DING DONG THE SHUTDOWN'S DEAD And we'll see how fast airline travel recovers before Thanksgiving. A vast majority of Democrats (and all Colorado Dems) voted against the Continuing Resolution but the GOP had plenty of votes to make it happen. You can read more here, but I fully expect another drama like this one in January. Pay special attention to this part of the article:
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress had adopted the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which, among other provisions, temporarily expanded eligibility for the premium tax credits for tax years 2021 and 2022. Notably, the law eliminated the income limit of 400% of the federal poverty level, thereby allowing more Americans to quality, and provided larger subsidies compared to the original Affordable Care Act.
The Biden administration and Congress then extended these enhanced tax credits in the 2022 Budget Reconciliation Law for another three years and established the sunset date of Jan. 1, 2026. Without the enhancement, the tax credits would apply only to households earning incomes at or above 100% of the federal poverty level. Additionally, the amount of tax credits would shrink.
Do you know how many Republicans voted for either of those bills? ZERO. Democrats wrote it with a sunset, voted on it with a sunset, and passed it with a sunset and it's beyond absurd that they keep saying Republicans created this mess. Child, please. This is a great opinion piece on who really demanded the shutdown, and it's not SNAP recipients.
WENDY CORREA HAS SEEN SOME STUFF And she's got a new memoir out about her life and misadventures in film and television and most importantly radio. It's not all sunshine and roses and you should buy the book and read it. She joins me at 1 to talk about it. Find out more about Wendy and the book by clicking here.
WHO'S AFRAID OF DOBETTERDNVR? This is a great article about DoBetterDNVR and the impact they have had and ARE having on Denver. Paul Karolyi joins me to talk about it at 2:30. Read it here.
THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT, ROCKIES FAN I have never been so disappointed in my life! Some company did a survey and they say self identified Rockies fans were some of the most likely fans to say they would steal a foul ball from a kid. For REAL?? Tell me this is wrong.
DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS IS LEAD BY A RACE BAITING LIAR And for some reason, the board still believes him. Otherwise it makes no sense for them to be considering a censure of Board member John Youngquist. You may remember how lying whiner Superintendent Alex Marrero accused Youngquist of racism or something because Youngquist actually asked hard questions that demanded hard answers. They spent like 80 grand investigating the claims and he was cleared by the investigators. But that wasn't good enough for the Board, they spent an hour and a half demanding he take "accountability" for non-specific anonymous complaints, which is already absurd. Now they are going to vote on whether or not to censure him over charges HE'S BEEN CLEARED OF. These people are idiots. That can be the only explanation. You know who asked for the censure? The lying Alex Marrero. We know he's a liar because he's applying for other jobs and lying about it. See yesterday's blog for more on that.
BUT THEY STILL AREN'T AS BAD AS ADAMS 14 The Adams 14 school district is what happens when you have a student body made up of the working poor who simply don't have the time or energy or sometimes the knowledge to agitate for good schools. Adams14 is a failure of a district although I would imagine there are probably some great people who work there. The district is made up of families who don't speak English, it's done so poorly in the past the state briefly took it over, but the latest shenanigans make Denver seem sane. Just 12.9% of the students in Adams meet or exceed grade level, and that is something the school board should be talking about, not filming parents who dare to speak.
POLIS IS GUTTING CARE FOR KIDS WITH AUTISM His new budget goes after Medicaid hard, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's exploded in cost as they have let way too many people sign up for it. But instead of looking at how many people they've let into the program who shouldn't be in the program designed for children and mothers in poverty and the elderly, he's cutting reimbursement rates for providers who provide care for dental, behavioral health and services to children with disabilities. What this means is some providers will simply stop serving Medicaid patients making access to care even more difficult. And look at this RIDICULOUS comment by the Governor:
His administration is looking for better value, he said, which he said results in better health outcomes. High Medicaid spending has not resulted in better health outcomes, wanting to focus on which investments will lead in that direction.
This is nonsense. How in the world does "Looking for better value" result in better health outcomes? That is just stupid. High Medicaid spending has not resulted in better health outcomes because Medicaid patients are more likely to smoke, miss doctor's appointments, not follow doctor's orders, and they are far more likely to be obese. These are people who are bad shape to begin with.
