10-17-25 FULL SHOW - Jimmy Sengenberger Fills in For Mandy with Don Sheehan, Gordon G. Chang and Michael Swett

Episode Transcript

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

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

Speaker 3 (00:10):
On KOAM ninety four one FM.

Speaker 4 (00:15):
God Wady Kens three.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
And sad bab gd I one more day.

Speaker 5 (00:44):
Jimmy Sangenberger here with you on KOA day number five
and glad you're around out the week once more for
Mandy Connall, thanks so much for joining us a ride.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Of course, bye in the glass.

Speaker 5 (01:01):
Because when you hear the harp going at the beginning,
that means it's, as Mandy calls it, the bat signal.
But you need Commissioner Gordon to go turn on the
bat signal, and so you know that a rod's behind
the glass when it's going.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
How you doing there, brother? Doing good man? It's a
happy Friday. Two weeks to Halloween.

Speaker 5 (01:21):
Can you believe it? You are excited? I could tell
you you're wearing a pumpkin sweater today. Always you gotta
rock the holiday season for the fall one.

Speaker 6 (01:32):
That's just it.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
That's Halloween. Do you know what you're gonna be here?
You dressing up?

Speaker 7 (01:37):
I am Unfortunately I had a secret, so I cannot
tell you I was Superman. A couple of weeks ago
for an event so up at the Speedway. So I've
been Superman so far. Who knows what else will come
out from under the woodwork. I don't know what we
will be.

Speaker 8 (01:52):
Yeah, figure that out.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I gotta figure that two weeks to do so, yeah, yeah,
get it together two.

Speaker 5 (01:57):
Weeks from today and then the day after Halloween playing
some music yet in the zone and Golden to the
Junior Blues Band in November one.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
So that'll be a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
And you know what.

Speaker 5 (02:07):
You know what's not fun though, being on the school
board in Denver public schools. Even more being a student
or a parent or a teacher in Denver public schools,
that's much worse even than being on the school board,
because you have to suffer through an absolutely terrible school board.

(02:30):
But and you might have heard me sort of tease
out today's column when I was talking with Ryan during
our crossover. Is dbs's board on the verge of needed change. Well,
I begin the column with a For some, it's a
blast from the past. For me, he's just never lost

(02:51):
from my radar. And that's good old Tay Anderson. He
was on the school board and then two years ago
he decided not to run for reelection because he'd had
such a scandal ridden term and his approval rating in
one poll was nine percent. I'm pretty sure that's even

(03:13):
worse than Congress. Maybe I'm mistaken, but because they're pretty
darn low all the time these days, but nine percent,
single digits. So he decided not to run for reelection.
But he's such good buddies with Scott Eesserman and Michelle Quadobaum,

(03:34):
who were sitting members on the board that oh, they
hired him to work their campaigns. Now, if you're not
familiar with Tay Anderson, he was most notably censured in
twenty twenty one after a district investigation found that he
had aggressively pursued inappropriate relationships with underage students and intimidated witnesses.

(04:00):
And I can go on and on about the specifics
of that investigation because I covered it very closely, very
much in depth, and quite honestly, most of the media, surprise, surprise,
consistently have downplayed how that report, or rather what that
report actually entailed, regarding minors age sixteen and seventeen, in

(04:22):
terms of the kinds of conversations and the fear that
one of them had that they might run in to
him and so forth like not good stuff. But he
remained on the board after being censured until he decided
not to run for reelection. But again that didn't stop
Scott Eserman and Michelle Quadlebaum, his allies on the Denver

(04:43):
School Board, from hiring Day to run their campaigns for
DPS board seats that fall, but nor did it stop
them from voting to make him board vice president afterwards
or hiring him again, as I mentioned, for their current
reelection bids for the board on this falls ballot. Now,

(05:07):
all three of them have so many different issues of
frankly corruption that have gone on a Kay and Tay
Anderson and Michelle quad Obaum.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
At one point, I.

Speaker 5 (05:19):
Think when he hosted a screening it was either of
a Black Panther Wakanda Forever, or it was The Little Mermaid.
Tay Anderson and Michelle Quadlebaum joined forces for one of them,
but held taxpayer funded.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Private screenings of those movies, and.

Speaker 5 (05:43):
Esserman quadalbaumb Tay on financial issues. They'd work together all
kinds of stuff and needless to say, back during the
time that Tay Anderson was wrapping up he gave a
spot final speech on the board, and I had been
critical of the fact that he went way over the
school board members budgets to travel around the country and

(06:07):
his in his part, he went to basically taxpayer funded
vacations at conferences.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
And he was very, very pleased with himself for being
able to go and.

Speaker 5 (06:17):
Travel the country, so much so that I was sitting
back there in the hall and he'd gotten down from the.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
As to the podium that.

Speaker 5 (06:30):
The public speaks at because he has to be around
the people, right, and I got a little shout out.
I got to share this before we move on with
what's happening in DPS.

Speaker 9 (06:39):
I have been able to travel across America, Yes, Jimmy,
across America.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Sharing the great work that we have been doing, that
we have been doing.

Speaker 10 (06:50):
I was at the back right corner of the room
and he literally turns his head to look at me
and point out Bradley that he's been able to go
across America because he was a school board November.

Speaker 5 (07:04):
So many issues and problems with Tay Anderson, not the
least of which he's also kind of like Wanda James
on the CU Board of Regents, all too willing to
attack people based on race and weaponize the race card's
That was the way in which Tay Anderson was able
to get away with so much. And Esermon and Quadobaum

(07:27):
were a big part of that, and they've hired him
to run their campaigns. But when and Guadalbaum ran before
for the Denver School Board the first time, the Teachers'
Union backed them both. But this time the two of
them have lost the union's endorsement and with it, its money,
as the union has made.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
A tactical retreat.

Speaker 5 (07:51):
Quite frankly, when you're losing the union's endorsement, that shows
just how bad you really are. I would chalk it up,
as I write in today's column in the Denver Gazette,
to a pattern of poor judgment. Another example with Esserman,
he joined Tay Anderson in twenty twenty two in publicly

(08:12):
humiliating a manual high school JROTC instructor, falsely blaming him
for a district decision and accusing him of racism in
front of the students and parents. The instructor told me
back then, quote, I didn't even know who these two

(08:32):
individuals were until they introduced themselves and started attacking me.
After fifty minutes of being berated, I thought, is this okay?
And of course it isn't okay. But Esserman there was
proudly flouting board policy. We are not supposed to be
currently involved into operational decisions.

Speaker 8 (08:51):
He said.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
But to hell if I'm going to stay silent when
I see something going on, all lies publicly humiliating a
JROTC in instructor right there when it was the district's
fault for pulling the program from there.

Speaker 5 (09:04):
But they were blaming him and saying it was racism
on his part. Their current campaign manager, Ty Anderson, even
continues malicious antics like this and the current races. This
week he out rageously attacked and I may talk more
about this later. A female critic of Scott Aserman and
Superintendent Alex Morrea on Facebook saying, in part quote, I

(09:26):
pray that everything your ancestors did to mind comes back
on your entire bloodline for ten generations. That's the campaign
manager for Essermon and Quadlebaum, showing such wonderful judgment right
on the part of all three. Then, in twenty twenty three,
admitted debate over restoring school resource officers to DPS schools

(09:49):
after they'd been removed because Anderson.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Pushed for it.

Speaker 5 (09:53):
Michelle Quadlebaum hijacked Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas's briefing with
an eighteen minute diatribe. When the president of the school
board at the time, Soci Gaytan, cut her, mic Anderson
stormed down, berated staff and dared Gaytan to arrest him.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Civil rights activist ALVERTA.

Speaker 5 (10:12):
Simmons called out the board, calling it a clown show
and said they ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
But it didn't stop there.

Speaker 5 (10:21):
Now Esserman and quad Obaum are helping to drive a
crusade against the fellow board member and secretary John young Quist,
burning more than seventy eight thousand dollars in taxpayer money
on an investigation into extraordinary claims that young Qis mistreated
certain staff members. But their attack comes as young Qus

(10:42):
to criticize the board for violating open meetings loss, which,
by the way, is one of the big problems from
Denver Public Schools, not just the current board, but for
years and especially under the superintendent Alex Morero and the
district's legal council Aaron Thompson, both of deserved to.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Get the boot many times over. There was even an.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
Illegal executive session where a judge said, oh, you got
to release the recording of this meeting, a meeting that
happened the day after the East High School shooting on
May twenty second of twenty three. They went behind closed
doors in an illegal meeting. Just one of many examples.
In fact, Denver's school board has just consistently failed.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Open meetings rules.

Speaker 5 (11:28):
They've exhausted the public's trust, and the board even handed
Superintendent Morrero a cushy contract extrench contract extension.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
They gave him even more job protections months.

Speaker 5 (11:43):
Before they evaluated him on new metrics put in place
in January. So January, here's the new metrics. Oh, and
they were mostly crafted by Morrero himself. A few months later, Oh.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
We're gonna give you a contract extension. We're going to
protect your job more. Don't worry.

Speaker 5 (12:00):
We'll get to evaluating the superintendent later after we've given
him the contract extension.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
That's Denver Public Schools, and on it goes.

Speaker 5 (12:09):
No wonder the union ditched the duo of Esserman and
Quadalbaum for candidates DJ Torres and Monica Hunter, which is
a big brutal hit for the duo of esermen in QUADOBAM.
Last cycle, the union donated to each of them between
fifty seven thousand and sixty seven thousand, five hundred dollars

(12:33):
in monetary and non monetary contributions. That's from both the
local affiliate Denver class from Teachers Association and the statewide
Colorado Education Association. This time, without union backing, Esserman has
raised nineteen thousand, and quad OBAM has made seventy four

(12:53):
one hundred dollars, along with sixty one hundred dollars she
had in the bank at the beginning.

Speaker 11 (13:00):
That's it.

Speaker 5 (13:02):
But even worse, most of that spending is going to
good old Tay Anderson. Esserman has paid him ten thousand
three dollars through his business, Good Trouble Consulting, pulling from
the late John Lewis and his phrase, you need to
get into good trouble.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
That's the name of Anderson's business. That's seventy two percent
of Esserman's total expenditures so far have gone to Tay Anderson.

