Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stop The background electronic humming noise that happens when John's
substituting it is extremely annoying. It's like passing under power
lines that are humming extra power all over the universe.
I don't like it, and I'm not gonna listen today
because I can't stand listening.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
To that noise. I think that's just John. I think
that's just my voice. Wait, wait, let me let me
try one thing. Is this? Does this take care of it?
Here goes?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
They walk further away from mike, further, further further.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Okay, you're good. Wait, you guys are just mean. Guys
are just mean? There? Does does that help?
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Sure? Why not?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
In all serious though, I have gotten the two complaints,
one talkback and one text message about some static on
your signal. I don't hear any here in the studio
on program. I have listened to my app as my
iHeart app on it.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Tell me tell me I did I yangd something here?
So let's see if that works. Now that sounds dirty.
Let's try that again. I disconnected a wire here. Maybe
that that'll work? All right? Give me a call threeh
three seven one three eight two five five seven one
three talk so Katie Perry went to space and George
(01:32):
Lopez is going to be our next governor. Just just
something worth thinking about. Did now George Lopez is a
is a great guy. I know George. I've met him
many times. I think he's an earnest guy. I don't
think there's any shot in the world that he is electable.
(01:55):
Tell me if you disagree, please, I just don't see happening.
So it's interesting to see how quickly the Colorado cuvenatorial
race has shaped up. And it's also so insane in
America how long our candidate races are. In a parliamentary system,
(02:20):
like in the UK, there's a time limit that the
ruling party has to make a choice that we're going
to have an election, and they get a call an election,
and they have to do it in a certain amount
of time, otherwise it gets forced upon them and the
election happens. I might have this wrong. If you've got
(02:42):
the information, let me know in about a month. In
about a month, could you imagine how delicious, how much
energy and talking head time and just playing god awful
commercials and all the rest would happen if our elections
(03:06):
and our campaigns were only about a month long. Instead,
they're almost two years long now, at least a year
and a half. Presidential elections are over two years long,
and it's always front of mine and it's tiring, no wonder.
(03:26):
We all hate elections and we hate election time because
it's always election time. Remember when you were a kid,
on Mother's Day you'd ask mom, mom wins kids to
day and you got the same answer, every day is
kid's day. And you hated that as a kid, and
(03:49):
then you became a parent and go, oh, I get it.
Every day is kid's day. Well, every day is an
election day. So here we are, what a year and
a half away from election day? A year and a
half away from election day, and it's pretty well lined up.
(04:10):
Jennet Griswold is going to run for Attorney General along
with a couple other Democrats. Phil Wiser announced early, which
by the way, was a smart move on his part
allowed him to raise a fair amount of money. But
I imagine that money is going to be eclipsed by
Michael Bennett, who is going to come in with gobs
(04:34):
of money, gobs of Washington money. After sixteen years in
a position of massive power, He's got some connections does
anybody think, does anyone think that a Republican can win
a statewide office in Colorado? I don't not right now
(05:00):
now while Trump is president. I just don't see it,
do you? Three oh three seven one three eight two
five five seven one three talk. I simply can't imagine it.
That doesn't mean I don't support Trump. I do, but
(05:23):
it's out of step with the state. So we've got
good people running as a Republican on the Republican side,
it's all wonderful, but it's not like Scott Bottom's or
Greg Lopez has any shot of becoming governor. They don't,
(05:51):
without a doubt, they do not if you think differently,
by all means, explain it to me. So right now,
our next governor is either going to be the ultra
progressive Phil Wiser or the little less progressive Michael Michael Bennett.
(06:14):
Michael Bennett, who opened up his campaign saying we need
to get rid of Tabor, our taxpayer bill wrights. No,
we don't need to get rid of Tabor, and I
don't think we are going to get rid of taper,
but there will be a huge tax fight on the
(06:36):
ballot next year. Here's what the left is thinking they
know that the president's midterm election, his last midterm election,
and no, he's not going to be able to get
a third term will be a landslide in most places,
(06:57):
because it usually is, there will be a huge anti Republican,
anti Trump turnout, particularly in Colorado. And therefore it's a
good time to try to get their big ticket item done,
which is to restrict, maybe even destroy our taxpayer bill
(07:19):
of rights. They might even and I think very likely,
we'll try, will try to, We'll try to talk. We'll
try to talk us into a progressive income tax. I
don't think. I don't think they're going to be successful,
(07:40):
but it's going to be close. It's going to be
very close. Will it work? Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness.
Three h three seven one three eight two five five
(08:00):
seven to one three talk? Will will they? Will they win?
I don't think so. I don't think so. Give me
your thoughts on this one. So I think I was
what it was I filling in for? Was I filling
(08:21):
in for? I think it was Michael Brown when my
I have my son on the radio? Was that right?
Dragging him for? It was a few weeks ago. Chance
came on. Yeah, Well, so Chances with mom this morning,
and so I just constantly get phone calls from him. Uh,
so that's what he was doing. He just keeps calling me.
I'm gonna have to answer this one.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
So some would say the hour that he was on
was the best of bitter radio you've ever done?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Hi, Chance, how are you, big man? Hi? Hi, I'm
on radio right now. I can't I can't talk to
you right now? Is that okay? Oh?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Sorry?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Radio? You're on radio right now? You want to say
hello to everyone? Yeah? See hey dudes, Oh yess hey dudes.
