9-19-24 - *FULL SHOW* Jimmy Sengenberger Filling In For Ross Talking Fentanyl with David Olesky and Interest Rate Cuts with David Bahnsen

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back in the saddle for Roskaminski here on KOA with
none other than a rod behind the glass. Oh is
great to work with the man himself and good to
be with you as well.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
If you want to join in to.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
The festivities, please text into the show on the common
the Koa Common Spirit Health text line at five six
six nine zero. We had a slew of great text yesterday.
Let's keep them coming today bottom of this hour. You
will not want to miss what we'll be a fascinating
in studio interview with David Oleski. He is the Assistant

(00:40):
Special Agent in charge of the Rocky Mountain Division of
the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Agency, And this is going
to be interesting in part because I want to ask him,
with all the news about Trend de Aragua in Aurora,
what is their role in the drugs? How concerned should

(01:02):
people in Colorado be about this gang? What are some
things that we can be aware of? And then what
is the state of the crisis of fetnah. We see
it on the streets in downtown Denver day in and
day out. It's not hard to find somebody. You don't
even have to be looking for somebody who appears to
be high on fennyl. It's a dangerous, deadly drug and

(01:25):
it is spreading far and wide.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
What's the latest on that.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
So that's to talk about with David Aleski live in
studio at the bottom of the hour, so be sure
to keep it here right on KOA. Something very fascinating
happened yesterday in the news of politics. There was a

(01:49):
decision by the Teamsters Union. Remember their president Sean O'Brien
spoke at the Republican National Convention. It was because I
think never before or for decades, had a union boss
spoken at the RNC. I'm not a big fan of

(02:10):
unions myself, I have to be honest with you, but
I found it to be fascinating that he spoke. I
thought he went on too long and it was interesting
some of the things that were said by Sean O'Brien
at the RNC. But regardless, normally they voted and they
supported Democrat and Valla Kamala Harris should be getting the

(02:33):
support of the Teamsters Union. But no, in fact they
did not make that endorsement. And Sean O'Brien was on
with Neil Cavudo yesterday and explained what happened.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Well, listen, we interviewed both candidates, and we were seeking
commitments from both candidates, and we couldn't get solid commitments on.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
Our core issues like the pro Act, like video and
national right to work, like staying out of LAYBA disputes,
not trying to force any contracts on us, like what
happened to our brothers and sisters in the real industry.
We didn't get solid commitments from either candidate, which was
a major factor in our decision as a general executive.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Board not to endorse any candidate.

Speaker 4 (03:14):
However, we did a lot of polling, as you know,
and the polling leaned heavily towards former President Trump.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
So that's heavily, very heavily, And I'm just wondering, do
you look disconnected from your members.

Speaker 4 (03:27):
No, we're definitely not disconnected from our members because look,
we did extensive polling.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
That was important.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Our goal as leaders, as union leaders, as leader of
the team.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
Is to provide the ability for people to have a
voice and to provide credible information, and we cannot dictate
to our members. Our members are sophisticated, they're going to
make their own decisions.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
But this is a bigger problem. You know, the Democrats
have always taken for granted that they're.

Speaker 4 (03:53):
Going to get our vote no matter what, and the
Republicans of fancying themselves as the working Parties working People's Party.

Speaker 5 (04:00):
I think right now.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
Both sides have to take a step back and really
reevaluate what the commitment is to working people.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
And that's what we did in this process. He noted
something very clear, not just in the case of unions,
but also in the case of minority groups.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
The Democrats take them.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
For granted as a constituency that will support their candidates,
and that I think is just a truism, and coming
from the union boss himself at the Teamsters, one of
the most well known unions in the country, that says
a lot. But of course Karne Jean Pierre, the White

(04:39):
House Press Secretary, didn't seem much to this poll, dismissing
it in a way that only KJP can.

Speaker 6 (04:49):
And on Teamsters, I know you can't talk about the
endorsement specifically, but the union also put out its internal
polling that showed that there was a pretty wide margin
of rank and file numbers.

Speaker 7 (05:00):
That supported former President Donald Trump.

Speaker 8 (05:03):
To what extent is that a referendum on the work
of this administration? Look I'm not going to speak to
to to their poll. I'm not going to speak to
the rank and file.

Speaker 7 (05:12):
Look it is we're.

Speaker 8 (05:14):
Talking about a twenty twenty four obviously an election that
is just a few weeks away. I can't speak to that.
I can't speak to their decision to endorse not endorse,
I guess in this case, not endorse. What I can
speak to is what this president and this vice president
has done in the last three and a half years.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
This president has.

Speaker 8 (05:32):
Been called the most pro union president ever.

Speaker 6 (05:38):
And I think, out President, I hear you here.

Speaker 8 (05:42):
I mean, we're talking about we're talking about one union, right,
We're talking about the Teva.

Speaker 9 (05:50):
I hear you.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
We're talking we're still talking about one union. We're still
talking about one union. You can't, you can't just you
can't even consider that he's the most pro union president ever. Not,
by the way, addressing the Harris factor, which is key,
she's the sitting vice president of the United States, and
she got forty two percent as I understand it, in

(06:13):
this Teamsters survey, while fifty eight percent went for Trump. Now,
I do find it rather fascinating that you would see
a strong majority of members of a major union support Trump.
I think that is because of the image he has
cultivated on several issues, including trade, that he is the

(06:37):
everyman's candidate, that he represents the average person, the blue
collar worker. It's fascinating for a guy who's been a billionaire,
but he has managed to cultivate that image going back
many years, and of course for his presidency and his
candidacies in the past, he really emphasized that point and
worked out pretty well for him. Now we have a

(07:01):
circumstance where it's showing up in the data that working
people in these unions are more supportive of a Republican
candidate for president than they probably have done in a
very long time, and that certainly says a lot about him. Now.
It does make me wary of the potential influence that

(07:24):
unions may have on a Trump administration as far as
some substantive policies, but not that worried because I think
the record from Trump shows that for the most part,
he governed economically in a fairly conservative, fairly libertarian way
in the sense of not having as much regulation, cutting

(07:47):
that red tape, pulling back on taxes on corporations and
capital gains and so forth. Those are key positions that
I think necessary for a thriving economy and for the
free market to function.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Best.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Of course, his TERRORFF policies get in the way of that.
We'll probably talk about that later on in the program,
because interestingly enough, Paul Krugman of The New York Times
had some worthwhile things to say in that regard, and
that is a really strange thing for me to say
about Paul Krugman, but nevertheless I just did. It. Is, though,

(08:32):
a fascinating time politically to see how the battle lines
are being drawn and which groups are switching over to
which candidates that they might not have typically or traditionally supported.
And here we are in the twenty twenty four election cycle,
with ballots to drop in just a matter of weeks.

(08:54):
Right here in Colorado, we're just getting started. I'm Jimmy Sangenberger.
You are listening too, the Ruskominski Show right here on KOA.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Thanks so much for joining us.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
You know, when we look at the headlines, there's a
whirlwind of things that have been going on. There's no
shortage of stuff to talk about when it comes to.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Right here on talk radio.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
And that's one of the beautiful things about doing this
is that we have any infinite number of stuff to
talk about, and one of those things happens to be
looney land. And we see looney land quite a bit,
and that includes prominent politicians, including the likes of a
former Speaker of the House named Nancy Pelosi, who had

(09:40):
a rather fascinating observation about the Democratic primary for president
that resulted in Kamala Harris being selected as the nominee.

Speaker 10 (09:54):
You had reportedly said you wanted a sort of an
open primary. When if Joe Biden stepped down, did you
change your mind because you saw all the excitement around
Kamala Harris.

Speaker 11 (10:08):
No, I didn't change my mind. We had an open
primary and she won it.

Speaker 6 (10:11):
Nobody else got in the race because she was politically astute,
and that.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Was the thought, let's show our talent.

Speaker 10 (10:19):
We have a great bench of all these great people
in the country, and could she just the president endorsed her.

Speaker 11 (10:29):
And that's a big deal, because Joe Biden's.

Speaker 8 (10:33):
Most consequential president of modern times.

Speaker 7 (10:35):
He accomplished so much more.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
We had an open primary. She just knew how to
play the game better. That's basically what Pelosi said. There
an open primary when there was one person who was
quickly chosen in a matter of like two days. Quite literally,
it was absolutely clear who the now would be.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
He was Kamala Harris.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
And guess what they did not They did not have
anything that they did as far as bringing out other
candidates and saying who do you want? Where were the
votes that took place? How many votes went for Kamala Harris?
What was the tally in Georgia or California or New

(11:27):
York in nowhere? Nowhere did Kamala Harris get a single
vote to become the nominee in a Democratic primary?

Speaker 2 (11:39):
And yet what did they do? They chose her?

Speaker 1 (11:46):
And now Pelosi saying open primary, we had one. Kamala
Harris just knew how to do it was you had
an inherent advantage. And there were some particularly powerful party
brokers like oh, I don't know, Joe Biden and Barack Obama,

(12:08):
Michelle Obama, the Clinton's, they all backed her. But go figure,
she's gonna say it's an open primary. Oh my goodness,
you just can't make this stuff up. Meanwhile, this is
another fascinating thing. Remember Russia providing help in twenty sixteen

(12:28):
to the Trump campaign, and how that's something even to
this day.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
I heard just the other day Hillary.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Clinton talking about Russia and the involvement of the Russians
in twenty sixteen's elections, so on and so forth. And
in that election, you had some involvement or interest in Russia, sure,

(12:58):
from Russia. But here's something fascinating Iran, which we know
from intelligence sources. Once Donald Trump gone. They've said that
intel sources have talked about the desire for Trump to
be assassinated by Iran. That's one of the tie ins
to these questions swirling about regarding attempted assassinations of Trump.

(13:22):
Well from Politico, Iranian hackers sent sensitive information stolen from
the Trump campaign to President Joe Biden's campaign earlier this summer.
US investigators said Wednesday the emails were sent in June
and July to individuals quote associated with the Biden campaign

(13:44):
and contained an excerpt taken from stolen non public material
from former President Trump's campaign.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
The Office of the Director.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Of National Intelligence, the FBI and CISA said in the statement,
the Iranians have continued trying to leak non public Trump
campaign material to media organizations since June.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
The agency said.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
The latest disclosure shed new light on the myriad tactics
Iran has employed to damage the Trump campaign and how
persistent it remains despite US officials calling out its first
attempt to leak stolen campaign documents this August. Politico first
reported on the attempted hack and leak effort that month.

