Advertising, Climate change, Crazy Republicans, Embarrassing Republicans, Extremism, Lies, politics, Ray Scott, Stupid Republicans

State Senator Ray Scott, in tweet on climate change, cites full-on wacko nutbag source

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Ray Scott’s September 17, 2019 tweet citing NaturalNews., a conspiracy-theorist website that rivals InfoWars

One of the most dangerous things about Colorado State Senator Ray Scott is that he can’t seem to tell the difference between authoritative, credible sources of information and paid promotional research or even websites whose stock in trade is pletely whacked-out conspiracy-theories.

Case in point: On September 17, 2019 Senator Scott actually posted a tweet saying “NASA admits that climate change occurs because of changes in Earth’s solar orbit, and NOT because of SUVs and fossil fuels.” In support of this claim, he cites an article published by a website called “NaturalNews..”

So what’s the problem?

NaturalNews. isn’t a legitimate scientific website. It’s “a conspiracy theory?and?fake news website” that? hawks??dietary supplements, promotes?alternative medicine,” makes “tendentious nutrition and health claims,” promotes “fake news,?and espouses various?conspiracy theories.” NaturalNews. is as far from being an authoritative, legitimate science-based website as you can get.

Colorado State Senator Ray Scott

In fact, NaturalNews. has been widely discredited as a pletely off-the-wall, far-gone wacko conspiracy website. It was rated #1 on a list of the Top Ten Worst Anti-Science Websites.

The Daily Beast called NaturalNews. “a conspiracy site rivaling Infowars.” On June 8, 2019 The Daily Beast published an article about NaturalNews. titled “Natural News went from selling cheesy kale chips to peddling far-right prophecies, racking up millions of Facebook followers along the way.”

Facebook removed NaturalNews’ page from its site following publication of the article.

The founder of the NaturalNews is Mike Adams, who has been preaching global apocalypse for 20 years. Adams intersperses far-out conspiracy rants about things like chemtrails and misleading anti-vaxx claims with ads promoting things like organic broccoli sprout capsules and Groovy Bee Organic Maca Root Powder. Adams is often likened to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of Infowars.

This is who your duly elected official, State Senator Ray Scott, is citing as a source he considers as offering legitimate research. What’s worse is that he believes the nutty fake news this site spews over our country’s most pre-eminent scientific agencies.

Be afraid.

 

Diversity, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Hate

Grand Junction mosque’s new sign vandalized

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Two Rivers Mosque’s new sign after vandalism

On August 31, the Islamic Center of Grand Junction unveiled a colorful new sign installed in front of its new Two Rivers Mosque at 8th and Gunnison Ave. and held a munity barbecue to celebrate. About 50 people attended the barbecue, and it was an afternoon of peace, friendship and great food.

Not three weeks later, the sign was vandalized beyond all recognition.

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Embarrassing Republicans, Energy, Environment, Extremism, politics, Stupid Republicans, Worker advocacy

Sen. Ray Scott’s tweet opposes progress and planning for future

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Ray Scott’s tweet lamenting planning for the future, and indicating he can’t wait for such folly to end

Is Republican State Senator Ray Scott concerned about Colorado’s economy and workforce?

It sure doesn’t look like it, judging from his twitter feed.

On September 4, Scott posted a tweet that said “2022 an’t e fast enough.” It was his response to an announcement that Governor Polis had just created a new government office to deal with pressing new problems facing Colorado’s workforce. Scott’s tweet referred to the year when Governor Polis’s first term in office will be over.

Sen. Scott tweeted his disdain Governor Polis’ newly-created “Office for the Future of Work,” announced September 4.

Sen. Scott either 1) failed to investigate the need for this office, or he 2) doesn’t care what’s going to happen to Colorado workers in the near future if we fail to plan for ing trends.

We need to address changes like the Gig Economy, Automation and Changes in the Energy Market

NO planning for YOU! Colorado State Senator Ray Scott

The new office is part of the state’s Office of Workforce Development. Its purpose is to address the needs Colorado’s workforce faces amid the rapidly changing nature of work. Challenges include the growing gig economy, in which people increasingly work as independent contractors instead of employees in full and part time jobs. The gig economy is leading to the rapid disappearance of employer-employee relationships that gave workers benefits like health insurance, vacation time, retirement accounts that often include matching funds and paid sick time off. The gig economy has left many workers without the crucial economic safety net that Coloradans have depended on for generations. What’s more, innovations like artificial intelligence, automation in manufacturing, self-driving vehicles and society’s turn away from costly, inefficient fossil fuels? toward renewables, like solar and wind power will soon leave existing workers out of jobs unless we plan for the future and help retrain workers to help them adapt to new fields and technology.

Until now, the state has lacked a coordinated way to address all of these pressing issues facing workers.

Seems pretty forward-thinking to do so, then, doesn’t it? One would think it is a good idea to look at what’s ing in the near future and start preparing for it.

Planning for the future absolutely makes sense, and it’s something we ought to be doing to assure Colorado transitions into a successful, prosperous future.

For Ray Scott, though, planning for the future is just pure folly.

 

Activism, Children, Crazy Republicans, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Health care, politics, Public health

One more thing about missioner candidate Janet Rowland…

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Former County missioner Janet Rowland (January 2005 – January 2013) advocated a program that paid women with drug addictions $300 to get sterilized

Former Mesa County missioner Janet Rowland, who has already had two terms in the recent past and is now running for a third term, has given Mesa County voters plenty of reasons not to elect her again, but here’s another one, and get ready. This one is kind of creepy.

