Colorado

Colorado enacts ‘red flag’ law to seize guns from those deemed dangerous, prompting backlash

Colorado became the 15th state on Friday to adopt a “red flag” gun law, allowing firearms to be seized from people determined to pose a danger — just weeks after dozens of county sheriffs had vowed not to enforce the law, with some local leaders establishing what they called Second Amendment “sanctuary counties.” The law didn’t receive a single Republican vote in the state legislature, and has led to renewed efforts from gun-rights activists to recall Democrats who supported the measure. In a fiery and lengthy statement on Facebook on Friday, Eagle County, Colo., Sheriff James van Beek slammed the law as a well-intentioned but “ludicrous” throwback to the 2002 film “Minority Report,” and outlined a slew of objections from law enforcement. Van Beek charged that the law treats accused gun owners like “criminals,” discourages individuals from seeking mental health treatment, and ignores the reality that “a disturbed mind will not be deterred by the removal of their guns.” Noting that cities with strict gun laws still experience high murder rates, van Beek asserted: “By removing guns from someone intent on committing suicide or murder, we still have the danger of someone who may be unbalanced, now, angrier than before, and looking for another means … explosives, poisons, knives, car incidents of mowing down groups of unsuspecting innocent.” Colorado’s law, approved by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, allows family, household members or law enforcement to petition a court to have guns seized or surrendered based on a showing that someone poses a danger under the “preponderance of the evidence,” a civil standard which means that the defendant is more likely than not to be a threat. “In other words, there is just over a 50/50 chance of accuracy,” van Beek wrote, noting that someone’s guns could be seized even without a mental health professional making a determination of any kind. “Like the flip of a coin. Couldn’t that apply to just about anything a person does?” A subsequent court hearing could extend a gun seizure up to 364 days, and gun owners can only retain their guns if they meet a burden of demonstrating by “clear and convincing evidence” — a much higher standard — that they are not in fact a threat. Gun owners, van Beek said, are “guilty until proven innocent” under this framework. Minority Republicans in the legislature had unsuccessfully tried to shift the burden of proof to the petitioner.

…which, of course, is how it oughtta be.  This new law is brazenly unconstitutional.  Anyone charged under this is guilty until proven innocent, which is totally contrary to how our criminal justice system operates.  It is pure fascism.  When Hitler rose to power in the late ’30s in Germany, one of the first things he did was enact gun confiscation of citizens.  This “red flag” law is simply another form of anti-2nd Amendment, unconstitutional, gun confiscation that has NOTHING to do with metal health issues.  That’s all a phony front and a false pretense, and the Dems in Denver know this.  Some enterprising journalist oughtta ask Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) how it feels being a Nazi.  Yeah.. that term is perfectly, an historically, accurate used in this sense.  Jared Polis is acting like Colorado’s Hitler.  I double-dog dare ANY member of the dominantly liberal mainstream media to actually do their job, and ask that fascist tool that question on camera.  Wouldn’t it be rich to see his pompous ass try to tap dance around that?  If you’re here in Colorado and want to buy gun, ya better get out there and do so now, while ya still can..and buy things like ammo in cash ONLY.  Kudos to Sheriff James van Beek, and other sheriffs in Colorado, who refuse to enforce this fascist nonsense.  For more, click on the text above.

Recall redux: Jared Polis, Colorado Democrats hit with voter revolt over leftist agenda