Speaker 12 (14:32):
So Iran is going next level in its own interference
this election because they don't want Trump, who was the
guy who pulled out of the nuclear deal, the Iranian
nuclear deal and brought about the Abraham Accords.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
They don't want him in office. That's plain to see.
And it's fascinating now to see sort of the shoe
on the other foot, as it were, with a foreign
country ready to influence the election in this case for
Kamala Harris. Quite fascinating, isn't it. I'm Jimmy Sangenberger. I'm

(15:06):
filling in for Ross Kaminski here on KOA.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Don't go anywhere all right.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Now, it's time to talk with Kurt Cambier of Centennial
Capital Partners. Kurt, good morning, how are you? I am
doing great. So we had some fascinating news yesterday with
the FED making its decision, and there's a lot of
questions about perception versus reality.

Speaker 7 (15:28):
I think, well, and it goes along with the topic
you were just talking about as well. There's the perception
that's taking place and there's reality that's taking place. So
the inflation's been coming down now for quite some time,
and in fact it's below the FED target already, and
that's the reason why they're going to get pretty aggressive
and cutting interest rates. But the perception of most people

(15:50):
isn't they go to the grocery store, they go to
the gas tank at the stopan higher prices. That doesn't
mean there's inflation. That means there was inflation. If prices
go down, that's deflation, and that's very devastating to an
account of me because producers paid higher prices to produce
their product and sell it at a lower price. So
you shouldn't expect prices to decline. But you shouldn't expect

(16:14):
price but you should expect prices just to flatten out
and therefore, hopefully over time wages catch up.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah. One thing, of course, is that we are while
inflation has been declining, you at the same time have
a higher baseline because things are more expensive than they
were a few years ago.

Speaker 7 (16:32):
Yeah, if you don't have inflation adjusted assets, mainly stocks
and real estate. The two best inflaced adjusted assets. Commodities
are not like gold and silver a long term, short
term they can be are not good inflace adjusted assets.
You're going to be left behind. And unfortunately, the person
who gets hurt in these situations are certainly the person
on the lower end of the economic scale because they

(16:54):
don't have a lot of those assets and they just
pay higher prices and they take it in the they
get punched in the get and over again. And that's
what happened this time.

Speaker 5 (17:02):
Very very true, folks.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
If you'd like to get in touch with Kurt, get
started at kcambeer dot com. That's k C A M
B I E R dot com, or by phone, Kurt, you've.

Speaker 7 (17:15):
Had three zero three two seven one one zero sixty seven,
give me a call.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
We'd love to help, all right, Kurt, thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
I have a great day and we'll check in with
you tomorrow.

Speaker 7 (17:24):
You got it.

Speaker 9 (17:26):
Discussions in the show should not be construed to specific
recommendtions or investment advice. Consult with a professional before investing
securities offer through Cambridge Investment Research Inc. Member Finra, SIPC
Advisory Services through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc. Centennial Capital
and Chambridge are not affiliated. Russimonski is not a client
a Centennial Capital.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Be sure to chime in your thoughts, especially during this
next conversation on the KOA Common Spirit Health text line
at five six six nine zero your participation. We're going
to get to the text, but always love it. Yesterday
was just absolutely great. We've been get some texts in
today and we'll be getting to that here in a bed.

(18:02):
But folks, one of the most serious issues that we
have going on in our own backyard is the fentanyl crisis.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
This is a drug that is deadly.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
It is not only killing adults, it has killed vulnerable children,
and oftentimes they don't even know that they.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Are consuming this drug.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
What should we know about the fentanyl epidemic and where
things are at right now, particularly in Colorado in the
Rocky Mountain region.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
On this issue.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
And also, we hear a lot lately about trend' ar
Agua Venezuelan gang. What are some of the roles that
they may be playing in terms of the drug crises
that we are facing in our own communities. To talk
about this, I'm very pleased to be joined by David Aleski.
He is the Assistant Special Agent in charge of the

(18:54):
Rocky Mountain Division of the Drug Enforcement Agency, and he
joins me now in studio.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
David, Welcome to KAA.

Speaker 5 (19:01):
Jimmy, good morning.

Speaker 13 (19:02):
Thank you for having me on to talk about, as
you said, the F word, this very important issue of
fentanyl that continues to plague you know, not only here
in Colorado, our whole entire nation. So I think it's
just you know, over the course of the last few years,
as we've been discussing this epidemic, kind of the media coverage,
to be honest, of the fentanyl epidemic and how many

(19:22):
deaths are our country's been experienced, it EDGs and flows
of the attention this topic gets. And so to be
on here today to talk about this very important issue,
I'm grateful for the opportunity.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
Appreciate you being here.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
So let's first talk about the nature of fentanyl before
we get into some of the stats and it's impact
and so forth. What exactly is this drug and how
is it different from some of the others that we've
heard over so many of the years, from cocaine to math.

Speaker 13 (19:48):
Certainly, I talk about a fentyl is two different buckets.
There's when we talk about fentanyl, there's one bucket of fentanyl.
You know, I've been administered fentanyl before. I've had an
end to scopy, you know, when the anesthesiology was putting
me under from my endoscopy. I remember her saying, you know, hey,
this is what medicines and drugs are inside it. And
she she's like, you know, and part of it is

(20:09):
Fentanyl's in here, right, And I laughed because, you know,
she's like, why you're laughing. I'm like, well, I'm a
DEA agent. Then you're administering fentanyl to me, you know,
and and so. But that's a whole that's one bucket
that's you know, regulated pharmaceutical, you know, grade quality controlled.
The bucket of fentanyl that every day we're targeting a
DEA is the one that's being put on our streets
by the Mexican drug trafficking organizations. It's the fentanyl that

(20:32):
is being manufactured as a result of precursor chemicals.

Speaker 5 (20:35):
Coming out of China to Mexico.

Speaker 13 (20:38):
It's the fentanyl that's killing so many Americans across our nation.

Speaker 5 (20:42):
Here in the state of Colorado. That's that's the difference.

Speaker 13 (20:45):
And so when you ask, what is it different than
other drugs, Well, it's only two milligrams a fentanyl is
considered a lethal dose. So you're looking at you know,
just trying to mentally picture it. It's a few granulars
of salt or sugar that might fit on the tip
of a pencil.

Speaker 5 (20:59):
And that's what the game changer is.

Speaker 13 (21:01):
You know, if we go back a couple of decades,
you know, a lot of this has its roots and
the prescription opiate problem. You know, fentanyls in opiate ventanels
are synthetic opiate, but it's really the potency of this
drug and how highly addicted it is. And I would
say one third part of it is the way the
cartels are selling these selling fentanyl. Yes it's in powder form,

(21:22):
but they're selling it in pill shape. Looks just like
an oxy blue pills, but now rainbow colored pills. And
so I say it's a deceptive, but it's a marketing
technique by the cartels to reach the ultimate customer.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
And one thing that I mentioned before we've alluded to
is that this can be concealed where you can think,
like a young person thinks that they're taking adderall, for example,
and it turns out to be a fentanyl pill and
they unwittingly consume an amount that's deadly and they don't
wait they they're dead. How is that spreading in terms

(21:58):
of what's happening on the streets where it's it's this
concealed variant of fentanyl versus something that somebody may clearly
know and be like, oh, I want to take ventanyl
because for whatever reason.

Speaker 13 (22:10):
Like along the lines are what you're saying. I think
when fentanyl is being sold in pill formed there's a
little bit of a stigma that's removed from just the
general drug conversation at large.

Speaker 5 (22:21):
Where I've done presentations.

Speaker 13 (22:24):
Before high school classes before, you know, different community groups,
and if I show a picture of someone injecting, you know,
hero went into their arm or I put a needle up,
it doesn't matter if it's the you know, the high
school varsity quarterback sitting in the room here in my presentation,
or the theater kid. They look at, you know, a
needle doing into something in their arm and I would
never do that. Maybe even on another level, smoking as

(22:45):
more cigarettes has more of a stigma associated with it
then than you know, pharmaceutical pills or these illicit drugs
and pill form. So I think that is the game changer,
is the way the cartels are selling their product.

Speaker 5 (22:57):
You know, Oftentimes, when.

Speaker 13 (22:58):
We've talked historically about let's say, meth amphetamine seizures, cocaine seizures,
we talk in pounds, we talk in kilograms. Oftentimes when
we're talking about fentanyl, we're talking about record numbers of
pill seizures. And I think for me personally, i'm sure
the public, your listeners. Last year, we ended up seizing
two point six again, two point six million pills across

(23:19):
the state of Colorado, which is a record number. I
think if you mentally picture two point six million pills,
you can kind of see when one pill can kill.
It gives a little bit more context to what I'm
talking about.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
That's what you've captured. That is far less than what
has been out there.

Speaker 13 (23:34):
Absolutely, that was our record year last year. The numbers
we have just so far through this year, we're going
to far surpass it. I think we're at around two
point four million this year with still three to four
months to go. And I think that's a sad state
of Well, there's a couple things. One It demonstrates the
great work our men and women at DEA and our
partners are doing to take these drugs off the street

(23:56):
because it's live saved. However, on the other other foot,
is you still got to talk about how many lives
are being lost. And I was just you know, recent days,
the CDC put out the latest numbers and you'll probably
see a lot of hope, I hope coverage around the
country about the continuing staggering number of deaths around nation.
So last twenty twenty three, to tell your listeners, it

(24:19):
was one hundred and ten thousand more or less had died.

Speaker 5 (24:23):
As a result of a drug related overdose.

