September 05, 2024 10:29 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (Sept. 5)

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• by: Colorado Pols

There are exactly 60 days left until Election Day. 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.

FIRST UP…

► We’re learning more about a deadly shooting at a high school near Atlanta, Georgia that killed four people and wounded at least nine others. From CNN:

Wednesday’s mass shooting was the 45th school shooting so far this year and the deadliest US school shooting since the March 2023 massacre at The Covenant School in Nashville that left six people dead.

In Georgia, the suspect is a 14-year-old student accused of killing two students and two teachers with an AR-platform weapon. Nine more people were hospitalized…

…One of the school resource officers confronted the shooter, who surrendered and was taken into custody, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.

The suspect, Colt Gray, is being held Thursday at Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Centers, the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice told CNN. He will make his first court appearance Friday, department spokesperson Glenn Allen said.

Dipshits at Fox News, meanwhile, have returned to the idiotic theory that video games are to blame for mass shootings.

► Aurora Sentinel editor Dave Perry has had enough of the fear-mongering and irresponsible journalism surrounding hysterical claims about Venezuelan “gangs” overrunning communities in Aurora:

Some city and regional Republican lawmakers — especially Aurora Councilmember Danielle Jurisnky, Mayor Mike Coffman and congressional hopeful John Frabbricatore — owe Aurora, the state and the nation an apology for purposely generating terror in a foul and blatant grab for political gain.

In my almost 40 years of being a journalist, the nationally televised fabrication that Venezuelan gangsters run amok in Aurora is among the most despicable and dangerous stunts I’ve ever seen.

Aurora interim police Chief Heather Morris, late to the game in this controversy, made it unequivocal late Friday when Aurora released a video of her saying adamantly, “What we’re learning out here is that gang members definitely have not taken over this complex,” Morris said.

A community “overrun” and “taken over” by gangs is the outlandish fabrication that Jurinsky has perpetrated locally and nationally. She’s done it with the aid of propagandists posing as journalists at Fox News, the New York Post and a handful of local TV and print news outlets.

This grisly attempt at terrorizing Aurora residents, in hopes of swaying voters to back anti-immigrant candidates and causes, must stop.

You know the narrative has gotten silly when even the HELL’S ANGELS motorcycle gang is speaking out:

► Initiatives 50 and 108 are officially dead, and Gov. Jared Polis has signed legislation from the recent special session as a result. Brian Eason and Jesse Paul have more for The Colorado Sun:

Declaring an end to Colorado’s property tax wars — for now, at least — Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday signed into law a round of modest tax cuts passed during the August special legislative session to avoid the threat of far deeper cuts on the November ballot.

In exchange, political groups Advance Colorado and Colorado Concern rescinded two ballot measures, Initiatives 108 and 50, which would have cut taxes by $2.4 billion, put strict limits on their growth and jeopardized the state’s ability to fund K-12 schools and other public services for years to come.

“This really is an example of bringing folks together who may not see eye to eye on every issue,” Polis said in his office at the state Capitol.

Polis is perhaps being overly rosy on the truth of the special session and the hostage-taking baloney from a few right-wing lunatics with a checkbook.

► Right-wing “activist” and podcast host Joe Oltmann has an expensive new debt on his hands, as Marissa Solomon reports for 9News:

Oltmann owes a former Dominion Voting Systems employee $1,000 a day, starting now, for as long as he continues to withhold evidence of his election rigging claims.

Oltmann is named as a non-party in a defamation suit by Eric Coomer, the former director of product security and strategy for Dominion Voting Systems. He is also facing a defamation and conspiracy lawsuit from Coomer for claims Oltmann made back in 2020.

In November 2020, Oltmann claimed to have heard an “Antifa conference call” where an employee of Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems suggested the election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden.

“I think this is a conspiracy to commit fraud against the American people,” Oltmann told KNUS host Peter Boyles on Nov. 18. “This is a massive, massive, massive putting your finger on the scales of the election.”

Oltmann hasn’t provided evidence to back up the accusation, despite being subpoenaed in Denver District Court.

As anyone who is even remotely familiar with this topic already knows, there has never been any evidence that “Antifa” is an organized group with any sort of leadership structure whatsoever. The idea that “Antifa” is holding conference calls about anything is fundamentally absurd.

Click below to keep learning things…

Check Out All This Other Stuff To Know…

► Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen (D-Jefferson County) is pushing for Medicare to expand coverage for substance use disorders. As Caitlyn Kim reports for Colorado Public Radio:

Inspired in part by her own family’s experience, Democratic Rep. Brittany Petersen is introducing a new bill to help more people get in-patient treatment for drug addiction.

