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August 01, 2016 11:09 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Monday (August 1)

  • 47 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Get More SmarterHappy Birthday, Colorado; if you’re feeling old today, talk to Wayne Williams and he’ll help you shave a few years off of your total. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Colorado is still recovering after a Friday visit from Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump. As Ernest Luning reports for the Colorado Statesman, Colorado Republicans were effusive in their praise for His Hairness…including state Sen. Laura Waters Woods (R-Arvada):

“I am not considering running away from him,” Woods said. “He is the people’s candidate. [Pols emphasis] The people have spoken across this country — 14 million voters. I heard the other day that 86 percent of Republicans say they will vote for Donald Trump. That doesn’t say to me I should run away from him. Why would I do that?”

“The people’s candidate?” The weirdest comment from the Trump events, as reported by Luning, probably comes from Republican Congressional candidate Casper Stockham (the GOP’s 2016 sacrificial lamb in Denver):

When he had the opportunity to shake hands with Trump after his Denver speech, Stockham said he told the candidate about his 86-year-old mother.

“She voted for Obama twice, and she’s voting for Trump, she loves Trump,” he said. “Trump gave me an autographed note to give to her. Racists don’t do that, you know what I’m saying?”

And there you have it: Racists do not autograph notes for elderly black women.

Joey Bunch of the Denver Post has more from Trumpalooza on Friday.

 

► Elsewhere in Trump news, Chris Cillizza of “The Fix” is perplexed at the “strategy” behind attacking Khzir and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a Muslim-American solider killed in Iraq in 2004:

For the life of me, I can’t figure out what Trump is doing here — and whether there is absolutely any strategy behind it.

Going back and forth with a family who has lost a son in combat is, on its face, the height of stupidity, politically speaking. [Pols emphasis] Even if you don’t agree with the Khans’s view of Trump, it’s hard to feel anything but sympathy for their loss. Losing a child is every parent’s nightmare — and that is a feeling that transcends politics.

As has been mentioned time and again over the last 72 hours, George W. Bush’s response to Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq and then camped in front of Bush’s Texas ranch to protest his policies, seems to be the appropriate one for a politician dealing with such a difficult situation.

You know things are bad when you manage to make George W. Bush look like the “compassionate conservative” he once claimed to represent. Today is “Day Four” of Trump’s verbal beef with the Khan family.

 

► Congressman Mike Coffman is trying really, really, really hard to convince voters that might oppose Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for President. What Coffman won’t do is answer the only question that really matters here: Will you vote for Trump?

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

 

We wouldn't want to kiss him, either.
Donald Trump visits Colorado.

► Kudos to Colorado Springs Fire Marshal Brett Lacey, who shrugged off criticism from Donald Trump that supporters were kept out of an event on Friday for any other reason other than safety. From the Denver Post:

“There’s an old adage that when a fire marshal walks into a room, milk curdles. So because we’re always looking out for public safety and trying to make certain venues go off successfully and safely sometimes there are people that aren’t very happy with some of the rules and regulations we’re required to enforce. But it doesn’t bother me at all,” he told the TV station.

Criticizing the fire marshal on Friday, Trump said he didn’t know what he was doing and was “probably a Democrat.”

Lacey, was recently honored by the city as “Civilian of the Year” for his role in helping the wounded at a 2015 mass shooting at a local Planned Parenthood.

Perhaps the Colorado Springs Fire Department should have just left Trump inside that malfunctioning elevator.

 

Okay, time to start looking over that school supply list. Pencils? Check. Notebooks? Check. Bullets? At least you’re not in Texas, as the Washington Post reports:

On Monday, survivors will attend the unveiling of a memorial on the 50th anniversary of [Charles] Whitman’s rampage, which left 17 dead and more than 30 wounded. That same day, Texas becomes the nation’s eighth state to allow students to brings guns onto university campuses and, in some cases, into classrooms and dorms. 

The extraordinary timing of the new law, which permits only concealed weapons, distresses gun-control supporters and survivors of Whitman’s attack. Gun rights advocates are delighted. In their push to expand campus-carry laws across the country, they have cited the impromptu cavalry that took on Whitman as evidence that armed law-abiding citizens are the best defense against mass shooters.