Speaker 13 (24:25):
The newest numbers that had come out for April twenty
twenty four show I'm going to prophrase it as less.
I don't like it's not like, you know, we're talking
about human lives. It's a lower number, hundred and one thousand,
but the bottom line is still over one hundred thousand
American lives lost. And if we can dive down to
why is this, how was it here in the state
of Colorado. So in the state of Colorado again, I

(24:47):
was on the website just this morning for the CDC
and it is almost exactly the same twenty twenty three
one thousand, eight hundred and fifty right here for twenty
twenty four as at April nineteen hundred, dive one level deeper.
We work very closely with the Denver Police Department. They
have an outstanding team. They've stood up. I give so

(25:08):
much credit to their leadership. They're a federal response team,
overdose team. They were giving me the latest numbers for
the city of Denver and again last year twenty twenty
three about six hundred, it was five hundred and ninety
eight twenty twenty four. Half way through the year, they're
right about three hundred. So while some of the numbers
at a national level might be down, here in the
state of Colorado, it is consistently go ahead, it said, yeah,

(25:33):
that's right at the same And what's interesting, I think
so much we talk about nayloxow narcan. I do feel like,
you know, as I travel around the state. In our division,
it's more readily available. You don't need to have it
a prescription for its. Schools are now having it. But
one of the interesting points one of my colleagues was
just making this morning, is that for here in the

(25:54):
state for the numbers to be the same, and yet
we have conversations on a regular basis with patrol officers,
with EMTs, with folks who work in the medical community,
and they're administering and saving lives from narcan every day.

Speaker 5 (26:06):
What if it didn't exist.

Speaker 13 (26:07):
So it shows really the underlying substance of use challenges
we still have here in the state and the nation.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
And I just want to put a pin on a
point because you've shared a lot of data and the
data is critical. Again we're talking with David Alski's assistant
Special Agent in charge for the DEA. The data is
so critical at painting a picture that underscores this fundamental
point in Colorado. Fentanyl use and fentanyl deaths are increasing,

(26:35):
and that is something that is so dramatic for communities,
for families, people of all different stripes and backgrounds.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
It just really underscores that.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
But there's something you said earlier that I want to
talk about for a moment, and that's how this is
drug is manufactured and the role of China where you
have these particles, these components that are manufactured in China
that make their way to Mexico and into the United States.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
That's my understanding. Can you talk about.

Speaker 13 (27:04):
That, Yeah, absolutely, So that can backtrack just maybe five
years we were seeing China being a source country for
fentanyl itself coming into the United States parcel packages or
via cargo. A lot was done between the administration at
that time in China and they regulated certain chemicals and
precursor chemicals, and what ended up happening is a lot

(27:25):
of the precursor chemicals started then moving from China down
to Mexico. We call it these super labs in Mexico
started producing fentanyl powder and impressing the pills. And so
that's the principal source for fentanyl is the Sineloa cartel,
the Hollisco cartel, and then it comes across our borders

(27:46):
a traditional way. So many of the other drugs we've
talked about historically, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
One thing when you mentioned some of the cartels lately,
in the context of Aurora but also Denver, we've heard
a lot of discussion about the international criminal organization the
Gang Venezuelan gang trend de A Agua. My understanding is
that the DEA in Colorado is the only federal agency
in the state to acknowledge TDA up to this point,

(28:15):
which I think is very important, especially given that this
is an issue people are concerned about. What is the
role of a gang like TDA in the drug issues,
particularly with fentanyl, maybe math or what have you, and
the impact that they are having on exacerbating what we're seeing,
what you've been discussing.

Speaker 13 (28:33):
No, absolutely, if I can answer that by setting the
stage a preface at with two points about TEA, there's
one one thing for us at EA, our primary focus
is drugs. There's so many other federal agencies outstanding partners
we have, and they focus on an assortment of crimes.
You even look at local police departments. Certainly they might
have a small narcotics unit, but they're also dealing with

(28:56):
you know, their nine to one one calls on shootings, robberies,
stolen to call.

Speaker 5 (29:00):
Ours, shoplifting and the like.

Speaker 13 (29:01):
At DEA, we're focused on one thing and it drugs,
and I'm proud of that. I'll say, with no offense
to my federal partners, I think we're absolutely the best
at targeting those most responsible for putting this poison on
our street. And I think the second part, again to
preface or answer your question is we target the networks.
So just a moment ago, I was telling you that
the Sinaloa Cartel Holistico Cartel are our primary focus. We're

(29:25):
laser focused on them for putting fenol and methodpetamine on
our streets. And what we see and where Trende Raga
or i'll call them TDA come into play, is them
just like some of the other organized crime groups in area.
It doesn't matter if you're talking blood scripts, other local streakings.
The bottom line is that as we at D are
targeting the networks, we see those cartels supplying an assortment

(29:47):
of different local organized crime groups, international groups, and that's
where TDA has come on to the stage and we
fit in. We've been you know krets our Special Agent Charge,
John Pulland who joined us in recent We've been working
hand in hand with the Aurora Police Department, FBI atf
HSI to kind of collaboratively target the networks. You're still

(30:09):
going to end up seeing, you know, or is occurring,
you know the crimes of shoplifting, like I said, people
feeding their substance abuse problems, or stolen cars.

Speaker 5 (30:19):
And all this other stuff.

Speaker 13 (30:20):
And I think oftentimes for my almost twenty five year
career at DEA. I like to say that as an agency,
our men and woman, you know, we see this picture
into society where drugs is impacting so many different aspects
of you know, what's taking place in our daily lives.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
David Aleski, can I give you a story at my car?
I am a three time auto theft victim, and the
first time, the first car that was stolen was stolen
initially from where I was living in Aurora, and then
from the autobody shop weeks later when it had been recovered,
but it was totaled because they had used the car

(30:58):
and stuffed meth down the vents of my car. So
it happened to be told there was nothing that they
that they could do and use that in order to
get high and to transport drugs. As I understood it,
law enforcement had told me that when my car was recovered,
it appeared after the second theft, it appeared that they
had determined that there were the drugs down there and

(31:20):
wanted the car back or wanted the car out of there,
so that's why it was stolen again so they could
get whatever has been stuffed down there. And that was
mind blowing to me because It's like this is something
that they actually do and that a car theft could be.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
What the purpose of a car theft could.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
Be is transport of drugs, commission of other crimes, and.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
Even getting high through the vents.

Speaker 13 (31:43):
Not only that we end up seeing stolen vehicles be
utilized by cartels to commit crimes as you said, but
then also sent down to Mexico where they's traded for
you know, cocaine, methanfetamine, fetanol. You know, so there's a
whole assortment. I mean, what's just talking to you. You've
been victim of crime. We have our own agents who've
been the victim of crime and their you know, cars

(32:04):
broken into, and you know, we tie it back to
the same thing organized crime groups, drug traffickers, and you know,
the bottom line I think when you ask the TDA
question when oftentimes I'm talking about Sineloa Cartel Allisco cartel,
is that you know, if you're a mother or father
and your child died as a result of a drug poisoning,

(32:24):
as I said, we say poisoning oftentimes and not overdose
because kids don't know what they're taking.

Speaker 5 (32:29):
Do they care if.

Speaker 13 (32:31):
The person is a card carrying member of TDA Sinelo
or her list go now. But at DA, that's what
our focus is, going after the networks and trying to
hold those most accountable or most responsible accountable for what
they've done. And yesterday I was talking to one of
our agents who's assigned to the Denver Police Department, their
Fentel Response Team, and it was really thoroughly enjoyed the conversation.

(32:55):
He was talking about it many years in law enforcement
prior to DEA, and he was saying how how rewarding
the job was to work these investigations for the families
who've lost someone and try to put a case on
those most responsible for trafficking trafficking fentanyl. But he also
said how difficult it is because you're meeting these families
in the worst moments of their lives. And so, you know,

(33:18):
for us, when you know we're talking about statistics, I say,
people can become numb to numbers. But the stories, whether
it's you telling a personal story of having your car robs,
or you know, our agents meeting families or I've met
families who've lost a loved one, is you know, for
the listeners out there who are out there hearing this
and maybe. As my daughter says, she always says, Dad,
you're talking about the F word again. Don't please become

(33:40):
numb to the fact. It's just a DEA guy again
talking about statistics.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
That's not why we're on.

Speaker 13 (33:45):
It's to give the public a perspective on what we're seeing.
Grateful for the opportunity to share what we're doing each
and every day. But share this story with your kids,
your neighbors, family members. Even a quick conversation is very
can be meaningful.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
And that's important. Just a few minutes left with our guest,
David Aleski, Assistant Special Agent in charge for the Rocky
Mountain Division of the DEA.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
It's so important to me when we talk about.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Youth and the fact that you have teenagers who are
unwillingly taking fetanyl and dying. Sixteen year old or younger
who are dying in our own state, and that is
a travesty and a real tragedy that folks aren't as
aware of to be able to have those conversations with kids,

(34:35):
Which does lead to a question. I wanted to ask
about what people can do to address this issue themselves.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
Empower our listeners.

Speaker 13 (34:43):
Now absolutely, if I can just give out our website.
I mean there's a lot of resources on there for
family members to find out how to have these tough
conversations with your loved one, to eat GOV backslash one pill.

Speaker 5 (34:56):
You can go to the website.

Speaker 13 (34:57):
There's tons of resources in terms of videos, and you
can watch how to talk to your kids about it.
I say, often one pill can kill, but one conversation
can save. And so just have that one conversation. Go
on our website, you know, look it over, and you
know it's you'd rather have that tough conversation, you know,

(35:17):
with your kid, right than have the tough conversation at
their funeral, right. And it's sorry to put the in
grim facts when we look at the numbers. Yeah, and
again you might see these national stories numbers are down.
It's still one hundred thousand lives, right, It's still more
people than can fit inside Broncos Stadium, you know, on
a weekend football game.

Speaker 5 (35:34):
And so I think that's what we have to keep doing.
And you know, at.

Speaker 13 (35:36):
DA our men and women are going to be out
there every day trying to hold those people most accountable
for it and grateful for the partnerships with our prosecutors
or our folks with the cities around this community who
are fighting to try to make a difference.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Yeah, I want to ask you a question from a
listener text and they said, don't drug dealers want repeat customers?
What's the benefit of killing so many? I think there
is a head scratcher there is.

