Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's stake volumes when you see that the three previous
FBI directors were all nominated with over ninety votes and
a couple votes against them. Cash Battel passed with fifty
one forty nine. They are scared of what he's about
(00:22):
to do and release.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm probably more excited about cash Battel becoming the FBI
director than almost anything else. So I'm I'm by the way,
how was that forecast? They did pretty damn well in
that forecast, didn't they. So I got up this morning
and thought, you know, I'll shovel the driveway real quickly
before I go, because I'm thinking, you know, Tamer's gonna
(00:48):
have to go to work. Well, I noticed as I
was walking through the kitchen and her phone was lighting up.
So I looked down and see what was going on.
And Douglas County schools are closed this morning. Yay, And
and I thought, well, it didn't look that bad. App
so up in the garage door and grabbed the shovel
and think, I'm gonna shovel the driveway real quickly. There's
(01:09):
like a foot of snow my freaking driveway. Uh huh,
so I haven't done that. And then you know, it
takes me forever to get in. And I noticed that
our little snow group has not shoveled the parking. They
shoveled the back.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Lot yet, No, not when I came in.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, and shovel the flat either. So anyway, you know,
because I you know, I tuned in to watch the weather,
you know, and uh, Dave Frasier's Colorado's most accurate fork
you know, forecast as certified by some independent authority.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Oh, when you're looking back in time, of course, you're
going to be accurate. You know, Hey, yesterday, I can
give you exact weather from yesterday.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So I'm I'm watching kd v R and I've checked
and channel nine and Channel seven. I haven't. I haven't
checked four. Uh, but they all ran this the same story. Now.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Whether you've been ever riffed, laid off, fired, terminated, lost
your job, whatever, But if you have, my heart goes
out to you, because, as I said yesterday, it's disrupting.
It can be a shock to your self confidence. It
(02:24):
can be it's just one of those things that you
unless you're com you know, sometimes you never see it coming.
Now around here, we just come to expect every day.
We come in every single day just to check to
see if our key card works. Yep.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
We don't really come in right day.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Right, We don't really come in to do any work.
We don't really do anything to get ready for a
program until we know our key card works. Because why
would I do show prep the night before when I
show up, you know, at five five point fifteen in
the morning, although this morning is like five forty, you know,
until you know what, it's so fine forty. Because there
were so many cars driving on the interstate today with
(03:05):
their flashers going, nobody knowing where the lanes were. I
was just playing dodgeball, yeap, I was just weaving in
and out of everybody.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Hey, real quick, squirrel. When you swipe your badge, has
it ever gone blue for you?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
No, I've never seen that.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, it's done that a couple of times, you know,
because green lets you in and red says no. But
it's been blue. Swipe it real quick and blue but
it lets you in. No, huh uh huh.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
But it's not red, right, you didn't stay red or.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
No, it just was, you know, quickly blue and nothing happens.
You don't hear the little lot click or anything. Okay,
so I'll swipe it again. Green. I was just curious
if you ever saw the blue.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I've never seen the blue. Okay, did you have that
like nano second thought.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Of uh oh yeah, because it's not red. Yeah, so
you know, because you know it's not a brace.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I think blue indication that you're going to get an
just today, that you're getting your your salary's going to
double today. Or maybe I'm sorry I didn't phrase that correctly.
That they're going to one hundred percent increase the rays
you got last year. Woo what it's one hundred percent?
Think about that?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Double true.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
You can go and think to missus Redbeard, I got
a double what I got last year.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I double my rais.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, they doubled my rais. So for all of you
out there who have ever worried about the security of
your job, who have ever gotten laid off, ever gotten
called into the office to say, you know, hey here
sign this, you're out of here, or ask to break
you know, or you walk into your office and they've
got a banker's box. They're ready for you to load
(04:43):
your stuff up. You know, I've got mine all prepared.
There's like nothing here I want to take home.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
With me, right, Hey, yeah, I used to. I had
some some you know, like Dragon Redbeard plaques that my
dad actually got one made for me. Oh yeah, you
know when I was downstairs and I had brought it
in and I was like, oh, hey, look at that.
That's right there, perfect, And then they let me go
and it's like, hey, I need that, and they're like,
we don't know where it is.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Did you ever find it?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yes? Thank you Garner. Going from from the Fox, he
went through you know, boxes and boxes and prize closets
and whatnot and found my you know, Dragon red Beard.
Good for Garner, Yes, good for Harry, appreciative of him. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
No, I've just decided, like you know, I used they
They told me initially when they assigned this our little
cubicles out here, that you needed to put something.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
We didn't get assigned a cubicle. You took it over, No, No.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I was assigned it. No, Actually it was a combination.
So Jojo and I walked through and he said, you
need to you need to find a place to.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
You just put your stuff down and call it yours.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Well, he that's dessinately he took but he told me
I needed to choose one. So I said, well, on
the you know, the ones that are kind of perpendicular
to mine. Yeah, I said, are there going to be
any dividers, you know, like so I can like have my.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Space own space. Yeah, and he goes, oh no.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And that's when I said, oh that I want that
end one because it's got dividers, you know, so it's
got my little space. Of course, the downside to my
space is it's right there where everybody walks by, so
it's a convenient place for everybody to just sit or
do their work or just through stuff there.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So I'm always finding strange things on my desk.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah. The only thing I got on my desk nowadays
is my headphones, and that's it. I don't don't have
anything personal at all. I don't want to be like
the uh, the former sports guy that had thirty thousand
bobbleheads and every single media pass and you know, just
all kinds of toys and trinkets all over the places.
That's just now, have you seen what he's doing. He's
(06:50):
still doing the same thing, yes, but have.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
You seen what he isn't who it's with and everything. No,
So I just happened to run across a Facebook post
that he had put up, and so I started digging
into it. He he has now monetarily. I don't know how
it's working out for him, but I think probably fairly well.
But it's uh, he's doing the same thing, but it's
(07:14):
with kind of an independent sports casting group and Hell's bells.
He was in the Super Bowl, they were on radio
row or would broadcasting roll on Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
With his just his name alone, I'm sure he'd be
able to squirm his way into the show.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But I'm just happy because when you look back on
many of the people that have been let go, they
have actually gone onto something better, which makes you then wonder,
as we sit here, dragon, are we sitting in a
pile of poop?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
What's better coming around the corner?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
We could actually be in like a pile of fresh
poop as opposed a pile of old, stale poop like
kal manure. That kind of starts to solidify, you know,
it makes you wonder what the hell are we doing here? Well, anyway,
so all of these people from Doze or the people
that doose are going after all these people are getting
(08:07):
fired and laid off and last night, as I'm watching KADIVR,
they run a minute a two minute twenty second piece
on of all people IRS employees in downtown Denver who
are being laid off. Before I say anything, I just
(08:30):
want you to listen to this piece. Listen to this
short segment and listen to the whining, and think to yourself,
have you ever ever in your life had a job
in the real world, because I don't think these people
live in rey reality.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
RS in the middle of tax filing season and Denver
government workers taking a big hit, A large number of
them worked in a high rise in downtown Denver, Fox
thirty one percentI Arenas was there as many of them
were told they'd have to leave today.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Vicente Jeremy.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
We talked to them as they were leaving the building
behind me. They said they knew something was up. They
knew something was wrong when they got an email telling
them they had to bring their work at home equipment
back to the.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Office and get this this morning.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
They were told after they got an email that they
would have to get out in thirty minutes because they
were being laid off. Laid off IRS workers and Denver
stunned after getting news first thing this morning they were
being let go.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I'm concerned.
