December 16, 2020 09:34 AM UTC
Get More Smarter on Wednesday (December 16)
1 Comments- by: Colorado Pols
On this day in 1773, colonists living in Boston threw a bunch of tea into the harbor. The original “Tea Party” was much less insane than the modern version. 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
► Don’t blink, but Congress might actually be getting close to approving a new stimulus bill. As The Washington Post reports:
Congressional leaders are near an agreement to add a new round of stimulus checks to a roughly $900 billion relief package as they rush to complete a deal before the end of the week, according to three people familiar with the talks granted anonymity to share internal deliberations.
A bipartisan proposal released earlier this week by a group of moderate lawmakers excluded another round of $1,200 stimulus checks. But as congressional leaders tried to resolve differences in recent days, they decided to try and include a round of direct payments in the emerging legislation.
They are rushing to complete a deal because they must pass a new spending bill Friday night at midnight in order to avoid a government shutdown. House Democrats had sought a much larger stimulus package before the election but have softened their position since President-elect Biden’s victory in hopes of securing some immediate relief.
► Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged on the Senate floor on Tuesday that Democrat Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States. Later, McConnell reportedly implored his caucus to refrain from any attempts at challenging the legitimacy of Biden’s victory when a joint session of Congress meets to certify the Electoral College results. But as the editorial board of The Washington Post explains, this is no time to pat McConnell on the back:
Millions of Republican voters may now believe that their democracy no longer functions — not because there was fraud, but because their leaders lied to them or remained silent while others did so. Even many Republicans who refused to help Mr. Trump try to overturn the presidential results are signaling that they will pursue new voting restrictions in the name of election integrity, acting on the basis of the falsehoods about the voting system that Republicans have promoted since the election. Their defaming of democracy hurts us all.
Jamelle Bouie of The New York Times does not disagree:
To affirm Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the winners of the election more than a month after the end of voting — as Mitch McConnell did, on Tuesday morning, when he announced that “our country officially has a president-elect and vice-president elect” — is to treat the outcome as unofficial pending an attempt to overturn the result.
In short, Republicans are establishing a new normal for the conduct of elections, one in which a Democratic victory is suspect until proven otherwise, and where Republicans have a “constitutional right” to challenge the vote in hopes of having it thrown out.
We’ve already seen this spread to down-ballot races. Sean Parnell, a Republican House candidate, refused to concede his race against the Democratic incumbent, Conor Lamb, citing voter fraud and signed onto a lawsuit, since dismissed, to throw out mail-in ballots.
But as Chris Cillizza writes for CNN, McConnell may not be able to prevent his caucus from being forced to cast a politically-dicey vote in favor of Biden in early January.
► A Legislative Audit Committee meeting at the state capitol on Tuesday failed to uncover even a hint of impropriety in the 2020 election in Colorado. As The Denver Post reports:
Former Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, a Republican, told committee members that Coloradans can be confident that their elections are free and fair, and instances of fraud that may have been successful are in the dozens, not hundreds of thousands.
The motions by Republicans — one to launch an audit of the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office and another to direct the state auditor to research a potential performance audit — failed on tie votes of 4-4.
Sen. Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican, told The Denver Post that while the meeting didn’t uncover massive voter fraud, every person’s vote should be protected. [Pols emphasis]
This is a completely pointless statement from Lundeen that perfectly summarizes yesterday’s worthless hearing.
► The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colorado church that sued the government in order to be allowed to host as many COVID-19 super-spreader events as it wants.
More political (and coronavirus) news is available right after the jump…
As Promised, More Words…
► President-elect Joe Biden will introduce former Democratic Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg as his pick for Transportation Secretary.
Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is reportedly Biden’s choice to serve as Secretary of Energy.
► NBC News reports on a sad story from Kansas, where a local official abruptly resigned after being subjected to death threats from people who didn’t want to have to wear a mask in public:
A Republican mayor in western Kansas announced in a letter to city officials and on social media Tuesday that she is resigning, effective immediately, because of threats she has received after she publicly supported a mask mandate.
