And that about does it for September; please tip your servers, or whatever. 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.
As Vox.com reports, polling info from Data for Progress indicates Vice President Joe Biden was the clear winner from Tuesday:
A new poll by Data for Progress provided exclusively to Vox shows that viewers thought Democratic nominee Joe Biden decisively won Tuesday’s first presidential debate against President Donald Trump, by a 52-39 margin.
The poll surveyed debate watchers but then weighted the demographics of the survey group to the population of likely voters in November. Most pollsters don’t do this, which ends up skewing their results toward Democrats because left-leaning college graduates are disproportionately likely to watch debates.
But even with the more Trump-friendly weighting, the poll shows a clear win for Biden and, not coincidentally, a fairly overwhelming sense that Biden’s conduct during the debate was more presidential.
► Perhaps the most important moment of Tuesday’s Presidential “debate” came later in the discussion, when President Trump refused to condemn white supremacists and militia groups:
Chris Wallace: “Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down…”
Trump: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by! But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left.” pic.twitter.com/4vrPocKzcu
As The Hill reports, these comments were…problematic for Trump aides to defend:
White House and campaign aides on Wednesday struggled to clean up President Trump’s comments a night earlier in which he declined to explicitly condemn white supremacy, instead directing a far-right group to “stand back and stand by” during the first presidential debate.
Trump’s comments about the Proud Boys, a far-right militia group, dominated headlines the morning after the debate.
Multiple Trump surrogates faced questions about the remarks during cable news hits, where they downplayed his calls for the group to “stand by” and pointed to the president’s past denunciations of white supremacists.
“The President’s past denunciations of white supremacists”? When was this? As Chris Cillizza notes for CNN, Trump has a LONG history of NOT calling out these extremist groups.
And as NBC News reports, the “Proud Boys” were very, um, proud on Tuesday evening:
The Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, pledged allegiance to President Donald Trump on Tuesday night after he told the group to “stand back and stand by” during the first presidential debate.
Many people on social media who identify with the group echoed that language, saying they were “standing down and standing by.” One known social media account for the group made “Stand back. Stand by” part of its new logo.
As The Colorado Times Recorder reports, this was not the first time that Trump has winked at the “Proud Boys.”
► House Democrats continue to push for another coronavirus relief package, negotiating terms with the White House and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in the absence of any involvement from Senate Republicans.
🚨🚨NEW … @stevenmnuchin1 is coming to the Capitol to meet with @SpeakerPelosi at 12:45 today to present the administration’s Covid relief counter proposal.
More political (and coronavirus) news is available right after the jump…
Now Only Partially Coronavirus-Related…
► The Associated Press fact checks President Trump’s latest claims about mail ballot security:
President Donald Trump continued his assault on the integrity of the U.S. elections during the first presidential debate Tuesday, spreading falsehoods about the security of voting and misrepresenting issues with mail ballots.
In the final segment of the contentious debate between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, Trump launched into an extended argument against mail voting, claiming without evidence that it is ripe for fraud and suggesting mail ballots may be “manipulated.”
“This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen,” the president said of the massive shift to mail voting prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump’s riff was laden with misstatements and inaccuracies. Mail voting has proved to be safe and secure in the five states that already use it broadly. And while some irregularities and errors have occurred in the early vote, Trump on Tuesday mischaracterized those incidents.
► Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) said on Tuesday morning — before Gardner had even met with her — that he planned to vote for SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
► Westword loves them some @yeetcorygardner and @yeetcorygardneragain. We don’t disagree.
► The Aurora Sentinel reports on adjusted guidance from state health department officials about student proximity related to COVID-19:
Protection gained by social distancing doesn’t overcome the COVID-19 risk inside a closed classroom, state health officials said referencing a Cherry Creek schools query intended to reduce classroom quarantines.
Cherry Creek School District officials have been seeking clarification from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment because they say two different definitions of “close contact” have been creating confusion in deciding whether to send students home to isolate.
Cherry Creek schools Superintendent Scott Siegfried said confusion on Cherry Creek’s part came from the state health department’s own website. According to a health department web page, “close contact” is defined as someone within six feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes. Siegfried said every effort has been made to separate all secondary students by 6 feet.
However, the CDPHE also defines it as anyone who is in the same class or cohort as an infected person. For schools, that means the department is recommending that anyone who was in class with a person who tested positive for COVID-19 quarantine for 14 days, regardless of how far away students in a class are from each other.
►As 9News reports, there are not a lot of Colorado voters who are undecided about who to support for President:
There weren’t many undecided voters to be had in Colorado, at least according to Louisville-based conservative-leaning polling firm Magellan Strategies.
Pollster David Flaherty said his surveys show 8-9% of Colorado voters are undecided.