Speaker 6 (09:34):
I am concerned. It's said, you know, there's we didn't
get notification about this.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Nearly seven thousand Federal IRS workers were let go across
the country. The president of the local union in Denver
said as many as one hundred and fifty probationary workers
were laid off here. Patricia Allen tells us the email
said the workers were let go because of poor performance,
but that there's no paper tre rail to prove that.
Speaker 7 (10:01):
There's no severance, there's no next week, you'll get paid
for next nothing.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
A Trump advisor says mass layoffs are part of the
Trump administration's intensified efforts to shrink the federal workforce. The
administration is focused primarily on all probationary workers who have
not yet gained civil service protection.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I think our objective is to make sure that the
employees that we pay are being productive and effective.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
One worker said, the layoffs we're all part of a
political agenda.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
We're heart program.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
We have.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
We have worked so hard. I have never worked so
hard at the job in my life.
Speaker 8 (10:39):
Elon Musk is running this show, and Donald Trump's letting them.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Several laid off workers said people should expect major delays
while trying to get information this tax season because of
the layoffs.
Speaker 9 (10:51):
It will be who think it's going to be very
big and well all of the losses that they're having
is like, who's to do the job.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
The local union says there are plans now to consider
suing the federal government, saying these layoffs never should have happened.
We put in live downtown Denver. We sent you at
in US Fox thirty one.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I'm sorry, what's your reaction to that? Suck it up,
buttercup is mine that I have. Uh, normally I have
sympathy for people who lose their jobs. But listening to
those little whining, those little whining, bitching kimmying me, I
have no sympathy whatsoever. Welcome to the real world. And
(11:40):
then to be pretty blunt about it, when when I
think about all of the rigamaro that I go through,
I have a fairly complicated tax return, and when I
go through it and I think of the time and
the energy and the effort and everything that goes through,
and then my worrying about I'm my god. So see,
I mean, it's a legitimate deduction, but you know, is
(12:02):
it worth Is it worth putting in there or not?
I don't know. It might you know, it's just gonna
cause something to be flagged in a nineteen sixty Cobalt
computer somewhere, I don't know. And then I watched some
of these people and I think you're the ones that
are looking at my tax return. You don't seem to
have the IQ of the temperature outside. Yeah, I just
(12:26):
lost all sympathy. Now. The other thing that kind of
bugs me about this is you can find similar stories,
as I said, on other local channels. I don't know.
Maybe they have so I don't know, But I don't recall,
for example, when iHeart went through its huge round of
layoffs a few years ago, I don't recall any reporter
(12:46):
standing out front asking any workers, or standing out back
in the employee parking lot asking anybody, or giving a
report about, oh, these poor people have lost their jobs
and blah blah blah. And I'm not asking for sympathy.
I'm just saying that why are we why why are
we so focused on these government workers.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I will say for us here in the radio industry,
we don't make any local news or national news, but
we do occasionally if a big name in the building, sure,
you know we would. We would hear something in Westward
in Westwood.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Right as you were talking about was as you were describing,
like a big name, I'm thinking Westward. And then and
then you spelled out the word westward. Yeah, that's exactly right.
It might make westward and we'll.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Get an article about that big name and how they
worked here for thirty years and you know got canned
because it's time. Yeah, it's it's it's November fifth, so
it's time to produce some firing, right, So.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And then the woman that starts talking about this is
this is all Elon Musk. Elon Musk is running the
show and blah blahlah blah. I'm like, wow, pretty political
for supposedly nonpartisan. You know, let's keep politics out of
tax returns, complaining that it's all being done because this
(14:10):
is Elon Musk and Donald Trump and blah blah blah.
Those are your federal workers. Now, one woman in the video,
if if they came in at this very moment and
said all right, Brown, you're off the air, go uh,
I would grab my backpack, my diet coke, and my phone.
(14:32):
I would probably grab my cables, because my cables and
other stuff, the things in the score back here. I
just I don't care. I think I can walk out
of here with one hand free.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
You'll leave your name badge that says talent.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Well, because I'm obviously no longer talented.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
True, yeah, okay, right, so.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I yes, I would leave it. So the next person
that they would hire, which would obviously be you know,
ten times more talented than I am, would be able
to use.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
The talent ban times cheaper.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Well, yes, exactly, So I could just walk out. But
this woman in the videos walking out, you know the
roller bags that you take onto the airplane, you know,
to fit into the overhead men. She's walking out with
one of those and crap piled up on it. I mean,
she looks like she's the typical, you know, first time
(15:22):
flyer on an airline that's trying to take everything in
the kitchen sink getting onto the plane. And I'm like,
holy cow, woman, what all did you take into your office?
I just, I just I am amazed that one is
getting this much news attention, that they are just in
(15:44):
shock that they've lost their job. You see, Colorado isn't
at Will State you can be except for those of
us who have contracts, which totally give us much protection anyway.
But for those of us who have contracts. But if
you don't have a contract, you can fire. You can
be terminated for any reason or for no reason. But
(16:04):
they don't work in that world. They work in a
world where they think, oh, I finally got myself a
government job, and once I got my government job, I'm
set for life. I can just sit here and I
work forever and ever and ever and never have to
worry about being terminated. In fact, I just I don't
have to do anything. I can kind of half ass
do my job and just kind of you know, half
ass as well. For half ass, that's like you're gonna
(16:25):
get an award of merit for being half ass worker.
Good grief. And then every local news channel I could,
I could. You know, what's interesting, Let's let's do this
just at free. Let's go to a diation with Dorwy.
Now I got to get through the spot here. Let's
(16:46):
just see what nine News has to say about it.
Speaker 8 (16:48):
The rumors picked up late last week that the I
r S would lay off thousands of probationary employees across
the country.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I'm I'm just kind of lost because this.
