04-08-25 FULL SHOW - A Class For Civic Engagement, And Travel With Points And Miles

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bill and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell and.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Tonka n FM got way the Nicety us through Frey,
Andy Donald, Keith Nor Sad bab.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the show.
I'm your host for the next three hours. Yes, that's right,
another three hour show. I almost can't stand it. Mandy Connell, joined,
of course by Colorado Broadcaster Award Association Association Award winner
Anthony Rodriguez nay, and together we will take you right

(00:48):
through three pm, where our friends on KOA Sports may
have a little bit more information about the firing of
Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone. And I I am not
going to pretend to be up to speed on Nuggets basketball.

Speaker 5 (01:06):
I'm not a huge.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
NBA fan, Don't get me wrong, Like I root for
the Denver Nuggets to do well, but I don't watch
the games, so I'm not that person that's gonna watch
the game. So but I was thinking this a Rod
and I we're just talking about this off the air.
This is one of those things where, even if you
just watch any kind of sports, you realize the timing

(01:29):
of this firing is suspect, right. I mean, we are
trying to make the playoffs, which is terrible because the
Nuggets have had a fairly good season, but the last
month has been abysmal. I listened to KOA Sports enough
to know this, and rather than let them go into
the playoffs where a Rod seems to be pretty confident

(01:51):
that the word on the street is that they probably
won't make it out of the first round of the
playoffs even if they do make it. So I'm asking you,
guys that are NBA fans or that you have a theory,
even if you're not an NBA fan, I would like
to hear your theory on why Michael Malone was fired.

Speaker 6 (02:10):
Now.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
If you have good theories, I would love to see those.
If you have absurd theories, I would love to see
those even more, And you can text them to the
Common Spirit Health text line at five six six nine.

Speaker 7 (02:22):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
So there you go. You use less TP if you
put it on the roll the wrong way. That's a
throwback to Ross's conversation about the only way to properly
hang toilet paper, which is paper out.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
All of you paper in.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
People are crazy and inefficient, but there you go. Like
I said, the guys in the afternoon, by the time
they start in three hours may have an idea of
what went on, but I want to hear your theories
in the meantime. I mean, maybe they found out Michael
Malone was actually an alien.

Speaker 5 (02:58):
We don't know.

Speaker 8 (03:00):
Just hire them because we're the king of aliens.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
There you go, we are the king of aliens. That's
an excellent idea that would make sense more than most reasons.
Why good heavens three games left in the playoffs. I
some had to go down because I don't know if
anyone forgot. I know it's been a couple of years.
In the last month, it might be easy to forget.
The Nuggets did just win a title.

Speaker 6 (03:19):
They are above making a move like this at this
time Orlas they knew that the one hundred percent were
gonna get rid of them, and they know that David
Adelman is their next head coach because he's really good.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
I cannot disagree with any of that, but I'm curious
as to any of our listeners if they have maybe
they have inside baseball or basketball. I guess I should say,
or a better theory because it is the timing on.

Speaker 6 (03:40):
This you sign Russell Westbrook and everything goes downhill. The
most the one of, if not the most inefficient player
of all time now getting starters minutes and everything looks terrible.

Speaker 8 (03:50):
Yeah, so yeah, yeah, there you go, right, wat just
go on a run now.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
In any case, you can text us your theories at
five six six nine er. We'll get back to those
in a few minut and it's let's talk about what's
on the blog. Because the blog is incredibly important. I
spend a lot of time doing it every day. I
appreciate it if you just give it a look, see, give.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
It, give it a view.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
You find the blog by going to mandy'sblog dot com.
Then you go to latest posts and you look for
the headline that says, for a twenty five blog a
class spacific engagement and travel with points in miles. Click
on that and here are the headlines you will find
with it.

Speaker 6 (04:29):
Office South America all with ships and clipments.

Speaker 9 (04:31):
Of plant.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
Today on the blog, learn the right way to engage
with government? Want to travel for practically nothing. Congrats to
Jimmy Segenberger. Join the Gays against Groomers x Space tonight
at five point forty five. Aurora PD is woefully understaffed.
Democrat arrogance on display on transparency. Rockies do something smart?

(04:56):
Could loan Tree get the new Broncos Stadium. The artist
who did the tr paintings speaks out. A baby in
Denver has measles. The House has figured out a way
to let new moms vote. An interesting treatment for persistently
high cholesterol. Colorado keeps a dad from parenting his trans son.
The Dire Wolf is back. The legal fight against Trump's tariffs.

(05:17):
Texas is going after private Happy Time Fire Festival two
is going about as well as can be expected. When
baseball leads to a dark place, Walmart is messing with
people's emotions. Russell Brand admits what most of us already know.

Speaker 5 (05:33):
Ten signs your.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
Relationship rocks a restaurant discount for skinny people. What jobs
will AI kill in the next twenty years? We need
to treat Poland like the staunch ally they are. X
cracks down on parody accounts. The first baby is born
after a wound transplant. Cassabnita reservations are open again Monday.
Remember that time Obama created Doge and put Joe Biden

(05:57):
in charge.

Speaker 5 (05:58):
Those are the headlines on thel.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
At Mandy's blog dot com. And you guys have to
just go to the blog and scroll down to the
video at the very bottom of the blog. As a
matter of fact, they rod give me my computer audio.

Speaker 5 (06:11):
Please books here and I am going to share with you.
Bring it down just a little bit.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
I'm a talk over President Obama than President Obama for
just a moment. This came out in I don't even
know what year, this was twenty eleven. Maybe he is
talking about government waste and how much waste there is
in government, how they're going to go after and he
gives examples of stupid spending, and he puts guests who

(06:37):
Joe Biden in charge.

Speaker 5 (06:38):
Getting rid of Yeah, bring it up a little bit here.

Speaker 10 (06:40):
We have to a good start, yep.

Speaker 11 (06:42):
Over the last two years, we've pulled the plug on
all kinds of ridiculous practices. Apparently the government used to
overnight containers filled with nothing.

Speaker 8 (06:50):
Don't ask why that is.

Speaker 11 (06:52):
Sure, some of these cuts aren't that big, but no
amount of waste is acceptable, not when it's your money.
At a time when so many Americans are already cutting back,
just as families are living within their means government should too,
so we can invest in the things that we know
will create good jobs and grow the economy, things like
education and technology. Besides, after a while all these cuts

(07:16):
and up, already we've identified about thirty three billion dollars
in savings.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
Chiel, I'm going to stop it there, because not only
did he put Joe Biden in charge, and we all
know how that went. This little video is the perfect
punctuation mark to a conversation I had with a friend
the other day and we were talking about the protests
that happened over the weekend. There was a big one

(07:41):
in downtown Denver and it was the hands off protest.
We're a bunch of left wingers, most of them old,
and that is a point I'm going to come back
to in a moment. In Denver we had more young people.
But I spent like an hour and a half just
looking at coverage of these hands off events around the country,

(08:02):
and you know what, I saw, a bunch of old Democrats,
all of them had gray hair. Denver had more young
people at this at this protest than anywhere else that
I saw. But I'm talking to a friend of mine
and she says, why can't they just let him do
this stuff and see if it works. Let's just see, right,

(08:26):
let's see. And I said, but you have to understand.
People on the left firmly believe that they have the
answers to all of our problems. And you see it
happening right now in real time as the Democratic Party
is trying to find its footing nationally and they're trying
to find messaging. And I just saw an article I

(08:47):
think I put it on the block a couple of
days ago, where the Democrats honestly believe that the reason
people rejected them in the last election cycle is because
we just didn't understand their messaging. We didn't understand all
of the stuff they said to us, when in reality

(09:09):
we understood it.

Speaker 5 (09:11):
We just rejected it because it.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
Is out of line and out of step with what
a majority of Americans are going through in their daily lives.
It is not good messaging, no matter who delivers it,
it's not good. So the Democrats who think they have
the answers to all of our problems, if only we
just did what they said they were going, you know
what they are telling us to do. Look in Colorado
right now, the Democratic Party in Colorado just passed a

(09:37):
bill to use taxpayer money to sue the state, which
will be defended with taxpayer money.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
And they're suing the state to get rid of.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
The Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, which enjoys support at like
the seventy percent range in Colorado.

Speaker 5 (09:55):
Now, the Democrats are telling.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
Us, even though you tell us polling and protecting Taper
over and over again that you love Taber, we know better,
We know better than you. That's why we're gonna do
this anyway. We're gonna use your tax dollars to sue
over something you love, and we're gonna take it away

(10:17):
from you because we know better.

Speaker 5 (10:21):
And when I.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
Watched this video this morning of Barack Obama talking about
how they were gonna find all of this waste fraud
and abuse, and they had found thirty one billion dollars, y'all.

Speaker 5 (10:32):
Doats found that on the first day.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
And the reason people hate DOGE is because everybody says, everybody,
even Democrats, even President Barack Obama, says we've got to
ferret out waste fraud and abuse. But they don't like
it when someone actually does it, because they mean other
waste fraud and abuse. Right now in the United states.

(10:57):
Something is happening that I didn't think would happened is
my lifetime, and that is we are all taking a hit.
I don't know if you've checked your four oh one
k I wouldn't. If you were right now, I would not.
The Dow has rebounded slightly today, but it's not going
to get those gains back that we've lost last Friday.

(11:17):
But we're all taking a hit right now in the
service of something that is a revolutionary change. Now, I'm
not going to sit here and say that this revolutionary
change is what it is going to be going forward,
because I don't believe it is. I think you're going
to see tariff starting to get dropped in the next
ten days on certain countries. That being said, we're not

(11:41):
going to be able to write the ship in terms
of government spending until we all recognize that there can
be no sacred cows right. There can be nothing that's
off the table. And I'm it's you know, it's incredibly
unfortunate that people are going to be losing their jobs.
But the only way to shrink government is to shrink government.

(12:04):
And the biggest expense in government is labor. It's retirement benefits,
it's health care costs, it is salaries. It is the
biggest single expense in government because they don't produce anything.
It's not like they're buying materials to produce things. I
mean different departments may buy materials, like the military might
buy materials, but they're not producing things. So the biggest

(12:24):
cost is human beings. Right, It's terrible that people are
losing their jobs. It's terrible that our four to one
k's are taking a hit. Especially at fifty five. I
don't have as much time to recover as someone who
is a Rod's age, who will recover beautifully.

Speaker 5 (12:41):
But we are all.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
Being asked to sacrifice. We are all being asked to
do our part, and I think that a lot of
people on the left don't want to do any of that.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
And the willful.

Speaker 4 (12:53):
Ignorance that they show about the possibility of a debt
crisis and being unable to pay the interest on our
on our loans.

Speaker 5 (13:03):
Which is what would crash the world economy.

Speaker 4 (13:05):
I mean, this is this is not hyperbole, this is
this has all been done before, right, But we're finally
all kind of collectively saying, okay, we've we've got to
get this done now. The tariff thing. I understand where
Donald Trump is going. He's gotten commitments for people to
come back to the United States, but we're still never
going to have a renaissance of the manufacturing sector as

(13:27):
it existed before, with hundreds of people working on a
production line making something that's just not going to come
back at the level that it once was.

Speaker 5 (13:37):
But what will come back and what can.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
Come back are robotically run manufacturing lines. And guess what, guys,
robots have to be served by someone. So there's a
lot of different things going on right now, a lot
of different things. But don't forget there was a time
not that long ago that Democrats were proud to talk

(14:01):
about saving money. Democrats were proud to talk about Chuck Schumer.
I saw this the other day on X and I
didn't grab it, and I should have. Somebody posted video
of Chuck Schumer arguing for twenty five percent tariffs on China,
and this was early two thousands. So it's funny to
watch how people will flip their deeply held convictions. I'm

(14:23):
being sarcastic when I say deeply held convictions in order
to go with whatever's happening at this moment in time.

