Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mandy Connall Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
And Dona.
Speaker 4 (00:11):
KOAM, ninety one FM, god Way.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And the Noisy Grey Andy Connall, Keith sad Thing.
Speaker 5 (00:26):
Welcome, blah blah, Welcome to a Friday edition the show.
I'm your host for the next three hours.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Mandy Connell joined by my friend ay Rod you can
call him Anthony Robries. All together.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Now I was gonna hear then I.
Speaker 5 (00:42):
Was gonna just switching it up to all right, we're
ready to thank you?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Is that it? I was waiting for Susan Witkin.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
By the way, if anyone in my listening audience knows
Susan Wickin, I need proof of life. She's retired and
now she's living her best life, and now I can't
get a hold.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Of her because she's so busy.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
So for the texter who's sent me or an email
or who sent me a message said gosh, how's Susan doing,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I do not know. We put it out into the ether,
c Susan. Yeah, if you give it the call, you
know the number.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
Anyway, We've got a lot, and I mean a lot
of guests today.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I didn't normally plan it this way.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
But you'll understand why I added Danielle Dorinsky this morning
because I want her to take a victory lap. What
is she taking a victory lap over? Well, let's go
to the blog and that might bring it to fruition
for you. Just go to the blog mandy'sblog dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Then look for the.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
Loaded Well I'm gonna say this one more time, look
for the latest post segment on the blog. Now, if
you just see podcasts across there, you have to scroll
to the right and you look for a headline that
says eight thirty twenty four blogs shut out self Doubt,
Colorado test scores and Escaping China. On that and here
are the headlines you will find within.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Anything's in Office, half of American Allerships, and clipments of
say that's going to press platch.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Today on the blog.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
It's been super politicky this week. Stop second guessing yourself.
Are the kids all right? A young man from China
is sounding the alarm? Well, that was a waste of
time about the DNC bouts. Can't actually teach kids just
blower the passing score.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Danielle Jorinsky was right. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
We got a property tax compromise. Broncos are laying the
groundwork for a new stadium. Someone made an unpleasant statement
at a Colfax must stops Denver. Restaurant tours are going elsewhere.
Ranked choice voting isn't loved by Alaskans. The fifty most
underappreciated cars.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Of all time.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
Israel says they've dismantled Hamas in Rafa. The bad boys
of energy are blowing up the myths of affordable green energy.
This is funny left wing fever dream on Trump's shooting.
This kid past gets passing the buck? Are you following
us on Instagram? Motts aren't healthier after all? It's never
too late for ty kei and things to do this
(03:10):
holiday weekend. Those are the headlines on the blog at
mandy'sblog dot com.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
And there you go. That is what is happening there.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
And I am looking for something over here and I
cannot find it.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Dag navi it Okay?
Speaker 5 (03:33):
Can we start today with the speech last night and
just get it out of the way. So I didn't
watch the speech live. It wasn't live, it was pre
recorded interview. Yeah, als, thank you a ron, So I
didn't watch what I missed.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I know you did. You didn't miss anything last night.
That's my point. I had Next question.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
I put all three parts of the twenty eight minute interview,
ten of which Tim Walls was talking, and what a
useless exercise this entire thing is. And I just want
to give you this one, this one little snippet. If
you missed it last night, you can go to the
(04:14):
blog I embedded it. You can watch it if you want.
But there is not a dang reason in the world
that you should because she said nothing next question, Well
that was when she was asked about Trump.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Next question, But.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
I do want to play when she was asked about fracking. Now,
you have inevitably seen the video from twenty nineteen where
she said multiple times in multiple places at a town
hall on the debate stage when she was running for president,
I will ban fracking, and when asked about this by
Dana Bash, this is what happened.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Oh hang on, Jese, Luis, I I gotta get this, Okay.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
When you were in Congress, you supported the Green New Deal,
and in twenty nineteen you said, quote, there is no
question I'm in favor of banning fracking.
Speaker 7 (04:57):
Cracking, as you know, is.
Speaker 6 (04:58):
A pretty big issue, particularly.
Speaker 8 (05:00):
In your must win state of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 7 (05:03):
Do you still want to ban fracking?
Speaker 9 (05:05):
No, And I made that clear on the debate station
in twenty twenty that I would not banfracking as vice president.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I did not ban fracking.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
As president, I will not banfracking.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
In twenty nineteen, I believe in a town hall you
said you were asked, would you commit to implementing a
federal ban on fracking on your first day in office?
Speaker 8 (05:25):
And you said there's no question in favor of banning fracking.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
So yes. So it changed in that campaign.
Speaker 9 (05:32):
In twenty twenty. I may very clear where I stand.
We are in twenty twenty four, and I have not
changed that position, or will I going forward. I kept
my word and I will keep my word.
Speaker 8 (05:41):
What made you change that position at the time.
Speaker 9 (05:44):
Well, let's be clear, my values have not changed.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I believe it.
Speaker 9 (05:49):
Is very important that we take seriously what we must
do to guard against what is a clear crisis in
terms of the climate, and to do that, we can
do what we have accomplished thus far, the Inflation Reduction Act,
what we have done to invest by my calculation over
probably a trillion dollars over the next ten years investing
(06:11):
in a clean energy economy. What we've already done, creating
over three hundred thousand new clean energy jobs.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That tells me, from my.
Speaker 9 (06:20):
Experience as vice president, we can do it without banning fracking.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
You guys, she is going to hold every single position
as a matter of fact, a rob. The only thing
you did miss was last night when she announced her
new campaign slogan make America Great Again.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
She ran with it would you be surprised at this night?
I know?
Speaker 5 (06:40):
And Dana Bash asked leading softball type questions. Did you
change your mind because of experience or did you change
your mind because And to be clear, in twenty twenty,
in a vice presidential debate, when Kamala Harris was representing
Joe Biden's position, she said Joe Biden will not ban fracking.
(07:04):
She didn't say I'm not for banning fracking. She said
Joe Biden will not ban fracking. So she's trying to
have it both ways here. What I would have asked
Dana Bash if I was Dana Basha, I would have said,
so you were wrong about the need to ban fracking.
That would have been my follow up. So you were
wrong about that. The entire interview was full of stupid,
(07:29):
nonsensical just.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
No words, salad.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
But she didn't say anything, absolutely nothing. Here is when
she talks about the border.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
There was a debate.
Speaker 6 (07:43):
You raised your hand when asked whether or not the
border should be decriminalized.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Do you still believe that? I believe there should be consequence.
Speaker 9 (07:53):
We have laws that have to be followed and enforced
that address and deal with people who cross our bod
order illegally, and there should be consequence. And let's be clear,
in this race, I'm.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
The and then she goes on to talk about how
I'm the only one that the chance.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
National lab Dad ask you bad dad, dad, dad law.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
But you know what she didn't say why she changed
her tune, Because decriminalizing the border certainly doesn't sound like
you believe that there should be consequences when people cross
the border illegally.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So okay, great, how'd you make the switch? What was
your evolution on this and this part? This part?
Speaker 5 (08:32):
Oh my god, I'm going to play this for you,
and I want to know if the same question popped
into your mind that popped into mind.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Here we go, Kamala about her values.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
Generally speaking, how should voters look at some of the
changes that you've made that you've explained some of here
in your policy. Is it because you have more experience
now and you've learned more about the information? Is it
because you were running for president in a Democratic primary?
And should they feel comfortable and confident that what you're
(09:10):
saying now is going to be your policy moving forward?
Speaker 9 (09:13):
Dan, I think the most important and most significant aspect
of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have
not changed.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You mentioned the.
Speaker 7 (09:24):
Green New Deal.
Speaker 9 (09:26):
I have always believed and I have worked on it,
that the climate crisis is real, that it is an
urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include
holding ourselves to deadlines around time.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act.
Speaker 9 (09:43):
We have set goals for the United States of America
and by extension, the globe around when we should meet
certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as an
example that value.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
I'm just going to stop her there, because, first of all,
a rod something just jumped out of me that I
missed when I listened to it earlier. Are there other
kinds of deadlines? That are not about time. And I'm
being serious here, I mean the passage. Wait, let me
let me see if I can just take it right back.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
To that part.
Speaker 9 (10:11):
Their metrics set include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I mean words, are there more kinds of deadlines that
are not time based? And how do those work?
Speaker 4 (10:26):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
I mean, what the fact of the matter is is
that she never answered the question were you lying then
or are you lying now? She never answered the question
my values haven't changed? Okay, So then all of your
policy positions that were obviously based on your values in
twenty nineteen have they changed?
Speaker 10 (10:46):
You know?
Speaker 4 (10:46):
When you look at the calendar as it pertains to
the days in the passage of time?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
The passage of time.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
She in that moment spoke at the equivalent of when
you are filling out words in an essay to get
to the five thousand Yes, you know, word mark, add
the extra words and sentences.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Do what you need to do to get there? Yep, Yeah,
sound smart.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
This texture at five six six nine oer on the
Common Spirit health text line says, if Kamala is now
so moderate, why did she choose such a progressive running mate?
Walls's position on number one, climate number two, sanctuary state
number three, COVID snitching number four, opposing school choice number five,
Floyd Riot's in action number six, free college.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Excellent point. Excellent point. Anyway, So now that she has
coaches VP, we can say what she's doing. Players can
not call him coach. It's player's doing. She's doing coach speak.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
Oh maybe if she says we left it all on
the field at any point, you're going to be absolutely
proven correct here.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
I guess you could then also say when she changes
her policy, she's moving the goalposts.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That was the score.
Speaker 10 (12:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
Yeah, this person said, you're just making stuff up. I
mean I just played her saying that what am I
making up? Am I making up all of the positions
she espoused in twenty nineteen because they're all on the internet.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
All Mandy's doing is throwing a flag on the play. Okay,
I just hope not to fumble it. Okay, try not
to fumble it.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Dissect a Trump's speech, it's borderline pathetic.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Here's the difference between.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
What we saw last night and Trump's being in front
of the people, in front of the.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Cameras doing interviews all the time.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
We already know what Trump's speeches are, right, And if
you heard my commentary after his acceptance speech at the RNC,
you earned me the very very critical of a Trump speech.
So here's the problem with people who say you're time
can came match you about Kama.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You're not talking about Trump. We know who and what
Donald Trump is. Everybody does. We all know. We're trying to.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Find out if there's any meat on the bones here
of the Kamala Harris brain trust, and so far not
so good.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
At least she is a decent, caring human being. Trump
is not.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
He is selfish and lies all the time. I choose
her as president. Trump is embarrassing as president. So you
are just going to vote on niceness, and that's fine,
That's perfectly fine. But I'm telling you right now, the
policies that this woman and her administration will pursue will
hurt your life unless you're living solely on the government dole,
(13:47):
in which case you'll probably have a better life.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And I don't know if you are not. I was
casting aspersions.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
I'm just pointing out as a point of fact, if
you're on the dole, you would love Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
But if you're actually paying the dole. She's going to
be a disaster.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Sure, you think inflation is bad, Now do you think
housing inflation is bad?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Now? Wait until this genius gives certain.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Home buyers, not all home buyers, certain first time home
buyers twenty five grand to juice the housing market even more.
Wait until we enact the Kamala Harris economic strategy of
price caps, which have shown to be an absolute disaster everywhere.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
They have been tried.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Now, Trump has his own dumbass ideas with tariffs, so
I can't say he's any.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Kind of economic genius.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
But I do know the people on the Trump economic team,
some of them, one of them pretty well, and at
least I know they're not idiots.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I can't say the same for Kamala Harris's economic team
because we don't know who that is.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
We don't know what most of her positions are, except
that any that were on the hard left that she
ran on in twenty nineteen are now apparently wrong, with
no real explanation of why.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You know, here's the thing. When someone says, and I'm gonna.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
Use myself as an example, because I know me, I
have vacillated on the death penalty for years, and I've
openly vacillated about the death penalty. Sometimes in cases where
you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, you're not
relying on eyewitness testimony, it is incontrovertibly true that someone
(15:21):
is guilty of a heinous crime. I'm like, fry those bastards.
But there are too many situations in the system where
innocent people are on death row?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Are there a lot of them?
Speaker 6 (15:33):
No?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
But it is killing one innocent person, okay with you?
And if you say yes, what if it.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Was your son, or your daughter, or even you it
was the innocent person. So I vacillate on this right.
But if somebody says, Mandy, why did you change your
position on the death penalty, I can clearly explain, well,
just like I just did, this is why I vacillate.
And so this is what I was looking for from
Kamala Harris last night. Hey, you know what I thought,
(16:01):
banning fracking was a good idea. Even if you just said,
we've taken a lot of measures with the Green New
Deal that didn't require banning fracking to be that bring
those numbers down, at which point I could have asked, well,
what if those numbers plateau. What about then see what
happens then? But that didn't happen last night. Dana Bash
didn't ask in a follow up questions. I still have
(16:22):
no idea what this woman's policies are on most issues,
and it's I'm still super ticked off that she couldn't
do it without her emotional support animal next to her.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
I just irritated as all hell about that.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
So anyway, it's easy, this texture says to Dunk to
talk about Harris's word salads and use of language.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
But the follow up to this attempt.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
To hide her liberal agenda is fine, your values haven't changed.
Now what actions do you intend to take according to
those values? Don't get distracted from substance. Now, see why
didn't you text her get to ask the questions? Because
that's a great question and a very fair question, appeared
to me, Harrison Walls knew the questions in advance. If
they didn't know what was coming, they're stupid. Of course
(17:07):
they knew what to expect. Anyway, any Way, in the
words in the world, in the insane cover up of
actual competent person is going to harm this country. I'm
embarrassed for the people who think she is ready.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
For this position.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
We'll leave it on that because when we get back,
have you ever second guessed yourself? Have you ever made
a decision and then almost immediately thought to yourself, oh,
oh crap, I oh, I'm sorry. Danielle Dorensky's next. I'm
doing the other one at one o'clock. A lot of
guests today, guys, a lot of guests. Luckily, Danielle Dorensky's
coming on. I really asked her this morning to come
(17:46):
on and take a victory lap, because she has been
sounding the alarm about Venezuelan gangs taking over apartment buildings
in Aurora, only to have men on television use words
like hysterical about the coverage.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
We're going to talk to her next. Now that she's
been prison right, Danielle Dorensky, time to come on and
talk about the fact that all of a sudden, we've
got mayors finally admitting, hey, you know what, we may
have Venezuelan gangs and they may be taking over some
apartment complexes, which is what she's been sounding the alarm about.
Did you know that the mayor was finally going to
(18:21):
have your back on this?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I didn't Manby so I was happy to see that
he came out. He has not reached out to me.
Nobody has reached out to me. So I was happy
to see that Mayor Coffin, you know, finally made a
statement about it.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Well, and he did say, here's my issue. Mayor Mike
Kaufman and Mayor Mike Johnston sat down with Kyle Clark.
Kyle who never misses an opportunity to take a shot
at a conservative woman, as he sort of tried to
say that it was all in your head earlier this
week via ex But they sat down and said, look,
this is causing hysteria, and now we have all these
(19:02):
people calling nine to one one and three one one.
What would you have preferred them to do in this
situation in order to not have to make it a massive,
huge issue.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Well, this could have been addressed when I first started
talking about it, you know. But I get I get ignored,
I get dismissed. I don't know, Mandy, if this is
something they'd like to have conversations and just exclude me.
But I am the chair of the Public Safety Committee
for the City of Aurora. I have not been told
what the plan is to address this. I have Aurora
(19:34):
police officers coming to me asking me what the plan is.
They're told that no less than four of them can
respond to any of these department complexes at a time,
and quite frankly, they try to avoid them because they're
concerned about their own wellbeing.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
So what is the plan?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
If they didn't want it to come out like this?
They have the platform, they had the voices to come
forward or behind the scenes to put together. They knew
that this was in a burst at the scene because
I was getting.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Louder and louder.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
So about two weeks ago a cup two three weeks ago,
APD did come out and announce that they were forming
a gang task force to try and deal with this.
But they saw this coming out of me, Mandy, You know,
don't I don't change my stripes. When I start getting
loud about something and no one listens, I get louder
and I get louder, and I guess what I have
(20:24):
found in local government, maybe in government across the board,
some folks that think that they can just ignore others.
But I refuse to be ignored.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
I said yesterday on the show Danielle that I think,
you know, maybe I was trying to give Mayor Mike
Kaufman a little grace on this issue. And I said,
maybe there is a massive law enforcement organization working on
this and they don't want to tip their hand, or
maybe you just don't want a Rora to continue to
look like get a black eye, right so, and I
(20:55):
think it's the latter in this case.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
He just does not want Aurora painted.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
With this brush because Aurora has had a reputation of
having trouble with crime for a very, very long time.
Does that concern you at all or is it so
important that you just want it taken care of?
Speaker 11 (21:11):
Well?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
I think it concerns me that any elected official would
allow something like this to be downplayed in order to
save our image. And again, as far as our image goes, Mandy,
I have been talking about this for weeks. I have
been saying, where is going on in these department complexes?
(21:32):
Police officers are coming to me, Residents are making their
way out, they're reaching out.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
What are we doing? What is the plan?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
If there'd have been a plan, if somebody were to
move in on these complexes, if arrests would have been made.
But you know what they did, Mandy. Instead, they closed
in on the Nome Street apartments and the guys of
code enforcement violations and did nothing to address this gang problem.
So this gang they just picked up and spread out
even further into other apartment complexes, rizing more Aurora residents.
(22:02):
And you know, just like the Romeros which you saw.
I couldn't believe they were still living there. I said
to her, I said, I'm going to get you out,
pack your stuff. You're leaving. I will take care of
all the logistics you are leaving.
Speaker 12 (22:15):
I mean, this is un real that in the United
States of America, that in a major where we're what
the forty ninth largest city in the country, this is
how Americans are living.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
But Mandy, let me tell you something. The nonprofits and
the city lined up. Ruled out the red carpets for
all of the folks that came out of the Nome
Street department. Well, let me tell you the actual leaseholders,
the citizens or residents that had been there before. They'd
all either been chased out, scared out, fled for their lives,
whatever the case may be. So all of these resources
(22:50):
went to thenar Zuelan migrants, all of them. Who is
lining up? Where are the nonprofits? Where is anybody to
go in and help folks like the Romeros who I
moved out, both with bullet holes in their cars. Who's
helping them?
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Danielle Drinsky is my guest Aurora City councilwoman, you know, Danielle.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
I am First of all, I'm really glad you're sounding
the alarm. Second of all, I hope that we can
get this under control. And I want to ask you
a quick question. This is a little bit of a sideminder,
but really not you guys just hired a new police
chief and I am not one of those people who
thinks you needed more comput you know, community engagement, because
obviously that's been an abject disaster based on how things have.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Gone so far in that role.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
What are you expecting out of this new chief when
it comes to addressing this issue?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
A person foremots Mandy, I would like to be heard
for once. I would like to be heard. I ran
my race and I won, and I got elected just
like anybody else, and I deserve a voice at the
table to be hurt. So many of these things maybe
in the past that I've found to the alarm about
(24:05):
that I've been very vocal about. It's been proven over
and over again. Oh wait, there really is something to
what she's saying. Well, just listen to me. But if
I'm just going to be dismissed as oh this crazy
loud woman, listen, I didn't want to spend all of
(24:27):
my time fighting with other people to make sure that
the right things are happening in Aurora should just be happening.
And I am optimistic. I am optimistic about Todd Chamberlain's arrival.
You know, I interviewed obviously, as many of us did,
but I interviewed the man personally, and he has a
(24:47):
calm demeanor, but he has a stern presence. I can
tell he's a leader. I think he is going to
get this apartment on the on the right track, you know.
And and if and when he gets here and he's
doing the great job that I believe he's going to do,
I am going to be his biggest, biggest supporter. I
(25:08):
will be out in front of him because I know
that since I have taken office, I have largely been
the biggest police chief critic, Yeah, that we've had. But
there's a reason for that. Manby so let me.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Ask this, Danielle, and this is from one of our
texters on the Common Spirit Health text line. Mandy, can
Danielle paint a picture of what these gangs are doing
at the apartments? Can you tell us what you know
from the Romeros who you just moved out of one
of these What is it like there?
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Well, it's a nightmare. And anybody who just missed Cindey
Romerol for the first time did an interview on Fox
National at noon, you can go back and hear it
in her own words. But I mean they would actively,
they actively patrol the properties with guns. You know, they
stop vehicles that are pulling up to the property. They
go up to vehicles. If the Centremus released small video
(25:58):
footage yesterday, they'll just stop vehicles at gunpoint. They're they're
they're controlling the properties.
Speaker 12 (26:04):
They go in.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
They'll just kick the door in. Well you saw the
video footage. They'll take axes and just chop your door
handle off. That's why the Romeros lived with four dead
bulls and a door brace. Oh got extortion, assaults, sex trafficking,
I mean, I mean, I have heard it all from
these residents.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
It's amazing, Danielle.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
I wonder how many of the folks in the news
media have been to these housing complexes or even the mayor.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Well outside of Vicente. I'm not sure. I know that
the mayor was at the Nome Street apartments over a
year ago, but it was it was not this, It
was not this a year ago when the mayor. So
I'm not sure that anybody has And of course you
know now, I'm sure they're all going to go for
the photo ops and get over to some of these
apartment complexes and you know, have their photos taken. But
(26:56):
but they're also now put on notice. So I'm certain
that police are now and hopefully federal partners are going
in and going after some of these flooks. That man,
they let me tell you, maybe six eight months ago,
there was a man kidnapped from the Nome Street departments.
