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caldara, jon indepence inst

ntbcw libtard oakland:

727 E. 16th Ave.

Denver, CO 80203

i think he should get his wish for a subpoena

mma 2008

On KOA, Independence Institute's Caldara repeated distortions of Ritter education funding bill

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Independence_Institute

Independence Institute is a free-market, libertarian think tank based in Denver, Colorado. The non-profit is a member of the State Policy Network. Independence Institute states its mission as "to empower individuals and to educate citizens, legislators and opinion makers about public policies that enhance personal and economic freedom."[1]

Don't confuse this Coors-funded Independence Institute with the similarly-named Independent Institute.

News and Controversies

Independence Institute Loses Challenge to Colorado's Campaign Disclosure Law

On February 4, 2016, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an Independence Institute challenge to Colorado's campaign disclosure law related to the 2014 governor’s race.[2] The Independence Institute had fought the law because it did not want to have to disclose donors who paid for an ad attacking Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) in 2014.[2]

Tara Malloy, the deputy executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, praised the ruling,

"This ruling marks another resounding victory for disclosure against a nationwide flood of challenges to laws that require the reporting of nothing more than the identity of those spending significant sums on candidate-focused ads shortly before elections."[2]

'Independent' Scholar on Guns at Independence Institute Funded by NRA

David Kopel, the Research Director and Second Amendment Project Director at the Independence Institute, who is often presented as an "independent scholar" on gun rights has received millions in financial backing from the National Rifle Association, according to a report in The Progressive.[3] In the article, Frank Smyth writes, "David Kopel has managed to establish himself as an independent authority on gun policy issues even though he and his Independence Institute have received over $1.42 million including about $175,000 a year over eight years from the NRA."[3] The author also reports that, "Kopel received $1.39 million in grant money from the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund between 2004 and 2011."[3] When asked about the disclosure of NRA money flowing to the Independence Institute and himself, Kopel replied, "If that’s her editorial judgement, that’s fine with me. I’m not going to second-guess an editor.”[3]

Ties to the State Policy Network

Independence Institute is an affiliate member of the State Policy Network. SPN is a web of right-wing “think tanks” and tax-exempt organizations in 50 states, Washington, D.C., Canada, and the United Kingdom. As of January 2022, SPN's membership totals 166. Today's SPN is the tip of the spear of far-right, nationally funded policy agenda in the states that undergirds extremists in the Republican Party. SPN Executive Director Tracie Sharp told the Wall Street Journal in 2017 that the revenue of the combined groups was some $80 million, but a 2019 analysis of SPN's main members IRS filings by the Center for Media and Democracy shows that the combined revenue is over $120 million.[4]

 Although SPN's member organizations claim to be nonpartisan and independent, the Center for Media and Democracy's in-depth investigation, "EXPOSED: The State Policy Network -- The Powerful Right-Wing Network Helping to Hijack State Politics and Government," reveals that SPN and its member think tanks are major drivers of the right-wing, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-backed corporate agenda in state houses nationwide, with deep ties to the Koch brothers and the national right-wing network of funders.[5]

In response to CMD's report, SPN Executive Director Tracie Sharp told national and statehouse reporters that SPN affiliates are "fiercely independent." Later the same week, however, The New Yorker's Jane Mayer caught Sharp in a contradiction. In her article, "Is IKEA the New Model for the Conservative Movement?," the Pulitzer-nominated reporter revealed that, in a recent meeting behind closed doors with the heads of SPN affiliates around the country, Sharp "compared the organization’s model to that of the giant global chain IKEA."

She reportedly said that SPN "would provide 'the raw materials,' along with the 'services' needed to assemble the products. Rather than acting like passive customers who buy finished products, she wanted each state group to show the enterprise and creativity needed to assemble the parts in their home states. 'Pick what you need,' she said, 'and customize it for what works best for you.'" Not only that, but Sharp "also acknowledged privately to the members that the organization's often anonymous donors frequently shape the agenda. 'The grants are driven by donor intent,' she told the gathered think-tank heads. She added that, often, 'the donors have a very specific idea of what they want to happen.'"[6]

A set of coordinated fundraising proposals obtained and released by The Guardian in early December 2013 confirm many of these SPN members' intent to change state laws and policies, referring to "advancing model legislation" and "candidate briefings." These activities "arguably cross the line into lobbying," The Guardian notes.[7]

Ties to the Bradley Foundation

Between 2004 and 2018 the Independence Institute received $1,810,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

Bradley detailed the most recent grants in internal documents examined by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). Below is a description of the grant prepared by CMD. The quoted text was written by Bradley staff.

