by Editorial Board | Apr 19, 2024 | Editorials
Editorial —
Senator Lisa Cutter
Representative Lorena Garcia
Representative Tammy Story
There is no more contentious issue in the country than the schooling of children. Public school union teachers are one of the most important cogs in the Democrat coalition with funds for Democrat candidates from dues and volunteers for their campaigns. The teacher unions have become more and more radicalized over the years.
The “Red for Ed” movement among unionized teachers has spread across America starting in Chicago, and spreading all the way to states such as West Virginia, Arizona, and Oklahoma. The color “red” in this instance does not refer to Republicans but the earlier association with socialists/communists.
Conversely, educated during the COVID-19 pandemic, parents were shocked by what was being taught to their children and began pushing back. The fight was ratcheted up over the trans issues and in particular the position by some public schools that they would not notify parents while their children were given puberty blockers or beginning to transition from one sex to another.
Wealthy parents who could afford to send to private schools did so to escape the unionized teachers and other parents began homeschooling their children. Parents also began embracing the movement started in the 1990s of “charter” schools which are publicly funded but run by parents or even companies.
Unionized teachers uniformly dislike charter schools and do what they can to destroy them. Not a single charter school in Colorado has unionized teachers. That is where the Polis caper begins.
Democrat Representatives Lorena Garcia, Tammy Story, and Senator Lisa Cutter introduced HB24-1363 they said to reform and update the provisions for charter schools. They claimed to want to make charter schools more transparent and provide them with the same high standards as neighborhood public schools.
It drew high levels of support from a “who’s who” of progressive groups including the League of Women Voters, Colorado PTA, Colorado Working Families Party, Colorado Teachers Association, American Federation of Teachers Colorado, Servicios Sigue, Latino Education Coalition, Colorado Democratic Education Initiative, Advocates for Public Education, and Advocacy Denver.
No one supporting charter schools was fooled. American Federation for Children said that “30 years of charter school work could be undone.” Local charter groups said charter schools in Colorado “will suffer death by a thousand cuts.”
It would seem with strong support from Democrat groups and the state legislature having Democrat super majorities the legislation could not fail to pass.
Governor Jared Polis
But that was the big con. It was never intended to pass. No bill is introduced by Democrats that is not pre-approved by Governor Polis. He, in turn, has great aspirations to run for U.S. President with cross party appeal. He has almost comically labeled himself to be a small “l” libertarian. In his five years as governor, he has done nothing that did not mark him as a far-left politician.
Now was the time for the charter school caper. A true Sister Souljah moment.
When Polis first ran for governor in 2018, he claimed to be a strong charter supporter, having helped start one in Boulder, and appointed pro charter and even Republicans to his education team in 2018.
So why didn’t Polis tell the three legislators that they could not introduce the legislation. That would not work because he would not have gotten credit for killing anti charter school legislation backed by many progressive groups. Alternatively, he could have waited to veto the legislation but by then numerous people would have become attached to the legislation and a veto would ruffle feathers.
So after being introduced and sent to a committee, Polis announced his opposition to the cheering adulation of pro charter advocates. The bill was then killed in committee by a 7 to 3 vote. Polis was a hero to people that normally dislike him and his status as a possible presidential candidate with broad support enhanced.
It is said that most people can be fooled most of the time and Governor Polis has proved that he is very adept at doing so.
— Editorial Board
by Peter Boyles | Apr 19, 2024 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting With Boyles
OPINION
How did this great hatred emerge between Iran and the United States? Always remember that when you get a degree in history you get an arts degree, you don’t get a science degree, because history is interpretive. And you can’t interpret two plus two equals other than it’s four, it can’t be five and it can’t be three. But in history two and two can equal five, or for that matter 105. So why do the Iranians hate the United States of America?
There is a short answer and there are long answers. But if you go back into the end of the Second World War, the Shah’s father was considered pro Germany. And he was overthrown by the Soviet-British movement. After the Second World War British Petroleum moves into Iran.
There as a democratically elected prime minister in 1953. His name was Mohammed Mossadegh.
There were enormous environmental crimes taking place in Iran around the oil. The Nazi Shah’s son was being placed back on the throne by an overthrow of the democratically elected government and the American CIA, British intelligence. The oil multinationals overthrew him and installed him again, through the eyes of history some say, with a brutal dictator, the Shah. For 27 years the Shah ran Iran. He was diagnosed with cancer, the United States said give him asylum, while the Iranians wanted to try him for his crimes. If you consider the reasons that the Iranians see the U.S. as a bully in the Middle East, ask yourself what would you or the U.S. do if a foreign power treated our country in that manner. Why is Iran our enemy?
After the arrival of the Ayatollahs and the Shah flees, then comes the Iran-Iraq War. Beginning in September of 1980 through August of 1988 some people believe the war continued off and on for years. It was triggered when Saddam invaded Iran. The United States, when Saddam was a good guy, supports Iraq giving Saddam several billion dollars in aid which included Bell helicopters. We now know through declassified CIA documents that the U.S. knew Saddam was using chemical weapons. Iranian death estimates are between 100,000 and 250,000 and the United States was helping pick targets for Saddam. And as I’ve said before you may not know much at all of this but the Iranians sure as hell do. That friendship was one of the green lights for Saddam to invade Kuwait thinking the U.S. was his ally.
Again, the country that I love engineers a coup against a democratically elected, mind you, secular government, and imposed a monarchy on the country for all of those years.
