Tag Archives: Colorado

Good News From Colorado

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On Monday, Red State posted an article about the release of Tina Peters from prison in Colorado.

The article reports:

Tina Peters is free.

The 70-year-old former Colorado elections clerk was released Monday following Gov. Jared Polis’ May commutation of her nine-year sentence on felony charges for her role in breaching the county’s election voting systems and equipment in 2021. She was concerned that there were irregularities in the 2020 presidential election, where Joe Biden received a mind-bending 81 million votes despite campaigning mostly from his basement.

…Although the mainstream media constantly refers to her as an “election denier,” and many Democrats portray her as the personification of evil, it was nice to see a Dem actually speaking up for free speech and against prosecutorial overreach:

In an interview with 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark, Polis said he commuted Peters’ sentence because he felt she was oversentenced for expressing inaccurate, but constitutionally protected views.

“She committed a crime. What’s an issue here is how long the sentence is,” Polis said. “I agree with the appeals court that in the sentencing hearing, the judge incorrectly looked at and considered her bizarre viewpoints, her speech, and held her speech against her.”

According to a Just the News article from November 2021:

Peters said in August at a news conference, “The Mesa County Clerk and Recorder’s office directed her staff to turn off the video surveillance of the voting equipment,” CBS 4 Denver reported.

Peters explained that she had copied files on the voting machines for security before the update was made.

“I was concerned they were going to delete important election files, I did a backup image before and after they did that,” Peters told the news outlet.

She alleges that the images showed numerous voter files were removed during the update and her job was to supervise the files.

In October, Peters was prohibited by a Mesa County judge from overseeing the county’s election in a ruling on a lawsuit filed by Griswold, according to Colorado Politics.

I don’t know if the corruption Tina Peters exposed will ever be dealt with, but at least she is free.

Elections Have Consequences

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In September 2018, I posted the following video:

The video explains how the political left changed the State of Colorado from a red state to a solidly blue state. The residents of Colorado are now feeling the consequences of that change.

On Monday, PJ Media reported:

“20 years ago Colorado was a Red state and thriving,” the State Leadership Initiative posted late last week. “10 years ago liberals were writing pieces about how Colorado was the next Silicon Valley.” And now CBS News reports that “Colorado is losing businesses and jobs at an alarming rate.”

This was the hope, according to Denver-based 5280 magazine in 2020: “With another tech company setting up an office in Denver, the state could become a magnet for Silicon Valley firms and other prestigious businesses during the worst economic climate in nearly a century.”

Instead of Silicon Mountain, Colorado is quickly becoming “an economic backwater,” as SLI put it, “an omen for what happens when Red states go blue.”

It seems like only last week [It was just last week, Steve —Editor] I shared the schadenfreudelicious tale of how one TDS-suffering Delaware judge launched an exodus of big-name firms led by Elon Musk. Today, I must share similar news about my once-beloved home state of Colorado.

“The Colorado Chamber of Commerce has been sounding an alarm for years about excessive regulation,” CBS reported, and “the Chamber also said that companies are also relocating out-of-state.” According to the story, “since 2019, 98 companies have either left the state, expanded elsewhere, or scrapped plans to move here.” In the last four years, we’ve lost a total of 34 corporate headquarters, too. 

The most recent big name to leave is Palantir, the AI firm recently touted by President Donald Trump for its invaluable contributions to Operation Epic Fury. With basically zero fanfare, the company announced last week that it’s moved its HQ to Miami. 

Please follow the link and read the entire article. It includes a comparison of where Colorado was in 2018 before the Democrats took over and where it is now. Please watch the above video. This is the playbook–it can be used in any state.

Laws Have Consequences

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On Monday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about a Colorado healthcare program that began in 2005.

The article reports:

A Colorado program launched in 2025 to provide taxpayer-funded health care to illegal immigrant “pregnant persons” and children is costing seven times more than expected. The program, which was estimated to cost less than $15 million but has ballooned in costs to nearly $105 million this fiscal year, has emerged as a sore spot as the state grapples with a $1.5 billion budget shortfall that could lead to deep cuts to Medicaid and other programs for citizens.

Two of the Democrats who supported the program in the Colorado legislature are now seeking a promotion to the House of Representatives.

Democratic lawmakers, including former state representative Shannon Bird, one of the candidates vying to represent Colorado’s Eighth Congressional District, passed a law in 2022 to create the Cover All Coloradans program. It provides state-funded health care for “pregnant persons” and children who would qualify for Medicaid if they weren’t illegal immigrants. Fiscal analysts estimated at the time that the program would draw 3,700 enrollees at a cost of $14.7 million to the state.

But the illegal immigrant population in Colorado spiked as the law passed, rising from 160,000 in 2021 to more than 200,000 in 2025, according to the Pew Research Center. Costs for the Cover All Coloradans program increased sixfold to $104.5 million to Colorado taxpayers after 28,000 immigrants enrolled in the program when it launched in 2025, the Colorado Sun reported.

Free stuff is expensive!

The article notes:

Colorado’s Democratic House speaker Julie McCluskie, the lead sponsor of the Cover All Coloradans program in 2022, said there have been “unanticipated impacts” to the illegal immigrant health care program since its launch last year.

“At the time we made budget decisions — whether it was during the pandemic, following the pandemic — we made those decisions based on the forecasts in front of us,” McCluskie told the Sun.

We don’t need more fiscally irresponsible people in the U.S. House!

Protecting The First Amendement

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On Tuesday, The Daily Signal posted an article about a recent Supreme Court case involving free speech.

The article reports:

The Supreme Court held in an 8-1 ruling on Tuesday that a Colorado ban on “conversion therapy” for counselors unlawfully regulates speech and is viewpoint discrimination. 

Justice Neil Gorsuch, a President Donald Trump appointee, issued the majority opinion. Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor—both appointees of President Barack Obama—issued concurring opinions. 

Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson—an appointee of President Joe Biden—dissented. 

