Category archive

Business and Economics

Stimulus Checks Bounce

in Business and Economics/Politics by
US Treasury stimulus check examples

At his suburban Fort Collins home, area resident Larry Mason drops his jaw as he checks his mail.  Opening an envelope indicating an ‘Insufficient Funds’ notice he says “What?  (…) How did that happen?”  While an insufficient funds notification is nothing particularly new, what makes this matter noteworthy is where the check came from and who wrote it.

The check in question was a stimulus check.  It was emitted by no less than the United States Treasury with the name Donald J. Trump somewhere on the bottom left.  “What the…? How can that even happen?  How’s that even work?  It don’t get no lower than that!  I ain’t paying no $12 fee.  No way, Jose!”

Mr. Mason is not alone in getting bouncy checks from the Unites States Treasury.  Alejandro Medina, also of Fort Collins got one too.  “I got an ISF notification from my bank online.  When I looked, it was the stimulus check!  What da fuck?!”

Your reporter took a deeper look into this matter, by doing what Bob Woodward did back in 1973-74.  The Focopolitan Tribune ‘followed the money.’  To our utter astonishment, we have concluded that our government spends more money than it takes in!  So we called the United States Treasury in Washington, DC, and this is what a phone bank secretary told us, “What?  We sent y’all a bounced check?  Oopsie daisy!  Let me call Karen in accounting and she can get this sorted out.”

Something tells us that things will be just fine… especially since there’s the name of a guy on those checks who’s been bankrupt no less than six times!

 

Campus Area Businesses Quietly Lobby Government for Continued Student Loans

in Business and Economics by

It came in the dark of night, discreetly and quietly, around 2AM on a cold Northen Colorado Tuesday: a white Gulfstream private jet.  I couldn’t make out its callsign.  It’s destination: Washington, DC.  The passengers: Fort Collins campus-area business owners and developers.  Their purpose: to persuade congress to provide students with continued student loans.

Your intrepid reporter could sense something was afoot at a normally sleepy Northern Colorado Regional Airport (NCRAP).  Seeing so many representatives of our local economy awaiting a private jet at that ungodly hour led me to ask… and they told me, albeit on condition of anonymity.  “We just want to tell our friends in Congress to keep on keepin’ on!” said an area businessman.  “The area around CSU campus is experiencing an economic boom.  It’s safe to say, we have a secular bull market here.  What we’re going to DC for is first off to give them a hearty thanks!  Second, we want let ’em know that we’re rollin’ in dough from these student loans, and for them to keep on  ‘makin’ it rain,’ if you know what I mean.”

A developer added, “How do you think we’re gonna pay for the construction loans that we have up the yin-yang?  I’ll tell you: we’re not!  THEY’RE gonna.”  I asked him who ‘they’ were.  “The students!  I’m so glad they’re as financially illiterate as they are, ’cause if they weren’t, I couldn’t make the payments on my construction loans.  Come to think of it, I couldn’t make payments on my Porsche or my second home either!”  When I asked him to clarify what he meant, he replied with unusual candor, “What do you think these broke-ass 18-year olds pay their rent with?  Their piss-ant $10-an-hour jobs?  They pay rent with their student loans.  You see, we’re really pro-education here.”

The plane arrived and didn’t even shut down its engines.  A ramp went down, and in went the group of business leaders.  I thought I’d give the other side of the story: that of students.  A visit to Ink Inc, a local tattoo parlor proved revealing.  Freshman Mindy Roedenbacher agreed to an interview.  “Yeah, I got Student Loans.  It’s like, an investment in my future and stuff.  I’m putting my tattoo on my loans, ’cause YOLO!  Besides, it’s gonna be a part of me forever, like my college experience.  I think I’m gonna put my next flirtini on it too, ’cause you know… YOLO!”  She concluded, “No, I’m not worried about it, ’cause you know, I’m gonna like… get a really high-paying career with my Gender Studies degree… and if I like it, I might even get a Masters.”

We at the Focopolitan Tribune see NO problem whatsoever with student loans.  They have provided our town with a virtual third wheel in our economy.  They finance everything from tattoos, to meals, to rent, flirtinis, beer, ganja AND a good education for our student community.  There really is no visible downside to them.  Dear Washington and students, MAKE IT RAIN!  Fort Collins’ economy needs you!

