May 20, 2022 10:45 AM UTC
Get More Smarter on Friday (May 20)
3 Comments- by: Colorado Pols
Enjoy the slush. 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
► Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, really worked overtime in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election. As The Washington Post reports:
Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Arizona lawmakers after the 2020 election to set aside Joe Biden’s popular-vote victory and choose “a clean slate of Electors,” according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.
The emails, sent by Ginni Thomas to a pair of lawmakers on Nov. 9, 2020, argued that legislators needed to intervene because the vote had been marred by fraud. Though she did not mention either candidate by name, the context was clear…
…The messages show that Thomas, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, was more deeply involved in the effort to overturn Biden’s win than has been previously reported. In sending the emails, Thomas played a role in the extraordinary scheme to keep Trump in office by substituting the will of legislatures for the will of voters.
Thomas’s actions also underline concerns about potential conflicts of interest that her husband has already faced — and may face in the future — in deciding cases related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Those questions intensified in March, when The Post and CBS News obtained text messages that Thomas sent in late 2020 to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, pressing him to help reverse the election.
► As The Colorado Sun reports for its “Unaffiliated” newsletter, Governor Jared Polis says he may push lawmakers to further delay implementation of a new gas tax depending on the state of the economy.
► The District Attorney who covers Mesa County — Republican Dan Rubenstein — said on Thursday that election conspiracy theories promoted by Mesa County Clerk and Recorder (and Secretary of State candidate) Tina Peters are complete nonsense and without merit. In fact, as The Associated Press reports:
There was “extensive evidence” that Peters’ conclusions were false and no proof found of outside election interference, Rubinstein wrote in a summary to commissioners.
Unfortunately, this probably won’t stop Peters from continuing to issue her “reports.” Her “report #4” is right around the corner.
► Republicans in Colorado’s Congressional delegation talk a big game about the need to increase production of baby formula, but when it comes time to vote…they vanish. Republicans Lauren Boebert, Ken Buck, and Doug Lamborn voted NO on a $28 million funding bill to increase production. Boebert was also one of only NINE REPUBLICANS TOTAL who voted against legislation intended to make it easier for low-income families to purchase baby formula.
As Denver7 reports:
When asked Thursday why Boebert voted against both measures – despite chastising the administration in a tweet about the formula shortage on May 12 – she claimed the Biden administration and Democrats created the issue. Abbott has maintained no evidence shows its formula and plant caused the death of the infants, but the FDA investigation is ongoing.
“Increasing salaries for FDA bureaucrats without addressing the production and supply chain issues isn’t going to solve the shortage,” Boebert said in a statement. “Democrats should be shamed for offering false hope messaging bills, and not real solutions for moms and dads trying to feed their children.”
Nobody is preventing Boebert from offering up her own solution or legislation.
► We made a small, but significant, adjustment to “The Big Line” on Thursday. For the first time this cycle, we moved Greg Lopez ahead of Hiedi Heidi Ganahl in the race for Governor. Neither Lopez nor Ganahl are likely to defeat incumbent Democrat Jared Polis, but it’s looking like Lopez might have a better chance of winning the GOP nomination on June 28.
Speaking of Lopez, he has a (not cool) idea for destroying Democracy in order to give Republicans an advantage in Colorado that even they couldn’t screw up.
Click below to keep learning things…
Check Out All This Other Stuff To Know…
► Kyle Clark of 9News takes note of the fact that Rep. Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert has regularly spouted her belief in “replacement theory,” which became a big topic after last weekend’s mass shooting in Buffalo, NY:
► Colorado Public Radio has some ominous news as the summer wildfire season approaches: It’s getting harder to find (and retain) firefighters.
► The evidence showing that Donald Trump and his allies tried to orchestrate a coup continues to mount…and it keeps getting worse for former University of Colorado “visiting scholar” John Eastman:
POLITICO has more on this story, which ties Eastman to a growing list of Trumpians.
► Dana Milbank of The Washington Post tries to explain what went wrong for Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik:
Now Stefanik has thrown her support, as the No. 3 House GOP leader, behind a proposal to “expunge” Trump’s impeachment for his role in the insurrection. She has joined a small group of extreme backbenchers as co-sponsors of the resolution, which casts doubt again on President Biden’s “seeming” win, citing “voting anomalies.” The resolution has no purpose (there’s no constitutional way to expunge impeachment) other than to sow further distrust of democracy.
