Freedom Unaffiliated podcast

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
Progressives stifle free speech with Colorado ‘deadnaming’ bill 6:16

7 dni temu6:16

6:16

Progressives stifle free speech with Colorado ‘deadnaming’ bill By Jon Caldara With apologies to Pete Seeger, and the 5,000 acts who covered his song. Where have all the liberals gone? Long time passing. Where have all the liberals gone? Long time ago. Where have all the liberals gone? Young progressives canceled them, every one. When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn? Longing for liberals Do you remember liberals, those principled freaks of yesteryear, out of step with mainstream society by demanding free speech for all, including those they didn’t like? Usually all Democrats, they fought for and won the right to burn the American flag, even though it offended most citizens. They were so principled in defending a liberal culture they fought for neo-Nazis’ right to parade in places like Skokie Illinois, because even despicable people have a right to say what they want, the way they want to say it. These liberals angered both social conservatives and feminists by protecting pornographers like Larry Flint of the skin rag “Hustler,” even though they were greatly offended by the misogyny and vulgarity in its pages. These liberals laughed at jokes by censored comics like Lenny Bruce. They fought for school libraries to have copies of Huckleberry Finn, even if it was replete with the N-word. They populated organizations like the ACLU and People for the American Way. But these Democrats passed “long time ago.” Are you old enough to remember them? Here’s a good test. Have you ever heard or said the phrase, “I disagree with what you say but defend to death your right to say it”? If the answer is yes, good chance you’re in a retirement home. Or maybe this one. Fill in the blank: “The ends don’t justify the ________.” (The answer we were looking for was “means.” The ends don’t justify the … means.) Modern progressives have rewritten that sacred pledge to read, “The ends justify everything and anything.” Are there still liberal Democrats in Colorado? Like UFO sightings, there are rumors of their existence but no verifiable proof. If they exist, they are afraid to speak up for fear of being canceled by their socialist, coerced-speech overlords now in power. And what a shame it is, too. Free speech has never been under attack like it is now. Don’t believe me? Go refuse to bake a cake celebrating something against your religion. By the way, ever notice progressives only sue Christian cake bakers? You’d think Muslim cake bakers are much more likely to refuse to create a cake celebrating a gay marriage. Hmmmmm. Pronoun policing If principled Democrats weren’t hiding themselves like Anne Frank’s family, hoping not to be found and eliminated, they might take after their ancestors and fight coerced speech, like Colorado’s House Bill 1312 . Beyond disempowering parents’ right to raise their own kids and outlawing gender-based uniforms in schools, this bill not only prohibits misgendering or “deadnaming” a person in public, but it also makes it a “discriminatory act” under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. The pronoun police are becoming the pronoun police, judge and executioner. Deadnaming is calling someone who has “transitioned” gender by his old name, and with this bill, even if he hasn’t officially changed his name. Misgendering means referring to a man with gender dysphoria and who identifies as a woman, as, well, a man. In other words, this law would criminalize telling the truth. That’s worth repeating: The coercion-crazed progressive left is so maniacally out of control they’re making speaking the provable truth a crime. Calling a biological male, by the word “man” would be an unlawful “discriminatory act.” The truth-teller would be open to unknown costs, legal hassles and punishments. But let’s go down the rabbit hole with Alice for a moment and imagine that when a man identifies as a woman his chromosomes magically change from XY to XX. Calling him a man would then be a hurtful lie. Wait, didn’t the neo-Nazis in Skokie do basically the same, say hurtfully lie saying certain races were genetically inferior? Back then Democrats fought for free speech so Nazis could lie. Today they coerce speech and make truth a hate crime. Though calling a trans woman a “biological man” will become a crime, it will still be encouraged to call those of us who use pronouns accurately “ignorant, hater, and fascist.” Democrat liberals of yore used to call that double-standard “chilling free speech.” And a candy bar cost a dime.…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
Turnabout is fair play for government ‘acknowledgement’ propaganda 6:02

14 dni temu6:02

6:02

Turnabout is fair play for government ‘acknowledgement’ propaganda By Jon Caldara You can file this under “and this is the kind of crap that got Donald Trump elected.” The job of government is to serve the citizens, not to indoctrinate them into victim identity ideology. We have choices of where to worship, to read politically persuasive literature or hear debates if we wish to weigh dogmas. Sadly, we have no choice but to interface with the government we have. Should you be forced through ideological re-education sessions to merely access your government? Say you want to learn about the Denver mayor’s plan for yet another debt proposal. You go to the city’s official presentation on it. But, before you can hear anything about it, you’re force-fed a heaping spoonful of identity politics and white guilt. Pandering through ‘acknowledgements’ Baseball games begin with the national anthem. Denver presentations on policy begin with dubious, race-pandering propaganda. At the mayor’s recent presentation, his staff first put up their “Land Acknowledgement” on a PowerPoint slide and recited it aloud: “The City and County of Denver honors and acknowledges that the land on which we reside is the traditional territory of the Ute Cheyenne and Arapahoe Peoples … We also recognize that government, academic and cultural institutions were founded upon and continue to enact exclusions and erasures of Indigenous Peoples. May this acknowledgement demonstrate a commitment to working to dismantle ongoing legacies of oppression and inequities …” Interesting there’s no mention of the oppression among Colorado-area indigenous tribes, the human trafficking and slavery because of tribal wars, and what, by any measure, would be labeled war crimes by the Comanches to their enemies. To learn about a proposal to put you further in debt, you must hear without rebuttal that we continue to exclude and oppress indigenous people. It might be a wonderful point for academics and activists to debate. There is no place for brainwashing prerequisites to simply interface with your government. This steaming pile of white guilt is common in progressive governments. Friends of mine brought their daughter to a student orientation at Colorado State University only to get a similar preamble. Sensing what kind of education CSU values, they left. Their daughter goes to an out-of-state school. Way to keep ’em here Colorado. Denver doubles down on ideological indoctrination with a second acknowledgement recited to their political prisoners, a “Labor Acknowledgement”: “We acknowledge that our country’s economy, infrastructure, and resulting generational wealth would not exist as they do today without the stolen and forced labor of enslaved Africans who suffered transatlantic human trafficking, chattel slavery, and Jim Crow. We acknowledge how these dehumanizing practices have social legal and economic legacies that continue to haunt to this day.” It might make for a good PhD dissertation for a student to argue slavery, not industrialization and innovation was the economic engine that resulted in generational wealth, or even that wealth today is easily traced to pre-Civil War policy. To present it as fact at a governmental forum is North Korean-like forced propaganda. And you’d think there might be even a casual mention that, since its founding, slavery has been illegal in Colorado, or how Coloradans gave their lives fighting with the Union to end slavery. Playing by progressive rules Since the progressive left is weaponizing virtue signaling at taxpayer expense, may I reasonably suggest the right now do the same thing. What’s good for the goose and all. Maybe more sensible cities, I’m looking at you Centennial and Aurora (maybe Colorado Springs, if there’s any sanity left), to start your meetings with a Capitalism Acknowledgement: “We acknowledge that Colorado’s wealth, abundance and unending individual opportunities would not exist without the brave people who risked their fortunes and their very lives to bring industry and opportunity to our state.” Or, perhaps, a Taxpayer Acknowledgement: “We government workers and elected officials acknowledge that the services we provide, and our very jobs, are made possible only by the confiscation of citizens’ hard-earned treasure, and, therefore, we will only use these resources for enumerated, core governmental services.” Someday, Colorado voters, as the nation did electing President Trump, we’ll get sick of this in-your-face virtue-signaling on our dime, and will elect a new regime. And, when they start putting up “Acknowledgements” to a Christian God, our white Founders, or capitalism, you on the left will have no right to complain. But you will be able to proudly say, “We taught them how to do that.”…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
Leftist language police: Coerced speech can backfire 6:09

