by Peter Boyles | Aug 22, 2025 | Blasting with Boyles
Blasting With Boyles
OPINION
Do Better Denver, known as @dobetter dnvr on x.com and Instagram, began its groundbreaking work with the concept of a secret identity where an individual maintains a public persona distinct from his/her true identity. I have had private communications with the person who launched the social media sites and when I told that person I was going to do this column, she asked me to tell you this: “My mission with @dobetterdnvr is to bring Denver’s drug and homelessness crisis into the spotlight by sharing video and information. I run my social media accounts with zero monetization, driven purely by a commitment to truth, transparency, and accountability. Not chasing money.”
This person’s fear is that Denver Mayor Mike Johnston will try to destroy her. The Denver Post is giving Johnston all the help it can with a recent hit piece on @dobetter dnvr, doxxing citizens journalists who requested public records from the city. Traditionally, the media serves as a watchdog to hold the powerful accountable. As the person who runs the Do Better Denver sites told me, “The Denver Post has inverted this role targeting me as a citizen journalist instead of scrutinizing those in power.”
We have a long history in literature, history, and popular culture of individuals protecting their identities and thus enabling them to operate outside of traditional media and establishment norms. Let me give you some great examples.
Clark Kent was Superman, by the way, a mild-mannered reporter. Bruce Wayne as the Batman. Peter Parker as Spiderman. Tony Stark as Ironman.
The Federalist Papers were written under the pseudonym Publius, and the actual authors were James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. Eric Blair wrote under the name George Orwell for his famous works 1984 and Animal Farm. Theodore Geisel wrote under the penname Dr. Seuss.
We live in a world where most of talk radio no longer takes calls, and the city of Denver now owns the old Denver Post building and Channel Nine has become an extension of the state Democrat Party. They are bent on tearing this internet site down and exposing people who actually were doing the job that Denver Post and Channel Nine and text reading talk radio should be doing.
The person behind @dobetterdnvr told me they asked The Denver Post what the true purpose of the story was. “If their aim was to genuinely inform the people about @dobetterdnvr, why did it refuse to protect the anonymity of myself and my sources, putting their safety and livelihoods at risk. Exposing private citizens while shielding the powerful betrays the very principles journalism claims to uphold. The public deserves better. Denver deserves better.”
But as Kurt Vonnegut said, this is how it goes.
— Peter Boyles
by Ashe in America | Aug 22, 2025 | Feature Story Bottom Left
ASHE IN AMERICA — OPINION
For three months, Colorado voters breathed a little easier, safe to exhale after the Colorado General Assembly gavelled out on May 7, 2025. It was short lived.
“Today, Governor Jared Polis called the General Assembly back into session to address the significant impacts of H.R. 1 to Colorado’s budget,” an August 6, 2025, press release from the Governor’s office states.
The press release goes on to quote prominent democrats, Planned Parenthood, and other publicly-funded NGO leaders on how the $1.2B “loss of revenue” is devastating for “the state.”
It’s all in the framing.
To quote Representative Ken deGraaf (R-HD22) from an August 7 X post, “Subsidies are not ‘revenue.’ The federal government is not a source of it. Taxpayers are the source of revenue. Jared is just sad that his unsustainable spending spree cannot be sustained. Perhaps the second $5 billion on the train-to-nowhere-fast should pause until we see how California’s works out.”
He is obviously correct. Colorado taxpayers are also federal taxpayers, and the pork-filled-bridge-to-nowhere scam is coming to an end. This is going to be hard for Colorado. Colorado loves its virtue-signally, social change-promising NGOs.
In an article from April 2024 International Rescue Mission titled, “Nonprofits matter — Colorado Nonprofit Sector Supports $62 Billion in Economic Activity,” the nonprofit analyzes Polis’ “Colorado Nonprofit Economic Impact Report,” and how “the nonprofit sector directly employs 182,000 people, supporting an additional 54,000 jobs through business-to-business activity and 26,000 jobs via household spending.”
Wait, what?
“In total, this accounts for 10% of all jobs in Colorado.”
Honestly, the non-profit sector should be the priority for closing the gap. Colorado politicians are unlikely to take that approach — you can rather expect to see new taxes and fees.
Another barrier to solving this particular problem is the cost of new legislation — and the legislators were so busy earlier this year that new laws, and their related costs, are plentiful. Again from Rep deGraaf on X:
“Rubberstampapalooza: Because 700 new bills in 100 days is not enough new legislation for Democrats, they have engaged in the crisis-manufacture so they can pretend to crisis-manage. The sycophants of state want nothing more than for the trough to be open year-round. The timing and scope of the executive order/proclamation undoubtedly comes on the heels of this extra, ordinary session to figure out how to tax/fee you more. This governance-theater will cost the state around $50k per day to go through their choreographed ‘Dance of the Socialists.’”
Just in August, a portfolio of new laws went into effect. Highlights include allowing the government to price fix in an “emergency” (HB25-1010), gun violence education materials (HB25-1270), free tribal access to state parks (HB25-1163), new criminal statutes that protect transit workers (HB25-1290), and a simpler path to abandoning your children (HB25-1185).
Oh, they also created a process (inexplicably) so potential gun owners can voluntarily block themselves from buying a gun (SB25-034). That creates a new registry and list management and all associated costs of implementation — and it’s entirely unnecessary. Just don’t buy a gun if you don’t want one, right?
Republicans in Colorado are critical of the Governor’s special session, with several quoted in a House Republican press release from August 6:
“Families and small businesses across Colorado are being crushed under the weight of government overreach, rising costs, and reckless spending,” said Representative Anthony Hartsook (R-HD44). “Instead of working with us to rein in waste and protect the most vulnerable, the Governor is using this special session to defend a broken system. House Republicans are committed to responsible budgeting that puts Colorado families first.”
House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese piled on, “This is a waste of taxpayer dollars and state resources. The Governor is using a special session to stir fear about the Big Beautiful Bill when the truth is that the Big Beautiful Bill continues to cover the people it was designed to serve: seniors, single mothers, children, and people with disabilities.”
It’s unlikely that Colorado Republicans can do anything other than complain. In the House, they’re outnumbered 43 to 22, and in the Senate 23 to 12. The special session will proceed and the democrat majority will do what it wants.
As a result, Colorado is back to holding its breath, hoping against reason and history that the special session won’t further strip their rights and steal the fruit of their labor.
Ashe in America is a writer and activist. Find all her work at linktree.com/asheinamerica.
