Tag: Politics

Democracy, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, politics, Republican incompetence, Republicans violating laws

Mesa County GOP: County Clerk Tina Peters’ loss of 574 ballots “trivial”

by Anne Landman • February 26, 2020 • 10 Comments

Embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters (R) may have violated Colorado laws governing elected officials’ conduct of elections. (Photo: YouTube)

The Mesa County Republican Party is trying to minimize the severity of Tina Peters’ loss of 574 ballots from the 2019 general election. Peters left them in a collection box, forgetting to count them. The Mesa County GOP characterized the matter in a February 24, 2020 press release (pdf) as “trivial” and “unfortunate.” The GOP said it was not trying to “diminish the significance of the errors,” and at the same time claimed the matter had been subject to “irresponsible sensationalism” because “no ballots were tampered with or lost,” and “no vote was changed or altered.”

The Republican Party has long made election integrity one of their prime issues, but apparently not so much when one of their own fails to count a significant number of legitimately-cast ballots.

It’s no wonder the GOP is trying to minimize the loss. The ramifications for Tina Peters could be severe, up to and including recall, and/or criminal penalties including fines, imprisonment or both.

Petition demands Tina Peters resign as County Clerk

by Anne Landman • February 25, 2020 • 4 Comments

Tina Peters, Mesa County Clerk and Recorder, neglected to collect and count 574 ballots in the 2018 general election. Mesa County residents have started a petition demanding she resign.

An online petition is up at Change.org demanding Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters resign her office in the wake of her shocking lost ballot scandal.

On Tuesday, February 18, 2020, the County Clerk’s office found 574 ballots cast in the 2018 general election still sitting in the stainless steel ballot collection box in front of the Clerk’s Elections Division office at 200 S. Spruce Street in downtown Grand Junction.

At first Peters took full responsibility for having forgotten to collect the ballots, which earned her some good will, but in a day or two she was blaming an unnamed former Clerk’s office employee for the error, enraging the public and flushing any good will she had gleaned by taking full responsibility.

The Daily Sentinel published an editorial February 22 demanding Peters resign.

Peters claimed the missing ballots wouldn’t have changed the outcome of any of the elections, but did not demonstrate this to the public.

Republican Party sends out fake census forms just as real census begins

by Anne Landman • February 22, 2020 • 3 Comments

Republicans are sending out fake “Census” forms to try and fool voters into thinking they’ve already answered the 2020 census

Republicans are sending out fake “census” forms to voters in an attempt to fool people out of participating in the real government census. The fake form also tries to convince recipients to send money to the Republican Party.

The administrator of a private Facebook group called “The Left Slope” posted photos on Facebook of a fake “census” form he got in the mail, sent by the Republican Party. Republicans designed the mailing specifically to resemble an official Census form, with a sheet containing survey questions. The mailer also has big letters declaring that it is the “2020 Congressional District Census.”

Democratic caucuses in Mesa County are Saturday, March 7 to choose a candidate to run against Sen. Cory Gardner. Here’s what you need to know:

by Anne Landman • February 22, 2020 • 2 Comments

A 2016 caucus in a local elementary school cafeteria

Note: the date of the caucuses has been corrected in the title of this article. They are on Saturday, March 7.

We voted in Colorado’s presidential primary by mail already, but Democrats still have to pick a candidate to run against Republican Senator Cory Gardner (R-Invisible.)

That choice will be made through caucusing, which is a lot trickier than voting in the primary. Here’s what you need to know to participate in the Democratic caucuses coming up on Saturday, March 7:

Mesa County Clerk stumbles onto 500+ uncounted ballots from 2019 city/county election

by Anne Landman • February 20, 2020 • 6 Comments

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was elected despite having zero experience as a government clerk.

The Daily Sentinel reports that when Mesa County Clerk employees went out to collect the early Democratic primary election ballots from the silver box in front of the County building downtown, they found more than 500 ballots from last year’s election sitting inside, unopened and uncounted.

I hate to say it, but…

I told you so.

Back in June, 2018 I wrote a blog about the candidates running for County Clerk that year. I pointed out that Tina Peters had absolutely zero experience in the clerk’s office, while the other candidate, Bobbie Gross, was a ten year veteran of the County Clerk’s office in charge of the entire DMV and its employees, had co-directed the 2016 presidential election in Mesa County, was a Certified Elections Official and was about to become a Certified National Elections Administrator by the end of 2018.

The choice was clear.

“The Day Democracy Died,” sung by our Founding Fathers

by Anne Landman • February 15, 2020 • 2 Comments

A lesson for every western slope voter.