Speaker 5 (14:30):
So if you take into.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
Consideration that there is a section of the left. And
by the way, I hate saying the Democrats, because the
Democrats implies that if you are in the Democratic Party,
I'm talking about you. But that's not at all what
I'm talking about. I think there's a ton of rank
and file Democrats who are very moderate, center of the road.
They just want to be able to live their lives

(14:52):
with their families. They want to have a government that
functions properly. And I think everybody on the right wants
to have a government that functions properly. And yet there
are the people on the hard left who say they
just didn't understand our messaging. We just need to make
it better on social media. That is literally the strategy
that they're employing because they have to fight against Trump

(15:15):
because if he solves these problems and they don't, then
there's a huge, huge problem with their entire self image.
That is really predicated on their belief that they have
the answers. Now, as someone on the right, I believe
I have the answers, and there are lots of people

(15:38):
on the right that believe they have the answers, but
it's a lot harder to argue the answer should be
get your hands off my stuff rather than more intervention.
And I realize tariffs are a huge intervention, huge intervention.
So we are going to see what has happened right now.

(15:58):
I'm looking at a Trump tear response chart on Fox News.
There are multiple countries trying to negotiate, multiple countries offering concessions.
Canada and China have retaliated, the EU is talking about
possible retaliation, and Mexico has said, no, we're good, we
don't need to do anything. And I read a column

(16:22):
yesterday that was talking about Warren Buffett and Warren Buffert's
response to the tariffs, and it was an older column.
It was not about these tariffs, but Warren Buffert. I mean,
Warren Buffert is the voice of reason here. He is
the look, don't panic, the markets will come back. He's
the voice of reason here. But man, it's gotten really

(16:46):
challenging to just have a conversation about people and allowing
this to play.

Speaker 5 (16:52):
Out, because it's going to play out.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
It is absolutely playing out right now, and I think
within a couple of weeks we're gonna see which direction
this is going. So we shall see. I'll let you
know what the closes. The dal's up point five to
five percent, s and P's up point sixteen percent, and
Nasdaq is up like point oh four percent right now.
So perhaps today the bleeding is stopped and we'll find

(17:18):
out what happens next. In any case, on the show today,
we've got a lot of stuff going on. Kathleen Chandler
with the Independence Institute does these really great classes and
they're how to become a better citizen and become more
civically involved. And she's got one coming up called the
Citizen's Guide to Civic Involvement and it's a couple hours.

Speaker 5 (17:39):
It's a great thing.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
It's all online, so you don't even have to go
anywhere to take the class. And we're gonna have her
on at one to talk about that. And then I'm
super excited about our two thirty interview because there's an
app called Travel Freely and A Rod's going to give
us a little background on this. Why don't we do
that when we get back a Rod, because it's super
cool if you're a person who is using or who

(18:01):
has a bunch of credit card miles and points, or
someone who is interested in learning about points in miles travel.
You're definitely want to want to hear Zach Hood. He's
going to be here at two thirty to talk about
travel freely and excited about that because I got a
bunch of miles and I want to use the most
efficient way. And I just want to say a big,

(18:21):
big thank you or thank you, a big big congratulations
because over the weekend, our friend Jimmy Sagenberger asked his
longtime girlfriend, long suffering girlfriend, we should say Victoria to
be his bride and she said yes. So Jimmy and Victoria,
congratulations to you both. Yes, and may you not sing

(18:44):
the blues about your marriage going forward. So congratulations to Jimmy.
I just wanted to say we're so happy for him
to be joining the marriage club, which is, honestly, I
think the best club.

Speaker 5 (18:54):
We'll be right back.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
Let's talk about why Michael Malone got fired. Theories. Of course,
the guys three will dig in. I'm sure they're blazing
the phones up right now trying to get more information
for you, Mandy. When they talk about how much the
market is up or down each day, it makes no sense.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
How about the total numbers.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
Ag this morning open total number up, dollar amount up
or down from yesterday, so annoying. I have to go
to the Wall Street Journal to find out what the
starting and stopping numbers are and how misleading to scare
the uninitiated. And it is designed to scare the uninitiated.
I did thank you to the texture, and I would
I would say your name if I knew it, but

(19:33):
I don't.

Speaker 5 (19:34):
Who sent me the link? This link?

Speaker 4 (19:36):
Give me my computer audio, please, Anthony, this would be
a voice we all recognize Chuck Schumer, Senator Chuck Schumer,
a much younger man back in two thousand and five.
But listen to what Chuck Schumer had to say about
tariffs back then.

Speaker 9 (19:49):
It says to the Chinese enough already.

Speaker 8 (19:55):
It says to the.

Speaker 9 (19:56):
Chinese that they are unfair. Trade policies have got to end.
It says to the Chinese, this is a shot across
your bow. Reform because if you don't, there are going
to be dramatic consequences throughout the world, in our country

(20:18):
and in your country as well. The bottom line is
very simple, mister President. The Chinese have enjoyed a huge
trade surplus with the United States, as this chart shows,
every year it gets larger and larger and larger. Admittedly,
some of that trade surplus is part of the world

(20:42):
is due to the rules of free trade. But much
of that trade surplus is because the Chinese don't play fair.
They don't let our goods into their country. I can
tell you company after company in New York who cannot
sell goods in China or can only sell the goods
under certain conditions that make it impossible for them to

(21:05):
sell them. The Chinese make no effort to prevent the
ripping off of our intellectual property.

Speaker 8 (21:14):
These are our crown jewels.

Speaker 9 (21:16):
The thinking, the great creativity, the great entrepreneurialness of the
American business community is just taken.

Speaker 8 (21:25):
And they shrug their shoulders. And worst of all, the.

Speaker 9 (21:30):
Chinese, despite the fact that they have tremendous advantages by
the rules of free trade, Pylon and add unfair rules
that violate free trade. And at the top of that
list is the fact that the Chinese peg their currency
abnormally low so that their exports get a twenty seven

(21:58):
percent advantage here in the United States.

Speaker 4 (22:03):
Now he goes on to argue that we need to
live a twenty five percent tariff on China. This was
two thousand and five. What happened since two thousand and five.
What did Congress do since two thousand and five to
address any of the issues. He just laid out the
same exact issues that Donald Trump laid out as well.

Speaker 5 (22:29):
They did nothing.

Speaker 4 (22:30):
I think this is why people hate Donald Trump. To
go back to my conversation from the beginning of the show,
it's not just as braggadocio. It's not just his exaggerations,
it's not just his personality. It's the fact that instead
of talking about things, instead of standing up and making big,
grandiose speeches but then not actually doing anything, he.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Just did it.

Speaker 4 (22:53):
All the stuff they've been talking about for years, he
just did it. And now there's sort of left standing
trying to figure out how to argue against the same
points they argued not that long ago. You're not actually
supposed to do anything in Washington, DC. You're not supposed
to upset the Apple card. And this is something Russia

(23:14):
INBA used to say a lot, specifically when it came
to immigration. He was very clear on the fact that
big business likes cheap labor, and traditionally big business has
been on the side of Republicans. And then he would
also be clear about the fact that he thought Democrats
thought that that would become a permanent voting Democratic block.

Speaker 5 (23:34):
So both sides.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
Were very invested in making sure that immigration continued unfettered
and illegally, because people here illegally can't make noise about
wanting more money, so therefore it worked for big business,
and eventually the Democrats would be able to grant them
some sort of citizenship when they took over completely, and
they would be permanent Democrats, ensuring a permanent Democrat majority.

(23:57):
Both sides working for the same thing, all myne for
much different reasons, And now we understand because they don't
want any real significant change to happen because then they
can't trade on their insider information and make a ton
of money. The older I get, the more completely distrustful

(24:21):
of politicians of both stripes I am. I don't trust
any of them to do anything about what they say
they're going to do.

Speaker 5 (24:28):
I really don't. I always wondered.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
Why Rush was so quick to adopt Trump as his candidate,
why he was so quick to support Trump, And lately
I think I'm beginning to understand it a little bit better,
because as you've become so just disenchanted by.

Speaker 5 (24:50):
The political class.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
And there's no way that you can be a thinking,
rational person and follow politics as closely as I've been
following politics since two thousand and five and not begin
to have that complete and total distrust that the people
that we've elected are going to do nothing to fix
the problems that we have in this country. And Donald Trump,

(25:14):
I mean, have we ever seen anything like we're seeing
right now in our lifetime? Surely no, Mandy, I'm turning
you off. You're ignoring DoD procurement, DoD and entitlements is
the bulk of our government spending. By Okay, they haven't

(25:37):
gotten to the Pentagon yet, but it's my understanding that
they're going to the Pentagon. The Pentagon's not off the table.
No one has said the Pentagon is off the table.
And knowing what I know from people who have served
in the military about the incredible, gross examples of waste,
especially in a wartime situation, that occur on a regular

(25:57):
basis under the Pentagon's leadership, I'm on percent fine.

Speaker 5 (26:00):
With them going after the Pentagon.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
I don't think there should be any sacred cows. I
think we should be having a conversation about raising the
retirement age for social security, and I am fifty five
years old.

Speaker 5 (26:14):
Do you think I want to work longer than that?

Speaker 4 (26:15):
I have to, But I am more worried about the
country than I am about when I can tap into
my social security. And that's exactly what I'm talking about,
Thank you Texter. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Everyone
in the country is going to have to make sacrifices
in order for us to address a significant issue, which

(26:37):
as we are spending ourselves into oblivion. So yeah, I'm
willing to take the hits. I'm not panicking about my
four oh one k. I'm willing to let this all
play out because at least part of this is going
to have a positive impact on the economy overall. As
I said before, I don't think it's going to bring
back millions and millions of manufacturing jobs as they were before.

(27:01):
That manufacturing is changing, even in China. It's going to robotics.
You can build robotic plants here just as well as
you can build them in China, assuming you don't have
a bunch of environmentalists running around trying to sue you
for everything. Mandy, big business likes cheap labor. Since the
left is protesting hands off our immigrants. I wonder if
they'd be okay that if that cheap labor replaced expensive

(27:23):
federal workers being laid off. That from Steve, of course,
not Steve, because federal workers are their other sacred cows. Mandy,
I've waited my whole life for a president like DJT.
He starts out speeches with the American people, and it's believable.

Speaker 5 (27:40):
I used to wonder why.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
The sixty something year old politicians didn't retire and enjoy
the American dream they created, because it's if they stayed
around into their eighties and stole our American dream from us.

Speaker 5 (27:51):
This is the only, the only reason that I would
say we need.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
Some kind of upper age limit on serving, because at
some point you should have to be around to live
under the rules and laws that you pass, shouldn't You.
People are in one of two camps. First camp about
damn time should have done at the end of last year,
specifically about the GM, not like home alone, okay, specifically

(28:19):
about the GM. And then the second is what the heck?
Why do this now? With a handful of games left
in the regular season and maybe you know, into the playoffs.
Most people are just like I don't know why they wouldn't.

Speaker 5 (28:33):
This is what I said to you earlier.

Speaker 4 (28:34):
I don't know why they would just right out to
the end of the season and then cut everybody loose.

Speaker 6 (28:38):
Then less than two calendar years ago, the Nuggets were
the champions.

Speaker 9 (28:43):
I know.

Speaker 6 (28:44):
I think you earned these last three games. You earn
a chance to see if they can turn on the playoffs.
I just it's just the Calvin Booth. When I don't hate,
I don't think any Nuggets fan hates.

Speaker 4 (28:53):
I think, well, Calvin Booth did nothing to shore up
the talent around.

Speaker 8 (28:58):
Oh, we did something, and it's just something that I
didn't like it all.

Speaker 5 (29:00):
Because it was the wrong something.

Speaker 8 (29:01):
Westbrook.

Speaker 6 (29:02):
Yeah, he looked good at times, a good fit with
Jokic the man when when the going gets tough, and
by tough means more playing of him, more minutes, and
then they don't do well. He's bad in the locker room,
he's bad on the court, and it's just one of
the many reasons why all didn't work this year.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
This is an interesting text that I just saw. Have Mandy,
my spouse, mentioned to me as company is moving their
operations from Malaysia to the US, to avoid the thirty
percent tariff.

