March 19, 2019 12:14 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (March 19)

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

For the first time in six years, the Denver Nuggets are heading to the playoffs. 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…

► Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) has plenty of explaining to do after his inexplicable vote last week to oppose a Senate measure condemning President Trump’s “emergency declaration” for wall building money. As the Colorado Springs Gazette reports, Gardner’s “promises” he claimed to have extracted from President Trump aren’t worth squat:

The Trump administration’s border wall project could raid $77 million in construction money from Fort Carson, according to a Pentagon list released to Congress on Monday.

The list, released to The Gazette by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, puts more than $10 billion in military construction projects across the country and abroad on the chopping block since President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to build the barrier along the Mexican border. The emergency allows Trump to pull money from Pentagon accounts.

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., exacted a promise from the Trump administration last week that Colorado military construction money wouldn’t be “repurposed” for the wall, a promise that spokesman Jerrod Dobkin emphasized Monday. But the Pentagon included the Fort Carson project on its list.

Fort Carson was to provide troops with a long-awaited, improved vehicle maintenance shop to repair the post’s aging fleet of trucks, tanks and Humvees.

Really great work, Sen. Gardner.

► Colorado Senate Republican leaders are in a Denver courtroom today in a case that could set new standards over judicial involvement with the legislative branch. As Marshall Zelinger reports for 9News:

The 2019 legislative session took on a new look when a sitting lawmaker took the witness stand in a lawsuit pitting Senate Republicans against Senate Democrats and the non-partisan Senate staff.

Sen. Bob Gardner (R-Colorado Springs) took the witness stand in a Denver District Courtroom on Tuesday morning.

Gardner, along with Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert (R-Parker) and Sen. John Cooke (R-Greeley) were excused from the Senate on Tuesday morning to be at a Denver City and County Building courtroom.

The trio have sued Senate President Leroy Garcia (D-Pueblo) and Senate Secretary Cindi Markwell over the computerized reading of a 2,000-page bill on March 11.

► Senate Bill 181 — the oil and gas reform legislation — is moving along in the State House after another 12-hour marathon of testimony that featured plenty of ridiculous rhetoric from Republicans:

Laurie Saine with some late night drama: #SB181 “we are at the doorstop of communism and with this bill we walk right through it.” #healthandsafetyfirst #coleg #copolitics

— Sara Lu (@squyen) March 19, 2019

► As Jon Murray reports for the Denver Post, state lawmakers are looking at a host of different options for transportation infrastructure funding.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

 
► As the Washington Post reports, the Trump administration is very, very good at losing courtroom battles:

Federal judges have ruled against the Trump administration at least 63 times over the past two years, an extraordinary record of legal defeat that has stymied large parts of the president’s agenda on the environment, immigration and other matters.

In case after case, judges have rebuked Trump officials for failing to follow the most basic rules of governance, including providing legitimate explanations for shifts in policy, supported by facts and, where required, public input…

…But whether or not the administration ultimately prevails, the rulings so far paint a remarkable portrait of a government rushing to implement sweeping changes in policy without regard for longstanding rules against arbitrary and capricious behavior.

“What they have consistently been doing is short-circuiting the process,” said Georgetown Law School’s William Buzbee, an expert on administrative law who has studied Trump’s record. In the regulatory cases, Buzbee said, “They don’t even come close” to explaining their actions, “making it very easy for the courts to reject them because they’re not doing their homework.”

D’oh!

► The Trump administration plans to stonewall Democrats for as long as possible in efforts to investigate potential wrongdoing. From Politico:

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler wrote to the White House last month demanding information about President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to fund the construction of a southern border wall.

Yet Nadler’s Feb. 22 deadline came and went with no response. Not only did the Democratic congressman not receive the documents he wanted, he didn’t even receive a customary letter back from the White House acknowledging his request.

It was just one example of the Trump White House’s unusually hostile — or in this case, non-existent — response to congressional investigators.

 

► A new report on the effects of Marijuana from CDPHE finds that the green stuff isn’t nearly as harmful as critics would allege.

► President Trump can’t stop himself from shitting on the legacy of the late Sen. John McCain.

► Former U.S. Attorney John Walsh appears to be moving closer to announcing a run for U.S. Senate. Check out “The Big Line 2020” for the latest on all of the political horse racing.

► The Associated Press wonders about former Gov. John Hickenlooper’s ability to raise big money as a 2020 Presidential candidate.

► Two groups are “officially” trying to recall Gov. Jared Polis, who was elected in November by a nearly 11-point margin over Republican candidate Walker Stapleton.

► As the Pueblo Chieftain reports, it’s not at all clear that so-called “Red Flag” legislation discussions are actually affecting gun sales in Colorado.

► The Denver Post reports on another group of people angry about the proposed “Jefferson Parkway” toll-road to nowhere:

The Jefferson Parkway, four lanes wide and 10 miles long, will run between Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield and State Highway 93 north of Golden, skirting the eastern edge of Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Along the way, it barrels through the middle of Leyden Rock, a community that started rising from the outlying windswept heights of Arvada not more than five years ago.

The prospect of a 65 mph highway bisecting their community has many residents of Leyden Rock jumping mad, and recently they began organizing to oppose it by forming neighborhood groups and crowding city council meetings in Broomfield and Arvada.

► Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is crusading for a federal balanced-budget requirement via a Constitutional Convention, which ain’t happening.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► Colorado Republicans just can’t help but eat their feet when it comes to issues like banning so-called “conversion therapy.”

► President Trump’s weekend Twitter tirade isn’t doing much to help his argument that he is a “very stable genius.”

ICYMI

► Here’s one more reason why the anti-vaxxer “movement” is completely out of control.

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