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December 06, 2016 11:17 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (December 6)

  • 2 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Get More SmarterToday is Colorado Gives Day; if you have an email account, you’re probably well aware of this already. 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…

► You’d have better luck finding someone who actually likes fruit cake than hearing that Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) is actually being asked substantive questions about…well, about anything.

 

► Serving on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team may be one of the more pointless endeavors in Washington D.C. As Politico reports:

While Donald Trump dines on frog legs with Mitt Romney and meets with a parade of lawmakers and governors in his gold-plated Midtown skyscraper, most of his transition staff are hunkered down in Washington, D.C., writing detailed governing plans for his first 100 days.

But so far, Trump and his inner circle have largely ignored those plans as they focus on top appointments and lean on the advice of politicians, CEOs and donors, rather than on their transition staff, say sources close to the transition.

The president-elect, meanwhile, has been more likely to set policy on Twitter than through consultation with his D.C. advisers.

“The senior people are all focused on Cabinet appointments,” said a Republican official involved in past transitions. “I wonder how much time, attention and decision-making is being allocated to the rest of the government. … It is not a recipe for smooth governance.”

In a separate story for PoliticoAlex Isenstadt writes that President-elect Twitterer is gradually taking over the Republican Party.

 

► The 2018 race for Governor will be the marquee event on Colorado’s political calendar for the next two years, and the scuttlebutt has already begun to, uh, scuttle.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Vice President Joe Biden isn’t ruling out a Presidential run in 2020, though it would be extremely unlikely because of his age (Biden would be 78 years old in 2020).

 

► A spokesperson for President-elect Donald Trump says the Republican sold all shares in his companies back in June. This could ease some concerns about conflict-of-interest questions, but it raises new queries about why Trump didn’t disclose any of this a long time ago.

 

► The only somewhat logical reason for Ben Carson to head up HUD is apparently not true anyway. Carson never actually lived in government housing himself, as CNN explains:

Some supporters of President-elect Donald Trump have praised his choice of Ben Carson to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, noting that the retired neurosurgeon had lived in public housing himself.

Except he didn’t.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, in an attack on House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi Monday, inaccurately claimed that Carson lived in “government housing.”

“Ben Carson is first HUD Sec to have actually lived in gov’t housing. Fancy Nancy Pelosi says he’s not qualified; is she racist or just dumb,” Huckabee tweeted.

The New York Times issued a correction Monday after saying that Carson aide Armstrong Williams originally told the paper that Carson was raised in public housing.

How is it possible that anyone still takes Ben Carson seriously?

 

► The Durango Herald asks: “Could Trump derail a regional gas well master lease plan?” Um…maybe?

 

► Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-Denver) hopes that her biomedical research bill, which recently made it out of the House, can find enough support to pass in the U.S. Senate. Apparently the Senate does still actually pass legislation now and then.

 

► The City of Denver is trying to figure out how to deal with a new social marijuana law passed in November. From Denver7:

Since Denver voters approved an initiative for marijuana clubs, the city has been trying to figure out how to make the first-of-its-kind measure work.

In a committee meeting Monday, city attorneys and licensing officials discussed the legal issues of social pot use, especially when it comes to state law banning open and public consumption…

…As required by Initiative 300, the city will issue permit applications to interested businesses by Jan. 21, but they don’t plan to accept them until the rulemaking process is complete.

 

► New Jersey Republican Rep. Scott Garrett is still upset that he lost his re-election bid to Democrat Josh Gottheimer, so Garrett is refusing to work with his opponent on any sort of transition efforts before Congress convenes a new session in January. Classy!

 

► As the Longmont Times-Call reports, state Sen. Matt Jones will play a prominent role for Senate Democrats on environmental and renewable energy issues. House Republicans, meanwhile, have finalized committee assignments.

 

Governor John Hickenlooper is proposing directing new revenue from legal marijuana toward affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs. 

 

► It would seem that Millennials, by and large, did not turn out to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton with any real vigor. Most politicos had already made this assumption, but Colorado Politics has more details.

 

► Donald Trump’s Twitter account wants to cancel a contract with Boeing to build new airplanes for Air Force One.

 

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► If you are still waiting to enroll for health insurance…hurry it up.

 

► Fake news is dangerous

ICYMI

► A Colorado Christian University professor demonstrates the art of the “non-apology apology.”

 

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

Comments

2 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Tuesday (December 6)

  1. I like fruitcake.  This is an excellent one (gotta really love it to pay those prices, though).

    As for the 21st Century Cures Act, well, it's fair to ask who DeGette thinks she's serving.

    New Report Exposes “Patient Advocacy” Groups as a Big Pharma Scam

    Sen. Bernie Sanders has called this bill a collection of “corporate giveaways that will make drug companies even richer.” It would streamline FDA reviews, secure automatic approval for certain devices and drug therapies without rigorous screening, and allow the use of “real world” evidence of drug effectiveness rather than more credible randomized clinical trials.

    In exchange, it adds a modest amount of $6.3 billion in funding (which must be re-authorized by Congress annually) for several Obama administration initiatives, like personalized medicine, Alzheimer’s research, and Joe Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot.” For this reason, the White House has come out strongly for the bill.

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren, on the other hand, said on the Senate floor Monday that “I will fight it because I know the difference between compromise and extortion.”

    The 21st Century Cures Act: A huge handout to the drug industry disguised as a pro-research bounty

    Who wins and loses with the 21st Century Cures Act?  

  2. Really delicious fruitcake does exist, but most people have never had a good homemade fruitcake. Those things you get in little round cans at the supermarket are inedible.

    And as to the Pharma thing…of, course.

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