11-10-25 FULL SHOW - RTD Is Trying To Work Big Event, And It's Veterans Week!

It's the beginning of Veterans Week and I've got news for vets, RTD is trying to do better with large events, and is the shutdown finally over?  

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 and Connall.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
On KOA.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Ninety one FM.

Speaker 4 (00:15):
S got way the Noisy through three Andy Connell keeping
sad thing. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to a Monday edition of
the show. I'm your host, Mandy Connell, broadcasting and live
for the next three hours from my basement for the

(00:36):
dumbest reason ever that I'll tell you about in just
a second. Joined by Anthony Rodriguez you can call him
a Rod.

Speaker 5 (00:42):
Mambe Laurian.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
And y'all, I'm here. I'm here because I'm looking at
the text line from earlier today and I see a
lot of salty listeners, May Rod, I see a lot
of salty people about change, and I just want to
tell you it's going to be okay because Mandy's here
at noon jangs. Well, I'm gonna tell you I totally
get it. I one hundred percent get it. When I

(01:08):
walk into the grocery store and I see there in
the midst of a remodel, I immediately get angry for
like a year, because that's how long it takes me
to figure out where they moved all my food. So
I get it. Nobody likes change changes, uncertainty changes is strange.
And I'm gonna be perfectly frank. And I've said this
a million times, and I have to credit Jim Rome
for this. Sports radio hosts Jim Rome, who is not

(01:30):
everybody's cup of tea but had a wildly popular show
for many, many years, and he said, look, if you're
gonna if you're new to the show, and for this
in this case, we're talking about the moves that happened
in the morning with Ross at six and then Michael
Brown at nine, I just want you to I want
you to think about it like this. This is the
analogy that I've used for years, and that is when

(01:53):
you have a new talk show host, it's almost like
dancing with a person you've never danced with before, and
you have to figure out what their moves are and
you have to learn when they're gonna go in a
certain direction. You have to there's a lot it's kind
of like on a first date situation, right, and and
you have to give it some time. And Jim Rome
always said, give me two weeks, give me two weeks

(02:15):
of listening, and then and then make a decision after that.
And and now I have found, especially as I listened
to new hosts, if I'm listening to different hosts. After
I met Jesse Kelly at the RNC, I listened to
his show like twice and I was like, I don't know.
But then I listened to it for a week, and
now I think he's hilarious. I just think the guy's hysterical.

(02:36):
But that being said, just settling you guys. It's gonna
be okay. I'm here, Mommy's here now. So from noon
on everything stays the same. The apple cart is set
upright again, and and it'll be all right. You just
gotta let it happen.

Speaker 6 (02:54):
You gotta.

Speaker 4 (02:54):
You gotta lean in, ladies and germs, lean in, lean in.

Speaker 5 (02:59):
That's all.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
Now, let's do the blog, because, oh boy, when you
hear the stupid reason that I am broadcasting from home
today and the only reason I'm telling you is because
I'm doing a public service announcement. Okay, but first let's
do the blog. Mandy'sblog dot com. That's mandy'sblog dot com.
Look for the headline that says eleven ten five art. Oh,
I forgot to put blog like a dumb, idiot person.

Speaker 5 (03:23):
This is the second time you've done that recently. Do
you write characters? Because I think that was the first time.

Speaker 4 (03:26):
Maybe I don't know. You know how it is for
us elderly folks A rod no technologies. Yep, yeah. Look
for the headline. RTD is trying to work big event
and it's Veterans Week. Click on that and here are
the headlines you will find within this one.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
For you, Nancy, I didn't the office half of American
all the ships and clippas, and that's a press patch.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
Today, I'm the blog. RTD is trying to do better
for big events. Vet's I've got things you should know.
Barb Kirkmeyer pops by it. Two thirty Rockies hired a
new president of baseball operations. The shutdown maybe oh, to
say Democrats are mad is an understatement. The Denver Post
still isn't paying its rent. Expect the state white ban
on flavored vapes to come soon. Jerrymandering is a huge

(04:10):
part of our political dysfunction. Jerrymandering is ruining the country.
Non binary id has dropped like a rock. Trump pardons
the people who tried to overturn the twenty twenty election.
Colorado's middle class has bad enough scrolling. It's time to
talk about capitalism not working. San fran Nan is out officially.

(04:32):
Should we get our money back if the government shuts down?
Don't fall for this bar easter racket? Remembering Nancy's time
in Congress, who gets met candae Owens Dan rathert herself?
Happy birthday, Marines. The Trump media blowback hits BBC. Two
Cleveland guardians pitchers arrested. Hey military folks, tomorrow is your
day for a free meal, and more ski areas are

(04:54):
open for business. Those are the headlines on a blog
at Mandy's blog, god Tic Tech Toe.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
She really wanted to get to you. It was so good,
but you missed a headline.

Speaker 4 (05:09):
I did not miss a headline from that. I was
scrolling so fast, almost had a winner. Dang it, And
Nancy's featured prominently in today's blog. I feel like I
let her down. I feel like I let her toe.
Yeah winner, there you go, there you go anyway, Mandy,

(05:31):
I love the change. I don't have to change my
radio station to keep listening to Dragon and a Rod. No,
you don't. And if that's why you're listening, you are
in luck because they are here all day now here
all day Mandy. I have to admit I'm still salty
when they got rid of Logan and Lewis show. We
get to know you people, and so when somebody new
comes in, yes it's a little odd, but I definitely

(05:52):
miss that show. So here's the thing, you guys, I
feel the same way. But there's so many things that
go into play when it comes to determining a radio lineup.
Some of them are personality based, some of them are,
you know, trying to create a certain vibe overall vibe
for the station. And there's just so many factors. And

(06:12):
I know, I know, and and I've been that person
listening just mad when a person left the show or
retired away. I just get ah, It's like, why are
you doing this to me?

Speaker 5 (06:22):
Did you not hear?

Speaker 7 (06:23):
This is to make a Rod happy lineup because now
another one of my favorite hosts I get to work
with on a day.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
So this is all about a Rod's happiness. That's all
the lineup is. I'll forget everything I just said.

Speaker 5 (06:34):
Yes, it's all good.

Speaker 4 (06:36):
Yeah, it's all about a Rod's happiness. If Mandy is here,
it doesn't matter where here is exactly Mandy, have continued
to listen to you even though I think MEH. But
then I'm a masochist, So you got that going for you?
Like that, You're my favorite Texter. Now, anyway, can we
hear Ross's new show as a podcast? Absolutely? I that

(06:57):
today's show is already up. If you look Robs Mandy,
the six am to nine am change is uneven, not
enough news or enough time in between to really discuss
the particular subject. Absolutely, I'm not a fan of Michael Brown.
Not everyone is not everyone's a fan of me. Trust me,
I'm not for everyone. That's what I tell people all
the time. I'm gonna say this about Ross and Gina.

(07:20):
That show is unlike anything we've ever done at KOA
in my I mean maybe back in the day, I
don't know. So that is definitely going to be an
evolving process that is going to be every day. I'm
sure they're meeting after the show to say that worked,
that didn't work. So you guys are actually getting to
listen to kind of like the focus group. You are
the focus group on how that show is going to evolve.

(07:41):
I personally am extremely confident that they're gonna find you
know the balance in their footing and all. I'm I
think they're going to be fantastic together. But it is
a process, so you know, also competent to all of it.
What was Adam saying?

Speaker 7 (07:55):
You know who else we're confident in our boss, Dave
Tebra yes is putting that bad boy together.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
Yeah. I have had some phenomenal bosses in my radio career.
I've had some god awful bosses in my radio career,
but this one right here, Dave Tepper, I have nothing
but just I love the guy. I love working for him,
and I love.

Speaker 5 (08:13):
The Guy's an anecdote for you.

Speaker 7 (08:15):
I have had people that I have known for years
in this industry that gave me the most respectful fu
for stealing him from other stations in town.

Speaker 5 (08:24):
I'm just telling you, we got to go on.

Speaker 7 (08:26):
And he's putting together another another great move here at KOA.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
So yeah, well, I a text or asked Mandy A,
You're gonna ruin Michaels show. He may not know it,
but I am. I'm just gonna bust in for the
last five minutes because I enjoy it. I enjoyed it
with Ross and I'm gonna force myself on Michael Brown's show,
just because I think it will annoy him and that
will make me happy.

Speaker 5 (08:45):
Today.

Speaker 7 (08:46):
He had control because you're from home commands, and he
knew I don't have.

Speaker 8 (08:49):
To go without.

Speaker 5 (08:49):
Yeah, I'm lady today I want to do I'm gonna
do it today. The other day, I'm knowing I'm allad
to do it today.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
So why am I broadcasting from home today? So last
Thursday night, I already Friday off. Chuck and I had
plans went up into the mountains and Bailey. More on
that and been, well, Bailey's not really a mountains, but
you know what I mean. So we went up into
Bailey for had a phenomenal weekend. But Thursday night I
go and I take my daughter and her friend to
go to see a concert. Have you ever been to

(09:16):
the Marquee Theater?

Speaker 5 (09:18):
Hey, Rod, that might be one of the ones I
have not.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
It is okay, is it is? It's a bar with
a great stage, right, but it can't hold one hundred
and fifty people. I mean it's not large. And there's
a country artist named Aaron Kinsey. This young woman she
is My daughter loves her, I mean loves her. We
were going to try and go to see her in
the Springs when she was here of the summer, but
we went to Japan and blah blah blah, so we

(09:42):
didn't go. So I tell my daughter, we're absolutely going
to see Aaron Kinsey. I drive downtown from my house
in Douglas County and I get down there and I'm
driving two teenagers and I'm not a big drinker anyway,
but you still have to show your idea at the door, right,
So I show the girl my idea and she goes, oh, well,
since your ideas expired, I can't let you drink. And
I was like, I'm sorry, what So my driver's license

(10:04):
is expired and I didn't know that, and I asked
a rod. Today I go, Michael Brown's trying to ruin
my show, Michael, Michael, here's my story, and it's awful.
It's so stupid. My driver's license is expired. I didn't
know it until Thursday night when I went to a
concert and they put big x's on my hands so
I couldn't drink, which I didn't care, but I had

(10:25):
no idea, And I'm not going to drive my car
while I have a driver's while my license is expired.
I'm not a scofflaw like Michael Brown is.

Speaker 8 (10:33):
So you were afraid of getting stopped? I just I
can't bad you drive?

Speaker 4 (10:38):
Well, eh, maybe, Michael. No, When I was like nineteen
or twenty, I got a speeding ticket, and as you
do when you're broke when you're nineteen or twenty, I
ignored it, right, So they suspended my driver's license and
I kept driving until I got caught, and the entire
stupid seventy dollars traffic ticket ended up costing me like

(10:59):
a one hundred dollars because I got caught driving on
a suspended license. So there. Since then, I'm like, I'm
not messing around.

