THE MAYOR IS GOING TO JOIN ME AT 1 And yes, I'm going to ask him about Thanksgiving, but more importantly I want to ask him about what happens next in Denver. How are we going to get our businesses back up and running? We're also talking about the actual science and data behind lockdowns and outdoor mask bans.
GIVING EX CONS A CHANCE IN THE WEED BUSINESS DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THIS I missed this editorial when it came out but we have to talk about it. This is what passes for "social equity" in Aurora and Denver when it comes to the weed biz. As the marijuana laws in Colorado were written to EXPLICITLY exclude criminals who may have been working in the black market weed business, it was only a matter of time before people realized that this locked a lot of black and brown people OUT of the legal industry. Now Aurora and Denver are trying to "fix" that problem by creating a NEW class of weed industry workers for those former convicts. Only it's not ownership level stuff where they could make real money and grow wealthy legally. No, it's crappy delivery jobs instead. This is so mind numbingly stupid. I shall discuss. This is essentially crumbs.
DENVER'S CITY COUNCIL HAS TO APPROVE THE POLICE CONTRACT THEY TURNED DOWN PREVIOUSLY And I'm not going to lie, the Denver City Council is starting to resemble the Keystone Cops as they allow Candi Cdebaca to set the agenda and determine how things are going down. They are trying to wrench more power from the Mayor's office constantly, and yet they can't even offer a counter proposal to what the police union offered. Because of that, the arbitrator granted the Police Union's wish and put forth the contract the union suggested. The City Council HAD to approve it or face litigation. Denver, are you even paying attention to what's going on at City Council??? You may remember Candi Cdebaca encouraging people to sue the police department, and yet she has the balls to say this:
"Denver’s Charter very clearly lays out the process requiring equal representation from both the mayor’s office and City Council during negotiations," CdeBaca said in a statement. "But because Council has not safeguarded the process via an ordinance to require transparency and timely notice, we are left with an egregious back-door, bad-faith negotiation right before the city gets hit with a wave of excessive force litigation," referring to more than 50 lawsuits headed straight for the city and the police department as a result of DPD's response to demonstrations this summer against police brutality and racial injustice.
She is a real pain in the ass.
WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR POST THANKSGIVING COVID SPIKE THAT WE WERE ALL WARNED ABOUT? Because it didn't happen. But I'm sure the experts only got it wrong THIS TIME, not all the other times.
WE AREN'T WEARING MASKS INSIDE WITH FRIENDS And I'm sure closing restaurants will help this. That was sarcasm, it won't. Most of us say in private, we do not wear a mask inside when with people not in our immediate household. I'm in this category. And because restaurants are closed, people are having people over, where they aren't wearing masks. Gallup has more.
HERE ARE SOME SUPER COOL SCIENCE IMAGES FROM THIS YEAR And they may be the best thing to come out of 2020. Check it out here.
JOSEPH EPSTEIN IS BEING USED FOR AN "I AM WOMAN" MOMENT And this kerfuffle is just...stupid. Joseph Epstein is an 80+ year old columnist who is one of the most eloquent writers EVER. He wrote a column calling Joe Biden's wife Jill out for insisting that she be called "Doctor" with her PhD in Education. Read it here. Oh BOY did this create an unnecessary firestorm from people who called the column "sexist" and "misogynist" because Jill Biden is a woman. If you read the column you realize it's not JUST about Jill Biden calling herself Doctor, it's about ANYONE who isn't an MD calling themselves doctor. But don't let that get in the way of a good victim narrative. Northwestern, where Epstein taught 20 years ago, has removed him from their website. This is a lovely defense of Epstein that points out pretty much what I did, that Jill Biden was just a jumping off point to a larger point. But we have to remind everyone that any time someone says something about a Democrat someone doesn't like we must call them names and do our best to cancel them.
