3/6/26 Blog: I'm Back, And We've Got Much To Discuss

WHAT A WEEK IT'S BEEN Talk about a disconnect. As Chuck and I were enjoying the incredible week we had at the Omni La Costa resort so we could visit the new Elephant Valley at the San Diego Safari Park we were texting with our nephew in Israel, where he and his wife and three kids are holed up in a bomb shelter with a bunch of other people. But they are happy. Happy this war is underway with the hope of real regime change in Iran so they can live in peace. We shall discuss.

JOHN BROOKS WANTS TO BE GOVERNOR And he's running as a Republican but I've heard almost nothing about him, which will change today. He's on at 1 for a discussion about what he thinks Colorado should do to move things forward. Find out more about John here.

THE CASE FOR WAR I hope if you've been listening long enough you know I'm not some jingoistic war monger looking to fight. I learned a lot from the Gulf War and ensuing occupation to know I'm not interested in that again. HOWEVER, I am all in for this one. Iran has been wreaking havoc for the United States and its allies for almost FIFTY years. They have shown no signs of moderation and regularly chant "Death to America" and I'm inclined to believe that they genuinely want that. I wrote a blog posting about this Monday, which you can read here. This is not a war on Israel's behalf. Sure, they will benefit mightily if they can defeat the Iranian proxies who shoot rockets at them every day. But we will too, and more importantly, this is all part of what I'm seeing as Trump's plan to fundamentally re order the world. Niall Ferguson wrote a column here that perfectly describes what we're seeing here and asks if this is the beginning of World War III. Maybe. But maybe not. We live in interesting times.

IT'S NOT ABOUT ISRAEL, IT'S ABOUT CHINA I've been talking about China's inroads in Central and South America but have been largely ignorant of their inroads into the Middle East. I knew they got a bunch of cheap oil from Iran, but didn't know they have provided Iran with the same sort of tech surveillance they use on their own people, while also helping the Houthis successfully attack ships. Now I know because this column lays out how all the pieces go together and how attacking Iran isn't about Israel, or even Iran, but about China. And so far, it seems to be working.

AMERICAN SKEPTICISM IS A GOOD THING THOUGH This column writes about the reticence of many Americans to wade into another horrible situation we ended when Biden disastrously left Afghanistan. Taking a wait and see approach does seem prudent.

KRISTI NOEM GETS CANNED And I'm fine with this. At the worst, she took a winning issue and turned it into a negative while defending the tactics of officers tasked with doing enforcement in blue states. At best she looked great at her photo ops. I'm interested to see what Markwayne Mullin is going to do differently. Read more here.

HOW MANY CRIMES ARE COMMITTED WITH 3D PRINTED GUNS? I'm asking for real. How big a problem is it in Colorado that criminals are 3d printing out guns and using them to commit crimes? Our Legislature seems to think it's a HUGE issue. They are not working to ban 3D printed guns and parts. I'm sure this will have a huge impact on our crime rate. It's not a problem at all I'm guessing, but Democrats must ban anything that sounds like the word "gun" so here we are.

POLIS'S PLAN ON CPW IS WORKING As the commission, loaded with animal rights ideological friends of his and his husband's overturned a ruling by the brand new Commissioner to ban the sale of fur in Colorado. The worst part is the entire petition was full of nonsense that simply isn't backed by the same work CPW biologists do every day. You can read about it here. Why do we even employ biologists if we are going to let a bunch of leftists from the Front Range make decisions not based on science? Read question. Just fire them all all and put the commission in charge of everything. I'm sure that will go well. It worked so well for the wolves.

DEMOCRAT POLICIES ARE KILLING OUR RESTAURANTS We just stayed a resort where everything is pricey, but the prices in the restaurant were on par with Denver restaurants NOT at a resort. And the resort is in CALIFORNIA. This editorial grabs the high points of a recent study on our restaurant industry and they are NOT good. The stupid high minimum wage, the energy mandates, property taxes, food prices are all killing our restaurants. And of course, the city sponsored study suggests MORE government intervention instead of rolling back all the ways Democrat policies are destroying our restaurant industry. Of course. Remember when I said that the minimum wage would kill our restaurant industry? I hate being right on stuff like this.

DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS IS LOOKING FOR MORE FIGHTS WITH ICE And again, we have a group of people solving a problem we don't have. There is ZERO evidence that ICE has attempted to enter a single school in Denver. They already have a policy in place that prevents ICE from working with district employees, and refusing to work with ICE without a signed warrant. But now they are discussing even MORE restrictions. I keep waiting for someone to suggest that they hang up "No ICE ALOUD" signs on the doors. Yes, the misspelling was on purpose. The students won't notice.

DOES VEGAS CARE IF YOU COME THERE? This is very interesting video on the situation in Las Vegas. They are trying to get the riff raff out and bring in the big money players. But they don't need as many employees to have fewer people with more money.

THE BROWN PALACE IS FOR SALE I don't know for how much, but why don't we pool our lunch money and buy it together? JK, I don't eat that much for lunch. Read more here.

POLIS WANTS TO LET TINA PETERS OUT OF JAIL And I honestly don't know why. I try to look at everything he does through the lens of "how does this help him run for President" and this one has me a bit stumped. Does he think that MAGA is going to remember this and support him? Maybe a few die hards but the rest of us a firm no. Jimmy Sengenberger writes about it here.

BERNIE IS COMING FOR THE BILLIONAIRES I remember the days when Bernie Sanders used to shout about the "millionaires and billionaires" right up until his book sales made HIM a millionaire. Now he conveniently leaves himself off the list of people to tax. His new proposal with Rep. Ro Khanna would levy a wealth tax on the billionaires to they can fund a whole bunch of new benefits for everyone else. I asked Chat where a wealth tax has ever worked and answer was "Not Really Anywhere". These are the nations that have tried it, and when it was repealed.

Country

Germany

1997

Sweden

2007

Denmark

1997

Netherlands

replaced with asset income tax

Finland

2006

Iceland

2006

Austria

1994

France

2018 (replaced)

Why don't they work? Rich people move. Norway is still one of the countries that has a wealth tax and they have seen significant wealth flight to Switzerland in recent years. It's crazy to think the same thing wouldn't happen here. Remember when millionaires were a problem?

Not so much now that Bernie is sucking up that rarified air.

OH BRITNEY Britney Spears was arrested for DUI and this is the least surprising story of the year. The #FreeBritney movement must feel kind of stupid now. Just saying. She clearly needs help. A lot of help.

THE DEATH VALLEY SUPERBLOOM IS IMPRESSIVE

THE JOBS MARKET TOOK A HIT IN FEBRUARY And we LOST jobs and the unemployment rate ticked up. Where did we lose jobs? Healthcare, where the numbers were skewed by strikes in the field, IT, and GOVERNMENT, which shed 10,000 taxpayer dependent jobs. One thing that is concerning is how many people are long term unemployed. That number has grown by 400,000 in that last year, showing that when people lose jobs it's harder to replace them. Check out the entire report here.

THESE KIDS WERE RAISED RIGHT

T

ALL OF THESE PEOPLE ARE WAY COOLER THAN I AM

THE WINE YOGI HAS A WINE TASTING COMING UP AT THE WINE GALLERY And her stuff ALWAYS fills up and this one is about Easter wine and maybe Irish drinking songs so you don't want to miss it.