August 16, 2019 09:02 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (August 16)

• 12 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

We should just buy all of the islands. 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/visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show or The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to find us Facebook and Twitter.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► President Trump is apparently getting nervous about the economy — mostly for what it means related to his 2020 re-election. From the Washington Post:

Mounting signs of global economic distress this week have alarmed President Trump, who is worried that a downturn could imperil his reelection, even as administration officials acknowledge that they have not planned for a possible recession.

Trump is banking on a strong economy to win a second term in 2020, and in recent weeks he has impulsively lashed out at the Federal Reserve, pressured Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to label China a “currency manipulator,” and unexpectedly delayed tariffs on Chinese imports out of fear they could depress holiday retail sales.

Yet despite gyrations in the U.S. stock market and economic slowdowns in other countries, officials in the White House, at the Treasury Department and throughout the administration are planning no new steps to attempt to stave off a recession. Rather, Trump’s economic advisers have been delivering the president upbeat assessments in which they argue that the domestic economy is stronger than many forecasters are making it out to be.

President Trump might be setting up Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to take the fall for any potential economic troubles, but as Catherine Rampell writes in a separate story for the Washington Post, there’s no real plan from the White House:

If things go south, this administration doesn’t have a plan. It never had a plan. And it doesn’t have competent personnel in place to come up with a plan.

Trump’s economic brain trust consists of a guy who plays an economist on TV, a crank  who has been disowned by the (real) economics profession and the producer of “The Lego Batman Movie.”

D’oh!

► “So whether you love me or hate me, you’ve got to vote for me,” said President Trump at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Thursday. 

► House Minority Leader and recall grifter Pat Neville says that he is personally responsible for talking President Trump out of supporting so-called “red flag” laws in the aftermath of the Parkland High School shootings in Florida last year.

► An astonishing 67% of Americans support an assault weapons ban, according to polling conducted on behalf of Fox News. As CNN’s Chris Cillizza explains:

Yes, there is something of a partisan divide on the question — with 86% of Democrats favoring a ban on automatic and semiautomatic weapons, while 46% of Republicans feel the same. But look at it another way: On a proposal that is widely regarded in GOP congressional circles as a non-starter because it is going too far in limiting guns, self-identified Republicans are split right down the middle — 46% support, 46% oppose.

Among Republican women — one of the key swing voting blocs heading into 2020, a majority (54%) support an assault weapons ban, while just 36% oppose it. And even a majority of people in gun-owning households (53%) support an assault weapons ban.

There hasn’t been an assault weapons ban in place in the United States since the last one expired in 2004, after a decade on the books. Attempts to renew it in 2004 failed — due at least in part, to a heightened national security climate in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and a lack of urgency from the Bush White House.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► After spending much of his first term screwing around with unimportant issues, President Trump is finally getting to the good stuff. As the Washington Post reports:

President Trump has pushed top aides to investigate whether the U.S. government can purchase the giant ice-smothered island of Greenland, two people with direct knowledge of the directive said.

The presidential request has bewildered aides, some of whom continue to believe it isn’t serious, but Trump has mentioned it for weeks. The two people with knowledge of the presidential demand spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to reveal such White House planning.

As with many of Trump’s internal musings, aides are waiting for more direction before they decide how seriously they should look into it.

Among the things that have been discussed is whether it is even legal, what the process would be for acquiring an island that has its own government and population, and where any money to purchase a giant landmass would originate.

WHUT?

Anyway, Greenland says it is not for sale.

► We’ll put $10 on Mike Johnson to win Iowa.

► From CNN, here’s the latest update on who is not traveling to Israel:

Rep. Rashida Tlaib said Friday she would not visit Israel after the country granted permission for her to enter the country on humanitarian grounds to visit her family in the West Bank a day after blocking her and fellow Rep. Ilhan Omar from visiting the country.

“I have decided that visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in–fighting against racism, oppression & injustice,” Tlaib said in a tweet. In a statement released shortly after her tweet, she said she has “decided not to travel” to the country.

Tlaib had asked Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri for access so that she could visit her relatives, “and specifically my grandmother, who is in her 90s and lives in Beit Ur al-Fouqa. This could be my last opportunity to see her.”

The request from Tlaib of Michigan came a day after the country barred her and Omar, a freshman Democrat from Minnesota, from entering because of their support of a boycott against Israel. Israel’s decision to bar their entry was encouraged by President Donald Trump in a remarkable step both by the US President and his ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to punish political opponents.

► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) is using the full weight of his office to make sure that…rural movie theaters don’t have to keep certain films on the marquee for weeks at a time.

► The Colorado Economic Development Commission is hopeful that a Fortune 500 bioscience company will indeed get up a large campus in the Denver Metro area.

► The editorial board of the Pueblo Chieftain is sick of the recall nonsense in Colorado:

This isn’t the way our democracy is supposed to work. The provisions for recall elections are enshrined into our state’s constitution for very good reason. Recalls are supposed to give people a mechanism to remove elected officials guilty of corruption or misconduct from office before their terms expire.

What is happening in Colorado now is an abuse of that mechanism, though. We’re in an era in which anyone who doesn’t like the results of a particular vote by an elected official can launch a petition drive to force another election. These clearly are attempts to overturn the will of the voters, rather than roust unfit politicians from office.

► On the subject of recalls, an election is moving forward on a question to oust the Cripple Creek-Victor School District board president.

► The City of Denver has a new deputy mayor who looks a lot like a previous deputy mayor.

► As Politico reports, gun enthusiasts are growing concerned that the National Rifle Association is losing its influence in Washington D.C.:

The National Rifle Association’s internal turmoil is preventing the once-mighty organization from crafting a plan to blunt the latest gun control push, highlighting the group’s weakness at a crucial political moment.

The disarray at the NRA is alarming allies who say President Donald Trump and Congress appear to have a brief opening to pass legislation while the group is so politically feeble it isn’t able to aggressively lobby lawmakers against proposals or hold them accountable for their votes, according to a half-dozen Republicans familiar with the situation.

“There’s no coordinated effort,” according to a person familiar with the NRA’s outreach on the current gun debate. “The staff feels like there is no plan. There’s not a lot of direction or a plan for how to proceed.”

In recent months, the NRA has battled numerous scandals — from lavish spending by top executives and a broader financial management crisis to a spate of board member resignations and an attempted coup at the group’s annual conference. It lost President Oliver North and top lobbyist Chris Cox, who is close to Trump. And Ackerman McQueen, its ad agency for nearly four decades, quit.

 

► Colorado set a new record for its largest hailstone this week.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► Sorry about that Trump fellow, says a former Republican Congressman.

► President Trump is still weighing whether or not to issue a pardon for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is incarcerated in Colorado (if you were wondering, we did not spell Blagojevich correctly on our first attempt).

ICYMI

► Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has ended his campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Though if you’re reading this, you probably didn’t miss that news.

For more political learnings, check out The Get More Smarter Show or The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to give Colorado Pols a thumbs up on Facebook and Twitter.