05-27-25 FULL SHOW - One Republican Is Fighting Back Against A Wacko

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell, Andy con koam God, wait to
study the nicety through Frey, Andy Connell, Keith Real Sadda.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Welcome Local, Welcome to a Tuesday feels like Monday edition
of the show. It especially feels like Monday for Grant Smith.
It has been dragged into work early because Anthony Rodriguez
has the group. There is some upper respiratory virus going
around that causes you don't get super sick, but man,
does it make you cough and the cue. My daughter

(00:50):
had it for like seven days, so of course Chuck's
had it for three weeks. So there you go. But Grant, oh,
so that's how works when you have let me tell
you this, Grant, you have a kid. First time that
kid gets a bad cold or whatever, they get the snot,
they're coughing, and you're like, oh my god, this is terrible.
Four days later they're perfectly healthy, and now you have it.

(01:12):
Do you get well in four days? The answer is no, Grant,
you don't. You have whatever four day illness they had
for the next six weeks, off and on that's what
it is, having kids.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
It is.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
I hope everybody had a great weekend. I you, guys,
my kids and grandsons were in town this week, and
nothing will make you realize how old you are more
than having two little boys in your house for a
long weekend because they do not stop by. Yesterday, I
was like, oh my god, I'm so exhaustin I just
to send my chair and be old for a minute

(01:47):
that it was wonderful. We had the best time. Great
time had by all, and I hope you had a
great weekend as well. Now, today, as I was preparing
for the program and creating the blog that you're gonna
find at Mandy's bloy, I was like, Yeah, this is
a Tuesday after a holiday weekend kind of newsday. But
don't worry. I still have tons of stuff for us

(02:09):
to talk about. Let's find it by going to Mandy's
blog dot com dot oh I got the hiccups. Mandy'sblog
dot com. Look for the headline in the latest post section.
This is five twenty seven twenty five blog one Republican
is fighting back against a Waco. Click on that and
here are the headlines you will find within.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
I didn't do with in office, half American all with
ships and clipments, a sea that's going to press.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Plat today on the blood. My friend Derek has had
enough of this Broad's crap. DBS is doing some shade business.
Open primaries could save Colorado. Paul is prepared to make
homes even more expensive in Colorado. We broke a rain
record this weekend. Ritz factors for prostate cancer are we

(02:53):
headed towards war with Russia. Jlo's career is on the slide.
Weird how the Colorado Sun's covered changes this as CPR says,
hold my beer, Colorado's fake crossburners found guilty, Paulus Vito's
the rideshare build VanderMeer will be back. Baby want to
live longer? Guess what the most dangerous dog breed is?

(03:15):
Why good nutrition science is so hard? Jake Tapper continues
to blow the lid off Jake Tapper, This as Scott
Pelly uses a commencement address to attack Trump scrolling scrolling
a year of als, I think rock insulted a rod
scrolling Giving up booze could change your life. North Korea
is mad about missile defense. Cycle of Life Butterfly edition.

(03:39):
I am a yes on cruise control, the Crypto dinner
went well, Nita Mower, I have beef with Matt Walsh.
Those are the headlines on the blog at mandy'sblog dot com.
I have a question for you, Grant, because you are
the official millennial representative of the show. When a rod
is not here, do you use cruise control while driving

(04:03):
on the highway?

Speaker 5 (04:05):
I used to all the time and all broke. No,
it's just too much stop and go traffic and up
and down twenty five.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
And you can't here I mean in traffic. I'm talking
about when you're on the wide open highway. Yes, everybody should. Oh,
but apparently the younger generations find it weird. Why because
they're not in control of the car. This girl in
this video that I have on the blog, she's like,
my parents drive with cruise control on and they don't
even have their foot on the on the pedal. Well,
that's kind of the.

Speaker 5 (04:33):
Point, isn't that how it works?

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (04:35):
And you know what I realized though, Like when you're young,
you don't get the pedal fatigue that you get when
you're older. Now, if I have to put my this
is why I don't like driving an electric car Okay,
I've driven exactly one electric car. When you take your
foot off the gas, the car stops. It's like driving
a giant golf cart. I don't like that. That's why
I'm gonna get an electric car with a self driving feature.

Speaker 5 (04:55):
See, then you don't have to worry about it.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
I'm just going to be like, drive me around and
if if I die at a fiery wreck, because if
your driving, my family will sue the company and all
will be well.

Speaker 5 (05:04):
It'll be fine.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Nothing to see here, But I found that interesting. Another
thing young people are eskewing to their own disadvantage. But
whatever that video is on the blog today, that's not
where I wanted to start. I just thought I saw it.
I was like, I'll just ask that question right out
of the shoot. Remember you can always text us you
are a snarky response by going to fire or diet.

(05:26):
You give somebody three days off grant and everything falls apart.

Speaker 5 (05:29):
Man, this is the most Monday feeling Tuesday line.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
And you know what, I made a terrible mistake. A
great mistake, but a terrible mistake. I scheduled a massage
this morning. That was a bad choice.

Speaker 5 (05:40):
Didn't know.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
I'm like, I don't.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
I mean, yeah, I'll do a show, but my massage
therapist is going on vacation, so I had to slide
one in before she left. I do have very interesting
guests coming on today. My friend Derek Wilburn, who is
all so on the D twenty school board in El
Paso County, is sort of doing something that I have

(06:07):
long thought that Republicans should do, although because he is
a public figure and a politician, these kinds of cases
are very hard to prove. But the long story short
is this Derek, as a member of the D twenty
school board. They were discussing some books that people found
objectionable that were available in school libraries, and in a

(06:29):
board meeting, Derek read some of the passages from one
of these books and it was pornographic, absolutely pornographic. And
this woman, who I guess is I'm going to call
her a school board activist, which in and of itself
is not a bad thing. I'm a big believer in

(06:51):
people going and holding the school boards accountable. I'm not
knocking her for that, But she has accused him of
being a child molester, of sexually assaulting her daughter, who
is at the meeting. All of these outrageous things. She
keeps saying them over and over and over again. They
are demonstrably false, and he is suing her for slander

(07:11):
because this is why we have these rules. Although when
you're a public figure, it gets very difficult to prove
that you know you've been slandered. You're kind of putting
yourself out there and you're held to a much different
set of rules. So it is it is really interesting
to see the way people behave when they think they

(07:34):
can get away with it. So we're gonna talk to
Derek at one o'clock about that. I also have John
Caldera edgejoining me at two thirty. We're gonna chat about
a column he wrote. And you know, I'm just I'm
trying to say I've been trying to think about the
way to say this because I believe that there are
some people engaged in the Republican Party now who are

(07:57):
really working to sort of bring the normies back to
the Republican Party in Colorado. So I don't want to
take them out at the knees. But the reality is,
I don't believe that a Republican can win a state
wide election in Colorado for the foreseeable future. People in
this state despise Donald Trump. Republican and Democrat voter registrations

(08:22):
have now flatlined or fallen to the point where we
now have fifty percent independent voters in the state of Colorado.
And I don't think they're in the mood to embrace
someone from the far right, just like I mean, we've
got to shift the narrative so people on the left
stop voting for the people on the far left. We've

(08:43):
got to get some normal people in office or we're
done for So John takes up the mantle of ranked
choice voting. You guys already know I'm a fan, and
I realize it's different, and anything different can be a
little scary. And I don't mean like, oh, I'm afraid
of rank choice voting. I mean, oh, I'm afraid of
the unknown. What happens? How does this work? How does

(09:05):
it not work?

Speaker 3 (09:06):
You know?

Speaker 1 (09:07):
So I get it. But John wrote a great column
about it in the Denver Gazette. We're going to talk
to him at two thirty and he's talking specifically about
open primaries, and open primaries are a different facet that
would hopefully allow us to weigh in on candidates that

(09:27):
are a little less crazy, and all I can think about,
you guys, was the runoff between Kelly Bruff and Mike
Johnston in Denver. Now you, if you've listened to the show,
know that I supported Kelly Bruff, and I thought she
would have done an absolutely outstanding job because of her
background in economic development in the Chamber of Commerce and

(09:51):
all that, she would have done an amazing job. And
instead people voted for the opie like Mike Johnston, who
then proceeded to do exactly what he campaigned on. And
then everybody's like, wait, what, I didn't want a homeless
hotel in my neighborhood. Of course not anyway, So we're
gonna talk to john about open primaries, which are some

(10:15):
of the some of the changes that Kent Theory has
been working on.

Speaker 6 (10:21):
Now.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
A lot of people think ranked choice voting is bad,
but I'm telling you, if politicians understand how ranked choice
voting works, it could be absolutely stellar. And we should
not be afraid to try something new because politicians are
too dumb to change what they do. As a matter
of fact, we should definitely try to change something the
politicians hate, you know, I mean, that's the reality of it. Anyway,

(10:45):
we'll talk to John at two thirty. Okay, you guys
are sending me these text messages about cruise control. Mandy
jen X here. My first car didn't have cruise control,
so I never got used to using it. So no,
no cruise control. That's because you're old though, just kidding.
Adaptive cruise control is a dream.

Speaker 5 (11:03):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
I don't love adaptive cruise control because I can't figure
out how to set it to be closer to the
car in front of me. I don't know, Mandy. I'm
seventy five and a native of Colorado. I would never
relinquish control of my truck or suv to a mechanical
device or a woman driver, So no cruise control for me.
I enjoy driving a vehicle trail Runner twenty four in

(11:26):
Colorado Springs. Well, good for you, mister man. Good for you, Mandy.
So none of the people you told us to vote
for were saying, uh sayer, I mean, does that count.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
Just at all?

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Anyone? Mandy is a person who drives close to seventy
thousand miles a year. I have found cruise control does
not actually save any fuel at all. Oh, don't use
it because it saves fuel I use this because it
saves my calf muscles and my shin us whatever that
shin muscle's called. Great, look up to see what that
shin muscles called. You know what I'm talking about, the

(12:07):
one on the front of your leg, Mandy. Why can't
the independent people organize and carry a vote? It seems easy. Well,
I have a theory about people who register as independents.
I think that there are people who truly believe neither
of those parties represent me, and I am going to
register as an independent. You got those people in that camp,
then you have people that are like I might lean

(12:29):
more to the left or more to the right. I
might have more in common with Republicans or Democrats, but
I don't want to get all their stupid mail, and
I don't want to have people calling me to come
to meetings and crap like that. I just want to
be able to go and vote. And they register as independence.
And I think those are pretty much the two groups
of people that register as independence. So it's going to

(12:50):
be hard to get those people together because the people
in the first group may be so far to one
side or the other that a relatively normal independent would
be like, yeah, no, dog, I'm not doing that. And ultimately,
the thing about a political party is you have to
have people willing to do the work. And that's why
I try not to give too much crap to the

(13:10):
Republican Party or the Democratic Party, because they have people
that have taken the time out of their lives, away
from their families, away from their jobs, and they're willing
to go and put in the work. So you know,
that's how I feel about that, Mandy. The homeless situation
in my neighborhood is unbelievably better than it was over
the past three years. Well, that's because they shoved a

(13:33):
bunch of these homeless people into homeless hotels after spending
a couple hundred million dollars on it. Antiia tibialis yw.
What is hyw mean? Is that an Internet slang thing.
Anterior tibialis My interior tibialis on one leg is extremely
well developed. Now wait to hang out pulling up my

(13:55):
pant's legs right now to look at this because one
of my legs is longer than the other one. My
anterior tibialis on the right leg is bigger than the
one on the left leg.