The man was kidnapped and he was dumped off clear
(27:19):
on the other side of Aurora, out by the Southlands area,
and when police interviewed him, that man gave a statement
that they had a kill room, a kill room in
one of these apartment complexes. So you know the fact
that the federal agencies, he has to think that one
local law enforcement by agency by themselves, the Royal Police Department,
(27:40):
can take on something like this is ridiculous. And men
and the women of the Royal Police Department works so hard.
They are working tirelessly, so many hours, and you know what,
they want to make sure they're going home at night too.
Where are federal partners? And Jared Polis said he has
offered support. Show up, Jared, you don't have to ask
(28:04):
if we want them to come. Send them.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
Yeah, well, he says, it's all in your imagination. Danielle,
So you know you got that going for you.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I have such a vivid imagination a wild Danielle Dorensky.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I appreciate your time. Keep up the good work, keep.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
Sounding the alarm, I mean the sounds like you are
the one who is looking out for the law abiding
citizens that are living in these complexes, and for that
I'm grateful.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
So thanks for making time for us today.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
I always appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Somebody just hit this text Mandy.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
I think nobody is taking her seriously because all of
this sounds pretty anecdotal. Does she have any actual evidence
of any of this? Well, if you go to the
blog today at mandy'sblog dot com, you can.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
See a video of a bunch of guys with guns
of various sizes and whatever, and text her before you say,
a bunch of guys with guns. Really, doesn't it sound
like something?
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Go watch the video and combined with what she is
being told by people who live in that complex. And
on a side note, I've been in contact with a
couple of the people that I know in the Aurora
Police Department and they say they have been sounding the
alarm internally about this for a year and they think
(29:21):
maybe some people in leadership will actually lose their jobs
because they have just basically swept it under the rug
because they're so understaffed that they can't take on another
huge thing. So there's a lot of stuff kind of
flying in the background, and a lot of people very
invested in making sure that no one's talking about it.
(29:42):
So Danielle, who has been frustrated over and over and
over again trying to get someone to pay attention to this,
may sound a little over the top out of that frustration,
but as far as I know, she's the only one
that has gone there, the only one who's actually checked
it out.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
So there you go, Mandy.
Speaker 5 (30:02):
I live in an apartment complex and I wouldn't trust
any of these people any further.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Than I could throw the building. This is why I
don't live in apartments anymore.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I don't have to.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
By the way, I fixed the link. Give it a second.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
It should update for the fifty most unappreciated cars on
the blog. It's a great article too. Totally worth it,
totally worth it now again on the blog. I have
all of the Kamala Harris interview, but it was so
so not worth your time that I would say, don't bother.
(30:34):
I will say this now the Harris campaign when somebody
says you haven't given an interviewship, Oh yeah, we gave
an interview.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
We gave one. There you go, Mandy, Hey Rod, here's
a chuckle for you. On Friday, my wife was looking
up the meaning of kamala. Finish translation is the funniest
and scariest. It means horrible. That'd be awful.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
When we were trying to pick my daughter's name, which
obviously starts with a Q because I call her the Q,
we bought a book of one hundred and one thousand
baby names and started at A and could not agree
on anything until we hit Q. And there was a name,
and it was a Yiddish name, and I loved it.
I thought it was beautiful, but me it meant old
(31:16):
haggard woman. And I was like, why can't name my
child that.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
You got to look up this stuff? You really do.
Speaker 5 (31:25):
So we got a bunch of stuff on the blog
that's not the Kamala Harrison interview, which is not worth
your time. Uh, in just a little bit, when is
Susannah Cordova Cordova Cordova. I want to make sure I
say her last name right. She's at one thirty. The
Sea Mass scores are not they're not good. Sea Mass
(31:47):
is the test that they give students first through eighth grade,
not every grade, but it just tests student progress. And
COVID absolutely killed test scores. COVID destroyed student learning and
we still have not fully recovered. So we're going to
talk to Susannah about that, and we are also in
just a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I'm actually very excited about this interview. One of the
most useless.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
Endeavors you can engage in is second guessing yourself. And
I saw a woman speak and I can't remember her name,
she's I think she's a Harvard professor, and she said,
don't worry about making the right decision. Worry about making
the decision right, like you have to move forward in life,
but if you're constantly second guessing yourselves, you are definitely
want to hear doctor Helen McKinnon. Her book is about
(32:35):
making great decisions.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
So if you've ever thought to yourself, good grief.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
My decision making sucks, and after some relationships in my life,
I've thought that about myself. We're also going to be
giving away Rocky's tickets next hour or two, so you're
gonna want to stick around for that when you come back,
learn how to not second guess yourself.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
We're doing that next.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and paula
accident and injury lawyers.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
No, it's Mandy Connell, benn.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
On nine, got Way, can.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
The nicety three? Bendyconnell keeping sad thing? Well, we welcome
to the second hour of the show.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
And if you know the show and you know me,
you know I love Seinfeld And one of my favorite
Seinfeld episodes is when George is in a meeting and
a guy makes a snarky comment and George thinks of
the perfect response later and goes to great links to
set up the opportunity to be able to use his
comeback that he thought of later and then you know,
(33:45):
oh yeah, the jerk stores all out of you was
the end result.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Well, my next guest knows what it's like.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
To second guess yourself and she has actually written a
book about destroying our self doubt and learning to trust
our opinions. Doctor Helen McKinnon, Welcome to the SHOWRDY, Thank
you for having me. Well, let's talk about second guessing.
What exactly are we doing when we second guess ourselves?
Speaker 10 (34:13):
Well, let me start with the opposition of second guessing ourselves.
We are all inborn with the ability to listen to
ourselves and not second guess ourselves, and second guessing ourselves
comes from a lack of practice growing up listening to
our own feelings or thoughts or ideas of what we
(34:35):
wanted to do. It is simply a lack of practice
where the child, because of circumstances, not people being around,
parenting that might dismiss or minimize the feeling, not because
we're going to criticize parents, but because they were parented
that way.
Speaker 8 (34:55):
When the child.
Speaker 10 (34:56):
Doesn't get enough reinforcement for how they feel and what
they observed, its tense or what they want to do.
The child walks away second guessing themselves and goes into
young adulthood or adulthood not with the confidence of how
to read themselves and know what to say or do,
(35:18):
but they flip into reading first their parents and then
other people or what to feel, what to do, and
what to say.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
So a lot of times that's so subconscious you don't
even realize how much you're letting other people's opinions affect
how you make decisions. I know that for me in
my younger years that was definitely true, where I got
a lot of input from a lot of other people
who never had to live with the repercussions of my choices,
instead of just saying.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
What do I really want to do? So let's start there.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
How can you go from being a person like that
to being a person who is able to make and
then be satisfied with those choices after you've made a decision,
If ques start.
Speaker 10 (36:00):
With thing like you started with the program andy of
walking away and going why didn't I think of that
at the time, I want to be able to do that.
And my methodology is developed to allow the individual tap
back into the brain in the way it's already designed
to have us make good decisions and literally practice or
(36:25):
go back to practicing, listening to their own thoughts, feelings,
and ideas and reversing the dependency on listening to others
or a dialogue in their head that has them second
guests themselves. That is my whole purpose, That is my
life's work.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
Do you give strategies to people on how to make
a decision? Do you have tools or is it really
a person has to figure out what works for them
to make a decision and then kind of roll with it.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
It's both.
Speaker 8 (36:55):
You're right on target. I don't ever tell anyone what
to do.
Speaker 10 (37:00):
I teach them how to listen to themselves for what
to do, and that tapping into the brain with a
method I teach is important because this is what the
brain does.
Speaker 8 (37:11):
I love the brain.
Speaker 10 (37:13):
If you're triggered by a person or a situation or
your thoughts, there is a triggered feeling. If you pause
with yourself long enough, the brain automatically.
Speaker 8 (37:26):
Uses how you feel in the moment and every time
you felt that way.
Speaker 10 (37:30):
Before, configures that information in nanoseconds and spits out words
or ideas of what you could do for yourself.
Speaker 8 (37:38):
So you don't feel those ways again that didn't.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Work for you.
Speaker 5 (37:43):
So it's a protective device your brain. It's there to
protect you from things that are upsetting or things that
hurt you in the past, and.
Speaker 10 (37:52):
Use the way you are upset or feeling or darn,
why didn't I listen to myself to make different decisions,
to listen to your sad. I just give you a
method to go back and practice what didn't get practiced
enough growing up now as an adult at any age,
and emerge with confidence and reading yourself, not other people
(38:13):
or listening to a voice that had you second guess yourself.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
How long does it take someone to gain confidence in
this way? Because for me it was a slow process.
But the more that I made decisions on my own,
the easier the process. God, and now, to my husband's
great chagrin, occasionally I will make decisions.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
They probably are a group, you know, a project. So
you know, now I'm very certain. Even if I'm wrong,
I'm still certain. So how do you build that muscle?
Speaker 10 (38:45):
Since the method is built in neuroscience and how we
all can read our emotional instincts, it takes practice. So
if I were a golf coach and you were a
golf pro and you had work with someone else for
thirty years. I would come in and say, I'm going
to teach you a new coach, and I would break
down the steps of how to perfect that new swing.
Speaker 8 (39:09):
The go or would go out and practice every day.
Speaker 10 (39:14):
All weeks long, until that swing became automatic and unconscious.
In fact, the definition of self help is doing a
new behavior over and over again until it becomes yours.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
The book so oh, go ahead week week week.
Speaker 5 (39:32):
So it's just it's a matter of repetition, and you
gain confidence every time you make a choice and go
what is your thought on this, doctor mckibbon. I saw
this the other day on a video, and I believe
the woman who was talking is a professor at Harvard,
I think, And she said something, you know, second guessing
your choices is a waste of time. It's instead of
(39:53):
worrying about making the right choice, worry about making the
choice right do you address like, once you've made a decision,
how to just move forward with that decision?
Speaker 8 (40:04):
The brain automatically allows you to move forward.
Speaker 10 (40:07):
If you're listening to yourself and not reading other people,
or you're second guessing yourself, This practice of tapping into
the brain the way it's already designed to have you
make excellent decisions that.
Speaker 8 (40:21):
Those words, those ideas. Once you make a.
Speaker 10 (40:25):
Decision of what to say or do and say or
do it, you walk away and you don't think about
it anymore.
Speaker 8 (40:30):
The brain doesn't keep bringing it up. You don't second
guess yourself.
Speaker 10 (40:34):
So included in the method is if you learn to
listen to yourself and then secondarily make a decision of
what you do then or later on, it completely resolves
the trigger for the feeling for the brain, it resolves
second guessing, and you walk away back to being in
the moment, enjoying what you're doing instead of the alternative.
(40:56):
And I'll tell you what the brain does. The brain
adapts to what feels that are not what feels worse.
Speaker 13 (41:02):
So when you practice this new method for weeks, you know,
all week long, until it becomes yours, your brain is
going to go to the new methodology, methodology of pausing,
listening to your first thoughts, feelings or ideas, and the
way you didn't get enough practice before, it's going to
do it all the time because the end result is
(41:23):
self reliance and not second guessing yourself.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
Anymore.
Speaker 5 (41:26):
Doctor Helen mckibbon is my guest. Her book is called Drop.
Where why did you call it drop?
Speaker 2 (41:32):
I'm curious about that it's drop, and then what's the subhead?
I just had this drop making great decisions. Where did
Drop come from?
Speaker 10 (41:45):
It came from developing a method based in neuroscience and
mind body medicine of how do you even notice your trigger?
The body lights up physically if you take the time
to pause and go back to neutral instead of immediately
reacting to a person or a situation.
Speaker 8 (42:04):
That's when the brain is configuring every time you've felt
that way before with how you feel in the.
Speaker 10 (42:10):
Moment, and it spits out these words or ideas are
instinct and that's what we listen to. So Drop is
that pause in getting back to neutral and listening to
the brain's configurings for what to say or do next,
our emotional instincts.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Doctor Helen mckibon.
Speaker 5 (42:27):
I put a link for people to buy the book
and a link to your website on my blog.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Very very interesting stuff. And I appreciate your time today.
Speaker 10 (42:38):
Oh, I appreciate yours. Thank you for having me, and
thank you to your listeners as well.
Speaker 5 (42:43):
All right, that's doctor Helen mckibbon, And I have a
question for you, a rod. When you have to make
a big decision, what is your decision making process? What
is the process you go through to make that decision.
Speaker 4 (42:57):
Well, I'm a massive overthinker, so I won't make that
decision without thinking about every possible scenario, about what could
go right, what could go wrong A lot of time,
I mean, big of the decision, the more time it
takes me, and even then I probably ask for different
(43:17):
people's advice.
Speaker 5 (43:19):
But then do you suffer from analysis paralysis where you
get to a front where you just feel like you
can't make a decision one thousand percent?
Speaker 4 (43:25):
And then I'm very self aware, all right, being paralyzed
in my trying to figure out what to do one
hundred percent of the tay.
Speaker 5 (43:32):
Well, and here's the thing that's a lot of that
sounds very much like me at your age. Now, let's
just say it's an individual decision. Although when you're married
and you have a family, there are no real individual decisions, right.
You gotta just gotta take everybody else into account. But
when I'm making a decision, and this is what we're
teaching my daughter to do, now we do the pro
and con list. A pro and con list is outstanding.
(43:53):
But if you ever have to make a snap decision,
I'm going to give you a piece of advice I
didn't get till I was like thirty five. Change my life,
Change my life. If you have to make a decision,
quickly flip a coin, say heads, we do it, Tails,
we don't wait, hear me out. You flip that coin,
and if it comes up on the side you really
don't want, you're gonna be like, dang it, and you'll
(44:14):
know the decision you need to make.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
There you go. I mean it.
Speaker 5 (44:17):
It's a game changer when it comes to making decisions,
it is. It is an absolute game changer, and too
many people get paralyzed by the thought of making the
wrong decision.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Right, what if I make the wrong decision?
Speaker 5 (44:30):
My mom years ago, when I was a flight attendant
and I was thinking about becoming a flight attendant, I
had no idea what I was gonna do. When I
graduated from college, I just was just flailing, just absolutely flailing.
And my mom says to me, she goes, you know,
because I'd met this flight attendant and she kind of
convinced me into sending an application, and so I got
an interview and I kind of had a panic attack.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
I was like, well, I can't do this, and my
mom said, we're not in the age of slavery. You
can quit if you don't like it, and quit.
Speaker 5 (45:01):
Most decisions other than deciding to have kids or not,
there's getting a face tattoo is hard to undo. I mean,
there's very few decisions that can't be undone or unwound
at some point. Now, sometimes the unwinding can be extremely unpleasant.
Marry the wrong person and you know what I'm talking about.
(45:25):
But ultimately, unless it's an actual decision of actual life
or death, everything can be walked back or undone, even
if it takes years.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
This is the problem.
Speaker 5 (45:35):
People want to be able to snap their fingers and
undo the wrong you know, a decision that turned out
to be the wrong one. But if you made a
wrong decision, if you chose to leave a job where
you were comfortable for another job where you're going to
make a lot more money, only to find out it
was absolute misery, you have learned something from this experience.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
So therefore it is valuable in and of itself.
Speaker 5 (45:55):
Mandy, I've just practiced being comfortable with all my bad decisions.
No second guessing there. Oh I love this text, Sir,
what's the difference? You're their best seller, not you, Mandy,
you George. That's the comeback is his coworker comes back
with and George has nothing, absolutely nothing five six six nine.
Speaker 10 (46:18):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (46:18):
But I want to know how you guys make decisions?
Do you ever process? Do you weigh the pros and cons?
Do you flip a coin?
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Do you roll D and D dice? I had a
roommate he used to do that. Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (46:32):
He would have a whole list of options and then
he would roll D and D dice and see which
one it landed on. Honestly, he made pretty good decisions.
He graduated summa cum laud and I think he's a
lawyer now.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
So I don't like rolling the dice or flipping coin
as much because I in this to my own detriment.
I want to live with myself if I made the
bad decision and not say well, that was just up
to chance, it wasn't me.
Speaker 5 (46:58):
You're missing the bigger point. But it's not about chance.
It's about forcing your gut to give its opinion.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Because if you see that the coin one.
Speaker 4 (47:06):
Yeah, your idea, but flip like the dice and just
going with the one it says without think about it
like this.
Speaker 5 (47:11):
But wait, wait, Psychologically he's been making a series of
decisions as he's making that list, right. Do you think
really awful options were ever on that list?
Speaker 6 (47:21):
No?
Speaker 4 (47:21):
No, but it still was random. I wouldn't feel as
invested it would have been a choice.
Speaker 5 (47:25):
Well, these are dumb things I'm talking about. These are
not like you know, maybe he did decide to go
to law school rolling the dice, but he only put
things on there that he thought would be a good choice.
It's not like he was just well, I'm gonna go
trade monkeys at the zoo and put that on there.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
It wasn't that random.
Speaker 5 (47:41):
It was out of these things I have taken the
time to list. I'm now gonna let chance choose from
the things that I haven't listed.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
The elements still of chance.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
To me feels like it's still not you going in
like with full belief of the decision that the dice
or the coin shows for you.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
I want to invest in, and if it's wrong, I say,
you know what I invested in that decision to be wrong,
and then you can learn from it, not just oh well,
it was random, it was chance decision. It is if
it is, you know.
Speaker 5 (48:14):
I think the part that you're overlooking the importance of
something yes, is that he made a very specific list, right,
so he has agency and what goes on that list,
and so that's where he was making his choices. It
wasn't making his choice by rolling the dice. He was
making his choices by what went on the list. And
then he would roll the dice and let the list choose,
(48:35):
But nonetheless he was still making choices about what to
put on that list. Mandy, then diagrams to me a
ven diagram about how to make decisions. You make decisions
with then diagrams, Andy, nobody makes decisions with then diagrams
except Kamalas.
Speaker 2 (48:51):
She loves ven diagrams. Loves them, Mandy.
Speaker 5 (48:56):
I made the decision to get a master's in accounting.
The only thing I learned is I don't want to
be an accountant. I have two friends who paid for
and went to law school and sat for the bar
and practiced law for a year and after a year
said hell no, And they now do two completely different things.
(49:16):
My second marriage was the worst decision got out after
nine months, Mandy, I asked myself, am I gonna be
able to live with this decision five years down the road?
That's another way to make a decision or figure out. Now,
that's how you'd figure out whether or not to be
upset about something. And this is something I'm trying to
impart to my daughter as well.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
You think about it. Is this gonna matter in five minutes?
Is this gonna matter in five months? Is this gonna
matter in five years?
Speaker 5 (49:40):
If the answer to any of those is no, you
are wasting your energy by being upset about it for
one second. So any of those, If any of those
is no, boom this person. I make lists and I
researched things to death.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
There you go. My decision process is just like a rod's.
Speaker 5 (50:02):
I too, am an overthinker, and I moled over every
single possibility, positive and negative, and tried to pick the
best of whatever decisions.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
I have to make.
Speaker 5 (50:09):
Stress. You know, I just read a really interesting article
about extremely successful entrepreneurs, and I'm talking about people like
Elon Musk, people who have who have been just wildly
successful over and over and over again. And one of
the things that they have in common is the belief
that if they just ask enough, they will.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
Get a yes. And I'm not even talking about it
in a sales situation. Elon Musk at one point said
out loud for the first time, you know what, I
bet we can build a rocket that we can send
a space and then land it back on the landing
pad and use it again. And the people around him
were like, Elon, stop doing drugs, Stop smoking the drugs.
(50:47):
What are you doing? But you know what Elon Musk did.
He built a freaking rocket that could take off and
land again.
Speaker 5 (50:54):
He built a reusable spaceship because he didn't believe that
he was going.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
To that was not going to work.
Speaker 4 (51:00):
There's a healthy necessity of stubbornness and knowing when it's
time to stop being stubborn with thinking that you're right
and think that you should pursue something like elong with that.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
But you got to know when, I mean, you got
to know when to quit. But don't don't give in
easily at all.
Speaker 6 (51:18):
You have to.
Speaker 5 (51:18):
Understand the concept of the sunk cost fallacy. When you
start a new business. There are times when businesses don't work.
As a matter of fact, most successful entrepreneurs had one
failure in their past, at least, if not more right.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
So you have to be able to recognize when what
you have done.
Speaker 5 (51:34):
What you're created, what what you've you know, what program
you've made, whatever it is, is not going to sell.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
You have to be able to recognize that.
Speaker 5 (51:42):
But to your point, you also have to be able
to recognize if something that you have solves the problem
in a unique way and continue moving forward with it. Unfortunately,
a lot of people get very emotionally invested in their product,
and it's really hard for them to say this isn't
going to work, and then they say, oh, I've already
spent much money anyway.
Speaker 2 (52:01):
That is the sunk cost fallacy. So you have to
just you know, boom.
Speaker 5 (52:05):
Right there in the middle, this person says, sleep on it, Mandy.
Mix of gut feeling and what my heart says is
right for those involved also live with no regrets. Choices
were made and you need to accept that outcome. The
other part about this is that I always say to myself,
is I made the best decision that I could based
on the information.
Speaker 4 (52:25):
That I had at the time. Helps you get over
it quicker, if nothing else, This is.
Speaker 5 (52:30):
How I feel about me supporting the COVID vaccine, because
based on the information that Pfizer released, I was like, Okay,
this looks good.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
I now have to look back and.
Speaker 5 (52:40):
Say I made that decision based on the best information
that I had at the time, even though knowing what
I know now, I would I would say something different.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
Hindsight is twenty twenty is not a famous quote for
no reason. Exactly exactly, Mandy, I ask Moyant, No, got
that one. What's the worst that could happen? Again?
