In this episode, we explore the value of independent voices and the vital role freedom of speech plays in our society. With insights from guest Roger Mangan, who shares essential strategies for business success after decades in the industry, and a creative spark from Mark Monson, whose board game ‘Legend of the Eight Isles’ inspires communal interaction, we touch on the importance of creativity and critical thinking. Tune in for a conversation that embodies the American spirit and challenges preconceived notions.
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It’s the Kim Monson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
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The socialization of transportation, education, energy, housing, and water. What it means is that government controls it through rules and regulations.
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The latest in politics and world affairs.
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Under this guise of bipartisanship and nonpartisanship, it’s actually tapping down the truth.
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Today’s current opinions and ideas.
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On an equal field in the battle of ideas, mistruths and misconceptions is getting us into a world of hurt.
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Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
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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. And thank you to the team. That’s Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. Happy Monday, Producer Joe. Happy Monday, Kim. And we’ve got a great show planned, so fasten your seatbelts. If you want to know what is upcoming for the week, make sure that you go to the website, kimmonson.com, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter. That goes out on Sundays, and it’ll give you the latest regarding our upcoming guests as well as our most recent essays. And be sure and check out Pam Long’s essay regarding how conservatives can reach out to unaffiliated. It is really an important piece, so be sure and check that out. And you can email me at kim at kimmunza.com. Text line is 720-605-0647. And I do want to hear from all of you. I thank all of you who support us. We are an independent voice on an independent station. And we search 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 my friends, it’s never compassionate to take other people’s stuff, whether or not it’s their rights, their property, or their livelihoods. And they can take that via weapon, policy, unpredictable and excessive taxation, fear, coercion, government-induced inflation, the World Economic Forum’s agenda with the globalist elite agenda. It plays out through the United Nations, state legislatures, state governors right here in Colorado, and then we’re seeing it at the local, the county, and levels as well. And remember, if something is a good idea, you should not have to use force to implement it. I want to say thank you to Laramie Energy for their gold sponsorship of the show, because it is reliable, efficient, affordable, and abundant power from naturally occurring hydrocarbons, such as oil, natural gas, and coal, that powers our lives and fuels our hopes and dreams and empowers us to change our own personal climate, to be warm in the winter and to be cool in the summer. Let’s see, our word of the day is nihilism. And it is spelled, let me get to it here. N-I-H-I-L-I-S-M. And it is a noun. And it means the doctrine that nothing actually exists or that existence or values are meaningless. Number two, relentless negativity or cynicism, suggesting an absence of values or beliefs. Or number three, political belief or action that advocates or commits violence or terrorism without discernible, constructive goals. And I would say that there are those that nihilism is maybe how they look at life, which is a really sad way to look at life. And so I had always heard the word, hadn’t quite understood what it is. And so again, that’s nihilism, N-I-H-I-L-I-S-M. I went to Henry Ford for our quote of the day. He was born in 1863. He died in 1947. He was an American industrialist who revolutionized factory production with his assembly line methods, the founder of the Ford Company. And he said this, whether you believe you can or not, you’re right. Big news of the day was the Charlie Kirk Memorial. I was coming back from Grand Lake, and I want to say congratulations to Grand Lake U.S. Constitution Week, Mark Oville and his team. What an amazing week they put together. And Jonathan Turley, Georgetown professor, was the speaker regarding his new book, The Indispensable Right, Free Speech in an Age of Rage. And what he said was that he really he spoke for and took questions for an hour and a half. And then for the meet and greet, he signed books and answered questions for two and a half hours. Absolutely amazing. It was a unique experience. And check out his, I think it’s his Facebook page. He wrote a complete piece about how special Grand Lake is. It was an amazing event. And freedom of speech. The freedom to say uncomfortable things is inherent in our Constitution. So in light of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, who was murdered because of him exercising his freedom of speech, is… In many ways, it’s unbelievable. It’s been attributed to Stalin that ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns. Why would we let them have ideas? And Charlie was going into… Our college campuses, which the left had taken the hill on that, and he was working to take the hill back on that. And that’s why he was killed. So I was not able to watch the memorial service. It was quite long and quite amazing. Apparently, they filled the stadium, State Farm Stadium, and then had to put people into overflow into another stadium or another venue. And pretty, pretty amazing about that. So first of all, I want to say congratulations to Grand Lake U.S. Constitution Week. And Erica Kirk, I don’t know how she’s done this. This is what Christ said. And she talked about Christ on the cross where Christ said, forgive them for they know not what they do. She said that she forgives Charlie’s killer. And I find that fascinating. I find that really living out her Christian faith. So these are such important discussions that we have, and I get to work with really wonderful people. And I am blessed to work with Roger Mangan and the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance team. And Roger, you’ve been in business 50 years, is that right? Yes, Kim, that’s correct. Seems like yesterday. Doesn’t it? It’s amazing. I saw, I think, the movie Bagger Vance yesterday. where the two stars had, for many years, been apart. And when they came back together, she says it seems like it was only a moment ago. And that’s kind of how life is.
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I think when you have good friends, I apply this analogy to friends. I have a friend who lives in Florida who I insured 50 years ago. And he was a military fellow, a master sergeant, and drove to the north part of Denver to write a policy for him and developed a lifelong relationship. And when we talk maybe once every year, sometimes every two years, it’s like we never lost a beat. And those are precious friendships.
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They really are precious friendships. Roger, being in business for so long, is there any advice that you would give to people as they are going through life?
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Yes, I think so. I’m going to go back 30 years of my 50-year career. I stumbled across a tape back in the old days. You had a tape recorder, plugged it in your car cigarette lighter, and listened as you were driving all over town. And there was a tape, and this fellow was in the insurance business, and he said, if you’re going to be in this business or any business, there are four main elements in any successful business. And I’d like to share that with your audience today, because I think if you are aware of of where you might be in this model. It will help you direct or redirect your energies or your thought processes or your planning so you can accomplish the ultimate step in the four-step process. So let me just outline them pretty quickly. The first step to be aware of as a successful business person is you need to produce. Obviously, you need to sell your product or provide your service or do whatever it takes in that business for it to be successful, to generate revenue, production. Then next you have to know how to administer that business. So as your business grows in year one, two, three, 20, 40, you have to have your thumb or your eye on the ball to make sure as this business comes in or if it’s going out the back door, why. Keeping track of your production is so important. If I have a referral source and I’m getting 10 referrals a year from this source and then it goes down to one from that same source, I want to know why I’m losing that connectivity. So the production step in this four-step process is critical. You don’t want to overanalyze your business because, as they say, analyze is to paralyze. You can go so far as to let it be the tail that’s wagging the dog. and sometimes it interferes with production. Some things you have to let go of on the production side in order to pay attention to other things. If there are five elements of your production and you’re doing well and you’re not paying attention to how that’s being administered, it’s problematic. Let me go on to the third step, and that’s integrating the business, excuse me, entrepreneuring the business. Boy, as time has gone by with my business, State Farm, for example, they have changed so much in the last 10 years, let alone the last 50. There was a day when we did all our rating out of books. It took forever. So if you said, hey, what is a $50 deductible on my comprehensive costs? I could give it to you. And then you say, well, what was $100? Or what was $250 for a cost? I’d have to go back to the rate book. Spend 10 minutes figuring that out with a computer today, of course, it takes seconds. So in terms of entrepreneuring the business, your company, whoever you may be working for or with, if you’re a captive agent like me, versus the person that is a sole proprietor out there creating and developing their own business, you have to say, wait a minute. What new ideas are out there that I could embrace that might make a difference? So that takes a lot of time and a lot of introspection and a lot of investigation. You have to be above your business at times to have that perspective. And you can’t always do it alone. I was lucky to have a great wife who helped me accomplish these things so I could get to the point where I wanted to entrepreneur the business so she could take care of administration and keeping track of production so you need a solid partner doesn’t have to be a wife it could be a partner or another significant employee who can help you do that The last step is to integrate the business. So we have production, number one, administration, number two, entrepreneuring the business, number three, and integrating the business, number four. The definition of integration. would be the ability that a business you’ve created over the last 50 years in my case, or the last five years in anybody else’s case here, that integration is defined as the ability of the business to run and function at a competitive level without the principal being directly involved. You’re involved, but you can’t spend your entire life until you sit on your deathbed and die and let the business consume you. So if you want that business to serve you as well as your clients, you have to integrate it. And to the extent that any one of these four principles that I just laid out are ignored, that’s the extent to which your business is being mismanaged. You have to manage all four elements, production, administration, entrepreneurial business, and integrating the business. If I want to work two days a week, After 50 years in the business, if I’ve created a team and have goals and monitor those goals, I have the luxury of having time. And that’s really what we’re all about, right? Having time to do what it is we want to do in life. Whether it’s travel, playing golf, being with your grandkids, having an impact on your community, serving on boards. You can’t do all of that and run your business unless you’ve integrated it and taken care of the production, administration, entrepreneurial, the business, and integration.
