by Ashe in America | Oct 20, 2023 | Feature Story Bottom Left
ASHE IN AMERICA — OPINION
Last month, I published “Winter is Coming for Vulnerable Navajo Communities Near Cortez, Colorado,” about the Democrat City Council of Cortez wedging itself in between a life-and-death agreement between two indigenous parties. As politicians signaled virtuous support for indigenous peoples on October 9, their incompetence is creating a double energy crisis for some of the most vulnerable indigenous people in the region.
And they’re calling it an environmental win.
Tony Moore and Mary Lancaster, owners of Industrial Log Company (ILC), attempted for over two years to relaunch their log home manufacturing business in Tony’s hometown of Cortez, Colorado. Local ignorance of city officials and old baggage with local activists created headaches for Tony and Mary, including lost revenue and false allegations. Read the full story here: https://asheinamerica.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming-for-vulnerable-navajo.
When the city rejected the ILC zoning, the Cortez Journal and The Four Corners Free Press claimed the decision was a victory in environmentalism.
What Is A Double Energy Crisis?
The Navajo community on the reservation, the Dine’, live traditionally, with the land. They use seasoned firewood for heat in the winter. They used to use coal until the environmentalists succeeded in getting the local coal mine closed some years back. Firewood must be seasoned, or aged, and then gathered, split, and delivered to the many communities on the reservation.
But for many on the reservation, transportation is also an issue. The lack of access to fuel (wood) combined with transportation limitations, is what researchers refer to as a “double energy crisis.” Many elderly Dine’ don’t have family to manage the wood deliveries, making them some of the most vulnerable residents of the region. According to locals, it’s not uncommon to see elderly woman by the side of the road in mid-winter, gathering twigs for their primitive stoves.
When some indigenous U.S. veterans joined Tony for a tour of his operation, these two stories collided.
Byproduct Or Commodity?
ILC’s log home manufacturing yields an important byproduct: Firewood. The product is already seasoned, and ILC has the operational capabilities to split and deliver enough wood for all 20 Chapter Houses, meeting the critical needs of the vulnerable Dine’ elders.
Tony is a registered tribal Cherokee, and he and Mary know the struggles for the Navajo created by the double energy crisis. They had been working on contracting with the Chapter Houses to deliver their byproduct as firewood, and both sides were excited about the deal.
There was only one problem. The white City Council members demanded that, since the byproduct was now going to be considered firewood, that Tony and Mary’s property needed to be rezoned as industrial. So, why they can’t just re-zone the property and get on with it?
City zoning often results in unintended consequences, but this zoning dispute is creating a humanitarian crisis. Tony and Mary planned to fulfill the contract with the Navajo as a tax-deductible nonprofit activity delivered through Tony and Mary’s for-profit company. They cannot run the firewood distribution charitably since the zoning fiasco; public notice timelines for permits now prevent it.
Deprivation Of Rights Under Color Of Law
Section 242 of Title 18 makes it a crime for a person, acting under color of any law, to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege. One such protection is “use by right,” and it applies to the normal course of business activities between ILC and the Navajo. Title 18, Section 242, is a federal law, but it explicitly applies to local governments. It’s a matter of civil rights.
Rachel Marchbanks, a City of Cortez staff member, filed a police complaint against ILC on April 29. This was a Saturday, outside of working hours, and she used her official title. It also appears that there are two co-conspirators, also acting under color of law to obstruct the native’s use by right.
Marchbanks used her official authority, outside of business hours, to interfere with “use by right” protections of two indigenous parties engaging in the normal course of business. She acted under the color of law — her official authority — with catastrophic winter consequences for those on the reservation.
But I’m sure they had lovely virtue signals on indigenous people’s day.
Ashe Epp is a writer and activist. You can find all her work at Linktree.com/asheinamerica
by Ashe in America | Sep 26, 2023 | Feature Story Bottom Left
ASHE IN AMERICA
OPINION
Our republican form of government requires representation. When the US Congress first convened in 1789, each congressman represented about 33,000 constituents. Now that number has grown to over 700,000, so it’s no wonder many of us feel we are not being adequately represented.
Take my Congressman, Republican Representative Ken Buck (CO-04). During the 2020 campaign season, as I was knocking doors and making calls for President Trump, I was also encouraging voters to re-elect Mr. Buck. I am embarrassed about this now. Over the past three years, Buck has consistently sided with the regime over his constituents.
