Freedom Unaffiliated

 Reality check on mass deportations in Colorado By Jon Caldara Let the meaningless battle over mass deportation in Colorado begin. Watching our cities virtue-signal on immigration is the best free entertainment your tax dollars can buy. The war of words and chest beating is worthy of a reality show. On one side, you have Denver’s Mayor Mike Johnston playing a modern-day Paul Revere. With thos...

Progressive Press Needs a Dose of Ideological Diversity By Jon Caldara I am told over and over that the greatest quality reporters can have is curiosity. Then why aren’t journalists even slightly curious about why they lost their credibility from their customers? In 1976, 72% of Americans had a “great deal of trust and confidence in the mass media” to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly”...

The ridiculous double-standard behind Denver’s flavor ban ByJon Caldara I get tired of all the double standards. When The Little Mermaid swims around half naked, singing to her underwater friends, she is “sweet” and “beautiful.” But when I do it, people say I’m “drunk” and “no longer welcome at the aquarium.” Modern society often makes knowing when you’re acting hypocritically difficult. I mean, b...

Hateful minimum wage laws keep my disabled son unemployed By Jon Caldara Minimum wage laws are tools of systematic hate. Recently the voters of Colorado removed a constitutional ban on gay marriage by 64% to 36%. Overwhelmingly, the people believe government shouldn’t prohibit consensual relationships. Years ago, states around the country removed laws prohibiting homosexual activity for the same r...

Voters paved path forward for Trump, GOP majority By Mike Rosen Two years ago, I predicted that Joe Biden wouldn’t be on the presidential ballot by November 2024. After Kamala Harris secured the nomination, my rosy scenario was a Trump victory riding a red wave. (It’s true I picked Dewey over Truman in 1948, but I was only three-years-old then.) Now, all the usual Democrat suspects, the...

Taxpayers foolishly subsidized my new electric car By Jon Caldara I want to thank the taxpayers of Colorado for my brand-new car. Really, thanks to each and every one of you dupes. You see, I have never in my 60 years had a brand new, off-the-lot automobile. Instead, I buy used, and I mean really used, cars and drive them until they drop. Out of college I bought a sexy $500 Datsun 210 and sold it...

Why ‘Merry Christmas’ is preferable to ‘Happy Holidays’ By Mike Rosen It seems the great public divide has no bounds. Several years ago a poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 66% of Democrats said stores and businesses should say “Happy Holidays” to avoid offending non-Christians while 67% of Republicans said they should stick with the traditional “Merry Christmas.” Caught in...

Trump win puts progressive intolerance on display By Jon Caldara Welcome to the Great Un-friending. One of the telltale signs of a progressive is the constant self-celebration of their tolerance. Progressive communities, like my hometown of Boulder, slap the word “diversity” on every school wall, rec center poster and library. “All are welcome,” don’t ya know. The woke mob has mandated Diversity,...

Denver government’s self-sabotaging priorities By Mike Rosen For all the attention it gets, you’d think ending “homelessness” was the primary purpose of Denver government. The term is an all-inclusive generalization. It includes those who’ve had a sudden setback, are recently out of work, are down on their luck, temporarily having a tough time making ends meet, or even a college grad who...

Polis, Dems prefer Trump win Colorado’s electoral votes By Jon Caldara Yet again the voters of Colorado pummeled Donald Trump at the ballot box. He lost here by an audacious 12%. I have a question for the majority of Coloradans who didn’t want him as president: How do you feel about Colorado’s 10 Electoral College votes going to President-elect Trump instead of Vice President Kamala Harris? Voters...

Kyle Clark may have signaled it’s OK to report on those in power — even progressives. By Jon Caldara Many conservatives in Colorado have a visceral distaste for Kyle Clark, the 9News anchor who effortlessly slides between reporter and editorialist. And I can understand their frustration. Like most in the news media, Clark sees the world along the oppressed-versus-oppressor spectrum, which naturall...

What parents should know about Colorado’s sexually charged social studies By Pam Benigno Beginning this fall, Colorado’s first and second graders might learn about the story behind Harvey Milk’s gay pride flag, while down the hallway, third graders learn about California’s failed 1978 ban on lesbian and gay teachers, Milk’s death, and his murderer’s controversial sentencing. Teachers now have acce...

