In case you missed Democrats’ House committee assignments earlier this week, we’re here to summarize it for you. They love social issues and hate commerce, which about sums up the ethos of the Democratic Party anyway. But we digress. One assignment in particular gave us pause.

It’s fairly unbelievable that Democrats would put Emily Sirota on any committee dealing with energy policy. Yet, here we are. Emily Sirota is officially part of the Energy and Environment Committee per the House Dems press release.

Who cares though, right? She’s a Democrat, and all Democrats are probably of the same mindset, right? Wrong. Emily Sirota has a virulent dislike of the oil and gas industry. Take her reaction to the failure of Proposition 112. It wasn’t anything remotely like Democratic Speaker KC Becker, who basically said, “The people have spoken.”

Here’s a tweet from then:

826K of my fellow Coloradans — including a majority of Denver, which I will represent — voted for setbacks & did so in the face of $40M of oil/gas spending. The health/safety of Coloradans will be my priority & we won’t be intimidated by the oil/gas industry’s money. #copolitics https://t.co/yo0HAwMTql

— Emily Sirota (@EmilyForCO) November 7, 2018

And, really, we’re focusing on Sirota, but the composition of this Democratic legislature if far further left than any previously. These aren’t Ed Perlmutter Democrats. These are Bernie Sanders Democrats and it does not bode well for our state.

We suspect that Democratic State Chairwoman Morgan Carroll and her radical agenda is at play here. Buckle your seatbelts, PeakNation. This could be a bumpy legislative session for average Coloradans.

Attention citizens of the People’s Republic of Boulder: Only 20 days remain for the registration of all privately owned guns with the police state.

If you do not comply and an unregistered gun is found in your possession after Dec. 27, you will be forced to pay a $1,000 fine and face 90 days in jail for ignoring the trendy will of The People.

Gun owners must undergo a background check and pay a fee for their constitutional right to own a gun.
We bring you this friendly reminder, because only 85 people in all of Boulder have so far complied with the law passed by the city council in May.

If estimates of more than 100,000 guns in the city holds true, the city is looking at a major windfall of penalty cash to pay for a significant prison population explosion.

Or, a drain on the city coffers from all the lawsuits coming their way.

Stay tuned.

Gov.-elect Jared Polis laid the first concrete bricks against taxpayer money accountability Thursday in announcing Cary Kennedy as his senior advisor for fiscal policy.

Kennedy’s political record extends beyond her failed gubernatorial bid against Polis to her role as Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s deputy mayor and chief financial officer.

PeakNation™ will recall Kennedy was clueless about the $75,000 payout to Detective Leslie Branch-Wise for sexual harassment complaints against a mayor’s friend and fellow employee.

That’s right, the chief taxpayer money handler didn’t think it was her job to know how much, or how many harassment claims were paid out by the city.

She wasn’t even asked about it until she was running for governor. Her explanation seemed to be that she’s not accountable, because she didn’t know about it.

We expect this will also be how transparency works in the Polis administration.

They won’t be accountable for spending, because they won’t want to know about the spending, so they don’t have to be transparent about spending.

If sexual harassment is also covered up along the way, well, Democrats are getting quite adept at that little trick as well.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Walker Stapleton was in Washington yesterday for the state funeral of his cousin, President George H.W. Bush.  Over the course of the past several days, it has become apparent that Stapleton had a much closer relationship with the former president than many had understood, and that certainly speaks to Stapleton’s humility and down-to-earth nature.

One of the main stories on FoxNews.com during the state funeral was an op/ed penned by Stapleton titled, “A Final Letter to my Uncle George.”  It talks about a letter written by the President to Stapleton’s parents on the day that he was born.  And he wrote about how 41 had the ability to make everyone around him “feel special and important.”

Pictures showed Stapleton as a child with the President, and even Walker’s own son were shown throughout.  In one story relayed by Stapleton, he recalls that, as a six-year old, the elder Bush invited him on a fishing trip – the day that he was named Ronald Reagan’s running mate.

Another picture showed Walker huddled with the senior Bush and baseball hall of famer Tommy Lasorda.  Stapleton’s father was part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team and his partner was George W. Bush.  Fun fact: our state treasurer was actually on the field for Nolan Ryan’s final no-hitter.

It is also apparent that Stapleton played tennis with George H.W. Bush, as Walker posted a picture on Twitter of the two of them after a match. Another fun fact: one of the two other players shown in that photo was John Newcombe, the three-time Wimbledon singles champion.

