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Articles by John Bear
How Should You Invest $1 Million in Real Estate Right Now?
Forum Categories All Member since 2022 · 67 posts · 0 votes 3y Investor · Shermans Dale, PA · Member since 2022 · 2 posts · 1 vote 3y Member since 2023 · 11 posts · 1 vote 3y Member since 2019 · 5 posts · 0 votes 3y Investor · Scottsdale, AZ · Member since 2017 · 260 posts · 78 votes 3y BiggerPocketsTime to Refi? Get the Best Loan Lender Finder helps secure the best loan for your strategy. Easily connect with top investor-friendly lenders now to lock in lowered rates.
GUEST COLUMN: What’s not being said about state budget
When Mark Gordon was sworn in as governor in 2019, he submitted a budget request under $9 billion. This year, Gordon’s total budget seeks to spend well over $11 billion. In just a few years the state budget has grown roughly 30%. Has your household budget grown that much? If state spending continues to increase at this rate, our own projections put us $800 million in the red by 2029 – that’s three short years away.
D.C. lawfare meddling in Wyoming’s election integrity movement
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Lobbyists on the House floor are wasting your money
Under the rules of the Wyoming Legislature, lobbyists aren’t allowed on the House floor. Instead, they often fill up the lobby outside the chambers or wait in the hallways leading to committee meeting rooms. There are some skilled lobbyists who have found their way to the House floor, and they even cast votes on bills! These lobbyist-legislator hybrids have made it clear who they represent, and it’s not the people – it’s the government.
Lobbyists on the House Floor Are Wasting Your Money
Under the rules of the Wyoming Legislature, lobbyists aren’t allowed on the House floor. Instead, they often fill up the lobby outside the chambers or wait in the hallways leading to committee meeting rooms. There are some skilled lobbyists who have found their way to the House floor, and they even cast votes on bills! These lobbyist-legislator hybrids have made it clear who they represent, and it’s not the people– it’s the government.
What a 'nay' vote on the special session means
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What a NAY Vote on the Special Session Means
Did you know that the Wyoming Legislature overwhelmingly passed a two-year 25% property tax cut to all Wyoming homeowners? The Legislature also passed a bill that would have eliminated dangerous gun free zones. The body also forwarded a bill to regulate abortion mills in Wyoming, which currently operate with impunity.
Conservative Legislators Propose Strict Rules for Special Session
The WYFC is committed to finishing our work. Contrary to the claims of leadership, we seek to hold a Special Session of the Wyoming Legislature to serve the people, not to engage in grandstanding.
WYFC Calls on Leadership to Finish its Job and Call a Special Session of the Wyoming Legislature
On March 8, the Wyoming Legislature gaveled out of the 67th Legislative Session. Speaker of the House Albert Sommers and President of the Senate Ogden Driskill chose to adjourn early, with three legislative workdays still available to complete the work of the people of Wyoming, foreclosing the ability to override the Governor’s vetoes.
Bear, Heiner, Hornok, Locke: Gordon's budget is unaffordable, unsustainable
Bear, Heiner, Hornok, Locke: Gordon's budget is unaffordable, unsustainable The Wyoming Freedom Caucus has thoroughly reviewed the governor’s budget and would ourselves describe it as unaffordable and unsustainable. This is the largest budget in the history of Wyoming, boasting record spending and revenue. It is more than 33% ...
Bear, Heiner, Hornok, Locke: Gordon's budget is unaffordable, unsustainable
In late 2023, Gov. Gordon submitted his state budget. The governor described his budget as “disciplined,” “business like,” “forward-thinking,” “fiscally conservative,” “realistic,” “practical,” “balanced,” “prudent,” “sustainable,” and “living within our means.” The Wyoming Freedom Caucus has thoroughly reviewed the governor’s budget and would ourselves describe it as unaffordable and unsustainable. This is the largest budget in the history of Wyoming, boasting record spending and revenue.
