04-21-25 FULL SHOW - Pope Francis Has Died, And Mayor Coffman Joins Me Today

Episode Transcript

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

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

Speaker 3 (00:10):
On KOA.

Speaker 4 (00:13):
Ninem got the nice through three many Connell keithing sad thing.

Speaker 5 (00:26):
Welcome locome, Welcome to a Monday edition of the show.
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend and
enjoyed family, friends, or just time outside. And today we
start the week with the news that Pope Francis has died,
as you've heard throughout the morning here on KOA. Let's
do the blog first and then we will get down

(00:48):
to business. You can excuse me. I'm your host for
the next three hours, Mandy Connell, joined of course by
my right hand man, Anthony Rodriguez. We call him a rock. There,
you little win Yogi airhorn for you. Find the blog
by going to mandy'sblog dot com. That's mandy'sblog dot com.
That's gonna take you to the kaway page for the

(01:10):
Mandy Connell Show. Then look for the latest post segment
and look for the headline that says for twenty one
twenty five blog Pope Francis has died and Mayor Kaufman
joins me today, Click on that and here are the
headlines you will find within tick Tech two A winner.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
I think there was someone who office half of American
allar ships and clipment.

Speaker 6 (01:29):
Of say that's going to price plant.

Speaker 5 (01:32):
Today on the blog, Pope Francis is dead. Mayor Mike
Kaufman joins me today at one What hobby would you
do every day if you could? Men say college isn't
worth it? The app sparking a religious revival. China pushes
back on the biggest part of US trade deals. Duggo, residents,
we need your help. Wyoming doesn't care how we feel

(01:52):
about wolves. The Supreme Court rules on the side of
due process, or do they? Colorado's economy is struggling. If
you've ever wanted a home in Florida, Yes, parents have
the right to raise their children. Turkey is pushing for
the destruction of Israel. The Camino de Santiago is booming.
The plant based revolution has petered out. Motorcyclists are gonna

(02:15):
ruin the lane filtering thing. There's a new theme park
in Orlando. Who's Michael Bennett running against film on the
Rocks's back? The new Fantastic four trailer is out about
that plenty of fish in the sea thing, Vean's first
big league homer. No, we can't send garbage to space.
Ditch intrusive thoughts by naming your brain creative ways to

(02:38):
get out of work. Fans want to feel like maybe
the team can win. Farts are always funny. A teacher
teaches descriptive writing, Rocky is out there setting records, and
Lil Wayne says no to Super Bowl halftime shows. Those
are the headlines on the blog at mandy'sblog dot com.

(02:58):
And there's a couple of videos on the block that
I love so much that you must go to.

Speaker 6 (03:02):
The blog and watch them.

Speaker 5 (03:04):
One of them is a teacher, now a rod. Based
on the little kid voices, would you say first grade?
Second grade? Tops? I mean, this is a group of
little kids she's teaching.

Speaker 6 (03:14):
Yeah, I'd probably say second, maybe third?

Speaker 5 (03:17):
Yeah, based on their voices, maybe second or third. She's
trying to teach them descriptive writing, and she does so
in a way that is so entertaining and so good
that I bet you these kids will remember this lesson
for the rest of their lives. Do you have any
lessons like that from school that you remember? When I
was in seventh grade, my science teacher, Larry Joy. I

(03:39):
loved mister Joy. He was one of the best teachers
I ever had. He wanted to prove to us that
standing outside in the cold and the rain does not
make you sick. He was talking about how certain conditions
can weaken your immune system, but just standing in the
rain in the cold is not going to make you sick.
So he stood outside of our classroom in winter when
it was and he stood out there and topped the

(04:02):
class in the rain outside, just so he would come
back to school the next day and go, look, I'm
not sick. So it was just one of the dumbest lessons,
but it was so well done that I remember it forever.
I just remember that.

Speaker 6 (04:15):
Now, hold on.

Speaker 7 (04:17):
You just said that while it doesn't directly make you sick,
it weakens your immune system to potentially.

Speaker 6 (04:23):
Help make you sick. Well, so it kind of makes sense.

Speaker 5 (04:26):
Well, he was talking about it in terms of if
you haven't gotten enough sleep, if you're not properly fueling
your body, if you're not doing all of these other things,
it can make you more susceptible to germs. But his
bigger point was inherently being outside and being cold and
wet is not going to make you sick, okay, And
that was the point he made, and I remember it
to this day, and I think this lesson she uses,

(04:46):
she asked the kids to write an essay on how
to make a peanut butter sandwich peanut butter and jelly sandwich,
and then she uses those essays to she just follows
their directions and the results are mayhem and I'm sure
that the kids are I love this forever.

Speaker 7 (05:01):
I don't remember particular lessons, but just like great teachers'
names are just immediately popping into my head, like mister Vukolich.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Right there off the top of my head immediately.

Speaker 7 (05:09):
I don't remember what great it was, but I know
that he was like big in the marine biology and
scuba does why And I loved him and loved the
class and loved to learn because.

Speaker 5 (05:19):
He he loved what he was teaching, he loved doing
You can tell this teacher loves teaching these kids. And
it's just such a good video and I love it.
I want to address the text message that just came
in because I didn't put it on the blog today,
but I was going to address it. Mandy. Now that
you know the guy is definitely part of MS thirteen.
Do you still think that terrorists should get even more
due process than they do? Now, let me just say

(05:42):
this very very slowly so everyone understands. There is now
evidence that has been released by the United States federal
government that they had kept to themselves until last week
that show that this guy more than likely is indeed
a gang member. And even as a gang member, this
guy still deserves the due process that was owed, which
simply would have been this, bring him into court. The

(06:05):
federal government says, we want to do away with a
stay of deportation l Salvador, and then the court would
probably look at everything and say, yep, deport him to
El Salvador, and he would have been deported and everything
would have been fine. But yes, unfortunately, terrorists who are
in the country do deserve some kind of due process
if they're already in the system. This guy just didn't

(06:26):
just walk across the southern border. He was already part
of the immigration system. He already had a ruling, a
ruling that simply said, yeah, he can be deported, but
you can't deport him to El Salvador. Which what did
we do? We deported him to El Salvador, and the
notion that somehow he does not deserve to have that
final hearing before he gets deported is ridiculous and sad.

(06:49):
And as I said before, if you guys don't stand
up and defend due process, who's going to defend it
when it's someone you care about? Because if we all
decide that due process is stupid because we don't like
people being deported, then why can't someone else decide that
due process for you? If you ever ran into a
situation where you were involved with the law in any way,

(07:09):
shape or form, well shouldn't do process matter for everyone?
This is my point, you guys. I don't give a
rat sass against about this guy and the grand scheme
of things. I don't care about this man. What I
care about is the fact that the federal government ran
rough shod over his due process and then tried to
act like it wasn't a big deal. And for all

(07:32):
of you out there who are still stuck on we
should have just thrown him out anyway and not given
him due process because he's a bad dude. Then why
do we even have a legal system. Why don't we
just have all of you people stand and point at
people to be deported because they look like bad dudes.
I mean, isn't that kind of what you're talking about.
You've decided he should be deported, so even though legally

(07:52):
he has afforded that right to appear in front of
a judge one more time to argue that he shouldn't
be deported, while the govern that argues he should be deported,
and to El Salvador, we didn't give him that right,
and you guys are okay with it. I'm fundamentally in
disagreement with all of you that the due process was enough.
He had one more hearing, that he was entitled to

(08:14):
one more one more hearing, and there was due process.
You're certainly on the wrong side of this issue.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
No I'm not.

Speaker 5 (08:24):
And here's the thing. I've gotten the nasty emails. I've
got an email from a guy who's boycotting my show.
He's super mad because I pointed out that due process
is what I'm talking about here. You know, guys, we
live in a system where even people who have committed horrific, horrible,
awful crimes, they're sitting on death row right now, they

(08:45):
have the ability to seek redress to seek a reduction
in their sentences. There's an entire process that they go through.
Does it take entirely too long in the grand scheme
of things, probably, But you know what, that's the process
we've set up. If you want to go and change
all the rules, if you want to change all the
rules to say, you know what, if you're an immigrant here,

(09:06):
you don't get any due process. We can just decide
to willy nilly throw you out left, no matter how
long you've been here, We're just gonna throw you out.
You don't even get to see a judge. Then you
have essentially undermined law and order in a civil society.
And the cavalier nature of how so many of you
have just run with it because it was Donald Trump
doing it, I find profoundly disturbing an upsetting. And I

(09:29):
ask you, what if it was Joe Biden. What if
it was Joe Biden just randomly deciding to say, oh, sorry,
due process doesn't matter. Weren't you upset about that when
they did it to the January sixth defendants. I mean, you, guys,
it's anyway, Mandy. I heard Michael Brown this morning say
he had an order to port over four years ago.

(09:51):
He did in twenty nineteen. Let me review this one
more time. He has an order of deportation to anywhere
except El Salvador. That deportation order was stayed by the
judge who issued it, pending further investigation. Now what depending
in the further investigation was. I have no idea. They
obviously didn't do it because he's still here. But the

(10:13):
reality is that stay of deportation is still the law.
Now his rights are are the following. He has the
right to go in front of a judge and argue
that state that deportation should not happen. Almost suredly, the
judge would say, sorry, buddy, you're out of luck. You're

(10:33):
gonna go. The only question is are they going to
lift that stay to L. Salvador, Because when that stay
was given, L. Salvador was completely overrun by drugs and
crime and danger and everything else. Well, now a lot
of the danger has been thrown into prisons without due process,
I might add, And again, I'm not crying a river
for a gang member. I'm crying, you know, crying a

(10:55):
river for the rule of law. So yeah, bless your heart, man,
he says this one. I'll take that in the good way,
because I know which ways that can be given, and
I'm going to take it in the good way. So
here's the thing, you guys. If you want to continue
to believe that the Trump administration did nothing wrong, then
I'd love for you to look at what's now happened

(11:18):
to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has entered the chat.
This past weekend, they removed the president's ability to use
the Alien Insurrection Act to remove Venezuelan's They simply said, nope,
we're not going to do that, And I don't think
they did it rightly. This is where it gets crazy,
you guys. This is where it gets absolutely nuts for me,

(11:38):
because I don't think the Supreme Court made the right
decision based on the way they made it, based on
the descent that was written by Clarence Thomas and Judge Alito,
and in it they lay out the myriad of ways
that the Supreme Court did not follow due process in
order to arrive at that decision. So, if you're mad

(11:59):
the Supreme Court now says that the Trump administration cannot
deport someone because they decided Nope, that's you're not doing it,
then you should be mad. That they didn't follow a
due process. Are you following my logic here? If we
all follow due process, the Supreme Court would have bowed
out because there were still things pending in the appeals court.
They ruled on this before the appeals court ruled, and

(12:23):
therefore they just basically jumped to the frontom line, which
I guess is their prerogative. But they also certified a
class of people, meaning Venezuelan's in this country who are
going to be deported. They certified a class when no
one asked them to certify that class. So here we
have the Supreme Court not following due process, strining the
Trump administration. And I think the reason they did it

(12:44):
is because the Trump administration not only didn't follow a
due process, but then they kind of crept all over
the Supreme Court's order to say, look, you got to
facilitate the return of this guy. And when the Trump
Administration's like, oh, we'll send a plane that meets the
facilitate standard, I think the Supreme Court was like, oh really,
oh really, So now you have the Supreme Court making
a ruling that doesn't follow a due process after the

(13:06):
Trump administration crapped all over due process. So if you're
mad about one, shouldn't you be mad about the other.
It's all I'm asking, why shouldn't we When we got
a lot of text messagers here When the Colorado Secretary
of State tried to take Trump off the ballot with
no charges or convictions, that was basically the same thing,
no due process, and exactly and Nick, that was all

(13:28):
heard in the courts, that that particular issue was heard
due process, after the fact was followed, and what happened
he was on the ballot, right, I mean, this is
the thing, you guys, just be consistent. So Mandy, the
Supreme Court just put it on hold while they review things.

