GenXJen

Happily married & Trying to Live not by Lies in Denver, Colorado. Picture of the lake and boathouse, City Park 9/2014 Member of @RealistGuild

[GenXJen @GenXJenDen]

A friend asked for annual counts on fatal ODs, so I put this together. (2026 is Jan-July only).

As I was updating the 2026 numbers, I realized the Denver Medical Examiner's Office no longer includes 2018 and 2019 in their fatal overdose dashboard.*

A pity. Without that context, you'd think our fatals had always been this high. With it, you see the arrival of fentanyl on the streets and the impacts of state and local policy changes.

*Interestingly, 2018 and 2019 data are still available on the ME's dashboards for homicides, traffic fatalities, su---des, and homeless fatalities.

Just not those dead by drugs.
Why take off the 2018 and 2019 data?

[Willa, aka Liberty Belle, the 355 🇺🇸🔔 @LBelle355]

People look at stuff like this & immediately think about free speech, but this goes beyond that. It is essentially creating “thought crimes” because it would require the court to determine a person’s intentions & inner beliefs. It is an attack on freedom of conscience, & cognitive liberty.

[CuriousLearner @PaigerCO]

Denver…did you vote for this too? What is your CC’s next objective? If you didn’t know, it has already started. Follow @GenXJenDen for deets!

[FreeStateColorado @FreeStateColor1]

Learn about Kyle Brown, newest member of the Joint Budget Committee:

[Stephen Coughlin @S_Coughlin_DC]

The source of the term as used comes from Josef Pieper's "Abuse of Language - - Abuse of Power."

It is associated with the phrase "corruptio optimi pessima est."

At it's core, the term refers to, among a few things, the positioning of the term "science" in it's classical use. Science, from the Latin Scientia, from the Greek επιστημη [episteme].

This orientation allows one to claim the upper hand in a debate - from mere conversatons to policy setting forum - by successfully claiming that their opinion is actually scientific (scientific socialism/dialectical materialism, for example) such that your view is not, and because it's not, it doesn't need to be respected.

Moreover, if you are someone deemed reasonably intelligent and yet still maintian "unscientific views," you must have a malady.

Because "my" views are scientific, "yours" cannot be. But if they are not, why should I respect anything you say? And why should you have a right to free speech? Only "scientific" opinions should be allowed and "we" control who is a scientist and what is science.

Plato's "Republic," BTW, is the first book on critical theory known to exist. It remains, to this day, the manual on how to do it.

[Walter Kirn @walterkirn]

As grave and insane a cultural development as I can imagine.

All writers and artists must stand against this -- or what we do falls to the level of cake decorating.

Guillotines next if we don't.

[Rep Brandi Bradley @bradleyforco]

Mark my words, this will be a bill brought forward by the radical progressives in Colorado this session…..

[GenXJen @GenXJenDen]

@schotts Happy Veterans Day to you Schotts! Thank you. 🫡

[GenXJen @GenXJenDen]

“…trying to swat a swarm of flies with a cannonball…”

The Meet & Confer policy, which would apply to all Denver landlords, is a cannonball fired straight at their property rights.

The Rent Escrow program is a harsh measure that will likely apply to 1 or 2 landlords a year after due process finds that regular City habitability inspections/fines aren’t spurring corrective action.

Recognize the subversion. The recalcitrance of a few bad actors horribly failing in their duty to provide heat, water, and address pests are an excuse to undermine the property rights of ALL Denver landlords and frankly, put tenants who want no part of a union at risk of being pestered to join.

[GenXJen @GenXJenDen]

“In short, making reality denial mandatory leads to gulags & graves, every time.”

[Willa, aka Liberty Belle, the 355 🇺🇸🔔 @LBelle355]

The result of denying reality is the empowerment of a tyrannical state equipped to impose all manner of terror on its citizens. Compelling, through state force, the mandatory denial of reality will lead to those of us who refuse to do it without our livelihoods, forced to pay restitution, serving time in jail, & the stripping of individual rights.

In short, making reality denial mandatory leads to gulags & graves, every time. Europe, China, Cambodia, & many other places during the 20th century stand as testament to this.

