Mon Blogcast: You call that a deal?; Frisbees and flatulence; Dems < GOP

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Just One Thing: You call THAT a good deal?

The following is about this news: Trump trade deal with EU sets a 15% tariff on most goods | AP News

And this: Companies Welcome EU-U.S. Trade Deal as Least-Bad Outcome - WSJ

Here's the beginning of my Substack article...click on the link HERE or below to read the whole thing and please do subscribe!

Donald Trump long ago adopted my mom’s maxim, “Why just do it when you can overdo it?”

You can find analogs with almost any issue that Trump takes an interest in but today’s topic is trade.

Trump identifies a legitimate issue when he says that it’s not fair to American producers that our market is more open to imports than many other major markets are to American goods.

And before going further let me be fair to Trump: it might well be that threatening to impose tariffs (even though it’s probably illegal for him to impose them in most situations, and I hope a court rules that way) may be one of the few effective levers he has to get Europe, Japan, and others to either lower tariffs or non-tariff barriers (such as “safety” regulations designed specifically to keep American products out of a country.)

Read the rest here: With "Deals" Like That...

One More Thing: Cold turkey for my addiction (no, not THAT kind of addiction)

I've been playing a game on my iPhone called Wordscapes. You're presented with 6 or 7 letters in a random order and you need to find a bunch of words made from those letters. I have found it rather addictive and I recently passed level 3000. When I mentioned it on the show a month or two ago, I heard from listeners who are well into the five-figure range and one said he was over 60,000. Anyway, when I was at about 2600 I thought to myself "I'm spending too much time on this so I'll set a goal of getting to level 3000...and then I'm going to delete the game."

If a level takes me an average of 45 seconds, and that's probably a little low but not insanely low, that means I've spent something approaching 40 hours playing this game. Now, I think it's fine to have some mind-stimulating thing to do on an airplane or when in the dentist's waiting room but I find myself playing too often, such as when watching TV and even, very very stupidly, a couple of times while I was driving to work.

For me the big question is, "What else could I have done with those hours?" I mean, if I were watching TV already or standing in line somewhere the answer is probably "not much" but for many of those hours I could have been taking a walk (or run) or reading a book or chatting with my wife or a kid or even my dog or who knows what else. From time to time you hear a little snippet of me on KOA in which I say, "Time is valuable. You shouldn't kill time." and I mean it. So today, on the air, and perhaps with help from one of my KOA colleagues, I'm going to delete the game and stop wasting so much time.

I hope that others will follow me in this effort, not necessarily with this particular game but with anything that is serving the same (mostly negative) function in your own life, whether it's a different game or TikTok or whatever your own particular minor addiction is.

Tom Lehrer RIP

Tom Lehrer, song satirist, dies at 97 | AP News

Tom Lehrer dies at 97 | The Jerusalem Post

I have a 10-inch vinyl album of Tom Lehrer music from the 1950s...fantastic. Like this: 1953 Tom Lehrer "Songs By Tom Lehrer" 33 1/3 RPM 10" vinyl Record album LP | eBay

The first song below is on that album

A whole concert

Today's Guests

Roger Pielke Jr is a Professor Emeritus at CU Boulder and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute where he focuses on the intersection of science/technology and government policy. He has a fabulous Substack called The Honest Broker and in a recent note he discussed the Trump administration's challenge to the EPA "endangerment finding" about carbon dioxide.

Frisbees and Flatulence - by Roger Pielke Jr.

KOA producer A-Rod will join me for a few minutes from Broncos training camp.

Other Stuff

This is kinda nuts: Colorado 911 call centers fielding unfounded calls from iPhones

Even the Washington Post likes it (at least a little). This is a HUGE area for policy and one where I'm confident that Trump will be MUCH better than Biden or any other regulation-loving Democrat, and probably better than most other Republicans, actually: Opinion | Trump’s AI action plan is a good start — but only a start - The Washington Post

I won't talk about this much on the show but it's worth a read: A grieving Lumineer sings for his brother – and his health | Arts & Entertainment | denvergazette.com.

Same with this one: What I learned from my first pack burro race, Colorado's only indigenous sport

I watched the South Park episode yesterday. It's incisive and funny and truly BRUTAL to Trump. But I think there's a message there that Team Trump should really think about rather than (stupidly) reacting by saying that South Park is a fourth-tier show that isn't funny, which is what they said last week and which everyone knows isn't true.