The Chiles v. Salazar case involved a challenge to a Colorado law that allows licensed counselors to address issues of sexuality and gender only from the state’s approved perspective. 

Kaley Chiles, a Christian licensed counselor in Colorado Springs, used what is called “talk therapy” with patients who voluntarily sought her help. These included minors who said they struggled with issues related to sexuality and gender, and who wanted their behavior to be in accordance with their sex and their religious faith.

In the majority opinion, Gorsuch wrote the state law “prescribes what views she [Chiles] may and may not express.”

“As applied to Ms. Chiles, Colorado’s law regulates the content of her speech and goes further to prescribe what views she may and may not express, discriminating on the basis of viewpoint,” Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion.

The article concludes:

The opinion stated that the government cannot label speech as conduct, as in Chiles’ case it constituted treatment. The opinion added that the “First Amendment is no word game.”

“The fact that the state’s viewpoint regulation falls only on licensed health care professionals does not change the equation,” Gorsuch wrote.

This case deals with an attack on counselors who hold a Biblical worldview on sexuality. In many cases homosexuality can be related to childhood trauma or family dysfunction. If a homosexual person wants to leave that lifestyle, they should be free to find a counselor who will help them along that journey. If an adolescent is confused about their gender identify and his parents want to find a counselor who will help them walk through adolescence with the gender he was born with, the parents should be free to find that counselor. Some of the things counselors are telling our teenage children are not helpful in the long run.

Undermining The Tax Cuts President Trump Put In Place

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The Big Beautiful Bill provided tax relief for certain groups of people. A major portion of Social Security will not be taxed, tips will not be taxed and overtime pay will not be taxed. Those are targeted tax breaks given to the people who work hard (or have worked hard) and were hit hard by President Biden’s economic policies. Unfortunately, there are those in some states who really don’t care about helping those of us who work for a living.

On Monday, The Daily Signal reported:

The Trump/GOP “One Big, Beautiful Tax Cut” includes no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and a new tax-deduction for Social Security benefits. These promises helped Trump secure the White House and Republicans the U.S. House and Senate.

The GOP’s huge win in November 2024 gave Republicans a solid mandate to keep these promises. And they did.

Nonetheless, the Democrat-mismanaged states of Colorado, Illinois, Maine, and New York are rigging their tax codes so that this Trump/GOP tax relief does not reduce corresponding state levies. The same holds for Democrat-smothered Washington, D.C., which will keep higher taxes on 13 of the GOP’s 84 federal tax-cut provisions.

Colorado’s House Bill 25-1296, decoupled its state taxes from these federal tax reductions. So, next April 15, factory workers will have to render unto Democrat Gov. Jared Polis the overtime pay break that Trump and Republicans let them enjoy.

Among other things, this requires taxpayers to keep two separate records of taxable income. What a mess.

The article notes:

So, at last, Republicans deliver concrete relief to the “affordability crisis” that has become the Democrats’ latest obsession. The Trump/GOP tax cuts will help Americans pay their bills, buy groceries, fill their gas tanks, and maybe even get out of town, to pursue happiness. What could be more wonderful?

Rather than celebrate with everyday people, Democrats decrease taxpayers’ additional income and diminish their economic security. For Democrats, making Americans poorer is a bargain compared to the bonanza of denying Trump and Republicans any credit for feeling and easing the people’s pain.

Anyone who votes Democrat at this point is simply not paying attention!

States Need To Protect Children–Not Participate In Harming Them

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On Friday, The Federalist reported that the Colorado legislature has introduced a bill that would consider whether a parent affirmed a child’s sexual identity in child custody cases.

The article reports:

Far-left members of the Colorado state House advanced a bill on Tuesday evening that would direct courts considering child custody cases to favor parents who push radical gender ideology and penalize parents who do not “affirm” their child’s identification as “transgender.”

The bill, introduced last Friday night, passed out of the Colorado House Judiciary Committee in a 7-4 vote on Tuesday and heads to the floor for a second reading on April 4.

“House Bill 1312 is an egregious step towards solidifying Colorado as a Trans Sanctuary State. This bill requires a court to give priority consideration for custody to the parent that affirms a child’s gender dysphoria,” Republican state Rep. Jarvis Caldwell told The Federalist. “The parent who disagrees and tries to get the child actual help is now guilty of committing child abuse, referred [to] in the bill as ‘coercive control.’ The bill also ignores other state[s’] court rulings if one parent brings a child to Colorado for gender-affirming care; directly violating Article IV, Section 1, known as the Full Faith and Credit Clause, of the U.S. Constitution.”

These are children. There are reasons we do not allow children to drive, smoke, or drink until they are adults. Children can’t even get their ears pierced without parental consent in some states until they are 18. Some of the medical procedures involved in the transgender process are irreversible. What do you say to a 20-year old woman who joined the trans movement and transitioned as a 10-year old and now realizes she wants to be a woman and be a mother? Becoming a Trans Sanctuary State means that you are codifying child abuse into law.

When Your Business Is Ruined By Illegal Immigrants

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On Monday, Townhall posted an article updating the situation regarding the apartments taken over by the Venezuelan gang in Aurora, Colorado. It’s not a pretty picture.

The article reports:

A Colorado landlord has agreed to sell an apartment complex because it was taken over by the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua. 

According to the New York Post, landlord Zev Baumgarten had been fighting with Aurora, Colorado leadership after the city accused him of allowing Aspen Grove apartments to become a “trash-ridden, gang-infested hellhole.”

…Now, Baumgarten’s company has now agreed to sell, lease, or find some “similar disposition” for the complex. The complex was closed in August, reportedly displacing 300 residents. His company must pay to clean up the site (via NYP):

The article concludes:

Townhall previously reported how the gang had taken over apartment complexes in Aurora, terrorizing the residents.

Despite this, Democrat Gov. Jared Polis called the anger and fear that’s arisen from this situation “imagination.”

Polis’ press office offered the “snarky” statement in response to the New York Post’s reporting on the issue. 