Speaker 5 (53:02):
If it's not a life or death decision, it's a
learning experience. Nonetheless, Mandy, I learned to make decisions and
stick with them when I was a lieutenant and later
a captain in the army. My NCOs in seventy three
to seventy five helped me to have the confidence in
my decision making. Now I'm seventy four, I'm quite confident
and comfortable with who I am in Colorado Springs. There
you go, Mandy says this Texter worrying. I always tell
(53:26):
troubled decision makers to tell me the most crucial thing
they were worried about one year ago. Today crickets that
from Bronx Bill Rocky Mountain Bronx Bill. Very good point,
very very good point. Now, when we get back, Susannah
Cordova got to Cortiva. Susannah Kordova is going to join us.
(53:46):
She is the Colorado Commissioner of Education. We're going to
talk about the latest sea Mass results and what the
state is recovering. If the state is recovering from COVID shutdowns,
we're doing that. Next, you want to know that we're
creating an educator workforce for the future the Colorado I
don't you know what. I don't know exactly what sea
Mass stands for, but I'm going to find out because
(54:07):
the Secretary of Education for the Department of Education, Susannah Cordova,
is joining us right now to talk about sea Mass scores.
After I started talking, I'm like, I don't even know
if I know what sea mass stands for. What does
it stand for? Obviously Colorado something.
Speaker 8 (54:25):
The Colorado Measures of Academic Success.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
All right.
Speaker 5 (54:28):
This is our standardized test that's taken by students through
varying grades, not necessarily every subject, every grade up until
eighth grade, and it's really our snapshot of how kids
are doing in Colorado. We know that there was significant
learning loss during the school remote shutdowns and things of
that nature.
Speaker 2 (54:48):
How are we doing this year in terms of regaining
that lost time?
Speaker 13 (54:55):
Thanks?
Speaker 14 (54:55):
Thanks for the opportunity to be here with you, Mandy.
You know, we have some bright spots that we can
look to. And when I say bright spots, it's, you know,
all relative. But we still definitely are seeing the impact
of learning loss that started four years ago. And I
think it's really important to acknowledge teachers and families.
Speaker 8 (55:17):
Have been working really hard and we have a long, long,
long way to go.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
Still, we've seen some real issues with math.
Speaker 5 (55:26):
This has been really hard, especially for older kids to
sort of get back on track. And as a matter
of fact, I have a story on the blog today
that there's some consideration of lowering the passing test score
to allow kids to graduate because of these issues with math.
What sorts of interventions are being investigated? And I realize
that you guys don't kind of you know, have a
(55:48):
one size fits all, but are you aware of schools
that are aggressively going after these math shortages?
Speaker 8 (55:58):
So there's both good news, I think, and then you know,
not so good news.
Speaker 14 (56:02):
We actually have seen continuous improvement in math since the
pandemic really kind of bottomed out. We needed to see
improvements because there was such a dramatic decline in math
performance during COVID. But grades three through six are now
at or above where they were in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (56:25):
That's the good news.
Speaker 14 (56:27):
The bad news is that where they were in twenty
nineteen was not great, and so we know that we
still have a lot of work to do, but we
are beginning to see that improvement over time. You know
from your blog post something that's really important, I think
just to share with your listeners is the high school
test that we use is the PSAT and the SAT,
(56:49):
and this year was the first year.
Speaker 8 (56:50):
That there was a brand new SAT test.
Speaker 14 (56:53):
It was a different approach to testing mathematics, and it
was all online and nationwide. We saw a pretty dramatic
drop in scores, and it's really challenging to actually tease
out how much of this was a drop in performance
and how much of this was it a new test
and it's functioning in a different way. A good way
to think about that is if you've got two kids
(57:14):
in high school, and your student last year took the
test and did a great job in math, and your
younger kid or two years ago took the test and
did a great job, and then last year their little
brother took the test and dropped. It might actually be
that the test is different, not just that the kids
are performing worse.
Speaker 5 (57:31):
So the standards that we would use to measure success
would actually be completely different because the test itself is different.
Speaker 14 (57:38):
Tas itself is completely different at this point, And I
think if we had seen Colorado have a decline and
nobody else in the country have a decline, that would
probably be about our performance. But we actually nationwide saw
declines in math on the PSAT and SAT test.
Speaker 5 (57:54):
So how are we doing with the achievement gap? This
is an intractable issue. It feels like it no matter
what city I've been in, we have been dealing with
the achievement gap. How are we doing in Colorado when
it comes to black students and white students? And then
we'll talk about Hispanic students as well.
Speaker 14 (58:12):
Sure, so we have large, persistent and unacceptable gaps, and
that's true when we look at almost every comparison group.
So for our black students, we have seen both large
gaps and increasing gaps, and we definitely struggle with that
(58:34):
post pandemic.
Speaker 8 (58:37):
For our students who are learning English.
Speaker 14 (58:40):
In many grades, we didn't even hit ten percent of
our kids meeting expectations, and at times our gaps run
between twenty five and forty points between different groups of kids.
Speaker 5 (58:53):
Well, you know, in my experience, education is something that
I talk about on the show all the time. I
have been deeply involved in educational issues in multiple markets.
And it seems to me that we know, and I'm
not telling you anything, you don't know that poverty is
an indicator of struggling in school and it doesn't matter
whether you're white or black or hispanic.
Speaker 2 (59:14):
That is a huge issue.
Speaker 5 (59:16):
Why have we not been able to solve the issue,
and I'm talking about nationwide, of specifically tailoring our instructional
process for children who may be coming to school without
the language, you know, base, without any sort of you know,
normal kind of training that an upper middle class kid
(59:38):
would get from their parents. Right, How have we not
been able to adapt to make sure that those kids
are not being left behind?
Speaker 14 (59:47):
Yeah, you know, I do think we have some bright
spots in one of the things that we're trying to
do at the department and really lift up those examples
of places that are doing the right things and getting
the kind of gains that we know kids are capable of.
Speaker 8 (01:00:02):
I think you really nailed it.
Speaker 14 (01:00:04):
In families with resources and means and parents who've been educated,
they're putting a lot of effort, not just in school
but outside of school to make sure that their kids
are successful. And the schools that do the best work
in this are doing similar things and trying to stand
in the gap around giving kids access to tutoring, giving
(01:00:26):
kids opportunities for visits to college campuses, things that many
middle class families kind of just think of as part
of what you do when you're raising your kids that
you might not be able to afford to do in
other places. And so we do have some really great
examples of high poverty schools. In fact, last year I
visited two of our Title I schools that were award.
Speaker 8 (01:00:49):
Winners for getting good outcomes with high poverty students.
Speaker 14 (01:00:56):
One was at a DSST campus in Denver and one
was one of our Colorado Springs Area School elementary schools.
And so we do have example, we just don't have
nearly enough examples of places that are beating the odds.
Speaker 5 (01:01:08):
How does the Department of Education spread those best practices
because it seems to me that you know, I see
news stories about it, Like I'll see a new story
of a school that had huge gains, and I think,
how do other schools that are dealing with a similar
population get that information?
Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
How does that dispersed?
Speaker 10 (01:01:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 14 (01:01:25):
Yeah, So we have a couple of different ways that
we do it. Probably the most intensive ways. We've created
what we call learning cohorts to actually invite school district
teams to come together in learning cohorts around specific topics.
We have a learning cohort that's addressing chronic abs and teism.
Colorado has had a troubling number of kids who are
chronically appsent, which means they miss even one or two
(01:01:48):
days a month can.
Speaker 8 (01:01:48):
Get you to be chronically absent. Chronically apbsent is if
you miss ten percent of the year or more.
Speaker 14 (01:01:53):
And so we have a learning court around chronic apps
and teeism and how to get kids back in school
learn if you're not in school, and so it's really
important that we are sharing and highlighting the work that
great districts do to get kids back.
Speaker 8 (01:02:07):
We have a learning cohort.
Speaker 14 (01:02:08):
Last year we started a new one for districts that
we're supporting new arrival kids who are coming from other countries.
Colorado had over six thousand new students who were from
outside of the US and helping districts grapple with that.
Speaker 8 (01:02:25):
So we do these learning cohorts. We also showcase districts
through our awards.
Speaker 14 (01:02:31):
We profile districts on our social media channels, and we've
started something that we call Commissioner Chats where we actually
interview the folks from the districts who are doing great
work and then try to share those interviews as a
way to learn from the great work that's happening in some.
Speaker 8 (01:02:45):
Of our schools.
Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Have you ever thought about doing a teacher exchange program?
Speaker 5 (01:02:49):
And I don't mean for a year, but I mean
having teachers from these high performing schools actually come into
some of these schools to help some teachers maybe implement
some of the stuff that they've done.
Speaker 8 (01:03:01):
Yeah, that's actually a really great idea. Several of our
partners groups like.
Speaker 14 (01:03:08):
The Colorado Education Initiative, do work like that, And I
think you're right, Like, it's one thing to hear about it,
it's one thing to read about it.
Speaker 8 (01:03:17):
It's a very different thing to see it.
Speaker 14 (01:03:20):
And when you can see somebody who's working with students
who look like your kids.
Speaker 8 (01:03:25):
And be able to see it in action.
Speaker 14 (01:03:28):
It's just a very different way to make sense of
what successful practice looks like.
Speaker 5 (01:03:35):
Well, you know, I believe in a vibrant school system.
I want it to be successful, so I'm always looking
for solutions. And Colorado Commissioner of Education, Susannah Cordova, thank
you so much for making time.
Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
For me today.
Speaker 14 (01:03:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (01:03:48):
Thanks, Mandy. Happy to be here, all right.
Speaker 5 (01:03:50):
I have a great day, that is Susannah court of A.
You know, the educational system is tough, and I think
that as easy as it is to point to educators
to say why aren't black and brown children learning, there
are cultural factors that have to be addressed before.
Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
Those kids are really going to succeed. And I don't
have the answer for that.
Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury lawyers.
Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
No, it's Mandy Connell knee FM.
Speaker 6 (01:04:27):
God.
Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
We got the test popping the many that you keep
the domes that's right, Friday, turn the doll up. It's
not it thinks we've got the moms in the pass
sticks too. Mid don't I have no idea what those
(01:04:51):
these words are.
Speaker 10 (01:04:52):
I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
Yeah, yeah, this is me urban version. I'm glad you
played this because I have a story that I'm going
to ask a genuine question to hear me out, because
this could cause a kerfuffle if taken in the wrong way.
Speaker 5 (01:05:04):
So I don't know if you guys saw this story.
Did you see the story about the signs that were
held or.
Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
Put up at the bus stop? Here we go?
Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
No?
Speaker 5 (01:05:11):
Oh, yeah, so a bus stop operator spotted a sign
at about five am. And to describe these signs, they
look like they could have been made by like whoever
makes the signs. They're metal, they're professionally printed. They were
bolted into the post as a normal sign would be,
but they were anything but normal. Now, one of them says,
(01:05:36):
let me scroll down so I can actually see. Oh
did they take it down so I can't see the
picture anymore? That's silly, very very silly.
Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
Okay, here we go. One of them is black and white.
The top strip says blacks must sit at the back
of the bus.
Speaker 5 (01:05:53):
Underneath that it says Kamala's migrants sit in the front.
Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
And then right below that is an or a yellow
sign that.
Speaker 5 (01:06:03):
Shows people running in a silhouette form and then it
says caution, Kamala's illegals. Now a certain Denver City councilwoman
is running around talking about how.
Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
Racist this is.
Speaker 5 (01:06:18):
Now, I will absolutely agree that it is wildly inappropriate
and rude. But is it racist or is it simply
pointing out the fact that current administration policy has given
people who came across the border a bunch of stuff
for free, with absolutely no responsibility. And at the same time,
(01:06:43):
perhaps there are black and white people that would have
liked to have had some kind of help before that.
This is a political statement, but I don't know if
it's racist.
Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
It is a race based political statement, But does that
automatically make it racist to point.
Speaker 5 (01:07:02):
Out that immigrants have gone to the front of the line.
You can text me if you think.
Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
It's racist or not. Five sixty six nine. Oh, just
check it out. I'm curious because do you think that's racist?
Day Rod, it's.
Speaker 5 (01:07:16):
Racially tinged one hundred percent. Yeah, it is racially based,
But is it racist? I mean, obviously saying blacks have
to sit in the back is referring back to the
days of segregation, and I understand why that strikes a nerve.
But if the point is to make that perhaps African
Americans are people living in the lower socioeconomic tiers have
(01:07:40):
been shoved aside to make room for migrants to then
get free apartments, free computers, free food, free clothing, job training.
You see what I'm saying here. I mean, I think
there's a point, makes you think I think there's definitely
a point. It's unfortunate I did link to a story
that I had on the blog some time ago, because
to think that black people would not be upset about this,
(01:08:02):
I want to read you a headline from Chicago. Black
residents of Chicago slam city over fifty one million in
migrant care, demand reparations. Black residents of Chicago tour into
city leaders at a meeting on Wednesday as authorities we're
set to vote on allocating fifty one million dollars in
migrant care. One of these speakers said, I understand that
(01:08:25):
fifty one million are going to be voted on today,
and I encourage the aldermen to please vote it down
because number one, we have not opened up the schools
for our homeless. We see them in the streets every day.
I make sure that the homeless are fed with clothing
that from Black Lives Matter Women of Faith founder Carolyn Roff.
She also added, we need to take care of our community.
(01:08:49):
We need to take care of our black community.
Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
We need to open up these.
Speaker 5 (01:08:52):
Schools for mental health. We've not gotten anything for our community,
and we are sick and tired.
Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
Enough is enough.
Speaker 5 (01:08:59):
What'll be interesting is because I believe that pretty much
on this whole strip of coalfacts there's cameras, so they
may have a camera of someone putting this up. I'm
interested to see who that person is, what their background is.
Obviously they lean conservative or at least lean anti Kamala,
because it's pretty clear that is not a compliment.
Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
She's letting a bunch of people run in here. Okay,
here we go. Let's see here. Uh up up up
bu umm wait hang on normal where I'm from? He
he I laughed. It should have said all citizens sit
in the back, too funny. I needed a laugh. Not racist, Mandy.
Speaker 5 (01:09:45):
The reason Polist and Mike Johnson are playing down the
Venezuelan gangs is it tarnished there. We are welcoming city
and state, which Polist and Johnson advocated to bring in
the illegals, and since it is a political year, they
can't have illegals looking bad.
Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
They're not on the BA. Not racist.
Speaker 5 (01:10:03):
The picture with the silhouette is the same sign that
is in southern California on the highway as they're showing
you the illegals will run out in front of your
car to escape capture down near San Diego. It's racist
if you're a Democrat.
Speaker 9 (01:10:16):
Haha.
Speaker 5 (01:10:17):
Well, it's no can of soup on a masterpiece work
of art. But I'm gonna call it a political statement
or art. It's a political eye opener about the illegals.
Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
Totally true. It's disgusting. Mandy. Everything is racist when you
can't defend it.
Speaker 5 (01:10:31):
Oh well said very well said not racist, one hundred
percent accurate, says this Texter.
Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
Anything can be racist.
Speaker 5 (01:10:39):
It just depends on if the statement is taken out
of context or how others interpret it. Not racist more
like reality. Didn't Ross just get punished for mentioning the
Nazi flag?
Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
And this you mentioned?
Speaker 5 (01:10:52):
Did Ross get punished? We don't, yea, we don't really
get punished here. That's not really a thing. They run
a pretty loose ship around here at the iHeartMedia in
terms of punishing, what would be an appropriate punishment for
Ross making him eat a green pepper full of blue cheese.
Speaker 2 (01:11:09):
I mean that would that would be, that'd be I'm
not allowed to work in prime numbers for a whole show.
Oh my god, stop, now you're gonna break the man
and then have to go sock shoe, sock shoe, or
and wash his legs and wash his legs.
Speaker 3 (01:11:25):
Say there you go.
Speaker 5 (01:11:27):
Would not be surprised if this was put up by
one or more black people. That's why I said, I'm
interested to see who put this up.
Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
Mandy, I don't.
Speaker 5 (01:11:35):
I don't think it's racist, but it's definitely political. The
artist has already come forward to claim it. I'm old
enough to remember when racially tinged art is okay if
it makes someone feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (01:11:44):
Is this not doing the same?
Speaker 5 (01:11:46):
Oh no, no, no, You're only supposed to make white
Christian people uncomfortable. Everybody else is never supposed to be
made uncomfortable. Just throwing that out there. Paulus doesn't want
to admit what is happening because he doesn't want to
highlight Harris's face during the election season.
Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
Now that makes sense, that makes sense. I would have
liked to sign better if it's said American citizens instead
of black Sea. I think that would have been better.
There you go.
Speaker 5 (01:12:14):
A local Republican activist has admitted to put oh, I'll
have that for you after this break.
Speaker 2 (01:12:19):
Hang on one second. Let me pull this up. Let
me pull it up. Let's see who did this.
Speaker 5 (01:12:25):
A Republican street artist and political agitator is cleaning responsibility. Sabo,
as he's known, describes himself as a street artist. He
told nine News he's been contacted by Denver police, who
are investigating the crime as a possible bias motivated crime.
He said he was motivated to post the signs because
of reports that a Venezuelan gang forced the closure of
(01:12:47):
an apartment complex and.
Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
Aurora the signs let's see here, I'm looking for anything else.
Speaker 5 (01:12:53):
A Facebook post by Sabo included photos of the signs
with the caption reading, in part, I'm not gonna lie
to you. It was a scary night, but seeing the
Lord's prayer while working helped a lot. OURTD said similar
signs were recently posted in Chicago and the agency was
connecting with other transit agencies. He also took credit for
the racist signage in Chicago racist is an editorial comment
(01:13:16):
nine News.
Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
Just let me know? Or is that how we Colorado.
Speaker 5 (01:13:19):
I've got a lot of stuff on the blog today
that we're not going to get to you that I
really wish you would go read because it's all super
interesting and it'll all come up in the near future.
Another article about a Denver restaurant tour vacating Denver because
they've made it pretty.
Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
Miserable to own a restaurant there. Great.
Speaker 5 (01:13:35):
I have a question you're out and about you and
your wife are like, you know, gadflies around Denver doing
things like young people do still, right, I mean, are
they you are?
Speaker 10 (01:13:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (01:13:46):
Have you have you noticed things closing or I mean
obviously stuff opens and closes all the time.
Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 15 (01:13:52):
We were tout in our old neighborhood a couple of
weeks ago, the Baker neighborhood, and there was nothing that
we used to go to, Like, there were three or
four of our favorite places were now either boarded up
or something new.
Speaker 2 (01:14:04):
I was going to ask you, are they are they
new things or stuff just closing?
Speaker 15 (01:14:09):
Yeah, Like two or three of them were new things,
and then three or four of them were nothing anymore,
which is sad.
Speaker 5 (01:14:15):
The business climate for small business is so unfriendly and
Denver now between the minimum wage and all of the
other things, especially like restaurant tours, are.
Speaker 2 (01:14:23):
Like, we can't make it here. Yeah.
Speaker 15 (01:14:25):
I saw an interesting article former guest of my podcast,
Thereat Guard, Oh Troy Guard. Yeah, he was talking about
this and how tough it has become to run a
you know, world renowned chefs are having to close down their.
Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
Rest Houston, isn't he Yeah?
Speaker 5 (01:14:39):
Yeah, And Alex Sidel just sold a big PARTI I
think he sold fruition to the people who run the
Union station and his wife works here. So I'm gonna
get Alex on the show to talk about this. But
the environment for restaurants is so unfriendly and so challenging
that now you have restaurant tours saying you know what,
between that the crime, it's not worth.
Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
It to be here anymore.
Speaker 5 (01:15:02):
That is that is very, very bad news because when
I first moved here eleven years ago, the restaurant scene
was horrible and.
Speaker 2 (01:15:10):
Then it got better. But if everybody shuts down and
everybody moves to the outskirts.
Speaker 5 (01:15:15):
Although hey, hey, y'all, I live in Douglas County, I'm
just letting you know, Okay, you bring your little shop
down there.
Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
We're in I have your back. I will make sure
that you survive. Although Douglas County actually has some pretty
like a few decent restaurants. Now.
Speaker 15 (01:15:30):
So my wife is down in Castle Rock today and
she sent me a picture from some little walk she
was on and just like, can we just move down here?
Speaker 2 (01:15:37):
It's I love Castle Rocks so much. I love it.
Speaker 5 (01:15:40):
If I'd been doing a morning show when I moved here,
I probably would have moved to Castle Rock.
Speaker 2 (01:15:43):
But it was too far.
Speaker 5 (01:15:44):
It was outside of my ring of how far I
was willing to drive. That's how we chose our house,
Like how far is this going to be for me
to drive in the morning? And we are on the
very edge of the ring, very edge of the ring.
Speaker 10 (01:15:58):
Dang it.
Speaker 5 (01:15:59):
Anyway, So yeah, there's an article about that on the
blog today. There's a very interesting article from the Wall
Street Journal. And I'm going to try and get Kimberly
Strassel on the show to actually talk about this, because
we're going to vote on a form of ranked choice
voting here in Colorado this November. And when you listen
(01:16:21):
to the proponents talk about it and the potential that
it has to do away with the elevation of the
most fringe candidates out there. It's very tempting, right, but
it's already happening in Alaska and it's not going well.
(01:16:41):
They're currently gathering signatures right now to repeal it. They've
only had one full election with this, they're about to
have another, but they may repeal this before it even
gets started. So I'm going to try and get with
Kimberly Strassel. She wrote the column in the Wall Street
Journal to get more information about that, because I think
it would be very interesting.
Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
Maybe we'll call somebody in Alaska.
Speaker 5 (01:17:01):
I don't know you, Ay, Rod, look up some kind
of convenience store in Anchorage, Alaska, and give him a call. Okay,
tell him we want to talk about rank choice voting.
There you go, Well, I don't Yeah, don't do that now.
We're gonna do that later because I got a guest
coming up at.
Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
The bottom of the hour, so I don't want to
be late for that.
Speaker 5 (01:17:20):
Also, have the fifty most unappreciated cars of all time.
