Posts Made By: James Brown

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

John James has pulled a Trump and has already declared victory. 

Mr. James is running out of time and running out of votes.

Originally Posted by Maurice Clark

Am not entirely with the idea that the polls were so wrong. While the polls did indicate that Biden was ahead in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, they were all within the margin of error.

Polls generally have a margin of error of around 4%. So, for example, if a poll indicated that one candidate was up by 2%, that candidate could be up by as much as 6% or down by 2%.

Maybe the problem was not with the polls, but with the people using them without taking this into account.

Hi Maurice:

The problem with the polls is that in '20and in '16 the error always skewed against Trump.  This suggests that there is an underlying polling problem that causes pollsters to underestimate Trump's support.  Some think this is the result of nefarious bias.  Not me, I think that the "shy" Trump voter is a real thing.  Enough Trump voters either won't answer the polls or mislead the pollsters.  There were a couple of articles about this from pollsters who had Trump winning or at least had the race as a toss-up.

That said, I agree 100% that people don't understand that polls have MOEs.  They expect polls to be precise predictions.

Jim

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

"over 70 million votes nationwide as of Wednesday afternoon"
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/524497-biden-wins-most-votes-of-any-presidential-candidate-in-history

Hi Rod:

As more states adopt a CO style 100% mail in system, the vote totals will continue to go up.  according to CPR:  "As of Wednesday afternoon, 3,303,265 ballots have been returned out of an active voter roll of 3,780,115 — a turnout rate of 87 percent."  Think about that - 87% turnout state wide.

Of course, this means that the millennials actually vote in Colorado, which has accelerated CO's shift to a hard blue state.  That effect could be repeated in other swing states.  

But natural selection is at play here.  The GOP will figure out how to reach out to these new voters, we saw a lot of that occurring in 2020.  After 4 years of Biden/Harris (probably) it will be much easier for a fresh dynamic face to flip states like Colorado back into the pink.

I think...

Jim

As of right now, Perdue is winning in GA, but he is only 2000 votes above the 50% mark needed to avoid a runoff election.  Let's assume that a runoff is necessary.  Then Georgia holds the fate of the nation in its capable hands.  The Senate would be at 50R and 48D before the runoff.  Vice president Harris will be poised to break ties (assuming Trump does not somehow win AZ, GA and PA).

With only the slightest exaggeration, here are a few things up for grabs as the citizens of GA consider their two Senate runoff ballots:

1.  Massive federal tax increases
2.  Packing the Supreme Court
3.  Eliminating the legislative filibuster
4.  Expanded Obamacare or maybe Bidencare?
5.  Richard can fill in the rest, but let your imagination run wild!

Can you even guess at the amount of outside money that will be pouring into Georgia?  Yesterday, I was pretty confident that the GA republicans will turn out in the runoff(s) to guarantee a 52/48 Senate majority, but think about it.  This will be a statewide election with national repercussions like no statewide election in history.  The voter mobilization will be epic.

All eyes will be on you Greg.  Don't let us down!

Jim

Originally Posted by Russ Carroll

That is fait au complet, my man. It is gone no matter what.

Some day I suppose.  But is there any compelling reason to eliminate the filibuster when the Senate is R and the House and Executive are D?  It is not like the Senate minority Ds are going to be blocking any legislation favored by the House or the president.

That said, I suppose the filibuster will be gone, as soon as the next time the Senate majority and House majority are aligned.  In other words, as soon as getting rid of the filibuster becomes expedient.

J

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

When I live in a state, where the people voted to eliminate the electoral college, that informs me in spades of the mindset of this crazy, historically and civically illiterate fools here.

Yes, it stung that we were unable to overturn the legislature and governor's stupid popular vote suicide pact.  But consider this:

1.  The voters of Colorado extended the tax payers bill of rights (TABOR) to cover new "fees."  As you know, but others might not, Colorado can not raise taxes without a vote because of our cherished TABOR law.  Our D state government was end-running this law by funding governmental expansions with "fees" instead of taxes.  The liberal and conservative voters said "no sir, any new fees need to be approved by vote too"  Chalk one up for the good guys.

2.  The voters of Colorado approved a small decrease in the state income tax rate!  Did you read Mike Rosen's voter guide this year?  It is the best of course.   Even Mike Rosen said that this was not the year to decrease the income tax rate because the pandemic had hit the state budget hard.  Even Mike Rosen counseled against a tax decrease!!!  Most of you may not know Mike Rosen, but to me and Richard he is nearly a god.  By Mike's own admission, this might have been the first time he counseled against a tax decrease.  But then our crazy illiterate voters approved the decrease!!  Our taxes are going down.  Just a little bit.  

