much in so many years, I mean, really, even during the first Trump presidency, we were dealing with a lot of it's just the beginning of draining the swamp.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. I mean, so much of what, when you talk to Rick Grinnell, I mean, he was basically brought in as DNI after Ambassador to Germany to say, you know what, we've got to kick this off because even the first people put in place were not tough enough to fight the bureaucracy. What was already built in, yeah. And so it started with Rick and then now Tulsi, someone who has seen the abuse of this, is in charge. So they have a massive job of not only the main job of DNI, which is to keep us safe and to make sure our intelligence agencies are working together to keep us safe from terrorism, protect Americans, protect American troops. using it the most effective way it's also about not letting people use this for the unconstitutional in illegal ways because of politics or because of views that you have and so the fact that it was not just Tulsi which we assumed it would not be but because she was brave enough to come and speak out about it we now know three other people they said wait this is that this was happening to me too sir and again that doesn't mean that tomorrow if you fly and this is on your it does happen Randomly to people. But if after every flight, and if you start noting that there's air marshals sitting next to you or behind you, yes.
SPEAKER 09 :
Go to our website. Go to aclj.org slash help. Especially if you're someone who's very active on social.
SPEAKER 10 :
That helps people. Like Tulsi, it helps the people inside the Trump administration. There's thousands upon thousands of people here with this kind of power. So they want to route out the bad guys, the bad operators. Sometimes they're able to do that on their own. But again, it always helps if you have people come and say, this is happening to me.
SPEAKER 09 :
And this is who's doing it. Absolutely. We're looking right now, if you're watching any of the news, they're showing live shots of the floor right now. I just want to say, tell me those people look like they're panicking and it's the end of the world. No, you got people giggling and laughing in the corner. All of your bureaucrats and your senators and congresspeople are all... Don't feel like this is the end of the world the way they make it feel. It's uncomfortable. It's not great. But you can see the seriousness on there. Look at their faces. Their faces tell me it's not, you know, is there anything they're playing cards with you? They're not playing cards with themselves. Let's go ahead and take another phone call about this. Let's do the government shutdown. We can talk more about Tulsi as well if you want to call in. Let's go to Brian who's calling in Virginia. Brian, go ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, guys. I'm just so upset. Just so upset about what's going on with this government shutdown. I'm actually at the hospital now in the emergency room, and I'm getting treated for government shutdown-itis, which is actually a real thing.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I mean, did they not? There's no one there to see you, right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, well, it wasn't a government hospital I had to go to. It was civilians, so I'm good to go. I mean, this is the thing.
SPEAKER 10 :
For most Americans... will not feel an impact. I'm not saying that no one will. Of course people will. They said 25% of the federal government. They will get back pay. Yeah, furloughed. So if they were supposed to get their paycheck next week and they were still shut down, that paycheck is coming. And they've been through it before if they've worked for the federal government in the last five years. So they know that the check is coming. Now, President Trump did say this. You want me to fire more people? Because the American people are about to see that we could probably keep all this going without at least 25%.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I think that's what happens. Look, it happened, sadly, a lot during COVID. I think a lot of people realized their businesses were bloated. Unfortunately. I mean, it cost a lot of people jobs. But you realized, oh, we have gotten a bit in an American culture where we are... overstuffing a lot of our organizations. Obviously, the government has been for years. We don't want to cause anyone to lose their jobs, but it becomes a little bit more of a reality.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, right. It's not like the person who's just a good civil servant should be punished here. At the same time, if your bureaucracy is so bloated that your debt and the spending is out of control, that that civil servant, even if they lose their job, ultimately that might be better for them financially and their family. In a few years, even, they might be recovering better because of what else happens if we don't get the spending under control.
SPEAKER 09 :
First half hour flew by. We want you to continue being part of this conversation. We do have a second half hour of the broadcast coming up. It's me and Jordan. We're talking it all out, talking government shutdown.
SPEAKER 10 :
to be able to answer to your friends too. Use this broadcast because we're here. We've got the info. So 1-800-684-3110. And don't feel bad about any question.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, we can walk you through the next.
SPEAKER 10 :
I've been walking through my mind saying, okay, which one does get, which one doesn't, because I want to be very clear to you. So call us.
SPEAKER 09 :
And we'll also walk through what the Democrats want and why, of course, it's a non-starter for a lot of Republicans. We'll talk about that coming up and so much more. But as always, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Catch the second half hour. If you don't get it on your local station, on all our social platforms, ACLJ.org. And of course, on YouTube and however you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER 07 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome to Sekulow. We got a great show lined up for you today. All this week, we've had some incredible content. I just wanted to make sure that none of it got lost, that if you weren't part of the show through Monday through Thursday. So some of this content is some of the best of this week. So I'm glad you tuned in. We are obviously President Trump. stated he was going to give Hamas two or three days to have an agreement with Israel to finalize the end of the war. We are really approaching on that day three. So we will see how things play out later on in the day. But in the meantime, I wanted to go through a couple really good segments. Today, you're going to hear stuff this week from Rick Grinnell. Rick, you know, has been a member of our show for a long time. He runs the Kennedy Center. He was a former ambassador to Germany, former director of national intelligence, really someone who is invaluable in terms of his point of view here at the ACLJ because he has such incredible insights, also a special envoy currently for the Trump administration. We are also going to dive in to that letter that came out from Trump. Charlie Kirk to Benjamin Netanyahu. A lot of people were thinking this was going to be the letter that was going to say it all. That was going to say how Charlie Kirk turning point had been at the moment where they were going to say we are disavowing ourselves from Israel. And of course that letter comes out and it says quite the opposite. It actually says what we've been saying here for a very long time. which is Israel does a very poor job at the PR game. They do a very poor job at getting their message across. They succumb very easily to the press that comes out of the left. And unfortunately, that has now seeped in to a lot of the right. We are combating that. I don't know if you heard our show yesterday. You should go back and listen to that with Steve Wiggins, who really gives you a great breakdown of even the biblical reasons why you should be supporting the modern state of Israel. I think there are plenty of non-biblical reasons as well. But let's just start with those. I mean, the modern state of Israel, by the way, is the only really Western culture in the entire Middle East. The only American-style culture. It was closer that you're going to find to being at home is going to be there in Israel. But, of course, that's too much, too much for the surrounding nations. Now, the surrounding nations have shown support for President Trump's concept here, so we'll see where that goes. We're also going to have CeCe Heil on. CeCe Heil is one of our senior attorneys here at the ACLJ. She has been for many, many years. And we have been discussing, obviously, the incredible and horrifying persecution of Christians in Nigeria and around the world. And finally, that is starting to get some mainstream attention. Bill Maher brought it up on his broadcast on Realtime. That is, again, he has become oddly enough. I mean, I think people are pretty shocked. Bill Maher has been one of those sources that now will speak up for those, for Christians and those that are being persecuted around the world. When you have probably the biggest, the most devout atheist who maybe now is wavering a little bit. Now he says he doesn't believe in God, but now he says that kind of an I don't know. We pray for him and pray for everybody involved. But he is the one bringing this up to the mainstream media. So we're going to talk with her about that. And that report on Quiet Skies, you remember that program that our friend, former colleague Tulsi Gabbard was put on, essentially a terror watch list. uh where you get extra screen screening they had people on planes very uncomfortable situation for her uh that she was put under and now the details have emerged of course most of those people if not all of them that were targeted were those who were either republicans conservatives or supporting president trump so it's a very interesting time as all of those details are unveiled so we're going to go through all of that but we will be back next week as well with brand new content i want to make sure you know we're not going anywhere i just wanted to make sure you saw this great show that we put on all week. It's very easy. When we put on a daily show, you may skip some, but you may not be able to catch all of it. So this is a bit of a best of this week. And I also encourage you to go back and listen to yesterday's show because I think there's some great content there as well. That being said, I want you to support the work of the ACLJ. We are hard at work each and every day, though this show may be a bit of a best of. Know that our crew is right now in the studio working on our show. Our legal team right now is in the courts right now. And none of that happens without you. So if you want to take a moment, I encourage you, go to ACLJ.org. Become a supporter, become a donor, or become an ACLJ champion. You can easily subscribe for free on YouTube. You can give right now at ACLJ.org. Opt in to become a champion. Some of the gives on a monthly basis. And here you go. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Will Haynes here, joined by Jordan Sekulow in the studio, and also joined by Rick Grinnell, as always. Rick, thanks for joining us today. Before we get to the James Comey talk, I have to ask you, you were in the lion's den yesterday. I saw you at CBS News. You were in person. It wasn't a remote, but you were talking about the good work of the Kennedy Center, and I will say, they were very respectful of you. What's changing in big media, Rick? I don't understand it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, as you know, CBS has been purchased and there's a new set of owners. And so I think they're reading the room, as we say. But you're right. I mean, I sat there with Gayle King and she was lovely. She came into the green room beforehand to talk with me and she couldn't have been nicer. And I thought that they were very respectful and we had a good back and forth. And they asked tough questions about the Kennedy Center and allowed me to answer. And I think that's You know, that's what's crazy about today's world is that some people still believe in critical thinking to be able to sit, listen, and then lo and behold, find your own opinion and your own belief. And so we got to get back to that.
SPEAKER 10 :
Something I wanted to ask you actually with the Kennedy Center was, as someone who lived in D.C. for over a decade and still is there a lot, obviously with our office there, is that, you know, it did get, it felt like for a while, like, again, like those family kind of friendly, the ones I'd want to take my kids to just weren't there. They might have been in other theaters in Washington, smaller productions, but they weren't at, you know, in our capitals, a premier theater. facility and now they're coming back and tickets are selling because I think families can go again it's not just going to be kind of whatever again the arts community is interested in which Kennedy Center has lots of different theaters for different size events that's fine but also bringing back some of these like you said like Sound of Music and things like that that have brought back and honoring some of the people from the Kennedy Center honors that mainstream America really loves
SPEAKER 04 :
Look, President Trump's vision was always to make it more accessible and less elitist. And that's exactly what we're doing. I think President Trump was once again ahead of the curve because the New York Times this past week did this big, huge profile of how Broadway is dying. And when you look at between the ticket price for Broadway, the content that they're pushing, it's just not appealing to the masses anymore. And so they're struggling, but I don't think it's anything more than a supply and demand. You have to supply something that a huge crowd wants if you're gonna run a theater. And so what we're trying to do here at the Kennedy Center is first of all, say everyone is welcome. Two, we're going to have programming that appeals to the common folk so that we can fill seats and not make this place elitist. I don't want people coming into the Kennedy Center who get booed just because they happen to be a Republican. And I certainly don't want it. On the other side, I wouldn't want someone walking into a theater who's a hardcore Democrat and getting booed either. What we want to be able to do is sit and watch shows that are inspirational. And there's so many genres of dance, music, spoken word, lecture series, all sorts of different arts genres that can really inspire. And that's what we're going for. That's what President Trump asked us to do. And it's making us get on a better financial path. And as we see so many arts institutions struggling, I think this is gonna be the path they need to follow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I can't believe the New York Times was shocked that people didn't want to pay seven, eight hundred dollars to get preached at for three or four hours in New York. But Rick, we got to go to this other issue of the day. James Comey has been indicted by a federal grand jury.
SPEAKER 10 :
It's a lovely man.
SPEAKER 08 :
He is. He's responded. What is your fresh take on this, that now James Comey has been indicted for false statements to Congress and obstructing proceedings?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I was hoping that this whole bloviation from James Covey about walking on the beach and finding these shells in a formation, which is clearly a lie. And he stood there and pretended like we believed it. The funny part is that he's so gullible, he thinks people believe him. This is a man that has consistently, consistently created a whole alternative universe for himself. And he aggressively does it and he's confident in his lies. And I'm just glad that we have a system where no one is above the law and there are a whole bunch of people who manipulated the public who lied to congress who who certainly did uh some injustices to our system that need to be held to account and that doesn't mean that they go straight to prison it means that we have a trial and the prosecutors put forward their arguments the defense gets to put forward their arguments And let's see what happens. It's exactly what the left kept telling us about President Trump when President Biden was in charge. That's all they wanted to see was the process work. And so here we are. Let's let the process work.
SPEAKER 10 :
You brought up, too, how Comey creates this alternative universe like he did in the video even that he released in his first statement about this. I wouldn't be surprised if he's on some of those morning shows, too, or evening maybe with Jimmy Kimmel, as I said earlier tonight, because he kind of lives in this own world where he forgets, too. Unfortunately, many on the left forget. his election interference you might want to call it when he reopened the Hillary investigation three days before an election and it ended up being the same information there was nothing new there made a big deal of it and the Clinton campaign and the Clintons and the left then were outraged at who? Jim Comey and then he did similar kind of things to Donald Trump he was living in this world where it wasn't even about he's gotten a little bit more partisan now I wish the left didn't let him back in. I wish they remembered kind of, Rick, what he did to think that law enforcement and the FBI should be really running Washington, D.C., not elected politicians.
SPEAKER 04 :
Look, these elite individuals on the left have enjoyed decades of controlling the institutions of America, whether it's government or academia or NGOs. They have enjoyed this small group that cater to just a portion of the country. And they forget the rest of us. They forget the masses. They forget the rule of law. They got together and they created this idea of sanctuary cities, for instance, which is an undermining of democracy, a ridiculous concept where people ignore federal law, but they were immune from prosecution because they created this nice name. These are the types of things that the elite left do. And I have to say, Thank God that we won the election. Elections have consequences, people. Get out, get involved, vote, get more people registered to vote because otherwise this small elite try to control us and they give us people like James Comey. When we're in charge, when the people are in charge, when we try to take over institutions and bring common sense back, then we have real rule of law. And that's what James Comey has seen, and I'm glad for it.
SPEAKER 08 :
And in James Comey's video, he did say, my family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump. We can't let people forget what he thought standing up to Donald Trump was. It was weaponizing intelligence. It was going along with a rival campaign's made-up dossier to try and smear him, leaking to get a special counsel. When he got fired because he had already done these things, sending FBI agents into the White House to spy on members of the incoming team. This isn't standing up to a president. This is subverting the duly elected president of the United States. We can't let people forget that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Such a good point, Will. But, you know, they don't believe that they're doing anything wrong. This is the whole elitist mentality where they believe that by any means necessary, they should be able to to to make sure that Donald Trump fails, that they stop him. And by any means necessary, we're now finding ourselves in the place where violence is what mentally unstable people are doing because they think they have permission from the elitist left. When people like Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff and some others come forward and call people Nazis and fascists. Nazis and fascists are the people who kill other people by tens of thousands and millions. And so the idea that we are like that, that a whole other political party that you disagree with is like that, you're giving permission to unstable people to go kill them.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, and we've seen just unlimited violence. Even today, there was a rioting somewhere, again, against ICE officials and just preventing them from doing their job. And we saw that out of California, they have to take their mask off by January, which most law enforcement, again, when you are in the process of actually going in and doing the job, you're going on to the mission to make the arrest. Many times are masked, many times. different kinds of protection levels, none of which is because they're being photographed a lot of times on camera, even with their own cameras, and just their personal security and their families' personal security as well, and the security of those that are being apprehended. That's also on camera for our legal system, which is the best in the world. Rick, thank you for being on with us, folks. When we come back, we'll take your calls on this 1-800-684-3110. You want to be part of the show.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are completely jammed. We're going to do our best to get to as many of those as we can, specifically in the back half hour, but keep trying, keep calling. We'll do our best to get to all of them we can. CeCe Hiles joining us in studio, senior attorney here at the ACLJ. I did want to pivot a little bit. We're going to continue talking about Israel, and CeCe's been to Israel more recently than any of us here, so she can comment as well as we are seeing this maybe historic moment. as bb net yahoo now i feel like you could have probably played this back uh episodes of this show over the last year and heard a very similar uh thing including talking points including the big deal points now these again i think they're controversial i think when i see the comments coming in a lot of you are not thrilled with some of these plans I do think we need to lean a little bit on President Trump and lean a little bit on Bibi Netanyahu that they are doing what's best for their people. And hopefully that is the case. But it is a bit concerning, some of them, for sure. I understand that. We're going to address those. I did also want to talk... But some of the work of the ACLJ is we've been working on issues involving the persecution of Christians throughout the world, including in Nigeria and other places for many years, for decades now. It's been part of really the DNA of the ACLJ. It's been our work internationally. As we know, Christian persecution. Now, look, we saw what happened over the weekend. In the LDS church, where you saw right here in our country, we saw many people murdered, the church burnt down, all these horrible things that happened to Christians. So I don't want, now I have to say that it feels like a rising tide that's happening right now. But I think what we can do also is turn to what's happening in other countries and go, we're not there yet. We got to make sure we don't get there. as americans we got to make sure that we don't start treating religious institutions the way that happens in other parts of the world and it's starting to bubble up on some mainstream news where you're actually hearing people talk about it this is a clip i want to play for you this is from bill maher a real time of bill maher this just happened he had nancy mace on again you may go logan you're playing bill maher now of course we know bill maher has uh he said he hasn't moved politically but the left has moved significantly from him he has been someone that's been fairly critical of a lot of, especially the, he's been very critical on people who are supporting the Palestinian situation, the Hamas situation over Israel. He's very pro-Israel. But he also wants to make sure people are actually noticing what's happening around the world in terms of persecution of people of faith. Let's hear from Bill Maher. Can't believe I'm saying that. Real time with Bill Maher from just over the weekend.
SPEAKER 06 :
The fact that this issue has not gotten on people's radar... Right, no one's talking about it. It's pretty amazing. If you don't know what's going on in Nigeria, your media sources... You are in a bubble. And again, I'm not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They've killed over 100,000 since 2009. They've burned 18,000 churches. This is so much more... These are the Islamists, Boko Haram. This is so much more of a genocide attempt... than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country. Where are the kids protesting this?
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you. No one will talk about it, so thank you. Absolutely. It's Africa, that's why. No one's talking about it, and they should be. You can't read about it on mainstream media. It's sad, so thank you for bringing it up.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, because the Jews aren't involved. That's why. It's the Christians and the Muslims.
SPEAKER 08 :
Who cares? It's just... And CC, this is an issue that we've talked about here for a long time. If you've watched this show for a long time, you've heard us bring this up. We fought to get Nigeria listed as a country of particular concern under the first Trump administration. And one of the first acts of Secretary of State Blinken under the Biden administration was to take them off that list. But it was because of this persecution. And as you know, you're hearing truth from Bill Maher on this, not someone who's normally like rah-rah for standing up for Christians, but it's the truth and you're not hearing about it. And just talk a little bit about that and the work that we do to raise this.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, and first I'm going to say you're hearing about it if you listen to the ACLJ. You're hearing about it if you go to our website. You're hearing about it if you listen to this radio show because we have talked about it since he says, you know, kind of started in 2009 escalating. And that's true because since 2009, 12 million Christians have been displaced. But we talk about this constantly. I am at the UN constantly talking about Nigeria because as far as Christian persecution goes, more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than all of the other countries combined. And in fact, this year, in 2025, the first 220 days, there have been over 7,000 Christians killed for their faith. That is phenomenal. 32 that's an average of 32 christians killed per day and there's over 8 000 people that have been abducted that's an average of 35 people a day abducted now you think just like they said if there are 32 christians being killed every single day because of their faith you'd think we'd hear about that Again, ACLJ talks about it all the time. We point to it all the time. But I'm thrilled that we do now have some mainstream media and people that are paying attention to this because this is a huge concern and it needs to be fixed. And you're exactly right, Will. We were on it because Nigeria, under the last Trump administration, was a country of particular concern. And that is from the State Department. It's a designation from the State Department. And it's specifically for religious freedom violations. So if there should be any country in the world that's a CPC... It should be Nigeria. And then there are there are punishments that come along with that. That's why it's critical that it is a CPC. And again, we won't stop talking about this. And I'm thrilled that other media outlets are picking it up.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's one of the things is completely independent media here at the ACLJ. What we do here on our media side is we are able to bring up stories that are not going to get the attention of the mainstream media. But one of the goals is obviously to break through to the mainstream media. is to make sure that our clients, that anything we're supporting, makes it through. It's not just on here. We can be the constant voice yelling, but we understand we are going to be a smaller percentage of people that maybe get their news from some of these mainstream outlets. However, that's growing, that's shifting, that's changing, which is great. However, we couldn't do that without your support because we're able to do this. We're able to go to court. We're able to go to the UN. We're able to do all of these things, take action as well as report. A lot of people can't do that. So I want to encourage you, of course, to support the work of the ACLJ while you're at it. But it's true. We all live in sort of little bubbles. I send Will all the time because I'm very connected in sort of the, I guess you'd say the Israel Zionist side of this. I send Will news stories all the time where he's like, this wasn't even on my feed. It's like, yeah, it's not necessarily that you're doing anything to keep it off your feed. It's just, you have to get so plugged into such a niche audience that, That sometimes these things that are big stories or are big portions of stories aren't reported.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, even that point that there was that madman that ran into a wedding at a country club in Connecticut and or New Hampshire, one of the two, and had a shooting. My feed was only headlines of mass shooting at wedding in New Hampshire. Nowhere in the headlines that I was being fed was it that the gunman cried free Palestine before committing his murders. Right. Once again, the narrative changing before you, you are being manipulated. Yeah, you have to be really careful. And you're being manipulated by a lot of people on the right right now when it comes to Israel.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, absolutely. I think you've got to make sure you're staying tuned in. Now, I'm very happy to report that it looks like a lot of our people are awake to it. You know what I think is good is that you're seeing a lot of the people who have been the most trusted sources. for decades now, including even your senators. Those are the ones whose voices are loud and have been calling out some of this. And at least you are trusting some of these voices you've trusted for years. Now, that being said, there obviously is not. It's the most I've ever seen in my lifetime. where the conservative audience, if you will, has not been supportive of Israel until the last couple months. But you know what? Maybe today things change as President Trump meets with Benjamin Netanyahu. Hey, we get back. We got a second half hour coming up. Support the work of the ACLJ. I need you to go to ACLJ.org right now. Whether it's CeCe's incredible work she's doing at the UN, whether we're supporting Christians in Nigeria that are being persecuted for their faith, or what we're doing just around the world. The ACLJ doesn't exist within the borders just of America. We're doing work around the world. Go to ACLJ.org. Be right back.
This episode dives deep into the federal government shutdown, examining the core disagreements between Democrats and Republicans over funding health care for undocumented immigrants. As political tensions rise, we reflect on significant moments like the 2019 Democratic presidential debate where the stance on healthcare was made clear. The episode also features key political figures offering their perspectives, including insights on how various states navigate healthcare provisions for undocumented immigrants.
SPEAKER 09 :
From director Sean McNamara comes Soul on Fire, based on a true story. They said you had no chance, but here you are. Starring Joel Courtney, John Corbett, Stephanie Shostak, Macy McLean, with Devon Franklin and William H. Macy.
SPEAKER 01 :
If you focus exactly on loving the life that you're living right now, and not the life that you think you could have had or should have had, that's a whole deal right there.
SPEAKER 09 :
Soul on Fire. Rated PG. Parental guidance suggested. In theaters this Friday. For tickets, go to soulonfiremovie.com. Soul!
SPEAKER 14 :
From the wild world of D.C. politics to America's culture clash, brace yourself for the reality check you've been waiting for. The one and only Mike Gallagher Show. Sitting in for Mike today, here's Joey Hudson.
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome in on this Friday. We made it. Three days of the government shutdown and we're still here. We're surviving. As the federal government shutdown rolls into another day, one of the biggest flashpoints, of course, on the whole shutdown has been over the issue of health care for illegals. We've talked about it all week long, health care for the illegals. Are you tired of hearing that? But that's the center point of what is happening with the Democrats. That's what this is all about. Now, Democrats are saying that Republicans are lying, that the Trump administration is lying about their intentions, that they're really not shutting the government down because they're not proposing that we provide health care for illegals. But their previous actions show otherwise. And even some of their current comments this week has shown otherwise. Yesterday, I shared with you which has gone viral, by the way, of the 2019 Democrat presidential primary debate. And there were, what, 12, 14 Democrats in the mix at that time. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, a whole list of them. And at the time, NBC's Savannah Guthrie asked each of the candidates, do you support providing healthcare to illegals. And guess what? Every single one of them did not hesitate. They raised their hands. I think we need to go back just to review this. Guys, let's show, for those of you watching on the Salem News Channel, and I hope you are, let's go back and show this. Let's show the Democrats actually going on record as supporting healthcare for illegals. Here's the clip.
SPEAKER 13 :
Raise your hand if your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants.
SPEAKER 06 :
Every single one of them raised their hand. A stage full of Democrat presidential hopefuls. Now, former Democrat Senator Al Franken tried to fact check Vice President J.D. Vance this week as the Vice President has been out there promoting the Trump administration and what they plan to do. Franken called them ignorant. for saying that Democrats want to fund health care for illegals. But users quickly reminded him of this 2019 debate. And again, that little clip has gone viral. Millions and millions of people have watched that clip this week and been reminded that the Democrat candidates for president just a few years ago wanted health care for illegals. Now, one of their arguments has been, well, we really don't want to do that, but some states may actually do that. The Democrats are kind of correct in that illegals cannot buy insurance through Obamacare. That is a correct statement. But they've found a way and in the round, if you will— And states like California, New York, Illinois, some of the bigger states, some of the blue states, have taken federal dollars and, in an end around, been able to provide health care to illegals in other ways. In fact, California, let me remind you, was hit with a federal audit recommending that they pay back $52 million. that they had improperly claimed for individuals that had unsatisfactory immigration status, meaning they were here illegally. That's why Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders this week have been repeating the message over and over again, saying Democrats pushed For the shutdown, they're pushing because they want health care for illegals. I don't care what the Democrats say. I don't care what comes out of their mouth now that the American people are holding their feet to the fire. This was the reason that we shut things down this week. Speaker Johnson saying Democrats push to extend Obamacare subsidies could open the door again to funding programs that benefit those here illegally. He posted this on X saying some Democrats now claim they don't want illegal immigrants on Medicaid, but their previous votes and the language in their current bill says otherwise. Now, the problem that the Democrats are having is they can't control their messaging. They're not all on the same page with what they say. It's like herding cats. They have so many radicals in their party who are going off on their own saying what they want to say that they're not unified in their message. Let me give you an example. Longtime Representative Maxine Waters struck again this week. She acknowledged yesterday that her party forced the government into a shutdown on Wednesday in order to secure health care for everybody. That's a direct quote, health care for everybody. Now, one would assume that everybody means illegals as well, wouldn't you? Waters, the 87-year-old Democrat congressman, was questioned outside of the U.S. Capitol when she was at a news conference rallying for the Democrats, and this was just prior to the shutdown. Here's the exchange as a reporter is asking Maxine Waters whether or not this would include health care for illegals.
SPEAKER 19 :
Are Democrats demanding health care for illegal aliens?
SPEAKER 17 :
Democrats are demanding health care for everybody. We want to save lives. We want to make sure that health care is available to those who would die but having the help of their government.
SPEAKER 18 :
So you're good with a government shutdown, even if it means giving health care to people who aren't Americans?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, you keep—that's what you're pushing on. What you're trying to do is you're standing here and you're trying to make me say that somehow we're going to put noncitizens over Americans. Quit it. Stop it. This is the kind of journalism we don't need. You're divisive. No, you're not. You're being divisive. No, please. You don't need to ask that question. You're just trying to get controversy here. You're not going to get it from me.
