WE HAVE GOT TO PROTECT THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE And I know YOU know this, because you've probably already signed the petition to stop Colorado's stupid National Popular Vote Giveaway. I've got Trent England on today from Save Our States on about his recent lecture and column for Imprimis called "The Danger of the Attacks on the Electoral College" which you can and should read by clicking here.
THIS JEFFREY EPSTEIN STORY IS ONE TO WATCH Because even though the media is conveniently only currently reporting the fact that Trump said some nice things about the man, Epstein is very, very well-connected to people in very high places. That is the only explanation for the fact he pleaded guilty to prostitution when he was charged with sex trafficking of over three dozen underage girls. Bill Clinton was a guest numerous times at his private island in the Bahamas (where a lot of abuse was alleged to have taken place) and Trump has at least ridden on his private plane. Now a judge says all the documents for his prior case should be unsealed. This is going to get interesting. This is the sort of #metoo situation that could bring down a lot of very powerful men. Now the case has been revived by federal prosecutors. Good, this guy is a real scumbag. Holy cow, the Feds are taking his houses and private jet. Read the indictment here.
THANK YOU COLORADO REPUBLICANS For sending a very strong message to our greedy Governor about your willingness to support a stupid and unnecessary and expensive special session so the Legislature can find a new way to get us to vote for them to keep our money. I especially love the letter to the Governor from House Republicans:
“We urge you not to call a special session. We think Taxpayers should get the full refund they deserve. Any effort to undermine or take away the refunds of our citizens will be strongly opposed by us.”
They are correct. It seems polling data is not kind to the initiative that our intrepid Democratic Legislature decided to put on the ballot to keep our refunds, so they want to "fix" it by coming up with a new plan that makes it SEEM like we're keeping the Taxpayers Bill of Rights when we're not. This is exactly why I try to focus on LOCAL politicians who are doing the right thing rather than the national politicians who are not.
OH HICK, IT MIGHT BE TIME TO PACK IT IN At a recent campaign event in Iowa, Hick admitted that the problems with his campaign were him. As a candidate that is. And just check this from the Colorado Politics website:
"Certainly the vast majority of the problem with the campaign was me not being as good of a messenger as I need to be, but you can't switch or trade in a new candidate," he said in an interview with a local reporter after a town hall in Perry, Iowa.
Hickenlooper acknowledged that "there's just a bunch of skills that don't come naturally to me" that are essential to campaigning — "like being a really good debater, being real smooth with wealthy donors."
On the one hand, his honesty is refreshing, but on the other hand, now is not the time for a Democrat to admit that he is not a good debater when his opponent is known for his scorched earth debate style. And as an aside, expect a different guy in the debates this time than we saw last time from Trump. Now he's got actual information, actual knowledge and more to rely on. He's going to be better. Which could be a huge problem for a guy like Hick.
COULD WE LEAD THE NATION WHEN IT COMES TO REDISTRICTING? We have already lead the way on pot (yay?) and now we may provide some solutions to other states looking to take the politics out of redistricting. After next year's census, we will roll out our plan for Fair Districting done by computers, committees and public input rather than political party. This is a cool story about how we are already getting ready.
WHEN WILL CHARTER SCHOOL PARENTS LEARN TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE SCHOOL BOARD RACES? And maybe they do, but in JeffCo they are having the same problems as in DougCo with a Board that will do anything in it's power to give them short shrift. In this case, it's about how they are calculating charter schools share of a mill levy override. They had options so of course they chose the option which gave the charter schools less money. Of course they did.
OH STARBUCKS, YOUR CLIENTELE IS MADE OF SAD, SAD SHRINKING VIOLETS And the staff is no better. When a customer in Tempe, Arizona complained that a group of police officers getting coffee made her feel "unsafe" the intrepid employees made a bold choice and asked the cops to leave. Seriously. Now Starbucks is offering official apologies and blah, blah, blah but can't you just support a local coffee joint instead of giving this progressive train wreck of a company your money?
NOW SOME SOUTHERN SAYINGS FOR YOU
IT'S TIME FOR MONDAYS WITH MILTON And in this one, Milton Friedman talks about Illegal Immigration
CONGRATS TO THE WOMEN'S SOCCER TEAM AND CAN MEGAN RAPINOE PLEASE GO AWAY NOW I didn't watch the Women's World Cup Finals. Mostly because I don't give a crap about soccer, but I HAVE watched World Cup Finals before and yes for the women. But Megan Rapinoe made me not want to watch. She's arrogant, annoying and preachy and I wish she's just retire already and go away. She further ruined another sport for me that I barely cared about before.
GOING ON VACATION? LEAVE THE WORK BEHIND! Here is an article with three reasons why you should leave your work behind when you go on vacation and they are all good and correct.
ROBERT MUELLER WILL TESTIFY BUT HIS #2 GUY IS GOING TO BE FAR MORE IMPORTANT And this column lays out how Andrew Weissman's testimony behind closed doors could do far more damage to the Mueller Report than anything the open session will produce. I sure hope the members getting ready to question Mueller find ways to bring Weissman's role into the spotlight along with how biased the man was from the get-go.
WHEN A HATE CRIME EPIDEMIC DOESN'T LIVE UP TO ITS BILLING as is happening in Seattle, what should we do about it? One reporter decided to dig deep into the stats touted by a mainstream journalist who wrote a sensational story about how hate crimes were up 400% since 2002. 400 percent! Except it's not quite what it seems and when the stats were examined closely, the hate crime epidemic collapsed as quickly as most of the hate crime accusations had. So why do we have reporters actively working to spread the rumor that hate crimes are on the rise?
ASH BARTY IS MY NEW FAVORITE TENNIS PLAYER Who is Ash Barty? I have no idea but she's been using Disney lyrics in his press conferences so she's my new favorite.
AND NOW, SOME HOT DOG HISTORY And I found this very interesting if somewhat useless information about our beloved hot dogs.
I'M NOT SAYING CHUCK AND I ARE IN TRAINING FOR NEXT YEAR BUT....