CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
January 13, 2017 11:19 PM UTC
24 Comments
Pending dangers for those who love our public lands and what they do for the state, and Western, economies…… Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has re-introduced her bill to gut the Antiquities Act. She has about 24 Republican co-sponsors. Thankfully, Senator Cory Gardner is not among those sponsors. Remember back in early 2015 when she floated a non-binding resolution to turn over most federal lands in the West to the states? Gardner was the only Western Republican senator to vote 'no.'
Elsewhere, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is trying to get radical, anti-public lands, Utah state legislator Mike Noel to become director of the BLM. Let's all hope that Interior Secretary designate Ryan Zinke, who supports keeping public lands public, will reject this nomination.
Similarities:
Obamacare: you can keep your doctor.
Western public lands takeover: you can keep your access for hunting, fishing, hiking, riding your ATV, etc.
CHB, maybe you can help me answer a student's question. One of my Trumpkins (raised on Fox news) was reading about Thoreau and how Thoreau is considered the "father of conservation". He wanted to know the difference between conservationists (which sounds like conservatives, which he loves cause he's supposed to), and "environmentalists", (which he hates because he is supposed to). I fumbled around explaining "preserve our national heritage", but I don't think he bought it. Thoreau sounds like a dirty hippie, and that's final.
How would you explain that terminology to a high school Trumpkin?
MJ: the concept of conservation, in my not-as-well-informed-as-I-need-to-be status (may have "On Walden Pond" somewhere, but have not read it) began in the 19th century, not just with Thoreau, but with garden clubs in the cities; 4-H clubs for rural kids; and the original conservationist organizations, the mountaineering clubs. The whole concept of conservation; to me; started with a notion to conserve what we have, perhaps for our consumptive use, but more for future generations. Ask your student to do some research on John Muir, pointing out to him that the original Sierra Club was a climbing & mountaineering organization. He might also research the near extinction and resurgence of bison. Several other individuals also are worth noting (maybe you suggest he pick & choose: John James Audubon, John Wesley Powell, Asa Gray, John Torrey, George Engelmann, Charles Christopher Parry, Aldo Leopold. All but Leopold have mountains named for them in Colorado. Interesting is the Wikipedia description of Leopold, calling him both a conservationist and environmentalist.
Environmentalism, for me, has a great overlap with conservation. Environmentalism started, I think, with publication of 'Silent Spring' in 1962 by Rachel Carson. A need for stronger environmental protection now is different from "conserving" for consumption or for future generations. Environmentalism deals with problems of a more immediate nature. The original EPA was created by a Republican president (Nixon) to deal with issues like general pollution (e.g. the Cuyahoga River in Ohio catching fire in 1969 due to all the pollutants in the river). Here in the West, drainage from abandoned mines is a major problem.
I could go on and on, but see if this response helps.
CHB,
It's been a while, but I remember Asa Gray as a contemporary, and as the US equivalent of, Charles Darwin, an evolutionary theory type in his day, not as a conservationist. Am I mis-recalling things or was he a bit of both?
Gray was a bit of both. He didn't go as far as Darwin did with evolutionary theory, and did try to take a somewhat religious approach to evolution, thus showing that the two concepts were not incompatible. I consider Gray and his fellow botanists of the 19th century as their day's equivalent of conservationists. Gray and his contemporaries were more into identification of plant species, but conserving same becomes a natural offshoot (no pun intended).
Good point. 19th century botony was a natural bleed into conservation. My undergraduate faculty advisor wrote the definitive history of Asa Gray, but it has been about 40 years since I read the book. My memory was of him was that he was more in what we might now call the field of genetics.
Thanks, CHB. The kid is a hunter, as are many around here, so that definition of keeping public lands for public use will probably resonate the most with him. We're not yet doing independent research projects, but those suggestions will be good for later on.
You're welcome. Since he is a hunter, might be some value in introducing him, at some time, to groups like Backcountry Hunters & Anglers; or the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
Maybe Bennet will step up and get all bipartisanshippy on us….
I can't find one good thing to say about Cheeto Hitler, but notwithstanding his blinding smile and eyebrows on fleek, Senator Spokesmodel's only redeeming quality is his refusal to sell out our public lands.
It's partly just language change but in my experience conservationss, like teddy roosevelt, tend to be more activeusers, I.e. hunt and fish, while environmentalists tend to observe nature and worry more about indirect results of development on wildlife, watersheds, global warming, etc., and respect nature for its own sake. But thereis a lot of overlap.
AC-still like silverback comparison?
?
ask in Russian, he'll get it.
AC-I discerned a similarity between your gross, racist insults and those of another racist that used to infest this blog. Coincidence, I guess. Just one hateful, racist prick resembling another
Comrade ACHole,
Please to be biting my krenk.
до свидания, assface. Better dead than red, right?! Isn’t that what you McCarthy-ite red-baiters used to shriek? Guess what, Putin boy — YOU’RE the commie-loving anti-American pinko now!
How dare you.
Rocky Mountain Minister of Disinformation Comrade Colonel Andrei Carnegeski will not be addressed in a such a manner.
Strong Twitter response to follow.
Have you ever made, here, several years ago, such a comparison to President Obama?
Gray,
Not that I am aware of.
If you have something in mind, please enlighten me.
As you know, most of the people on this site disagree with most of the things I have to say so things are sometimes attributed to me, intentionally by some and innocently by others, falsely.
Congressman Coffman leaves Frustrated Crowd
9News reported on a Coffman Town Hall meeting at the Aurora Public Library, Saturday, January 14, 2017.
Hundreds showed up, mostly to complain and ask about the ACA and Coffman's plan to "repeal and replace" it. People waited in line for hours, but were unable to visit with Rep. Coffman, who later said that it wasn't really a "town hall", rather a "constituent meeting". The courageous rep sneaked out 6 minutes early, after meeting with a fraction of the many who waited hours to see him.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. GOP reps will find themselves in hot water many times over their policies against their constituent's interests. Indivisible and other progressive folks are taking a cue from the old Tea Party tactics.
With Putin? With MLK and Lewis?
Someone from a state that so clearly has an underrepresented progressive and liberal base should have the guts to truly represent us by throwing some shade at Czar Trumpf:
Polis and Bennet vainly ignore that part of the base and wish it weren't there.
Perlmutter? Barely escapes the corporate and Blue Dog tattoo.
DeGette? She'd set Trump off on a maniacal twitter-storm that would be well worth any grief she gets.