09-24-25 FULL SHOW - A Great Day for Weather Wednesday, Plus A Place To Get Scared

Weather Wednesday, a visit from the 13th Floor, and we were victorious over the fake Do Better Denver account! 

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:04):
No, it's Mandy Connell.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
And Donna.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Koam got way.

Speaker 4 (00:17):
The nice through three Andy Connell, keeping your real sadding welcome,
we welcome to a Wednesday edition of the show. I
had one of those days where Anthony I thought it
was Tuesday, and then when I realized it was Wednesday,
I was like, yes, that's so much better. You know,
at age, you know, st Anthony has been giving me

(00:41):
a bit of guff behind the scenes. But the problem
is it's deserved guff, and therefore I cannot push back
too hard because exactly exactly, you know, I'm just I'm
just gonna say it, and I know that, and Chuck
thinks I'm using this as an excuse, But I still

(01:02):
feel like I am not over the anesthesia for my surgery.
Even though I'm over my surgery, I've been released from
all my restrictions. I can lift heavy things again. Very
excited about that. But I swear it's like my brain
just got fuzzy, and it's not unfuzzy yet, and it's
manifesting itself in super irritating ways that Anthony has to
deal with. So let's do this. Let's talk about the

(01:24):
blog because it's big, It's giant, ginormous even and I
have an update on yesterday's scandal on the X account
at do Better Denver. Oh, it got good yesterday and
you guys all got the assignment and we have an update.
Let's do this. Go find the blog at mandy'sblog dot com.
That's mandy'sblog dot com. Look for the headline this is

(01:45):
nine twenty four, twenty five blog A great day for
weather Wednesday plus a place to get scared. Click on
that and here are the headlines you will find within
Office Half.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
American, all with ships and clipments. And that's going to
press plant.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
Today the blog I hate lying liars who lie Weather
Wednesday Today. Ready to get your scare on. The poorest
state in the United States is richer than Italy, Spain
and France. Trump unloads at the UN. Don't get excited
about your table refund. I thought electric was cheaper. Automated
balls and strikes are coming to MLB. If you think

(02:21):
Representative Diana to Get is bad, a soft on crime
judge in Dougcoe is being called out. Please don't resort
to eating out of boxes. The left continues to want violence,
Trump needs to shut up about ABC and Kimmel ned
a belly laugh. Read this about the Gaza flotella. Public
education is failing badly. Colorado's violent crime is a feature,

(02:42):
not a bug, of progressive governance. So that whole rapture
thing was a bus Tom is running laps a good
discipline for kids. This is so weird. Elon Musk's father
is a real creep. Thanks to Fox thirty one for
sharing their Denver squirrel revival story. Will this benefit exactly?

(03:02):
And finally, a really crappy story. Those are the headlines
on the blog at mandy'sblog dot com tech Toe a winner,
Thanks Nancy, So a lot of interesting stories on the
blog today. We've got a couple of guests coming in
or coming on rather of course, we have Dave Frasier
from Fox thirty one and coming at a twelve thirty

(03:23):
for weather Wednesday. Everybody wants to know how much snow
they got in the mountains. We got good rain. Although
it wasn't a day that wouldn't it been nice to
just be able to like not have to work yesterday
and just be able to kind of lay around, maybe
read a book, have a cup of hot cocoa. It
was on It was soup weather, according to my friend

(03:44):
Rich Gugenheim.

Speaker 5 (03:44):
Yes, yes, yeah, everyone's been saying it. And we had
soup last night. Well yeah, what kind of soup?

Speaker 6 (03:48):
Chicken noodle? Of course?

Speaker 4 (03:49):
Did you make it yourself or out of the can?

Speaker 6 (03:51):
Out of can?

Speaker 4 (03:51):
No, I'm no judgment I love Campbells chicken noodle soup.

Speaker 6 (03:54):
Well we spiced it up.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, there's no judgment on can soup. Soup is one
of those things that you can get out of a
can and it's still darn good. Right, But I love
and soup so easy to make though, I love soup.
I could eat soup every day I am. I mean
a family of people who are not anti soup, but
they are not as pro soup as I am. I
love soup.

Speaker 6 (04:12):
It tasted so good.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
Do we still have soup places like that just sell soup?
Remember that was a thing for like five minutes when
there was a place called soup I think, or was
it super soup? We see what happened is soup And
yeah it's still a thing. Yeah, they still they have
one in Denver. Zoup is still a thing hum. So
there you go.

Speaker 6 (04:33):
I don't think I'd go anywhere just for soup.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
Oh I would. Really good soup. Really good soup is magical.

Speaker 6 (04:39):
All that, don't disagree.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
I will say that I was on my way to
an appointment and I was hungry because I forgot to
pack my lunch, and I stopped at Panera and I
got a cup a cup of soup in not in
the bread bowl, just a cup of soup. And it
was eight dollars and forty nine cents.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:58):
No, And as I was driving away, I was like,
never again, Panera?

Speaker 6 (05:02):
Meanwhile, never again? Meanwhile, what like two dollars? Can No?

Speaker 4 (05:08):
I could have made the soup. I got broccoli. Their
broccoli soup is really good at Panera. But I can
make broccoli soup. I could make a gallon of broccoli
soup for less than eight dollars and forty nine cents. Truly.
I mean it's just not expensive to make that kind
of stuff. Anyway. Okay, we gotta have an update. Yesterday
during the show, something started bubbling on X Actually, a

(05:28):
listener sent me a message and said, hey, what happened
to at Do Better Denver? And I looked and the
social media accounts of at Do Better Denver had been removed,
so I reached out. I did some question asking of
various people that are in the know on that situation,
and I found out that the founder of do Better Denver,

(05:50):
the website that has created controversy because it's telling the truth,
that's just the way it is. It created controversy because
it showed the underbelly of Denver at the same time
that the mayor's running around yelling everything is awesome. And
boy did it rub some people the wrong way and
rubbed some people so wrong that the Denver Post did

(06:12):
an expose a where they exposed three people who are
not the people behind Do Better Denver. And I'm hoping
I don't want to say things out of turn because
this is not my story to tell. I know more
than I'm sharing, but I don't want to share anything
more without a conversation with the person behind that Do

(06:34):
Better Denver, which I hope is going to happen in
the next little bit. My impression is that out of
fear for the people that were falsely outed by the
Denver Post, perhaps these sites were pulled down and I
have no confirmation of that, but they were not removed,
they were not shut down. The social media platforms did
not punish them in any way, shape or form. So yesterday,

(06:56):
after we find all this out, a new account appears
on Twitter using the same logo and it spelled differently,
and I was like, huh, huh, I wonder who this is.
And I sent them a message a direct message on
X and I said, hey, guys, I don't know who
this is, but I know that you're not the original

(07:17):
person doing it, because I had already been in contact
with them that morning and I knew that this was
not their account. And the person responded very snotily, and
then I responded again and then they blocked me. And
I was like, okay, this is a fake account, and
you all know what happened. Well maybe you don't, if
you just listen to the first hour of the show,
you don't know all He broke loose on the show,
and I got everybody to go and retweet and retweet

(07:39):
because what I thought was going to happen was that
this was someone who did not have the same motive
as the folks at the original Do Better Denver and
I was right. So after many, many, many, many many
of you started just relentlessly rep that this was a

(08:00):
scam and it was fake and it was no good.
They posted this tweet to the top of their page
and it says, ah, eh, the gig is up. Technically
it's the jig is up. Can I just say that
I love communism and trans women are real women. Also,
homeless people deserve our empathy. Congrats on the nine hundred
plus idiots who believed this and were excited to get

(08:22):
docsing again. See ya. Now, since then, this site has
been taken down by X because they were impersonating, and
they were taken down by X. They've been suspended. But
this just the reason I'm even bringing this up. This
is so stupid. It's about a social media account. Who cares? Right,
What does it matter what happens on a social media account.

(08:43):
I want to use this as a cautionary tale because
there are people out there, and I believe the intent
of this person was to accept submissions of photographs of
homeless people that are, you know, in the throes of
mental illness or drug addiction, or having sex on the
street or pooping in a doorway, as do Better Denver
has shown in the past, and I believe they were

(09:03):
going to out the people who sent those and they
were going to weaponize this against the people who are
concerned about Denver. And let's be real, you guys. I've
now had the opportunity to talk to multiple people who
have either given things to do better Denver or who
have supported do better Denver in various ways, and the
single focus of this group of people is making Denver better.

(09:28):
And the only way to make Denver better is to
force them to be accountable for the people that they
say are not living on the streets anymore, for the
people that they're ignoring in the throes of their drug
addiction and mental health crises. And so I believe from
the people that I've talked to, this is not a
nasty bunch of people. These are people who are frustrated,

(09:49):
who are at their wits end, who are tired of
walking their kids to preschool and stepping over human feces
and needles, and they don't know what else to do.
They've called three to one one, they've called nine to
one one, they've called the mayor's office, they've called their
city council member, and nothing happens, nothing changes. And as
a matter of fact, in some certain circumstances, it just
gets worse. And when they try to complain about it openly,

(10:12):
they're told they don't have compassion. They're asked, where is
your empathy? And so I do hope that someone picks
up the mantle the intent of what do better Denver
was trying to do, because it's important. It's not there
to humiliate people. It's not there to to say, ha

(10:34):
ha ha, look at these poor people, look at these
people on No, that's not it at all. But we
have we have two different realities, not just in Denver,
but across these major urban areas where you have usually
Democrats that are in charge who say things like, you know,
well it's happening everywhere. This is just it's just happened,

(10:55):
as if there's nothing that can be done. And we
have people who have essentially said, the people on the
streets that are mentally ill or drug addicted, they don't
know what they're doing and therefore they shouldn't be held responsible.
You know, not being held responsible for your actions is
a luxury, and it's a luxury that most of us

(11:16):
never experienced. You know, Like if I speed and I
get pulled over, I'm gonna get a speeding ticket, and
I have to be responsible for my actions. But if
I could just convince the cop, oh, no, I'm crazy.
I'm so crazy I can't follow speed limit signs. Well,
first of all, I shouldn't be driving. We all know that.
But the notion that someone who is in the throes
of addiction or in the throes of a mental health

(11:39):
crisis should not be helped because they don't know what
they're doing turns logic on its head. Throughout my career,
I've had the opportunity to talk to so many former addicts,
and I've talked to so many people who had the
exact same thing to say. When I ask them, why
did you finally get sober? Usually it's one of two answers.