Speaker 5 (13:29):
Michelle Cuadobaum has given twenty five hundred, which is fifty
three percent of her expenditures, along with by the way
and ipopping thirty two percent of her expenditure is going
to delinquency fees with the Secretary of State's office.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
Not very good.

Speaker 5 (13:43):
I mean, as I write in my column today, talk
about losing your mojo while subsidizing an ex colleage who
booted himself from his own seat on the board after
a scandal raiding tenure and a nine percent approval rating,
that's doubling down on disaster.

Speaker 11 (14:02):
Now.

Speaker 5 (14:03):
Since the twenty twenty three shooting shootings at East High School,
morera the superintendent hasn't addressed school safety truly. He revised
disciplinary guidelines at a discipline matrix that tied school's hands,
still refusing to let them remove violent students, and meanwhile,

(14:24):
he's actually fought in court multiple school safety related lawsuits,
including several cases brought by former staff, like the two
deans that were shot inside East High School. At the
same time, dps cause historic graduation rate of seventy nine percent,
they celebrate an accredited green status from the Colorado Department

(14:48):
of Education, but the district scores barely squeaked by at
accumulative fifty seven point six percent, and four and ten
schools are still on an improved and planner worse. In Denver,
only twenty six percent of Black and Hispanic students grades
K through eight can read a grade level twenty six

(15:08):
percent among high schoolers who are being celebrated.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
When they graduate. Oh, look at our graduation rate.

Speaker 5 (15:14):
Well, Black and Hispanic students just forty two point three
percent of proficient in reading and writing. Just twenty one
percent meet math expectations. So at the superintendent level, Morrero
and his married data spinners keep flouting accountability to parents,
to kids, to the public when it comes to achievement, safety, transparency.

(15:40):
Anyone in the public who's been following all of these
antics has to be fed up right now, which is
why the November fourth elections coming up are absolutely critical.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
They'll give parents and others a chance to turn out.

Speaker 5 (15:56):
Vote, to push out the status quo and elect candidates
who are willing to join change minded people like John
young Quist who I mentioned, and Kimberly Sia were both
elected two years ago when parents were pushing back at
the district. Then only one incumbent that's running for reelection,

(16:19):
Soshi Guaytan, retains union support. Remember I said, Esserman and
quad Obama have lost the union backing. There was another
candidate in twenty twenty one who had union support, which
was doctor Kerry Olsen.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
She's the president of the school board.

Speaker 5 (16:32):
She's term limited and then Soci Gayton, former president of
the school board, and when she was president, she earned
kudos for being the lone adult willing to occasionally challenge
Anderson Esserman and quadalbam So, such as the example I
talked about before regarding the clown show. But at the

(16:52):
same time, Gaytan is champion Superintendent Alex Morero in his
outrageous contract extension. She's defended the districts failed attorney Aaron Thompson, who,
as I mentioned before, has enabled the board secrecy for years,
including a very shady way in which Morrero's.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Contract terms for that extension I talked about were developed.
That's another story, and I've written about it in the
Denver Gazette previously. Now here's the really interesting thing.

Speaker 5 (17:25):
The union's checkbook might actually be signaling that in Denver
the Tide is turning against its own. Ilk contributions to
its four candidates. That Sochikaitan, DJ Torres, first name escapes
Me Hunter and Amy Klein Milk. Their contributions from the

(17:48):
union totaled just forty eight one hundred and thirty nine dollars,
which is still a lot of money in school board race,
but it's a far cry from the two hundred and
forty two thousand dollars that the union spent in twenty
twenty one, twenty percent. Four years ago, the union spent

(18:08):
five times more on their union backed candidates than they
are spending this year, when Esserman, Guyton, and Quadalbaum individually
drew more than this year's entire union slate combined has
gotten from the Teachers' Union. I call it saving face

(18:30):
by pulling out from supporting Esserman and Quadalbaum and then
giving a little bit of money, less money than previously
historically to their backed candidates this time.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
That's saving face.

Speaker 5 (18:47):
I mean, really, there are six union candidates in this election,
not four, supposedly they say therefore, but there's the newcomers
that the union just enduresed and the incumbents, including Esserman
and Quadalbaum, that they previously installed help create this mess,
and of course those two are the union giving them
the cold shoulder. This is called buyer's remorse. Again, there's

(19:10):
an open seat being left by the President carry Elson.
There are three incumbents on this falls ballot, Denver voters
have the chance to send a clear, unequivocal call for
something better to complete a clean sweep that they began
two years ago. Now, who knows if this will happen,

(19:30):
But only then if it does happen, only then will
the board finally realized the genuine mandate to prioritize school safety.
And we got some stuff on Jeff COO to talk
about in that regard to to boost academic achievement, restore transparency,
clean house.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
The district leadership. Frankly, like Jeff co kids first would say,
put kids first, and frankly the teachers who support them.
I think there are a lot of signs for some
change to come.

Speaker 5 (20:00):
Change is gonna come in Denver public schools, one can
only hope, but we'll see what happens. Be sure to
pay attention closely to vote if you are a Denver resident,
and to check out and share my column with Denver Gazette.
Today is DPS's bored and the verge of needed change.
I'm Jimmy Sangenberger, just getting started filling in for may Connell,

(20:23):
Canada first centennial mayor.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Don she enjoys me on the other side, on KOA.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
It's devastating whenever you lose an icon like this, it's
always very very sad and rocking the whole music world
and the kind of way you'd rather not have it
rocked alas here we are.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
May you rest in peace.

Speaker 5 (20:43):
Paul Daniel Ace Freeley, who passed away yesterday, Rest in peace,
and thanks for all your amazing contributions to music rock,
especially as we know it, and more more about the

(21:04):
the imagery, the way in which you kiss helped to
break barriers and reshape some of the the ways in
which you could view.

Speaker 11 (21:15):
Rock.

Speaker 5 (21:15):
And it's just there's there's a lot there, but we
got to get to our guest on the line. He
is on the city council for Centennial and he's running
for mayor of Centennial. Don Chean returns here on KOA. Sir,
good morning, rather good afternoon, and welcome back.

Speaker 11 (21:33):
Thank you, Jimmy, Good afternoon to you too. Hey did
you ever see a kiss in concert?

Speaker 6 (21:37):
I did not have you Okay, no, never did, but
I remember.

Speaker 11 (21:42):
You know, not long after they became popular, that was
one of the more popular Halloween costumes, were you know,
to paint your face and do the whole bit so Yep, yeah,
that's too bad.

Speaker 5 (21:52):
That's part of what I mean by the image and
the sort of revolutionizing there. So that's that's for darn shore.
So let me take a step back though. Who is
Don Sheen and why are you running for mayor Centennial.

Speaker 11 (22:07):
That's a big question. Well, I've been in city government
now for about six years. I was elected first in
twenty nineteen, just in time for the pandemic to pretty
much close everything down and everything became zoom.

Speaker 8 (22:21):
If you remember.

Speaker 11 (22:23):
But I've served for six years. Also served on a
variety of different boards around the area, the Southeast Metro
Stormwater for example, and I'm a liaison to one of
the park districts here in the city. And really enjoy
what it is that all of that brings to the table,

(22:44):
and enjoy working with the citizens and shaping what the
future of the city is going to be. And we
weren't a young city. We've only been around for about
twenty five years. But by all majors, we get great
marks from folks we talked to about what's going on.
We did a survey, for example, in June of our
citizens and almost sixty percent of the citizens strongly approve

(23:08):
or somewhat approve of the job that we do as
a city providing public services and projects and programs for
the residents. We've got a good thing going and my
intent is to continue in the next twenty five years.
Not going to be mayor for.

Speaker 6 (23:25):
Twenty five years, but you know, keep us on that
same path, make sure that.

Speaker 11 (23:29):
We are responsible the way we spend taxpayer money, make
sure we became we stay a safe city, and do
all the things that make Centennial a great place to
live again.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
We're talking with Don Chian, who is running for mayor
of Centennial. When you look at the key issues, another
sort of broad question, what are a couple of things
that to you or top of mind in terms of
that vision of another twenty five years of good things
for Centennial. What are a couple of things that you

(24:00):
want to do as mayor to keep that trajectory, Donchian,
We've always.

Speaker 11 (24:05):
Gotten good mark for being a safe city. Of safe city,
meaning you feel comfortable in your homes, on your roads,
your kids are safe in the schools, and that's something
that I think is just sort of basic. That's a
basic essential service that we provide as a city.

Speaker 6 (24:23):
And we'll continue to do.

Speaker 11 (24:24):
We have a phenomenal relationship with the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department,
that is who provides our law enforcement in the city
of Centennial, and they work well with us, We work
well with them. It's just really it's a very it's
a very good relationship and we'll continue that.

Speaker 8 (24:42):
You know.

Speaker 11 (24:42):
The other thing, the second thing maybe is just the money.
You know, we take into most of our revenue comes
in from sales taxes, certain when we get property taxes
that comes in.

Speaker 6 (24:55):
Our revenues are growing, as you.

Speaker 11 (24:57):
Can imagine, but not growing as quickly as we see
expenses growing. So it's going to take the management to
get through the next couple of years maybe and keep
things at a reasonable level and make sure that we're
doing the right thing, make sure that we're doing we're
efficient and spending taxpayers money really well. And then maybe

(25:22):
the last thing that is kind of maybe a little
inside baseball, if you will, but we see a lot
of In fact, you had Mike Mayor Kaufman on yesterday.

Speaker 5 (25:32):
Yeah, I was going to ask you, okay, okay, you're
going to talk about home role a little.