It’s important to remember Iranians are not Arabs. They consider themselves Indo Europeans and they are Shia Muslims which has set them on course against other Muslim countries.
My experience is most Iranians love our country, but the real issue, pretty much like everyone else, is with the government.
Following 9/11, George W. Bush, arguably the worst president in my lifetime, when now we all know that Saddam had nothing to do with that terrible day as well as Baby Kim in Korea, and they put Iran on what they call the axis of evil. I’m not defending them but none of those countries had anything to do with the terrible attack on our country on 9/11. The real perpetrators were the Saudi Arabians. And as history tells us December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. As we all know December 8th FDR declared war against Japan. But in his stead George W. declares war against Saddam. That’s not lost on the power in the middle east. It may be lost on you and I, but for the so-called man in the street in the Middle East, it’s not lost on them. So, what’s the way out?
I come back to those moments that historians have said there are places in the world where there is no tomorrow it’s simply yesterday repeating itself.
You gotta ask yourself why are we there? And now we seem to have a host of enemies that could have been avoided. The Iranians that I have met are very generous people and what do you do when they say they want to defend the honor of their people? And the killing continues.
Thanks for taking time out to read this. I remain as puzzled as you are.
— Peter Boyles
by Ashe in America | Apr 19, 2024 | Feature Story Bottom Left
ASHE IN AMERICA — OPINION
On Tuesday, April 9, 2024, House Republicans in the Colorado General Assembly attempted to impeach Secretary of State Jena Griswold. The effort ended as quickly as it began, with all eight Democrats on the Judiciary Committee voting against allowing the resolution to proceed.
The Impeachment Resolution charged malfeasance in office and accused the Secretary of weaponizing her office for political gain and to interfere in the upcoming election. The US Supreme Court’s 9-0 opinion on the matter proves that the Anderson v. Griswold endeavor was frivolous theater, but the entirety of the Centennial State establishment has circled the wagons to make the election interference appear to be a legitimate legal effort.
That is, the accepted truth among the Colorado establishment is that the entire US Supreme Court got it wrong. The mental gymnastics required here are astounding.
No one was under oath during the Griswold impeachment proceeding, raising foundational questions about its legitimacy. Also, why was this resolution allowed to be heard in the first place? Its greatest accomplishment was providing Colorado Democrats a platform to propagate their false reality.
For hours the eight committee Democrats screeched about “insurrection” and “democracy,” reaching a fever pitch when the Secretary’s four witnesses joined the chat. These witnesses patted themselves on the back for being nonpartisan and true “defenders of democracy!” Notably, two of her four witnesses are associated with leftist lawfare outfit Common Cause, and one of them was an attorney for the petitioners in the 9-0 case. The other is a county clerk who is rumored to be Jena’s chosen predecessor.
Another witness for the Secretary was Harry Dunn, the Capitol Police Officer that reportedly lied, under oath, during the J6 Committee hearings, about the death of fellow officer Brian Sicknick.
From Tucker Carlson: “There’s nothing wrong with asking for a moment of silence in memory of Officer Brian Sicknick, we welcome that. You are not supposed to lie in a congressional hearing, and he just did. There is zero evidence to support the claim you just heard that Officer Sicknick died from injuries at the Capitol. But of course, Harry Dunn just said it anyway.”
In January, Dunn was quoted in The Guardian, “Today, I’m running for Congress, to stop Trump’s Maga extremists and ensure it never happens again.” A glowing feature of Dunn in February in RollCall states, “Dunn hopes these voters will agree with him that the most important issue heading into the 2024 elections isn’t something as pedestrian as transportation funding or quotidian as the economy, but instead is the existential threat from the GOP’s MAGA wing.”
Did you hear that, Colorado voters? The threat of your America First friends, family, and neighbors is much more important than the open border, the fact that you can barely afford meat and milk, and the multi-front global war we’re paying for. Ignore all that and, instead, demonize your countrymen to help the regime keep its power.
Division is useful when your goal is to destabilize. It appears division is all these authoritarians have.
In addition to her witnesses, Secretary Griswold spoke in her own defense, whining about how fair she is and trying, again, to pretend that she was a neutral actor in the whole affair. Jena is committed to the hilarious narrative that she was just the respondent, doing her duty, defending democracy. As a reminder, Jena was running around the nation squealing that the top Republican Presidential candidate is an “oath breaking insurrectionist,” both before and after her fever dream was overturned 9-0.
She’s still doing it. During the hearing, the secretary claimed, “Colorado voters do trust me,” — to chuckles in the room and a hilarious response on X — and declared, “House Republicans are trying to impeach me for saying the undeniable truth, and I want to clearly say to the Republicans on this committee, Trump is an oath-breaking insurrectionist. He is a danger to our country and our democracy,” Griswold said. What a conspiracy theorist.
She continued, “I will not be stopped by this proceeding from doing my job and protecting our constitution and our democracy.” It’s glaringly obvious why no one was under oath.
The resolution failed, after hours of nonsense.
Be vigilant during the upcoming Election season, Colorado. The people running our elections equate “Our Democracy!” with a radically progressive elections agenda that prioritizes access and equity over accuracy and public trust.
And they will do anything to protect it.
Ashe Epp is a writer and activist. You can find all her work at Linktree.com/asheinamerica.
by Mark Smiley | Apr 19, 2024 | Featured Stories & Advertisers
