02-19-26 FULL SHOW - Medicaid Growth Is Killing Our Budget

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Welcome, welcome, welcome to a Thursday episode of the show. I'm your host for the next three hours, Mandy Connell, joined, of course, by my right-hand man. He's Anthony Rodriguez. We call him a rod. And together we will take you right up until 3 p.m. when we turn the station over to those sports kids in the afternoon. But boy, do we have a lot of stuff to talk about. Just confirmed a second guest for the show today. We'll get into that as we talk about the blog. Find the blog at mandiesblog.com. That's mandiesblog.com. Look for the headline in the latest post section. This says two 1926 blog. Medicaid growth is killing our budget. Click on that, and here are the headlines you will find within. Oh, God. Good evening, Mr. Mr. North and South American. All the ships and clips are at sea. Let's go to France plans. Today on the blog. time to roll back Medicaid growth. Why Aurora can't have nice things? What the heck, Hershey's? War with Iran is coming. I did not have the Andrew formerly known as Prince getting arrested on my bingo card. China is destroying ocean ecology. Colorado Dems want to dampen the big beautiful bill tax cuts. Why did Palantir really leave Colorado? Democrats want to gerrymander all the seats for themselves. Be careful what you wish for, avail. RIP Neil Dallin. and we just leave stars alone. The case for data centers, the downsides of the upside of AI usage. John Cleese gets red-pilled on Islam. Is it time to let some friendships go? The worst food in every state isn't wrong. Canada cheats at curling. Shelby Harris is a pothead. They would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids. Wind turbine for the win. An affordable tiny home could work for some. The UN says Epstein is bad. Another fantastic commercial. What is a Carbonaro effect? An indoor dog band has been proposed. Those are the headlines on the blog at Mandy's blog.com. Tick, tack, the toe. A winner. That was a flawless performance. I thought Nancy was going to screw me over there for a second. But then she came in with the winner. She thought about it. Yep. Thought about it. Not as flawless as some of the performances at the Olympics that have been happening. Okay, A-Rod, do you watch the half-pipe competition? I do. I do. Okay, so Chuck and I are watching it last night. And I'm watching it. Like, I'm paying attention. I'm watching this. And, like, halfway through, the announcers are like, oh, that was the best run ever. Honestly? With the exception of like two tricks, does everything just look the same to the untrained eye? Because they're doing all these things. And the announcers are like, oh my God. And I am like, didn't he just do that? I mean, don't get me wrong. It's impressive. This is the Olympics. But do you know what they're actually doing? Can you tell the difference? I typically can't tell. But the only thing I will say is you can definitely tell.

90% of the difference between 90% of the writers and then the elite ones like when Sean White was doing it back in the day Chloe Kim was doing it for the US now you just see that extra umph usually it's extra air which allows for like extra tricks and it just looks more impressive other than that the rest of the field it's either hey you did great with some tricks or you fell like there's not a lot of other difference for me there was an australian guy that had an amazing run it was his last chance and he did everything great until the last trick and then he fell on his butt but the japanese guy dude went up above the half pipe 19.5 feet Think about that. He came out of the half pipe and went up 20 feet. That's incredible. But the trick he did while he was doing that, I got no clue. And they had the dumbest names. Like, look at the 580 butter britches. I mean, they're just, they make no sense. The flippity floppity going up the side. Oh my gosh. And they did the walkibazoo. Whoa. And he's goofy. Put it. And you're like, what are we talking about? I have no idea what language this is in. The thing I notice every Olympics, Winter Olympics in the half pipe, is the more average riders that don't get enough air, always try to compensate for that lack of air that the elite ones do. And they try to do one too many tricks and always fall. That's always how it goes. Like, oh gosh, I need to get X amount of points to at least have a chance at like bronze. And they do one too many tricks, don't get nearly the right amount of rotation, and boom on their butt they go. Correct. Always. Now, have you, are you up to date on the newest scandal out of the Olympics? You know, we covered the Norwegian ski jumping situation. Yeah. But now we have curling gate, okay? The Canadians, those shady-ass Canadians from up north, they got caught doing something called a double touch. What it is is they release the stone, right? Like the guy who's doing the kneeling and he's releasing the stone. And after he released it, he gives a little nudge with his finger, like a little tiny poke like that. That is illegal. Now, here's where it gets good. Did you hear how the Canadian team responded, Anthony? The live one I saw, I haven't seen, because they can't really see the video until after the fact. Right. So I haven't heard the response. The Canadian curler and the coach accused Sweden of setting up cameras to catch them cheating. Can I give you, and I wish I could give credit to the TikToker, can I give you the best analogy for this? Oh, please. This is if, so you said they were playing Sweden, right? This Sweden. So, Sweden, filming the thing, which you can't do to prove that Canada is doing it, this as, this is if.

Instead of being caught for deflategate, they call out SpyGate, being the Patriots. Exactly. It's perfect. It's literally perfect. Yeah, exactly. So Canada has been called out. And Sweden, by the way, is like, yeah, we did. Yeah, we did set up cameras because you guys have been cheating for like eight years and we wanted to bust you and we did. Did you hear the other gate that this is being called? Oh, no. They're calling it Boop Gate. Boop gate. Boop gate is my favorite gate. There's no better gate than boop cake right there. That is fantastic. So that's the scandal. I've got that on the blog today. Stupid cheaters. I hate cheaters. What I'm trying to understand, I haven't heard anyone discuss what the... advantage to doing that is because I feel like you do all the you do the maneuvering of the rock before you hit the line and then you chuck it in a certain way with a certain turn wouldn't your finger potentially not just I think that's why I think it's there to correct or maybe give it a little more spin or just you know give it a little nudge it or stop it from spinning but how in that like quarter of a second between your initial release and the boot Can you tell what you need to do with the boot? Well, maybe if you release it and there's no spin, because if you watch, when they release the rock, the rock immediately starts to spin very slowly, right? That's part of the strategy is like, okay, we're going to use that. Kind of like a bowling ball. Like, you know, really good bowlers. They can curve that ball. I am not that kind of bowler, but you know what I'm talking about. And maybe that little boop is just that. correction to whatever he realized after he released the rock that he had done wrong. Well, every other curling team has a right to be mad, but Sweden kind of lost its luster by doing something you also can't do. So it's like, you know. What do they do? Well, Sweden, in their spy gate, the camera that they have down the line is what you can't do. That camera angle, to my knowledge, that's what I heard is Sweden's being caught by filming that angle. that you can't have. This is one of those situations where I'd rather be tried by six than carried by six kind of thing. Like I'd rather just say, you know what? We're sick of their cheating. You're not paying attention. You're not doing your job. We're going to catch it and we're going to just live with the ramifications of that. I would rather do that. I'd rather be the one who was exposing cheating in a way that did not impact the match. Sweden's camera did not impact the match at all. So I have no beef with sweet. But you can't do it. And like, but here's the thing. You know what Canada would say would be you were set up to film before I did it. Because they knew they were going to do it. You might have a history of doing it, but in that instance, it could have not happened, and then Sweden would only be in the wrong. But Sweden would have never released the video if they hadn't done it. Both are bad. Both are bad. Canada's more to blame, for sure, by a lot. Who knew curling could be this cutthroat? I love curling. So, you know, like people are going to slash people outside the curling, whatever it's called, center thing, whatever. The double touch, the boop. Yes, Boop Gate.

26 is on. Now, we've got a couple guests coming on today. The first one is Greg Darjean, but I'm not sure he's got a French last name. I'm going to confirm how to say his last name. But he is one of the great fellows at the Common Sense Institute. And they did a really interesting study on Medicaid. And though they dug in and found out a lot of information, I have questions about about other things they may or may not have dug into. So we're going to talk to him at 230 about the fact that Medicaid is now the largest budget line in our state budget. And it's not even close. Medicaid spending has doubled since 2016. Doubled. Gone up 100%. It is absolutely unsustainable. And initially I was like, well, it's because they let so many people on the rolls. Well, guess what? In the last year, a couple hundred thousand people got knocked off, and now we're back down to the same levels in 2015 with double the size of the budget. Now, I know some things cost a lot of money. Like there are certain drugs that cost a lot of money. Hospitalization costs a lot of money. And I'd like to know a little bit more about where those actual dollars are going. Like where is the medical inflation really hitting? Medical inflation, by the way, is out of control. And it's out of control because of incentives in Obamacare that essentially have incentivized hospital systems into buying everything and completely eliminating competition. There's no competition now because big hospital systems have bought everything. And don't get me wrong, I don't have any ill will towards large hospital systems, but when they buy up every single doctor's office so you cannot escape them and then they funnel you to the people that they want you to go regardless of whether or not they're a good doctor, that's just my personal experience. I don't like it. They're eliminating our choices, not the government, these hospital systems. I'm all for injecting more free market, not less, and Obamacare incentivize less free market. We'll talk to Greg about that at 2.30. We just confirmed Representative Scott Bottoms. He has been in the news the last couple of days for a couple of reasons. One, you may have heard the story that Chad just did, where he alleged that the House of Representatives is full of pedophiles. But that's not why we're bringing him on the show today. He introduced a bill, which I'm sure is going to be shot down, to mandate life sentences for child molesters. And this is... Scott's issue. Scott's issue is human trafficking and child trafficking. These are the things that make the man tick. And don't get me wrong. I am not opposed to those being issues that are incredibly important, but he's making accusations that as far as I know, he has not backed up in any significant way. And in this election cycle, I am just not interested in people making grandiose claims and then not backing them up with any kind of evidence, which is one of the reasons I am not pro Victor Marx. I had on the blog yesterday, Victor Marx is the George Santos of West Moors. Now, what does that even mean?

