Mark Twain famously said: “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” His remarks certainly apply to Colorado today as the new Colorado Transportation Bill SB21-260 demonstrates. Colorado voters have repeatedly declared, since 1992 with the adoption of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (“TABOR”), that they wanted to be able to vote on approving new tax increases. Similarly, Colorado taxpayers have repeatedly said that they do not want new taxes for roads. In fall of 2019, Proposition CC failed which would have allowed the state to keep the refunds that would have otherwise gone back to taxpayers under TABOR for roads. In the fall of 2020, voters turned down two Propositions, 109 and 110, which would have raised taxes for roads. In addition the voters approved Proposition 117, a measure requiring voter approval on fee hikes that generate more than $100 million in revenue over five years.
None of it mattered in the least. Under SB21-260 the state legislature imposes an estimated $4 billion in new fees over 10 years for so-called transportation needs. That is an estimated $1,750 per household. How did they do it? Well, they divided the fees into four different enterprises, none of them individually exceeds the limit. One other fee, however, easily exceeded the limit, but they put that fee into a Highway Users Tax Fund, and since it is not an enterprise, it does not need voter approval.
One would think the Colorado courts would strike down such shenanigans, but we are assured by the conservative Independence Institute that the Colorado Supreme Court would find a way to approve the same. Given the black eye the Colorado judiciary has gotten from the discovery that the Judicial Department and Colorado’s former chief justice awarded a multimillion dollar contract to an employee to prevent her from disclosing incidents of workplace misconduct and sex discrimination, the courts might want the citizens to at least think they are not so biased that they can render impartial rulings, but apparently not.
The solution the Independence Institute gives us, is that ultimately the voters can punish those legislators who passed the legislation over the wishes of the voters. But in Colorado that has become a joke. Mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting in Denver make it impossible for anybody but a Democrat to win statewide office and assures a Democrat controlled State House and State Senate. That is why the State Legislature could care less what the voters want or do not want.
There is at least a silver lining in all of this. Voters have indicated that they do not want new taxes or new fees used to build and repair roads and bridges, and under SB21-260 very little of the money will be used for that. It is estimated the roads and bridges will be involved in only 17% to 18% of the spending and rest used for subsidies for electric cars and multimodal transportation. So, after a flurry of spending the roads in Colorado will remain highly congested and in poor repair. Nothing will change except the lightening of the public pockets.
You could, of course, call your duly elected state representative/senator but many of them are not even bothering these days to take such calls or read constituent mail. Why should they? In case you have not figured it out yet, you don’t live in a democratic republic in Colorado, but an interesting form of an oligarchy. You can have fun voting, relieved of any burden that your vote, as Mark Twain noted, “makes any difference.”
Kyle Clark, 9NEWS superstar, is beginning to feel the vultures circling.
At one time, not that long ago, KUSA 9News was a powerhouse in the Denver media market with massive ratings and was lovingly called the “Mommy Channel” for its popularity with female viewers. But it seems all good things must come to end. Things started “Breaking Bad” when Kyle Clark floated into town from New York in 2007.
Over the years, the acerbic New Yorker eventually came to dominate 9NEWS and is literally almost impossible to escape if you tune into Channel 9. He hosts “Next with Kyle Clark” at 9 p.m. on weekdays, and if that is not enough, he is the news anchor for 9NEWS on its 10 p.m. broadcast. He also contributes reports for 9NEWS political coverage, the 9Wants to Know Investigative unit, and 9NEWS Storytellers. He is perhaps best known for getting into endless Twitter wars with scores of individuals across the Front Range.
Murder by 9News security guard Matthew Dolloff of Lee Keltner at pro police rally on October 10, 2020.
While 9NEWS ratings are beginning to take a dive, in an age where objective television news is considered passé, he gained admirers by putting his leftwing progressive views into all of his reporting. One never needs to wonder what his personal views are as it relates to any story. The bias reporting was clearly fine with KUSA Channel 9 parent company, the giant publicly traded media company TEGNA, Inc.
Lori Lizarraga
In recent times, however, the wheels appear to be coming off the once all-powerful media vehicle. In June 2020, Clark was furloughed by TEGNA as part of a company-wide cost saving strategy. Reporters for 9NEWS started to become so disliked by some the station began hiring armed security guards when they went to events.