Speaker 8 (16:57):
Was like my plan Thursday morning, employees say the official
email drought since we got and.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
There was a nine News. There's another woman with a
carry on bag rolling off a carry on bag.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Not the same one.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
It's not the same woman. Wow again. Okay, when we
get back, let's see if nine News if their package
is similar to the Fox thirty one package. Because they're
all outside the irs building, all interviewing people who are shocked,
I say, shocked that there are terminations in the workforce.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
Michael, this is a Guber seven three nine six of Lewisville, Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Got a question.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
You seem to talk about this backpack a lot.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
I'm just curious what kind of backpack is it.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I'm looking for a new one. It's a toy computer bag. Leather,
all leather. Yeah, I'm just I've always been a Toomey.
I've always liked Toomey products except Samson. I bought them
(18:07):
out maybe ten years ago, and the quality of Toomey has,
excuse me, has deteriorated a little bit. They're not quite
as good as it used to be. But too me
t you am, I they're fairly good. There are the
good bags on the on the end. This is not
a backpack like that. This is an office like backpack.
So we're talking about these IRS workers in Colorado have
(18:31):
been laid off and how the local media is going
crazy over the fact that some federal government workers got
laid off. I don't maybe sometime, well, if there's a
strike we went through a grocery strike or silk, I
guess quasi going through it. They just read go back
(18:53):
to work for a little while. Uh, there were there
was some news coverage of that, but it wasn't because
we're we're getting fired. Is because workers were on strike.
And Fox thirty one ran a package interviewing people that
were moaning and whining and bitching and complaining because they
had lost their job. And my reaction to it was
(19:16):
shut up, welcome to the real world. And then my
second reaction to it was kind of interesting. Nine News
and Fox thirty one, and I'm sure I could pull
up CBS and the others that are all out in
front of the Federal building covering IRS workers at nineteen
ninety nine Broadway that are no longer working and listening
(19:38):
to them complain, I think, shut up and sit down,
Welcome to the real world.
Speaker 8 (19:44):
Thousands of probationary employees across the country.
Speaker 10 (19:47):
I'm just kind of lost because this was like my plan.
Speaker 8 (19:51):
Thursday morning, employees say the official email drought since.
Speaker 10 (19:55):
We have fallen under the probationary period of one year,
that they found it that we are not essential essential
and that we were going to let go.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Heartbreaking because we all wanted the job.
Speaker 9 (20:10):
It's hard, you know, we got bills, we got kids,
so take care of you know, daycres and the.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
National trick we all do.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
And anyone who has ever been terminated or laid off
a riff has thought exactly the same thing. But if
somebody with the television camera come up and take a
camera in your face and say, oh, tell us what
it's like, because we feel so badly for you.
Speaker 8 (20:37):
Sure Employees Union represents many of them.
Speaker 7 (20:39):
There's over one hundred and twenty members that have been
removed from their jobs today.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Local reps on site today.
Speaker 7 (20:48):
This is not a buyout, that they fired these people
for no reason whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Were they offered the buyout.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
I don't know if they were offered the buyout or not,
but you know, whether they were or not doesn't really
make any difference to me. And two, not only were
they not offered a buyout.
Speaker 7 (21:08):
But it's not a buyout that they fired these people
for no reason whatsoever, which is.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
At least in the private sector state law.
Speaker 8 (21:19):
The layoffs seem to span various departments and job titles,
from the call center to revenue officers and beyond.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
It wasn't a bloated environment. And you know when people
have this assumption, people come here and just sit around
and don't do anything. Now, I worked with very intelligent people.
Speaker 7 (21:37):
And it's offensive to tell me that I am.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
A lazy federal worker. And I got news for you.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
The federal benefits aren't as great as you.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
All think they are.
Speaker 8 (21:46):
We're not here living off of the American people tax dollar.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Wait a minute, you literally are living off the American
tax dollar, your salary, your benefit, You're off of space.
Everything that the heat that keeps your building because they're
standing out in the cold, the heat that keeps your
building warm in the winter, and the cools you're building
in the winter is all paid for the packs by
(22:14):
the tax dollar. Sweetheart, Yes, you are trying.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
To save it.
Speaker 8 (22:18):
And all of this happening in the middle of tax season.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
They're firing people on this I thought we were four stars.
Speaker 11 (22:25):
And why you're firing so people at tax tables tayors
need help?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Dragon? Did anybody hear that besides me?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Now? But would they be preferred to be fired around Christmas?
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:38):
I mean, you know, so what if it's tax season?
H and and and oh?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I thought you had an answer to that. No, okay, And.
Speaker 11 (22:50):
It's going to be harder to get that help and
to actually talk to actual human being versus deal with
an automated system. And I will see.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
The I said that.
Speaker 8 (23:02):
All the folks we talked to today tell me they
were hired just within the last year, many of them
through a program under the last administration, the Inflation Reduction Act,
the whole.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Ooh, so they're part of the eighty thousand new IRS agents.
Speaker 8 (23:18):
Sucks to be them, point being improving the IRS customer
service enforcement and new technology. Their union tells us they
are weighing next steps that might include pursuing a lawsuit.
A little early to say, but that's something they're exploring
right now if they have that option. There was a
lot of sadness today, guys.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I saw two things.
Speaker 8 (23:36):
People that were devastated and people who were furious walking
out of there today, they're like, listen, we are in
a non political job. We are civil servants. All of
them felt this was purely a political move and they
were caught in the crosshairs and they're needed right now
it's tax season.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Like that boggles the mind.
Speaker 7 (23:51):
It doesn't it doesn't add up.
Speaker 8 (23:53):
But also I'm curious they did they talk to about
do they get separance?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
I asked them.
Speaker 8 (23:57):
I'm told no, that's what they said. I think a
lot of questions about the legality of how all this
is getting rolled out in the timeline they get notification.
These employees in their union told me no severance. They
could be eligible to file for unemployment and they get
their health benefits for only one more month. But they
were like, we've got pregnant employees, We've got.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
People with congratulations.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah, well congratulations.
Speaker 8 (24:18):
Various you know, various healthys.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
You have your insurance.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
So they're all panicking, like, how long do we maybe
have coverage for?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
You ever heard cobra? Probably not, because they just expected
that they were going to be there forever.
Speaker 8 (24:38):
A lot of that's they're still trying to figure out.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
And this happened they found.
Speaker 8 (24:41):
Ula this morning in an email, like at ten o'clock
in the morning. Yeah, some of them were hearing the rumors,
but like two day they walked in and they walked
out before noon speech load up?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
All right, you know nine News. I have to say,
is it is so unbelievably biased, is so unbelievably nigh
that they think that a federal government worker deserves three
minutes and eleven seconds of news time. Uh, here's these
(25:10):
three women yacking around like the view about Holy Cow.
I cannot believe they why. Some of them are pregnant
and some of them, you know what, they're worried about
their health insurance, They're worried about this, they're worried about that.
