8-16-24 - FULL SHOW Leland Vittert, Saving Toads, Nick Ferguson

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for sharing your Friday with me. I always appreciate
your company. I'm out at Bronco's training camp. This is
Bronco's Park, powered by Common Spirit, and this is the
last day of training camp. It's a joint day of
practice with the Green Bay Packers. There's some Green Bay
Packers coaches walking in front of me right now. Koa

(00:20):
A Training Camp is powered by the sporty Pickle Bar
and Grill and Chevron Colorado, the human energy company committed
to our local communities and safely delivering affordable, reliable, ever
cleaner energy.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Thank you to Chevron.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Generally speaking, thank you to all our fossil fuel companies.
We wouldn't have a good life without you. So I'm
really grateful. Even though the Left beats you up all
the time, I appreciate you, all right. There is really
an immense amount to do today, a lot to talk about,
some serious topics, pardon me, some less serious topics. Some
great guests, including Leland Viddter coming up in half an hour.

(00:55):
I want to just start with I guess you'd kind
of sort of call it breaking news, you know, not
earth shading shaking breaking news. But Kamala Harris is going
to give a speech today in North Carolina, and so
she is releasing her first real policy proposals of her campaign.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
And it's generally economic stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
And I just started reading the stuff this morning, came
out this morning, so I'm kind of working it as
I am speaking with you about it. But let's just
go through a couple things and I'll give you I'll
give you some thoughts. We'll probably come back to this
one more time later in the show. I'm looking at
Reuters here. So Kamala Harris is laying out proposals to

(01:37):
cut taxes for most Americans. So I'm just going to
talk about these as we go through them. Okay, So
the devil is going to be in the details there.
So typically when Democrats say cut taxes, they only half
mean cut taxes. What they mean is we're going to

(01:57):
lower the tax rates for people who already don't pay
very much, so they pay even less, and a bunch
of people who already pay very little end up paying
nothing at all. We're not going to do anything to
lower the taxes of higher income owners who are actually
the ones who create jobs and opportunities for others and

(02:18):
all this. So we're going to end up putting more
of the burden of government on the top however many
percent of taxpayers, which you know, in the long run,
is actually an unstable way to do things.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
I also think it's unfair.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
I talked about this yesterday, so I won't dwell on
it today, but I think it's insane, outrageous and immoral
that the top one percent of taxpayers pays more than
somewhere around the top ninety five percent, right, And in
terms of national income, the percentage of income tax paid

(02:53):
by the top one percent is something like double, or
maybe a little more than double the percentage of national income.
And then everybody else pays in tax much less than
their share of national income. And the system really is unfair,
and exactly the opposite way so the But the other
thing to keep in mind, a lot of times when

(03:17):
the left talks about cutting taxes, what they really mean
is implementing something some form of what they call a
refundable tax credit.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
So they call it a tax credit.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
And normally you would think that something called a tax
credit would mean, you know, if you owe one hundred
dollars in tax, then if you're eligible for this particular credit,
you'll only owe eighty dollars in tax or fifty dollars
in tax. But once you add the word and if
you were only calling it a tax credit without the
word refundable, then you'd probably be right. Once you add

(03:51):
the word refundable, it means something else. And what a
refundable tax credit means is if.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
You owe you no money in.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Tax, but you file a tax return, but you owe
no federal income tax, you didn't pay any federal income
tax over the course of the year, We're gonna give
you some of other people's money and call it a
tax credit. And that's often what Democrats mean when they
say cut taxes. So it's not just making the tax

(04:22):
system even more unfair than it already is, but it's
also straight up redistribution of income.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
And as you go through.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
As we go through this Kamala Harris thing, really pretty
much everything she's almost everything she's trying to do is
buying votes with your money.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
So we don't have the details.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Of cutting taxes for most Americans, as Reuters puts it,
and I don't know that she will give any details
in the speech today. I will be interested to see
whether she does or whether she just says.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
We're gonna cut taxes.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Her dumbest idea, and we're going to talk about this
in more detail on Monday with a guest, but is
to ban what she calls price gouging by grocery stores.
What grocery stores? Are you kidding me?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Now?

Speaker 1 (05:10):
I think anybody who's listening to this show is already
smart enough to understand that just because the price of
something went up doesn't mean that the person who's selling
it is price gouging.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Now, it's possible that they are.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
But in a competitive economy, it's not probable that they are.
Because if you were price gouging and somebody else is
selling the same or very similar stuff and they can
take all your business by selling the stuff cheaper than you,
then Safeway would sell the baked beans cheaper than King
soupers all day every day, and sell the meat cheaper
and the milk cheaper and all that and just take

(05:44):
all your business. But they don't because the costs are
actually up to them. And actually I was just reading
a piece about how the net profit margins for grocery
stores last year was one point six percent, which was
the lowest sense I think, just before covid or something

(06:04):
like that one point six percent, And yet Kamala Harris
wants to do some kind of crazy government stuff to
try to go after what she's calling price gouging in
grocery stores. Every time and everywhere that this kind of
price control stuff is done by government, it creates black
markets and shortages. And there is no dumber microeconomic policy

(06:32):
than price gouging, loss right and price controls.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
There is literally nothing dumber.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
They are the idiocy equivalent of tariffs for international economic policy,
just as dumb as you could possibly imagine. She wants
to expand the child tax credit to six thousand dollars
for families with newborn kids, so six thousand bucks per family.

(06:59):
So if you don't have kids, you had your kids already,
you're not ever gonna have kids. You're gonna be paying
money in your taxes to subsidize other people having children.
I realize that some people, including JD.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Vance obviously, are.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
In favor of government involvement with pushing people to have kids.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
You know, I actually kind of get it.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
But at some point, as they say, you run out
of other people's money, and we're already there, We're already there.
So there's gonna be more stuff. We'll see what comes
out from Kamala Harris in her conversations today.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
But I think what you're going.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
To see is that she's moving away from her Marxist
positions because she knows we don't live in a Marxist country.
She just came from a Marxist state, but we don't
live in a Marxist country. Her dad, by the way,
a legit Marxist professor, right, I'm not using hyperbole there.
Her dad was a marxistro and so I think her

(08:02):
gut instincts go that way. But she's a politician with
very few skills and as far as I can tell,
not that much of a brain. And I also think
she doesn't really believe anything, So I think her gut
instincts are far left. But I think she'll abandon any
position except for possibly believing in abortion up to the

(08:23):
day of birth. I think she'll abandon any other position
to get a vote. And I think you're gonna see
that today, And you're gonna see her walking away from
the Biden economic policies, even though you and I know
she's in favor of all of them.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
We'll take a quick break, We'll be right back on KOA.
I'm ross by the way.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
I am at Broncos Park, powered by common spirit, getting
ready for the last day of Broncos training camp. It
is a joint practice with the Green Bay Packers.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
I see a.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
Broncos coach and Packers coach walking along the end line
here right in front of me, walking together and talking
about something. The burm over there is probably a third
full with fans as they're starting to let them in,
and we are going to do some football today, but
lots of non football as well. And I really appreciate
your company, always glad to spend some time with you

(09:10):
in the morning. So let me go to Colorado politics
for a second for this. This is the kind of
thing that you and I have talked about a lot.
And I think, as somebody with an economics.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Brain, which is me and maybe you, we.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Realized that life is about incentives, right. Economics is really
about two things, incentives and trade offs. That's all economics
is is trying to figure out what are the trade offs,
what's the right price for the trade off, what's the
incentive to buy something or sell something or do something.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
That's all economics, ever is.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
And so as a guy who grew up studying economics
and then essentially doing economics for a living, not as
an economist, but as a financial markets trader, where I
was thinking about this stuff all the time. My brain
just kind of works that way thinking about incentives.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
And that's part of.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
The reason I get so frustrated from time to time
with economic policies that come from the left because they
seem to ignore incentives. Oh, there was one thing I
forgot to mention in the last segment. I'll mention it
quickly and then I'll get onto this Denver local story
that has the same kind of Italian One of the
other things Kamala Harris says she wants to do is

(10:25):
to have the federal government, which means you, because you
are the federal government.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Source of money.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Right, the federal government is a leech and they're stuck
in the blood at your ankle. Okay, So when the
federal government's going to do it, means you're doing it.
Giving twenty five thousand dollars to first time home buyers,
and she's talking about some differentiation between first time home
buyers versus first generation home buyers. So like, if your

(10:50):
parents never ow own to home, then maybe you'd get
even more. And just think how dumb that is from
an incentive perspective. If your goal, because she says, our
problem is that housing is unaffordable, do you actually think
you're gonna make housing more affordable by giving first time
home buyers twenty five thousand dollars? What about a second

(11:10):
time home buyer still maybe doesn't have a ton of money. Still,
maybe you bought your first home when you were thirty
and now you're thirty three and you're gonna have a
kid and you want a bigger home, So now you're
gonna go buy this home that some of a first
time home buyer is also thinking about buying.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
And now that.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
First time home buyer will have twenty five thousand extra
dollars of your money being handed to you by Kamala
Harris because their first time home buyers, all that's gonna
do is drive the price.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Of the house up. It's gonna make housing less affordable,
not more.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
And it is weird how many economic policies that come
from the left just make no sense at all.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
In any case, incentives are everything.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
And one of the metaphors that I've used, and I
did not invent it, I don't know where it came from,
but I use it.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Because I like it is.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
You don't want to turn a governmental safety net that
catches people when they fall into a hammock that they
want to come lounge around in. And I thought of
that when I saw this piece over at Colorado Politics
report Colon Denver homelessness grew despite one hundred and fifty
five million dollars in spending, Homeless people living unsheltered in

(12:22):
the city dropped by one hundred and fifty people, despite
mayor's office claiming a dramatic drop in unsheltered homelessness. And again,
this is the problem with the way the left approaches things.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
It's not always only the left.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
The right can make this kind of mistake too, they
just do it less often. But it is ignoring the
lessons of Frederick Bastiat in his brilliant essay That Which
Is Seen in That Which is Not Seen, in which
he talks about where an economist or a politician doing
an economic thing more more precisely will pass some policy,
and they only look at the very first effect, and

(12:58):
they don't look at the secondary and third order effects.
And what bostiad argued is that almost any policy that
has very positive immediate obvious effects likely has very negative
long term effects. And if you want best long term policies,
likely they are painful at least for some people in
the short run. And so my argument has been, if

(13:23):
you do something to make it more comfortable for people
to be homeless in Denver, what you're gonna do is
you're gonna create more homeless people in Denver, or attract
more homeless people to Denver.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
And this is from Colorado Politics.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
After spending nearly one hundred and fifty five million dollars,
which was sixty five million more than anticipated, the number
of homeless people in Denver grew from five thousand, eight
hundred I'm gonna use round numbers, from eight hundred and
twenty twenty three to six thousand, five hundred this year.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Now, some of those people are in shelters. So the
number of quote.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Unquote unsheltered homeless people dropped by one hundred and fifty
compared to last year's count. So there's seven hundred more
homeless people, there's eight hundred and fifty fewer. There's one
hundred and fifty fewer unsheltered homeless people, So that means
eight about eight hundred and fifty homeless people got put
in some kind of hotel or apartment that you are

