DAVE THE INTREPID IS BACK WITH SOME BOOKS TO GIVEAWAY Dave is moving and now that he's packing his hundreds of books he's realized he doesn't want to pack hundreds of books and he's got some very interesting and very valuable books he wants to give away. He's joining me at 2:30 to talk about what he's got.
ONE BUD LIGHT DISTRIBUTOR IS FIGHTING BACK Against the disastrous decision to work with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. An independent distributor in Alabama is running radio ads that say this:
"We at Bama Budweiser, an independent wholesaler, employ around 100 people who live here, work here, and our children go to school here," Tatum says in the spots. “We do not, and as I said before, did not support this issue involving Dylan Mulvaney. There was one single can made. It was not for sale and wasn't properly approved. As a result, the Bud Light brand has new leadership.
Dylan Mulvaney is not under contract with Bud Light, the videos you may have seen are Mulvaney's own social media posts that went viral and many web-based news outlets have distorted the story. You deserve to know the truth, and life is too short to let a couple of individuals decide what you can eat or drink or spend your hard-earned money on. And remember, making friends is our business, not enemies."
The distributor says that the response has been overwhelmingly positive and he's seeing a hopeful sign that they are working.
HOW MANY DANGEROUS KIDS ARE IN OUR SCHOOLS? CBS4 should be commended for staying on this story and demanding answers to the question of how manys students there are being patted down or otherwise deemed a security risk by schools. The answers they got really provided more questions than answers for me though, as they found hundreds of students have been deemed a high risk for violence in several school districts. My own school district of Douglas County does not maintain records on this, and that must change. I'm not sure what the answer is, but as a parent this does not give me a warm and fuzzy. Read it here.
PRESIDENT BIDEN HATES THE CONSTITUTION Or he's so wildly ignorant that he thinks the 14th Amendment, which had to do with government debt from the Civil War, will allow him to raise the debt ceiling. He said as much from Japan, where he is taking part in the G7 summit while Republicans try to hold spending at its current level for ONE YEAR to try to deal with our massive deficit. Biden says he doesn't want any spending freezes because he has no clue that our debt will eventually destroy the country. Well he said that first part anyway. You can read the 14th Amendment here.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THE DEBT CEILING If you have any money in the market, including in a 401k, read this to realize these idiots in Washington are playing fast and loose with your retirement. Idiots.
THIS VIDEO HAS ME VERY, VERY NERVOUS At first glance it's really funny, but dang, it's more scary. We are very close to AI changing an election.
MORE SMOKY SKIES TODAY But it won't be quite as bad as it has been, with more improvement coming tomorrow. This sucks.
CAN WE TALK ABOUT KID'S BIRTHDAY PARTIES FOR MINUTE? This story is both sad and wonderful. A mom threw a birthday party for her five year old, invited the whole class and no one showed up. So she took to Facebook and invited the whole community and a LOT of people showed up. When did parents get so crappy about rsvping and making sure their kids show up? You don't have to spend a ton on a gift, especially for a five year old, so what's the deal? This is a common complaint I've heard in the years we've been at Q's school and one we've dealt with as well. I bet I'm not the only one.
THE FARMERS ALMANAC SAYS THIS SUMMER IS GOING TO BE SCORCHER Though they aren't always accurate. They say the whole country is going to be hot this summer. One study showed them to be right about 52% of the time, which really is a coin flip, but it's always fun to complain about the heat before it even gets here. They did predict an especially snowy and cold winter though so they got that right.
OUT OF TOWN MONEY IS FLOWING INTO MIKE JOHNSTON'S CAMPAIGN This is a great analysis of direct contributions to the two mayoral candidates and two things have jumped out. One is how many unemployed people have given the maximum to Johnston. I'd like to know more about this:
Nearly 400 "unemployed" people contributed a total of $48,687 to his campaign, according to an analysis of publicly available data. They included 46 individuals who gave $500 each. A majority of the unemployed contributors, 298, gave $100 or less, bringing in a total of $13,500. In contrast, unemployed individuals contributed only $4,793 to Brough, including five who gave $500 each.
And then there is out of town and out of state money flowing to both campaigns. That looks like this:
All told, Brough counted support from more Denverites, accounting for roughly 68% of total direct contributions. Johnston received 60% of contributions from Denverites. Brough also had more support from within Colorado at 89% of contributions, with her out-of-state funding supporting totaling only $18,454. Meanwhile, 77% of Johnston's contributors come from within Colorado, with close to a quarter of his total fundraising coming from out of state, totaling $68,026.
You should read the rest of the analysis here, because it's very interesting who is supporting whom when it comes to legislators and lobbyists as well.