Speaker 5 (14:04):
From driving without cruise control.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Probably no, it's because that leg is shorter. Oh you're welcome,
thank you. T y back atcha Texter back atcha Mazda
Adaptive Cruise GRD all around, set to any speed, slows down, stop,
and speed up auto. Sometimes have to preempt have four
options for how close in front yep, Mandy. I use

(14:28):
cruise control a lot because I drive a company pick
up in it as GPS, so I can set it
to five miles over and I won't get a speeding
ticket and I don't have to hear my boss get
mad at me because I'm speeding. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mandy.
The non cruise control users are the speed up, slow
down die that you want to make lose and put

(14:48):
them in the wall, correct, Mandy. I use cruise control
on long hauls on open highways. After my second traffic ticket,
I realize cruise control maintains a constant speed better than
my foot can yep. Yes. Indeed, day six hundred and
ninety eight of saying all independence in Colorado are democrats,

(15:10):
I don't believe you. I don't necessarily believe that. Do
they lean left?

Speaker 3 (15:14):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Absolutely, But I think more and more the independence are
people who are leaving parties that they view to be
as more extreme than they are comfortable with. And that
is happening on the left as well as the right.
I think it's happening on the left because of the
image of the National Party right, and then it's happening

(15:35):
on the right in Colorado because of the image of
the State Party. And I believe that to be true.
I just saw a sound bite on the Krawl on
the bottom of Fox News that Ram Emmanuel said that
the National Democratic brand is woke, weak and sad, and
he's not wrong. But eventually the Democrats will pull it

(15:57):
out of a ditch. They're going to have to tick
off some of their main, very important demographics. Mandy, what's
wrong with KOA today? I believe they are doing some
tower work on the AM signal. But remember, guys, you
can always flip on the absolutely free iHeartRadio app and
listen in crystal clear digital audio from wherever you are.

(16:19):
And while you're there, go ahead and make the Mandy
Connells Show one of your presets right at the top
of the iHeart Radio app. That would do me a solid.
I'd appreciate that, and then you could add the taking
it for granted podcast in the number two slot. If
you would do grant a Solid as well, Mandy, it
would be great to socialize with people of like mind.
Could you organize a meetup for your listeners. I am
working on not one, but two different meetups. One I

(16:42):
am working on I want to do a singles meetup.
I have concerns about the singles meetup though, in that
I'm going to make an announcement. At the singles meetup,
Please don't go home with anyone until you know them better.
I'm not vouching for any of these people. One of
them could be an axe murder. I don't know. But
I also want to do more meetups because I enjoy

(17:03):
it and I'd love for you guys to get together
and hang out. So there you go, Mandy. I'm an
independent and I am conservative. I agree with what you said.
I don't want all the mail exactly exactly, Mandy. The
distance adjustment or gap adjustment on your adaptive cruises on
your stealing wheel on the other side of the radio
phone controls. Hope it helps. Here's the problem with my car.

(17:26):
So I drive at twenty fifteen Mercedes and when I
got it, I got it used because I don't buy
new cars, and normally when you buy a fancy car,
the people at the dealership give you like a two
hour lesson on how to work everything. I did not
get that. So there are buttons on my car that
to this day. I've had this car for for six

(17:48):
years now, yeah, six years now. There are buttons on
my car. I still have no idea what they do. Great.
Could you drive a car and not know what all
the buttons do?

Speaker 5 (17:58):
Do it every day?

Speaker 1 (18:00):
So you don't know what all the buttons in your
car do either. No, what are some of the ones
that you don't know what they do?

Speaker 5 (18:04):
Look like? They're like the little ones on the dash
that have different Well, those are the.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Lights though you're talking about the light up symbols. I'm
talking about actual buttons that I'm supposed to know what.

Speaker 5 (18:16):
To work, right, That's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Okay, I just have things. I have no idea what
they don't know. I push them sometimes nothing happens.

Speaker 5 (18:25):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
I mean, I have no idea. Mandy, I spent thirty
years as a sales rep and wish I'd used cruise control.
I developed arthritis on the top of my foot due
to the back and forth of my foot. There you go,
you guys, Mandy and Colorado, they are unaffiliated, not independent.
That is a proper point, Mandy. Colorado Republicans are too extreme,

(18:51):
extremely stupid. Dems are just evil and that, my friends,
is why we have so many un affiliates in Colorado.
We'll be right back when we get back. I've got
a bunch of little things on the blog today, but
I'm going to talk about something really stupid because something
happened last night at the American Music Awards that we

(19:13):
all just need to like have a moment for j
Loo's career. We'll explain after this. Ultimately, we have to
talk about Jennifer Lopez for just a second. And here's
why something happened last night. And I think we now
have a new standard by which to sort of measure
where someone's career is at that moment in time when

(19:35):
this particular thing happens. Now, I would be the first
to say I am not anti Jennifer Lopez. I'm just
not a huge fan. I have you know, I admire
her wherewithal and the ability that she's created so much
after starting out as a Laker girl, and she really
maximized all of this. I mean, I admire her for

(19:57):
being successful, but last night at the American Music Awards,
she admitted to the world that her career is on
the slide. How do I know, Well, during her opening
performance for the American Music Awards, a show that is
being panned today because, as the kids say, none of
the big celebrities went, which must have been news to

(20:19):
Jennifer Lopez, who opened the show with a big dance
and song number and the girl can boogie. Okay, this
woman can dance. She is quite the performer. So why
am I saying that maybe she has jumped the shark
because in her performance last night she had to add
making out with a guy dancer and a girl dancer

(20:40):
on stage. Now, nothing says I'm past my prime in
my view, then going on some kind of music awards
show and making out with inappropriately young people of the
same gender. Madonna started it, because of course Madonna started everything.
But it's like you, I mean, I'm fifty five, j

(21:01):
Lo and I are the same age. Now, I am
not for a moment going to say that I am
as well put together as Shannifer Lopez, So that is
not it. But at fifty five, I'm now having experiences
like this and as a matter of fact, dudes, your
I need your help here. Okay, I've got a question
for men because I don't think men necessarily deal with

(21:22):
this because fashion wise, men are pretty consistent. Pants shirt
there you go, right, that's what it is. Do I
have pants on? Do I have a shirt on? I'm dressed,
let's go. I'm so envious of that, by the way. Anyway,
I uh, I'm shopping this past like yeah, last weekend,

(21:42):
last week end of last week, and am now at
the age where I put on certain clothes that I've
worn for a very long time and I look at
myself in the mirror and I go, well, that's a
little mutton dressed up like lamb. I don't feel good
about wearing this outfit at all. But I'm not ready
to like, you know, just go to j Jillen talblets.
I'm not ready to move into the to the older

(22:05):
lady fashion. I'm in this like weird space where I'm
having trouble, especially in the summer. Like in the winter,
I wear jeans and a sweater and no big deal.
I'm practically a dude, right, Do I have pants, do
have a sweater? Yes, I'm good. What am I wearing today?
Pet jeans, sweater. I'm good. But in the summer, when
you're talking about shorts and skirts and things like that,
it's a little more challenging. So I just want to

(22:29):
say that, Jlo, you don't try. You don't have to
be on the gender spectrum like you don't. You don't
have to be some kind of queer. It's okay to
just be a normal straight lady. It's okay. But I
feel like this is going to be the new thing, like, okay,
did you do one of two things after the age

(22:50):
of fifty as a performer? And by the way, of course,
this only applies to women. Men can do whatever they
want whenever they want it.

Speaker 5 (22:56):
It's fine.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
I'm not mad at you. I'm just jealous. So now
we know when any female celebrity starts making out with
someone else on stage had a music and you're like, oh,
she knows her careers on the downslide, dang to the
text or who just hit the common Spirit health text
line at five six six nine. Oh, you're sounding very

(23:18):
boomer like today. Still gen x. I'm still gen X
over here, which is why I'm fighting it. Try to
stay cool like everybody in my yearbook told me to. Okay,
I just want to be able to go back to
my forty fortieth class reamnion. Yeah, I just said fortieth.
I don't want to be able to announce to everybody. Yeah,
I stayed cool, guys. I don't know about you, guys,

(23:39):
but I've been working for the past forty years on
nothing more than just staying cool because I want her
to live the yearbook dream. I thought you were gonna
say that tennis balls fell off for Walker says this
texter a not quite that bad. And here's the thing.
She can still shake her booty like, I mean, first
class booty shaken. I just feel like it's kind of

(24:01):
sad that that's what we feel like we need to
do now. Mandy j Lo announced that she's doing the
Las Vegas Residency at Caesar's Palace, opening in December. Guys,
if I were a famous person and I could get
a residency in Las Vegas, heck yeah. The Eagles did
the Sphere. They made like seven million dollars a night. Yeah,

(24:23):
I'll take that. I mean, maybe I should come up
with some kind of show so I could get a
residency at the Spear. Unfortunately, I don't know if anybody
would pay for Could you imagine going to the Spear, Grant,
just seeing a giant version of my head, like like
I was just like the great and mighty Awes. You
could like see all my nose hairs, although i'd have
them edit those out. That would not be something cool.

(24:47):
And yes, text or I am receiving that text that
you just sent. Are you receiving this? I did receive
that text. Wouldn't that be cool? Grant you as a
sphere show it's a giant disembodied head. Kenny Chesney's there
right now, Kenny check I'd like to go to this spear.
I've heard it's amazing. I've only had good things are crazy. Yeah,

(25:08):
I figure someday it'll settle down, or they'll build another one.
They're working on another one somewhere else. Are maybe in Paris?
Does that sound right?

Speaker 5 (25:16):
I have to look it up.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, I think it is. Yeah, I think it's somewhere else.
So once they build a few more, it'll be fine.
Well that's the problem. That's the issue. I don't have
anything to offer, Grant. Thanks for pointing that out. Jeez, Grant,
I was just gonna gloss over that and be a
big disembodied head. Mandy. I could see you doing burlesque.

(25:38):
You're adorable, silly Mandy. Sun dresses are the bomb, along
with fun squirts. Talk about looking like button dressed like lamb.
Throw on some of these sun dresses. Let's just I'm
gonna say this delicately. I'm fifty five years old. My
boobs are not where they started. Okay, they just are not.

(25:59):
So yeah, little sundress is super cute. No, no, sir,
that is not not a thing that's going to happen.

Speaker 5 (26:07):
By the way, the new Sphere location will be an
Abu Dhabi.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Oh of course, of course Mandy Katy Perry didn't make
much with her Vegas residency. I don't know, Mandy. All
that means is you got good family values and morals. See,
there you go, there you go. She has mainly transitioned
to club gay pop as JoJo's see what named it?

