July 14, 2021 09:53 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (July 14)

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• by: Colorado Pols

It was fun while it lasted; now we can go back to not having professional baseball in Colorado. Let’s 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 an audio learner, check out The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to find us on Facebook and Twitter. 

CORONAVIRUS INFO…

*Colorado Coronavirus info:
CDPHE Coronavirus website 

*Daily Coronavirus numbers in Colorado:
http://covid19.colorado.gov

*How you can help in Colorado:
COVRN.com

*Locate a COVID-19 testing site in Colorado:
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment 

*Coloradans can now get a COVID-19 vaccine at one of six locations without a prior appointment. 

► President Biden used a speech on Tuesday to make the case that Republicans are attempting an all-out assault on voting rights in this country. As The Washington Post explains:

President Biden on Tuesday delivered his most forceful condemnation yet of the wave of voting restrictions proposed in Republican-led states nationwide — efforts the president argued are the biggest threat to American democracy since the Civil War.

Biden’s speech was an attempt to inject new life into flagging efforts to pass federal legislation addressing the issue. But while he intensified his explanation of the stakes, his speech did not include a call for the Senate to change the filibuster, which is seen by advocates as the best, and perhaps only, way to usher in the kinds of changes Biden is seeking.

At the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, in a room filled with images of Benjamin Franklin and quotes from Daniel Webster and Theodore Roosevelt, Biden compared the new laws to voter suppression by the KKK and to the Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised nearly all voters who were not White or male. He railed against laws that restrict access — calling them “raw and sustained election subversion” — and said that the 2022 midterm elections could highlight the damaging impacts of the new laws.

But as The Washington Post reports in a separate story, many progressives aren’t particularly pleased with the fact that Biden left out a very key point in his speech:

“On voting rights, President Joe Biden is failing to meet the moment,” said Adam Jentleson, who worked for former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and now heads the Battle Born Collective, a progressive group.

The problem isn’t how Biden describes the threat he perceives from Republican efforts to roll back electoral practices they blame for their 2020 White House loss, partly by empowering their partisans to oversee and overrule the results.

It’s that he hasn’t sided with the left in calling for an end, or a significant change, to the parliamentary tactic thwarting Democratic legislation in the 50-50 Senate — the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to get bills to passage.

These are legitimate criticisms. The Senate can move forward with passing a big voting rights package that has already made it through the House of Representatives, but it probably can’t happen unless the filibuster or the 60-vote threshold is changed.

► As The Denver Post reports, a whole bunch of restaurants in Colorado got big money from COVID relief funds:

This spring and summer, 1,762 restaurants, bars, breweries, wineries and caterers in Colorado received a combined $480 million in grants from the federal government — money that doesn’t need to be repaid and can be spent on a wide array of business expenses.

Four Colorado businesses received $10 million each, the largest amount possible: Mission Yogurt, based in Westminster; The Kitchen American Bistros in Boulder, which has four restaurants and is owned by Elon Musk’s brother; Breckenridge-Wynkoop breweries in the Denver metro; and Illegal Pete’s, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Small Business Administration under the Freedom of Information Act.

Among the 75 largest beneficiaries in the state – which received a combined $191 million – 74 are along the Front Range (the other is in Aspen). In Denver, 423 companies received $183 million. In Boulder, 97 took in $47 million. In Colorado Springs, 139 businesses received $33 million.

► As CNN’s Chris Cillizza explains, the final days of the Trump Presidency were even worse than you thought:

This is, in sum, a man deeply unfit for the presidency. (That is not a partisan statement. It is a statement of fact based on the clear portrait we have of how Trump behaved while in the most powerful office in the country.) A man who, by his inability to understand the sanctity of the office he held, threatened to destroy that sanctity for those who would follow him into the White House. And a man who was, without any question, an active danger for every single American – whether they supported or opposed him.

► Colorado Independent Redistricting Commissioners heard from constituents at a public hearing in Arvada on Tuesday…and much of what they heard was not positive toward the initial new maps presented last month.

