IT'S A FREE FOR ALL FRIDAY That means you jokers can bring anything up and we can chat about it so get ready to bring it.
THE HOUTHIS F'DA AND FO I am actually pleasantly surprised by this news even though generally I don't love anything that moves us closer to war. That being said, when the Biden Administration issued a warning to the Houthis about continuing to attack ships in the Red Sea I didn't have a lot of confidence that we would actually do anything because of Obama's famous "red line" comment that meant nothing in Syria. But lo and behold last night the US and the UK hit over a dozen sites being used by the Houthis to launch attacks. All these sites were in Yemen, opening up a new front in this Iranian proxy war that is happening in the Middle East. The Houthis vow revenge and I'm like, okay. Read more here about the attacks. Democrats (and I guarantee Rand Paul) are right to be super mad that he did so without checking with Congress first, but that's what a dictator does.
OIL FUTURES SPIKED ON THE ATTACKS But are still well below the highs of last year. It would be nice if we didn't have to worry about bad actors in the Middle East disrupting our energy supplies but here we are.
AURORA PD CHIEF SAYS WHAT I'VE ALWAYS THOUGHT About the Elijah McClain case, and that is why were hands laid on him in the first place? Interim Chief Art Acevedo said that his officers (though he was not chief when this happened) went "hands on" too quickly in the interaction that eventually led to McClain's very untimely death. He made a complete reversal from what the department said at the time when he said this:
“We failed Elijah McClain as a department, we failed (his mother Sheneen) McClain as a department, we failed our community as a department. We also failed the officers that encountered him that night,” Acevedo said. “…They failed because of the attitude, the mindset of: ‘You ask someone to do something, you tell someone to do something and then you make someone do something.’ If you look at the approach to Elijah McClain, we went from ‘asking’ to ‘telling’ to ‘making’ very quickly, and we should not be going hands-on and making someone do something unless there is an immediate threat. It’s tragic.”
None of those words will bring back Elijah McClain but hopefully they will go a long way towards making sure it doesn't happen again.
THOSE IN CHARGE OF WOLF RELEASE ARE APOLOGIZING For not following their own plan to notify ranchers in the areas they were going to release the wolves they released in December. The head of Colorado Parks and Wildlife didn't have time to notify ranchers but had time to invite 45 people who aren't ranchers to watch the release. These feels like a "beg for forgiveness instead of ask for permission" decision to me. Just saying.
ROSE PUGLIESE RESPONDS TO THE STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS And she asks the question I have, which is does the Governor mean it when he says he wants a Colorado for ALL? Read her response here.
WHAT IS THE STATUS OF ALL OF TRUMP'S CHARGES? This is a good article covering the four separate cases with a total of 91 criminal charges that Donald Trump faces in his upcoming trials and what the status of all of them currently is. If you want to know that is.
WHY DO WANT TO BE A "WELCOMING COMMUNITY"? I'm asking that question because of this quote in a Denver Gazette story about the Denver City Council freaking out about the money they are blowing through on illegal immigrants:
“We also want to be a welcoming community,” Sawyer said. “The problem here at the end of the day is the federal government has failed us 100%.”
Being a "welcoming community" comes with a massive price tag:
Denver already burned through $38 million to accommodate the nearly 38,000 immigrants who illegally crossed America's southern border and arrived in Denver. The city also spent $45 million to get 1,135 of its own homeless population out of the city's streets during Johnston’s first months in office. As Johnston focused on housing 1,000 of Denver's homeless people, the city's immigration crisis surges. Denver’s mayor said if the current influx of immigrants continues, the city could be spending $180 million this year. At the same time, Johnston expects to spend $50 million this year to move another 1,000 homeless people to shelters.
And I ask what is the net benefit to "welcoming" people here illegally? Cheap lawn care? Inexpensive house cleaning? I'm being genuine because if the answer is "we just want people to think we're nice" it's not worth it. I'm wondering what taxpayer funded services the people of Denver are willing to give up to continue being liked?
