IT'S ASK ME ANYTHING FRIDAY And I'm going to sprinkle this throughout today's show because you first hour listeners have been having all the fun.
WATER IS A BIG DEAL And Colorado Politics' Marianne Goodland joins me at 12:30 to talk about the negotiations going on between seven states, the 30 tribes, the nongovernmental organizations, recreationists, and more. Seems everyone has an opinion about the most important river in the West and how the water gets distributed. Marianne wrote a long piece about it here, but I figured I'd have her on to help walk us through how all this works because whether you know it or not, this is going to affect your life at some point. This is one of the most important issues in Colorado, but also one of the most dense so pay attention!
LET'S TALK END OF YEAR FINANCIAL MOVES The end of the year is a great time to do a financial check up and I've got Josh Cumrine on the show to talk about what you should do to review how your financial planning is going. He's on at 1, and if you'd like more personal advice you can find him here.
MODERN MONETARY THEORY IS HOKUM And my guest at 2:30 Alexander Salter wrote a column about how it may have gotten Trump elected. What is Modern Monetary Theory? It is "a fringe school of economic thought arguing that the federal government, as the sole issuer of legal tender, can issue virtually limitless amounts of new money to fund itself." Modern Monetary theory ignores a pile of evidence that this will devalue currency but Big Government types LOVE IT because it allows them to spend like drunken sailors to pay off donors and voters. Think "Stimmy Checks". Alexander is on to talk about how stupid the arguments on its behalf really are. We can't stop it if we don't talk about it.
COLORADO SPRINGS MAYOR YEMI MOBOLADE WAS IMPLICATED IN A HATE CRIME HOAX But an FBI agent told The Daily Wire that the Department of Justice refused to charge the Mayor with lying to the FBI because he was the "first black mayor" of Colorado Springs. It all stems from a fake hate crime during the election designed by the perpetrators to turn out the black vote for the Mayor. From The Daily Wire story:
When The Daily Wire asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Colorado for comment on the allegation that it rejected an FBI criminal referral for false statements and included a false statement in its press release, a spokesman said “we have no comment” and stealth-edited the press release to strike the phrase “to the other defendants.”
Yet Mobolade seemed to expect even more from the Justice Department. On November 13, The Daily Wire emailed the mayor’s spokespeople asking about his communications with Bernard. That day, he personally called the Justice Department to request that it put out a second press release saying he was not a subject in the hoax hate crime investigation, the official said.
The Justice Department seemed open to doing so, and consulted the FBI about it. But the FBI was taken aback by the request, because the mayor was, in fact, on investigators’ radar, the official said. Additionally, such a statement would come just as the other defendants had a reason to provide information about any involvement by Mobolade as part of plea deals, and an unusual and premature exoneration from the DOJ could derail that, the official said.
This is not good. I really wanted Yemi to be the person he appeared to be but it seems he gave into his base instincts and tried to rig the system to get elected. Additionally, it seems that the people who perpetrated this hoax did so with an expectation of some sort of payback. This is very disappointing.
IT'S TIME TO STOP THE VACANCY COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS And imagine my surprise when I saw that the Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party Shad Murib agrees with me that vacancy committees are not the right way to fill those seats. Check out this from the Denver Post about his statement:
The prevalence of it has led to renewed criticism, including from Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib. In a statement, he said the number of state senators and representatives in office because of vacancy committees “should concern every Coloradan.”
“Regardless of the high standards we place on ourselves to run as great a vacancy committee process as law allows, the fact remains that vacancy committees are small and don’t provide for the same type of public input and scrutiny as a traditional election,” Murib said.
See? We CAN find areas of agreement. Legislators need to take this on now. We have to figure out a better way. I'm not sure what that is, but we need to do something, especially about lawmakers who run and then immediately leave. That is just fundamentally unfair to voters, regardless of party.
DENVER'S HOMELESS RESPONSE IS A MESS At least according to an audit which showed so many problems that it would shut down if it were a private business. Read this from the Denver Gazette:
In June, the City Council learned that the Johnston administration was on track to spend $155 million between July 2023 and December 2024 — $65 million more than what the mayor previously said it would cost.
The audit released on Thursday found that the city’s Department of Housing Stability (HOST), which oversees many of Denver’s homeless shelter operations, lacks effective systems for monitoring providers' performance. The oversight concerns included deficiencies in departmental organization, financial management and accountability, according to a statement from Denver Auditor Timothy O’Brien.
Additionally, O’Brien said the department also failed to ensure adequate safety measures at one shelter, track shelter-related expenses comprehensively, and enforce contracting requirements for invoices.