I just a little perspective. These are government workers, and
(25:32):
this is the attitude. This is the attitude that I
encountered that when I went to d C. I was
flabbergasted by it.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Real quick though, Michael, can you get that type of
attitude in under a year? Because I think most of
these people said they were on proportionate probationary periods or
haven't been there for very long. And I am curious
if you took a position with a company a newly
created position. Does that weigh in your mind, going, hey,
(26:03):
this is new, it may not last long.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
When you go to work for the government. You're I
believe in the many inns. I can't say everybody does this,
but I believe that most people that I've run into
that have taken a government job look at it as oh,
now I'm set for life. Now I have a secure
position that I will have until I decide to leave.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
All right, Yeah, and they and they do.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
You know, the other story about these layoffs that I
ran across yesterday was, you know, everybody's now panting. You know,
whenever we do the government shut down, what do they do.
They shut down the monuments, they shut down the memorials,
they shut down the national parks. But I ran across
another story yesterday about how, oh my gosh, we can't
find the I don't remember whether it was Rocky Mountain
(26:56):
National Park or Glacier Yosemite. I don't know was but
one of the national parks. They're panicked because a guy
got fired and he is the only guy that had
the keys to open the public restrooms, the only guy. Now.
(27:16):
I don't know whether you've ever been to Rocking Mountain
National Parking or to any of the national parks. But
if you're operating a national park and you give the
the the key, this is like Barney Fife stuff. You
give their key to all of the bathrooms the national
park to one guy. Now I'm thinking, why are the
(27:38):
keys not like in the park headquarters? Why are the
keys not where?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yeah, they don't have a hook behind the door for
the keys, like.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Or even just the you know, I don't want to
go so far as to say maybe even a key
lock box, but yeah, to your point, dragon, just a
wouldn't hook in the back of the door. This says bathrooms.
So you know, in the mornings you can wake up
and make your rounds and go open the bathrooms in
the national parks, and you might have one at every entrance,
so you know, you can make all the you know,
(28:09):
so that because what if that guy's sick, what if
he breaks a leg, what if he has a car wrecked.
But they were literally bitching about the fact that the
guy that has the keys to the bathrooms has been fired,
and so we're gonna what are people gonna do?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
What are you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
What I do sometimes when I'm in a National Park.
You're gonna walk back behind the trees and the bushes.
You're gonna take a whizz and go off trail. Yep,
you're gonna go off trail and take a whizz.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
And you and if you need number two, you probably
ought to bring a shovel just in case you need
to do number two. Yeah, good grief. This is the
wackle world that we now live in. This is why
what doge is doing. Hey, I go back to Kevin
O'Leary yesterday, Remember Kevin Leary talking about you cut twenty percent,
whether you got to cut twenty percent more, you need
(29:00):
to go deeper than your initial gut tells you to go.
Because and I still use and no one's faulted me
for this, I still use musk. Walking into Twitter headquarters
in San Francisco and terminating ninety percent of the workers
and Twitter kind of went right on working. It went
(29:24):
right on working. I look around this building and I
think back, I was thinking about this yesterday because I
had stopped downstairs in our lobby, and our lobby used
to be entirely ihearted, and now it's shared. It's a
you know, this has kind of gone back to a
regular commercial building now. And I stopped and I set
my backpack and my phone and stuff down when I
(29:44):
ran into the restroom, and I came back out, and
I was putting my coat on, and I was looking
around the lobby, and I was thinking, you know, one
time there were all these member, all the people downstairs, Dragon,
you know we had.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
We used to have three full time people for the
front desk alone.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
For the front desk, And now we have a front
desk on the fourth floor that is manned by zero.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
And there's a plaque downstairs that has a number to
call if you need to come upstairs or you're told
to contact your point of contact. And we seem to
be functioning just fine.
Speaker 12 (30:22):
Good morning, Mike and Dragon. It's a beautiful morning. I
am just loving this beautiful symphony. You are playing music
to my ears to hear these entitled do nothing people
crying about losing their jobs. Keep it up, guys, it's
a great day.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Somebody's happy text line is hilarious. Sixty four or fourteen, Michael.
The only way the government can create jobs is with
our money that goes back to the woman that claims
somehow that she wasn't living off the taxpayers. The very
(31:02):
building she's walking out of is owned by the taxpayers,
is maintained by the taxpayers. Her salary is paid by
the taxpayers. She's the one that's actually collecting the money
from the taxpayers to pay her and to pay the
heating bill and the electric bill and the cooling bill,
and to pay for the elevator repairs and everything else.
(31:24):
Fifty four to thirty one, Michael, this means our tax
refunds will be laid and it's all President Elon's fault.
How are we going to survive? Exactly forty four to
sixty seven. Just to give you a little perspective, Michael,
I was let go when I was hired for getting
a Mervin's. Why that date you getting a Mervins up
(31:46):
and running. A lot of us were because we were temporary.
It sucked because we were all hoping to become permanent.
But that was the real world. But they don't live
in the real world. Zero four to three three, Michael.
With all these worthless government workers losing their jobs, I
call that in their form of taxpayer relief. Shots. Well,
it might be a little over the top, but funny nonetheless,
(32:09):
zero three five two Michael Chevron. I've not heard this because,
to your point, Chevron is laying off twenty percent of
its worldwide employees, fifteen percent here in Colorado. Here any
want in the media sympathetic to that. I've not even
heard the story till now. I didn't know that. I'm
(32:33):
a daily reader of the Wall three journal. I haven't
seen anything. It may be in there. Maybe I just
didn't see it. But yeah, okay, So Chevron's laying off
twenty percent of its worldwide workers, fifteen percent here in Colorado.
All right, nine News, Fox thirty one, Where are you?
Sixty seven ninety one, Mike? Apparently they these IRS workers
(32:54):
have not tried to call themselves. Over the last five
years post COVID, it has been nearly impossible to talk
to anyone, endless time waiting on hold, only to be
disconnected a zero loss. And of course nine three eight,
there's some irony about the tax dollar statement, given that
they're part of the team that's collecting their own funding.
(33:20):
And ninety two twenty four I could not agree more
to this. This is why I want to get rid
of the income tax. I hate having to live my
economic life according to the IRS tax code. You know,
we could, we could eliminate We still need some collection mechanism,
but think of the I mean, you think we could
(33:42):
just get rid of these eighty thousand. We could get
rid of even more if we just went to a
consumption tax and eliminated the income tax. You know, just
because the Constitution gives us the ability to collect an
income tax doesn't mean that we have to. We could
rely on a consumption tax, a national sales tax. Some
(34:05):
people like a flat tax or a fair tax. I
prefer the consumption tax, and I prefer the consumption tax
because then I have some ability to control how much
tax I pay based on how much I consume a
new car versus a used car. Do I really need
a new pair of sneakers? Yeah? Probably not. So you
(34:26):
know what, they'll just save me the sales tax, the
national sales tax on that
It's stake volumes when you see that the three previous
FBI directors were all nominated with over ninety votes and
a couple votes against them. Cash Battel passed with fifty
one forty nine. They are scared of what he's about
(00:22):
to do and release.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm probably more excited about cash Battel becoming the FBI
director than almost anything else. So I'm I'm by the way,
how was that forecast? They did pretty damn well in
that forecast, didn't they. So I got up this morning
and thought, you know, I'll shovel the driveway real quickly
before I go, because I'm thinking, you know, Tamer's gonna
(00:48):
have to go to work. Well, I noticed as I
was walking through the kitchen and her phone was lighting up.