24 dni temu6:09

6:09

Leftist language police: Coerced speech can backfire By Jon Caldara Renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” is obnoxious, needless and, well, just kinda stupid. And I love it. It’s just freakin’ awesome! After a decadeslong leftist renaming orgy, like changing our beloved Mount Evans into Mount Blue Sky, Gulf of America gives them a taste of their own medicine. Every time you say “Gulf of America,” it’s followed by the implied, “Yep, back at ya, ’cause that’s what that feels like, you jerks.” Gulf of America shows we can play tit-for-tat with their word-fluid virtue signaling. Colorado’s social-engineering left should remember they’re not always going to be in power, as President Donald Trump proves. And the next regime will use the semantic warfare tactics they invented, as Trump, again, proves. Remember when then Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Senate Democrats not to remove the filibuster for judicial nominations? If they did, he said, his team would do the same and they’d regret it. And regretted it they did. The socialists running the Colorado legislature refuse to remember this as they use their power of coercion to compel our speech to mandate their ideological virtue signaling. House Bill 1277 is the perfect example — virtue signaling by gunpoint. This bill will force retailers to slap a “warning sign” by any product that uses fossil fuels. You know, those fossil fuels that move our people and goods, and give us two-thirds of our electrical power which keeps our children warm, our lights on and our beer cold. Every gas pump, every retailer that sells propane canisters, gas stoves, lawn mowers, etc., would have to have labels in large red font that read, “Combustion of this product releases greenhouse gases known by the state of Colorado to be linked to global heating and significant health impacts.” Easier proved would be a label that says, “Combustion of this product creates jobs, wealth and mobility thus is known by the state of Colorado to be linked to greater health.” Electric vehicles will go down in history as the biggest corporate welfare scam ever needed to sell a product people don’t want at a true market price. To make the market even exist, it requires never-before-seen political cronyism and extreme tax perversions. Take my brand-new, extra-macho Nissan Leaf. Just like I take every allowable tax deduction on my income taxes, I decided to take advantage of the ridiculous Colorado corporate welfare to buy an electric car. Like 99% of electric vehicle owners, it is my second vehicle. In other words, an unneeded toy. The list price of my Leaf was $27,685, but the tax incentives and subsidies were $16,600. So, I got this car for only $11,085 before sales tax, or 60% off retail. Colorado cronyism paid for 60% of my car! Now I can be part of the smug class claiming I’m saving the planet by driving a corporate-welfare mobile. But wait — two-thirds of the electricity that charges it comes from fossil fuels, making it a fossil fuel car. And I want people to know that. So, I purchased vanity plates that say, “GAS CAR.” To make it even more clear for the person behind me, I added a bumper sticker: “EV’S ARE POWERED BY FOSSIL FUEL AND YOUR TAXES.” I want Coloradans to know EVs run on coal and natural gas and only exist because of their misspent taxes. Now, my statement is demonstrably true and much easier to prove than the holier-than-thou “Combustion of this product releases greenhouse gases and kills you, government saves you, blah, blah, blah.” So, if this bill passes and machines that release greenhouse gases must carry that warning label, then all EVs must also carry the warning. They run off combustible fossil fuels! (Doesn’t logic just suck?) And when the other team controls Colorado government — and yes, someday they will — they will require my sticker be slapped on the back of every electric car. And Mount Blue Sky will be renamed Mount Trump. And you can’t complain. We didn’t start this semantic war, but someday the Colorado version of “Gulf of America” will come and no one will listen to the left’s cries of “coerced speech” oppression. I hope this bill passes. Forced speech pushing ideologies, like being forced to say men can have babies, created national regime change. Silliness like Mount Blue Sky and this bill will help do the same in Colorado.…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
Government secrecy all the rage under Colorado’s gold dome 5:56

28 dni temu5:56

5:56

Government secrecy all the rage under Colorado’s gold dome By Jon Caldara Last year, majority Democrats in the legislature voted to exempt themselves from large portions of our beloved Open Meetings Law because, as Mel Brooks famously said, “It’s good to be the king.” It took them no time to exploit this new power to operate in the dark. For the first time in half-century, starting at the special session on property taxes, reporters were not allowed in Democrat caucus meetings. The negotiating was done behind closed doors and rubber stamped when they met in public view. Fast-forward to last week, while voting down a bill to let the sun shine again in the state capitol, freshman state Rep. Chad Clifford indignantly proclaimed his legislature is, “as open as it can be.” “As open as it can be”? That’s right up there with, “If you like your health care plan you can keep it…” “I did not have sexual relations with that woman…” and “I am not a crook.” Exempting themselves from open meetings and putting caucusing and negotiating bills behind closed doors seems the opposite of “open.” But simpletons like me are easily confused. Could it get worse? How about effectively taking governmental records that are lawfully open to public inspection and putting them out of reach of reporters and citizens? Sparking a transparency movement This is a tale of two conflicting bills on transparency. Spoiler alert: The bill that makes it worse is on its way to becoming a law. The bill that would hold our government more accountable was slaughtered in its first committee. None of this is a surprise. All of this is an insult. I’ve mentioned previously, the legislature’s hubris in exempting itself from transparency sparked a countermovement unlike anything I’ve seen in 35 years of political work. Independence Institute, which I run, has become the meeting ground for a wickedly diverse coalition of about 50 groups, “team transparency”, coming together to force governments to let the sunshine back in. This is the most unusual ideological gathering of forces since America, Europe and Russia joined together in World War II. When a coalition that includes Independence Institute, the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, the press and broadcasters’ associations and Jason Salzman of the progressive Colorado Times Recorder come together, is it a sign of the apocalypse? As said in “Ghostbusters,” “Real-wrath-of- God kind of stuff … dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!” Or does it mean those in power have gone so far in hiding what they’re doing, they’ve unknowingly done the impossible. In the most polarized and divisive period any living American has seen, they’ve brought sworn political enemies, left and right, together for a shared goal. This is Nobel Prize stuff. Send them to Gaza. Adding insult to injury House Bill 1242 , by state Sen. Byron Pelton and Rep. Lori Garcia Sander, was a product of this coalition. The bill would have repealed last year’s act of legislative arrogance, capped and standardized the costs of open record requests and set hard deadlines for Colorado governments to make requested material available. On March 10, Rep. Garcia Sander passionately presented our bill to the House Committee on State Affairs, affectionately known as “the kill committee.” And on a party-line vote, kill it they did. And the executioners stuck to their talking points: Pillaging the Open Meetings Law was needed so accidental meetings in the Capitol stairwells weren’t violations (which was never an issue). To add insult to injury, this same committee of courageous heroes dutifully passed Senate Bill 77 , which allows districts to stall open records requests potentially indefinitely. Not only does it greatly increase costs to get public records, but it also lets districts legally say, “oh, the person who could get that record is on maternity leave, come back in a year, and then, well, maybe.” In a brazen attempt to suck up to the legacy press, the bill treats requests from “mass media” to faster and better access than we poor schlubs, like citizens, activists and bloggers. Who might they be trying to butter up? When Gov. Jared Polis unfortunately signed the bill exempting lawmakers from open meetings, he said it was just the legislature making its own rules. But if he signs Senate Bill 77, he will be putting more than 5,000 governments out of reach from the people who hold them accountable. Maybe he wants a Nixon-like legacy.…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
Parents should police their kids’ social media, not the government. 5:36

