Tag: Ethics

Dangerous Republicans, Environment, Ethics, Local concerns, Oligarchy

Trump administration working to change or eliminate boundaries of national monuments to allow increased mining & drilling

by Anne Landman • February 9, 2025 • 6 Comments

Colorado National Monument (Photo: National Park Service)

The Trump administration has started reviewing the boundaries of protected public lands with the intent of increasing mining for minerals and drilling for fossil fuels, actions that could drastically change existing national monuments, a category that includes the Colorado National Monument.

Trump’s newly-appointed Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, issued a 7-page directive (pdf) on February 3, 2025 to implement Trump’s January 20 Executive Order #14154, “Unleashing American Energy,” which has a goal of boosting mineral mining and fossil fuel exploration and production on all federal lands. Burgum’s directive orders federal officials to consider redrawing the boundaries of federally-protected areas that were set aside by past presidents to protect their unique landscapes and cultural resources.

Previous conservation policies are now gone

Burgum’s directive tells federal land managers to “suspend, revise, or rescind” previous conservation policies that include bans on oil, mining, and gas drilling in sensitive locations on public lands. Burgum gave officials at federal agencies until February 18 to submit plans on ways to comply with his order, which includes taking “actions to review and, as appropriate, revise all withdrawn public lands” to facilitate more fossil fuel production and mining for minerals.

National parks and monuments are considered “withdrawn,” or protected, from extractive industrial activities like mining and drilling.

Conservation groups are worried that changes in the borders of national monuments will shrink or eliminate them in favor of increased mining and drilling for fossil fuels.

Crime, Dangerous Republicans, Ethics, Extremism, Freedom under threat, Law and Order under threat, Oligarchy, Trump Insanity

A convicted felon now in charge of the country, Trump is moving quickly to end law enforcement as we know it

by Anne Landman • February 2, 2025 • 4 Comments

Letter sent to federal law enforcement officials who worked on the criminal cases against convicted felon and now U.S. President Donald Trump. The two federal cases against him were for his attempts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election and for hoarding classified and top secret government documents and refusing to return them to the federal government. The letter notifies federal law enforcement employees they are being fired because their investigations did not please Trump.

The following analysis of Trump’s ongoing mass purge of federal law enforcement officials was taken from Rachel Maddow’s show 1/31/25 show, starting at 17:12 into the show (video). I transcribed her presentation and then lightly edited the text to make it clearer as a written, rather than a spoken piece. I also included links to further information. I chose to highlight Maddow’s presentation because it is perhaps the fullest, clearest and most concise explanation of the current state of affairs ongoing on under Trump that has been broadcast so far. (Note: Italicized, bolded and capitalized emphasis are mine.):

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Trump is punishing law enforcement officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who pursued violent January 6 criminals to gain revenge on law enforcement personnel who participated in a previous investigation that is now over. The point of Trump’s actions is to permanently, irrevocably change law enforcement in the United States so FBI and prosecutors will no longer pursue criminal investigations and cases against suspects if the suspected criminals are associated with Trump and his supporters.

Trump is trying to get rid of American law enforcement as we know it.

They are trying to get rid of the very idea of an independent “justice-is-blind” system that makes America who we are. It is hard to see how this can be corrected or undone.

A reminder of the dangers of putting wealthy business leaders in charge of government

by Anne Landman • January 25, 2025 • 9 Comments

Photo: FBI

For those of you who think big business leaders are automatically qualified to run government or head it’s important agencies, here is a picture of the Enron Code of Ethics, signed by the Company’s former Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay. The foreword in the Code states that Enron “enjoys a reputation for fairness and honesty… but no matter [what]… Enron’s reputation… depends on its people, on you and me.”

Remember Enron?

People’s March unites locals who oppose oligarchy, loss of rights & right wing extremism

by Anne Landman • January 19, 2025 • 13 Comments

The People’s March on Saturday, January 18, provided a chance for a large group of Mesa County’s growing number of liberal residents to get together, enjoy camaraderie, speeches, free hot coffee, chai and cookies provided by Octopus Coffee. People were bundled up as the temperature was just below freezing.

The crowd numbered around 300 people.

On Wednesday, January 15, President Biden gave a farewell address to the public in which he warned Americans of a coming “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-wealthy people, and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.” Biden said,

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

Meta’s Abandonment of Fact-Checking Empowers a President Who Traffics in Lies

by Anne Landman • January 17, 2025 • 9 Comments

Republished from The Contrarian with permission from the author, Barbara McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan and author of the New York Times bestseller Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America. As a legal analyst, her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Lawfare, Just Security, Slate, and National Public Radio, and she has been quoted in The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Politico, and other publications.

As false information about wildfires in Los Angeles rages online, Mark Zuckerberg is fanning the flames of disinformation.

