TIRED OF GIVING STUFF FOR CHRISTMAS? Why not give an adventure? I mentioned how much fun we had a Black Tree Resort and I've got the owner Nabil Saweres at 2pm to tell you all about an option for Christmas that will actually bring your family TOGETHER instead of sending them to various rooms to play with "stuff". Find out more and book your adventure for next year by clicking here!
THE OTHER SIDE ACADEMY IS A ROLE MODEL FOR OTHER STATES And I have to thank a listener for putting them on my radar. What do they do? They give addicts and ex cons two years of free residential treatment to teach them how to live without drugs or crime. I'll talk to Lola Saey Strong, the Managing Director, about how the program works. Find out more here.
YES, YOU CAN CUT DOWN YOUR OWN CHRISTMAS TREE AND HERE'S HOW You need to get a permit, but plenty are available this year so get cracking! Read the whole story here.
I SAW THE BEVERLY BELLES YESTERDAY IN PARKER AND NOW I'M ALL CHRISTMASED UP! If you don't know the Belles, they are a wonderful group of dame singers who channel the girl groups of the 1940s and they do an amazing Christmas show every year that I forget to tell you about until AFTER it happens. This should get you in the spirit though! Find out more about the Belles and get on their mailing list for next year, they are OUTSTANDING!!
IT'S CYBER MONDAY AND HERE ARE SOME GREAT TECH DEALS Apparently Black Friday was a much calmer version of itself as I didn't see any stories about fist fights over toasters or some such nonsense. Some say we've shifted our shopping from Friday to Monday, and I'd say that's right for me. I bought ONE gift this weekend and it wasn't on sale. Perhaps these can tempt you or someone else to do some spending.
DO DEMOCRATS SUCK AT MESSAGING OR GOVERNING? If you ask the Democrats it's the former, but if you ask anyone being polled in the US, it's the former. This Washington Post story wonders why the giant spending bills (that included HUGE tax cuts for the very rich) isn't resonating with voters, who increasingly say they are very unhappy with the current Administration. As Dems try to shore things up for the midterms, they are genuinely confused about what voters think is important imo. From WaPo:
At a virtual fundraiser late last month, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) shared a blunt assessment about the Democratic Party.
“Democrats are terrible at messaging,” she said, according to notes taken by one attendee. “It’s just a fact.”
The admission surprised some attendees for its frankness, but it’s a sentiment that is widely shared among other lawmakers, donors and party leaders. The concerns are growing more urgent as Democrats gear up for grueling midterm elections, in which most in the party expect to lose control of the House and many are also increasingly pessimistic about retaining a majority in the Senate.
Beyond a struggle to sell the nuts-and-bolts of legislation, there are deeper fears among Democrats that the party lacks a cohesive and convincing argument to win over voters in next year’s elections. Democrats are eager to tout the bills they have passed in President Biden’s first year, but a strategy tying together the disparate pieces of legislation — from lowering the cost of child care and eldercare to combating climate change to building roads and bridges — is still lacking.
Got that? It's just the messaging, not the sky high inflation, high gas prices, and leaving Americans to die in Afghanistan, it's the messaging. Mmmkay.
HOW DID JEFFCO HEALTH DIRECTOR DAWN COMSTOCK GET HER JOB? If you believe the comments read by these moms from Jefferson County Health Department employees who believed Comstock herself rigged the game to get herself the job when she was supposed to be in charge of finding a qualified candidate. As she has been especially dictatorial during this I think she and her qualifications are fair game. Watch this for more.
WHY DOES COLORADO NOT GRASP THE CONCEPT OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT? Other states don't have laws on the books which CLEARLY violate two provisions of the First Amendment, but here we are. It's another case of someone being forced to support something they themselves don't believe in, which is gay marriage. This time it's about building wedding websites to celebrate the big day. A woman has been told she can't make a website for straight couples' weddings if she doesn't do the same for gay couples. This is especially stupid because any moron with TheKnot.com can make themselves a website for their marriage instead, but this is just to force someone to celebrate a gay wedding they don't believe in. Where does it stop? Hopefully the Supreme Court can clear this up once and for all.
ANTHONY FAUCI IS A MANIACAL EGOMANIAC And if you think he is EVER going to let go of his power and authority I must say you are obtuse. His latest demonstration of his own awesomeness comes from an interview where this exchange occurred:
Fauci said that the accusations are dangerous, not only to him, but the scientific community.