6 weeks temu5:36

5:36

Parents should police their kids’ social media, not the government By Jon Caldara Yes, social media sucks. Government tracking won’t make it better. As regular readers can attest, I am barely literate. If you find my work hard to read, be comforted by the fact I find, well, everything hard to read. It wasn’t until well into adulthood that I understood dyslexia. Giving me a book is like throwing tennis shoes at a paraplegic. It’s just mean. Books on tape opened a new world for me. To check out digital audio books from the Denver Public Library I recently needed to show up in person to get a new library card. They forced me to show them an official photo ID! The horror! The intimidation I experienced! We accept as fact requiring a photo ID to vote is voter suppression, plain and simple. Thus, we outlawed such oppression. By the same logic, requiring a photo ID for a library card is literacy suppression. Showing a photo ID to TSA is mobility oppression, and so on. We’ll get a good sense of our lawmakers’ true priorities on IDs if, instead of mandating voter ID, they mandate photo ID to use your own computer. Enter Senate Bill 86, a well-intentioned attempt to have government play cybernanny to our children. The hope is to protect innocent young people from the abuses, pressures and temptations of social media platforms. Understandable goal, but a job for parents, not faceless governmental bureaucrats. There is something oddly compelling watching elected officials pretend they have dominion over technologies. These slide-rule-aged lawmakers don’t get that tech changes faster than their silly laws. And, no matter how spry lawmakers think they are, they just can’t outrun technology and the young people who know how to use it. Remember when U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette made herself a national embarrassment when trying to outlaw firearm magazines, saying they were thrown away after they were used. (Um. They’re not.) It’s comical when people who don’t understand something try to regulate it. Note to lawmakers stuff you don’t use. History will be kinder to you. Senate Bill 86 requires companies such as X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to ascertain the age and gender of their users. And that really means seeing users’ photo IDs, unless you think kids won’t fib. The bill forces tech companies to report how many users are minors, segmented into different age groups, report how much time these users are on the platform. It gets so nannyistic it requires them to report how many kiddies are using the platform after their bedtimes. Who knew it’s a core governmental function to require big tech to not only mass surveil our children but to make sure they go to bed on time. (As crazy as it sounds, concerned parents could take away smartphones at nighttime, but it’s easier to let government play the heavy. No one wants to stand up to their kids.) With Senate Bill 86, we have the same bunch of legislators who not only still have VCRs at home but have to ask their grandkids to get it to stop flashing “12:00,” crafting legislation to keep those same grandkids off social media. Yeah, that’ll work. They are making the indulgent conceit that good decisions can be mandated by the government limiting the supply of something they don’t like. In this case, social media. But people, especially tech-savvy youngsters, will find a way. Schools use internet blockers to keep students off certain sites and social platforms. In middle school my daughter said the kids found that laughable. They’d just use VPNs to get around the blocks. When teachers found out about VPNs they couldn’t understand what Visible Panty Lines had to do with the internet. This bill leads X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to become the TSA agents of the internet, checking the IDs of everyone who signs on to their platform. To our leftist lawmakers I ask, do you really want Elon Musk, the owner of X, to spy on our children? I think you’d want laws preventing him from collecting this kind of mass surveillance. To our conservative lawmakers, if there are any left, I’d suggest it’s better to find ways to empower parents than to regulate businesses if we care about our children. And for God’s sake, if you’re pushing identification, start at the voting booth. And leave my kids to me.…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
Trump’s out of the gate barrage sends Democrats flailing 5:48

6 weeks temu5:48

5:48

Trump’s out of the gate barrage sends Democrats flailing By Mike Rosen Early in the 2024 Republican presidential nominating process I wasn’t enthused about Donald Trump. While I approved of his accomplishments as president and his public policy agenda, I thought his brash style and the clumsy way he ended his presidency would be a drawback, and that someone like Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley was a more electable and capable choice. As it turned out, I was wrong. Not since FDR’s election in 1932, has any American president come out of the starting gate with such a barrage of action as has Trump (which he began as president-elect even before his inauguration). This Trump bullrush was essential and I doubt anyone else would have had the balls to do it. Restoring America Trump anticipated the all-out opposition of congressional Democrats, deep-state bureaucrats, and the liberal media. He apparently learned a lot about governing from his first term, and now he needn’t worry about reelection. A quick start in the first year of a presidency is a must. By the second year the opposition digs in for the midterm election. That’s already happened with nitwit Democrat “leaders” like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Adam Schiff, Maxine Waters, and AOC making fools of themselves hyper-ventilating at confirmation hearings and protest rallies in the streets. Our founders creatively reengineered democracy, limiting government and fashioning a constitutional Republic driven by the energy of capitalism that became the freest, most stable, and productive system of political economy the world has ever known. In the process it delivered an unheard-of standard of living to its populace. By 2024, that vision was unrecognizable. The Biden presidency ( in name only ) cemented Barrack Obama’s fundamental transformation of America into a big-government, intrusive, bureaucratic, welfare-state that can’t educate its kids or balance its books. Identity politics has replaced individuality and divided the people, defining everyone by race, ethnicity, class, gender, or disability. The Democrat progressive cartel that dominates public schools, higher education, the media, and entertainment has turned many Americans against our history, religion, values, and principles. The mission of Trump and the Republican congress is to roll all that back and fundamentally restore America to its best self. The agenda also includes cooling global warming paranoia, repealing the Green New Deal, unleashing America’s oil and gas resources, and expanding nuclear energy, which will bring down consumer price inflation. The newfound electoral coalition that swept Republicans into power in 2024 will be parlayed into an even bigger win in the 2026 mid-terms. Democrats flailing Why are Democrats outraged at Elon Musk for trying to make the government more efficient? Because they don’t care about efficiency. Government is their all-powerful deity that must always be enlarged to solve all our problems. No, Musk wasn’t elected, he was appointed by Trump just like thousands of other non-civil service federal officials every president is empowered to appoint without Senate confirmation. Musk’s DOGE investigators caught the public’s attention by exposing the U.S. Agency for International Development’s wasteful spending on politicized progressive projects worldwide. But Democrats have asked the court to block DOGE’s access to this kind of information. On the contrary, it’s essential to restore accountability. USAID was created during JFK’s presidency to win the affection of underdeveloped nations. Obviously, it hasn’t. Most of those nations habitually vote against U.S. interests in the U.N General Assembly. Our generous humanitarian aid worldwide goes largely unappreciated, although perhaps half the world’s population would love to come here even as illegal immigrants. It’s preposterous that Democrats attacking Trump pretend to represent “the public” when it was most of the voting public that turned the Democrats out, rejecting their progressive policies, choosing Trump over Kamala, and giving Republicans control of both houses of Congress. Trump is just delivering on his campaign promises as was to be expected. No, Trump isn’t “a threat to democracy” as Democrats absurdly contend. But he is a threat to their control of the country and thank heavens for that. Colorado and Denver are microcosms of all this. The Democrats’ iron-grip on government has Californiacated our once-conservative state. The state legislature and Denver city council continue to pile on yet more intrusive, Big Brother, nannyist, progressive laws and regulations to mold our behavior, reduce our freedoms and raise our taxes. Next, they’ll put a bicycle encircled by bollard protecters on our state flag. As we watch California self-destruct, it’s hardly a model to follow.…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
Female teachers targeting girls new plot twist in grooming students 5:26