You may remember George Santos. He was elected to the House of Representatives out of the great state of New York after lying about everything. I mean everything. The man fabricated an entire history for himself. He fabricated college degrees. He fabricated all of these things. But because he was an articulate gay man, which is a novelty in the Republican Party being gay in the Republican Party, all the Republican voters were like, yes, he's our guy. We're going to beat them at the identity politics and no one did any checking. No one asked for verification. Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, has now been found to also be a complete liar. Has lied about everything. Has lied about receiving medals in the military. Has lied about graduating from college. Has lied about being inducted into a Hall of Fame that doesn't exist. Has lied about growing up in Baltimore. Has lied about everything. And yet, he got elected governor because no one bothered to check. So I just want backup for anything that any candidate says. Just... Provide me some kind of documentation. That's all I'm asking. I don't think that's crazy. I'm not going to get fooled again, and I hope you don't either. Now, Scott is coming on at 2 o'clock to talk about his bill, which again, I know is going to go nowhere because the Democrats, for some reason, love to coddle child molesters. I also have several things on the blog that are very, very important. I believe, and I've talked about this in the past couple of days. I think by this time next week, we are at war in Iran. That is my prediction. We'll get to that in a moment because I have a far more important story that I need to get into, onto the record right now. Arod, they're messing with the formula for Hershey's peanut butter cups. I mean, excuse me, Reese's peanut butter cups. Are they making them healthier? No. They're making them with cheaper ingredients. How do I know? Brad Reese. The grandson of the founder of Reese's, which was purchased by Hershey's back in the 1960s, has been making lots of hay on LinkedIn, accusing Hershey's of replacing milk chocolate and peanut butter with, what is it, milk chocolate coating and peanut butter cream. And one of his notes, he says, how does the Hershey Company continue to position Reese's as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, quality, and leadership while quietly replacing the very ingredients, milk chocolate and peanut butter that built Reese's trust in the first place? How can we let this happen? Well, first of all, I think you just solved a decades-long debate. Can you, uh...

Pronounce Brad's last name again, please? Reese. Uh-huh. So would that mean that it's not how you said, Reese's? Because then he would be Brad Reese's and then to be the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, but since he's Brad Reese. The Reese's peanut butter cup. Don't care. Oh, my. Don't care. Oh, my. Straight up, don't care. You got cotton 4K. We now know how to pronounce it. Wait, Aaron, I don't care. That's the other part of this. I don't care. I've been saying it that way since childhood. I will continue to say it that way. Every single person in the South says it the same way. You're wrong, though. I'll admit that I have a different take on the thing. How about that? Sure. Wrong is in the eye of the beholder. Okay? I mean, if wrong was a pronunciation could be declared wrong, then we would look at Houston Street in New York City. Houston, spelled Houston, they say Houston. You're allowed to say things a different way if you want. You are. You really are. Okay. I just wanted to know, I have pretty much given up Reese's peanut butter cups. I've swapped in skinny dipped, dark chocolate peanut butter cups, which are amazing, and they have almost no sugar in them. But I wanted to know if any of you had noticed a difference. Is this something we need to make hay over? Should there be made hay? That's my question. Reese's, ha, ha, sounds like the South is wrong. I get it. I get it. Mandy, I just gasped when you said that Reese's are changing. Also, via Google? Reese's peanut butter. I don't, I don't, but you're missing the point here. I don't care. I just want to make sure in confirmation. I do not care what they say. They also say it's milk, chocolate, and peanut butter, which is a lie, isn't it? Isn't it? Anyway, Mandy. Goofy foot on a snowboard means right foot is forward. Regular foot is left foot forward. But it's a silly name. You have to admit, right? You have to admit. Just saying. Yeah. Mandy, I would not be surprised if the money is going to health systems like the money in Minnesota was going to leering centers talking about our Medicaid stuff. Our Medicaid system, from what I'm seeing in this study from the Common Sense Institute, is actually better monitored than I thought. Not perfectly, and there are lots of suggestions to make it better, but it is better monitored than I thought it has. So there you go. Nobody has said they've noticed a difference, but everybody's like, thank you for correcting her, Arod. Well, here's the thing. I don't care. I don't care. Right before I die, I'm going to be on my deathbed. I'm going to be laying there and talking to angels. And I'm going to be like, and one more thing. It's Reese's. And then I'm just going to and die. That's your final words. And no one will be able to correct me after that.

Unless I get to the pearly Bill Gates and he's like, yeah, Mandy, it was Reese's. We'll be back after this. Mandy, so you don't care how Reese's is pronounced? No, I do not. I do not. Mandy, I've recently seen videos regarding the creamy center in lint chocolates is actually made of vegetable shortening rather than ganache. I also saw a post about some chocolate candies that no longer are able to be classified as chocolates because they've taken out too much cocoa to qualify being a chocolate candy. That is what's happened to some of the Hershey products in the UK. They don't have enough chocolate in them. So now they are a milk chocolate covering. I think it's what they're calling it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Mandy, a couple of questions about what Barb Barb Kirkmeyer has said over the last two weeks. Last week, she said a legislator said the government doesn't have nice things because of Tabor. What nice things do they want that they don't have? She said that four legislators are again pushing the trans bill or a variation of it. Did she say which four? If so, are they trans themselves? I don't need to know the names. I mean, I'm assuming that... Tatiana Brione, Rione, Tatiana, what, I, the only trans lawmaker would probably be on that as well. So, Mandy, how do you pronounce it? PECES. Yes, Reese's PECES. There you go. How do you pronounce feces? Feces. What about recess? That's a totally different word. Why are you even bothering me with that? Wine Yogi weighs in. I also say Reese's the way you do, Mandy, like a proper Southern woman. Bless Arod's heart. So being Southern means you'd be wrong? I mean, what? Uh-huh. Okay. All right. We just do things differently down there. I mean, you at least admit you're wrong, so that's good. I just don't care. No, I know, but that's good. Mandy doesn't pronounce cutter properly either correctly. Who does? And they change it every five minutes. That's different. Like every five minutes, someone is like, no, it's Qatar. No, it's Qatar. No, I don't care. I don't care. Do not care about that. So, sorry about that. Anyway, moving on. What was that? Like, GIF and GIF. But hasn't the guy who invented a GIF said it was a GIF? I can't remember which way it goes, and I don't want to look it up because I also, too, don't want to be wrong. But you don't care, though, really? You're going to keep saying it the way you want to say it. Yeah, that one I don't care because it's always been GIF. Yeah. Yeah. Mandy, I heard the Girl Scout cookies are made out of Real Girl Scouts. No, they're not.

No, they're not. We already established that. Okay, I don't want to jump into the war with Iran thing yet because that is a big story that we're going to go through. I do want to jump in to the shock that I felt this morning when I woke up and I saw that Andrew, formerly known as Prince, got arrested. What? I've never in my lifetime been aware, and I'm not saying it hasn't happened. But I've never been aware of a member of the royal family who has been arrested like a commoner. And oh boy, he was arrested like a commoner. But here's the part of the story that I think is more interesting than that. And that is he's been arrested because apparently in the Epstein files, there are emails that Prince Andrew forwarded to Jeffrey Epstein about... state business in different countries, like, you know, after they go on a state visit, then they come back and they do a report on what happened. And he was forwarding that information to Jeffrey Epstein. And the first thing I thought of is, why? What? What was Jeffrey Epstein doing with it? And who else forwarded in things? Here's what I think is going on with the Epstein files. And I've said this. I've said this many, many, many times already. I think by the time the Epstein files got to the Trump DOJ, they had been, let's just say, cleaned up a bit. And I'm sure that very powerful people were removed from the files in a way. I'm sure. So what does this mean? Now, it means that people like Prince Andrew, who was already known to be an associate of Jeffrey Epstein, lots of photos of him on the island, one of him that's super creepy of him on all fours, like this girl's lying on the floor, her face is blacked out because she was one of the women that was trafficked. And he's kind of like over her looking up at the camera. What even is that? So we already knew he was a creep. But now I really want to know, why was he forwarding those to Jeffrey Epstein? What was Jeffrey Epstein doing with that information? I think it's more and more... likely in my view. And this is one of those conspiracy theories that everybody's going to say, oh my God, Mandy, stop until like 10 years from now where everybody's like, oh my gosh, did you guys know that Jeffrey Epstein was like a double agent for multiple governments? There's just too much about this guy that we don't know and that doesn't make sense. How do you go from being a math tutor? at a prestigious private school to being a billionaire who hangs out with princes, who then send him state secret information. How does that even happen? That's the part of the story I want to know about. I mean, that's the info that I would like to know. Mandy, when you say formerly known as Prince, I think of the singer, you saw what I did there. I did that on purpose. Anyway.