Huh yeah, five nights, all right, I gotta go. I'll
talk to you later. I love you. No, no, not
(09:25):
wait wait wait, you gotta go? Bye bye? Oh my goodness,
What am I supposed to do there? Somebody helped me
with this. So you know, my son has down syndrome,
and he's wonderful. He is just so incredibly wonderful. But
I gave him a I gave him a phone. Actually
(09:45):
I didn't give him a phone. Santa Claus gave him
a phone, and and Chance loves to use his phone.
So whenever I'm in a meeting, my phone goes off.
What am I supposed to do. I have a subwe
down syndrome. He calls he's my priority, and I'm like,
I've got to work, But he doesn't understand this, and
(10:11):
he's just wonderful. What it would be better if he
hosted Brownie's show, By the way, I think he would
do a much better and more engaging job. So Chance
doesn't doesn't speak as well as as you and I speak.
That is, he has a hard time verbalizing, but he
(10:33):
doesn't know that. So we have to do what's called chancelation.
When he speaks, I can translate what he says, so
most people can understand him. And I still don't understand
him all the way. All right, are you willing to
get personal for a second. Here's getting personal. So my
(10:56):
son is about to turn twenty one years old. He
is what they used to call retarded, which is a
fine word. I don't know why we got rid of it,
but like everything else, the word police are out to
get you to use different words. So now the term
is developmentally delayed. At twenty one, he falls off of
(11:20):
the K through twelve support system. That is, he no
longer will be going to any sort of school, and
a lot of the activities around it will go away
and he falls into the abyss of medicaid. That's that's
how he's going to live, which means he could very
(11:42):
easily get warehoused for the rest of his life. Now,
this is a kid, a young adult, as he says,
no John, young adult. So this is a young adult
who just loves life, who is outgoing, who is effervescent,
(12:04):
who is a lot of trouble, who is fun and
brings a lot of joy wherever he goes. Do you
know what he needs? He needs a job, He needs employment.
He needs to go and interact with normal people, which,
by the way, has now been relabeled typical people, or
(12:26):
to make it even word of your neuro typical people,
because the terms just have to keep getting longer and longer.
Instead of saying normal folks, which everyone knows what we're
talking about, we now need to say neurotypical individuals compared
to developmentally delayed individuals. It's annoying. Anyway. Here's the here's
(12:50):
the issue. Chance doesn't need to earn money. That's not
that's not the issue. As a matter of fact, when
he works, somebody's gonna have to work to clean up
his mess. He works for an hour. You're gonna have
to work for an hour and a half finished trying
to do. But it brings such joy, and he makes
(13:11):
other people around him so happy that if he worked
in a restaurant, let's say, and he brought people to
their table, or filled up their water glasses, or brought
them the menus, those customers would be overjoyed because it
would be so wonderful. They would have a great experience.
The other workers would realize how fortunate they are and
(13:32):
how much fun he brings. They would be better at workers.
Everyone would be better off. But it's not like Chance's
output is worth an extra twenty dollars an hour to
a struggling business. By Colorado law, he has to be
(13:53):
paid minimum wage. Let me say this again. By law,
he has to be paid at least minimum wage. Minimum
wage in Denver's almost nineteen dollars an hour, and it's
going up in city after city. He does not financially
(14:17):
makes sense to do that, because you're gonna need somebody
in that restaurant who can hustle, who can work, who
can get the job done and not spend time just
you know, talking with the customers and making everyone feel great.
I don't care if my son gets paid a quarter
an hour a nickel an hour. He thrives when he's
(14:39):
with typical people, but he cannot have that job because
Colorado lawmakers have said people who are handicapped must have
minimum wage. Which is why I feel the minimum wage
is not just bad policy, it is minimum wage is
(15:01):
a hate law. It is hate. Why is it hate?
Because it keeps people apart, people who would otherwise have
a relationship, in this case, a restaurant owner and someone
like my son, both of whom are better off when
they decide to have this relationship called an employee employer relationship.
(15:30):
I think about how many people are out there like
my son, who who have so much to offer, but
the market says, no, we can't give you twenty twenty
five dollars an hour. And keep in mind, whenever you
get paid, your employer pays a lot more for Social
(15:51):
Security and FIKA and unemployment insurance and other insurances. So
you think paid one hundred bucks, now your employer is
paying one hundred and twenty dollars. At least everyone would
be better off. But some lawmakers say, you know that
(16:13):
relationship of an employer or an employee that's just too perverse.
We're not gonna let it happen. The left believes that
everyone wants the same thing at the same level when
it comes to employment. They think that people want to
get paid and that the amount of money is the measurement. Well,
(16:37):
it is for a lot of people, maybe it is
for most people. Some people take a job because it's
close to home. Some people take a job because they
want to learn a new skill. Some people take a
job because they want to get out and socialize. Some
people just need to get out of the house. Some people,
(16:58):
like my son, needs the social interaction. There's a million
reasons why someone takes a job. You might take a
job with your next door neighbor to learn what she does.
If she's an accountant and needs a little help, and
you go, I can help you for five bucks an
(17:20):
hour and I can learn this new skill. And she's like, yeah,
that's great, I can afford five bucks an hour. You're
both better off. But the government comes in and says,
oh no, no, that's a sick relationship. That is gross.
