Author Archives: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Ex-Rep. JoAnn Windholz (center).

As scientists across the globe are racing to develop a vaccine against COVID-19, Republicans in key Colorado counties voted overwhelmingly in recent weeks against any state vaccination requirements for children or anyone else.

In a platform position passed by a 58 to 19 vote last week, the Adams County, Colorado, Republican Party, condemned “any form of mandated vaccinations.“

Asked about the plank, JoAnn Windholz, Chair of the Adams County Republican Party, told the Colorado Times Recorder that the resolution was about the “parents’ right to choose what’s best for their children,” and it would apply to “any type of shot.”

If a coronavirus vaccine were developed, parents should decide whether their child should be vaccinated, said Windholz, a former Colorado Republican lawmaker from Adams County, which is north of Denver, adding that the resolution was not passed in response to the pandemic.

“It has to be the parents’ decision,” she said.

Colorado allows parents to opt out of vaccination requirements for medical, religious, or philosophical reasons, but many states do not have such nonmedical exemptions.

The Adams County resolution reads, in full: “Be it resolved that the Colorado Republican Party condemn any form of mandated vaccinations; support the right for all citizens to accept or decline any or all vaccinations; condemns any use of tracking systems to track citizens based on vaccination status; condemn discrimination against citizens based on their vaccination status; and supports the rights of citizens to live free of tracking and discrimination (medical tyranny).”

Republicans in El Paso County, which is located around Colorado Springs and has more GOP voters than any other county in the state, passed two resolutions that reject vaccination requirements, without exceptions.

One resolution titled, “Parents’ Rights to Choose Vaccinations” minces no words in stating that the El Paso County Republicans “condemn government mandated vaccinations that are against an individual’s, religious, philosophical or medical beliefs; including parents’ rights to choose all, or no, vaccinations for their children.”

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(Yes, really – Promoted by Colorado Pols)

President Bush talks as FEMA director Mike Brown, right, looks on, during a briefing on damage from Hurricane Katrina in Mobile, Ala., Friday, Sept. 2, 2005

Michael Brown, best known for being told by President George W. Bush that he was doing a “heck’ve a job” during the Katrina disaster, sits behind a radio microphone during the pandemic, fearful for the country, not because of the death toll, but because he thinks politicians are over-reacting.

“I think the cure is worse than the disease, and so I fear for the country,” said Brown on his KOA 850-AM radio show in Denver last week.

“Let’s take some risk here,” said Brown on air, apparently unconcerned that his listeners might laugh at the irony that the guy who led the disastrous federal response to Hurricane Katrina would advocate risk-taking during a national emergency.

Brown was forced to resign as FEMA director in 2005, as the death toll from Katrina mounted. Before the scope of the disaster unfolded, President George W. Bush infamously told “Brownie” he was doing a “Heck’ve a job,” and the nickname stuck.

On Thursday’s show, Brown declared that Americans understand that they have to “keep six feet away from each other,” use “knuckles to push elevator buttons,” and to not “pick your nose.”

“The vulnerable population, those with chronic underlying problems, suppressed immune systems, whatever it might be,” concluded Brown, “so let’s isolate and take care of them.”

For Brown, who’s been active in Colorado’s Republican community after leaving Washington, the larger issue is about stopping progressives.

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(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

You may remember Denver talk radio host Chuck Bonniwell, who got fired for joking that a “nice school shooting” was needed to break up the boredom of the impeachment hearings.

He’s got a new podcast now, called the Chuck and Julie Show, and Wednesday he accused Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) of destroying the state’s economy so that nobody will accuse Polis of “killing old people” who might get the coronavirus.

Given Bonniwell’s own admission that lots of his radio utterances are “going to be controversial,” you could easily decide it’s best just to ignore him.

But thoughts like Bonniwell’s seem to be spreading, if not spiking.

So I’ve quoted the pair extensively here and asked an expert to take valuable time to address what they’ve said.

Co-host Julie Hayden appears to share Bonniwell’s views.