SPEAKER 06 :
Maxine, she didn't like the question, did she? It was a valid question. It was a simple question. Madam Congresswoman, are you supporting, is your party supporting Healthcare for illegals. She didn't want to answer it. She realized she'd gotten herself into a corner. Because the Democrats, they never want to tell the truth. There's always an ulterior motive between anything that they do. There's something that they're after that they just don't want to tell you about. They never want to come forward and say, here's what we really want. They're always doing an end around, just like I mentioned a minute ago in California, New York, and some of the other blue states where they provide the money in a different way. Maxine Waters kind of summed up their real stance, though. They want health care for everybody, and everybody equals illegal immigrants. You agree? 800-655-MIKE, 800-655-6453. It is Friday. You know what we do on Fridays when I'm sitting in the chair? Free speech Friday. Whatever's on your mind, I'm all ears on this Friday edition of the Mike Gallagher Show.
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
From the wild world of D.C. politics to America's culture clash, brace yourself for the reality check you've been waiting for. The one and only Mike Gallagher Show. Sitting in for Mike today, here's Joey Hudson.
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome in on this Friday. Glad to have you join me for a few minutes of your day today. 800-655-MIKE, 800-655-6453 is how you join the conversation, and I hope you will. You can call. Alex will put you in queue. We'll talk as time permits. Send me a quick note on the My Fellow message line. Emails are welcome. Joey at joeyhudson.com. So as we head into the weekend, of course, the big news this week has been the federal shutdown. Have you missed our federal government? My mom called me yesterday, Nana Hudson, and she said, is the government still closed? Yes, mother, it is. She's 87 years old and doesn't really pay a lot of attention necessarily to things like this. She says, well, how does that affect me? And I said, well, mother, have you noticed anything different? Well, no, I haven't. I said, well, I guess it's not affecting you now. And, of course, the big thing with her is, am I going to get my Social Security check? And, yes, mother, you will. So has the shutdown affected you in any way? Have you noticed that the federal government has been closed this week? Probably not. As we roll into another day and as we head into the weekend, Democrats are just really floundering. I don't think it's going exactly the way Chuck Schumer thought it would when he decided to let the government close Democrats. in order to get illegals health care because they can't quite get their messaging right. They have so many radical members of the Democrat caucus that Schumer has no control over what they're saying. Schumer's trying to convince people, well, no, it's really not about health insurance for illegals, but yet you've got Maxine Waters out there saying, well, yeah, we want health insurance for everybody. I would assume when you say everybody, you mean illegals, right? And then you have others. You have like the minority leader of the House, Hakeem Jeffries, being called out by CNN, Jake Tapper of all people, when he's trying to say, well, no, this is not about health insurance. And Jake Tapper says, well, yes, it is, and here's why. And one of the viral video moments of the week has been the video that we shared with you here on the Mike Gallagher Show yesterday. We pulled it out of the archives back in 2019. It was during a Democrat presidential debate when you had a long list of Democrats running. Joe Biden, of course, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg. You had a whole list of them. And they were asked questions. And I think I'm going to, let's pull this one back out, guys, because I want those of you watching us on the Salem News Channel, I want to show it to you one more time. You had every single Democrat on that stage when Savannah Guthrie of NBC asked the question, raise your hand if your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants. Here's the response.
SPEAKER 13 :
Raise your hand if your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants.
SPEAKER 06 :
Now, for those of you watching on the Salem News Channel, you saw every single one of them raise their hand. For those of you listening on the radio, on the Salem Radio Network, take my word for it, they all raised their hand. Because that's what they believe, folks. They believe that, as Maxine Waters said, everybody should get free health insurance. So let's go to Maxine here, 87-year-old congresswoman who's really feisty, as you know. And she acknowledged that her party forced the government into this shutdown this week to secure health care for everybody. Here's Maxine Waters outside of the Capitol.
SPEAKER 19 :
Are Democrats demanding health care for illegal aliens?
SPEAKER 17 :
Democrats are demanding health care for everybody. We want to save lives. We want to make sure that health care is available to those who would die but having the help of their government.
SPEAKER 18 :
So you're good with a government shutdown, even if it means giving health care to people who aren't American citizens?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, you keep—that's what you're pushing on. What you're trying to do is you're standing here and you're trying to make me say that somehow we're going to put noncitizens over Americans. Quit it. Stop it. This is the kind of journalism we don't need. You're divisive. No, you're not. You're being divisive. No, please. You don't need to ask that question. You're just trying to get controversy here. You're not going to get it from me.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, no, no, no. We're not going to get controversy from Maxine Waters. By the way, that reporter was from Lindell TV asking the question. It was a legitimate question. You think she was trying to trap Maxine Waters? There was either a yes or no answer to it. And the answer is yes. You are trying to get health care for illegals. It's just that simple. After this exchange earlier this week, President Trump posted on True Social, Maxine Waters admitted that she's demanding health care for illegal aliens, and it's going to be the top of the line taking American taxpayers' health care away from them. And that's the thing, too, that we have to think about. I think Senator Josh Hawley made a good point. In cut number five, when he talked about the fact, and asked the question, would you rather deny health care to our veterans than deny health care to illegals? Here's Senator Hawley.
SPEAKER 10 :
It's in the Senate Democrats' own bill that they've already voted for twice this week, Sean. They're going to vote for it again tomorrow. Here's what it does. It says all of the rules prohibiting Medicaid and other funding from going to illegals that Donald Trump just signed into law earlier this year will be repealed. So that means that the illegals can get right back on the state Medicaid rolls, right back on the state health care rolls. They know it. They want it. This is what Democrats want to spend money on. And get this. They would rather deny pay to our military service men and women. They would rather deny health care to our veterans than deny health care to illegals. They want to give money to illegals so bad they will shut down the entire government to do it. Sean, it's crazy. It's absolutely nuts.
SPEAKER 06 :
And to follow up with that, Reince Priebus, the former RNC chair, made a very good point, too, on the Fox News Channel this week. Here's Reince Priebus.
SPEAKER 16 :
give you the background. First of all, theoretically, years ago, yes, if you're a legal immigrant, theoretically, you shouldn't be eligible for Medicare, Medicaid under the system. But what happened was Obama and Biden, especially during Obamacare, they granted illegal immigrants a kind of fake special health care kind of status. And so the Republicans took took that little exemption away in the bill that they passed in July. The Democrats are using this CR to try to bring it back. And let me explain two ways that it works. We all know that every state has a Medicaid and Medicare exchange. And so what happens is, is that these states, especially states like New York, they grant illegal immigrants special status. You call it like a sanctuary status into the exchange. And so then what happens is, The illegal immigrant gets into the exchange, they get the Medicaid or the Obamacare in the exchange, and then the states get reimbursed from the federal government. You've heard all summer about senators complaining about the reimbursement rates back to states and hospitals. So that's what they do. They wash all of this money away through the federal reimbursement rate. The other way that this works... If you go to an emergency room, so if an illegal immigrant goes into the emergency room and they get treated, then what happens is the hospital goes back to the federal government and gets what's called an emergency Medicaid payment through a special exchange. And by the way, that reimbursement is at an amount much higher than the the actual amount that you or I would pay or our insurance company would pay if we were to go into the emergency room. So I think it's really important for Republicans to start using real-life examples of how this works, because otherwise, as you see, the mainstream media will just say, well, you're just lying about this. It's not true. But it is true, and it happens all the time, which is why we were fighting all summer about reimbursement rates back to hospitals and states
SPEAKER 06 :
That's a very good point, and we need to remember that because quite often this week we've heard Democrats say, well, we're really not giving them. Illegals cannot get Obamacare. That's correct. But let me ask you, how many times have you been to an emergency room and the room was full of what appeared to be illegals because they used that as their primary care? Those hospitals are getting reimbursed. So, yes, we're giving them free health care. 800-655-MIKE, 800-655-6453. I'm Joey Hudson, in for Mike. Hope you'll join the conversation today.
SPEAKER 08 :
Every single day, it's a joy to remind you that portions of our show are sponsored by MyPillow. As you know, our friend Mike Lindell, big legal victory last week. He's been in a ton of hot water, as you know, because he believes in election integrity, of course, due to his friendship with President Trump. Well, last week, there was a $5 million judgment against Mike that was overturned by the courts. Good news for MyPillow. So you keep praying for MyPillow, and you keep supporting this great American company. The premium MyPillow, limited time, great price, $18.98. If you go to MyPillow.com, this pillow is a godsend. Look, I bring the MyPillow products with me when I'm on the road. Here at the hotel in Washington State, I've got the MySlippers with me, those unbelievable slippers, because I pat around in the hotel room. I don't know what's on that rug. I bring the MyPillow with me. I roll it up into the suitcase. I've even got my MyPillow loungewear. Tons of great products. If you haven't been to the site in a while, go check it out. Go to MyPillow.com. Look for the Mike Gallagher specials. Click on that box. And with anything you order, enter the promo code MikeG. And you're going to save big. The slippers, the doggy beds. And the Giza Dream Sheets? MyPillow.com. Promo code MikeG. MyPillow.com. Promo code MikeG. Or call 800-928-6034. 800-928-6034. Like we love to sing.
SPEAKER 15 :
For the best night's sleep in the whole wide world, visit MyPillow.com.
SPEAKER 08 :
Promo code MikeG.
SPEAKER 14 :
The Mike Gallagher Show on Salem News Channel and the Salem Radio Network.
SPEAKER 02 :
I want to be clear that, like, law enforcement isn't to prevent crime. Law enforcement solves crime, okay? That is what they are supposed to do. They are supposed to solve crimes, not necessarily prevent them from happening, per se.
SPEAKER 14 :
In the relieffactor.com studios, here's Mike Gallagher.
SPEAKER 06 :
Texter on the MyPillow text line. I only heard one comment all weekend about the shutdown last night. A friend told me how saddened her daughter was after the wedding ceremony in St. Louis. They would not be able to take photographs by the arch. I was unaware that it's considered a national park and will be closed for their wedding pictures. Boo-hoo. You know, I haven't had many people who've had issues with the shutdown. There's a theory here that... that some people, that's why the Democrats are so opposed to the shutdown, because they'll realize that people, Americans, just don't miss the government. It doesn't necessarily affect our lives day to day. Now, if they stop sending checks and they stop providing Medicare services, that's another thing. But the average day to day, maybe you call an agency you need help and it takes them longer to answer or they don't answer at all. But overall, I'm not sure a lot of people actually could tell that the government has been shut down these last few days. 800-655-6453. Joey Hudson in for Mike today. Today is Friday, and I love to do Free Speech Friday on Fridays. whatever's on your mind, I'm all ears today. So 800-655-6453 is how your voice is heard. We're going to go to Iowa where Todd is waiting. Welcome, Todd. You're on the Mike Gallagher show.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, Joey. How you doing?
SPEAKER 06 :
I'm wonderful.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, I think it's time that Donald J. Trump and a lot of these Republican governors, um, get, have a, have a, um, like at the fireside room and have an, um, uh, face to the nation and sit down and tell the nation how much this, these illegal immigrants are costing us per state and what, how it's affecting yours, how it's driving up your costs. And I mean, I, I think once these people really see what's going on in there, you know, like an old farmer says, liars can figure, but figures don't lie. And I, Trump has to do that. He has to sit down and face-to-face the nation, have a news conference and say, this is what's going on, and have the Republican governors in there. And, I mean, hey, and also one thing, Joey, the government isn't shut down because I got my paycheck, and, hey, they still took my federal taxes out on it.
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, that raises a good question, Todd. Is the IRS considered essential?
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly. And I'm like you. It doesn't affect me one bit. I mean, it doesn't. Hey, Joe, you have a great day, and I hope I made some sense with my comment. Sure thing, Todd. Have a good one.
SPEAKER 06 :
You too. Have a blessed weekend for sure. Portions of today's show made possible by Americans for a Balanced Budget. You know, Congress's approval of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was – truly a defining moment in President Donald Trump's administration, Trump 2-0. But that win is now at risk. Unless Congress acts before the end of the year, a massive health care tax hike will hit millions of Americans. Americans for a balanced budget is sounding the alarm. Key health care tax credits are set to expire on December 31st. If they lapse... 24 million Americans could face skyrocketing health care costs. Millions may lose coverage entirely. Some communities will be hit especially hard with job losses, fewer providers, and reduced access to health care. Congress must act this year to protect these vital tax credits for Americans who buy their own health insurance. President Trump's pollster found that 77 percent of voters, including over 70 percent of Trump supporters, are more likely to vote for candidates who preserve these credits. Americans for a Balanced Budget is calling on Congress to keep the full promise of the one big beautiful bill by stopping a devastating health care tax hike that will happen if they do not take action before the end of the year. Your voice counts. Visit StopHealthCostHikes.com. StopHealthCostHikes.com. Tell Congress, act now, protect tax credits, and prevent higher health care costs. 800-655-6453. Back to the phones. Pablo is in Bowling Springs, South Carolina, just up the road from my home. Welcome. You're on the Mike Gallagher Show. Are you with me? I guess we lost Pablo. Jeff is in Montana. Welcome, Jeff. You're on the Mike Gallagher Show.
SPEAKER 04 :
Actually, I'm from New York. Okay. Yep, I recently went to my local emergency room, and I looked down at my bracelet, and it had, instead of saying 62-year-old male, it said 62-year-old he, him, and his on my ID bracelet.
SPEAKER 06 :
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER 04 :
So... I just happened to notice and looked down at it, and I thought that they used the wrong pronoun with me because I'm a male. And it just turned into a big deal. I called the administration at the hospital and spoke to them about it. I just thought it was odd that they put he, him, and his on my ID bracelet instead of male.
SPEAKER 06 :
Don't you think this whole pronoun thing has just gotten out of hand? I mean, before, a couple years or so ago when this started, I never even thought about pronouns. Had you?
SPEAKER 04 :
No, not at all. No, no.
SPEAKER 06 :
And what's the point? I mean, when they put that on your bracelet, what was the point?
SPEAKER 04 :
I agree. They couldn't even explain it to me, you know, and It was just an interesting experience.
SPEAKER 06 :
Interesting. Appreciate your phone call, Jeff. You said you're in New York, not Montana.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I just kept my old phone number.
SPEAKER 06 :
I got you. I got you. Appreciate your phone call. 800-655-6453. Let's stay on the phones here. Special guest here, Congresswoman Sherry Biggs from South Carolina's 3rd Congressional District. Welcome. Welcome.
SPEAKER 20 :
Hey, Kelly, how are you?
SPEAKER 06 :
I am wonderful. Good to have you today.
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, we're out working in the district today and we were listening to you. I don't know if Mike's going to move over and let you have his show, but you're doing a great job this morning. And just wanted to tell you that let our constituents know that we're working hard in the third district. So the shutdown hasn't affected us one bit.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, yeah. Talk with me a minute. What are you hearing, Congresswoman, about how long do you think this will go on? How long do you think it will take before the Democrats come to their senses?
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, I think President Trump will be, has a plan B, and I think some of his actions are going to cause them to feel the sense of urgency a little bit more than they have been. But Hopefully today they'll come to their senses, but if not, you know, I think we're going to continue work as usual. It's unfortunate, though, for our constituents in the third district, and it's unfortunate for Americans, period, to have to be dealing with this. So hopefully we'll come to an agreement pretty quickly.
SPEAKER 06 :
Has your office received many calls from constituents who are having issues because offices are closed?
SPEAKER 20 :
We haven't gotten a lot. Our DC office is open and our office in Anderson is open and we're available for work as usual. And we're trying to help navigate if any of our constituents are having issues. We have boots on the ground ready to go. So everybody's working normal. I think we have one intern that we weren't able to continue. But other than that, it's business as usual.
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, one of the things I've never understood, and on our guest line, Congresswoman Sherry Biggs, she represents the third district of my home state of South Carolina. One of the things I've never completely understood in shutdowns is, you know, we label people either essential or non-essential. The essential workers still have to work. They're not going to get a check, but eventually they'll get the back pay. The non-essential workers, as I understand it, they won't go to work. They'll sit at home and, I guess, binge watch Netflix videos. But they, too, eventually will be paid. Is that correct?
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, I think it's sad. I mean, if you are not an essential worker, I don't think, to me, everybody is an essential worker.
SPEAKER 06 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 20 :
To make sure that, yeah, it's ridiculous how they're trying to play on words. Exactly. adjust things to make them seem or appear different. But I know for South Carolina and for our conservatives, we're working hard. We're not going to let this chaos... It's just unfortunate that they're holding the Americans hostage and trying to play political games. And this is not funny. I mean, you look at our military members and our veterans and the people... the families that it's affecting in our district. This is absurd, and it needs to come to an end today.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, it does. It is absurd, and it's a waste of time, and it's distracted everybody. I mean, this is all we've been talking about for the past few days. It's a big distraction. There's too much work to be done for us to be doing this, right?
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, and I hope the American citizens will take note. And the people that are playing around with our taxpayer dollars, I hope they'll vote them out and only put people in that are going to represent our conservative values and that are there for the right reasons to get the job done and to continue to put America first.
SPEAKER 06 :
Sure.
SPEAKER 20 :
We need to do. And the voters have that ability.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yep. Congresswoman Biggs, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. Be safe out there as you are traveling around the 3rd District talking with your constituents.
SPEAKER 20 :
Thank you. Take care and have a great day.
SPEAKER 06 :
Sure thing. Always a pleasure. Joey Hudson in for Mike today. 800-655-6453 is how you join the conversation. Text me on the MyFellow text line. Email me directly. Joey at JoeyHudson.com.
SPEAKER 1 :
Gotta do what you can just to keep your love.
SPEAKER 12 :
Out in these parts, some folks call it radio. We call it the last campfire of the American spirit. Stoke the fire of freedom with American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avalone and Stephen Parr. American Ground Radio, planting seeds, growing freedom. Listen wherever you get your podcasts and visit our website at AmericanGroundRadio.com.
SPEAKER 14 :
Mike Gallagher.
SPEAKER 06 :
Joey Hudson in for Mike today. You know, one of the things that has become very evident here is the Democrats, they don't really know what they're proposing and what they're not proposing. Have you noticed over the past few days there's been a mixed message here? We had Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying, oh, no, we're not proposing that we give illegals health care. But then you had Maxine Waters this week say, oh, yeah, we want everybody to have health care. And even some of the liberal media is starting to push back. I'll give you an example. Hakeem Jeffries, in a viral interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper, also said that it was a lie that Democrats want to give away health insurance. Jake Tapper pushed back. Here's the exchange.
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And Democrats want to talk about extending the Obamacare subsidies, which expire at the end of 2025. But they talk about the provisions, and it's right here, subtitle E. And this has to do with the repeal of health care subtitle changes and specifically what it is. How they characterize it is you want to give health insurance to undocumented immigrants. I understand that's not really an accurate depiction, but what it does do is... It's a lie. It's a lie, but what you support does bring back funding for emergency Medicaid to hospitals, some of which does pay for undocumented immigrants and people who don't have health insurance. And also, there is this provision, and it's not about undocumented immigrants, it's about... people with asylum seekers and people with temporary protected status, etc., etc., but about their ability to get Medicaid. So they're non-citizens. They're not undocumented. They're not illegal. Why even include that in a bill knowing that they're going to seize right upon that and use that as a message?
SPEAKER 06 :
Wow. You can see the look on Hakeem Jeffries' face, for those of you watching us on the Salem News Channel. Here's the bottom line. Between fiscal years 2017 and 2023, federal and state governments spent a total of $27 billion on emergency Medicaid services for people who were ineligible for full Medicaid coverage because of their immigration status. That's the bottom line. We have been paying for health care. And the Democrats want us to continue to pay for health care. That's why they're pushing this. That's why our government is closed right now. Now, I do think that Chuck Schumer miscalculated on the response. I do think that when he and whoever he sits down with at night to come up with strategy, they missed this one. I don't think Donald Trump, I don't think Speaker Mike Johnson, I don't think Senate Majority Leader John Thune, I don't think they're going to bend on this. Do you? Should they? 800-655-6453. Back to the phones. Jackson, you're on the Mike Gallagher Show. Hello? Hey, Jackson, yeah, you're on the Mike Gallagher Show.
SPEAKER 21 :
Hey, first-time caller, 24 from San Antonio, back home from college. I was just calling in mostly because I'm not, I mean, I'm happy that we're having a national conversation about health care. I kind of wish it was citizens as opposed to you know, non-citizens, but you get what you get. I was mostly calling in because I wasn't really happy with the whole Argentina thing. I feel like no one's really talking about that. I heard they were going to be bailing them out, and I just, that is like the worst possible thing. The idea of bailing out another country, friend or foe, just leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, well, you know, there are a lot of things that I don't care for, and I don't think we should be bailing any country out. I agree with you on that. We spend too much of our hard-earned tax dollars trying to be friends with everybody around the country. We can't be friends with everybody. We need to take care of ourselves first. We need to balance our own budget before we bail anybody out. Vernon is on the Mike Gallagher Show. Welcome, Vernon. Hey, how you doing, sir? Wonderful. Hope you are. I'm well, thank you.
SPEAKER 05 :
What's on your mind today? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm calling about the shutdown of the government. Here's what I think we need to do. If they have a government credit card, I'm talking about senators and all those people in the elective, turn them off. If they've got a government car, take it away from them and then dock their pay while they're doing this. That's my suggestion.
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, a congressman from my home state of South Carolina, Ralph Norman – He submitted a constitutional amendment this week that would change that so that members of Congress are not paid. Now, the reality is that's going to be a tough one. It's hard to amend the Constitution. But he and other members of the South Carolina delegation and others around the country have or saying, I'm not going to take my pay. Either hold it, I'm not going to accept it, or in some cases, like Senator Lindsey Graham, our senior senator from South Carolina, said, I'm going to donate mine. And he named Upstate Warrior Solution, which is a great nonprofit who serves veterans in the upstate of South Carolina. I'm going to give mine to Upstate Warrior Solution. I mean, I think that's a good thing to do.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think it's outstanding, sir. Outstanding. I'm a retired vet myself.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, thank you for your service, Vernon. Have a great weekend and a blessed day. 800-655-6453 is how you join the conversation, either through the MyPillow text line. You can call, and we'll put you in queue. We'll talk as time permits, of course. I love your emails. You can email me anytime directly, joey at joeyhudson.com. I read every one of them, and I try to respond to every one of them. A Portland, Oregon City Council member is literally advising people on how to avoid detection by local officials. I'm Joey Hudson, in for Mike Gallagher on this Free Speech Friday. Hope you'll join the conversation.
Welcome to the Kim Monson Show podcast. Kim Monson is your host. Co-founders of The 2nd Syndicate Alicia Garcia and Teddy Collins discuss how the radical activists who control the Colorado State Legislature and Governor’s office are stripping you of the right to protect yourself and your family from bad actors. Founder and CEO of First American State Bank Jay Davidson explains that decades of spending growth, suppression of private business, net out migration due to crime, and a negative regulatory environment is bankrupting Denver.
The Kim Monson Show airs on KLZ 560 AM every Monday thru Friday, 6-8 AM MST. You can listen to the live stream by going to KLZ Radio
SPEAKER 03 :
It's the Kim Monson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 11 :
An early childhood taxing district? What on earth is that?
SPEAKER 03 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 11 :
I don't think that we should be passing legislation that is so complicated that people kind of throw up their hands and say, I can't understand that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Today's Current Opinions and Ideas.
SPEAKER 11 :
And it's not fair just because you're a big business that you get a break on this and the little guy doesn't.
SPEAKER 03 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let's have a conversation.
SPEAKER 11 :
Indeed, let's have a conversation. Welcome to the Kim Monson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You each are 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, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. It is Friday, Producer Joe.
SPEAKER 20 :
Happy Friday, Kim.
SPEAKER 11 :
Happy Friday, and we've got another great show planned for you, so fasten your seatbelts. Let's get right into it. First of all, I wanted to say thank you to the Harris family for their gold sponsorship of the show. We are an independent voice on an independent station. 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 it's not compassionate nor altruistic to take other people's stuff, whether or not it's their rights, their property, freedom, livelihood, opportunity, childhoods or lives via force. And force can be a weapon policy, unpredictable in excess of taxation, fear of compliance, fear, coercion, government induced inflation. The agenda of the World Economic Forum and the globalist elites has played out at the United Nations, but we're seeing that trickle all the way down to local government. And that's why we really need to be paying attention on what's going on. But this Colorado state legislature and this Colorado governor, I know this governor tries to paint himself as a libertarian. But when you look at the policies, when you look at the legislation that's passed, what is the power that's given to bureaucracies, which are unelected and unaccountable people that are instituting rules and regulations, you can see that actually policies are in line with the radical activists left. And I always want to make this point. This Democrat Party is not the Democrat Party of your grandpa and your grandma or JFK. It has been taken over by radical activists. And that's why when we're talking with people, I really don't like to talk about Republican versus Democrat. I want to talk more about these ideas. And we want to be electing candidates that believe in this, believe in the American idea. which Jefferson had in the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal. And Calvin Coolidge, our president, said that if all men are created equal, then that is final. That is the North Star that we want to get to, is that we are treated equally and partially under the law. that each individual has these rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. And that means owning property, that means the opportunity to own property. It also means that government should be small and within a proper role, not only at the federal level, but at the local levels as well, and that the individual should be in a position where they can pursue their happiness, go after their hopes and dreams. And that is really what makes America so unique. And so that's where we need to come down on agreement. And one of our listeners, I've got to see if I found this on the text line. I meant to have that there, and I did not. But basically, I'll try to find that. We want to talk about unity, right? But the unity has to come together in this idea that all men are created equal. If you don't believe that all men are created equal, that's a foundational principle that we will have a very difficult time unifying around if you don't believe that. And so that's why we need to have conversations to continue to talk about these foundational principles. And I think the big, broad middle of America will come together on this. Those that, I think there are those, the radical activists that have taken over the Democrat Party, as we can see, really are more about destruction and chaos. When you look at what's happening in Portland right now, the ICE facility is under siege. And And you have to say why. And so we need to be engaging in these conversations with our friends and our family to come to unify around this idea of America. If somebody wants to destroy America, it's going to be pretty difficult to come to any kind of unification with them. But I think that that is a small percentage, very loud, but we need to continue to address that. Our word of the day, let me get over here to this, and I'm reading Jonathan Turley's book, The Indispensable Right, Freedom of Speech in an Age of Rage. And as he said, there's been ages of rage before, but we do need to continue to engage in conversations about all this. And the other thing is, in this postmodernism and relativism, There are those that have come to believe that ideas are totally equal in the battle of ideas, and they're not. There are some ideas that are bad ideas, and there are some ideas that are very good ideas. And I think that we need to have an understanding of that as well. And I think after the Charlie Kirk assassination incident, People are realizing that there is a difference in ideas and that there is evil. And so I'm very encouraged with the conversations that are going on. But I pulled this word from Jonathan Turley's book. and it's eskuchen, or eskuchen, and it's E-S-C-U-T-C-H-E-O-N, and it's a shield or shield-shaped emblem bearing a coat of arms, an ornamental or protective plate as for a keyhole, or the plate on the stern of a ship inscribed with the ship's name. And so that is your challenge to use the word in a sentence today. Today is Friday. And that means that we are pulling our quote from the Medal of Honor quote book from the Center for American Values. And yesterday we had Drew Dixon, who is one of the co-founders of the center. And Just really informative about what the Center for American Values is working on doing through their educational programs, their On Values presentations, and the great work that they are doing. And I'd really recommend that you have the Medal of Honor quote book. uh on your library in your library at home and it's a really a great christmas or hanukkah gift as well but this is a quote from sergeant from jose rodella united states army medal of honor he was born in 1937. And this is his citation. Sergeant First Class Jose Rodela distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as the company commander, Detachment B-36 Company A, 5th Special Forces Group Airborne, 1st Special Forces during combat operations against an armed enemy in Phuoc Long Province, Republic of Vietnam, on September 1, 1969. That afternoon, Sergeant First Class Rodella's battalion came under an intense barrage of mortar, rocket, and machine gun fire. Ignoring the withering enemy fire, Sergeant First Class Rodella immediately began placing his men into defensive positions to prevent the enemy from overrunning the entire battalion. repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire. Sergeant First Class Rodella moved from position to position, providing suppressing fire and assisting wounded, and was himself wounded in the back and head by a B-40 rocket while recovering a wounded comrade. Alone, Sergeant First Class Rodella assaulted and knocked out the B-40 rocket position before successfully returning to the battalion's perimeter. Sergeant First Class Rodella's extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army." And this is what he said, service doesn't come without sacrifice, but both are worth the freedom gained. And that is Jose Rodela, United States Army Medal of Honor recipient. And again, check out the Center for American Values. It is located in Pueblo on the Riverwalk. And take time to go down and visit the center. And just it's a very reverent place with the over 160 Medal of Honor recipients portraits there with their quotes. And so highly recommend that you check that out and to support them as well. Another sponsor of the show that I highlight regularly is Hooters Restaurants. How I got to know them is a very important story about freedom and free markets and capitalism, and you can find that story at my website. They have locations in Loveland, Westminster, and on Parker Road in Aurora. Great specials Monday through Friday for lunch and for happy hour. In particular, I love the fish and chips, and they're delicious. Nachos. There we go. Their nachos are super delicious as well. I think probably the big news right now in Colorado politics is all of the candidates that have announced that they are running for governor. And there is going to be a forum that is on the 18th of October. And it is doors open at five o'clock. The forum is from six to eight p.m. And I'm going to be moderating that. And it will have almost all of the governor candidates that will be running for governor on the GOP side. And so check that out. And I will try to get more information for you. And we'll put that in the newsletter as we get closer to that as well. That's why you want to make sure that you are signed up for our newsletter that goes out on Sundays. We normally only send one email each. a week unless there's something just very special that we need to let you know. But do check that out at my website and get signed up for that. And I think that we'll go ahead. We've got some candidates for Douglas County School Board. that are running and i can't believe that ballots are going to go out next week i will be working on the voters guide this week so hopefully that'll be very helpful there's only two questions on the state ballot and that's um propositions ll and propositions mm which ostensibly are healthy meals for school children which that sounds great but as you know we really delve into what it's really all about and we will give you the information on that We have all these discussions because of our sponsors. And for everything regarding your insurance needs, reach out to the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance Team. They know that there are unknowns that can keep you up at night, and they can help you with life insurance and health insurance needs to replace lost income. So give them a call at 303-795-8855 for a complimentary appointment. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan Insurance Team is there.