So I looked down and see what was going on.
And Douglas County schools are closed this morning. Yay, And
and I thought, well, it didn't look that bad. App
so up in the garage door and grabbed the shovel
and think, I'm gonna shovel the driveway real quickly. There's
(01:09):
like a foot of snow my freaking driveway. Uh huh,
so I haven't done that. And then you know, it
takes me forever to get in. And I noticed that
our little snow group has not shoveled the parking. They
shoveled the back.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Lot yet, No, not when I came in.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, and shovel the flat either. So anyway, you know,
because I you know, I tuned in to watch the weather,
you know, and uh, Dave Frasier's Colorado's most accurate fork
you know, forecast as certified by some independent authority.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Oh, when you're looking back in time, of course, you're
going to be accurate. You know, Hey, yesterday, I can
give you exact weather from yesterday.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So I'm I'm watching kd v R and I've checked
and channel nine and Channel seven. I haven't. I haven't
checked four. Uh, but they all ran this the same story. Now.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Whether you've been ever riffed, laid off, fired, terminated, lost
your job, whatever, But if you have, my heart goes
out to you, because, as I said yesterday, it's disrupting.
It can be a shock to your self confidence. It
(02:24):
can be it's just one of those things that you
unless you're com you know, sometimes you never see it coming.
Now around here, we just come to expect every day.
We come in every single day just to check to
see if our key card works. Yep.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
We don't really come in right day.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Right, We don't really come in to do any work.
We don't really do anything to get ready for a
program until we know our key card works. Because why
would I do show prep the night before when I
show up, you know, at five five point fifteen in
the morning, although this morning is like five forty, you know,
until you know what, it's so fine forty. Because there
were so many cars driving on the interstate today with
(03:05):
their flashers going, nobody knowing where the lanes were. I
was just playing dodgeball, yeap, I was just weaving in
and out of everybody.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Hey, real quick, squirrel. When you swipe your badge, has
it ever gone blue for you?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
No, I've never seen that.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, it's done that a couple of times, you know,
because green lets you in and red says no. But
it's been blue. Swipe it real quick and blue but
it lets you in. No, huh uh huh.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
But it's not red, right, you didn't stay red or.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
No, it just was, you know, quickly blue and nothing happens.
You don't hear the little lot click or anything. Okay,
so I'll swipe it again. Green. I was just curious
if you ever saw the blue.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I've never seen the blue. Okay, did you have that
like nano second thought.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Of uh oh yeah, because it's not red. Yeah, so
you know, because you know it's not a brace.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I think blue indication that you're going to get an
just today, that you're getting your your salary's going to
double today. Or maybe I'm sorry I didn't phrase that correctly.
That they're going to one hundred percent increase the rays
you got last year. Woo what it's one hundred percent?
Think about that?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Double true.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
You can go and think to missus Redbeard, I got
a double what I got last year.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I double my rais.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, they doubled my rais. So for all of you
out there who have ever worried about the security of
your job, who have ever gotten laid off, ever gotten
called into the office to say, you know, hey here
sign this, you're out of here, or ask to break
you know, or you walk into your office and they've
got a banker's box. They're ready for you to load
(04:43):
your stuff up. You know, I've got mine all prepared.
There's like nothing here I want to take home.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
With me, right, Hey, yeah, I used to. I had
some some you know, like Dragon Redbeard plaques that my
dad actually got one made for me. Oh yeah, you
know when I was downstairs and I had brought it
in and I was like, oh, hey, look at that.
That's right there, perfect, And then they let me go
and it's like, hey, I need that, and they're like,
we don't know where it is.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Did you ever find it?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yes? Thank you Garner. Going from from the Fox, he
went through you know, boxes and boxes and prize closets
and whatnot and found my you know, Dragon red Beard.
Good for Garner, Yes, good for Harry, appreciative of him. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
No, I've just decided, like you know, I used they
They told me initially when they assigned this our little
cubicles out here, that you needed to put something.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
We didn't get assigned a cubicle. You took it over, No, No.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I was assigned it. No, Actually it was a combination.
So Jojo and I walked through and he said, you
need to you need to find a place to.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
You just put your stuff down and call it yours.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Well, he that's dessinately he took but he told me
I needed to choose one. So I said, well, on
the you know, the ones that are kind of perpendicular
to mine. Yeah, I said, are there going to be
any dividers, you know, like so I can like have my.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Space own space. Yeah, and he goes, oh no.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And that's when I said, oh that I want that
end one because it's got dividers, you know, so it's
got my little space. Of course, the downside to my
space is it's right there where everybody walks by, so
it's a convenient place for everybody to just sit or
do their work or just through stuff there.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So I'm always finding strange things on my desk.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah. The only thing I got on my desk nowadays
is my headphones, and that's it. I don't don't have
anything personal at all. I don't want to be like
the uh, the former sports guy that had thirty thousand
bobbleheads and every single media pass and you know, just
all kinds of toys and trinkets all over the places.
That's just now, have you seen what he's doing. He's
(06:50):
still doing the same thing, yes, but have.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
You seen what he isn't who it's with and everything. No,
So I just happened to run across a Facebook post
that he had put up, and so I started digging
into it. He he has now monetarily. I don't know how
it's working out for him, but I think probably fairly well.
But it's uh, he's doing the same thing, but it's
(07:14):
with kind of an independent sports casting group and Hell's bells.
He was in the Super Bowl, they were on radio
row or would broadcasting roll on Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
With his just his name alone, I'm sure he'd be
able to squirm his way into the show.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But I'm just happy because when you look back on
many of the people that have been let go, they
have actually gone onto something better, which makes you then wonder,
as we sit here, dragon, are we sitting in a
pile of poop?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
What's better coming around the corner?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
We could actually be in like a pile of fresh
poop as opposed a pile of old, stale poop like
kal manure. That kind of starts to solidify, you know,
it makes you wonder what the hell are we doing here? Well, anyway,
so all of these people from Doze or the people
that doose are going after all these people are getting
(08:07):
fired and laid off and last night, as I'm watching KADIVR,
they run a minute a two minute twenty second piece
on of all people IRS employees in downtown Denver who
are being laid off. Before I say anything, I just
(08:30):
want you to listen to this piece. Listen to this
short segment and listen to the whining, and think to yourself,
have you ever ever in your life had a job
in the real world, because I don't think these people
live in rey reality.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
RS in the middle of tax filing season and Denver
government workers taking a big hit, A large number of
them worked in a high rise in downtown Denver, Fox
thirty one percentI Arenas was there as many of them
were told they'd have to leave today.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Vicente Jeremy.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
We talked to them as they were leaving the building
behind me. They said they knew something was up. They
knew something was wrong when they got an email telling
them they had to bring their work at home equipment
back to the.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Office and get this this morning.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
They were told after they got an email that they
would have to get out in thirty minutes because they
were being laid off. Laid off IRS workers and Denver
stunned after getting news first thing this morning they were
being let go.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I'm concerned.
