KEVIN NEALON IS A FUNNY MAN And he's performing at Comedy Works this weekend so buy your tickets today as the early shows are already sold out. Find them here. He also has an interesting web series called Hiking with Kevin and the episode with Nick Offerman is a great one. He also has a book out and you should buy it here!
XCEL GETS TOLD NO Xcel wanted the ratepayers to pay millions so they could build charging stations all over the state that they would then profit from while a vast majority of ratepayers would never use them. The PUC said no. Oh, they still approved about $172 million in new spending for other stuff that ratepayers will be on the hook for, but at least we didn't give them a ratepayer funded new revenue stream for the wealthy. Read it all here, and note that Minnesota, the other state where Xcel is king, is doing the SAME sort of stuff legislatively that Colorado is when it comes to green energy. It makes one wonder just how much Xcel is driving these "mandates" so they can continue to run up our bills. Just a question I'd like answered.
BIDEN'S "FINE PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES" ANSWER Talk about trying to have your cake and eat it too. When asked about the anti-Semitic protests on college campuses this week, he took a both sides approach and said:
“I condemn the anti-Semitic protests,” the president told reporters en route back from a speech he had delivered to commemorate Earth Day. “That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
To be clear, he condemns everyone for something in case you missed it. YOU'RE condemned, and YOU'RE condemned, it's the Oprah of condemning. At an Earth Day event, he followed AOC who had just been praising the students wreaking havoc to support an murderous regime, and said we should listen to her.
He did send out a statement on Passover that managed to not mention the Palestinians so I give him credit for managing that one. Not much, but some.
WHY THE BIDEN ADMIN IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN A TRUMP ADMIN This story is absolutely horrible. The Biden Department of Justice is prosecuting an 89 year old concentration camp survivor and trying to put her in jail for singing hymns and praying outside an abortion clinic in Tennessee. At the same time, the Biden Justice Department is actively ignoring people who set fire to churches who could be charged under the same law. Read this:
Yet the same Justice Department that is fighting to throw Eva in jail failed to prosecute Bennet for these multiple and obvious FACE Act violations. It has also failed to federally prosecute a single one of the more than 400 egregious FACE Act violations against Catholic Churches since May 2020, or to meaningfully address the 90 attacks on pregnancy resource centers across the nation since May 2022.
These attacks don’t involve prayer and hymns. They’ve involved fire-bombings and arson, vandalism of pregnancy clinics and churches, spray painted threats on clinic and church walls, decapitated statues, smashed glass, disrupted masses, blocking of church entrances and even physical attacks on priests and parishioners. They have cost at least $25 million in damages to Catholic Churches, while intimidating hundreds of peaceful Catholic and pro-life communities.
This underscores something I believe strongly, and that is if Trump is elected, the entire bureaucracy works AGAINST him because they hate him. The bureaucracy works WITH Biden because they agree that burning down churches is no biggie while little old pro-life ladies are an existential threat. The system is being abused in EXACTLY the way Democrats are trying to tell us Trump would abuse it. Neat trick, huh?
Y'ALL THESE ROMANCE SCAMS ARE HORRIBLE There is a weeklong series on CBS News this week that started on CBS Sunday Morning, and one of the victims is right here in Colorado in a heartbreaking story of massive gullibility. This poor woman is so deluded and she's gonna end up broke.
RTD IS ADDING MORE COPS TO ITS LINES So maybe you can ride the train without someone smoking meth next to you now! Read more here.
I GUESS WE HAVE TO TAKE DOWN THE WELCOME IMMIGRANTS SIGN NOW Remember when Denver hung a giant banner on City Hall that said "Denver Hearts Immigrants"? Well those days are over now as Mayor Mike Johnston sent people to the southern border to let them know that Denver is closed. In reality they are telling people that immigrants are getting 72 hours of shelter and then they are told to move along. I'm okay with this, but I don't think it changes anything.
BOEBERT VOTES AGAINST THE AID PACKAGE And Jimmy Sengenberger writes about it here. He takes issue with Boebert's vote against aid, but I think she has a point on this even if I think we need to keep giving money to Ukraine (I explained the proxy war we're fighting on yesterday's show). She has been vocal on Twitter about not wanting to just keep giving money and also vocal about there not being any US border security in this bill as well. Was it the right move? I have no clue but I'm willing to concede that she has a point in voting against it.
WHY WE MUST KEEP FUNDING UKRAINE This is what I was talking about yesterday. Moldova, a small former Soviet bloc country, is trying to join the European Union. This does not set will with Putin, who dreams of getting the band back together, so just as they are moving towards membership, a pro-Russian electoral group pops up. Read about the long term strategy Putin is thought to be pursuing here. He will not stop at Ukraine. He's also moved ballistic missiles to the border of NATO member Finland.
