In addition to the commentary series on homeschooling (starting here) last week a lot of readers accessed the commentary about Colorado’s collapse here. Let us see if we can ramp the fear up! This week, Colorado was joined by Afghanistan, yet another mountainous nation collapsing as we watch. And even faster than Colorado. As discussed in another commentary, New Mexico might be a third. Montana burning might be yet another.

But let us discuss, as promised, Colorado. Here, it is not victorious rebel religious zealots sweeping over the provincial (county) seats. But it possibly IS the corrupt governments that are aiding and abetting the collapse of society, economy, government, and liberty.

And making the same stupid mistakes that the US’s FedGov and military and the (now-former) Afghani “democratic” regime did: thinking that money and handouts and a “good front” (image) can solve all problems. AND assuming that everybody will and does buy the drivel you speak and write while shoveling money at the problem.

In Colorado, that takes the form of increasingly dysfunctional and failed government at the federal, state, and local level.

Why was Glenwood Canyon and the MAJOR highway through Colorado (East-West) closed? Mudslides. Look at the end of this article to follow the whole thread of how these happened, if you are interested in the technical details. But the mudslides on I-70 are the direct result of government policies and failures: short-sighted, incompetent, and unchanging policies. And a failure to understand the laws of nature: both physical and social. The result: serious negative impacts on people’s lives and prosperity.

(By the way, I-70 through the canyon was finally opened on Saturday 14 AUG to alternating one-way traffic – EIGHTEEN days of being closed. Normal traffic? 20,000 vehicles per day. 360,000 trips not made or to which hundreds of miles of additional driving were added.)

But there is more. Why is I-70 built that way? Government catering to special interests and the then infant environmental lobby. Why is I-70 so critical? Because government does not respond to economic and engineering considerations but to political pressure. In fact, the major alternative to I-70 (US-50 to the south) is closed to most traffic now because of construction. Even though officials were WARNED of the danger to Glenwood Canyon because of last year’s fires, and the need for alternatives.

To make matters worse, the same rain that caused mudslides on I-70 also closed other, secondary roads including another highway over the Continental Divide in extreme northern Colorado (CO-14).

In Denver itself, another indication of collapse and government failures: Colorado Department of Transportation had to DELAY reconstruction of a part of I-70 in the heart of the city. Why? There was a shortage of oil to produce asphalt! This is within spitting distance of at least TWO refineries, and they could not get AC oil (produced as a byproduct of refining gasoline and diesel)! And fuel shortages at convenience stores and truck-stops in much of Colorado have been occurring for weeks if not months. Even while the State and Federal Governments continue to regulate the oil and gas industry more and more.

Tens of thousands of Coloradoans are STILL without jobs – sometimes just working part time – because of the Pandemic Panic and the Lockdown. Others because of collapsing supply chains for building materials, repair parts, and other items. The Colorado Sun discussed it a few days ago. This is MORE than just welfare payments going on and on for unemployment (though we know some people laid off for COVID-19 reasons that STILL are not getting unemployment payment or much other assistance). It means idle hands – people already reluctant to work who have nothing to keep them busy. So they are angry, worried, and readily available to be hired as part of rent-a-crowds for political agitation. And are far more likely to get involved in various crimes.

Not that Colorado didn’t already have massive expansion of crime across the State for years back before COVID-19. People are fleeing even the suburbs; car theft is uncontrollable, and it appears that pot legalization has done little to reduce drug-related crime. Not because it is a “gateway” or anything like that, but because of the bizarre rules, regulations, and taxation of cannabis.

Crime aside, Colorado government continues to crack down on the REAL criminals: people who refuse to endorse beliefs and lifestyles they find abhorrent or immoral. Like bakers and tailors. And people who collect rainwater off their house roof in barrels to use for indoor plants. And truck drivers who don’t stop in the middle of nowhere when the clock runs out on their driving shift. And even county governments and federal agencies are denied permission to mine needed sand and gravel because someone dreams up lies about where certain weeds (endangered plant species) grow and how the mining kills deer and elk. (All examples of incidents in the past decade, of which I know of personally.)

Meanwhile Colorado government-run, tax-funded schools continue to teach children all the essentials of English (how to use the “right” pronouns for all the various genders and sexes and such of humans), math (how to calculate your welfare entitlements, which apparently is NOT a form of white supremacy like the rest of math), biology (how you can be whatever you want your sex or gender or race to be, despite physical evidence), and history (how evil Colorado – and the entire States – was in the bad old days before the current Democratic and SJW domination of the State).

Indeed, it is tempting to blame Colorado’s collapse on insanity on the part of politicians, educators, bureaucrats – and sadly, voters. And the fact that government has power over so much,

Which brings me to a key point for this commentary: taking back that liberty is the ONLY solution to either preventing Colorado’s collapse or surviving it.

ADDENDUM:

Why were there mudslides? Because of horrific wildfires in the forests to the north of the canyon. Fires which sterilized the very soil, destroyed seeds and roots of the understory of the pine forest while killing the pine trees. Why was the fire so destructive? Because for more than a century Federal AND State governments have enforced (as much as possible) a ZERO-TOLERANCE for wildfire. So dead vegetable matter: especially beetle-killed trees and thick pads of fallen needles and leaves built up, rather than being periodically cleared by quick, low fires. Man – men ordered by government and supported by government theft of taxes from past and present and future – put out fires before they could do the job they need to do to maintain a fire-climax forest. Why was government able to do this? Because government owns the land – it has never been in private hands. It went pretty much from a tribal commons (Ute in that area) to federal government “public lands.” And government responds to the lowest common denominator of human pandering: people build things (buildings, roads, bridges, powerlines, etc.) and wildfire threatens those when they build those things in the wildlands. Or the interface: trees and brush burns and manmade structures catch on fire.