Just One Thing: Unacceptable (even by Trump standards)

I spent a lot of time thinking about Trump's "settlement" with the DOJ. The more I think about it the more angry I get, and almost never get angry about politics. It's the most corrupt thing I've seen in years. I made a video Substack discussing it. I hope you'll watch and subscribe (for free).

Unacceptable (even by Trump-era standards)

The settlement terms over Trump's tax-return lawsuit are wildly corrupt

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Today's Guests

Colorado State Senator Cleave Simpson (R-Alamosa) is minority leader in the State Senate. He joins us for an extended conversation to discuss some of the most important bills that passed (and some that failed) in the recently adjourned legislative session.

Simpson for Colorado | Colorado State Senate District 6

101 bills that passed and failed in Colorado’s legislature this year that you need to know about - The Colorado Sun

The 6 biggest themes of Colorado’s 2026 legislative session - The Colorado Sun Six themes of the 2026 Colorado legislative session

2026 Colorado legislative analysis: A year in which business concerns were heard | The Sum and Substance

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Attorney Don Knight represents Richard Glossip, a man who I believe was wrongly convicted with prosecutorial misconduct (again, my opinion) of a murder-for-hire in Oklahoma in 1997 when a meth addict killed a motel owner and then blamed Glossip in return for a promise of not getting the death penalty. Rich Glossip had an execution date set 9 separate times and three of those times got within a day of the scheduled execution. It's a miracle he's alive and he's the poster child for my opposition to the death penalty.

About a week ago, a judge overturned Glossip's conviction but the state is permitted to try him again and, disgustingly, it seems as if they will. In any case, Rich Glossip is current out of prison after spending half his life behind bars for a crime he very likely didn't commit and certainly should not have been convicted of.

Don Knight (law firm website)

Richard Glossip goes free, but his three-decade murder case goes on | CNN

Richard Glossip released from Oklahoma jail ahead of retrial in 1997 murder case | AP News

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KOA's own Anthony Rodriguez aka A-Rod is a huge hockey fan (and played a lot as a kid) attended last night's first game of the NHL Western Conference Final, pitting the Colorado Avalanche against the Las Vegas Golden Knights. He joins us to talk about the experience.

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Other Stuff

This is going to make a handful of billionaires and a LOT of multi-millionaires (including a friend of mine whom I won't name):

SpaceX Files IPO Paperwork; Nvidia Earnings in Focus — Live Updates

We Put SpaceX’s Pending Massive IPO in Perspective - WSJ

SpaceX is a beast. It goes way beyond just launch services.

There was news yesterday that the AI company Anthropic has agreed to spend about $1.25 billion per month to buy computing power from SpaceX: Anthropic is paying SpaceX $15 billion per year

SpaceX also owns Starlink

The IPO represents a massive amount of hope for SpaceX's future. As Axios put it, "SpaceX is wildly unprofitable, reporting a $4.9 billion net loss on $18.67 billion in consolidated revenue for 2025. For context, 200 companies in the S&P 500 had more revenue last year than SpaceX. This includes Tesla, where sales were five times higher."

From "The Dispatch": "Musk holds 12.3 percent of the company’s Class A shares and 93.6 percent of its Class B shares, which carry 10 votes each, giving him 85.1 percent of the voting power and an effective veto over his own removal."

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A remarkable achievement for a generalized AI, though the details are really for my nerdiest readers/listeners: An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry | OpenAI

They had wrongly made a similar claim before so we'll see if this one holds up, which seems more likely: OpenAI claims it solved an 80-year-old math problem — for real this time | TechCrunch

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This is deserved, but it’s unlikely we’ll see a mission to get Castro like we saw to get Maduro. I think this is mostly a play to boost Republican hopes in Florida’s midterms. It’s also good for Marco Rubio’s presidential hopes but that’s a long time in the future.