Speaker 6 (09:34):
I am concerned. It's said, you know, there's we didn't
get notification about this.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Nearly seven thousand Federal IRS workers were let go across
the country. The president of the local union in Denver
said as many as one hundred and fifty probationary workers
were laid off here. Patricia Allen tells us the email
said the workers were let go because of poor performance,
but that there's no paper tre rail to prove that.
Speaker 7 (10:01):
There's no severance, there's no next week, you'll get paid
for next nothing.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
A Trump advisor says mass layoffs are part of the
Trump administration's intensified efforts to shrink the federal workforce. The
administration is focused primarily on all probationary workers who have
not yet gained civil service protection.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I think our objective is to make sure that the
employees that we pay are being productive and effective.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
One worker said, the layoffs we're all part of a
political agenda.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
We're heart program.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
We have.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
We have worked so hard. I have never worked so
hard at the job in my life.
Speaker 8 (10:39):
Elon Musk is running this show, and Donald Trump's letting them.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Several laid off workers said people should expect major delays
while trying to get information this tax season because of
the layoffs.
Speaker 9 (10:51):
It will be who think it's going to be very
big and well all of the losses that they're having
is like, who's to do the job.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
The local union says there are plans now to consider
suing the federal government, saying these layoffs never should have happened.
We put in live downtown Denver. We sent you at
in US Fox thirty one.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I'm sorry, what's your reaction to that? Suck it up,
buttercup is mine that I have. Uh, normally I have
sympathy for people who lose their jobs. But listening to
those little whining, those little whining, bitching kimmying me, I
have no sympathy whatsoever. Welcome to the real world. And
(11:40):
then to be pretty blunt about it, when when I
think about all of the rigamaro that I go through,
I have a fairly complicated tax return, and when I
go through it and I think of the time and
the energy and the effort and everything that goes through,
and then my worrying about I'm my god. So see,
I mean, it's a legitimate deduction, but you know, is
(12:02):
it worth Is it worth putting in there or not?
I don't know. It might you know, it's just gonna
cause something to be flagged in a nineteen sixty Cobalt
computer somewhere, I don't know. And then I watched some
of these people and I think you're the ones that
are looking at my tax return. You don't seem to
have the IQ of the temperature outside. Yeah, I just
(12:26):
lost all sympathy. Now. The other thing that kind of
bugs me about this is you can find similar stories,
as I said, on other local channels. I don't know.
Maybe they have so I don't know, But I don't recall,
for example, when iHeart went through its huge round of
layoffs a few years ago, I don't recall any reporter
(12:46):
standing out front asking any workers, or standing out back
in the employee parking lot asking anybody, or giving a
report about, oh, these poor people have lost their jobs
and blah blah blah. And I'm not asking for sympathy.
I'm just saying that why are we why why are
we so focused on these government workers.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I will say for us here in the radio industry,
we don't make any local news or national news, but
we do occasionally if a big name in the building, sure,
you know we would. We would hear something in Westward
in Westwood.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Right as you were talking about was as you were describing,
like a big name, I'm thinking Westward. And then and
then you spelled out the word westward. Yeah, that's exactly right.
It might make westward and we'll.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Get an article about that big name and how they
worked here for thirty years and you know got canned
because it's time. Yeah, it's it's it's November fifth, so
it's time to produce some firing, right, So.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And then the woman that starts talking about this is
this is all Elon Musk. Elon Musk is running the
show and blah blahlah blah. I'm like, wow, pretty political
for supposedly nonpartisan. You know, let's keep politics out of
tax returns, complaining that it's all being done because this
(14:10):
is Elon Musk and Donald Trump and blah blah blah.
Those are your federal workers. Now, one woman in the video,
if if they came in at this very moment and
said all right, Brown, you're off the air, go uh,
I would grab my backpack, my diet coke, and my phone.
(14:32):
I would probably grab my cables, because my cables and
other stuff, the things in the score back here. I
just I don't care. I think I can walk out
of here with one hand free.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
You'll leave your name badge that says talent.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Well, because I'm obviously no longer talented.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
True, yeah, okay, right, so.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I yes, I would leave it. So the next person
that they would hire, which would obviously be you know,
ten times more talented than I am, would be able
to use.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
The talent ban times cheaper.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Well, yes, exactly, So I could just walk out. But
this woman in the videos walking out, you know the
roller bags that you take onto the airplane, you know,
to fit into the overhead men. She's walking out with
one of those and crap piled up on it. I mean,
she looks like she's the typical, you know, first time
(15:22):
flyer on an airline that's trying to take everything in
the kitchen sink getting onto the plane. And I'm like,
holy cow, woman, what all did you take into your office?
I just, I just I am amazed that one is
getting this much news attention, that they are just in
(15:44):
shock that they've lost their job. You see, Colorado isn't
at Will State you can be except for those of
us who have contracts, which totally give us much protection anyway.
But for those of us who have contracts. But if
you don't have a contract, you can fire. You can
be terminated for any reason or for no reason. But
(16:04):
they don't work in that world. They work in a
world where they think, oh, I finally got myself a
government job, and once I got my government job, I'm
set for life. I can just sit here and I
work forever and ever and ever and never have to
worry about being terminated. In fact, I just I don't
have to do anything. I can kind of half ass
do my job and just kind of you know, half
ass as well. For half ass, that's like you're gonna
(16:25):
get an award of merit for being half ass worker.
Good grief. And then every local news channel I could,
I could. You know, what's interesting, Let's let's do this
just at free. Let's go to a diation with Dorwy.
Now I got to get through the spot here. Let's
(16:46):
just see what nine News has to say about it.
Speaker 8 (16:48):
The rumors picked up late last week that the I
r S would lay off thousands of probationary employees across
the country.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I'm I'm just kind of lost because this.