Pressure works: WYFC moving legislators toward real property tax relief
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Bear: Pressure works: WYFC moves 30 Legislators over 15 points in 3 years!
The Wyoming mainstream media, in its unending quest to promote and protect the political establishment, shared the good news that over thirty legislators have sponsored legislation to provide some tax relief in Wyoming. Published in the Buffalo Bulletin and shared widely via the Wyoming News Exchange, the proposed 5% property tax cap and those sponsoring it are given glowing treatment.
Bear: Then they copy you
As the saying goes, first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then they copy you, then you win. For decades, conservatives in Wyoming have been ignored as establishment Republicans and Democrats together ruled the roost in Cheyenne.
Uniparty's push for anti-conservative Wyoming
As students, most of us learned that the power of the purse belongs to the legislative branch. Our founders wisely believed that those in charge of spending taxpayer money should be closest to the people -- that they should represent them. If you are politically progressive or live in one of the top five most populated cities in Wyoming, you will find that you are well represented by the Wyoming House Appropriations Committee.
John Bear: Uniparty's Push For Anti-Conservative Wyoming
As students, most of us learned that the power of the purse belongs to the legislative branch. Our founders wisely believed that those in charge of spending taxpayer money should be closest to the people- that they should represent them. If you are politically progressive or live in one of the top five most populated cities in Wyoming, you will find that you are well represented by the Wyoming House Appropriations Committee.
John Bear: Driskill vs Kinskey -- Hypocrisy, Or Is It?
According to Webster’s, hypocrisy is defined as behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe. On April 27 it was revealed that the President of the Wyoming Senate unilaterally removed the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The President reasoned that because this chairman attended a meeting virtually, he didn’t care enough about his leadership role and deserved to lose it.
Denver Nonprofit Punk Rock Saves Lives Raises Mental Health Awareness Across the U.S.
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Deer Creek's Menticide Is a Slab of Doom
Paul Vismara plays guitar, sings and makes art for Denver band Deer Creek. The group’s songs fall comfortably in the doom- or stoner-rock realm, and although Vismara writes the lyrics to the songs, it’s the sound that means the most to him as an artist. “If you have amazing lyrics but a lousy melody and mediocre music, you have a mediocre or possibly bad song,” Vismara says.
Put It on Your Playlist: Ska Covers of Country Classics, and More New Releases From Colorado Bands
You never know what you might find when you listen to a cross-section of Colorado music, because the state has so many flavors to sample — and this week's lineup is no exception. There's a two-tone ska band playing country classics, along with snotty hardcore, a twangy Christmas remix, post-rock guitar instrumentals, post-metal experimentation and intriguing indie rock. Keep reading to find new music from Colorado musicians that will keep you going back for more.
The Man Cubs Would Love to Talk About Bruno
Members of the Man Cubs are at an age where their most memorable Disney songs come from movies like The Lion King, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. But guitarist Joe Mondragon says the five-piece Denver band – which takes the music from those classic cartoons and ratchets it up a few notches with pop-punk energy – heard a song from 2021's Encanto that they couldn’t ignore.
Bear with me: Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio
Writer’s Note: This first appeared in the no longer extant Colorado Daily on January 15, 2020, but the Corporate Trash that own that paper shut it down with no fanfare. I’m reposting here, so all this work doesn’t suddenly disappear when they take the website down to avoid paying the $12.95 monthly hosting fee. My girlfriend and I went out to see live music in Denver on Saturday. This is important primarily for two reasons. One, date night, an indispensable part of any serious relationship.
Drag Race's Alaska Thunderfuck on Red 4 Filth and the Club Q Tragedy
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Put It on Your Playlist: Blues Rock, Indie Pop and More New Music Releases From Denver
New music takes listeners to new worlds, and Colorado musicians are providing a bounty of soundscapes to explore before the year's end. This week's offerings include some fuzzed-out blues rock, acoustic indie, reverb-heavy Americana and melancholy Americana, indie pop, an acoustic track inspired by a near-death experience, and experimental rock from a former member of The Czars.
