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July 07, 2020 10:25 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (July 7)

  • 5 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

There is no coronavirus. There is no coronavirus. There is no coronavirus. [Opens eyes] Shit, there is still coronavirus. 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 on Facebook and Twitter.

 

BECAUSE CORONAVIRUS…

*Colorado Coronavirus info:
CDPHE Coronavirus website 

*Daily Coronavirus numbers in Colorado:
http://covid19.colorado.gov

*How you can help in Colorado:
COVRN.com

*Locate a COVID-19 testing site in Colorado:
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment 

 

► Experts say that we are still in the first phase of the coronavirus outbreak because we have not yet reached a point of lower infection rates — and that first phase is still raging. Melbourne, Australia (the country’s second-largest city with 5 million residents) is locking down for another six weeks in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. The United States might not be far behind. As The Washington Post reports:

Hospitals across the Sun Belt continue to be inundated with coronavirus patients, with Arizona reaching 89 percent capacity for intensive care unit beds on Monday, as Alabama, California, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas also reported unprecedented numbers of hospitalizations. For the 28th day in a row, the country’s rolling seven-day average of daily new cases shattered all previous records, although the number of deaths has remained relatively stable.

The United States is “still knee deep in the first wave” of the novel coronavirus outbreak, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Monday. Unlike Europe, “we never came down to baseline and now are surging back up.”

At least 2,926,000 coronavirus cases and 127,000 deaths have been reported nationwide since February. The Trump administration hopes that Americans will grow inured to the growing death toll and accept the tens of thousands of new cases being reported each day as the new reality, three people familiar with the White House’s thinking told The Washington Post. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Meanwhile, CNN reports that even longtime Trump allies are privately admitting that people should be wearing masks everywhere they go:

Three months after reversing course and recommending masks — a move officials later conceded was confusing and awkward — top Republicans and allies of the President are only now coming to the realization that mask-wearing will be an essential element to containing a still-raging pandemic. [Pols emphasis]

White House officials are discussing taking a more active role in encouraging masks as they shift to a strategy of preparing Americans to live long-term with the virus. After appearing at a string of events without social distancing and where masks were scarce, Trump’s campaign said Sunday it would host a New Hampshire campaign rally where attendees will be “provided a face mask that they are strongly encouraged to wear.”

Yet Trump’s willingness to shift personally on the issue is far from clear. While he likened himself to the “Lone Ranger” on one of the few occasions he wore a mask in private, he has not used his powerful social media platforms to encourage his supporters to do the same. And in meetings with advisers, Trump has stated that more strenuous calls to wear masks might send the wrong message as he attempts to move on from the virus.

So, let’s see if we can parse out this logic: If we ignore the coronavirus, it will go away…which is why we can’t wear masks, because then the coronavirus would know that we aren’t really ignoring it? Don’t make eye contact with COVID-19!!!

And since we’re on the topic of ignoring the coronavirus, here’s an interesting bit of news via POLITICO:

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro says he has tested positive for Covid-19 after months of downplaying the virus’ severity.

Bolsonaro confirmed the test results while wearing a mask and speaking to reporters in capital Brasilia.

 

► President Trump seems to be dead-set on playing only to his base as he gears up for the last few months of his re-election campaign. But as Chris Cillizza writes for CNN, this makes absolutely no sense:

What Trump is doing at the moment — judging from the Gallup numbers — is running a very effective primary campaign. He is consolidating his base behind him using fear and overt racial appeals. (Trump’s tweets on Monday calling on NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace to apologize are the latest evidence of that purposeful weaponizing of race.)

The problem, of course, is that Trump doesn’t have a primary problem. He has a general election problem. And by running a primary when a general election is what’s called for, Trump is making it harder and harder for himself to ever make the turn to a more traditional general-election strategy of outreach and inclusion.

Why? Why cut off your nose to spite your face? Because Trump can’t help himself.

As for those new Gallup numbers, Trump’s approval rating is holding steady at a not-so-robust 38%.

