In this riveting episode, Kim Monson guides us through the pressing issues of our time, from the potential of 2026 marking America’s third founding to the concerning government overreach in economic policies. We discuss the Minnesota fraud scandal and question the boundaries of government responsibility versus personal accountability. As we contemplate the immense power wielded by governments, the conversation challenges us to think deeply about where freedom ends and coercion begins.
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s the Kim Monson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 19 :
That seems to me like government is establishing a religion.
SPEAKER 13 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 19 :
If you give people rights, women’s rights, gay rights, whatever, there can’t be equal rights if there are special rights.
SPEAKER 13 :
Today’s current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 19 :
Surveys show that people still really prefer freedom over government force.
SPEAKER 13 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
SPEAKER 19 :
Indeed, let’s have a conversation. And welcome to The Kim Monson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You each are treasured, you’re valued, you have purpose. Today, strive for excellence, take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history. Thank you to the team that I get to work with, and that’s Producer Joe, Producer Luke. They’ll be our featured guests here in hour number two. But Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting, happy Tuesday, Producer Joe. Happy Tuesday, Kim. And we’ve got a great show planned for you today. There’s a lot going on in our world these days. Can’t believe that 2025 is winding down. And 2026 is right around the corner. 2026, we’ll be celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country. And we clearly are in the third founding of this country. And there’s a lot going on out there. I prerecorded for New Year’s Day with Helen Raleigh yesterday. And she will be our featured guest in hour number two. And she is very optimistic about 2026. And I ruminated on that for the rest of the day. And while there are headlines that are of great concern, there are people that are stepping up to make a difference. And all of you are some of those people. And engaging in this battle of ideas is so important, getting our brains around these issues. And getting through to truth and clarity. That is ultimately where we’re trying to get to. Foundational truth. And we do this by dissecting these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. Something’s a good idea. You should not have to force people to do it. And it’s not compassionate, and it’s not altruistic to take other people’s stuff, their rights, their property, freedom, livelihood, opportunity, childhoods, or lives via force. Force can be a weapon, but it can be policy and unpredictable and excessive taxation, fear, coercion, government-induced inflation. The agenda of the World Economic Forum and globalist elites played out through the United Nations, but all the way down to municipalities. I have a street that I go by on a regular basis that has put in bike lanes for a road diet. Never seen anybody in the bike lanes. There’s a bike lane and there’s additional part of the road that’s been taken for pylons and those little turtles and the And just think about the transfer of wealth from the taxpayer just to push that little agenda. Of course, what’s happening in Minnesota with the uncovering of the enormous amount of fraud. And again, talking with Helen yesterday, she said here. This money has been taken from the taxpayer, not only in Minnesota, but also they’ve received federal funds. So that’s taxpayers from all over the country or borrowed from our kids for this to be defrauded. And I think that this is going to be a big change where people are going to start to talk about what is the proper role of government. So we will continue to talk about that because… When government got in the business of charity, I have that in air quotes, then people, I think, started to think, well, government will do that instead of us, we the people. But we the people will keep our neighbors accountable. Granted, if they need help, certainly we will help. But if they’re just sitting around drinking beer, playing video games, and receiving assistance, well, a neighbor’s gonna say, wait a minute, I’m working quite a bit, and I would be happy to help you, but I’m only going to help you if you help yourself. Now, granted, there is a percentage of people that do need true charity, that are not able to take care of themselves. That’s not government’s role to step in and take care of them. As we can see with what’s happened in Minnesota, government happily said, these PBIs, I’ll say that, politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties happily said, oh, we’ll take that over. You just continue to live your lives. We’ll tax you, but we’ll take care of this. Well, it opened up an enormous amount of fraud. And these looks like the PBIs are all in on it. It goes all the way up, it looks like, to Governor Walz, who is unbelievable. He was within a stone’s throw of being the vice president of the United States, which meant that ultimately he could be the president of the United States when in his state they have programs out there that have been defrauding people. Minnesotans and Americans, it looks like for years. And so I think there’s going to be this big conversation about the proper role of government. And of course, we talk about the tax credits over in the Green New Deal. And what we’re learning in the Green New Deal is the green that’s going into PBI’s pockets. And so we are at a, I don’t know if the right term is inflection point, but yeah, text me and let me know if that’s the right word, an inflection point in our country. And I think that people are paying attention because when it starts to affect their pocketbook, that’s when people really do start to pay attention. And so we are at quite the time here, my friends, in America. As you – let’s see. Remember, just remember, if something’s a good idea, you should not have to use force to implement it. And taxation ultimately comes down to force because try not paying your taxes and see what happens. So on the show, though, we’ll focus on the issues. We’ll mention people pushing those issues. But we really are working to stay out of the personality fighting that goes on in politics because once you move over into the emotion – then you move away from reason. And certainly the founders had many discussions about passion and reason. And I had dinner with Susan Kochevar last night, and we were talking about Hollywood actors and why many of them lean to the left side and even radical side of really left-wing politics. And Susan had a really interesting observation. She said, Kim, their business is they have to show emotion. And so they’re very emotional beings. And the left, the radical left, is playing totally into emotions. instead of reason, and that that may be why we have so many in entertainment that are really radical left, because it’s playing to emotions. I thought that was a very interesting observation, and so just wanted to share that with you. Let’s get into our word of the day. And the young guys are going to be in our second hour, featured guests, as we’re continuing the book review of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. And so we’ll be talking with Producer Joe and Producer Luke about that. But when I was doing my reading last night in The Prince, this was a word that he had used. It’s parsimony. And it means it’s P-A-R-S-I-M-O-N-Y. And it could be extreme or excessive frugality or stinginess. And so parsimony is going to be your challenge to use in a sentence today. And because we’ll be talking about the prince, I thought I’m going to go to some leadership quotes. And this is a quote by Jim Rohn. And he said this. Well, he was born in 1930. He died in 2009. He was an American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker. And he wrote numerous books, including How to Obtain Wealth and Happiness. And he said this. He said, Now, his his quote regarding leadership is, I think, a bit different than what we’re going to be talking about with producer Joe and producer Luke. But I thought that that was just truly, truly a lovely quote. There’s a lot happening in the political world. And let’s see, I had a couple of things. I think this is really interesting regarding VW. And we talk about electric vehicles on the show on a regular basis. And as producer Steve used to remind me, that we’re not against electric vehicles. And I need to clarify, if people want… to vote with their dollars and purchase an electric vehicle and go through all that’s necessary to get the charging station in their garage and all that, from a free market standpoint, great, do it. However, we’ve seen the coercion of government that is trying to control people’s behavior by using tax credits, tax incentives, forcibly here in Colorado, making people put in electric chargers in their garage, even if they’re doing a remodel or a new build, even if they don’t want an electric vehicle, which that drives up the cost of the home, which that affects the affordability of the home. Then you see government over here in the affordable housing industrial complex come in. They’ve made housing more expensive. Then they say government-subsidized housing is the answer. All this is not sustainable from an economic standpoint. And so we’re seeing this. This was from Penny Jim. And it says that VW, and it’s by Tom Peterson. It says VW kills its $60,000 electric bus just 12 months after launch. 2,600 vans are unsellable. And it says they’re halting their U.S. sales of its ID Buzz electric van for the 2026 model year. And it says that quarterly performance revealed profound market rejection. Now everything is – these pop-ups are just really a real problem here. And anyway, that is the title of it. I think that’s one of the reasons, I tell you, these pop-ups, I try to stay away from these pop-ups. But anyway, basically, bottom line is, is VW is not selling those vehicles, and so they’re halting production on that. And so that, I think, is important to note. And then I did mention this yesterday, that Senator Hickenlooper and Senator Bennett are trying to hold up the appropriations package because they want to make sure that the National Climate Research Lab in Boulder is continued to be funded. The Trump administration, and I think it’s correct to say that this has been one of the main projects entities that has been pushing the climate alarmism narrative. And so I think that it’s important that funding do go away from that because, once again, it’s taking money from the taxpayers that is pushing a specific agenda. And remember at the ballot box that these two U.S. Senators, Hickenlooper and Bennett, are willing to hold up that appropriations package for the, again, the Green New Deal, which we’re connecting the dots that that’s the green that’s going into PBI’s pockets. And of course, Michael Bennett is also running for governor of Colorado. So don’t forget that when you go to the ballot box as well. I do want to say thank you to Laramie Energy for their gold sponsorship of the show. It’s reliable, efficient, affordable, and abundant power from naturally occurring hydrocarbons such as oil, natural gas, and coal that powers our lives, fuels our hopes and dreams, and empowers us to change our own personal climate. And another thing, when Susan and I were talking last night, she said when power is unreliable in Colorado, such as before Christmas, when Excel shut power off for a number of different entities and businesses, The businesses will look at that, and they’ll say, I’m not sure that I want to be in a state that does not have reliable and affordable power. And also, if you’re working from home, and your power is shut off all day, then you cannot be effective. And for example, if you work for a national company, everybody else is able to work, you’re not. And so Xcel Energy, which is basically not stood up against Governor Polis and the PUC in saying, no, we want to provide reliable, efficient, affordable, and abundant power for our customers because of – A variety of things. One of them is the land grab through these industrial solar and wind projects and industrial transmission projects. It’s changed everything. And so we need to get back to where these entities are doing what they’re supposed to do, and that’s provide reliable, efficient, affordable, and abundant power for us. And one of the ways to do that is to make sure that in that power source, that baseload, is power from naturally occurring hydrocarbons such as oil, natural gas, and coal. Because that powers our lives, fuels our hopes and dreams, and empowers us to change our own personal climate. These discussions happen because of our sponsors and because of all of your support. Thank you. 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SPEAKER 20 :
The Kim Monson Show is here to help. Kim searches for truth and clarity by examining issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. Tune in to The Kim Monson Show each weekday, 6 to 8 a.m. with encores 1 to 2 p.m. and 10 to 11 p.m. on KLZ 560 AM, KLZ 100.7 FM. The KLZ website, the KLZ app, and Alexa. Play KLZ. Shows can also be found at KimMonson.com, Spotify, and iTunes.