(11:59):
I mean when I say usually, I'm talking ninety eight
percent of the people that I've talked to had some
variation of this story. Number One, I did it because
I lost my kids, And when they took my kids
away from me, I realized did I like drugs but
more than I love my kids? Like that is one
of those things that makes people go, holy crap, I

(12:20):
have to take care of this. But the other one
that I get almost as much if maybe even more
is I've got arrested and the judge told me I
could go to rehab and stay there and be clean,
or I could go to prison for seven years, ten years,
twelve years, whatever. And they chose sobriety. And they continue

(12:40):
to choose sobriety. And here's a funny thing that happens.
Not funny, how, but it's kind of funny the way
it happens. Like this, people in the throes of addiction
care nothing except about getting more drugs. That's the facts.
They don't care about hurting their family. They don't even
care many times about hurting their children. They don't care
because that's how addiction works. The part of your brain
that it's supposed to be, the part that kicks in

(13:01):
and says, wow, I got to be a little more responsible,
gets completely shouted down by the part of their brain
that just says, do whatever you have to do to
get more drugs. But once they are out of active,
I'll say intoxication, because I think addiction is a process, right.
Overcoming addiction is a long term process that for some

(13:23):
people never gets a lot easier. But for some people
they move to a place where they can look back
on it and say that's who I used to be, right,
But nonetheless, the people that have become sober forced to
become sober. And then when they are sober, that voice
in their brain that tells them they need more drugs

(13:45):
starts to get a little quieter, and then it starts
to get out shouted by the part of the brain
that says, if you do that, you're going back to prison.
If you do that, you're not going to get your
kids back. If you do that, you're going to lose
your family. So we just have to get them sober
and do better. Denver refuse to accept the narrative that

(14:05):
everything was fine in Denver and we just needed to
look away. We just needed to invest more money in
rebranding sixteenth Street and everything was gonna be fine. Oh,
we just need more housing. It's all a lie. And
until Mayor Mike Johnston's administration starts talking earnestly and honestly
about the role addiction and mental illness are playing and

(14:28):
the fact that shoving these people into homeless hotels is
not solving either of those problems, then yeah, do better.
Denver needs to exist in some way, shape or form,
so hopefully I'll have an update on this, I really am.
I'll save that for later. I will go through that later.

(14:48):
But please, if you see something, especially online, that they
conform to your worldview, and you think to yourself, dang,
I'm gonna that's great. I'm gonna support that, do a
tiny bit more digging. Do a little comparison. In this case,
for me, when I saw the posts, I was like,
that is not the voice of do Better Denver. That's

(15:10):
someone else, not the same person. And then when they
responded with hostility to me, after we've had many, many
pleasant exchanges, I knew something was up. But just be
careful every way. I hate to say it, but it
feels like right now there are enough bad actors out there,
especially on the Internet, who just want to bring people down.

(15:33):
That's all they're trying to do. So don't fall for it.
Be more discerning, be careful, and if you see something,
and honestly, like, I don't have time to look into
every single thing, but if you see something and you
send it to me, I will give it a cursory
review and say, Okay, yeah, that looks fine, or I
know that to be wrong, or I'm not sure. Do

(15:55):
some more digging. I mean, we've got to be more
careful because unfortunately, there are people looking to use that
kind of information to destroy private citizens who are just
concerned about Denver. Because we all know that, you know,
once you get out there, it's uh, it's your fair game, right.
Once you're out there, the the the bullying and the

(16:18):
relentless torture of the internet does not stop. And as
one who's been on the receiving end of that, I'm
going to just say this. If you ever find yourself
in a situation where you, as a private citizen, for
whatever reason, maybe you put out an inartfully worded tweet
seven years ago, and all of a sudden, somebody goes
and says, oh, look at this, we're going to prove
that they're racist or whatever. Number One, don't apologize if

(16:42):
you were not saying something racist, don't don't. Don't ever apologize.
When someone takes something you said out of context, clarify
for them what they're missing. Clarify, but don't ever apologize,
because if you are not intending something to be if
you apologize, you are admitting that it was Do not.

(17:05):
And I'm gonna say this because I've had so and
it's been great here in Colorado. I should be clear
about that. The nastiest people that I ever had to
deal with were in Louisville, Kentucky. Straight up, they were
nasty and they worked very hard to make my life
a living hell. There was a small group of people
that were just awful, horrible. Here's the thing. Once you

(17:25):
get on the other side of it, you're like, eh,
And now, at this point in my life, I don't
care what you call me. I don't care what a
random person who's never listened to my show thinks of me.
I just don't care. I truly don't. And it's glorious.
It's so nice, it's so freeing, so liberating, and it
takes any power that someone is trying to assert over you.

(17:50):
And be clear, when some random person decides to come
after you and call you a racist or a or
an islamophobe or a trans phobe or any of those
fobe names that they love, they're trying to assert power
over you. And by simply not caring, you take away
their power. You absolutely strip them of their ability to

(18:11):
do anything. And I highly recommend it. I truly do.
Even though I have a story on the blog today,
and we'll get to it a little bit later. Some
on the left are doubling down on the violence, and
some on the left are being clearly open that they
think it's okay to kill people they disagree with. And
every time I see it, I'm gonna call it out
in the hopes that someday some of these people will

(18:34):
feel shame, will feel regret, and we'll feel I don't know,
dare I say bad about being such a horrible person
when they do it. When we get back, it's weather Wednesday.
How much soon do we get in the mountains? How
much rain did we get in the metro? Are a
man from Fox thirty one, Dave Fraser, coming up next
to tell us all of it after yesterday's gloomy day

(18:57):
of rain. But of course, when you live in Colorado,
you have to automatically say, but we needed the moisture.
We're gonna talk to Fox thirty one's chief meteorologist, Dave
Frasier about what kind of moisture totals we got. David,
would have been great to have yesterday be a Saturday
when we didn't have to go to work.

Speaker 7 (19:14):
Oh yeah, absolutely, I agree with you one hundred percent.
I loved the conversation about you know, sitting around.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
A cup of copy or coked. Yeah, watching a watching
a movie, reading a book. Listen to the pitter pad.

Speaker 7 (19:25):
Of rain out on the windows and the doors and
the roof and the.

Speaker 8 (19:28):
Whole soup conversation.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
By the way, loaded potato bacon soup.

Speaker 8 (19:32):
Is what I make.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
You cannot go wrong with loaded potato soup.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
You can't.

Speaker 4 (19:36):
There's no way to screw that soup up. It's so
perfect every single time.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
And it's easy, Yeah, the easiest thing. Dump everything into
the crock pot and enjoy.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
Correct. Correct. So let's talk about how productive that rain
was because moy it lasted forever and it was like
a nice, gentle rain. First of all, let's talk about
snow totals in the mountains. What do we get?

Speaker 7 (19:57):
So we had anywhere from two and a half around Loveland,
which they were excited to see.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
It won't help with the skiing. They need some cold
nights to get the guns running. So we saw that
up on Loveland Pass and.

Speaker 7 (20:09):
Over air Loveland Ski and then we had similar reports
up near Brainerd Lake. Off to the west. There were
some higher totals like Winter Park got.

Speaker 6 (20:17):
Seven inches that was exciting.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
You could see it.

Speaker 7 (20:19):
On their snowstick, which is their webcam online.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
And then we had some other one twos and threes.

Speaker 7 (20:25):
There were a couple of six and a half inch
reports up near Cameron Pass. Obviously up to the north
along Highway fourteen, so there were some decent totals. I
would say two and a half to seven inch was
about what we saw, and it wasn't everywhere.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
Obviously, this was hugging the higher peaks.

Speaker 7 (20:40):
The higher terrain.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
And while we.

Speaker 7 (20:42):
Had our first winter weather advisory for the mountain passes,
they actually did very well because this just didn't contain
a lot of cold there, but there was enough at
past eleven thousand to fourteen thousand feet to throw some
accumulating snow on the peaks.

Speaker 4 (20:56):
So what do we get? Obviously we just got rain
here and nobody saw on these know here in the
metro did they know?

Speaker 7 (21:01):
No, no, no, no, no, it was all rain.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
It was all rain. And I was telling I was
telling a rod. You know. One of the great things
about yesterday's rain was a lot.

Speaker 7 (21:10):
Of viewers were emailing me at the station telling me
how much rain they got using their rain gagers and
stuff and they were excited about it.

Speaker 4 (21:17):
Wait, can I just say, like, as a weather man,
that's got to be kind of fun, right, everybody rushing
to tell you how much rain they got on their
house on Smith Street in Denver, You know what I mean? Like, Yeah,
I think that's got to be kind of interesting to
just see how many people are excited to share their
numbers with you when.

Speaker 7 (21:34):
We start when we have a snow event of significance,
our inbox when it comes to snow totals, when we
have like a snow day and everybody's at home and
the kids at school has been canceled, our inbox just explodes, Yeah,
with people wanting to send us their snow measurements, their
pictures of what's going on because they want us to
see it.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
And it actually helps to tell the story because.

Speaker 7 (21:57):
Of our very terrain, and we know that, you know,
one neighborhood can get this much and another one can
get that much, and it really does help us. So
yesterday I was getting a lot of emails, a lot
of most of them were coming from the Northern Front
Range where the totals ranged as you get up towards
Fort Collins, Greeley and then up the ice seventy sixth quarter,
there were some two two plus inches there. That was
the area that actually had the higher totals. And then

(22:19):
as you came down I twenty five into Denver, there's
some one inches one and a half. And then you
go south of there the numbers dropped off a little bit,
but everybody in northeast Colorado and along the Front Range
got it down towards Monuments about a half an inch
around an inch in Castle Rock, and then you get
an inch inch and a half as you go a
little farther north from there. So it's fantastic. And for Denver,

(22:39):
we had a daily rainfall record yesterday one two yeah,
one point two to eight inches. It broke the old
record of eighty three hundreds back in I think twenty seventeen.
And now for the month of September and we will
not get any more rain for the month, we were
behind by six tenths of an inch and now we're
ahead by a half an inch actually a little more

(23:00):
than a half an inch. So we have done really
well in September just with two storm two rain events
that we had, and we're two and a half inches
ahead for the year. So August yeah, September.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
I was going to ask you about that because I
was talking to a woman and I don't know if
I told you this last week, but I met a
woman who moved to the Springs like last year, so
she's been here a little less than a year. And
she said, you know, it rains every day, And I said,
that's not that normal for here. Normally everything's on fire
by now, so be grateful for the rain. I was

(23:32):
going to ask you, like, this summer feels very wet
and humid.

Speaker 7 (23:36):
Yeah, yeah, Well, you know I always pulled before our
conversations the outlooks.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
For the month, and here we go again.

Speaker 8 (23:42):
So if you'll remember, July ended.

Speaker 7 (23:45):
Up warm and dry, and there was some fire concerns,
and then August came and the thirty day out looked
for August was warmer and drier than normal, and that
wasn't ended up being the case. We had two big
events in August, one on the twenty sixth, one on
the tenth. They both were like one point three one
point four inches. We ended up with the third wettest August.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
It was cool, and so the long range outlook busted
for August.

Speaker 7 (24:09):
And here in September it was the same. The outlook
for September was supposed to be warm and dry than normal,
but now we're half an inch ahead for the month,
we won't it's not record setting, and the temperatures are
about actually we're one degree below normal, and the forecast
of the remaining days in September are.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Right about average, So I don't think we're.

Speaker 7 (24:27):
Going to be anywhere near warmer. And the out of
October is dry and warmer than normal, and I just
don't buy it at this point because all it takes
is I tell you time and time again, it only.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Takes one event. So a thirty day.

Speaker 7 (24:41):
Average, all you need is one day like we had
yesterday to bust that thirty.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
Day, right. It's just kind of interesting to watch the
way our weather pattern The weather patterns this year for
me have felt very strange, not bad, not horrible, not
like you know, we need to build an arc or
something that is. It's just this summer has been different
than any of the prior summers that I can remember
in terms of it just as felt humid the whole summer.