LAUREN BOEBERT WANTS EPSTEIN'S FILES RELEASED And refused to remove her name from the discharge petition demanding the release of all the Epstein stuff. She is one of four Republicans to sign the petition and got pressure from the White House to NOT sign, but she stayed the course. It's going to be fascinating to see who votes against this in the House. I'm ready for it all to come out so we can be done with this. One Republican tried to get the files released immediately with a Unanimous Consent motion. He says the Democrats blocked it. Hmmm.
Could it be they blocked it because they are trying to create a fake narrative by cherry picking emails and redacting the most important part? Miranda Devine writes about it here.
URANIUM! I'VE FOUND IT! Which is super bad news for people hoping the new Chimney Hollow reservoir would be full anytime soon. The massive reservoir is almost finished, and then they found uranium. They have ways to mitigate this, but it will push the fill up date back quite a bit. Uranium is naturally occurring in the rocks they used to build the dam, which were mined from the site which will soonish be flooded.
TRUMP HAS NO BUSINESS DEMANDING A PARDON FOR NETANYAHU Look, I get it, they are pals. But Netanyahu needs to answer to his OWN people if he is found guilty of corruption then he should face the consequences without input from OUR President.
WILL CHATBOT ROMANCES END MARRIAGES? The answer is "yes" as it's already happening. But how many? And how is a relationship with a fake person better than one with a real person? I mean, I guess I could see it, but not for me. Read this for more, I find it both interesting and disturbing.
EV SUBSIDIES WERE FOR RICH PEOPLE and you know how I know? The sales of high end (read: expensive) Electric Vehicles has pretty much cratered since the subsidies ended.
THE JAMES COMEY EVIDENCE IS STRONG And laid out in this column. He's a scumbag who abused his power mightily.
WE ARE A CHARITABLE LOT, COLORADO And I'm proud to be in the Top 10 Most Charitable states. Read the list here. Here is what the score is based on, and our neighbor Wyoming came in #1!
Meanwhile, factors that influenced a state’s score on charitable giving included: the share of income donated to charity, the share of the population donating their time, the share of the population donating money, the number of public charities per capita, the number of top rated public charities per capita, charity regulations, Google search interest for “Charitable donations,” the number of “Feeding America” food banks per capita, and the share of sheltered homeless.
We are doing alright.
MINIMUM WAGE HIKES ARE KILLING FAST FOOD JOBS And this isn't speculation, it's happening in California now. Since raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour, California has lost 18,000 fast food jobs. Those are entry level jobs that young people often get to begin their work experience. Not anymore. Automation that is being quickly adopted in California is going to spread because once they show how to make money without labor it's on. This is what Denver is doing to it's entry level jobs too. Well done!
SURVEILLANCE FOR THEE, BUT NOT FOR ME The fact the Biden Administration snooped on US Senators is beyond the pale. But the "response" by Republican Senators that they crammed into the CR is beyond the pale in my view. The put in a provision that says Senators are allowed to SUE the federal government if their records are accessed without their permission. You and I get no such opportunity, just the Senators who breathe the rarefied air at the Capitol. You can read it here but it's probably going to be yanked soon.
THE FDA REMOVES THE BLACK BOX WARNING FROM HORMONE REPLACEMENT Because of several things. One, the warning was put there based on ONE study that didn't take a LOT of things into consideration. Two, the science has simply gotten better. Read more here.
I THINK YOU HAVE MY STAPLER Watch below or click here.
WANT TO PLAY OF THE DAY WITH ME FRIDAY AND MAYBE WIN A FABULOUS PRIZE?
THIS ISN'T THE NORMAL PAGEANT TALENT FOR SURE I mean, this is brave and she's really good at it but no. Watch below or click here.
HOCKEY PLAYERS ARE JUST LIKE US! This is so cute.
TRUMP IS WRONG ON H1B VISAS And anyone who works in tech or at banks like USAA know that American workers are being replaced by foreign workers. It's happening. We know it. And Trump is wrong here.
KYLE CLARK AND I AGREE ON SOMETHING He thinks Lauren Boebert did a brave thing by not removing her name from the discharge petition.
THE LAST PENNY HAS BEEN PRODUCED And will anyone really miss it? Watch below or click here.
WILL TARGET FEEL FRIENDLIER? A lot is being made about Target's new policies for employees about being nice to customers, but this is all pretty standard customer service stuff, isn't it? Watch below or click here.