Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The night Michael Brown joins me. Here's the director talk
show host Michael Brown. Brownie, No, Brownie, You're doing a
heck of a job The Situation with Michael Brown. You're
a Politigo Express on six th k how Denver's talk station.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Say welcome to the Situation without Michael Brown.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Here are your rules of engagement.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You still need to leave a talkbag by pressing a
little red microphone button to prevent the morning cackle, and
text the word Mike or Michael to three three one
o three and leave a text message for Dragon Redbeard
so he can let the guest speaker react to it.
Download the free view iHeartRadio app and be sure to
favorite Mike's two shows, The Situation with Michael Brown and
(00:46):
The Weekend with Michael Brown.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Make sure to give a.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
False sense of welcome to the guest speaker so that
Mike feels bad about hiding off in the undisclosed location.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Be sure to go to Michael.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Says go here dot com for some swag like coffee cups.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
As Mike does not make.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Enough money to pay Dragon Redbeard when he's worth and
now a talk back, then let's welcome our guest commentator.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Dragon Dragon's not even here this morning, and Michael Brown
know it's a key either. You know there's been rumors
about the two of them. Hey, I'm John Caldera at
six minutes after it's it's bad. When I'm here, you
(01:29):
understand that it's really really bad because nobody else is available.
That's what that means. This is a low man on
the totem pole. So when when you got me, I
just say, we all feel sorry for you. I have
(01:49):
no idea what Brown he's doing. He never tells me.
He just says, hey, man, are you feeling then run?
I think there was a pretty good imitation as well.
All right, three other seven three eight, two five five.
I prefer having a few phone calls. Yeah, send me
some text Those are always fun. But you know, if
you want to give me a call, let's chat. Because
(02:11):
you know, I don't want to do all the heavy
lifting here. I need to share the load. I need
you well do most of most of it. I was
that guy at the group project in school, you know,
who said he would do do do his part but
really didn't, and then the overachieving guy in the group
(02:32):
would have to make up for it. Hey, I I
still got the same grade. And that's how you work
this system. All of which you say, give me a
call three h three seven to one, three eight two
five five seven to one three talks. So I opened
up my Denver Denver Gazette this morning, which I always
(02:56):
enjoy doing, and the one story that pops out on
me is just how spectacular the Cassabanita's staff. Yeah, that's right,
Cassabanita's staff is now going to unionize. The cast and crew.
(03:21):
Get it, crew of Denver's famous Mexican restaurant overwhelmingly voted
for contract contract bargaining with two different unions representing actors
and entertainment workers. WHOA, this is where, this is where
(03:43):
it gets confusing for me. So the employees unanimously embraced
a unionization effort with the Actors Equity Association and the
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Ayazi, I remember Aazi
from my days in theater. No, I wasn't I wasn't
(04:09):
an actor. I owned a lighting company and I did
a lot of stage lighting work, design and operating and
selling some equipment. Da da da da da. I was
the guy up in the booth running the lights. And
so I remember going on different venues with shows, and
(04:32):
you could always tell the union hall. You never wanted
to work in a union hall. No, I'm not saying
not as the union guy. Yeah, great, be the union
guy and you work in the union hall. But if
you if you go into a venue and you're traveling
with a group, you know, a band or a show
(04:54):
or something, and you've got to go in there and
use their stage hands, everything seems to take twice as long.
I mean everything you got to I just remember, it's like, hey,
(05:17):
can you help me move this road case And the
answer was no, no, no, you need to get Bob
over there. No, sorry, that's not in my contract. And
I need to run this cable from here to there,
and you can't do anything, I guess. Let me put
it this way. You go on tour with a band,
(05:38):
and you go to the venue in the morning and
you do what's known as a load in, and the
load in is bringing in all your equipment, maybe the
lighting rig or the sound rig, and setting everything up,
making sure things work, put the front of house stuff out,
the monitor system, backstage, all the stuff that has to happen,
(06:02):
and then the band comes in, does there the sound
check and then you do the show, and then you
pack it all up and go, which means you spend
a lot of time doing the very very glamorous show
work of hauling crap out of a semi truck and
bringing it onto the stage. That's that's what you do
(06:24):
a show business, leading to the old famed joke and
pretty much every stage fan knows by heart. Guy works
at the circus for years and his only job is
to clean up elephant poop. Who follows the elephants, scoops
(06:46):
up the poop, puts it in the pail, and that's
his job. And every day he complains and complains and complains,
and then one day the guy has just had enough
to wow, what if you hate your job so much,
why don't you just quit? Which Bob indignantly says, what
(07:08):
and give up show business? So as you're loading in
at six in the morning and you're grog eve from
the night before and it's just tired, you look at
each other, and sooner later one person just says, what
and give up show business? So's it's it can be that.
