11-13-25 FULL SHOW - The Shutdown Is Over!

The shutdown is over, a fellow radio traveler has a new memoir, and why are people afraid of DoBetterDNVR?

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:04):
No, it's Mandy Connell and Donall on KLA ninety one FM.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Got Way can the NYSRA Bendy Connell, Keithy you real
sad bab Welcome, Welcome.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
Welcome to a Thursday edition of the show.

Speaker 5 (00:29):
I'm your host for the next three hours, Mandy Connell,
joined by my right hand man.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
He's Anthony Rodriguez. You can call him a Rod. Mandy Laurian.
Let's go.

Speaker 5 (00:40):
And today We've got a bunch of stuff to talk about,
plus a Rod, and we're just having our own sports
show off the air.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
Because I listened to the.

Speaker 5 (00:48):
Press conference introducing the new chief of baseball operations for
the Colorado Rockies, John excuse me, Paul de Podesta, and oh,
I hope I'm not Charli Brown lining up to get
the football again.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
I hope I'm not. But I'm so excited now you
are not.

Speaker 6 (01:06):
The Rockies clearly got the right guy. I hope they
let him have total control and do his thing, because
I gotta say it, and I say this in a
complimentary way. He's a masochist in the way that. I
love that he is accepting this challenge. He knows it's unique,
he knows it's not easy. He came for it and
he's here for it, and he's I think he's up

(01:28):
to the challenge. I hope they let him get his
guy he wants as manager, even though in true moneyball style,
which would be ironic, if they get a guy that
fights all of the stuff he will bring to the table,
that'd be kind of funny and maybe that would work.
But let him work. He's the right guy, and he's
a smart baseball sports guy in general.

Speaker 5 (01:46):
And if you didn't hear the press conference, we already
here live on KOA. In the press conference, people ask
Dick Montfort directly, so what is your role here? Essentially,
I mean he just basically was like, so, what's your
job here? And Dick Montfort, you guys. His comments they
were so good, And I'm just going to say this,
I have been very disappointed in the leadership of the

(02:08):
Montfort family as a Rockies fan. And there's no other
way to put it. And I was not at all
certain that whoever they were going to hire was going
to have the kind of autonomy that Arod's talking about
that has to be had in order to remake the
culture of this baseball team, which is exactly what has
to happen, and not just the team, not just the players,
the front office. They got to change, they got to

(02:30):
kind of start over, they got to hit the reset button.
And after hearing Dick today, I think we're there. I
think this is serious. I think Dick Montfort wants to
win more badly than he wants to be in charge.

Speaker 6 (02:44):
This is a blank canvas for Paul Deepodesta, but there's
a lot of red in the ledger you want to
clear out, and that red is just what fandom is
right now as a Colorado Rockies fan, So it's a
big challenge. But man, it's easy to buy in to
what Paul messaging is right now. I love the higher

(03:05):
I think he's the right kind of guy. I've told everyone.
I think this is the way baseball works in Colorado.
I think you have to come at it from such
a baseball nerd analytical way and get the right manager
that will follow true to that identity as well. Yep,
and I think they're steering towards that that right direction.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
Now. I believe it. I'm ready.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
I am there's like little remember when you were here
when I was talking about like this little you know,
a seed is starting to germinate and pretty soon a
little green sprout is going to come through this. So oil,
that's my baseball heart right now. It's growing, but it's
not growing three sizes yet.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
It's just hopeful. We're actually we've reached out to.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
The Rockies and I'm hoping that we can get Paul D.
Fadesta on the show for a long conversation, not just
about baseball, but I'm interested to know about his leadership style.
I'm interested to know what motivates him, as a Roger said,
to come out and take on this challenge, which is significant.
You're coming into a a baseball team that has had
absolutely embarrassingly bad seasons for three seasons in a row.

(04:07):
This is not a temporary blip on the radar, right,
So I'm hopeful, and I hope that other Rockies fans.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
Are hopeful as well.

Speaker 5 (04:13):
We've got a lot of other stuff to talk about,
so let's jump to the blog. I do have to
answer one listener question on the Common Spirit health text line,
and it just says, Mandy.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
Wait, hang on, hang on, hang on, Mandy.

Speaker 5 (04:29):
I know it's not asked me anything Friday, but I
remember you mentioning a massage wand which one do you like?
I was talking about a massage gun, which is far
different than a massage wand not that there's anything wrong
with a massage wan, but the massage gun is like
a percussion instrument like that. And I tried to send
you a link for the link is too long, Chuck,

(04:50):
and I bought a Sharper Image massage gun years ago
and I love this thing, absolutely love it. Just don't
do it on your neck. Guys and girls, don't use
the massage gun on your neck where you could hurt
your carotid artery. There that's your PSA for the day.
Let's do the blog. Find the blog by going to
mandy'sblog dot com. That's mandy'sblog dot com. Look for the

(05:10):
headline that says eleven thirteen to twenty five blog the.

Speaker 4 (05:13):
Shutdown is Oba.

Speaker 5 (05:15):
Yeah, click on that and here are the headlines you
will find within.

Speaker 6 (05:18):
I think in office half American all with ships and
clipmas have seen that's going to press.

Speaker 5 (05:22):
Plant today on the blog Ding Dong the Shutdowns Dead.
Wendy Correa has seen some stuff. Who's afraid of do better?

Speaker 4 (05:32):
Denver?

Speaker 5 (05:33):
This can't be right, Rocky's fan. Denver public Schools is
led by a race baiting liar, but they still aren't
as bad as Adam's fourteen Polis is gutting care for
kids with autism. Lauren Bobert wants Epstein's files released.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
Oh, uranium, I found it.

Speaker 5 (05:50):
Trump has no business demanding a pardon for Net and Yahoo.
We'll check bought romances and marriages. EV subsidies were for
rich people. The James Comy evidence is strong. We are
a charitable lock. Colorado minimum wage hikes are killing fast
food jobs. Surveillance for thee but not for me. The
FDA removes the black box warning from hormone replacement.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
I think you have my stapler.

Speaker 5 (06:13):
Want to play of the Day with me Friday and
maybe win a fabulous prize.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
This isn't the normal pageant talent for sure.

Speaker 5 (06:20):
Hockey players are just like us. Trump is wrong on
h one. B V says Kyle Clark, and I.

Speaker 4 (06:25):
Agree on something.

Speaker 5 (06:26):
The last penny has been produced. We'll target feel friendlier.
Those are the headlines on the blog at mandy'sblog dot com.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Tic Tech tow.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
A winner. Yeah. I like the dramatic pause when I've
done a good job. I know it's coming.

Speaker 5 (06:43):
But it's kind of like when the bands get up
and leave the stage and we all stand there and
clap because we've been trained like monkeys to clap for
the encore.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
Are yeah, and.

Speaker 5 (06:51):
Then they come out doing the same encore that they've
been in every single stadium, and you know, it's just
like a thing we do now. It's this little play
that we do. And when Nancy teases me like that,
I'm ready.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
I'm ready.

Speaker 5 (07:04):
We have a lot of stuff that I want to
jump into, and we have a couple of guests.

Speaker 4 (07:09):
Coming up today.

Speaker 5 (07:10):
Wendy Correa is a Fello radio dame and she's written
a very good memoir about sort of her life, which,
you know, it never ceases to amaze me how you
have someone someone who lived in the public eye, right
you feel like you know them a little bit, and
then you find out later that in their personal lives

(07:30):
or their childhood or whatever, they've had all of these
incredibly significant challenges that they've overcome.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
And I love a good memoir.

Speaker 5 (07:38):
This one is not very long, so if you're a
fast reader like me, you can knock it out very quickly.
She's coming on at one to talk about the book,
and then at two thirty Paul Crowley of the City
Cast podcast. He also writes on occasion for fifty two
eighty magazine. He did a story about Do Better Denver
and he wrote the story in the midst of all

(07:59):
that nonsense of you know, the fake account coming up
after do Better Denver deleted her account. It was just
all the drama and he talked to me about it,
and I'm quoted in the story, and he's coming in
not I mean, you know, but he's coming in to
have a bigger conversation about what he found out in
his long conversations with people about do Better Denver. So
that's coming up at two thirty. Now, I'm gonna be

(08:20):
honest today, guys. There's a lot of big stories. Obviously,
the shutdown is over, and this is good news for
those of you who have airline tickets for Thanksgiving or
next week, like Anthony does. It'll take a few days,
by the way, maybe a week or so, because now
all of the airplanes are out of position, and that

(08:41):
is the biggest problem when they have any kind of
massive shutdown. It was like after nine to eleven when
they went to reopen the airspace, everybody was like, wait,
we got pilots in the wrong place, we got flight
attendants in the wrong place, we got planes in the
wrong place. So all of the puzzle pieces have to
sort of settle back down into where they're supposed to go.
But my is is by the time a rod leaves
on what Thursday or Friday of next weekday Friday of

(09:04):
next week, you should be fine. So I'm feeling good
about things. It has been absolutely fascinating to watch the
Democrats glom onto the message that this shutdown was because
Republicans didn't fix the healthcare mess they created. It's a
great line unless you actually know the truth, and the

(09:28):
truth is so undeniable and crystal clear and easy to
demonstrate that it's stunning to me that men and women
that we've elected to the US Senate are running around
sharing a lie as our members of the US House,
like we can't look it up.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
Let me explain it to you just one more time,
really quickly.

Speaker 5 (09:51):
This is not going to take long at all, but
you need to be able to push back on people
who are trying to blame any part of this on
the Republican Party, because the reality is is that Democrats,
the same Democrats, many of them, who are demanding negotiations
on different parts of the Continuing Resolution, same exact people.

(10:12):
They did not take any Republican input before they passed Obamacare.
They did it without Republican votes. And then in twenty
twenty two, when they were in control and Joe Biden
was president, they wanted to pass the COVID what was
it called the American Rescue Plan. They expanded the Obamacare
subsidies to a point that it's well beyond what they

(10:35):
were ever intended to do. Remember, we were sold to
Obamacare on a few promises. We were sold on the
promise of if you like your doctor, you can keep them,
which was a lie. If you like your plan, you
can keep it, which was a lie. And that all
of these subsidies, all of this taxpayer money, my money,
your money, a Rod's money, was only going to go

(10:56):
to the people at the bottom of the food chain
it really really needed it. We were all like, sure, yes,
that's better than Medicaid, let's help those people out. Well,
during COVID, the Democrats and the Democrats only crafted the
American Rescue Plan in twenty twenty and.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
As part of that, they blew off.

Speaker 5 (11:17):
The income limits at the upper end of Obamacare, so
people making over four hundred percent of the poverty level
would now be eligible for subsidies. And it's those subsidies
that they wrote in that we're going to expire in
two years. So in twenty twenty two they expired. They
passed another continuing resolution with zero Republican votes. So let's

(11:37):
go back. Let's just check the math. Obamacare zero Republican votes,
American Rescue Plan zero Republican votes, the continuing resolution in
twenty twenty two that sunset those expanded Obamacare provisions until
today twenty twenty five.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
They expire at the end of this year.

Speaker 5 (11:59):
The Democrat wrote those bills. The Democrats passed those bills
without a single Republican vote, And now they are trying
to tell you that the fact the subsidies are going
to run out in a bill that they wrote to
amend other bills that they wrote is somehow the Republican's
fault is just I mean, y'all, they have stones the

(12:21):
size of candloafs on this. And what's super frustrating is
that there's too many in the news media who haven't
bothered to look anything up.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
It took me four seconds to look this up this morning,
four seconds. I didn't even have to use chat. It
was that easy. And yet they're out there John Hickenlooper,
Michael Bennett.

