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Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Colorado's establishment Dem blog of record making a fairly overt threat re: a rumored primary challenge to Hickenlooper. www.coloradopols.com/diary/218469...

As for Sen. Julie Gonzales? She’s an energetic young progressive, and if she chooses to run an above-board primary race focused on ideas and not cheap shots at Hickenlooper personally, her likely losing bid doesn’t have to be a negative for her career in the long term. This comes with a warning that if Gonzales goes “scorched earth” against Hickenlooper the mold of Hickenlooper’s 2020 primary opponent Andrew Romanoff, much like Romanoff that will end badly for her prospects beyond losing the primary.

November 15, 2025 at 3:56 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

This will apparently add (negligible) storage costs, but I don't even see how that's true, since one of my favorite stupid only-in-government things is that the "audio-only" recordings are already stored as enormous mp4 files (because the webcasting platform they use is designed for video).

a screenshot of an mp4 file playing in Quicktime with clipart of the Colorado Capitol and text saying "audio only"

November 14, 2025 at 8:34 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

"Donald and I were in aspen, sitting at little nells"

Epstein, in a 2016 email among the files released by House Dems today, tells a story about being in Aspen with Trump in 1993.

Text of a 2016 email from Epstein to Melanie Spinella

A story - In 1993 trump and I had a friend that kept telling his pilots how to fly, and when to fly, he couldnt help himself from hiring morons as co pilots, and maintenance people based on cheapest rates. Donald and I tried and tried to talk some sense into him, to no avail. Donald and I were in aspen, sitting at little nells. when the friends plane crashed into the side of aspen mountain, klling him and all on board, - Trump looked at me and said without a blink, I guess NOW he wishes he would have listened to us.- a metaphor for your office...

November 12, 2025 at 7:14 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Denver finally going Lambert Mode

THE MADNESS of an autumn prairie cold front coming through. You could feel it: something terrible was going to happen. The sun low in the sky, a minor light, a cooling star. Gust after gust of disorder. Trees restless, temperatures falling, the whole northern religion of things coming to an end. No children in the yards here. Shadows lengthened on yellowing zoysia. Red oaks and pin oaks and swamp white oaks rained acorns on houses with no mortgage. Storm windows shuddered in the empty bedrooms. And the drone and hiccup of a clothes dryer, the nasal contention of a leaf blower, the ripening of local apples in a paper bag, the smell of the gasoline with which Alfred Lambert had cleaned the paintbrush from his morning painting of the wicker love seat.

November 7, 2025 at 10:46 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Ganz W

The Corleones are pitted against modernity: "It is a principal thesis of The Godfather that American society is a Gesellschaft at war with the Gemeinschaft inherent in the extended families of organized crime, and it is the claim of the novel and even more intensely of the films that the truly natural, legitimate, normal, and healthy type of society is that of the gangs." But not all the gangs. For Francis, the Jewish mobsters Moe Greene and Hyman Roth are particularly representative of Gesellschaft: they are "motivated mainly by avarice, and the cash bond is the only one they understand." For Francis, the tragedy of The Godfather is that Michael Cor-leone cannot preserve the Gemeinschaft of the family in the midst of the American Gesellschaft: his attempts to wield power to protect the family are self-undermining, and he destroys his family: "That was his tragedy, as it is the tragedy of human society. Power is not only necessary to the functioning of society, as Machiavelli taught; it also possesses a relentless logic that eventually eats up itself as it irresistibly converts Gemeinshaft into Gesellschaft and turns the consensual and deferential social bonds of the former into the coercive commands and cash relationships of modernity." But the exercise of power is unavoia-able and necessary, even if it is self-destructive, and Francis celebrates The Godfather's "slap in the face" of "the favorite American myth that through assimilation into the institutional environment offered by the democratic capitalism of the American Gesellshaft, human beings can be perfected and force and fraud as enduring and omnipresent elements of social existence can be escaped." The regime of force and fraud had to be accepted, embraced even, albeit without the hypocrisy of liber-alism: "Evil, as Machiavelli taught, is a necessary part of social and political organization, though it is to le recognized as such and not. disguised through the illusory cant of modernist ideology.?"
When Go…