Speaker 5 (29:29):
It's already working. Very interesting.

Speaker 4 (29:32):
My bet says this Texter is a disconnect between the
owner and Malone. I don't think he was having an
affair with Cronky's wife.

Speaker 5 (29:40):
Texter Lord.

Speaker 4 (29:41):
That's crazy talk, just crazy talk. So yeah, we don't know,
but I'm guessing. As I said, the afternoon guys are working,
and you know, Dave Logan knows people, right, I'm just
gonna say it.

Speaker 8 (29:56):
I mean, Dave Logan is people. He also knows.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
I'm trying to find out if the nine News special
on Dave Logan is available anywhere.

Speaker 8 (30:04):
It is so.

Speaker 4 (30:06):
Good I've heard and I completely I'm not gonna lie
I forgot about it.

Speaker 8 (30:09):
Yeah, I dvrt it as the old say.

Speaker 4 (30:12):
Yeah, well, I need to find out how to get
that because.

Speaker 8 (30:16):
We can try to find a copy because it's exceptional.
If there's any way that.

Speaker 6 (30:18):
Anyone out there can go back and watch it, please do.
I immediately texted Dave. I said, Dave, that was a treat.
They did a really good job with that. They were
so much fun playing days. They even had the one play,
the one and only throw from the legend John Elway
to Dave Logan the one play that Dave kind of

(30:40):
passed from John and it was so much fun to see,
and it led potentially, I don't know, you know, things went.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
Can I news and ask if they're going to put
it on their YouTube channel so you can share it
with people? Yeah, And because I know I would share
it and then I would watch it. I just like
I said Saturday where we were at the cbas So,
I just forgot getting all kinds of awards, including our
monolist statue for Radio Station of the Year, little backpat
for the KOA team right there.

Speaker 6 (31:08):
I watched it the next morning and intended to only
watch a little bit. I didn't get out of bed
until I finished it.

Speaker 5 (31:13):
So wow, it with Dave Logan on the TV.

Speaker 8 (31:16):
You know, I did text him saying it was a treat.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
So this texterter said, don't love the Russell Westbrook trade,
but Nuggets should have never kept Jamal Murray.

Speaker 6 (31:26):
They should have traded him. That is a sentiment I
have heard in the last twenty four hours.

Speaker 5 (31:30):
Don't you think that's a hindsight? Is twenty twenty thing?

Speaker 4 (31:33):
Though at the now, back to the time when we
were talking about making changes Jamal Murray was not someone
that you wanted to move at that moment.

Speaker 6 (31:41):
Jamal is a killer, but I don't think i've ever
heard a Nuggets fan totally scoff at the idea when
you mentioned, oh, maybe a trade package for X YC Superstar,
which is what I think the conversation could now be
moving forward.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
So who do they bring in for GM?

Speaker 6 (31:55):
I don't know about GM, but hey, Luka, doncic your
best friends here, come on down.

Speaker 5 (31:59):
Yeah you like it?

Speaker 6 (32:01):
Oh, I love it? Everyone would love it. But for GM,
I don't know. Adaman's probably the next head coach we
shall see and he's really good, highly coveted, so he's
gonna get his chance here.

Speaker 7 (32:12):
We shall see him.

Speaker 8 (32:12):
That's a big time name. I can't think you.

Speaker 5 (32:15):
Wanted to see.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
No.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Contrary to what you may have heard on Ross's show,
Michael Mullen was not ferried fired for wearing a women's blouse,
unlike Ross, who was wearing a woman's shirt today.

Speaker 6 (32:24):
Who we think we check no emails, can not fired
yet for wearing a women's diehards.

Speaker 5 (32:30):
Ross is not fired for wearing a woman's shirt.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
It's not him, Dave told Rick on the Morning show
yesterday that it will be available on the Broncos web
page at some point.

Speaker 5 (32:38):
Okay, so there you go.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
Maybe a lot of times teams have gotten hot after
a coaching change, and that's what I was about to say.

Speaker 5 (32:44):
Let's see how the.

Speaker 4 (32:45):
Team responds to this, because a lot of flatness. I've
been listening to the interviews that they play in the
afternoon on KOA Sports and the lack of what's what
I'm looking for. I don't want to say fire, but
fire seems to be the best choice.

Speaker 7 (33:00):
The lack of.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
Fire in the bellies of the interviews that we've heard
is indicative of what the locker room feels like, right, Mandy.
Absurd theory, Oh, I love an absurd theory. Clearly something
went down last night between the Nuggets coach, a female Russian.

Speaker 7 (33:17):
Spy, and Ross.

Speaker 5 (33:19):
Well, I'm not sure what happened with the coach.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
Ross was sitting on the toilet looking for a deal
on radio transistors and turning the toilet paper around. Upon
his discovery of a cheap deal, he clearly grabbed the
female spy shirt upon leaving. There's a lot going on
in this absurd theory, but I like it. I like
it a lot, Mandy. The Chinese and several other countries

(33:42):
have canceled thousands of grain and other loads from the
US I haul intermodal containers. My hours were cut from
sixty two per week to twenty five per week beginning
this week. That's after two of our drivers were laid off.
Sir or madam, I hope that this is a short
term pain for long term gain for you and your industry.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock,
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
No, it's Mandy Connell.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
And Connall K ninety one FM, god Way to study
the nicey prey many Connell keeping sad bab Welcome, buncle,
Welcome to.

Speaker 4 (34:32):
The second hour of the show. I'm your host for
the next two hours. Hold two hours Mandy Connell, joined
of course by Anthony Rodriguez over there. And now, you know,
a lot of people recognize when things are not going
well in their community, their city, their county, their state,
their country. But so many of us are kind of

(34:53):
stuck on ready set right. We're ready set to do something,
but we have no idea how to do anything because
we are so out of the civic engagement that used
to be a common part of our society. And the
Independence Institute's Kathleen Chandler is not going to stand by
and let that happen. She's gonna have a class about it.

(35:14):
And she's got one coming up this week called the
Citizen's Guide to Civic Involvement, and it's going to help
you understand how you can make a difference in your community.
And she doesn't just give you grandiose talking points. She
gives you actionable points. And now she is joining me
to talk about it. Hello, Kathleen Chandler.

Speaker 10 (35:36):
Well, hello Mandy. First of all, I have to get
that song, your theme song. I actually have woken up
to your theme song playing in my head. Yeah, so
you're living there rent free.

Speaker 5 (35:48):
That is fantastic.

Speaker 10 (35:50):
Yeah yeah, your theme song is quite quite great. But
the whole purpose of this opportunity is for me to
tell you about my upcoming class. So oftentimes people are
like yelling and screaming and yelling and screaming, and I
call it the you know, the old man yelling at
cloud syndrome. There's nothing worse than just sitting around complaining,

(36:12):
and then when you ask them to do something, they
either don't know what to do, they don't know how
to do it, and they don't feel empowered to do it.
So my whole goal is to help people to answer
all those questions. I will tell you how to kind
of do step one, step two, three, four is all
on your own. I can coach you along the way,

(36:32):
but you need to take the initiative after you understand how.
So this is a practical how to class. Why shouldn't
I get involved? How can I get involved? What do
I need to do in order to get involved? And
realize that you truly are the solution to the overreach
of government. If we don't get involved, government is just
going to continue to take and take and take. It's

(36:55):
just its natural state, and we need to stop complaining
and take back that power.

Speaker 4 (37:01):
And Kathleen doesn't just talk the talk, she also walks
the walk. She's now a member of the RTD board.
So other classes that she has are specifically geared towards
helping people run for local boards and other things. How
is this class different? What do you focus on? Let's
talk about some of the actionable things that you're going
to be talking about.

Speaker 10 (37:21):
Well, first of all, I want people to see that
there are a myriad of ways of getting involved, not
just getting you know, running for office, not just getting
on a board or a commission. You could be a
watchdog in your community, which means maybe going to your
city council meetings every once in a while, following an agenda,
seeing what topics they're talking about, so that you can,

(37:42):
you know, get excited about something that is or isn't
happening in your community. You can be a single issue person,
maybe follow stuff at the state legislature that's going through
a specific you know, committee. So there are a myriad
of ways that you can get involved, not just running
for office. Boards and commissions. Really is the place that
I like to focus on because it is the most power,

(38:06):
so to speak. Because once you get on a board
or a commission and you're appointed by a community or
a city council member or county commissioner, that position will
give you a lot of insight and power within that
government without having to run for office. There's no daily
time commitment, there's no raising of funds. There's actually no

(38:28):
putting yourself out there either, like you don't have to
be on some social media stuff, and this gives you
that power to kind of influence your government, so boards
and commissions really are it. So I will give you
practical help on where do I look for this stuff
because it's not easy to find. Government makes itself difficult

(38:49):
for a reason, right, it doesn't really want citizen engagement.
So I will help you to figure out where to go,
what to look for, and then help you maybe understand
the application process, because there is an application and many
of us don't understand that. We either you know, go
in there with guns of blazon like I'm going to
take over the world, right and fix it all, and

(39:10):
they don't understand that there is decorm And really, truly,
nobody wants to work with a jerk, so stop that.
You know, I don't want to work with somebody I don't,
you know, at least get along with that we might disagree,
and that's different than being you know, offensive. I tell people,
you know that there's a difference between you know, being
objection objection, but of being objectionabull, Right, we got to

(39:33):
know those those kind of those lines and just really
helping them go through that. Then what I'll do is
I'll give you all my information so you can find me.
And then once you apply and you get on a board,
which I fully expect you to do. I can coach
you along the way. And I have a wonderful woman.
Her name is Tasha car She lives up in northern Colorado.

(39:55):
She got on the Environmental and Sustainability board.

Speaker 7 (39:59):
Okay, you want to talk.

Speaker 10 (39:59):
About had a budget crap? I really likely. And she's
on there because she's got a science background and she's
challenging them like, really, that is what you guys think.
And she's not, you know, upsetting the apple carte too badly,
but she's making them think right. And that's all we
need to ask for is that you get on there

(40:21):
and help others to understand the breadth of the issue
and that there is other opportunities, other solutions that can
come their way.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
How many boards or commissions are there in Colorado? Have
you added it all up when you start talking about
the various levels of government that all have boards and commissions?

Speaker 10 (40:40):
Yeah, well we stopped at about four thousands, and that
was just in the metro area. We got to Lake
and that wasn't it. Every single layer if you think
about it, there's library boards, there's metro districts, there's fireboards,
there's school districts. But there's also, of course you're county

(41:00):
and your city. Most of those. The county and the
city have about thirty to thirty five ish commissions. Denver
has a gazillion of them because every single neighborhood is
actually considered its own commission. So, you know, after about
four thousand, we just kind of gave up. And the
problem is is that government is always adding them. They

(41:22):
never take them back, So every time there's a problem
within a city or a community, they go, oh, let's
just create a commission for that. And it really gives
political cover to the cities, to the county commissioners, or
to whoever created that commission, because if they have a
situation where they don't exactly agree, they can push that

(41:43):
agenda through and then blame the results on that commission.
So it gives a lot of political cover, and they're
always creating more. As I said, there's sustainability. Environmental boards
are popping up everywhere, of course, because that's a huge
hot button issue. They're even ones like oil and gas
commissions that are starting to pop up in local communities,

(42:05):
which I find interesting. They had one about five years
ago now here in Aurora because they were starting to
look at the annexation of more and more land out east,
and they wanted to get ahead of the environmental and
oil and gas and we were able to help kind
of steer the creation of that by getting a representative

(42:27):
of the oil and gas industry on that board, and
that really is helping them shape some of their policies,
because otherwise it's a bunch of nannies that are out
there telling you what you can and can't do with
your private property.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
And to your point about finding out about these boards
and commissions and how hard it is to find, isn't
that sort of how the cake is baked, right, It's
like baked in when they were going to create a
board that's going to oversee environmental decisions, but we're not
going to tell anybody who might be an oil and
gas about the board. That's kind of where you guys

(43:01):
come in to poke the bear. Find out where the
boards are. Can you help people find boards and commissions
in their area or at least direct them to where
they could find that out.

