11-03-25 FULL SHOW - Xmas Gifts, A Beef On Beef, And A Way To Help Vets

How Argentinian imports could affect Colorado ranchers, Nora Fleming has collectibles for hosting, and help homeless vets furnish their new homes.

Episode Transcript

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

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

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Andy Condam, God, wait you want to say the noisy through.

Speaker 4 (00:20):
Prey Andy Coronald Keith sadding welcome uncle, welcome to you
a Monday edition of the show.

Speaker 5 (00:29):
It's windy, gloomy day to day. But me, Mandy Connell
and him Anthony Rodriguez. How did I dream Monday?

Speaker 6 (00:37):
You're Mandy Laurian.

Speaker 5 (00:41):
Another heart attack inducing, painful to watch a lot of
Broncos win, but even those wins still go in the
w column.

Speaker 7 (00:50):
By your favorite heartnet Is it exactly?

Speaker 5 (00:54):
Did you see? Did you send me the article about
bo Nicks after the game? I actually have a sound
bite on the blog we'll get to in just a second.
Because I love this kid. I love, love, love Bonix. No, so, granted,
there's going to be a lot of you know, things

(01:15):
that are still happening. That just we went back to
the dump pass. I mean, it was just.

Speaker 7 (01:20):
You know whatever, it's fine, Yeah, it's fine, it's fine.
Screens galore short long.

Speaker 5 (01:27):
The exact same plan that we had that week that
I said I hated the play.

Speaker 7 (01:31):
Calling that whole week it became illegal to run the ball. Yep, yeah,
you know it's fine. Special teams is not.

Speaker 5 (01:38):
Very good, but hey, it's all good.

Speaker 7 (01:40):
We're tied for the best record in the NFL, I know,
which is hilarious. We are tied many levels. The difference
November third type for the best record in the NFL.

Speaker 5 (01:49):
The difference here between a good team and a great
team is that is that a great team finds a
way to win even when they play in a very
fun to watch way. You know, it's really great.

Speaker 7 (01:59):
What now it could be on Thursday night football and
favored by a touchdown over the Raiders.

Speaker 5 (02:04):
Listen to what vot Nicks had to say in the
postgame presser. He said, I've come a long way, still
got so much to learn, which is the fun part.
But I'm going to continue to work, not stop until
I maximize my potential. Don't know when that would be,
but I'm excited because there's a lot of a lot
to grow from. Gives us another opportunity next week to
go out there and change it up. But I'm sure

(02:25):
we'll learn from the mistakes we make next week as well.
So I just learned learn how to be a little
more patient and go into the next play. That's what
I want to see from a quarterback. I don't want
to see him thinking that he's the second coming of Christ.
Because they're seven and two. Again, mind you the context
here too.

Speaker 7 (02:40):
They play one of the best defenses in the league,
the Old one of the few teams that can make
an argument to be there with the Broncos for one
of the best defenses in the league. I mean, it
certainly looked like one in their mother knew going into
this one it would be a slog, all right, I
said twenty seventeen.

Speaker 5 (02:53):
I was pretty pretty dan close it was going to
be a slog.

Speaker 7 (02:56):
This is truly unlike the Jets game, because that one
you should have killed him. Unlike the Jets game, this
was truly a get out there with a win. Doesn't
matter how, doesn't matter how. That's a tough, tough, tough,
tough defense.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
It was. It was ugly, but again, seven and two,
that's crazy.

Speaker 7 (03:14):
Yep, eight and two, right around the corner to beat
the Raiders, and then you host I am the Raiders
are terrible. And then you host the Chiefs, and then
you host the Kansas City Chiefs who.

Speaker 5 (03:24):
Lost another heartbreaker yesterday. Are you ready for this, Mandy? Yeah,
on November.

Speaker 7 (03:30):
Let me get the date right, sixteenth, we can bury
the Kansas City Chiefs.

Speaker 5 (03:35):
Oh my god, that was glorious. The Kansas City Chiefs
that I saw yesterday are variable.

Speaker 7 (03:42):
They have us because they have a bye which is
the only danger that we Well. Luckily we have a
couple extra days because we have the Thursday to them
turn around. But they have a bye and they are
lethal on the bye week. I'm telling you right now,
as of right now, I probably would pick the Chiefs.
Hate to say it, but we beat them, they go
five five, then they got to play the Colts.

Speaker 5 (04:02):
We can help them miss the playoffs. That would be amazing.
On the line in that one, that is amazing. Anyway, Yeah,
so if you did. By the way, I went to
the Air Force Army game, and I have to say
because it was a home wait the home team goes first, right?
Oh wait, home team is a second team. Okay, so
the Army Air Force game, Yes, and had a fine time.

(04:24):
Army did win in spectacular fashion. It was excellent. But
can we have a conversation for just a moment and
then we're gonna do the blog here in about five minutes.
But I need to know when you are at a
sporting event, what is the most annoying form of fan
When you're a sporting event, you can text us your
answers on the common spirit ol checks line five six

(04:46):
six nine oh off.

Speaker 7 (04:47):
The absolute top of my head is non stop like
yelling amen, non stop yelling, like even if it's not
like most of the time when it's something like not
even audible, it's just audible, just non stop to get
daddy's baby.

Speaker 5 (05:02):
This was my experience at the game. That's not. Oh no,
it's really not. It's really not because they just bore
into your skull like an ice pick. After a while, orther,
we have that guy. I was really thinking about this.
I was like, is that guy worse than incredibly drunk guy?

(05:22):
And I say, guy, it could be a girl as well.
I'm just kind of using that, as you know, to
paint a picture, spoil it. Did you say something, no,
Because here's the thing. We paid for really good seats.
He paid for really good seats. He was really like
one of those crazy, super enthusiastic Army football fans. And
though Chuck was in the Army, we're not you know
that guy? And I was like, you know what, I

(05:44):
I want the guy to have a good time. I do,
I just don't want to be around him when he
does it. So uh but it was a good game,
it was a very good game. But he's okay. So
he got drunk fan. You got guy who never shuts
up fan? What are the other most annoying fan? I
am also annoyed by people who apparently, for some reason,
think they understand the game they're watching and are shouting

(06:08):
things out that are completely wrong. Though. Well, I mean,
if it's if they're doing it in a funny way,
that's one thing. But if they're doing it in a
serious way, that's just annoying.

Speaker 7 (06:19):
You get the being the well actually guy. Well actually this.

Speaker 5 (06:22):
Is what That's why I sit there and don't say anything.
Don't say anything, Hi, Mandy. For me, it's the guy
with the airhorn era, This guy hates you at a
supporting event, the guy. The worst form of fan is
a continuous horn in soccer the Zeila. Yes, yeah, Mandy,

(06:46):
I agree that overcheering is annoying, but let's not forget
the ones that drink beer and eat hot dogs. For
that wonderful burp that will be coming out minutes later.
Forgot about the burp guy, totally forgot that, Mandy. The
guy that actually thinks the players can hear them, and
then he knows anything more than the coach. Yeah, yeah,
this one says. One that never sits down. I'm actually

(07:08):
okay with never sit down guy, because that's enthusiasm. Now
if he's just standing there running his flat, you know,
just like man, no, no, if they're not paying attention, Mandy,
it's the fan that whistles time and time and time again,
that whistling, that really loud whistling. I know what you're
talking about. You know who else I hate, and this

(07:29):
is very sports specific. I hate the get in the
hole on a par five guy at golf. Okay, off
the tee a par five. You are not going to
have a hole in one, you idiot. Shut your mouth.
Never go to a golf tourna. And again, I hate you.
I have pretty strong feelings about that guy. I mean

(07:50):
just golf in general. But you ain't know, move on.
I love golf. Have you ever been to a professional
golf turn Oh it's super fun. No, super fun. I
rather go to my local pup putt plays.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
No.

Speaker 5 (08:00):
Oh no, it's it's a beautiful way to spend an afternoon.
You follow a golfer, you can walk the whole course,
you have beers. Yep, you enjoy yourself to spend an afternoon.

Speaker 7 (08:10):
You let me know where the local paint drying competition
is and I'll be there.

Speaker 5 (08:14):
Ok. Instead pass Mandy yelling Guy is annoying, but not
as annoying as stand through the whole game like there's
no humans behind me.

Speaker 7 (08:21):
Guy, Let me amend that the only one to be
interested to go just for the historical value.

Speaker 5 (08:24):
I'd love to go to Augusta. Yeah, that's the only one, Mandy.
How about the female fan that's sixty five and dressed
like a slut? Marty Lovelin doesn't like her, not at all.
At an ABS game recently, and some hockey mom behind
us kept yelling at the players on the ice like
it was a junior league game, throwing names around and
acting like she knew more than they did. Heard her

(08:45):
tell the neighboring seat kids had been playing for a year.

Speaker 7 (08:48):
If it's not a notable moment in the game and
everyone isn't doing it, sit down. I thought that those
people that stand up the entire game.

Speaker 5 (08:57):
Mandy, are you in danger of calling show bow in
the middle? No. I have maternal feelings towards bo Nix.
I feel like he is my child, want him to succeed.
He can be like your your older nephew. Okay, he's
an older he's older that, but not. I don't think
of him in that way. And that's gross and I can't.

(09:18):
I'm disappointed in you. Text her as as you should be. Yeah,
two each their own, go to have fun. It's a
public space, Karen, get over it. That's why I didn't
say anything. That's why I didn't say anything, because he
was having fun. Are you also for his team? But boy,
it was annoying as hell.

Speaker 7 (09:33):
You've had the conversation. Are you to sit down? The
concert person? You tell people to sit down?

Speaker 3 (09:37):
No?

Speaker 5 (09:37):
I never tell people to sit down. I just get
up and dance. Yeah, if you know.

Speaker 7 (09:41):
Typically, if you're smart at a concert, you can parley
a standing up jerk in front of you to better seats.

Speaker 5 (09:46):
I've done it before. Well there you go. Yeah, so
I don't.

Speaker 7 (09:48):
I typically welcome them like, oh, one opportunity for me
to go, tell somebody to get me better seats because
I paid for these works.

Speaker 5 (09:54):
Mandy. Someone who decides to get up in the middle
of a crucial times. I get that as well. Now
let's do the blog because someone also on the common
spiritdealth text language you can utilize all day long at
five six, six nine. Oh ask me, Mandy, where can
I get the candidates for the Denver Public Schools race? Well,
why don't we go over to the blog today? Shall
we visit mandy'sblog dot com. Then look in the latest

(10:17):
posts section for the headline that says eleven three twenty
five blop Xmas gifts, a beef on beef and a
way to help vets. Click on that and here are
the headlines you will find within. You couldn't wait one day.
One day. We're already talking Christmas. Oh wait, actually that

(10:38):
is actually going to be tomorrow because she had an emergency.
All right. You couldn't just say it. You couldn't give
one day.

Speaker 7 (10:45):
Uh, they're hanging up for Christmas lights.