SPEAKER 19 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMonson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. And from Parker to Golden, Little Richie’s Pizza and Pasta is your go-to for real New York-style pizza, hearty pastas, and that unbeatable local vibe. Little Richie’s is serving up daily specials, quick and tasty weekday lunch deals, and a happy hour the locals actually build their plans around. So whether you’re bringing the crew watching or catching up with friends or flying solo for a hot slice… Little Richie’s is your neighborhood hangout. And over the Christmas break, I stopped by and got takeout pizza for the family, and it was delicious. So again, Little Richie’s Pizza and Pasta in Parker and Golden. And thank you for their sponsorship. On the line with me is former state senator Kevin Lundberg. And he’s the author of the Lundberg Report, which you can find at Kevin Lundberg. That’s L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G dot com. It’s posted every Saturday. And he really keeps his finger on the pulse of what is happening in Colorado. Kevin Lundberg, welcome.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, thank you. It’s great being with you, Kim, and Happy New Year.
SPEAKER 19 :
Happy New Year. And I looked at it, and I thought, oh, no, the legislature’s going to be in session soon.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, here’s the good news. It’s going to be kind of a late start. So we’ve got about a week rest, but they don’t start until the 14th. But you’re right, that’s going to be front and center in a couple of weeks.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, and at this point, I should say thank you. You do such great work watching legislation. Of course, Colorado Union of Taxpayers, all-volunteer group, and that group is Steve Dorman, Greg Galianski, Russ Haas, Bill Hamill, Rob Knuth, John Nelson, Wendy Warner, Marty Nielsen, Ramey Johnson, Mary Jansen, Dave Evans. Corey Onozorg, Paula Beard, and Ray Beard. That’s our team that’s watching legislation. So I say really between what you post on Saturdays, what we post or send emails out at the beginning of the week, and Liberty Scorecard does a really good job on that. Those are three really good spots where people can get a true understanding of what’s going on at the legislature. But it’s an enormous amount of work, Kevin.
SPEAKER 14 :
Oh, my. Yes. And I am so grateful that your team is hard at work at it. Of course, you guys are focusing in on a very important part of what the legislature does. And that’s that’s the whole financial picture. And the taxes, you know, they call them fees, but the taxes that they’re going to put on the people as well. And the Liberty scorecard, they’ve they’ve been, you know, going after the specifics that have to do with our liberty. I look at every bill and just ask myself, is this a good bill or a bad bill? And so I try to cover the entire spectrum. And, you know, I’m sure I miss a few, because there are so many bad bills, unfortunately, in today’s… No, actually, I better give credit. There are a lot of good bills, a lot of great legislation that’s proposed. and it dies in the first committee right it’s it’s almost without exception it’s it’s remarkable you know and colorado is somewhat unique in this respect a hard hard left legislature uh because i try to keep in touch with a lot of other states and their legislators and uh you know a lot of people have this impression of well yeah yeah you you’re a blue state you’ve got you know, all these weird things that come out. But there can be some give and take, and that’s the way the legislature is. Well, that may be some places, but not here in Colorado. They march by, you know, a single drum that I know how it works. The governor determines the priorities, and anything that falls outside of that, there’s just no discussion. They will kill it.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yes, and this governor is really in control of what is happening in the state, although he’s very savvy from a political standpoint. We’ve got all this crazy stuff that’s going on, but he’s – for example, he hides behind the shutdowns of Excel, and there was a headline that he was calling for transparency – Well, he’s appointed, there’s only three public utilities commissioners, and they march to his drum. So it’s so interesting politically, though, when I saw that headline, I thought, hmm, he’s got really good handlers, and he’s very politically savvy. And I think it’s important that people understand that.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, yeah. Now, the only good news I see in his administration is it’s going to end. And the real question is, what happens next year? Now, here’s another dynamic you need to pay attention to. And this is an every other year situation. And that is this is an election year. And the legislature, you know, despite what direction they’re bending one way or the other, they are very well aware of that dynamic. And it’s it’s interesting. Off election years is when you’ll really see the radical stuff come out and they try to get that in place. And then on an election year, they do a little bit of cleanup. You know, they’ll they’ll have some some stuff out there. But but they’ve got this eye on, well, you know, it’s going to be too fresh in the voters eye. minds next November. So I say November, next October and November, you know, because that’s another thing we’ve got is all of our election stuff, but concerns, I will say. But in this year, there’s kind of this finagling around some of the issues. But you need to look at the big picture. You know, back in 2020, I helped publish a book called Unmasked 2020. And it didn’t have anything to do with the election in 2020, because we published it in September, well before we knew that story. But what this was is an analysis of how Governor Polis had been treating his first two years in office. and it is a a stark indictment to the radical policies that he has put in place and it’s breathtaking when you add that up to the other um let’s see five years that that he’s been in office right now um you know and you were just talking about the you know excel energy is being uh right in the pocket of his policies too. And for them, it makes good business sense because they’re guaranteed a profit. Being a monopoly run by essentially the dictates of the PUC, you know, the more expensive energy gets, the more money they make. You’ve got to remember that. They are not incentivized to make a good deal for anybody except themselves.
