“If there were doubts as to Colorado’s true political colors, Tuesday’s mighty blue wave washed them away,” reports The Gazette in Colorado Springs. “With few exceptions, political analysts and observers across the state say Democrats’ Election Day sweep hardened Colorado’s shift from a purple state teetering between two political parties to some yet-unknown shade of blue. The change didn’t happen overnight, despite Democrats capturing more power in one day than they’ve had since the 1930s. Rather, it evolved slowly and steadily.”
“Ashley Petrey was surprised and dismayed to realize Sunday that some World War II and the Civil War battles are still being waged,” reports The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. “The newly minted Fruita resident lives just down the street from a neighbor who recently erected a Nazi-style flag with a swastika, and she’s not happy about it.”
“Police departments in two small but growing Weld County towns had hoped voters would pass ballot measures that would raise taxes and fund public safety,” reports The Longmont Times-Call. “Voters slashed those hopes on Tuesday, as both initiatives suffered narrow defeats. In Frederick, 55.4 percent voted against the ballot issue and 44.6 percent voted for it. There was a difference of 505 votes. In Mead, 50.8 percent voted against the ballot issue and 49.2 percent voted for it. There was a difference of 31 votes. Both of the departments’s chiefs said the additional money was needed to ensure adequate police services to residents as the towns grow. But some residents wondered why their towns, still relatively small, needed to raise sales and use taxes by 1 percent for one town department.”
“Wayne Spreng sometimes second-guesses himself for what he did on April 19, 2015. He called 911,” reports The Greeley Tribune. “He thinks of his wife, Rhonda Spreng, since that day often crying out in pain in the middle of the night. He recalls her subsequent, since shaken, reliance on pain-killers, including Gabapentin and Tramadol. He remembers the overnight muscle spasticity that left her muscles contracted and limbs essentially tied tightly. He was saddened by a prideful woman’s loss of independence.”
“Social media messages sent from the account of 19-year-old homicide suspect Christian Sena —who’s been charged in the July 13 shooting death of 22-year-old Wayne Broska at J.J. Raigoza Park on the South Side — imply that Sena shot Broska on behalf of a female love interest,” reports The Pueblo Chieftain. “According to an affidavit of probable cause authored for Sena’s arrest on Oct. 16, among the evidence police collected in investigating the case were transcripts of messages between Sena and the woman who accompanied him to the park on the night he allegedly killed Broska.”
“Garfield County commissioners recently approved a $30,000 contract with Mammoth Networks to develop a blueprint for the implementation and operation of sustainable wireless broadband service in the region,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “Mammoth will design a detailed plan for the broadband network, which is meant to bring broadband to rural customers who currently have little or no service, according to Garfield County officials. The cost of the project is expected to be about $2.3 million, a little over $1 million of which will be paid for through Colorado Department of Local Affairs grant money.”
“A group of Steamboat Springs teens hopes Steamboat Springs City Council will give disposable plastic grocery bags the boot,” reports The Steamboat Pilot. “At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, several members of the Steamboat Springs Teen Council will present three policy options related to disposable grocery bags.”
“Falling snow and 24-degree weather didn’t keep Loveland residents from paying tribute to veterans on Sunday, the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I,” reports The Loveland Reporter-Herald. “Residents bundled up, used umbrellas to keep dry — and one family even started a fire in a steel drum along Garfield Avenue — as the annual Veterans Day parade wound from downtown Loveland to Dwayne Webster Veterans Park on Sunday. A ceremony followed the parade.”
“The fight over the highly charged Proposition 112 oil and gas setbacks measure may be over, but the larger battle over how tightly to regulate the energy sector in Colorado is still in full rage,” reports The Denver Post. “With voters on Tuesday painting both chambers of the legislature blue and the election of Democrat Jared Polis to the governor’s mansion, state Rep. KC Becker said the de facto veto power the oil and gas industry has held over proposed regulatory bills via the GOP-controlled Senate is now gone. Becker, selected last week as Democrats’ next speaker of the Colorado House, said her message to the oil and gas industry for the upcoming legislative session is simple and direct: ‘Let’s get real, guys.'”