Speaker 8 (16:57):
Was like my plan Thursday morning, employees say the official
email drought since we got and.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
There was a nine News. There's another woman with a
carry on bag rolling off a carry on bag.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Not the same one.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
It's not the same woman. Wow again. Okay, when we
get back, let's see if nine News if their package
is similar to the Fox thirty one package. Because they're
all outside the irs building, all interviewing people who are shocked,
I say, shocked that there are terminations in the workforce.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
Michael, this is a Guber seven three nine six of Lewisville, Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Got a question.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
You seem to talk about this backpack a lot.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
I'm just curious what kind of backpack is it.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I'm looking for a new one. It's a toy computer bag. Leather,
all leather. Yeah, I'm just I've always been a Toomey.
I've always liked Toomey products except Samson. I bought them
(18:07):
out maybe ten years ago, and the quality of Toomey has,
excuse me, has deteriorated a little bit. They're not quite
as good as it used to be. But too me
t you am, I they're fairly good. There are the
good bags on the on the end. This is not
a backpack like that. This is an office like backpack.
So we're talking about these IRS workers in Colorado have
(18:31):
been laid off and how the local media is going
crazy over the fact that some federal government workers got
laid off. I don't maybe sometime, well, if there's a
strike we went through a grocery strike or silk, I
guess quasi going through it. They just read go back
(18:53):
to work for a little while. Uh, there were there
was some news coverage of that, but it wasn't because
we're we're getting fired. Is because workers were on strike.
And Fox thirty one ran a package interviewing people that
were moaning and whining and bitching and complaining because they
had lost their job. And my reaction to it was
(19:16):
shut up, welcome to the real world. And then my
second reaction to it was kind of interesting. Nine News
and Fox thirty one, and I'm sure I could pull
up CBS and the others that are all out in
front of the Federal building covering IRS workers at nineteen
ninety nine Broadway that are no longer working and listening
(19:38):
to them complain, I think, shut up and sit down,
Welcome to the real world.
Speaker 8 (19:44):
Thousands of probationary employees across the country.
Speaker 10 (19:47):
I'm just kind of lost because this was like my plan.
Speaker 8 (19:51):
Thursday morning, employees say the official email drought since.
Speaker 10 (19:55):
We have fallen under the probationary period of one year,
that they found it that we are not essential essential
and that we were going to let go.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Heartbreaking because we all wanted the job.
Speaker 9 (20:10):
It's hard, you know, we got bills, we got kids,
so take care of you know, daycres and the.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
National trick we all do.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
And anyone who has ever been terminated or laid off
a riff has thought exactly the same thing. But if
somebody with the television camera come up and take a
camera in your face and say, oh, tell us what
it's like, because we feel so badly for you.
Speaker 8 (20:37):
Sure Employees Union represents many of them.
Speaker 7 (20:39):
There's over one hundred and twenty members that have been
removed from their jobs today.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Local reps on site today.
Speaker 7 (20:48):
This is not a buyout, that they fired these people
for no reason whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Were they offered the buyout.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
I don't know if they were offered the buyout or not,
but you know, whether they were or not doesn't really
make any difference to me. And two, not only were
they not offered a buyout.
Speaker 7 (21:08):
But it's not a buyout that they fired these people
for no reason whatsoever, which is.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
At least in the private sector state law.
Speaker 8 (21:19):
The layoffs seem to span various departments and job titles,
from the call center to revenue officers and beyond.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
It wasn't a bloated environment. And you know when people
have this assumption, people come here and just sit around
and don't do anything. Now, I worked with very intelligent people.
Speaker 7 (21:37):
And it's offensive to tell me that I am.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
A lazy federal worker. And I got news for you.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
The federal benefits aren't as great as you.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
All think they are.
Speaker 8 (21:46):
We're not here living off of the American people tax dollar.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Wait a minute, you literally are living off the American
tax dollar, your salary, your benefit, You're off of space.
Everything that the heat that keeps your building because they're
standing out in the cold, the heat that keeps your
building warm in the winter, and the cools you're building
in the winter is all paid for the packs by
(22:14):
the tax dollar. Sweetheart, Yes, you are trying.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
To save it.
Speaker 8 (22:18):
And all of this happening in the middle of tax season.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
They're firing people on this I thought we were four stars.
Speaker 11 (22:25):
And why you're firing so people at tax tables tayors
need help?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Dragon? Did anybody hear that besides me?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Now? But would they be preferred to be fired around Christmas?
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:38):
I mean, you know, so what if it's tax season?
H and and and oh?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I thought you had an answer to that. No, okay, And.
Speaker 11 (22:50):
It's going to be harder to get that help and
to actually talk to actual human being versus deal with
an automated system. And I will see.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
The I said that.
Speaker 8 (23:02):
All the folks we talked to today tell me they
were hired just within the last year, many of them
through a program under the last administration, the Inflation Reduction Act,
the whole.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Ooh, so they're part of the eighty thousand new IRS agents.
Speaker 8 (23:18):
Sucks to be them, point being improving the IRS customer
service enforcement and new technology. Their union tells us they
are weighing next steps that might include pursuing a lawsuit.
A little early to say, but that's something they're exploring
right now if they have that option. There was a
lot of sadness today, guys.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I saw two things.
Speaker 8 (23:36):
People that were devastated and people who were furious walking
out of there today, they're like, listen, we are in
a non political job. We are civil servants. All of
them felt this was purely a political move and they
were caught in the crosshairs and they're needed right now
it's tax season.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Like that boggles the mind.
Speaker 7 (23:51):
It doesn't it doesn't add up.
Speaker 8 (23:53):
But also I'm curious they did they talk to about
do they get separance?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
I asked them.
Speaker 8 (23:57):
I'm told no, that's what they said. I think a
lot of questions about the legality of how all this
is getting rolled out in the timeline they get notification.
These employees in their union told me no severance. They
could be eligible to file for unemployment and they get
their health benefits for only one more month. But they
were like, we've got pregnant employees, We've got.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
People with congratulations.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah, well congratulations.
Speaker 8 (24:18):
Various you know, various healthys.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
You have your insurance.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
So they're all panicking, like, how long do we maybe
have coverage for?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
You ever heard cobra? Probably not, because they just expected
that they were going to be there forever.
Speaker 8 (24:38):
A lot of that's they're still trying to figure out.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
And this happened they found.
Speaker 8 (24:41):
Ula this morning in an email, like at ten o'clock
in the morning. Yeah, some of them were hearing the rumors,
but like two day they walked in and they walked
out before noon speech load up?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
All right, you know nine News. I have to say,
is it is so unbelievably biased, is so unbelievably nigh
that they think that a federal government worker deserves three
minutes and eleven seconds of news time. Uh, here's these
(25:10):
three women yacking around like the view about Holy Cow.
I cannot believe they why. Some of them are pregnant
and some of them, you know what, they're worried about
their health insurance, They're worried about this, they're worried about that.
