May the Third be with you. Let’s GetMore 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.
FIRST UP…
► Congressional Democrats are pushing for ethics reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court. As Ashley Murray explains for Colorado Newsline:
U.S. Supreme Court justices should follow a strict code of ethics when receiving gifts and travel or doing business with political funders and attorneys, argued Democratic senators Tuesday at a hearing that Chief Justice John Roberts declined to attend. [Pols emphasis]
After a spate of investigative articles detailing Justice Clarence Thomas’ luxury travel and real estate transactions with a GOP donor, and a property sale by a limited liability company partly owned by Justice Neil Gorsuch to a law firm head, Democratic leaders on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary maintained the highest court in the land cannot be trusted to police itself.
GOP members of the panel dismissed the hearing as “selective outrage” — as ranking member Lindsey Graham of South Carolina put it — against the court’s conservative majority that recently handed down controversial high-profile decisions, including overturning Roe v. Wade and striking down New York’s concealed carry law.
In declining the invitation to testify in front of the committee, Roberts asserted that the court must remain independent and that it adheres to its own set of principles.
In a follow-up letter Monday, Roberts wrote that there are “no set rules” for the court’s adoption of such principles or guidelines. [Pols emphasis]
From Clarence Thomas to Neil Gorsuch, it’s hard to argue that SCOTUS does NOT need new ethical guidelines that Justices might actually feel compelled to follow.
► Colorado Public Radio reports on the latest news regarding a controversial land use/affordable housing proposal in the state legislature:
A Colorado House committee partially restored the most controversial part of a land use reform bill before it advanced the measure late Tuesday night.
The bill, SB23-213, was initially a sweeping measure that would’ve forced many local governments to allow varying degrees of denser homes in all residential neighborhoods. The state Senate gradually trimmed those mandatory upzoning requirements before eliminating them entirely last week.
But the House Transportation, Housing & Local Government Committee has brought back some of those provisions, as previewed Monday by CPR News.
The bill would have to make it back through the State Senate in order to see its passage before the end of the 2023 legislative session on Monday.
► In other news from under the gold dome at the State Capitol, Democrats are working on last-minute legislation to provide property tax relief for Coloradans while also protecting school funding mechanisms.
There are lots of bills that still need to be finalized before Monday’s end of session. Legislative Republicans, however, are doing everything they can to slow discussion to a crawl. Their entire strategy is just to get in the way of whatever Democrats want to accomplish. Republicans don’t have ideas of their own.
► There are too many people with too many guns. Period.
CONTENT WARNING: A man on Reddit shared this video with me of a shooting at Monaco and Evans last night. The drivers of a black Lexus SUV and a white Ford pickup are in a chase down the wrong side of the road.
► Congress is thinking about artificial intelligence playing a role in television advertising. From The Washington Post:
As AI image generators and other tools have proliferated, the technology has quickly become an instrument of political messaging, mischief and misinformation. Meanwhile, the technology’s rapid development has outpaced U.S. regulation.
Some in Congress say that’s a problem. On Tuesday, Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation that would require disclosure of AI-generated content in political ads — part of an effort, she said, to “get the Congress going on addressing many of the challenges that we’re facing with AI.”..
…The immediate impetus for her bill, she said, was an ad released last week by the RNC that used AI-generated images to paint a dystopian picture of a potential second term for Biden. Designed to answer Biden’s announcement that he was running for reelection, the 30-second spot included fake visuals of China invading Taiwan and immigrants overwhelming the Southern border, among other scenarios. The ad included a disclaimer in the upper left corner that read, “Built entirely with AI imagery.”
Clarke said that disclosure made the RNC ad a model, in a certain sense, of the transparent deployment of AI. But not all actors will follow that example, she warned, and the consequences could be dire during the 2024 presidential campaign.
In case you missed it, here’s that creepy AI-created ad from the Republican National Committee:
► Here’s an interesting deep dive into the data surrounding the April 4 Denver Municipal Election and the results that created the runoff election for Mayor between Kelly Brough and Mike Johnston. This particular finding is curious:
► Sara Wilson of Colorado Newsline reports on changes to legislation dealing with Hospital fees:
House Bill 23-1215 would prohibit providers affiliated with a hospital or health system from charging facility fees for preventative care in outpatient settings, with exemptions for rural hospitals that are the only one in the area. A transparency provision would require that those providers notify patients that they charge the fee and include it on an itemized bill.
