HEIDI GANAHL WANTS TO BE YOUR GOVERNOR And she's in today at 1 to talk about Polis' energy policy that helps Russia, or the Gazette's Crime panel she just sat in on, and how the Legislature has made crime worse by trying to molly coddle criminals, and a bit about education. We're covering a lot. Find out more about Heidi by clicking here.
THE STATE OF THE UNION WAS...UH...A SPEECH Last night I made it through as much of the incessant clapping as I could to watch our President slur his way through the State of the Union address. I watched the first part about Ukraine, which was fine but nothing special, and then the part where he adopted the Trump platform on manufacturing and Buy American. He began to lose me when he then spent a bunch of time talking about policies that make manufacturing hopelessly expensive if you do it with people, and then he totally lost me when he started pointing the audience and shouting, "YOU get a car, and YOU get a car" so I dropped off. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I think the speech perfectly explained the lack of consistency and complete lack of a moral compass to his policies. This column does a beautiful job explaining the worst bits.
HERE IS A LIST OF THE ABSURD LIES BIDEN TOLD LAST NIGHT And there were some whoppers. Read them all here.
AND WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH NANCY PELOSI LAST NIGHT? I tweeted out this about Nancy Pelosi last night:
Nancy must have been told not to do that weird chewing thing with her mouth and it looks like she it battling to control her own face.
And I'm not the only one who noticed her weird behavior. The Daily Mail has more.
EVEN DEMOCRATS DIDN'T LOVE THE SOTU According to CNN.
ABOUT LAUREN BOEBERT'S OUTBURST I did not have a high opinion of Lauren Boebert until the second half of the speech she gave at the Steamboat Springs Freedom Conference this past year. The first half she spent yelling talking points and names at the audience trying to score cheap political points. The second half she talked about the policy issues she has been working on for her constituents and Colorado and I was very impressed with her obvious mastery of the topics she was discussing. I really like 2nd Half Boebert and I really don't like 1st Half Boebert and it was 1st Half Boebert who shouted out during the State of the Union about the 13 dead soldiers in Afghanistan on Biden's watch. She's not wrong in thinking it was shameful that those soldiers didn't make the speech, but the shouting out thing at the SOTU has already been done and now it just seems to be an attention getting mechanism and if so, mission accomplished. I wish she would stop trying to be the AOC of the Right and just keep getting stuff done for her constituents. I think she could do a great job for her district but she's too much of a distraction currently. That's where I stand on the issue.
I'M NOT THE FIRST TO THINK I CAN MAKE THE CURLING TEAM This is a great article about a bunch of college guys who thought the same thing until they got bored and quit. But it has filled me with hope!
CHERRY CREEK SCHOOLS IS BEING SUED IN FEDERAL COURT By a former principal who says there is an entrenched culture of misogyny and sexual harassment and discrimination in the district. I've gotten email from parents and a teacher who say she has a case. This is the article from the Denver Gazette you should read. Subscribe to them already!
STATE REPUBLICANS SUE OVER OPEN PRIMARIES And this is the way to handle this. At the state meeting last fall the GOP decided to participate in the primaries this year, but to sue over open primaries going forward. This lawsuit against Secretary of State Jena Griswold is one to watch for sure.
YES PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES ARE STILL BRIBING DOCTORS And one doctor was just convicted of accepting $340,000 in bribes to over prescribe a Fentanyl spray to his patients. How were the bribes paid?
The bribes Kesten took were disguised as payments for delivering speeches to his medical peers; however, he often delivered no programs at all, according to the release.
As part of his plea agreement, Kesten admitted that he began a quid pro quo relationship with Insys and said the payments affected his prescribing decisions.
During the nearly three-year period, Kesten became one of the pharmaceutical companies top revenue-generating prescribers. Prescriptions for Subsys typically cost thousands of dollars per month, and Medicare and Medicaid paid millions of dollars to cover the prescriptions written by Kesten.
He's doing jail time and I'm glad. I'd love to know how many of his patients ended up hopelessly addicted to this spray? How many people did he kill with this? I'd really like to know.
WHY THE HELL CAN'T WE PASS A BILL TO STOP THE TIME CHANGE MADNESS??? Recent polling has shown a whopping 70% of Americans want to stop the switching back and forth between Daylight Saving Time and Standard time. NO ONE LIKES THE CHANGE, but we can't agree on WHICH time to stick with so we can't get anything done. There was a bill in Colorado (again) to just stay on Standard Time year round like they do in Arizona. It's dying in the Kill Committee and I'm mad.