(25:07):
It is it is, you know, the rain has been consistent,
like it's just been interesting and you've got to wonder,
in the grand scheme of climate change, what all of
this sort of is going to mean going forward.

Speaker 7 (25:18):
Well, you know, and it's a valid point, you know,
whether by definition is variable, it ebbs and it flows.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
I like to take it seven to ten days at
a time.

Speaker 7 (25:29):
I know there will be stretches during a season summer, winter, spring.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
Fall, where things may be a little you know, a
little cooler, a little warmer.

Speaker 8 (25:38):
A little drier, a little wetter.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
I always say, never give up on a season until
it's done. You got to wait until.

Speaker 7 (25:43):
The final calculations come in. However, you know, you're talking
about climate change and stuff.

Speaker 8 (25:48):
One of the things we.

Speaker 7 (25:48):
Looked at is we are going to post another September
because we have no snow in the forecast right now.
In the end of the month, we're going to post
another September where we have not had measurable snow, not
even a trace. And so we looked back. September is
generally Denver's first measurable snow month on average through our

(26:09):
record history going back to the eighteen hundreds, is about
an inch. Well, I looked at the status yesterday we
were talking at work, and the last time we had
one inch of snow. It was that big wind width
that we had. You'll remember we were like at one
hundred and one and two days later the temperature plummeted
into the thirties. We ended up with a winch inch
of snow.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
That was in twenty twenty.

Speaker 7 (26:30):
You have to go all the way back to two
thousand to find the next measurable snow. We've had one
one inch snowstorm in the month of September in twenty
four years. Yeah, that's it. That's it.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
So you have to look at that, and you have
to read into that. Is summer gotten a little later
here it's like is Labor Day not really the end
of the summer season? And those are things that climate.

Speaker 7 (26:56):
Climate is cyclical and it changes. And you know, when
we use averages, we're using a thirty year average. Obviously
ten years from now that average could change and so
we have to monitor and keep an eye on that.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
But the weather, I agree with you, has been just perfect.

Speaker 7 (27:12):
Little warm stretches nineties, ninety ninety five, ninety eight, one
hundred book, Here comes a cold front, here comes somewhere,
and I just think, I look at my lawn, I
drive around.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
I see people's you know, you know, landscaping, and I
look at the natural the natural grasses that browned.

Speaker 7 (27:27):
A little bit, but that's okay, we're at that time
of the year. But I just think we have been
in a great shape all season long.

Speaker 4 (27:34):
I agree Dave Frasier. I got one quick question from
the text line. Why do the seven day temperature bar
charts only show the high temperature? They're all lowe They're
all the same on the bottom, and then it shows
on the bar chart where the high is. I don't
know how you'd even fix that.

Speaker 7 (27:54):
I guess i'd need to see an example of what
they're talking about. Our seven day forecast, Yeah, as low
temperatures that we have white boxes at the bottom showing
the overnight lows for each day, and then the high
temperature is sitting on the top well.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
And they say they just show the low temp as
in number, not on the bars themselves. I just think
that's an aesthetic thing.

Speaker 7 (28:12):
Don't you think they may be talking about a bar
forecast that could be different from a seven day forecast
where the bars kind of go up and down depending
on what the temperatures are, but the bottom stays the same.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
That may be.

Speaker 7 (28:26):
Something somebody created where they're just illustrating the high temperatures,
so you'll see different elevations and the high temperatures based
on what the high is, and then underneath that it
could just be a steady stream of what the lows are.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
And they didn't use like bars to represent.

Speaker 8 (28:39):
The low temperatures.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
That's my guess without seeing it.

Speaker 4 (28:42):
Yeah, that sounds reasonable to me. I think it's more
of an aesthetics thing than anything else. Okay, real late,
Dave Fraser. We'll talk to you again next week.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
My friend, I enjoyed the warm up coming your way
for the week.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
Mandy, have you or when you've been with Chuck had
anyone that has come up and voiced their ugliness that
you receive online. Before Chuck and I went to a
wine dinner at a wonderful restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky called Veronese.
Wonderful restaurant if you're ever in Louisville, check it out.
But it's one of those dinners where you're sitting at
a large table with people you don't know. So a
couple of men, a couple of male couples, So two

(29:16):
gay male couples walk in and as they're walking across,
I see one of them look at me, and I
can physically see the guy recognize me, and his entire
physical carriage changed. He sits down next to me, and
I'm introduced. I'm like, Hi, how are you. It's nice
to meet you. I'm being kind, I'm being friendly as
I as I am, and we are making chit chat.

(29:37):
I'm talking to the gentleman across the table from me
and the other gentleman, Oh, it's so nice to meet you.
What do you do? And I look at the guy
to my left, he's directly sitting to my left, and
I say, oh, what is What is it that you do?
And he said, oh, I do polling and I was like, oh,
that's kind of interesting. Tell me what you do, even
though it's not interesting. And I didn't really care. It
was just being kind. And then he said what do

(29:57):
you do and I said, well, I do the nine
new show on WHAS Radio. And he looked at me
and said I know who you are and I hate you.
And I was like, oh, great, now, mind you folks.
Drinks have not been served, dinner has not started, and
I'm sitting next to him for the entire meal, and
I looked at him and I said, well, the good

(30:19):
news is is that normally after meeting me in person,
people walk away thinking, oh, she's not nearly as much
of a bee as I thought. She was no laughter
at all. So throughout the entire meal, we are talking,
Chuck and I are talking to the other three gentlemen
who are engaging, and we're having a nice time, and
we're talking about the food and the wine in the
who nine yards and this guy sat stone faced the

(30:41):
entire time, never said another word to me, never said
another word about me. And I think I won that
round because I had a lovely time. And I know
that when he left angrily with his partner, he was
probably mad because his partner and I had a great time.
And I think about that guy a lot and think

(31:03):
to myself, how miserable do you have to be that
you would just do that? And there have been other
situations where people have gotten in my face, And honestly,
this is where having a giant husband comes in really handy,
because he's super good at being aware of what's going on.
He has great situational awareness, and he'll kind of like
walk up and not say anything, but just gently interject

(31:25):
with his presence and people tend to take a step
back then, So yeah, I mean sometimes they do. I
actually I'd rather you show me who you are so
I know clearly who to avoid. So yeah, that's what's
going on there. That is what's happening on that. So yeah,
there's just one example that was fun. That was super

(31:46):
super fun. All right, Coming up next, it is time
again for people like Anthony who love to get scared
and startled and all of that to do. So we've
got the general manager of the thirteenth Floor Haunted House
coming up right after this.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bill and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
No, it's Mandy Connell and Dondall KA ninety one FM.

Speaker 9 (32:17):
God says through Frey Andy Toronald Keith.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
You sad based.

Speaker 4 (32:29):
Welcome, welcome, Welcome to the third hour of the show.
And that's spooky music means it's spooky time, it's Halloween time,
and that means the return of something. Anthony, my producer,
loves me not so much. I don't like being scared
the bejeebers out of me. And that's what they do
at the thirteenth Floor, joining me now the general manager

(32:50):
Brian Kopp, to talk about what you can expect if
you're among the maniacs who love to be scared to
death for fun. Brian, first of all, welcome the show.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Hi, thanks for having me.

Speaker 4 (33:00):
So thirteenth Floor has been around for I don't even
I feel like they've been around for a long time now?

Speaker 2 (33:05):
How many?

Speaker 4 (33:06):
How many years?

Speaker 3 (33:07):
Season?

Speaker 4 (33:07):
Eighteenth season? Yeah, why the thirteenth floor? Do you know
why that got started? In that? Why was it? Why
was that the theme or the name?

Speaker 10 (33:18):
There's if you go to like an old building and
you look at the elevator, a lot of times you
won't see a thirteenth floor goes from twelve to fourteen
because of like unlucky thirteen and like bad things would
happen on that floor. So I always thought that was
like a fun bit of lore to kind of develop.

Speaker 6 (33:35):
So the idea is all of.

Speaker 10 (33:37):
Those terrible scary things that happen on the thirteenth floor
of all these different buildings, well they're all here under
one roof at the thirteenth floor hot House.

Speaker 4 (33:45):
So, Brian, how does one decide when you're you know,
getting into your career. You know what I want to
do I want to work at haunted houses because that's
what you chose at some point, like what led you there?

Speaker 6 (33:57):
I was a seasonal scare actor.

Speaker 10 (34:00):
I've always, you know, had a love of Halloween and
horror and I love acting and special effects makeup, and
that was always something that I would pursue. So it
was like a fun seasonal job where I get to
turn one of my favorite holidays from you know, a
day or a weekend a celebration too.

Speaker 6 (34:16):
I get to do it every weekend for like a month.

Speaker 10 (34:20):
And as I was in the right place at the
right time, and Thirteenth Floor kind of spawned this incredible
haunted house empire, and we grew and have haunted houses
all over the country, and eventually I was offered an
opportunity to run my own thirteenth Floor show in Chicago.
I ran thirteen for Chicago and the old Joliet Haunted Prison.

(34:40):
Oh nice, And I'm here at where it all started.

Speaker 4 (34:43):
Well, so let's talk about what the attraction features this year.
What do you have a theme every year that you
sort of adhere to that informs the storytelling, because honestly,
like a haunted house is kind of.

Speaker 10 (34:54):
A story, right, Yeah, it's improvisational theater. It's immerci theater.
So yeah, every attraction always has a unique theme. Every
year it will have, you know, kind of a focal
point character, and that theme, as you said, you know,
kind of informs the creative processes. We're designing new scares

(35:16):
and new rooms in that particular attraction, as we're designing
the characters, the costumes, the makeup design, the sound design
and music that we play in those attractions.

Speaker 6 (35:27):
So this year we have the.

Speaker 10 (35:30):
Legend of the Thirteenth Floor, which features one of our
original classic characters, mister Hollows.

Speaker 4 (35:37):
Oh little Ichabod crane situation going on here.

Speaker 10 (35:41):
Yeah, And then the second attraction is Twilight of the Damned,
featuring this scary witch named Orla who has cursed everyone
with eternal insomnia driving the mat.

Speaker 4 (35:55):
I think I know her, as a matter of fact,
I think I met her a long time ago, and
I'd like to have a right now. But you guys
actually have a third part of the attraction this year.
Tell me about that.

Speaker 10 (36:06):
So for the first time ever, we have three attractions,
so we've drastically increased the size of the Haunted House.
Your ticket gets you into all three, so The new
one is outside in our midway, and it's bigger than
the other attractions, and it is called the Bloodshed.

Speaker 4 (36:23):
Oh of course, of course. Let me guess. It looks
like a shed on the outside. Not scary at all, Yeah,
not scary at all. Like just put these people in
the horror movie. Let's hide from the maniac by going
in the shed full of chainsaws. That's kind of what
we're going after. Is that the theme here exactly right?

Speaker 3 (36:39):
All right?

Speaker 8 (36:40):
You don't go here.

Speaker 6 (36:41):
It's like you've been here all you know you what
it is.

Speaker 4 (36:43):
Here's the thing. I'm gonna be perfectly frank here, Brian.
I'm fifty six years old, and when I was younger,
I allowed myself to be talked into going to things
like haunted houses. And as soon as I left the
haunted house, I said the exact same thing. I blanking
hated that I never want to do that again. And
yet peer pressure being what it was for many years.