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Roger Mangin, these are words to live by. If people would like to talk with you about their insurance coverage, what is the best way for them to reach you?
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Hey, we’ve had the same number for 50 years. Let me give it to you. 303-795-8855. 303-795-8855. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan team is there.
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The Second Amendment was established to ensure that all individuals have the right to resist oppression, stand firm against government overreach, and protect our ability to defend ourselves, our families, and our freedoms. Today, that right is under relentless attack in Colorado. Colorado’s premier grassroots Second Amendment organization, the Second Syndicate, is on the front lines fighting to preserve and protect your constitutional rights. We expose the most pressing threats to the Second Amendment and provide the education, resources, and tools to stay informed, empowered and prepared. Join the movement. Protect your rights. Visit the second syndicate dot com. That’s the second syndicate dot com where the second is first.
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There was a time in America when a man’s handshake cemented his word at Ben’s plumbing, heating and cooling. We are old school and believe in doing a job well. If there is ever an issue with the service that we have provided, we will make it right. Ben’s Plumbing, Heating and Cooling is proud to partner with The Kim Monson Show to bring truth and clarity to the issues we face in Colorado, America and our world. Call or text Ben’s Plumbing, Heating and Cooling at 303-995-1636 for all of your plumbing, heating and cooling needs. That number is 303-995-1636.
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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.
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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 we’ve got a real treat for you. We’ve got on the line with us Mark Monson, and he is a creator. He created a board game. He’s writing a book. And in the spirit of being creative. Jonathan Turley up at Grand Lake U.S. Constitution Week talked about the American idea, freedom of speech, and how important it is to be able to have creative outlets. And so, Mark Monson, welcome to the show.
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Hi, Kim. Thanks for having me.
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Well, you have created a board game and I am becoming more and more convinced that we maybe need to step away from televisions, computers and devices and do things that we have in our hands, such as read a book in our hands. Uh, but you’ve created a board game and board games are making a comeback. Yes.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. Um, it’s kind of had a renaissance here in the last, um, five to 10 years. Um, I think COVID kind of, on what you were saying, had a lot of people kind of get back together and want to be with people instead of just be online. And so I think that’s been a reason that the board games have really come back here.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and so you’ve created this game. So tell us about it.
SPEAKER 10 :
So, yeah, it’s a game for kind of all ages. Again, I created it kind of because I wanted to get people back playing together directly with each other. It’s actually kind of a one-sided game. So you have two different teams, but one player just plays on one side, and then the other team is all of the other players kind of team up. And it’s kind of a simple game. It’s pretty simple to pick up, but a lot of the complexity comes from kind of how you can interact with your teammates and all the different wacky ways that you can play together. You know, betrayal, working together, all of that stuff definitely comes out. And so it can get really fun. Also, it can get a little frustrating, you know, if you’ve ever played a board game and your teammates aren’t playing well. Yeah.
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Well, now, for somebody like me, Monopoly is difficult for me to sit down and focus and play for lots of different, you know, for a while. I’m probably more of a Yahtzee person. So where does Legend of the Eight Isles, where does that fall into how much time does it take? What’s the age range on it?
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Yeah, so the age range listed on the game is 14+, but that’s actually to, since I’m an independent game developer, I couldn’t afford a lot of the testing and everything that needed to go into getting into the children’s market. But in terms of the game itself, it’s pretty easy. You know, eight to ten-year-olds could definitely pick it up and play it. And one of the nice things about it is kind of the game happens in levels, and so you can… Basically, once everybody understands how the game works and everything, you can get through a level in anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes. And then, you know, you can play as many as you want. You can go all night and play, you know, the whole campaign. Or you can just, you know, play a couple of levels here, you know, before the kids go to bed or something like that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Now, how can people get the game?
SPEAKER 10 :
So you can go to my website at legendofthe8isles.com. And there’s just a link there to a little PayPal checkout. And so you can do it that way. As well as over the next couple of months, I’m going to be at different markets around, you know, holiday markets around Denver. I’ll be selling directly to people there as well.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. And how much is the game?
SPEAKER 10 :
The game’s $30. Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I wanted to get you on the show now because I can’t believe it, but we are in the middle of September and lots of people get organized and they start to do their Christmas and Hanukkah shopping now. And so this would be an excellent gift. As you said, it says on the game ages 14 and up, but I really do imagine kids probably, as you say, 8 to 10, many of them could probably pick that up as well. So it’s a really great game. So tell us a little bit about the characters.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, so funnily enough, the kind of the main character that you’ll see on the website and on the board game is actually based off of my dog. And so I ended up putting her into the game because she’s pretty fun. But basically, you know, it’s all manner of different animals is what you play as. So, you know, a dog, cat, horse, all that stuff. But I think one of the things that makes it a lot of fun and just being a dad myself is you can do, you know, one of the setups is dad versus everybody. And so that’s kind of a fun way to do it just because. then, you know, all the kids can work together and gang up and try and beat up on dad. Or, you know, if the little brother or little sisters had a rough day, maybe they joined dad’s team and they wreak havoc on their bigger brothers and sisters and stuff. So I’ve had a lot of fun with it, playing with a whole bunch of different people.
SPEAKER 05 :
Now, did you test this out with any of your friends or what did that look like?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, so over the last, I did about two to three years of playtesting. It was kind of, as you said, I had some young kids that were born over the last five years, and so it was just a way that I could kind of sneak out and, you know, see people and, you know, just kind of stay in the loop on things. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
So how did this start? Because being creative is inherent in the American idea. And it’s also… So just got back from Grand Lake U.S. Constitution Week, and in the Declaration, we’re endowed by our Creator with these rights from God of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. And, of course, I think in the… image of the creator we create as well so how did you just all of a sudden decide that you’re going to create this board game because to to take it from an idea to getting it produced to getting it here this has been quite the journey for you yes uh yeah um again kind of just as you said just wanting to create something um and you know have something that’s uh
SPEAKER 10 :
you know, is mine that I can show off to people. Um, it definitely took a lot of, uh, blood, sweat and tears to get it here. Um, I, I think I ended up hitting the, uh, the worst week of tariff pricing coming from China. Uh, when I, when I had shipped them over here again, kind of as an indie developer doing all aspects of the, um, of the development and publishing, um, you know, I was able to learn a lot of stuff as well. And so, you know, I think it was one of those things where you almost get a divine spark or a divine inspiration. And then, um, you know, I think the follow through is the big part as well. I think some people, you know, have great ideas and then, you know, they run into a couple of roadblocks and life gets in your way and everything. And so, you know, you unfortunately don’t get to follow through, but I was blessed enough to be able to do that. And, you know, here we are now. Now I’ve got a whole bunch of games sitting in my garage ready to be sold. Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, now I’m at your website, and I’m not seeing exactly where to hit for to purchase it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I believe if you go to up there at the top there, the game is one of the options.
