by Peter Boyles | Nov 15, 2024 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting With Boyles
OPINION
What we have just come through is the most unpredictable/predictable election perhaps in my lifetime. Donald Trump triumphs over almost everyone. Who was right? Very few people had it. For the first time in my life I anchored to, modestly he says, great success election night coverage. We had made plans to have hotel rooms, caterers, but at 11:28 Tuesday night I wrote it down to mark it, Pennsylvania was called for Donald Trump. At that moment I said I should throw water on the fires, call in the dogs, we’re going home. Trump had won.
But, and I cannot do math, and I cannot do marriage. I looked at numbers, and I have questions without answers. In the 2020 election, nationwide Trump received 74,223,975 votes, and he lost. Now in 2024, Donald Trump received 74,668,551 votes. It’s not a large difference. The real key it seems to me in the outcome of the election is the number of Democrats and anti-Trumpers that simply stayed away from Vice President Harris.
Donald Trump in the first go around received 232 electoral college votes. This time 312.
For all of us here in Colorado, interestingly enough, Trump received even less votes.
It is an unheard of victory in so far as Donald Trump the man, but what I believe it speaks volumes to is a rejection of having: little boys simply proclaim they are girls and beating up our daughters on the athletic fields; ripping down monuments to historical figures; changing the names of military installations; changing the names of mountain tops, rivers, and streets; public education that seems to be an absolute failure; a border that’s like a sieve; and a crime rate that skyrockets.
The Biden administration has gotten the United States into a surrogate war against Putin, a Middle East that end of the Trump last term was relative calm is not now, it cost me $20 to fill up a tank on a Harley Davidson, the inflation in the supermarkets, the cost of food, and a general malaise that came over this country.
They did not show up for Harris. Those were greater factors than Donald Trump being considered crazy.
The question now is what will the first 100 days bring? I don’t believe the press is going to leave Trump alone, but if you go back and look at Reagan and Kennedy, the idea was the press was going to give them a honeymoon period. But Trump is not going to get this.
I think the single biggest casualty in the outcome of this presidential race is clearly corporate media. If you think no one cared about what the national media had to say before, did you see the looks on their faces on Tuesday night? Especially when the call came in that Trump had won. It’s also, I think, significant this was not a COVID election, and both Pennsylvania and Georgia had new legislation, which when the counting began, it could not stop, which cleans up those accusations.
The victor is clearly Donald Trump.
A hundred days will mark what’s coming our way. The man made a lot of promises. Now he has the House and the Senate, there’s no roadblocks. The future of the next four years of this country will be determiend by the first hundred days, and it is a make or break. If all the things that Trump promised will happen or partially happen, we head for a better time.
If, on the other hand, the people that predict he is getting crazier by the day are correct, it could turn out to be the wildest time since Richard Nixon and Watergate. For Joe Biden, who I believe holds as much responsibility for Trump’s win as Trump himself, the questions will be asked by historians for generations. What was really the matter with the Democrat party, Joe and Dr. Jill Biden, and why they suddenly appointed Vice President Harris to stick her out there and feed her to the dogs. Let’s see what happens folks.
Happy holidays!
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Oct 18, 2024 | Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
Here at the Daily Planet, we publish and print our November issue at the end of October. Even as the soothsayer that I am, I don’t think that anybody can really write about winners and losers in our national elections until, of course, next month. Hopefully. So, consider this the column for the holiday season.
So, you ask what is the holiday season? I hate to break it to you readers but not everyone associates the Christmas holidays with joy and fun. Maybe you remember things you’d rather forget. I believe this is almost like the day I stood up and admitted I had no power over alcohol, some 16-year-old kid telling mom and dad he’s gay, and me proclaiming I hate Christmas. More and more as I grow older.
When I was a little fella I believed in Santa Claus and hope springs eternal. As I’ve said before I was sure that pony was going to be under the tree and, of course, it never was. And then my sister ratted out the whole rotten deceiving thing, I really wasn’t getting squat and at that point it was coming to an end. I think I was 8. Now this gift giving thing, why does it take November and December to make us or inspire us to treat one another with care? The commercial holiday of Christmas really shines alone. The amount of money that gets spent on the most wonderful time of the year, from decking the halls to something I warned everyone about, office parties that now no longer exist, when your boss hands you a drink ticket.
