November 01, 2021 11:39 AM UTC
Get More Smarter on Monday (November 1)
3 Comments- by: Colorado Pols
The Denver Broncos are trading longtime standout linebacker Von Miller to the Los Angeles Rams for a couple of future draft picks. 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
► If you still have a ballot sitting at home, DO NOT drop it in the mail!!! At this point, you must take your ballot to a certified drop box location before 7:00 pm on Tuesday. Visit GoVoteColorado.com to locate a ballot drop box near you.
If you need more information before casting your ballot, check out these endorsements from The Denver Post. If you need a little extra encouragement, how about one-cent joints?
► The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments related to a restrictive abortion law implemented last summer in Texas. As The New York Times reports:
After almost three hours of lively arguments, a majority of the justices seemed inclined to allow abortion providers — but perhaps not the Biden administration — to pursue a challenge to a Texas law that has sharply curtailed abortions in the state.
That would represent an important shift from a 5-to-4 ruling in September that allowed the law to go into effect. Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who were in the majority in that ruling, asked questions suggesting that they thought the novel structure of the Texas law justified allowing the providers to challenge it.
In related news, this isn’t a great message for Rep. Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert to be carrying on behalf of the Republican Party. Remember: The majority of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Some other Colorado Republicans have been less interested in addressing Roe v. Wade directly in speaking about the issue of abortion. Gubernatorial hopeful Hiedi Heidi Ganahl says only that she is “pro life,” while some of the GOP candidates for U.S. Senate have generally tried to avoid the topic.
► The Washington Post details “187 minutes of inaction” in breaking down former President Trump’s lack of response during the Jan. 6 insurrection:
The Capitol was under siege — and the president, glued to the television, did nothing. For 187 minutes, Trump resisted entreaties to intervene from advisers, allies and his elder daughter, as well as lawmakers under attack. Even as the violence at the Capitol intensified, even after Vice President Mike Pence, his family and hundreds of Congress members and their staffers hid to protect themselves, even after the first two people died and scores of others were assaulted, Trump declined for more than three hours to tell the renegades rioting in his name to stand down and go home…
…Trump watched the attack play out on television and resisted acting, neither to coordinate a federal response nor to instruct his supporters to disperse. He all but abdicated his responsibilities as commander in chief — a president reduced to mere bystander. The tweets Trump sent during the first two hours of rioting were muddled at best. He disavowed violence but encouraged his supporters to press on with their fight at the Capitol. And throughout, he repeated the lie that the election was stolen.
► As Charles Ashby reports for The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, election misinformation is a shared problem in Colorado:
Embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters continuously repeats falsehoods about how Colorado elections are conducted, local and state officials say.
From questioning why passwords are kept secret to barcodes that are being phased out that are used to tabulate only a fraction of all ballots while simultaneously criticizing using machines to count them, Peters is relying on voter-fraud conspiracy theories and ignoring how elections are actually conducted, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office and others say.
“Colorado is considered the nation’s leader in election security,” Secretary of State Jena Griswold said. “Clerk Peters is incorrect, and compromised the entire Mesa County election system to try to prove conspiracy theories.”As a result, local and state election officials are concerned that Peters’ false statements about how elections actually are conducted are leaving some voters to question them.
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► It’s possible that Republican gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl is running such a terrible campaign that it has prompted other no-name Republicans to make their own half-assed efforts at seeking the top job in Colorado.
► Congressperson Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert and the rest of her Qaucus seem to think it is cute to continually advocate for violence and explosions.
► Alex Burness of The Denver Post takes a long look at prostitution laws in Colorado:
…others interviewed by The Denver Post said they believe the current prohibition of prostitution in Colorado (and the rest of the country except for 10 counties in Nevada) leaves workers vulnerable to physical and economic danger, problems law enforcement officials say anti-prostitution laws are meant to alleviate.
A Denver Post investigation involving more than 25 interviews found broad support for the goal of stopping those predatory crimes. But it also found that criminalizing sex work in the name of preventing exploitation can have the effect of endangering sex workers and driving them to the fringes. There, a host of problems — mental health decline, violence, worker-buyer power imbalance, social isolation — can fester and compound.
A system meant to punish exploitation has also helped create profound stigma that discourages legal and illegal sex workers from advocating for their own needs in statehouses, city halls, police departments, courts and media. This is especially true for the poor, people of color and transgender people, academic analyses of crime data show.
► There is a lot more activity in supporting off-year ballot measures than in their opposition, as Jesse Paul writes for The Colorado Sun:
Colorado Republicans, as they have fallen out of power at the statehouse and in the congressional delegation, have begun placing more emphasis on passing ballot measures to advance their policy agenda. Democrats don’t seem all that interested — at least this year — in trying to stop them, in large part because it’s expensive and difficult to try to fight a tax cut.
It’s even harder to try to do it year after year after year, liberals say.
“There’s a lot more interest from billionaires in funding tax cuts than tax hikes,” said Ian Silverii, a Democratic campaign consultant. [Pols emphasis]
► Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) is co-sponsoring legislation to set a minimum tax on profits made by large corporations.
