RENEE BRINKERHOFF IS THE MOST INTERESTING WOMAN ALIVE At least to me and she definitely needs her own beer commercial. After deciding at the age of 56 that she wanted to fulfill a lifelong dream of racing a car, she is now one of the most successful female rally car drivers in the world. Her racing team Valkyrie Racing has raced since 2013 when she was 56 and nearly 20,000 miles of racing in extreme rallies around the world in a Porsche 356. She is attempting 356 miles on the blue ice of Antarctica and a land speed record in her upcoming challenge on her FINAL continent! She is also using her racing success to work to end human trafficking at the same time. This is a super cool story about her and her car, and this is a link to her organization dedicated to ending the horror of human trafficking. I will chat with Renee at 1 about her upcoming race. Donate and get your name written on the hood of the car by clicking here!
THE COFA TURKEY SHOOT FOR KIDS IS BACK! And lest you get the vapors about kids shooting real turkeys, rest assured that they are paper targets and the kids are using bb guns. It's a great chance to learn more about gun safety and have some fun. Scott Glasscock and Mike Brooks join me at 2pm to talk about how you and your kids can participate! Find out more here.
HOW BADLY DID GOVERNMENT ACTION DURING COVID HURT COLORADO'S ECONOMY? Pretty bad if you are one of those people in lower paying hospitality jobs that all went away during the pandemic. The Independence Institute did an in-depth analysis of the impact of shutdowns on the economy and the people and it's as bad as you think. Especially when things like drug overdoses (which increased dramatically) are taken into account. Read the press release here and the full report here.
I HAVE AN UPSETTING MESSAGE FOR THE CU BOULDER STUDENTS MARCHING AGAINST SEXUAL ASSAULT And it is this: you will never completely eliminate "rape culture". You will never be able to stop men who do not respect limits from taking advantage of girls and women who are intoxicated from drugs or alcohol. The only thing you can do it NOT GO TO FRAT HOUSES AND GET DRUNK BY YOURSELF. Go with friends, leave with friends. Full stop. Try it. It's super easy. Take responsibility for your own safety and you will never have to do these marches to frat houses again. But demanding that rape culture end will work as well as it did in 1988 when there were marches at Florida State when I was a student there. Watch this story for more.
OUR STATE MENTAL HOSPITAL IS IN A BAD WAY And we've got to fix this asap. This is paywalled (but you should be subscribing to the Denver Gazette anyway) but an important read. Staffing issues and inadequate suicide prevention added to covid have created huge issues for the hospital in Pueblo. From the Gazette:
The coronavirus pandemic caused “significant delays in admissions” to the Pueblo hospital, state officials said, because of virus prevention strategies that included a cohort admissions process, which requires incoming patients to undergo a 14-day monitoring period before being admitted to inpatient units.
Four major COVID-19 outbreaks at the Pueblo hospital last year and this year, infecting a total of 465 staff and patients, according to state data, and outbreaks in jails around the state further slowed intake, officials said.
Now, work has begun to address violations of safety measures and protocols that state regulators uncovered following a suicide attempt inside the Pueblo hospital in July that left a 20-year-old patient with brain impairment.
Federal regulators threatened to stop paying Medicare claims by Dec. 14, if suicide risks are not mitigated through environmental and physical changes at the facility.
The General Assembly’s Joint Budget Committee in late September approved an emergency supplemental budget request of $4.1 million to bring the hospital into compliance with federal standards.
This is all very, very bad. It demonstrates a lack of leadership on this issue in the state. It also directly affects those who cycle in and out of the justice system because there is nowhere for them to go get help. We must fix this. MUST. Check out this shocking statistic:
The national standard is 50 psychiatric beds per every 100,000 residents, he said, and Colorado has fewer than 10 beds per 100,000.
We must fix this if we will ever deal with our homeless issue.
SO HOW BADLY DID THIRTEEN REPUBLICANS SCREW THE COUNTRY FRIDAY NIGHT? Pretty bad, but it remains to be seen HOW bad because of the NEXT spending bill that the Dems have coming down the pike. This Wall Street Journal column lays out the various ways the slush funds will benefit unions and Democrats by buying votes and loyalty with your money and mine.