Stapleton also appeared as a commentator during a ten-minute segment on Fox News Channel just hours after the state funeral.  Stapleton said that the former president “would have loved every minute of that service,” and that “it was a beautiful service for a beautiful man.”  He also said that Bush “lived his life treating people the way he wanted to be treated himself.”

Stapleton last spoke to the President a couple weeks ago, and like the last words spoken by Bush before he died, the last words that he spoke to Walker were “I love you, too.”

Tonight, Democratic Sen. Dan Kagan announced that he was resigning from his seat, which encompasses Aurora, Foxfield, Greenwood Village, Englewood and Littleton – oh, and of course Cherry Hills Village. While Kagan gave no explicit reason for his departure, the Aurora Sentinel noted that he had been embroiled in controversy since last year over whether he inappropriately used the women’s bathroom at the state capitol after repeatedly being asked not to.

We’re guessing his reasoning goes something like this (note, this is not a direct quote from Kagan, but us hypothesizing about his rationale):

“I’m rich AF. I hate serving with my caucus at the State Capitol because they’re a bunch of idiots. I should be able to use whichever bathroom I want. Again, because I’m rich AF. I don’t need to put up with this bullsh!t. I’m going to enjoy my life.”

His resignation will take place January 11. A vacancy committee will appoint his replacement, which is thought to likely be Rep. Jeff Bridges, son of Rutt Bridges. Although, we could be surprised. Certainly, Democrats’ tendency to elect the most radical possibility has only intensified over the past two years. Stay tuned.

Who knew one needed legal permission to throw snowballs?

Thanks to the comical overreach of government, that’s exactly what Severance nine year-old Dane Best recently discovered. So he set a path to change the laws of his Weld County hometown, culminating with an appearance before the Severance Town Board on Monday night.

Lest you think we’re joking, here are some of the inane questions posited to young Dane by members of the board, per the Greeley Tribune:

“Can we amend this ordinance to say that if you’re over 60, no one can throw a snowball at you?” asked Trustee Dennis “Zeke” Kane.

Trustee Michelle Duda posed this question: “If we do enact snowball fighting, have you talked to your fellow students about safety issues?”

These are actual questions from members of an American town’s board to a nine year-old kid. You’d think the young man was asking to conduct nuclear weapons testing on the campus of the University of Northern Colorado.

Undeterred, Dane remained solidly on message, defending the free expression of childhood while simultaneously highlighting the absurdity of the situation:

“The children of Severance want the opportunity to have a snowball fight like the rest of the world,” he said during his presentation. “The law was created many years ago. Today’s kids need a reason to play outside.”

Eventually, Dane won. Kids can now have snowball fights in Severance without any worry of being sent to Gitmo.

Bravo to Dane. Adults ruin most things, with government picking up the slack to ruin the rest. It’s nice to see a kid stand up to our self-created straightjacket and say, “you guys are idiots.”

We should only hope that Dane smacks us in the cheek with a snowball the next time we’re up his way. It’s the least we owe him.

Xcel Energy, a Minneapolis-based, quasi-monopolistic public utility that provides power to roughly 1.5 million Colorado customers, announced yesterday that it plans to emit zero carbon emissions from the eight states in which it operates by 2050.

Someone give these guys a trophy for “most ambiguously boastful plan of 2018.” Even the utility’s cheerleaders have no clue how this can be achieved, but hey, let’s not let facts and economic reality get in the way of a good time. From the Colorado Sun (emphasis ours):

“I believe this is the single most exciting development in the clean energy space this year,” Rich Powell, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Clear Path, said at the event. “Not only has Xcel taken the bold leadership to go first on the path that we know all U.S. utilities must go — to zero emissions by 2050 or sooner — but they’ve done it while acknowledging they’re not entirely sure how to get there. And that’s OK.”

That’s an absolutely amazing concession, particularly considering that Xcel is the reigning, undisputed, heavyweight champion of simply making s*** up. When the utility brought its Colorado Energy Plan to the state’s Public Utilities Commission earlier this year, it promised that shuttering two of Colorado’s best-performing power plants in favor of costly industrial wind and solar projects would not result in any increases on ratepayers’ bills. While the Commission ultimately passed Xcel’s plan (itself a sketchy subject for another day), Commissioner Wendy Moser succinctly undercut the crux of the utility’s promise:

“The customers of Xcel Energy will pay for the retirement of these plants and it will show up in rates,” she said. “So don’t think that this is free and that it’s going to be borne by somebody else.”

So yeah, great, free plan. Except we have to pay for it.

