February 01, 2021 10:55 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Monday (February 1)

• 4 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

“Black History Month” kicks off today with “National Freedom Day.” 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 

► President Biden will meet today with 10 Republican Senators who are pushing a much more modest coronavirus relief proposal than the $1.9 trillion plan favored by the White House. As The Washington Post reports:

Ahead of Biden’s meeting Monday with GOP senators, White House press secretary Jen Psaki stressed that the president remains committed to robust coronavirus relief legislation and that the size of the package should be “closer to what he proposed” than what Republicans are advocating.

“What this meeting is not is a forum for the president to make or accept an offer,” Psaki told reporters during a briefing at the White House.

Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion package, with includes a new round of checks sent directly to most Americans. The group of 10 GOP senators have countered with $618 million proposal.

“It’s important to him that he hears this group out on their concerns, on their ideas. He’s always open to making this package stronger,” Psaki said. “But his view is that the size of the package needs to be commensurate with the crises we’re facing. … Hence why he proposed a package that’s $1.9 trillion.”

Senate Republicans now whining about “bipartisanship” is rich indeed.

Meanwhile, it seems that more Republicans are increasingly losing their patience with other Republicans in Congress who are trying to pretend that they are once again worried about the federal deficit when they should be focused on helping Americans:

**Republican** Governor of West Virginia @WVGovernor to me on Stimulus: “Trying to be per se fiscally responsible at this point in time with what we’ve got going on in the country, if we actually throw away some money right now, so what?” Has he talked to @Sen_JoeManchin? I ask. pic.twitter.com/s93QMWze3m

— Poppy Harlow (@PoppyHarlowCNN) February 1, 2021

► As Alex Burness reports for The Denver Post, Colorado is planning to ease COVID-related restrictions in a plan that could be rolled out this week.

The state is plotting Dial 3.0 in March, with another possible dial update to follow a few months later.

Colorado has a color-coded dial, ranging from Green (most lenient) to Purple (most severe), which determines capacity levels and social behaviors in counties, depending on the level of virus transmission in those counties. The restrictions that correspond with each color are not set to change in Dial 2.0, but the state does plan to relax the metric requirements.

For example, to qualify for Level Orange — the current level for most Colorado counties, and the third most restrictive on the dial — a county must have an incidence rate of new positive COVID-19 cases between 175 and 350 per 100,000 people. Any higher than 350 per 100,000, and a county qualifies for Level Red. Under Dial 2.0, counties would qualify for Level Orange if their incidence rates climbed as high as 499 per 100,000. The current Level Red threshold is defined as above 350 per 100,000 people, and in Dial 2.0 it would be bumped up to 500.

► Congresswoman Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert (R-Fox News) cancelled a “town hall” meeting in Montrose over the weekend that she had only really announced a few hours beforehand. The cancelled event would have been her first forum with constituents since winning election in November 2020.

► As CNN reports, many of the terrorists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6 DIDN’T EVEN BOTHER TO VOTE in 2020.

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

As Promised, More Words…

► The second Senate impeachment trial against former President Trump kicks off next week. As The Washington Post reports, Trump’s ideas for his legal defense are a bit odd:

The implosion of former president Donald Trump’s legal team comes as Trump remains fixated on arguing at his second impeachment trial that the 2020 election was stolen from him, a defense that advisers warn is ill-conceived and Republican strategists fear will fuel the growing divide in the GOP.

South Carolina lawyer Karl S. “Butch” Bowers Jr. and four other attorneys who recently signed on to represent the former president abruptly parted ways with him this weekend, days before his Feb. 9 Senate trial for his role in inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol. On Sunday evening, Trump’s office announced two new lawyers were taking over his defense.

Two people familiar with the discussions preceding the departure of the original legal team said that Trump wanted them to make the case during the trial that he actually won the election. To do so would require citing his false claims of election fraud — even as his allies and attorneys have said that he should instead focus on arguing that impeaching a president who has already left office is unconstitutional.

Elsewhere, The New York Times takes a detailed look at Trump’s long (and unsuccessful) campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election.

► Former (disgraced) Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler is running to become the next Chair of the Colorado Republican Party. A central tenet of his message to fellow Republicans is to continue suggesting that the 2020 Presidential election was fraudulent. Gessler had to find a new email marketer after the company he had been using decided they didn’t want any part of continuing to spread this nonsense.

On a related note, Jonathan Lockwood is enthusiastically supporting Jonathan Lockwood to be the next State GOP Chair.

► POLITICO includes Colorado Rep. Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert in a profile of freshman Members of Congress:

► As Judith Kohler reports for The Denver Post, Colorado is trying to figure out how to untangle a mess of underground natural gas pipelines.

► Congressman Joe Neguse (D-Boulderish) is asking President Biden to lift deportation orders against a handful of Colorado “sanctuary” leaders.

► Colorado could soon see more “ranked-choice” voting options.

► New Secretary of State Antony Blinken is getting positive reviews thus far.

► Georgia Republicans are as sick of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as the rest of us. Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing harder against committee assignments made for Greene. As POLITICO reports:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is planning to deliver an ultimatum to McCarthy this week: Either Republicans move on their own to strip Greene (R-Ga.) of her committee assignments within 72 hours, or Democrats will bring the issue to the House floor.

The Democrats’ move comes amid intense fury within the Democratic Caucus over Greene’s long record of incendiary rhetoric, including peddling conspiracy theories that the nation’s deadliest mass shootings were staged. Greene also endorsed violence against Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats before she was elected to Congress.

Last week, Greene was officially awarded seats on the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Budget Committee.

► As 9News reports, there is a clear link between social media misinformation and misperceptions about COVID-19.

► Pollution from oil and gas operations in Colorado could be increasing your COVID-19 risks.

Say What, Now?

► Egg-sucking…cow’s legs?

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) doubles down on his CNN interview, telling MSNBC: “I absolutely believe we need to go big” & says it was “ridiculous beyond belief” the year-end COVID bill took so long. He says “we need to quit counting the egg-sucking legs on the cow.”

— Alex Bolton (@alexanderbolton) February 1, 2021

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► As Chris Cillizza notes for CNN, former President Trump would like to remind you that he used to be President:

Donald Trump very much wants to remind absolutely everyone who sees this press release — or quotes from it — that he was the 45th president of the United States. The 45th. Forty and then another five. Four dozen minus three. The guy after the 44th president. You know, the 45th president…

…And so, you get a press release like this one that mentions FIVE times in four paragraphs that he was the 45th president of the United States.

It’s more sad than anything else. But my guess is Trump doesn’t see it that way.

► Here’s a great story from The Onion that could totally be true:

ICYMI

► Most people have experienced a hostile office/working environment, but most of us haven’t been Members of Congress at the same time.  

► Colorado students need media literacy training more than ever.

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