11/3/25 Blog: Xmas Gifts, A Beef On Beef, And A Way To Help Vets

DOES SOMEONE YOU LOVE COLLECT NORA FLEMING DISHES? This is so nerdy and girly but also cool if you collect the lines produced by Nora Fleming. She is a genius because she came up with simple serving items that can be customized to any holiday using these little charms that fit onto the plates, platters, and bowls. Not only are they super cute, they cut down on how many of those serving platters you actually need. Check them out here, but she is actually doing a signing this week at Outside the Box Too in Arvada, the ADORABLE store owned by my friend and meteorologist Chris Spears and his husband Dorn. They own two stores and this will be in the TOO store. She will be there THIS Wednesday from 4 to 6 and they just about sold out of the pre-sale stuff for signing but you can find out more by clicking here to RSVP to meet Nora. This is a GREAT Christmas gift! She joins me tomorrow at 12:30 to talk about how a great idea has turned into an empire! (She was supposed to be today but had an emergency pop up)

IS THERE A BEEF WITH ARGENTINIAN IMPORTS? I've got Chad Franke, the President of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union on today at 1 to talk about beef production in Colorado and why we don't need Argentinian beef. He check in at 1, find out more about the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union here.

LET'S HELP FURNISH SOME HOUSING With a group called Knock Knock Angels of Colorado, who provide the stuff to make a home a home when moving someone coming out of a traumatic situation or homelessness as they get back on their feet. I'm speaking with Scott Matthias, the local realtor who helped start Knock Knock Angels of Colorado to get those homes furnished. He joins met at 2:30 to talk about how you can help. Find out more here.

HEY, ABOUT THOSE SCHOOL BOARD RACES

RE: JEFFCO SCHOOL BOARD RACE: Lots of you asking who I like in this race and Dougco, so here you go: This board needs to be flipped, please vote for Denine Echevarria (she's a left winger but hopefully reasonable), Samuel Myrant, and Gloria "Terri" Gascon for JeffCo Schools.

RE: DOUGCO SCHOOLS RACE: I would love to see Vail, Kramer, Gambill, and Smith elected.

RE: DENVER SCHOOL BOARD RACE: All of these candidates lean left on some things, but that's Denver. I'd support Alex Magaña, Mariana del Hierro, Caron Blanke, and Timiya Jackson.

RE: CHERRY CREEK SCHOOL DISTRICT This district desperately needs help and you should vote for Amanda Thayer and Tatyana Sturm.

HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE BO NIX When you see an article like this one where he talks about what he's learned and how it influences his play. I love this part:

“I’ve come a long way. Still got so much to learn, which is the fun part. But I’m going to continue to work, not stop, until I maximize my potential. Don’t know when that would be, but I’m excited because there’s a lot to learn a lot to grow from. Gives us another opportunity next week to go out there and change it up. But I’m sure we’ll learn from the mistakes we make next week as well. So, I just learned learn how to be a little bit more patient and go into the next play.”

He's our guy for sure.

TRUMP WAS ON 60 MINUTES LAST NIGHT And you can watch it here, I thought Norah O'Donnell did a good job. You should watch it.

DOWNTOWN DENVER IS....BACK? I say that cautiously but this report on foot traffic shows we have ALMOST reached the same levels seen before Covid gutted downtown. This is GREAT news! I know many of you don't care about downtown but I do, it's the heart of the metro and I want it to be successful. Not all is well, as most of the traffic is residents and tourists and the office vacancy rate is a sky high 37.7% right now, but this is SOMETHING, right? I mean maybe the restaurants and businesses need to orient towards those people instead of relying on office workers to fill their seats at lunch, but this is way better than when no people were downtown.

IT'S TIME TO UNLEASH THE CONDO MARKET Because the nibbling around the edges with tweaks to the disastrous condo killing construction defects laws are a big part of why affordable housing is not being built. Read this for more.

VOTERS SAY THE DEMOCRATS ARE OFF TRACK And Jon Caldara writes about it here. Read this part about a new report by Centrist democrat group Welcome that took six months and spoke to thousands of voters to create:

Here’s what voters told them: the Democrat Party is too consumed by climate change, identity politics and “saving democracy,” and not nearly enough about the stuff that decides whether you can pay your mortgage or afford meatloaf (of course, meatloaf is murder. How many meat-out days do you need to get that?).

Specifically, their deep dive found voters want the Democratic Party to prioritize (in this order): protecting Social Security and Medicare, lowering everyday costs, making health care more affordable, creating jobs and economic growth, cutting taxes on the middle class, lowering the rate of crime, and securing the border.

So they want them to be Republicans. Got it. But wait, there's more. What do they want them to STOP focusing on?

Guess what voters want the Democratic Party to stop promoting? Protecting the rights of undocumented workers, raising taxes to increase spending on social programs, protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans, fighting climate change, promoting unions and union jobs, promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, and reducing police brutality.

Got it, they want them to be MORE Republican. Mmkay. Read the rest of Jon's column here, but if Republicans on the trail continue to remind voters of the dumb priorities of today's Democrat party they may have a chance.