Speaker 11 (25:36):
Bit exactly Home and home You kind of boil it
right down. It's our ability to all our own shots.
What do you want to have in a neighborhood. Is
it a single family neighborhood. Is it a neighborhood with
multifamily and retail and office and all that kind of thing.
We've seen a lot of intrusion by the State of Colorado,

(25:57):
by the legislature over the last couple of years, telling
us what we need to do or how we need
to operate our city. And it's gotten to a point
now where in May you saw six cities file a
lawsuit against the State of Colorado and the governor. Just recently,
and I think Mayor Kaufman talked about this yesterday. They

(26:18):
filed an injunction against the governor who has said, well,
you know, there's all this grant money out there for
building houses and what have you, but you folks that
don't meet those qualifications haven't lived up to what I
think you ought to do. We're not going to give
you the money, or we're going to put you at
the end of the list, maybe so that you know
whatever's left over, I mean, maybe you'll get some money

(26:39):
to do some housing things.

Speaker 8 (26:40):
Sure, that's just not right.

Speaker 11 (26:44):
I mean, we have a constitutional right. The Colorado Constitution
tells us that we're allowed to make our own decisions
on how we want our city, our land used to
be in our city.

Speaker 6 (26:57):
So those are the big three things I.

Speaker 11 (26:59):
Think right now.

Speaker 5 (27:00):
Yeah, certainly, this whole rule issue, it really goes to
encroachment from the legislature on the local municipalities. And so
one of the things we just got a couple of
minutes left with our guests, Don she and candidate for
mayor of Centennial. One of the things that really stands
out to me about the role of mayor as well,
especially when you're thinking about encroachment from the state, is

(27:23):
the relationship with state legislatures, the legislators and other statewide officials.
How do you look at that dynamic and the way
in which you would approach sort of representing Centennial's interest
as a city to those in state government.

Speaker 11 (27:40):
Well, we have a good example, I think, and maybe
the big example that I would follow is our current mayor,
Stephanie Pico.

Speaker 6 (27:49):
She is very active in testifying.

Speaker 11 (27:52):
In front of the legislator when the legislature is in
session and portraying the local point of view.

Speaker 6 (28:00):
But also has a very good.

Speaker 11 (28:02):
Relationship with the legislators here and stands up for what
is home rule, and that I think is very important.
You've got to have a working relationship with those folks
now you don't agree with them necessarily, and you need
to be able to present your side of the argument
when in an legislative committee or downtown in front of
the legislature itself. That is key and that is critical

(28:25):
and you need to be able to do that now. Unfortunately,
sometimes you can be judged by the company that you keep.
And I don't mean to get too nasty here, but
my opponent is very much in bed with a lot
of those legislators that have spent a lot of time
taking away and infringing upon our ability to make our
own choices from a home rule standpoint, and that's where

(28:47):
I think I will be a little different. I will
bring that standing up for what is right for the
city of Centennial.

Speaker 5 (28:54):
Don seeing what's the final word from you? As ballots
are now in people's hands, and where can folks go
to learn more about you and your campaign for here?

Speaker 11 (29:05):
To learn more about me, you can go to don
for Centennial dot com. That's my website. There's also a
website that's not part of my campaign, but it's an
interesting website that talks about some of the encroachment on
home rules called defend Centennial dot com. And I would
recommend to get a full picture of what's going on,
go there, take a look read all of that. My

(29:27):
contact information is on my website. If you have any
questions of me, there's a phone number, there's an email address,
feel free in a formatually you can fill out. Feel
free to ask me any kind of questions.

Speaker 5 (29:39):
And by the way, it is a non partisan race.
You are a registered Republican though, is that correct?

Speaker 8 (29:44):
That is true, yes, but.

Speaker 11 (29:45):
It is nonpartisan. And I just you know, potholes don't
have a party. When you call and say we've got
a potole in front of our house, we do not
ask what's your party affiliation. We just come out and
fill it.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
And that's exactly how it should be.

Speaker 5 (29:59):
Don fantastic candidate for Centennial mayor, doing great work on
this Centennial City Council. Thanks for joining us today and
best of luck on your campaign.

Speaker 11 (30:08):
Thank you, Jimmy, it's always a pleasure.

Speaker 8 (30:09):
Have a great weekend.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Thank you my friend.

Speaker 5 (30:11):
Once again, Don she and running for mayor of Centennial
Donfcentennial dot Com. We're going to take a break. More
on the other side, Jimmy and Formandy on Kawa.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Good to be with you.

Speaker 5 (30:20):
Speaker Mike Johnson was on CNBC yesterday and he was
asked about the issue of healthcare, which is one of
those center point subjects to the whole government shutdown fight
where the Democrats are saying they're going after Obamacare funding
for important supports in the healthcare program and all of that. Well,

(30:46):
Speaker Johnson was very clear in saying, this isn't a
healthcare fight, and quite frankly, he's got a point, and
he explains exactly why he's saying what he's saying.

Speaker 9 (30:55):
Let me tell you something, This is not a healthcare fight.
This is a very simple funding fight. It always was.
They have created a red herring. The subsidies don't expire until.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
The end of the year.

Speaker 9 (31:06):
We were always planning to have the thoughtful debate and
deliberation over that in the month of October and November
before the subsidies expired. They know that they grabbed that
issue from the end of the year and pulled it
back into September to try to pretend like that was
the issue.

Speaker 8 (31:22):
It never was. Now, let me say this about the subsidies.

Speaker 9 (31:27):
It needs a dramatic amount of reform if indeed they're
going to be extended.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
Because as you know, there was no income caps.

Speaker 9 (31:33):
You have very wealthy people getting subsidized for health care.
It was a COVID era patchwork situation that the Democrats.

Speaker 8 (31:40):
Did on their own.

Speaker 9 (31:41):
And by the way, they voted to put the extension
the expiration date on it at the end of twenty five.
They did that themselves. Why because they knew it would
have been absurd to try to extend it any further.
It has driven the cost of health care up dramatically.
There's no hide protections in that program. So the point
is that is a very complicated issue. We have five

(32:02):
hundred and thirty five members between the House and Senate.
This is a deliberative legislative body. It takes a while
to find consensus on an issue that complicated.

Speaker 5 (32:11):
They know that a high Amendment restrictions refers to abortion,
and restrictions in this case on with the High Amendment
federal funds for abortion.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
So he's like, well, that's a concern.

Speaker 5 (32:25):
There are a lot of issues here, and the Democrats
want to act like this is some existential moment and
this has to be addressed as part of the government shutdown.
And yet it's their own fault for setting the expiration
date this way, and it is not actually essential to
make it happen like this full stop. As he explained,
this is why the past couple of days you've heard

(32:46):
me say Democrats bear more blame for this shutdown than
Republicans because they have a hill that they at this
point are willing to die on that is not the
right hill.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Address it for the longer term coming up by the
end of the year.

Speaker 5 (33:00):
Get that sorted out, get the funding going now so
government can get reopened. Great explanation from Speaker Johnson. There,
I'm Jimmy Sangenberger, Filly in for Mandy Connell. On the
other side, we'll be joined by Gordon G. Chang to
discuss China and South Korea. Some big things happening over
in Asia. Keep it here on KOA.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
No, it's Mandy Connell.

Speaker 8 (33:32):
On KOA.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
Ninety four one FM.

Speaker 4 (33:37):
Got Canne.

Speaker 5 (33:46):
Sad time now for the second hour Jimmy Sangenberger here
with you in for Mandy Connell on KOA One More Day,

(34:11):
And yeah, that means a little bit of harmonica, which
I remember a few years ago being at the leadership
program of the Rockies Retreat down at the broad Boar
when I did a video interview with my next guest,
and during the interview I brought out the harps and

(34:31):
played a little harmonica, and I'm sure he shall remember it.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Gordon G.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
Chang is the author of a number of books, including
recently China Is Going to War. He has lived and
worked in China and Hong Kong. Writes for all kinds
of outlets, articles appearing in The New York Times, The
Wall Street Journal, American Conservative, so many others. He's all

(34:57):
over the place on cable news, in talk radio and more.
But I haven't talked to him in a little while,
so I'm very pleased to welcome back Jordan G. Chang,
who you can follow on x at Gordon Gordon. Excuse me,
Gordon G. Chang, sir, welcome back to KOA. Good to
talk with you.

Speaker 12 (35:16):
Thank you, Jimmy. And even if you hadn't mentioned that,
I was going to say that probably that was your harmonica,
because I remember that so very well.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, absolutely, it's It's a fun and underrated instrument if
you ask me.

Speaker 12 (35:31):
Certainly, certainly, and I very much enjoyed it, as did
Lydia and my wife, so oh we're glad to hear
it again.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Absolutely, No, I love it.

Speaker 5 (35:38):
Every time I fill in a rod behind the glass,
will plug it in at the start of each hour,
so you gotta love it.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
And something else.

Speaker 5 (35:47):
Look, let's just says we're on the personal stuff here.
People don't see hear a lot of these kinds of things.
But one other thing that we had fun with when
I was doing a webshow and partnership with the Washington
Examiner called Jimmy at the Crossroads, I learned that you
are a big Star Trek fan as well, are you not?

Speaker 12 (36:06):
We certainly are. I grew up on it, which tells
you how old I am. But yeah, we used to
watch it o or I used to watch it all
the time.

Speaker 11 (36:14):
So well.

Speaker 5 (36:15):
By the way, this past summer, when on Mandy Connod's show,
she and I interviewed William Shatner mister Captain Kirk himself.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Wow, which was amazing.

Speaker 5 (36:26):
That was a lot of fun, and I may have
gotten scolded by him on the air, which was pretty
darn cool.

Speaker 12 (36:37):
What did you do?

Speaker 5 (36:38):
So as I can, I might be able to actually
pull it up here and you can hear again Gordon
g Chang as we have a little side conversation, I think,
what was it?

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Here we go?

Speaker 5 (36:51):
You know what, I am finding the clip from earlier
this week because I played it here you go. You
can hear live on KOA in July, William Shatner scolding
Jimmy Sangenberger. When you go to a convention like this,
what does that mean to you personally and professionally and
in particular as well? What role have they really had

(37:11):
over the last coming up next year sixty years in
helping to keep Star Trek not.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
Just alive, but thriving. Okay, so you know what that's
called it that's called a compound question.

Speaker 11 (37:22):
It is.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
A couple of a million questions.

Speaker 8 (37:26):
I don't know where to start. I don't know, Jimmy,
let me talk. That's part of the interview.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
There you go, there it was Gord to you, jag yeap.

