Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Not only do you not want to drive your work
truck downtown, but you also don't want to take that
cruddy public transit system that they've spent way too much
money of the c DOT budget on.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh, you have no idea how much you have spent
for that crummy public transit system. I'm John Caldera in
for the poor man, cold suffering Michael Brown by all means,
give me a call three oh three seven to one,
three eight two five five. Yes, Michael Brown actually came
into the studio on hands and knees.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Going I can do it.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I can do it.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Coach for men.
Speaker 5 (00:41):
We just got a text message in at three three
one oh three from Guber number six three three six.
So Mike, oh my god, I just heard Michael Brown's
minute over on freedom. He sounds like death warmed over.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
We told you.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
I wish we were exaggerating, but it's it's it was bad.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
You know who.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Doesn't like to hear about man cold women? No woman
wants to hear they have they have sympathy for it.
You know what if there is a homeless puppy someplace
with all my the pretty little but uh oh yeah,
my man, he's sick.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
That's it. That's it.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
My man's sick, that's it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Nothing nothing, There's just there's no sympathy the one time
a man wants sympathy when he has colds. Nothing nothing. Ah,
it isn't easy being a man, don't you know? We
need we need some public education on this.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
I'm John Kelder.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Oh by the way, got a wonderful text from I
think it was Alexa earlier today. It'll be just see
if I can pull this up. She asked me how
he did in the Courage Classic. For those of you
who don't know now, the Courage Classic is a bike
ride that Children's Hospital does and we at Independence Institute
(02:05):
have been part of this for oh my god, someone
like eighteen nineteen years. My late daughter Parker Caldera died
of cancer just before her first birthday.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
And I can't believe it's been over twenty years now.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And good folks at Independence Institute, besides fighting for your
freedoms and lower taxes and gun rights and property rights,
Tracy Smith are incredible graphic artist there, put together Team Parker,
which is a team of folks who go ride this
Courage Classic and raise money for Children's Hospital. We are very,
(02:41):
very fortunate to have Children's Hospital in Colorado.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It's they did their best.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
For my daughter.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
And then when my son came along, who had down syndrome,
back to Children's Hospital. We went at three weeks old.
He had to have his heart repaired. He went back
some fourteen times for other operations and procedures, and I
didn't lose another child because of Children's Hospital.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
And they do incredible work.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
And so.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
The charity that we worked out is that I would
write to people on my email list, and by the way,
please join my email list by going to thinkfreedom dot org.
Thinkfreedom dot org and just at least sign up for
my newsletter.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
It's free.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
We send it to you. My bad jokes are involved,
and the deal was fine. I will ask people to
give money to Team Parker, which is riding the Courage Classic,
and you, Tracy, Tracy Smith at Independence Institute, you and
the other folks go ride the thing. I am not
(03:53):
riding a bicycle up and down the mountains of Colorado.
I will do the ask. And then my hideous daughter
who came later on to save my life. My hideous
daughter came up with this terrible, terrible idea. She said, Dad,
if you really want to raise some money, say that
(04:14):
if you reach your goal, then next year you will
ride the race yourself. I said, eh, that's a great idea.
So we said it like a twenty thousand dollars goal
or something like that. We're not going to reach this,
so that way we could raise more money, but I
(04:36):
would be in no danger of actually having.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
To sit on a bicycle.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Lo and behold one of our fine, fine supporters at
Independence Institute. I will name her hideous name, ky mcdivic.
Who is this woman who has been so wonderful, so sweet,
has been an anesthesiologist at children's has saved lives. This
hideous woman took me up on our challenge that was
(05:04):
not meant to be taken up, and she actually made
sure that we reached our goal. She put us over
the line is a few years back. What kind of
evil woman does that? And so then the next year
I actually had to ride the Courage Classic ough But fortunately,
(05:24):
fortunately last year when I was supposed to ride, I
was recuperating from a heart attack. I had a heart
attack instead of riding that thing again. But this year, no,
I got on the bike and I did my best.
Halfway through the first day I needed to sagwagon out,
but I did the full forty miles the next day.
(05:48):
It's not that your legs hurt, it's that your butt hurts.
It is this weird saddle soretness. I guess when you
ride bicycles for a long time, you build up some
sort of tolerance or callouses or I don't know what.
But it's not like it's chafing your butt. No, no, no,
(06:09):
it's it's it's bashing your pelvic bone.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
It just goes up there and beats you. So sadly.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I had to go ride it again, and I was
mostly mostly triumphant. I feel pretty good and we did
reach our goal, but we could always use a little more.
If you go to thinkfreedom dot org, thinkfreedom dot org,
you'll see a terrible picture of me next to a
very attractive woman. That's Tracy Smith, our graphic designer. We're
(06:44):
both wearing bicycle outfits.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Click on that. If you want to give some money.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
To Children's Hospital to keep the next kid alive, please
do so. Help us with the courage classic and remembering
my daughter and fighting for my son's life who still
requires services at Children's Hospital. Give a little money to
(07:09):
any of us on Team Parker and get that number up.
