Chase Woodruff

One of my favourite sides of politics/media.

One of the two big demands from congressional Democrats over the last two days is for this person to provide them a detailed explanation of his long-term strategic objectives in starting this war.

It appears a hospital in Teheran has now been hit.

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...

FIFA will "monitor developments" in Iran following the outbreak of military action by the United States -- the co-hosts of this summer's men's World Cup -- against the Middle Eastern nation, which has qualified for the tournament and is due to play its group games in the U.S. President Donald Trump, who was given the FIFA Peace Prize by FIFA president Gianni Infantino in December, announced the commencement of missile strikes on Iran on Saturday, calling the mission a "major combat operation."

FIFA closing monitoring the situation.
The situation: Their peace prize winner just bombed one of the countries he will host at the World Cup this summer

This was how it covered the start of Trump's war with Iran.

Congressman Gabe Evans @repgabeevans I’m glad to see @POTUS take action to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. As a veteran of a Global War on Terror, I know we achieve peace through strength. Prayers and thanks to our brave men and women who carried out this necessary operation.

Gabe Evans @GabeforColorado For 47 years, Iran’s regime chanted “Death to America” — and acted on it. They rejected diplomacy, armed extremist networks, and killed thousands of innocent people while advancing their nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Operation Epic Fury begins the end of the Iranian regime’s reign.

Eight months ago, Gabe Evans promised Trump's major escalation in striking Iran's nuclear program would "achieve peace through strength." Now he wholeheartedly endorses a long, uncertain war of regime change.

"American innovation" now refers to making a kind of atrocity cronut by combining insider trading with war crimes.

A screenshot of a large group of people facing a heavily damaged building. A few of them are scaling the rubble. A headline reads: "Iran Says Dozens Are Killed in Strike on School" Photo by IRIB TV, via Agence France-Presse

During the U.S.-Israeli attack in Iran on Saturday, dozens of people, most of them likely children, were killed when a strike hit a girls’ elementary school in Minab and a high school in Tehran, according to Iranian health officials, state media and a human rights group. trib.al/y3MsQLC

"I think responses [that ask only for the Administration to 'explain itself'] are pathetic. This isn’t a mystery that needs to be solved. This is not the case of the missing casus belli."

Statements from Colorado's six congressional Democrats today contain a lot of criticism of Trump, a lot of requests for briefings and explanations and authorization votes, and zero statements of straightforward opposition to the U.S. waging war on Iran.

Who should Coloradans elect to the Senate if they oppose war with Iran, not just the lack of a congressional vote to approve war with Iran?

It takes a keen eye and ear for language, but if you study them closely you will notice that "Congress must vote on the war" and "But what is the plan for the war?" are not, in fact, "No war."

I think the truly damning thing about the Dem comms response is that they had months to prepare for today and there's zero coordination, no unified message. Just every D leader responding like they quickly hammered out a statement in a panic at 6 am this morning

Congressman Gabe Evans @repgabeevans • 59m Read my official statement on Operation Epic Fury. .. For 47 years the Iranian regime has terrorized its own people and supported terrorist groups that killed Americans and our allies. Repeated efforts from the U.S. to negotiate in good faith and halt the expansion of Iran's nuclear weapons program were met with deception and defiance, as the radical regime rejected every opportunity for peace. Operation Epic Fury is a necessary step to eliminate Iran's nuclear weapon capabilities, eliminate imminent threats to the United States and our allies, and defend our core national security interests. The United States has strong support from ally nations in the Middle East and will help liberate the Iranian people. As a U.S. Army combat veteran, I know the weight of these decisions. I am praying for every brave American service member carrying out this mission as they risk their lives to ensure the safety and longevity of our country and our allies across the world.

Gabe Evans, who won't so much as take tough questions from reporters or face a claque of Indivisible moms at a town hall, says he's ready and willing for servicemembers and civilians across the Middle East to deal with the consequences of the war Trump just started.

Claims of 40 dead after an Israeli airstrike on a elementary girl’s school in Iran
www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

Just a level-setting reminder that "No war" is just about the simplest political message that can possibly be communicated, and every trained political communicator who doesn't get it across to you is making a deliberate choice not to.

John Hickenlooper @Hickenlooper We turned in more than 17,700 signed candidate petitions to be on the ballot and continue fighting for Coloradans! ✍️🗳️ It’s an honor to have such an outpouring of support from every corner of the state. We’re flipping Congress this year. Let’s do this.

Michael Bennet @MichaelBennet Today we turned in over 17,000 signatures from every corner of Colorado to get my campaign for governor on the ballot. Thank you to everyone who showed up. Let’s win this.