“It's easy to criticize, but they're really criticizing science because I represent science. That's dangerous,” he said. “To me, that's more dangerous than the slings and the arrows that get thrown at me. I'm not going to be around here forever, but science is going to be here forever.”
"I'm just going to do my job and I'm going to be saving lives and they're going to be lying," he added.
Except we already KNOW he lied about Gain of Function research and we also know the current Administration is going to do NOTHING to hold him accountable, which he already knows, hence the ego and bravado above. He's a horrible little man who needs to go. Now. To say Rand Paul is unimpressed by this declaration is an understatement, and you should read his response here.
THIS IS A FASCINATING ARTICLE ON THE LEFT'S FAILURES IN COVID WRITTEN BY A STAUNCH LEFTY And it's amazing to me how much their views and mine are similar, but for TOTALLY different reasons. Just check this part:
Something similar is happening today, as state contracts for Covid tests, PPE, vaccines, and now vaccine passport technologies are parcelled out to transnational corporations (often through shady deals that reek of cronyism). Meanwhile, citizens are having their lives and livelihoods upended by “the new normal”. That the Left seems completely oblivious to this is particularly puzzling. After all, the idea that governments tend to exploit crises to further entrench the neoliberal agenda has been a staple of much recent Left-wing literature. Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, for example,have argued that under neoliberalism, crisis has become a “method of government”. More famously, in her 2007 book The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein explored the idea of “disaster capitalism”. Her central thesis is that in moments of public fear and disorientation it is easier to re-engineer societies: dramatic changes to the existing economic order, which would normally be politically impossible, are imposed in rapid-fire succession before the public has had time to understand what is happening.
There’s a similar dynamic at play today. Take, for example, the high-tech surveillance measures, digital IDs, crackdown on public demonstrations and fast-tracking of laws introduced by governments to combat the coronavirus outbreak. If recent history is anything to go by, governments will surely find a way to make many of the emergency rules permanent –just as they did with much post-9/11 anti-terrorist legislation.As Edward Snowden noted: “When we see emergency measures passed, particularly today, they tend to be sticky. The emergency tends to be expanded”. This confirms, too, the ideas on the “state of exception” posited by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, who has nonetheless been vilified by the mainstream Left for his anti-lockdown position.
They get there for entirely different reasons than I do, but they get there. You should read the rest of the column, it's worth your time.
THE SWISS JUST VOTED ON COVID PASSPORTS The the voters overwhelmingly supported the use of the covid certificates which show either vaccination, recovery from covid, or a recent negative test to be able to move freely about society. BUT THE PEOPLE VOTED ON IT. Directly. And as this includes those who have recovered it seems far more reasonable than the crap we have here.
HIT THE ROAD, JACK Dorsey that is, CEO of Twitter, is expected to step down from that role very soon. Read more here.
THAT OMICRON VARIANT LEADS TO "EXTREMELY MILD SYMPTOMS" ACCORDING THE DOC WHO DISCOVERED IT And I simply refuse to get into a lather over any of this crap anymore. Sure, news of this variant tanked the markets last week, but a lot of that was profit taking anyway. Read more about why you needn't worry about this one here.
VACCINE MANDATES WILL MAKE LIARS OUT OF SOME Like 28% of unvaccinated people who say they will lie to keep a job if vaccine mandates are a thing.
WHEN YOU SLEEP THROUGH YOUR ALARM And after watching this, I'd just have to be late
AND NOW A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE People are stealing my gig with Thomas Frey by asking OTHER futurists what could be in store for us. You can read some of the cool stuff here.
EUROPE LOOKS TO NUCLEAR TO POWER THE FUTURE And it's time we did the same here. Read about how France and the UK are EXPANDING their nuclear options, even as Germany, which has spent a fortune on "green" tech, resists. I think Germany doesn't want to admit those "green" investments aren't working.
DISNEY CENSORS A SIMPSONS EPISODE ABOUT CHINESE CENSORSHIP By removing an episode where the family goes to China and sees a plaque in Tiananmen Square that simply says, "On this site, in 1989, nothing happened." It's been removed from Season 16 on Disney+, since Disney LOVES to cater to the Chi Coms.
HAPPY CHANUKAH, MY JEWISH FRIENDS! And here's a little Adam Sandler to get you in the mood.