ANOTHER OBAMA ERA SOLAR BOONDOGGLE GOES UP IN FLAMES And this one is going to leave taxpayers on the hook for over 500 million bucks. This is about what was supposed to be a revolutionary solar generation station using molten salt towers to generate steam that would create energy even when the sun wasn't shining. It failed spectacularly. From the Wall Street Journal:
DOE expected Crescent Dunes to produce up to 482,000 megawatt hours every year, but the plant hasn’t produced that much energy in its lifetime. In 2019 Crescent Dunes’s hot salt tanks suffered what partial owner SolarReserve described as “a catastrophic failure” that has left the plant inoperable.
The feds called Crescent Dunes a success until forced to admit it was a failure. As late as April 2017—when the plant was in the throes of a months-long shutdown—DOE pronounced it a “milestone for the country’s energy future” and a “success story” taken from “mirage to reality.” But in August spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes admitted that “this project has consistently faced technical failures that have proven difficult to overcome."
Under the settlement, taxpayers could recover up to $100 million if the plant can resume operating and meet milestones for energy production and revenue. Don’t count on it. In 2019 NV Energy terminated its power purchase agreement, so now Crescent Dunes doesn’t have a buyer for its power, which is far more expensive than what other renewable-energy plants in Nevada charge.
The Crescent Dunes failure shows again what happens when government invests in commercial ventures beyond its expertise for political purposes. Scarce resources are misallocated and taxpayers lose. We wish we could say the politicians have learned from failure, but the Biden Administration is coming to town promising much more of the same. (emphasis mine)
Way to go, government! And with Sleepy Joe we're going to get more of the same. But we don't have money for roads. Mmkay.
NOW SOME GOOD CHRISTMAS MUSIC FOR YA This is a lovely version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel
This is my favorite version of the Bing Crosby classic by Zack Brown Band bassist John Driskell Hopkins.
WHAT IF THERE WERE A COMMONLY AVAILABLE DRUG THAT COULD STOP COVID? There is. It's called ivermectin and it's a commonly used anti-parasitic in Africa, which could explain why there have been almost no significant outbreaks in Africa of covid. Read this study, or just watch this doctor beg the Senate to force the NIH and the CDC to review the extensive data available on how this very low cost drug could stop covid deaths right now.
ALMOST HALF OF WORKERS WANT THE COVID VACCINE MANDATED BY THEIR EMPLOYER And is typical of this sort of survey, they also say THEY don't want to pay for it. This is just another example of people not wanting to have to ask/cajole/convince others to take the vaccine too, so they want someone else to FORCE them to do it. This is not surprising and another indication of how far we've come from "Give me liberty, or give me death".
THIS GUY MAKES THE CASE FOR KEEPING HIS KID LOCKED IN HIS APARTMENT 24/7 And just so you don't freak out, it's satire. But is it? Read it here.
REMEMBER WHEN EXPERTS SAID THERE WOULD BE NO VACCINE BY THE END OF THIS YEAR? The Federalist does. Watch this. Then read more here.
RACIST LOUIS FARRAKHAN WANTS MORE BLACK PEOPLE TO DIE One of the tragedies of coronavirus is it's disproportionate effect on black people. Now we have a man who leads the Nation of Islam, which as far as I know is made up entirely of Black people, saying that the vaccine is "toxic waste". Oh, and he called white people crackers again. Yawn.
BILL BARR IS OUT And he either resigned, which I'm inclined to think he did based on the letter he handed the President, or he was pushed out by Angry Trump. I have always liked Bill Barr and I think he did a good job with a difficult President. He followed the rules on the Hunter Biden thing, even if I am very unhappy about how the media ignored it. I wish him well.
IF THEY CAN'T PASS THE CHICKEN TEST, THEY CAN'T PASS THE REAL LIFE TEST I wonder what they test the Palace Guards with in the UK?
THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE IN OTHER PLACES THINK AMERICANS SOUND LIKE And they aren't wrong.
WE'VE ALL FELT LIKE THIS WHEN WE DROP A TOY