State, City, County Riot Police Mobilized for Montava Community Meeting; National Guard Held in Reserve

in Business and Economics/Local Flavor by

After repeated cancellations, delays and enough insipid excuses to make the board look like a bi-polar girlfriend who lost her lithium, yet another meeting for community input on the new Montava housing development is scheduled.  Given the controversy that the proposed new housing development has caused, meeting planners are taking no chances.

“We’re pulling out all the stops,” Ben Dover, project spokesman told Focopolitan Tribune reporters, “to show that the safety  of everyone attending the meeting is paramount. So no, we are not going overboard. In fact, we might just be underestimating things.”

So what does pulling out all the stops mean?  A task force of riot police from the city of Fort Collins and Loveland, Larimer and Weld counties, and the state police will be setting up the event. “I talked to governor Polis, and he’ll be putting the National Guard on alert, so they’ll be in the barracks, until such time as they’re needed.  These Country Club Road residents are royally pissed.”

To recap: the Montava development seeks to develop some 900 acres of agricultural land near the Budweiser plant.  This will cause massively increased traffic in Ft. Collins’ Northeast corridor.  Meetings over this matter have gone from Methodist post-sermon coffee and fellowship to Jerry Springer-like behavior over the space of mere months.

A resident of Country Club Road, Celeste Krieger, spoke with your reporters about the development. “I paid $950,000 dollars for my little 3500-square foot shack and I can barely leave my driveway as it is! Now you want to build more stuff and house poor people where they have to drive their hoopties past our houses? I’ll have to use my husband’s helicopter to leave the house; that’s not fair when all I want to use is the Rolls!” she wept. “This is war!  We’re on!”

With more people moving to FoCo and housing as tight as it is, we find it self evident that building more housing, particularly for our lower income residents is paramount.  That said, the interests of the residents of Country Club Road must be heard and taken into consideration.  After all, they were there first.  We call upon citizens’ civility, but just for caution’s sake, if you don’t live in the are, avoid these meetings like you would avoid a riot.

Foothills Fashion Mall Provides Refuge for Non-Shoppers this Christmas Season

in Arts and Entertainment/Business and Economics/Local Flavor by

For yet another Holiday shopping season, FoCo’s oldest mall has paradoxically provided Focopolitans with a venue to hang out and not shop.  With Old Town taken over not only by stressed-out shoppers, the usual rabble of hipsters, hippies and homeless, overwhelmed people are looking for some peace of mind and a warm place to just take a walk on a cold winter day.  Enter the Foothills Fashion Mall.

Built back in the 1980s, the FFM used to be a place for people to hang out and shop, but ever since the revival of Old Town and the subsequent rise of online shopping websites like E-bay and Amazon, the mall lost its shopaholics appeal. Yet its usefulness still remains due to the one innovation that Old Town lacks: central heating.

Invented in the 19th Century, central heating consists of a large heat source- nowadays natural gas, but historically wood, coal or bunker crude oil- that is then relayed throughout an enclosure by means of radiators or ventilators.  This simple technological evolution has given the FFM an edge over Old Town for best place to hang out and not shop.

Nearby resident Ralph Anderson attests to the appeal of central heating, “I’ll tell ya… this central heating thing here is pretty amazing.  Ain’t no way I’m gonna go to Old Town to hang out and not shop anymore.  Nothing beats the mall for going to a place and not shopping. It also is a great place to exercise in as I won’t run into ANYONE!  Top that, Old Town!”

New Belgium Brewing Sold In Cash Deal; Armored Truck Delivers Small Bills To Kim Jordan’s Residence

in Business and Economics/Local Flavor by

Focopolitans were surprised last week to find out that our beloved local institution, New Belgium Brewing has been sold to the Japanese beverage mega-conglomerate Kirin Holdings.  Mourners were seen in Old Town wearing black sheaths and carrying a large mock coffin symbolically marking the end of an era of exceptional beer drinking and capitalist leadership in our beloved Fort Collins.

