WILL JOE O'DEA BE THE GOP CANDIDATE FOR SENATE? I don't know but you can hear from him today at 1. He's an interesting dude and I have some questions about his own political arc as he's supported Dems in the past, but I want to hear more about how he wants to bring his business acumen to the Senate. Find out more about him and support his campaign by clicking here.
MIKE ROSEN IS IN TO TALK MOVIES We've got some Oscar movies I think plus Reacher to fully review. Mike is probably over his jet lag by now so he may be coherent today.
AURORA POLICE HAVE LOST A CRAP TON OF OFFICERS IN THE LAST TWO YEARS One of my police friends sent me this snippet of a newsletter that just went out to officers:
The max they can run through the Academy is 100 per year, they are running 30% turnover and they are averaging 30 to 40 cops in the Academy per year instead of 100. Is this what the Chief thinks is effective leadership? I'd love to hear from her.
THE DEMOCRATS INTERNAL POLLING IS SUPER, EXTREMELY UGLY... FOR DEMS I have seen some internal polling that is not flattering for a candidate or party but those polls NEVER see the light of day so it must be SUPER BAD for this polling to be leaked like this. Why would it leak? Because whomever did it is trying to get leadership to pay attention to it is my guess. The polling shows Democrats are way underwater with swing voters on pretty much every issue that is important to people right now. And underwater BADLY. From the SFGate:
The poll found that that 57% of voters in competitive congressional districts agree with the statement, "Democrats in Congress have taken things too far in their pandemic response," and 66% of self-defined "swing" voters in competitive districts agree with that statement. White and Hispanic voters in competitive districts were equally as likely to agree (59%), while Black voters (42%) and Asian voters (46%) disagreed with the statement. The poll also did not define what "taken things too far" means.
The DCCC found that critiques of COVID-19 restrictions were slightly less potent than other issues. In swing districts, 64% of voters agreed with the statement that "Democrats in Congress support defunding the police and taking more cops off of the street." The internal poll found that 80% of self-defined swing voters in competitive districts agreed with the same statement. Politico previously reported on the DCCC warning about the effectiveness of what they refer to as conservative "culture war attacks."
It literally gets worse from there, with voters believing Dems have created the border crisis, Dems are spending money out of control, and that they are teaching little children all white people are racist. I have to say, the Democrats really believe that people just don't understand what they've done. This poll shows that people most certainly understand what they've done.
MARSHALL FIRE VICTIMS ARE NOT GETTING THE MONEY WE ALL DONATED At least not yet, which raises the question, why not? The Community Foundation of Boulder County, to which I and many others donated, has put out some stingy ass amounts that people "qualify" for. From Page Two of CompleteColorado.com:
According to the Boulder County website, there are several categories of help available from the foundation:
If you were mandated to evacuate your home during the Marshall Fire, you may qualify for a $125 payment.
If your home was damaged or destroyed and is on the assessment list of damaged and destroyed homes, you may qualify for a $2,500 payment for a household with one to two people or a $5,000 payment for a household with three or more people.
If you are a renter or homeowner displaced due to smoke or ash contamination, you may qualify for a $2,500 payment for a household with one to two people or a $5,000 payment for a household with three or more people.
If your livelihood was disrupted by the Marshall Fire (you were or are out of work and lost wages), you may qualify for a $1,200 payment (including home businesses).
If you lost “tools of the trade” (business materials, supplies, equipment, or tools needed to do your job – excluding computers and computer equipment), you may qualify for a $500 payment.
If you have a small local business that was damaged or destroyed by the Marshall Fire, you may qualify for a $2,500 payment (including home businesses).
If your home is uninhabitable due to smoke, ash, or other hazardous conditions, you may qualify for a payment — amounts are still being determined. If you have already received a payment for a damaged or destroyed home, you are not eligible for this category.
Mind you, the Foundation took in 30 MILLION DOLLARS just from fire donations, which is way more than it ever took in before. That's more than $30,000 PER HOME and the Foundation is sitting on the money creating committees while people need the most help. I will never donate to this organization again and this needs to be WIDELY publicized until they tell us where the money is and why it's not being given directly to fire victims. Like NOW.
AND NOW, A MAMA AND BABY SLOTH SNUGGLE VERY SLOWLY Because it's Friday so why not.
DIA IS NOT BEING RUN WELL AND HASN'T FOR SOME TIME This should be obvious by the disastrously over budget and behind schedule remodel that is going on now and for the foreseeable future. Now we know from a recent audit that we are wasting 500k a year with some firm while giving out "incentives" to certain concessionaires and not doing even basic due diligence in the maintenance of contracts. If this were a private business everyone should be fired. I'm sure no one will be fired. Former CEO Kim Day was allowed to retire without every answering any questions about the millions and millions of dollars squandered under her watch. How did the airport authority respond to these allegations of mismanagement? By saying, "Nuh-uh.". We'll see if anyone is held to account THIS TIME.