Over the years that we've done this Independence Institute has
raised over a quarter million dollars for Children's Hospital.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
I'm really proud of that.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
It's amazing what a little bit of effort, year after
year after year does, and we forget, we forget how
fortunate we are to have a stunning medical facility, the
Anshoots campus, and on that entunance campus the Children's Hospital
where people from try to save their kids' lives. So
(07:51):
quick story, and it's a sad one. So I'm there.
I made it over Tennessee Pass on the way around
on this bicycle tour. And as you know, I am
known for my athletic abilities, at which one is like,
I can't do anymore, and I hop on what's known
as the sag wagon. Just such a wonderful name, the
(08:16):
sag wagon. And this is when you had enough and
you go, I can't go any further. You hop on
this little thing and it's the bust of shame.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I am there.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
There were a couple of nurses from Children's there along
with somebody from I think their ultrasound department, and we
were all talking about how wonderful it was to be
in the sagwagon and no longer killing ourselves on a bicycle.
And my the way, they were much younger than I was,
so just it's not just old people who sag out.
(08:51):
And they were talking they didn't know that I lost
a child, but they were talking about a kid, a
five year old who had cancer and he he's not
gonna make it. And the here they are on their
day off. They're volunteering to raise money. And you could
tell these nurses just how much they cared and how
(09:13):
much it hurt them to work with work with families
and work with children when they're going through their very worst,
and particularly when.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
It does not look good. And I just.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Don't know how people do this. We talk about all
the bad in the world and how many terrible people
they are, and the crime and the city and the
fence and all use and the stolen cars and the
assaults and all the rest. But there's this other side
to our city, the other side to society.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Here are these these women in there. I don't know,
maybe they're thirty.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
And they buy choice, buy choice, get up in the morning,
go to work, and are there to comfort kids when
they're suffering. Many of them dying, and I don't know
how they do this.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Yeah, that doctors do it too. The doctors are incredible.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Nurses tend to be the ones who are most intimately
involved with with somebody suffering, And I just don't know
how you can be that brave. I have no idea
how these people do that. I'm just really, really grateful
that there are people like those nurses in this Sagwagon
(10:44):
love the name Sagwagon, who who make a life out
of caring for our sick children. I just don't know
how you do it, how much strength you have. I
think about when my father passed away in Denver hospice
(11:06):
and I talked to one of the nurses there and
she said the following I went to nursing school so
that I could do this job. What he went to
nursing so that you could help people die, so you
(11:28):
could be there to comfort them and make sure they
pass in peace.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
You know, I think I'm I'm doing something.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Heroic when I when I give some money to a.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Charity that does good work, Well, look at me, I'm
doing something good. No, these these people are out there
on the front lines of mortality. I don't know how
they do it. It just gives me a lot of
hope for all of you humankind. It's just amazing. So anyway,
(12:02):
Alexa who texted in here, how is the courage classic?
Obviously no second heart attack, that is true. Somehow I
did not have a heart attack while going over the
mountain passes.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Something like that.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Just feels so much better, so much better in the
rear view mirror.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, I did that.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Did you want to do it again today? Not in
a million.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Years, Not in a million years.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
So thanks for asking.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
If if you want to go to think freedom dot org,
please sign up, sign up for atleast my email newsletter.
See what we do at Independence. It's it's pretty amazing.
It's absolutely amazing what we do. But it's nothing compared
to what other folks do to keep to keep, to
(13:02):
keep kids alive. Something I'm just pulling off the page here.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Look, I've raised almost three five bucks for me, but
for the whole team, Parker, we've raised over twenty three
grand this year. Yeah, we've raised over a quarter million
dollars over the years. That's just amazing. That's just amazing.
I'm really really grateful. I was spectacular. Thank you all
(13:32):
for doing it. It's just it's just great. And thanks
for everybody who supports Children's Hospital. Even if you don't
need it. Even if you don't need it, someone you
love will need Children's Hospital and you will be happy
that it's there.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
When we were rush to.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Children's Hospital, I didn't think about it at the time,
but it is because other people invested in it, because
other people were able to see what was going on
and built Children's Hospital. When we needed it, it was there.
(14:18):
It was there, and.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
It's gonna be there for you.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
It might not be your kid, might be your grandkid,
might be your neighbor's kid, but it's it's a great
thing to have.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
All right, Enough of that, Shall we get back? Should
we get back to the good stuff?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Denver Gazette yesterday had an article on the cost of
the wolf problem.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I love this.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
They got a picture of.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
This cute little baby wolf. Compute little baby wolf cub.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So they're they're breeding, They're breeding, The wolves are breeding.