So, beginning right before Halloween the holiday triggers are pulled. Safeguard yourself from all the sadness. And remembering we had a better chance of finding some peace as the Germans and the English coming out of the trenches Christmas Eve of 1914, and standing in no man’s land singing carols and exchanging gifts. I think that night might have been the last true Christmas.
Let’s all go out and fight over parking spots, not really getting that last sale item, pushing past millions of people in aisle 3 where nerves are a lot more frazzled, and think of the German soldier Fritz and Tommy embracing in no man’s land in Belgium.
Merry Christmas.
— Peter Boyles
P.S., We’ll be back next month with a scathing article on the fools who vote in the state of Colorado and the United States of America
by Peter Boyles | Sep 26, 2024 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
By the time you read this you may have already voted by mail-in or you’re waiting for that November magic day to go exercise your franchise. To whom to do we owe this privilege that indeed men have given their lives for, for your right to vote?
Democracy, and we are a republic not a democracy, but democracy means rule by the people. It was a phrase that the Greeks of Athens used to describe their self-rule.
Some Romans carried on part of those policies and also in Venice, in the time of the doges. And after that voting was snuffed out by the powers that be. When this country broke from Britain in 1776, voting rights were based on property ownership, and white men over the age of 21 of the Protestant religion.
In 1830, our country dropped religion and property ownership as stipulations to vote. The first presidential election in 1789, states were given the power to regulate their own voting laws, and in some states Catholics, Jews, and Quakers were barred from voting.
We all know the struggle of women’s suffrage. And the Supreme Court once ruled that Native Americans were not citizens so they couldn’t vote either.
Filipinos were barred as late as 1925, unless they served three years in the Navy. Richard Nixon lowered the voting age to 18 in the 26th Amendment and now here we are.
Which brings me to my first experience voting. It was Lyndon Johnson versus Barry Goldwater in 1964, and at the time I was working in a steel mill and on election day, walking to punch your timecard, in what was the time shack, was my union representative. To man after man, he would snap a sheet of paper and hand it to you and say this is who your union endorses. Of course it was from Johnson to dog catcher, they were Democrats.
I, until recently, believed Republicans had tails, and now this day and age, I’m not sure they don’t. But I went with my dad, walked past all the poll watchers, and the union reps wearing what we used to call sandwich boards with Lyndon Johnson’s name on them. The bars were closed because if you can buy an Irishman drinks you can buy an Irishman’s vote.
So now we come to today.
As I said at the opening, men and women have given their lives for the right that you have beginning in the middle of October through voting day in November.
Now we come to this crossroads. What did we learn by a study of the world’s oldest democracy, but that the right to make this choice can easily be taken away.
But if you look at the complex system that we see in America today, developed in Greece and Rome, there is so much on the line. We have now dropped religion and property ownership, and everyone over the age of 18 that is a true citizen now will have the ability to change the course of this country.
Next month we will know.
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Aug 23, 2024 | Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
Peter Fonda — “Easy Rider”
The very first time I ever rode a motorcycle was when some kid brought one into the neighborhood that everyone said was stolen. It was a Harley-Davidson; I think they called them hummers; they were small little bikes. I rode it for the first time and my whole life changed.
I’ve been in love with motorcycles since I was in the first part of my teens. I have a running gag there are only two kinds of motorcyclists in the world. People admit they own a Honda, and people that lie about it. Then came me and Harley-Davidson.
Ask yourself, can you name another corporate logo that people get tattooed on their body. You ever seen anyone with Kleenex or Chevrolet tattooed on their body? I know dozens of people that have the bar and shield of Harley-Davidson tattooed on their body. That’s product loyalty. Harley-Davidson is iconic, it’s a way of life. It’s part of the strength of our country.
Last year was the 83rd Sturgis, and along with a number of my outlaw friends, we were there. And, of course, that was the great boycott of Bud Light. Bud Light as you probably know went woke. It was a Bud Light promotion conducted with an actress and Tik Tok personality, a transgender woman. Allegedly the desire was to address Bud Light’s decline and attract younger audiences. Well, shazam, not only did they not attract, they lost. I remember being on the street in Sturgis in the summer of 2023 and the Bud Light long booth bar was empty. I’ve read reports that the product is now down 10% and hasn’t been able to make a comeback. That happened in Sturgis. Knowing that no one learns anything from anything, now Harley-Davidson has gone woke.