(07:29):
But when you go to a union run hall, which
is usually a government owned facility. Now you go to
the DCPA or some other place compared to privately owned venue.
You cannot bring the stuff in. You have to have
(07:51):
union hands that have been assigned for that show to
bring the stuff in. You can't touch it. You can't
touch a cable, you can't move the equipment. Is it's
it's ridiculous. And so all of which to say now
that the same unions that represent entertainment workers are going
(08:16):
to are going to be serving you your food. You
think your food costs a lot, Now at Casabanita, it's
just spectacular what it's going to cost. Oh, these poor
guys who who bought Cassabanita. South Park creators Matt Stone
Trey Parker purchased the restaurant in a few years back
(08:38):
to the twenty twenty one and the Colorado Colorado Boys.
They went to my alma Maters you just a little
bit behind me a year or so and in one
of their famed South Park episodes featured featured south Park,
(09:05):
which was which was fun, It was it was terrific,
it was great, it was iconic, and people around the
country didn't think Castabanita was a real place, like no,
this can't this can't be yes, but it is and
for those of us who grew up here, Castabaneda was
(09:26):
truly the poor man's disney Land that every kid had
their birthday party in. But you can't eat the food.
You just can't eat the food. And so so they
bought the place, and they bought it for I don't know,
(09:49):
ten million dollars or something ridiculous. And I'm reading from
the the gazette this morning. But the buyout, which ballooned
to forty million dollars, reimagined Casabanita but preserved its most
famous qualities. Oh, in a statement that Caspanita employees concluded,
(10:20):
we are eager to take our place at the bargaining
table soon. This this is not good. This is not good.
So the Equity Actors Association represents more than fifty one
(10:44):
thousand professional actors stage managers, including some of Disneyland and
on Broadway. The other union AYAZI, which stands for the
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, that represents a one
hundred and seventy technicians, artisans and craftsmen in the entertainment industry.
(11:07):
I love that. I love that. Obviously they grab that
from some website for AAZI. No, no, it represents one
hundred and seventy mostly obese stage hands that that unload
(11:29):
trucks and sit around for a while. And when when
any company unionizes, when any government unionizes, it's the same thing.
Why why are we unionizing? Here's the quote quote. When
(11:50):
it is a safer, fairer place to work, we will
be able to better focus on doing our jobs knowing
we are are protected, respected and valued. Wouldn't it wouldn't
it be refreshing if a union just said we want
(12:12):
more money. We we want more money. Approximately eighty Caspaneeda
employees last month filed and order with the National Labor
Relations Board, and the filing employees lamented growing concerns over
(12:34):
working conditions in the newly furbished working conditions. Now, they
want money. Let's be honest. They want money, and they
want to do less work. They want what everybody wants.
It's kind of like when you talk to the teachers'
union and it's all about the kids. It's all about
(12:55):
the kids. We've got to we've got to raise more money.
We've got to increase taxes for the kids. Let's grab
a couple of phone calls. Have you been there, let
me know. Let's grab ken Ken, Good morning. You were
John Caldera, So I'm very glad to have you. And
what are you doing to wake this early?
Speaker 3 (13:13):
That's what I want to know.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
I can't sleep, but it must be over sixty Yeah,
I am so. The thing is, when I heard your comments,
I had to call because I was an extra when
they were doing some movies I think around the nineties
(13:35):
in Denver, and there was a lighting guy.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
He was a union lighting guy. It took him forty
five minutes to change a light bulb. One light bulb.
He had to come check it out, go get his ladder,
drag it over. Then of course you wouldn't bring the
light bulb with the ladder. You had to make an
(14:00):
extra trip for that and probably take a break or
something in between. And then that dovetails in with you know,
this thing about you know and what quits show business.
It reminds me metaphorically a little bit of what goes
(14:24):
on in the United States because as the culture has changed.
I like that. I can't say declined because that would
be politically incorrect. But even with the advent of Trump
and all the good things he's got planned and I'm
(14:45):
sure will happen within the nation, and I see you know,
it's like it's the dawn of a new day and
morale's changed. But big companies they haven't changed. They're into
their beerau bocracy, inflation, regulation, wasted time, money, and energy.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
What's fascinating for me when you said it took forty
five minutes for the guy to change a light bulb,
it's what I saw at RTD, when I was on
the board at RTD. It's when I was a stage hand,
just a simple stage hand. I would see one union
guy admonish another union guy going whoa, whoa, that's not
(15:30):
your job. Slow down. And it was the pressure was
not to hey, let's speed things up, let's find efficiencies,
let's find a way to do the job quicker and
faster and cheaper. No, it was let us slow the
job down, because the slower the job is, the more
we all get paid, and the more we'll get in
(15:52):
the negotiation next time around. And which is why when
you're on a non union crew, and I always was,
and you come to a union hall, it's like, oh,
it's like I can't touch anything. And if you lift
your own equipment, think about this, you lift your own equipment,
you want to move this light from here to there,
(16:14):
even if you own the light, it's like, that's my light. No, no,
it's against the union rules. This technician, this artisan, this
craftsman that's to come and move this from here to there,
which isn't a craft by the way, it's it's not
an art. It's laying down an electrical cable from this
(16:36):
light bulb to that outlet.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Yeah, it comes down to money, power and bureaucracy. And
the bureaucracy is to protect the money and the power
and ultimately the money. When people say it's not about
the money, it's about the money. That's really what it
comes down to. And I'm like you, I get astounded
(17:03):
when I see these kinds of things. It's like, look,
let's just get it done and knock the job off.