The last time Colorado Democrats held the governor’s office and both legislative houses, the party’s aggressive progressive agenda on gun control touched off a voter revolt that culminated in the recalls of two state senators. Six years later, history may be poised to repeat itself, writ large. Campaigns are underway to recall vulnerable Democratic state legislators — and even Democratic Gov. Jared Polis — as is a petition-gathering drive to repeal the National Popular Vote bill signed into law last month by the newly elected governor. What’s different this time is that the unrest includes but isn’t limited to gun control. In addition to the National Popular Vote, the uprising has been fueled by the Democratic crackdown on the oil-and-gas industry; a red-flag firearms measure, and an LGBT sex-education bill that would eliminate charter-school opt-outs. “You could wrap it all around the banner of Democratic overreach,” said GOP political strategist Joe Neville, brother of Senate Minority Leader Patrick Neville, who’s working on the legislative recalls. The Legislature is still in session, but already petitions have been approved to gather signatures for the recall of Democratic state Rep. Rochelle Galindo, who voted to enact tough restrictions on energy with SB 181, despite representing Weld County, the state’s top producer of oil and gas. Mr. Neville said more recall campaigns aimed at House Democrats are brewing. Already circulating are petitions to repeal the National Popular Vote compact, which saw Colorado agree to cast its Electoral College votes for the winner of the popular vote in presidential elections no matter which candidates the voters support. The measure would not take effect until states with a combined 270 electoral votes sign on to the compact — so far 14 states and the District of Columbia have signed on for a total of 189 electoral votes — but the compact has touched off a grassroots uprising in Colorado. “It has been amazing,” said Mesa County Commissioner Rose Pugliese, who leads the anti-NPV referendum drive. “The amount of people who have come out, who want to circulate petitions, signing petitions, wanting to donate to our cause, has been just overwhelming. They’re pretty fired up. They want to be engaged on this issue.” Already, it feels like a redux of 2013, when voters rebelled after then-Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a rash of gun-control bills pushed by New York City billionaire Michael Bloomberg, despite thousands who turned up at the state capitol to protest and testify against the legislation. Voters recalled two Democrats — Senate President John Morse in Colorado Springs and state Sen. Angela Giron in Pueblo — and replaced them with Republicans. A year later, the Republicans were defeated by Democratic challengers, but the GOP held the state Senate until November’s blue wave swept Democratic majorities into both houses. What Democrats should have noticed, say Republicans, is that voters simultaneously defeated a slew of liberal ballot measures, including an anti-fracking measure, Proposition 112. “The message I think the Democratic Party should have received is that voters were placing trust in the Democrat Party to move at a moderate pace,” Rep. Ken Buck, the newly minted chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, told 9News in Denver “Instead, the Democrats have attacked the energy industry and have done other things with the popular vote, with gun legislation, that have offended a lot the people, unaffiliated voters and Republicans, who voted for them,” Mr. Buck said. “I think you see this frustration rising.” Democrats may have underestimated the strength of voter recalls in 2013, but not this time. Already an anti-recall committee has emerged asking voters to “stand up to hatred and say no to this recall election.” Ms. Galindo has argued that SB 181 will not result in job losses and is blasting “misguided extremists” for targeting her based on “who I am,” namely, an openly gay Hispanic woman. Recall organizers say that has nothing to do with their opposition. The measure needs 5,696 valid signatures from district voters by June 3 to force a recall election. “Galindo says SB 181 won’t destroy jobs. Well, there is one job it will destroy. Hers. We deserve better representation,” said the Recall Rochelle crowdfunding page on FreedomFy. The Recall Polis group has more than 34,000 followers on Facebook, but so far the Boulder Democrat appears unfazed, and for good reason: Recalling a governor is a mammoth undertaking that would require 650,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. And Mr. Polis is no ordinary governor: The former congressman is a multi-millionaire who has long controlled Democratic politics as one of the so-called Gang of Four liberal megadonors. He’s also never lost a race. “I totally get that 42 percent of the state didn’t vote for me, and I’m doing my best to convince them that I’m going to do a good job for them too,” Mr. Polis told Colorado Public Radio. “But I’m going to do what I said I would do.” Any Polis recall might have to take place without the support of state Republicans. “I’m not there yet,” said Mr. Buck. “I think when you’re talking about a governor, there’s a higher standard than a state legislator.” On shakier ground is the National Popular Vote. Ms. Pugliese, who heads the repeal effort with Monument Mayor Don Wilson, said supporters include Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters. No Republican legislator voted in favor of the measure, and several Democrats voted against it. “It has been amazing,” said Ms. Pugliese. “More people have stopped me to talk about the National Popular Vote bill, and I mean even before we had our petitions, than even the oil-and-gas bill, and this is a very strong oil-and-gas community. Or even the red-flag bill, and we have a strong Second Amendment community.” The repeal campaign needs to gather 124,632 valid signatures — she’s aiming for 200,000 signatures — by Aug. 1 in order to qualify for the November 2020 ballot, and she’s confident she’ll get them. “I’m concerned about our votes getting taken away by a legislature and a governor who didn’t ask us,” said Ms. Pugliese. “We’re going to fight to get this on the ballot, and then let the people decide.”

