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September 21, 2016 11:57 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (September 21)

  • 7 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Dad says to vote for Hillary Clinton.
Dad says to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Enjoy the last day of summer before the Autumnal Equinox. We really just wanted to write the phrase, “Autumnal Equinox.” It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. 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 a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Issues of race relations and police brutality continue to boil across the country. As the Washington Post reports:

A riot in North Carolina overnight is a fitting bookend to three months of heightened tensions between the police and the people. From Louisiana to Minnesota to Texas, a host of incidents have again and again put racial tensions back on the front burner of the presidential campaign. They’ve also inspired the national anthem protests that have roiled the National Football League.

The killings of unarmed black men at the hands of police and the murders of cops in Dallas and Baton Rouge did not lead to a period of national healing or sustained soul searching.

The stories might have disappeared from the front pages, but the incidents have continued. Temporarily-bandaged wounds are re-opening around the country this week, as frustrations boil over.

Tuesday’s riot in Charlotte came after a police officer shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott while responding to an incident that was completely unrelated to the victim.

 

► The campaign for Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump is responding to new allegations that Trump uses funds from the “Trump Foundation” to pay for personal or business-related expenses. As Chris Cillizza writes for “The Fix,” that response isn’t working particularly well:

On Tuesday morning, the Washington Post published a story headlined: “Trump used $258,000 from his charity to settle legal problems.” Written by David Fahrenthold, who has written extensively about the Trump Foundation, the piece details how Trump directed more than $250,000 of the charity’s money to help pay fees related to his businesses. Those payments could qualify as “self-dealing” and violate laws governing how the leaders of non-profit organizations can use the money they receive in donations .

On Tuesday night, Trump communications director Jason Miller issued a statement disputing David’s reporting. Sort of. Actually not really…

…And then there is the name-calling — the assertion that Dave is a “biased reporter” who is intentionally misleading the public to distract from the problems with the Clinton Foundation. “Bias” is a nasty word tossed around all took often these days about reporters — almost always with too little and, by that I mean no, proof of the claim. A reporter isn’t biased because you don’t like the facts he or she has uncovered or those facts don’t comport with your broader vision of this race.

 

► Here come the Trumpians! Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump is sending his daughter, Ivanka Trump, as the featured guest at a Denver-area fundraiser for the candidate today. On Thursday, Donald Trump, Jr. will talk “sportsmen’s issues” on the Western Slope, and Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence will make (another) stop in Colorado Springs. Trump himself was just in Colorado Springs on Saturday.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Colorado is doing well in reducing unemployment and poverty levels, but that state budget needs some help. As the Denver Post explains:

Colorado’s state budget faces a potential deficit this fiscal year, economic forecasters told state lawmakers Tuesday, as tax revenues continue to fall short of previous expectations.

The size of the shortfall in the $25.8 billion budget for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, is a matter of dispute. Legislative economists predict the state is $330 million in the red, while the governor’s office forecasts only a $227 million deficit in the current fiscal year.

The optimism in the projections from Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office saved the Democrat from a requirement to propose immediate budget cuts, a move triggered when the state dips below half of its reserve.

Still, Hickenlooper will need to consider spending cuts as he prepares his fiscal year 2017-18 budget proposal, which is due to the General Assembly on Nov. 1. The governor’s office projects about $117 million in additional revenue for the next budget year, which is short of what is needed to fund necessary obligations.

 

Bad and sad, but with a silver liningJason Salzman discusses recent staff shakeups among media outlets in Colorado.

 

New Era Colorado is out with a new video focusing on the importance of the youth vote in 2016.

 

Donald Trump with Don King
Donald Trump with Don King

 Donald Trump hopes that the backing of shady boxing promoter Don King will help his campaign attract more support from minority voters.

As Politico reports:

The Trump coalition assembled on stage at a church in a historically African American neighborhood [in Cleveland] on Wednesday morning to sell the Republican nominee as the only candidate who can turn the tide for women and minorities — and to flatly deny that he’s racist.

Seated to Trump’s right was Mike Pence, his soft-spoken running mate. To his left, outspoken longtime attorney Michael Cohen. Behind him: famed boxing promoter Don King (“there’s only one,” Trump said), former presidential rival Ben Carson (“tough”), retired Gen. Michael Flynn (“a tough general”), and former Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault (“a wonderful woman”), among others. It amounted to a gathering of Trump’s informal kitchen cabinet.

Well, if Trump is good enough for Don King…

 

► Trump continues trying to win over support from establishment Republicans, but he won’t be getting help from America’s most well-known Republican political family. As Eli Stokols writes for Politico:

Over a 24-hour span that began with Jeb Bush’s surprising and sardonic cameo in Sunday’s Emmy Awards broadcast and Monday night’s reports that his father, former President George H.W. Bush, had told a family friend privately that he intended to support Hillary Clinton, the Bushes returned to the headlines, and are giving Trump just the establishment foil he so capably exploits…

…George W. Bush, who is headed to Washington this weekend to headline a fundraiser for Senate Republicans and attend the opening of the National African American History Museum, has shared in private settings for months about his fear that he will be “the last Republican president.” And while Bush family loyalists say they do not know if he is joking, they are certain he cannot support Trump.