SPEAKER 19 :
I went out and testified or made public comments at the hearing that the PUC had in Elbert County earlier in December. And I brought to their attention, because they talk about affordable energy with this sustainable energy, but Xcel is at the PUC asking for a $356 million rate increase. So I thought that was important to remind them. Yeah.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah. Yeah. It’s, you know, and and well, you know. And we’ve discussed this in previous discussions on the air here, that I had some personal contact with how Excel treats the individual citizen when they put a big pipeline down through my property and the property of my neighbor’s. And they came in with a heavy, heavy hand, and they tried every trick in the book to convince us that they had all the power and control and authority. However, to the advantage of my community is we had a state senator who was in the path, and that was me. And I sort of understood the law a little bit better. and how things were going. And we were in a unique position where they really didn’t have the legal authority to do what they were doing. I’m afraid to say that they have much more authority today because they got some legislation through that empowered them with more control over the imminent domain threat, because that’s one of the big tools they have. You know, when they want to come in and and uh use your land for something that that’s uh their threat is uh you know you either play ball with us now or see us in court and then then we’ll just take it from you um and that’s just one element you know because excel isn’t coming in and threatening the property of everybody except for the fact that they control a very important aspect of the property for everybody in their area because there are other parts of colorado with other utilities but excel is the big player And they are the ones who dictate how much it’s going to cost for your energy that you need for electricity, for natural gas. And, boy, hang on to your hat here because, of course, Polis wants to get rid of natural gas. Entirely is their big long-term plan, but severely in the short term. And Excel… that’s a big part of their business. Well, you’d think that they would be on the front line saying, how dare you doing this? This is just, no, instead they just sit back and smile. and say, well, we’ll find a way to work around this. Yeah, we will, at the expense of the consumer and at the profit of Excel. It’s not just that they’re accommodating, but they were actually benefiting from these policies because they are guaranteed a profit. You know, PUC, they kind of go through their dance of, Oh, well, you know, maybe you can’t have this, you can’t have that, blah, blah, blah. But as long as these policies that drive up the cost of providing energy for the people of Colorado, the PUC and Excel are in bed together making the individual citizens pay more and more.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and let’s just make sure that we connect that dot. So PUC and Excel are in bed together, but the three PUC commissioners have been appointed by Jared Polis. So Polis, PUC, Excel. We’ve got to make sure we connect all that. And then I think we also need to connect that. Exactly. that on the Democrat side, that either Phil Weiser or Michael Bennett will continue those policies. And so it’s important that we connect those dots on a regular basis for people on that. So let’s go ahead, Kevin.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, I’m just going to agree with you wholeheartedly. I just want to add a little silver lining. And that’s the fact that at the federal level, we have… uh a department of energy that understands what’s happening here in colorado because the secretary is from this area and and he understands the energy sector entirely and his perspective is totally opposite so i kind of hold that out as well maybe they they can You know, at least moderate this to a degree. But but, yeah, we’re set up for failure unless we change gears dramatically in the next November.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, definitely. And so, yes, these midterm elections are super important. I’m talking with Kevin Lundberg and we’re going to continue the discussion because there’s he’s he’s working on some very important things here in Colorado. One of those is Protect Kids Colorado. and we have these important discussions because of our sponsors. And for everything residential real estate, reach out to Karen Levine.
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SPEAKER 12 :
720-940-3887. All Kim’s sponsors are in inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Monson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmonson.com. That’s kimmonson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 19 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Check out our website. That is KimMonson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. And if you have big dreams for your future and you’re not quite sure how to get there, call our friends at Mint Financial Strategies. They know your financial life is unique. And as an independent firm and an accredited investment fiduciary, they build personalized strategies that put your freedom and goals first. No sales pressure, just thoughtful guidance built around you. So take that first step toward your future. Call Mint Financial Strategies. That number is 303- 285-3080, 303-285-3080. And I’m talking with Kevin Lundberg. He’s a former state senator. He is the author of the Lundberg Report, which you can find at kevinlundberg.com. And he is also based… What’s your actual title for Protect Kids Colorado, Kevin?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, for myself, I’m a part of the board of directors, and I’m the chairman of that board. And we are a working board. We are not some decision-making body that meets two or three times a year and then directs everybody. Protect Kids Colorado is a volunteer effort of really thousands of people at this stage of the game at one level or another. But I’m the chairman of the board, so I get to worry about this every day, all the time. Well, it’s. Well, and let me tell you what we’re doing right now, because Really, January is the last opportunity we have to collect the signatures to put the initiatives on the ballot that we have, which deal with the most important issues of protecting children from this transgender nonsense and danger that has been foisted upon us. We were discussing how the legislature has been treating different issues. Well, on this one, they’re just full bore. I mean, they put in place a bill that requires the state to pay for transgender surgeries and requires all private insurance companies to pay for all transgender surgeries as well and other procedures. And so one of our initiatives says, you don’t do that to kids. You just do not, you shouldn’t be doing any of these mutilating surgeries on children, period. Now, if you’re an adult and you want to curve yourself up, then we’re, you know, it’s somewhat of a free country in some ways. But, you know, the governor and his team have gone the wrong direction. And so we’ve stepped up and said, look, the only avenue we have is a citizens initiative, which is a huge project. And especially if it’s a volunteer effort where you don’t have millions of dollars behind you. We’ve been pushing to raise dollars and to raise volunteers and to collect signatures. And we’ve made a big bite out of this project. But this final month in January is when we’ve got to redouble our efforts and get down and get the job done so we can put this on the ballot in 2026. We can fix these problems that Polis and his team have put in place. And we can, frankly, change the conversation on who we’re going to elect for the next round of things. So I’m just all in on this.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and let’s say thank you to your board, and that is you, Kevin Lumberg, Aaron Lee, Mark Spangler, Patty McKernan, Jeremy Goodall, Laurie Gimmelstein, and Shannon Thomas. And I also want to mention Yvonne Paez, who is, I think she’s affectionately known as the general right now as she’s trying to keep track of all these petitions out there.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, yeah. Well, she stepped up and said, let me try to direct the process of distributing the petitions and then collecting them. And she’s been just doing a bang up job on that. And so many other people. We have county. We’ve got some regional coordinators and some county coordinators, county captains, I guess we call them. And then individual volunteers, and we have kind of a downline system there. So you’re carrying a petition and somebody says, hey, can I do that too? Well, they become a part of your team, you might say. And here’s another element that has been so important to our effort, and that is the churches that have stepped up. Church leaders across the state, not everybody, I mean, there still needs to be some education going on there, but a lot of pastors and other church leaders have stepped up from the pulpit and said, let’s do this. You know, the bishops for the Catholic Church wrote a letter very early on and directed every one of their parishes to conduct a signature gathering campaign for a couple of Sundays and to mention it. uh… you know if they know i’m at their pulpits natural key it’s it’s one thing that to you know to allow a table out in the uh… you know the narthex of of the building or the lawyer depending on your denomination uh… it to collect these signatures but it’s another thing to get up uh… in you know during this the service and say this is a good idea check this out go sign this if you’re a registered voter here in colorado A lot have.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, yeah. And the three issues, it’s crazy. People kind of look at you and say, really, we have to vote on something like this? But one is to protect children from sex trafficking. Number two, protecting children from irreversible sex change procedures. And when Susan and I were talking last night, She said, if people have not seen the pictures of the mutilation of these children, it’s riveting when you see adolescent girls that their breasts have been removed. It’s just riveting. And then lastly, protecting girls, single sex sports and locker rooms. So keeping boys out of locker rooms. What a novel idea. So these just make a lot of sense.
SPEAKER 14 :
It is unbelievable that there’s anybody who would think otherwise. But here’s one remarkable example that came up just last week. And that’s a gentleman by the name of Phil Weiser. I think that’s his name. Yeah. Oh, he’s the attorney general for the state of Colorado. And he was publicly on his ex account. He defended these child mutilating surgeries, calling it, of course, gender affirming care. But that thing went viral. Last time I looked, there were like 200,000 views on it. And just below the entry that he’d made on his expos was a response from Erin Lee, who is the executive director for Protect Kids Colorado and on the board. And she graphically showed some of those photographs. And And the response below was remarkable because, you know, people could comment on things. It was just a, I think, I don’t think I saw a single support for Phil. No, I did see one or two because I read down about 30 responses or so. And I know Erin, she had about 20,000 views on her response. Anyway, there are people like that. And guess what? The next guy’s running for governor. Excuse me? We need to point this out. And this is one of the important things that is happening with the Protect Kids Colorado effort is we’re making people very, very aware of what’s happening. But the real goal is to put her on the ballot. And as I say, if you carried a petition, think about getting another set. and boosting our effort a little bit more. If your church or other type of organization has not promoted this actively, then go talk to the leadership, and we’ve still got time to get this done. But it’s going to take effort all over. And I’ll also say, for the Lundberg report, I’m going to start publishing some updates. Early on in the program, people say, well, where are you at? Well, we’ve distributed a lot of you know, petitions. Between, across the three initiatives, we’ve turned up 24,000 petitions, or sets as they’re called, or section, not section, or set. Anyway, 24,000 of these are out there somewhere but until we see them returning we don’t know and now we’ve gotten some back and you know we’re starting to process all of that and we’re going to keep you up to date on that on the Lundberg report I’m going to start publishing okay we’ve We’ve received this many, we’ve processed this many, and this is how many signatures we see across the board on this. And this is going to be a tally board that you can watch week by week and understand where we’re at, where we need to get there on, and it’s going to be a race to the finish. You know, we have to turn these things in in February and we need some time to, you know, call it.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah. And all that process.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER 19 :
So, Kevin, before we go to break, I want to connect another dot, and that is how these forced policies, so forced coverage of the state paying for these surgeries, I assume through Medicaid probably, and then also forcing insurance companies to cover policies this surgery in essence it’s a wealth transfer from everybody else because what happens is is their taxes go up and or their insurance premiums go up because the state legislature polis phil weiser say we are going to force everybody to pay for these surgeries and then once again and then what happens over there with the surgeries is these physicians are not really accountable for what they charge, so the prices go up. And then the other thing is – and I think Scott Bottoms ran the piece of legislation that said that physicians that are doing these mutilation surgeries – could be held liable, and this legislature said, oh, no, no, no, they voted that that’s not the case as well. So there’s all kinds of protections that this radical, activist, crazy legislature and this governor have put in place to protect those that want to mutilate children. I think that’s the bottom line.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, well, and let me be very clear as to how this legislation works. You said raise taxes and or. Well, there’s no or about it. It’s raising everybody’s taxes because it’s spending a lot of state dollars, and it is also raising everybody’s medical insurance because it doesn’t just say put this on a list of things that you will cover. No, it says without charging any deductibles. And that’s the big rub with insurance right now is if they put a $7,000 or $10,000 deductible on a surgery, well, that means that you pay the first $10,000. Well, for these gender-bending surgeries, they cannot charge a deductible to the patient. And so, yeah, it’s 100%. And you’re quite right that that takes a lot of the controls off a doctor. I want to use that in quotes because any doctor who would consider this mutilating surgery as being appropriate is wrong. I’ll just say it’s wrong.