(14:21):
also paying for with your taxes, but it didn't help anything.
It's like, let's say you're trying to this is I
want to be careful with this analogy because I don't
want to insult. I don't want to insult people. I'm
not mad at homeless people. Let's say you're trying to
get rid of some kind of critter that is come
into your kitchen, and now that's just too bad an analogy.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
I'm I'm just gonna stick with that.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
With that fundamental point, what we've done in Denver is
we've made it a place where homeless people want to
be and want to come because we are so generous
with other people's money, with our welcoming that's their word,
with our welcoming other peoples with other people's money, and
my friends, it's not working. We'll be right back with

(15:09):
Leland Vindt all right, good morning, I'm ross, thanks for
spending some time with me. Appreciate it very very much.
With a little luck, we'll have Leland vinderd in about
five minutes by zoom. I want to just share with
you a couple you know, local stories, Colorado stories. One
thing we've been following a lot. Actually probably had more
interviews on the show about this than any other show

(15:29):
has had is this proposed this proposed strip club in
Central City. And so we had the mayor on, and
we had a dude on who was against it, and
then we had the mayor on again when he told
us that he probably should have been recused from the
conversation because he has business dealings with the company that
wants to put the strip club in Central City. So

(15:50):
I just wanted to kind of update you on the
on the story. So the city denied a change in
rules that would be necessary to allow a strip club. Basically,
it's not that strip clubs are barred, but it's that
they are barred within I think one thousand feet of X,

(16:12):
Y and Z.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
And you can't be on.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
The main street in Central City without being within one
thousand feet of X, Y and Z.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
So it's effectively a ban.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
And so what I wanted to make you aware of now,
and this is from KDVR our news partners at Fox
thirty one Central City, that Central City is being sued
by this company. They're called rix Cabaret being sued by
Rix Cabaret.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
And we'll see.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
I think they're going to argue that it's essentially a
First Amendment violation, right, They're going to argue that we
have the right, our kind of business is not illegal,
and they're discriminating against it because they just kind of
sort of don't like how we look.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
And this he's gonna say, uh, that's not what's going
on here.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
We're trying to protect the quality of life in our
city by keeping this kind of adult, adult oriented entertainment
away from you know, a school or a whatever. And
and and we'll see, we'll see where it goes.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
So I I have a.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
Feeling that this will actually end up in trial. I
I have a feeling the city won't settle. I think
they'll be willing to go to trial, and Rixel will
be willing to go to trial. And I and I
I gotta say, I have I have no guess as
to who's gonna win this one. I can I can
see it going either way. Let me let me share
another Colorado story with you. There's actually kind of interesting.

(17:43):
So down in Colorado Springs there there might be two
ballot measures to be voted on this November, one of
which would allow recreational marijuana stores in the city. Because
right now, what it would allow is existing medical marijuana

(18:06):
shops to transition to sell also be able to sell
recreational marijuana.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
And this is from coloradopolitics dot com.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
The revenues would support public safety, mental health services, and
post traumatic stress disorder treatment programs for veterans. And of course,
right that's always what they do is say, you know,
do this thing, We're going to tax it. And if
you let us do what, we'll use the taxes towards
puppies and unicorns and candy for everybody. And then also
you have to make sure you mentioned veterans. And for

(18:35):
the record, I love veterans and I want veterans taken
care of. It's just a little bit annoying when they
always sell some new thing that's really kind of a
tax grab as helping veterans. That said, I'm a libertarian,
I believe in in freedom. I don't use marijuana. I've
never used marijuana. I'm not interested in marijuana. But an

(18:56):
adult human who's not going to be driving under the
influence should be allowed to use it.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
And I think this should be legal.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
But the other thing to mention, though, is that the
Colorado Spring City Council voted eight to one to put
a ballot measure a question on the ballot in November
that would ban recreational marijuana stores in the city charter.

(19:23):
And by doing it that way, if this thing were
to pass, then the city council themselves could not later
just pass an ordinance, the city version of a law,
could not pass an ordinance that would that would supersede that.
And so if this thing were to pass on the ballot,

(19:44):
then there would be no recreational marijuana stores allowed in
Colorado Springs. And what again, what's interesting about it is
that these things are probably both going to be on
the ballot at the same time.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
And that's a little.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Bit confusing, But well, I shouldn't say that. Maybe it's
the opposite of confusing. Maybe it's clarifying that you'll have
one ballot measure saying we're going to allow it, and
another ballot measure saying we're gonna ban it.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
Now you're really gonna have to make a choice.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
The Colorado Springs is not as conservative a place as
it used to be, but it is a conservative place,
and I could see this going either way. And you know, again,
I'm for I'm for freedom. I actually don't think, actually
don't think it should be up to the voters to
determine whether a person can buy a substance that is legal.

(20:35):
And you know, by the way, I don't know when
the federal rescheduling is going to happen, but but hopefully
it'll happen real soon, and you know, and and and
then we won't have to deal with it anymore.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
Let's see.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
Well, I guess I got so many things to talk
about with you today. Oh, let's do this thing for
a second. This is pretty fascinating, This is pretty fascinating.
I bet you didn't know this was going on when
you were when you were driving. So actually, you know what,
let me switch gears because I want to do this
right now.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
I want to get I want to get.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
As much time with my guest as as possible.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
So let's do this.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
This is I'm at I'm at Broncos training camp right
now at Broncos Park, powered by Common Spirit, and I'm
doing this by zoom and hopefully Leland can hear me.
I can't see him, but you can turn your camera
on if you want, Leland or you there.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
I am here, and I'm going to refrain ross from
turning my camera on as I am perhaps even more
casually dressed than you are.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
That's unlikely. That's very unlikely.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Leland Leland Vintert hosts on Balance on News Nation weeknights
at five pm here in the Mountain time zone.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
And and he also has a.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Really fantastic daily email called war Notes that if you
at a war notes dot com you can sign up
for it for free. And it's one of my great
sources of information in the morning. I would say, as
compared to my own blog, I have more stories than
Leland does, and Leland has more analysis than I do.
And it's a great pair of things that you should

(22:14):
read every morning. Is my blog and Leland. So Leland,
you and I have studied a lot of econ. So
when we hear things like Kamala's initial economic policy proposals today,
I think you and I both think how silly they are.
I don't want to put words in your mouth, but
I know I do. And I like to think that
Americans are smart enough to know lies when they hear them,

(22:35):
but I actually don't think they are. So do you
think that Kamala can say all of this stuff like
we're gonna stop price gouging at grocery stores, as if
that's a real thing, and that people will believe it.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
I think people will believe right now almost anything, because
they are looking for something and you and I talked
about this a lot. Ross They are looking for something
other than Donald Trump or Joe Biden. And elections are
about the future. Kamala Harris is now talking about the future.
The issue that he is going after is not progressive.

(23:13):
It's populous, right, this is and I don't like using
the talking voice of a campaign, but when they when
they are factual, you have to grant them. That the
Trump campaign has now branded her Comrade Kamala and saying
that these are the these are the types of programs
that happened in Venezuela and in the old Soviet Union

(23:34):
and everything else, and that is that's true, and.

Speaker 4 (23:38):
That's going to be a really hard thing.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
I think it is the very first mistake that the
Kamala Harris team has made is to go after programs
that you can attack now on their fate and on
the policy, and for as much as people are right now,

(24:01):
I do give the American people a lot of credit.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
To know when they're being sold a bill of good.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
I hope you're right.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
I'm a little less optimistic than you are. One interesting
thing is to see this column. You probably saw it
over at the Washington Post by Catherine Rampell, who is
one of their few sort of non hardcore leftist columnists.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
She's kind of moderate and rational sometimes.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
And her piece in the Washington Post is entitled when
your opponent calls you communist, maybe don't propose price controls,
And then the subhead is it's hard to exaggerate how
bad Kamala Harris's price gouging proposal is.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Do you I mean it seems to me, I mean.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
You're you're really in the big time media. You're one
of the few people who have been complaining. And I
don't mean that as a pejorative, like noting in it
that Kamala Harris is dodging the media.

Speaker 5 (24:55):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
And do you see any cracks in that? Is this
Washington Post piece of crack in in the media is
just whitewashing any of her background and making it seem
like she's this magical unicorn that just appeared from the forest.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
Someone said to me earlier today that somehow Kamala Harris
has gone from Democrats should replace her, which was the
thought about ten months ago because of her inability to
speak off the prompter and on and on to a
cross between Joan of Arc and Margaret Thatcher, which it
was just an interesting mental limite that you're sitting there

(25:32):
listening on the radio, think about that. Look in more
than we have a running tally eighty one days to
the election, three days of the DNC, twenty five days
to the debate for September fifth, and twenty six days
since Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the candidacy and has
not had a meaningful interaction with the press. The press
was embarrassed and turned on Joe Biden because they had

(25:53):
been told he was doing calculus and cartwheels.

Speaker 4 (25:56):
In private, and reported that.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Embarrassed at the debate by clearly having Harry the.

Speaker 4 (26:03):
Water for him.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
The question is will the media also now turn on
Tomalila Harris at some point.

Speaker 4 (26:10):
So far, no, and a lot of that is because
there is.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
A large part of the press and Joe Biden's team
did this very well that thrives on access. It's not
as though even access to the principle, it's access to
the advisors.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
And to the off the record lunches, and to space
on the.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Campaign plane, and on and on and on. And if
you start writing why hasn't Kamala talked? And you start writing, hey,
these are the things Kamala Harris has said in the past.
It's contradictory what's being said now, these are the issues
he's going to have. Then they start retailing access. So
it's a very clear trade off that's made.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
Whether or not.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
Journalist's own sense or worry about being shown up again
as in the bag, will decide the answer.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
To your question. We're talking with Leland Vidtert.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
He hosts the show on Balance on News Nation at
five pm Mountain times Mountain time zone. It's it's the
show that the cable news show my wife and I
watch most often. When we sit down to dinner, we
usually dvr Leland because we're usually eating a little later,
so we DVR it and then we get some dinner
and Kristen says, can you.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Put Leland on? And then and then I do.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
All right, we'll get back to domestic stuff in a second.
You lived in Jerusalem for a while right.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
Correct, I spent four years as a foreign correspondent, so I.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Just I'm going to ask you a very wide open
kind of question, as a guy who's lived there. What's
your take on the situation in Israel Visavi Iran, Hamas
has Allah, all of that right now?

Speaker 4 (27:56):
Generally speaking, the more we hear, the less.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
Is done, the less that is said, the more worried
you get. So the Iranians are trying to figure a
way out of.