Speaker 5 (10:48):
I'm getting my Christmas lights today. I'm the blog. Does
someone you love collect Nora Fleming dishes? Is there a
be with Argentinian imports? Let's help furnish some housing. Hey,
about those school board races. How can you not love
bo Nix? Trump was on sixty minutes last night. Downtown

(11:10):
Denver is back. It's time to unleash the condo market.
Voters say Democrats are off track. It's time to do
away with campaign donation limits. Gear up for the big
Medicaid cup. Protest hole foodies. The glory days are over.
Our weekly grocery runs over. Offline is the new luxury ladies.
We don't need as much exercise. When will the government

(11:32):
open welfare benefits to illegal immigrants? Hard companies are ditching
climate commitments. There's new ski territory at Monarch. Dilbert creator
Scott Adams is declining fast. Even gen Z doesn't want
to work with gen Z. Ay Rod rocked Halloween. Our
new lineup starts next week. Blue Siffer takes Halloween hilarious
fourth pregnancy announcement. Heidi Klum is the Queen of Halloween.

(11:56):
Let's do it for the kids, and look at what
the new where it's buried. Those are the headlines on
the blog at nandy'sblog dot com. Tick Tech Toe. I
was goo to say there's nothing wrong with that one.
I left off some of the videos you sent me
for tomorrow. Because I didn't. I was like, Nancy will

(12:16):
not like it if I put all these videos in here.

Speaker 7 (12:18):
No, I sent you a lot of good stuff. You
sent me a ton of.

Speaker 5 (12:20):
Who well, maybe not that much, almost a ton of stuff.
So you will hear texter who asked about school board
races a headline that says, hey about those school board races.
Under that headline, you will see Jeff Co's school board
race suggestions, Doug Co's school race suggestions, Denver school board

(12:41):
race suggestions, and the Cherry Creek School District race suggestions. Now,
if I missed your race, I missed it for one
of two reasons. One I simply don't know enough about
your smaller district, and I apologize for that. Or two
both or all three of your candidates are terrible. There's
just there's a lot of districts which is terrible candidates

(13:04):
that are running unchallenged, or they're being run up, they're
running against other And by the way, when I say
terrible candidates, I'm not indicting these people personally. I don't
know a single thing about them personally. But as soon
as I see a union endorsement, I know that they
want things that I do not think are important. And
the reality is is that now we know that unions,

(13:26):
in no way, shape or form, represent a majority of
teachers outside of Denver. And I don't know what the
numbers are in jeff Co. I think it's like thirty
three percent. Outside of Denver, I don't think there's any
district with majority union representation. Maybe I don't know about Aurora.
I don't. But some of these candidates are their policies

(13:49):
are awful, they're they're proven to have failed. They have
taken their balls so far of their eyes, so far
off the ball of student achievement. And one of the
things to look out for is a candidate that talks
extensively about mental health. That's the new buzzword. And the
only thing I can think of is is that by

(14:09):
using it the words mental health, they are number one
concerned about the mental health of their students, which is
an admirable position to have. But then there's number two.
Number two is if you're being told that we need
to hire more counselors and guidance counselors and things like that,
those are all unionized employees. So that's another way to

(14:30):
boost the union membership. And then number three, you've replaced
academic achievement with mental health because you think it will
benefit you and make you seem more compassionate. I'm going
to be perfectly frank when I say this, and I
hope everybody takes into the spirits which it's intended. It
is not the school's responsibility to take care of your students,

(14:52):
your kid's mental health, and we're outsourcing a lot of
the thing things that we need to be doing a
better job as as parents, and I mean we as
a I am in this case as well. Now, there
are certain times when talking to a counselor we're talking
to a therapist can really help a kid work through
some stuff that, for whatever reason, you know, you aren't

(15:17):
able to communicate on that level. I'm not in any
way disparaging that. Please don't think that, but it's not
the school's responsibility to provide that service. We are off
loading more and more of parenting onto schools. We're now
feeding children. We've taken the responsibility the most basic responsibility

(15:37):
that a parent has is to make sure that their
child is fed. That is number one, feed your kid.
Number two, close second, maybe even tied for first, is
that make sure your child has a protected place to live, right,
and that's not just a roof over your head. It's
protected from as much as you can protect them from.

(16:01):
So when I hear people talking about and I'm talking
about school board candidates and a lot of school board candidates,
they're talking about what we need to do more for
mental health? No, you don't. Now if you want to
say we need to support parents more so they can
help their kids with their mental health issues, I would
be down with that, but it's still not the school's responsibility.
Here's what I want to hear from my school board candidates.

(16:21):
And if you're in a smaller distriction you're trying to
figure out who to vote for, then just use this question.
Where in any platform or website do you see the
words focus on student achievement? If you see the words
take politics out of the classroom, that's like winter winter

(16:42):
chicken dinner right there. If you could just get those
two things. And college and career readiness is another one,
like are these kids going to be ready for the
next step? So those are the three things to look for.
Are they focused on student achievement if they mentioned discipline? Wow,
you're you got a winner, go ahead and do it,
take care of it. But the school board races matters

(17:05):
so much we all sit here and go, how in
the world is a socialist slash communist about to get
elected mayor of New York City. It's because they stop
paying attention to school board races a long time ago.
And if you don't, I mean, if you don't believe
that we have school boards that must be flipped Denver

(17:26):
Public schools, I'm looking at you. Go watch the last
Denver Public school board meeting. There was crying, crying, not
by students, by school board members. Ugh. Anyway, So as
I said, I've got Jeff Co, I've got Doug Co,
I've got Denver Public Schools, and I've got Cherry Creek.

(17:48):
Cherry Creek parents have gotten very, very complacent, and they
believe that their district is still the gold standard. It
is not, and your test scores are moving in the
wrong direction. So stop feeling complacent and smug, Cherry Creek parents,
and pay attention to who is on the school board. Anyway, Mandy,

(18:09):
my school counselor was all about academic goals, grades and careers.
And of course I graduated in eighty one. Yep, yep, Mandy.
How else can we change their gender if we don't
deal with their mental health? Correct? Mandy? Please mention Juan

(18:30):
Evans for Adam's twelve five star. That's a fairly large
district and we need balance on that board. There you go, Mandy,
critical fan. If they think that they can do better,
get your butt on the field and do it. You can't,
so sit down and shut up that from Gail. You're correct, Mandy.
Thanks for the Creek school board suggestions. Fun banter with

(18:52):
Ben and shower Water. I've always hang on uh oh,
where'd it go? Anyway? I lost it updated in the
middle of me reading that sentence, Mandy, I'm most safety.
I couldn't use my second ticket, so I sold it
on the open market to a fan of the opposing
team who showed updrunk. Wooden shut up and people assumed

(19:13):
he was my friend. Guy is the worst man, especially
if playing the Eagles of Raiders. You know what. I
believe that is correct. And to the texter who said,
Mandy wife had me setting up the Christmas tree yesterday,
she is my b she is my babyball on Monday,
you will hear from five to six a m. At

(19:34):
Colorado's Morning News with Gina Gondeck. And then at six
to nine it's Ross Kaminski on the news with Gina Gondeck.
But just so you know, it will not be Ross
reading the news. Ross on the news. He's doing the
same shows, probably some more traffic and Gina, so don't

(19:57):
worry about that. And uh, and then of course Michael
Brown is joining us from our sister station across the hall.
K how and then I no changes after noon. I mean,
why would you change perfection? Really? Anyway, got a lot
of stuff we're going to talk about today. The first
entry on the blog was someone about Uh, Norah Fleming

(20:21):
is the woman's name coming on the show. And she's
coming on the show for a complete chick reason. I
say that this woman is a genius. She's coming on
tomorrow instead of today. She had an emergency pop up today,
so she's gonna come on tomorrow. But as a person
who likes to entertain, I have more platters and dishes

(20:44):
that are holiday specific that take up a tremendous amount
of space in my house and I can only use
them once a year, legitimately, And this woman solved the
problem and when you hear her business story, it's incredible.
Talk about just having an idea and execute that's really
what she did. But she's going to be in town
at my friend Chris Spears, you know him, the meteorologist.

(21:06):
He and his husband Dorn have these amazing stores in
oldtown Arvada. They're called Outside the Box and Outside the
Box too. Nor is going to be there on Wednesday,
signing pieces of her line of housewares. And I know, guys,
we're talking less about the housewares and more about the story.
Trust me, you want to hear it. But she's now
on tomorrow's show. We're also going to talk to Chad

(21:27):
Frank today at one o'clock. He's the president of the
Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. There's a lot being said about
the possibility of Donald Trump allowing more Argentinian imports to
the United States for beef, because beef producers have had
as a series of things happen over the last few years,
and they're finally having a really good year this year

(21:48):
and now we want to bring in Argentinian beef. For
the record, you guys, Argentinian beef is different than American beef.
It's not that I don't want to make it seem like, oh,
our beef. Our beef is much much fattier than Argentinian beef,
and Argentinian beef tends to be purely grass fed. So
if you don't like grass fed beef, and a lot

(22:10):
of Americans don't like grass fed beef, they don't like
the way it tastes it, you know, I happen to
think that the closer to the way the cow ate,
it's probably what you want. But at the same time,
come on, who doesn't love like perfect marbling? You know
what I mean? So I'm kind of torn. I try
to eat as many things, you know, I'll say the

(22:32):
way God intended them, right, cow'sy grass and then you
eat the cow, and that's the way it's supposed to go.
But I love that marbling. So we're gonna talk to you,
Chad Frank about that and some other stuff. And then
a lot of you have asked me as we've talked
about various organizations that are building or you know, securing

(22:52):
housing for homeless veterans and other people who are trying
to bounce back from you know, a tough time. You
want to donate things, you want to donate furniture that
can then go to furnisure those apartments and a lot
of the things that we've done. They're like, look, we
kind of have that covered. Well, I've got one for
you today. It's called Knock Knock Angels. They're joining me
at two thirty. And what they do is when they

(23:16):
focus most of their attention on homeless veterans or women
with children, and when someone is coming out of a
situation where maybe they haven't had housing and they're finally
working their way back into housing, they don't have any
of the things that make a house a home, and
so all of those things that's what Knock Knock Angels does.
And we're going to talk to Scott Matthias about that

(23:38):
coming up at two thirty. I already mentioned the school
board races are on the blog, already mentioned how much
I love Boonix, not in that way you creeps, in
a motherly way, as I am old enough to be
his mother, and not in a like oh my god,
she had him in high school, like in a she
went to college, got a degree, then got married, then
had a baby kind of way. Okay, how old is he, hey, Rod?