We're not going to allow it, even though you're both
adults and you're both better off. That is hatred, and
(17:44):
now that my son is hitting adulthood. People like him,
I see are the ones that are being so very
wrong by these laws and being hurt. All of which
to say, sorry by Son. He called me during the
middle of Brownie Show. But he's much more interesting than
(18:07):
whatever else we were talking about.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Hey, John, I just want to know did you leave
Dragon unsupervised in the studio all by himself. I don't
know if Michael is going to get back from Chicago,
but if he does, I hope you don't break Dragon,
because then Michael's not going to know what to do.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Dragon is unbreakable, but I am on supervised, so I'm
gonna start running around supervised. That's that's very, very true.
Don't worry. We have lots of video cameras around him
to record what happens, and he's, of course wearing an
ankle monitor, so we'll we'll know what what Dragon's up to.
(18:48):
Not not to worry. Hey, I'm John Caldarian for the
Big Man. Give me a call three h three seven
one three eight two five five A quick reset here. So,
my son, who has down syndrome, he has he has
one thing. It's it's he just wants to hang out
with dad and bother dad. That's it. When we're together physically,
(19:13):
it's basically a version of elder abuse. He just wants
to hop on pop. And so when I fill in
on radio, or when I have a meeting, when he's
getting ready for school and he's over at mom's house today,
you know, he loves to call me. He will sneak
someplace to give me a phone call. Actually it's usually
a FaceTime and he and it's adorable and it's wonderful,
(19:37):
But sometimes I'd rather be doing you know, sleep or
or the meeting I'm in. So he called in the
last segment, and I it was one of those things
of what do I do here? If I just hang up,
he'll just keep calling back. So I hung up a
couple times on him, and he just keeps calling back
because because why wouldn't you? And then I had to
(20:01):
emode about the problem that now that he is twenty
one years old or soon to be twenty one years old,
he's going to fall out of out of public school
and into the abyss of medicaid. And there's so many
people like him who are developmentally delayed. Neuro Divergent is
one of those new terms what we used to simply
(20:22):
call retarded. He's you know, mentally, he's about six years old,
and he cannot have a real job because the minimum
wage is too much, and he can't work for somebody,
you know, for five cents an hour because that would
be illegal, even though that's exactly what he needs, that
is best for him, and it breaks my heart. Let's
(20:43):
go to a couple phone calls here three h three
seven one, three eight two five five Brett welcome. You're
with John Caldera. So glad to have you. Brett.
Speaker 6 (20:52):
Hey, John, thanks for taking my call. I'll make this
short because I'm actually I'm a special education teacher and
I got to get inside and finish prepping for today.
But I wanted to let you know.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
There are a lot of businesses out there that their
their main objective is providing job opportunities for and I
hate this term, and I'm I'm in the industry. I
hate this neurodivergent. One that stands out the most is
a company. Uh it's called brew Ability. Oh yeah, Broadway,
(21:28):
I have talked to education teacher.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Oh yeah, no, I great. Brew Ability is this great
place on It's a pizza and beer place at on Broadway,
and I talked to the owner there when I've gone.
She has like five hundred people on a waiting list
to work there. Up in Boulder, there's a place called
Biddy and Bow's, which is a coffee shop that does
(21:52):
the same thing, and they also have a million people
on the waiting list. These are great places. My point
is most people like my son, close to ninety percent
of them, are unemployed, and our minimum wage law is
what keeps them from having having a job. And it's
(22:16):
just so very, very brutal for these kids, because if
you're a special teacher, you know that they're not in
it for the money. They are usually taken care of
by loved ones and with help with medicare. What they
need is to be able to work. And I think
that if a restaurants or stores or other places where
(22:40):
they could interact with typical folks, neurotypical folks, the pronoun
police would have us use, they would grow, they would learn.
That's how my son learns. He must be with people
his own age who are typical, who are normal, and
(23:00):
when he does, he grows, His speech gets better, his
behavior gets better, everything gets better. And oh, by the way,
if it matters. The people who work with him love
him because he brings joy and silliness. You know, wouldn't
you want to work with a guy who just dances
all the time and wants to entertain you and laughs
and never has a bad day and is smiling and giggling.
(23:24):
It makes you realize that this kid who's been through
fourteen operations and open heart surgery and can't read and
can't write, is loving his life. Why in the world
aren't you loving your life? And that's the wisdom he brings.
But because we have this hateful minimum wage law, my
son cannot have a future like that.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Well, hey, Johnix, like I said, I gotta run, but
I wanted to say I love this topic. It makes
my heart very happy. And you are an amazing dad
just just taking the time to talk about this and
take care for your son.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
So I really let me.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Let me, let me swing that back to Let me
swing that back to you, Brett. I know you're you're
late for school work, but people like you work with
kids like mine and do remarkable work. My ex wife
is a paraprofessional and she works with kids like this,
and it's a tough, tough job because Not all special
needs kids are are gentle and easy. Some of them
(24:26):
are difficult and physically dangerous. And you guys put it
on the line and you take care of all those kids.
And I'm very grateful for people like you throughout my
son's life. So thank you for doing it.