Speaker 12 (37:36):
That is great. That is so cool.

Speaker 5 (37:38):
Yeah, it was a lot of fun, and we'll definitely
stick in my memory forever. So let me then ask you,
kind of segueing into the topic at hand, is the
Chinese Communist Party and what they're doing across the globe
more like the Borg or the Romulins or is there

(37:59):
another comparison and that you find more app from Star
Trek for the Chinese CCP.

Speaker 12 (38:04):
Well, I think of them as the Romulans, but they
probably believe that they're the Borg, as they believe that
they are so magnificent that they will just absorb you
and become like them. But right now the Communist Party
is in turmoil. We don't know exactly what's going on.
But on Monday they start what's called their Fourth Planum

(38:27):
it's technically the fourth Planem of the Central Committee, and
they're going to talk a lot about economic issues. But
the real thing that people are looking at is Siegimping's faith.
He could come out of this stronger than ever by
vanquishing his enemies, or he could actually be deposed. And
we have scotten the little evidence over the last twenty

(38:49):
four hours. As China's Defense Ministry today announced that nine
senior officers were sacked, a lot of them were Siegimping's loyalist,
including his number one loyalist in the military, General Howe Dong.
So that's a real indication that s has lost control
of the Chinese military, which is the largest faction in
the Communist Party. That doesn't bode very well for him,

(39:11):
and it's possible by Thursday, when the planeum ends, that
China will have a new leader.

Speaker 5 (39:17):
But my understanding was that he was supposed to be
president for life as of a few years ago.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
That can change.

Speaker 12 (39:27):
That changed for two reasons. First of all, his policies
have failed and they've made China's problems even worse. And
because he has near total accountability, he has nobody else
to blame. But also, by taking an unprecedented third term
as General Secretary of the Communist Party, he prevented a
whole generation of up and coming Chinese leaders of getting promotions,

(39:50):
and so they're not very happy about that. So there's
a lot of people, even siegmping loyalists, who would like
to see the guy go because when he goes, everyone
gets moved up a notch, and that means there's a
lot of people who are actually looking to get rid
of him.

Speaker 5 (40:07):
According to you Chang our guests, So let's shift into
China trade policy. We'll get to rare earth in a moment,
because that deserves its own separate discussion, and we'll have
that in a moment. But first, President Trump has the
date of November first set to slap one hundred percent
more tariffs on all Chinese goods coming into the United States.

(40:28):
What is your take on that and how the President
has waged the American side of this trade war?

Speaker 12 (40:35):
Well, right now, the Chinese have really pushed him, and
they did that a week ago by announcing the Enhanced
Rare Earth rules, which are essentially more than just rare earths,
they would strangle not only the American economy, but a
lot of others as well. So Trump really had no
choice but to announce November one, he will increase in

(40:57):
Chinese tariffs on Chinese goods undred percent, and that takes
a lot of Chinese goods into one hundred and fifty
five percent territory, which is essentially an embargo or ban
on Chinese goods when you think about the economic.

Speaker 11 (41:10):
Effects of it.

Speaker 12 (41:12):
This has really been, you know, at a point where
the Chinese have just pushed and pushed and pushed, and
Trump has got you know, He's been very reluctant to
impose costs on China, but now I think he is
at a point where he's going to have to.

Speaker 5 (41:29):
Is this though, with regards to rare earth the escalation
from China's side from the United States already slapping higher
tariffs earlier this year after President Trump took office, and
then that was sort of the next logical step because
that's the greatest point of leverage that the Chinese Communist
Party has in the US.

Speaker 12 (41:51):
Yeah, I guess they got two points of leverage. One
is where earth the other's pharmaceuticals, and from Beijing's point
of view, and you hear this from their propagand that
they're merely responding to President Trump's measures, But we got
to get close and effect right. And basically there's a
trade war, not because Trump came in with his tariffs,

(42:12):
either this term or his first one in twenty eighteen,
but really because for decades China's been waging a trade
war against the United States with predatory and criminal practices,
and presidents before Trump have complained, but they've done relatively little.
It was only until Trump imposed the Section three oh
one tariffs in twenty eighteen that we really saw something

(42:35):
meaningful in terms of defending the American economy and American
workers when we.

Speaker 5 (42:42):
Look at this approach to China trade and look, I
got to be honest, I have the same position I
had years ago when you and I but it heads
a little bit over trade. I'm a no tariff guy,
and I'm not in favor of waging an American side
in trade wars.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
I don't think that's that's the way that we should go.

Speaker 5 (42:59):
But I think that if you're going to target China
in this manner as we have, one of the problems
is that you need to have other countries engaged and
involved in right now. That's what the Trump administration is
largely trying to do visa v Rare Earth, is to
get other countries to say, we're going to sort of
ban together in this respect. But when you're simultaneously waging

(43:23):
trade wars with massive tariffs on allied countries, doesn't that
make it a little more difficult to bring about the
kind of united front that you need to engage in
some kind of a back and forth over economics with China.

Speaker 8 (43:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (43:38):
I couldn't agree with you more. The way that Trump
has waged this trade defense really is not good. I mean,
what he should have done was gotten the world on
his side and then launched the tariff war on China.
That would have been much smarter, much more effective. We'd
be in a better place. But clearly you're right now.

(44:00):
On the other hand, of course, the Chinese are making
it easier for Trump because these new rare earth rules
they target not just the US but everybody else. And
so that's creating a coalition against China. So China is
shooting itself in the foot after Trump shoots us in
the foot.

Speaker 5 (44:18):
Let's listen Gordon Ji Chang to Scott Bess and the
Treasury Secretary just yesterday as he talked about this question
of decoupling with China, which means basically, we're no longer
dependent on each other.

Speaker 8 (44:31):
We don't want to decouple with China.

Speaker 13 (44:33):
I don't believe they want to decouple, but this rarer
export control is a sign of decoupling.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
We need them, don't we. Sorry, we need those rare
earth minerals, don't we.

Speaker 8 (44:44):
We do.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
That's leverage that they have on We have.

Speaker 8 (44:46):
Lots of leverage on them too.

Speaker 13 (44:49):
We unfortunately, we have semiconductors right aircraft engines, many many,
many minerals that are also important for their supply system.

Speaker 5 (45:02):
What's your reaction to what the Treasury Secretary said there, Gordon.

Speaker 12 (45:06):
Well, he's right, but he did not mention the most
important leverage, and that is last year China ran up
a two hundred and ninety five point five billion dollar
merchandise trades serplus against the United States. China's been never
more trade dependent in its history. They can't replace the
US market, which counts for about thirty four percent of
global consumer spending. The communist parties could very well fall

(45:30):
over this because if they're shut out of the US market,
there is no way that they can replace US. So,
you know, the Treasury Secretary needs to state his arguments
in a more forceful way because he's got a lot
of arguments that he just didn't play in that clip.

Speaker 5 (45:46):
Now he said, he doesn't that we don't want to
decouple with China. He doesn't think China wants to decouple
with us. How do you view this notion of decoupling. Basically,
we're not dependent on them, they're not, and it not us.

Speaker 12 (46:01):
Kind of certainly doesn't want to decouple from everybody because
they need everybody else's markets, but they need our market
more than any other countries. We need to decouple because
we are enriching a hostile regime that has declared us
to be an enemy and which is configuring its military
to kill Americans. And you know, I hope we get

(46:22):
through this without war. But you know, Jimmy, when you
look at history, when in history have you had a
militant regime that talks about going to war all the time,
that is fast preparing for it, that hasn't gone to war.
So I'm not saying war is inevitable, but I'm saying
war is increasingly probable, and we should not be helping
the Chinese improve their military. It's as simple as that.

(46:45):
It's a strategic reason. There's a moral reason.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
To this, fair enough.

Speaker 5 (46:49):
If at the same time, though, Gordon, the American economies.
You think of farmers as one example, and we have
a heck of a lot of agriculture that depends on
foreign trade, and that includes and I'm here in Colorado
and that includes with China.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
You can see soybean.

Speaker 5 (47:04):
Exports have just as absolutely plummeted because they have not
been sent out to China. They're not purchasing American soybeans,
and indeed they're looking elsewhere to other countries, including like
I think Argentina, to purchase soybeans because they got to
find other outlets for it if the American price is
just too prohibitive or it's not the market that they

(47:27):
want to continue to buy at this time. And it's
hurting American farmers. And that's just one aspect of our economy.
This notion of decoupling, I think decreasing our reliance on
China is something that we have seen in the past
five years. We know that that's possible, but a complete decoupling,
I just don't see how that is in any way,

(47:48):
shape or form, realistic and appropriate given the circumstances of
how significant global trade China and otherwise is to the
United States and frankly, making as affordable as possible of
a living as we can as Americans.

Speaker 12 (48:06):
Well, that was a compound issue. Okay. First of all,
we Americans have pursued misguided China and trade policy for decades,
and we can't think we're going to get out of
this without real pain, and so we're going to have
to do that because China's forcing us to do things
we don't want to do, you know, with regard to

(48:28):
the farmers, I think President Trump should go forward and
do what he just said he's going to do and
what he in fact did in twenty eighteen, and that
is used terror for revenue to compensate farmers who have
been hurt. Now this year, we have not sold a
single soybean to China, and yes, soybean farmers are.

Speaker 8 (48:46):
Really being hurt.

Speaker 12 (48:47):
But remember right now, there is only so much acreage
in the world devoted to soybeans. So if the Brazilians
and the Argentinians are going to sell soybeans to China
more than they have in the past, we're going to
sell to Brazil's and to Argentina's customers. Next year, it's
a problem because Brazil can burn up more of the

(49:07):
Amazon and turn it into agricultural land, and that will
be a real problem for American farmers. But right now
will be okay. But as I said, Trump needs to
go forward and start compensating farmers from teriff revenue.

Speaker 5 (49:23):
Let me ask you one other thing related to China
we have seen, and I think it's in part Gordon G.
Chang a response to concerns over China in a variety
of areas. We have seen an increase in the American
government purchasing stakes of ownership in different companies. Intel is
one example, but there are a number of them. It's

(49:43):
a growing list. I have a problem with the idea
of essentially becoming more like China to defeat China.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Our strength is.