(24:01):
What is he twenty? Twenty five. That's what. Yeah, I mean,
I'm right, yeah, cause I'm fifty six, so that would be, yeah,
perfectly respectable for me to graduate from college. Blah blah blah,
all that good stuff. Donald Trump was on sixty minutes
last night, and I didn't watch it last night, but
I got it this morning, and I was like, you
know what I'm gonna see. I'm gonna tell you. First

(24:22):
of all, I think Nora O'Donnell did a great job.
Nora o'donald asked hard questions, she asked them respectfully, She
asked follow up questions, and she got a lot in
I'm gonna go back. I started listening to the full
version because CBS News also released the entire conversation, so

(24:43):
you can go and I think it's like an hour
and twenty long, so it's somewhere around that. And I'm
gonna go back and listen to the whole thing. But
two things come across in this interview. Number One, Donald
Trump is just a likable guy. And I know that
for people who hate Donald Trump, they're like, Mandy, have
you lost your mind? Trust me on this. A few

(25:03):
years ago, I would have never said this. He's funny.
He's engaging even when he's making a point, he does
it in a way. Nora O'Donnell laughed openly laughed multiple
times during this interview, and he could you understand why
people like the guy so much? I mean, if you
look at it dispassionately and put your own Trump hatred aside,
you know you watch him. But he said some pretty

(25:26):
big things about China, about Russia, but he did so
in a way that I think if people who were
able to have sort of an unemotional response, some of
this stuff in here is pretty funny, and a lot
of it is very significant in terms of policy and
things of that nature. Now, I thought about going through

(25:48):
here and grabbing a bunch of sound bites, as people
on the radio do, and there's nothing wrong with that. Well,
the reality is this. I want you to watch it
because a lot gets lost in just the audio portion
when it's something that is made to be televised and
it's a really good interview. I would love it if

(26:08):
we could see more people approach an interview with Donald
Trump the way Nora o'donald did here. Hard questions, good
follow ups, you know, a firm grasp on what you're saying,
before you say it, I think she did a really
good job. And wonder if any of you watched it
last night five six, six, nine, Oh, Mandy. Trump talked
over her constantly while he blamed Biden for everything. He

(26:31):
kept begging for compliments. But that's the thing, you guys,
he does it in such a way. That's funny. Maga, Mandy,
as we always figured, Yeah, that's it, that's it. I'm
just saying, I'm just throwing that out there, Mandy, Mandy,
Lourian's here. We just signed a contract with Gravina's on Saturday.
Love the experience. Thanks for the recommendation. They are fantastic. Yep.

(26:53):
Chris Spears also has an outside the box location. Indeed,
a Rod's mom got him a spot ash sugar Bill Antiques,
Win and Open. You need to visit sugar Mill. Super cool,
super cool. Mandy. Remember the presidential debates and Nora wouldn't
let Trump answer questions correct, which is why I'm trying
to give her a little credit for the way she conducted.
This interview is very good, solid, good interview. Check it

(27:17):
out and then when you watch it, we can discuss
when we get back. Got a couple of things that
I want to get into. One of them is something
I'm going to say, and I'm going to say it
right now, And you guys going to be like, Mandy, Well,
many of you probably won't, but some of you will
be like, this is the wrong move. It's time to
do away with campaign finance limits. Let whoever wants to

(27:42):
donate to the candidates donate at whatever level they want
to donate. But also, at the same time you do that,
you institute forty eight hour reporting, forty eight hours to
get it on the internet so the voters can see
who is actually to buy these candidates. So I'll explain
where all this is coming from and make my case

(28:03):
even stronger. Right after this great column today in the
Denver Gazette, why do out of state donors have more
power than in state donors? And he goes on to
talk about how Michael Bloomberg, the busy body billionaire from
New York City, is dropping millions of dollars into Colorado races.

(28:23):
He's donated two point seven million dollars to support Denver's
flavored tobacco band referendum three oh one that's going to
be decided on Tuesday. Two of his donations to that
campaign were the largest individual contributions in Denver history. By
the way, vote no on that. It's just stupid. It's

(28:44):
not going to keep kids from getting flavored vapes that
are getting flavored vapes illegally now anyway, Bloomberg is also
dabbling in the governor's race. He's given five hundred thousand
dollars to a super pack supporting US Senator Michael Bennett.
Five hundred thousand dollars to get Michael Bennett elected. Now

(29:07):
you want to know who wills Michael Bloomberg is supported
in the past with his some ten million dollars. Yeah,
since twenty twelve, ten million dollars. He doesn't live in Denver,
by the way, but he's spent five hundred thousand dollars
to help Denver Mayor Mike Johnston become mayor. He's spent

(29:29):
two million dollars in trying to get Johnston elected governor
in twenty eighteen. Thanks Michael Bloomberg. Thanks. He's funded gun
control measures, charter school information, and public health causes. Now.
He does have a ranch up north in Rio Blanco County.

(29:53):
His forty six acre site called Westlands contains three large
areas for fishing and hunting, a four whole golf and
a tennis court. But the reason that all of this
super pac money is going and the reason Michael Bloomberg
can spend two million dollars is because it's being spent
through super PACs. The Supreme Court decided as part of

(30:14):
the Citizens United decision that super PACs are a thing.
They have the right to participate and all of that.
The thing that super PACs don't have, there's two things.
Number one, they don't have to they don't have to
reveal their donors. That's thing number one. And thing number two,
they have no campaign limits, like you can donate any

(30:34):
amount of money you want to any super pac in
the country. So here's what I would do as an
amendment number one. I would do away with campaign contributions
to individual candidates, and I would make the reporting required
in forty eight hours. You have to upload every forty
eight hours where your money is coming from. And that
means that intrepid reporters or citizens can check every single

(30:56):
day to see the names of the people on that
list to see who is funding a candidate or an issue.
And if we're going to continue to allow supervacs to
I don't know exist. I don't know how to put
limits on these and still maintain a small government attitude
that I have. Can we I believe that people should

(31:17):
be able to donate anonymously, I really do. But how
do you rain in the influence of these big money
donors who don't have to disclose their donors unless you're
Michael Bloomberg and he makes a giant donation and everybody
knows about it.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Should we know is.

Speaker 5 (31:34):
Funding the campaigns for and against the things that we're
about to be voting on. I think we should in
the era of transparency, I think I don't know. I'm
really I don't know what to do other than say
you can give a candidate as much money as you
want to give them, We're just going to know who
you are. That doesn't disincentivize the use of packs unless

(31:55):
voters were willing to vote against a candidate who used
a pack. Even though a pack will flood the airwaves
with advertising and mailers and everything else. It's a hard
thing to figure out. Mandy kind of sick of out
of staters donating so much. Should have to be able
to vote to contribute. That would be good, Mandy. Does
Michael Bloomberg do this in other states too? He does,

(32:18):
but not as the measure he does it in Colorado.
You guys may not realize this, but we are sort
of the We're the focus group for a lot of
progressive causes. And what they do here because of our
ballot initiative process, is they run ballot initiatives and they
kind of test them out, and if they don't pass
here in Colorado, they go back. They tweak the language,

(32:40):
they try to make it more appealing. That's why some
form of a progressive income tax has been on our
ballot for I don't even know how many years now,
some means of making us go into a progressive income tax.
They test it out in Colorado and then they roll
it out nationwide. It's why we're the epicenter of so
many dumbass lawsuits too. I don't know what to say
about our judicial system other than maybe they think that

(33:03):
we're socked. I I don't know. When we get back,
we are going to talk to the president of the
Let me get the name right. His name is Chad
frank Is the president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.
We're talking beef when we get back on KOA.

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

Speaker 2 (33:26):
No, it's Mandy Connell, Andy.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
TONKA ninety one FM.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
Got way say.

Speaker 7 (33:43):
Andy, donald.

Speaker 4 (33:46):
Sad bab Welcome, Local, Welcome.

Speaker 5 (33:49):
To the second hour of the show. I'm your host,
Mandy Connad. That guy over there, he's Anthony Rodriguez, and
together we'll take you right up until three p m.
When KOA Sports will take We're to celebrate yesterday's big,
ugly Broncos win. Now we're going to talk here in
just a moment about something that I think most of us,

(34:09):
if you buy beef, have seen beef prices just go
through the roof over the last few years. And now
Donald Trump has made some noise about importing Argentinian beef
and that is creating a big blowback from beef farmers,
all of bee franchers all over the country. And joining
me now to talk about it is Chad Frank. He

(34:30):
is the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union President. Chad. Welcome to
the show.

Speaker 8 (34:36):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 5 (34:37):
Well, let us start with something. I'm going to tell
you a little bit about my childhood that people may
not know. When I was ten years old, my dad
took us to a slaughterhouse to see the cycle of
life fully all the way through. Because we grew up
in a rural area, a lot of his friends had cattle,
you know, and that was just a part of their
income stream. And we'd always get to go out and

(34:57):
feed the baby cows, you know, with the bottles and
things like that, which was a great experience to have
as a kid. But then I would try and name
them and my father would say, no, this is food.
You don't name your food. And so I feel like
I probably have a better understanding of the ranching process
from your average person that isn't in the ranching business,
you know what I mean. So let's start with beef

(35:19):
production in Colorado. Tell me exactly what our ranchers are
dealing with, what they have been dealing with here in
the state.

Speaker 6 (35:28):
Well, beef is a big industry in Colorado, our producers.
It's broken down into the calclf guys.

Speaker 5 (35:36):
You know.

Speaker 8 (35:37):
Baby cows grow up and.

Speaker 6 (35:40):
Then they get weaned, and then they go to a
feeding operation where eventually they get fed out to the
point that they go to a packing house and they
become beatie. So those are kind of two separate segments
of the industry. For cattle, the cal calf.

Speaker 8 (35:57):
Guys, that's where I grew up.

Speaker 6 (35:58):
I grew up on a eastern Colorado ranch. But the
guys in the mountains are dealing with a lot too.
You know, we've got the wolves issue. There are so
many stresses in the cattle industry. It is just a
really tough industry to be in. Like all of agriculture,
it's the stresses and the amount of money that goes

(36:20):
through a farming ranch. Most people can't have them. So
I appreciate that you have some background, didn't that.

Speaker 5 (36:24):
I mean, it's a lot, It's very much a lot.
So let's start with why of the last few years specifically,
what challenges have we have seen. You know, there's normal inflation,
but beef prices have been crazy over the last few years.
What are some of the stressors that created that.

Speaker 6 (36:43):
Well, when you look back to COVID, you probably remember
during COVID the shelves were largely empty and they had
signs up saying due to limited supply, we can't produce beef. Well,
the backside of that story is there was plenty of cattle.
The feed lots were full of cattle that were overdone,

(37:03):
too fat, and the packers, because of some slowdowns you
know around COVID and work issues, weren't able to produce
as much beef. So that led to shortages, which shortages
lead to inflated prices. That's when you really started to
see the price of beef and stores go up. Unfortunately,

(37:24):
at the same time that that was happening, the cattle
guys were suffering because there was an oversupply of fat cattle,
So why do you feed more cattle.

Speaker 8 (37:33):
When you're not making any money.

Speaker 6 (37:35):
That led to a lot of guys who are just
barely scraping by decide I'm not going out when it's
twenty below zero and feeding cattle. I'm so on the herd. Unfortunately,
when they did that, they set this chain reaction off
that we're in now where the cattle herd numbers are
the lowest they've been in seventy years. Seventy years ago

(37:55):
is the last time we had this few cattle in
this country. Population has gone up a lot since then,
and people like beef.

Speaker 8 (38:03):
That's driven demand.