Speaker 8 (11:06):
I'm not a real convoluted way of telling me. You
were trying to avoid me today for oh no.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
Oh no, I'm I'm coming in fullborn tomorrow. I'm gonna
go tomorrow. I'm kicking the door open, Michael. I'm kicking
it open five minutes before your show ends, mister, so
I can ruin your show as well. So this is
why I have to come in and do my show
from home, because my driver's license was expired. And I
just am telling you this not to humiligate myself. Because, honestly,

(11:33):
such a dumb thing. But do you know when your
driver's license expires? Because they don't send you any kind
of notice. I've had the same address the entire time
I've lived here on every single driver's license. I asked
my husband, did I get some kind of notice that
my driver's license was expiring? And he's like, no, you
get one every year for your car. Your driver's license
doesn't expire like every five years. How are you supposed

(11:53):
to remember that? Dang dang it? Anyway, So, Mandy, how
come the new text line number? That's because Michael Brown's
he's a little bit older and he can't remember the
new text line number. I actually don't know the answer
to that question. Mandy, been listening to KAA News in

(12:16):
the early AM for decades. I called to inform the
producers how bad it had gotten. The news was very
slanted and I couldn't listen to it anymore. I am
so happy that they changed the morning news show. Mandy,
not a scofflaw. How did you get home?

Speaker 9 (12:30):
Shut up? Shut up? Just shut up? Okay, that dumb question.

Speaker 4 (12:38):
Shut up? Anyway. We got a lot of stuff on
our plate today. RTD board member Kathleen Chandler is popping
on to talk about RTD is really making an effort.
And you know, this has been my biggest era or
complaint rather about RTD is that they are unresponsive to

(12:58):
the needs of the people that are not going to
be everyday RTD riders, but are gonna be your occasional
RTD riders to go to a big event. And I
took a train to a concert at what was then
Pepsi Center one time, and then when we came out
and we missed the train, there were no more trains
for an hour. Then I was like, yeah, no, I'm good, Mandy.

(13:23):
The expiration date is on your license. I know, but
how often do you check your driver's license expiration date? Why, Mandy,
haven't you flown since your driver's license expired. I don't
use my license, I use my Global entry card. It
just it works better. Some like in the Boston airport,

(13:44):
our Colorado license will not work for whatever reason. And
I've had that happen to be twice now in Boston.
So it's like and the guy in Boston's like, oh, yeah,
this happens to Colorado all the time. We'll fix it.
Then Jack Tard what are you doing anyway? So, Kathleen
al going to be on at twelve thirty. We have
the ability to influence RTD's decision making. They have set

(14:09):
up a website where you can put input in and
I really need you to do this. I already did it.
And by the way, upbeat positive, nothing nasty, nothing negative. No,
you don't need to put This is why it's called
reasons to drive. You don't have to do that. This
is your opportunity to be you know, to be proactive
when it comes to RTD. We'll talk more about that

(14:31):
with Kathleen at twelve thirty. Now it is Veterans Week,
Tomorrow is Veterans Day, and today at one o'clock, I've
got Scott Felt. He's the commander of the Disabled American
Veterans National Service Officer. He's going to come on to
talk about the things that dav has does and is
still doing. Disabled American vets helps other veterans with all

(14:53):
kinds of stuff and so we're kind of doing a
informational interview. So if you are a veteran or you
love a veteran like I do, trust me on this.
You if you're a veteran and me as the wife
of a veteran. Generally speaking, you have no idea the
sort of help that is out there and available for

(15:14):
that right, You have no idea what kind of help
is out there. The dav is helping people do a
whole bunch of stuff. We're going to talk to Scott
at one about that. At two point thirty, Barb Kirkmeyer
pops by to chat about all things, not the least
of which is Michael Bennett and I have to give
it to the Democrats because they've nailed the messaging right now.

(15:35):
They've finally settled on a message, which is the message
of affordability. And if Republicans were smart, they would do
two things. They would start to focus on affordability in
the United States of America, and they would point out
that the reason that everything is so expensive is because
of the policies of the Democrats during COVID that are

(15:55):
continuing to overspend. Right now to the text, who pointed out, Mandy,
your birthday was in July. Your driver's license has been
expired for four months. Again, shut up, I didn't know
stop it anyway, same thing happened to me. You can

(16:18):
do all the necessary arrangements to renew driver's licenses. Print
out that documentation and then show it to the police
that pull you over. It acts as a temporary license
until you finish all renewals of the DMV. Oh your
girl tried that, but it wouldn't let me, I think,
because it's so expired. So there you go, Mandy. Ever
heard of Google calendar reminders? Well, yes I have. It

(16:40):
never occurred to me to set one for my driver's license.
Good grief, Mandy, drive for a living. You will know
when your license expires, guaranteed. Yes, there you go, to Mandy.
Your driver's license expiration date is your birthday. Just look
at your license every year on your birthday to see
the expiration day. I probably won't do that. I'm just
gonna let you know, just you know, just anyway, probably

(17:04):
not gonna do that. I just wanted to bring this
up because I guarantee you a lot of people pulled
out their driver's license as I asked and went, oh crap,
oh crap. The shutdown should be over. Ladies and gentlemen,
and a Rod and I were talking about this before
the show. I'm just gonna say this, neither the Republicans

(17:25):
nor the Democrats wanted to be remotely held responsible when
people's Thanksgiving travel plans got all screwed up, and they
would have been completely screwed up had this continued. So
that's good news. A Rod's flying when Friday next week?
When did you you just told a week from Friday?
Week from Friday, A Rod's flying away on a wonderful vacation.

(17:48):
And I think you should be fine by then?

Speaker 6 (17:50):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (17:51):
Thank god?

Speaker 6 (17:52):
Yeap?

Speaker 4 (17:53):
What I have questions about her? I do have this question.
We've always been told, and it's always been true that
after a shutdown, federal workers don't get paid. So what
about the air traffic controllers who stop showing up now?
Don't get me wrong, I don't know if I would
go to work if I didn't if I wasn't getting paid,
although you're pretty much absolutely positive you're going to get
paid in the long run. And I find it hard

(18:15):
to believe that they found new jobs unless they're all
drive an uber or lyft right. I find it hard
to believe that they all found new jobs. So do
they get back pay? I'd like to know the answer
to that question. Mm hm m hm. Kathleen Chandler, Mandy,
you can always ride RTD, except it doesn't go where

(18:36):
I wanted to go. Yeah, Mandy, don't forget. It's Democrats
overregulation that causes prices to go up and makes living
and makes living unaffordable. Correct, correct, Yes, Mandy, today is
the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Marine Corps.
More on that right after this, because yes, indeed, it
is happy birthday Marines, Mandy. I found out my license

(19:01):
was going to expire when we were at the bank
after my dad passed away. I was there on my
birthday and the lady said, your license is expiring today.
Do you want me to renew it online for you?
I had no idea it was going to expire. That
was a lifesaver. Yep. I would have loved to have
done that too, but missed that window as well. We'll
be back, and when we get back, let's talk about,
just for a moment, a little more on the shutdown,

(19:22):
because well, I got to tell you how everybody reacted
to the deal that was cut. We'll do that next.
Keep it on.

Speaker 7 (19:27):
Kowa.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
Kathleen not only is one of the incredible team at
the Independence Institute, she has recently run for and won
the office, and I don't know if that surprised anybody
really wants, but won the office of being part of
the RTD board. And we're here today to actually talk
about something that I'm actually excited about with RTD, Kathleen,

(19:48):
and it is about big event service. This is my
number one beef with RTD is that they have never
seemed to be remotely responsive to the possible massive increase
in volume that happens late at night. And I used
myself as an example. When I first moved here. We
took the train to an event at the Pepsi Center.

(20:09):
It was then the Pepsi Center now Ballerina. We get
out of the concert, we missed the train and there
was not another train for an hour, and I was
with my kid. I was pissed, and I was like,
never again, RTD, Never again. And I do take the
training down to baseball games when it's a day game
and stuff like that. But how is RTD working to

(20:31):
address this very annoying issue.

Speaker 10 (20:35):
Well, first of all, let me kind of give you
some bad.

Speaker 11 (20:37):
History, because I think it's extremely important. The new board.

Speaker 10 (20:41):
I was elected a year ago, so I've been serving
already a year.

Speaker 11 (20:44):
I cannot believe it.

Speaker 10 (20:47):
And this board said this is the worst event thing
ever is having this high volume event problem.

Speaker 11 (20:55):
And so we've been plotting and.

Speaker 10 (20:56):
Plotting, and I have to give kudos to my co
co colleague Karen Banker.

Speaker 11 (21:02):
She and I have been plotting to.

Speaker 10 (21:03):
Try and figure out how to fix this because I
not only ran on safety and security, those were my
big issues, but I figured, you know, the few times
a year that someone takes an RTD is usually to
a game or to an event or something, and so
if you want people to have a good affinity, like
have good vibes at RTD, then the one or two

(21:26):
times a year like make it an excellent experience for them, right,
And so that was my thought and I had so
many people say we want the broncovent.

Speaker 11 (21:34):
So Karen has been working for a year.

Speaker 10 (21:37):
To get a resolution, and we actually had to make
a resolution because every time we bring it up to
RTV they were like no, no, no, no.

Speaker 11 (21:44):
It had a lot, unfortunately to do with equity.

Speaker 10 (21:48):
It was actually canceled in twenty nineteen and it never
made it back because of the twenty twenty pandemic. They
canceled it right towards the end of two thousand nineteen
and to bring it back they would have to do
this huge inequity analysis, because it's.

Speaker 11 (22:05):
All about that now. And so Karen and I and
a bunch of us here.

Speaker 4 (22:08):
Wait, can I stop you there for a little clarification.
What exactly is an equity analysis?

Speaker 10 (22:15):
Yes, exactly, Well, it means are we serving a people
of disparative impact? Those that are being their community is
getting service that they shouldn't be getting.

Speaker 11 (22:28):
They're types of people, and it's absolutely ridiculous. Here's my thought.

Speaker 10 (22:33):
When you walk onto a bus, nobody cares what color
your skin is, Nobody cares how much money's.

Speaker 11 (22:38):
In your wallet, Nobody cares if.

Speaker 10 (22:41):
Your backpack has a thousand dollars computer or a peanut
butter sandwich.

Speaker 11 (22:44):
You get on the RTD and you.

Speaker 10 (22:46):
Should be able to get on efficiently and ride from
point A to point B. But according to RTD and
this whole title six stuff, you have to now service
each community appropriately, have to be within these percentages, and
that our TV sent in this equity I mean, this
is a financial analysis as well.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
Well let me I'm a little stuck on the equity thing,
and let me just ask this. So they're not prioritizing
where ridership is the largest already, Like to me, where
do we have the most bodies that we can move
from point eight? Where's the biggest need? That should be
number one and number one far and away like, so

(23:28):
you're telling me that perhaps we're focusing on servicing communities
because of ethnicity or racial makeup or instead of these
people over here need the bus.

Speaker 11 (23:40):
Yes, and that's the problem.

Speaker 10 (23:42):
And so it's all about we have to service communities
in these equitable ways. And so instead of saying, look,
all these people need to ride, which again I'm about
you need to ride, We'll.

Speaker 11 (23:53):
Get you there, that's the whole point.

Speaker 10 (23:55):
Instead we're trying so we couldn't add back service.

Speaker 11 (23:58):
That's the problem. So we actually have to force them
to add back service.

Speaker 10 (24:03):
So the board, and under Karen's leadership and I came
alongside her and a couple of other directors.

Speaker 11 (24:09):
We have forced them to say, no, this is insanity.

Speaker 10 (24:12):
You guys need to prioritize high volume events. Because again,
if you were trying to increase writership, which should be
number one in our problem solving right now is how
do we get writership up? Well, you get writership up
by servicing the writer you know, not just this population
or that population.

Speaker 11 (24:33):
And you can't assume you're being.

Speaker 10 (24:35):
Dispariting in any way because it's not about that.