SPEAKER 19 :
It is wrong. It is wrong.
SPEAKER 14 :
I can think of some other words, too, but I don’t use those.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, it is wrong. We’re going to continue the discussion with Kevin Lundberg. And you can find his report at KevinLundberg.com. And these discussions are so important. And we will be talking with John Bozen and Bozen Law in the second hour.
SPEAKER 03 :
John Bozen and the attorneys at Bozen Law know how overwhelmingly life can feel after an accident or injury. That’s why Bozen Law can help guide you, support you, and fight for the full compensation you’re owed. Whether you were hurt on the road, at work, or in a hospital, the Bozen Law team is ready to stand by your side and help you move forward. Backed by decades of combined legal experience, Bozen Law can help you pursue justice and compensation after serious accidents. Call Bozen Law at 303-999-9999 for a complimentary consultation. That number is 303-999-9999. Call Bozen Law now.
SPEAKER 05 :
April 26th, 1777. Colonel, the British are raiding Danbury and burning the town. I’ll go tell them. Sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington mounted her horse and rode 40 miles through night and pouring rain. That’s twice the distance of Paul Revere to sound the alarm.
SPEAKER 12 :
Quickly, assemble at my father’s house.
SPEAKER 05 :
The Kim Monson Show is our modern-day Sybil Ludington, bringing us the latest breaking news in the battle for truth and freedom. Ben’s Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling is proud to stand with Kim. Will you stand with us? Get engaged with the issue that keeps you up at night so that you can influence your school and community with truth and justice. And for quality craftsmanship at a fair price, call or text Ben’s Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling at 303-995-1636. That number again is 303-995-1636.
SPEAKER 01 :
Do you strive for excellence as you work with your clients and customers? Does it make sense for you to add a unique and focused branding opportunity to your marketing portfolio? Would you like to access a broad customer base that loves our country and wants to make life better for ourselves, our neighbors, our colleagues, our children and our grandchildren? Then you may be a perfect fit as a sponsor slash partner of The Kim Monson Show. To learn more, reach out to Teresa at 520-631-9243. Teresa would love to talk with you. Again, that number is 520-631-9243.
SPEAKER 19 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMonson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. And cannot believe that we’re at year end and you can make that year end tax deductible contribution to support the U.S. MC Memorial Foundation and the great work that they’re doing. It’s a great way for you to remember and honor those that have put on the uniform to protect our liberties. Some have given their lives for that. And so make a donation by going to usmcmemorialfoundation.org. And then the Center for American Values is located in Pueblo. and focused on these foundational principles of honor, integrity, and patriotism. They have a whole great educational component for K-12 kids and educators, as well as they’re honoring our Medal of Honor recipients and telling their stories with their portraits of valor. And you can support them by going to AmericanValueCenter.org. Talking with Kevin Lundberg, the author of the Lundberg Report. He’s a former state senator. And Tina Peters is, as you know, Kevin, we put together a petition, which I delivered to Governor Polis’ office last Monday. calling on him to show compassion and kindness and mercy to Tina Peters. She is in prison for nonviolent crime. She’s not a flight risk. He, at this time of year, typically pardons or commutes sentences. Last year, he pardoned 22 people and commuted four sentences. And of those 22, two were murderers, one was a rapist, and one was a bank robber. And so it seems like it would just be the compassionate thing to do is to release her. What’s your update regarding Tina Peters?
SPEAKER 14 :
She’s still there.
SPEAKER 19 :
I know.
SPEAKER 14 :
And the governor has turned a blind eye to all of this. And now that’s the downside. The upside is… You’re talking about the lady who the president of the United States actually pardoned. And if I read the Constitution correctly, he has every authority to do that. Now, traditionally, that authority hasn’t been exercised by presidents. And so they say, well, this is a state issue, not a federal issue. Well, it says, for crimes against the United States. Now, first off, let me say that Tina didn’t commit any crime against the United States. She was defending the people of the United States in her efforts to try to simply preserve the records of the election, as she was required to do by state and federal law. And, yeah, there’s just no excuse for her being in prison for anything. under any reasonable standard. But the governor has, she’s a political prisoner. I don’t know how else to put it. I mean, our country has had many political prisoners recently. You know, the J6 prisoners. I actually had dinner with one J6 prisoner just last week, a former. He was actually released when the Supreme Court informed the Biden administration’s Department of Justice that that they were charging many of the people with with something that wasn’t appropriate at all. And he was released at that point. But he was in prison for three years. Same story as with Tina. He didn’t do anything wrong. And he insisted that that that. And so they threw the book at him and had him in federal prison for or well over a year. John Strand is his name. But Tina is the same thing. She’s a political prisoner.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, I agree. And I read the Constitution over Christmas break. And the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land. And they’re hiding behind—and Republicans also. There was an article in the— The Denver Gazette by a prominent Republican that basically said, oh, we just need the Republican Party just needs to move on from Tina Peters, which is what that meant to me is they would be willing to let her languish in that prison. And I could I really could not believe it when I read that particular that particular article.
SPEAKER 14 :
Let me comment on that a little bit, too, because I read that and I was utterly disgusted. So was I. Absolutely disgusted, not only with his analysis, but with his terminology. And I thought, man, this is just a heavy handed DA who district attorneys have a great responsibility and authority and anyone with an attitude that he showed. is dangerous, absolutely dangerous. And I know Tina. I follow this very carefully. I know Tina’s attorney here in Colorado, John Case, very well. These are diligent, honest people who are trying to fulfill their duties at your team is elected official john cases as as an officer of the court fulfilling you know they’re their role in the and they’re they’re doing it that they’re not pitch how can i say that this is this is almost like a you know clear picture of of of righteousness versus evil if you will and anybody who wants to support the uh… the evil side is uh… is has got to do some real soul-searching. It’s not right.
SPEAKER 19 :
And that was the purpose of our petition, is for people to ask themselves, and I was really surprised at some of the comments on Facebook, how cruel they were. But the other thing is, is that the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land. And Tina was not only overseeing State elections, she was overseeing federal elections. So the federal government has interest in this. The federal government, in fact, I think it’s the National Voting Rights Act, or maybe it’s the other one, I can’t remember, is we have to hit minimum standards that Congress has set forth recently. For our elections. And Colorado is not even close to hitting those minimum standards. And that’s what one of our lawsuits is about. And that’s through Unite for Freedom, formerly United Sovereign Americans. So just realize the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. And granted, states have been given authority to administer elections, but because they also are administering federal elections, they would, I think, fall under federal jurisdiction as well. So connect the dot to Trump, I believe, has total authority to pardon her.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, and you could argue it just from the standpoint of the pardoning power being granted to, you know, it’s called the United States. Well, the state of Colorado is a part of the United States. Any crime committed within those jurisdictions is a crime against the United States. You know, they’re trying to parse the issue in such a way as to really defraud the president of his true constitutional authority. But yeah, in this particular case, she was upholding federal law. And they threw state charges against her. And the charges they threw against her were just absurd. You know, we can’t litigate all this right here and now.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and I’m going to have John Case on Friday. So we will talk some more about that.