Speaker 13 (36:00):
I think that's the number one question I get, And
the way I've come to terms of answering it is
the cartel is not trying to kill their customer, but
they don't care if they do so in the process
very quickly, you know, paying a picture for you, one
kilogram picture your high school textbook. A kilogram of fentanyl
goes for about twenty thousand dollars in Mexico can produce

(36:21):
a half a million pills, But that twenty thousand dollars
investments south of our border can turn into millions of
dollars in profits north of it. So when they're looking
at something that for you know, honestly a couple thousand
dollars in some instances, if they're just my small amount
of powder and they press the pills here in the
Denver metro area, certainly they've gone down and down, which
is a sign in itself. But you can buy a

(36:43):
fentanyl pill for a dollar, but if it only costs
you two cents to manufacture, your profit margins, your percentages.
So that's really the bottom line is, Yes, they're put
on our streets a product that is so highly addictive,
and they're making profits off it, you know, and people
are and the cartels are profiting off the lives of
so many, far too many Americans.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
Yeah, and it is something more and more people should
be aware of and important to do your own part,
as you talked about a little bit ago, in terms
of talking to people, talking to your kids, learning more
about what to watch for so that you your family
do not fall prey to this horrifying and terrible drug

(37:25):
called fentanyl. David Aleski, Assistant Special Agent in charge for
the Rocky Mountain Division of the Drug Enforcement Agency, really
appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much for coming
in studio. Great conversation and something we need to talk
more about.

Speaker 13 (37:39):
Oh, thank you Jimmy for giving giving some time and
attention to this very important issue.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Absolutely, what are your thoughts?

Speaker 1 (37:45):
Please text in at the Kowa Common Spirit Health text
line five six six nine zero in the next hour.
We'll get to your text and more coming up as well.
David Bonsen, Economics and Markets guru, will be joining us
on the Federal reserves decision yesterday. That'll be interesting. Two
hours more up ahead. Jimmy Sangenberger in for Roskominsky here

(38:06):
on KOA. This is not live, it is from gosh
was I covering for Mandy on that day? A Rod.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Providing for the listeners who.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Text in saying Fannol is depressing. We need some badass harmonica.
So this is of course, Here's truly Jimmy Sangenberger now
in for ros Kaminsky on KOA, playing some harp just
a few months back in June A Rod. I'm sure
everybody appreciates it, except for the harmonica haters that were
texting in yesterday. They weren't too happy about all that.

(38:53):
Too bad. I know, you just have to deal with it,
especially when I'm in the saddle. Good to be with. Yeah,
and you know what, I think that's a great intro
to to talking about something that you know. It can
get a little bit dense sometimes when you're talking about economics.
But somebody who can break it down for us and
help us to really understand it is my guest David Bonson.

(39:15):
He is managing partner, founder and chief Information Officer of
the Bonston Group, author as well of a number of books,
and has written for numerous publications as well, and he
joins me now to break down news from yesterday that
the Federal Reserve is slashing its key rate by fifty

(39:38):
basis points. And he joins us now, good morning, David Bonsen.

Speaker 11 (39:42):
Well, good morning, And I should clarify that I'm the
chief investment.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Off investment Information.

Speaker 11 (39:49):
I don't think anybody wants the IT guy to give Federal.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
That is a good catch. How would the world does that? Say? Information?

Speaker 2 (40:01):
That is an important clarification.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
See I got distracted by my own harmonica playing, Dave.
There you go.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Sometimes it does that, But.

Speaker 11 (40:09):
Yeah, you're right. I mean, the Fed did make a
big announcment yesterday, and it's something that a lot of
us have been waiting for. It was well known it
was coming. I mean there's something called the Fed funds
futures market where very real people with very real dollar
amounts of bond traders, sovereign wealth funds, they are investing

(40:30):
based in the futures market on where they think rates
will be. They have to use hedges and other interest
rate instruments, and the futures had been predicting a fifty
basis point rate cut, so a half a percent comes
out of the federal funds rate. All that really means
is that the overnight lending rate for banks was five

(40:51):
and a half percent. Now it's five. It's still pretty high,
but it's lower. They had not raised rates, by the way,
since July of twenty twenty three. They had a pretty
long period of time of a pause where rates did
not go down but also do not go up. But
that was the form of tightening itself. Meaning with high

(41:11):
rates just staying still, you were really getting a lot
of liquidity taken out of the system. They were trying
to tighten monetary policy and cut down on lending, cut
down on activity, and that's that's.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
What it did.

Speaker 11 (41:24):
And now we are most certainly entering a rate cut cycle.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
Now why fifty basis points instead of twenty five, Because
there was a lot of discussion about this, and most people,
it seemed at least anticipated that wouldn't be fifty, would
more likely be twenty five, But clearly that it wasn't
the case.

Speaker 11 (41:41):
I had been in the same camp that I thought
it would be a quarter until about a week before
the meeting and all the change. The futures market had
been at about thirty percent chance of a half point
and seventy percent chance of a quarter point, and then
that flip flocked. About a week before the meeting, the
futures started pricing in about a seventy percent chance of

(42:03):
half a point.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
And the Fed has been very, very.

Speaker 11 (42:06):
Reticent to surprise markets for a long time. And why
fifty now, Because essentially the two year yield is a
three point five the ten year yields at three point six.
It doesn't make a lot of sense to have the
ninety day at five percent, and so they just wanted

(42:27):
to be a little more aggressive on the front end.
You know, a lot of it is kind of anti
climactic and boring. I think a lot of it is
just logistics. They wanted to get one percent out by
the end of the year, and there were three meetings
to go, so that just basically meant you were going
to have to do fifty at one if you're going
to do twenty five of the others, and they led
with fifty.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
So here's a question. David bonson that folks have been
asking quite a bit and some have just drawn their
conclusions because I don't know if you're aware, but we
have an election coming up and folks are wonder is
this political? Was Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the Federal
Reserve and his colleagues focused on the politics of this

(43:08):
or is something else at play?

Speaker 11 (43:11):
Well? The easier for to answer it is to point
out that if it were political, it was the worst
political move ever. If you're trying to put your thumb
on the scale for a candidate, you probably want to
do it a little sooner than sixty days before an election.
It doesn't do anything at all at this stage of

(43:31):
the game to help Pamala Harris. If you wanted to
help the incumbent party previously Biden and now of course
with a replacement Harris, you never would have gone from
zero percent to five and a half to begin with.
You would have gone from zero to three and then
tried to stay on a more easy accommodative pass if

(43:53):
it were always just purely political. Fundamentally, the Fed can
do a lot of things wrong. I think they do
when I criticize them when they do they can do
some things right, But what they're doing here, right or wrong,
cannot possibly or plausibly be called political. Tomala Harrison's economic
vulnerabilities come down to immigration and of course inflation. Well,

(44:15):
the cutting rates fifty basis points for forty eight days
before the election is not going to be pertinent to
how people think about their grocery bills, right, well.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
And that leads me to a real world practical question,
David Bonson, And that is what the implications could be
in terms of inflation at this point in any other
economic impacts, especially as we've seen the rate of inflation
go down in recent months. Now, of course that doesn't
mean that products are going to get cheaper, which would

(44:46):
be deflation. But what does this mean looking ahead for
the inflationary picture.

Speaker 11 (44:53):
Well, I don't believe that the Fed cutting rates has
much serio inflation at all. I don't think that them
hiking rates had much to do with stopping inflation. I
think that our inflation was largely a byproduct of them
having shut down our economy during the COVID moment and
stopping the production of goods and services, and then reopening

(45:15):
the economy, and lo and behold, the economy reopened like
a light switch, but the production of goods and services
did not, and that included labor and access to labor,
by the way, something you and I used to talk
about back in the day. So at the end of
the day, we had an inflationary problem that I don't
think was largely related to the cost of money. Now
it was related to cost the money with housing. The

(45:37):
very very very low in traits did add inflationary pressures
to housing. But then what happened is paradoxically, high rates
froze housing because now you had a lot of sellers
that were paying two or three percent on their mortgage
and they didn't want to sell a home that were
there paying two or three percent on and buy a
home and have to take a six or seven percent mortgage,

(45:58):
So they sort of froze the housing market. And I
actually think paradoxically cutting rates is going to unfreeze housing,
and yet probably not push housing price is much higher
for the simple reason that they're already to ghastly overprice.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Just a couple of minutes left with our guest, David Bonton,
chief investment officer of the Bonson Group and author of
a number of books, including most recently Full Time Work
and The Meaning of Life released earlier this year.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
As we look we've touched on this a little bit,
but as we.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
Look ahead over the course of the next year, what
do you think we can expect this far as the
economic picture, whether it's tied to what the FED is
doing or otherwise.

Speaker 11 (46:41):
Well, I'd encourage people, regardless of their partisan and political meanings,
to be really humble and agnostics, because I just don't
know any objective observer could not acknowledge that there are
certain things that are good in the economy and certain
things that do not look good, and that mixed bag
is normal. And when I say, well, unemployment's pretty low,

(47:03):
it doesn't mean I'm saying anything good about Biden Harris,
because I don't think they have anything to do with
job hiring, or very little to do with it. And
when I point out that manufacturing has gone down thirteen
out of fourteen months, or this housing is frozen, it's
not a political comment. These are objective, undeniable economic realities.

(47:23):
What is twenty twenty five going to create an economy?
That's a really big question, because how much damage did
the FED do with their period of tightening that isn't
evident yet. Milton Friedman used to talk about lags in
monetary policy. Is there a lag effect that we haven't
seen some of the negative effects of tightening. I don't

(47:45):
know the answer to that well, So I think ultimately
we have to wait and see, of course, where the
policy front goes. What the future of the Trump tax
cuts from twenty seventeen are going to be. We're not
going to know that to the end of twenty twenty five.
We're also not going to know it, by the way,
on life tonight, because regardless of whose I mean, I
guess if Trump is real is if Trump is elected,

(48:05):
we will know that those taxests will be extended. But
even if Kamala is elected, it doesn't mean that they
won't be because you're gonna have to deal with a
Senate and a House and all that kind of stuff.
So there's just a lot of things around tax policy,
trade policy, housing, and I think twenty twenty five is
much like right now, a mixed bag, some good, some bad,
and people should avoid getting too married to one side

(48:27):
or the.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Other real quickly. As a final question, how do you
think the economic picture is playing into the presidential election?

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Because you talk some politics too.

Speaker 11 (48:36):
Yeah, and again, I am a lifetime movement Conservative who
grew up under Ronald Reagan, so I want to admit
my own political biases. But I have to say I
don't know that it is playing a big part in
the election because the candidate who has a chance to
make it a big part is not often doing so.
The economy could be a real big advantage for President Trump.