(37:05):
So I've been to haunted houses. I know what they're about.
I'm one of those people. I don't like to be scared.
I don't like to be startled, So haunted houses are
not for me. Now, A rod my compatriot here the
exact opposite. He loves it all. He loves to scare people,
he loves to be scared, and he has a question.
What's your question?

Speaker 5 (37:24):
Yes, so, Brian, obviously, I know first hand experience that
this is one of the best haunted houses in the
entire country, if not the world. I know, USA Today
named it the top five in the top five for
most terrifying haunted houses this year, and it always is.
And I've seen that firsthand, just with the investment and
the care and the actors in the sets, in the
stories you guys tell this year specifically, what would you

(37:46):
point to what makes it a top five this year?

Speaker 6 (37:49):
Specifically?

Speaker 10 (37:54):
When I moved here from Chicago and met the team
that's been in place here, A lot of these people
are like veterans that have done many, many seasons here
over the years. There's so much like thoughtfulness and care
and passion from the staff that go into every aspect
of this. Like not just like the makeup and the acting, Like, yeah,

(38:15):
there's lots of great actors, and we train all summer
long to get the actors ready to go. You know,
it's makeup workshops. But I mean even just like the
staff guiding people into line, the scenic designed, the carpentry. Like,
there's just so much passion that goes into creating it.

(38:35):
I feel like you every aspect everything that you look at.
When you're here, you can see a little bit of that,
and I think that goes such a long way to
making it such like a fun, exciting and special experience.

Speaker 5 (38:46):
Well, you're the only person that's gonna be able to
see this, but I'm holding out a picture to you now.
If you want someone else that cares about what they
do in scaring people, you know who to call right here.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
My friends really do need to got to get you
back heated. I do, and I'm gonna okay, can we
just stop calling them scare actors and just shorten it
to scacters? I mean, I feel like that's tight. You know,
It's like we got our scacters here, there are scare actors.
I think that there should be a cameo role for
Anthony in this, and I see you as being part

(39:15):
of the Ichabod Crane vibe a little bit, maybe with
a frilly caller and puffy sleeves, something along those lines.
You know, he loves the clown thing and the clown thing.
It just freaks me out. I'm not happy about.

Speaker 10 (39:26):
That at all.

Speaker 8 (39:27):
That's the place for him.

Speaker 10 (39:28):
We just opened a new upsell attraction outside as well,
like a little extra ticketed thing called clown Chaos.

Speaker 6 (39:34):
Ah, yeah, I remember that last year. Yes, that was spantacular.

Speaker 10 (39:39):
This is totally rebuilt from the ground up, so it
was like the same concept of clowns and fun, but
it's a totally redesigned experience.

Speaker 4 (39:46):
I was actually going to ask that question specifically, and
you mentioned that you have a team of people that
are working on concepts and things like that. How much
attention or care is paid to making sure that it's
not exactly the same while still mainining maybe the super
popular parts of the Haunted House. I mean, you know

(40:06):
Universal Studios in Orlando. I lived there for ten years.
I because of my radio gig, had to go to
Halloween horror nights, and one of their big attractions that
they have is the lady who lays in the coffin
with all the roaches crawling over her. And I'm just
like hard Pass, I've lived in Florida my whole life.
I've had roaches. I don't want them, but are there
sort of those cornerstone pieces of your haunted house that

(40:30):
appear year after year.

Speaker 10 (40:33):
There are Yeah, there are certain things that people they get.
You got to give them what they want, and I
think it's important to make sure that there's there's something
fresh every year. We tell different stories, we have different characters,
but those characters can still exist in environments that people like,
really love. Like we have a tilt rem that is
an absolute fan favorite that really like disorients people and

(40:56):
it's super fun, and like that's not going anywhere anytime soon.
We might retheme it, we might change what you're going
to experience, but it's still going to be the same,
like core fun gag of you walking through this tilt rum.
You know, chain saws are all You got to find
a place for the chainsaw. You're gonna get people like,
where's the chainsaw?

Speaker 4 (41:14):
There was no chainsaws? That was so disappointed with no
change there it is, Yeah there you go. H Okay,
So what age group is this appropriate for? Because that's
the question I always get from people is like can
I take my seven year old? So what are you
guys looking at age? You know, age wise?

Speaker 10 (41:30):
The recommendation is treat it like a PG thirteen movie
thirteen and up is what we would recommend. That being said,
kids younger and younger every single year seem to really
love this stuff more and more. If you want to
bring your seven year old and you think that it's
not too intense for them, that's up to you. You know,
there is disturbing imagery, there's there's blood, there's gore. So

(41:51):
it's definitely not for every seven year old, but there.
I mean we we had a birthday party for like
nine year old not that long ago, and they were
obsessed with it.

Speaker 4 (42:00):
I mean, these kids today, That's all I can say
about that. Somebody from our text line, our Common Spirit
Health text line at five six six nine, Oh Mandy,
please ask your guest if there's an element of a
haunted house that most people find terrifying. Is there is
there one thing that just cuts across everybody and and
scares the bejeevas out of everybody?

Speaker 10 (42:22):
I mean, yeah, it's it's that's why you always have
to have a chainsaw on there, because that's one where
it gets somebody just about every single time.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Creating a situation where you.

Speaker 10 (42:36):
Go from someplace kind of light to all of a
sudden you can't really see what's in front of you,
you know, playing with that, like you know, innate psychological
fear of the dark and the unknown is part of
the design of a lot of aspects of the Haunted
House that gets people just about every single time. Clowns
is another really popular one which I've never really understood.

(42:56):
Like I've never found clowns particularly scary, but like I'm
definitely in the minority.

Speaker 4 (43:02):
You just haven't come across the right clown.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
Brian, You're gonna have to have.

Speaker 5 (43:07):
Somebody come and test that theory.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
This is what you have to put up with, Brian. Yeah,
that's what I somebody else suggested. Instead of scacters, we
can go characters, which I kind of like. Characters is good.
I'm just trying to make things easy and less promost
I've got a link on the blog for the thirteenth Floor.
You can go ahead and buy your tickets. They're going
just beyond Halloween. But I will say this last year,

(43:33):
I think we interviewed someone more in the middle of October,
and like the dates towards Halloween were sold out by
the time we had somebody on. So if you do
want to go right around Halloween, you're gonna want to
buy your tickets, Like now is that fair to say?

Speaker 6 (43:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (43:47):
And know that if you go one of those days,
like I mean, there's gonna be there's so many people.
It is such a popular event. So if you would
prefer to have you know a little bit uh, you know,
more of a private un experience, then get those time
slots on those weekdays that are starting to get added
to the calendar, and you know that might be more

(44:09):
your cup of tea. Some people love going when you
know there's tons of people there though, makes them feel
more safe.

Speaker 4 (44:14):
Yeah, well, I mean what I again, I'm not sure demographic.
Somebody just asked, what's the craziest response that you guys
have had? Have you had people pass out? Have you
had people have a more dramatic response? I mean, what
what kind of stuff do you do you sort of prepare.

Speaker 10 (44:32):
For every year we have we have people that you know,
sometimes we need to we need to uh you know,
get the emt over there to take a look at them. Yeah,
panic attacks, people passing out.

Speaker 4 (44:46):
I can't imagine why I don't want to go to this.
I I would be in that panic attack like passing
out category. So it's just it's just not my thing.

Speaker 5 (44:54):
You got me thinking, Mandy Brand, Have you guys considered,
because I've just seen other haunts across the country do
this new offering. People can wear this really bright glow
up necklace that alerts the actors to not scare them.
Those people are just there to see the visuals, but
not necessarily for the scares. That's something you guys have
ever considered offering to your paper is.

Speaker 10 (45:13):
That it tried like the it was like a necklace
and it was like, you know, basically like scare light.
We've also tried like behind the screens tours where like
maybe the haunted house is too much for you, but
you do appreciate the artistry of that.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
I would do so that we bring you out during
the day.

Speaker 6 (45:34):
You'll get a guided tour.

Speaker 10 (45:35):
You know, somebody like myself that's very knowledgeable, you know
in why we made this and what's the lord and
the concept behind this, you know, what's the backstory, and
those were pretty popular. I don't think we're not doing
it this year, but we might bring that back at
some point. That was pretty popular.

Speaker 4 (45:49):
I would totally do that. I mean, but I'm the
person on a cruise ship. He does the behind the
scenes ship tour too, you know, so I like to
see how everything works. I just don't want to be startled. Guys,
get your tickets. What's the final date, Brian for this?
What's your last date?

Speaker 2 (46:05):
Weekend of November?

Speaker 4 (46:06):
Okay, second weekend of November, So but go ahead. I
would say, if you want to go around Halloween, I
think we were like October fifteenth Dish last year when
we interviewed you guys, and all of this stuff around
Halloween was sold out. So if you want to go
around Halloween and you want to make it part of
your Halloween night, you're going to want to buy those
tickets like now, And I put a link on the
blog today.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Brian.

Speaker 4 (46:26):
I appreciate so much what you do, and I cannot
tell you how much my producer loves what you guys do.
And I'm sure you're going to scare the crap out
of tons of people this season. And when you bring
back those behind the scenes tours, sign your girl up
right here, because I will absolutely do that. And as
long as nobody jumps out at me, because I might

(46:47):
punch someone at My reflexes are slow, but they're not
that slow, so I appreciate you making time for us today. Brian, Yeah,
thanks for having me.

Speaker 8 (46:55):
Happy Halloween.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
Oh back at you man, Happy Halloween to you. That
is Brian Copp with the Thirteenth Floor and I again
put a link on their buy ticket. Did you already
get your tickets?

Speaker 3 (47:06):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (47:06):
No not Yeah, I've been to so many haunted houses,
so many thirteenth Floor is by far number one, And
and here we're really spoiled with some really good ones
here in Colorado. It's still the best in the state.
It's the best I've been to.

Speaker 4 (47:19):
And have you ever been to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal?

Speaker 6 (47:22):
No? And then he tells me all the time.

Speaker 4 (47:24):
Well, here's the thing. Okay, I'm going to just give
you a little like og Halloween hornits because when I
was working at a station in Orlando, they literally started
the very first Halloween horrn Nights and we were part
of the promotional team that was promoting the entire event,
so we were out there quite a bit. Back then,
when they started this, they used to have people like

(47:45):
You'll just be walking through the park and people would
leap out of the bushes with a chainsaw at you.
It was horrible. I hated every single second that I
was there. But they had to ratchet it back because
they would allow their actors to touch people and they
had a guy have a heart attack. They had another
person turn around and absolutely flatten the actor that touched them.

(48:07):
So it's still scary, and it's still not my favorite thing.
Like I'll never go again and be perfectly happy not going.
But I think you would love it. I think you
would really really enjoy it because they have the haunted houses.
There are the haunted houses created by the minds at
Universal Studios, so they are over the top and they
are incredibly complex. Just I mean, it sounds like this

(48:27):
is the same, but you have multiple of those inside
the park.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (48:32):
The only only thing that ever deters me is just
it's it's basically a hant In house mixed with wade
in line A kajillion hours for every single haunted house
and ride and everything, And I've outside of when we
have kids, I've steered away from that.