Marilyn Marian Goodlin writes Colorado has now spent more than
then eight million dollars.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
We spent eight million.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
We have potholes and criminals, but we spent.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Eight million dollars on wolf restoration programs, according to the
presentation made at Thursday's Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting
in Grand Junction.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Interestingly, that's not what the blue Book estimate was. The
blue Book estimate remember when we voted for this, when
Boulder and Denver voted to put killer wolves and other
people's backyards, the estimate was that was going to cost
us about eight hundred thousand dollars. So the guy there
(15:46):
noted a caveat in the blue books fine language, saying
that the blue Book said, quote actual states spending will
depend on the details of the plan develops by the
Commission and for the costs to compensate livestock losses caused
(16:08):
by the wolves. Those additional costs since the ballot measure
was passed in twenty twenty has included what the CPW
has spent to set up the range writer program, hiring,
conflict minimization, and quote extensive public outreach. Yeah, so let's see,
(16:37):
this is costing ridiculously much more than advertised to keep
our wolves alive and reintroduced in fiscal year twenty one
to twenty two, the first year the program received one
point one million that rose to two point one million
(17:00):
the next year. In the current fiscal year, the program
is three point six million. There is a wolf Depredation
Fund at well over half a million, which reflects what
is needed above the above the three hundred and fifty
(17:22):
thousand dollars annual appropriation for the fund. In other words,
the wolves are eating cattle that we then need to
pay for at a faster and faster rate. Remarkable, remarkable,
(17:43):
We did the arithmetic. We are paying about three thousand,
thirty thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Talk about a lot of stuff, but you don't never
talk about these raggedy roads.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Every one of fixtyse rolls around here, these raggedy roads.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Hey, I'm John Caldera.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
I run the Independence Institute for the Last Good God.
For decades, the Independence Institute has been the northern star
for a better Colorado, less government, less taxes, educational choice,
gun rights, property rights, and yes roads. I was once
(18:29):
the chairman of RTD, the Regional Transportation District, and I
have a simple message for you. You're not gonna like the message.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Here's the message.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
In the Denver metro area, our roads stink because we
spend the money we should be spending to fix our
roads instead to buy trolley cars.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
And carefully about no.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
More than four percent of people in the Denver metro
area use transit to get to work four percent tops tops.
Yet more than eighty percent of our transportation.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Money goes to transit.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
That's why you're stuck in a traffic jam, because the
money that should go to expand and fix our roads
instead goes to our TD to shuffle around money. It's criminal,
absolutely criminal, and racist, absolutely Racist's let's go through these,
(19:44):
let's just go through this.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
A couple of years, agoc.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
DOT to fix all the Colorado roads had a wish
list that cost nine billion dollars nine billion dollars. That's
a lot of billion dollars. RTD has spent over seven
billion dollars on its failed fast Tracks trolley car experiment.
(20:15):
In other words, we could have nearly fixed all the
roads that the state wants to fix, do all the
major improvements on Colorado highways with that seven billion dollars.
But instead we spent that seven billion dollars on trolley
(20:37):
cars that carry almost no one. They carry a fraction
of what RTD carries every day, and RTD carries only
four percent of all the commutes.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
So let's just go through.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
This action of a fraction of our commutes cost US
seven billion dollars in corporate welfare. That money could have
been used to fix the roads where ninety six percent
of us actually get to work. You want, you want
(21:19):
to see roads fixed.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Stop paying money the ransom money to transit. Yes, I
called it racist.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
If there is such a thing as systematic racism, RTD
in Colorado's public transit is that.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
How do I mean that?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Mobility, the ability to get to where you want to go,
when you want to go, is the key to the
American dream. You show me a man who is limited
to where RTD will take him, and I will show
you a man who forever will be on the bottom
rung of the economic ladder.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I am not talking about.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
People who decide to leave their car at home so
that they can avoid paying parking when they go downtown.
I'm not talking about the guy in Highland's ranch who
takes RTD so he doesn't have to pay parking at
a Rockies game. I'm talking about people who need to
(22:27):
make a living and have lives, and children and parents
who are growing older, and kids who need to go
to school and to the doctor. If you are transit dependent,
if you're too old, too young, too infirmed, to pour
(22:47):
to own a car, and you are stuck by public transit,
that means that you have to live on a transit
line and work on a transit line. You spend hours
a day sitting in buses watching some of Denver's finest
go on and off.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
To get to where you're going.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
You buy a five hundred dollars used car, you can
go anywhere anyone can go who has one hundred thousand
dollars car. You have economic freedom, you have mobility.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
So we have.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Built a system that taxes people regressively with a sales
tax and gives that money to people who already have
cars so they don't have to park and pay for
it downtown. Is that why we pay so much in taxes?
Keep in mind ourgd is about ninety five percent subsidized.
(23:49):
Let me say it again, ninety five percent subsidized. I'll
say it a third time, because maybe you don't get
it when you take when you take the bus to
go to the airport and they charge of ten bucks,
there is somebody taxpayers putting in over ninety ninety dollars.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
To finish your ride.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
So next time you see you see a fair, you know,
drop at least a zero on the back of it.
And that's the real cost of what that ride costs.