As long as we've got to be here, let's teamwork
and get her done. You know.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
No, there's a benefit. However, when it comes to private
sector unions that it might take a long time, but
at least there is a balance. Sooner or later they
priced themselves out of the market. I don't know if
you're old enough to remember when United Airlines went bankrupt,
(17:37):
it went bankrupt wants. Employees bought the airline, gave themselves
ridiculous contracts, and then it fell apart. A guy I
knew was a retired United pilot and when bankrupt, his
pension got cut in half. He was retired, and he
(17:58):
wakes up one day and it's like now in half,
and then a little while later he got about half
of that because it cannot sustain. The difference in government
is the customer is not paying for the service. The
taxpayer is. And that's where where it comes in.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Even that, you know, when you get into socialism, Margaret
Thatcher said, you know, it's a good system socialism until
you run out of other people's money.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Let me give you the example at RTD. I know
it's a little early for wonkiness, but RTD contracts out
by law. When I got there centuries ago, twenty percent
of the service. Now it's up to about fifty percent.
And we found out that the private operators cost about
(18:51):
forty percent less. Forty percent less, same buses running on
the same schedule, going on the same route on the
same time, and it's forty less. Yes, they pay their
drivers a little less, but really it's in the work rules.
So in the union shop, a guy drives a bus
into the bus bar and he gets out of the bus.
(19:13):
The second guy comes in to sweep up the bus inside,
and then he might see that one of the reading
lapses out. He fills out a work order, and the
third guy comes in to put in the light bulb,
Whereas in the private shop, the guy drives the bus in,
sweeps out the bus, changes the light bulb, and maybe
goes work on dispatch. Because I like it, and that's
(19:37):
where the savings is.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Sorry to interrupt it. Yeah, when you're talking about United,
it reminds me of what a buddy of mine used
to say. The cure to high prices is high prices.
Because people institutions, governments, all the bureaucracy, it price. Eventually
(19:59):
it vice is itself out and people go elsewhere, which
I think I see some of that happening in Colorado.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I mean, you're seeing that with minimum wage strang as,
you're seeing it with regulations. Small companies are going out
of business and then at some point larger ones will too,
and that's when systems fail. I got to run. Thanks
for the call. Three or three seven, one, three eight,
two five five in for Michael Brown, who's out of town.
I'm John calderreic keep it right here, six thirty.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
K thirty two minutes after Good morning.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Welcome. I'm John Caldera in for.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
The big Man.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
I have no idea what trunk tank he's drying out
in this week, but he'll be back. Don't worry. Give
me a call three or three seven one three eight
two five five. That's seven to one three talk. Cassabanita
is going to unionize. I just I feel sorry for
the South Park guys. My father would say about businesses
(21:11):
and relationships and so many other things easy to get into,
hard to get out of. So these guys now are
bought this place, and the price balloon from I don't
know what it was, ten million dollars, twenty million dollars
to forty million dollars. And now they're gonna have to
deal with unions, which means it's it's gonna get really
(21:36):
expensive because it's going to be overstaffed with a lot
of people doing less productive work, and they're using entertainment unions.
That's that's the part that's kind of weird to me.
You know, the performers are bus boys. The performers are
the staff. Well that's the case. Aren't we all entertained workers.
(22:01):
Don't you go to work in the morning and and
play a character of productive, productive employee? And today playing
the role of talk show host? Is John Caldera? It's
and is it entertainment or are you actually doing a job?
Are you writing code for your software company? Or are
(22:23):
you just playing a guy who writes code? M HM
three or three seven one three eight two five five?
Just just a thought. And for those of us who
are happy being how to put it, I know your
(22:44):
body's a temple. For some of us, it's it's it's
an amusement park. Really occasionally a trailer park, you know
what I'm talking about? A seventy excuse me? A fifty
(23:04):
nine year old fifty nine year old grandmother has broken
a push up record, just eight months after she broke
the world record for the longest plank time by a
woman spy the Guinness Book of World Records. Donna Jean Wilde,
who lives in Alberta, Canada. Oh there's a problem right there.
