by Peter Boyles | Apr 18, 2025 | Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
On all levels — local, national, and worldwide — tariffs seem to be the topic of conversations. And I cite you an example of how tariffs do work and can help. And also, how major corporations in our country, nationally and locally, totally misunderstand who their target audience and their target customer is.
Take you back in time.
In 1983 President Ronald Reagan intervened to protect Harley Davidson by imposing tariffs on imported motorcycles principally from Japanese manufacturers.
Harley Davidson the corporation had fallen into the hands of AMF, the bowling company. AMF was systemically destroying a product that began in 1912 in this country, had a great reputation, and people bought the bikes. In the early 1980s Harley Davidson was facing significant financial difficulties due to the Japanese manufacturers who were dumping, another term could be flooding, the U.S. market with cheaper motorcycles. You could indeed buy a large Japanese motorcycle cheaper in Denver, Colorado, than you could in Japan. They were in essence bayoneting the wounded.
The United States trade commission concluded that the Japanese motorcycles were harming domestic industry and recommended protective measures. Ronald Reagan, not Donald Trump, agreed to impose a tariff on big motorcycles imported from Japan. Anything over 700 ccs. Now watch this.
He raised the tariff from 4.4 percent to 49.4 percent. The tariff was designed to provide relief for Harley to get back on its feet and reverse the decline. Harley returns, regains market share, and the company invested in improvements and innovation. They also used the time to retune their factories, introduce new engines, and develop new technologies. Ronald Reagan protected this iconic corporation from foreign interests.
Would Harley Davidson be here today if Ronald Reagan hadn’t stepped in? I really don’t think so. Reagan saved Harley Davidson.
Now the fools that got their hands on the company after that decided to go woke. The board of directors brought in from Europe, the new CEO, Jochen Zeitz, declaring Harley Davidson would be woke the year after Bud Light decided it was going to be woke as well. The mecca of motorcycling is Sturgis. I was there when both things happened. The huge street bar owned by Bud Light was empty and the grumble was nobody’s going to drink that tranny beer. And much like George Bush learning nothing from what the Soviets were doing in Afghanistan, Harley Davidson pulls the same stunt. The target demo for these motorcycles is principally middle-aged men, veterans, conservatives, Trump supporters, and so the factory decided to go woke on them. The manufacturers are now in huge difficulty and much of it is because of woke policies and building electric motorcycles. And a company that always prided itself on “made in America” was like the rest of the multinationals, they were headed abroad.
Harley Davidson is more than just a motorcycle. It’s a culture. People got mad. The company faced a boycott over DEI efforts. Read the stories of John Deere and Tractor Supply, both of those corporations have now stepped away from DEI in favor of keeping customers, and Harley finally responds. The culture of Harley Davidson is more than just motorcycles. It is, as they say, a way of life.
And what the current board did was offensive to everybody up and down the line. Now they’ve slammed the brakes on woke policies after sparking outrage. They’re in search of a new CEO and board members have resigned.
It’s a microcosm of how things can work. What Donald Trump is doing was done once by Ronald Reagan. And nobody remembers that story. I’d like you to at least look at the accomplishments of Reagan in 1983, and the real question is can it be done again on a macro scale?
Ride fast, take a lot of chances. Make a lot of noise.
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Mar 28, 2025 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
Dr. Nelson Prager
Dr. Jason Shofnos
Dr. Jeffrey Park
Millions of years ago I took auto and diesel mechanics at Forbes Trail Technical School, because I couldn’t fit into normal high school, allegedly to study auto diesel repair. One of the things that stood out was that flathead Ford vehicles needed valve jobs at 81,000 miles. I’m now 81. And was told I needed a valve job.
On a serious note, for the last three years, I have really had a difficult time existing. If you’re keeping score at home I had a mini stroke on air, degenerative heart failure in Sturgis needing to be brought home, and received my pacemaker.
Dropping fully back in time, 25 years ago, I still think I’m being haunted by the Bush administration as we took our morning radio show to Washington, D.C., to cover the George W. Bush first inauguration.
When I returned, I was having a hard time breathing and walking and I was immediately taken to Dr. Richard Flanagan who turned me over to the capable hands of heart surgeon Dr. Kevin Miller. I had a quintuple bypass and went back to work at KHOW just in time to go on to great ratings and great health. I ran the Bolder Boulder. I skied and always will, and did mixed martial arts. I always saw it as a bump in the road.
Then about three years ago when I was 79, I started having issues again. That’s when I, along with publisher Chuck Bonniwell, discovered Dr. Nelson Prager, cardiologist to the stars.
And then I had an incident on Christmas Eve with my grandson in Winter Park, where I literally could not catch my breath. I came back, called Dr. Prager, and went through a battery of tests. That’s where, through Dr. Prager, I met Dr. Jeffrey Park, the new age heart surgeon, along with Dr. Jason Shofnos.