SPEAKER 05 :
The board game? Okay. Okay. Got it. First edition is on sale now. Okay. Well, this is very exciting, Mark Monson, and it’s a great Christmas or Hanukkah gift and a great way for the family to sit down or the kids to sit down and play each other. And that’s my other question. Is it complicated? Does it take a lot for people to figure out how to play this game?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, so that’s kind of where the ease of use comes from. Unless you’re playing kind of the dad side or, you know, the one player versus everybody side, all you have to do is just kind of know how your character works. Your character can only do about five things per turn. And so, you know, you can just kind of do whatever you want without negotiating with your, you know, your allies and stuff to figure stuff out. But it’s very simple to kind of pick up. The complexity comes from when you have everybody’s different characters, different strategies, you know, all of that going on. Then it becomes complicated. But in terms of the basic gameplay, it’s very simple.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. So a great thing again for the holidays, a great Christmas or Hanukkah gift. And it is at Legend of the Eight Isles. That’s E-I-G-H-T-I-S-L-E-S dot com. And click on the board game and you can get that purchased. Your final thought, Mark Bunsen.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, just, you know, hopefully everybody can just enjoy each other’s company instead of, you know, yelling at each other on social media. That’s a big part, I think, about the board game situation now.
SPEAKER 05 :
You can get some of that frustration out by playing that. Well, that is just awesome. Well, congratulations. And again, that can be found at legendofthe8isles.com. Wish you lots of great luck.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thanks.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I love these young entrepreneurs. As we talked with Jay Davidson, he said that what he’s seeing at the bank, at First American State Bank, is all of these young entrepreneurs. And I just love that. And we get to do all these special things on the show because of our sponsors. And one of those is Karen Levine. Reach out to her for, if you’re going to buy a home, sell a home, or look at a new build.
SPEAKER 02 :
award-winning realtor karen levine with remax alliance understands the importance of home ownership karen levine works diligently at the local county state and national levels to protect your private property rights with over 30 years experience as a colorado realtor karen levine will help you navigate the complicated metro real estate market whether you are buying your home selling your home considering a new build or exploring investment properties Kim Monson highly recommends Karen Levine call Karen Levine at 303-877-7516 that’s 303-877-7516 for answers to all your real estate needs
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
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SPEAKER 15 :
All of Kim’s sponsors are an 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 05 :
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.com. And do you want more freedom and confidence with your money? Mint Financial Strategies can help. They’re an independent firm with over 25 years of experience. And as an accredited investment fiduciary, they put your best interests first, always. With a strategy-first approach, they’ll help you build a plan that fits your life. So call Mint Financial Strategies today. That number is 303-285-3080. Jody Hinze and her team over there do an amazing job. That number is 303-285-3080. And on the line with me is a fan favorite, and that is Lauren Fix with Car Coach Reports. Lauren Fix, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, thanks for having me back. Yeah, a lot’s going on in the automotive world. I’ll let you decide what something to start with first.
SPEAKER 05 :
I don’t know where to begin with first, but let’s talk just a little bit about Biden’s $159 million debacle regarding electric buses.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, that has been something that just keeps coming up. There was actually a trillion dollars originally that was set aside for electric buses. If you remember, Kamala Harris was the one running around.
SPEAKER 05 :
A trillion or a billion or a trillion?
SPEAKER 07 :
It was actually a trillion in total. That’s unbelievable. I know, but this specific one was on the EV buses that you’re talking about. So there was just another company that went bankrupt. That does not surprise you. But what happens, every company that they’ve put money into, pretty much all of them, includes for the postal service and everything, has led to bankruptcy. And that’s a problem because that’s your money. And as we watch all this disappear and we start looking at why this is happening, we’re learning that they gave money to donors and people that they liked. And that’s a problem because companies, including one that was out of Canada, are called, of all things, Lions. Believe it or not, like in Roar of the Lions. But they’re based out of Canada. So they gave the Canadian company $159 million just to produce 435 electric buses. If you do the math, it’s like $650,000 a bus. A regular school bus, which we’ve all ridden on, is around $100,000. So it’s over six times the cost to go to an electric school bus. Of course, you need maintenance. You need parts. You need a special technician. You need infrastructure charging. You need a place to charge. And, of course, good charge for electricity. I don’t know about you. I’m in Buffalo, New York, and my electric bill has more than doubled in the last two months. So that means that the cost to power this bus is going to be more expensive than it does to fuel the bus with diesel, which is going to get your best fuel economy. And some of them even run on hydrogen, which is even a better solution as well.
SPEAKER 05 :
So what’s going to happen with these very expensive buses?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, that is the problem. So Lion Electric is an L-I-O-N. I still can’t believe they call it Lion anymore. Like, lying is probably more accurate. They were showcased to push this, I know, it’s just too easy, toward electrification. So the company is now officially out of business. So it went bankrupt. It sold for only $6 million in a liquidation sale. So now anyone that got any of these buses can get parts. They can’t get service. They can’t get anything. And they were unable to deliver $95 million worth of buses. It had promised the American school districts around the country. Now, some of the school districts already terminated their orders because they got smart. While others, they’re still waiting for their orders. I’m like, they’re out of business. What are you waiting for? So, again, some school districts are really bad and they have bad leadership. And we all know that. And others pay attention and they have people on the board that have some business skills. It’s like an HOA, which I’m dealing with some issues myself right now. They put people on the board. They’re like, I have no skills. Right. You just got elected. How is that? You know, what are you doing for us? But the bottom line is for school districts, you’re still waiting for buses that are never going to arrive. And it’s just like the electric postal trucks, another disaster that never happened. So to give you some ideas of what’s going on, in a school district called Homer, H-O-M-E-R, community school district, so this is a pretty rural school district, they received $2.8 million in federal funding to acquire these buses so that they couldn’t use that money for anything else other than to buy these buses. So, of course, they complied. They ordered the buses. Now, the few electric school buses they’ve received are not working. they cannot get them to work they won’t hold a charge they won’t function so now they just sit in their garage can’t use them i had to hire a technician uh and so they’re going back to their long-term plan of returning to diesel and the simple reality is that diesel buses cost far less around a hundred thousand dollars compared to 350 to 650 thousand dollars depending on which bus they bought which is absurd so those extra school costs go into the school taxes And it raises your taxes. And that’s true around the country, whether it be in Colorado, Michigan or anywhere. I mean, in New York, Kathy Hochul is still pushing where I live. She she’s a genius. And I would probably say that to her face. They didn’t arrest me, but they probably would in this in this state. Modernize public school transportation. She says they’re all going to be zero emissions buses. we have like you do we have mountains your mountains are much higher we have cold weather like you do and cold weather and electricity don’t work well hand in hand and she is still pushing these electric school buses as the answer even though we don’t have the infrastructure neither does colorado and many of these school districts are concerned about the trips if you’re going up into the mountains you know you’re bold in colorado and you got to pick up your kids and drop them off you need to get them there safely that’s the only job the school district Educate the kids, get them to and from school. This is not a difficult challenge if you pay attention. Instead, we’re using electric school buses. So in New York State, the estimate to transition from diesel to electric is $15 billion more to replace the diesel with diesel buses, which makes no sense. And that’s about, you know, again, who’s going to pay for this? School taxes, property taxes, everybody pays higher taxes. And that does not make people happy. We’ve seen this in Louisiana already, the state of Maine, and they’re already deciding to switch back. Problems across the entire country. Ohio, the clean school bus program was ruled out in 2021, by the way, by the genius Kamala Harris. She is a genius. But remember she said everyone loves yellow school buses? She never rode on a yellow school bus. She went to private school in Canada. So, again, maybe that’s why the Canadian company got the money. Either way, it’s our tax dollars, and I’m quite perturbed that they took our tax dollars, gifted it to a Canadian company who went out of business.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, this kind of stuff is certainly not sustainable, to use the word of the green agenda on this. So electricity prices are going up. We’re seeing all this demand for AI centers for power. And out here in Colorado, we see this governor and this legislature that they’re just continuing to almost try to kill our natural gas, oil, coal out here with regulations and legislation by a thousand cuts. But yet that power source is reliable, efficient, affordable and abundant. So what does this really look like? You’ve got public policy trying to shut down the affordable, reliable, efficient power source, trying to push people over here onto something that is getting more and more expensive and is not reliable. It’s intermittent with wind and solar. It doesn’t make any sense.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, wind and solar are not reliable, period. Solar as a maximum can only supply about less than 20%, somewhere around 18% of the full energy required. That’s been proven over and over and over again. So if you put solar panels on your roof, great, good for you. Just know that it’s going to take more than 10 years to recoup your costs. Yes, you’re saving money initially, but the cost of the panels, they repair to your roof in order to support those panels, or whether you have panels that sit out on the ground that get covered with snow because you have the same lovely weather we do, still comes back to the fact that you cannot produce enough electricity to support the entire town, city, or anything for that matter. So that’s a problem. Windmills, I was actually just out on a fall drive over the weekend. to look at the leaves and everything. And there were windmills everywhere and they weren’t moving. And it was a very windy day. So why would you not be capturing that energy? Again, many of those don’t work. And those blades, when they get damaged, have to be buried in the ground because they’re made of fiberglass. And when the electric motors, electric motors fail to get the windmill started, they just leave them there. It’s more expensive to take them down than to put them up. So again, why did they bother building them to begin with? It was government subsidies. And that’s a problem. So I think they need to take the subsidies away from both oil, gas, as well as wind and solar. They have talked about, President Trump has talked about doing nuclear, which would be a really great idea. Now, for those of you going, oh, hold on, hold on. They make smaller plants now. They’re very safe. It’s not like what you’re thinking from the past. And they also could power a city, especially a city that has trouble getting electricity to it or the cost of electricity is just too high. So there are answers. But what we’re doing right now, we have to get rid of all this Biden era green New Deal crap because it was really a cover for laundering money to companies that either go out of business or use it for other things.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and the other thing that I’m watching, and you mentioned you were out on the drive with all of these windmills, is the land grab, both with wind and solar. And in fact, out here in Wyoming, I was alerted by one of our listeners, Jenny, who, and since you’re, well, you know boundaries, you know America, but a lot of people in the East don’t realize that Colorado and Wyoming share a border. Yes. Cheyenne, which is only about 100 miles north of Denver, 25 miles northwest of that, some ranchers got a certified letter in June because their land had a boundary with what they didn’t know. They had no knowledge about a 56,000-acre land industrial wind project that would actually had boundaries with two different pieces of their land. And they didn’t know. They didn’t tell you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Probably midnight on a Sunday night, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, they did not know about it. So Wendy Volk, who is a realtor in Cheyenne, sat down and read everything and had concerns. And so the county commissioners voted to deny that permit at this time until they can get through a lot more information. But to your point, I don’t think people have thought about what’s going to happen to these industrial solar projects or these industrial wind projects when the life of those panels or those windmills is done.