“With more than 4 feet of natural snowfall last week and cold temperatures helping with snowmaking conditions, Vail and Beaver Creek mountains will join other Colorado resorts in opening early for the 2018-19 season,” reports Vail Daily. “Vail, originally slated to open Friday, Nov. 16, will open for the season on Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 9 a.m. Beaver Creek will open Saturday, Nov. 17, four days ahead of its scheduled Nov. 21 opening date.”
“The Knights of Columbus wheeled three platform trucks out of Walmart late last week, their latest haul for the group’s most ambitious Coats and Clothing for Kids campaign to date,” reports Summit Daily. “The annual clothing drive for children in need, which has grown to cover five counties, has come a long way since the first one seven years ago when the Knights ordered about 20 boxes of winter coats through the national organization. That year, they gave the coats away at Our Lady of Peace church in Silverthorne and quickly decided that they needed to do more.”
“On the weekend where they are the ones nationally honored and paid tribute, they chose to sleep outside in the elements to garner support for their fellow veterans,” reports The Cañon City Daily Record. “Members of the Penrose VFW Post 2788, its auxiliary and family members spent three cold nights in reinforced cardboard boxes during the sixth annual Veterans Day sleep in at the K-Bob’s parking lot. Air Force veteran and Post Commander John Sterling said eight to 11 people slept outside each night, braving chilly temperatures, wind and even snow.”
“Matt Jones’s election to the Boulder County Board of County Commissioners has heralded the start of a quiet race among local Democrats vying to fill the outgoing state Senator’s District 17 seat,” reports The Boulder Daily Camera. “Jones — who won District 3 last week with a decisive 68 percent of the vote — has presided over the east Boulder County Senate district since 2012; his most recent term is scheduled to expire in 2020 and his resignation — to come before he is sworn in as a commissioner January — will open the seat for a fellow Democrat through the end of 2020.”
“It might seem like Colorado had little love for most of the voter-referred issues on Tuesday’s ballot,” reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “But where it all went wrong for each ballot measure depends on where in Colorado the votes were coming from.”
“The Rev. Douglas Hunt learned German and English as a child growing up near Denver, but never thought English made much sense,” reports The Durango Herald. “So he set out to learn other languages and is now familiar with about 20. He speaks about eight fluently or semi-fluently and dabbles in others, such as various dialects of Aramaic.”
It fascinates me that the last time we saw such levels of nationalism and racism was back in the 1920’s-30’s, also times of enduring economic stresses.
The “Roaring 20’s” were really about the “haves” and “have-nots”. There were a few with a lot, and a lot with little.
The public were inundated with tales of economic prosperity, yet experiences of the commoners revealed a different reality.
Highly consolidate corporate media induced the public to take on more debt, to keep up with the “roaring” lifestyle.
The WTID wealth inequality index peaked between 1928-1929.
That WTID index has now surpassed those levels and former peaks of 1928-1929.
The public was led to believe that “foreigners” were responsible for taking work and wages away from nationals.
One, often surefire method of propaganda is the diversionary tactic. That is, shifting blame for ones malfeasance towards another, diverting attention away from the true source of that malfeasance.
If there were, indeed, a true ruling elite, like the .001 percent, whom wanted to conceal the fact of their massive wealth accumulation and hoarding, they could use their power of persuasion, via say their highly-consolidated media, to divert attention towards “foreigners” and immigrants, and such.
I don’t know if this is the source of the recent rise of Nationalism & racism, but it’s an interesting correlation.
Capital, as a resource, is subject to the same scarcity principle as other resources.
The more some take & hoard for themselves, the less there is for everyone else.
Everyone else starts to feel squeezed, it’s the true “trickle down” effect.
Even many smaller businesses are feeling the effects. Workers want better wages, but gross profits aren’t necessarily there to support those wages.
Yet the highly-consolidated corporate giants, largely owned by the .001 percent, are seeing healthy profits (a small number of people and money-management firms control upwards of 90 percent of the stock markets, thus the corporate giants in those markets).
Truth is, the U.S., like much of the world, is suffering from a money supply. The M1, M2 and M3 are seeing reduced levels, similar to that of 2005-2006. The money supply has been stagnant (much like wages) for the past 3-4 years.
Again, likely attributed to hoarding at the top level.
Keep in mind, Fred C Trump was arrested in New York during a KKK rally/riot in 1927.