Unindicted Co-Conspirators Draw Inspiration From Film Noir and a Street Fight
Guitarist and vocalist Fletcher Neeley, of Denver punk band The Unindicted Co-Conspirators, has a long-standing fascination with the femme fatale of film noir and the pulp fiction from such authors as James M. Cain and Dashiell Hammett that inspired the character archetype. An actor like Barbara Stanwyck, the blonde bombshell who drives Fred MacMurry to kill for her in 1944’s Double Indemnity, comes to mind when femme fatale is mentioned.
John Bear With Me
Writer’s Note: This first appeared in the no longer extant Colorado Daily on January 22, 2020, but the Corporate Trash that own that paper shut it down with no fanfare. I’m reposting here, so all this work doesn’t suddenly disappear when they take the website down to avoid paying the $12.95 monthly hosting fee. So it turns out house cats are an ancient race of evil aliens who descended to earth en masse centuries ago to conquer and destroy. But they quickly learned they didn’t have to do anything.
Bear with me: Idea for a Movie
Writer’s Note: This first appeared in the no longer extant Colorado Daily on January 29, 2020, but the Corporate Trash that own that paper shut it down with no fanfare. I’m reposting here, so all this work doesn’t suddenly disappear when they take the website down to avoid paying the $12.95 monthly hosting fee. This is a loose remake of “Encino Man,” but without the lame Sean Astin character, Dave, who acts like a jerk the entire movie and somehow gets the hot blonde at the denouement.
Put It on Your Playlist: Classic Hip-Hop, Industrial Metal and More New Music Released in Denver
This week's releases include industrial metal madness, classic hip-hop, genre-punching use of Auto-Tune, virtuosic violin coupled with bass music, metal-adjacent instrumentals and dub magic. Find your new favorite song below! River Runs Black A Dying Breed Record Thieves drummer Jim Wilcox explores his industrial-metal side in solo project River Runs Black's latest set of ten snarling tracks.
OFF!'s Keith Morris on Free LSD, the Band's New Album and Upcoming Conspiracy Theory Movie
As Keith Morris and Dimitri Coates prepared to write the songs on Free LSD, their band OFF!’s third full-length album, they decided: "To hell with expectations!" The band had already released two well-received full-length albums, as well as several EPs of raucous punk songs that evoked the early days of American hardcore. But frontman Morris, who's been in such seminal punk bands as Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, says the band is pushing the punk boundaries with its new work.
Old Crow Medicine Show Raising Money for Take Note Colorado at Mission Ballroom
Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor knows deep down that he wasn’t meant to be a potter. “I’m not a potter because I wasn’t meant to be a potter,” Secor says. “As a kid, I was exposed to the opportunity to be a potter multiple times — enough times to know I wasn’t one.” Fortunately, he was also exposed to music as a child, and that led to a fruitful career fronting the Grammy-winning folk-country band Old Crow Medicine Show, which just released its seventh studio album, Paint This Town.
The Timberline's Music Is 'Somewhere Between American Pie and Requiem for a Dream'
Members of Fort Collins band The Timberline were recently asked: “If your music were a movie, what movie would it be?” “We couldn’t come up with one,” says vocalist, guitarist and bassist Mike Boschert. “We said it’s somewhere between American Pie and Requiem for a Dream.” The popular trio, which is playing a sold-out show at The Coast in Fort Collins on Wednesday, December 7, finds itself in a similar boat when trying to pick Bandcamp-friendly genre names for its music.
Neon the Bishop's Kendall James on Horror Influences and 'A Damn Good First Impression'
When Neon the Bishop’s Kendall James wrote the lyrics to the band's latest single, “A Damn Good First Impression,” he thought about his tendency to put his best self forward — at least at first. Most people do it to a certain extent, whether it’s on social media or when meeting someone for the first time. “It’s just the stuff we try and put forward about ourselves that makes ourselves look better than we actually are,” James says. “We all have our issues; we all have our ugly side.