I love Reese's peanut butter cups and the Mindy McDonald's show from a texter. Thank you so much. You can always text the Common Spirit Health Text Line at 56690, especially if you're going to continue with great comedy like that. Mandy, I agree with your pronunciation. I myself love a Snikers bar. Yeah, I'm a big fan of Cranch. Cranch is pretty good. Oh, man. Anyway, Mandy. Almond J is also very good. Yeah, you got to be fancy with Alman J. Mandy, I don't think Prince got arrested. I think Andrew got arrested. He's no longer a Prince. You're the loss, that title. And to get them confused with the prince, the singer, oh my lord. No, what I said was, I did not have Andrew formerly known as Prince getting arrested on my bingo card because he was formerly a prince. He is no longer. He has had all of his titles stripped already. And boy, Charles III is basically like, yeah, we're going to let the legal process work out on this one. Yuck. Maybe a creep is one thing. A traitor is probably worse. Now, we don't know. exactly what the documents in question were. I mean, people are saying, well, they were, actually, I guess people do because they're in the release. But they could be, I mean, arguably they could be insider trading, right? It could just be that Jeffrey Epstein was like, hey, man, I'm looking for an edge here, I'm looking to do a little investing. I need to know what that meeting was about, so I know where to put my money. It could have been that, which is still scumbaggy as well, right? It's just scumbaggy. But I don't know if he was like selling out the country on purpose, right? You have no idea. Mandy, why do people think we ever get any kind of disclosure from the government that isn't so redacted? It is a clear waste of printer toner. Again. Again, yes. Mandy, I'm more concerned as to why the prince was arrested for insider trading and not abusing underage women. Because that, I guess, did not happen on UK soil. So, yeah, there you go. There you go. So that story I was not ready for today. So there's a lot of scuttle, but I was looking through British media, like looking through the tabloids and everything this morning. There's a lot of people to say, out of everything that the monarchy has been through, this could be the thing that ends the monarchy in the UK. That would be something. I mean, at least Andrew would be remembered for something. Hey, Mandy, break me off a piece of that KipKat bar. There's no pee in KitKat. There's clearly a Reese's in Reese's. I'm just saying. I'm just throwing that out there. Anyway, let's do this quick time out. And then when we come back, I'm going to talk about something we've never talked about before very briefly, but I want to sort of bring it to your attention. If you're not aware of how China is absolutely destroying ocean ecology, you need to listen up. Because this is significant, especially if you are a seafood eater. We will be back after this with that. Do you pronounce the actress as Recy Witherspoon? I will from now on. Got to commit. If this is what it takes for me to...

Prove that I try very hard to be consistent. I'm in. And I love Recy's work. I love her. She's fantastic. So I want to direct your attention to an article on the blog, and I went and found a video that I watched from an organization called The Outlaw Ocean Project. I first became aware of China's ocean ecological terrorism, as I'm going to call it. And hear me out before you tell me, I'm crazy. China has these massive, and I mean massive fishing ships. And they bring in these fleets of fishing ships. And recently they've been around the... the coast of Argentina and Peru. And what they do is they sit just outside the waters that are controlled by these various nations. And they absolutely plunder the ocean. They take all the fish. I didn't realize until I watched this video that China also controls a lot of the seafood processing and things of that nature. And they don't care about wiping out entire fish populations, which is what they've done around China, which is why they're now in the South Pacific, why they're around South America. And because they are just outside the boundary in international waters, there's nothing that the nations, that they are decimating their fishing populations, there's nothing they can do about it. Well, now Japan, and it's not just Japan, there's been other countries, they're starting to seize these massive Chinese fishing boats. And Japan and China are having a moment. Now, Japan's new president is very conservative, extremely conservative. And she essentially was like, you know what, you come in our water, and we're going to take your boat. And that's what they're doing. Taiwan. China is messing with Taiwan really, really badly. And one of the rays that they're doing it is they're sending fleets of fishing boats into Taiwanese waters to harass Taiwanese fishermen. China is just, they've been doing things and we've not been paying attention. But they're basically trying to bully and extort their way into a position of dominance over every other nation. And now they're just doing it to the ocean. They really are. And it's sad. And I think I'm sensitive to this because growing up in Florida, I don't know if you guys remember this, but back in maybe 1980, one or two. Around that time frame, a new dish took the country by storm because of Cajun food. So Paul Prudome became famous as a Cajun cook, and he made blackened redfish a dish on every restaurant in the country. Okay, now redfish used to be very prevalent.

in the part of the panhandle where we used to go fishing almost every weekend. As a matter of fact, one of my favorite memories of all time was I was about 10 years old and it was February. So it was cold, not like it gets here, but it was cold and it was damp cold. But we got into an absolute mess of redfish and we caught like 150 fish in one day. Most fish I've ever caught in my entire life. So... All of a sudden, literally overnight, the redfish just disappeared. Because all the commercial fishermen came in when they became a hot property in all the restaurants and just wiped out the entire population. And the state of Florida's idiotic response was to limit... people like us, like recreational fisher people. You know what I mean? And by the way, we either ate or gave away every single one of those fish. Okay, we did not just fish. I mean, I have been sport fishing in my life, but at that point in my life, we ate what we caught. We ate every one of those fish. But they limited just, you know, regular fishermen. They didn't limit the commercial fishermen who had wiped out the entire population. Now, I'm a big seafood eater. And I am very concerned about this. I'm very concerned that China's going to be allowed to do this. And international waters being what international waters are, there's got to be... some kind of naval maritime rules about things like this instead of having all these nations trying to fight back against these massive fishing boats. The first time I ever saw these fishing boats was there was a guy who was filming them from his small boat. He was off the coast of, I want to say Peru, but maybe he was off the coast of Argentina or Brazil. I'm not sure. But as soon as he got closed, now, you have to imagine, when I say a huge fleet, I'm talking like 30, 40 massive ships, okay, that are hundreds of feet long. They have hundreds of lines coming off the side of these massive fishing boats, and they're a commercial operation. They are nonstop 24 hours a day, and this guy got close enough, and when he got close enough to where he could videotape them well, all of a sudden, all the lights on all the ships went out. So they know what they're doing is wrong. They absolutely know it. So yeah, the video is fascinating. Watch it. Super interesting. When we get back, I'm going to share with you my theory about why we're going to be at war with Iran in the next week. We'll do that next. Keep it on K-O-A. The Mandy Connell show is sponsored by Bell and Pollock accident and injury lawyers. Now it's Mandy Connell.

94-1 FM. Welcome to the second hour of the show. It's a Thursday. I'm Mandy. He's A-Rod. And this is the Mandy Connell Show. Now, I want to start out this hour by talking about something that I believe is going to be a very big deal. And I am going to be honest. I am finding myself in a very inconsistent position. Because... I'm sure many of you, as I did, learned a lot from the Iraq and Afghanistan 20-year slog fest that we got involved in based on the information that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. I learned a lot from that. I learned a lot watching it. I learned a lot just in general. And since then, I had become more and more and more non-interventionist in my thinking. But there are certain situations where I find myself cheering the sort of anti-war war that Donald Trump likes to engage in. And I'm going to use this as an example. When we blew up the Iranian nuclear facilities and the Israelis helped blow up the Iranian air defense systems, but then that was it. I was like, okay, I like it. I like it. In out, nobody gets hurt. I mean, Iranians got hurt, but whatever, it's fine. But now, I'm looking at what's happening in Iran, and I'm trying to see it from the full worldview. To a certain extent, this is about Israel, but it's not about Israel as the main component, right? Israel is kind of, let me use these analogies. Israel is kind of the head of our snake in the Middle East. Iran is the other head of the snake that is fomenting and funding violence, not just in the Middle East, but all over the world. The Iranian regime has funded terror organizations that have murdered Americans, many Americans. We just, we don't talk about it, right? We don't talk about it. But yeah, the Iranian regime has been responsible for many, many American deaths. So that's thing number one. The Iranian regime is also funding. A lot of these terror, all of these terror organizations. I have an article on the blog today that Hamas, which was absolutely decimated, and I use that word on purpose, not just because I think I know what it means. It actually means we killed like 90% of the Hamas fighters. Hamas is making a comeback in Gaza. Yeah, you heard me right. Hamas is trying to reassert themselves as the government.

Because Amasa is not just a terror organization. They were also the government of Gaza. So four months on, this is from the BBC, four months on, Gaza and say Hamas is again extending its control over security, tax revenue, and government services, raising questions about its long-term strategy and whether it is prepared to give up its weapons and authority as now required under the second stage of Donald Trump's peace plan. Now, if Hamas is going around to the people in the Gaza Strip who are trying to get some semblance of a normal life again, There's now food and goods coming in from Israel. People are able to shop. They're shopkeepers. People are doing trade. And Hamas is shaking down the shopkeepers and demanding high taxes for the privilege of being able to sell in Gaza. Do you really think that sounds like an organization that is going to give up its power and authority and its weapons? Let's also not forget that Hamas was the one who said they would do October 7th again and again and again until every Jew was dead. That's the Israel angle. But let's not forget that the Iranian parliament, oh let's see, it was so long ago, oh last week, all got together in their parliament to burn the American flag while chanting death to America. Now, I don't know about you. But I learned a long time ago when people say exactly what they want to do, you would do well to pay attention. If we were able to destroy the Iranian regime, and Iran is a little bit different than Iraq and Afghanistan and even what's happening in Venezuela, because there is a concerted opposition to the Iranian regime inside Iran.