Speaker 5 (49:53):
Really and as a friend of mine was pointing out,
our freedom not in state control.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
And so if we're going in that direction and in part.

Speaker 5 (50:00):
To combat China by allowing more government ownership of the
means of production, I have a real deep issue with that.

Speaker 12 (50:09):
Yes, and this is not peacetime, though we are in
an emergency situation.

Speaker 11 (50:14):
Now.

Speaker 12 (50:15):
We can talk all day about whether the federal government
should have taken a ten percent stake in Intel, but
the federal government needs to do something about rare earths,
and private industry has not been able to do it.
At a minimum, we need price floors, a guaranteed price
floor for products rare earth products, because China has been
using predatory pricing to prevent the US from developing rare

(50:38):
earth mining and rare earth processing. And if it requires
the federal government to actually own minds, then we're going
to have to do this because this is critical. This
is a question of the survival of the United States.
So yeah, we don't like it. This is not a
good solution, but China's forcing us to do things that
we would otherwise never consider doing. And we've got to

(51:00):
have a different mindset because this is no longer piece Jimmy.
This is war by other means. The Chinese talk about war,
they talk about us being the enemy, and if we
don't start listening to us, we're going to lose our country.
Remember we did not listen to Osama bin Laden. We
did not even listen to him after he killed six
Americans in nineteen ninety three by bombing the North Tower
of the World Trade Center. We Americans have got to

(51:23):
start listening to what our enemies say, or we're going
to lose more Americans. This is just critical.

Speaker 5 (51:28):
I've only got a couple of minutes left, and I
wanted to ask you about South Korea because I don't
think anybody else that I've really noticed has been talking
about the concerns of things happening in South Korea. In fact,
several years ago you came out with a short book
entitled Losing South Korea. What's happening there right now from
your assessment, Gordon GJ.

Speaker 12 (51:49):
Yeah, the new president E J. Mung hates the United States,
he loves China, he loves North Korea. He's doing everything
possible to turn South Korea, which is now democracy, into
a dictatorship, and possibly a communist dictatorship. People in South
Korea aren't on board with that. They love the United States,
but they may have absolutely no say in this. We

(52:11):
can see a dynamic that we saw in Venezuela where
you had a prosperous capitalist society become what it is today.
So this is really dangerous and the United States is
probably in a pickle right now because it doesn't know
exactly what to do. But we could see a communist

(52:31):
South Korea in let's say six months, nine months. I'm
not saying it will happen. I'm saying this is the trend.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
And what does that mean in terms of North Korea
thirty seconds, Well, it.

Speaker 12 (52:44):
Means that North Korea will take over South Korea very well,
because you've got basically communists and North Koreans running the
South Korean government right now. They seize power and they
did it almost technically legally, but they did it and
they stole a couple of elections, so that wasn't legal.
But clearly right now we've got a situation which is

(53:07):
really serious.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
One to watch is South Korea for sure. Gordon G.

Speaker 11 (53:12):
Chang.

Speaker 5 (53:12):
I wish we had more time, my friend, but great
to talk with you today. Thanks so much for joining
us on KOA.

Speaker 12 (53:18):
Yeah, and say hello to William Shottner for me time.

Speaker 5 (53:21):
You better believe it, Thank you, sir. All right, follow
him on x at Gordon G.

Speaker 11 (53:27):
Chang.

Speaker 5 (53:27):
We got to take a break more on the other side, Jimmy,
and for Bandy again KOA believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Colorado's title Board.

Speaker 5 (53:35):
That is the body that finalizes language of initiatives that
show up on the ballot and determines whether or not
and this is the key part a proposal for the
ballot is a single subject, which is required under the
state constitution. The constitution says any ballot initiative must just
be about a single subject. Well, Colorado's title Board, which

(53:59):
is often pretty liberal in the way they approach things,
may have just saved the day when it comes to
changing the way taxes are done here in the state
of Colorado. That is to say, the title board on Wednesday,
this from the Denver Gazette unanimously rejected two ballot measures

(54:23):
that had been proposed by a policy think tank, the
Ballot Policy Center. It's a progressive outlet that would change
the state's flat income tax rate, where everyone currently pays
the same four point four to one percent, to a
graduated income tax, where people with incomes of up to
five hundred thousand dollars would get a small tax cut

(54:46):
and those who earn more would see an increase. And
let's just be clear on what the implications would be here.
It's not just that you would see the wealthiest to
get tax increases. It would do two things. One, most importantly,
it would fundamentally change how taxes are done in this state.
You open the door to first have one new tax bracket.

(55:11):
Then you make it possible for the legislature to go
in there or others. And too, especially because at least
one of these proposals I think would bypass Tabor in
that regard, if I recall correctly, that was my understanding,
and they could add more brackets, and that's what happens.
That's how it starts. You have a flat tax, then

(55:33):
you add in a bracket, then another bracket gets put
in there, in another and another, and then eventually you
have like the federal tax code, where you have a
bunch of different tax brackets, and then there's much more complexity,
whereas in Colorado it's very simple. It's really simple to
figure out your taxes in Colorado because it is a
single rate, flat tax state. And if we're going to

(55:57):
have an income tax in Colorado, as we do, it
should remain flat tax. So number one, that would have
been the biggest damage. And number two, we are already
seeing businesses struggle and a disincentive for investors and business
owners to come to Colorado, which has been a tech state,

(56:20):
high tech state, big on space and so forth. And
if you're going to tax those owners and those investors
more with that higher tax bracket on top of everything else,
you are adding another disincentive to come to Colorado and
create jobs. But that's quite frankly what happens when left
wing tax policy is put in place. Thank goodness, here

(56:43):
in Colorado, we have voters who will vote for Democrats,
they'll vote for police, they'll vote for all the other
statewide Democrat positions are put Benett in his senator, probably
as governor, and then vote down tax increases or vote

(57:03):
down attempts to undermine the tax payer's bill of rights
tabor and our ability to vote for tax increases, or
our ability to restrict spending increases, and so forth. So
back to the title Board again, this body that sets
the final language of an initiative shows up on the ballot,

(57:27):
and this would have been for.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
Next year's election.

Speaker 5 (57:30):
The title Board concluded that two of the three measures
that the Bail Policy Center submitted violate this Constitution's prohibition
on ballot measures having more than one topic, again this
single subject rule.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
The title Board heard to and rejected both.

Speaker 5 (57:51):
The third waits a hearing with the title Board, but
is similar to the two rejected on Wednesday, reports the
Denver Gazette. The proposed contain a dozen tax brackets, with
the highest levels set to a crew up to hundreds
of thousands more in liabilities, while cutting them for individuals
at the lower end of the proposed spectrum. That's the

(58:12):
whole idea is they wanted to get you confused as voters,
or to manipulate you as probably the better word.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
That's what they were going for.

Speaker 5 (58:22):
Oh hey, let's add this higher tax bracket, but you're
going to receive a little bit of a tax cut
at the lower end. And look, I could use it.
I'd certainly benefit from the tax cut, but not at
the expense of fundamentally changing how we do taxes in Colorado.

(58:46):
It would be disastrous, But that's what they were trying
to do to get voters to say, yeah, sure, I
want a tax cut.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
That's okay. We can tax the rich more and tax
me less.

Speaker 5 (58:59):
At the lower end could see their taxes cut by
a few hundred dollars. At the highest end ten million
dollars are above. Individuals and businesses could pay hundreds of
thousands more each year. Again, that's the disincentive to move
to Colorado or to remain in Colorado and create jobs here.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
The money generated by the ballot ballot.

Speaker 5 (59:20):
Measures, should voters approve it next year, would bring in
about two point three billion dollars annually. As proposed, the
money would primarily go toward K through twelve and higher education, childcare,
almost the workplace initiatives, and healthcare programs, all these nice
little things.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
That's let the government go ahead and do it. Nonsense, nonsense.

Speaker 5 (59:47):
There was a legal challenge here as well, by the way,
represented by an attorney at Brownstein Hyatt, Farber and Shrek,
arguing that the measure based on the single subject rule
against the measure based on that and challenging the removal
of the surcharge language. Well, the title board has struck

(01:00:09):
him down, and the third one is probably going to
be in the same boat. Thank goodness for that single
subject rule in the constitution, because it prevents bad stuff
like this, but also prevents very complicated measures from happening.
That is to say that you can't put in a

(01:00:29):
bunch of gobbledegook into a ballot proposal, which can then
cause all kinds of problems, complexities in the law or
what have you, or sneak something by the voters. That's
a good component. Just as the single subject rule is
in place for the state legislature.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
Same thing.

Speaker 5 (01:00:50):
You can't have a massive in one hundred thousand page bill,
thousand page bill, including all kinds of things.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
It's not allowed in Colorado. And thank goodness for that.

Speaker 5 (01:01:03):
Some things in the Constitution from that to Tabor to
the one hundred and twenty day limit on the legislative
session every year, very good stop gaps against runaway government.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Glad that those are in place.

Speaker 5 (01:01:16):
Frankly, thank god for them, because they keep this state
from going even more into the depths of chaos than
we already are. I'm Jimmy Sangenberger filling in for Mandy Connell.
We've got lots more coming up as we continue on KOA.
Here on KOA as I Jimmy Sangenberger sit in for
Mandy Connall. So earlier we heard Speaker Mike John Johnson

(01:01:39):
say this to Joe Cernin from CNBC yesterday.

Speaker 9 (01:01:42):
Let me tell you something. This is not a healthcare fight.
This is a very simple funding fight.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
It always was.

Speaker 9 (01:01:49):
They have created a red herring. The subsidies don't expire
until the end of the year. We were always planning
to have the thoughtful debate and deliberation over that in
the month of October and November before the subsidies expired.
They know that they grabbed that issue from the end
of the year and pulled it back into September to
try to pretend like that was the issue.

Speaker 8 (01:02:10):
It never was.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
And he calls it a red herring.

Speaker 5 (01:02:13):
Well, Johnson is backed up on this point by none
other than Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who said
the other day at a forum on News Nation, the
Democrats want the shutdown and designed the healthcare expirations to happen.