When I met them, it was like going to a meeting of outlaw bikers. Shofnos, like myself, has inked up his left arm, and Dr. Park, like Dr. Nelson, just seems to be like one of the guys. Except they’re brilliant.
They ran me through a battery of tests at Swedish Hospital (what a great place) and decided I had a calcified aortic valve in my heart, and that I was going to need a valve job.
I hit the panic button. I thought as difficult as it had been going through bypass surgery would my 81-year-old carcass be able to take another open-heart job. Shazam.
Enter the dragon. These guys are trained in robotic surgery. As Dr. Prager said, “this is our bread and butter.”
My son tells me that I was in the OR for the bypass surgery for almost seven hours. So now, for what’s behind the curtain, what’s in the box that Julie’s pointing to, and the new car, how long did it take for all this modern equipment and wonderful physicians to get me a new heart valve? Forty-seven minutes. They go up the insides of your legs and a balloon goes into your valve, the balloon opens, the new valve tips come out, the calcification of the valve crunches into the new valve, the balloon pulls out, and your heart is brand new.
I know when I was in the hospital the first time with bypass I was there for eight days. This time I was in Swedish overnight. One of the things that Dr. Park did before and after was hand me his stethoscope and said, “Want to hear your murmur?” It sounded like a river rushing. He gave me the stethoscope again when I was ready to go home, and I could hear a heartbeat.
I’m back in the gym for an hour; I want to get an easy one-day ski in as the end of the season beckons, and it’s a whole new lease on life, and I owe it to those three men and the remarkable staff at Swedish Hospital.
If this is what medicine can do now, imagine what it will be for my grandson. Assuming the world is still here. But I publicly want to thank Swedish, Aurora Denver Cardiology, and the three horsemen who saved an old man’s rear end. Thanks guys.
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Feb 19, 2025 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting With Boyles
OPINION
After watching Donald Trump run the table in November and knowing or believing that what Trump is about to do is to really turn over the apple cart and try to straighten out the mess that we looked to for guidance, i.e. Washington, D.C. The movement has been dubbed MAGA. Make America Great Again.
I propose MDGA — Make Denver Great Again.
Anyone of us who has lived in this city for any period longer than 10 years and believes that things are running smoothly and going our way is either out of their minds or consuming copious amounts of the legal weed. People are fed up and like many American voters when will Denver voters scream enough is enough.
Donald Trump was forgiven so many challenges to his career from the New York charges to the overrunning of the Capitol, and you understand the list goes on. But our city Denver, that once was so beautiful and so safe and made fun of as a cow town, has now turned into a total realignment of what’s socially acceptable.
This City has been run by Democrats and we’re not talking about the Bill McNichols old school Jack Kennedy Democrats, but progressive quasi-Trotsky-ites who have allowed the Queen City of the Plains to become the city dump for convicted felons, drug addicts, sexual predators, and non-citizens.
We have an opportunity right now in Denver to stop this. Until around 2000, Denver Democrats and Republicans shared many policy positions. But in this last 20 plus years the insanity of Denver’s management on gun control, the environment, and immigration, and many other things that Denver citizens, if they are aware under these circumstances, realize this is a death knell that sits right around the corner waiting for me and you.
We seemingly have a worthless media, the city fathers, and this Mayor who, in a series of absolutely terrible mayors, takes the cake. Spending his media time always dressed like Robert Kennedy with rolled up sleeves and pulled down tie, who seems to travel with journalists and academics who not only came out supporting Vice President Harris, but seemingly always this Mayor’s political madness.
And this rally and cry in Denver of why would intelligent people support Donald Trump? These are the people who don’t understand that this city is slipping into darkness, and people watching America seemingly do the same voted for Donald Trump. Basic law, this mayor, and political and media outlets welcome with open arms more drug addicts and illegals, remember that basic 101 rule, subsidize anything, and you’ll get more of it.
Denver Public Schools have become a clown show. The Denver cops have become social diversity warriors. As far as I’m concerned, the media has lost its franchise. We all better wake up.
These people seemingly undermine our Constitution one Amendment at a time. I was a lifelong democrat but this attitude that’s emerged that runs this city I simply cannot relate to, and I don’t want to be called stupid because I don’t think they’re smart. It’s the emperor’s new clothes. I’m serious about this. There must be a program that begins with let’s make Denver great again. We need the candidates; we need the ability for the electorate to overlook the failures and the lives of men and women who legitimately want to change this City’s course. The democratic coalition that runs Denver must be destroyed.
And out of the ashes like the phoenix we have to see a renewal regardless of the candidate. Saving this city, and perhaps even the state, is a far greater task than whether or not someone was painted black face in high school. A lot of the national issues don’t play out on the local level. Interest rates and electric bills and gasoline and cable fees going up can’t be changed at Colfax and Broadway.
But so much more can. Please, we have the next two years, let’s take it back from them.
So, who in Denver will step up? I got my list. What’s yours?