Last week, the Meta CEO announced that the company would stop fact-checking posts on its social media sites. Meta will move to a community notes model, similar to that used by the X platform, relying on users to flag false claims rather than using professional fact-checkers, such as PolitiFact. While conceding that more “bad stuff” will appear on Meta’s platforms — Facebook, Instagram and Threads — Zuckerberg said the change was necessary to prevent “too much censorship.”

Disinformation now identified as the greatest global threat

At a time when the World Economic Forum identifies disinformation as the greatest global threat, Zuckerberg is burning down the defense system of a social media company with 3.5 billion users worldwide. What could possibly motivate a move that will certainly lead to more chaos and upheaval in society?

House Ethics report finds “substantial evidence” that Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first pick for Attorney General, paid women for sex, had sex with an underage girl, used & possessed illegal drugs, accepted impermissible gifts and more

by Anne Landman • December 23, 2024 • 14 Comments

Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first pick to be United States Attorney General (AG). The AG serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the United States and principal legal advisor to the U.S. President

On December 23, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Ethics Committee, whose “singular mission is to protect the integrity of the House,” released a long-awaited report on the behavior of former House Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) (pdf), who was president-elect Donald J. Trump’s first choice to be Attorney General of the United States.

Gaetz resigned from his Congressional seat after his nomination to be AG, and prior to the release of the report.

Red Rock Auto wage theft lawsuit headed for trial Dec. 9-11

by Anne Landman • November 20, 2024 • 6 Comments

Red Rock GMC on First Street in Grand Junction, where Derek Paíz was employed as a detailer

A civil wage theft lawsuit, 23CV52 (pdf), filed by a tenacious former vehicle detailer against Red Rock Auto Group II, Inc. and Red Rock’s local minority owner Bryan Knight, is headed for a fast-approaching jury trial December 9-11, 2024 at the Mesa County Justice Center.

At a virtual pre-trial conference this morning, November 20, Judge Matthew Barrett confirmed that the trial is set for those dates and will be heard by a 6-person jury.

Bryan Knight, now listed as a minority (10%) owner of Red Rock GMC

Derek Paíz worked as a detailer for Red Rock GMC at 741 N. First Street in Grand Junction from April-September, 2022. He filed the case pro se (on his own, without an attorney) on October 26, 2023 seeking wages he alleges Red Rock failed to pay him for work he did while employed at the GMC dealership in 2022.

A “weird” watch party for Jeff Hurd and the media

by Anne Landman • November 17, 2024 • 11 Comments

Charles Ashby

The following opinion column by longtime political reporter for the Daily Sentinel, Charles Ashby, is reprinted here in full with permission from the Sentinel’s publisher. The original article is here, on the Sentinel’s website. It is a rare opinion column by Ashby, who has been a news reporter for 45 years, and who has covered politics for about half that time. It describes the unprecedented way District 3 Republican U.S. House Representative-elect Jeff Hurd treated journalists attending his watch party on election night, Nov. 5, 2024.

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In all my nearly 50 years in journalism, about half of which was in covering politics in Colorado, I’ve never heard of what happened during U.S. Rep.-elect Jeff Hurd’s election night watch party occurring anywhere else.

While it’s not uncommon to corral the media at political events, or even bar them from entry, what Hurd’s campaign did to the print, radio and television press at The Warehouse 25Sixty-five Kitchen & Bar on Tuesday night was unprecedented.

Community vigil planned for Amanda Overstreet

by Anne Landman • November 10, 2024 • 1 Comment

A community vigil will be held Saturday, November 16 at 2:00 p.m. at Long’s Park, 3117 Patterson Road, to honor Amanda Overstreet, whose remains were discovered in a freezer in the garage of a house on Pinyon Ave. in January of this year. The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office finally identified the remains on October 11, 2024 as those of the teenage daughter of the previous owner of the home. She was identified as Amanda Leariel Overstreet and was estimated to have been 16 years old at the time of her disappearance in 2005. Her disappearance was never reported. Her death is being investigated as a homicide.

Comparison of interchange projects elswhere in Colorado shows taxpayers are getting a raw deal in Ballot Issue 1A

by Anne Landman • October 27, 2024 • 9 Comments

With other highway interchanges being built elsewhere in Colorado, the developers who will benefit from these projects kicked in millions of dollars towards their completion, or paid the total cost of construction up front and will get reimbursed from the future taxes generated on the retail development it stimulates on the rest of their property.

That’s not the case with the proposed I-70 interchange at 29 Road. The owners of the land the interchange would be built on haven’t pledged a dime towards its construction, even though their land around it would likely skyrocket in value after it is built, and generate income for them far into the future.