Speaker 6 (24:38):
Thank you. I appreciate it that you have an awesome.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Day you too, three or three seven, one three, eight
two five five seven one three talk. And I know
this is not why you tune into Michael Brown Show
to hear me worry about my kids, but it's such
a loss, and it's the hatred of the left that's
ruining my son's life. He lost a year and a
(25:00):
half of education because of the COVID shutdowns. I sued
the Boulder Valley School District to get him back into
school and get him some time in a classroom. Why.
Because online learning was damaging to my son. He needs
that kinetic work with teachers. He needs to be with somebody.
(25:27):
You can't look at a screen and learn things from
an online teacher. It was impossible. It's by the way,
it's nothing against the teachers. The teachers were doing the
best they could. It was the school district that shut
down these these schools. And while regular kids, neurotypical kids
(25:55):
could could handle some of that, special needs kids were
the ones that lost out. And given that they learned
at such a slow rate, a year and a half
without school without masks or with masks on was robbing them.
So check this out. What I finally said to the
(26:18):
school district was was, listen, let's settle out of court.
Give me fifteen thousand dollars to hire speech therapists for
what my son is regressing on so that he can
learn how to speak while these schools are closed. They
hired outside council at who knows how many hundreds of
(26:38):
thousands of dollars to make sure that didn't happen. We
went to court, my son and I lost. Why didn't
they just help a little bit? It would have been
so much cheaper. Well, obviously, because if they gave my
son some of this special work that he needs, some
(27:03):
outside help outside of the system and paid for it,
they'd have to do it for others, and they didn't
want to. Now, this is the same school district, much
like your school district, that has all sorts of signs
on the walls and verbiage on the website talking about
how inclusive they are, how tolerant they are, how they
(27:24):
love everyone despite their race, creed, colorability, sexual orientation, or
sexual identity. But when it comes to the disabled kids,
those who are developmentally delayed, what we used to simply
call retarded, which was a fine word, screw them. Not
(27:48):
only do they need more education which we won't give,
we kicked them out of school. And now progressives who
have this terrible minimum wage law keeps my son like
him from living productive, bigger lives. We need work so
we can be part of bigger things. We need work
(28:10):
so we can get out in the world, so that
we can learn things, so we can have dignity. The
minimum wage law is hate. By the way, laws that
say gay people cannot have relationships is also hate. You
can't be married. I find that hateful. You can't have
(28:31):
a sexual relationship with someone your own gender. That used
to be the law in a lot of states, and
we realize that that's hateful, that's discriminatory. What is the
difference between that and minimum wage? Minimum wage says YOUTWBOE.
People wanted to have this relationship, We're not going to
(28:51):
let you have it. We find it too sick. Basically,
the left believes in consensual relationships only when people are naked,
but when it comes to employment, no three h three
seven one three eight two five five seven one three talk.
(29:13):
I'm John Caldera in for the Big Man. Give me
a call and keep it right here. You're on six
thirty K.
Speaker 7 (29:18):
How my kids asked me in the last few years
about how did I know I had to file tax
returns and how did you do it back in the day. Yeah,
we used to get the ten forty booklet in the mail,
have to get the library, get our tax forms. I'm
not sure I could do my taxes without a program
(29:38):
like TurboTax or tax cut me. That shows how complicated
things are. We should just go to a national tax
and or just abolish income tax.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Right on, lady, Hey, I'm John Caldera. Give me a call.
Three O three seven to one three eight two five five.
It is kind of fun when your kids hit that
age where they have to start doing taxes and they
call up and go, are you are you having me
as a deduction? Like? Why asking because I'm doing my taxes?
(30:13):
Do you remember the easy days of doing your taxes
when you got to W two and you made that money,
and you grab the easy form and you filled it
out and go. I don't know why mom and dad
are always complaining about taxes. This isn't so hard, Yeah,
because you have one W two and you just fill
(30:34):
out one little form. Wait till you have kids, Wait
till you have a small business, Wait till you have
an employee, Wait till you have a rental property, Wait
till you have distributions, Wait until you have to do
all this other good stuff. Oh, it is insane. No
one can understand taxes. Today is tax day. How's it
(30:55):
going for you? You have to I did my taxes,
and I have no idea if I did them right.
I don't know. Nobody does because it is too big,
too complex, too convolated, convoluted, and too too many unanswered questions.
(31:21):
Now we also tax the wrong thing rule number one
in economics, what you tax you get less of. What
you subsidize you get more of. What do we tax?
We tax income? Wait a second, we want income. This
(31:45):
is a good thing. And also if it matters, you
need income to survive. You must have money to survive.
You must have a job to survive. So what does
what does all that mean? It means when you tax
(32:07):
what you need to live, you're taxing people's ability to
stay alive. Now, a consumption tax is on things you
might not need to stay alive. Do you need that
extra pair of pants to stay alive? Maybe? Maybe not? No,
likely not. Do you need the new car? Do you
(32:30):
need the boat? Do you need the TV set? No?
If we tax spending, we would get a little less spending.
We should be taxing if we have to tax here,
let me let me ask you this one. If one
(32:52):
hundred percent of your labor goes to other people, whatever
you do, your labor is given and for the benefit
of someone else, we call that slavery. We have a
constitutional amendment against it. Your labor cannot go to benefit
(33:13):
somebody else. But what happens now when half of what
you earned, half of your labor, goes to benefit other
people because of redistribution, does that make you half a slave?
(33:36):
Half of your labor goes for things that are not
core governmental functions, They're not in the constitution. They go
to wealth transfers to someone else.
