ARE YOU READY FOR CHRISTMAS?? I am ready to work three days and then head to sail the high seas for the holidays. This year we had Thanksgiving at my brother's and we're doing Christmas on a cruise ship so we've upended all of our traditions so I thought I'd ask if you guys had any cool or weird or interesting traditions you might want to share. I've found that some people aren't quite sure about traditions, especially if they didn't have great holidays growing up, so let's suggest some new ones!
WACKADOODLE IDEOLOGIES ARE EVERYWHERE THESE DAYS And my pal Cliff May from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies has a great column about where and how they are spreading. Read it here, and he's joining me at 1 to discuss.
WILL THE HOUSE REFER TRUMP FOR CHARGES? The denouement of the January 6th Committee is today, with members deciding whether or not to refer Trump and some others for charges over their behavior surrounding that fateful day. To be clear, a referral for charges has no legal standing so they could refer away and nothing could happen. It all depends on what the Justice Department thinks. If they don't refer him for anything, they are admitting this is nothing but political theater, but if they do refer him and Justice does nothing, it is confirmed this was all political theater. We should find out today during the show.
WHAT WAS THE HOT TOY WHEN YOU WERE BORN? This is just random and cool. Read what was the hottest toy when you were born here. Apparently Legos hit the year I was born.
TODAY'S DEEP QUESTION NOT FROM THE BOOK OF QUESTIONS I saw this on Twitter and thought it would make a very good Not From the Book of Questions Book Question. It is this:
Would you rather go into the past and meet your ancestors, or go into the future and meet your great-great-grandchildren?
I've got back and forth about 30 times on this, but it really comes down to what you want to learn.
NOW THE GREENIES ARE COMING FOR YOUR GAS STOVE And this shouldn't surprise anyone, as the environmentalists that are running wild and forcing cage free eggs on everyone hate that you have the freedom to cook on gas. To be clear, as someone who loves to cook, I have cooked on electric (far inferior), induction (not bad but you have to replace your aluminum pans), and gas (the absolute best for cooking) so I know what I'm talking about. Now there is a move to ban new gas lines and that means no more gas heat or ranges in new homes or subdivisions. Read this from the Denver Gazette:
In comments to the commission, Xcel Energy officials characterized the provisions requiring those who propose expanding gas line infrastructure to pay the full costs up front as a “de facto” ban on gas line extensions that is unfair to new customers.
“Xcel Energy is still evaluating the new rules and there will likely be a Public Utilities Commission proceeding to determine exactly how to implement them,” said Xcel Spokesperson Michelle Aguayo in a statement to The Denver Gazette. “Our focus will be on the fairness of all charges, so new customers do not end up paying for the same equipment twice — once through an upfront charge and then again through their standard monthly bills.
I bet the Governor already has a gas stove in his house. Just saying.
REPORTER HEIDI BEEDLE IS OUTED AS A VIOLENCE URGING TWITTER ACCOUNT AUTHOR Reporter Andy Ngo has been covering everything Antifa for years now and doing a great job at great personal expense. So when he puts together that Colorado Times reporter and trans activist Heidi Beedle ran the Colorado Springs Antifa account which was suspended for doxxing and urging others to "knock teeth out" I believe him. If we lived in a fair society we'd ask all the Colorado Dems who have said nice things about her if they now condemn her rhetoric but we don't. And I'm sure Beedle has no remorse for wanting people to be harassed at their homes and have their teeth knocked out. Click on this Tweet to see the whole thread. Sure does knock any "credibility" for Beedle's journalism when we know why she writes what she writes. Beedle wrote extensive criticisms about Heidi Ganahl during the campaign, including one about furries, which Beedle apparently is, which would have been good to disclose in any of her reporting.
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HEY COLORADO SPRINGS, WATCH OUT FOR THIS DAME FOR SCHOOL BOARD As she seems super nice. The 5th grade teacher at Christa McAuliffe Elementary, Dr. Angelica "Angel" Givler, is a self-identified "Super Leftist Villain." She announced a run for school board – Academy District 20 – in early December. She says she brings gender ideology into her classroom, wants to burn down the patriarchy and then chastises white women for showing up the equity meetings. All of this in on Tik Tok, read more here.
WANT TO FEEL SUPER FANCY? This is an article about snow polo in Aspen, so that's a thing you know now.