“It sounds so callous, and you’re not supposed to say it out loud, but we are talking about the at-risk people, which include us, who don’t have that long a life-expectancy anyway,” said Julie Hayden, who is a former Fox 31 TV reporter, on their show Wednesday. “So we are destroying lives, we’re destroying an economy. We’re destroying people’s dreams.”

“It’s the pansy-demic,” said Bonniwell, who’s the publisher of the Cherry Creek/Glendale Chronicle.

Bonniwell went further, saying potential coronavirus victims are already “costing society huge amounts of money.”

“The people who it’s killing are costing society huge amounts of money,” continued Bonniwell. “They are medically, in many cases, indigent, and they have very serious diseases, respiratory, diabetes, and everything else. So they are probably, net, and you don’t like to talk about lives as net, they are takers from the economy, on Medicare and whatever else. “Their death is not hurting the economy, it’s enabling the economy. But we are never allowed to discuss those things. Our problem is that all the politicians in Washington, with a few exceptions, are in their 70s.”

Dr. Matthew Wynia, a Professor of Medicine and Public Health and the Director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities, at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus, graciously agreed to respond to Bonniwell’s and Hayden’s thoughts.

“These are disturbing quotes, but my hunch is they reflect fears and prejudices that are not as rare as we might like,” said Wynia. “The most disturbing of these quotes are the ones that suggest some people are dead weight in society – eerily reminiscent of the ‘useless eaters’ argument the Nazi’s used to justify killing disabled people,” wrote Wynia in his emailed response. “I really don’t think our communities want to go there.” “The idea that ‘only’ elderly and disabled people will be affected is wrong, since if our health care system gets completely overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, that will affect anyone who needs medical care, whether for a skiing injury or car crash, heart attack, etc.,” continued Wynia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released preliminary figures Wednesday showing that about a third of U.S. coronavirus infections occurred in people 20-44 years old. A White House official expressed concern about the rising number of European young people getting “very seriously ill.” And health care workers have been sickened and killed across the globe.

Hayden and Bonniwell, whose show is popular among Republican activists in Colorado, spent most of their time Wednesday on the question of whether the economic upheaval was worth it to save lives.

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(Darwinism in action – Promoted by Colorado Pols)

“I will go to any restaurant that stays open. You will have my business.”

“At this point, I have not been given anything official. So we will be open for business.”

“Many people will visit your restaurant!”

Those comments, which appeared on the private Facebook page for alumnae of Leadership Program of the Rockies (LPR), came in response to the following question, posed by a member of the group:

“For a restaurant business owner, what would legally happen if they chose to practice civil disobedience and stay open when the government demanded they close? Asking for a friend.”

Leadership Program of the Rockies is a training institute for conservatives that’s seen many of Colorado’s leading Republicans pass through its doors since it opened in 1989. Its board includes former Republican power broker Alex Cranberg, CU Regent Heidi Ganahl, U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer, and former Colorado state Treasurer Mark Hillman. Graduates of the program in former state lawmaker Ted Harvey, former state Sen. Nancy Spence, state Rep. Mark Baisley, former GOP Senate Presidents Bill Cadman and Kevin Grantham, former Colorado Treasurer Mark Hillman, former Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, and many GOP state lawmakers.

One LPR graduate, Elliot Fladen, posted the comments about the restaurant ban from LPR’s alumnae Facebook page on his own Facebook page in an effort, Fladen says, to get LPR leaders and others to #DoyourpartCO, speak up, and help educate those who say they would thwart efforts to contain the disease.

“Now normally I wouldn’t share this from a private alumni page or at least blot out the people’s names,” wrote Fladen on his personal Facebook page when he posted the LPR comments. “But these people are actively advocating initiating force by thwarting Governor Jared Polis’ lawfully issued executive orders and thereby putting lives in jeopardy by turning themselves into disease vectors. This is the sort of behavior that needs be discouraged in the most expeditious way possible. So if you know these people, talk some sense into them.”

Fladen, who also wrote that LPR teaches “empty sloganeering,” was subsequently banned from the page, he says, but he has no regrets.

“We need to encourage others to respect the measures that are in place to protect us,” he told the Colorado Times Recorder, saying the issue goes beyond LPR alumnae to anyone who sees these kinds of remarks on social media or anywhere.

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