Speaker 14 (01:02:29):
Now, that's why shutting the government is really what the
Democratic Party wants to do. And I follow country, then party,
and it's the wrong thing for the country in a
period of chaos. I refuse to vote to shut our
government down.

Speaker 8 (01:02:42):
I absolutely would love to have.

Speaker 14 (01:02:49):
I would love to have a conversation about extending the
tax credits for healthcare. Absolutely, but I would remind everybody too,
this was designed by the Democratic Party to expire at
the end of the year. This is not something taken
from but by the Republicans. That's they were designed to expire.
Now let's have a conversation to extend it and not

(01:03:10):
shut our government down.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
Fascinating.

Speaker 5 (01:03:14):
Now, the first part, you don't actually vote to shut
down the government. Rather, what happens is you don't vote
to fund so there is no vote to shut down
the government. That was a throwaway line, but he's right
in the respect that Democrats want to shut down to
make this point about health care in particular, and they

(01:03:35):
designed the expirations to happen end of this year.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
They don't need to get to it now.

Speaker 5 (01:03:42):
It is, as Johnson says, a red herring, it's irrelevant
in the continuing resolution.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
This is why.

Speaker 5 (01:03:50):
And I mentioned this earlier, but the last couple of
days I was saying Democrats deserve more blame for not
all the blame. Both parties do deserve some blame. Democrats
deserve more blame and responsibility than Republicans for the shutdown.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
And this is a big reason why.

Speaker 5 (01:04:09):
They have said we are going to do this regarding
healthcare and Obamacare subsidy funding, and we're not going to
vote to fund the government unless you comply on this point.

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
And it was already set up.

Speaker 5 (01:04:25):
To expire intentionally the end of this year, so they
could make budget numbers work for the Democrats wanted before.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
I think it was.

Speaker 5 (01:04:34):
Under Biden. Might have been further back under Obama a
decade ago, I want to say, but either way, Democrats
were in charge.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
At that point in time, and this is what happened.

Speaker 5 (01:04:48):
And now the consequences are here and they're out of
power and they're making a big stink. Johnson articulate and
right on the money on this one, and John Fetterman
backing him up quite fa fascinating in those dynamics. I'm
Jimmy Sangenberger in for Mandy Connell, our number three up
ahead on KOA.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bell and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
No, it's Mandy Connell.

Speaker 3 (01:05:19):
On KOAM ninety four one FM.

Speaker 4 (01:05:24):
God Waken, there.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Many sad thing for a final hour.

Speaker 5 (01:05:49):
Jimmy sang in Berger in for Mandy here on KOA
one last time on this busy, busy week.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 5 (01:05:58):
Be sure to follow my latest columns and more, and
you can email me twenty four seven three sixty five
all from my website Jimmy Sangenberger dot com. Keep in
mind there's no AI or you in Sangenberger. It's all ease,
all the time. Once you know that Sangenberger is eazy,

(01:06:22):
gotta love it. So last night the Jefferson County School
Board got together and had their meeting where they had
massive public comment. They extended public comment because there were
so many people there who wanted to talk about school
safety issues. It was really the first big opportunity to
do this since last month's terrible and horrifying shooting at

(01:06:50):
Evergreen High School, absolutely tragic, and the heroism of the
two boys who have survived is remarkable when you hear
these stories, and that makes it all the more why

(01:07:11):
you'd expect the school board to at least have some
level of understanding of what's going on and where they're
coming from, especially after hearing from a great man, a
fine spokesperson for school safety, an advocate for kids, John Castillo,

(01:07:32):
who is the father of the late great hero Kendrick
Castillo in the Stem School Highlands Ranch shooting in May
of twenty nineteen. And John actually came out and spoke
to the board and here's a little bit of what
he had to say.

Speaker 8 (01:07:51):
We need to address it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
We need to fund it.

Speaker 15 (01:07:55):
When I hear things like money is an issue, we
need to have no levies. We need to raise taxes
for SROs. You know, we have declining enrollments, we have
vacant buildings, and we have assets that we could lease
that we can.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
Sell to pay for security. We need to do that.

Speaker 15 (01:08:13):
I find it ironic that law enforcement agencies all the
way in New Jersey have reached out to my wife
and I and they're training dogs that smell guns that
are going to be in New Jersey schools.

Speaker 2 (01:08:24):
But here in Colorado.

Speaker 8 (01:08:25):
You know, we're so sorry for your lost.

Speaker 15 (01:08:28):
John and Maria. Maybe we can honor your son somehow,
But what are we doing for other kids? What are
we doing for our educators. We have to be bold, courageous,
do the right thing. We need people who are on
this board to show up and go down and legislate

(01:08:51):
for laws and things. They're gonna protect kids powerfully.

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
Well said, and by the way, I do have to
know listen this part again.

Speaker 15 (01:09:01):
You know we have declining enrollments, we have vacant buildings,
and we have assets that we could lease that we
can sell to pay for security.

Speaker 5 (01:09:09):
Well, I want to make a quick side note that
Jefferson County Public Schools is prime to sell a building,
a property valued at around twelve million dollars of market
value to the city of Lakewood for four million dollars,
and then the city is going to turn it around
and sell Emory Elementary, the former Emory Elementary, which by

(01:09:34):
the way, had two point six million dollars in building
upgrades before they closed it a few years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
Emery is going to be sold from the city to.

Speaker 5 (01:09:46):
The Action Center, a nonprofit that particularly supports the homeless,
for just a million dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:09:52):
There's more to it than that check out.

Speaker 5 (01:09:54):
I've written about this multiple times in my columns in
the Denver Gazette.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
Detail it quite a bit.

Speaker 5 (01:10:01):
But this is a twelve million dollar possible valuation, like
possible purchase price somewhere near there.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
Who knows, could be less.

Speaker 5 (01:10:11):
But that's the market value, and that's the appraisal from
the city or from the county. So the assessment from
the county, and they're giving this deep discount. And here
we're having hearing John Castillo say, look, you got these
vacant buildings, you can sell them and use them for
a school safe Yeah, but they're not doing that, and

(01:10:33):
he really put a pin.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
On it at the end with these powerful words.

Speaker 15 (01:10:37):
They just want to close with seeing this. You know,
those two boys that are in the hospital that did
what Kendrick did. I hope that they have a great
recovery and they live a full life. But the reality
is we know that the struggle for their families in

(01:10:57):
this community will last for years.

Speaker 2 (01:11:02):
Let's do better, Thank you, Let's do better well later
after public.

Speaker 5 (01:11:09):
Comment, Aaron Kenworthy one of the board members that had
been by the way, installed by the union, because it's
a one hundred percent union backed board, a union elected board. Previously,
Aaron Kenworthy said something rather astonishing, and the tone deafness
here is, well, it's astonishing for.

Speaker 16 (01:11:28):
One of the gentlemen. I wanted to say, safety is
actually a privilege. It is not a right, and it
cannot be guaranteed, which is incredibly hard for any parent
to say to their child. But it is true in
the culture and the time that we live in. It's
not just in schools, it is in movie theaters. It's
happening at grocery stores and in public parks, and also

(01:11:52):
in schools.

Speaker 8 (01:11:53):
And so.

Speaker 16 (01:11:56):
I wish that I felt that I could walk through
this world and titled to safety, but I am not.
And there are people in this world who have never
experienced a feeling of safety, and may not in their lifetime.
And so to expect that we can guarantee safety for
ourselves and for our children is an unfortunate, untruth. It's

(01:12:18):
we just cannot guarantee it. We can do everything we
can to support it. But I wanted to say that
because safety absolutely is a privilege. Feeling safe is a privilege.

Speaker 5 (01:12:30):
Safety absolutely is a privilege. Feeling safe is a privilege. Look,
that's absurd. The message to parents who are upset, who
are concerned about what's happening in a complete failure. And
we're not just talking, by the way, about the violence
that can happen as at Evergreen High School, but also

(01:12:51):
in terms of teachers and staff that have engaged in
or accused of sexual misconduct. Right onto the former chief
of schools, David Wise, who took his own life at
the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
But he's one of like thirty plus.

Speaker 5 (01:13:09):
I think jeffco Kids First has counted thirty three different incidents.
That's parcel of school safety. Here, you have a school
board member, after extensive public comment, including from John Castillo,
and she's saying, well, safety is a privilege. Are you
kidding me? Here's what you do say? You could say, Look, honestly,

(01:13:32):
we can't guarantee safety. There's no guarantees in the world.
But I can guarantee you this. We are going to
do everything we can to harden our schools, to provide
added security, to put more measures in place, so on
and so forth, and give some specifics of what you
are advocating for for changes, an improvement and things to

(01:13:53):
be done to provide for additional safety, not brushing it
off as well. It's a privilege, so you know we
can do everything to try and support it. Really, how
tone deaf, how out of touch, how sanctemonious can you be?
Aaron Kenworthy, member of the jeff cost School Board. That's

(01:14:16):
not all she said either. She was critical of public comment,
talked about guns and so forth. But at the bottom
when you're telling parents there after public comment, well, safety
is a privilege, and I want to make that very
clearer and say it multiple times and not underscore We're
gonna do everything we can, just as Castillo said, to

(01:14:37):
fix this and to improve what we have in place
to I will guarantee that we'll do as much and
as best as we can, and I will guarantee that
I'm going to advocate for that. I can't guarantee that
nothing will happen, but I can guarantee we're gonna do
better again, just like John Castillo said, to end it up,

(01:15:00):
let's do better.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
Let's do better. She can't even do that. Really, these
are the people running our school systems.

Speaker 5 (01:15:11):
That, plus what I talked about at the beginning of
the show with Denver Public schools. As discussed in my
column today, there needs to be real change on the
school boards in Denver and Jeffco. And hopefully it'll happen.
I'm Jimmy Sangenberger covering for Mandy Connell. It's time for
a break. As we continue on KOA, we were just
listening to the outrageous comments of Jefferson County School board

(01:15:35):
member Aaron Kenworthy saying safety is a privilege.

