October 27, 2017 11:26 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (October 27)

• 1 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Get ready for a weekend full of scary clown masks everywhere you look. It’s time to Get More Smarter. 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…

► Vice President Mike Pence came to Denver on Thursday for an event hosted by the Colorado Republican Party. Attendance for the event was not good, despite recent outreach from the State GOP and the availability of half-price tickets. Protestors outside the event, including a large group dressed as characters from “The Handmaid’s Tale,” ended up generating about as much publicity as Pence.

Pence used the occasion of his visit to Denver to promise “the largest tax cut in American history” by the end of this year.

► Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) has picked up support in his effort to investigate a committee created by President Trump to find election fraud examples that can support their narrative. As Blair Miller reports for Denver7:

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has taken up Sen. Michael Bennet’s request to review President Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

The GAO wrote back to Bennet Thursday saying it had accepted the request made last week by Bennet, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey to review the actions and motives of the commission, which was created in May after the president’s repeated, yet unsubstantiated, claims that millions voted illegally in last year’s election.

The GAO says it doesn’t anticipate it will have available staffing to address the probe for five months, however, and wrote to Bennet that the managing director of Homeland Security and Justice would get back in touch closer to that time to be sure it was still a priority…

…The senators asked that the GAO look into several things involving the commission: the amount of federal funding paid to the commission’s efforts and staffers; what the commission has done to address voter participation; the background information the commission is using in its analyses; its methodology; the steps it has taken to protect voter-roll information; and its adherence to federal regulations.

They also asked the GAO to complete its investigation within six months of the commission’s termination, though the exact date of that is unclear.

► More details are emerging about connections between Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign and Wikileaks.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► New documents about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were released on Thursday, and they were…not particularly interesting. As CNN reports:

In the end, what was supposed to be the final release of government secrets about the 1963 killing of President John F. Kennedy wasn’t quite the blockbuster splash that President Donald Trump had been promising…

…Once the 2,800 documents finally hit the website of the National Archives at just after 7.30 p.m., there were some fascinating historical nuggets surrounding Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, his murderer Jack Ruby and even a tantalizing walk-on part by Marilyn Monroe.

But the bigger story lay in what is still missing, unknown and secret.

The big reveal didn’t live up to its billing because spy agency officials successfully pleaded with Trump to hold back 300 or so files, forcing him to set up yet another classified review process — this one lasting six months.

The Washington Post has more on what was revealed in the newly-released documents.

► Here are the latest ballot return numbers for the 2017 election.

► Colorado Christian University is hosting a “rally” in support of a Lakewood cake shop owner who sparked a Supreme Court hearing over his refusal to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple.

► President Trump is blowing his racist dog whistle in support of the gubernatorial candidacy of Virginia Republican Ed Gillespie.

► President Trump’s attacks on the Affordable Care Act are causing significant health care cost increases. From the Huffington Post:

Enrollment on health insurance exchanges like HealthCare.gov begins Nov. 1 and runs until Dec. 15 in most states; a few have later deadlines. Consumers who use these exchanges or purchase their coverage directly from a health insurance company or through a broker can expect to see large rate hikes when they shop for plans. Prices already were set to rise before Trump’s action exacerbated the problem.

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation studied documents that health insurance carriers submitted to regulators in 32 states and the District of Columbia. These documents detail price changes for health insurance policies and the justification for those changes.

► Fox News may have the attention of President Trump, but advertising revenues are plummeting for the conservative network. 

► Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) is pushing to triple the tax breaks families receive from the child tax credit.

► The nomination of Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison Eid to the 10th U.S. District Court of Appeals continues to advance.

► Broomfield officials want more local control over oil and gas drilling decisions.

► Here’s another reason to support the legalization of marijuana.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► President Trump’s deliberations on picking a new Federal Reserve Chairman are playing out like a reality TV show. 

► DaVita CEO and one-time gubernatorial hopeful Kent Thiry is backing — and presumably bankrolling — an effort to change the redistricting/reapportionment process in Colorado. Ironically, Thiry’s involvement essentially destroys the last bit of the group’s message that this is a non-partisan effort.

ICYMI

► Insert your own jokes about how we might already be living in an “Upside-Down World.”

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