 

► Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will be in Adams County on Wednesday, with running mate Tim Kaine at her side, to discuss her plans for job creation and economic improvement. From the Denver Post:

Clinton will be at Adams City High School at 3:15 p.m. The event is open to the public, but RSVP here. Doors open at 1:15 p.m.

She will “discuss her plan to create an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top, including passing the largest investment in job creation since World War II,” according to a news release.

 

► It was a busy weekend in Colorado Springs for Republicans, where a super-secret Koch Brothers event at the Broadmoor Hotel shared oxygen with the Trump event. As Denver7 reports, both the Kochs and the Trump campaign are adamant in their dislike of one another. Here’s more from the Denver Business Journal:

In a scenario something like the lead-up to a high school prom, Donald Trumpand the billionaire businessmen and political activist Koch brothers are trading barbs as to who jilted the other for a potential date in Colorado.

Charles and David Koch of Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries, the funders of many conservative causes and candidates, kicked off a three-day summit Saturday at Denver investor Philip Anschutz‘s Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs for some 400 right-wing donors to political causes. Time magazine reports that those in attendance agreed to pony up at least $100,000 for Koch-backed causes.

According to Politico, top backers of Republican presidential candidate Trump — who on Friday made campaign appearances in Colorado Springs and Denver— tried to arrange a meeting between Trump and the Kochs in Colorado, but were rejected.

The Koch brothers say that they never invited Trump to any sort of meeting, while Trump claims that he turned them down.

► Control over the University of Colorado Board of Regents may hinge on an at-large race that features former Democratic state Rep. Alice Madden.

 

► The Republican National Convention in Cleveland two weeks ago may have seriously damaged the Republican brand — and Presidential candidate Donald Trump. From Politico:

While 36 percent of adults are more likely to support Trump coming out of the RNC, 51 percent are less likely to vote for the real estate mogul after the GOP’s four-day event. The -15 net rating is the worst mark for the Republican nominee coming out of the convention since Gallup began asking the question in 1984, though the 1984 and 1992 GOP conventions were excluded.

Last month’s Republican convention, however, is the only time respondents were overall less likely to vote for the candidate who was nominated. Previous lows for the Republican nominee were +2 with Mitt Romney in 2012 and +3 with President George W. Bush in 2004.

The convention has also shaped the views of the Republican Party. Fifty-two percent of those surveyed said they have a less favorable view of the GOP now, while 35 percent see the party more favorably.

 

► Just how low can Donald Trump go? Even among Republicans…nobody knows.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

 

► Colorado Democrats are taking advantage of the popular Pokemon Go game to find new voters to add to the registration rolls. Registering voters is probably easier than trying to capture a virtual creature with that little red-and-white ball.

 

► Yes, there were American flags at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

ICYMI

► Like it or not, get ready for The Sanchize.

 

Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!

Comments

47 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Monday (August 1)

  1.  

    Trump's strategy in dealing with the completely sympathetic Khan family is indeed a mystery. HRC was blamed for the death of their sons by two mothers at the RNC convention. To be directly accused of those deaths is more of an attack than anything poor Trump has suffered. Since Clinton is a normal human being and responded in a normal way… all sympathy, no "counter attacks", the story quickly fell out of the news.

    The same would be happening with this story if Trump had given the same normal, sympathetic response. Instead he and his equally clueless spokespersons and strongest supporters keep issuing new outrageous, heartless counter attacks and shabby excuses, keeping the back and forth going between them and growing numbers of individuals and groups issuing new statements denouncing those remarks and tweets in response.

    Here are responses from the VFW and 17 Gold Star families. Neither group can be described as having any connection with Democratic partisanship:

    “Election year or not, the VFW will not tolerate anyone berating a Gold Star family member for exercising his or her right of speech or expression,” said VFW Commander-in-Chief Brian Duffy. “There are certain sacrosanct subjects that no amount of wordsmithing can repair once crossed. Giving one’s life to nation is the greatest sacrifice, followed closely by Gold Star families, who have a right to make their voices heard.”