Wow..  We’ll, of course, keep an eye on this developing story.     🙂

With Hickenlooper out, Colorado’s empowered environmentalists target oil and gas industry

For eight years, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper shielded the oil and gas industry from the salvos of the environmental left, but now there’s a new political regime in town with no love for fossil fuels. Without the pro-fracking Mr. Hickenlooper to run interference, Colorado Democrats are poised to deliver a body blow to the state’s $31 billion oil and gas industry with Senate Bill 181, legislation aimed at prioritizing environmental and safety concerns that critics have described as a de facto prohibition on drilling. “That bill, SB 181, make no mistake, it has nothing to do with public health and safety and everything to do with banning energy development in the state of Colorado,” Amy Oliver Cooke, executive vice president of the free-market Independence Institute, said at a Friday protest rally in Greeley. Still, nobody doubts that the measure will pass. The state Senate advanced the bill during Wednesday’s blizzard on a 19-15 party-line vote with one abstention, sending the measure to the House and one step closer to the desk of Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat and longtime fracking foe who campaigned last year on 100 percent renewable energy by 2040. Environmental groups cheered the vote. “The state Senate is showing real national leadership, showing other states how to protect communities from the public health and safety impacts of oil and gas extraction,” said Sam Gilchrist, western campaigns director at the National Resources Defense Council. New York, Maryland and Vermont have gone further by prohibiting fracking, but unlike those states, Colorado has a major oil and gas industry presence. The nation’s fifth-largest producer of natural gas, Colorado fossil-fuel development supported nearly 233,000 jobs in 2015, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Colorado “is going to do something that hasn’t been done, and that is: a state with a very significant pool of gas and oil is going to make it a lot more difficult to mine it,” said Denver political analyst Floyd Ciruli. “There is really now ample warning that the way this legislation is drafted, it’s essentially going to allow some level of a ban,” he said. “The public is clearly divided on this.” Republicans, rural Coloradans and industry officials have warned of brutal economic consequences. A REMI Partnership study released Tuesday by industry groups estimated that a 50 percent reduction in production by 2030 would wipe out 120,000 jobs and $8 billion in state and local tax revenue. “Let’s not forget that there will be pain if this bill passes,” state Sen. Rob Woodward, a Republican, said before Wednesday’s vote. “People will lose their jobs, people will lose their homes, people will lose their businesses. And as we all know when this happens, marriages will crumble, suicides will increase. It’s not a pretty picture.”

Indeed..  For more on this story, click on the text above.  This will be truly devastating to Colorado, if this crap becomes law.  Awful…