Record Thieves' 'Dark Hearts' Offers a New Sound From the Denver Punk Band
When Jim Wilcox and Allen White of Denver band Record Thieves were writing songs for what was intended to be an EP, the song “Dark Hearts” proved to be a challenge. Although it remains within the confines of the band’s pop-punk-influenced style, the song, which releases as a single on Friday, December 2, was much faster and more aggressive — more like a skate-punk song from the ’90s. “We don’t technically write a lot of fast stuff like that,” Wilcox says.
Bear with me: Sally goes to Heaven
Writer’s Note: This first appeared in the no longer extant Colorado Daily on February 5, 2020, but the Corporate Trash that own that paper shut it down with no fanfare. I’m reposting here, so all this work doesn’t suddenly disappear when they take the website down to avoid paying the $12.95 monthly hosting fee. My name is Sally. I died surrounded by my loved ones.
Put It on Your Playlist: The Best New Music Released From Denver
This week, trash. bombs your brain with three tracks of angsty alternative, and Talia Hoit, who is in at least three symphonic metal bands, delivers a surprisingly somber release. Elsewhere, Verner Calvin evokes post-punk and ’90s alternative, Colorado electronic musician E23 teams up with artist Chris Mosdell for mind-melting electronic noise, art-rock group Bill Diver’s Passionprojectwill chill you out, and Travis McNamara drops a nugget of experimental indie folk.
John Bear With Me
Writer’s Note: This first appeared in the no longer extant Colorado Daily on February 12, 2020, but the Corporate Trash that own that paper shut it down with no fanfare. I’m reposting here, so all this work doesn’t suddenly disappear when they take the website down to avoid paying the $12.95 monthly hosting fee. I quit drinking alcohol on Feb. 22, 2004. Basically, I switched to coffee which also causes me to shake when I can’t have any.
Bear With Me: The Lonely Death of Influenza A
Writer’s Note: This first appeared in the no longer extant Colorado Daily on February 19, 2020, but the Corporate Trash that own that paper shut it down with no fanfare. I’m reposting here, so all this work doesn’t suddenly disappear when they take the website down to avoid paying the $12.95 monthly hosting fee. Well we’re almost through February and I’ve managed to not catch the flu. This is good not only for me but also my wife as I am the whiniest sick person in the history of the world.
Bear with me: Camping sucks
Writer’s Note: This first appeared in the no longer extant Colorado Daily on February 24, 2020, but the Corporate Trash that own that paper shut it down with no fanfare. I’m reposting here, so all this work doesn’t suddenly disappear when they take the website down to avoid paying the $12.95 monthly hosting fee. I was about 12, and my father forced me to go camping in the mountains of New Mexico with my brother and stepmother. I don’t care for camping, and Colorado is probably wasted on me.
Bear with me: Why I hate advertising
Writer’s Note: This first appeared in the no longer extant Colorado Daily on March 4, 2020, but the Corporate Trash that own that paper shut it down with no fanfare. I’m reposting here, so all this work doesn’t suddenly disappear when they take the website down to avoid paying the $12.95 monthly hosting fee. It was November 1991. I was 12 years old and a model of the innocent child.
Put It on Your Playlist: New Music Released From Denver and Beyond
New music being released in Denver this week includes a marriage of shoegaze and hip-hop, noisy blues rock, a 1981 live set of post punk, lo-fi indie instrumentals, and soul-infused rock and roll. Keep reading to discover some of the best new releases from Denver and beyond. Unless otherwise noted, all of it is available on major streaming platforms. Yonnas FÉVEN The prolific Yonnas Abraham, aka Yonnas, has performed and produced with the Pirate Signal, FOE, Karma, Catch Lungs, Haven and BLKHRTS.