Speaker 4 (28:10):
This to save face. I think also.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
The Biden administration that wanted to cease fire hasn't gotten
one yet. But at the same time, you know, the
messages has been delivered to the Iranians have figured out
on their own that an attack on Israel right now
would force the United States to support Israel and would
be bad for Joe Biden and thus bad for Kamala Harris.

(28:36):
And they'd a lot rather have Kamala Harris as the
president than Donald Trump is the president. So it's interesting
how American domestic policy is now working its way back
into the calculus of the bad people around the world.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
How confident are you that that's true? In other words, how.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Confident are you that the islamo fat just diatola and
the IRGC people are cognizant of American politics and would
think about their impact on the American election or or
is it possible that that's like the same people who
claim that Donald Trump is always you know, playing three

(29:18):
dchs or as you said, ford dchs like maybe he's not,
maybe they're not.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Look, you probably never go wrong giving terrorists to little credit.
That said, the Iranians have been brilliant over the past
few decades at understanding the American political dynamic right and
understanding how different American presidents treated them, and understanding how

(29:46):
to exploit that to their best of their abilities, and
how they understood that when Donald Trump was.

Speaker 4 (29:53):
President, going in their little hole and.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Not playing nice but not being as aggressive allowed Trump
to claim victory and therefore.

Speaker 4 (30:04):
Trump didn't sort of go all the way with them.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
And then you give them.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
Credit for how they played President Biden and his team
and kept holding out this hope to Jake Sullivan and
to Toty Blinketon.

Speaker 4 (30:23):
And to the rest of.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
The blob in Washington that believes in this utopia world
where Ron can be brought into the group of rational acting.

Speaker 4 (30:38):
Rules based order.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
They played them really well and got billions of dollars
and have been allowed to rise once again as the
regional superpower visa of e Israel. So I'd say they
do a pretty good job at it.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
All right, two more questions. Give me a somewhat quick
answer to this one. If if you were at the
Donald Trump campaign and they and the question to you was,
what is the one thing that you would change about
how we're doing the campaign right now in order to
improve our chances of winning?

Speaker 2 (31:10):
What would your answer be?

Speaker 4 (31:13):
Well, I'm not going.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
To give you my answer because I don't do political advice,
but I will tell you that we're going to ask
that question to Cory Lewandowski tonight on the show five
pm out in Denver.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
You can DVR and get the answer during dinner.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
He's just taken over the Trump campaign and we'll ask
him just that based on what worked in twenty twenty,
worked in twenty sixteen, and didn't work in twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Right, Oh great, I'm looking forward to that. All right.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
Last question for you, and this is probably the most
most important question. I'm guessing you haven't been asked this before.
When you were ten years old, how many pushups did
you do from the beginning of the school year until
Christmas Eve?

Speaker 2 (31:53):
And what did you get for it?

Speaker 3 (31:59):
You know, I've been a meeting to her all morning, Rocks,
and you're right, I have not gotten that. Back in
the day, my dad thought push ups were the way
to teach discipline, whip me into shape physically, to confront
the bullies at school, and.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Understand what goals were. So I'm trying to remember.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
Back, but it was something like, if you did one
hundred push ups or one hundred and fifty push ups
five days a week for a few months, you got
to go do uh, got to go on a trip
with your mom to Disney World or something like that.
My dad actually reminded me this morning one of the
trips that I wanted. One of the things I wanted
to do for my push ups was to go visit
CNN headquarters, because that's how much of a news nerd

(32:45):
I was and still am.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
From the time you were ten years old. You knew
what you wanted to do, and you did it. That's
the thing you did it. That's the oppressive part.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
Well, you know, pools have a misspent you, right.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
I always like asking a question that nobody asked before.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Watch Leland Vender's show.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Or DVR at five pm Mountain Time, seven pm Eastern
on News Nation.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
It's called on Balance.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
It is, in my opinion these days, the single best
show on cable news. Leland very much, appreciate your time
and your friendship. Talk with you soon.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
Thanks Ross.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
All Right, So that's Leland Verdert. Good dude, really really
smart dude. Went to London School of Economics. And I
think part of the reason I like him so much
is I think our brains are very similar. So there
is some confirmation by us there.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Perhaps.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
All Right, We're gonna take a little break here in
a moment where I'm at Broncos Park powered by Common Spirit,
and we are at training camp. Today is the last
day of training camp. It's a joint practice with the
Green Bay Packers. Kawa Training Camp is powered by Chevron
Colorado and the Sporty Picklebar and Grill, which is the
official training camp bar and.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
Grill of the KOA Sports Networks.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
It's just five minutes down the road here from camp
at eighty six forty South Peoria.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
So drop in, have a beer, have some food.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
Tell me you heard about him from KOA sportypickle dot
com to learn more. If all goes according to plan,
Ryan Edwards will join me right after this KOA and
I'm joined by my friend Ryan Edwards, who is the
co host of KOA Sports weeknights from three to six
weekday afternoons, I should say from three to six. And

(34:32):
I would just like to tell you Ryan, that one
listener just texted in to say that he's done seventy
eight sets of seventy five push ups every day for
the last nine and a half years.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
That's amazing.

Speaker 6 (34:47):
And the fact that it was seventy five is very
important to me because Steve Atwater made a movie about
the number seventy five. Why well, that's a great question,
I mean, why why don't we do anything? But he
was a teen slasher film that he was an investor
in in the nineties maybe early two thousands, and you

(35:07):
know him and Magic Johnson, Breay Crocket. There was a
there was a bunch of former players that just all
kind of invested in this movie. But I didn't find
out about it until I was doing a show with
him on Orgis Blue seven sixty and station that doesn't
exist anymore, and we were at the Super Bowl and
we ran into Kyle Turley. He was a former NFL player,

(35:29):
and he's like, oh, I know, Kyle, we made a
movie together. It was like, wait what he said?

Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, man, Kyle Turley was the villain of the movie.

Speaker 6 (35:37):
We made this movie together and it is since become
this folklore thing. But anyways, the premise of the movie,
very quickly to blairl a very long point, was that
you had to keep somebody on the phone for seventy
five seconds and then try to prank call them, and
through that it became it was a really bad movie.
But but it was funny because it was so bad,

(36:00):
and we used to make fun of Steve all the time.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
Oh my gosh, I'm really I'm really glad that came
up as a subject of conversation. All right, let's do
a couple of minutes of football, since we happened here
at the last day of training camp, and right in
front of us, literally about twelve yards or so from
me and Ryan, are all three Broncos quarterbacks here practicing,
taking snaps and so on. And obviously quarterbacks always always

(36:25):
the spot that has lots of conversation, but with good
reason this year, Yeah, So what you're thinking right now.

Speaker 6 (36:32):
Well, I think boon Nicks is is earned the job.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
That's what I'm thinking, to be honest.

Speaker 6 (36:37):
I mean, he's gonna get the quarterback one reps today,
He's gonna get the quarterback one reps on Sunday versus
the Packers. It'll be against their second team defense, but
doesn't really matter. That was the plan all along, and
I expect them to name bo Nicks the starter by
next week. I mean at this point, I don't know
what else Sean Payton and the coaching staff would need
to see, but he has checked as many boxes as

(36:59):
he possibly can.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
And I gotta be honest, Like I.

Speaker 6 (37:02):
Said, we roll into the final day of training camp
that fans can attend, he has by and large basically
proven everybody that needed to see it he's the guy.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
So it seemed like through.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
A lot of camp, there was a lot of talk about,
especially early in the season, would it be Stidham or
would it be Nicks? And Zach Wilson was always kind
of talked about is in third place.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
From very early on or in the as any of
has that changed at all or not? Really?

Speaker 6 (37:30):
Well, what's changed maybe is Zach Wilson competing for the.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
Second That's what I'm trying to get at.

Speaker 6 (37:34):
H Yes, now that I do think is still happening,
and Zach had a good showing out there in the
first preseason game. I'll be it against the threes and
fours for the Colts, but that doesn't matter. I mean
the way that he was able to execute the offense.
He didn't take sacks, he didn't turn the ball over,
he just played clean football. And the thing is is
a guy with thirty five stars should be able to
do that right against third teamers, and he did that.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
So the coaching staff does like him, and.

Speaker 6 (37:58):
There's a lot of upside plus some cost savings with
salary cap if you decide to go with Zach Wilson
over Jared Siddam. But again you have to answer the
question if you're the coaching staff, Okay, if bo Nicks
were to get hurt in game one of the season
and you had to put in a backup quarterback, who
do we trust to keep this thing on the rails

(38:18):
and to help us win that game?

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Today? That might be Jared Stiddam.

Speaker 6 (38:22):
Like Jared Sidam is the steady four seas the steady
force in the locker room, in the quarterback room out
here on the field. You're right, he's been competing for
QB one with Bo Nicks. But Zach Wilson has been
impressing the coaching staff and if nothing else, he's been
given that opportunity to be in that position. Last year,
sixty six different quarterbacks started a game, and that's an

(38:43):
NFL record. You have to have quarterback depth, you just
have to. So at this point, I think they're going
to try to push to keep three quarterbacks, but it
wouldn't shock me.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
For some reason, they went with two and Zach was
the guy.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
So there's just a pretty decent sized cheer from out
on the burm as the cheeseheads walked onto their side
of this practice to practice fields. The Green Bay Packers
are here. The Packers are a team that's hard to hate,
aren't they. It's like the opposite of the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Oh, I don't know, I mean that, yeah, maybe a
little bit. Why you hate the Packers a little? I
got a lot of hate to give around.

Speaker 6 (39:19):
But now listen, now, they're not. They're not a team
that I particularly hate. You make a good point their
fan base. Their fan base is rabid, right. I mean,
like a lot of the fan bases, but they're not
Patriots fans. They're not Cowboys fans, Eagles fans, oh my gods,
any New York team fane like Jets and Giants fans

(39:42):
for whatever reason, even though the team's been terrible. I mean,
you know, those fan bases are just absolute growners.

Speaker 7 (39:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (39:49):
The Packers, there's just this like, Okay, well they were
really good for a long time, right, and they've they've
had just this level of of impressive continuity, right a quarterback.
My god, you go from Bart Starr to Brett Farv
to Aaron Rodgers and now they've got another quarterback, and
so more jealousy, I guess.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
I remember when they went from Farv to Rogers. Yes,
and you are thinking, like, boy, they're taking a huge risk, yes, right, because.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Brett park said he still wanted to keep playing. Yeah,
I remember that. Where'd Farv go? He went to Minnesota?

Speaker 6 (40:26):
Well, he went to the Jets first, and then he
went to Minnesota, and then he took it to the
Packers for a couple of years. Right, he still had
something left in the tank. But I also don't blame
the Packers organization and management there because he was kind
of messing around with him, right, I mean he he
was like, I'm gonna retire.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Maybe I'm not gonna retire. I'm not really sure.