(26:30):
I think JoJo's straight now, So does that mean her
music is not gay pop? Because if she's straight now,
she was gay for like a minute, just pop music,
just fashionably gay for like a minute. She tried it
on like a you know, an affectation.

Speaker 5 (26:44):
I didn't know who she was, and for some reason,
my algorithm thinks I am very into whatever show she
was on, well where she started.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, Celebrity Big brother Well, Celebrity Big Brothers where she
turned not gay again. But she was on Dance Moms
as a young I actually feel terribly sorry for her.
She was thrust into start. I'm very very young, which
is horrible. And if you're a family that says, hey, uh,
I want my kid to be a star and a celebrity,
you're a bad parent, period, full stop. Mandy. Come see

(27:16):
the Mandy Shoe show at the Spear. There's a theme now,
you guys, trust me on this. Nobody needs to see that. Nobody.
Those those days are behind me, Mandy, with all due respect,
that's a mental image. I'm not sure you're ready for
me too, Okay, but here we are. This is the reality, Mandy.

(27:38):
One major problem with getting older when the nosehars go
gray and they're too noticeable. Guys, what is up with
nosehairs green? If you already get the nose hair phase
of your life.

Speaker 5 (27:47):
Yes, and they just keep coming. I well, I just
keep a mustache. So it just together.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Dave Lauer said something so funny to me one time.
He goes, look, I knew I was gonna get nosehires
when I got older, but nobody told me it was
going to grow on the outside of my nose like
these random hairs. I'm getting.

Speaker 5 (28:05):
Hairs on the outside of my ears. Oh yeah, and
I remember my grandpa having it. Yeah, Oh I have
those now.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
What I find horrifying is that apparently people are having
those waxed, like they're getting their nose hairs waxed, and
they're no, I'm not, no, I am not doing this.

Speaker 5 (28:22):
I don't think I care enough about my looks.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
More men seem to be embracing waxing, and I just
have to say, you guys fell for it. If you
are letting people put hot wax on you to rip
the hair off, you got snookeered. It's not cool, guys hurts. Mandy.
Do you go to the tower and help them work
on it?

Speaker 4 (28:41):
No? I do not.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
They don't let me touch difficult things. Mandy. Please play
Wonderful tonight my Eric Clapton, Sure, but why not that
I don't love that song? Saw Eric Clapton on my
twenty first birthday, regret nothing. When we get back, let's
talk about a real topic for a moment, and it's
what about local media and why I was at the

(29:03):
beginning a subscriber to The Colorado Sun, only to realize
right away nope, not for me. New to the show.
I have a one hundred and fifty five pounds Saint
Bernard named Chinks. She's fat and cuddly and I love her.
If Jinks could talk, would you interview you on her show?
If if so, what would you talk about? To which
I responded, probably not. All she want to talk about

(29:26):
is playing tug treats and how she doesn't get enough
belly scratches be you know, to which they responded their
worst interviews. I suppose, yes, I've done them. And this guy, Mandy,
I'm in my sixties a guy and nose and ear
waxing cleans up some pretty nasty stuff doesn't hurt either, Sir.

(29:48):
I have accidentally grabbed a nose here before, when like
I was blowing my nose really and you get that
random nose here and you get that thing a yank.
It makes both your eyes water. How does ripping them
all out of the same time not hurt. That is crazy.
Good gravy, Mandy. After your grandkid's visited this weekend, do

(30:08):
you reckon they'll move to Colorado instead of you moving
to Ohio after retirement. Nope, no, can do, will not happen.
They like it out here. But come on, you know
they bought their house eight or nine years ago for
eighty nine thousand dollars. Yeah, so why why they have

(30:29):
a great life, absolutely fantastic life. Anyway, I want to
talk about two stories, and I want to do them
really quickly because it's more of a of course, these
stories are here. The first one has to do with
the Colorado Son. Both of these, by the way, are
being written about Corey Gaines at the Colorado Accountability Project
dot substack dot com. The first one is about how

(30:53):
the Colorado Sun has covered the Trump administration and the
effect of their policies. Let me just give you a
few headlines from the Colorado Sun. Thousands show up across
Colorado to say hands off to the Trump administration. Colorado
moms and crisis jobs lost, the human cost of Trump's
addiction funding cuts, Colorado utility bills could rise, Emission cuts

(31:16):
would be slowed if Trump ends clean energy tax credit.
You get the drift. Whatever it is, it's bad if
Trump's involved. That's in the headline. So imagine Corey's surprise
when this headline popped up. Thousands of vulnerable Colorado families
can't access childcare after federal rule changes. Hmm, no Trump there,

(31:41):
but that's only because these rule changes were made under
the Biden administration. So where it should say because of Biden,
thousands can't access childcare after rule changes or after Biden
era rule changes, But that's not how they cover things.
When The Colorado Sun first started, I was an early adopter,
subscribed right away in the hopes that they would prove

(32:02):
themselves to be a fair and balance publication. And then
their editorial page was absolute hot garbage. And then I
started to see it peek into their news coverage, and
then I canceled my subscription. The second story, also by
Corey Gains, but this one at Complete Colorado, is about
the coverage by Colorado Public Radio the environmental advocate or

(32:26):
slash reporter however you want to say it, Sam Brash,
and in the article he goes very very deeply into
proving that's Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who came from the
oil and gas industry and is doing a bang up
job and expanding our energy opportunities in the United States
from where I'm sitting, not just oil and gas, but everything.

(32:48):
And in order to prove him wrong, they rely on
something that is well, let's be clear. When you're talking
about computer models, you are talking about the best guess
that someone created after putting in their information and their
biases into that model. Unfortunately, Chris Wright is talking about data.

(33:13):
Data are actual temperature readings and actual information that has
been gathered up. Guess which one is more accurate. Hmm.
If you guessed the data, you guess right.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
Guys.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Tomorrow Southwest Check's bag charge kicks in.

Speaker 5 (33:34):
Got that going for us? Is that applied to trips
that you've already booked?

Speaker 1 (33:38):
God, Like, I don't know the answer that I'll let
you know in July when I show up at the
airport and we're like, yo, hey, I'm getting on this plane.
We shall see, we shall see when we get back,
We're gonna get joined. We are gonna be joined by
my friend Derek Wilburn not only is a member of
the D twenty school board in the Colorado Springs area,

(34:00):
he is also now engaged in litigation litigation with a
woman who wouldn't stop saying rude and untrue things about him.
We'll tell you all about it after this. Joining us
from beautiful New Hampshire. He is Derek Wilburn. Not only
is he a member of the D twenty school board,

(34:20):
now he is a longtime rabble rouser and conservative activist
and h he is doing something that I think deserves
a PLoud and it would go a long way towards
tamping down some of the nastiness in our political discourse.
And he's sitting on the side of a lake right now, Derek,

(34:40):
do you do realize that you're sitting on the lake
that is home to one of my favorite movies of
all time? What about Bob?

Speaker 7 (34:47):
My wife and I are going to watch it tonight.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Have you seen it before?

Speaker 6 (34:52):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (34:52):
My goodness, so at least two dozen times over?

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Get good good.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
I just although I did just look it up, they
did not fit on it there. So you're gonna be
able to be like, what this is? It make winnipeesake? No,
We're yeah, fabulous movie. But let me let me ask you.
You're on vacation now, but you kind of earned a vacation.
I'm gonna let you kind of lay out what's happened,
you know, recently, and I did put a story that

(35:19):
I think is from Kara Doo uh from some time ago,
kind of with the backstory. But but I'm sure that
when you decided to run for the school board, you
never thought you would find yourself on the plaintiff side
of a slander suit, and yet here you are.

Speaker 7 (35:34):
No, of course I didn't. And there's a longer story
to answer your question about where we've been through to
earn a vacation. We'll talk about that next time you
and I get together. But uh, we had a cancer
diagnosis between my life and I and then I was
diagnosed with a brain tumor. We've survived it all in
the last two years, and it was just time to
get to the dodge and relax. But more to more

(35:55):
to your point, I have been called a child, called
sex predator, a rapist, accused of being sexually aroused by children,
and on and on and on for two years ever
since I won my school board election. So finally I said,
you know what you've got to do sometimes is punch
a bully in the mouth. And I lawyered up and sued.

(36:18):
That's the short of it. You can't run around calling
people sex child sex predators when they've never been accused
of a crime, never been arrested, never been incarcerated, never
been tried. The only thing I've got on my record
is a speeding ticket from nineteen ninety five.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
That's it.

Speaker 7 (36:35):
That's it. I'm a motorcycle in California. And there was
a constituent of mine, a woman named Bernadette, who's been
calling me a child sex predator for two years. And
I said, I'm going to put an end to it,
and I lawyered up, and here we are.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
So, Derek, let's go back to the beginning, because I
said earlier in the show, I'm like, this woman appears
to be a school board activist of some sort. In
I don't hate school board activist. I want people to
go to school board meetings and hold school boards accountable. Right,
I'm not using that as a majoritative, But how is she?
Is she at every meeting? What got her involved in

(37:11):
the first place, what brought her to your knowledge? And
I'm just asking to speculate here. Why has she becoming
such a persistent thorn in your side.

Speaker 7 (37:19):
She's been at school board meetings as have I for
years and years and years. I was going to school
board meetings long before I was elected to the board,
and she has been too, And frankly, we had a
pretty cordial relationship up until I got elected. The genesis
is during the campaign we had three candidate forums, actually
two because the two leftists refused to show up to

(37:40):
one of the forums because it was being held inside
of a church. But at one of the forums, I
anticipated a question about books. We all know that's a
hot topic. The left wants these sexually explicit books and
everything else in our schools. I don't. We don't. So
I knew i'd have the microphone in my hand and
there's nothing they could do to stop me. So I said, okay, hey,
here we go, and I read out loud from some

(38:03):
of these books that are that are in our schools.
And it was ugly. It was nasty, it was vulgar,
it was profane, it was everything you think it is. Interestingly,
the left doesn't have a problem with the books being
in our schools, only with me reading from them. Yeah,
I mean, I read it out loud. I had the
mic I knew they couldn't stop me, and I just
read it out loud and said, you know what, ladies
and gentlemen, if you elect me to the school board,

(38:25):
I will not be spending your tax dollars to provide
our children with this filth. That's how it all started.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
And since then, she says that by reading in that
school board meeting, you sexually assaulted her daughter. Is that
what I read in one of these news articles.

