01-24-25 FULL SHOW - Last Show From Puerto Rico, Favorite Moments of Trump's First Week

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A Friday edition of the show. Now, Jesse Thomas is
in for Anthony Rodriguez, who was in for other people
this morning. Jesse, I don't know if you know this,
but on Fridays, all together.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
We woo who are you ready to woo who?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
When I say all together now, and then we woo who.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Are we ready to do that?

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Born to woo who?

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Okay, here we go, It's Friday, all together now wooooooo.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
See, I knew you You're natural. As a matter of
your people probably woo who all the time. Jesse Thomas,
you bet I come from a long line of wo hoos.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Those are my favorite people, the woo whoers.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
And I am still broadcasting my last day broadcasting from
the beautiful American Financing Content Creator Studios down here in
San Juan, Puerto Rico. What a week it's been. I
have to say, I still have been working. And I
know that you guys think working. You do a three
hour show every day. Lady, what's your problem? You're working
three hours a day. The reality is is that I

(00:58):
spend a lot of time getting ready.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
For this show, especially this week.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
This week has been absolutely manic with stuff coming out
of the White House, and I'm not.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Even fully up to speed.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
I'm not even gonna lie.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
I mean, I'm not even.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Fully up to speed on everything that the President has
put out this week. That's why today is part of
our Ask Me Anything I want to hear from you
guys on the Common Spirit Health text line with an
answer to this question, what is your favorite or least
favorite thing that Donald Trump has done this week? And
I was thinking about this on the way over here

(01:31):
from the beach, and I was like, man, I don't know,
because I got to tell you, there's a lot of
stuff that has happened this week. And I've been very
open about the fact I don't like ruling by executive order.
There's a lot of things he did this week that
I would like to see Congress follow up on, you know,
with actual legislation that can't just be done away with
at the stroke of a pen by the next president,

(01:51):
like everything Joe Biden did, like everything Donald Trump did
before that. I mean, it's just the executive order is
like a law written in the sand, you know, at
low tide. So I'd like to see some of this stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
But holy crap, the guy hit the.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Ground running and is just not relented. It has been
one thing after another. So you can text me at
five six six nine. Oh, that is the common Spirit
health text line. And let me know best or least
favorite thing that Donald Trump did this week? And why
I mean if you want to throw in a little
and why that is also appreciated. Now let's do the

(02:27):
blog because it is jam packed with stuff. I guess
I got all kinds of things happen. It's Friday, it's
asked me anything. We've got to get going, So here
we go. Find the blog by going to mandy'sblog dot com.
That's mandy'sblog dot com. Look for the headline that says
one twenty four to twenty five blog.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
What will the Trump budget do?

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Click on that and here are the headlines you will
find within and.

Speaker 4 (02:52):
Anyone's listening office.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Halfen ergon all with ships and curtains and say that's
got a press plach.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Today I'm the blog last day for my new Southern command.
Ask me anything? How is tourism in Puerto Rico? Damian
Maldonado is living the American dream? What kind of budget
are we looking at? We've got a good start on
drug treatment coming the birthright order. The birthright order by
Trump has been stopped. Look what happens when supply needs demand.

(03:21):
Democrats blame others for.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Things they did when you run out of.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Stuff to regulate. Denver public schools hates transparency. Our new
Secretary of State has a sense of humor. There's an
ice snitch line. Two more teachers busted for sex crimes.
Could Trump's return to office order save downtown. The CBI
is under fire. The legislature is trying to keep violent
criminals behind bars. Colorado schools may have to have a

(03:49):
cell phone policy soon. This new OnlyFans craze is genuinely discussing. No,
people are not turning away from sex. Things to do
in Denver this weekend, we're turning girls. Yes, another Jewish
holocaust could happen. The Dems aren't sad to see DEEI
go planning a cruise. Someone tried to hack Mike Ro's dad.

(04:10):
A bit on ADHD and anxiety, And those are the
headlines on the blog at mandy'sblog dot com.

Speaker 5 (04:18):
And you can find all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Because a rod It's been on the morning shift. I
haven't gotten as many silly videos as he normally gives me,
but I got a few that are quite good.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Uh, Mark A.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Rubio, And I'm not going to play it because it's
like a minute and a half and.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
The joke is like for the last four seconds.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
But in new Secretary of State Mark Rubio, which is
really kind of cool.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
I just realized.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
I was like, you know what, I know the current
Secretary of State. I've never been able.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
To say that, So I'm kind of excited about that.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
I mean, we're not like braiding each other's hair. You know,
we're not hanging out, not having cocktails on a Friday
kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
But I know the man.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Anyway, he was making some remarks and he made some
in Spanish, and when he got to with the Spanish,
he just said, I just said I saved a bunch
of money on car insurance by switching to Geico, and
so it was like, obviously joke.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
It was very funny, so I thought I throw that
in there.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
I also have a bunch of federal workers about returning
to the office, guys that kind of.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Feel like there is.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
There is going to be a massive like in the
next month, I think every company in America is going
to issue return to work orders. And they're going to
be firm for a couple of reasons. One, it's an
easy way to reduce the headcount in your operation because
a certain amount of people will self select out. They

(05:40):
will either find another remote position that they feel is
more secure, or they will quit and.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Do whatever they're going to do after that.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
I don't know, but Trump has ordered federal workers to
go back to work, and some of them are already
vowing this.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
You guys. When I read.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Something like I'm going to share with you now, to me,
it indicates a population of people who are utterly powerless
in their own view in their lives.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Now, hear me out.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Everybody has agency to direct their own lives.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Some people feel like they don't.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Some people walk around like permanent victims, are waiting for
the next thing to happen to them.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Right.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
But every single person, every single day of their lives,
makes a series of choices every moment of every day
that is going to direct their future. And if they
continue to make bad choices, then that is the kind
of future they're going to have. But there are people
who honestly believe they don't have any power in any
of these situations, so they try and exert power where

(06:47):
they think they can, and this story about federal workers.
They avowed after getting the return to work order from
Donald Trump in a now deleted REDIT post titled boycott
using local businesses around work site it forced back to office,

(07:07):
several federal discussed how we fight back against Trump's order.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
And the whole purpose of this was to urge people who.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Had been called back to the office to not go
to any of the mom and popa restaurants, the ones
that have survived around the federal buildings. Don't spend any
of your money with those people, and that was somehow
going to be a retaliatory move against Donald Trump. These
are people that feel like they have no power whatsoever.

(07:35):
I mean none, And I just thought that was sad
because some of the most interesting places in DC. When
I was last in Washington, DC with Q and Chuck,
my daughter and my husband, if you just joined us,
we did not eat in like fancy restaurants, right. I mean,
we once at the old Evitts Girl, which is fantastic.

(07:56):
Get the crabcakes, You're welcome. But for the most part,
we ain't like in a diner here or there, or
a little Greek joint that was tucked in between two
office buildings or whatever. Those are the people that they're
almost all immigrants that own these restaurants, Like almost all
of them are from somewhere else and they've come to Washington,
DC and they've either bought a business or they've started

(08:17):
a business.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
And this is what these federal.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Workers think is going to make an impact. Now, there
is something to the fact that the Office of Management
and Budget that sent out these return to work emails
did say in the email that it was also about
revitalizing Washington, DC. And these workers are saying, and honestly,

(08:42):
they're not wrong when they say, it is not my
responsibility to revitalize downtown.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
No it's not.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
But most of you signed up to work in an
office full time and you're not doing it, So yeah,
it's not your responsibility.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
But at the same time, who are you hurting with that?

Speaker 1 (08:58):
See, this is the kind of stuff that makes people
understand that when someone says the deep state capital d capitals,
this is what they're talking about. It's people actively working
to subvert someone that they disagree politically with that is
now in charge of the government. You don't get to

(09:19):
do that, Like if someone is working for iHeartMedia, and
I'm I don't know, maybe something like this has happened.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
I have no idea.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
I'm pulling this out of whole croft to make an analogy.
And I'm like Ross, who has just embraced his role
as the president of the Bad Analogy Club. I'm striving
to merely not rise above secretary of the Bad Analogy Club.
So I'm working really hard to make better analogies. But
if somebody were for iHeartMedia and they were actively subverting

(09:46):
the company's goals, right, the company says, look, we want
to we want more people to listen to the iHeartRadio app. Great,
and this person is like, there's no way, and I'm
gonna I'm gonna cancel all the promos on that and
I'm not gonna participate. They want to be fired to
eat immediately. There wouldn't even be a don't let the
door hit you where the Good Lord split you a conversation, right, will.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Not do it.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
So It's like, I just think that when people are
working in government and they have that attitude, they should
be subject to the same penalties if you're not on board,
if you cannot do your job without political bias, you
don't deserve to work in government because I'm if I'm

(10:29):
a Republican and I just get really saughty and refuse
to serve Democrats.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
What is that?

Speaker 1 (10:35):
That is not acceptable in any way, shape or form.
So by saying we're going to work against Trump, you
are part of the problem and you deserve.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
To be fired.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
So I just thought that was super interesting. Today, We've
got three interviews coming up. I have coming up a
twelve thirty. We've got a woman who has worked in
tourism in Puerto Rico. She has been the director of
the portoc And Tourism company. She's now on the board.
I've discovered Puerto Rico. She's going to join me at
twelve thirty.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
There's a lot to see on this island, you.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Guys, and Chuck and I have already committed to coming
back here with the queue because I worked a lot
this week, so I didn't get to experienced a lot
of the stuff that like Nerve did or really and
his family did. So there's so much to see and
so much to do. We've only been on one side
of the island, so it's it really is a nice
place to visit.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
I have to say, it's not that I.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Thought it would be horrible, but it's been familiar in
a way that most Caribbean islands are not. You always
kind of know that you're in the United States, even
if you're in a Caribbean island, So you know, it's fascinating.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
We're going to talk to.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Tera Stella coming up at twelve thirty, and then we've
got Mark Hillman, he is one on the advisory board
of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. We got
to talk about what's about to happen with the budget
because you guys, so much stuff is writing on this,
So much stuff is writing on this because what it's
going to signal. And if Trump comes in with a massive, bloated,

(12:09):
one point seven trillion dollar deficit kind of budget, the
bond market is not going to respond favorably. Interest rates
are going to stay where they are. I mean, there's
a lot writing on the perception of this budget and
what they're trying to do. I think the Return to
Work Order is probably going to shed at least ten
percent of the federal workforce. That's my prediction that ten

(12:31):
percent are going to quit. So already you've contracted the
federal government by ten percent and there's a hiring freeze
so they can't replace them. So I mean, there's things
that need to go. Mark is going to talk about
what kind of budget are we looking at, are we
going to get it in regular order? Are we talking
about another griinormous continuing resolution. So Mark Killman's going to
join me about that, I believe, at one o'clock. And

(12:53):
then Damian Maldonado is the owner of American Financing and
he is also the owner of the place we've been
saying down here, and he's from Puerto Rico originally and
he came back here to sort of reinvest in his
community here the same way he's reinvested in the Colorado community,
which to find the founding and maintenance of American Financing there.

