February 06, 2018 11:15 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (February 6)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Happy Waitangi Day! It’s time to 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 a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► The stock market is stabilizing, somewhat, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday saw its largest single-day loss in trading history. Fears of inflation in the U.S. are partly to blame for a big drop in financial markets, (the S&P 500 also saw its biggest single-day decline since August 2011) as the New York Times explains:

For months, markets seemed to sleepwalk ever higher, as measures of volatility — the ups and downs of stock prices — hit remarkably calm levels. Investors appeared to grow accustomed to an economic backdrop of lackluster growth and inflation, a state of affairs that ensured powerful global central banks would continue to support markets with a range of policies.

But the peaceful climb ended in recent days. Investors have become worried that the solid economy in the United States could be showing early signals of inflation pressure. Those concerns drove yields on long-term Treasury bonds sharply higher in recent weeks, as economic data — such as the Labor Department’s jobs report last Friday — showed wages growing at their fastest clip in years.

Before long there was panic that stock values had peaked, that a long-awaited correction was underway, and that investors would suffer even bigger losses if they waited too long to dump their holdings. The result was Monday’s sell-off.

As the Washington Post explains, this big drop in the stock market is a problem that President Trump and Republicans walked right into :

President Trump and congressional Republicans have spent much of the past year trying to connect a giddy stock market rally with their economic agenda, but stocks’ precipitous plunge in the past five days has delivered a sobering reality: What goes up can come back down — quickly and with little warning.

With Monday’s steep fall, Trump has presided over the biggest stock market drop in U.S. history, when measured by points in the Dow Jones industrial average. The free fall began in earnest Jan. 30 and snowballed Friday and Monday, for a combined loss of almost 2,100 points, or 8 percent of the Dow’s value.

► It has been difficult over the past few months to keep up with all of the swirling political news coming out of Washington D.C. As NBC News’ “First Read” points out today, all of this upheaval brings up a bigger question:

In a span of 48 hours, we moved from a furious back-and-forth over the Nunes memo, to a sinking stock market, to President Trump accusing Democrats of “treason” for not applauding at the State of the Union and to a report that Trump’s lawyers don’t want him to speak to Robert Mueller.

But here’s maybe the biggest news of all: With another potential government shutdown looming, where’s the governing? [Pols emphasis]

As Politico reports, House Republicans are rushing to come up with a plan to avoid a government shutdown…but it doesn’t look like they have a deal that Senate Republicans will accept.

► Former El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa — aka “The Shirtless Sheriff” — skated once more after a re-trial on corruption charges. This could be a political killer for Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, who is trying to win the Republican nomination for Attorney General.

► Lawyers for President Trump don’t want him to agree to an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller because they are afraid that Trump will get caught lying.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Benjy Sarlin of MSNBC has a sadly-perfect answer to questions about how Trump will deal with the stock market plunge:

People love imagining these scenarios of “Hoo boy, how will the president handle *this* event that contradicts all his prior rhetoric?” He’ll tweet it’s someone’s fault then forget about it and move on. This scenario never really goes anywhere.

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) February 5, 2018

► Veteran Republican politico Sean Murphy, Chief of Staff to Oklahoma Republican Rep. Tom Cole and former Colorado Congressman Bob Beauprez, died suddenly from natural causes. Murphy was a native Coloradan.

► Democrats are running online advertisements targeting Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) after House Speaker Paul Ryan’s absurd Tweet over the weekend crowing about helping to increase a Pennsylvania woman’s weekly check by $1.50.

► Ivanka Trump is pushing a family leave policy that makes absolutely no financial sense whatsoever. 

► Could Attorney General Cynthia Coffman abandon her no-hope bid for Governor in order to run for re-election instead? It might make the Colorado Springs Gazette feel better about her 2018 campaign.

► State Senator Jerry Sonnenberg just doesn’t understand why we have to talk about sexual harassment allegations.

► The “Nunes Memo” is looking worse and worse by the day, as Politico reports:

Republican leaders are acknowledging that the FBI disclosed the political origins of a private dossier the bureau cited in an application to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, undermining a controversial GOP memo released Friday and fueling Democratic demands to declassify more information about the bureau’s actions.

At issue is whether the federal probe into the Trump campaign’s Russia ties is infected with political bias, as Republicans say — or whether the GOP is using deceitful tactics to quash the probe, as Democrats insist…

…While Republicans say their memo, orchestrated by Nunes and released with President Donald Trump’s backing, demonstrates anti-Trump bias at the FBI and Justice Department that calls into question the entire Russia investigation, Democrats say Republicans committed the very sin — omitting crucial facts — of which they accuse the FBI.

On Monday the House Intelligence Committee voted to release a Democratic “rebuttal” of the “Nunes Memo.” President Trump has five days to respond to the release request.

► Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an army veteran who lost both legs serving in Iraq, ripped into President Trump for saying that it was “treasonous” for Democrats to not applaud his every line in last week’s “State of the Union” address.

► As Politico reports, Republicans are growing increasingly concerned about their chances of winning a special Congressional election in Pennsylvania on March 13. At least one Pennsylvania Republican, meanwhile, wants to oust the entire State Supreme Court for ordering the legislature to re-draw illegally gerrymandered Congressional maps.

► Renewable energy leaders in Colorado are concerned about a proposal from the Trump administration to cut funding for renewable programs by 72 percent.

► State Rep. John Becker, a Republican from Fort Morgan, announced that he will not seek re-election for a fourth term in 2018.

► Colorado Democrats are pushing legislation intended to increase transparency in health care pricing.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► Donald Trump: 0, Reality: 1

► According to a new poll, nearly 75% of Trump voters believe that the FBI is out to get him. 

► This:

“You know the rules: We don’t talk about committee business,” Nunes tells us as he left the meeting. We reminded him he talked to Fox Friday and Monday. No response

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 5, 2018

ICYMI

► Coloradans are mourning the shooting death of a police officer for the second time in less than a month.

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