HIGH SCHOOL CLASSES IN COLORADO SPRINGS ARE OUT TODAY AS TEACHERS PROTEST BEING ASKED TO WORK AS MUCH AS OTHER TEACHERS I mean that's what this is about. Colorado Springs Academy District 12 is making some changes to their scheduling to bring their teachers in line with how much teaching OTHER teachers do in other districts now with a similar schedule. The change would raise the time needed teaching from 5.5 blocks in two days to 6 blocks in two days (you can read the story to see what the block schedules are like) which brings them in line with other districts which use a similar format for classes. The teachers don't like this so they called in sick and shut down high schools today. I hope they realize how little sympathy these sick out engender. Seriously. No one thinks they are a good idea and they certainly haven't worked so far, have they?
THIS NEW AFFORDABILITY PLAN FOR APARTMENTS WILL JACK UP RENT FOR PRETTY MUCH EVERYONE And this column does an excellent job of explaining how it will actually lead to LESS housing development and higher rents for at least 90% of the population that isn't on some sort of housing subsidy list. Rent control has NEVER made rents go down, it ALWAYS makes things more expensive for everyone else. It's great news if you own rental property in Denver already though, as rents will rise faster because of it.
SCIENCE SAYS OSCAR PRESENTERS CAN'T SPREAD COVID BUT NOMINEES CAN Which is surely why there are two categories of covid requirements for the Oscars. Read this claptrap:
As the New York Times first reported, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences determined on Thursday that all nominees and invited guests must show proof of vaccination and test negative at least twice via PCR testing. Those performing and presenting at the awards ceremony, on the other hand, will not need to show proof of vaccination, but will be tested rigorously.
This marks a clarification of the Academy’s COVID-19 policy, as it was reported on Feb. 9 that the Oscars would not require attendees to provide proof of vaccination. According to a source close to the situation, the decision to not require proof of vaccination for presenters and performers falls under the COVID-19 return-to-work agreement between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and unions. The agreement gives production companies the option to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for Zone A — the production’s cast and the crew working closest with the actors — but it is not a requirement.
This makes perfect Hollywood sense.
NO ONE DEFENDS INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM LIKE THE US And one need only look north to Canada to see the difference. This is a great column on that.
THE NEW ELVIS MOVIE LOOKS REALLY, REALLY GOOD And you should watch the trailer here.
THIRD TIMES THE CHARM FOR THIS CALIFORNIA CRIMINAL As this guy was arrested THREE TIMES in one day. After the third time they actually kept him in jail.
THIS MOM IS TRYING TO PROTECT GIRLS AND WOMEN'S SPORTS And good for her, although I'm guessing the death threats have already started from those in the Trans Mafia. The Trans Mafia are those for whom no science will ever change their opinion that a boy or man should simply be able to announce he is a she and then can compete in a year after getting all the advantages of a male body through puberty. She has had enough and has written this great column.
I HAD NO CLUE WHAT DRILL MUSIC WAS BUT NOW I'M NOT A FAN I've talked about my own discomfort about the casual use of the n-word and the calling women b*tches and hoes before, but I've never seen a case against that given more eloquently than by this column by Juan Williams. Now if you know Juan from Fox News, you know he's not some crazy right winger. He is a black moderate lefty and he's been talking about the damaging nature of this sort of music for some time. He talks about "drill" music, which apparently is specifically written about violence, mostly perpetrated by young black men on other black men. This is kind of horrifying and has made me think about my ability to listen to such music with no fear of it impacting my life in reality. Not so much for these rappers who create beefs with other rappers who then try to kill them. This is stupid. Juan Williams maintains that in elevating violence and the black male caricature as some sort of ""money-moving, gold chain-wearing, illiteracy-spouting, penis-pulling, sullen, combative buffoons." is a part of America's racial problem and I think he's on to something.
THE CHI COMS HAVE REDONE THE BIBLE And no, this isn't from the Babylon Bee. The Chinese Communists have "retouched" some parts of the Christian Bible in order to make it more palatable to the totalitarians that run the country. Read more here.
THE BABYLON BEE HAS SUGGESTIONS FOR MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL And there are pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Read the whole list here.
I'M MORE EXCITED ABOUT WHATABURGER THAN IN N OUT BURGER There, I said it. For me Whataburger harkens back to my college days and frankly, I'm interested to see what sober Whataburger tastes like. It's opening next week in the Springs and yes, I'm making the trip.
YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD TO START TO EXERCISE I love this article about older folks and how much exercise changes their lives. It's never too late to pick up a good habit!
AND NOW, TITANIC WITH A CAT
REAL LIFE PETER GRIFFIN ON WORKING OUT