Stop The background electronic humming noise that happens when John's
substituting it is extremely annoying. It's like passing under power
lines that are humming extra power all over the universe.
I don't like it, and I'm not gonna listen today
because I can't stand listening.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
To that noise. I think that's just John. I think
that's just my voice. Wait, wait, let me let me
try one thing. Is this? Does this take care of it?
Here goes?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
They walk further away from mike, further, further further.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Okay, you're good. Wait, you guys are just mean. Guys
are just mean? There? Does does that help?
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Sure? Why not?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
In all serious though, I have gotten the two complaints,
one talkback and one text message about some static on
your signal. I don't hear any here in the studio
on program. I have listened to my app as my
iHeart app on it.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Tell me tell me I did I yangd something here?
So let's see if that works. Now that sounds dirty.
Let's try that again. I disconnected a wire here. Maybe
that that'll work? All right? Give me a call threeh
three seven one three eight two five five seven one
three talk so Katie Perry went to space and George
(01:32):
Lopez is going to be our next governor. Just just
something worth thinking about. Did now George Lopez is a
is a great guy. I know George. I've met him
many times. I think he's an earnest guy. I don't
think there's any shot in the world that he is electable.
(01:55):
Tell me if you disagree, please, I just don't see happening.
So it's interesting to see how quickly the Colorado cuvenatorial
race has shaped up. And it's also so insane in
America how long our candidate races are. In a parliamentary system,
(02:20):
like in the UK, there's a time limit that the
ruling party has to make a choice that we're going
to have an election, and they get a call an election,
and they have to do it in a certain amount
of time, otherwise it gets forced upon them and the
election happens. I might have this wrong. If you've got
(02:42):
the information, let me know in about a month. In
about a month, could you imagine how delicious, how much
energy and talking head time and just playing god awful
commercials and all the rest would happen if our elections
(03:06):
and our campaigns were only about a month long. Instead,
they're almost two years long now, at least a year
and a half. Presidential elections are over two years long,
and it's always front of mine and it's tiring, no wonder.
(03:26):
We all hate elections and we hate election time because
it's always election time. Remember when you were a kid,
on Mother's Day you'd ask mom, mom wins kids to
day and you got the same answer, every day is
kid's day. And you hated that as a kid, and
(03:49):
then you became a parent and go, oh, I get it.
Every day is kid's day. Well, every day is an
election day. So here we are, what a year and
a half away from election day? A year and a
half away from election day, and it's pretty well lined up.
(04:10):
Jennet Griswold is going to run for Attorney General along
with a couple other Democrats. Phil Wiser announced early, which
by the way, was a smart move on his part
allowed him to raise a fair amount of money. But
I imagine that money is going to be eclipsed by
Michael Bennett, who is going to come in with gobs
(04:34):
of money, gobs of Washington money. After sixteen years in
a position of massive power, He's got some connections does
anybody think, does anyone think that a Republican can win
a statewide office in Colorado? I don't not right now
(05:00):
now while Trump is president. I just don't see it,
do you? Three oh three seven one three eight two
five five seven one three talk. I simply can't imagine it.
That doesn't mean I don't support Trump. I do, but
(05:23):
it's out of step with the state. So we've got
good people running as a Republican on the Republican side,
it's all wonderful, but it's not like Scott Bottom's or
Greg Lopez has any shot of becoming governor. They don't,
(05:51):
without a doubt, they do not if you think differently,
by all means, explain it to me. So right now,
our next governor is either going to be the ultra
progressive Phil Wiser or the little less progressive Michael Michael Bennett.
(06:14):
Michael Bennett, who opened up his campaign saying we need
to get rid of Tabor, our taxpayer bill wrights. No,
we don't need to get rid of Tabor, and I
don't think we are going to get rid of taper,
but there will be a huge tax fight on the
(06:36):
ballot next year. Here's what the left is thinking they
know that the president's midterm election, his last midterm election,
and no, he's not going to be able to get
a third term will be a landslide in most places,
(06:57):
because it usually is, there will be a huge anti Republican,
anti Trump turnout, particularly in Colorado. And therefore it's a
good time to try to get their big ticket item done,
which is to restrict, maybe even destroy our taxpayer bill
(07:19):
of rights. They might even and I think very likely,
we'll try, will try to, We'll try to talk. We'll
try to talk us into a progressive income tax. I
don't think. I don't think they're going to be successful,
(07:40):
but it's going to be close. It's going to be
very close. Will it work? Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness.
Three h three seven one three eight two five five
(08:00):
seven to one three talk? Will will they? Will they win?
I don't think so. I don't think so. Give me
your thoughts on this one. So I think I was
what it was I filling in for? Was I filling
(08:21):
in for? I think it was Michael Brown when my
I have my son on the radio? Was that right?
Dragging him for? It was a few weeks ago. Chance
came on. Yeah, Well, so Chances with mom this morning,
and so I just constantly get phone calls from him. Uh,
so that's what he was doing. He just keeps calling me.
I'm gonna have to answer this one.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
So some would say the hour that he was on
was the best of bitter radio you've ever done?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Hi, Chance, how are you, big man? Hi? Hi, I'm
on radio right now. I can't I can't talk to
you right now? Is that okay? Oh?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Sorry?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Radio? You're on radio right now? You want to say
hello to everyone? Yeah? See hey dudes, Oh yess hey dudes.