I messed that link up earlier, but I fixed it now.
A rod if you had to buy a car that
was built in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
What would you want to drive? SOB? A sably? I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
No.
Speaker 5 (01:17:34):
A friend of mine has a SOB he named her Sonia.
He bought this car for like fifteen hundred bucks and
he's like, you know, what'll probably cost me maybe five
grand to fix it up.
Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
He's like, thirty grand into the car.
Speaker 4 (01:17:44):
I take it back, let me go three more years back.
Nineteen sixty seven cherry red Corvette. Uh, mustake Mustag?
Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
Oh you want a Mustang? A sixty seven Corvette is
actually one of my dream cars. No Mustang convertibles? What
I want to say?
Speaker 5 (01:17:57):
Yeah, well that's also a good car. I would drive
a VW Thing. I love the thing.
Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
The thing is like the coolest gar to me.
Speaker 5 (01:18:04):
But apparently if any of you have had air cold
cars in the mountains, is it true that they don't
go uphills very often or very well because the VW
Thing is an air cold car. H Willie B makes
fun of me because I love the thing. Someday I
will have a thing when I'm like really old and
I just I don't really drive as much.
Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
I just tootle, you know.
Speaker 5 (01:18:25):
I'm just toodling around. I'm gonna have me a VW thing,
maybe one that was made in the same year I was.
Speaker 2 (01:18:32):
I don't know, you don't know, we don't know.
Speaker 10 (01:18:38):
Andy.
Speaker 5 (01:18:38):
I got a lot of text messages on the common
Spirit health text line. Small business climate is awful everywhere
with excess government involvement, but Denver is the worst of
the worst. I grew up working in my family's restaurant
for about forty years in Denver, and I can safely
say the restaurant scene.
Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
Is overly saturated.
Speaker 5 (01:18:57):
The restaurant scene is oversaturated with really expensive places to eat.
Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
You know what we don't have. We don't have dives.
We need more dives. There's a few dives.
Speaker 5 (01:19:06):
If you know of a dive, text me, I'm not
going to stand it on the air because a good
dive gets overpopulated and then it's not.
Speaker 2 (01:19:10):
A dive anymore. Just saying five six six, And I
know when.
Speaker 5 (01:19:13):
We get back, we're going to talk to a young
man who has come here from China, and since coming
from China, has joined Young Americans for Freedom and is
here to talk about freedom.
Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
And what that doesn't look like in China.
Speaker 5 (01:19:26):
We're doing that next, Happy to introduce to you a
young man named Alvin.
Speaker 2 (01:19:30):
Is is it Hallan? Is that how you say your
last name?
Speaker 4 (01:19:33):
Alvin?
Speaker 5 (01:19:35):
Yes, you were born in China, grew up in Beijing,
and attended an international high school in Beijing to prepare
for admission to an American university. And I want to
kind of start the story there because now you are
at an American university. But what happened in your high
school years to give you and I'm just going to
put words in your mouth some doubt about the Chinese
(01:19:59):
gu mental system.
Speaker 11 (01:20:04):
When I was in the high school, like sometimes I
was required to do some like research projects. Those are
in English, and so I have to like do some
like search by using some services like a Google stallar.
But in China, like we have a great firewall, the
(01:20:25):
whole Google service was blocked, so that I have to
choose to UH to learn how to use the VPN
it's called virtual Private network to access the following websites
banned by the Chinese government.
Speaker 5 (01:20:42):
How many people would you just estimate in your own
group of friends or family use a VPN to get
around the Great Firewall.
Speaker 7 (01:20:55):
For my families, they.
Speaker 11 (01:20:58):
Didn't use that because they grew up like they believe,
they choose to believe in what the government said.
Speaker 7 (01:21:05):
And but I didn't blame them for that. But for
my like classmates, some of some of them use it.
Speaker 11 (01:21:12):
I think majority of them use it, but they're not
necessarily for watching the things spend by the government. Sometimes
they just choose to be quiet and to do their things. Yeah,
it's quite a large amount, but I estimate currently things
get worse because the government now has like more like.
Speaker 7 (01:21:36):
Developed more ways to detect whether there are people using vps.
Speaker 11 (01:21:41):
Sometimes they do like warn those people do not use
it or let them to pay some fine.
Speaker 5 (01:21:48):
So there's a there's a surveillance system in China that
you got caught up by when you posted something on
a group chat.
Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
Tell me about that.
Speaker 11 (01:22:01):
Wow, that was like happened years ago during the COVID
And yeah, it was just I posted a snapshot from
the YouTube. It's a video about cheating ping. He like
couldn't handle a complex question asked by a journalist, so
(01:22:22):
that I just feel like it was quite a funny
video and I think it's probably quite a similar Like
the Americans, sometimes they saw the clips, like Joe Biden
or Donald Trump to say something interesting and it's just funny.
So I took the snapshot of it and I sent
it to a group chat and I said something like
(01:22:43):
by his like a names. And at the at the beginning,
I thought that was not a big deal because because
I probably did the things like this before and I
didn't face the severe consequence. But just after one day,
I received the notification from the wa Chat says my
(01:23:04):
account was permanently banned. And the reason is, they said,
is because I spread malicious rumor.
Speaker 2 (01:23:12):
Oh wow, and what.
Speaker 7 (01:23:16):
Yeah, that's quite a scary thing.
Speaker 5 (01:23:18):
We Chat is the platform that most Chinese people use
as a chat client, right, yes, so to be knocked
off we chat, do you have a way to communicate
with your friends now?
Speaker 11 (01:23:34):
No, After that happened, I lost all of my contacts
with my friends, and not only that, I lost the
other things like access to the payment access to the
health QR code.
Speaker 5 (01:23:48):
It's just wait a minute, so you you lost the
ability to do electronic payments because of that.
Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
Yes, so explain to me how large the.
Speaker 5 (01:24:03):
Social credit system is a little bit, and because that's
what it sounds like. Was this part of the social
credit system where you had been deemed unworthy of having
access to this digital currency, or explain to me what
the Chinese government does in terms of the social credit system.
Speaker 11 (01:24:23):
Honestly, for because I grew up in Beijing and I
think sometimes I think currently from what I know, Beijing
does not have a fully like really like strict stranger
and social credit system. It was more like something like
you know, with contingent and something like with a like
(01:24:44):
higher uncertainty. But the authority they have the power to
easily like prevent a person from like going to other
places of the country travel or like.
Speaker 7 (01:24:58):
Suspend their like so media accounts, and.
Speaker 11 (01:25:03):
Yeah, I like to and also or abuse the technologies
like house QR codes to keep them a rat code
so that they can't move around the city.
Speaker 2 (01:25:13):
So they can essentially take away your ability to do anything.
Speaker 7 (01:25:19):
Yes, they could.
Speaker 5 (01:25:20):
Now the alternative though is what going to jail? I mean,
were you threatened with any kind of more severe penalties
because of that?
Speaker 11 (01:25:31):
Yes, I will say they and and hear. The thing
is they're not only surrending me. They not only intimidate
me by saying like if I continue to do so,
I would face like custody for days or even the
being prosecuted. But they but they also surrended my families.
They said this would influence my like my parents, careers,
(01:25:57):
my siblings, you know, the schools he could go.
Speaker 7 (01:26:01):
And yeah, it's like one it's.
Speaker 11 (01:26:03):
Basically a thing like one person's trouble, it's a whole
family's trouble.
Speaker 7 (01:26:07):
It's like a joint responsibility or collective punishment.
Speaker 5 (01:26:11):
In college, so you got out of China and came
to the United States to go to college. Tell me
a little bit about how you joined Young Americans for Freedom.
Speaker 11 (01:26:25):
I listened about I heard about this organization from a
friend of mine, like he I met him in a
like a zoological seminar, and at the beginning I did
not understand too many things about the American politics. But
in our first like a chapter meeting at my college,
so they just said against communism, against the socialism. So
(01:26:47):
they yeah, I thought, yeah, that's where I actually belonged
to because I have so many first hand experience of
leaving under socialism.
Speaker 5 (01:26:56):
Is it disheartening for you when you hear young college
student in saying that socialism is a better system than
what we have.
Speaker 7 (01:27:06):
Yeah, honestly, that's quite like an annoying thing for me.
Speaker 11 (01:27:10):
When I thought sometimes they're like democratic socialists, like class
table laying. And I know probably they're trying to say, Okay,
we're democratic, We're not like a sort of a soritarian communism.
But I believe they're like essentially same.
Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
Are you going to go back to China at some point?
Speaker 7 (01:27:33):
Probably know, like so many things happened there with me and.
Speaker 11 (01:27:37):
I and I'm quite afraid after I choose, after I
joined the I joined the Young Americans for Freedom, also
joined the Dission Project, become more like outspoken, so that
they probably have already noticed me.
Speaker 2 (01:27:55):
Are you worried about your family still in Beijing?
Speaker 11 (01:28:01):
Somewhat worried about but I'll just currently they're doing fine,
but I'm not sure like whether it will.
Speaker 7 (01:28:14):
Go in the future.
Speaker 5 (01:28:15):
Alvin Halen is my guest, and Alvin, I just want
to say, I cannot imagine, and I think most Americans
cannot imagine, feeling like you have to leave your country
and leave your family in order to have the best
opportunity and to be able to have the basic freedoms
that you enjoy here. That is incredibly brave and I
want to commend you for that because a lot of
(01:28:37):
people would not have had the wherewithal and then to
come here and to use your own experiences to talk
about freedom and the realities of socialism and communism. That
is an incredible gift that you give to people, and
I hope that you impact and I hope a lot
of people listen to you about this, especially while you're
in college.
Speaker 2 (01:28:55):
When are you graduating?
Speaker 7 (01:28:59):
I think I'm I'm graduating the incoming spring.
Speaker 5 (01:29:03):
Yeah, and you're a real slouch, a double major in
applied mathematics in the history of public policy and law.
I mean, you sound like a real slacker there, Alvin.
Speaker 2 (01:29:11):
I'm just kidding. You're gonna go on and be a lawyer. Yes,
that's what I hope to do, Alvin Halen.
Speaker 5 (01:29:19):
I appreciate your time today and I appreciate you sharing
your story with us today. Thank you, all right, Thank you, Alvin.
And you know, I don't know if I could I
could do it as an adult. Now, as a fifty
five year old person, I genuinely think about moving to
a different country, not because I want to run away
from the United States, but because I just want to
(01:29:40):
have different experiences.
Speaker 10 (01:29:42):
Right.
Speaker 5 (01:29:42):
But can you imagine being an eighteen nineteen year old
kid and just saying you know what this isn't I
can't do this anymore, and leaving your family. I just
think that's that's incredibly brave and I hope people pay attention.
Speaker 2 (01:29:55):
It's amazing.
Speaker 5 (01:29:56):
Though, when you talk to someone who is a die
hard die hard socialists are communists, they really honestly believe
that the only reason people are unhappy in China is because.
Speaker 2 (01:30:06):
They're doing it wrong. They're doing it wrong. No, no,
they're not.
Speaker 4 (01:30:15):
Israel.
Speaker 5 (01:30:15):
Good news out of Israel and want to get the
story in before the end of the break. I had
a conversation with my nephew the other day and we
were just chatting back and forth, and he said something
so striking. He said, yeah, we need to come see
you guys, or just go somewhere where there's no rockets
being shot at us. And I'm just thinking, you know,
he has two little boys and this is their normal.
(01:30:38):
Their normal is growing up and spending all day in
the in the bomb shelter. Oh yeah, yeah, good news
though out of Israel. Israel says they have dispatched of
Hamas's Rafa brigade. Remember Joe Biden told him not to
go into Rafa. Remember that don't you go into Rafa,
don't you do it? Well, that's where Hamas was, and
(01:31:00):
I mean was Amasa's terror group. The Ratha brigriade has
collapsed as a result of the IDF is ongoing offensive
in the city, and Israel says they have destroyed eighty
percent of the tunnels, including the ones that were going
underneath the border with Egypt.
Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
So this is real progress.
Speaker 5 (01:31:22):
And I would fully expect at some point Hamas is
going to run out of people to negotiate because they
don't know, they don't there's not going to be enough
of them left. Of course, we're negotiating people who are
not in Gaza. They're in Qatar. They're sitting in penalse
apartments talking about the bravy of their fighters, and their
(01:31:43):
fighters are being picked off kind of and I mean
that literally.
Speaker 2 (01:31:47):
Listen to this.
Speaker 5 (01:31:48):
Combat engineers have been meticulously sweeping the entire Gaza Egypt
border for tunnels, while expanding the corner by es demolishing
structures within about eight hundred and seventy five yards of
the border. Such tunnels have been used forms for smuggling,
although they have been smuggling in other areas too.
Speaker 2 (01:32:08):
Let me find this one part. So I guess they've
killed about a thousand Hamma soldiers, but I guess the
mass soldiers are trying to escape through the tunnels, so
they have the Israeli forces have basically snipers just sitting
by the tunnel enter exits and they're just picking off
people as they come out of the tunnels. Thank you,
(01:32:29):
thank you very much, thanks for playing.
Speaker 5 (01:32:34):
The IDF also revealed Hamas documents were covered from the strip,
said that it had showed the terror group has been
secretly falsifying the results of polls conducted by the Palestinian
Center for Policy.
Speaker 2 (01:32:45):
And Survey Research. Oh my gosh, you don't.
Speaker 5 (01:32:49):
Say, The IDF said, the documents do not prove that
the PCPSR was cooperating with Hamas, but rather that the
terror group was conducting destined actions to fraudulently influence the
results of the poles. Now, I've shared these poles with you,
and they show that Hamas still enjoys wide support in
(01:33:10):
the Gaza strip. And now you're telling me they're false.
Now way, Rob Dawson has joined us in the studio. Hey, Mandy,
Rob Dawson would never falsify a pole.
Speaker 2 (01:33:20):
No, wouldn't do it. So, Rob, did you hear did
you hear Old man Fred on the show? I need
to go back and listen because I was here on that.
When did you enter Monday? I know Wednesday? Wasn't it Wednesday? Wednesday? Okay?
I was not around for some reason. I miss it.
I was alertic this.
Speaker 5 (01:33:38):
So we're going to bring Fred to Denver at some point.
I'm I keep saying this to manifest it, right, Like,
I'm just gonna put it out of the ether and
manifest it and we're gonna have the Mandy Conal karaoke
and we're gonna bring Fred out and he's gonna he's
gonna karaoke it up for us.
Speaker 2 (01:33:53):
How much fun would that? I'm telling you, you guys
need to see this guy in action. He was magic.
Speaker 5 (01:33:59):
He has the prop forever. Very subtle, very deadpan magic,
but magic.
Speaker 2 (01:34:04):
None of the left. Are you caught up on your
sleep from the DNC.
Speaker 16 (01:34:07):
Mostly although I had to edit Colorado's Morning News on Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (01:34:11):
Oh god, so kind of back to square one with that.
But I'm doing all right.
Speaker 5 (01:34:15):
Rob worked way harder than me, and add we worked
pretty hard, but you worked way harder.
Speaker 2 (01:34:20):
Yeah, just a lot of mounds defeats.
Speaker 5 (01:34:22):
Soon after we did karaoke, Rob came back to our condo,
but then at a catch an uber back to his hotel,
and on the way there he saw protesters and literally
stopped the uber and got out.
Speaker 16 (01:34:36):
It was right at the end of the ride. I
got out and I heard I heard the news. This
is two blocks away from my hotel.
Speaker 3 (01:34:43):
We will go.
Speaker 2 (01:34:44):
When did you hear the chant?
Speaker 4 (01:34:45):
What was the chance?
Speaker 2 (01:34:48):
I can't remember if it was the counting, Remember how
I told you they go?
Speaker 10 (01:34:51):
What you three?
Speaker 6 (01:34:52):
Four?
Speaker 2 (01:34:53):
Whoa wait?
Speaker 6 (01:34:55):
What?
Speaker 2 (01:34:55):
That's when the police try to go towards them, try
to push.
Speaker 5 (01:35:01):
Them back with their with their words. We had a
great time making fun of the protesters, We really did.
It was like a high point of the entire DNC.
It was a lot of fun making fun of the protesters.
But you're in here for your daily beating.
Speaker 2 (01:35:12):
Yeah, now what's happening?
Speaker 5 (01:35:14):
Not too daily, not too daily. But now it's time
for the most exciting segment all the radio.
Speaker 2 (01:35:20):
Of its kind in the world of the day, nice
drawn out in the world. All right, what is our
dad joke of the day? Please?
Speaker 4 (01:35:33):
I injured myself while measuring radio frequencies.
Speaker 5 (01:35:37):
Wait, you injured yourself while measuring radio frequency?
Speaker 2 (01:35:42):
Still hurts? Oow wow. I should have seen that coming,
but I did not pull that out of my hat
before it was time. Frisbee over. What is today's word
of the day? These have been really hard this week.
It is an adjective. Adjective, man, it's so hard you
can't even say it. Oh God.
Speaker 5 (01:36:04):
Means you're learned about things, You're smart about that right there?
Speaker 4 (01:36:07):
You go, Rob right, characterized by great knowledge or scholarly.
Speaker 5 (01:36:16):
E r U d I t arrow like r U
d I t I love the word air u dyte,
but I use it specifically so people do not know
that I'm saying that about myself, an erudite person.
Speaker 2 (01:36:31):
And then they're like, I was the E r U
d I t e. That's what I said twice. That's
what you said?
Speaker 11 (01:36:37):
All right?
Speaker 2 (01:36:37):
What is the trivia question? I got it right here.
Speaker 5 (01:36:39):
Australia's Lake Hillier is notable for its unusual color. What
color is the lake's water? I'm gonna say purple. I
was gonna be robin iron purple, hang on, orange.
Speaker 2 (01:36:55):
H bright pink.
Speaker 5 (01:36:58):
Attribute the color tribute the color to a combination of
high salinity, and particular kinds of algae and bacteria. But
the source of the strange hue remains unconfirmed, So we
don't know why there's pink water. Let me c Rob
Dawson right there. Okay, here we go. What is our
Jeopardy category?
Speaker 2 (01:37:17):
Games? Okay, okay, just games.
Speaker 4 (01:37:21):
Each year, millions of people participate in this indoor game
using special shoes and Brunswick equipment.
Speaker 2 (01:37:28):
Mandy, what is bowling? Correct? Okay, I have to ask
you this.
Speaker 5 (01:37:31):
Did you guys know that on television there are tag matches,
like the World Tag Championships are now on like ESP
and O Show or something like. I don't know which
channel it is. The program, yes, and it's it is mesmerizing.
It's known as mesmerizing as drone racing, which honestly is
the most things.
Speaker 2 (01:37:49):
I don't know. But I watched about forty five minutes
of the World Tag Championships. Yeah, I'm down. Yeah, anyway,
I got one.
Speaker 4 (01:37:56):
The Cup of the Americas is up for grabs in
matches between the US and Argentina in this mo mounted game.
Speaker 2 (01:38:10):
Okay, and then he's gonna say copa America Soccer. Well
he doesn't get to because you said it. It's a
washer're back to one zero tang it? But I got
it right, right, I'm.
Speaker 4 (01:38:21):
Five point six jack Straws, No five point six pillikins,
no five point six?
Speaker 2 (01:38:27):
This, Yes, that's it, the same game. What I have
no idea? What I got nothing? What is pickup sticks?
Oh god? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:38:38):
Yeah yeah, a broomstick and a spaldine? Where all you
needed for this street game? Willie Mays was famous Corp.
Speaker 2 (01:38:49):
Champigne.
Speaker 10 (01:38:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:38:50):
And finally around Japan, you'll find parlors filled with these
games that are a cross between pinball and slot machines.
Speaker 2 (01:38:59):
Well that sounds kind of fun, like do you play, well,
you get money? I have no idea what that is.
I've never heard of that.
Speaker 5 (01:39:07):
Pachinka I've heard of that, but I never knew was
like I thought it was for some reason, a card game.
Speaker 2 (01:39:13):
There you go, pachinko. When I go to ban On
the Bandy Cammo Adventure, I'm gonna have to find a
pachinko den. What do they call it? Den's rooms?
Speaker 5 (01:39:22):
What is a pitch pachinko den? It's gonna be a thing.
What'd you do we went to a pachinko den? They'll
think we're drug addicts. That's what's happening.
Speaker 2 (01:39:32):
All right. We've got Kawai Sports coming up next.
Speaker 5 (01:39:35):
I I don't know if they're going to talk about
this today, Rob. Did you see that the Denver Broncos
are laying the groundwork for a new stadium.
Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
They're They're like, they're starting to talk about it. This
is like, but are we doing it?
Speaker 10 (01:39:46):
Are we not?
Speaker 2 (01:39:47):
That they're laying this is the beginning. This is the
we might we might not, we might we might go
there have to go.
Speaker 5 (01:39:55):
It's gonna have to go in Aurora because what they're
gonna want is an entertainment district all the way around it.
Speaker 2 (01:40:00):
All the teams want in entertainment district. That's what they want.
But the I mean, where else could they build it
unless they built it way up? Well, if it's near
the airport, if it's the in auras, they guy to
fit in with.
Speaker 16 (01:40:10):
The one hundred million dollar, one hundred million passenger a
twenty forty plan for the airport.
Speaker 5 (01:40:15):
Really, that sounds awful. The airport already has enough people
stopping people. Four lanes, Oh yeah, there you go. Maybe
you'll four and a half, No, three and a half
lanes for is too much We're going to be back
on Tuesday. It's Happy Labor Day weekend. I wish you
guys all have a really great time. Don't do anything
stupid because we can't afford to lose a listener.
Speaker 2 (01:40:36):
We will be back then. You have a great weekend, everybody,
The Mandy Connall Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
And Dona.
