Month: July 2024

(Complete Colorado Page Two)

Rep. Steve Woodrow (D.-Denver) deleted his vicious “X” (formerly Twitter) post after running into a tempest of well-deserved outrage. But the fact that he posted the tweet in the first place offers some useful insights into the “progressive” gang that currently dominates Colorado.

After the failure of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, most of us condemned the violence and condoled with Trump and his family. But Woodrow is not like the rest of us. Here was his response: “The last thing America needed was sympathy for the devil but here we are.”

For decent people, Woodrow’s tweet provokes the kind of revulsion we feel when we see a loathsome insect about to bite a baby. Let us, however, suppress our feelings and perform some entomology.

Consider first Woodrow’s equation between Trump and the devil. Although references to Satan are not common among “progressives”—they are too secular for that—it is very common for them to confound conservatives and conservatism with evil. That’s why so many have called Trump “Hitler” and describe him as a fascist.

Of course, such comments are objectively absurd: When Trump was President, he was not a dictator. He was not as dedicated to smaller government as I would prefer, but he did work with Congress to lower taxes and deregulate. He certainly is not an anti-Semite: his own daughter is Jewish—as is his son-in-law, whom he employed extensively in his administration.

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

Where do bananas go to get educated? Sundae school. It was good enough to get a guffaw from my nine-year-old. Here’s something funnier: A recent Colorado State University (CSU) study on the social factors of educational outcomes tested among its 43 variables the price of a banana. If you don’t believe me turn to pages 8 and 15 of the study. You should not be terribly surprised to learn they found no significant correlation. (That said, check out the Spurious Correlations website for examples of meaningless statistical relationships.)

But the study is not completely bananas (sorry). Its data “are consistent,” it says, with widespread “findings that students from higher income and more educated households perform better academically.” This goes in the “no kidding, Sherlock” file.

The obvious conclusion to draw from such findings is that public school just doesn’t matter very much in terms of educational outcomes. Wealthier, highly educated parents will make sure their kids get a good education regardless, while the public schools generally do a poor job of helping disadvantaged students overcome their challenges.

Many parents like school because it’s free babysitting; kids often like school because it’s a place to hang out with their friends. Education often has little to do with it.

The exception is high-level classes such as Advanced Placement. Kids actually often learn useful things in such classes. But, generally speaking (with exceptions), you’ll find that the students in advanced classes come from wealthier,

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

A Colorado Democrat state lawmaker who called former President Trump the devil and complained the assassination attempt on his life would generate undeserved sympathy is now pretending to apologize for his mean tweet.

State Rep. Steven Woodrow told Colorado Public Radio that his comment posted on X, which he later deleted after a storm of criticism, was just inarticulate.

He apologized, then went on to explain he meant exactly what he said.

“My message, as inarticulate as it was, is that acts of violence like this are awful and only make it more likely that Trump now wins.”

Woodrow’s cold heart and ruthlessness aside, he’s not wrong.

The tragic assassination plot that killed one spectator and injured two others, plus the Democrats unfeeling reaction to such domestic terrorism will surely motivate more Republicans to cast ballots for Trump in November.

Democrats’ over-the-top response to Trump, commonly called Trump derangement syndrome, has only gotten worse since the man left office.

And he did leave office. Willingly. with the Constitution firmly intact, despite what the left would have us believe.

And yet every plot to destroy Trump’s personal life and political aspirations has backfired spectacularly.

Woodrow has since deleted his entire account on X, and Colorado is all the better for that.

CO State Rep. Steven Woodrow can no longer effectively chair the House State,

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Donald Trump will use the convention stage this week to call for unity in the face of a failed assassination plot, but Democrats and the media have other ideas.

Some in the media are trying to shrug off the shocking and tragic event in which Trump narrowly avoided death, a spectator was killed and two others injured, with headlines like this:

As social media filled with chatter blaming President Biden’s and Democrats’ menacing rhetoric decrying Trump as an existential threat to democracy and a threat to freedom, Kyle Clark of 9News went for the low-hanging fruit and baited his favorite punching bag to blame the same.

NEW: Rep Lauren Boebert (R-CO) tells 9NEWS that “Joe Biden is responsible for the shooting.” #copolitics pic.twitter.com/cTXLj77ITy

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) July 14, 2024

Biden should heed his own advice and knock off the existential threat to democracy crap.