Additionally, the bill would create a study on the scope of facility fees in the state and their impact on the health care system, including the number of patients who faced facility fees, the total amount collected in facility fees and the most frequent medical codes used…
…The bill was heavily amended from its introduced version, which would have banned fees for a wider range of outpatient services, as well as for telehealth services.
It passed the House on April 18 and made it through its first Senate committee hearing last week. The Senate Appropriations Committee laid it over on Tuesday.
► Legislation to ensure equal pay for equal work is still moving along at the State Capitol. Elsewhere under the gold dome:
We’ve got nothing to say about this Tweet from Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs):
Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
► Head Twitterer Elon Musk is threatening National Public Radio over its decision to stop using his social media platform, saying he’ll give its Twitter handle to someone else if it doesn’t get back to Tweeting.
► If Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis makes a run at the Republican Presidential nomination, he’s probably going to want to hire some new people who actually know what they are doing.
ICYMI
► Nina Joss and McKenna Harford of Colorado Community Media try to understand how Colorado Republicans can find a way forward:
There seems to be consensus within the Republican Party that unity is needed to start winning. Republicans appear to agree they need an identity, a clear message. The disagreement, however, is exactly what messages to push.
Some want the party to shift focus away from abortion, gun control, the results of the 2020 presidential election and Donald Trump in hopes of appealing to more unaffiliated voters. Others say these topics are exactly what Republicans need to double down on to win.
At the April breakfast, some of those themes played out. Republicans in the room disagreed on how much the party should focus on abortion. While many Republicans share a desire for more restrictions on abortion in Colorado, the question is how much these beliefs should be a part of mainstream messaging.
“It reminds me of an old saying: ‘If you can’t beat them, join them,’” said Bob Andrews, who lost the Arapahoe County assessor race in 2022.
As a “devout Catholic” with “strong opinions about abortion,” Andrews said Republicans need to stop focusing on it.
“We have this abortion albatross around our neck,” he said. “As an assessor candidate, I had to answer questions about abortion. That’s not in my purview. But until we give that up, we’re going to keep losing.”
► Give your eyes a break and put your ears to work with this week’s episode of the Get More Smarter Podcast:
Don’t forget to give Colorado Pols a thumbs up on Facebook and Twitter. Check out The Get More Smarter Podcast at GetMoreSmarter.com.
3 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Wednesday (May 3)”
Monaco and Evans is an intersection I drive through frequently …
It isn't just internal combustion engine poisoning. This afternoon's Aurora Sentinel update reported
Police say a Tesla driver was fatally shot during a fight at an electric vehicle charging station in Edgewater. A spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said two shots were fired during the altercation, and the 33-year-old motorist who died was hospitalized with a single gunshot wound. It’s unclear why the fight erupted, which was outside a food hall.
The article has a brief update "The second man later called 911 to report he was involved in the shooting and was detained…. It wasn’t immediately clear if both shots were fired by the man who turned himself in, or if he was also an EV driver.": Tesla driver fatally shot in fight at Edgewater charging station
Stories like that make one wonder how long it'll be until some trumpanzee federal judge holds that the Second Amendment includes an implied fundamental right to shoot anyone the shooter subjectively believes needed killin' and that criminal laws proscribing homicide are unconstitutional as applied in such circumstances.
May 03, 2023 12:23 PM UTC
3 Comments
May the Third be with you. Let’s Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (
Monaco and Evans is an intersection I drive through frequently …
It isn't just internal combustion engine poisoning. This afternoon's Aurora Sentinel update reported
The article has a brief update "The second man later called 911 to report he was involved in the shooting and was detained…. It wasn’t immediately clear if both shots were fired by the man who turned himself in, or if he was also an EV driver.": Tesla driver fatally shot in fight at Edgewater charging station
Stories like that make one wonder how long it'll be until some trumpanzee federal judge holds that the Second Amendment includes an implied fundamental right to shoot anyone the shooter subjectively believes needed killin' and that criminal laws proscribing homicide are unconstitutional as applied in such circumstances.
The federal judge in Amarillo would probably accept such a case.