(48:59):
Most people believe his accon policies were good in his
prior term. Most people are not thrilled with the econ
policies of Biden Harris, so that should be an advantage
for the challenger President Trump. The only reason why I
think it isn't is because he gets distracted very easily.
You may have noticed, Yeah, every.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Once in a while he does. David L. Bonson of
the Bonson Group again check out his most recent book,
Full Time Work and the Meaning of Life. Always great
to talk with you, sir, Thanks so much for taking
some time and offering your insights this morning.

Speaker 11 (49:34):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Thank you once again.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
David Bonson is Chief Investment Officer, founder and managing partner
at the Bonson Group.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
We're going to take a break.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
I'm Jimmy Sangenberger in for Roskomanski right here on KOA.
Let's get to some texts on the KOA Common Spirit
Health text line at five six six nine zero. Oh.
I had a little flubb when I happened to call
David Bonson our guest in the last segment chief information
officer instead of chief investment officers. We are about to

(50:09):
talk about markets and the you know, the economy and
the economic picture with the federal reserves. So Steve Texan
former IT director aka CIO for a state agency here,
I take exception. I can give great financial advice, but

(50:30):
buyer beware. Yeah, Steve, I don't know if I'm going
to trust your financial advice, brother, but I appreciate the effort,
Thank you very much. Then we had a little bit
of Harmonica courtesy of a ride going into the archives
and pulling out something I did back earlier in the summer,

(50:50):
and you literally just two flashes of a second.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
You gotta do a snibbet more. Just give me five
beautiful text coming in.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Only think better than Harmonica is jamming on some triangle.
But I'm yeah, I don't believe you. How in the
world could triangle be better than harmonica? What is better
than harmonica? Come on, man on the more serious note,

(51:27):
listener text, I live near Colorado Springs. Where are you
parking that your car was getting stolen? Well, I lived
in Aurora, five minutes by the way from where the
complexes that have been in question with regards to TDA
are now, But it was before that really cropped up,
and back in twenty twenty my car was stolen from

(51:48):
my apartment complex there, and then from the auto shop
up in Commerce City and then at the Stampede in Aurora.
My next car was stolen in November of twenty, so
that should give you some idea.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
It was mostly in Aurora.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
I'm Jimmy Sangenberger once again in for Ross Kamanski. Lots
more up ahead, keep it here on KOA back in
the Saddle tomorrow as well, by the way from nine
to noon, and I should add twenty four seven three
sixty five. If you'd like to get in touch with
yours truly follow my columns in the Denver Gazette on

(52:28):
Tuesdays and Fridays meeting. I'll have a new one out tomorrow.
I also put links to podcasts when I fill in
for Ross Mandy log on my website Jimmy Sangenberger dot com.
Keep in mind, there's no AI or you in Sangenburger.
It's all ease all the time. Once you know that

(52:49):
Sangenburger is easy. But you know what's not so easy.
Denver Public Schools, even trying to be fourthright and honest
with the public about their school district performance. Just got
a press release a couple hours ago from the Denver

(53:12):
School District and it reads as follows. Today, Denver Public
Schools released the twenty twenty three twenty twenty four Annual
District Report. This report focuses on and celebrates student achievement
and provides a high level look at our response to disrupt,

(53:34):
dismantle and redesign ineffective systems and strategies to allow for
continued student.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
Growth and success.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Okay, just in that one sentence is a bunch of
nonsense and drivel. Because first, if they're trying to disrupt,
dismantle and redesign ineffective systems, whatever the heck, that means
they're not doing a good job, period, full stop, and

(54:07):
strategies to allow for continued student growth and success. First,
you need to actually have student growth and success to
even talk about continuing it. But this is Denver Public Schools,
And here's what the superintendent is quoted is saying in
the press release. We are committed to achieving the goals

(54:28):
and progress measures outlined in the report to ensure that
we are getting better at getting better. Okay, I'm gonna
stop right there again more words. Have they been consulting
with Kamala Harris on how to speak and how to
write lately with word salads?

Speaker 2 (54:47):
Getting better at getting better?

Speaker 1 (54:48):
First of all, again, you have to get better in
the first place. Second of all, how do you get
better at getting better? He goes on. In order to
be truly transparent, we have made some essential changes in
this year's report. This includes disaggregated data for all student groups.

(55:11):
Then the press release goes on. In August twenty twenty two,
DPS released the Strategic Roadmap to course correct the district
onto a path leading toward significant and positive change for
all DPS students. The district set out to identify systems
that do not serve their students, staff and.

Speaker 14 (55:31):
Families, and got to work on prioritizing key initiatives which
contributed to increased graduation rates, expanding resources across the Denver community,
reaching collective bargaining agreements, and so much more.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
Let me just say about increased graduation.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Rates when your students are not performing and Denver Public
School's performance on the sat A metric of how a
student is ready or prepared for graduation and for moving
on are just terrible across the state and in Denver,
just absolutely terrible. So if your students aren't proficient in reading, writing, math,

(56:22):
you know, the important things, and they aren't getting good grades,
they aren't prepared, and yet they're graduating. What does that
mean for them in the future. Well, if they go
to college, they might need remedial education. You go to school,
you get a remedial education, and then maybe you're not

(56:44):
able to graduate because you can't catch up, you can't
make it there. Then you drop out US college and
you have all this student loan debt that you've accumulated.
So you drop out with debt and no job prospers.
That doesn't sound like setting up your students for success,

(57:09):
but Marrero goes on, Superintendent, This annual report captures our
collective vision for our students' team members and community. Thank
you for your continued support and collaboration as we accelerate
the trajectory of our most marginalized communities.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
You just can't make this stuff.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
Up when you actually look at performance. For example, on
the c maass tests for proficiency all schools thirty percent
for twenty twenty two twenty twenty three school year twenty

(57:57):
twenty three twenty twenty four, thirty one percent Black students,
seventeen percent proficient in math.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
This is math.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
We're talking about Hispanic Latinos fifteen percent proficient, and that
is supposed to be what was the phrase, accelerating the
trajectory of our most marginalized communities.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Then let's look.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
At literacy all students thirty nine percent proficient, forty percent
proficient this year, twenty five percent proficient for Black students
this year most recent data, twenty four percent proficient in
literacy for Hispanic Latino students. This is supposed to be

(58:57):
something that they are touting for success. Then when you
go to the PSAT, it's terrible. Fifty one percent of
students proficient for literacy in math, thirty one percent proficient
on the PSAT and the SAT, And yet they have

(59:20):
the audacity to act like there's some rosy picture and oh,
we're improving and things are looking good in Denver Public Schools.
Be all happy and join us on this success. Because
the four year graduation rate for the class of twenty
twenty three increased by two and a half percentage points
to seventy nine percent from the previous year. This graduation

(59:43):
rate is an all time high for DPS and is
the second consecutive year. We have reached our best. We
have reached our best. You call that your best? Are
they in some sort of bubble? Are they trying to
put lipstick on a pig? Do they just not want

(01:00:04):
people to know the reality? Do they think they're dumb
enough not to see through this nonsense? Again, if your
students are not prepared, how can they succeed when they graduate?
In NDPS, My understanding is as part of their grading
for Equity Program, students are not allowed to get lower

(01:00:28):
than a fifty percent, and.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
They have in their march.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
In complete for assignments that aren't turned in, rather than
getting any sort of zero grade.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
Just as one example.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
It is the soft bigotry of low expectations. We've heard
that phrase over many years, and that really fits when
it comes to Colorado's failing K through twelve education system,
particularly in DPS. Let's turn to the KOA Common Spirit
health text line listener text just came in. High achievers

(01:01:10):
in DPS should count as a marginalized group. Yeah, I
think so, especially when there are cutbacks and changes in
not just DPS, but other school districts, cutbacks and changes
on gifted and talented programs and so forth. Like this

(01:01:33):
is where you are not allowing those high achievers to achieve,
to succeed, to get that space that they need to
improve for themselves and to get the kind of education
that they deserve. Another text, isn't their trajectory trending down?

(01:01:56):
Do you really want to accelerate that?

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Any improvements are very modest, one or two percentage points,
it looks like for the most part, year over year.
But we're talking about a majority of students in grades
three through eight, a vast majority of students in grades
three through eight that are not proficient sixty percent not

(01:02:22):
proficient in literacy, seventy percent not proficient in math, meaning
they have not met or exceeded expectations. Why are we
failing kids and allowing this failure to continue? You know,
yesterday we had in studio Christin Fry, DPS mom who

(01:02:44):
is suing Denver Public Schools. We had a attorney in
as well because they the school board had tried to
silence her speech and instead of giving her a chance
to explain her side of a story of an incident
that happened at a school board meeting during public comment,

(01:03:06):
took the word.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
Of a far left political activist with.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
A very shady pass name Machine Coats, good buddy and
mentor of disgraced former DPS board member Tay Anderson, by
the way, and ended up resulting in criminal charges against
Kristen Fry until she finally got video that that very
same school district, Denver Public Schools, refused to turn over

(01:03:33):
to her. She finally got that video in December and
then in January was able to have the charges dropped
from accusations that she had assaulted as same Coats in
public comment session of the school board.

Speaker 2 (01:03:46):
This is the same school district.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
In another Rosie report that came out not long ago,
Aaron Thompson, the attorney for DPS, who really just like
Superintendent Morrero, Attorney Aaron Thompson needs to go the school
board needs to get rid of Morrero, and the new
interim superintendent needs to do away with Aaron Thompson from

(01:04:12):
his position as the attorney for the district for a
number of reasons I won't get into, but one thing
he touted in a report was, oh, you know, we
were we were very responsive to a slew an increase
in CORRA requests Open Record Act requests. Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
Is it a really good sign that you have so
much corruption and failure that more media outlets and more
organizations are trying to get information on all sorts of
shenanigans and worse going on in DPS, And that's something
you want to tout that you're responsive under the law
to core requests when, by the way, oftentimes their CORPS

(01:04:55):
requests end up being redacted substantially, or you say, oh
well this is not allowed, you know, or we don't
have to reveal this particular item because of some sort
of privilege.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
Are you kidding me?

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
Steve asked a great question here text in five sixty
six nine zero. Has anyone asked the teachers why they
can't get their students up to proficiency? What do they
need to be successful? They can't be proud of their performance.
I'm sure they aren't, and I'm sure they'd like help
support all of these tools. But guess what, it's not

(01:05:35):
coming because this district has leaders.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
That don't care. And that's a damn shame, that really is.

Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
It's just DPS has a lot to learn and they
just keep not learning it. Okay, so I want to
shift gears. Here few other things. One listener texted in
and look breaking on Louder with Crowder. I know you
hate him. Look, I don't hate Stephen Crowder. I don't

(01:06:12):
like Stephen Crowder. But goes on, there's been a car
full of bombs found at Trump's event today in Long Island.

Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
Okay, that he broke this story.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
It was twenty four hours ago that this first started spreading.

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
It is not true.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
So maybe if that's the case and their Crowder was
representing it, it is fact.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
Multiple news articles.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Debunking this story genuinely like it would just add to
my list as to reasons why I'm not a fan
of Stephen Crowder, and this would be one reason that
here's some missing, clear misinformation that was apparently spread on
there on the program in that way that almost made
it seem like this is actually happening. I'm just taking

(01:07:06):
off of the text here, so I don't know exactly
how it was represented on Crowder's show, but I want
to make note because it's something that is.

Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
Spreading false rumors.

Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
Then there's a question or a comment here about nice
how the news doesn't report all of the bomb threats
have originated from one overseas country. Yeah, this is what
we're talking about in regards to Springfield, Ohio. We've heard
a lot of chatter about bomb threats that were not real,
that were hoaxes against schools and so forth in the

(01:07:42):
area of Springfield and whatnot, and they're coming from one
overseas country that has nothing to do with American citizens here.
I do think that's worth excuse me noting. Here's a
question as well, because the reality is and a Rod
knows this. A Rod knows this.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
So well.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
When you talk about the harmonica, when has brought up
people just texted and I have to get to these
two texts, one from Andy guess what, I got a
fever and the only prescription is more Harmonica. Maybe tomorrow.
I want to let you know we will have in
two young up and coming country stars in town, Joe

(01:08:25):
Wren and Natasha Lynn and will jam a few tunes
in the final segment of the show, and I'm looking
forward to that. I'll play harmonica, They've got amazing voices.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
Joe will bring his guitar in.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
They are tremendous young musicians and I'm looking forward to
having them in. So when can we see you play?
A listener ask, well, you can hear me play tomorrow
when we do that at the bottom of the eleven
o'clock hour right here on the Ros Kaminski Show on KOA.

(01:09:01):
And we are working on getting some formal gigs for
my band. Now we are kicked into gear. We went
to did a great open mic night last week and
I sat in with the Hillbilly Demons that are tremendous
a country band in town. In fact, the Colorado Country
Music Hall of Fame just named them the best band

(01:09:24):
of the year a few weeks ago, and a couple
weeks back I went and played with them set in
for a bunch of songs and that was an absolute blast. Now,
just one final text here, keep them coming, by the

(01:09:45):
way and the KOA Common Spirit Health text line five
sixty six nine zero Steve banjo is better than harmonica.
I'm offended by all the anti harmonica hates that has
been coming in, but thankfully it is balanced out far
and away by the joyfulness and the kind words that

(01:10:08):
everybody keeps sending in about this wonderful little instrument. This
is striking from the Denver Gazette. When the Johnston administration
spent millions of dollars last year to build micro communities
made up of tiny units to house homeless people, officials

(01:10:30):
emphasize two priorities, safety and transitional housing opportunities. A review
of city data hinted of the communities struggled with crime
while only a handful of transitioned into permanent housing. One
micro community saw nearly two thousand emergency nine to one

(01:10:54):
one calls over an eight month period. At the city's
biggest tidy home community, only three people transition to some
form of housing.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
Let's be real about Denver.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
Whether it is the school system run by Denver Public Schools,
or it is their homeless village put together by the
city or the different villages and their homelessness.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
Effort, or it is handling the migrants.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
The forty four thousand nearly migrants coming into this country illegally,
particularly from Venezuela and making their way into Denver. The
city of Denver is failing. They are not living up
even remotely to their duties and their responsibilities to the

(01:11:42):
people of the city. A travesty, and yet somehow they
continue this with impunity. It makes no sense to me
except that they're living in their world and they don't
care what people think because they feel like they don't

(01:12:03):
have to care what they think.

Speaker 14 (01:12:05):
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (01:12:05):
What is going on here?

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
Why isn't DPS or the Johnston administration. Why aren't they
handling these things like they should? Texting KOA Common Spirit
Health text line five six six nine zero, I want
to hear from you. My name's Jimmy Sangenberger. I'm filling
in for Roz Kaminski. Another hour up ahead. As we
continue on KOA, keep the text coming. We've had some
good ones, some zingers on the KOA Common Spirit Health

(01:12:28):
text line at five six six nine zero and I.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Hey Rod, I'm I'm hurt.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
Brother text came in a bit ago. The harmonica is
the Kamala Harris of musical instruments. Okay, give me a
little bit of Kamala for just a moment. Let's compare,
do you think you just fell out of a coconut? Okay?

(01:13:04):
That the cackle? Well you got that. But I've also
got a harp right here, brother, because I got my
briefcase full of blues. Let's compare. I don't know a rod.

(01:13:33):
Doesn't it sound just a little bit better.

Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
A lot better?

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
But hey, Tamala asked it very plainly. Do you think
you just fell out of a coconut tree? No, no,
I don't. I don't know. I think this listener fell
out of a coconut tree. That's why we're getting the
cackling a little bit here, give me one more, just
for just for him or her, one more cackle.

Speaker 15 (01:13:59):
I don't have another cackle, But what I do have
is her.

Speaker 2 (01:14:02):
Let's see, we've got where is this? Where is this quote?

Speaker 1 (01:14:07):
I have here? Oh?

Speaker 15 (01:14:09):
Obviously we've got her and her famous the passage of time,
the passage of times.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
We might get a little carried away here, because now
this is just I can't. I can't do it anymore.
I just get you're making me laugh. How could I
play and laugh at the same time time?

Speaker 12 (01:14:45):
I mean, it's it's wild I love it though, that
the text of things you will never hear.

Speaker 1 (01:14:51):
Look at all those hot harmonica groupies. Oh you don't
know about the harmonica groupies, let me tell you. But look.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
It is easy to carry. It's great.

Speaker 1 (01:15:06):
You can play with anything, play with anyone. Just gotta
have a bunch of them and we're good. Would vote
for Kamala over a harmonica. What in the world? What
is going on here with folks today? I just can't
believe them, But we got some great, really nice comments.
Too jealous. I'm fascinated, But that's exactly right. I'm fascinated

(01:15:28):
by harmonica players. Can a Rod post a video maybe
you can find there. I can really tweet that video again, yes,
from from back in June when I filled in for
Mandy and we did get that video. A Rod will
go ahead and retweet that. I think that'll be awesome.
You know earlier as well, just shifting gears, a listener

(01:15:51):
a texted saying that Stephen Crowder on the web show
Louder with Crowder it broke some news about reports of
found in a car near Trump Rally in Long Island.

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
That is false.

Speaker 1 (01:16:05):
There's a false story, but this is probably likely a
little more likely. Listener text came in saying it was
a cart full of bums. I think that's probably the
case in New York, probably a case here in Denver

(01:16:25):
as well. But then back on the education issue, we
were talking about Denver public schools.

Speaker 2 (01:16:30):
They put out.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
A new rapport trying to gloss over rampant failures of
the K through twelve performance in Denver.

Speaker 2 (01:16:41):
Text coming in.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
I'm sitting next to a retired Jeffco Middle school teacher.
We enjoy listening to your topic and have a question
slash observation, are these students actually attending classes? As that
may have a powerful impact on the stats you quote.
She observed you can't each them if they're not there.

(01:17:02):
That's a great point. So I don't know exactly what
they mean by attendance being eighty eight percent, but it
says attendance is eighty eight percent in DPS schools. So
whatever that stat actually means, they're saying eighty eight percent.
So if we took that as generally speaking, eighty eight

(01:17:22):
percent of students are in school and in class, then
you can consider how they are learning or not learning.
I definitely think that's a great point. It's an important point,
but we can also see for those kids that are there,

(01:17:42):
I think there's enough in the data to suggest that
there is a complete failure and to the extent that
it is because the kids are not there.

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
That is a problem both of parenting.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
And of the schools not holding kids to account to
make sure that they are going to school, and that
is critical. Schools and parents alike need to hold each

(01:18:15):
other accountable in a sense. That is to say that
when it comes to having kids in school, when it
comes to homework, those kinds of things. Schools have a
role to communicate with the parents and say, hey, we
need your help. And parents need to parent do that
job for their kids, and that's a critical piece, but

(01:18:40):
they also need to be empowered to do that. They
need to be empowered and involved in their kids and
allowed to be involved in their kids' experiences at schools
because more and more often we are seeing parents being
shut aside, parental rights being violated, trampled upon, parents not

(01:19:04):
being informed of things going on with their kids, and
that's fundamentally wrong on every level. What right does a
school have to trump parents on issues? For example, when
a kid has is struggling with their their gender identity
and talks to a teacher and wants to be a
different gender at school, just as one example, that should

(01:19:25):
not be kept from parents, and yet we have a
law in this state that essentially does that allows them
to keep it from parents. And it's shocking to see
what is going on in our school system when it
comes to cutting out parents. How are kids going to

(01:19:48):
succeed if you do that, and you do that intentionally
and proactively. So we have a fundamental crisis in our
education system.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
And I think listener text helps to get at it.

Speaker 1 (01:20:05):
That kids need to be in school, need to be learning,
and that requires as well the role of parents. The
text just keep coming a rod. It's just the one
after another after an. Our harmonica group is called Harpies.

(01:20:26):
That's pretty good. These listeners who compare harmonicas to comrade
Kamala should listen to some Charlie McCoy, best harmonica player
I ever heard.

Speaker 15 (01:20:36):
If you can associate and needed to associate an instrument
with Kamala, what would it be.

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
That sounds that sounds like something for you to think on? Yes,
because yep, you're giving me that. Yeah, we got to
go to a break.

Speaker 1 (01:20:49):
I'm going to think on that. On the other side, Hey,
Rod and I will I'm bringing you into this too, brother,
We will share what instrument Kamala is cackle actually reminds
us of? Keep it here Jimmy sang it Berger in
for Ross Kiminski rocking and rolling along on koa kazoo, Kazoo, Kazoo.