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SPEAKER 13 :
There's so much noise coming at us. Sometimes it is difficult to make sense of it all. How can you sift through the clamor for your attention and get to the truth? The Kim Monson Show is here to help. Kim searches for truth and clarity by examining issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. Tune in to the Kim Monson Show each weekday, 6 to 8 a.m. with encores 1 to 2 p.m. and 10 to 11 p.m. on KLZ 560 AM, KLZ 100.7 FM.
SPEAKER 11 :
the klz website the klz app and alexa play klz shows can also be found at kimmonson.com spotify and itunes indeed it is friday and welcome back to the kim monson show be sure and check out our website that is kim monson mon son.com and sign up for our weekly email newsletter there while you're at that that comes out on sundays election 20 the 2025 election is right around the corner And there's a lot of questions regarding raising taxes, extending taxes, but also there's some very important races for school board and city council. And pleased to have on the line with me two candidates for Douglas County School Board here in Colorado. That is Matt Smith and Keaton Gamble. Matt Smith, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hi, Kim. Thanks for having us. Really appreciate it.
SPEAKER 11 :
Absolutely. And Keaton Gamble, welcome as well.
SPEAKER 06 :
I can't thank you. Sorry, I won't go under the weather today.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, well, thank you for making this happen. So we'll go to you first, Matt. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, perfect. Yeah, you know, pretty simple. I'm a dad, son of Castle Rock here in eighth grade. And quick background about me. I'm a military veteran, two times Navy and then Corps. Colorado Army National Guard. I also served as a deputy sheriff, and now I work in IT leading a global consulting practice and also volunteer for the Douglas County Search and Rescue Team.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay. And Keaton, tell us a little bit about yourself.
SPEAKER 06 :
I grew up in Elizabeth, Colorado. I have three kids in the district. I have a daughter in kindergarten, a second grader, and a boy in eighth grade.
SPEAKER 11 :
And what kind of business are you in?
SPEAKER 06 :
I'm a senior supply chain manager at a tissue bank. So we donate to human tissue and make life-saving grafts.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay. And it's busy at your house with the kids in that age group, and that's also kids bring home germs that adults are not used to. So I'm sorry that you're under the weather, Keaton. So we'll go to Matt. There are four of you that are running as a slate, correct?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yep, absolutely.
SPEAKER 11 :
So tell us just a little bit about that and what you think are the main issues that the Douglas County School District is facing.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, perfect. There's 4 of us running. We're all conservative parents running together with either kids currently in the district or kids recently in the district and our top 3 priorities are focusing on academic excellence right now. Douglas county is doing so well. Number 1 in the metro area. 92% graduation rate. Students are happy, teachers are happy, and things are going really well. And that is all thanks to conservative leadership, and we want to keep it that way. So we want to keep that momentum moving forward and make sure that we stay laser-focused on academics and achievement. Next, we want to be proactive here in Douglas County and make sure that we are protecting girls' sports and their spaces, so keeping biological boys out of girls' sports, their locker rooms and bathrooms, things that we're seeing all over the country and here in Douglas County. We want to be very proactive about that and protecting our girls. And then third, we want to continue strengthening parental rights. We want to make sure parents know what's going on in the classroom. Things are very easy to navigate for them and that they have the ability to opt their children into things and just know what's going on in the classroom. That's our top three priorities. And of course, there's other things that we're focused on, such as the financial well-being of the county, making sure that we're being very studious with tax dollars and not raising tax dollars and things of that nature. So that's really our top four there for you, Kim.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay. And who are the four that is on this slate? And Keaton, since you're a little under the weather, Matt, I'll go to you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, yeah. So you have Keaton Gamble, DeeDee Kramer, me, Matt Smith, and then Steve Bale. So Gamble, Kramer, Smith, and Bale.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, and what would you say, Keaton, what would you say that really sets you apart from your opponents in this election, Keaton?
SPEAKER 06 :
I would say it's our transparency. We have been forthright about everything we believe in and stand for, and we are not hiding behind anything when it comes to forums about what we will stand for. For instance, on the collective bargaining agreement that the other slate has discussed with the Columbus County Federation, which is a part of the American Federation of Teachers. Which is the union.
SPEAKER 11 :
yeah the union they sidestepped the union that they are uh received a large donation from well and i think that that's what we have seen keaton in our education system in our country is that the teachers unions have um have had um people that have gotten on the school boards that have had the union interest in mind in instead of the parents and the students. And we're now seeing the results of that in many school districts where maybe only 30% of the kids are proficient in reading, writing, and arithmetic. And that is unacceptable. But you mentioned, I think that Douglas County is among the tops, at least in the metro area, for results. Correct, Matt Smith?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yep, yep, you got it. And, you know, to further tack on to your point that you just made, there's actually a study out of California that looked at just that. They looked at, you know, specifically union members being part of a board, and they found that there's no outcomes for students. It only ends up benefiting staff. And so I think that's an important point, a differentiator for sure for us.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay. And so, Keaton, you mentioned that the Teachers Union has put money into your opponents' campaigns. Money is also important. Can people give to your slate, or how does that work if people want to support you? And the other thing, my friends, this is the time to contribute to candidates. You may say, oh, I'm going to wait until we get to election time, but now is the time that candidates need money. so that they can get yard signs out and continue to get the message out. So now is the critical time, Keaton Gamble. How can people give to you?
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you very much. CommonSenseDCSD.com. Our slate is called Common Sense because that's what we stand for, and DCSD is in DouglasCountySchoolDistrict.com. There's a link for each candidate. If you do donate, if you can, if you could split it between the four of us, that helps with how we can spend it.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. Matt Smith, can people vote for all four of you? Is it by district? What does that look like exactly?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I'm glad you brought this up because this is a common point of misunderstanding. Districts do not matter in this election. This is an unaffiliated election, and we are all running at large. So no matter where you live in Douglas County, you get to vote for four. So, you know, don't even worry about districts. It doesn't matter which district you're in. Just vote for four on the ballot, and we hope that you're voting for Gamble, Kramer, Smith, and Bale.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, and then the money component is you have to give to each of the four candidates because each of you, even though you're running as a slate, you each have your own campaigns, correct, Keaton?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, and we have to spend equally to use the slate advertising that has all of our names on it. For convenience sake, if that's too much hassle, it's fine to just donate to one of us.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, but ideally it would be helpful if people are able to split that. Absolutely. What do you foresee? Well, I think another thing, you mentioned something about opting in. And that is a really important thing because parents are busy. They may miss an email on something that might say, hey, we've got this survey or whatever, and you need to opt out of it. And some of these surveys are asking questions that they have no business asking, or they may be having leading questions in them. And so the opting in, you mentioned that, that's a pretty big deal. So tell us just a little bit about that, Matt Smith.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, that's a huge deal. And you really hit the nail on the head. I mean, opting out requires parents to have a ton of information, to read the small print, to pay attention to every single email that's going on. And, you know, again, reading that small print at the bottom and saying, hey, if It's not something you agree with. You can opt out. We want to take a different approach of opting in. That's going to require us to be educating parents and so they understand what's going on. But parents have the right to make sure their children are exposed to the things that align with their faith, their beliefs, and their values. And so that's what we're here to support and make sure that the school is supportive of that as well.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, and that is a really important policy issue that I think a lot of people don't realize. Keaton, the other thing that I love that you mentioned, you and Matt mentioned, is transparency. For parents to know what curriculum is happening at school, what their kids are seeing, I personally like the idea of of disconnecting from a lot of the technology and getting back to paper and pencils. I know that's really old-fashioned, Keaton, but I kind of like that idea. What do you think about that?
SPEAKER 06 :
I do like it as well, but as far as transparency, I think the most efficient thing is like online portals where teachers can see the curriculum, what the kids are learning every day.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, or parents can see the curriculum. I think you said teachers. Yeah. Okay. So, Keaton, I'll go to you first. Your final thought that you'd like to leave with our listeners today. And thank you for being under the weather, but yet making this happen. I really do appreciate it.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, I'm sorry. My priority is keeping parents as the first partner in their children's education and creating that culture in Douglas County School District where the teachers and staff always see the parents as their main partner in the children's education.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, and Matt Smith, and thank you for stepping forward. And thank you to your family as well because it is a real commitment to be a candidate and run for office. So thank you. And Matt Smith, your final thought.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, so I think the big thing I'm seeing as I'm out there talking to tons and tons of voters is just people do not realize that there's an election and how important this is. It doesn't matter if you have kids in the district or not. The district is still responsible for about 50% of your property taxes here, and it has a big impact on your home value. So whether you have kids or not, please vote in this election. It is so important. And we want to continue the good things that are happening under conservative leadership. And we're the only candidates that are going to stand up for protecting girls and keeping boys out of girls' sports, their bathrooms, and their locker rooms. This November 4th, please vote Gamble, Kramer, Smith, and Vail.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, again, that's Gamble, Kramer, Smith, Vail. That website is commonsensedcsd, so common sense for Douglas County School District. So commonsensedcsd.com. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us, and I wish you all kinds of good luck.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you, Kim. Really appreciate it. Thank you.
SPEAKER 11 :
Absolutely. And my friends, any candidate that reaches out to us, we will put them on the air because we want you to have a conversation to know more about them. And I do thank Matt Smith and Keaton Gamble for joining us. And that slate is Gamble, Kramer, Smith, and Vail. And we get to have all these discussions because of our sponsors. If you're going to buy a home, sell a home, or are looking at a new build, you want to talk to Karen Levine.
SPEAKER 19 :
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April 26, 1777. Colonel, the British are raiding Danbury and burning the town. I'll go tell them. Sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington mounted her horse and rode 40 miles through night and pouring rain. That's twice the distance of Paul Revere to sound the alarm.
SPEAKER 02 :
Quickly.
SPEAKER 18 :
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SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
Indeed, it is Friday, so welcome back to the Kim Bunsen Show. And so pleased to have on the line with me great sponsors of the show, founders of the Second Syndicate, and that is Alicia Garcia and Teddy Collins. And the Second Amendment is in the Bill of Rights to protect all of our other rights. And the Second Syndicate is working to bring all these voices together. You would think that we're human beings, and what happens sometimes is we... kind of lose our focus on what is so, so important. And so Alicia and Teddy have put the Second Syndicate together to bring these voices together. And they are down at the Capitol, which Colorado is trying to take away our Second Amendment rights piece by piece. And they have been at the Capitol, and they're going to ramp that up even more so. Alicia Garcia, welcome to the show. Good morning, Kim. It's always a pleasure. Great to have you. And Teddy Collins, and you are the owner of Spartan Defense, which is in Colorado Springs. And you seem to be one of the media go-to guys regarding the Second Amendment because you're all over the place, Teddy Collins.
SPEAKER 07 :
I am out there for sure. You know, I get calls to do these kind of things anytime there's something gun related. So more than happy to do it and more than happy to fight for the Second Amendment. And we're going to have to here in Colorado coming up this upcoming legislative session. So absolutely. Thank you for having me, Kim.
SPEAKER 11 :
Absolutely. Teddy, I know I shouldn't ask this question, but how can they do anything more than that Senate Bill 25003 and then all of this other legislation? I don't even want to ask the question, but what else can they do? What are you concerned about?
SPEAKER 07 :
It's always death by a thousand cuts, and they're always looking to restrict more and more. So the rumors at this point are is we've heard about a suppressor bill that would potentially ban suppressors across the state of Colorado at the state level. And we've also heard about a potential armory bill, a bill that would essentially limit the amount of firearms an individual could own, purchase, et cetera, here in the state of Colorado.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, my gosh. Well, now we've talked about suppressors because, Alicia, there was something at the federal level that they did, but you were concerned about that. And I thought we kind of had that worked out. So what's going on with this potential suppressor bill, Alicia?
SPEAKER 09 :
The way the Colorado looks at suppressors, they have them classified as dangerous and illegal weapons. which means that in order to obtain them here in the state of Colorado, you have to acquire what they call some form of permit. The way they're looking at it right now is the tax stamp is your permit. So when you go to purchase a suppressor, you have to pay a $200 tax stamp, $100 transfer fee and all these things and go through a little bit more of an in-depth background check for that suppressor. I should know because, you know, I've bought suppressors in the past and it's quite tedious for me. It's not maybe for other people, but I think for some reason, because I'm such a two-way loud mouth, that they're like, we don't want to approve her or let her have these things. But the way that they define them here in Colorado makes it very restrictive. So with the Big Beautiful Bill we discussed not too long ago, they went ahead and included some language from the Hearing Suppression Act that But we wanted more language in that bill because we want to make sure that it would apply to Colorado and other states. All they necessarily did was just take away the tax stamp. You still have to do the background check, all the rest of the stuff, the fingerprinting. All they did was say, you know, you just don't have to pay $200.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay. Well, Teddy, this really is, all of this is an infringement on our right to keep and bear firearms. Can something be done at the national level just to come in and override all of these onerous bills that we're having in California, here in Colorado? Is there a strategy that could help us on that?
SPEAKER 07 :
The strategy would be getting a bill in place that would provide federal preemption, in which case federal law would supersede state law, and the laws could not be stricter in the states than at the federal level. That's something that's been discussed. It's something that Republicans have discussed in the past. The issue is getting a bill like that through the Senate right now.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, but we have the Senate, so why couldn't we do that?
SPEAKER 07 :
Because we need 60 votes in the Senate to bypass a filibuster. without using something called the nuclear option, which has been done in the past, made famous by Obama during the Affordable Care Act, the Obama Care Act.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, that's right. Because that only passed by just over 50, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
Correct, yes. They used a parliamentarian procedure to basically suspend the normal rules in the Senate and bypass the 60-vote threshold usually required to overcome a filibuster.
SPEAKER 11 :
So that's why elections matter so much. Alicia, you and Teddy founded the Second Syndicate. And tell us about how people can support you. Are you going to be doing membership newsletters? What's that going to look like as people, you know, what do they get the bang for their buck for helping support you?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, thank you for asking that. So one of the things that we're doing is fundraising for Faster Colorado program right now. So we believe in Faster Colorado as another entity here in the States. and state of Colorado that supports the right to keep and bear arms. If people out there aren't familiar with FASTER, what it is is a program that allows staffers in schools in Colorado right now to be armed. While the tuition for that is very costly, and as educators we all realize that Money is not the commodity for those people. So we at the Second Syndicate said, you know, we're not going to wait for our government to get involved or for these politicians to actually care about protecting our children. We're going to support these educators. So these people are volunteering to be armed, whether they're the lunch lady or the custodian or the teacher in Colorado schools. So we said, well, let's help them by providing equipment, providing the tuition, et cetera, that they need to complete the FASTER program. So that way these educators can protect our kids and we can have more armed educators in our schools here in Colorado. So if they can go to our website, they can go to thesecondsyndicate.com. They could donate generally to us just to make sure that we are having the presence at the Capitol that we need, that we're able to continue hosting events, to continue educating. For example, I spoke at the Independence Institute. yesterday night. So we were able to educate those people and have more of a grassroots effort. But we also want to be able to arm the educators so they can go to our Give, Send, Go to, I think it's Operation Education, and they can donate there. And when they donate to us, they also get entered into a giveaway that we have that is for a Springfield that's custom engraved by the Damage Factory. That's a 1911 that's really, really stellar. So there's some incentive there to want to support our movement.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and Laura Karna, I was traveling, and Brad Beck was guest hosting for me earlier in the week, and he had Laura Karna on with Faster, and so certainly that's a great program to support. But when supporting you and what you're doing with Faster is, as you mentioned, money is something that's important to these educators. And so it's not only just signing them up for the course, but you're going to really outfit them, I guess, would be what I would say. Is that right, Alicia?
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely. And that's one of the beautiful things about the Second Syndicate, because, you know, my co-founder is Spartan Defense, and we have some great connections in the Second Amendment industry. I'm an educator. I shoot a defensive pistol. I can teach defensive pistol. We have a lot of people in this industry that want to be solution oriented. And I think it's important that we say, Hey, you know what? Let's do what we can, and we can make a difference. We truly can. And that's one of the things that I love about this organization and why Teddy Rossi and I put this together is that we're willing to work with other fellow 2A organizations to come together and say, okay, you know, one of us is better than – or, you know, two of us is better than one, and five of us is better than three, and see what we can do to say, you know, we have a common interest here. Let's bind together and let's put our interests in the same bucket and let's help each other be successful.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and when we send our children, our teachers, our staff to school, we expect them to come home. And the fact that our schools, we just saw this shooting up in Evergreen, Teddy. It's unbelievable to me. And it doesn't make sense to me that there would be people that would be against having good guys or gals have a gun. And I was thinking a teacher, so many teachers basically put their lives down for their students. If a bad guy is in school with a gun, And there's nobody there that has a firearm that could take the bad guy out. I mean, just throwing a wastebasket or something at a bad guy isn't going to do it. I think that having staff that's trained and armed is so important. And I think the bad guy also, they choose soft targets, not hard targets. Right, Teddy? Yes.
SPEAKER 07 :
I mean, absolutely. And that's exactly what we saw in Evergreen. The resource officer was on medical leave when this occurred. And everybody knew that because they'd been on medical leave for quite some time. So they did not have an armed resource officer at that school. But I just want to be clear about this program. It goes even further than resource officers. We are talking about armed teachers or staff members, individuals that go through extensive amounts of training, including medical training and other background checks. and recertifications that they have to go through in order to do this. This is armed deterrence in an unknown way. What I mean by that is that no one knows who those are carrying. Think of it as a school version of an air marshal on a plane. It's the same exact concept, and it's, in my opinion, one of the only ways that we can truly protect children in schools is to have that armed resistance, that ability to fight back. We should not... We should not have a pen of unarmed sheep and then allow the gates to be open for wolves to come in. We have to protect our children.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, absolutely. And a bad guy is going to, if you have your resource officers, of course, you said the resource officer was not there at Evergreen, but that is one of the first things, probably targets that a bad guy is going to try to neutralize would be the resource officer. So hardening the target where the bad guy would not know who might be carrying a firearm. I think that's such an important strategy, Teddy.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. I mean, it works in every aspect of life. Again, after after 9-11, we had air marshals. We haven't had incidents like that since. So there's it works. We need the same thing for our children. We need to make sure our schools are hard target and our children are protected so that they can be nurtured and learned and raised how they should be without fear.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, absolutely. So what is it? We're going to go to break here. But what is the Web site for the second syndicate, Alicia?
SPEAKER 09 :
It is thesecondsyndicate.com, the2ndsyndicate.com.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, and you can go there and you can contribute and support the great work that they're doing. And so the work regarding FASTER and helping outfit basically this staff so that they have the things that they need, and then also the fight that they have in the battle of ideas down at the state legislature is so important, and you can support them by going to the 2ndsyndicate.com. We're going to continue the discussion with Teddy Collins and Alicia Garcia. And we have these discussions because of our sponsors. And for Everything Mortgages, you'll want to talk to Lauren Levy.
SPEAKER 17 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
720-940-3887. All 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 Monson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmonson.com. That's kimmonson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. And I've got a question for you. Do you have big dreams for your future, but you're not quite sure how to get there? Call our friends at Mint Financial Strategies. They know your financial life is unique and as an independent firm and an accredited investment fiduciary, they build personalized strategies that put your freedom and goals first. No sales pressure, no one size fits all approach, just thoughtful guidance built around you. Take the first step toward your future. Call Mint Financial Strategies. That number is 303-285-3080. 303-285-3080. And then also check out the USMC Memorial Foundation, which is a nonprofit that I dearly love. Paula Sarles, who is the president and her team, raised the money to take care of the Marine Memorial, which is out at 6th and Colfax. And they're raising money for the remodel as well. And you can get more information on that by going to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That is usmcmemorialfoundation.org. Our text line is 720-605-0647. So I'd love to hear from you. And then the last segment of our number two, we will take call-ins. That number is 303-477-5600. I have Alicia Garcia. and Teddy Collins on the line. And Alicia, this came in from Gammy. She says, Alicia, great idea to work together and to arm more teachers. So you and Teddy, Alicia, well, you work together at Spartan Defense, which is Teddy and Rosia's business. But tell us about your business and how you are training people to be able to protect themselves. Alicia Garcia.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, thank you for saying that. So I do have a concealed carry class and an educational class that I teach at least every Sunday. So if you would like to get your concealed handgun permit, if you want to get a renewal, if you want to learn about de-escalation, situational awareness, if you... want to get better with your pistol or you want to understand the mechanics of firearms better, if you want to learn how to custom fit a gun to yourself, you know, drill, things of that nature in order to become a better shooter, let me know. I have a classroom in Thornton, Colorado. I also have a classroom in Southeast Florida. Denver, as well as I'm always in Colorado Springs with my wonderful partners, Spartan defense. So I am able to educate you on all of those things. The name of the company is concealed carry classes of Denver.com. You can go to concealed carry class, Denver.com and book your class with me. Go ahead and choose your Thornton classroom and I will be your teacher.
SPEAKER 11 :
And we have that linked on our website with sponsors. And so you can easily go to that if you're driving and you're saying, oh, I can't write that down. Then also, Teddy, Spartan Defense, tell us about that as well. And again, that link is on our website, kimmonson.com as well.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, absolutely. So our website is SpartanDefense.com. We are a locally owned and operated gun store, one of the largest in the state down in the Colorado Springs area. We specialize in 2011s race guns, attack, we'll call it black rifle to use the correct term, things of that nature. And we do custom work, Cerakote, gunsmithing, you name it, we do it. So come on down to Spartan Defense if you ever need anything. Regardless of whether it's us or somebody else, support your local gun store, especially your local involved gun store in the 2A fight here in Colorado. They are getting hit hard by these regulations from the state, and they are actually fighting back for your rights. Those that are involved, support them. Send your business there. Shop local.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and you mentioning all of the stuff that's happening down at the Capitol. Alicia, when I went down to testify this last legislative session, I thought it was ironic that I had to go through a metal detector, and that it's the Colorado State Patrol that protects the Capitol. And I thought it was just so ironic that there at the Capitol, they had officers with firearms that were protecting the Capitol, And the legislators there that are putting through legislation that's trying to take away our rights to protect ourselves against bad guys, but yet they have somebody with a firearm protecting them. I just found that so ironic.
SPEAKER 09 :
I do, too. And the sad part is I like to remind everybody that the government is not anti-gun. They love guns because they hide behind them all the time. They're protected by them all the time. They just do not want us to have them. And these people are making laws based on equipment that they have no experience with. So they're judging us by us being able to exercise the same protections that they're allotted. So one of the things I love to ask these people is I say, you know what, I'll give up my guns, but you lead by example. You are the leaders, right? We elected you. You're elected officials. Lead by example. Why don't you make yourselves vulnerable? Why don't you make your job vulnerable? Why don't you make your lifestyle vulnerable? And none of them have ever taken me up on it. So it's one of those what's good for the goose is not good for the gander type of mentality. And we need to get away from that because humanizing gun culture is exactly what we're focused on here at the Second Syndicate. We used to be able to have that culture. And, you know, we see the change in society and the way that they view these tools. And one lesson that I love to teach my students is we don't use the word weapon. We use the word tool. We need to change the way we are speaking about, you know, our tools of defense and the resources that we have because we are literally having to change the mindset of our youth of what these tools mean instead of them being something to be fearful of or to, you know, be leery of. This is something they should embrace. They should respect. It's a way of life. And it's something that has guaranteed our safety and freedoms since the inception of America. So, indeed, you're embracing a true American piece of history by welcoming the Second Amendment into your lives.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and Teddy, I grew up in western Kansas. I remember that there would be pickups that would have a firearm in, you know, right behind, you know, in a holder, right? Obviously, I'm not real experienced on all that, but right there in the back window of their pickup. And we never had school shootings at that time. I can't figure out what's happened in our culture, Teddy.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, we've seen this, especially in recent weeks with Charlie Kirk and things that have occurred, is we're no longer a society of discourse. We can no longer have conversations that we need to have. Instead, people turn to violence, unfortunately. You're absolutely right. Back when that was... was the case, we didn't have these incidents. And I think it's because people knew there were consequences for actions. And now it feels like we are a society free of consequences.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and many of the guys would have their firearm in their pickup so that they could go out and hunt after school, which... Absolutely, very normal. It made a lot of sense. Okay, Alicia Garcia, we're just about out of time, but again, Spartan Defense is linked on my website, and also Alicia's Concealed Carry business is linked on the website. But tell us again, what's the time frame? How does this work when people contribute for the Faster program? that you're outfitting educators and staff to protect our children, and they have an opportunity to possibly win this firearm. So tell us just a little bit about that.