    In addition to the VFW, 17 other Gold Star families also denounced Trump’s attack on the Khan family on Monday.

    “When you question a mother’s pain, by implying that her religion, not her grief, kept her from addressing an arena of people, you are attacking us,” the Gold Star families wrote in an open letter to Trump. “When you say your job building buildings is akin to our sacrifice, you are attacking our sacrifice.”

  2. LimpBalls weighs in….(what in the hell is he still doing here?  Didn't he promise to leave the country after the last election?)

    Limbaugh: Melania Trump's nude 'girl-on-girl' photos 'might wrap up the LGBT vote'

    “Have you seen, by the way, the New York Post again with nude photos of Melania Trump?" Limbaugh said on his radio show. "And today, there are — these are, what would you call, girl-on-girl — I think is the, yes — nude, girl-on-girl photos with Melania and other women. I think this probably might wrap up the LGBT vote for Trump."

      1. Your cartoon fine. My harmless response awaiting moderation. I just posted RCP averages with success. Wonder what gives? Wish yours was awaiting moderation!

        1. Those so-called "harmless" responses are out of the norm here, and could set an unwelcome precedent  . . . 

          . . . they should, therefore, always be viewed with suspicion!

    1. Are they omitting Dr Jill Stein but including Gary Johnson?

      Can't help but wonder about the "coincidence" between Obama's Rasmussen 6.0% net favorable number and HRC's 6.0% lead in the CBS News poll. Nice….. 

      Won't be long before Ass Hat comes to share with us the news that HRC is 20% behind in Idaho.

      1. I noticed yesterday new polls were omitting Stein. Maybe because she's only polling one or two percent? In any case while the numbers are affected, HRC's small but persistent lead doesn't seem to be affected by more than a point one way or the other whether it's a two, three or four person poll. I think the lowest I've seen today is four, the highest seven in head to heads or with others. 

      2. Can the Green Party even win at the Presidential level? I know they're only on the ballot in about half of the states…

        Besides, if Stein keeps on her anti-science kick, she's going to take herself out of the running. First anti-vax, now anti-wifi signals.

        1. Apparently Bernie Bitter enders love this stuff? And switching from Bernie to this flake as a matter of high minded principle makes sense to them?

        2. Stein isn't anti-vaccine. She has a nuanced position, expressed on a blog, which included that not all vaccines are appropriate for all people all of the time.

          Anti-wifi? Hadn't seen that one, but I doubt it. Please cite a real source.

            1. Neville and Woods mistake a tech holding a vaccine injector for a "bad guy with a gun", and mistakenly shoot each other, as they are of course both concealed carrying.

              Dr. Stein and the med tech  have to provide emergency aid to the two legislator victims, and must choose to triage one or the other,  based on whether Woods or Neville is making any positive contribution to society.

              And then….

          1. I am a supporter of vaccinating our children ( I still bear the faint scar from my polio vaccination which has protected me for six decades…and, for which, I will always be grateful)  as a matter of public policy.

            That said, there is no reason to believe that Big Pharma makes an exception for vaccines in their proclivity for marketing useless, or even dangerous products. We do not have enough resources to protect us from overzealous drug merchants. If regulation of vaccine research and use were relentlessly pursued by sufficiently staffed and funded groups of dedicated doctors and scientists, I daresay there would not be such a problem. 

            I am no fan of unnecessary medication and think any corporate executive or technician who subverts this particular industry should be severely punished.

            We need far more public education and oversight of the pharmaceutical industry along with a very real and relentless effort to educate those who have been misled by the religious right. Decisions need to be made based on solid medical science….not religious fear and bias. The problem is, the truth is obscured by unethical business practices and an under-funding of our safety net..

             The moral crime here is the people at the top of the profit margin in these companies are the very ones who get to avoid paying the taxes to fund our government. It translates into a public peril for everyone else…

            One of the priorities of the New Democratic Party should be to rebuild our regulatory agencies.

