December 17, 2020 10:19 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (December 17)

• 14 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Happy Pan American Aviation Day. Please celebrate responsibly. 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 

► You should still hold your breath, but it really does look like Congress might soon pass a coronavirus stimulus bill. From The Washington Post:

Congressional leaders are trying to resolve a number of lingering policy disagreements as they race to finalize an approximately $900 billion coronavirus relief package by the end of this week. They involve the powers of the Federal Reserve, aid for theaters and music venues, and whether to extend any flexibility to cities and states, among other things.

Negotiators have cited significant progress in recent days as talks accelerated. Senior lawmakers aimed to unveil legislation as soon as Thursday. While several difficult sticking points remain, aides are expressing optimism that none of the issues that has emerged appeared likely to prevent final passage of an agreement.

Congress must pass a spending bill by midnight on Friday to avoid a government shutdown, and some had hoped to add the stimulus package to that legislation. If the stimulus talks drag on, lawmakers could be forced to pass another short-term spending bill to give them more time, potentially pushing talks into Christmas week.

The stimulus deal could include another round of checks to Americans. As Joe St. George reports for Denver7, money could theoretically be available to the public by the end of the year.

► As The New York Times reports, jobless claims in the U.S. are at an all-time high:

The number of Americans filing initial claims for unemployment insurance remained high last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. After dropping earlier in the fall, claims have moved higher, and they remain at levels that dwarf the pace of past recessions.

There were 935,000 new claims for state benefits, compared with 956,000 the previous week, while 455,000 filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federally funded program for part-time workers, the self-employed and others ordinarily ineligible for jobless benefits.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of new state claims was 885,000, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week.

MAGA, baby!

As Vox.com explains, even a pending stimulus bill won’t be enough to help many unemployed workers.

► A second COVID-19 vaccine — this one from Moderna — could be approved within the next couple of days. From 9News:

Moderna’s vaccine is largely following the same path as Pfizer-BioNTech’s, which relies on the same groundbreaking technology. Most traditional vaccines use dead or weakened virus, but both of the new vaccines use snippets of COVID-19’s genetic code to train the immune system to detect and fight the virus. Both require two doses, weeks apart…

…If authorized by the FDA, U.S. officials said the initial shipment of nearly 6 million doses would go to health workers and nursing homes. The new vaccine needs to be stored at regular freezer temperatures, but not the ultra-cold required for Pfizer-BioNTech’s shot. [Pols emphasis]

That last detail could prove significant in the race to vaccinate people around the globe.

► As Yahoo News notes, President Trump might truly believe that he won the 2020 election:

President Trump was privately coming to terms with his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, but he “has now reversed and dug in deeper — not only spreading misinformation about the election, but ingesting it himself,” CNN reports, “egged on by advisers like Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis who are misleading Trump about the extent of voting irregularities and the prospects of a reversal.” One adviser told CNN, “He’s been fed so much misinformation that I think he actually thinks this thing was stolen from him.”

There is a lot to unpack in this CNN story being shared widely around the Internet tubes, from potential Presidential pardons to a report that Trump at one point actually considered NOT leaving the White House on January 20, 2021.

More political (and coronavirus) news is available right after the jump…

As Promised, More Words…

► As POLITICO reports, a Trump administration adviser was actively pushing for MORE Americans to become infected with COVID-19:

A top Trump appointee repeatedly urged top health officials to adopt a “herd immunity” approach to Covid-19 and allow millions of Americans to be infected by the virus, according to internal emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee and shared with POLITICO.

“There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD,” then-science adviser Paul Alexander wrote on July 4 to his boss, Health and Human Services assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo, and six other senior officials.

“Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…” Alexander added.

As bad as things have been with the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s more than possible that it was almost much, much worse.

► Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is the latest Trump administration official to test positive for COVID-19.

► The Northeastern U.S. is getting pummeled by a massive snowstorm. In some places — including Central Park in New York City — more snow has fallen in the last day than all of last winter.