Through a third party they engaged an unlicensed security guard, Matthew Dolloff, who shot and killed grandfather and military veteran Lee Keltner at a pro police rally in front of his son on October 10, 2020. Kyle Clark went into hiding with a security detail claiming he was taking an unannounced vacation. 9NEWS boarded up its windows and kept the staff at home for an extended COVID period. Dolloff was charged with 2nd degree murder by the Denver DA, and the Keltner family hired an attorney for possible legal action against Channel 9 and TEGNA.
Sonia Gutierrez
In March of this year Clark’s and 9NEWS’ reputation as being progressive took a tremendous hit. Lori Lizarraga wrote a scathing article in Westword: “LatinXed: 9News Got Rid of Three Latina Reporters This Past Year, Including Me,” detailing a pattern and practice of discrimination at the news station. In addition, one of TEGNA’s largest shareholders demanded that the company open its books and records to investigate what is being called a broad pattern of bias and racially insensitive behavior.
The investor stated that the allegations show “the roots of racist behavior within Tegna/Gannett are ugly and run deep” and are reflected in “egregious practices with Tegna/Gannett dating back decades.”
Kristen Aguirre
Gannett previously owned the broadcast business that is now stand alone TEGNA. TEGNA spun off the publishing business as Gannett in 2015.
And, of course, Kyle Clark went on an immediate unannounced vacation.
Perhaps Mr. Clark, TEGNA, and 9NEWS, and their phony “wokeness,” might just like to leave town and sell the station to some entity who would like to bring the station back to what it once was.
When Amanda Sandoval and Amanda Sawyer were elected to the Denver City Council, from District 1 and District 5 respectively, this Editorial Board could not have been more thrilled. We strongly endorsed both candidates as women who would take strong stands against Mayor Hancock when appropriate. Sawyer upset incumbent Mary Beth Susman, who had decided to become little more than a shill for Hancock and his developer buddies. Sandoval, on the other hand, had been the aide to former Councilmember Rafael Espinoza, arguably the best councilman in the previous Council term. But he decided he could be more effective on the outside rather than in government and would be there to help, and assist Sandoval, when needed.
District 5 Denver City Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer
As far as opposing Hancock when needed each has done an outstanding job. But as for being decent human beings each has been an abysmal failure. Lord Acton the famous 19th century historian said: “All power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” He noted that such people are not innately evil. They begin as decent human beings but soon evolve.
We have watched Denver City Council members come and go for decades now. It is an interesting process to observe. Many were relatively powerless prior to coming to office and that certainly was the case with the Amandas. Sandoval came from a highly political family but was known for her kindness and appreciation for others. Sawyer had lots of degrees, both a JD and an MBA. She had moved to Hilltop with her husband to raise their five children and had no political background. With the help of the EMERGE program, which trains Democratic women for political office, she prevailed.
It didn’t take either one very long to begin attacking and denigrating anyone who got in their way. For both, they always asserted that they were being “bullied” when they were, in fact, the biggest bullies. Sawyer claims any opposition to her is “sexist,” and Sandoval quickly claims everything is “racist.”
At times Sandoval appears to represent only the Latinx community. When Sandoval spearheaded the change of the name of Columbus Park to La Raza Park (which means The Race Park) she seemed clueless on why African Americans seemed to wonder whether they were welcome at the park. Her relations with the black community took a deep dive when she was booed at a City Council meeting after stating: “I support a lot of things that are going on. But it’s the same violence that is happening in our community. It’s Black on Black. It’s brown on brown.”
District 1 Denver City Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval
The black community began a “Recall Sandoval” campaign. She claimed she and her entire family were being threatened by something called the Afro Liberation Front and she went tribal. She asserted the Chicanos who had gone before her had been afraid, at times, but always showed up. She asked her supporters to take over the streets of North Denver. While everything eventually calmed down, starting race wars in District 1 was not previously thought to be one of the functions of a Denver City Councilmember.
If anything, Amanda Sawyer has been worse. She decided to try to destroy the career of an employee at the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI). She threatened to block every DOTI bill and grind the department into the ground unless she was given her way. When the employee responded in his defense, she declared it was sexist and claimed people were trying to smear her. She and her attorney wrote extremely unprofessional letters, claiming false and sexist attacks and threatening to file legal actions. A spokesperson for Hancock responded: “As far as I know there is no precedent for a member of city council, or any public servant, to communicate with the Mayor’s office this way.” Leave it to Amanda Sawyer to accomplish the impossible of making Mayor Hancock look sympathetic.