2016 (Barder Fund): $250,000 to support work on state infrastructure.

Independence president Jon Caldara “would like to do more ‘hyper localized’ training of local grassroots activists around Colorado to participate more effectively in public discourse and policymaking. ‘Small is the new big,’ according to Caldara. Colorado has 3,600 local governments. Not only does the Left exercise its power and coercion through these governments, he and [Independence Institute] believe, but it uses them as farm teams to groom people for higher office. Local government – including its ‘sub strata’ of even more numerous boards, councils and commissions, whether actual or advisory – is the Left’s bench. II wants to build a better bench and lays out a simple four point plan to try to do so. Its two year budget for the effort is $400,000, all of which it is requesting from Bradley… It would coordinate its activities with American Majority, the Centennial Institute and the Leadership Program of the Rockies.”

2015: $200,000 to support the Education Labor Project and the Energy Policy Center. The “Education Labor Project was created to support projects aimed at reducing the influence of local and state teacher unions by ending the practices of using public resources to promote their political agenda…The Project’s intensive outreach to individual members of the unions has proven to be successful. Through this means II has been able to persuade many members to ask for that portion of their dues to the union given over to political work to be returned to them.”

“The nation needs Colorado—the state that the eco left and EPA hold up as a model—to do its part to maintain fracking and slow down the regulatory juggernaut.In its Caldara inspired aggressive way, II’s EPC is helping Colorado do this, and it’s helping others do so elsewhere.” Money will also be spent to bolster “the infrastructure there (CO), usually in the context of aggressive education reform, and including from several organizations in Denver and nearby Douglas County, Colo., which is south of Denver. These groups include the Common Sense Policy Roundtable, the Douglas County Educational Foundation, and Jeffco Students First.”

Bradley Files

In 2017, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), publishers of SourceWatch, launched a series of articles on the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, exposing the inner-workings of one of America's largest right-wing foundations. 56,000 previously undisclosed documents laid bare the Bradley Foundation's highly politicized agenda. CMD detailed Bradley's efforts to map and measure right wing infrastructure nationwide, including by dismantling and defunding unions to impact state elections; bankrolling discredited spin doctor Richard Berman and his many front groups; and more.

Find the series here at ExposedbyCMD.org.

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

The Independence Institute has ties to ALEC through membership in "task forces." Barry Poulson, a senior fellow at the institute's Fiscal Policy Center, is an advisor to ALEC's Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force.[8][9] Mr. Poulson participates in the Public Pension Reform Working Group. He gave a report on their behalf to the task force at the 2011 Annual Meeting.[10]

Another senior fellow, Rob Natelson, is member of the International Relations Task Force. He is listed as an "advisor" to the Federal Relations Working Group on the agenda from the ALEC Nation and State Policy Summit in 2010, where he spoke about convening an Article 5 convention .[11] At ALEC's 38th Annual Meeting in 2011, Natelson gave another presentation to the Federal Relations Working Group titled "Where’s the Line? How States Protect the Constitution," along with Representative Ken Ivory (UT).[12]

Ben DeGrow, a public policy analyst at the Independence Institute, represents the think tank on on ALEC's Education Task Force. He sponsored amendments to ALEC’s “Open Enrollment Act” and gave a presentation entitled “Collective Bargaining Transparency” at the 2010 States and Nation Policy Summit.[13]

Former University of Montana constitutional scholar Rob Natelson, a fellow at the Independence Institute, wrote an amendment convention handbook for ALEC.[14]

The institute also has ties to ALEC through its membership with the State Policy Network which itself is a member of ALEC.

Please see SPN Ties to ALEC for more.

About ALEC
ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our ExposedbyCMD.org site.