Speaker 5 (12:44):
Britney Patterson, Joe Na Goose, Chason Crow, They're all out
there telling you that this was of Republican creation. I
don't even understand that. I mean, that's just that is literally,
that is just absolutely denying reality on every sense of
the word.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Maybe this is what they've been doing.

Speaker 5 (13:08):
Maybe this did not occur to me until right now.
Maybe the entire trans mania thing where they've been telling
us that if a man decides today that he is
a woman and puts earrings on, he should be able
to walk into a ladies room because he's a woman.

Speaker 4 (13:21):
Maybe maybe this is just an effort to get them to.

Speaker 5 (13:24):
Undermine reality in such a way that when they decide
to come out and create a yarn out of whole
cloth that is completely fabricated, has no basis in reality,
they can sell it with a straight face, because hey,
they've convinced us that men can declare their women and
walk into.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
A locker room. It's amazing, I mean really amazing.

Speaker 5 (13:46):
So in any case, the shutdown is over, there will
be a vote in the Senate.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
It will not be a vote in the House. There
will be a.

Speaker 5 (13:54):
Vote in the Senate to expend, extend those expanded subsidies
that the Democrats rode into a bill to sunset.

Speaker 4 (14:03):
Now, what we should be doing, what the argument should.

Speaker 5 (14:06):
Be about, is to how to just reshape Obamacare in
such a way, because you know what, there are provisions
and Obamacare that are very popular. The pre existing conditions
one that's not going away, you guys, It's just not
going away.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
But what we need to do is make assurance work
for people and then start to do things to drive
down the actual cost of healthcare.

Speaker 5 (14:32):
Things like imagine if you guys knew how much stuff
was going on behind the scenes, Like and I'm talking
about hospital billing and things like that.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
There are ways to bring.

Speaker 5 (14:46):
Certain aspects of the hospital industry in check. Now, I
just want to I'm just gonna say this. I don't
want to go to a hospital that looks like a
Soviet Soviet polit bureau, right, Like I don't want to
go to a hospital that feels like I'm in prison,
But have you been to some of the new hospitals
that they built with the marble tile and the ridiculous

(15:08):
fixtures in the bathrooms, And I mean they're nicer than
some hotels.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
Because there's no incentive anywhere in our entire healthcare system
for anyone to try and save money.

Speaker 5 (15:22):
Insurance companies have negotiated their rates, they're getting the premiums,
they've done the math, they believe, and it's demonstrated that
they have.

Speaker 4 (15:32):
A pretty good deal right now, a really good deal.

Speaker 5 (15:34):
Because for most of you, most of you in this
listening audience, maybe you got a five thousand dollars deductible
per person, maybe you got a ten thousand dollars deductible
per person. Plus you're paying what, I don't know, a thousand,
couple thousand a month the insurance company. For most people,
you're never gonna make any claims. You're just gonna give
them money all year long for coverage that you're not

(15:55):
gonna use, So they have no incentive to control costs.
The healthcare system has no incentive to control costs because
between Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance, they can pretty much
cost shift around to make sure they're covering the most people,
and they're putting the burden on the private insurance companies
because Medicare and Medicaid both underpay.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
It's just a fact.

Speaker 5 (16:16):
That's the other thing about a single payer system. If
people understood if a doctor's office only takes Medicaid Medicare,
I'm going we'll leave Medicaid for a further conversation later today,
because the cuts that Governor Jared Polis is proposing to
Medicaid are heartless. And this is from someone who thinks
Medicaid needs to be scaled back. But nonetheless, Medicare, Medicare

(16:38):
doesn't pay market rates for most things, and some very
common things, they're actually losing money every time they deliver
that service.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
So if we go to single payer, there.

Speaker 5 (16:49):
Won't be any private insurance really to shift the cost to.

Speaker 4 (16:52):
Right. That's the thing people don't understand.

Speaker 5 (16:57):
The consumer who has insurance, the consumer is going to
go to the doctor and the doctor says, look, you
know what, we're pretty sure it's this, but we could
do this test, this test, this test, and this test
and just make sure and the consumer who's going to
pay a copay for that visit goes sure do it.
It's fine because they have no incentive to say, do
I really need all that? How sure are you that

(17:17):
I just have this simple illness that can be treated
with antibiotics. So there's no incentive in any part of
this three legged stool for anybody to try and save money.

Speaker 4 (17:27):
That is unacceptable. I am I am going.

Speaker 5 (17:31):
I've been thinking about this a lot, and I want
to ask you guys a question if you were if
you had an insurance plan that was just like this,
like just hear me out right. So you find out
you need a hit replacement because you went to reach
in revolution too late and it was too late to
save you.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
But you need a hit replacement.

Speaker 5 (17:49):
And your insurance company looks at your policy and says, okay,
you get fifteen thousand dollars for hit replacement, we're gonna
write you a check for fifteen grand. Anything over that
you're on your own. Anything below that you can keep, well, that's.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
Quite the incentive.

Speaker 5 (18:04):
So then you start calling around to private medical centers
around the air, surgical centers, things like that. Maybe there's
a website, a clearing house where people can post their
prices and try and earn your business. You can have
a robust system of reviews, and every year you can
make a report on who had more complaints or more
bad outcomes, so people can make a decision based on

(18:24):
price and quality. Now, obviously this is not going to
work for emergency care. That is a completely different category.
But just doing what I'm saying right now injects free
market into the.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
System where none exists.

Speaker 5 (18:38):
Now, strip out as many middleman as you can, and
everything gets a million times cheaper. I've learned this from
working with Pinnacle Advanced Primary Care. Their pricing is so
much lower because they don't deal.

Speaker 4 (18:50):
With any of that crap.

Speaker 5 (18:52):
We've got to do something because what we've got now
isn't working. But the choice between Obamacare and what we
used to have as the only two choices is not
where we need to start the conversation. When we get back,
Let's talk for a minute about I didn't mean to
go in that whole other direction, but I do want

(19:13):
to talk about who really demanded the shutdown. It certainly
wasn't the people on the snap. I do want to
get this in really quickly because there's an opinion piece
by a guy named Barton SWAYM Barton Sway he's a
writs for the General, has a book reviewer, and then
he's been got an editorial page right in twenty nineteen,

(19:34):
and now he's got a weekly column on politics and
culture at the Wall Street Journal. And in his column
he writes about what caused the government shutdown, And yes,
the biggest thing that was talked about was, of course
the extension of the expanded ACA credits. But in this
column he points out something very, very different. And I'm

(19:55):
just going to share it, this one little paragraph.

Speaker 4 (19:59):
So why did the democra let's do it.

Speaker 5 (20:01):
From the beginning of the dispute, everyone seems to have
understood that mister Schumer, Chuck Schumer, forced to shut down
because he needed to show his states progressive voters that
he could take it to mister Trump and so avoid
a primary challenge from the left, perhaps from Representative Alexandria
Acossio Cortes. The Senate leader's Democratic colleagues went around with
a shutdown for a parallel reason.

Speaker 4 (20:23):
The whole stunt.

Speaker 5 (20:24):
Quote was about Trump's authuitarianism, wrote as Recline of The
New York Times on Monday, it was about showing their
base and themselves that they.

Speaker 4 (20:33):
Could fight back.

Speaker 5 (20:35):
Jack Blanchard of Politico observed similarly, Democrats achieve their a
primary political objective, showing a furious base that they can
actually work together effectively and are prepared to fight with
every tool at their disposal.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
It was all for show, literally, But what or.

Speaker 5 (20:52):
Who is that base to which miss Sewr's client and
Blanchard refer. Poke around and you'll find it consists mainly
of cash flush foundations.

Speaker 4 (21:02):
Unions and activist groups.

Speaker 5 (21:04):
The ACLU, the Sunrise Movement and other environmental and climate groups,
Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights outfits.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
An array of.

Speaker 5 (21:12):
Immigrant rights organizations, some of them so radical as to
almost be insurrectionist, the American Federation of Teachers and the
National Education Association, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Black Lives
Matter and other racial justice organization, the Human Rights Campaign
and assorted LGBTQ activist groups.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
Scores of foreign.

Speaker 5 (21:32):
Connected, Palestinian rights and otherwise anti Zionist organizations, the George
Soros funded network known as the Opens Foundations, Open Society Foundations,
and on and on, and then he goes on to
talk about and bemoan the fact. And I got to
tell you when I was reading this, John Caldera. If
you're listening, I thought of you when I read this,

(21:54):
because John Over at the Independence Institute.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
One of the things, one of the drums he.

Speaker 5 (21:59):
Has been banging the longest and the loudest, is that
the right in Colorado not only doesn't understand and appreciate
the infrastructure that the left in Colorado built, as laid
out by the Blueprint, the book that clearly demonstrated how
cholera or how Democrats took over Colorado, and not only

(22:20):
do they not understand it, they've done nothing to build
a similar apparatus on the right.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
Well, mister Swain.

Speaker 5 (22:26):
Says exactly the same thing. This ganglion, he says, has
no counterpart on the right. Republican office holders frequently dance
to the tunes of nut job primary voters, and many
have an unnatural fear of both online right wing mobs
and mister Trump, which has its own problems. But the
Heritage Foundation, the Coke Network, and Turning Point USA have

(22:49):
nothing like the influence over elected Republicans that left wing
nonprofits have over their Democratic colleagues. Harry Reid, when he
led Senate Democrats in the twenty ten delivered many a
diatribe about the Koch brothers supposed hold on the Republican Party,
and in twenty sixteen, New Yorker's Jane Mayer published a
fat book making the same allegation, even as the GOP

(23:12):
drifted away from the Koch's libertarian doctrines. It's called projection,
and this is why Democrats keep winning.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
And the fact that I think for.

Speaker 5 (23:25):
More people on the left, although I know more and
more people on the right that fall into this camp.
And I think this is a horrible camp to be in,
by the way.

Speaker 4 (23:32):
I truly do.

Speaker 5 (23:33):
People who live die and brief politics as it is.
It is, you know, like get in my veins kind
of people. They can't separate life from politics.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
They believe it is one and the same. Politics is
our God, and politicians are their idols. Right.

Speaker 5 (23:51):
It is absolutely nuts that people get that way. But
Democrats are much better at that than Republicans are. And
that's why they keep winning. That's why the Teachers Union
keeps winning, because they're relentless.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
We all have lives to lit.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
We all want to hang out with our families and
our friends and do things like you know, hang.

Speaker 4 (24:11):
Out and go camping or whatever it is.

Speaker 5 (24:13):
We do, but for the people that eat, live, and
breathe politics, they never ever ever turn it off. There
are more of those people on the left than there
is on the right, although again the right has been gaining.
I actually think it's super sad, super super sad.

Speaker 4 (24:28):
I'm a person of faith.

Speaker 5 (24:28):
I believe in God, and when I see the way
that politicians on the left and the right are elevated
into some kind of small g godlike status, oh makes
me sick to my stomach. Because politics, says it's currently practiced,
is disgusting and we should all do our dead level
best to just scrape it off whenever we can and

(24:50):
go about our daily lives. This, by the way, this
column is and he doesn't make this point, but it's
absolutely this point. This is why Democrats freaked out when
the Aid to USAID was gone, because so much of
our tax dollars were being sent to causes that then
turned around and supported Democrats.

Speaker 4 (25:09):
It's genius.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Really.

Speaker 5 (25:11):
I gotta when we get back, I gotta say something
really positive. And oddly I find myself in agreement with
Kyle Clark. Weird, Anthony, Could I have you bring up
my audio really fast, because it's not often that I
can find common ground with my fellow traveler Kyle Clark.

