ONLY LOCAL GOVERNMENTS CAN SAVE US FROM PROPERTY TAXES NOW And I'm talking to Independence Institute's Kathleen Chandler about this column on how to do that today at 12:30. I'm lucky that I live in Douglas County where they already moved to lower home valuations by 4% to bring down property tax bills (if the Democrats at the state don't prevent them from doing so). If your property tax bill is worrying you you need to pay attention to this interview and get to work!
A NEW BOOK ON MILTON FRIEDMAN IS OUT Stanford historian Jennifer Burns joins me at 2pm to discuss her new book "Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative" which is the new landmark biography fifteen years in the making. Burns argues that Friedman remains a consequential figure – he was called in his 2006 obituary in the New York Times “the grandmaster of free-market economic theory in the postwar era and a prime force in the movement of nations toward less government and greater reliance on individual responsibility.” I thought your audience in Colorado might be interested to hear about Friedman’s story, from a leading historian who has been studying him for decades. Buy your copy or a copy for a nerd in your life here.
FISA WAS RE-AUTHORIZED Even though we know it's been abused by the FBI multiple times to spy on Americans. I've got James Czerniawski, who is Americans for Prosperity’s senior policy analyst in Technology and Innovation on at 1 to discuss.
THE MAYOR'S OFFICE HASN'T BEEN HONEST WITH THE HOMELESS HOUSING DASHBOARD And for a while you can argue that they weren't LYING per se, just confused about what the dashboard was ACTUALLY reporting, but after they learned for sure that they were counting people who didn't meet their standard of being housed for 14 days they didn't correct the record so I am counting that as lying. I have to give a lot of credit to Kyle Clark for covering this story. Watch below.
Denverite writes about it here, but the dashboard has been pulled down and this comment caught my eye:
In the majority of cases, people have chosen to stay sheltered, said Allie, but the public data does not indicate that one way or the other, because neither length of stay nor long-term outcomes are currently tracked on the dashboard.
The Mayor talks a lot about being data driven so I'm wondering what data he's looking at when they are simply NOT TRACKING any long term outcomes. How are we spending this much money and NO FOLLOW UP is occurring??? This is already a failure in my mind.
THE GREAT WISCONSIN INSURRECTION Jon Caldara invokes another insurrection to argue against keeping Trump off the ballot in Colorado. I agree with him here.
THE OLD DPS BOARD BULLIES THE NEW BOARD MEMBERS By not allowing them to have time to review and understand the policies they were expected to vote on. I love this comment from the Denver Gazette the most:
“Had we voted on this before you came on board, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation,” Director Scott Esserman said.
But you didn't, did you Scott Esserman? The three new board members were just asking that some of the important policy changes being made be tabled until next month so the newly sworn in members could have time to understand what they were voting on. The other board members said no and passed them anyway. DPS is still a dumpster fire.
HANUKKAH AND HOLLOW MESSAGES This is a great column by Jimmy Sengenberger about a Twitter message about Hanukkah written by a Democratic lawmaker whose actions since the horrible attacks in Israel of October 7th already revealed her true feelings about Israel. We should never let the people siding with Hamas off the hook. They are wrong and need to be shouted down at every chance and this does a great job of that.
AN ODE TO THE UNDECIDEDS This column has given me a new view on people who say they don't have enough information to make up their minds about an issue and perhaps a new way to do politics. Read it here, we shall discuss.
ICE CASTLES IS OPENING IN CRIPPLE CREEK! And I am stoked to be able to go see this without getting on I-70. It opens this weekend, read about it here!
HERE ARE SOME FUN CHRISTMAS EVENTS THIS WEEKEND Around the metro and close by, find them here.
BILL MAHER DEFENDS MR. BEAST And I've talked about this very same thing but Bill Maher does it in a way funnier way with more cursing. You've been warned about the cursing.
A BLOG YOU SHOULD BE READING ON FRIDAYS Since you are here, Dear Reader, I know you enjoy an informative if snark filled blog of the news. In that case, you will most assuredly enjoy THIS BLOG as well. It comes out on Friday as part of The Free Press and it's spectacular.
BIDEN THE DICTATOR AND HIS REGULATORY HARASSMENT SCHEMES The sign of a true dictator is when they use the power of government to go after perceived enemies. Don't take my word for it, that's what Democrats are saying as they try to scare people about the possibility of another Trump administration. What's odd is those same Democrats are the least bit concerned when Joe Biden does just that. Back in 2022, Elon Musk tweeted this:
So it is really a surprise to find out that he was right? Check out this tweet thread from Brendan Carr, a commissioner with the FCC, which outlines the pervasive harassment from the Biden administration directed at Elon Musk.