Speaker 11 (24:38):
It's about who needs a ride. It's not about the
color of their skin and their income level.

Speaker 10 (24:43):
It's about getting a person the most people from point
A to point B and back. And that's actually the problem.
We were not getting you back, right, We could get
you there, but we weren't getting you back. And so
I was like, you're kidding. We shut down service, like
even o'clock, we do we do all.

Speaker 11 (25:01):
These crazy things. Well we all you know, we've got
this and this and this. I'm like, that is insanity when.

Speaker 10 (25:07):
You can't get you know, a thousand people downtown and
then leave them there.

Speaker 11 (25:12):
Yeah, they've got to figure out how to get back.
So that was what this is about.

Speaker 10 (25:15):
How do we extend service past normal service hours? How
do we really plan for large events? I meaning one
weekend we had the Coldplay concert, the King's Rally, an
Avalanche game, I mean well, and it was kotic and
it was inefficient and it left a lot of people
with a bad taste in their mouth. And again, the

(25:37):
whole idea here is if we want to increase ridership.
We have to increase affinity. And the way you do
that is by being good to the people that you
need to be good to the occasional two or.

Speaker 11 (25:46):
Three times a year driver.

Speaker 4 (25:48):
R mean, Kathleen, let's about let's liken this situation to
a Sunday at Costco. Okay, Because if I go to
Costco and that nice lady is giving me a snack
of something I have never tried before in my life,
and I try it and it's magical, and then she
lets me have a second snack, chances are I'm walking

(26:08):
out with a bag of that.

Speaker 7 (26:09):
Right.

Speaker 4 (26:09):
It's the same thing. If people never have the experience,
they are far less likely to make it a regular
part of their lives. So all you're saying is, let's
give them a good sample when they need it, and
then maybe they'll think of us when they don't necessarily
need us, but want to have an easier way to
get to work or get downtown or whatever. I think
you're absolutely right, And the fact that there is resistance

(26:32):
on this is crazy. I mean, that's nice.

Speaker 10 (26:37):
It's all because again the whole idea that you can't
service certain populations and I don't even understand it. So
we are trying to make RTD color blind, which.

Speaker 11 (26:48):
Is what it should be.

Speaker 10 (26:49):
It should be about getting a writer from point A
to punt B. And it also has to do with
if you want to ask people for an increase in taxes.

Speaker 11 (26:58):
This is how I got the the people to kind
of say yes, right.

Speaker 10 (27:03):
Then give them affinity, Like if you take them off
and you don't give them a good ride when you
go to the suburbs because they get no service, their
rights are terrible.

Speaker 11 (27:12):
You ask them for an increase in taxes, you're never
going to get it, and I don't blame them.

Speaker 10 (27:17):
So if you want to increase a little bit of
that opportunity to ask for more money down the road,
then ask then service them. Well, now that's my argument,
not that I want to raise anyone's taxes, right.

Speaker 4 (27:28):
Findish Well, I mean, but Kathleen, to your point, if
they have more writers who are paying to ride the
train to events, on those big events, and you get
more people on the trains, and you're then increasing the
revenue that allows those lines that are necessary because of
poverty or because people don't own cars or whatever the
situation is, you are then financing those using the fees

(27:48):
that I mean not that RTD is ever going to
operate in the black let's be real, Mass transit doesn't,
but it would get us closer rather than further away.
Kathleen Chandler is so appreciate this. How can people participate
in the survey?

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yes?

Speaker 10 (28:01):
Well, first of all, you can go to the RTD
website and you can also go to there is actually
a feedback form and you've mentioned it a couple of
times and I know it's it's kind of a long.

Speaker 11 (28:12):
Thing that it's RTD Dashdenver dot com backslash high Dash
Volume dash events.

Speaker 4 (28:19):
And I put this on the blog. Yeah, I put
that on the blogs. So people are driving just go
to mandy'slog dot com. It's right at the top. But
go ahead.

Speaker 11 (28:26):
But that's I need you to fill out this thing
and say I need this event. I need because when
we have things like the.

Speaker 10 (28:33):
Sundance Film Festival, these are people that are going to
be coming to Colorado.

Speaker 11 (28:37):
That don't even have a car. They're not rounting cars necessarily,
how do they obviously, you know those that want to
come here for a specific concert.

Speaker 10 (28:46):
You know, people come here for all kinds of things,
and if they don't even have access.

Speaker 4 (28:50):
To a car.

Speaker 11 (28:51):
They don't want to rent a car. We need to
be that, you know, transit agency for them.

Speaker 10 (28:56):
So this is about much more than just the people
that live here. You need to service the people live here,
but we're also servicing the greater population. If we ever
want to get the Super Bowl, if you know, with
this new barnharm Yards, get all of that construction, we've
got to service the people well now and get better
at these high volume events.

Speaker 4 (29:17):
Amen to that, Kathleen Chandler. I so appreciate your time
today and hopefully we'll see again in the near future.
You bet all right. That's Kathleen Chandler, both from the
Independence Institute and board member of RTDs. So she's a
doing build duties there. We will be right back. Keep
it on KOA. Enough Democrats have passed party lines, cross
party lines to vote to end the filibuster, and now

(29:38):
they only need a simple majority. So here's what is
happening right now. What's happening right now is that several
Democrats agreed to accept a promise by the Republicans they
would vote for a continuing resolution that would take spending
until late January. So I don't know what the exact

(29:58):
date is, but late January someway. It would continue the
biden Ara spending until late January in exchange for a
mid December vote on extending the healthcare tax credits. Now,
the agreement also includes a reversal of the mass firings
of federal workers by the Trump administration since the shutdown

(30:19):
began on October first, and would ensure that federal workers
received backpay. So this is the deal that has been struck.
And the Democrats that crossed over were Shaheen King King
hasn't a Democrat as an independent, Angus King, Hassan Democratic,
Tim Kane of Virginia, and two Nevada Senators Catherine Cortez

(30:43):
Mastow and Jackie Rosen. They also voted yas along with
John Fetterman. Dick Durban did two. And you know, there's
a lot of reasons for this. I fully believe the
biggest is that these particular senators live in a place
where it's not going to get held against them if
they go ahead and vote to move this thing out. Oh,
I forgot Tim caneb Virginia. He has more federal workers

(31:05):
in his state than any other governor. I'm pretty sure,
maybe not military, but other than that for sure. And
so these five Democrats switch their votes, and oh my goodness,
gracious you guys. The Democrats are so stinking mad, so
stinking mad because this was their leverage. And you know what,

(31:32):
I realize how politics works. I get it, I absolutely
get it. But shutting down the government to have leverage
over this one tiny issue is ridiculous. But it's indicative
of how politics doesn't work in DC. Now we are
going to pass this continuing resolution because the Democrats in
the House of Representatives are all going to stand up,

(31:53):
They're going to complain. But not a single one of
those people wants to be responsible for jacked up air
travel over Thanksgiving weekend. None of these politicians want to
have anybody pointing the finger at them when they say,
I miss Thanksgiving with my grandmother who's going to die
because of you, And nobody wants to be responsible for that.

(32:15):
So here's what's going to happen. These Democrats have either
decided to take the hit or they've been chosen to
take the hit for a variety of reasons, and all
the other Democrats get to fume and fuss and carry
on at the betrayal of the Democratic Party, and then
it's going to pass. And then at the end of January,

(32:35):
we are going to do this same crap over again
because our government is so utterly and completely dysfunctional that
they cannot do their job. They cannot do it well.
I have no faith. I have no faith. And Republicans,
the party that ostensibly I used to belong to most recently,

(32:55):
they're in charge. I should have faith. I have none.
That's where we are. Mandy. Senator twiddle d d and
twiddle d Dumb from Colorado both voted their conscience to
increase the natural debt as much as possible. Yep, let's
take a quick time out. When we get back, Scott
Felt with the Disabled American Veterans Colorado Branch is going

(33:16):
to join us to talk about Veterans Week and some
of the cool stuff they have coming up at DAV
and what DAV actually does and how they can may
be able to help you or someone you love. We're
doing that next.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bell and Pollock
accident and injury lawyers.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
No, it's Mandy Connell and Dono.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
On Kama got the nicey US three Andy Connell Keithing
sad bab Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the second hour of
the show, and as Veterans Day is.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
Tomorrow, thought it would be a good way to kick
off Veterans Week by talking with Scott Felt. He's the
commander of the Disabled American Veterans National Service Officer, United
Veterans Coalition x COM, United Veterans Coalition Legislation and Benefits
Protection Team. Scott, how do you fit all of that
onto a business card? That's my first question. That's a lot.

Speaker 12 (34:19):
I only use about half of it. Thank you well
you the beach Bendy.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
Nice to meet you as well. You're kind of the
guy in charge here in Colorado, the Disabled American Veterans Organization.
Tell my listeners, a lot of people have heard of you,
but maybe they don't know everything that DAV does. What
exactly do you guys.

Speaker 12 (34:37):
Do well Disabled American Veterans. It'd began back way long
time ago, about one hundred and five years ago a
gentleman by the name of Robert Marx. He was an
infantry captain that was injured Durham World War One that
Robert marks mister Marx. Captain Marx would call him. Captain
Marx basically saw veterans on the road laying around in

(34:59):
cincinnat out of Ohio, and he started advocating for veterans
and then it grew from there. Right now, you know,
distable American veterans are very important to us in the
state of Colorado. When I retired in twenty twenty from
my very long, extensive career, I basically looked at they've
reached out to me as far as support and help,

(35:20):
and then once I started working with them, it just
grew from there. I was able to grow within the
veteran community in a quick and timely manner here in
the state of Colorado, and I enjoy it every day.
With what we do dav in Colorado, we approximately have
about nineteen thousand members in the state itself. We have

(35:42):
four things that we kind of criteria that we work on.
First and foremost the claims, of course, and everybody knows
that the claims that are six or excuse me, our
five NSOs as well as our one national area supervisor.
We work on that part and we're very happy with that.

Speaker 6 (36:00):
As in the.

Speaker 12 (36:01):
Last year, last fiscal year, we have collected or we
have compensated veterans in the state of Colorado and over
one point nine billion dollars in compensation to our veterans,
so we're very happy about that. We also have a
transportation program, so that's mainly second high that's been going
on since nineteen twenty three, Dav's Transportation Coordination in the

(36:25):
state of Colorado.

Speaker 6 (36:26):
We support all.

Speaker 12 (36:28):
VA clinics, basically ALLBA hospitals including Cheyenne be A Medical
Center and also Albuquerque Medical Center because we basically covered
the entire state where all of our veterans are. You know,
in the state of Colorado, we have approximately last time
I read, was over three hundred and sixty nine thousand
veterans in there, and we try to support, Yes, we

(36:49):
try to support every single one of them, either in
the transportation side the claim side. Legislation, like you said,
is very big. We're trying to work on that a
state level as well as a federal level. We focus
a little bit more here on the state level. There's
a lot of things we try to work on to
help support the veterans. You know, we have the property

(37:12):
tax build that's very good, things like that for Colorado benefits,
and that's what we're trying to increase to help support
veterans all just not you know, device diverse veterans. It's
not We're not just looking at the AV veterans, but
the entire veteran community and the state.

Speaker 6 (37:30):
So that's on there.

Speaker 12 (37:31):
And then lastly is but not least is we try
to focus on our membership of course, and you know
we look at membership as well. It's like I'm sure
that of course at Jerry, our benefit protection lead in
our horse are assistant supervisor and a ZO. Basically we

(37:52):
don't charge anybody to be able to help them or
anything like that. We just want them to be a
part of I guess you want to say, I call
it our extended family so.