(23:25):
You live in Canada. Got nothing else to do but
push ups all day? Get this? She did one thousand,
five hundred and seventy five push ups in anyone want
to guess sixty minutes. Let me say it again. Fifteen
(23:47):
hundred push ups in sixty minutes. I haven't done fifteen
hundred push ups in my life. She's a grandma of
twelve and she pulls this. But think about this. She
also has a world record on the adominal plank means
(24:11):
she held herself stiff like a plank for four hours,
thirty minutes and eleven seconds. She does this by doing
five hundred pushups a day. Gentlemen, we cannot have this.
(24:34):
We cannot have this. Upper body strength is our thing,
all right, make got really clear our thing. Why can't
a woman be president because she's got no upper body strength?
What if you have to like arm wrestle putin for
(24:57):
the Ukraine? Who do you want to be there? Who
do you want? You can't this way. Women can't be CEOs.
They just don't have upper body strength. What if there's
a hostile takeover of a company and it leads to fisticuffs?
This was this was like the last thing we could
(25:19):
hang on to two to say, uh, sorry, we're we're
better than you. I mean, yeah, there's now all that
that's left is you know, parallel parking and spatial acuity. No, no, honey,
that amount of peas will not fit into that tupperware.
(25:41):
It's gonna spill over, all right. So that's that's that's it.
That's what we got.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
If we let them win an upper body strength with
with a record for pushups there, they're gonna get ideas,
they're gonna want to drive cars, they're gonna wanna they're
gonna want to vote. We cannot have this. So it
(26:13):
either means we have to actually start exercising to make sure,
make sure those women understand we upper body strength, that's
our thing. Giving birth your thing. Enjoy. We'll give you
that one. We know it's important to you. We're gonna
give it to you. That way you have something to
(26:36):
talk about for the rest of your life and hold
over your kids. We'll give you a childbirth, all right.
But upper body strength, that's our thing. Dudes. If they
take this from us, what in the world is left
anything anything? I mean, well, standing while urinating. But you
(27:00):
know they're gonna figure that one out too. If it
keeps going like this, they're gonna figure that one out too.
Three oh three seven, one three eight, two five five
seven one three talk. The woman held her abdominal plank
for four hours, thirty minutes eleven seconds, which is about
(27:22):
four hours and thirty minutes and one second longer than
I could hold a plank. She does five hundred push
ups a day, Well, then why isn't she working in
the mines? All right? If if you can do five
(27:44):
hundred push ups a day and you can hold a
record for this, shouldn't she be working in the mind
swinging some sort of pickaxe? Wow? Quote? I hit this. This,
This is why we can't have women having upper body strength.
Here's her quote. I had to fight back the happy
(28:07):
tears and emotions and keep going. I still felt quite strong,
and I was aiming for a high number of push
ups to complete in the next seventeen minutes. You see,
can't even do push ups without breaking into tears. Is
(28:30):
this the world we want to live in? Three h
three seven one three eight two five five seven one
three talk. Pushups didn't come without its challenge. Wild needed
to do the pushups with a ninety degree elbow flex
at the bottom of each push up, and also needed
(28:51):
to fully extend her arm coming up. Wild's shoulder even
dislocated during this but popped back in. Oh yeah, that's
another that's another thing. Chicks have a higher tolerance for pain,
(29:18):
a higher to think about this, if if, if they
can vote, drive have upper body strength. With their bizarre
power of being able to handle pain, they're gonna They're
gonna become the overlords, all right. We will just be
(29:42):
their little playthings, peeling grapes for them. What are we
going to do about this? Likely nothing, because that would
take effort and probably some sort of organizational planning skills
which you and I don't have. Therefore, therefore it's gonna
(30:06):
be it's gonna be tough to to fight their coming revolution.
Oh my lord, this is bad stuff. So we break
our arms. I think, I think that's probably the only
thing we can do at this point. Break her arms.
(30:26):
I'm watching a little video of her, and she's beautiful woman.
She's just cracking out these pushups. It's just wrong. It's
just wrong. All right, Sorry about that? If you have
(30:46):
if you have a comment, let me let me know.
Just wrong. Uh, how about this one? John caldera ugg
text writer gives a mess waste water treatment operator, no
need for union, not enough turd nerds to make it worthwhile,
(31:10):
want more money, aspire to do more. I do all right,
hmm yeah, here's the problem with unions and their protectionism,
and we lose competition. So what what do we want?
(31:34):
Do we want equitable outcomes? I sure don't. I want
different people doing different things at different levels. Then we can.
Then we can all trade and we can find out efficiencies.
