Weds Blogcast: Suing Denver; Fentanyl in CO; Trump & Iran; Jell-O colors
June 18, 2025
Read This
My 2001 Hit Song, ‘Superman,’ Is for the Hostages in Gaza - WSJ
(I may try to get John Ondrasik, aka Five for Fighting, on the show later this week to talk about it and if so I'll share his article again then but no need to wait to suggest you read it.)
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Just One Thing: We
Please read my Substack about the interesting use of "we" by President Trump yesterday in the context of the Israel/Iran war.
And please subscribe to my Substack...it's free and almost certainly worth more than that!
We - by Ross Kaminsky - The Ross Report
Also, worth noting what JD Vance said yesterday as he tries to simultaneously appeal to the ultra-isolationist part of the MAGA base and the part of the MAGA base that's down for anything Trump wants even if they thought he sold them on isolationism:
Look, I'm seeing this from the inside, and am admittedly biased towards our president (and my friend), but there's a lot of crazy stuff on social media, so I wanted to address some things directly on the Iran issue:
— JD Vance (@JDVance) June 17, 2025
First, POTUS has been amazingly consistent, over 10 years, that…
And this is interesting too. I don't think it should be interpreted as a jab at Gabbard but rather at either 1) not trusting the intelligence or 2) thinking that his definition of "close" (to have a nuke) is more relevant than the IC's definition or 3) wanting to stop the Iran nuke program no matter what stage it was in at the moment.
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Today's Guests
Steve Moore is one of the nation's most influential economists, an occasional advisor to President Trump, founder of the Club for Growth and member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board and, more recently, co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
We'll discuss the proposed Senate amendments to the "One Big Beautiful Bill". While they're not all great, they're mostly very strong and might even be enough to get me to vote for the bill if I were in Congress.
Senate Tax Bill: The Good... - Unleash Prosperity
I've been saying this on the show for years about the SALT deduction: Who benefits from the state and local tax deduction in the 'big, beautiful bill'? - Washington Times
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Kathie Barstnar is Exec Dir of NAIOP Colorado (a major association of commercial real estate developers). We'll discuss their lawsuit challenging the legality of Denver's insane and expensive new energy requirements that could end up costing more to retrofit a building than the building is worth. (Or least that's a claim they make.)
EDITORIAL: AG Bondi, please stop Colorado from eating itself | Editorials | gazette.com
Colorado commercial building owners refile lawsuit to quash energy regulations | News | denvergazette.com
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John Kellner is a former 18th Judicial District DA. He is a Lt Col in US Marine Corps Reserves and currently works with Dan Caplis’s law firm.
John is currently a Criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute and joins us to talk about their report, released today, on Colorado’s fentanyl issues. (Hint: improving but not as much as we'd like and still below average for the country.)
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Other Stuff
Back-to-back: Florida Panthers win Stanley Cup again, top Oilers in Game 6 - Axios Miami
Congrats to the Florida Panthers. I was rooting for Edmonton (because I'm rooting for Canada quite a bit lately, as you might understand and because I don't have any particular affection for Florida) but the Panthers were clearly the better team in the series. They absolutely deserved the win.
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Fine with me. I don't know that the dyes are harmful but I don't think that's good enough reason for millions of people to ingest them. Kraft Heinz to remove artificial colors from Jell-O and Kool-Aid, among other brands, by 2027
Kraft Heinz Plans to Remove Artificial Dyes By End of 2027 | Entrepreneur
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Wow, the last seven: Amazing Example of How America Attracts the Best and the Brightest - Unleash Prosperity
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I don't know whether the accusation against China is true but absolutely can't rule it out. I'm equally interested in the question of why the original report was withdrawn. Was it because FBI leadership thought it wasn't true? Because if it was anything else, that's a serious problem. FBI report alleges China mass produced fake U.S. driver's licenses for purpose of voting fraud - Washington Times
The one caveat would be if they thought that the fake licenses were a real law enforcement issue (and for sure China produces lots of these for sale to people under the age of 21 who want to drink alcohol) but not related to elections. As the article notes, it's unclear how just having a fake license would get around other election security measures.
After all, here's a story from 10 years ago:
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This bothers me. Though I don’t think it’s illegal, I do think it’s sleazy. Crypto, wallets, bibles: Trump's assets top $1.6 billion in latest disclosure
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Immigration stuff that I didn't get to yesterday:
Economists warn U.S. immigration decline could fuel inflation, stall growth - The Washington Post
Why Do Illegal Immigrants Have a Low Crime Rate? 12 Possible Explanations | Cato at Liberty Blog
Trump policies threaten foreign students who out-earn U.S.-born peers
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Also didn't get to this yesterday. I don't care much about the Trumps licensing their name to another "business", this time a mobile phone company. I do mind Eric Trump's claim that the phone will be built in America. That's almost certainly false.
"Trump" Mobile - by Ross Kaminsky - The Ross Report
Trump Mobile's T1 is made in China
Trump’s New ‘All-American’ Smartphone Is Made in China
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This has long been a shocking story and the coverup of the worst behavior due to fear of being called racist is one of the truly great (in a bad way) failures of government I've ever seen: U.K. Grooming Gangs Report Finds Perpetrators Disproportionately Pakistani, Undermining Official Narrative | National Review
Keir Starmer defends U-turn on grooming gangs inquiry
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Sorry (not sorry), haters, but this is not OK: Utah student detained after ICE gained secret access to Colorado deputy's Signal chat, sheriff's office says - The Colorado Sun
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There are many industries, including but not limited to farming, restaurants, hotels, construction, nursing-home care, that are reliant or dependent on immigrant (and, yes, sometimes illegal immigrant) labor. The aggressiveness of Trump's deportation efforts, going far beyond the original description as aiming to get rid of criminals, is going to cause some serious issues for the Americans who rely on these industries.
Trump immigration crackdown is hitting nursing home staffs
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On one hand, the tariff impact on health insurance prices is important and worth noting. On the other hand, the sheer magnitude of some of these proposed hikes at a time when we’re told inflation is under control is truly shocking. Something MUST change in our health insurance system.
Tariffs drive some health plans to hike premiums
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Just as I said about the Colorado legislators trying to do something similar, "I'm not surprised...and I don't blame them one bit": Bid to protect lawmakers’ data gains momentum | Semafor
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The most important domestic political dynamic right now: Trump confronts rare MAGA purity tests on Iran and immigration
My thoughts on Substack: To split MAGA or not to split MAGA - by Ross Kaminsky
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Offered without comment: Canadian Indigenous leader was 'filled with rage' before talk with Trump | AP News
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Today's Video
Thanks to listener Greg for sending this along. It's intense...a lot of math and physics jargon but still fascinating. And it's fascinating to be reminded that there are people who understand and think about this stuff every day. I wish I were smart enough.
And check out the quiz link in the comments/notes just below the video (on the YouTube page, not here on my page)