Speaker 6 (38:00):
To speak, where we're able to help.

Speaker 12 (38:02):
Veterans and you know, rough no matter what time, no
matter what demographic, no matter what you know, tribulations that
veteran goes through, hopefully we can help them through that portion.

Speaker 4 (38:15):
You know, there's so many people that have served that
have the attitude of you know, well, you know some
other guy has it worse than I do, or some
other soldier airman and you know needs that or needs
that or what do you do with that? Do you
find that to be common.

Speaker 12 (38:33):
Well, like you said, we try to get the word out.
I want to say one of the big things that
coming up on the air today is to thank you
and your staff being able to you know, as far
as having my personnel up here in the last three
months or four months excuse me. We we came on
in July again in August, and that has been grateful.

(38:56):
We had a couple of info seminars that like you're talking,
getting to those veterans, it helped out. And with those
just those three events that we had, we were able
to serve about two hundred and fifty veterans that probably
didn't even you know, some of them didn't even know.

Speaker 6 (39:11):
That we had that.

Speaker 12 (39:12):
So I want to thank you guys for your due diligence.
It's great to have people on that and what you're
trying to do for the community entirely the veteran community
that we have, So it's greatly appreciated. With the veterans
on that portion, a lot of yeah, you're right, there's
a lot of the older veterans are basically you know,

(39:34):
it's very difficult for them to say that they you know,
were injured or mentally physically in that aspect. You know,
we tell our veterans like a lot of times that
you know, you have to take care of yourself. There's
still your family members that you need to take care of.
When there's a fact of you have that veteran that

(39:55):
just he's hit rock bottom and he can't go any further,
you don't want to get to that level.

Speaker 6 (40:01):
So that's what we try to do. We try to
prevent that.

Speaker 12 (40:04):
So DAV is very big into you know, we try
to be proactive instead of reactive. And that's why I'm
trying to do what I have once I took over
as department commander, being able to get out in the community.
I just got back from you know, we were down
south in the Four Corners things like that, trying to
help to help our members down there, our chapters that

(40:27):
we have down there.

Speaker 6 (40:29):
DAV has about thirteen.

Speaker 12 (40:31):
Chapters all over state of Colorado, you know, So we
try to get out there and we try to support
everybody that we can.

Speaker 4 (40:38):
I appreciate that, Scott. Do you guys have anything coming
up this week specifically because of Veterans Day?

Speaker 12 (40:43):
Yeah, So tomorrow we have our big event.

Speaker 6 (40:45):
We've been for the past two weeks.

Speaker 12 (40:47):
We do what it's called, it's a national our National
Davy office. It's our military event night that we call it.
And basically it's at the Golden Corral where we help
celebrate you know, Veterans Day. Of course, Golden Corrals has
been supporting with Camp Carroll for many many years now.
Right now we have all the Golden Corrals and basically

(41:09):
in Denver, Colorado Springs area as well. I know the
ones that we help support is one in this area.
In our area, Lakewood area we have Santa Fe as
well as Thornton area Santa Fe. We're going to have
the bagpipes out there this year. A lot of people
like that around five o'clock if they want to come

(41:32):
out and listen to them. I really like it, I
really think. And that was basically our older veterans that
taught the younger ones.

Speaker 6 (41:39):
You know how important this is.

Speaker 12 (41:41):
We've had a real big, big response this year when
it comes to volunteering, and it's great to see and
it's great to see us all come together to help
support everybody in that point.

Speaker 4 (41:53):
Scott, how can people if they want to volunteer, they
need help or how can they get in touch with you, well.

Speaker 12 (41:58):
They could go online as well. Well, you can go
online and help volunteer. DAV has a has a great
Uh what what what really helps me with DAV is
they they have so many avenues, so many programs that
can help veterans. One of the you know, besides the
family caregiver support that's very big to be able. They
can call online register any issues or province they may

(42:22):
have that family caregiver with the veteran. They can call
there and they can request support there. But we also
have one thing that we do on our volunteer website
and DAV dot org.

Speaker 4 (42:32):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (42:32):
It's a fact that at veteran if they're having issues
or anything like that and there's somebody out there that
wants to volunteer, they can go on there. They can
basically claw you know, tap in and everything like that
and say hey, I'm here to help. I'm here to volunteer,
you know, and a lot of veterans will go on
there they need support like to redo a patch of

(42:53):
roof or you know, help with long care or anything
like that that.

Speaker 6 (42:57):
They come up. So DAV has kind of out of
all of it.

Speaker 12 (43:00):
When it goes on their website, the DAV dot org
all kinds of things that they can do on there,
and if you you know, very simple, all you have
to do is email us at office at Davcolorado dot org.
It's the office symbol at Davcolorado dot org and you can.

Speaker 6 (43:19):
Request that and are my.

Speaker 12 (43:22):
I have a very very very good support staff over
there in department and they know exactly what to do
and how to take care of veterans. They've been doing
it for a very long time, and they can get
you in the right direction to our NSOs or where
or the correct chapter to help support you.

Speaker 4 (43:38):
And I just want to reiterate because there are so
many people who think, oh, I'm not that bad off,
or oh, you know, sure, I have horrible tonight, it's
in my ears, or I having this issue, or my
back is shot, or I have arthurright, all of these excuses.
You need to understand that there's a lot of help
for you out there. And this is one of the
things that that I think people don't realize is that
as we get older, all of those physical issues get

(44:02):
harder to deal with, and if you're going to need
some kind of help in long term care and things like,
it's better to get in the system now and go
ahead and get your rating taken care of. And Scott,
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you, all
of the volunteers, everybody at DAV for what you do.
It's an incredibly important thing to take care of veterans
who not only served but go jacked up in the process.

(44:25):
They need need some support because they wouldn't have necessarily
had those injuries otherwise. I really appreciate it, and I
hope you can come back soon. We'll talk about the
next events where people can come out, but if they
need help now, just reach out DAV dot org. I
just added it to the blog for some reason forgot
to add it earlier. Scott, thank you so much for
making time for me today.

Speaker 12 (44:44):
Thank you, thank you very much, and thank you for
the time. Yes again, thank you very much for everything
you're doing. You're awesome and I truly to appreciate all
the support that you have given us these past forms.

Speaker 4 (44:55):
Oh it's my pleasure, Scott felt thank you so much.
With DAV all right, you guys, you know we're gonna
tomorrow's Veterans Day. I was trying to think of, like
I kind of we did this last year, and I
really liked it that we let people do a shout out,
you know, at the last segment of every hour. We
did shout outs for their favorite veteran and then. But

(45:18):
people misunderstand what Veteran's Day is. It's not a day
to think people who are active duty. Not that there's
anything wrong with thanking people who are active duty all
the time, I don't care. But this is about the
people who have served who are no longer serving. Right,
So this is the veteran Day. And if you are
a veteran and you you know, I mean guys, you
know in your heart, if you are physically you know,

(45:42):
not great because of your service, find out how you
can get taken care of by the VA. There are
very few things in life where I believe the government
has a responsibility to take care of people.

Speaker 6 (45:55):
Right.

Speaker 4 (45:57):
There are things like the really elderly. I think we
should take care of them. I think we should take
care of people who are developmentally delayed and are never
going to be able to be fully on their own.
I think we need to take care of them. And
I think we need to take care of the people,
many of whom volunteered to serve. So Mandy is DAV
only for disabled veterans. No, you can call them and

(46:18):
ask them for help with a variety of issues again
DAV dot org. Just click on the Colorado chapter and
go from there. Now, I've got a bunch of stuff
that I didn't get to because I was off Thursday
and Friday of last week.

Speaker 7 (46:32):
But there's a.

Speaker 4 (46:32):
Really interesting story in Denver, right that essentially says, look,
this first of all, is going to come to Denver
by January, and you'll no longer be able to buy
flavored vape cartridges. And we're only talking about tobacco. And
I'm going to come to that in just a second.
So tobacco vape cartridges have been deemed verboten and horrible

(46:56):
and the worst thing ever because they are the gateway
to real cigarettes and kids develop a habit. I think
I heard a sound bite of the mayor saying, we
want to prevent kids from developing a deadly habit before
they get started by taking away their bubble gum flavored nicotine.
Does anybody else think it's weird that we're not taking
away the flavored pot vape pens based on the exact

(47:19):
same logic. How is that possible. How are we when
me we meaning the voters. I didn't vote for this nonsense,
but I mean the voters did so where why? How
did Denver voters decide that candy cane flavored vapes for
tobacco must be stopped? And not a single person stood

(47:42):
up and was like, oh, hey, what about weed? What
about that? Anyone? Anyone? Yeah, Mandy, what about first responders?
Police officers and firefighters, et cetera. I think they need
support to correct they also do. They're part of my
very small category. I didn't get all I should have said.

(48:02):
This is not a fully inclusive list, but it is
a list if you put your body on the line
for society the way that cops and firefighters do. Yes, yes,
I think so too, And don't give me any commentary
about strippers or bookers doing the same thing. It's not
the same anyway. So now you cannot buy a flavored

(48:28):
tobacco vape cartridge, but you can buy a flavored weed
cartridge anywhere you want in a Denver pot store, right,
because gosh, we got to protect the kids. What's interesting
is that in this Denver Right article they point out, well,
fully expect this to come to a state wide ban anytime.

(48:49):
Because now that Michael Bloomberg has shoved enough money into
our pie holes, I assume he's going to go after
it again and make this a state wide band. Because
Denver voters they did this. They voted one hundred, like
seventy percent to enforce this band. Mandy flavored liquor. Oh no,

(49:10):
schnapps will never be banned. Nope, those malt liquors that
taste like soda, those will be banned. Oh forget about
the kids breaking up drinking that way, stop it. Texter
candy cane gross? Okay, I was trying to think of
cotton candy, but then the word candy came out first,
and I had to move on the fly in a

(49:31):
different direction, and so I went candy cane. I don't
even know if that's a thing. I'm just saying, so, yeah,
I don't even know if they make candy cane. Vpe
pins have no idea, Mandy, what about flavored liquor? No, oh,
that's sticking around, Mandy. Vate pins for pot the same

(49:53):
as tobacco. I don't think they were what, no tobacco,
It was just tobacco, Just tobacco. Mandy, you just touched
on what I've been saying since this ridiculous bill came out.
Candy weed is okay, but flavored tobacco is bad. I
would much rather smell raspberry in the air than actual
cigarette smoke. A to the men texture gully one hundred percent.

(50:22):
That's the thing I don't get because now that you
can't buy flavor, I mean, how many people I don't
know what is the cost? Like what is cheaper? Is
are vape pens cheaper or are our real cigarettes cheaper?
Because every time I go in a convenience store and
I see the price of cigarettes, and I just think,
oh my god, who can still smoke?

Speaker 1 (50:45):
Like?