Ties to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity

The Independence Institute has hosted writers from the ALEC-connected Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which screens potential reporters on their “free market” views as part of the job application process.[15] The Franklin Center funds reporters in over 40 states.[16] Despite their non-partisan description, many of the websites funded by the Franklin Center have received criticism for their conservative bias.[17][18] On its website, the Franklin Center claims it "provides 10 percent of all daily reporting from state capitals nationwide."[19]

Franklin Center Funding

Franklin Center Director of Communications Michael Moroney told the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) in 2013 that the source of the Franklin Center's funding "is 100 percent anonymous." But 95 percent of its 2011 funding came from DonorsTrust, a spin-off of the Philanthropy Roundtable that functions as a large "donor-advised fund," cloaking the identity of donors to right-wing causes across the country (CPI did a review of Franklin's Internal Revenue Service records).[20] Mother Jones called DonorsTrust "the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement" in a February 2013 article.[21] Franklin received DonorTrust's second-largest donation in 2011.[20]

The Franklin Center also receives funding from the Wisconsin-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation,[22] a conservative grant-making organization.[23]

The Franklin Center was launched by the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance (SAM),[24] a 501(c)(3) devoted to pushing free-market ideals. SAM gets funding from the State Policy Network,[25] which is partially funded by The Claude R. Lambe Foundation.[26] Charles Koch, one of the billionaire brothers who co-own Koch Industries, sits on the board of this foundation.[27] SAM also receives funding from the Rodney Fund.

Funding

The Independence Institute is not required to disclose its funders. Its major funders, however, can be found through a search of the IRS filings of those foundations.

Partial List of 1985-1990 Funders

According to a 1991 report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the Independence Institute was funded in part by the following corporations, organizations, and foundations from 1985 to 1990:[28]

Core Financials

2018[29]:

2017[30]:

2016[31]:

2015[32]:

2014[33]:

2013[34]:

2012[35]:

Grants Distributed

2011[36]:

2010[37]:

2009[38]:

Personnel

Staff

As of August 2020:[39]

Former Staff

Board of Trustees

As of September 2019:[40]

Former Trustees

Contact Information

Independence Institute

727 E. 16th Ave.

Denver, CO 80203

Phone: (303) 279-6536

Email: info@i2i.org

Website: https://www.i2i.org

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/i2idotorg/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/i2idotorg

Articles and Resources

990's

....

Independence Institute

“Freedom on Tap – Dave Kopel, Rob Natelson,” IITV via YouTube, April 7

Jon Caldera: [00:18:50] What’s been shocking for me is how complicit people seem to be about being put under house arrest without any sort of due process that the media especially seems to be giving kudos to those people who areputting us under house arrest without any challenge about their love of the First Amendment, which I thought gave us a right not only to free speech, but the right to assembly, the right to worship and the right to due process. And I don’t see any of that.

“Caldara: When the coronavirus cure is worse than the disease,” Complete Colorado, March 24

The CDC types are paid to have a purely engineering mind-set. Flatten the curve. Flatten the curve at all costs. To them market realities are an obstacle to overcome, a limitation to push through to a medically healthy outcome. Their expertise is health, not the economics to pay for it.

[…]

Shutting down private businesses by government fiat is economically insane, not to mention bordering on martial law.

It will certainly flatten the curve of COVID-19, a very worthy goal, but in the long run it could be curing a sickness via suicide. A person struck by the virus can and likely will survive. Small businesses, especially in hospitality, likely won’t. And the families that depend upon them might not either.

[…]

If you’re like me, you’d feel comfortable going to a restaurant during this crisis, assuming there was enough distance from other customers. I’m denied the simple freedom to choose.

https://i2i.org/about/

off bs

j**on Caldara**hates bullies.

As President of Independence Institute, he has dedicated his professional life to stop bullies who use the coercive power of government to force their values on those who don’t share them, and to take from others.

Jon is the Sunday editorial columnist for The Denver Gazette, The Colorado Springs Gazette, and Colorado Politics. His current affairs television program, Devil’s Advocate with Jon Caldara, airs on Colorado Public Television Channel 12, Friday nights at 8:30. You can hear him hostingradio talk shows on Denver’s 630 KHOW and 850 KOA.

Jon’s greatest pride is being father of three amazing children; daughter Parker, who died of cancer in 2001, daughter Piper who came along to save him in 2002, and wild-man Chance born in 2004 who, either because or despite of his Down Syndrome, is the frat brother Jon never had.

—————————————

Past political doings include:

Caldara is a veteran of many political battles, running campaigns against tax and debt increases and for freedom-based reforms:

Among his many recognitions, 5280 Magazine twice named him one of the top 10 most influential men in Denver. Westword awarded Caldara Denver’s Best Media Manipulator.The Denver Post put Caldara on their list of people to watch. The State Policy Network honored him with the Thomas Roe Award. The Colorado Jaycees named him Outstanding Young Coloradan. Of course that was when he was young, so likely he can’t even remember it.

