I'M TIRED OF DECIDING WHAT TO TALK ABOUT So it's an Ask Me Anything kind of day where you pick.
TODAY IS THE DAY THE SIDE HUSTLE COMES TO FRUITION! And you need to follow this FB account to make sure you don't miss it.
WHY WERE PUBLIC OFFICIALS HIDING MESSAGES ABOUT THE IMMIGRANT RESPONSE? We all know that Colorado Democrats HATE being held accountable for their actions and therefore HATE Open Records requests. They have taken every opportunity to make it harder for people to access the work they allegedly do on our behalf. But this story goes even further. Mayor Mike Johnston set up a group he called the "Strike Force" to handle the immigrant flood into Denver. That isn't a problem. Then they agreed to use messaging app Signal, which DELETES messages after they are seen for their meetings. That is NOT okay. For the first two weeks of these meetings there are no records of what was said. After that they set the Delete feature for four weeks, before disabling it completely a week later. This story has a couple of interesting bits in it. First off, this part:
According to Johnston's daily calendar, obtained through an open records request, on Jan. 14, 2025, he convened a "Strike Force Introduction" meeting. The following day, Jan. 15, text messages obtained by CBS News Colorado via an Open Records request, show Johnston's Director of Strategic Initiatives, Joshua Posner, sent an identical text message to multiple members of the administration saying: "We are going to use Signal to communicate with Strike Force so that communication remains encrypted and secure(and messages auto delete)" (emphasis mine)
So they chose to use Signal BECAUSE messages would auto delete, and NO ONE in the Johnston administration said, Hey no, we can't do that because it's illegal. I've heard from multiple people that a lot of skilled and experienced people do NOT want to work in this administration because the air of incompetence that permeates it. This would indicate those rumors may be accurate. Then there's this part:
The Johnston administration's move to make their communications more difficult to access came about three weeks after America First Legal, a Trump-affiliated legal group, filed requests with Johnston and his administration seeking city records and communications related to immigration issues. Part of the request demanded, "All records, including communications, calendar entries, and documents mentioning or belonging to Mike Johnston, Mayor since November 1, 2024."
In a written statement, Fuja said the move to Signal was because, "When President Trump took office in January, it was clear that there would be rapidly developing changes to the way the federal government interacts with cities that could have significant impacts on how Denver operates. The particular group was started in January for internal staff to easily keep track of and share information regarding federal actions that impact Denver under the new administration."
Hmmm, it sure looks like they were trying to operate in such a way that the prevented anyone from knowing what they were doing. But maybe they just didn't know, right? Not quite:
The move to the encrypted messaging app also came a month after the mayor's office was specifically instructed by its own Information Security Chief not to use Signal.
In a Dec. 11, 2024, email from Denver Chief Information Security Officer Merlin Namuth shared with McGloughlin and several other mayoral staff members and appointees, Namuth discussed the use of encrypted messaging apps and said, in bold letters, they were "For personal use only. Please avoid using these applications for city work."
And here I thought Mayor Mike ran on transparency. Another promise made and not kept. Just like coming on the show. This is the original story by Brian Maass at CBS4.
DENVER IS STILL NOT TRACKING HOW MUCH HOMELESSNESS IS COSTING TAXPAYERS A recent audit says that Denver simply hasn't implemented the recommendations of the LAST audit which showed we have no clue how much the Mayor has spent housing homeless people in Denver. Of course he doesn't. Maybe they are tracking it on Signal. How bad is it? This bad:
Despite agreeing to implement all 36 recommendations, a follow-up audit in March found the city had only fully implemented six, partially implemented 11, and failed to implement the remaining 11.
I don't understand why this is okay for Denverites or the City Council. And I'm sure we aren't tracking "success" about how many of these people we've moved off the streets have gotten drug addiction or mental health help that can move them to self sufficiency. Or maybe that's on Signal too.
AH THE SMELL OF SOCIALISM IS IN THE AIR! As Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are making a whistlestop in the metro to urge people to adopt their ideology based on greed and envy or something. They are here to talk bad about people who create products and jobs and GDP. Or something.
ABOUT JEANETTE VIZGUERRA I heard John Fabbricatore on with Ryan the other day talking about the fact that Illegal Immigrant Celeb Jeanette Vizguerra has had MULTIPLE opportunities to deport herself, something she agreed on before hiding in a church basement for years. She had a fake social security card and drivers license when she was arrested, meaning she's also guilty of identity theft and social security fraud. You can read more here but no one can tell me why a woman who got her deportation stayed by the Biden Administration STILL has NO STATUS. Why won't Democrat politicians help her there? Oh, it's so they can use her story to attack Trump. Got it.
HERE'S YOUR COLLAR BACK I know I should not laugh over this story but I'm sick like that. Wolf advocates are apoplectic that one of their relocated Canadian wolves was just killed by Parks and Wildlife...in Wyoming. After the wolf killed six sheep the department took it out, only to find a collar from Colorado on the wolf. They sent the collar back. The group is mad the ranchers didn't use non-lethal methods instead, but Wyoming pretty much doesn't care what they think. They should have let the wolf know where the state line was.
