7/11/5 Blog: The Wine Yogi On Summer Cocktails, And The Next Mandy Trip!

HOW ABOUT A NICE FANCY EUROPEAN COCKTAIL? The Wine Yogi Kristal Alfonso is in to talk about her recent European vacation with looks a LOT like parts of the next Mandy Connell Adventure! More on that in a minute but check out her travel and cocktail blog here!

GO ON VACATION WITH ME! The next Mandy Connell Adventure takes us back to some of MY FAVORITE places for a Rhein River adventure that is luxury all the way! We start in Zurich and Lucerne, Switzerland, which you know I love, before hopping onto the beautiful Emerald Dawn river cruise ship to sail up the river, stopping at so many super cool destinations, before ending up in Amsterdam, another favorite city of mine! Find out all the details here, but we've already booked quite a few cabins from former travelers so don't sleep on this. And we are NOT going in the summer when it is so bloody hot. It's October 8th-17th of NEXT year so you have plenty of time to make payments to go with us. I am SUPER excited about this one because I've already been to some of these places and can't wait to show them to Chuck and Q!

RICH GUGGENHEIM IS TRYING TO SAVE KIDS And he's continuing his work against gender affirming care, which is why he shared a recent panel at the FTC. He's on today to talk about that and more.

IF YOU MISSED BARB KIRKMEYER ON THE SHOW YESTERDAY You should listen to the interview here. I really want her to run for Governor. She's just so good on the important topics in Colorado. And she's super nice to boot.

DENVER'S CITY COUNCIL ISN'T FEELING THE VIBRANCY The Mayor, who has demonstrated an excellent ability to blow through taxpayer money, is going to ask Denver voters to approve yet ANOTHER bond issue this fall. Called the Vibrant Denver program (because they already used Elevate Denver and RISE Denver in previous money grabs), a group of people have been working on making a list of items that the bond would fund. To say the Denver City Council does not like this list is an understatement. I checked out the list and it's all stuff that should be done in regular budget items. There is very little that would be or innovative and very little that could be described as "vibrant" in any way. My question is, why isn't all this maintenance paid for in the regular budget? I know the answer is because they waste a bunch of money on dumb stuff, but shouldn't we ask the Mayor? I'll do that when he comes on my show again. Ha.

DENVER HAS LOST ITS SHINE At least if you're using the numbers of people moving into the metro as any indication. And it's not just Denver, it's the entire state. From the Denver Gazette:

In 2015, roughly 44,000 people moved to metro Denver. A decade later, that number has dropped to about 13,000. The nearly 70% decrease in net migration between 2015 and 2025 holds ramifications for the region's economy and offers a worrying insight into its ability to compete with peers elsewhere in the country, according to the Common Sense Institute, which produced the study. 

All of those folks moving in meant super high property values, which is one of the reasons we are no longer attractive. Coupled with the insane cost of living, it's no wonder people are looking elsewhere. Lest you think this is a "it's happening everywhere" phenoma, read this:

Only metro Denver saw a decline when stacked against six peer metro areas from elsewhere in the country. Salt Lake City, for example, saw an increase of 1,800% — from negative 632 in 2014 to 10,747 in 2024. The Phoenix, Arizona region, a direct competitor to metro Denver, experienced a 25% growth during the same period, when 70,000 people moved to the area.  

This is the result of the policies passed in Colorado that have made everything more expensive. The Democrats in this state think that our beautiful state is SO PRETTY that they can continue to destroy the economy and no one will care. Apparently they do.

THE WEED YOU'RE BUYING MAY NOT BE LABELED PROPERLY A new study of a whole bunch of weed and weed products found out that almost half of all flower products sold are mislabeled. A vast majority of them overstate their THC content, while a handful understated it. It's much harder to get consistency in a plant than in a concentrate, which seemed to be labeled properly for the most part. Do weed smokers care? I'm not sure they do.

COLORADO DEMOCRATS ARE BLAMING TRUMP FOR THEIR OVERSPENDING Predictably. What's also predictable is this quote from CBS4's story:

Democratic state Sen. Judy Amabile, a member of the Legislature's Joint Budget Committee, says Democrats have no intention of passing a law that would result in tips continuing to be taxed by the state.

"I haven't heard about anybody wanting to do that," she said. "That has never come up in any of the policy decisions."

But she says the tax breaks come with a cost.

"We're going to have to look at K-12, transportation, infrastructure, roads and bridges. All of that will be impacted by these massive budget cuts," she said.

They spend almost nothing on transportation now. But of course that is where the Democrats want to cut, rather than undoing some of the massive government growth they have created. Of course.

FIRE SEASON IS ON With several fires burning around the state. Black Canyon of the Gunnison is closed because of fire, and homes have burned in Buena Vista. None appear to be human caused but be careful out there, folks.