The Green New Deal Threatens to Derail Colorado’s Economy

Oil and gas rigs have been popping up all across Colorado in recent years, as have jobs working the rigs. Colorado’s total oil production is valued at more than $9.9 billion for 2018—an estimated 62 percent higher than 2017, according to the University of Colorado Boulder’s most recent study of the state’s economy. The value of the state’s natural gas production in 2018 was estimated at $5.3 billion. Employment in the Colorado oil and gas industry has grown by more than 23 percent since 2016, now accounting for around 25,700 jobs. This year it is expected to grow another 4.8 percent. But now, the Green New Deal, proposed Thursday by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), is threatening the state’s energy boom. The plan calls for the U.S. to completely abandon the use of fossil fuels over the next ten years. That would not just derail Colorado’s natural resource and mining sector but also the many businesses and jobs that have grown up to serve the energy boom. “Unexpected economic and political factors can change the trajectory of Colorado’s NRM employment outlook abruptly,” the University of Colorado Boulder study warned. Across the United States, the Green New Deal could threaten such extreme economic disruption that it could put into play states once considered safe for Democrats. That is especially true of Colorado, which accounts for almost 5 percent of the total crude oil produced in the United States and has far more to lose from the Green New Deal than places like New York and Massachusetts. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won 48.1 percent of Colorado’s votes. Donald Trump won just 43.1 percent. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson took 5.1 percent. A Democrat candidate who embraced a plan that would certainly eliminate 25,000 oil and gas extraction jobs and likely another untold number of jobs indirectly related to the sector could create a political, as well as an economic, earthquake. Of course, the Green New Deal would also create jobs, according to its proponents. But while Colorado’s oil and natural gas jobs cannot be located outside of the state, there is no guarantee the new green jobs would be created there. Making matters worse, wind and solar energy farms can be operated with a far thinner workforce, which means that even if the Green New Deal’s new energy were produced in Colorado, it would employ far fewer workers. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) is reportedly considering a presidential bid. This puts him in a political bind: support the Green New Deal program popular with the base of the national party or stand by his state’s economic interest. His office did not respond to a request for comment. Although natural resource drilling and mining employ just 1 percent of the Colorado workforce, the sector pulls above its weight calls in economic impact because the jobs generate some of the highest per worker income levels in the state. Average pay in the sector is 146 percent of the state average. The damage will go beyond just oil and natural gas. Coal jobs too would be killed off. According to a 2015 National Mining Association survey, the coal industry contributed $1.9 billion to Colorado’s economy and directly employed 3,723 workers, plus 12,977 indirect and induced jobs. In the United States, factories that produce equipment for mining and drilling have boomed in recent years on the backs of the technological innovations that have made the U.S. one of the world’s largest energy producers. These factories and the investments in them would go to waste in a Green New Deal that made fossil fuels obsolete or illegal. Investment in Colorado’s traditional energy sector would dry up. Whether investors burned by a government that turned against fossil fuels would willingly support investment in Green-New-Deal-favored energy projects is a risk—and certainly a risk for Colorado’s economy. Ocasio-Cortez portrays the Green New Deal as offering Americans a tremendous opportunity. And no doubt a new national program of green investment, subsidized by cheap government financing, would create many new wealthy entrepreneurs. But it also threatens jobs that Americans already have and depend upon for their livelihoods. Colorado, because it has such a high concentration of good jobs extracting fossil fuels, is one of the states that would be hit the hardest.

Agreed..  Thanks to John Carney for that sobering analysis.  All of us who are tax-paying voters here in the great state of Colorado need to keep this in mind in November of next year when we go to the polls..