Speaker 16 (01:15:40):
I wish that I felt that I could walk through
this world entitled to safety, but I am not. And
there are people in this world who have never experienced
a feeling of safety and may not in their lifetime,
and so to expect that we can guarantee safety for
ourselves and for our children is an unfortunate it untruth.

(01:16:01):
It's we just cannot guarantee it. We can do everything
we can to support it. But I wanted to say
that because safety absolutely is a privilege. Feeling safe is a.

Speaker 2 (01:16:13):
Privilege, absolutely absurd.

Speaker 5 (01:16:16):
Nobody is saying guarantee safety, guarantee that nothing will ever happen,
but they're saying, we need you to do better. School
districts one listener text coming in on the KOA common
spirit health text line five sixty sixty nine zero. Her
comments that's Aaron Kenworthy have not so subtle classiest undertones

(01:16:36):
of affluent communities are spoiled to expect safety and need
a reality check.

Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
I think that is very great point, Well said Ano
they're coming in.

Speaker 5 (01:16:49):
Safety is not exactly right or write something, but it's
something you can provide for yourself. It's not something that
somebody else gives you. And if you look at the
world at large, far more of the world is unsafe
than is safe.

Speaker 12 (01:17:02):
No.

Speaker 5 (01:17:02):
I agree it was tone deaf as hell to say
it after those comments.

Speaker 2 (01:17:06):
But it wasn't a lie.

Speaker 5 (01:17:07):
Well saying safety is a privilege is absurd and I
completely disagree with that. That's nonsense. Saying we can't guarantee it.
I think that's what you're getting at with the dext
that we can't guarantee it is right. Is true, but
what you have to do is frame it in the
way that shows your understanding and that you're actually willing

(01:17:28):
to do better.

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
And clearly she is not willing to do better.

Speaker 5 (01:17:34):
And this school board in jeff Co, just as in Denver,
the two largest in the state need to do better,
and I think that will require a massive change in
both school boards and that election, folks, is underway right now.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
We're gonna take a break.

Speaker 5 (01:17:51):
When we come back another Jimmy Jam session here live
on KOA. We've got Michael Sweat, who is the founder
as well of the Mountain West Country Music Association.

Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
He's here in studio.

Speaker 5 (01:18:05):
He's got his guitar, his incredible voice and some great
stuff to talk about.

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
We'll pick it up on the other side with that
right here on KOA.

Speaker 5 (01:18:12):
It's so great to be with you, especially when not
only do we get to hear a fantastic bumper like that,
a great country tune, but we have the artist behind
it here in studio to yeah, have a Jimmy Jam
session and to talk about a new organization founded last
year that's really catching steam, the Mountain West Country Music Association,

(01:18:36):
to dive into this.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
The guy who you just heard playing guitar singing the tune.

Speaker 5 (01:18:39):
There, Michael Sweat joins me here in studio, a US
Army veteran of the Special Forces turned country artist extraordin there.

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
Welcome brother, good to have you.

Speaker 17 (01:18:51):
Yeah, thanks Jamine, thanks for having me I appreciate it
being on the air with you.

Speaker 5 (01:18:54):
Before we get into your association, we'll play a couple
of tunes.

Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
We'll have a good time, of course, But let's talk
a little bit about yourself. How did you.

Speaker 5 (01:19:04):
Get to this point of performing country music and with
the association that we're going to talk about founding that
as well. What is the life journey in a nutshell
of course of Michael Sweat.

Speaker 11 (01:19:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 17 (01:19:17):
Sure, So I've been playing music on and off for
a couple of decades, but during a career in the military,
it's pretty tough to sustain success. And I generally specialized
in more of like the rock and metal genres when
I was younger, but I always wanted to do a
country project.

Speaker 8 (01:19:32):
And it reminds me of, you know, being a kid
in my.

Speaker 17 (01:19:34):
Dad's shop, stealing cheer wines and listening to to country music.
And I grew up near the great Randy Travis, and
so he was always very influential to me, and I
just wanted.

Speaker 8 (01:19:43):
To do a country project for myself.

Speaker 5 (01:19:45):
So talk to us a little bit about what music
was like for you in your military service, because you
spent over two decades in the US Army and doing
Special Forces. Retired last September as of last year as
a sergeant major. And to me, if you're in multiple
combat tours and all the stressors that come with that,

(01:20:07):
music almost has to be a therapeutic outlet for you.

Speaker 17 (01:20:10):
Yeah, it absolutely was, and I think it was kind
of a constant throughout my career. A lot of my
coworkers would be upset if they didn't see the guitar
because they got so used to me dragging it around
the world and a lot of campfires and a lot
of countries. We uh, we decompressed over over some you know,
songs around the fire and just playing some music and
trying to you know, get some catharsis out of it,

(01:20:31):
if you will.

Speaker 5 (01:20:32):
Now, when it comes to country music, especially going back
to some of those roots and uh, you know, the
musical stylings that influenced you as a performer of country music,
what is that like for you?

Speaker 2 (01:20:43):
What is it that you most enjoy about it as
a genre?

Speaker 17 (01:20:48):
Man, I think country is probably the most fun genre
to play, if I'm being honest. And my favorite part
is just the experiences that you can facilitate from the
stage and it gives us such a thrill when we
see the eighties and year old couples out there that
they brave the elements until nine to thirty pm or
so just to dance and spend some time together. And
you can watch that happen and realize they've been doing

(01:21:10):
that for fifty years and just being able to be
a part of it's pretty special.

Speaker 5 (01:21:14):
Today, in the Denver Gazette, in addition to my normal
column that I have on Fridays, I also have a
featured story in the Arts section about everything we're going
to be discussing today. Army that builds Nashville alternative Mountain
West Country artists. This is a story in the Denver

(01:21:34):
Gazette today and the big reason why we've got Mike
here in studio. Tell us a bit about the genesis
of the Mountain West Country Music Association.

Speaker 17 (01:21:45):
Absolutely so, I just, you know, as I was going
on my own musical journey and you know, forming a
band and trying to grow it and actually get somebody
to let us play on their stage for dollars, I
begin to realize how difficult that was, in fact, how
tough it was to build those relationships and to make
reasonable pay and to advance in a career out here,

(01:22:06):
and a lot of people feel like they have to
leave the Mountain West to do that, and we see
a lot of talent go to Nashville or Austin or
places like that. And I just realized over a couple
of years that my band, Red Mountain Highways had a
lot of success, and we've come from those, you know,
three or four hundred dollars bar gigs and made our
way into the.

Speaker 8 (01:22:25):
Multi thousand dollars shows.

Speaker 17 (01:22:27):
And I just felt like if I could do it
as a hobby player, as a full time, you know,
military guy, then then everyone else can probably do it too.
And there's probably some lessons that we could share to
to sort of help the entire scene improve.

Speaker 5 (01:22:40):
So, Michael sweat from those lessons, what is your association
built around in terms of the ways that you're trying
to empower and help other artists in this genre succeed?

Speaker 8 (01:22:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (01:22:52):
Sure.

Speaker 17 (01:22:53):
So, you know when we talk about our three main
lines of effort, you know, it's to support and develop
up and coming artists, to cultivate passion for country music,
and then to bring regional and national talent to the
towns and cities that we serve.

Speaker 8 (01:23:05):
Right, So, Within that, there's a lot of things that
we do.

Speaker 17 (01:23:09):
We try to improve marketing campaigns for artists and venues
help them do a better job of getting people to
those rooms. We focus a lot on the professionalization of
the actual artists in the scene, So education is a
big piece of this, and then it's just really sharing
those relationships and that professional credibility to where you know,
we have a pro Artist pipeline where people can start

(01:23:31):
out as an artist and then they have to go
through an application process through our board of directors, and
if approved, they get pro artist status, which gives us
a lot of confidence to vouch for those folks. So
if I have a great rep you know, relationship with
a venue that maybe's paying more like three or four
thousand dollars for gigs, I can recommend these guys without
hesitation and connect them with the relationships that the rest

(01:23:53):
of us have already built.

Speaker 5 (01:23:55):
And that aspect of the venues is really important too,
because a lot of times they want the best acts
that they can get and they would like to have
a way to figure that out more easily. And so
from what I take away from the association that one
of the big things is to sort of provide a
little bit of vetting for some of these bands that
then they can a venue can look at them and say, Okay,

(01:24:18):
here's a band I would like. Let me reach out
and maybe the mount West Country Music Association can put
me in touch.

Speaker 17 (01:24:25):
Yeah, one hundred percent, And we view that as kind
of one of the valuable services that we can provide
to venue owners as industry members. You know, whether you're
a small room that's looking for a four hundred dollars
act or whether you're looking to fill up a giant
ballroom and pay a few thousand. You know, if an
artist is a member of the Mountain West Country Music Association,
it at least shows you that they're invested in their

(01:24:46):
professional career. They spent a little money, they're spending some time,
they're working on networking, they're working on self improvement, and
I think that's going to make most of.

Speaker 8 (01:24:54):
Them, you know, a notch above the other options that.

Speaker 2 (01:24:58):
Are out there. Michael Sweat here in studio.

Speaker 5 (01:25:01):
He has his own band, Red Mountain Highway, and as
we're talking about, is the founder executive director of the
Mountain West Country Music Association. In a moment, we'll pick
up the conversation and get to talking a little bit
more about the association and some of the things that
are happening.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
But first we got to have a little bit of music.
You've got that guitar there, You've got that tremendous voice.

Speaker 8 (01:25:22):
I want to hear that harp.

Speaker 5 (01:25:23):
I've got my briefcase full of blues that always loves
to play some country music.

Speaker 2 (01:25:27):
What are we going to do first?

Speaker 17 (01:25:30):
So this is a song that I wrote for Miss
Christian Overstreet, a beautiful lady sitting over there in the corner.
I wrote it for her for her birthday. So I've
only played it a couple of times. So if I
mess it up, it's probably your fault.

Speaker 8 (01:25:40):
Jimmy.

Speaker 5 (01:25:41):
I'm going to take full responsibility if something happens, but
I don't think it will. Let's play some music. Mike
sweat here in studio, walk along.

Speaker 8 (01:26:07):
It's the room, weird, heavy boots.