Speaker 7 (38:43):
That's loosely what she's saying, so sexually assaulted her daughter.
And it's just been It's gotten worse and worse and worse.
I can't turn around without being called these things school board.
I mean, she comes to the meetings and reads from
the podium and we can't respond, right, all we can
do is just sit there and calls me sets creditor
and unsafe to be around children. And she made up

(39:05):
a quote from casby the Colorado Association of school Boards,
posted it online, been posting in Facebook for two years,
which is the most public venue imaginable the false quotes.
Filed a police report against me, then claimed that I
was being investigated by the police. Right filed a complaint
with the District Attorney's office then claimed I was being

(39:28):
investigated by the district attorney. That's not how it works, right,
That's not how our system. Imagine if you can just
go to the DA and say, right, I want Randy investigated,
that's not how it works. First, and arrest has to
be made. Sanik has referred to the District Attorney's office
for potential prosecution, so she's been over the top of
this stuff. We had our first hearing in front of

(39:48):
a judge three or four weeks April eighteen or nineteen.
The judge absolutely destroyed her motion to dismiss and looked
more like something I would have written and through the
case out. So she's decided to appeal, and now we're
waiting for an appointment with the appellate Court in Denver.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
So, you know, Derek, this would have been so much
easier if you weren't on the school board. I mean,
I'm sure your attorney has told you that as soon
as you become an elected official or you're considered a
quote public entity, proving slander is really challenging. But you
guys have already gotten an encouraging word from the judge. Correct.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Correct.

Speaker 7 (40:26):
Colorado has a provision called anti slap. The long short
of it is the bar is higher when you're an
elected representative. You have to prove damages and much more
excess than if you're just a John Q citizen. And
the judge wrote a decision that I mean, it was
so strong it just destroyed anti slap And if I

(40:49):
were in her shoots, I would appeal too, because the
next step is to put it in front of a
jury and when, if, and when it happens, not if,
when it does happens, any jury it's going to say
you can't run around calling someone a sex predator a
child sex predator in public. And she's going to lose
and she knows that. But you're absolutely right, it's a
higher bar for elected representatives. And I have cleared it,

(41:12):
and cleared it by a substantial amount.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
Somebody else on the tech line is she is she
against removing these books from the library? Is that is
that part of the issue. She's on the other side
of this.

Speaker 7 (41:24):
Politically, absolutely rctually all the US are against removing these
books from the library. They call it book banning, which
always cracks me up, as if the idea that a
book if it's not available in a public school library
is therefore somehow banned. I've said from the get go,
from before I was running for office, that look, if

(41:45):
you want your child reading this sort of material, none
of my business. None of my business you do you
you parent your way, I'll parent my way, but don't
ask me to pay for it. If you were your
child to have these books, fine, none of my business.
Go to Barnes and Noble, go to Amazon, whatever, go to.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
The public library. They're in the public library. Well lots
of Let me ask this question, Derek, because this seems
to me to be a real sticking point. Okay, from
I'm trying to put myself in her logic position, right,
She's arguing that you are a sexual predator because you
read these books, but she wants the books to still

(42:27):
be available to teenagers, so why so they could be
violated as well. You see the logic lack here. I'm
genuinely curious if that has been asked or address by
her at all.

Speaker 7 (42:39):
Yeah, it has, so, the point being I did not
read the books for the purposes of personal gratification. Anybody
who knows me knows that that. You know, as parents,
our resumes are walking around the face of the Europe,
right right. Anyone who knows my kids and knows their

(43:00):
oblishments and what kind of children I raised knows I
did not do this for the purpose of self gratification
or personal gratification. I did it for the purpose of
identifying to the community how your money is being spent.
But there were and to tell you the truth, Nandy,
there there were children present at this forum. Not a lot,

(43:20):
but there were some there. And if I could back up,
if I could use a time machine and go back,
I probably would have edited my own words, or at.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Least because I was going to say. If it were me, Eric,
I would have said, I am going to read some
of these books that I believe are inappropriate. If you
have children, you should probably take them out of the room.
That's how I would have done it.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
I did.

Speaker 7 (43:41):
I didn't say take them out of the room. I
didn't go that far. I said, I apologize for what
you're going to hear. I'm not. As as long as
you've known me, MC, you've never heard me drop an
F bombs either of anybody else up until that night,
because they don't swear. I don't believe in it. So
I said, hey, I'm sorry for what you're going to hear.
But here it comes and I read it. And if
I could do it again, I've had a time machine.
Instead of saying it, I would have said mfer or

(44:03):
something like that, try to avoid all this soup that
we're in right now. But I don't have one of this.
I don't have a time machine.

Speaker 5 (44:09):
Correct.

Speaker 7 (44:09):
So the very idea that having done so makes me
some sort of a child molester is clearly, in the
view of the judge defamatory, slanderous, bibelous. You can't go
around doing that to people. And so I lawyered up
and here we go.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
So let me ask this question, what sort of resolution
are you looking for? I'm guessing this woman is not
someone with incredibly deep pockets. The phrase judgment proof is
sort of rattling around in my mind in terms of
monetary damages. What are you realistically looking for? What could
you realistically get out of this case?

Speaker 7 (44:48):
Now you know better than just about anyone. I know
that I'm not going to answer that question.

Speaker 6 (44:53):
I just thought.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
I just thought I would.

Speaker 7 (44:56):
Before you asked you to. While I was going not
going to answer that question. Yeah, So I don't know.
I mean, it's it's active litigation. So she strikes me
as a sort of individual who's going to dig in
her heels and she's in it till till the end,
and so am I. My reputation has been damaged. When
I ran for school board and this is November. Election

(45:17):
was November of twenty three, I had endorsements from the
United States congressman, not just from Colorado, our former mayor,
our former sheriff. You know, I've got relatively deep political connections.
And all these people were contacted saying did you know
that you're endorsing a child's sex predator. That's that's problematic

(45:40):
in a number of ways. I have a reputation to
protect as well. So what it looks like at the
end of the line once a jury comes back and
says we find for the plaintiff. I'm not going to
get into that now, and frankly I couldn't because I
don't even know.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Right Well, let me ask you this, are you guys
in d twenty now that you're on the board, are
you working on a library policy? What what is come
of your promises that you gave to parents to say, look,
we're not going to have this sort of graphic material
in our libraries.

Speaker 7 (46:13):
We have crafted a much better policy in my opinion,
the way it's everything is processed related of course, if
you can't just come in and say we're changing everything,
because it's administrati there's administrative policy and there's board policy. Right,
the administration is responsible for the day to day running
of the schools. So in my view it's it's not right,

(46:33):
proper or correct for a board to just come in
and tell the administration this is not how you're going
to do it. Now we work more behind the scenes
and manage the superintendent, who in turn puts his or
her thumbprint on the district. The policy we have now
in place in D twenty is much stronger, is much better.
I don't think it's perfect. We've got a little ways
to go, but you've got to crawl before you baby steps, right,

(46:55):
you got to speaking of what about am You got
to crawl before you walk. And it's better. It is
going to continue to improve, and the community is behind us.
I mean, by and large, mister and missus John Hugh citizen.
They don't want their children sitting around it having access
to these things, or if they do, they understand that
not everybody does and maybe we should do that personally

(47:16):
than leaving that responsibility up to the school district so
we have community support.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Well, Derek, I'm glad you're doing this, and I said
it before you came on. In my mind, unfortunately, the
only thing that is going to make people check themselves
are lawsuits like this, right because right now, the incentive
to be vitriolic and nasty is really high because everybody
retweets your stuff on Twitter or you know, they're sharing

(47:43):
your stuff on Facebook, and you know, I think people
do this. And I don't know any a single thing
about this woman. I know nothing about her, but I
think that once you start to get traction, there's a
temptation to sort of escalate your your your, you know,
your your verbiage and make it worse and more extreme.
And perhaps she got caught up in that, or perhaps

(48:05):
she just isn't very bright and doesn't realize that this
stuff is defamatory and she's going to have to learn
a hard lesson. But maybe if more people started saying,
wait a minute, I'm not going to let you get
away with this, it would force other people to sort
of say, hmmm, is it really worth it to come
after this person online. Unfortunately, these sorts of lawsuits are

(48:26):
very expensive, and that's where you're finding yourself now.

Speaker 7 (48:30):
There costs a lot of money. And you've hit the
nail right on the head. So she's said all along,
all she wanted was two things. An apology and for
me to stay away from her daughter's school. She's gotten
both of those things. At the very next candidate forum,
I offered a very heartfelt and sincere apology. Cameras rolling
the micro fols up turned on, and I have not
been to her daughter's school one time since I've been
on the board. I don't want to traumatize anybody's daughter.

(48:51):
Why would I want to do that. So the two
things she's claimed she wanted, she's gotten. The only thing
I wanted was for you to stop running around saying
the things about me, and you do that by serving
the season desist. She brings the season to assist two
of the school board meeting, reads it out loud and says,
I'll spend the next ninety seconds retracting everything I've said
about Derreck Wilburn and stands there in pen drop silence

(49:13):
for ninety seconds. This is a lot, okay, that's in
other words, everything I've said about him, he's a child,
sex better, et cetera. It's all true.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
So that is next level passive aggressive, right there. I mean,
I got to tell you, as a passive aggressive master myself,
that is next level passive aggressive. That that's not going
to play well in front of a judge.

Speaker 7 (49:37):
It didn't, It didn't. This This judge has made it
quite clear where he stands on the anti slat motion
to dismiss. We'll find out where he stands on the
awarding of damages once a jury brings back their verdict.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
Right.

Speaker 5 (49:52):
That could be a year from now, right, right, So
let me do this.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Derek actually has a gifts end go account if you
you would like to support him in this endeavor. And
like I said, I hate it that this is where
we are. But I think that other than walking up
and stocking people in the nose, which I do not
endorse in any way, shape or form, I'm not sure
what people can do to stop the level of nastiness

(50:18):
that we see on a daily basis in our political dialogue.
And so maybe it is going to be things like
this that are required to bring people back in check.

Speaker 7 (50:29):
I'm with you, MC, I mean, I don't want this,
I don't need this. I don't have time for this.
I just want to see children.

Speaker 5 (50:34):
Get the best education that they can.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
Right.

Speaker 7 (50:36):
At some point, you've got to stand up for yourself.
I mean, at some point you've got to say, look,
we've crossed a line, and I hate this and I
don't want this at all, but you've got to defend
yourself at some point.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
And we simply reached to that point, correct, Derek Wilburn.
Go back to your vacation. I've put the link to
your goat Give Give Send Go account on the blog,
along with a link to an article from the Gazette
down in Colorado Springs that gives a little more of
the backstory, although I think we covered it really well.
Go enjoy your vacation and we will share updates as

(51:08):
you make them available to me about where this whole
thing is headed.

Speaker 7 (51:12):
Don't mind if I do, and if I remember correctly, MC,
you all be a bowl of general towelship dang, and
I do call.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
Me when you get back in town.

Speaker 7 (51:21):
See you all right?

Speaker 1 (51:22):
Thanks, Derek Wilberty. I just broke way too late, I
mean way too early. Sorry about that. I literally went
to hang up the phone and I hit the next
event button. Grant, I'm sorry, I was shocked.