WATCH & LISTEN

WAYS TO GIVE

ABOUT II

Home ABOUT II

TJ

A central role of an effective think tank is to produce quality research and analysis. Since 1985, we have provided research resulting in changes in law and policy. But we have never been content with just research. We are more than a think tank. We are an “action tank.” We put our ideas into action through groundbreaking litigation, coalition building, work on ballot initiatives, new media and investigative reporting. We don’t just fight on paper. We fight for freedom on the streets, in the statehouse, in the media, on the ballot, and in the courts.

The mission of the Independence Institute is to empower individuals and to educate citizens, legislators and opinion makers about public policies that enhance personal and economic freedom.

OUR APPROACH TO PUBLIC POLICY

Because the pursuit of happiness and the enjoyment of life and liberty are matters of individual choice, the Institute addresses a broad variety of public policy issues from a free-market, pro-freedom perspective.

Through the Institute’s Policy Centers, areas of critical importance are addressed with a dedicated focus. The centers allow the public and media access to a concentrated source of expertise on education, taxes, healthcare, the Second Amendment, the U.S. Constitution, energy and the environment, government transparency, transportation, personal freedom, government reform, and local government.

Unlike other organizations which see government intervention as the only solution, the Independence Institute seeks to explore all alternatives, emphasizing private-sector and community-based solutions. The Independence Institute is recognized by friend and foe alike as one of the most effective organizations at setting a freedom agenda for Colorado and the United States.

OUR VISION

The Independence Institute envisions a Colorado where people enjoy:

Debt-free government

Flat and transparent tax policy

Respect for property rights

Choice in education

Health care freedom

Limited Federal intrusion

An end tocorporate welfare

Secure private property rights

Free market conservation

Local energy development

Least cost principal in energy policy =coal?

To reach that vision, we must ACT.

ADVOCATE limited government principles over politics.

CONNECT the Freedom Coalition, because Liberty is a team sport.

TEACH the enduring truths of personal and economic freedom.

2 22

What’s New on Complete Colorado

Izard: Teachers union wildly out of touch on curriculum transparency February 10, 2022

Only a vampire hides from the sun.

Ross Izard

Murrey: State government outpaces private sector under one-party rule February 9, 2022

In Colorado, when Democrats enjoy unchallenged political power, government thrives and the private sector stagnates.

Ben Murrey

Caldara: Progressives’ hubris on display under the gold dome February 9, 2022

The left promotes the image of victimhood in all aspects of life,right down to the oppressive hamburger flipper forcing a packet of honey-mustard sauce on you against your will.

Jon Caldara

Armstrong: The ‘equity’ debate in Douglas County schoolsFebruary 8, 2022

Regarding specifically the equity policy, the demonization of the conservative majority is out of hand.

Ari Armstrong

Rosen: Pro tips for communicating in the war of ideas February 7, 2022

Here are a few things I’ve learned as a guy who’s done combat in the war of ideas offering my opinions on life and public policy, in the old and new media, over the air and in print for four decades.

Mike Rosen

rob natelson?

Constitutional Studies

Home Constitutional Studies

The Constitutional Studies Center combines careful, objective scholarship into the original understanding of the Constitution with advocacy for human freedom under law. It produces books, issue papers, articles, and legal briefs reporting the results of its research. Since 2010, the Center has had enormous influence on constitutional law cases and commentary, but also on policy makers and grass roots activists. For example, the Center’s research findings galvanized the massive and growing “Article V” movement to restore constitutional limits on the federal government.

Latest Posts

Notice to Readers from Rob Natelson

Notice to Readers from Rob Natelson0

February 10, 2022Salon.com issued a defamatory article it has refused to correct.

READ MORE

How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution Part VII: Concentration Camps—and the End

How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution Part VII: Concentration Camps—and the End0

February 10, 2022Constitutional scholars of all political stripes agree that Korematsu v. United States (pdf) was one of the worse Supreme Court decisions ever issued.

READ MORE

Biden’s pool of potential SCOTUS nominees hurts diversity rather than promotes It

Biden’s pool of potential SCOTUS nominees hurts diversity rather than promotes It0

February 7, 2022If Biden truly cared about judicial diversity, instead of ruling out males and non-blacks, he’d rule out Harvard and Yale.

