September 27, 2021 11:10 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Monday (Sept. 27)

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

The Denver Broncos have started the season 3-0 for the first time since 2016. We won’t remind you how that season ended. Let’s 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 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 

► A government shutdown in the middle of a pandemic that already has the nation’s economy on thin ice? That seems like a horrible idea, but Senate Republicans are hell bent on making it happen. From The Washington Post:

Senate Republicans on Monday prepared to block a bill that would fund the government, provide billions of dollars in hurricane relief and stave off a default in U.S. debts, part of the party’s renewed campaign to undermine President Biden’s broader economic agenda. [Pols emphasis]

The GOP’s expected opposition is sure to deal a death blow to the measure, which had passed the House last week, and threatens to add to the pressure on Democrats to devise their own path forward ahead of a series of urgent fiscal deadlines. A failure to address the issues could cause severe financial calamity, the White House has warned, potentially plunging the United States into another recession.

Ahead of the planned Monday vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) staked his party’s position — that Republicans are not willing to vote for any measure that raises or suspends the debt ceiling, even if they have no intentions of shutting down the government in the process. GOP lawmakers feel that raising the borrowing limit, which allows the country to pay its bills, would enable Biden and his Democratic allies to pursue trillions in additional spending and other policy changes they do not support.

The Republican Party platform in 2020 was basically just “do whatever Donald Trump wants.” In 2022, the platform appears to be, “oppose everything.”

► Maps, maps, maps!

Colorado’s Independent Redistricting Commissions COULD finalize at least one proposed map today. Fox 31 Denver notes some late comments considered by commissioners on Friday, and Megan Verlee of Colorado Public Radio ponders the next steps in the process. John Aguilar of The Denver Post, meanwhile, focuses in on what the new CO-08 might look like when the lines are drawn in pen.

► On Sunday, The Washington Post published an in-depth story on Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters and her election-denying law breaking. Emma Brown’s story begins with a strange office requirement from Peters last spring:

In April, employees in the office that runs elections in western Colorado’s Mesa County received an unusual calendar invitation for an after-hours work event, a gathering at a hotel in Grand Junction. “Expectations are that all will be at the Doubletree by 5:30,” said the invite sent by a deputy to Tina Peters, the county’s chief elections official.

Speaking at the DoubleTree was Douglas Frank, a physics teacher and scientist who was rapidly becoming famous among election deniers for claiming to have discovered secret algorithms used to rig the 2020 contest against Donald Trump. Frank led the crowd in a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and spent the next 90 minutes alleging an elaborate conspiracy involving inflated voter rolls, fraudulent ballots and a “sixth-order polynomial,” video of the event shows. He was working for MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell, he said, and their efforts could overturn President Biden’s victory.

Being told to sit through a presentation of wild, debunked claims was “a huge slap in the face,” one Mesa County elections-division employee said of the previously unreported episode. “We put so much time and effort into making sure that everything’s done accurately,” the employee told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Peters, the elected county clerk, had expressed sympathy for such theories in the past, the employee said.

And ICYMI, former Secretary of State Scott Gessler is representing Peters in court…but we don’t yet know who is paying for his services. Charles Ashby of The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel has more on the intersection of Peters and QAnon.

► The recently-concluded Arizona election audit confirmed what all rational people already knew: Joe Biden won the 2020 election for President. But now, a handful of nutty lawmakers from around the country are calling for NEW audits of the 2020 election in every state.

41 Legislators from Multiple States Write a Letter to the American People Calling for a 50-State Audit, Decertification Where Appropriate, and Possible Convening of the US House of Representatives pic.twitter.com/Hoz6zUBtZq

— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) September 25, 2021

Colorado’s, uh, contributions to this letter include State Reps. Ron Hanks, Dave Williams, and Stephanie Luck.