► As The Associated Press reports, the Biden administration is doing more to understand the link between emissions and Climate Change:
U.S. government regulators for the first time will analyze greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas drilling on federal lands on a national scale, as the Biden administration steps up efforts to address climate change, the Interior Department said Friday.
The announcement comes as officials are set to hold lease sales in numerous Western states next year amid a fierce debate over federal fossil fuel reserves.
Interior’s Bureau of Land Management released a report saying oil, gas and coal extraction from federal lands produced more than 1 billion tons (918 million metric tons) of greenhouse gases last year. That’s about one-fifth of all U.S. energy-related emissions.
► Ernest Luning of the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman talks with Marina Zimmerman, a Republican hoping to unseat Rep. Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert in CO-03.
► Cindy Ficklin, a Republican running for the state legislature on the Western Slope, might be trying to set a new standard for MAGA and Qanon craziness.
► Shad Murib is stepping down as Sen. John Hickenlooper’s State Director to pursue other opportunities.
► 9News reports on a new executive order from Gov. Jared Polis:
Polis has signed an executive order allowing the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to order hospitals and freestanding emergency departments to stop admitting or transfer patients as capacities are threatened amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
It comes as hospitals across the state struggle to treat an influx of patients caused by an increase in COVID-19 cases due to the highly contagious delta variant and people who have not been vaccinated. On Sunday, hospital capacity across the state was less than 10%.
The order applies to hospitals that have reached capacity or are anticipated to reach capacity and is intended to “ensure that Coloradans have adequate health care while protecting hospitals’ ability to serve people with COVID-19 and other conditions.”
It’s up to CDPHE to decide whether a facility is at or anticipated to reach capacity, according to the order, and to authorize the hospital or emergency department to refuse patients or transfer them to a facility designated by CDPHE.
► Donald Trump is touting his connections to Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin on the eve of Virginia’s big election.
Say What, Now?
Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
► More reason to never live in Florida, from The Associated Press:
The University of Florida is prohibiting three professors from providing expert testimony in a lawsuit challenging a new law that critics claim restricts voting rights, saying it goes against the school’s interest by conflicting with the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Though the decision is being criticized as threat to academic freedom and free speech, the university said in a statement Saturday that allowing professors Dan Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Austin to serve as paid experts for plaintiffs challenging the law would be “adverse to the university’s interests as a state of Florida institution.”
“The University of Florida has a long track record of supporting free speech and our faculty’s academic freedom, and we will continue to do so,” the statement said.
…just, you know, not in this case.
► Leaders for France and Australia are sniping at each other.
ICYMI
► As Dana Milbank writes for The Washington Post, Congressional Republicans are going out of their way to make sure that they can voice their opposition TO EVERYTHING:
At 7:30 Thursday morning, White House officials rolled out President Biden’s roughly $1.75 trillion framework to cut taxes for ordinary Americans and make it easier for them to afford health care and housing, send their kids to prekindergarten and college, and adopt clean new power for their homes and cars.
An hour later came the Republican response, from the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. It was succinct and to the point: “F— Joe Biden.”
Technically, the message, a tweet from McConnell press secretary Doug Andres, showed a photo of a roadside sign that said “Let’s go Brandon.” For the uninitiated, that’s a MAGA meme in which the phrase stands for the slightly homophonous “F— Joe Biden.” It’s a way to flip the bird at the president “without running afoul of technology censors,” as the right-wing Washington Times put it.
The substitute phrase has been chanted at rallies for Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin; used by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Republican Reps. Bill Posey of Florida (on the House floor) and Jim Banks of Indiana, and Donald Trump Jr.; and, on Thursday, adopted by the former president himself. He offered “Let’s Go Brandon” T-shirts for those sending at least $45 to his grifter organization Save America.
Think about that.
Democrats clear the way for passage of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that will provide broadband Internet and lead-free drinking water to every American, and better roads, bridges and ports for all to enjoy. And Republicans reply: Let’s go Brandon. [Pols emphasis]
► This week on The Get More Smarter Podcast, hosts Jason Bane and Ian Silverii interview State Representative/Doctor/Congressional Candidate Yadira Caraveo and ask her if she plans to pick up a fourth job anytime soon.
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"The University of Florida is prohibiting three professors from providing expert testimony in a lawsuit challenging a new law"
If these were Republicans this news would be bombarding out emails and Twitter feeds. Since they are not, we must read about below the fold in a politics blog. (I know, it was covered by the AP; still…).
It sounds, preliminarily, like the Supreme Court isn't comfortable with Texas S.B.8's design to avoid Federal Court review. They aren't happy with targeting court officials (being they're the only vulnerable state actors in the bill), but a ruling might define some way to file suit against bills like these that seek to evade court challenges.
I just saw this on The Bulwark. The author comes across as pro-birth, but outlines how this law opens up a big ol’ can of worms:https://www.thebulwark.com/the-administration-of-abortion-laws-and-more/