Speaker 10 (43:11):
Yeah. Absolutely. The best way, and at least it's the
most effective I found, is to actually go and look
at your tax bill, like your property tax bill and
see how many things there are listed on there. So
you might have a metro board, a fire district, a
school district, a library district, a recreation district. All of

(43:34):
those are listed because you're paying taxes for them. Then
I would do is go and search underneath that in
you know, the interweb, because you find out who has
what kind of boards and commissions are in that taxing agency.
So I know that's kind of a weird thing, but
that's really the best way. I wish that the Secretary

(43:56):
of State's office, which yeah, right, would have a reposit
of all of these where you could go to your
tax bill, push a button, and it was the list,
and it would have a URL to all of those agencies. Wow,
wouldn't that be revolutionary?

Speaker 4 (44:11):
So wait a minute, you're telling me that on each
of those lines that is representing who's getting my money.
There could be multiple boards and commissions on each of
those lines, so you could feasibly Let's say you have
twenty lines on your property tax bill and I'm just
throwing that number out there, it has no basis in reality,
and then there could be like six or four or
five boards under each of those. So that's like eighty

(44:32):
one hundred boards right there.

Speaker 10 (44:34):
Yes, absolutely. I mean, if you think about it, go
to your school district, okay, which is generally your largest
taxing authority on your property. Okay, it's generally even larger
than your county. So you go to your school district,
and underneath there, if you go to the school district's website,
there's generally all kinds of boards and commissions that are
underneath that in that school district, everything from parent teacher

(44:58):
advisory commissions to sports advisory commissions too. I mean there's
usually a myriad of them, and you can go, hey,
I could serve on that. In fact, I had a father,
and this was back in twenty eighteen or before COVID
for sure. He was saying, I'm really getting concerned about
what's going on in my daughter's school with sports, ah,

(45:23):
because she was on a volleyball team. And I said, well,
go to your school district, look at the sports advisory
committee and get on that committee and you could start
speaking truth about all the sports that are going on
in that district. And he did. Now that you know,
that was well before you know, boys and girls sports
and all of that stuff. But you know, if we

(45:43):
knew those kinds of things that in Minutia right there,
that little ady bitty connection. By getting on a sports
advisory board for your school district could actually change the
policy that the school district is doing because you would
be the first level of defense, so that it would
and bubble up or even bubble down to that condision

(46:03):
to bounce those ideas off of what's going on in
that school district.

Speaker 4 (46:07):
What do you say to someone who says, gosh, Kathleen,
I'd love to get involved, but my skill set doesn't
overlap with anything that I'm aware of.

Speaker 10 (46:16):
I say two things. One is your school set does
not have to overlap. Here's the deal. You're a citizen,
you are a taxpayer, and you can actually have a
conversation and ask good questions, believe it or not. Years ago,
Governor Polis called up the Independence Institute and said, hey,
I need somebody to be on the automobile dealer's board

(46:40):
because he calls up and wants a conservative, you know,
right right. So I said, well, hey, Governor, how about me?
So he actually appointed me to the motor vehicle dealer's board.
Now I'm not a dealer in motor vehicles. I don't
know anything about licensing. But the only requirement was I
had to be a citizen and I had to own
a car. I said, good. Now, I went to that

(47:01):
board fully unaware of what I knew. I didn't know, right,
I know, I didn't know anything, and I asked questions.
And that was the best thing I could do. Why
it not only helped me understand the issues, but it
made them think about what they were asking, what they
were thinking about doing. And I wo just kept asking
questions and pretty soon I figured it out and I

(47:22):
knew what they were trying to do, which just really
frankly restrict people's licenses to get into the motor vehicle
dealer war. And it was this protectionist mentality, right, But
I don't know that, and so I just asked questions.
So my advice is, if you don't know anything about it,
you can ask good questions and you will figure it out.

(47:42):
And if you do know a lot about it, let's
say you're an accountant, well why not get on your
citizen advisory board for the budget because you have expertise,
you know how to spreadsheet. So there's a myriad of
ways of looking at you as the solution.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
Kathleen Chandler from the Independence Institute is my guest and
she is having a free class. Wait is it free?
I just made it free. I shouldn't have made a free Yeah.

Speaker 10 (48:08):
Well it's not free. But because if something's free, it's
of no value. No, I'm very valuable. So it's a
ten dollars fee.

Speaker 4 (48:17):
Wow, ten dollars valuable, Kathleen, Wow, it's.

Speaker 10 (48:22):
I'm very expensive. Ten bucks. But it will give you
an opportunity to spend an hour and a half. It's
from six thirty or actually two hours six thirty to
eight thirty, with questions at the end, learning about this process,
learning about how to get on a border commission. It's
on Thursday night. It's available by Zoom, which is a
really great format for this type of issue because the

(48:45):
opportunity here, we want it for the whole entire state
of Colorado. We forget Colorado is all four corners, all
sixty four counties, all a myriad of municipalities, et cetera.
And the more people we can have that realize that
it's just not the front range, Like we need to
know what's going down in Laplatta County and Yuma and

(49:05):
all over the state, all four corners are important.

Speaker 4 (49:09):
So, Kathleen, what if people and I'm one of these people,
I'm like, gosh, Kathleen.

Speaker 5 (49:13):
I'm so busy.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
This just sounds incredibly time consuming. What are we looking at?
What is the realistic time commitment? How much time in
your weekly life did you spend working on the Automobiler
Dealers Association board that you sat.

Speaker 10 (49:28):
On a maximum of ten hours a month. And that
was because I would get a packet usually the day before.
I would come through the packet, read through it, and
then the meeting itself, and the meeting itself went anywhere,
and it was always on zoom. By the way, many
of these still meet and zoom, especially if they're a
state wide board like the motor Vehicle Dealers was. But

(49:52):
if you have a community board, it may or may
not be. But you're talking, you know, ten hours a month.
And I always tell people is your liberty and your
children's liberty or its ten hours of a month. I mean,
we had, you know, our founding fathers trudged across the
ruited plane and risk their lives, their fortunes, and their
sacred honor to bring us what we have today. I

(50:14):
can afford ten hours a month.

Speaker 5 (50:16):
Kathleen Chandler, I love these classes.

Speaker 4 (50:18):
I think these are like the coolest thing and another
great thing that the Independence Institute is doing. You know
what I'm going to do, though, I'm going to go
find out just for my own edification. I live in
Douglas County. I'm going to find out how many boards
and commissions are in Douglas County. Now, it might take
me until the weekend because I got a busy week,
but I'm going to look into this, and then I
am going to try and figure out how I can

(50:40):
serve on a border commission.

Speaker 10 (50:42):
Because that would be awesome.

Speaker 5 (50:43):
Well, I think I just go ahead.

Speaker 10 (50:45):
Many many of the county's county parties generally have a list,
so you might want to check their first, whether it's
the Democrat Party of the Republican. The Independence Institute is
not party oriented. We are freedom oriented. But sometimes a
lot of those because now that I've been doing this

(51:05):
for so many years, a lot of people are catching
on right and so they selves are starting to create
these lists. So you might want to check there because
sometimes that work is already done for you. And I
do have some lists, so if you'd email me, and
you can do that, just go on to the website.
My emails available on the website. But I generally have
a list of some of the larger communities and their commissions,

(51:28):
not the small ones, not like your water district or
your library district. But I do have some of the
larger ones.

Speaker 4 (51:34):
I am going to go ahead and do this myself,
so I can come back and report how long it.

Speaker 5 (51:38):
Took, how it's difficult, it.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
Was no, because I think it's important, Like if I
come back and say, look, it took me a couple hours,
but I got the whole list, and I'm pretty happy
with this list. I think that kind of gives other
people an idea of what we're actually looking at because
we're all busy. I mean, everybody's got their lives and
their kids and their grandkids and their job and this
and that and everything else. But the reality is, if

(52:00):
we don't engage at a higher level to your point,
we've I mean, you look what happens to Colorado so far.
And part of the reason that Democrats have been so
successful in taking over Colorado is because they started by
building the infrastructure of putting people on boards and commissions,
so that then went on to become candidates, right. I mean,
because boards and commissions are often a stepping stone for

(52:23):
people who decide, you know what, I'm gonna dip my
toe in here, find out what this is all about.
They get involved, they like it, they're good at it,
and they say, you know what, I'm going to run
for office now. So this is like a It can
be a baby step, it can just be an end step,
right Like you may serve on a border commission and
that's where it stops, and that's perfectly fine. But we've

(52:44):
got to have rational people making rational points on all
of these boards and commissions. To Kathleen's point, to just
make people think about what they're doing before they do it.
You know, I always say, Kathleen, before I'm about to
do something stupid, I make myself say it out loud,
because when you say it out loud, sometimes you hear
your voice and you go, well, that's the dumbest thing
I could possibly do here. I'm not going to do

(53:05):
that same thing. We've got to have people speaking these
principles out loud to whoever wants to hear them. So,
Kathleen Chandler, thank you so much for doing this It
is again April tenth, this Thursday, so you've got a
couple of days. It's from six thirty pm to eight
thirty pm. It is a whopping ten dollars cost. Okay,
you can sign up at the link that I put

(53:26):
on the blog today at Mandy's blog dot com, and
or you can go to I to I dot organ
It's on the events page there. So, Kathleen, thanks so
much for making time, and more importantly, thanks for your
commitment and the Independence Institute's commitment to raising the civic
engagement for like minded people like us.

Speaker 5 (53:43):
I really appreciate that.

Speaker 10 (53:46):
Well, thank you Mandy for the opportunity, and I hope
that more and more people will stop complaining and get
involved in their community and take back their government.

Speaker 5 (53:54):
Amen to that. Kathleen will talk to you again soon
and we will be right back right after this, Mandy.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
Boards and commissions and nonprofit boards is how John Hickenlooper
got his start. Then he ran for mayor and it's
all downhill from there. But that is why these boards
and commissions are so important. If you missed my interview
with Kathleen Chandler in the last segment, you really should
check it out.

Speaker 5 (54:17):
Reminder.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
Yesterday at two point thirty we had Rich Guggenheim from
Gaye against Groomers on and they're having an X space
which is kind of like a zoom meeting on X
Tonight at five point forty five, they're talking about the
ongoing attacks on parental rights in Colorado, and I have
to thank a listener for sending me a column from
the Federalist that outlines the issues that are happening here

(54:43):
in Colorado when a dad has the audacity to push
back against his son saying he wanted to become a girl,
and this story is especially egregious, and there of course
is another side to this story. But the fact of
the matter is is the Federalist dot Com reached out
to the mother in this case and she not only

(55:05):
refused to speak to them, she tried to have a
gag order slapped on her ex husband to keep him
from talking about this. But in my mind, from the
way this is presented, and again there are two sides
to every story, in the way this is presented, it
sounds like this is one of those women. She's in academia,
she is a left wing woman. She needed to have

(55:28):
gayer trans children in order to make herself feel special,
and so she has shoved them all into some varying
degrees of a special category. From a very young age,
at the age of five, she determined her twins, one male,
one female. At the age of five, she herself determined

(55:49):
that they were gay. Now, don't get me wrong, there
were a few kids in my life that, in hindsight,
I always knew were gay. One of them was a
dear friend of the family. And when he showed up
at an event. Now this was the seventies, so this
isn't as crazy as it sounds, but he.

Speaker 5 (56:08):
Was like six years old.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
He was a little bit older than I am, and
he was wearing an ascot. I mean, even then, you're
like that kid walks to the beat of a different drummer.
But I didn't have words at the time to understand
he was gay. And then my best friend in middle
school and much of high school was a guy named Mark.
And Mark had an incredibly strong sense of style, and

(56:31):
he was wildly funny and I still adore him to
this day. But when he came out to me when
he was twenty we were in college. It was a
very emotional experience for him to come out to me
and tell me that he was gay. This was the
late eighties. It's not celebrated the way it is now.
But when he said, you know, I just want to
let you know I'm gay, and I was like, and

(56:54):
you know, like, seriously, dude, I've known this for a
long time.