Speaker 5 (51:35):
You were breaking here.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
You got ninety seconds to fix it so people can
rehear that spot that I just made made fly uh
without that anyway, a couple of things on the blog
that I want to get to. Jared Poulis did veto
the really onerous rideshare bill that had Uber and Lyft
threatening to leave Colorado, And as I said on the show,

(51:56):
we have had a historically, they are not afraud afraid
to leave the more because they cannot allow fifty states
to create fifty different sets of regulations that they have
to live under. That will not happen. It just will not.
Now that being said, some of the ideas of that
bill were pretty good. Love to see Uber and Lyft
kind of pick that up. Let's start with this and
somebody sent this to the text line earlier. All of

(52:18):
this Uber and Lyft stuff came about because, unfortunately, a
female lawmaker was allegedly and I have to say allegedly
because it hasn't been adjudicated yet, allegedly sexually assaulted in
the back of lift and the guy that assaulted her
was not a lift driver. He had borrowed somebody else's

(52:40):
lift account to do a little driving. And I think
that if you loan your lift credentials or your Uber credentials,
you should be held responsible for whatever crimes are committed
by the person that you loan them to. I think
that would go a long way to solving that problem.
But we're going to be able to get an Uber
and a lilyft in Colorado that if you're a woman,

(53:03):
you better have something manya to protect yourself. I hate
to say it, but yet another way that women have
to do a little more than men. By the way,
I just saw this really snarky guy on social media
and he was like, why is it the women when
they get in the car and they have the bag
and everything, they don't just stop and put the bag
in the back seat like men do. We're smart, We

(53:25):
put the bag in the back seat, then we get
in the car. And I was like, Wow, when you're
in a parking lot by yourself and you have stuff
in your hands, how often, sir, are you worried about
being attacked in a parking lot? Because for women, it's
every day. We're just trying to get into our car
and lock the door before anything bad happens. But thank
you for weighing in. Somebody on the text line said, Nandy,

(53:47):
you should offer missus Guthrie time on your show. She
is the person that Derek Wilburn issuing. I would love
to talk to her, love to have her on the show,
but I have no idea how to contact her. I
looked on social media on the break. I can't fight
what looks like her. I don't know, So if you know,
please let me know. You can always email me Mandy

(54:08):
Connell at iHeartMedia dot com. Don't forget I know that
many of you said the AM signal is a little
choppy today. You can always download the free iHeartRadio app
and listen in crystal Clear Digital Audio. Well you're there,
Go ahead and make the Mandy Connell Show one of
your presets. I'd really appreciate it because it helps me

(54:29):
in ways I can't even explain. You can also add
the taking It for Granted podcast, since Grant isn't for
a rod today. See you got a two for right there.

Speaker 6 (54:38):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
This story dropped last Friday afternoon. Now, when a story
drops in the news the friday afternoon before a holiday weekend,
the only thing you should assume is that someone is
trying to bury this story, and I genuinely don't know why,
because this story is fascinating.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
Listen to this.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
Denver Public Schools has quietly taken on hundreds of millions
of dollars in long term debt without voter approval, money
that could otherwise be used to lower class sizes, increase
teacher pay, or expand students support services. The spending comes
as contract negotiations between the district and the Denver Classroom

(55:25):
Teachers Association have stalled, with union leaders pointing to the
district's failure to fully fund last year's cost of living adjustment.
Educators have repeatedly called for smaller class sizes. Now, you guys,
no offense to educators, but smaller class sizes are just
so the unions can have more members. When you have

(55:47):
smaller class sizes, you have to hire more teachers. That's
just the way it is. And growing up in a
Catholic school with thirty five kids in a class who
did not act up, the problem is not class size.
The problem is allowing teachers to discipline students so they
don't act like an idiot in the classroom. So the
teachers can actually teach, but that's another story for another time.

(56:09):
But the class sizes thing is just a union employ
to get more members. They want better compensation and stronger
students support. And now they find out that in order
to bypass the Colorado constitutions ban on assuming public debt
without voter approval. This is why the people of Denver
are asked to vote on these bond issues. Deps officials

(56:31):
employed a workaround widely used in public finance circles, but
little understood by the public. What did they do? They
transferred ownership of the schools, the actual physical buildings to
a corporation, a corporation that they own. And that's not
where it gets good. It gets good here. Then they

(56:51):
lease the buildings back for hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Since at least nineteen eighty, the district has employed this tactic,
using what is called certificates of participation or cops, to
finance off the books projects largely out of public view.
The maneuver has allowed DPS to accumulate debt that rivals

(57:14):
the nearly one billion dollar bond voters approved last fall,
all without putting a single measure on the ballot. In
some cases, the district borrowed hundreds of millions under these
lease agreements, but ended up repaying more than twice the
borrowed amount once interest and fees were factored in. There's

(57:36):
a lawsuit about it right now, and no one's talking.
The district formed the Corporation of Colorado Nonprofits solely created
to facilitate the sale of cops and assume debt for
the district without voter approval in nineteen eighty four. Key
documents are buried in board packets or budget reports, and

(57:56):
rather than ask voters to assume additional debt through a
bond or mill levy override, the district transfers ownership of
certain schools to the leasing corporation, which then sells cops
to private investors. DPS then agrees to rent the buildings
and in some cases appears to use voter approved bond
funds for those lease payments. This financial agreement has not

(58:19):
been tested in court until now. Now, the district is
being sued by apparent advocacy group Mama's to DPS in
a lawsuit challenging the district's lease financing strategy. The DPS scheme,
according to the attorney working on this case is the
most nefarious, underhanded thing that I've seen in my career.

Speaker 3 (58:42):
At the heart of the.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Lawsuit is the financing tactic DPS is used for decades.
MAMAS to DPS allege, the district is transferred ownership of
at least thirty one schools across the city under lease
back arrangements valued at six point eight billion. To put
that in context, the district's general operating fund last year

(59:03):
was one point five billion. That six point eight billion
reflects the value of the least schools. It does not
represent the principle borrowed, the interest rates, fees, or other
financial charges associated with the cop agreements these school properties.
Is where it gets great change hands for nominal amounts. Consider,

(59:26):
for example, a lease agreement a decade ago involving nearly
two dozen schools. In twenty thirteen, DPS transfer twenty one schools,
including Captainer Middle, Harrington Elementary, and East High School to
the lease in corporation for ten dollars, and then they
pay millions to lease them back from the nonprofit organization

(59:50):
that they own. I mean, you, guys, this is one
of those things that government agencies don't.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
Get to do.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
They don't get to use creative financing agreements that are
done outside the purview of the taxpayer. They don't have
that luxury. They have been work in a completely different
set of rules. And I don't understand how this has
been allowed to go on as long as it has.
District records are obtained through the Colorado Open Records Acts,

(01:00:21):
show that some lease payments tied to these cops appear
to have been made using bond proceeds. That raises questions
not only about compliance with state law, but also whether
they could run a foul of federal securities regulations. In
fiscal year twenty twenty four, the district paid at least
fifteen point five million in principle and interest on lease obligations.

Speaker 7 (01:00:46):
And that is.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
From the DPS Building Fund, the account where bond proceeds
are held. They can't do that. That's against the law.
So this is and here's the thing. A textor just said, Mandy,
is this why they pushed the superintendent's contract. He knows
where the skeletons are buried. This has been going on

(01:01:09):
since nineteen eighty four. I can't blame Alex Morero for this.
I can blame him for a lot. But I cannot
blame him for this. This goes back way way, way, way, way, way,
way farther. Ooh, good news, you guys. The US Treasury
reel drop below for five again. That's good, that's very good, Mandy.

(01:01:30):
How do you add an air horn on the text line? Well, Grant,
can you play an air horn?

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
Great?

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Grants, he's leaning over right now, he's getting ready to
play an airhorn.

Speaker 7 (01:01:44):
Here we go.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
That is how I add an air horn, because I
don't know how to do it. From my side, that's
susan witkin. I know for a fact.

Speaker 5 (01:01:57):
What I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Some of these are. Please find a way to get
rid of that stupid commercial with the drama queen who
over pronounces fath and path. Do you know what commercial
that is? Grant? Now, you guys, this is terrible for
me to say, but I'm doing stuff on the commercial break,
so I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
I don't hear the commercials. Mandy. I thought you supported
school choice. Class size when it comes to some students
is a big deal. It absolutely is. But when it
comes from the teachers' union, it's about patting their coffers.
Because even in my daughter's charter school. She was in
through K through eight. We had pretty decent sized classes.
They were pretty big, and yet because kids were expected

(01:02:43):
to be well behaved and there were consequences clearly laid out,
it was easier for teachers to manage a classroom of
that size. Mandy, let's see here. If anybody knows I'm
just going through. If anybody knows this, womansuing Derek Wilburn,

(01:03:04):
have or call me. Let me do a quick time
out and we're going to talk a little bit more
about this DPS story just for a moment. But this
is the kind of stuff that makes people not trust government.
And if we don't get to the bottom of this,
we're in for big trouble. But is the horse already
out of the barn? If we have six point eight

(01:03:27):
billion dollars in liabilities attached to this, this is something
we should be concerned about. I wonder if Michael Bennett
was aware of it when he was the DPS superintendent. Well,
it predates his arrival as DPS superintendent by a couple decades.
That's why this is going to be so hard to unwind.
Maybe it's why they dumped the story on Friday afternoon

(01:03:49):
before a long holiday weekend, because now it's being litigated.
But if we have six point eight billion dollars in
outstanding liabilities attached to this scheme, there's no way to
get out of it. You can't just say to the
bond holders or the people who bought this debt, sorry,

(01:04:10):
we couldn't do that. We've been doing it since nineteen
eighty four, but we can't do it now, so you're
not going to get your money. So yeah, yeah. Class
size came up in the last segment, and I said
that class sized conversations are often about well, making the
union bigger, and I've seen this in multiple states. That's

(01:04:33):
why I'm so certain. But this Texter makes a different point, Mandy.
Class sized with a big issue for me. Teaching a
class of twenty nine very needy first graders entering with
the skills of kindergarteners. I could not meet with all
reading groups in a day and had to accomplish this
over a period of two to three days. Some spoke
little or no English and had not been to school before.

(01:04:53):
This can feel a bit overwhelming, but you just work
hard and do the best you can. Now what this
teacher's talking about is something else that I have a
real problem with. When I was a kid, you had
the students that were really behind and needed a lot
of help in one class. Then you had classes that

(01:05:13):
were for like eighty percent of the students. Right, eighty
percent of the students are in your standard classes. They're
all kind of on the same level. Maybe some are
a little ahead, maybe some are a little behind, but
basically you're teaching the same cohort with the same skill set.
And then there were kids in the advanced or honors
classes and that worked pretty well. But the key there
was getting those kids who were behind into a class.

(01:05:36):
And yeah, they were called the dumb kid classes, but
the reality is many of those kids had learning disorders
or learning disabilities that would have been extremely frustrating for
them to be in a mainstream classroom. I could only
imagine what it's like to be a first grader who
doesn't speak English, who doesn't have the basic skills that
you should have at first grade. I can't even imagine

(01:05:56):
what that would be like for the kid, And I
definitely have compassion for the teachers that have had to
deal with this kind of diversity. So I'm all in
favor of dividing kids by skill level, and not because
I have anything against kids who need more help, but
because I want kids who need more help to have
that help, and I want teachers who are teaching those

(01:06:19):
kids who need more help to have more help too.
We've in an effort to sort of reduce stigma or
you know, mainstream everybody there's sometimes it just doesn't work,
and we're not helping the students that were supposed to
be helping with it. That's the kicker. They're not getting
any better. And I've talked about this before. I read

(01:06:42):
this statistic so long ago. It may have changed some
but I doubt it. And the statistic was most kids
who drop out of high school have decided in middle
school that they are going to drop out because by
middle school they are so hopelessly behind that they feel
like they can never catch. And they decide in sixth

(01:07:03):
seventh grade that they're going to drop out of high
school as soon as they're able. And I know that
well intentioned adults keep raising the dropout age sixteen, seventeen, eighteen,
and I know why they're doing it, but all they're
doing is putting kids who don't want to be in
that classroom, in a classroom to be disruptive, so the
rest of the kids don't get to learn either. You know,

(01:07:23):
we have to recognize that some kids are never going
to do well in a traditional school environment.