ACLU accuses Grand Junction Municipal Judge Tammy Eret of constitutional violations on the bench

by Anne Landman • October 26, 2024 • 27 Comments

City of G.J. Municipal Judge and School District 51’s in-house legal counsel and Tammy Eret

On September 23, 2024 the Colorado ACLU sent a 5 page letter (pdf) to Grand Junction officials notifying them that Grand Junction Municipal Judge Tammy Eret has been engaging in “blatantly unconstitutional” and “harmful” practices in City court sessions. The letter accuses Eret of “persistently and illegally” denying incarcerated people access to court-appointed counsel, coercing uncounseled guilty pleas, and imposing “lengthy, uncounseled, illegal jail sentences.” The letter gives detailed examples of such instances, even including some of the the in-court dialogue between Eret and the people who were before her in court.

Sports car with Red Rock dealer plates parked in handicapped spot at Target, with two able-bodied, 20-something men loading stuff into it

by Anne Landman • October 10, 2024 • 15 Comments

Car with Red Rock Nissan license plate frame and dealer tags parked illegally in a handicap spot at 4:05 p.m. on 10/10/24 in front of Target at Mesa Mall, Grand Junction.

Today, Thursday, October 10, 2024 at 4:05 p.m., someone snapped this photo of a red, two-door Dodge sports car with dealer plates and a Red Rock Nissan license plate frame, parked, idling, in a handicap parking spot in front of Target at Mesa Mall, with two able-bodied, 20-something young men loading stuff into it. The license plate number was DQP-G43. The plate had the letters “DLR” vertically on the left side, meaning it is a dealer plate. This means at least one of the two young men had to work at a Red Rock Auto dealership in order to have access to the plate. The license plate frame said “Red Rock Nissan.”

Proposition 127: Prohibit bobcat, lynx and mountain lion hunting

by Anne Landman • October 7, 2024 • 5 Comments

Propositions with three numbers (e.g., Proposition 127, Proposition 128, etc.) are measures amending state statutes.

Proposition 127 is a grassroots citizens initiative that would make it illegal to hunt, shoot at, or trap bobcats, lynx, and mountain lions in Colorado. The only exceptions are for the protection of human life, property and livestock. Violation would be a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by a fine and limiting of the violator’s wildlife hunting privileges.

The measure is supported by Cats Aren’t Trophies, and is endorsed by animal welfare societies, wildlife sanctuaries and rescues, Audubon Societies, Wild Earth Guardians and the Sierra Club, among others.

Judge sentences Tina Peters to 9 years of incarceration, plus 3 years of parole after she completes her sentence

by Anne Landman • October 3, 2024 • 24 Comments

Here is the last 22 minutes of today’s sentencing hearing in which Judge Barrett gives Tina a stern talk how and why he arrived at the sentence he chose, and in which she finds out she is sentenced to 9 years of incarceration (6 months in the Mesa County Detention Facility to be served first, and then 8 1/2 more years in the Department of Corrections) plus 3 years of parole after she completes her sentence.

Conservatives, Democracy under threat, Ethics, Lauren Boebert

Trump admits he lost the 2020 election, causing supporters to turn on him

by Anne Landman • September 10, 2024 • 6 Comments

Mesa County’s die-hard, Trump-loving Republicans probably won’t want to hear this, but Donald Trump admitted in a September 3, 2024 interview with Lex Fridman that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden “by a whisker.” The full interview of Trump is 1 hour and 4 minutes long. The admission that he lost the 2020 election starts at 10:41 in the interview.

And this is not the only time Trump has admitted this, either.

During a visit to the southern border in Arizona last August, he acknowledged that he lost the election, saying he “came up a little short.”

Trump’s admissions come after years in which he relentlessly lied to his supporters by claiming he was robbed of victory in the 2020 election due to widespread voter fraud, a claim that he’s never proven. Despite this, millions of Americans believed him.

Visual depiction of equality, equity and social justice

by Anne Landman • August 31, 2024 • 10 Comments

This is a good visual depiction of the meaning of equality, equity and social justice, as compared to the socio-cultural reality in many instances in the U.S.

Advertising, Ethics, Greedwashing, Health care, Marketing, Pollution, Scams

St. Mary’s helps greedwash one of Earth’s worst corporate criminals

by Anne Landman • August 3, 2024 • 6 Comments

Cover of the new “Grand Junction Lifestyle” magazine recently distributed through the USPS mail

Yesterday’s mail brought a glossy new promotional magazine called “Grand Junction Lifestyle.” Given the cute kid and baby animal pictured on the cover, one would hope the lifestyle they’re trying to promote would be a healthy one. But instead, upon opening the front cover, readers are served up a two-page ad promoting one of the biggest corporate criminals and polluters on Earth, the Chevron Corporation:

How to watch Tina Peters’ criminal election tampering trial online

by Anne Landman • August 1, 2024 • 9 Comments

KREX TV will be streaming the entire criminal trial of former Mesa County Clerk-turned-election denier Tina Peters whenever court is in session. You can view it on their website at this link, or live on YouTube at this link. Both links have a Chromecast icon, allowing you to cast live video to your TV if you have a Chromecast device.

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