Speaker 5 (56:58):
And he got kind of up that I just said,
of course you are.

Speaker 4 (57:05):
But it's not to say that little children cannot behave
in such a way that would indicate later that they
are gay. But to decide that both of your twins
are gay, and then both of your twins are trans,
which is what this woman did, and she started dressing
them in the opposite sex. Now, the young woman, thankfully,

(57:27):
the young girl that is her daughter, grew out of
it and refused to have her hair cut short, refuse.

Speaker 5 (57:32):
To dress like a boy.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
But her son, who likely is gay, has now been
pushed into medicalization, even though he has expressed some significant
reservations about it as a child. The mom is marching
forward in the state of Colorado is right there with her,
because in the state of Colorado, you're not allowed as
a parent to say, you know.

Speaker 5 (57:54):
What, let's talk about this. Maybe you're just.

Speaker 4 (57:58):
A feminine guy. Maybe you're just gay. Maybe that's it.
You're not allowed to say that. That's considered conversion therapy. Now,
shoving your kids into being trans is not considered conversion therapy,
which I think is ridiculous.

Speaker 5 (58:18):
But the things that are happening now in.

Speaker 4 (58:19):
The state of Colorado, if I had a small child,
I would not take moving out of the state off
the table just for that alone.

Speaker 5 (58:29):
Mandy, what the hell is an ascot?

Speaker 4 (58:31):
It's ascot asct and it's a jaunt scarf tied around
your neck, mostly tucked into the front of your shirt.
Think Charles Nelson Riley right, he always had an ascot
or a scarf tied.

Speaker 5 (58:44):
Around his neck.

Speaker 4 (58:45):
An ascot anyway, Kid Rock is the ultimate peacemaker Texter.
That column on the Federalist dot com is on the
blog as well today.

Speaker 5 (58:56):
I also have several.

Speaker 4 (58:57):
Things on the blog about the tariffs. Lots of people
weighing in with really interesting conversations about the legality of it,
the long term effect of it, a lot of people
throwing a lot of speculation on the fire. And I
think it's really interesting and probably helpful to read all
of it, because reading all of it will give you

(59:21):
a sense of what the potential outcomes are from all
different areas. Right, So this person said, I'm funny and
have a great fashion sense, but I'm not gay, and
I probably wouldn't have got the gay vibe off of you.
But my friend Mark, Yes, even though he played football
and he was a manly kind of guy, but he

(59:42):
was clearly gay in my mind.

Speaker 5 (59:45):
Clearly. I do want to talk for.

Speaker 4 (59:49):
A second about another sports story that I don't want
to talk about the sports aspect of it.

Speaker 5 (59:55):
Loan Tree.

Speaker 4 (59:55):
The City of Loan Tree seems to be going all
in on trying to woo the Broncos ownership to put
their stadium in Loan Tree. There's a huge plot of
land about four hundred and fifty five acres southeast of
the intersection of RidgeGate Parkway and I twenty five in
Loan Tree.

Speaker 5 (01:00:16):
That part of.

Speaker 4 (01:00:19):
That part of land, that patch of land right there
around the RidgeGate station is part of Loan Tree. They
annexed it some time ago. So they're trying to build
or sell rather that location, even though it's already been
zoned and plotted and mapped out for a huge development.

Speaker 5 (01:00:40):
They're basically saying, look, you guys, look at this big space.

Speaker 4 (01:00:43):
We've got great roadways coming in, which is sort of true,
but you only have two areas of entrance and egress
because the RidgeGate entrance on twenty five is fairly close
to the four to seventy exit or four seventy interchange,
but not right there. And Loan Tree's going at it.
They're ready, they're ready for the Broncos to come down there.

(01:01:05):
And I just I wanted to ask you, guys, whether
or not you're a fan of the Broncos. Maybe you
live in that area, that general vicinity, and I'm going
to say this, I'm going to take the current location
for the stadium off the table for consideration for this
conversation because I know most people would like to keep
the stadium where it is. I just don't think that

(01:01:26):
that is realistic in today's NFL, because in today's NFL,
you don't.

Speaker 5 (01:01:31):
Just have a stadium.

Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
You have a stadium that is surrounded by an entertainment district,
so you have business and activity.

Speaker 5 (01:01:37):
All year long around the stadium.

Speaker 8 (01:01:39):
The other thing I just thought of, too, is.

Speaker 6 (01:01:44):
The interruption that the current site being changed would be
because you need somewhere to play for a couple of years.
The Broncos are not just any team. You gotta have
them play in the heart of Denver NonStop. So play
now where they are while the new ones built elsewhere.

Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
Unless unless they do what Seattle did, which was build
the stadium in the parking lot of the old stadium,
which screwed parking for three years. But build it in there,
and then you implode that stadium. And then Seattle actually
built the baseball stadium in where the old stadium a
football stadium was, So you have a stadium district in Seattle.

Speaker 8 (01:02:21):
Now there's just not enough room down there.

Speaker 5 (01:02:23):
There's enough room for one stadium.

Speaker 6 (01:02:25):
Yeah, but like not for every force Field now, I
know I'm saying, like not for Jerry World.

Speaker 8 (01:02:29):
Ask everything parking one.

Speaker 4 (01:02:30):
Hundred and fifty five acres is. Have you been down
there by the RidgeGate station. There's a ton of empty
land right by it. I'm saying, where they are now,
Oh no, where they are now, it's not featal.

Speaker 6 (01:02:38):
So I'm saying for everything they would likely want to
do in that district, yeah, you can't do it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:42):
It's not it's not going to happen where it is now.
So let me ask you this. If you had to
pick one of two locations, one being Lone Tree right
off I twenty five, and one being somewhere in Aurora,
probably up off seventy, I would think up maybe you
know in that area, which would you prefer?

Speaker 8 (01:03:00):
See you more north?

Speaker 7 (01:03:01):
Selfishly, be down south? Selfish?

Speaker 5 (01:03:04):
Oh, but here's the upside. For down south.

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
You've got all of Colorado springs that you then bring in.

Speaker 5 (01:03:11):
But if you're up.

Speaker 4 (01:03:12):
North, you got Boulder, you got four Collins, you got
all of that that you bring in. I'm just text
me five sixty six nine, ohs five sixty six nine. Oh,
I'm pushing my chips in near the airport. I know,
we'll see. We'll do that next, Mandy. NFL visiting teams
already stay at the Gaylord. I didn't know that it
sounds cool to stay at the hotel where the you know,

(01:03:33):
visiting team stays. But as a flight attendant, that happened
on multiple occasions, and honestly, you never see any players.
Like they get off the bus, they go upstairs in
the room, and that's it. Loan Tree, Blank, Aurora. No,
I'm not gonna say that word, Mandy. There's certain places
in Colorado where you don't build anything nice. Preblo Greeley

(01:03:54):
and Aurora I built. I bet it's built Loan Tree.

Speaker 7 (01:03:57):
You know what.

Speaker 5 (01:03:57):
I know Aurora's reputation.

Speaker 4 (01:03:59):
I've been to Aurora, but there are beautiful parts of Aurora.

Speaker 5 (01:04:04):
There really are.

Speaker 4 (01:04:05):
Beautiful neighborhoods, beautiful areas. So Aurora is like the Tale
of Two Cities, right, just like any other big city
its size. I mean, there are places in downtown Denver
that I would not, you know, get.

Speaker 7 (01:04:16):
Out of my car.

Speaker 4 (01:04:18):
So let's just like recognize that not all of Aurora
is bad. And I maintain that Aurora's food scene is
the most interesting food scene in this state. That's where
you've got all the good ethnic food, and it won't
break the bank. Mandy out by the airport that way.
Stupid sports ball screws up traffic way out there and
doesn't ruin the lives of decent people in town.

Speaker 5 (01:04:40):
So obviously an.

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
Enthusiastic supporter of sportsball, I don't see anyone saying Aurora
Aurora has no chance against Loan Tree. I live two
hundred and fifty miles from Mile High. I have season
tickets and don't like anything about Aurora Loan Tree Aurora.
A rumor is Aurora is built on an Indian burial ground. Okay,

(01:05:01):
we don't want that, Mandy. This is Kathleen Chandler. It's
like we just talked to her. They will create a
stadium district. Currently there is a Broncos stadium district. They
look at parking, noise, et cetera for the community. That's
one of the reasons I think Loan Tree may have
an edge because there is nothing except some apartment complexes

(01:05:23):
around that RidgeGate station. Now Loan Tree is already mapped out.
They're gonna build this massive criminal justice center. But if
they if they think they can get the Broncos stadium,
I'm guessing they would go back and rework all of
that entire area to make it more attractive.

Speaker 5 (01:05:39):
We shall see, Mandy.

Speaker 4 (01:05:41):
I've always thought the Broncos should look at the area
around Northfield and Commerce City, between Quebec and Central Park,
going to Ours fifty sixth and Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
There seems to be enough open area there, and that
bit area is a bit upscale. It's close enough to
is seventy to Denver, and it's along the way to
the airport, But is there a light rail to that space?

(01:06:02):
I mean, as much as I make fun of light rail,
the only time I use it is games.

Speaker 5 (01:06:06):
Oh by the way, if you're John who.

Speaker 4 (01:06:08):
Met my husband Chuck on the light rail going to
opening day on Friday, thank you for the.

Speaker 5 (01:06:13):
Kind words and thank you for listening. Anyway. Meant to
do that earlier.

Speaker 7 (01:06:17):
I forgot.

Speaker 4 (01:06:19):
Why would anyone build anything in Aurora Loane Tree? They
can figure out the road situation this text.

Speaker 5 (01:06:25):
You're missing the boat.

Speaker 4 (01:06:27):
Build it over the highway where the stadium is currently at.
Then you have both sides for entertainment except and aerd
Correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't the other side of
I twenty five? Isn't that all cronky? Don't they own
all that land where Elitches is and everything else around Ballerina.

Speaker 8 (01:06:43):
That's where the whole new developments go.

Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
Yeah, so that's already planned out and mapped out and
that's not available. So yeah, isn't downtown an entertainment zone
it used to be.

Speaker 5 (01:06:53):
Move to Stadium East.

Speaker 4 (01:06:55):
Then everyone has to travel more Mandy. Why aren't there
isn't there much talk about a new stadium in the
northern area, like Frederick or Longlant. All I hear is
Loane Tree and Aurora because it's too far north, because
then you the kind of cut the legs out from
under season ticket sales for Colorado Springs.

Speaker 5 (01:07:13):
That's another thing.

Speaker 4 (01:07:14):
I think Aurora has a little bit going against it
because no offense to you folks on the planes, there's
just not a lot east that is going to draw
that fan base to an Aurora. So I don't know
it's going to be fascinating watch but a rod. Now
we're talking about this on the break. Their lease is
up at the current stadium in twenty thirty, so give

(01:07:36):
in we'll say two and a half years to build
a new stadium.

Speaker 5 (01:07:40):
They got to make a decision soon.

Speaker 4 (01:07:42):
So all the speculation, we won't have to speculate much longer.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
No, it's Mandy Connell and.

Speaker 3 (01:07:58):
Ninety one at Sneydyconnell Sad Babe. Welcome, weuncome.

Speaker 5 (01:08:13):
Welcome to the third hour of the show.

Speaker 4 (01:08:15):
I'm your host for the next one hour, Mandy Connell,
and We've got a lot to talk about, so let's
jump in for a moment, real quick, a rod. Now
we're just talking about this. Two good things have happened
for the Rockies. Number One, they called up Chase Dolander
on Sunday and he pitched lights out and got a
win in his first start in course field. It was

(01:08:36):
spectacular thing. Number Two, Zach Bean, who was an absolute
rock star in spring training, is now being called up
as well. He's an outfielder. His bats have been super
hot playing for the Isotopes. So if you like me
exact Vian Machine calling it now, I.