SPEAKER 09 :
So we are going to do the drawing for the firearm the day after Thanksgiving. So they still have time to go ahead and donate to the second syndicate. Every five bucks that goes to the Operation Arm the Educators is an entry into that giveaway. So go donate, you know, 20 bucks, go donate, you know, 20,000. Hey, you know, every life matters. And this is a beautiful way for us to say, we're making this a priority. They should too. And I love that, that as a community, we're able to say, we're taking initiative. We're being solution oriented because we actually care more involved in our And I would really, really implore everybody to be involved in their communities to make sure that we're doing what's necessary in order to guarantee that our children have a safe and prosperous future.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and you're doing great work, and I really appreciate your partnership on this as well, because, Teddy, as we need to continue to have these conversations. So, Teddy Collins, thank you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. Thank you for having me on today, Kim.
SPEAKER 11 :
And Elisa Garcia, again, thank you as well. You are doing amazing work.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you, Kim. We really appreciate you as well. Thank you so much. And I also want to say shout out to my brother today. It is his 50th birthday, and I love my brother more than anyone. So happy birthday, brother.
SPEAKER 11 :
Happy birthday. And again, that website is the2ndsyndicate.com. We'll talk next week. Have a great day.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. You too, Kim. Thank you.
SPEAKER 11 :
And our quote for the show, end of the show, this was submitted via the text line, which is 720-605-0647. And it's from E.B. White, was born in 1899, died in 1985. He was an American writer, contributor to the New Yorker magazine. And this, the source is The Points of My Compass in 1960. He said, liberty is never out of bounds or off limits. It spreads wherever it can capture the imagination of men. 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 our number two.
SPEAKER 15 :
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 03 :
It's the Kim Monson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 11 :
An early childhood taxing district? What on earth is that?
SPEAKER 03 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 11 :
I don't think that we should be passing legislation that is so complicated that people kind of throw up their hands and say, I can't understand that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Today's current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 11 :
And it's not fair just because you're a big business that you get a break on this and the little guy doesn't.
SPEAKER 03 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let's have a conversation.
SPEAKER 11 :
Indeed. Let's have a conversation. And welcome to our number two of the Kim Monson 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. And that's Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. It is Friday. Producer Joe. Happy Friday, Kim. And just a great show, such important information that we bring forth. And we get to talk with amazing guests, people that are really deep thinkers. And I so appreciate talking with Alicia Garcia and Teddy Collins in our number one. uh regarding the second syndicate the second amendment is in the bill of rights to protect all of these other rights against bad actors and the founders knew exactly what they were doing with that so it would support the work of the second syndicate and right now they are doing this uh fundraiser to outfit educators and send them to the faster program and your name will be put into a drawing for every $5 that you contribute. So be sure and check that out. As you know, we look at these issues through this 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 Pam Long recently, when she was on the show and she did an excellent essay, you can find that at my website as well, But she's talking about theft. And we talk about it really on a regular basis, theft of opportunity, theft of people's pursuit of happiness, theft via taxation. And apparently this government shutdown is... is that the Democrats want to roll back the health care section. And this is from CPR in the one big, beautiful bill. And Republicans have pointed out that means undoing the alien Medicaid eligibility and expansion F map for emergency Medicaid. And so that seems to be the hill right now, one of the hills that the Democrats are wanting to die on right now on the big, beautiful bill, or excuse me, on the government shutdown. But to give... free health care to people that have come here illegally, the money has to be taken from someone else. So it's either taken via taxation and fees or via debt that we and our children and grandchildren have to pay off. So this is really an important issue, and we need to continue to shed light on that. One other thing I mentioned that in Portland, the ICE facility is under siege. And Jenny said this, the Marxists thrive on fear and chaos. They know what they are doing and they like crises to further their agenda. That is what is happening in Portland right now. So a couple of things I wanted to get to are word of the day. And the word of the day is, hold on, here is eskuchon. And it's E-S-C-U-T-C-H-E-O-N. It could be a shield or shield-shaped emblem bearing a coat of arms, an ornamental or protective plate, as for a keyhole, or the plate on the stern of a ship inscribed with the ship's name. And I found the word, I'm reading Jonathan Turley's book, The Indispensable Right, Free Speech in an Age of Rage. And this is the sentence that he had used. He said she insisted that for the fair name of America, that this terrible blot on our national escutcheon be wiped away. And again, that's spelled E-S-C-U-T-C-H-E-O-N. Our quote of the day comes from the Medal of Honor quote book from the Center for American Values. And you can check that out and order that by going to AmericanValuesCenter.org. That's AmericanValuesCenter.org. And this is from Jose Rodella, United States Army. Medal of Honor recipient born in 1937. It was actions that he took September 1969 in Vietnam. But he said the service doesn't come without sacrifice, but both are worth the freedom that is gained. And again, that is Jose Redella. And I highly recommend that you check out the Center for American Values, which is located in Pueblo on the beautiful Riverwalk. We talked with Drew Dix yesterday, Medal of Honor recipient. and co-founder of the center. They're doing amazing work. And all this happens as we are an independent voice on an independent station, wanting to have conversations about the things that are occurring out there. And we're able to do that because of our sponsors. And the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance team has been in business for over 50 years, helping clients and taking care of his family. Roger's amazing. In fact, he's going to be a featured guest on Monday. You will not want to miss that. But for everything regarding your insurance, reach out to the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance team. Like a good neighbor, they're right there for you.
SPEAKER 10 :
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SPEAKER 01 :
Do you strive for excellence as you work with your clients and customers? Does it make sense for you to add a unique and focused branding opportunity to your marketing portfolio? Would you like to access a broad customer base that loves our country and wants to make life better for ourselves, our neighbors, our colleagues, our children, and our grandchildren? Then you may be a perfect fit as a sponsor slash partner of The Kim Monson Show. To learn more, reach out to Teresa at 520-631-9243. Teresa would love to talk with you. Again, that number is 520-631-9243.
SPEAKER 11 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. And do you love Italian food? Because I do. And Little Richie's, which is located in Parker and Golden, is your go-to place for great Italian. They have wonderful lunch specials. And I, in particular, love their calzone. So be sure and check that out. That's Little Richie's in Parker and in Golden. And we've got a great treat planned for you right now. We have on the line with us Jay Davidson, he is a fan favorite. He is the founder and CEO of First American State Bank, which is a community bank located right here in Greenwood Village. Jay Davidson, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, Kim, it's an honor and a pleasure to be here with you.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, it's great to have you, and we appreciate your partnership. We're an independent voice on an independent station. And as you know, we are looking for truth and clarity by kicking the tires on these ideas. Is it freedom or is it force? And if something's a good idea, Jay, you shouldn't have to use force to implement it. And I think that you know that as well. But before we get into the... First American State Bank just celebrated a big anniversary.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, we're 30 years old. We started in 1995, July 5th, 1995. So we're in our 30th year of living and working and thriving in the community. And that's what banks like ours do. We live in our communities and help the mom and pop and Main Street folks, both business and retail or consumer businesses. And, you know, kicking and screaming, we're getting into the high-technology age. Thankfully, I've got some young people that understand it, because I sure don't. But they get it, and now we've got all these fancy doodads on our iPhones that we can do our entire banking experience on an iPhone.
SPEAKER 11 :
It's remarkable, and in some ways I think it's kind of scary, but it's very, very convenient. And you touched on something, which is something we work on at the Kim Monson Show as well, and that is relationships. I really think that individuals are hungry for relationships, and that is one of the things that First American State Bank really prides itself on, is relationships with your clients.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, that's so true, Kim. That's the one differentiating factor that a community bank or a small business can provide that the big boys absolutely cannot. They give a lot of lip service to personal relationships, but we all know the reality of it. We do know our customers, and they do know us, and it's very important to our well-being as a bank and to their well-being as a business or an individual.
SPEAKER 11 :
So if people wanted more information about First American State Bank, how can they get that, Jay Davidson?
SPEAKER 04 :
Get your little fingers working on that keyboard. They say I don't have to do the WWW, but it's FASBank, F-A-S-Bank.com.
SPEAKER 11 :
It would be a good place to start. FAS stands for First American State Bank. Okay, great. Yes, ma'am. Jay, you are a student of the Austrian School of Economics. For somebody that may be listening for the first time, what is that exactly?
SPEAKER 04 :
The Austrian School of Economics was started in the 1800s, mid to late 1800s, codified by a gentleman named von Mises, V-O-N-M-I-S-E-S. And his main student and a fellow that took over the institute later was a guy named F.A. Hayek, H-A-Y-E-K. And Hayek was the fellow that wrote The Road to Serfdom, which you may or not have heard of, but it was a seminal work. And then the most recent individual that we probably all know is Milton Friedman. He was a student of Hayek's. And the difference and the thing that I like about the Austrian School of Economics is that it preaches the value of capitalism. And I believe in capitalism. and it preaches the requirement for the individual to have the right in animal right to ownership of property and so when the the other side of this the house the keynesians or the big government guys get going, they want more government. And I say, well, more government means less individuals. And I'm not in favor of that. I don't think the government's a solution to all the problems or many of the problems at all. And government takes. It doesn't make. We make. We individuals create earnings and profits and build capital based on that. The government doesn't do it. And I don't expect the government to do it. But they have their hands in everything. And we'll talk more about that later, Kim. I know that's a topic you want to go into.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, let's say, yeah, we will get to that. But first question I wanted to pose to you is what do you think about this government shutdown?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I think it should be just our mindset should be this is just the beginning. And You raise a really interesting point. I've been listening to TV for and news and I never do it and I should never do it. But, you know, it's been I like to be tortured. So I'll listen to Kyle Clark or these other morons on the TV set. And they do a wonderful job for the left because the whole segment is always about. the poor government worker and honestly i get it i feel sorry for him you know that maybe they shouldn't have made that choice to go work for the government but the point is that nobody's talking and the republicans are not talking about the counterbalance the real issue here that trump and that team are attempting to address and trump you know he's not the the enlightened savior that all republicans think he is but he's a lot better than anything we've had in a long time so what he's doing at least is attempting to reduce the scope and the involvement of the federal government in our lives and one of the ways that you do it in fact the best way the most powerful way that you do that is that you stop the government from spending Your money. We citizens stop the government from spending our money because the government takes it doesn't make. And so the part of the problem with the Republican Party, I think, is that we're we're not committed to the whole concept of a smaller government, limited government. And, you know, we're Republicans are much better than Democrats. Democrats are off the rails. But, you know, Trump does his big, beautiful bill. Well, there's four trillion additional dollars in spending over and above our revenue. So we're going to debt to the tune of four trillion dollars, even under the president's budget. Well, that's that's not where we need to go. We cannot afford debt.
SPEAKER 11 :
to continue and I better stop now because I'm on a roll well I totally agree we have got one of the first way one of the ways to to have your teenager uh not be doing while driving is to take away the keys of the car and so one of the things we need to do is to take away the keys to the car which is uh money for spending or or the fact that they could incur debt For this spending, we've got to stop that. Jay, we talk about this on the federal level on a regular basis. But as we are coming into election season here, I'll be working on my voter's guide. And there's not that much on the state ballot. It's going to be two questions, Propositions LL and Propositions MM. And it is and I am going to put this in air quotes. It's for the children. Healthy school meals for all children. Well, it's all children that the school is involved in the federal lunch program. So already there's money going into this. But it's it's that's going to be on the ballot. We're going to be a hard no. And recommending a hard no on it because it's another bureaucracy. And it's on the back of Proposition FF that was approved by the Colorado voters in 2022, which was a healthy school meal program to the tune of over $100 million. Well, now they want another $100 million. And they say that they're just going to tax the people that make $300,000 or more. What happens is it's an insatiable appetite for our money. And you may think that you're voting for, again, air quotes, rich people to pay this. Well, what's going to happen is you'll see that trickle down to everybody will have to pay more. And so we are a hard no on both of those.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, very good point. I look forward to your election or voting analysis every year. It's very helpful. So thank you for that. But I do totally agree with you. And the way that they do it is the way that we saw the Democrats at the federal level do it. They're smart. I mean, they're not stupid people. They're very bright. But I think they're a little their intent is wrong. They start with a person. And I can't deny that a poor woman, whether she's, you know, immigrant or American, I don't care. She's got little children. You know, I naturally want to help her. And so they go from that point to the giant leap that nobody thinks about. Well, we'll just create another government program. Really, folks? Well, what does that entail? And when is a government program ever, one, stop growing and two, done what it was supposed to do? We're still in the war on poverty. We're still in the war on drugs. These entities are trillions of dollars in size and continue to grow. Where's the end point? Where's the success point? In business, we have the ultimate success point or failure point that we can't transgress, and that's bankruptcy and failure. But the government doesn't have that because they have the power to print money. And whenever you hear about printing money, think about going into debt. It's the same thing. And it's a complex process, but believe me, when the Fed Reserve prints some money, the Treasury Department issues bonds, Treasury bonds, notes, and bills, and we citizens pay it back out of our taxes. And our taxes go up to pay that debt. and if you don't think i'm right in this situation remember that in 2008 the federal reserve printed 9 trillion united states dollars over and above that needed to run the economy efficiently that 9 trillion became 9 trillion in debt federal debt and the cost of that debt to us we taxpayers is now reaching one trillion additional dollars in interest every year. They're not only not reducing the supply of money and therefore the debt that was created to support that supply of money, they're increasing the debt by continuing spending and by the accrual or capitalization of the interest that is due but we're not able to pay.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and Jay, so that's one component, but there is that other double whammy that you've talked about, and that is as the government, federal government, prints money, increases the supply of money, that devalues the dollar. So not only are we on the hook for the spending and debt, but the money in our pocket is worthless, and that's that silent thief of government-induced inflation. So it's a double whammy upon the American people.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, you nailed it. That is absolutely correct. They put us into debt. We taxpayers have to pay it off. Then they devalue the value of the dollar that we have in our pocket. So we have to pay more of our dollars to buy the same commodity. That's inflation, which is caused by dollar devaluation. And that's caused by excessive supply of money in the economy, which leads to debt. Like you said, Kim, it's a negative feedback loop, a self-destructive cycle that will honestly eventually bankrupt our country if we don't stop it now. The good news is we can stop it.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and this government shutdown is a step in that direction. So I'm glad about that. We're going to go to break. I'm talking with founder and CEO of First American State Bank. Another great sponsor of the show is the Second Syndicate. And Alicia Garcia and Teddy Collins are putting the Second Syndicate together to bring these voices that want to protect our Second Amendment so that they can take action down at the Statehouse. Because every year we see our Second Amendment rights. There's a little cut here, a little cut there. So be sure and reach out to them. They can give you some great information and support them.
SPEAKER 20 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 22 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
There's so much noise coming at us. Sometimes it is difficult to make sense of it all. How can you sift through the clamor for your attention and get to the truth? The Kim Monson Show is here to help. Kim searches for truth and clarity by examining issues through the lens of freedom versus force. Force vs. Freedom. Tune in to the Kim Monson Show each weekday, 6 to 8 a.m. with encores 1 to 2 p.m. and 10 to 11 p.m. on KLZ 560 AM, KLZ 100.7 FM. The KLZ website, the KLZ app, and Alexa. Play KLZ. Shows can also be found at KimMonson.com, Spotify, and iTunes.
SPEAKER 11 :
And welcome back to The Kim Monson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMonson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. And check out the website for the U.S. MC Memorial Foundation. It's a nonprofit I dearly love. The official Marine Memorial is here in Colorado at 6th and Colfax. Paula Sarles, who's the president of the foundation and her team, continue to raise money to take care of the Memorial and raise money for the remodel. And so check out what they're doing at USMC Memorial Foundation and be sure and support them. On the line with me is a great sponsor of the show, and that is Jay Davidson with First American State Bank. He is the founder and CEO. And Jay, we've been talking about government spending and the federal level. But Denver is out of control. It's become dirty and dangerous and dysfunctional and spending all kinds of money. And I mentioned the voters guide in the first hour. We will be taking a stand on the nine hundred and fifty million dollar bond that is being proposed for Denverites to have to pay. And they have a bond that's getting paid off. And so Mike Johnston and company, the mayor and the city council, have this proposal for the people of Denver for $950 million that they'll have to pay off. But the language on it is they're saying without increasing tax rates, well, if the bond pays off as it's supposed to, it's like paying your car off, then that expense goes away. They want to extend that. that continued tax, and I would recommend a no on that. That's a long introduction, Jay Davidson, but this vibrant, and they're calling it Vibrant Denver, and I'm a strong no on that as well, Jay Davidson.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I agree with you on principle, most definitely. In fact, I would say that the situation in Denver is a microcosm of the situation at the federal level, at the national level. It's the same thing. The solution is the same thing, the one that we've been talking about. Mayor Johnson is a dyed-in-the-wool progressive Democrat who has not ever really had to work. He's a trust fund baby. And so he doesn't understand what it takes to build a business and grow a business. And he doesn't really understand or care about what's called capitalism. And what capitalism is, is the right of the individual to own property. That's really the bottom line. It's why it's one of the three available rights that Thomas Jefferson wrote about in the original Declaration of Independence. It was life, liberty, and the ownership of property, not the pursuit of happiness that Franklin talked him into. So the point here is that, like the pavilion was on the news last night down in Denver, and the city wants to buy, create a whole district and buy this property. This storefront, retail storefront in downtown Denver that's run down, just like the rest of Denver is. And the whole concept that Johnson always defaults to, that all the Democrats default to, and a lot of the Republicans, unfortunately, default to, is, well, there's a problem. Let's find a government solution for it. Well, here, we'll have the city buy it. Now, the city is $250 billion worth. uh underwater on their income they have too much debt already not 250 billion right 200 or is it billion i think it's a b oh my god you know better than i would i don't know it's an amazing number for a little city and just mind-boggling i maybe i'm wrong somebody maybe the audience could pipe in and correct us yeah but anyway it's a big number the city of denver is bankrupt They can't service the debt that they've already taken on. Debt equals spending. Spending equals debt. They exist together. And now Johnson is saying, well, we'll create this special district thing, and we'll spend $37 million to buy the pavilion, and then we'll create this bureaucratic institution. caucus that will run it, and we're going to revitalize it. The city and county of Denver is going to revitalize the pavilions just like they're doing on the 16th Street Mall. And I'm thinking, wow, you guys never learn. You just keep going deeper and deeper into debt. When the real solution to this entire thing is, number one, honesty with the American people. Did I tell you that the citizens that I talked to, whether Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian, doesn't matter. We all feel the same thing, and that is that our government has gotten out of control across the board. From a puny little city like Denver all the way up to the national level, it's gotten out of control. And we don't see I don't see the Republicans stepping up against it. I know I see some attempts and like Doge was brilliant. I was blown away by that. But is Doge still actively trying to reduce government spending? I don't think so. And the Democrats are not the progressive left, I should say, not the Democrats. And most Democrats probably agree more with me than not on this, and you.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and Jay, that's an important distinction, and that is this Democrat Party is not the Democrat Party of your grandpa and your grandma. or jfk it's a totally different thing and so i agree that big broad middle of america which is your moderate democrats and libertarians and affiliates conservatives republicans i think really we all feel many of the same things but that radical activist group that's in control of the democrat party is a real problem yeah it's a very good point and very true
SPEAKER 04 :
So what I'm trying to say then is that the same problem that we experience in Denver is the same problem and mindset that we experience at the national level. It all leads to one thing, and that is the destruction of private enterprise, destruction of capital, destruction of the individual. And honestly, the radical left... I think they're doing a great job of attaining those goals. Those are their goals. Those are their goals. They're okay with that. And the sooner we realize that it's not, oh, they don't understand economics. No, they understand economics perfectly. And their objective is to destroy your right to ownership of property. That's the underlying objective. That is the one tenet that is prevalent in all socialist, communist, fascist states. All totalitarian states have that one goal in place because when the individual can no longer control his own property, that individual is subjected and subjugated to this great power that exists somewhere in the ether.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and with Denver, it's public policy that has gotten Denver to where it is. It's dangerous and it's dirty and it's dysfunctional. One of the things, and we've talked about that, and that is the spending growth, which you correlated that with the suppression of private business. If government grows, then private business contracts. That's just the way it works. And the individual contracts. Right. But in addition, we're starting to have net migration out of Colorado. Colorado used to be a place that people wanted to come to. I've talked with people that used to come to Colorado from out of state for concerts, for a little vacation, and they say, I'm not going to touch Colorado. What's going on in Colorado? And so we're seeing a net migration out of Colorado. It's because of public policy, Jay.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's exactly right. It's because of... Public policy getting too powerful. How long have we had a Democrat governor? I mean, Bill Owens was out, what, 20 years ago? Yeah, it's been a while. How long have we had a completely Democratic-controlled House and Senate? I mean, decades, basically. and how long has it been since the republican party has stood up on a base on a principle of individual freedom and the right to ownership of property i i don't i don't remember i mean a few few guys like armstrong and owens and a few people uh spoke up about it but they're in the minority in the republican party so where's the opposition folks Why are we letting these Republicans get away with, oh, gee, I'm so sorry that we're shutting down the government. That's just terrible. Instead, they should be saying, well, yeah, good. That's what we need to do. And it's unfortunate that the individuals have to suffer, but they chose to work for the government. And we cannot afford to continue the kind of spending and the debt that we're taking on to fund the government programs that, oh, by the way, when you look at them, don't work anyway. Anyway, I get frustrated here.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah. And I, like you, on a micro level, I'm concerned about people when they lose their jobs. However, Joe Biden didn't give a flying rip about all of the workers that lost their jobs when he closed down the Keystone Pipeline the very first day of his administration. So... On a micro level, I am very concerned about each and every family. I really am. However, the idea that government grows and grows and grows, what that means is that the everyday individual and their paychecks contract, and that contracts on how they can thrive and prosper. So government, there is a proper role of government, but those that are... In excess of that, have them come into the private market and become creative and innovative and put together new businesses. And that's what made America, America.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, you're exactly right, Kim. The government only takes. It doesn't create. Think about it. The government cannot create and is not made to create profits. And yet corporations and private enterprise and private individuals who start their own businesses, they're optimized to make profits. And why is that good? Because that means if I'm making a profit in my business, I'm providing a service to my customer that they willingly and without coercion decide to buy. And at the same time that I'm creating this product that is desirable to my customer, I'm creating jobs for individuals who want to work and providing for their families. So we get a great benefit from a capitalistic system, even though we're denigrated all the time as greedy and so on and so forth. Well, I submit to you that every human being is and should be greedy. Because you need to protect yourself. I call capitalism enlightened self-interest, not extreme self-interest. And if you think that a government bureaucrat is not self-interested, you're deluding yourself. They are as self-interested as the rest of us. So I don't make any apologies for wanting to make money. But that isn't my motivating factor for making money in a bank or in a business. The motivating factor is my inalienable right to own that property that I have earned and your individual right to own that property that you have earned. And no government should be able to take it away. And yet it's being taken away from us in taxation and in debt management. Every day of our lives is the biggest Ponzi scheme, the most egregious, immoral act that one could think of. And we're skipping down the road to hell, happily singing our little song. I'm just frustrated that people don't wake up to these facts.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and that is why, and I think we're at a unique time in history in our country, say that we're in our third founding. I'm encouraged. I'm starting to see people go to do the tough work to go through these different proposals and ordinances and stepping forward. And we're in a very exciting time. It's a dangerous time also regarding liberty and tyranny. But I say on the show, we were made for this moment. Jay, we were made for this moment. Jay Davidson, your final thought.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I appreciate all that you do, Kim. I mean, I'm just amazed at all the things that you get done. You're like the Energizer Bunny. You just never stop. So thank you for that. I'm very honored to be able to come on your show and talk to your friends and your audience and everyone. Folks, we can prevail. It's not like we win, they lose. No, we all win. But we're going to do it based on a principle, and that principle, I believe, is the sanctity of the individual, the right of the individual to life, liberty, and ownership of property. And anything that we do should be directed to preventing the alienation of those rights. So when you ask for more government or more government spending, I think you should say no. I don't need the government. I don't want the government involved in my life. I'll take care of myself. And whenever you have a problem, don't just say, well, let's create another government bureaucracy. Let the government solve it. Well, they can't, people. Look at the facts. It doesn't work. So what do we do? It's not easy, but not all problems are solvable. And most people have to solve their own problems. There's the reality of it. Instead of getting a handout from the government, they need to go get their tails moving and get the work done.
SPEAKER 11 :
And there's such a dignity in that work as well. Amen. Really appreciate it. Jay Davidson, we will talk again next month. Thank you so much. And again, that is Jay Davidson with First American State Bank. And be sure and check that out. And another great sponsor of the show is Ben's Plumbing, Heating and Cooling.
SPEAKER 16 :
There was a time in America when a man's handshake cemented his word. At Ben's Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, we are old school and believe in doing a job well. If there is ever an issue with the service that we have provided, we will make it right. Ben's Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling is proud to partner with The Kim Monson Show to bring truth and clarity to the issues we face in Colorado, America, and our world. Call or text Ben's Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling at 303-995-1636 for all of your plumbing, heating, and cooling needs. That number is 303-995-1636.
SPEAKER 02 :
All 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 Monson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmonson.com. That's Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
It is Friday, and welcome back to The Kim Monson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMonson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter. You will get first look at our upcoming guests and most recent essays. That comes out on Sundays, and so make sure that you do that. We are taking call-ins. The call-in line is 303- 477-5600. The text line is 720-605-0647. And did want to mention Mint Financial Strategies. They are an independent firm and an accredited investment fiduciary. And they always put your interests first. And Mint means more than money. It means a meaningful relationship. information sharing, a network of smart strategies, and a thoughtful advisor who puts you in control. And so reach out to them. They can build a plan that fits your life. That phone number is 303-285-3080. That's Mint Financial Strategies, 303-285-3080. And also wanted to say thank you to the Harris family for their goal sponsorship of the show. We are an independent voice on an independent station. We search for truth and clarity. by kicking the tires on these ideas through this lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. We've got Gammy on the line. Gammy, what is on your radar?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, a lot of things. And good morning and thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything that you have done to expose what is happening to our freedoms. And our little banker friend, you know, he's quite eloquent. That he is. He laid it out very beautifully. And I wasn't going to do this, but I want to cover a couple of things. One, yesterday I finally got to watch a second hour that Trent Luce does with Bryson Miller from the auction people up in Brush, Colorado. And Bryson is a dad, younger than me, and everybody's younger than me, but the bottom line is he did not know when he started out what was going on in the schools in terms of gender therapy, gender counseling, you know, the entire social transitioning of a child before you get into the chemical and the physical. And You know, for someone who had learned it so late in the game, he was incredibly elegant. And he really got involved because he is on the school board. And all these people running for school board, my first notice to them is they need to look at what is happening from the first counseling event from K through 12 on up. to all the other curricula and agenda that the schools are promoting with taxpayer dollars. And I want to give you one little tiny example here. I'm going to read this because I don't want to blow it. We all know about when we would go to protests like the drag shows where they were bringing kids in. And I did that, you know, till I had my medical operation and all this. They would come at you with their little umbrellas and intimidate you, even cuss at you. And I would just stand there and, you know, okay, come on, get you some. Let's go, you know. But this is a thing of intimidation like Marxism. Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals. Do you remember what the rules were? Blame, shame, mock, isolate, quote, make fun of, you know, and destroy that human mental strength. Well, um, they not only go to everything to supposedly protect children that they were ferrying into these drag shows. And we weren't saying, don't have your drag show. What we were saying was don't bring children in and have them perform for you. Well, do you remember this? Um, The groups are using nonprofit status, not just Parasol Patrol, all the different LGB, et cetera, groups are using a lot of nonprofits, okay? So today, money is funneled through these groups. There's a former co-chair of the Parasol people, I believe it was Mr. Powell, mentioned earlier known as Tiara Latrice Kelly. Do you remember that bill? Was it 1039 to name change?