While Focopolitans mourn and wonder about the future of Tour de Fat, and whether or not we have forgotten Pearl Harbor, New Belgium’s biggest stakeholder, and co-founder, Kim Jordan, has received her payment of the cash deal.  A Brinks armored car arrived at Ms. Jordan’s residence together with a beefed-up contingent of armed security men this morning with its hold full of greenbacks, and knocked on the front door of Ms. Jordan’s home.  As luck would have it, your reporter was there to see it all go down…

This development came as a surprise to Ms. Jordan who appeared somewhat flabbergasted.  She had this to say, “Wha-?  It was a cash deal, but I wasn’t expecting this!  I’ve never seen so much dough in my life!  How in the hell am I supposed to get all this green shit??  I’m gonna need a forklift, and those are all back at the brewery.  A– and where am I gonna put it all?  It’s not like I can put nine figures and change of moolah in my pocket!  What the…”

Brinks driver Al Moore, the guy in charge of the delivery, had little to say about the whole deal, “I dunno.  I ferry cash around all the time.  Sometimes in bags, sometimes on pallets, like today.  It’s usually to banks, and this is a residence, so that’s a first.  Other than that, I’m just doing my job.  Ms. Jordan, can you sign for this, please?”

Fort Collins Book Festival Welcomes Surprise Guest: Pat Buchanan

in Business and Economics/Health and Fitness/Politics by

It was an utter surprise to all attendees of the Fort Collins Book Festival when conservative Republican author Pat Buchanan crashed the party.  With a theme of “Food For Thought” this was an unusual event for Mr. Buchanan too, who up to now has not been known for being a foodie.  “This festival is great!  I thought it was going to be just pure mudslinging at me, but folks here really gave me a warm welcome,” commented Mr. Buchanan.

One of the Book Festival’s organizers, Tracy Echevarria-Smith granted your reporter a few precious moments of her time on this busy weekend.  She had this to say about Mr. Buchanan, “First off, we’ve been criticized for having the same authors, the same ideas and basically the same show every year.  When Pat Buchanan essentially invited himself here, we were overjoyed. Second, we have a really diverse group racially; we have a Native American chef, a Latina, an African American woman and all sorts of folks from disadvantaged and/or minority groups talking about what food means to them.  This may be a racially diverse group, but let’s face it: we all think alike, we all vote alike and we’re all progressive.  Having Pat speak makes us inclusive, in more ways than just race.  Not only that, but here’s the real advantage: it makes our foodie fest original.  We’ve seen and heard all the organic-local-fair trade people have to show and say.  Let’s hear what other people have to say.  Pat’s gonna be talking about big ag- the unignorable food provider without which we would mostly starve.  Let’s see people in Boulder top that for inclusiveness!  So, we don’t fall in love with Archer Daniels Midland or Monsanto, but are you really gonna tell me that these people who have done more to save Africa [agribusiness] from starvation than 1000 Bonos [referring to the lead singer of U2 who is also known as Paul Hewson] are evil?  Well, that’s what all the food pharisees at Whole Foods would have you believe.  Not just that, but don’t you want to hear what a white, rich, Christian man has to say for once?”

To our utter surprise, Pat Buchanan granted your reporter Ludwig Schnee a brief comment!  “Oh, I’ll tell you, I LOVE agribusiness.  It’s the most efficient form of growing food.”  When your reporter politely told Mr. Buchanan that it takes roughly 13 pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef, and that it took some 100 gallons of water to produce one pound of feed, and that lots of efficiency is lost in the process, Mr. Buchanan retorted, “Meat is therefore the best, most effective way to eat vegetables and keep hydrated.”  he added, “You eat cows, and what do cows eat?  Vegetables!  It’s like you’re going vegan, just more efficiently.  You know what else?  Fried meat is good for your heart so long as you fry it in vegetable oil.  Okay, I gotta go.  All this food talk and these books made me want to write.”  Asked what his book  was going to be about, the Republican author replied,  “It’s title is going to be Agribusiness: It Sucks Less Than You Think.”

Fort Collins Summer Festivals to Merge into Unending Season-Long Party

in Arts and Entertainment/Business and Economics/Local Flavor by

In an announcement today, the City of Fort Collins Party Authority (CFCPA) announced that for simplicity’s sake, all Fort Collins summer festivals will now conglomerate into one summer-long event.  Starting in 2020: A Taste of Fort Collins, the Colorado Marathon, New West Fest, Tour de Fat, Tour de Corgi, the Old Town Car Show, the Harvest Festival, the Pagan Festival, the Peach Festival, Brewfest, Octoberfest, the Fourth of July, Pride Day and some two dozen other festivities will all become one, big, giant, non-stop, celebration of everything and nothing.  This event will feature 16 stages, 1200+ bands, 116 different breweries, two farmers’ markets, ganja, young buxom maidens riding bikes in nothing more than body paint, six non-stop food truck rallies, four artisan camps and the kind of nihilistic fun that would make an episode of Seinfeld look like a Baptist seminary.

