“Right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
–Martin Luther King, Jr.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: 2Jung2Die
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: MichaelBowman
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: Duke Cox
IN: Who’s Paying For These Racist Anti-Harris Sign Stunts?
BY: davebarnes
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: notaskinnycook
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: 2Jung2Die
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: notaskinnycook
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
BY: Colorado Pols
IN: Who’s Paying For These Racist Anti-Harris Sign Stunts?
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Labor Day Weekend Open Thread
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
Here's a story worth checking out if you care about state government. I have no way of knowing whether Rep. Epps did not attend a single House floor session in person until like 45 days into this year's legislative session due to a legit extended medical condition. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt because I don't know, but she could have cleared this up at least somewhat with the Colorado Sun when asked. And again, I get that nobody has to share personal health information. But maybe the people of the district she represents might be interested in a statement.
https://coloradosun.com/2024/02/29/elisabeth-epps-coleg/?mc_cid=6addff692a&mc_eid=3b950c3803
She didn't attend in person. That's an important distinction.
You're right and I edited to add "in person." But according to the story, she attended some committee hearings in person during the 45 days, and started attending the House in person the day after the Colorado Sun inquiry. I put all kinds of disclaimers in my original comment because maybe what she's doing is completely legit, but I'm curious and maybe some of her constituents will get a bit curiouser after this Sun report.
I've followed Elisabeth Epps for years, because of her justice work. I recall her writing on Twitter? Facebook? that she was experiencing some kind of autoimmune symptoms. Lupus? Don't recall exactly, but she has had and does have some health challenges.
That said, in my opinion she is being targeted because she is outspoken on the Palestinian issue. So lack of in-person attendance that would be unremarked in Republican or generic-Dems is front page news in the Colorado Sun.
Thanks, the first paragraph helps me understand better. I swear I care about health challenges, and the Capitol is a known Petri dish for various contagious things, plus the session is a stressful environment.
I totally acknowledge a story about Rep. Epps for almost any reason is very likely to generate media views right now, so it's an attractive topic. There was a Rep. Mauro mentioned in the Sun story, and today was the first time I learned she missed some in-person attendance last year (still don't know how much). Still, I'd be very surprised if the media in general isn't getting all kinds of inquiries about Epps' in-person absences, and her silence when asked reasonably fair questions by the Sun isn't going to help her optics or prevent other media from digging further.
Perhaps she should step aside to focus on her health. She will get stronger and her district will get full-time representation.
Does the Colorado House rules allow for proxy voting or voting remotely?
She's been voting remotely. Don't think I've ever heard of proxy voting in the House.
That might actually be the ideal situation.
She can vote remotely on legislation but won't be able to throw a hissy fit and mess up legislative proceedings with her tirades over foreign policy issues which are not within the purview of the General Assembly.
711,788 ballots in as of yesterday. 18.8% of the 3,783,112 eligible.
Unaffiliated voters still turning in more than 2x Republican ballots than Democrat ballots.
I suspect that isn't good news for the leading Republican. He will win, but not bigly.
It's early, but unaffiliated folk voting the R ballot are already about a third of total R ballots. Then, the SOS has a category of "in process" unaffiliated voters where we don't know yet if they're voting D or R, and it's about half of the unaffiliated total. Then, there's the trend line of folks voting the R ballot no matter if they're Rs or unaffiliated, and it's trending that significantly more people are turning in the R instead of the D.
Reading today's report does make me think Haley's going to have a decent showing here. Pretty confident she'll earn some delegates.
"I suspect that isn't good news for the leading Republican. He will win, but not bigly."
You may be right. I certainly hope so.
BTW, saw a Nikki Haley add last night. Talked about Biden and Trump as though they were two of a kind, need for new and younger leadership, etc, etc.
It's not that I don't think an octegenarian is capable of being President, I just don't like living in a country where an octegenarian feels the need to be President.
I'd rather that they would've spent some time mentoring others so that they could spend their later years trusting their younger generations to run the country while enjoying life instead of running the country themselves.