“When you have a Republican nominee who supported John Kerry in 2004 and implied that President Bush was responsible for 9/11 and has repeated the worst lies of the Michael Moore liberal Democrats, how in the world would the Bushes support that?” said one long-time GOP operative close to the Bush family.

 

► “Late Night” host Seth Myers has been absolutely hammering Trump over his false claims that Hillary Clinton’s campaign started the Barack Obama “birther” nonsense. Check out this segment from “Late Night.”

 

A panel of state lawmakers may vote today to include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a viable health reason for using medical marijuana in Colorado

 

► The Colorado Springs Independent discusses Republican Senate candidate Darryl Glenn and his recent claims that he is “winning” the race for U.S. Senate against Democrat Michael Bennet:

But this year’s race — between incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet, with loads of cash and leading decisively in the polls, and El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn, who’s trailing badly on both fronts — isn’t without amusement.

First, there’s this piece from the Durango Heraldabout Glenn’s statement that the national GOP party isn’t helping his campaign much because he’s got it in the bag. The comment literally left Democrats rolling in the aisles, presumably the aisles Glenn refuses to reach across.

 

► 9News breaks down the details of the most recent campaign finance reports for state-level campaigns.

 

► Donald Trump, Jr. continues to take heat for his ill-advised “Skittles Tweet” that compared refugees to poisonous candies. The company that makes Skittles is even speaking out against Junior’s analogy.

 

 

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Health insurance rates in Colorado are expected to rise significantly in 2017. Opponents of Obamacare are giddy about the increases, conveniently ignoring the fact that health insurance rates were increasing long before health care reform passed in Congress.

 

► The former deputy campaign manager for Ron Paul’s 2012 Presidential bid has been sentenced to three months in prison for attempting to cover up a payment to an Iowa state senator who promised to back Paul’s campaign.

ICYMI

► Recalled Jefferson County School Board member Julie Williams is publicly supporting the re-election efforts of state Sen. Laura Waters Woods in Arvada. This may be among the least-helpful endorsements in recent memory.

 

Don’t forget to check out the Get More Smarter Show. You can also Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook

Comments

7 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Wednesday (September 21)

  1. Clinton rules: Hillary Clinton is criticized when the father of a terrorist is in the audience for a rally.

    But Trump headlines Don King, having him be a speaker. King, who was convicted of and served time for manslaughter (he was pardoned) and who has a history of defrauding the fighters in the fights he was promoting and forcing them to sue for their money. He pleaded the 5th while testifying to Congress about possible ties to organized crime.

    The Trump team may appreciate him for his qualities: Don King was described by Mike Tyson as "a wretched, slimy, reptilian motherfucker…. He's just a bad man, a real bad man. He would kill his own mother for a dollar. He's ruthless, he's deplorable, he's greedy … and he doesn't know how to love anybody."

    Sound like anyone else we should know?

    1. Trump has been teflon man for so long it doesn't matter what he does any more. The media could have blunted his momentum by calling attention to all of his baggage, lies, scams much earlier but I'm not sure people are even hearing it now. It's just the Trump normal. If he wins the lazy, ratings loving media will be the main reason. Even they have figured this out which is why they are suddenly giving much more coverage to Trump's various scams. But is it too late? is it just so much wallpaper now? I sure hope not.

      1. Agree 100% on the media being complicit in the downfall of democracy with the election of Trump. Every Clinton story has "clouds and shadows", or as Andrea Mitchell likes to say "it raises more questions than it answers". I would like to throw a little more shade on the the folks who Samantha Bee describes as "preserving their political purity while putting Trump in the White House". Yes, Bernie Bros and the like, we are looking at you. And dont try to cop out of it with "well if she were a better candidate" crap. HRC isnt going to come to your front door to personally convince you to vote for her as much as you want that to happen. Get off your butts and read something.

        1. yes

          She's a good enough candidate for Bernie. Nobody who supported him and doesn't come out to vote for her can pretend to still be a Bernie supporter. Don't vote for HRC and you are a Bernie opponent and an opponent of the entire movement he inspired. Period.

  2. Confrontation in Charlotte, NC

    Protesters of the latest police shooting of an unarmed black man are met by 150 police in full riot gear…tear gas. flash bang grenades.

    Overreaction much????

     

    1. Just one point. At this time it isn't known for sure whether or not  the man in Charlotte was armed. The video of the man in Tulsa makes it clear that he wasn't and couldn't have been reaching into the car for a gun or anything else and we know no gun was found. We need to see the video and hear the audio before we can say exactly what happened in Charlotte. Let's leave stating things not yet known to be fact as fact to the other side..

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