Trump DOJ indicts former Cuban president Raúl Castro over fatal 1996 civilian plane shootings

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I don't know if it's Groundhog Day or Lucy and the football, but I remain skeptical that we're close to a deal with Iran. I hope I'm wrong. The stock market thinks I'm wrong. The bond market is less sanguine even after yesterday's decline in yields.

Trump says negotiations with Iran in final stages, warns of attacks if deal fails | Reuters

Iran Threatens to Strike Beyond the Middle East if the U.S. Resumes Attacks - The New York Times

From early Thursday morning: Oil rises over 1% after Reuters report signals complication to US-Iran peace talks By Reuters

This is why there's pressure on Trump to get it sorted out quickly even as he tells Iran that he feels no pressure. He definitely does...or should.

GasBuddy Forecasts Most Expensive Summer at the Pump in Years Amid Strait Closure

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Stephen Colbert's last episode of "The Late Show" on CBS airs tonight. Reports are that it will go longer than its usual hour and the guest list is being kept secret until showtime. ABC's Jimmy Kimmel has said that he'll air a rerun at that time out of respect for Colbert. I barely thought Colbert was funny back when he was on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, but obviously lots of people disagreed with me. Colbert got a huge following on the left after being the most aggressively anti-Trump late-night host and I think that's part of the reason so much attention is being paid to the end of his show with liberal stalwarts like Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama showing up in recent weeks. I won't miss his show for the simple reason that I've literally never seen it (though I've seen a handful of short clips over the years).

Stephen Colbert's final 'Late Show' episode will be extra long

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Didn't get to this yesterday:

Holy cow: Trump Endorses Paxton over Cornyn in Texas U.S. Senate Race | National Review

I suppose you can tell why Trump did it based on who’s quoted in this article as being upset about it:

Donald Trump's endorsement of Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn in Texas angers Senate Republicans

Interestingly, the odds on the Republican winning the Senate race are basically unchanged at around 52.5%.

Paxton is a much weaker candidate than John Cornyn would have been because of his history of corruption and cheating on his wife. He can certainly still win but you can bet it'll cause Republicans to have to spend tens of millions of dollars (or even a couple hundred million) supporting him because if that seat goes, Dems will probably have the majority in the Senate which, among other things, means no more Trump nominees for anything important (like Supreme Court) get approved for the rest of Trump's presidency.

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I like this topic: Axios: Enjoy that mundane conversation

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I bet Jeana has some thoughts on this: Stanley Marketplace sale sparks uncertainty

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Much needed around Nederland: Colorado launches $4M wildfire mitigation project along high-risk highways

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Every taxpayer, not just Californians, should care about this.

The Great California Medicaid Grift - WSJ

Of course there's lots of job growth in a field where government is spending unlimited amounts of money with very little apparent ability or interest in catching fraud.

100% of California Private Job Growth Is in Health Care - Unleash Prosperity

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Quick sports note: On Tuesday night, the NY Knicks were down 22 to the Cleveland Cavaliers with 7 minutes left in the 4th quarter. Teams up by 20 with 7 minutes left in a playoff game were, according to ESPN, 663-0 before Tuesday when the Knicks came all the way back, tied the game, and won it in overtime. Amazing.

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Well that's a clever name! Blake Street Tavern to be reborn as Tavern on Blake Street

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I would say “do better” but she’ll have to do better somewhere else, which is the right outcome here:

DPS board votes to fire teacher after misconduct findings - Denver Gazette

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Yeah, annoying for people who bought these vehicles to save money but really it’s conceptually reasonable.

Highway bill proposes annual fee for EV owners

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This may be a dramatic headline for the GOP but there's something to it: The GOP wheels fall off

Related: Senate Republicans Don't Have the Votes to Fund Trump's Ballroom - NOTUS — News of the United States

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I hadn't thought about the GOP secretly supporting this lunatic but they should be, just the way Dems supported ultra-MAGA idiots in 2018 with great effect.

Dem Candidate Advocates Prison, Castration for Zionists

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I wonder what he said: Hot dog champ Joey Chestnut pleads guilty to battery

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