THINGS TO DO THIS FREEZING COLORADO WEEKEND Most of which are inside but some of which you need to BUNDLE UP for. Find them here.
BLACK SABBATH FANS LISTEN TO THIS TPain is a rapper and singer who used to cover up his amazing voice with autotune. He recently did a series of concerts where he just did covers and this is Black Sabbath's War Pig, which Ozzy said via X was the best cover of it he'd ever heard. He's right.
OUR DIETS MAKE US FEEL LIKE CRAP And even though we are self aware enough to know this most people don't make any changes to feel better. I will say since I started SOTA and added WAY more veggies to my day I can totally tell a difference. Read the article here.
JELLYROLL TESTIFIES BEFORE CONGRESS And he gave powerful testimony about the fentanyl crisis while urging Congress to pass tough legislation to go after fentanyl producers and dealers. He admitted he used to be a dealer and addict himself and you should read about his testimony here or watch it below.
BLEEDING GUMS CAN MAKE COPD WORSE In another story that connects the health of your mouth to the health of your body researchers have shown a connection between bleeding gums and worsening COPD. Go to Running Creek Dental if you have bleeding gums, it's important!
ARE YOU GEN Z KIDS AND GRANDS DOING THE NOSE COVER? This is the most passive aggressive thing I've ever seen even if I agree with the concept behind it. Gen Z has taken to covering up their noses with their hands when someone like a parent tries to take a picture. Why? Because they don't want photos posted online without their consent. I think kids should have a say in this, as the internet is forever and the have a right to decide how and when their faces should be shown. That being said, why not just ask that the photo not be posted for criminy's sake? And I'm guessing this kids have pasted their faces all over Snapchat with no hands up. This is just a passive aggressive power move.
MILLENIALS AND GEN Z ARE AGING OUT OF THEIR IDEALISM At least when it comes to investing. The generations that brought "ESG" governance and investing to the forefront would now prefer actual returns on their investment rather than the feeling of smugness that comes from making ESG the investing priority. Read how they care less about the environment than their returns here.
THIS IS WHY PEOPLE HATE TOURISTS I hate the idiots who leave trash in our nature and now I hate this entitled woman who ignored easily seen signs about staying away from turtles. It's not hard, people. See the video here.
UH-OH...TOP GUN 3 IS IN THE WORKS And I find it hard to believe they are going to be able to recapture the magic of either of the first two movies but we'll see. Read more here. Sometimes they just get greedy and bad things happen.
THINGS AREN'T ALWAYS BETTER IN EUROPE And Buzzfeed has gathered up things that we have here that Europeans are jealous of. This list will make you appreciate some weird stuff.
LOOKING FOR A GOOD SHOW TO WATCH? The Night Agent on Netflix is VERY good with lots of suspense and a good bit but not too much gore.
THE NEW HONDA EV CONCEPT CAR IS CRAZY LOOKING And really cool although will we ever see it in production? As my friend Willie B often points out I see a lot of points of failure here that would be very expensive to fix.
THE TEN MOST ANNOYING SONGS WERE HELLA POPULAR AT least for a minute. Watch below or click here.
THANK GOD SHE DIDN'T REALIZE WHAT WAS WALKING PAST HER Because she would have FREAKED out when she realized it is a mountain lion.
RAND PAUL IS #NEVERNIKKI And this is totally unsurprising as she is a neocon and as a libertarian she has said a LOT of things Paul finds objectionable. His team needs to get him a lapel mic before he does this again.
IF YOU'RE DRINKING BOTTLE WATER You need to see this.
OH. MY. GOODNESS.
EDIT WITH AN IMPORTANT UDPDATE: LATE ADDITION: DPS SHOWS HOW RACIST THEY ARE And I'm just going to put this here for later. EDIT: Our Rob Dawson reached out to DPS about this and was told this:
The DPS memo shared on Twitter is not a recent document, nor was it distributed to staff. Rather this memo was created in July 2020 in the immediate aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and was referenced in some staff training anchored in equity.
This document has not been used since 2021.
So that is good news.
ANOTHER LATE ADD BY REQUEST: The coffee video!