Click below to keep learning stuff…

And Now, More Words…

► Child tax credit payments are scheduled to begin going out to American families on Thursday, part of an ambitious plan that could cut child poverty in this country by half. Axios explains how to make sure you claim your slice of the pie.

► HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge was in Colorado to discuss proposals for increasing affordable housing options.

► The Major League Baseball All-Star Game is over, but the lies are still going:

This is incorrect.

Last election, CO was 2nd in the nation for turnout, with an average in-person wait time of 7 minutes on Election Day. That’s because we mail a ballot to every voter, have 390+ drop boxes and early voting, and want eligible people to make their voices heard. https://t.co/OPRLgDQFTg

— Jena Griswold (@JenaGriswold) July 14, 2021

► Jenna Ellis, a Colorado woman who was one of the “attorneys” who assisted with “legal challenges” to the 2020 election on behalf of Donald Trump, says she is leaving the Republican Party because it is insufficiently crazy for her.

► As The New York Times reports, President Biden will meet with Democrats on Capitol Hill to discuss a $3.5 trillion budget proposal:

With Senate Democrats coalescing around a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint, lawmakers and White House aides plan on Wednesday to begin fleshing out what could be a transformative piece of social legislation — which extends the reach of public education and health care, taxes the rich and addresses the warming planet.

President Biden plans to go to the Capitol for a lunchtime rallying of the Democratic troops, all of whom must remain in lock-step agreement for the budget proposal to pass, paving the way for the party to push through much of his economic agenda over Republican opposition.

A final vote could be months away and will face multiple hurdles, but for now, Democrats and their independent allies insist they are together.

“This is in our view a pivotal moment in American history,” declared Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont and chairman of the Budget Committee. “For a very long time, the American people have seen the very rich getting richer and government developing policies, which allow them to pay, in some cases, not a nickel in federal income taxes. They’ve seen corporations make huge profits — in some cases, they’re not paying a nickel in taxes.”

He added, “What this legislation says, among many, many other things, is that those days are gone.”

► As a new wave of COVID-19 infections ravages unvaccinated parts of the country, local Republican officials are responding in completely counter-productive ways. In Missouri, Gov. Mike Parson is accusing health officials in Southwest Missouri of trying to scare people about COVID-19 as hospitals are overwhelmed by new cases — many resulting in death for people in their 20s and 30s.

In Tennessee, where COVID-19 is running rampant, the state’s top health official was canned for doing too much to encourage vaccinations among younger residents.

Here in Colorado, vaccination levels reached a new low in Mesa County as Western Colorado politicians and activists continue to pretend that COVID-19 doesn’t exist.

► Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is raising historical ridiculous sums of money for his re-election campaign, reporting $1.5 million cash on hand after the Q2 fundraising period.

► Denver’s Catholic archbishop is telling politicians whether or not they are allowed to receive communion.

► Masks will be optional when Colorado State University starts classes this fall, but vaccinations will not.

► As The Colorado Sun reports, there IS a way to deal with water shortages and severe drought…we just don’t do enough of it: Watering rules for outdoor areas.

► Westminster Police Chief Tim Carlson is on paid leave while the city investigates reports of a toxic workplace environment within the police department.

► Mesa County Sheriff Matt Lewis is leaving the Sheriff’s office in August.

► As POLITICO reports, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing for a federal legalization of marijuana, though resistance from both parties could make his effort tough to sustain.

Say What, Now?

Everyone should carry around a copy of the Constitution.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► If former President Trump had his way, we would have been executing Americans he didn’t like in 2020.

► Really, George P. Bush?

he called your dad an embarrassment to your family https://t.co/CfcBVQj00Q

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 13, 2021

ICYMI

► Get a grip, Mesa County.

► This week on The Get More Smarter Podcast, Andrew Baumann of Global Strategies Group stops by to give us the details on new polling data that looks really, really good for Colorado Democrats.

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