If we can go in and strategically annihilate the Iranian Guard and the Iranian Mullahs, there is a good chance. that a less crazy bit of leadership could take over in Iran and bring them back into the world's embrace, right? That is a real possibility because that framework is existing right now. One of the reasons, and I didn't understand it when they came in and they arrested Nicholas Maduro, and then they left his entire administration. They're like, oh, we'll leave you guys alone right now as long as you play ball with us. But the reality is, if they pulled everybody out of Venezuela, it would have collapsed and become another failed state. And nobody wants that. And we don't want a failed state in Iran. But just in case you think that we're the ones doing the saber rattling, this week the Iranians have shut down the Strait of Hormuz, which is an incredibly important trade route that cuts off thousands and thousands of miles for tankers coming in and out of that area. They're firing live fire at U.S. ships. Now, I'm not quite sure what you think you're going to get there. But I will say this. The Iranian mullahs have been in charge for 50 years. And in the last 50 years, I think right now we are the best positioned to take out this regime. And when we take out this regime, we take out funding for Hamas. Funding for the Houthis, funding for Hezbollah, and we cut off the head of the snake in such a way that it will be much, much, much harder for organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis to recover. Now, what's interesting about this is I also believe that if the U.S. isn't going to do this, Israel is. Israel also recognizes all those things I just said about the timing. There's never been a better time. They have no air defenses. They have no nuclear program. Why are you going to give them time to rearm and re-up? That's the question. But do I want boots on the ground in Iran? No, I do not. Do I want any kind of extended conflict where the United States of America is supposed to go in a nation build? No, I do want. I don't. I want to go back to the War of Olden days. The War of Olden days where we went in, killed everybody, and then said, we declare victory and dictated the terms from that point forward. That's what I want. I don't feel any compulsion to go in and try and rebuild Gaza even. That's not my problem. I mean, it's your problem that you decided to go after a much stronger opponent and you got annihilated because of it. Sorry about your luck. Sorry, sorry who you voted for there. You're bad. But this has really put me in a difficult position because I never thought I would ever sit here and say, yeah, we could do this and I'd be okay with it.

I'd like to know what victory looks like in this case. Remember when George W. Bush stood on that aircraft carrier in front of that big banner, mission accomplished, and then it went on for like 17 more years? That is what I don't want. I want clearly defined goals, clearly defined objectives, and clearly defined things that, okay, we're going to do this, this, and this, and then we're going away. I do think that the Iranian people would be heartened enough if we made a significant strike against the Iranian guard and the leadership of Iran. I think they would be heartened enough that they would step up, be grateful for our help. And I never thought, I know that sounds so stupid after what we saw in Iraq. I know this. We all expected we would be, you know, welcome like heroes. But I think, again, this is a different situation. I'm just curious as to what you guys think. 56690 is the number. I'm genuinely torn by this. I'm going to be honest. If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of the Iranian regime, 100% I would do it. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about, you know, young men and women from the United States of America who are once again going to be put in harm's way to go after a regime that... You know, some would say we've contained them. We've set their nuclear program back years and years and years. Well, I read something a couple of days ago. There's another mountain, and their mountains in Iran aren't real mountains like our mountains are, but they have a mountain in Iran. They're already drilling down to create another nuclear program deeper than the one they had before. Why would they do that if they're pursuing nuclear power for peaceful purposes? You have to be a fool, an absolute fool. to believe that Iran is going to honor a nuclear deal in any way, shape, or form. I do not believe, by the way, that President Donald Trump, who is talking about having talks with Iran about the nuclear program, and he says, look, you got 10 days. You got 10 days to make this happen. I don't think that's real. I think it's just another smokescreen where he's going to say you've got 10 days. And then two days later, he's like, I'm done, done waiting. I don't think Donald Trump really believes that the Iranians would hold up their end of a nuclear bargain. So I'd love to know what you think. 56690 is the common spirit health text line. This texter said, but what if Iran is tougher than we think? And what if it creates a bigger conflict? And what if Israel was actually defeated in the recent 12-day war? Just some things Duneberg brought up. I don't understand what if Israel was actually defeated in the recent 12-day war. What does that mean? Any more clarification? I think Iran, this is not one of those things. I'm not overconfident that we're going to walk in and one day it's going to be taken care of. I'm counting. on the Iranian people rising up to fight for their own freedom against a significantly weakened leadership, especially if we can take a big chunk out of the Iranian guard, right? I mean, anyway, Mandy, I agree it will happen no more than two weeks. Trump can say he tried negotiations and it didn't work. I actually said that to a friend of mine two days ago because they were like, because they said Trump hasn't been talking about this at all. And I said, and that makes me think something is about to happen.

Because if he's kind of stopped talking about it, I think they sent these people over to Amman to have these talks, and he's going to come back and say, they're not serious. Here we go. Here we go. Mandy, no to war with Iran. Okay, let me play devil's advocate with you, Texter, because this is the same conversation I'm having in my own head. What if you're wrong? And what if Iran manages to rebuild their nuclear program, which they will because they already have the knowledge to you, right? Like once you have the knowledge to do it, then it's just about building it. Once you have the know-how, which they clearly have. What if you're wrong? And Iran decides to make a point and set some kind of nuclear weapon off in the United States. And I'd love to tell you that couldn't happen, but we just watched how many hundreds of thousands of people walk across the southern border from places like Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, all the stands. So they could already be here. It could already be, you know, the next big terror attack could already be planned. What if you're wrong? That's the thing. It's like, what if we're wrong? What if I'm wrong? That we should not bomb or that we should bomb Iran. And it does spread to a greater conflict in the area. Let me just ask this question about that. The Saudis hate Iran. Like everybody but Syria and Yemen hates Iran. So who exactly is going to fight us? I don't think Saudi Arabia's military, no offense to Saudi Arabia, is any match for ours. Just no. So I don't know. Like I said, really, I've been struggling with this. On the one hand, I see an opportunity that we haven't had in 50 years to absolutely destroy these people. And take care of the problem once and for all. Nah, not once and for all. I'm not naive. There's still Islamists out there. There's still people going to shout death to America. But at least we could make it less institutionalized and more fractured. That would work to our advantage. Mandy, well, they are Israel and not isn't real. I was talking to my nephew in Israel and he said, Israelis are ready to have this done. They're ready to go. And for us over here, like this is like a spectator sport, right? Like we're over here sitting here watching the war on TV. Like, oh, that's awesome. But the reality for people who live in Israel is if they don't take out this Iranian regime, they will never, ever, ever, ever have a chance at any kind of peace. Ever. Hamas will always be rearmed. Hamas will always be refunded. Hezbollah will be armed. Hezbollah will be funded. The Houthis will be funded. I mean, they will never, ever, ever be able to live in any kind of peace in Israel as long as Iran's regime is allowed to stand. So they're ready to go. And they're ready to go with or without us. It would just be much more effective and much quicker to do it with our help. But I will say this. Let me just say this, to the text who said, maybe Iran isn't as weak as we think.

The Israeli military who has spies all over Iran at every level of the government in Iran, how do you think they pulled off the whole pager thing? You think that was because they didn't know where everybody was and how to distribute it because they understand the inside systems? Israel does not believe that Iran is as strong as Iran is projecting. They're pretty sure, pretty sure, that Iran can be taken. So, yeah, we shall see. A lot of you are weighing in on the Common Spirit Health text line at 56690. Iran was very westernized in the early 70s. You are correct? This text or Islam does not negotiate. They lie. It's unfortunate. You are correct again. Mandy, I think we're waiting to attack until we can lure the Iranian president and that religious person back to Iran. I heard that during the riot that they had all went to Russia for protection. I don't think they've returned. Maybe they don't. I don't know. We certainly don't want to anger Russia. I read that once, but then I was never able to find any confirmation about that again. So I am not sure if that is accurate. It could be, but I'm not going to say it's not. But I also looked, actively seeked out that information and could not find it about them being in Russia. Mandy civilians will die. Many naive Americans refuse to tolerate that. I mean, the question is, do you want them to be their civilians or our civilians? Didn't we learn that on 9-11? They didn't attack military bases on 9-11. They attacked the World Trade Center. They don't attack Fort Carson. They attack little old Jewish people in Boulder. They don't care about killing our civilians, and unfortunately... We have to get over that. I saw a fascinating commentary by Nick Friedas. He is fantastic. He's a former, I think he's a former lawmaker now. He might be either in Wyoming or Montana or one of those, you know, Western states. But he asked a great question, and that question was when Hamas created or committed the atrocities that they committed on October 7th, they live stream them. They live streamed them. And then. When war with Israel started, they put all of their weapons, their bombs, their everything, under civilian sites. Because they knew that if civilians got killed, they could count on America's left and academia to back them up and talk about how horrible this is and flip the script and make Israel a bad guy. And Nick Friedas asked this question, how did they know with so much certainty that that group of people would do exactly what they did? I think it's a valid question. I don't have the answer. Just text me 56690. Oh, they followed up. The texter did. From Duneberg. By the way, Duneberg is a fantastic blog, but it costs way too much. for me to subscribe. I'm just not. I mean, every once in a while I'll see something and I'll send Ross an email and say, hey, can you, because he subscribes to Duneberg. Like, go ahead and clip that part for me. So I appreciate this text, or from Duneberg. On October 1st, 2024, we observed some disbelief, both the scale and effectiveness of the Iranian missile strike on Israel. While we are not military experts, the website will always call Twitter, was replete with amateur footage of what certainly appeared to be missile striking targets.