As Andy Warhola once said, everybody gets their 15 minutes of fame. If that's true, Nikki Haley is well into overtime.
After her drubbing in her home state of South Carolina, the Koch machine said they were no longer going to support her, an obvious admission that it was time to "turn off the lights, the parties over" as Don Meridith used to so eloquently put it when the score was 42 to 7.
When Haley was asked to comment about the Koch's throwing in the towel, she replied she never got any money from them and the only thing they did was knock on some doors.
According to Open Secrets, Haley's campaign received $ 31.2 million from the Kochs. That's an aweful lot of door knocking.
You have to give her some credit. To borrow a phrase from Churchhill – "Boneless wonder" – while the road to the RNC is strewn with these gutless wonders (Thune capitulated yesterday, McConnell threw up the white flag) – she has weathered the storm longer than any white man in the caucus. I'd like to celebrate her more for staying in the race and her belated truth-telling about why he's unfit, except that I'm sure she'll endorse him eventually.
Haley has been lazer focused on the presidency her entire political career. One has to admire her tenacity and drive. But at this point the only possibility of her being the Republican candidate for president is if Trump goes to jail or drops dead from too many quarter pounders.
My money's on the latter.
I'm rooting for atherosclerosis to take him down. It would be delicious to watch the grief of the MAGAverse, and to enjoy the parties metaphorically dancing on his grave.
If that were to happen, all hell would break loose in this country.
First, at least a third of the MAGA-verse would believe that he was murdered and demand justice.
Another third would believe that he was secretly still alive and awaiting the ordained time to reappear in public possibly along with his runningmate, JFK, Jr.
And the other third would be unable to figure out in which of the first two camps they belonged.
The real bloodbath would be amongst the pretenders to the MAGA throne.
Keep the big picture in mind. Per Gallup, only 28% of all registered voters are Republicans. Of those, ~ 45% are MAGA leaning – so 45% of 28% is about 14-15% of all voters. Constitutionalists, MAGA unaffiliateds, etc, could probably add another 3% to 15% in certain states or districts ( like CD4).
You are correct in that this 15-30% minority is well-armed, believes in conspiracy theories, are Trump cultists, and extremely dangerous. But it is nothing like the civil war or "all hell breaking loose" that TFG is promoting. Half the population is not going to revolt if TFG dies- instead, most will breathe a giant sigh of relief.
For myself, I just want to see the logical extension of his dementia – it is a terminal disease, with a 5-10 year life expectancy in its latter stages, after all.
Lying about the Koch money just makes her look silly. I never have understood why people fib about things that are easily verifiable.
My ridiculous prediction that I don't want to come true:
After Trump gets elected to be President, SCOTUS announces on January 21, 2025 that he never should've been allowed to run for President but since it already happened there's nothing we can do about it but at least we know for next time.
Chicken, even I'm not cynical enough to think that Alito and Thomas could engineer a decision like that.
My prediction: if we are lucky, at the end of June, they will reject his immunity claim and send the case back to DC trial court to schedule a trial. Trial will probably be scheduled sometime in September or October but Trump's lawyers will claim that with the appeals process, they won't be ready until January, waive his speedy trial right, and set trial in the winter.
If we are unlucky, no decision from SCOTUS until autumn.
Remember – "speedy trial" is not just protection for the defendant but also for the people.
Well this should be interesting:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has just signed legislation to authorize the Release of Jeffrey Epstein Grand Jury Documents for his case in Florida.
This is the case that was buried and then ended up with Epstein getting a sweetheart deal.
You may recall that it was former Trump administration official Alexander Acosta, then the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, who agreed to the ridiculously lenient plea deal, to grant immunity from all federal criminal charges to Epstein, along with four named co-conspirators and any unnamed "potential co-conspirators".
I'm not sure how an unnamed potential co-conspirator would enforce that immunity. If one is unnamed in the materials, how can one be a "potential co-conspirator." Acosta was a joke.