(13:49):
They didn't put the caabash on it. They put the
cabache on it for now. They put the cabbage on
it before an appeals court ruled. They did it while
giving class status to a group of people knowing it
asked for class status to. I mean, a lot of
stuff has just gone sideways here. And when you get
cavalier about due process, mattering and when it doesn't, eventually
it's going to come back and land in your yard. Right.

(14:12):
This is the thing. I know that people love Donald
Trump and the Trump administration and I am being perfectly
honest when I say there's a lot happening right now
that I not only voted for I'm excited about. But
when any administration veers into excess, it is our responsibility
of citizens to call him on it, because excess just

(14:33):
encourages more excess, just encourages more excess, just encourages more excess.
And I realize that you guys, some of you anyway,
believe that Trump would never, ever in a million years
violate any norms for personal aggrandizement or for his own
personal benefit. But Donald Trump is just a human being,
you guys, And he's right now the most powerful person

(14:56):
on earth. And one thing, I know, some thing corrupts
like power. And I'm not saying Donald Trump is corrupted
or that he will be corrupted. What I'm saying is
power is the most corrupting of all of the influences
that people can be privy to. So, Mandy, your TDS
is showing and the way you disrespect all of your listeners,

(15:18):
do you seriously not listen to what the administration says?
Or is it only CNN? So here's a perfect example
of a Texter who's mad because I've called him on
his crap. I'm calling him on his inconsistency. And I'd
love to know what this person would think if it
was Joe Biden just throwing people out of the country,
probably be fine. I mean, you know, it is about

(15:42):
the process, you guys, not the person, and you should
be able to understand that. I have enough respect for
this audience to understand that they can understand the words
that are coming out of my mouth, and the words
that are coming out of my mouth is yes, this
guy is apparently an MS thirteen member, and yes, when
he has that second hearing, he should have been deported

(16:02):
right away. I have no issue with either of those things.
What I have an issue with is the fact that
the federal government just decided they couldn't be bothered. It's fine,
nobody's going to care about him. He's a gang man
or from El salvad Or. Nobody's going to well, you
know what, some of us do care. Some of us
do care about the way that the government behaves because

(16:24):
we worry that it's not just about El salvad Or
in immigrants, But then it becomes about people that they
don't like. Then it becomes about what the Democrats have
been doing to conservatives for years, from lowis learner at
the FB or excuse me at the IRS, using a
federal government department to punish right leaning organizations that we're

(16:44):
seeking tax exempt status, straight through to the prosecution of
people that literally did nothing in the Capitol except walk through.
I mean, this is the kind of weaponization of government
that we've been talking about. But now it's okay because
your guy's in charge, we can just do whatever we want.
We don't have to follow rules and norms in any
of those things. Why do you think the Trump administration

(17:07):
is shouting so loud trying to make this guy look
like a gang member when they already admitted to the
Supreme Court that it was an administrative error that sent
this guy to El Salvator. Does that part not matter
to you at all? Instead of fixing the error and

(17:27):
doing it the right way, they're now doubling down. Well,
he's a bad guy anyway, and administrate of air not
a big deal. I mean, he's a horrible person. Look
at how awful he is. Look at how awful he is.
And to the people, he is an illegal, of course
he is. You guys, and again, if you're waiting for
me to defend the guy.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
I'm not.

Speaker 5 (17:50):
I'm not defending the guy. I'm defending the process. And
if it's someone you love or someone you know that's
caught in the process, wouldn't you want to be able
to trust that the process was being followed. So this
is the last time I'm talking about this until he
is either returned or and then properly deported or because

(18:11):
that's exactly what I think is going to happen. If
they get the guy back, he's going to go in
front of a judge, and the Jude's going to say, well, yeah,
you can go back, and you can be deported. Said,
he's going to go right back. But then our process
is protected, our law and order is protected. And that's
the part you guys seem to be just skimming right
over that I find so incredibly incredibly irritating. I'm not

(18:36):
gonna lie. I can't remember a topic that I've been
more disappointed with more people on my text line than
I have on this one. It should matter greatly, you know,
it should all matter. Even if you want the guy
to go to El Salvador. It should matter that we
do it the right way, We follow our own rules.
If you don't like the rules, then tell Congress to

(18:57):
change him. But this is how they are now anyway, Mandy,
him being MS thirteen is the only reason he was
thrown out under the Enemy Alien Act without looking at
the past. Okay, I'm done. I'm finished. Obviously, will agree
to disagree and we'll move on and never speak of
this again because I feel like I am literally slamming

(19:19):
my head against the desk, and I'm done doing that. Today.
When we get back, I do want to talk about
the Pope. If you haven't seen the movie Conclave, it
might be a good time to watch it.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
Now.

Speaker 5 (19:28):
We'll be right back after appearing for Easter Sunday. For
high holy holidays like Easter and Christmas, there are throngs
of people that show up in Saint Peter Square and
hoping to hear the mask given by the Pope. He
did not do Mass yesterday. He's not been in good
physical health since he got out of the hospital last month,

(19:50):
and this morning it was announced he died at age
eighty eight. Now, if you did not see the movie Conclave,
it was up for an oscar this past year. I
I thought this movie, just standalone movie was brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
I don't know how accurate it is in terms of
the process, but it does give you an idea of

(20:14):
what happens behind closed doors during the conclave which will begin.
I don't know when the conclave starts. They have to
get all of the cardinals in from around the world,
and of course they're going to have to have a
funeral for Pope Francis. I'm wondering though, because he was
a guy who was always a skewed sort of the

(20:35):
trappings of wealth associated with the Catholic Church. He never
lived in the fancy places in the Vatican. He lived
in a guest house. He didn't want to be in
the popemobile. He wrote around in a fiat. I mean,
he was just a man of humble sort of a
humble heart. I'm gonna be honest. I didn't love this

(20:57):
pope for me, the pope's job, and this is again
my opinion. I'm certainly I'm a lapsed Catholic. I am
not an active Catholic, so there may be Catholics who
have a different opinion about this, but it was always
my belief that the pope should be the standard bearer
for the Catholic dogma and should work very diligently to

(21:20):
continue to spread the word and and sort of remind
people of right and wrong. And this pope was much
more progressive, and he did not love capitalism. He thought
it was terrible, and you know, some called him a Marxist.
I don't know if i'd go that far. But when
you have a man of humble beginnings who sees great, great,

(21:40):
great wealth and decides that, you know, that's not for him,
to the point where he often sort of I don't
know how to explain this. He was very negative about
capitalism overall. And I got to tell you, I think

(22:01):
capitalism now is at a crossroads almost because there are
a lot of young people who do not believe in
capitalism and think that a profit motive is a bad thing.
And I always think to myself, I always think of
a conversation I had with a friend of mine, and
Edie is a very successful real estate professional, and she

(22:23):
has been for a very long time, and we were
having a conversation one day about something totally unrelated to
real estate, and she said, you know, I work really, really,
really hard to make a lot of money so I
can give it away and I can support the things
that I want to support in the organizations that I
want to support. And I love that attitude. And not

(22:44):
everyone who is a capitalist trying to make a lot
of money has that attitude. But I think a lot
of people who have been very very successful, especially after
they've sort of reached the pinnacle of success, they often
look around and say, Okay, now I've got this big
old pile of money. What good can I do with it?
And I believe that that is a majority of people
who chase a profit motive. Maybe the profit motive is

(23:08):
not directly so they can give it away, but maybe
the profit motive is to prevent their family and their
children from ever struggling like they did when they were kids.
I know a lot of very very very successful people
that come from very humble backgrounds, very humble backgrounds that
it made a lot of money in their lives. I mean,

(23:28):
I'm fifty five right now, so I've gotten to see
the story arc many people that I've known for my
entire lives, and they want to make sure that their children,
their families long term, never have to struggle and suffer
the way that they suffered. So profit motives are all.
There's a lot of different reasons for profit motives, right,
but they're not all bad. And ultimately, capitalism is the

(23:51):
system that is the freest exchange between individuals. You know,
if I don't want to shop at King Supers down
the street, I have options. I can go to Walmart,
I can go to Safeway, I can go to Costco.
If I want to support an organization that is run
by progressives who probably donate the money that they make
from me into causes I find appalling, I don't know.

(24:13):
I choose not to shop that way, meaning I don't
base my shopping decisions on that. So ultimately I disagreed
with this pope on several things. And I'm very interested
to see what the Catholic cardinals do next, because they're
going to go into a conclave, and the conclave is

(24:34):
very secretive, and they figure out who they're going to elevate,
and they do multiple votes, and every time they do
a secret ballot, they then burn those secret ballots and
it makes gray smoke. I guess when they're burning the ballots,
and then when they finally get one, they put in
a white smoke canister, and the white smoke means they

(24:55):
have chosen a new pope, but it's all very very secretive,
and we you never get to know what drove the
cardinals to vote one way or the other. We just
get a new pope. This from the Common Spirit Health
text line. You can always text us your thoughts at
five six six nine. Oh, I am a seventy three

(25:17):
year old Catholic, says this texter. The pope was a socialist.
He believed in same sex marriage, totally contrary to the Bible.
Time to get back to basics, rest in peace. So yeah,
as another lapsed Catholics says this texter, I also did
not like him, hated the progressiveness giving a pass to
LGBT and his migrant view. He was too political and

(25:39):
that that's right there, the two political words. He felt political.
And don't get me wrong, I mean we would be
naive to think that the Catholic Church has not been
involved in politics many, many, many times throughout the centuries.
I mean, there are stories of popes that were absolutely
horrible people, absolutely the worst people ever, fully involved in politics.

(26:02):
But I think things are different now, just because the
world is different. So you know, anyway, the new pope
will probably not be trans textor I doubt it. I
doubt it, Mandy. The show is based on the book
by Robert Harris. He researched the book in the process
of voting in the Pope is correct. So good, that's it.

(26:23):
There you go, There you go, Mandy. Maybe the Catholics
we're going to hope with a backbone now. Yeah, yeah,
we shall see. We definitely shall see. I have another
story on the blog, and I get to it because
it's a religious story. There are so many religion stories

(26:44):
that are popping up lately that it's gonna seem like
I'm all of a sudden talking about religion a lot.
But it's only because I keep seeing these incredibly interesting
stories with a religious bent, right, And this one is
about an app We've kind of talked about the fact
that in the UK, especially church participation has gone up,

(27:09):
and it has gone up pretty significantly among young people.
Young people are coming back to the church and or
going to the church for the very first time, and
good things are happening. And I've said this before. Whenever
we have a school shooting, whenever some horrible tragedy occurs,

(27:32):
we're looking at the gun and we're looking at this
but what we need to look at is the spiritual
void that exists in this country and countries around the world.
And when we get back, I want to talk about
an app that is turning into a wildly popular app
and it's all about well praying and Catholic dogma. Will

(27:53):
talk about that next. You know, there's something of a
religious revival coming or happening in some parts of the
United States of Americans, being driven by young people, and
I find this incredibly encouraging because young people are the
ones suffering with anxiety and depression and the feeling that
none of this matters, and hopelessness and all of these things.

(28:13):
And quite frankly, that's where faith can just step in
and fill the void. And if you're not a non believer,
you're rolling your eyes at me right now, and that's
perfectly fine. I'm not going to sit here and proselytize
to you guys and try to get you to become
a believer. I'm speaking from my own personal experience, and
I love it when people who are not necessarily believers

(28:35):
in God they say things like, oh, when you're having
a problem, do you ask God and he sends you
an answer. I'm like, no cause most of the time,
I'm just praying for wisdom and patience and the ability
to see the right answer when the right answer appears
in front of me. Right. I mean, this is what
being you know, a believer is. But it also gives

(28:57):
me a tremendous amount of comfort because for me, this
isn't the end all be all we're going to you know,
there's more after this. This is just a part of
our existence that we will get through and then move
to the next part. I find that very hopeful and
joy us. I really do. I also like the ability,
when things feel really out of my control to just

(29:18):
be able to say, you know what, I'm just going
to have to trust God. Because when you're truly in
a position of helplessness, that is the worst feeling in
the world. And I think that's one of the reasons
that so many people are so upset about the Trump
administration because they feel powerless. And powerlessness is an overwhelming
feeling that makes people do desperate and stupid things. But

(29:39):
if you adopt the mantree, and this is my mantra,
I say it to myself all the time. I say
it to friends who are struggling and going through a
difficult time. I just say, look, you've got to trust God.
You've got to trust God. Doesn't mean you're going to,
you know, sit at home and take no action and
don't take control of your life. It's not an excuse
to be lazy and not be proactive. But believe in

(30:00):
God and you believe that God is you know God.
And trusting God and knowing that there you know, there's
a plan, there's a way through that is good can
be very very comforting. I mean, that's the what I'm
looking for. So now I want to talk about an
app that very briefly became the most downloaded app in

(30:24):
the world. What app is that? It is the Hallow App.
What does the hollow app do well? It specializes in
Catholic prayers and it's really a kind of meditation app,
because prayer is a form of meditation. Doing the Rosary
is a form of meditation.