6 weeks temu5:26

5:26

Female teachers targeting girls new plot twist in grooming students By Jon Caldara I was born in the wrong time. For instance, I completely missed the sexual revolution of the 1970s when people were having casual sex like it was shaking hands. As an eager young man with hopeful bad judgment and a rupturing libido, I couldn’t wait till I was old enough to join the party. Finally, when old enough I bounded through the front door of the free-love fest just as the last viable woman was boogeying out the back door. I was left standing alone in an empty room littered with Zima bottles and “Afternoon Delight” by the Starland Vocal Band still rotating on the turntable. Yep, I was coming of age just as herpes and AIDS were also coming of age, crushing the certainty of me becoming a young Hugh Hefner. They say the secret to humor is timing. God, the comedian, has remarkable timing. President Ronald Reagan and wife Nancy were preaching “just say no.” I heard “no” so often I thought it was my first name. I swear if Jimmy Carter had just won a second term I could have had the sexual prowess of Mick Jagger. (OK, maybe not Mick, but at least the bass player from the Pretenders or something.) In high school, there were rumors of a lecherous male teacher getting it on with an underage girl. And sure enough, when the girl turned 18, she married the teacher. Stories like that were not uncommon, causing outrage in fathers planetwide. My school had some attractive young lady teachers, yet none of them were messing with the boy students, despite what Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher” guaranteed us. And why would they? Have you seen high school boys? As an adult, well after high school, came the flurry of news stories uncovering hot female teachers having trysts with schoolboys. I remember a story of one smoke-show of a teacher going to jail for sleeping with an underage boy student. When she got out, he turned 18, so love conquers all. Stories like these made mothers irate, worried their innocent boys could be the next hurt by an older woman in a position of trust. Though, really, the only injury the boy would suffer would be from excessive high-fives. And I’m sure his father could conjure an angry face when needed while hiding his injured hand from the high-fives he got at bowling night. Thus is the nature of the sexual double-standard. And, as a man, I say: “What? What double standard?” But what do we do with this one? Shaun Boyd of Denver’s Channel 4 broke the story of a female Columbine High School teacher successfully grooming a female student. The story here isn’t just a modern lesbian twist to the old story of forbidden love between teacher and student. ( Yep, I’m hearing “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” by The Police, too). The story is about the perversion of the educational system to encourage the sexual targeting of students. Instead of immediately firing the teacher, Leann Kearney, and informing the student’s parents of the situation, administrators kept the truth from the parents. They even helped the student lie on a federal form stating she was homeless so she could live with the teacher. When the mom discovered the form and a letter describing Kearney and her daughter kissing, along with thousands of inappropriate emails and texts, she foolishly contacted the school principal. He, of course, dismissed her concern explaining, “Ms. Kearney takes interest in helping kids navigate their sexuality.” Finally, the teacher was fired. The student turned 18. The two now live together out of state. Sexual grooming in public schools has become so commonplace, so virtued by the educational class, parents are labeled the enemy by official policy. Let’s remember the new Colorado law that students may choose their gender and rename themselves without the parents’ approval or knowledge. Beginning with first graders indoctrinated with “The Genderbread Person,” which teaches kids changing your gender is as easy as changing a gingerbread man to a woman, to being forced to proclaim your pronouns in class, modern government education is pushing itself into the sexual coaching of your kids without your knowledge or consent. Only the modern public education system could make lecherous male teachers of yesteryear hitting on high school girls look wholesome by comparison.…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
Nuclear the obvious answer to Colorado’s energy math problem 5:39