(01:21:12):
Jimmy Sangenberger in for Ross Kaminsky here on koa, apparently
incapable of discerning the final countdown when it is played
on kazoo? Uh was that too? Or what was was it? Wow?
So the question was post because A.

Speaker 2 (01:21:38):
A really uh.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
Just I'll just wrong, I'll drop the ad wrong. Listener said,
the Kamala cackle is like the the harmonica, reminds him.
It's it's it's the Kamala Harris. More specifically, the harmonica
is the Kamala Harris of instruments. Well, that led to
the question, how in the world can we determine and
what can we determine to be the instrument that would

(01:22:03):
be comparable to Kamala Harris and I within ten seconds
of each other, three back to back to back different people.
And I told you before too, I said, I thought
the kazoo was probably the most likely instrument that would
actually fit. The only time that I've really heard really
nice kazoo, which is strange to say but it exists,
is on Eric Clapton's Unplugged album. There's a song or

(01:22:26):
two that has kazoo in there. I'm trying to think
of which ones that sound real nice, but the listeners
kept coming with kazoo. There was a couple more screechy violin.
When I hear the kamala cackle, I think bagpipes a clarinet.
Bagpipes was my second. There was another what is yours?

(01:22:46):
I would say, the kazoo. I'm gonna have to stick
with it because I was bolstered by most of the
listener texts.

Speaker 15 (01:22:54):
I was as well, but before kazoo came to mind, vavozola, Yeah,
how I can pronounce it?

Speaker 1 (01:23:01):
That is just I think it's for yeah, pavoosla. I've
heard that once or twice. I can't remember how to
describe it as an instrument, but it is.

Speaker 15 (01:23:11):
It was weird describe it audibly as comparable to kamala,
but in terms of what it sounds like and just
what it makes you do and think and get frustrated,
maybe a little annoyed.

Speaker 1 (01:23:29):
Yeah, right line Kamala Kaco reminds me of Major Winchester's
French horn on the series match. Totally annoying. That's very
strong there. Yeah, but I think the kazoo is that's
that's the winner. That's the one that just kept it
was funny immediately, Like I'm looking at the timestamp, eleven thirteen,

(01:23:53):
three different people texting in kazoo.

Speaker 15 (01:23:55):
Yeah, with in a ten second span the exact same
answer capitalized, nothing else in the text kazoo, kazoo, kazoo.
Three different people. We have our answer.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
The other option is someone overblowing a recorder. So you
mean you go into any elementary school music group.

Speaker 15 (01:24:11):
See that's the problem why I don't like kazoo, because
as annoying as it is, kazoo's kind of fun to
listen to. Someone can jam anything on kazoo, same with
a recorder, So I don't I didn't naturally want to
go to kazoo recorder.

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
If you can play an instrument, well yeah, you can
make it sing, you can make it sound beautiful, you
can make the kazoo become the most miraculous instrument that
somebody has heard next to the harmonica.

Speaker 15 (01:24:35):
Is there any instrument you don't like listening to? I
can't think of anything that comes to mind specifically.

Speaker 1 (01:24:41):
It's hard to say. Vavusla might be the only one.

Speaker 2 (01:24:44):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
It is hard to say, because it depends on the circumstance.

Speaker 2 (01:24:49):
Like so, I can understand why some people add that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
Harmonica because they haven't heard much real harmonica being played necessarily,
they don't know what it's like when the patch and
flies and you're just improvising. I'm getting a little carried away,
but you're improvising, You're just having a blast, and you're
doing it well. That makes it sing, makes it groove

(01:25:12):
and brings a lot to it and could bring a
lot to a song. And then I do think can
happen with just about any instrument. Keep the text coming,
maybe on some substantive topics. We've got one more segment
up ahead. The KOA Common Spirit Health text line, of
course is five six six nine zero.

Speaker 2 (01:25:30):
Gotta love it as we continue.

Speaker 1 (01:25:32):
Jimmy Sangenberger covering for Rous Kaminsky on KOA. Jimmy sangen
Berger here with you in for Ross Kaminsky on KOA
Today and tomorrow several things I want to synk my
teeth into because earlier in the show, I actually I

(01:25:52):
don't remember what I said, but it was something about
how I think Paul Krugman kind of has a point. Yeah, yes,
the left wing columnists at the New York Times and
on a topic that well, in the past, I've gotten
into some trouble from some folks who are strong Trump
supporters on this. But you know what, I am a

(01:26:13):
free trade guy because free trade is one of the
key pathways to prosperity, and it has helped this country
to be what it is as an economic powerhouse on
the world stage, entered Paul Krugman on MSNBC of all places.

Speaker 16 (01:26:31):
Talking about tariffs, I mean, basically just a tariff as
a sales tax. It's a tax on sales of it
happens to be goods that are important from foreign countries.

Speaker 1 (01:26:45):
But it's the same thing.

Speaker 16 (01:26:46):
You know, if you impose a tax on sales or
cars from car dealers, you'd expect that they pass that
tax on to car buyers. If you impose a tax
on stuff that we're buying from China, you expect that
to be passed to consumers.

Speaker 2 (01:27:01):
So there's nothing magic about it.

Speaker 16 (01:27:03):
It's basically that nothing changes if the sellers happen to
be foreign. And it's it's really weird. There's there's no constituency,
even as far as I can tell, for for the
kinds of things Trump is supposing. This is just a
he's got to be in his bonnet about I want
to tax foreigners. And he's got this magical belief that

(01:27:24):
he can somehow raise trillions of dollars from other countries
without them, you know, doing anything, without them even raising
their prices, let alone retaliating. Remember that it's a big
world out there. The United States is not the sole
economic superpower, you know. The European Union is about the
same size as we are.

Speaker 1 (01:27:42):
China is about the same size. You know, you think
that you can do this.

Speaker 16 (01:27:45):
And you're not going to get what happened last time,
which is retaliation against US exports.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
It's it's the most bizarre thing.

Speaker 16 (01:27:53):
And as you say, there's a quirk of the way
that we've got the law written on trade that allows
presidents a great deal of discretion is sitting tariffs.

Speaker 1 (01:28:02):
Okay, so where he has a point is on tariffs themselves,
not on the politics of this and the fact that
he's ignoring that. Kamala Harris has also talked about expanding tariffs.
Neither Trump nor Harris is good on trade because no
matter what avenue they would take on boosting tariffs, it

(01:28:24):
is a tax on foreign goods that will bring in
revenue to the federal government, but it is not going.

Speaker 2 (01:28:36):
To produce anything positive as a result.

Speaker 1 (01:28:39):
In fact, it's only going to contribute more to inflation
to have additional tariffs, because those costs get passed on
to consumers. This is something that has been clear in
the economic data for decades and decades, abundantly clear that

(01:29:01):
raising tariffs results in higher prices for consumer goods, and
not only that, it has a result of what the
Cato Institute called cascading protectionism, man even creating fertile ground
for corruption. The twenty eighteen twenty nineteen tariffs on China

(01:29:25):
led to a complex process of exclusion requests, lobbying, and
retaliatory tariffs. Cato Institute reports demonstrating the multifaceted harms of
protectionist measures.

Speaker 2 (01:29:37):
You get into this.

Speaker 1 (01:29:38):
Tip for tat, and then you want carve outs for
certain groups and certain companies, certain industries, what have you.
That is not good for anybody. Consistency is critical when
it comes to the economy. Equal treatment under the law,

(01:29:58):
at least relative speaking, even when it comes to businesses
and products is critical. So you select which countries are
going to put tariffs on for particular industries, it's not helpful.
And in fact, this Cato Institute reports recent empirical evidence
indicates that the new US tariffs that were imposed in

(01:30:21):
twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen were almost entirely passed on
to US consumers, resulting in higher prices and reduced export growth.

Speaker 2 (01:30:31):
But here's the dirty little secret.

Speaker 1 (01:30:34):
The Biden Harris administration hardly did anything to roll back tariffs,
and I think they even exacerbated it. And Harris is
already Ikama was talking about raising tariffs more.

Speaker 2 (01:30:49):
There was one week I forget what the specifics.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
Were in the news, but where I was like, are
they trying to out tariff each other right now? So
Paul Krugman is right about the tax impact and what
it means in terms of the real world economics of this,
But the politics, absolutely there's a constituency for this, especially
among the unions that Trump has been courting. Remember, Earlier

(01:31:13):
in the show, we played the president of the Teamsters
union who was explaining why there was no endorsement. Rather
than endorsing Kamala Harris, there was no endorsement of either
of the presidential candidates because fifty eight percent supported Trump
among the Teamster's rank and file. Here's just a snippet

(01:31:35):
of Sean O'Brien.

Speaker 3 (01:31:36):
Well, listen, we interviewed both candidates, and we were seeking.

Speaker 4 (01:31:40):
Commitments from both candidates, and we couldn't get solid commitments
on our core issues like the pro Act, like video
and national right to work, like staying out of labor
disputes and not trying to force any contracts on us,
like what happened to our brothers and sisters in the
real industry. We didn't get solid commitments from either candidate,
which was a major factor in our decision as a

(01:32:01):
general executive board not to endorse any candidate.

Speaker 1 (01:32:04):
However, we did a lot of polling, as you know,
and the.

Speaker 4 (01:32:06):
Polling leaned heavily towards former President Trump, so that heavily,
very heavily.

Speaker 1 (01:32:13):
So look, that was just a little bit of sort
of their thinking. Oh well, they didn't take positions on
everything that we would have wanted, so we concluded we're.

Speaker 2 (01:32:23):
Not going to endorse them.

Speaker 1 (01:32:25):
But the polls clearly showing or the survey of the
members clearly showing nearly sixty percent support for Trump. That's
a constituency for Trump. But here's the thing that I
will at least give Trump credit for is that he
has been consistent on this trade issue for decades and decades.
If you go back into the late nineteen eighties, when

(01:32:45):
he was doing interviews on shows, he was talking about
how the United States was getting screwed by Japan and
Japan was taking advantage because of the bad trade deals.

Speaker 2 (01:32:57):
Now, of course that is not the target. It is China.

Speaker 1 (01:33:02):
That he talks about, but at least has had this
sort of same thinking on winners and losers over trade,
like a zero sum game going back many decades, like
forty years at least. But this isn't a zero sum
game because free trade is actually beneficial to all people

(01:33:25):
because it promotes prosperity. In economics textbooks, including ones written
by Paul Krookman, it's all about comparative advantage in the
economic theory, and you have a you know your country
has certain resources, you're able to specialize in particular products
that can then be sold elsewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:33:45):
But you also have to think about it. I mean
the pencil.