Speaker 8 (30:42):
And.

Speaker 5 (30:44):
The Hallow app is sort of introducing people to things
that they didn't know about before and maybe they find
it comforting. One of the things that I think that
the Catholic Church does beautifully is the tradition of the Church,
the pomp and circumstance of the Church, the reliability of
the mass. Wherever you go, the mass is going to

(31:05):
be the same. You'll get a different homily from who
you know, whatever pastor or father is doing the mass,
but the mass itself is unchanging. There's large parts of
the mass that are exactly the same no matter where
you go. And that's part of the power of the
Church's it's consistency and it's reliability. So the guy who
started it is name is Alex Jones. Not bad Alex Jones,

(31:28):
but he started it just because he found his way
to Catholicism and he just wanted to create something for
himself that was a Catholic prayer app. And when asked
how it now has twenty million downloads, Jones just said Jesus.

(31:51):
Later he said God would have chosen someone better for
this job. So it's not just this app. I was
talking to the wein Yogi this morning. She's me like
three different apps that she used, whether it's Bible in
a Day or Bible in a Year, or some of
the other religious apps that are getting a lot of attention.
I think this is nothing but good news because even

(32:13):
though religion has been used as a bludgeon throughout the
since the beginning of time. It's still being used as
a bludgeon in the Middle East. That's all religiously based hatred,
and I don't buy into that. I think for most people,
religion serves as a foundation, a moral foundation to shore
up the morals they already have, maybe clarify morals that
they were sort of a little squishy on, and allows

(32:36):
people to have a place where they feel like they
belong to something bigger than themselves. And I think that
is such an innate human need. We have a hole
in our souls, in our hearts, whatever you want to
call it, and we're going to fill it. And some
people fill it with God, and some people fill it
with alcohol, and some people fill it with activism, and

(32:59):
some people fill it with taking care of animals, whatever.
There's all these different ways to fill it, but I
personally have found none to be as satisfying as a
belief in God. And I'm happy to see that young
people are trying to find that, to trying to find
something that feels bigger than all of the world problems
that they have been steeped in since childhood, which I

(33:20):
still think is incredibly, incredibly unfair that we do that
to kids s these days, kids should be allowed to
have a childhood where they're not dragged into adult issues.
If there was anything I could change in this country
right this second, with a snap of my fingers, it
would be that leave kids out of adult issues. They
don't need to be there. You're ruining their childhood and

(33:41):
they only get one.

Speaker 7 (33:43):
Right.

Speaker 5 (33:43):
How many times as an adult do we say that
to kids? Because when you hit like thirteen, fourteen, fifteen,
you feel like it is time to launch. Right, I
got this, I'm gonna be great. I need to go
out in the big bad world. And you just look
at them and say trust me, and I say, stay
a kid as long as you can stay a kid,

(34:04):
because being an adult not all it's cracked up to be.
Looks great from the outside, but all the inside stuff
not so much fun, not fun at all. Now, in
the next segment, Aurora mayor Mayor Mike Kaufman joining me.
We're gonna talk about a new common Sense study on
homelessness that compares a couple of different approaches to homelessness,

(34:26):
one housing first and the other support and work first.
We're gonna talk to him about that and so much more, Right,
after this.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bell and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
No, it's Mandy Connell and Donal.

Speaker 4 (34:49):
M got Stady and the Noisy.

Speaker 7 (34:56):
Andy Connal.

Speaker 5 (34:59):
Sad bab Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the second hour of
the show, when in about one half hour, may Or
Mike Kaufman is going to be joining us a little
snapper on the calendar, But that's okay. He's going to
be joining us at one thirty to talk about that stuff.
But I have plenty of stuff on the blog to
talk about now Instead, A Rod, I want to ask
you this question. First of all, and I say this

(35:21):
as someone and I'm going to have your back on this.
A Rod and his wife have like fifty side hustles.
They work all the time. They are the busiest two people,
and they really do sort of fill my heart with
hope for their generation because I feel like they're doing
it right. But do you have any hobbies and would

(35:41):
you do those hobbies every single day if you could?

Speaker 6 (35:44):
I do, and I do.

Speaker 5 (35:46):
So what is your hobby?

Speaker 6 (35:47):
Gaming?

Speaker 2 (35:48):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (35:48):
I always forget about that easy answer.

Speaker 7 (35:50):
I forget hobby and I've gotten a little more invested
recently than I live like to admit in a specific game, well,
you have to play.

Speaker 6 (36:00):
Just now, I'm doing it again, like I'm a nerd.

Speaker 7 (36:04):
People World of Warcraft, which is the biggest nerdiest, awesomest everything.

Speaker 6 (36:11):
It's an m m O r PG.

Speaker 5 (36:13):
I don't even know what that means.

Speaker 6 (36:14):
I don't even think I know the acronym.

Speaker 7 (36:16):
Mr multi something online role playing game. Okay, yes, it's
a hobby. I'm a nerdy. In a little bit of
time every day, I've realized.

Speaker 5 (36:27):
I don't really have any hobbies anymore. I mean, is
taking a walk a hobby, because I that's all I've
got right now. But no, I saw this story out
of Steamboat Springs and on the last day of the
ski season, the Steamboat.

Speaker 6 (36:42):
Resort massively multiplayer.

Speaker 5 (36:45):
Okay, massively multiplayer? So what does that just mean? Millions
of people at the same time kind of thing?

Speaker 6 (36:49):
Yep, how does everybody play it? I'm massive.

Speaker 5 (36:52):
I'm just gonna have to watch you play one day.

Speaker 8 (36:56):
Nerd.

Speaker 5 (36:56):
Yeah, no, that's okay. I have some of my favorite
people are nerds. I too, have been accused on occasion
of being a nerd like the cool nerd, though I
don't have any hobbies, but a steamboat resort gave a
really cool belt buckle to about eleven people who skied
every single day during this last season. Every day, one

(37:18):
hundred and forty eight days in a row. They were
on the mountain skiing, And I thought to myself, there
is not a single thing that I like enough to
leave my house to go do it every day. I
just there's not There's nothing that keeps my attention that long.
I have a very short attention span when it comes
to things like hobbies, and I joke that I got

(37:40):
it from my mom when I was a kid. My
childhood is divided, you know. You have like when you're
talking about dinosaurs and stuff, you're like, oh, Mesosoic era,
pale Paleolithic era, all of these different eras that we've
had in our household. It was like, Oh, it's my
mom's stained glass era, or my handmade Easter eggs era,

(38:00):
or the you know, clothes pin Christmas ornament era. There
were all these craft periods in the seventies that my
mom got into, and I could like, oh, that was
during this part of my mom's life. But I was wondering, like,
what hobbies and I want to hear from you guys,
especially on the Common Spirit health text line what hobbies

(38:20):
have you discovered late? Because I think I need to
pick up a hobby. I need to pick up some
kind of hobbies because I feel like that's where I'm
lacking it is. So here are here's my qualifications for
a hobby. Got to be pretty low entry to barrier, right,
I'm not going to go out and buy one thousand

(38:42):
dollars worth of equipment to find out if I like something.
There's got to be a very low entry for me
to try this out. Now, it could be a hobby
that you could start out with a low barrier to entry,
but then end up spending a lot of money. I
mean skiing, for God's sake, Skiing is like ridiculously expensive.
I guess once you buy all the equipment and stuff,
if you buy a pass, then it's not that expensive.

(39:02):
But that's I mean, you're three grand right there walking
in the door, Mandy, isn't your hobby traveling? Yeah? But
I can't do that every day. Trust me, I would
if I could. If I could get the equipment and
do this show from the road, I would do I
would be gone the whole summer, and I would just
do my show from wherever. I should probably do that, Mandy.

(39:24):
I retired ten years ago, and my hobby has turned
into a profession. I'm a professional photographer and absolutely love it.
See that's what I'm talking about. I don't know, though, Mandy,
those are called rich people, yes, I mean, but I
know people that are not rich who have hobbies. I
know people have interesting hobbies that don't necessarily it's almost

(39:47):
like they tell me, and I go, oh, that's really
interesting for you, not interesting for me to do it,
even though I find it interesting when people have hobbies.
I knew a guy once who his hobby was finding
ancient maps. Now you would think this would be like,
you know, Raiders of the Lost Ark stuff, but in reality,

(40:07):
he just goes to like secondhand bookstores and you know
stuff like Now, I knew him before the internet was
a thing, so I'm sure now with the Internet he's
probably got all kinds of ancient maps. But his thing
was he liked to see how the world changed over
the years in real time by looking at maps. And
I was like, that is a really cool hobby one

(40:28):
that I will never have because I think It's super
interesting that that just and it animated him. It made
him so happy to talk about it and show you
and all of this stuff. And yeah, I guess I'm
kind of looking for this. Hobbies are for people without kids.
There is so much truth there, so so much truth.

(40:49):
Sounds like Mandy is entering her empty nest era and
you know what, I got one kid left at home
and she is a sophomore in high school. We are
tick tick ticking the time down right now, people. And
I'm not saying I'm going to kick her out the
day she graduates from high school, but I might be
buying her luggage as a graduation gift, just kidding. Ham Radio.

(41:11):
This hobby turned into a hobby with purchase purpose, namely
emergency communications. Mandy. So call me paranoid, but I've taken
up AMMO reloading recently. I know how to reload AMMO.
I don't know how to make my own like bullets,
I don't know how to do that. I know how
to reload shotgunshells. I guess I should say that I

(41:33):
don't know how to reload AMBO. That seems more complicated.
Reading does reading count? I think so? But it feels
like it's shitten for some reason, and I don't know why.
I mean, if you told me your hobby was reading,
I would not judge you at all harshly. I would
be like, of course it is. I guess I'm looking
for more. Like when I was a kid, and all

(41:55):
of the men and all of the women were involved
in all of these civic organizations. You know, everybody was
in the Rotary Club or the Elks Club, or the
Lions Club, or the Garden Club or the Daughters of
the American Revolution or whatever their little gang was that
they hung out with. But everybody was involved in something.
But then everybody had a hobby, Like there were knitting,

(42:16):
you know groups, and there was a quilting bee, and
then there was people who played golf. My dad played golf,
that was his hobby. He also hunted, which I would
have called a hobby. But whatever, And it seems like
now we're all so busy and we're wasting so much
time on our phones that those hobbies, like model trains,
those hobbies have fallen by the wayside. I just don't know,

(42:37):
manby love your show funny. I was just having the
same conversation with myself every time I see the Bob
Ross painting programs. I think is like I wait, is
that I may actually pull the plug and buy some
watercolors and an easel. Cheers from Gen in the mountains. Now, Gen,
you have lots of things to paint up in the mountains.
I think. Don't you feel like when you're a woman

(42:59):
that at some point a watercolor class is just part
of our evolution? Every woman I know over the age
of sixty has taken a water color class, every single
one of them. I've already done that, So I'm ahead
of the game. I guess feeling good about that. Mandy,
have you heard of geocashing? It's a great hobby. Look

(43:19):
it up.

Speaker 8 (43:19):
Now?

Speaker 5 (43:19):
What is geocashing? Isn't that where you like have to
find something or something?