Speaker 4 (50:45):
Who can afford that? Who is do I have? Okay listeners,
I have a question for you because this just occurred
to me. I long ago was a smoker. I consider
myself an ex smoker now because not only am I
a non smoker, I am repulsed by cigarette smoke. I
cannot stand it. And I have a very sensitive sniffer. Right,

(51:07):
So like if I walk into a hotel room, and
I will walk in and I'll turn around a check
and go go downstairs and get us another room, because
I can smell if someone has smoked in that room
and I'm not staying there. I mean, that's I am
an ex smoker. Do you know why I finally quit smoking?
Because over I started, I didn't smart start smoking until
I was twenty one years old, which is stupid. I mean,
who does that? But I was twenty one when I

(51:29):
started smoking, and then I smoked until I was thirty seven.
Off and on, though I would quit for years at
a time and then I would start again, and they
would quit for years at a time and I would
start again. It was just so stupid. Nonetheless, the reason
I finally quit is I'm driving in my car and
there was a talk show host named Neil Boards and
I was a huge fan of Neil's. And Neil said,

(51:52):
the thing I don't understand is why smart people still smoke.
And he said, I have listeners in my audience that
are that are probably smokers. And I actually think my
listeners to this show are very, very smart. And I
don't understand why smart people still smoke. And they know
it's bad for them and they know it, but they
still do it. And I and I ask myself, like, wait,

(52:15):
I think I'm a smart person, Why why do I smoke.
So I'm asking you this question for the listeners and
my audience who are still smoking. And I'm not judging you.
By the way, it is really hard to quit smoking,
as I just evidence with my tale of Woe is
smoking and not smoking on and off for years and
years and years. But I'm curious, like, have you ever

(52:35):
thought about that question? Because if you're listening to this show,
you're not stupid, You're smart. I'm just curious. Text me
your answer on the Common Spirit Health text line at
five six six nine, oh for this text or I
like my weed weed flavored, good, Good for you. You're
not gonna have to deal with that anymore. We'll be
right back. Keep it right here on KOA chat GBT

(52:57):
to run some numbers for me. First of all, if
if you smoke in Colorado, if you smoke cigarettes, you
are looking at a oh god. There's a lot of
talk about how much I just need this simple answer,
and I've lost it because I asked to do more math.
So basically, if someone smokes a pack per day, the

(53:20):
annual cost in Colorado is about four thousand, fifteen dollars
a year a year. Now, if you vape, that's about
two thousand dollars a year, so it's considerably less. But
I I'm gonna do something for you folks out there
who were still smoking, because I did this for myself
and it was very helpful in helping me quit smoking.

(53:42):
I asked, what if I took four thousand dollars annually
and put it into a mutual fund, what would I
have after twenty years? Now, if we're gonna do kind
of conservative growth eight percent, like say eight percent annually,
that's not crazy, it's it's not low. You'd have one
hundred and eighty three thousand, eight hundred sixty five dollars
if you just took your smoking money and put it

(54:04):
into an investment instead of smoking it. I'm just throwing
that out there, just doing the math for me because
this makes me know that in my soul, I'm thrifty.
Because when I added up how much money I had
spent on cigarettes, that was for me horrifying. It was horrifying. Now,
I asked why do people still smoke? And Mandy, here's

(54:28):
one that says, Daddy, quitting smoking is easy. I've done
it a thousand times. It's not starting again. That's hard.
I'm still working on that, and then they texted back
a little bit later that was supposed to be Mandy
and I said, no, I'm your daddy. Now that's what's
happening right here on the Mandy Candle Show. The daddy

(54:48):
this text. I think this textor said, I think smart
people smoke for the same reason they drink. They simply
enjoy it. Neither one of them do anything good for you.
But man, you got to enjoy something in this. You know,
there's a lot of similarities there, but there's also one
big difference. Alcohol is socially still very accepted in our
society right and alcohol unless you're sitting next to super

(55:11):
drunk person, either drunk guy or drunk girl, doesn't matter.
I can't stand being around super drunk people at this
point in my life, like I will run away. But
other than that, it's not as invasive to your neighbors
as smoking is. Smoking feels aggressive. It's like, I don't
care if you want fresh air to breathe, I'm gonna

(55:32):
pollute everybody around here. It feels like a giant fu
to the rest of the world. In a lot of ways.
Cigarettes here, not vape payments, because vape is just like
is that is that cotton candy? What is that? Is
that strawberry? What is that I'm smelling? Mandy? Twelve dollars

(55:53):
one hundred and twelve dollars for a carton of smokes
at a Shell gas station. Holy snikes, Mandy. A friend
got mad at me when I pointed out that here
smoking habit equal to mortgage payments. Yep, yep, Yes, indeed, Mandy,
I lived with a smoker for forty two years. I
guess I became used to it. Now. I can't stand

(56:16):
the smell of secondhand smoke. I just whenever I see
people smoking in their cars with the windows up, I'm like, oh,
what do you even smell like? Ah, gamer Galt says Mandy,
first they came for candy flavored nicotine? How soon before
they come for candy flavored candy. It's causing a lot

(56:38):
of health problems too. And I want to throw that
in there when you're talking about nanny statism, it's easy
to pick on cigarettes and tobacco because again, they feel
very aggressive when you're smoking cigarettes because you're clouding up
the air around everyone. You're not keeping it to yourself.
But it is remarkable that we don't do more to
police the food system in this contree, which has led

(57:01):
to an incredible rate of disease. You know what I
want the FDA to do. I want the FDA to
fund studies on basic nutritional stuff and what we've done
to our food system. I want them to find out,
you know how, the changing production of food. And I
am not anti big farm. I'm not anti big ag,

(57:26):
except they've made much of our food less nutritious and
added and now it produces more sugar then traditionally these
things have been right. That's the kind of studies I
want to see. Mandy, I still smoke because I like
it and it's great for my skin and teeth. That
made me left. That made me lol. For real? They

(57:47):
did tunea flavored schnapps. I don't know why anybody would
need that or why did you even make me read
that out loud?

Speaker 7 (57:56):
Why?

Speaker 4 (57:57):
Why is that a thing?

Speaker 1 (57:58):
I know?

Speaker 5 (57:58):
Now?

Speaker 4 (58:00):
In any case, we'll see what happens. Maybe we will
find out that people don't like flavored vapes, and maybe
we'll find out that somebody may notice that flavored wheat
cartridges are probably doing the same thing to kids that
you're worried about tobacco cartridges, doing and with kids and weed.
It's a far bigger issue. And you heard me right, Mandy.

(58:24):
Dang it, Mandy, haven't smoked for years now. I'm craving
a cigarette, thank you very much. I don't even have.
I stopped having cravings years ago. I do say that
when I like, if I live to be like ninety
five or ninety or whatever, I'm gonna start smoking again.
Oh yeah, I'm gonna be like, yep, there you go, Mandy.
How much does it cost to have a Starbucks every day?

(58:45):
I don't have a Starbucks every day. I don't have
a Starbucks every week. I have a Starbucks when I'm
at the airport and on occasion when I am in
a King Super's grocery store and I need coffee. Those
are the two times I have a Starbucks. I'm too
cheap to pay for coffee out. I literally did the math.
This is so god. This makes me sound like I'm

(59:07):
the cheapest personal life. I kind of am about certain
things because I want to spend my money traveling the world.
That is what I want to spend my money on.
I don't want to spend my money on stupid coffee
that I have to sit and wait in line for
I don't want that. So I have analyzed the most
cost effective way to make coffee for me is using

(59:28):
a giant bag of really good coffee because I do
like good coffee from Costco, and using like a French press,
because then I know exactly how many tablespoons go in there.
I don't have to brewtful pot. I have gotten it
down to where I know it. Like a cup of
coffee cost me like seventeen cents, that's how much mine
and it's a travel mug that's sixteen ounces. That's how

(59:51):
much my coffee cost me. Why am I gonna go
to Starbucks and pay like one hundred times more than that? Mandy,
I went to Metallica but had to leave because of
all the pot and cigarette smoke, especially the pot smoke.
You know that sucks. It really does suck, And it's
just I wish that there was that They really should
have enforced non smoking sections at concerts, And if you

(01:00:15):
find yourself in the enforced non smoking concert section, then
you're gonna have to walk somewhere else in smoke, because
there are people who really don't want to or cannot
be around it. I have a friend who's a severe asthmatic,
and if she is a round cigarette smoke in any
kind of static environment, she will have a massive asthma attack.
So we need to make sure that there's some kind

(01:00:36):
of option for people who really cannot be around it. Mandy,
don't like flavored vapes. It's a cop out to real
smoking and turns people into those who think they're way
cooler than they are. I mean, that's a total James
Dean kind of argument. But it's better than a big
old cloud of noxious tobacco smoke.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Mandy.

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
I grew up in a house of smokers. I'm the
only one out of five kids and two parents that didn't.
I just remember sitting in a car with the windows
on and the heat up and my mom and dad's smoking.
It was awful, awful, Mandy. Like you, I was a
smoker in my youth. Now the smell makes me sick.
We have a HouseGuest who smokes outside and his smell

(01:01:17):
is bad even in a non closed space. Okay, you
know what, guys, does anybody else have this problem? Arod,
have you ever had this problem? There is someone who
works for the company, A couple, a couple floors down
and there is a person who works there and every
day about the time I come into work, they take
a smoke break and then they get in the elevator

(01:01:37):
and it's like, so now if I see them, I
literally run into the building so I can get in
before you know, the smoke cloud infests the elevator. If
you had that situation, because you can hear about the
same time I do.

Speaker 5 (01:01:53):
I have not, and I'm normally here before you.

Speaker 4 (01:01:55):
Talking about that's why. That's probably why, yeah, that you
you haven't had that, because it's the same time every day.
And I don't think. I mean when I was a
smoker and I was in sales guys, I for breezed
myself before walking into a client. I brushed my hair
with dry shampoo, I washed my hands, I had breath mints.
I was aggressively covering that up. And there's so many

(01:02:17):
people that just don't and we all smell who smokes.
I'm just saying, Mandy, no smoking, and Metallica, you're at
the wrong concert. Mandy Duncan beats Starbucks always black, no sugar.
Only psychopaths drink coffee black with no sugar. We'll be
right back. Keep it on KOA. You know what's interesting
about the people voting to stop flavored, you know, vap pens,

(01:02:40):
because they're so worried about the children. We don't want
children to pick up a habit, said the mayor, and
I'm paraphrasing, but he said this.

Speaker 9 (01:02:47):
We don't want the children to pick up a habit
that could be dangerous for the rest of their lives.

Speaker 4 (01:02:53):
But so many of these are the same people who
tell you that when a three year old tells you
that they're a girl instead of a boy, you have
to listen to them. Gene Twinkie has been studying the
younger generations for a really long time now. I first
interviewed her like twenty years ago. She's got a great
subset out called Generation tech blog dot com. And last month,

(01:03:16):
you remember we had Eric Kaufman on the show. Professor
Eric Kaufman said that identifying as non non binary or
gender queer was in freefall among the young and a
lot of people came back and said, you know, well,
your data isn't complete and all of this stuff. So
Gene Twingy went and looked for the most complete studies

(01:03:38):
she could find that just asked the question what is
your sex? Well, Monitoring the Future is a survey of eighth, tenth,
and twelfth graders. It doesn't ask about transgender identity, but
starting in twenty two, it asked the question what is
your sex with four options male, female, other, and prefer
not to answer that was it? There was no like

(01:04:01):
what it means? I mean, it was just a straightforward question.
Monitoring the Future is nationally representative and it works with
schools to get very high response rates. And these are
a lot of kids that were asked. And guess what
percent of eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders identifying as non
binary or other gender has collapsed? Not that it was

(01:04:24):
ever that high, but it's also a free fall among
teens as young as thirteen. As a matter of fact,
the younger the kids are, the more likely they are
to reject the other or you know, non binary that
they're not doing it. So the transmania seems to be

(01:04:45):
falling by the wayside. And I cannot wait. I cannot wait.
Has Mandy or a Rod listened to the North Pole
Radio on the Crystal Clear iHeart Radio app? Yet it's
one of the few commercial free stations. It's temporarily replaced
my eight to fifty KOA preset. Now, Texter, what why

(01:05:06):
there's so wrong with that? Would you need to replace us?
Why with north Pole Radio when there are other preset
buttons that were probably not as good as us that
you could have replaced instead.

