TGIF Blogcast: Memorial Day honors; Trump v Harvard; Golden Dome

Just One Thing: Honoring our fallen service members going into Memorial Day weekend

As we head into Memorial Day weekend, I'd like to ask you to send me an email or, during the show, a text, if you'd like me to mention a member of our military who died in the service of our nation.

Click here to email me

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One More Thing: Don't buy the "white genocide" nonsense

Want to make one thing very clear here: South Africa is a violent and dangerous place. Not everywhere but in too much of the country. LOTS of people get killed. Some of them are white. There is not a genocide nor anything even vaguely in that direction. But it's a whole country that in too many places feels like the worst days of Detroit, mixed with a few peaceful havens. As cities go, Cape Town is fairly safe, at least during the day, and it's one of my very favorite cities in the world. The "wine country" near there is incredible. Various game parks, of which Kruger is the most famous, are also bucket-list destinations, and you have a MUCH lower chance of getting hurt by a wild animal while on safari than you do just walking around Johannesburg.

They do have a real problem in that the vast majority of the population is black and a significant majority of the land is owned by whites. People are complaining about the expropriation law, and I get it, but 1) as far as I know they haven't used it yet, and 2) at least in theory it requires the land owner to be paid fair market value (which I understand doesn't make that land owner feel better but isn't much different from our eminent domain laws.)

Remember that white people suppressed the black majority ruthlessly under apartheid for decades. It's not insane to say that now that apartheid is gone they MUST find a way for the large majority of the population to be able to farm (they use "farmer" interchangeably with someone we'd call a "rancher") and to grow wealth.

They have an unsustainable situation. Fixing it will not be pretty and will not be easy. But it also shouldn't be lawless. The country feels largely lawless in so many places. Until they fix that, nothing good will happen. When they do fix it they still have the land problem. I've never been a person who cares about wealth inequality when wealth is acquired by work and ingenuity, as in the US. But in RSA it was acquired by brutally repressing the majority and it's going to have to change. I hope it's done in the least harmful way possible.

But there simply is no genocide.

p.s. It's been quite a few years, but I've been to South Africa three times, once during apartheid and twice after apartheid. I would gladly go back, but you do have to be careful.

p.p.s. I got to ride an ostrich in a town called Oudtshoorn, which bills itself as the "Ostrich Capital of the World" Oudtshoorn - Oudtshoorn Tourism

Speaking of lies about genocide, etc, some straight talk by David Harsanyi

Welcome to the Intifada, America

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A quick Friday morning note on the stock market:

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Today's Guests

Josh Hartman is a former satellite program manager with the US Air Force, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space and Intelligence, and until recently he ran a company that builds the kinds of sensors that Golden Dome will likely use. Currently he’s a private equity investor in the Defense and Intelligence Community Industrial Base. In fact, he and I are both investors in one particular company and, by way of full disclosure, Josh is a good friend who came on our listener trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos (even though he doesn't live in Colorado.)

President Trump Makes an Announcement with the Secretary of Defense – The White House

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CAPTAIN DAVID A. BADER is the brother of Colorado Fallen Hero Daniel Bader. Army SSG Daniel A. Bader, was killed on November 2, 2003. He was in a Chinook helicopter that was shot down near Fallujah, Iraq. Sixteen soldiers lost their lives in that crash. Dan was in the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, ADA Battery, 1st Squadron and deployed out of Ft. Carson, CO. He was on his way home for leave when his chopper was shot down. He is survived by his wife and daughter, his brother, 1LT (now retired Captain) David A. Bader of the South Carolina National Guard. and his parents.

Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Bader| Military Times

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Other Stuff

Trump isn't playin' around: Trump Administration Revokes Harvard’s Foreign Student Program | National Review

Harvard blocked by DHS from enrolling international students

But, right on cue: Federal judge blocks Trump administration from revoking international students' legal status

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Maybe not as good as it could have been but I'll take it. Anything that pushes back against Denver's regulatory insanity: Running a food truck in Denver (and the rest of Colorado) is about to get simpler - The Colorado Sun

Food Truck Operations | Colorado General Assembly

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An idea for your weekend: Old cookie factory is Denver's newest (and free!) art museum - Axios Denver

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It's about time: U.S. to Stop Putting Pennies Into Circulation by Early 2026 - WSJ

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See the video below re Google's new Veo 3, but this first story is exactly what lots of folks have been concerned about: Anthropic's Claude 4 Opus schemed and deceived in safety testing

Google DeepMind's Veo 3 floods internet with realistic videos

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Guessing this won’t surprise you: Denver-based Frontier Airlines had most complaints of U.S. airlines

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Remember, the major threat in this country is from the lunatic left not the lunatic right. (There is a lunatic right, of course, and they can surely be dangerous, but these days the left seems to me to be the much bigger threat.) Israeli Embassy Staffers Gunned Down in D.C. Were Young, Ascendant and In Love - WSJ

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Love it: Kim Jong Un’s New Warship Capsizes at Launch Due to ‘Absolute Carelessness’ - WSJ

Kim Jong Un’s fury after watching North Korea’s new navy destroyer crippled in botched launch | CNN

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Offered without comment: Thousands of chickens survive USPS shipment snafu | AP News

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I probably won't cover this on the show today because I talked about it yesterday as the news was breaking, but I want to reiterate that I think spending $70 million on land + improvements on a gamble that a stadium for a professional women's soccer team will bring great economic rewards to Denver is way too risky. I also wouldn't go ahead with an $800 million bond offering. At least not nearly that amount.

Denver braces for layoffs and service cuts amid budget crisis - Axios Denver

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My wife would still prefer it to Denver: From top 5 to 406? Colorado Springs takes shocking nosedive in "Best Places to Live" ranking | KRDO

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It’s kinda funny, or would be if people weren’t losing their businesses over it, that people still claim that higher minimum wages don’t cause job losses. Denver’s learning this lesson too. 

DC Mayor Bowser seeks repeal of Initiative 82 tipped wage law - Axios Washington D.C.

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The most damning episode of "journalism" failure in American history

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A bit of sanity for my industry: Court Finds FCC Has No Authority to Require EEO Form 395-B – And Narrows Scope of the Public Interest Standard | Broadcast Law Blog

The court ruling: 24-60219-CV0.pdf

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Why will it take six years? Target mosquito parasites with drugs to cut malaria, study says

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Today's Video: The future has arrived

This video was made with AI. It's shockingly realistic and, as of fairly recently and with very high quality in the Google Veo 3 AI, the characters can talk...believably.

One wonders how Hollywood, Bollywood, etc will negotiate the use of this technology, especially for bit parts and extras. And what about for advertisements? Yes, here in the US the actors and screenwriters recently went on strike to leverage contract negotiations and did get contracts that limit the US of AI but those contracts won't last forever, and then what...?