Speaker 7 (43:24):
Yes, our good friend and listener of the show, jazz One,
sent me the geocashing kit. Right, I've done it millions
of times with my family growing up. Essentially, it is
a treasure hunting for adults and kits.

Speaker 5 (43:36):
So where do you get the where do you get
the coordinates that you're looking for something?

Speaker 7 (43:40):
There is like there's sites maybe even apps I assume
these days that give you basically like the hints and
like partial coordinates. Take this many steps, this way, look
for this certain thing, look on you here, but do
this and then do that. The harder ones obviously have
more difficulty. It's it's fun.

Speaker 6 (43:57):
It's it's a.

Speaker 7 (43:58):
Lot of like hiking and outdoorsiness, but it's it's treasure hunting.

Speaker 6 (44:01):
It's it's really cool, you know, really cool.

Speaker 5 (44:04):
That sounds like something that would be very motivational for
people who don't like being outside. But I don't have
that problem. I can set myself on a hiking trail
and just go about my business and be happy as
a pig and poop.

Speaker 7 (44:15):
Yeah, but you know, adds a fun little layer to it,
and you would like this part. Inside these little essentially
treasure chests, there's knick knacks from all kinds of different
places all over the world.

Speaker 6 (44:27):
Is like little what they're called.

Speaker 5 (44:28):
So you're actually finding something. Oh oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 7 (44:31):
And in the treasure like chest, like there's stuff that
people bring because technically the general rule is you take something,
you leave something. So in these chests there's little knick
knacks from all over the world. There's little travel bugs
that have like a little diary of where it's been
like it's been all over the world. Oh yeah, and
and and people make these challenging at times, there's easy ones.

(44:52):
There's different levels of difficulty in geocashing, but these going
through all the little knickknacks is really cool seeing all
the stuff from every.

Speaker 5 (45:00):
I didn't know there was an optional prize that.

Speaker 7 (45:02):
The best part, like you find typically it actually you
just mentioned Ammo typically is one of the Ammo box
can containers. That's usually what most people use because it's
very good through all weather, especially in Colorado. Like you
have to have a canister, a container that will go
through the elements because it's staying out there for years.

Speaker 6 (45:22):
It's awesome.

Speaker 5 (45:22):
This texter pointed out, you have a hobby. It's called thrifting.
I am a thrifter for a purpose, though, Like I
go thrifting because I'm buying something I'm gonna wear. I
don't flip stuff.

Speaker 6 (45:32):
I'm not.

Speaker 5 (45:32):
I'm not a thrifting flipper. That's the thing now is
thrifting flipping as you go in and it can be
very lucrative. But I go thrifting because I need a
shirt and I don't want to spend a lot of
money or I need something a specific color, and I
don't want to spend a lot of money or I'm
just you know, need something. Shopping cannot be a hobby
for me because I don't like it. I've never liked it.

(45:54):
I've come around love shopping, never liked shop. Well, you're
still in the you're in the gathering.

Speaker 7 (45:59):
Pace I used to hate, but.

Speaker 5 (46:02):
You're in the gathering phase that you're looking forward to.
I am at the end where I'm looking at all
the crap I've gathered and going none of my kids
want this stuff. Just burn the house down if we die.

Speaker 7 (46:13):
I can't tell you how much I used to hate
shopping two reasons. One didn't have my wife, and two
I was a big guy and could never find anything
I wanted. Got frustrated.

Speaker 6 (46:21):
We always leave with nothing.

Speaker 5 (46:23):
I am tall and built like an Amazon, so closing
the store don't fit me. So that's always been very frustrated.
Metal detecting, that's interesting. Do you ever find anything good
with your metal detector detector? Person who just sent that in.
My late brother in law was a Civil War buff
and he had all of this Civil War memorabilia in
his basement and it was quite impressive and they metal

(46:48):
detected on all of the battlefields and would just find
just zillions of those lead balls from the Civil War.
I mean, how interesting is that? Mandy flight simulator flying
in VR. I've been doing at least a quick fifteen
minute flight around the pattern for the past couple of
years weekends at several hour flights. I do currently waking

(47:08):
my round my way around the United States and a
commands sheee two fifty.

Speaker 7 (47:12):
So flight simulator is one awesome and two My dad
used to do it. So every flight we would take
in real life, my dad's fource here or Sessna, he
would do a practice flight, legitimate, the entire thing in
flight simulator.

Speaker 6 (47:24):
What I would do it too.

Speaker 5 (47:25):
It's so much fun flight sim What what program or equipment.

Speaker 7 (47:28):
Do you use to It's a game typically on a
PC and you buy just the little console that's like
a mean joy sick.

Speaker 6 (47:35):
Yeah, it's a joy stigt okay, Yeah, super cool.

Speaker 5 (47:38):
Mandy's searching for food that looks like famous people. Now
that'll keep you busy all day long.

Speaker 6 (47:42):
We get make a lot of money, Mandy.

Speaker 5 (47:44):
The Mandy Connall Show is my hobby. I try to
listen every day, and you know, what thank you? Text her.
But I'm sitting here doing the Mandy Connall Show, so
I can't. I can't say this is a hobby for
me too. Burning the house down would take care of
the woodpecker problem. You are absolutely right.

Speaker 6 (47:57):
Create more problems.

Speaker 5 (47:59):
Start doing Ronda Nautica. What is Ronda Nautica. I don't
know what that means. I never heard that, Mandy. Maybe
your hobby can be finding fault with all the hobbies.
I feel like that is the role I was born
to play right.

Speaker 6 (48:12):
Now, negative hobby though I.

Speaker 5 (48:13):
Know, and I'm not really a negative person, Mandy. My
hobbies are multiple drawing, jewelry, et cetera. And my husband
tells me that I have a master in partial arts.
He's so right. This and that of unfinished hobbies and projects. Also, FYI,
I'm glad I have AM radio because KOA is off
the air on the fmyah, I had that problem this
morning too. We don't know why, but we're fixing it eventually. Mandy,

(48:38):
take up leather working. I started leather working as a
hobby with a cheap eighty dollars kit from Tandy, and
it's quickly turned into a business. Well, what kind of stuff.
Are you selling leather? Person? My wife and I. His
hobby is doing barbecue competitions. You know, Chuck and I.
I got invited to be a judge at a Kansas
City Barbecue sanctioned event in Louisville, Kentucky. Was like, this

(49:00):
is so much fun. I had an absolute blast, and
Chuck and I for a brief minute, considered becoming judges.
You have to go through all these classes and all
these hours of training to become a certified Kansas City
Barbecue judge. But then I looked around the judge tent
and there was not a single person in there that
was below three hundred and fifty pounds. I'm not exaggerating

(49:22):
all delightful, wonderful human beings. And we loved hanging out
with them so much we actually looked into it. But
I can't afford a hobby that's all about eating. It
just is not not a thing that's.

Speaker 6 (49:32):
Going to the travel one.

Speaker 7 (49:34):
You mentioned that you don't do it year round, the
points gathering that we've discussed recently on the show. Yeah,
that's a hobby. It's an everyday thing. Is ghit them points?
Travel for free?

Speaker 5 (49:46):
Mandy? I took a scrap book in class years ago,
but never really got into it until now. I'm retired,
have two wonderful little great nieces until and recently I
took all of their pictures that I've collected over the
last twenty years and put them into a scrap book.
They can look at these because all of their photos
are on their phone. Exactly right, exactly right, Mandy. Woodworking.

(50:08):
I would love to get into woodworking, but I don't
have the space for woodworking equipment. I also feel like
there's a good chance I would hurt myself somehow woodworking.
I mean, I know how to use tools and stuff,
but if I was trying to use like a what
is the thing they used to, you know, scrape off
little pieces of wood like a you know what I'm
talking about when you're trying to carve something? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (50:31):
Is that an all? Is it an all?

Speaker 5 (50:33):
I'm thinking of?

Speaker 3 (50:35):
Oh? I have no idea that.

Speaker 5 (50:36):
Does beer drinking count as a hobby? Asking for a friend?
I can know, hobby or an addiction, whatever, It's all fine.
Check out roomdeq dot org. It lists all the comps
in our area. I'm in the backyard division, but would
love to host you as a guest. Cook for a
co Oh, that would be fantastic. I'm all about barbecue.
As a matter of fact, Ross and I ate at

(50:57):
this barbecue joint in winter Park that was super, super good,
even though it has some bad ratings online. And they
have collared greens that were just you probably don't like
collared greens. To you, a rod, collared collared greens look
like green. I mean, they're they're greens. They're they can
be really tough, and they can sometimes be bitter. But

(51:18):
cooked like they cook them up there, it was, oh.

Speaker 6 (51:20):
My goodness, you know.

Speaker 5 (51:24):
And they were the best greens I've had west of
the Mississippi, hands down.

Speaker 7 (51:29):
It sounds like someone that hasn't had the super greens
at Panda Express because those are exceptional and healthy.

Speaker 5 (51:35):
What yeah, wait a minute, super wait a minute.

Speaker 7 (51:40):
It's an alternative to fried rice and a panda and
it's like a fifth of the calories.

Speaker 5 (51:46):
Wait a minute, I gotta find out what it is.
But that's not even the same thing.

Speaker 6 (51:49):
I'm not saying it is. You said greens made me
think of green.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
It's kale, cabbage and broccoli that's not even remotely close.

Speaker 6 (51:53):
To collar greens. Good and good for you.

Speaker 5 (51:56):
Collar greens are totally totally different. Well that's what I'm
trying to think of. Thank you, Texter. Mandy gold Panning.
You can get a starter kit for thirty bucks, but
does it come with gold that they I know my
friend does ancestry as a hobby is super interesting. I
am not that motivated. I don't want to sit at

(52:17):
my computer for my hobby either.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (52:20):
Insect taxidermy dioramas normally the inside stay put in their exoskeleton,
which is nice. Mandy, take up drone flying. I had
a problem with fifty plus vultures roosting in my tree
next to my house. I tried everything to get rid
of them. Then I use my drone that Why didn't
somebody suggest a drone to get rid of my woodpecker?

(52:41):
I just fly it around there and buzz the guy.
He would have left, for sure. I'm doing that, totally
doing that anyway, Mandy. Try market Tree m A r
q U E t R y Painting meats woodworking. Marketree
is making pictures out of wood veneers. I think you
guys are overestimating my skill. Mandy. Have you ever knitted

(53:06):
with l paca yarn? Try that. It's incredible. I will
just tell you, for all of you people out here
who can knit or crochet or do any of that stuff,
I have envy. I have tried so hard to learn,
and though I got the basic stitches, they were so
bad that the person helping me gave me that look,

(53:27):
you know, the look that's like she's trying so hard
and look at what she did. It's not good. That
was a whole look in like a second.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Crop.

Speaker 5 (53:38):
Dusting my coworkers is a fun hobby. M hm yeh.
Try pickleball. This is something I want to learn. But
every time I've been around to pickleball court, there's eighty
gazillion people playing pickle ball.

Speaker 6 (53:52):
I have wanted to try it for so long.

Speaker 5 (53:55):
My brother in law, who is seventy, just turned seventy six,
and his wife passed away a couple of years ago,
quite kind of rather unexpectedly, and he was a little
bit lost. And I'm telling you, pickleball has saved that man.
He plays like three hours a day now. Obviously he's
not playing the entire time because he's got to play
and play out, but pickleball has just been a godsend

(54:17):
for him, keeping him active and Mandy tried competitive puzzling.
Wait a minute, so are you putting together a puzzle
or are these word puzzles? Or what I do? Play scrabble?
That counts. There you go, calligraphy, flower arrangements, pottery, knitting,
horseback riding, learn a new language. Now, Texter, I like

(54:39):
your attitude, but I'm not sure all if that's realistic.
I do know how to arrange flowers, though not well.
I've tried pottery. And you ever try something that you're
certain you're going to be super good at only to
actually try it and find out that you're not good
at it at all. That's me and pottery. It didn't
go well. Mandy collecting, I have collected pottery, belt buckles, ties,

(55:05):
and more. No, I am not a hoarder. The problem
is I'm already married to a collector. So you can
only imagine, ooh, how about falconry. You can eliminate your
woodpecker problem as well? How hard is that to get into?
How much does a falcon cost? If you've listened to
this program for any length of time, you know that

(55:26):
I am a huge advocate of the style of help
that a place like step Denver gives, which is We're
gonna help you and give you a place to stay,
but you're gonna work, You're gonna be sober, and you're
gonna be accountable. And I know it works because it's
been working for decades now here in the Denver metro
and joining me now is a man who is using
that approach in a city right next to Denver. And

(55:47):
talk about an apples to apples comparisons. We're gonna have
it here. Mayor Mike Kaufman from Aurora joins me. Mayor,
welcome back to the show.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
Hey, thanks for having me, Mandy.