SPEAKER 09 :
So, hey, Kevin, we are out.
SPEAKER 19 :
People need to know about this. Yeah, we are out of time, but we will talk to you in a couple of weeks. And then if it works for you, I think normally during the legislative session, we had you on every week. And so let’s try to make that happen again in the new year.
SPEAKER 14 :
OK, we will do that. And two weeks from now, the legislature will start on that Wednesday of that week.
SPEAKER 19 :
So here we go. Buckle up. Fasten your seatbelts. Kevin Lundberg, thanks so much. Have a great day.
SPEAKER 14 :
Thank you very much, you two.
SPEAKER 19 :
And our quote for the end of the show is from Jim Rohn. He said, if you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse. So today, be grateful. Read great books. Think good thoughts. Listen to beautiful music. Communicate and listen well. Live honestly and authentically. Strive for high ideals. Like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you. God bless America. Stay tuned for hour number two.
SPEAKER 02 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s the Kim Monson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 19 :
The latest in politics and world affairs. Today’s current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 13 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
SPEAKER 19 :
indeed let’s have a conversation and welcome to our number two of the kim monson show thank you so much for listening you each are treasured and valued you have purpose today strive for excellence take care of your heart your soul your mind and your body my friends we were made for this moment in history and thank you to the team that’s producer joe luke rachel zach echo charlie mike theresa amanda and all the people here at crawford broadcasting happy tuesday producer joe happy tuesday kim and we have producer luke in studio as well Hello, thanks for having me back. Well, fasten your seatbelts. We’re going to continue our book discussion of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. And so we’ll get to that here in just a little bit. Be sure and check out our website. That is kimmonson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. And make sure you’re signed up for our weekly email newsletter. And that way you’ll get first look at all of our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays. You can email me at kim at kimmonson.com, text line M-O-N-S-O-N. is 720-605-0647. And I thank all of you who support us. We’re an independent voice on an independent station searching for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. And on the show, we focus on the issues and not the personalities. We’ll mention people that are pushing those issues, but we really try to stay out of the Eighth grade girl fighting that you can find in politics on a regular basis. Just look at some of the stuff on social media. And it’s crazy to me what people will say. But these discussions, conversations are important. And we have them because… We want you to be able to converse, not with just people in your own silo, but people that may see things differently. And then work to persuade, debate. I think these are things, having conversations, it’s so important. And we’ve been focused on this. I will be starting on the first, my eighth year in solo broadcasting.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wow. Congratulations.
SPEAKER 19 :
Thank you. It’s kind of crazy. You know, the first time I sat behind the microphone, I could hardly get my name out.
SPEAKER 04 :
I believe it. It’s scary the first time you’re behind a microphone.
SPEAKER 19 :
It is. And so we’re in it. 2026, we are at an inflection point. Thank you, Gammy, for giving me the definition on that. We are at a crucial time in history. And I think we really are at a crucial time in history. These discussions happen because of our sponsors, and I so appreciate Bob Boswell and Laramie Energy for their gold sponsorship of the show because it’s reliable, efficient, affordable, and abundant power from naturally occurring hydrocarbons such as oil, natural gas, and coal that powers our lives, fuels our hopes and dreams, and empowers us forward. to change our own personal climate. Now it seems like it’s in the rearview mirror, but right before Christmas, Xcel Energy, PUC, Polis, they’re all connected, shut down power for some time for some people. I found it a little bit ironic, Luke, that Boulder was one of the areas that was hit the hardest with these shutdowns. It’s somewhat ironic because… It seems that overall, Boulder’s focused on unreliable, unsustainable, unaffordable, and non-abundant energy. So just a little, and that’s where Polis lives, too. So I thought that was kind of interesting. Our word of the day. I chose this, again, from our book, The Prince, and it’s parsimony. And it could be extreme or excessive frugality or stinginess. And spelled P-A-R-S-I-M-O-N-Y. I’d never seen that word before.
SPEAKER 04 :
No. A lot of new words in this book. Yeah. Probably by either virtue of the translation or just how old it is. Yeah. A lot of interesting stuff.
SPEAKER 19 :
And you said it was written, we were talking before we went on, the book was written 1513? Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, 1513 is when it was written and then released 1532. Okay.
SPEAKER 19 :
And I looked up – well, we’ll talk about it when we come back. Let me get to the quote of the day. And so in The Prince, Machiavelli’s talking about leadership. So I thought I’m going to go to some leadership quotes. And I found this from Jim Rohn. He was born in 1930. He died in 2009. He was an American entrepreneur, author. motivational speaker and he wrote numerous books including how to obtain wealth and happiness and he said this the challenge of leadership is to be strong but not rude be kind but not weak be bold but not bully be thoughtful but not lazy be humble but not timid be proud but not arrogant have humor but without folly and I just thought that was a lovely quote
SPEAKER 04 :
That is a very lovely quote. I like that quite a lot, actually.
SPEAKER 19 :
I’ll send it to you. We get to do this because I work with amazing people, and we have one of those great sponsors on the line, and that is John Bozen with Bozen Law. If you’ve been injured, you’ll be sure to want to reach out to them for a complimentary call. John Bozen, welcome.
SPEAKER 06 :
Good morning, Kim, and congratulations on those eight years. That’s an awesome accomplishment. And I’d like that quote, too, please.
SPEAKER 19 :
I will get that over to you. So, John Bozen, looking back, looking forward, what’s your thoughts, 2025 and looking into 2026?
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, my goodness. Tumultuous 2025, and I think 2026 is going to just bring a lot more of the same. And we’ve got to be very sound-minded. with our thoughts and stick up for principle and make our voices loud and clear and let those that would shove us down and control us know that that’s just not going to happen. And then we need people like you, Kim, with the voice loud and clear leading the way for those that want to know and need to know and appreciate the truth.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and John, I really – I said in the first hour, I prerecorded our second hour for New Year’s Day with Helen Raleigh. She immigrated from China, and she’s got a lot of hope. A couple of things. She said that America has a great history of course-correcting. And we’re in a tough spot with all of this debt and deficit spending. And when we’re looking at the Somali population in Minnesota and the amount of fraud and money that has been really transferred from everyday hardworking Americans to these other agendas. And I think we are at an inflection point where people are going to say, wait a minute. What is the proper role of government? And I think it’s so appropriate that it’s going to happen in the year 2026, which is our 250th anniversary.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s perfect timing. Yeah, as more and more details and information comes out about what was going on in Minnesota and other places, it’s an eye-opener for a lot of people. It really is. And you know, corruption and fraud cannot be tolerated. And when it’s coming out of our back pocket, it’s even just that much more just disturbing. But I think it’s necessary that folks, again, that the light is shined very brightly on that situation and everyone can see and understand what happened, why it happened, and who allowed it to happen. And obviously, I think everyone would agree why it needs to stop and not You know, not let that repeat itself.
SPEAKER 19 :
Absolutely. So it’s going to be an interesting year. But speaking of, you’re in the business of holding entities accountable when people have been injured.
SPEAKER 06 :
I am. And one thing we haven’t talked about for a little while is what folks should do if they’re injured on the job. It’s called workers’ compensation in Colorado in most states. And anyone that is working… within the course and scope of their employment, doing anything job-related, if they get hurt, and it’s irregardless of fault, if they get hurt and it’s their own fault, they still have the right to pursue a workers’ compensation claim. And probably the most important thing anyone can do when they suffer an on-the-job injury is report it and report it right away. to a boss, a supervisor, the HR department, because a lot of folks wrongfully believe that they should just kind of not report it. They’re going to be made fun of by coworkers, miss a company bonus for a number of days without an injury, whatever the reason. And if they don’t report it, there’s a very strong likelihood that The insurance carrier is going to dispute that it ever happened. And I’ve seen that situation happen over and over again with just good-natured folks not wanting to be that person, not wanting to blow the bonus for the crew, whatever it may be. And then they’ve got a real battle on their hands to prove and document that they actually were injured. When down the road, it turns out they’ve got a very serious injury.
SPEAKER 19 :
So if someone has been injured, they can give you and your team a call. It’s a complimentary call. And what’s the best number for people to reach you, John Bozen?