Speaker 4 (00:11):
KOAM, ninety one FM, god Way.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And the Noisy Grey Andy Connall, Keith sad Thing.
Speaker 5 (00:26):
Welcome, blah blah, Welcome to a Friday edition the show.
I'm your host for the next three hours.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Mandy Connell joined by my friend ay Rod you can
call him Anthony Robries. All together.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Now I was gonna hear then I.
Speaker 5 (00:42):
Was gonna just switching it up to all right, we're
ready to thank you?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Is that it? I was waiting for Susan Witkin.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
By the way, if anyone in my listening audience knows
Susan Wickin, I need proof of life. She's retired and
now she's living her best life, and now I can't
get a hold.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Of her because she's so busy.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
So for the texter who's sent me or an email
or who sent me a message said gosh, how's Susan doing,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I do not know. We put it out into the ether,
c Susan. Yeah, if you give it the call, you
know the number.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
Anyway, We've got a lot, and I mean a lot
of guests today.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I didn't normally plan it this way.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
But you'll understand why I added Danielle Dorinsky this morning
because I want her to take a victory lap. What
is she taking a victory lap over? Well, let's go
to the blog and that might bring it to fruition
for you. Just go to the blog mandy'sblog dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Then look for the.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
Loaded Well I'm gonna say this one more time, look
for the latest post segment on the blog. Now, if
you just see podcasts across there, you have to scroll
to the right and you look for a headline that
says eight thirty twenty four blogs shut out self Doubt,
Colorado test scores and Escaping China. On that and here
are the headlines you will find within.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Anything's in Office, half of American Allerships, and clipments of
say that's going to press platch.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Today on the blog.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
It's been super politicky this week. Stop second guessing yourself.
Are the kids all right? A young man from China
is sounding the alarm? Well, that was a waste of
time about the DNC bouts. Can't actually teach kids just
blower the passing score.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Danielle Jorinsky was right. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
We got a property tax compromise. Broncos are laying the
groundwork for a new stadium. Someone made an unpleasant statement
at a Colfax must stops Denver. Restaurant tours are going elsewhere.
Ranked choice voting isn't loved by Alaskans. The fifty most
underappreciated cars.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Of all time.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
Israel says they've dismantled Hamas in Rafa. The bad boys
of energy are blowing up the myths of affordable green energy.
This is funny left wing fever dream on Trump's shooting.
This kid past gets passing the buck? Are you following
us on Instagram? Motts aren't healthier after all? It's never
too late for ty kei and things to do this
(03:10):
holiday weekend. Those are the headlines on the blog at
mandy'sblog dot com.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
And there you go. That is what is happening there.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
And I am looking for something over here and I
cannot find it.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Dag navi it Okay?
Speaker 5 (03:33):
Can we start today with the speech last night and
just get it out of the way. So I didn't
watch the speech live. It wasn't live, it was pre
recorded interview. Yeah, als, thank you a ron, So I
didn't watch what I missed.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
I know you did. You didn't miss anything last night.
That's my point. I had Next question.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
I put all three parts of the twenty eight minute interview,
ten of which Tim Walls was talking, and what a
useless exercise this entire thing is. And I just want
to give you this one, this one little snippet. If
you missed it last night, you can go to the
(04:14):
blog I embedded it. You can watch it if you want.
But there is not a dang reason in the world
that you should because she said nothing next question, Well
that was when she was asked about Trump.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Next question, But.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
I do want to play when she was asked about fracking. Now,
you have inevitably seen the video from twenty nineteen where
she said multiple times in multiple places at a town
hall on the debate stage when she was running for president,
I will ban fracking, and when asked about this by
Dana Bash, this is what happened.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Oh hang on, Jese, Luis, I I gotta get this, Okay.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
When you were in Congress, you supported the Green New Deal,
and in twenty nineteen you said, quote, there is no
question I'm in favor of banning fracking.
Speaker 7 (04:57):
Cracking, as you know, is.
Speaker 6 (04:58):
A pretty big issue, particularly.
Speaker 8 (05:00):
In your must win state of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 7 (05:03):
Do you still want to ban fracking?
Speaker 9 (05:05):
No, And I made that clear on the debate station
in twenty twenty that I would not banfracking as vice president.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I did not ban fracking.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
As president, I will not banfracking.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
In twenty nineteen, I believe in a town hall you
said you were asked, would you commit to implementing a
federal ban on fracking on your first day in office?
Speaker 8 (05:25):
And you said there's no question in favor of banning fracking.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
So yes. So it changed in that campaign.
Speaker 9 (05:32):
In twenty twenty. I may very clear where I stand.
We are in twenty twenty four, and I have not
changed that position, or will I going forward. I kept
my word and I will keep my word.
Speaker 8 (05:41):
What made you change that position at the time.
Speaker 9 (05:44):
Well, let's be clear, my values have not changed.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I believe it.
Speaker 9 (05:49):
Is very important that we take seriously what we must
do to guard against what is a clear crisis in
terms of the climate, and to do that, we can
do what we have accomplished thus far, the Inflation Reduction Act,
what we have done to invest by my calculation over
probably a trillion dollars over the next ten years investing
(06:11):
in a clean energy economy. What we've already done, creating
over three hundred thousand new clean energy jobs.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That tells me, from my.
Speaker 9 (06:20):
Experience as vice president, we can do it without banning fracking.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
You guys, she is going to hold every single position
as a matter of fact, a rob. The only thing
you did miss was last night when she announced her
new campaign slogan make America Great Again.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
She ran with it would you be surprised at this night?
I know?
Speaker 5 (06:40):
And Dana Bash asked leading softball type questions. Did you
change your mind because of experience or did you change
your mind because And to be clear, in twenty twenty,
in a vice presidential debate, when Kamala Harris was representing
Joe Biden's position, she said Joe Biden will not ban fracking.
(07:04):
She didn't say I'm not for banning fracking. She said
Joe Biden will not ban fracking. So she's trying to
have it both ways here. What I would have asked
Dana Bash if I was Dana Basha, I would have said,
so you were wrong about the need to ban fracking.
That would have been my follow up. So you were
wrong about that. The entire interview was full of stupid,
(07:29):
nonsensical just.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
No words, salad.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
But she didn't say anything, absolutely nothing. Here is when
she talks about the border.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
There was a debate.
Speaker 6 (07:43):
You raised your hand when asked whether or not the
border should be decriminalized.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Do you still believe that? I believe there should be consequence.
Speaker 9 (07:53):
We have laws that have to be followed and enforced
that address and deal with people who cross our bod
order illegally, and there should be consequence. And let's be clear,
in this race, I'm.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
The and then she goes on to talk about how
I'm the only one that the chance.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
National lab Dad ask you bad dad, dad, dad law.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
But you know what she didn't say why she changed
her tune, Because decriminalizing the border certainly doesn't sound like
you believe that there should be consequences when people cross
the border illegally.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So okay, great, how'd you make the switch? What was
your evolution on this and this part? This part?
Speaker 5 (08:32):
Oh my god, I'm going to play this for you,
and I want to know if the same question popped
into your mind that popped into mind.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Here we go, Kamala about her values.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
Generally speaking, how should voters look at some of the
changes that you've made that you've explained some of here
in your policy. Is it because you have more experience
now and you've learned more about the information? Is it
because you were running for president in a Democratic primary?
And should they feel comfortable and confident that what you're
(09:10):
saying now is going to be your policy moving forward?
Speaker 9 (09:13):
Dan, I think the most important and most significant aspect
of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have
not changed.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You mentioned the.
Speaker 7 (09:24):
Green New Deal.
Speaker 9 (09:26):
I have always believed and I have worked on it,
that the climate crisis is real, that it is an
urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include
holding ourselves to deadlines around time.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act.
Speaker 9 (09:43):
We have set goals for the United States of America
and by extension, the globe around when we should meet
certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as an
example that value.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
I'm just going to stop her there, because, first of all,
a rod something just jumped out of me that I
missed when I listened to it earlier. Are there other
kinds of deadlines? That are not about time. And I'm
being serious here, I mean the passage. Wait, let me
let me see if I can just take it right back.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
To that part.
Speaker 9 (10:11):
Their metrics set include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I mean words, are there more kinds of deadlines that
are not time based? And how do those work?
Speaker 4 (10:26):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
I mean, what the fact of the matter is is
that she never answered the question were you lying then
or are you lying now? She never answered the question
my values haven't changed? Okay, So then all of your
policy positions that were obviously based on your values in
twenty nineteen have they changed?
Speaker 10 (10:46):
You know?
Speaker 4 (10:46):
When you look at the calendar as it pertains to
the days in the passage of time?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
The passage of time.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
She in that moment spoke at the equivalent of when
you are filling out words in an essay to get
to the five thousand Yes, you know, word mark, add
the extra words and sentences.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Do what you need to do to get there? Yep, Yeah,
sound smart.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
This texture at five six six nine oer on the
Common Spirit health text line says, if Kamala is now
so moderate, why did she choose such a progressive running mate?
Walls's position on number one, climate number two, sanctuary state
number three, COVID snitching number four, opposing school choice number five,
Floyd Riot's in action number six, free college.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Excellent point. Excellent point. Anyway, So now that she has
coaches VP, we can say what she's doing. Players can
not call him coach. It's player's doing. She's doing coach speak.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
Oh maybe if she says we left it all on
the field at any point, you're going to be absolutely
proven correct here.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
I guess you could then also say when she changes
her policy, she's moving the goalposts.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That was the score.
Speaker 10 (12:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
Yeah, this person said, you're just making stuff up. I
mean I just played her saying that what am I
making up? Am I making up all of the positions
she espoused in twenty nineteen because they're all on the internet.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
All Mandy's doing is throwing a flag on the play. Okay,
I just hope not to fumble it. Okay, try not
to fumble it.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Dissect a Trump's speech, it's borderline pathetic.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Here's the difference between.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
What we saw last night and Trump's being in front
of the people, in front of the.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Cameras doing interviews all the time.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
We already know what Trump's speeches are, right, And if
you heard my commentary after his acceptance speech at the RNC,
you earned me the very very critical of a Trump speech.
So here's the problem with people who say you're time
can came match you about Kama.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You're not talking about Trump. We know who and what
Donald Trump is. Everybody does. We all know. We're trying to.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Find out if there's any meat on the bones here
of the Kamala Harris brain trust, and so far not
so good.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
At least she is a decent, caring human being. Trump
is not.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
He is selfish and lies all the time. I choose
her as president. Trump is embarrassing as president. So you
are just going to vote on niceness, and that's fine,
That's perfectly fine. But I'm telling you right now, the
policies that this woman and her administration will pursue will
hurt your life unless you're living solely on the government dole,
(13:47):
in which case you'll probably have a better life.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And I don't know if you are not. I was
casting aspersions.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
I'm just pointing out as a point of fact, if
you're on the dole, you would love Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
But if you're actually paying the dole. She's going to
be a disaster.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Sure, you think inflation is bad, Now do you think
housing inflation is bad?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Now? Wait until this genius gives certain.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Home buyers, not all home buyers, certain first time home
buyers twenty five grand to juice the housing market even more.
Wait until we enact the Kamala Harris economic strategy of
price caps, which have shown to be an absolute disaster everywhere.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
They have been tried.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Now, Trump has his own dumbass ideas with tariffs, so
I can't say he's any.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Kind of economic genius.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
But I do know the people on the Trump economic team,
some of them, one of them pretty well, and at
least I know they're not idiots.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I can't say the same for Kamala Harris's economic team
because we don't know who that is.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
We don't know what most of her positions are, except
that any that were on the hard left that she
ran on in twenty nineteen are now apparently wrong, with
no real explanation of why.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You know, here's the thing. When someone says, and I'm gonna.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
Use myself as an example, because I know me, I
have vacillated on the death penalty for years, and I've
openly vacillated about the death penalty. Sometimes in cases where
you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, you're not
relying on eyewitness testimony, it is incontrovertibly true that someone
(15:21):
is guilty of a heinous crime. I'm like, fry those bastards.
But there are too many situations in the system where
innocent people are on death row?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Are there a lot of them?
Speaker 6 (15:33):
No?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
But it is killing one innocent person, okay with you?
And if you say yes, what if it.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Was your son, or your daughter, or even you it
was the innocent person. So I vacillate on this right.
But if somebody says, Mandy, why did you change your
position on the death penalty, I can clearly explain, well,
just like I just did, this is why I vacillate.
And so this is what I was looking for from
Kamala Harris last night. Hey, you know what I thought,
(16:01):
banning fracking was a good idea. Even if you just said,
we've taken a lot of measures with the Green New
Deal that didn't require banning fracking to be that bring
those numbers down, at which point I could have asked, well,
what if those numbers plateau. What about then see what
happens then? But that didn't happen last night. Dana Bash
didn't ask in a follow up questions. I still have
(16:22):
no idea what this woman's policies are on most issues,
and it's I'm still super ticked off that she couldn't
do it without her emotional support animal next to her.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
I just irritated as all hell about that.
Speaker 5 (16:39):
So anyway, it's easy, this texture says to Dunk to
talk about Harris's word salads and use of language.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
But the follow up to this attempt.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
To hide her liberal agenda is fine, your values haven't changed.
Now what actions do you intend to take according to
those values? Don't get distracted from substance. Now, see why
didn't you text her get to ask the questions? Because
that's a great question and a very fair question, appeared
to me, Harrison Walls knew the questions in advance. If
they didn't know what was coming, they're stupid. Of course
(17:07):
they knew what to expect. Anyway, any Way, in the
words in the world, in the insane cover up of
actual competent person is going to harm this country. I'm
embarrassed for the people who think she is ready.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
For this position.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
We'll leave it on that because when we get back,
have you ever second guessed yourself? Have you ever made
a decision and then almost immediately thought to yourself, oh,
oh crap, I oh, I'm sorry. Danielle Dorensky's next. I'm
doing the other one at one o'clock. A lot of
guests today, guys, a lot of guests. Luckily, Danielle Dorensky's
coming on. I really asked her this morning to come
(17:46):
on and take a victory lap, because she has been
sounding the alarm about Venezuelan gangs taking over apartment buildings
in Aurora, only to have men on television use words
like hysterical about the coverage.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
We're going to talk to her next. Now that she's
been prison right, Danielle Dorensky, time to come on and
talk about the fact that all of a sudden, we've
got mayors finally admitting, hey, you know what, we may
have Venezuelan gangs and they may be taking over some
apartment complexes, which is what she's been sounding the alarm about.
Did you know that the mayor was finally going to
(18:21):
have your back on this?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I didn't Manby so I was happy to see that
he came out. He has not reached out to me.
Nobody has reached out to me. So I was happy
to see that Mayor Coffin, you know, finally made a
statement about it.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Well, and he did say, here's my issue. Mayor Mike
Kaufman and Mayor Mike Johnston sat down with Kyle Clark.
Kyle who never misses an opportunity to take a shot
at a conservative woman, as he sort of tried to
say that it was all in your head earlier this
week via ex But they sat down and said, look,
this is causing hysteria, and now we have all these
(19:02):
people calling nine to one one and three one one.
What would you have preferred them to do in this
situation in order to not have to make it a massive,
huge issue.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Well, this could have been addressed when I first started
talking about it, you know. But I get I get ignored,
I get dismissed. I don't know, Mandy, if this is
something they'd like to have conversations and just exclude me.
But I am the chair of the Public Safety Committee
for the City of Aurora. I have not been told
what the plan is to address this. I have Aurora
(19:34):
police officers coming to me asking me what the plan is.
They're told that no less than four of them can
respond to any of these department complexes at a time,
and quite frankly, they try to avoid them because they're
concerned about their own wellbeing.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
So what is the plan?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
If they didn't want it to come out like this?
They have the platform, they had the voices to come
forward or behind the scenes to put together. They knew
that this was in a burst at the scene because
I was getting.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Louder and louder.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
So about two weeks ago a cup two three weeks ago,
APD did come out and announce that they were forming
a gang task force to try and deal with this.
But they saw this coming out of me, Mandy, You know,
don't I don't change my stripes. When I start getting
loud about something and no one listens, I get louder
and I get louder, and I guess what I have
(20:24):
found in local government, maybe in government across the board,
some folks that think that they can just ignore others.
But I refuse to be ignored.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
I said yesterday on the show Danielle that I think,
you know, maybe I was trying to give Mayor Mike
Kaufman a little grace on this issue. And I said,
maybe there is a massive law enforcement organization working on
this and they don't want to tip their hand, or
maybe you just don't want a Rora to continue to
look like get a black eye, right so, and I
(20:55):
think it's the latter in this case.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
He just does not want Aurora painted.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
With this brush because Aurora has had a reputation of
having trouble with crime for a very, very long time.
Does that concern you at all or is it so
important that you just want it taken care of?
Speaker 11 (21:11):
Well?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
I think it concerns me that any elected official would
allow something like this to be downplayed in order to
save our image. And again, as far as our image goes, Mandy,
I have been talking about this for weeks. I have
been saying, where is going on in these department complexes?
(21:32):
Police officers are coming to me, Residents are making their
way out, they're reaching out.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
What are we doing? What is the plan?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
If there'd have been a plan, if somebody were to
move in on these complexes, if arrests would have been made.
But you know what they did, Mandy. Instead, they closed
in on the Nome Street apartments and the guys of
code enforcement violations and did nothing to address this gang problem.
So this gang they just picked up and spread out
even further into other apartment complexes, rizing more Aurora residents.
(22:02):
And you know, just like the Romeros which you saw.
I couldn't believe they were still living there. I said
to her, I said, I'm going to get you out,
pack your stuff. You're leaving. I will take care of
all the logistics you are leaving.
Speaker 12 (22:15):
I mean, this is un real that in the United
States of America, that in a major where we're what
the forty ninth largest city in the country, this is
how Americans are living.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
But Mandy, let me tell you something. The nonprofits and
the city lined up. Ruled out the red carpets for
all of the folks that came out of the Nome
Street department. Well, let me tell you the actual leaseholders,
the citizens or residents that had been there before. They'd
all either been chased out, scared out, fled for their lives,
whatever the case may be. So all of these resources
(22:50):
went to thenar Zuelan migrants, all of them. Who is
lining up? Where are the nonprofits? Where is anybody to
go in and help folks like the Romeros who I
moved out, both with bullet holes in their cars. Who's
helping them?
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Danielle Drinsky is my guest Aurora City councilwoman, you know, Danielle.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
I am First of all, I'm really glad you're sounding
the alarm. Second of all, I hope that we can
get this under control. And I want to ask you
a quick question. This is a little bit of a sideminder,
but really not you guys just hired a new police
chief and I am not one of those people who
thinks you needed more comput you know, community engagement, because
obviously that's been an abject disaster based on how things have.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Gone so far in that role.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
What are you expecting out of this new chief when
it comes to addressing this issue?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
A person foremots Mandy, I would like to be heard
for once. I would like to be heard. I ran
my race and I won, and I got elected just
like anybody else, and I deserve a voice at the
table to be hurt. So many of these things maybe
in the past that I've found to the alarm about
(24:05):
that I've been very vocal about. It's been proven over
and over again. Oh wait, there really is something to
what she's saying. Well, just listen to me. But if
I'm just going to be dismissed as oh this crazy
loud woman, listen, I didn't want to spend all of
(24:27):
my time fighting with other people to make sure that
the right things are happening in Aurora should just be happening.
And I am optimistic. I am optimistic about Todd Chamberlain's arrival.
You know, I interviewed obviously, as many of us did,
but I interviewed the man personally, and he has a
(24:47):
calm demeanor, but he has a stern presence. I can
tell he's a leader. I think he is going to
get this apartment on the on the right track, you know.
And and if and when he gets here and he's
doing the great job that I believe he's going to do,
I am going to be his biggest, biggest supporter. I
(25:08):
will be out in front of him because I know
that since I have taken office, I have largely been
the biggest police chief critic, Yeah, that we've had. But
there's a reason for that. Manby so let me.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Ask this, Danielle, and this is from one of our
texters on the Common Spirit Health text line. Mandy, can
Danielle paint a picture of what these gangs are doing
at the apartments? Can you tell us what you know
from the Romeros who you just moved out of one
of these What is it like there?
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Well, it's a nightmare. And anybody who just missed Cindey
Romerol for the first time did an interview on Fox
National at noon, you can go back and hear it
in her own words. But I mean they would actively,
they actively patrol the properties with guns. You know, they
stop vehicles that are pulling up to the property. They
go up to vehicles. If the Centremus released small video
(25:58):
footage yesterday, they'll just stop vehicles at gunpoint. They're they're
they're controlling the properties.
Speaker 12 (26:04):
They go in.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
They'll just kick the door in. Well you saw the
video footage. They'll take axes and just chop your door
handle off. That's why the Romeros lived with four dead
bulls and a door brace. Oh got extortion, assaults, sex trafficking,
I mean, I mean, I have heard it all from
these residents.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
It's amazing, Danielle.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
I wonder how many of the folks in the news
media have been to these housing complexes or even the mayor.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Well outside of Vicente. I'm not sure. I know that
the mayor was at the Nome Street apartments over a
year ago, but it was it was not this, It
was not this a year ago when the mayor. So
I'm not sure that anybody has And of course you
know now, I'm sure they're all going to go for
the photo ops and get over to some of these
apartment complexes and you know, have their photos taken. But
(26:56):
but they're also now put on notice. So I'm certain
that police are now and hopefully federal partners are going
in and going after some of these flooks. That man,
they let me tell you, maybe six eight months ago,
there was a man kidnapped from the Nome Street departments.
