Month: August 2023

(Colorado Peak Politics)

With school back in session, crucial issues like student safety and … wait, this just in … Auon’tai “Tay” Anderson is trying to bypass conflict of interest rules to get himself a paying job with Denver Public Schools.

Anderson isn’t running for reelection as a school board member, as his polling has reportedly hit rock bottom at a measly 9%.

Now the unemployed political activist and professional sh*t stirrer is trying weasel out some political patronage before his term ends.

The school board tried to sneak it through their agenda and pass it without discussion at their upcoming meeting Thursday, reports Jimmy Sengenberger in his latest Denver Gazette column.

The board has to vote to override their own conflict of interest policy to grant Anderson the conflict of interest of wielding policymaking power while bringing in a paycheck, Sengenberger writes.

It’s all just so slimy-as-usual Denver school politics with this bunch.

“Amid @dps_k12’s deepest credibility crisis in memory, certain school board members are attempting to carve out an exception to the district’s decades-long conflict-of-interest protections — solely to benefit the primary cause & poster child of their own dysfunction.” #copolitics pic.twitter.com/ZqApowewfQ

— Jimmy Sengenberger (@SengCenter) August 22, 2023

Anderson, the most toxic among the dysfunctional school board members, was investigated for “inappropriate relationships with multiple underage students via social media while serving as a board member and a candidate.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

(You can listen to this column, read by the author, here.)

“Bizarro World” was a set of comic books published by DC Comics in the early 1960s. It featured an alternative Earth where everything was, well, completely backward.

Earth in Bizarro World was called Htrae, (Earth spelled backward). Htrae wasn’t a round sphere. It was a cube.

Yes, Superman lived there, but he was evil. Aquaman couldn’t swim. People said goodnight in the morning. You get the idea.

I’m not as up on my DC Action Comics history as I should be, so I had to rely on Wikipedia for this crucial bit. In Htrae, society is ruled by the Bizarro Code which states: “Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness!”

Why this Bizarro prelude? Well, Colorado isn’t a cube, but it is referred to as a “square state.”

May I humbly submit, we live in Bizarro Colorado.

I know, I know — but stay with me on this one. It’s more than just the, “Us love ugliness” with crime. It’s how we accept upside-down thinking.

How could one come to any other conclusion after reading a story on abortion in Colorado Politics recently?

A furor erupted from a bland statement uttered by Gov. Jared Polis. On a talking head show he said, “Democrats don’t believe abortion is good.

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

A new poll is making the rounds showing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert down by two points to one of her many challengers in a head-to-head poll for the 2024 General Election.

Spoiler Alert: The poll was conducted by Keating Research, whose clients include the Colorado Democrat Party and the Democrat candidate it purports to show with the slight lead — Adam Frisch of Aspen.

The results show Frisch over Boebert, 50% to 48%, which is within the 3.5% margin of error.

The polling firm only released a one-pager on the results, which doesn’t include a party breakdown of the 801 likely voters polled in the 3rd Congressional District.

It notes the district enjoys an eight-point Republican registration advantage over Democrats, and credits Frisch’s lead to an advantage with independent voters — 57% Frisch to 40% Boebert.

Clearly, the 3rd District race will be competitive in the 2024 election, as was demonstrated by the closeness of the previous election determined by 546 votes in a recount.

But interestingly, the same poll shows Trump beating Biden by five points and Biden’s unfavourability at 60%.

Is that because independents have had it with Biden’s reign of insurmountable incompetency?

Boebert had a higher favorability rating than Biden at 42%, while Frisch came in last with 34% favorability.

Trump trumped them all with 45%.

At any rate, both congressional candidates have primary opponents they’ll have to get past before making it to the General Election.

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

A district judge ruled against opponents of an Aurora ballot measure that seeks to make the mayor accountable for the city’s operation, instead of the faceless bureaucrat it has now answerable only to the ten council members.

Opponents and their friends in the media have taken to calling it a “Strong Mayor” system of government.

Probably because it sounds more ominous than what it does — switch the city’s system of government from a council-manager system to a mayor-council system.