Speaker 6 (38:05):
Unfortunately, it takes three to four years to rebuild the
cattle herd, and we are in a spot where those
heifer calves, instead of retaining them there were so much money,
they are feeding them out and they become beef, so
that cattle herd is not rebuilding. So it's kind of
a teen reaction event that started with COVID.

Speaker 5 (38:25):
So let me ask you this. Now, Donald Trump is
talking about perhaps importing Argentinian beef in order to make
up some of that shortfall. And obviously this is not
a not music to the ears of beef producers.

Speaker 8 (38:41):
That's right.

Speaker 6 (38:42):
As I said, a lot of the guys who are
just barely scratching by already left the industry.

Speaker 8 (38:49):
What's left is a lot of the bigger.

Speaker 6 (38:51):
Family producers, and even they were just barely scratching by,
but they had enough equity they could get through it.

Speaker 8 (38:57):
Well.

Speaker 6 (38:57):
After five years of scratching by, you know, Baylor wire
and duct tape. Now they are making money and they're
kind of making up for what they've had to do
and get through the last five years, the last ten years,
and so they're finally getting to the point that they're
paying down some of their debt. And then this announcement comes,
which the biggest thing that this announcement tells me is

(39:19):
people don't understand the beef industry. This announcement that we're
going to quadruple how much beef we buy from Argentina
is really kind of a drop in the bucket for
beef production in this country. So it's really not a
big number, but it has brought a lot of awareness
to just how complicated the beef market is, and how

(39:41):
concentrated it is, and just how a little, you know,
announcement about a minor increase in the amount of beef
being imported sets off a chain reaction. It drove the
price of fat cattle down four hundred dollars ahead just
on that announcement, and this is the time year when
cacous guys are selling their chaos, so it hurt.

Speaker 5 (40:04):
Let me go back to something you said, because I
think that we need to do a little more clarifying
on that supply chain choke that happened during COVID. Now
that went back because there simply wasn't enough people or
the way the shifts were running at the houses that
process this beef. That was a function of what I

(40:25):
would say is free producers pretty much having an absolute
monopoly on processing beef correct. So we simply do not
have enough processors. And those are the people that take
a dead cow carcass and turn it into pretty pieces
of meat that we see at our grocery store. So
this is an incredibly important part of the process. Is

(40:49):
that if there had been more producers, do you think
it would have created that bottleneck?

Speaker 6 (40:56):
I think it's really complicated. Again, COVID was a black
swan event. You know, you can't plan for that. But
as you said, for companies produce over eighty percent of
the beef in this country, most of those plants are
processing five thousand plus head a day.

Speaker 8 (41:14):
Gone are the days where there was you.

Speaker 6 (41:16):
Know, local chains of grocery stores buying from local processors.
You know, I think that there is room in the
market for somebody that's doing fifty hundred head a day
and then ships that directly to your local grocery store
or your local restaurant. That segment of the popular head

(41:37):
of the industry is largely gone, and if that segment
still existed, I think things could have been smoothed a
little better.

Speaker 8 (41:46):
But it's hard to say.

Speaker 6 (41:48):
You know, economists can go back and look at projections
and do some stuff but I really think that we
need to get back to some of those mid sized
processors existing.

Speaker 5 (41:58):
What is the hold up there? Is it they don't
have the people that could staff them. I mean, or
are you versed well enough in the situation even given
a thought of why that has been allowed to happen.

Speaker 8 (42:12):
It's policy and market driven. Honestly.

Speaker 6 (42:16):
The way the USDA Food Inspection Service is set up
is its set up for those five thousand headed day plants.
The logistics and the cost of being the USDA processor.
You know, we've got some great ones here in Colorado
and across the west the do you know ten headed day,

(42:37):
but the difference between ten headed day and five thousand
headed day is a big difference in that middle ground.
The policy just doesn't work there. And the other thing
is we've allowed consolidation to happen to the point that,
you know, those big four packers drive the beef market.
If a small grocery store decides I want to buy

(42:57):
beef from you know, this small producer, eventually that it
starts hurting the big guy's profit enough that they cut
off supplies of something else to those small markets and
they can't survive that.

Speaker 5 (43:10):
Ah, the old you're gonna do business our way, or
you're not going to do business at all. I want
to talk about country of origin labeling because I realize
and I feel like I don't know what how long
ago it was, but when I heard this story and
I talked about it on my show, like I should
be able to find out exactly where my food comes from.
When I buy farmed fish, and I buy a ton

(43:32):
of fish and occasionally I'll buy farm fish. I only
buy from certain countries because I've taken the time to
learn how Norway farms for fish versus how Chile farms
for fish. Right, I want to know where my food
comes from, and yet the federal government was like, Nah,
you don't need to know about that. What's the latest
on the country of origin labeling?

Speaker 8 (43:52):
I think you are like most consumers.

Speaker 6 (43:54):
Most consumers want to know where what they put in
their body comes from, and even if they don't go
to the effort of researching like you do, they still care.
Ten years ago, we had an datory country of origin labeling.
Some of the other countries filed a complaint with the
World Trade Organization and it ended up getting repealed. We've

(44:15):
been fighting since then. Saying no, customers do want to know.
As you said, fish requires it everything but beef and
pork requires it, which is there is no logistical reason.

Speaker 5 (44:28):
What's interesting is what are those countries afraid of? You know,
if the food is labeled from there, what are they
afraid of? Why is that a bad thing for us
to know that it comes from Country X or Country Y?
You know what I mean? If they're so proud of
their their industry, then they should want their label on there.

Speaker 6 (44:44):
The official WTO complaint was it allows discrimination against their product,
which tells me that they admit that American product is better.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (44:56):
I've got a couple of people on my text line
and I'm talking to Chad Frank he's the president the
Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. Chat. A lot of people actually
on our text line are saying some variation of the
same thing. I appreciate what you're saying, but we got
to have some lower beef prices. So how do you
strike a balance between making sure that our farmers here
in the United States are not going to be driven
completely out of the business and also letting American consumers

(45:19):
have access to something they can afford.

Speaker 8 (45:23):
So a couple of things.

Speaker 6 (45:25):
Beef is expensive all given it that it is a
premium product, when adjusted for inflation, it's not that much
more expensive than it was twenty years ago. So it
feels worse now, but everything does. The other thing is,
I agree there's times that six dollars hamburger doesn't fit
the budget, and the reality is we need to import

(45:48):
some beef. We don't produce enough in this country, especially
lean beef. When you look at the ninety three percent
ground that probably has imported meat in it. We're not
anti importing meat. We're just like you. We think people
should be able to choose. If you have it in
your budget to spend six dollars a pound on beef,

(46:09):
you should be able to do that. If your budget
doesn't allow that. Imported beef is a little bit cheaper
for the packers to import, but then they process it,
put it in the package and sell it for six dollars.
If we could get country of origin labeling back, people
could choose. You know it fits my budget to buy
Argentine Argentinian beef, I'm going to buy that because that's

(46:31):
what I can afford, or if you can afford it,
buy American beef.

Speaker 5 (46:36):
There you go, Chad Frank, I appreciate your insight today.
I would love I mean, I still buy most of
my beef at a small processor in Elizabeth. The Elizabeth
Meat Meat Company is what is no Elizabeth? What is
it called the Elizabeth? What is it called meat locker?
That's what it's called. Good Lord, that just went out

(46:56):
of my brain. They do a phenomenal job, and I
bought you know, the the reason I found out about
them is because they process for individuals. Right, you buy
half a cow and you're going to process there. That's
what I grew up with. Like the slaughterhouse that I
went to was locally owned by one of my dad's friends.
And it's a shame that we can't sort of bring
more of that to the forefront, to allow local farmers

(47:20):
to sell directly to consumer, which is another issue altogether, right,
I mean, are you guys limited in that respect?

Speaker 6 (47:28):
So I will say one thing that came out of
COVID is there were a lot of grants there where
was a lot of money put into creating more USDA
butchering facilities for just what you talk about. Wyoming before
twenty twenty didn't have any USDA slaughter facilities for direct
to consumer. Now, I think they've got three or four

(47:48):
innovative foods expanded up in Evans. You know, they do
a great job. That's where I normally, you know, get
my stuff from. And I agree, I think that there
is that that need.

Speaker 8 (48:00):
But when you can start talking like that, you're talking.

Speaker 6 (48:03):
About on half a beef is what three four thousand
dollars and there are some people that just can't afford
that chunk of change all at once. So again, we
do need to be budget conscious. But you know, consumers
should have the right to choose. If you want to
buy from somebody that you know that produces good quality beef,
you should. If you want to buy us beef, you should.

(48:25):
If you want to if the budget says you need
to buy Argentinian beef or you know, Mexican beef or whatever, fine,
but let's label it and give people that opportunity.

Speaker 8 (48:37):
To make the choice.

Speaker 5 (48:37):
I agree chat and I think that once people tried
Argentinian beef, which tends to be a lot more grassped.
I love Mark like I want to have things close
to nature, but the marveling and American beef is so
much better. I'm just saying Chad, Frank, I appreciate your
time today. Man, all right, thank you, thanks for bringing
me on, No problem, very interesting. Texter gets it right.

(49:01):
Compare the price of hamburger by the aunce to potato chips.
Hamburger is almost half the price of chips. You know that,
I think is a big part of beef's marketing issue.
Right now. We know exactly what we are paying for
a pound of beef, right exactly. So when we see
a you know, pound of beef whatever go from four

(49:24):
ninety nine to seven ninety nine, it's acute and we
feel it. We're like, holy crap, that went up, so
very very interesting. Ayrod, You've probably never been to a slaughterhouse,
have you? Parents didn't take you there on a field trip. Yeah,
I know I have been. In my life. I have
been to a slaughterhouse. I've been to a place where

(49:46):
they train greyhound race dogs. That was a girl scout
field trip. I've been to a factory where they make
fish sticks. I have not eaten a fish stick since
on that ever, again, I have seen the entire food
chain from start to finish. I have indeed named the

(50:07):
baby cows that later became food and one year for Thanksgiving.
As I'm sitting at my dad's house sawing my way
through a nearly inedible wild turkey, my dad points to
the stuffed turkey on the wall and says, that's Fred.
You're eating him right now. Yep, that's my childhood. Mandy.

(50:28):
How much cheaper can shipping beef here be? Well, it depends.
I mean, obviously it's not going to be like you know, free.
There have been times in my life where I ate
the dollar Ribbi steaks from Dollar General and don't laugh.

(50:48):
They were not horrible. They weren't great, but they weren't horrible. Mandy.
You mentioned Elizabeth Meat locker deal. Trail Lockers is also awesome.
Great sausage prep. Know where that is? Where's deer trail
Lockers will find out, Mandy, Flying b bar Ranch and
Bennett also has all grass fed beef for sale retail.
I want my beef to be corn finished. I'm just

(51:11):
gonna say it. I know it's not the way God intended,
but it gives it that delicious marbling that is so good, Mandy.
Was the greyhound training experience horrible? No, it wasn't. Actually
it was quite lovely, and it made me think the
greyhounds that we saw a couple things about racing animals.