SPEAKER 06 :
The best number is our main office number, which is 303-999-9999.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, John Bozen, I’m honored to have you and Bozen Law as a sponsor of the show and looking forward to 2026. I look at it with optimism, but we have a lot of work to do, and I appreciate your support in all that we are doing here in all of our projects at the Kim Monson Show.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you, Kim, and keep educating all of us and being the tip of that spear for us.
SPEAKER 19 :
I’ll keep at it. So thanks so much, John Bozen.
SPEAKER 13 :
Take care, Kim.
SPEAKER 19 :
And another great sponsor is the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance Team, and they might be able to save you some money. I’ve talked with a number of our listeners that they’ve been able to save them real money. This is after-tax money in their pocket. And each situation is different. The only way to find out is to give them a call. And so the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance Team’s number is 303-795-8855. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan Team is there.
SPEAKER 17 :
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SPEAKER 10 :
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SPEAKER 20 :
There’s so much noise coming at us. Sometimes it is difficult to make sense of it all. How can you sift through the clamor for your attention and get to the truth? The Kim Monson Show is here to help. Kim searches for truth and clarity by examining issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. Tune in to the Kim Monson Show each weekday, 6 to 8 a.m. with encores 1 to 2 p.m. and 10 to 11 p.m. on KLZ 560 AM, KLZ 100.7 FM. The KLZ website, the KLZ app, and Alexa. Play KLZ. Shows can also be found at KimMonson.com, Spotify, and iTunes.
SPEAKER 19 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. And check out Hooters Restaurants. Kurt Gerwitz and I went over there for lunch the other day at the Aurora location. They have three locations, Westminster, Loveland, and Aurora. And I had the nachos. They were delicious. And they have great specials Monday through Friday for lunch and happy hour dinners. and a great sponsor of the show, How I Got to Know Them, an important story about freedom and free markets and capitalism, and those PBIs, politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties that are trying to control stuff and take our stuff, take our opportunities, all kinds of things. And so it’s a great story. You can find that at my website. Pleased to have the young guys here, and that is Producer Joe, Producer Luke, to continue our discussion on The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. So, Luke, a couple of things. I’ve always heard the term Machiavellian, and so I thought I’m going to look that up. And it basically is, the definition was that it’s okay to use deceit. And that’s a little bit of the premise of this, yes? But a lot of young people have been looking to the book The Prince, so talk to me a little bit about that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, yeah. It’s been a little while, about a month. Maybe a touch over, as a matter of fact. So I like to do a little reset, especially when we come in, that The Prince was written by Nicola Machiavelli, and Machiavelli was, historically, he was kind of the guy. He was the advisor to a lot of people in power at the time. And after having been… kind of scorned and cast aside because Machiavelli was imprisoned and subsequently tortured, you know, very much by the same people who he was advising for, which I think, you know, made him not very happy about all that. So the context in which the Prince is written is, is an almost tongue-in-cheek, like, I’ve been hurt by you, so here I am going to reveal the methods of control the people in power use. It is framed as an advisory book because the intent for the prince was to be presented as a gift to to a prince in a very, here you go, here is written evidence that I know all of your tricks, essentially, is the context in which the book is written. Obviously, some of that context gets lost or forgotten historically over time. So Machiavelli has this reputation as this deceitful, the ends justify the means, pragmatism over morality, He has this reputation, even though that’s not really what he was about. That was him revealing the mindset of the people in power, that the people in power will sacrifice their morals for power and stuff like that. So that’s kind of just, again, the context, the historical reference point, kind of his mindset going into writing it and all that.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, just looking this up on the Internet, it says that the term Machiavellian has since come to describe actions characterized by cunning, duplicity, or bad faith in politics. And I hadn’t really connected exactly as we were working through this. I thought, yet there’s this term. Oh, that’s so Machiavellian. And so that’s what that means when… when that happens. So, okay, chapter 16 and 17. And Producer Joe, when I looked at the title of 16, I thought, oh boy, because I thought, now Cain, who is our great friend of the show and loves to say that he is a proud American Negro, we’ve talked about the N-word. And so I look at this, and the title of this is Of Liberality and Niggardliness. And I thought, oh, man, can we say this on the air? How can this work? And so I looked it up, and it’s spelled N-I-G-G-A-R-D-L-I-N-E-S-S. And bear in mind, this book was written in 1513, but the definition of negardliness is reluctant to give or spend, stingy or miserly. Number two, meanly or ingenuously small or scanty. So I had gotten the book for Joe. So you and I, Joe, have the same definition. Was your reaction somewhat the same when you saw the title of that?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, it kind of reminded me of my middle school and high school days where we had a short story, The World’s Most Dangerous Game, kind of about a man hunting people. But they talked about the song One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians in my middle school version, and then it changed to the other word Indians. Really? I kind of did the same thing. It kind of made me think of that.
SPEAKER 19 :
You’re going in and out on us, at least on my ear, Joe, because we want to hear what you have to say. So then I mentioned, Luke, this to you as we were preparing, and you’re like, hey, that wasn’t in my book. Yeah. In anything that I have.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I have three versions of the book. One that I keep at my house is very nice, hard cover, like gilded edges. Very nice version of the book. And then I also have the audio book that I listen to. And then the academic version of the text that I keep on my phone for the purposes of note taking and referencing and stuff like that. None of my versions have that. My versions of the book use the word meanness and miserly. are the two versions I have, with meanness being in the academic and audio version, and then miserly being in my physical copy.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, that’s part of the definition of the word. But don’t you find it interesting that they changed the word? I just find that interesting.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, very, very interesting. It totally depends on the translation. Because obviously the text wasn’t originally written in English. It was written in Italian and then translated to English. So it depends on who is translating the text, which word they’ve decided to use in that translation, I suppose. Yeah.
SPEAKER 19 :
So, and this is from Wikipedia. It says, in the United States, there have been several controversies involving the misunderstanding of the word niggardly, an adjective meaning stingy or miserly, because of its phonetic similarity to the N-word, which can be an ethnic slur used against black people. Now, again, this is Wikipedia. Kane really pushes back on this particular definition. But it says, although the two words are At monologically unrelated, it says that there’s been backlash on the word. I just found that so interesting.
SPEAKER 04 :
The two words, despite sounding similar, are entirely unrelated.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, they’re unrelated.
SPEAKER 04 :
Even when it says mnemonically unrelated, that also means in root definition. So it’s like the only thing they have in similar is the sound. The roots are totally different. Totally different.
SPEAKER 19 :
I bet Yvonne might have something because she’s a linguist, so she understands. So we’ll keep an eye out here. So on the text messages, that text line is 720-605-0647. And so I struggled a bit through this. So my title is of Liberality and Negardliness. And So help me through this word liberality. I was struggling with what he meant by that.
SPEAKER 04 :
So this chapter covers kind of a mix of your like a ruler’s perception in the pursuit of a certain perception or reputation. And they use liberality in this instance. denote specifically economic spending. So a ruler’s capacity for spending, be that through taxes or other funds that they own. Machiavelli mentions in chapter 16… The kind of real broad spectrum overview is that it is generally generally bad or generally poor to be regarded as overly liberal because in spending, in spending, especially as it pertains to raising the taxes of the people underneath you. Yeah. Because he goes on to mention that, funny enough, he says in his kind of definition of people and of the people being ruled, that they will more easily forgive the death of a parent than the taking of a parent’s property. That people respond very, very poorly to their property being taken and seized. And when he talks about liberality, he’s talking about taxes, he’s talking about land seizures, and that even if you are using that money for the benefit of the people you are ruling, they will regard you poorly for having taken their property to begin with. Which I definitely agree with. Because the context of this is written as such… where he’s trying to inform the audience, other people who read this, about the methods of control that people in power use. He also mentions that if you’re going to be liberal, if you’re going to be liberal in your spending, That really your goals should be – your primary spending should be in the defense of your nation in so much as that you can properly defend against attacks. But then he also mentions that if you want to get the best of both worlds, that the best option is to take – Take from those who you do not give to in the sense that if you are not offering them anything, you’re taking this is in reference to enemy nations, taking the property and resources of your enemies or perceived enemies. and to give to those who you are not taking from. And he kind of proposes this as the best possible outcome in order to maximize your effectiveness, both maintaining reputation and maintaining your coffers and wealth.