The reason
The night Michael Brown joins me. Here's the director talk
show host Michael Brown. Brownie, No, Brownie, You're doing a
heck of a job The Situation with Michael Brown. You're
a Politigo Express on six th k how Denver's talk station.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Say welcome to the Situation without Michael Brown.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Here are your rules of engagement.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You still need to leave a talkbag by pressing a
little red microphone button to prevent the morning cackle, and
text the word Mike or Michael to three three one
o three and leave a text message for Dragon Redbeard
so he can let the guest speaker react to it.
Download the free view iHeartRadio app and be sure to
favorite Mike's two shows, The Situation with Michael Brown and
(00:46):
The Weekend with Michael Brown.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Make sure to give a.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
False sense of welcome to the guest speaker so that
Mike feels bad about hiding off in the undisclosed location.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Be sure to go to Michael.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Says go here dot com for some swag like coffee cups.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
As Mike does not make.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Enough money to pay Dragon Redbeard when he's worth and
now a talk back, then let's welcome our guest commentator.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Dragon Dragon's not even here this morning, and Michael Brown
know it's a key either. You know there's been rumors
about the two of them. Hey, I'm John Caldera at
six minutes after it's it's bad. When I'm here, you
(01:29):
understand that it's really really bad because nobody else is available.
That's what that means. This is a low man on
the totem pole. So when when you got me, I
just say, we all feel sorry for you. I have
(01:49):
no idea what Brown he's doing. He never tells me.
He just says, hey, man, are you feeling then run?
I think there was a pretty good imitation as well.
All right, three other seven three eight, two five five.
I prefer having a few phone calls. Yeah, send me
some text Those are always fun. But you know, if
you want to give me a call, let's chat. Because
(02:11):
you know, I don't want to do all the heavy
lifting here. I need to share the load. I need
you well do most of most of it. I was
that guy at the group project in school, you know,
who said he would do do do his part but
really didn't, and then the overachieving guy in the group
(02:32):
would have to make up for it. Hey, I I
still got the same grade. And that's how you work
this system. All of which you say, give me a
call three h three seven to one, three eight two
five five seven to one three talks. So I opened
up my Denver Denver Gazette this morning, which I always
(02:56):
enjoy doing, and the one story that pops out on
me is just how spectacular the Cassabanita's staff. Yeah, that's right,
Cassabanita's staff is now going to unionize. The cast and crew.
(03:21):
Get it, crew of Denver's famous Mexican restaurant overwhelmingly voted
for contract contract bargaining with two different unions representing actors
and entertainment workers. WHOA, this is where, this is where
(03:43):
it gets confusing for me. So the employees unanimously embraced
a unionization effort with the Actors Equity Association and the
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Ayazi, I remember Aazi
from my days in theater. No, I wasn't I wasn't
(04:09):
an actor. I owned a lighting company and I did
a lot of stage lighting work, design and operating and
selling some equipment. Da da da da da. I was
the guy up in the booth running the lights. And
so I remember going on different venues with shows, and
(04:32):
you could always tell the union hall. You never wanted
to work in a union hall. No, I'm not saying
not as the union guy. Yeah, great, be the union
guy and you work in the union hall. But if
you if you go into a venue and you're traveling
with a group, you know, a band or a show
(04:54):
or something, and you've got to go in there and
use their stage hands, everything seems to take twice as long.
I mean everything you got to I just remember, it's like, hey,
(05:17):
can you help me move this road case And the
answer was no, no, no, you need to get Bob
over there. No, sorry, that's not in my contract. And
I need to run this cable from here to there,
and you can't do anything, I guess. Let me put
it this way. You go on tour with a band,
(05:38):
and you go to the venue in the morning and
you do what's known as a load in, and the
load in is bringing in all your equipment, maybe the
lighting rig or the sound rig, and setting everything up,
making sure things work, put the front of house stuff out,
the monitor system, backstage, all the stuff that has to happen,
(06:02):
and then the band comes in, does there the sound
check and then you do the show, and then you
pack it all up and go, which means you spend
a lot of time doing the very very glamorous show
work of hauling crap out of a semi truck and
bringing it onto the stage. That's that's what you do
(06:24):
a show business, leading to the old famed joke and
pretty much every stage fan knows by heart. Guy works
at the circus for years and his only job is
to clean up elephant poop. Who follows the elephants, scoops
(06:46):
up the poop, puts it in the pail, and that's
his job. And every day he complains and complains and complains,
and then one day the guy has just had enough
to wow, what if you hate your job so much,
why don't you just quit? Which Bob indignantly says, what
(07:08):
and give up show business? So as you're loading in
at six in the morning and you're grog eve from
the night before and it's just tired, you look at
each other, and sooner later one person just says, what
and give up show business? So's it's it can be that.