(25:35):
But this morning I woke up and I knew that
when they seated the new representative from Arizona, and I
can't remember her name, nor do I care to. She
just got sworn in into office as soon as they
reopened the government and she is the last signatory on
a movement to release the Epstein files. And what that

(25:56):
will do. This petition will allow them to go over
the Speaker of the House and demand a vote on
the floor of the House of Representatives to release all
of the stuff that's related to the Epstein files. And
they finally got there. I think they had to have
two hundred and eighteen. Four of those are Republicans. One
of those is Lauren Bobert. And I'm gonna let my

(26:17):
new best friend Kyle tell you what I agree with
him about.

Speaker 7 (26:21):
It sure looks like Congresswoman Lauren Bobert did a brave
thing today. Few people in politics are more polarizing. But
put politics aside and consider what is being reported by
The New York Times, CNN and others that President Trump
directly pressured Bobert to help him stop the release of
the Epstein files by pulling her support off a congressional

(26:43):
petition and sinking that effort.

Speaker 8 (26:45):
Reports say the Trump.

Speaker 7 (26:46):
White House also brought Bobert into the Situation Room for
a meeting with the Attorney General and the FBI Director,
who we should note are accused of using the Justice
Department to punish people who defy the president.

Speaker 4 (26:58):
Unlike themis, by all appearances, both did.

Speaker 7 (27:02):
Defy the president, despite the pressure and the reported threats,
stood firm against the wishes of her party and her president.
And not on a political or a policy issue where
the public is going to hold a wide variety of views,
but on the most basic of issues that should unite
us all that pedophiles don't deserve protection, even pedophiles with

(27:28):
powerful friends. Now, some of this is going to be speculation,
because this apparent pressure campaign happened behind closed doors.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
But if we want courage out.

Speaker 7 (27:39):
Of political leaders, then citizens must be willing to recognize
and appreciate courage from the politicians that they like the least.
It certainly appears that every American who cares about kids
and accountability and transparency owes Lauren Bobert their thanks, And.

Speaker 5 (28:00):
I agree wholeheartedly with This had a lot of criticism
for Lauren, most recently over a stupid, idiotic Halloween costume.
But I'm ready to put this whole Epstein thing to bed.

Speaker 6 (28:11):
Now.

Speaker 5 (28:11):
You may have seen that the Democrat House or the
Democrat Oversight Committee released three redacted emails that were designed
to give the impression that Donald Trump had sexually abused
young women via Jeffrey Epstein, and the reality is much different.
This is what's so frustrating, because the Democrats know that

(28:32):
a certain amount of low information voters are going to
accept whatever they say, hook line and sinker. So what
did the Republicans in the House Oversight Committee do in return? Well,
they released all the emails, including the unredacted emails, which
showed that the email that the Democrats had released reference
to Virginia Guffrey. She is the now deceased woman who

(28:52):
started the whole ball rolling on trying to hold Jeffrey
Epstein in his ILK accountable.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
She has since.

Speaker 5 (28:58):
Committed suicide, and in her sworn testimony in twenty sixteen
and in her recently released book, she states clearly I
never had sex with Donald Trump. He never even flirted
with me. He could not have been Nicer in the
Times that I was around him at mar A Lago,

(29:18):
But the Democrats tried to create a fake narrative. Unfortunately,
we all have the Internet, but there's enough low information
voters out there that are going to think that's accurate.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
I can't wait for all of this to come out.

Speaker 5 (29:30):
I hope famous people and rich people get in a
tremendous amount of shame and trouble.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
That's what I want. I want it. Am I going
to be satisfied?

Speaker 5 (29:39):
Absolutely not, because there's been far too much time for
far too many people with far too many fingers to
go through this. And if there was anything, anything, any
kind of smoking gun that implicated Donald Trump, we would
have had that years ago when the Democrats had all
this information under their control.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell and Connall ninety one, am God.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
Study the Nicey through Frey, Andy Donald, Keith, sad Day.

Speaker 5 (30:26):
Welcome, Local, Welcome to the second hour of the show.
I'm your host, Mandy Connell. And if you listen to
the show on a regular basis and you know about
of the day, our fantastic game at the end of
every show and you think to yourself, I could totally
beat Mandy.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
Now's your chance. Friday.

Speaker 5 (30:43):
You're having three people come in and try to beat
me out of the day, and we have secured.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
A fabulous prize, but I can't tell you what it is.

Speaker 5 (30:51):
So good though good anyway, you have to be able
to come to the studio at two o'clock on Friday
and hang out for a bit.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
And how they enter A rod very easy.

Speaker 6 (31:02):
Go to your email eight Rod at iHeartMedia dot com.
Email me Arood at iHeartMedia dot com, subject line of
the day, and then convince me in the body of
your email whether you want to talk trash, whether you
want to compliment the show, how loyal of a listener
you are. We're going to choose our three favorites here
in one hour from now. If you have what it
takes and you've got the wits to write out a

(31:23):
good email, because there's been some good ones already, you
have one hour to do so again a Rod at
iHeartMedia dot com, subject line of the day, Put your
phone number in email email as well, and we will
contact our three contestants next hour that are coming in
tomorrow to compete.

Speaker 4 (31:36):
Good luck, all right, fantastic.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
You know, normally I would tell a guest that was
coming on the show, hey, you have to do this
radio thing first. But my next guest understands doing the
radio thing first. Because Wendy Korea. She's a writer, a yogi.
She's worked in film and television, multimedia and music and
as a radio DJ in Aspen and now lives here
in Denver.

Speaker 4 (31:56):
And she's written a memoir.

Speaker 5 (31:57):
I usually don't read memoir I don't know why, I
just don't.

Speaker 4 (32:02):
But I got this and I.

Speaker 5 (32:03):
Got the pitch, and I said, ooh, a fellow radio traveler,
I would love to talk about it and her new
memorir My Pretty Baby is fantastic.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
And Wendy Korea, welcome to the show.

Speaker 9 (32:15):
Thank you, Mandy. It is awesome to be here. I'm
so excited to talk with you today.

Speaker 5 (32:20):
So I always like to ask a question like this,
when what made you decide?

Speaker 4 (32:24):
You know what? I got a story to tell them
to write a book.

Speaker 9 (32:29):
Well, I realized that My Pretty Baby is an autopsy
of my family. I peeled apart the layers of intergenerational
and childhood trauma. Family dysfunction, family secrets, alcoholism, addiction, and
I found healing through Buddhism, meditation, yoga, sobriety, music, psychotherapy,

(32:53):
and Native American spirituality. And along the way I had
incredible encounters with hans like Ringo Starr and Joni Mitchell
and Hunter S. Thompson. And My Pretty Baby is about resilience,
recovery and creating your own chosen family when the one
that you had is broken.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
I love the part about Hunter S.

Speaker 5 (33:16):
Thompson, and we all know he was a fixture in
Aspen for many, many years. Tell me about that relationship.
Tell the listeners about that relationship and how it came about.

Speaker 9 (33:25):
Well, I had been in Los Angeles for many years,
and I was in the music industry, as you said,
I was in film and so on. And I left
Los Angeles for a job as a DJ on KSPNFM
Roaring Fork Radio, and my program manager asked me if
I knew who Hunter S. Thompson was, and I said, oh,

(33:48):
I've read articles of his Enrolling Stone Magazine, and isn't
he a character in the Doonesbury cartoons? But I didn't
know a whole lot more than that. And sure enough,
the first week you know, and of course, as a
newbie DJ, I had the ungodly hour of two am
to six am. Of course, so in my first week
at four in the morning, I you know, answered the phone,

(34:11):
good morning, Wendy Moore here on KSPNFM, Roaring Fork Radio,
and here comes the voice. Yeah, can you play me
some warrens Eyvon Lawyers, guns and money? And I played
Warren zevon for A Hunter for many more times thereafter
a few weeks later, I actually met Hunter and he

(34:34):
asked me if I wanted to be his assistant. So
I was his assistant as well as being a DJ
on KSPNFM. And by that time, oddly enough, I was sober.
I had quit drinking, I had quit smoking, I had
quit it all. And you know, my years in working
for Geffen Records and A and M Records in Los

(34:56):
Angeles finally caught up with me and it was time
to let it all go.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
Oh.

Speaker 9 (35:00):
And although it was just a professional relationship with Hunter,
I was his assistant there you know, he uh decidedly
was not sober and he was doing it all and
I was right in front of me, and in restaurants
where we would go, he would you know, just unflinchingly

(35:24):
snort lines of cocaine. And so it was an incredible
experience because underneath that grufphic stereor underneath that facade of
you know, his notorious habits, there was really a vulnerable
and very soft center to Hunter, and that was the
part that I connected to. And he was such a

(35:48):
unique human being despite his notorious reputation. He was kind
to me, and he was generous with me, and he
really appreciated my work ethic and he erred back to
me my self worth and my loveability. And that was
why I in the book My Pretty Baby, I talk

(36:08):
about that experience and why I talk about my experiences
hanging out with Joni Mitchell and meeting ringo stars because
these larger than life celebrities were so kind and loving
to me. And the message really is that you just
never know how a simple act of kindness to another
human being is going to unpack them for life.

Speaker 5 (36:32):
Do you think that your tumultuous family dynamic perhaps made
you better suited to deal with the tumult of Hunter
s Thompson, or or even the music scene when you
were there? You know, I think that if you come
from a uh we'll call it a leave it to
Beaver background, right, those those perfect nuclear families. I think

(36:53):
that that the excesses of that age may have seemed
too much. But because you didn't have that cleaver kind
of family growing up, do you think maybe you were
better equipped somehow.

Speaker 9 (37:06):
You know, that's a really good question, and I never
thought of it, but you're absolutely right. Of course, I
also had a degree in psychology and a degree in theater,
and I always thought that my degree in psychology helped
me to deal with, you know, the likes of all
the musicians that I met working for A and M

(37:26):
Records and Kevin Records. And I was used to people's
access excesses because my stepfather was an alcoholic, and so
I did have experience with that. And you know, it's
very interesting as you read my book, you'll you'll learn
that my mother always would ask me to look at

(37:51):
my stepfather's good side, which of course he had, and
he had a good side, and he could have he
could be kind, and he could be generous, but he
was also an alcoholic, and he was mentally ill, and
he was violent. So I had been trained, literally since
growing up to always look at people's good sites, even

(38:12):
though they were notoriously high or drunk.

Speaker 5 (38:18):
The book is fantastic. It's an easy read. It is
I think I read it. I know I read it
in one sitting. It's just a really interesting story. And
one of the things I said this to Wendy off
the air. When you live in the public eye, even
if you are a DJ in Aspen or you're working
in movies and television, there's this perception that exists that
you have led this charm life and you've never had

(38:39):
a challenge, and you've never had difficulty. And it's memoirs
like this that I think help other people who have
had similar difficulties, because gosh, I hate to say it, Wendy,
and I'm sure you've had people tell you this. Your
story is probably a lot like other people's stories, right
in the sense that you had those challenges growing up,
and yet you went on to have this absolutely fantastic life.

(39:00):
It seems, I mean, from the outside looking.

Speaker 9 (39:02):
In, absolutely And that's why I one of the reasons
why I wrote it, because I have friends that I've
known for thirty years who are reading the book now
and saying, oh my god, I had no idea that
you had gone through this and gone through that. And
originally I wrote My Pretty Baby because I realized that

(39:24):
my family's dysfunction and secrets had written my biography and
hince my biology, and I wanted to rewrite my story
and choose my own happy ending. But as I was
writing it, as you said, I realized, more than just
my story, this is about how millions of us Carrie
wounds that science now shows rewires our biology and impacts

(39:48):
our health and relationships for life. So as I was
writing it, I realized, this is a call to action.
I want us Andy to be able to have these
conversations on a and openly without shame, without guilt, because
I believe this is how we're going to heal society.
And fortunately for me, as I was reading writing my book,

(40:11):
I was reading all of the latest research by the
likes of doctor Gabor Mattey, who wrote The Myth of Normal,
and doctor Bessel vander Kolk, who wrote The Body Keep Score,
and realized, oh my gosh, all of this latest research
is showing that about sixty one to sixty four percent
of adults have at least one adverse childhood experience, and

(40:36):
the listeners can go online and google adverse childhood experiences quiz.
It's ten questions. You can take the quiz to see
what number you have. And now we know that so
many people carry trauma from their childhood, and we know
now that it can increase your risk for depression, for anxiety,

(41:00):
for rage, for chronic diseases.