Huh yeah, five nights, all right, I gotta go. I'll
talk to you later. I love you. No, no, not
(09:25):
wait wait wait, you gotta go? Bye bye? Oh my goodness,
What am I supposed to do there? Somebody helped me
with this. So you know, my son has down syndrome,
and he's wonderful. He is just so incredibly wonderful. But
I gave him a I gave him a phone. Actually
(09:45):
I didn't give him a phone. Santa Claus gave him
a phone, and and Chance loves to use his phone.
So whenever I'm in a meeting, my phone goes off.
What am I supposed to do. I have a subwe
down syndrome. He calls he's my priority, and I'm like,
I've got to work, But he doesn't understand this, and
(10:11):
he's just wonderful. What it would be better if he
hosted Brownie's show, By the way, I think he would
do a much better and more engaging job. So Chance
doesn't doesn't speak as well as as you and I speak.
That is, he has a hard time verbalizing, but he
(10:33):
doesn't know that. So we have to do what's called chancelation.
When he speaks, I can translate what he says, so
most people can understand him. And I still don't understand
him all the way. All right, are you willing to
get personal for a second. Here's getting personal. So my
(10:56):
son is about to turn twenty one years old. He
is what they used to call retarded, which is a
fine word. I don't know why we got rid of it,
but like everything else, the word police are out to
get you to use different words. So now the term
is developmentally delayed. At twenty one, he falls off of
(11:20):
the K through twelve support system. That is, he no
longer will be going to any sort of school, and
a lot of the activities around it will go away
and he falls into the abyss of medicaid. That's that's
how he's going to live, which means he could very
(11:42):
easily get warehoused for the rest of his life. Now,
this is a kid, a young adult, as he says,
no John, young adult. So this is a young adult
who just loves life, who is outgoing, who is effervescent,
(12:04):
who is a lot of trouble, who is fun and
brings a lot of joy wherever he goes. Do you
know what he needs? He needs a job, He needs employment.
He needs to go and interact with normal people, which,
by the way, has now been relabeled typical people, or
(12:26):
to make it even word of your neuro typical people,
because the terms just have to keep getting longer and longer.
Instead of saying normal folks, which everyone knows what we're
talking about, we now need to say neurotypical individuals compared
to developmentally delayed individuals. It's annoying. Anyway. Here's the here's
(12:50):
the issue. Chance doesn't need to earn money. That's not
that's not the issue. As a matter of fact, when
he works, somebody's gonna have to work to clean up
his mess. He works for an hour. You're gonna have
to work for an hour and a half finished trying
to do. But it brings such joy, and he makes
(13:11):
other people around him so happy that if he worked
in a restaurant, let's say, and he brought people to
their table, or filled up their water glasses, or brought
them the menus, those customers would be overjoyed because it
would be so wonderful. They would have a great experience.
The other workers would realize how fortunate they are and
(13:32):
how much fun he brings. They would be better at workers.
Everyone would be better off. But it's not like Chance's
output is worth an extra twenty dollars an hour to
a struggling business. By Colorado law, he has to be
(13:53):
paid minimum wage. Let me say this again. By law,
he has to be paid at least minimum wage. Minimum
wage in Denver's almost nineteen dollars an hour, and it's
going up in city after city. He does not financially
(14:17):
makes sense to do that, because you're gonna need somebody
in that restaurant who can hustle, who can work, who
can get the job done and not spend time just
you know, talking with the customers and making everyone feel great.
I don't care if my son gets paid a quarter
an hour a nickel an hour. He thrives when he's
(14:39):
with typical people, but he cannot have that job because
Colorado lawmakers have said people who are handicapped must have
minimum wage. Which is why I feel the minimum wage
is not just bad policy, it is minimum wage is
(15:01):
a hate law. It is hate. Why is it hate?
Because it keeps people apart, people who would otherwise have
a relationship, in this case, a restaurant owner and someone
like my son, both of whom are better off when
they decide to have this relationship called an employee employer relationship.
(15:30):
I think about how many people are out there like
my son, who who have so much to offer, but
the market says, no, we can't give you twenty twenty
five dollars an hour. And keep in mind, whenever you
get paid, your employer pays a lot more for Social
(15:51):
Security and FIKA and unemployment insurance and other insurances. So
you think paid one hundred bucks, now your employer is
paying one hundred and twenty dollars. At least everyone would
be better off. But some lawmakers say, you know that
(16:13):
relationship of an employer or an employee that's just too perverse.
We're not gonna let it happen. The left believes that
everyone wants the same thing at the same level when
it comes to employment. They think that people want to
get paid and that the amount of money is the measurement. Well,
(16:37):
it is for a lot of people, maybe it is
for most people. Some people take a job because it's
close to home. Some people take a job because they
want to learn a new skill. Some people take a
job because they want to get out and socialize. Some
people just need to get out of the house. Some people,
(16:58):
like my son, needs the social interaction. There's a million
reasons why someone takes a job. You might take a
job with your next door neighbor to learn what she does.
If she's an accountant and needs a little help, and
you go, I can help you for five bucks an
(17:20):
hour and I can learn this new skill. And she's like, yeah,
that's great, I can afford five bucks an hour. You're
both better off. But the government comes in and says,
oh no, no, that's a sick relationship. That is gross.