READ MORE

How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution Part VI: Crushing Civil Liberties

How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution Part VI: Crushing Civil Liberties0

February 7, 2022Judges who re-write some parts of the Constitution will re-write others.

READ MORE

How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution Part V: Killing Economic Freedom

How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution Part V: Killing Economic Freedom0

February 4, 2022Justice Jackson’s duplicity in Wickard was exceeded only by Justice Black’s . . . .

READ MORE

How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution Part IV: A packed court—and a federal land grab

How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution Part IV: A packed court—and a federal land grab0

February 1, 2022Readers without experience in the American West may not appreciate how damaging the court’s decisions have been. They ratified the power of federal bureaucrats and politicians over 28 percent of American real estate.

READ MORE

note i'm reasonable 2-step:

https://gazette.com/opinion/column-dissent-is-patriotic-even-against-covid-cops/article_0d497ec4-9143-11ea-b877-43783fc6dfce.html

COLUMN: Dissent is patriotic, even against COVID cops

Jon Caldara May 10, 2020 Updated Jun 14, 2021 View Comments

Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute.

Photo courtesy of the Independence Institute [spiffy tie]

Forget burning flags, lynching world leaders in effigy and laying down in the street to stop traffic. The new act of civil disobedience is going to your job.

The world has gone completely up-side-down.

You know those electric traffic signs that hang over highways to warn you about upcoming traffic conditions and road closures? For the last few weeks the ones I’ve been driving by say, “Stay at home, save a life.”

Well, if staying at home means you are saving a life, then the government, via the Colorado Department of Transportation, is telling you that if you don’t stay home you are killing someone. That’s a pretty heavy, steaming load of guilt for someone just trying to make ends meet and simply driving to work.

It might be worth noting that by going to work one earns money which is then taxed. That tax money is needed to pay for the unemployment benefits for those staying home and according to CDOT propaganda, saving a life (unlike the murderous bastard with a job).

So, with that conundrum in mind, is Jennifer Hulan a villain or hero?

The American dream is created via an elusive mixture of insanely hard work, intelligence and colossal personal risk. Jennifer and her husband took on that challenge to start their dream. They mortgaged their home, emptied their savings and pulled money from their retirement funds to create Water’s Edge Winery and Bistro at 2102 E. Arapahoe Road in Centennial.

After five grueling years their business was a success, employing many people, allowing those folks to pay their rents and the taxes to support others without work.

When her restaurant was shut down, Jennifer reorganized to provide pickup food service. She found that while people were waiting for their meal orders to be cooked, they wanted to have a glass of wine. The place is a winery after all.

Who would have guessed this would become the beginning of a law-breaking demonstration of resistance? Forget the Tea Party of 1773. This is the Wine Party of 2020.

Hulan decided to reopen her restaurant on May 1st with table-side service. She has rearranged the place for social distancing, moving the tables farther than 6 feet apart. She has tables and chairs sanitize between every use. Hand sanitizer is freely available all over the place making it a much safer experience than shopping at the grocery store.

Her workers are under no obligation to come in, [except being fired or killed by covid] nor are her customers. All parties are fully informed. All the same this very safe example of free people peaceably assembling is in open defiance of the law. And Hulan is risking all she and her husband have plus a year behind bars for it.

The unelected Tri-County Health Department has ordered her repeatedly to close. Liquor enforcement is investigating which could lead to a suspended liquor license. And Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office is looking to prosecute.

The crime is making a living by safely selling people food.

The economist and Trump adviser Steve Moore is a friend of mine.He recently came on my TV show and praised the protesters rallying around various state capitols to re-open the economy.

“This is a great time for civil disobedience. We need to be the Rosa Parks here and protest against these government injustices,” he said.

This comparison created a small national firestorm. How dare he compare the beloved civil right icon to these ignorant rubes urging people to spread contagion and kill others under the guise of rights to travel, freely associate and worship.

Asked to clarify he told the Washington Post, “I call these people the modern-day Rosa Parks — they are protesting against injustice and a loss of liberties.”

But Parks wasn’t arrested for carrying a sign at a protest. She broke the law by sitting in the wrong seat. Martin Luther King was arrested for breaking Alabama’s law against mass public demonstrations. These illegal acts helped wake a nation to its intolerance.