6 weeks temu5:39

5:39

Nuclear the obvious answer to Colorado’s energy math problem By Jon Caldara Slowly, very slowly, Colorado environmentalists are learning basic math. Simple math is a wickedly dangerous thing. I strongly recommend you never learn it. Those fool enough to play around with basic math realize our lawmakers have painted us into an energy-starved corner that will, quite literally, kill people in the not-so-distant future. Oh, and for God’s sake, if you were abused as a child and forced math against your will, never, ever look at the national debt. Hopefully, someday we will have commonsense math control with a 3-day “cooling off” period before people can add up the costs of unfunded mandates like Social Security and Medicare. And, if you witness the violent abuse of a child being taught fractions or ratios, call Child Protective Services, or else that kid might never become a successful politician. Colorado’s energy math problem The lawmakers who pushed to shutter all coal-powered plants in Colorado in just five years are beginning to see some obvious realities. Coal provides a third of our state’s energy. (Note to any legislator reading this, a third is a fraction. Please stop reading). So, unless we replace that third of our energy production right away, in five years we’re going to have rolling blackouts. Many people who need electricity to stay alive, such as the elderly and disabled, will die. But wait — there’s more. Our governor demands the state completely use “all-renewable energy” by 2040. But another third of our power today comes from natural gas. So, soon enough, two-thirds of our power supply will be turned off. And just for giggles, these same people are passing laws and regulations to mandate everything currently powered by oil and gas be turned electric. Goodbye gas stoves, water heaters, furnaces and cars; hello all-electric, all-expensive everything. And the coming AI revolution, with its power-hungry data centers, will eat more electricity than ever. Utility companies like Xcel are saying all this could cause electricity demand to quadruple by 2050. Quadruple is math talk for we’re going to need four times more electricity than we’re using today (that’s before we turn most of it off). Remember how you hated math word problems: How do we get four times more energy we can afford after destroying two-thirds of our current reliable, affordable energy production? Solve for X. And I know what you’re thinking. But sorry, even Gov. Jared Polis’ energy experts agree green energy like wind and solar won’t come close to filling the gap because … math sucks. The answer is obviously nuclear There is only one answer to this coming power apocalypse, and lawmakers might finally be realizing it. My friend and colleague at Independence Institute , Amy Cooke, has been leading the fight to bring nuclear energy to Colorado for well more than a decade. Many called it a fool’s errand as she, with our Energy and Environment Policy Center, brought together an unlikely coalition of climate-crazed environmentalists and energy-thirsty businessmen to make 2025 the year nuclear could become possible in Colorado. She explains it perfectly by showing the political challenge as a Venn diagram. One circle contains the enviros for whom climate change is paramount. The other circle represents the cruel people like me for whom cost and reliability, so people don’t die, is paramount. Where those two circles meet is nuclear energy, the cleanest form of energy and, over time, the least costly. More and more environmentalists, the ones afflicted with basic math skills, are realizing our current energy path is stampeding off a cliff. If the climate is the goal, then nuclear energy is the only answer. Likewise, businessmen can see the math even as Coloradans vote for fossil fuel-hating lawmakers. If cost and reliability is the goal, then nuclear energy is the only answer. Enter House Bill 1040 . This simple bill does one thing. It states the obvious: Nuclear energy is clean energy. Given that it doesn’t emit any gases, that’s hard to argue. By officially labeling it as “clean energy,” nuclear could get Colorado to zero-emission power. Variations of this bill have been tried, only to be killed in committee. What’s different this year is it has bipartisan sponsors from both rural and urban areas. Not only is it a marvel some enviro legislators are learning math, but it’s also a miracle this legislature might take a positive step toward reliable, affordable and clean power. But still, really, math sucks. Just say no.…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
Trump executive order tees up birthright citizenship for SCOTUS 5:43

9 weeks temu5:43

5:43

Trump executive order tees up birthright citizenship for SCOTUS By Mike Rosen As expected, President Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship was immediately challenged by attorneys from four Democrat-controlled states, and a Seattle judge promptly blocked it with a temporary restraining order. This isn’t a setback for Trump, it’s an opportunity to set in motion an appeals process that will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. What constitutes birthright citizenship has been contested for a century-and-a-half and wasn’t to be resolved by an executive order. Original versus living It’s a classic dispute between conservatives who believe in the original intent of the Constitution versus progressives who don’t want to be constrained by that. To circumvent original intent, they’ve contrived the notion of a so-called “living Constitution” empowering progressive judges to reinterpret the Constitution to conform with they believe the Constitution ought to say based on their ideology. The old-fashioned democratic process of amending the Constitution is too cumbersome an obstacle to the achievement of the Left’s political agenda. They justify open borders on humanitarian and “social justice” grounds while privately relishing the prospect that a tidal wave of migrants will return the favor by becoming lifelong Democrat voters. When the showdown arrives at SCOTUS, the court’s composition ― six originalist justices and three progressive, living-constitutionalists ― favors the chances of a decision rolling back the unconstitutional expansion of birthright citizenship under current law, which considers children born here to illegal aliens to be U.S. citizens. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified following the Civil War in 1868. It was all about ending slavery and punishing the southern rebellion. Section 1 granted citizenship and all constitutional protections to former slaves “born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof .” As it now applies to foreigners, that key phrase doesn’t just mean being subject to our laws. The framers of the Amendment intended that allegiance to the U.S. be exclusive and to no other country. Foreign tourists legally or illegally in the U.S. are subject to our laws but not our political jurisdiction. They owe no allegiance to the U.S. Hence, if a child is born to them while they’re visiting here, that child should have no automatic right to American citizenship. In an 1884 case, Elk v. Wilkins, SCOTUS ruled that even Indians weren’t granted citizenship by the 14th as they were subject to tribal jurisdiction, not U.S. Arguing ‘jurisdiction’ Consistent with that precise intent, the same Congress that passed the 14th also passed a civil rights law in 1868 restricting American citizenship to those born here “ and not subject to any foreign power .” The author of the 14th, Rep. John Bingham of Ohio, invoked that same principle when he confirmed “that every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural born citizen,” denying automatic citizenship to children born to foreigners in our country who are subject to another foreign power. This foundational principle prevailed for another century until it was upended in 1984 by a liberal 5-4 SCOTUS majority led by Justice William Brennan. In Plyer v. Doe, the majority ruled the equal protection clause of the 14th immunized children of illegal aliens from a Texas law that withheld funding to school districts for their education. But it did not grant them citizenship. Brennan, however, went a bridge too far by further slipping a footnote into his opinion asserting there was no “plausible distinction” between lawful and unlawful entry by resident aliens with respect to 14th Amendment “jurisdiction.” But the case’s ruling had no bearing on jurisdiction in the sense of citizenship. Nonetheless, Plyer v. Doe somehow became the “precedent” upon which the Left has built its house of cards on illegal immigration, anchor babies, “dreamers,” asylum, parole, and a path to accelerated citizenship. They pawn this off as “comprehensive immigration reform” that never seems to enforce border security, much less building a wall. Ultimately, SCOTUS can make its ruling unequivocal with the majority opinion declaring: “It was the intent of the Fourteenth Amendment that only those persons born to citizens of the United States or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction thereof, are the citizens of the United States.”…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
RTD’s institutional racism on display with subsidized transit ‘equity’ 5:39