SPEAKER 07 :
I actually have some insight on that. I have some insight for you. I’m on the IDA board, which is the industrial development board for my local little town. We have denied in our little teeny town, because it’s small and I like it that way, we have denied all solar panel farms. We’ve had more people push, including the state, push us because we’re small, to make some of our farmland into solar panels. And the reason we rejected it, and we will not allow it, and I stayed on this IDA board, not because I want to, but because I’m trying to stop this stuff, and that’s why you need to get involved, which is what President Trump said, you need to get involved in your local level, whether it’s an IDA board, because with me, I can’t pick a political side. Because it’s cars. Everybody has a car. I don’t care what you do. It doesn’t matter to where I stand. I’m trying to help everyone. So I purposely joined the IDA board to kind of keep control of my little town. And everyone should do something, whether it’s a school board or something, just to help get involved and make sure that things don’t happen behind the scenes like this. So we’ve denied these solar panel farms because what happens is they get subsidies from the state, which would be Colorado and Wyoming. They would build these hideously ugly solar panel farms that don’t work year-round, by the way. They go, sure, let’s send year-round. Yes, but when there’s snow on them, They don’t work. When there’s leaves on them, they burn out. So you can only really use them maybe spring without things on them and summer. So maybe half the year. So what happens? They get the subsidies. They build the farms and they walk away. There’s no maintenance on them. They just leave them. And that leaves the little towns like the one I live in and like the ones you’re talking about with the bill to remove them all and destroy them. And the problem is those solar panels cannot be recycled. They sit in salvage yards. So you will pay huge money, more than it costs to build them, to remove them and stack them up in a salvage yard somewhere, which, again, pollutes the environment. So not doing it. So we put – I actually had to educate – The board that we were sitting at, because they were like, oh, that’s a great idea. We can use some land that’s not being used. I said, are you guys crazy? And they looked at me like there’s six of us on the board. I’m seventh. And I said, well, hold on, hold on. Let me let me explain this to you. It’s like explaining road diets. Once they realized it, they were like. Oh, I didn’t know that. So again, this is why it’s important for all of your listeners, get involved at some level. It doesn’t have to be the political of left or right. Just get involved in an IDA board, a school board, something to get your voice out there and start educating these people because they literally live, like I was saying, HOA, same thing. I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I had no skills. Oh, great. You just got elected. Same thing. We just keep going full circle. The same idiots that say we should go with electric school buses, the same idiots that say we should put up all these solar and wind farms.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, Lauren Fix, I love the way that you call it like it is. We’re going to continue the discussion with Lauren Fix, but I did want to mention the USMC Memorial Foundation. They had their great 5K run last Saturday, and Paula Sarles and her team are doing amazing work to take care of the Marine Memorial right here in Golden, Colorado, and also for raising money for the remodel and the rebuild on that. You can help them and honor those and remember those that have been put their lives on the line for our country. And you can do that by making a contribution at usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That is usmcmemorialfoundation.org. And for everything mortgages, be sure to reach out to Lauren Levy.
SPEAKER 17 :
Thank you. Thank you. If you’d like to explore what a reverse mortgage can do for you, call Lauren Levy at 303-880-8881. That’s 303-880-8881.
SPEAKER 01 :
Call now. Haraldston Valley Coalition is hosting a candidate forum for the Arvada City Council candidates on September 29th at 6 p.m. at the Depot in the Village of Five Parks. Land use, traffic, density, and zoning have become a very important set of issues, and we will be asking the candidates about how they envision the future of Arvada’s growth and development. Please join us either in person or online by visiting Ralston Valley Coalition dot org, where you can reserve your free ticket or find the live stream link statewide. The city council elections are on November 4th of 2025. Local elections matter and ordinary citizens can make a difference.
SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
And welcome back to The Kim Monson Show. Do check out the Center for American Values. They are located in Pueblo on the Riverwalk. They are nonpartisan, nonpolitical, focusing on these foundational principles of honor, integrity, and patriotism. And Drew Dix, Medal of Honor recipient and one of the co-founders, has a great podcast series. So be sure and check that out. It’s Words from the Silo. And you can find that at AmericanValueCenter.org. On the line with me is Lauren Fix with Car Coach Reports. First of all, Lauren, how can people find you?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I’m easy to find. You can go on YouTube if you prefer video. You can find me at Car Coach Reports for all the news stories. All the car reviews are at CarSmarts.com. If you say, I just want to go to a website, just go to Car Coach Reports. You’ll see everything in one location. Any form of social media, you pick it. I’m on it from Truth Social to Facebook. Easy to find is put in Lauren6, L-A-U-R-E-N-F-I-X or Car Coach Reports.