$our lives. Because America was born as a kind of revolt against author-ity, we elevate notions of individual liberty very high-and should, right? But then we have a hard time dealing with how were going to relate to authority. We're not mature about the balance between authority and individual rights... We haven't figured out how internalizing the rule of law doesn't oppress you—it makes you free." He might have learned something from the author Robert Lacey's take, just below his own: "Gotti's a satanic sort of authority figure." When New York turned its lonely eyes to John Gotti, it was longing for another kind of authority than the type Giuliani had represented up to that point. It didn't really want the law, universalism, meritocracy, rationality, bu-reaucracy, good government, reform, blind justice, and all that bullshit. The institutions had failed, the welfare state had failed, the markets had failed, there was no justice, just rackets and mobs: the crowd didn't want the G-man dutifully following the rules, and it didn't want to be part of the "gorgeous mosaic"; it wanted protection, a godfather, a boss, just like the undertaker at the beginning of The Godfather. Gotti was not really a figure of revolt and anarchy at all, he was a symbol of order, the old order that many longed for still, an order more real and deeper than the law, upheld by brute power. The papers made much of Giuliani's use of "obscenity" in his speech. Giuliani understood that the voice of real authority was obscene. Maybe all the city's fractious parts came together to make a mosaic, but it was in the form of an icon of John Gotti, a negative spirit of the city as a warren of rackets, mobs, and grasping, fighting individuals. And if Giuliani wanted to be mayor, he'd have to light a candle at the altar.$

November 7, 2025 at 3:19 AM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Appears that Colorado's off-year turnout, after a strong start early on, slackened in the runup to Election Day. On pace now for turnout to dip relative to 2023 (though still an increase over 2021).

A chart from the Colorado secretary of state's office showing 1,648,631 ballots returned in the 2025 election

November 5, 2025 at 7:09 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Not going in the right direction for the Republican slate, which benefited from lots of right-wing dark money. In contrast left-leaning groups spent almost nothing and appear to be on the verge of, I believe, a shock 6-5 city council majority.

November 5, 2025 at 4:43 AM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Plenty of vote outstanding, but the most eye-catching early CO election results may be in Aurora, where two D-affiliated candidates lead their R-affiliated opponents, including Danielle "Complete Gang Takeover" Jurinsky.

November 5, 2025 at 3:14 AM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Is it too much to ask for a contemporary dramatization of nuclear apocalypse that neither is anchored by a calamitously bad Idris Elba performance nor rests a somewhat crucial piece of internal plot logic on a citation of a Joe Rogan podcast appearance

The cover of Annie Jacobsen’s “Nuclear War: A Scenario”

November 4, 2025 at 12:34 AM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

The view from the top of the Capitol steps. One of the largest crowds I can remember seeing here. March starting now.

October 18, 2025 at 7:04 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Former state Rep. Joe Salazar contrasts the “courage” of AG Phil Weiser — to whom he narrowly lost in the 2018 AG primary — with the “cowardice” of Sens. Bennet and Hickenlooper for voting for many of Trump’s nominees. (Weiser faces Bennet in the 2026 governor race.)

October 18, 2025 at 6:57 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Julian Camera of the ACLU giving the crowd a rundown of their constitutional rights ahead of a planned march.

“The reason I share these rights with you today,” he says, “is because it’s rookie hour at the federal government.”

October 18, 2025 at 6:42 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Activist Tiffany Weber, one of the event’s organizers, mentions GOP Speaker Mike Johnson’s description of today’s protests as “Hate America” rallies.

“I laughed the first time I heard it, because it means something — it means they're scared,” Weber says. “That means we’re doing something right.”

October 18, 2025 at 6:30 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

The inflatables are here.

People in inflatable costumes at the No Kings protest at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver

October 18, 2025 at 6:16 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

A still-growing crowd of thousands gathered at the Colorado State Capitol for today’s anti-Trump No Kings protest.

