MAYOR HANCOCK JOINED US YESTERDAY ON A BEVY OF TOPICS For our monthly visit with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, we dove into homelessness, law enforcement, COVID, small business, cannabis & more.
WE WELCOME BACK KRISTA KAFER TO TALK POLITICS Because she is dialed in on the state. Fun fact, Krista will be filling in for me tomorrow and Friday while I go visit my grandsons and that couple who takes care of them. I mean my son and his wife, of course.
LIFE EXPECTANCY DROPPED DRAMATICALLY IN COLORADO And a drop of THREE YEARS in three years is very dramatic. Life expectancy numbers move in a relatively predictable pattern and mostly very slowly. As medicine, nutrition and health information gets better, it slowly ticks up. In 2019 life expectancy in Colorado was a rosy 81 years! That's better than most of the US and many, many nations around the world. Today, that life expectancy is down to 78! Why? Drugs, alcohol, and covid. You can read the rest here, but it is paywalled, so just subscribe to the Denver Gazette already.
IT'S TEN YEARS SINCE THE AURORA THEATER MASSACRE Say a prayer for the victims and the friends and family left behind if you have a moment. And a prayer that the gunman feels deep regret about his actions that day. And that he rots in jail forever.
MCCONNELL SAYS HE'S ALL IN ON O'DEA! And this is a BIG deal because the national Republican party has realized a disaster is brewing in Georgia and Pennsylvania (I'm not ready to give up on Arizona yet) and they need to back candidates who can win wherever they are. McConnell popped into a fundraiser for O'Dea in DC to announce the GOP is backing O'Dea big time. This is like being anointed by the Pope within the DC political circles and should open up some new money for O'Dea from outside the state. You should donate to his campaign too and can do so here.
SNL DID SOMETHING REALLY FUNNY! This fake trailer on the origin story of Oscar the Grouch is freaking hysterical.
AN ORGANIZED BAND OF THIEVES CLEANED OUT A NORDSTROM STORE IN MINUTES Because there were 80 people who stormed the store as over 20 cars blocked the streets outside. They brought in crowbars and destroyed the store in a just a short time, hurting a few workers in the process. When is anyone in California going to take this seriously? When? Why hasn't the Legislature been called back into emergency session to recriminalize shoplifting like this? Idiots, every single one of them.
CAN'T STAND THE HEAT IN TOWN? HEAD TO FRASER It's the Icebox of the Nation and always cooler than it is here. Check out more here.
HOW NOT TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE Protesting outside of a politicians house is wrong no matter what the party. Protesting outside a Supreme Court justice's house is even MORE wrong, as that's not how the Supreme Court is supposed to work. The Court should NEVER be susceptible to the slings and arrows of politics but don't tell the pro-choice protesters that. They've been in his neighborhood, yelling and carrying on for weeks now, even though he literally has NOTHING to do with abortion at this point. He's not going to reverse his decision but they are too wrapped up in their own ghoulish righteousness to see that. Now his largely pro-choice neighbors are not happy that their team is making their lives so miserable. Imagine that. I'm sure they'd support protests outside someone else's house. One neighbor did recognize that the protesters are probably hurting their cause and they are right.
THE GOP ASSEMBLY IS AN INEFFICIENT DINOSAUR OF A NOMINATING PROCESS And George Brauchler, who has participated in the assembly multiple times, calls out the dysfunction of the entire exercise in this column. Spoiler alert: we don't need to keep doing this.
WHEN YOU HAVE NO SUBSTANCE YOU HAVE TO RELY ON SHOWMANSHIP And one thing AOC seems to get is that she is low on substance. Watch this dramatic "arrest" where she is walking as if she is handcuffed but wait for the fist raise at the end. Showbiz!
WHY DOES NO ONE CARE ABOUT JOE BIDEN'S CONNECTION TO HUNTER BIDEN'S BUSINESS SCAMS? Right leaning media does, but the biggies who busted up Watergate seem to be completely uninterested in whether or not our now-President did secret business with the Chinese Communists via his shady ass son Hunter's shady ass businesses. It's all over right media, but legacy media it's crickets. Now imagine if we had video of Donald Trump, Jr lighting up a crack pipe while in the shower with two hookers. Just imagine.
GOOD GRIEF NOW FAUCI SAYS HE ISN'T RETIRING And WILL THIS MAN NOT JUST GO AWAY???? After many people (okay me) got super excited yesterday by the thought of him retiring, now the old attention hog says he's NOT retiring. BLECH.