Speaker 4 (48:44):
Well, you don't want to take your kids to Halloween Hornet's.
This is an adult event. This is not a kid
event at all. So yeah, it's it's really it's somebody else.
How expensive is the insurance policy, And that would be
a great question. How do you get an insurance policy
for a haunted house? Like you call it the insurance
cup and say, yeah, I need an umbrella policy, which
is what you would get. I need an umbrella liability policy. Yeah,

(49:04):
what are you guys doing, We're doing a haunted house? Well,
I mean, could someone die there? Probably?

Speaker 6 (49:09):
I mean, you know that's a risk you even consider.
You probably shouldn't go.

Speaker 4 (49:13):
No, probably not at all.

Speaker 8 (49:15):
Probably.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
Did you see the story and I didn't put it
on the blog or anything because it was such a
local story. Someone died at Universal Studios in their new
epic area on one of the rides. And I was like,
oh my god, how did this happen? Because I know
how thoroughly they test all of those rides, because being
a part of that. When Islands of Adventure opened in Orlando,
we were given this card because we were in the

(49:37):
media and we could just go before the park open
and go in the park and ride the rides. And
that went on for like eight or nine weeks that
it wasn't open. So I read this story, so this
man and I'm not in any way well, I am
being a little critical of the man. Who died. There's
no way to not. He had all of these medical problems,
he had just injured his back. He had all of

(49:58):
these medical issues, and he gets our a ride. It's like,
what are you doing?

Speaker 10 (50:03):
How?

Speaker 4 (50:03):
How are you not taking responsibility? When there's a giant
sign that says if you have any of these medical conditions,
you had like half of them. It's like, what are
you doing? What are people thinking?

Speaker 10 (50:13):
Like?

Speaker 4 (50:13):
Is it roller coaster worth it?

Speaker 3 (50:15):
No?

Speaker 4 (50:15):
It's not. And I like roller coasters a lot, although
as I get older, speaking of getting older a rod,
here's a fun fact for you.

Speaker 6 (50:22):
Do you know what.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
Happens to you as you get older? The liquid in
your inner ear the thickens just naturally, it just gets thicker.
And you know what that means that even though your
entire life you've been able to ride a roller coaster
without getting even the remotely nauseous, all of a sudden
you can't do it.

Speaker 5 (50:39):
Guess what, don't have to do it now anyway, So
don't care you don't ride roller coast No. No, I
like some of them, like I really did, like a
rip when eventually goes away Twister to at Elitch's. I
like roller coasters that don't do spins, don't do twirls,
don't go upside down.

Speaker 6 (50:53):
Anything other than that, I'm good. I don't know, lie
just you know, if it's in the if it's.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
In the dark, sure, if I don't know what's happening,
all right, but then what's the point.

Speaker 4 (51:01):
I don't mind going upside down. I don't mind that
at all. What what I have trouble with now is
like the Hulk roller coaster at Islands of Adventure. You
you kind of start to go up the hill and
they're doing the whole Hul thing, which was really cool.
Like the lore around that ride is fantastic. The whole
story of the ride is great. But there you kind
of click it up and then all of a sudden
it shoots you out with like the force of an

(51:24):
F fifteen taking obviously, Yeah, and that sounds like what
gets me?

Speaker 5 (51:27):
That sounds like pain and local Denver rights will know.
I don't even think it's around anymore. The Flying coaster
at Ilitch is would it would it would like hurt people?

Speaker 4 (51:35):
Is that the was that a wooden roller coaster?

Speaker 6 (51:37):
No?

Speaker 4 (51:37):
No, that's are terrible.

Speaker 6 (51:39):
No, Well that's when I like Twister too.

Speaker 5 (51:41):
At eloch Is but the flying coaster when you lay
down on your belly and you're like flying thing, and
it would hurt the hell out.

Speaker 6 (51:46):
Of people's back.

Speaker 4 (51:47):
Yeah, I don't want to do that.

Speaker 6 (51:48):
I don't even know if it's around anymore.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
Rights Now, who said Halloween horrors? Count me in?

Speaker 6 (51:52):
No horrors, boy horror, thirteenth Floor horrors.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
When when do we get back? I'm gonna tell you
why I'm not talking about Jimmy Kimmel as I talk
about Jimmy Kimmel. The great free speech Kerfuffle of twenty
twenty five is over, and I'm in a difficult position
in that I feel like I must speak about Jimmy
Kimmel even though I have no intention of watching his
video from what I just have no intention. I don't

(52:19):
care about what Jimmy Kimmel says. I don't care. I
didn't watch him before this happened. I'm not going to
watch him after this happened. And unlike sometimes i'll watch
Jimmy fallon clips after the fact, I can't remember the
last time I felt compelled or directed even to watch
anything that Jimmy Kimmel has done. So what he said

(52:39):
last night I frankly don't care about but and this
is a big butt. Many of you are on social media,
and following Kaway's social media account may have seen the
clip from ros Kaminsky that Aron already posted today, and
Ross makes a pretty impassioned request that Republicans be the
ones to stick up for the First Amendment and free

(53:03):
speech and all of the things that Donald Trump is
out over his skis on. And I have to agree
with this. I think I've been pretty fair with Donald
Trump when he does something.

Speaker 3 (53:13):
I like him.

Speaker 4 (53:14):
By the way, we haven't even talked about his speech
at the UN yesterday. It was so good anyway. But
Donald Trump is inserting himself in a way that I
am extremely uncomfortable with. Even as I don't give a
ratsass about what Jimmy Kimmel said when you were a
free speech absolutist, and I have said it a million

(53:34):
times on this show, I believe that we must protect
the right of people to say ignorance, stupid and idiotic
things that we disagree with, even hateful things, because you
either believe in free speech or you don't. So this
is one of those occasions where I find myself in
a position I don't like to be in I have
to defend the free speech rights of an idiot, and yeah,

(53:56):
I think Jimmy Kimmel is a full on, full blown
demo track activist idiot. If you look at the breakdown
of how he treats the right versus the left on
his show, the argument could be made that his entire
show is one giant donation to the Democratic Party. I
get it, I understand it, but we don't need government

(54:17):
to tell us what people can and can't say. We
can vote with our feet.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
Now.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
The problem with Donald Trump being so vocal about not
wanting Kimmel to have his showback is that now, ladies
and germs, we're going to be saddled with a Jimmy
Kimmel show indefinitely because ABC can't fire him even if
he's losing money, which I'm pretty sure he is. Because
when they announced the end of Colbert's show and the
words started to get out on how much money CBS

(54:45):
was losing on Colbert's show every year, the number forty
million dollars was bandied about. Colbert has a bigger audience
and he has probably more advertisers than Kimmel does, so
it stands to reason that Kimmel is probably a big,
fat money loser for ABC Disney. And if they had
just not talked about him, my guess is is that

(55:08):
the end of his next contract, ABC Disney would have said,
you know what, the Late Night landscape has changed so much,
what with the cancelation of Colbert, We're just gonna move
in a different direction and shed this contract and this
show of this albatross of a show and move and
do something else. We're gonna put reruns of some show
on instead. It'll be cheaper and probably more effective. But

(55:28):
now we've created a free speech situation because Donald Trump
keeps trying to intrude on content. Now the FCC can
regulate what I say to a point. They can regulate
what I say in the sense of I can't say
a bunch of curse words on the air. I can't
get on these airwaves and make blatantly false claims about
my advertisers. That's really the FTC. But still it's government.

(55:51):
But other than that, everybody who thinks that somehow I
hurt media is controlling what I say, or anybody is
telling me what I can and can't say. I can
assure you I would not be in this job as
long as I've been in it. If anyone was trying
to tell me what to say, ever, I wouldn't accept it.
And we as Americans shouldn't accept it just because we

(56:12):
like the guy in the White House now right, because
our team will not always be in charge. That is
so important to remember. So if you're excited about Donald
Trump talking about, you know, managing content, I just want
you to think what happens when the Left takes the
White House and the House and the Senate again, and

(56:32):
they will. This is how it works to you, guys,
This is how politics is. What happens then, because then
they can decide, you know what those people on talk radio.
They're saying mean things about us, so we don't like it.
We're gonna control their content, just like Donald Trump controlled
the content of Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert or anybody
else who's saying nasty things about it. Get over it,

(56:53):
President Trump. Grow a thicker skin. It's kind of required,
especially in politics. So here I find myself in a
position that I really hate. I have to defend the
free speech rights of someone I think is an idiot.
But in order to truly truly and aggressively, as we
all should protect our First Amendment rights with the same

(57:15):
vigor that we protect our Second Amendment rights, and we
should we have to be on the side of allowing
Kimmel to say exactly what he wants to say and
allowing the audience to decide whether or not to watch it.
Now here's my prediction. I'm sure ay Rudd, see if
you can find the ratings from last night for Jimmy Kimmel,
they should be out by now. I bet he had

(57:36):
the best night he has had in five years. And
you know what's going to happen. In three months, his
numbers are going to be right back to where they
were before because all of these people that are now
passionate defenders of Jimmy Kimmel's right to speak are going
to find out what we already knew. He's just not funny,
his show's not entertaining, and in three months his ratings

(57:57):
will be exactly where they are now. But now ABC
and cannot fire him lest they be accused by the
left of capitulating to the Trump administration.

Speaker 5 (58:06):
I don't see any official ratings, but in terms of
video viewed, Business Insider reports that his comeback monologue, already
the most viewed YouTube video of the year.

Speaker 4 (58:17):
Oh there you go. Another reason I'm not gonna wut.

Speaker 6 (58:19):
To the official ratings release, which has not come out yet.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
Apparently, yeah, they should be out. It should be out
by noon.

Speaker 9 (58:26):
Umm.

Speaker 4 (58:27):
Return monologue. That's eleven point two million views on YouTube.
Let's see. I got it right here, twelve thirty Kimmel
clocks I catching numbers. Hang on one second, all these
stupid pop ups on the hill are popping up and
getting in my way. Let's see here. Umm, well, never mind,

(58:49):
it's part of a newsletter, and I'm not clicking on
the newsletter. I don't want that. Don't want a newsletter.
Just want to know what I need. Okay, Jimmy Kimmel's
return to late night television on Tuesday's been the hawk
of the political world. We don't have the official network viewership.
More than eleven point four million people have watched his
monologue in just twelve hours on YouTube alone. So let's

(59:10):
be clear, you guys. Jimmy Kimmel's advertisers don't get eyeballs
from YouTube. Jimmy Kimmel's ratings are in no way going
to be affected by YouTube. So the fact that YouTube
they're going to be able to monetize that one video,
good for them. Hope they make a ton of money
in the grand scheme of things, Watching Jimmy Kimmel's monologue

(59:31):
on YouTube doesn't help him at all. By the way,
Kimmel's show as a median YouTube viewership of roughly two
hundred and forty thousand, So obviously he blew right through
that as people were waiting to see if he'd have
the decency to apologize, which you know.

Speaker 5 (59:48):
And according to Nielsen's second quarter figure, as the show
had been averaging one point seven seven million viewers, well
below we're in twenty fourteen two point four.

Speaker 4 (59:57):
Yeah, ah, he's been in the eighteen to forty ninemo as.
I mean, there is a chance that there are days
that we have more people in our listening audience than
he has in his.