IT'S TIME TO BRING BACK CURSIVE And this article explains why. Some 20 year olds can't sign anything. Others can't read handwriting at all. And IQs have just DROPPED for the first time in a century and one has to believe that technology plays a role here. Cursive handwriting does so much more than just teach you to write, it creates connections on the brain that are critical to brain development and pecking away on a keyboard does NOT do the same thing. I don't have the best penmanship, but I have it.
WHEN PROGRESSIVE POLICIES DERAIL A GAY BAR This is a fascinating conversation with the owner of the oldest gay bar in Denver and Jon Caldara about how the policies pursued by the hard left have ruined the business environment.
COLORADO PARKS SAVE SOME CUTE LITTLE MOUNTAIN LIONS I love stories like this one and I know the men and women at Parks and Wildlife do to. Two yearling lions were stuck in a dam but they managed to get them out with some rope and ingenuity.
COLORADO DEMS EXPAND RECYCLING...SO THEY THINK The jig is up when it comes to plastic recycling but don't tell that to Colorado Democrats who just found a new way to make stuff more expensive while not actually solving a problem. Now packaging producers will have to pay huge new fees to expand recycling, fees which will more assuredly be passed on to consumers. This as we know that an overwhelming majority of plastic simply can't be recycled. I've stopped putting plastic in my recycling bin but still recycle glass, cardboard, and cans. Now there will be more opportunities statewide for more people to put plastic that can't be recycled into bins for collection. Yay.
THE CASS REVIEW WON'T GO AWAY Even as American doctors who are riding a trans care gravy train try to ignore it. It is the recently completed study on gender affirming care which casts a LOT of doubt on the science and necessity of such care, especially for children. It has already led Scotland to end gender affirming care and hormones for children. This column explains why journalists, who have been shamed or shouted down, are just ignoring the inconvenient truths of this study.
TWO MINUTE DRILL!
"THIS IS A BUSINESS" With those words the CEO of Google explained away the firings of now former employees who decided to bring their politics to the workplace. Read his statement to Google employees:
One final note: All of the changes referenced above will help us work with greater focus and clarity towards our mission. However, we also need to be more focused in how we work, collaborate, discuss and even disagree. We have a culture of vibrant, open discussion that enables us to create amazing products and turn great ideas into action. That's important to preserve. But ultimately we are a workplace and our policies and expectations are clear: this is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics. This is too important a moment as a company for us to be distracted.
We have a duty to be an objective and trusted provider of information that serves all of our users globally. When we come to work, our goal is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. That supersedes everything else and I expect us to act with a focus that reflects that.
Thank you.
And that's how you do it. About 50 employees have been fired so far. I'm guessing not many more will try the same sort of nonsense.
HOW MUCH DOES THE AMERICAN DREAM COST IN COLORADO? About ten grand more than it did a few years ago. Overall, the cost of the "American Dream" defined as "being a married couple with two children living in a home for four with a car and a pet; plus annual groceries, pet care, a mortgage, healthcare, utilities, education, and child care" is just under $200,000 here. Housing is a huge part of this. Too bad salaries average a bit over $87,000.
HOW FORT COLLINS ENDED UP AT DISNEYWORLD This is a cool story about how downtown Fort Collins ended up being inspiration for part of Walt Disney's Mainstreet USA at Disneyworld.
NEW ROBOT EYEBALLS COULD HELP THE BLIND And they don't call them robot eyeballs but read this and tell me they aren't robot eyeballs.
AI CAN TELL YOUR POLITICAL AFFILIATION FROM YOUR FACE This is crazy. Researchers have created a program that uses AI to determine one's political persuasion from your facial features. Now they are sounding the alarm that this sort of tech that can divine very specific personality information from facial features could be used for highly specific marketing or even to influence a crowd of people.
GO TO THIS PUERTO RICAN RESTAURANT IN PARKER I freaking LOVE this place and this is a great story on the family who owns it.
HOW TO USE BAKING SODA AS A WEED KILLER And I'm gonna try this on my yard and see what happens.
PROVING THOSE NAYSAYING TEACHERS WRONG They said he couldn't make art and play drums. Joke's on them. Watch below or click here.
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IF YOU'RE GOING TO INSULT SOMEONE YOU BETTER BACK IT UP As this youngster found out when he decided to all out Charlie Kirk. Watch below or click here.
TALKING TOO MUCH IS SEEN AS WEAKNESS This is super interesting. Be a person of fewer words. Watch below or click here.