Speaker 5 (55:57):
You know, first of all, Mayor, I want to talk
about what we were talking about off here for just
one second, and that is Aurora's food scene. Okay, because
I think this is the undersoled portion of Aurora that
should be on every billboard. Like your food scene in
Aura is outstanding. Are you still making it from you know,
making it around town and going to visit all the
mom and pop restaurants that are in Aurora?

Speaker 3 (56:20):
Yeah, I do, and I got twenty pounds to shelter.
But it's great.

Speaker 8 (56:25):
I mean, we you know, we have a very culturally
diverse city and we've got you name it we've got
in here.

Speaker 5 (56:32):
You really do speaking of culturally diverse. Aurora has had
a rap for a long time of being not the
place you want to live. And I've been talking on
the show for the past couple of months. I feel
like Aurora is on a trajectory right now that is
incredibly positive. What good things are happening in Aurora right now?

(56:54):
And why do I have that impression that you're on
the on the upswing?

Speaker 3 (57:00):
Because we are on the upswing.

Speaker 8 (57:01):
I mean we've got, first of all, our crime rate
is less than that of Denver on a per capita
basis in every single category when it comes to violent crime,
when it comes to property crime. We've got a business
friendly environment. I mean you're talking about restaurants. Look at
the restaurants, the number of restaurants that are closed in
Denver versus Aurora, and and so there's so.

Speaker 3 (57:21):
Many other metrics.

Speaker 8 (57:22):
But you know where the a c U and Shretes
Medical Campus is a huge economic generator that is expanding
with with bioscien adding bioscience research there and working with
the university on that.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
We're going to be.

Speaker 8 (57:37):
Redeveloping the eastern end of RORI. We're going to be working.
We're working on redeveloping and revitalis revitalizing callfax between pure
and Yosemite. I mean, there's so many incredibly positive things
that are happening there, really growing economy, dynamic economy, So
really excited about our future and as well as you

(58:01):
mentioned almost this, and so I'm really excited to take
a different approach on that.

Speaker 5 (58:06):
So let's talk about Aurora's approach first. We'll start there
because the Common Sense Institute paper that I've got linked
on the blog today so people can read it for
themselves and they should, really outlines two different approaches. One
is the housing first model, which requires nothing of the
people that they're giving free housing too. And the second,

(58:28):
I would say, it's a hand up, not a handout.
It requires responsibility, it requires work, it requires seeking help
for issues that may exist in terms of mental illness
or addiction. But then it provides a step up from
basic shelter into true supportive housing and then to independence.
And that is the avenue that Aurora is pursuing. Why

(58:50):
did you decide to sort of break from the standard dogma,
which is the housing first and go a different way
for Aurora or.

Speaker 8 (58:58):
Well healthy person is the only program right now I
recognized by the federal governor.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
I think the Trump administration will hopefully change that. I
was there in Washington with some.

Speaker 8 (59:07):
Of my colleagues about a couple of weeks ago to
talk to officials in the Trump administration, and so they're
certainly looking at I think it is in statute and
will require the help from Congress to get a change.
And so what we want to do is what you mentioned.
You mentioned step Denver, which is a pure work first model.

(59:27):
We says, you know, you've got to be sober. You know,
we're gonna we're going to help you. We're going to
get you back on your feet, and you're gonna have
You're going to have stable housing through self sufficiency through work.
What is recognized by the federal government right now, what
is the standard practice nationally?

Speaker 3 (59:45):
It is called housing First, and housing first.

Speaker 8 (59:47):
Basically says that housing is so basic to the human condition.
If you solve for that, then you solve for other things,
so that there is a requirement that you cannot put any.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
Basically, I'm going to use requirement again.

Speaker 8 (01:00:03):
On people experiencing homelessness that you like in Denver, you
have to give you give them a room and a hotel,
and you provide what's called permanent support of services around
them like mental health, like addiction recovery, like job drink.
But you can't require them to participate in anything. And
so I just don't I think that's a failed model.

(01:00:27):
We also have an Aurora. We do have the all
to based nonprofit called the Bridge House, and they have
a ready to work program that is also based on
a work first model. What is different in the approach
that I'm going to take, the City of Roora is
going to take, is that we're gonna have to take

(01:00:48):
all comers. So we're taking people that are are you know,
that have been moved on through trespassing and wind up
in our facility. And so there's three tiers. First tier
is emergency services for people that are just off the
street and they're going to get minimal services they're not

(01:01:08):
yet engaged in case management. Second as it has set
better living circumstances, uh semi private circumstances for people that
are engaged in case management and addition recovery and mental
health and job training. But you only get a room
in the auroral program, this work first program. If you're

(01:01:29):
working and you're going to pay part of your income
for rent, and that you know you still need some services.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
So it's it's transitional housing, but it is.

Speaker 8 (01:01:42):
It is based on getting people to work and you
and if you read the success stories under housing person.

Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
Nobody's ever working.

Speaker 8 (01:01:50):
They're under a lot of government programs at tax business expense,
but they're not working.

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
Well.

Speaker 5 (01:01:55):
I'm sure you've toured step Denver as I have, and
when you see I always tell people you can hell
when you go in there, because when the men first
come into step Denver, to your point, they have basically
a shelter situation where they've got a cot and a
dresser and a thing that they're responsible for taking care of.
But you can always tell the guys who just got
there right because their bed's not really made that well,

(01:02:16):
maybe it's a little bit of things out of place.
And then on the other end of the room, as
the men move down, you see hospital corners on those beds.
You see everything neat and tidy. Because I believe, and
I think you probably do too, Mayor, that work is
ingrained in human beings. We want to feel productive and
we want to feel like what we're doing matters. So

(01:02:38):
is that kind of the core of this whole program.

Speaker 8 (01:02:42):
It absolutely is the core of this program that you know,
just just like those housing first people say, you know,
housing is basically the human condition. I believe work is
basically to the human condition. Contributing to society and having
a worth having them guide you through at work, I
think is important. And in fact, we've got a lot

(01:03:03):
of employees that are very interested in this program. Now,
we're not going to be fully operational until November of
this year, where we purchased along with help from our
county partners Douglas County, a rapid county in Adams County,
and the state of Colorado using one time federal dollars
another Biden administration called America Recovery Plan Act that led

(01:03:25):
to inflation, right, they shipped us the money and so
we purchased the hotel and mid sized.

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
Conference center on I seventy in Chambers.

Speaker 8 (01:03:38):
If we wanted to tick holiday our programs there, we're
clearly going to be taking care of more than Aurora,
but it will be on a workforce basis. And the
great thing about it, and I'm really appreciate comment SeNSS
too for their work, is that You're going to have
two major cities side by side.

Speaker 3 (01:03:55):
With opposite programs, and it'll be a great test case
for Colorado.

Speaker 5 (01:04:00):
But for the country, well, the numbers are not really
very good. According to the report Growth and Homeless Populations
among US States between twenty twenty and twenty twenty four,
we are sitting pretty at number four. We've had a
ninety percent increase in homelessness over that same four year period.
But the reality is it is not evenly distributed. Because

(01:04:24):
El Paso County, with a similar process that you're describing,
with a workforce model, with a hand up model, as
I like to call it, instead of a handout model,
they've actually seen a decrease in their homelessness. And I
think that it would be interesting to and I'm keeping
an eye on this mayor to sort of note the
statistics between Aurora and Denver. Are you what part of

(01:04:47):
you thinks that maybe the hardest cases, the person's most
resistant to help and change and bettering themselves. Do you
think they're going to self deport to Denver?

Speaker 8 (01:05:01):
Well, I think we're gonna do everything we can work
with them, and you know, in the city are so
the goal is not to do that in fact, I
would like the state legislature in the next legislative session
to in fact, UH put legislation forward essentially says, look,

(01:05:21):
you can't you know, export your whether it's migrants as
in the case of Denver to.

Speaker 3 (01:05:28):
An aura which created a full host of.

Speaker 8 (01:05:30):
Problems without telling us using a third party nonprofits, or
it's it's that you know in fact, Douglas County was
systematically putting people in a or in Denver, and so
I think it's really important that we have inter government
agreements in terms of exporting people. One of the challenges

(01:05:51):
that we have because we're our program, this conservative program,
is not recognized by the federal government that we can't
get federal funds for our operating part of the program.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
And so we have to raise it privately.

Speaker 8 (01:06:05):
And folks have stepped forward like Daniels found and the
Engines Foundation to help us out and put that it
will be a continual problem until we get the federal
government to change his policy and recognize work first as
a viable model and not simply housing person.

Speaker 5 (01:06:22):
I think it's ridiculous that the federal government would think
that there would be a one size fits all solution
that they should mandate, you know, if you want to
give out block grants or however you want to give
them money out. But in my mind, let the communities
make decisions about what's going to serve their community the best.
Let me ask you one last question before we have
to go, because I just realized I'm late for a break.
What would you grade your current relationship with the City

(01:06:45):
of Denver's government, Aurora's government, City of government ABCD or
F What would you give that relationship right now?

Speaker 8 (01:06:52):
Well, I think I think government to government in a
probably myself. Oh and Mayor Johnson not so good.

Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
You know, I think that you know, he hurt my city. Yeah,
I think when.

Speaker 8 (01:07:06):
He he asked me to help on the my rank situation,
we've never been in a sanctuary city historically. I said no,
and he went ahead and used a nonprofit UH to
basically place them in my city.

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
Without telling me. That's not against the law. I think
it ought to be. That's not against current law.

Speaker 8 (01:07:27):
But I think that that, uh, that doesn't generate the
kind of trust UH in a relationship that I had
with Mayor Hancock his predecessor.

Speaker 5 (01:07:36):
Right, Mayor Mike Coffin, I appreciate your time today. I
look forward to watching this experiment unfold and continuing to
see Aurora move in a positive direction because there's a
lot going on there that's super positive and I hope
you guys can keep it going.

Speaker 3 (01:07:52):
Thank you. Well, we're going to keep it going.

Speaker 5 (01:07:53):
All right, thank you. Mayor that is Mayor Mike Kaufman.
Will be right back on the movie The Conclave. Obviously,
with the death of Pote France, people are talking about
the papal Conclave, which will take place in fifteen to
twenty days when all cardinals under the age of eighty
who are eligible will descend on Rome to begin the
very very secretive process of choosing the next Pope. And

(01:08:16):
thanks to the listener who just sent me this email
from ABC News, because both Arod and I were like, well,
it's a good time to revisit the Conclave of the movie.
But how accurate is it?

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
Now?

Speaker 5 (01:08:27):
There's a lot of blobbody blog in the article, but
I want to get to this part right at the bottom.
For the book, Harris, it was based on a book
by a guy named Robert Harris, he said. For the book,
Harris said he spoke with former Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal
Cormack Murphy O'Connor, who died in twenty seventeen, the year
after the book was published. Harris told The New York

(01:08:48):
Times that after the book was published, Murphy O'Connor sent
him a very nice letter saying it was just like
a conclave and that the research was very good. So
this movie is outstanding. I mean, it's just a really
really good movie. Family Tuci y'all lift go. Isabella Rossellini

(01:09:09):
plays a bit part that they just I think added
in because they needed a chick. I don't know, I
have no idea, but if you want to know what's
going to happen, go watch the movie. It has the
seal of approval from a cardinal who's actually been there,
which is interesting because the Catholic Church is not exactly
an open book. They're more open than they have been

(01:09:31):
in the past. As a matter of fact, filmmakers said
that the Vatican was very very welcoming when they came
to Rome to film the movie, not welcoming and letting
them film it there. Now not that welcoming, but they
were very helpful and gave them tours and were very kind.
So there you go. If you want to know more

(01:09:51):
about how the next pope is going to be elected.
Just go watch the conclave now. I want to in
the next hour. I got a couple of things that
I want to talk about. First. Right after the break,
we're gonna dip into Chinese reaction to tariff shows. They
know exactly what Donald Trump is trying to do, and
they're pushing back. They are not going quietly into the night.

