9/8/25 Blog: An Ugly Win Is A Win, And Let's Talk About Section 8

LATE ADDITION: this is the story on Howard Stern Christian Toto was commenting on, I mistakenly thought he had written it! Find it here. Christian joins me at 2:30 to chat about it.

AN UGLY WIN STILL COUNTS And yesterday's Broncos game was UGLY. I'm kind of glad though. We played a team with a brand new quarterback that no one expected to win and their defense exposed some serious issues with our offense. Luckily our defense is stifling and we got the win but this should be an eye opener to those Broncos fans who are already mentally buying tickets to the Super Bowl. This is a long season.

SECTION 8 PAYS HOW MUCH? I think we can all agree that helping struggling people be able to afford a home to live in so they don't end up on the street is a noble cause, hence Section 8 housing vouchers. But this story is crazy to me. As the federal government is proposing time limits on how long someone can use Section 8 housing vouchers (which I agree with) we find out that the program here in Colorado pays up to $3,879 for a four bedroom home! That is a crap ton of money. Read this from the Center Square:

In 80924, which includes Wolf Ranch, there are 28 homes with four or more bedrooms for rent, ranging from $2,099 per month to $4,250 per month, all but three of which are below the $3,879 per month limit. The median rent is $3,250 per month. One $3,250 example is a five bedroom, four bathroom, 3,790 square foot home including a home theater, bar, a large fenced-in yard, and three-car garage.

If a family with the average HCV household income — estimated by HUD to be $18,558 per year, or $1,546.5 per month, including other welfare payments — were to rent this home, the household’s out of pocket cost for the home is $463.95 per month. This would leave taxpayers on the hook for the other $2,786.05 per month in perpetuity, or until the admitted individual exits or is removed from the program. 

No offense, but I don't have a home theater in my house and I don't want ot paying for a home theater in someone else's house. I am reminded of this quote from Ben Franklin:

“I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”

He's right, of course. Making sure someone has housing doesn't mean getting them a home theater. It means laminate countertops and mid appliances in a clean and safe home. The HUD Secretary Scott Turner laid out his reason for wanting those time limits.

I love his analogy of government subsidies being a trampoline instead of a hammock. We've got a serious luxurious hammock going on here.

THE FEDS WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH WE'RE SPENDING ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HEALTHCARE And the concern is that Colorado is using Medicaid money to pay for it. Our Democrat legislators made sure no federal dollars are going to the Cover All Coloradans plan that covers 20,000 illegal immigrant pregnant women and their children. But we all know money is fungible and therefore money spent on this can't be spent on citizens of the state. Now the feds are asking for more details on the plan.

DEMOCRATS ARE HEMORRHAGING VOTERS And I know I'm supposed to celebrate this but I think we need a functioning opposition party. We've seen in Colorado how bad one party rule can be and don't think the Republicans are immune to such excesses when they have control. This story says Dems have lost ground in 30 states since 2020 when it comes to voter registration as the Republicans have added four MILLION voters to the rolls. It's because the Democrats sole message right now is "we hate Trump" which clearly isn't working. What do they stand for? Men in sports? Criminals in cities? They have a serious brand issue.

WHAT WORDS CAN YOU NEVER SPELL RIGHT? I just had to add "hemorrhaging" to my list which also includes "receipt" which I just spelled wrong initially to include here. I can't be the only one with these words.

IF YOU'D LIVE TO TEACH THE TRADES There are opportunities to be had at trade schools where demand is surging and the need for instructors is rising. Read this for more, but if you're someone who recently retired from the trades and wants to do something part time to help the next generation I would definitely reach out!

DENVER CITY COUNCIL MAY GIVE IMPOUNDED CARS NEW LIFE When the City impounds a car it is sold by bid, or scrapped. Now the Denver City Council is mulling over a program that would gift some of those cars to local technical schools so they can fix them up and learn at the same time. This is a great idea!

ANOTHER WAY DIA GOUGES CUSTOMERS If you've ever bought something at Denver International Airport you know what it's like to be gouged. But one guy is making hay of a parking policy that charges a full day for parking even if you're only in the lot for two minutes. Read it here but I was genuinely surprised that every airport doesn't do it like this. It would be nice if they changed it but I'm sure they won't, there is too much money to be made here and most people just pay it.

WHEN THE WICKED WITCH IS FIGHTING FOR ALL OF US This is a great story about how one woman's fight to protect HER land has turned her into a private property rights hero. She's now helping other people whose private property rights are being violated by government and we should all thank her. Read more here. Private property rights are the backbone of our entire system and should always be fiercely protected, even when it's inconvenient.

THE COLORADO RIVER BASIN IS UNDER SERIOUS STRESS And though this is a HUGE looming issue I'm guessing most of you won't pay attention until the river is in total crisis and people are panicking and whatnot. But if you're interested you can read it here.

LEAF PEEPERS, IT'S ALMOST YOUR TIME! And this story has a map of where the leaves are going to be popping for your enjoyment. Here is a map of the whole country if you want to venture out to see leaves change.