SPEAKER 11 :
I don't remember which one that was, yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, is a convicted felon and sex trade activist who stages child drag performance in burlesque houses and churches. Well, these activists, let me keep going. So there's another one, Miss Shirley Delta Blow on an Adams County school teacher who does drag, you know, story times, organizes child...
SPEAKER 11 :
And I think, Gammy, the bottom line is what you're saying is that there is this, before you get to the pharmaceutical transitioning or the surgical transitioning, these kids, these are people in positions of influence that are influencing these kids at a young age, and a lot of parents have not realized that. Am I getting that correct? Is that really the thing that you want to focus on?
SPEAKER 08 :
I am wanting to say the taxpayer is literally paying for child drag shows or story hours or a myriad of services for affirming gender or affirming LGBTQ binders for women, you know, to pre-transition them and everything that's happening in this culture. Culture is – this is Adams County. We're talking Boulder, Broomfield, Arvada, and Denver Center of Performing Arts even had programs, all taxpayer dollars, to promote this. So what I'm trying to say is it's bigger than just the group with the umbrellas or this group or that group. This has been entrenched into the taxpayer dollar, and we, the people –
SPEAKER 11 :
Absolutely. And to that point, and you can go back to Woodrow Wilson, when we ended up putting in the income tax. And once that happened, so this has been over 100 years, then they said, well, gosh, there should be entities that are helping people. For example, many times it was churches that were had hospitals, orphanages, different entities like that, well, they shouldn't be taxed. So then what happens is right off the bat, you start to treat different entities differently. And that's why I say the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, that means across the board, we should all be treated equally regarding taxation, under the law. And so they started this nonprofit status. Well, then that grew and that grew and that grew. And to Gammy's point, we've gotten to a point where they became non-governmental organizations OK, but then we got into all of this grant writing. And as Jenny always says, they're addicted to OPM, other people's money. And this whole nonprofit status, we've seen it as as Gamia said, it's been used against us. And it's not only in this whole gender ideology, but you could see that regarding trying to shut down the oil and gas business. And so with Trump in office to try to unravel over 100 years of getting us to this point. This is a very big deal. And I think also to Gammy's point, though, people stepping up and running for school board, running for city council. We have been kind of fat and happy living on the fumes of freedom, not paying attention. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we've had this assault upon our children. And so when we had these Douglas County School Board members on in the first hour, if you missed that, you can hear that this afternoon in the one to two hour. They mentioned transparency. And I think that this is also something that GAMI focuses on on a regular basis is we need to know. Parents need to know what is happening in the schools. We and gosh, this was when I first started to broadcast. I had some parents from the Cherry Creek School District that somehow the parent had gotten into the child's, the student's portal and So the portal thought it was the student and it took the mom to a couple of clicks to pornographic sites. And this was via the portal for the student. And so we have not realized that this has been going on. And to Gabby's point, we need to understand that many of these NGOs have been really, with our tax dollars, has been promoting this agenda. So her point is so well taken. And that's why we've got to stop all these government grants. We've got to stop special treatment. Tax incentives, tax credits. We've got to stop all of that. And I think Trump is serious about this. And so it's not only in the transgender ideology, keeping boys out of girl spaces. It's in the energy sector, the food sector, the transportation sector, all across America. So many all across the things that affect our lives. So I do appreciate Gammy. She is so well informed and she cares deeply about our children. And I really do appreciate that. Our quote for the end of the show came in via the text line. And it's from E.B. White. He was born in 1899. He died in 1985. It's an American story. a writer, contributor to the New Yorker magazine. And this is from the sources, the points of my compass in 1960. And he said this, he said, liberty is never out of bounds or off limits. It spreads wherever it can capture the imagination of men. 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 12 :
like a new moon rising fierce through the rain and lightning wandering out into this great unknown and I don't want no one to cry but tell them if I
SPEAKER 15 :
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.
Join professional money manager Bill Gundersen and Barry Kite as they navigate through the latest highs in the stock market. With a focus on major indices such as the NASDAQ, Dow, and S&P 500, they provide valuable insights into market performance and potential hotspots. As interest rates exhibit subtle changes, and commodities like gold and oil experience fluctuations, the duo analyzes the impact on small and large-cap markets. Alongside discussions on Bitcoin's impressive performance, the episode drills down into the essential mood and movement across various financial landscapes.
SPEAKER 03 :
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 :
and welcome to the friday it is friday the october 3rd edition of the best stocks now show with professional money manager bill gunderson president of gunderson capital management and i'm here with barry cotter chartered financial analyst and i'm here to say it once again at least for now we have fresh new highs across the board although the nasdaq is slipping here The NASDAQ's up 5, but that is a new high at 22,849. The Dow is crushing it today, hitting a new all-time high up 215 points, 46,734. That's a new high watermark. And the S&P 500 also hitting a new high watermark up 12 points to 6727. We've got the small cap market not hitting a new high, but getting close. It's up 23 points or 1% today. We're getting a little bit of help on the interest rate markets right now with the 10-year down at 4.10 right now. Gold, I think that's a new all-time high. Yes, 3908, up 1%. Oil continues to be a big laggard. It's at $60.88, but of course that's good news. At the gas pump, And Bitcoin has had a really good week here. It is up $709,000 to $120,000. So welcome to today's Best Stocks Now show with professional money manager Bill Gunderson. President of Gundersen Capital Management. And Barry Kite, our Chartered Financial Analyst, Certified Financial Planner. And what's the CMT stands for? Chartered Market Technician.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, Chartered Market Technician. Okay, Chartered Market Technician. Finishing up that one, just application-wise. They always got to go through...
SPEAKER 02 :
you know give you give you the final okay before you can use that stuff but yeah we're tough i just look at 1200 charts a day but i don't have any designations after my name i i'm gonna come up with one uh you know it has something to do with vision and eyeball decay and over time looking at charts but anyways we Kind of like running.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, you got to count how many charts you went through and kind of just like things track your steps and everything else.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I can just say I learn a lot more. I mean, I watch the financial channels from time to time, very seldom. And it's just obvious that they're clueless with what is going on in the markets. I mean, they know the big headlines and they know the talking points and they know the Wall Street mantra. But underneath that, they know nothing as far as I'm concerned. The Dow, the S&P, the NASDAQ all hit new highs. And, of course, following through today, is today the top? Will today be the top? We don't know yet. We are always watching for that because we do know that we're at some pretty stretched valuations here since that April 8th low. But we take it a day at a time and we take it a stock at a time. Here at Gundersen Capital Management, we still are pretty much, what, 85%, I would say, invested. I would say that the more aggressive you get down to our emerging growth portfolio, I want to say it's about 30% or 35% in cash right now.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, you're taking some gains.
SPEAKER 02 :
We've cashed in some big profits here recently. I have another saying. There's nothing wrong with getting out while the getting is good. Okay, so it goes up a little bit more after you sell it. But you know what? You can't get greedy. When you've got something up 100% in four or five weeks, take the money and run. Like a thief across the neighbor's yard, as Graham Nash used to say. See, I date myself every day, but I do have a lot of songs in my head. I'm a walking library of the song playbook from the 60s, the 70s, early 80s, etc., the golden age of music. I don't know what this stuff is now today. Bad Bunny, is he performing at the Super Bowl?
SPEAKER 01 :
I saw something about that, yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
What is that?
SPEAKER 01 :
I'm not exactly sure.
SPEAKER 02 :
I don't know, but it's got to be some kind of thing that the NFL is putting over on us. All three major indexes close at all-time highs again. The 10-year is at 4.10. I see that 30-year mortgage right now is 6.34. That's the lowest it's been. We were up around 7% for the longest time. I'd like to see it get down into the mid-5s. I think that would be healthy for the real estate markets. But as long as Jerome Powell is sitting at the helm, that ain't going to happen. But there is hope next year there. Well, he's done. I mean, when his time is up, his contract will not be renewed. i think there's a few san diego padres too whose contracts will not be renewed after uh losing to the cubs last night and getting ousted congratulations to the yankees congratulations to detroit bloomfield hills beat our cleveland suburbs there where we've been this year and cleveland was a top seed there that's too bad they won their division and uh And who won the other one yesterday? No, that was it. Those were the three wild cards that came down to game number three. Prediction markets see U.S. shutdown stretching past 10 days. See, I don't know. Can you bet on that? Where can I get a bet on that, Barry? Ten days, they're dug into the sand. I haven't noticed a difference in the world other than I didn't get my unemployment claims yesterday. And I didn't get my non-form payrolls.
SPEAKER 01 :
That was odd. That was odd not getting the numbers today. I think it's the first time since 2013. During one of the last shutdowns, they actually released the numbers. But, yeah, it's kind of flying a bit blind.
SPEAKER 02 :
I can't say I missed it. It didn't make my day any much the worse for not getting the non-farm payrolls report today. I do see Trump is going to do a little farm aid himself. Speaking of music from the 60s, 70s, 80s, that was a great concert every year called Farm Aid. It was usually somewhere in Iowa or Nebraska. Neil Young would show up and Cougar Mellencamp. And I think Bob Dylan was there a couple times at Farm Aid. Willie Nelson always showed up to Farm Aid to raise a little money for our poor farmers. Now it's the soybean blues is what they're singing right now. And Trump's after China. He's mad at them. They're not buying soybeans, and they use a lot of soy sauce over there in China.
SPEAKER 01 :
They're buying them from Brazil. Yeah, buying them from Brazil instead.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, you know what? Then we're not buying your stuff. That's the way that works. What's going on in Europe? Remember all the drone sightings we had up in New Jersey and Pennsylvania? We never did get an explanation for that. Yeah, it's funny how that just went away. That just kind of disappeared. Well, now Munich Airport closes yesterday. Several drone sightings overnight impacting nearly 3,000 passengers. But wait a minute. That's the latest in a string of similar incidents affecting airports in Europe. What the heck is going on? Similar sightings have disrupted airports in Denmark and Norway last week. Is it Russia? Is it Ukraine? Is it the EU spying on people? What the heck is going on? Of course, we had the balloon, the Chinese balloon crossing America while Biden was president. Finally, they shot it down when it got to Myrtle Beach. after it had crossed the entire continental u.s but these drone sightings are a little bit unnerving what is putin planning over there we don't know but in the meantime europe hit a new all-time high yesterday as that rally in europe continues they've got easy money in europe Money goes where the money is easiest, and it continues to be pretty easy. I think the EU, European Central Bank, is at 2%. We're at 4%. Well, okay, we can't say much about the jobs market today. That's all we can do is we can look back at the layoff report. uh and take the challenger yesterday yes we can take some a little bit of uh look at that and we did have the adp which was down 32 000 so we don't know uh what how many jobs maybe it's better that we don't know uh the markets can't react the bond market can't react maybe they should report that every six months how about changing that one how about an executive order Now, the other thing I saw yesterday is there was a big study done at Yale on whether or not AI is causing an effect on the labor markets. They're saying very minimal so far on the jobs market. So you really can't blame them. The weak jobs reports, the big revisions the last year, the unemployment claims, which have gone up a little bit. You can't really blame it on AI. It seems to be more on a weakening economy. At least for now. We'll be right back.
SPEAKER 07 :
I'm the train they call the city of New Orleans. I'll be gone 500 miles when the day is done.
SPEAKER 02 :
And welcome back here to the second quarter of today's Best Docs Now show. Yesterday I mentioned the 2025 South Florida Business Summit at the St. Regis on Longboat Key. That's taking place Friday, October the 17th from 9 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. That is my nephew, Rory McDonald, Ph.D., who knows a little bit something about disruptive technologies. He's going to do a disruptive strategy and interactive lecture based on the principles of disruptive innovation. I mean, that is so critical. Whether you own a company or whether you're investing in companies, do they have something that is disruptive that could disrupt an entire industry? and then at 10 45 p.m to noon bill gunderson will be speaking on disruptive stocks then we're going to have a nice lunch and then from 1 15 to 2 30 the private equity impacts on small business it's incredible it's just incredible people are throwing money at private equity They're packaging it up, and there's a huge appetite for private equity and private companies being peddled by the big financial planning firms out there. Not only are they peddling private debt. They're also peddling private equity, neither of which have liquidity. Okay, I'm just saying that you've got to hold those things. If you want to sell them like after you're into it for one week, that ain't going to work because there's no liquidity. There may be a minimal amount of liquidity. But anyways, that's a $500 deal. I didn't put this together. I was invited to speak at it, which I'm honored. And, you know, my nephew, he goes all over the world speaking. He's in Dubai one week. He's in Ireland. He's in Saudi Arabia. The kid gets around, and he gets a pretty penny for speaking. He's had the CEO of GE come up to him after his lecture and say, that was an excellent lecture, young man. He's not so young anymore. He's got four kids, teenage kids, a couple in college now. But if you would like information on that, call Edie. We have a flyer that we can send you at 855-611-BEST, 855-611-BEST. Maybe I can get a discount rate, you know, from the kid. I'll say, you know, look, kid, you know how much this radio ad cost you, the time you're getting? But anyways, I'm going to be listening. That's going to be very interesting. The 2025 South Florida Business Summit. 9 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. at the St. Regis Longboat Key Resort. I was just looking through my A-plus momentum list. There's about 400 stocks out of 5,300 in the database today. That's a list that I always look at every day. I'll tell you what, the sectors this past week, underneath the surface, okay, you've got to dive down pretty deep to see the quantum computing and the rare earth stocks. Oh my gosh, what a week they have had. And obviously they're going to show up in an A-plus momentum list. I own several of these in my little trading account. USA Rare Earth today, which I have some shares in, is up 20% second breakout day in a row. Well, we know that the Trump administration made an investment in MP materials, and also recently we know of Lithium America. And, you know, there's two other big rare earth stocks, or maybe three or four more, and USA Rare Earth would probably be number three. Critical Minerals, CRML, number four. UUU is right up there, the one that is up in the Utah area. These stocks have had just a phenomenal week this past week, but they're down there at the lower tier. They might even be below Cathie Wood's ARK funds, even more long-term and even more high-risk and even more speculative. And then the quantum computing stocks, wow, what a week they've had. Oh, there's one other rare earth one.
SPEAKER 01 :
Just a week for risk appetite in reality. Bitcoin, right, has come back. It was, what, 119-ish yesterday?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, and also look at American Resources, AREC, breaking up to a new high today, up 8.4%. I would also mention Peabody Energy, BTU. Both of those are coal stocks that I just mentioned, but they may have some rare earth exposure. QUBT is up 22% right now. That's quantum computing. Rigetti had a big week, RGTI. ARQQ, ARCID had a big week, and so did... What's the other one? There's a couple more. You know most of these quantum computing stocks by now. QBTS. D-Wave. D-Wave, yeah. Okay, now, that's your A-plus momentum list, which I go through. I also have a list that I'm able to create in my spreadsheet. I have a spreadsheet version of the app. And I do a sort every day with the biggest rank change. So let's just say a stock was ranked number 1,000 yesterday and today it's 120. That's a big rank change and that usually yields about 25 or 30 stocks to look at every day. That's the first list I look at because that's kind of the hot stock list, I guess you could say, to see if there's anything interesting there. Okay, now, back to the big news here of the day. We've got mortgage rates. I mentioned that 6.34. Massive fire at Chevron's Los Angeles area refinery. You know, I noticed the gasoline prices when we were back there. Oh, yeah, you pointed them out. They pay a lot more than we do here in California. We pay less than one-half of what California pays. But that big refinery there, that provides the jet fuel for the airport there at the Los Angeles airport. It also supplies California with about 20% of all their motor vehicle fuel. And several of the refineries have been shut down in California. Google is investing $4 billion to build a data center in Arkansas. That's Governor Huckabee, the daughter, and she says that's the biggest investment ever in Arkansas, even bigger than Walmart, I guess. Yeah, well. Entergy is going to power this thing. It's in West Memphis. Okay, I didn't know there was a West Memphis. I guess Memphis, is it divided into two?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, Memphis. Tennessee? Yeah, you've got Tennessee on one side of the river and the other side of the river, Arkansas, and then you go kind of a little south corner and you've got Mississippi as well.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, we've got a cat. My wife picked up a cat that was born in Memphis, picked up in Nashville, and now resides just outside my office here. She was there not too long ago. We'll be right back.
SPEAKER 06 :
I just don't understand anymore.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is Bill Gunderson. Thank you for tuning in to today's Best Stocks Now, Best Inverse Funds Now show. I put several hours of research in during the wee hours of the morning each day to bring you the very best cutting-edge stories that I can. To get two free weeks of my newsletter, go to GundersonCapital.com. To talk to us about our fee-based only money management services... Call us at 855-611-BEST. Now back to the second half of the show.
SPEAKER 05 :
And welcome back here to the second half of today's Best Stocks Now show.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yesterday, AMD had a very nice breakout, I saw. And I've seen a little sell-off right now. In the AI stocks, Palantir is a little bit weak here today. Palantir is down 3.7% after hitting about 190 has been its high water mark. It's at 180 right now. But I did notice NVIDIA broke out to a new all-time high yesterday. It's flat right now, but that's now at $4.6 trillion. $4.6 trillion. Is it going to get to $5 trillion? I think so, eventually, just based on the earnings ahead, the earnings power of the company. And a few charts here this morning, QBTS is outstanding. That's a quantum stock. QUBT, which is D-Wave, it looks outstanding, QUBT. And QS, which is the, not quantum, but it is the solid state batteries.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, QuantumScape, right?
SPEAKER 02 :
QuantumScape, that looks very good, the chart. And Tempus AI, T-E-M, which is putting AI into medical, in the medical industry somehow. I don't know exactly, but that's been a very, I know it was one that was on Nancy Pelosi's buy list several months ago, and it's doing quite well, by the way.
SPEAKER 01 :
You would imagine it's going to do well, then.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, so those are some of the charts here in the early going. The NASDAQ's really pretty flat right now. with a little sell-off in the AI space today. Marvell also had a good week. MRVL, very good week there. Embraer had a little sell-off this past week, but they reported the most Q3 commercial delivery since 2017. Embraer reported deliveries of 62 aircraft in Q3. And, of course, they make the commuter, the smaller ones, very good company. We still own it in our relative value. We picked it up when it pulled back several months ago. It was down 5% or 6% yesterday. It's up 1% today. But that's a pretty good report there from how many that they produced and sold. I mentioned USA Rare Earth jumping 20% now after CEO says in talks with the Trump administration. And this is something, you know, that we haven't really seen before with the U.S. taking a position, a stake in MP Materials. I'm pretty sure they ended up taking a stake in Lithium America, LAC.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, it's a more proactive way to... to kind of develop and maintain that supply chain for the rare earths that they need and plan to need going forward.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, you go back to World War II, there were things that Japan didn't have that put them at a big disadvantage to the United States. uh steel uh and uh petro oil uh you know we had plenty of uh but uh you know that's like you you've got to have those supplies uh when push comes to shove but it's in so many different things rare earth so they're uh you've got a very uh proactive uh administration let's say Okay, what's your favorite restaurant stock? You know what? I don't have any favorite restaurant stocks. The biggest winner so far this year, it got bought out. Potbelly's up 81%. Nathan's Famous up 41%. Really? Big Larry, which is Steak and Shake. I think they have a little crypto exposure too. Up 27%. Papa John's up 17%. At the bottom of the list, That's a tough business. It's a tough industry. There's some big losers. Sweetgreen. Man, I remember when that thing went public not too long ago. We should have shorted that. Those lettuce stocks, they do not do well. It's down 75% year-to-date. Krispy Kreme is down 61%. That's got to be the Zep-bound drug killing that one.
SPEAKER 01 :
That's two ends of the spectrum right there, salad and donuts.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, neither end of the line is doing well. Jack in the Box down 50%, and Kava, which many people said, oh, it's the next Chipotle. I went there. I said, no, it's not. Kava's down 45%. Wendy's is down 42%. Outback down 42%. So there you go. That's a very difficult sector to invest in. The biotech of the day is Ovid. Let's have an ovation for Ovid. O-V-I-D up 13.4%. They've got something for some rare disease in their pipeline, and they get a private placement of $175 million. Little shot in the arm. Tesla begins Cybertruck sales in Qatar. Well, good. They'll see those Cybertrucks running around Qatar. Uranium Energy is another one. UEC, that has been very perky here lately. UEC, let's see how it's doing today. UEC, they got a private placement. It's hitting $13.00. Uranium, that's a uranium play. It's a play down line supply chain for the big move taking place in nuclear. Constellation Energy had a huge move yesterday. That's Three Mile Island. And the uranium stocks downstream from that also had a big move yesterday. Let's see, and then we've got Johnson & Johnson is upgraded at Wells Fargo on valuation and pharma potential. Well, you know, we've knocked Johnson & Johnson. It has had a decent year, but it's had kind of a lost decade without much innovation. And a couple of big boo-boos, the talcum powder. Yeah, baby powder overhang from lawsuits. And they spun off Kenview, which is Tylenol. And according... To the Trump administration, there is a connection between Tylenol during pregnancy and autism. As the rest of the world basically says, you know what, it came from Trump's lips. We're not going to buy it. We don't believe it. We're going to keep taking it. One lady took a whole bottle of Tylenol on YouTube and almost killed herself by doing it. There are some idiots out there, I'll tell you that. Now, I'll be working on the newsletter this weekend. We're on top watch, okay? We've had a heck of a run here. The high water mark... I have a high watermark that I can see from my office on my little dock out there. You know, it's never exceeded. We hope it never exceeds that high watermark there. Now, the stock market has been hitting high watermarks ever since I've been in the business. But there's been some huge, huge, there's been, I've witnessed three bear markets, a couple of very short bear markets, which, yeah, they term 20% or more. I mean, the real pain comes in 30% or more. Certainly 79% in the NASDAQ back in January of 2020, or March of 2020 is when it began. And then the 53% sell-off in the S&P 500 during 2008 and 2009, which then launched... the longest bull market of all time that we're still in here in the 2025. And you can look at the chart of earnings. I'll be updating that once again. There haven't been any earnings reports here, just a few here and there. So I don't expect any big changes to expectations, which have been inching up. And that's the other big surprise. And I would say Bill was right again on that. that tariffs have had no impact whatsoever on overall S&P 500 earnings. And if anything, they've ratcheted up a little bit. They've drifted higher. And, of course, the quarter did end on Monday or Tuesday, whatever it was. And let's just take a look here at usually Fastenal is one of the first ones to report earnings. Fastenal will report on 10-13. That's in 10 days. J.P. Morgan, which is always right up there at the beginning of earnings season, is on 10-14. So you can pretty much say in 10 days we'll have another earnings season kicking off. And we've had a string of earnings seasons that have just been phenomenal. But we remain on Top Watch. This is Bill Gunderson. This is the Best Docs Now show.
SPEAKER 1 :
You've got to go where you want to go.
SPEAKER 06 :
Do what you want to do. And then whoever you want to be. You've got to go where you want to go.
SPEAKER 1 :
Do what
SPEAKER 02 :
And welcome back here to the final segment of today's Best Stocks Now show. After I look, Barry, I have four lists that I look at charts of every day. And I can sort them. Once I download the list into my market surge charts, I can then sort the list by the biggest gainers and the biggest droppers. So I don't have to look at the whole list, every stock in the entire list. So right now I have my B plus or better. That's kind of where I draw the line. I like stocks from my app that have a B plus better or better grade. And right now there's a high number of them because of the strength of the market. There's 999 out of 5300 stocks in my database. So roughly 20%, just a little bit under 20% is ranked B plus or better. And that ranking comes from two major components. one half of that ranking comes from performance over the years on a relative basis the top performers and it's based on short-term intermediate and long-term performance and then valuation that's the other half of the equation most quant systems In fact, I don't know of another quant system that has valuation in it like I've put in and given it a 50% weighting against the performance. And so 999 are in the list. Now, as I look at that list right now and do a sort on it, here's some stocks just, wow, this Lithium America, you know, this was kind of a funny deal. But the thing is, it's in the same geographic area as MP Materials. Thacker Pass, Mountain Pass. It's southern Nevada, northern, or not northern California, but eastern California. As you cross the Nevada-California line, you can draw a circle right there, not too far from right before you get into Barstow. That's where this rare earth is. deposits seem to be concentrated and of course Elon Musk chose that area to build a big battery plant because there's also a lot of lithium there and that's how Lithium America's got their name Lithium America is up another 31.8 percent today on eight times normal volume As you know, the U.S., the Trump administration, is taking a stake in the company. They've also taken a stake in Intel, too, don't forget, which they consider to be a company too big to fail, I suppose you could say, that technology. Want to build out that foundry business. Yes, the foundries, and not be so dependent. You know, they pitched the idea of Taiwan Semiconductor fabricating half of the chips in America. And Taiwan's semi-consultor said, thanks, but no thanks. We're going to stay here. Although they do have a plant in the Phoenix area. Lithium America up 32%. And then these quantum stocks right behind that. Now, this is from my B plus or better list. And, you know, you can't put a valuation on Lithium America or quantum computing, the next talk I'm going to talk about, because they don't have a valuation. So they just get a neutral grade on valuation. So it's the momentum that's carrying the day and putting them up into that B-plus realm. So that should be interesting for you to know if you're using the app. If you can't do a valuation on the company, you know, I made a carve out a way around that. It's just based on valuation then. And overall, when you put in a neutral valuation grade, which would be C, and then this A plus momentum grade, you come up with a stock that has an overall grade of B plus. Quantum computing is a phenomenal chart today. It's at 26.2%. The next one on my list, and I'm ranking it from the top gainers today to the lowest gainers, it's this USA Rare Earth, which I have a little bit of myself in my very highly speculative portfolio. It's up 21.7% because it may have the same thing going on there that Lithium America. They are in talks with the Trump administration. Then you've got another one. I'll tell you a little bit about this one. Unusual Machines, U-M-A-C. which is headquartered in the drone capital of the world, Orlando, Florida. Unusual Machines is breaking out today. It's up 13.8%. I'll tell you what I know about Unusual Machines, because I saw it on the Seeking Alpha, is the Trump. Trump's sons have a big stake. It's a development stage technology company that operates in the provision of drone solutions. Maybe it's their drones at that Munich airport. I don't know. But there's something going on in Munich, and there's something going on in Denmark. What's up in Denmark? And there's something going on at a few other airports over there in Europe. Okay, Resolve AI is another one. I don't know that much about that. That's a UK AI company breaking out today. And then D-Wave. has broken out more than a few times today it's breaking out to a new all-time high that's now an 11 billion dollar company uh i don't think they have any sales no they actually have a little bit of sales not much and quantum is located in palo alto where we just were and where k dow radio It serves the Palo Alto area. And as far as those radio signals will go, I've heard it clear over. I've heard the show clear over near Sacramento. KDAL has a pretty strong signal, not at night, but during the day. It's a very strong signal. We were driving around Cupertino, and it was clear as a bell. And here's what else is clear as a bell. We're out of time. We've got to go. I've got to get this newsletter ready to send out tomorrow afternoon. And the technical analysis is probably going to be one of the most important things to look at this week because we're on Top Watch. I have booked some profits myself because the valuations are so high in the market right now. But at the same time, fresh highs across the board once again today. The Dow... The NASDAQ S&P 500. To get a four-week trial to the newsletter, the app, the live trade alerts, all in one package. Go to GundersonCapital.com to set up an appointment with us. You don't have to accept mediocrity. You can try to upgrade your portfolio. We can't guarantee anything, but we'll do our best. 855-611-BEST to set an appointment with us.
