7/10/25 Blog: Barb Kirkmeyer Joins To Talk Budgets and Special Session

SENATOR BARB KIRKMEYER KNOWS COLORADO'S BUDGET AND MORE And she joins me today at 1pm for a chat about budget shortfalls and the very possible special session that Governor Polis is going to call soon. We'll get the details from the best person to give them, as she's been on the Appropriations and Joint Budget Committees in the last few years. This should be good.

KYLE CLARK SHELLACKS DOUGCO COMMISSIONERS I can't even believe they are not apologizing and moving on after George Teal said that the Chinese Communist Party was meddling in Douglas County politics. Kyle Clark rightfully lambasted this here.

Kyle's coverage is spot on. Teal said something so dumb that it should be a no brainer to just say "I was wrong" and apologize, but Teal's ego is far too big to allow any introspection. I laughed out loud when Abe said he had Asian friends, although they are probably only beautiful ones. What a clown show.

ABOUT THAT NO TAX ON OVERTIME If you are a worker excited for the tax break you just got from the federal government, I've got bad news. The State of Colorado is going to tax you MORE because of it. This editorial lays out a little noticed provision in a big bill passed this year:

Yet, Colorado’s Legislature and Gov. Jared Polis decided to gut-punch Colorado workers, instead — by essentially taxing their hard-earned overtime wages. That provision was buried in an obscure, wide-ranging bill innocuously titled, “Tax Expenditure Adjustment,” which lawmakers passed this spring. Polis signed it into law in May.

The state’s overtime tax is intended to offset federal legislation that just passed Congress and was signed by the president, allowing joint-filing workers to deduct up to $25,000 in overtime earnings from their federal income taxes. The same legislation also lets workers deduct up to $25,000 a year in tips earned from waiting tables, styling hair and other tip-dependent trades.

Good news though, Advance Colorado is already working on a ballot initiative to fix that.

We will chat with Barb about this too. She was the first person I saw that sounded the alarm on this one.

A BRIT NOTICES WHAT FREEDOM DOES FOR PEOPLE I saw this yesterday and had to share. Take note and heed the warning.

THAT TIME GROK WENT FULL NEO NAZI CAN TEACH US ABOUT AI'S LIMITATIONS If you are not a denizen of X you may not have heard about Grok (X's AI bot) going full Neo Nazi and praising Adolph Hitler. It was in response to a prompt asking it to NOT be politically correct and the bot went all Heil Hitler and people freaked out. But it's a good lesson about what AI currently is, and that is a mirror. Read this bit from NotTheBee.com:

It's a mirror - a twitching, mutated simulacrum, and all it can do is reflect our own depravity back to us. It's a computer learning from billions of humans all around the world, all endlessly sinning with their hearts, minds, tongues, and keyboards. Garbage in, garbage out.

This is because AI can't actually observe the world; it can only read and regurgitate our observations about the world.

How does it determine which observations are true? Popular consensus? If so, it will almost always be wrong. It needs a different North Star, something spiritual, and it is fundamentally incapable of that. Anyone looking to AI as a panacea of truth and virtue is looking in the wrong place. They're looking at themselves. They're staring into a black, sinful void. Empty souls disappearing into a machine. Narcissus, hypnotized by his own reflection.

Yesterday's events remind us that AI will only ever be a tool, not a source. For wisdom, the only legitimate source must be something transcendent, objective, outside ourselves. If you know anything about me, you know where I'm going with this. Many of us have humanity's single source of divine truth and virtue in our hands, or perhaps collecting dust on our shelves. It's the only source that has withstood all testing and attacks over time. It's a Sunday school answer, but the only correct one.

I"m actually comforted by this but also disturbed. As AI becomes more powerful and capable of creating its own ideas, what guides it? What is its moral compass? These are things that need to be addressed and soon.

PAUL MCCARTNEY IS COMING TO COORS FIELD! I am a little too excited about this show, I'll see you guys there in October!

THE SALVATION ARMY KNEW DOORS WERE A DANGER As an attorney for one of the other residents (how does a homeless person even have an attorney??) wrote a letter to the Salvation Army about sliding doors that had been improperly secured and the lack of railings being  "a phenomenal risk of catastrophe." He was right. Read more here but it's hard to see how some attorney won't be suing the Salvation Army and the City of Denver over this. I would sue.