WILL THIS BE THE VIOLENT CRIMINAL THAT BREAKS THE CAMEL'S BACK? Maybe you heard about the story of a young Ukrainian refugee who got on a bus in Charlotte, North Carolina a couple of weeks ago. For her crime of sitting in front of a man who had been arrested dozens of times for things like armed robbery, felony larceny, breaking and entering, and shoplifting before being set free again, she was ruthlessly stabbed in the neck. Most news organizations have said they aren't covering the attack because it was a "local" story, but I'm guessing the real reason is this savage man is black. There is video of the entire attack. I am not embedding it here. This is the sort of high profile crime committed by a longtime violent man who has been let back onto the streets by a soft on crime policies that Democrats are now being forced to defend. What has the mayor of Charlotte had to say? She thanked the news media for NOT SHOWING THE ATTACK. I could not make this up if I tried.

She also issued a longer statement where she didn't even mention Iryna Zarutska by name! She then went on to talk about how we should treat this man with compassion because of mental illness! WTF? There will be a time and place for that sort of statement but this seems totally racist to me. She doesn't care enough about the pretty white girl to even mention her name? She can pound sand. What have conservatives done? According to this piece by Axios they are "using" this case to shore up Donald Trump's case on violent crime. Indeed. It also shores up his push against cashless bail, which allows violent criminals back on the streets when they shouldn't be. This attacker has a long history of mental illness, which also opens up the conversation about what to do with mentally ill people who have shown a propensity for crime and violence.

HOWARD STERN PUNKED THE NEWS This morning I saw two headlines about Howard Stern and Sirius XM radio. The first said this:

Howard Stern walks away from SiriusXM after two decades

And then 45 minutes later I see this one:

Howard Stern returns to SiriusXM radio show after trolling listeners

Well done, Howard, well done. I think they should have said "trolling us" instead of listeners but whatever.

WE HAVE OUR FIRST MILLENNIAL SAINT First off, add "millennial" to my words I can't spell the first time. Second, Pope Leo just named a late computer geek who died in 2006 a saint. Called the God's Influencer after creating a multilingual website documenting so-called Eucharistic miracles recognized by the church, a project he completed at a time when the development of such sites was the domain of professionals. Read more here.

COULD THIS BE A SIGN OF WHAT'S TO COME IN THE MIDTERMS? The midterms will be interesting if the economy isn't just right next summer as President Trump seems to think it will be. But we can look to Argentina where President Javier Milieu just took a hard defeat in Buena Aires as the Peronist party won pretty big. We'll see if this comes to the US.

OPEC WANTS IT MARKET SHARE BACK and they have been steadily increasing production in part to punish other nations they say have been "overproducing" (I'm looking at you, Kazakhstan) and this is good news for gasoline prices. I'm fine with this development even as it hits oil and gas companies here.

YOU CAN FIGHT DEMENTIA And a new study showed you don't need fancy interventions to do so. What did they do?

The study assessed two interventions: A structured one and a self-guided one. They both focused on physical exercise, nutrition, cognitive challenge and social engagement, and heart health monitoring. They differed in intensity, structure, accountability and support provided.

Trial participants in the structured intervention showed greater improvement on global cognition compared to the self-guided intervention, protecting cognition from normal age-related decline for up to two years.

This is not rocket science or particularly difficult and older people would do well to pay attention!

WHY DID THAT MAN GIVE THAT BALL TO THAT HORRIBLE WOMAN? I love this so much. He simply said, “I pretty much just wanted her to go away". I think we can all identify with this feeling. We still don't know the identity of the Phillies Karen who caused the ruckus in the first place.

NEWS IMPORTANT TO MY DAUGHTER Target is having some stores open until midnight on October 3rd so Swifties can get their hands on one of the three versions of the cds the chain is selling of her new album. Find the Colorado stores here.

MCDONALDS IS STARTING A FAST FOOD PRICE WAR By making Big Macs and Egg McMuffins cheaper in an effort to bring back lower income diners whose budgets have been squeezed. There is not way other fast food won't follow suit.

THAT DUDE WHO LIKES TO FIGHT WOMEN WON'T TAKE A DNA TEST We all watched the extremely butch looking Imane Khelif beat the crap out of women in the Olympics. Since then, the rules have changed and if Khelif wants to continue beating the crap out of women he/she is going to have to take a cheek swab to prove that he/she is an actual woman. Guess who won't take the test?

WE ARE BEYOND OVER BEYOND MEAT And their bottom line is at the bottom and sinking fast. Read more here. It appears we aren't ready for lab created "meat" just yet. Real meat is BACK, baby!

WHY IS THIS A THING? Double dutch can be an art form, but here they've reduced it to super fast football feet. WHY? Watch below or click here.

Compare this instead.

SMUGGLING LABUBU DOLLS IS A THING NOW And I don't even know what these are or why they would need to be smuggled but okay. Watch below or click here.

WHEN RATS FIND POISON This made me laugh this morning. Watch below or click here.

INTERPRETIVE DANCE AT A CITY COUNCIL MEETING This also made me laugh this morning. Watch below or click here.

WILLIAM SHATNER'S VERSION OF ROCKET MAN IS SOMETHING

Y'ALL I DON'T HATE THIS VERSION OF THE ANTHEM And I realize that's going to be an unpopular opinion but the melody was spot on and I kind of dug it.

THIS DUDE HAS BUILT AN ENTIRE TOWN FOR HIS CATS And this is crazy, check all his videos for more!