The Chronicle’s reporter Robert Davis recently had a chance to experience the full Amandas treatment. In a story on page 15 of the March 2021 edition of the Chronicle, he incorrectly indicated that Amanda Sandoval voted against the Group Living Amendment when it was, in fact, Amanda Sawyer. No apologies were enough for the Amandas. When alerted on Sunday morning, February 28, 2021, The Chronicle’s Executive Editor immediately changed the online version and updated the photo used in the story. This was also not sufficient. Nor was the declaration that a correction would be placed in this month’s printed edition (see Correction below).
If you believe them, Mr. Davis was clearly a misogynist. Amanda Sawyer immediately posted on Twitter where she joined Denver School Board Director Tay Anderson in attacking the paper. Separately, she has claimed that the Chronicle is out to get her, even though she has received overwhelmingly positive coverage from this paper since assuming office.
As a practical matter, newspapers from the Chronicle to The New York Times make inadvertent errors, and all papers can do is acknowledge the mistakes and move forward. As for the Amandas, we have had it with them. We will continue to report on them fairly. But like many people and businesses in Districts 1 and 5, Amanda Sandoval and Amanda Sawyer have lost all goodwill and this newspaper will not hesitate to defend and protect those people they unfairly and viciously attack. You can oppose Mayor Hancock without being total jerks, notwithstanding what Amanda Sandoval and Amanda Sawyer think.
Editorial Board
Correction
In the March 2021 edition, on page 15, the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle printed a story titled “Denver Approves Controversial Group Living Amendment.” Within the story, we mistakenly identified Councilmember Amanda Sandoval voting against the amendment when in fact it was Councilmember Amanda Sawyer who voted against it. We regret the error.
In the year 2000 I sat down to clarify my thoughts about the strange circumstances that seemed to be gathering momentum in our American culture. In light of our situation today, I think you will agree; if we would have cared to look, we would have seen this coming and acted sooner!
What will we do today to stop the accelerated loss of our personal liberty? If we do nothing; what will our “Liberty” look like in a few short years or for that matter months?
Today is Sunday January 24, 2021. Almost One year into a worldwide Pandemic and lockdown.
The world as I saw it in the year 2000 no longer exists — without the lessons learned from great past civilizations, will our Grandchildren have the ability to create a future?
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past!”
— George Orwell
March 2000
Personal Liberty is under an assault from a counter culture bent on absolute control of our government and the American way of life. Have I lost my mind — probably, but not on this issue. This statement sounds like I am outside staring at the sky awaiting the arrival of black helicopters. If I had made this comment 20 years ago, around the table, over a few beers you would still be able to hear the laughter. In the same setting today, the reaction would be quite different — disbelief, fear, and discomfort would replace the laughter. Not because the audience disagreed with the statement, but because someone said “such a thing” in public. The insidious, unrelenting Thought Police tasked with destroying “intolerance” with an iron fist have stifled us. We now find ourselves on the outside barely able to look in.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be the master — that’s all.”
— Lewis Carroll,
Through the Looking Glass
A general malaise infects our culture. The common person knows that a “misplaced” opinion or humorous comment about a “protected” group can destroy their lives. Equality of opportunity has given way to equality of outcome, personal rights to group rights. Personal rights bring personal wealth, personal success, and competition, and those who don’t make the grade are left behind. The counter culture believes in false equality predicated on the lowest common denominator.
To the counter culture, “social justice” has come to mean “protection” for certain groups from attacks by the “enemy” (principally white heterosexual males). It seems that everything we say, or do, can somehow exemplify our intolerance or downright hatred for a “protected” group. The great elixir of mankind, humor, should be avoided altogether. In fact, humor seems to be non-existent in the lexicon of the Thought Police. The ironical self-deprecating humor that was the hallmark of our nation’s immigrants is now considered to be hate speech on the part of the “enemy.” Even if you are the brunt of your own joke, the counter culture believes there exists an underlying “intolerance” that lurks dormant and insidiously hidden in your psyche that must be purged by the counter culture. Ultimately, it is not just our freedom of speech that is under attack, it is the freedom of thought.
“The price paid for intellectual pacification is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind.”
— John Stuart Mill
To avoid falling into this “trap” we have developed a habit of self-censorship that has become so unconscious we fail to recognize the mind-numbing subliminal effort involved in maintaining the correct speech necessary to escape the wrath of the Thought Police. At some point it is easier to avoid thinking, and subsequently, disengage.