SPEAKER 04 :
855-611-BEST. 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. Gundersen Capital Management is a fee-based registered investment advisory firm. All accounts are held at Charles Schwab. Schwab is a member of SIPC and FINRA.
John Rush, Andy Peth, and Richard Battle dive into a jam-packed Friday episode covering everything from California’s collapsing industries to NFL matchups overseas. They debate whether California can sustain its massive roster of professional sports teams as businesses and wealthy residents flee the state. Then, they go game-by-game through the upcoming NFL weekend, offering insights, predictions, and some sharp banter. In the second half, they unleash a rapid-fire list of the greatest dog and wolf movies of all time — from Arthur the King to Teen Wolf, Bolt, Up, and everything in between — complete with listener call-ins and hilarious commentary. It’s a mix of sports talk, cultural critique, and Friday fun on Denver’s Afternoon Rush.
SPEAKER 11 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 15 :
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 11 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 06 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did.
SPEAKER 21 :
Get a job first. 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 14 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 05 :
It's Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, second hour of Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Myself, Andy Pate. Richard, are you with us now? That I am. All right, Charlie Grimes, of course, our engineer. Andy, I know you've got a question for Richard before you get to pick, so go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, Richard, at the end of last hour, John was bringing up how Hollywood is collapsing. All the movie making is just leaving because of all the regulations, the labor costs and so forth. They are literally losing the movie industry entirely now. And that brings up how California is losing so many industries. Here's my question. How long can they keep all these teams? And I'm talking in all the major sports, they've got so many teams, both in the Bay Area and in L.A., San Diego. How long can they keep this many teams in a state that's falling apart?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, they still have a lot of people, Andy, so I'm with you. It's definitely not, as long as they have the people, although, again, I think you and I could, well, we could sit here and argue, you know, and we'd be positive arguing, which is the case that You know, they shouldn't have two teams in L.A. They should have one. You know, I understand the Rams moving back. But even then, Andy, granted, the 49ers fans travel really well. But last night, man, there was some times where that sounded like a home game for the 49ers. Right. Which it's a little bit easier to do when you are, you know, Bay Area up to L.A. But I'm with you, Andy. I don't know. I mean, again, everyone gave the athletics a hard time, you know, on the baseball side of things for moving out. But, you know, Oakland, it's what it is. I mean, I wouldn't keep a team there. Me either. In Oakland, I know they say it's the Bay Area. But the 49ers aren't even the Bay Area, Andy. The 49ers are in Santa Clara, which is the suburbs, and it's a lot fancier in Santa Clara than it is in the Bay Area.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, yeah, the 49ers.
SPEAKER 11 :
I don't know.
SPEAKER 09 :
San Fran is basically Oakland with more sushi. OK, I mean, yeah, but but both of them are just overrun with crime. And anyway, I just wanted to ask you that because I'm wondering, can they continue? I know they've got the people, but do they have the money long term? They do for now. But so many people are leaving. And here's the big thing, Richard. It's people with money who are leaving California.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, especially those expensive suites and things of that nature. So I don't know. Like you say, they do have lots of teams, and I understand why. But it's probably a good conversation that these sports teams should be thinking about. And I think Crumpy would say they could because you're in L.A. I mean, you've got more people there than a lot of states have, you know, total. So I think so, Andy, but I don't think it's as for sure of a thing as it used to be.
SPEAKER 09 :
I agree.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, you ready?
SPEAKER 09 :
I am ready to go. All right, let's kick it off. We're going to start with the Minnesota Vikings. They are on the road at the Cleveland Browns. Vikings are favored by 3.5, and after losing to Aaron Rodgers, can the Vikings bounce back against a 1-3 Browns team?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, 1-3 Browns team starting quarterback, Andy, but I believe this team is in London. Am I correct?
SPEAKER 09 :
I believe so.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes, it is. Yeah, so they're the road team, but they've actually been in London. Um, man, I just think the Browns, which by the way, I know they're starting Dylan Gabriel and it's something that they should have done a few weeks ago. And you and I called this, which they should be starting Gabriel for half the year and then should do it for half the year, whichever one performs better than you. You know, I don't want to say invest in them, but if either of them shows promise, then you can use them going forward. But, um, Vikings are bangs up Andy. I think they're in need of a bi-week, which I believe they have next week after two weeks in Europe. Um, I'm going to go with the Vikings here, and I know they kind of got smacked last week, like you said, but I just don't think that Dylan Gabriel in his first start against the Brian Flores defense is going to.
SPEAKER 09 :
Now, I agree. I like the Vikings, too. The Browns, they've got defense, not enough offense. Next game, the Raiders, who are 1-3, but they're a tough 1-3. You know, they play tough. They're on the road at the Colts. Colts are favored by 6.5. Can Daniel Jones recover from last week's loss? And by the way, another question here. Will Ashton Gentry ever see a hole? Ever? He gets buried every time he gets... What? What? He's on some last week. That's true. That's true. So maybe he'll start opening. What do you think?
SPEAKER 11 :
But maybe that offensive line is not good. I think I saw a stat that it's within one and a half yards. per carry is when he's getting hit on average per time. And like you said, the Colts and Jones, I think the Colts after playing the Broncos, I think they're a better team, but I also think that Daniel Jones is going to come back to reality a little bit, which tends to happen, right? The totality of the NFL season, Andy, tends to lean more towards averages in a lot of cases, except for a few exceptions here and there. You know what, Andy? I'm going to go with – well, actually, if this game was at home for the Raiders, I would actually go with the Raiders because it's there. But, again, traveling east, I think it's an early game. I'm going to go with the Colts at home to get back on track.
SPEAKER 09 :
You know, I'm going to go with the Colts too, but I've got to ask you one last quick question. Ashton Genting, with that offensive line, is this becoming similar to Saquon Barkley with the Giants? Eventually he's just going to have to move unless the Raiders get some offensive linemen.
SPEAKER 11 :
Andy, I have some hope they will because obviously that was Pete Carroll's calling card in Seattle, right, with beast mode.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right.
SPEAKER 11 :
So I'm going to go out and say that I think that they're a little bit – they'll listen to their coach a little bit more and say that he does get some help, but I'm not sure that always helps. But that's a conversation for another day.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, I agree. Next game, the Giants. Here's one not to watch. The Giants are on the road with the Saints. The Saints, 0-4, are actually favored. By two and a half. Should the Saints be favored over anyone? And what must Jackson Dart do to keep the magic going for New York?
SPEAKER 11 :
You know, Andy, I was going to say that. I don't think that – I don't know if I would have this being favored. Now, I also don't think Jackson Dart is amazing. I mean, I know everyone's talking about him, and he had a pretty good week one. But I don't know if the Saints should be favored. I don't feel like I've seen much out of them. to warrant being favored, and I think the Giants are a sneaky pick for me, Andy, because if they're an underdog, I think they win outright, to be honest with you. They don't even have to cover. As long as they win, they essentially cover.
SPEAKER 09 :
I'll pick them with you.
SPEAKER 11 :
I'm going to go with the Giants here, Andy, and my main reason that I'm going to go with the Giants is I just think that they're a better run organization. They have a little bit more of a complete team. Now, I'm not saying it's a lot better. I just think the Saints are terrible, which we've talked about for several weeks now.
SPEAKER 09 :
I'm going to take the Giants, too, just because they're not the Saints. That's why I'm going to take the Giants. Next game. Oh, another ugly game. The Dallas Cowboys are on the road at the J-E-T-S. Jets, Jets, Jets. Cowboys favored by two and a half. Richard, the Jets have hit rock bottom.
SPEAKER 11 :
Have they?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 11 :
Is it still coming?
SPEAKER 09 :
Can it get worse?
SPEAKER 11 :
I don't know if they're quite there. I actually like Aaron Glenn as a coach for the Jets, and I actually like him as a coach. I think that he can do a good job, and I think that he will eventually get them turned around. We're saying that. I don't think it's this year. I think the Cowboys are a little bit more exciting than most maybe give them credit for. I know you and I have had some conversations that maybe we'll see if Jerry has proven right about old Parsons because their offense right now looks really, really good. So credit to them. I don't think they get on track this week, Andy, and then they play my Broncos next week. in London, and so that'll be an interesting game. The Jets do, yeah. So it could be two rough weeks, although they may score more points this week than they do next week, Andy. But I'm going to go with the Cowboys on the road, Andy. It's just not going to be... The Jets just aren't very good.
SPEAKER 09 :
No, they're no good. I'll take the Cowboys as well. By the way, your Broncos are kind of lucky. I mean, get Cincy, who I predicted the Broncos would beat by a minimum of 20. They did. And then after a couple weeks, they get the Jets. But this week, next game, the Broncos are on the road at the Philadelphia Eagles. Eagles are favored by four and a half. However... This is the first time the Broncos are going to face a team as talented as them. Is this upset time, or does Philly keep winning? Because Philly has not been that impressive. They're 4-0, but it has not been a good-looking 4-0.
SPEAKER 11 :
So, Andy, my pick is going to not resemble my analysis. Okay. My pick, I'll just say it. I'm going to pick the Eagles. Okay, I am too. The only reason... is because I hope that if I don't succeed in this and I'm wrong, then that means I'm still happy because the Broncos will have won.
SPEAKER 09 :
There you go.
SPEAKER 11 :
I think the Broncos have as good of a chance as any of the Eagles. I think we talked about earlier with averages, right, and sort of the Colts coming back to where their baseline is. I feel like that's going to be the case with the Eagles. Teams are figuring out Jalen Hurts. He doesn't like that. zone coverage. They can be beat. Saquon's kind of coming back to earth this year. However, the Eagles are still a really good team. They're still going to make the playoffs. They're going to have a chance to defend their Super Bowl title. I just think that this week they could be gotten. And I mean that just because the Eagles could be the same record as the Broncos, Andy, right?
SPEAKER 01 :
Two and two.
SPEAKER 11 :
They've won all of their games pretty closely. It's taken some blocked field goals and The reason I'm not sure I want to pick the Broncos, Andy, is because the Eagles win on the margins, and that's where the Broncos lose. They don't win the close games, and the Eagles do.
SPEAKER 09 :
Agreed. I'll go with the Eagles, too. Same reason, although Eagles could be 2-2, the Broncos could be 4-0. Look, this is two very, very good teams, but I'm going to take the Eagles because they're the home team. Next game, Dolphins, who suddenly lit it up last week. They're 1-3. They're going against the Panthers, who lit it up two weeks ago. Dolphins are favored by a point and a half.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, Andy, Dolphins with no Tyreek Hill, which who is more happy about, the Dolphins or Tyreek Hill?
SPEAKER 09 :
I'm not sure. Not sure. That's a good question.
SPEAKER 11 :
And I'll be curious, Andy, because I'm not sure Tyreek, I mean, that was a gruesome injury for him. I'm not sure he comes back ever, to be honest. I know a lot of his agents talking about it and they're able and all sorts of things, but... I will say, Andy, I like the Panthers. I know they struggled kind of to start this year. A lot of teams and a lot of people, I had some different expectations for them. And they haven't quite lived up to them. But I think they will this week, Andy. I think the Dolphins will compete. And I think that they'll play well. And I think it's a close game. But I'm going to go with the Panthers at home.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I'm taking them too. My gosh, we're agreeing every game. Okay, in the next game, the Texans are awful. They're on the road at the Ravens, who have not been very good either. The Texans are actually favored by one and a half because the Ravens are missing some very key players.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, the Ravens are, yeah, well, they're missing some key players, Andy, and the Ravens are kind of, well, I should say Lamar is sort of coming back to earth a little bit, right, from this other, literally other, worldly orbit that he's been in.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, that and let's face it, their defense sucks. I mean, they got a bottom five defense right now in Baltimore. It's awful. Ray Lewis would be churning over in his grave even though he's not in his grave.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, he's still – well, yeah, him and Ed Reed are both itching to come back at 40-plus years old and probably can add some – which is crazy, Andy, because they really have some good players. I know they're down some injuries. But, man, at the start of the year, that wasn't what you would expect, especially from a Harbaugh coached team. I'm still surprised, Andy, that – well, I guess to me the only reason the Ravens are not favored is because their backup, Cooper Rush, of the namesake Rush, is that way. And I just don't know if he's got enough and – You know what, Andy? I'll take the Texans here only because I can't take the Ravens without Lamar. Lots of injuries. I know that they're at home. But maybe Andy, it actually forces them to rely on Derrick Henry like they should. You know what? Actually, I'm going to change that. I'll take the Ravens at home because I think that they're going to have to rely on Derrick Henry to get through this. And if they don't, it could be really bad.
SPEAKER 09 :
I don't like either team. I'm going to take the Texans. So, hey, we get to disagree once. Neither one of us is going to watch that game. I can guarantee you that. Next game, another one we won't watch. The awful Tennessee Titans 0-4 on the road at the 2-2 Cardinals. Cardinals are favored by 7.5. Let me ask you this. Who's headed for the top pick, New Orleans or Tennessee?
SPEAKER 11 :
I still think New Orleans, Andy, because I think that – but, man, the better question should be who's headed to be fired first. And you could argue – I know he's only in his – I think he's only in his second year, Brian Callahan. He just seems like a guy who's in over his head, and they – it's just unfortunate, Andy, because I actually think he could be a good head coach potentially. Not with that team. Well, you are correct. So I actually think the Titans have some good talent, Andy. I think the Cardinals are a little bit more put together. just at least a little bit. They cover that spread. But I'll go with the Cardinals at home.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I agree. Okay, next game, game of the week probably. The Buccaneers are on the road at the Seahawks. They're both 3-1. Seahawks favored by 3.5 at home.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, I would argue, Andy, it's the Broncos and Eagles is probably the game of the week, and I'm not even sure why that's not in the afternoon window. But, yeah, Andy, Sam Darnold playing pretty good this year so far, so so far so good there, and maybe proving that he's worth that contract that he signed, even though it's a short-term deal. I like Baker here, Andy. I still think the Seahawks, I think they're a tough team, kind of the way that they always have been. But I think Baker, after losing to the Eagles the way that they did, they need to get back on track. So I'm going to go with the Buccaneers on the road.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, and I'm going to take the Seahawks. I think the Russell Wilson trade is finally starting to pay off. You're starting to see a base of talent there. They're not great yet, but they're getting better. Next game, okay, this is a wipeout. The Lions are facing the Bengals. Lions are favored right now by 9.5, which seems way too low. So you're going to take the Lions, right?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes. My only question for you, Andy, when do the Bengals – Do they just mail it in? I know they're going to keep trying, but do they try to go? Because I don't see a bona fide number one quarterback. I know we're still young in the college football season. The Bengals need help offensively, especially if they're going to keep Joe Burrow, or I should say offensive line, and I know there is some stud linemen coming out this next year. When do the Bengals just throw it in and just sit Jamar Chase? They just give up on it and try to go for it. They try to go for the number one pick.
SPEAKER 09 :
You know, they'll wait a while because guys like Jamar want to keep playing. But the fact is, they're done. Their season is done. They're horrible. Right now, I would consider taking New Orleans over the Bengals if they played. They are that bad. They have nothing. And I agree with you. They're going to take an O-lineman next week. Okay. Next year. The next game, the Chargers are hosting the Commanders. Now... This is going to be interesting because the commanders are a little, yeah, they're getting their QB back, and the Chargers got upset last week, but the Chargers are favored by three and a half.
SPEAKER 11 :
This could be another sneaky pick for a good game of the week, Andy. Now, I will say the commanders are struggling a little bit more on defense than I anticipated. They played really well last year. This year they're, again, coming back more to maybe where people expected them to be last year. But yeah, Jaden Daniels, fully healthy, or that's what they're saying at least. You know, Andy, I'm going to take the Chargers. Actually, you know what, Andy? Maybe you'll take the Chargers. We have to different a few games. I'll go Commanders here on the road, Andy. East Coast teams tend to do better traveling to the West than vice versa. So I'll go with the Commanders here only because I think we got to differ on a few games, so that's why.
SPEAKER 09 :
And I am going to take the Chargers. It's coin flip, so I'll take the home team Chargers. Next game, the Patriots. They are 2-2, surprisingly. They're on the road with the Bills, who are 4-0, but it's not a very effective 4-0. Bills favored by 8.5. Is this a blowout?
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, not a very effective. I actually don't think it's a blowout, Andy. I think it's a division game. I think the Patriots play the Bills tougher than most people think. With saying that, the Bills are going to win this game, and they'll probably pull away late, and maybe they do cover the spread. But I think it's close for a good portion of it, and I think that the Patriots have some really good pieces to work with. What do you think of Drake May? I think that he's got potential, Andy. Do I see this trajectory of him being a top-ten quarterback in two years? No. But do I think that he has the potential to continue – you know, moving forward and moving up, yes, I do. There's some spurts that I see within Andy that make me excited.
SPEAKER 09 :
I agree. I like him, but I'll take the Bills as well. Last game, the Chiefs are favored by 3.5 on the road. At the Jaguars, the Jaguars are 3-1. But who have they played? No one? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So they're 3-1 against no one, but it's not like the Chiefs have been that impressive, but they are playing better now. Do the Chiefs just go in there and keep resurging?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, Andy. You know what? Maybe we'll differ on this one, too. Well, you know what? Hopefully we differ because whatever team I take in, you have to be opposite so we can have a few games that are different. I'll pick the opposite. I'm going to go with the Chiefs. For the same logic that I was picking the Eagles with earlier, which is to say, if I'm wrong, then it's still okay because the Chiefs will have lost. So I'm going to go with the Chiefs on the road. Maybe they last week got them on the right path.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, that hurts. I didn't want the Jags, but I'll take them. I will take the Jaguars. John, we are done.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right. And good job, guys. I appreciate that very much. And I do my best to try to track you guys and see how accurate you are. I don't do that every week, but I do my best. So anyways, Paul Lumber coming up next. He is my insurance broker. Wants to help you with all of your insurance needs. 303-662-0789.
SPEAKER 02 :
Even in the age of AI, looking for the right insurance can be a huge hassle. Paul Leuenberger has you covered without the hassle. He works with the best in the business. Hartford, Travelers, Safeco, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, Allstate, AIG, Chubb, Pure, Berkeley, Grundy, Hagerty, and more. He's local, independent, and licensed in Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas. and he's expanding into more states soon. Paul's mission is simple, to find the right coverage at the best value and to treat every client like family. So whether you're shopping for home, auto, or something more unique, don't shop online. Call Paul at 303-662-0789 today. That's 303-662-0789. Paul Leuenberger, insurance made easy.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, Kevin Flesch, he is my attorney. Would love to help you with any legal need that you have. 303-806-8886.
SPEAKER 24 :
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. Is your office ready for a new copier?
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Business Equipment Service has you covered. Whether you're a small business or a large corporation, Business Equipment Service has current model Konica Minolta and Canon copiers on sale right now. Our models have very minimal usage at a fraction of the cost of buying new. We stand behind our equipment with a 90-day parts and labor warranty as well as a one-year or 100,000 page performance warranty, giving you the reliability you need to keep things running smoothly. Right now, get free delivery and installation when you mention this ad. Why choose us? Aside from saving thousands on high-performance copiers, we have lease options starting at $100 per month, we service and supply what we sell, we offer full-service maintenance plans, fast on-site service, and remote support. For over 20 years, Business Equipment Service has helped hundreds of Colorado businesses find affordable, reliable office solutions. Visit us at besofcolorado.com or call 303-825-5664. Putting reason into your afternoon drive, this is John Rush.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. All right, movies, howlers, dogs, wolves, whatever. Dogs and wolves.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, I'm going to start off with one that I like. I keep trying to get people to watch it. I'm going to keep trying. Arthur the King. Here we go.
SPEAKER 11 :
And they found a companion.
SPEAKER 14 :
Daddy has a dog? What have you done?
SPEAKER 11 :
I think you found a new partner in suffering, Michael. Yeah, he's the king.
SPEAKER 17 :
I think we should call Arthur. Arthur the King.
SPEAKER 26 :
How's he doing?
SPEAKER 14 :
He's been through so much. This dog needs a vet. I don't want you to hurt anymore. He's a fighter.
SPEAKER 26 :
Just like you.
SPEAKER 17 :
Ah, famous dog. Looks even worse than the rest of you. Maybe you all deserve each other. Always underestimating armor, buddy.
SPEAKER 11 :
This isn't the route on the map. It's okay. Just follow Arthur. Lead the way, King.
SPEAKER 26 :
I've never seen anything like this.
SPEAKER 14 :
Everybody knows about it. Guess what? I'm not a dog person.
SPEAKER 09 :
Arthur the King, that stars, of course, Mark Wahlberg. I challenge anyone to not like Mark Wahlberg. It's like not liking Denzel. You can't do it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Great movie, by the way.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I agree. I really enjoyed it. Okay, Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, good. I haven't seen that one, Andy. That's a good movie, Richard.
SPEAKER 08 :
You'd like it.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, good to know. Is it okay for kids? Absolutely.
SPEAKER 08 :
It's a great movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
I will say it's a little slow through the middle, but I liked it. I really enjoyed it. Very heartwarming.
SPEAKER 08 :
Good movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 11 :
Perfect. Good to know. All right, I'm going to go with, Dad, you'll probably guess this one. You're one of my favorites slash hatedest movie as a kid, Homeward Bound.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, yeah. Yep.
SPEAKER 11 :
That's a fun movie. Good old Shadow Chance. And we won't count Sassy because, you know, she's a cat. That doesn't count.
SPEAKER 08 :
That was a great movie. It really was, actually.
SPEAKER 11 :
Good job.
SPEAKER 08 :
Let's see here. Man, there's so many. How about Hachi, A Dog's Tale?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, that's actually very well made.
SPEAKER 08 :
Good movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, I've got to do this speech every time that I get a chance to just because I love it too much. Here we go. John Wick talking about his dog.
SPEAKER 12 :
Just a dog. When Ellen died, I lost everything. Until that dog arrived on my doorstep. A final gift from my wife. In that moment, I received some semblance of hope.
SPEAKER 14 :
And your son took that from me. Stole that from me. Killed that from me! People keep asking if I'm back. And I haven't really had an answer. But now, yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.
SPEAKER 08 :
I'm thinking I'm back.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, yeah. Don't kill this guy's dog. Richard, I want to warn you, do not kill John Wick's dog.
SPEAKER 11 :
You've been warned. The fatal mistake they made was they could have taken the car. Probably okay with it. Oh, yeah. You don't take a man's dog.
SPEAKER 09 :
No, you don't take the dog. Absolutely. Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, I mean, again, for some people, you can even kill their spouse or whatever it is. Don't kill the dog. That's funny. Whatever it might be. All right, I'm going to go with, again, one of my favorite books growing up, and it was made into a movie, so it counts, which is White Fang. Oh, yeah, good one, good one.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, that's a good movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
Go ahead, John.
SPEAKER 08 :
Dances with Wolves. Dances with Wolves. Slow but good. Slow but good. Very good. You can read a book during that movie, by the way.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Probably finish it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, here's one where you got several great actors, but the greatest actor was obviously Little Dog in As Good As It Gets.
SPEAKER 1 :
Oh, yeah. Good one.
SPEAKER 17 :
You have missed your last floor. Have you seen my dog with the little face? Uh-oh. You have no idea what your work means to me. How do you write women so well? I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability. Melvin, wait!
SPEAKER 02 :
Melvin, wait!
SPEAKER 15 :
Shut up, kids! Definitely a package you don't want to open or touch.
SPEAKER 02 :
Pay me a compliment, Melvin. I need one. Quick. I love you.
SPEAKER 17 :
You make me want to be a better man.
SPEAKER 20 :
Good answer. That's maybe the best compliment of my life.
SPEAKER 17 :
From Academy Award winner James L. Brooks. Well, maybe I overshot a little because I was aiming it just enough to keep you from walking out. Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
Jack Nicholson, one of his great performances. He was incredible. But the dog jumping over the cracks on the sidewalk, I'm afraid, was the best actor. That was good, too. Yep. Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, there wouldn't be a dog selection if I didn't do a, you know, a sad one where we all know what happens and you cry more in these movies than you do in anything else, or at least I do because, like in death, you know what I mean? I have more of a heart for dogs than anything else. Marley and me.
SPEAKER 08 :
Marley and me. Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
That's sad. Terrible. Terrible. It is. You know, after the movies, and you didn't listen to Hour One after this week, I don't want to see a sad movie for three months.
SPEAKER 11 :
I'm just saying, well, you know what, Andy? Like I said, lots of things can happen to lots of people, but you start killing pets, you know, John Wick style, then we got problems.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, it's rough. It's rough. I couldn't watch it. John, you're up.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, I'm going to go back in time because I think I saw all the Lassie movies, so I'll pick one. Lassie Come Home. Yep. I think literally as a kid I watched every Lassie movie there was.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, yeah. I watched them all.
SPEAKER 08 :
They were all great. They were great. They were great movies.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, here's one that's sad and happy, and it's Megan Levy.
SPEAKER 26 :
Mom! You can't let your whole life fall apart over some dog. That dog saved my life. Please just change his classification so that I can adopt him when he gets back.
SPEAKER 12 :
They aren't pets. They're warriors.
SPEAKER 27 :
Senators, can I just have a moment of your time? His name is Rex. He saved thousands of lives in Iraq. What did you say your name was? Corporal Megan Levy.
SPEAKER 17 :
All you gotta do is fight. Then you know how to fight. You're a Marine.
SPEAKER 26 :
What would you say to Rex if he were here? I'd thank him for teaching me what love is. Is there a way? Not a bad little flick.
SPEAKER 09 :
I enjoyed it. Yeah. I think you would really enjoy it, John. I've never seen it. I think it's your kind of movie. And it's a woman who's in the military and her dog finds mines. And she gets a dog that's so mean nobody could work with it. And it's a real good story. I liked it. Okay, Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right. Got to go much lighthearted. This is a silly movie. Not a great movie. But, again, if you're looking for a nice, fun kid movie, which I know some of you are, a lot of you aren't, but that's okay. Don't judge me. Cats and Dogs, Andy. Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
I thought it was fun. Cats are evil, aren't they? I think we can agree.
SPEAKER 11 :
Cats are evil, and we know the dogs are the super whatever you want to call them.
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely. Cats are evil. Dogs are good. John, do you agree? That's right.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. You're up.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, I can't remember the name, but you reviewed this not long ago. What's the one where the dog lives in the really bad house, and the guy is super mean to him, and he ends up dropping him off downtown, and he meets the other strays? Is it called Strays? Was that the name of the movie?
SPEAKER 09 :
It's called Strays, and kids, do not watch Strays.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, do not watch that movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
Richard, you will not show Strays to your kids.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, you cannot, but it is a good movie. It's funny. It's hilarious, actually.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, Strays starred Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx, and it is totally wrong.
SPEAKER 08 :
You cannot watch it with kids.
SPEAKER 11 :
Andy, I want you to know, my dad used to be the type where we could not watch a movie until he watched it, that sort of a thing. And now I basically just know whatever movie he suggests, here to never have my children watching yeah because i don't have to do that anymore kids are gone yeah your dad is now whatever you say you just have changed to where you know you just like to fill your mind with filth apparently you know you know in star wars we call it going over to the dark side there you go and the dark side is very very attractive that's hilarious all right stay the least with him my goodness all right stewart you're up go ahead
SPEAKER 10 :
Hey, guys. Good afternoon.