Speaker 7 (01:05:20):
Follow up question, Mandy Cattle, if you could enlighten me
by looking down at your phone and let me know
what today's date.

Speaker 4 (01:05:28):
Is, the tenth of November.

Speaker 7 (01:05:33):
Put some respect on November texture. It is not Thanksgiving
yet when December first comes, we can have a conversation
for you, putting in as the second Preset Cole show
until texture.

Speaker 5 (01:05:47):
No.

Speaker 6 (01:05:48):
I mean the.

Speaker 4 (01:05:48):
Problem here really when it comes to Christmas Thanksgiving. Wait,
the problem between Thanksgiving and Christmas music is that there
are no things. There's no Thanksgiving songs. I didn't say
that there was. Listen to something else. Listen to something
in the holiday where there's to be.

Speaker 7 (01:06:06):
The right holiday by listening to the Mandy Connell showing
KOA up and through Thanksgiving, and then when December first hits,
I will be first in line along with all of
you listening to Christmas music until then, put.

Speaker 5 (01:06:18):
Some respect on my holiday.

Speaker 7 (01:06:20):
And I say my because I am a turkey baby
born on Thanksgiving. It is my right by law to
tell everyone to respect my holiday.

Speaker 5 (01:06:29):
I rest my case your honor.

Speaker 4 (01:06:31):
Do you feel better?

Speaker 5 (01:06:32):
I feel really good right now.

Speaker 4 (01:06:33):
Okay, let's go on that note. When we get back.
I have so much stuff on the blog today that
it's not even funny. We're gonna jump in because we've
got Barb Kirkmeyer coming up at two thirty to pop in.
We're gonna talk about jerry mandering, and I've got two
different things. We're gonna talk about why what we did
in Colorado is is what must happen if we're going
to save the republic. When it comes to jerrymandering, we

(01:06:56):
will be back. Keep it on KOA.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
Show is sponsored by Bill and Pollock Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
No, it's Mandy Connell and ton on KA.

Speaker 4 (01:07:12):
Ninety one, m God.

Speaker 13 (01:07:16):
Guy can the nice three?

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Andy Connell keeping no real sad thing.

Speaker 4 (01:07:25):
Welcome, welme, and welcome to the third hour of the show.
I'm your host, Mandy Candle. That guy over there is
Anthony Rodriguez, need you and we call him a rod
You can call him whatever you want, just don't call
him late for Thanksgiving. Anyway, a lot of people said
this a Rod Afternoon, Mandy. Thanksgiving is the greatest soliday,
the best food, football, family, cool weather, don't have to

(01:07:47):
buy presents for anyone. Plus apparently it's a Rod's birthday.

Speaker 5 (01:07:50):
Amen that name by dub Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:07:54):
Anyway, I gotta talk about tererry mandering because this is
actually an incredibly important discussion to have many years ago.
And I mentioned this before I had a chance to
see George W. Bush and Jeb Bush speak right after
w left office. So one of the things that George W.
Bush said in this kind of free ranging conversation, which
was amazing, by the way, and I haven't told this

(01:08:16):
part of the story in a long time. The guy
sitting next to me, So this is a ballroom of
maybe a thousand people, right, the guy sitting next to
me before the Bush has come out, told me that
he literally came to the event because he just wanted
to sit and laugh at how stupid. George W. Bush
was like, that is why the man bought a ticket. Okay,
So George W. Bush comes out with Jeb and they

(01:08:39):
have this really in depth conversation and is rapidly apparent
that George W. Bush is no intellectual lightweight, right, And
I could feel the guy next to me kind of
becoming more and more deflated as the evening went on.
And so you got to submit questions in advance, and

(01:08:59):
he jokingly submitted a question. They're this question, and so
they asked his question, and his question was, when you
look back at your performance now, are you embarrassed by
how many times you butchered the English language? And it
was I mean, that's not exactly, but it was pretty close.
And George W. Bush said, when you're president of the

(01:09:19):
United States of America, everything that comes out of your
mouth matters, and it matters to the world, and you
have to be aware of that. And so sometimes I
would be thinking so hard about that that I would
butcher the English language, and you know what, it happens.
But nonetheless, the other thing he said that stuck with
me is that one of the biggest issues in the

(01:09:40):
country today is jerrymandering and what it has done to
electoral politics and politics overall, and right now California just
I don't know what exactly this they did to make
this happen, but I think it was something like, hey,
you know what, we have fair districting. You're in California,

(01:10:01):
but it's inconvenient right now. And because the ends always
justify the means, we got to change that so we
can go ahead and redistrict all Republicans out of office
in California, which is practically what they're gonna do. Right So,
Gary mandering is how it's supposed to be. Huh. That

(01:10:23):
word is actually pronounced with a hard G based on
the name of the man it was named after. I
have never in my life for the Anthony Anthony look
up how to pronounce jerry mander g e r r
y mander on it. He's on it. We're gonna find out. Nonetheless,
So George W. Bush said, jerry mandering has created so

(01:10:44):
many safe districts in this country that what happens is
when you are a Democrat who is running for office
in a Democratic quote safe district. How's it pronounced.

Speaker 5 (01:10:52):
Here's what the Google says.

Speaker 4 (01:10:54):
Okay, jerry mandering.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
Hmmm.

Speaker 4 (01:10:57):
So that pronunciation obviously evolved over the years, as the
English language does. Is we learned from the late Great
Charles Harrington Elseter many years ago. So, but when you
have so many safe districts, you have a safe Republican district.
You have a safe Democratic district. It completely eliminates any
need to give any attention to what the other side

(01:11:22):
might think. Right, if you are in a safe Democratic district,
why would you pay attention to the to the Republican concerns.
You don't ever have to win those votes, you don't
need them. You just have to feed the base. And
what ends up happening is we incentivize kind of the
most extreme behavior on either side. We we nomin it's
it's This is one of the reasons, in all honesty

(01:11:44):
that I hate the caucus system and that I hate
the state assembly system because the people that go to
the state assemblies, they are the true flipping believers, and
they are far more likely to vote for somebody who
was absolutely on a lible to people in the center.
And I don't care what anyone says. In Colorado, you

(01:12:07):
cannot afford to ignore the unaffiliated. Now, a vast majority
of those not vast, but a good majority, sixty percent
are going to break left. So if you are a
Republican running in this state, you have got to win
every single one of the other forty percent if you're
even getting be in the race. So you have to

(01:12:27):
pay attention to unaffiliated voters in Colorado. And there's two
things on the blog today. One is a story from
Colorado Public Radio. They did a really good feature on
the nonpartisan redistricting board that we have here in Colorado.
They did a really fair, you know, redistricting process. And

(01:12:50):
now we have Phil Wiser out there saying that he
wants to do redistricting now even though it would violate
the Colorado Constitution because he doesn't like the way the
politics are breaking. And it's like, what are you even doing.
They're literally telling you they want to create a system
that gives them an unfair advantage because they can. Is

(01:13:12):
that going to help the tone and tenor of politics
in the United States of America? And Charles Lane has
written a great column in the Free Press. It is
it is probably paywalled. I'm sorry about that, but it's
really good and you should subscribe to the Free Press anyway.
Redistricting doesn't counteract polarization, rather it reinforces it. In fact,

(01:13:34):
David Wasserman and Ali Flann of the Cook Political Report
of found that redistricting explains seventeen percent of the decline
in competitive congressional districts between nineteen ninety seven and twenty seventeen.
In a safe district, the general election becomes a formality
and the only political competition occurs within the dominant party's primary.

(01:13:54):
Instead of being held accountable by a broad cross section
of voters, house members answer only to the party base
over time, that creates a one way ratchet in favor
of extremists over moderates. Because primaries are low turnout affairs
dominated by activists. That is where we're headed. That is

(01:14:15):
what we're being told we need to do. No, no,
absolutely not. And by the way, right now, the elections
in the country are split evenly in safe districts Republican
and Democrat. So it's not just the Democrats doing this.
Colorado has it right on fair districting, period, full stop.

(01:14:40):
Don't change anything. When we get back, we'll talk about
why the Colorado middle class is leaving. We'll do that next.
Keep it on KOA from the Denver Gazette. Excuse me,
and it's about who is moving to Colorado and who
is moving out. After long being in the top, I
mean top position for many years, we have now fallen

(01:15:03):
way way out of the lead. When it comes to
in migration here in Colorado and from the editorial. The
detailed report, chock full of easy to read interactive charts,
is based on a database of eighteen million moves tracked
nationwide between June twenty twenty four and May twenty twenty five.

(01:15:25):
The compilers Porch Group Media Unique Data Insights, claim their
work is one of the most current views of US
migration patterns available. Classified by income level, Colorado's earning fifty
one thousand to one hundred thousand a year were most
represented among those leaving. They make up sixty one percent

(01:15:47):
of the outflow, while thirty one percent of the out
migration earned between twelve thousand and fifty thousand. Among the incoming,
seventy eight percent early between one hundred and one thousand
and two hundred thousand a year, and twenty two percent
we're in the two hundred and one thousand to two

(01:16:08):
hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year bracket. So that
essentially is the sound of our middle class leaving the state.
And it's no wonder. It's no wonder because they're getting
absolutely crushed, crushed. Their incomes have not kept up with
the cost of living. Colorado is making it impossible for

(01:16:31):
many of them to buy a home, And why would you?
I mean, I put my son into this category. My
middle son was living here and he came to us
a couple of years ago and said, I am never
going to be able to get head here ever, and
his brother had been saying, moved to Ohio. Moved to Ohio.
So he moved to Ohio and he already owns a
house and he has a really good job. And it's like,

(01:16:54):
why why are we asking a young person who? And
when I tell you how much he paid for his house, yeah,
seventy two thousand dollars. Yeah, the value has gone up
considerably since then. But anyway, I was immediately reminded of
the income inequality for California. Now many people do not

(01:17:15):
know this, but you're not going to be shocked at
all to know that the three states with the greatest
level of income inequality start with New York. I want
to say Connecticut is third, but I can't remember. Hanging
on one second, this is what I want. I'm looking

(01:17:36):
right now with my assistant. The top state is New York,
but California is number three, and they're very, very close
in terms of more people the bigger divide. And when
you look at the quintile mean household income rates, you
know they break them into quintiles. That's five, you have

(01:17:57):
the lowest twenty percent, you have the second twenty percent,
and so on and so forth. In California, the lowest
twenty percent makes about sixteen thousand, five hundred and twenty
four dollars a year. Now, how do you live in
California if you make that much money, Well, they don't
count welfare benefits as part of your income, right, So

(01:18:18):
these people are people that are are overwhelmingly have to
be living on the system in some sense, because you
cannot live in California on that kind of money. You
you can't do it. So they have to be getting
some kind of assistance. And then the second twenty percent
is only forty five thousand, the middle is seventy nine thousand,

(01:18:38):
and then it goes up to the highest twenty percent
two hundred and ninety thousand. So there's a big, big
gap between sixteen thousand and change and two hundred and
ninety thousand and change. Now we get to Colorado, our
bottom twenty percent is at thirty eight thousand, still not
a lot of money. But you're not going to starve.
Sixty three thousand is the next twenty percent, ninety seven

(01:19:00):
thousand is the next percent, one hundred and twenty one
thousand after that, and then two hundred and nine thousand.
They're much more evenly distributed, meaning we have a vibrant
middle class, but we're running them out of the state
because everything just costs too much. And joining me in
the next segment to talk about that very thing and

(01:19:20):
the great irony that Democrat Michael Bench is running on
making Colorado more affordable. We're going to talk to Senator
Barb Kirkmeyer after this. Keep it on KOA State Senator
Barb Kirkmeyer. She'd also like to be your next governor
and is in the Republican race for the nomination. Barb,
good to hear from you again.