Speaker 6 (01:00:06):
Early estimates are saying that last night did have a
big surge.

Speaker 4 (01:00:09):
And this is the same thing that happened when they
announced Colbert got fired. For like two weeks after they
announced Colbert got fired, all these people are like, we
have to save Colbert was and then after two weeks
they were like, God, you know this isn't it's not
that good. So they fell right back into the toilet
where they were before. Same thing's gonna happen here.

Speaker 5 (01:00:26):
I will give you my very very amateur analysis, because
I did watch the entire monologue yesterday.

Speaker 6 (01:00:32):
I thought it was pretty good.

Speaker 5 (01:00:33):
I think people were overly critical that it wasn't really
an apology, that it was a bit self serving. But
I will say amateurly, I think he was pretty authentic
and pretty real.

Speaker 6 (01:00:45):
He got choked up quite a few.

Speaker 5 (01:00:46):
Times in his mentioning of saying I had no intention
at all to joke about the murder young man, and
he had a hard time saying it.

Speaker 6 (01:00:54):
I'm a pretty good people reader. I think it was
pretty authentic.

Speaker 4 (01:00:58):
The problem is he did joke about nor you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:01:02):
It's like, you can tell me all day long you
had no intention, but you actually did it. So and anyway,
but I support his right to say such awful, garbage things.
When we get back, just for fun, we're gonna dip
our toe into some censorship by the Biden administration. And
oh boy, is it good. And in by good, I

(01:01:23):
mean not good at all. Why I think President Trump
needs to be checked when it comes to free speech,
this texter said, Uh, don't forget government regulates what you
can and can't say on your show. They don't regulate content,
you guys. They regulate curse words and lying about advertisers. Okay, really,
honest to God, that's pretty much where it stops. But

(01:01:46):
it's disappointing. The texter continues to hear, you think Trump
is the one behind this? Is Trump also to blame
for all the people getting fired for mocking the assassination.
You're conflating two different issues. The Kimmel thing isn't about
the First Amendment in freeze, It's about employers deciding their
employees or making them look bad, and the fact that
you don't understand that makes you look bad. Well, let

(01:02:07):
me game recall. Let me clarify this for you. Let
me read to you the response of President Donald Trump
from Truth Social. This is what he wrote. I can't
believe ABC, fake news gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back.
The White House was told by ABC that his show
was canceled. Something happened between then and now. Because his
audience is gone and his talent was never there. Why

(01:02:31):
would they want someone back who has done so poorly.
Who's not funny and who puts the network in jeopardy
by playing ninety nine percent positive Democrat garbage. He is
yet another arm of the DNC, and to the best
of my knowledge, that would be a major illegal campaign contribution.
I think we're going to test ABC out on this.
Let's see how we do. Last time I went after them,

(01:02:54):
they gave me sixteen million dollars. This one sounds even
more lucrative. A true bunch of losers. Let Jimmy Kimmel
rot in his bad ratings. Now if you can't hear
that and understand why the president of the United States
should not be threatening to test ABC over content he

(01:03:17):
didn't like. I mean that, you guys.

Speaker 5 (01:03:20):
Come on.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
If you want to see me fawn over Donald Trump
on the blog, go to the blog today and see
everything that I said about him at the UN because
yesterday he gave a speech at the UN then honestly
it made me tear up because I loved it so much.
So this isn't about me hating Donald Trump. This is
about me being able to recognize when he is doing
things that if a democratic president did them, and they did,

(01:03:47):
you would be rightfully upset. Here's the kicker, you guys.
I have this long thread. I had it on the
blog yesterday. We didn't get to it. I'm gonna get
to it in the next segment because I don't have
time to go into it. We now know from the
House Oversight commit that both Google and Meta actively worked
with the Biden administration to censor things they did not like.

(01:04:08):
We all knew it was happening. I mean Alex Berenson,
by the way, a journalist who did the horrible thing
of posting accurate information about COVID and the COVID vaccines
when nobody else wanted to hear accurate information. He's still
suing the government. He's still suing that Still, that case
is going to be heard by the Supreme Court. That's

(01:04:29):
a clear free speech violation that we are all upset about.
And this texter said, isn't that his freedom of speech? Guys,
When you have incredible power, and I mean, is there
anyone more powerful in the world than the President of
the United States of America, you have a responsibility with
your words. Now, Donald Trump has shown he doesn't really
care about this, the responsibility with his words. I mean,

(01:04:52):
he said things that have sent the market soaring have
sent the markets crashing. He does not seem to make
that connection that his words matter more than everybody else's.
When you have the power of the gun at your disposal,
and you have the power to subvert someone else's rights,
then you have to be a little more careful. Now
he's free to say that anywhere he wants to say it,

(01:05:12):
but does he need to put it on social media?
We all have freedom of speech, but some of us
have a greater responsibility than others. As a person on
the radio, I have a responsibility to do my best
to make sure that I'm accurate and truthful, and I
take it very seriously, which is why I'm one to
say that. Here I go defending this idiot Kimmel's right

(01:05:35):
to say the idiotic things he said, because just remember this,
I've said it before, I'll say it again. There won't
always be a Republican in the White House. And if
you want to be treated the same way with no repercussions.
Although I know it just happened, just wait until the
next segment. All we can't just give into our worst instincts.

(01:05:56):
We have to protect our rights, all of them, even
when someone we don't like his extra fizing them.

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:06:06):
No, it's Mandy Connell.

Speaker 3 (01:06:08):
Mammy, Donna.

Speaker 9 (01:06:11):
KA, ninety one Am, Say Wayne Us through three, Andy Donald, Keith, Sad, Babe, Well, Baffle.

Speaker 4 (01:06:28):
Welcome to the third hour of the show. We are
making our way through a busy broadcast. Dave and I
want to dip into something that that was on yesterday's
blog and it comes from Representative Jim Jordan, and it
goes right to the heart of the free speech discussion
that we have been having. And if you just joined
us in the last hour, I told you a couple
of things. Number One, I don't care what Jimmy Kimmel
had to say last night, but I find myself in

(01:06:50):
a difficult position of having to defend a guy that
I think is a complete moron because I'm a free
speech absolutist. So maybe my defense is like, no, don't
do that, but it's still a defense. Being sarcastic a
little bit, not really. No, Sometimes you have to defend
the speech you hate the most right, defend the right
of someone else to show you exactly who they are,

(01:07:12):
and to the texter who just sent this, Mandy, I'm
not a regular listener. Your voice makes me ill, but
I had to comment on Jimmy Kimmel. His offensive comment
wasn't marking Kirk's murder, but asserting lies from MAGA. We
watch him every night because he points out the daily
idiocy of this administration. At least try to get your

(01:07:34):
facts straight somewhat. No, I'm good, I'm fine, I'm good.
But let's talk about actual censorship, because what happened with
the Trump Kimmel situation was not that FCC chairman directly
interfered and told ABC News to go ahead and stifle
Jimmy Kimmel. What happened was he gave the appearance of

(01:07:56):
that and that was all it took. If you want
to know about censorship, and I'm sure Jimmy Kimmel didn't
talk about it. I hope this person already changed the channel.
I'd hate for them to get ill from my voice. No,
I hope I'm making them sick right now. Jim Jordan
and the Oversight Committee in the House now has not one,
but two admissions from companies that I realized don't have

(01:08:19):
the kind of pull that the Jimmy Kimmel Show has
on ABC. You might have heard of them, Facebook, you
might have heard of Google. You might have heard of
all the platforms that they don't like. YouTube what you
may have heard of them? I mean, I I'm sure
they'll make it someday. All of that's being sarcasm. I
just want to share with you a letter from Google

(01:08:43):
to the Oversight Committee, specifically about decisions that were made
during the Biden administration Number seven in a many pointed thing,
the COVID nineteen pandemic was an unprecedented time in which
online platforms had to reach decisions about how to best
balance freedom of expression with responsibility, including responsibility with respect

(01:09:06):
to the moderation of user generated content that could result
in real world harm. Senior Biden administration officials, including White
House officials, conducted repeated and sustained outreach to Alphabet and
pressed the company regarding certain user generated content related to
the COVID nineteen pandemic that did not violate its policies.

(01:09:30):
While the company continued to develop and enforce its policies independently,
Biden administration officials continued to press the company to remove
non violative user generated content. Alphabet grappled with his decision
that the administration's officials, including President Biden, created a political
atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms based

(01:09:54):
on their concerns regarding misinformation. Now, I just want to
share something. The quote misinformation that the Biden administration wanted
stifled was the kind of misinformation that journalist Alex Barrison
shared on a regular basis that, by the way, has
all turned out to be accurate. What kind of stuff

(01:10:17):
did the Biden administration try to stifle the fact that
the COVID vaccine did not prevent transmission, the fact that
the COVID vaccine did not prevent you from getting the illness,
all of these things that we now know to be true.
This is the misinformation that the Biden administration was trying
to throttle. Google continued, it is unacceptable and wrong when

(01:10:41):
any government, including the Biden administration, attempts to dictate how
the company moderates content, and no matter the political atmosphere,
YouTube will continue to enable free expression on its platform.
YouTube expanded its approach to educational, documentary, scientific and arts
to content on the platform in the public's interest Now

(01:11:04):
YouTube also throttled so many conservative accounts it wasn't even funny.
Now they've changed the entire policy, and they go to
great links here to talk about how they have changed
their policy. As of June twenty twenty four, they have
a community notes feature where people can weigh in, and
they go on and on about the well, the interference

(01:11:26):
with the Biden administration during COVID. But that's not all.

Speaker 6 (01:11:30):
That's not all.

Speaker 4 (01:11:31):
We already knew from the Facebook files that Facebook capitulated
to the Biden administration multiple times. In April of twenty
twenty one, a Facebook employee circulated an email for Facebook
CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Cheryl Sandberg, writing, we are
facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the Biden White House,

(01:11:55):
to remove posts. Now I say this partially as a
what about aism? It fully is a what about aism.
But all of these newly minted free speech warriors on
the left who are apoplectic about Jimmy Kimmel, I sure
hope that they will be demanding accountability from the Democratic Party.

(01:12:16):
But see they won't. They'll just say, oh, the Biden's
not in office anymore. It doesn't matter, It doesn't matter
he's not in office now. Trump's are exactly my point.
This is why as conservatives we have no choice but
to defend Jimmy Kimmel's right to be an idiot on television.

(01:12:37):
Maybe not on television. I mean, ultimately, you don't have
a right to a TV show. What's been remarkable is
how many people have been like, Jimmy Kimmel has a
right to that show. No. No, dear sweet person who
has never worked in media before in your life, trust
me on this. Any media organization in the world only
cares about the bottom line. And I don't mean to

(01:12:59):
be heartless, but that's their job.

