Just vote. 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.
► Still haven’t voted? Still waiting for a ballot? Head on over to GoVoteColorado.com for more information on voting centers, ballot drop-off locations, or for resources to check on the status of your mail ballot. Click here for the latest ballot return numbers.
► Colorado leaders are reacting to Saturday’s mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Huge crowds turned out for a vigil at Denver’s oldest synagogue on Sunday.
The reaction from President Trump’s administration has been…different. During a press briefing today, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that President Trump “has brought our country together.” Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, meanwhile, blamed something she called “anti-religiosity.”
As Chris Cillizza writes for CNN, Trump’s amoral Presidency is changing everything:
On the day that the man who killed 11 Jewish people in a synagogue — inspired by the baseless claims that prominent Jews were funding a migrant caravan moving across Mexico — is set to appear in court for the first time, and just days removed from the arrest of a man who sent more than a dozen pipe bombs to prominent Democrats as well as a media organization, the President of the United States had this to say on Twitter:
“There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!”
So. The reason, according to Donald Trump, that we have “anger” and “Outrage” in this country, and that he is not able to “bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony,” is because the media reports fake stories.
Elsewhere, Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh say that President Trump is not welcome in their city until he completely denounces “white nationalism” and stops targeting minorities in his rhetoric. Trump plans to visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday anyway.
► The accused “MAGA Bomber,” Florida man Cesar Sayoc, will face charges in federal court today. Filmmaker Michael Moore has released footage of Sayoc from a Trump rally in Florida in 2017 that undercuts Trump’s claims that he is not responsible for inciting violence among his followers.
► President Trump has ordered more soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border to await the scary convoy of immigrant women and children moving north. From the Washington Post:
The Trump administration is preparing to send thousands of additional U.S. troops to the border with Mexico, U.S. officials said Monday, as President Trump likened a caravan of Central American migrants to “an invasion.”
One Department of Homeland Security official with knowledge of the planning said 5,000 active-duty soldiers would be temporarily sent to the border, but two other U.S. officials cautioned that the final number had yet to be determined by the Pentagon.
It was not immediately clear why the scale of the mobilization increased fivefold from the 800 to 1,000 troops that Defense officials were discussing last week. The additional personnel would join roughly 2,000 National Guard troops assigned to the border since April, and the combined force would be the largest deployment there in at least a decade.
Check this story from BBC News for some important answers to questions about the convoy.
Get even more smarter after the jump…
► It would be hard to get much shadier than the Republican candidate for State Treasurer, Brian Watson.
► George Brauchler, the Republican candidate for Attorney General, is very proud of the fact that his clients have never been convicted — even the accused rapists.
► As the Denver Post reports, Colorado’s transgender community is justifiably scared about what might come next in the wake of a New York Times report that President Trump is working to roll back definitions and protections for transgender Americans:
Owen Flaherty scrambled early Monday to change the sex listed on his Illinois birth certificate, the last legal document that did not reflect his identity as a transgender man. He rushed around Denver: to a health clinic, to a notary, to the post office to mail the paperwork overnight to his native state.
The next day, 11 people gathered at Out Boulder County‘s Longmont offices to discuss living as transgender people. People were afraid, facilitator Ravyn Wayne said, and the fear had swelled the weekly gathering usually attended by just three or four people.
Flaherty’s rush and the larger-than-normal support group are among the ripple effects in Colorado following a report that President Donald Trump’s administration is considering strictly defining the term “sex” in federal law, a change that could eliminate recognition of transgender people and erase their protections against discrimination.
Reading news about the proposed change Sunday morning was a gut punch, Flaherty said.
► The Colorado Sun considers the future for Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) in light of his current position as head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).
► As Politico reports, President Trump’s schedule at the White House is…a bit squishy:
President Donald Trump had about three times as much free time planned for last Tuesday as work time, according to his private schedule. The president was slated for more than nine hours of “Executive Time,” a euphemism for the unstructured time Trump spends tweeting, phoning friends and watching television. Official meetings, policy briefings and public appearances — typically the daily work of being president — consumed barely more than three hours of his day…
…A review of one week of the president’s private detailed schedules, from Monday Oct. 22 through Friday Oct. 26, showed the president had more free time on Tuesday than on any other day that week, but his Tuesday agenda was hardly atypical. And while the notion of Executive Time, and the president’s increasingly late start to the day, has come under scrutiny over the past year, this new batch of schedules obtained by POLITICO offers fresh insight into the extent to which that unscheduled time dominates Trump’s week and is shaping his presidency, allowing his whims and momentary interests to drive White House business.
► If Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in 2019, they will be able to use sweeping subpoena powers against the White House…all courtesy of a Republican rule change from 2015.
► Denver7 fact-checks another misleading advertisement targeting Democrat Jason Crow in CO-6.
► The Denver Post gives a thumbs-down to a negative advertisement being run against Democratic Attorney General candidate Phil Weiser.
► An emotional new ad from the backers of Proposition 112 features the brother of a man killed in a home explosion in Firestone in 2017.
► “Unite Colorado,” an organization created to push “centrist” unaffiliated candidates for public office, is running into one campaign finance problem after another.
► This conspiracy theory from a local conservative commentator would have you believe that the suspected “MAGA Bomber” is really part of a leftist plot on account of the fact that some of the stickers on his van looked too new.
► German Chancellor Angela Merkel will step aside as the leader of her party and will not run for re-election in 2021.
► John Oliver of “Last Week Tonight” explains why you should care about your state race for Attorney General.
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Just found out via MoveOn/Ben and Jerry ad that the Springs (CD5) has a very nice and believable Democratic candidate for Congress. She’ll probably lose, yes, and I may have missed it, but I’m not aware of any coverage here, any support from statewide Dems, or any other people supporting either the Democratic voters or candidates here in EPC and Colorado Springs that deserve that support, especially this fine and brave woman.
Everyone who continues to ignore Democrats are not doing the best job possible to pass and support truly democratic policies in Colorado.
Lamborn almost fucked up his seat for life and State Democrats slept through it.
There are Democrats here you morons!
But you just said you didn’t even know she existed until today — one week from Election Day.
Hey, it's Zappy. You expect him to notice things in the real world?
Maybe Zappy could have spent more time doing "shout outs" for Stephany Spaulding and less time obsessing about M. Bennet. Nah, stick to what works for you, Zappy,
I've written about Stephany Spaulding before, in the context of Dems running in red districts. I'm not going to bother to dig up the links at the moment, but yeah.
I am SO looking forward to redistricting after the 2020 Census. Whether by new and improved bipartisan methods after this years referendums or by the existing method, Colorado ought to have better districts, and probably one more of them.
We already have good districts – or at least as good as is manageable with so many constituents per district. 2020 might be marginally better because we are trending a bit bluer in our population gains…
It will be interesting to see how an 8-district Colorado gets drawn.
You did some excellent pieces on Spaulding. When you get the chance, please link them. The lady is fighting the good fight, as are you.