Speaker 6 (40:45):
And they had this first round quarterback that they were
trying to decide what to do with.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
So the there's a joint practice with the Packers today
and then and then the preseason game against the Packers
on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
Yes, right, So I had a question about this.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
It is so normally is there only one joint practice
against another team in one training camp or is there
sometimes more than one?

Speaker 2 (41:06):
No, there's usually two.

Speaker 6 (41:07):
There's usually just this is the first time and I've
been coming the Broncos for fifteen years, the first time
we've done only one.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
Okay, And are the are the joint practices usually against
teams that are not in your own division or that
you're not likely to play during the season or playoffen
during the season.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
I want to say yes.

Speaker 6 (41:26):
I mean certainly part of it is geographical, like you
don't make a team travel clear across the country like
the Broncos. They did travel, and they did a joint
practice with the forty nine ers one point in San Francisco,
you know, still West Coast kind of. Yeah, the Rams
were here last year. Again, LA, it's certainly not a
team that you plan on seeing in the regular season.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
I think generally that's the case.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
I can't I can't imagine a practice day like.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
This against the Chiefs, now Lord, the Chargers.

Speaker 6 (41:55):
Yeah, it's not gonna be Yeah, an interconference at point.
It makes sense, like I and all those those are
all NFC teams. Yeah, it's probably the case. I just
can't for sure say I just know you'll Yeah, you'll
never see a division team here for sure.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Okay, last question for you, Uh, and I think I've
asked you this last time you were on with me,
But what's the most interesting position.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Competition for the Broncos right now? That's not quarterback?

Speaker 6 (42:22):
I think it's wide receiver and h It's really really
fascinating to see what they're gonna do there because you
have Cortland Sutton lock on the roster, Marvin Mims lock
on the roster. Uh Patrick, No, no, sorry, Josh Reynold,
Josh Reuel, Josh Reel's locking on Ross. So those three guys,

(42:44):
you got your two draft picks Von Beley as well
as as Franklin, Troy Franklin, So that that's by right there, and.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Usually you keep six. Okay, So is it gonna.

Speaker 6 (42:56):
Be Patrick, is gonna be little Jordan Humphrey, who has
been a pretty consistent guy out here? Is he gonna
be maybe somebody like Brandon Johnson. They've also got special
teams considerations to make with that not only just gunners,
but also returners, because you got a couple of returners
out there too.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
So so real quick here, just because I'm just hoping
against the break, I feel a little surprised, even though
Tim Petrick has been injured, that he's not on your
list of the people who are definitely on the roster.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
Well, it's because they brought him back on a vetman.

Speaker 6 (43:23):
They brought him back on a ve veteran minimum contract,
which means that they decide to move on, it really
won't hit the team too hard on that. I do
think if we're starting today, he's probably one because they
like his leadership in the locker room. They do like
what he brings to the team. The guys really respect him.
But it's one of those deals, like, Hey, Devon Vailey,
who's the seventh round rookie, is doing a lot of

(43:45):
the same things. And by the way, Devon Bailey plays
special teams, Tim Patrick does not, and sometimes you make
those decisions, especially when it comes that close to who's
play special teams as he doesn't.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Ryan Edwards's co host of KOA Sports from three pm
to six pm week days. Here on KOA, he's with
Big Al and Dave Logan keeping those knuckleheads in line.
It's good to have you as always, Ryan, thanks you
for being here. We'll be right back on KAWA time
in the next forty minutes or so. We'll be given
away today's entry into our big Bronco season ticket giveaway,
So you win an entry today and then early next

(44:15):
month we do this drawing in whoever wins it gets
a pair of tickets to every Broncos home game, which
is basically the same as season tickets. A lot of
Broncos players right in front of me, five six yards away,
a little closer than that. Although I won't have him
talk right now, Ryan Edwards and Ben Albright. I was
gonna make Ben talk with a mouthful of pineapple, just

(44:36):
because I'm so used to seeing him with something other
than fast food in his mouth.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
He's actually got fruit today, so that's good. Ben is
trying to be healthy.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
Let's do a couple of non football stories, car related
stories that I wanted to share with you for a second.
So a couple of days ago, Tuesday, to be precise, Texas.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
Sued General Motors.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
Now here's something that I'm guessing you probably didn't know
what was going on with your car. Texas is accusing
General Motors of and quote from The New York Times,
collecting detailed driving data on sixteen million drivers and selling
it to auto insurance companies without their consent. What Ken Paxton,
who is the Attorney General of Texas, says, Millions of

(45:19):
American drivers wanted to buy a car, not a comprehensive
surveillance system that unlawfully, unlawfully records information about every drive
they take and sells their data to any company willing.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
To pay for it. Are you kidding me?

Speaker 1 (45:33):
These in twenty twenty four, when everybody knows that their
customers are really concerned about data privacy, and they're going
to do this and think they're going to get away
with it. A spokeswoman said the company had been quote
in discussions with the Attorney General's office and reviewing the complaint,

(45:53):
he said, she said, we share the desire to protect
consumers privacy.

Speaker 8 (46:00):
No, clearly you don't. That's sort of the opposite of
what you're being of what you're being charged with. Texas's
complaint against GM and its on Star subsidiary says that
beginning in twenty and fifteen, the automaker sold its customers
driving data to outside vendors. Some of those companies then

(46:21):
calculated what they called a driving score for each customer
and then sold that to ensurers. GM collected millions of
dollars from these deals through upfront payments and ongoing royalties.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
According to the legal filing. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
If I'll just say, if this is true, I hope
GM gets absolutely buried.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
That's outrageous. I don't think I.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
Need to add any more to that, you know, you know,
all right, another car related thing.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
I'll do this one real quick.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
So you remember during COVID there was just an absolute
explosion in the price of cars, right and in particular
for a while, supply chains were down, so it was
an explosion of.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
The price used cars because there were so few new cars.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
But the average price of a new vehicle in the
US in twenty nineteen was about thirty seven thousand dollars
and around the beginning of twenty twenty three was fifty
thousand dollars. That is just an incredible price increase, about
a thirty three percent percent price increase.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
And I want what I wanted to share with you.
This is from Axios.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
New vehicle prices decline for the tenth straight month, So
that's some good news. But what you also need to
understand is we went from thirty seven thousand to fifty thousand,
and we're only back down to forty eighty four hundred.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
So it's kind of like.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
You know, you're someone's got their boot on your neck,
and they don't take the boot really off your neck.
They just lighten the pressure a little bit, and we're
supposed to say thank you very much. I won't say
thank you very much, but I guess it's better than
having all the pressure on your neck. As Axio says,
it's not time to celebrate yet anyway. I also note
that there's been a big client and used car prices,

(48:01):
which is not surprising because new car prices are coming down,
and also because the price of electric vehicles in the
used market is getting absolutely destroyed. You want to buy
a seven year old Tesla, it's close to free by.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
Now.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
I won't probably spend more time on that. We're gonna
take a quick break when we come back.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
We've got Colorado.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
What the Colorado State Legislature tried to ban at the
capital that they were just scared out of banning and
saving toads right in front of me right now, joint
practice going on between the Broncos and the Green Bay Cheeseheads.
Broncos are on offense right now, the Cheeseheads are on defense,

(48:44):
and just as a football fan, it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
To watch this.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
Now if you like football, we got a couple of
things we need you to know about. First of all,
sometime very soon, I'm going to be giving away today's
entry into our drawing for Broncos season tickets. Also, producer
A rod Our social media genius, has informed me that
we're doing a thing on Twitter, and I said, rather

(49:08):
than trying to teach me what to say, you should
probably just explain today, Rocky.

Speaker 5 (49:13):
Yes, sir, we are of course at home with the
Broncos and the home of the Broncos. Hooks you have
with Broncos tickets all season long, and we are giving
away a pair of tickets to Broncos Packers preseason.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Game home game number one here on Sunday.

Speaker 5 (49:25):
If you go to our x account also used to
be known as Twitter, right at the very top, you'll
see an awesome video put together showcasing the Broncos home
games and empower. All you gotta do is go to
that account and follow k Away, repost that post and
reply with sweep Steake's entry for a chance to get
a pair of tickets to that game. And then also,
we're at the home of the Colorado rock he's inndition
of the Buffs, and we are giving away a four

(49:46):
pack to Todd Helton day tomorrow at coors Field. If
you go to our instagram at Koa, Colorado, scroll down
a little bit, you see a video of Todd Helton.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
There's directions there on how to enter.

Speaker 5 (49:56):
So Broncos Packers tickets on X right now and Todd
Helton Day four pack of tickets on our Instagram at Koa,
Colorado because we are the home of the Broncos, Buffs
and Rockies.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
And if that sounded like complicated instructions as far as
the Broncos giveaway.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
It's actually not.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
If you go to Twitter dot com or x dot
com slash koa Colorado, a Rod has pinned this tweet
right at the top and there's detailed, very easy instructions
on what to do. So just go to x dot
com slash koa Colorado and you'll see what to do
right there, and it'll be your chance to win a
pair of tickets to the Packers Broncos game this Sunday.
In a little bit, I'm gonna be giving away today's

(50:33):
entry in for the season tickets. And I also want
you to know, if you are at a training camp
right now or might be at training camp for the
next hour and a half or so however long it's going,
We've got a KOA tent up there above the above
the hill, and you can actually go to that KOA
tent and enter to win the season tickets as well

(50:55):
if you don't if you don't win them on the air,
So a lot of ways to win, a lot of
good stuff to win. And yeah, there's that. In a
few minutes, we're gonna talk about saving toads. Yeah, because
why not. And I wanted to share with you though
something that's the intersection of politics and law. I suppose
there's a guy who many of you who listen to

(51:17):
my show may know named Jeff Hunt. And Jeff used
to run the Centennial Institute, which is a think tank
affiliated with Colorado Christian University. And he's very very active
in Republican politics owny and he runs these days, or
at least until recently, he ran the Western Conservative Summit.