“The Governor has already let the Mayor know that the State is ready to support the local police department with assistance from state troopers and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation if needed,” Shelby Wieman, a spokesperson for the Democratic governor, told The Post.

“But, according to police intelligence this purported invasion is largely a feature of Danielle Jurinsky’s imagination,” Wieman added. Jurinsky is a member of the Aurora City Council and has sounded the alarm on the illegal immigration crisis impacting the community. 

Why are we expecting people who broke the law to come into America to respect the laws of our country once they get here?

This Is Going To Be A Nationwide Problem

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For the past three and a half years, America’s southern border has been wide open. We have no idea who is coming over the border or why. The only control of the immigration coming into America is the Cartels, and they do not have America’s best interests at heart. The open-border chickens are now coming home to roost.

On Tuesday, BizPacReview reported:

Jesse Kelly recently posted a letter regarding the ongoing madness in Aurora, Colorado, in which the author claims leaders are attempting to “minimize the issue.”

A person claiming to be a police officer in the town claimed that the situation is much worse than those talking to the media would have you believe, and the press needs to continue to keep the heat on until the problem is resolved.

This is the letter:

“I am a police officer in Aurora, Colorado and we are in the news for the recent story about the armed Venezuelan gang members taking over apartment complexes,” the letter begins. “I am happy to see the story make national news to where the Aurora Police Department command staff and City of Aurora leadership are being asked the hard question about what is occurring.”

“Unfortunately these ‘leaders’ are not being truthful nor are they acknowledging the problem as they know it to be,” the writer continues. “They are also trying to minimize the issue by implying the issue is confined to just the apartment complexes in the city. This could not be further from the truth. The Venezuelans are wreaking havoc throughout the city.”

“Please help keep this story in the spotlight so the City of Aurora can no longer downplay the matter. The reality is the citizens and out officers are not safe as long as the issue continues to be ignored and real solutions are not being implemented. Due to my employment status and the international information I possess on this matter, I cannot have you air my name. Thank you,” the message concludes.

Meanwhile, on Monday The Gateway Pundit reported:

Last night, a shocking 911 call was shared by Libs of Tik Tok on X, that revealed 32 armed Venezuelan migrants were attempting to overtake an apartment complex in Chicago last night.

…Winter is right around the corner. Did anyone honestly think these Venezuelan gangs who ruled the countries they came from, were going to be sleeping in tents in local parks while unarmed Chicago residents slept inside?

This Chicago resident warns the ARMED Venezuelan gangs thinking about taking over their places of residency in gun-free Chicago, “We got switches!”

Thank God for the Second Amendment. I suspect many residents in places where it has been curtailed are wishing they had guns to defend themselves and their property.

This Did Not Go As Planned

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On Friday, The Gatestone Institute posted an article about the impact of legalization of marijuana has had on California.

The article reports:

Six years after California legalized marijuana, the bodies keep piling up. Earlier this year, six men were murdered in the Mojave Desert. Four of the men had been burned after being shot with rifles. In 2020, seven people were killed at an illegal pot operation in Riverside County.

Violence like this was supposed to disappear after legalization. Legalization advocates argued that making the drug trade legal would end the grip of the cartels. Instead, the legal market has failed, and the cartels are taking over sizable parts of California and the rest of the country.

California’s legal drug revenues have fallen consistently, as have those in other legal drug states including Colorado, whose model helped sell the idea that drug money would fix everything.

Despite falling revenues, Colorado legislators brag about $282 million in drug revenue. That number may sound high, but it’s a drop in the bucket considering the money that the state and cities like Denver are spending on homelessness, drug overdoses and law enforcement.

While the legal drug business is also collapsing in California, the state is spending a fortune fighting marijuana even as it tries to tax it. Gov. Gavin Newsom paradoxically promised to close the budget deficit with $100 million in drug revenue, meant to be used to fund law enforcement and fight substance abuse. The state seized over $300 million in illegal pot this year and uses satellite imagery and heavily-armed raids to fight untaxed marijuana.

The article concludes:

Legalization advocates still argue that if the government lowered the high taxes on legal pot, the business model could turn around again, but even without a single penny in taxes, no amount of legal labor is going to be able to compete with illegal aliens smuggled across the border and forced to work for free by gunmen. Legal businesses can’t compete with organized crime.

Drug legalization increased homelessness and drug abuse. It boosted illegal migration and organized crime. It made life worse in every state and city where it’s been tried without delivering tangible benefits to anyone (including weed users who still get theirs the old-fashioned way) except for a few politicians who temporarily have a few million more to pass around to special interests, donors and lobbyists.

And all they had to do was hand over half the country to organized crime.

America does not need another legal, mind-altering drug. There is no evidence that legal marijuana improves the quality of life for anyone. For regular users, it simply numbs them to their responsibilities and makes them less likely to pursue worthwhile goals. That is not good for society as a whole or the people involved.

This Isn’t Going To End Well

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American ‘Sanctuary Cities’ are going out of their way to feed, house, and clothe people who are here illegally. That makes no sense at all when Americans are homeless. We need to find a way to help America’s homeless before we take in someone else’s homeless. Some cities are doing amazing financial acrobatics in order to meet the needs of the influx of homeless, jobless, needy illegal immigrants.

On Thursday, The Daily Caller reported:

The Democratic-run city of Denver, Colorado, plans to defund its police department to pay for illegal immigrants.

Denver, which is commonly referred to as a “sanctuary city,” announced on Wednesday that it will spend $89.9 million on services for incoming illegal migrants, pulling some of the funding from roughly $45 million in public programs and services. Denver’s police department will be hit with an $8.4 million reduction — about 1.9% of its total operating budget, the city confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Denver became the top destination per capita for incoming migrants in 2023, having had more than 40,000 arrive that year alone — putting the total migrant population at roughly 710,000, according to NBC News. Denver already spent over $42 million in 2023 in housing and medical services for migrants and plans to spend over $100 million on similar costs in 2024.