We're not going to allow it, even though you're both
adults and you're both better off. That is hatred, and
(17:44):
now that my son is hitting adulthood. People like him,
I see are the ones that are being so very
wrong by these laws and being hurt. All of which
to say, sorry by Son. He called me during the
middle of Brownie Show. But he's much more interesting than
(18:07):
whatever else we were talking about.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Hey, John, I just want to know did you leave
Dragon unsupervised in the studio all by himself. I don't
know if Michael is going to get back from Chicago,
but if he does, I hope you don't break Dragon,
because then Michael's not going to know what to do.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Dragon is unbreakable, but I am on supervised, so I'm
gonna start running around supervised. That's that's very, very true.
Don't worry. We have lots of video cameras around him
to record what happens, and he's, of course wearing an
ankle monitor, so we'll we'll know what what Dragon's up to.
(18:48):
Not not to worry. Hey, I'm John Caldarian for the
Big Man. Give me a call three h three seven
one three eight two five five A quick reset here. So,
my son, who has down syndrome, he has he has
one thing. It's it's he just wants to hang out
with dad and bother dad. That's it. When we're together physically,
(19:13):
it's basically a version of elder abuse. He just wants
to hop on pop. And so when I fill in
on radio, or when I have a meeting, when he's
getting ready for school and he's over at mom's house today,
you know, he loves to call me. He will sneak
someplace to give me a phone call. Actually it's usually
a FaceTime and he and it's adorable and it's wonderful,
(19:37):
But sometimes I'd rather be doing you know, sleep or
or the meeting I'm in. So he called in the
last segment, and I it was one of those things
of what do I do here? If I just hang up,
he'll just keep calling back. So I hung up a
couple times on him, and he just keeps calling back
because because why wouldn't you? And then I had to
(20:01):
emode about the problem that now that he is twenty
one years old or soon to be twenty one years old,
he's going to fall out of out of public school
and into the abyss of medicaid. And there's so many
people like him who are developmentally delayed. Neuro Divergent is
one of those new terms what we used to simply
(20:22):
call retarded. He's you know, mentally, he's about six years old,
and he cannot have a real job because the minimum
wage is too much, and he can't work for somebody,
you know, for five cents an hour because that would
be illegal, even though that's exactly what he needs, that
is best for him, and it breaks my heart. Let's
(20:43):
go to a couple phone calls here three h three
seven one, three eight two five five Brett welcome. You're
with John Caldera. So glad to have you. Brett.
Speaker 6 (20:52):
Hey, John, thanks for taking my call. I'll make this
short because I'm actually I'm a special education teacher and
I got to get inside and finish prepping for today.
But I wanted to let you know.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
There are a lot of businesses out there that their
their main objective is providing job opportunities for and I
hate this term, and I'm I'm in the industry. I
hate this neurodivergent. One that stands out the most is
a company. Uh it's called brew Ability. Oh yeah, Broadway,
(21:28):
I have talked to education teacher.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Oh yeah, no, I great. Brew Ability is this great
place on It's a pizza and beer place at on Broadway,
and I talked to the owner there when I've gone.
She has like five hundred people on a waiting list
to work there. Up in Boulder, there's a place called
Biddy and Bow's, which is a coffee shop that does
(21:52):
the same thing, and they also have a million people
on the waiting list. These are great places. My point
is most people like my son, close to ninety percent
of them, are unemployed, and our minimum wage law is
what keeps them from having having a job. And it's
(22:16):
just so very, very brutal for these kids, because if
you're a special teacher, you know that they're not in
it for the money. They are usually taken care of
by loved ones and with help with medicare. What they
need is to be able to work. And I think
that if a restaurants or stores or other places where
(22:40):
they could interact with typical folks, neurotypical folks, the pronoun
police would have us use, they would grow, they would learn.
That's how my son learns. He must be with people
his own age who are typical, who are normal, and
(23:00):
when he does, he grows, His speech gets better, his
behavior gets better, everything gets better. And oh, by the way,
if it matters. The people who work with him love
him because he brings joy and silliness. You know, wouldn't
you want to work with a guy who just dances
all the time and wants to entertain you and laughs
and never has a bad day and is smiling and giggling.
(23:24):
It makes you realize that this kid who's been through
fourteen operations and open heart surgery and can't read and
can't write, is loving his life. Why in the world
aren't you loving your life? And that's the wisdom he brings.
But because we have this hateful minimum wage law, my
son cannot have a future like that.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Well, hey, Johnix, like I said, I gotta run, but
I wanted to say I love this topic. It makes
my heart very happy. And you are an amazing dad
just just taking the time to talk about this and
take care for your son.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
So I really let me.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Let me, let me swing that back to Let me
swing that back to you, Brett. I know you're you're
late for school work, but people like you work with
kids like mine and do remarkable work. My ex wife
is a paraprofessional and she works with kids like this,
and it's a tough, tough job because Not all special
needs kids are are gentle and easy. Some of them
(24:26):
are difficult and physically dangerous. And you guys put it
on the line and you take care of all those kids.
And I'm very grateful for people like you throughout my
son's life. So thank you for doing it.