Speaker 14 (01:19:39):
Hey, nice to hear from you too. Thanks for everything
you're doing as well.

Speaker 4 (01:19:42):
So you know, I have to say, Barb, I'm in
a different position than you when when I hear Democrats
of any stripe in Colorado talking about making Colorado more affordable,
I just take it as a laugh line, right, I mean,
because it's hilarious because since they've taken over every every
branch of government. In twenty nineteen, government has grown exponentially,

(01:20:04):
the cost of everything has grown exponentially. And I'm not
saying that everything is the Democrats in Colorado's fault, because
it isn't like We've also had national inflation that's been
a mess. But now to see them earnestly running on
making Colorado more affordable, it makes me laugh. I guess
I shouldn't look at it that way, I should take
it more seriously.

Speaker 14 (01:20:25):
Well, I think sometimes the only thing you can do
is laugh and try and just work your way through it.
But quite honestly, you're exactly right. You know, Democrats are
going around saying, oh my god, the state's unaffordable, all
these things, you know. I mean, we just heard from
Michael Bennett. He put out this post and was on
a podcast saying that it's you know, a lot of
other words, but it basically said it was disgraceful, and

(01:20:46):
it is disgraceful. But you know what, he has said nothing.
He has said nothing for the last six and a
half seven years when all of this has been happening.
Because seven years ago, before this one party control that
we have, we weren't the fifth most unaffordable state in
the nation. We weren't the second most unsafe state in
the nation. We weren't the sixth most regulated. I mean,

(01:21:07):
what did they think was going to happen when they
passed all those regulations and pass those onto businesses that
just get passed on to consumers. Did they think things
weren't going to cost more? I mean, it's crazy, but
it's their fault. It is just their fault.

Speaker 4 (01:21:22):
Yeah, And so they're already lining up because I think
that that messaging in the last election cycle, and Barb,
let's be real. I mean, it was a schlacking across
Colorado for conservatives once again. And part of the reason
that I think some of the races were one, at
least in some of the school boards, was that they
focused on real life issues. And I think that the

(01:21:45):
Democrats are now moving away from this sort of identity
politics that they've been so immersed in for so many years.
So how do you, Barb Kirkmeyer, point out to the
voters who may not necessarily be the most informed voters
about why we're sort of where we are today? How
do you push back on that narrative without just going

(01:22:06):
are you kidding me? Because That's what I would say,
and that's why I'm not a politician.

Speaker 14 (01:22:12):
Yeah. So I've been in several forums with you know,
Democrats who are running for office, whether it's attorney general, treasurer,
or gouvenatorial and you know, just even a few weeks ago,
I was in in front of the Denver Junior League
about two hundred to two hundred and fifty women, and
we were talking about women issues and government. And I

(01:22:33):
set there for an hour and a half and listened
to the Democrat candidates and or their surrogates, and I
was the only Republican candidate actually there, which I think
we've got to go out and keep make sure that
we're in front of every group. Right when I runt
the governor, I'm running to be a governor for everybody
in the state, not just a certain flex few. But
you know, I listened to him for an hour and
a half talk about the cost the groceries and how

(01:22:54):
expensive it was, and how I'm safe our communities are,
and literally I ended up being the last person to speak.
I got the last shot at closing statements, and I
just said, they're right, it is and I said, and
it's their fault it's one party control. They have done
this year over a year, and they've made our state unaffordable, unsafe,

(01:23:15):
and quite frankly, we are just unraveling. And the thing is,
you know, and this is what I tell folks, even
as I talk about the healthcare situation in our state.
The governor just cut Medicaid. He does cut medicaids, and
he cut Medicaid provider rates, and my Democratic callegues on
the Joint Budgets Committee sat there and said nothing. It's infuriating.

(01:23:38):
I mean, finally today we're getting a post out from
the Colorado Suan that says, you know, this is how
bad it's going to hurt all these people on Medicaid.
It is not just the people on Medicaid that will
be hurt by this. With twenty five counties with maternal
health care desert, that means whether you're on Medicaid or not,
you're not getting maternal health care in those areas of
our state. That's what this one party control role has

(01:24:00):
done in the state of Colorado, and they're making it worse.
The governor came out, I mean, I do everything I
can to get the message out, you know, and we
have folks like yourselves and other people in the media
that are getting it out. But even like you know today,
when I saw that headline come out, it was the
other day, and you know, I've just had the opportunity
today start reading things again. I'm like I said, you know,

(01:24:22):
sent down a tweet that said, look, the headline should
have read, this is polist medicaid cuts. You know, the
polist medicaid cuts will hurt families across Colorado. And the
Dems on the joint Budewney, they've said nothing. They refused
to hold him accountable. But the people in this state,
we all need to start holding him accountable because he's
affecting everyone's access to healthcare, not just those who are

(01:24:44):
the most poor among us, you know, the most vulnerable
among us. He's doing it to everybody. It's hurting everybody,
and they are feeling it. And I think that's what's
showing up in the polls. And I know, you know,
the election, and I'm sorry I'm kind of going on
here a little long, but I know that lasts election,
you know, Tuesday, last week, every racing all it was
a slacking and to some extent it was. But I

(01:25:05):
think for those of us that are involved in this.
You know, we know that which school board members or
Republicans and which ones are Democrats or you know, unaffiliated
or you know where they stand. But on the healthy
mills thing, we have voted on that twice, and so
the third time, I mean, there wasn't that much on
the ballot, and I just don't think people were that
were that you know, interested in it. And but for

(01:25:27):
the third time, it's like, well, we voted on that twice,
and you know the two times before it they passed it.
And so when the messages us, do you think we
should attack somebody else other than yourself? So that was
in school. You know, what do you think they're going
to say?

Speaker 4 (01:25:41):
Well, I mean, wait, but you know as well as
I do that that bill was not about making sure
kids could eat at school. It was about putting the
progressive income taxes Camel knows underneath the tent. And I
keep saying on social media, I'm like, you know what,
all you people who voted to stick it to the rich,
wait until you find out you're the rich, because they

(01:26:02):
will come for you with a progressive income tax.

Speaker 14 (01:26:06):
Absolutely. But you know, but Manny, it has been on
twice before this was can we just keep the money
that you already said should go to kids to feed
kids in schools? You know, And people are like, well, yeah,
why not? You know, I mean I think that's how
people approached it. And they's like, we've already voted for twice,
why would we not vote for again? And you and
I know what's behind it, but they don't, right. But

(01:26:27):
you know, I will say this as well, I think
it is starting to permeate into folks who are not
underneath what I call the golden bubble down there, you
know that, you know, we get so closed in. It's
like our own little echo chamber going on. But I
think it is starting to permeate because even with this
snap the supplemental nutrition program, I mean, you've got you

(01:26:48):
have Senator Bennett calling out and saying it's a disgrace
that we're so unaffordable, and then he continues to vote
for the shutdown. This is on the Democrats. They continue
to vote for the shutdown time and time again. Our
two US senators keep doing that, and basically, you know,
and then and it's one hundred and twenty million dollar
program a month, and Post is like, well, let's fill

(01:27:10):
the gap with ten million bucks, and I'm like, you
need to call a state of emergency, tap into the
emergency fund, and start figuring out how to make this
work in our state because it's six hundred thousand people
that aren't going to have food on their table, and
half of those three hundred thousand of them are kids.
So what does he think they're going to do for Thanksgiving?
For goodness sakes off the top, you know. But here's

(01:27:31):
what's happened just recently, and I had made comments and
I started talking to some of my county wish your friends.
Jefferson County declared an emergency disaster that people aren't going
to get fed. This is a this is a big deal,
you know kind of thing. And you know, but here's
here's been at Well, we're unaffordable, and you know whose
fault is it, It's the Democrats. And then on top
of it all, he keeps shutting down government and is

(01:27:53):
the real him and Hick and Hooper are right there
at the top of the list of people who are
denying people. Dude, in our state. That's ridiculous. That's just
ridiculous to me.

Speaker 4 (01:28:04):
I think the entire government shutdown is ridiculous. I think
that the fact that we're doing a continuing resolution over
and over and over again and expecting a different result
is ridiculous. But as governor of Colorado, what would you
do to do a better job managing those Medicaid funds?
Managing the healthcare needs of the state. Recognizing that, especially

(01:28:26):
in some mountain communities, health insurance is insane. How do
you even begin to do something here at the state level.

Speaker 14 (01:28:34):
Some of the things that I've already done is trying
to ensure again that the Medicaid provider rates that there
is an increase. Of course, now I'm getting pushed back
from not only the Governor's office, but even people on
the Joint Budget Committee who don't want to keep those
rates up, because I guess people just everyone needs to understand.
When you cut the Medicaid provider rates, it cuts access
to certainly right off the top the one point two

(01:28:57):
million people who are on Medicaid, but it ends up
cutting access for everybody in the state of Colorado because
those providers leave the system. So I already talked about
hospitals that have closed the maternal health care wards. We
have hospitals now that are in Loveland and Greeley that
are starting to close things like their emergency centers and
they're in patient services because they can't afford to bring

(01:29:19):
on Medicaid patients because it's running their hospital into the
ground kind of thing, and so they can't thrive, they
can't continue on. So it's going to impact everybody. And
then last year I was able to carry a bill
working again with the Hospital Association and looking at how
do we pull down federal dollars, you know, the taxes
that we pay in I'm trying to make sure we
get them back here for our folks, But how do

(01:29:40):
we pull down federal dollars to stabilize the safety net.
And we were able to again working with hospitals who
are going to contribute, you know, donate funds for us
to the states so that we can pull down federal
funds essentially a match, you know, it's a dollar for
dollar match kind of things to start stabilizing our health
care safety net. So those are things that I've worked done,

(01:30:00):
but quite frankly, it's we have got to get some
legislators and a governor's office who understand that when you
cut Medicaid, what I mean our healthcare system is in
crisis mode and they're just making it worse for everyone
in this state. And so I do my best to
try and you know, increase the education part. But as
a governor, there are other things that we should be

(01:30:21):
cutting other than Medicaid. I mean, the governor came in
with his budget request to cut medicaid by another three
hundred to three hundred and thirty million dollars.

Speaker 4 (01:30:30):
Where's that money? I mean, where where is that money
going to come from? In the medicaids? This has mean,
Don't get me wrong. I think that there's probably a
lot of fat in the medicaid system and probably a
lot of fraud. But if we're not going to redirect
any of that three hundred million into finding specifically those
those areas of fraud where we can go after fraudsters,
I don't know where that money comes from. And and I.

Speaker 14 (01:30:51):
Think some of that go ahead. I'm sorry, I know
I was going to say.