We are becoming a lobotomized society in which everyone believes that it’s every man for himself. A considerable number of Americans fail to recognize the counter culture’s agenda, and believe that the counter culture is interested in “inclusion” and constructive dialogue. They have become the unwitting foot soldiers that practice appeasement as a way to reconciliation. History shows us that the appeasers (after their usefulness expires) are the last to be executed.
Control The Debate
Frame the debate! Dehumanize your enemy! Call your adversary a sexist, racist or bigot, and you will no longer need to answer his arguments. He is now faced with defending his character. In the courts, there is a presumption of innocence until proven otherwise. However, in the court of public opinion if you are charged with sexism the burden of proof falls squarely on the shoulders of the accused. This is precisely how ideologues entrench themselves in a system; they exploit and ruin those on whose backs they rode to power. They begin by working in the establishment, and through insinuation and infiltration rather than through confrontation, they erode the system from within, all the while claiming that the root of the problem stems from the old guard, and its ideals. Thus, we find ourselves in a situation where the counter culture not only controls the answers but the questions asked. It is attempting to control how we understand the daily events of our lives.
Control History
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past!”
— George Orwell
“To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.”
— Alexander Solzhenitsyn
When attempting to destroy your enemy, destroy the record of their past, and fill the void with a new history. Dishonor or disgrace his heroes, and you can demoralize his people. Besmirch, and degrade your adversary to the point that any and all outrageous comments will go unchallenged. Sit back and watch the crows devour what is left of the past and your future!
We at the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle received the great tidings that Colorado’s Governor Jared Polis had magnanimously decided that our “frontline journalists” would be part of the frontline for COVID-19 vaccinations. The definition of a “frontline journalist” is so loose that almost anyone working at the Chronicle qualifies. How glorious! We in the media have, of course, thought of ourselves as more special and better than the people we report on and if you have any doubts just ask Channel 9’s Kyle Clark. It is just so wonderful that Governor Polis has recognized the same. One of these days you too may be eligible for this life saving vaccine, but there is no great urgency on that front.
It is also great that the governor gets to make those life and death decisions. He has been ruling by proclamation for close to an entire year now with no end of the emergency in site. We, in theory, have a pesky election for the office in November of 2022, but why go to the annoyance of that charade. Polis spent over $23 million of his money in the last election and it is said he is willing to double that next time to harvest ballots.
Polis helped push campaign finance reform laws which make it impossible for anyone who is not extremely wealthy to win the governorship. It is amazing how laws that the purported purpose was to eliminate big money out of politics, in fact, allow only the wealthy to hold the top statewide office.
The COVID-19 emergency has worked out wonderfully for some. Many government workers and public school teachers have had a very nice, long vacation and are in no hurry to get back to full-time work anytime soon. Big box retailers and Amazon have grown wealthy on the backs of small businesses. Restaurants and bars have been decimated despite recent studies showing they do not particularly spread COVID-19. It just does not matter.
It also does not matter that highly effective treatments for COVID-19 exist if you’re wealthy and know the right doctors. During the pandemic the rich have gotten richer and the poor poorer but is not that the way it always works? The rich are in no hurry to end the emergency here in Colorado or anywhere else for that matter.
No, just sit back and enjoy the second year of the COVID-19 emergency. You cannot do anything about it even if you wanted to. The governor will one day make you eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine just like us “frontline journalists,” just not anytime soon.
Editorial Board
You are so “special” Kyle. Governor Jared Polis (left) deemed “frontline journalists” like Channel 9 News anchor Kyle Clark (below) as so special as to deserve front of the line treatment for the COVID-19 vaccine.
In Denver, these days you get a choice between the “Corporatists” like Mayor Hancock and former mayors Federico Peña and Wellington Webb, and the “Radicals” like Candi CdeBaca and the majority of the newest Denver School Board. There is, these days, no other viable alternative. Neither group is all bad or all good but together they are helping to destroy the city. Back in his first run for Denver mayor, Federico Peña’s slogan was “Imagine a Great City.” Today the slogan appears to be “Imagine a Really Crappy City.”
The Corporatists under Mayor Hancock have made their contribution to a crappy city by destroying as many open spaces and parks as humanly possible. Denver has gone from one of the leading cities in percentage of open space and parks per resident to one of the worst in the United States. The Corporatists, of course, wish to exploit any city asset built up over generations to make money for themselves and their friends, like high-density developers and lobbyists/lawyers. To the credit of the Radicals, they are not on board with this grotesque program and are the ones fighting the mayor and his friends to preserve what is left.
