Month: January 2023

(Complete Colorado Page Two)

“Shadenfruede” is a profound German term for taking pleasure in the misfortune of others.  Predictably, Democrats and their liberal media echo-chamber reveled in the chaos surrounding Kevin McCarthy’s election for Speaker of the House.  In retrospect, I’d call it a mixed bag.

Winning a majority in the House and unseating Nancy Pelosi, Republicans hoped to install McCarthy quickly and smoothly to show the public how efficiently they’ll govern.  Even some flabbergasted Republicans asked, “How could the party have blown this opportunity?”

Well, the “party” didn’t.  That was the work of 20 right-wing free agents in the Freedom Caucus, less than ten percent of the 222 House Republicans who overwhelmingly supported McCarthy.  And the rebels aren’t even a majority of the 45 members of the Freedom Caucus, most of whom voted for McCarthy, including Jim Jordan, a practical conservative who nominated McCarthy for Speaker.  Most of the “20,” all stalwart supporters of Donald Trump, nonetheless resisted Trump’s plea to drop the rebellion, “Take the win,” and vote for McCarthy.

The rebels enjoyed the chaos as much as House Democrats, who boisterously applauded their perfunctory nomination of Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a left-wing black congressman from Brooklyn, with absolutely no chance of being elected Speaker.  Dems and the liberal media gushed when he topped McCarthy 212-203 in the first roll call vote, as if it mattered.  Given that not one of the 212 House Democrats would vote for McCarthy, winning a majority of 218 in the first round wasn’t likely.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

(Author reminder: The plastic bag law only applies to bags at “point of sale.” Remind your retailers that they can legally give away carry-out bags by providing them at other parts of the store. – RGN)

Colorado’s plastic bag law is symptomatic of a serious attitude problem among those who passed it. The law reflects the notion that “We the People” serve the politicians instead of the other way around. It also reflects a perverted sense of what America should be. And it encapsulates a troglodytic view of technology and progress.

As I wrote in the first installment, this is a law that calls out for reversal by voter initiative.

A distorted view of America

In America, government and public officials are our servants, not our masters. In the words of James Madison, they are “agents and trustees of the people.” The term “trustee” has a fiduciary meaning: They are to serve our interests, not theirs. They are obligated to make life better for us—not to indulge in power trips, build political bases, or tickle their silly ideological fancies.

Let’s a assume for a moment that the professed reason for the paper bag law (House Bill 21-1162) is the real reason—although my last installment showed that it probably isn’t. If, as the law suggests, we are running out of landfill space, then in our system of government it is lawmakers’ job to find more!

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

DENVER — A bill making its way through the House of Representatives could cost Colorado taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, while benefitting only a privileged few as Democrat lawmaker aim to give retired Public Employee Retirement Account (PERA) holders as well as those part of local government retirement accounts an additional $1,400 over the next couple of years.

House Bill 23-1016, sponsored by Shannon Bird, D-Westminster and Emily Sirota, D-Denver in the House and Chris Kolker, D-Littleton and Chris Hansen, D-Denver in the Senate, would create an income tax credit for tax years 2023 and 2024 for Colorado residents who:

• Are 55 or older at the end of 2023 and 2024;
• Retired from a position that had a Colorado state public pension plan;
• Or retired from a position that had a public pension plan administered by a local Colorado government.

The bill has been assigned to the House Finance Committee, but there is no date scheduled for a hearing as of press time.

According to the bill, inflation is up, and public service employees are likely to be on a fixed income, and Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) increases to their benefits doesn’t match inflation.

The credit would be a refundable credit, meaning that once the taxpayer’s tax liability is met, anything remaining would be refunded to the taxpayer.

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

The federal government is threatening to regulate gas stoves, Denver is already phasing out natural gas appliances in new commercial buildings, and a city councilman wants to ban natural gas use in private homes.

Next month, Denver Councilman Jolon Clark says he will bring forth his plans to phase the city’s way into a ban on gas stoves, space heaters, water heaters and fireplaces in all new residences.