Speaker 4 (01:30:54):
I just think it's interesting that he's he's able to
do that so cavalierly and have no political or media
pushback at.

Speaker 14 (01:31:03):
All exactly, And he has had some pushback. I mean,
we've gotten some pushback on it, but there. Honestly, here's
what this governor is doing. He is punting. He is
trying to push this problem out as far as he
can so he can claim that, you know, just like
he says, I'm saving you money. I mean, and he
created the Office of Saving People Money. Seriously, have we

(01:31:25):
all saved money? Because I have not, But I don't
think anyone else has that I'd talk to. And so
he's like the emperor who wears no clothes, right, but
he's walking around and what he thinks are these great
clothes and he basically has no clothes on, right, that story,
and that's what he's doing. It's like, look, if I
just keep telling you over and over and over again
that I've saved you money, You're gonna believe me I
saved you money. So if I keep telling you over

(01:31:47):
and over again that I'm balancing the budget, You're gonna
believe me that I balance the budget. And people do
need to push back. In fact, I've had some of
those conversations, and I was talking you know, at the
Hospital Association and you know, these patient groups, and it's
like it can't just be me, it has to be
all of you that start pushing back. You need to
get the message out through your associations, through your organizations,

(01:32:08):
through your patient organizations, that the governor is doing this.
I mean the disability organizations, you know, non for profit
groups are out there, they're they're getting the message out.
That's why we're starting to see more stories. But the
governor isn't feeling any pain here. He's not feeling anything,
you know. You know, at one point, you know, I asked,

(01:32:28):
you know, some of his staff last year is like,
why does the governor hate kids with autism?

Speaker 2 (01:32:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 14 (01:32:32):
When I put that out on Twitter, I finally get there,
you know, get their attention. But it's things like that,
and you know, and it's.

Speaker 4 (01:32:38):
Kind of wait, let me let me talk you right there.
I have to ask for clarifications. So you did you
try to talk to the governor before before you you
sent out on social media? Why do you hate kids
with autism? Is that what it took to get a
conversation with the governor.

Speaker 14 (01:32:53):
So here's what happened. No, I didn't get a conversation
with the governor. Here's what happened. We had a case
and this was started in twenty four where the Medicaid
rate that was being paid for children with autism was
being reduced to the point that kids that are you know,
kids who are maybe being on the spectrum but we
don't know, weren't getting their assessments and their evaluations done.

(01:33:15):
And those need to be done when they're three and
no later than four, you know, three to four years
of age. They need to have these evaluations and these
assessments done. And what was happening is because the provider
rate was so low that the assessments the waiting list
was getting pushed out like twelve and eighteen months. I mean,
this assessment is what then determines around four and five

(01:33:36):
years of age, the types of resources that these children
need so that they can have a successful future, successful life,
you know, a better quality of life in the future.
And we were cutting we weren't pick puff was pulling
back on them on the Medicaid rates for these certain codes. Okay,

(01:33:56):
So I was able to push through and at that time,
I'm the members of the Joint Budget Committee backed me up,
and we were able to push through an increase to
the Medicaid provider rate for these codes for these so
these kids could get these assessments, so that providers would
quit leaving our state and that they would you know,
quit leaving the system, and that they would stay in
the system and these kids could get their assessments. I

(01:34:18):
went to after we got that pushed through, and it
was a JBC, a Joint Budget Committee supplemental that I was,
you know, really pushed on. But again the other members
agreed with me. We get a push through. Like I'm
told by you know, one of the staff members of
the governor's office, like, well, we're going to do a
comeback on that and cut that out. And I looked
at them, were like, oh, please do so I can

(01:34:39):
explain to everybody how you hate kids with autism, Like
why is that?

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
And then but.

Speaker 14 (01:34:43):
Here's what happened. That was part of his cuts right
after the special session is to cut that rate. Specifically,
the thing that I got increased, they cut. I mean,
I think they're like target anything I do. Frankly, so
I'm just like, you know, why is the governor I
hate kids with autism? You know, why does the governor
hate kids that are in school, like you know, a
special education then he doesn't want to fund them, you

(01:35:05):
know kind of thing. And you know, I mean, that's
that's how far I feel like I have to go
to get his attention and then you know, then his
staff will come back with something. But in the meantime,
he's cut those kids with autism, he's cut families who
have children adult children with disabilities, when he's cutting Medicaid.
That's what's happening. Those people are starting to push back.
There have been some articles, but it just needs to

(01:35:27):
be everybody, and it's not just the governor. The legislators
that are on the Joint Budget Committee need to have
an understanding of how this is hurting all Colorado families,
not just a few. It's hurting everybody. And the governor's
budget requests. The Governor's coming in front of us the
Joint Budget Committee on Wednesday we have our session where
he has to present his budget request. His budget request

(01:35:47):
is cutting Medicaid bought out, and I ask them in
the one on one meeting that I did eventually have
with the Governor and the Office of State Planning and
Budget Director Mark Ferandino, I finally had an eating with
them after I had to complain about things and you know,
and put out messages. And Mary Anne Goodlin from the
Colorada Politics put an article out on this stuff. I

(01:36:10):
asked him, was like, how much general fun are you
actually cutting in your budget request? They won't even answer
the question. They're like, Wellcato, so it's not that ombligated.
I need to know. And that's the question I'm going
to ask next week. By the way, so on Wednesday,
I'm asking that question. I hope they haven't answer.

Speaker 4 (01:36:24):
I will have you back on. We'll have you back
on to get that information. Senator Barb Kirkmeyer, who I
think probably has the best chance of wrangling Colorado's budget
under control. But we'll see, Barbo. It's good to talk
to you. We'll talk to again soon. But now I've
got Nick Ferguson in studio as I broadcast live from
my basement because my driver's license expired and I didn't

(01:36:46):
want to drive. I legally taking care of that this afternoon. Hopefully,
Nick Anderson, you ever let your driver's license expire?

Speaker 2 (01:36:53):
Personal?

Speaker 4 (01:36:54):
Nick, My god, Nick Ferguson, good Lord, I'm sorry, Nick,
Now you get older.

Speaker 5 (01:36:58):
Nick.

Speaker 4 (01:37:01):
In my defense, I used to work on a show
where Orlando Magic's Nick Anderson used to come on the
show a lot. So that's where I pulled that out
of my you know, what list Sorry.

Speaker 13 (01:37:11):
I totally uh, I'm okay with that because some people
call him Nate. Yes, okay, yes, so we are good.

Speaker 4 (01:37:18):
All right, Nate is ready to go and just kidding.
And now it's time for the most exciting segment on
the radio of It's.

Speaker 5 (01:37:28):
Time don't don't don't don't an airhorn?

Speaker 4 (01:37:34):
Did you just bring your own special effects to the game?
Is that what just happened right now?

Speaker 8 (01:37:40):
Yeah, that's what one Nick Anderson did.

Speaker 4 (01:37:42):
Uh huh Nate Anderson, Welcome to the show, Nate.

Speaker 5 (01:37:48):
We love Cromwell and and.

Speaker 7 (01:37:53):
What is our dad joke of the day today is
coming from our listener friends, Steve. Did you know people
in Dubai don't like the Flintstones?

Speaker 14 (01:38:02):
Why?

Speaker 5 (01:38:02):
No, I didn't know people in Abu Dabi do?

Speaker 4 (01:38:09):
What's our word of the day.

Speaker 5 (01:38:10):
Word of the day is a noun.

Speaker 4 (01:38:13):
Nouns tarty, oh. Temerity means like, uh, follow through, stick
with it? Noess you you you?

Speaker 5 (01:38:23):
What's what's you're in the ballpark?

Speaker 8 (01:38:26):
Sounds like something you do in your marriage?

Speaker 10 (01:38:29):
No?

Speaker 7 (01:38:30):
No, it means you don't give up the quality of
being confident and unafraid of danger or punishment, especially in
a way that seems rude or foolish.

Speaker 8 (01:38:40):
Yeah, I mean along with marriage.

Speaker 4 (01:38:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:38:45):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:38:47):
Today's trivia question, what night skies constellation? Does the red
super giants star are known as Beetlejuice belong to Let
me read that again, think of constellation? Does the red
super giant star known as Beetlejuice belong to shield? I'm
going belts and it is a ryon. Batel Juice is

(01:39:11):
about a thousand times the size of our sun. Scientists
estimate that Batel Juice will run out of fuel and
go super nova within the next one hundred thousand years.
I probably won't see it.

Speaker 5 (01:39:23):
Probaps not.

Speaker 4 (01:39:25):
Mc na wrote down.

Speaker 5 (01:39:32):
The category is don't get okay, you'll catch on. Don't
get up. If this sign is eliminated.

Speaker 8 (01:39:42):
Passages, seat I mean airlines.

Speaker 5 (01:39:46):
I mean, what's the sign called. What's the sign called?

Speaker 4 (01:39:53):
It is the seat belt sign? What is the seat
belt sign?

Speaker 7 (01:39:56):
I'm gonna give both you a zero no negatives because
it's a fastened seat belt sign specifically, so we're gonna
call it zeros even about zero's across the board. Don't
get one of the unsatisfactory cars known by this fruity term.

Speaker 4 (01:40:09):
Mandy Manby correct.

Speaker 7 (01:40:12):
Don't get too close to the edge if you're leaning
to get a view from this part of the World
Heritage Site in Tuscany, the world.

Speaker 4 (01:40:24):
I don't have no idea.

Speaker 5 (01:40:25):
What is the leaning tower of people? Okay, duh, don't
get burned.

Speaker 7 (01:40:31):
The FDA says that fair skinned people may want sunscreen
with this of fifteen or higher.

Speaker 4 (01:40:37):
Mandy, what's SPF correct?

Speaker 5 (01:40:41):
Nate Anderson?

Speaker 7 (01:40:41):
I say your name first, whichever name, whichever is the
two don't get wait.

Speaker 5 (01:40:45):
What's the score?

Speaker 4 (01:40:46):
There'll be two to zero. Don't get Anny Cromwell to
Nick Anderson zero.

Speaker 5 (01:40:51):
Don't get worried.

Speaker 7 (01:40:53):
If you need to acquire a skill with a steep
this that actually means you can.

Speaker 5 (01:40:57):
Pick it up fast.

Speaker 4 (01:41:00):
Mandy. What's a learning curve that is correct?

Speaker 6 (01:41:02):
And that is the.

Speaker 5 (01:41:06):
Nate Anderson should play next time?

Speaker 8 (01:41:08):
How do you not renew your drives license?

Speaker 4 (01:41:11):
Because I didn't get things because I didn't know it expired.
If I knew it, he didn't know it expired. I
look at your own driver's license.

Speaker 5 (01:41:21):
Nate s I did on accident. Do you know when
yours expires? On the top of your head?

Speaker 8 (01:41:26):
No, shut up, Actually.

Speaker 15 (01:41:28):
Shut up, mister on. Let me answer the question. Yes,
it expires in twenty seven. Okay, whatever, what It.

Speaker 13 (01:41:39):
Always expires a couple of days from your from certain birthdays.

Speaker 4 (01:41:42):
So every five years. How am I supposed to remember
every five years? Nuts?

Speaker 8 (01:41:48):
Look at your drivers license every once in a while.

Speaker 4 (01:41:50):
It's not a good picture. I don't like looking at it. Anyway,
we'll be back tomorrow. Keep it right here on ko
A