Click below to keep learning stuff…

And Now, More Words…

► Colorado Newsline breaks down Colorado’s 10 most dangerous election deniers:

Former President Donald Trump hatched the “big lie” that the election was stolen from him, and this falsehood has sloshed through every Republican channel in the country. Some of his supporters surely believe the lie, and some surely don’t. But what’s most important to all of them is that his opponents are deprived of power, no matter what voters prefer, no matter by what means, even if the Constitution must be scrapped and democracy canceled, and even if it means violence.

These forces have gained momentum in Colorado, and they are increasingly dangerous. The individuals involved can be identified — indeed, they must be named. Coloradans should know who they are, understand their iniquitous motives, and counter their efforts like the country’s survival depends on it.

It’s tough to restrict this list to ONLY 10 names, so Quentin Young includes a couple of “Honorable Mentions.”

► Another Member of Congress has tested positive for COVID-19: Texas Republican Rep. Brian Babin, who says he has been fully vaccinated since January.

► Congressperson Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert got a lot of bad national press over the weekend related to her efforts to “IMEACH” President Biden.

► As The Washington Post reports, homicides rose nearly 30 percent in 2020. The main culprit is the same as it ever was: There are too many guns in America.

► Democrats in Colorado’s congressional delegation voted in favor of legislation that would secure abortion rights for women in America.

► Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney agree that the United States needs to act with more urgency on the issue of Climate Change. Colorado Democrats have a similar message for the EPA on methane regulations.

► The Colorado Sun reports on a Denver-based defamation lawsuit from the 2020 election in which former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani is a key figure.

► Colorado Newsline helps make sense of the ballot measures that you’ll be voting on in the 2021 election.

► As The Denver Post reports, Colorado hospitals have been slow to move forward with price transparency requirements:

Most Colorado hospitals are at least partially complying with rules meant to make it easier for patients to shop for care, but even if people find and use all the price tools available, there’s still a chance they won’t know what they’re paying until they get a bill.

Colorado passed a law requiring hospitals to post self-pay prices for their most common procedures in 2017. Two years later, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services mandated that hospitals post their chargemasters — essentially, a list of “sticker prices” for almost anything they offer, from procedures to the daily rate for a room.

Now, hospitals also have to post the rates they’ve negotiated with insurance companies and whatever discounts they offer to uninsured people, as well as the estimated cost for “shoppable” services.

The Denver Post surveyed the websites of 87 Colorado hospitals to find out whether they were posting price information as required by the state and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Of those, 34 hospitals posted all required prices, 34 posted only the sticker price, two posted no prices, and the rest posted some subset of the required information.

► Colorado farmworkers can’t afford to buy the produce that they pick with their own hands.

► Colorado’s Air Quality Commission doesn’t seem to be doing a very good job of trying to actually protect Colorado’s air quality.

► As POLITICO reports, it’s still unclear how a leadership vacuum might be filled in Germany following significant national elections marking the end of 16 years of Angela Merkel as Chancellor.

Say What, Now?

Is it too much to ask that a Member of Congress understand the appropriate usage of there/their/they’re?

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► Wyoming Congressperson Liz Cheney says that many Republican colleagues have privately (but not so bravely) told her that they support her continued efforts to push back against The Big Lie and Donald Trump’s GOP influence.

► This is really sad:

Trump endorsed her opponent. pic.twitter.com/tItYER5eE3

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 26, 2021

► John Hinckley, Jr., the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, will be granted an unconditional release by a federal judge.

ICYMI

► Ian Silverii, a Denver Post columnist and co-host of The Get More Smarter Podcast, was on MSNBC on Thursday evening to talk about Rep. Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert:

“This is the entire problem—she’s a failed businessperson and she’s using her campaign funds to paper it over,” says the Denver Post’s Ian Silverii on Rep. Boebert spending campaign money on her restaurant Shooters Grill. https://t.co/91NvElZH3y

— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) September 24, 2021

The full interview is available below:

► The editorial board of The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel marvels at the fact that “the blind are leading the blind” in the case of Mesa County’s election security problems.

► This week on The Get More Smarter Podcast, hosts Jason Bane and Ian Silverii discuss the worst campaign kickoff in modern Colorado history and the return to Colorado of embattled Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters.

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