Speaker 6 (24:38):
Thank you. I appreciate it that you have an awesome.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Day you too, three or three seven, one three, eight
two five five seven one three talk. And I know
this is not why you tune into Michael Brown Show
to hear me worry about my kids, but it's such
a loss, and it's the hatred of the left that's
ruining my son's life. He lost a year and a
(25:00):
half of education because of the COVID shutdowns. I sued
the Boulder Valley School District to get him back into
school and get him some time in a classroom. Why.
Because online learning was damaging to my son. He needs
that kinetic work with teachers. He needs to be with somebody.
(25:27):
You can't look at a screen and learn things from
an online teacher. It was impossible. It's by the way,
it's nothing against the teachers. The teachers were doing the
best they could. It was the school district that shut
down these these schools. And while regular kids, neurotypical kids
(25:55):
could could handle some of that, special needs kids were
the ones that lost out. And given that they learned
at such a slow rate, a year and a half
without school without masks or with masks on was robbing them.
So check this out. What I finally said to the
(26:18):
school district was was, listen, let's settle out of court.
Give me fifteen thousand dollars to hire speech therapists for
what my son is regressing on so that he can
learn how to speak while these schools are closed. They
hired outside council at who knows how many hundreds of
(26:38):
thousands of dollars to make sure that didn't happen. We
went to court, my son and I lost. Why didn't
they just help a little bit? It would have been
so much cheaper. Well, obviously, because if they gave my
son some of this special work that he needs, some
(27:03):
outside help outside of the system and paid for it,
they'd have to do it for others, and they didn't
want to. Now, this is the same school district, much
like your school district, that has all sorts of signs
on the walls and verbiage on the website talking about
how inclusive they are, how tolerant they are, how they
(27:24):
love everyone despite their race, creed, colorability, sexual orientation, or
sexual identity. But when it comes to the disabled kids,
those who are developmentally delayed, what we used to simply
call retarded, which was a fine word, screw them. Not
(27:48):
only do they need more education which we won't give,
we kicked them out of school. And now progressives who
have this terrible minimum wage law keeps my son like
him from living productive, bigger lives. We need work so
we can be part of bigger things. We need work
(28:10):
so we can get out in the world, so that
we can learn things, so we can have dignity. The
minimum wage law is hate. By the way, laws that
say gay people cannot have relationships is also hate. You
can't be married. I find that hateful. You can't have
(28:31):
a sexual relationship with someone your own gender. That used
to be the law in a lot of states, and
we realize that that's hateful, that's discriminatory. What is the
difference between that and minimum wage? Minimum wage says YOUTWBOE.
People wanted to have this relationship, We're not going to
(28:51):
let you have it. We find it too sick. Basically,
the left believes in consensual relationships only when people are naked,
but when it comes to employment, no three h three
seven one three eight two five five seven one three talk.
(29:13):
I'm John Caldera in for the Big Man. Give me
a call and keep it right here. You're on six
thirty K.
Speaker 7 (29:18):
How my kids asked me in the last few years
about how did I know I had to file tax
returns and how did you do it back in the day. Yeah,
we used to get the ten forty booklet in the mail,
have to get the library, get our tax forms. I'm
not sure I could do my taxes without a program
(29:38):
like TurboTax or tax cut me. That shows how complicated
things are. We should just go to a national tax
and or just abolish income tax.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Right on, lady, Hey, I'm John Caldera. Give me a call.
Three O three seven to one three eight two five five.
It is kind of fun when your kids hit that
age where they have to start doing taxes and they
call up and go, are you are you having me
as a deduction? Like? Why asking because I'm doing my taxes?
(30:13):
Do you remember the easy days of doing your taxes
when you got to W two and you made that money,
and you grab the easy form and you filled it
out and go. I don't know why mom and dad
are always complaining about taxes. This isn't so hard, Yeah,
because you have one W two and you just fill
(30:34):
out one little form. Wait till you have kids, Wait
till you have a small business, Wait till you have
an employee, Wait till you have a rental property, Wait
till you have distributions, Wait until you have to do
all this other good stuff. Oh, it is insane. No
one can understand taxes. Today is tax day. How's it
(30:55):
going for you? You have to I did my taxes,
and I have no idea if I did them right.
I don't know. Nobody does because it is too big,
too complex, too convolated, convoluted, and too too many unanswered questions.
(31:21):
Now we also tax the wrong thing rule number one
in economics, what you tax you get less of. What
you subsidize you get more of. What do we tax?
We tax income? Wait a second, we want income. This
(31:45):
is a good thing. And also if it matters, you
need income to survive. You must have money to survive.
You must have a job to survive. So what does
what does all that mean? It means when you tax
(32:07):
what you need to live, you're taxing people's ability to
stay alive. Now, a consumption tax is on things you
might not need to stay alive. Do you need that
extra pair of pants to stay alive? Maybe? Maybe not? No,
likely not. Do you need the new car? Do you
(32:30):
need the boat? Do you need the TV set? No?
If we tax spending, we would get a little less spending.
We should be taxing if we have to tax here,
let me let me ask you this one. If one
(32:52):
hundred percent of your labor goes to other people, whatever
you do, your labor is given and for the benefit
of someone else, we call that slavery. We have a
constitutional amendment against it. Your labor cannot go to benefit
(33:13):
somebody else. But what happens now when half of what
you earned, half of your labor, goes to benefit other
people because of redistribution, does that make you half a slave?
(33:36):
Half of your labor goes for things that are not
core governmental functions, They're not in the constitution. They go
to wealth transfers to someone else.
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