Crazy Republicans, Democracy, Economics, Embarrassing Republicans, Fake patriotism, Liberals, Lies, politics, Stupid Republicans

Socialism is already here and we love it

by Anne Landman • February 13, 2020 • 141 Comments

Republicans fought socialistic programs put in place by Democrats, that Americans now love and depend on, like Social Security, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act.

Many people fear socialism, but that’s because they misunderstand what it actually is.

Democratic socialism already exists at all levels of our government, and not only do we love it, we can’t do without it and when it’s threatened, we even fight tooth and nail to keep it.

In the U.S., we collectively tax ourselves to pay for programs and projects that benefit quality of life for society as a whole. That’s a form of socialism, and it’s how we live.

Examples of socialism are:

State to give free money to CO public schools to teach medically-accurate sex ed

by Anne Landman • February 11, 2020 • 2 Comments

Republican Colorado State Senator Don Coram, a rancher from Montrose, sponsored the legislation creating the grant program

Delta County School District 50J, are you listening?

For the first time, the State of Colorado is offering free money (pdf) and plenty of it to school districts to teach medically-accurate, comprehensive, culturally-sensitive and inclusive sexual education.

Last May, Governor Polis signed the Youth Wellness Act, (pdf) HB19-1032, that provides the funds and requirements for eligible curriculum.

Believe it or not, HB19-1032 was sponsored in part by Montrose rancher and Republican State Senator Don Coram.

3 reasons why government should not be run like a business

by Anne Landman • February 10, 2020 • 3 Comments

Video from MinuteMBA, an online MBA course website.

Climate change, CMU, Crazy Republicans, Democracy, Economics, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Energy, Environment, Extremism, Grand Junction Chamber, Intolerance, Janet Rowland, politics, Ray Scott, Republicans violating laws, Stupid Republicans

Modern-day Republicans oppose progress

by Anne Landman • February 9, 2020 • 1 Comment

Results of a news quiz printed in today’s Daily Sentinel demonstrates the backwards thinking that is the hallmark of conservative, right-wing Republicans.

A short blurb in the Sunday, Feb. 8, 2020 Daily Sentinel offers a lesson on why Republicans are such harmful elected officials.

The Sentinel has a regular weekly news quiz on Fridays, and gives the results in the following Sunday paper. An item today stood out for what it demonstrates about the ramifications of conservative Republican views not just for the western slope, but for society.

History shows that if Republicans had their way in the last century, most of America wouldn’t have electricity.

Despite overwhelming evidence of the President’s guilt, CO Sen. Cory Gardner votes to acquit him

by Anne Landman • February 5, 2020 • 11 Comments

Republican Cory Gardner voted to protect Trump, who was documented to have violated U.S. law, from removal from office.

Colorado’s Republican Senator Cory Gardner voted this afternoon to acquit President Trump of the high crimes of obstructing Congress and abusing the power of his office, even though House Representatives presented overwhelming evidence during the impeachment trial that the President was guilty on both charges. A vote of two thirds of the Senate was required to convict the President. With the exception of a single Republican vote by Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who voted to remove the President, the vote was divided along party lines.

The House accused the President of withholding taxpayer funds destined for Ukraine in an attempt to force Ukraine to announce fake investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden — a move that Trump envisioned would advantage him in the 2020 elections — and of blocking Congress from accessing witnesses and documents pertinent to the President’s actions.

GAO concluded Trump broke the law

New, non-OGRE* candidate running for County Commissioner in District 3

by Anne Landman • February 1, 2020 • 2 Comments

Chip Page. His name on the ballot is “William Chip Page.”

* OGRE is an acronym for “Old Guard Republican Establishment.”

Voters unhappy with the longtime direction of Mesa County politics and tired of the same old people running for office can finally breathe a collective sigh of relief. A new and viable candidate has entered the 2020 race for Mesa County Commissioner District 3, which comprises most of the eastern side of the county, generally east of 30 Road. The current commissioner, Rose Pugliese, is term-limited out.

The Daily Sentinel abdicates its mission, caves to Trumpism

by Anne Landman • January 27, 2020 • 7 Comments

In an editorial January 23 the Daily Sentinel announced it is giving up reporting on Donald Trump’s impeachment. The Sentinel says since they’re not going to change any minds, they’re just going to throw up their hands and give up reporting on it entirely. The paper blames readers, saying “There’s nothing rational about the way people feel about the president.” The shocker here is that the Daily Sentinel is openly abdicating its mission of disseminating information because of Trump supporters.