Speaker 1 (01:33:49):
Go back to the classic book called The Pencil by
I think was that Leonard Read. The pencil is a
remarkable little eye pencil, not d pencil, eye pencil, the

(01:34:10):
essay by Leonard Read, and it really breaks down all
the components of a pencil come from around the world
in different circumstances, and you know, then end up in
this one thing that we call a pencil. It's truly remarkable.
That's what trade brings about. Listener text Common Spirit KOA

(01:34:35):
Common Spirit Health text line at five six six nine
zero five sixty six nine zero note this day as historic.
Paul Krugman got something one thing correct. You know what
they're a little secret about Paul Krugman is if you
actually read his textbooks, he gets a lot more than
one thing correct. He actually breaks down some basic things

(01:35:00):
on rent control and other issues where he.

Speaker 12 (01:35:03):
Has written columns explicitly contradicting what he has written in textbooks.

Speaker 1 (01:35:08):
When I was in college at Regis University, my major
was politics, my minor was economics, and I remember reading
a couple of Paul Kruman textbooks, and I was struck
by the difference between the textbook and the real world.
Paul Kruman, except on tariffs, he's at least getting one
thing correct in columns and on TV on terriffs. Now

(01:35:35):
I will agree with this listener. Another text Paul Krugman
is right after the show, we need to wash your
mouth out with soap. Yes, I will take that, and
I might need to oblige it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:52):
Just feel yeah, just does.

Speaker 1 (01:35:54):
Not feel right. But you know, a broken clock is
right twice a day, they say. Unfortunately that's not as
frequent as Paul Kruman is, but.

Speaker 2 (01:36:09):
The saying still works.

Speaker 1 (01:36:14):
So yesterday we had the big news that we discussed
about the pager message sent by Israel to Hezbolah where
thousands of pagers exploded, thousands of walkie talkie has exploded.
They had been acquired from Taiwan and apparently on route

(01:36:36):
to Lebanon and Syria. The shipment was intercepted in I
think it was Hungary, and then these explosives or whatever
the setup was technically to make it happen were put
in place and then bata boom, bada bing this happened.

Speaker 2 (01:36:59):
Well, now is has launched.

Speaker 1 (01:37:01):
Air strikes against Hezbolah targets in Lebanon. Coming from the
Wall Street Journal, Israel launched a wave of air strikes
against Hisbola targets in Lebanon Thursday, as the militant group's
leaders said two days of debilitating attacks and its members
amounted to a declaration of war. The strikes came moments

(01:37:24):
before Hezbola leader Hassan Nosrala began to speak about the
attacks earlier this week that caused pagers in walkie talkies
carried by thousands of the crew members to explode. It
killed thirty seven people and injured nearly three thousand high
I'm kind of glad about this, look, I mean, this

(01:37:47):
just shows two things. One, you can't hide from Israel
and the Masade, if that's who's behind it, with their
creative and ingenious way of getting a terrorist, you just can't.
And I thought it was brilliant, just the technology, the

(01:38:09):
way that this all happened just fascinating. The whole story
is fascinating, but it also debilitated the morale of his
Blood terrorists because it's like, wha wait, what happened? How
do we communicate with each other? Because of course you
went from cell phones, you went to pagers and walkie talkies,

(01:38:31):
pagers bringing back the eighties and nineties old school, going
to old school now to communicate with these pages. Never
in my days did I think we would be talking
about people having thousands of pages and anything happening with them,
let alone explosions. But then here we are with morale

(01:38:57):
because now how do they communicate out of issues there?
And now Israel strikes back, this time in the form
of air strikes targeting as belood targets in Lebanon. Godspeed
to Israel as they continue to fight now even more

(01:39:21):
on two fronts in this two front war. They need
our support, they need our help, and that's something we
need to continue to provide. And I hope that there's
no turning back the clock in that regard, because make
no mistake, it's needed. Quick little update on the Colorado

(01:39:42):
GOP as well. The Republican Party's ongoing leadership dispute, according
to the Denver Post, could finally conclude in a three
day trials sent for mid October. We all know that
there were two competing meetings, one legitimate meeting that was

(01:40:04):
put together of the State Central Committee for the Republican
Party that removed disgraced former chairman Dave Williams, Vice Chairhulpe Sheplman,
and Secretary Anna Ferguson from leadership, and they replaced them
with a group that includes Eli Bremer as the chairman

(01:40:28):
of the Colorado GOP and Britta Horne as the vice
chair of the Colorado GOP. But then, of course, the
next week another meeting happened, voting overwhelmingly to keep Williams, Shepelman, and.

Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
Ferguson in place.

Speaker 1 (01:40:45):
Now, I maintain really believe that it is illegitimate they're
clinging on to power, and that Bremer and co. Are
the new leaders. And I know that they've already been operating.
They've already been able to do a heck of a
lot independently of the current party infrastructure and getting legitimacy

(01:41:06):
from certain folks, including, by the way, the NRCC, the
National Republican Campaign Committee. But so Eli Bremer sued Dave
Williams soon after the vote to make him chairman. Williams,
of course refusing to acknowledge the vote Allstingham or to
literally turn over the keys to the party's headquarters. Well

(01:41:31):
the trial to settle the matter, according to the Post,
is scheduled to begin October fourteenth in El Paso County
District Court, with Judge Eric Bentley presiding. The one thing
that frustrates me about this in terms of Republicans being
able to just focus and do things without distractions, is

(01:41:54):
it's a month away and ballots will be dropping at
about that time. The election is effectively underway at the
time that this trial will happen, and then who knows
what will take place for the remaining few weeks heading
into November and how they'll be able to do things.

(01:42:16):
But my understanding is that under Eli Bremer's leadership now
they have been able to get a lot more into
play as far as money coming in from some outside
groups and so forth.

Speaker 2 (01:42:30):
There's more that.

Speaker 1 (01:42:31):
Is happening, So we'll see what takes place, but it's
encouraging to know that there's some actual actions happening right
now from that aspect of the true legitimate leadership in
the Colorado GOP compared with Williams, who is clinging on
to his position just as he did when he announced

(01:42:53):
that he was running for Congress and said, Nope, I'm
not leaving my position at state Party chair.

Speaker 2 (01:42:58):
I'm doggedly going.

Speaker 1 (01:42:59):
To continue to be in this position no matter what
you do or say, and he's trying to continue to
prove that. And now again a month away is when
the trial will be held just under a month October fourteenth,
in El Paso County, to determine whether or not the

(01:43:19):
GOP in fact now has new leadership, to affirm what
I think really is the case. Speaking of leadership taking over,
Mandy Connell will be taking over the airwaves here on
KOWA in just a little bit and she's in studio.

Speaker 6 (01:43:35):
I just want to say about that David William's story.

Speaker 1 (01:43:39):
Boo booming normalized. Well, people have done awful things.

Speaker 6 (01:43:45):
I have already formally recognized Chairman Eli Bremmer, so really
have as well. He has been decided, so there's no
simmy trial is merely trials trial.

Speaker 1 (01:43:55):
Well, and he's effectively been able to start doing real
things more. I talked with him. It seems like they've
the more accomplished more of the cycle than Dave has
done as the.

Speaker 2 (01:44:07):
Guy.

Speaker 6 (01:44:07):
Do you want to hear something really really funny. A
friend of mine just told me this, and I do
not have the story in front of me, yet she
promised to send it to me. She saw a story
about how there are many districts that could be competitive
districts where a Republican did not even run because the
GOP did not form a vacancy commodeon and actively try
and recruit people to come do these jobs. And someone

(01:44:29):
in the comments actually responded that that was Eli Bremer's
fault because he was trying to.

Speaker 1 (01:44:34):
Take over the GOP.

Speaker 6 (01:44:35):
And I was like, so you don't even know how
any of this works, Like, no clue how any of
this works. And you've managed to blame it on the guy.

Speaker 1 (01:44:44):
That you say isn't even in charge.

Speaker 6 (01:44:46):
It's just it's mind blowing the mental contortions that are
taking place among David Williams supporters.

Speaker 1 (01:44:52):
It didn't even begin this process until after those things
would happen. I mean, it is astonishing goodness. So what
have you got to come out up today? Well, I'm
going to.

Speaker 6 (01:45:01):
Address a Twitter ex kerfuffle. You know what's gratifying, Jimmy.
It's gratifying when you have people in the community that
pay such close attention to your show that they really
want to they want to support you, and they want
to uplift you, and and more than that, they want
to try and make you look bad whenever they can.

Speaker 1 (01:45:21):
Of course. But so I'm going to be.

Speaker 6 (01:45:25):
Explaining a very simple explanation for for Kyle Clark, who
who took a small snippet from an Instagram and assumed
that was the entire show and did absolutely no checking
on no. No, Well, context doesn't matter if you're a conservative.
So I'll talk about that, and then we've got to
talk about some The Hesbalist story is just it is

(01:45:48):
really it's I can't even get over the master spycraft
here in all of this.

Speaker 1 (01:45:55):
Is by ops.

Speaker 6 (01:45:56):
In this the psychological position that Israel has put Hesbala
in right now.

Speaker 1 (01:46:02):
And now striking and now it's doing airstrikes.

Speaker 6 (01:46:06):
Yeah, and so it is like I said yesterday on
the show, after the pager thing, I said, I think
this is the beginning of an escalation by Israel.

Speaker 1 (01:46:16):
And now after the.

Speaker 6 (01:46:16):
Walkie talking think, I'm like, oh, yes, this is the
ultimate fafo. Israel's like fafo Lebanon, let's.

Speaker 1 (01:46:25):
Go and here we go. You could not believe a
movie if this happened, or a TV show is just
not possible. Man Tom Clancy wrote no, unbelievable, not even possible.
Oh my goodness, Mandy Connell coming up, have some fun.
I will be back tomorrow one more day, and we
will have a live in studio jam session at the

(01:46:47):
end of the show as well, playing some country tunes. Actually,
and you're truly on harmonica, so be sure to tune
in for that. We're gonna have a great time then.
For now, I'm Jimmy Sangenberger in for Ross Kaminsky. God
bless America.