At a press conference, spokesman Fred Alborghetti commented with unusual candor, “We’re just formalizing what’s already happening.  I just got sick and tired of everybody always bitching to me asking why the roads in Old Town are all blocked, so we [at CFCPA] just rolled all these festivals into one whole, big ball-o-wax.  It just makes things simpler.  Not only that, but we get to pass off other people’s boozing as local culture.  All the while, of course, we cash in.  It sure keeps the economy going.  As I see it, it’s like our own New Deal, except it’s centered around fun, instead of work.  I never thought watching adults with too much money pursuing frivolous pleasure could be so rewarding!”

Fort Collins Police Services (FCPS) spokesman Mohammad Rodriguez had this to say about the summer-long festival. “It will definitely give us something to do. I mean, hell, do you know what it’s like to hear our guys bitch and complain about the chronic lack of action in this town?  I just hope things become a little bit more like Sturgis at the rally when the Hell’s Angels and the Mongols meet after drinking too much.  This will greatly help our downtime!”

New business owner Todd McPherson who operates an organic, locally grown, vegan pet food store and boutique on the main drag also seemed excited about the change. “Finally! Now I”ll always know where to park since the damn road closings will remain the same! Never again will I have to guess where the fuck to park my Oldsmobile.”

Random questioning of various people in Old Town also seemed to generate a positive review of the move by the Fort Collins Party Authority. “Now I can stay drunk the entire summer! Thanks for making it easier!,” gushed one young man as he stumbled down Mountain Ave. Another dread-locked Trustafarian took a hit and smiled, “Hell, yeah!  I ain’t leavin.'”

We at the Focopolitan Tribune agree with everyone and are SO there!  We can’t wait.  Your reporter, Ludwig Schnee is gonna do his best to make Burning Man seem like a trip to the mosque compared to this.

Radical Capitalist Group Celebrates Life, Achievements of Judas

in Business and Economics by

At a luncheon today, a local, fundamentalist capitalist group celebrated Easter weekend most unusually.  The group, calling itself Capitalism or Else!, celebrated and commented on the life of an otherwise repugnant human being: Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver.  According to the New Testament of the Holy Bible, Judas turned Jesus into Roman authorities out of pure greed and complete lack of integrity, but Capitalism or Else!’s, John Silverton had an entirely different perspective on the story, “We look at it another way.  Judas was really an innovator: the Amazon.com of his day.  What do they have in common?  They took people’s personal information, and monetized it.  What’s the big deal?  What sets (Amazon founder and owner) Jeff Bazos apart from other capitalists?  He didn’t just discover untapped markets- he invented them.  He didn’t just come into some existing realm of money making like a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman, he created his own money-making forum: he saw there was a demand for people’s personal information- their buying patterns, their internet searches, and so on, and he sold them and people ended up better off for it.  The genius of Bazos was finding that thing that nobody else saw potential for and then just followed the laws of supply and demand.  Just think of it: Judas did the same.  He realized there was huge demand on the part of Roman buyers who had silver, for information on Judean seditionists.  Judas was in optimal condition to supply that information, so he charged the premium for it.  Silver for information, information for silver and KACHINK!  The guy got rich and all these commie-ass Christians go around condemning him!  What’s up with that?”  Mr. Silverton paused, “I hope Judas at least picked up the tab at the last supper, but the Gospels don’t tell us.  Seriously, the only one high on the hog at he last supper was my man, Judas.  All the others were broke.”

“Come to think of it, he was the first follower of Jesus to make a killing selling Jesus.  He ought to be the example to all these preachers out there, from Ken what’s-his-face…” he paused again “…you know, that guy with the big-ass house in Steamboat [Springs, CO] to Joel Osteen.  They can’t hold a candle to Judas.  Why are these preachers today respected, but Judas gets the treatment he gets?”

