DENVER'S OUTSIDE FESTIVAL HAS SOME GREAT BANDS COMING The Festival will take place for the second time this upcoming June and in addition to all sorts of things related to outdoor activities of all kinds, they've got some cool bands coming. Today I'll chat with CJ Gerard at 1 about who is playing and what else you can expect. Find out more about the Festival here.
WILL BRINGING BACK CIVICS SAVE UNIVERSITIES? I read two unrelated columns this morning but then realized they are VERY related. One is about a Civics conference for educators where people doing innovative work to help students grow into solid citizens shared their best practices. The second is about the cultural rot that has taken hold at so many universities and colleges. Though they may seem disconnected they are not, as students with a strong civics background would be far less likely to sit idly while left wing professors use their podiums to spew anti-American nonsense. Civics, which every kid hated when I was in school because no one told us how important it really is, helps young people understand their role in our society. It teaches them how to debate ideas civilly and with passion, but not emotion. More importantly, it prepares them to be an integral part of our Republic going forward, something that today's universities too often conflate with destruction and protest. Both articles are worth your time.
ARE CITIZEN'S ASSEMBLIES THE WAY FORWARD? People are tired of the "experts" who seem to have the most sway in government coming up with no solutions to the problems facing us. Lately the Citizen's Assembly has taken shape, where average folks come together to solve problems government hasn't. They may come up with great ideas, but getting them implemented is proving to be a longer haul. Read this here and I have an idea brewing on this. It reminded me of the William F Buckley quote:
I would rather be governed by the first 1,000 people listed in the phone book than by the faculty members from an Ivy League University.
ALBERTSONS MAKES A BITTER MOVE After the merger between Albertsons and Kroger got blocked by two different judges one would think that the grocery giants would take a breath and see what happens next but that's a big nope from Albertsons. They went scorched earth by filing a lawsuit alleging that Kroger didn't do enough to make the merger happen. This is really kind of crazy to me. From the Denver Gazette story:
Albertsons said Kroger refused to divest the assets necessary for antitrust approval, ignored regulators' feedback and rejected divestiture buyers that would have been stronger than C&S.
“Kroger’s self-serving conduct, taken at the expense of Albertsons and the agreed transaction, has harmed Albertsons’ shareholders, associates and consumers,” said Tom Moriarty, Albertsons’ general counsel, in a statement.
Albertsons has a crap ton of debt, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them closing underperforming stores. Their prices are already higher than their competitors so they don't have a lot of wiggle room there. It would be ironic if the killing of this merger lead to less competition in markets where those stores closed.
OF COURSE POLIS BLAMES THE RANCHERS Boy is our Governor getting blowback after he blamed the high cost of wolf re introduction on ranchers. Good. It's obvious he and his animal rights activist husband don't give two craps about ranchers, but his mask is slipping in a pretty unprecedented way. Read more here about it.
WHAT REALLY WENT DOWN DURING THE VENEZUELAN FLASH MOB When thousands of Venezuelans converged on a shopping center to celebrate what they thought was an opposition win in their native country, many said shots were fired at the event. The Aurora PD denied that, but now they say there were multiple shootings related to the event. Read the whole story here, but once again Danielle Jurinsky is vindicated.
CU BOULDER WEIGHS ITS OPTIONS When it comes to the frat house where six men almost drank themselves to death while partying in the house. The fraternity in question was long ago kicked out of the official university system and now questions remain about what CU Boulder can do about this. Some fraternities can't be saved imo. This is one of those frats.
THE CLOCK IS TIK TOKING ON TIK TOK Because their parent company Byte Dance has shown no desire to divest from their Chinese parent company. They have until January 19th to do so or be banned from app stores in the US. They are fighting this in court, but no judge has been willing to let the Chinese government continue to spy unchecked on American citizens. We'll see how this shakes out.