Speaker 4 (41:03):
And if you have a score of six or more.

Speaker 9 (41:07):
Without seeking some kind of help and healing, your life
expectancy can be affected. Now I have a score of
seven out of ten. But the good news is that
all of this research shows and is proving that the
damage can be reversed with the very same modalities that

(41:32):
I intuitively practice for the past forty five years. And
so that is why my Pretty Baby is like a
guidebook to other people who may not know how to
begin or where to begin. And I hope that it
inspires them to look at all of the things that
I did to heal myself and maybe they could just

(41:54):
choose one and start there, because it turns out all
the things that I try, like meditation and spirituality and
yoga of course sobriety when needed, and all the somatic
modalities like massage, yoga, movement, hiking, dance, meditation we know

(42:19):
are very healing, and in psychotherapy one of the most
important modalities for processing trauma is called emdr I movement
desensitation training. So I hope that the listeners, if you're
just beginning to heal, you know this is good information.

(42:42):
This is a call to action for us to have
these conversations and for us to heal, and perhaps for
you to be the cycle breaker in your family.

Speaker 4 (42:52):
Love that.

Speaker 5 (42:53):
The book is My Pretty Baby. The author is Wendy Korea. Wendy,
thank you so much for writing, Thank you so much
for sharing your story, and thanks so much for joining
us today.

Speaker 9 (43:02):
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate having
this voice for my pretty Baby.

Speaker 4 (43:08):
Thank you. Thanks Wendy.

Speaker 5 (43:09):
You can find a link to Wendy's website and where
you can.

Speaker 4 (43:13):
Buy her book. It's a great book.

Speaker 5 (43:15):
I get a lot of these types of offers, and I thought, Okay,
you know what, I'm gonna read this.

Speaker 4 (43:21):
It's really good.

Speaker 5 (43:22):
May not be your cup of tea, maybe your strategies
or difference. Maybe you're not one of those people who
like strategies.

Speaker 4 (43:27):
I just felt it was.

Speaker 5 (43:28):
I've always believed this, this is kind of interesting. I
think anyway, I'd like your opinion listener. This is just
one of the things I think about in life. I
think that when you are looking for a long term mate,
in many ways, it works best if you have someone
in your life that understands your trauma, because perhaps they

(43:52):
had a similar trauma growing up.

Speaker 4 (43:53):
Now, trauma is.

Speaker 5 (43:54):
One of those words where to one person's trauma, it
could be, oh, I was sexually abused by my father
and made pregnant when I was twelve years old.

Speaker 4 (44:01):
That's horrific trauma.

Speaker 5 (44:02):
But for most of us, trauma is in my case,
my parents divorce. My father I mean, for lack of
a better way to put it, deserted us when we
were kids. I mean, there was money problems. They're just
kind of a disaster. That's my trauma. And I found
a person who had a very similar kind of trauma
in Chuck. Without going too deep, and it's not like
we sit around and talk about our trauma, but I

(44:24):
think having someone who can understand those family dynamics is
a very easy way to have a very strong foundation.
Is just being able to say, here's my crazy, what's yours.
I'm curious if anybody else has ever found that you
can text me at the common spir health text line
at five six six nine.

Speaker 4 (44:43):
Oh what do you ay?

Speaker 9 (44:45):
Ron?

Speaker 4 (44:45):
Let me ask you this.

Speaker 5 (44:46):
Because I think you and your lovely wife, you guys
have such a just a solid, sweet.

Speaker 4 (44:51):
Relationship, and I love that for you.

Speaker 5 (44:53):
What do you think is the biggest What is the
foundational thing that holds you guys together?

Speaker 4 (45:00):
Hmm, that's a good question. I would say.

Speaker 6 (45:07):
I know it's really kind of a cop out, but
we laugh all the time. I think there is so
much all that is fantastic. I think there's so much
humor tied into everything. We constantly give each other crap,
we're just you know, poking little fun. But also we
just laugh at the greatest things, whether it be a show,
we're watching, a funny joke that we heard, whatever it is.

(45:31):
I mean, half the time every day I at least
get my first chuckle if I haven't already at replaying
my dad joke from of the day when she hears
me editing the show.

Speaker 4 (45:41):
So that always jumps starts things.

Speaker 6 (45:43):
But but I think the humor helps, you know, really
relax things, and you know, lets you kind of take
a step back and laugh at the stupidest things.

Speaker 4 (45:53):
So I think that sense of humor really helps a lot.

Speaker 5 (45:56):
See, Chuck makes me laugh more than any person I've
ever been with inappropriately. Appropriately, the man makes me laugh.

Speaker 4 (46:04):
So I agree with that.

Speaker 5 (46:06):
And it's not like our foundation is like whoa, look,
we have similar trauma. I mean our foundation we have
very much shared values in the sense that we believe
that family is incredibly important and we want to be
phenomenal parents for our kids and phenomenal grandparents for our
grandkids and those That's like our foundational premise I think.

Speaker 4 (46:26):
So, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (46:27):
I think it's kind of interesting. I'd like to know
from you guys five six to six. And I know
got bad news about John Fetterman and who knew that
Fetterman was going to be the Democrat I learned to
love who knew when I was making fun of his
sweatshirt and in the shorts, which I'm still not happy about.

Speaker 4 (46:43):
I'm just gonna core whatever. It's fine.

Speaker 5 (46:46):
But he apparently was walking today and had a d FIBs.
He has like a heart condition and he had a
ventricular fibrillation flare up. He got dizzy, he fell down,
and he smashed his face. So he's in the hospital
in Pennsylvania. Guys, listen to what the comment is. From

(47:06):
the official statement from John Fetterman's office, Senator Fetterman said,
if you thought my face looked bad before, wait until
you see it now.

Speaker 4 (47:15):
That's what he says.

Speaker 5 (47:18):
But I want to play something from an interview between
John Fetterman and Cuomo on News Nation.

Speaker 4 (47:24):
Can I have my audio please, Anthony.

Speaker 5 (47:27):
This is Chris Promo and John Fetterman talking about the shutdown.

Speaker 6 (47:31):
What do you make of the argument that this was
your only leverage and without this you're at the mercy
of the Republicans and they don't want to cut costs.

Speaker 10 (47:40):
You know, it's like I refuse to use American you know,
citizens that you know, food insecure, you know, not pay
or military or they are not my leverage.

Speaker 4 (47:53):
Those are my fa my fellow my fellow.

Speaker 10 (47:56):
Citizens, you know, those are the ones that I defend,
those ones that I fight for. You know, some of
them are the most vulnerable ones. You know, I refuse
to put them in the middle. And and just like
I said, it's just like again, it's a fundamental betrayal
of you know, what I think is our core party's values.

Speaker 9 (48:14):
I mean, what do you.

Speaker 4 (48:15):
Make on shut up? Chris I mean, I don't disagree
with that.

Speaker 5 (48:21):
But someone went over to blue Sky, the liberal twitter,
to see what they were saying about John Fetterman's recent situation.

Speaker 4 (48:30):
One guy, my name is aarm. He seems nice.

Speaker 5 (48:34):
On blue Sky he posted the headline Senator John Fetterman
hospitalized in Pittsburgh after falling on his face and my
name is aarm on blue Sky posted Damn, I hope
the pavement is okay. This guy posted John Fetterman has
the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever after falling.

(48:54):
Fetterman is back in hospital, claiming he fell liar. He's
spent a week doing a book tour. It wiped him out.
He's not able to do his job. Fetterman suffers injuries
to his face from a fall, hospitalize the hill tragically.

Speaker 4 (49:06):
He's expected to live. Karma is a bitch, isn't it.

Speaker 5 (49:10):
Fetterman looks like he's not getting enough oxygen to his brain.
I could have told you that Fetterman is hospitalized from
a fall. He's an a fib. Karma is a bitch.
This is all from the left. By the way, he
is a Democrat. But if you need to understand how
the Democrats keep everyone on their ideological plantation. All you

(49:30):
have to do is go look at those responses, because
when you leave it, when you dare to express ideas
that are not approved by the Democratic pollep Bureau, this
is what happens. They turn on you like a pack
of wolves and hope you die. But I mean, I'm sure,
I'm sure they're normally they're very nice in real life, Mandy.
That guy on the left sounds like the guy who

(49:52):
commented pray for the bullet when Charlie Kirk got shot.
Shaking my head, you know, in about an hour, I've
got Paul Croley from City Cast and he writes for
fifty two eighty magazine coming on. He did a story
about do Better Denver, And when he interviewed me the
first time, he interviewed me twice actually, And when he
interviewed me the first time, it was fairly, fairly quickly

(50:14):
after Charlie Kirk's death. And I know the prize does
not involve a European river cruise. That is not we're
not giving away. As a matter of fact, I'm glad
you brought that up. I talked to Doug from Cruise
Entry yesterday I have three cabins left, one to three
for six people. So if you've been thinking about going
on the Mandy Coddle Adventure next October, please go ahead

(50:36):
and go to Mandy Connell Trip and do that. But
it is not the prize tomorrow. We're not doing that. No,
we are not doing that at all anyway. So one
of the things that happened with the Charlie Kirk murder assassination,
it was very sobering, and we talked. I talked about

(50:58):
it because it was very upsetting. I mean I I
was wrecked by that for a good few weeks. And
part of it is the reality that doing the job
that I do, if it was announced that I got
hit by a truck tomorrow or I got murdered, there
would be a certain percentage of the population in Denver
that would actively celebrate that.

Speaker 4 (51:18):
There'd be a.

Speaker 5 (51:19):
Certain percentage of the population in other cities that I've
been and that would actively celebrate that. And from my perspective,
I mean, I've always been one of those people. I
truly you can think about me whatever you want.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
I don't care.

Speaker 5 (51:32):
It doesn't make any difference to me what you think
of me positively or negatively. And I'm not meaning to
say I don't want you to be a fan of
the show or I don't want you to listen, because
it doesn't matter.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
If it matters, I'm glad you're there.

Speaker 5 (51:42):
I'm appreciative of it, but that's not the most important
thing in my life.

Speaker 4 (51:47):
But I cannot imagine.

Speaker 5 (51:49):
I saw a report today Jesse Jackson is in the hospital,
and I was like, I'm not going to put that
on the blog because I just don't care. I don't
wish the man is I don't hope he dies. I
just don't care one way or the other about Jesse
Jackson's health. I hope for the sake of his family
he recovers, but he's also an elderly man. But if

(52:11):
it when Jesse Jackson dies, even though I think his
politics many times have been flat out vile, I'm not
gonna sit here and wish the guy dead. I don't
understand that mentality. How bleak does your soul have.

Speaker 4 (52:23):
To be.

Speaker 5 (52:25):
To think it's necessary or appropriate to not only wish
the death on another person, but then to talk about
it on social media like it's something to be saluted.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
And the reality is is that it is saluted right.

Speaker 5 (52:37):
I mean, there's a large enough chunk on the left
that celebrate the death or sickness or anyone they are
disagree with. And now it's John Fetterman, which is super ironic.

Speaker 4 (52:49):
Mandy, I had.