SPEAKER 05 :
Great. And you just posted something an hour ago about goodbye to the $7,500 EV credit. So tell us about that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, so as President Trump signed the one big beautiful bill that ends the official mandate for electric cars across the country, which means the $7,500 tax credit that you can get if you purchase an electric car. People thought it could lease, but I believe it’s only on purchases because I think they changed the rules again because they’re always changing the rules. Or $4,000 on a used EV, which would have to be a purchase because you wouldn’t lease it. is going away. And that is Tuesday, September 30th, 2025. It is gone. Also, if you’re thinking about you have an electric car and you like it and you want to put a home charger in, that $1,000 home charger is going away at the end of the year. So you have until the end of the year to put it in. One little caveat. Please, if you have a home charger, you’re putting one in or you have one, contact your insurance company. If you do not, and you have an issue and you can call that issue whatever you want you are not covered and i am going to i just went through this with four other people that have told me they put an electric charger one of them had a fire and the insurance company would not cover 20 of their home because in the eyes of the insurance company that is a major addition it’s the same as if you put a bathroom on your house or bedroom you have to let them know I know it’s going to increase your insurance. It’s not going to be a lot. But if you don’t, and you have a problem, you don’t have coverage. So that’s important to note. I just want people to be aware of that. I tell people that all the time, and then I hear stories every single week. It’s really sad. And car crashes, fire, it can’t help you. I mean, you’re kind of on your own. And I know it can happen with gasoline-powered vehicles as well. But that’s going away. So if you’re thinking, you know what, I’ve always wanted a Tesla, or I’ve always wanted one of those cool Cadillacs, then you should get one, but your tax credit goes away. So you have to take, the order has to be placed by the end of September. Delivery can be into October if you order something and you’re still waiting for it to come in. I will tell you that I’m enjoying this because as I’ve been saying for 25 years, this is a dumb idea. And sure enough, today, this morning, in Germany, like it was yesterday, they announced that Porsche, who said they were going to go with electric Macans and electric Caymans and all their little performance cars, which I own one of, it’s my gas, we’re going to go electric. Well, they just worn up that plan and they said, nope, we’re going to bring in a three-row SUV because we don’t have one, and we’re going back to gasoline-powered performance. Look at that. So pretty much every brand has turntail performance. Ford has said that. General Motors says they’re cutting back on their electric cars. They have hybrids coming, but they’re like two years out. They really kind of screwed themselves. Hyundai has always said, Hyundai Corporation is Hyundai, Genesis, and Kia. Globally, that’s one gigantic company. They have said they’re doing all their vehicles like Legos. You want electric? We’ll build it. You want a hybrid? We got it. Plug-in hybrid? Done. Gas? Sure. So what they’re doing is they’re putting what they call a different hat on each chassis. And they’ve designed that from the beginning that way. Super smart. Brands like Stellantis, and I have a story coming out at the end of the week. Stellantis is now backpedaling on all of their electric cars, and they’re reinventing the brand. What a genius idea. A little late. They almost put the company out of business. Nissan has said that they’re not going to make the Aria anymore here in the US. So if you want one, you can probably get a deal on one. I bet you can get a killer deal on one, especially at the end of the tax credit. They’re having trouble selling them. The Nissan LEAF, which they’re going to bring out a new one. Well, they just announced on Friday they’re going to cut their production down to a third of what they thought they were going to build. They weren’t selling anyhow. I have friends that work at Nissan dealers. They’re like, we can’t even get people interested in them. The new look, which is better, is still not going to help them at all. It’s not the look. It’s the propulsion. How do you get places? I don’t want seven minutes filled with gas and be on my way, no matter what the temperature is outside. I don’t want to wait hours for my vehicle to charge, especially longer when it’s cold. And you’re in Colorado. It’s the same thing you hear in Buffalo. It’s great. Three quarters of the year. It’s the rest of the year that stinks. And nobody wants to be limited. So I think you’re going to see some big changes there. Other brands have all walked back their EV promises. Not all of them. The only one that has doubled down, which I find still amusing, is Jaguar. Good luck. They may be out of business. And we just saw this morning, earlier this morning when I got up for your show, I looked and it was Polestar, which is a performance electric vehicle company. They have doubled down also. They’re going to stick with electric, yes, That’s their way. But even Volvo, who is the regular production cars, has said, we’re not going to sell electric cars here. It’s just not going to work. And on a global basis, they will sell vehicles. It’s in North America because Canada always follows the U.S. And if they go, China’s going to beat us. Well, let me tell you, Mexico just put a tariff on all their Chinese cars because they were destroying the little car industry that they have. so they put a 50 tariff on all chinese cars and that starts october 1st and what that means is mexico which got a lot of the byds and all these chinese cars well they’re not going to get those either so it’s going to be very interesting to watch how brands and governments are starting to pull back and one of them is even germany because it destroyed their auto industry so what are you supposed to do i mean you hurt yourself So it’s very interesting to watch. And like I didn’t call it, I hate to say this, I told you so.
SPEAKER 05 :
That you did, and you told people so on the Kim Monson Show as well as CarCoachReports.com. Lauren Fix, thank you so much. I’m going to be doing some traveling, and you’re going to be on the show here again very soon. So thank you. Keep up the great work.
SPEAKER 07 :
Safe travels to you.
SPEAKER 05 :
And our quote for the end of the show is from Henry Ford. He said, the object of education is not to fill a man’s mind with facts. It is to teach him how to use his mind in thinking. 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, and like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you are not alone. God bless you, and God bless America.
SPEAKER 08 :
I don’t want no one to cry, but tell them if I don’t say.
SPEAKER 11 :
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 05 :
The socialization of transportation, education, energy, housing, and water, what it means is that government controls it through rules and regulations.
SPEAKER 13 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 05 :
Under the guise of bipartisanship and nonpartisanship, it’s actually tapping down the truth.
SPEAKER 13 :
Today’s current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 05 :
On an equal field in the battle of ideas, mistruths and misconceptions is getting us into a world of hurt.
SPEAKER 13 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
SPEAKER 05 :
Indeed, let’s have a conversation, and welcome to our number two of the Kim Monson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You’re each 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, and thank you to the team. That’s Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. Happy Monday, Producer Joe. Happy Monday, Kim. And if you missed hour number one, you can hear that at 1 to 2 in the afternoon on all KLZ 560 platforms. This hour will be rebroadcast this evening, 10 to 11 p.m. And then after that, you can find it on the website or Spotify, iTunes, those streaming services. So be sure and check all of that out. As you know, we search for truth and clarity. by looking at these issues through this lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. On the show, we focus on the issues and we’ll talk about the people pushing those issues, but we stay out of all the personality fighting or we really try to. And so that’s where we’re at. We look at these issues and foundational principles. And the bottom line, Calvin Coolidge said, if all men are created equal, then that is final. And that is the star that we need to continue to move towards in our conversations. So we will do that. And I got some comments here on something that just came across my desk yesterday, but let’s get into the word of the day. It’s nihilism. It’s spelled N-I-H-I-L-I-S-M. And it’s such a sad word. I’ve heard people talk about people that are nihilistic or nihilism, and I didn’t quite understand it. But nihilism is the doctrine that nothing actually exists or that existence or values are meaningless. Number two, relentless negativity or cynicism, suggesting an absence of values or beliefs. Number three, political belief or action that advocates or commits violence or terrorism without discernible constructive goals. And I’ll talk about this initiative that I’ve seen that’s coming from Utah Governor Cox regarding disagree better. But I think one of the things is it would be very difficult to find common ground with someone that believes that nothing actually exists or that existence or values are meaningless. So instead, I think that what we need to do is maybe understand that that might be where someone is. But gosh, it looks to me like it’s living a life without hope. And so we need to share hope with each other and we need to come to common ground. with these foundational principles of our declaration that all men are created equal with these rights from God of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. So we’ll talk about this a little bit more over the days, but our quote of the day is from Henry Ford. He was born in 1863. Died in 1947, he was an American industrialist who revolutionized factory production with his assembly line methods. He was the founder of Ford Motor Company. Of course, I chose Henry Ford because we had Lauren Fix, Car Coach Reports, as our featured guest in hour number one. He said this, whether you believe you can or not, you’re right. So again, that is Henry Ford. Main headline is Charlie Kirk’s memorial service. And this is from Daily Caller. His memorial service was so big that they were using the former NHL arena for overflow. The next headline, this is from News Nation. Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erica, says that she forgives the suspected shooter. So again, Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erica, says she forgives the suspected shooter. I watched that clip on that. It is absolutely amazing. She said, in the spirit of our Savior, who on the cross, he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And this is rather remarkable. She’s also been named to be the new head of Turning Point USA as well. And then this is from Daily Caller and a number of football teams have honored Charlie Kirk. The Browns honor Charlie Kirk ahead of the game against the Packers. and said that, let’s see, other teams that had paid tribute to Charlie Kirk were the Miami Dolphins, the Tennessee Titans, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills, New Orleans Saints, Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets, and Dallas Cowboys. And so good for them. The idea that Charlie Kirk was shot because he was just exercising his freedom of speech is really of great concern. Next thing, as we had reported, and this is from CBS Colorado, they did a… a story on the Denver area residents that led the grassroots effort to end the general improvement district talks, the GID. And that’s, and that was one of the things we had Dana Bush on early on in this whole thing. And so this is also really huge because what would have happened with that is this GID or GID general improvement district would have had an unelected unaccountable to the people board. It would have been appointed either by, I think, the Denver mayor or the Denver City Council, but they had all kinds of power to tax an imminent domain. Do you not see how that’s a problem where America was founded on representative government And so these kids, these kids are really a bad deal. And there’s several of them. This would have been the sixth in the Denver metro area. So if you start to hear this coming across your something proposed for your community, you need to really, really take a look at it. And then this last thing and this just came across my desk. And this is by Governor Spencer Cox of Utah with the Governor’s Association. And he’s starting something called Disagree Better, Healthy Conflict for Better Policy. And who defines better policy? it says, through healthy conflict, we’re confident that we can find common ground and improve our families, our communities, and our nation. Together, we can disagree better. But it’s going to be very difficult to agree with someone that doesn’t like our country, doesn’t like the American idea. So in the spirit of the Federalist Papers, And Alan Thomas, who is a frequent guest on the show, he writes essays for the Kim Bunsen Show and also a guest host, presented at Grand Lake U.S. Constitution Week. And he said what Hamilton and John Jay and James Madison, who wrote the Federalist Papers, did is they decided that they were going to And look at the opposition to the Constitution and address it and go directly to the place. And these were the federalist papers were a number of different essays that were published in different newspapers. And they decided that they would. take a look at what they thought was the biggest objection to the Federalist Papers, address those, and then go and make the case in, number one was New York, which was against, it looked like they were against ratifying the Constitution. And I think that I realized that we need to do this on different issues as well. And so what that means is I have a lot of homework to do. on this disagree better, but there are those that think that this could be a potential social score, a credit score, social credit score, and that ultimately it would, um, Take away our freedom of speech. And somebody did ask Jonathan Turley about the Trump administration and using a litmus test on reactions to Charlie Kirk’s death on Twitter. And I asked him about what about people losing their jobs because of what they have said regarding Charlie Kirk’s death. And I think Charlie and I both agree that I think we want to come down on the side of freedom of speech. Even if it’s uncomfortable, I’m still working through, but people have to be responsible for their speech. But I want to make sure that we protect freedom of speech. And it is the right to say things that are uncomfortable. So maybe what that means is you don’t get thrown in jail. for your speech but that your employer may be able to have you responsible for that. I still want to stay over here on freedom of speech and I’m concerned about this disagree better and they’re calling it a a dignity index that they want to move to. And so I’m very concerned about that. So we’re going to keep our eyes on that. We have these discussions because of our sponsors. Hooters Restaurants has locations in Westminster, Loveland, and right here in Aurora on Parker Road. Great specials Monday through Friday for lunch and for happy hour. And how I got to know them, it is a story about freedom and free markets and capitalism and those PBIs, politicians and bureaucrats and interested parties that want control. And we always need to be responsible for our exercise of freedom, but we also need to come down on the side of freedom. So very pleased to have Hooters restaurants as a sponsor of the show. And then the information that we broadcast in our number one with Roger Mangan about your business. He is so wise. He’s been in business for 50 years, helping people with their, all their insurance needs and, and taking care of his family, giving back to the community. So give them a call for a complimentary appointment about your insurance coverage. That number is 303-795-8855. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan team is there.
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SPEAKER 05 :
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.com. And do you love Italian food? Because I certainly do. And Little Richie’s, which is located in Parker and Golden, is your… Pizza and pasta go-to place. They have real New York-style pizza and pastas and that unbeatable local vibe. They’re 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, catching up with friends, or flying solo for a hot slice, Little Richie’s is your neighborhood hangout. And I have on the line with me Helen Raleigh. she is an american entrepreneur writer and speaker she’s a senior contributor at the federalist her writings appear in other national media including the wall street journal and the fox and fox news she’s the author of several books including confucius never said backlash how communist china’s aggression has backfired the her book the broken welcome mat america’s un-american immigration policy and how we should fix it is in its second edition. And then I have in my hand, Not Outsiders, Asian Americans’ Political Activism from the 19th Century to Today. Helen Raleigh, welcome to the show. Good morning, Kim. Great to have you, and you’ve recently published a piece at The Federalist, which I think is a very important piece with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. You said that University of Texas at Austin is an outlier among colleges in expressing opposition to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. So walk us through this, Helen.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. So we know that Charlie Kirk was assassinated while he was doing a campus event at the Utah Valley University. And college campuses should have been places where the liberal ideas, the free exchange of, I’m talking about classical liberal ideas, this free exchange of ideas, open inquiries, that’s where the college should have been. And But it’s not. And in the last several decades, the college has become less and less tolerant. In the name of tolerance and diversity, college campuses have become less and less tolerant. Nowadays, college campuses represent some of the most illiberal places in America. So that’s why it’s sad that Charlie Kirk Defending free speech on college campus. He was murdered on a college campus. And so I thought it was only fitting that we exam what the college campuses response reaction in the aftermath of his murder. And it was, I have to say, the findings were disappointing, but there was a glimmer of hope. So through our help, a student helped me do the research. We contacted 10 universities, and the majority of them did not even send out any emails. to acknowledging Charlie Kirk’s murder, neither did they reaffirm free speech. But the University of Austin was the only university that not only sent out an email acknowledging what happened to Charlie, adamantly opposed violence, as well as affirmed the college’s commitment to free speech. So I thought there’s bad examples, but there’s also a good example that gave us both you know, warning as well as hope.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think it’s troubling, though. You said you checked out 10 different universities and only one responded regarding Charlie Kirk’s assassination. So that is of great concern.
SPEAKER 06 :
It is a great concern. I think the fact, as I mentioned earlier, we already know college campuses nowadays are the most intolerant and illiberal place, you know, in the United States. And I think this example just reaffirmed that. And so for those majority of schools that did not issue any response, did not react, that these are a warning sign. And it’s also a reminder that we need to reform those colleges. I’m all for cutting off federal funding. The taxpayer should not help sustain failed colleges, especially for those colleges who are nowadays just indoctrination camps for radical left-wing ideas. they are the ones who, they are the source, the college campuses, those very liberal college campuses nowadays are the source of hateful ideas and intolerant, building intolerant speech environments. So those are a reminder that we should reform colleges. But I also, I think it’s important to include a good example, which is University of Austin. It’s a relatively new university. It was founded by Barry Weiss and several like-minded people in Austin, Texas. I think that good example showed us that we can make college become a tolerant place, another place for open and free inquiry again. And this is an example of how to make it happen.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. So I think I need to clarify something. I was thinking that the University of Austin was part of the University of Texas, but it’s not. It sounds like that this is a standalone. So it’s University of Austin in Texas, but it’s not associated with the University of Texas. Is that correct?
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s correct. Yeah. It’s called the University of Austin. So it’s not a part of the public University of Texas system. This is a private liberal arts school that’s based in Austin, Texas, but it was just established in 2018. By Barry Weiss, who founded the Free Press. And it’s not just by her, it’s by several of her like-minded people, including Ebony O’Neill Ferguson, as well as several people who are more in the center right, that they decided to respond to the majority college’s illiberal environment. They decided to build an alternative. And this is the alternative.