Speaker 18 (01:26:14):
I'm cracking my projects, find us noches.

Speaker 8 (01:26:21):
You stand strong every load.

Speaker 3 (01:26:30):
We had.

Speaker 19 (01:26:33):
The wild like the soft as the ball, with eyes
like the sky, the clouds run con.

Speaker 3 (01:26:44):
I'm broken my shoes, good things before built.

Speaker 2 (01:26:48):
In my walls, even steaming with the boot fire in
my from the call all night you get stars in
the sky if I run line.

Speaker 8 (01:27:10):
Noose easy, bro came unto more standing the rain.

Speaker 3 (01:27:21):
Now hither the story because your card.

Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
We're spatting food.

Speaker 8 (01:27:38):
To light the talk of the dam.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
Sun, rain and might not be perfect, it's perfect time.

Speaker 11 (01:28:00):
I boo.

Speaker 2 (01:28:08):
Western skies, paper and cast.

Speaker 8 (01:28:11):
When I look at you.

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
Ask loud and flown.

Speaker 3 (01:28:15):
That leads to the line I swear I.

Speaker 2 (01:28:18):
Be taller on my side, firing my.

Speaker 18 (01:28:25):
Fast the cold line it falls in the sky. Thrun
out of line.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
Any easy looks boom.

Speaker 3 (01:28:44):
And to a standing the rain, storm, the flure the candle.

Speaker 2 (01:28:57):
We're fucking food fine the bones, cold in the night,

(01:29:19):
stars in the sky.

Speaker 3 (01:29:24):
Line your easy.

Speaker 6 (01:29:32):
To standing.

Speaker 16 (01:29:37):
Leaders.

Speaker 2 (01:29:38):
So you're the cab fighten food.

Speaker 12 (01:29:48):
You the cab.

Speaker 8 (01:29:53):
Word fatten food beautiful, nice sub junie, nice stub to you.

Speaker 5 (01:30:09):
It sounds like you've been playing that for a while.
Good job once again, Michael Sweat joining us here in studio.

Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
Got a name for that tune?

Speaker 8 (01:30:16):
Brother, Well, I'm waiting on Kristen to tell me what
the name is. Right now. We're calling it Kristen Song
until she comes up with something else.

Speaker 5 (01:30:23):
There you go, by the way, I should mention that
Kristen Overstreet is also a marketing director for the Mountain
West Country Music Association.

Speaker 8 (01:30:31):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 5 (01:30:32):
Now, let me ask you about the name Mountain West
because you're not just talking about Colorado. It implies something
broader in scope. Tell us about the vision that you
and the folks you're working with across the state of
Colorado right now have for growth.

Speaker 8 (01:30:49):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 17 (01:30:49):
So it's a five year, seven state plan and at
the end of the day, we kind of just feel
like the Mountain West has historically been a tough place
to succeed in music and there hasn't been much common
annuity between those states and those cities. So we anticipate
right now we're mostly focused in Colorado. We've got three
chapters here in Colorado Springs, Denver, and Northern Colorado, and

(01:31:11):
we're looking to grow two more chapters in Southern Colorado
and Wyoming just after the new year in January. But
we do anticipate that the entire organization will be comprised
of members from Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and
New Mexico and maybe the Black Hills region of South Dakota.
We've had a few of those guys reach out and say, hey,

(01:31:32):
scoop us up too, so we'll see what happens then.

Speaker 5 (01:31:35):
The vision and I talk about this in my article
for the Denver Gazette under Arts and Entertainment today, also
in the Colorado Springs Gazette, and you're based in Colorado Springs,
so I'm happy to see that. It seems like you
really are trying to create a sort of alternative, especially
for more localized artists, to the Nashville scene.

Speaker 8 (01:31:55):
Yeah, one hundred percent.

Speaker 17 (01:31:56):
I mean it's no secret that you know, Nashville has
a type that's preferred, if you will, And you know,
I grew.

Speaker 8 (01:32:02):
Up in the South.

Speaker 17 (01:32:03):
I've been in Colorado for twenty one years, so this
is home and I consider myself a Western country artist now.
And you know, historically we've struggled to break into that
market and Austin.

Speaker 8 (01:32:14):
You could say the same for Austin in some ways.

Speaker 17 (01:32:16):
And there's just a really mature Texas scene and a
mature red dirt scene through Oklahoma and Texas and Nashville.
But I think most of the artists in the Mountain
West have kind of been on their own through the years,
and when we look around, we go, well, why is
that there's outstanding music? You got great cities between Colorado
Springs and Denver and Chyenne and Salt Lake City, there's
plenty of opportunity. I just feel like no one really

(01:32:39):
has made the effort to curate the scene and unite
the clans the way that we're trying to do it.

Speaker 5 (01:32:43):
Talk to us a little bit about the expansion in
terms of the chapters. So in my story, I talked
with Brian Brooks of Brian Brooks Sundown Rising, which has
just been He's that's just over a year in and
they're crushing it and he is the head the brand
new Northern Colorado chapter. I also talked with Rachelle Patino Heineke,

(01:33:06):
who's the president of the Denver chapter, her vice president
being Ryan Chris of Ryan Chris and the Rough Cuts,
a tremendous advocate for Colorado's country music scene. So talk
to us a little bit about some of the acts
that are involved in things that are happening in Northern
Colorado on Denver and Colorado Springs.

Speaker 17 (01:33:23):
Absolutely, absolutely, what you know, what it really comes down
to is that we were really looking to connect with
people that are serious about country music that are respected
in the community and that buy in this vision that
we're propagating, you know, saying, hey, all the ships rise
on the swelling tide.

Speaker 8 (01:33:38):
At the end of the day, if we work together,
we are better.

Speaker 16 (01:33:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 17 (01:33:40):
And you know, you talk about guys like Ryan Chris,
He's been out here doing this a long time. Everybody
loves him, super well respected, great band, and he knows
a lot of people and has a lot of relationships
and connections and he can certainly serve as a mentor
or to you know, artists that are up and coming, developing.
And Brian Brooks, my dear friend up with Sundown Rising.
They're fantastic And Brian's the same. He's been around the

(01:34:01):
community a long time. He's got a lot of respect
and so we just feel real fortunate to just have
such powerhouses on board with us. And you know, Rochelle,
for what it's worth, we were thrilled to get her.
She played a huge role in the Colorado Country Music
Hall of Fame for another organization, fantastic organization, and the
work that she did there was outstanding, and so you know,

(01:34:21):
when she ended up coming on board to head up
our Denver chapter, we were just thrilled.

Speaker 8 (01:34:25):
We shouldn't be happier.

Speaker 5 (01:34:26):
Now, tell us real quick because we're just about out
a time. We got to get another song in. Tell
us real quick about the awards event that you have
coming up on the twenty fifth the Antler's Hotel in
Colorada Springs.

Speaker 8 (01:34:37):
We're super excited.

Speaker 17 (01:34:38):
Yeah, it's the first annual Mountain West Country Music Association Awards.
We've got roughly thirty eight nominees and nine different categories,
and we are doing a full educational symposium, cocktail hour
and a three course plated meal at the Antlers that
correlates with a three hour awards show, and the aforementioned

(01:34:59):
Brian Brooke that you brought up is going to serve
as the house band for that. So we'll do about
a ninety minute program of events where we announce all
the nominees and the winners, and there will be a
few performances throughout that from nominees and winners, and then
at the end of the show, we're just going to
have some refreshments and do some dancing and listen to
Brian Brooks Sundown Rising play for about ninety minutes.

Speaker 5 (01:35:18):
Beautiful On the website for the mount West Country Music Association.

Speaker 17 (01:35:21):
Yeah, Mountain WESTCMA dot org and you can grab your
tickets to the awards show. There you can learn more
about the organization, you can become a member.

Speaker 2 (01:35:29):
It's all right there, beautiful.

Speaker 5 (01:35:32):
Michael Sweat of the mount West Country Music Association and
Red Mountain Highway, thanks so much for joining us here
on Kawa today.

Speaker 2 (01:35:39):
What a blast, love it man, Thank you so much
for having us.

Speaker 5 (01:35:42):
Are got one more two We're going to go out
to and jam as we head into the weekend. Have
a great West of rest of weekend, and may God
bless America.

Speaker 8 (01:35:56):
I'm I ever gonna.

Speaker 12 (01:35:58):
Leave you.

Speaker 8 (01:36:00):
When just the sound lose it, feeling's wrong.

Speaker 20 (01:36:04):
If I can't even say I want to have the hill,
do I move on? Even John Wayne, you ain't got
a sun set? He whipped got a song? If the
studies all my God left.

Speaker 8 (01:36:26):
I ain't gonna dude wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:36:30):
For Higgin was a challenge.

Speaker 3 (01:36:34):
Let out of Tennessee.

Speaker 8 (01:36:38):
And ripped the lyrics. Move in the band and never
found there hellog.

Speaker 3 (01:36:48):
Finding it out.

Speaker 2 (01:36:51):
Wish you had me.

Speaker 3 (01:36:55):
It's always ride.

Speaker 2 (01:37:00):
Bring it, lose a cattle.

Speaker 8 (01:37:09):
I'll about out before I'm.

Speaker 12 (01:37:10):
Guilty living in the past.

Speaker 2 (01:37:17):
Just consider me a memory.

Speaker 11 (01:37:23):
That last.

Speaker 18 (01:37:26):
Letty turn to see her yell old sign, eat behind
the purple side.

Speaker 7 (01:37:35):
You just like to leave him song.

Speaker 8 (01:37:39):
You remember my goodbye.

Speaker 20 (01:37:44):
It was cattle out.

Speaker 3 (01:37:48):
Let out to see.

Speaker 2 (01:37:52):
It now in the bad, little but a final.

Speaker 18 (01:38:01):
It's a lot you wish you happy.

Speaker 4 (01:38:08):
It was ride.

Speaker 2 (01:38:13):
It is a cattleg les, so wish you had any

(01:38:35):
game man.

Speaker 3 (01:38:39):
A ride.

Speaker 2 (01:38:42):
Think it was cattle and

Speaker 3 (01:38:48):
Sink it was a cattle