The time is right, said Clark who supports the total electrification option. Climate change is worsening across the world, Denver’s air quality remains poor and natural gas prices are on the rise.

“We’re right at that tipping point where this makes a lot of sense,” Clark said.

Oh yeah, it makes huge sense to eliminate natural gas appliances and go all electric … which requires natural gas.

Progressives are basing their latest “Save the World” platform on a new study claiming nearly 13% of childhood asthma might be triggered by gas stoves.

And yet, according to the CDC, the common asthma triggers include pollen, physical exercise, cats, dogs and other pets, smoke, dust mites, cockroaches, mice, perfume, cold air, dry air, some foods and even bad weather.

If Coloradans are really serious about helping asthmatics, then do something about the price of inhalers, ban cats from … everywhere … cut down all the trees, and let asthmatics drive to work instead of walking or biking.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

I drive a little 1997 Geo Prizm with about 260,000 miles (try to contain your jealousy) on it and had planned to drive it until it died.  Recent calls by Governor Polis to increase the amount of subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs) got me thinking, however.   I like my little red wonder, but $12,500 can really turn a guy’s head.

You see, I don’t have any animosity to EVs.  In fact, they might work really well in my situation.  I live in a small town and more often than not I drive less than 15 miles a day.  I’m also handy enough that I could wire in my own charging station and save on that expense.  My only concern in the process would be that I replace like with like: I don’t want a step down in my standard of living or performance.  Enter the government to plunk $12,500 in my hands to pay down the higher purchase price of an EV.  Surely with generous subsidies like this, I too can own an EV.  Let’s tool up and go shopping.

Before I get to what I found, let me lay out the parameters of what I’m working with.  To match what my current car does, any prospective future car would need to be able to drive at most 15 miles per day on a normal day along with a fortnightly trip to Denver (126 miles one way plus some errand running).  It needs to be able to do this year-round in all weather. 

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Gallup is very excited to disclose in their latest polling that Democrats identifying as liberals has reached an all-time high.

Only 25% of Democrats in 1994 were confident enough to publicly state they sided with radical liberals in their party on key issues.

By 2022, that number more than doubled to 54% of Democrats who describe themselves as liberal or very liberal.

It’s hard to take seriously a poll on political ideology that fails to consider current political ideology.

For example, Democrats have all but abandoned liberalism and the term itself, and instead embrace the “progressive” movement to advance their backwards beliefs.

Liberals, for example, fought against segregation and racism. Progressives are working to segregate the races once more and discriminate against Americans based on the color of their skin.

Liberals were huge supporters of free speech, while progressives hate freedom, and only support government-approved speech.

This poll should depress the Hell out of Democrats and old school liberals.

The Gallup poll included 11,000 interviews — 2,943 Democrats, 3,296 Republicans and 4,307 independents, and asked which of five categories best described their political views.

The results: 9% of U.S. adults call themselves very conservative, 27% conservative, 35% moderate, 18% liberal and 8% very liberal.

Not much there really to celebrate for liberals or very liberals. The fact Gallup doesn’t even recognize the progressive movement to be significant enough to include,

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

It turns out Pinkerton’s license was not revoked as a result of the 2020 shooting death of a protestor armed with pepper spray by a subcontractor hired to guard a 9News employee at a Denver rally.

Pinkerton prevailed throughout the administrative and legal battles with the City of Denver and has once again applied to operate within the city.

Only this time, Pinkerton applied for armed security guard licenses so employees can carry guns, Tasers, batons, and peppery spray.

The security guard who shot Lee Keltner was not licensed to carry a gun in Denver.

Westword reports on the administrative and legal battles over the past two years, which only recently culminated with Denver District Court Judge David H. Goldberg ruling against the city’s efforts to permanently revoke Pinkerton’s security license.

According to Westword, it all came down to the use of pronouns.

