WHY WON'T HOSPITALS FOLLOW THE LAW? I'm talking about price transparency rules put in place by the Trump administration that were designed to shine some light on the currently opaque hospital pricing that has lead to outrageous increases in what things cost. Colorado hospitals, as many hospitals around the country have done, have simply ignored the law. So what is one to do? I've got the founder of BrokenHeathcare.org David Silverstein on at 1 to talk about the bipartisan bill (yes, it's truly bipartisan!) that would force hospitals to adhere to the new rules or not get paid. He's been working on this for years now and in my mind is doing a heroes job. This is the website that checked compliance and only ONE hospital is fully in compliance. ONE.
IF YOU THINK YOUR MAYOR IS A REAL JACKASS, YOU MIGHT BE RIGHT Although the new mayor of Divide, Colorado prefers you call him a donkey. Clyde's handlers will be joining us at 2:35 before we head down for a Facebook live on KOA's facebook page at 3! Find out more about Clyde by clicking here! Find out more about the Equestrian Skills event happening Saturday.
COLORADO HOUSE DEMOCRATS CHOOSE DRUG USERS OVER THE REST OF US The Colorado House on Friday night passed a bill that would allow someone to have enough fentanyl on them to kill just 500 people. If they get caught, they get a ticket. If they don't get caught, how many people could possibly die? Even as the Governor came out in favor of zero tolerance, the bleeding hearts worried about addicts made a dumb choice that put feelings over logic. Don't get me wrong, I am VERY concerned about the addicts on our streets and want all of them to get help and lead happy, productive lives. But giving addicts the ability to possess fentanyl in any form isn't compassion, it's a death penalty on the installment plan. (Hat tip to the late Bob Cote from Step Denver for that one) The Colorado House had a chance to create a zero tolerance policy that could have made an impact, but they watered it down instead. The usual cries about sending addicts to prison, which can be easily avoided by offering diversion to drug courts and treatment that we already have in place, won the day as emotions beat rational, fact based thinking. Democrats seem to have an either-or mindset on this, where one thinks the only options are felony convictions or fentanyl for addicts with a misdemeanor, but that's a false choice. Addicts can be redirected and forced into treatment, which has been shown here, here and here to work as well or BETTER than voluntary treatment. Zero tolerance on fentanyl combined with the drug courts and mandatory treatment will save more lives and futures than allowing some addict to walk around with enough fentanyl to kill themselves at any given moment. Every fentanyl death from this point on is on the Democrats heads.
THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT Our number of murders committed by juveniles is downright depressing. The only good news in this article is that overall crime by juveniles is dropping, but murders are WAY up. I'd like a deeper dive into the numbers of murders committed by juveniles, specifically how many of those kids were gang attached or trying to be gang attached. No one can agree on what to do, although I think supporting programs that are working already would be a good start before creating a new bureaucracy. There is NO discussion about how to support strong families and strong fathers, which is a big part of non violent kids.
COPS ARE BEING KILLED AT AN ALARMING RATE And we don't hear much about it, I wonder why? FBI Director Chris Wray was on 60 Minutes last night to discuss it. A whopping 77 officers were killed last year by assailants, up 59% over the year before. So who is doing the killing when it comes to cops? And who is doing the killing?
Here is a summary based on the data from the Officer Down Memorial page for 2020
Number
% of total
% of population
Total intentional homicides
44
100%
White assailants
16
36%
60.10%
Hispanic assailants
10
23%
18.50%
Black assailants
18
41%
12.20%
Asian assailants
0
0%
5.60%
Thanks to listener Joe for grabbing these numbers. I'll just present these without comment.
WHY ARE SO MANY FOOD PROCESSING PLANTS BURNING DOWN? This feels to coincidental to be a coincidence, but I don't want to start some big huge conspiracy theory. But then again, this is SUPER weird. To be clear, we are talking about a TINY FRACTION of all the food distribution plants in the US, less than one percent. But is it weird that TWO plane crashes into facilities have happened in six months? That seems weird. Or that Union Pacific is limiting a major supplier of fertilizer from shipping to farmers who need that for their upcoming crop season? Yes, there are supply chain issues and Union Pacific says they are merely doing that, but why target THIS company and only 29 others? Weird. The pieces are laid out here for this weird, unsettling, but maybe nothing story.
HUGE ANTI-SEMITE TO SPEAK AT GEORGETOWN And as a free speech advocate I say let him speak. But at least get a moderator who can point out his virile anti-Jewish hatred? That would be nice. Read more about this idiot here. The only issue I have with this entire story is that the same Georgetown University has put Ilya Shapiro on leave since January because he tweeted a criticism of the Biden Administration using race in picking a Supreme Court justice. So that seems to be inconsistent with their commitment to free speech, doesn't it?
TWITTERS CENSORS ARE AT IT AGAIN Elon Musk can't buy Twitter fast enough when I read these stories. After banning anyone who said that people with the covid vaccine could still spread covid (spoiler alert: they can), now Twitter is moving on to climate change, where they are banning any ads that disagree with the climate dogma they support. They apparently didn't learn from the last time they were wrong.
TWITTER IS NOW SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING MUSK'S OFFER And over the weekend things heated up as Musk brought the goods and secured significant backing and financing to takeover Twitter. After first trying to stop it, they seem to be recognizing that they are outmatched by Musk in this. Left wing twitter is losing its collective minds over this, which I find super funny. Maybe they should just start up a different social media platform and go there instead? Sorry, just throwing that back in their faces as they've thrown it into the faces of banned conservatives.
ALL CHOLESTEROL IS NOT CREATED EQUAL And a new study shows that good cholesterol, the HDL kind (I remember it's good by thinking of "H"appy cholesterol) that it actually protects your liver from injury. Perhaps we'll see the return of HDL raising medications now?
AND NOW BABIES BEING STARTLED
A CRAZY RED BULL STUNT GOES NOT SO WELL As the pilots were supposed to "swap planes" by jumping out of them simultaneously and flying to the other one to take over. One pilot made the switch, the other had to deploy a parachute as the plane smashed into the ground.
ONLY 29% OF HOSPITALIZED COVID PATIENTS ARE OKAY A YEAR ON And people who were obese or needed ventilation have fared far worse. Read more here.
TWO-SPIRIT SCIENTISTS, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE As a university in Canada is only accepting applications for their job as Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Tier 2 Canada Research Chair from "women, transgender, non-binary, or two-spirit." If you're good as science I guess that helps, but telling people you are two-spirit seems to be the easiest way for dudes to get this job.
TAKE CARE OF YOUR TECH BEFORE YOU DIE And there are three ways that you can do this, but the easiest way to is to make sure someone you love has all of your passwords.
GOOD LUCK GETTING HELP ON THE PHONE Because customer service centers are going away for a lot of companies. These jobs suck, let's face it, and companies are tired of trying to fill these jobs imo so why not do away with them? Force someone to send an email instead. Before buying something from a new to me brand, I always check the website for a phone number. No number, no sale. This has saved me from buying a lot of crappy stuff from China.
RIP SENATOR ORRIN HATCH The long running former Senator died Saturday at the age of 88. This piece does a great job remembering him.
IF EVERYTHING WERE A TRICK SHOT I'd love to see the outtakes on this one.
WHAT MADE EINSTEIN SO SMART? The short answer seems to be he had more neurons in his brain and one part was significantly bigger. Just ignore the part where his wishes were denied by a scientist who stole his brain.