(13:15):
But Amien's life story is amazing. It is truly a
life story of the American dream, and it's just very,
very compelling. So I happen to like those stories. I
like to I happen to like stories that sort of
dispel the notion that you started too far behind in
life to ever get ahead, because I think that's one
of the most toxic ideologies in the entire world, is

(13:39):
thinking that I started so far back that I'm never
going to make.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
It to the front of the pack. It's so destructive. Okay.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
I asked you guys at the beginning of the show
what you liked the most or the least in the
first five days of Donald Trump's administration. So five six
six nine zero is the text line that you can send.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Your text too.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
But Mandy, everything everything says the sextor hang on, let
me open up a few more on my window here
real quick so I can get some more I so far,
there's not a lot that I'm upset about, you know.
That's the best way for me to put it. Not
a lot for me to be sad about. Again, though,

(14:23):
I really don't like doing stuff by executive order because
it prevents us from getting things that are that are
long standing. Mandy, I think everything he's done. I know
executive orders are not the best, but it's like he's
slammed on the brakes of a country that was about
to run off a cliff. That's a really interesting analogy,

(14:43):
and not crazy Texter Mandy. Troops on the southern border.
I'm sad that we have to have active duty troops
inside the United States of America. But I'm glad they're
doing what they're doing. Mandy pulling John boldon security clearance
and Secret Service protection was glorious. Yeah, he's burned a
lot of bridges, Mandy. I liked a lot of the things.
But making the government employees show up for work at

(15:04):
the office, Mandy. Executive orders are policy, not law, but
love getting them done. It's great. Mandy did away with DEI. Mandy,
I love that he's doing away with federal recognition of
genders that are not male or female. Also, bye bye DEI.
Woo hoo, Mandy action action jumping on everything we all

(15:26):
want fixed. That from Rocky Mountain Ron's bill. Favorite recognizing
two genders, declaring border emergency, but pardoning the January six
ers who insulted law enforcement. Terrible pardoning. Proud boy organizer,
not a fan. That's that's the message I'm getting there.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Here's one.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
I'm just glad we finally have a president who came
out of the gate running and it is delivering campaign promises.
I hope he truly exposes FEMA. I actually think that
FEMA should.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Be disbanded in his current form.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
I think that FEMA should be nothing more than a
logistics organization connecting states so they can talk to one
another in situations where they need to talk to.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
One of those. I don't think FEMA should be building
out dollars.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
I don't think FEMA should be doing any of the
stuff that FEMA's doing. I think the states should be
doing all of that. So I'm with you, Mandy best
maybe getting rid of FEMA worse, cutting hundreds of violent
criminals loosed. Wasn't he complaining about Mexico sending criminals here
or something? Mandy least favorite thing the President did this week,
pardoning all of the j six convictions. It should have

(16:36):
been done on a case by case basis. It makes
me sick that the people were assaulting security guards and
police officers have now gotten away with actual murder. That
from Michelle Except Michelle, this is a clarification. No police
officers were murdered. On January sixth. Brian sick Nick had
a stroke the following day. He had significant comorbidities, but

(16:56):
did the riot contribute to his death? Probably, and then
unfortunately several officers have also taken their lives since then,
but no officers died.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Only Ashley Babbitt died just I'm.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Making that distinction because if I don't, seven thousand people
will text me to make it. So I'm just getting
that out of the way. Okay, Hi, Mandy, best least
favorite thing the President did this week? Wait wait, hang on, Mandy,
least favorite remaining Mount Denali to former Mount McKinley. Kind
of disrespectful to Native Alaskans. That was a solution in

(17:31):
search of a problem, in my opinion, But it was
just a continuation of making sure that all of the
areas of significant wokeness that have been embraced by the
federal government are cracked back on our.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
De timely fashion. So we're going to get.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Back here in just a moment, and I'm going to
read more of these later because I think it's interesting
what you guys think are so interesting, and a lot
of them are very specific. So we are going to
have a time out, and then when we get back,
we're going to talk to Taracella Dentin. She is on

(18:06):
the board of Discovered Puerto Rico. We're just going to
talk about Puerto Rico for a minute. And I got
to tell you I would recommend it as a vacation destination.
You guys know, I travel a lot, so we'll talk.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
To her next.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Keep it on Koa, but I will be perfectly Frank.
I hadn't been hearing about probably a little over ten years,
and I did.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Not know what to expect. And we have had the
best time.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
And joining me now and I've been working a lot
and we've still had the best time. And joining me
now is Taracela Dentin. She used to be the director
of Puerto Rican Tourism Company and is now on the
board of Discovered Puerto Rico. Taracella, welcome to the show,
first of all.

Speaker 6 (18:49):
And nice to be here and nice to have you
in Puerto Rico.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
Well, you know, I'm guessing tourism is pretty important to
Puerto Rico. What kind of impact this tourism happen.

Speaker 6 (19:00):
Is up to ten percent of our GDP and were
employing more than ninety thousand people, and is you know
we have up to five million visitors a year and
one point seven are from cruise ships. So well, we
are an island, we are very well located, and we

(19:22):
are we have the flavor of the Latin American and
Hispanic but also the safety and the good things about
the US.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
I used the phrase earlier. It feels familiar. It's not
exactly like it is in the States, but there's a
familiarity to being here that it gives you a little
more comfort, a little more ease, and getting around. You
don't feel like you're going to get into a situation
that you're not quite sure how to get out of.

Speaker 6 (19:50):
Our main market comes from the US is because of
our location. You don't need a passport to come here.
So it is very very well connected to New York,
to Miami, to Boston, to Atlanta, and we have many
of the.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Early a non stop from Denver, you know, from Denver.
So first I have to.

Speaker 6 (20:13):
Say hi and and to greet the people from Denver
and to invite them to come to Puerto Rico because
really they will have an incredible time here.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Well, and I have to say, the beaches are draw
but what else do people come to Puerto Rico for?

Speaker 2 (20:29):
Where they coming?

Speaker 6 (20:29):
You know, when I was executive director of the tourism company,
I developed a campaign that was called Explore Beyond the Shore.
I was inviting people to go from other places to
decentralize the tourism from the metropolitan area because one of
the things that we have that no other ireland has is.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
The infrastructure, the highway. You can go from one place
to the other very easy, very.

Speaker 6 (20:57):
Safe, and you can really go around the island two
hours to Conset to the southern part of the island
is more desert, you know, it's more dry, but it's.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Very different from San Juan.

Speaker 6 (21:12):
Is more like colorful. And you have the western part
of the island. The beaches there are incredible, the best sunsets.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
You have places like in corn it's more laid back.
People from the.

Speaker 6 (21:28):
US came from the nineteen sixties and they established their
their houses and surfing spots right in Ringcon and so
we have these incredible treasures.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
All around the island. So I promoted that.

Speaker 6 (21:46):
People should go to stay in San Juan two or
three days or four days and then go and explore
the island, to rent.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
A car, to go outside, to go to the mountains.
You have place pie for. You know.

Speaker 6 (22:01):
Something that we are very famous is our astronomy.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
So we have taken advantage of the gastronomy all week long.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
We have gastronized our.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
Way through Puerto Rico. I have eaten in the last
three nights three whole snappers. Because you cannot get fished
that fresh, that perfect. It is in Colorado, it's impossible
because we don't pull it out of an ocean and
then put it on a plate.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
We don't do that here. But you have FoST.

Speaker 6 (22:29):
You have places, you know around in the center of
the island.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
That they were like.

Speaker 6 (22:36):
The places for the Tainos Indians. And you have heeroglyphs
and petroglyphs, and you can really adventure and go to
these nature parks and nature reserves of the Kotora perto ricana,
the Puerto Rican parrot, and so you have many things

(22:59):
to see in these small island, but reach in nature,
in eculturism, in adventure, and we.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
Have our beautiful beaches. It's our main attraction.

Speaker 6 (23:13):
But because we have culture, because we have gastronomy, because
we have nature, we always say you need to really
explore the island.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Well, I know that my colleague Nerve from ninety three
eight point three are our sister station. He and his
family have done some really cool.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Stuff this week.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
They've gone into caves, and they like ocean caves where
they come to the other side and then they have
this gorgeous view of everything, and they've had an absolute
blast because his schedule has allowed him to do a
little bit more. And I think that to your point,
My husband and I travel a lot, so we've been
to a lot of Caribbean islands. We've been to a
lot of places, and this has a feel of when

(23:51):
you go to a Hawaiian island. Each part of the
island is distinctly different.

Speaker 6 (23:56):
And you wouldn't think that, Yeah, I have different islands. Also,
right of isolands and you have bieks, there are these
little islands that are beautiful.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
It's like going back in time. It's going to the
little hidden gems. Yes, yes they are. And it's more
laid back.

Speaker 6 (24:17):
It's what you think about a beach destination.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
So if it's more laid back than Saroan, are people
just lying on the beach just passed out because the
one is super late.

Speaker 6 (24:29):
We are more you know, we are the capital city,
so we feel that we are more up to beat
than in other parts of the island. But when you
go to Kole and you go to pis you really
can feel a difference. You feel like you are in
another place. And it's Puerto Rico also, but it is

(24:54):
smaller and the people are very friendly and you can
go around in a jep. You can rent a jeep
and go around the island and you will see the
island and we'll know everyone.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
In two days.

Speaker 6 (25:09):
So it's one of the for me, my favorite place
to go when I really need to detox, to go
outside and really have a good time. And in the
island you go to Rincon, you go in the southern
part of Juanica that we have like a desert tropical forest,

(25:31):
so we really.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
Have everything, like you could have a different vacation every day.
You can go skiing. No no, let me ask you
this though, because I had an article on my blog
earlier this week about crime in the Caribbean. Overalls has
risen on some of these islands pretty dramatically. What do
people need to worry about in Puerto Rico, Well, they.

Speaker 6 (25:55):
They need to really be have a near you know,
in what is happening in the island. There are places
that are more safer than others, like in any other place.
But I have to say that the municipality the state
police are working together and we don't have that much

(26:17):
criminality as it says, you know in the news. So
if there's something that I really recommend people is if
they go to stay an airbnb or in a hotel, ask,
you know, right people, the host or the hosts or
the people at the concert, where I should go and

(26:38):
where I shouldn't right, So they need to really ask.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
And I want to just ask woman's question because we're
amost out of time.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Why should people come to Puerto Rico.

Speaker 6 (26:47):
Because it's the best island in reality?

Speaker 2 (26:51):
It is? It is.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
You want to think about that the resulid.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
You want to give it a moment just before.

Speaker 6 (26:55):
You I'm very passionate about my island. I'm very proud
of my people, and we work, you know, with the
tourism industry for many years. We now I'm very happy
that we diversify the truism offer. So we have the
short term rentals, we have clamping, we have you know, trailers,

(27:19):
you who have many places that you can go and
really have a different adventure. If you are more from
the corporate sector, you have it. If you are a family,
you have different places trial.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
So we have everything for everyone. There's no attention that
I really appreciate your time, and we have had a
last We're for sure coming back to Puerto Rico.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
We've really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
It's been I'm gonna say it's been very surprising, very
surprised in the best possible way.

Speaker 6 (27:47):
Well, I hope to see many people from Denver, all right,
I want credit for all.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Of them, whoever comes here from Denver, just like at
the border'll be like, okay, that's one for Mandy Carnell.

Speaker 6 (27:56):
There you go, and myself, I have an Airbnb is
like yeah, so galer BMB, I've been promoting my my short.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Don Brenton, you know what do it? Tara Clodenton, thank
you so much. We'll be back right after this.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
Keep it on kiwa about it's addeneness.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
And we are going to be getting out of a
seven point four billion dollar dollar settlement Colorado is expecting
one moment. Let me find this number to make sure
I got it right. We should be getting eighty one
million dollars from this settlement. But we've already secured, according

(28:42):
to Attorney General Phil Wiser in his office, seven hundred
and eighty seven million dollars in opioid settlements over the
past few years. And yesterday we were talking on the
show where I was talking on the show about the
fact that we have to have some significant investment in Colorado,
by the state, not by counties, not by cities, by

(29:02):
the state, to build facilities to do two things. One,
we need to support drug and alcohol programs that have
been proven effective. That's thing number one. Thing number two,
we need facilities to house and hopefully treat people who
are mentally unstable, suffering from se your mental illness and

(29:25):
self medicating with drugs. We need to have facilities to
do these things. And seven hundred and eighty seven million
dollars that sounds like plenty to me. I mean I
looked at it up one time several years ago, and
not many years ago, like three years ago, and to
house one hundred people, to build a facility of the

(29:46):
houses one hundred people in a relatively secure environment, it
was like seventy five million dollars. So we need to
be investing in that. Where's this money going, That's what
I'd like to know. So I've asked a Rod to
reach out to the Attorney General's office to find out
if we can get them on the show to talk
about where this money is actually going.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
And just as I suspected.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
There has been a lawsuit already brought that said Trump
cannot halt birthright citizenship, and a federal judge in Seattle
issued a nationwide temporary restraining order halting that policy. And
this will of course go to the court system, which

(30:28):
needs to happen. And it's been interesting the past couple
of days watching people on x and other social media
platforms say things like this was settled a long time ago,
and it was not. It's never been asked. The question
has never been decided by the Supreme Court when it
comes to people in the country illegally.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
The issue of legal immigrants was decided many years ago,
but the issue of illegal immigrants having.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
Babies has not. So this case has not been adjudicated
to the Supreme Court. And we'll find out what they say.
And again I said it the other day, I have
no idea which way.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
This is going to go. I have no clue. I
don't even have.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
You know, my depth of knowledge about immigration law would
fill a bag of doritos, you know, when you get
right down to it. So I'm not going to speculate.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
But it needs to be settled one way or the other.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
And I don't know how the Supreme Court will decide,
but at least it's going to work its way to
do the Supreme Court, because that is the end result
of any lawsuit like the one that we're looking at
right now. Now, when we get back, there is a
continuing resolution on deck. I think for like the end
of January. I'm trying to remember the date we might

(31:46):
be creeping up to it. I know that they basically
just poison pilled the new president coming in by making
the date very close.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
It might be March.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
I can't remember, to be honest, but I bet Mark
Hillman knows. He is on the advisory committee for the
Minde for a Responsible Federal Budget, and he's gonna join
me next to talk about what this looks like. And
I've been talking to people, you know, American Financing obviously
where I'm broadcasting from the American Financing Content Creator Studios
in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They deal in the mortgage

(32:15):
market all day every day, and we've been talking about
what's going to have to happen to bring mortgage rates
down significantly. And the only thing that's going to do
that is if our debt gets more attractive, because the
bond market is what drives interest rates on mortgages. And
I think if Trump makes some significantly bold choices early.