Colorado’s political future under Proposition 131 By Jon Caldara Out of the  14 statewide ballot questions , which by the way ties the record, it’s Proposition 131 that would bring the most political change and disruption with its jungle primaries and ranked-choice voting general elections. Assuming voter fatigue doesn’t keep voters from reaching this down-ballot issue, it’s the last of the s...

What progressives get wrong about income distribution By Mike Rosen In my  last column, I debunked the claim  that the rich don’t pay their fair share of the taxes. A reader’s online comment grudgingly conceded my point but sidestepped it with a counter argument about unfair income distribution. Had I more space I’d have dealt with that then, so let’s do it here. The commenter...

Central planners disregard Coloradans’ true mobility needs By Jon Caldara Tired of all the traffic? Tough. The central planners in charge command it only get worse at an exponential rate. The reason our roads suck is money that could fix and expand them goes to transit which relatively no one uses. U.S. Census data shows only 4% of Denver’s commuting population uses transit. Remember that number —...

Vote no on retaining Colorado judges By Jon Caldara I urge people to vote against retaining judges in Colorado. Yes, all of them. We do not directly elect judges as other states do, where Republican and Democrat candidates face off. Instead, the governor appoints the state’s judges after a nominating committee brings him two or three to choose from. The only check and balance we meaningless citize...

State Power Weaponized Against Out-Of-Favor Gay Group By Jon Caldara Being gay but not holding a liberal opinion makes you a hate group. It’s fine to be part of the LGBTQIA+ crowd in Colorado. In fact, you’ll be celebrated, and, if you wish, officially honored with a flag that has flown over the Capitol. However, if you’re part of the LGBTQIA+ community but don’t believe small children should be i...

Taxpayers subsidize progressive war on affordable energy By Jon Caldara “350 Colorado” is an anti-fossil fuels organization which lobbies to end the state’s oil and gas industry. They organize anti-energy zealots to march, protest and pressure lawmakers. Proud of their role in civil disobedience during Colorado Oil and Gas Commission hearings, they take credit for helping pass the “strictest anti-...

Kamala Harris echoes big Democrat lie on ‘tax fairness’ By Mike Rosen It’s an election year and Democrats are, as usual, outbidding Republicans with unlimited giveaways to the masses. How will they finance this when the national debt already tops $35 trillion and federal spending is projected to exceed revenues by $2 trillion this fiscal year? By “soaking the rich,” of course. On th...

Don’t reward judicial misconduct in November By Dennis Maes In October, Colorado voters will be receiving their blue book, the guide to the 2024 statewide ballot issues. Included in the book will be a report on the justices and judges standing for retention. The reports are generated by commissions designed to provide information to the electorate about the judicial officer standing for retention....

Mike Rosen's Ballot measure picks for Colorado’s November election. By Mike Rosen For those who haven’t the time or interest in plowing through the 91 pages of the  State’s published Blue Book  explaining each of the 14  measures on this year’s election ballo t, as in years past, I’m saving you the trouble by humbly offering my recommendations as follows. As for the judges on the ba...

Lakewood voters to decide on eliminating taxpayer protections in November By Savana Kascak LAKEWOOD–The Lakewood City Council in August referred a measure to the November 5 ballot asking voters to permanently eliminate revenue limitations in place under the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights ( TABOR ). Despite  some complicated ballot wording , a yes vote on the measure boils down to an end t...

Boulder Shooting By Jon Caldara There is no substitute for a good and brave cop. Shiny new police equipment matters very little compared to the swift and courageous action of individual police officers. In fact, in the case of the Boulder King Soopers shooting, we’re lucky that waiting for shiny equipment didn’t cost dozens more lives. The massacre happened in the very store where I shop almost we...

College imbeciles declare war on Western Civilization By Mike Rosen Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, leftist, radical, activist college students at Columbia University have lost their collective minds (as have other groups of this ilk elsewhere.) There’s no other way to say that. Their organization calls itself Columbia University Apartheid Divest, self-described as “a coalition of student...

Democrats cackling for joy after DNC By Mike Rosen I’ll confess I didn’t watch the speechifying at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), it was excruciating enough just to read about it and watch video clips the next day. One frequent target was the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” a 900-page guidebook prepared by conservative policy wonks offering a thousand administrative and legis...