WANT TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR OUTSIDE TIME? FIND WATER I personally need to be outside for a certain amount of time every day to feel happy. It took me a REALLY long time to figure this out, but it's been a game changer. Science has proven that outside time can be very, very restorative to your mental health, and now this study shows that spending time near water is EXTRA restorative and I buy this 100%. It's why I'm going to retire next to a river or stream if it kills me.
THE BRAZILIAN BUTT LIFT IS SO NOT WORTH IT Especially as these young women who are undergoing permanent surgery to get a currently fashionable figure will find that fashions change. I know this because I've been cursed/blessed with a big booty since BEFORE it was fashionable. Now we also know that this cosmetic procedure is the mostly deadly cosmetic procedure out there. Just don't do it. To be clear, I am NOT anti-plastic surgery as a general rule, but plastic surgery to chase a trend is a bad, bad idea and people are dying because of it.
IF YOU'RE GONNA BE STUPID, YOU BETTER BE TOUGH And can afford to replace a bunch of drones.
IF YOU SHARE YOUR NETFLIX PASSWORD YOU NEED TO READ THIS And we've known it's coming because people sharing passwords is a HUGE problem for streaming services like Netflix (who just announced they lost fewer subscribers than they thought they would) so we've known a crackdown was imminent. Now Netflix is testing out an "extra home" fee that will be added to the bill of customers who have multiple homes sharing a password. As the fee is only $2.99 a month, I think this is a relatively painless way for Netflix to let us know they are on to us and keep password sharing to a minimum. One $2.990 charge is not a big deal, but having one for each home outside of your home could add up quick.
IS IT DEHYDRATION OR AN ELECTROLYTE IMBALANCE? This is a good article with info on how to tell if you are JUST dehydrated of suffering from an electrolyte imbalance. I use these packets of electrolytes with my water in the morning to make sure I'm good for the day, and during this horrible heat this is super important. Learn more here.
GREAT RECIPES FOR A ROTISSERIE CHICKEN Don't feel like cooking? Grab a rotisserie chicken and assemble a great meal with it by checking out the recipes here.
UPS GUY COLLAPSES FROM THE STUPID ARIZONA HEAT Remember kids, it's super hot outside.
DON'T MESS WITH A BUNCH OF STYLISTS AT THIS SALON And I am thrilled to report the horrible man who tried to attack and kidnap a woman who showed up at a salon for a job interview has been caught. I'm also not surprised that when the ten women in the salon saw him try to do it they stepped in to save her. What a story.
DON'T DO IT, EMMANUEL This video is so freaking funny. A farm TikToker keeps getting interrupted by Emmanuel the Emu and it's fantastic. This is how I talk to my dog literally all day every day. Regina is kind of a jerk too, tbh.
TIK TOKS WEAK ATTEMPTS AT MODERATION ISN'T ENOUGH TO HELP KIDS IT'S HURTING Teens are especially susceptible to stupid trends that are fed to them via TikTok, and now that parents of children who died after trying some dumbass TikTok challenge have sued forcing TikTok to pretend to do something of value. I found this part of the article very interesting:
TikTok has been notorious for platforming the spread of dangerous trends, such as the blackout challenge, which encourages users to strangle themselves until passing out. Multiple children died attempting the challenge when it popped up on their "For You" page, leading parents to sue the company.
The app also exacerbates depression and anxiety by making mental health issues trendy, with teenage girls using it to self-diagnose conditions such as multiple personality disorder, attention hyperactive deficit disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder after watching videos suggested to them on these topics. (emphasis mine) Other girls have developed tics after watching content showing people with Tourette syndrome.
As we know that rapid onset gender dysphoria is happening at a much higher rate among teen girls, these things seem to be connected. Don't they?
And the billionaire was hoping to push it to next year but he lost that battle. This is going to be a fascinating trial to follow.
GM IS ROLLING OUT AN ELECTRIC CHEVY BLAZER And it's a good looking car with a price tag that STARTS at $45k. Read about it here.
WHY I'M NOT READY TO BUY ELECTRIC JUST YET I only buy used cars. I"m cheap like that, but I realize a lot of people love that new car smell, and I'm glad they do or there would never be anything for me to buy. That being said, this story is precisely why I'm not going to buy a used electric car for now. This is insane. The replacement batteries cost more than the car is worth. This is a huge, huge problem.