9 weeks temu5:39

5:39

RTD’s institutional racism on display with subsidized transit ‘equity’ By Jon Caldara I assume you felt the magic in the air a couple Tuesdays ago. We all did. There’s only one day of the year children get more excited than Christmas morning. And that, of course, is Transit Equity Day! As in most American homes, we hung up Transit Equity decorations as the kids helped with baking equity cookies. I had a Dickens of a time getting the little ones settled into bed on Transit Equity Eve. In the morning, we all ran to the nearest bus stop, singing songs of civil disobedience. The children wiggled in anticipation, waiting for the local bus to lumber near. And, oh, the joy on their little faces when they hopped on that belching, bumbling bus. They squealed with delight, for that morning the bus ride was free, 100% paid for from your tax money. Transit Equity Day is an invention of the Biden administration for yet more virtue signaling to the identity politics crowd. But it can serve a bigger purpose — highlighting that public transit is truly and viciously racist. There’s no ‘free’ ride Transit Equity Day is Feb. 4, Rosa Parks’ birthday, the brave civil rights icon who wouldn’t give up her bus seat. To signal their virtue, the Regional Transportation District (but not those cheap bigots at the Colorado Springs’ transit agency) now gives everyone free fares on Feb. 4. But, but Rosa Parks didn’t ride for free. In fact, that was the whole point. She paid full price and, therefore, had a legal right to the same level of service as anyone else. You can tell how successful all RTD’s “free” bus days and months (yes, months) are because of the eerily empty roads throughout the Denver metro area on those days. Masses of commuters abandon their cars to huddle on some crime-filled, dawdling, rolling homeless shelter of a bus or trolley. The Montgomery bus boycott Rosa sparked was successful because it took away a massive amount of revenue from the bus company. That couldn’t happen today. RTD riders only pay 5% of what it costs to provide their ride. “Free” rides don’t improve ridership because RTD is already nearly free, 95% government subsidized. Said differently, a $5.50 “all day” ticket actually costs $110 in expenses, with taxpayers picking up the difference. Imagine if, instead of charging $5.50, RTD offered its riders $103.50 (one less dollar than the real cost) not to ride the bus. Who wouldn’t take that deal? And RTD would save money in the process! Instead of “free” fares on Transit Equity Day, RTD should charge full fare without subsidies, the full $110, and educate the transit dependent how little service they get for the money spent in their name. Racism on display Like most transit agencies formed and funded under the “war on poverty,” RTD’s mission was to serve those who couldn’t afford a car. The mission was never to disproportionately tax the poor, via sales tax, to subsidize white suburbanites who have cars but wish to avoid paying for parking at Nuggets games. If there is such a thing as systemic racism, governments like Colorado’s Regional Transportation District are the greatest oppressors. They build systems designed to guarantee people with money are free to go places where the least among us can’t follow. Without mobility to bring you where you need to be, when you need be there, you will forever be a second-class citizen. You won’t have the opportunities for employment, housing and education someone with the most run-down car will have. You’ll be forced to live and work on a bus route, and you better have your family, friends, medical care and churches on that route, too. Don’t believe me? Go a month without a car. If RTD’s elected board of directors weren’t the racists they are, if they weren’t beholden to crony business interests, if they cared more for the transit dependent they were entrusted to serve than their own empire-building, they would immediately take their 95% tax subsidy and give it directly to the transit-dependent poor in the form of mobility vouchers. Let them ride taxis, Ubers, have a friend drive them or, heaven forbid, buy their own used car. But they don’t wish to give the poor real transit equity. They wish to force the poor to live as they dictate. They will never give up their power over people of color. What would Rosa Parks do?…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
Why won’t leadership in the Capitol livestream the entire Legislature? 5:36

9 weeks temu5:36

5:36

Why won’t leadership in the Capitol livestream the entire Legislature? By Jon Caldara In a previous life I was on the Regional Transportation District (RTD) board of directors. This elected position paid a whopping $250 a month but it did include a free bus pass. And let me tell you, the ladies dig a man with a bus pass. In 1997 RTD (actually, the bond dealers and contractors who run RTD) were trying to con the voters into a massive tax increase to buy a trolley system so bond dealers and contractors would make a killing from the boondoggle. The board was split on this idea, with a slight majority bending a knee to their crony overlords. Denver’s municipal Channel 8 brought forward an interesting proposal: at no cost to RTD they’d televise our board meetings. Awesome. Given smaller governments, from town councils to school boards, broadcast their public meetings, this was a no-brainer for RTD, the fourth largest government in the state. Let the people see the people’s business. The RTD board rejected the proposal. The very same directors who voted “yes” for the tax increase voted “no” to broadcasting their behavior at public meetings. They knew full well if voters saw the dysfunction and ineptitude of the board, they’d never vote to give these clowns more of their money. More than a quarter-century later, the very same dynamic plays out with the clown show that is our state Legislature. Colorado is only one of two states that don’t livestream committee meetings. Colorado is a big freaking state, bigger in land mass than the United Kingdom. If citizens in Durango wish to witness their representatives in action, they must drive 350 miles to do so. This is so far that their soon-to-bemandated electric vehicles will need to charge overnight somewhere along the route. When the House or Senate meet in full, in the big chambers, well, that’s streamed live on ColoradoChannel.net. And that’s fine, but that’s not where the real deal-making of governing happens. That happens in committee meetings. Both chambers have 10 committees each that decide the fate of legislation before it goes to either floor for a vote. Beyond that there are 15 year-round committees and another 14 interim committees. What goes on in these 49 committees constitutes the overwhelming majority of decision making at the Capitol. And you must be in-person if you want to see it. Let me amend that: Every committee room in the Capitol is equipped with video cameras and large TV monitors. If you wish to testify in one of those committees, assuming they allow testimony, you can sign up to do so online. Post COVID, we all understand how Zoom works, even our legislators. So, the only way to remotely witness government in action is to give testimony online. Only then can you see the whole thing remotely. But you must testify and not all meetings have testimony This Zoom participation proves live streaming these meetings is just a matter of flipping a switch to make public what only that handful of people online can see now. Bart Miller, the chairman of the Colorado Channel Authority, the entity created by state government to broadcast video of the House and Senate (but only the big chambers), says they lobbied in vain to let them flip that switch on for years and years and years. And get this, it doesn’t take a vote of the full House and Senate, they just need the OK from one of those committees they’re not allowed to broadcast on Zoom. The Executive Committee of the Legislative Council is made of legislative leadership — Senate President James Coleman, Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie and the minority and majority leaders of both houses. If you’re keeping score at home that’s four Democrats and two Republicans (who have no problem flipping the Zoom switch to “public”). And here’s the cherry on top: since the late 1960s legislative staff must keep an audio recording of all these committee meetings. Bart Miller of the Colorado Channel Authority tells me his governmental authority would be happy to disband all together and go away if legislative staff flipped the video switches on along with the audio switch they already run. When was the last time a governmental authority suggested its own demise to throw some sunlight into some of the government’s darkest rooms? What are they hiding?…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
Obama’s third term as president ends with a gasp and wheeze 6:04