             

            1. Consumers have a healthy skepticism about the pronouncements of known liars. Just because someone wears a white coat in an ad, or plays a doctor on TV, doesn't mean that their health information is valid or without conflict of interest. That was also one of Stein's points.

              I will confess that I delayed some vaccinations for my two children, although they were fully immunized by the time they entered day care and public school. I did this not because I'm a religious right wing nut or a Boulder space case, but because I researched the literature thoroughly and determined that a delay of several months was at least not harmful, and might be helpful.

               I also questioned the value of common neonatal practices that seemed like torture to me – the slicing of the baby's soles with a razor blade to test for meningitis, or putting silver nitrate drops in newborn eyes to combat syphilis.  Not allowing those measures would probably make me a neglectful parent in many people's eyes.

              As a public school teacher now, I'm grateful for mandatory vaccinations, although I will never take another flu vaccine. The one I had made me as sick as I've ever been, even though the guys in white coats assured me that it was all in my imagination.

              We need more sites and public information like procon.org so that people can make informed decisions. We need to close the revolving door between the producers of vaccines and medicines, and the lobbying industry. Then we can trust their information more. And we need to beef up research and regulation, as Duke said.

               

               

              1. As per the flu vaccination, you need different doctors. It's long been well known that a certain percentage of people get sick from that. I've never encountered a doctor who claimed an adverse reaction must be imaginary. 

                If you are going to a doctor who claims that's the case, you need to find a competent doctor. I've always had great doctors for the simple reason that I look for them and if I don't feel comfortable with one I switch. I love my doctors and don't see them as "white coats" which you seem to use in a disparaging way.

                It also helps if you approach you're doctor or any service provider without a pre-conceived hostile attitude. I get great results approaching all such just by being nice. My doctors like me. I get great customer service. The clerks at the fish and meat counters go out of their way for me. It beats looking for things to be pissed off about.

                1. This is why I don't debate you, bluecat. You consistently assume and write this mysterious "knowledge" you have about my thinking, attitudes, and behaviors.

                  It was pretty clear for an unbiased person reading my posts that when I'm talking about "white coats", I'm talking about the paid shills and lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry, most of whom are literally actors in white coats.

                  But whatever. You're pretty certain, and have written, that I'm not nice to doctors and go around looking for things to be pissed off about.  Also that I'm a gullible Boulder liberal or a Bernie Buster. You enjoy insulting people without real knowledge, so I won't detract from your simple pleasures.

                  1. So there were guys in white coats in TV ads assuring you a bad reaction to a flu shot was in your imagination? Wow. I must have missed those ads. Never saw such a thing. Sorry for assuming you meant some doctor of yours must told you that.wink

              1. This is where you read it. Stein's point is the scientific /health point of view, which is that research on possible health effects of technologies should be done before people start getting sick, and that research is ongoing.

                To be clear, I’m a nerdy early adopter teacher who loves teaching with technology. I’m actually taking online training today on Edmodo, a platform which allows collaboration and online learning.
                But if I also want to know what are safe limits on hours per day using tablets or computers, and what the EMR (electro magnetic radiation) exposure is, and if I want to integrate technology with traditional books, lecture, notes, and group work, so kids also develop the ability to interact face to face with other humans, it doesn’t mean that I’m a luddite for asking those questions.

                The research on brains and cancer  (from National Cancer Institute) shows some risks from electromagnetic fields – some studies have shown connections between certain types of high-frequency EMR and cancer. Living near high powered lines is risky. So is wearing a bluetooth device constantly. Certain types of older computer screens emit EMR which can cause brain changes with prolonged exposure. So, although wifi servers in schools or homes haven't been shown to be a risk factor, a prudent scientist or doctor  is not necessarily a "nut" just because they will not make a blanket declaration that all EMR is safe for growing brains.

                 

                1. Wifi signals are nowhere near the levels some research has shown might cause problems. The level of danger represented by wifi signals is less than the danger represented by living near grass, or pine trees in the spring, or modest sugar intake.

                  1. Right, PR – and you'll notice that Dr. Stein didn't say that wifi was dangerous. She said

                    1. too much "staring at screens" is harmful to social and cognitive development. Anyone who's tried to have a conversation with a teen holding a phone knows this.