(51:37):
And you'll also hear him on the radio in some
other places, not here, but any case, when there was
some legislative stuff going on last year, Jeff went to
the state Capitol.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
Jeff, by the way, is.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
A devout Christian, pro life, all of that, and he
went to the state Capitol and he was wearing a sweatshirt,
a pro life sweatshirt, and the guards there told him
that he couldn't wear that. The guards there told him

(52:15):
that you're not allowed to have to have political opinions
on shirts and buttons in the gallery at the Colorado
State Legislature. This happened back in May. The sergeant at
arms told him that his sweatshirt, which it said pro
life you like university And the guard said, well, that's

(52:38):
a political statement, and that violates our rules here. And
an organization called the Fire, which is an organization that
supports free speech rights. It used to be especially in education,
but generally it's more of a First Amendment pro free
speech organization. One of the great ones, actually, it's Thefire

(52:58):
dot org. But just a few weeks before this Jeff
Hunt thing, there were a bunch of students who came
to the State Legislature, to the gallery and they were
wearing a bunch of T shirts that were against Second
Amendment rights, or if you're on the other side of
the issue, you might call it pro gun control, but
in either case, clearly political messages.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
And then Jeff Hunt gets there and wants.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
To wear something that I don't even know that i'd
call it exactly a political message as much as a
religious one, but in any case a conservative one. They
wouldn't let him in, and they let the liberals wearing
the other stuff in. So the Fire said, all right,
we're going to sue you. And basically what you need
to know is that the leaders of the Colorado State

(53:45):
Legislature have agreed to rescind that rule because they knew
they would lose in court. They knew it was a
clearly unconstitutional ban on pins and apparel quote expressing political statements.
So in any case, free speech wins. This has nothing
to do with conservative message. Well it shouldn't with conservative

(54:08):
messages or liberal message is in the gallery, although it
did seem like they allowed liberal messages and block conservative messages.
But it shouldn't matter where you are on this politically,
it's about free speech. And in fact, what could be
more offensive to the First Amendment than a government, a
branch of government telling the citizenry that they can't wear

(54:29):
a T shirt with a political message on it while
in the people's House. Like, It's hard to think of
something more offensive to the First Amendment than that. And
it is the kind of thing that I will say
this will sound a little more partisan, I guess, but
it is the kind of thing that the left is
way more likely to do than the right to infringe
on infringe on free speech. But I'd be just as
mad about it no matter who did it. I'm about

(54:51):
the Constitution. I don't really give a you know what
about Republicans or Democrats, or conservatives or liberals. I'm about
the Constitution. I'm about freedom, and that's why I'm glad
really glad about.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
This particular outcome. Let's see, this story is nuts.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
You heard about it on KOA News today and maybe
a little bit yesterday as well.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
What a crazy story, you know.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
TV movie star Matthew Perry is dead from an overdose
of kenneminie. That what we understand is he eat he
was given too much kennemine and fell asleep in his
hot tub and drowned. It's possible that he was dead
before he went under the water, but who knows. So
five people, including his personal assistant and including two doctors

(55:33):
have been charged now in connection with his death. And
then I'm looking at the AP news story here. Prosecutors
call it a broad, underground criminal network dedicated to getting
the Friends star this powerful anesthetic that ended up killing him.
The doctors preyed on Perry's history of addiction in the

(55:55):
last few months of his life in order to provide
him with kenymine in anmounts that they were dangerous. The
US attorney's name is Martin Estrada. He said they knew
what they were doing was wrong. They knew what they
were doing was risking great danger to mister Perry, but
they did it anyway, and just to give you a
sense of how disgusting this is. Right, So these guys

(56:16):
they used a third doctor to get the ketamine. The
third doctor wrote a bogus prescription and then gave the
ketamine to this other doctor who was then in partners
with another doctor who were quote, you know, taking care
of Perry.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
But it was all a money grab.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
So the bottle of kettamine is not a particularly expensive thing.
It's a chemical, it's been around a long time. It's
it's quite inexpensive. And so the bottle of ketamine cost
the doctor twelve dollars and they charged Matthew Perry two
thousand dollars for it. And one doctor wrote to one

(56:53):
of these other co conspirators in a text message, I
wonder how much this moron will pay and then let's
find out.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
That's according to the indictment that was.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
Unsealed yesterday, And it's just really terrible, terrible stuff. Now
I will note that three of the five defendants have
already pleaded guilty, including his personal assistant, who I think
is the guy who actually gave him the shot. And

(57:26):
it's tragic really, I mean, the guy had a history
of addiction, you know, a lot of people look at
addiction as some kind of moral failing.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
I don't look at it that way. I feel really
bad for the guy.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
You know, if you want to point a finger at
somebody for the first time, you make a decision to
take drugs, Okay, I get that, but at some point
it's out of your control. And then to have somebody
who took an oath to do no harm, or maybe
three people who took these oaths to do no harm,
who are conspiring to inject this guy on a freak
went basis with a powerful sedative so that they can

(58:03):
steal money from him. I mean, I hope they go
to jail for a long time. One of them is
actually at risk of life in prison, and another one
is at risk of one hundred and twenty years in prison,
and I sure hope that they get You know, I
don't know if life in prison is appropriate.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
But it might be. It might be.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
All right, let's do something completely different. Let's talk about
saving a life instead of losing one. But instead of
an actor, let's talk about a toad. I love cute
little animals, although I haven't always thought of toads as
necessarily that cute.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
But they can be and these particular.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
Boreal toads are relatively cute as toads go and endangered.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
And I saw an interesting.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Article over at the Colorado Sun entitled tiny endangered toads
transplanted to Colorado Pond successfully breed after seven years. This
is actually a joint project between Colorado Parks and Wildlife
and the Denver Zoo, which is now called the Denver
Zoo Conservation Alliance. They updated their name recently. And we
are joined by Andy Shirts, who is the curator of

(59:10):
Echotherms at the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance. Hi Andy, Happy Friday,
Thanks for being here.

Speaker 9 (59:17):
Hi Ros, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
I don't like it when somebody makes me have to
look up a word, but can you tell us what
an echo them is?

Speaker 9 (59:26):
Exotherm is basically just kind of a term that means
cold blooded. So reptiles, amphibians and vertebrates, insects and fish
are all kind of into that big group of ectotherms.
So it means they get their heat kind of from
their environment instead of making it internally like an endotherrm.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Would, got it, Okay, ectotherm meaning outside heat.

Speaker 9 (59:48):
Yeah, that's a good way to think about it.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
You got it, okay, So tell us about the boreal toad.
Why should we care?

Speaker 9 (59:55):
I mean, it's just a really good conservation when we've
been working with the Colorado Parson Wildlife for this and
they've been working on this project for over twenty years,
and this species is just a really unique species. It's
a montane habitat species, so they live seven thousand to
twelve thousand feet up into the southern Rockies and that's

(01:00:16):
just a really hard environment. And one of the reasons
why they're declining is a fungus called Kittrid fungus, and
this fungus kind of covers their body and it kind
of reduces their ability to thermo regulate and breathe, and
it affects their muscles. And this is actually kind of
worldwide a huge problem, so in Colorado it affected our

(01:00:38):
boreal topes. So what we have seen is a huge
decline in this population. So the best way to help
them is actually to bolster their populations, and that's kind
of what we've been doing with Colorado Parson Wildlife is
actually helping to breathe these in captivity, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
So I can think of off the top of them my head.
Two things one might do for this problem. One is,
you know, breed these toads in captivity and then release
them in a place where you think the fungus doesn't
exist one and then another thing you might do which
sounds a lot harder, but I'm going to ask anyway,
is breed a version of this toad that's resistant to

(01:01:16):
the fungus.

Speaker 9 (01:01:17):
Yeah, that's great, that's a great thought. What we don't
know is is there a population that is in a
sense resistant or immune to the fungus. So what we're
doing is just bolstering the populations until we can that
those populations might naturally have some sort of genetic ability

(01:01:39):
to not get the fungus or survive the fungus at
an early rate. So that is definitely one of the
two processes. I think what Color out of Parson Wildlife
has been doing is bolstering populations in b D negative environments.
In twenty twenty two, we were a part of the
site that was recently featured in the Sun where we

(01:02:00):
provided seven give me six hundred and ninety tadpoles and
they've actually translocated from other sites around two hundred sorry
twenty thousand tadpoles to that site. So the hope is
to put enough animals in that environment, and it takes
about four years for these animals to kind of reach
a maturity to be able to breed on their own,

(01:02:21):
and then see if they are naturally breeding on their own.
And that's what Dan Cammick found this recent August. He
found natural breeding at those sites.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
Very cool. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
A couple of listener texts. This one is a little
bit tangential. One listener says, I've met doctor Allen Pounds
who researched the extinction of the golden toad.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
Does that name mean anything to you?

Speaker 9 (01:02:42):
Yeah, Actually, the golden toad, a pennamedion golden frog is
a species. If that's the same species, I'm not familiar
with that person, but the pennamin golden frog is another
animal that was affected by the Kittrid fungus. We've actually
bred here at the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Awesome and an Another listener says, ribt ribt. So that's good.
I'm hoping you can translate that with all of your
coat experience.

Speaker 9 (01:03:08):
I know exactly what he said.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
I hope I pronounced it right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
How does a toad at ten thousand feet get through
a winter.

Speaker 9 (01:03:20):
That's a great question. So they're growing season is only
around three to four months, and they're basically the snow
pack can be multiple feet of snow. So when they emerge,
as soon as it thaws, they eat for as long
as they can for three to four months. They breed
almost immediately after emerging, and then when it gets too cold,

(01:03:41):
they actually go in under the frost line and they
do something called brumation, and brumation just is a fancy
term for kind of shutting down all of your body
processes to your calorie neutral you're not burning any calories.
And they stay that way for six to eight months
until the snow pack melts enough for them to emerge.
And we actually simulate that here at the Denver Zoo

(01:04:03):
when we do our breeding. So we put them into
a hybernaculum, which is a fancy word for a freezer.
Then we chill down to thirty seven degrees and we
keep them in that state until around May first and
then we remove them. They warm up, they breed and
eat for another three of warm months.

Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
When they're in that state, is there any respiration at all,
whether through a mouth or through skin? I mean, because
you said if they're using no calories, so I'm guessing
their metabolism is close to zero. But it's hard for
me to imagine even it close to zero that you
wouldn't breathe for months.

Speaker 9 (01:04:36):
Yeah, they do breathe through their skin, and they they
are awake. We check on them every week and make
sure they're doing okay. But they still have some body processes.
But you're right, it's pretty close to zero. They do
burn micro calories, but it's definitely a hard environment for
them to live in it. So it's just really unique
to see these animals kind of go through this entire

(01:04:59):
process this and then wake up, breed and then only
are awake for three to four months.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
But you said they're also awake when they're when they're
hibernating or whatever the proper term was, So how did
you say that they're awake during that?

Speaker 9 (01:05:15):
Yeah, they are awake.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
So how do you know they're awake? Like, would their
eyes follow you if you looked at them? If Yeah,
if Ben Albright walked in and offered them pineapple, would
they notice?

Speaker 9 (01:05:24):
I don't know about that, but they definitely kind of
move around a little bit when we kind of they
kind of dig into the substrate that we provide, which
is kind of a stagnum moss, and when we check
on them, they kind of move around though blank and
look at you. We try not to agitate them too
much because nobody is checking on them in the wild
and kind of agitating him. And every time we try,
you know, they're burning a few calories, so we just

(01:05:45):
try and kind of keep it very minimal for that
time period.

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
What sorry, what do they eat when they come out?