SPEAKER 18 :
Okay, okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
Which is interesting, because I’m pretty sure it’s very easy to draw some parallels, even though I’m… You can see me. I was going to say, I’ve made it very clear that my personal belief system is a bit more centered. So it’s like, I’m not against… You know, throwing some shade at both sides. I think it’s pretty apparent what he means by this. And I think you can see evidence of that strategy being used today still.
SPEAKER 19 :
I do. I do. Yeah, there’s some correlation for sure. Producer Joe, do you want to weigh in on this or do you want to go to break and come back? You’re running the board. You tell us what to do.
SPEAKER 08 :
Let’s go to a break and then we’ll come back.
SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Check out our website. That is KimMonson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. And financial freedom starts with the right guide, and Mint Financial Strategies is here to help. As an independent firm with over 25 years of experience and the credentials of an accredited investment fiduciary, they offer advice that’s focused on you, not a sales quota. Their strategy-first approach is all about helping you live life on your terms with clarity, confidence, and control. Call Mint Financial Strategies today. That number is 303- 285-3080, 303-285-3080. They are your path to independent financial confidence. And in studio with me is producer Joe and producer Luke. And we’re going through our book review of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. It was written in 1513, published in 1532. chapter 16 we’re on that right now it’s of liberality and negardliness and the definition for negardliness is reluctant to give or spend stingy miserly or number two meanly or ungenerously small or scanty and so we’re talking about liberality and spending and we wanted to get your thoughts on this joe
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. So I like what he pointed out is that you can’t be too liberal or you can’t be too frugal. And so if they were to stay not spending any money at all, we’d think them as hoarding the money, if you would. But also in the same go, if they are spending all of the money, which kind of seems like it’s happening right now and.
SPEAKER 19 :
still not doing anything with it it there is a happy medium here and that’s kind of what i want to point out is there’s a happy medium to this so in my version luke yes it says here and it says and you may be very generous indeed with what is not the property of yourself or your subjects as with cyrus caesar and alexander and this kind of goes down to the Brad Beck talks about it. It’s like who pays, who benefits. And so if someone else is paying and someone else benefits, then it’s easy to be generous with that. But this bumps up against the American idea of property rights because taxation, fees, taking money via force is taking property. And so certainly the left has made the case for – being altruistic and taking property from, in this case, I’m going to say Americans and then our next generations in debt. And we’re seeing this play out with this whole Somali thing in Minnesota. Have you been watching that at all?
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m not super familiar with what’s going on in Minnesota now.
SPEAKER 19 :
Okay. So apparently there’s been a number of government programs that many leaders in the Somali community have And have been able to use government grants, government funding for daycares, school meals.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. I’m familiar with the daycare stuff. I didn’t know it was happening in Minnesota, and I wasn’t familiar with it being Somali directly. Yes.
SPEAKER 19 :
And it looks like it could be in the billions of dollars. And so taking money from hardworking Minnesotans, hardworking Americans, and then taking on debt to do this, I think that this is going to change the discussion on it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I think you’re probably right. And I think, you know, bringing it back to the text, Machiavelli mentions in his text that being too liberal will see people turn against you, that spending other people’s money is not advantageous to a stable command structure. It’s interesting he mentions that in the quote you just mentioned, that it’s easy to be generous with other people’s stuff, the wealth of your enemies. And I think he goes on to specifically mention some historical references from enemy nations and stuff like that. When you’re talking about the methods of control in a population and you’re mentioning about trying to get the best of both worlds, that to spend the enemy’s money essentially for the benefit of the people, if you want to talk about political strategies, the Democrat, progressive, left-leaning – I say this as someone who finds myself leaning a bit more on that side of things for some issues. I’m not incapable of self-reflection enough to admit that that’s the strategy they’re using. When you villainize billionaires and multimillionaires, you turn them into the economic enemy. It becomes… …politically beneficial and very reputationally beneficial to spend their money for the benefit of other people. That’s the exact strategy being employed and implemented.
SPEAKER 19 :
Absolutely. And so a couple of things regarding millionaires and billionaires. In true capitalism… People become rich because they create value that another person recognizes they’re willing to spend their hard-earned dollars for what they perceive that value to come to them. An example would be the iPhone. Bill Gates. Steve Jobs comes up with a well-earned team, come up with the iPhone and people look at it and they say, I will spend my hard earned dollars for that because I see value for that. And a lot of people say it. So he becomes extremely wealthy where the problem then comes in. is when there might be a government program that comes in and says, oh, we want poor people, I have that in air quotes, to have iPhones too, so we’re going to create a government program where we use tax dollars so that other people can buy the iPhone. Well, then that also inflates the cost of the iPhone because you have dollars chasing that. And that becomes cronyism. And I think what young people… are concerned about, what we all are, is cronyism. And that’s where government and business get in bed with each other to try to control the market, to limit competition, to limit entrepreneurship. And so a millionaire or billionaire that makes their money because they create value for somebody else, a lot of people appreciate it. I love that. I don’t love millionaires and billionaires that work the system and have figured out through energy credits or whatever, it’s to make money. Joe, I know you’re just chomping at the bit. You want to jump in here. Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I find it neat that Machiavelli also mentions in there, there will become an expectation to be liberal as well. So as people get used to the prince spending other people’s monies for them, they demand that return. It kind of sounds like the Medicaid, Medicare program. But in the same go, that expectation is there, and the middle is now paying for the lower bracket, and then you have the top end paying for both brackets, and so they’re just using other people’s money by this point.
SPEAKER 19 :
Right. So the middle class, which has been under attack, is being taxed and feed with this spending. It’s been under the guise, because Americans are generous people, for a program to feed children, to help with daycare. And so billions of dollars go over there. And then the PBIs, the politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties, we’re going to find out, have been making big green on this whole thing. Joe?
SPEAKER 08 :
But at the same go, the lowest class still expects them. So if they were to stop doing those programs, if we were to stop them from getting all that green, so to speak, those programs would stop too. And the lowest class is going to scream out because we stopped programs that were benefiting them. So there’s an expectation of spending now because they’ve already started the cycle.
SPEAKER 19 :
So if we, though, got government in its proper role, lowered taxes and fees so that all of us had more money in our pocket, I think that we would generously give to charities. But we would require those charities, if they said they’re feeding children, that they fed children. This whole non-accountability thing is a real problem. Luke, your thoughts?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think, again, as someone who advocates for social programs, economically speaking, I think there is also a very real issue of overtaxation, and I think in all of these systems. There’s a very, very bad habit of people exploiting said systems between individuals, you know, taking government subsidies for childcare services that aren’t actually offering childcare all the way up to our people in the biggest chairs using cronyism to, you know, play the stock markets and insider trade to their benefit. It’s all…
SPEAKER 19 :
So what do you think about this thing in Minnesota? It looks like it’s going to go all the way to the governor.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think it should. I think it should. I think there needs to be a lot more accountability, at the very least. If you’re spending this much money, people need to know.
SPEAKER 19 :
Transparency, accountability. But he was within a stone’s throw of the vice presidency.
SPEAKER 04 :
I didn’t, yeah.
SPEAKER 19 :
He was Kamala Harris’s running mate.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. It’s definitely not a good look, that’s for sure. It’s not a good look. Not a good look. Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Joe? I think it’ll be the start of looking at all the states, though, as well. This is just the spigot turning on, so to speak. We’re going to fill up the bucket with the other things as well, and it’ll come out in the wash.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, I think we truly are at an inflection point, a crucial time in our country. And so let’s go to break. We have these discussions. And I love getting the perspective of these guys. These discussions are so important. And we get to do that because of our sponsors and for Everything Mortgages. Reach out to Lauren Levy.
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SPEAKER 19 :
And welcome back to The Kim Monson Show. And be sure and consider making a contribution to the two nonprofits I highlight on a regular basis on the show. Both of them are, you can make a tax-deductible donation by the end of the year, and that is the USMC Memorial Foundation, doing great work to honor and remember those that have given their lives or been willing to give their lives for our liberty. And the Center for American Values, focused on educational programs, for our kids and honoring our Medal of Honor recipients. The center is located in Pueblo. So those websites are usmcmemorialfoundation.org and also americanvaluecenter.org. So be sure and consider making that year-end contribution. In studio with me is Producer Joe and Producer Luke. We’re going through The Prince, our book review of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, Chapter 16. as I guess we’ll use your definition of liberality and miserliness or something like that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Or meanness, either of those words.