Speaker 5 (52:50):
My first visit today with one of the psychotherapy practitioners
Wendy was talking about. She was the most insightful, understanding,
and helpful personal counselor I've ever had the privilege of visiting.
I'm looking forward to my next visit Anonymous in Fort Collins.
It's amazing what getting the right sort of help for
whatever is ailing you mentally can can do. And I

(53:12):
talked to people who, like I tried therapy, I didn't
like it. Well, maybe you just didn't like the therapist
that you had. I'm a big believer in therapy for
you know those times when you're just kind of struggling along.
Mandy's sitting here eating a can of deviled ham and
wondering if it has nutmeg in it.

Speaker 4 (53:28):
Really, I mean, I think you can just unfurl.

Speaker 5 (53:32):
The little paper wrapper that comes around it. Is there
only one brand of devil Ham? I mean, with the
little devil on the outside, you know what I don't
even remember the name of the brand. I don't like
devil Haam. It seems like, why are you going to
mess up perfectly good Ham by putting other stuff in it?
So anyway, I don't even know where that was going.

(53:53):
I want to talk for a second about James Comey's indictment.
People on the left, which I find super ironic because
none of them stepped up when the Justice Department was
completely weaponized against the Trump administration and Republicans we know
clearly now. But when Trump US Attorney Lindsay Halligan got

(54:15):
an indictment against FBI director James Comy, everyone on the
left jump to say, there's no evidence. The old prosecutor
he declined to charge, he wasn't going to do it.
There's nothing there, There's.

Speaker 4 (54:26):
No there there.

Speaker 5 (54:27):
This is just a politically motivated prosecution, which I also
believe it is a politically motivated prosecution. But if there's
no there there, then you don't have to worry about it, right.
That's where we're told when they were going after Donald Trump.
But unlike Donald Trump, where he was convicted of a
crime with no victim, James Comy there's quite a bit

(54:48):
of evidence because he is he's he's going to have
to face these charges. He's facing charges now making false
statements and obstructing Congress, something that I don't think anybody's
ever been prosecuted about because they're all well connected players, right.
So Kobe is asked to dismiss the indictment. In that
meant that Lindsay Halligan had to bring out.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
The evidence, and she did.

Speaker 5 (55:15):
In her response to Comy's request to dismiss the charges.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
She really laid out the exhibits.

Speaker 5 (55:22):
She shared exhibits containing handwritten notes that Koby had written
to himself and his dear friend, professional professor Daniel Richmond
of Columbia Law School, who was then a special government employee.
Halligan also produced emails from Comey's fake Gmail account that
used the alias ride Hold Kneebar in order to get
around saving messages and open message requests. Kobe's written statements

(55:47):
make clear that he was collaborating with Richmond to leak
stories to the New York Times.

Speaker 4 (55:50):
Reporter Michael Schmidt.

Speaker 5 (55:51):
The exhibits even reveal Richmond's pseudonym, Michael Garcia Coomy, had
denied this conduct in sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary
commit By the way, everybody who came out swinging because
Lindsay Halligan is hot and they didn't take her seriously
because she's hot, they should pay attention to this. She's

(56:12):
backed up the charges with evidence and evidence that clearly
demonstrates he lied to Congress.

Speaker 4 (56:19):
So what happens next, we'll see. We shall see.

Speaker 5 (56:22):
But there's a great column from the Federalist with all
of the details on that indictment that you can check out.
Thank you text her it is Underwood devil to ham.
This textter says, it's gross. I agree.

Speaker 4 (56:34):
Ham is one of those foods you really don't have
to do anything too. You don't have to dress it up.

Speaker 5 (56:38):
You know how we have steak sauce for people who
don't like meat. We don't have ham sauce. You know why,
because everybody likes ham. I feel really sorry for observant Jews.
You guys are getting completely ripped off when it comes
to delicious pork, Like I don't know why God did
that to you. I mean, I do know why. I
believe anyway that the Jewish dietary restrictions were about safety

(57:01):
when they were written. But we're so much better at
creating delicious pork.

Speaker 4 (57:05):
It's so good, so good.

Speaker 5 (57:08):
We're gonna take a very quick time out when we
get back. What do you think happened when California raised
the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hour?

Speaker 4 (57:20):
What do you think? What do you think happened when they.

Speaker 5 (57:23):
Created a fast food Council with the power to further
just increase wages by dictate every single year. What do
you think happened in California? Now, if you're a regular
listener to this audience, you already know what happened. But
if you're new and not really well versed in economics,
I got news for you next, and it's it's not
that good. This is for Reason dot com and they

(57:45):
did a little check up on California. In twenty twenty three,
California adopted a law that raised the minimum wage to
twenty bucks per hour. Yep, But they went further than that.
They created a fast food Council with the power to
further increase wages by dictate every year. Now, in case
you're wondering, how could they do that, Well, they just

(58:06):
created a new fake state minimum wage, but only for
fast food restaurants. So how's that going?

Speaker 4 (58:12):
Right?

Speaker 5 (58:13):
On April first of twenty twenty four, So just over
a year ago, California raised its minimum wage from sixteen
dollars to twenty dollars per hour for fast food workers
employed a chains with more than sixty locations nationwide, and
a recent research paper looked into the impact that that

(58:34):
has had on fast food jobs. The authors initially calculate
that employment in California's fast food sector declined by two
point seven percent between September twenty third, twenty twenty three
and September twenty twenty four relative to fast food employment
elsewhere in the United States.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
Prior to the passage of this bill.

Speaker 5 (58:55):
The bill hiking the minimum wage food fast food employment
was rising faster in the state than.

Speaker 4 (59:01):
Anywhere else in the country.

Speaker 5 (59:04):
Allowing for that and changes in the overall labor market,
they estimated the real decline in California's fast food employment
is about eighteen thousand lost jobs. That is a lot
of a lot of opportunities that are gone for young
people to get into the workforce. I was talking to
a young man who has his first job, and of

(59:26):
course he hates.

Speaker 4 (59:26):
It because he's working in fast food.

Speaker 5 (59:30):
And I said, look, this first job is just to
teach you how to be responsible, is to teach you
how to show up.

Speaker 4 (59:35):
It's to teach you to follow through on your commitments.

Speaker 5 (59:38):
It's to teach you how to deal with people that
are not like you, people that may be mad, people
that may be upset, to teach you all of these
little skills. Fast food employment should not be a career
unless your goal is to someday own a franchise of
that establishment. I know multiple people that have come up
to the McDonald's system and are now restaurant owners of
multiple units. So I'm not down on fast food employment,

(01:00:01):
but this is destroying it. According to a February twenty
twenty five paper from the Berkeley Research Group, they found
fast food sector lost ten thousand, seven hundred jobs between
June twenty twenty three and June twenty twenty four. Now
you have to know there was a run up to
when this law was going to take effect. So in
that time, fast food operators decided to automate. They were

(01:00:24):
just going to automate, and that's what they've done. Now
here's the real issue. The real issue is that that automation,
once proven to be successful operating fine, people adapted to it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:36):
Easily.

Speaker 5 (01:00:36):
That is going to come to all other of the
fast food establishments across the country, because why pay a
human who may or may not show up when you
don't have to. That's the harsh reality. Why pay people
to do jobs that a robot can do. I think
that's going to be a reckoning for a lot of people,
and it's coming to fast food right now.

Speaker 4 (01:00:55):
Just remember, this is what they've done in Denver.

Speaker 5 (01:00:58):
This is why restaurants Tours are saying they will never
open another restaurant in Denver again.

Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
This is what they've created.

Speaker 5 (01:01:04):
Somebody texted in about this and our news team looked
into it. Tens of thousands of people in Wyoming are
being affected by power outages across the state. Most of
them are in central and northern Wyoming. The power went
out around twelve forty five this afternoon. Large outages are
also being reported in South Dakota, Montana, and Utah. On Facebook,
Rocky Mountain Power said they estimated restoration time in Casper

(01:01:29):
could be as late as nine to forty five PM.

Speaker 4 (01:01:33):
So we don't know why, but we do know what's out.

Speaker 5 (01:01:36):
Mandy, I see more adults than kids in fast food restaurants.
I think it's just a function of fewer kids are
in the workforce than they used to be, which I
think is sad. You know, we keep telling my daughter,
it's like, Okay, yeah, you got to get a job,
and then she's like, well, i got a show coming up,
I gotta play, I'm in, I got.

Speaker 4 (01:01:52):
This club, I got eh.

Speaker 5 (01:01:55):
So, yeah, there's a lot of adults working in fast food.
Somebody texted this and Mandy Jewish dietary restrictions are about
spiritual cleanliness.

Speaker 4 (01:02:05):
It's the original. You are what you eat. Pigs are dirty.

Speaker 5 (01:02:07):
Animals, shellfish or scavengers both will eat anything, but so
will goats. And there's no prohibition against eating goats that
I'm aware of. Goats will literally eat like your car
if given the opportunity. Goats are kind of badass when
you get right down to it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:24):
I mean, I don't play. They'll eat anything.

Speaker 5 (01:02:29):
Cherry sauces ham soft blasphemy. Cherry sud never heard of
anything so gross in my life. When we get back,
Jared Police's proposed state budget needs discussion because he's right
about one thing, the growth of medicaid is unsustainable, But
the way he's trying to balance the budget and who
is trying to balance the budget on Well, that's where

(01:02:50):
we have a problem.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
No, it's Mandy CONNELLNMA.

Speaker 3 (01:03:07):
Got way say can the nicy guts through three? Bendyconnell
keeping sad thing?

Speaker 5 (01:03:18):
Welcome, We welcome to the third hour of the show.
Coming up a bit later, we're going to talk to
Paul Coroli. You might know him from City Cast or
his writing for fifty two eighty magazine. He wrote an
article about do Better Denver. I'm gonna chat with him
at two thirty. In the meantime, though, we have selected
our winners to come in and play with us tomorrow
for the of the Jay Tournament. Ay, Rod, just to

(01:03:39):
give you a wait, the turn the true We'll just
hang on one second. Yeah, just turn that down for
second because I want to explain to people how we chose,
because I think this is people submitted their entries. A
Rod made a spreadsheet which I'm holding right there. Yes,
very good, and he handed it to me and said,
read these and choose your top three and then we'll discuss,
like if you choose something different which shows the same
three piece. Yep, and we got really good entries, you guys,

(01:04:02):
very good. Really, I really appreciate everyone who entered. Some
of these are fantastic. I love the ones with puns,
but the puns didn't get it at now. Our contestants
for tomorrow's Tournament of the Day are Jerry Geyser, Patrick Johnson,
and Jack Valen. Jerry said, Hey, Ron, I'm a CSU

(01:04:25):
graduate mechanical engineering show off. I taught mathematics for seven
years and I've worked in hundreds of different fields.

Speaker 4 (01:04:32):
Braggadocious.

Speaker 5 (01:04:34):
My family refers to me as the professor because I
know everything well. I respect Mandy's intellect. I'm off and
flabbergasted that it takes her so long to answer.

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
Lol.

Speaker 5 (01:04:46):
We're very close to the same age, so she won't
be able to pull the old age memory card. I'm
looking forward to meeting her and showing the rest of
the studio how weak they are for having been such
easy cannon fodder for her.

Speaker 4 (01:04:57):
Love it.

Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
Yep, Mandy, this is from Patrick. Hello, a rod actually
is how it starts. Did I ever mention that is
really the radio show's producer that makes the show? Cayman's
song that was fantastic, Patrick, I just gotta say well done. Sure,
Mindy cow Bell sometimes pitches in, but producers, not the
Matthew Broderick movie type, make the wheels roll. I would

(01:05:18):
love to participate in the of the Day contest this
Friday at two thirty somewhere in the bowels of the
Tech Center for a variety of reasons. Now I'm gonna
skip ahead because it's really long. In addition, I believe
being able to be a formidable opponent to the Queen
of the snappy comments. Being on a game show is
on my bucket list. Well bucket list granted, Yeah, Patrick,
you're gonna be on our cheesy game show and then

(01:05:40):
Jack Valan.