mostly unimpeded by air defense systems. To be sure, some projectiles were shot out of the air, but dozens seemed to be getting through. If confirmed, we knew immediately this would be a game changer, but for reasons few were articulating. Initial reports from Western news outlets played down the potency of the attack, with some sources claiming that virtually all inbound missiles were destroyed. Others asserted that a small number were purposely allowed through because the Israelis knew the missiles would miss their targets. For all its faults, Twitter still excels at exposing its users to raw footage of developing events and any unbiased observer knew immediately and definitively. The only thing I would say about that is I spoke to more than one person who lives in Israel and they were like, nah, dog, it was the same. It was the same kind of attacks we deal with all the time. And sometimes they let rockets go through when they're going to land in a field. Because sometimes when they're shooting a rocket over people, it's more dangerous to blow it up because people get hurt by the falling shrapnel. So I'm not sure about that. I don't know. But I will tell you this, Israel's ready to fight. But the question is, are we? I'll take more of your text messages. You guys are bringing them and they're really, really good. Hamas, they will never go away until Islam undergoes a reformation and the vast majority of Muslims decide they don't want to create a caliphate. Let me just tell you this. We're going to talk about that next. That is an excellent point. And I've been thinking the exact same thing. I'll explain why this. You know, action could be just the thing we need to get us to a point where Islam can reform itself. We'll be back after this. Keep it on, K-O-A. War with Iran. This is going to be, I find it almost impossible to see an outcome that does not involve us engaged in some kind of conflagration with Iran. And I'm asking you guys, you can text us at 56690. By the way, we have more military hardware in the Middle East region right now than we have since 2003. You don't just move, you know, half of your Navy, maybe even more, and all of this hardware and soldiers and whatnot if you're not planning on doing something. I'm just curious, though, it's like I have... reservations about it because I was here for Iraq and Afghanistan, right? Like, we all saw how that went. We all saw how it turned into a 20-year slog. And then we saw it all turned right back over to the Taliban at the end. Like, nobody wants that. I don't want to commit our troops. I don't want to commit troops at all. So I'm just asking you guys to text at 56690, like, what are your thoughts on this? Hey, Mandy, what is Israel waiting for? Permission? Just take those MFs out. Israel is waiting to see if they're going to do it alone or do it with us. But I want to get back to the comment, made it here, Hamas, they will never go away until Islam undergoes a reformation and the vast majority of Muslims decide that they don't want to create a caliphate. So let me just say this about that. I agree.

I think Islam must have a reformation because we have Muslims in this country who are constantly telling us we're the religion of peace. We're the religion of peace. We don't subjugate women. We don't do all of these things that anyone who has access to the internet can clearly see happening in other countries that are Muslim countries, right? They have a problem in their faith. They have a problem that has to be addressed and it has to be addressed internally. And part of that would be... to drop the warrior mentality and the conquer mentality that permeates Islam. And perhaps the best way to do that is to cut off the head of the snake in Iran. But that being said, can we just push off their ability to wreak havoc long enough to let that reformation happen? I don't know how it happens. I, okay, when I was in college, my friends and I were working on a screenplay because we were in a, it was a part of my theater program, and we were working on a screenplay. And here was our idea, okay? And this is, knowing where technology is now, I'm telling you this might have legs, okay? Because back in the, you know, late 80s, early 90s, the technology did not exist to do what I am about to say. But the whole premise of our movie. is that there is a CIA op where they project. using, and of course we're referring back to when they projected Princess Leia, right? Like when R2D2 has a little video Princess Leia and she's standing there, a little hologram, and she's talking, Obi-1, you know, that whole nine years. But what if the CIA op was to project an image to enough Muslims? And we were using the big event in Mecca every year where they come and they walk around. What if you could project something? that appeared to be the second coming of Muhammad. And he came to deliver a message of peace. And that was like the whole crux of the movie. I mean, there's a lot more to it. It was action and adventure, blah, blah, blah. But that was it. And I'm thinking, what is it going to take? Do they have a Martin Luther? You know, to go hammer the Reformation stuff on the wall of the church. I don't know the answer to that question. But you're absolutely right, Texer. Until Islam decides to fix itself and decides to live side by side with people that don't share their beliefs, they're never going to be able to be a legitimate part of the world. Too much of their religion is incompatible with the West. We talked briefly yesterday. It's on the blog today. There's actually a Muslim activist, a pro-Palestinian activist, who is suggesting that we ban indoor dogs. And I'm thinking to myself, first of all, shut up.

But second of all, just because something is gross for you doesn't mean that it has to be gross for anyone else. This would be like Jews coming to the United States and saying, you know what? Like we love it here. Thanks for having us. But we're going to need you to take bacon completely off the menu at every restaurant. Because when we walk in to a diner and we smell cooking bacon, it's yucky. We don't like it. We would have told them to go pound sand. And because unfortunately, when you cross certain segments of the Muslim religion, not all, they'll come kill you, right? I mean, just ask, let's see, Theo Van Gogh. Well, you can't because he's dead. Stabbed in the heart by a Muslim after making a movie about women in Islam. Or you can ask Salman Rushdie, but he might not see you coming because he's blind in one eye because when he got stabbed after he wrote a book 20 years prior. So all of this, do I want to get stabbed or do I want to stand up for Western values? It seems to be creating a lot of problems for people right now. Mandy, sometimes there are things that need to be done that one just doesn't want to do. But that does not make it any less important to do. Let's just get it done and over with, leave, and let the Iranian people rebuild themselves. That sounds like a good choice. I could be down with that. Mandy, I think Trump is showing his hand for a response, make them really come to the table, but can you trust them? Lastly, this is U-Haul, and moving that much military is costly. Yes, it is. Extremely costly. I don't think that anybody has any expectation that the Iranian regime will follow up with any good faith in any sort of organization or, excuse me, agreement when it comes to nuclear weapons. They want to be able to build nuclear bombs. That is all they care about. And they're not going to do anything, anything that is going to stop that, really, not at all. Mandy. We were all here for Iraq and Afghanistan, but Trump was not. Yeah, he was. He actually spoke out against it way back when. Way back when. Mandy, do you feel better with Trump and JD Vance at the helm than you did with Bush and Iraq? Hindsight being what it is, in a weird way, yes. And I know that sounds crazy for people who think that Trump and JD Vance are unhinged, but the reality is this. I firmly believe that Trump is the most anti-war president we've ever had. And I know we're sitting talking about bombing Iran, so that seems like a complete contradiction. But he doesn't have any desire to go into a conflict for the sole purpose of building up the military industrial complex. He just doesn't. And I'm okay with that. Nor am I. So I don't know. I really don't know. I would trust the strategy of Trump more than the strategy of Bush.

I've talked about the fact that I got to see George W. Bush speak right after he left office, and he went deep on Iraq. And one of the things he said that struck me was that he underestimated the lack of will in the Iraqi people to maintain their own freedom. He underestimated, or he overestimated that, excuse me. He figured they would do more once they had the ability to self-determine, only to find out they really weren't interested in self-determination. Not at all. Mandy, during the shutdown, Chicago Public Schools removed all pork products from school menus. The Pork Council is trying to get pork reintroduced at the schools. Of course, I mean, you know. It wouldn't matter what the Islamic masses believe and there can be no fundamental Islamic reformation. The fundamental leaders, imams, read the Quran literally and will always see the world through that lens. You could make the same argument about religious figures in Christianity who only read the Old Testament. The Old Testament is not nice. It's full of war and vengeance and all kinds of edicts that we no longer follow. I don't know. We shall see. We'll be back right after this. Keep it on K-O-A. I want to share with you. Somebody texted this earlier and now I can't find it, so I'm just going to kind of go off what it said. It said, can we do this without informing and bringing our NATO partners into the conversation? And I want to direct you to a comment about Canada as to why I genuinely don't care if we consult with our NATO partners. Canada's military is in a death spiral. This is how Minister of National Defense Bill Blair described the state of Canada's armed forces at last month's Ottawa Conference on Security and Defense. Blair's comments referenced the military's dire recruitment and retention crisis. The Canadian Armed Forces are short. 16,000 people. That's about 15% of their authorized strength of 71,500 regular forces and 30,000 primary reserve forces. Now, let me stop right there. Their entire military is smaller than our largest military bases in the United States of America. And I don't know if you guys know this. Canada is freaking huge. Huge. Now, most of the northern part of Canada is ice, but it butts right up against the Arctic. Do you know what's on the other side of the Arctic from them? Russia and China. Do you really think they could defend their country with 71,500 regular forces and 30,000 reserves? Oh, but that's not all. It gets worse. As if it could. Despite increased defense spending by 70% between 2017 and 2026, an internal report on the readiness of the Canadian Armed Forces was released to the media the same week. The report paints a bleak picture. Most of Canada's major fleets are unavailable or unserviceable. Indeed, on average, only 45% of Canada's Air Force fleet is operational.