Speaker 5 (01:08:53):
Don't know about that. No, I don't love it. No,
I don't hate it, Red Machine, I don't hate it.
I don't I don't. I don't hate it.

Speaker 4 (01:09:01):
But I'm not married to it right now, like we
can date, but I'm not ready to commit.

Speaker 8 (01:09:07):
Right that's right.

Speaker 4 (01:09:08):
So if you're guys, I'm just I've adopted a new
attitude about the Rockies this year.

Speaker 5 (01:09:14):
I Am just going to focus on the bright and.

Speaker 4 (01:09:16):
Shining spots because there are bright and shining spots.

Speaker 8 (01:09:19):
Big one.

Speaker 4 (01:09:20):
Starting pitching, yep, big time, and just ignore the perts
that are not working right now.

Speaker 8 (01:09:24):
Score twelve runs.

Speaker 4 (01:09:25):
I know, I know that was exciting. Everybody's bats woke
up at the same time, so really hard the Brewers.
But you know, I know, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. Anyway,
I want to talk about some other stuff that is
going on today. The Aurora Police Department woefully understaffed, and
I gotta tell you, I am liking so far Aurora

(01:09:49):
Police Chief Todd Chamberlain. As a matter of fact, let's
let's invite him on the show A Ron's reach Out.
We reached out right after he's started, and we're told, hey,
you know, basically like let him get his feed hundred.
But I like him because he doesn't sugarcoat things, and
he has been working very diligently to bring down especially

(01:10:11):
retail crime in Aurora. Crime levels are dropping slightly, not
in all categories, but they are dropping in Aurora, which
is good, and they're doing it while they're understaffed. Police
departments should be staffed at two officers per one thousand
community members. That's according to FBI standards. Aurora only has
about one point seven officers per one thousand, and Chamberlain

(01:10:36):
says it might even be a little bit more skewed
because right now Aurora has seven hundred and forty eight
officers for a city at four hundred and four thousand people,
but the actual population is probably closer to four hundred
and fifty thousand when you count the thirty thousand undocumented

(01:10:57):
people living in Aurora and the twenty thousand on Buckley
Space Force Base. Now, this is what I like about
Aurora PD Chief Todd Chamberlain.

Speaker 5 (01:11:07):
Listen to what he said to the council. He said,
this is not a request for bodies.

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):
I understand the budget and the mechanics of that, but
I think this is something that needs to be discussed.

Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
And I wanted to be sure you were aware of it.

Speaker 4 (01:11:21):
So he's not coming in saying I can't do my
job without some help. I need more, which would be great.
I mean, realistically, that's what he needs. He needs more officers, right,
that's the thing. He needs more officers. But he also
knows what the budget situation is in Aurora. He also
touted those arrest statistics that I was just talking about.

(01:11:43):
In January of this year, police made six hundred arrests.
In February five and ninety six arrests. Much of the
increase was based on the intervention they're doing on shoplifting.
This year to date, there have been two thousand, seven
hundred and forty two reported crimes in Aurora. By the
same time last year, there had been three thousand, five
hundred and twenty three. Overall crime rates are down, but

(01:12:05):
auto theft and robbery are up. So, I mean, you know,
I realized that Aurora is like the punching bag for
a lot of people, and they've got problems. But if
you've ever watched a community that's moving in the right direction,
you will recognize that Aurora.

Speaker 5 (01:12:22):
Right now is moving in the right direction.

Speaker 4 (01:12:27):
They've got a city council that is dedicated to making
Aurora a safe place for families to live, make it
a safe place for businesses to be. They're welcoming businesses
from all over the world.

Speaker 5 (01:12:40):
I'm telling you, I am high on Aurora right now.
I think Aurora is.

Speaker 4 (01:12:48):
Positioned to chip away at their reputation as being the
place where you know, can't afford to live in Denver,
go live in Aurora.

Speaker 5 (01:12:58):
I believe that. I think they're doing a good job.

Speaker 4 (01:13:02):
By the way, since Chief Chamberlain has taken over, they've
made significant changes to some of their policies that had
been changed dramatically by leadership that was very concerned about
making sure that criminals always got the benefit of the doubt.

(01:13:23):
And don't get me wrong, you're innocent until proven guilty.
But the seven policies that Aroor has modified include those
for emergency response of vehicle operations, police vehicle pursuits, reporting
use of force, use of force investigations, use of force adjudication,
arrest procedures, and complete and discipline procedures for sworn members.

(01:13:46):
And when Chief Chamberlain came in, the department had a
massive backlog of personal complaints and uses of force, some
investigations that were two to three years old.

Speaker 5 (01:14:00):
All the investigations need.

Speaker 4 (01:14:01):
To be done, but in the time, a lot of
times when people have been accused of something, it takes
them off the street while they're being investigated. They need
to be investigated, they need to be put back on
the streets. You would think that now with the pretty
ubiquitous use of body cameras, these investigations should be able
to be adjudicated very quickly. Go look at the body
camp finish, talk to this, you know, talk to everybody

(01:14:22):
that was there and make those decisions quickly.

Speaker 5 (01:14:25):
And he says he has.

Speaker 4 (01:14:28):
Specifically, he said officers were not being addressed in a
timely manner when they did wrong, and officers under investigation
who were in the right were not being put back
into the field. The process has changed, so this is
no longer the case. And now if you steal a
car to Aurora, they're going to chase you, which is
something that most people knowing. A vast majority of people

(01:14:51):
who steal cars use those cars to commit other crimes.
A vast majority of people who are caught with a
stolen car generally have all lot more crimes on their
rap sheet. Stealing a car is not a victimless crime.
It's not a couple of teenagers stealing a car to
go joy riding. At this stage in the game. That
may be a tiny percentage of it. But people who

(01:15:14):
steal cars are criminals who are likely going to commit
other crimes.

Speaker 8 (01:15:18):
So I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:15:19):
If I lived in Aurora, i'd be happy about it.
I would, I'd be happy about it. I live in
Douglas County, where they do not play on crime. You
want to shoplift in Dougcoat, You're going to jail. You
want to steal a car in Dougcoat, you're going to jail.
You want to break the law. In Doug Cooat, you're
going to jail. And now we have a da or,
we have a prosecutor in the twenty third Judicial District

(01:15:39):
that is promised that he will actually enforce crime laws,
which is delightful, I mean, really delightful.

Speaker 5 (01:15:50):
So there you go, Aurora. I'm rooting for you.

Speaker 4 (01:15:55):
Stay the course, keep doing the things you're doing, and
hiring the people you're hiring. And like Aurora is on
the upswing and that's a great place to be. We'll
be right back. I get a mix of text messages
and emails, and some of them say things like this,
probably everything's swept.

Speaker 5 (01:16:11):
Under the rug Aurora. I don't know what they're trying
to say here. Their grammar's terrible.

Speaker 4 (01:16:15):
Denver East without the added taxes and fees and I
live there. And then I get text messages like this
one from my friend Hazel that you guys know as well.
She said, thank you for the plug for Aurora where
I live. I have loved it here for the last
forty six years. Hugs Hazel.

Speaker 5 (01:16:33):
I got an email from someone saying, thank you for.

Speaker 4 (01:16:36):
Saying what you're saying about Aurora because there are beautiful
parts and we're excited about the changes that are happening.
So I, like I said, I'm keen on Aurora Colorado
right now. I think they're on the upswing. I hope
it continues. We shall see, we shall see. Now, I've
got a few things on the blog that we did
not get to what of them, I've spent zero time

(01:17:00):
talking about the Trump portrait kerfuffle at the Colorado Capitol
because I genuinely think it's one of the dumbest things
that I've ever seen in my life. And this is
the part of Trump that I really don't care for,
when his ego creates a situation that is entirely unnecessary
and unneeded.

Speaker 5 (01:17:20):
And this is what happened.

Speaker 4 (01:17:21):
If you didn't hear the story, Trump had a portrait
that was painted during the Trump administration, and in the
Colorado Capital they have all of the former presidents, so
that particular portrait was painted by a woman that has
painted multiple multiple paintings of presidents, including the one of

(01:17:43):
President Barack Obama, and Donald Trump doesn't like it. He
thinks it's ugly. He said that he thought the artist
purposely distorted him, so he would look good or look
bad in this portrait, and he wanted it taken down.

Speaker 5 (01:17:58):
Now, is it the best portrait I've ever seen?

Speaker 7 (01:18:02):
No, it is not.

Speaker 4 (01:18:04):
It lacks a little bit of depth for my taste.
But is it the worst portrait I've ever seen? Absolutely not.
There's absolutely nothing outstanding in either way. It's certainly not
some kind of, you know, ridiculous caricature of the president.
And artist Sarah Boardman, who actually painted the painting, said

(01:18:26):
that she has essentially been in danger of losing her
entire business because of these comments by President Trump. Now,
in today's blog, I put a link to her website
where you can see her portrait work, and you can
see that the portrait of Donald Trump is entirely consistent
with the portrait work she had done of other presidents.

Speaker 5 (01:18:48):
Right, so this is not like you.

Speaker 4 (01:18:51):
It's again, it's not a horrible portrait. It's not my favorite,
but it's not horrible. But because President Trump has been
so vociferous about his hatred for this portrait, it has
now potentially destroyed this woman's portrait business.

Speaker 7 (01:19:07):
Portraits are hard, you guys.

Speaker 5 (01:19:10):
I mean they're really really hard.

Speaker 4 (01:19:12):
Not every artist would even take this on she's, by
the way, a classically trained artist who has been doing
this for a very very long time.

Speaker 5 (01:19:22):
So I feel bad for her.

Speaker 4 (01:19:24):
I feel bad that she got caught up in Trump's ego. Yes,
but what were you and Ross laughing about?

Speaker 5 (01:19:32):
What were Ross and I?

Speaker 4 (01:19:34):
Ross and I never laugh Were we laughing about something?
I don't know what we were laughing about? I mean
a little bit more, Mandy. The portrait is very bad, Rick,
It's really not you guys. It's not my favorite portrait.
As I said, I think it lacks a little depth
on his face, but it's not hideous. It's not awful.

(01:19:55):
I've seen far worse, far far worse. So anyway, that
is on the blog today, really really cool story, although
I think it's being sold in such a way that
isn't entirely accurate.

Speaker 5 (01:20:11):
Now, I did not watch Game of Thrones. Did you
watch Game of Thrones? Arod?

Speaker 4 (01:20:16):
Did you watch that Game of Thrones? Okay, so what
is the deal with a dire Wolf? So the dire
Wolves are a part.

Speaker 5 (01:20:22):
Of Game of Thrones, Yes they are.

Speaker 6 (01:20:24):
They are a part of the royal family up in
the north, the Starks, the dire Wolves.

Speaker 7 (01:20:30):
They all all the kids have dire wolves.

Speaker 5 (01:20:32):
Well, they went and then.

Speaker 4 (01:20:34):
They got some DNA from a dead deceased because they
are extinct dire wolf, and they patched it together with
some gray wolf DNA, and they birthed what they're calling
the return of the dire Wolf. But what we've got
is actually a gray wolf that is genetically altered. So
we have a GMO a wolf that looks like a

(01:20:56):
dire wolf, but it's still probably mostly.

Speaker 8 (01:20:59):
Yeah I should Why was that necessary?

Speaker 4 (01:21:03):
Because if they're gonna bring back dinosaurs to create Jurassic Park,
because we know that went, well, that's what I'm saying. Yeah,
they're gonna have to do this again. What what extinct
animal would you like to them to bring back if
you could. I would love to see a wooly mammoth.
Stop stop, I think a wooly mammoth would be cool.
Stop across the board. You just said it, Jurassic Park.
They're extinct for a reason.

Speaker 8 (01:21:22):
No, thank you, and move.

Speaker 6 (01:21:26):
Messing with nature, Mandy, We are messing with it, accurate.
Nature tends to mess back, just like time.