Speaker 4 (01:05:42):
I'd love to join the fun and festivities tomorrow for
of the Day. Why pick me?

Speaker 5 (01:05:46):
I'm smart, witty, and once took ninth place in a
second Graate spelling me still my proudest academic moment. I
also snagged runner up in a geography competition and was
voted second most liked in my class. I have something
for silver medals. Add in corporate Jeopardy title and some
divorced Dad resilience and you've got yourself a strong contender,

(01:06:07):
just looking for a win. Honestly, I just love the
chance to do something different for once. I listen to
you too every day. It'd be an absolute pleasure to
sit down and have some fun and maybe even make
a few new friendships.

Speaker 4 (01:06:17):
It's tough out here for a divorce.

Speaker 5 (01:06:18):
Dad, help a guy out and let me take a
shot at.

Speaker 6 (01:06:22):
Of the Patrick, Jack and Jerry expect to call momentarily
for all the details.

Speaker 5 (01:06:27):
There you go, there you go anyway, So I want
to talk. I'm not going to spend a whole lot
of time on this because we're sort of in the
beginning of the wrangling about the budget process here in Colorado,
and it's going to be a wrangle for sure, because
we have a huge budget shortfall because we've overspent over

(01:06:47):
the last few years and now those chickens have come
home to roost.

Speaker 4 (01:06:50):
So Governor Jared.

Speaker 5 (01:06:51):
Polis proposed budget for the twenty twenty six twenty twenty
seven year has already jowne sharp criticism, including on this
show from Barb Kirkmeyer. She is part of the Joint
Budget Committee. Why because he's going after medicaid spending and
now here's the kicker, you guys, I agree that this
must happen. Medicaid spending is out of control. We have

(01:07:15):
expanded the number of people who are on Medicaid. We've
expanded to allow people that frankly, the program was never
designed for to be on Medicaid.

Speaker 4 (01:07:26):
Medicaid was designed.

Speaker 5 (01:07:27):
To help the poorest of the poor and the elderly,
women and children primarily and elderly people, and that's what
it's for. But instead of saying, you know what, maybe
our Medicaid expansion is breaking us, which probably it might be,
Paulus has cut money from a specific part of the
Medicaid that is the rate reimbursements for providers in dental,

(01:07:51):
behavioral health and services to children with disabilities.

Speaker 4 (01:07:57):
Now, he's right when.

Speaker 5 (01:07:59):
He says that Medicaid is the fastest growing portion of
the budget, but he's wrong when he says we need
to cut it by reimbursing doctors less.

Speaker 4 (01:08:07):
Why does that matter?

Speaker 5 (01:08:09):
Well, right now, medicare already underpays okay, and many many,
many business or medical offices rely on private insurance to
cover the gaps that Medicare doesn't pay for, and Medicaid
generally pays less than Medicare as a matter of fact,
Jared Pulis makes a point of saying, look, we pay

(01:08:30):
eighty five percent of Medicare reimbursement rates when the national
average is about seventy five percent.

Speaker 4 (01:08:36):
If you're a doctor's office in Colorado.

Speaker 5 (01:08:38):
It simply costs more to exist because you're in Colorado. Now,
what happens when they reduce the Medicaid reimbursement rates is
that doctors stop taking Medicaid patients.

Speaker 4 (01:08:50):
Maybe they'll continue seeing the patients.

Speaker 5 (01:08:52):
They already see, but they will not take any more
new patients. And I want to tell you about an
actual thing that happened to me in Florida when I
used to say insurance a long time ago. One of
our elderly clients called and said, my granddaughter's on Medicaid.
She needs a pediatric neurologist, and we can't find one
that takes Medicaid in the.

Speaker 4 (01:09:11):
Whole state of Florida.

Speaker 5 (01:09:12):
First of ALLCT pediatric neurology is already a highly specific specialty.
We could not find a pediatric neurologist that would accept
Medicaid within a three hundred mile diameter. They were willing
to drive three hundred miles and could not find a
pactric pediatric neurologist that accepted Medicaid. So what ends up

(01:09:35):
happening is that people on Medicaid then lose access. They
may have coverage, but if you can't get in to
see a doctor, what good is that coverage. It's kind
of like the national healthcare system in the UK. Yeah,
you got coverage, you got free healthcare, but you can't
get in to see a doctor. And God forbid, you
need something simple like a hip replacement or something like that,

(01:09:55):
you're you're not going to get it in a timely fashion.
So a lot of people, Republicans and Democrats are already criticizing this.

Speaker 4 (01:10:04):
But here's what's interesting.

Speaker 5 (01:10:07):
Jared Polis has already said cutting reducing the number of
people who are actually receiving benefits by contracting the Medicaid
expansion off the table. You know why, because those people
vote you know who doesn't vote as much the truly poor,
that we need to protect Medicaid for.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
This is such a nakedly political move.

Speaker 5 (01:10:31):
Because he knows that people that are going to be
the most effective are the least likely to have access
to a bullhorn, to have access to media, and to
go to the ballot box. It's really kind of gross
when you get right down to.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
It, it's just gross. Ron de santist and Jared Polis
are having a fight on x Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:10:55):
It started when ron DeSantis was responding, or whoever runs
Ronda Santis' account, was responding to someone saying, look, we
can eliminate property taxes by legalizing marijuana in Florida and
taxing it. So Ron de Santis responded to that by saying, well,
that has not been the experience in Colorado. The tax

(01:11:15):
revenue for marijuana sales has fallen dramatically in recent years,
largely because imposing taxes makes the black.

Speaker 4 (01:11:21):
Market marijuana more economical.

Speaker 5 (01:11:23):
Hence why states like Colorado have seen an increase in
the black market, not an elimination of it. So then
Jared Polis decides to respond to that by saying Colorado
has collected over three billion in marijuana tax revenue to
pave roads, build schools, rec centers, add so much more,
all while successfully cracking down on the underground market. Oh

(01:11:46):
and we need to use fifty billion in taxpayer dollars
to block access to freedom, But you do, you, to
which Ron de Santis responded, and then dropped the microphone
and walked away from the keyboard by saying, first of all,
they got a screenshot of a headline Colorado backslides to
forty third in national road condition rankings. And then Ron

(01:12:07):
Desantra's comments, three billion over more than a decade is
chump change. I've cut more than seven billion in taxes
in half that time. But even then, seems like Colorado's
roads have a lot to be desired. Should we call
the governor's office and see if you need some alo
for that sick burn?

Speaker 4 (01:12:27):
A rod sick.

Speaker 5 (01:12:29):
Burn sick burn anyway, So that's fun that's going on
right now. I'm enjoying it immensely. I'll keep you updated
on that. We have so many good videos on the
blog today and we haven't really talked about.

Speaker 4 (01:12:42):
One of them is.

Speaker 5 (01:12:45):
Gabriel Landskog from the Avs. It's like the cutest thing ever.
He's doing an interview with some hockey show right so
they're live. He's doing an interview from his home and
here come the kids. Hockey players are just like this.
He's like, hey, babe, you want to be on cameras
A little go goes. Yeah, he wants to get in
the pool.

Speaker 6 (01:13:03):
They just there are not many more wholesome athletes in
all of sports than Gabrie Landskog. He just scored his
first regular season goal in three years after multiple years
of rehab since he won the Cup. Well, it's so
cool to see him awesome again, and no one deserves
it better than him.

Speaker 5 (01:13:21):
And he's just cute to see him in dad mode
and he does that whole dad mode thing. I need
you guys to go outside and I'll be there in
a minutely.

Speaker 4 (01:13:29):
He should go outside.

Speaker 6 (01:13:30):
He was asked about scoring that first goal in like
three years in after the game the other day, and
literally he was excited because he got to tell his
kid the next morning about him scoring it because his
kid kept asking like did you score? Like did you score?
Kept having to tell the kid no. He's like, I
just get to tell my kid, I did. I got
a like come on, man, that's fantastics. I want to

(01:13:52):
talk about this thing really quickly. I've got a guest
coming up the next segment. But there's been a lot of.

Speaker 5 (01:13:58):
People paying attention to the new target ten four policy.

Speaker 4 (01:14:02):
Have you heard about this? A rod The ten four policy?

Speaker 5 (01:14:05):
The new policy that has been well, people are talking
about it is this The new policy requires employees who
are within ten feet of customers to smile, make eye contact, wave,
and use friendly, approachable and welcoming body language.

Speaker 6 (01:14:21):
Don't they have to talk to them if they get
a certain range as well?

Speaker 4 (01:14:24):
I think. But here's the thing, you guys, I'm weird.

Speaker 5 (01:14:27):
I worked in retail when I was fifteen years old
at a TG and Y in my hometown. T Guy
doesn't even exist anymore. It was like a like a
Kmart or Walmart, the precursor for those.

Speaker 4 (01:14:38):
And this was literally on the wall of our break room.

Speaker 5 (01:14:41):
These same things, like make eye contact, smile it people,
ask them how they're.

Speaker 4 (01:14:46):
Doing, be pleasant. You know what this is?

Speaker 6 (01:14:49):
This is the big middle finger to all the hiring
managers at Target across the entire world, because this is
them saying, you aren't hiring nice enough people.

Speaker 4 (01:14:57):
Now we have to force it because you're hiring jerks.

Speaker 5 (01:15:00):
I don't think so. I do think that a company's culture.
When you say, look at Chick fil A, Chick fil
A is the ultimate example, because you think every kid
that goes to work at Chick fil A is just
always upbeat and happy. But that's Chick fil A's culture
that they have created and that they reinforce.

Speaker 6 (01:15:15):
No, Mandy, what happens is if they don't say my pleasure,
they get swallowed up into the dark hole of hell
by all the Chick fil A managers and then they
are tortured for not saying my pleasure.

Speaker 4 (01:15:24):
I don't think that that is accurate.

Speaker 6 (01:15:26):
It's nobody they get.

Speaker 5 (01:15:29):
Sucked into the depths of hell working at Chick fil A.

Speaker 6 (01:15:32):
If they don't say my pleasure, they do they get kidnapped.
You never seen the van. You never seen the van
drive up and then take over.

Speaker 5 (01:15:38):
Nobody's getting kidnapped. I'm just saying I don't find any
of this outrageous. And I will tell you that I'm
so tired of cashiers at stores. Not necessarily a target,
but I'm so sick of cashiers at stores that are like,
you're bothering them.

Speaker 4 (01:15:51):
Yeah, when you come into their lane, like, oh.

Speaker 5 (01:15:53):
Am, I bothering you while you're clocked in and not
wanting to do anything.

Speaker 4 (01:15:56):
Sorry about your luck, but forcing it. And I don't
know that's going to work.

Speaker 5 (01:15:59):
Well, here's a psychological fact, Anthony, and this has been
born out by study after study after study.

Speaker 4 (01:16:06):
Your mood will follow your actions.

Speaker 5 (01:16:08):
This is why the old adage fake it till you
make it is one hundred percent accurate. If you pretend
that you are in a good mood and that you're
happy to see people, guess what happens. You start to
be in a good mood, You start to be happy
to see people. Your mood will follow your actions, even
if your actions are initially completely fake.

Speaker 4 (01:16:25):
Are those customers more likely to go back?

Speaker 2 (01:16:27):
Though?

Speaker 6 (01:16:28):
If the employees are pulling that fake nice on that.

Speaker 5 (01:16:32):
Don't you care if it's fake nice or not? But
I mean you're fake nice to me.

Speaker 4 (01:16:37):
I'm never fake nice. I'm always real nice. I dare you.