 

Faithless electors, repent! As The Denver Post reports:

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that states can require electors to vote for the winner of the state’s popular vote for president in the Electoral College.

The decision was made based on two cases — one in Colorado and one in Washington State.

Delivering the court’s reasoning for both cases in Chiafalo v. Washington, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that nothing in the U.S. Constitution prevents states from punishing so-called faithless electors — members of the Electoral College who don’t vote in accordance with the people of their state. Justice Sonia Sotomayor recused herself from the Colorado decision because of her friendship with Colorado elector Polly Baca.

 

You’re going to be reading a lot about businesses that received PPP loans from the federal government now that data has been made public. The list of businesses that received loans of at least $1 million is…frustrating.

Irony? Yeah, there’s that, too.

 

If you’re looking for political news that isn’t about Coronavirus, it’s available right after the jump…

 

Now Only Partially Coronavirus-Related…

 

Dana Milbank of The Washington Post asked 11 Republican Senators for comment on President Trump’s many recent statements that are overtly racist. Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) was among the 11 queried by Milbank. Gardner did not respond:

In the past few days, Trump has declared that those marching under “the banner of social justice” are part of a “radical ideology attacking our country” and are “bad, evil people” seeking “to end America” in favor of “far-left fascism.” And he has attacked NASCAR for banning the Confederate flag and said its only black full-time driver should “apologize” for a “hoax” after a noose found in his garage was determined not to have been directed at him…

…The silence, often attributed to cowardice, is really complicity. As I’ve noted, racial resentment has become the primary driver and predictor of support for the Republican Party, a trend that has accelerated under Trump. If Republican lawmakers continue to “fret privately” as Trump bases his reelection on clumsy racist demagoguery, they must be held to account for condoning the redefinition of the GOP as the new home of the white power movement. Their silence isn’t just enabling Trump; it’s also enabling white supremacy to hijack a major American political party…

…They think their silence protects them. But it does something else: It turns them into the handmaidens of white supremacy.

 


Republican Jon Huntsman has officially lost his bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Utah, where he once served two terms as governor.

 

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Hickenlooper is out with a new campaign ad that doesn’t even mention the name “Cory Gardner“:

 

Two of the top minds 🙄 in Colorado Republican politics are warning of a crime surge. As Westword reports:

George Brauchler, the term-limited district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, and Patrick Neville, a survivor of the Columbine shootings and the current Colorado House minority leader, are speaking out against any reductions in police budgets in the face of what Brauchler characterizes as “surging crime” and Neville describes as another “summer of violence.”

On June 30, both Brauchler and Neville reviewed the state’s new bipartisan police reform legislation, the Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity Act, on a webinar hosted by the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University that was moderated by Jeff Hunt, CCU vice president of public policy and director of the Centennial Institute.

Brauchler said he’s already seeing a “crime wave” crashing into Colorado, which he attributes to Governor Jared Polis’s public-health orders.

It would be a lot easier to take Brauchler seriously here if he wasn’t so ridiculously awful at doing his own job.

As for Neville, if you listen to anything he says, you’ll definitely want to get a second opinion. Neville has just about exhausted the last of his opportunities to prove that he has any idea what he is doing as House Minority Leader.

 

Here’s Sen. Cory Gardner telling people that the mainstream media is “doing everything they can to suppress our vote.

 

Former Interior Secretary and U.S. Senator Ken Salazar is taking on a new role for the Presidential campaign of Democrat Joe Biden.

 

Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) is a co-sponsor of legislation that would adjust Medicaid qualifications to be based on a formula related to unemployment conditions.

 

► Um…what? You’re going to have this reaction quite often as you learn more about Republican Congressional candidate Lauren “Yosemite Samantha” Boebert.

 

Governor Jared Polis signed legislation that will allow Coloradans to continue to access tele-health options even after the coronavirus pandemic ends.

 

This should probably have already been illegal.