(51:32):
I always thought it was really, really horrible. And yes,
there are some horrible actors in horse racing especially and
now greyhound racing. I don't even know where we still
have greyhound racing. But generally speaking, there are a lot
of people in those industries that absolutely love these animals.
And after seeing the horses on the backside of Churchill
Downs when they are practicing, they're warming the horses up there, getting,

(51:55):
you know, doing some practice runs. Watching those horses run,
they just look like they are having a blast when
they're just going all out. And the greyhounds were the
same way. They had so much fun, so much fun. Mandy,
what are the lyrics to your song? Sounds like Mandy
Connell ruins the day ruling. I'm ruling the day, Mandy.

(52:21):
I went to a chicken processing facility in the nineties. Filthy, filthy, filthy. Ooh.
I went to an egg processing actually an egg what
is it called a chicken house? Not that kind of
chicken house, an actual house where they had laying hens
and that's stinky.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
Nothing.

Speaker 5 (52:39):
There's two kinds of farms that are noxiously offensive to
my nose. What is a chicken house? And the second
is a hog farm? Woof? And what's funny is hogs
are relatively clean animals, but dang, just smelly, super super smelly. Anyway,

(53:01):
Mandy Deer Trail is east of Denver, about thirty five
miles right off. I seventy all of her beef as
corn finished the locker zone. Deb Jobs does a great job.
There you go. Now you know, Mandy, my mom grew
up on a farm and learned about not naming food
except for a soal she raised and kept. Yeah, you
don't name the food. It's very traumatic. I mean it

(53:22):
can be. Obviously it had no ill effect on me
because here I am talking about it later when we
get back, can we talk for just a moment about
voters and their opinion on Democrats And if you listen
to this show, this is going to be the least surprising.
Well maybe, but apparently Democrats, if they want to be

(53:43):
more popular, should just be more like Republicans. Yeah, I'll
tell you about it next. Now you can google the
Mandy Connell theme song lyrics and I did a blog
posting with the lyrics to the show song on it
Were you honest, Mandy Connell ruling the day with words
that ignite. She's our guiding way through the static and

(54:04):
the noise. She cuts through the fray. Mandy Connell keeping
ignorance at bad. That's cool in all, But you do
know there's only one way to decide this, right. I mean?
I went to the email that the guy who wrote
the song? No, no, no, no, nope? What made it? What?
What made the theme song? Ai? Uh huh?

Speaker 7 (54:23):
So we need to upload the file that it made
and say, can you write out the lyrics please?

Speaker 5 (54:29):
Okay, that'll be your project while you talk about something else.
Don't have a file? You have the file? Oh imagine that?
Well I will on the next perak. I have to
go back into my email a folder. But yadayadatta it
will be the final determining factor. M No, I'm going
to go with the email that the guy who wrote
it sent me. But whatever, it's fine. So the Democrats

(54:50):
are still stumbling around trying to figure out why they're unpopular.
And they are unpopular levels that the party has never seen.
It's not like the Republican Party's blazing a trail, but
even and they are more popular than the Democratic Party
so they spent another big old gob of money doing
tons and tons and tons and tons of surveys and

(55:12):
from the website, deciding to win toward a common sense
renewal of the Democratic Party. John Caldera wrote a fantastic
column about this, but I decided to go straight to
the source to check it out. So they're trying to
help Democrats win again, and after talking to voters and
polling everybody, this is what they've come up with. Focus

(55:35):
policy agenda and our messaging on an economic program centered
on lowering costs, growing the economy, creating jobs, and expanding
the social safety net. Say they still don't understand, We'll
come back. We'll come back to them. Number two. Advocate

(55:57):
for popular economic policies expanding prescription drug price negotiation, making
the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes, raising the
minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour, rather than unpopular
economic policies e g. Student loan forgiveness, electric vehicle subsidies,

(56:18):
and medicare for all. Convince voters that we share their priorities.
This is so funny. Listen to the wording on this,
you guys, convince voters that we share their priorities by
focusing more on issues voters do not think our party
prioritizes highly enough. What do you think those issues are?

(56:38):
Listen up the economy, the cost of living, health care,
border security, and public safety, and focusing less on issues
voters think we place too much emphasis in. Those are
climate change, democracy, abortion, identity and cultural issues. Moderate our positions,

(57:05):
say this group of Democrats where our agenda is unpopular,
including on issues like immigration, public safety, energy production, and
some identity and cultural issues. Number five embraces substantive and
rhetorical critique of the outsized political and economic influence of

(57:26):
lobbyist corporations and the ultra wealthy, while keeping two considerations
in mind. First, voters' frustrations with the status quo are
not the same as a desire for socialism really, And second,
criticizing the status quo is a compliment to advocating for
popular policies on the issues that matter most to the

(57:49):
American people, not a substitute. That last part is absolutely right.
The only thing that their survey voters knew that the
Democratic Party was for was being against Trump. I mean, wow,
it was not good, not good at all. Now, what's

(58:12):
going to be interesting about this is the Democratic Party
as it stands now in my mind, And you can
tell me your thoughts on this. You can tell me
your impressions of who makes up the core of the
Democratic Party. And on the one hand, it is liberal
women with college degrees, on the other hand, it is

(58:32):
African Americans. And on the third hand it is specialty
groups LGBTQ plus. You know a lot of people who
are sort of in these forgotten you know demographics. And

(58:54):
I know this because we went to the DNC and
we saw who was there. A lot of liberal women
with college degrees, a lot of African American folks, and
a lot of the fringiest looking people. I got to
tell you, the crowd at the DNC was far more
interesting to crowd watch than the RNC was. So, how

(59:15):
is the Democratic Party going to move away from the
issues of those people that make up their party that
are not super important or popular to the rest of
the voters. How do they show of abortion by the
wayside and not invoke the ire of those college educated women.
How do they push aside identity and cultural issues without

(59:38):
alienating that part of the base made up by the
LGBTQ plus community, And how in the world. I just don't.
I don't know that they could do this the way
this is laid out. This texter said Democrats should talk

(59:59):
more about race and white privilege. Yeah, yeah, Mandy, these
words will go with the same music as your theme song.
Mandy Lorian says, son of a biscuit eater. When the
bad guys come around, they just can't beat her. When
the static and the noise, she just can't take anymore.

(01:00:19):
She'll just smile and laugh and say shut the front door. Now,
that is highly specific texture, and I appreciate that, But
I love the theme song and I'm not changing it. Mandy,
no longer blacks. They are tired of being on the
lefty plantation. I am just telling you who was at

(01:00:40):
the Democrat National Convention. They had a large number of
African Americans, and from what I could tell, I would
guess you're probably well, everybody who goes to a convention
is connected somehow. If you're a Republican you're going to
the national Convention, you're connected somehow. Same on the left, Mandy.
On t'srue social Trump bashes your boy, Thomas Massey. I know,

(01:01:04):
and you know who else knows? Thomas Massey and he
doesn't care. He really doesn't. I would if we could
have one hundred Thomas Massey's in the House of Representatives.
Do you realize that the major, major, massive things could
happen in this country? Thomas Massey is one of the
few politicians that I've ever met who went to DC

(01:01:26):
and wasn't instantly somewhat corrupted. And I'm not saying that
everybody in DC is corrupted, but dang, it's hard not
to be if you spend any length of time there.
He's just he's a guy with principles. And by the way,
he just remarried, So my chances of marrying Thomas Massey
or over that. And I was already married to Chuck
and I like being married to Chuck. That was mostly

(01:01:48):
the part of it. Mandy, get it together people. Why
would Mandy have negative lyrics about herself and her walk
up music? Use some reasoning and common sense, says this Texter.
Thank you, Texter. I appreciate you. I truly do. I
realize nobody is answering my question, like, if you had
to use three words to describe your view of the

(01:02:13):
Democratic Party, what would it be now? If you are
Democrat listening, what would your three words be for the
Republican Party? Start your text message with Democrat or Republican
and then describe from your view. And I'd like you
to do it for the opposite party. I don't want
you to do it for your own party because it's
like awesome, super fantastic. No text those to five, six, six, nine,

(01:02:39):
oh will have the answers when we get back next
someone sent a text message that said, wow, a lot
of you responded here. Sorry kids, one moment, please let
me get back here. Okay, uh boom boom boom Mandy,
I can't believe you gave in to the division of

(01:03:00):
the Republican and Democratic Party. First off, two sides is
way outdated. Second, generalizing both sides on personal preference. If
you're going to do that, don't forget to mention slavery
too was a Democratic thing, I guess. But continuing to
divide both sides on public radio not in my opinion.

(01:03:20):
I don't think you can say that we have, you know,
any kind of situation in this country where we're not
already divided, and you can't fix or address an issue
unless you know exactly what the other side thinks. Have
you right. I mean that's the way I'm looking at it.
So let's go through some of these, and I have
a lot on both sides of the aisle. Mandy, Republican,

(01:03:43):
mired in hatred, Okay, Democrat holier than now, Democrats racist, violent,
and jealous, unaffiliated. Both parties are out of touch. Both
parties are out of touch. Got that all lot, But
then I get Dems out of touch. I'm a conservative,

(01:04:04):
blank blank crazy, batpoof crazy. I guess both parties stink
stank stunk, says this Texter. Dems hypocrite, communist liars, Republicans,
Democrats simply stand for nothing. Oh, never mind, Republican Mandy
three words Democrat party description new socialist order, Democrats passionate,

(01:04:30):
compassionate and entitled, interesting, interesting, Republican exist exist exist racist fascist,
Republicans get or done. I've doubted Democrats said that Democrats
they're politically ignorant. I got to tell you, that is
the most wrong statement that I that I've seen in

(01:04:53):
some time, because, if anything, Democrats have always been politically savvy.
Right now, part of the dysfunction in the Democratic Party
is that their leadership is not the same leadership that
it was under someone like Nancy Pelosi, who, by the way,
may not be running for reelection about damn time. But

(01:05:14):
Nancy Pelosi when she was Speaker of the House, she
ran that Democrat party like a totalitarian. It was get
on board or see your committee position's gone, we won't
help you with fundraising, or even worse, will primary you.
That came from the leadership, so of course they did.
Everything was the same mayor Republican Democrats overly dependent on government. Yep, Mandy,

(01:05:42):
can you talk about the programming changes at KOA. Do
they affect you? They do not. It will go Colorado's
Morning News with Gina Gondek from five to six am.
Then roskomitzk Roskominski will pop in and do the same
show he's doing at nine, only in the morning he's
not going to be reading the news. He'll also be
with Ginagondeck as well. Then our friend Michael Brown joins

(01:06:04):
us from nine to noon, and then when you get
to noon, everything remains the same. So there you go.
Damn big heart, small brain. That's four words. I'm just saying, Hey, hey, Mary, Republican,
It's it's me Andy. But that's okay too. I see
the far left. I like that. I see the far

(01:06:26):
left as myopic, naive, and largely arrogant. I find the
standard Democrat is uninformed, easily manipulated, and pessimistic. Independent affiliated
DEM's crazy, evil a holes. Republicans mostly reasonable legislators. What
you do lean for an unaffiliated neither sides, both sides crazy.