Speaker 5 (01:16:40):
I'm just saying, let's take a quick time out when
we get back.

Speaker 4 (01:16:42):
Who's afraid of do Better? Denver?

Speaker 5 (01:16:44):
We'll do that next This week in fifty two to
eighty magazine, there is a story called why is everyone
so scared of Do Better?

Speaker 4 (01:16:53):
Denver? And the guy who created the story, Paul Coroli might.

Speaker 5 (01:16:56):
Know him from the City Cast podcast, is in the
studio with me now and I have a chit chat
about it.

Speaker 4 (01:17:00):
Paul, Welcome to the show.

Speaker 8 (01:17:01):
First of all, thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 4 (01:17:03):
You know you've never invited me to be on your show.

Speaker 8 (01:17:05):
Well it's coming.

Speaker 4 (01:17:06):
I'm just saying, I mean.

Speaker 5 (01:17:07):
I'm available, I'm nice, you know, I bathe on a
somewhat regular basis.

Speaker 4 (01:17:12):
I'm just throwing it out there.

Speaker 8 (01:17:13):
What do you want to talk about? What do you
want to come talk about?

Speaker 4 (01:17:16):
Let's talk about how I am.

Speaker 5 (01:17:18):
I am in a small, tiny way right now as
a Rockies fan like Hope is starting to bring eternalim
a little bit.

Speaker 8 (01:17:23):
You know this guy they hired, the Jonah Hill.

Speaker 5 (01:17:27):
I gotta tell you if I might be insulted that
it was Joan Hill. Uh, well, don't you want somebody
hot to play you?

Speaker 8 (01:17:33):
If you're very handsome man, very handsome man, Hollywood celebrity,
very handsome man.

Speaker 5 (01:17:37):
No, no, Hollywood celebrity does not equal very handsome man.

Speaker 4 (01:17:40):
It equals guy.

Speaker 5 (01:17:41):
You can probably get laid because he's a Hollywood celebrity,
but it is not equal handsome man.

Speaker 8 (01:17:46):
Here's the problem with this guy is Cleveland Browns.

Speaker 4 (01:17:49):
I know, I know, but some things.

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:17:52):
One of the Montfort kids watched the movie Moneyball a
week ago and was like, can we get Billy Bean?

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
How you're crushing my soul?

Speaker 8 (01:18:03):
I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:18:04):
Anyway, let's talk about what I invited you want to
talk about. So, right after the Charlie Kirk assassination, Paul
reached out to me and said, Hey, we're doing a
story on do Better Denver.

Speaker 4 (01:18:14):
Now let me go back and.

Speaker 5 (01:18:15):
Give the history of what was going on at that
very moment in time. Right after the murder of Charlie Kirk.
Do Better Denver went dark? Yes, and it went completely dark.
And I reached out to her, and you know, was
told through various channels that she had grown concerned because
there had been some pretty significant threats. And I think

(01:18:37):
anybody that is in that position, or even my position,
you really start to look at is this all worth it.

Speaker 4 (01:18:46):
In the grand scheme of things?

Speaker 5 (01:18:47):
Okay, So there was a whole bunch of things going
on around that, and you said, hey, I'm doing a
story on do Better Denver because now all these people
I posted it, other people on the right posted it.
I am do Better Denver. That stemmed from an expos
in the Denver Post that was trying.

Speaker 8 (01:19:02):
To expose preceded yes me about a week and a half.

Speaker 5 (01:19:05):
Yes, it was expose the creators and contributors to do
better Denver, but they got the wrong people and that
was super frustrating. So you call me and say, I'm
writing a story on this. Where did this story come from?

Speaker 4 (01:19:18):
I don't know.

Speaker 8 (01:19:18):
Oh boy, there's so much I want to say. I mean,
let me give you one detail didn't find the story,
and then I'll tell you the answer to your question.
The night that they went dark, six hours prior, I
had been dming with her right because I had been
in touch with her for this story, and so I
asked her, Hey, I noticed you haven't posted in like
six days. What's up? Are you good?

Speaker 1 (01:19:37):
Like?

Speaker 8 (01:19:37):
Is everything okay?

Speaker 4 (01:19:38):
Basically?

Speaker 8 (01:19:39):
And she was like, now my job just got busy.

Speaker 4 (01:19:42):
Ah okay, isn't that interesting?

Speaker 8 (01:19:45):
So the next morning I woke up to the account
being dead. I was like, what she just told me this?
And I was like, Oh, something's happening.

Speaker 4 (01:19:53):
She didn't tell me any of this.

Speaker 5 (01:19:54):
I got a third party from people that I know
are connected.

Speaker 8 (01:19:57):
So can I name them?

Speaker 9 (01:19:59):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:19:59):
Can you name? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:20:00):
Well, he's my story Jimmy Sangenberger.

Speaker 4 (01:20:02):
Oh No, I didn't talk to Jimmy about it at all.
I talked to Ryan.

Speaker 5 (01:20:06):
So I have different connections to her that I know
from another source, if that, if that makes sense that
I'm connected to radio.

Speaker 8 (01:20:14):
Here's the answer to your question. I got turned onto
this account like two and a half years ago. It
was like maybe an hour and a year and a
half into City cast existence. I'm interested in this kind
of thing, and I just I was in this mindset
of like questioning what journalism is and like what it
is for me as a person that talks like, I'm
a human, I have a perspective, I have a bias. Yeah,

(01:20:35):
so I'm like, Okay, here's some people call themselves a journalists,
Like what are they doing? It caught my eye obviously
because the nature of the content. It was like sleazy
and kind of gross, you know, it's made. Sometimes it
made me feel really bad. But I could see people
talking to it and responding to it, and I was like,
something's happening there. It's resonating and it's growing. And then
Westward did a story and I just had been following
it and so when that I Am do Better Denver

(01:20:58):
moment happened. I actually watched the movie Spartacus.

Speaker 4 (01:21:01):
It's so good.

Speaker 8 (01:21:02):
Have you seen it since this happens?

Speaker 1 (01:21:04):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:21:04):
I haven't watched it since it happened, but I have
seen it many times in the past.

Speaker 8 (01:21:08):
It's a brilliant, brilliant film. They just do not make
movies of this epic scale anymore. Real humans on screening,
many of them. It's amazing. So when this I had
seen it as a kid, and when this moment happened,
when I saw these conservatives kind of stepping up and
being like me, I'm this, I'm this, I'm like, what

(01:21:28):
is happening? So I watched the movie and it unlocked
something for me because the plot of the movie, it's
about a slave revolt, a gladiator played by the Great
the Father of the guy, Kirk Douglas. Yes he's got
the granite jaw, he's so good. He leads the revolt.
But then what the actual story is is about these
Roman patricians who have a rivalry in the capital city,

(01:21:50):
who are basically competing over who has the honor to
destroy Spartacus, which of course inevitably is how the story ends.
So I was like, Okay, this is about politics.

Speaker 4 (01:22:01):
Oh everything is about politics these days. I hate to
say it, it's true, it's true.

Speaker 2 (01:22:05):
For me.

Speaker 5 (01:22:06):
The account do better Denver, and I was an early adopter.
I started following them, I mean pretty quickly when they
still only had a few thousand followers. But what struck
me is and to your point, you say that some
of the posts are vilein made you feel bad, and.

Speaker 4 (01:22:19):
In all honesty, that's the point. That's the point, because
I think.

Speaker 5 (01:22:22):
From my perspective as a consumer of do Better Denver,
I don't rejoice in seeing people suffer. I don't rejoice
in seeing people having a cataclysmic mental health break. Some
of these videos are incredibly challenging to watch. But as
an advocate for significant investments in mental health care in Colorado,

(01:22:43):
because I am very open on the air of a
big strain of mental illness in my family.

Speaker 4 (01:22:47):
So this is something very familiar to me.

Speaker 5 (01:22:50):
The way that the people in charge the sort of
you know, the industry that is around our homeless population.
They have remained in denial about the addiction piece for
so long.

Speaker 4 (01:23:04):
It's a housing housing, housing houses.

Speaker 5 (01:23:06):
Disagreeing, I disagree, that's all they talk about, though, Paul,
I can only take them at their word. When you
go back and you look at quotes, when you go
back and look at policy papers, when you go back
and look at announcements, it's all about housing.

Speaker 4 (01:23:18):
And I'm not opposed right.

Speaker 5 (01:23:19):
To helping people get off the streets, but there has
to be some kind of responsibility. There has to be
some kind of we're asking you to let us help you,
and we're going to give you this housing in exchange,
but you must accept that help. And those things are
lacking from all of the commentary from the the the
administration around this this incredibly difficult situation.

Speaker 8 (01:23:42):
I couldn't disagree more. I couldn't disagree more. I think
what you're seeing and hearing is the phrase housing first,
and you're hearing a policy difference. I think that everybody
who is involved in this world, at least if you're
close to it, you know you can see the people
that you would work with in these shelters being supported
by these service systems. They directly engage with people, they

(01:24:03):
see how varied the experience of homelessness is. Every person
is different. What you're talking about, like when people talk
about housing is the number one most important thing. It's
a policy difference. And that's what do better Denver has
ultimately with the mayor, which is what I'll talk about
conservatives later. But that's what liberals don't see, like this.
This is a difference of opinion about how to approach
a problem too better. Denver gets into trouble because they

(01:24:24):
don't even get to have that conversation. That's what they're
real critique of the mayor is they feel, I think
the way you feel like there's this huge problem. We
have to go fix it, go further and faster. We're
not doing enough. But it's just it's everyone agrees on
the problem. It's hard to talk about it when they
take this tone.

Speaker 5 (01:24:40):
Right, No, I get that, I get that, But the
reality is this, we're spending tens of millions of dollars
on housing. We're not spending tens of millions of dollars
on treatment facilities in house residential facilities. That some of
these incredibly broken people who are living on the streets,
and let's be real, some of these people are never
going to be well, Paul.

Speaker 4 (01:25:01):
Some of them are never going to be okay to
live on their own without support.

Speaker 5 (01:25:05):
Right, we have to recognize that there is a certain
percentage of this population because of mental issues, because of
developmental issues, because of long, long, long term addiction that
has done significant harm to their brains. So we need
to be talking about what we do with the chronically homeless,
which are really the biggest problem, right because they're the

(01:25:26):
ones that don't take services, they're the ones that don't
say yes, I'll accept help. They're the ones that are
the most likely to leave a housing situation.

Speaker 8 (01:25:35):
Housing enough sufficient.

Speaker 5 (01:25:37):
We don't ever, well, I don't see and trust me,
I follow this so closely. We don't have those conversations.
We're kind of having them now at the state level,
like what are we going to do to make sure
we have housing because of criminal we're talking about the
criminally mentally ill. That's being talked about in terms of
we've got to have long term facilities. But I don't
hear the mayor saying, you know what the City of

(01:25:59):
Denver's going to do. We're going to ensure that we
have one hundred beds to help people detox and begin
to get out of their addiction, because once they have
a clear mind, then you can start fixing the problems.
But what we're asking now, and this is a policy difference,
what we're asking now is someone who is clearly detached
from reality because of a severe mental break or severe addiction,

(01:26:20):
or asking them to voluntarily change their lives.

Speaker 4 (01:26:22):
That's not realistic.

Speaker 8 (01:26:24):
Well, you give a support system, you hope that the
house and the strategy is that if someone has housing,
they'll be able to create that network for themselves. They'll
have something to build for. But I totally agree with
your point. There are not enough bets. I think I've
talked to people inside the Mayor's office about this, and
they know this, They know that this is an issue
like some of these things that you hear from. The
Ipolis is interested in this too, like you hear from

(01:26:47):
people it's like where's the money coming from to make
all these changes? So it's about priorities at a certain point.
But I think the other example, like I mean there's Aurora,
which is pursuing this more work first doctrine, which seems
I mean Coffins, you're talking about it a very positive way.
I think it's interesting. I think it's also interesting what's
happening in Houston, which is the other place that often
gets held up is this like big you know, success

(01:27:08):
story for housing first, But.