I just a little perspective. These are government workers, and
(25:32):
this is the attitude. This is the attitude that I
encountered that when I went to d C. I was
flabbergasted by it.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Real quick though, Michael, can you get that type of
attitude in under a year? Because I think most of
these people said they were on proportionate probationary periods or
haven't been there for very long. And I am curious
if you took a position with a company a newly
created position. Does that weigh in your mind, going, hey,
(26:03):
this is new, it may not last long.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
When you go to work for the government. You're I
believe in the many inns. I can't say everybody does this,
but I believe that most people that I've run into
that have taken a government job look at it as oh,
now I'm set for life. Now I have a secure
position that I will have until I decide to leave.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
All right, Yeah, and they and they do.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
You know, the other story about these layoffs that I
ran across yesterday was, you know, everybody's now panting. You know,
whenever we do the government shut down, what do they do.
They shut down the monuments, they shut down the memorials,
they shut down the national parks. But I ran across
another story yesterday about how, oh my gosh, we can't
find the I don't remember whether it was Rocky Mountain
(26:56):
National Park or Glacier Yosemite. I don't know was but
one of the national parks. They're panicked because a guy
got fired and he is the only guy that had
the keys to open the public restrooms, the only guy. Now.
(27:16):
I don't know whether you've ever been to Rocking Mountain
National Parking or to any of the national parks. But
if you're operating a national park and you give the
the the key, this is like Barney Fife stuff. You
give their key to all of the bathrooms the national
park to one guy. Now I'm thinking, why are the
(27:38):
keys not like in the park headquarters? Why are the
keys not where?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yeah, they don't have a hook behind the door for
the keys, like.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Or even just the you know, I don't want to
go so far as to say maybe even a key
lock box, but yeah, to your point, dragon, just a
wouldn't hook in the back of the door. This says bathrooms.
So you know, in the mornings you can wake up
and make your rounds and go open the bathrooms in
the national parks, and you might have one at every entrance,
so you know, you can make all the you know,
(28:09):
so that because what if that guy's sick, what if
he breaks a leg, what if he has a car wrecked.
But they were literally bitching about the fact that the
guy that has the keys to the bathrooms has been fired,
and so we're gonna what are people gonna do?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
What are you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
What I do sometimes when I'm in a National Park.
You're gonna walk back behind the trees and the bushes.
You're gonna take a whizz and go off trail. Yep,
you're gonna go off trail and take a whizz.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
And you and if you need number two, you probably
ought to bring a shovel just in case you need
to do number two. Yeah, good grief. This is the
wackle world that we now live in. This is why
what doge is doing. Hey, I go back to Kevin
O'Leary yesterday, Remember Kevin Leary talking about you cut twenty percent,
whether you got to cut twenty percent more, you need
(29:00):
to go deeper than your initial gut tells you to go.
Because and I still use and no one's faulted me
for this, I still use musk. Walking into Twitter headquarters
in San Francisco and terminating ninety percent of the workers
and Twitter kind of went right on working. It went
(29:24):
right on working. I look around this building and I
think back, I was thinking about this yesterday because I
had stopped downstairs in our lobby, and our lobby used
to be entirely ihearted, and now it's shared. It's a
you know, this has kind of gone back to a
regular commercial building now. And I stopped and I set
my backpack and my phone and stuff down when I
(29:44):
ran into the restroom, and I came back out, and
I was putting my coat on, and I was looking
around the lobby, and I was thinking, you know, one
time there were all these member, all the people downstairs, Dragon,
you know we had.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
We used to have three full time people for the
front desk alone.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
For the front desk, And now we have a front
desk on the fourth floor that is manned by zero.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
And there's a plaque downstairs that has a number to
call if you need to come upstairs or you're told
to contact your point of contact. And we seem to
be functioning just fine.
Speaker 12 (30:22):
Good morning, Mike and Dragon. It's a beautiful morning. I
am just loving this beautiful symphony. You are playing music
to my ears to hear these entitled do nothing people
crying about losing their jobs. Keep it up, guys, it's
a great day.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Somebody's happy text line is hilarious. Sixty four or fourteen, Michael.
The only way the government can create jobs is with
our money that goes back to the woman that claims
somehow that she wasn't living off the taxpayers. The very
(31:02):
building she's walking out of is owned by the taxpayers,
is maintained by the taxpayers. Her salary is paid by
the taxpayers. She's the one that's actually collecting the money
from the taxpayers to pay her and to pay the
heating bill and the electric bill and the cooling bill,
and to pay for the elevator repairs and everything else.
(31:24):
Fifty four to thirty one, Michael, this means our tax
refunds will be laid and it's all President Elon's fault.
How are we going to survive? Exactly forty four to
sixty seven. Just to give you a little perspective, Michael,
I was let go when I was hired for getting
a Mervin's. Why that date you getting a Mervins up
(31:46):
and running. A lot of us were because we were temporary.
It sucked because we were all hoping to become permanent.
But that was the real world. But they don't live
in the real world. Zero four to three three, Michael.
With all these worthless government workers losing their jobs, I
call that in their form of taxpayer relief. Shots. Well,
it might be a little over the top, but funny nonetheless,
(32:09):
zero three five two Michael Chevron. I've not heard this because,
to your point, Chevron is laying off twenty percent of
its worldwide employees, fifteen percent here in Colorado. Here any
want in the media sympathetic to that. I've not even
heard the story till now. I didn't know that. I'm
(32:33):
a daily reader of the Wall three journal. I haven't
seen anything. It may be in there. Maybe I just
didn't see it. But yeah, okay, So Chevron's laying off
twenty percent of its worldwide workers, fifteen percent here in Colorado.
All right, nine News, Fox thirty one, Where are you?
Sixty seven ninety one, Mike? Apparently they these IRS workers
(32:54):
have not tried to call themselves. Over the last five
years post COVID, it has been nearly impossible to talk
to anyone, endless time waiting on hold, only to be
disconnected a zero loss. And of course nine three eight,
there's some irony about the tax dollar statement, given that
they're part of the team that's collecting their own funding.
(33:20):
And ninety two twenty four I could not agree more
to this. This is why I want to get rid
of the income tax. I hate having to live my
economic life according to the IRS tax code. You know,
we could, we could eliminate We still need some collection mechanism,
but think of the I mean, you think we could
(33:42):
just get rid of these eighty thousand. We could get
rid of even more if we just went to a
consumption tax and eliminated the income tax. You know, just
because the Constitution gives us the ability to collect an
income tax doesn't mean that we have to. We could
rely on a consumption tax, a national sales tax. Some
(34:05):
people like a flat tax or a fair tax. I
prefer the consumption tax, and I prefer the consumption tax
because then I have some ability to control how much
tax I pay based on how much I consume a
new car versus a used car. Do I really need
a new pair of sneakers? Yeah? Probably not. So you
(34:26):
know what, they'll just save me the sales tax, the
national sales tax on that
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