Montage of democrats calling for violence and unrest.
Never forget. pic.twitter.com/juLIGCETQ2

— Sara Rose 🇺🇸🌹 (@saras76) July 14, 2024

Colorado Democrats on social media set out to victim shame Trump, while some offered their halfhearted concern.

And then there are those who continued to poison the political atmosphere.

Deleted his account, I assume that means he is resigning? #coleg #copolitics https://t.co/O3fRR7ZJDj pic.twitter.com/cbcs1JOiy7

— Heidi Ganahl (@heidiganahl) July 14,

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

Denver’s public pensions have been in a state of steady deterioration for years.  Welcome to the 2024 edition.

First, some good news.  The Denver Employees Retirement Plan’s (DERP) funded level finished 2023 improved from a record-low 57.3% to a slightly-less-than-record low 58.1%.  That still doesn’t mean it’s good, but it does mean that for a year, at least, they managed to stem the bleeding.

The problem is in what it took to do that.  Employer (i.e. taxpayers) contributions were $153.1 million, up 18% from 2022, which in turn was up 16.1% from 2021.  Employee contributions came in at $75.8 million, up 4.6% from 2022.  In addition to these large contributions, the plan’s investments returned 9.97%, earning $225.9 million.  (In 2022, they had lost $243.8 million, becoming the major reason why the funded level declined from 66.2% funding to 57.3%.)

So consider this: both employees and employers contributed record amounts to the fund, with employers contributing nearly $7 million more than the actuarially determined contribution (ADC), the fund returned just under 10%, and the funded level still barely budged.

A small part of this was a downward adjustment of the expected rate of return, and thus the liability discount rate, from 7.25% to 7.00%.  The accounting conservatism at work here is welcome; lowering the discount rate makes the accrued liability larger and closer to what what it probably should actually be.  Had the plan left it alone at 7.25%,

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(Complete Colorado Page Two)

Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD) is struggling mightily with their light rail track, and Colorado Public Radio’s Nathaniel Minor has done yeoman’s work covering it. RTD can’t seem to keep their trains running on time as they’re managing multiple problems in multiple sections of track.  It also seems that, for whatever reason–there doesn’t seem to be a lot of clarity on the issue from what I’ve read, the problems are going to be around for a while.  From hearing people testify while waiting my turn to speak at a recent RTD board meeting, I can tell you that there is a lot of frustration among those who depend on light rail to get to work; there were plenty of accusations that the problems are not being managed well.

Small wonder, then, that Minor has made this a cottage industry.  This is more a saga than a single article.  There’s the problem, the official reaction to the same, and, of course, the stories of frustrated riders to cover.  Plenty of grist for the mill.

Receiving noticeably (and undeservedly) less attention from him, however, is RTD’s ballot question for this Fall.  At the same time they are struggling to keep the trains running, RTD is asking to renew their authorization to keep their Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) surplus, and make it permanent this time.  Meaning that they want to keep the money that is due to be refunded to you and to never have to ask again.

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(Colorado Peak Politics)

Freshman Democrat U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen tagged President Biden in an X post and asked him to surrender the party nomination he won because she doesn’t think he can beat Trump.

“With deep appreciation and love, please pass the torch. Read my statement here,” Pettersen wrote.

A member of Congress breaking up with their party’s presidential nominee in a social media post is the most millennial Colorado thing we’ve seen this century.

This is how low the Democrat Party has sunk — forcing out the American voters’ duly elected nominee when he losses one debate and poll numbers dip.

Screw you voters, says Pettersen and other Democrats including U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.

We’re undoing all those state primary elections because we’re afraid of losing power!

With deep appreciation and love, @joebiden please pass the torch. Read my statement here: pic.twitter.com/AN0c3JcApF

— Brittany Pettersen (@pettersen4co) July 12, 2024

Democrats are coming unhinged with Trump derangement syndrome, escalating a mean tweeter to Hitler-like status while whipping up outlandish lies as to what Trump would do if reelected.

Trump’s campaigning on getting the border under control, getting our economy back on track, and resecuring our energy resources.

Dems are acting like he can just burn the constitution, take away all their rights and use the military to round up Democrats into concentration camps where they’re forced to watch his rallies on a loop.

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