AURORA PD ISN'T HAVING ANY OF THESE SO-CALLED TAKEOVERS The trend of a bunch of teenagers showing up and wreaking havoc on businesses is in full swing, but the Aurora PD is warning that if kids show up this weekend at the Town Center and cause problems, they will be arrested. This after a 14 year old girl ended up in the hospital after a recent takeover. I'm glad the PD is being proactive in this situation.

DANIELLE JURINSKY SAYS A DA MUST GO And she is working on a recall for 18th Judicial District Attorney Amy Padden. Why? From the Denver Gazette:

In late May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained the teenager, who was driving 90 mph in an Aurora neighborhood when he hit and killed Weaver last July. Since he's a minor, he's never been named publicly by the police or prosecutors. The teenager was initially charged with vehicular homicide.  At the time, then-District Attorney John Kellner promised to pursue the maximum two-year sentence in youth corrections. After the November election, the office went to Padden. The teen was then offered two years probation, 100 hours of community service and a requirement to attend school and not break any laws. 

Why would she do this? Because that is "in line" with her beliefs about the Juvenile Justice system. What beliefs are those? That because kids brains don't develop fully until 25 the juvenile justice system is simply to get them on the right track, not actually punish them. The victim in this case is 24 year old Kaitlyn Weaver, whose brain will never fully develop because she was killed by this kid she treated with kids gloves. She needs to go.

AAAAND HERE ARE THE CLASS ACTION SUITS A New Hampshire judges has issued a nationwide injunction against Trump's birthright citizenship executive order and this one might stick. The judge also certified the case as a class-action lawsuit, which would seem to be exempt from the Supreme Court's ruling earlier that a federal judge can only issue an injunction for a specific plaintiff and not nationwide. We'll see what the Supreme Court has to say about this one.

NO WHITES ALLOWED AT THIS POSTPARTUM TRAINING And once again the bigotry of the left is on full display. In an effort to train mental health providers about post partum issues there is a training scheduled. That's good. But that training specifically EXCLUDES white providers. Why? Because they are white apparently. Read more here.

IT'S A DIFFERENT KIND OF SUPERMAN So says director James Gunn. Watch below or click here.

Our pal Christian Toto saw it. He didn't love it, read his review here.

JAMES BRENNAN JUST CAN'T QUIT LYING And MSNBC is there to aid and abet his lying, as he is a paid contributor to their network. Matt Taibbi wrote a great story dismantling the latest garbage being peddling on MSNBC by James Brennan and he brought receipts. This as we also find out that the CIA analysts who helped create the bogus Intelligence report that undergirded the Russian collusion investigation are STILL employed by the CIA. Nice. Really nice.

WHEN DEFUND THE POLICE MEETS REALITY Los Angeles has a City Council full of Social Justice Warriors hellbent on defunding the police to shift those funds into unproven preventive strategies that are doing nothing yet to curb crime. The crime keeps happening, but there are fewer cops to deal with it, and when that happens overtime kicks in. How much overtime? How about $265.5 MILLION in overtime alone? Check this out:

In 2020, a total of 14,902 LAPD employees (both sworn officers and civilian staff) made a total of $1.71 billion. Four years later, the department shrank to 12,617 employees but cost the city $1.73 billion – an increase due at least in part to the boost in costly overtime pay to cover for the shortage of sworn officers. 

It sucks when idiotic idealism meets reality but here we are.

POUR SOME SUGAR ON...STEM CELLS? This is cool. People with certain liver disease have been shown to been helped by stem cell therapies, but the issue is the stem cells don't want to stick onto the liver where they are needed. So scientists tried something new. They coated them with a sticky polysaccharide which helps them stick to the liver. Once they stick, they turn into health liver cells that worked just fine. Read more here.

THE WASHINGTON POST IS ASKING PEOPLE TO LEAVE But only if they don't agree with the moves being made by the paper to regain the trust of people like me that was lost long ago when they became an arm of the Democrat party. This email was sent to employees:

Hmmm. Interesting. We'll see what happens next.

JOHN KERRY SAYS TRUMP IS RIGHT I know, don't have a heart attack. It was in an interview with the BBC and it was about border security. My favorite part is when he said this:

“The first thing any President should say—or anybody in public life—is without a border protected, you don’t have a nation.” – John Kerry

Hmmm, that doesn't seem to be what the Democrat party has been saying. Read more here. He's not wrong, by the way. At least not this time.

ABOUT THOSE CHEMTRAILS EPA Administrator is doing what government should always do, which is lean in on 100% transparency. He decided to take on concerns about chemtrails (nonsense) and geoengineering (somewhat valid) after the floods in Texas unleashed a bunch of conspiracy theories. Watch this.

CONRAD BLACK IS HIGH ON THE UNITED STATES And writing this column in a EU outlet to show HOW high he is on the US and the chance for our economic revival and how the EU should follow suit.

NEED A PASSPORT PHOTO? Get one for free in Northglenn if you bring in a canned good. Details here.

BEST OF TRIPLE D IN DENVER And this should give you a bunch of new places to try.