[Jill Osa @Jpruet10]

@GenXJenDen So glad we sold in July! If I hadn’t I’d 1031 to a landlord friendly state and that way CO wouldn’t get the income tax from the sale of the property :)

[GenXJen @GenXJenDen]

@Jpruet10 Congrats on your sale, and good advice!

[GenXJen @GenXJenDen]

Denver’s proposed Meet and Confer policy fundamentally alters property rights and is a backdoor to rent control.

Denver landlords, get your lawyers on the phone.

Set meetings with City Council members.

Get ready to defend your property rights and reject the embedding of “co-governance” with tenant unions as a condition of your rental license.

This proposal has NOTHING to do with habitability.

It applies to ALL residential rental properties and ALL landlords, not just the 1 or 2 per year who refuse to do their duty as property owners and blow off City fines.

By advancing Meet and Confer (subversive!) with a Rent Escrow program for bad actors (with due process!) City Council plays a deceptive game, marrying a potentially useful habitability tool (putting rent into escrow after due process for repairs a landlord refuses to make—about 1 or 2 landlords/year) with a socialist wet dream—forcing landlords to co-govern with tenants and outsiders, violating landlords’ free association rights (MUST meet and confer), forced yielding control over common areas on their property (must provide FOR FREE), and more.

Under State law (and the Constitution) tenants can associate freely; that’s how groups like the Denver Tenant’s Union came to be, and § 38-12-509 protects tenants from being retaliated against. Cool. That is right and just.

Denver’s Meet and Confer goes well beyond that, granting undue power to tenants, forcing landlords to play (and subject themselves to unearned pressure and agitation), and potentially subject to governance by some sort of outside or City mediator when the landlord rejects the union demands.

Meet and Confer is gross overreach and a backdoor to build the operational infrastructure for collective control over the economic and other contract terms of renting.

Wake up and get to work landlords. You are not the bad guys. Defend your rights now, before this goes farther.

[GenXJen @GenXJenDen]

@OnlyFormHolds @acu100 This is a very useful explanation of voluntarism. Thank you!

[Annemarie Ward 💜 @Annemarieward]

Sometimes only a fraction of my comments get used and that’s ok - here’s the full comment for those interested.

The question I want Scotland to put first is this: when someone asks for help to escape addiction, can they get the treatment and recovery support they need? That should be a defining test of our response to this crisis.
Recovery cannot keep being invited to comment after the priorities have already been announced.
Drug checking may provide useful information. But this service has barely opened and already the demand is national expansion and fewer restrictions. It would be refreshing if evaluation were allowed a speaking part before the victory tour began.

Kirsten frames this around rights, respect and compassion. I would start with the right to meaningful treatment choice, respect for people’s desire to recover, and the practical support that makes recovery possible. Compassion should include somewhere to go beyond managing the next risk.
The evidence also needs more careful handling. Much of the earlier behavioural research comes from recreational settings or people saying what they intend to do. You cannot simply lift findings from a festival and assume they apply to Glasgow’s population with entrenched dependence. A festival wristband is not a clinical diagnosis.

There is emerging community evidence of some people changing their behaviour, and we should acknowledge it. But self-reported precautions are not the same as demonstrated reductions in deaths. SDF should explain which findings apply to the people this service will actually see, what benefits are expected, and how those benefits will be independently assessed.
Those are reasonable questions, not symptoms of a compassion deficiency.
“Progressive” is a political description, not a clinical outcome. “Established abroad” tells us where something happens, not whether this particular model represents the best use of Scotland’s resources. National expansion, value for money and removing licence restrictions each require their own justification.
Before age restrictions are described as unnecessary barriers, we also need a clear explanation of the safeguarding implications. “Person-centred” is not a magic phrase that makes difficult questions disappear.

Could you ask Kirsten to clarify whether she is calling for under-18s to access drug checking? If so, what minimum age does she propose, what safeguarding and consent arrangements would apply, and how would young people be connected to appropriate treatment? Removing an adult-only condition is a substantive policy proposal, not simply tidying up an administrative barrier.”
What concerns me is the imbalance these priorities reveal. Harm reduction can support recovery, but it should not become the ceiling of our ambition. Where is the same campaigning energy, political urgency and determination to secure funding for treatment, rehabilitation and sustained recovery? Recovery cannot remain the warm word in the strategy while other interventions get the infrastructure, the expansion plans and the ribbon-cutting. If recovery is genuinely a priority, it needs a budget and a pathway not another paragraph in a policy document.

