Just One Thing: Realtor commission collusion gets crushed in court (but appeal is certain)
Federal jury verdict on broker fees rocks real estate industry (msn.com)
Reminder: Vote NO on Prop HH
As we get closer to official “election day” in Colorado, I’d like to make one more plea to everyone reading this (or hearing me) today: Please vote no on Prop HH and encourage others to do so as well. Prop HH will likely turn out to be a significant net tax hike on Coloradans. More importantly, it’s the product of deception and scheming and constant lying to the public by Governor Polis and almost every Democrat in the State Legislature. Even if it would save you money, though it probably won’t, please don’t reward lying and cheating and treating you like you’re a patsy. Let’s beat this thing and then get those money-grubbing Democrats to pass actual property tax relief without simultaneously gutting TABOR. If they want to end TABOR, let them make their case and not sneak it by us.
While you're at it, vote no on Prop II: Why Proposition II matters so much for tobacco and nicotine - Axios Denver
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Today's Guests
Steve Altschuler is a conservative candidate for the at-large seat on the Longmont City Council. I'm giving him just 4 minutes to make his best case.
Steve Altschuler for Longmont City Council At Large (steve4longmont.com)
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Tom Kemp is a policy advisor and author of Containing Big Tech: How to Protect Our Civil Rights, Economy, and Democracy
We'll discuss the dangers posed by Big Tech, including privacy and security threats; the problematic ways these companies use AI; and the stifling of competition and entrepreneurship due to Big Tech's dominant market position.
Here's the order: Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence | The White House
The politics of Biden’s vast new AI order - POLITICO
What Biden’s New Executive Order Could Mean For The Future Of AI (forbes.com)
Biden's AI Executive Order Is a Good Start But What About the Military? - Bloomberg
This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI | MIT Technology Review
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Other Stuff
Boy there's a lot that I had on the blog yesterday but didn't get to. I won't identify all of them as such but you may have seen some of these before if you checked out the blog yesterday.
Domestically I think there's no more important current issue than the incredible explosion of anti-Semitism on college campuses and especially at "elite" colleges. To be clear, I don't think this just emerged fully formed in the minds of students and professors in the past 3 weeks. I think it's been festering, simmering, growing in the dark corners, for decades. It's not going to be easy to destroy but it must be destroyed.
Read this: Frantz Fanon, Oracle of Decolonization | The Free Press (thefp.com)
Here's a Cornell professor, who has since apologized (but I don't accept it because the dude grabbed a microphone and told us who he really is), and is now not teaching for the rest of the semester:
Here's the note I sent that guy:
Mr Rickford,
Obviously your comments about exhilaration were reprehensible. I suspect that you might be sincere in your apology…but I say that with low confidence.
If you actually strive to uphold human dignity, peace, and justice, you need to take a long, hard look at yourself and ask if that’s what you’ve been doing…and I don’t mean with the comments at issue in the last few days.
Most people who claim to support “the Palestinians” are simply anti-Semites who don’t want to admit it (maybe to others and maybe to themselves.) I suspect the latter describes you.
Anyone who claims that Israel is oppressing anyone is either ignorant or a liar. Israel is the ONLY pluralistic and tolerant nation in the Middle East. People of all creeds, colors, religions, and sexual orientations live there in harmony (most of the time) and there is no more peace-seeking nation anywhere. I mean, Arabs live and vote in Israel. There are lots of black citizens of Israel. It has a famously good Gay Pride Parade. Can you imagine Jews being allowed to vote by the Palestinians, or blacks living under Hamas rule, or a gay person being anything other than tortured and killed by them? Israel is THE model of tolerance. All Israel has ever asked is that its neighbors acknowledge its right to exist. After all, the alternative is condoning a second Holocaust.
In your fervor to appear as a champion of the downtrodden (and you’re far from alone in this morally bankrupt charade), you support people who dance and cheer when a terrorist murders a civilian.
The ONLY people repressing Palestinians are Palestinians.
I suggest you study a little. Start with this: Haviv Rettig Gur: Israel at War - Danger Close with Jack Carr | Podcast on Spotify
I often say that Americans should be more forgiving, more willing to accept apologies. But I find myself struggling to accept yours because I think you grabbed a microphone and told us the truth about who you are, and, frankly, about who everyone whose “scholarship” is similar to yours. You profit from injecting amoral anti-Semitic and anti-civilization rot into the minds of America’s future leaders. And for that, you should pay a significant professional price at least until such time as you admit not just that you were wrong to be exhilarated by the beheading of children but also that you were gravely wrong about Israel.
You have much to be ashamed of and much to apologize for. I hope you are man enough to recognize that and “do the work” to become a decent human being.
Ross in Denver
Did you hear about these unbelievable threats, also at Cornell? This guy is now under arrest and faces 5 years in prison. Cornell student charged with making threats to Jewish students on campus, feds say - syracuse.com
At Harvard, this is better late than never, but not better enough. The University president still needs to go but does anyone have the cojones to fire a black woman?
Harvard Unveils Advisory Board to ‘Disrupt And Dismantle’ Antisemitism on Campus | National Review
Or this at Yale? Yale professor urged to resign for ‘vile’ comments about Hamas attacks on Israel: ‘Settlers are not civilians’ | Fox News
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Interesting data. I wonder a couple of things: What's the mix between GOP donors who were anti-Trump vs pro-Trump in the past? And how many people who respond in polls that they support RFK, or even give money to him, will end up voting for him when it seems clear at election time that RFK can only be a spoiler, not the victor?
New donors and Republicans are powering RFK Jr.’s 2024 campaign - POLITICO
Meanwhile, Cornell West is aiming for the Palestinian/Nazi vote, marching to end the nation of Israel and cheering along to calls for a "solution"...everybody knows that that means.
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The right answer from Ms. Blunt would have been "Don't you have anything better to do?" Emily Blunt Apologizes for Calling Waitress 'Enormous' 11 Years Ago (tmz.com)
‘Sorry’ for Being So Blunt - WSJ
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I'd like to see this place: Museum of Censored Art Opens in Barcelona (msn.com)
(I had a couple of interested related videos in yesterday's blogcast.)
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She's got a smart new campaign manager helping her with the pivot. Outraised and embattled, Lauren Boebert heads back to Colorado with a revamped campaign strategy | FOX31 Denver (kdvr.com)
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Weaponizing "Great Stuff"? The 'SPONGE bomb' Israel are hoping to use to disable Hamas tunnels: New gadget expands and hardens, filling underground passageways | Daily Mail Online
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Gross: Here’s what happens you blow out candles on a cake — and it’s disgusting (nypost.com)
(You may think about this every time you see someone blow out birthday candles for the rest of your life.)
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A few years back a friend of mine told me he was thinking of retiring in/to Ecuador. He should be very glad that he didn't as it's turned from one of the safest places in South America to one of the most dangerous: Ecuador Was a Retirement Paradise for Americans. Then the Drug Gangs Arrived. - WSJ
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Are you lonely?
Nearly 10% of Us Have No Close Friends (newser.com)
Almost a Quarter of the World Feels Lonely (gallup.com)
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Today's Halloween Picture and Video
In which Russell Wilson goes as "Coach Prime" for Halloween
And, to celebrate the Chiefs' loss to the Broncos, a little mangling of a Taylor Swift song