BIDEN'S DOCTOR IS IN A HORRIBLE POSITION As the House Republicans investigate the liberal use of the autopen during Biden's administration they are digging deep into his health during his time in office. They subpoenaed his doctor to testify. His doctor invoked the 5th Amendment, which is used to protect someone from incriminating themselves, which I find weird but I get it. He's bound by doctor-patient confidentiality, which is a really big thing too. I don't expect him to give much up, but Biden's staff has a lot to answer for and they will be testifying too. That being said, I think we've realized how easy it is to lie to Congress and get away with it so why tell the truth?

YOUR GOOD NEWS STORY OF THE DAY A "prolific" meth dealer just got 40 years in prison. That's it, that's the good news. I didn't know until today that HALF of our overdose deaths in Colorado are from meth. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE GARBAGE JOB FORMER AURORA PD CHIEF VANESSA WILSON DID This column does a deep dive on the character assassination of former Aurora PD officer John Haubert. He was the officer involved in the arrest of a man named Kyle Vinson. The body cam footage that was released was pretty brutal, but columnist Michael Hancock lays out all the evidence that was IGNORED and it's significant. "Chief" Wilson, a DEI hire if there ever was one, was far too willing to throw Haubert under the bus so she could cry and paint herself as the most sympathetic cop in the world, even if all of it was garbage. This column is infuriating because all of this has changed Haubert's life forever and based on the actual evidence he didn't deserve it at all.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD DROPS MEDICAID PATIENTS In Colorado because of the new law signed by Congress barring federal funds for Planned Parenthood. The Medicaid cuts don't even START until 2028 so I think this is a political move by Planned Parenthood. I'm fine with that. Planned Parenthood found an idiot judge who issued a Temporary Injunction on the measure which is the dumbest ruling I've seen since Ketanji Jackson's last dissent. There is no Constitutional right to federal funds.

HOW MUCH DEBT DO YOU HAVE? Holy cow, the people in this video are living in a land of delusion and need Dave Ramsey stat.

WHEN DO THE PROVISIONS OF THE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL GO INTO EFFECT? This is a really good list of when things take effect, check it here.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES ARE NOT READY FOR ROAD TRIPS This is a great column about one man's journey to circumvent the UK in an Electric VW Bus. Spoiler alert: he didn't.

TRUST THE SCIENCE! OH NO, NOT THAT SCIENCE! This is a great column about how the New York Times has gotten the vapors because the WRONG kind of scientists are being hired by the Department of Energy. These scientists you see, are skeptical that we are to blame for a changing climate. BLASPHEMY! Read it here.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU WASH YOUR SHEETS? I gave the wrong link to this yesterday and just found it again. Here you go, prepare to be grossed out.

COULD THERE BE PEACE BETWEEN SYRIA AND ISRAEL? The short answer is yes...or no. Read this for more.

THIS MAY BE TOO PRICEY FOR EVEN JAMES BOND Denver has a bar offering a $2,500 martini. It comes with gold leaf and jewelry but I will still pass.

THE EXCESSIVE INFLUENCER SHOWER ROUTINES ARE JUST THAT Excessive. We've all been showering for all these years just fine without this nonsense. I didn't even know this was a thing until today. My "shower routine" is a whopping ten minutes and includes shampoo, conditioner and soap. Look at me, I'm an influencer!

HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO TALK WITHOUT THEM REALIZING IT This is very interesting.

NOW AI IS MAKING KEYBOARDS And this stuff is so, so cool. Watch below or click here.

THIS WOULD BE AN ER TRIP FOR ME But my younger self would have loved it. Watch below or click here.

CHUCK E CHEESE IS COMING FOR ADULTS And I can hardly wait to see how many fights happen in these joints. Watch below or click here.

A LAZY RIVER MAY BE JUST WHAT THE ROCKIES NEED

COMEDIAN CHRIS ROBINSON SAYS HE'S OUT Of the Biz that is. He says he's quitting comedy to focus on what he calls his "true calling" while not giving any details as to what that might be. I'm not buying it.

AROD ASKED AI ABOUT THE BRONCOS And didn't get much out of her that we didn't know.