The company’s CEO Jochen Zeitz, from Germany and former head of Puma, who took over as CEO in May of 2020, spoke about the great product of Harley-Davidson. At a speech at Zermatt Summit in Switzerland and referring to himself he said, “So I became the Taliban in a substantial way. I decided to share and create a sustainability committee I’m chairing today to change long time Harley-Davidson policies.”
Now for the uninformed, the Taliban is a condemned terrorist group that runs Afghanistan. It killed 3,000 Americans in 9/11 and injured 6,000 more, and another 2,500 U.S. service members were killed going after the Taliban in Afghanistan. In the words of my father, what the hell are you thinking?
The Taliban. How do you compare Harley-Davidson to an international terrorist organization, and believing that your principal demographic is male, veteran, pro Trump Republicans are going to jump with glee, oh boy.
The motorcycle is a huge part of my life and lifestyle, the heart and soul of the machine I love so much, that’s been so much a part of my life. Does it now rest in the caves of Tora Bora?
What did they not understand about going woke and watching Bud Light?
The CEO supports hard line policies on trans care for kids, critical race theory, diversity equity, and inclusion efforts on all levels of the company. Employees are fearful they’re going to lose their jobs after production has been moved to Thailand. There’s a revolt inside of the more than 200 Harley-Davidson dealers to oust the current CEO.
When news breaks out, we break in…. it’s just been announced that Harley-Davidson sees the light. Attempting to avoid a boycott which has its traditions in the Irish land wars where the British hired a rent collector named Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott. The Irish would “boycott” him and not pay their rents. That’s where the term comes from.
Boycotting worked for Cesar Chavez and the grapes, Anheuser Busch was not smart enough to figure out what a boycott was about, but Harley-Davidson to its credit understood the power of its own consumers and quickly withdrew its wokeness. In my reading similar things have happened to John Deere and Tractor Supply. They both went woke then pulled back. Does anyone want to guess when public education and the media will follow suit?
You can see how boycott is working. Fewer people watch mainstream news. More people are putting their kids in private schools or home schools. This is boycotting; Harley-Davidson woke up and smelled the coffee and got the hell out of politically correct Dodge.
There’s a whole lot of Harley-Davidson riders breathing a sigh of relief and patting themselves on the back with pride. The boycott that never got off the ground worked.
Live to ride, ride to live.
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Jul 18, 2024 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting With Boyles
OPINION
In spending my entire adulthood in Denver media — when people ask me where did I grow up, I always respond with I think it’s gonna be Denver. I have witnessed the slide of sources of information for Front Range citizens from a time period of a powerful KOA Radio, two vibrant newspapers in the city, to seemingly all the TV stations getting more than their fair share of viewers.
Interesting enough, more than 8 in 10 of us now get all of our information from a digital device. When is the last time you turned on your television to watch the news?
More than 8 in 10 of us say they get their news from a phone, a computer, their tablets, or something they’re constantly checking, social media.
Now remember, like the Front Range, the country is rapidly losing trust in traditional media providing straight news about politics. Notice the coverage of homelessness in Denver. Those who have lost faith now reaches more than 50 percent in newspaper and daily TV news — in less than a year trust in news media has fallen from 46 percent to 36 percent. A Gallup statistic.
And people have turned to forms like blogs, to influencers, to electric tribal chieftains. It’s important that you know or remember that these are not news organizations. No one is editing, no one is fact checking, as I’ve learned the hard way, no one is certainly writing retractions or corrections.
Separating what is straight news in the Front Range from influencers seems to be one of the first steps. And then also, heads up Kyle Clark, separating reporters and news anchors from commentary. Have you noticed that one on air person will wear all of those hats? And after that these turn out to be just people with opinions. And I say take all of them, including my work, with a grain of salt.
Thomas Jefferson schools us that we are responsible for our own knowledge and well-being about the state of politics or the state of the union. One of the breakdowns that I read to get ready to write this is where people get their news.
This will floor some of us.
78% of us get our news from YouTube.
55%, hold onto your hats, say Facebook.
51% claim they go to Instagram also.
Pinterest 37% visit for news.
Reddit, x (twitter), and an outfit called Snapchat, are other sources.
What does that do to what’s left of Denver’s daily newspaper the Post, or radio stations, or television stations?
Remember, because I do, when I could name media personalities that appeared in Pittsburg as a kid growing up or in Denver as a young man.
We were focused on print and broadcast news. I doubt if my grandson ever actually turns TV on.
Most Americans 65 and older say they get their news from broadcast TV news.