On a GOP-wide virtual call on December 2, 2020, Buck attempted to pacify Colorado voters by stating:
“It is so important that people have confidence in their elections, and that people understand that in Colorado — I can’t speak for other states, but in Colorado — we’re doing it the right way and we have confidence in our election results.”
Buck continues to double down on Colorado’s elections, despite the evidence revealed in the Mesa County Forensic Reports One, Two, and Three, the USEIP Colorado Canvassing Report, and the April 24, 2021 system vulnerabilities report.
This evidence is public, and Buck has access to all of it. He ignores it, and he continues to peddle the regime’s messaging about 2020 being the safest and most secure election in history.
Strike One: Ken Buck believes Joe Biden is legitimate and that he received 81 million real, lawful, American votes.
Earlier this month, Buck spoke to CNN’s Jake Tapper and declared that he would not be supporting the upcoming impeachment inquiry. His reasoning for this was shocking:
“They are looking to see if there is a connection with Joe Biden. If they reach that point where they could find evidence of a connection, fine. I think that the Republicans will move forward with an impeachment inquiry. Right now, I’m not convinced that that evidence exists. And I’m not supporting an impeachment inquiry.”
Since the Marco Polo Biden Laptop Report was published, every member of Congress received the report multiple times. The report details 459 violations of US law by Hunter, James, and, yes, Joe Biden, going back several years.
The laptop has been authenticated, as affirmed by the NY Times, but Buck is not convinced that there is evidence of Biden’s corruption.
Strike Two: Ken Buck denies Biden’s corruption, despite repeatedly being sent evidence of Biden’s corruption.
Buck’s latest viral moment denying reality is the most egregious.
Todd Watkins is a veteran, a retired US Border Patrol Chief, and the current Vice Chairman of the El Paso County GOP. On August 21, Watkins sent a letter to the Colorado Republican Party, regarding the treatment of the January 6 political prisoners. More than 200 Coloradans, many of them Republican officials, signed on in support of the letter.
On September 1, 2023, Ken Buck responded, claiming that Watkins, “makes a number of factually incorrect claims, and then proceeds to overstate the threat to our Republic based on these false claims.”
The threat to our Republic in 2023 cannot be overstated, but Buck claims that J6ers:
Had charging and detention decisions by the book.
Received the exact same treatment as all other inmates.
Were not denied medical treatment.
Were not denied contact with counsel.
Did not have their rights violated.
For these false claims, Buck cites AP News, The Guardian, NY Times, CBS News, Just Security, and CBS WUSA9. All of Buck’s claims are provably false; subscribe to my substack for a much longer piece breaking down all Buck’s claims in detail.
That a so-called conservative would place so much trust in the mainstream media as to condone civil liberty and human rights violations of Americans is stunning.
Strike Three: Ken Buck believes J6 was an insurrection and condones the civil and human rights atrocities against J6ers.
Effective Representation demands truth. By denying the truth about the election, Biden’s corruption, and the J6 operation, Buck disqualifies himself and disserves those he represents.
Should Ken Buck decide to run again, he must be defeated after failing his constituents for so many years.
Last time I checked, we are still in America. In America, three strikes mean you’re out.
Ashe Epp is a writer and activist. You can find all her work at Linktree.com/asheinamerica
by Ashe in America | Aug 28, 2023 | Feature Story Bottom Left
ASHE IN AMERICA — OPINION
At the GOP State Central Committee meeting on August 5, the new Finance Committee read out their first Financial Report. While last month I speculated about the obstruction, the report’s findings paint a more corrupt and scandalous picture.
The election took place on March 11, and the (peaceful) transfer of power was expected to begin immediately. The Finance Committee got started on April 1, but they didn’t gain access to the financial accounts of the party until April 14 when four accounts were turned over by the prior administration, which withheld access for more than a month. But that’s not all.
In early May, as the new team was preparing to file their April FEC report, the new finance team discovered additional accounts that were not previously disclosed. I will refer to these three additional accounts as the “hidden accounts.” The new administration was added to these accounts on May 4, nearly two months after they assumed the leadership of the party.
If that doesn’t convince you the prior administration was obstructing the new leadership, consider that access to the party’s QuickBooks account was never turned over. It still hasn’t been. The new administration received an older version of QuickBooks from the accountant on May 12, but it is not the most up to date, and there is critical information missing.
What information? Well, as I reported last month, the prior administration paid themselves bonuses after suffering a horrifying defeat in the 2022 midterms. The December 2022 statement indicated a “payroll bonus” of $45,000.00, but the specifics of how this sum —comprising nearly half of the previously reported funds — was distributed.