That's where all of our money goes. That's operational and
capital subsidies. That's how bad it is. In my world.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
We take this incredible subsidy we get every.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Time you buy a cup of coffee, every time you
buy a car, every time you buy anything in the
Denver metro area, you are paying taxes to RTD. I
don't mind that so much because those who are who
are transitdependent deserve mobility. They deserve to be able to
get to where they're going. But how about this instead,
(25:03):
What if we took that money and we gave it
directly to those who are transit dependent, those are who
are too poor to have a car, and we said, here,
here's a transit card, here's a transit voucher. You can
use it to pay full fare on an RTE bus,
(25:26):
or you could.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Hire an uber, or if you needed to.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Grab a taxi, you could grab a taxi, or if
you wanted to pay your buddy and carpool and share
the costs or Heaven forbid the sin of all modern sins.
You wanted to use that money to buy a used car.
This way you have what you want mobility. Imagine what
(25:56):
would happen. Well, that would mean that that guy who
takes the Rocky's ride in to avoid paying parking instead
of paying I don't know what it is, eight dollars
ten dollars, would have to pay one hundred dollars. He
would find a different way in. It would mean that
the poor person wouldn't be trapped on a system that
(26:21):
gives him no service. It is systematic racism. OURTD praise
on poor people, mostly people of color, who cannot afford
a car.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
But we build a system not for them.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
We build a system to make bond dealers, construction companies,
and downtown Denver.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
Rich.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
It is cronyism that moves OURTD, not.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Transportation.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
So we build this ridiculous hub and spoke system that
is a welfare project to downtown Denver. Yeah, you're in
Golden and you want to go to the tech center.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
You take the train and it goes to downtown Denver.
You're in Boulder, you want to go to the airport.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
You go to downtown Denver.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Here in Westminster, you want to go to Lilden, you
go to downtown Denver. That's where it all goes. This way,
Denver wins and the suburbs lose. Even though it's only
a small fraction of people who work downtown. We build
a system to bring people downtown. This is cronyism. In
(27:43):
the meantime, Colorado's roads are deteriorating. Government has a few jobs.
Even a crazed libertarian like myself says, there are jobs
government and only government can do. Only government can raise
an army. Only government can really do roads. Only government
(28:10):
can do public safety. Only government can do courts. These
are the core functions of government. It's why we pay taxes.
But instead, if you look at Colorado's Department of Transportation,
it used to be called the Department of Highways. Now
(28:33):
more and more money that supposed to go to our
highways gets siphoned off for transit, for bike lanes, for parks,
our Sea Dot. Instead of building building roads runs a
(28:54):
bus system called bus Stang, which is incredibly subsidized.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
We spend our money not on the roads.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Let me let me.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Try this this way next time you're stuck on I
twenty five between downtown and the Tech Center, or maybe
on Santa Fe and you're stuck in traffic. I want
you to look at the railroad tracks. Every now and then,
(29:27):
a car will go by on the railroad tracks and
it might be packed full of people. That's great, that's wonderful.
But look at the railroad tracks when there's no train
on it, no train at all. That's when it costs
you the most. You have that right of way right
there that could be used for another lane of traffic,
(29:50):
or an hov carpool bus lane or something where your
car could go on. Instead, that right of way is
taken away so that we have this one fits no one,
steel wheeled, two hundred year old contraption that goes up
and down. Look at it when it's empty, when there's
(30:14):
nothing on those train tracks, and realize what.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
A waste it is.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
You could be driving on that right of way with
your car, but no, they put tracks there instead.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
It would be like seeing.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
An empty lane on the highway next to you, but
it's been coned off or wald off and you're not
allowed to drive on it, but the government monopoly can
use it whenever they want. Yeah, that's why it's evil.
That's why it's racist. That's why we have traffic jams.
(30:48):
That's why our roads suck, because transit takes all the money.
End of rant. I'm John Caldera in for Brownie. Keep
it right here, you're on six already, k Howe.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
Hey John, I was just listening to your show. Here
your filling effort. It's been really good at always. I
enjoy having me killing. Thank you, and I just I
was stunned by the fact that you lost an incident
and courage classics sounds like.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
A really amazing thing.
Speaker 6 (31:20):
I would enjoy being a writer next year. Perhaps, thank
you for all that. Children's Hospital is amazing.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Children's Hospital is amazing. It's yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
So, my my daughter Parker died of cancer just days
before her first birthday, and she was cared for with
dignity and respect and love at the old Children's hospital.
I don't know if you remember it. It was it
was a dungeon. I mean, it just outgrew itself. It
(31:55):
was just mind you. I'm clouded by the memory of
it all. And then they move to the new Children's
on the Anshoots campus and it is sun filled and beautiful,
with the same great people, and I just don't know
how they do it. I don't know how they do it.
(32:16):
You know, the last thing I would want to do
all day is be around sick kids.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
It would just be heartbreaking.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
And dying kids.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
So when my son Chance came along he needed open
heart surgery, he'd be dead without Children's Hospital time and
time over. We are lucky to have Children's Hospital. Go
to thinkfreedom dot org. Thinkfreedom dot org. If you want
to throw a few bucks to teen Parker, named after
(32:49):
my late daughter. He will see a picture of me
on a silly bicycle helmet.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
The money goes there.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
It's a great thing and we're lucky to have them.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
Keep it here. You're on cana
Not only do you not want to drive your work
truck downtown, but you also don't want to take that
cruddy public transit system that they've spent way too much
money of the c DOT budget on.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh, you have no idea how much you have spent
for that crummy public transit system. I'm John Caldera in
for the poor man, cold suffering Michael Brown by all means,
give me a call three oh three seven to one,
three eight two five five. Yes, Michael Brown actually came
into the studio on hands and knees.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Going I can do it.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I can do it.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Coach for men.