Early snowfall stokes Colorado skiers, clouds climate debate

A heavy autumn snowfall has ski resorts across Colorado holding some of their earliest opening days in a decade or more, stoking skiers and fueling another snowball fight over climate change. Vail Mountain and Beaver Creek plan to open this week, shaving several days off their anticipated starts to the ski season and marking the first time that both resorts have launched ahead of time in 10 years, said Vail chief operating officer Doug Lovell. The resorts credited a “combination of some of the best early-November snowmaking conditions and more than four feet of natural snowfall last week.” Ski Cooper plans to open Nov. 23, 10 days earlier than scheduled, while Monarch Mountain in Salida announced Monday that it would invite skiers and snowboarders Friday, its earliest first-day-of-the-ski-season since 1996, after receiving a hefty 34 inches of powder. “We couldn’t be more thrilled for an early opening this year,” said Randy Stroud, general manager of Monarch Mountain, in a Monday press release. “We did our snow dances and Mother Nature delivered.” The state’s snowpack sat Thursday at 124 percent of average, according to the Colorado Snow Survey, after a Veteran’s Day weekend storm that dropped more than a foot of snow on areas of the Front Range. Some resorts have already opened after receiving double-digit snowfall. Eldora Mountain began operating a week ago, nine days earlier than scheduled, while Arapahoe Basin, Wolf Creek and Loveland celebrated their first days of the season last month. “The early season snowfall has created momentum and excitement for the opening of the ski season here in Colorado,” said Melanie Mills, president and CEO of Colorado Ski Country USA, in an Oct. 18 statement. “Winter has arrived in the Colorado mountains and it’s great to see winter sports enthusiasts out in force!” Klaus Wolter, climate scientist with the NOAA-ESRL Physical Science Division and University of Colorado Boulder, attributed the early snow to several factors, including the weak El Nino, which “tends to make it wetter in the fall over Colorado.” “Below-normal temperatures mean that (a) most of the precipitation fell as snow, even at lower elevations, and (b) snow-making conditions were in place for the last four weeks or so,” Mr. Wolter said in an email. The rush to the slopes comes as a welcome change from last year’s disappointing Colorado ski season. Last year, environmentalists cited the drier-than-average 2017 winter, the state’s 14th driest on record, as evidence of global warming’s threat to snow. “The whole state is having its worst opening in 20 years,” Auden Schendler, vice president of sustainability for Aspen Snowmass, told the Coloradoan in December. “This is the weather and climate we fear. It’s already here.” Mr. Schendler serves on the board of Protect Our Winters, a Boulder-based climate advocacy group that has pushed to recruit skiers and snowboards by warning that “climate change is threatening winter as we know it.” “In the last decade, we have begun to see and feel climate change’s devastating impacts,” said Protect Our Winters. “Ski seasons are becoming shorter, more extreme, and less reliable.” Climate Depot’s Marc Morano compared such warnings to the infamous pronouncement of former University of East Anglia climate scientist David Viner, who warned that winter snowfall would soon become “a very rare and exciting event.” “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” Mr. Viner said in an article for the [U.K.] Independent headlined, “Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past.” That was in 2000. “Climate activists and scientists claimed for years that snow was ‘a thing of the past’ due to ‘global warming,’ but snow has not cooperated,” said Mr. Morano, author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change.” “How do the activists explain away the record snows of recent years?” he asked. “Easy, by ignoring the current reality and predicting less snow in the future due to ‘climate change.’ Rest assured, snow is a thing of the present—just ask the autumn skiers enjoying the slopes.” Then again, climate change may actually be causing more snow. The EPA’s snowfall map showed that the white stuff decreased at 57 percent of its stations from 1930-2007, but not everywhere. Total snow increased during that period in some regions, including the Great Lakes and parts of Colorado. Snowfall in south-central Alaska has doubled in the last two years, while the East Coast has been socked with a series of snowstorms. Why? “Global warming means hotter air, and hotter air can hold more moisture,” said the Union of Concerned Scientists in a post. “This translates into heavier precipitation in the form of more intense rain or snow, simply because more moisture is available to storms.” Not surprisingly, Mr. Morano was skeptical. “So no matter what happens, the activists can claim with confidence the event was a predicted consequence of global warming,” he said. “There is now no way to ever falsify global warming claims.” For those trying to decide whether to buy a season ski pass, the best advice may be that there’s no predicting weather. “Just because it started snowing in November is no guarantee that it’s going to keep snowing,” said Jeffrey Deems, National Snow and Ice Data Center research scientist. “So get out there, get your days in, and take advantage of when the skiing’s good.”

Agreed…

Walker Stapleton: Why THIS governor’s race matters to all of us – It’s time to defeat socialism and radical extremism

