Category: politics

Ridgway passes single-use plastic bag ban

Autumn Sagal, Indigo Krois, Elani Wallin and Maizy Gordon (Photo: Telluride Daily Planet)

On December 12 the Ridgway Town Council passed an ordinance (pdf) banning single-use plastic bags and urging residents to curtail their use of other single-use plastics like straws, single-use food take-out containers, coffee stirrers, soda bottles, disposable water bottles, eating utensils and food packaging.

The ordinance states single-use plastics have “severe negative impacts on the environment” on both a local and global scale, that they “contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, litter, atmospheric acidification,” and cause problems with water sources and harm wildlife. Ridgway’s Town Council also passed the ordinance to help reduce the amount of waste going into the town’s landfill.

Ray Scott deceives constituents by strategically omitting key info from social media post

Colorado State Senator Ray Scott tried to deceive his constituents in a recent Facebook post.

In the post, Scott pointed to a recent Denver Post article about how Colorado’s marijuana tax revenues are being used, and used the benefit of a sharply truncated headline and added an ominously intro to create the perception that the legislature is misusing marijuana funds. About marijuana tax money, Scott wrote, “If you thought it went to schools this will enlighten you”.

Below is Scott’s actual post (forwarded to me by a friend, because Ray Scott blocks me from his Facebook page):

How Matt Soper can solve his problem (Hint: It’s not by staying silent.)

Matt Soper (right) and Yeulin Willett (left), who endorsed Soper to run for his seat in the Colorado House of Representatives

Republican Matt Soper has been oddly silent about the legal challenge to his residency requirement to serve as District 54’s House Representative in the state legislature.

Soper hasn’t responded to journalists’ questions about his residency, nor has he challenged the conclusion that he didn’t actually reside in District 54 for the required 12 months prior to the election. Reporters noted that Soper didn’t show up for freshman orientation at the Capitol last week, and a Colorado Public Radio reporter was unable to find him at freshman orientation this week. He isn’t answering phone calls or emails, and there’s no evidence he’s moved into the 10 Hartig Drive house that he claimed was his legal residence, even after he had the occupants of the house evicted as retribution for telling the Daily Sentinel Soper didn’t live there with them.

No one seems to be able to find Matt Soper, much less get a comment out of him about his predicament.

So does his radio silence indicate guilt?

Probably.

What’s Up With That Pervasive, “Too Much Big Government” Theme?

An example of pictorial anti-government propaganda. Corporations have applied the anti-big-government theme for decades to avoid government regulation.

This column was originally published August 26, 2012. It was revised on 12-30-2016 and again on 11-26-2018 to include some new graphics. It’s explains how Americans came to hate our own government, and is still as true as ever.

We hear it everywhere, all the time, like a mantra.

Candidates, TV pundits and political ads tell us we have “too much big government!” Candidates portray virtually any attempt to regulate or tax any industry as a government intrusion into our lives. Candidates are always for “less government.”

What’s up with this pervasive, anti-government theme? How and why did so many self-professed “patriotic,” flag-waving, red-blooded Americans start hating their own government?

“Government intrusion” is a powerful propaganda theme that has been around for a long time, and it’s an argument big businesses often use to subtly manipulate public opinion. As with so many other corporate-derived propaganda tools, the anti-government theme originated largely with the tobacco industry, which has relied on it for decades to get its way in public policy.

Limited time to submit complaints about Republican Matt Soper’s allegedly fraudulent address

Map of Colorado House District 54, which is all the light colored area. It includes most of Mesa County outside of the City Grand Junction and the western portion of the City of Delta.

Constituents in House District 54 have just 10 days after the election — this Friday, 11/16 — to submit complaints to the Colorado Secretary of State about whether Republican HD-54 candidate Matt Soper committed voter fraud and/or election fraud by listing his residential address as a house in which he didn’t live. Soper used an address at 10 Hartig Street in Delta for purposes of voting and qualifying to run for office in HD-54, even though he didn’t actually live at the address. Soper actually lived with his girlfriend on Clearview Drive in Delta, but told the Sentinel the 10 Hartig house was his home “in his mind.” Soper started listing the house as his residence in November of 2017, since a candidate must have resided in the District for 12 months in order to qualify to run for office in that district. The house actually belongs to Soper’s mother, who was renting it out to another family.
The Daily Sentinel reported extensively on Soper’s address controversy in multiple articles leading up to the election.  After the articles were published, Soper quickly evicted the tenants who lived at the address where he had claimed to live so he could move into the house at the last minute. Three of the tenants are disabled, according to the Sentinel. Despite the controversy, Soper won the election.
HD 54 comprises everywhere on the above map that isn’t the green-colored center around the City of Grand Junction. If you live in HD 54 and want to submit a complaint about possible election and/or voter fraud by Mr. Soper, you’d better hurry. Following is a link to information on how to submit a complaint to the Colorado Secretary of State:

The Blue-ing of the Western Slope

Map shows the results of the Colorado governor’s race by county, based on data from the CO Secretary of State

An online interactive map breaking down the the 2018 governor’s race in Colorado by county shows that the western slope is nowhere near as conservative as the far eastern plains of Colorado. It also shows that the western slope has far fewer conservative counties than the eastern slope, and that Mesa County is no longer a “hard core red” county politically. That’s great news.