“We get the math here by doing internal surveys. We’re constantly asking likely voters in Colorado, in the election for President — we have a very standard, unbiased way of asking that question, and so we have a lot of data here internally at our shop,” said Flaherty. “It’s around 9%, 8 or 9%, high single digits, tops. But, it’s been that way for a very long time, it’s been that rock solid, really, since the beginning of August.”
► The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is up with its first TV ad in CO-3 in 8 years:
For the first time since 2012, the @dccc in on-air in Colorado’s 3rd congressional district.
► A judge may have finally gotten rid of former BLM Acting Director William Perry Pendley, but as The Grand Junction Sentinel reports, Pendley-related troubles continue:
A federal judge’s ruling last week that William Perry Pendley served illegally for more than a year as the Bureau of Land Management’s acting director is raising questions about the legality of the decisions he made during that time.
Locally, these include actions he took in connection with the agency’s national headquarters move to Grand Junction and his role in the BLM’s issuance of a controversial resource management plan for its Uncompahgre Field Office.
More broadly, the Western Values Project on Tuesday said a cloud of legal uncertainty looms over BLM approvals of things such as resource management plans and travel plans elsewhere, a rule streamlining royalty rate reductions for mining of non-energy solid minerals like sodium bicarbonate, oil and gas regulation and production valuation rollbacks and royalty rate cuts, revisions of protections for greater sage-grouse habitat, and more, including the headquarters move.
► Congressman Ken Buck (R-Greeley), who moonlights as the State Republican Party Chairman (or vice versa), never misses a chance to dive headfirst into a silly conspiracy theory.
► As Fox 31 reports, Colorado election officials are adding more in-person voting sites in anticipation of record turnout.
► As POLITICO reports, former Vice President Joe Biden might want to consider ditching the last two scheduled Presidential debates in light of President Trump’s performance on Tuesday.
► Would you be surprised to learn that the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley is mucking up worker compensation claims related to a COVID-19 outbreak in its facilities? Of course you wouldn’t.
Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
► The Colorado Times Recorder catches an odd book choice in the background of a recent interview given by Sen. Cory Gardner:
During a brief virtual interview with a local Colorado Springs news station last night, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) offered viewers a glimpse at some of the books on the bookcase behind his desk. Most prominent among the visible titles is “Take No Prisoners” by David Horowitz, an unapologetic racist ideologue known for his anti-Muslim and racist statements.
Horowitz, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center considers an anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim extremist, has proved so offensive in recent years that being seen as associating with him has created problems for corporations and politicians alike.
You won’t have to remind us not to join Gardner’s post-Senate career book club.
3 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Wednesday (September 30)”
Proud Boys – "Stand Back and Stand By".
Yes, that was inflammatory, but so was another of Trump's statements that didn't receive any commentary. He told Biden to be careful (of "antifa") "because they will overthrow you". Ignore the ridiculous antifa reference, he injected the idea that the Biden Administration would be violently overthrown (more likely by the Proud Boys). Wow.
Trump's stated strategy is to intimidate voters at the polls, declare victory the night of November 3, and attempt to invalidate any ballots counted after that. He'll try to use the courts and maybe the US House to win. Barring that (pun intended), he'll encourage a violent coup of the Biden Administration.
Trump did talk about Antifa "overthrowing" Biden but keep in mind he also kept taunting Biden by saying that his radical, leftie, socialists in the Democratic Party would abandon him when he said he didn't support socialized medicine or defunding the police. Trump also got a little dig in when Biden said, "I am the Democratic Party now." Trump said, "Tell that to Harris."
Not sure if walking away from Biden is the same as staging a coup d'etat.
September 30, 2020 10:17 AM UTC
3 Comments
And that about does it for September; please tip your servers, or whatever. Let’s Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (
Proud Boys – "Stand Back and Stand By".
Yes, that was inflammatory, but so was another of Trump's statements that didn't receive any commentary. He told Biden to be careful (of "antifa") "because they will overthrow you". Ignore the ridiculous antifa reference, he injected the idea that the Biden Administration would be violently overthrown (more likely by the Proud Boys). Wow.
Trump's stated strategy is to intimidate voters at the polls, declare victory the night of November 3, and attempt to invalidate any ballots counted after that. He'll try to use the courts and maybe the US House to win. Barring that (pun intended), he'll encourage a violent coup of the Biden Administration.
American democracy is hanging by a thread.
Give the devil his due…..
Trump did talk about Antifa "overthrowing" Biden but keep in mind he also kept taunting Biden by saying that his radical, leftie, socialists in the Democratic Party would abandon him when he said he didn't support socialized medicine or defunding the police. Trump also got a little dig in when Biden said, "I am the Democratic Party now." Trump said, "Tell that to Harris."
Not sure if walking away from Biden is the same as staging a coup d'etat.
"Trump did talk about Antifa "overthrowing" Biden…"
Hey, R&R: Itlduso.