Speaker 5 (01:21:34):
What animals should we bring back?

Speaker 7 (01:21:37):
See?

Speaker 4 (01:21:37):
I kind of want to bring that Wait a minute,
I kind of want to bring back the Dodo bird.
Just so the saying it'll go the way the Dodo
bird can no longer be used, even though I use
it a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:21:47):
I'm just throwing that out there.

Speaker 3 (01:21:48):
No.

Speaker 4 (01:21:49):
Oh, during the entire George We'll Interview, you too were laughing. Oh, well,
we were laughing because he was funny. Well, that's we
were just responding to our guest. Maybe Humter Biden can
pagn his portrait said this Texter because he's so talented. Well,
if you were in the Points in Miles game, or
you want to be in the Points in Miles game,
or you don't even know what the Points in Miles

(01:22:10):
game is, but you like the idea of traveling for free.
My next guest, you really really need to pay attention,
because Zach Hood is a former elementary school teacher who
has left the little children behind to herd an entirely
different kind of kittens on his.

Speaker 5 (01:22:27):
App travel Freely. So, first of all, Zach, welcome to
the show.

Speaker 7 (01:22:31):
Yeah, thanks Mandy, thanks for having me.

Speaker 4 (01:22:33):
Get right on that microphone. Get I always say, get
uncomfortably close.

Speaker 7 (01:22:36):
You can move it up.

Speaker 4 (01:22:36):
Yeah, there you go, Yeah, there you go. So tell
me a little bit about travel Freely. Let's start with that.

Speaker 12 (01:22:41):
Yeah, So it started about seven years ago when I
was elementary school teacher at Saint Mary's Academy just a
few miles away here, and I was I was able
to travel a lot with points in miles.

Speaker 7 (01:22:53):
My wife and I, even though.

Speaker 12 (01:22:54):
We were in grad school, had lower paying job school teacher,
mental health counselor my wife, and we were able to
take these incredible trips because we learned just the basics
of maximizing points and miles through credit cards. And we
started getting asked all the time from friends and family
how we were doing it because they knew we didn't
have this money to stay at five start hotels exactly,

(01:23:15):
this class flights, those kind of things. So I did
some seminars around Denver, tried to be like a consultant
and I'm an introvert, and that did go super well
for the long term. But I realized there's something here
people really want to know about it, and so the
idea came, let's turn this into an app and have
it be a tool that helps people manage this process,
but also educational resources that can go alongside it, where

(01:23:38):
we can hold your hand on how to get started,
how to keep going and move forward from there. So
it was a bit of a as needed kind of
thing as I saw people really connect with it, but
wanted to give them tools to be able to cash
in and take those big dream to trips.

Speaker 4 (01:23:54):
So one thing I want to start our conversation by saying,
I'm going to say this, and I'm going to say
it very clearly. Do not go out and run up
a bunch of credit card debt to get free points
in miles. That is counterintuitive, it is not the way
the system is designed to be maximized, and it is
a dumb choice.

Speaker 5 (01:24:11):
I'm just gonna lay that out there right now.

Speaker 4 (01:24:13):
We are not talking about going out and running up
debt you can't afford. And I would even go as
far to say if you can't afford to pay your
credit cards off monthly, you're really in a very precarious situation.

Speaker 5 (01:24:24):
So that's my disclaimer of our conversation. Now you don't.

Speaker 12 (01:24:27):
Disagree that, and you took my words out of my
mouth there, because when everything we say, when we get
started with whether it's a webinar email, it's like, if
you don't trust yourself to pay your bills off on time,
pay the balance off.

Speaker 7 (01:24:41):
Then don't even get started with this. Don't do it.
It's hot worth it.

Speaker 12 (01:24:45):
If you do trust yourself, you're financially savvy, you understand
paying your bills off on time won't bring any extra
fees or anything like that, then this is pretty much
the number one coolest thing you could learn to do.
If you have great credit and instead just staring at
a really cool credit score, actually put it to use
and get some great credit cards that can give you

(01:25:05):
amazing free trips, you know, for your lifetime.

Speaker 4 (01:25:07):
Really well, let's talk about the excellent credit score? What
is that seven to fifty.

Speaker 12 (01:25:12):
Based on the there's I think a few different ones
now eight fifty to nine hundred, but anything pretty much
above seven fifty is great.

Speaker 7 (01:25:19):
Above eight hundred is even better.

Speaker 5 (01:25:21):
Okay, so let's talk about how to play the game.
How does this start?

Speaker 4 (01:25:24):
Like, assume I know nothing and you're going to say,
look here, we're going to walk you through. I'm getting
my first credit card. What does that look like?

Speaker 5 (01:25:31):
What am I looking for?

Speaker 7 (01:25:33):
Yeah? So I would say that's step three or four.

Speaker 12 (01:25:36):
Try to start at step zero and just say, you know,
if you trust yourself, like we just talked about, to
pay your bills off on time. You need to realize
that banks are fiercely fighting for your business. The average
person that gets a new credit card holds it for
seven years. And so these big sign up bonus offers
that we see all over the you know, internet and
on commercials, they're hiding in plain sight, but they're actually

(01:25:59):
really really good. And then there's certain cards that are
better than others, that have more value and more flexibility
and how to redeem them. So it's really about I
always think it's about getting the very first, next best
credit card for you going through that process of hitting
the sign up bonus and earning the free travel, and
then stop and pause and say, you know, does that

(01:26:19):
fit your lifestyle?

Speaker 7 (01:26:21):
Was that easy? Hard, complicated, stressful?

Speaker 12 (01:26:23):
And if you book that free travel, little extra encouragement
motivation like okay, I could do this again. So pretty
much take everything out of this being a long term
hobby and just focus on what I like one thousand
dollars worth of free travel? How much do I spend
each month on my regular credit card expenses? Can I
put that to work in a smarter way and earn

(01:26:45):
a big bonus at the beginning, and then go through
that process. So I think that just starting with baby steps,
not thinking too far in the future, just get the
hang of it, see if this is for you, is
a big first step.

Speaker 7 (01:26:57):
And I would also say that there's a lot of
conceptions about it.

Speaker 12 (01:27:01):
There are really really good cards that we recommend first
that are more flexible, kind of like an UNA wild card,
where you can use it for flights, hotels, car rentals,
you could cash it out for money.

Speaker 7 (01:27:13):
You're not locked into an.

Speaker 12 (01:27:14):
Airline brand or a hotel brand, and those are the
better cards to get at the beginning, so you're not
going to get frustration getting locked into some points or
miles that you can't end up using. And then the
other part of it is just making sure you're smart
about how much you actually do spend each month that
you're going to hit that bonus, and then being able
to use it when you get it.

Speaker 4 (01:27:35):
When we get a new credit card, because Chuck and
I have been doing this for a little while, we'll
shift all of our spending to that one credit card
until we hit the bonus. Like we put our monthly bills,
we put everything on that one credit card until we
hit the bonus, and then we may shift stuff around
because we get a better deal. The part that you
just mentioned, though, that I think is really important.

Speaker 5 (01:27:55):
Is being able to use those miles.

Speaker 4 (01:27:58):
I've been frustrated by American Express, which is surprising because
I can't transfer my miles to where I need them
to be. So how do you in the Travel Freely
app address those specific issues? Do you go through each
card in terms of what's easier to use, or who
has more partners, or what alliance they're with or whatever

(01:28:20):
it is to make sure that people can use the
rewards in the way that they would normally use them.

Speaker 7 (01:28:26):
Yes, for sure.

Speaker 12 (01:28:27):
So we think of it as kind of dipping your
toes in the water at the beginning, and we're going
to try to hold your hand into learning these basics
and then learning what programs might be best for you.
MX is probably further down the list in terms of
a beginner program.

Speaker 7 (01:28:43):
It is kind of complicated.

Speaker 12 (01:28:45):
They have a lot of high annual fees, and if
you're not going to maximize that, it's kind of.

Speaker 4 (01:28:49):
You know, you have to be intentional with those. I
always make sure that I pay I get back my
annual fee. That is my own personal line in the sand,
So we use it for Uber, we use it for
all the various things that we get bonuses on just
to make sure we get back that annual fee. But
it's been frustrating just getting it to where getting those
points to where I need them to be.

Speaker 12 (01:29:09):
Yeah, And so for Denver specifically, the Chase program called
Ultimate Rewards, I found is much more friendly to the
Denver Home Airport because it has very friendly travel portal
where you can book very easily, basically kind of like
Expedia and use your points instead of money. But then
you have transfer partners which a lot of people don't realize,

(01:29:32):
you know, like one Chase point can equal one Southwest mile,
one Chase point can equal one Higatt point, one Chase
point can equal one United mile, and those three.

Speaker 7 (01:29:41):
Are super valuable for Denver.

Speaker 12 (01:29:42):
You can go stay in the Grand Hyatt Vale, you
can go stay, take Southwest United out of here to
a lot of different places. So that's the flexibility of
that program. But also you can just use the Travel
portal if you want to book a car, book a
hotel anywhere, book a flight in the travel portal to
do that.

Speaker 5 (01:30:02):
And is all of this helpful information on travel freely?

Speaker 4 (01:30:05):
Do you help people when they're ready to make, you know,
do those awards and get back or book that travel.

Speaker 12 (01:30:11):
Yes, so we kind of have a one to one
free travel one on one that's a like ebook webinar.
You know, however, you like to learn going about it
as you're learning, getting your first card, earning your first bonus,
celebrating that first bonus, then being ready to book and
show you your options, kind of like what's beginner friendly,
easiest to do if you're really nervous about doing it,

(01:30:31):
what are.

Speaker 7 (01:30:31):
The next steps?

Speaker 12 (01:30:32):
And what's two to ozh one to be able to
see what some of these partners are and then it's.

Speaker 7 (01:30:37):
Never been a better time.

Speaker 12 (01:30:38):
Like when I started, you have to just know the
secrets of you know, how to book some really cool redemptions.
But now there's a lot of tools out there that
are basically kind of like Google flights for points of
miles that allow you to just search and see what
programs cost what to get get to your destination.

Speaker 4 (01:30:55):
I don't want to get too much in the weeds
about what you do on the app, because I want
to ask some questions and I think a lot of
people who don't do this want to know the answer
to like somebody will ask, well.

Speaker 5 (01:31:04):
How much how many points does a flight cost?

Speaker 4 (01:31:07):
And that is a hugely variable question, right, depending on
where you're going class that you want. I always use
mine for business class, which is expensive, but you know what,
not as expensive as buying a business class ticket.

Speaker 12 (01:31:19):
Yeah, so business class international and five star hotels are
probably the best, absolutely best like value for redeeming your
points and miles. It does take you know, some searching
to find the absolute best redemption, right, but you'd be.

Speaker 7 (01:31:33):
Surprised what's out there. And so I totally agree with that.

Speaker 12 (01:31:37):
If you can get across the ocean in business class,
that kind of is a life changer for we do
we do it on the leg.

Speaker 4 (01:31:44):
That we're going to sleep on. We will do business
class and then premium economy.

Speaker 5 (01:31:48):
On the way back.

Speaker 7 (01:31:48):
Okay, because you're going to be awake.

Speaker 4 (01:31:50):
Right, it's not you don't have to be as you're
you're probably not going to sleep on the way back,
so it's easier that way. But what are what are
some of the deals that you have gotten or that
you have seen that are pretty remarkable.

Speaker 12 (01:32:02):
Yeah, So, just with my last ten years or so,
I think one of the coolest redemptions was a year
and a half ago. My family and I my wife,
three year old, and six year old. We went to
Australia and New Zealand for nine months. My son missed
the cutoff for kindergarten and we kind of made that
an excuse for a gap year.

Speaker 7 (01:32:23):
Went to Australia, New Zealand.