Speaker 3 (01:07:29):
They're just not.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
And I love that we now have online school and
we have different options, but the mainstreaming of all kids
together has been an abject failure. And that teacher's you know,
commentary that she had twenty nine littles at a stage
of development where they all need to be learning a lot.
I can only imagine how frustrating that's going to be when.

Speaker 5 (01:07:50):
We get back.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
A new study has revealed the top ten most dangerous
breeds of dog. If you're the least bit confused about
what number one might be, you really need to listen
to this next story.

Speaker 8 (01:08:07):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bell and Pollock
accident and injury lawyers.

Speaker 5 (01:08:12):
No, it's Mandy Connell.

Speaker 6 (01:08:15):
And connem got Way study the Nicey Three by Connal Keithing.

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
Who is sad bab Welcome.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
Welcome, Welcome to the third hour of the show. Yes
it's Tuesday, but it feels like Monday. But the good
news is we've got a short week, and it's a
short week where I get to spend some time with
Grant Smith as a rod recovers from his croup, his
whooping cough. No, he doesn't really have whooping cough, but
he's got a bad cough and it is it is

(01:08:57):
driving him crazy. So anyway, Grant's I'm here, We are here,
and uh, North Korea is upset Grant, And I know
what you're thinking. No, not North Korea. What have we
done to upset dear leader. Well, I am actually a
huge fan of the concept of the Golden Dome that

(01:09:18):
Trump wants to build. Reagan talked about the missile defense
system back in the day. I remember Star Wars. It
was a fantasy. It was a fantasy that Israel took
the directions to and created the Iron Dome, which has
done more to save Jews than the rest of the
world combined. And I mean that because the Iron Dome

(01:09:39):
is so effective. It's catching all the little, crappy, stupid
missiles that Gaza shoots over and all the projectiles that
the biggest problem for Israeli Jews is getting hit by
shrapnel from exploded missiles that the Iron Dome has intercepted.
But now, Kim Jung un says that the US's plan

(01:10:01):
for a futuristic Golden Dome missile shield it could turn
outer space into a potential nuclear war field. You know what,
I'm oddly okay with that. I mean, okay, let's just
ask this question, Grant. I'm gonna ask you, would you
rather have nuclear war A on the Earth or B

(01:10:23):
in space?

Speaker 5 (01:10:23):
So it's gonna happen regardless, you gotta use one.

Speaker 1 (01:10:26):
It's a Sophie's choice situation. Nuclear war on Earth, nuclear
war in space.

Speaker 5 (01:10:31):
I'm gonna space, see me too, I'm going to space.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
One hundred percent of the time.

Speaker 8 (01:10:35):
I am.

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
I am all in for space nuclear war and not
so much as Earth nuclear war. So the Defense System
North Korea says this made me life. This made me
laugh out loud this morning. I chuckled. Pyongyang's foreign ministry
slammed the plan as the height of self righteousness and arrogance.

(01:10:59):
It accused Washing of being held bent to militarize outer
space and warned that the plan might smoke spark a
global nuclear and space arms race. Again, I'm okay with this,
Like war in space, war on Earth, I'm okay with this. Now,

(01:11:19):
what's interesting about this is that any sort of missile
defense is just that it is a defensive weapon. That's
why I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:28):
Like.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
No one is going to accuse Israel of using the
Iron Dome to attack someone else. That's not how it operates.
It is just designed to get any incoming missiles that
may be coming into Israel or in this case, in
the United States, and they are now in North Korea
and China. By the way, China is seriously concerned about

(01:11:51):
the Golden Dome, which it says this is laughable has
strong offensive implications. Ministry said. The United States and pursuing
a US first policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security
for itself. Now, who in my listening audience has a
problem with United States seeking absolute security for itself? Anyone

(01:12:15):
who has a problem without raise your hand. No, no,
I'm won't see there are no hands going up right now. Weird.
China continued, This violates the principle that the security of
all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic
balance and stability.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
You know what that means.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
China essentially just said, Hey, mutually assured destruction is a
much better way of managing nuclear war. And if the
United States thinks they can fire missiles without you know,
getting missiles filed back, then they're gonna do that. Now,
my question about the Golden Dome is how high is

(01:12:59):
it going to intercept these missiles? Because if it's only
you know, a mile up, then we're talking emp attack
and then we have a huge problem. But if we
have a situation where we can create a defensive dome
that allows us to intercept missiles high enough that are
not going to destroy our electrical grid, then I'm all
for it, and I am one hundred percent in favor

(01:13:23):
of the United States pursuing a US first policy. Is
there anyone in our listening audience who thinks that China
puts any other nation or the world ahead of themselves? Anyone? Anyone?
No again, no hands so weird. China absolutely has a
China first policy. It's why they do business the way

(01:13:46):
they do it. Do you think timu is super cheap
because all of that stuff costs thirteen cents to make? No,
it doesn't. They're trying to destroy Amazon. They're trying to
put their competitors out of business so they can raise
prices to whatever they want.

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
They did it in the.

Speaker 1 (01:14:01):
Solar market, solar panel market, They've done it in multiple markets.
It's one of the reasons they won't let Chinese cars
in the United States because they would put a lot
of other people out of business. So I love this story.
I'm happy that the South Korean dictator is mad. Oh
guess what. So next Wednesday, yours truly will be flying

(01:14:23):
to South Korea. Now, the rest of the folks on
the Mandicintle Adventure will be flying the next day. But
the day that we are going early. We have hired
a South Korean tour guide. We will be doing a
tour of the DMZ. We will be going to see
Propaganda City and all that good stuff. So I will
have a full report on the Chinese Line of demarcation

(01:14:44):
Chinese the South Korean Line of demarcation with North Korea.
And I am so excited about the all that. I'm
just really really excited about that. Super excited. I grant.
Did you see the video of President of France Macro
his wife pushing him in the face. I gotta tell you,

(01:15:05):
I am not buying what they are selling. That was
not a playful smack in the face.

Speaker 5 (01:15:11):
No, that looked like a physical altercation.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
Did you see the flight attendant with the torn sleeve
and the bloody shoulder?

Speaker 4 (01:15:16):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:15:16):
Oh oh, I got that on.

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
My X feed.

Speaker 1 (01:15:20):
Yeah. I don't know why, but she's got a torn
her jacket is torn in, her shoulder is bloody. And
that is not a I mean that is you know,
would Olivia ever hit you in the face like that?

Speaker 4 (01:15:37):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
I would never hit Chuck in the face like that,
not even kidding.

Speaker 5 (01:15:40):
No, I would not do it, especially when you're in
the public eye like that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
Regardless. I wouldn't do it in the private eye, you know.
But again, I try really hard not to judge other
people's relationships. Something that Matt Walsh, who I generally really like,
did not do. I have beef with Matt Walsh. I'll
explain it after this. Matt Walsh. If you're not familiar

(01:16:04):
with Matt, he is part of the Daily Wire team.
He is just prolific when it comes to writing, especially
on X. He's the guy behind What Is a Woman?
The fantastic documentary, I mean absolutely fantastic, and it's so
good because Matt just lets people talk in this documentary
about what is a woman, and they're completely confused, but

(01:16:27):
then Matt had to go and do this. There's a
big are you familiar with the trad wife trend?

Speaker 8 (01:16:33):
Do you know what that is?

Speaker 1 (01:16:34):
Grant the trad wife?

Speaker 5 (01:16:36):
I assume it's traditional, correct traditional wife.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
Tradwifing is big on social media where all of these
girls in like prairie dresses are at home making their
own butter and they're just raising their children and making
their making their husband's dinner. And it's supposed to be aspirational.
Here's my thing about that. If that is what you
aspire to, I support you one hundred percent. I want
everybody to have the lives they want, right, But if

(01:17:01):
you don't aspire to that, I support you one hundred percent.
I have no issue with people who do or do
not do that. I do think some at least a
few of these tradwife influencers are going to find themselves
in a position where they either get too famous for
their marriage, because if you're truly a trad wife, are
you posting everything on the internet? And I mean that genuinely.

(01:17:25):
If your sole focus is your family and your husband,
then why are you posting everything on the internet. But
that's neither here nor air Let's just say that Matt
Walsh stepped in it when he commented on a comment
on X dot Com or X the App Jeremiah Johnson,
who I have no idea who this is. I mean,
I know who the movie is. Matt Walsh initially said,

(01:17:49):
men are not generally attracted to ambitious, career driven women.
I've never once heard a man brag about a woman's
career ambitions. It's not what men value. Joona Goldbert picked
up on that. Jeremiah Johnson Dexter said, cannot emphasize enough
to young men out there how much it rocks to
have a wife who makes more money than you. Absolutely

(01:18:10):
rules ten out of ten would marry again, to which
Matt Walsh responded this, Oh, yeah, it rocks so much
that your marriage is fifty percent more likely to end
in divorce if your wife earns more than you. It
rocks so much that both wives and husbands consistently report
being less satisfied in their marriage when the wife earns more. Yeah,
it absolutely rocks for a man to be in a

(01:18:32):
situation where his wife is a better provider than he is,
totally inverting a system that has worked across all of
human civilization since the dawn of humanity is great. Sending
the message to your wife that you don't bring anything
to the family this she doesn't already bring in greater
supply is amazing good advice. Thanks for the feedback. First

(01:18:53):
of all, this is way unnecessarily snotty. Okay, we don't
need snotty Matt Walsh, and this is just of crap.
It's really garbage. We've entered into a different world because
women are finally making really big money on par with
the money that men have made for a very long time.

