Happy Dia dos Namorados. Please celebrate responsibly. 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.
Warm Up Those Brains…
► Colorado is saying “Hell, No” over President Trump’s efforts to mobilize the National Guard in response to protests about aggressive immigration enforcement policies. As Lindsey Toomer explains for Colorado Newsline:
Shelby Wieman, spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, said Polis “has been clear” he would not support “federal overreach to activate the National Guard outside of regular order,” as the Colorado National Guard plays an important role in helping the state and others with natural disasters and emergencies as needed.
“There is absolutely no need to take away National Guard units from the states, and any engagement with National Guard on this topic must include Governors, who serve as commanders in chief in most instances for their Guard,” Wieman said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the Colorado National Guard said Tuesday it “has not received an official request for support” from the federal government.
The memorandum Trump issued authorizing the military escalation is not specific to Los Angeles or California, leaving open the potential for similar responses in other states. Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, told NPR that the conditions that would ordinarily warrant military action are not present in this situation.
As The Associated Press reports, protests against immigration raids are popping up all across the country — including in Denver. 9News reports that 18 people were arrested in a Denver protest on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump is prepared to send National Guard troops into more U.S. cities if protests against immigration raids expand beyond Los Angeles, administration officials said Wednesday, potentially opening the door to the most extensive use of military force on American soil in modern history.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in testimony to Congress that the Pentagon has the capability to surge National Guard troops to more cities “if there are other riots in places where law enforcement officers are threatened.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned protesters beyond Los Angeles that more “lawlessness” will only increase Trump’s resolve.
“Let this be an unequivocal message to left-wing radicals in other parts of the country who are thinking about copycatting the violence in an effort to stop this administration’s mass deportation efforts,” Leavitt said. “You will not succeed.”
The White House’s message coincides with a rise in bellicose language from Trump, who in recent days has threatened the use of force not only against immigration activists but also against any protesters who attempt to disrupt the military parade scheduled in Washington on Saturday to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary.
► Speaking, er, writing of Evans…new polling from Healthier Colorado shows that Colorado voters are adamantly opposed to the kind of Medicaid cuts that Evans is promoting as part of the “We’re All Going to Die Act” that is the Republican budget bill. Via Colorado Newsline:
Just 21% of Colorado voters want Congress to decrease Medicaid spending, according to a poll released Tuesday. Concerns about gutted health care access come as U.S. Senate Republican leaders work to push through a tax and spending bill that would cut Medicaid by an estimated $625 billion over the next decade.
The poll zeroed in on the 8th Congressional District, which includes the northern Denver metro area and parts of Weld County. In the district, where 1 in 4 residents receive Medicaid benefits, 63% of voters said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who voted to cut Medicaid.
Evans has been pushing the canard that Republicans are just trying to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse within Medicaid, but that dog ain’t hunting:
“Politicians are saying that they want to cut Medicaid to make it better, but the poll shows clearly that voters aren’t buying what they’re selling,” said Jake Williams, CEO of Healthier Colorado. “It shows that there’s real political peril for any candidate who votes to cut Medicaid.”
Navigator Research has more on the national trends on Medicaid cuts, which are equally problematic for Republicans:
Medicaid remains deeply — and increasingly popular. An overwhelming and bipartisan majority — 79 percent — are favorable toward Medicaid. In the last month, Medicaid’s favorability has increased across all parties in Navigator tracking.
Medicaid is not just popular, it is essential to how Americans evaluate their support for elected officials. [Pols emphasis] We asked: “Please indicate whether or not you could support an elected official who voted to cut Medicaid, as long as you agreed with the elected official on most other things.”
The results for Republicans in Congress, who just voted to cut Medicaid, are staggering: 71 percent of respondents say they could not support such an official, including 51 percent of Republicans and 72 percent of independents. Among non-MAGA Republicans, 57 percent said they could not support an elected official who voted to cut Medicaid.
► The Washington Post looks at what’s on tap today for Republicans in Washington D.C.:
The House is set to vote Thursday on a package of funding cuts inspired by the U.S. DOGE Service that until recently was overseen by Elon Musk. The clawbacks, totaling $9.4 billion, take aim at foreign aid and funding for PBS and NPR, among other things. It could be the first in a series of similar rescission packages.
At the White House, President Donald Trump is expected to sign a measure Thursday that blocks California’s first-in-the-nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. He is also scheduled to sign executive orders and host a congressional picnic.
A Congressional picnic? You know what that means if Trump is the host: overcooked meat and a shit ton of ketchup.
► Tired of reading? Exercise your ears and listen to the latest episode of the Get More Smarter Podcast, featuring an interview with Greeley Tribune political reporter Tyler Duncan:
Click below to keep learning things…
Get Extra Smarterer…
► An Air India passenger jet that left Ahmedabad, India bound for London crashed shortly after takeoff on Thursday. At least 200 people are believed to have died, and dozens more — including people on the ground — are still unaccounted for.