October 18, 2025 at 6:13 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

“He believes in science”

Hickenlooper, Bennet Announce Support for Chris Wright's Nomination
A Coloradan, Wright has been nominated to serve as Secretary of Energy
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet announced their support for the confirmation of Chris Wright to be Secretary of Energy. Wright's nomination will have a vote in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today before advancing to the full Senate.
"Chris Wright is a scientist who has dedicated his life to the study and use of energy. He believes in science and supports the research that will deliver the affordable, reliable, and clean energy that will not only lower costs but make our country more secure. While we don't always agree, we will work together because none of us have four years to wait to act," said Hickenlooper.
"Chris Wright is a successful Colorado entrepreneur with deep expertise in energy innovation and technology. He is passionate about strengthening America's energy independence and lowering costs for Colorado families.
While we don't agree on everything, we look forward to working with him to ensure Colorado continues to lead the country in energy production and innovation," said Bennet

September 29, 2025 at 7:55 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Here's a story I reported in 2023 in Pueblo County, Colorado, which shifted 7 points towards Republicans in 2024 despite being a huge beneficiary of IRA-fueled clean energy investment: coloradonewsline.com/2023/10/12/p...

By any objective measure, Pueblo is well on its way to fulfilling Gradisar's hopes, and has already established itself as an epicenter of the global energy transition. But if the green economy is turning things around for Pueblo as a whole, it isn't easy to see it in the pocketbooks of people around town. Incomes here are roughly 30% lower than the statewide average, a gap that hasn't narrowed over the last decade. Population growth remains slow, and local tax revenues are mostly flat.
Should it trouble the climate movement, and Democrats looking to capitalize on their leadership in the global energy transition, that an old-economy city establishing itself in the epicenter of the new economy doesn't exactly feel like a boomtown?

In formal interviews and casual conversation, few Pueblo residents cite the impact of green jobs or IRA investment without specific prompting. They're more likely to note the proliferation of marijuana farms in the surrounding Arkansas Valley - Pittsburgh of the West, meet the "Napa Valley of cannabis" - or the county's booming health care industry, another development Pueblo has in common with many Rust Belt cities.
"Talk about big employers in this town - Parkview (Medical Center), they are just expanding and expanding," said Kathryn Adams, who's called Pueblo home for decades along with her husband, John Norton, a former business reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain.

For Bennet and other congressional Democrats, selling communities like Pueblo on the benefits of the energy transition is a political necessity, as the party looks to defend its climate agenda at the polls and fight off any GOP attempts, now or in the future, to roll back Biden's signature accomplishment.
That's not a task made easier by the structure of the climate law, even if its scope is far more ambitious than any federal effort to date. Nothing like the Green New Deal emerged from the 117th Congress. No federal agency will unfurl its banner in Pueblo to herald its green jobs boom as part of an important national public works project.
When the final phase of CS Wind's factory expansion is completed in 2028, the city will owe the impact of hundreds of millions of dollars in local investment to a few submerged tax provisions in the quixotically-named Inflation Reduction Act.

On multiple sides, the Comanche plant is now surrounded by Pueblo's energy future: solar farms generating hundreds of megawatts of zero-emissions energy simply by soaking up the abundant southern Colorado sunshine. As real property assets, they're a poor substitute for Comanche's boilers; Pueblo County only supported early retirement of Unit 3 after a settlement with Xcel and the state that guarantees a $30 million annual property-tax payment will continue for a decade after its closure.
What's more, the only ones at work here, beneath the shade of the solar panels on a hot August day, are the sheep, grazing on prairie grass as part of an "agrivoltaics" initiative of the kind supported by a new state grant program. Though there are already more Americans employed today by the fast-growing clean energy sector than by fossil fuels, in blue-collar towns like Pueblo, it can be easy to forget it.
Workers at CS Wind aren't unionized. Though wages there and in the clean energy sector generally are higher than for many of Pueblo's retail or service jobs, they are also, in many cases, lower than wages for the best union jobs at the coal plant or the steel mill. The widespread perception among fossil-fuel workers, said Smith of the SMART union, is that the energy transition will mean a step down in pay and benefits.
"The jobs in solar and wind and the renewable sector don't pay the same as the unionized jobs at the power plant, at the railroad, at the coal mine," Smith said. "Even the non-union coal mine in Colorado still pays significantly well, because they have to compete."

September 23, 2025 at 3:52 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

At LibsofTikTok's direction, Colorado Republicans are organizing to call for the firing of this state employee, who says nothing in this post that could be construed as celebrating Kirk's death or supporting violence. A retaliatory purge for political speech underway.

Tweet from Rose Pugliese: "I’m calling on @jaredpolis to immediately fire this state employee for attacking the late Charlie Kirk. Political violence is unacceptable against everyone, which a supposed mental health professional should know!"