Speaker 5 (01:27:09):
There are responsibilities for the people that get housing first
in Houston. There are responsibilities that have to be met,
and I think for people like you in housing, yes,
they have to engage in the process. It's not we're
going to give you housing and then we're going to
hope you take advantage of all this stuff we're offering you.
It is we're going to give you housing, but guess
what we're going to work. You're going to work with
this person. Have you ever towards step Denver? Have you

(01:27:31):
ever done it? I cannot recommend that highly enough to you.
And if you call them and say it is a
residential treatment facility that was started by a man named
Bob Kota two decades ago now, and I've worked with
them since I've been here. They have a program and
when you walk through the facility, it visually becomes very real.
They have a program. You have to enter the facility sober.
That is the first thing you get sheltered. You basically

(01:27:53):
are it's only for men. You're in a dormitory setting,
so you have all of these beds kind of in
a row. And then as you get a job, which
they help you with, as you begin to continue the
treatment which is daily in the facility, all led by
men who were in similar circumstances, So it is definitely
it is definitely a hand up and their success rate

(01:28:14):
in a year, in five years far outstrips other programs
because they're not just helping these men, you know, have
a place to live. They're helping them rebuild that sense
of dignity, of personal responsibility, and of their own humanity.

Speaker 4 (01:28:29):
I should know this by heart, but I don't.

Speaker 8 (01:28:32):
I think you said one hundred. Does it scale up?

Speaker 2 (01:28:34):
Though?

Speaker 8 (01:28:35):
The thing is everyone has such different needs. Well, not
everyone's going to be suited for this program.

Speaker 5 (01:28:40):
But you know as well as I do, that government
is a giant hammer.

Speaker 1 (01:28:43):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:28:43):
Government is not pinpoint precision, whether we want it to
be or not. In a perfect world, this is what
I want. I'm just going to lay it out a
perfect world. I want people to be able to say
I need shelter. I'm gonna give you shelter, but it's
not going to be an apartment, it's not going to
be a whole what.

Speaker 4 (01:28:57):
I'm going to give you a shelter so.

Speaker 5 (01:28:58):
You can get stabilized, and then we're going to work
together to figure out where we need to slot you.
And this is kind of what they're doing in Aurora
right now. They have all of these different services that
will be under one roof for veterans, for women who
have come out of trauma. I mean, there's so much
trauma and homelessness anyway, there has to be a way
to at least start the process. And I think in
Aurora they're trying to create that funnel that is going

(01:29:20):
to allow them to deliver services in a way that's
going to be more effective. Because government's best and size fits.

Speaker 8 (01:29:26):
All, I wonder, I wonder if the scale matches the problem.
I think Aurora has a smaller scale, you know, under
one one roof. You know. Also, I do wonder about
this new city council in Aurora if that kind of
thing is going to continue.

Speaker 5 (01:29:37):
That's a big quest, all privately funded right now, So
the city council can't do a whole bunch about that
is not privately funded. I mean, there's contracts with Douglas County,
there's contracts with other people that are contributing money. But
it's not a lot of tax dollars going into this.
So their ability to choke it off with using the purse,
which is generally how you would do that, is not
as significant here.

Speaker 4 (01:29:58):
So I'm hoping that they allow it.

Speaker 5 (01:30:00):
And I've said this since the beginning, since the announcement, Paul,
We're going to be able to see side by side
the experiment, right, We're gonna be able to see how
it works in practicality and see for ourselves which approach
is able to help the most people.

Speaker 8 (01:30:15):
I mean, if if we're comparing from uror to to Denver,
is that the comparison the programs?

Speaker 5 (01:30:20):
I mean, you're going to be able to know, Like
step Denver has an ability to track people after they
call them up and say, are are you employed? Do
you have a place to live? Are you sober? Those
three questions? We should be able to track those outcomes
as best we can. We're not talking about the most
stable population, but we should be able to say is
this working?

Speaker 4 (01:30:39):
And is it working here? And is it working better
than it is over here?

Speaker 5 (01:30:42):
And this this should be a great experiment that we
should all be grateful to have happen right in front
of us.

Speaker 4 (01:30:46):
Hip Poppers.

Speaker 8 (01:30:47):
Who's this you?

Speaker 4 (01:30:49):
Poppy? This has been alright and has adorable dog.

Speaker 5 (01:30:52):
That's Murphy, Ben Murphy, Oh, Murphy and are best friends?

Speaker 3 (01:30:56):
Now?

Speaker 4 (01:30:56):
This is Paul Rolly been all bright.

Speaker 8 (01:30:58):
We're talking about La the story.

Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
Fifty to eighty.

Speaker 5 (01:31:01):
I want to get to this because I'm almost out
of time. I'm sorry I wasted all this time solving
all the problems of homelessness.

Speaker 8 (01:31:05):
Paul, I want I tell you more stuff that didn't
make the story.

Speaker 4 (01:31:08):
Yes, we'll do.

Speaker 5 (01:31:10):
That, But but you talk to a bunch of people
about this, and it was interesting to see the different
perspectives of where they think this is all coming from.

Speaker 4 (01:31:18):
What did you glean?

Speaker 5 (01:31:20):
Was there any common threads on the right and the
left about do better?

Speaker 8 (01:31:24):
Denver m common threads? I mean, uh, it's political. Media
is challenging right now. Everyone has a different idea of
what a journalist is. Yeah, I mean the difference is
that the similarities are only in the differences. Everyone disagrees
on the stuff that you know, there's no similarities. Everyone
on the right sees them as this like citizen journalist

(01:31:46):
champion because they have the similar values. Everyone on the
left is like, they're so mean, yeah, and they're so wrong.

Speaker 5 (01:31:52):
And you know how I respond to that, Paul, because
I've had that Levey, that accusation has been levied at me.
I'm like, is it meaner to point out what's going
on in the hopes that we can actually address it,
or is it meaner to allow people to live like
feral animals on the streets and not do anything.

Speaker 8 (01:32:06):
Yeah. No, I've heard that argument from Do Better Denver before.
They said that on CBS this week. Both things can
be true at the same time, it is very mean
to point out someone take a picture of someone in
one of their worst moments, publish their mugshot and put
their name out there and and like put their very
worst moment, like who among us is without a horrible moment.

(01:32:29):
We were just talking before the show, like we all
have these things in our past, Like what if your
worst moment in your whole life was broadcast live to
Jeers and Glee and you were used for politics? Like
that's mean. Actually, yeah, Now what's also mean is putting
a grainy photo of the mayor's wife next to the

(01:32:52):
the character of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.

Speaker 4 (01:32:54):
Yeah, that was all Both things are mean, It's all mean.
I disagree. I think the purpose behind did.

Speaker 5 (01:33:00):
Is is something that needs to happen, And if we
had more accountability journalism when we talked about this off
the air, our journalists in this town and everywhere have
been gutted, like our traditional outlets where people would be
covering things on the street on a daily basis are gone.

Speaker 4 (01:33:16):
They don't exist anymore.

Speaker 8 (01:33:17):
So this is what I was saying when I first
got interested in it, because I was like, they're clearly
failling the need people want to know this information. I
believe that eyeballs, where people choose to point them, is
the value in my industry. And what people were looking
at was this account. They were looking at the Denver Post.
That's that's a real thing. You know, people want that,
so they're serving that need. That's to me, that's a
good thing. Like what I found interesting in the CBS

(01:33:39):
interview was like someone's offered to buy.

Speaker 4 (01:33:42):
Do Better Denver. That's that. I thought that was crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:33:46):
My account's been people any account, let me followers nobody thousand.

Speaker 4 (01:33:51):
Yeah, what they offer enough, I mean, not that I
would do it, but.

Speaker 3 (01:33:58):
Job.

Speaker 4 (01:33:58):
Look look for Ben right at Ben not Bright. This
his new accounts. So there you go.

Speaker 8 (01:34:03):
Okay, we gotta go to Youpark.

Speaker 4 (01:34:06):
Do you want to play our fun stop talking? I
gotta wrap the story.

Speaker 5 (01:34:10):
Do you want to play our fun stupid trivia game
that we do at the end of the show every day.

Speaker 4 (01:34:13):
Yes, all right, and now it's time.

Speaker 5 (01:34:16):
For the most exciting segment all the radio of It's kind.

Speaker 4 (01:34:22):
Of the day.

Speaker 5 (01:34:23):
All right, here's what we do, Paul. First of all,
ay Ron has a dad joke for us.

Speaker 4 (01:34:27):
What is it?

Speaker 6 (01:34:28):
NASA is launching a satellite to say sorry to the aliens.
They're calling it the Apollo g Oh god, Yeah, I
have a better one.

Speaker 4 (01:34:36):
I have a better one. On no, I got a
better one.

Speaker 5 (01:34:38):
That's no matter how hard you push the envelope, it's
still stationary.

Speaker 4 (01:34:42):
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Anyway, now our word of
the day, please, it is an adjective peremptory, peremptory that.

Speaker 5 (01:34:50):
Means something that prevents something that was about to happen.
It preempted it peremptory.

Speaker 6 (01:34:55):
Formal word use, especially in legal context, to describe an
order command that requires a meata, a compliance with no
opportunity to show why one could not comply.

Speaker 4 (01:35:04):
So on that, okay, please treve a question.

Speaker 5 (01:35:08):
The name of the technology company IBM as an acronym,
what does it stand.

Speaker 4 (01:35:12):
For Martional Business Machines. That's correct, those things. Then you
say we play a loosey goosey game here. Anybody just
shouting answer?

Speaker 5 (01:35:18):
Well, wait, now you can now you can. But now
we play jeopardy and you know question. So if you
want answer the question, you shot Paul, and then we
go to you and you answer the form of a question.
But we play it like a blood sport. You don't
have to wait till the end of the question. But
if you answered before, you don't get to hear the
rest of the question, right, Okay, so just just go
for it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:38):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:35:39):
What is our Jeopardy category? Dogs? Dogs? Okay?

Speaker 6 (01:35:42):
Yeah, definitely didn't do that for a certain reason. The dogs.
This everyday item shaped like a bone or a donut
is a dog's most classic.

Speaker 4 (01:35:50):
Toyah, do you hear the question?

Speaker 8 (01:35:52):
Sorry?

Speaker 4 (01:35:53):
What's a bone?

Speaker 6 (01:35:54):
Wrong?

Speaker 4 (01:35:54):
Dang it? What was a question?

Speaker 6 (01:35:56):
This everyday item shaped like a bone or a donut
is a dog's most toy.

Speaker 5 (01:36:01):
I mean what this is a terrible question. Nobody knows
what that is correct?

Speaker 6 (01:36:09):
Originally bred in Germany as police and military.

Speaker 4 (01:36:12):
Dogs, what are German shepherd dogs?

Speaker 6 (01:36:14):
That is correct? For its blue black tongue. This sturdy
that is I had. Despite its name, this small Mexican
breed isn't named after what's correct? And finally, often used

(01:36:35):
in airport security, this breed's extraordinary sense of smell comes
from its long ears and.

Speaker 4 (01:36:40):
What's a bloodhound? That is? Correct? Press Paul, thank you
for coming in. I appreciate it. Thanks for having at
fifty to eighty magazine.

Speaker 8 (01:36:51):
And Denver do Cycast dot FM's the podcast every Day
News Fantastic.

Speaker 4 (01:36:55):
That's all coming up, sports, coming up next, Keep it
on Ko