While the Royal Canadian Navy can operate at 46% of its capacity and the Army at 54%. This means that even Canada's minor military projection ambition, which consists only of three frigates, two fighter jet squadrons, and one mechanized brigade is not assured. As the ninth largest economy in the world and 12th largest per capita, Canada actually contributes little to allied security and cannot be relied upon to sustain its own limited ambitions. So yeah, I don't, you know, somebody else posted and said something along the lines of, but what will this do to our standing in the world? People on the left believe that because we are forcing, and by we, I mean Donald Trump. We are forcing NATO to live up to their own agreed upon limits when it comes to paying for their own protection. That somehow our stature in the world has been lessened because of that. But the reality is unless Europe and, frankly, Canada, get it together and redirect some of their generous social welfare benefits to their own defense. What is the point of being in NATO? Right now, NATO is, hey, if anybody picks on any of these countries that have signed on to NATO, the United States is going to come kick your ass. That's NATO. I mean, have they done anything else? Did I miss it? Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not opposed. This is why Marco Rubio's speech at the Munich Security Conference was so heartening to me. Because it wasn't about, hey, you guys suck and we're not going to work with you anymore. It was, we need you to pick up your part of the bargain. And we want you to pick up your part of the bargain. Because if we're going to defend Western civilization, it's going to be an all-hands-on-deck situation. So for those of you worried about our standing around the world, I can assure you of this. Chuck and I travel. We talk to everyone when we travel. We talk to cab drivers. We talk to hotel people. We talk to everybody. And almost to a person, they're happy that someone is defending Western values. I mean, Trump may be an a-hole. He truly is. He really, really is. But at least he's an a-hole on our side. It's like, at least he's trying to put America first. That's a nice change and one that has been needed for a very long time. So we're moving on from this conversation. We'll see. I mean, we'll see what happens, you guys. Trump has issued a new 10-day ultimatum, I guess, starting clock today. But remember, he had given Iran, I think, he'd given them like a week deadline before and bombed them like the second day. So I don't really put a lot of stock in President Trump's deadlines. I think that he views them as simply another distraction and just, you know, not really to be taken seriously. So we'll see. I mean, on the one hand, I hope I'm wrong. But on the other hand, I hope I'm right.

that we can knock out this regime. And honestly, it would be like cutting a cancer, a cancer that is spreading off the body that is the earth. And I'm all for that. We'll be right back. Keep it on K-O-A. The Mandy Connell show is sponsored by Bell and Pollock Accident and Injury Lawyers. Now, it's Mandy Connell. Mandy Connell, room in the day. On KLA, 8.50 a.m. 94-1 FM. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the third hour of the show, and I'm pleased to have joining us now, Representative Scott Bottoms. He recently has introduced legislation that would significantly increase penalties on sex offenders. Representative Scott Bottoms, welcome to the show. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for having me. So tell me what you had a press conference about yesterday, or was it yesterday the day before, and what are you doing exactly? Well, I introduced a bill yesterday, which is why I did the press conference in the morning. I introduced a bill yesterday. It went actually pretty late into the night that was to say that there can be no transgender surgeries on minors, just none. And, of course, it was voted unanimously against by the Democrats as usual. So it's already dead. It's already dead. Died last night at about 9 o'clock. Well, I mean, there is a tiny bright spot in Colorado in that a ballot initiative did collect way more than enough signatures. I do believe that the Colorado people are going to be able to vote on whether or not to increase penalties against this. Scott, I have to ask you, why is this issue such a large part of your focus? Well, so I also introduced a bill last week that was if you sell children into sex slavery, that you spend life in jail. Democrats voted unanimously against that, too. All three of these ballot initiatives, I'm running as bills. I have the last one, no boys and girls sports coming up next week. These ballot initiatives are huge. The smallest one, I mean, the one with the least amount of support is still in the 80 percentile. All three of these ballot initiatives will be voted in overwhelmingly in the state of Colorado. Boys and Girls Sports, that's a 90 percent in the state of Colorado that are against this. And so part of the reason around the bills is I wanted to see if we could actually get some traction before the ballot initiative, but also against these Democrats on record. If you're going to vote against kids and you're going to vote against stopping. child slavery. If you're going to vote against putting pedophiles in jail, then I'm going to get you on the record and I hope I can destroy their political career. Absolutely destroy it because we are raping kids in this state. We are trafficking kids. We are and we're not right now pedophiles get off on probation 90% of the time in the state of Colorado. This is inexcusable and these are our children. And this is why I fight for this so much because there's only a few other people fight in this space.

I mean, I appreciate that. I do, but I'm now seeing you at the Weld County Forum that both Ryan Schueling and I moderated. And this came up over and over again. And at one point, you said that the House of Representatives and the legislature is full of pedophiles. And you may have heard Barb Kirkmeyer's sharp comments to our news department about that. So it's like there seems to be a theme around Representative Scott Bottoms on these issues. And I know I agree with your position. I don't really hear you talk about a lot of other stuff. I'd love to have you clarify your comments about the legislature being full of pedophiles a little bit. Yeah, I do, and part of your other statement, I do have a full plan, a full, when I get asked these questions in any of the settings, and you ask some of these in the forum that we were in, I do have a full plan for the state of Colorado that people keep coming back to me with this because I know I'm one of the only people that fight in this space. I know Senator Kirkmire came out against me on this, but she's going to wish she wouldn't have done that. She's going to look stupid long-term about this because she's attacking me because I'm going after pedophiles. I'm not the bad guy here. I'm going after the bad guys. And so, you know, let everybody else say what they're going to say. This is, I can give you some of the details on this. I'm not going to give you a bunch because even though all of these. These people are wanting to try to use this to hurt me politically. I don't care. I know what I'm doing. This started three years ago. I had some whistleblowers come to me. I started processing. What do I do with this? It wasn't very strong evidence. Then other people started coming to me, and I realized that there are some cross-sections of this evidence. And we began talking to the FBI. in other state. And this is, this, I get criticized in this. Well, why didn't you go to the DA and Denver? Well, look at how good the DA and how the police department in Denver's doing. They won't put, they won't put illegals in jail. Don't put drug addicts in jail. This is, the pedophiles get off 90% of the time on probation. Why would I go to that group? I understand that part, but if you have knowledge or evidence that children are currently being abused, especially by people in the legislature, by not. I mean, I got to tell you if it was me. I put everybody on blast. I would put every bit of information that I had on the internet, let people decide for themselves. But I would not put myself in a position where I would say I know children are being abused and I'm going to wait until I'm governor to give the information about it. That's the part that I'm stuck on. Well, the wait until your governor concept is because once I'm governor, I have different resources. I have different groups that can help. Right now, this has been in an FBI investigation.

for a while. I'm not the investigator. I'm the one. If I just started shouting out, okay, this person's a pedophile, this person's a pedophile, what good would that do? They're going to sue me. It's going to go underground. All of these supposed people that are supposed to be investigating, like Attorney General Phil Weiser, he would make sure it got buried. We've seen this too often, and I don't trust our state on this stuff. And so the idea that somehow I'm just going to start shouting out names. The evidence that I have is stuff that I have collected from a lot of different whistleblowers that I have turned over to the FBI. And I turned over the FBI quite a long time ago. That will come out. They'll show you all of the trail of evidence and everything else. But so I start saying this person's a pedophile, this person's a pedophile. How does that end up? It actually hurts the kids long term because then these people will not get arrested. The investigations will be destroyed, but then I get a lot of headlines. And I have been saying this for three years, and nobody has cared. I have not been able to get any NGO involved. I haven't been able to get any, and I did reach out to a couple of states. groups in Colorado. They were not interested. And so what do I do? Just start shouting out names. No, here's the thing. And this is, there's, there's another Republican who continues to say that he has solid evidence that, you know, voter fraud occurred. Great. Whatever evidence you have, put it on a website. And don't, don't call people a pedophile. But say, this is the evidence we've gathered. This is the information we've gotten from whistleblowers. Do with it what you will. Because at that point, you are merely relaying information. Now, they may want to sue you, but again. If this has been going on for three years and now the FBI is letting children be abused for three years, this is what I'm a little bit stuck on. And I don't, your answers on that are not super satisfactory for me. So, so you're, you're making an assumption that either I have not told the FBI or I have told the FBI and they are ignoring it. Neither one of those things are true. The FBI has been working on this, but we're talking, and this is one of their first things that they told me from the beginning. This is very highly sensitive because it involves elected officials, and we're going to have to make sure we do this right. Well, that's what they're doing. I don't control. That side of it, and I am not going to come out and start shouting out names. This will hurt the investigation. I'm not going to do that. I am not the one putting these children at harm. And this is weird to me that people say it, because I'm the only one saying this is happening. But there are many people, and I could right now. I could name names on the Republican side and the Democrat side that we have talked about this, and we know that this is happening. I'm the only one coming out with the information. And interestingly,