SPEAKER 05 :
So, Ellen Raleigh, I was up at Grand Lake U.S. Constitution Week and Jonathan Turley, Georgetown professor, spoke and his new book is The Indispensable Right, Freedom of Speech in an Age of Rage. And Freedom of speech is so important, and I’m concerned. I’m seeing, even from the Trump administration, but also concerned about this potential dignity index from Utah governor, and I saw that Jared Polis was supporting that as well. I’m concerned that Charlie Kirk’s death may… create a situation where there will be a clampdown on freedom of speech because of really these people that are celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death, losing jobs. I’m concerned about the clampdown on freedom of speech in a reaction to that. What’s your thoughts on that, Helen Raleigh?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, I’m concerned, too. I think it’s an eternal battle to defend free speech. I do think there should be distinguishing, right? I’m not concerned for people losing jobs over their speech because I think private employers… that they should have that discretionary to decide what’s acceptable, what’s not acceptable from their business standpoint. So I do not mind private companies to fire people based on whatever they did, you know, violating their company code. But I am concerned about the government to get involved to determine what is or is not good speech. That’s why I am concerned about AG Pam Bondi. When she did an interview, which she was condemned widely by both conservatives as well as liberals, when she talked about there’s a difference between free speech and hate speech. So she basically sounds like a demagogue. because she’s the AG, her role is to defend free speech, including speech that we found controversial, intolerable. So it’s not a government role to decide what is or is not acceptable speech. But I think as private employers, they should be able to do that. That’s also another reason why I think that the FCC’s chairmen probably jump being a little too quick after Jimmy come out, you know, open monologue about Kirk’s murder, probably that all caused by mechanism because, you know, ABC, I think ABC eventually made a business decision. If you read the investigative report by Wall Street Journal, ABC made a business decision because the Camel’s show is losing money for years and they were on the verge of, you know, try to put his show on hold anyway. But when the FCC chairman jumped in, Then it became a government intervention. So I do agree with you. I think the government should be careful. The Trump administration should be careful not to wage government power to intervene. Just let the private businesses, let the free market take care of it. Ultimately, free speech is important because it’s a battle of ideas, right? You mention this in your show all the time. that in a free market, the best idea wins. And even good ideas need an opponent of bad ideas to battle it out, to test it out, to prove itself why it is a good idea.
SPEAKER 05 :
Such good points. We’re going to continue this discussion with Helen Raleigh. And we’re talking about freedom of speech, which is the first thing in the Bill of Rights. But right behind it is the Second Amendment, which it is put there to basically protect all of the other amendments. And that is the right to keep and bear firearms to protect ourselves and our families against bad actors, whether or not it’s a criminal offense. or if it is a government that’s out of control. That’s why they put that there. And that’s why I’m so pleased to have the Second Syndicate as a sponsor of the show.
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SPEAKER 17 :
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SPEAKER 14 :
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 05 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Be sure and check out our Web site. I’m talking with Helen Raleigh about her piece that was published at The Federalist. And she is published there regularly as well as you can find at The Wall Street Journal, Fox News. She’s many times also does a video guest, a television guest as well on many of these different outlets. And we’re talking about her piece. University of Austin in Texas is an outlier among colleges in expressing opposition to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. And Helen, you said something that I think is really important, and that is I do not think that we should be funding these colleges, these indoctrination centers with tax money. And also Jonathan Turley had mentioned that donors need to stop giving money to these colleges as well, because that’s probably the thing that’s really going to get their attention is when we have alumni and donors that quit giving money to these colleges that are indoctrinating our kids. And I think that’s good advice.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you, Kim. Yes, if you look at the colleges today, they are less focused on actually educating kids, teaching them remarkable skills, and more about indoctrinating them into ideologies and ideological indoctrination. So look at the Haystall College, right? That’s a good example of Haystall does not accept any taxpayer funding. And, you know, does not accept the government money. And instead, he sells purely based on, you know, private donations as well as the tuition. And so because they are free to teach the classical education that they have been doing for over 100 years. And, you know, if he still can do it, I believe other colleges can do it as well. as well. And again, it should be a market of ideas. If colleges need to, you know, they cannot survive in a free market without the government funding, without taxpayer dollar support, that means it’s a bad institution. That is probably should, you know, go down to the historical dustbin and let the good colleges like UATX, like Haysdale thriving.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. And let these colleges compete in the free market of ideas. And also, I’ll take that over to charities as well. We should not be giving government money to charities. In fact, I was doing some research and I found on homelessness. that they’re noted as a public charity. Charity is not the proper role of government. Lower taxes, let Americans choose which charities they give to, which colleges they give to, based on the actual results. You mentioned something super interesting regarding Jimmy Kimmel. and the FTC that there seemed to be some pressure from the FTC to have Kimmel fired. And I agree with you. The FTC, I think, should have stayed out of it. Ultimately, I think Kimmel’s show was losing money, and that is why they shut that down. But the narrative out there that it was a freedom of could be a freedom of speech issue. I’m concerned about that. Like you, Helen Raleigh.
SPEAKER 06 :
I agree. By the way, it’s not FTC. It’s FCC. It’s the Federal Communication Commission.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you for clarifying. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
Brenda Carr, which I usually like him, but I think he’s jumped on the gun a little too quick. He posted on Twitter, said, quote, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. That to me is very, you know… I don’t know what the word is.
SPEAKER 05 :
Very, very threatening.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, it sounds very exactly. That sounds like a mobster. Like, you know, it’s nice. You got a show there. It’s too bad. You’re going to lose it. You know, so I don’t think the government officials should speak that way. And and also it’s basically just give the left a, you know, let them weaponize. They say, oh, this is a government intervention, make Jimmy Kimmel a free speech model. And he’s not. And if you ever watch his shows, and his shows, he’s spelled many misinformation. And this comment about the Kirk’s murder is not only distasteful, it’s simply not true. And many people called him out on that. And the people on the left who jumped in to defend him are the same people who criticizing or condemned Charlie Kirk without even watching TV. you know, the videos or any recordings of what Charlie Kirk actually said, a number of issues, and then the same people who are criticizing Charlie Kirk are the same people who defended Jimmy Kimmel without even watching, listening to what exactly Jimmy Kimmel said, which is untrue about Kirk’s murder. So, and And ultimately, ABC made a business decision because late-night, you know, talk show is a format for several decades. It cannot survive in today’s Internet age. It’s losing audience, losing money. And so I think eventually it’s just an entertainment format, let’s say, that, you know, it’s going away really fast. I really urge the Trump administration officials, you know, really stay out of it. Let the free market take care of dying shows, no matter what they say, but do not jump in because then they turn this, you know, then they give the left a gift that they can use to, you know, weaponize it.
SPEAKER 05 :
You have totally, totally nailed it. And quite frankly, the free market was already speaking. The fact that he was losing so much money, people were not watching it. The free market was always speaking. The free market can solve these issues. And the idea to have government jump in. And the problem is, is you might like the government right now jumping into the issue. But what if it’s the other side? And that’s why the founders were so brilliant, is freedom of speech, is the freedom to say things that are uncomfortable. Now, people have to be responsible for it, but the free market is going to give you the answer on this, Helen Raleigh. Go ahead, and then I have one other thing I wanted to ask you.
SPEAKER 06 :
And I think, you know, between 2020 to 2024, conservatives on the right, we have gone through the other side. Right. We have, you know, you know, Jimmy Kimmel. Yeah, he’s a show was put on hold, but he was not banned on Twitter. You know, he can he can go out to start something new. He was not banned everywhere. But between 2020 to 2024. Even former President Trump, he was banned from social media. His wife could not deposit money in Chase Bank. So it’s night and day. And we have gone through that because we have gone through that. And that’s why I think the people on the right should be extremely careful because you’re right. The shoe will be on the other foot someday. And we’ve already been through that. We do not want you nurturing this culture like this way.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, in a way, you were reading my mind, Helen Raleigh, and that was during COVID because of government pressure. And we’re now seeing that’s the great thing about searching for truth. Ultimately, the truth would come out that big government or big government and big business were in cahoots together. trying to shut down any conversations about COVID or treatments. And we’re not allowing that free market of ideas to occur, shutting down freedom of speech. And so that’s why we have to be real protectors of freedom of speech. So, Helen Raleigh, I did want to mention your latest book again, Not Outsiders. This is a very important book that you’ve written, Asian Americans, Political Activism from the 19th Century to Today. What’s your final thought that you’d like to leave with our listeners?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, I hope that the people will understand. Cherish their constitutional rights on free speech. And like you mentioned, this is a constitutional week that we are the nations that have the world’s oldest constitution. And I also say the finest. We should not throw away easily that what our founders, you know, passed down, you know, endowed us with the greatest gift. So we should cherish it and defend it by all the means necessary, which I mean is through the battle of ideas, let the free market take care of the battle of ideas. still engage in open, stable debate, open inquiries. Do not resort to violence because, like you said, free market is always watching. Free market has this mechanism to get rid of bad ideas and let the good ideas thrive.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and you can find Helen Raleigh, that’s R-A-L-E-I-G-H, at The Federalist. But where else can people find you, Helen Raleigh?
