Maybe the most important story of the decade
Opinion | The Startling Evidence on Learning Loss Is In - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
-
Just One Thing: Army wants its anti-vax soldiers back
Multiple former members of the US Army have posted to social media a letter that they received from the Army. These are former soldiers, officers and enlisted, who were involuntarily separated from the Army for refusing to get a COVID vaccine. The Army seems to be grudgingly admitting their error, not least because they’re come up massively short of their recruiting goals for a few years in a row now and seem to be hoping that some of these mistreated soldiers will nevertheless return. The letter says that they can request a correction of their military records which would allow return to service. I won’t try to put myself in these soldiers’ heads. I’ll just say I can see some wanting to return to a profession that means a lot to them, and some feeling too betrayed to even consider it.
A new (libertarian) president of Argentina
Polls had this thing a dead heat but voters in Argentina handed the eclectic populist-libertarian Javier Milei a resounding victory in the runoff election to determine the presidency of Argentina. Argentina has long been an economic basket-case with spiraling inflation and incompetent leftists running the economy into the ground. The people have clearly had enough and even though some of Milei's proposals sound radical to many, the voters are willing to try almost anything different because what was going on before was not working, and hadn't worked for decades.
Javier Milei, a Self-Described Anarcho-Capitalist, Is Elected President of Argentina - WSJ
Milei Vows Swift Measures to Pull Argentina Out of Crisis (msn.com) but it's NOT going to be easy: Milei opens a new era: What comes next in Argentina policy-making | Buenos Aires Times (batimes.com.ar)
An unusual character for sure: The World's Most Famous Dogs This Week All Belong to Javier Milei (dailymaverick.co.za)
--------
Democrats in CO Legislature betray taxpayers
We'll get into the details with Ben Murrey on the show but a special session of the legislature that was supposed to moderately lessen the massive increase in property taxes facing most Colorado homeowners looks like it will end instead with the theft of TABOR refunds and an increase in the welfare state.
I cannot overstate how much I despise the socialists who are in charge of our state and how much I despise the voters who put them there. The politicians are irredeemable but the voters will have a chance next year to make a change. I don't think they will, though, because the Colorado Republican Party (which doesn't mean all or even most Republican candidates) is a ridiculous MAGA clown-car. I cannot overstate just how much the influx of Californians over the past 10-20 years has all but destroyed this state.
Read this to understand just how much taxpayer money the Democrats are stealing to buy votes from lower-income voters: Colorado Democrats use special session to steer tax relief toward working poor - The Colorado Sun
And the left is bragging about their mugging Colorado taxpayers.
-
Today's Guests
ADM James Stavridis served as the NATO Supreme Allied Commander. He's a multiple-time best-selling author of both fiction and non-fiction.
The admiral's most recent opinion piece for Bloomberg: Israel-Hamas Latest: Send US Navy's Hospital Ships to Gaza - Bloomberg
--------
Ben Murrey is Director of the Fiscal Policy Center at the Independence Institute. We'll discuss the utter disaster that is the legislative special session. It was supposed to bring property tax relief. Instead, it's bringing socialism and an increase in the welfare state.
Fiscal - Independence Institute (i2i.org)
--------
Rabbi Raphael Leban is executive director of The Jewish Experience in Denver. We'll discuss the rabbinical view of the legalization of prostitution and follow up on my conversation with the Rabbi a couple of weeks ago about my strong feelings of anger at the anti-Semitism I see in America today.
--------
Mike Kopp is a former state senator and current president of Colorado Concern which will be trying to get a ballot measure into the 2024 election to limit future increases in property taxes.
-
Other Stuff
President Biden wrote (or at least approved the writing by staffers of) an op-ed in the Washington Post roughly equating the moral imperative for helping Israel to that of helping Ukraine. I appreciate Biden on this though I note it will not help him politically. Here's the link to the piece as posted at the White House web site (so that you can read it without needing a Washington Post subscription): ICYMI: Joe Biden: The U.S. won’t back down from the challenge of Putin and Hamas | The White House
--------
--------
--------
Of course this is true. Only idiots and anti-Semites every doubted it: IDF reveals: How intel led Israel to Hamas's Shifa terror tunnel (msn.com)
By the way, ALWAYS assume staff at every hospital, school, and any other institution in Gaza will lie about the presence of Hamas on (or under) their property if Hamas is there because they know that if they tell the truth they'll be killed and their families will be killed. There's not even a purpose to asking a staffer at al Shifa hospital the question unless perhaps Israel gets someone secretly into private questioning and even then it's probably pointless.
--------
Not surprising that businesses that charge "junk fees" would push back as they represent massive sources of income. Here's my take: As long as the cost is mostly transparent to purchasers, the government has no role in regulating it. The only way it's potentially reasonable for regulation is if they charges are hidden and, for most or all customers, unavoidable. For example, hotel "resort fees" that everyone must pay even if he/she uses no hotel services other than the room and which are not disclosed in the displayed price of a stay should be considered as fraud, in my opinion.
Otherwise, just because a charge is annoying doesn't mean there's a role for government in disallowing it.
U.S. companies fight Biden’s efforts to crack down on junk fees - The Washington Post
--------
Trump is calling this a win, but it's a Pyrrhic victory at best: Colorado judge rules Trump can be on ballot, but says he ‘engaged’ in insurrection (msn.com)
--------
One of the more insane business stories I've seen in quite a long time:
Sam Altman’s Counter-Rebellion Leaves OpenAI Leadership Hanging in the Balance (msn.com)
Seems like there was very much a "conflict of visions" between the board and Altman: Inside Sam Altman’s Shock Ouster From OpenAI | TIME
UPDATE: In Monday morning Tweet, Microsoft CEO announces that they've hired Sam Altman and Greg Brockman....this is a massive earthquake in the AI industry.
The new CEO of OpenAI, Emmett Shear (who co-founded Twitch) seems quite credible and has stated that he's in favor of a slowdown in AI development to make sure that the resulting product is safe for society.
There's a reason we almost never travel over Thanksgiving: What to expect with holiday travel in Colorado - Axios Denver
-
Today's Videos
Dumb but kinda fun
Gaza war updates