(32:37):
It can have a wonderful impact on people's willingness to
buy our debt going forward, because right now they're like,
m yeah, no, I'll pass.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
I'm good.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
And that is creating a huge problem for the United States.
But the only way to do that is to cut spending.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Will that happen.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
We're gonna talk to Mark Hillman about it right after this.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Keep it on.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
KOA worldwide on the iHeartRadio app. You know, if you're
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Speaker 7 (37:03):
There are no angels in politics, KOA.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Can you believe nearly three out of four of us
will end up in a long term care situation during
our retirement years. Hiatt's Mandy Connell with Brian Ott from
Five to Five, Advisors and host of Long Term Care
Radio Brian That number shocks me. What happens when people
who aren't prepared for a long term care situation.

Speaker 12 (37:23):
Well, Mandy, a lot of them will have to start
spending down their savings and will likely end up depending
on family members to provide care, or worse, they'll go broke.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
And they'll end up on Medicaid.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Those are not good options, Brian. We know it doesn't
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To get the eight of the next webinar or joined
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Radio right here on KOA K two three one b
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Speaker 4 (38:09):
Cold Listen on your three iHeart Radio app for all.

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Speaker 9 (38:18):
KOA, Denver, ninety four to one FM News Talk Sports.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
KOA News Time one o'clock.

Speaker 13 (38:30):
A mother accused of killing two of her children in
Colorado Springs faces extradition back to Colorado. Thirty six year
old Kimberly Singler allegedly stabbed and shot her nine year
old daughter and seven year old son in an apartment
in late twenty twenty three, and also stabbed her eleven
year old daughter, who survived. Singler fled the country, and

(38:50):
a London court has now okayed her extradition to Colorado.
The arguments against extradition hinged on European human rights law,
which rejects a sentence of life in prison without parole,
something Singular faces if convicted of first degree murder in Colorado.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
Singler's attorney says they'll appeal the decision.

Speaker 4 (39:09):
The Senate set.

Speaker 13 (39:10):
To vote on President Trump's pick for Defense Secretary while
two Republicans break away at the last minute.

Speaker 14 (39:17):
Department of Defense nominee Pete Heike Sith set to face
his confirmation vote tonight, but it comes as Republican support
has started to chip away, two female Republican senators declaring
they won't support him.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
President Donald Trump responding.

Speaker 15 (39:31):
I was very surprised that uh Colins, Good, Mujowski Rajuda.

Speaker 14 (39:36):
Despite this, Hegsath still has the votes he needs to
be confirmed. It would take four Republicans to block the nomination.
Olivia Rubin ABC News Washington.

Speaker 13 (39:46):
President Trump has unveiled another executive order, this one calling
for the declassification of records related to high level assassinations,
namely those of former President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy,
and doctor Martin Luther King Junior. The President says people
have been waiting for decades for this information, adding everything

(40:07):
will be revealed. Responding to the news on social media,
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote, now do UFOs and
Denver's Ruby Hill Railyard opens for the season on Sunday.

Speaker 16 (40:19):
It's free and open to both snowboarders and skiers at
Ruby Hill Park. Starting on Friday, February second, the rail
yard will offer free rental equipment and tubes on Fridays, Saturdays,
and Sundays.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
The concept behind the.

Speaker 16 (40:32):
Effort is to make winter sports accessible for all.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
Kathy Walker KOA News.

Speaker 13 (40:38):
Wall Street stocks are trading modestly lower today, Fox thirty one,
pinpoint weather. Winter comes back to the front range cold
overnight low fifteen, then snow showers tonight and tomorrow one
to three inches for Denver.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
The high tomorrow just twenty four.

Speaker 13 (40:53):
It's currently forty nine degrees in Denver News brought to
us by Dunwright Home Improvements. I'm David Koa News Talk
sports and from the Kowa Traffic Center Dave O'Bryan.

Speaker 17 (41:07):
It's an easy early Friday afternoon drive on Denver roads.
Northbound I twenty five is a little heavy from Broadway
to Colfax as usual.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
Southbound I twenty.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
Five also a little slow through downtown.

Speaker 17 (41:17):
There is an accident on the left shoulder of southbound
I twenty five approaching twentieth Street that is adding to
that slowing. Westbound I seventy is moving at forty miles
an hour between Colorado and Washington.

Speaker 3 (41:27):
Both directions of I seventy.

Speaker 17 (41:28):
Moving at the speed limit everywhere else in the metro
area and in high Country. Northbound I two twenty five
is slow from Mississippi to sixth Avenue. It's due to
an earlier accident. After Alameda. There are a couple of
issues on Alameda. An accident westbound at Chambers and the
lights at Alameda and Holly are flashing red. That is
particularly backing up Holly in both directions.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
Treat that as a four way stop there and.

Speaker 17 (41:49):
An accident on southbound Wadsworth at Cross Drive south of
Crestline is blocking the left lane. I'm Dave O'Brien on
KOA eight fifty AM and ninety.

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The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bill and Pollock
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Speaker 3 (42:20):
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Speaker 4 (42:40):
Sad bab.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Bat to the second hour of the show.
So broadcasting live from beautiful San Juan, Puerto Rico for
one more day, where lots of talk about the new
administration is happening, even down here in the district of
Puerto Rico. But I've got Mark Hillman coming.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
On with me.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Mark is one of the advisors for the Center for
Responsible Federal Government Federal Budget Excuse me, which is an
adorably stern name considering how bad Congress is at staying
on budget. So Mark, I mean, maybe we should consider
making something.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
A little a little more whimsy. That sounds less less scoldy.
But the budget is.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
On deck right now because we've got a new president,
we've got a continuing resolution that we've got to do
something with. What can we expect right now?

Speaker 4 (43:33):
I know what we can expect, but we really need
to demand.

Speaker 19 (43:36):
That our eleven officials and both parties stop making the
problem worse.

Speaker 4 (43:41):
And right now, as the.

Speaker 19 (43:43):
New Congress bass using the reconcapiliation process, it is a
good time for them to begin to set guidelines that
will guide their spending in the future.

Speaker 4 (43:53):
You know, I grew up on a farm. I live
on a farm, and the first thing, one of the
first things you learned is the rule of the whole,
which is when you're in one stop digging.

Speaker 15 (44:02):
And unfortunately, our federal government keeps putting the problem worse.

Speaker 19 (44:07):
Last year, they brought in about five trillion dollars in
taxes that ought to be enough to do quite a
few good things, and yet they spent six and three
trillion dollars, so they for every three dollars they brought in,
they spent four dollars, and I think you and I
both know how.

Speaker 4 (44:23):
It would work if for every three.

Speaker 19 (44:24):
Dollars we brought in, we spent four, and worse still,
if we put it on our credit card, because then
we've all, at some time or other, seen those interest
rates on our credit card begin to begin to build up,
and pretty soon the interest on your credit card is
so much that you can't afford the things that you need.
And that's really the problem that we're looking at now

(44:45):
in the way that our federal government is spending more
money year after year by far than they're taking in.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Well, there's been this thing that is taken hold in Washington,
and it's called modern monetary theory. Modern monetary theory says
it doesn't matter how much you owe, you can just
spend sense sense because government spending simulates the economy. And
the reality is right now, the bond market is responding

(45:14):
to our proply get spending by not buying our debt,
and rates are pretty high right now, and pretty soon
we're going to get to a point where paying just
the interest on this debt is going to eat up
a lot of our I mean, are we in a
death spiral? How close are we do? You think not
to be optimistic, But how close are we?

Speaker 19 (45:37):
Well, we're close enough that currently the interest payments that
we make in.

Speaker 4 (45:41):
The federal budget are the.

Speaker 15 (45:42):
Second largest expenditure in the federal budget.

Speaker 4 (45:46):
It's also the fastest growing part of the federal budget.

Speaker 19 (45:49):
We're spending more on interest than we're spending on national defense.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
Or medicare or transportation, and.

Speaker 19 (45:57):
That has consequences. It threatens our national security. It drives
up interest rates, both borrowing rates for the federal government.
You know, a few years ago they could borrow interest
in Bay about one percent. They're paying much more than
that now. And we're still when the federal government is
borrowing money, it's competing for those same lenders as families

(46:17):
who want to finance homes and businesses that want to expand.

Speaker 4 (46:21):
And that's driving up the cost for those businesses.

Speaker 19 (46:23):
It's making homes more affordable because we have to compete.

Speaker 4 (46:26):
With the federal government.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
But there's you're right, there's.

Speaker 19 (46:28):
A huge danger when we get to the point that
other countries and other investors don't want to buy our debt,
then we risk things like perhaps the US dollar no
longer being the global currency, and when that happens, then
we're really looking at it a different world where people
are no longer trusting.

Speaker 4 (46:48):
Our currency and they're no longer first buying our products.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
And I think people really because we've never had it
happen in the United Seats before, Like a lot of
people truly don't understand what a debt crisis would look
like in the United States, and it would it would
most assuredly drag the rest of the world down with
it for an extended period of time. So when we
sit here being negative Nelly's mark, because that's what we are.
I follow you on Twitter. I see you with all

(47:14):
your gloom and doom, and the government has to stop
spending because I'm right.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
There with you.

Speaker 20 (47:18):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
Do you ever just feel like a Cassandra like just
yelling into the ether and no one paying attention to you.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
Because I got to tell you I do on this issue.

Speaker 19 (47:30):
Yeah, only for the last twenty years. I mean, you know,
it was it was during that it was the one.

Speaker 4 (47:36):
Administration when the.

Speaker 15 (47:37):
New Gingrich Republican Congress came in, and I think for
three years I actually.

Speaker 4 (47:41):
Ran a small surplus and since then George W.

Speaker 19 (47:45):
Bush administration in the Congress, he worked with added to
the debt. Uh Barack Obama. I remember the first one
trillion dollar annual deficit and I thought that was terrible,
and Obama did debt.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Show.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
So broadcasting live from beautiful San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
For one more day, where lots.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Of talk about the new administration is happening, even down
here in the district of Puerto Rico. But I've got
Mark Hillman coming.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
On with me.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
Mark is one of the advisors for the Center for
Responsible Federal Government Federal Budget excuse me, which is an
adorably stern name, considering how bad Congress is at staying
on budget. So Mark, I mean, maybe we should consider
making something a little a little more whimsy.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
That sounds less scoldie. But the budget is.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
On deck right now because we've got a new president,
we've got a continuing resolution that we've got to do
something with. What can we expect right now?

Speaker 19 (48:53):
I know what we can expect that we really need
to demand that our eleged univisions in both parties stop
making the problem worse.

Speaker 4 (49:01):
And right now, as the new.

Speaker 19 (49:03):
Congress faces using the reconciliation process, it is a good
time for them to begin to sit guidelines that will
guide their spend in the future. You know, I grew
up on a farm. I live on a farm. And
the first thing you one of the first things you.

Speaker 4 (49:16):
Learned, is the rule of the whole, which is when
you're in one stop digging.

Speaker 15 (49:21):
And unfortunately, our federal government keeps putting the problem worse.

Speaker 19 (49:26):
Last year, they brought in about five trillion dollars in
taxes that ought to be enough to do quite a
few good things, and yet they spent six and three
trillion dollars. So they for every three dollars they brought in,
they spent four dollars. And I think you and I
both know how.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
It would work.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
For every three.

Speaker 19 (49:44):
Dollars we brought in, we spent four. And worse still
if we put it on our credit card, because then
we've all, at some time or other, seen those interest
rates on our credit card begin to begin to build up,
and pretty soon the interest on your credit card is
so much you can't afford the things that you need.
And that's really the problem that we're looking at now

(50:05):
in the way that our federal government is spending more
money year after year by far than they're taking in.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Well, there's been this thing that has taken hold in Washington,
and it's called modern monetary theory, and modern monetary theory
says it doesn't matter how much you owe, you can.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
Just spend, spend, send then.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
Because government spending stimulates the economy. And the reality is
right now, the bond market is responding.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
To our proply gets spending by not buying.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Our debt, and von rates are pretty high right now,
and pretty soon we're going to get to a point
where paying just the interest on this debt is going
to eat up a lot.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Of our I mean, are we in a death spiral?
How close are we? Do you think?

Speaker 1 (50:53):
Not to be optimistic, but how close are we?

Speaker 4 (50:56):
Well, we're chose enough of that.

Speaker 19 (50:58):
Currently, the interest payments that we make in the federal
budget are.

Speaker 15 (51:02):
The second largest expenditure in the federal budget.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
It's also the fastest growing part of the federal budget.

Speaker 19 (51:09):
We're spending more on interest than we're spending on national.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
Defense or medicare or transportation.

Speaker 19 (51:16):
And that has consequences. It threatens our national security, It
drives up interest rates, both borrowing rates for the federal government.
A few years ago, they could borrow interest in Bay
about one percent. They're paying much more than that now,
and we're still when the federal government is borrowing money,
it's competing for those same.

Speaker 4 (51:35):
Lenders as families who want to finance.

Speaker 19 (51:38):
Homes and businesses that want to expand, and that's driving
up the cause for those businesses. It's making homes more
affordable because we have to compete.