THERE'S ANOTHER SET OF STAIRS TO CONQUER IN COLORADO This one down in Canon City as part of a new development down there. The Epic Incline is open and accessible via a public trail but is part of a new gated community in Canon City. Read more here.
THE POT MARKET IS IN A SLUMP IN COLORADO And as more states legalize weed, this should have been easy to see coming. Sales are down, supply is up and that means depressed pricing in the once thriving industry. This part about one company who pulled out of the Colorado market is very interesting:
Earlier this year, marijuana giant Curaleaf shuttered its operations in Colorado, along with California and Oregon. “We believe these states will represent opportunities in the future, but the current price compression caused by a lack of meaningful enforcement of the illicit market (emphasis mine) prevent us from generating an acceptable return on our investments,” CEO Matt Darin said.
I'm glad I'm not the only one talking about this. The good news is that when businesses start closing and the tax money drops there will be a much large incentive to go after black market pot dealers. Apparently the law is not a good enough reason when we are understaffed in our law enforcement agencies.
FATHER ABSENCE HAS PEAKED This is good news because there is a ton of research showing that kids do much better being raised in happy two parent homes. This article references several books on the subject, but the good news is that we bottomed out on the number of kids growing up in single parent homes in 2000.
TEACHER OF THE YEAR ARRESTED In California for having sex with a 16 year old boy. The former Teacher of the Year is facing charges of engaging in "sexual activity" with the boy and is in jail on a $30,000 bail. Unfortunately this is not uncommon anymore, although it seems now that it's more women than men who are putting themselves in this situation.
DENVER IS GETTING WHAT THEY ASKED FOR This is what I was pressing Mayor Hancock on last week and now the Gazette has written an editorial on it.
GEN Z ISN'T INTERESTED IN THE TWO PARTY SYSTEM And thank GOD for that. This is a column by an adviser at the very liberal Sarah Lawrence College and in it he says his students aren't attracted to either party and recognize that the politicians care more about party wins than what's right for the country. Anyone thinking of running for office should pay attention to this. I think Yemi in Colorado Springs is an early winner because of this. Read the column here.
WHAT TEACH FOR AMERICA IS REALLY LIKE If this column is seen wide and far it will create a furor of accusations of racism because of its accurate depiction of how out of control the students in poor, mostly black schools are. I know several people who have had extremely similar situations when they went to teach in such schools. It's unfortunate that more teachers aren't telling the truth like this so we could begin to talk about the real reason for the achievement gap in many cases, which is children who are completely unprepared for a classroom environment. From absolute disrespect to violence, these kids prevent the kids who DO want to learn from learning anything. It's not racism, it's not white privilege, it's children and parents who are so steeped in a culture of violence that they don't know how to behave to learn. It's incredibly sad, but how exactly does a school district fix it? Read the first part here and the final part here.
THE WORLD'S FASTED SHOE Not gonna lie, I want these.
HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS ABOUT TABLESPOONS??? Watch below or click here.
DOGS DO LOVE BALLS He just thought he had hit the motherlode of all balls! Watch below or click here.
COACHES FACETIMED PLAYERS TO SEE HOW THEY WOULD REACT And some of these are funny but you know these guys were gripping hard. Watch below or click here.
HARRISON FORD STILL HAS IT At least according to this reporter. Watch below or click here.
I NEED THIS HOCKEY BOTTLE OPENER And I don't even care about hockey but this thing is awesome! Watch below or click here.
NOW WAKING UP EARLY IS WHITE SUPREMACY I must be a hella good white supremacist because I wake up hella early whether I want to or not. For criminy's sake I went to bed at 7 last night. But this racial grievance writer has found a new way to declare something racist. It's so stupid I kind of want you to read it.
WHEN YOU REALIZE YOU'RE BECOMING YOUR PARENTS This is hilarious because it's true. Watch below or click here.
WHEN BABY DISCOVERS SUGAR So accurate. Watch below or click here.
TOURISTS SHARE THINGS THEY LOVE AND THINGS THEY HATE ABOUT THE US And just look at how many of these are directly related to capitalism. Even the things they don't like (tipping) are counterbalanced by something that is the direct result of tipping, which is great customer service.
SPEAKING OF TIPPING Apparently now there are SELF SERVICE KIOSKS that are asking for tips. For what, exactly? Read more here.
CHOOSE YOUR HARD A listener asked me to add this here:
“Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard.
Obesity is hard. Being fit is hard. Choose your hard.
Being in debt is hard. Being financially disciplined is hard. Choose your hard.
Communication is hard. Not communicating is hard. Choose your hard.
Life will never be easy. It will always be hard. But we can choose our hard. Pick wisely.”
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