For Whom The Bell Tolls

For Whom The Bell Tolls

We’ve all watched CIA nominee Gina Haspel testify in order to become the next Director and first woman to run the CIA. Senator after senator, person after person said, “I don’t believe that torture works.” Wrong again, Kemosabe. I would urge you to go back and watch The Denver Post live stream in the middle of May with erstwhile members of the media telling us how to save The Denver Post. Put a couple of jihadis in that room. They’ll be telling you anything you want in 20 minutes.

It’s now being dubbed the “Denver newspaper rebellion.” Chuck Plunkett, former editorial page editor, is being hailed as a journalistic hero.

My first reaction was, are you jerking me around? They also went to such stalwarts as Kyle Clark, sport coat boy, who was very upset about Sinclair Broadcasting coming here. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock was also at the meeting telling them how much he needed them. That’s like Donald Trump worried the Secret Service would fold. Hancock needs the Post to cover and protect his ass. The only people who made sense were Patricia Calhoun from Westword and Dave Krieger who got his hat handed to him in Boulder for daring to speak his mind.

In the animal kingdom the lions eat the weak and sick zebras and gazelles. Frankly, The Denver Post is a weak and very sick news outlet. The blood is in the water. The piranhas come to eat. But where was The Denver Post when it came to the truth about Denver Bronco Brandon Marshall? They were MIA. How about one of their very own? Terry Frei had his throat cut by the politically correct. Like the sick zebra, they all ran away to join the herd and let Terry be consumed by the big cat.

These people should have done their job exposing Michael Hancock instead of journalist hero F. Chuck Plunkett’s editorial saying let’s give this guy another year. They should have simply told the truth about the relationships between the Brownstein law firm, chief of police, the escorts themselves and Channel 9. And as they say at the sideshow that I was once accused of being a carnival barker for, come on inside there’s a lot more to see.

The tragedy with The Denver Post, followed by a lot of media outlets in this city, is they cannot continue to support themselves. The economic model is called shrink to profit; also, apparently known as, buy a lot of property in Miami with the money. As a boy I delivered papers for the Pittsburgh Press and I loved newspapers. I still do. Many people have approached me and the owner of this newspaper, Chuck Bonniwell, asking why don’t you guys take over and run The Denver Post? I don’t think the Post could become a brutally honest hard charging newspaper.

They’re circling the porcelain convenience and when the last man turns out the lights they only have themselves to blame. It’s a sad legacy. They had the opportunities 10 years ago to look at the truth about: the train to the plane; who was getting Colorado water permits; how the money eased in and out of the political systems; who the law firms were, and, which media outlets climbed into bed with the power. It had nothing to do with buying escorts, male prostitutes and who was cheating on their wives.

Now that we have legalized gambling, what is the overall bet on the overs and unders on how long The Denver Post will last? I give it 6 to 5 you won’t see it two years from now. I’m sure going to miss Crankshaft and that’s about it.

Hasta la vista, Dean.

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Name That Gate

This just in… name that “gate.”

As everyone over the age of 40 knows, anytime there’s a scandal in America the last name of the scandal becomes “gate,” predicated on Watergate, an apartment office complex in Washington, D.C., that gets its name from one of the gates of the city of Jerusalem, the Water Gate. And after the demise of Richard Nixon, and the rise of an aggressive media, every scandal has the suffix — gate. Koreagate. Russiagate. Etc.

Do you get the picture?

So, sitting in a smoke-filled boardroom of the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle, I am stumped. I need you to name that gate. (We’re talking about the alleged sex and sex harassment scandal and cover-up involving Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.) If it’s good enough and you submit it to me, peterboyles@710knus.com, you can win an all expense trip to the morning show and I’ll let you read the weather. Or better yet if you don’t want to get up in the morning you can have a cup of coffee with Chuck Bonniwell and Julie Hayden during their show weekday afternoons from 1-4pm.

What do we know so far? All I’ve got are questions. Questions about the Denver media, the actions of a man I once had high regard for, Denver Chief of Police Gerry Whitman, the role the Brownstein law firm played in this entire scandal, who the players are and who the sugar is.

So just like Watergate, seemingly also Donald Trump and his porno one-night stand, it’s never the act. The Watergate scandal wasn’t really the break-in, it was the lies. In Oliver Stone’s movie on Nixon, in the end a sweaty actor said it’s always the lies.