10 weeks temu6:04

6:04

Obama’s third term as president ends with a gasp and wheeze By Mike Rosen The final month of the Biden presidency was the political left’s last gasp, punctuated with an unprecedented and shameful avalanche of pardons, commutations of brutal murderers from federal death row, spiteful executive orders, and public statements overflowing with bald-faced lies. Right after Trump’s inauguration, Joe and Dr. Jill skipped town from the White House lawn on Helicopter One, flying off into the wild blue yonder, likely never to be heard from again. Biden’s legacy will forever be stained by the pardon of his son Hunter (purposefully delayed until after the election) when he had repeatedly promised not to do that. His last-minute unconditional pardons of other family members granted clemency for any unspecified criminal acts dating back to 2014, along with preemption from future prosecutions. This immunizes them from criminal findings of a current House investigation alleging Biden’s family members received money from foreign sources through shadow accounts. How’s that for a get-out-of-jail-free card? During Ronald Reagan’s final months as president in 1988 it was known that his mental acuity was fading but not nearly as dramatically as Biden’s, who could hardly speak much less walk. Without a teleprompter he was lost. His scripted and fumbled farewell address on January 15 won’t be ranked with George Washington’s or Abraham Lincoln’s, sounding more like a delusional campaign speech. Fortunately for the country, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is no longer Biden’s presidential address. Obama’s fingerprints The obstacles and landmines Biden planted in his successor’s policy path will be easily cleared by President Trump, as he amply demonstrated just hours after the inauguration with a tsunami of executive orders overriding all of Biden’s, on which the ink had barely dried. Clearly, Biden’s deteriorating state of mind could not have crafted the intricate obstructions pouring out of the oval office in the final days of his presidency. Instead, the fingerprints of White House staff were all over them. USA Today calculated that three quarters of Biden’s top 100 advisors had worked for Obama. The open secret in Democrat DC circles was that Biden didn’t matter. He may have had the title of president, but Obama-era young radical aides were really running the country. (And those whiz kids must have had a hearty laugh inserting America-hating left-wing billionaire George Soros among Biden’s picks for the Presidential Medal of Freedom.) Biden was the figurehead for the equivalent of Obama’s third term, who had promised to “fundamentally transform America.” NPR reported that 12 of Biden’s first 16 senior appointments were Obama alumni. Biden was a puppet whose ego was flattered by handlers portraying him as the new FDR who would create his own “social justice” New Deal (including a Green New Deal), expanding the administrative state, driving up social spending, opening the border, and codifying the Left’s cultural agenda. Rather than bringing spending sharply down from the hyper-elevated COVID levels, they pretended endless deficits don’t matter and don’t ignite inflation. Turns out, they do. Weird finishing act As a finishing act, Biden’s staff authored a weird speech he dutifully recited on January 17, perhaps a sop to aging feminists of the 1970s, an idiotic resurrection of the long-dead Equal Rights Amendment. Biden proclaimed that “three-fourths of the states have ratified the 28th Amendment as the law of the land” and that “it has become part of our Constitution.” He defended that claim by saying, “I agree with the ABA and with leading constitutional scholars.” (Later, he absurdly told reporters, “To get all the facts, I contacted every constitutional scholar in the world.”) As if he actually wrote the speech himself. Well, I checked the Constitution. There is no 28th Amendment. There are still only 27. In 1972, Congress did approve the proposed ERA and sent it to the states, needing at least 38 to ratify it by 1979 (later extended by Congress to 1982.) When that never happened, the ERA expired like the date on a milk carton. In 2020, 38 years after the ratification deadline, a symbolic attempt by Virginia to be the 38th state to ratify was rejected. Relying on a 2020 ruling by the Dept. of Justice affirming the validity of the congressional deadline, the National Archivist declared the ERA DOA. So much for the credibility of the partisan-Democrat, liberal American Bar Association and Biden’s left-wing scholars. Case closed!…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
FDA spoils Denver’s “My body my choice” Zyn ban 5:36

10 weeks temu5:36

5:36

FDA spoils Denver’s “My body my choice” Zyn ban By Jon Caldara I quit smoking decades ago. I committed to smoking only after sex. The Food and Drug Administration has officially declared the Denver City Council is working to kill people. This counters the council’s stated fib they want to help people stop smoking. I know we’ve been over this before. But the timing of the FDA’s action is just too delicious, like a fine cigar, not to spend a moment celebrating it. If you recall it was mere weeks ago when Denver’s City Council put aside such trifling issues as crime, homeless squalor and tens of thousands of immigrants sucking up city resources to ban the sale of flavored nicotine products. Instead of focusing on how to keep mentally ill violent criminals behind bars and not running around town stabbing folks, the council banned the sale of products like Zyn, the popular tobacco-free nicotine pouch. We were told this was going to save lives by keeping people away from the evil gateway product that leads to deadly cigarettes. How very embarrassing, then, that after years of rigorous study, the nation’s Food and Drug Administration has cleared the makers of Zyn to market their product, finding it leads to reducing tobacco use, not increasing it. Oopsie! Repeat: The national agency whose full-time mission is not fixing potholes, fighting crime or housing homeless fentanyl addicts, but is instead only to study what’s healthy and what’s not, has found flavored nicotine pouches help people get off lethal tobacco, not lead them to it. Let’s take a moment to remember most all progressives chant the mantra “my body, my choice” when it comes to abortion. This very blue state even voted in the most permissive constitutional abortion amendment in the nation, creating a right to abortion nanoseconds before birth at taxpayer expense. I’m a pretty simple guy. So, when I hear chants of “my body, my choice,” I’m foolish enough to think those people mean it. Thus, it makes my tiny brain hurt when I see the very same people demanding others get jabbed with COVID vaccines they don’t want. How does that jibe with, “my body, my choice”? I don’t understand how those who now claim democracy is on the line and fascism is enveloping our nation were the very people who demanded “your papers please” to prove you’ve been vaccinated to enjoy your constitutional right to assemble or travel. Hell, this is how stupid I am: I don’t know how those who claim “my body, my choice” can ban trans fats, sugary drinks, large drinks like Big Gulps, put sin taxes on consumable products they don’t like and even censor restaurant menus from listing soda products. It’s almost like their mantra is, “your body, our choice.” Since the people, like Denver City Council, who are now standing up to fascism are dictatorially controlling what we can put into our own bodies, we can only hope they make the right decisions. So, what will city council do with the FDA’s findings like, “… due to substantially lower amounts of harmful constituents than cigarettes and most smokeless tobacco products, such as moist snuff and snus, the authorized products (Zyn) pose lower risk of cancer and other serious health conditions than such products”? Again, oopsie! Or what about, “… that a substantial proportion of adults who use cigarette and/or smokeless tobacco products completely switched to the newly authorized nicotine pouch products.” Again, there’s no tobacco in Zyn. It gets people off tobacco. But (and I say this with all the same faux passion freedom-hating progressives have), WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN!? Well, keep reading from the FDA: “… the applicant showed these nicotine pouch products have the potential to provide a benefit to adults who smoke cigarettes and/or use other smokeless tobacco products that is sufficient to outweigh the risks of the products, including to youth.” So now not only does the Denver City Council want adults to keep consuming tobacco products like cigarettes, but they are also actively working to help young people build a cigarette habit. Isn’t this the definition of child abuse? Seriously, call Child Protective Services and stop city council from shoving lit cigarettes at kid. And, in other news, to stop the spread of venereal infections, the Denver City Council is banning the sale of condoms which, again, will sadly not affect me.…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
CU Boulder’s institutionalized racism infests football program 5:39