(01:19:15):
And guess what, newsflash, My husband is my biggest type man,
to the point of embarrassment. For me, I don't generally
walk around talking about how great I am, right, I
just am like low key. If I meet you for
the first time, chances and I'm gonna tell you what
I do for a living or almost zero, I'm very
kind of I want to fly under the radar. I

(01:19:36):
don't like being the center of attention so much so
that We've been watching all these videos on Japan and
Korea and I started to have a little panicky feeling
because I remember the last time I was in Japan
and everyone stared at me because I'm five ten and blonde.
To say that I walk around like a beacon in
Asian countries about a foot taller than everybody else is
not an overstatement. And I was like, oh God, I'm

(01:19:59):
gonna have that again. I don't like it. But my
husband is the biggest hype man. Everybody should have a
hype man like my husband, Chuck, because he is so
proud of me and what I do and what I
accomplish that he wants to talk about it to everybody
all the time. And maybe our you know, our twenty

(01:20:20):
year relationship that has been very, very happy for a
vast majority of it. I can't say all because that
would be a lie. Because in any long relationship, you're
gonna have times when you want to murder each other.
It's just a fact. You just got to keep pushing through.
When you get to the other side and you're like,
you know what, I don't wish you dead anymore. Imagine.
But this is just so I'm glad Matt and his

(01:20:43):
wife have a traditional relationship. I'm glad it works for them.
I'm super happy. He's happy, she's happy. Everybody's happy. But
stop judging other people's relationship stop acting like there's only
one way to do it, because one thing I have
learned in my many years on this earth is that
relationships are all different, they all work differently, they all

(01:21:03):
fail differently. So maybe Matt should just slow his roll,
back it up, and simmer down. Okay, That's all I
have to say about Mount Walsh anyway, And generally i'd
say ninety percent of the time I agree with the
stuff he says. This not so much when we get back.
My other pal, John Caldera will join us because he

(01:21:24):
wrote a column about having a primary that is just
open to everybody, and I got to tell you, if
you're a conservative in Colorado, this might be the only
way we can get anybody elected anytime soon in this
state that might share some of our values. A couple
of you have texted and said, Hey, you are arguing

(01:21:46):
with Matt, but you don't believe Matt would post this
without the stats to back it up. I did a
quick Google search this morning. The stats that Matt is
relying on are from the sixties and seventies. More recent
statistics have shown that the divorce rate is about four
percent higher for women who earn more money than their
husband's not fifty percent, as Matt said. So Matt is
using outdated information to make his point, and I do

(01:22:08):
think it's outdated, and I think it's most men don't care.
I bet John Caldera wouldn't mind it if he had
a sugar baby taking care of him. How you doing,
my friend?

Speaker 4 (01:22:16):
If that is an offer, sweetheart, we can talk now, Hi, poodle, howdy?
What man doesn't want his woman to make considerably more
I need, I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:22:28):
I don't think it's a big deal. But you know what,
back in the sixties and seventies, the male ego was
maybe more fragile, and the expectations of what meant we're see.

Speaker 4 (01:22:37):
Twenty five, the desire for a man to sit at
home and play video games all day has grown exponentially.

Speaker 3 (01:22:44):
That can only happen if you're you're someone's oooho Kevin Mann,
and by the way, I am available.

Speaker 1 (01:22:51):
You are well good. If any wealthy ladies out there
looking for a rather sarcastic, sometimes interesting man today is inesting, well,
I don't want to oversee you. I want to manage expectations.

Speaker 3 (01:23:04):
John, My love life is so awful. You know, if
there are men out there I'm I'm I'm just looking
for the money at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
Anyway, That's not why I brought John Caldera from the
Independent Institute on the show. I wanted to bring him
on to talk about his column today or yesterday in
the Denver Gazette about changing our primaries in order to
perhaps maybe someday get a less crazy person elected in Colorado.

(01:23:34):
Is that a fair way to say it?

Speaker 3 (01:23:36):
More than fair?

Speaker 4 (01:23:38):
I think a lot of conservatives Republicans have a hard
time facing political reality. The political reality is right now
in Colorado, an ultra progressive state with socialists in charge
of every branch of government in every large city. We've

(01:23:59):
got to look at a couple realities, and mainly the reality.

Speaker 3 (01:24:04):
Is in swing districts. I'm not talking in the rural areas.

Speaker 4 (01:24:08):
I'm talking about Jeff go and Rapaho and Adams and sadly,
Dougcoe and al Passo. Now, Republicans are not going to
win a lot of seats, why because of hatred of
Donald Trump, freak out over abortion even though that's a
non issue in Colorado. But it doesn't mean that Colorado

(01:24:31):
has turned its back towards fiscal sanity.

Speaker 3 (01:24:35):
You know, I think that these.

Speaker 4 (01:24:39):
The amount of unaffiliated voters has now gotten right up
to the fifty percent margin, more than any other state
that I'm aware of, And Colorado could become the first
unaffiliated or independent state.

Speaker 3 (01:24:53):
And that's that's the reality of it, and we've got it.
We've got to get ready for that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
You know, John, We've seen significant increases in the unaffiliated
voters since we changed to an open primary. So do
you think that that change sort of allowed people to
make their own statement when it comes to affiliating with
one party or the other. Because I think that most
unaffiliated voters fall into one of two camps. The first

(01:25:21):
is those people don't represent me because I'm either further
right or further left than the parties that we have.
Or there are people who used to be in the
parties or normally would be in the parties, but they're
like look in Colorado, the Colorado GOP is an absolute
dumpster fire and nationally.

Speaker 3 (01:25:38):
Getting better, by the way. I'm a big fan of
Brita Horn.

Speaker 4 (01:25:41):
I think she's a spectacular lady, full of character and
doing the right stuff. But here's the political reality. And
tell me if you think I'm wrong. In the near future,
the next ten, maybe twenty years. Colorado is not going
to become a anti abortion state, or an anti weed state,
or an anti ti gay state, or an anti environmental state.

Speaker 3 (01:26:03):
These things are off the table.

Speaker 4 (01:26:05):
But it doesn't mean that Colorado is is pro tax,
pro regulation, pro crime, or pro woke.

Speaker 1 (01:26:15):
So what are we doing with our primaries and how,
in your view, can we fix it? So perhaps we
have better options in the general even in areas where
we know, like in Denver, a Republican is not going
to be elected mayor full stop. You know this, I
know this. So what could we do so we would

(01:26:36):
have maybe less objectionable democrats to choose from Kent theory.

Speaker 3 (01:26:42):
In twenty sixteen.

Speaker 4 (01:26:44):
Large wealthy guy who in Politico opened up primaries to unaffiliated,
which means that people who are unaffiliated could vote for
either in the Republican or in the Democratic primary.

Speaker 3 (01:26:55):
People like this.

Speaker 4 (01:26:56):
Now fifty percent of us are unaffiliated, including myself.

Speaker 3 (01:27:00):
I live in Boulder.

Speaker 4 (01:27:01):
There is no Republican primary, there's no reason to be
registered that way. Last year he put forward, I think
a flawed initiative, and it had two components. One was
a jungle primary, where as many people who wanted to
run in the primary. Could you know five Republicans twelve Democrats,
doesn't matter, but.

Speaker 3 (01:27:21):
The top two would go would go to the general.

Speaker 4 (01:27:25):
Well, he had it that the top four would go
to the general and then there'd be this weird ranked
choice voting, which I'm rather skeptical of, and apparently so
are most to Coloraden's I think the time is ripe
to have jungle primaries and the top two go to
the general election.

Speaker 3 (01:27:44):
What does that mean? It means in.

Speaker 4 (01:27:45):
Places like socialistic Boulder, two Democrats will probably be on
the final ballot, which.

Speaker 3 (01:27:51):
Is fine by me because it's always going to be
a Democrat anyway.

Speaker 4 (01:27:54):
So we'll have our usual socialist, but maybe we'll get
a bit more moderate of a progress and I could
find somebody I could vote for that's better than the alternative.
In Republican circles, you'd still get two Republicans, but in
those swing districts, finally, unaffiliated candidates who might be anti tax,

(01:28:18):
pro business, anti crime, but very moderate on social issues
could make it to the general election and win. Why
is this important because in the state legislature they could
caucus with Republicans to make us a business friendly state again.
But partner with Democrats to protect the social aspects that

(01:28:42):
most Colorado's even though many Republicans disagree to protect those
social issues.

Speaker 3 (01:28:48):
I think this is the future.

Speaker 1 (01:28:50):
Why do you only want two instead of four?

Speaker 4 (01:28:53):
Because I believe that one. The political reality is Colorado's
not ready for ranked choice of voting. Has proven last
year with the with theories thing going down, initiative going down.
And also I don't trust ranked choice voting. I think
there's too many games that could be played. I think

(01:29:14):
there's some difficulties there. And the idea to save Colorado
is to get fiscally saying, unaffiliated candidates who can win
to the general where they have a real fight.

Speaker 1 (01:29:27):
The problem, John, and you know this as well as
I do, is that without the infrastructure of a party,
it is extremely difficult to pull together the kind of
sort of framework that candidates rely on for a campaign.

Speaker 5 (01:29:43):
Now I would say disagree.

Speaker 1 (01:29:44):
Do you disagree with that?

Speaker 3 (01:29:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:29:46):
And here's why there would be a time when I would,
But I'll ask you what infrastructure? What?

Speaker 3 (01:29:54):
What help does the Republican Party give?

Speaker 4 (01:29:58):
Now?

Speaker 3 (01:29:59):
The party does two things.

Speaker 4 (01:30:01):
The state party on both sides cashes checks from other parties.

Speaker 3 (01:30:06):
The national GOP etc. And they run primaries. That's all
they do.

Speaker 4 (01:30:13):
The left one Colorado because over the last fifteen years,
all the other infrastructure they farmed out to other organizations
and went around the party. Right, the party just isn't
that important. The infrastructure is important, the vote harvesting is important,
the registering is important, the messaging is important.

Speaker 3 (01:30:36):
But the party.

Speaker 4 (01:30:37):
I hate to tell you, and I say this because
I've already gone through by five stages of grief over
the Colorado Republican Party dying years ago. But Grandma has
passed on. It is a new Colorado and we need
a new way to bring liberty principles to reality.

Speaker 1 (01:30:55):
Why are you anti ranked choice voting? Because the more
I read, the more I see the outcomes, this time
in Alaska, where politicians finally got the message that they
could not, you know, run against their fellow Republican viciously,
and they had to say, look, you know, if you're
not going to vote for him, vote for me. I
love it for that very reason, and I think ranked

(01:31:15):
choice voting is probably the best chance that any kind
of right leaning person gets elected in Colorado.

Speaker 4 (01:31:23):
I understand your point, and I even though you're wrong,
you're still a wonderful person. Here's what I would ask
is check out something called approval voting, which does the
same thing but without nearly the same convolutions. In Alaska,
after they screwed things up, Republicans did learn how to

(01:31:44):
play better, and somebody said, no, I'm stepping out so
this guy can win. Do you really think in the
world of Dave Williams type Republicans that that's going to
happen here? My last concern with ranked choice voting is
that the left plays teams much better, particularly in like
school board races or city council races, where the unions

(01:32:07):
will say, vote Bob number one, Susie number two, and
Frank number three, and they fall in line a lot
better than conservatives do. And I'm concerned that over a
certain amount of time, those that it's a pro left,
pro union outcome that's going to happen. And just because
Alaska finally got it right, but it wasn't the system.

(01:32:30):
It was some of the candidates. Keep in mind that,
and well it was a San Diego. They had to
yank somebody off the school board six months after rank
choice voting because they got the calculations wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:32:41):
Out in New York.