► As POLITICO reports, Vice President Mike Pence is not exactly a man of great courage:

As vice president, Pence has the awkward but unavoidable duty of presiding over the session of Congress that will formalize Biden’s Electoral College victory — a development that is likely to expose him and other Republicans to the wrath of GOP voters who believe President Donald Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen from him.

But Pence could dodge their ire by leaving Washington immediately for the Middle East and Europe. According to three U.S. officials familiar with the planning, the vice president is eyeing a foreign trip that would take him overseas for nearly a week, starting on Jan. 6.

Though Pence aides declined to confirm details of the trip, which remains tentative, a U.S. government document seen by POLITICO shows the vice president is due to travel to Bahrain, Israel and Poland, with the possibility of more stops being added. A pre-advance team of Pence aides and other U.S. officials left earlier this week to visit the planned stops in preparation for the multicountry tour, which would be Pence’s first trip abroad since last January, when he traveled to Rome and Jerusalem on a whirlwind two-day sojourn.

 

► The Washington Post reports on two top contenders to become the next Secretary of Education in a Biden administration:

The first is Leslie T. Fenwick, dean emeritus of the Howard University School of Education and a professor of educational policy and leadership. The second is Miguel Cardona, who last year was named the top education official in Connecticut.

Both have positions that could draw fire, though in different ways. Fenwick is a fierce critic of many attempts at education reform, including some touted by President Barack Obama’s Education Department. Cardona has promoted a return to school buildings during the pandemic, saying it is imperative to get children back to face-to-face learning.

The situation remains fluid, and no decisions have been made. Three people familiar with the process said the transition committee is focusing its attention on these two candidates at the moment. Another person cautioned that others are in the mix. All four spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

► Lockheed Martin, the massive defense and aerospace contractor headquartered in Jefferson County, is starting work on a new project looking for water on the moon.

► French President Emmanuel Macron has COVID-19.

► Some Republican Senators are still plowing ahead with the idea that the 2020 election was fraudulent in some manner. But as Chris Cillizza explains for CNN, the logic is not strong here:

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, one of President Donald Trump’s most ardent defenders, was front and center — making wild claims about what happened (and didn’t) on November 3.

“The fraud happened,” insisted Paul. “The election, in many ways, was stolen. And the only way it will be fixed is by, in the future, reinforcing the laws.”

His examples?

1. Dead people voting
2. Non-citizens voting

The problem, of course, is that there is simply no evidence of either of these things happening broadly.

Vox.com has more on Wednesday’s ridiculous hearing.

► The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is raising eyebrows for making widespread changes in sentencing guidelines.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► President Trump has truly hosed the Republican Party, as POLITICO explains:

For the final act of his showman-like presidency, Donald Trump has convinced the Republican Party that despite losing the White House by 7 million votes — and despite seeing five states flip in 2020 — things could hardly be better inside the GOP…

…It hardly matters that Trump couldn’t beat Biden in the Rust Belt. Or that Trump ceded the longtime Republican strongholds of Georgia and Arizona to Democrats and, in defeat, became the first incumbent president since 1992 to fail to win a second term.

Six weeks after the election, Republicans are beginning to chart a multi-state effort to undo mail ballot expansions that disadvantaged the party in November. But that’s a mechanical concern. As it prepares for the midterm elections and 2024, the direction of the party is set.

“As far as I’m concerned, everything’s great,” [Pols emphasis] said Stanley Grot, a district-level Republican Party chair in Michigan, a state Trump won four years ago but lost to Biden in November.

► Residents of Florida living near the Trump resort of Mar-a-Lago are openly asking that President Trump NOT move nearby after he leaves the White House.

► State Republican Party Chair Ken Buck needs a proofreader.

ICYMI

► As Ian Silverii writes for The Denver Post, this week’s ridiculous Legislative Audit Committee hearing was a complete waste of money and time. 

► 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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