GOOD GRIEF, TRUMP CAN'T EVEN BE SICK RIGHT ACCORING TO THE PRESS I have no idea how sick President Trump really is. I do know that the Press is sick though. The coverage this weekend of his illness was sickening. I'm just frankly sick of trying to parse news from opinion on this one.
I DID MY BALLOT INIATIVE GUIDE THIS WEEKEND And here is a link to it's own separate blog post for your convenience.
NO ON PROP EE IS ON TODAY AT 1 That is the tax on nicotine products. We'll talk to Michelle Lyng about why you should vote no.
WE'RE ON PACE FOR A RECORD NUMBER OF OVERDOSES THIS YEAR As we met last year's total of 225 last Wednesday and we still have three months to go in this hellhole of a year. The lockdown means that people are stuck at home and for someone in addiction that is not good news. Please get help if you are struggling with addiction. It's a horrible way to waste a valuable human life.
YOU CAN GO SEE WHAT A SANCTIONED HOMELESS CAMP MIGHT LOOK LIKE IN DENVER And you have to see the pictures of the perfectly neat tent spaces and even a bucket of FLOWERS to make things look especially homey. They have showers and bathrooms and laundry too. What is not in the picture are drug or alcohol addicted people who might live in these camps doing things that drug and alcohol addicted people might do. Here is an article about a sanctioned homeless camp that failed in Oakland, and here is one about residents in San Fran suing to stop them from happening in their neighborhoods. I'll have the chance to ask the Mayor about Denver's plans for sanctioned homeless camps tomorrow when he visits.
THE NBA FINALS ARE IN A RATINGS FREE FALL And this is a marquee matchup between LeBron James' Lakers and the Miami Heat should not be getting the lowest ratings IN HISTORY and yet, here we are. Game 2 was the lowest ever, and Game 3 on the weekend was EVEN WORSE. Why? Do we even need to ask? Get woke, go broke has never been more true than now. Maybe they will get back to just playing basketball.
THE GARDNER-HICKENLOOPER DEBATE WASN'T A FAIR FIGHT This wasn't even close according this editorial. Does Hick even want to win? Is he just doing this to keep his name relevant until he can try to run for President again? You can watch the debate by clicking here, and it really was something. Hick was lifeless, sad and stumbled over his words. If he beats Gardner it's because people simply haven't paid attention to what Gardner has done for Colorado.
MY FRIEND JOE LIKES TO DIG INTO CRIME STATISTICS And he did so with the 2019 FBI Uniform Crime Report. This is what he found:
Last week, the FBI released its annual crime report for the year 2019. Despite near record gun sales in 2019 (13.9 MILLION new guns sold) Gun homicides fell slightly from 10,265 in 2018 to 10,258 in 2019. Clearly those 14 million new guns in the hands of American citizens had no impact on the gun homicide rate in this country.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/table-20
And once again so called "assault rifles" accounted for an insignificant percentage of all gun homicide deaths. According to the report, rifles of ALL types (including so called assault rifles) accounted for just 364 of those 10,258 gun homicides or just 3.5% of all gun homicides and not all of those rifle homicides were committed with so called "assault rifles".
And how did those rifle homicides compare to other weapons used?
Knives were used to murder 1,476 people (4.1X as many as rifles)
Clubs & other weapons were used to murder 1,593 people (4.4X as many as rifles)
Hands and feet were used to kill 600 people (64% more than murdered with riles)
Handguns still accounted for the vast majority of all gun homicides (96% of all gun homicides for gun homicides where the type of gun was reported)
So how does this new data compare to the data going all the way back to 1993? Clearly, the almost tripling of the number of guns in this country over the past 26 years has surely resulted in a "Epidemic of gun violence", right?
Not so much.
Now let's talk about who is getting killed and who is doing the killing:
For those homicides where the race of the victim was known/reported, despite accounting for just 12.5% of the general population, black victims accounted for 61.2% of all homicide victims (7,464 out of 12,119 victims).
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-1.xls
And who is doing the killing?
y
So apparently the black people being murdered by other black people, which a genuine epidemic, is not the same as the very small number of unarmed black people (which is almost as large as the number of unarmed white people killed by police) killed by police. It is a terrible shame when someone is killed by police unjustly. But it is far more frequent for a black person to be killed by someone of his own race than a police officer. Those lives should matter too. I think both of these issues can be addressed at the same time.
THE DEBATE KILLED TRUMP IN THE POLLS And I mean SLAUGHTERED him in the polls. He's down by 16 right now, which is a BIG big number this close to the election. With the way things are going right now, I'd be very concerned if I were the Trump campaign. But then again, this is 2020 and truthfully ANYTHING can happen. ANYTHING.
PLEASE FACT CHECK ANY MAILERS YOU MIGHT GET ABOUT ISSUES Because the BIG FAT LIES have started already. Proposition 115 would end the barbaric dismemberment of viable babies while in the womb by banning late term abortion. A mailer sent out by abortion activists has to lie about what it actually does so people will vote against it. Please fact check any mailers you get on any issue. See my ballot initiative guide for more.
REGAL CINEMAS IS CLOSING IT'S DOORS AGAIN As it's parent company tried to stop the bleeding. Cineworld says they are like a market without any products as movie studios keep pushing back the release of the big blockbusters needed to bring people into theaters again. No word on if/when they will re open.
AN UPSIDE OF CORONAVIRUS: WE'RE BETTER WITH OUR MONEY NOW And if your family is anything like my family this situation has lead you to realize how much money you wasted outside your home. Plus, we are all wondering about our job security and what's going to happen next, so people are saving money better than they have in a long, long time.
MOVING IS STRESSFUL, BUT HIRING MOVERS HELPS There are things in life I don't believe are really worth the extra money. Fancy coffee comes to mind. But there are other things that aren't cheap that are worth every penny. Hiring movers is one of those things. A new survey says that moving is the most stressful event in people's lives, but hiring movers is worth it. I agree 1000%. My other one is hiring an accountant to do my taxes. Best money I spend every year.
THE DATA DOESN'T SUPPORT LOCKDOWNS AS AN EFFECTIVE MEANS TO STOP THE RONA Can someone please show our data-driven Governor this?
YES, TAY ANDERSON IS A RADICAL LEFTIST And he's never met a protest or a camera he couldn't wait to co-op for his own personal glory. Remember his WWE worthy performance when he flopped during a scuffle with police? He's also the guy who got School Resource Officers thrown out of Denver Public Schools, and threatened the Stapleton community if they didn't change their name. He IS a radical Leftist. DougCo Commissioner Lora Thomas was right when she called him that, even if she overstepped by saying he lead riots. To my knowledge there is no proof that he LEAD the riots.
RIP BOB GIBSON The Hall of Fame pitcher passed away at the age of 84 of pancreatic cancer.
CAN YOU FREEZE DRY DONUTS? My friend Kelly Maher who is living off her farm this year tried it. How did it work?
WE ALL HAVE THIS FRIEND WHO HAS NEVER BEEN CAMPING
COMEDIAN RYAN LONG TALKS NEWS YOU CAN AGREE WITH
THE HOLDERNESS FAMILY REWRITES ELTON JOHN SONGS FOR 2020 These guys are super funny and talented and The Q LOVES them so I hear everything they do 1,000 times. But this is pretty accurate.