Speaker 4 (01:32:42):
They had to wait weeks to find out who was
the mayor and who was on city council. It's a
convoluted process. But here's the political reality. Colorado's not ready
for it yet. The halfway mark is to have first
the jungle primaries and then the top two go. And
then if we want to have this conversation of maybe

(01:33:03):
that top two ought to be the top four, that
might happen in future years.

Speaker 1 (01:33:08):
But yes, but.

Speaker 3 (01:33:10):
Very bid off a little too much. Then Colorado was
willing to cut.

Speaker 1 (01:33:14):
And by his own admission, he has been pretty open
about the fact that he thinks they tried to do
too much with that ballot initiative. But you know, I
look at the Denver mayor's race in this last go round,
and when it came down to Kelly Bruff and Mike Johnston,
I was full throatedly in the Kelly Broff count camp,
and I still believe she would have been a much

(01:33:35):
better mayor. But that being said, we still get two Democrats,
one very progressive and one sort of center, you know, Democrat,
and I don't know how that helps Republicans. So if
we just given up, and when I say Republicans, I
shouldn't say Republicans. I should say people to the right
of center right, because I think there's a lot of people.

(01:33:58):
Everybody says all the independence are Democrats. I don't believe
that because I am now an unaffiliated voter and a
lot of people like me are an affiliated voters.

Speaker 4 (01:34:06):
I've dedicated my professional career for the last thirty five
years to promote the ideas of individualism and limited government.
I am an unaffiliated and because that's not only has
the party left me, but it is the best way
for me to be active. And I get to vote

(01:34:26):
in the Democratic primary now, and there is an no
Republican primary where I live.

Speaker 3 (01:34:31):
There really isn't one in Denver.

Speaker 4 (01:34:35):
And I like to say there's a paradigm switch that's
just worth chewing on for folks, which is is it
important that the party win or is it important that
policies get turned into reality. The thought that the party
is going to win in any substantial way in Colorado,

(01:34:56):
I think is unlikely to happen in the near future
agree of decades. But that doesn't mean that doesn't mean
at all that that there's somebody or that that the
policies are unpopular. The policies are popular, tabor is popular,
property rights are popular, Educational choice is popular. And as

(01:35:20):
businesses are going under due to incredible energy problems that
are going to be happening and blackouts will be coming,
as the minimum wage is going to be destroying small businesses,
As these regulations are destroying the state, people will say, hey, listen,
I'm not a trumpet. I want to protect abortion rights,
but this has gone too far. I'm not here to

(01:35:44):
help criminals.

Speaker 3 (01:35:44):
Have a better life.

Speaker 1 (01:35:46):
I agree with you John Caldara, and you can read
his work in the Denver Gazette or at Complete Colorado
dot com, or you can just go to the Independence
Institute and have a conversation with him. He's he's a
delight and looking for a sugar mama. So if you have.

Speaker 3 (01:36:00):
By the way, I hear female talk show hosts really
rake it in.

Speaker 1 (01:36:04):
You know what, As we've discussed before, I am currently
not on the market.

Speaker 2 (01:36:09):
John.

Speaker 1 (01:36:10):
Not the same guy, Yeah, same one. I'm fond of him.
What can I say?

Speaker 4 (01:36:14):
Well, you understand there's two types of people. There are
divorced people and then there are pre divorced people.

Speaker 1 (01:36:23):
Well, I am already a divorced person. So I don't
need to do that again. John Caldera, Joy's always on.

Speaker 3 (01:36:29):
By the way, I've really been enjoying the Mandy and
deb show.

Speaker 1 (01:36:32):
Thanks you so.

Speaker 3 (01:36:34):
Just a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (01:36:35):
A lot of fun on IV's YouTube channel. You can
find us there. I'll talk to you later, my friend,
because I got to get a one more story before
we do.

Speaker 5 (01:36:42):
Have the day.

Speaker 1 (01:36:43):
I choosed this earlier and then I did not pay off.
Ryan Edwards has joined us in the studio. Ryan, what
do you think is the most dangerous breed of dog
in the United States of America?

Speaker 5 (01:36:55):
Well, you know that's a good question. Probably pitbull correct. Yeah,
and it's not even close.

Speaker 2 (01:37:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:37:02):
And when you look at fatalities, they are in a
class by themselves.

Speaker 2 (01:37:06):
They don't.

Speaker 8 (01:37:07):
It's like Doberman's right because I issue you used to
work at that hospital. Yeah, And a lot of this
is just sort of training that trait. Yeah, they all
have it, right, But Dormans are some of the sweetest dogs. Like,
they're incredibly sweet. But if begin if you reinforce that traits,
then yeah, they're great guard dogs.

Speaker 1 (01:37:25):
Well, it goes like this. The top ten most dangerous
dog rates from ten to one. Labrador retrievers, and you
have to understand that there are so many Labrador retrievers
in the United States of America that they are gonna
be on this list. Mastiffs are number nine. We've got
Dobraman Tensers at eight, seven King Corsos, six, Australian cattle dogs,

(01:37:48):
five German shepherd dogs, four Rottweilers, three boxers, two shepherds
five are number one. Pit Bulls far and away. Pit
bulls are responsible for more fatality these at sixty one
per in this study period. Versus like King Corso's came
in at four. Rock Whalers came in at seven. So

(01:38:08):
they are the most deadly dog out there. Just to
give you a heads up, and if you are a renter,
you do not want a dog on this list because
no one will rent to you on the dangerous breed list.
I know this as the former owner of a chowd
German shepherd mix child's run the list for a long time.
I just don't think they're common enough now.

Speaker 8 (01:38:27):
No, it's it's such a bummer because there's just the
stigma right like you see and listen, it is where
it is, like you said, the fatalities, the attacks and
then you know, you walk by and you see somebody
with a pit bull, You're like, boy, I hope you're
doing the right thing managing that personality, because if you don't,
I mean, they certainly kN get that way. But I've

(01:38:48):
also met a lot of very sweet pit bulls, like
very sweet pipples, and so it's such a bummer because
it becomes a stigma.

Speaker 1 (01:38:55):
I will say this, whenever you hear these stories about
family pets turning on a child and hurting or killing
the child, inevitably, they always say something like they've never
been aggressive before. So they seem to me like one
of those dogs that in the right circumstances you can
have a good dog go bad fast. And I'm not

(01:39:16):
saying in any stretch of the imagination, so save your
hate mail pit bull lovers. I'm just saying I wouldn't
have one, and I had a chow shepherd mix, I
would not. I'm not doing that again.

Speaker 8 (01:39:26):
Well, and I'd say just very quickly that with with
kids is especially different because because dogs, especially if they're
not used to kids. Yeah, you know, sometimes like when
we go to dog parks and our kids wanted to
come in with the dog, would be like Hey, let's
let's let's ease the situation because you come running in
and these dogs don't know what it's like to be
around kids, and these they freak out.

Speaker 1 (01:39:45):
Yep, and now it's time for the most exciting segment
on the radio of its KDE. That was Nick Ferguson.
That was not Ryan ed Where it's well done both both, gentlemen.
What is our dad joke of the day, please grant.

Speaker 5 (01:40:04):
Dad joke of the day. Did you hear about the
mute chicken? No, it didn't give a cluck? Oh god,
sorry about my foul language?

Speaker 1 (01:40:13):
Oh topic. What is our word of the day, please.

Speaker 5 (01:40:16):
Grant word of the day today? Interminable?

Speaker 1 (01:40:20):
Interminable? Is that like never ending?

Speaker 3 (01:40:23):
Correct?

Speaker 7 (01:40:23):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:40:24):
Perfect?

Speaker 2 (01:40:25):
So long?

Speaker 5 (01:40:26):
It seems to have no end? All right?

Speaker 1 (01:40:28):
What was the debut album released by the Beatles in
the United Kingdom?

Speaker 7 (01:40:32):
What is that?

Speaker 1 (01:40:33):
Like Love Me Do? Or something.

Speaker 5 (01:40:37):
Revolver?

Speaker 1 (01:40:37):
But no, it is the It is the album that
Love Me Do is on?

Speaker 6 (01:40:42):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:40:43):
Okay, but it is please please meet ah?

Speaker 1 (01:40:46):
Is the album so close and yet so good?

Speaker 3 (01:40:51):
Albums? All right?

Speaker 1 (01:40:52):
Hang on, Ryan Edwards. Nick Ferguson's album Abroad hands down,
not even there's there's not even a close. I mean,
I like the white them a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:41:00):
But Abby wrote too, but it's quirky.

Speaker 1 (01:41:03):
Yeah, but yeah is just like that is what I
put on when I want to hear the Beatles. Anyway?
What is our jeopardy category?

Speaker 5 (01:41:09):
Please grant jeopardy category for today? It's hyphenated, okay, so
each answer will be hyphenated. This word can refer to
a detective. Who's tough? Mandy?

Speaker 1 (01:41:20):
What is hard boiled?

Speaker 5 (01:41:22):
Correct?

Speaker 8 (01:41:22):
Who?

Speaker 5 (01:41:24):
Next one? It describes a statue of Julius Randall that's
six feet eight inches tall?

Speaker 1 (01:41:32):
Randallot?

Speaker 5 (01:41:34):
It was about with David. That's how tall Julius Randall is.

Speaker 6 (01:41:39):
Mandy?

Speaker 5 (01:41:39):
What is size? Correct? You guys? Ready? And many pageants?
The person finishing third is Mandy?

Speaker 1 (01:41:49):
What's the first run around? Excuse me? Third run around?

Speaker 4 (01:41:52):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:41:55):
Run off?

Speaker 4 (01:41:56):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:41:58):
Maybe the answer? But does someone else want to? G Ryan?
What is runner up?

Speaker 3 (01:42:02):
Correct?

Speaker 7 (01:42:05):
Fruit?

Speaker 5 (01:42:07):
That's all I know. This adjective means as deeply dark
as tar or asphalt? Fergus Ryan?

Speaker 1 (01:42:15):
Everards Wowndy? What is black talk?

Speaker 5 (01:42:20):
Incorrect?

Speaker 6 (01:42:22):
To zero?

Speaker 3 (01:42:23):
Ryan?

Speaker 5 (01:42:24):
I've said one. I don't have ustads. What is pitch black? Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:42:27):
Come on?

Speaker 5 (01:42:29):
Last one? Hyphenated term meaning a frantic final effort made
to avoid disaster. Not what's Ryan? What is last?

Speaker 6 (01:42:39):
Correct? The time?

Speaker 1 (01:42:44):
And then I want to be into the next d
well played, Ryan, Well, I believe that.

Speaker 5 (01:42:49):
I got that last one, because if I had a
one on your runner up, cheap, you should feel cheap.

Speaker 1 (01:42:55):
I feel terribly, terribly cheap. That was a sad, cheap victory,
and I hope you don't enjoy it at all, Ryan,
I know they all look the same in the w CAT.
What's coming up on K Sports this afternoon? Nick Ferguson
in studio, Yes, what's up?

Speaker 5 (01:43:11):
Marius Thomas going into the Ring of Fame.

Speaker 1 (01:43:13):
I know that's kind of cool, so cool, it's very
very cool. Anyway, that's all coming up next. We'll be
back tomorrow. Keep it right here on KOA