YES, GOVERNMENT HAS MADE INSURANCE WAY MORE EXPENSIVE This is EXACTLY what I was talking about yesterday about how government insurance mandates covering things most of us won't ever use (gender re assignment being one of them, maternity care being another) have made the cost of health insurance skyrocket. This column explains more.
I TOLD THEM THEY WERE WRONG Years ago this idiotic school of thought took hold about Millennials and their lifestyle choices. Much was made about how they weren't buying homes or moving the suburbs and I consistently pointed out that they weren't doing so because they were still young and young people don't do such things, but as they aged they would follow the same patterns as generations before them. So when I saw this in an article about affordable housing I had to guffaw:
“Quite simply, we became anemic to housing development over the last 30 years, although net migration has fallen off a cliff, which is extremely concerning,” LiFari said of Colorado's approach to affordable housing. “We made some bad forecasting errors."
“We thought that millennials might kind of bridge the mold and just want to rent forever, never have kids," LiFari said. "That was obviously a poor decision.”
Well duh. Human behavior isn't predictable in the micro but it's pretty predictable in the macro when it comes to stuff like this.
THE OLD GUARD IS THREATENED BY TRUMP APPOINTEES This is a good column on the smear campaign against several of the nominees for various positions in the Trump Administration. Specifically, Lee Zeldin, Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel, and Tulsi Gabbard. All in their 40s, they represent an existential threat to the Old Guard that has been entrenched for decades. I especially like this part:
As a group, their pedigree and credentials won’t impress the Obama highbrows or the jilted Bush-type conservatives whose podcasts dot the new media landscape. But these men and woman share a qualification that uniquely qualifies them for their roles: They served their country in the Global War on Terror.
Vance, Hegseth, Zeldin, and Gabbard volunteered to wear the uniform, and they deployed to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Patel, a lawyer, prosecuted criminals affiliated with al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terror organizations. Each experienced the consequences of bad military policy, not as fans or spectators from their comfortable offices in Washington, but on the field, as participants in the campaign.
Because war is when the mask comes off, exposing the true patriots and the phonies, separating those who viscerally understand war from those whose knowledge is a sterile mental exercise.
This is exactly why they all must be confirmed. I've had enough of Lindsey Graham calling for war from the cheap seats.
WE'VE GOT A BIRTHDAY COMING UP And by "we" I mean KOA. We're turning 100 years old this Sunday so of course we needed a new logo!
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LOOKING FOR SOME GREAT CHINESE FOOD? We've got SIX of the top 100 Chinese restaurants according to Yelp right here in Colorado. Find them here.
FEWER PEOPLE BOUGHT THE EPIC PASS But before you get excited that the lift lines won't be so long, they only dropped by 2%, though Vail Resorts made more money on the passes this year than last. You can read it here.
FIND THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS IN THE METRO By clicking here.
ZUCK BUCKS FLOW TO TRUMP INAUGURATION META just donated a million bucks to Trump's Inaugural Fund. Interesting, don't you think?
JOHN KERRY LECTURES US FROM ONE OF HIS MANY HOMES I can't tell you how little I care about what John Kerry says about climate change. He and his super rich wife own at least three homes currently, maybe more, they continue to travel by private jet and only expect US to make sacrifices for the climate. He can go pound sand.
DR. JILL TALKS JOY And it isn't the fake kind Kamala had. Watch below or click here.
THE TOLERANT LEFT LOVES MURDER NOW
OKAY NAVY SEALS, DO YOU REALLY NAP LIKE THIS? Watch below or click here.
GOTTA TAKE YOUR 15 MINUTES OF FAME, AMIRIGHT? This would so be me if any of my kids did this. Watch below or click here.
LAMAR JACKSON GOES SOFT But only with his perfume choices. Fun fact, I often prefer men's cologne.
GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR VACATION TIME NEXT YEAR By using what I like to call the Three Day Weekend Add On trick. Read more here.
LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT? Find a whole bunch of them here.