Speaker 10 (01:13:00):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:13:00):
They're publicly traded companies. They have a responsibility to the stockholders.
They don't give a rat's hats about your right to
get on their airways and say anything because you don't
have one. So that's been really interesting. But this is why,
this is why we have to continue to defend free speech.
Because when these same left wingers cheer when Donald Trump

(01:13:24):
is knocked off x and they will they did last time,
we can gently remind them that truly, once again, once again,
they have spent a tremendous amount of time accusing the
right of doing what the left has been doing all along.
But now we know we now for sure. By the way,
if you want more information about that, just follow Representative

(01:13:44):
Jim Jordan on x He has a massive thread with
the details by with the receipts. I mean, it's all
in here. He's got it all. They have all the documentation,
they have the admissions from the Facebook and Google that
they just you know, in some cases rolled over and
again the kicker, the stuff they rolled over on has

(01:14:05):
now proven to be true for the most part about COVID,
and that is why we have to protect the First
Amendment all the time, no matter when it feels gross.
We just have to do it. So let's put on
our big girl pants, big boy pants, whatever, and make
sure that no matter how much we hate the speech,

(01:14:27):
we are protecting the right of someone to speak it.
Someone opened fire at an Ice detention center and we're
starting to get some information about the shooter. And he
was a young man, another young man. And what's super
unfortunate about this is that apparently his mom was quite

(01:14:48):
vocal on social media about being anti gun. And the
only reason I bring this up this is not in
any way a dunk or anything like that, because I
can't imagine being a parent, regardless of your political views,
having a child not only perpetrate this crime murder two people,
then he turned the gun on himself. So please don't
take this as any kind of like, you know, me

(01:15:11):
dancing on his grave, because I'm not. But this young man,
for whatever reason, he had anti ice written literally anti
ice written on the AMMO. And you never know how
kids are going to turn out. And with the Charlie kirkshooting,
when it became known that the family was a family
of Republicans, that started the rumor right that obviously this

(01:15:33):
kid was from the right. And there's still a huge
chunk of people that believe he was on the far right,
which is absurd. And now we have this young man
and I don't really know anything about him. I'm not
going to say his name because I'm just not going
to give these people any publicity. But you have him
coming from a family with at least a mother who
is extremely anti gun, and I don't want you to
draw any conclusions. This is what I'm saying. I think

(01:15:57):
it's just absolutely tragic that we now seem to have
what's becoming an epidemic of people who are making political
statements with firearms and in this case, turning the gun
on themselves. I mean, I just don't It's just super
frustrating and really disappointing on many many levels. Now, when

(01:16:19):
we get back, I have a really interesting story, and
I think it's fascinating because when I lived in Kentucky,
the educational system in Kentucky is horrible, especially in Louisville.
Louisville's public schools. As a matter of fact, one of
my old listeners put a comment on one of my
Facebook posts and said, Hey, Mandy, what do you think

(01:16:41):
about the de facto bankruptcy of Jefferson County Public Schools?
Jefferson County in Kentucky. Not here, And I said, I
haven't been following that dumpster fire of a district since
I left. But in Kentucky, when the national test course
would come out, I swear to you, we would always
say thank God for missus because Mississippi was always number fifty,

(01:17:04):
Kentucky was always number forty nine when it came to
the national standings for education. So I saw a story
today on hot air dot com that we're going to
get into a little bit, actually quite a bit on
the other side of the break, and the story is
about the per capita GDP of European nations. Now you
know gross domestic product and per capita GDP is gross

(01:17:27):
domestic product ofvide about how many people are in the country.
It's just a it's a big number, and it doesn't
take into account a lot of other factors. And we
talked a little bit the other day about Poland and
Japan and the difference in the purchasing power of parody,
which is really a better number to help you understand
how people in that area are actually living. Because if

(01:17:49):
the cost of living is super high, it doesn't matter
if your GDP is higher, because people are having to
spend more to get stuff. So I saw this story
about Mississippi and Mississippi's economy. Mississipi's economy is the smallest
economy in the United States. Okay, Mississippi is poor. There
are a lot of very poor people in Mississippi. But

(01:18:14):
things are happening in Mississippi that I think are so
incredibly exciting for Mississippians. Unfortunately for Kentucky because they can
no longer say thank God for Mississippi, because what Mississippi
is doing in terms of education and more is fascinating
and something that we should be paying attention to all

(01:18:34):
over the country. Is we sort of have these conversations
about public schools not teaching children how to read, how
to write, how to do arithmetic, how to do the
basic things that they need to know. What Mississippi is
doing and how it is affecting them now has them
on the precipice of surpassing Europe's largest economy. We'll do

(01:18:55):
a deep dive next. Saw this on hotair dot com
and find it fascinating. So I don't know if you
saw any of President Trump's speech to the UN yesterday,
and I saw a couple of people on my Facebook,
but it's like uns embarrassed that are at the way
President acted at the UN. First of all, I stood

(01:19:20):
up and applauded during that speech. I am thrilled that
we have a president who is not afraid to get
up in that room full of people from all manner
of repressive nations and absolutely tell them to their faces
that they are screwing their countries up. And that's exactly
what he did at the beginning of the speech. The

(01:19:41):
teleprompter wasn't working, and all I could think of was,
Holy cow, what if this were Joe Biden. Can you
imagine Joe Biden just at We're just an indefinite loop
until they could get the teleprompter working again. But President
Trump said to Europe, if you don't get away from

(01:20:01):
the green energy scam, your countries are going to fail.
If you don't stop people that you've never seen before,
that you have nothing in common with, your country is
going to fail. You are destroying your heritage. And he's
absolutely right. I am not anti immigration, but the way
that immigration has been handled in the United States and
in Europe over the last seven to eight years has

(01:20:22):
been an abject failure. People should immigrate here if they
want to assimilate here. Now, that doesn't mean that if
you come from Italy or you come from Mexico, that
you can never make spaghetti or burritos. Again, that's not
what assimilation means. But what assimilation means is you come
to the United States of America and you want to
be an American. You want to live in a free

(01:20:46):
society where you can practice whatever religion you want and
expect your neighbors to practice whatever religion they want, right,
I mean, if you want to buy into the true
American ideals, then I welcome here. I want you to
be a part of the this great nation. But what
we've seen is an influx of people from nations that
do not share our culture, that do not share our

(01:21:09):
value system, that do not share the same live and
let live attitude that a vast majority of Americans have.
And they've done it in a way that the numbers
are so large that it is impossible to expect people
to assimilate because they can move into areas where everyone
things like they do and speaks the same language that
is in English, and they can do all of the

(01:21:29):
things that they continue to do at home that frankly,
why did they leave then? But they're incompatible in many cases.
Sharia law is incompatible with Western values. It simply is.
And now we have a movement in places like Michigan
where there's small areas of Michigan where they're really trying

(01:21:50):
to live under sharia law, even though it is incompatible
with the freedoms that we enjoy in the United States
of America. Because unlike Christianity, Islam does not necessarily rely
on free will whereas Christians will try and get you
to convert to Christianity because you want to. Muslims threaten
and cajole and and do terrible things if you disagree

(01:22:13):
with them. Please, I'm making a sweeping generalization here. There
are a lot of Muslims living in the United States
of America who really don't care if you're Catholic or
proson or they just want to be able to go
to their mosque and celebrate and you know, practice their
religion freely. That's not who I'm talking about. I'm talking
about nations where you have to pay a tax if
you are not Muslim, or randomly be killed as an

(01:22:34):
infidel if you're not Muslim. And boy, the way, you guys,
there's a ton of Muslim nations in this world where
other faiths that are not allowed. So Trump called everybody
out on this, and then here was an economic chart
that is absolutely shocking. Mississippi, which is the poorest state

(01:22:55):
in the United States with the lowest GDP for capita,
is all in terms of per capita GDP, more successful
and richer than the following nations. In Europe. They have
a higher GDP per capita than all of South America

(01:23:17):
and Central America, all of Africa, a vast majority of Asia,
and all of the countries in Europe. They have a
higher GDP than Spain, than France, and they are very
close to having a higher GDP than Germany. Why does
this matter? Germany is considered the big economy in Europe.

(01:23:38):
But knowing that per capita GDP is not really a
great way to measure economic success because it doesn't necessarily
translate that everybody has the ability to buy what they need.
So I went to my favorite economic statistic, the purchasing
power parity number the PPP. Purchasing power parity means that
they factor in the cost of living. So if you

(01:24:01):
and I used this example yesterday with Japan, if you
go to Japan and you get air that cost fifty dollars,
a country with a better purchasing power parity, it may
only cost five dollars, right, So I looked up I
used chat GPT to look up the purchasing power parity
between Mississippi and the nations in Europe. Now, Mississippi, they

(01:24:22):
kind of had to guess, and Chat told me like, look,
there's no specific number for PPP for each state, but
using their GDP and other information. We have determined that
this is probably their PPP, and without exception, they are
either the same or their PPP is lower in Mississippi

(01:24:46):
than it is in other countries, meaning that the people
in Mississippi have more buying power with their dollars than
the people in Italy do, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Poland all
the Nordic nations, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Luxembourg. I mean,
come on, you, guys. Germany is higher than Mississippi, but

(01:25:07):
not by much. And part of the reason is that
they've all gone all in on green energy. Germany is
crippling its industrial economy. There's not going to be any
industry left in Germany because they are jacking up prices
on energy so much that industry cannot afford to do
business there. So the United Kingdom today is on average

(01:25:31):
per person, forty percent poorer than the average person in
the United States of America. Now, one of my most
prolific responders on Facebook a guy named Tony. He's like, look, Mandy,
I grew up in Mississippi. You're not taking all this
into consideration. And don't get me wrong, Mississippi has some
significant issues. But I want to share with you something

(01:25:54):
about Mississippi that you may not know, and it's something
that we should all be paying attention to. As we
struggle in Colorado with black kids, Hispanic kids, and kids
from low socioeconomic backgrounds. They are struggling and struggling mighty
in Colorado schools. Mississippi, which once ranked near the bottom

(01:26:18):
of the United States education rankings, has dramatically improved its
student literacy rates. As of twenty twenty three, the state
ranks among the top twenty for fourth grade reading. That
was in twenty thirteen. Ten years ago, they were in
forty ninth place in fourth grade reading. Do you know

(01:26:38):
what they did? They decided in Mississippi that they were
going to make sure every kid could read. And they
didn't bring in some new age BS curriculum. They said,
how do kids learn to read best? And they went
to evidence based policy reforms, things that said things like
phonics really works, and they start in making sure that

(01:27:01):
more than anything in Mississippi schools, they were going to
make sure that not only could everybody read, but they
could read well. So right now, here are the stats
for Mississippi first in the nation for academic growth in
grade four reading, in math since twenty eleven. Ninth in
the nation in grade four reading, sixteenth in the nation
in grade four math. First in the nation in reading

(01:27:23):
and second in math. Mississippi's Hispanic fourth graders compared to
their Hispanic peers in all other states. You heard me right,
First in the nation in reading and second in math
for Hispanic students. First in the nation for economically disadvantaged
fourth graders in reading and second in math. Third in
the nation in reading in math for African American fourth graders.