The Radicals on the Denver Board of Education, on the other hand, are doing there best to destroy quality education in the City and County of Denver, aided and abetted by Denver’s teachers’ union. The teachers’ union in Chicago has declared that in-school learning is “rooted in sexism, racism and misogyny,” and many of Denver’s unionized teachers would certainly agree.
The Radicals on the Denver Board of Education are led by none other than Tay Anderson who won an at-large seat in 2019. He is not a big believer in education, having barely gotten out of Manual High School himself in 2017. He demands that if you talk to him that you address him as “Director” Anderson. More recently he has been nicknamed “The Round Mound of Flop Downs.” Mr. Anderson does not appear to have any means of support. The Board job is without compensation. His Board bio shows no present employment. But there are other ways to make money.
Back in July, he was at the homeless encampment by the State Capitol when he said he was pushed by the police, although video appears only to show him flopping down. He claims he went to a hospital, but the hospital was never identified. He set up a Go Fund Me Page for “medical expenses” without ever identifying what those expenses were. Nonetheless he took in over $13,000. He also hired a lawyer and presumably got a payday from the city.
But money never lasts long. In December, he did another flop down at an unidentified Target, this time claiming severe chest pains caused his collapse. He had previously tapped Target, claiming that he and his brother had been racially profiled at another unidentified Target, and received a swift apology from corporate headquarters and who knows what else. Why you want to continue to shop at a store that you claim racially profiled and harassed you is a little strange, but we are sure Mr. Anderson has his reasons. It has not been disclosed whether he has hired legal counsel for his latest flop down.
What Mr. Anderson and his fellow Radicals want to end is children having any choice on where they go to school, an idea on which the Denver teachers’ union heartily agrees.
The word “competition” is an anathema to them. The schoolteachers’ union opposes charter and magnate schools, and the Radicals ran on limiting, or even getting rid of, educational opportunities for kids in the City and County of Denver. The Corporatists, including Mayor Hancock, had strongly supported school choice with money coming in for school board races by developers and others. This support for school choice was not out of any eleemosynary belief in education, but they realized with only lousy, non-competitive schools in Denver, less people would be willing to move to Denver and fill up all those high-density condos and apartments. But the corporate support largely dried up in 2019 leaving only the money from the schoolteachers’ union for the 2019 election which resulted in the Radicals winning.
The Radicals relatively quickly drove out widely praised school superintendent Susana Cordova who is a child of Mexican American immigrant parents and the first college graduate in the family. She went to Denver schools and began teaching in them starting in 1989. She is leaving Denver for a much less prestigious and lower paying job in the Dallas Texas Independent School District. She stated she is leaving Denver because Dallas “reminds her a lot of the Denver I grew up in.”
Obviously, today’s Denver does not remind her of the Denver she grew up in. Moreover, she also does not believe the present “Imagine a Crappy City” contest between the Corporatists and the Radicals will improve matters any. Will there ever be a movement for something other than the Corporatists and the Radicals? Ms. Cordova does not believe anything will develop anytime soon and unfortunately neither do we.
Mark Twain famously said: “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” His remarks certainly apply to Colorado today as the new Colorado Transportation Bill SB21-260 demonstrates. Colorado voters have repeatedly declared, since 1992 with the adoption of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (“TABOR”), that they wanted to be able to vote on approving new tax increases. Similarly, Colorado taxpayers have repeatedly said that they do not want new taxes for roads. In fall of 2019, Proposition CC failed which would have allowed the state to keep the refunds that would have otherwise gone back to taxpayers under TABOR for roads. In the fall of 2020, voters turned down two Propositions, 109 and 110, which would have raised taxes for roads. In addition the voters approved Proposition 117, a measure requiring voter approval on fee hikes that generate more than $100 million in revenue over five years.
There is at least a silver lining in all of this. Voters have indicated that they do not want new taxes or new fees used to build and repair roads and bridges, and under SB21-260 very little of the money will be used for that. It is estimated the roads and bridges will be involved in only 17% to 18% of the spending and rest used for subsidies for electric cars and multimodal transportation. So, after a flurry of spending the roads in Colorado will remain highly congested and in poor repair. Nothing will change except the lightening of the public pockets.