IT'S TIME TO DO AWAY WITH CAMPAIGN DONATION LIMITS And I can hear you shrieking now "BUT MANDY, money in politics is bad!" but hear me out. This column by Vince Bzdek reminds us that Super PACs have made campaign limits useless. It's actually about Michael Bloomberg spending a ridiculous sum of money in Colorado elections. As long as money can flow freely into dark money groups who don't have to release their donors the money is already there. If we did away with campaign finance limits, we would at least KNOW who was buying these politicians because of the reporting rules. Wouldn't that be better than what we have now? Read this part:

Since the Citizens United decision in 2010 that ruled such contributions are a form of free speech, total outside spending on local elections has grown from approximately $144 million in 2008 to $4.2 billion in 2024.

Ironically, for individuals like you and me, Colorado’s campaign contribution limits are among the lowest in the country. For statewide offices like governor and state treasurer, the limit one person can give is $725 per election cycle. For state legislative offices, the limit is $225. For most local offices, the limit is $400 for individuals.

The money is already being spent. Let's just know who is spending it. Just as an fyi, Bloomberg backed Mayor Michael Johnston. TWICE. That should tell you all you need to know about who he thinks should be elected.

GEAR UP FOR THE BIG MEDICAID CUT PROTEST Oh, my bad, there won't be one because the person cutting Medicaid in Colorado is a Democrat. Governor Jared Polis is RIGHT when he says Medicaid spending in this state is unsustainable. The growth has been explosive as caps have been lifted in prior years that the Governor wants to put back on. I wonder what spending in the Omni Salud program for illegal immigrants is doing? Notice he didn't mention that. Of course there will be NO protests about these cuts, showing what the No Kings protests are really about, and it ain't Medicaid cuts.

WHOLE FOODIES, THE GLORY DAYS ARE OVER Now that Amazon owns the brand famous for not carrying products with preservatives or GMOs, you knew it was only a matter of time before changes were made and now they are here. Now if you want some of the BAD food that Whole Foods used to stick its nose up at, you can use the app and have someone bring it from the back where all the bad food hangs out. I'm not making this up. Read it here.

ARE WEEKLY GROCERY RUNS OVER? I've been slow to adopt grocery delivery because I'm particular about my produce. But I seem to be the only one, as Amazon's CEO says the days of the weekly grocery run are over. But are they? I know most of you are my age or older, but have you embraced this new model in your home? And I say this as someone who used Amazon for most things, just not THIS thing.

OFFLINE IS THE NEW LUXURY This is hilarious to me because the more we try to replace human connection with any sort of digital connection there is bound to be pushback. Now it comes in the form of people declaring themselves "offline" as a form of social stature. It's really funny to me that being unreachable is now the biggest luxury when it used to be always being in touch was the status symbol since the first brick phone made an appearance back in the 80s.

LADIES, WE DON'T NEED AS MUCH EXERCISE To protect our hearts anyway, compared to the men in our lives. Read it here and spend less time at the gym!

WHEN WILL THE GOVERNMENT OPEN? Ted Cruz has a good idea of when it will open and I think this is a pretty good take. We'll see.

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WELFARE DELAYS HIT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS HARD These numbers are pretty stunning when we're continuously told that people here illegally can't use welfare benefits. Read it here.

COMPANIES ARE DITCHING CLIMATE COMMITMENTS And though the number is now huge, if those companies flourish more without the fake climate initiatives they signed on for when it was politically popular, expect more to follow. Read more here about how companies are re assessing these goals and are moving toward economic realities instead.

THERE'S NEW SKI TERRITORY AT MONARCH For those of you who love skiing. This gives all the details about Monarch's new No Name Basin and what you can expect. It's also got lots of news about all the other ski areas and news about $9 lift tickets.

DILBERT CREATOR SCOTT ADAMS IS DECLINING FAST And he reached out to President Trump via social media to help him with an issue with Kaiser getting an IV infusion of what could be a life extending drug for his prostate cancer. Sec of HHS Robert Kennedy, Jr responded on X so we'll see what happens next. I'm a huge fan of Adams but it's crazy you have to reach out to social media on social media to solve a Kaiser problem.

EVEN GEN Z DOESN'T WANT TO WORK WITH GEN Z A new survey asked Gen Z, which is building a reputation for being not prepared for the workforce, which generation they disliked working with the most. The answer was their own. Read it all here, but we've got to help these young people.

AROD ROCKED HALLOWEEN

OUR NEW LINEUP STARTS NEXT WEEK!

BLUCIFER TAKES HALLOWEEN Watch below or click here.

HILARIOUS FOURTH PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT Watch below or click here.

HEIDI KLUM IS THE QUEEN OF HALLOWEEN And there is no comparison. Watch below or click here.

When does she start planning?

LET'S DO IT FOR THE KIDS

LOOK WHAT THE NETWORKS BURIED This is very telling and I know this to be true of newspapers also, as I looked for any coverage of the Arctic Frost investigation that tapped the phone of Republican Members of Congress.