Speaker 5 (00:41):
We just got a text message in at three three
one oh three from Guber number six three three six.
So Mike, oh my god, I just heard Michael Brown's
minute over on freedom. He sounds like death warmed over.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
We told you.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
I wish we were exaggerating, but it's it's it was bad.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
You know who.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Doesn't like to hear about man cold women? No woman
wants to hear they have they have sympathy for it.
You know what if there is a homeless puppy someplace
with all my the pretty little but uh oh yeah,
my man, he's sick.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
That's it. That's it.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
My man's sick, that's it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Nothing nothing, There's just there's no sympathy the one time
a man wants sympathy when he has colds. Nothing nothing. Ah,
it isn't easy being a man, don't you know? We
need we need some public education on this.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
I'm John Kelder.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Oh by the way, got a wonderful text from I
think it was Alexa earlier today. It'll be just see
if I can pull this up. She asked me how
he did in the Courage Classic. For those of you
who don't know now, the Courage Classic is a bike
ride that Children's Hospital does and we at Independence Institute
(02:05):
have been part of this for oh my god, someone
like eighteen nineteen years. My late daughter Parker Caldera died
of cancer just before her first birthday.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
And I can't believe it's been over twenty years now.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And good folks at Independence Institute, besides fighting for your
freedoms and lower taxes and gun rights and property rights,
Tracy Smith are incredible graphic artist there, put together Team Parker,
which is a team of folks who go ride this
Courage Classic and raise money for Children's Hospital. We are very,
(02:41):
very fortunate to have Children's Hospital in Colorado.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It's they did their best.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
For my daughter.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
And then when my son came along, who had down syndrome,
back to Children's Hospital. We went at three weeks old.
He had to have his heart repaired. He went back
some fourteen times for other operations and procedures, and I
didn't lose another child because of Children's Hospital.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
And they do incredible work.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
And so.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
The charity that we worked out is that I would
write to people on my email list, and by the way,
please join my email list by going to thinkfreedom dot org.
Thinkfreedom dot org and just at least sign up for
my newsletter.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
It's free.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
We send it to you. My bad jokes are involved,
and the deal was fine. I will ask people to
give money to Team Parker, which is riding the Courage Classic,
and you, Tracy, Tracy Smith at Independence Institute, you and
the other folks go ride the thing. I am not
(03:53):
riding a bicycle up and down the mountains of Colorado.
I will do the ask. And then my hideous daughter
who came later on to save my life. My hideous
daughter came up with this terrible, terrible idea. She said, Dad,
if you really want to raise some money, say that
(04:14):
if you reach your goal, then next year you will
ride the race yourself. I said, eh, that's a great idea.
So we said it like a twenty thousand dollars goal
or something like that. We're not going to reach this,
so that way we could raise more money, but I
(04:36):
would be in no danger of actually having.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
To sit on a bicycle.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Lo and behold one of our fine, fine supporters at
Independence Institute. I will name her hideous name, ky mcdivic.
Who is this woman who has been so wonderful, so sweet,
has been an anesthesiologist at children's has saved lives. This
hideous woman took me up on our challenge that was
(05:04):
not meant to be taken up, and she actually made
sure that we reached our goal. She put us over
the line is a few years back. What kind of
evil woman does that? And so then the next year
I actually had to ride the Courage Classic ough But fortunately,
(05:24):
fortunately last year when I was supposed to ride, I
was recuperating from a heart attack. I had a heart
attack instead of riding that thing again. But this year, no,
I got on the bike and I did my best.
Halfway through the first day I needed to sagwagon out,
but I did the full forty miles the next day.
(05:48):
It's not that your legs hurt, it's that your butt hurts.
It is this weird saddle soretness. I guess when you
ride bicycles for a long time, you build up some
sort of tolerance or callouses or I don't know what.
But it's not like it's chafing your butt. No, no, no,
(06:09):
it's it's it's bashing your pelvic bone.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
It just goes up there and beats you. So sadly.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I had to go ride it again, and I was
mostly mostly triumphant. I feel pretty good and we did
reach our goal, but we could always use a little more.
If you go to thinkfreedom dot org, thinkfreedom dot org,
you'll see a terrible picture of me next to a
very attractive woman. That's Tracy Smith, our graphic designer. We're
(06:44):
both wearing bicycle outfits.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Click on that. If you want to give some money.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
To Children's Hospital to keep the next kid alive, please
do so. Help us with the courage classic and remembering
my daughter and fighting for my son's life who still
requires services at Children's Hospital. Give a little money to
(07:09):
any of us on Team Parker and get that number up.
