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Colorado News Miner 152
Ballots, Victor Marx and other candidates, Bhadesha on democratic socialism, Kirk Johnson coming to Denver, homeschool enrichment, and more.
by Ari Armstrong, Copyright © 2026
Ballot Watch
Montana's Progressive Income Tax: Rob Natelson says Montana's experiments with a progressive tax were a disaster.
Fentanyl Penalties: Logan Davis calls Prop. 132 "an effort to re-increase the fentanyl overdose rate."
Trans Surgeries for Minors: Jon Caldara makes a case for voting to ban trans surgeries for minors. I'm still voting no for reasons explained; I think older teens do have substantial ability to reason and make their own decisions, and I have no standing to interfere with the decisions of a teen, their parents, and their doctors.
Trans Kids in Sports: These are just kids. Universally keeping trans kids out of sports is wrong. Of course, as I have long argued, leagues should not be organized around genitalia anyway. There's no good reason why a not-especially-athletic trans girl or a small boy shouldn't be allowed to play with girls. Organize leagues by relevant physical characteristics. Jamie O'Rourke: It's not at all clear how the ballot measure would be enforced, but obviously it would require some sort of sex testing. My prediction: The most frequent impact of the measure will be for officials and certain parents to harass masculine-looking girls suspected of being trans, especially if those girls are disliked by the Mean Girls. The measure is practically a plea for government-sanctioned ugly behavior. See also Hannah Metzger.
Boulder 2J: Derek Draplin: Boulder wants to impose an excise "tax of at least $4,000 per year on 'vacant' residential properties, defined as 'homes that are occupied for 183 days or less per year.'" This is scapegoating wealthier people for the housing shortage caused by government policies. Also, how is this enforced? Notice how the "civil liberties" left all of a sudden doesn't care about civil liberties when it comes to surveilling people's housing occupation.
Marx Watch
Marx's Violent Rhetoric: Victor Marx once told a story of how he slammed his wife into a door and made her cry. Marx said that was to illustrate the value of training, and his wife says it wasn't abuse. Daily Beast has details, or see the Dems' post or the follow-up by Kyle Clark. Or see the 9 News video of Marx saying, "More girls and women would not be abused by men if they were content with who they are and where God has them." That's about as repulsive a comment as I can imagine a candidate making, just straight-up misogyny. Colorado Republicans, you could have had regular ol' boringly competent Barb Kirkmeyer. At this point, every decent Republican will demand that Marx drop out. Anyone who continues to endorse Marx, having heard those comments, is morally corrupt.
Running from Debate: Victor Marx will not debate Phil Weiser. True, Marx has made a proposal to debate that he knew Weiser would reject out of hand and that any candidate would reject, to debate Marx without a moderator at Marx's home studio run by Marx's team. This is not a serious proposal by Marx; it is a sham invitation intended to trick his gullible followers. The reality is that Marx is afraid to debate Weiser, and with good reason. Marx knows practically nothing about how state government functions, and his politics appeal only to a small slice of the Colorado electorate. Here are the facts. Marx refused to debate at the Pikes Peak Center. He refused to debate at Club 20. He backed out of a debate moderated by Aaron Harber. Marx's actions do not make any sense from the perspective of someone trying to win political office. They make more sense from the perspective of someone trying to increase a donor base.
NYT on Marx: Read it here.
Campaign Finance Violations: Kyle Clark: Marx has racked up record fines.
AI Crowd: Hannah Metzger: The Marx campaign shared an image with an AI-generated crowd. Sheesh. Amateur hour.
Candidate Watch
Vote D Mostly: I've already explained why people should vote no on all the ballot measures. Regarding the statewide and congressional races, I think people should vote Democrat across the board, except for Jena Griswold and Melat Kiros, because Republicans need to learn the lesson that Trump- and Marx-style politics are unacceptable. For state legislature and other seats, judge race by race; maybe there are some good Republicans out there.
Killin It: Wayne Laugesen has found a tangential connection between porn interests and Jessica Killin. Yawn.
CTR Cranks It Up: The left-leaning Colorado Times Recorder (which nevertheless publishes a column of mine) has out a series on Rep. Jeff Crank. Jamie O'Rourke: Crank has a history of anti-gay positions. Jason Salzman: In 2019 Crank called human-caused global warming "the greatest hoax of our time." Salzman again: Crank opposed ObamaCare (as did I). Erik Maulbetsch: Crank engaged in conspiracy mongering about the 2020 presidential election.
Trash-Talking Zokaie: Rep. Yara Zokaie released audio of someone associated with a Republican fundraiser saying horrible, personal things about her. No one in or out of politics deserves to be talked about like that. This is shameful.
Weiser Campaign Donations: Center Square reports Phil Weiser took some contributions over the legal limit, necessitating refunds. Unlike Victor Marx's campaign finance violations, this is a nothing-burger.
Deep Singh Bhadesha on "Democratic" Socialism
Bhadesha defends Democratic Socialism on Mandy Connell's show.
He says he used to be a Hayek-quoting libertarian who railed against corporatism, such as bank bailouts. He referenced a poll saying that socialism is more popular than capitalism in Denver. I believe that's a Colorado Polling Institute survey, which says, "Nearly 1-in-5 voters (17%) now identify as socialist" in Denver, and "Denver voters maintain slightly more favorable views of socialism (55%) compared to capitalism (47%)." That's mass-insanity.