My question to SDF is straightforward: what findings would lead you to reconsider expansion? If expansion would remain the answer regardless of the results, that would be a belief system with a research bibliography.
Scotland needs services judged by what they deliver for people, not by how flattering their description sounds at the launch. A laboratory can tell us what is in a sample. It cannot tell us what our priorities ought to be.

Best,
Annemarie

[Mary Anna @MaryAnnaT08]

@GenXJenDen Here we go folks. DSA initiating social housing. I attended one of their meetings whereby renters control the landlords. NOT in favor.

[BrooksBloke @BrooksBloke]

@GenXJenDen Has anyone seen how this plays out in NYC? Can we go back to being Colorado circa '94?

[GenXJen @GenXJenDen]

@Rebeccaandgus You and me both.

[GenXJen @GenXJenDen]

Source:
Budget & Policy Committee
11/9/26

https://t.co/RG1cIxiXtm

[GenXJen @GenXJenDen]

“…trying to swat a swarm of flies with a cannonball…”

The Meet & Confer policy, which would apply to all Denver landlords, is a cannonball fired straight at their property rights.

The Rent Escrow program is a harsh measure that will likely apply to 1 or 2 landlords a year after due process finds that regular City habitability inspections/fines aren’t spurring corrective action.

Recognize the subversion. The recalcitrance of a few bad actors horribly failing in their duty to provide heat, water, and address pests are an excuse to undermine the property rights of ALL Denver landlords and frankly, put tenants who want no part of a union at risk of being pestered to join.

[Willa, aka Liberty Belle, the 355 🇺🇸🔔 @LBelle355]

This is absolutely true & I encounter this myopia everyday. It’s not that Progressives don’t consider the future at all, it’s that their conception of future is so distorted by utopianism & relativism as to make it incoherent.

They don’t exist in reality.

We can’t get a bond for a new jail passed in my county. Our jail is incredibly old; it has black mold problems, sewage leakages, cracking walls, inadequate space so severe people literally are sleeping on floors. We’ve had pipes burst & cause flooding, necessitating days worth of transport trips driving prisoners out of the county to other jails. What are the downstream effects of this? Prisoners can’t access their attorneys or other resources (such as interpreters, which may not be available in more remote counties), tax payers are paying thousands for transport, & for things like building repairs which are only temporary bandaids & which will be endlessly repeated as the building continues to deteriorate, & for other counties to house our citizens. It’s a massive, massive waste of resources & it is inhumane to house people this way.
Why can’t the county get this resolution to pass?

Because we have deranged Progressive activists on our county board of supervisors doing everything they can to stop it. They say there is “nothing you can do to get us to agree to a new jail.” They literally told another politician this. Why? Because they are prison & police abolitionists. They are utopianists.
What is the effect of this? Of their refusing to exist in or engage with reality? People housed in inhumane conditions & tax payers shelling out thousands & thousands for stop-gap measures to just get by for another day.

Progressives tried to defund our police department in 2020. These efforts started earlier, by demanding that police stop responding to mental health crises calls for service. What is their alternative? Create a task force made up of mental health professionals who would be on-call & available to respond to 911 calls that involved someone having a breakdown. What happened in reality? Mental health professionals were scared to respond & would demand that the police department ensure that they would be safe if they went. The police had to go anyway, & it ended up taking more time (& often no one from the task force would be available). And this is on top of the fact that police officers are highly trained in responding to mental health crises already. There are hundreds of mental health crises police interactions around the country every day, & you will never hear about them because they conclude just fine (because most officers are competent).

This is how these progressive boondoggles play out in REALITY. Inefficient, wasteful, ineffective, destructive, corrupt. People are actually harmed *in reality* because Progressives refuse to engage with reality, refuse to use second-order thinking, ignore what is actually happening, & instead use utopian thinking.

“If ONLY things could be like this, then we’d have utopia.”

Nothing will improve until we can get people to exist in reality. It all comes down to this. A person who denies reality cannot conceptualize the future. It is civilization ending.

[GenXJen @GenXJenDen]

@MaryAnnaT08 💯