WHITE SUBURBAN MOMS JUMPED FROM BIDEN TO YOUNGKIN IN VIRGINIA AND HERE'S WHY This is the least surprising story ever and another fine example of how women vote on emotion rather than principle.
I think Republicans need to pay attention to their absolute hatred of Trump. So will Democrats learn? Based on this tweet from feminist Amy Siskind, I'd say no.
However this reporter gets it.
HEY LOOK THE HEAD OF THE TEACHERS UNION TOOK OFF HER MASK BECAUSE PEOPLE COULDN'T UNDERSTAND HER AT A CONFERENCE And SERIOUSLY HOW MANY STORIES LIKE THIS DO WE NEED??? It seems the head of the teachers unions, who is responsible for kids wearing masks in school, was at a conference in Puerto Rico and decided to take off her mask because NO ONE COULD UNDERSTAND HER. But I'm SURE students have NO PROBLEM understanding their masked teachers, amiright??? I hate this woman with the fire of 1,000 suns.
SOMEONE FINALLY TOLD BIDEN HOW HE FEELS ABOUT PAYING ILLEGALS FOR FAMILY SEPARATION And in this clip, he seems to think that these children have been lost forever. EVERYONE HATES THIS IDEA, btw. Watch how angry he is about the children being GONE.
ABOUT BIDEN'S VACCINE MANDATE ON PRIVATE BUSINESSES Don't rush to get those forced vaccines just yet, a US Federal Appeals Court blocked the mandate on Saturday, before private businesses were told they had to vaccinate, test or fire employees who did not comply with the government's demands. Read this column for more. The mandate got punted to January after businesses told the wildly unpopular administration that it would LITERALLY ruin Christmas. The Biden Admin has until 5pm today to respond.
AND NOW, CLAWS
OLIVIA AND LIAM STILL RULE THE DAY The top 100 baby names list is out for the year and bougie millennial names are tops. If your daughter's name doesn't end with an "ah" sound she's not fashionable. Mine doesn't and I'm fine with that. It's my nightmare that my daughter's name end up on this list, unless people are naming their children AFTER her because she accomplishes something really amazing at some point.
HEY MILLENNIALS, MAKING OUT WITH YOUR DORM ROOMMATE DOESN'T MAKE YOU GAY Though many millennials claim to be LGBTQ in some way. I'd love a simple follow up question and that is: if you are in a relationship, what kind of relationship are you in? What kind of relationship were in you in most recently? That should clear things up more accurately. This is a great time to be gay though, as nearly a third say they are! People used to lie when they were, and now I think they are lying when they aren't.
POP INS ARE NOW A PART OF THE WORK FROM HOME EXPERIENCE At least that seems to be what's coming as companies advertise for positions with nebulous language like:
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Mattel removed the offending stuff, but this is how they are thinking. How about this: set reasonable goals for work from home productivity and if the employee doesn't meet them, make them come in the office or fire them. The companies say the pop in visits are more about making sure if the employee is injured "on the job" while working from home the company is off the hook. Mmmhmmm.
THE NEWEST WEIGHT LOSS DRUG IS FLYING OFF THE SHELVES And I am all for any drug which helps you safely lose weight, BUT from what I've seen when you stop taking Wegovy, the once a week injectable drug, the weight comes back on. The drug is currently a victim of it's own success, with some shortages being reported but the drug maker says those should be done by January. At $1300 a month, it better work, but if you have to take it forever, that's quite a pretty penny.
HEY LOOK EREBODY, DRIVERLESS TRUCKS ARE HAPPENING ALREADY And we've been talking about this a lot, as we have an 80,000 driver shortage of truck drivers right now. Walmart is already running two completely driverless trucks, without even a safety driver, in a loop in Arkansas for it's grocery delivery service. King Soopers and Albertsons are too. Read more here.
IT'S LIKE LOOKING INTO A MIRROR WHEN I WORK OUT
AND NOW, A KITTEN AND CHICK TAKE A NAP