Over the years that we've done this Independence Institute has
raised over a quarter million dollars for Children's Hospital.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
I'm really proud of that.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
It's amazing what a little bit of effort, year after
year after year does, and we forget, we forget how
fortunate we are to have a stunning medical facility, the
Anshoots campus, and on that entunance campus the Children's Hospital
where people from try to save their kids' lives. So
(07:51):
quick story, and it's a sad one. So I'm there.
I made it over Tennessee Pass on the way around
on this bicycle tour. And as you know, I am
known for my athletic abilities, at which one is like,
I can't do anymore, and I hop on what's known
as the sag wagon. Just such a wonderful name, the
(08:16):
sag wagon. And this is when you had enough and
you go, I can't go any further. You hop on
this little thing and it's the bust of shame.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I am there.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
There were a couple of nurses from Children's there along
with somebody from I think their ultrasound department, and we
were all talking about how wonderful it was to be
in the sagwagon and no longer killing ourselves on a bicycle.
And my the way, they were much younger than I was,
so just it's not just old people who sag out.
(08:51):
And they were talking they didn't know that I lost
a child, but they were talking about a kid, a
five year old who had cancer and he he's not
gonna make it. And the here they are on their
day off. They're volunteering to raise money. And you could
tell these nurses just how much they cared and how
(09:13):
much it hurt them to work with work with families
and work with children when they're going through their very worst,
and particularly when.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
It does not look good. And I just.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Don't know how people do this. We talk about all
the bad in the world and how many terrible people
they are, and the crime and the city and the
fence and all use and the stolen cars and the
assaults and all the rest. But there's this other side
to our city, the other side to society.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Here are these these women in there. I don't know,
maybe they're thirty.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
And they buy choice, buy choice, get up in the morning,
go to work, and are there to comfort kids when
they're suffering. Many of them dying, and I don't know
how they do this.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Yeah, that doctors do it too. The doctors are incredible.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Nurses tend to be the ones who are most intimately
involved with with somebody suffering, And I just don't know
how you can be that brave. I have no idea
how these people do that. I'm just really, really grateful
that there are people like those nurses in this Sagwagon
(10:44):
love the name Sagwagon, who who make a life out
of caring for our sick children. I just don't know
how you do it, how much strength you have. I
think about when my father passed away in Denver hospice
(11:06):
and I talked to one of the nurses there and
she said the following I went to nursing school so
that I could do this job. What he went to
nursing so that you could help people die, so you
(11:28):
could be there to comfort them and make sure they
pass in peace.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
You know, I think I'm I'm doing something.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Heroic when I when I give some money to a.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Charity that does good work, Well, look at me, I'm
doing something good. No, these these people are out there
on the front lines of mortality. I don't know how
they do it. It just gives me a lot of
hope for all of you humankind. It's just amazing. So anyway,
(12:02):
Alexa who texted in here, how is the courage classic?
Obviously no second heart attack, that is true. Somehow I
did not have a heart attack while going over the
mountain passes.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Something like that.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Just feels so much better, so much better in the
rear view mirror.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, I did that.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Did you want to do it again today? Not in
a million.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Years, Not in a million years.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
So thanks for asking.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
If if you want to go to think freedom dot org,
please sign up, sign up for atleast my email newsletter.
See what we do at Independence. It's it's pretty amazing.
It's absolutely amazing what we do. But it's nothing compared
to what other folks do to keep to keep, to
(13:02):
keep kids alive. Something I'm just pulling off the page here.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Look, I've raised almost three five bucks for me, but
for the whole team, Parker, we've raised over twenty three
grand this year. Yeah, we've raised over a quarter million
dollars over the years. That's just amazing. That's just amazing.
I'm really really grateful. I was spectacular. Thank you all
(13:32):
for doing it. It's just it's just great. And thanks
for everybody who supports Children's Hospital. Even if you don't
need it. Even if you don't need it, someone you
love will need Children's Hospital and you will be happy
that it's there.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
When we were rush to.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Children's Hospital, I didn't think about it at the time,
but it is because other people invested in it, because
other people were able to see what was going on
and built Children's Hospital. When we needed it, it was there.
(14:18):
It was there, and.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
It's gonna be there for you.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
It might not be your kid, might be your grandkid,
might be your neighbor's kid, but it's it's a great
thing to have.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
All right, Enough of that, Shall we get back? Should
we get back to the good stuff?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Denver Gazette yesterday had an article on the cost of
the wolf problem.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I love this.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
They got a picture of.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
This cute little baby wolf. Compute little baby wolf cub.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So they're they're breeding, They're breeding, The wolves are breeding.
