The Denver Broncos could be [squints] 3-0 after this weekend. 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.
► The Big Lie is getting increasingly difficult to sustain. The shady Arizona election audit that was supposed to show that Donald Trump actually received more votes than Joe Biden in the 2020 election turned out to be a complete bust.
“Huge findings in Arizona! However, the Fake News Media is already trying to ‘call it’ again for Biden before actually looking at the facts—just like they did in November!” Trump said, invoking once again his baseless claim that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.
As a reminder, the Arizona audit was initiated by the Republican-controlled State Senate and overseen by a Florida company called “Cyber Ninjas” with longstanding ties to proponents of The Big Lie. This audit couldn’t have been more friendly toward Trump if it had allowed Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner to count the votes personally.
► Maps, maps, maps!
Colorado’s Independent Redistricting Commissions released new drafts of legislative and congressional maps on Thursday. As Alex Burness reports for The Denver Post:
The independent panel tasked with redrawing Colorado’s new congressional lines has until Tuesday to make up its mind. And the panel doing the same for state House and Senate districts isn’t far behind, with an Oct. 11 deadline looming.
Both commissions released new proposals Thursday. The congressional map, which includes the new 8th District in the suburbs north of Denver, would give Democrats an edge of at least seven points in four districts, according to aggregated results from recent elections. Republicans would control three districts, and the 8th District would essentially be a tossup — though elections since 2016 suggest a 1.3% advantage for Democrats.
► Frontline workers, people over the age of 65, and anyone with underlying health conditions who have already received the Pfizer vaccines are being encouraged to get a third booster shot.
► A third, and perhaps final, version of a Congressional redistricting map is expected to be introduced today by nonpartisan staff of the Colorado Independent Redistricting Commission. A new draft version of a legislative redistricting map is also supposed to arrive today. As The Associated Press reports:
Colorado’s independent congressional redistricting commission has entered the final stretch in fashioning a map for the next decade that incorporates a new eighth district and tries to keep intact communities of interest, such as Hispanic and Latino voters and urban and rural economic interests. That and avoiding splitting cities and counties into separate districts headlined commission discussions Wednesday…
…Commissioners have a Sept. 28 deadline to approve a map and must submit it to the state Supreme Court by Oct. 1.
Final approval by the 12-member commission requires at least eight “yes” votes, including two unaffiliated commissioners. If the commission fails to submit a final map next week, a staff map must be submitted, without amendments, for judicial review. The court must approve a congressional redistricting map by Dec. 15, 2021.
► Congressperson Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert continues to make national news for all the wrong reasons. We wrote earlier this week about ongoing questions about her campaign finance practices. The Washington Post finally figured out a cryptic part of her most recent filing correction:
A report her campaign submitted to the FEC on Tuesday specified that Boebert had made those four payments — two each of $2,000 and two each of $1,325 — to John Pacheco, and described them as rent and utilities “billed to [the] campaign via Venmo in error.” The report also noted that Boebert had reimbursed her campaign for those expenses, and that those reimbursements would be reported in the next FEC filing period.
In the report, Boebert’s campaign listed Pacheco’s address as 120 E. 3rd St. in Rifle, Colo. — the same address as Shooters Grill, a restaurant Boebert and her husband own, as well as a former marijuana dispensary next door that was converted into Boebert’s campaign office. However, no public records show Pacheco affiliated with that address. A deed shows Pacheco as the owner of a two-bedroom townhouse on Capitol Hill, and interior pictures from a Zillow listing for that townhouse show elements that match the background from recent interviews Boebert has given from home.
Reached by phone Thursday, Pacheco confirmed Boebert was his tenant in Washington but said he had “no idea” whether her rent money had been paid through her campaign or about anything regarding the amended FEC reports.
Who hasn’t at one time or another accidentally listed their Washington D.C. landlord as living at their Rifle, Colorado restaurant? Amirite?
► Ian Silverii, a Denver Post columnist and co-host of The Get More Smarter Podcast, was on MSNBC on Thursday evening to talk about Rep. Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert:
“This is the entire problem—she’s a failed businessperson and she’s using her campaign funds to paper it over,” says the Denver Post’s Ian Silverii on Rep. Boebert spending campaign money on her restaurant Shooters Grill. https://t.co/91NvElZH3y
What was the rejected slogan? “Chuck Grassley: I Mean, He’s Already There.”