Henry David Thoreau publicly stopped paying his taxes to protest slavery, but it wasn’t until he denounced the Mexican-American War was he arrested.

By contrast, how odd will it be if Jennifer Hulan is put in jail for the crime of trying to pay her taxes.

She indeed is a modern-day Rosa Parks.

Jon Caldara is the president of the Independence Institute, Colorado’s free market think tank.

freeeeeedumb!

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/opinion/caldara-mandate-vaccines-fear-invites-tyranny/article_b0c087a2-27e0-11ec-85f1-abea0bab90ac.html

Mandate vaccines? Fear invites tyranny

Jon Caldara Oct 10, 2021 Updated Oct 17, 2021  0

I don’t get why people do or don’t do some things. I mean, people jump out of perfectly good airplanes. But should we outlaw it?

Guys ride motorcycles without wearing helmets. This is insane. But I’ve talked with lots of them, and I have yet to find a single one who doesn’t fully understand the risk. For them this manifestation of freedom makes the risk worthwhile.

It’s that “pursuit of happiness” thing that purveyors of the command-and-control nanny-state have total disregard for.

Protecting freedom doesn’t mean protecting someone’s freedom to make the same decision you’d make. It’s about protecting someone’s freedom to make the decision you find unfathomable.

Intolerant social engineers will all say the same thing, some blather about the cost to society if people keep making unhealthy decisions, so outlaw soda and mandate vaccines. But beware of that logic. Convince enough people that the societal cost of, say, gay marriage is too high, we might outlaw that along with trans fats.

I don’t understand why people don’t get their COVID vaccine. I wish they would. We’d all be better off. And for the most part I think they’d be better off.

Gov. Polis has taken some flak for his callous comment that exploited the suffering from COVID victims to pimp the vaccine.

“710 Coloradans who chose not to get vaccinated are in the hospital for no good reason,” Polis said. “Some won’t even make it, some will die. Some will make it, but it will be a harrowing few days and weeks. We wish them well in their recovery, but we also wish their misery helps get the message out about why people need to be vaccinated.”

I agree with the governor. I hope their misery, and being in the ICU is miserable, helps convince people to avoid such despair, pain and death by getting the vaccine. Jared’s comment was a fully appropriate way to sway people. Good on him. That’s persuading, not forcing.

It’s the heavy-handed coercion from Polis and many on his team that is truly un-American and should stop.

Anyone else find it sadly funny that the same folk who scream racism and voter suppression over voter photo ID laws are the first to support proof of vaccination and photo ID to get into public establishments?

Does it seem tortured logic to see the same woman scream, “my body, my choice!” now call for vaccine mandates, you know, to save lives?

The grand lesson from the governmental reaction to COVID is simple. When the people are scared, they become complicit in the expansion of governmental control. Or boiled down to its essence — fear invites tyranny.

Could Hitler ever come to power if Germans weren’t fearful and starving from the results of hyper-inflation (inflation itself a government-created phenomenon)?

Would the people of Colorado ever stand idly by as unelected bureaucrats destroy businesses, rip away people’s right to freely associate, exercise their freedom to worship and deny school to their children via lockdown orders if the media didn’t spin their Chicken Little COVID narrative to such an exquisitely frightful extent?

Fearful people hunger for the illusion of security. Fear empowers oppression.

It empowers it so much that the federal, state and local governments are now using the power of law to force newly engineered chemical compounds into other people’s veins.

A previous, less fearful generation would believe it was government’s role to protect the people from such violations of their own flesh.

The news stories are becoming surreal.

In Big Brother fashion Polis has ordered that schools share vaccination records with the Dept. of Health. Every time my doctor takes my kid’s blood pressure, I must sign a form informing me of our HIPPA privacy rights. No one can have my son’s medical information, except of course the governor whenever he asks for it.

Hospitals are understaffed because their staff, medical professionals by definition, would rather go unemployed than get the mandated jab.

A Colorado woman with stage 5 renal failure can’t now get her life-saving surgery because both she and her kidney donor refuse to be vaccinated.

These people are making decisions I wouldn’t make. They feel so strongly, be it for religious or health reasons, they are willing to lose their livelihoods and quite possibly their lives for their decision.

So, just who owns their bodies, Governor?

Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute in Denver and hosts "The Devil's Advocate with Jon Caldara" on Colorado Public Television Channel 12. His column appears Sundays in Colorado Politics.

Jon Caldara

Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute in Denver and hosts "The Devil's Advocate with Jon Caldara" on Colorado Public Television Channel 12. His column appears Sundays in Colorado Politics.

 Independence Institute (II) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) public policy foundation located in Golden, CO. Founded in 1985 by former Colorado State Senate President John Andrews, II was established as a policy research organization that participates in litigation, training and investigative reporting.[1]

The organization is headed by Jon Caldara and has a staff of 16. It played a lead role in organizing the Denver Stimulus Bill Protest 2009.[2]

Mission

The Independence Institute's website lists the following mission statement:[1]

“The mission of the Independence Institute is to empower individuals and to educate citizens, legislators and opinion makers about public policies that enhance personal and economic freedom.[3]”

Work

The Independence Institute gained national attention because of its involvement in debates over gun control, according to The Denver Post. The paper noted, "In Colorado, politicians and media look to the think tank's scholars for research to articulate free-market viewpoints."[4]

Colorado spending transparency

The Institute began the Colorado Spending Transparency (COST) initiative with the mission of getting "the state of Colorado, all municipalities, counties and school districts to put their itemized expenditures and revenue online, in a searchable database."[5]

Policy centers

II includes a variety of policy centers and projects that provide focus and expertise in a given area. Each area produces op-eds and publishes issue papers. Some of the institute's projects are outlined below.

Education Policy Center

The Education Policy Center advocates school choice, school accountability, and teachers' rights. On November 26, 2007 the Center launched the website School Choice For Kids, which seeks to provide information to Colorado parents on all of the available options for their children. It is available in English and Spanish. This arm of the organization also publishes a website "Independent Teachers," which stresses school choice for educators, and the blog "Ed is Watching."[6]

Healthcare Policy Center

The Healthcare Policy Center, established in 2002, focuses on public policy that allows consumer choice in health care. It is directed by Linda Gorman.[7]

Fiscal Policy Center

The Fiscal Policy Center works to "communicate the balance between taxation and liberty." A major project has been the Colorado Union of Taxpayers. Every year since 1994 the Union has put out a ranking of state legislators on fiscal responsibility.[8] The fiscal policy center also publishes an annual "Citizens' Budget" report, which "provides an overview of the structure, timing and size of the State budget."[9]

Second Amendment Project

Led by Dave Kopel, the Second Amendment Project "studies the legal precedents, news and opinions in Colorado and the United States to provide the Constitutional perspective on topics ranging from legal reform to gun rights."[10] The group initiated a 2013 lawsuit against Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) after he signed gun control laws in March 2013.[11]

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Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute and host of KBDI Channel 12's Independent Thinking, did not challenge guest Edward Crane of the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute when...

Questions about where Covid came from ... - independent.co.uk

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Australia's call for an independent investigation into the origins of Covid-19, for instance, led to punitive economic measures. When it comes to attempts to shut down debate on the origins of the...

The Times Has Finally (Quietly) Outed an ... - Progressive.org

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David Kopel has managed to establish himself as an independent authority on gun policy issues even though he and his Independence Institute have received over $1.42 million including about $175,000 a year over eight years from the NRA. NRA officials at the nonprofit group's Virginia headquarters declined to respond to repeated requests for comment.

CALDARA | Mandate vaccines? Fear invites tyranny | Opinion ...

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Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute in Denver and hosts "The Devil's Advocate with Jon Caldara" on Colorado Public Television Channel 12. His column appears Sundays in Colorado Politics. Follow Jon Caldara

COLUMN: Dissent is patriotic, even against COVID cops ...

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May 10, 2020 Updated Jun 14, 2021 Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute. Photo courtesy of the Independence Institute Forget burning flags, lynching world leaders in effigy and...

CALDARA | Why Polis could lose reelection | Opinion ...

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Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute in Denver and hosts "The Devil's Advocate with Jon Caldara" on Colorado Public Television Channel 12. His column appears Sundays in Colorado Politics. Follow Jon Caldara

Independence Institute - Ballotpedia

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The Independence Institute (II) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501 (c) (3) public policy foundation located in Golden, CO. Founded in 1985 by former Colorado State Senate President John Andrews, II was established as a policy research organization that participates in litigation, training and investigative reporting.