Hi from Winter Park (or Fraser, to be precise)
Mandy and I are broadcasting Friday from the $2.4 million home that is the Grand Prize for this year's Mighty Millions Raffle. So as I do my blog scribbling on Thursday evening I'm using a laptop in a friend's condo. Not conducive to all the stuff that goes into a long blog note so bear with me today.
I do hope you'll join me in supporting the tremendous Colorado Institution of Children's Hospital Colorado by buying tickets in the raffle. If you buy by midnight tonight you'll be in the running for the Early Bird Prize which is also awesome.
I note that the high-value prizes come with bonus cash to cover the taxes. I further note that there's another lottery out there that claims they give away a house but if you check the fine print it says they need to sell some minimum number of tickets and I don't think they've ever sold that many and I don't think they've ever given away the house. Mighty Millions Raffle gives away a house every year without fail.
2025 Mighty Millions Raffle - Win Prizes, Support Children’s Hospital Colorado
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Trump pressures -- or abandons -- Ukraine
This is a remarkable admission of failure, though I trust that Trump supporters will instead portray it as the latest application of pressure "on both sides". The problem is that this, like everything else Trump has done so far, is only pressuring the victim.
Trump campaigned on "ending the war in 24 hours". As far as I can tell, he's barely tried and he's only tried in ridiculous impossible ways. This is not to say that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy never made any mistakes. He surely did. But he's also fighting for the survival of his country after the Russian invasion.
I understand that many, maybe most, Americans, don't want every problem to be our problem. But there are a lot of reasons why the US should care and should help Ukraine. I support the idea of getting some eventual repayment for at least a significant percentage of our costs, such as by access to Ukrainian minerals; a deal on that is sensible. But Trump asked for an impossible deal. He's treating it like a real estate deal...he treats everything like that, actually. But it isn't that.
If Trump abandons peace efforts AND refuses to provide Ukraine with arms, Ukraine will likely suffer a lot more, even if Europe tries to help. Putin is evil. Trump likes him. It does seem about that simple at this point. It's shameful but that's not even the main point. Nations have interests, not friends. Nations can seem like friends when our interests are almost always aligned and when there are significant historical and cultural commonalities. By abandoning Ukraine, Trump further alienates our allies AND emboldens China...which is probably the single most important secondary effect of the war. Why would China not try to take Taiwan while Trump is president?
Going into the election, I said my two biggest concerns with Trump were: 1) that he'd do something wildly aggressive and harmful with tariffs, and 2) that his man-crush on some of the world's worst dictators would cause him to make very bad foreign policy decisions.
Both of these have already come true.
Trump is also doing a lot of good things. Is he worth it? Time will tell.
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Today's Guests
Listener Louise joins for the next in my new occasional (almost weekly) series of interviews of listeners and friends who are doing something interesting and/or inspiring in retirement.
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Brad Taylor is a retired US Army Special Forces Lt Colonel and a best-selling author of thriller novels featuring Pike Logan. This is Brad's19th Pike Logan novel, with a total of almost 4 million copies sold. This time, Logan has to save the world from a diabolical (and, these days, perhaps not as unimaginable as it might have been) Chinese plot to attack the US militarily...after attacking the US virally. (And I don't mean with a viral video.)
His latest, Into the Gray Zone, is released next Tuesday but you can and should order now!
New York Times bestselling author of 19 thrillers
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Other Stuff
I distracted myself
Squirrel!!!!!
a lot yesterday so a bunch of things in today's blog were in yesterday's and I'll try to get to them during today's show.
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Whenever there's a mass shooting I feel as if I need to at least acknowledge it even if I don't talk about it much, or at all. There are currently two reported deaths due to the mass shooting at Florida State University yesterday, the shooter being a student and the victims being two random people who were at the school but not students.
I saw an interesting interview on News Nation this morning. In a way it was a perfect representation of 2025: A young man who was near the shooting knew the shooter. He talked about being somewhat afraid, as anyone would be. When asked who he contacted to let people know he was safe, he said his family group chat and his boyfriend. OK, so a gay college student... Then he says he knows the shooter from prior membership at another college in a political student group and the shooter was asked to leave because of "white supremacist and alt-right rhetoric." So, a liberal gay college student, right? Nope. The next thing out of his mouth was, "I'm conservative. I like guns. I carry concealed every day."
And of course the thing people are talking about beyond the 2 deaths and 6 injuries is that the shooter is the son of an 18-year sheriff's deputy there. Apparently the shooter stole his mom's former service weapon. And apparently the shooter was involved in one of those police-supporting youth groups. I can't imagine how the mom feels, and how shocked her colleagues who know the shooter must feel.
FSU shooting: 2 killed and 6 wounded; suspect in custody | AP News
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Wow: Man acquitted in Denver shooting | 9news.com
Man acquitted of attempted murder connected to Nuggets NBA Championship shooting
Another guy pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 35 years.
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First story may require subscription. Second, from the past 24 hours, is an interesting development in this apparently transformative category of drugs called GLP-1.
Patients Cut Off From Cheaper Obesity Drugs as FDA Halts Sales of Copycats - The New York Times
Weight loss pill: Eli Lilly orforglipron could be Ozempic alternative
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RFK Jr is at least a little crazy and more than a little dangerous.
RFK Jr. Calls Autism ‘Preventable,’ Drawing Ire From Researchers - The New York Times
RFK Jr. lays out new studies on autism, shuts down 'better diagnoses' as a cause - ABC News
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A powerful ruling from the 4th Circuit. It's not long and I encourage you to read the whole thing. But especially page 6.
Gov.uscourts.ca4.178400.8.0.pdf
HOWEVER: As yesterday's guest, law professor Josh Blackman notes, there is some erroneous mythology around what Eisenhower and courts really did on the issue of school reintegration following Brown vs Board of Education: About The "Incipient Crisis" In Little Rock
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This is fun to think about even if I'm skeptical: Astronomers Detect a Signature of Life on a Distant Planet - The New York Times (may require subscription)
Space telescope spots possible signs of life on alien planet. Some are skeptical : NPR
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Better than nothing, but only a little better: Colorado legislature passes bill punting to local governments when it comes to how much servers are paid - The Colorado Sun
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Oh, and this:
This is so much fun and so richly deserved, even though I dislike lawfare. This might actually be legit.
Trump admin refers NY AG Letitia James for possible prosecution over alleged fraud
or:
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Really the big loser in all this bipartisan lawfare is our system of justice
Trump administration refers NY AG Tish James for prosecution
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I'm not the target audience here but one of my kids likes this kind of music. I don't get it though maybe, through the foul language about stuff that's usually some mix of juvenile and criminal, maybe there's some sort of talent involved. Hopefully, for him, he's more successful than he was in the NFL.
Chiefs 2-time Super Bowl champion retires from NFL in favor of career change
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I appreciate when folks do good deeds at whatever scale they can: A Denver ’vigilante’ hides cash-filled Easter eggs for people experiencing homelessness
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Today's Video
Nope. Absolutely not.