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January 26, 2017 01:32 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (January 26)

  • 6 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Happy Australia Day! You may want to start getting more familiar with foreign holidays considering the way things are going in the Trump administration. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. 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…

► President Donald Trump is going to have trouble “Making America Great Again” if he can’t even manage to find loyal and competent people to work for him. Less than a week into his Presidency, Trump is already facing massive leaks from the White House categorizing him as a “clueless child.”

Trump can’t be happy about his leaky ship, but at least people are still actually working in the White House. There’s breaking news this morning of a mass exodus of senior leadership from the State Department as many career officials are choosing the great unknown paycheck over toiling under Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. In the meantime, Trump continues to push the canard that his Inauguration was witnessed by gazillions of people.

Oh, and for good measure, Mexico’s President has cancelled a scheduled meeting with Trump. Mexico probably just wants more time to write that giant check for the border wall that Trump is promising.

 

► The Denver Post reports on President Trump’s efforts to clamp down on so-called “sanctuary cities” with a look at the potential impact on Denver and Aurora.

 

► For the third consecutive year, state lawmakers have killed legislation from Republicans designed to allow people to discriminate based on religious views.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is not exactly a political powerhouse. As “The Fix” notes, Palin has closed her up a PAC that never did much to help Republicans anyway:

In the 2016 election cycle, Palin’s Sarah PAC spent $830,000 on consultants and just $82,500 in donations to other candidates — a.k.a its ostensible purpose. Not only that but Sarah PAC spent $168,000 on travel and lodging expenses during the 2016 election — double what it donated to candidates, which is its ostensible … well you get the idea.

This was not an isolated incident. In the 2010 election cycle — when Sarah PAC was functioning on all cylinders — it raised $5.6 million and spent $4.3 million. Just $509,000 of that total — less than 12 percent of total expenditures — went to either candidates or political/party committees.

What the closure of Palin’s PAC — and the remarkably small amount of spending on actual candidates for office — makes clear is that a) her time as a national leader for Republicans is over and b) Palin’s prime interest was never really anything other than promoting her own political brand.

► State Sen. Owen Hill (R-Colorado Springs) is adamantly opposed to the idea that public school teachers should be licensed by the state. This is the same guy who is running a bill to legalize switchblades.

 

► CBS News reports on a potential option for getting rid of President Trump on account of the fact that he’s probably insane:

“I am increasingly convinced he is just plain crazy,” The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson wrote last August. On Tuesday, The New York Times’ Paul Krugman tweeted that Trump is “obviously mentally ill.” In 2015, several mental health professionals told Vanity Fair they believed the then-businessman was mentally unbalanced. “Textbook narcissistic personality disorder,” said one.

Regardless of whether Trump is suffering from some kind of mental ailment, the Constitution does provide a manual for what to do in case of presidential incapacity in the form of the 25th Amendment. In particular, a provision within Article 4 of the amendment lays out how a president can be forced to surrender his powers should he be ruled unable to fulfill his duties.

 

► Congressman Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) has some lofty promises to fulfill. Coffman famously fled out the back door of a packed town hall meeting a couple of weeks ago, and he has since pledged that his office will find a larger venue for constituents to address a potential Obamacare repeal.

 

► A long-planned “art project” that planned to drape huge sheets of fabric over the Arkansas river has been abandoned. The artist, Christo, says he is giving up on his “Over the River” efforts in part because of Donald Trump.

► The editorial board of the Denver Post calls out Colorado Republicans for not being straight about Medicaid challenges.

 

► Congressional Republicans are abandoning their fiscal conservative ethos in pledging to spend billions of dollars on a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. As the Huffington Post explains:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday that Congress will pay $12 billion to $15 billion for a border wall upfront, dodging questions about whether they will offset the cost with spending cuts.

The estimate comes one day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for the construction of a wall along the approximately 2,000-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico. It remains unclear what the wall would actually look like, or if it would simply expand upon fencing that is already on the southwestern border.

“We intend to address the wall issue ourselves, and the president can deal with his relations with other countries,” McConnell told reporters at the GOP’s annual retreat.

Journalists asked the Republican leaders three times if Congress would offset the cost of the wall, but they would not provide a direct answer.

You read that correctly: $12-14 BILLION (that we don’t have) for a border wall.

 

► A Trump hotel in Denver? It may happen.

 

► Why is Donald Trump so convinced that there was widespread voter fraud in 2016? The logic is a bit strained, to say the least. As the New York Times reports, Trump is outraged by a story about professional golfer Bernhard Langer, who may or may not have tried to vote for His Hairness — even though he’s a German citizen not eligible to vote in the U.S.

Langer felt compelled to clarify the story today, and as it turns out, Trump’s voter fraud claims are essentially based on a story that approximates the old telephone game.

 

► Denver7 considers how Trump’s federal employee hiring freeze could impact the Veteran’s Administration in Colorado.

