Denver Area Man

And yes, abolishing TABOR would be amazing

It’s a restart of a fight that’s been happening since he became Gov. Pinnacol is an insurer of last resort in CO, the Gov has long wanted to privatize it and says now is the time with spiraling costs in Medicaid. Legislature has rebuffed his attempts and this is his last year, he’s swinging again.

Gov. Jared Polis abruptly cancels unpublicized meeting with Joint Budget Committee Gov. Jared Polis was scheduled to talk to reporters at 12:30 p.m. on Friday at the Governor’s Mansion to discuss his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, which he is required to submit to the...

So #copolitics Gov. Polis will only meet with Joint Budget Committee if the media (and the public!) are excluded? good reporting from @mgoodland.bsky.social cc: @coloradofoic.bsky.social

This guy was against regulating prescription drug prices, he doesn’t want to tell the market to accept less profit but he’s eager to tell human beings in the market to accept less care.

Gov. Jared Polis’ budget proposal takes aim at Medicaid spending, eyes Pinnacol spin-off — again Colorado Gov. Jared Polis warned Friday that Medicaid costs would consume most of the state budget in coming years if work isn’t done now to reign in its spending.

What if we privatize more? That’ll cuts costs, sure it’ll be on the backs of reduced medical coverage for poor people, but hey it’s savings!

www.denverpost.com/2025/11/01/j...

Taxing gas is good, we should do way more of it

Coloradans scramble for help as SNAP suspension looms and food banks ‘just don’t have enough’ State and local leaders in Colorado, as well as food bank operators, this week scrambled to help meet the already overwhelming demand of people without means to eat.

“It is just as effective as us trying to plow a field with a fork," a legislative analyst said of Colorado's $10m kick-in to food banks. With @coltrain.bsky.social, @lizzy-hernandez.bsky.social speaks to the people affected by shutdown politics: www.denverpost.com/2025/10/31/s...

Millions of people losing SNAP benefits and seeing their health insurance premiums skyrocket will be thrilled to see the Trump administration is laser-focused on…bombing Venezuela.

One 8-hour patrol officer shift in CA costs between $429 and $645.

If that was donated to the food bank instead of the police budget, they’d be able to provide between 1716 and 2580 meals for every officer shift.

Communities need support – not needless policing.

Every day working in municipal govt in 2025 is like patching holes in a Swiss cheese boat. Always busy, ever sinking

In fall 2022, ahead of the midterm elections, Garland opted to freeze both the classified documents and election investigations because of what some officials believed was his overly cautious reading of a DOJ policy not to take any public action close to an election. Trump was not even on the ballot and had not yet declared his presidential candidacy for 2024. But Garland nonetheless imposed the freeze.

The selection of Garland as AG and his failure to act was about ten bajillion times more consequential than any campaign strategy decision

www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

What radicalized me? What flattened you into a compliant cog with no dreams?

Our weekly Word of Thanks microgiving campaigns are pivoting, effective immediately, to feeding Coloradans in need as SNAP food benefits lapse. We'll continue this effort each week for the foreseeable future. Our first campaign kicks off on tonight's program. Details to follow.

The Democrats never came to terms with the fact that a huge swath of the Clinton wing of the party, up to and including the Clintons themselves, is deeply, unapologetically racist. All of these guys should be considered dead weight for any party that actually wants to build a multi-ethnic coalition.

NYTimes How To Make Sense of the Federal Forces on the Street, then it's a guide to what each soldier looks like I guess - from ICE to Border Patrol to the National Guard

Damn we're normalizing this shit fast

Ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement “Mobile Fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ICE, and it puts American citizens at risk of detention and even deportation.” He also said “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien. ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”

New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

This high-stakes fight in Denver’s government has voters yawning What’s the deal with at-large elections and measure 2G?

When I asked 20 residents about this fight about how elections work for at-large city council candidates, nobody really cared. In fact, not one person I spoke with could name a single Denver City Council member. So does this measure matter? It turns out, a lot is at stake.

Maybe more than it should, the ADL’s defense of Musk’s Nazi salutes comes back to mind when I read stories like this. We had all these civil society institutions who were supposed to be vigilant against the rise of another Nazi power structure and they just were corrupted and failed.

US citizen, 67, ‘has six ribs broken’ by Border Patrol agents, his running club says The incident unfolded Saturday in Chicago’s Old Irving Park neighborhood, where residents say federal agents disrupted a children’s Halloween parade

these guys just love doing this. nothing like 8 storm troopers beating the absolute shit out of a defenseless old person www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Tried to get RCV on the 2025 ballot, Council voted it down by a close margin, but you can expect the coalition behind it to try again in future elections.

Dozens protest outside ICE building in Durango after 2 children, father detained The three were detained by federal agents in Durango while on their way to school Monday, according to Compañeros, Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center

Under President Trump, ICE agents arrested at least 81 children under 18 in Colorado from January 20 to July 28 of this year, according to data obtained from ICE. In the same time period in 2024, under President Biden, ICE arrested just one child in this age group.

coloradosun.com/2025/10/28/p...

Nearly a Century Ago, American Chestnut Trees Died Off. Now, Hikers Can Walk Among Them Again. Efforts to restore the American chestnut comprise "one of the most epic conservation stories ever told.”

Oh hey, a reason to be hopeful: groves of American chestnut trees have once again become self-reproducing in the wild.

Turned off comments so 12 people don't show up to tell me why this is actually very sad. Be happy, you assholes.

This. I'm in my late forties, and every few years since I was old enough to pay attention, *something* has happened to change the basic political/economic rules that were stable for the lifetime of anyone older, in ways that disadvantage those my age or younger compared to those older.

Police used Flock cameras to accuse a Denver woman of package theft. She had her own evidence "Like I said, nothing gets in or out of the town without us knowing."

Surveillance in action:

"You know we have cameras in that jurisdiction and you can’t get a breath of fresh air, in or out of that place, without us knowing, correct?”

denverite.com/2025/10/27/b...

Mayor Johnston everyone

Democratic Public Finance: A Radical Vision for Mamdani’s New York City Summary This document elaborates an emerging economic paradigm that is already latent in Zohran Mamdani’s plans and practices. The paradigm, which we call Democratic Public Finance (DPF), reframes …

"[Neoliberal Public Finance] makes people’s capacities seem redundant and solutions appear utopian when they are at arm’s reach."

The NBA can't have its cake and eat it too. You can't put gambling sponsor ads on the baseline, on the floor, in every commercial, in every sponsored segment, and on NBA League Pass and then be surprised when players are engaging in the thing you've totally surrounded them with.

New Interview: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

Sen. Michael Bennet on High Housing Costs, His 38% Approval Rating, and Gov. Polis’ Vetoes

Holy hells, if my fellow Coloradans ever wanted to learn in less than half an hour why Michael Bennet should NEVER be allowed near our Governorship and should be replaced as a senator by someone who knows literally anything as soon as possible, here let him tell you himself!