The judge granted the appeal on narrow grounds, specifically siding with Pinkerton based on the company’s argument that a section of a Denver ordinance that talks about license suspension or revocation does not apply to the company because the law states that “any act or omission committed by any employee, agent, or independent contractor that occurs in the course of his or her employment, agency, or contract with the licensee shall be imputed to the licensee or permittee for purposes of imposing any suspension, revocation or other sanction on the licensee or permittee.”

If the section had simply stated “his,” it would have implied that the category included corporations,

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Another Denver area hotel has been acquired by taxpayers for millions of dollars to house the homeless and provide nursing care, therapy and other amenities.

Taxpayers are forking over $9 million for the 95-bed Stay Inn hotel plus adjacent property off I-70 in the Central Park neighborhood.

That’s about $95,000 per hotel room, or one helluva down payment on 95 freaking houses.

The Denver Post credits U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette with making the purchase possible with $2 million in “federal funding,” also known as taxpayer dollars — made possible by taxpayers who work hard to put a roof over their own heads.

Taxpayer dollars intended for pandemic relief in 2021 was also used to buy the hotel from IH Holdings.

Less than two years before the purchase plans were announced, IH Holdings bought the property for $3.8 million, the Post reported.

That’s a $5 million profit.

For this.

Taxpayers bought another hotel last week with more than 200 rooms for $24 million that will be operated by a multi-million non-profit group.

Westword reports on what looks to be Denver’s commitment to getting into the slumlord business by housing nearly a thousand homeless folks:

The City of Denver has earmarked another $43.25 million to buy four more buildings, likely motels, and turn two of those into permanent supportive housing and two of them into navigation centers where people leaving encampments can be placed temporarily and connected with housing.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

Each year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issues its “Billion Dollar Event” report, detailing the number of weather events across the United States causing $1 billion or more in property damage.  And every year, it touts this report as proving the damaging effects of man-made climate change.  And every year, despite glaring flaws, the press picks it up and dutifully repeats both the numbers and the message.

In recent coverage of the report, Colorado Sun environmental reporter Michael Booth writes that:

“NOAA researchers tallied 18 separate billion-dollar-plus weather and climate disasters in 2022, the third largest count in 43 years of inflation-adjusted record keeping, and the third-costliest year.”

This is government-made junk science, and the Sun is amplifying and enabling it.

As Roger Pielke, Jr. of the University of Colorado’s Department of Environmental Studies has been pointing out for over a decade, the NOAA report simply fails to account for economic development over time.  Naturally, the number of $1 billion events will increase over time, even if the weather stays the same, and even if NOAA correctly accounts for inflation.

Pielke believes that man-made climate change is not only real, but presents a serious long-term problem that needs to be solved through a combination of changing power sources and mitigation of effects.  He parts company from the climate alarmists, though, when he discredits the more catastrophic models and challenges reports such as NOAA’s.

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

The Republican and Democrat parties in Colorado will be installing new leadership this spring in the reorganization process that begins on the precinct level next month and culminates with the state conventions in early spring.

Some in the media are already having a grand old time trashing the Grand Old Party candidates while downplaying the Democrats’ reorg.

Granted, the Republicans will have a fight on their hands among the different factions vying for control of the state party.

That doesn’t mean Democrats are without their faults, and yet Colorado Politics dutifully reports:

Things are quieter on the Democratic side, with two-term 1st vice chair Howard Chou, veteran political operative Shad Murib and Larimer County party stalwart Tim Kubik in the running for chair.

Meanwhile, the Republicans will be choosing more than just a new chair. They will also be deciding on a new direction for the next two years that will determine whether they can win back some seats, or drift further into obscurity on the backs of issues that just aren’t engaging voters.

Which brings us to the literal elephant in the room, Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk who has touted herself as a potential candidate, but, whose March trial coincides with reorg activities.

Will she be found guilty of breaching voting machines in her ill-fated quest to determine whether the machines had been breached? Can she serve as chairwoman from jail?

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