(01:10:13):
And if you're a Doug co resident, I need a favor,
especially if you've got a little time on your hands.
We'll talk about all that after this on KOA.

Speaker 1 (01:10:21):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
accident and injury lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
No, it's Mandy Connell and Donall on KOA.

Speaker 4 (01:10:34):
Ninem got you want to study?

Speaker 5 (01:10:39):
Can the noisy cut through three?

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
Many Donald keeping you sad thing?

Speaker 5 (01:10:47):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the third hour of a Monday show.
I'm Mandy, He's a Rod and we'll take you right
through the rest of the day. Today's blog is outstanding,
if I do say so myself. But I want to
remind you guys, just got a text message. Your FM
feed is broken. We know this, which is why you
should download the entirely free iHeartRadio app onto your phone

(01:11:09):
and then make the Mandy Connell Show and KOA Radio
presets right at the top. Easiest thing ever. I actually
did it for a lady this past weekend at the
mighty millions Raffle House in winter Park, just so she
can never miss the podcast. But that's the easiest way
to make sure that you get crystal clear audio for free.
And we're working on that FM thing right now. So
there you go. I want to respond to one thing

(01:11:32):
about the movie Conclave, and then I'm going to move
on to the other stuff that I've got here. This
text message Mandy. The movie Conclave is well done, but
I very much doubt it is terribly accurate. The process
would be, but the types of intrigue portrayed would not be.
Maybe in the days of the Borges. I gotta tell
you guys this, Why in the world would you think

(01:11:56):
the Cardinals are immune from politics. I mean, you, guys,
these men have so little other areas of intrigue in
their lives that I bet it's just like that. I
would think that there are already factions gathering who have
their guy that they want to elevate to pope for
a variety of reasons. I mean, the pope allows you

(01:12:18):
to move up in the church. The pope gives out
plumb assignments. So of course you would want someone that
you liked and liked you back as pope. That would
stand a reason. And ultimately, all the cardinals that are
going to be in the conclave choosing the next pope
are also human beings, and human beings operate in our
own self interest. We always have, we always will anyway,

(01:12:40):
That's all I want to say about that. So we've
talked about the tariffs, and I believe in I believe
from the very beginning that the tariffs, as levied by
the Trump administration were designed to do far more than
just bring in cash by putting tariffs on stuff. I

(01:13:02):
believe that the President is trying to realign the economic
world and put China on notice that if they continue
to do the same things that they've done to violate
the rules and norms of the World Trade Agreement that
they agreed upon, then there would be repercussions because obviously
the World Trade Agreement, who's been watching them break all

(01:13:22):
these rules and norms since they joined the World Trade
Organization and done nothing, so they are now sort of
China is now accusing Washington of abusing tariffs. Now that's
really interesting because China has been abusing free trade endlessly

(01:13:45):
since they got into the World Trade Organization. China also
warned other countries against striking a broader economic deal with
the United States at its expense. Now, this is the
key part of the tariffs in my mind. So the tariffs,
as they are hopefully going to be levied, are going

(01:14:07):
to favor our trade partners who also agree to levy
tariffs on China to sort of even the playing field.
I guess because China's done a lot of stuff, they
supplement certain industries to put everybody else out of business.
We've talked about this before. You really think it cost

(01:14:27):
them to make an outfit that you buy on Timu
for four dollars? Do you really think it only costs
four dollars? Of course not. The Chinese government is supplementing
Timu because they want to undercut Amazon, and it's working
quite well. I mean, if you love buying Chinese crap, well,
Tamu's your place. I've talked to more and more friends

(01:14:48):
as of late who have finally had their straw break
with Timu where they got something that was so bad
that even they were like, this is they just took
my money. One hundred percent. Thought conclave was great entertainment,
says this texter, but smacked of woke. Yes, the ending
was fully woke, but interesting an interesting twist, not the

(01:15:10):
obvious woke twist, but an interesting twist. So trying to
understands what Donald Trump is trying to do here, and
they are actively working with their Asian partners to shore
up their own trade agreements with the Asian community. Right,
there's a whole bunch of people there, especially in India,
so China knows what's up. We'll see if Donald Trump

(01:15:33):
is successful in getting these trade deals to further alienate
China in the hopes that we're either going to bring
them into line to engage in trade without cheating or
sort of triangulate against them so their economy and markets
are hurt. I am not sure how this all ends up.

(01:15:54):
Because China, as a dictatorship Jijinping never has to worry
about getting reelected because you just cancel the elections. If
the people start to get restless because the economy is
negatively impacted, well, China can just send tanks and to
roll them all over. China is a totalitarian society. They

(01:16:14):
have parts of their society that have dipped into capitalism
and it's made the country much wealthier, which is a
good thing. But don't think for a second their capitalism
looks like our capitalism, because if you're too successful in China,
the government will just show up and say, hey, we'd
like to take that over, and we'll make sure nothing
happens to you and your business as long as you

(01:16:35):
just work with us. It's why the Chinese communists have
their toes into TikTok. It's why Chinese communists have their
toes in everything because they don't have to answer to
the voters. They can do whatever they want. They can
force their will onto the people of China, and they
can continue to undercut us when it comes to labor.

(01:16:56):
So we shall see. I don't know what that looks like,
but this is a quote from bojan Yuan, partner at
China based policy consultancy Plenum. He said, the fact is
nobody wants to pick a side. If countries have high
reliance on China in terms of investment, industrial infrastructure, technology

(01:17:16):
know how and consumption. I don't think they'll be buying
into US demands. Many Southeast Asian countries belong in this category.
So essentially what he's saying is all of these nations
that have accepted money and development and largess from China.
And by the way, China has been doing this all
over the world as part of the Belton Road initiative.

(01:17:37):
They have been and I know I'm stuck on this,
but it made such an impression on me. The giant
soccer stadium that is in San Jose, Costa Rica, built
at no cost to the Costa Ricans by the friendly Chinese.
That kind of soft diplomacy is going to make the
hard sell that Trump is in right now harder. Impossible, no,
but harder, yes, one hundred percent, now real quick. I

(01:18:00):
don't want to spend a lot of time on this.
If you're a Doug Co resident and you got some
time on your hands, I need your help. The Home
Rule Charter Commission, which may or may not happen, it
will be voted on in June, needs candidates that are
not aligned with the current Board of County Commissioners, who
I do not trust. I'm not opposed to home rule,

(01:18:23):
but I am opposed to the way this County Commission
is doing it. Apparently when they rolled this out, they
had twenty five of their friends there so they can
all get their petition signed so they can be on
the Charter Commission. They're basically stacking the deck. That makes
me trust them even even less, as if that was possible,
but yes, even less.

Speaker 1 (01:18:44):
So.

Speaker 5 (01:18:44):
If you are in Douglas County and you'd like to
get involved in something, you'd like to be a part
of something, I need you to sign up get twenty
five signatures of elected voters. I mean you should know
that many people in your neighborhood and turn it in
and this is it Thursday at five of this week,

(01:19:04):
so your name can be on the ballot to be
a part of the Charter Commission. And if you do
this and you send me your data that you're going
to be on the ballot, I will support you. I
will urge other people to support you, because we need
to have a Charter Commission that is totally independent of
the current County Commission, and that is not where we're
headed right now. So we'll see. I am excited to

(01:19:26):
do the forum with Douglas County citizenry. We're actually going
to talk to George Teal. He's committed to coming to
the event. We're also going to talk to a man
from Weld County. He's already living on home Rule. We're
also going to talk to someone who's involved with getting
home Rules started. So there's going to be knowledgeable people there,
but these have to be returned by Thursday at five.

(01:19:47):
I put all the information I link to a story
on the Rocky Mountain Voice. They're covering it. I just
need independent minded people who will do what's right for
Douglas County and do what's right for Douglas County only
on this commission. So if we can make that out
and that'd be super. Sign up and let me know
we'll be right back. Teacher teaching little children about descriptive writing.

(01:20:08):
And it's the kind of teaching that you love to
see because this woman, these kids are never going to
forget this lesson. It's so well done. I absolutely loved it.
And there's video of Zach Vine's first home run as
a Rocky and I've decided I am going to watch
this kid right until the day they trade him for
someone bad. He is exciting to watch the young pitching

(01:20:33):
is exciting to watch. They just can't seem to get
it all together. That's on the blog today. Okay, I
got a bunch of stories that I want to hit.
This is concerning but not surprising. Colorado's unemployment rate rose
slightly in March to four point eight percent. The national
average is four point two percent. It is up from

(01:20:53):
four point seven percent in February, and the number of
those job lists increased tweve hundred month over month to
a total of one hundred and fifty six thousand, five
hundred people in Colorado looking for work right now and
not finding it.

Speaker 8 (01:21:09):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:21:10):
The retail sector growth because the areas that showed the
most growth are trade, transportation, and utilities. Retail sector growth
was just a reflection of the return of workers from
strike at King Supers, which means that actual job numbers
are lower. Sector singing the most job losses included education

(01:21:33):
and health services, which she had twenty four hundred jobs,
followed by leisure and hospitality with eighteen hundred positions lost.
The report stated employers in Colorado gained sixty eight hundred
non farm payroll jobs from February to March, for a
total of two million, nine hundred and seventy two thousand,
eight hundred jobs. Private sector payroll jobs increased by fifty

(01:21:56):
eight hundred, while government added one thousand. In the last year,
non farm payroll jobs grew by twenty three hundred. That
was due the private sector losing eleven thousand and five
hundred and the government adding thirteen thousand, eight hundred. Colorado's
rate of job growth over the past year is point

(01:22:18):
one percent, below the US rate of one point two percent.
Why is this? Why is this happening? You know, I
didn't live in Colorado in two thousand and eight two
thousand and nine, but when the economic recovery started happening,
I was looking at different states around the country to
see who was recovering the fastest. And did you know

(01:22:39):
that Colorado recovered faster than almost every other state in
the Union Now. At the time, I said that has
to be Tabor because government didn't have the option of
just handing out a bunch of free money here because
Tabor kept them in check in terms of what they
could spend. But it's gone well beyond that now. I
want to share some of an article with you that

(01:23:00):
was published back in twenty twenty one, and listen to this.
Colorado led the nation during the economic recovery after the
two thousand and eight Great Recession, but representatives from business
groups at Tuesday that it won't be repeated. Given one
point eight billion dollars in new regulations, fees, and taxes,

(01:23:25):
according to the Common Sense Institute, then we emerged stronger,
created jobs faster because we fostered a strong business climate.
But Colorado has been overrun by an onslaught of taxes
and fees in the last three years. And by the way,
this is twenty twenty one, so you know it's only
gotten exponentially worse since then. I bring this up because

(01:23:49):
did you just well, I'll get to that.

Speaker 6 (01:23:50):
In a second.