3.  Two year ago, when CO elected a D Governor, and an entirely D statehouse the same voters overwhelmingly rejected a fracking ban.

These conservative victories were delivered by the same crazy voters who want to eliminate the EC, guarantee the right to abortion whenever, and re-write the constitution to cause the reintroduction of Grey Wolves to the western slope.  No kidding.  Grey Wolves in the constitution.  You know this but others may not.  

Soooo.  Colorado remains nearly as fiscally conservative as Utah and as socially liberal as anywhere.  I am OK with that, although I sure would have liked to see the EC vote go the other way.


Jim     

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

Except that you failed to take into account Jim, the idea of liberty as it pertains to private property rights and how they continue stealing our private property, which includes OUR LABOR (i.e. Private property), via taxing that labor continually and often.

Now I was quite happy to see this portion of your posting:

1.  The voters of Colorado extended the tax payers bill of rights (TABOR) to cover new "fees."  As you know, but others might not, Colorado can not raise taxes without a vote because of our cherished TABOR law.  Our D state government was end-running this law by funding governmental expansions with "fees" instead of taxes.  The liberal and conservative voters said "no sir, any new fees need to be approved by vote too"  Chalk one up for the good guys.

That was a GREAT devlopment.  

The problem I have is that in the rural area of the state, where I own several lots, one slightly developed and the other not developed whatsover, I've watch my property taxes TRIPLE since 2006.  I checked my former payments back then, and the undeveloped lot went from a tax rate of $266 per year, to well over $800 per year.  

Since property taxes pay for the majority of the budget of the educational system in the state (I believe property taxes fund fully 85% of all school expenditures), I'm wondering why my county needs 3X the money they needed from 2006?

Its just one indication of the incredible increases in every matter of spending in this state.  

Tell me, were you happy to see that Businesses in the state are now FORCED to pay family leave to everyone in Colorado.  

Does that strike you as liberty and freedom?  

If you address ONLY 1 issue in my response here, please address THAT.  

I'll address it this way:  Were you FOR Proposition 118, and since it now takes effect, are you saying this is FAIR to small business owners in this state?

I think the family leave act was a semi-bad idea.  I voted against 118.  But it was a socially liberal cause, so it does not surprise me that it passed.  As you might have guessed, my "bookkeeping" firm employs about 25 to 30 non-partner employees, so this will affect me directly.  I'm OK paying our own employees the leave, and we already had some policies along these lines in place, so our manager does not think it will affect us too much.  So I voted against it not because of my personal situation, but because other small business will be affected more dramatically and negatively.

Frankly, $900/year is pretty low annual tax for rural undeveloped land.  How big are your parcels?  We have 35 acres with a nice house on it in Chaffee County and the real estate taxes are less than $2100.00.   What do you reckon the property taxes in CA or NY might be on a nicely developed 35 acre parcel?   I have no idea, but I bet it is a lot.

Look, Colorado is not Wyoming.  We do have taxes and we do have programs.  We are socially liberal and at least fiscally reasonable.  I don't want to overstate the situation.  But we are a lot more fiscally conservative than other blue states.  Especially coastal blue states.

Jim

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

Since property taxes pay for the majority of the budget of the educational system in the state (I believe property taxes fund fully 85% of all school expenditures), I'm wondering why my county needs 3X the money they needed from 2006?

In Colorado, property taxes pay for the school's capital expenditures; new schools, remodels and so on.  Your El Paso County is growing pretty fast.  Maybe the property taxes have to go up to build new schools to support one of America's best places to live?  (I hesitate to post this because we don't need more damn Californians and Texans moving in, but still, the Springs is #4:  https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/best-places-to-live

The operational budgets for schools come from the state income tax and local sales taxes.  

Jim

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

Keep wishing, because the Pennsylvania situation will end up in the Supreme court, where the Penn. SC interjected in a matter of legislation where they never should have, and allowed the ILLEGAL extension of the date of the Election from November 3, to November 6 which violates the Federal Statue which set the date of the Federal election and the US Constitution.  

That will ultimately have to be adjudicated in the US Supreme Court, even though Roberts ignored it last time, and voted NOT to hear the case.

Now we have AC Barrett who DOES understand the law and won't PLAY THE POLITICAL games that John Roberts has been playing.  

I think when the dust settles, that Biden will win PA even if the votes postmarked after election day are tossed.  Apparently, there is only a very small number of these late ballots trickling in.  A couple hundred.  Seriously, with all the press before the election about these lawsuits, what kind of knucklehead would wait until after the election to send their ballot in?

Jim

According to the GA Secretary of State, Perdue's vote tally is now at 49.98%  There are 47277 ballots still out.  But it looks like a runoff for control of the Senate is in fact coming to Georgia.