Those specifics would need to be pulled from the payroll system. You can guess what happened next. The payroll administrator is refusing to turn over the access information, and the payroll company, iSolvedHCM, is refusing to grant access to the new administration.
My sources in the GOP will not name the administrator. They would only describe her —– they used female pronouns — as a “long time employee” of the party who represented “the institutional memory that served multiple administrations.”
As for the payroll company, it took the new party leadership significant digging to even determine who the vendor was, and they had to threaten them legally to get the W-2 and 941 tax forms required to file the party’s taxes. To date, they still refuse to send the ledger, so the specifics of outgoing funds remain a mystery. The administrator still refuses to share the username and password.
It’s clearly obstruction — but not just obstruction. There is evidence of corruption —waste, fraud, and abuse.
Waste: The party was paying nearly $800/mo for three storage units that were mostly empty. One of the storage units appears to be full of garbage from the images. That’s $9,600 per year in wasted funds!
Fraud: The day before the election, emails show that the statements for the health insurance were changed to go to the administrator’s home address, and the financial account was changed to one of the hidden accounts. The administrator prepaid a year of insurance premiums, at a time when there were no employees, and then hid the transactions and the statements. The premiums were also significantly larger.
Abuse: In the month of April, an undisclosed person charged hundreds of dollars to the party’s FedEx account. There was no activity from the new administration, no official party business that explains these charges. This person appeared to be using the account for personal reasons more than a month after the election. Was this a common practice during the prior administration?
My sources declined to comment on whether they will bring legal action against the prior administration. They are focused on restoring the party to the people and cleaning up the financial mess left by Kristi Burton Brown and her team.
But make no mistake that it’s a scandalous mess. The new administration had to explicitly make a new rule that, “No employee writes a check to her/himself again.” Hard to imagine a serious professional environment with such a practice. No wonder the Colorado GOP has failed Republican voters for years.
It remains to be seen if the new leadership can restore the public’s trust.
Ashe Epp is a writer and activist. You can find all her work at Linktree.com/asheinamerica
by Ashe in America | Jul 20, 2023 | Feature Story Bottom Left
OPINION
New Party Leadership Inherits Financial Scandal
In the Colorado Republican leadership elections earlier this year, the establishment faced a reckoning. All over the state, America First patriots won county leadership roles, and the State GOP Chairman race resulted in grassroots favorite Dave Williams taking charge of the state party.
In another timeline, you could expect a peaceful transition of power from one leader of the party to another. We are talking about the leadership of a party, after all, a team with shared values and vision. But in this timeline, the Republican Party is engaged in a civil war.
When former Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown left office, her administration claimed to have a surplus of more than one hundred thousand dollars. But according to Chair Williams, “The prior administration did not leave the Party over $100,000 as they falsely claimed.”
And they didn’t just mislead party members about the surplus. According to the new GOP Leadership Team, they spitefully spent it during the “peaceful transition of power.”
“They spent nearly all that was left in the coffers as the new leadership was transitioning into the role,” Williams said, continuing, “while burdening the party with outstanding debts and unfunded obligations.”
It sounds like sabotage, and the new GOP Chair is citing specifics:
“For example, thousands in bonuses were paid to former staff in December of 2022, after the Party suffered its most historic losses the month prior, and this occurred as the last administration knew they owed over $9,000 to the office landlord.”
Colorado Republicans squawked for more than a decade that the purpose of the party is to get Republicans elected. Under Brown’s leadership, they spent those resources fighting America First in the primary rather than allowing voters to decide. And then, of course and without much effort since they’d done their hard work during the primary, they lost competitive seats in the general. That is, they failed to get Republicans elected.
After failing to achieve their fundraising targets, presiding over hemorrhaging party membership, and delivering abysmal midterm election results, party leadership gave themselves bonuses — instead of paying known debts.
This isn’t just spiteful. It’s scandalous.
The Colorado Republican establishment — the likes of Brown’s administration and Buck’s before her, as well as their donors — are content being the minority party in the state. It is uniparty theater at its finest, half measures and fake compromises that benefit the ruling class at the expense of the people.
The people of Colorado — both those inside and outside of the Republican Party — are sick of all the communism. The people desire change. The party’s new Republican leadership wants to be that change, but they’ve got an uphill battle encumbered by brand and trust problems.