It sounds wonkish but it’s simple. Under the current council-manager system, if voters don’t like how the city operates, they have to get rid of city council and vote in a new council that promises to fire the city manager, and then hope they keep their campaign promise.

Under the proposed mayor-council system, which most large cities favor, the mayor is charged with the city’s daily operation, and if voters don’t like how he’s doing the job, they vote him out.

Easy, peasy.

The current Mayor Mike Coffman, who indeed has been a strong, hands-on mayor determined to fix problems rather than just talk and study it for years, supports the “strong mayor” system that would not take effect until after a new mayor is elected.

The socialist Democrat challenging Coffman in the upcoming election, Juan Marcano, opposes accountability. He apparently just wants the title without having to be responsible for the work.

Arapahoe County District Court Judge Elizabeth Volz ruled against the opponent’s claims on Monday,

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

“Back to school” doesn’t mean anything for my family, except that various public venues are less crowded during weekdays, and sometimes we can hear band practice down the street. We homeschool year round, with only occasional breaks for travel and special events, and that works great for us.

If public school isn’t working well for your child, you too might consider homeschooling. There are lots of possible reasons for this: Your child is getting bullied, your child is either bored or behind, the quality of education is poor (test scores indicate it often is), your child has unique needs not met by the school, your child wants more autonomy, you want to spend more time with your child, you want a more-flexible schedule for your family, or you’re sick of all the school politics.

How homeschooling works for my family

Approaches to homeschooling vary widely, from “unschooling” to formal schedules that resemble a traditional school day. Here I’m going to describe what works for my family. It might not work for yours.

My child values autonomy. He doesn’t want to be told what to do all day. Yet, at age eight, as he heads into third grade (not that grade levels mean much to us), he does not, in my experienced judgment, always give sufficient weight to what he needs to learn now to achieve the success he’ll value later.

My child genuinely enjoys science.

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Democrat state Rep. Elizabeth Epps was busted for spreading misinformation on social media this past weekend by Steffan Tubbs.

Her little conspiracy theory actually involved Tubbs and his crew, who were at the Capitol on Saturday filming an interview with state Rep. Gabe Evans for a new documentary on the evils of Fentanyl on Coloradans.

Tubbs, no amateur when it comes to politics, shot the interview with the Weld County Republican outside of the Capitol to avoid any conflict with laws or rules, then went inside to film what’s called B-roll footage for background use in the video.

That’s where they encountered Epps, who was cackling and carrying on as she conducted a personal tour for persons of unknown campaign contributions to the Democrat Party, we said with a backhanded conspiratorial slap of our own.

Tubbs wrote about the encounter on his Facebook page, and responded to Epps accusations on her X page.

Is the Representative from Weld County running for Congress? Bc I’m pretty sure I’m watching him try to film a campaign commercial right now.😆

I could be wrong. But I doubt it.

Why else would he have a film crew following you around at the Capitol?

Other theories? Discuss.

— Scuba Gooding Jr. (@elisabethepps) August 18, 2023

As we’ve established, Evans is neither running for Congress, nor was he filming a campaign commercial.

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Denver bureaucrats are combing through a preliminary map of government-controlled locations across the city to determine which ones fit their criteria to become micro communities to hide the homeless.

It’s part of incoming Mayor Johnston’s promise to end homeless during his first term, and get 1,000 homeless under a roof, any roof, in his first year.

Johnston is pursuing a controversial roof-first approach to homelessness, that just gets them off the streets first and then bothers to deal with the issues that put them there in the first place, like drug abuse, mental illness, and joblessness.

PeakNation™ will recall that we get criticized for using the term “ghetto,” but that is exactly what the city is creating with micro communities of tiny homes that only serves to enable a drug abuse crisis that coexists and grows rapidly alongside the legalized marijuana and psychedelic mushroom culture.

Because drug use, and possession of dangerous drugs like Fentanyl are legal in Colorado, too many trusting souls also presume drugs to be safe and harmless.

The Denver Gazette reports the criteria to make the final cut for the seven to 10 micro communities includes the site’s proximity to public transit, distance to schools, current zoning and a plethora of other government rules and regulations.

