Tunnel Warfare

 

Moffat Tunnel

Under the radar, the upcoming shit storm is brewing. Colorado owns the Moffat Tunnel. When it was built, a 99 year lease, at $12,000 a year, was signed by the Denver & Salt Lake Pacific RR. That railroad was later acquired by the Denver & Rio Grande. Later the Union Pacific acquired the D&RG. The lease is up January 2025 and players everywhere are licking their chops. An example.

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Lost in the noise is the Union Pacific. They own the rail right of way to and from the tunnel. In the past, they have demonstrated a willingness to shut down a line. Prime example is the line from Canyon City via Tennessee Pass to Minturn. They own enough tracks in Wyoming and Utah to move the freight now going through the tunnel. Anyone who knows the history of the UP knows every decision is bottom line based.

Circa 1953, our father was the section foreman responsible for the tunnel. Sisty, while born in Denver, lived there at the East Portal along with our parents and me. The place has a large place in my heart.

Before the tunnel, the railroad ran over Rollins Pass. In my youth I spent a lot of time on that old road and fishing the high mountain lakes around it.

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Pussyfooting about a pussy cat

The encounter does not qualify as a mountain lion attack because the man was never touched by the lion, CPW said

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The man in question might not agree.

 As always, YMMV

Wolves and Mountain Lions Need Food - Donate Your Pet (or Child)

Wolves 

Cute and adorable, right? Watch the video.

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Not so cute and adorable for ranchers.

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Now the same envirowhackos who got wolves introduced by ballot initiative were able to get an initiative banning hunting mountain lions on the fall ballot. Last year 504 lions were taken legally.

The voters for these initiatives overwhelmingly live along the Front Range. The voters against overwhelmingly live in rural areas. Ain’t democracy wonderful?

Unintended consequences? A major lion habitat is the Rocky Mountain foothills, also known as the Front Range. Domestic pets are much easier prey than wild animals.

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Nederland is about sixteen miles from Boulder up Boulder Creek Canyon.

Per a 2023 Colorado Outdoors Mag report, there have been 25 known mountain lion attacks on a human since 1990 – the last verified mountain lion-related death in Colorado took place in 1997 and involved a 10-year-old in Rocky Mountain National Park.Mar 25, 2024

Social Security Data Breach

Seems up to 2.9 billion SSN are compromised. I found a link to check mine and I am among them. Interesting that the address is over 15 years old and my d.o.b. is wrong per the site I visited. I’ve had a credit freeze with the three major credit reporting agencies for several years. In addition, I use an AVG program to keep me off data broker’s lists. I should be ok.

Forget kneecaps. Every hacker located should have their fingers and thumbs broken, one digit at a time.

Shoplifters

Added an item to the cart, and paid for it. Once home, opened the package and found it empty. Guess someone opened the package, pocketed the contents, and put the package back on the shelf. A $5 item – not worth going back to the store. Lesson learned? Shake a package before putting it in the cart. Even old dogs can learn new tricks.

Having more than enough accumulated sins to answer for, I don’t add more by shoplifting.

Travels with Banner-things we see

 Don’t blame her

The Democrat Congresswoman from my district isn’t attending the DNC. As a matter of course, the GOP operatives are attacking her.

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Maybe she finds her time and funds can better be spent doing other things since several pundits have reclassified her race from, “leans Democrat” to "toss up".

Death by a thousand cuts? Natural Gas

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Other than seeing their own energy bills go up, do any of these assholes face any serious consequences from their policy decisions? Related question? How can agencies set policy decisions without enabling legislation?

My bet some smart lawyers are already seeing how the Supreme Court Loper decision can be applied to state agencies.

How long will Colofornia remain blue?

Statewide, unaffiliated voters now number 1.8 million, or 48%. Democrats are at 1.2 million, or 27%, and Republicans at 900,000 are at 24%

As a natural course of action, the shellback Republicans continue to go out of their way to piss off Independents. Currently, they are so embroiled in internal power struggles they can’t present a united front. Rather, they seemly try to sabotage each other. The Democrats just sit back. Why interrupt your enemy when they are making mistakes?

 Why do I care? Reining in the (P)regressive whack jobs won’t be accomplished with the current infighting. I dislike the GOP positions far less than the Emperor Polis crowd.

The Coming Storm – Cell Phones

Banning cell phones in schools? I feel for the teachers and administrators in this fight.

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As always, YMMV