And here we have a series of lies first told by Michael Hancock, then The Denver Post, then Channel 9 and then everyone seems to fall in lockstep.

With the exception of a handful of us media outcasts who are much like the little boy in the story the Emperor’s New Clothes, who is outside the gates pointing at the king and saying the king is in his altogether and naked as the day is born. Whereas if you are really smart and bright and black tie wearing, white wine drinking, runny cheese eating media butt boy you saw nothing wrong with the actions of Michael Hancock and other media outlets. Well guess what suckers, the chickens have come home to roost.

With other media outlets circling the porcelain convenience, The Denver Post editorializing how you can help them — hells bells. The Denver Post is supposed to help you understand these scandals — not you help them make their payroll. Somewhere William Randolph Hearst is crying.

The power brokers, the fat cats, the country club boys, members of Denver’s erstwhile press club, the winky winky buddies who go to press conventions and hear John Hickenlooper tell them how great a job they do — press people you should not be applauding him you should be investigating him. But then again let’s all help fluffy the dog find a forever home and let me tell you how much I love your Denver Broncos.

Elvis Presley is alleged to have told his mother, “There’s a storm coming,” the first time he heard himself singing on the radio. I say this with great pride. Pay attention Denver Post, Channel 9, a lot of people with microphones and laptops in front of them, to the Denver City Council members who cowardly turned a blind eye, to the Denver Police Department (huge questions behind its management) to developers and banks to bond daddies and corporate fund raisers and lobbyists and Chamber of Commerce members — believe me when I tell you this, as Elvis said to Gladys in Tupelo — “There is a storm coming!” Get ready. You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dawg.

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Bucky Fuller And Me

 

The best example that I can show anyone for my beliefs that Denver, Colorado, has been run by a cabal of bankers and developers, media elites, law firms and power brokers, is best illustrated by the story being covered by this newspaper, my colleagues Chuck Bonniwell and Julie Hayden, Steffan Tubbs, Westword’s Michael Roberts, Craig Silverman and, of course, Channel 7’s Tony Kovaleski. The aforementioned cabal is a long list that includes bankers, newsmen, corporate leaders, political spokesmen, religious leaders who have all been as I call it “in the hat” and “on the take.” They are actually controlling the narrative itself since the arrival of Mayor Federico Peña and Governor Roy Romer.

Because I am, as I have long been, accused of being a pseudo intellectual, I harken back to one of the all time important books about this called The Critical Path, written by Buckminster Fuller. What the Buckster is saying is we have long been controlled by invisible power behind the thrones of kings, prime ministers, czars, presidents and other official “head men.” As well as the underlying causes of control, whether it’s a nation, state, a city, or a corporation. Bingo Buckey. While seemingly the rest of the media plays a cover up game, the above mentioned wave the bloody shirt.

I guess I would call my true idol, when it comes to understanding the media, is the father of us all, Thomas Jefferson. (TJ the DJ — disc jockey to the world.) Jefferson talked about a notion that only when truth can compete in a free market of ideas, truth will prevail. There is no marketplace in Denver. So let’s create one.

What has happened, what have we all witnessed in this eight years of Michael Hancock? An explosion of developers, fat cat bankers, butt boys and water cops. I ask you the Watergate-esque question, what did the power brokers know and when did they know it? I was told by my secret friend, “Peter you broke the code.”

In the beginning, this had nothing to do with a young African-American councilman going to visit the escorts. This had to do with the invisible czars seeing the ladies of the evening, i.e. Misty Dawn, Kitty, Amber, Daphne, Bailey and Autumn. For you guys reading this right now you all remember them. This is a case of the power brokers covering for themselves and owning a replacement mayor. They knew. My secret friend told me that in locker rooms and toney country clubs, athletic clubs, boardrooms and law firms, “Peter they’re all talking about you guys.”

As we go to press, I really can’t tell you what will happen next. Former Police Chief Gerry Whitman must come forward and explain to the public, did he hand over to the Brownstein law firm requested information pertaining to the surveillance of Scotty Ewing brothels, at that time owned by Brenda Stewart? What did Whitman know and when did he know it? Audiotapes that we secured from Scottie Ewing (he taped everybody when they talked to him, including me) allude to the fact that a couple of powerful members of the Denver media had more than a running access to the truth of what was taking place. Much like Nixon’s 18-1/2 minutes of missing tape all of that evidence is missing. We are led to believe it never made it to the police property room. And if you wanted to speak to the mayor-elect the Brownstein law firm was acting as his press secretary and apparently a lot of people breathed a sigh of relief when, in essence, a press shield was thrown up.