This is a Wall Street Journal article about how the government, which LOVED the prospect of using Starlink for rural areas until they didn't, are going after Musk. They use the word "ambush" and I think it's appropriate. From the WSJ:
The FCC’s new 3-2 Democratic majority on Tuesday nonetheless revoked Starlink’s funding because it hasn’t met its commitment to connect 640,000 rural Americans two years ahead of schedule. Yet the law merely requires Starlink to show it is “reasonably capable” of providing high-speed internet to at least 40% of the roughly 640,000 rural premises by the end of 2025. Starlink filed voluminous documents with the agency in 2021 and 2022 demonstrating it could reach this benchmark. The FCC has never before required that a funding recipient meet its obligations years early.
Democratic commissioners simply ignored them. They claim the company isn’t making fast enough progress, though other funding recipients aren’t any further along. The Democratic majority justifies its disparate treatment of Starlink by claiming it is relying on an unproven technology. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky would surely disagree.
I know a dictator when I see one and we've got an old, addled, spiteful one in the White House now.
THE CDC CONTINUES TO BECLOWN ITSELF This time by sending out an "alert" letting us know that we all need to get a whole bunch of vaccines RIGHT NOW before WE DIE. Thankfully a data cruncher took the time to check the CDC's work and found this out:
SOUTHWEST GIVES A FREE SEAT TO HEFTY PASSENGERS This has long been the policy of Southwest but now it seems to be automatic. A friend who used to be significantly larger than he currently is told me about this a long time ago. Southwest used to have passengers buy a second seat but they would refund it if you just called and asked if you were too large to sit in one seat. Now it seems a big person can just ask for that second seat and get it. I know people are mad about this, but I've been the person sitting in the middle seat beside two huge people and it's MISERABLE so I view this as a win for OTHER passengers who were being squeezed out. Read about the large person policies of all the airlines here.
HARVARD PLAYS HIDE THE MENORAH Y'all this is getting comical except it's so, so bad. Fresh off the "calls for genocide need context" scandal where they refused to fire The Black Female Plagiarist President we now find out they asked a Jewish student group to HIDE THEIR MENORAH. Why? Because they were certain that their anti-Semitic student body would vandalize the menorah and that would look back for Harvard. I could not make this up if I tried. Why any Jewish person or person who cares about Jewish people would send their kid or money to Harvard is truly beyond me.
THIS EASILY COULD HAVE BEEN ME A man blew up his apartment trying to kill a roach. I feel you, sir, I feel you.
NEED A GREAT RENTAL IN THE TECH CENTER? I've got a condo up for rent. Check it out here. And yes, we were trying to sell it, but an HOA issue means we won't be able to sell for the foreseeable future so it's on the market BELOW market rates.
LOW SUGAR CHOCOLATE ALMOST FUDGE? YES PLEASE Watch below or click here.
DOUG MEETS DOG and OMG this is the cutest and why I love Saint Bernards. Jinx would do this same thing. Watch below or click here
CHRISTMAS IS COMING AND AI IS READY I love these things. Watch below or click here.
NO BURGER IS WORTH AN EIGHT HOUR WAIT But I guess these people in Idaho had nothing better to do because they waited for EIGHT HOURS when the new In-N-Out burger opened there. I guess the name is really just a suggestion.
SAN FRAN'S DEATH SPIRAL SENT A PLAYER TO THE DODGERS At least that's what Giants legend Buster Posey pondered aloud when asked why Shohei Ohtani chose the Dodgers over the Giants. Read this:
"Something I think is noteworthy, something that unfortunately keeps popping up from players and even the players’ wives, is there’s a bit of an uneasiness with the city itself, as far as the state of the city, with crime, with drugs," Posey told The Athletic. Whether that’s all completely fair or not, perception is reality. It’s a frustrating cycle, I think, and not just with baseball. Baseball is secondary to life and the important things in life. But as far as a free-agent pursuit goes, I have seen that it does affect things."
Imagine if Denver can't right the ship? We have enough trouble getting people to come here already to play baseball.
LITTLE SOPHIA SPEAKS FOR MY DAUGHTER TOO Watch below or click here.