Speaker 5 (01:23:53):
So what has gone? What's different? What's different now then?
Was different in two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight,
two thousand and nine. And if you guess who's been
running the state, you guessed right. And when I say
Democrats keep levying more taxes and fees and regulations. For

(01:24:13):
the most part, a vast majority of what's happening when
it comes to levying taxes and fees and regulations is
coming from the Democratic Party and the Republicans can't stop
any of it. So here we go. We're watching our
economy grind to a halt, worse than the national average,
higher unemployment rate, and we've got Michael Bennett running for

(01:24:37):
governor against Donald Trump. I think, I hope the people
of Colorado are finally at a point where they want
to take care of Colorado's I'm afraid, however, that the
people who live here are delusional and believe that things

(01:24:57):
are just as bad everywhere else. But I am here
to tell you they are not not even close to
the text or who just sent this Sitting here in
Nebraska watching Colorado with a bag of popcorn, YEP, one
hundred percent. I keep bringing this up in the hopes

(01:25:25):
that in the next election cycle these arguments can be
made by candidates in a compelling way, so that when
voters decide who they're going to vote for, they do
ask themselves the question, are you better off now than
you were in twenty twenty five? If not, why not?
Do you think Colorado is better off now? Excuse me

(01:25:47):
twenty nineteen? Do you think Colorado is better off now
than in twenty nineteen? I think it's going to get
worse before it gets better, but I unfortunately think voters
are going to have to drive the state into the
ground before they decide to maybe try something different. Here's
hoping that new leadership of the Colorado Republican Party cans

(01:26:10):
keep everybody on task, keep everybody on message, and we
can start to pull this state back, because that's what
it's going to take. And if Republicans ever take charge,
I'm not I don't think that the Republican Party is
going to take charge in Colorado anytime soon. I just

(01:26:33):
don't see that happening. What we need is more balanced
legislature to stop the onslaught before we can roll back
some of the damage that's already been done. If you
ever wanted to own a home in Florida, now's the time,
my friends, now is the time. Here's why. A couple
of things going on in the Florida real estate market.

(01:26:53):
Number One, much like here, homeowners' insurance has become a
huge problem. You have hurricanes here, we have hail and fires.
Right So, though the state of Florida has done some
to shore up the homeowners insurance market, it is very expensive,
extremely expensive to buy homeowners insurance and a bunch of

(01:27:16):
people during COVID moved to the Free State of Florida
from all over the place. They were like, forget this
New York, We're heading out, and they moved to Florida,
only to find out that in the summer, Florida's pretty miserable.
If you're not if you're not a person who loves
hate and humidity, you are not gonna like the state

(01:27:38):
of Florida. Plus a lot of the people that move
there because of the politics are now like, I just
can't stand these politics anymore. It's too red. It's too red.
Now something's happening in the condo market, which has been
devastating to the condo market down there. After the collapse
of a condo building in Fort Lauderdale that killed a

(01:27:58):
bunch of people and the building had not properly have
been inspected in years, they passed a law in the
state of Florida that every condo has to have these
really probably I mean very significant inspections, engineering type inspections
to make sure that their building is still doing well.
And now no one wants to buy a condo because

(01:28:18):
guess what if they find a problem that's going to
have to be fixed, And when you live in a
condo and there's an assessment, you have to pay the assessment.
So the condo market has absolutely fallen apart in Florida.
So Florida homes have still appreciated quite a bit. They

(01:28:39):
are headed for a market correction.

Speaker 7 (01:28:41):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:28:41):
I've lived through the last market correction. I don't know
if you guys know this. I've talked about it on
the show before, but I lived in Fort Myers, Florida,
on the Southwest corner or southwest part of the state
during the housing crash the bust of two thousand and
eight and two thousand and nine, the Fort Myers Nape
market had more foreclosures per capita than any other place

(01:29:05):
in the country for a year and a half straight.
So I've seen what a market correction looks like in Florida,
and it is ugly. But where it's ugly, there's always opportunity.
So if you're looking to buy a house in Florida,
you know what, now's the time my friends start it
reel for dot com and checking it out. Mandy wife

(01:29:26):
and I are sixty one and retired from the Common
Spirit Health text line. You can always text us at
five sixty six nine oh mandy wife and I are
sixty one and retired. We put all of our monthly
expenses on a credit card. Yes, we pay it off fully,
but in twenty twenty one, our average bill was thirty
five hundred dollars. Now it's forty five hundred dollars. This

(01:29:48):
is nuts, exactly. This is what I'm saying. So maybe
I'm not moving to Florida. By the way, I already
did that. I have a whole childhood from Florida. That
was amazing, it was great. But my goodness, when I
go back there in the summer, it's all I can
do not to just wilt, just fall out, just end

(01:30:10):
up a big old pilot, sweat and clothing right there
laying on the ground. So now's the time if you
want to buy a house in Florida. So I have
a story on the blog today about lane filtering, and
if you are a motorcyclist and a motorcycle enthusiast, I
gotta tell you it's time for you to police your
own Okay, And by this, I mean, can some of

(01:30:35):
you talk to And I'm just gonna guess here about
the demographic, but this is what I see. Lane filtering
became a law here last year, and it means that
as you're approaching an intersection, when all the cars are
going really really slow, if you're on a motorcycle, you
can go in between the cars to be at the
front of the intersection waiting for the light to turn green.

(01:30:59):
This is actually safer than having motorcycles in line, and
it makes sense. I have no problem with that. When
someone kind of goes by me rolling slowly as they
get to the light, I'm like, Okay, no big whoop,
not a problem, nothing to see here. But since they
pass this lane filtering law, I have been passed on

(01:31:20):
two two five, on seventy and on twenty five by
some idiot young guy on a motorcycle going like ninety
miles an hour down the middle of the lanes. That
is called lane splitting, and in Colorado it remains illegal.

Speaker 8 (01:31:40):
It is.

Speaker 5 (01:31:41):
It scares the crap out of me every single time
it happens, and every time I see it. It's some
guy and he's wearing a T shirt which is just
not tucked in, so it's all blowing up on the back.
He has a helmet on but no other protective gear,
And I think to myself, I hope you don't die.
I mean genuinely, I hope you don't die. Young men
in motorcycles is such a bad combination. You've got the

(01:32:04):
combination of I'm never going to die mixed with an
extremely dangerous mode of transportation. And lest you think that
I am exaggerating, look at how many people die just
in fatal accidents, and then look at what percentage of
them are on motorcycles. They are way way, way, way
overrepresented when it comes to deaths on the roadway. And

(01:32:28):
now it's just it seems like it's going to make
it even worse. I'm going to have any of you
guys dealt with this lane splitting on our major interstates.
And here's the thing. I mean, it happens in heavy traffic.
I get it, I understand why they're doing it, but
it's still illegal, and I wonder if it's going to
lead to the roll back of the lane filtering situation.

(01:32:51):
I'm just curious, and I'd love to know from you
people who are out there on motorcycles, like what the
deal is. I mean, I've thought about just open my
car door, but that seems really mean and would probably
kill someone. I'd probably get arrested and go to prison.
So I'm not gonna do that. Man. That's annoying. That
is super incredibly annoying. Also on the blog today, oh ay, Rod,

(01:33:13):
can we talk about that Fantastic Four trailer for just
a second, because I gotta tell you, this movie looks good.
It looks very good. I'm kind of excited about it.
And I've never been a Fantastic Four person. Well, the
first ones were really good, couple, right, but the whole
the concept of the Fantastic Four, huh, not my favorite,

(01:33:35):
not my favorite comic book, you know, genre whatever the
I am, and I don't hate them. I'm just saying traditionally,
the guy mat out of rocks to me is where
they lose me. Yeah, they lose me on the rock guy.
You know, it seems very normal. They've humanized him in this.

Speaker 7 (01:33:53):
Well to make a big picture for you. The NCU,
this is their first hands on of the Fantastic Four.
They now have the problem. Ah, this is the MCU
bringing the Fantastic Four into the entire Marvel Cinematica cast
in right.

Speaker 6 (01:34:08):
Well, I mean it's got Pedro.

Speaker 5 (01:34:09):
I know, Pedro, Pascal, can't you do no wrong? Do
You're no wrong at all.

Speaker 6 (01:34:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:34:13):
So this is the first of the first couple of movies.
There have been three in the last you know, twenty
years that were not MCU. MCU has brought in, just
like they are with X Men. They now have the
rights to Fantastic Four. So this is them bringing them
into the universe.

Speaker 5 (01:34:28):
What was Fantastic Four before?

Speaker 6 (01:34:30):
Were they fdquote man know, X Men? Was Fox?

Speaker 5 (01:34:36):
Fantastic four before Marvel Let's see here, that would be well,
Marvel filed for a trademark for Fantastic Four in it
was Fox.

Speaker 6 (01:34:50):
Yeah, okay, just like X Men. How the MCU has back.

Speaker 7 (01:34:55):
Okay, because mind you, just like with Spider Man years ago,
Marvel sold all these they were not doing well. They
sold all these products. They've now been trying to get
them back. They now have X Men back, They're going
to be incorporated. They now have the Fantastic Four back,
which are going to be a big role for the
next fifteen years because now the new big bad replacing

(01:35:16):
the actor Pang Now it's Doctor Doom, who's obviously a
big Fantastic Four villain.

Speaker 6 (01:35:21):
This is where it's all going.

Speaker 5 (01:35:22):
What I think is interesting is they said this in
the nineteen sixties for now, So it gives a whole
story arc, well of possibilities. Do you do you want
me to tell you what I think's going to happen?

Speaker 6 (01:35:31):
Please?

Speaker 7 (01:35:31):
Well, the big bad in their universe, Galactus is going
to eat that world and they're going to escape.

Speaker 5 (01:35:36):
To the present time, and everybody else is just going
to die.

Speaker 6 (01:35:39):
Everyone on that world, that Earth.

Speaker 7 (01:35:42):
Oh I forgot about the multiverse thing. Yes, So essentially,
this big bad he's a planet eater. So the theory,
the long ongoing theory, is that this big bad Galactus
going to eat that Earth. The Fantastic Four in that
universe are going to what escape and come to our timeline.
I kind of don't like the multiverse because of that
way it's get real good.

Speaker 5 (01:36:03):
Well, see, here's the thing. There's no emotional investment.

Speaker 6 (01:36:06):
Sary dies.

Speaker 5 (01:36:06):
They're not really dead.

Speaker 6 (01:36:08):
Multi Robert down playing doctor doom Ah, They'll be emotion
all right.

Speaker 5 (01:36:13):
No, but but but what I'm saying is il Man
could come back and you have to face himself.

Speaker 6 (01:36:19):
Very possible.

Speaker 1 (01:36:19):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:36:20):
I don't love that there's emotions sad stuff. I think
the finality of a death is oh.

Speaker 6 (01:36:27):
There's still some finality, just you know, just not a lot,
not a lot of it right now?

Speaker 5 (01:36:32):
Uh, Mandy, I drive by twenty five between Colorado Springs
and Castle Rock a lot and get the blank scared
out of me about three quarters of the time. I
just keep asking if their mother knows they drive that way?
And isn't it always young men? Right? It's always young men.
It's never like old biker dudes. It's always young men. Mandy.
If you say anything at all, you get is flipped off. Well,

(01:36:55):
I've done my part, Mandy. Try twenty five north at
two am, thirty crotch rockets flying around at one hundred
miles an hour on both sides. Scares the crap out
of you, exactly. I think Marvel sold them to Fix
and Spider Man to Sony, Oh Fox. Okay. And apparently

(01:37:16):
Reid has an evil twin?

Speaker 3 (01:37:18):
What is that?

Speaker 8 (01:37:19):
What?

Speaker 4 (01:37:19):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:37:20):
What?

Speaker 7 (01:37:20):
Huh?

Speaker 5 (01:37:20):
If they read the comics, well yeah, I mean they
say evil that in the movie. I always wanted to
have an evil twin to just blame stuff on you.
Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (01:37:30):
Randy Cromwell, that's.

Speaker 5 (01:37:31):
My alter ego. Randy's not evil, just kind of.

Speaker 6 (01:37:36):
Randy is a bit evil. You're not here with Randy's here.
You don't know we have to deal with.

Speaker 5 (01:37:41):
Well, you're right, we're never in the same room at
the same time.

Speaker 6 (01:37:43):
We have to deal with Randy.

Speaker 8 (01:37:44):
We know.

Speaker 5 (01:37:44):
Yeah, yeah, but this texter said, I'm with you. Flipping
time zones, universes, et cetera. Feels like cheating. I mean,
maybe it'll work to be fair, though. They're not just
making it up. It's very heavily comic bass, so it's
not just pulling out of nowhere. Yeah, we shall see.

Speaker 6 (01:38:03):
Nowhere is a place.