                    2. Throwing money into technology in schools is not necessarily promoting better education.  You can have a school with lots of tech where students primarily use the tech for playing games when they are through taking notes from textbooks. And you can have schools – most of them I've worked at – where there is not enough tech available to use more than once every 2 weeks.

                    And yes, there is plenty of money in educational technology. Apple became a giant multinational company partly from giving schools computers and getting a generation using Apple devices. Now we have workers in China's Apple factories jumping out of windows  because their lives are so miserable. Technology is a double-edged sword.

                    3. Stein's 3rd point is that in Europe, they actually take precautions to shield even wifi's modest server emissions, and they monitor it. She implies that we should be doing that in the US.

                    Hardly radical luddite stuff. I'm not voting for Stein, as I happen to agree that she's no more qualified than Trump is to be President. But I don't think the political community is well served by spreading unfounded rumors about her.

          2. Pretty straw doggie "nuance".  Who opposes real medical exemptions? There is zero contemplation of forcing the very tiny percentage of children for whom vax would be dangerous for specific medical reasons to get them.

            It's the ever increasing number of flakes in places like Boulder and well heeled 'burbs who assume enough kids other than their own will get vaxed so theirs don't have to with opposition to having their own do so (let's you and them protect my kids from awful diseaes even though we think vax is dangerous) based on their stubborn belief in discredited, anecdotal new agey excuses for "science" who are the problem. Stein's "nuanced" position gives these dangerous, selfish, entitled flakes encouragement.

            Apart from and regardless of this particular issue, however, I still don't see any qualifications for being President and Commander in Chief here. Especially compared to HRC.

            Apparently hardly anybody does as her inclusion in or exclusion from polls doesn't seem to affect HRC's numbers in any noticeable way.

  3. We can't let this celebration of Colorado Day pass without a couple of shout-outs.  1) being the first state in the union (Wyoming was a territory at the time) to give women the right to vote.  We stand today facing the very real possibility we'll elect the first woman to the highest office in the land, and 2) Colorado leadership in upending the status quo on our utterly-failed War on Drugs Colored People.  The passage of Amendment 64 was the shot heard round the world; today we now have over 30 states who have legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp and we're well down the road of descheduling the crop at the federal level.  Adult/recreational use is now supported by over half of the American public. 

    On this day in 2013 we celebrated another milestone, the one-year, seizure free condition (Dravet's syndrome) of Zaki Jackson who now has a very different life thanks to access to CBD oil (and a legal environment in Colorado for children).  Below is the picture of the flag flown over the US Capitol on July 4, 2103 – made from the same plant that is healing Zaki (pictured in front of the flag) and thousands of other children.  

    Let's give the Centennial state a great big hand of applause for both…

      1. Gray – the flag in the photo above was silk-screened so it didn't have the vibrancy to begin with (Adam Dunn made it for us at the last minute after we found a way to get it flown on the 4th).  The flag in the Harvesting Liberty video (flown over the Capitol this past Veterans Day) was dyed with indigo from South Carolina and the red from a plant grown in Missouri; they are vibrant and have retained their color.  

        Below is a picture of the flag from the video; you can see the difference between a natural dye and silkscreening.  The flag was given to Willie in Charlottesville this past May (after ceremonies at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello where Jefferson grew hemp) to hang permanently at the FarmAid offices.  Willie and Annie have been advocates of hemp in farming as long as they've been advocates for marijuana legalization. 

         

      2. Gray – hemp is one of the strongest natural fibers because of its long-chain carbon properties (it absorbs 4x more atmospheric CO2/acre than a standing forest).  The original Levi Strauss jeans made for the Sierra gold miners were made from hemp canvas.

  4. I see Trump has managed to gripe about a second fire marshal – this one in Columbus, Ohio.

    Also, the Chicago Tribune reports that a Trump staffer may have been responsible for the elevator malfunction last week; seems they cajoled the resort staff into giving them the key to the elevator, then turned it off in mid-flight.

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