In 2008, Rowland promoted a program that paid drug-addicted women $300 to get sterilized so they couldn’t reproduce. The program, called Project Prevention, targeted its advertising mainly at women, and 37% of the women who had been sterilized under the program were African-American. In 2009, African-Americans made up just 12.4% of the U.S. population.

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Uncategorized

Recall effort against Governor Polis fails miserably

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Rep. Jared Polis is safe in office after recall effort fails to gather anywhere near enough signatures.

It was another victory for progressives in Colorado today as upset Republicans who were trying desperately to recall Governor Jared Polis ended up gathering fewer than half the signatures they needed to put the recall measure on the ballot. The recall faction failed so miserably in fact that they didn’t even bother to turn in the signatures they did get.

Local Republican proponents of the effort were spotted using illegal techniques to gather signatures, like setting up tables in public parks without obtaining the required permits and taping signs advertising their petition effort on government buildings.

In the end, the “Dismiss Polis” people gathered only 300,000 of the 630,000 signatures they needed to qualify for the ballot.

Governor Polis responded to the news by saying “After all that fuss, I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t turn in a single signature on the recall. I hope the remaining misguided efforts against others see the same results … Recalls should not be used for partisan gamesmanship.”

Crazy Republicans, Ethics, Harassment, Lies, politics, Trump Insanity, Worker advocacy

BLM to G.J.? Moving federal offices out of D.C. is a way to dismantle them, Mulvaney tells Republicans

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Don’t cheer the relocation of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) out of Washington, D.C. to Grand Junction until you understand the Trump administration’s real?motive behind moving federal agencies out of Washington. Hint: It’s not to help them, and it’s not to help us.

The real motive for moving agencies out of Washington is to hobble and destroy them.

Uprooting federal agencies and moving them out of D.C. into “red” areas is a method the Trump administration is using to pressure skilled federal workers to leave by attrition and destroy federal oversight agencies. Republican Senator Cory Gardner, all three of our Republican Mesa County missioners (John Justman, Rose Pugliese and Scott McInnis) and Trump administration employees have all been telling the public that moving the agencies out of Washington is a way to streamline them, and make them more efficient and responsive to the people and industries they oversee.

Hogwash.

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Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, politics

Senator Ray Scott caught watching a movie during the legislative session

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ICYMI (in case you missed it), “Next with Kyle Clark,” (a front range Channel 9 TV news features show) broadcast video of our own Republican Mesa County State Senator Ray Scott spending his time watching a movie on his phone during a legislative session.

Colorado Pols identified the movie as the widely-panned 2018 Mark Wahlberg vanity vehicle called “Mile 22,” that got a one-star rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It’s no wonder Scott wants to ditch his senate seat and run for Mesa County missioner. It appears he’s bored to tears having to represent all of his conservative western slope supporters at the Capitol in Denver.

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Advertising, Consumer advocacy, Corporations, Corruption, Marketing, Safety

Beware local sales pitch for a free filet mignon dinner

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Postcard mailed out locally that promotes a free meal in exchange for sitting through a financial services seminar.

Have you received a post card in the mail recently promising a free gourmet dinner, with your choice of filet mignon, poached salmon or grilled Portobello steak, at the Ocotillo Restaurant in exchange for sitting through an “informational seminar and insurance sales presentation”?

My first thought upon reading this post card was that given the high cost of the promotion — a sit-down filet mignon dinner at a really nice restaurant — that the pany sponsoring this free dinner must be having a VERY hard time attracting customers on the merits of the pany alone. I read the postcard thoroughly and squinted to read the mice type, which said “Securities and investment advisory services offered through Woodbury Financial Services.”

Then I looked into Woodbury Financial Services, and it was no wonder the person putting on this promo buried the pany’s name in the mice type.

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Activism, Crazy Republicans, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Fake patriotism, Intolerance, Lies, politics, Stupid Republicans

State Senator Ray Scott lied to the Daily Sentinel about social media blocking case

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Full disclosure: I was the plaintiff in the lawsuit that the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado brought against State Senator Ray Scott for blocking constituents from his official social media accounts.

On August 31, 2019 the Daily Sentinel printed an article about the settlement we reached in the case.

Had the Sentinel contacted me for this article, I would have let them know that Ray Scott lied to them about several specific pieces of information regarding the case.

Ray Scott’s first lie:

Scott told the Sentinel that he blocked people from his social media accounts “only if someone posted a profane or inappropriate ment.”

That is absolutely false.

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Elections, Ethics, politics

City to re-zone Burkey Park for medium-high residential development at their September 4 meeting

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Burkey Park on Patterson Road is a dry vacant lot with a trash can and split rail fence, but is prized by neighbors for open space and the longtime promise that the City would one turn the parcel into a developed park. The Burkey family donated the land to the City in 1967 on the condition the City would turn it into a park.

At their public hearing on Wednesday, September 4, 2019, Grand Junction City Council will hear an agenda item to rezone Burkey Park to allow construction of medium-high density residential development on it.

The City plans to rezone Burkey Park from its current zoning of “Recreational” to R-8 zoning to allow residential construction of a density of eight dwelling units per acre. This density would most likely be attached dwellings like condos, duplexes and townhouses. The City bills the rezone as “medium density” development, but the R-8 designation is actually labeled medium-high density in the City Code.

The 18 acre parcel located on Patterson Road between 29 1/2 and 30 Roads was donated to the City by the Burkey family in 1967 on the condition that the City would one day turn it into a park. The City never fulfilled its promise, though, and instead let the parcel languish as a weedy vacant lot for more than 50 years, while pouring taxpayer money into other odd areas, handing over $500,000 (pdf) – $750,000 every year to Colorado Mesa University for a period of 15 years.

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