The Colorado State Open Thread aims to try and be positive, upbeat, educational and even sometimes humorous about our square(ish) state. We do, however, have some pretty rotten US House of Representative members from the Republican side of the aisle, put there by spiteful and rotten Republican and Independent voters of our state. I avoid talking about Lauren Boebert as much as I can, but she’s constantly seeking attention, constantly embarrassing her district and Colorado as a whole, but in this instance, she brought to mind another political family that was awful not just with the female politician but with an awful husband and spoiled brat children.
I saw the headlines and read some of the incidents surrounding some 911 calls placed by the neighbors of the Boeberts in the town of Silt, where they live in Garfield County. A diary was put up by praesepe but it received far fewer comments and recommends than I thought it warranted. That’s why I’m highlighting it again today. They (she?) links to a YouTube video with two 911 calls placed by the Boebert’s neighbors complaining about one of their sons racing up and down their street in RZR “dune buggies” at about twice the speed limit and shouting epithets at people who try to get the son to slow down. Apparently Boebert’s husband tried to pick fights with multiple neighbors but was just smart enough not to throw the first punch, though he stood chest-to-chest with some of them. The first caller describes the father Jayson (Lauren’s husband and convicted sex offender) as frequently drunk and then the caller narrates to the 911 operator as Jayson takes his Ford F150 pickup and drives over the neighbor’s mailbox. Then Jayson drives back to his house, with the son in the passenger seat, and hides out there until the sheriff’s department shows up to calm this domestic disturbance down. Apparently no charges were filed — ah, to be a rich, white person who can get away with crimes, probably because of who he’s married to (though he has been well paid for being an oil and gas consultant so he might be rich on his own. Naw — it’s still because of who his wife is).
I have a confession to make here. Way back in 2009 or 2010, when I was living in unincorporated Jefferson County, we discovered that someone had come up on our driveway and run over the set of four mailboxes that were located on our front strip of grass. Other people’s mailboxes were the standard sort, but ours had been custom made for us in the shape and colors of my first dog, a Basset hound named Fred.
I don’t have photos of the destroyed mailbox — it had been lifelike enough that seeing it on the ground in many pieces with tire marks over it was just too painful. We found the front emblem from a Ford vehicle and then a couple of days later, we found a F150 pickup on the next block over that was missing its front emblem and showed signs of a collision. We had reported the original damage and we called the Sheriff’s office when we found the truck so the owner was fined the cost of the mailboxes including mine (but no pain and suffering could be gained without a separate civil lawsuit).
I would hate very much to have jerks like the Boeberts living next to me, and while the possibility of her losing her campaign and having to return to the neighborhood to live must worry their neighbors, I wonder if that will affect their willingness to vote for her or not. I would consider that getting her out of constant contact with us might be worth sending her back to Washington for another two years, but it sure seems like it wouldn’t make a difference when considering that you’re still stuck with the Boebert males.
Do you folks remember Sarah Palin? The half-term governor of Alaska who joined John McCain as the vice-presidential candidate in 2008? The one who couldn’t come up with a single newspaper or magazine that she read for news? The one who also had a stupid, entitled family who played off her sudden fame as the candidate? The one who said she knew about Russia because she could see it from her house? Oh, wait, that was the Saturday Night Live sketch. Palin just said you could see Russia from Alaska when talking about border security (and that Canada also bordered Alaska).
Palin is a long-haired brunette who was somewhat attractive to men, and very attractive to Republican men, as is Boebert (who had a “boob job” according to some stories told by the staff of her now-closed restaurant). Both have been endorsed in their congressional races this year by TFG. Palin was all-in for the Tea Party, and would only endorse candidates who supported that outgrowth of irresponsible Republicans, and Boebert is definitely a fan of the “Q-anon” anti-American idiots. Both really got their starts in politics when they didn’t have qualifications to do the job — Sarah Palin as a member of the Wasila city council and Lauren Boebert, by upsetting a four-term Republican Representative and then being elected to the US House. She then continued in politics with Tea Party rallies and clever phrases (she was credited with “Death Panels” for the ACA). Lauren Boebert has her own group of moronic Q-anon fans, and she is credited with saying things like there is no separation between church and state in the US Constitution and similarly uneducated and just stupid things. I never thought I’d say that Sarah Palin was smarter than anyone, but she’s definitely smarter than Lauren Boebert. Both are married to men in the Oil and Gas industry, who have been well-rewarded for their wives’ careers in politics.
Some contrasts — Sarah Palin, while it took her many years, actually graduated from both high school and with a bachelor’s degree from college. Lauren Boebert didn’t get her GED until she was advised that it probably was useful to have when running for Congress. Sarah Palin grew into her role as she went from city council to mayor to governor before becoming the vice president candidate for the Republican party in 2008. Lauren Boebert can never hope to get any farther than where she is now, and I’m hoping she’s a one-term congress critter.
I might go into comparing the families between the two. Sarah Palin’s family and Lauren Boebert’s family have both had their share of run-ins with law enforcement. However, we generally try and not take joy and glee from the families of politicians and we try and leave them out of their famous relatives’ politics. Especially those who haven’t reached the age of 18 yet. That saves me from reminding you of multiple stories about the families, including the one mentioned at the top of this diary.
Anyway, that’s what is on my mind this week. Sarah Palin’s primary is tomorrow, but given she’s the ex-governor of the state, she has been popular with the people of that red state and she has been endorsed by TFG, I expect her to win their ranked choice vote for the Republican nomination, as well as to fill in the rest of the term of recently deceased Don Young, who had been Alaska’s lone representative throughout a tenure of 49 years. Ah, Sarah; how can we miss you if you won’t stay away?
OK, folks. Have at it! The floor is yours! I’m off to sit in the rain on a neighbor’s deck.