(01:06:51):
M Republican, you're whoo whoop. Let me hang on. Republicans
stand for nothing. I think that's kind of interesting. Democrat,
everything is free. That's from the same texture, by the way,
same texture. Obviously not super popular, Mandy. Republicans, you're too loud,

(01:07:12):
less complaining, more working. Yeah. See, I find this interesting.
I like to know what people think. A lot of
comments like this one. Democrats everything is free. And I
want to take you back to what I was just
sharing with you about the new Democratic priorities. They don't

(01:07:32):
understand how their own policies have made everything more expensive.
And when we get back, I've got a story that
we've got to talk about. I mean, it's a little
bit dense, but condos are still not being built in Colorado,
and that is creating a huge problem when it comes

(01:07:53):
to affordable housing. And it's all because of policies that
were passed in a bipartisan way. Talk about that after this.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
No, it's Mandy Connell.

Speaker 4 (01:08:10):
And Connall.

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
N FMT way say nicey.

Speaker 4 (01:08:24):
Andy Connell, keeping sad base well bauca Blolcome to the
third hour of the show.

Speaker 6 (01:08:32):
How are you?

Speaker 5 (01:08:33):
I am well, I'm Mandy Connell. That guy is Anthony Rodriguez.
And today on the blog, we've had a lot of stuff.
The blog's massive today. I did embed the entire interview
with President Trump last night on the blog. You should
watch it yourself. There's some kind of big news there.
I do want to talk about something that I think
should be should be a major campaign point for any

(01:08:58):
Republican running for all, and that is how do we
finally jumpstart condo building in Colorado? For many, many, many people,
a condo is the first home that they buy, and
condos can be extremely affordable. But then you get this

(01:09:20):
kind of you know, high hoafees and stuff like that.
But even with h HOA fees, there are still affordable
condos on the market, but not that many. There's a
really good article in the Denver Gazette about this, and
I want to share some of that. I'm not going
to read the whole thing because of a lot of
his anecdotal stuff, but I want to read this. Colorado

(01:09:42):
is currently imposing a number of regulatory strategies to spur
housing development, and is now in court against suburban cities
over some of them. But it's all about higher density
projects for them. They think, increase the density around the
light rail lines, and then we're going to increase the
light a light writership and we're going to increase density

(01:10:03):
and bring down housing starts. But that's only part of
the problem. We are still dealing with a situation in
Colorado where construction defense defects is creating problems. David Lemna,
president of Local Homes, called construction defects litigation a form
of ransomware. It's a shakedown game. He said. Nothing is

(01:10:27):
more problematic than having claims made against a great project,
then see the hoa get an exorbitant settlement, and two
years later they're sitting on a pile of cash. Lemna
said the issue is effectively driven all public builders out
of the for sale multi family business. He praised some
municipalities working to keep the genre viable. The problem also

(01:10:50):
carries over to condo's built many years ago. Insurance costs
related to litigation end up being passed on to condo
owners as added association fees.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
Now that.

Speaker 5 (01:11:04):
That can drive up the HOA overall, right, And when
your HOA burden gets too high, especially in an older property,
then it doesn't make sense. For instance, this realtor had
a single bedroom condo for sale near the Governor's mansion
at just two hundred thousand dollars, but the HOA fees

(01:11:26):
are higher. Right now, ensuring a condo complex or even
a neighborhood has gotten extremely expensive because of the natural
disasters that we've had in Colorado. You know one area
where I can't blame politicians is for the rise in
homeowners insurance costs. I partially blame homeowners who get a

(01:11:51):
new roof every three years when they have hail. And
I realize that when you see everybody else getting their
free roof, they're gonna, oh, I have your roof for
come over and look at my roof. And I'm not
knocking the fact that sometimes you need a new roof,
because sometimes you need a new roof, But there are
people who make a claim for everything. I do think
it's getting harder and harder to get homeowners insurance if

(01:12:12):
you have a bunch of claims under your belt. Without
condos as an option, we have seen more and more
development money go towards apartments, which are far more manageable.
And by the way, you guys, do you think that
the builders of condo complexes are using all of their
own money? Of course not. Most of them don't have
that kind of cash flow, so they look to the

(01:12:36):
investment market, and the investment market is turning away not
just from condos, but condos in Colorado significantly. So we've
got to do something to get government out of the
way where we can, because government is making this much

(01:12:56):
much worse, much worse, and now just shoving down these
densities without taking into consideration any of the stuff that
has to go along with these density edicts. There's a
great example from Centennial. So Stephanie Pico is the mayor
of Centennial now and Centennial is one of the cities
that is pushing back on the state because they're being

(01:13:19):
told they have to add density in places. But there
are valid reasons why they haven't been able to add
that density in places yet. She's talking about dozens of
Primemakers and centennial that appear to be just what the
doctor ordered for creating density along transportation corters. We're talking
about I twenty five here. They're located just west of

(01:13:40):
I twenty five, a short walk from light rail station.
They're planted for a mix of office, commercial and housing units.
The road, infrastructure and utilities are in place. So what's
the problem. Well, two developers are interested, but despite the
infrastructure being in place, Exo Energy can't commit to deliver
power for four to five years. They also want to

(01:14:05):
have things like parks and recreation around the area. They
want to have electricity, they want to have fiber optic communications,
and all of these things are making it so they
can't move any faster. Government always makes it worse. But
by blaming density, you guys, they don't have to look
at their own policies and how they have made the
cost of building so much more expensive. Rents are starting

(01:14:30):
to fall just a little bit, just a little bit,
but not that much. I'd love to see any politician,
I don't care if it's a Republican or a Democrat
come up and say, you know what, we need to
look at whatever policies we have passed in the state
of Colorado in the past ten years that are creating

(01:14:50):
upward pressure on our housing market. You know how you
find out what those are? You talk to the builders
that they talk to in stories like this one. You
bring them to the table and say, what have we
done to drive up costs for building affordable housing? Because
what's happening now, you guys, is there's always going to
be enough cushion in the luxury market that they're always

(01:15:11):
going to be working. They're always going to make money
on luxury homes, right unless you simply build a home
and can't sell it. But with affordable properties, the margins
are so much lower, and everything government does to make
those properties more expensive they can be controlled by government,
but market forces they can't control it. What if you

(01:15:31):
build all these high density properties only to find out
nobody wants to live in a high density property with
no parking because they did a way of parking minimums.
There's a lot of good answers in this. A lot
of them are talking about permitting costs and the length
of time permitting takes. So there's a lot government can
actually do instead of trying to shift the conversation away

(01:15:55):
from the way that they have distorted the market themselves
in an effort to go completely green. All of these
idiotic eaticts just drive up the cost of housing and
make us the state of Colorado an unattractive place for
people to invest. And these builders all need investors to
get these projects done. Read the article. It is fantastic,

(01:16:17):
very very It's a great article, tons of information. I
link to it on Today's blog at mandy'sblog dot com.
But if we really want to make housing more affordable again,
we have to introduce more housing that people on the
lower socioeconomics spectrum can actually afford, and not just support
to buy, afford to actually own with payments that make

(01:16:38):
sense in a condo or whatever. We just need to
fix the problem problem is what I meant to say there.
When we get back, have we heard anything about the
big big protest about medicaid cuts? Anything you guys heard
about it? The protest for the medicaid cuts. Oh, I'm
just getting it shared. Police. There'll be no protest. All

(01:17:01):
you whole foodies out there, and I have nothing but
love for you. I really don't I really love all
of you. But how did you not? And maybe you
did if you go to Whole Foods because you love
knowing that you're shopping in a place with no preservatives,
no GMOs, none of those nasty bits of business that
you spend your life trying to avoid it. Again, no love,
I'm nothing but love for any of you. I love

(01:17:25):
Whole Foods. When someone else is buying, I find it
to be what's sort I'm looking for unaffordable most times comparatively,
although there are some areas where All for Foods beats
other places very very handily. Look at their cheese. I'm
just saying so. Whole Foods was purchased by Amazon several

(01:17:47):
years ago, and John Mackie, the guy who started Whole
Foods and was the CEO for forever and ever and ever,
has been very open about the fact that they did
not want to solve to They didn't want to sell
to Amazon, but they had an activist and venture inventor.
They had an activist investor. It was threatening to buy
enough stock to lead a revolt and take the whole

(01:18:08):
thing in a completely different direction anyway, So selling to
Amazon solved that problem for John Mackie. He was able
to keep the activist a you know, investor at Bay,
but now Amazon is looking for a little ROI on
their investment. Growth has been anemic at Whole Foods. It
has happened, but they have not at all been able

(01:18:31):
to increase their market share of the grocery sort of
shopping area. I think there were like four or five
percent of all grocery shoppers. And again this I mean
not everybody can afford to shop at Whole Foods. That's
why they call it whole paycheck.

Speaker 7 (01:18:46):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:18:47):
So now listen to what they're doing in some stores.
I think it's just two stores Chicago and one other store.
If you are checking out their selection of pre I
its prebiotic sodas, free of GMOs and artificial colors. But
what you really want is a pepsi. You can pull

(01:19:08):
out your phone in the store, open the Amazon app
and ask the shop bots will spring into action in
the back and bring you your forbidden soda. It'll be
ready for you to pick it up in just a
couple minutes. Now, in one store, in a separate trial

(01:19:29):
in Chicago, they have gone even bolder. Amazon has cleared
the coffee shop and seating area of the city's flagship
Whole Foods, installing in its place a thirty eight hundred
square foot grocery Kiosk called Amazon Grocery, filled with the
brands that Whole Foods would never carry on their shelves

(01:19:50):
craft macaroni and cheese. I'm looking at you, chips, ahoy.

Speaker 2 (01:19:54):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:19:55):
The hope is for shoppers to buy their cabbage at
Whole Foods upstairs before basking and the purple glow of
sweet cheat sweet spicy chili Doritos in the lobby. Now,
my question is is this going to horrify the people
who are what I call the Whole food snobs? You know,

(01:20:18):
the ones who walk around everywhere with their Whole Foods
shopping bag and whenever they bring something to any event
like a you know, a pot, look it's organic. Got
everything in Whole Foods. And again I'm not hating on
you guys. I wish I had the kind of cash
that I could just shop at Whole Foods and only
have food that was blessed by a farmer's priest or

(01:20:38):
something Mandy Dollar Roysters on Fridays and whole paycheck. Great deal.
Postman Patrick the new Whole Foods in Parker is terrible,
says this texter. I haven't been there yet. Amazon built
up their whole business, says this texter by being a
low dollar provider of a wide variety of products. The

(01:20:59):
Whole Foods acquisition never made sense for their brand. One
hundred percent correct, Texter. This is where you have someone
buying something that is so far out of their lane
that they don't know how to bring it back into
their lane. Here's the thing they were trying to use.
I think they needed and this is just me speculating.

(01:21:19):
I haven't seen anything to back what I'm about to
say up specifically, but I think they needed to buy
the institutional knowledge from John Mackie and Whole Foods because
they were launching the Amazon grocery stores, which have failed spectacularly.
If this doesn't work, I wouldn't be surprised to see
them spin it off in the near future. We'll be
right back with a completely different topic right after this.