Speaker 4 (51:45):
With the federal government.

Speaker 19 (51:46):
But there's You're right, there's a huge danger when we
get to the point that other countries and other investors
don't want to buy our debt, then we risk things
like perhaps the US dollar no longer being the global currency,
and that happens, and we're really looking at a different
world where people are no longer trusting our currency and

(52:09):
they're no longer first buying our products.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
And I think people really because we've never had it
happen in the United States before, like a lot of
people truly don't understand what a debt crisis would look
like in the United States and it would most assuredly
drag the rest of the world down with it for
an extended period of time. So when we sit here
being negative Nelly's mark, because that's what we are. I
follow you on Twitter, I see you with all your

(52:33):
gloom and doom and the government has to stop spending.
Because I'm right.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
There with you.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
Uh do you ever just feel like a Cassandra like
just yelling into the ether and no one paying attention
to you.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
Because I got to tell you I do on this issue.

Speaker 4 (52:50):
Yeah, I went for the last twenty years.

Speaker 15 (52:51):
I mean, you know, it was it was during that
It was the pan administration when the new Gingridge Republican
Congress came in and I think for three years.

Speaker 4 (53:00):
Actually ran a small surplus. And since then George W.

Speaker 19 (53:04):
Bush administration in the Congress he worked with added to
the debt. Barack Obama, I remember the first one trillion
dollar annual deficit and.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
I thought that was terrible.

Speaker 4 (53:14):
And Obama did debt four times.

Speaker 19 (53:17):
Donald Trump in his first in his first term added
over a trillion dollars to the debt every year, and
Joe Biden followed right along. So yeah, it's it's a
it's a huge concern and Republicans, I think, need to
step up and stop talking a good game and actually
act a good game. But the important thing I think about.

Speaker 4 (53:36):
This particular effort and the Committee for a.

Speaker 19 (53:39):
Responsible Federal Government is it's not your Republican. It's not democrat,
it's bipartisan, and it looks at this problem and says, listen,
both Republicans and.

Speaker 4 (53:48):
Democrats have contributed to the problem we're in.

Speaker 19 (53:51):
In fact, something like eighty percent of the spending that's
currently driving the debt has been passed on on a
bipart of and bases.

Speaker 4 (54:01):
And now we've got a debt that's ninety eight.

Speaker 19 (54:04):
Percent of the size of our economy, Which means.

Speaker 4 (54:07):
If every American for one full year.

Speaker 19 (54:09):
Worked only for the federal government to pay down the
national debt, we could do that, but then for a
whole year, we wouldn't be able to pay for food,
we wouldn't be able to pay for housing, we wouldn't
be able to pay for fuel for our vehicles or
heating or cooling. So it's impractical. So the smart thing
to do right now is to say, let's draw the
line and say we're not going to let the debt

(54:30):
get bigger than our economy, and then let's work on
reducing the debt and reducing annual deficits.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
So it's my understanding. And I looked at this briefly,
but I didn't dig into the deep numbers that all
of the COVID spending is still in the baseline for budgeting.
It would seem to me that we should be able
to now claw that back and start with a lower baseline,
because budgets.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Only go up from.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Wherever they spent last year. They never really cut the budget.
I mean, they just may cut the growth of spend,
but they don't ever really say, oh, no, you know what,
we probably don't need that extra trillion dollars we put
in before COVID. What are the chances of some of
that being clawed back because of the Department of Government
efficiency or other sort of things that are swirling around

(55:14):
the Trump administration when it comes to spending.

Speaker 19 (55:18):
Well, I'm hopeful that Joads can identify some programs to
reduce you know, Ronald Reagan said your closest thing to
immortality is a government program.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
So they've got their work cut out for them.

Speaker 19 (55:30):
But it really does need to be something that Republicans
and Democrats agree on, because we can't simply make an
agreement for you know, the next two years while we
have a Republican trifecta and then throw it out the
window if Democrats regain Congress.

Speaker 4 (55:44):
Or in four years if a Democrat president.

Speaker 19 (55:45):
Gets elected, we need to have a bipartisan commitment to
reign in spending and.

Speaker 4 (55:52):
If a modest tax increase is necessary.

Speaker 19 (55:54):
I don't like that idea, but if there was a
way to make an iron clad commitment that we will
reduce spending for a mind of tax and grace and
actually reduce the debt. You know, after World War Two,
which was the highest national debt we've ever had in
one hundred and six percent of.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
GDP, that debt was racked.

Speaker 19 (56:12):
Up because we were fighting Hitler, we were fighting to
preserve our American way of life.

Speaker 4 (56:16):
And when the.

Speaker 19 (56:17):
War was over, they kept the debt in half in
a decade. The problem right now is that our government
has no plan to reduce the debt and no plan
even to reduce the annual budget deficit, which is where
we have.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
To start.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
And mark back in After the end of World War Two,
when the president was talking about cutting Eisenhower was talking
about cutting the size of the federal government.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
There were all kinds of asayers.

Speaker 21 (56:42):
Who said, you can't cut spending because then the economy
will take because if we pull back our spending, there's
too much of the government spending in the economy, and
the exact opposite happened.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
We've already done that once.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
So any notion that somehow the world is going to
come to a screeching halt and everything is going to
collapse if the government contracts his spending, we already know
how this song is going to end. So I wish
more people would look at recent history and it was
almost one hundred years ago, but recent enough history and say, wow,
we could probably do that again.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
I just I don't know.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
I think everybody America has changed, and I mean the
electorate has changed in my view, and not for the
better when it comes to a sense of duty and
patriotism and you know, sacrifice.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
For the greater good.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
I just think people want to make sure they're getting theirs,
and I find that I don't know, I think that's
a huge problem.

Speaker 4 (57:36):
Yeah, I think American's aok A government that way.

Speaker 19 (57:39):
I think the problem is I even saw this in
my time in state government. You know, there are plenty
of lobbyists to defend every spending program and line item
in the budget. There's not a lobbyist out there who says,
don't spend on this, or don't spend on that, and
That's where Way's Americans have to come in and say
it's our money that's being spent.

Speaker 4 (57:59):
We're still the biggest problem is.

Speaker 19 (58:01):
That in our hearts, we know that this is wrong,
but we keep voting for the politicians you promised to
give us things and make it sound like somebody else
is going to pay. The dirty little secret is that
it's now our children and our grandchildren who are the
ones that will have to pay, and they don't have
any voice in this.

Speaker 4 (58:20):
So in reality, I don't think we would be doing.

Speaker 19 (58:23):
This to our children and our grandchildren on a personal level,
but we're certainly allowing our federal.

Speaker 4 (58:28):
Government to do that, and that's that's simply immoral.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Mark Hillman is my guest. You can find him at
Mark Hillman dot com. He is on the advisory committee
for the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget. Not a
great name, but a great mission.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
Mark.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
I really appreciate you making time for me today.

Speaker 4 (58:49):
Man, it's been fun. Thank you so much, and enjoy
Puerto Rico.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
I am immensely all right, Mark, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
You know.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
It's aggravating. Somebody's got to be brave, and politicians are
not known for their bravery.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Right.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
Nobody looks at most politicians are like, man, that was brave.
I mean, we all sort of assume that they are
self serving in some way, and to a certain extent,
they are. They're trying to get reelected. They're trying to
do those things. But we need somebody to stand up.
And I know you guys are probably sick of me
mentioning ran Paul. But there's nobody better on the budget

(59:29):
and shrinking the size of the federal government than ran Paul.
He's just been looking at this since before he got
into office. He used to have a plan he called
the Penny Plan where you had to take one percent.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
Off of the growth of spending.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
Hear me out, not even actual spending, but the growth
of spending. And he figured, O, if you did that
for several years, you could, you know, balance the budget.
Well now it's five cents. Now it's five percent. So yeah, Mandy,
they tax the hell of miss Mandy. Of course I'm
looking out to get mine.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Yeah, but that is part of the problem.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
It's like the people who stood around asking for their
stimmy checks. Remember where's my stimmy check? We need another
stimmy check. They did so because they were too stupid
to realize that the federal government has two options.

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
They can take the money away from someone else and give.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
It to them, or they can print it. And when
they print it, it creates inflation.

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
And that's what we've seen happen.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
So those stimichecks got eaten up by inflation a long
time ago. But the people that were like clamoring for
more stimmy checks are too dumb to realize that they
were part of the problem as well.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
You know what brings down empires.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Is when people figure that out that they can vote
themselves the treasury, and then you find yourself in a
situation where we are now, Mandy, what's the difference between
the department that you just interviewed and the DOGE that
is not a department. The Center for a Responsible Federal
Budget is a private organization that advocates for smaller spending

(01:01:03):
in smaller government. DOGE is just a group of nerds
who are working really hard to find waste and abuse
in the federal government. So we'll see what DOGE comes
up with.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
And here's the thing. DOAGE could come up with a
bunch of stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
But if Congress doesn't pay attention, Congress is getting ready
to pass another giant continuum resolution. Do you know why
they pass continued resolutions instead of doing a dozen individual
budgeting bills, which would put them into regular order the
way they're supposed to do it, Because it's easier to
hide things in a giant continuum resolution. You can put

(01:01:38):
pork for your district. You can put pork for certain
industries or companies that maybe maybe not made some big
campaign donations.

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
Do you that's why they do it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
There's not some dearth of brain power that could not
get twelve different budget bills done. And that's when I think,
when I see Congress go going back to the way
they are supposed to do budgeting with twelve separate bills,
I will start to breathe a sigh of relief that
some sanity has come to DC and when it comes

(01:02:12):
to spending, because until then, until they go back to
the old way where it's much much, much still, you
can absolutely put poork in any of those appropriations bills,
but it's a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Harder to hide it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
Like how many of you have you ever seen an
appropriation spill? Hang on one second, how long? How many
pages is what I need to say? How many pages
is the Continuuing Resolution spending. Let me just give you
an idea of what we're looking at here. They're like

(01:02:48):
fifteen hundred two thousand pages long. I mean, are you
are you going to read fifteen hundred two thousand pages?
And what happens is is they pass this thing and
then they walk around and they expect some kind of aclades. Hey, look,
we prevented the government from being shut down by passing
a j enormous Buckfield spending bill. Aren't we awesome? No,

(01:03:12):
they're not awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
They're not awesome at all.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
But then by the time somebody gets through a two
thousand page continuing resolution and report on it, we've all
moved on. What's done now, can't get anything with it,
can't do it. So I mean, when they do go
back to those regular spending bills, then I'll think to
myself for making progress. But the most frustrating part for

(01:03:37):
me is we've got Republicans in charge of the House representatives.
We have a Republican Speaker of the House. If I'm
Mike Johnson, what I'm going to do is I'm going
to put out the calendar for each appropriation spill and
I'm going to stay on this date, we are going
to be discussing this appropriation spill. On this date, we're

(01:03:57):
going to be discussing this one. I would lay them
all out on the calendar, and then if anyone in
the Democratic Party balked, I would immediately call a press
conference and say, the people have asked us to get
back to regular orders so we don't have these giant,
pork filled continuing resolutions, and for some reason.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
The Democrats don't want to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
Can you go ask them why they don't want to
do the regular budgeting order?

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
In You know, we use the.

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
Media terribly when it comes to people on the right,
and I realize that part of it is that the
media is so conditioned to accept wholeheartedly whatever Democrats say.
But you have to get in front of it. That's
what I'm talking about. Instead of playing defense, play offense,
lay it out. Here's what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
This is how we're gonna budget.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
But I haven't even seen anything remotely like that, And
that's super, super frustrating. Mandy Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.
If I could wave a magic wand yes, Mandy, as
long as Trump does continuing resolutions, nothing important is really changed.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
Has it correct.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
How in the hell does Puerto Rico get away without
paying federal taxes? That's complete bs. Well, I'm gonna say this,
they don't get a lot of money back from the
federal government based on what I'm seeing, or the corruption
is so bad that it's just being siphoned into other
people's pockets. But I don't know. I'm working on finding
out more about it. I'm really intrigued, you guys, by

(01:05:24):
Puerto Rico. That's the word that I'm using, because you
feel like you're on an island, but you don't feel
like you're in a foreign place. Everybody speaks Spanish, but
most people also speak English, and they have costco. There's like,
there's very familiar things about Puerto Rico, but there's also

(01:05:44):
some significant problems down here that you know. I have
asked all of our cab drivers and our uber drivers
and waiters and waitresses that we've had down here, and
I ask a lot of the most of them young people,
right and I've asked every single one of them what
they thought the big problem in Puerto Rico is right now.
And I'm thinking, well, they can't keep.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
The power on.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
That's a huge problem. Their power grid is an absolute disaster.