Speaker 9 (01:05:52):
So they eat primarily crickets at the Dinver Zoos Conservation
Alliance and they also eat meal worms, wax worms, and
and primarily in insectivore and they're going to eat a
lot of insects in the wild. They're going to be
eating mosquitos and larva and and and when they're when
they're tadpoles, they actually eat algae, so they'll eat the
algae on the pond.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Love it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
Andy Shirts, curator of Ectotherms at the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance,
and their team, along with working with the Colorado Parks
and Wildlife have successfully gotten to having these boreal toads
breeding on their own in a pond in Colorado trying
to save this endangered species that I would say, as

(01:06:35):
toads go is on the cute end of the spectrum.
Would you agree with that assessment?

Speaker 9 (01:06:40):
I do. I mean they're a little brown toad is
cues button.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Andy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Thanks so much for your time. More importantly, thanks for
your great work. We'll talk with you again.

Speaker 9 (01:06:48):
Thanks Ross.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
All right, Oh that's good stuff. I like saving toads.
I really do.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
I'm gonna ask you a question and talk about it
for a second, and then maybe I'll share share some
of your answers. Oh wait, I didn't do I didn't
do the Broncos ticket giveaway yet. I need to do this.
I need to do this right now. Let's see, here
we go. This is going to be very very easy.
We're gonna take texter number six at ten fifty six.

(01:07:17):
All right, Texter number six at ten fifty six at
five six six nine zero, and your text must include
three things. Your name, your email address, and the name
of the NFL team that the Broncos are having a
joint practice with today. All right, Texter number six at
ten fifty six at five six six nine zero. The
sixth person to correctly have your your name, your email

(01:07:39):
address and correctly answer the question. What team are the
Denver Broncos doing a joint practice with right now?

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
I'm looking at this team. What is that team?

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
That person will win then an entry into our drawing
that's coming up just over two weeks from now to
win a pair of season tickets tickets to every Broncos
home game. I'll tell you what I'm going to ask
you this question really quickly, and then we'll talk about
it when we get back. What is something that people
used to use or people used to do in what

(01:08:12):
you might call the old days, but that could just
be ten or twenty or thirty years ago that you
kind of miss.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
One example, for.

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
Example, might be one example, for example, that's ridiculously redundant,
that was so redundant that as soon as I said it,
Ryan Edwards turned and looked at me, like, Ross, you
a moron?

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
Did you hear what you just said? And I did,
and you're right?

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
So how about writing an actual letter an example of
a thing people used to do that I actually like
and should do more. What's then a thing that used
to be done more that you really kind of miss?
Text me your thoughts at five six six nine zero
we'll be right back on KOA. This is a joint
practice between the Broncos and the Green Bay Packers. We

(01:08:58):
would have accepted Green Bay cheese heads, I think as
an answer to the trivia question.

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
We just did.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
Congratulations to Todd for winning today's entry into our big
drawing that we're going to do in two or three
weeks to win a pair of season tickets. By the way,
if you are at or could be at training camp
in the next hour or so, KOA has a tent
up there by the hill or where all the people are,
and you could actually go to that tent and register

(01:09:23):
for the drawing to win Broncos a pair of Broncos
season tickets, in other words, a pair of tickets to
every Broncos home game.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
So let me just.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
Run this by, and I'm gonna check some of your
answers on the text line as well. But there was
this piece over at Axios that I really enjoyed, and
it was entitled when Old is Better than New, And
this is a follow up on something they did a
week earlier about how sometimes the old way of doing
things like paper menus or finyl albums stick around despite

(01:09:56):
new technology. And look I don't know whether it's because
you know my age, Like, I'm not young, but I'm
not old. I think I love vinyl albums. I got
a new turntable recently. You know, I'm actually buying new
and used albums these days for the first time in
a while. Oh the paper menu thing, Oh my gosh,

(01:10:17):
is there anything worse then going to a restaurant and
just having them get a QR code on the table
and you're supposed to point your phone at that and
then look at the record on the screen. And you
didn't bring your reading glasses if you're old enough to
need them. And you know what's also bad about that?

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
It makes you bring your phone into a restaurant. I am.

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
I'm a big fan of saying, kids, no phones in
the restaurant, leave your phones in the car. I'm gonna
leave my phone in the car too, just to set
the example. And you go into the restaurant with no
phones because I know this's gonna sound absolutely insane, but
you want to talk to the people you're having dinner with,
even your own kids.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
I know it sounds nuts.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
So my question to you is, what's something thing that
used to be done some way or a particular thing
that people used to use, like a turntable that you
kind of miss and you either wish were coming back
or you're bringing it back yourself into your own life.
Text me at five sixty six nine zero and tell

(01:11:19):
me your answers.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
They quote.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
One person here from Pennsylvania says, I love writing in
a Moleskin journal with a freshly sharpened pencil. That sent
brings me back to grade school.

Speaker 2 (01:11:29):
That's one.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
Old envelopes, fancy grafts and powerpoints are wonderful, but nothing
beats an idea worked on collectively on an odd sheet
of paper, or a menu or an old envelope.

Speaker 2 (01:11:39):
We all did it, we all remember it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
How about this, Who needs any new fingled grilling apparatus
when you got an old fashioned Weber grill In forty years,
I've only had two. I love sitting on the patio
with a glass of wine and my grilling tongues. This
actually for a woman, she says, I don't even want
my husband to do the grilling.

Speaker 2 (01:11:57):
I love doing it, love it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
How about asking for an appointment card at a doctor's office.
That there's another one writing postcards, even though postcards are
hard to find, especially harder to find around the US.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
When you travel overseas and your in.

Speaker 1 (01:12:10):
Tourist areas, postcards are actually pretty easy to find. And actually,
you know, Okay, here's the thing that I do. This
is kind of dumb, but I've done it for forever.
Send myself a postcard from when I'm traveling, and I
write just some really random, random, wacky stuff on it,
and and I send myself a.

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
Postcard and I dig it. I send other people postcards too,
but I like it. So what about you?

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
I want you to send me a text at five
six six nine zero and tell me something that you
miss doing that you wish was still done a particular way,
one listener says, meeting people and actually being able to
go up to someone and ask them for their number
without them freaking out. Dating apps are a ridiculous bunch

(01:12:56):
of flakes and fakes.

Speaker 2 (01:12:58):
This is a.

Speaker 1 (01:12:58):
Whole other subject, modern dating, and I might get to
it another day, but I'm so glad I don't have
to date right now. I actually think that I've predicted
this for a while, and it's not something I should
be making a lot of predictions about because I don't
really know and it doesn't really affect me. But my
prediction has been that the world of dating is gonna

(01:13:21):
move at least a little bit away from all of
this swiping and app based stuff to meeting someone in
person again. And you know their companies, and I won't
name them, but they are companies that specialize in arranging
in person dates, such as over a meal in the
middle of the day, for example. I think you know

(01:13:41):
what I'm talking about, and I have no affiliation with
any of these businesses, but my point is just I
think that that kind of dating and younger people who
don't know how to look someone in the eye and
have a conversation, barely know how to.

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
Have a phone call.

Speaker 1 (01:13:59):
They only communicate by text and with emojis and with
abbreviations like.

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
IRL and l OL and b r B and all
this stuff. I think.

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
I think being able to communicate is important, and I
think it's a lost art. And I don't think I'm
just sounding like an old person is saying this. I
think that the younger people who grow up with parents
who teach the kids how to communicate and how to
have a conversation and how to look somebody in the eye,

(01:14:32):
I think those kids are going to do better in
the business world, and I think that's really important. Another
listener says film film photos have.

Speaker 2 (01:14:40):
Much more charm. That's a tough one. That's a tough one.

Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
The advantages of digital photography are so large.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
I think if you can afford.

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
To buy film, if you can even find film, and
then you want to spend the money to buy it,
where if you're a good photographer, you'll get one good
picture on a twenty four picture roll or a thirty
six picture role.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
That's what they used to be most people.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
You really wouldn't get any one picture, even on a
whole roll, that a normal person would really call a
good picture. Digital photography is free at the margin, right
once you buy the camera, it's free, and that's pretty incredible.
I will say it's true that there is something about
a picture on a piece of film that has a

(01:15:31):
certain magic about it that is not quite captured on
a piece of paper. But I'll tell you good photo
paper and a good printer.

Speaker 2 (01:15:40):
Gets pretty close.

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
Ross grocery stores providing bags couldn't agree with you more.
That's Colorado thing and a few other states.

Speaker 7 (01:15:49):
Ross.

Speaker 1 (01:15:49):
I missed the old GOP. They've been hijacked. I couldn't
agree with you more on that as well. Digging in
the earth to put in a vegetable garden instead of
an above ground garden with bagged dirt.

Speaker 2 (01:16:00):
I like it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
My wife agrees with you that on that one as well.
Manual shift cars so much more fun to drive. Indeed,
I'm trying to think, did I. I have owned a
stick shift car once, and I actually learned to drive
on my dad's nineteen seventy something Toyota land Cruiser way

(01:16:23):
before I was actually old enough to drive. But my
dad would let me shift this thing. When we lived
on Guam. I could try to drive this land Cruiser
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
And I really stick shift is awesome, it really is.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
They're hard to find these days, they really are ross.
I miss maps and Atlas's excellent call.

Speaker 2 (01:16:45):
Anyway, I'll tell you what. I'm gonna hit a little
break here, but.

Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
I'm reading all your text messages. Oh here's one more
an all wood hockey stick.

Speaker 2 (01:16:52):
Nice. That's something that's probably not coming back. But keep those,
keep those cards.

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
And letters coming to kind of mix, you know, things
we want to have happen with versus what's really happening,
which is keep those text matches is coming at five, six, six,
nine zero. Tell me something you miss from the old
days that might not even be that old. We'll be
right back on Koa And it is a joint practice
between the Broncos and the Green Bay cheese Heads. They

(01:17:21):
are not wearing cheese on their heads, but perhaps.

Speaker 2 (01:17:25):
They should be.

Speaker 1 (01:17:26):
And Broncos is gonna play the cheese Heads on Sunday
in a preseason game.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
So it's just so cool to be here. The burm,
the big hill over there is full of people.

Speaker 1 (01:17:35):
Don't forget folks, if you're here right now and listening
to me, or if you could be here at some
point in the next probably forty five minutes, I'm not
sure of exactly our timing, but if you get over
to the Koa tenth that's kind of up at the
top of the hill there, that'll be an opportunity for
you to enter into our drawing to win a pair
of Broncos season tickets, so tickets for every.

Speaker 2 (01:17:56):
Home game this season.

Speaker 1 (01:17:58):
And you don't have to, you know, take a chance
of you know, whether you're gonna be text or number
six or something like that. You can just go over
to that tent and register.

Speaker 2 (01:18:07):
For this giveaway.

