July 05, 2016 02:40 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (July 5)

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• by: Colorado Pols

America, [expletive] yeah! It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. 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 a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► The top story today is the end of the Hillary Clinton email “scandal,” after the FBI announces it will not recommend any charges after a lengthy investigation:

So ends a controversy that has raged for years, as Republicans sought to extract every possible shred of political value from an admitted mistake that wasn’t unique to Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State (see: almost the entire Bush White House). There is no evidence of any harm done to American foreign policy or national security from Clinton’s use of a private email server, and the dense technical details about email server security and propriety served mostly to confuse and scare voters in the service of Republican political objectives.

For a core segment of factually impervious diehards, of course, no outcome other than Clinton in a “jailhouse orange pantsuit” would ever have been satisfactory. Decades of scandalization of the Clintons over every conceivable issue, no matter how insignificant, has rendered millions of Americans not just unwilling but unable to give them a fair judgment. The Clintons are very possibly the most character-assassinated political family in modern history, and there is just no coming back from that for Americans in the thrall of the right-wing media machine. You’ll never convince them otherwise.

ABC News has the response from the Clinton campaign:

The Clinton campaign issued a statement saying it was “pleased” with the FBI decision.

“As the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved,” spokesman Brian Fallon said…

[Comey] said her staff should have known Mrs Clinton’s private email was an improper place for classified information, but there was no evidence that anyone had hacked Mrs Clinton’s communications.

► On the GOP side, attendees at the Western Conservative Summit appear to want Donald Trump to pick Newt Gingrich as his running-mate, followed by Sen. Tom Cotton and Carly Fiorina.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► The Denver Post reports on the right-to-die ballot measure you’ll likely be voting on in November. Expect this to be the most emotional debate on a statewide measure since “Personhood.”

► Also, folks want to hike the cigarette tax in Colorado.

► On the other hand, King Soopers and Safeway have shelved their ballot measure to allow beer and wine sales in grocery stores, grudging conceding that the compromise bill signed by Gov. John Hickenlooper will stand for now.

► After all the handwringing by Republicans against the EPA, public comments show overwhelming support for the Superfund cleanup of polluting mines near Silverton.

► GOP Sen. John Cooke of Greeley lambastes the University of Northern Colorado over mistakes allegedly made by the school’s “Bias Response Team” that could be considered free speech infringements.

► And…an obligatory news story for Green U.S. Senate candidate Arn Menconi.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Delta County GOP chairwoman Linda Sorenson resigns weeks after a controversy over racist Facebook posts made national news.

ICYMI

► Check out the Colorado liberal response to Donald Trump’s call for a wall last Friday.

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