Two very different races, but if you'd said a year or two ago that neither of these guys would feel confident they could even get 30% (!) of the vote at the state Dem assembly, you'd have been laughed at by a lot of highly paid people in Colorado politics.

Liver's cheap because there's low demand for it. If everyone started eating it, it would become expensive. And even if everyone loved it, it's only recommended that you eat it once a week, or you risk vitamin A toxicity. Would be nice if the secretary of HEALTH knew that!

It's not the whole story, but a hugely underrated factor in RTD's spiraling governance/public trust issues is Owens and Hickenlooper privatizing half the system into the hands of entities that are completely invisible, and only indirectly and intermittently accountable, to the people they serve.

A railroad's arrival in Pueblo 150 years ago had far-reaching consequences for Colorado and the West | Colorado Newsline In January 1876, Puebloans were beside themselves with anticipation as they awaited their first direct railroad connection to the east.

Colorado at 150: The A.T. & S.F. railway's arrival in 1876 represented salvation for Pueblo. Residents could depart on an eastbound train in the morning and arrive in Kansas City by the following afternoon. Pueblo became an important industrial hub for decades to come.
By @chasewoodruff.bsky.social

No lives or homes were lost thanks to Thornton’s incredible first responders. However, if the fire had escalated, disaster relief wouldn’t be there — because @Hickenlooper and @MichaelBennet voted to defund it. They don’t get to vote against FEMA and then pretend to support it.

Trump rejects Colorado request for FEMA disaster declaration following fires, flooding

The quintuple axel of political comms: Trying to score points over a hypothetical disaster that might have happened, while the *actual* reason relief funds for *actual* disasters are being blocked is Trump's retaliation over Tina Peters coloradonewsline.com/briefs/trump...

matt thinks a jobs program for people released from prison is some kind of newfangled woke non profit thing. the guy simply does not follow policy and isn't interested in doing so.

Ah, “Abundance.”

Epstein Files Are Missing Records About Woman Who Made Claim Against Trump

NEW: The New York Times confirms my reporting that the DOJ is withholding several FBI interviews with a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her as a child

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/u...

who's ready to get mad online about Gas Leak Red Mars

​Leading Colorado governor candidates spar over best affordable housing approach | Colorado Newsline The two Democrats for governor broadly agree on the need to boost housing supply to bring down costs for renters and first-time homebuyers.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser used a governor candidate forum focused on affordable housing Saturday to spar over whose experience and approach would better position them to deliver results as governor.
By @chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Every politician who’s ever promised to lower the cost of housing has implicitly, necessarily made the same commitment. But you can see here why it’s not really expedient for them to say so. The full quote again:

Warner: That coalition does not include the bulk of metro mayors. And that's really important buy-in. Why aren't they on board? Polis: Well, again, you know, I think what the people of our state want, I met a restaurant worker yesterday in Centennial who has seven roommates, eight of them live in a home to be able to share the rent, which is still a very large part of their income. It’s not so much about who solves it for them, it's about solving it. So this kind of squabble about, you know, should mayors solve it? Should a governor solve it? Should the legislature solve it? What I say is just empower the property owners themselves to solve it and the market and the property owners will do that. We’ll see more low cost units come into the market that people can afford to rent close to where jobs are.

Contrast that with Jared Polis, who simply takes it for granted that housing affordability is a problem that everyone agrees should be "solved." www.cpr.org/2023/04/28/j...

As the supply of housing failed to keep up with Colorado’s 2010s population surge, the total market value of all residential property in the state rose from $483 billion in 2013 to over $1.3 trillion today, according to data from the state’s Department of Local Affairs. Bennet acknowledged that for many of the roughly two-thirds of Colorado households that own their homes, the state’s housing crunch has represented a financial windfall. “The reality is that people of my generation, and Phil’s generation, have benefited from a ridiculous increase in our asset prices, and we have rolled up the carpet on everybody else,” Bennet said. Both he and Weiser criticized comments by President Donald Trump, who said earlier this month that he wants “to drive housing prices up for people that own their homes.” “I’ve said very clearly up here today where I’m going to put my priority, which is making sure that we are building housing for working people in our state, and for the next generation of Coloradans,” Bennet said. “Even where that comes at the cost of seeing some equity value erode for the people in the biggest houses who … may have benefited over the last 10 or 15 years.”

Interesting to hear Michael Bennet repeatedly acknowledge something that, while obvious, has often been ignored in the last few years of debates over Colorado housing policy: For a lot of people, the state's housing shortage has been the opposite of a crisis. coloradonewsline.com/2026/02/22/c...

There are a ton of important, short-term, straightforwardly material issues to be debated re: data centers and AI deployment but more and more I’m convinced that they’re all secondary to a first-order disagreement between humanists and whatever this is.