This could be a turning point in how the city operates or it could be another bag over the head, punch in the stomach and the Mayor stays on the job.

Stay tuned to KNUS. Keep an eye on Mike Roberts at Westword and hope Tony Kovaleski throws another knockout punch.

Believe me when I tell you, God doesn’t roll the dice.

  • Peter Boyles

 

 

The Critical Path author Buckminster Fuller

For Whom The Bell Tolls

You’ve Been Marked

In last month’s award-winning Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle column, I wrote about the con job being perpetrated upon you to bring in the Winter Olympics. A quick update. The Winter Games in South Korea will cost $13 billion dollars, double what they thought it was going to cost. NBC paid $963 million for the television rights and, like the NFL, viewership is down. That’s all just chump change to the hornswogglers, footpadders and copperheads that run the media and pull the strings of the power elite in Denver, Colorado.

After that column hit, another great con job got presented. … Pat Bowlen Field.

I always return to my roots. As a boy I was a fan of professional wrestling. My Grandma was a fan of professional wrestling. I later found out when I got an opportunity to work in professional wrestling that I really was a fan. The wrestlers called us “marks.” A carney term. You can go to the carnival, according to legend, they would put a guy behind you who put a mark on your shoulder in chalk that allowed other carnies to know you were a mark, aka a sucker.

Now those same people who ran the Olympics are running Amazon and, actually made an attempt to have heroin shooting galleries in Denver, are marking you for a football stadium named for Pat Bowlen.

The Bowlen family and the franchise itself are believed to be worth somewhere between 2.4 to 2.8 with a “b” billion dollars.

Former Mayor Wellington Webb, one of the committee members to bring the Olympics to Denver, is urging Broncos fans to belly up and buy the name to establish Pat Bowlen Field at Mile High Stadium. With all due respect, knowing Mr. Bowlen’s inability now to maintain authority with your Denver Broncos my first response was are you jerking me around? You’re kidding, aren’t you?

Then I realized that they weren’t. That local hard-hitting media outlet, Channel 9, totally laid down with how sad it is the HVAC systems and concrete floors need repairs and that there’s part of the parking lot that floods. Who’s zooming who?

It’s hard to get a definable number of how much maintenance it is to take care of Pat Bowlen Field but it ain’t on the cheap and how dare you ruthless bastards make Annabel and the kids pay it out of their own pocket.

Think in these terms. Everybody needs a new roof on their house, pave the driveway, put in a new furnace. Wouldn’t it be great if everybody in your neighborhood had a go fund me page that would totally take care of your yard for you, put on the new roof and what my father used to call storm windows installed? And of course, your paycheck would go just a little bit further because the people in your neighborhood are paying for the maintenance of your home. The Denver Post also thought it was a great idea with an editorial on January 31 titled “Buy back Mile High Stadium’s Heritage.”

My colleague, one of my best friend’s wife Julie Hayden, said, “You mean they want fans to kick in and pay for everything, above and beyond everything else?” Yes, Julie there is a Santa Claus and you’re the mark.

It’s amazing there is something called the Metropolitan Stadium Football District that needs a revenue stream to keep “our” football stadium in top-flight condition. Look on your back see if anybody chalked an “x.”

I leave you with this. Mike Roberts at Westword did a great piece on the Denver Broncos having the second most arrested players in the NFL. I say if you add John Bowlen’s arrest record, after all he is a Bronco, “we’re number one.”

See you on the radio.

— Peter Boyles

For Whom The Bell Tolls

New Orleans Is The Big Easy — Denver Now The Big Sleazy

You may be more than aware of two great scams that are about to be perpetrated on the solid citizens of the Mile High City.

The first one is Amazon’s second headquarters. The second one is, although rejected once before, the return of the Winter Olympics.

This is where I always say, “Maybe it’s just me.” But Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper have pulled together what is now being called an “exploratory committee” to pursue the Winter Olympics.

The Denver Post published a partial list of the attendees. When you’ve got a government meeting called by two of the most powerful politicians in Colorado, excluding Michael Bennett (because Cory Gardner certainly would not make that list), aren’t there some sort of laws and rules that meetings must be conducted in public? I think it’s called “sunshine.”