SPEAKER 06 :
They can also find me on Twitter, H. Raleigh Speaks, as well as on Sabastak. They can either search in my name or looking for my newsletter. My newsletter is called Confucius Never Said. It’s the same title as my first book.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, Helen Raleigh, as always, thank you. Thank you, Kim. And these discussions happen. We’re in an independent voice. And I want to say thank you to 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 to change our own personal climate to be warm in the winter and to be cool in the summer. And also the two nonprofits that I feature on a regular basis on the show is the USMC Memorial Foundation. That website is usmcmemorialfoundation.org. And they’re doing such important work to remember and honor those that have given their lives, have been willing to give their lives for our freedom. And so be sure and support them. And then also the Center for American Values, which is located in Pueblo on the Riverwalk. And check out Drew Dix’s podcast series. His season number two will be starting soon, and it’s Words from the Silo. And you can find that at their website, and that is AmericanValueCenter.org. The center is nonpolitical, it’s nonpartisan, but it focuses on these foundational principles of honor, integrity, and patriotism. And then also, if you have been injured, you will want to make sure that you reach out to John Bozen and Bozen Law.
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SPEAKER 15 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
Good morning, Kim.
SPEAKER 05 :
So tell us, you’re throwing your hat in the ring for mayor. These local elections are so important, David. So tell us a little bit about you first and then why you’ve decided to run for mayor of Westminster.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, thank you. First, you’re right. What happens at the local level is super important. I always tell people, be wary of the politician running for local level that talks about the sexy national or state things because at the end of the day, that’s not what we do. However, what we do changes your life tomorrow. We have a big impact on what goes on in your day-to-day and your quality of life. I’ve been on city council. I’m on my eighth year, so I’ll be termed out of council. Our current mayor, Nancy McNally, is not running for reelection. She’s actually supporting me to be the next mayor of the city. She served for a very long time and has decided that it’s time for her to spend more time with her family. I originally got involved. I was involved with my kid’s school on the PTA. If you remember the Jessica Ridgeway case, she was a friend of my daughter, a little girl who was abducted and murdered. And it kind of led my family to get really involved and figure out how we could do something better for our community in light of something horrible that happened. I ended up running for city council a couple times, didn’t make it, ran two more times, it was on. I’m running on safety and security, making sure our economy is thriving and really leadership that you can trust. I’m the only candidate who has an eight-year track record that people can look back to. I’m also the only candidate running for mayor who’s worked with three different mayors, three different city managers. and the litany of different council people. Experience definitely does matter, especially when you look at the mayor level, because the mayor is kind of the one who runs the meetings. They work directly very closely with the city manager. The experience is very, very important. And, you know, making sure that the council has their voice and all the seven people on our council is able to say what you know, is on their mind because they were each sitting there by the constituents. So, you know, I also, like I mentioned, I’m endorsed by the current mayor, our former fire chief, our fraternal order of police has endorsed me, former director of parks, former city manager. So I have a big long list of people that show, you know, some credibility in terms of my stature on the council and, you know, the work that I’ve done for the people of the city of Westminster.
SPEAKER 05 :
And so, David, what we’re seeing is in a number of local governments that they’re rewriting land use codes, wanting to get into single trash haulers, road diets. In fact, there’s a little street in Centennial that they have put in bike lanes and then pylons and then little like kind of looks like turtles and making the lanes much smaller. What’s your thoughts about those kinds of things? Because those are things that people are starting to really pay attention to.
SPEAKER 09 :
Sure, and I’m glad that you brought those all up. Single hauler trash was something that councils before I was on tried to pass. It was something as a resident that I fought against, and ultimately they decided not to do that in Westminster. Some surrounding ones have done that. Land use is a big deal. Westminster has under 4% of developable land left. And one of the things that we’ve done in my time, a comprehensive plan, which is basically it says the whole city is zoned in these different ways, and here’s what can be built and what can’t be built. Me and some of my former colleagues had fought against the comprehensive plan, and it ended up not passing for a long time until the election of 21 when I was reelected and Nancy McNally was brought back as the mayor. And what we were able to do with that and what our challenge with what they were doing with that comprehensive plan was it wasn’t balanced our water supply. And as you know, it’s a long time Colorado. They have the term that whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting. There’s only so much water in Colorado, and water law is very, very complicated, and it’s very expensive, and there’s just not water rights to buy out there. So balancing what we’re allowed to build or what we allow to be built against our water is really important. And then if you look at what the state of Colorado has done under Jared Polis, they have some stuff. If you follow the rules that they’re trying to put in place, For Westminster, it would about double the density we have. We just simply do not have the water for that. In Colorado, we’re lucky under our constitution to have local control. This current council majority has basically told the state we’re not going to do that. We have local control, and there’s some lawsuits that are going on about that. And really, at the end of the day, this is back to why local is so important. You know, you entrust us to manage your resources, water being one of the most important, you know, that’s necessary for life. And so we’re the ones who know what we can and can’t do in terms of water, in terms of public safety, police and fire. So it’s really important in Colorado that the local government body is the one who are making those rules as our representative so that they’re making sure that it’s balanced to our actual resources. You know, you talked about bike lanes and stuff like that. A lot of that, you know, you have to be close to your constituents and it’s kind of that consent of the government and what they want and making sure that you’re close to the residents to put the things in place that they want versus what some politician might have in their head as, you know, as what’s the right thing.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and that’s one other thing, David. I served on city council 2012 to 2016. And so what I have found is sometimes there’s some very loud special interests that might be reaching out to city council, mayor. And so that’s all they hear, whereas you have everyday people that are just living their lives and wanting to take care of their kids, go to work. And so when these bike lanes appeared in Centennial, which were pretty onerous. Residents are a little, they’re like, where did this come from? Who was ever talking about it? We never heard about this. And so I think it’s important. You said a very key word, and that is representative of the people. And I think that’s really important to understand that it’s many times the non-vocal people that are happy. You want to kind of keep that going as well. But to step up, Local government is so important and every person needs to step up and do at least one thing with their civic duty. And of course, you’ve been doing that for quite some time. How can people would you like to comment on that? We’ve got a couple of minutes left and then how can people find you?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, absolutely. So I think it’s very important to be engaged. And one of the things why I would point to my experience as being the right person, there’s also, like you said, there’s special interest. And having the experience to understand that five loud or vocal people who might show up at a meeting might be not representative of a city like ours with 117,000 people. Over time, you learn that, okay, this room is really full. I’m seeing faces of engaged people. I’m seeing faces of people I’ve not seen before. You kind of get a sense of, hey, either we’re on track or we’re off track when you have kind of hot topics. Water rates has been a big one that I’ve actually fought on. We historically reduced water rates, residential water rates under my leadership. So those are the kind of things where the city had went off track on that. And you could watch the room with experience. You’d know, hey, this is our residents are paying attention to this and this matters to them where you’re not just turning at every squirrel that comes because. a group of people show up. It doesn’t mean you don’t listen to them, but, you know, you have to weigh out, is this something that the residents want? Additionally, just being close to your residents and your constituents is really important. You know, like I said, I went two times before, so I’ve been at this for over 10 years, just, you know, getting to know my community. And I’m from the city of Westminster, you know, born and raised. So, It’s just really important to understand that and not be following maybe a particular party or activists that often you spend a lot of time with when you get into politics. And understanding the difference between those things and what your actual constituents want. And again, remembering that we’re there to represent we the people. People can find me at my website. It’s daviddemont.com. It’s spelled D-E-M-O-T-T. They can reach me by phone at 303-881-2728. I pride myself on being very accessible to people. Um, and again, you know, I’m just the one who has the most experience in this race and I care a lot about my city and that’s why I hope most people do these jobs. I mean, you see a lot of people get into local office and hop pretty quick to state or different levels. Um, I have not done that. I focused on the city and this is my fifth election running for the city of Westminster. So honored to be able to run and serve the constituents of Westminster.
SPEAKER 05 :
And again, that’s David DeMott at daviddemott.com. David, thank you so much and good luck.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you, Kim. It’s been too long. Good to talk to you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good to talk with you as well. And the quote for the end of the show is from Henry Ford. He said, The object of education is not to fill a man’s mind with facts. It is to teach him how to use his mind in thinking. 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, and God bless America.
SPEAKER 11 :
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.