The man was kidnapped and he was dumped off clear
(27:19):
on the other side of Aurora, out by the Southlands area,
and when police interviewed him, that man gave a statement
that they had a kill room, a kill room in
one of these apartment complexes. So you know the fact
that the federal agencies, he has to think that one
local law enforcement by agency by themselves, the Royal Police Department,
(27:40):
can take on something like this is ridiculous. And men
and the women of the Royal Police Department works so hard.
They are working tirelessly, so many hours, and you know what,
they want to make sure they're going home at night too.
Where are federal partners? And Jared Polis said he has
offered support. Show up, Jared, you don't have to ask
(28:04):
if we want them to come. Send them.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
Yeah, well, he says, it's all in your imagination. Danielle,
So you know you got that going for you.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I have such a vivid imagination a wild Danielle Dorensky.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I appreciate your time. Keep up the good work, keep.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
Sounding the alarm, I mean the sounds like you are
the one who is looking out for the law abiding
citizens that are living in these complexes, and for that
I'm grateful.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
So thanks for making time for us today.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
I always appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Somebody just hit this text Mandy.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
I think nobody is taking her seriously because all of
this sounds pretty anecdotal. Does she have any actual evidence
of any of this? Well, if you go to the
blog today at mandy'sblog dot com, you can.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
See a video of a bunch of guys with guns
of various sizes and whatever, and text her before you say,
a bunch of guys with guns. Really, doesn't it sound
like something?
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Go watch the video and combined with what she is
being told by people who live in that complex. And
on a side note, I've been in contact with a
couple of the people that I know in the Aurora
Police Department and they say they have been sounding the
alarm internally about this for a year and they think
(29:21):
maybe some people in leadership will actually lose their jobs
because they have just basically swept it under the rug
because they're so understaffed that they can't take on another
huge thing. So there's a lot of stuff kind of
flying in the background, and a lot of people very
invested in making sure that no one's talking about it.
(29:42):
So Danielle, who has been frustrated over and over and
over again trying to get someone to pay attention to this,
may sound a little over the top out of that frustration,
but as far as I know, she's the only one
that has gone there, the only one who's actually checked
it out.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
So there you go, Mandy.
Speaker 5 (30:02):
I live in an apartment complex and I wouldn't trust
any of these people any further.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Than I could throw the building. This is why I
don't live in apartments anymore.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I don't have to.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
By the way, I fixed the link. Give it a second.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
It should update for the fifty most unappreciated cars on
the blog. It's a great article too. Totally worth it,
totally worth it now again on the blog. I have
all of the Kamala Harris interview, but it was so
so not worth your time that I would say, don't bother.
(30:34):
I will say this now the Harris campaign when somebody
says you haven't given an interviewship, Oh yeah, we gave
an interview.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
We gave one. There you go, Mandy, Hey Rod, here's
a chuckle for you. On Friday, my wife was looking
up the meaning of kamala. Finish translation is the funniest
and scariest. It means horrible. That'd be awful.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
When we were trying to pick my daughter's name, which
obviously starts with a Q because I call her the Q,
we bought a book of one hundred and one thousand
baby names and started at A and could not agree
on anything until we hit Q. And there was a name,
and it was a Yiddish name, and I loved it.
I thought it was beautiful, but me it meant old
(31:16):
haggard woman. And I was like, why can't name my
child that.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
You got to look up this stuff? You really do.
Speaker 5 (31:25):
So we got a bunch of stuff on the blog
that's not the Kamala Harrison interview, which is not worth
your time. Uh, in just a little bit, when is
Susannah Cordova Cordova Cordova. I want to make sure I
say her last name right. She's at one thirty. The
Sea Mass scores are not they're not good. Sea Mass
(31:47):
is the test that they give students first through eighth grade,
not every grade, but it just tests student progress. And
COVID absolutely killed test scores. COVID destroyed student learning and
we still have not fully recovered. So we're going to
talk to Susannah about that, and we are also in
just a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I'm actually very excited about this interview. One of the
most useless.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
Endeavors you can engage in is second guessing yourself. And
I saw a woman speak and I can't remember her name,
she's I think she's a Harvard professor, and she said,
don't worry about making the right decision. Worry about making
the decision right, like you have to move forward in life,
but if you're constantly second guessing yourselves, you are definitely
want to hear doctor Helen McKinnon. Her book is about
(32:35):
making great decisions.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
So if you've ever thought to yourself, good grief.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
My decision making sucks, and after some relationships in my life,
I've thought that about myself. We're also going to be
giving away Rocky's tickets next hour or two, so you're
gonna want to stick around for that when you come back,
learn how to not second guess yourself.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
We're doing that next.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and paula
accident and injury lawyers.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
No, it's Mandy Connell, benn.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
On nine, got Way, can.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
The nicety three? Bendyconnell keeping sad thing? Well, we welcome
to the second hour of the show.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
And if you know the show and you know me,
you know I love Seinfeld And one of my favorite
Seinfeld episodes is when George is in a meeting and
a guy makes a snarky comment and George thinks of
the perfect response later and goes to great links to
set up the opportunity to be able to use his
comeback that he thought of later and then you know,
(33:45):
oh yeah, the jerk stores all out of you was
the end result.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Well, my next guest knows what it's like.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
To second guess yourself and she has actually written a
book about destroying our self doubt and learning to trust
our opinions. Doctor Helen McKinnon, Welcome to the SHOWRDY, Thank
you for having me. Well, let's talk about second guessing.
What exactly are we doing when we second guess ourselves?
Speaker 10 (34:13):
Well, let me start with the opposition of second guessing ourselves.
We are all inborn with the ability to listen to
ourselves and not second guess ourselves, and second guessing ourselves
comes from a lack of practice growing up listening to
our own feelings or thoughts or ideas of what we
(34:35):
wanted to do. It is simply a lack of practice
where the child, because of circumstances, not people being around,
parenting that might dismiss or minimize the feeling, not because
we're going to criticize parents, but because they were parented
that way.
Speaker 8 (34:55):
When the child.
Speaker 10 (34:56):
Doesn't get enough reinforcement for how they feel and what
they observed, its tense or what they want to do.
The child walks away second guessing themselves and goes into
young adulthood or adulthood not with the confidence of how
to read themselves and know what to say or do,
(35:18):
but they flip into reading first their parents and then
other people or what to feel, what to do, and
what to say.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
So a lot of times that's so subconscious you don't
even realize how much you're letting other people's opinions affect
how you make decisions. I know that for me in
my younger years that was definitely true, where I got
a lot of input from a lot of other people
who never had to live with the repercussions of my choices,
instead of just saying.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
What do I really want to do? So let's start there.
Speaker 5 (35:48):
How can you go from being a person like that
to being a person who is able to make and
then be satisfied with those choices after you've made a decision,
If ques start.
Speaker 10 (36:00):
With thing like you started with the program andy of
walking away and going why didn't I think of that
at the time, I want to be able to do that.
And my methodology is developed to allow the individual tap
back into the brain in the way it's already designed
to have us make good decisions and literally practice or
(36:25):
go back to practicing, listening to their own thoughts, feelings,
and ideas and reversing the dependency on listening to others
or a dialogue in their head that has them second
guests themselves. That is my whole purpose, That is my
life's work.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
Do you give strategies to people on how to make
a decision? Do you have tools or is it really
a person has to figure out what works for them
to make a decision and then kind of roll with it.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
It's both.
Speaker 8 (36:55):
You're right on target. I don't ever tell anyone what
to do.
Speaker 10 (37:00):
I teach them how to listen to themselves for what
to do, and that tapping into the brain with a
method I teach is important because this is what the
brain does.
Speaker 8 (37:11):
I love the brain.
Speaker 10 (37:13):
If you're triggered by a person or a situation or
your thoughts, there is a triggered feeling. If you pause
with yourself long enough, the brain automatically.
Speaker 8 (37:26):
Uses how you feel in the moment and every time
you felt that way.
Speaker 10 (37:30):
Before, configures that information in nanoseconds and spits out words
or ideas of what you could do for yourself.
Speaker 8 (37:38):
So you don't feel those ways again that didn't.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Work for you.
Speaker 5 (37:43):
So it's a protective device your brain. It's there to
protect you from things that are upsetting or things that
hurt you in the past, and.
Speaker 10 (37:52):
Use the way you are upset or feeling or darn,
why didn't I listen to myself to make different decisions,
to listen to your sad. I just give you a
method to go back and practice what didn't get practiced
enough growing up now as an adult at any age,
and emerge with confidence and reading yourself, not other people
(38:13):
or listening to a voice that had you second guess yourself.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
How long does it take someone to gain confidence in
this way? Because for me it was a slow process.
But the more that I made decisions on my own,
the easier the process. God, and now, to my husband's
great chagrin, occasionally I will make decisions.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
They probably are a group, you know, a project. So
you know, now I'm very certain. Even if I'm wrong,
I'm still certain. So how do you build that muscle?
Speaker 10 (38:45):
Since the method is built in neuroscience and how we
all can read our emotional instincts, it takes practice. So
if I were a golf coach and you were a
golf pro and you had work with someone else for
thirty years. I would come in and say, I'm going
to teach you a new coach, and I would break
down the steps of how to perfect that new swing.
Speaker 8 (39:09):
The go or would go out and practice every day.
Speaker 10 (39:14):
All weeks long, until that swing became automatic and unconscious.
In fact, the definition of self help is doing a
new behavior over and over again until it becomes yours.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
The book so oh, go ahead week week week.
Speaker 5 (39:32):
So it's just it's a matter of repetition, and you
gain confidence every time you make a choice and go
what is your thought on this, doctor mckibbon. I saw
this the other day on a video, and I believe
the woman who was talking is a professor at Harvard,
I think, And she said something, you know, second guessing
your choices is a waste of time. It's instead of
(39:53):
worrying about making the right choice, worry about making the
choice right do you address like, once you've made a decision,
how to just move forward with that decision?
Speaker 8 (40:04):
The brain automatically allows you to move forward.
Speaker 10 (40:07):
If you're listening to yourself and not reading other people,
or you're second guessing yourself, This practice of tapping into
the brain the way it's already designed to have you
make excellent decisions that.
Speaker 8 (40:21):
Those words, those ideas. Once you make a.
Speaker 10 (40:25):
Decision of what to say or do and say or
do it, you walk away and you don't think about
it anymore.
Speaker 8 (40:30):
The brain doesn't keep bringing it up. You don't second
guess yourself.
Speaker 10 (40:34):
So included in the method is if you learn to
listen to yourself and then secondarily make a decision of
what you do then or later on, it completely resolves
the trigger for the feeling for the brain, it resolves
second guessing, and you walk away back to being in
the moment, enjoying what you're doing instead of the alternative.
(40:56):
And I'll tell you what the brain does. The brain
adapts to what feels that are not what feels worse.
Speaker 13 (41:02):
So when you practice this new method for weeks, you know,
all week long, until it becomes yours, your brain is
going to go to the new methodology, methodology of pausing,
listening to your first thoughts, feelings or ideas, and the
way you didn't get enough practice before, it's going to
do it all the time because the end result is
(41:23):
self reliance and not second guessing yourself.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
Anymore.
Speaker 5 (41:26):
Doctor Helen mckibbon is my guest. Her book is called Drop.
Where why did you call it drop?
Speaker 2 (41:32):
I'm curious about that it's drop, and then what's the subhead?
I just had this drop making great decisions. Where did
Drop come from?
Speaker 10 (41:45):
It came from developing a method based in neuroscience and
mind body medicine of how do you even notice your trigger?
The body lights up physically if you take the time
to pause and go back to neutral instead of immediately
reacting to a person or a situation.
Speaker 8 (42:04):
That's when the brain is configuring every time you've felt
that way before with how you feel in the.
Speaker 10 (42:10):
Moment, and it spits out these words or ideas are
instinct and that's what we listen to. So Drop is
that pause in getting back to neutral and listening to
the brain's configurings for what to say or do next,
our emotional instincts.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Doctor Helen mckibon.
Speaker 5 (42:27):
I put a link for people to buy the book
and a link to your website on my blog.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Very very interesting stuff. And I appreciate your time today.
Speaker 10 (42:38):
Oh, I appreciate yours. Thank you for having me, and
thank you to your listeners as well.
Speaker 5 (42:43):
All right, that's doctor Helen mckibbon, And I have a
question for you, a rod. When you have to make
a big decision, what is your decision making process? What
is the process you go through to make that decision.
Speaker 4 (42:57):
Well, I'm a massive overthinker, so I won't make that
decision without thinking about every possible scenario, about what could
go right, what could go wrong A lot of time,
I mean, big of the decision, the more time it
takes me, and even then I probably ask for different
(43:17):
people's advice.
Speaker 5 (43:19):
But then do you suffer from analysis paralysis where you
get to a front where you just feel like you
can't make a decision one thousand percent?
Speaker 4 (43:25):
And then I'm very self aware, all right, being paralyzed
in my trying to figure out what to do one
hundred percent of the tay.
Speaker 5 (43:32):
Well, and here's the thing that's a lot of that
sounds very much like me at your age. Now, let's
just say it's an individual decision. Although when you're married
and you have a family, there are no real individual decisions, right.
You gotta just gotta take everybody else into account. But
when I'm making a decision, and this is what we're
teaching my daughter to do, now we do the pro
and con list. A pro and con list is outstanding.
(43:53):
But if you ever have to make a snap decision,
I'm going to give you a piece of advice I
didn't get till I was like thirty five. Change my life,
Change my life. If you have to make a decision,
quickly flip a coin, say heads, we do it, Tails,
we don't wait, hear me out. You flip that coin,
and if it comes up on the side you really
don't want, you're gonna be like, dang it, and you'll
(44:14):
know the decision you need to make.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
There you go. I mean it.
Speaker 5 (44:17):
It's a game changer when it comes to making decisions,
it is. It is an absolute game changer, and too
many people get paralyzed by the thought of making the
wrong decision.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Right, what if I make the wrong decision?
Speaker 5 (44:30):
My mom years ago, when I was a flight attendant
and I was thinking about becoming a flight attendant, I
had no idea what I was gonna do. When I
graduated from college, I just was just flailing, just absolutely flailing.
And my mom says to me, she goes, you know,
because I'd met this flight attendant and she kind of
convinced me into sending an application, and so I got
an interview and I kind of had a panic attack.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
I was like, well, I can't do this, and my
mom said, we're not in the age of slavery. You
can quit if you don't like it, and quit.
Speaker 5 (45:01):
Most decisions other than deciding to have kids or not,
there's getting a face tattoo is hard to undo. I mean,
there's very few decisions that can't be undone or unwound
at some point. Now, sometimes the unwinding can be extremely unpleasant.
Marry the wrong person and you know what I'm talking about.
(45:25):
But ultimately, unless it's an actual decision of actual life
or death, everything can be walked back or undone, even
if it takes years.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
This is the problem.
Speaker 5 (45:35):
People want to be able to snap their fingers and
undo the wrong you know, a decision that turned out
to be the wrong one. But if you made a
wrong decision, if you chose to leave a job where
you were comfortable for another job where you're going to
make a lot more money, only to find out it
was absolute misery, you have learned something from this experience.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
So therefore it is valuable in and of itself.
Speaker 5 (45:55):
Mandy, I've just practiced being comfortable with all my bad decisions.
No second guessing there. Oh I love this text, Sir,
what's the difference? You're their best seller, not you, Mandy,
you George. That's the comeback is his coworker comes back
with and George has nothing, absolutely nothing five six six nine.
Speaker 10 (46:18):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (46:18):
But I want to know how you guys make decisions?
Do you ever process? Do you weigh the pros and cons?
Do you flip a coin?
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Do you roll D and D dice? I had a
roommate he used to do that. Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (46:32):
He would have a whole list of options and then
he would roll D and D dice and see which
one it landed on. Honestly, he made pretty good decisions.
He graduated summa cum laud and I think he's a
lawyer now.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
So I don't like rolling the dice or flipping coin
as much because I in this to my own detriment.
I want to live with myself if I made the
bad decision and not say well, that was just up
to chance, it wasn't me.
Speaker 5 (46:58):
You're missing the bigger point. But it's not about chance.
It's about forcing your gut to give its opinion.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Because if you see that the coin one.
Speaker 4 (47:06):
Yeah, your idea, but flip like the dice and just
going with the one it says without think about it
like this.
Speaker 5 (47:11):
But wait, wait, Psychologically he's been making a series of
decisions as he's making that list, right. Do you think
really awful options were ever on that list?
Speaker 6 (47:21):
No?
Speaker 4 (47:21):
No, but it still was random. I wouldn't feel as
invested it would have been a choice.
Speaker 5 (47:25):
Well, these are dumb things I'm talking about. These are
not like you know, maybe he did decide to go
to law school rolling the dice, but he only put
things on there that he thought would be a good choice.
It's not like he was just well, I'm gonna go
trade monkeys at the zoo and put that on there.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
It wasn't that random.
Speaker 5 (47:41):
It was out of these things I have taken the
time to list. I'm now gonna let chance choose from
the things that I haven't listed.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
The elements still of chance.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
To me feels like it's still not you going in
like with full belief of the decision that the dice
or the coin shows for you.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
I want to invest in, and if it's wrong, I say,
you know what I invested in that decision to be wrong,
and then you can learn from it, not just oh well,
it was random, it was chance decision. It is if
it is, you know.
Speaker 5 (48:14):
I think the part that you're overlooking the importance of
something yes, is that he made a very specific list, right,
so he has agency and what goes on that list,
and so that's where he was making his choices. It
wasn't making his choice by rolling the dice. He was
making his choices by what went on the list. And
then he would roll the dice and let the list choose,
(48:35):
But nonetheless he was still making choices about what to
put on that list. Mandy, then diagrams to me a
ven diagram about how to make decisions. You make decisions
with then diagrams, Andy, nobody makes decisions with then diagrams
except Kamalas.
Speaker 2 (48:51):
She loves ven diagrams. Loves them, Mandy.
Speaker 5 (48:56):
I made the decision to get a master's in accounting.
The only thing I learned is I don't want to
be an accountant. I have two friends who paid for
and went to law school and sat for the bar
and practiced law for a year and after a year
said hell no, And they now do two completely different things.
(49:16):
My second marriage was the worst decision got out after
nine months, Mandy, I asked myself, am I gonna be
able to live with this decision five years down the road?
That's another way to make a decision or figure out. Now,
that's how you'd figure out whether or not to be
upset about something. And this is something I'm trying to
impart to my daughter as well.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
You think about it. Is this gonna matter in five minutes?
Is this gonna matter in five months? Is this gonna
matter in five years?
Speaker 5 (49:40):
If the answer to any of those is no, you
are wasting your energy by being upset about it for
one second. So any of those, If any of those
is no, boom this person. I make lists and I
researched things to death.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
There you go. My decision process is just like a rod's.
Speaker 5 (50:02):
I too, am an overthinker, and I moled over every
single possibility, positive and negative, and tried to pick the
best of whatever decisions.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
I have to make.
Speaker 5 (50:09):
Stress. You know, I just read a really interesting article
about extremely successful entrepreneurs, and I'm talking about people like
Elon Musk, people who have who have been just wildly
successful over and over and over again. And one of
the things that they have in common is the belief
that if they just ask enough, they will.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
Get a yes. And I'm not even talking about it
in a sales situation. Elon Musk at one point said
out loud for the first time, you know what, I
bet we can build a rocket that we can send
a space and then land it back on the landing
pad and use it again. And the people around him
were like, Elon, stop doing drugs, Stop smoking the drugs.
(50:47):
What are you doing? But you know what Elon Musk did.
He built a freaking rocket that could take off and
land again.
Speaker 5 (50:54):
He built a reusable spaceship because he didn't believe that
he was going.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
To that was not going to work.
Speaker 4 (51:00):
There's a healthy necessity of stubbornness and knowing when it's
time to stop being stubborn with thinking that you're right
and think that you should pursue something like elong with that.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
But you got to know when, I mean, you got
to know when to quit. But don't don't give in
easily at all.
Speaker 6 (51:18):
You have to.
Speaker 5 (51:18):
Understand the concept of the sunk cost fallacy. When you
start a new business. There are times when businesses don't work.
As a matter of fact, most successful entrepreneurs had one
failure in their past, at least, if not more right.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
So you have to be able to recognize when what
you have done.
Speaker 5 (51:34):
What you're created, what what you've you know, what program
you've made, whatever it is, is not going to sell.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
You have to be able to recognize that.
Speaker 5 (51:42):
But to your point, you also have to be able
to recognize if something that you have solves the problem
in a unique way and continue moving forward with it. Unfortunately,
a lot of people get very emotionally invested in their product,
and it's really hard for them to say this isn't
going to work, and then they say, oh, I've already
spent much money anyway.
Speaker 2 (52:01):
That is the sunk cost fallacy. So you have to
just you know, boom.
Speaker 5 (52:05):
Right there in the middle, this person says, sleep on it, Mandy.
Mix of gut feeling and what my heart says is
right for those involved also live with no regrets. Choices
were made and you need to accept that outcome. The
other part about this is that I always say to myself,
is I made the best decision that I could based
on the information.
Speaker 4 (52:25):
That I had at the time. Helps you get over
it quicker, if nothing else, This is.
Speaker 5 (52:30):
How I feel about me supporting the COVID vaccine, because
based on the information that Pfizer released, I was like, Okay,
this looks good.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
I now have to look back and.
Speaker 5 (52:40):
Say I made that decision based on the best information
that I had at the time, even though knowing what
I know now, I would I would say something different.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
Hindsight is twenty twenty is not a famous quote for
no reason. Exactly exactly, Mandy, I ask Moyant, No, got
that one. What's the worst that could happen? Again?