Americans are a freedom-loving people who want the government out of their lives. More government regulation is never the answer to our country’s most challenging problems. And in Colorado, where I’m running for governor as a Republican, it’s no different. Colorado is a state with a deep libertarian streak. In past elections, Coloradans have overwhelmingly voted down single-payer health care, defeated a massive tax increase proposed by the teachers union, and legalized marijuana at the ballot box. Colorado is a state with a deep libertarian streak. In past elections, Coloradans have overwhelmingly voted down single-payer health care, defeated a massive tax increase proposed by the teachers union, and legalized marijuana at the ballot box. That is the independent Colorado I know and love – a fiscally responsible state that isn’t afraid to chart a path for the nation on contentious issues. But this year that all can change. Democratic candidates across the country are adopting far-left, radical policies that the majority of Americans do not support. The Democratic Party has moved to the far left to appease its extremist supporters. An avowed socialist, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, is now the face of the Democratic Party. Whether it’s mandating government-run health care, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or banning fracking (a technology that has helped the United States become number one in the world in energy production), Democrats are now advocating policies that are far outside of the mainstream and endanger our economy and our jobs. In Colorado, the race for governor is a microcosm of what is happening on the national stage. In June, Democrats nominated Congressman Jared Polis, the most radical and extreme gubernatorial candidate in Colorado’s history. His record in Colorado over the past few years only underlines this fact. In 2014, Congressman Polis earned national recognition when he used his vast personal wealth to bankroll a ballot measure that would have banned fracking and driven 230,000 energy jobs out of Colorado. Congressman Polis is now running on a platform of single-payer, government-run health care; transitioning Colorado to 100 percent renewable energy; promising “free” pre-school; and promoting a carbon tax. This list of promises and other unfunded mandates adds up to at least $90 billion in spending and costs, and would triple the size of Colorado’s budget with no means to pay for it except through higher taxes – nearly triple what Coloradans presently pay. As we near the final days of this campaign, Congressman Polis is unapologetically doubling down on his radical persona. The face of American socialism, Bernie Sanders, is joining Congressman Polis on the campaign trail in Colorado. Recently, when asked to name a single policy difference he has with Sen. Sanders, Congressman Polis came up short, failing to name a single point of disagreement with America’s most famous socialist. This is a race for governor of Colorado, but the impacts will be felt all across our country. Make no mistake — a Polis victory in a swing state like Colorado will further normalize socialist policies. Will Congressman Polis and Bernie Sanders’ brand of extreme government regulation and intervention cement itself as the standard? Voters in Colorado and across the country are being presented with a new brand of unabashed extremism that risks economic catastrophe and flies in the face of our country’s founding principle of individual freedom. While we are working tirelessly to defeat socialism in Colorado, it ultimately will be up to voters. It is my hope and prayer that voters across the country choose to let freedom ring and that Coloradans’ voices are heard from coast to coast.

Walker Stapleton is an American politician who is serving his second term as Colorado’s state treasurer. He was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Stapleton is the Republican nominee for the 2018 Colorado gubernatorial election, and is a distant relative of former President George W. Bush.  We wish him success next week.  Jared Polis would be a disaster for Colorado.  He’s just a younger, and openly gay, version of Bernie.

French: Colorado Defies the Supreme Court, Renews Persecution of a Christian Baker

Even after a 7–2 Supreme Court decision protecting Colorado custom baker Jack Phillips from overt religious discrimination, the state is doubling down. It’s participating in and empowering a grotesque campaign of discrimination and harassment that should shock the conscience of sensible Americans. Phillips, you’ll recall, is the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, the bakery at the epicenter of one of the most contentious cases of the Supreme Court’s last term. Phillips had refused to design a custom cake to celebrate a gay wedding, and a clear majority of SCOTUS ruled that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission violated his right to free exercise of religion by demonstrating overt religious animus against him. Commissioners not only denigrated the sincerity of his religious-liberty argument, they applied overt double standards (by allowing bakers to refuse to create anti-gay messages) that were clearly discriminatory. So Jack won. Colorado lost. But Jack’s ordeal, it turns out, was far from over. By standing up for his First Amendment freedoms, Phillips put a target on his back, and bad-faith, malicious actors aimed and fired. Here’s what happened. According to a verified complaint filed today by my old colleagues at the Alliance Defending Freedom, on June 26, 2017 — the very day the Supreme Court granted Jack’s request to review his wedding-cake case — a lawyer named Autumn Scardina called Masterpiece Cakeshop and “asked Masterpiece Cakeshop to create a custom cake with ‘a blue exterior and a pink interior’ — a cake ‘design’ that, according to the lawyer,” reflected “the fact that [the lawyer] transitioned from male-to-female and that [the lawyer] had come out as transgender.” Lest anyone wonder whether this request was made in good faith, consider that this same person apparently made a number of requests to Masterpiece Cakeshop. In September 2017, a caller asked Phillips to design a birthday cake for Satan that would feature an image of Satan smoking marijuana. The name “Scardina” appeared on the caller identification. A few days earlier, a person had emailed Jack asking for a cake with a similar theme — except featuring “an upside-down cross, under the head of Lucifer.” This same emailer reminded Phillips that “religion is a protected class.” On the very day that Phillips won his case at the Supreme Court, a person emailed with yet another deliberately offensive design request.

To actually read this offensive request, and the rest of the article by attorney Army Reserve officer David French, click on the text above.  David was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in Iraq.  Clearly the State of Colorado has it out for Mr. Phillips, and is brazenly assaulting his religious freedoms in defiance of the Supreme Court.  Unreal..