10 weeks temu5:39

5:39

CU Boulder’s institutionalized racism infests football program By Jon Caldara Racial discrimination is repugnant. Period. Our nation has made great strides during our nearly 250 years. And for that we should be proud, not ashamed. Too bad we’ve gone backward with government-sanctioned racial discrimination. I was born the same year of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, raised with our shared goal of a colorblind society. Martin Luther King Jr. laid out that vision as clearly as John Kennedy set a goal of a man on the moon: to be judged on the content of our character, not the color of our skin. Today’s identity politics is the most dangerous, hateful and ugly movement since slavery itself. To teach a child she is what the color of her skin is, not who she works to be, pollutes her and condemns her. The Wall Street Journal recently shed light on this systematic racism at my alma mater, the University of Colorado, Boulder. With a simple open records request researchers found (to no one’s surprise) CU recruits and hires based on race. Those who check the BIPOC box (black, indigenous and people of color) get the benefit of CU’s institutional racism. Not only is this a blatant violation of the Civil Rights Act, which CU turned a blind eye to, it teaches tens of thousands of students that, to get ahead professionally, they must embrace their victim identity. I did find one department at CU turned its back to racial parity — athletics. The Buffaloes head football coach Deion Sanders has brought a new excitement for the first time in a generation. This is likely because winning is more important to him than racial equity. To test this, I perused the team’s website to see how ethnically representative his department is compared to the state. After all, it is Colorado’s flagship university. Shouldn’t it “look” like Colorado? I mean, in the other departments CU is using the same philosophy of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Deputy Chief, and race-over-merit enthusiast, Kristine Larson. Defending her race-based hiring, she said, “You want to see someone that responds to your house, to your emergency — whether it’s a medical call or a fire call — that looks like you.” I know when I had my heart attack my first concern was the racial and gender identity of the medical workers racing to save my life. That’s, that’s just normal. Likewise, football fans also want to see players who look like them. That’s much more important to fans than anything merit-based, like winning games. Addressing concerns female firefighters may not be strong enough to carry a man out of a burning building, Ms. Larson responded, “He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.” If physical strength doesn’t matter in life-or-death situations like being trapped in a burning building, then why would it matter on something as trivial as a football game? The University of Colorado’s overpaid elite overlords obviously agree. And that’s why I expected racial equity on Folsom Field. Remember, according to the U.S. census, Colorado’s population is roughly 62% white, 12% black, 19% Hispanic and 6% Asian. Odd, then, that at a cursory glance of the 46 pictured who make up Coach Prime’s staff only 16 appeared to be white. For those who received a Liberal Arts degree from CU, I’ll do the math for you. Only 21% of his staff is white. And only three, around 6%, are female. The players he recruited also show no racial equity. Of the 99 players on the roster, it looks to me only 28 of them are white. Not to mention the institutionalized sexism CU obviously promotes — not a single chick on the team. Here’s CU’s separate-but-equal race policy: On the field — use merit. Off the field — use Jim Crow (hire by skin color). Sensing the political winds of change, CU just renamed its Office of Diversity to the Office of Collaboration. I’m sure those who made the change are equally supportive of President Donald Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of America. CU’s known for intellectual consistency. There is no “reverse racism,” there is only racism. It’s foul and only made worse when perpetuated by your tax dollars. Oh, and if anyone in the victim-pimping industries care, it’s illegal. Unless you want CU to force three times more white guys on its football team?…

Freedom Unaffiliated

1
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s virtue signaling backfires 5:35

12 weeks temu5:35

5:35

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s virtue signaling backfires By Jon Caldara A warning to the left: obnoxious virtue signaling can be a two-way street. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has a nice warm office. So why instead hold a press conference out in the cold on the violence-ridden 16th Street Mall? Well, for image management, of course. What better way to show how safe and non-stabby the streets of Denver are than a picture of Mayor Johnston calmly standing on those blood-soaked streets, worry free for his own safety. I could almost see the mayor’s taxpaid, cocky communications expert saying, “I’ve got it mayor! Do a press conference out on the 16th Street Mall and when people see you’re not getting stabbed or accosted it’ll prove how safe you’ve made the city! They’ll love you even more!” Brilliant! That is, until the mayor himself got accosted during his own press conference. The image the mayor hoped he gave: “Denver is oh-so-very-safe.” And wouldn’t you feel safe on the 16th Street Mall if you too were virtually glued to a cop as Johnston was with Denver’s chief of police. So, the image the mayor actually gave: “Denver is oh-so-very-safe if you hire a guy to openly carry a gun to protect you.” While we’re talking about the manipulating use of imagery, can we take a moment to celebrate politicians obnoxiously displaying their deep care for the hard-of-hearing? When giving a speech politicians enjoy hiring, at taxpayer expense, some goofy looking guy performing silent modern dance as sign language. Please stop bringing mimes playacting epileptic seizures to your press conferences. Note for the virtue signalers: it’s 2025 and we all have speech-to-text translators in our pockets called smartphones, and we watch closed captioning on all our TV sets. Mayor, do you really think deaf people need to see a Cirque du Soleil performance while you’re talking rather than just reading the instant translation? We all get it. You’re not doing this for the hard of hearing. You’re doing it so we all think you care about the hard of hearing. But what we really think is, instead of hiring pantomimists to signal how inclusive you are, you could use that money to fix some potholes or hire a cop. Back to our picture-is-worth-1000-words, Denver-streets-are-safe, crazy-people-won’t-yell-obscenities-at-you, stab-free mayoral press event. It turns out even next to a cop the mayor wasn’t safe on his own streets as a passerby participated in his own unscripted virtue signaling. The mayor was accosted by a crazed man screaming obscenities at him for making Denver such a dangerous place. If you haven’t seen the unedited video , you really must. While the mayor and police chief are talking about the butcher knife Elijah Caudill employed on his killing spree, a man looking like he was walking to work (unlike the derelict homeless Denver taxpayers support), and without breaking stride, virtue signaled back to our virtue signaling mayor these polite words: “I saw you at the parade, you fucking coward mayor! Fucking, this is your fault! Crime-loving Democrats are burning this city down! Fucking asshole! You should do your job. The city is burning! People are being butchered! Crime-loving Democrats are terrorists!” Okay. Maybe he went heavy on some vulgarities (but many people are desensitized to the word “Democrat”), but the man spoke for multitudes. Or should I say, virtue signaled for the rest of us. Denver has rolled out the welcome mat to attract masses of chemically dependent, mentally unstable homeless people, including Elijah Caudill. Violent criminal immigrants the mayor and his militia of assault-weapon-toting Highlands mommies will protect from deportation are nestled in the loving arms of sanctuary laws. And the progressive-controlled state government, concerned more for criminals than the law abiding, have made it nearly impossible to keep dangerous criminals, including Elijah Caudill, behind bars. The mayor can spout off as many statistics as he likes. But those of us who don’t have bodyguards and cannot legally carry a concealed gun in more and more places, don’t feel safe in Denver. Because we’re not. Mayor, welcome to what the rest of us deal with all the time — having some stranger violently scream a symphony of F-bombs at you. But unlike you, since we don’t have bodyguards, we don’t know if they’re going to stab us to death.…

Podcasty warte posłuchania

1
Black Mirror Season 7 28:30