Colorado Republicans have spent so much time finding common ground with communists that they’ve made themselves repulsive to voters. And they don’t care. When they lose elections, they just toss up their hands and blame democrats. Then they pay themselves bonuses.
In February, grassroots Republicans flipped the uniparty’s script by electing America First change makers into party leadership. The financial scandal that the new leadership team inherited is obviously punishment for party members that dared to demand change.
Unfortunately for Colorado Republican Party members, there doesn’t appear to be recourse for the KBB and team looting the party’s resources like a mostly peaceful protest.
But unfortunately for the establishment, the new leadership of the party isn’t focused on fighting a detached and divisive civil war. They’re focused on the future. Chair Williams and his team want to be the change, and they appear unphased by the prior administration’s sabotage.
“The new leadership team is making progress and rebuilding the Party from the ground up,” Williams said. “We are treating the Party as a startup and making certain that any investment from donors is wisely spent instead of continuing to allow failed operators to enrich themselves with Party funds.”
In a startup culture you perform or peace out, a refreshing concept for a failing organization propped up by bureaucracy and mediocrity. But streamlining funding alone won’t rebuild public trust. For that, Williams and team need to prove to voters that the Republican Party is actually committed to a Republican form of government.
Ashe Epp is a writer and activist. You can find all her work at Linktree.com/asheinamerica.
by Ashe in America | Jun 23, 2023 | Feature Story Bottom Left
Do you remember the 2022 Colorado Republican Party’s Assembly and Convention? Do you remember the clickers and the controversy and the last-ditch effort to vote the assembly on paper ballots? Do you remember how those choices impacted the primaries?
If you want a different outcome, you need to start planning now. The convention is where the voting members of the party determine which candidates make the primary ballot. Given that we are rushing towards the 2024 GOP conventions, let’s recap what happened in Colorado in 2022.
Dan Schultz has done a great job of educating Republican Party members around the country about the “precinct strategy,” and the role of Precinct Committeemen in the selection of candidates. Here in Colorado, longtime America First Republicans like Peg Cage were holding coffee shop meet ups in early 2021 to educate party newcomers and fill those positions.
They were successful in taking over the party in several counties and, by the time of the 2022 GOP Assembly and Convention, America First grassroots filled enough of the GOP voting positions to make an impact. Outsider America First candidates had a strong showing.
Bob Lewis — a completely unknown candidate — was nominated from the floor to primary Ken Buck. Lewis took 62% of the vote. None of the establishment candidates for U.S. Senate at assembly made the primary ballot except for Ron Hanks, who swept. Across the state, America First won the day.
That’s Lesson One from 2022: Fill the empty voting positions in the GOP. Strategically, the GOP has kept these positions empty, but they will fill them with neocons if necessary.
The morning of the assembly, a group of delegates made a motion for paper ballots. Unfortunately, the complexity involved made the entire process confusing to the delegates. Chairwoman Brown refused to allow debate and framed paper ballots as an impossibility. The motion failed on two separate votes, and the clickers were in.
The clickers were a disaster, further eroding trust in elections and even leading to lawsuits. Some of the clickers had serial numbers and some didn’t. Delegates and chairs from multiple counties reported shortages of clickers — reasons for the shortages varied. Fremont was missing one. Adams was missing 10, but then stated that the shortage was related to an issue with their delegate list. The official answer was that the GOP was short three clickers in total, because they just didn’t have any more.
Training delegates on the clickers felt a lot like trying to help your parents with technology, only with 3,770 additional (and confused) elderly parents. Delegates were told it mattered that the screen said “COUNTED,” but throughout the day, delegates reported that their clickers did not read “COUNTED” after voting. There was no recourse. There was no help desk. Delegates with issues were out of luck.
People with guest badges (not delegate badges) were voting with clickers. I found clickers lying around, and overheard a delegate confirm their choices with a person near them before handing them their clicker, hugging goodbye, and leaving the arena. In a system with integrity, none of those actions would be permissible, but there were zero controls in this process.
That is Lesson Two from 2022: Demand paper ballots now. During the party elections earlier this year, America First assumed party leadership roles, including former State Representative Dave Williams becoming the Colorado GOP Chair. Amend the rules now. Demand paper ballots now.
For the most part, candidates that petitioned onto the ballot without facing voters in the assembly won the Republican primaries. These candidates didn’t campaign, but they “won” against the America First candidates with all the enthusiasm, energy, and public Republican support.
