OUR MEDIA CRITIC IS ON AT 1 To discuss the Oscar movies and the awards shows that have already happened. One of my most diehard award show loving friends has officially tapped out after the Golden Globes and Critics Choice. She says she's just had enough of politics in the shows finally. Find Christian's fantastic right leaning media site here!
I AM WAFFLING ON RIGHT TO REPAIR When we were kids and something broke, we took it to a shop in our small town where an older man who inevitably wore thick glasses would take it in, fix it and give it back. He didn't work for the manufacturer, he didn't have a gold star above his door, he was just a man who could fix things. Fast forward to now where everything has a computer chip in it and there are way more points of failure than there used to be. Additionally, I've found that appliance manufacturers now just STOP making the parts needed to repair things, or the parts to repair them are almost as expensive as a new one. It's called planned obsolescence and not only is it wasteful as hell (I sent TWO refrigerators to the landfill this year) it's frustrating for those on a budget. So when I hear things like Right to Repair, where a manufacturer MUST provide the schematics, computer info and other such things to third party repair companies so they can make off brand parts and fix things that otherwise would have to be serviced by a dealer my ears perk up. But is this intellectual property theft? My thinking is that manufacturers should either keep making parts or give up the goods when they STOP making parts, and if wait times in certain areas are beyond a reasonable amount, they need to make some other arrangements so people can get stuff fixed but I'm not sure this bill is the way to do it. If the market worked correctly there would be options for farmers for a different brand of huge farming equipment with better service times, but this isn't an industry with much competition so is that a reason to make this info available? You see why I'm waffling.
***Update: It seems that this legislation may be undermined because of a deal cut between the American Farm Bureau and John Deere. Deere has agreed to make everything available to third party repair shops as long as the Farm Bureau doesn't support Right to Repair rules. Smart. Very smart. Read more here.
COLORADO IS TRYING TO BECOME EVEN MORE UNFRIENDLY TO BUSINESS And the Chamber of Commerce is trying to stop that by opposing the new bill that would micromanage scheduling and demand workers be paid for work they didn't do. Read more here, but check this part of the press release out:
The Colorado Chamber recently released the results of a new study assessing the state’s overall business climate. Key findings expose Colorado’s biggest economic vulnerabilities pushing some company leaders to expand operations outside of the state or consider leaving altogether. Colorado’s increasingly complex and cumbersome state legislative and regulatory landscape was identified as a major competitive challenge.
Our allegedly libertarian governor has done a lousy job of making us more free when it comes to business. Check out the list of positives vs the negatives from that study:
Competitive strengths identified by Colorado business leaders include:
Colorado’s diverse and growing economy
Technological innovation
Sports teams
Natural beauty and recreation
Colorado’s biggest vulnerabilities and competitive challenges include:
And an increasingly complex and cumbersome state legislative and regulatory landscape
Increasing wages and benefit affordability
Employee recruitment and retention
Housing supply and affordability
Public safety
Disconnect between state regions
We've got some big issues here and it's only going to get worse.
THIS STORY FROM MEMPHIS IS ABOUT TO GET INTERESTING The video of the beating of a motorist in Memphis should be released today. Five black cops have already been charged with the murder of Tyre Nichols, the 29 year old man who was pulled over and then made the unfortunate choice to run because he was frightened. Five cops chased him down and beat him so badly he died in the hospital. The video will hit the internet at about 5pm today, as the police chief has said they are releasing it in the interest of full transparency. This story is going to be a bit different I think because all the players here are black. It is a horrible story of police brutality but it can't be called racism. I'm curious as to whether or not this will spawn the same sort of reactions as other situations involving white cops and black defendants. I hope not, but we shall see.
CAR THEFT SHOULD BECOME A FELONY AGAIN IN COLORADO As the Legislature is poised to take up a bill that does just that after their earlier "criminal justice reform" just made it easy for criminals to victimize innocent people. Any car theft will be a felony and repeat offenders will face stiffer penalties. This should have been the law the entire time, but Dems are reactionary so they create legislation based on news stories rather than good sense.
HEY LOOK, A CAR JACKING IN CHERRY CREEK NORTH! Welcome to the new, criminal friendly Colorado. Two women were car jacked and pistol whipped in a parking garage in Cherry Creek North. Don't the criminals know we don't do things like this there???? Both women were rattled but okay.
MONDAY ME VS FRIDAY ME Y'all I felt this so hard.
JACK PHILLIPS LOSES AGAIN IN COLORADO So I'm guessing he's going to be at the Supreme Court AGAIN trying to demonstrate clearly that Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act forces violations of the First Amendment. I'm hoping that another case heard by the Supreme Court this year will put this all to bed, but Phillips is continuing to fight this latest setback. Read more here.
WHY IS THE US TREASURY PROTECTING HUNTER BIDEN? The House Oversight Committee asked the Treasury Department to share any and all suspicious financial transactions that Hunter Biden may have made with the committee. Treasury has declined, saying that they needed "more information" about why the committee is seeking such sensitive information. Rep. James Comer has already explained in his request letter why, saying,
“The Committee is investigating President Biden’s knowledge of and role in these schemes to assess whether he has compromised our national security at the expense of the American people.”
That seems pretty clear to me. We'll see how far Treasury is willing to go to hide this information.
ANTI SEMITISM IS ON THE RISE IN THE US And a big chunk of it is driven by what I call Israel Ignorance, led by younger people who have bought into the Palestinian as victims narrative without doing a deep dive into the history of the story. Read more here from the Anti-Defamation League about the dumb things people believe about Jews.
THIS STORY IS THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF FAKE FEMALE VICTIMHOOD And its from an old story in Cosmopolitan magazine from 2017 but still timely. Read the headline here:
The original story, which I can't find in it's entirety but got the gist from quotes from it, concluded that men who enjoy when women have an orgasm do so because they view it as a "masculine achievement". The researchers came to this conclusion:
The researchers draw a fairly frightening conclusion from the research findings. When women's orgasms begin to serve as a masculinity achievement for male partners, the orgasms cease to be about women's liberation or sexual pleasure. They just become another opportunity for men to flex, or "shore up their sense of masculinity."
I have one question for them. WHO CARES if it's another opportunity for a male flex if they get the job done? No wonder young women are miserable these days if this is how they view the world.
THAT PFIZER MANAGER CAUGHT BY PROJECT VERITAS SAYS HE WAS LYING TO IMPRESS A DATE And there is a bit of believability in that because lots of people lie to impress a date, but his subsequent freakout shown below does seem like a desperate man trying to save his career. Watch this if you want.
ABOUT THAT GINORMOUS ICEBERG THAT JUST CALVED IN ANTARCTICA A completely ginormous iceberg just broke off an ice sheet in Antarctica and I fully expect to see this in some global warming ad soon so I want to make sure you see this where they way this is NOT related to climate change and totally expected and normal for this ice sheet.
HOW DO YOU LIVE TO BE 115? It's easy according to the woman who is now the Oldest Person in the World. Here are her tips:
“Order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity and staying away from toxic people” is what Branyas credits with her longevity, according to the Guinness site.
“I think longevity is also about being lucky,” Branyas said, Guinness officials added. “Luck and good genetics.”
Good advice indeed.
NOW GEORGE SANTOS IS A PUNCHLINE FOR REPUBLICANS
YOU HAVE TO CHECK OUT THESE OCEAN WILDLIFE PHOTOS They are absolutely amazing, especially the one of the octopus carrying its eggs. WOW.
AND NOW, GREAT MOMENTS IN UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES This is fantastic.
MIDWEST WRONG NUMBER
THINGS SOUTHERN PEOPLE SAY AT WALMART This is accurate.