Speaker 12 (01:32:24):
And the flight down there, just using the regular kind
of basic search tools, we found the light flat business
seat from Los Angeles. All four of us got to
go in the middle, two rows, back to back, and
we got that flight for seven hundred dollars worth of
taxes and fees, and the retail price you booked it

(01:32:46):
with cash was twenty eight thousand dollars.

Speaker 10 (01:32:48):
Holy crap, Holy crap.

Speaker 4 (01:32:52):
And see you just you just kind of answered a
question that I had, and that is what if you
have a family, so you can do this with your
family as well?

Speaker 7 (01:33:00):
Sure?

Speaker 12 (01:33:01):
Yeah, so I would say a lot of people are
able to do this with your family if you want
to take advantage of the flights and use all your
points and miles, you know yourself, that's one thing, but
there are a lot of families doing this. Literally, to
get my one and a half year old at the
time get her a seat as a lap infant with

(01:33:21):
my wife or I would have cost seven to eight
hundred dollars for the lap infant fee because it was
ten percent based on the retail price, and so to
get her her own seat was another seventy thousand points
plus one hundred and eighty dollars, and so it was
cheaper for us to get her her own seat. And
the pictures of it, of her and my son who
was four and a half, like sitting in this huge

(01:33:41):
seat with you know, pancakes and all sorts of stuff
for business class was really cool. And it honestly was
also very helpful to get that long of a trip
with having sleep and arrive not completely wrecked for the
next week or two.

Speaker 4 (01:33:57):
I mentioned to you that we pay for a trip
to Switzerland, but we did it over the holidays. Do
not recommend if you want to maximize your miles, because
like a normal airline flight, using miles over a holiday
is they just jack them up so high. What are
other times I went over Christmas? What are some other
times that maybe you want to avoid or you're not

(01:34:19):
going to be able to get the kind of deals
that you want.

Speaker 12 (01:34:21):
That's a good question, I think, regardless of when I think,
one of the big factors is being able to be
a little bit flexible. Right, so if you can go
a couple of days earlier, a couple of days later
and search for those sweet spots. Some people don't have
that luxury, but that's a big, a big difference. That
could cut the amount of points or miles needed in half.
If you're able to be flexible, then another really really well.

(01:34:42):
Two other big things are consider your flights as two
one ways instead of a round trip. Yeah, so you
know United is not if you fly there and fly
back United, there's nothing.

Speaker 7 (01:34:55):
Special about while you're there.

Speaker 12 (01:34:56):
You're part of United's family, right, come back on the
round trip, and often like one way there on a
certain airline is a really good deal, but not a
good deal on the way back. So you can piece
two different one ways back and forth. And then the
other aspect to that would be think about what's called
a positioning flight. So maybe Denver doesn't have the best

(01:35:18):
direct flight somewhere, but maybe another airport does, like Houston,
or in New York, or Philadelphia going east, or Los Angeles,
San Francisco. You know, we flew out of Los Angeles
to go to Australia.

Speaker 7 (01:35:32):
If you can take.

Speaker 12 (01:35:33):
One smaller flight to get in position to that bigger
airport that then has a really good deal, then that's
another way to kind of maximize your points. And you
literally if you do the searches from like LA to
Australia versus Denver to Australia, sometimes it could be three
or four times as much compared to just grabbing a
very short Southwest, you know, cheap flight to get to

(01:35:53):
La then take the big expensive Oh I.

Speaker 5 (01:35:57):
Was telling you off the air Zach.

Speaker 4 (01:35:58):
I have a friend who flew first class from Mexico
City to Paris on Emirates Airline, which is the most
luxurious airline out there apparently.

Speaker 5 (01:36:06):
And she paid for a ticket to Mexico City which.

Speaker 4 (01:36:09):
Was cheap on Frontier, and then flew round trip in
first class for like twenty eight thousand points. Because she
was flexible, she waited, she just kept an eye on
it and grabbed it as soon as was available and
made that her trip. And I just thought that's amazing.
I mean, she's self employed, so that is part of
it when you work for somebody else, and you got
to set that vacation time up, how far in advance

(01:36:29):
can you book with points.

Speaker 12 (01:36:32):
It's a little bit tricky because each airline has their
kind of quota of seats that are available, but they
actually don't, you know, just open them up all at
the same time.

Speaker 7 (01:36:43):
So there's there's certain that's that's a helpful way to.

Speaker 12 (01:36:47):
Follow blogs that kind of if you're tracking a certain
flight or location, they'll know you know there's availability now
you can check it. But in general, I would say,
you know a lot of the international flights, I don't
know the exact dates, but you know up to a
year in advance for sure. And then sometimes if you're
more flexible of a traveler, there are really really good

(01:37:07):
deals just like a few days before, a few weeks before, but.

Speaker 5 (01:37:12):
Not around Christmas. And I'm just like you, not around Christmas.

Speaker 12 (01:37:16):
And it does fluctuate, And just because you know it's
a few weeks or a couple of months before, it
doesn't mean anything in terms of you know, missing out
on deals, because even right now there are deals coming
out for June getting to Europe that are you know,
just becoming available, so that I think, you know, the
airlines don't want to have people grab all the flights advance.

Speaker 7 (01:37:38):
Then there that they can sell.

Speaker 4 (01:37:39):
You can jump on Zach's app is travel Freely as
in Travel for Free, Travel Freely, and on the app
you allow people to upload their information and then give
them an idea of how they're doing with their points
in miles.

Speaker 5 (01:37:53):
That's a that's one of the things you guys offer.

Speaker 12 (01:37:56):
So the two main components of the app is one
adding the cards you currently have if you have any
cards kind of wallets as you will on the.

Speaker 7 (01:38:07):
On the app.

Speaker 12 (01:38:07):
And then we actually don't sync with banks or do
any kind of like fancy tech API sinking because we
found our users don't really like that and I don't
even want to that's a security for you guys. So
we literally just ask people to add the name of
the car that they have and when they opened it,
and based on that information, we can auto populate the

(01:38:28):
rest to help track like the sign up bonuses, do
the annual fees, and so that will start helping keep
track of those key dates for you that will pop up.

Speaker 7 (01:38:37):
In the app, send you emails and alerts.

Speaker 12 (01:38:39):
One of the most important things about that is that
there are certain kind of decision points to be made
and if you're at a blog post eight months ago
on exactly what to do with this annual fee coming up?

Speaker 7 (01:38:50):
And then it pops up.

Speaker 12 (01:38:51):
Odds are you're not going to remember it, so we
try to hold your hand in that so when we
have the email notification, it ends up giving you the
advice on here's to consider with this card, here's the
benefits if you want to keep it, here's what to
do if you want to change it to a no
annual fee.

Speaker 7 (01:39:05):
Card or cancel it.

Speaker 12 (01:39:08):
And then on the other side, we use the cards
that you have to understand what your next best offers
are and the recommendation.

Speaker 7 (01:39:14):
So we call that the card Genie and it has
all the crazy.

Speaker 12 (01:39:19):
Bank application rules in a quasi algorithm that will then
show you what the cards you're eligible for, the best
offers that are available, and we rank those according to
the everyday busy person who's a beginner, So if there's
a card that's really.

Speaker 7 (01:39:34):
Low value, that's not going to be at the top
of the list.

Speaker 12 (01:39:37):
And we also rank the cards according to like the
welcome bonus offer, right, and we always post the best offer,
so those big corporate sites out there will push the
offer that they're getting a pretty good commission for whereas
some of those cards, we know there's a different link
to use that could get you forty fifty sixty thousand
more points in some instances, and we'll share those with

(01:39:57):
you because we want to have that long term trust
and have you really get that extra spending for your travel.

Speaker 6 (01:40:03):
Without his app, it's like playing the most disorganized game
of checkers blindfolded with one eye you can only see.

Speaker 7 (01:40:08):
It's like a game changer, saying.

Speaker 5 (01:40:11):
Freely is the app?

Speaker 2 (01:40:12):
Zach?

Speaker 5 (01:40:12):
What is my guest? And we've already roped him in because.

Speaker 4 (01:40:15):
Now it's time for the most exciting segment all the.

Speaker 5 (01:40:18):
Radio of its guy in the world.

Speaker 3 (01:40:23):
That day.

Speaker 4 (01:40:24):
All right, what is our dad joke of the day? Now, Zach,
you've already gone over what this segment.

Speaker 5 (01:40:29):
Is all about because you agreed to it. Yes, all right,
so Zach's ready for dad joke of the day.

Speaker 6 (01:40:33):
What is it Apparently to start a zoo you need
at least two pandas a grizzly and three polars.

Speaker 8 (01:40:39):
It's the bare minimum. Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:40:42):
Anyway, today's word of the day.

Speaker 7 (01:40:45):
Please.

Speaker 8 (01:40:45):
It is a noun polaver v e r you do
or do not?

Speaker 5 (01:40:52):
I do not do you know what a polavor is.
I feel like I should know it, but I don't.

Speaker 7 (01:40:55):
Lever with a p on it.

Speaker 6 (01:40:57):
There you go, an informal word that you refers to
unimportant or meaningless talk.

Speaker 7 (01:41:03):
This show is.

Speaker 4 (01:41:04):
Basically collaborates for three hours. That's all it is, all right.
Today's trivia question. What is a beaver's home called? I
believe it's a damn, right, a beaver dam.

Speaker 5 (01:41:13):
They only live in a damn. Oh no, it's called
the lodge.

Speaker 4 (01:41:17):
Beaver's buildings dome shape homes from stick's grass, moss and mutt.

Speaker 5 (01:41:20):
They're quite the little builders there.

Speaker 4 (01:41:22):
Okay, Zach Mandy. Now, Zach, if you get it right,
you get a point. If you get it wrong, you
lose a point.

Speaker 5 (01:41:28):
So be careful. But you do not have to wait
until the end. Just yell your name when you're ready
to answer this.

Speaker 6 (01:41:32):
Use he's never played. Okay, you are a travel guru.
He is the travel genius.

Speaker 7 (01:41:38):
Uh huh. Travel and tourism is the cabin.

Speaker 2 (01:41:41):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:41:42):
London's Transport Museum offers a tour of Charring Cross that afternoon.
This at the Clermont with delicious scone.

Speaker 8 (01:41:51):
Maybe what is t that is correct?

Speaker 7 (01:41:53):
Okay, nice, with.

Speaker 6 (01:41:55):
Some buildings about a century old. Prectorious cop rest camp
has hosted many of this kind of trip.

Speaker 8 (01:42:04):
With a name from Swahili.

Speaker 5 (01:42:07):
I need that whole thing one more time quickly.

Speaker 8 (01:42:10):
With some buildings about a century old.

Speaker 6 (01:42:13):
Whatever this rest camp is called, has hosted many of
this kind of trip with a name from Swahili.

Speaker 5 (01:42:19):
I have no idea what it is.

Speaker 8 (01:42:21):
A safari.

Speaker 7 (01:42:23):
Oh dah, we're dumb, healing, thirsty.

Speaker 6 (01:42:26):
After your one hour canal tour of Amsterdam, stop at
this Europe's number one brewer for another tour and a
beer man.

Speaker 5 (01:42:34):
Oh, go ahead, Zach, I'll give it to you.

Speaker 6 (01:42:37):
Correct in Spain, rent a car and follow the path
of scenes in this novel, including the cave of Monsignones
and the windmills of Conte.

Speaker 8 (01:42:51):
Yeah, Zach, qiot, that is correct. Too long?

Speaker 5 (01:42:55):
I did know that one.

Speaker 6 (01:42:55):
If you're vacationing in Remini, Italy, it's a fifty ride
on a shuttle bus into this country.

Speaker 5 (01:43:03):
Mandy, what is Switzerland wrong?

Speaker 6 (01:43:06):
Zach, say nothing, Get the dub because the answer is
San Mariino.

Speaker 4 (01:43:10):
Digg it, dig it anyway, Zach, thank you so much
for coming in today.

Speaker 5 (01:43:14):
I really appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:43:15):
We will be back tomorrow. We have another three hour
show tomorrow. I know what are we going to do
with it all? You'll have to find out by listening.
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