September 01, 2020 09:13 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (September 1)

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Four more months, and we’re done with this wretched year. 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.

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 

► President Trump says that…wait, what?

As The Washington Post explains:

As the nation grapples with volatile protests, President Trump on Monday night claimed in a Fox News interview that “people that are in the dark shadows” are “controlling the streets” and manipulating his Democratic opponent Joe Biden to sow chaos.

When host Laura Ingraham suggested the claim “sounds like conspiracy theory,” Trump doubled down, launching into a tale of a plane that allegedly flew from an unnamed city to Washington, D.C., this weekend loaded with “thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear.”

The strange exchange prompted head-scratching from prominent Trump critics and produced few clear answers about what precisely Trump was referring to.

Seriously…what?

The Fox News host then asked who the president believed was pulling the strings. Trump replied, “People that you’ve never heard of. People that are in the dark shadows.”“What does that mean?” Ingraham asked. “That sounds like conspiracy theory. Dark shadows — what is that?”

“No, they’re people that you haven’t heard of,” Trump continued. “They’re people that are on the streets, people that are controlling the streets.”

Trump then described a plane “from a certain city this weekend, and on the plane it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear.” Ingraham asked where the plane was coming from, but the president demurred.

“I’ll tell you sometime,” he said. “It’s under investigation right now.” [Pols emphasis]

Trump, the actual President of the United States of America, appears to be promoting debunked conspiracy theories of airplanes full of protestors — Antifa Airlines! — descending on cities across the country.

► Speaking of Trump, the White House is facing increased pressure to explain why the President really made an unscheduled visit to Walter Reed Hospital last November. As Chris Cillizza reports for CNN:

Days before Thanksgiving 2019, President Donald Trump made an unscheduled visit to Walter Reed hospital, a trip the White House later dismissed as nothing more than a “quick exam and labs” as part of his annual physical.

Even then, the explanation was fishy. Presidents don’t make trips that members of the press don’t know about almost ever — unless they are flying into a war zone and their safety is at risk. And the leader of the free world certainly doesn’t just pop in to the hospital to get an early start on his annual physical — especially without the medical staff at the hospital being given a heads up.

And now, thanks to a new book by New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt, we now know that Vice President Mike Pence was put on alert to take over the duties of president if Trump had to be anesthetized during the trip. [Pols emphasis]

Maybe Trump just gets a different kind of physical examination than every other person in America. Yeah, maybe.

► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) is out with a new re-election ad in which he takes credit for a Paycheck Protection Program that was approved by a 96-0 vote in the U.S. Senate. Just think: If not for Gardner, the vote might have been 95-1!

► Denver police officials are making it clear that they do NOT want self-appointed militia members showing up to “help” them deal with protests.

More political (and coronavirus) news is available right after the jump…

Now Only Partially Coronavirus-Related…

► As The Associated Press reports, a Colorado man accused — along with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon — of pocketing money received as part of a scheme to raise funds for a “border wall” will get his day in court in May 2021.

► Wisconsin Republicans demonstrated their interest in police accountability on Monday by gaveling in and immediately recessing a special legislative session called by Gov. Tony Evers last week.

► According to a survey from The Military Times, President Trump has lost the support of active U.S. military personnel.

► Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush has earned “Red to Blue” status for her campaign in CO-3 against Republican Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert.

► As Dana Milbank writes for The Washington Post, a scared President Trump is going full “race war” in an effort to hold on to his seat in the White House…but Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden was ready for it:

Trump botched the coronavirus pandemic, bungled the economic recovery and flubbed the handling of civil rights demonstrations. Members of his own family denounce him. He faces a seemingly insurmountable deficit against challenger Joe Biden.

And so the president is trying to provoke a race war on the streets of America.

“We’ve arrived at a moment in this campaign,” Biden said during a visit to a rehabilitated Pittsburgh steel mill Monday, that “we all knew . . . we’d get to — the moment when Donald Trump would be so desperate, he’d do anything to hold on to power.”

After violence claimed lives on both sides of the divide between racial-justice demonstrators and Trump supporters in recent days, Biden said Trump “fans the flames” of violence. “He can’t stop the violence because, for years, he’s fomented it.” [Pols emphasis]

► This seems like a fine use of government resources, as POLITICO reports:

…the Department of Health and Human Services is bidding out a more than $250 million contract to a communications firm as it seeks to “defeat despair and inspire hope” about the coronavirus pandemic, according to an internal HHS document obtained by POLITICO.

Several weeks ago, the department sent out to a number of communications firms a “performance work statement,” which lays out what work will be expected of the winning firm. The document says that the vast majority of the money will be spent from now until January.

The document also lists the goals of the contract: “defeat despair and inspire hope, sharing best practices for businesses to operate in the new normal and instill confidence to return to work and restart the economy,” build a “coalition of spokespeople” around the country, provide important public health, therapeutic and vaccine information as the country reopens, and give Americans information on the phases of reopening.

If you can’t won’t do anything to stop the coronavirus, at least you can tell people to be happy anyway.

► It seems that there is at least one organization that has realized it doesn’t look good for them to associate themselves with QAnon conspiracies. Meanwhile, two Vail-area lawmakers are blasting Republican Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert for her QAnon obsession.

► Congressman Joe Neguse (D-Boulderish) views the issue of Climate Change from the perspective of a young father.

► New COVID-19 cases in Colorado are not rising…but they’re not falling, either.

► A staff member at Overland High School tested positive for COVID-19, forcing 66 students into quarantine.

► Officials in Aurora are still trying to convince the Pentagon to make Buckley Air Force base the permanent home of “Space Command Headquarters.”Earlier this year, Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs was named the “temporary” home of the Space Force for at least the next six years.

► Here’s an update on bear mortality.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► You definitely don’t want Jim Welker’s endorsement. 

► First son-in-law Jared Kushner does not have a fan in Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Vin Baker.

► A man who refused to wear a mask inside a Golden restaurant has been charged with assault for the confrontation spurred by his belligerence.

ICYMI

► As Vox.com reports, U.S. intelligence agencies are suspending in-person congressional briefings on election security because…um…

► Campaigning on opposition to Obamacare was all the rage in 2014. In 2020, it’s no longer a good idea.

► There’s a big Primary in Massachusetts today, where Rep. Joe Kennedy is trying to unseat Sen. Ed Markey.

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