The fire department will also suffer a $2.5 million reduction, or about 0.8% of its total operating costs, the city told the DCNF. Half of those reductions will also come from vacant positions.

Today, we shared a new budget and a more sustainable newcomer program.

Proud of our city for welcoming those most in need. Proud of our city teams who found ways to minimize budget without major impacts.

Note the use of the word ‘newcomer’ instead of illegal immigrant.

The article concludes:

Over 15,000 migrants have flooded into Denver since May 2023 as a result of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing effort. The Lone Star state sits at the epicenter of the illegal immigration crisis.

More broadly, illegal immigration in cities and states across the U.S. has surged under the Biden administration. There were roughly 1.6 million migrant encounters at the northern and southern border in fiscal year 2021, compared to over 2 million in fiscal year 2023 and roughly a million in the first five months of fiscal year 2024, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

Every state is becoming a border state, and every city is becoming a sanctuary city.

 

Just Because It’s Legal Doesn’t Mean It Is Safe

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On March 12th, CBN News posted an article about the dangers of marijuana and Delta-8, a substance containing THC.

The article reports:

Laura Stack told CBN News marijuana stole the life of her son Johnny.  She recalled he was a happy, intelligent child who grew up in a Christian home.  However, he began using marijuana at age 14 when his home state of Colorado legalized its recreational use.   It was a move that changed his life forever, leading to ultimate tragedy. 

“He took his own life when he was 19 years old five years later, after he became psychotic, very delusional, and paranoid, and suspicious, from using the marijuana,” she said. 

Laura didn’t realize that most of today’s marijuana contains at least 10 times the psychoactive compound THC than it did 20 years ago. 

“In my head, I said, ‘It’s just weed. I used it when I was a girl. I’m fine. It’s no big deal,’ and I was so wrong,” she said. 

Laura and her husband John founded Johnny’s Ambassadors as a way to honor their son and help prevent other people from suffering the same fate.

Former marijuana addict Zach Plant told CBN News the drug almost took his life.

“I had thoughts of other people wanting to hurt me, thoughts of the only way of being safe was to end my own life,” he said.

Zach was admitted to the hospital and was diagnosed with Cannabis-Induced Psychosis.  Symptoms include losing touch with reality, hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia.  Zach recalled the stark warning doctors gave him.

“‘If you smoke marijuana again, there’s a chance you don’t come out of psychosis. You go back into it and your brain may never recover,'” Zach said.

Nora Volkow, M.D., Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told CBN News these types of episodes are becoming more common as the drugs get stronger.

“The higher the dose of THC for example, the higher the likelihood that you will end up with a psychotic episode,” she said. “And that will lead you to the emergency room department.”

I understand that there are people who do not seem to be affected by smoking pot. However, is the risk of psychosis one that you or your children are willing to take.

The article also notes:

Aside from marijuana, there’s growing concern about another substance containing THC called Delta-8.  It doesn’t come from the cannabis plant.  Instead, it’s synthesized from a similar plant called hemp.  It can contain as much THC or more than marijuana.  

Delta-8 products like vape pens can be purchased at gas stations, convenience stores, and online even in states where the commercial sale of marijuana is illegal.  That’s because of a legal loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp nationwide. 

Julie Killian, co-founder of RyeACT, Rye Action for Children and Teens, to educate families on youth substance abuse, told CBN News she was surprised to encounter the widespread sale of Delta-8 while she was visiting a state where commercial, recreational marijuana sales were outlawed. 

“I was at a truck, one of those food trucks, and they were selling coffee in the morning, and you could get a shot of Delta-8 THC in your coffee,” she said. 

Be careful out there.

 

Election Interference?

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On Tuesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about the decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to keep President Trump off of the Republican primary election ballot.

These are the three main problems with the decision listed in the article:

#1)  It was a 4-3 decision. Meaning it was the politics of the court, literally the political makeup and perspective therein, that determined the outcome of the decision.  This is showcased in point #3, which is the funniest part.

#2)  The entire framework of the case against Trump in the Colorado decision is predicated on this: “[the complainants] asserted that he was ineligible under Section Three because he engaged in insurrection on January 6, 2021, after swearing an oath as President to support the U.S. Constitution.”  [pdf, page 6]  REMINDER – President Donald Trump was not charged with “insurrection,” is not accused of “insurrection,” does not fit the complaint under the definitions of “insurrection,” and has never been found guilty of insurrection.  The complaint is moot before the court.  But hey, it’s Lawfare… and we all know Lawfare is created for public media consumption, so that takes us directly to the biggest point.

#3)  Instead of me writing it, let me screengrab it so we can all laugh together [pdf page 9].

Wait, what?

As long as President Trump appeals the ruling, he can be on the ballot, so what’s the point?

This is political theatre. It should not be taken seriously although it is an example of lawfare. If the practice of lawfare continues, we will eventually lose our Republic. That is the major significance of this case.

Is This The Future For Americans?

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On Thursday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about a recent event in Colorado that should concern all of us.

The article reports:

(Denver ABC7) – […] when thousands of Xcel customers in Colorado tried adjusting their thermostats Tuesday, they learned they had no control over the temperatures in their own homes.

[…] “I mean, it was 90 out, and it was right during the peak period,” Talarico (Tony Talarico, a resident of Arvada) said. “It was hot.”  That’s when he saw a message on the thermostat stating the temperature was locked due to an “energy emergency.”

[…] Xcel confirmed to Contact Denver7 that 22,000 customers who had signed up for the Colorado AC Rewards program were locked out of their smart thermostats for hours on Tuesday. 

Denver ABC7 also notes:

“I mean, it was 90 out, and it was right during the peak period,” Talarico said. “It was hot.”

That’s when he saw a message on the thermostat stating the temperature was locked due to an “energy emergency.”

“Normally, when we see a message like that, we’re able to override it,” Talarico said. “In this case, we weren’t. So, our thermostat was locked in at 78 or 79.”