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
So if you are or can be near training camp
before we close up that tent for the day, which
probably be somewhere around noon, then come on and do that.
I love some of these listener answers to the question, what's.

Speaker 2 (01:18:23):
Something that's kind of old? Doesn't that be very old?
Didn't that be ancient?

Speaker 1 (01:18:27):
But something that used to be done a certain way
that you either wish we're still done that way or
you are making an effort in your life.

Speaker 2 (01:18:34):
To still do it that way.

Speaker 1 (01:18:38):
And I'll just share a couple with you because I
really like these. I still use my cast iron skillets
that were originally my great grandmother's guessing they're close to
one hundred years old. That's pretty fantastic. I missed my
slide rule from high school calculus. I never had a
slide rule. Ben Albright seems to me like a like

(01:18:59):
a slide rule guy abacus.

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:19:02):
Ben's good at the math technology stuff. You probably don't
know that about him, but he's pretty good. I miss
watching the news with anchors like Walter Cronkite, both for
delivery and for actual news a similar vein, A similar vein.
I also miss not hearing every fringe opinion and false outrage.

Speaker 2 (01:19:22):
Here's a good one. I miss analog digital flip clocks.
You remember those.

Speaker 1 (01:19:26):
They look like digital, but they're actually just numbers printed
on a thing, and each minute the next one would
flip down, he says or she. I've been trying to
find one at thrift stores. I can't find one. Oh
he that's from Steven Stephen. Go to eBay, you can.
You can definitely find them. Here's one that I absolutely
agree with. I miss paper tickets for concerts and sporting events.

Speaker 2 (01:19:44):
You know, that's cool.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
It's a pain where you might lose them, but it's
so cool to have them later. I bet you a
lot of people listening to me right now still have
paper tickets from some concert you went to as a kid,
you know, and maybe if you're lucky, maybe you got
like a Who ticket from the sixties or a Pink
Floyd ticket from the sixties and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:01):
We kind of miss them. And then this also.

Speaker 1 (01:20:06):
Very much, very very much in the Ben Albright school
of things that somebody misses Ross. I'm in nerd and
I miss watching my hard drive defragment Old school, old
new school. Yeah, whoever you are. Ben Albright is cheering
you right there. All right, let me do something different
here for just a couple of minutes. This is a

(01:20:27):
story from the Colorado Sun, and we've talked about this
on and off for the past couple of years. There's
a lot of school districts around Colorado, especially in more
rural areas, that have had a hard time attracting teachers
than when you have a shortage of teachers. That's actually
as obviously a problem for the students. So one of
these things, one of the things that's happened because they
don't have a ton of money. They can't just go

(01:20:48):
suddenly say we're going to offer you a lot of money.
They don't have a lot of money. They've gone to
four day school weeks, right, so a three day weekend
every week. And interesting piece over at the Colorado Sun.
Four day school weeks have exploded across Colorado districts and
are setting students back. Now, I think there's some different
opinion of opinion on this, but.

Speaker 2 (01:21:09):
I'm gonna share this with you again.

Speaker 1 (01:21:11):
Many districts have turned to shorter weeks to draw teachers
when they're unable to pay them a competitive salary. But
longer weekends aren't helping kids get ahead or teaching keeping
teachers in the classrooms. And I guess they're both not
that surprising, but in a way, the second one is
more surprising. And they talk about the promise of a
three day weekend every week becoming a popular tool, that

(01:21:33):
these districts are using the lower teachers to their schools
and keep them there and again because of strap budgets
and limits on salaries. And so when we're talking about
rural district we're not talking about Douglas County and Arapo
County with lots of people with lots of money, right,
You're talking about about I don't know, welld County not well, actually,
Well County has lots of money.

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
That's a terrible example.

Speaker 1 (01:21:55):
But some of the more rural counties, Uma County, places
like this, Bent County, aren't you lettic Costilla County, and
on and on, and they've gone to these forty weeks.
But what seems to be happening is that these changes,
at least according to some of the people quoted in
this article, are not resulting in higher student achievement and

(01:22:19):
also not resulting in higher retention of teachers.

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
And they quote a guy from.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
The Keystone Policy Center, who says he actually.

Speaker 2 (01:22:27):
Doesn't know doesn't know why.

Speaker 1 (01:22:30):
Now some Colorado superintendents are pushing back against this, and
just to show you how widespread this is about let's
say eight years ago, there were eighty two districts in
the state of Colorado that had four day school weeks,
and you might think that's a massive amount, but they're
mostly very small districts, so actually the number in terms

(01:22:54):
of number of students, it's still a pretty small minority.
But now six years later, one hundred and nineteen out
of one hundred and eighty.

Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
Five districts, districts.

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
Charter schools, and whatever bocs is, I don't know what
that is. I've adopted four day weeks all of the
twenty seventh JA schools in Brighton, for example.

Speaker 2 (01:23:16):
They did that.

Speaker 1 (01:23:19):
Some years ago, back in twenty eighteen, and he says
that the superintendent there says that the burden on instructors
has dropped and student graduations have inched upwards. So I
think what we're probably seeing is pretty different results from
one place to another, and we're going to need to
dig into it more because the key thing with education
is as crazy as this seems, education. Are the kids

(01:23:42):
getting educated? If they're not, that's a problem. And also,
and this is the odd thing that they really need
to figure out if they're offering these three day weekends
all year round for teachers because they can't afford to
pay them very much, but it's still not causing the
tea to stay.

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
They're gonna need to sort that out. When we come back.

Speaker 1 (01:24:04):
Nick Ferguson's gonna join me right here at Bronco's training camp.
And of course you hear Nick with Ben Albright most
weeknights from six pm to eleven pm on Broncos Country tonight.
But he's a really interesting dude. We're gonna talk about
a lot of stuff that goes well beyond football, and
we're gonna play Name that tune.

Speaker 2 (01:24:24):
Keep it here on KOA.

Speaker 1 (01:24:25):
Kawa at Training Camp is powered by Chevron Colorado as
well and the Sporty Pickle Barn Grill, the official training
camp barn Grill of the KOA Sports Networks. It's just
five minutes down the road here from camp at eighty
six forty South Peoria. Stop in for a tasty beverage
or some food. Tell them we at KOA. Said Hi
sportypickle dot com. I am joined again by Nick Ferguson,

(01:24:49):
and last time I was a training camp. Nick joined
me as well, and instead of talking about football, we
talked about cocaine sharks. So so this time we were
gonna talk We're gonna get some football in at maybe
some other randomness. And I asked Nick what he wanted
to talk about, and because he's a fundamentally lazy person,
he said, Ross, it's your show. You figured out, so

(01:25:12):
I will. So the first question for you, Nick, is
the question I asked listeners before. What is something that
used to be done in a certain way, or something
that used to be used like a like a turntable
for records or handwriting a letter that you wish was
still done or that you still do because you because

(01:25:34):
you dig it.

Speaker 7 (01:25:35):
It's being friendly to your human being. How about that?
Because most people are not as friendly as they can be.
And here's what I will say about a month ago,
I took a trip back to Miami, where I'm from,
and it was about eight years since I've been back there,
and I never realized how rude people were, And it

(01:25:56):
gave me a better appreciation for the people here in Colorado,
because I kept saying, damn, the people in Colorado were
so nice and I couldn't wait to get back because
I played in New York City, and if you're on
the four lane highway, to say, the exit is on
the right side, you would get individuals who are on
the far left who would just come across the highway,

(01:26:17):
no signal, and just get off right. And I've had
people when I was home, like there was a guy
on the light and I didn't blow my horn, but
I waited two seconds to see if he was actually
react to the light turning green, and then I hit
my horn one time. So he drove really slow, and
as I passed him, he rolled down his wing his
window and gave me your number one signal.

Speaker 1 (01:26:39):
Wow, you know, Okay, it's interesting that you mentioned that,
because so I think you know this. But I went
to college in New York and I'm kind of used
to New Yorkers and it's definitely friendlier here. And last
night I went to the twenty one Pilot's concert Good
for You, and everybody's you know, dancing and the like,
everybody stood up the whole time, was cheer and so happy,

(01:27:01):
and I actually did think last night at the concert.
This kind of feeling is what I love about Denver. Like,
these are not New Yorkers.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
And these are not right.

Speaker 1 (01:27:10):
These are like actually happy people singing with the band.
And you know, like from time to time, especially in
a kind of political show, you like tend to beat
up the government of a city or something, but I
really do, I really do like Colorado's Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:27:25):
Man, it's been a great experience for both me and
my family. And you know, you never realize how kind
people here in Colorado are. Now that's not to say
that we don't have individuals who can be rude as hell.
We do have those, but for the most part, you know,
it is a family type environment. I tell guys now

(01:27:47):
who don't live in Denver, like, if you're single, Denver
is not the place for you. Yeah right. If you
want the nightlife, Denver is not the place for you.
But if you are trying to raise a family, Denver
is a great environment for you. Most people who I
know who live back East, they're like, well, Denver's cold
as hell. I was like, well, it's not like Chicago, right.

(01:28:10):
I go Herrett, where I used to live. Yes, when
it snows that that place is miserbu the airport gets
shut down, but I'm like, believe it or not. Because
of the elevation, we have more sunny days than most places,
So that makes Denver great.

Speaker 1 (01:28:23):
I think a lot of people who don't know Colorado
will think that Denver is like Veil in terms of yes, right,
they think everything is the ski towns.

Speaker 2 (01:28:32):
And by the way, for those of you who.

Speaker 1 (01:28:33):
Don't know, not only will you hear Nick weeknights from
six to eleven, but he also played free safety.

Speaker 2 (01:28:41):
Right not free safety? I played both both safety.

Speaker 1 (01:28:44):
Yes in the NFL number twenty five for the Broncos
twenty five right, yes, I hate I don't want to
get that wrong. Actually, I saw you inspired a question me.
So when you were were did you end your career
at the Broncos.

Speaker 7 (01:28:55):
No. I ended my career following Gary Kubiak to the
Houston Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:28:59):
OK. And then so after your and after your playing days.

Speaker 1 (01:29:04):
Are done, you probably had a lot of flexibility into
what you where you could go, and what you wanted
to do.

Speaker 2 (01:29:09):
Why did you come back to Colorado?

Speaker 7 (01:29:11):
Well, one, I had a media opportunity to come back,
but also always wanted to come back to Colorado. It
was funny. We were living in California at the time,
and my kids were complaining that California was too hot
and there was too much traffic, and they said that
they wanted to see the leaves change and they wanted
to see snow. And I was like, okay, well there's

(01:29:32):
an opportunity for me to go back to Denver. Do
you guys want to go? And it's like yeah, So
every time it snows here, I waked them up in
the morning like, hey, remember you guys said you want
to move to Denver because you love the snow. There's
a lot of it outside that you can shovel. So
that's how I did it up in the morning.

