Colorado State Open Thread is a joint product of Colorado Kossack group leads Leftcandid, Thinking Fella, and yours truly, ColoTim. It is published most Mondays at 7PM Mountain time. We dedicate this opportunity for those in and fond of Colorado to virtually come together, share thoughts and items that might interest people about the Centennial state, what’s going on in our lives, and whatever sparks our keyboards. We are always interested in guests who might wish to write the lead-in to the diary. Please contact ColoTim through a message to him at this site, or comment down below of your interest.
I couldn’t find the photo in the Public gallery of DKos, but here at the Abbreviated Pundit Round Up from yesterday is a Colorado woman protesting along with 80,000 of her fellow warm-blooded humans (as opposed to cold-blooded Republican pieces of filth like the boys on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC).
I don’t have much to say tonight. I’ve been cheered by the response not just from Jared Polis who has said that federal employees will be eligible for unemployment benefits during this shutdown, but also from many Colorado businesses who are providing assistance to federal employees. The assistance apparently includes free meals, free beverages (at breweries, bars, etc), low or no-cost loans including some without specific payback schedules, free Internet service, waving of late fees, free groceries, free admission to museums and galleries, and more. Virtually all of these have been for federal employees who have ID badges or other identification. Businesses are helping out as they can, in a mode in which they can.
I am saddened, however, for those contractors who don’t have a government ID but still work jobs that depend upon the government offices being open for business. A friend of mine does maintenance work for the VA, but his business has slowed way down and he’s not been able to keep some of his subcontractors around. Here in Estes Park, the restaurants, hotels and all the shops have lost thousands of dollars of business. Even though this is normally a slower part of the year, people were still expecting to come out for Christmas and New Years to see the park in winter. With the park closed, lots of people went elsewhere. Now, there are some areas that are opening back up due to the NPS using some entry fee money to pay a skeleton maintenance staff to plow some roads and clean some restrooms, but there are many places normally open that haven’t yet opened back up. We’re expecting a few inches of snow through tomorrow — I’m wondering how well the roads will be cleared up.
Are any of you affected by the shutdown directly or indirectly? Do any of you have stories of the Women’s marches across Colorado over the weekend? Do you have anything else you wish to comment on?
The floor is yours.