Unsurprisingly, Governor-elect Jared Polis, who spent much of the 2018 campaign pointing to Xcel’s deceptive Colorado Energy Plan as a model we should all aspire to, was super stoked about Xcel’s announcement, hilariously suggesting that “we’re showing the country the way.”

Here’s “the way,” as we understand it: point out whatever comprises a perfect world, tell the public that we’re going to get there, and then slap a comically long-term timeline toward actually achieving it, without being “entirely sure how to get there.”

There’s a lesson in that for Walker Stapleton, who ran for Governor on real-world annoyances: facts and figures. The fellow should have just promised free Epic Passes for all Coloradans by the year 2250.

In the meantime, Colorado, enjoy the benefits of Xcel’s grandiose plans. You’ll see it in your energy bills well before you see any actual progress. Just trust them – the good stuff is coming someday, somehow if they can figure it out.

We’re not the only ones stomping our feet and raising a ruckus over Denver’s plans for legalizing opium dens.

Law enforcement officials have taken note of the outrageous proposal, and are weighing in with their sensible explanation of why this plan is batsh!t crazy.

It’s illegal, and those who break the law and their enablers will be punished.

“ … anyone who violates a section of U.S. Code that prohibits anyone from maintaining premises for using controlled substances faces property forfeiture, up to $250,000 in fines and up to 20 years in jail.”

The Drug Enforcement Agency and U.S. Attorney’s office basically accused the council of blundering their way blindly towards a fix for opioid addiction that won’t fight addition, but instead “normalize serious drug use.”

And, it turns out the shooting galleries won’t be limited to just opioid or heroin users, but to those who shoot up meth, cocaine and other drugs.

This totally contradicts the main argument that such centers would prevent drug overdosing, because there is no antidote for nurses standing by to administer.

All these centers will accomplish, is putting the public safety at greater risk.

In one corner, we have Gov. Hickenlooper who was not officially running for president in his nearly year-long campaign to run for president.

In another corner, we now have U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet unofficially tossing his hat around the ring for a presidential run.

So what do Coloradans think about two potential candidates from their state, folks they know or have followed for years, lining up for the presidency?

They’re recruiting Bernie Sanders of Vermont to run again.

It’s a fruitless effort. Democrats so easily forget that it was Democrats who robbed Sanders of a Colorado win in 2016, when superdelegates handed their votes to Hillary Clinton. State party leaders would assuredly do it again for one of their own.

We just find it hilarious that Democrats aren’t racing to back Hick or Bennet.

It’s interesting that Hick and Bennet have spoken to each other about running, and are okay that two, white, mediocre Democrats from the same state would be in contention with dozens of other Democrats who most assuredly will come in a larger variety of colors and backgrounds with more aggressive liberal tendencies.

If by some miracle Bennet were to win the nomination, then Gov. Polis could appoint Hick to his Senate seat. And if Hick were to be nominated, it’s no loss for Bennet, who isn’t up for reelection until 2022.

We don’t have any actual details of their conversation, but we would be willing to bet money that’s the plan.

And if both lose the nomination, well, they both come home with a PAC full of cash to hand out to their political friends and increase their power base.

That is, unless, no one takes either seriously and their campaigns never get off the ground.

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton penned an opinion piece for the Montrose Daily Press on the battle to end opioid addiction.

Interestingly, it says nothing about creating public injection centers for the illegal use of heroin or other opioids. Not a word about enabling addicts’ use of dangerous drugs.

Instead, Tipton lays out the federal government’s efforts under both Trump and Obama to end addiction and put drug dealers behind bars.

Since 2016, Colorado has received more than $15 million in grants for opioid dependency treatment. Another law recently signed by President Trump will fund overdosing drugs for administration by first responders, and increased law enforcement activities to catch synthetic drug runners at the main point of entry, the southern border. The bill also expands Medicare coverage to treatment and services of addiction.

Again, no mention of legalizing centers where addicts can get high with the assistance of medical nurses.

Here’s what Tipton had to say about the opioid resistance effort:

“The opioid crisis is a multifaceted issue, and no one approach will bring it to an end. We must advance policies that facilitate prevention education and effective treatment, ensure law enforcement has the tools it needs to respond to bad actors trying to bring dangerous opioids across U.S. borders, and support health care professionals in their work to decrease prescribed addiction.”

The vast majority of Americans don’t support the backdoor legalization of opioids by creating injection sites like the proposal just approved by the Denver City Council.

We expect to see an even greater backlash when the state legislature takes up the measure again, which was defeated in the last session by Republicans.