 

► The plot to kill Gallagher has advanced to its next stage. Brian Eason of The Colorado Sun ponders what might happen next:

Faced with a deepening state budget crisis, lawmakers last month voted 79-20 to ask voters to repeal the Gallagher Amendment and forgo an estimated 18% residential property tax cut that’s slated to kick in next year. It was a stunning rebuke of the political conventional wisdom, which has long held that Gallagher, because of its popularity with homeowners and its uneven effects on different communities, is simply too complicated to fix.

However, now that the effort is shifting from the statehouse to the campaign trail, those complications that doomed past efforts have come back into focus. The authors of the repeal bill say they’ll have the support needed to mount a strong ballot push, and told The Sun to expect a campaign launch by the end of the month — possibly as soon as this week.

“I’m feeling confident there will be adequate resources for us to run a campaign,” said Sen. Chris Hansen, D-Denver. “We’ve got folks who have been working on Gallagher for decades who see this as our best opportunity to do a repeal.”

 

A tell-all memoir from Mary Trump, Donald Trump’s niece, will be released earlier than expected. As The New York Times reports, the book will detail a dark and dysfunctional upbringing that turned Trump into the person he is today.

 

Judith Kohler of The Denver Post examines the next steps in a new rulemaking process for oil and gas drilling related to the 2019 passage of SB-181, which totally destroyed all oil and gas production in Colorado.

 

► Be very glad that you don’t live in Florida. As The Washington Post explains:

Florida’s top school official issued a sweeping executive order Monday requiring all schools in the state to reopen their buildings for in-person instruction for the coming school year, even as coronavirus cases in the state continued to rise.

Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, a Republican and former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, issued the order, which states that “school districts and charter school governing boards must provide the full array of services that are required by law so that families who wish to educate their children in a brick and mortar school full time have the opportunity to do so.”

In totally-related news, four Tampa Bay hospitals have reached maximum capacity for intensive care unit patients.

 

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

Former (acting) White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney says that President Trump will have a hard time winning re-election if the 2020 race is seen as a referendum on Trump. Check out the next-level gymnastics here:

Former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Tuesday conceded that if November’s general election becomes a “referendum” on President Donald Trump, the Republican incumbent will face “real headwinds” in his race against former Vice President Joe Biden.

In other words, Mulvaney thinks Trump is screwed.

 

Fox News “apologized” for “accidentally” editing Donald Trump out of a photo depicting Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

 

 

ICYMI

 

President Trump apparently believes that he will win Colorado in November now that Republican Lauren “Yosemite Samantha” Boebert has defeated Rep. Scott Tipton in a GOP Primary in CO3 (nevermind that Trump endorsed Tipton).

 

Use the benefit of hindsight to critique our pre-Primary predictions from The Get More Smarter Podcast:

 

Don’t forget to give Colorado Pols a thumbs up on Facebook and Twitter

 

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Comments

5 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Tuesday (July 7)

  1. The same George Brauchler who tweeted during the Holmes trial and got called out by Judge (now Justice) Samour, and the same George Brauchler who claimed (yeah, right) that he accidentally tweeted when he meant to text, without explaining why he had a hashtag in his so-called "text"?  Yeah, fuck that term-limited kakistocrat and his fascist ways.  

    1. Maybe Bozo George and Blinky Pat should take their traveling fun-club clown show on the road in Brazil, . . .

      . . . where they won’t have any fear or worry because of Polis’s silly, crime-inducing Covid restrictions???

  2. ► President Trump apparently believes that he will win Colorado in November now that Republican Lauren “Yosemite Samantha” Boebert has defeated Rep. Scott Tipton in a GOP Primary in CO3 (nevermind that Trump endorsed Tipton).

    Sure!   Isn’t jello-wrestling now considered an essential business in DeSantis’s Florida, or CO-03, or Rio, or somewhere??? . . . 

  3. Why? Why cut off your nose to spite your face? Because Trump can’t help himself.

    It matters more to Trump that he is adored. He will feed that need at any cost…even the election.

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