In Garfield County, adjacent to the northern border of Mesa County, the governor’s race was a dead tie between Jared Polis (D) and Walker Stapleton (R) at 48% to 48%. Pitkin, Gunnison, Ouray, San Miguel, San Juan, La Plata, Eagle and Summit Counties were all “blue” (went for Polis) in the governor’s race. There are only four hard-core “red” counties left on the western slope according to the map: Jackson, Moffatt, Rio Blanco and Dolores Counties.  Votes for Stapleton from all of those five counties together totaled only a relatively meager 8,086. It’s good to see things changing around here, albeit slowly.

Lodging Tax will help the Progressive Left

As Grand Junction’s increased lodging tax takes effect, more money will be put towards marketing Grand Junction and it’s surrounding areas. More and more people from liberal areas will start noticing our area, moving here, and bringing their businesses here, and along with them more diverse political and religious viewpoints and more open minds. One business, Rocky Mounts, has already relocated to Grand Junction from Boulder, bringing about half it’s employees along with it. It also helps draw the right kind of attention to the western slope when the Grand Junction Economic Partnership promotes Grand Junction as “Boulder 30 years ago.”

So not only is Colorado once again solidly “blue” politically after the election, but thanks to the additional tourism tax we just voted in, we can expect the “blue-ification” of Mesa County to continue, and that’s welcome news for the growing and increasingly active progressive political left in our area.

 

Hate in Grand Junction, Halloween edition

This sign was placed on our lawn tonight, positioned facing the house. We were out to dinner and to Best Buy earlier in the evening and when we came back, the subdivision was filled with cars parked along the streets, indicating lots of out-of-area trick-or-treaters were in the neighborhood. The sign wasn’t there yet when we got home. When we got home, we left the front of the house dark and went to the back to watch TV. When I took the dog out for his last walk tonight just after 10:00 p.m., I found this sign placed on our lawn. We have political signs on our lawn for Chris Kennedy, Sen. D-7 and Tanya Travis, HD-55. But this looks pretty planned. If anyone has any tips about who did it, please contact me.

Sen. Ray Scott fails Project VoteSmart’s Political Courage Test

Sen. Ray Scott failed Project VoteSmart’s Political Courage Test

Project VoteSmart keeps track of incumbent legislators’ votes on issues and tries make candidates’ positions on issues easy to discern, like where they stand on healthcare, women’s rights, funding of education, how to deal with budgets, taxation, transportation and other issues. VoteSmart also has an excellent tool that allows you to match up your positions with candidates’ positions on a host of issues, so you can see which candidates most closely match your ideology.

VoteSmart also administers a “Political Courage Test” that measures each candidate’s willingness to answer voters’ questions.

Hate in Grand Junction on full display today at Mesa County Deplorables rally against refugees

People from central America on their thousand-mile foot trek to find a place where they can live in safety with their families. Vicious gang violence has become rampant in some central American countries, forcing families to flee.

An article in today’s Daily Sentinel says Mesa County Deplorables will hold a rally downtown today against the people who make up the “caravan” of central American refugees headed northward on foot towards the U.S. border to escape violence in their home countries. People joined the caravan and have been traveling together to protect themselves against violent attacks while en route to find a safer place to live with their families.

Who are the “Deplorables”?

Mesa County Commissioner John Justman is listed as a member of Mesa County Deplorables

“Deplorables” is a label many of President Trump’s supporters eagerly took on during the 2016 presidential campaign. The social media of “Deplorable” groups around the country depicts the group’s ideology as manifesting broad-brush disrespect towards people from other countries, objectification of women and an emphasis on the way women look rather than on their intellect, abilities or contributions. “Deplorable” ideology reflects feelings of superiority and an outright fear of people who are different physically, racially, sexually and ethnically from people within their own social circles.

AnneLandmanBlog Voter Guide, 2018 Mid-term elections

This guide lists AnneLandmanBlog’s recommendations on how to vote in the 2018 Mid-term election. The conclusions were reached by researching the issues, attending public events to educate voters about the issues, assessing incumbents’ records and candidates’ backgrounds, affiliations and public statements, considering personal assessments of candidates from trusted sources, reading and evaluating the arguments for and against the ballot measures in state’s “blue book,” reading the evaluations in the blue book of judges and justices, and by researching front groups active in promoting or fighting ballot measures where applicable, including the sources of funding for these groups. Primary importance is given on improving health and safety, protecting the environment, increasing fairness for voters and consumers, providing benefits to public education and making elections more competitive in the state.