Speaker 17 (01:06:10):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
It got destroyed by Maria. I got put back together
with like duct tape and string. It is not in
good shape. But none of them said that. They all
said corruption, and I was like, huh, that's something that
has to be rooted out before anything really great can happen.
And it's a shame because this is a great country
and the people are lovely, and there's all of these

(01:06:33):
abandoned houses down here but that are apparently impossible to
buy because of all the red tape and corruption. So
it's it's super interesting. So I'm sorry you guys. Is
my new project and we've following along with and maybe
you'll want to know more and maybe you all, but
I'm telling you I would definitely I'm coming back your occasion.
It's super super affordable for an island. Super I mean

(01:06:55):
you can say in super nice places that are like
nine hundred dollars a night for a hotel room, but
you don't have to anyway, line item veto. I would
love a line item veto, but I don't. I don't
think it will ever happen because I think it's been declared.
I'm gonna have to look that up. On the break
because I honestly don't remember what happened there. I know

(01:07:16):
it's I know it's gone through the courts before, but
I just cannot remember exactly what happened after that. So
in the next hour I'm talking to Damien Maldonado. We're
probably not going to talk about mortgages. We will talk
about kitesurfing because the man loves it. But we're gonna
talk about his life story. You talk about our rags
to riches situation, and this is the kind of story

(01:07:39):
that should inspire everybody who maybe started with less in life,
because you know, he has a fantastic story about about
making it when when he did not have a cushy
start to life. So we're gonna talk to him in
the next hour plus.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
We're going to talk about supply.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
And demand in the next hour. I know it's sounds
super boring, right, but the reality is supply and demand
is on display in the Colorado apartment market, even as
Democrats try to ignore it when it comes.

Speaker 2 (01:08:10):
To the housing market.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
We're gonna talk about all that in the next hour.
In the meantime, though, wait a minute, it's one thirty. No,
I'm gonna talk about all that next, So I just
forgot what time it was.

Speaker 5 (01:08:22):
We'll be right back after this. Keep it on gayaway, Hi.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
You guys.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
I just want to remind you, as Facebook just reminded me,
it was nine short years ago that the Denver Broncos
beat the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game.
I just wanted to share that with you because you know,
why not. We should all want to remember that stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
Okay, So let's see here there is.

Speaker 1 (01:08:57):
There are a couple stories today that I have on
the blog and they are totally unconnected. But are they
They are connected, and I'm gonna connect them for you
right now. The headline Denver Metro apartment's rents fell seventy dollars,
largest recorded drop ever for the region. From our friends

(01:09:18):
at the Denver Gazette, the cost of renting an apartment
in the Denver metro area fell during the last quarter
of twenty twenty four, and maybe the largest price drop
for the region ever. According to the Apartment Association of
Metro Denver, the average rent of an apartment in the
fourth quarter was nearly eighteen hundred and fifty dollars, about
seventy dollars less than the third quarter and one point

(01:09:40):
five percent less than the same period in twenty twenty three. Now,
how did this happen?

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
How has it happen?

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
Well, oddly, I'm sure there's no connection whatsoever to what I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
About to say.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
But developers have delivered about twenty thousand apartment units to
the Denver Metro in the last year in the last year.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
And what happens when.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
Supply meets demand, then competition kicks in and prices come down.
It's a pretty basic economic principle for people who know
anything about basic economic principles, where it's really one of
your it's really one of your standard economic principles.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
Supply and demand drive price. That's pretty basic right there.

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
But it's amazing because Democrats in Colorado's legislature do not
seem to get it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
And here's why.

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
I know that the state lawmakers from both parties have
taken to their little soap boxes to declare that they
are working on legislation that is gonna save Colorado's money.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
And of course, of course.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
This is just like the like if I had a
magic ball, I could predict this every single time. Democrats
have decided. The reason everything is so expensive in Colorado
is because major corporations are making too much money.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
Yep, yep, yep.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
So what they're doing is they are working on a
pair of lawsuits against the nation's largest property management companies
to drum up support for legislation that they say will
save Colorado's more than.

Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
Fifteen hundred dollars a year.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
How will they do it?

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
They're going after price gouging. Yep. Now, you guys, I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
Growing up in Florida where there's a ton of storms,
and you know, you find out that everything costs a
lot more right after a hurricane because there's none of it.
They're already price gouging laws on the books there. Do
you have any idea how difficult it is to prove
a price gouging case? As a matter of fact, if
you look around, I don't know if any price gouging
cases have ever been successfully prosecuted, And I'm not kidding,

(01:12:01):
I don't know if there's ever been one.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
But that doesn't stop Colorado Democrats.

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
They're sponsoring House Bill one thousand and four, which prohibits
landlords from rent setting algorithmic software to collude on pricing. Now,
if you don't rent and you don't own rental property.
I'm not sure how this is supposed to save you money,
but if it makes them feel good, knocked yourself out.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
There was a lawsuit last year about this and the
a bunch of property managers lost.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
So they're passing a bill about that. They're also going
after what they call junk fees for renters, and I'm
still not sure how that helps the rest of us.
But here we are. And the third bill is the
one about price gouging. It prohibits price gouging and necessities

(01:12:56):
at any time, not just during declared disasters as delineated
in current law. Now here, let me talk about this
for just a second. What they're saying is you cannot
charge more than they think.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
Is enough.

Speaker 1 (01:13:15):
And what is fascinating about this is because, depending on
what category you are in, the markup on some products
is absolutely insane. Let me see here, Well, okay, what
products I'm gonna just look this up on the fly.
Products have the biggest markups, Okay, profit margins very greatly.

(01:13:39):
Bottled water bottled water, you guys, has a two hundred
and eighty thousand percent markup.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
Two hundred and eighty thousand is that?

Speaker 1 (01:13:47):
Is that too much. I mean, is that gouging? Are
we gouging?

Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
Then?

Speaker 1 (01:13:51):
College textbooks are on this list? Just ridiculous, ridiculous profit
margins on this Here we go, let me give you this.
Phone companies.

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
Usually let me know. I'm gonna leave that off because
that's changed. Bottled water.

Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
The markup on modeled water four thousand percent. Brand name
prescription drugs could be two hundred to three thousand percent.
A high school ring thirteen hundred and twenty nine percent,
movie theater popcorns marked up twelve hundred and seventy five percent.
A fountain or restaurant soda is eleven hundred and fifty percent.
A graduation cap and gown is marked up one thousand percent.

(01:14:34):
You're starting to get what I'm asking here, like what
percentage is?

Speaker 2 (01:14:37):
Okay? What is? You know?

Speaker 1 (01:14:41):
What what kind of profit margin is you or are
you doing? Because if you're in a high private market product,
are you going to be banned from charging whatever you want?

Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
I just pulled up.

Speaker 1 (01:15:00):
Of the high cost or excuse low cost high profit
items beauty products. The average profit margin on beauty product
products is around fifty five percent, with some reaching eighty
percent eighty percent jewelry is often well marked up. I mean,

(01:15:26):
some of these This price gouging nonsense is just that nonsense.
Now on the other side of the aisle, you have
Republicans that have filed bills to actually fix a bunch
of the junk fees that our legislature has put on us.
The junk fee that requires you to buy cage free eggs,

(01:15:46):
the junk fee that requires you to pay twenty nine
cents every time you get a delivery, the junk fee
that requires you to.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
Pay for a paper bag.

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
Now these are real things that people really have to
pay all the time. But the Democrats don't want to
take responsibility for any of the things they've done. Now,
going back to the apartment example that I just gave,
you know, we've delivered twenty thousand apartment units in the
last year, and of course prices have gone down. Now,

(01:16:17):
imagine if half of those apartment complexes had been condos.
Imagine if condo construction, because condos are very often a
entry level purchase. What if all of those apartments had
turned out to be condos instead, and we were delivering
twenty thousand new condos to the market right now, what

(01:16:40):
do you think would happen to housing prices in Denver.
But do you see the Democrats rushing to fix the
construction defects legislation that has completely completely destroyed the condo market.

Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
No, because the trial lawyers don't want them.

Speaker 1 (01:16:54):
To, and they're putting that ahead of people being able
to afford houses because they want to turn around and
blame corporations and just make idiotic, idiotic attempts to rein
in corporations while making zero attempts to reign in themselves.

Speaker 2 (01:17:13):
I wish they interested, you know, supply and demand. Supply
and demand. It's not that hard.

Speaker 1 (01:17:21):
We'll be back when we get back. Did you guys
know there's an ice snitch line? Oh yeah, I'm gonna
tell you about it right after this. Keep it on
KOA back broadcasting from ukabug. But in the United States, proper,

(01:17:44):
lots of people are freaking out because Immigration and Customs
enforcement has begun deporting people now. So far, what's been
reported across the country is that the people that are
currently be deporting are bad ombres, as the President once said,
and they have committed other crimes, many of them violent.

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
That doesn't stop to.

Speaker 1 (01:18:06):
Everyone from freaking out in the immigrant community. You know what,
I wish I had saved this text message from earlier
in the show, because it was from a guy who said, manny,
and I cannot remember if it was his mother in law,
his mother.

Speaker 2 (01:18:21):
I cannot remember who this person was.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
But she came here back in the nineteen sixties and
became a citizen. So she's a citizen of the United States,
and for some reason, she's terrified that Donald Trump is
going to deport her. And the first thing I say
in that situation, and I've learned you guys, if someone
is being irrational about something, urged them to find proof

(01:18:44):
on the Internet of what they're saying. And I said
to this guy, asked her to find a credible news
source that says citizens, naturalized citizens are going to be deported.
She cannot find it because no one is talking about this.
No one is talking about deporting people who are here legally.

(01:19:04):
No one if you have legal status, no one is
talking about kicking you out. What we're talking about is
kicking out people who have not only committed the crime
of coming here illegally, but have also committed a crime
by being here. Now I know that Donald Trump is
that he's.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
Going to throw everybody out.

Speaker 1 (01:19:22):
I don't think that's reasonable, and I think he knows it,
and I think he's working to get the criminals out
and then we'll talk about what comes next. Is like
a typical Donald Trump negotiation situation. So a local organization
has created an ICE.

Speaker 2 (01:19:36):
Snitch line, That's what I'm calling it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:38):
But not in case you see someone who is here
illegally committing a crime. No, the Colorado Rapid Response to
Network has as people who see possible ICE actions to
call a number to put what they're seeing. And the
ICE snitch line has gotten reports from Denver, a rar

(01:20:00):
and Boulder and what most of these things are are
just daily operation that ICE has been. You know, ICE
is always active. It's not like just because you're in
a sanctuary city you're not going to see ICE. But
they are not making ice raids.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
In Colorado now that I know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:24):
So a lot of people are calling, but it's not
a giant, giant sweep. I will say I found this
kind of interesting. Listen to this this audio. The network
said none of the calls they received this week had
been confirmed, but they know ICE is making arrests. Lene
Rolando said that's not to say ice isn't out in

(01:20:45):
the community, and that action isn't coming. We encourage people
to stay vigilant, keep calling the hotline if you see activity.
Now I want you to realize what they're doing. They've
created a telephone line so people who have done something
illegal can report that law enforcement is coming. And that

(01:21:08):
feels pretty bold, pretty bold.

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
So I was a little.

Speaker 1 (01:21:14):
Bit shocked by this and the very sympathetic nature of
this particular story about how terrible this is. You know,
I feel bad that there are people who are going
to be swept up in this that have been here
for a long time and haven't done anything else wrong.
I'm sorry about that, but ultimately we've got to do

(01:21:35):
something to fix that. I just don't know, Mandy. People
started calling the hotline, making false reports of ice and
different locations throughout the city doing these raids. You know,
here's the thing. Some of those people are probably just jerks,
but some of these people are.

Speaker 2 (01:21:47):
Probably legitimately scared.

Speaker 1 (01:21:49):
I just find the fact that the hotline exists at
all questionable, and I mean really questionable. When we get back,
I'm going to be joined by Damien Maldonado. He's not
just the founder of American Financing. He's also got an
incredible story, an American success story if there ever was any.

Speaker 2 (01:22:07):
And now he's come.

Speaker 1 (01:22:08):
Back to Puerto Rico to do some of the good
things he did in the States in Puerto Rico and
we're going to talk to him about that. No, we
do not have a line to call to write out
the illegals textor we.

Speaker 2 (01:22:21):
Do not have that. That is not a.

Speaker 1 (01:22:24):
Not a thing at all anyone. We're gonna take a
quick time out geting news, traffic and weather. Back after this,
keep it on KOA show broadcasting live beautiful Send one
Puerto Rico. Thanks to our friends in American Financing who,

(01:22:45):
after building their Colorado based company helping people get mortgages. Damien,
who is from Puerto Rico, we're gonna hear more of
that story in a second, decided to come back down
here and do some magic here, kind of like the
magic he did in the community in Colorado. Damian Maldonado,
welcome to the show. Thank you, thank you for thank
you for being here. By the way, I love how
oh yeah, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:23:05):
Been so tough this week.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
It's been such a drag with the beach and the
spicy margaritas and the really good food and the beautiful student.
It's been a real labor Damien. No, I'm just kidding.
It has been absolutely fantastic. So, Damien, a lot of
people know about American Financing.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
I talk about him all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:23:25):
Let's talk about you for a little bit, because you
are literally like you're the great, You're the American Dream.
Like the story that you've created has been the American dream.
Tell me a little bit about how it got started.
Like you were born in Puerto Rico.