WHY GOVERNMENT SHOULDN'T DO THINGS PRIVATE BUSINESS DOES BETTER: FORT COLLINS EDITION Fort Collins pitched a pie-in-the-sky proposal about municipal broadband to voters and they bit. Years later is it apparent that this is a massive failure but Fort Collins, as most governments do, ignores the sunk cost fallacy and continues to try and make this happen. This is a good column about the failures of Fort Collin's Connextion broadband plan that is woefully behind and over budget already.
OUR FAKE LIBERTARIAN GOVERNOR KEEPS GROWING THE SIZE OF COLORADO'S GOVERNMENT And I sure hope someone points out to him that this is the OPPOSITE of what actual libertarians do. From this article on his budget this year:
Fast forward to the budget proposal Polis sent to the JBC on Nov. 1 of this year and the governor is seeking $42.7 billion in spending, including $16.7 billion from the general fund. If approved, the total state budget would have grown by 24% in Polis' first four years, increasing by $8.2 billion. Of that amount, spending from the general fund alone would leap by almost $3 billion.
And how much are our new union state employees going to cost us? Remember, the Democrats approved collective bargaining so they can continue to get campaign donations from those unions. Read this:
The Department of Personnel and Administration wants to increase its FTE by 105.3, or 23.8%.
The lion’s share of that request — 74 FTE — is tied to the labor agreement with Colorado WINS, the state employee union.
The JBC staff analysis said those positions are needed to support the WINS agreement; implement professional development bonuses; expand recruitment, marketing, and branding; and, expand leadership training programs.
The new FTE also includes adding a labor union support team of 15 FTE to conduct negotiations and 38 side agreements.
The union-driven spending illuminates government's inclination to keep growing. Despite a two-year pandemic and the recession that followed, for example, the governor and legislators immediately unwound spending cuts they made as the health crisis failed to dampen policymakers’ propensity to expand government programs. They added more than a dozen new state offices, a new state department and other governmental structures — and, of course, new employees to run them.
The rest is paywalled at Denver Gazette but worth the subscription fee.
WANT TO HANG ON IN A SNOW FORT? Head to Keystone because they've got a really big one! See it here.
ONLY RON DESANTIS CAN WIN IN 2024 And right now at this minute, I wholeheartedly agree with this column. I do add that caveat of "right now this minute" because I've been watching politics long enough to know that it's a long time until the next primary and a LOT can happen. That being said, this column isn't wrong when it says that 2024 is the best year for a DeSantis run and that no candidate has ever shown the ability to get people to show up to vote AGAINST him more than Trump. Read it here.
CNN'S CHRIS LICHT JUST FOUND OUT THE LEFT IS SUPER NASTY As he is working to bring CNN back into an actual news based organization. Check this out from the New York Times:
“The uninformed vitriol, especially from the left, has been stunning,” Mr. Licht said in one of several interviews with The New York Times spanning his nearly eight-month tenure. “Which proves my point: so much of what passes for news is name-calling, half-truths and desperation.”
Just another example of the intolerance of the Left, but this time it's somewhat amusing because he really didn't seem to know it's a thing. Read the whole story about his tenure so far here, it's rather illuminating.
WILL AVATAR 2 HIT ITS 2 BILLION DOLLAR BREAK EVEN? It did not have a phenomenal weekend at the box office, but I wouldn't count it out just yet. Every single person I know who has seen it is raving about it. That being said, opening weekend was not stellar, so we'll see if word of mouth can prop it up.
THE LATEST TWITTER FILES DUMP SHOWS THE FBI WAS ACTIVELY CENSORING SPEECH And you can read the entire Twitter thread by Matt Taibbi here:
Here is a story about that Twitter dump and how the FBI was directing Twitter to censor speech, often jokes that were tweeted out by accounts with almost no followers.
IF SANTA WERE SOUTHERN
YES, THE KIFFNESS, IT IS A BEAUTIFUL DAY I dare you to listen to this and not be happy. Go ahead, try.
AN NBA PLAYER HAS A GIFT FOR HIS FELLOW COLLEGE GRADS This is just super cool. Phoenix Suns player Chris Paul is graduating from Winston Salem State University today and gifting every other grad $2,500! What a super cool story, just in time for Christmas. I hope this reinforces the spirit of giving for that entire class!
I THINK I SAT NEXT TO THIS GUY ONCE You know this guy. The one who gets so drunk he can't function at every event?
HAPPY HANUKAH TO OUR JEWISH FRIENDS! This song is fantastic and if you've ever wanted to know about Hanukah traditions this should help.
A MIDWESTERNER VISITS NEW YORK FOR THE FIRST TIME And this is so accurate and reminiscent of my first time in New York at Christmas.