Pickup of the “Impeachment Now” banner: History made in western Colorado with first-ever banner flight

The banner flew over Delta, Montrose and Grand Junction on Wednesday, October 17, 2018. It was crowd-funded by voters across the western slope who are deeply concerned about America’s loss of credibility, dignity and standing in the world as a result of Donald Trump’s presidency.

“Impeachment Now” banner to fly over the Grand Valley Wednesday, 10/17

The “Impeachment Now” banner  flying over Denver yesterday

A wet, snowy early October changed the planned date for the western slope flyover of Mad Dog PAC’s “Impeachment Now” banner. It was originally scheduled to fly here on Saturday, 10/13 and then over Denver on 10/14, but due to bad weather, the 100 foot by 30 foot banner flew over Denver on 10/13 and will appear over the western slope this coming Wednesday, October 17. The weather is expected to be clear and dry. The pilot needs two consecutive days of clear weather to fly here and back safely over the Rockies. The plane has a top speed of 105 m.p.h. The banner-flying company, Drag ‘n’ Fly, is based in Ft. Lupton, CO, about 30 miles east of Boulder.

Western slope liberal progressives frustrated with the GOP’s offensive, misogynisticbullying, chaotic, lying, Kremlin-backed,  tax-cheating President Trump easily crowd-funded the cost of the flights over both slopes of the Rockies. Mad Dog PAC supplied the banner and the cost of shipping it here for the flight.

Sen. Ray Scott defends taking corporate PAC money

 

Colorado state Senator Ray Scott came out swinging in a blog posted four days ago defending himself against the hard-hitting new “Pay Scott” video posted online by his challenger, Chris Kennedy, that lists all the Corporate PAC money Scott takes.

Kennedy says he will not take any corporate PAC funds, “period.”

Scott justified his taking corporate PAC money by claiming that the PACs that fund him represent the “hard-working families of Mesa County.”

Ha!

Western slope liberal “snowflakes” hope to make history with the area’s first flying banner

Energy against Trump is growing stronger throughout the country, including on the western slope.

Progressives and liberals in the Grand Valley who were thrilled by the anti-G@P billboards currently up on Broadway/Highway 340 just west of Grand Avenue will get yet another boost of support on Saturday, October 13 when, weather permitting, a huge flying banner that says “IMPEACHMENT NOW” will grace the clear blue skies over western Colorado  It will be the first time in local history that anyone can remember a banner being flown over the area.

Oil and gas front group “Protect Colorado” pumps out frightening hype about Proposition 112

Firestone, CO home explosion from oil and gas lines, April, 2017, which killed two people who were in the house. Proposition 112 seeks to prevent against hazards like this posed by oil and gas operations being too close to homes, schools, playgrounds, hospitals, etc.. (Photo: CBS)

At election time we’re always told the same old thing from wealthy business interests: “Ballot measure X is going to wreck our state! Ballot measure X will crush our businesses and cost hard working Coloradans thousands of jobs! Vote NO on Ballot Measure X!”

Now they’re doing the same thing with Proposition 112.

Liberals, be very proud of who you are

Mesa County vehicle that displays enmity towards liberal and progressive residents

Right wingers often disparage political liberals in western Colorado with nasty names like “libtard” and “snowflake.” Some even claim without foundation that liberalism is a “mental disorder.”

But being politically liberal is a profoundly positive thing. 

Why?

Because liberals have made most of the progress in American society.

FREE Progressive Family Picnic Sept. 1 features gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis

Be a proud if you support forward-looking, consumer-friendly and environment-friendly polices!

Attend a FREE political event to celebrate the increasing power of liberals and progressives on the western slope! Come to the Progressive Family Picnic on Saturday, September 1 at the Watson Island Amphitheater from 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. The event is 100% free, no admission, open to all. It celebrates workers and families, so pack a picnic, and bring your family! Come enjoy the grassy amphitheater behind the Botanical Gardens beside the Colorado River at the end of 7th Street in downtown Grand Junction. There will be free live music and even parking is free. The event is sponsored by Claudette Konola and Kennedy for Colorado.  Chris Kennedy, who is running for State Senate District 7 against Ray Scott, will be there and Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Jared Polis will be there to share his bold ideas for the future and meet western slopers in person.

Tell your friends you’ll meet them there! There’s room for 1,000 people!

Senator Ray Scott’s absurd efforts to block progress in the energy industry

Colorado State Senator Ray Scott, die hard promoter of fossil fuels

State Senator Ray Scott (R-Mesa County) isn’t just your average fossil fuel cheerleader. He goes far beyond defending the oil and gas industry by working to hobble and block advancements in clean, renewable energy, including solar energy, electric cars and even by finding creative ways to attack bicycle transportation. Even worse, Scott ignores inevitable injuries and deaths caused in pursuit of fossil fuel development, like the deadly explosion of a home in Firestone, Colorado on May 4, 2017 that killed two people and the July 27, 2018 explosion at a gas collection facility just over the state line in Cisco, Utah that badly burned two workers.