Marilyn Marian Goodlin writes Colorado has now spent more than
then eight million dollars.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
We spent eight million.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
We have potholes and criminals, but we spent.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Eight million dollars on wolf restoration programs, according to the
presentation made at Thursday's Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting
in Grand Junction.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Interestingly, that's not what the blue Book estimate was. The
blue Book estimate remember when we voted for this, when
Boulder and Denver voted to put killer wolves and other
people's backyards, the estimate was that was going to cost
us about eight hundred thousand dollars. So the guy there
(15:46):
noted a caveat in the blue books fine language, saying
that the blue Book said, quote actual states spending will
depend on the details of the plan develops by the
Commission and for the costs to compensate livestock losses caused
(16:08):
by the wolves. Those additional costs since the ballot measure
was passed in twenty twenty has included what the CPW
has spent to set up the range writer program, hiring,
conflict minimization, and quote extensive public outreach. Yeah, so let's see,
(16:37):
this is costing ridiculously much more than advertised to keep
our wolves alive and reintroduced in fiscal year twenty one
to twenty two, the first year the program received one
point one million that rose to two point one million
(17:00):
the next year. In the current fiscal year, the program
is three point six million. There is a wolf Depredation
Fund at well over half a million, which reflects what
is needed above the above the three hundred and fifty
(17:22):
thousand dollars annual appropriation for the fund. In other words,
the wolves are eating cattle that we then need to
pay for at a faster and faster rate. Remarkable, remarkable,
(17:43):
We did the arithmetic. We are paying about three thousand,
thirty thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Talk about a lot of stuff, but you don't never
talk about these raggedy roads.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Every one of fixtyse rolls around here, these raggedy roads.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Hey, I'm John Caldera.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
I run the Independence Institute for the Last Good God.
For decades, the Independence Institute has been the northern star
for a better Colorado, less government, less taxes, educational choice,
gun rights, property rights, and yes roads. I was once
(18:29):
the chairman of RTD, the Regional Transportation District, and I
have a simple message for you. You're not gonna like the message.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Here's the message.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
In the Denver metro area, our roads stink because we
spend the money we should be spending to fix our
roads instead to buy trolley cars.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
And carefully about no.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
More than four percent of people in the Denver metro
area use transit to get to work four percent tops tops.
Yet more than eighty percent of our transportation.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Money goes to transit.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
That's why you're stuck in a traffic jam, because the
money that should go to expand and fix our roads
instead goes to our TD to shuffle around money. It's criminal,
absolutely criminal, and racist, absolutely Racist's let's go through these,
(19:44):
let's just go through this.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
A couple of years, agoc.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
DOT to fix all the Colorado roads had a wish
list that cost nine billion dollars nine billion dollars. That's
a lot of billion dollars. RTD has spent over seven
billion dollars on its failed fast Tracks trolley car experiment.
(20:15):
In other words, we could have nearly fixed all the
roads that the state wants to fix, do all the
major improvements on Colorado highways with that seven billion dollars.
But instead we spent that seven billion dollars on trolley
(20:37):
cars that carry almost no one. They carry a fraction
of what RTD carries every day, and RTD carries only
four percent of all the commutes.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
So let's just go through.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
This action of a fraction of our commutes cost US
seven billion dollars in corporate welfare. That money could have
been used to fix the roads where ninety six percent
of us actually get to work. You want, you want
(21:19):
to see roads fixed.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Stop paying money the ransom money to transit. Yes, I
called it racist.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
If there is such a thing as systematic racism, RTD
in Colorado's public transit is that.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
How do I mean that?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Mobility, the ability to get to where you want to go,
when you want to go, is the key to the
American dream. You show me a man who is limited
to where RTD will take him, and I will show
you a man who forever will be on the bottom
rung of the economic ladder.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I am not talking about.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
People who decide to leave their car at home so
that they can avoid paying parking when they go downtown.
I'm not talking about the guy in Highland's ranch who
takes RTD so he doesn't have to pay parking at
a Rockies game. I'm talking about people who need to
(22:27):
make a living and have lives, and children and parents
who are growing older, and kids who need to go
to school and to the doctor. If you are transit dependent,
if you're too old, too young, too infirmed, to pour
(22:47):
to own a car, and you are stuck by public transit,
that means that you have to live on a transit
line and work on a transit line. You spend hours
a day sitting in buses watching some of Denver's finest
go on and off.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
To get to where you're going.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
You buy a five hundred dollars used car, you can
go anywhere anyone can go who has one hundred thousand
dollars car. You have economic freedom, you have mobility.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
So we have.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Built a system that taxes people regressively with a sales
tax and gives that money to people who already have
cars so they don't have to park and pay for
it downtown. Is that why we pay so much in taxes?
Keep in mind ourgd is about ninety five percent subsidized.
(23:49):
Let me say it again, ninety five percent subsidized. I'll
say it a third time, because maybe you don't get
it when you take when you take the bus to
go to the airport and they charge of ten bucks,
there is somebody taxpayers putting in over ninety ninety dollars.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
To finish your ride.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
So next time you see you see a fair, you know,
drop at least a zero on the back of it.
And that's the real cost of what that ride costs.