On social media, dozens of Xcel customers complained of similar experiences — some reporting home temperatures as high as 88 degrees.

Xcel confirmed to Contact Denver7 that 22,000 customers who had signed up for the Colorado AC Rewards program were locked out of their smart thermostats for hours on Tuesday.

“It’s a voluntary program. Let’s remember that this is something that customers choose to be a part of based on the incentives,” said Emmett Romine, vice president of customer solutions and innovation at Xcel.

Customers receive a $100 credit for enrolling in the program and $25 annually, but Romine said customers also agree to give up some control to save energy and money and make the system more reliable.

“So, it helps everybody for people to participate in these programs. It is a bit uncomfortable for a short period of time, but it’s very, very helpful,” said Romine.

This is the first time in the program’s six year span that customers could not override their smart thermostats, Romine said. He said the “energy emergency” was due to an unexpected outage in Pueblo combined with hot weather and heavy air conditioner usage.

As connectivity increases, those who control the connectivity have the power.

 

Using Taxpayers’ Money For Illegal Aliens

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On Friday, The Daily Caller reported that Colorado will now use taxpayer dollars to fund healthcare for illegal aliens. It’s not that I don’t want people to get the healthcare they need, but the first priority for healthcare needs to be American citizens who are here legally. If you are here illegally, you need to go home. If home is a political nightmare, maybe you need to find people to join you in fixing it.

The article reports:

The program was approved under Section 1332, a provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that allows states to create their own requirements for insurance markets. Both the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) approved Colorado’s waiver request, submitted in November 2021. The federal government will provide $1.6 billion in pass-through funding to the state of Colorado over a five-year period to facilitate its healthcare exchanges.

Colorado’s application makes clear that its new healthcare exchanges are intended to facilitate the sale of taxpayer-subsidized health insurance to illegal immigrants.

“The State will be implementing a State-based subsidy program in plan year 2022, aimed at reducing the out-of-pocket cost sharing for individuals and families purchasing coverage through the exchange. In plan year 2023, a new subsidy program will be offered to Coloradans not eligible for federal subsidies, including Coloradans without a documented immigration status,” the state wrote in its application of the Colorado Option.

The article concludes:

Congressional Republicans are calling out the approval, with Colorado Rep. Ken Buck claiming that it violates the “clear intent” of the Affordable Care Act.

“While Americans suffer at the pump, Biden gives their tax dollars to illegal aliens,” Buck said in a statement. “This is one more episode of the Biden administration’s almost unbelievable commitment to putting the needs of Americans behind everyone else.”

“Democrats are putting illegal aliens first and Americans last. While Coloradans struggle to pay for gas and are being destroyed by inflation, Democrats’ top priority is to take your tax dollars and use them to give illegal aliens free Obamacare,” fellow Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert added.

As long as we have Americans struggling to pay for health care, we should not be subsidizing illegal aliens. We are already diverting funds designated for veterans to other places (article here), we don’t need to spend more tax money on people who are not even here legally.

We Might Want To Fix This Problem Quickly

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On Sunday, Trib 24/7 posted an article about some of the results of the forensic audit of the Colorado election in 2020. The results of the audit are disconcerting to say the least.

The article reports:

A forensic analysis of Mesa County, Colorado’s use of the Dominion Voting Systems’ Democracy Suite Election Management System in the 2020 presidential election found the system was “illegally certified” and “illegally configured” in a way that “vote totals can be easily changed,” according to Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters.

“The public must know that its voting systems are fundamentally flawed, illegal, and inherently unreliable,” Peters wrote in a March 1 letter to the Board of County Commissioners.

In a forensic analysis of the images of the Dominion system drive, cybersecurity experts found the system was found to contain 36 wireless devices and was configured to “allow any computer in the world” to connect to Mesa County’s election system server.

The analysis also found uncertified software that had been illegally installed on the system’s server, Peters noted.

The article included the following:

I am not a computer geek, but this looks to me as if someone has some explaining to do.

Colorado has an interesting political history. The once red state turned blue in 2004. The background on that change can be found in a movie called “Rocky Mountain Heist” found on vimeo. Unfortunately political gamesmanship has been a part of American politics since the country began. It just seems as it has reached new heights in the past twenty years or so.

 

 

What Are The Real Numbers?

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The staff of Full Measure posted an article yesterday questioning the numbers Americans have been given about Covid deaths. The article cites numerous examples of health officials giving us questionable information.

The article reports:

Grand County, Colorado, rural country a hundred miles outside of Denver.

Thanksgiving 2020, Lucais Reilly shoots his wife Kristin in the head, then turns the gun on himself, committing suicide. They have alcohol and drugs in their system and a history of domestic troubles.

Grand County coroner Brenda Bock explains how the small town tragedy is exposing serious questions about the way Covid deaths are counted.

Brenda Bock: I had a homicide-suicide the end of November, and the very next day it showed up on the state website as Covid deaths. And they were gunshot wounds. And I questioned that immediately because I had not even signed off the death certificates yet, and the state was already reporting them as Covid deaths.

Bock says somebody, somewhere had apparently run the couple’s names through a database showing they’d tested positive for Covid within 28 days of their death. Then recorded them as Covid deaths even though they died of gunshots.

Sharyl: If we look at the death certificates for the murder-suicide case, what will it say about Covid?

Bock: Nothing, absolutely nothing. I paid a forensic pathologist to do the autopsies on those two cases. And nowhere is COVID mentioned on those death certificates. Nowhere.

Bock: This is a copy of the death certificate, and nowhere does it say COVID. So we have a homicide, suicide, nothing to do with COVID.

Because there had been no Covid deaths within the geographic boundaries of Grand County in 2020, Bock was in a unique position to challenge the state’s accounting. In many cities and counties, the numbers are too big and the coroners would never know about discrepancies.

Sharyl is Sharyl Attkisson, an investigative reporter who was fired from CBS for her work on Fast and Furious.