Trump's 'South Park' Problem - POLITICO

‘South Park’ Knows How to Mock Donald Trump - by Eli Lake

This was probably rather scary even though it likely wasn't very dangerous once the plane had stopped. By the way, note all the people come out with luggage even though every preflight briefing says to leave it in the event of an emergency evacuation:

A lot of good info here about the likely special session and understanding the provisions of the Big Beautiful Bill that will have major impacts on the state budget: Preparations for special session in Colorado underway | News | coloradopolitics.com

Last week, President Trump issued an executive order about homelessness. Given the scale of the problem in Colorado generally and Denver specifically, it's reasonable to wonder what it might mean for the state. I also note that this whole conversation reminds me, yet again, of how many things the federal government is involved with that it shouldn't be.

Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets – The White House

Trump’s sweeping order on homelessness could have major impacts in Denver

Meanwhile, Trump has still lost control over the Epstein mess but not every Democrat thinks they should talk about it as much as leadership wants them to.

‘The rule was going down’: Inside the House GOP’s Epstein meltdown - POLITICO

The Epstein Files Timeline Raises Real Questions for Trump - POLITICO

Not every Democrat wants to talk about Jeffrey Epstein: "Such bulls**t"

That's a BIG rock. In fact, it's a large boulder the size of a large boulder. (See the 2nd video for an explanation)

Good guys jump in to stop a lunatic. Fortunately, nobody died in the stabbing attacks. The "good guy with a gun" is Derrick Perry. He, along with at least one other of the people who intervened to stop the assault, served in the US Marines

In a way, the existence of humor like Tom Lehrer's puts a little extra emphasis on this important data point:

The administration is trying to wave around shiny objects to get the attention off of Epstein. A few key points about the new noise around the Obama administration's weaponization of the intelligence community against Trump both during the election and afterwards:

There's almost nothing new in what Gabbard released
BUT what we already knew was already very bad as far as how far the Obama team and the Clinton campaign went, including breaking at least a few rules, maybe laws, definitely ethics, and lying to Congress, to try to torpedo the Trump campaign, and then the first Trump administration, with bogus accusations of Russian collusion
There's likely very little truly criminal activity and probably nothing more than lying to Congress or abusing the FISA system...again, all of which we knew already
There may be a little bit new in suggestions about Obama's level of involvement
Probably 100% of even remotely plausible criminal charges against anybody are barred by the statute of limitations (5 years for most federal crimes) unless there is a charge that involves some sort of ongoing conspiracy that continued well into 2020, and that's unlikely.
Because of the overbroad Supreme Court ruling about presidential immunity, there is no conceivable interaction between Obama and his intelligence and law-enforcement chiefs that could be the subject of prosecution
MAGA folks who are tweeting things like "I've been waiting years to see some of these people (i.e. Brennan, Clapper, Comey) in handcuffs" will be sorely disappointed. I doubt there will even be a single criminal charge against anybody...and that's not because nobody should have been charged but rather because it's too late. And even if it weren't too late, it's likely that trials would not have resulted in guilty sentences.
None of this is to say that many Obama officials didn't break all kinds of ethical rules. They definitely did. Former CIA head John Brennan strikes me as especially villainous. But there's a chasm between saying "he's a bad guy" and saying "he can be convicted of a crime." It would have been a challenge even if charges had been filed on time; now it's impossible.

Russiagate, Revisited: Gabbard Presents Nothing New about Obama Involvement | National Review

More from a couple of experts here, though their opinions are similar to mine: (18) Obamagate: How bad is it? - by Paul Mauro - The Ops Desk

And Jonathan Turley: The rise and fall of John Brennan

Brave new AI world: LeBron James' Lawyers Send Cease-and-Desist to AI Company Making Pregnant Videos of Him

I'm not sure whether I'm surprised the number of chargers installed is that low or that high, but wait until you read about the insane conditions the Biden administration put on the funding: Electric Vehicles: Billions in Federal Aid Yield About 400 EV Chargers — at $19M Apiece | National Review

Yep, we know: "Hidden" home ownership costs Coloradans thousands - Axios Denver

Not a surprise:

Someone has eaten artist Maurizio Cattelan’s $6 million banana – again | CNN

And also not a surprise:

'Need this level of support': Donations to NPR stations explode after Trump guts funding - Alternet.org

Donations to NPR and PBS Stations Surge After Funding Cuts - The New York Times