I'm the one who gets attacked and says, well, you're not telling us everything. Well, I'm not going to. I'm not going to hurt an investigation. I'm not going to hurt these kids. I'm the only one trying to save them. Nobody else has said anything about this. Has anyone in the FBI confirmed? that they are working on this investigation or that an investigation exists or do you have names of people that you've directly talked to that can give any kind of confirmation because i got to tell you scott and this isn't even about you as much it is one of your opponents who is running around saying a lot of stuff without backing any of it up and i think that for me personally as a voter I want evidence. I want to know that things that are being told to me in a campaign are accurate and verifiable. So is there someone at the FBI we can talk to you to verify this? I will not give you any names. I'm not going to do that. When this comes out and you have all of the FBI agents that are involved, and there are going to be on that list, they're going to be Colorado FBI agents. When that comes out, you'll know. But as much as I understand your role in the media, hey, let's do this, I'm not going to let the sensationalism pull and destroy an investigation. But you're sitting here saying... If people don't believe me, then they don't believe me. But you're sitting here saying that there's an FBI investigation, but you won't let us get a name from the FBI that could just confirm that there was an investigation going on that you're already talking about. I don't understand how you talking about it and then not allowing us to find out from the FBI to verify any of the stuff you're saying. Aren't you talking about it hurting the possibility of the investigation? No, and the reason I know that is because you're asking me these questions. What? I'm not hurting the investigation. You cannot cause problems in the investigation. I'm not saying you're trying to. That's not what I'm trying to say. But you would maybe inadvertently cause problems with this without trying to. And I don't know. I mean, I'll ask the FBI. I just know I can't talk about this. If an FBI agent will be willing to come and talk and get on the radio. I would have him in a heartbeat. Him or her. I would welcome them in a heartbeat. Because, Scott, really, I'm just looking for verification. That's all I'm looking for. I'm not looking to bust your chops. I think you're passionate about this topic is admirable. I really, really do. But I don't trust a political candidate who says,

We're going to do this big, huge thing, and it's going to have this huge impact, and I can't tell you anymore. You just have to trust me. I've been burned too many times in the 20 years I've been doing this job. Don't take it personally, but without verification, it just sounds like a fabulous story that is, you know, not actually happening. You know, something I mentioned on Ryan Shuling show this morning agrees with what you're saying, but from my side of this. Everybody keeps saying, well, why didn't you talk to this DA? I've already talked about the fact that I would never, I would never go to the DA in Denver. I would never go to Attorney General Phil Weiser. These guys are not the people I'm going to turn sensitive information on. And it's specifically in this arena, specifically Attorney General Phil Weiser and this context, I would never report to him. Well, here's part of the conversation. So Senator Kirkmire came out against me and attacked me. Okay, whatever. She's just using it for political. She's not... I think she's smart enough to know how the rules work when it comes to investigations, but it appears that she doesn't. But when you talk about Sheriff Meijl and Sheriff Reams and DA Brockler, when these guys start coming out and using terms like the mandatory reporting, and they know they're using them improperly, they know that they're using that politically against me, well, Sheriff Reams is... completely about Senator Kirkmire. Michael's running against me as governor. These guys know how this thing works. They know how investigations work. None of them ever gave me a phone call, never did anything before they came out publicly. And I would have originally, probably not any of the rest of them, but I would originally probably told Sheriff Michael who my FBI contact is because I trusted him at that point. At this point, I won't because he's proven to me he will throw anything under the bus. Any kind of truth, he will throw me under the bus or anything for political advantage. And so I'm glad I didn't go to him. I glad I didn't confide in him, although none of them asked me. One question from DA Brockler, I would have told him who the FBI is. I would have given the phone number. But now I can't, because I know I can't trust these guys, they will throw an entire investigation under the bus for political expediency, and I don't play those games. I'm not doing this for politics. I started talking about this three years ago before I decided, two years before I decided to run for governor. Why? Because whistleblowers were coming to me, and I figured out after about a few months, this stuff has got credible traction to it, and so I went to the FBI. And if people don't like that, if they think I'm doing this for political reasons, that's their call. Everybody's free to make a choice of however they look at this. Well, and I'll ask you one more question before we run out of time, and that is this. If you become governor, let's just say you were elected governor and Jena Griswold is elected Attorney General, God forbid. What changes there? What is different about if you're elected governor than it is now? The difference is I would have as governor, and I already talked to the FBI about this a little bit.

As governor, I have a different set of resources at my disposal, Colorado State Police and some things like that. If somehow Jena Griswold is not arrested in the next couple months and she actually somehow won an election for Attorney General, I would never talk to her about any of this stuff. I know that's the Attorney General's office, but I would bypass her and I would go to federal levels any time I could. because I don't trust her at all. She is a very dishonest, corrupt person, and I would not trust her as the attorney general. So you're going to have a conflict there. But assuming that we get a legitimate attorney general, immediately I'm going to turn all this over. The FBI investigation will probably be revealed long before that. I'm not in charge of that. I don't know when it's going to happen. They said nothing to me. At that point, as governor, then I say, okay, this is the investigation. We're using state police or we're using CBI. But to do that, I need to make sure that we can put the right people in the place at the helm of these organizations that we know it's not corrupt. We know it's not a partisan mentality, but we can actually get... some legitimate results done, and that is why I have not turned it over to some of these people. It's easy to say, well, turn it to this DA or turn it. I know these people, and I do not trust many of them, and so I'm not going to let a Democrat-run state, a Democrat-controlled House Senate Governor's Office, a Democrat court system, and a Democrat Supreme Court system that is as corrupt or the most corrupt in the entire United States. have information about pedophiles in the House of Representatives. I'm not turning that information over to them because it will be destroyed and it will be buried. And I can give you case after case after case where we've already seen that happen in the state of Colorado. So I don't play those games. I'm trying to protect kids. I'm not trying to do something political here. Scott, I think the only way that you can sort of make voters feel better is to produce an FBI agent that will verify that there is an ongoing investigation into pedophiles at the House of Representatives. I'm going to be honest. I'm looking at my text line right now. No one on my text line believes you, and they're all frustrated that there's not any kind of proof. And I think if you, I would love to have an FBI agent on who's working on this investigation. I don't even need to ask a bunch of questions, right? I don't need the details. I just need some kind of confirmation. because in the course of this conversation, you've made accusations against members of the House of Representatives with nothing to back it up. You just alleged that the Colorado Supreme Court, which I think is clearly left wing, is also corrupt. And as far as I know, there's no evidence to back that up. So you're making a lot of accusations, and you're not bringing a lot to the table in terms of justifying those accusations. And I think that's going to be a real problem for voters. Sure. I don't disagree with anything you said. Well, then I appreciate your time. I'm just not doing this for the voters. I'm doing this for kids.

I'm not doing this for the voters. I am running for governor. But even if I wasn't running for governor, I started this two years before I started running for governor. So if people believe me, fine. If people don't believe me, fine. But I will root this out. I will get rid of the pedophilia in our house and in our state as best as I can because this does include a lot more than just the House of Representatives. And so that's... I'm not going to hurt an investigation, though, because some of your listeners want to say that I'm not telling the truth. Okay, they tell everybody I'm not telling the truth. I can't control that. But I know who I am. I know what I'm doing, and I'm on the side of right here. Representative Scott Bottoms, I do appreciate your time. And I think we'll just agree that I think for me and a lot of other people, as soon as I can talk to an FBI agent, my tune would change dramatically. I very much appreciate your time today. And thanks for making time to come on the show. Yeah, thank you. We will be back. Oh, boy. When we get back, we have another guest from the Common Sense Institute to talk about Medicaid spending. I didn't know that was going to go that long. React for one minute. I will react. I don't believe him. Let me change that. I believe that Representative Scott Bottoms absolutely believes what he says is true. I firmly believe that. But until I have some backup from the FBI, I don't understand why an investigation into pedophilia would take three years where ostensibly more children were being victimized. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. But something doesn't set right there. We'll have to wait and see. We'll be back. Keep it on K-O-A. What's going on at the Capitol? You can't talk about that without talking about Medicaid spending. Medicaid is the largest chunk of our budget. And joining me now from the Common Sense Institute, one of their fantastic fellows. He's Greg D. Argonne, and he's written with two co-authors, a phenomenal report about Medicaid spending. And I've got to tell you, Greg, part of this surprised me. I assumed Medicaid spending had exploded because we had added... a bunch of people to the roles, which was true for a while, but now we've gotten back down to a more normal number. What is the problem? Where are we spending all this extra money? Well, you're right, Mandy. We increased our role roles during the COVID period, but between 2023 and 2025, the Medicaid rolls are down significantly at the same time that Medicaid costs are up substantially. And a lot of that has to do with a couple of things.

Over the last few years, our state legislature has passed about 180 new bills that have layered on an additional amount of regulatory burden on both Hickpuff, the entity that serves the Medicaid program, as well as... hospital providers and other providers throughout the state. So you see just a drastic increase in the number of regulations, which is driving up cost. And at the same time, Hickpuff has added a significant amount of overhead expense in the way of FTEs, i.e. employees and, other costs to support some of these additional regulatory laws that we are now having to deal with. So in a way, I'm kind of heartened to know that the legislature isn't just laying around regulations on the private sector. They're also doing it to the public sector. Somehow I'm comforted by that in a very strange way. But I wanted to ask you specifically, other than the growth of administration, did you guys do any kind of deep dive into the medical inflation where that spending is? Are we seeing an increase in the spending on services? Or just that big increase, because our budget is, what, doubled since 2015? So is that increase mostly in the administration, or are we also seeing a large increase in actual services delivered to Medicaid patients? We are seeing an increase in services delivered to Medicaid patients, but that's not the biggest driver of the cost increases. What we've seen really is something similar to that, an increased amount of services available. to Medicaid patients. That's part of what the 182 new bills laid out, increased services, increased committees, increased legislation, increased oversight, so on and so forth. So inflation is part of it. We all know health care costs are always going to increase. But the fact is, is that, Hospitals and all providers are generally paid by the Medicaid program based on a fee schedule or a DRG, a diagnostic-related group. So it doesn't really matter how much a provider charges a Medicaid recipient. They're not going to get paid anymore.