Speaker 5 (53:02):
If it's not a life or death decision, it's a
learning experience. Nonetheless, Mandy, I learned to make decisions and
stick with them when I was a lieutenant and later
a captain in the army. My NCOs in seventy three
to seventy five helped me to have the confidence in
my decision making. Now I'm seventy four, I'm quite confident
and comfortable with who I am in Colorado Springs. There
you go, Mandy says this Texter worrying. I always tell
(53:26):
troubled decision makers to tell me the most crucial thing
they were worried about one year ago. Today crickets that
from Bronx Bill Rocky Mountain Bronx Bill. Very good point,
very very good point. Now, when we get back, Susannah
Cordova got to Cortiva. Susannah Kordova is going to join us.
(53:46):
She is the Colorado Commissioner of Education. We're going to
talk about the latest sea Mass results and what the
state is recovering. If the state is recovering from COVID shutdowns,
we're doing that. Next, you want to know that we're
creating an educator workforce for the future the Colorado I
don't you know what. I don't know exactly what sea
Mass stands for, but I'm going to find out because
(54:07):
the Secretary of Education for the Department of Education, Susannah Cordova,
is joining us right now to talk about sea Mass scores.
After I started talking, I'm like, I don't even know
if I know what sea mass stands for. What does
it stand for? Obviously Colorado something.
Speaker 8 (54:25):
The Colorado Measures of Academic Success.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
All right.
Speaker 5 (54:28):
This is our standardized test that's taken by students through
varying grades, not necessarily every subject, every grade up until
eighth grade, and it's really our snapshot of how kids
are doing in Colorado. We know that there was significant
learning loss during the school remote shutdowns and things of
that nature.
Speaker 2 (54:48):
How are we doing this year in terms of regaining
that lost time?
Speaker 13 (54:55):
Thanks?
Speaker 14 (54:55):
Thanks for the opportunity to be here with you, Mandy.
You know, we have some bright spots that we can
look to. And when I say bright spots, it's, you know,
all relative. But we still definitely are seeing the impact
of learning loss that started four years ago. And I
think it's really important to acknowledge teachers and families.
Speaker 8 (55:17):
Have been working really hard and we have a long, long,
long way to go.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
Still, we've seen some real issues with math.
Speaker 5 (55:26):
This has been really hard, especially for older kids to
sort of get back on track. And as a matter
of fact, I have a story on the blog today
that there's some consideration of lowering the passing test score
to allow kids to graduate because of these issues with math.
What sorts of interventions are being investigated? And I realize
that you guys don't kind of you know, have a
(55:48):
one size fits all, but are you aware of schools
that are aggressively going after these math shortages?
Speaker 8 (55:58):
So there's both good news, I think, and then you know,
not so good news.
Speaker 14 (56:02):
We actually have seen continuous improvement in math since the
pandemic really kind of bottomed out. We needed to see
improvements because there was such a dramatic decline in math
performance during COVID. But grades three through six are now
at or above where they were in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (56:25):
That's the good news.
Speaker 14 (56:27):
The bad news is that where they were in twenty
nineteen was not great, and so we know that we
still have a lot of work to do, but we
are beginning to see that improvement over time. You know
from your blog post something that's really important, I think
just to share with your listeners is the high school
test that we use is the PSAT and the SAT,
(56:49):
and this year was the first year.
Speaker 8 (56:50):
That there was a brand new SAT test.
Speaker 14 (56:53):
It was a different approach to testing mathematics, and it
was all online and nationwide. We saw a pretty dramatic
drop in scores, and it's really challenging to actually tease
out how much of this was a drop in performance
and how much of this was it a new test
and it's functioning in a different way. A good way
to think about that is if you've got two kids
(57:14):
in high school, and your student last year took the
test and did a great job in math, and your
younger kid or two years ago took the test and
did a great job, and then last year their little
brother took the test and dropped. It might actually be
that the test is different, not just that the kids
are performing worse.
Speaker 5 (57:31):
So the standards that we would use to measure success
would actually be completely different because the test itself is different.
Speaker 14 (57:38):
Tas itself is completely different at this point, And I
think if we had seen Colorado have a decline and
nobody else in the country have a decline, that would
probably be about our performance. But we actually nationwide saw
declines in math on the PSAT and SAT test.
Speaker 5 (57:54):
So how are we doing with the achievement gap? This
is an intractable issue. It feels like it no matter
what city I've been in, we have been dealing with
the achievement gap. How are we doing in Colorado when
it comes to black students and white students? And then
we'll talk about Hispanic students as well.
Speaker 14 (58:12):
Sure, so we have large, persistent and unacceptable gaps, and
that's true when we look at almost every comparison group.
So for our black students, we have seen both large
gaps and increasing gaps, and we definitely struggle with that
(58:34):
post pandemic.
Speaker 8 (58:37):
For our students who are learning English.
Speaker 14 (58:40):
In many grades, we didn't even hit ten percent of
our kids meeting expectations, and at times our gaps run
between twenty five and forty points between different groups of kids.
Speaker 5 (58:53):
Well, you know, in my experience, education is something that
I talk about on the show all the time. I
have been deeply involved in educational issues in multiple markets.
And it seems to me that we know, and I'm
not telling you anything, you don't know that poverty is
an indicator of struggling in school and it doesn't matter
whether you're white or black or hispanic.
Speaker 2 (59:14):
That is a huge issue.
Speaker 5 (59:16):
Why have we not been able to solve the issue,
and I'm talking about nationwide, of specifically tailoring our instructional
process for children who may be coming to school without
the language, you know, base, without any sort of you know,
normal kind of training that an upper middle class kid
(59:38):
would get from their parents. Right, How have we not
been able to adapt to make sure that those kids
are not being left behind?
Speaker 14 (59:47):
Yeah, you know, I do think we have some bright
spots in one of the things that we're trying to
do at the department and really lift up those examples
of places that are doing the right things and getting
the kind of gains that we know kids are capable of.
Speaker 8 (01:00:02):
I think you really nailed it.
Speaker 14 (01:00:04):
In families with resources and means and parents who've been educated,
they're putting a lot of effort, not just in school
but outside of school to make sure that their kids
are successful. And the schools that do the best work
in this are doing similar things and trying to stand
in the gap around giving kids access to tutoring, giving
(01:00:26):
kids opportunities for visits to college campuses, things that many
middle class families kind of just think of as part
of what you do when you're raising your kids that
you might not be able to afford to do in
other places. And so we do have some really great
examples of high poverty schools. In fact, last year I
visited two of our Title I schools that were award.
Speaker 8 (01:00:49):
Winners for getting good outcomes with high poverty students.
Speaker 14 (01:00:56):
One was at a DSST campus in Denver and one
was one of our Colorado Springs Area School elementary schools.
And so we do have example, we just don't have
nearly enough examples of places that are beating the odds.
Speaker 5 (01:01:08):
How does the Department of Education spread those best practices
because it seems to me that you know, I see
news stories about it, Like I'll see a new story
of a school that had huge gains, and I think,
how do other schools that are dealing with a similar
population get that information?
Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
How does that dispersed?
Speaker 10 (01:01:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 14 (01:01:25):
Yeah, So we have a couple of different ways that
we do it. Probably the most intensive ways. We've created
what we call learning cohorts to actually invite school district
teams to come together in learning cohorts around specific topics.
We have a learning cohort that's addressing chronic abs and teism.
Colorado has had a troubling number of kids who are
chronically appsent, which means they miss even one or two
(01:01:48):
days a month can.
Speaker 8 (01:01:48):
Get you to be chronically absent. Chronically apbsent is if
you miss ten percent of the year or more.
Speaker 14 (01:01:53):
And so we have a learning court around chronic apps
and teeism and how to get kids back in school
learn if you're not in school, and so it's really
important that we are sharing and highlighting the work that
great districts do to get kids back.
Speaker 8 (01:02:07):
We have a learning cohort.
Speaker 14 (01:02:08):
Last year we started a new one for districts that
we're supporting new arrival kids who are coming from other countries.
Colorado had over six thousand new students who were from
outside of the US and helping districts grapple with that.
Speaker 8 (01:02:25):
So we do these learning cohorts. We also showcase districts
through our awards.
Speaker 14 (01:02:31):
We profile districts on our social media channels, and we've
started something that we call Commissioner Chats where we actually
interview the folks from the districts who are doing great
work and then try to share those interviews as a
way to learn from the great work that's happening in some.
Speaker 8 (01:02:45):
Of our schools.
Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Have you ever thought about doing a teacher exchange program?
Speaker 5 (01:02:49):
And I don't mean for a year, but I mean
having teachers from these high performing schools actually come into
some of these schools to help some teachers maybe implement
some of the stuff that they've done.
Speaker 8 (01:03:01):
Yeah, that's actually a really great idea. Several of our
partners groups like.
Speaker 14 (01:03:08):
The Colorado Education Initiative, do work like that, And I
think you're right, Like, it's one thing to hear about it,
it's one thing to read about it.
Speaker 8 (01:03:17):
It's a very different thing to see it.
Speaker 14 (01:03:20):
And when you can see somebody who's working with students
who look like your kids.
Speaker 8 (01:03:25):
And be able to see it in action.
Speaker 14 (01:03:28):
It's just a very different way to make sense of
what successful practice looks like.
Speaker 5 (01:03:35):
Well, you know, I believe in a vibrant school system.
I want it to be successful, so I'm always looking
for solutions. And Colorado Commissioner of Education, Susannah Cordova, thank
you so much for making time.
Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
For me today.
Speaker 14 (01:03:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (01:03:48):
Thanks, Mandy. Happy to be here, all right.
Speaker 5 (01:03:50):
I have a great day, that is Susannah court of A.
You know, the educational system is tough, and I think
that as easy as it is to point to educators
to say why aren't black and brown children learning, there
are cultural factors that have to be addressed before.
Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
Those kids are really going to succeed. And I don't
have the answer for that.
Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury lawyers.
Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
No, it's Mandy Connell knee FM.
Speaker 6 (01:04:27):
God.
Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
We got the test popping the many that you keep
the domes that's right, Friday, turn the doll up. It's
not it thinks we've got the moms in the pass
sticks too. Mid don't I have no idea what those
(01:04:51):
these words are.
Speaker 10 (01:04:52):
I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
Yeah, yeah, this is me urban version. I'm glad you
played this because I have a story that I'm going
to ask a genuine question to hear me out, because
this could cause a kerfuffle if taken in the wrong way.
Speaker 5 (01:05:04):
So I don't know if you guys saw this story.
Did you see the story about the signs that were
held or.
Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
Put up at the bus stop? Here we go?
Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
No?
Speaker 5 (01:05:11):
Oh, yeah, so a bus stop operator spotted a sign
at about five am. And to describe these signs, they
look like they could have been made by like whoever
makes the signs. They're metal, they're professionally printed. They were
bolted into the post as a normal sign would be,
but they were anything but normal. Now, one of them says,
(01:05:36):
let me scroll down so I can actually see. Oh
did they take it down so I can't see the
picture anymore? That's silly, very very silly.
Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
Okay, here we go. One of them is black and white.
The top strip says blacks must sit at the back
of the bus.
Speaker 5 (01:05:53):
Underneath that it says Kamala's migrants sit in the front.
Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
And then right below that is an or a yellow
sign that.
Speaker 5 (01:06:03):
Shows people running in a silhouette form and then it
says caution, Kamala's illegals. Now a certain Denver City councilwoman
is running around talking about how.
Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
Racist this is.
Speaker 5 (01:06:18):
Now, I will absolutely agree that it is wildly inappropriate
and rude. But is it racist or is it simply
pointing out the fact that current administration policy has given
people who came across the border a bunch of stuff
for free, with absolutely no responsibility. And at the same time,
(01:06:43):
perhaps there are black and white people that would have
liked to have had some kind of help before that.
This is a political statement, but I don't know if
it's racist.
Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
It is a race based political statement, But does that
automatically make it racist to point.
Speaker 5 (01:07:02):
Out that immigrants have gone to the front of the line.
You can text me if you think.
Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
It's racist or not. Five sixty six nine. Oh, just
check it out. I'm curious because do you think that's racist?
Day Rod, it's.
Speaker 5 (01:07:16):
Racially tinged one hundred percent. Yeah, it is racially based,
But is it racist? I mean, obviously saying blacks have
to sit in the back is referring back to the
days of segregation, and I understand why that strikes a nerve.
But if the point is to make that perhaps African
Americans are people living in the lower socioeconomic tiers have
(01:07:40):
been shoved aside to make room for migrants to then
get free apartments, free computers, free food, free clothing, job training.
You see what I'm saying here. I mean, I think
there's a point, makes you think I think there's definitely
a point. It's unfortunate I did link to a story
that I had on the blog some time ago, because
to think that black people would not be upset about this,
(01:08:02):
I want to read you a headline from Chicago. Black
residents of Chicago slam city over fifty one million in
migrant care, demand reparations. Black residents of Chicago tour into
city leaders at a meeting on Wednesday as authorities we're
set to vote on allocating fifty one million dollars in
migrant care. One of these speakers said, I understand that
(01:08:25):
fifty one million are going to be voted on today,
and I encourage the aldermen to please vote it down
because number one, we have not opened up the schools
for our homeless. We see them in the streets every day.
I make sure that the homeless are fed with clothing
that from Black Lives Matter Women of Faith founder Carolyn Roff.
She also added, we need to take care of our community.
(01:08:49):
We need to take care of our black community.
Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
We need to open up these.
Speaker 5 (01:08:52):
Schools for mental health. We've not gotten anything for our community,
and we are sick and tired.
Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
Enough is enough.
Speaker 5 (01:08:59):
What'll be interesting is because I believe that pretty much
on this whole strip of coalfacts there's cameras, so they
may have a camera of someone putting this up. I'm
interested to see who that person is, what their background is.
Obviously they lean conservative or at least lean anti Kamala,
because it's pretty clear that is not a compliment.
Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
She's letting a bunch of people run in here. Okay,
here we go. Let's see here. Uh up up up
bu umm wait hang on normal where I'm from? He
he I laughed. It should have said all citizens sit
in the back, too funny. I needed a laugh. Not racist, Mandy.
Speaker 5 (01:09:45):
The reason Polist and Mike Johnson are playing down the
Venezuelan gangs is it tarnished there. We are welcoming city
and state, which Polist and Johnson advocated to bring in
the illegals, and since it is a political year, they
can't have illegals looking bad.
Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
They're not on the BA. Not racist.
Speaker 5 (01:10:03):
The picture with the silhouette is the same sign that
is in southern California on the highway as they're showing
you the illegals will run out in front of your
car to escape capture down near San Diego. It's racist
if you're a Democrat.
Speaker 9 (01:10:16):
Haha.
Speaker 5 (01:10:17):
Well, it's no can of soup on a masterpiece work
of art. But I'm gonna call it a political statement
or art. It's a political eye opener about the illegals.
Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
Totally true. It's disgusting. Mandy. Everything is racist when you
can't defend it.
Speaker 5 (01:10:31):
Oh well said very well said not racist, one hundred
percent accurate, says this Texter.
Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
Anything can be racist.
Speaker 5 (01:10:39):
It just depends on if the statement is taken out
of context or how others interpret it. Not racist more
like reality. Didn't Ross just get punished for mentioning the
Nazi flag?
Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
And this you mentioned?
Speaker 5 (01:10:52):
Did Ross get punished? We don't, yea, we don't really
get punished here. That's not really a thing. They run
a pretty loose ship around here at the iHeartMedia in
terms of punishing, what would be an appropriate punishment for
Ross making him eat a green pepper full of blue cheese.
Speaker 2 (01:11:09):
I mean that would that would be, that'd be I'm
not allowed to work in prime numbers for a whole show.
Oh my god, stop, now you're gonna break the man
and then have to go sock shoe, sock shoe, or
and wash his legs and wash his legs.
Speaker 3 (01:11:25):
Say there you go.
Speaker 5 (01:11:27):
Would not be surprised if this was put up by
one or more black people. That's why I said, I'm
interested to see who put this up.
Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
Mandy, I don't.
Speaker 5 (01:11:35):
I don't think it's racist, but it's definitely political. The
artist has already come forward to claim it. I'm old
enough to remember when racially tinged art is okay if
it makes someone feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (01:11:44):
Is this not doing the same?
Speaker 5 (01:11:46):
Oh no, no, no, You're only supposed to make white
Christian people uncomfortable. Everybody else is never supposed to be
made uncomfortable. Just throwing that out there. Paulus doesn't want
to admit what is happening because he doesn't want to
highlight Harris's face during the election season.
Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
Now that makes sense, that makes sense. I would have
liked to sign better if it's said American citizens instead
of black Sea. I think that would have been better.
There you go.
Speaker 5 (01:12:14):
A local Republican activist has admitted to put oh, I'll
have that for you after this break.
Speaker 2 (01:12:19):
Hang on one second. Let me pull this up. Let
me pull it up. Let's see who did this.
Speaker 5 (01:12:25):
A Republican street artist and political agitator is cleaning responsibility. Sabo,
as he's known, describes himself as a street artist. He
told nine News he's been contacted by Denver police, who
are investigating the crime as a possible bias motivated crime.
He said he was motivated to post the signs because
of reports that a Venezuelan gang forced the closure of
(01:12:47):
an apartment complex and.
Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
Aurora the signs let's see here, I'm looking for anything else.
Speaker 5 (01:12:53):
A Facebook post by Sabo included photos of the signs
with the caption reading, in part, I'm not gonna lie
to you. It was a scary night, but seeing the
Lord's prayer while working helped a lot. OURTD said similar
signs were recently posted in Chicago and the agency was
connecting with other transit agencies. He also took credit for
the racist signage in Chicago racist is an editorial comment
(01:13:16):
nine News.
Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
Just let me know? Or is that how we Colorado.
Speaker 5 (01:13:19):
I've got a lot of stuff on the blog today
that we're not going to get to you that I
really wish you would go read because it's all super
interesting and it'll all come up in the near future.
Another article about a Denver restaurant tour vacating Denver because
they've made it pretty.
Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
Miserable to own a restaurant there. Great.
Speaker 5 (01:13:35):
I have a question you're out and about you and
your wife are like, you know, gadflies around Denver doing
things like young people do still, right, I mean, are
they you are?
Speaker 10 (01:13:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (01:13:46):
Have you have you noticed things closing or I mean
obviously stuff opens and closes all the time.
Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 15 (01:13:52):
We were tout in our old neighborhood a couple of
weeks ago, the Baker neighborhood, and there was nothing that
we used to go to, Like, there were three or
four of our favorite places were now either boarded up
or something new.
Speaker 2 (01:14:04):
I was going to ask you, are they are they
new things or stuff just closing?
Speaker 15 (01:14:09):
Yeah, Like two or three of them were new things,
and then three or four of them were nothing anymore,
which is sad.
Speaker 5 (01:14:15):
The business climate for small business is so unfriendly and
Denver now between the minimum wage and all of the
other things, especially like restaurant tours, are.
Speaker 2 (01:14:23):
Like, we can't make it here. Yeah.
Speaker 15 (01:14:25):
I saw an interesting article former guest of my podcast,
Thereat Guard, Oh Troy Guard. Yeah, he was talking about
this and how tough it has become to run a
you know, world renowned chefs are having to close down their.
Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
Rest Houston, isn't he Yeah?
Speaker 5 (01:14:39):
Yeah, And Alex Sidel just sold a big PARTI I
think he sold fruition to the people who run the
Union station and his wife works here. So I'm gonna
get Alex on the show to talk about this. But
the environment for restaurants is so unfriendly and so challenging
that now you have restaurant tours saying you know what,
between that the crime, it's not worth.
Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
It to be here anymore.
Speaker 5 (01:15:02):
That is that is very, very bad news because when
I first moved here eleven years ago, the restaurant scene
was horrible and.
Speaker 2 (01:15:10):
Then it got better. But if everybody shuts down and
everybody moves to the outskirts.
Speaker 5 (01:15:15):
Although hey, hey, y'all, I live in Douglas County, I'm
just letting you know, Okay, you bring your little shop
down there.
Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
We're in I have your back. I will make sure
that you survive. Although Douglas County actually has some pretty
like a few decent restaurants. Now.
Speaker 15 (01:15:30):
So my wife is down in Castle Rock today and
she sent me a picture from some little walk she
was on and just like, can we just move down here?
Speaker 2 (01:15:37):
It's I love Castle Rocks so much. I love it.
Speaker 5 (01:15:40):
If I'd been doing a morning show when I moved here,
I probably would have moved to Castle Rock.
Speaker 2 (01:15:43):
But it was too far.
Speaker 5 (01:15:44):
It was outside of my ring of how far I
was willing to drive. That's how we chose our house,
Like how far is this going to be for me
to drive in the morning? And we are on the
very edge of the ring, very edge of the ring.
Speaker 10 (01:15:58):
Dang it.
Speaker 5 (01:15:59):
Anyway, So yeah, there's an article about that on the
blog today. There's a very interesting article from the Wall
Street Journal. And I'm going to try and get Kimberly
Strassel on the show to actually talk about this, because
we're going to vote on a form of ranked choice
voting here in Colorado this November. And when you listen
(01:16:21):
to the proponents talk about it and the potential that
it has to do away with the elevation of the
most fringe candidates out there. It's very tempting, right, but
it's already happening in Alaska and it's not going well.
(01:16:41):
They're currently gathering signatures right now to repeal it. They've
only had one full election with this, they're about to
have another, but they may repeal this before it even
gets started. So I'm going to try and get with
Kimberly Strassel. She wrote the column in the Wall Street
Journal to get more information about that, because I think
it would be very interesting.
Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
Maybe we'll call somebody in Alaska.
Speaker 5 (01:17:01):
I don't know you, Ay, Rod, look up some kind
of convenience store in Anchorage, Alaska, and give him a call. Okay,
tell him we want to talk about rank choice voting.
There you go, Well, I don't Yeah, don't do that now.
We're gonna do that later because I got a guest
coming up at.
Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
The bottom of the hour, so I don't want to
be late for that.