The article concludes:

Short of a national audit, some of the best hard evidence can only be found in small places like Grand County, Colorado where they know precisely who did or didn’t die of what within the county limits. And where Bock says there were no Covid deaths in 2020.

Bock: Not as far as I’m concerned.

But when we checked in July, the New York Times tally over-reported Grand County’s 2020 Covid death toll by least 500%. It was missing one resident who reportedly died of Covid outside of the county. But the Times counted the unrelated heart attack; the two people who were alive – which were removed from the state total; and the murder-suicide of Lucais and Kristin Reilly.

Sharyl: What are the implications nationwide when we’re looking at numbers then?

Bock: I believe they’re very inflated. And don’t get me wrong. I believe Covid is real. And I believe people do get very sick from it. And I do believe a small number do die from that. I do not believe a homicide-suicide belongs in that number. I don’t, because my job is to tell the truth about why a person died, the cause and the manner. And I don’t believe that what’s going on is the truth.

Sharyl (On-camera): Alameda County, California changed their methodology in June to remove deaths that weren’t a direct result of Covid. That removed more than 400 people, or 25%, from their death toll.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. We have been totally mislead.

 

 

This Doesn’t Look Good For The Future

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Yesterday One America News posted an article about what has happened since Colorado implemented red flag laws a year ago.

The article reports:

According to the report released on Thursday, over 100 red flag protection orders were filed in 2020.

Police reportedly removed firearms from the homes of 66 people who were flagged by family members, legal guardians or law enforcement officers. Under the new law, a judge can approve firearm confiscation if there is a belief a person could be a threat to themselves or others.

One of the most recent instances of the order in action is in the case of Bryce Shelby, a man accused of making threats against the state’s attorney general and several other government officials.

Denver Police alleged Shelby’s behavior was escalating and through the red flag laws, they forced him to surrender his two rifles. Though the state’s attorney general chose not to press charges against Shelby, he will not regain possession of his firearms for a total of 364 days.

Several of the year’s emergency Extreme Risk Protection Orders were placed against law enforcement, but were shut down by the courts.

For example, early on in 2020, an inmate tried to claim Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams was a threat. The order request was sent to a judge who quickly threw it out for lack of evidence, which allowed some to say the law worked. However, Reams argues it showed the law can be used frivolously.

The article concludes:

Reams is among those who are the most skeptical of the new law due to its vague guidelines, which allow weapons to be confiscated even without criminal charges.

“But to go in and conduct a search warrant on someone’s home based on the word of a third party, I think that’s a huge overreach of the Constitution,” Reams stated. “And that’s where I’d have to draw the line.”

There has been a lot of debate over the constitutionality of red flag laws. The President has said he supports them at the federal level, but gun advocates argue the orders contradict the Second Amendment.

Andrew Napolitano, who served as a New Jersey Superior Court judge from 1987 to 1995,  said: “The concept of a red flag law violates both the presumption of innocence and the due process requirement of proof of criminal behavior before liberty can be infringed.”

Heading into the New Year with an incoming Democrat majority in the new Congress, many proponents of the right to bear arms worry about future restrictive gun laws.

Losing the Second Amendment while the First Amendment is on life support does not portend good things for the future of America.

We Need Much More Of This

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CBN News is reporting the following today:

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and their international counterparts arrested 113 alleged child predators across the US and South America from Nov. 2 – 6 in what is described by the Department of Homeland Security as phase seven of Operation Protected Childhood. (OPCVII)

Working in cooperation with Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and the Public Security and the Public Security Secretariat for Integrated Operation Cyber Laboratory, the agency’s operation simultaneously targeted the distributors and producers of child sexual abuse material throughout the Americas.

Law enforcement agencies in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Panama coordinated with Homeland Security field offices in their respective countries during the sweep.

Here in the US, Homeland Security field offices working with local law enforcement officials in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee, California, Colorado, and Florida executed a combined 13 child exploitation-related search warrants and made nine arrests for child exploitation offenses. 

Simultaneously, international law enforcement partners in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Panama also executed search warrants in their respective countries, totaling the following arrests: 

    • Brazil – 137 child exploitation related search warrants and 74 arrests
    • Argentina – 37 child exploitation related search warrants and 23 arrests
    • Paraguay – 2 child exploitation related search warrants and 2 arrests
    • Panama – 7 child exploitation related search warrants and 5 arrests

ICE officials especially praised Brazil for its efforts in the ongoing Operation Protected Childhood.

Thank God for law enforcement officers who are willing to search out and find the people exploiting innocent children. Please follow the link to read the entire article for further details.

Great News For America

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Energy independence is wonderful, but in today’s technology age, there are other important areas where America needs to be self-sustaining. One of the them is the rare earth minerals used in the manufacture of our technology. On Wednesday (updated yesterday) The Epoch Times posted an article about one step that has been taken in this direction.

The article reports:

Owners of the Wheat Ridge facility for processing rare earth elements and critical minerals have received an operating permit that will enable minerals critical to advanced technology manufacturing to be mined and processed in the United States.

USA Rare Earth, LLC, and Texas Mineral Resources Corp. announced on June 18 that their Wheat Ridge, Colorado, facility has received its operating permit, with its pilot plant now in the commissioning process.

Texas Mineral said in a press release that the plant “will have the ability to produce the full range of high purity, separated rare earths as well as other critical minerals … which are essential for modern manufacturing ranging from defense applications to wind turbines, electric vehicles, smart phones, advanced medical devices, and the physical backbone of emerging 5G networks.”

The company says its objective is “to build the first rare earth and critical minerals processing facility outside China.”

The CEO of USA Rare Earth, Pini Althaus, said in a press release that the establishment of an independent, robust, and domestic rare earth metal and critical mineral supply chain is vital for the United States, “overcoming reliance on China.”

Congress and President Trump have both recognized the need to produce these minerals in America.