It's hard to believe that Medicaid inflation is... one of the biggest drivers in Medicaid costs. So when you were talking about expanded services, now if I recall correctly, we're now paying for the cosmetic surgeries of trans individuals and the Medicaid program. Is it things like that, where they have added things that are covered by Medicaid? It's things like that. It's equine services. What? Wait, for horses? Wait, what? Yes, for horses. Different things like that. Are we talking about equine therapy or actually? Yeah, equine therapy. I was like, who, what poor people can afford to own a horse that we're now providing medical care for? I was a little confused by that. Right. Implementation of fertility coverage. Wait, okay, wait. So we are helping people who don't have enough money to pay for their own health care get pregnant. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, that goes back to the 180 new bills that have passed, and I'm sure they were all passed in good faith. by someone who thought these were all really good ideas. And of course, if we had an unlimited budget, they might be really good ideas. But we don't have an unlimited budget. You know, we're capped. TABRA comes into place. The amount of, you know, state and federal dollars we have to spend comes into place. So, you know, at any point in time, An individual legislator may think, yeah, this is a really good idea. But when you add all of these things up, it becomes an enormous burden for the taxpayers of Colorado. One thing I want to get to, and we've got about three minutes left, is how is our audit process? Because I was actually kind of surprised to know that we have an external auditor. ostensibly to avoid the kind of fraud that we're now seeing in places like Minnesota. You guys did find some issues with that auditing, but overall, do you feel good about the auditing that's going on? Do you feel like maybe our Medicaid system is more secure than it is in other states, or are you concerned that it's not secure enough?

I'm not sure I can really comment on how we compare to other states. We haven't had any big blow-ups relative to our audits. You know, the state of Colorado has a fairly robust audit system, and they keep their eyes on proper spending. and issues of fraud and malfeasance. So I don't think we've seen too much of that. The one thing that comes to mind recently is the gross amount of overspending on the Medicaid ambulance services that went untouched for many years, and that was surely representative of a breakdown in Medicaid internal controls. That should have never happened. Do you feel like other, because we have had people prosecuted here, actually, which is encouraging. I like to hear people go into jail for that. Do you, are you concerned about those guardrails? I, yes. I think those guardrails need to be in place in any quote-unquote business where you're dealing with billions of dollars and lots of people and lots of providers. Guard rails have to be in place. It's a basic tenet of running a business. Greg Diargon is my guest. He is a Common Sense Institute Fellow. And next Thursday, I think, wait, February 25th. What day is that? I don't know. Next Wednesday. Next Wednesday at 4.30 at the dome at AMG in Greenwood Plaza in Greenwood Village. They are having a health care event called balancing costs and health care with all kinds of eggheads that are going to talk about all this stuff. And I have to say, Greg, thank you for taking on this rather dense topic. And you guys did a great job of making it accessible. I put a link to it on today's blog, and I really appreciate your time today. Absolutely. It was a pleasure, Mandy. All right. Thank you, and we'll be right back before we bring Shelby Harris on for another adventure. Are you going to choose a more even category this time, or is it going to be things Shelby Harris likes? Is that what's going to be this today? I mean, he already has the advantage of you being, you know, on Zoom. So, you know, we'll see.

I know. I pick randomly, so I have no idea what you're talking about. Uh-huh. I will play this audio soundbite of one Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on how Republican... Do we have enough time for her to take it forever to say something? No, no, this is only 34 seconds of blather. So here we go. Listen to this. These are her thoughts. And they are able to radicalize and target and exploit a generation of young boys in particular away from healthy masculinity and into an insecure masculinity that requires the domination of others who are poorer, browner, darker, or a different gender than them. And that is why they are resonating online because they are appealing to the most basest and worst parts of human nature. This sounds a lot like comments that were made about the deplorables, you know, that stuff. That's just what they think of you. And if they drive boys towards masculinity, that's bad. Because we all know that boys are not allowed to be boys anymore. Nope, not there. You guys have been cracking me up, by the way, on the text line. We're going to have that Scott Bottoms interview up right away. It should be up now, actually. Is it up now? I'll send it out on my social media right after the show. Love for you to share it. Shelby Harris has made his way into the studio. Hello, Shelby. Hello, hello. How are we doing today? Oh, we're doing just fine. I'm not saying that Arod's going to give you another softball category, but we'll see what happens today. Sounds about right. You know, whenever the winner wins, you know, the loser always. That's right. There's a reason why the winner was won. Yep. Well, I did hear you say yesterday on K-O-A sports that you were a pothead, which I found delightful, by the way, because I never knew that Harry Potter fans called themselves potheads. That was news to me. Is that actually a thing? Or did you just make that up? No, it's a real thing, and it's for two teas. I will say, I will say is devil's advocate, Shelby. I did see people say it's Potterhead. No one says potheads. Oh, see, and those are the lambs. Like, Shelby can also do what he wants. Those are the lambs that don't know what they're talking about. Oh. You hear that, people? Pot heads out there. Look, he wins one game and all of a sudden he's Mr. Confident. Everything I say is right. That's all it takes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Anyway, all right, we are going to... Go ahead and jump in. I got the hiccups really bad. Hang on one second. Let me see if I can make that. Okay, there we go. And now it's time for the most exciting segment on the radio of its kind. In the world. Nice. Of the day. All right. What is our dad joke of the day, please, Anthony? My doctor said I was colorblind. The diagnosis came right out of the orange. Wow.

Okay, that was funny. Thank you. That was funny. What is today's word of the day? It is a noun. Noun. Syllogism. What? S-Y-L-L-O-G-I-S-M. O-G-I-S-M. Siligism. This is a part of speech thing, or it has to do with part of speech. It is, dagnapp it. Is that where like you're trying to figure something out? I don't know how to say this. Like you, you, you. I can't. I can't think of how to define this. I'm not even going to embarrass myself. It refers to a formal argument in logic that is formed by two statements and a conclusion, which must be true if the two statements are true. I'll give you an example. All men are mortal. No gods are mortal. Therefore, no men are gods. That is a syllogism. Yeah. I like that. Okay, that's smooth. Yeah, I wouldn't guess that. That's not where I was going at all, so I would have gotten that one wrong. Today's trivia question, what was the first novel published by author and playwright James Baldwin? No clue. Not at all. I guess wrong, but I'm proud that I know James Baldwin's work. Go Tell It on the Mountain was published in 1953. The autobiographical novel tells the story of a boy in Harlem navigating complicated relationships with his father and his church. And if you've never read James Baldwin, he is a phenomenal writer. Phenomical. Did you say 1953? Yeah. Oh, gosh. All right. MC and, as you're written down, just Shelby Harris. Shh. Okay, what is our, what is our category? Well, first, the standings, Mandy, you're now 18 and 6. Okay. As Shelby, one in one. Yes, sir. The category is Harry Putt. No, I'm just kidding. No, no, no, no. The category is uncommon. Uncommon. Okay. Uncommon is not in every answer, but uncommon's in the question. This four-letter way you might like your steak is also a synonym for Shelby. What is Shelby? I mean, I mean Shelby. Sorry. It's a four-let, obviously, what is rare? That is correct. Ah. In a Marine Corps recruiting slogan, this three-letter word remains uncommon. In a Marine Corps, what is the Marine Corps slogan? Three-letter word. It's in the middle of the, it's in the beginning of their slogan. All I can think of is the Army slogan. Yeah, I'm not. What is the few? Oh, dang it. The proud of the few in the Marines. Still one nothing. Monty Python's flying circus often encouraged us with, and now for something blank, blank. What is completely different? That is correct. We have a tie. Wait, what? Completely different. And now for something completely different. There are three Cs in this word for someone who has a truly unconventional personality.

Three Cs in this word. Shelby. Shelby. What is narcissistic? No. Ooh, that's a very big guess. Minus, that's back to zero. What is eccentric? Oh, eccentric. All right. So now Shelby down one zero. It's okay. In grammar, this synonym of uncommon refers to a noun pertaining to one entity. What? It refers to a noun. Can you make a synonym? In grammar, this synonym of uncommon refers to a noun pertaining to one entity. Uncommon. I have no idea. Shelby, you've got to guess because you're down one of... Oh, that's true. Okay. You said, Uncommon. Uh-huh. Starts with a... No, I'm not going to give it to me. I don't know. What is singular? Ah. That was a hard category. That was a hard fought battle. Hard category. Next time. Yes. That's okay, Shelby. You're doing a fine job. Yeah, that 100 needs to be Harry Potter next time. Did you see that? I will say real quick. Yeah, looking for every competitive advantage he can get. That is, yeah, Shelby's category of choice. Mandy, did you see on social on Shelby, do you see it be the funniest thing? Not funny, but ironic if someone goes, oh, man, Shelby's going to get drug test now. Shelby Harris is a pothead immediately after seeing that video from yesterday. And I got a call today. No, I'm joking. There you go. All right, we're going to make room for K-O-A sports coming up next. Keep it right here on K-O-A. Hello, it is Ryan, and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on Chumbacasino.com. I looked over the person sitting next to me, and you know what they were doing? They were also playing Chumba Casino. Everybody's loving, having fun with it. Chumba Casino's home to hundreds of casino-style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere. So sign up now at Chumba Casino.com to claim your free welcome bonus. That's Chumba Casino and Live the Chumba Life. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary.

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