► If you regularly shop at Safeway or Albertsons, you have about three days to get your groceries before workers go on strike. As Aldo Svaldi reports for The Denver Post:
The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 has rejected the latest offer from the parent company of Safeway and Albertsons and provided 72 hours’ notice that its workers intend to cancel a contract extension and strike.
Barring a last-minute reversal, picket lines could form as soon as Sunday morning.
“We took this decision very seriously and concluded that after so many months of bargaining, Safeway/Albertsons was giving us no choice but to further escalate our contract campaign,” said Ivan Lopez, a Safeway distribution center worker in Denver, in a news release issued Wednesday night.
Lopez said the union had been clear in nine months of negotiations that the company needed to address “staffing, poverty-level wages, and ensure that workers’ health and pension benefits remain fully funded.” No acceptable compromise was provided after a January contract extension or after workers voted to authorize a strike last week, the union said…
… The strike, if it happens, could involve around 7,000 workers, ranking it as one of the largest labor actions in Colorado’s history and the second-largest this year, behind a strike by approximately 10,000 King Soopers and City Market workers in February. That strike, which ran for nearly two weeks, was temporarily halted for 100 days to allow for more negotiating.
► The cowardly Aurora City Council continues to cut back on allowing public comment in meetings. Now, as John Aguilar reports for The Denver Post, they are going fully virtual:
The Aurora City Council voted this week to meet virtually and to do away with public comment sessions until the suburban city resolves a lawsuit filed recently by the family of a Black man fatally shot by Aurora police.
The decision, made during a virtual meeting of the council on Monday, was the latest narrowing of public participation in the crafting of city business in Aurora as council members have faced repeated protests related to the shooting.
The move follows the council’s decision last month to limit speakers at the lectern to one at a time, with exceptions for children, those needing interpretive help and people with physical disabilities.
The Aurora City Council is controlled by Republicans.
► Congressman Gabe Evans (R-Ft. Lupton) is facing another “oh, shit” moment. Evans has long promised that immigration raids would be focused on “gangsters, not grandmas” — a claim that has not turned out to be true in the slightest. Now, he’s looking for cover:
► This summer might not be the best time to travel overseas. You can (not) thank the Trump administration.
► Annie Karni of The New York Times profiles Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon, who is talking (for now) about resisting his Party’s MAGA obsessions:
Mr. Bacon’s willingness to publicly disagree with the president makes him an anomaly in the tribal House Republican Conference, where members tend to fall in line behind Mr. Trump’s agenda and actively seek out ways to demonstrate their loyalty to him. In a Republican-led Congress that has been reluctant to challenge Mr. Trump on almost anything, the Nebraskan is among the last of a disappearing breed in his party. And his recent statements and actions strongly suggest he may be headed for the exit.
In an interview in his office last week, Mr. Bacon, at 61 serving his fifth term in Congress, would not say whether he voted for Mr. Trump last year. He also likened members of his party to people following someone off a cliff, compared himself to Winston Churchill speaking out against Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and criticized the billionaire tech tycoon Elon Musk, who has bankrolled many of his Republican colleagues.
“I sort of blame him for that disaster,” he said of Mr. Musk, referring to Mr. Musk’s exhorting Republicans late last year to tank a spending deal that was intended to avert a government shutdown.
Democrats turned in another set of strong showings on Tuesday in the largest one-night batch of special elections so far this year, while Republicans appeared to fall just short of flipping a seat in New England.
The most dominant victory came in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Democrat Amanda Clinton, a public relations consultant and a member of the Cherokee Nation, cruised to a 69-point landslide over Republican Beverly Atteberry to defend the 71st House District. Since Kamala Harris carried this constituency by a 19-point margin, Clinton’s win represented a 50-point overperformance—the second-largest this year.
Dr. Edwin Asturias found out Monday he had been fired from his volunteer position on a federal vaccine advisory committee the way the rest of the country did: He read about it in an op-ed written by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The official notice — a two-sentence email, he said — arrived later in the afternoon.
“It was surprising, the unprofessional way of dismissing people that have been committed to this work for some time,” Asturias said.
Asturias is a pediatrician and an infectious disease expert who works as a physician and a professor on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. (Asturias was careful to note that his comments are not meant to reflect the views of the institutions he works with.)
Up until Monday, he was also a member of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an influential body that reviews data on the safety and efficacy of vaccines and makes recommendations on who should receive them and when.
► Colorado Public Radio looks at how public education in Colorado could be impacted by the Republican budget bill that also seeks to cripple Medicaid funding.
► Do not miss this story from The Colorado Sun about the impact on health coverage for Coloradans if Congress passes President Trump’s big terrible bill.
► Congressman Jeff “Bread Sandwich” Hurd (R-Grand Junction) introduced on Wednesday the “Jurisdictional Determination Backlog Reduction Act.” If this sounds exciting to you, check out the story from Nathan Deal for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.
►Westword breaks out the time and location for Saturday’s “No Kings Rally” in Denver.
Say What, Now?
Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
► We have absolutely no idea what Congressperson Lauren Boebert (R-Windsor) even thinks she means by this:
June 12, 2025 10:24 AM UTC
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