Speaker 2 (01:23:37):
Yeah, thank you all. I'm born in New York.

Speaker 22 (01:23:40):
Actually, then when my parents separated, it end up in
Colorado and that's where we opened up American Financing in
ninety nine.

Speaker 2 (01:23:45):
But yeah, actually born there.

Speaker 1 (01:23:47):
We just jumped through a whole bunch of stuff, right,
I mean, your parents did not come from money. I
heard that you actually lived in a homeless shelter for
a while.

Speaker 22 (01:23:54):
We did, in the Samaritan House in downtown Denver. I
was like when I was eleven or ten, but I
didn't realize it. We're homeless, Like they have these rooms
where you can get free stuff. They're like, oh wow,
this is great.

Speaker 1 (01:24:03):
So you didn't realize how bad it was.

Speaker 2 (01:24:07):
It wasn't that bad. I think it was all perception.

Speaker 22 (01:24:09):
I think had I not gone through that, maybe I
wouldn't have been as hungry.

Speaker 2 (01:24:12):
So I think it was like kind of lessing to disguise.
Maybe I don't know, but it was. It was.

Speaker 22 (01:24:15):
It was great that there's those type of things in
the US that you could actually like get back on
your feet.

Speaker 1 (01:24:20):
Right, So when did you How old were you and
started American Financing.

Speaker 2 (01:24:24):
Twenty twenty twenty one? Oh my god?

Speaker 1 (01:24:27):
I mean I knew you were young, because you're still young.
It's you know, I had no idea it was that young. Like,
how do you when you're nineteen or twenty, how do
you decide to be the guy who's going to start
a mortgage company? How did that even come about?

Speaker 2 (01:24:38):
My brother got me reading these books. I'm a big book.

Speaker 22 (01:24:41):
You're awakening a giant within that's like kind of like
before that, I wanted to be a garbage man, and
like my buddy was like fifteen dollars an hour hanging
out drinking beer with your friends and like, and then
I read that book and I'm like, Wow, you control
your brain. You could do whatever you want and you
could create whatever you want. I'm like, oh, I got
to do that. So it was like we used to
promote hel to fitness clubs and basically around the country
and also you know, thirty some states Australia and New Zealand, England.

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
Then we learned how to market things.

Speaker 22 (01:25:07):
And then he got me a job at a mortgage
company called Terra Funding at the time.

Speaker 2 (01:25:11):
I think they've went out of business since then.

Speaker 22 (01:25:13):
And then we took those things that we learned marketing
health and fitness clubs and put in the mortgages and
then we.

Speaker 2 (01:25:19):
Like you know, slowly grew up. But it took a
really really long time.

Speaker 22 (01:25:21):
You know, we've been in business a long time, and
he's focused on the customer, focused.

Speaker 1 (01:25:25):
On doing the right thing and right what are the
interesting things that's happened this week? And you know, I
was sitting in a group of people, but you were
talking to someone I believe who worked for you, and
you were having a conversation about a location change, and
and you asked this this other young man and you said, well,
who is that good for you or the customer? And
it was an interesting point in question, but I think

(01:25:45):
it goes kind of the heart of why you are
successful because it is not about making it easier for you.
It's about making it easier.

Speaker 2 (01:25:52):
For the customer.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
Where did that come from? Where did that thought process
come from?

Speaker 22 (01:25:56):
You know, I'm sure you've been in restaurants and you're like, man,
I would do this differently, and I do that.

Speaker 2 (01:26:01):
I've done that all over this island.

Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
Let me just say, Portorrican service in restaurants is slow.

Speaker 2 (01:26:07):
It is very slow.

Speaker 1 (01:26:08):
And I was yeah, I was a former restaurant manager.
So it's been like, okay, just deep breaths, I'm starving.
I gotta have a snack before I go out to dinner.

Speaker 22 (01:26:15):
Yeah, I love Puerto Rico. But yeah, people will stop
in the middle of road say hi to their.

Speaker 2 (01:26:19):
Friends while you're behind them in the car, and you're like,
and they're just chatting around. So it's just as island time.
It's a different vibe. And then you know when you
get when you.

Speaker 22 (01:26:26):
Lawyer your hirer and you go, okay, it's cool, I'm here,
I'm enjoying it. So but no, but like you know,
being in restaurants, you're like, I could do that different.
Then I always just put myself in that position. I'm like, wow,
why are they doing it this way? And then luckily,
when you own.

Speaker 2 (01:26:38):
That business, you can say, hey, can we please do
it this way? Well, you guys have seen a lot
of ups and downs.

Speaker 1 (01:26:43):
I mean, your mortgage business obviously is deeply affected by
the housing market. It's been it's been an interesting couple
of years in terms of people buying houses and doing refs.
But you guys are always innovating on what can we
do next to make this, to help this customer to
do this. And I think that's one of the reasons
that to your point, the first mortgage company you worked
for is out of business. How do you constantly like,

(01:27:04):
I mean, you have a challenge. Do you ever just
get tired of it? Do you ever just get like
that's it, I'm giving up? Or is it something that
just drives you to solve the problems as they pop up.

Speaker 22 (01:27:13):
Well, I'm constantly inspired by you know, different business people,
and I'm reading books and I'm reading stories and like
just learning. And I think, you know, either you're going
forward or going backwards. There's no standing still. The world's
moving forward. So you have to move forward and learn
as much as you can and focus on like, hey,
you know we just have to be better than ourselves.
I don't even know focus on the competition. I'm like,
how do we become better? How do we get our
team better? And I have great teams, so like they

(01:27:35):
inspired me. So if I have meetings, they're like, they're
give me ideas and we're talking about how how do
we do things better? And we're constantly that's our conversations.
How do we make the customer experience better? How do
we make it better for employees? And that's you know,
that's the only way to a business. And if you're
not doing that, I think you're kind of slowly dying.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
Now you are a big kite surfer, so let's talk
about how you ended up with a kite surfing hotel
in Puerto Rico.

Speaker 2 (01:27:58):
What what was what? What what happened there?

Speaker 20 (01:28:01):
Well?

Speaker 22 (01:28:01):
I met my partner Dylan and pilot Carmon in Mexico
and he had a kite school and I was having
some of my friends learn how to kite and then
his hotel he was behind kind of like decided to
stop doing that program. So I'm like, hey, we should
look at a kite open up a high school.

Speaker 1 (01:28:14):
We're looking all.

Speaker 22 (01:28:14):
Around the Caribbean and we were in we were in
the Dominican Republic in Cabarette, and then all of a sudden,
my buddy goes, hey, what about Perto Rico.

Speaker 2 (01:28:21):
I'm like, how do I not even think about? Wait,
you know what that is.

Speaker 1 (01:28:25):
I'm gonna tell you Puerto Rico has a marketing problem.
They really have a marketing problem. Because Mike and I
were talking this like, there's like been so many things
that have just been so surprising, and I feel like
no one knows about Puerto Rico and the United States.

Speaker 22 (01:28:40):
Yeah, you know, well, it's a challenge because Puerto Rico
is like one of those I love Puerto Rico, but
the government's not the most friendly with permits and they
don't make it the easiest and they don't where We're
the only beach bar in Puerto Rico now Monuana, and
it's like.

Speaker 2 (01:28:53):
There should be a whole bunch of beach bars. Yeah,
it's crazy, and.

Speaker 22 (01:28:55):
It's just like a little bit like difficult to do
business here.

Speaker 1 (01:28:57):
Okay, Now, Dan, I'm gonna give you a tip from
washing Pot politics. You don't want any more to beach bars,
So you want to be the guy who says no
more beach bars.

Speaker 5 (01:29:05):
Not to No, I'm just kidding, because you're a monopoly.

Speaker 2 (01:29:07):
I love. I love all about opportunities. It should be
like there's place, there's play space for everybody.

Speaker 22 (01:29:11):
Right, It's like all tides rides together, or both rides
together with the tides, and like, I believe in.

Speaker 2 (01:29:14):
That, So I think it's great.

Speaker 22 (01:29:16):
It should be more like that, like I think, but
it is this old school money. I'm like new money here.
It's like this is a different vibe that I bring in.
What's alre here?

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
Well, and I do think that that is that's definitely
a cultural difference. I mean, I was talking to one
of your wonderful people here and we were talking about
the power like they're really their power grid is in
a bad way and they've got to do something about that.
And I said, I think that would drive me crazy,
and she said, well, it's just kind of a sign
to go to the beach for a little bit and
like chill. Well, so that's definitely a cultural difference than

(01:29:46):
what we would have in the United States, where we
would all be running around trying to find someone to
plug in, you know.

Speaker 22 (01:29:51):
So it's not all bad, no, you get used to it.
Like her after Hurricane Marina. I was like obviously exclaming
destaining for the island, but people got used to like
when the power goes out, it's like normal, you don't
even think about it. But everybody's like the complaints like,
oh man, no power, no water, and like so what
it's like fine, like I got the beach right there.

Speaker 1 (01:30:07):
Wait a minute, I should be clear. We we most
most resorts probably have generators now, so it's not like
if you come down here as a tourist, you're going
to be sitting in the dark.

Speaker 2 (01:30:16):
That's not how things are going.

Speaker 1 (01:30:18):
But I want to talk a little bit about kitesurfing
because I didn't do it this time. I didn't try
it this time because I was like the last thing
my work ethic would not allow me to like hurt
myself when I knew I had to do a show
the next day. But what is it about kitesurfing? And
explain what kitesurfing is? For somebody who is, you know,
in Colorado about to go skiing, what has no idea
what kitesurfing is.

Speaker 22 (01:30:37):
Kite surf is my favorite sport and I recommend it
to everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:30:40):
Is basically you're getting pulled by a kite.

Speaker 22 (01:30:42):
On a board like for those stoneboarders out there in Denver.
You know, it's a twin tip type of board, so
you can go bi directionally, go either side.

Speaker 2 (01:30:49):
And your wind. The wind is pulling the kite and
it's pulling you and you could.

Speaker 1 (01:30:53):
Kite is literally like a little mini parachute. Yeah, that's
what it is, a little mini pair shoe. And where
is it attached to your body? Because it looks like
a lot of upper upper body strength thing to.

Speaker 22 (01:31:02):
Me, No, you have, you have a waste harness and
your It's very gentle sport. Like to jump and do
certain types of tricks, you have to have a little
bit more strength, but otherwise it's a very passive sport.

Speaker 2 (01:31:12):
You can chill it once you learn how after. It's
not that easy.

Speaker 1 (01:31:15):
Yeah, I mean it looks it looks a little challenging.
But I talked to multiple people this this morning that
were older than me that are out there kite surving. Yeah.

Speaker 22 (01:31:23):
I mean, I'm one of my good friends. Richard Branson's
seventy four years old and he kites.

Speaker 2 (01:31:27):
We've kited.

Speaker 1 (01:31:28):
Is not normal, Like you can't use Richard Branson as
a normal seventy four year old, like you can't do that.

Speaker 22 (01:31:34):
I mean, I think he should be a He's an
example for the world of what you can do, and
I think people should follow that. Like I preach up
because whenever somebodys talking about their age, I'm like Richard
seventy four, I've climbed on block with him.

Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
What are you doing? And I say that with kite too.
If you're not kiting and you live in Puertrico, what
are you doing with your life? Damien Maldonado is my guest.
Well we get back, I'm gonna I gotta take a
quick time.

Speaker 1 (01:31:53):
Out, but I want to talk about this space, the
space that we're in right now, and sort of the
dreams and aspirations that you have to create more opportunity
here in Puerto Rico. We'll be right back after this
on Kwa one of the founders of American financing and

(01:32:14):
now he is back in Puerto Rico and really doing
some really cool stuff down here. So you came down
here to open the kite surfing school that we just
went over. And by the way, what is the kite?
What is it when you only have like a little
baby kite? You don't have the big string with the parachute.

Speaker 2 (01:32:32):
What's the little baby kite.

Speaker 1 (01:32:33):
That you hold onto.

Speaker 2 (01:32:33):
What is that? That's wingfoiling? Wing foiling, wingfoiling. It's a
great sport.

Speaker 22 (01:32:39):
So there's multiple different types of boards of foil that
has a bottom wing on the bottom and kind of floats.

Speaker 2 (01:32:45):
You go three times the speed of wind that.

Speaker 1 (01:32:48):
I'm not gonna lie. That just sounds terrifying to me
at this point in my life. But I'll try it
next time I'm down.

Speaker 2 (01:32:52):
Here for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:32:53):
Let's talk about so now you have the new Maruno
Beach Hotel. Now did the kite's school come first or
did the hotel come first?

Speaker 22 (01:33:01):
Well, the hotel was already there and we bought it
about six seven years ago in order to make it
a kay surfing school.