Speaker 5 (01:17:20):
Also, have the fifty most unappreciated cars of all time.
I messed that link up earlier, but I fixed it now.
A rod if you had to buy a car that
was built in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
What would you want to drive? SOB? A sably? I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
No.
Speaker 5 (01:17:34):
A friend of mine has a SOB he named her Sonia.
He bought this car for like fifteen hundred bucks and
he's like, you know, what'll probably cost me maybe five
grand to fix it up.
Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
He's like, thirty grand into the car.
Speaker 4 (01:17:44):
I take it back, let me go three more years back.
Nineteen sixty seven cherry red Corvette. Uh, mustake Mustag?
Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
Oh you want a Mustang? A sixty seven Corvette is
actually one of my dream cars. No Mustang convertibles? What
I want to say?
Speaker 5 (01:17:57):
Yeah, well that's also a good car. I would drive
a VW Thing. I love the thing.
Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
The thing is like the coolest gar to me.
Speaker 5 (01:18:04):
But apparently if any of you have had air cold
cars in the mountains, is it true that they don't
go uphills very often or very well because the VW
Thing is an air cold car. H Willie B makes
fun of me because I love the thing. Someday I
will have a thing when I'm like really old and
I just I don't really drive as much.
Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
I just tootle, you know.
Speaker 5 (01:18:25):
I'm just toodling around. I'm gonna have me a VW thing,
maybe one that was made in the same year I was.
Speaker 2 (01:18:32):
I don't know, you don't know, we don't know.
Speaker 10 (01:18:38):
Andy.
Speaker 5 (01:18:38):
I got a lot of text messages on the common
Spirit health text line. Small business climate is awful everywhere
with excess government involvement, but Denver is the worst of
the worst. I grew up working in my family's restaurant
for about forty years in Denver, and I can safely
say the restaurant scene.
Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
Is overly saturated.
Speaker 5 (01:18:57):
The restaurant scene is oversaturated with really expensive places to eat.
Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
You know what we don't have. We don't have dives.
We need more dives. There's a few dives.
Speaker 5 (01:19:06):
If you know of a dive, text me, I'm not
going to stand it on the air because a good
dive gets overpopulated and then it's not.
Speaker 2 (01:19:10):
A dive anymore. Just saying five six six, And I
know when.
Speaker 5 (01:19:13):
We get back, we're going to talk to a young
man who has come here from China, and since coming
from China, has joined Young Americans for Freedom and is
here to talk about freedom.
Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
And what that doesn't look like in China.
Speaker 5 (01:19:26):
We're doing that next, Happy to introduce to you a
young man named Alvin.
Speaker 2 (01:19:30):
Is is it Hallan? Is that how you say your
last name?
Speaker 4 (01:19:33):
Alvin?
Speaker 5 (01:19:35):
Yes, you were born in China, grew up in Beijing,
and attended an international high school in Beijing to prepare
for admission to an American university. And I want to
kind of start the story there because now you are
at an American university. But what happened in your high
school years to give you and I'm just going to
put words in your mouth some doubt about the Chinese
(01:19:59):
gu mental system.
Speaker 11 (01:20:04):
When I was in the high school, like sometimes I
was required to do some like research projects. Those are
in English, and so I have to like do some
like search by using some services like a Google stallar.
But in China, like we have a great firewall, the
(01:20:25):
whole Google service was blocked, so that I have to
choose to UH to learn how to use the VPN
it's called virtual Private network to access the following websites
banned by the Chinese government.
Speaker 5 (01:20:42):
How many people would you just estimate in your own
group of friends or family use a VPN to get
around the Great Firewall.
Speaker 7 (01:20:55):
For my families, they.
Speaker 11 (01:20:58):
Didn't use that because they grew up like they believe,
they choose to believe in what the government said.
Speaker 7 (01:21:05):
And but I didn't blame them for that. But for
my like classmates, some of some of them use it.
Speaker 11 (01:21:12):
I think majority of them use it, but they're not
necessarily for watching the things spend by the government. Sometimes
they just choose to be quiet and to do their things. Yeah,
it's quite a large amount, but I estimate currently things
get worse because the government now has like more like.
Speaker 7 (01:21:36):
Developed more ways to detect whether there are people using vps.
Speaker 11 (01:21:41):
Sometimes they do like warn those people do not use
it or let them to pay some fine.
Speaker 5 (01:21:48):
So there's a there's a surveillance system in China that
you got caught up by when you posted something on
a group chat.
Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
Tell me about that.
Speaker 11 (01:22:01):
Wow, that was like happened years ago during the COVID
And yeah, it was just I posted a snapshot from
the YouTube. It's a video about cheating ping. He like
couldn't handle a complex question asked by a journalist, so
(01:22:22):
that I just feel like it was quite a funny
video and I think it's probably quite a similar Like
the Americans, sometimes they saw the clips, like Joe Biden
or Donald Trump to say something interesting and it's just funny.
So I took the snapshot of it and I sent
it to a group chat and I said something like
(01:22:43):
by his like a names. And at the at the beginning,
I thought that was not a big deal because because
I probably did the things like this before and I
didn't face the severe consequence. But just after one day,
I received the notification from the wa Chat says my
(01:23:04):
account was permanently banned. And the reason is, they said,
is because I spread malicious rumor.
Speaker 2 (01:23:12):
Oh wow, and what.
Speaker 7 (01:23:16):
Yeah, that's quite a scary thing.
Speaker 5 (01:23:18):
We Chat is the platform that most Chinese people use
as a chat client, right, yes, so to be knocked
off we chat, do you have a way to communicate
with your friends now?
Speaker 11 (01:23:34):
No, After that happened, I lost all of my contacts
with my friends, and not only that, I lost the
other things like access to the payment access to the
health QR code.
Speaker 5 (01:23:48):
It's just wait a minute, so you you lost the
ability to do electronic payments because of that.
Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
Yes, so explain to me how large the.
Speaker 5 (01:24:03):
Social credit system is a little bit, and because that's
what it sounds like. Was this part of the social
credit system where you had been deemed unworthy of having
access to this digital currency, or explain to me what
the Chinese government does in terms of the social credit system.
Speaker 11 (01:24:23):
Honestly, for because I grew up in Beijing and I
think sometimes I think currently from what I know, Beijing
does not have a fully like really like strict stranger
and social credit system. It was more like something like
you know, with contingent and something like with a like
(01:24:44):
higher uncertainty. But the authority they have the power to
easily like prevent a person from like going to other
places of the country travel or like.
Speaker 7 (01:24:58):
Suspend their like so media accounts, and.
Speaker 11 (01:25:03):
Yeah, I like to and also or abuse the technologies
like house QR codes to keep them a rat code
so that they can't move around the city.
Speaker 2 (01:25:13):
So they can essentially take away your ability to do anything.
Speaker 7 (01:25:19):
Yes, they could.
Speaker 5 (01:25:20):
Now the alternative though is what going to jail? I mean,
were you threatened with any kind of more severe penalties
because of that?
Speaker 11 (01:25:31):
Yes, I will say they and and hear. The thing
is they're not only surrending me. They not only intimidate
me by saying like if I continue to do so,
I would face like custody for days or even the
being prosecuted. But they but they also surrended my families.
They said this would influence my like my parents, careers,
(01:25:57):
my siblings, you know, the schools he could go.
Speaker 7 (01:26:01):
And yeah, it's like one it's.
Speaker 11 (01:26:03):
Basically a thing like one person's trouble, it's a whole
family's trouble.
Speaker 7 (01:26:07):
It's like a joint responsibility or collective punishment.
Speaker 5 (01:26:11):
In college, so you got out of China and came
to the United States to go to college. Tell me
a little bit about how you joined Young Americans for Freedom.
Speaker 11 (01:26:25):
I listened about I heard about this organization from a
friend of mine, like he I met him in a
like a zoological seminar, and at the beginning I did
not understand too many things about the American politics. But
in our first like a chapter meeting at my college,
so they just said against communism, against the socialism. So
(01:26:47):
they yeah, I thought, yeah, that's where I actually belonged
to because I have so many first hand experience of
leaving under socialism.
Speaker 5 (01:26:56):
Is it disheartening for you when you hear young college
student in saying that socialism is a better system than
what we have.
Speaker 7 (01:27:06):
Yeah, honestly, that's quite like an annoying thing for me.
Speaker 11 (01:27:10):
When I thought sometimes they're like democratic socialists, like class
table laying. And I know probably they're trying to say, Okay,
we're democratic, We're not like a sort of a soritarian communism.
But I believe they're like essentially same.
Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
Are you going to go back to China at some point?
Speaker 7 (01:27:33):
Probably know, like so many things happened there with me and.
Speaker 11 (01:27:37):
I and I'm quite afraid after I choose, after I
joined the I joined the Young Americans for Freedom, also
joined the Dission Project, become more like outspoken, so that
they probably have already noticed me.
Speaker 2 (01:27:55):
Are you worried about your family still in Beijing?
Speaker 11 (01:28:01):
Somewhat worried about but I'll just currently they're doing fine,
but I'm not sure like whether it will.
Speaker 7 (01:28:14):
Go in the future.
Speaker 5 (01:28:15):
Alvin Halen is my guest, and Alvin, I just want
to say, I cannot imagine, and I think most Americans
cannot imagine, feeling like you have to leave your country
and leave your family in order to have the best
opportunity and to be able to have the basic freedoms
that you enjoy here. That is incredibly brave and I
want to commend you for that because a lot of
(01:28:37):
people would not have had the wherewithal and then to
come here and to use your own experiences to talk
about freedom and the realities of socialism and communism. That
is an incredible gift that you give to people, and
I hope that you impact and I hope a lot
of people listen to you about this, especially while you're
in college.
Speaker 2 (01:28:55):
When are you graduating?
Speaker 7 (01:28:59):
I think I'm I'm graduating the incoming spring.
Speaker 5 (01:29:03):
Yeah, and you're a real slouch, a double major in
applied mathematics in the history of public policy and law.
I mean, you sound like a real slacker there, Alvin.
Speaker 2 (01:29:11):
I'm just kidding. You're gonna go on and be a lawyer. Yes,
that's what I hope to do, Alvin Halen.
Speaker 5 (01:29:19):
I appreciate your time today and I appreciate you sharing
your story with us today. Thank you, all right, Thank you, Alvin.
And you know, I don't know if I could I
could do it as an adult. Now, as a fifty
five year old person, I genuinely think about moving to
a different country, not because I want to run away
from the United States, but because I just want to
(01:29:40):
have different experiences.
Speaker 10 (01:29:42):
Right.
Speaker 5 (01:29:42):
But can you imagine being an eighteen nineteen year old
kid and just saying you know what this isn't I
can't do this anymore, and leaving your family. I just
think that's that's incredibly brave and I hope people pay attention.
Speaker 2 (01:29:55):
It's amazing.
Speaker 5 (01:29:56):
Though, when you talk to someone who is a die
hard die hard socialists are communists, they really honestly believe
that the only reason people are unhappy in China is because.
Speaker 2 (01:30:06):
They're doing it wrong. They're doing it wrong. No, no,
they're not.
Speaker 4 (01:30:15):
Israel.
Speaker 5 (01:30:15):
Good news out of Israel and want to get the
story in before the end of the break. I had
a conversation with my nephew the other day and we
were just chatting back and forth, and he said something
so striking. He said, yeah, we need to come see
you guys, or just go somewhere where there's no rockets
being shot at us. And I'm just thinking, you know,
he has two little boys and this is their normal.
(01:30:38):
Their normal is growing up and spending all day in
the in the bomb shelter. Oh yeah, yeah, good news
though out of Israel. Israel says they have dispatched of
Hamas's Rafa brigade. Remember Joe Biden told him not to
go into Rafa. Remember that don't you go into Rafa,
don't you do it? Well, that's where Hamas was, and
(01:31:00):
I mean was Amasa's terror group. The Ratha brigriade has
collapsed as a result of the IDF is ongoing offensive
in the city, and Israel says they have destroyed eighty
percent of the tunnels, including the ones that were going
underneath the border with Egypt.
Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
So this is real progress.
Speaker 5 (01:31:22):
And I would fully expect at some point Hamas is
going to run out of people to negotiate because they
don't know, they don't there's not going to be enough
of them left. Of course, we're negotiating people who are
not in Gaza. They're in Qatar. They're sitting in penalse
apartments talking about the bravy of their fighters, and their
(01:31:43):
fighters are being picked off kind of and I mean
that literally.
Speaker 2 (01:31:47):
Listen to this.
Speaker 5 (01:31:48):
Combat engineers have been meticulously sweeping the entire Gaza Egypt
border for tunnels, while expanding the corner by es demolishing
structures within about eight hundred and seventy five yards of
the border. Such tunnels have been used forms for smuggling,
although they have been smuggling in other areas too.
Speaker 2 (01:32:08):
Let me find this one part. So I guess they've
killed about a thousand Hamma soldiers, but I guess the
mass soldiers are trying to escape through the tunnels, so
they have the Israeli forces have basically snipers just sitting
by the tunnel enter exits and they're just picking off
people as they come out of the tunnels. Thank you,
(01:32:29):
thank you very much, thanks for playing.
Speaker 5 (01:32:34):
The IDF also revealed Hamas documents were covered from the strip,
said that it had showed the terror group has been
secretly falsifying the results of polls conducted by the Palestinian
Center for Policy.
Speaker 2 (01:32:45):
And Survey Research. Oh my gosh, you don't.
Speaker 5 (01:32:49):
Say, The IDF said, the documents do not prove that
the PCPSR was cooperating with Hamas, but rather that the
terror group was conducting destined actions to fraudulently influence the
results of the poles. Now, I've shared these poles with you,
and they show that Hamas still enjoys wide support in
(01:33:10):
the Gaza strip. And now you're telling me they're false.
Now way, Rob Dawson has joined us in the studio. Hey, Mandy,
Rob Dawson would never falsify a pole.
Speaker 2 (01:33:20):
No, wouldn't do it. So, Rob, did you hear did
you hear Old man Fred on the show? I need
to go back and listen because I was here on that.
When did you enter Monday? I know Wednesday? Wasn't it Wednesday? Wednesday? Okay?
I was not around for some reason. I miss it.
I was alertic this.
Speaker 5 (01:33:38):
So we're going to bring Fred to Denver at some point.
I'm I keep saying this to manifest it, right, Like,
I'm just gonna put it out of the ether and
manifest it and we're gonna have the Mandy Conal karaoke
and we're gonna bring Fred out and he's gonna he's
gonna karaoke it up for us.
Speaker 2 (01:33:53):
How much fun would that? I'm telling you, you guys
need to see this guy in action. He was magic.
Speaker 5 (01:33:59):
He has the prop forever. Very subtle, very deadpan magic,
but magic.
Speaker 2 (01:34:04):
None of the left. Are you caught up on your
sleep from the DNC.
Speaker 16 (01:34:07):
Mostly although I had to edit Colorado's Morning News on Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (01:34:11):
Oh god, so kind of back to square one with that.
But I'm doing all right.
Speaker 5 (01:34:15):
Rob worked way harder than me, and add we worked
pretty hard, but you worked way harder.
Speaker 2 (01:34:20):
Yeah, just a lot of mounds defeats.
Speaker 5 (01:34:22):
Soon after we did karaoke, Rob came back to our condo,
but then at a catch an uber back to his hotel,
and on the way there he saw protesters and literally
stopped the uber and got out.
Speaker 16 (01:34:36):
It was right at the end of the ride. I
got out and I heard I heard the news. This
is two blocks away from my hotel.
Speaker 3 (01:34:43):
We will go.
Speaker 2 (01:34:44):
When did you hear the chant?
Speaker 4 (01:34:45):
What was the chance?
Speaker 2 (01:34:48):
I can't remember if it was the counting, Remember how
I told you they go?
Speaker 10 (01:34:51):
What you three?
Speaker 6 (01:34:52):
Four?
Speaker 2 (01:34:53):
Whoa wait?
Speaker 6 (01:34:55):
What?
Speaker 2 (01:34:55):
That's when the police try to go towards them, try
to push.
Speaker 5 (01:35:01):
Them back with their with their words. We had a
great time making fun of the protesters, We really did.
It was like a high point of the entire DNC.
It was a lot of fun making fun of the protesters.
But you're in here for your daily beating.
Speaker 2 (01:35:12):
Yeah, now what's happening?
Speaker 5 (01:35:14):
Not too daily, not too daily. But now it's time
for the most exciting segment all the radio.
Speaker 2 (01:35:20):
Of its kind in the world of the day, nice
drawn out in the world. All right, what is our
dad joke of the day? Please?
Speaker 4 (01:35:33):
I injured myself while measuring radio frequencies.
Speaker 5 (01:35:37):
Wait, you injured yourself while measuring radio frequency?
Speaker 2 (01:35:42):
Still hurts? Oow wow. I should have seen that coming,
but I did not pull that out of my hat
before it was time. Frisbee over. What is today's word
of the day? These have been really hard this week.
It is an adjective. Adjective, man, it's so hard you
can't even say it. Oh God.
Speaker 5 (01:36:04):
Means you're learned about things, You're smart about that right there?
Speaker 4 (01:36:07):
You go, Rob right, characterized by great knowledge or scholarly.
Speaker 5 (01:36:16):
E r U d I t arrow like r U
d I t I love the word air u dyte,
but I use it specifically so people do not know
that I'm saying that about myself, an erudite person.
Speaker 2 (01:36:31):
And then they're like, I was the E r U
d I t e. That's what I said twice. That's
what you said?
Speaker 11 (01:36:37):
All right?
Speaker 2 (01:36:37):
What is the trivia question? I got it right here.
Speaker 5 (01:36:39):
Australia's Lake Hillier is notable for its unusual color. What
color is the lake's water? I'm gonna say purple. I
was gonna be robin iron purple, hang on, orange.
Speaker 2 (01:36:55):
H bright pink.
Speaker 5 (01:36:58):
Attribute the color tribute the color to a combination of
high salinity, and particular kinds of algae and bacteria. But
the source of the strange hue remains unconfirmed, So we
don't know why there's pink water. Let me c Rob
Dawson right there. Okay, here we go. What is our
Jeopardy category?
Speaker 2 (01:37:17):
Games? Okay, okay, just games.
Speaker 4 (01:37:21):
Each year, millions of people participate in this indoor game
using special shoes and Brunswick equipment.
Speaker 2 (01:37:28):
Mandy, what is bowling? Correct? Okay, I have to ask
you this.
Speaker 5 (01:37:31):
Did you guys know that on television there are tag matches,
like the World Tag Championships are now on like ESP
and O Show or something like. I don't know which
channel it is. The program, yes, and it's it is mesmerizing.
It's known as mesmerizing as drone racing, which honestly is
the most things.
Speaker 2 (01:37:49):
I don't know. But I watched about forty five minutes
of the World Tag Championships. Yeah, I'm down. Yeah, anyway,
I got one.
Speaker 4 (01:37:56):
The Cup of the Americas is up for grabs in
matches between the US and Argentina in this mo mounted game.
Speaker 2 (01:38:10):
Okay, and then he's gonna say copa America Soccer. Well
he doesn't get to because you said it. It's a
washer're back to one zero tang it? But I got
it right, right, I'm.
Speaker 4 (01:38:21):
Five point six jack Straws, No five point six pillikins,
no five point six?
Speaker 2 (01:38:27):
This, Yes, that's it, the same game. What I have
no idea? What I got nothing? What is pickup sticks?
Oh god? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:38:38):
Yeah yeah, a broomstick and a spaldine? Where all you
needed for this street game? Willie Mays was famous Corp.
Speaker 2 (01:38:49):
Champigne.
Speaker 10 (01:38:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:38:50):
And finally around Japan, you'll find parlors filled with these
games that are a cross between pinball and slot machines.
Speaker 2 (01:38:59):
Well that sounds kind of fun, like do you play, well,
you get money? I have no idea what that is.
I've never heard of that.
Speaker 5 (01:39:07):
Pachinka I've heard of that, but I never knew was
like I thought it was for some reason, a card game.
Speaker 2 (01:39:13):
There you go, pachinko. When I go to ban On
the Bandy Cammo Adventure, I'm gonna have to find a
pachinko den. What do they call it? Den's rooms?
Speaker 5 (01:39:22):
What is a pitch pachinko den? It's gonna be a thing.
What'd you do we went to a pachinko den? They'll
think we're drug addicts. That's what's happening.
Speaker 2 (01:39:32):
All right. We've got Kawai Sports coming up next.
Speaker 5 (01:39:35):
I I don't know if they're going to talk about
this today, Rob. Did you see that the Denver Broncos
are laying the groundwork for a new stadium.
Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
They're They're like, they're starting to talk about it. This
is like, but are we doing it?
Speaker 10 (01:39:46):
Are we not?
Speaker 2 (01:39:47):
That they're laying this is the beginning. This is the
we might we might not, we might we might go
there have to go.
Speaker 5 (01:39:55):
It's gonna have to go in Aurora because what they're
gonna want is an entertainment district all the way around it.
Speaker 2 (01:40:00):
All the teams want in entertainment district. That's what they want.
But the I mean, where else could they build it
unless they built it way up? Well, if it's near
the airport, if it's the in auras, they guy to
fit in with.
Speaker 16 (01:40:10):
The one hundred million dollar, one hundred million passenger a
twenty forty plan for the airport.
Speaker 5 (01:40:15):
Really, that sounds awful. The airport already has enough people
stopping people. Four lanes, Oh yeah, there you go. Maybe
you'll four and a half, No, three and a half
lanes for is too much We're going to be back
on Tuesday. It's Happy Labor Day weekend. I wish you
guys all have a really great time. Don't do anything
stupid because we can't afford to lose a listener.
Speaker 2 (01:40:36):
We will be back then. You have a great weekend, everybody,
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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