The homeless sites are also supposed be equitably distributed across the city. We can’t wait to find out what “equitable” means for micro communities of drug abusers and the untreated mentally ill.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

With the NFL regular season just days away, hopes are high the Broncos will finally turn things around this year after a long slump since the glory days.  New committed ownership with deep pockets, a new proven winner as head coach who has authoritatively taken charge, and a number of impressive player acquisitions during the off season are all encouraging.  The biggest question mark is quarterback Russel Wilson who had the worst season of his career last year.  Wilson is also a proven winner and had seemed destined to the Hall of Fame.  In his defense, the Broncos were crushed with injuries to key players throughout the roster last year, especially in the offensive line which gave Wilson little protection.  Will Wilson be the comeback player of the year and take the Broncos to the playoffs?

And who should be the back-up QB?   I’ve got a long-shot candidate with plenty of experience who may surprise you.  You’ll need to sit down; this will be a shock.  Drum roll, please…  How about Colin Kaepernick?

Quit rolling your eyes. I was only kidding.  And this column isn’t really about the Broncos.  That was just a tease.  It’s about Kaepernick who recently posted a video pretentiously touting his creds to return to the NFL as a quarterback, which he’s been doing annually since his NFL career ended in 2016.

Let’s play a game of pro football word association with the first thought that comes to mind.  If I say “Elway,” you might say “The Drive,” taking the Broncos 98 yards down the field in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter of the 1986 AFC Championship game to score a game-tying touchdown against the Browns at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Mortgages have hit an all-time high, gas prices spiked again, and now comes word the cost of dining out in Colorado has increased more than any other state.

And what is President Biden doing about it?

He’s on a whirlwind campaign tour bragging to every voter still gullible enough to believe him that Bidenomics cured inflation last year with the passage of Democrats’ $400 billion Inflation Reduction Act.

And how exactly did $400 billion in pork government spending roll back inflation caused by (checks notes) excessive government spending?

Exactly. It didn’t.

Other than yelling “Stop the presses!” over at the U.S. Treasury, there actually are ways Democrats could help reduce inflation.

Jon Caldara over at Page Two on Complete Colorado lends a hand to the hapless tax-and-spend Democrats by explaining how the elimination of onerous laws and other government regulations they themselves impose would also cut the state’s excessive 24% inflation at restaurants.

Starting with Gov. Polis’s so-called “local control” that ends minimum wage and takes away local control.

Restaurants are particularly sensitive to changes in minimum wage and were hit hardest by that, plus the family leave government program that costs business owners, employees, and the customer.

It is so luxurious people can take every Friday off every week of the year to care for a nonfamily member and get paid for it — permanent three-day weekends!

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

DENVER — While all eyes are on the statewide ballot measure Proposition HH and what it means for both property taxes and the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) should it pass in November, communities across Colorado are also busy putting local initiatives on the ballot with TABOR implications.

In Jefferson County, for example, at least 11 different taxing entities plan to ask voters for some sort of tax or debt increase. Although it is unclear what the question will be at this time, according to an open records request submitted by TABOR Foundation Board of Directors member Natalie Menten, Golden, Littleton, Wheat Ridge, Elk Creek Fire Protection District, Evergreen Parks and Recreation, Idledale Water and Sanitation District, InterCanyon Fire Protection District, Ken Caryl West Ranch Water District, Mountain Water and Sanitation District, North Fork Fire Protection District, and Richards Farm Metropolitan District have all reserved space on the November ballot coordinated with Jefferson County for initiatives that relate to TABOR.

Menten, who lives in Jefferson County, is a long-time activist who spends much of her time during election season educating voters about ballot issues and how to oppose them through the little-known TABOR clause that often goes unused.

TABOR is a constitutional amendment passed in 1992 that, among other things, subjects local ballot measures which increase taxes, add debt, or suspend government revenue limits to a ballot issue notice. The notice is in the form of an election guide that is sent at least 30 days before the election to all households within the district where there are one or more registered voters.

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