That's where all of our money goes. That's operational and
capital subsidies. That's how bad it is. In my world.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
We take this incredible subsidy we get every.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Time you buy a cup of coffee, every time you
buy a car, every time you buy anything in the
Denver metro area, you are paying taxes to RTD. I
don't mind that so much because those who are who
are transitdependent deserve mobility. They deserve to be able to
get to where they're going. But how about this instead,
(25:03):
What if we took that money and we gave it
directly to those who are transit dependent, those are who
are too poor to have a car, and we said, here,
here's a transit card, here's a transit voucher. You can
use it to pay full fare on an RTE bus,
(25:26):
or you could.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Hire an uber, or if you needed to.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Grab a taxi, you could grab a taxi, or if
you wanted to pay your buddy and carpool and share
the costs or Heaven forbid the sin of all modern sins.
You wanted to use that money to buy a used car.
This way you have what you want mobility. Imagine what
(25:56):
would happen. Well, that would mean that that guy who
takes the Rocky's ride in to avoid paying parking instead
of paying I don't know what it is, eight dollars
ten dollars, would have to pay one hundred dollars. He
would find a different way in. It would mean that
the poor person wouldn't be trapped on a system that
(26:21):
gives him no service. It is systematic racism. OURTD praise
on poor people, mostly people of color, who cannot afford
a car.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
But we build a system not for them.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
We build a system to make bond dealers, construction companies,
and downtown Denver.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
Rich.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
It is cronyism that moves OURTD, not.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Transportation.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
So we build this ridiculous hub and spoke system that
is a welfare project to downtown Denver. Yeah, you're in
Golden and you want to go to the tech center.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
You take the train and it goes to downtown Denver.
You're in Boulder, you want to go to the airport.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
You go to downtown Denver.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Here in Westminster, you want to go to Lilden, you
go to downtown Denver. That's where it all goes. This way,
Denver wins and the suburbs lose. Even though it's only
a small fraction of people who work downtown. We build
a system to bring people downtown. This is cronyism. In
(27:43):
the meantime, Colorado's roads are deteriorating. Government has a few jobs.
Even a crazed libertarian like myself says, there are jobs
government and only government can do. Only government can raise
an army. Only government can really do roads. Only government
(28:10):
can do public safety. Only government can do courts. These
are the core functions of government. It's why we pay taxes.
But instead, if you look at Colorado's Department of Transportation,
it used to be called the Department of Highways. Now
(28:33):
more and more money that supposed to go to our
highways gets siphoned off for transit, for bike lanes, for parks,
our Sea Dot. Instead of building building roads runs a
(28:54):
bus system called bus Stang, which is incredibly subsidized.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
We spend our money not on the roads.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Let me let me.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Try this this way next time you're stuck on I
twenty five between downtown and the Tech Center, or maybe
on Santa Fe and you're stuck in traffic. I want
you to look at the railroad tracks. Every now and then,
(29:27):
a car will go by on the railroad tracks and
it might be packed full of people. That's great, that's wonderful.
But look at the railroad tracks when there's no train
on it, no train at all. That's when it costs
you the most. You have that right of way right
there that could be used for another lane of traffic,
(29:50):
or an hov carpool bus lane or something where your
car could go on. Instead, that right of way is
taken away so that we have this one fits no one,
steel wheeled, two hundred year old contraption that goes up
and down. Look at it when it's empty, when there's
(30:14):
nothing on those train tracks, and realize what.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
A waste it is.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
You could be driving on that right of way with
your car, but no, they put tracks there instead.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
It would be like seeing.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
An empty lane on the highway next to you, but
it's been coned off or wald off and you're not
allowed to drive on it, but the government monopoly can
use it whenever they want. Yeah, that's why it's evil.
That's why it's racist. That's why we have traffic jams.
(30:48):
That's why our roads suck, because transit takes all the money.
End of rant. I'm John Caldera in for Brownie. Keep
it right here, you're on six already, k Howe.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
Hey John, I was just listening to your show. Here
your filling effort. It's been really good at always. I
enjoy having me killing. Thank you, and I just I
was stunned by the fact that you lost an incident
and courage classics sounds like.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
A really amazing thing.
Speaker 6 (31:20):
I would enjoy being a writer next year. Perhaps, thank
you for all that. Children's Hospital is amazing.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Children's Hospital is amazing. It's yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
So, my my daughter Parker died of cancer just days
before her first birthday, and she was cared for with
dignity and respect and love at the old Children's hospital.
I don't know if you remember it. It was it
was a dungeon. I mean, it just outgrew itself. It
(31:55):
was just mind you. I'm clouded by the memory of
it all. And then they move to the new Children's
on the Anshoots campus and it is sun filled and beautiful,
with the same great people, and I just don't know
how they do it. I don't know how they do it.
(32:16):
You know, the last thing I would want to do
all day is be around sick kids.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
It would just be heartbreaking.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
And dying kids.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
So when my son Chance came along he needed open
heart surgery, he'd be dead without Children's Hospital time and
time over. We are lucky to have Children's Hospital. Go
to thinkfreedom dot org. Thinkfreedom dot org. If you want
to throw a few bucks to teen Parker, named after
(32:49):
my late daughter. He will see a picture of me
on a silly bicycle helmet.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
The money goes there.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
It's a great thing and we're lucky to have them.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
Keep it here. You're on cana
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!