The article notes:

Reps. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation (pdf) on May 28 to protect American mineral supply chains.

Gosar described critical minerals as the building blocks of our modern lives, as they are vitally important for special components in defense systems, health care applications, and energy generation technology.

“For years, our country has become increasingly dependent on China and other nations to fulfill our demand for minerals,” said Gosar. “The global pandemic has demonstrated the severe consequences of allowing this longstanding over-reliance on China to go unchecked.”

Waltz said that critical minerals are integral to our way of life.

“As coronavirus has unfortunately demonstrated, if China can threaten to cut off our pharmaceutical supply, they can do the same with their supply of rare earth minerals,” said Waltz. “We need to bring this supply chain back to America—and this bill will be an important step to do that.”

…President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13817 in December 2017, titled “A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals.” The order directed federal agencies to list critical minerals, develop strategies to reduce reliance on the minerals themselves and on foreign suppliers, and increase domestic production.

The positive impact of the coronavirus is that it reminded us that as a nation we need to be as self-sufficient as possible. It is encouraging to see steps being taken in this direction.

The Truth About Covid-19 Begins To Emerge

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Yesterday Just the News posted an article about Colorado health officials beginning to correct the number of deaths reported to have been caused by Covid-19.

The article reports:

Colorado health officials this week implemented a more precise coronavirus data metric to measure deaths from the virus in that state, one that sent confirmed COVID-19 fatalities tumbling by a full 25%.

Public health officials in the state elected to start distinguishing between individuals who died directly from the disease and those who simply died with the virus in their systems. Authorities in that state had faced criticism this week for classifying as a COVID-19 death a man whose blood-alcohol content registered an astronomical .55.

With the new system in place, confirmed coronavirus deaths in Colorado plummeted from 1150 to 878, a drop of almost 25%.

…The state’s coronavirus dashboard lists 21,232 confirmed cases of the virus there as of Saturday afternoon, with over 3,800 hospitalizations. Over 90% of deaths in the state were of individuals 60 or older. Deaths appear to have peaked there on April 25. 

I suspect an honest counting of deaths due to Covid-19 would be very different from the numbers that have been reported. One thing we do know is that people in nursing homes or extended care facilities need to be protected from the disease. Allowing patients with the disease to be placed in these facilities is very dangerous to the residents who are already there.

On May 12th, I posted an article stating that a new study reveals that 39% of all US coronavirus deaths occurred in nursing homes. These are the people who need to be protected. Florida is the gold standard for protecting the elderly. Florida has a large elderly population and has not had nearly the number of cases and deaths as New York. It’s time to protect the vulnerable and send the rest of us back to work.

Once A Community Organizer, Always A Community Organizer

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President Obama has reentered the political scene. He is in the process of buying a beautiful waterfront home on Martha’s Vineyard. He is also involved in an organization called “Redistricting U.” The organization’s website is Allontheline.org.

Here is some information from the website:

  • “I’ve always believed that training is at the heart of organizing. It’s why I made it a priority in my 2008 campaign and throughout our larger movement for change in the years since. … The movement for fair maps will determine the course of progress on every issue we care about for the next decade. And we can’t wait to begin organizing when the redistricting process starts in 2021. We need to build this movement from the ground up – right now.” — President Obama
  • As a campaign of the National Redistricting Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization, All on the Line’s primary purpose is the advocacy and the promotion of social welfare. However, in limited instances, and only when consistent with our values and mission, All On The Line may engage in grassroots electoral work.
  • All On The Line is a campaign of the National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF), an affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), which is chaired by Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States.
  • The All On The Line campaign began, in part, when NRAF combined forces with Organizing for Action, an organization founded by Obama aides that grew out of President Obama’s campaign infrastructure. The power of ordinary people coming together to enact change is central to the beliefs of President Obama and Eric Holder, and they are both active in this effort and supportive of this campaign.

The states targeted by this organization for redistrict6ing are Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. It is interesting that all but one of these states voted for President Trump in 2016. President Trump lost in Colorado by less than 5 percent.

So what is this really about? President Obama is watching his legacy being destroyed as President Trump is rebuilding the American economy. President Trump is on track to be reelected despite the efforts of the mainstream media and the hysterics of the Democrat presidential candidates. Redistricting reform is the name President Obama is giving to his efforts to make sure President Trump is not reelected.

 

Recognizing That Hunters And Fishermen Are Conservationists

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I need to say up front that I neither hunt nor fish, and I am not likely to take up either in the future. However, I have a lot of respect for the people who do hunt and fish because the people I know who engage in these activities are very aware of conservation and have a lot of respect for the land they hunt and fish on. Because of this, I am glad to see President Trump opening up large areas of America for these sportsmen.

The Washington Examiner posted an article yesterday stating that the President has instructed Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to open 1.4 million acres and eliminate 7,500 regulations limiting access to that land.

The article reports:

The campaign to open access to the outdoors is a personal one for Bernhardt. In an interview, he said that living next to federal land as a kid in western Colorado helped shaped his life.

“Having those opportunities to succeed and fail made me more confident and made me more willing to accept challenges,” said Bernhardt. “If I lived somewhere where my parents had to drive 300 miles for me to hunt or fish, it wouldn’t have happened at all, though that might have been a lot better for my grades.”

When he had young children in his first tour at Interior under former President George W. Bush, then-Secretary Dirk Kempthorne advised him to get a boat.

“He said, ‘You need to get a boat. The great thing about a boat, if you get your kids on one, even if they are with their friends, they’re stuck with you,’” Bernhardt recalled. And now, he added, his kids are hooked on the outdoors. “Exposure matters,” said the secretary, whose office sports a huge moose skull and antlers from an Alaska hunt.

First under former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and now as the nation’s top outdoorsman, Bernhardt has been implementing rules to expand access at lightning speed.

As part of that effort, Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service established 10 “hunting and fishing chiefs” that have scoured every single federal property to find opportunities to expand access.