Y'all, they seem to have no idea how they spent $155 MILLION taxpayer dollars. And there is NO excuse for this as City Council members have been asking for accounting on the program for a year now. It's not like they didn't know they were going to have to show us where they spent the money. But that's not all. The providers who are supposed to supply those "wraparound" services along with security just aren't doing what they are contractually obligated to do. The Salvation Army has been a real disappointment in this. The city’s Department of Housing Stability (HOST), which oversees many of Denver’s homeless shelter operations, failed to ensure adequate safety measures at one shelter, track shelter-related expenses comprehensively, and enforce contracting requirements for invoices. They have no accounting for how they spent this money. This is what happens when you rush to keep a political promise without a clearly defined plan on how to do it. This is on the Mayor, who steamrolled the City Council with fiscal request after fiscal request and the City Council for rubber stamping it all. Of course the Mayor says not to worry:
“The Auditor's report on Denver's shelter system references data and information from more than eight months ago and is not an accurate representation of the current state of our shelter system,” said Jordan Fuja, the mayor's spokesperson. “We continue to constantly improve our programs, which is why, although we acknowledge the auditor's findings, it's important to note that HOST and the city have long been working to improve the system throughout 2024."
I'll believe it when I see the accounting. All of it. This program is a disaster.
SKIING IS A MASSIVE PART OF OUR ECONOMY But our overall outdoor economy is 10th in the country overall, most of that coming from skiing. Read all the stats on how important the outdoors are in Colorado here.
CDOT IS EXPANDING ITS LINE JUMPER FINES To other express lanes throughout the metro. If you hop in and out of the express lanes outside of where it is explicitly allowed on central I-70, I-25 South Gap and U.S. 36 corridors beginning Dec. 1 you should expect a ticket that is way more than just paying the express lane tolls. Find out more here.
WHERE IS DOGE LOOKING FOR CUTS? Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal here but it is paywalled. This story about it is also paywalled but you should be subscribing to the Denver Gazette anyway so do that and you can read it. They plan to reduce the Federal workforce and plan to do so by rolling back onerous regulations that provide busy work for federal employees and needless burdens on Americans. I read both stories and I'm here for it. My favorite part is about shutting down government agency headquarters in DC and moving them to cities around the country. I'm here for it all 100%.
RFK IS GOING AFTER FOOD ADDITIVES And if you want to understand why you should read this article about how Big Food is pretty much policing themselves on additives deemed Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS). From the article:
But when it comes to food, when it comes to 'generally recognized as safe,' complete self-policing from this industry, allowing them to put chemicals in our food that are banned in every other country and have hundreds of studies saying are harmful, there needs to be a review," Means said.
I genuinely don't care about some of RFK Jr's loopier ideas, it's about time someone talked about the crap that is in our food that isn't in any food anywhere else in the world. I have his back on this.
THE OXFORD COMMA STILL MATTERS As the New York Times demonstrates here.
GAVIN NEWSOM BEGINS HIS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN And I'm just going to say it, he looks like the slimiest stereotype of a huckster, a con man, or the old trope of the used car salesman. He just seems slimy.
WHILE JARED POLIS THINKS HE CUT YOUR PROPERTY TAXES I can even with this tweet. I just can't even.
TULSA KING ROLLS ON EVEN THOUGH SLY IS OUT AS MAGA And Christian Toto writes about how coming out in support of the re election of Donald Trump recently hasn't stopped the momentum of the really, really, really good show he fronts on Paramount+ as they've picked up TWO more seasons of the show. I'm super happy about that because as I said, the show is super good.
AIRLINES NEED TO WORK WITH AIR TAGS instead of refusing to even look for bags that are sitting in an airport. If you travel, Apple Air tags are the BEST THING EVER. You must have an Apple device to connect them to (I use my Ipad as I don't have an Apple phone) and they SAVED us when our bags got lost in Geneva. But some airline workers are refusing to use the technology as two men found out when their bag got lost in Barcelona. They could see via their Air Tags that the bag was behind the wall of the counter, but the airline worker refused to find it. This is absurd. Experts say if you know your bag is in the airport, DON'T leave the airport and escalate the situation by bringing in airport police if you have to. Apple is actively working to make it easier for airlines to use this technology with a Share Location feature so airlines have no excuse.
DENVER GETS A NOD FROM CONDE NAST In their list of top destinations to visit in North America. Find out more here, but Cuba is also on the list and I just find that offensive considering the government there can't keep the lights on for their own people and are redirecting scarce food to tourist corridors. But you do you.
AND NOW, A BABY BOTTLE FLIP Because why not. Watch below or click here.
WHAT SHOWS FELL OFF SO HARD YOU DIDN'T FINISH THEM? This is a great question and for me it's The Americans which started SO GOOD and then stopped doing all the things they did to make it so good. I've actually not seen a single one of this guy's shows. Watch below or click here.
CYNTHIA ERIVO IS ANNOYED AGAIN I am really excited to see Wicked and am glad they got two women with big voices to play the leads. That being said, has anyone else noticed how many articles there are about star Cynthia Erivo being "offended" or "annoyed" but something surrounding this film? From a fan's glow up of the movie poster, to being annoyed by questions about her crazy long nails and her personal grooming, to the endless crying by these two women on the press tour. I've had enough, I'm just ready for the movie. The movie comes out this weekend along with some other heavy hitters you can find here.
THE NEW SUPERMAN TRAILER IS HERE!
POKEMON GO WAS A TOTAL SCAM And if you played the company that built it says thanks, you worked for them for free while they built the largest Geospatial Model on earth. Watch below or click here. Remember, if something is free, you are the product. Read this for a deeper dive.
EVEN JAKE PAUL KNOWS THE FIGHT WAS BAD Watch below or click here.