Bear with me: Mad Max, Foodie Road
Writer’s Note: This first appeared in the no longer extant Colorado Daily on March 11, 2020, but the Corporate Trash that own that paper shut it down with no fanfare. I’m reposting here, so all this work doesn’t suddenly disappear when they take the website down to avoid paying the $12.95 monthly hosting fee. My name is Max. My world is fire. And Grubhub. Once, I was a Lyft driver, a road warrior searching for a righteous way to make ends meet.
New Music Podcast Mile High Stash Asks: What Five Records Will Score Your Zombie Apocalypse?
You are barricaded inside a remote Colorado mountain cabin. Your basic needs are accounted for, but in your possession is a crank-powered Victrola turntable. What five records do you bring to ride out the apocalypse? That's the main premise behind Denver musician and writer Adam Perry’s podcast, Mile High Stash. “Like most things with me, I had the idea a few weeks before it became a reality,” Perry says of the podcast. “Anybody in my orbit sort of knows that I just have a monkey mind.
Bear With Me: Episode 2
Writer’s Note: This first appeared in the Colorado Daily on March 18, 2020, but the Corporate Trash that own that paper shut it down with no fanfare. I’m reposting here, so all this work doesn’t suddenly disappear when they take the website down to avoid paying the $12.95 monthly hosting fee. I was leaving the bakery I work at with the eight-pack of paper towels I’d purchased at the neighboring Target tucked under my arm.
Denver Irish Band Avourneen to Cover the "Best Breakup Record," Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks
When Avourneen’s Adam Goldstein polled his friends on the best breakup records, two made the top of the heap: Beck’s Sea Change and Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. The latter is one of Goldstein's favorites. He’s played it for years as a solo artist, and now Avourneen is offering its traditional Irish take on the record. The Denver-based Irish band will play through Blood on the Tracks at Swallow Hill Music on Sunday, November 20, with Goldstein teaching a class ahead of the concert.
Bear With Me: Episode 1
Writer’s Note: This first appeared in the Colorado Daily on March 25, 2020, but the Corporate Trash that own that paper shut it down with no fanfare. I’m reposting here, so all this work doesn’t suddenly disappear when they take the website down to avoid paying the $12.95 monthly hosting fee. It seems like we are all going to die under the bold leadership of a gameshow host. [Update, so OK, we didn’t die, but that jerk kind of ran everything into the ground.] I’m not too worried about it, though.
The Murlocs' Sixth Record Tells the Story of Rapscallion
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Put It on Your Playlist: The Best New Music Released in Denver and Beyond
This week we’ve got an homage to ’70s psychedelic pop, jazz from a Denver supergroup, fuzzed-out rock-and-roll madness, an electro-pop remix, ear-splitting but catchy crust punk, and jam band bliss from Vail. Unless otherwise noted, the music is available on most major streaming platforms. Give ’em a listen and support the artists if you can.
No Age Rocks the Launchpad on Nov. 17
By John Bear Dean Spunt, the drummer and vocalist for Los Angeles noise rock duo No Age, was spending time figuring out how he will perform the songs from the band's fifth album People Helping People! live. That got him pondering the lyrics he'd written for the 13-track record released in September. Spunt says he doesn't set out to tell straight narratives when he writes. He assembles jumbled phrases swirling around in his head, words that sound appealing in the lyrical sense.
Reno Divorce Remembers Bass Player With Benefit for His Family
Grand Tribute By John Bear Reno Divorce frontman Brent Loveday considered bassist Johnny Crow a brother, and took to calling him “Junior” when he joined the band in 2011. Loveday says he came up with the nickname because he saw some of himself in Crow, even if the bassist was younger, taller, better-looking and more musically talented than his elder bandmate. “He hated it at first,” Loveday says.
The Salt Lick Denver Moved to Little Saigon for Sunnier Digs
Jason Edelstein and Andrea Hoang co-founded the Salt Lick Denver collective in 2020 with a recording studio and music video production studio, then launched a record label under the same name the following summer. They filmed their bands playing sets on a stage in the collective's basement, known affectionately as the Pond because the building suffered plumbing problems that turned the space, literally, into its namesake.
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