Bhadesha said Bernie Sanders appealed to him over universal healthcare, concerns about college costs, and problems with housing costs. My read: Those are three areas where government obviously screwed things up. As I recently told a friend, "Health care after ObamaCare is exactly as fucked up as I predicted it would be" (not that it was great before that). Interestingly, Bhadesha seemed to agree with that, only his "solution" is yet more government control. The underlying story is exactly the one told by Mises and Rand: Ill-conceived government regulations in the economy cause distortions, leading to calls for more government intervention. In other words, socialist (directional) policies are responsible for the ills over which Bhadesha calls for more socialism.
Bhadesha also throws around the term "capitalism" to describe obvious uses of force, such as colonial violence, which are the antithesis of free-market capitalism. Capitalism does not mean any attempt to acquire wealth; then it would describe the Mafia as much as the corner shop. Capitalism means a system of voluntary exchange.
Bhadesha lets slip the mask when he talks about seizing the means of production (maybe he was partly joking, but I don't think so). Socialism is force, it is violence. "Democratic" socialism is force with a popular veneer. Bhadesha specifically says (quoting the Democratic Socialists) that "food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation" should be government-run. Another detail here: Bhadesha complains that private equity firms have bought up a lot of small medical offices, but he ignores that government regulations largely drove this trend.
Nevertheless, Bhadesha and I agree on various things, such as the need to roll back zoning regulations to increase the supply of housing. And I'm very glad that Connell invited on Bhadesha, especially given Connell's recent article lamenting the loss of civility in our society.
In related news, various Democratic candidates have openly promoted socialist or socialist-adjacent policies. Claire Valdez said “we need to nationalize the airline industry.” Melat Kiros called for “publicly owned, mixed-income social housing." Darializa Avila Chevalier once said she wants to "seize the means of production.” Abdul El-Sayed has called for substantial government ownership of AI companies. Jackson Franklin wants to "nationalize the pharmaceutical industry."
Kirk Johnson Joins Denver Museum of Nature and Science
This is huge and (for me) unexpected news. Kirk Johnson is leaving the Smithsonian to head the Denver museum. The museum is signaling it intends to be taken seriously as a world-class institution.
The museum's media release notes "Johnson spent more than two decades" here "before leaving in 2012." He helped open the Deep Time exhibit and helped lead the huge mammoth dig.
The Smithsonian notes, "Johnson has overseen one of the world's preeminent centers of natural history research, whose scientists published more than 11,000 peer-reviewed papers and named over 4,000 species during his tenure. . . . Since becoming director, he has raised over $300 million for the museum and grown its endowment by 450% percent—from $82.7 million to nearly $380 million."
Johnson is a world-renowned paleontologist and a proven institutional leader.
In related news, Team DMNS helped find important T-rex footprints in North Dakota. See Axios, the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, and DMNS. And the museum is returning to Snowmass next summer to unearth more fossils.
Quick Takes
Progress Now: I was frankly stunned when I opened a September 10 email from Progress Now Colorado and saw my article against the natural-gas ballot measure featured. That organization and I haven't always exactly seen eye to eye. I guess Progress Now decided it's okay to let me carry water for them sometimes. Although I have some big disagreements with Progress Now, we also agree on quite a few issues. Generally, I'm happy to find common cause with different people and groups where possible. Then, on September 24, Progress Now surprised me again by linking to my Times Recorder article on the Elizabeth suppression of The Kite Runner. I'm quite proud of both of the linked articles. By the way, Progress Now's daily news digest is one of the best sources of Colorado news; I read it every day. Btw Corey Hutchins also linked to my piece on Kite Runner.
Krause on Madagascar Fossils: David Krause gave a talk last year on Madagascar fossils and the Ankizy Fund that is a version of the talk that inspired my child to raise funds for Ankizy.
Housing for Me Not for Thee: Denver edition.
Aurora Breaks Up Sex Trafficking: Whether or not the reported numbers ultimately hold up, Aurora police reportedly has made some major arrests related to sex trafficking; at least one person has pleaded guilty to serious crimes.
Homeschool Enrichment: Anne Schimke: "Colorado officials plan to seek third-party audits" of ERBOCES and Colorado Homeschool Enrichment. These groups already have been pushed out, so it's unclear to me what is the purpose of the audit. Partly, I think, it's part of a PR campaign against homeschool enrichment funding. A September 11 release from the Colorado Department of Education says one proposed rule would "increase the minimum instructional hours for part-time funding from 90 to 180 hours." In other words, enrichment programs would have to double their hours for the same funding, which simply means that most enrichment programs would close down. Again, there are a lot of problems with directing tax dollars this way; I'd far rather homeschool families just be able to keep the funds they are now forced to pay into public education. But that approach is not on the table.
Protecting Pollinators: Polis signed an order.
Remembering Racial Terror in Denver: White domestic terrorists pushed a black family out of the City Park area in the 1920s.
Election Integrity: Hannah Metzger: A lawsuit by United Sovereign Americans concerning voter rolls was tossed as "completely devoid of factual allegations."
Hospital Tampering: Someone shut off oxygen at UCHealth, apparently on purpose. Terrible.
Fire-Resistant Houses: Turns out that if you build houses with less-flammable materials they tend not to burn as easily. Go figure.
Colorado Commies: That's the title of Wayne Laugesen's new book. What I really love about Wayne is his subtlety and nuance. See also Wayne's take on enrichment funding.