As the age dwindles, younger people, 26% of adults between 30 and 65, say they use cable TV or affiliate websites.
Adults under 30 use social media 41% of the time, YouTube 27% of the time, as news sources. None of them want to use the options the 65 plus Americans say they use.
My question to you is, and it’s serious given the political season we’re walking into, how trustworthy do you consider the source where you receive daily or hourly information about politics, foreign policy (for instance Ukraine, Gaza), homelessness? There is growing distrust of news media in America and how little the American people trust the news media.
So, ask yourself, ask your spouse, ask your partner, or people you work with, where do you get your news and who do you trust? And I think you’ll be amazed to see the truth.
In the one-year period that covered the Brent Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination fight, and the end of the Russian collusion affair, news media trust fell from 46% to 39%, according to the Washington Examiner. Certainly, food for thought.
One of the things I’ve heard since the Biden-Trump debate — if it was a fight they would have stopped it — as a formidable percentage of us had no idea the physical and mental shape that President Joe Biden, who has been governing this country, is in. And that my friends should scare us all.
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Jun 20, 2024 | Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
President John L. Lewis
I’ve talked about this many times before, but I grew up in a little steel mill coal mine town on the Allegheny River. And coal miners were a very special part of the men I witnessed growing up. There are two stories that I always remember. One was in the 7th grade and they had school announcements on the public address system when kids lost their parents, or something would happen. The announcement would come before school started. We sat alphabetically and with a name that begins “Bo” the girl behind me had a name that began with “Ca” and the announcement came that her father had died in a coal mine. The infamous Newfield Mine. The roof had fallen in on her dad and I don’t think they ever got his body out.
Later that day I was playing first base with the first organized ball team I played on, and one of the air shafts from the coal mine came up on an angle about 50 yards behind third base. I remember standing on the bag and thinking that Barbara’s father was down there, and I realized how dangerous that job was.
Later, I was working in a steel mill 4-12 p.m. and we got off at midnight. If you know steel mills or coal mines there are bars surrounding all the gates where the men went in and out. And across the railroad tracks from the mill I worked at was a bar-restaurant that actually advertised that they had color TV and it was air conditioned.
That was the place that we headed. It was the summer of 1964. We were talking politics, and these old miners and mill workers would come in there, watch TV and nurse beers in the evening. The wise ass that I am now was who I was then, and the old guys were all named Skee, or Stash, or Stanu, and I asked this old man who he was voting for in the presidential. He turned to me and said who’s running? And I said Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater. And he looked at me and said my president is John L. Lewis. And I remember thinking what a fool he was until later I realized that the great John L. had done more for that guy than all the presidents put together.
John L. got vacation pay, safety in the mines, better pay. The Newfield coal mine had an incredibly bloody history. Management actually kept machine guns, tear gas bombs, and rifles to try and stop strikers and organizers.
To this day it angers me when some guy driving down I-25 in his BMW, sipping white wine in the evening with vacation pay, retirement plans, and medical benefits, says terrible things about the old unions. The unions won that for him as well.
Now comes Joe Biden. The publisher of this paper Chuck Bonniwell, Mark Crowley our site engineer, and myself were at the Trump convention in Cleveland in 2016. Walking around were two honest to God West Virginia coal miners. Their hard hats were covered with stickers, and they were beat up from hitting the sides of the mines. And I went over and introduced myself and they were the real deal, and they were there for Donald Trump. Hillary was threatening to shut down coal mining in America. Now Joe Biden wants to shut down coal mines and replace them with wind and solar. And I’m watching these greenies celebrate the kinds of men I just talked about losing their jobs.
Biden’s crack down on coal powered plants, new rules requiring coal plants and gas plants to match carbon captured technology and mitigate 90 percent of emissions, and instead of trying to meet those requirements, they’ll just close the mines. Pushing these men into retirement. It’s a sad day.
The choice that’s coming for us is in November, when we find ourselves really stumped by both candidates. This green agenda under a reelected Joe Biden is going to be costly. While our biggest rival, the Peoples Republic of China, has doubled its coal fired power growth to 2,400 coal fired power stations since the year 2000. They’ve doubled their coal fired plants and Joe Biden is closing ours down.
Can anybody on the Front Range imagine the impact on Colorado Springs and Pueblo where the coal plants are? You think those bird killer wind turbines are going to run the Front Range? I guess it just looks good on paper. And it makes me more of a Trump guy, and I hate Trump.
— Peter Boyles