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Jan 16, 2025 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting With Boyles
OPINION
Are we becoming not Jonestown but Johnstown? Most people remember the sadness of Jim Jones in Guyana, force feeding Kool Aid. It was the sad people who moved with him from San Francisco, and later, of course, gunshots rang out. Som
eone shoots Jim Jones.
You can almost hear those same gunshots every
night on the 16th Street Mall. Our city is in decline. And you would have to be a fool not to recognize it.
So, when the well-known substance rolls downhill, it always rolls down on you. Here’s a headline that we never see with Kyle Clark’s Channel 9 News. Denver has been ranked among the worst run cities in the United States by a WalletHub study. Interestingly enough for those of you keeping score at home, San Francisco won the award of being the worst run city in America. Guess who we’re closing in on?
The Mile High City is in the bottom 10 and San Francisco is ranked last.
We’ve always quoted Barry McGuire’s classic song The Eve of Destruction. As Barry tells you, “Look around you boy, it’s bound to scare you, boy.”
The quality of city services has been cut. The Mayor, remember he promised he was going to put an end to homelessness in four years. One of the great laws of economics is if you want more of something subsidize it. Jim Jones “Junior” has cut large chunks out of all department budgets due to the influx of the people he likes to call newcomers. And actually visualized housewives standing in the middle of Broadway like the brave Chinese man in Tiananmen Square to stop illegal immigrants being removed from the city.
Immigration spending by the city was expected to reach $90 million by the end of the year. As it turns out, the city is on track to spend $155 million up to and including December of 2024 — $65 million more than Johnston previously said it would cost.
What does the future look like? US News and World Report said it looks at the data on America’s 150 most populous metro areas that includes cost of living, job markets, crime rates, public education, and much more. The rankings that US News and World Report used were from census, the FBI, and Department of Labor. The best place to live is Green Bay, Wisconsin. Denver ranked high in the survey in a quite different category. Denver is listed as the 15th most dangerous place to live in our country, 16th most expensive place to live. Since 2020 when Denver was number 2 overall in the list of best places to live, we have dropped to 55th.
These are all trends heading in the wrong direction.
The Denver Gazette reported that three years ago Boulder and Denver took the number one and two spots. Boulder is now number four, Colorado Springs is number 9. Fort Collins is number 23. And Denver has tumbled close to the bottom.
So as Lenin asks, what is to be done? The impossible needs to be done. The Democrats and Republicans alike must look at our city and fear what the next five, 10, or 20 years will bring. We all have children and grandchildren, what are we leaving them?
We’re not going to get better with people like this Mayor, and members of the City Council who voted for heroin injection sites.
Honestly folks the future of Denver, Colorado, is bleak. When is the last time you went downtown? Took your kids to see Christmas lights? Or better yet, got yourself a concealed permit. This isn’t funny. The future is not bright, and we have to pull together and keep the lunatics away from elected office.
Mark my words, there will come a time…
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Dec 13, 2024 | Blasting with Boyles
Abe Said, Where Do You Want The Killing Done?
God Said, Out On Highway 61
Blasting With Boyles
One of the more troubling stories in the Bible is in Genesis Chapter 22 where God tells Abraham, “take your only son, whom you love, and offer him there as a burnt offering.” Islamic scholars point that Abraham had, in fact, two sons. One with Hagar the maid, who his wife Sarah had Abraham impregnate when she thought she was barren. With God’s intervention Sarah, at age 78, gave birth to Issac 17 years later. Biblically Ishmael is the progenitor of all Arabs and Isaac is the forefather of all Jews. Muslims and Jews/Christians have debated over the many centuries who God asked to be sacrificed, Ishmael or Issac.
We are not sure whether God directly talks to President Joe Biden as he did Abraham, but recently President Biden announced that he was pardoning his second son Hunter from being sacrificed on the altar of American Justice.
The real question for those of us who are fathers is whether you would pardon your son from being a burnt offering on some altar? I know I would. The real problem for me and many others is that President Biden told all the gathered tribes that he would never pardon Hunter (Isaac/Ishmael). Not only that, but once he had gotten the hang of this whole pardon thing down, he threatened to pardon virtually everyone in his Administration, and who knows perhaps even every descendant of the original seven tribes.
But if Joe Biden’s actions seem to parallel those of Abraham, are there other present American political figures with parallels to biblical figures? Is Donald Trump akin to David, and is he creating a great MAGA kingdom that will never be exceeded in the history of this country?
What about Elon Musk being a Joshua-like figure, causing the trumpets to ring out that cause the almost impenetrable walls of the Administrative State of Jerico to fall down, allowing the MAGAites to burst through killing every man, woman, and child bureaucrat with God’s blessing?
You can come up with your parallel figures between today and biblical times but, my advice to all of you is, watch out for toads falling from the sky, water that turns into blood, and the death of all first born.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
— Peter Boyles
