Patronage Boards, Politicized Science, and the Fight for Farm Labor

On June 18, 2025, Kim Monson tackled government accountability, scientific integrity, and agricultural labor policy with Colorado Union of Taxpayers board member Dave Evans, scientist and IPAC-EDU founder James Lyons-Weiler, and sixth-generation Nebraska farmer and rancher Trent Loos, examining how unelected boards, corrupted peer review, and misguided immigration enforcement threaten American liberty.

Unelected Boards Draining Colorado Taxpayers

Start listening at 17:27 – Hour 1

Dave Evans, a volunteer board member of the Colorado Union of Taxpayers, reveals the alarming growth of unelected patronage boards across Colorado state government. Of the 733 bills or resolutions introduced during the legislative session, CUT took positions on 261. Evans identified 18 bills specifically targeting boards, councils, or enterprises, with 11 creating entirely new boards and 12 ultimately passing into law.

The estimated budgetary impact of the enacted board legislation reaches $27 million per year, with a $5 million negative impact to TABOR refunds. Evans zeroed in on House Bill 1198, the Regional Planning Roundtable Commission, which establishes a 15-member board in the Department of Local Affairs. Appointed by state agencies rather than elected by citizens, this board relies on gifts, grants, and donations for funding, opening the door to special-interest influence. Evans warned that the board’s objectives align with progressive priorities like 15-minute cities, public transit expansion, and subsidized housing.

“Citizens need to be alert to this stuff and raise issues with this. And then after these boards are enacted, keep tabs on what they’re doing and make sure that people are aware of that stuff outside of your area of influence.”

Dave Evans, Colorado Union of Taxpayers Board Member

Reclaiming Science from Political Capture

Start listening at 30:29 – Hour 1

James Lyons-Weiler, founder of IPAC-EDU and author of the Popular Rationalism Substack, dismantles the anonymous Bethesda Declaration that accuses NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of undermining science. Lyons-Weiler argues that what the declaration’s authors actually fear is the disruption of revenue streams and the end of a culture where shortcuts on ethics went unchallenged. He pointed to the precedent set by former NIH Director Francis Collins, who advocated combining phase two and phase three vaccine trials, then denied taking shortcuts.

The peer review process, Lyons-Weiler explained, has devolved from a rigorous system of independent assessment into a network of backscratching and cronyism. Drawing on his experience founding the journal Cancer Informatics, he contrasted genuine independent peer review with the rubber-stamping that characterized agencies like the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), whose 17 dismissed members each carried conflicts of interest with multiple vaccine manufacturers. Lyons-Weiler also highlighted Kennedy’s unreported declaration of an epidemic of immune dysregulation in the United States, a statement the scientist called stunning in its implications.

“The problem with HHS is they, as far as we can tell, conducted zero peer review whatsoever, certainly not independent, on things that were published by the scientists that worked for the government.”

James Lyons-Weiler, Founder of IPAC-EDU

Immigration Enforcement and the Agricultural Labor Crisis

Start listening at 72:16 – Hour 2

Trent Loos, a sixth-generation farmer and rancher from Nebraska, sounded the alarm on the growing disconnect between the Trump administration’s immigration rhetoric and conditions on the ground for agricultural employers. Legal workers, Loos reported, are failing to show up for work out of fear, despite having documentation. From conversations with restaurant owners in Deer Lodge, Montana, to reports of ICE raids at an Omaha packing plant that detained 76 people, Loos painted a picture of an enforcement approach creating chaos rather than solutions.

Loos drew historical parallels from Montana’s territorial era, noting that labor shortages predate modern immigration debates. The state’s first prison in Deer Lodge, built in 1871 before Montana achieved statehood, was overcrowded within 30 days and turned to employing inmates in lumber mills and copper smelters to fill workforce gaps. Loos connected this history to the exploitation of Chinese railroad workers and modern dependence on immigrant labor, arguing that government subsidies have disincentivized American workers from filling available positions. He also raised concerns about Bureau of Land Management plans to inject CO2 underground, the dangers of CO2 pipelines highlighted by the Satartia, Mississippi rupture, and Xcel Energy’s use of eminent domain to seize land for transmission corridors in Elbert County, Colorado.

“I can draw every problem we have in today’s society to people becoming complacent because government gives handouts. And that has become the lifeline of a government, is to create dependency of its citizens instead of we exhibiting our independent liberties.”

Trent Loos, Sixth-Generation Farmer and Rancher