And it’s amazing to view the names of some of the invited attendees. (My invitation was lost in the mail.) Read these names. These people, as someone once said, have looted the public treasury before. There are people on this list that are paid by the taxpayers. Where’s the outrage? These laws require these meetings be held open to the public.

So lets ask ourselves why the Brownstein law firm was there. Gee, that’s a tough one. The IMA Financial Group. Xcel Energy. Liberty Global. SGM Capitol. And my favorite one, Mayor Wellington Webb with the Webb Group International. This is but a sample of the well-known downhill skiers, snowboarders and ice skaters that will be presenting you the Olympic Games.

I read a really interesting piece on the Internet titled “Ten Olympic Games that Bankrupted Their Cities.” What a hose job these events have caused. You all remember 1992 Albertville.

Another biggie, the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. The games ran at a loss, say the Japanese press, and the full cost may never be known. And later, members of that committee ordered all of their records, 90 volumes, to be burned.

2006 Sydney Summer Games, they forecast 8-10 million tourists were going to show up to visit — who didn’t show up. They got about 2.5 million and their expectations were never realized. Taxpayers got the hickey.

2004 Athens Summer Olympics many people believe helped kick Greece into bankruptcy.

2006 Turin, Italy Olympic Games — shortfall $95 million. That at one time was as much as $176 million, threatening Turin with bankruptcy.

And how about those 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. The city had to step in with financing after the Olympic Village developer ran out of money. Vancouver also had to grapple with a billion dollars in debt, including $730 million incurred by the Olympic Village.

Doesn’t it make you wanna dance?

And couple this major con job with rolling out the red carpet for Amazon and read some exposés about working for Jeff Bezos, it’s like working on a slave ship. Fellow Denverites, fellow Coloradans this is your clarion call. Keep these people away from you.

If you open your front door or roll down your car window can you smell the Vaseline? Get ready for all the hard-hitting investigative reports that will follow this column about the snow job headed your way. Winkie, winkie. By the way what in the heck is Peyton Manning doing on this committee? See you in church.

 

For Whom The Bell Tolls

New Year’s Resolutions

  • Governor John Hickenlooper — 2017 will be the end of the trail for the Governor. Getting off the sauce was a great career move and staying off of it for that 2020 run to dump GOP Senator Cory Gardner.
  • Denver Mayor Michael Hancock — don’t go for the third term. Cash in while you can and get all the money developers promised you for destroying the City and County of Denver.
  • Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump — another year like 2017 and they’ll put you on Mount Rushmore.
  • DPD Chief Robert White — in spite of that resounding vote of confidence from your rank and file do your level best to stay on the job.
  • Senator Cory Gardner — lucky the Chamber of Commerce promised you all those lobbying contracts because you are dead meat when Hickenlooper goes for the throat.
  • Congressman Jared Polis — two words — opposition research, put on your hat.
  • Tom Tancredo — once more into the breach. Wind in your sails and the Governor’s mansion in ’18.
  • The Denver Post — down to a skeleton crew but hope for an In and Out Burger in your new Adams County digs.
  • Denver’s Television Stations — another year like this one and you’ll be joining The Denver Post and be beaten by reruns of Gilligan’s Island.
  • Denver’s Sports Reporters and Broncos Fans — I hope you cease and desist the term “we.” The team belongs to Annabel Bowlen and the “blood of the city.”
  • To the loving couple Cynthia and Mike Coffman — welcome to the wide wide world of singledom. Recommend It’s Just Lunch and Millionaires.com.
  • The Brownstein Law Firm — best of luck with the new Saudi king (winky winky).
  • Brandon Marshall — hope your appearance on the show To Tell the Truth goes well.
  • Denver District Attorney Beth McCann — if things go bad don’t go in the shower.
  • Walker Stapleton — keep on reminding people you can choose your friends but not your relatives, ie. the Bushes.
  • Mike “The King” Dunafon — best of luck for the inaugural season for the Glendale Raptors and Major League Rugby.
  • Debbie Matthews — keep up the great billboards at Shotgun’s.
  • George Brauchler — hope this run goes well but if this doesn’t work out please don’t join the Brownstein Law Firm.
  • Stephan Tubbs and Terry Frei — two very good guys. All the very best in the future; you didn’t deserve what happened to you.

Happy New Year!