SPEAKER 19 :
How do you want to wrap this up, Luke?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, so… On chapter 16. Chapter 16. Chapter 16 kind of… Ends off, again, with some historical references. I imagine were I a bit more historically learned, I would have more immediate insights into the specific names he mentions. But Machiavelli does also mention kind of the opposite end of this, where being overly liberal, the spending of other people’s money, the taking of other people’s property is going to see them fairly upset with you. being overly miserly, in the sense of being overly conservative, not spending any money, has a similar folly in the sense that if you’re not providing for your subjects, if you are not offering them something in exchange for the money that you do have and are taking, they’ll see you as someone who is hoarding, someone who is taking for the sake of greed Which is also, you know, regarded poorly. That’s not going to get too many people happy with you. Machiavelli mentions that one of the most important things to ensure you’re spending money on is the defense of your nation. To ensure that you have enough arms and armaments to protect yourself and your people.
SPEAKER 19 :
Which that’s in our Constitution. Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
Um, he mentions that one more specifically. Uh, but I think that’s also a good point. And then the sense that you have, you have some individuals on the very opposite side of the aisle that say, don’t spend money ever, which, you know, I think, uh, maybe would have worked 200 years ago when you didn’t have asphalt roads. Right. And you didn’t need to worry about, uh, the maintenance of, uh, a very complex industrialized nation. Uh, But it proves the point that there is a middle ground to these things, where it is important to be spending your money and your resources intelligently and carefully and pragmatically, but to not overspend so that… You are taking excessive tax dollars from your people, which, again, I agree with. And again, just to wrap it up in reference, Machiavelli mentions all this. And this is what rulers will be doing to optimize their rule. This is what the people in power will be doing to ensure that they remain in power. He’s kind of presenting these as, hey, you future rulers, if you want to win, this is what you should do. And you, the people, just as a heads up, this is what your rulers are up to.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, I think the founders must have read this. And they said, well, what if, though, the people could govern themselves? What if they could be assured of keeping most of their property? What would happen? And, well, America happened. Joe, do you want to make additional comments on 16, Chapter 16, or should we move to 17?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, what I just kind of made me think of from what Luke was saying is it was making me think of Vietnam USO shows. So, yeah, it wasn’t guns or armaments and things that we might have needed during that time, but that spending was still necessary there. For the morale of the community. So they were liberal with the money a little bit in that sense for the budget, but they were frugal on other things. But because of that, just small, hey, here’s a break. Let’s watch this comedian. Let’s watch this artist. It brought up the morale and kept everybody reasonably happy, even though there were some very difficult times during that.
SPEAKER 19 :
Interesting. Interesting perspective. Thank you. Okay, so we’re going to move on, right? Sure.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think we have a little bit of time.
SPEAKER 19 :
Joe thinks we may have to move this into next month as well, so set this up for us, Luke.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I’ll set it up a little bit. We can maybe dig into a bit more meat and potatoes or, you know, we can breeze through it. Chapter 17 is very famous where you get the word Machiavellian, where this idea of being a Machiavellian comes from. And when people talk about Machiavelli, it is almost always in reference to this chapter specifically. Okay. Uh, and that is where he proposes, uh, specifically the title of the chapter is chapter 17 concerning cruelty and clemency and whether it is better to be loved than feared. Uh, and I think some people’s… And my words are the same. Yes. Okay. Uh, and I think maybe that’s for a good reason. And again, it’s because this is very popular because Machiavelli proposes, uh, or rather suggests over the course of this chapter, uh, that it is better to be feared as a ruler than it is to be loved. Uh, and he proposes this because he mentions that a ruler who is loved will be loved only in so far as it is convenient for those who love him. Uh, and to be feared is an all encompassing ever present pressure. Uh, and that by being feared, people are more likely to obey you, uh, for fear of what will happen in the event that they cross you. As opposed to being loved, people feel that they are more willing to abandon their honor or their word because being loved isn’t nearly as powerful. And again, Reference and context. Machiavelli is saying that rulers will try and be feared as opposed to being loved. This is very popular at the time. You know, very popular historically. And I think you see… that rule being enforced, especially in a lot of these authoritarian states. You look at places like North Korea. You look at places like Russia, these very authoritarian, heavy states. And Machiavelli warned against it. Machiavelli is saying here in this text that these rulers who are ruling through fear are are very hard to get rid of. People who rule with tyranny and an iron fist are very difficult to manage, which makes them a quote-unquote good ruler insofar as a good ruler is someone who maintains rule and order.
SPEAKER 19 :
Interesting. Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
Joe. I just had a real-life example. It’s what Polis is doing with Tina Peters right now. He’s trying to silence everybody by putting cruelty on her to demonstrate we should be afraid of what happened to her.
SPEAKER 19 :
Of speaking. Yeah. Interesting correlation. Thank you. So I’ve heard or seen – I had a colleague who worked at a totally different company but had a manager that ruled by fear. And it was not an effective management style. And lost good people. People didn’t like to work. And – And so I don’t think it’s an effective leadership However, a leader does have to make tough decisions.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, which Machiavelli does talk about. He talks about it a little bit in the beginning of chapter 17 and a little bit at the end of 16, in that a ruler ought to be someone capable of making the hard call, capable of making those hard and tough decisions and being hard and strict with people. But when he talks about, you know cruelty and love to be feared or loved he mentions it specifically in the instance where only one can exist he gives a very absolute definition of those things where he says if you can either be loved or feared and only one can exist without the other then feared is the best option and And again, I don’t think he is proposing this in actuality. He is explaining to the people that this is how rulers can and will think. These are the strategies they will use to justify their cruelty. They will justify their use of fear as necessary for rule. This is a strategy being employed by someone in power, and he is revealing that strategy to us.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. Joe? I just found it neat, though, with his examples that when things faltered is when people started questioning whether the ruler is the ruler above them or not. And once that questioning happened, things would kind of blow up.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and questioning then connects to another thing, and that is freedom of speech, the freedom to question. And in the Constitution, there’s the freedom of speech. There’s also the freedom to redress our government. And I’ve got a couple of minutes connecting this dot to what is happening out in Lakewood, where the city council, I would say very Machiavellian, is trying to push through certain zoning and different planning for the city. And the people have said, wait a minute, we would like to vote on that. And the city manager, city council has basically been putting up roadblocks to try to prevent the people from being able to question and put this on the ballot. And this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be in America, Joe.
SPEAKER 08 :
you’re right but the fact that they started questioning though is why they want to put up the roadblocks now because they’re already saying wait i don’t i don’t think you’re the one who’s supposed to tell me what i can and can’t do and so they want to put up roadblocks to try and maintain that superiority of i can tell you what to do true that okay joe thank you so much we’re just about out of time uh producer luke how would you like to wrap this up
SPEAKER 04 :
Machiavelli in chapter 17 talks a lot about tyranny and cruelty. And I think, again, the important thing to take away from this chapter is the note that cruelty, tyranny, meanness, fear, and control will always find a way to justify itself. It will always seek for a path to explain away why cruelty is necessary. I’m thinking COVID. Yeah. Tyranny will try and justify itself. And keep that in mind. When someone is being cruel, how hard are they trying to justify it? Just try and keep it in mind. Machiavelli is revealing the truth of what tyrants will attempt to use to control you.
SPEAKER 19 :
Fascinating, gentlemen. So are you up for doing this again?
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, you know it.
SPEAKER 19 :
Okay, this is great. And after this, we’re going to do the Communist Manifesto, because then Joe gets to choose the next book.
SPEAKER 08 :
I’m excited to see what everybody has been talking about.
SPEAKER 19 :
Okay. Gentlemen, this is really good stuff. I really appreciate it. Our quote for the end of the show is from Jim Rohn. He said this. He said, if you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse. And so my friends today, be grateful, read great books, think good thoughts, listen to beautiful music, communicate and listen well, live honestly and authentically, strive for high ideals, and like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you. God bless America. And I want to just say it’s been quite a year, 2025. A lot of, as John Bosen said, somewhat tumultuous. But looking forward to 2026, there is a lot of opportunity. And I think it’s also going to have some tumultuous things happen in that. But we are ready to do that. We’ll be starting our eighth year in solo broadcasting. And I thank all of you. I thank all of you for your support and all of our sponsors. We will talk with you tomorrow.
SPEAKER 09 :
Talking about freedom Talking about freedom I will fight
SPEAKER 02 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