(01:27:48):
And this has all happened because Mississippi decided that they
were going to make sure their kids could read. Now,
I was looking up. Somebody asked me, like, Okay, what
stats are you looking at? There are various there's various
ratings that you can see for education across the country.
Colorado in most rankings comes in around nine or ten. Overall,

(01:28:09):
we're like ninth or tenth. So until they factor in
school safety. When they factor in school safety, we fall
and fall and fall dramatically. What if you're just talking
about academics, we do pretty well, We do really really well.
But I want to point out another success story that
I'm very familiar with, and that is Florida. When I

(01:28:32):
went to school in Florida, I would say the public
schools were not good. They were not great, at least
the public school I went to. We were not exactly
blazing a trail in Florida. You know, nobody was coming
to Florida to go to K through twelve because our
schools were so good. But then Jeb Bush took over
as governor, and one of the things he did was
decided that at a bare minimum, every kid in Florida

(01:28:53):
was going to learn how to read at a good
level and a strong level. And so Florida schools have
focused like a laser on making sure that kids can read.
And now Florida is number three in the nation. Do
you know who's above Florida in this ranking? I'm looking
at number one, Massachusetts. I interviewed a woman from Massachusetts.

(01:29:14):
She had resigned from the No Child Left Behind board
who was coming up with standards. Wait, not the No
Child Left Behind board.

Speaker 3 (01:29:21):
She was.

Speaker 4 (01:29:23):
Gosh, wait, let me just think about this for a second.
She was on some board that was determining standards, maybe
the SAT I can't remember. It was so long ago,
but we talked about schools in Massachusetts. And the reason
schools in Massachusetts are so good is because about twenty
years ago, the schools in Massachusetts did something that nobody

(01:29:43):
else is doing. They raised the standards. They raised all
the standards for every kid. They actually made them harder.
And the reason she stepped down from whatever board, and
I wish I could remember what it was, but I can't.
The reason she stepped down is because they wanted to
to lower standards. I want to point out how this

(01:30:04):
all comes to a local head right here, the Cherry
Creek School District, which I know when I say the
Cherry Creek School District, if you've lived here for any
length of time, you probably think to yourself, well, they're
obviously one of the best. They're actually moving backwards in
their level of achievement. They're moving backwards in how well
our students are performing. At the same time that they

(01:30:25):
are also doing away with valedictorians in school. Huh. They're
going away from featuring kids who perform at a high
level because they don't want the kids who didn't get
to be validatorian to feel bad. They're spending a tremendous
amount of time and energy creating programs to hide a

(01:30:46):
gender transition in their schools from the parents, and they
have taken their eye off the ball of academics. But
you can fix that. You can fix all of this.
We can help the kids in this state because, as
I said before, if you look at our overall scores
in Colorado, and I have a great, great, great column

(01:31:08):
by Aery Armstrong linked on the blog today with all
this information in it. He's got all the numbers Black students,
Hispanic students, and students who come from poor backgrounds are
They're not okay in Colorado schools. They can't read, they
can't do math, They're at a level of functional illiteracy,

(01:31:29):
many of them. And why that's not a state emergency,
I don't know, because I kind of think it is.
I think if we have any demographic in our schools
that are testing proficient in reading at a thirteen fourteen
percent level, how is that not an alarm that we're
sounding every single day? But Mississippi has shown us the way.

(01:31:54):
At the same time, we can look at this story
about Mississippi and Europe and go, wow, Europe is really
screwed up, and they have We can also look at
what's happening in one of our states. And this is
the beauty of the United States of America. This is
what makes our country so good because every state can
self determine their path. And we here in Colorado, we

(01:32:14):
can look at these numbers of kids that are not
learning how to read, and they're not learning how to
do math, and they're being graduated from high school, by
the way, without any of these skills. They're just being
socially promoted along and they're graduating from high school they
can't even read. Now we can look other states have
cracked the nut. For us, we already know what to do.

(01:32:36):
We just have to do it. It's really not complicated.
It's actually, dare I say, kind of easy. We just
have to make it important. We have to make it
our focus. When I saw the graduation, no, I was
looking at Sea Mass scars. Guys, there are districts in

(01:32:58):
the metro area and an I'm just going to say it, Aurora,
I'm looking at you. Then if they were a private business,
they should have been out of business a long time ago,
because you got one job, and that is to educate students,
and based on test scores, that's not happening at all.

(01:33:18):
And if I'm on the Aurora school Board, if I'm
an Aurora principle, you better believe I'm calling up people
in Mississippi and saying, please help me, what did you do?
What curriculum are you using? What kind of teacher development
did you do? Because we need to do it here,
but there's too much ego and there's too many union

(01:33:38):
interference to do anything like that. That's anyway. So that's
my thing. It's all on the blog today. You can
check it out. Lots of stuff. Oh we haven't even
talked about TAPOR refunds.

Speaker 2 (01:33:51):
What what.

Speaker 4 (01:33:55):
Wait a minute, if Rick Lewis is in the building,
he better get into this studio right now. Ay Rogers
said words I never want to hear. He said, of
the day may not happen. Well, it's time now, it's
two fifty right now. I mean, let's just should we
just I'll just play against myself. Should I just do that?

(01:34:15):
You know you've already prepared the question. Oh I see
so uh no, no that I was keenan so disappointed.
Get Jojo? Where did Jojo go? Make Jojo come in here,
next victim. That's how I feel sometimes nobody wants to
play my dumb game, and I actually lose some times,
I don't win all the time.

Speaker 3 (01:34:36):
Huh.

Speaker 4 (01:34:37):
Should we just take a phone call and let somebody play.
It's guys, it's so hard on the phone. It's not
it's not the same. It's really challenging on the phone.
So I'm just gonna sit here quietly for the next
three minutes and twenty seconds and completely just I'm just
gonna be quiet. Let's read some text messages, Mandy. They

(01:35:00):
should also be teaching drivers at in school, guys. I
don't want our school. And don't get me wrong, I
took drivers at and I had the creepiest teacher in
the world who would reach across his teenage female passengers
to quote, check our seat belts. Yeah, I bet anyway,

(01:35:23):
Cherry Creek School District still has follow fellow validict wait
still has fellow Victori. No, Cherry Creek did away with valedictorians.
Cherry Creek validic torrean change. Let's see here. Uh yeah,
Colorado District no longer recognizing valedictorians. Students in Cherry Creek

(01:35:46):
schools head back to class on Monday, but beginning with
a graduating class of twenty twenty six, the district will
no longer recognize valedictorians and students won't be given the title.
The district says it's outdated and inconsistent process, but some
former and current students don't agree. Okay, so there you
go that from CBS four. They have absolutely do rhyme time.

(01:36:10):
Oh gosh, why haven't we had rhyme time in a while?

Speaker 3 (01:36:14):
Ralph?

Speaker 4 (01:36:14):
The Dems have given away our table refunds to their
usual batch of losers. Yeah, I'm just gonna let that stand. Hi, Mandy,
I completely support Ice in the work they're doing, except
that they cannot be masked. Arrest people for doxing them,
but they can't wear a mask. I actually feel much differently.
I just don't think that we should put our Oh,

(01:36:34):
get in here. Rick lewis coming in for the last minute.
We're gonna do a speed round. You ready, It's gonna happen.
It is going to happen. Mandy is saying you learn
to read, then read to learn. Holds true. Absolutely. Rick
lewis TikTok, TikTok? What is going on with you? Just

(01:36:57):
put those headphones on, those giant uncomfortable headphones that are
there the meeting with the boss. Nonsense?

Speaker 8 (01:37:07):
Oh look at these cameras.

Speaker 4 (01:37:08):
Yeah, time for the most exciting segment on the radio. Great, Okay,
now you yell in the world. Are you gonna yell it?
Who's gonna yell it? It's a speed round, rick. Are
you ready?

Speaker 8 (01:37:19):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:37:20):
Yes, you are? What is our dad joke of the
joke walked in? You're fine?

Speaker 6 (01:37:23):
Never ever spell part backwards. It's a trap.

Speaker 4 (01:37:28):
Okay, word of the day. Please, they're not good jokes,
they're just joke.

Speaker 5 (01:37:31):
Word of the days of noun. Come on computer work
with me here. No, it's bond mode b O N
m O T. No, it's his m o h.

Speaker 6 (01:37:42):
How you pronounce it? On most.

Speaker 4 (01:37:45):
A bond thank you, isn't I it's something good because
bond means good. It's a it's a good base of
good news.

Speaker 2 (01:37:52):
Wrong.

Speaker 5 (01:37:53):
I'm gonna say a good man, a witty remark or comment,
a clever saying.

Speaker 4 (01:37:59):
I have lots of those my show. I practically bond
moo all day, all the time. Okay, what is our
oh trivia question? Where's this ginger plant believed to have originated?
I'm gonna say China. Like everything started in China, Turkey.

Speaker 8 (01:38:14):
I'm gonna say the Middle East. Somewhere in the Middle
East is India considered the Middle East?

Speaker 4 (01:38:23):
India is considered Asia, and the answer is Southeast Asia.
Ginger is known to have been in use in India
and China since Christian time. What is our jeopardy category?

Speaker 6 (01:38:35):
Internal rhymes?

Speaker 2 (01:38:37):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (01:38:37):
Okay, rhyme here?

Speaker 8 (01:38:39):
What does that mean? Internal rhymes?

Speaker 6 (01:38:41):
Just waity Ryan, you'll get it after the first one.

Speaker 5 (01:38:44):
This term for an important person sounds like a giant
tu pe.

Speaker 4 (01:38:50):
All I can think of is would you like to
see my hairpiees?

Speaker 5 (01:38:55):
And you'll get a big wig Okay.

Speaker 8 (01:39:00):
Rhyme Okay, that's that's a good one.

Speaker 5 (01:39:01):
Monotonous, boring or lacking variety equals this rhyming word.

Speaker 6 (01:39:06):
I've never heard this one. Wow, good luck boring.

Speaker 4 (01:39:11):
I don't know. We don't have time to waste.

Speaker 6 (01:39:13):
Humdrum.

Speaker 3 (01:39:15):
There you go. Okay.

Speaker 5 (01:39:15):
It's a sturdy carryall worn by hikers as well as students.

Speaker 4 (01:39:19):
Mandy, what is a backpack?

Speaker 6 (01:39:20):
Correct?

Speaker 8 (01:39:21):
I was just about to jump in there.

Speaker 5 (01:39:23):
You gotta jump into the National Association of Wanderers says
you can still be this four letter term even if
you never wrote a freight train.

Speaker 6 (01:39:31):
Rick, correct, Hey, is that one?

Speaker 3 (01:39:34):
One?

Speaker 5 (01:39:34):
That's one we're t This adjective, meaning unkempt and varied,
is often applied to disorganized armies or militias.

Speaker 6 (01:39:43):
This one's hard, but I've heard this one.

Speaker 4 (01:39:48):
I'm sitting on a tie right now. I'm not yet.

Speaker 5 (01:39:50):
It is ragtag and we're gonna go to Greens real
quick quick. Joe Riposo wrote the words and music, but
this character first saying it's not easy being green.

Speaker 4 (01:39:59):
Who was Kermit?

Speaker 6 (01:40:00):
That is Kurt?

Speaker 4 (01:40:01):
All right, thanks for coming in, Rick, Are you going
to do this? Are you doing on the KO Sports today?

Speaker 3 (01:40:06):
Yes?

Speaker 8 (01:40:06):
I am okay, yeah, Rick, luis a fine just so
tired of being humiliated by you.

Speaker 4 (01:40:11):
Well, if you just get in soon or it's so easy,
I just walk in and you put me right on
the spotcast you were late? All right, we gotta go
because your show is coming up next. We'll be right back.
Keep it on, k