“When I was begging for my mom to get help as a state legislator, that’s where I really saw how broken the system was,” Pettersen recalled. “I had to go through getting her a court order to have treatment covered. So after my mom went through recovery (and) finally got the help that she needed, I brought a bill to require the state to apply for a Medicaid waiver to ensure that Colorado can actually cover [substance use disorder] treatment.”

Pettersen’s mother recently marked her seventh anniversary in recovery. Now Pettersen wants to take what she learned in Colorado, improve on it and apply it nationwide…

…The Recovery Act streamlines the process by giving states the option to include SUD treatment to their coverage plans, instead of having to apply for a waiver to change the program to include it. Those new state plans would be permanent, not demonstration projects, giving predictability and sustainability for providers. The bill also incentivizes states to take advantage of Medicaid funding by having the federal government pay 90 percent of the cost for the first five years, before going down to the regular Medicaid reimbursement rate.

It would also do away with a cap that limits the number of days people can get covered. That cap, Pettersen said, was instituted in the 1960s.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, almost 12 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries over the age of 18 suffer from SUD.

► An LGBTQ+ advocacy group in Colorado is launching its own GOTV campaign.

► Colorado is on the receiving end of a record amount of federal funding in order to help reduce health insurance premiums.  

► Aurora residents who failed to stop new oil and gas drilling operations near both a superfund landfill site and the city’s largest source of drinking water aren’t done fighting back. Michael Abeyta has more for CBS4 Denver.

► Three local electric cooperatives trying to get away from fossil fuels are getting more federal financial help. From Colorado Public Radio:

 Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, United Power and CORE Electric Cooperative are three of 16 co-ops selected to split $7.3 billion in financing to build clean energy generation for rural communities across the country.

President Joe Biden is expected to make the official announcement later today. It’s part of a new program called Empowering Rural America (New ERA), made possible through the Inflation Reduction Act, his signature climate, health care and tax law.

“This is rural energy by and for rural Americans. It is not something that we have cooked up here in Washington. It is something that the co-ops want to pursue,” said Kristina Costa, deputy assistant to the president for clean energy, innovation and implementation.

She said the program will help to lower costs for co-ops so they can “go farther, faster in building clean energy technologies that they want to build out to serve their members.”

United Power is expected to utilize the funding to help provide more than 760 megawatts from renewable sources, including through power purchase agreements. It’s also expected to bring an additional 460 megawatts of solar generation online by 2030, including some from an agrivoltaic project. The coop serves around 100,000 customers, primarily northeast of Denver.

President Biden: He did that.

►A Libertarian candidate in CO-08 is dropping out of the race and endorsing Republican Gabe-ish Evans instead. As Seth Klamann of The Denver Post explains:

Eric Joss, the Libertarian nominee in the 8th Congressional District, announced the armistice with Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans during a press conference Tuesday night. Evans, a freshman legislator from Fort Lupton, signed a “pledge of liberty” to secure Joss’ support.

The pledge includes promises to oppose “military adventurism” while supporting a peaceful end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and “fundamental reform” of the U.S. Department of Education, among other issues.

Evans said he signed the pledge after some changes were made, including removing language calling for the abolishment of U.S. intelligence services.

The Libertarian “pledge” was one of the many bad ideas put forth by Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams in the first few months following his election in March 2023.

► Tim Sheehy, the Republican Senate candidate in Montana, continues to deal with a severe case of foot-in-mouth disease. From The Associated Press:

Tribal leaders in Montana urged Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy to apologize over remarks he made to supporters about Native Americans being “drunk at 8 a.m.” and throwing beer cans at him on the Crow Reservation

Audio recordings of Sheehy’s derogatory comments were obtained and published by Char-Koosta News, the official publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation.

Sheehy is backed by former President Donald Trump as he challenges three-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in one of the most closely-watched congressional races in the nation.

A Republican victory could help swing control of the closely divided Senate.

Republicans are once again looking at potentially blowing another opportunity to control the U.S. Senate on account of the fact that they have truly awful candidates running in key states.

► What will happen next in the ongoing battle to determine who might actually be in charge of the Colorado Republican Party? Nobody really knows.

Say What, Now?

Republican State Rep. Ryan Armagost never misses an opportunity to demonstrate his own idiocy:

Did you just say the quiet part out loud?

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► KLZ 560 radio host Kim Monson is trying to raise $200,000 in order to fund some vague lawsuits related to unclear claims of election fraud in hopes of stopping the certification of the 2024 election in Colorado. In case you haven’t been paying attention, the 2024 election HAS NOT YET TAKEN PLACE. 

► Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump says that he understands nuclear weapons “maybe better than anyone.”

ICYMI

► Republican Lauren Boebert got pummeled by Democrat Trisha Calvarese in a General Election debate on Tuesday. Boebert is hoping to avoid any further public discussions that she can’t control by merely complaining about Joe Biden. 

► Enough with the “legislative privilege” nonsense. 

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