(07:29):
But when you go to a union run hall, which
is usually a government owned facility. Now you go to
the DCPA or some other place compared to privately owned venue.
You cannot bring the stuff in. You have to have
(07:51):
union hands that have been assigned for that show to
bring the stuff in. You can't touch it. You can't
touch a cable, you can't move the equipment. Is it's
it's ridiculous. And so all of which to say now
that the same unions that represent entertainment workers are going
(08:16):
to are going to be serving you your food. You
think your food costs a lot, Now at Casabanita, it's
just spectacular what it's going to cost. Oh, these poor
guys who who bought Cassabanita. South Park creators Matt Stone
Trey Parker purchased the restaurant in a few years back
(08:38):
to the twenty twenty one and the Colorado Colorado Boys.
They went to my alma Maters you just a little
bit behind me a year or so and in one
of their famed South Park episodes featured featured south Park,
(09:05):
which was which was fun, It was it was terrific,
it was great, it was iconic, and people around the
country didn't think Castabanita was a real place, like no,
this can't this can't be yes, but it is and
for those of us who grew up here, Castabaneda was
(09:26):
truly the poor man's disney Land that every kid had
their birthday party in. But you can't eat the food.
You just can't eat the food. And so so they
bought the place, and they bought it for I don't know,
(09:49):
ten million dollars or something ridiculous. And I'm reading from
the the gazette this morning. But the buyout, which ballooned
to forty million dollars, reimagined Casabanita but preserved its most
famous qualities. Oh, in a statement that Caspanita employees concluded,
(10:20):
we are eager to take our place at the bargaining
table soon. This this is not good. This is not good.
So the Equity Actors Association represents more than fifty one
(10:44):
thousand professional actors stage managers, including some of Disneyland and
on Broadway. The other union AYAZI, which stands for the
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, that represents a one
hundred and seventy technicians, artisans and craftsmen in the entertainment industry.
(11:07):
I love that. I love that. Obviously they grab that
from some website for AAZI. No, no, it represents one
hundred and seventy mostly obese stage hands that that unload
(11:29):
trucks and sit around for a while. And when when
any company unionizes, when any government unionizes, it's the same thing.
Why why are we unionizing? Here's the quote quote. When
(11:50):
it is a safer, fairer place to work, we will
be able to better focus on doing our jobs knowing
we are are protected, respected and valued. Wouldn't it wouldn't
it be refreshing if a union just said we want
(12:12):
more money. We we want more money. Approximately eighty Caspaneeda
employees last month filed and order with the National Labor
Relations Board, and the filing employees lamented growing concerns over
(12:34):
working conditions in the newly furbished working conditions. Now, they
want money. Let's be honest. They want money, and they
want to do less work. They want what everybody wants.
It's kind of like when you talk to the teachers'
union and it's all about the kids. It's all about
(12:55):
the kids. We've got to we've got to raise more money.
We've got to increase taxes for the kids. Let's grab
a couple of phone calls. Have you been there, let
me know. Let's grab ken Ken, Good morning. You were
John Caldera, So I'm very glad to have you. And
what are you doing to wake this early?
Speaker 3 (13:13):
That's what I want to know.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
I can't sleep, but it must be over sixty Yeah,
I am so. The thing is, when I heard your comments,
I had to call because I was an extra when
they were doing some movies I think around the nineties
(13:35):
in Denver, and there was a lighting guy.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
He was a union lighting guy. It took him forty
five minutes to change a light bulb. One light bulb.
He had to come check it out, go get his ladder,
drag it over. Then of course you wouldn't bring the
light bulb with the ladder. You had to make an
(14:00):
extra trip for that and probably take a break or
something in between. And then that dovetails in with you know,
this thing about you know and what quits show business.
It reminds me metaphorically a little bit of what goes
(14:24):
on in the United States because as the culture has changed.
I like that. I can't say declined because that would
be politically incorrect. But even with the advent of Trump
and all the good things he's got planned and I'm
(14:45):
sure will happen within the nation, and I see you know,
it's like it's the dawn of a new day and
morale's changed. But big companies they haven't changed. They're into
their beerau bocracy, inflation, regulation, wasted time, money, and energy.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
What's fascinating for me when you said it took forty
five minutes for the guy to change a light bulb,
it's what I saw at RTD, when I was on
the board at RTD. It's when I was a stage hand,
just a simple stage hand. I would see one union
guy admonish another union guy going whoa, whoa, that's not
(15:30):
your job. Slow down. And it was the pressure was
not to hey, let's speed things up, let's find efficiencies,
let's find a way to do the job quicker and
faster and cheaper. No, it was let us slow the
job down, because the slower the job is, the more
we all get paid, and the more we'll get in
(15:52):
the negotiation next time around. And which is why when
you're on a non union crew, and I always was,
and you come to a union hall, it's like, oh,
it's like I can't touch anything. And if you lift
your own equipment, think about this, you lift your own equipment,
you want to move this light from here to there,
(16:14):
even if you own the light, it's like, that's my light. No, no,
it's against the union rules. This technician, this artisan, this
craftsman that's to come and move this from here to there,
which isn't a craft by the way, it's it's not
an art. It's laying down an electrical cable from this
(16:36):
light bulb to that outlet.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Yeah, it comes down to money, power and bureaucracy. And
the bureaucracy is to protect the money and the power
and ultimately the money. When people say it's not about
the money, it's about the money. That's really what it
comes down to. And I'm like you, I get astounded
(17:03):
when I see these kinds of things. It's like, look,
let's just get it done and knock the job off.