► As POLITICO reports, the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has issued subpoenas for four members of former President Trump’s inner circle:
The committee issued its first subpoenas on Thursday to [former Chief of Staff Mark] Meadows; former Pentagon official and longtime House Intelligence Committee aide Kash Patel; former top White House adviser Steve Bannon; and longtime Trump social media chief Dan Scavino. It marks a turning point in the investigation as lawmakers begin homing in on Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
► The Colorado Times Recorder reports on new polling data showing that Coloradans support President Biden’s plan to increase spending on fighting Climate Change.
► Jesse Paul of The Colorado Sun reports on a late effort to block a ballot initiative from appearing on the ballot next month:
The head of a liberal-leaning fiscal policy organization and a Summit County commissioner filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to block one of three statewide measures set to appear on the November ballot, arguing the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office inappropriately approved the question and that any votes for it shouldn’t be counted.
Scott Wasserman, of the Bell Policy Center, and Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue claim that Amendment 78, which would require more legislative oversight over how money from legal settlements and the federal government is spent, should be able to appear only on even-year ballots. That’s because odd-year elections in Colorado are supposed to be reserved for questions that have to do with the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Amendment 78, the plaintiffs assert, is not a TABOR question.
► As Ernest Luning reports for the publication formerly known as The Colorado Statesman, Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters’ efforts to raise money for her legal defense is probably not something she can legally continue.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office asked a Mesa County District Court judge again this week to officially keep county Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters from overseeing the November election and instead appoint former Secretary of State Wayne Williams.
It’s the latest in a legal tangle over allegations that Peters let an unauthorized man access a secure area at the county election office on May 25, and that a QAnon conspiracy theory leader published passwords from the voting systems online in early August.
Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Mesa County resident Heidi Jeanne Hess filed a lawsuit Aug. 30 to keep Peters and Deputy Clerk and Recorder Belinda Knisley from handling the next election.
Last week, Peters — who had been out of the state for more than a month and has become popular among 2020 election conspiracy theorists — responded to the lawsuit by providing to commissioners and the court a report that alleges wrongdoing by the secretary of state’s office and says that a state upgrade wiped out election records that elections officials are required to keep.
► Former President Trump is not a complicated man. Eventually, Trump turns his back on every one of his friends — including those who were most loyal to him. As Chris Cillizza writes for CNN:
That time came on Thursday for South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has sacrificed much over the past four years to ingratiate himself with Trump, in the wake of the release of “Peril,” a book on Trump’s final year in office.
The book by authors Bob Woodward and Robert Costa documents Graham’s repeated — and unsuccessful — attempts to convince Trump to concede the 2020 election.
Trump, naturally, responded by savaging Graham, as well as fellow Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.
“I spent virtually no time with Senators Mike Lee of Utah, or Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, talking about the 2020 Presidential Election Scam or, as it is viewed by many, the ‘Crime of the Century,'” Trump wrote in a statement sent via his Save America PAC. “Lindsey and Mike should be ashamed of themselves for not putting up the fight necessary to win.” [Pols emphasis]
Trump’s heel-turn on Graham should surprise no one — least of all Graham himself. After all, the South Carolina senator had a prime view over the last few years of how nothing and no one is ever good enough for Trump. Everyone, eventually, lets him down. He is the only one truly dedicated to fighting the, uh, good fight.
It will be a competitive district for sure; The Thornton and Broomfield people will compete with the Weld and Windsor gassed-up gunheads. RMGO is going to be trying to field candidates and initiatives posturing as the working-class spokespeople.
I don’t think the actual voters will buy it. But that’s going to be up to the Democrats to put out a more truthful narrative and to register a highly mobile population and get out the vote.
Any map that comes forward is going to have trade-offs. The 3rd staff plan is not horrible if/when it becomes the official map. Having said that I have advocated to the Commission other places to put CD8. I am hoping at their meeting today (which has been extended to discuss some public-submitted maps) they will discuss my last map I submitted which puts CD in DougCo and western ArapCo. The goal of the map (among other things) was to get at least the northern DougCo Communities into a suburban district rather than an Eastern plains one. This map actually gets all of Dougco in with the suburbs. It should be in the Map Gal;lery on the Commission’s website if any one wants to see it. it is labeled “Last Willis – I Promise” (I’ve submitted a few different ideas over the past few weeks. 🙂 )
Psaki says Biden has decided he will NOT invoke executive privilege on Trump’s behalf to shield any of his White House records from the Jan. 6 committee.