Speaker 5 (01:38:05):
There's a new reason to visit Orlando. Universal Studios is
rolling out another park, So now they're gonna have five
Disney's got five. They've got five in a room hotel
for the Disney. Wait wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 7 (01:38:20):
Before I get to go make my lightsaber, I still
haven't done things like that. Okay, not everyone's the wine Yogi.
Can we wait until I get to go to some
of these be where they make more that I can?

Speaker 5 (01:38:28):
Have you not gone to Universal even in California and
then the Star Wars Land.

Speaker 7 (01:38:33):
No, I want to make a lightsaber. I know it
costs like five times as much as online, but correct,
I want to make a green lightsaber. Man, you can't
special order that.

Speaker 6 (01:38:41):
I want to do the experience. Oh okay, Like I.

Speaker 5 (01:38:44):
Don't want to take that away from you. I want
to take that away from you.

Speaker 6 (01:38:46):
I guarantee you it'll like go away before I get
to go do it?

Speaker 3 (01:38:48):
We so mad?

Speaker 6 (01:38:49):
No you won't, No, it won't.

Speaker 2 (01:38:50):
No.

Speaker 5 (01:38:50):
The Star Wars is too in trench. Now they have
a whole land.

Speaker 7 (01:38:53):
Yeah, Gocelin's gonna be in a new one. What oh yeah,
they're doing a standalone Star Wars film with Gossling.

Speaker 5 (01:39:00):
Who is he going to be?

Speaker 7 (01:39:02):
It's a standalone It's like totally unrelated to anything.

Speaker 6 (01:39:05):
It's after the latest trilogy. It's like a Starfighter thing.

Speaker 7 (01:39:08):
It's like a cool individual story, which in the last
ten years is where Star Wars is thrived doing those
cool standalone individual storytelling stories. And Ryan Gosling has been
announced in the new one.

Speaker 5 (01:39:20):
All right, there you go. Yeah, that's happening. No, this
actually looks really cool. I one of the coolest things
I've ever gotten to do because of this job. When
they opened up Universal Islands of Adventure, we got given
these cards by Universal that were basically we could go
to the park whenever we wanted before it opened because
for the last like I mean, I feel like it

(01:39:43):
was like two or three months, but it might have
just been like six weeks. They're up and running, They're
running all the rides right, they're they're testing, they're getting
everything working correctly. Which still when they opened that park
there were so much stuff that didn't work correctly. It
was a little bit insane. But we got these these
cards from being in the media and we could just
go to the park and ride rides during the day.
It was just like, hey, come on out. It was

(01:40:04):
the greatest perk of my life. It was fantastic, absolutely fantastic.
So I wonder if they did that with this one. This,
by the way, is the first traditional theme park to
open at Florida since nineteen ninety nine when Universal Islands
have Adventure debuted, And this year Universal is going big.
They're offering I guess free entry into their water parks now,

(01:40:28):
which if you've been to Universal in Orlando in July,
you know you need that water park because it is
hotter than you know what in the summer there in July.
Now interesting stuff though Disney at the same time, Disney
never well, they didn't used to. They never did, but

(01:40:48):
they do now. Disney is now offering ways for kids
to eat free if you stay at a Disney resort.
They're also oh no, it's Disney that's given the free
water park thing. So now when you go to check
into your hotel, you get a free day at the
water park on that day. So just on the check
and date, and probably so they have people not standing

(01:41:10):
around in the lobbies waiting for their rooms. Next year,
guests who purchased Disney dining plans for the adults will
get a free Disney dining plan for kids in the
same group, only kids three to nine, so my kids
have already aged out. Of course. Have you ever been
to Disney in Orlando? Have you ever been to Orlando? Yeah? Both, okay,

(01:41:33):
well yeah, I just wanted to make sure. Of course,
growing up in Florida, it was such a part of
my life that when I meet someone who's never been
to Disney World, I'm like, what, how's that possible?

Speaker 6 (01:41:41):
Oh yeah, my family lived close to Land in California.

Speaker 5 (01:41:44):
Oh yeah, yeah, well I didn't live close to the World,
but as soon as Disney World opened up in the
early seventies, that was like every school field trip was
to Disney World. Somebody asked me once how many times
I've been to Disney, and I was like, oh, I
don't know, probably over one hundred. Most of the time.
I should be clear, I did not pay to get

(01:42:06):
into Disney, because when you live in Orlando, you make
friends with someone who works at Disney, and then when
they're going to work, you're like, hey, Bud, can you
walk me in? And they walk you in on their
pass and you don't actually pay to go to Disney.
Those days are over for me. I gotta tell you,
I'm kind of mommed about it. Ryan Edwards, you ever
been to Disney World not Land?

Speaker 9 (01:42:26):
God, I want to. I've wanted to, but it's just
it's so much closer to go to Land.

Speaker 5 (01:42:32):
And you do realize, here's my fun fact for you,
that the entire disney Land experience can fit into the
parking lot of Epcot.

Speaker 6 (01:42:40):
You told me that, yep, yeah to me.

Speaker 5 (01:42:42):
In fact, you get on the tram.

Speaker 6 (01:42:43):
That's amazing.

Speaker 5 (01:42:43):
I heard that a few times at this stage in
your life, though, Like I would recommend going on the
adult Disney experience, which is you drink around the world
in the World Showcase and everybody starts to the right,
you're gonna start to the left. Okay, you're gonna start
in Mexico and you're gonna go backwards because all the
drunk people end up in Mexico with.

Speaker 6 (01:43:04):
Fish.

Speaker 5 (01:43:05):
Yeah, I got a million of them.

Speaker 6 (01:43:07):
It's a good one.

Speaker 5 (01:43:08):
Yeah, some stupid things around Disney. I'm your girl.

Speaker 9 (01:43:11):
Well, if I end up going to World at some point,
I will absolutely hit you up. But it's just up
to this point. We we talked about it and then
we go, I'm a California' so close and it's such
a short flight and we'll just see.

Speaker 6 (01:43:21):
Well, just go out there. We know, we know those
parks and we're good.

Speaker 5 (01:43:24):
Yeah, totally totally different. Mandy never been to either one,
probably never will, is zero desire.

Speaker 8 (01:43:29):
I get it.

Speaker 5 (01:43:29):
But I'm still shocked somehow because growing up in Florida,
you just go, you just go to Disney. Oh you
don't want to go, you're going anywhere.

Speaker 6 (01:43:35):
Those lines so appealing.

Speaker 5 (01:43:38):
My brother and sister in law are hardcore Disney fans,
and even they have been like Disney has ruined the
magic at the parks, so they're trying to get that
back now. But they put too many people in there.
They made it.

Speaker 9 (01:43:49):
Yeah. My biggest thing is is the rides that randomly
shut down for long periods of time.

Speaker 6 (01:43:54):
That that for me is the bigger deal because you
have the Genie.

Speaker 9 (01:43:58):
Pass which kind of gets you from spot to spot
and you can sort of put your day.

Speaker 5 (01:44:01):
The secret Ryan that whatever ride you're trying to get
on that has broken down or you know, has a
history of breaking down, you go to the end of
the line where everybody's coming out through the little store
right there, you know what we're talking about, and you
walk up to a Disney employee and say, hey, we
were here last year and this ride broke down after
we waited in line for an hour and a half
and they told us to come tell you that and

(01:44:21):
they will take you right to the front of the line.
I'm just letting you know what what I've heard on
the street. Oh yeah, wow, Universal Studios, it works even better. Okay,
now it's time for the most exciting segment all the
radio guy in the world of the day.

Speaker 10 (01:44:39):
All right, what is our dad joke of the day? Please, Anthony,
smoking will kill you. Bacon will kill you, but smoking
bacon will cure it.

Speaker 5 (01:44:48):
Oh I like that.

Speaker 10 (01:44:50):
Good.

Speaker 6 (01:44:50):
That's a good one.

Speaker 5 (01:44:51):
I've been eating uncured, unsugared bacon trying to find one
that actually tastes like bacon, and I think I found one,
and I'm pretty excited.

Speaker 6 (01:44:57):
Yeah, turkey bacon's better.

Speaker 7 (01:44:59):
But whatever word of the is an adjective adjective taciturn
t a c I t u are in.

Speaker 5 (01:45:06):
Turn serious and like a kind of a snarly face,
a serious face. No, shoot, not quite.

Speaker 9 (01:45:14):
You can stuck in like tacit but like like quieter.

Speaker 7 (01:45:17):
I don't know, describe someone who tends to be quiet
or who tends to speak infrequently, very.

Speaker 5 (01:45:22):
Nice, ha ha. Ryan's never been called taciturn anyway. In
Norse mythology, who is the goddess of youth and rejuvenation?
I don't know the answer to this.

Speaker 6 (01:45:35):
I don't Okay, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:45:38):
Uh I din' i d u n idden. I didn't.
By some accounts, I didn't have fruits that would grant
immortality when eaten. Huh So I will never actually be
immortal because it's a fruit and it will not eat that. Okay.
What is our jeopardy category?

Speaker 2 (01:45:54):
Get hip?

Speaker 6 (01:45:55):
Means hip is in every answer? Okay, during prohibici.

Speaker 7 (01:46:00):
It was someone who wore a hip flask, not ironic
T shirts and skinny gny.

Speaker 6 (01:46:05):
What's the hipster that is correct?

Speaker 3 (01:46:06):
Well?

Speaker 7 (01:46:07):
Forward phrase meaning to make a snap decision or to
fire without aiming, Ryan, Ryan?

Speaker 6 (01:46:14):
What is shoot from hip that is correct?

Speaker 3 (01:46:16):
I like that.

Speaker 7 (01:46:17):
A TV commercial for this kid's game around since the
seventies said we're in an eating race, Ryan, Ryan?

Speaker 6 (01:46:25):
What is hungary hungry hippop?

Speaker 1 (01:46:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:46:27):
Get out?

Speaker 5 (01:46:28):
I was like a full blank, I got nothing.

Speaker 7 (01:46:30):
Hope you went to school on this seahorse shaped region
of the brain.

Speaker 5 (01:46:36):
Mandy, what's the hippocampus that is correct?

Speaker 3 (01:46:37):
That too too?

Speaker 7 (01:46:38):
I go A popular modern version of this says above all,
I must not play at god, Mandy.

Speaker 5 (01:46:46):
What is the hippocratic host that is.

Speaker 6 (01:46:50):
For hippie to be in there? True?

Speaker 3 (01:46:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:46:53):
I feel like hipster was as close as.

Speaker 6 (01:46:56):
Zero's game.

Speaker 5 (01:46:57):
I know, amazing, Gosh, it's like we know are doing okay.
You know what I just want to say, could we
find two players with harder to say names to be
the m v P finalist for the NBA? Can we
just buy a vowel?

Speaker 6 (01:47:11):
I want to Aron g a joker?

Speaker 5 (01:47:14):
Yeah, I tried to say that I tried to say
s gs and I literally didn't put the story on
the blog in case someone asked me to say his name.

Speaker 6 (01:47:23):
I was like, no, s g As, you know who
s g could you just know s g as Alexander.

Speaker 5 (01:47:30):
S g A is who I'm saying. I'm just sticking
with that. Going to talk about s g A today
on the show.

Speaker 9 (01:47:36):
Gil Alexander and yes we are, they're gonna talk about
him because the Thunder, who I've been saying is a
very good team for a while.

Speaker 10 (01:47:42):
The Thunder and Dave David kills before they just absolutely
But the thing is is for that m v P race,
he didn't need to play all that well. He didn't
actually play all that well.

Speaker 9 (01:47:53):
Versus, if Nicola Yokush had the same stat line that
s g A had in that game, the Nuggets will
lose that game correct by a sizable amount. So right there,
plains day game one of the playoffs. Both guys made
their case for the MVP, even though that Royce is
technically over is very clearly Joker.

Speaker 5 (01:48:12):
Very clearly. And you'll hear more of that on KOA
Sports coming up next. I'll be back tomorrow. We have
another full show that's right, another full show tomorrow. We
gotta got a less shorter win it later in the week,
but tomorrow we'll be back for a full show. Keep
it right here on Kowa