SPEAKER 08 :
Good afternoon.
SPEAKER 10 :
Afternoon. And happy Friday. Hey, I got a couple movies for you. All right. One is a wolf movie with Liam Nelson. I don't know if you mentioned it. It's called The Grey.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. Hang on. I've got a preview. Here we go.
SPEAKER 15 :
Nobody's going to find us. Not here. We figure out one way or the other. Let me start walking.
SPEAKER 19 :
This will be one of those wild stories you tell at a party. Yeah.
SPEAKER 12 :
I'll stare right back at him.
SPEAKER 14 :
If we can get to that tree line, we can better defend ourselves.
SPEAKER 1 :
Go! Go! Go! Hold on!
SPEAKER 19 :
You gotta be kidding me. We can climb down. If we follow the river, we got a better chance of finding shelter. How are we gonna deal with this? We take them on, one at a time.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I remember with Liam, you know, lecturing one of the wolves. I have a particular set of skills.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, there you go.
SPEAKER 10 :
Totally scared him. My movie film that was in Smithers, British Columbia. My daughter lives up there.
SPEAKER 20 :
Oh, cool.
SPEAKER 10 :
And she used to run into them all at the local establishments, you know, having dinner and drinks. Oh, cool. She was really cool. And then the other movie... is the thing when it opens up.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, I forgot about that.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
And they're in the helicopter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. And the red helicopter chasing the wolf or whatever it is.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, no, I think it was a wolf. You're right. Good job, sir. Good job. Yeah, that counts. Good job, Stuart. You bet. You bet. Have a good weekend. Thank you very much. All right, Andy, take it away.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, well, we did a movie with The Rock today. Let's do another one where he plays Crypto in DC League of Super Pets. Here we go.
SPEAKER 10 :
I have an owner, and he's Superman. Let me just turn that out. They should call me Iron Man.
SPEAKER 19 :
No. My dog's the best, but he's not the greatest with other animals. What is new with you, fellow normal dog?
SPEAKER 14 :
I bit the FedEx guy the other day. Who was he working for? General Zod? The Legion of Doom?
SPEAKER 12 :
FedEx. Of course. The Federation of Exes. Not to be trusted.
SPEAKER 07 :
What is taking my owner so long?
SPEAKER 09 :
He just wants to get away.
SPEAKER 08 :
That's funny.
SPEAKER 09 :
I thought The Rock was really funny in DC League of Super Pets, and I believe it was a very underrated cartoon. Did you ever see it, Richard?
SPEAKER 11 :
I never saw that one. It was on the list, Andy, but I never ended up doing it. It's fun. There you go. You're up. All right, so a similar one, Andy. You got me. I was going to go with that one, but I'll just switch that, which is Secret Life of Pets 2. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
That's a fun movie. Yeah. Those are fun. Good job.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I like that one. John, you're up. I've got to write that one down. Hang on. Secret Life of Pets 2? What about Pets 1? Correct.
SPEAKER 11 :
Correct. I mean, they're both, I would say, I mean, they're both good. They're just put Secret Life of Pets.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Somebody just called in and there was actually a one and a two of this as well. The Fox and the Hound. We'll do one and two both. Throw them in there.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. I like the Fox and the Hound.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. Good one.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. A little music here from Bolt. Good movie.
SPEAKER 25 :
How the wind blows.
SPEAKER 09 :
That was such a good movie. It was a good movie.
SPEAKER 08 :
It really was.
SPEAKER 09 :
I mean, the characters, everything, it had a great pace, excellent writing, all of it. If you have not seen Bolt, folks, you can rent that for any age group.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep, great movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 11 :
Ranted, Andy. Come on, man. Where are you at with Disney Plus here these days? Let's go.
SPEAKER 09 :
My bad. Just go to Disney Plus. Exactly. You are up. No kidding. Just saying.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right. Let's see here, Andy. Let's go on the list. Oh, did you do the Channing Tatum one, dog?
SPEAKER 09 :
I have not. It's on the list, but I have not done it. Good one. I was going to say, there you go. I like Channing Tatum.
SPEAKER 11 :
Not that I do. I do shows. Again. I mean, not my favorite movie if we're picking ones to enjoy, but it's a good film you need to see.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, quick question, though. Does your wife mistake you with Channing Tatum a lot? I mean, does she call you Channing?
SPEAKER 11 :
Andy, that is a secret that we can't discuss at this juncture.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, we can't. Later.
SPEAKER 08 :
I'll throw this one in. We'll get Joe, then we'll do a quick break, come back, get things finished up. Balto.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
That's a good one. Good movie. All right, let's take Joe, and then we'll go to break. Go ahead, Joe.
SPEAKER 07 :
Andy, I know you do not have this one on your list. The Bourne Legacy with Jeremy Renner. I don't. Well done, sir. You remember early on in the movie, his bosses at the CIA are trying to kill him. He's got the tracking device in his leg, and he captures a wolf. He goes hand-to-hand with the wolf, and he cuts out the tracking device. What's it in the wolf?
SPEAKER 09 :
I can't remember.
SPEAKER 07 :
And makes the wolf swallow the tracking device, because when they go to kill him, they've got a drone with infrared. and the drone is tracking now. They're looking for a moving target, and the wolf now has his tracking device, and they think they've killed him because they shot the wolf with the drone.
SPEAKER 09 :
I actually forget the scene, but I love Jeremy Renner, so I don't care.
SPEAKER 08 :
Great movie, Joe. Yes.
SPEAKER 07 :
Good job. And here's what cooking. Coyote ugly. Oh, jeez. Come on. All right, Joe.
SPEAKER 08 :
Coyote ugly. All right, we'll take a quick break. We'll come right back. Al Smith did a great interview of late. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. KLZradio.com is where you find him.
SPEAKER 04 :
TJ here with KLZ and Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial. And Al, I have a question for you. I've been putting money away for a while in a savings account or maybe a couple of investment accounts, but what am I doing wrong and what can you do better than that?
SPEAKER 23 :
Well, I think a savings account is important because all the financial gurus, including myself, agree you should have three to six months savings that you have ready liquid access to. But retirement planning is a bit more long-term and And it's a bit more strategic. We want to take a look at the sum of money you'll need way into the future. And we want to look at how that money can last by providing you income for as long as you live.
SPEAKER 04 :
What kind of planning or strategy do you provide for folks with that that have a big savings but haven't made that next step?
SPEAKER 23 :
Well, that's a good question. If someone has a large amount in savings, one of the things I do is we have a conversation about their risk tolerance. Nobody's comfortable losing money, but having money in the market over a long period of time is a mechanism to accumulate wealth. And so we talk about the different levels of risk and the different products that are available. And we don't put everybody into one box, but I have an enormous assortment of financial products. And it's not that there's good ones or bad ones. It's there are some that are more appropriate for some people, but not for others.
SPEAKER 04 :
And that sounds excellent. How can folks get in touch with you for that meeting?
SPEAKER 23 :
You can reach me at 303-744-1128. And if I'm not there, it goes to voicemail, but I return my voicemails promptly. And we could have a conversation in the office. If you live a considerable distance away, we can have a long phone conversation or a Zoom call, whichever you would prefer.
SPEAKER 04 :
And as always, you can find him at klzradio.com slash money. Al, thanks so much for joining us today.
SPEAKER 23 :
Well, thank you, TJ. Thanks for the conversation.
SPEAKER 04 :
You bet.
SPEAKER 16 :
Live and local, back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, Andy, take it away. Another full round.
SPEAKER 09 :
Let's go. Okay, Tim Allen in the shaggy dog. Here we go.
SPEAKER 18 :
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Is that me? I'm not a dog. I'm clearly in a dream. Just got to wake up. All right, I'm a dog. Last night I turned into a dog. Then I turned back into being human. He can't ignore it.
SPEAKER 26 :
Objection, Your Honor. Mr. Douglas. Did you just growl at opposing counsel?
SPEAKER 18 :
He can't control it. How's football going? Seeing the world from a new perspective. Hey, what are you doing in my daughter's bedroom? Go fetch, boy. I'm not your boy, and I'm not going to go.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hey, I'll be right back. His opening is up.
SPEAKER 08 :
Good movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Well, Tim Allen is just so perfect for it. Oh, he's hilarious. Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 11 :
I don't think we've mentioned this one yet, but it's, again, dog owners, or you love them, especially if you have this breed. Not sure I would have this breed, but it is what it is. Beethoven. Beethoven.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, yeah. Big slobbery dogs. Major slobber.
SPEAKER 11 :
Big old slobbery slobber, but the lovable, you know, whatever you want to call it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, they are so fun to pet. They really are.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, I've got to throw this one in there, Old Yeller.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh.
SPEAKER 08 :
You love the sad movies, my gosh. The kid has to feed his own dog, sorry.
SPEAKER 11 :
Sad movie, yeah. We're going extra sad.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, they should have said that when they got here.
SPEAKER 11 :
Go kill him.
SPEAKER 09 :
Should have said that. Be up front with your kid when you get the dog. Just so you know, I'm going to need you to shoot this thing.
SPEAKER 08 :
At some point in time, yes.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it's coming.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, Alex and Littleton, you're next. How about the movie Up?
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, great movie, by the way. Excellent.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, that's a good movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
I have just met you, and I love you.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I love you.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's so great.
SPEAKER 08 :
Great movie. Wonderful.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yep, good job, Alex.
SPEAKER 08 :
Good job. Yep, appreciate it. Thank you. All right, Andy, go ahead. All right, let's go with a little bit of Spaceballs.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hi. Who are you? Marf. Not in here, mister. This is a Mercedes.
SPEAKER 22 :
Nah, that's my name. Barf.
SPEAKER 07 :
Barf? What are you? I'm a mog.
SPEAKER 09 :
Half man, half dog. I'm my own best friend. I just love John Candy.
SPEAKER 08 :
I'm my own best friend.
SPEAKER 09 :
Any chance to play John Candy? Richard, you are up.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, Andy, another. Oh, my kids would be remiss. I can't believe we haven't said this one yet because it is fantastic. Air Bud.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, that's a good one.
SPEAKER 11 :
So good. Whether it's the basketball, football, baseball got a little carried away, but hey, it is what it is.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's fun.
SPEAKER 08 :
Good job. John? This one came in from a listener. Call of the Wild on my list as well.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, yeah. Classic. That's with Harrison Ford?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, here we go. Turner and Hooch with... Yeah, good one.
SPEAKER 19 :
Finally had the perfect relationship.
SPEAKER 04 :
So you'll be staying another night? Oh, yes, of course!
SPEAKER 19 :
When something big happened to change it. Something called... We don't know much about dogs, do you? This is not my dog. Now he's being swept off his feet and dragged all over town.
SPEAKER 25 :
What are you doing to this dog? I'll just take him for a walk.
SPEAKER 19 :
All in the name of love. This dog loves you, boy.
SPEAKER 08 :
Doesn't he eat the headrest in the car and stuff?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Tears it all up.
SPEAKER 09 :
Tom Hanks is funny. Oh, yeah. I thought so. Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 11 :
I was going to say, you had your worst nightmare.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, I know.
SPEAKER 11 :
Dogs Let Wild. All right, this is kind of like White Fang, but it's a Disney adaptation. Iron Will.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, yeah, great movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
Kevin Spacey was in that.
SPEAKER 08 :
That was a great movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, John, you're up.
SPEAKER 08 :
He was a reporter in that movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. Let's do this. How about going back to dog movies? Snow Dogs.
SPEAKER 09 :
Snow Dogs. Didn't that have Cuba?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, it was a good movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
I like him. Okay, I got more clips, but we don't have time, so I'm going to go to the Peanuts movie with Snoopy. Oh, sure.
SPEAKER 08 :
That counts.
SPEAKER 09 :
Peanuts movie, by the way, is a very good cartoon, very charming. Okay, Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 11 :
You know, Dad, that Snow Dog one is better than the Paul Walker movie. Yeah, I agree. At least in that, which speaking of which, I guess I'll do that one. Eight Below.
SPEAKER 09 :
Eight Below.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yep, Eight Below. Because that one, terrible.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it's not great.
SPEAKER 11 :
It's really good. I mean, it's good, but, you know, again, dogs don't like it. But Cuba, you know, much better, much better.
SPEAKER 09 :
I agree.
SPEAKER 08 :
John? How about, okay, you already did Turner and Hooch. I got to cross that one off. Did somebody do Secret Life of Pets? Did one of you do that? I think you did.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, that was me. He did Secret Life of Pets 2, so I guess that counts.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, let me throw Benji in then. So let's do Benji.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, you're doing Benji.
SPEAKER 08 :
Benji.
SPEAKER 09 :
In that case, I'm going to do that little cartoon that surprised everybody last year. It was mainly about a cat, but the second character was a dog, Flo.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
And it's surprisingly good. Okay, Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 11 :
Balto.
SPEAKER 08 :
I did that one.
SPEAKER 11 :
Already did. You did Balto. Did we do Max? No. No? No, you can do it. Well done.
SPEAKER 09 :
John?
SPEAKER 08 :
Let's do the Jungle Book. Pick one.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, okay, okay. I don't remember the dog, but I'm sure it was in there. Next one, as you know, and this is the truth, all dogs do go to heaven. And Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 11 :
One of my favorite books growing up, and now my kids' favorite books, and it's a fun movie, Clifford the Big Red Dog. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
Kids love that. Go ahead, John.
SPEAKER 08 :
Clifford, hang on. Okay, let's do this. I'm going to go down to the Wolves again. How about Teen Wolf?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes! Yes, that was a good one. That counts. How about Benedict Cumberbatch playing Agent Classified in Penguins of Madagascar? He was hilarious.
SPEAKER 08 :
Mr. Cumberbone?
SPEAKER 09 :
He was so funny in that. Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 11 :
Did we do the one with Willem Dafoe? What was that one?
SPEAKER 09 :
No. Willem Dafoe. Oh, Togo? Yes. Togo. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I remember that one. Boy. You're testing me there. You're testing me.
SPEAKER 11 :
I am, Andy.
SPEAKER 09 :
I'm getting you. That was rough. That was hard.
SPEAKER 08 :
My head hurts. Okay, I have one. It's Wolf with Jack Nicholson, 1994.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, wow. Yeah, good one. How about this one? My gosh, 101 Dalmatians.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
See, I'm going for quantity over quality.
SPEAKER 08 :
There you go.
SPEAKER 09 :
Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 11 :
Alpha. I'm running out of lists here.
SPEAKER 08 :
That's okay. We're about out of time, so you're fine. Yeah, good time to run out. Let's do The Incredible Journey.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, yes.
SPEAKER 08 :
Old movie.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, how about Toy Story? Remember? With the spring and the dog?
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
Richard, you're up.
SPEAKER 11 :
Slinky Dog? Yeah. I was going to say, which dog, Andy, because you've got Slinky Dog. I like Slinky Dog. And then you also have Buster or whatever his name is. I know, but I like Slinky Dog.
SPEAKER 09 :
I like Slinky Dog, so I'm going with him.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
You're up, Richard.
SPEAKER 11 :
I believe there's a dog. Is it Babe? Isn't there the dog in there? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Good job. She's like the mom of everybody. Yeah. The sheepdog. She's the mother of everything going on in the whole barnyard. Surprisingly good movie. That's a great movie, by the way.
SPEAKER 09 :
You're up.
SPEAKER 08 :
Very good movie. How about, let's see here. Underdog.
SPEAKER 09 :
Underdog. Good job. How about canine with Jim Belushi?
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. You got it, Richard, real quick.
SPEAKER 09 :
Go. Marmaduke.
SPEAKER 08 :
Marmaduke. Okay. And I'll close out with the Shaggy DA.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well done, sir.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right. We'll do that, Richard. Have a great weekend. And up next, it's Roof Savers of Colorado. They can extend the life of your roof. In other words, rejuvenate your current roof. Make it last a lot longer. There's a warranty that goes along with that. You can save money on insurance in most cases as well. 303-710-6916.
SPEAKER 06 :
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All right, Michael Bailey, he is our mobile estate planner. Talk to him today about your estate. Get everything in order. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 22 :
Michael Bailey, the mobile estate planner, has the key to wisely protecting your college-aged kids. Think about it. If your kiddo goes off to college and gets hurt, the hospital won't let you make decisions for them because at age 18 and above, they are technically an adult. What if they're unconscious? Will a doctor let you make health care decisions for an adult and stay informed about their medical condition? No. Before they're 18, it's a given. You can make those decisions. But after 18, there is typically no spouse or someone already approved to legally make those crucial decisions. Michael Bailey can help make short work of a general medical or financial power of attorney for your college goer in one easy appointment. We'll be right back.
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SPEAKER 16 :
We don't yell at you. We inform you. Now, back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Andy, we got about a minute left. Let's roll through a few.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, let's do Cruella, Van Helsing, Ginger Snaps, Underworld, and The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian. Go.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, 102 Dalmatians. For the love of Benji, I did Araba, but there's a bunch of them, and A Dog's Purpose.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, let's do best in show. The Little Mermaid has a dog. Isle of Dogs. Cujo, did we do that one?
SPEAKER 08 :
No, we did not.
SPEAKER 09 :
And I Am Legend.
SPEAKER 08 :
Snow Buddies. Shiloh. Saving Shiloh. And how about Scooby-Doo?
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, how about Blade 3 where they make a Pomeranian into a vampire? There's something about Mary that is a dog. 100% Wolf and American Werewolf in London and The Howling.
SPEAKER 08 :
Where the red fern grows.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, I'll finish with Riddick, Twilight.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, and The Truth About Cats and Dogs. Got to do that. And The Art of Racing in the Rain.
SPEAKER 08 :
There you go. I need to see that movie. I never have seen that yet.
SPEAKER 09 :
It's pretty slow, but you might like it.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right. All right, that's it for today, guys. Have a fabulous weekend. I'll be back first thing in the morning with Fix It Radio, followed up by Drive Radio. Enjoy your night. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 25 :
I'm a rich guy.
Join John Rush and the team on Rush to Reason as they take you through a rollercoaster of reviews and insights on the latest movies. This Friday episode kicks off with a lively introduction and segues into a thoughtful critique of the new release, The Smashing Machine, featuring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. Between movie reviews, the discussion is enriched with health advice from Dr. Scott Faulkner, focusing on personalized and regenerative medicine approaches.
SPEAKER 15 :
It's finally Friday on Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. So I tell him I'm a pro, Jack. And who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama himself. So we finish 18, and he's gonna sniff me. And I say, hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know? And he says, oh, uh, it won't be any money. But when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness. So I got that going. And movie reviews with Andy Payne.
SPEAKER 12 :
I think that you got the wrong impression about me. I think in all fairness, I should explain to you exactly what it is that I do.
SPEAKER 11 :
What I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.
SPEAKER 16 :
What do you want to do tonight?
SPEAKER 15 :
The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world. Stick a fork in me, Jerry. I'm done. Now, here is your host of Rush to Reason, John Rush.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, it is Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Myself, Andy Pate, Charlie Grimes, and it is a beautiful day outside.
SPEAKER 04 :
It is gorgeous.
SPEAKER 05 :
Love it. Absolutely. We'll take it. All right, we've got, what, three movies to do today, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, we've got The Smashing Machine, Good Boy, and Coyotes.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, so three movies today. We'll get those wrapped up in this first hour. Second hour, we're going to do, of course, NFL picks. And the movie rental hour is Howlers, movies with dogs or wolves. Dogs or wolves. That's a good genre. I like this one.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, by the way, that includes werewolves, of course, because they howl.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, that's true. They do.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, there you go. Okay. We're very open-minded here at Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, we are. So when it comes to movies, we'll take any of them. And again, that hour, we have a lot of fun. In a lot of cases, I don't know about the rest of you, but I will take a lot of the movies that we talk about and think, oh, yeah, that's when I got to rewatch again. And that's what I'll, you know, I'll pick one of those and do that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yeah. It seems like almost every week I'll pick one of them and have Corey and I watch it. And we'll just be like, my gosh, we forgot how much we like this.
SPEAKER 05 :
We do exactly the same thing. So that's partially why we do it during that hour. All right. Without further ado, we'll take a quick break here. We're going to come back so Andy can get the three movies in. Dr. Scott coming up next, by the way. Again, he is my doctor. I say it all the time, but he thinks exactly like we do. He wants to take care of you and help you get to your best health. 303-663-6990.
SPEAKER 01 :
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The good news for seniors on Medicare is that you have more options today than ever before. The challenge is that all of these new options can be very confusing and making the wrong choice can cost you thousands of dollars more out of your pocket. Call Paul Linagro at GIA Insurance and his team of Medicare specialists will help you find the right plan for your needs. As independent brokers, GIA Insurance can help you navigate the maze of Medicare options so that you get the right plan to fit your needs and at the best premium. GIA never charges fees, and your premiums will never be any higher than going directly to the insurance companies or buying online. Receive the local hands-on service that you don't get with a call center or online, whether it is a Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplements, a standalone prescription plan, long-term care, or final expense insurance. GIA has got you covered. Call 303-423-0162, extension 100. 303-423-0162. Or go online to e-gia.com. Suck it up, buttercup. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 04 :
And welcome back to Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560, John Rush, together with Andy Pate and John! Are you ready for a movie? Always. Okay, well, The Rock gets serious in The Smashing Machine.
SPEAKER 06 :
Please give a round of applause for Mark Curran.
SPEAKER 08 :
Hello, and thank you to everyone for allowing me to be here today. You have been extremely understanding to me, dealing with my personal struggles.
SPEAKER 07 :
Let's do it. He's the best. There's no way. I can't believe that. Why? Because of my tummy.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know what that would do to my tummy. I would get sick everywhere.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, it's about perspective, okay? Just let you live without a trace. On the inside, you don't feel it. You're like pinned against the wall. When I stand here taking every breath with you. Oh my goodness! That is out! This is truly shocking. When he's distant, it's hard.
SPEAKER 08 :
I'm sacrificing everything. What do you have for me that's strong? I'll do it. A day without pain is like a day without sunshine.
SPEAKER 02 :
The skin's bad.
SPEAKER 07 :
The skin's insane.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know what I'm doing, right? This is it. That's it. What happened? I'm so sorry. It's me. You don't have to apologize, okay? I know that you've been questioning whether I am the fighter that you thought that I was. And one of my biggest regrets in life is the answer to that question.
SPEAKER 12 :
I wasn't.
SPEAKER 08 :
I promise that I'm going to make this up to you.
SPEAKER 15 :
To see Mark back out there is truly remarkable.
SPEAKER 07 :
I just need you to let me in.
SPEAKER 08 :
With everything he's been through, does he still have it in him? What happens next? It's simple. Get up, Mark, get up. Am I going to hurt him before he hurts me? Get up, Mark, come on. Ready? I think so. You think so? Come on, Mark, it's a yes or no answer. Come on, are you ready?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 07 :
Ah, Markitos!
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, John, that is the Smashing Machine. Does it look interesting?
SPEAKER 05 :
It looks very good.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, here we go. It's hard to believe MMA fighting was ever a new thing, isn't it? I mean, today, arenas fill for it. Trump, he largely got elected by it, but back in the 90s, MMA fighters barely got by. Well, enter Mark Kerr, Dwayne the Rock Johnson, and we like him, of course. He was a huge guy who pounded men in the ring, but he had to do most of it in Japan because the laws weren't friendly here. Now, Mark is a quiet, reasonable fellow, but his whole life is fighting. His girlfriend, Dawn, played, of course, by Emily Blunt, shares a loving relationship with Mark, but she has to deal with the fallout of his professional. Okay, and it's a lot. That means pain.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Lots of physical pain. Well, pain brings painkillers, which brings addiction, which brings collapse. Remember Brett Favre? He went through this. Right, right. And through it all, Mark becomes angrier and more depressed as he pushes himself in ways to keep his edge and survive the pain. Well, ultimately, this can't continue, and Dawn must help Mark recover. But will she? After all, Dawn's, well, she's not Mother Teresa herself, John. And when you hit rock bottom, you do it together. Hmm. And somehow you must fight your way back. Well, through it all, Mark has a good friend, an opponent in the ring also named Mark. He was named Mark Coleman, and he's played by Ryan Bader. And why do I say he was named Mark Coleman? Because this is a true story.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, it's based on a true story. Mark Coleman understands and can help. But what about their competition? Destiny awaits both of them in the ring. And that's the story of the Smashing Machine. What do you think?
SPEAKER 05 :
It looks really good, and it looks really weird to see Dwayne Johnson with hair.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yep. All right, here we go. Well, what works in the Smashing Machine? Number one, I don't know about Oscar-worthy. I'm not going to go that far. But Johnson's portrayal was raw and committed. It was certainly the best acting that he has done. There's an in-depth look behind the scenes of MMA in its early stages, and I found that kind of fascinating. I really loved Johnson's style in talking to people, very rational, very fair, very troubled. And he really conveyed this very well. He did a great job of being this rational, fair, calm kind of person. And honestly, that is Dwayne Johnson. In real life, he's a very rational kind of guy. He can agree with them, disagree with some of his things. But Dwayne Johnson's a very rational kind of guy when you see him in interviews. And that came through in this movie. Now, the drug addiction was real, complete with methods of getting it. And they conveyed that. I like that. The action in the ring, realistic or not, was brutal. So, you know, I kind of like, you know, showing the various different kinds of MMA. Well, what is MMA? Mixed martial arts. So it is basically different people coming from different kinds of fighting styles to see which one works best. For those who haven't really thought much about MMA, that's what you do. You got wrestling, you got boxing, you got karate, all these things come together in the ring. And also they have a good training montage at one point. I kind of enjoyed that. And finally, you got a nice performance. And I actually think maybe the best performance came from Ryan Bader playing his friend Mark Coleman. All right. What doesn't work in the Smashing Machine? Oh, boy. The struggle here is between is this film impressive versus do I want to watch this? Okay. My, my strong feelings were, I don't want to watch this. And I mean that feeling, I didn't want to watch it going in and it grew. And there are times where there'll be a movie. I don't want to watch peanut butter Falcon. Okay. And I'm, my mind is totally changed early on in the movie. Not here. It actually grew. It got worse. This is a typical drug addiction film of a performer press too far, seen it before, hated it every time, hate it now. And unlike the Iron Claw, this really doesn't offer that much hope amidst the depression. Very depressing. His addiction is awful. His girlfriend is selfish. Having finally forgotten Uncut Gems, I now have this misery.
SPEAKER 05 :
I was going to mention that one.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I now have this misery damaging my psyche for years to come. And by the way, this was written and directed by the guy who wrote and directed Uncut Gems.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
And now, don't get me wrong, it's not as depressing and bad as Uncut Gems. Uncut Gems damaged me.