It’s a story told a thousand times: Ambitious Republican official abandons principle to advance in Trump’s GOP. But perhaps nobody’s fall from promise, and integrity, has been as spectacular as the 37-year-old Stefanik’s. “I was just so shocked she would go down such a dark path,” said her former champion, Bridgeland. “No power, no position is worth the complete loss of your integrity. It was just completely alarming to me to watch this transformation. I got a lot of notes saying, ‘What happened to her?’ ”
The answer is simple: “Quest for power,” Bridgeland said. “But power without principle is a pretty dark place to go. She wanted to climb the Republican ranks and she has, but … she’s climbed the ladder on the back of lies about the election that are undermining trust in elections, putting people’s lives at risk.”
► MAGA buddy Madison Cawthorn lost his job in Congress after Tuesday’s Republican Primary in North Carolina. Cawthorn is a good friend of Rep. Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert, and one of the groups that went after him is now promising to take out Boebert as well.
► As The Colorado Sun reports in its “Unaffiliated” newsletter, Colorado Republicans are going all-in on a strategy of bashing Denver:
“A toilet bowl.” “A city that no one wants to come to.” “There’s nobody out there that says Denver’s great anymore.”
Those are three takes from three different Colorado House Republicans last week on the Mile High City.
“They have basically let the downtown area become a toilet bowl,” said Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta Republican. “You feel safe in our part of Colorado.”
House Minority Leader Hugh McKean said Denver is a “city out of control,” referencing crime.
“I would challenge anybody that’s saying that Denver is not on a downward spiral,” said Rep. Colin Larson, a Ken Caryl Republican and one of the last GOP lawmakers in the Denver suburbs. “I would just have to say that doesn’t pass the smell test.”
Republicans are never going to win a majority of votes in Denver, but it seems really silly to go to such extreme lengths to alienate the population center of the entire state.
In an unrelated story, but one that is available via the same link, the “Unaffiliated” reports that Republican Congressional candidate Tim Reichert (CO-07) holds personal assets somewhere in the neighborhood between $23 million and $99 million.
► Colorado Newsline reports on some of the problems officials are worried about in advance of this year’s elections. One of them might surprise you.
► Erik Aadland, one of three Republicans running for Congress in CO-07, announced that he has been endorsed by three Republicans who failed to even make the ballot in the 2022 U.S. Senate race: Eli Bremer, Gino Campana, and Greg Moore.
► Colorado Newsline and Westword report on a couple of new laws emerging from the 2022 legislative session.
► The S&P 500 officially entered “bear market” territory on Friday.
► Monkeypox? That’s what we needed.
► Workers at Starbucks stores throughout Colorado continue to support efforts to form a union.
Say What, Now?
Um, Ken, you literally JUST VOTED NO on a bill to increase funding for manufacturing more baby formula.
Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
► Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tried running for President in 2020, but that didn’t work. Now he’s going to try to win a Congressional seat in New York.
► The Washington Post reports on some weird news about the Republican who just won his party’s nomination for Governor in Pennsylvania:
Two decades before he was Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor, Doug Mastriano warned in a master’s thesis that the United States was vulnerable to a left-wing “Hitlerian Putsch” that would begin with the dismantling of the U.S. military and end with the destruction of the country’s democracy.
The thesis, written in 2001 when Mastriano was a major at the Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College, is highly unusual for its doomsaying and often fearful point of view, and its prediction that only the U.S. military could save the country from the depredations of the country’s morally debauched civilian leaders. The paper is posted on an official Defense Department website and lists Mastriano as the author at a time when he said he received a master’s degree from the school.
In it, Mastriano adopts the point of view of a colonel who is living in 2018 — some 17 years in the future — and has taken refuge in an “isolated cavern” in the George Washington National Forest. The military’s collapse, in his telling, allowed a left-wing leader obsessed with “political correctness” and backed militarily by the United Nations and the European Union to rise to power in a struggle that led to the deaths of millions of Americans.
Totally normal stuff.
ICYMI
► The three Republican candidates for Secretary of State took part in a candidate forum last week. We watched it all and created a “Debate Diary” so that you can read all about it.
► Check out the latest episode of The Get More Smarter Podcast and find out why Republican lawmakers are trying to (metaphorically) impale themselves with spoons.
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Captain Obvious just told me Clarence Thomas should resign.
fireboebert.com is on it to clean up her mess. Vote Coram to make it stick!
Poppycock!
Boebert hasn't really messed up anything except the reputation of the GOP. She is an ineffectual show pony, who has done nothing of consequence and is no threat to do so.
Don Coram is a dedicated "wise use" Republican who will get to work gutting environmental regulations, cutting back social spending, and actually doing work on the crap Boebert just claptraps about. The last thing Colorado needs is an environmental executioner like Dandy Don in Congress. Don works in the interests of his friends on 17th St. Not mine.
I am still unable to understand why any Democrat would want to help the GQP wipe its ass. You want to change things…?
Elect a Democrat.