 

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Senate Republicans killed a proposal in the state legislature that would have attempted to fund full-day Kindergarten in Colorado.

 

► TABOR daddy Doug Bruce is out of jail and back at work at trying to strangle the government.

 

ICYMI

► The Get More Smarter Show is back with its first episode of 2017. If you already watched…do it again.

 

Don’t forget to check out The Get More Smarter Show. You can also Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!

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6 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Thursday (January 26)”

    1. <record scratch>

      Whoops, never mind.  I keep forgetting that I need to listen to what's in Sean Spicer's heart rather than the words that come out of his mouth.

      Trump team walks back plan to fund wall with import tax

      White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Thursday is walking back his statement that President Donald Trump supports a tax on imports to pay for a wall along the Mexican border, saying that he instead was just giving an example of one way to raise revenue.

      Spicer also noted that, for Mexico, "The shock has backfired on them. They are shocked because of what they have seen. No one received them with roses. They were received with bombs, shoes and bullets. Now, the game has been exposed. Awe will backfire on them. This is the boa snake. We will extend it further and cut it the appropriate way."

    2. If Trump convinces Congress to adopt a 20% tax on imports here is what it will mean to American citizens. Only 8% of the 660.000 auto jobs in Mexico are assembly plant jobs. Almost all the remainder are in auto parts manufacturing. Thus, when an American buys a car or truck assembled in America with parts manufactured in Mexico, the American consumer will be paying much more. In short, Trump's tax will undermine auto and truck sales in the United States. 

      Also, to be fair to Mexico, please keep in mind NAFTA did great damage to that country's agriculture economy because Americans are more efficient farmers. If Trump gets his 20% tax and Mexico retaliates with a 20% tax, the products our farmers export to Mexico will be priced out of the market and Trump will have harmed the rural voters who overwhelmingly supported him.

      For the past seven years, the inward immigration of Mexican nationals into the United States has been a net negative. Mexican nationals are not coming to the United States because they find work at home. If Mr. Trump blows-up NAFTA and Mexico's economy craters or is badly damaged, guess who will be coming north again and a wall won't stop them. The President has no background or knowledge of foreign affairs. He can't connect the dots. He is making policy based on "Alternative facts" which means we will no longer be that shining city on a hill for the rest of the world. We will just be considered a bully and for the moment the strongest one on the playground, but we all know what eventually happens to bullies. Everyone else begins to think and scheme about how to get rid of the bully. Eventually, they will succeed.

       

  2. According to CBS News: 

    The choice to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia is down to two names — Denver-based U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch and U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, according to two sources close to the selection process.

    Gorsuch has a slight edge — CBS News’ Jan Crawford reported that Gorsuch was the front-runner over the weekend.

    But as Mr. Trump narrows the field, “many voices” are “making calls” on Hardiman’s behalf, and he cannot be ruled out, one source said. Hardiman has to be considered a serious contender, just on the heels of Gorsuch. 

    Based upon their judicial records Hardiman is close to John Roberts in ideology, while Gorsuch is closer to Scalia.

  3. Idiot Democrats propose SameOldSameOld in response to losing the presidency to the most incompetent, corrupt, ignorant, criminal nominee in history:

    Unbelievable.

    [David] Brock’s Florida conference outlined some of the philosophical fault lines. In one closed-door session, Chicago mayor and former Barack Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel advocated a measured approach to Trump opposition, one in which Democrats choose only specific fights with a tight game plan.

    If you can’t muster relentless and sustained opposition to a historically unpopular white supremacist president who lost the popular vote, then get the fuck out of my party. Trump may be the problem, but so are you.

    Someone, or something, lit a fire under Kos' ass, because he hasn't posted like this in quite a while. He's been the most prescient, and intelligent, blogger on the left practically since blogging began. And as he is routinely ignored by the pros 'round here and in DC, we are surely destined for a series of "I told you so" posts about a Democratic Party that loses when it wins, and that unquestioningly moves further right when it loses.

    "Get more smarter" is a friggin' insult to Teh Stoopid everywhere.

  4. Clarice Navarro – what great priorities that woman has. With Pueblo poised to become a major state of the art transportation hub again, with the steel industries being outbid by the Chinese steel Trump buildings prefer to use, with work halted on the area's Superfund site because of Trump Admin's EPA work freeze, the brave Rep. Navarro focuses on what Puebloans do at private parties. That's what's important.  Navarro will go after the museum director's job, because, why not. Headlines. Brownie points. 

    By god, she'll defend the Prez' right not to have his effigy stuffed with candy and swung at  by citizens at a private party renting out the  Pueblo History museum. The PPueblo history museum is a great asset to the community there, and director Dawn DiPrince has done an amazing job in curating fantastic exhibits such as the Ludlow Massacre memorial . 

    And if a few kids take a whack at an image of the guy who wants to stereotype them, and deport extended family members for no good reason, then Ms. Navarro will pump up that fake outrage for all she's worth. That's your legislator's priorities at work, Pueblo.

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