The screenshotted post reads:

"If you haven't said anything about the countless mass shootings, school shootings, or shit about ice raids, palestine, Black Lives Matter, and the violation of rights of LGBTQIA folks, women, or folks without access to shelter, food, clean water but want to talk about how we should/should not feel or react to how a pro-gun, pro-violence dude died via gunshot literally shut the fuck up and talk to yourself.
Do some self reflection and interrogation of why you speak up for a white man who spews horrid shit against every marginalized community.
No heart? Pleeeeeease look at who and what you're speaking up for."

September 12, 2025 at 4:24 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Man. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...

"This news conference is very clearly a plea for help. Officials have given no indication that they know the gunman’s identity, nor where he went. 'We need as much help as we can possibly get,' Gov. Spencer Cox said."

September 12, 2025 at 3:11 AM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

Here are the reporter's full comments. The most he actually says here is to imply that he "refus(es) to mourn" Kirk and "decline(s) to respect" him (while also distancing himself from those who are "celebrating" his death).

Posts from @GeraldBourguet:

"Political differences" are not the same thing as spewing hateful rhetoric on a daily basis, and refusing to mourn a life devoted to that cause is not the same thing as celebrating gun violence. Just so we're 100% clear on that.

"He was a father"

Half of y'all didn't give a DAMN about doing anything to stop gun violence when the victims of mass shootings were LITERAL children. And those kids weren't bigots spreading genocidal propaganda, or a mindset he directly fed into with this Holy Grail of Ironies:

If you're saddened by today's "political violence," horrified by the video, or repulsed by my response, ask yourself why your reaction was different when it came to school shootings, mass deportations or the HUNDREDS of videos of horrific murders in Gaza (which Kirk cheered on)

Truly don't care if you think it's insensitive or poor timing to decline to respect an evil man who died. Too many of you are more concerned with being polite and *appearing* to be good people rather than showing some damn backbone and standing on principal to condemn hate

September 11, 2025 at 8:58 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

"He can't keep getting away with it" Breaking Bad meme under Frank Wilhoit's 2018 comment on Crooked Timber:

"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit:

There must be in-groups whom the law protectes but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

There is nothing more or else to it, and there never has been, in any place or time."

September 8, 2025 at 5:31 PM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

$250 million is a bargain price for this kind of raw journalistic talent www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/o...

"Australians have more fun" by Bari Weiss in the NYT

SYDNEY, Australia — When Mark Twain steamed into Sydney’s harbor in September 1895, journalists peppered him with questions before he had even stepped off the S.S. Warrimoo. “I am going to write a book on Australia,” he proclaimed. “And I think I ought to start now. You always know so much more of a country when you have not seen it than when you have.”

I imagined an exotic menagerie: animals that begin with the letter K frolicking next to shirtless Hemsworths, mostly.

Instead, I found Australia — or rather the teeny, tiny corner of this vast continent that I got the chance to experience this past month — much closer to how David Sedaris once described it: “Canada in a thong.”

Australians have more fun. They just do. I guess I should not be surprised by this fact given that this is the place that birthed both Hugh Jackman and Kylie Minogue.

On New Year’s Day in Sydney I spent seven hours at the beach. Doing what, I can’t quite tell you. But seven hours spent in a shady spot by the sea with friends and food went by in the blink of an eye. I haven’t had a hangout like that since college. Here, that is typical on any given Sunday.

Part of the beauty of the way Australians hang out isn’t just how relaxed it is, but the inclusive, rolling nature of how they socialize. I showed up for a drink at a friend’s place one evening last month and within an hour four people had turned into eight and by the time I left more were en route.

Happy hour is simply not a thing because it lasts only an hour. I went to an office Christmas party that began at 3 p.m. in one venue, stumbled into dinner and then morphed onto karaoke. When I hailed a cab at 11:30 I was the first to leave. In my experience, American office Christmas parties mean that everyone gets a thimbleful of lukewarm Champagne in a plastic cup. We have a lot to learn.

Which brings me to another thing Australians do better: vacation.

September 4, 2025 at 1:28 AM

Chase Woodruff

@chasewoodruff.bsky.social

I love googling “how to can peaches” and hoping the technique copied by 1,000 identical SEO slop sites called like Homesteader Volkssturm and The Barefoot Phrenologist won’t result in instant botulism