Speaker 2 (01:29:46):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:29:46):
Yes, all right, So this might fall into the I
could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you
category what.

Speaker 2 (01:29:55):
So', But I'll.

Speaker 1 (01:29:56):
Ask you anyway, and then if your answer is I
I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you,
then just go ahead and say that rather than telling
me and killing me Later. I heard a rumor that
you were looking at some potential professional opportunities.

Speaker 2 (01:30:10):
Based on this.

Speaker 1 (01:30:12):
Yes, is there something you're allowed to talk about even
a little bit?

Speaker 2 (01:30:17):
No? Okay, but.

Speaker 7 (01:30:21):
Next, how about how a to be was that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:26):
Yeah, that was good, very very good.

Speaker 7 (01:30:29):
I haven't disclosed anything about myself or anyone. I haven't
given any what trade secrets. Yeah, away, And that was
kind of one of the things that I wanted to
make sure that those in an organization knew that I'm
not that type of person to see what's behind the
curtain and divulge it.

Speaker 1 (01:30:48):
Yeah, loose lips sing ships as Navy people say.

Speaker 7 (01:30:52):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:30:53):
I read somewhere and I would like to ask you
if it's true that your first career interception in the
NA was against Peyton Manning.

Speaker 2 (01:31:01):
Is that true? Yeah, it's very true.

Speaker 7 (01:31:03):
I actually saw him standing on the sideline a little
while ago, and it was as playing for the New
York Jets, and I think at the time it was
like the worst loss in Peyton's history because we beat
him forty one to nothing. Wow, and knowing as though
Peyton is a very cerebral guy, but we all have tendencies,

(01:31:26):
and he had a tendency to look certain places based
on down in distance in the formation they had, and
luckily I was like, Wow, I was a kid in
the candy store. I don't believe he's gonna throw it,
he threw it, I got the interception. So yes, that's
kind of you know, my Peyton Manning story. But Peyton
is a hell of a guy. Is good to kind
of know him and just kind of be in the

(01:31:48):
mix where you can say, okay, you I know most
people think of him as a cult but I think
of him as being a part of the Broncos, but
being a part of that unique alumni group man especial.

Speaker 2 (01:32:00):
So yeah, as you said, the dude has a big brain.

Speaker 1 (01:32:05):
I'm very curious whether he knew at whatever point you
ended up talking to him again that your first career
interception was against him.

Speaker 2 (01:32:13):
Do you think he knew that or did you tell
him or neither?

Speaker 7 (01:32:16):
You know what I That conversation has never come back
him on. But because he is as cerebrow as he is, yes,
I'm sure he knows every interception that he threw. He
knows because he's one of those type of individuals. He's
going to go back and watch the tape over and
over again to figure out what he did wrong and

(01:32:37):
how it could do much better.

Speaker 2 (01:32:40):
Tell me the story.

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
Tell us the story about Bill Parcell's walking by the
door and then coming back and coming into the room,
all right.

Speaker 7 (01:32:51):
So I was when I first got to the Jets
from the Buffalo. Bill's big shout out to wayis because
my career doesn't get off the ground without him taking
a chance on me. But I mean the odd way
of saying thank you. I hop on the plane and
go to New York to join the New York Jets
and says, I'm coming in late. I have to learn

(01:33:12):
the defense. So I got to get up like two
weeks in a row at four o'clock in the morning
to be there at four point thirty so they can
teach me the defense. And I'm sitting in Todbo's office,
who was my DV coach at the time. He is
a head coach for the time of a Buccaneers. I'm
sitting in the room waiting for him. Parcels walks by
with his towel around his neck, and I'm going, I'm

(01:33:33):
looking at the heavens like thank God. He kept going,
and then he came back, and then he came in
the room and he closed the door. Now the significance
of that is that every player knows when you go
into a room with someone with coaching and personnel and
they close the door. Anything they say after that is bad.
So I'm like, man, I just got here. I mean,

(01:33:53):
you're trying to cut me already.

Speaker 2 (01:33:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:33:55):
So we sit in there and he goes through my
his as a player, and I didn't know he knew
it as well as he did, and he's telling me things.
I was like, man, even I forgot that. But the
whole idea was to tell me, if I continue to
work hard, I could play in the NFL a decade.
And I wasn't really expecting that because the way it works,

(01:34:19):
he's Bill Parcels. But I tell people, you got to
separate the man. There's Bill and there's Coach Parcels. Bill
is great. You love Bill. He's like your granddad, right.
Coach Parcels not so much. That's the guy. He's going
to ridicule you. He's gonna rip your part and everything
about your game. But he's only doing that out of love.

(01:34:41):
And at the time I didn't realize that was his
method to the madness. But because I showed that I
had the propensity to deal with it, I became a
Parcels guy. I can even call him right now, and
it was a great thing for me. And when he
told me that he believed in me, and if I
continue to work like that, I'll have a long, illustrious

(01:35:02):
career in the NFL. It didn't make a difference what
any coach said to me after that. I just knew
Bill Parcells gave me a certain level of confidence that
no one could else ever take away.

Speaker 1 (01:35:13):
So it's probably not fair to pick one. And maybe
your answer will be Parcels. But if I ask you
for your immediate answer, without thinking about it too much,
which coach from your childhood all the way up through
your career made the biggest impact on you, who would
it be?

Speaker 7 (01:35:29):
And why Waye Phillips?

Speaker 2 (01:35:31):
Because he gave me my first job.

Speaker 7 (01:35:35):
Like where you're at Broncos camp watching the Packers in
the Broncos at some point in a couple of weeks,
a lot of these guys are going to be cut
and they have to figure out life after football. For me,
I was in that predicament. And what for Waye Phillips
did for me, I'm forever grateful because he released me.
He came down and told me himself. Usually there's a

(01:35:57):
designated individual we called the turk that he goes around
and he taps you on your shoulder and say, coach
wants to see you bring your playbooks. Wayne Phillips didn't
do that. He came to me himself and say, listen,
we need to we need your spot. We're gonna trade
for a guy named Chris Watson who was here with
the Denver Broncos at the time as a returner, So

(01:36:18):
we need your spot. So they had to let me go.
But he told me, he was like, look, man, if
you clear waivers, we're gonna bring you back. And coaches
and people tell you stuff all the time, and you
think people should be men of their word. Most people
are not. He was a man of his word and
he brought me back. So I love him just like
Parcelves and Shanahan. But he was a guy that opened

(01:36:39):
the door for me.

Speaker 1 (01:36:40):
And then he was the one who coordinated getting you
to Bill Parcells.

Speaker 7 (01:36:45):
No, he didn't coordinate act. To be totally honest, he
didn't know I was gone until he called me that
next morning because I took a flight out six point
thirty in the morning to New York City. So when
he called me, yeah, figure out where I was. I
was like, I'm sitting in front of Bill Parcels right now.

Speaker 2 (01:37:04):
Was he cranky with you?

Speaker 7 (01:37:05):
No, no, no, no, no ways, never cranky. He was
just like, hey, come back and we'll put activation from
the practice squad to the act of Roston.

Speaker 1 (01:37:14):
Let's do because we keep talking about talking, and I
want to make sure we get to this thing.

Speaker 7 (01:37:18):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:37:19):
You and I text a lot about current events and politics. Yes,
and I find your wh's really interesting and you are
are Our backgrounds and where and how we grew up
couldn't be any more different.

Speaker 2 (01:37:33):
So I really that was a great hit. Was that
Certan with the hit?

Speaker 7 (01:37:37):
No, it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:37:38):
That was a good whoever did that?

Speaker 7 (01:37:41):
Devin Key? I really liked that kid.

Speaker 2 (01:37:43):
That was a really good hit.

Speaker 1 (01:37:44):
But what's your kind of macroview right now as you
watch what's going on in this presidential campaign? Because I
know you you are really paying attention.

Speaker 7 (01:37:53):
Yeah, I pay attention to I guess with this particular
political campaign, more so this year than I've ever before.
Because my wife is like, you're watching more of this
than you are actually watching of sports, And I said,
I want to be as informed as I am. And
I'm not going to say I'm as informed as both

(01:38:13):
you and Mandy, but I want to know what's going on,
because these elections really affect our lives, and some of
these conversations ross I can't have with certain people because
not as many people are open to different points of view.
It's like it's a fixed point of view and it's
this or nothing else. So if I don't agree with them,

(01:38:36):
then believe it or not. And it's wild. And I
can't tell you all the names that they throw at me,
but there's a lot of derogatory names coming from people
I know, and I'm like, when did this start? Can
we have an actual conversation about what's actually taking place
in the landscape of politics? But for most people, they
can't do that.

Speaker 1 (01:38:55):
Any of the names you're talking about do they have
to do with that? A black dudes should always vote
for an Democrat?

Speaker 2 (01:39:02):
You ever hear that?

Speaker 7 (01:39:05):
Yeah? But I hear it's phrasing a different way. Yeah, Okay,
in a more derogatory I know a way. And for me,
everyone has their own opinion and then everyone can vote
for whoever they want to vote for, because we have
the righting in this country. But we should all be
able to express our viewpoints without someone taking a negative

(01:39:26):
approach to it.

Speaker 1 (01:39:28):
All Right, One more one more question on politics, and
I'm not looking for a partisan answer, right, I'm not
looking for republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal as you as you
think about politics and the impact it has.

Speaker 2 (01:39:38):
On our lives, what are your values? What is important
to you in a political system?

Speaker 7 (01:39:44):
For me, it's I think about the first thing that
jumps out is the economy. If that's not the first
thing on your mind, I don't know what is. It's economy,
the healthcare, foreign policies. Because we have a lot of
people around the world who are not our friends from
a political standpoint because their viewpoints are different. But I

(01:40:06):
believe that you still if you have a difference of viewpoints,
we should be able to sit down and talk about
things that are going on. And there are those who
come from a frame of mind like if you have
an enemy, you shouldn't talk to that person. How can
we get on the same common ground if we're not
allowed to speak to one another. Find out not what
we're different about, but what's similar to us. For me,

(01:40:30):
that's where I want things to get One thing I
don't do, man, I don't do identity politics. The way
I look at life is entirely different from both of
my parents, who I'm blessed they're still alive, and even
my brothers and sisters. So for me, it's going down
to policy. What's gonna impact my life, what's going to
change my family's life. Those are the things that are

(01:40:53):
and point to me. And I wish we were in
a space where we could have free conversation and dialogue
and individuals, you know, they don't come with a tongue
lashing and a name calling.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
Good answer. I like it.

Speaker 1 (01:41:06):
And you know Nick, Nick has I think is his
values right, and it's always very interesting to talk to
him about.

Speaker 2 (01:41:12):
About this stuff. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:41:13):
So I know this isn't always the easiest thing to do,
necessarily from training camp, but we're gonna do with this
Friday It's Our. It's Our, the your favorite feature on
Friday radio hit at Couver