UKRAINIANS DON'T HAVE DECLARE RUSSIAN TANKS AS INCOME I love this story. The National Agency for the Protection against Corruption (NAPC) in Ukraine has declared there is no need to report captured Russian hardware as income. You can just keep it. From the press release from the NAPC:
"Speaking by the letter of the law, combat trophies are not subject to reflection in the declaration for the following reasons: they were acquired not as a result of the conclusion of any type of transaction, but in connection with the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation on February 24, 2022 against the independent and sovereign Ukrainian state as a continuation the insidious attack of the Russian Federation on Ukraine launched in 2014. Thanks to the courage and victory of the defenders of the Ukrainian state, enemy military equipment usually comes to you already destroyed and disabled, which makes it impossible to evaluate it in accordance with the law On the valuation of property, property rights and professional valuation activities in Ukraine. Therefore, it is also impossible to find out how much such property costs,” the NACP said.
Putin had no clue who he was invading.
LARRY REED WRITES ABOUT UKRAINIAN FORTITUDE IN THE FACE OF INVADERS HERE Putin has underestimated the will of these people to live free. Read it here.
THE BBC IS DOING THE BEST WAR COVERAGE RIGHT NOW If you want the best overall news coverage here it is. They have an active timeline that is constantly updated with pretty much everything.
AL QAEDA'S MAGAZINE HAS OUTLINE THE FAILURES OF THE BIDEN ADMIN In its latest issue. Here is an overview of what's in the article, but they took special note of the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. And yes, Al Qaeda has a magazine.
THE RUBLE HAS DROPPED EVEN MORE And is down today in trading to 114.29 to the dollar at last check. This is going to hurt Russian citizens BAD and my hope that they will rise up to tell Putin no more is still there, although Moscow is tamping down dissent in the streets and even arresting little children to do it.
TOM IZZO HAS SOME THOUGHTS ON DOING AWAY WITH THE HANDSHAKES AT GAMES And he's so, so right.
UKRAINE NEEDED INTERNET AND ELON MUSK DELIVERED If you missed this story initially it went like this. As Russian bombs dropped on Ukraine and knocked out infrastructure Ukraine's digital chief went to Twitter to ask Elon Musk directly for help. They wanted to use his Starlink Satellite internet access and today the hardware arrived to make that all possible. For free, courtesy of Elon Musk. Our billionaires are better than Russia's billionaires.
WHAT DOES CNN NEED TO DO TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY AGAIN? This column lays out a myriad of ways but the short version is fire everyone save a few quality journalists.
LET'S TALK ABOUT BIDEN'S NOMINEE TO THE SUPREME COURT As he brought up Ketanji Brown Jackson last night it's time to check this dame out. This is a good column that demonstrates her limitations and areas of concern when it comes to how she would rule. The biggest red flag for me is her work on a commission to make crime easier because punishing criminals is racist. As she's not going to change the balance of power on the court, I really don't care if she's confirmed, but I'd like to have her answer these questions during confirmation to get a feel for what we're in for.
SAM ELIOTT DOESN'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT HIM And I bet he doesn't give a rat's ass that his comments about Jane Campion's new cowboy movie have caused controversy. For what it's worth, he's not wrong. Read the column here.
DO YOU PAY OFF YOUR CREDIT CARDS EVERY MONTH? If not you are not alone. Just 13% of Americans have a zero dollar balance each month. Most carry over a small amount, but some carry over $10,000 month in credit card debt. I used to be one of those who carried over credit card debt until I made myself LOOK AT THE INTEREST CHARGES every single month. You are setting money on fire if you are paying the interest rates most credit cards charge. Pay them off and then only charge WHAT YOU CAN PAY OFF from that point forward. It's hard at first, but it gets way, way easier.
BAD HEALTH IN ADOLESCENTS MEANS BAD OUTCOMES LATER I've very glad to see obesity in adolescence listed in this list of health conditions that lead to faster aging in people, along with smoking and diagnosed psychological disorders. Fat kids have a really hard time healthwise and we need to make that a priority. Kids who smoke are likely not in great socioeconomic situations as recent polling shows rich kids don't smoke.
BIDEN HAS GIVEN UP COHERENT SPEAKING FOR LENT At least according to our friends at the Babylon Bee.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL DOESN'T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT THE FANS As they are cancelling games while they fight over the details of deals that will make them all richer and the fans left out.
AND NOW SOME BABY CUDDLES Because why not.
PEYTON'S STILL GOT IT and he showed off at a Nuggets game. I hope Rocky's friends never let him forget that drop.