Mayor Joyce Warshaw of Dodge City said she was concerned about her safety after being met with aggression, including threats via phone and email, after she was quoted in a USA Today article on Friday supporting the mandate, The Dodge City Globe reported. The city commission voted 4-1 on Nov. 16 to impose a mask mandate, with several exceptions.
But Warshaw told NBC News on Tuesday that “threats, accusations and actions” toward her and her family from those in the community forced her to step down.
Are we Making America Great Again (Again), yet?
► As Judith Kohler writes for The Denver Post, new oil and gas drilling regulations coming in January are being preceded by plenty of questions:
With a raft of new oil and gas rules, now comes the tough part for companies and regulators alike. The rules kick in Jan. 15 and the industry and state will have to see which of the roughly 5,000 pending drilling permits can make it under the wire, have to be redone under the stricter rules — or get dropped.
More than 200 people called into a Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Zoom meeting Tuesday to get their first looks at the new applications for wells and to assess the cumulative impacts of drilling and alternative locations for drilling.
“The first and most important thing to keep in mind over the next couple of weeks and months is that this is the first time our agency has launched multiple new forms at the same time and redesigned our entire permitting system in one fell swoop,” COGCC Director Julie Murphy said. “So, to say that the guidance documents are living documents is an understatement.”
A big question is the fate of a little over 5,000 permits already in the pipeline, about 4,300 to drill wells and about 740 for the location of well sites. Those that don’t make it through the process by Jan. 15, when the new regulations take effect, will have to be “replaced” if companies want to pursue them.
► According to AAA, the vast majority of Coloradans are planning to avoid travel around the Christmas holiday.
► One out of every 40 Coloradans are believed to be infected with the coronavirus. 9News explains how the State of Colorado figures out this math problem.
► Vox.com examines the troubles with “Long COVID.”
► A massive new study of 50 years of tax cuts for the wealthy proves that “trickle-down economics” just doesn’t work.
► A city employee in Aurora is speaking out, alleging that Mayor Mike Coffman ignored COVID-19 safety precautions and continued to come into his office even after being infected himself. From Denver7:
The city staff member wrote out a detailed timeline of her exposure to Coffman, before he tested positive for the virus, in an email which was sent to Human Resources on Oct. 30.
She called the mayor’s actions “a health and city policy violation.”
The employee wrote that on Oct. 19 that “Mayor Coffman’s cough was considerably worse” and “the mayor did not wear a mask” on numerous occasions.
She noticed him shivering on Oct. 22, and he was sent home, “Because he obviously was sick”
Three days later, Mayor Coffman announced in a tweet that he had COVID-19.
► President Trump hates butterflies.
► The Presidential Inaugural Committee is encouraging Americans to avoid the U.S. Capitol and to watch the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden from home on January 20.
► Don’t ever be like Sen. Cory Gardner.
► Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson may hold his last stand today as one of President Trump’s primary butt-kissers, using his position as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to stir up a little more nonsense before he is termed-out as the committee’s leader.
► To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is being quarantined because he was exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Pompeo has been regularly hosting large holiday parties despite pleas from lawmakers to shut down his obvious super-spreader events. Pompeo cancelled a speech he was supposed to deliver on Tuesday night at another one of these parties.
Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
► Local leaders in Minnesota are getting blasted for planning to spend $150k in COVID-19 relief money to build a clubhouse at a municipal-owned golf course.
► A roving Santa Claus in Georgia handed out COVID-19 to dozens of children.
► The Spanish equivalent of “Donald” is still just “Donald.”
ICYMI
► Congresswoman-elect Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert doesn’t really understand how any of this democracy stuff actually works, but that hasn’t stopped her from yelling about election fraud.
► Those “law and order” Republican voices have gone awfully quiet lately.
► Check out the latest episode of The Get More Smarter Podcast, featuring an interview with House Speaker KC Becker as she breaks down last week’s special legislative session.
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Yertle McConned’em seems to be going soft . . .
. . . as Seth Meyers noted yesterday, reports have apparently begun leaking out from Rudy Giuliani that Mitch may even be signaling some acceptance towards recognizing statehood for Alaska.