(01:21:43):
Scott Matthias joins me now from an organization called Knock
Knock Angels. I love that name. First of all, it's snappy,
it's fun, and they are helping people not just have
a place to live but build a home. Is that
the easiest way to sort of give the big umbrella
picture of what you do, Scott.

Speaker 9 (01:22:01):
That is the big umbrella picture, just to help veterans
and single moms take just an empty apartment and make
it a home.

Speaker 5 (01:22:08):
So what exactly? First of all, it's started about how
you found out about Knock Knock Angels. It started in California,
you said.

Speaker 9 (01:22:14):
I'm part of the National Association of Realtors one point
five million strong, and we we each year we have
ten Good Neighbor Award winners at the National Association Relters
out of a couple hundred thousand that apply for that.
Vicky Lobo from Knock Knock Angels got the award. I
called her the next data to say, hey, congratulations. You know,
we've been doing something in Mexico for the last several years,

(01:22:34):
but because of COVID it was shut down. Oh yeah,
I would love to do this in Colorado, she says,
that's my vision. I want to spread it across the country.

Speaker 5 (01:22:41):
That's fantastic, and people don't realize how much time and
energy realtors overhaul put back into the communities that they serve.
Every realtor I know has some kind of charitable connection
that they are deeply involved with. This is like a
casual fly by night thing. You are, you're in the process.
You're so successful, you need a warehouse.

Speaker 9 (01:23:02):
We do need a warehouse. I have calls every day
that I turned down furniture. What we want to do
for these veterans and single moms is give them dignity.
So we want to get them gently used furniture. And
that's not a problem. I get calls every day. Our
organization gets calls every day. We just have limited limited
storage space.

Speaker 5 (01:23:21):
Warehousing space is really hard, as I'm sure you're finding out.
So what exactly are you looking at?

Speaker 9 (01:23:26):
We have before My co founder in this, Barrett Miller,
has a company, Checkmate Moving in storage, so they take
all the furniture to our makeovers when we do the makeovers.

Speaker 5 (01:23:36):
So we need something on the south end of town.

Speaker 9 (01:23:38):
I don't know, three to four thousand square feet of
somebody that where we could just not only get furniture
for our veterans and our single moms, but even taking
furniture that we could even sell.

Speaker 5 (01:23:47):
To help do these makeovers. Right, So let's talk about
what happens when someone calls knock Knock angels. What situation
are they coming from?

Speaker 9 (01:23:56):
You know, that's a good question. We have two organizations
mainly that we work with. We work with hud Vash
and we also work with Hope House out of Barvada
for single moms. But what hud Dash does is they'll
go out in the streets and they'll identify these homeless
veterans and let them know a lot of these a
lot of these veterans don't know that they have benefits,
so Hudvash will let them know about the benefits.

Speaker 5 (01:24:16):
And the biggest benefit they can get is these housing vouchers.
We ask them what would you like? And most of them,
most of them don't have any furniture.

Speaker 9 (01:24:24):
And if they do, it is they've dumped They took
one to the dumpster in a parking lot and taken
a chair or a mattress. But most of the times
they have nothing. So all they say, you know, if
you can get me a bed, if you can get
me a couch or on a table a chair to
sit on. That that's all we want to said. Wait,
we want you to open up your dream space.

Speaker 5 (01:24:44):
That's when my co founder, allow yourself to dream for
just a moment absolutely of what this could be.

Speaker 9 (01:24:49):
And Barrett comes in, that's the co founder of this,
and she she's an interior decorator background, and she'll say, no,
what do you want?

Speaker 5 (01:24:57):
What kind of colors do you want? What kind of
landscape do you want on your walls?

Speaker 9 (01:25:01):
When they walk out of their property at nine o'clock
in the morning, we take them to get a breakfast
and a haircut. These veterans, they'll come back three hours later.
Not only will they have a completely furnished apartment with furniture, pots, pans,
crock pots, all of that stuff walls.

Speaker 5 (01:25:20):
It's so expensive to set up properly a house. And
this is one of the reasons that we have the
tradition of giving wedding gifts because back in the day
when young people got married, they didn't have anything. So
let's just think about this as the wedding gift to
a veteran or a single mom with kids that is
coming out of a bad situation to allow them to

(01:25:41):
start their life and move it forward exactly.

Speaker 9 (01:25:43):
You know, if they were to do that on their own,
it might take them four or five six years to
work enough.

Speaker 5 (01:25:48):
Just to get all the stuff that we supply.

Speaker 9 (01:25:50):
So by doing this and making it a home, they
can go out and get a job, they can take
care of their kids, they can do the stuff that.

Speaker 5 (01:25:56):
They need to do moving forward. I love this And
I told you when we started this, you were going
to get more phone calls. So we got to where
you in this situation you say, okay, I need more
warehouse space. Can you take donations?

Speaker 3 (01:26:08):
Now?

Speaker 5 (01:26:08):
Are you able to do that? We do.

Speaker 9 (01:26:10):
I mean we're on a case by case situation where
we meet these veterans in single moms that we know
the needs list that they have, right, so then we
put it out on social media.

Speaker 5 (01:26:18):
These are the certain things that we need.

Speaker 9 (01:26:20):
We're helping a veteran next week, We're helping two single
moms the week after next. And I'm already put that
those requests out on Facebook to all our followers. And
I mean I've had a crockpot right them from from England.
Oh no, of course now they sent it through Amazon.
At the bottom line, it's far reaching.

Speaker 5 (01:26:37):
It's fantastic, and I just think that you know, to
your point about the I want to talk about the
impact that this has on the mental position of the
person receiving these goods, because it is one thing to
take that breath of oh my gosh, I have an apartment, right,
I have a place to rest my head. But it's
quite another to say I have a home. So what

(01:26:59):
do you get to keep in touch with these people
after the fact, I mean, tell me a little bit
of that.

Speaker 9 (01:27:05):
We not only do we keep in touch with them,
but they a lot of them. A lot of the
veterans will come and help us with makeovers for other veterans.

Speaker 5 (01:27:11):
Oh, I love that.

Speaker 9 (01:27:12):
And one in one guy in particular, he hasn't seen
his son for ten years. Yeah, and last time I
saw him was who was one? He's eleven years old.
But one of the really things that he needed to
do is prove that he had a home where his
son can come visit. So these are I mean, these
are really life situations, the life situations. And he was
so grateful, And a lot of our veterans are so

(01:27:33):
grateful that they will come and pay it forward and
help other veterans.

Speaker 5 (01:27:36):
It's it's it's very heartwarming. How many realtors are involved
in this here in Colorado.

Speaker 9 (01:27:40):
Well, that's amazing. We have our organization has about eighty volunteers.
We have seven board members eighty volunteers. But there's not
one makeover that there's not a some member from the
Colorado Association of Realtors that including the CEO, Tyron Adams,
that will come and help us on these makeovers. There's
not I can't think of one makeover I don't have
at least a realtor. So, I mean, we're competitors by day,

(01:28:01):
but then we come together without the community.

Speaker 5 (01:28:03):
It's cost. So let me ask this question. Is it
more useful to you right now for people to donate
money or is it more useful to you to have
them follow you on your Facebook page or more useful
to you to have them donate that gently use furniture.
And y'all, that couch that has been in your basement
since nineteen seventy eight is not what we're talking about here. Okay,

(01:28:23):
if your dog's been sleeping on it for nine years,
we are not talking about that couch. That couch needs
to go to the dump. We're talking about a couch
that you look at and go I'm still using that.
Maybe it doesn't fit my new apartment, or it doesn't
fit my color scheme or whatever. We're talking about. Nicer stuff,
because if you wouldn't want it, if you don't want
somebody to give it to you to use, don't try

(01:28:46):
to give it to somebody else, Man, Matt. That's exactly
what I tell people.

Speaker 9 (01:28:49):
If you don't want to use it yourself, it's not
good enough for our veterance.

Speaker 5 (01:28:52):
Right exactly. And that's not being snobby, it's just being
it recognizes And I'm part of my feelings about this
God are because of things that I've seen during disaster
relief when people are literally donating bags of dirty laundry
and I'm thinking to myself, what in the hell are
you doing? No, And so if it's disgusting or you
don't want to sit on it or use it anymore,

(01:29:15):
please don't donate it. Throw it away. Right. But an
answer to your question, what do we need the most
is cash?

Speaker 9 (01:29:21):
You know, any nonprofit it's about twenty five hundred dollars
to do a makeover for these I'm sure, and in
four years we've done sixty five full makeovers. And the
other thing that we do that's just absolutely amazing is
we don't have a vet. If a veteran can get
a truck, the can come down to our storage facilities
down in Sedelia, and they can. We can just open

(01:29:41):
up the containers and they can shop. Oh that's fake,
can hit it on their truck, they can, they can
take it in.

Speaker 5 (01:29:46):
There was a very similar organization to this one in
Orlando many many, many years ago, and it was called
the Mustard Seed because from a tiny thing comes a great,
a great thing, and it was I got to go
there and watch people come in, and they've focused mostly
on people that were cycling out out of homelessness. So

(01:30:07):
these are people, some of whom have been on the
streets for fifteen twenty years, right. Everything they had fit
in a shopping cart. And to see them come in
and see all of this furniture, it was overwhelming, to
the point that many were almost paralyzed with the options.

Speaker 9 (01:30:22):
You know, that's happened to some of our veterans. I mean,
our average veteran I think that we've helped over the
last four years has been on the street four to
five years.

Speaker 5 (01:30:29):
Wow.

Speaker 9 (01:30:30):
We even asked one Gary, I'll never forget it. I
asked him, I said, how long have you been on
the streets? How long have you been homeless? He says, Scott,
I've not been homeless. I'm apart mentally challenged. He says,
do you know how much it costs for apartments in
order for me to live?

Speaker 3 (01:30:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:30:43):
And he was living in a tent city downtown and boy,
what a transformation that we made for him.

Speaker 5 (01:30:50):
Do you ever have like alumni meetings, you know, or
events where people can get together. We're talking about that.
We're talking to our boys.

Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:31:00):
We've got a significant knock, a significant number.

Speaker 9 (01:31:02):
And we want to get them together. And we even
want to do a mentorship for these veterans. So we
get some vets and volunteers that have stepped up and said, hey,
we'll get them together. So we've talked about picnics and
we've also talked we're getting a bunch of them together
for Veterans Day.

Speaker 5 (01:31:15):
Oh that's fantastic. That is fantastic. Okay. I put a
link to Knock Knock Angels on the blog today, but
I do want to make sure that I get your
Facebook page, because if you're putting out the call for stuff,
I'm going to follow you on Facebook. Is that just
Knock Knock Angels, Colorado? Yes, it is.

Speaker 9 (01:31:33):
I sent that to a Rod But the bottom line is, yeah,
we put all our vents on there because raising money
like this this coming Wednesday at the Fire Fireball Cafe
over on a wrap a hole road on Briarwood.