Context: Current law says sitting president has a role in deciding whether predecessor records are privileged. If he and Trump disagree, Trump has 60 days to take it to court.
This creates yet another legal battlefront for Trump, which is great. He must be hemorrhaging legal fees about now. Plus, he shows his hand if he takes this to court.
I think if it's Rudy or Sidney Powell or some other clown just throwing out the daily bullshit, he'll never pay, as he shouldn't. If it is something more serious like Donny protecting his tattered image or supposed wealth, or not going to jail I am pretty sure he's going to pay up and pay well.
Chuck has been in elected office since before I was born (and I’m no spring chicken). I’m not a strong proponent of term limits but if re-elected he won’t be able to find the bathroom before the end of his next term. I’d make the bet there’s a bigger play here that involves his grandson, currently serving as the Iowa Speaker of the House.
September 24, 2021 09:39 AM UTC
11 Comments
The Denver Broncos could be [squints] 3-0 after this weekend. Let’s Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (
► Maps, maps, maps!
RIP Natalie Meyer.
I had a lot of inactions with her when she was Sec. of State. Didn’t always agree with her, but I sure as hell respected and liked her.
Though it did sometimes take the courts to keep her in line.
I stopped trusting claims of the Israeli military after their attack on the USS Liberty.
Regarding the latest proposed CD8 https://redistricting.colorado.gov/rails/active_storage/blobs/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBcTBDIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19–a7adf65e399289f88b75907fad84083b3ddba31d/CD8_Third_Staff_Plan.pdf, which Dano says is a keeper, it is a clearly industrial and oil and gas district, taking up the I25 corridor and the southern portions of the gas patch, as well as a lot of meat and dairy industry. It’s the “environmental racism” district, in as much as pollution will land in the front yards, vital organs, and lungs of poor, working class, and brown folks.
It will be a competitive district for sure; The Thornton and Broomfield people will compete with the Weld and Windsor gassed-up gunheads. RMGO is going to be trying to field candidates and initiatives posturing as the working-class spokespeople.
I don’t think the actual voters will buy it. But that’s going to be up to the Democrats to put out a more truthful narrative and to register a highly mobile population and get out the vote.
Any map that comes forward is going to have trade-offs. The 3rd staff plan is not horrible if/when it becomes the official map. Having said that I have advocated to the Commission other places to put CD8. I am hoping at their meeting today (which has been extended to discuss some public-submitted maps) they will discuss my last map I submitted which puts CD in DougCo and western ArapCo. The goal of the map (among other things) was to get at least the northern DougCo Communities into a suburban district rather than an Eastern plains one. This map actually gets all of Dougco in with the suburbs. It should be in the Map Gal;lery on the Commission’s website if any one wants to see it. it is labeled “Last Willis – I Promise” (I’ve submitted a few different ideas over the past few weeks. 🙂 )
Maybe put them all on the No Fly list once they land?
Budapest? Seriously? Cool! Orbán will love them. They’re his kind of people.
Psaki says Biden has decided he will NOT invoke executive privilege on Trump’s behalf to shield any of his White House records from the Jan. 6 committee.
Context: Current law says sitting president has a role in deciding whether predecessor records are privileged. If he and Trump disagree, Trump has 60 days to take it to court.
This has never been litigated before.
This creates yet another legal battlefront for Trump, which is great. He must be hemorrhaging legal fees about now. Plus, he shows his hand if he takes this to court.
No skin off his nose. He never pays them.
I think if it's Rudy or Sidney Powell or some other clown just throwing out the daily bullshit, he'll never pay, as he shouldn't. If it is something more serious like Donny protecting his tattered image or supposed wealth, or not going to jail I am pretty sure he's going to pay up and pay well.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, 88, to seek re-election in Iowa
Chuck has been in elected office since before I was born (and I’m no spring chicken). I’m not a strong proponent of term limits but if re-elected he won’t be able to find the bathroom before the end of his next term. I’d make the bet there’s a bigger play here that involves his grandson, currently serving as the Iowa Speaker of the House.