SPEAKER 05 :
Which is still a good movie. It's just very depressing.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. It's a well-made movie. It's a very good movie. That is incredibly depressing that I can't imagine anybody wanting to watch. It's a one-time watch. You might have a surgeon who does a tremendous heart surgery. Do you want to watch it? Probably not. Okay. And that's Uncut Gems.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And a lot of this was going on here. Now, the pace in this movie is glacial. It is so slow. I mean, it's really slow. Trudging through arguments and addiction and pain and collapse. Emily Blunt, she is fine as the gorgeous girl stereotype, but anybody could have done her role. I really don't know why they needed Emily Blunt for this role, but why not? You know, she does a good job. She's obviously a hottie, and she's also a great actress. But there wasn't that much. I don't know. Perhaps the worst part of these downfall stories is the predictability. OK, you know where everything you know, everything that's coming, you know where it's going. And OMG, does this take a long time getting there? Painful. Basically, this had about 40 minutes of story and over two hours of film. It really did. All kinds of extra moments needed editing badly. Ever since the CIA dumped enhanced interrogation, I thought this kind of torture ended. OK, and even the ending. The resolution of it is not good. It's not fulfilling at all. I felt totally unfulfilled at the ending. So I'm just sitting there going, well, let's see. I haven't enjoyed any of the last two hours. Yes, I've gotten to see some impressive acting. I've gotten to see a lot of very good acting. I've gotten to see a peek behind the world of MMA in its early stages. I think seeing something modern would be more interesting. I've gotten to see The Rock do things that he can't do. I've gotten to see a true story. But you know what? It wasn't uplifting. this true story really wasn't very uplifting at all um this was awful this was an awful experience for me at the theater it was awful for me okay but now as you know the reviewers are going to grade it up why because of the artsy nature of it and because you've got I mean, look at what they did for Uncut Gems. They gave it great reviews. A movie nobody would want to go to. Okay? So I'm just going to be honest. Rotten Tomatoes, 75%. No. Okay. I'm sorry, but do I think that some of the artistic quality of it is 75% worthy? Yes. Do I think it's that good of a movie to go to? No. Quality, one and a half stars. For me, it was zero. I'm actually being very kind with the 1.5. Okay. This was not fun to go to at all. And by the way, the storyline didn't move along as well as Uncut Gems. it dragged more. And it was just, it was a rough watch. It was a very rough watch. Political three, moral, religious two, you know, nothing big. I'm not saying everybody's going to go into this and hate it like I did. No, I'm not reviewing the movie for me. I'm reviewing it for everybody. But I will say this, John, this is a very slow movie. This is a movie that has a lot of moments where, because they're trying to do it kind of a documentary style with the shaky camera. So they're trying to make it very real. So a lot of times those movies will include a lot of content that you probably don't need. There are some good poignant moments, but a lot of dragging in between. This was a hard watch. This was not an enjoyable movie. I'm sorry. That's the truth. It's just no fun to watch. And so do I recommend going to the Smashing Machine? I'll say this. I'm not going to say no, because if you really like these kind of documentaries and people's lives spiraling downward, I'll be honest. No, but I'll be honest, John. You like these kind of movies. You do.
SPEAKER 05 :
I'll watch it once probably.
SPEAKER 04 :
A Star is Born. You like movies where stars, music stars or whatever, their lives go downhill because it's fascinating for you because you study that kind of thing. All right. And I think for people like you, I think you might actually enjoy this movie. Okay. Might not because it's slow.
SPEAKER 05 :
The slowness would be hard.
SPEAKER 04 :
That would be hard. Would I recommend you go to it? No. I think people who are really, really, really wanting to see The Rock— I won't pay to watch it.
SPEAKER 05 :
I'll watch it at some point in the future on a rental or something, probably.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, because then you can turn it off. But, I mean, if you're talking about people who really, really, really want to watch The Rock do something real like this, and he does a fine job, and you want to watch a little bit of MMA and how that starts out— See, I'm not— They don't show enough in the ring.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, for me, that's the biggest thing that I'm, and people might be surprised at this, I'm not an MMA fan.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, me either.
SPEAKER 05 :
At all. There's something about two people in a ring bloodying each other up that I just, I'm sorry. And I know Trump and a lot of guys love it, but I'm not one of those, Andy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I'm actually kind of a purist. I like boxing.
SPEAKER 05 :
I like boxing better than this.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, to me, boxing is really cool, and I'm also pretty fascinated by karate. I like the pure forms, but when you mix them like that, for me, it's not as fun. I like watching pure karate or pure boxing. I think it's really entertaining. This isn't as much. Look. It's a slow movie. That's all I'm going to say. This is a slow crawl and very depressing. Is it as depressing as Uncut Gems? No, not nearly. Nothing is. But it is.
SPEAKER 05 :
He just spirals out of control.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Constantly. Every time you think he's going to get ahead, he doesn't. Now, I will say, the one thing about Uncut Gems is you don't know the ending. You think, because most of those shows like that, you would think at the end, he's going to come back and have big success.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, we can do total spoiler here.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, we don't care.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, Uncut Gems, don't watch it, so we're going to spoil it for you. No, it gets worse and worse and worse, and then he dies.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. There is no comeback at the end. That's the worst part about the movie. It's like, oh, there's no celebration or anything like that at the end, like there isn't a lot of movies, Andy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right, and while Dwayne Johnson did a good job in The Smashing Machine, was he as impressive as Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems? No.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, he's not as good of an actor. Sorry, he's just not.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, he isn't.
SPEAKER 05 :
He's a fun actor, and he's always fun in movies, and he's one of those guys that, yes, you'll go pay to watch, but is he Adam Sandler? No.
SPEAKER 04 :
No. Did he stretch himself in this? Yes. But a little example here. Every time he cried, he had to bury his head in his hands. Why?
SPEAKER 05 :
Because he's not an actor that cries.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. He's not an actor. He's not an actor. He couldn't convey real crying. And you could tell the director was covering for him. I've seen this done, by the way, with other jock actors when they have to have a crying scene. A lot of times they bury their heads. Why? Because to really cry in a show, yeah, they wet your eyes and so forth, but to convey it takes acting quality. He couldn't do it, and I know he couldn't do it. But do I feel that Dwayne Johnson did a good, good job acting in this movie overall? Yes. And do I credit him for that? Yes. Would I ever want to see even five minutes of this movie again? No.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right.
SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
private and we guarantee that you will enjoy the experience the best export we have is common sense you're listening to rush to reason welcome back to rush to reason denver's afternoon rush klz 560 john rush together with andy pate and john are you ready for another movie absolutely all right john well what would it be like to be a dog in a horror movie let's find out in good boy
SPEAKER 07 :
I guess I'm next.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, John, you get virtually nothing out of that preview.
SPEAKER 05 :
I have no idea what's going on.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, let's jump in. Have you ever noticed how in the movies dogs seem to know when evil is lurking? Yes. They got that sixth sense. They really do. They bark at the dark corner. They suspect someone is behind that bench. Well, in Good Boy, Indy is a retriever raised from a puppy by Todd, who's played by Shane Jensen, his owner. They're best friends, and Todd is Indy's whole life. But then Todd goes through serious health issues and winds up moving into his grandfather's house that he inherited. Everyone says don't go there because it's haunted. Yes, people actually agree on that, John. That's kind of a bad sign right there. Well, we've all seen good men driven mad in horror films. Remember The Shining? But what if that man has a dog who looks to him for everything? What's more, Indy is a dog and as such can see evils in the home. which is kind of interesting happening. So you've got the dog, and he's seeing the darkness in the corner grow into a person or whatever, right? So he's seeing a lot going on that the man can't. Well, most of the actual dialogue is in the distance, as this was from Indy's perspective. We're watching a horror film unfold through a dog's eyes. It's something I've never seen done before. And this home has a history where a pet was killed. Well, that's not good for Indy, right? That's kind of a bad sign. And, of course, Grandpa, he died there too. That was him talking. I guess I'm next. I should have never come here. Well, he was watching film of Grandpa. Todd was watching film of Grandpa talking. All right. No one lasts here that long. So what will happen to Indy's world? Because his whole world is Todd. Right. Who will survive and what will we learn about how pets see us and the world around them? And that is the story of Good Boy. What do you think?
SPEAKER 05 :
It's interesting.
SPEAKER 04 :
Interesting.
SPEAKER 05 :
Interesting story. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Well, let's jump in. Well, what works in Good Boy? Well, first of all, a totally different look at horror from someone who can't understand it because the dog can't understand what's going on here, but he is seeing it. Now, if there's an Oscar for best non-human actor, this dog gets it.
SPEAKER 1 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
I was really impressed with what they were able to do with this dog. I've never quite seen a dog directed in this way. And I was a little taken aback at how they set up the dog. and had the facial expressions and all these kinds of things with what was going on in the movie. Very well done. Next, this is a short film, John. Only an hour and 13 minutes. 73 minutes. Wow. Yeah, exactly. Short. Exactly. Well, there's a plot point that becomes more real. As it goes along, but you can tell they're developing this rather quickly. Finally, solid scares with a raw, low-budget feel. Great camera work and perspective. That was what a lot of the horror was, was almost all camera work, perspective, perspective, camera work. And, you know, sometimes wearing various makeup and so forth. Basically, this was cheap. This was cheap. He had very little CGI. He had some, but not a lot. All right. What doesn't work in Good Boy? Well, first of all, the dog's perspective limits the scope of the drama. You barely see people's faces. And it's really hard. It's hard to really connect with what's going on. I know you're supposed to connect with the dog, but, you know, I got a news flash here, John. We're not dogs. Right. And it's a little hard to. Next problem, really low budget. I mean, really low. I think the dog wrote it. All right. This was an incredibly low budget film and it shows. Next. I hate to say this. This is the long hour in 13 I've seen in years. More depressing than scary. It was very depressing, very sad as his owner, as Todd goes through his health issues. I saw this after the Smashing Machine. Okay, so I'm entering an asylum today after the show.
SPEAKER 05 :
So it didn't take you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I've already booked a spot.
SPEAKER 05 :
Didn't lift your spirits.
SPEAKER 04 :
No. Watching the Smashing Machine and then this. Wow. This was very rough for me. Good horror is kept alive by hope. Right. You got to have hope for the main characters. I hope it works out. I hope they get through this. I hope she survives this slasher who's coming, breaking through all these doors with axes and so forth. I hope, I hope. Well, there is no hope in this movie. Not much. And that's really hard. OK, that gets hard. Supposedly, critics saw artfulness. That's what they saw in following a dog around and then adding cheap effects as if the dog is reacting to them.
SPEAKER 05 :
OK.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. John, I saw a dog walking around with cheap CGI and makeup tricks plastered in later. That's what I saw. All right. I just it's like, you know, nothing is really happening here or not much. I mean, I watched a dog walk around for an hour. That's a rough watch.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, that would be.
SPEAKER 04 :
You have dogs.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, I do.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, I want you to imagine, John, just taking an afternoon. Do this tomorrow afternoon. Spend an hour watching your dog.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, thanks.
SPEAKER 04 :
No?
SPEAKER 05 :
I've got better things to do. Not brave enough? I've got other stuff to do.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, well, I just did that, and that was kind of hard. I was looking forward to this film. I really was because I thought it was really fascinating having a horror story from the dog's perspective. I was really, really looking forward to this. But if every hour were as long as this one, I'd live forever.
SPEAKER 06 :
Got it.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Not bad. Oh, yes. Hour 13, and I'm serious, it felt like a solid two hours. It did. It was just too slow, just not enough happening. Once again, the actual storyline of what was happening in this movie, just like the previous movie, Smashing Machine had about 45 minutes of story, two hours of movie, seriously, dragged out all over the place. Here, you probably had about 20 minutes of actual plot line, maybe 30. And they dragged it out because they were showing what it's like for a dog to experience things slowly. Well, okay, that can be artful, and I can enjoy that for a while, but it becomes tedious, and it did. Rotten Tomatoes, once again, they loved it. You know, I'm starting to think Rotten Tomatoes is getting lower standards. We're going to talk about that in the next segment. They gave it 91%. Wow. No, no, no. This was, come on. This is 91%. That's four and a half stars. That means I'm coming out of this movie, and I just saw Ford v. Ferrari. Yeah, you're ready to go to see it again. And I'm saying, man, I want to see this again. I'll wait a few months, but then I've got to rent this again. This is really good. Hey, I can't wait to watch this with the wife. No.
SPEAKER 05 :
Not that good.
SPEAKER 04 :
Come on. No, two stars quality. And I'm being nice because the dog was terrific, and I love dogs. And it was interesting, and also a lot of the camera work was very well done. And the cheap scares, they really worked them well. And I'm going to give them credit for that, but I can't go above two stars. I was bored out of my mind. Come on. Political three, moral, religious three, said nothing in any way, shape, or form, so I like that. No agenda. But, John, don't go to Good Boy. You're going to be bored. Good Boy is a bad movie.
SPEAKER 05 :
Be a good boy and stay home.
SPEAKER 04 :
Be a good boy. You know what you should do? Just take your own dog out for a walk.
SPEAKER 05 :
Go have fun.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. And, you know, because watching misery, and I understand there are some people who love watching misery. No. Who can watch Brian's song eight times or whatever. Beaches. You know, I'm sorry, but it's not fun.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, that's not uplifting.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and I didn't see, there were actually quite a few people in this movie watching this. It's going to be a bit of a sleeper hit at first just because it's so intriguing. I don't think it's going to last. So there you go. Good boy. Do I recommend it? No, I do not.
SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 04 :
And welcome back to Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560, John Rush, together with Andy Pate, and John! Are you ready for a third movie?
SPEAKER 05 :
Hopefully it's better than the first two.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, that was depressing. Okay. Well, John, fires in L.A. I mean, we've seen that recently, right? So what's the bigger concern? What's the biggest concern when you have fires in L.A.? Well, bloodthirsty coyotes, of course. You didn't guess that, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, here we go.
SPEAKER 04 :
Let's watch coyotes.
SPEAKER 10 :
Gigi, walk. Oh, my God, I'm so done with this dog.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, my God, I love your dog.
SPEAKER 10 :
Gigi, go potty now. It's exhausting being this hot. Are you worried about the tree out front?
SPEAKER 15 :
I'm not worried.
SPEAKER 01 :
You did say that you were going to trim it last year.
SPEAKER 15 :
We can wait.
SPEAKER 07 :
Guys, guys, guys. There's something outside.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. Give me, give me.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right now.
SPEAKER 07 :
Wow. Make sure it's okay.
SPEAKER 06 :
What was it?
SPEAKER 14 :
Just a sketchy little coyote. No big deal.
SPEAKER 04 :
Do you hear that sound? Sounds like somebody's singing or dying. Oh, it's gone now.
SPEAKER 07 :
They can open doors?
SPEAKER 06 :
Is it bad? Uh, no, don't look. Why? Why don't you want me to look? Everybody in it? Everybody okay? It's just... It's okay! Oh, shit. This is definitely a bad idea. Get away!
SPEAKER 1 :
Fuck!
SPEAKER 15 :
They want your shelter, your food, your water, your sanity. I just want to say...
SPEAKER 04 :
I hope those aren't my last words. Okay, John, what do you think of coyotes?
SPEAKER 05 :
Even the preview is wild.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Well, you know, what's the biggest difference between coyotes and wolves?
SPEAKER 05 :
They're smaller.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, no. The biggest difference is wolves have a lot more movies.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, there we go.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. I mean, I've never seen a movie about coyotes. I've seen coyotes in movies, but not like this. And these coyotes were pretty big, by the way. I was pretty surprised. All right. Well, we find our story in Los Angeles where fires have taken a terrible toll, not in the city, but in the hills behind it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, these fires have forced animals out of forests. Now, one group of animals is coyotes, and hey, they gotta eat. Did you know people are just walking meat?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, now you do. They are. Now you know that, yes. Well, Scott and Liv, they're played by real-life married couple Justin Long and Kate Bosworth, and they're a couple living in L.A. They have a teen daughter named Chloe, who is played by Mila Harris, and some kooky neighbors. Hey, it's L.A., of course, they have kooky neighbors. And a rat problem in their walls. So, they get an exterminator. Now, Devon, the exterminator is played by Kier O'Donnell, is determined to get these terrible pests since since, you know, if it starts here, the whole neighborhood is at stake. He's very serious. Meanwhile, the family blames their sloppy neighbor, Trip, who likes to party. That's why they've got these rats. But now they and their neighbors and of all people, a prostitute named Julie. She's played by Brittany Allen. They're overrun by the elements and by coyotes. So coyotes are just flooding into the area. This is a lot like Crawl. Remember the movie Crawl, the film that has a hurricane that floods gators into a town, and the gators just tear everybody apiece. Okay, well, the normally standoffish coyotes are now hunting to survive, and people are tasty. So it's a blood-soaked battle to the finish. Who will survive? Who will die? Will everyone die? Will LA's population be replaced by a new population of coyotes? That is the story of coyotes. What do you think?
SPEAKER 05 :
Again, the previews are even weird.
SPEAKER 04 :
I know they are. Okay, well, what works in Coyotes? Well, first of all, you have a clever premise, right? Since Coyotes are really bigger than most people realize. It's surprising. I did not know they were this big.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good-sized dog?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it's a good-sized dog, and they can be pretty mean. It's very gory. This movie is very gory, starting with an influencer filming herself in L.A. fashion, and she's a supermodel filming herself. Bye-bye!
SPEAKER 05 :
I saw the preview.
SPEAKER 04 :
I kind of enjoyed that. The funniest character is Devin the Exterminator. They should have used him more. And Keira O'Donnell did a terrific job as Devin the Exterminator. Justin Long and Kate Bosworth. They have a very relaxed chemistry together. And I guess you would expect that since they're married. But it shows on screen. Sometimes I've seen movies where married couples are in them together and it does not work at all. So here it did. That's good. What doesn't work in Coyotes? Well, for a horror comedy, this has too little comedy, especially in the second half. The first half I thought had some pretty good laughs. Second half it really tailed off. The writing just isn't good enough, John. And that's a real waste of such comedic talents in the cast because they've got some very funny people. This horror film had more stupid people basically asking to get eaten than I've ever seen. I mean, seriously, my goodness. Does no one in LA ever lock their doors and windows? Ever? With coyotes overrunning the area, would you leave a coyote-sized doggy door unsecured?
SPEAKER 05 :
No.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, are they kidding? No, you would not. It's sitting there for like 20, 30 minutes, the doggy door, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
And these coyotes are all through the— Yeah, you'd lock that thing up.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I'd nail it shut. Of course you would. I'd do something. Yeah, unbelievable. And when they shoot, didn't anyone ever bother to, you know, aim? No. I mean, I haven't seen this many bullets wasted since Roger Moore was making James Bond movies. Remember all the bullets in the air and one or two guys would drop? That's what this was like. It was unbelievable. Next. These coyotes were so CGI, they looked like paintings. I mean, it was crazy. Everyone was getting eaten by a wild pack of rabid paintings. I... It's hard to explain, John. The solution was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. I won't explain it. The area is being overrun by countless coyotes, but Justin Long finds a solution that's personal to a couple of the coyotes.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
Why would that matter? I don't know. I mean, there are hundreds of them. They're coming down from the hills. They're overrunning. You hear screaming in the back. They're listening and they're hearing people throughout their neighborhoods screaming and running in terror and being eaten, right? He finds a solution that I guess matters for a couple coyotes. Dude, I have no idea why. Okay. Yes, let's see. Oh, here's one. The coyotes, they fled the wildfires, but they don't run from a burning building that's right behind them.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hmm.
SPEAKER 04 :
Why?
SPEAKER 05 :
Good point.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, there are people to eat throughout the whole area. Why would they stay right next to a burning building? Makes no sense. At one point, a guy's entire rib cage is exposed and his flesh eaten off. Isn't that disgusting? Yeah, I know. I know. But it's cheap and silly and stupid. Well, anyway, he's still alive. That's disgusting. No, no, no. Look, this movie was stupid, John. It was. And don't get me wrong. I mean, I'm okay with that because I'm thinking, okay, stupid comedy. Tremors. It's not like Tremors tried to be realistic throughout the movie, but Tremors was obviously much, much, much funnier than this. For those who haven't seen Tremors, four stars across the board. Trust me, that's worth seeing. Coyotes is not. Rotten Tomatoes gave the 69%. Man, are they being forgiving lately.
SPEAKER 05 :
That's high.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and I do not understand it. Quality, one and a half stars for Coyotes. And by the way, I was reading some of the audience reviews. They were not as friendly. Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
You're being kind.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Well, I mean, they were not as friendly as the critics.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right, right.
SPEAKER 04 :
I don't know what's going on with the critics right now, John. They are giving a lot of very friendly reviews and giving a lot of bad advice. I have no idea why. We're going to talk about that here in a moment with another movie. But they're crazy. Political three, more religious three. It doesn't say a thing. That's nice. This is just... You know, this is trying to be a horror comedy that I'm going to give it one and a half stars. You know what? Let me be nice. I'm going to bring it up to two because I like Justin Long a lot, and I thought the first half was actually... Decent? Decent. Fairly funny for a while, and then it just drags. Then it falls apart. So I'm going to give it two. I'm going to go two because I was thinking it's pretty good for one and a half.
SPEAKER 05 :
So this wasn't near as good as Cujo? No.
SPEAKER 04 :
No. No, it was not.
SPEAKER 05 :
That's too bad. All right, give us one more.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, you remember we were talking about a couple weeks ago, One Battle After Another?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, a new movie that came out.
SPEAKER 04 :
Was that last week?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, it was last week. Total Lib movie, just came out.
SPEAKER 04 :
Leonardo DiCaprio. Now, I didn't go to it, not because it was liberal, but because it's very long, and it would have made it so I couldn't have seen anything else, because at the theater, it was crossing over the other movies. That's why I couldn't see it. But anyway, I got a good friend. His name is Eric Schreiber. We talk movies now and then. And Eric went to this movie. And I've got just a minute or two to give his review just to warn people. He goes, total leftist propaganda. At first, I thought it was supposed to be satirical. I'm reading from Eric here. But as plot twisted toward the ending, ugh, I'm so disappointed because I really like his other work. He's talking about Paul Thomas Anderson, who's done a lot of other work. Let's see here. And I will never trust Rotten Tomatoes again. I'm telling you what, a lot of people don't right now. The use of stereotyping to manipulate has never been used to more effect, and by the end, a director's bias is revealed. Sean Penn, who obviously is ultra-left, he never would have agreed to do the equivalent character representing the other side. Pure bias. He says, this is the sponsored trailer which portrays DiCaprio's character as a Rambo-esque version of Che Guevara. Okay. I haven't been able to uncover who the sponsor is. George Soros? But he just said, this is awful. This is crap. And I saw online, I did see a couple of videos of conservative reviewers reviewing this, and they were just mocking it and just saying, my gosh, this isn't even a movie. This is a pro-Antifa, I don't know, advertisement. It is so bad.
SPEAKER 05 :
It's that bad. Well, I know I saw some of the previews, didn't it? Even the previews made it look that way.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. And what, of course, are the reviews like? Probably high. Oh, very high. Go see the movie.
SPEAKER 05 :
It's great.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yeah, yeah. Four and a half percent. Four and a half stars it should be because they're in the 90s. And it's just like, oh, it's the greatest movie ever. And this is as big an example as you could ever find of reviewers just loving a movie because of the agenda and being very forgiving. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm sure that Leo did a great job acting because he always does. There was probably a lot of fine acting.
SPEAKER 05 :
Still.
SPEAKER 04 :
But yuck. And basically what I was hearing in a number of these other reviews was boring, slow, unbelievably biased. This is the most biased movie since Barbie. In fact, this is more biased possibly than Barbie. Wow. I mean, so far left wing. So there you go. Anyway, when we warn you about movies, we warn you about movies. This one I didn't even bother going to. Thank you, Eric Schreiber, for warning all of our customers. Yep, take one for the team for us. Yes, you took one for the team, Eric.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you, Eric. Yeah, that one I can almost tell from the previews that's like, yeah, this isn't going to be a great movie.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. This is going to be just awful. You're going to go into it as a conservative and be bashed over the head with how bad you are. This was the ultimate anti-MAGA movie.
SPEAKER 05 :
You might as well just do the liar, liar move in the bathroom.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, exactly. I'm kicking my own ass.
SPEAKER 05 :
Just do that instead. You'd be better off.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Because that's what's going to happen inside the theater.
SPEAKER 04 :
And it doesn't take as long. Exactly. Take your beating quick.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good point. All right, we'll be right back. Cub Creek Union Air Conditioning. Right now, by the way, they've got their Great Furnace Tune-Up Special. Talk to Hunter today. He's a little bit behind, so if you want to get on the schedule, get that done as soon as possible. He'll get out as quickly as he can. Find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
Live and local, back to Rush to Reason. All right, real quick question of the day. This is yesterday. Name the 2009 sitcom that was canceled after airing just one episode. It immediately followed American Idol. It was Osbourne's Reloaded. It starred Ozzy, Sharon, Jack, and Kelly. The one episode aired on Fox after American Idol in March of 2009. But most of the affiliates refused to air it due to concerns of vulgar language and risque subject matter. So it ended.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right. Today's a possible question. Approximately how much does an average cumulus cloud weigh? That is the question of the day today. So there's an article I was telling Andy, Wall Street Journal I was reading today. L.A.' 's entertainment economy is looking like a disaster movie. In other words, it's a dumpster fire.
SPEAKER 04 :
It is. And it's because of regulations. It's because of cost of labor. And that's a lot of it. And it's not just that people are moving a lot of their movie making out of L.A., which they are. They're moving it around the country, but they're also moving out of the country.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Period. And they're filming everywhere around the world because labor is so much cheaper. I've heard directors basically say, look, I can film something in America. Or I can fly the entire crew overseas to like Ireland or New Zealand or one of these places or China, film one film there. And by, you know, I can pay for all of them to have free lodging the entire time. Right. And do all kinds of things for them the entire time, then come back and still save a dramatic amount of money versus trying to pay the union workers here in America to make a movie.
SPEAKER 05 :
Doesn't shock me.
SPEAKER 04 :
Doesn't shock me. Remember when unions drove the auto industry out of Detroit? I think unions are really crushing the movie-making industry here in America. And of all people who's trying to save it, it's Donald Trump.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, he is obviously putting tariffs on making movies overseas. I'm not sure how that will play because there are so many aspects of it. But he's also pointing the finger at Gavin Newsom and saying, you guys have got to dramatically lower tariffs. Your restrictions that you put on them because you put them through all these environmental restrictions. You put them through all these labor restrictions and you make it too expensive to make a movie. Let me ask you, John, businessman. What do you think of the wisdom of what they're doing in Hollywood? Are they ending Hollywood?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, they are. They're going to kill it. They're on their way. It's a dumpster fire right now. This article basically says exactly everything you're talking about, Andy. It's just they're ruining themselves.
SPEAKER 04 :
What would you recommend? Because you've turned around businesses. What would you recommend?
SPEAKER 05 :
The biggest issue there, to your point, is on the state level, they've got to get some things changed around to where they can do things that they're not doing right now, lower their costs, and the union being one of the big ones.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
The problem is in California, Newsom, good luck. Right. No, I agree. Because that guy's a moron.
SPEAKER 04 :
Look, the problem we can sum up in one word, Democrats. You know, I just watched a movie, Coyotes. They should do one just called Democrats.
SPEAKER 05 :
Because it's exactly what they do.
SPEAKER 04 :
That's a horror movie.
SPEAKER 05 :
They're just devouring everything that they, you know, they roam around seeking who they can devour. They do. They're locusts. They move on.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
You say that all the time.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. And everybody flees their states and moves to Florida. Exactly what they do.
SPEAKER 05 :
They screw it all up and then leave.
SPEAKER 04 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right. Hour number two, movie rental hour. We're going to do movies with, it's called Howlers, basically. So movies with dogs or wolves. We'll do NFL picks to start with. Don't go anywhere. Hour two is next. Rush to Reason, Denver's Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 07 :
Average guys.
SPEAKER 1 :
Average guys.