As long as we've got to be here, let's teamwork
and get her done. You know.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
No, there's a benefit. However, when it comes to private
sector unions that it might take a long time, but
at least there is a balance. Sooner or later they
priced themselves out of the market. I don't know if
you're old enough to remember when United Airlines went bankrupt,
(17:37):
it went bankrupt wants. Employees bought the airline, gave themselves
ridiculous contracts, and then it fell apart. A guy I
knew was a retired United pilot and when bankrupt, his
pension got cut in half. He was retired, and he
(17:58):
wakes up one day and it's like now in half,
and then a little while later he got about half
of that because it cannot sustain. The difference in government
is the customer is not paying for the service. The
taxpayer is. And that's where where it comes in.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Even that, you know, when you get into socialism, Margaret
Thatcher said, you know, it's a good system socialism until
you run out of other people's money.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Let me give you the example at RTD. I know
it's a little early for wonkiness, but RTD contracts out
by law. When I got there centuries ago, twenty percent
of the service. Now it's up to about fifty percent.
And we found out that the private operators cost about
(18:51):
forty percent less. Forty percent less, same buses running on
the same schedule, going on the same route on the
same time, and it's forty less. Yes, they pay their
drivers a little less, but really it's in the work rules.
So in the union shop, a guy drives a bus
into the bus bar and he gets out of the bus.
(19:13):
The second guy comes in to sweep up the bus inside,
and then he might see that one of the reading
lapses out. He fills out a work order, and the
third guy comes in to put in the light bulb,
Whereas in the private shop, the guy drives the bus in,
sweeps out the bus, changes the light bulb, and maybe
goes work on dispatch. Because I like it, and that's
(19:37):
where the savings is.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Sorry to interrupt it. Yeah, when you're talking about United,
it reminds me of what a buddy of mine used
to say. The cure to high prices is high prices.
Because people institutions, governments, all the bureaucracy, it price. Eventually
(19:59):
it vice is itself out and people go elsewhere, which
I think I see some of that happening in Colorado.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I mean, you're seeing that with minimum wage strang as,
you're seeing it with regulations. Small companies are going out
of business and then at some point larger ones will too,
and that's when systems fail. I got to run. Thanks
for the call. Three or three seven, one, three eight,
two five five in for Michael Brown, who's out of town.
I'm John calderreic keep it right here, six thirty.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
K thirty two minutes after Good morning.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Welcome. I'm John Caldera in for.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
The big Man.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
I have no idea what trunk tank he's drying out
in this week, but he'll be back. Don't worry. Give
me a call three or three seven one three eight
two five five. That's seven to one three talk. Cassabanita
is going to unionize. I just I feel sorry for
the South Park guys. My father would say about businesses
(21:11):
and relationships and so many other things easy to get into,
hard to get out of. So these guys now are
bought this place, and the price balloon from I don't
know what it was, ten million dollars, twenty million dollars
to forty million dollars. And now they're gonna have to
deal with unions, which means it's it's gonna get really
(21:36):
expensive because it's going to be overstaffed with a lot
of people doing less productive work, and they're using entertainment unions.
That's that's the part that's kind of weird to me.
You know, the performers are bus boys. The performers are
the staff. Well that's the case. Aren't we all entertained workers.
(22:01):
Don't you go to work in the morning and and
play a character of productive, productive employee? And today playing
the role of talk show host? Is John Caldera? It's
and is it entertainment or are you actually doing a job?
Are you writing code for your software company? Or are
(22:23):
you just playing a guy who writes code? M HM
three or three seven one three eight two five five?
Just just a thought. And for those of us who
are happy being how to put it, I know your
(22:44):
body's a temple. For some of us, it's it's it's
an amusement park. Really occasionally a trailer park, you know
what I'm talking about? A seventy excuse me? A fifty
(23:04):
nine year old fifty nine year old grandmother has broken
a push up record, just eight months after she broke
the world record for the longest plank time by a
woman spy the Guinness Book of World Records. Donna Jean Wilde,
who lives in Alberta, Canada. Oh there's a problem right there.