Speaker 5 (01:31:46):
From four to eight people.

Speaker 9 (01:31:48):
You know, people got to eat anyway, right right, so
we want them to come in and join us and
they could learn more about Knock Knock Angels.

Speaker 5 (01:31:54):
But also we get a portion of the sales that night.
And also I'm just gonna say, I freaking love Fire Cafe.
They're so good. Well you'll have to stop buy on Wednesday.
Well for eight, My Wednesday is extremely busy. I would
love to otherwise because it is very, very good. But
what I love to know, it's like on November first
to Hope House, Colorado. Moms need your help there. So

(01:32:16):
there's a post here so if you want to see
what they need. And then I'm guessing, as you said,
you got a crockpot from the UK, so people can
just donate that way too. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:32:26):
I have a lot of stuff that arrive on my porch.
This lady Laurie Malanowski. I worked with her years and
years ago, like forty five years ago at King Supers.
There's not one post that I make on there that
I don't get something on my front porch, but she's
ordered off Amazon for and it's just a bits heartwarming.

Speaker 5 (01:32:42):
It it involves so many people. It takes an army,
as they say, it does take an army. But one
of the things I like about this god is because
you guys are having a one on one moment with
the people that you're helping. And you know, I think
that when we substitute government, and although there's a government
aspect to this, especially for the veterans, but when we

(01:33:04):
substitute government interaction for all of that these you don't
get a chance to have gratitude, right, You don't get
a chance to have that moment where you can actually
look someone in the face and say thank you. And
for me, that feels much different. And it's going to
be this is going to be one of those gigs
where it must be awesome. Every single time that you
go out to make one of these houses.

Speaker 9 (01:33:23):
There is and what we call the big reveal when
we've taken when we've kicked them out of their place
for two or three hours, even though they know we're
going to do something special, they have no clue. And
you know what, there's probably not a time that there's
not tears in the recipient and there's not tears in
the volunteers, right, But it's just it's those reveals are
and we have them on our websit we out of
on our Facebook all the time.

Speaker 5 (01:33:44):
As far as the great reveals, what are the do
you guys do fund raizors throughout the year?

Speaker 1 (01:33:49):
We do.

Speaker 9 (01:33:49):
I mean we do a lot of these restaurant type
thing fundraisers. We're going to have a big, huge event,
a big casino night next fall.

Speaker 5 (01:33:58):
I mean they're hard to plan, yes they are.

Speaker 9 (01:34:00):
And you know, there's just a lot of donor fatigue
as far as donation fatigue, so we're trying to make
something special. But again, i mean, if they go to
Kkaco dot org, right, you know they can donate to that,
and it's we are a five oh one C three.

Speaker 5 (01:34:14):
Charity Kkaco dot org. I just found them and followed
them on Facebook. So if you want to support them
casually directly, however you want to do it, they make
it easy. They make it very very easy. I'm fascinated.
I'm actually my brother's real estate broker in Las Vegas,
and I'm going to send him this, okay, cause you know,
we all have different things that are that touch our heart.

(01:34:36):
What was it about this specifically, because you've talked about
going to an awards thing and hearing about the founder
of this group, but there was other people there doing
great things too, So what was it about this that
struck a chord with you? What struck a.

Speaker 9 (01:34:48):
Chord is Barrett and I had been going down to
Mexico for many years, building two houses down there every year, right,
taking a lot of volunteers. And when that border had closed,
and I've been doing this for twenty two years going
down there, my wife said, you know, when God closes
one door, he's going to open up another work, right,
So I sat down. This was during COVID, so we
weren't at our conference in Louisiana like we were supposed
to be, so it was virtual and I sat down

(01:35:10):
and Vickie started talking and they started start talking about
her award and well, Knock Knock Angels. First of all,
God opened a door big tie by knocking angels, and
I just love.

Speaker 5 (01:35:20):
The name of that.

Speaker 9 (01:35:21):
And when I called her, I said, you know what,
We've been doing this stuff in Mexico for many years,
but now we have an opportunity to do it, do
it in Denver. Yes, And what really happened is what
Barrett and I have mentioned. Barrett a lot were sort
of inseparable as far as and we couldn't do it
without Barrett. But both our dads died of COVID during
COVID a week from a week apart from each other,

(01:35:41):
and they were both veterans, and so we thought, wow,
this is amazing. We could start this in their memory
and do good things for veterans.

Speaker 5 (01:35:49):
Well. And I like the fact that it's veterans, but
I also like the fact you guys are working with
single moms and their kids. You know, I want every kid,
I think everybody wants every kid to have a safe
space to live, right, But just four bare walls and
a mattress on the floor, it doesn't feel as safe
as something that has cool decorations and whatever. Now, you

(01:36:11):
guys are a five oh one C three correct, correct?
So your tax deductible donations absolutely And you know you
mentioned that single moms. We a big shout out to
Hope House.

Speaker 9 (01:36:21):
They are they're out of Barvada and they help transistion
these single moms and into workplace and we kids and
so it's just amazing. We do a lot, not only
furnishing them, but if we always do our big Christmas
makeover where we will will fully decorate it with Christmas tree.

Speaker 5 (01:36:40):
That's fantastic. Oh can you even imagine?

Speaker 9 (01:36:42):
And we tell our veterans in single moms who we've
done these four you know, because we might do at
the beginning of December. But yeah, but they got a
tree full of gifts. They said, Hey, now that's up
to you to keep them away from the gifts we
give the gifts.

Speaker 5 (01:36:54):
I would love that. That would be super fun. So
a lot of people are asking about the website how
to how to get involved. I think the Now let
me ask this question, because are you open or could
you take on any other charities that could feed you
people in need?

Speaker 6 (01:37:10):
Oh?

Speaker 9 (01:37:10):
Absolutely, And I think that there's so many charities that
work with veterans, right, so we yeah, and yeah, we
could always were volunteers.

Speaker 5 (01:37:18):
Is a lifebole of any foundation. Excellent. Scott Matthias is
my guest. He is with an organization called Knock Knock
Angels of Colorado and they help hows not hows. They
help furnish places for people that maybe haven't had a
place in years and get them not just you know,
a roof over their head, but a roof over their head.

(01:37:40):
And to the point here, by working with the VA
program there is this is not a give an addicted
person an apartment for free. There are responsibilities that have
to be met by the people that are getting help,
and they're on their way to success. So this is
just going to help them be on their way to success.
Even so, thanks so much for what you're doing.

Speaker 9 (01:38:02):
Absolutely, you know it's a shameless plug. But if they
go to that Facebook page, I am in a big competition,
a huge competition. So again we have one point five
million members and there's ten of us Good Neighbor Award winners. However,
for the entire month of well from October sixth to
November seventh, which is coming up here in a few days,
they can go to that link in there and they

(01:38:24):
can vote a thousand times a day.

Speaker 5 (01:38:25):
If they work, if they like this story, and if they.

Speaker 9 (01:38:28):
Want to help veterans and single moms, they can vote
so we can get more grant money from the National
Association of Realtor.

Speaker 5 (01:38:33):
And look at this, while you've been telling people about that,
I voted three times Scott. There you go. We will
stack the deck now. When Scott came in earlier, I
was like, Scott, you want to play Out of the
day anyway? Oh god, I don't have to play that.

Speaker 2 (01:38:46):
Do I go?

Speaker 5 (01:38:46):
Yes, you do, but you don't have to be good
at it. That's the point. Okay, don't have to be
good at it, because now it's time for the most
exciting segment on the radio of its gone the world.

Speaker 7 (01:39:00):
That day.

Speaker 5 (01:39:01):
Okay, all right, Scott, if you've listened to the show,
you know how this works. First we get dad joke
of the day. Nothing required of you here.

Speaker 7 (01:39:08):
What's the difference between a well dressed man on a
unicycle and a poorly dressed man on a bicycle? A
well dressed man on a unicycle and a poorly dressed
man on a bicycle.

Speaker 5 (01:39:23):
I don't know. I can't think of one attire. Oh
oh my gosh, boom.

Speaker 3 (01:39:31):
Boo.

Speaker 5 (01:39:33):
Anyway, what is our word of the day? Please? Is
a noun noun calc c a l q u e
cow l calk q u e calk. And that's a noun.
Is that like the calcium that forms on It's when
something calcifies left behind? No got do I get a

(01:39:56):
call friend? No, there's no show, wrong game show. It's
a cow's uh well, I can't go there. But a
dirty part of a cow, part of a cow.

Speaker 7 (01:40:05):
It is a lone translation of a word or phrase
from another language.

Speaker 5 (01:40:11):
Alc calk Okay, there you go. Other than the color,
what is the difference between black tea and green tea?
And I know this no difference because I went to
a sea farm in Japan. Would you like to know, Scott,
I would love to know. Black tea and green tea
are both made from the leaves of the Camellia sinesis plant. However,
they are processed differently. Black tea leaves are rolled than

(01:40:32):
exposed to air. The oxidation process turns the leaves dark
and heightens the flavor. Green tea leaves are prevented from
undergoing oxidation and thus remain lighter. That's why they're fresh
tea leaves keep fans so thank you. Oh you got
to try the butterfly pea flower tea. Oh look at
that sounds interesting. Blue When you brew it, put in

(01:40:53):
a little lemon turns purple. Ah way, goodness, Oh it's
so fun. Anyway, what is our Jeopardy category. I will
be waiting until the end of the question. Scotty. You
do not have to wait until the end, but if
you may want to do you have to say your name?

Speaker 2 (01:41:07):
Scott?

Speaker 5 (01:41:07):
Try it. I'm Scott. Okay, let's go. Let go is
the category? Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:41:12):
Let go? Let the answer go.

Speaker 7 (01:41:16):
Let Someone exercising to get rid of strong feelings does it?

Speaker 5 (01:41:21):
So does a boiling tea kettle of whistle, say Scott.
And then I think that's correct? Incorrect? I don't know
what is it? Let off steam? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:41:42):
Okay?

Speaker 7 (01:41:42):
Officers wear them on their shoulders. Mandy.

Speaker 5 (01:41:47):
What are epaulets? Correct? In a grim tail?

Speaker 7 (01:41:51):
The king's son makes this plea to a maiden locked
in a tower.

Speaker 5 (01:41:55):
Mandy? What is let down your hair? That is correct? Mandy?
You played this a few more time. Yes, I told
you you didn't have to win. Scott.

Speaker 7 (01:42:02):
A protective charm, Mandy, what's an ambulance?

Speaker 5 (01:42:06):
That is correct?

Speaker 7 (01:42:07):
And for the wind, they're on the tips of your shoelaces.

Speaker 5 (01:42:10):
Mandy, that is coct Sorry, well, hey, Mandy, you voted
for me several times, so Scott's willing to let me
win as long as I cast those Scott such a
joy meeting. Thank you for what you're doing. We're gonna
turn the station over to Kawa Sports. I'm guessing, what
what would you say? Okay? And I'm guessing that they're

(01:42:32):
going to be talking about Yesterday's not pretty or particularly
fun to watch win. Still a win though, Big Dub
seven and two Broncos all that coming up next