MIKE AT THE MOVIES IS TALKING AN OSCAR MOVIE And I've finally seen this one so I can participate. The film is Nightmare Alley, and I so wanted to love it. So wanted to. You can see it on HBO Max.
DANIELLE JURINSKY IS TRYING TO FIX WHAT AILS AURORA And as a new City Council member she has been stirring the pot by having the nerve to call out the problems she sees in Aurora. I talked about Mr. "Radical Candor" Juan Marcano filing a complaint against her and I've got her on the show today at 1 to discuss that and more.
JOY BEHAR WAS WORSE THAN USUAL YESTERDAY As The View tried to discuss the unfolding war in Ukraine. As Sonny Hostin seriously talked about people dying, Joy went in a different direction.
Honestly this isn't the worst thing ever, but just indicative of how narrow the world view of these people really is. Poor, poor Joy. She can't go to Italy. Which by the way, isn't in Ukraine or even near Ukraine, but Joy doesn't want to risk it.
WHY THE ACTUAL HELL ARE REPUBLICANS PRAISING PUTIN RIGHT NOW? I get it, Joe Biden bad and all, but the serious effort by some Republicans to let Putin know how much they admire and respect him is just gross. It's gross when Trump does it, it's gross when a stupid woman running for US Senate does here:
To be clear, Putin's "christian values" include murdering journalists and dissidents, engaging in cyber warfare against the US and other nations, and trying to take over a country WHICH DOES NOT WANT HIM TO TAKE THEM OVER. He is not a good person, or a genius, or admirable in any way and these Republicans sounds like freaking Neville Chamberlin trying to flatter an enemy into not being an enemy. They will regret this crap very very soon, if not already. Don't even get me started on Tucker Carlson. I honestly find this sort of hedge disgusting to be honest. I am disappointed that politics have now shifted the sands of what is acceptable behavior for conservatives. At least this seems to be limited to the wing of the party that only knows what to think if Trump tells them first. The Washington Post writes about how Trump is standing alone in his praise of Putin. I get that Republicans are supposed to use this to bludgeon Biden as incompetent, but you can do that without propping up Putin. It's really not that hard.
THE BIDEN ADMIN BACKTRACKS ON WHAT SANCTIONS WERE SUPPOSED TO DO And none other than the Washington Post called them out in this tweet:
OUR GOVERNOR IS IMPOSING HIS OWN SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA In what is nothing but a symbolic move to shore up his foreign policy credentials. In his list of sanctions, which are mostly about not doing business with Russian companies, there is no mention of telling the Russian oligarchs who own a crapload of real estate in Aspen that they are not welcome. That would truly be something.
WHY HAVEN'T WE KICKED RUSSIA OUT OF SWIFT? SWIFT is the online messaging system that connects banks worldwide, giving them instant connectivity to make transactions easier. We managed to get Iran kicked out of SWIFT in 2012 and it was crippling to their economy. So why aren't we moving to kick Russia out of SWIFT? It will make it infinitely harder for Germany to buy their oil and gas. I'm telling you, we don't really want to stop him in Ukraine.
DENVER'S MEDIAN MORTGAGE PAYMENTS ARE HIGHER THAN RENT NOW Which means that buying a home is not longer the "better deal" for everyone. Our median rents are insane, and now our media mortgage payments are even higher. Read more here. It's a great time to own rental property if you do.
A GAY OLYMPIC ATHLETE SPEAKS OUT ABOUT CHINA And he did so in China after he had a horrible fall in unsafe conditions during the Games. He was blunt about China after his last run when he had a multi story fall into packed snow. He not only criticized China for their “human rights atrocities,” cyber-snooping of athletes, lack of transparency with COVID-19 testing and “poor stance” on gay rights. He also, indirectly, called out athletes complicit in trying “to appeal to the masses.” He made it back okay, so obviously China wasn't paying attention.
500 ARRESTED IN THE NON-TSUMANI CRIME WAVE AT UNION STATION And 42 of those were arrested Wednesday, many of them for felonies. The Democrats get SUPER mad when you point out that crime has skyrocketed so don't call it a crime tsunami, please. But 500 arrests at Union Station since the beginning of the year would indicate some sort of significant issue, no? By the way, I'm all for this as part of an overall strategy to deal with the humanitarian crisis we are living with.
PLEASE SHARE THIS OP-ED ABOUT FENTANYL WITH YOUR KIDS To reiterate to them that they have no way of knowing what is IN that pill someone tells them is oxycontin or xanax. The only way to be sure it to not take anything you didn't get from a pharmacy. Please spread the word.
WE NEED TO DO AWAY WITH CAMPAIGN LIMITS TO DEAL WITH SELF FUNDERS Our current Governor spent $23 MILLION of his own money to get elected. Current campaign finance limits for Governor in Colorado are $1250 per person, so a candidate who isn't loaded like Polis is is at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to fundraising. It's damn near impossible to raise that kind of money with these limits. We either need to limit how much money one can spend or loan to one's campaign, which I think is a bad idea, or recognize that these limits are way, way too low. Now some Republican candidates are suing over the limits in federal court. With today's reporting and online databases, there should be no limit to what people can donate. I'd prefer this to Super PAC spending to be honest.
DOGS SHOW GRIEF WHEN THEIR FURRY FRIENDS DIE And anyone who has had two pets at the same time knows this. If one dies, the other is SAD for a while. Read more here.
RIP TO THE ORIGINAL HOT LIPS HOULIHAN And of course I'm talking about Sally Kellerman who played the role in the movie version of MASH. She passed away from dementia at the age of 84.
DENY, DENY, DENY IS THIS TODDLER MO
MAYBE WE SHOULD SEND THIS TO PUTIN It's a short video about conflict resolution.
BIDEN ANNOUNCES HE WILL UNFOLLOW PUTIN ON TWITTER Of course ONLY the Babylon Bee reports on this.
YOUR PHONE CAN AUTOMATICALLY NOTIFY EMERGENCY CONTACTS IF YOU'RE IN TROUBLE And this story has how you do this with each type of phone or platform you may have. Very cool and I just set mine up.
DISNEY MAY BE PRICING ITSELF OUT OF THE MARKET Because it's now cheaper to fly to Paris and stay at Disney Paris for a week than to go to Disneyland in California. I love Disney. Not like some Disneyphiles who only want to vacation there, but growing up in Florida we went to Disney ALL the time when I was a kid, but it wasn't a million dollars a ticket then. Now we will likely go one more time when our grandsons are a bit older but with what they are charging now to stand in hellishly long lines it's just not worth it. Sorry Mickey.