This month, Bernhardt announced a proposal to open 1.4 million more acres to hunting and fishing at 74 national wildlife refuges and 15 national fish hatcheries. After a public comment period, he hopes to have the land open in time for the September dove season.

The article also notes:

Part of the effort also aims at harmonizing federal and state hunting and fishing regulations, commonly a complex maze. “You’ve got to be a lawyer to figure out if you can hunt or can’t hunt,” said Bernhardt, a former board member on the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Wildlife conservation groups are buzzing about the new access.

“This announcement will benefit America’s sportsmen and -women by providing access to prime hunting and fishing areas,” said Christy Plumer, chief conservation officer for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

Our sportsmen are some of our best conservationists. They will sound the alarm when anything in nature is out of order. I think it is wonderful that this land will be open for hunting and fishing.

Sometimes States Get It Right

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Townhall is reporting today that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission has dropped its lawsuit against cake artist Jack Phillips. The article reports that the move that came after new evidence emerged of the state’s religious bigotry, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative legal-defense group representing him.

The article reports:

The latest chapter in Colorado’s ongoing targeting of Phillips came after the state targeted him for not making a gender transition cake, even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in his favor in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission in 2017.

“We’re pleased that the state will be dismissing its case against Jack,” said ADF Senior Vice President of U.S. Legal Division Kristen Waggoner. “This is the second time the state has launched a failed effort to prosecute him. While it finally appears to be getting the message that its anti-religious hostility has no place in our country, the state’s decision to target Jack has cost him more than six-and-a-half years of his life, forcing him to spend that time tied up in legal proceedings.”

Phillips called the case’s dismissal a “win for freedom” and said he looked forward to serving his customers once again.

“When I set out to build my dream of opening my own cake shop, combining my love for art and baking in a family business, I never imagined this chapter would be part of the Masterpiece Cakeshop story,” he said in a statement. “I have and will always serve everyone who comes into my shop; I simply can’t celebrate events or express messages that conflict with my religious beliefs. The Supreme Court affirmed that government hostility against people of faith is unconstitutional, and that Colorado was hostile to my faith. That hostility cost me 40 percent of my business and the wedding work that I love to do.”

The state was unwise to go after Jack Phillips after the Supreme Court ruling, but I guess they decided they could still make an example of him. I am grateful for the work of the ADF and the fact that they are working to fight religious discrimination.

Legislation That Will Be Harmful To Americans

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Yesterday The Hill reported that Senator Cory Booker has introduced a bill in the Senate to legalize marijuana nationwide. The bill, S 597, is listed at Congress.gov, but the listing as of now does not include either the text of the bill or a summary of the bill.

The Hill reports:

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced a bill Thursday to legalize marijuana across the country.

The 2020 presidential hopeful has made criminal justice reform and social justice issues central to his campaign and is framing the marijuana legalization bill as such.

“The War on Drugs has not been a war on drugs, it’s been a war on people, and disproportionately people of color and low-income individuals,” Booker said in a press release announcing the legislation. “The Marijuana Justice Act seeks to reverse decades of this unfair, unjust, and failed policy by removing marijuana from the list of controlled substances and making it legal at the federal level.”

A House version of the bill was introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who is co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.

The bill, known as the Marijuana Justice Act, would remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances, where it is currently a Schedule I drug in the same class with heroin and LSD.

In case you think this is a wonderful idea, please read the following article posted on this site on January 26, 2019. Marijuana is not a harmless substance. The main reason for the push for legalization is the money involved. As states lose tax money from the sale of tobacco products, they can make up that loss by taxing marijuana sales. Just as tobacco proved harmful to public health, marijuana will prove detrimental to public health as well.

The article concludes:

Several of Booker’s most prominent challengers for the Democratic presidential nomination from the Senate are co-sponsors on the bill, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Ten states as well as Washington, D.C., have already legalized the recreational use of marijuana, with many more states legalizing its medicinal use.

Booker’s bill would also incentivize states to loosen their marijuana laws by using federal funds.

From the rightwinggranny.com article cited above:

After an exhaustive review, the National Academy of Medicine found in 2017 that “cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses; the higher the use, the greater the risk.” Also that “regular cannabis use is likely to increase the risk for developing social anxiety disorder.”

…These new patterns of use have caused problems with the drug to soar. In 2014, people who had diagnosable cannabis use disorder, the medical term for marijuana abuse or addiction, made up about 1.5 percent of Americans. But they accounted for eleven percent of all the psychosis cases in emergency rooms—90,000 cases, 250 a day, triple the number in 2006. In states like Colorado, emergency room physicians have become experts on dealing with cannabis-induced psychosis.

Is legalizing marijuana in the best interest of Americans?

How Is This Legal?

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A website called Bearing Arms posted an article about Boulder, Colorado, earlier this month. It seems as if some of the city officials have forgotten the Second Amendment.

The article reports:

Residents of Boulder, Co., have until December 27 to “certify” their “assault weapons” or remove the firearms from city limits. Those who fail to comply could face fines, jail time, and confiscation and destruction of their firearms, according to the Denver Post.

Boulder police say they have certified 85 firearms since the city council passed an “assault weapons” ban in May. Residents who already owned prohibited rifles, pistols, and shotguns were given the chance to keep their firearms by certifying prior ownership with police. The council also voted unanimously to ban “high-capacity” magazines and bump stocks.

“My hope is that we will see more bans at the state level and one day at the federal level so these weapons will no longer be available,” Councilman Aaron Brockett said in May.

What? Generally speaking, ‘certification’ is the prelude to confiscation.

The Second Amendment states:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Keep in mind that the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution) were put in place to limit the power of the federal government. Those amendments were necessary in order to get all of the thirteen colonies to sign on to the U.S. Constitution. The Bill of Rights limits the power of the government–it is not intended to limit the power of American citizens.

This is an instance where a state resident, a state official or state legislature needs to step in declare this ban and registration program unconstitutional and send the case through the courts. This law should not be allowed to stand.