That’s Lesson Three from 2022: Close the Primary. Republican candidates should be selected by Republican voters. I am not a Republican, I understand the impact of what I am saying, and I will say it again: Close the Primary. America First will win with Republican voters.
Let’s recap: The precinct strategy should be the top priority for Republicans; Republicans must work now to ensure that the 2024 candidate selections are conducted with integrity; and, finally, close the Primary so Republican voters determine Republican candidates.
Class dismissed.
Ashe Epp is a writer and activist. You can find all her work at Linktree.com/asheinamerica
by Ashe in America | May 19, 2023 | Feature Story Bottom Left
ASHE IN AMERICA — OPINION
“…in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
— Benjamin Franklin, 1789
The 2023 legislative session ended on May 8, with a dramatic showing of party unity that hasn’t occurred since 2003.
The conflict centered on the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), and the rapid and deceptive manner with which the Senate Bill 23-303 and House Bill 23-1311 passed the General Assembly.
TABOR is not just a law; it’s a constitutional amendment added in 1992 – by Colorado voters. The purpose of TABOR is to limit the growth of government spending and, when government revenues are more than the allowable limits, return the excess to taxpayers.
The Colorado communists hate TABOR. In 2019, Polis and the legislature attempted to mislead voters into approving Proposition CC, a measure to allow the state to keep excess revenues instead of refunding them to taxpayers as constitutionally required.
Voters rejected Proposition CC; but the persistent commies are trying again. In the final two days of the session, the legislature passed two bills that, when combined, represent the death of TABOR.
It Sounds Nice On Paper
SB23-303 is entitled, “Reduce Property Taxes And Voter-approved Revenue Change.” The title is hilarious considering that the proposal will forever end taxpayer refunds under TABOR and, worse, deliver the largest ever property tax increase for Colorado taxpayers. (Spoiler: The largest ever increase is coming regardless, so steel yourself if you own property.)
HB23-1311 is entitled, “Identical Temporary TABOR Refund.” The bill is written in a way that deceives voters into believing its passage strengthens TABOR. Proponents will likely use the bill’s deceptive language to persuade voters when the two measures’ Proposition HH hits the ballot in November.
Proposition HH is well summarized by Independence Institute TV (IITV) in a May 5 YouTube report:
“The proposal manipulates the refund formula over time, causing taxpayers to give up billions of dollars from their refunds. It allows the legislature to continue collecting extra tax revenue without voter approval, potentially accumulating over $400 billion over the next three decades. The plan offers minimal relief by reducing the assessment rate by less than 1%, but it comes at the cost of giving up taxpayer refunds forever.”
Why’d They Wait To The Last Minute?
If you require more evidence that Colorado Democrats are pulling a fast one, consider the proposal’s expedited journey under the dome. Rumored for months, the proposal was only introduced in the final week of session. SB23-303 was introduced on May 1, 2023, and HB23-1311 was introduced on May 6. The legislative session ended May 8.
I reached out to Representative Ken DeGraff for comment, who told me, “Time was not afforded to understand it because they don’t want you to understand it.”
SB23-303 passed the Senate along party lines but, in the House, the Democrat bill sponsors sparked outrage with uncommon third reading amendment. Livid Republicans alleged the amendment was an attempt to buy votes and contended that third reading amendments were only afforded to Democrats. They also maintain that the third reading circus was proof that the bill was not ready for a vote.
Instead of voting, all 19 House Republicans walked out of the chamber. The bill passed 43-0. The drama of a legislative walkout hasn’t happened since 2003, when Senate Democrats, who were in the minority, refused to vote on a redistricting bill.
DeGraff explained, “HB23-1311 is a bribe to tempt about 60% of the population into voting to take money from the other 40% via a flat-rate TABOR refund,” which in linking the bill to SB23-303 will ultimately, “make TABOR irrelevant through Proposition HH.”
From IITV, “The property tax plan is not a heroic rescue but rather extortion, offering a bad solution to a problem they created.”
According to House Minority Leader Mike Lynch, the proposal is a “scheme that the governor waited until the last minutes of session to pull.”
DeGraff was more direct, “When deliberation is considered odious to a deliberative legislative system, the system is broken. The Republican caucus chose to no longer participate in the charade, and to make it known that the legislature has become a farce.”
Maddening. But not surprising.
In Colorado, nothing is certain but death, taxes, and the government’s ongoing attempts to exterminate our rights.
Ashe Epp is a writer and election integrity activist. Read her work at asheinamerica.com and follow her on Telegram and other socials @asheinamerica.