But it’s also a major false equivalency to say that Trumpers and those who support his impeachment and removal from office are all equally irrational.

They are not equivalent, and the Sentinel knows it.

Republicans have one last-ditch chance to save themselves, and the country

by Anne Landman • January 25, 2020 • 2 Comments

The President’s defenders deny any reason exists to remove Donald Trump from office. There’s nothing to see here. Everything is fine and normal, the President’s call with Ukraine President Zelinsky was “perfect” and he did absolutely nothing wrong. The impeachment is all a big hoax.

Meanwhile, House Impeachment Managers have presented days worth of detailed evidence, including the President’s own damning words, testimony from alarmed government employees, timelines and tweets detailing the totality of the President’s corrupt behavior, how he put his own interests above those of the country, intimidated witnesses, hid evidence of his wrongdoing, invited foreign governments to influence our elections, violated the Constitution and his oath to protect national security.

The difference is stark.

In the words former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele:

“When national polling shows that these folks think that Donald Trump was a better president than Abraham Lincoln, you know this is fucked up.”

State Senator Ray Scott (R) attends Denver rally opposing childhood immunizations

by Anne Landman • January 20, 2020 • 15 Comments

Colorado State Senator Ray Scott

You can judge legislators by the company they keep.

The Colorado Times Recorder reported that Mesa County’s State Senator Ray Scott attended a rally on the state Capitol steps January 8 in which two thirds of attendees displayed signs opposing immunizing children against disease. Yes, you read that correctly: this was a crowd of people who oppose immunizing children against disease. Other points of view represented included opponents of public health, opponents of equal rights for LGBTQ persons, gun rights and anti-tax activists.

Also attending the rally were members of the white nationalist group the Proud Boys, designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Ray Scott is planning on abdicating his seat in the legislature to run for Mesa County Commissioner this year, a position that pays three times what he currently makes as a state senator.

Activism, Climate change, Corporations, Crazy Republicans, Deplorables, Energy, Environment, Ethics, Fake patriotism, Grassroots advocacy, politics, Trump Insanity

Citizens protest Pendley at new BLM office in G.J.

by Anne Landman • January 2, 2020 • 3 Comments

Protest Jan. 2 at BLM’s new offices on Horizon Drive.

About 35 people turned out in 27 degree weather to protest a visit from Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) William Perry Pendley, a right wing anti-government zealot who was appointed to head the BLM without Senate approval.

Pendley was scheduled to visit the new Grand Junction BLM office on the morning of its first opening day.

The protest was at the BLM’s new offices at 760 Horizon Drive, which is also the same building that houses the corporate offices of oil and gas purveyor Chevron.

State House Rep. Janice Rich (R) attended 12/17 rally held to support President Trump’s impeachment

by Anne Landman • December 26, 2019 • 1 Comment

State Rep. Janice Rich (R-Mesa County), left, at the rally on Rood Ave. and 4th Street on 12/17 held to support Congress impeaching President Trump.(Photo credit: YouTube)

State Representative Janice Rich (R-Mesa County) attended the “No One is Above the Law” pro-impeachment rally at the federal building on Rood Ave. December 17, 2019. The rally was held to demand Congress impeach President Trump for Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress. The President was formally impeached by Congress the next day.

Congressman Scott Tipton’s Constituent Services Representative Brandon Bainer also attended the rally in support of impeachment.

Activism, Corruption, Crazy Republicans, Democracy, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Impeachment, politics, Trump Insanity

Pro-impeachment rally most raucous in G.J. history

by Anne Landman • December 18, 2019 • 13 Comments

A rally at 5:30 p.m. yesterday (12/16) in front of the federal building at 4th and Rood Ave. to support the impeachment of President Trump turned out to be the loudest, most energetic rally in the city’s history as some raucous Trump supporters turned out to counter the demonstration.

About 200 sign-and placard-holding impeachment supporters were met by about 40-50 raucous “Bikers for Trump,” State Representative Janice Rich and other assorted self-styled “Deplorables for Trump” on the steps of the federal building at Rood and 4th Street. Trumpers amplified the volume of their comparatively small crowd by using bullhorns to try to overpower the pro-impeachment chanting, to no avail. Their actions just energized the impeachment crowd even more, who yelled ever more loudly and in unison chants like “Impeach Trump!,” “Lock him up!” and “Flush the turd!” At one point, the entire crowd started chanting “USA! USA!”

Page 10 of 30

« 1 … 8 9 10 11 12 … 30 »