FAFO, BURNING TESLA EDITION Remember the trans woman who decided to throw Molotov cocktails at the Loveland Tesla dealership? Turns out that was a bad idea, as now they have been charged with multiple federal crimes and face a good chunk of time in jail. I hope it was worth it.
CU IS INVESTIGATING WANDA JAMES The regent has been accused of using her position as a CU Regent to benefit her pot business after she successfully got the funding pulled for a public health campaign outlining the dangers of high potency marijuana on young people and pregnant women. Jimmy Sengenberger writes about it here.
THE PURPOSE OF A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IS LOST AT CU And Rob Natelson writes here that it's time to bust up the hopelessly left wing institution or privatize it completely if we can't serve everyone regardless of political ideology. Read it here.
TIME FOR MORE A HERO'S THANK YOU I love these.
WHY POOR PEOPLE STAY POOR I saw this yesterday and if you want to know why poor people are poor and stay that way, this is it. Now you can pay for your Door Dash with INTEREST PAYING INSTALLMENTS.
Arod's mom posted this yesterday:
Chuck and I just decided that paying for someone to bring you food is pretty stupid with some exceptions. And lazy. So, lazy and expensive.
OH FORT MYERS, WHAT HAS GONE WRONG My former home city of Fort Myers has made a fool of itself as two female (of course) elected officials cried and held hands and cried some more over a resolution that says cops can work with ICE. By they way, in Florida it is STATE law that law enforcement work with federal immigration officials so this was purely performative. Read more here but the video is so, so bad I grabbed it so you can watch it here.
If you can't be an elected official without sniveling you need to go. By the way, one of these women is a Republican.
THE US FALLS ON THE HAPPINESS RANKINGS I talk to my nephew in Tel Aviv quite a bit. This week he had to get his kids out of bed to go the bomb shelter in the middle of the night because Hamas was firing rockets at his family. The kids can't play outside anymore for fear of being killed. He is armed 24/7 because of the real fear of someone trying to kill him and his family. This morning I got up, had coffee, played with my dog, got ready for the show, recorded some commercials with Running Creek Dental and no one tried to shoot at me once. I have plenty of food, gas for my car and can go to work completely unfettered and free of the immediate fear of death. I say all this because the United States, which is the RICHEST country in the world where ever poor people enjoy a standard of living HIGHER than most around the world, including Europe, has dropped in the "happiness rankings". You know why? Because we are soft and ungrateful and full of envy towards those with more than us. That's my take anyway. A big part of the drop on this survey has to do with how many people are lonely. But my question is, how are you fighting your loneliness? Or do you expect it to be easy like other stuff? GO OUT AND DO SOMETHING. Join a club, or a group, or a church and work to make friends. Just do it.
SMARTPHONES ARE ROTTING OUR BRAINS And its actual science, not me just saying it. Read it here.
16TH STREET MALL LOSES ANOTHER RESTAURANT The Mellow Mushroom held on for as long as it could, but it has closed its doors as well.
LOS ANGELES HAS A HOMELESS FIRE PROBLEM And we should pay attention to this as we have the same issues here with fire being a huge problem.
HOW REPUBLICANS CAN WIN IN COLORADO They need to follow the playbook being used in a judicial race in Wisconsin. This is going to be the most expensive judicial race in history and the conservative candidate is behind, though he is gaining very quickly based on ads about his opponent like this one:
Colorado Republicans need to run on safety and the economy. Period. That's it. Don't talk about other stuff no matter how many times you are asked about it.
A LOCAL HOTEL RECOGNIZED BY TIME For all the stuff it did to become "carbon forward". You can read it here.
TGIF EREBODY! It's the column I wait all week for and it's here!
A BUSINESS OWNER TALKS ABOUT DENVER AND WHAT'S GOING WRONG With Jon Caldara at the Independence Institute. (HINT HINT, YOU NEED TO SUBSCRIBE TO THIS CHANNEL IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE SIDE HUSTLE).
POWER RANGERS ARE GETTING A REBOOT Watch below or click here.
STEVE BANNON IS AN IDIOT Watch below or click here. This guy is not trustworthy in my opinion. I can't stand.
ARE LINES A GOOD INDICATOR OF QUALITY? I get what this guy is saying, but then I think of the people lined up for days outside a new chicken salad restaurant and I question the logic. Watch below or click here.
HEY LOOK, A BOMB THREAT ON THE 16TH STREET MALL! I'm sure they just need better branding to bring people back.
THERE IS SOME COOL STUFF UNDERNEATH THE PYRAMIDS IN GIZA This is actually very, very cool. Watch below or click here.
TRADITIONS THAT MAY BE ON THEIR WAY OUT Some of these make me kind of sad but others are like "meh". Read them all here.