(23:25):
You live in Canada. Got nothing else to do but
push ups all day? Get this? She did one thousand,
five hundred and seventy five push ups in anyone want
to guess sixty minutes. Let me say it again. Fifteen
(23:47):
hundred push ups in sixty minutes. I haven't done fifteen
hundred push ups in my life. She's a grandma of
twelve and she pulls this. But think about this. She
also has a world record on the adominal plank means
(24:11):
she held herself stiff like a plank for four hours,
thirty minutes and eleven seconds. She does this by doing
five hundred pushups a day. Gentlemen, we cannot have this.
(24:34):
We cannot have this. Upper body strength is our thing,
all right, make got really clear our thing. Why can't
a woman be president because she's got no upper body strength?
What if you have to like arm wrestle putin for
(24:57):
the Ukraine? Who do you want to be there? Who
do you want? You can't this way. Women can't be CEOs.
They just don't have upper body strength. What if there's
a hostile takeover of a company and it leads to fisticuffs?
This was this was like the last thing we could
(25:19):
hang on to two to say, uh, sorry, we're we're
better than you. I mean, yeah, there's now all that
that's left is you know, parallel parking and spatial acuity. No, no, honey,
that amount of peas will not fit into that tupperware.
(25:41):
It's gonna spill over, all right. So that's that's that's it.
That's what we got.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
If we let them win an upper body strength with
with a record for pushups there, they're gonna get ideas,
they're gonna want to drive cars, they're gonna wanna they're
gonna want to vote. We cannot have this. So it
(26:13):
either means we have to actually start exercising to make sure,
make sure those women understand we upper body strength, that's
our thing. Giving birth your thing. Enjoy. We'll give you
that one. We know it's important to you. We're gonna
give it to you. That way you have something to
(26:36):
talk about for the rest of your life and hold
over your kids. We'll give you a childbirth, all right.
But upper body strength, that's our thing. Dudes. If they
take this from us, what in the world is left
anything anything? I mean, well, standing while urinating. But you
(27:00):
know they're gonna figure that one out too. If it
keeps going like this, they're gonna figure that one out too.
Three oh three seven, one three eight, two five five
seven one three talk. The woman held her abdominal plank
for four hours, thirty minutes eleven seconds, which is about
(27:22):
four hours and thirty minutes and one second longer than
I could hold a plank. She does five hundred push
ups a day, Well, then why isn't she working in
the mines? All right? If if you can do five
(27:44):
hundred push ups a day and you can hold a
record for this, shouldn't she be working in the mind
swinging some sort of pickaxe? Wow? Quote? I hit this. This,
This is why we can't have women having upper body strength.
Here's her quote. I had to fight back the happy
(28:07):
tears and emotions and keep going. I still felt quite strong,
and I was aiming for a high number of push
ups to complete in the next seventeen minutes. You see,
can't even do push ups without breaking into tears. Is
(28:30):
this the world we want to live in? Three h
three seven one three eight two five five seven one
three talk. Pushups didn't come without its challenge. Wild needed
to do the pushups with a ninety degree elbow flex
at the bottom of each push up, and also needed
(28:51):
to fully extend her arm coming up. Wild's shoulder even
dislocated during this but popped back in. Oh yeah, that's
another that's another thing. Chicks have a higher tolerance for pain,
(29:18):
a higher to think about this, if if, if they
can vote, drive have upper body strength. With their bizarre
power of being able to handle pain, they're gonna They're
gonna become the overlords, all right. We will just be
(29:42):
their little playthings, peeling grapes for them. What are we
going to do about this? Likely nothing, because that would
take effort and probably some sort of organizational planning skills
which you and I don't have. Therefore, therefore it's gonna
(30:06):
be it's gonna be tough to to fight their coming revolution.
Oh my lord, this is bad stuff. So we break
our arms. I think, I think that's probably the only
thing we can do at this point. Break her arms.
(30:26):
I'm watching a little video of her, and she's beautiful woman.
She's just cracking out these pushups. It's just wrong. It's
just wrong. All right, Sorry about that? If you have
(30:46):
if you have a comment, let me let me know.
Just wrong. Uh, how about this one? John caldera ugg
text writer gives a mess waste water treatment operator, no
need for union, not enough turd nerds to make it worthwhile,
(31:10):
want more money, aspire to do more. I do all right,
hmm yeah, here's the problem with unions and their protectionism,
and we lose competition. So what what do we want?
(31:34):
Do we want equitable outcomes? I sure don't. I want
different people doing different things at different levels. Then we can.
Then we can all trade and we can find out efficiencies.
The reason
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