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
The whole goal of moving to Puerto Rico was to
open up a ky surferce school.

Speaker 22 (01:33:11):
Luckily, we found this property that is now owno and
we didn't even know what we were buying when we
bought it and ended up being just one of the
coolest spots.

Speaker 1 (01:33:17):
It's a super cute little property.

Speaker 2 (01:33:19):
It's a small hotel.

Speaker 1 (01:33:21):
It's like clean and comfy right on the beach. I've
had my workstation, which you need to put a little
NUMERA Owned workstation plaque right above that little little thing
right there. It's just been Your staff is fantastic. The
spicy margaritas are literally the best spicy margarita I have
ever in my life. Hat I got to show me
how to make them today with just incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:33:42):
But what are we sitting in right now?

Speaker 1 (01:33:44):
We're sitting in this beautiful studio that's like loungey and
you know, people can come down record stuff. What are
we doing in this building over here which is a
little bit off the beach.

Speaker 22 (01:33:54):
So I chat gdp'd like a media company. I'm like,
it's basically content creation. So we're basically building content creation
to do movies, podcasts. So you know, I'm sure those
you've heard of tiny desks. We want to do a
tiny desk of podcasts. So when people are recording in
Puerto Rico, they come, they see this background and will
change it up for different uh, like yourself, and people
are coming to do their show here. And then we

(01:34:16):
have housing. I have about sixty eighty rooms in this area.
I haven't counted in a while, but so you could
just come bring your toothbrush, be productive and have a
cool environment. And that's the goal here is like to
do different content creation from movies to videos to podcasts.

Speaker 1 (01:34:30):
Aside from those kinds of opportunities, how much.

Speaker 2 (01:34:34):
Of this is also about sort of.

Speaker 1 (01:34:36):
Amplifying Puerto Rico.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
Well, I love Puerto Rico.

Speaker 22 (01:34:39):
I think the way you fix world problems my opinion
as jobs and by creating jobs.

Speaker 2 (01:34:46):
Everybody, you know, what's that saying? The given Yeah, give
them an official fish for a day, teach them to fish.

Speaker 22 (01:34:51):
Yeah yeah, And that's my kind of philosophy and life.
It's all about creating jobs and creating cool things. But
the majority is like just building something to do cool
stuff with people.

Speaker 2 (01:35:00):
And that's the plan. I don't have a business plan,
have being it down and we're figuring it out as
we go.

Speaker 1 (01:35:06):
So what if somebody wanted to come down and be
a part of this, how would they even go about that?

Speaker 2 (01:35:12):
Well? For no, no, for the Booty hotel dot com.
Check that out.

Speaker 22 (01:35:16):
And if you want to get kite surfing lessons, which
I highly recommend, and by the way, is a green
sport once you know how like skiing is great, I
love it, but you need a ski lift. You need
to go to the resort. Kiting, you just need wind
and your kite and once you know how the world
is your oyster, you go kite all over the world.
You could travel with the gear or all the water
is a giant playground.

Speaker 2 (01:35:33):
So yeah, because the.

Speaker 1 (01:35:34):
Gear kind of folds up, I mean the are the
wards inflatable.

Speaker 22 (01:35:38):
No, but you put it in like a golf bag,
like you see people traveling golf bags, and.

Speaker 1 (01:35:42):
So basically like a snowboard back to you as well. Okay,
so it's about the same size. So I put the links.
By the way, not only can you Maruno Beach Hotel,
but also your Airbnb page. They have some condos that
are right upstairs that are beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:35:58):
I mean they are so gorgeous.

Speaker 1 (01:36:00):
And we sat out on the patio last night with
Willy b and his wife and we laughed and had
a great time and it was just fantastic. Damian Maldonado,
you're like building an empire, but like the most chill, cool,
laid back empire in the history of empires.

Speaker 2 (01:36:16):
I'm here for it. It is.

Speaker 1 (01:36:18):
I mean, you know, I've enjoyed the heck out of it,
so I can't wait.

Speaker 2 (01:36:21):
Honestly, I can't wait to see what comes next. Well,
I'm excited to have you guys back.

Speaker 22 (01:36:25):
It's been awesome having you guys really nursing yourself like.

Speaker 2 (01:36:28):
It's been great. I think we've all loved it.

Speaker 1 (01:36:31):
We've just all loved it. It's just been a really
great experience, saying thanks for stopping by today.

Speaker 3 (01:36:34):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:36:35):
All right, we'll be back with news, traffic, and weather
to wrap things up. And Zach has promised to give
Chuck and me a really easy Jeopardy category after the
week we've had playing off today.

Speaker 2 (01:36:45):
That's all coming up next right here on KOA.

Speaker 1 (01:36:55):
Question the beginning of the show.

Speaker 2 (01:36:57):
And I want to ask you guys this to kind
of kick things off for the weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:37:01):
A lot has happened since Monday when President Donald Trump
was sworn into office, and I want to know from
you guys, what is your favorite thing that the new
Trump administration has done? What is your least favorite thing
that the Trump administration has done?

Speaker 2 (01:37:18):
And we will get into that in just a few minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:37:21):
I got a bunch of stuff on the blog today
that I'm going to not get to, but I want
to throw this out here.

Speaker 2 (01:37:27):
I have a.

Speaker 1 (01:37:28):
Video of Washington, DC reacting to Trump ordering federal workers
back to the office. And I think this is significant.
And we have an article I believe from the Colorado
sunt let me pull it up real quick. Yeah, and
there are forty five thousand federal employees throughout Colorado. Not

(01:37:49):
all of them are in the Denver metro, but most
of them are in Alpasso County to be honest, because
you have Fort Carson down there and Space Force was
you know whatever. But a significant number of them do
work in downtown Denver, and by forcing them back.

Speaker 2 (01:38:05):
Into the office, we could.

Speaker 1 (01:38:07):
Give downtown Denver a little shot in the arm when
it comes to traffic.

Speaker 20 (01:38:11):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:38:11):
I talked about the fact that the.

Speaker 1 (01:38:14):
Federal employees are turn that off for right now turn
his mic offer right now now.

Speaker 2 (01:38:19):
I canna hear you breathing. It's just distracting.

Speaker 1 (01:38:23):
The Getting people back into downtown is part of dealing
with the crime. I mean it is, well, the more
people that are downtown, the more activity is downtown, and
the less likely that someone will be walking down the
street by themselves and be victimized. So this could actually
be a shot in the arm for a lot of
downtowns that have struggled over the last few years since COVID,

(01:38:47):
and I think this is a great idea. Mandy ordering
government workers back to the office is my least favorite thing.
I think that's been a great shift in the American workforce.
I have bad news for you to It's been a
shift in the American workforce, but it has not been
a shift in corporate America. And I think after this,

(01:39:08):
the federal government or workers being ordered back into the office,
I think you are about to see a slew of
companies the issue return to work orders pretty soon. And
you know, I have mixed feelings about this because I
really enjoyed working from home simply because I got, you know,
an hour of my life back just in the commute

(01:39:28):
every day. But I also enjoy being in studio. I
enjoy being in studio. I like having a rod right there.
So I've been back in the office now for like
two years, and I understand why people love working from home,
because it's awesome. But corporations have rented all of this
real estate and it's sitting empty. And I think it's

(01:39:49):
only a matter of time now. Large corporations who have
giant workforces can afford to lose x amount of percentage
of people that are going to quit. But the problem
is finding another remote job is becoming more and more challenging.
So that is going to put a kink in the well.

Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
If they make me go back to the office, I'm
just going to quit for some people.

Speaker 1 (01:40:15):
So I think that the generous work from home policies
are going.

Speaker 2 (01:40:21):
To be gone.

Speaker 1 (01:40:22):
But I do think that this is a big opportunity
for smaller companies. Smaller companies who are constantly competing with
bigger companies.

Speaker 2 (01:40:31):
For the best talent, but they can't pay.

Speaker 1 (01:40:33):
The same in wages, they don't have the same awesome benefits.
But what they can do is say, but we don't
care where you work, as long as you're working and
you're getting things done. I'm one of those people. I
don't like to be micromanaged. And when I've had jobs
in the past where I had goals and I had
to achieve certain things, I always made sure that I
not only did those things, but I went beyond those things,

(01:40:55):
because that's how I roll. I'm not a do the
bare minimum kind of person, but I don't like being micromanaged.
And my thinking is, if I'm getting everything done and
even exceeding expectations, and I want to keep working from home.
I don't understand why any company would simply not say
working from home is a benefit that must be earned.
You must be in the top twenty percent of producers,

(01:41:18):
or the top whatever, whatever the metric is in your industry.
I think work from home should be something that you
should be able to earn, because the more successful and
more productive you are, the harder it.

Speaker 2 (01:41:30):
Is to argue that this is a necessary thing.

Speaker 1 (01:41:33):
But all that being said, it could be a shot
in the arm that downtown needs. I had a story
this morning. I didn't put it on the blog. I
read it this morning. San Francisco real estate prices have
dropped twenty percent in the city.

Speaker 2 (01:41:46):
That is huge, And.

Speaker 1 (01:41:48):
It all happened because San Francisco didn't do anything to
arrest its death spiral when they were in the.

Speaker 2 (01:41:53):
Middle of it.

Speaker 1 (01:41:55):
And Denver is fighting a lot of the same battles.
Although it is so much better in downtown Denver than
it had has been so much better last time I
was down there. Thankfully I didn't get stabbed on the
sixteenth Street mall, but it was just cleaner. It was
just better than it has been in a long time.
So maybe we've arrested our spiral. But having a bunch
more people in downtown.

Speaker 2 (01:42:15):
Is definitely going to be a positive.

Speaker 1 (01:42:17):
Mandy. Let's face it, most people who work from home
are much less productive. Go back to the office. I
don't believe that. I don't believe that most people. I
know that some people are not And why would you
want someone who's not productive.

Speaker 2 (01:42:32):
Period on your team? Right?

Speaker 1 (01:42:35):
So, I mean I know people that are extremely productive.
I do all of my show prep at home because
I am so not productive.

Speaker 2 (01:42:44):
In the office.

Speaker 1 (01:42:46):
I heartread in our offices, and now we have low cubicles,
and so now I hear everybody else. Everybody talks to
me because I'm entertaining. I am far less productive in
the office when I come in to do my show
because I like having the back and forth and the
energy of being in the studio. Mandy, company I work
for already leased out all that office space. There you go, Mandy,

(01:43:08):
My favorite is closed borders. Yes, Mandy love the willingness
of a president who is not afraid to answer questions.
Not a big fan of renaming landmarks and bodies of water.
That just seemed kind of silly to me. I'm not
gonna lie like that's the biggest thing we have to
worry about. That's the thing, Mandy. I know you watch
a lot of HGTV. On many shows featuring couple's house

(01:43:30):
hunting in the tropics. Many are federal government employees looking
for new digs so they can work remotely. Not anymore,
Not anymore. Most people, says this Texter, are not self
motivated enough to work from home. They are slackers, and
they will slack. I don't agree with the most people thing.

Speaker 2 (01:43:52):
I just don't.

Speaker 1 (01:43:53):
I mean, in every office.

Speaker 2 (01:43:54):
Let's be real, in the office.

Speaker 1 (01:43:56):
If you're in the office right now, I guarantee you that,
if you've thought about it for just a couple of minutes,
you could tell me exactly who the slackers in your
office are.

Speaker 2 (01:44:03):
The people that are underproducing.

Speaker 1 (01:44:05):
The people who expect others to pick up their messes.
There's always those people, But I never think they are
most because if they are, if most people are slackers
that have to be micromanaged, what kind of workforce do
you have, how are you supposed to be successful? The
only way to be successful in business is to hire
people that you trust to do the right thing. You

(01:44:28):
cannot spend all of your time and energy checking the
work of the people that are working for you and
expect to grow in any significant way.

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
You just can't. It's a terrible way.

Speaker 1 (01:44:39):
To run a business, just terrible, Mandy. Companies that companies
that that want workers in the office so they can't
do two jobs remotely. That is something that has happened, Mandy.
My husband works from home and is super productive. The
only problem is that sometimes he goes back after dinner
to the basement and works until late at night. My

(01:45:01):
guess is that your husband would probably do that anyway.
I do like that. I have a separate space in
my house that is away from everything else. Right, so
when I'm done working, I can stand up, I leave that,
and it's like I am off work. I'm you know,
it is a physical change that sort of enforces that

(01:45:22):
you are off work.

Speaker 2 (01:45:24):
Mandy.

Speaker 1 (01:45:26):
Let me scroll up here, the scrolling scrolling.

Speaker 2 (01:45:32):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:45:33):
The largest federal employee site in Colorado is the Federal
Center in Lakewood. So there you go, Mandy. When is
Trump going to move Space Force to Alabama? Baby killers
do not deserve to be rewarded.

Speaker 2 (01:45:44):
I don't know. I don't know what the what the
situation with Space Force is. Mandy my bu bu bu buh.