Further conversation revealed that Mr. Silverton will be founding an online startup that he plans to name judas.com specializing in auctions for packages of peoples’ internet searches.  “The e-bay for people’s personal information.  If you can buy and sell people’s debts, why not their personal information?  You shouldn’t see people as customers; they are the product, and that was a concept Judas figured out 2000 years ago.  Now, was that visionary or what?”

Boulder Travel Agency Offers Poverty Tours for High Roller Front Range Crowd

in Arts and Entertainment/Business and Economics by

Northern Colorado residents are some of the most worldly in America.  We Nocopolitans have seen it all and heard it all.  We’ve had it with Cancun and Cabo.  Jackson Hole and Aspen are practically our back yard.  Yellowstone and Yosemite are the epitome of pedestrain.  What possibly could top these experiences for our Left-of-center, environmental, altruistic sensibilities?

Enter Boulder’s niche touring agency: PPV Tours.  “The PPV stands for poor people viewing.  It’s really a thing.  Don’t believe me?  Just look at your liberal friends online and you’re bound to see pictures of them posing in photos next to little brown and black kids with that cute, little UNICEF look.  Moral of the story: poor people are exotic and interesting- kind of like animals on safari, and that’s what the monied liberal crowd want.  Let’s not forget this: the customer is always right.”  So said Miranda Mitchell, co-owner and operator of PPV Tours.  “They say that they want to ‘volunteer’ at some school or AIDS orphanage in Africa, but they just want to go there, look at what a wreck of a place they’re visiting, and feel like they’re doing something good for their fellow man, when in reality, they’re just objectifying their poverty.  After that, they come back home and have a story to tell and pictures to show other liberal jackwads, so that they can one-up them on who’s the most socially conscious, liberal snowflake at the drum-circle.”  she paused, “Just think of it as a Progressive version of ‘Keeping up with the Joneses.'”

PPV offers tours to Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, since Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama are just too prosperous to illicit sympathy from travelers.  PPV also offers the Hassa diga Ibo ai tour of Uganda in conjunction with missionary organizations posted to the central African nation.

Asked what is the most challenging aspect of organizing the tours, Ms. Mitchell commented, “By far, finding an internet connection in the rural boonies of Uganda or Central America that our tourists can access Facebook and Instagram on.”  Taken aback by this fetishistic view of poor people, reporter Ludwig Schnee asked Ms. Mitchell more about her clientele to which she answered with unusual candor, “My tourists don’t like the poor- they like poverty.  There is a difference.”

Poudre River Gold Mine Reassures River Community: We’ll Only Pollute a Little Bit

in Business and Economics/Environment/Local Flavor by

After finding gold along the Poudre River, Trump Mining Corporation, a precious metals extraction company owned by none other than The Don himself addressed community members in Fort Collins, Greeley and all other municipalities that line our precious riverine resource.  In a Tweet, our president declared to the Poudre River community, “This is going to be the BEST gold mine EVER!!!  Fort Collins, Greeley, Laporte, Bellevue and all those places there are gonna be proud of this.”

These surprising developments however, have been met with fierce criticism.  FoCo environmental activist Fern Greene reached out to the Focopolitan Tribune and gave us a full interview.  “Gold mines are about the dirtiest, filthiest most environmentally degrading operations possible!  I’m so outraged that this fucking thing is even gonna open!  Do you know how much cyanide and mercury is used in the mining of gold?  Where’s it all gonna go?  And what is this all for?  To get some rich-ass people more fucking jewelry than they already have?  I’m sorry, but as a member of this community, I say, ‘no.’  Pollution of rivers and soil is the kind of thing that should only happen in countries where black and brown people live, not here!”

We at the Tribune managed to contact a spokesman from Trump Mining.  Aurelio Goldberg assured us, “Yeah, we do use mercury and cyanide in mining gold, but at least we have the river to take it away.  No problem there.  We just dump the stuff in the Poudre and away it goes…”  Horrified at such a flippant disregard for the environment, your reporter Ludwig Schnee asked about how this might effect the wildlife of the ecosystem to which Mr. Goldberg replied, “It’s gonna kill some fish, but so much the better.  All those anglers I see in the summer aren’t gonna need to pay a cent for those expensive waders, rods, bait or line.  They just need to go down and pluck ’em out; we did the hard part for them.”

Something tells us at the Trib that this can’t be the end of this…

1 2 3
Go to Top