Today's Guests
Baron Daniel Hannan of Kingsclere (how's that for a title?!?) is one of the smartest, most interesting people I've ever met. I think of Dan frequently because there is near my home a park called Magna Carta Park, named for one of the world's great political documents which was written in the part of England that Dan represented, pre-Brexit, in the European Parliament.
Dan is about as big a fan of the US as a Brit can be and I take his commentary about this side of the pond very seriously, as one should with everything Dan writes. Here's the latest, about how our woke racist nonsense is infecting the rest of the world: The world is being infected by America's race pathology | Washington Examiner
Dan was a major champion of Brexit (which I also supported, not that my support mattered in any way). We'll talk about how that's going so far. Here's one update: DANIEL HANNAN: Eurocrats don't care about peace in Ireland - they just want to punish Britain | Daily Mail Online
Dan has written several books including "Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World". https://smile.amazon.com/Daniel-Hannan/e/B004IGUSXQ
One of my favorite political speeches of all time is Dan's takedown of former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the European Parliament. One quote "You are the devalued prime minister, of a devalued government." I'll post the video immediately below this list of today's guests.
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A listener alerted me to something that seems like it's being rushed through the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, to buy something called "Palette" housing structures for potential use by homeless people in DougCo. We'll have Commissioner Lora Thomas on the show to explain what this is all about.
County moving forward on purchase of 17 temporary structures for emergency housing - Douglas County
Homeless Initiative - Douglas County
In Douglas County, signs of homelessness are on the rise (coloradosun.com)
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Evelyn Lim of the Common Sense Institute just released a new study about the potentially enormous costs to meet the state's radical goals for electrification (e.g. elimination of use of fossil fuels) in new homes. The costs will likely make an already significant housing shorting much worse.
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Joe O'Dea is a Republican candidate for US Senate, and the candidate whom I have endorsed. (His opponent, State Rep Ron Hanks is utterly unelectable statewide in Colorado and, based on his running on the myth of a "stolen election" in 2020, he's also unfit to hold office.) Joe joins us to talk about his recent debate with Hanks as well as his thoughts on the ads being run, both attacking O'Dea and supporting Hanks...ads paid for by Democrats. Joe has filed a lawsuit to stop mailers that are borderline-fraudulent, which suggest that the "Colorado Republican Party" (which is not the official name of the Republican Party organization here in Colorado) has endorsed Hanks.
Other Stuff
The bipartisan group of senators who have been working on gun- and mental health-related legislation released the text of the legislation yesterday and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he'd support it.
McConnell says he supports bipartisan guns legislation | Washington Examiner
Text of legislation: OLL22581 (wsj.net)
Many conservatives are furious with Sen John Cornyn (R-TX) who has taken the lead for the GOP. They're particularly upset with what will be federal support for states that pass "red flag" laws. (I haven't read the text yet but I bet it includes, just to be "fair", money for states that passed such laws already.) I won't take this space to debate red flag laws. I'll just say that I can imagine one being written that has a good enough balance of public safety and protecting constitutional rights (the latter of which is, like it or not, more important) that I would support it. That is not what we currently have in Colorado but perhaps other states chasing the federal bribe that will soon be on offer will at least implement something better than what we did here.
There's a reason that NONE of the Republican senators involved in the negotiation are facing election either this year OR in two years. All are four years from now or are retiring after this Congress. They probably figure that most GOP base voters will have forgotten about this. I think they're wrong in the sense that people for whom the Second Amendment is their key issue will likely never forget or forgive support for this, particularly regarding Cornyn. BUT, it's unclear that that group is really enough to determine the outcome of a Republican primary, much less a general election.
The bulk of the cost of the bill will related to mental health issues which, I reiterate, is absolutely none of the federal government's business. It's essentially all unconstitutional expenditures, all vote buying. They will pretend to cover the cost with a gimmick related to a pharmaceutical-related provision of law from during the Trump administration but really it's all new and unconstitutional spending.
It is likely that this will pass within a week and be signed by the president within two weeks.
I know that hard-core #2A supporters won't be happy with this but overall I have to say that the bill reads more like something Republicans would write than any Democratic wish list. I think it's a BIG political win for the GOP if the goal is to try to win suburban moderate voters and women. It makes it VERY hard for Dems to run against the GOP as the party that protects guns more than elementary school kids, which has already been a big line for them.
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We'll talk about this more tomorrow when I debate attorney Igor Raykin about it, but the Supreme Court issued an opinion in an interesting case related to government funding of religious schools. The short version is that if a state is giving money to private schools, the state cannot exclude religious schools just because they're religious.
Court strikes down Maine’s ban on using public funds at religious schools - SCOTUSblog
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A new US law aimed at sanctioning Chinese goods and materials from the Xinjiang province where an estimated million Uyghurs are interred in forced labor camps is about to take effect. Experts say American businesses and consumers are not prepared for the enormous impact of the law should the Biden administration live up to its word to aggressively enforce it: Companies Brace for Impact of New Forced Labor Law - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
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Does America's future contain an ungovernable nation? Anarchy is a likelier future for the west than tyranny | Financial Times (ft.com)
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Every time a Trump-endorsed candidate loses, an angel gets his (or her) wings: Collins beats out Trump-backed Jones for Georgia GOP House nod (msn.com)
Today's Videos
The world's biggest cruise ship (by passenger capacity) may end up seeing its maiden voyage be to the scrap yard. Would be a sad end for a $1.8 BILLION boat, don't you thinik?
World's Biggest Cruise Ship Has No Buyer, 1st Voyage May Be To Scrapyard (ndtv.com)
Unfinished and unwanted 9,000-passenger cruise ship to be scrapped | Business | The Guardian
More from Sal Mercogliano of What's Going on With Shipping