Speaker 1 (01:45:53):
It's great to see a president who was actually out there,
being visible, doing things, visiting area is suffering from natural disasters,
and not hidden behind the walls of the White House.
Simply put, it's nice to have a real president. I
saw an article this morning on x dot com and
it was an interview with a reporter from somewhere I
don't know. I had a volume down, but he was

(01:46:16):
saying that he's been covering the Biden White House.

Speaker 2 (01:46:18):
I'd never seen this guy before.

Speaker 1 (01:46:20):
I think he's a foreign reporter, but he said he
covered the Biden White House. And he was told that
when the president was in the White House, there was
a marine stationed outside the Oval Office, and he said
something to the effect of, I can't remember the last
time I saw a marine stationed outside the Oval Office.
And yet every day this week, from morning till night,

(01:46:40):
there's been a marine outside the Oval Office.

Speaker 2 (01:46:43):
Just having somebody on the job is nice.

Speaker 1 (01:46:46):
Mandy, I met Jeffrey Tuban wishes he never worked from home. No,
I think all of his colleagues wish he had never
worked from home. If you know what that's about. I'm
not going to explain that to you, graphic designer. Here,
working in the office is distracting and unnecessary, and I
think a lot of people feel the same way.

Speaker 2 (01:47:05):
I know it is. It is, and especially if you're
in tech and you're doing one.

Speaker 1 (01:47:10):
Section of a project, you don't necessarily need to keep
it with people on a regular basis. That being said,
graphic designer, there is value to being in the office.
There really is, because you have these moments of collaboration
or conversation. You're walking by someone in the hall and
they remember that they wanted to ask you about something
or whatever. So there's things that happen in the office

(01:47:31):
that cannot happen working remotely.

Speaker 2 (01:47:33):
You just can't.

Speaker 1 (01:47:35):
One of the reasons I asked to have my desk
where I have it at iHeart is because I'm in
the middle of all the salespeople. Do you know what
that does when they have a new client, Guess who
they're looking at me?

Speaker 2 (01:47:46):
So there are.

Speaker 1 (01:47:47):
Valuable things, especially I think for young employees maybe you've
not been in the workforce very long, especially if you
came into the workforce in COVID, you need to spend
some time in the office, because that's going to help
you get FaceTime with people, go help you get promoted.
It's going to help you understand the office culture of
the company culture better faster than if you're all doing
everything remotely would in my mind, you would not regret

(01:48:11):
spending some more time in the office in terms of
career growth and things of that nature. Least favorite Trump
says this Texter geographic stunts. Most moving on illegal immigration.

Speaker 2 (01:48:25):
This one.

Speaker 1 (01:48:25):
Can Trump initiate an executive order to keep daylight saving.

Speaker 2 (01:48:29):
Time all year? That would make me happy.

Speaker 1 (01:48:31):
No, it's going to require congressional authority, and there's big
discussion about whether to stay on standard time or whether
to stay on daylight saving time, And we'll see if
anything ever changes. Mandy, my wife, is an extreme introvert
and loves her three days working at home. She gets
way more work done as well being able to do
more around the house. The only unfortunate part is that
she's doing more in the evenings for work than she

(01:48:54):
used to when she was in the office the entire time.
But it's been very beneficial for her. I enjoy coming
to the office since it's mostly empty sanctuary. Yeah, I
mean there's on Fridays, you could fire a candidate. I
heart media and not hit a soul. There's always two guys.

Speaker 2 (01:49:15):
Bob is in there, Joel's in there, something like. That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:49:18):
There's nobody else at the studio on Friday. It's quiet,
very very quiet, Mandy. I think that when first, when
folks first work from home after the pandemic, they were
more diligent. But the attitude has become more casual about
really working eight hours.

Speaker 2 (01:49:35):
But if they're getting their work done, does it matter?

Speaker 1 (01:49:39):
And I genuinely feel that way, like, if you're getting
eight hours worth of work done in five hours, then
who is who should be busting your chops about that?
You should never be punished for being more productive. You
should be rewarded with more time off. But that's just me, Mandy.
My son has always worked from home. Now his company
doesn't have an office in Denver. Well, that's convenient, Mandy.

(01:50:00):
I have friends of mine who are CEOs of companies
and they tell me, unfortunately, so many people are working
remotely and they're actually getting overlooked for promotions because it's
kind of out of sight, out of mind, so to speak.
That's exactly what I'm talking about, Mandy, why not go
to a hybrid part at home part in the office.
A lot of companies have already done that. I think
that you're going to see more more days in the

(01:50:21):
office than not coming very very soon.

Speaker 2 (01:50:24):
Mandy.

Speaker 1 (01:50:25):
Did you see the smackdowns head Cruise gave to the
DEI garbage at Ncar and Boulder.

Speaker 2 (01:50:29):
I did not, but I will look it up.

Speaker 1 (01:50:32):
And when I was in college, I'm a professor who
did not collect more great homework. Guess what few did
it first exam? Ninety percent failed. Yep, yep, Mandy. Make
me come back to the office and I'll just use
my mental health days. Use too many mental health days,

(01:50:54):
and you'll be fired ultimately when you work for someone else,
unless you have the only set.

Speaker 2 (01:51:01):
Of skills of its kind, and no one else in
the entire.

Speaker 1 (01:51:05):
World possesses those sets of skills, and you are such
a unique individual that you absolutely cannot be replaced. And
here's a news slash that person doesn't exist. One thing
a boss told me a really, really long time ago
was that everyone in every.

Speaker 2 (01:51:22):
Job is replaceable.

Speaker 1 (01:51:24):
And if you don't believe me, see what happens when
someone dies or quits at your company. How fast do
they do? They stand around and go, well, we're not
gonna be able to fire and find anybody who.

Speaker 2 (01:51:33):
Does what Bob does.

Speaker 1 (01:51:34):
They're like, get the link on indeed dot com. We
got to hire somebody to take care of this. Mandy,
my son is a pilot and cannot work from home.

Speaker 2 (01:51:42):
Lol. I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:51:44):
In the near future, he probably could be. He can
sit inside a little cubicle whatever, and he can fly
a plane using a joystick and there won't actually be
a pilot on the plane. That thatta find disconcerting because
if I'm gonna die in a plane crash, the pilot better.

Speaker 2 (01:52:00):
Be with me. That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:52:05):
Mandy, can you check into why your program from yesterday
did not make it into a podcast?

Speaker 2 (01:52:09):
Thanks?

Speaker 1 (01:52:09):
I do not know, but likely because I'm doing a
little bit of a producer shuffle because a Rod had
to work the morning shift this week.

Speaker 2 (01:52:17):
So I'm guessing it.

Speaker 1 (01:52:18):
Was just just that.

Speaker 2 (01:52:21):
Just up.

Speaker 1 (01:52:21):
My boss's boss just sent me a text that said,
I'm in on Fridays.

Speaker 2 (01:52:27):
You and two other people.

Speaker 1 (01:52:29):
You go fire a can, a can and Brenda and
see how many people get hit.

Speaker 2 (01:52:33):
You will not. But she isn't there. I'm just saying
I'm in there anyway, Mandy.

Speaker 1 (01:52:40):
Many people, including me, didn't realize that renaming the Golf
of America let Trump bypass the Biden executive order prohibiting
drilling in the Golf of Mexico, except he rescinded that
executive order. That executive order is done.

Speaker 2 (01:52:53):
It's gone. It has no meaning.

Speaker 1 (01:52:56):
I just think it was a van anything the golf
of a mayor Uca. Lordy, have mercy. I don't think
that's ever gonna stick for me. Yep, Chuck has joined
us in the studio.

Speaker 2 (01:53:11):
Churn yourself on.

Speaker 19 (01:53:13):
Plea.

Speaker 2 (01:53:13):
You do it, Mike, make.

Speaker 1 (01:53:14):
Him get up, Make the old man get up, because
now it's time for the most exciting segment on the radio.

Speaker 2 (01:53:22):
On its Guy of the day.

Speaker 1 (01:53:28):
All right, I asked Sack to hear us an easy
trivia or a Jeopardy question, because we're so dumb on
these on this thing. I mean, we just stuck it up.
So here we go.

Speaker 2 (01:53:36):
What is our dad joke?

Speaker 3 (01:53:37):
Please, Zach dad joke of the day for you day?
I got a good one for you. I wanted to
keep it a little fiend for you guys. Got it?

Speaker 20 (01:53:48):
Is it?

Speaker 3 (01:53:48):
Okay, who won the decorating contest?

Speaker 1 (01:53:55):
The neck decorating contest.

Speaker 2 (01:53:57):
Oh it was a tie.

Speaker 3 (01:53:59):
Yeah it was.

Speaker 2 (01:54:01):
Oh god, that's a good one. I like it. I
like it a lot of the day.

Speaker 23 (01:54:07):
Please, yes, word of the day. This was a weird
one for me. Diverse spell it d I V E
R S diverse more than one diver.

Speaker 3 (01:54:21):
I thought the same thing.

Speaker 23 (01:54:22):
They're going with the adjective here, divers and adjective meaning
numbering more than one. And they specify, no, this isn't
a misspelling of the word diverse. It's it's very own word,
which seemingly has an identical definition.

Speaker 2 (01:54:37):
Well there you go, all right, so wonder English hard.

Speaker 1 (01:54:41):
Our trivia question today is which is the world's most
populated country containing a predominantly Muslim population. I believe I
know this.

Speaker 2 (01:54:52):
Oh yes, that what you think?

Speaker 3 (01:54:56):
Man, isn't it uh India?

Speaker 1 (01:55:00):
Nope, you want to take a shot, chuck.

Speaker 4 (01:55:02):
Yeah, I'm thinking.

Speaker 1 (01:55:02):
I'm literally looking at a map in my brain right now. No,
I believe it is Indonesia, but I'm a click at
right hand Indonesia. Indonesia has all of these islands, and
they are all densely populated, and they are predominantly Muslims,
so it is Indonesia. All right, what is our jeopardy
category here.

Speaker 3 (01:55:20):
Zach, Jeopardy category of the day.

Speaker 23 (01:55:25):
Here we are going with major League baseball team nicknames.

Speaker 3 (01:55:32):
Okay, Solid, I'll give you a nickname. You tell me the.

Speaker 1 (01:55:35):
Major league team by bombers many who are the Yankees?

Speaker 3 (01:55:41):
There you go? There you are? You get the gist?

Speaker 1 (01:55:44):
Yep, here we go.

Speaker 3 (01:55:45):
The number two the Halos.

Speaker 2 (01:55:49):
Mandy are the Angels?

Speaker 3 (01:55:52):
That's correct? Number three?

Speaker 1 (01:55:54):
Here the Redbirds, Mandy, you are the Cincinnati Reds.

Speaker 2 (01:56:00):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:56:00):
No, oh, no, Chuck? Who are the Cardinals?

Speaker 4 (01:56:04):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:56:05):
That is correct? Now we've got a one one.

Speaker 1 (01:56:07):
Tie Cincinnati Red Legs.

Speaker 3 (01:56:09):
That's correct?

Speaker 2 (01:56:10):
Dang it, crap.

Speaker 20 (01:56:12):
All right, key, we're here the Buckos, the Buccos, Manny, Yes,
who are the the the Buckos?

Speaker 2 (01:56:25):
Mandy?

Speaker 1 (01:56:25):
Who are the Texas Rangers?

Speaker 3 (01:56:27):
That is also incorrect.

Speaker 23 (01:56:28):
It is the Pirates, Chack, Now one the Buccaneers?

Speaker 2 (01:56:33):
Sang it? Now I'm losing again.

Speaker 3 (01:56:36):
All right, here we go. Last one for you guys,
the fighting.

Speaker 1 (01:56:40):
Fish Manny, who are the Marlins?

Speaker 3 (01:56:44):
That is correct? One one tie?

Speaker 2 (01:56:46):
Okay, I'm back on the board.

Speaker 1 (01:56:47):
We gotta have a tie breaker, real quick grab it
on the category.

Speaker 23 (01:56:49):
All right, uh uh notable or no, we're gonna go cereals.
We're gonna go cereals.

Speaker 2 (01:56:56):
Okay, serious, scientific cereals.

Speaker 3 (01:56:59):
Yeah, scientifically.

Speaker 23 (01:57:01):
Zia mays, this cereal grain originated in the Americas but
is today cultivated worldwide.

Speaker 1 (01:57:08):
Mandy, what is corn?

Speaker 3 (01:57:10):
That is correct?

Speaker 2 (01:57:11):
Mandy?

Speaker 3 (01:57:11):
What a combat?

Speaker 2 (01:57:12):
Yes, seriously, I was up, I was down. It was crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:57:17):
All right, guys, we will be back broadcasting from the
studio on Monday. Have a great weekend. We will be
traveling and coming back to snow so looking forward to that.
Not at all anyway, Keep it right here at Kaoe
Sports coming up next.

Speaker 2 (01:57:32):
Keep it on Koa