August 26, 2016 02:00 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (August 26)

• 2 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

We’re still waiting for the day when pigs fly, but now we can all say we were alive for the moment when pizza took flight. 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…

► Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took the gloves off in a speech in Reno on Thursday. As CNN reports:

The speech that Hillary Clinton delivered on Thursday was the one that many Democrats had been waiting for.

It was a blistering attack on Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric that left no gaffe or alleged dog-whistle unmentioned, framing him as a vessel for hate speech, a champion of conspiracy theories, and a representative of the far-right fringe of the Republican Party…

…There was little subtlety in Clinton’s speech. In a moment that drew gasps and jeers from the Reno audience, she read a series of recent headlines from the Breitbart website. Among them: “‘Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy” and “Hoist It High And Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims A Glorious Heritage.”

► The campaign for Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump announced a bunch of new made-up “coalitions” in Colorado. This isn’t particularly strange on its own, but it gets weird when you consider whose name is included as a co-chair of the Colorado Education coalition for Trump: Former Jefferson County School Board President Ken Witt.

► Congressman Ken Buck (R-Greeley) referred to Trump as a “fraud” not long ago; now, Buck is endorsing Trump for President!

► Make sure to check out the newest episode of The Get More Smarter Show, featuring an interview with Congressman Jared Polis (D-Boulderish).

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► The CEO of Donald Trump’s campaign for President, former Breitbart editor Steve Bannon, is apparently registered to vote at a Florida address that corresponds to a vacant home scheduled to be demolished. The term you are searching for is “voter fraud.”

► A new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that fracking appears to cause some pretty significant health problems:

New research published Thursday links severe fatigue and migraine headaches to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, leading to renewed calls for a ban on the controversial oil and gas extraction method…

…According to a press statement from Johns Hopkins, the researchers found that 1,765 respondents (23 percent) suffered from migraines; 1,930 people (25 percent) experienced severe fatigue; and 1,850 (24 percent) had current symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis, defined as three or more months of nasal and sinus symptoms.

The New York Times has more on the research results, quoting the senior author of the study, Dr. Brian S. Schwartz:

“There have now been seven or eight studies with different designs and in different populations, and while none is perfect, there is now a growing body of evidence that this industry is associated with impacts on health that are biologically plausible. Do we know the exact mechanism? No. That requires further study.”

But…but…but…the oil and gas industry employs 500 billion people in the United States!

► Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) is out with a new TV ad about his work in the aftermath of the Gold King Mine spill.

► Elsewhere, an issue that looked like it might loom large in the 2016 Colorado Senate race has not turned out to be as troublesome for Sen. Bennet. From the Denver Post:

Once seen as radioactive to his re-election chances, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s decision last year to support a nuclear deal with Iran appears less damaging now — still a political pressure point, but probably not fatal to the Colorado Democrat.

A key reason is that GOP rival Darryl Glenn has neither the resources nor the momentum to press Bennet on it even as Republican leaders have tried to reignite outrage in the wake of revelations that the U.S. leveraged a planned $400 million payment to Tehran to ensure the release of American prisoners held by Iran.

Good call on refusing to talk to the Denver Post, Darryl Glenn. This story could have given Glenn a good opportunity to speak out (again) on the issue, but Glenn has “blacklisted” the Post.

► At Least He’s Not Your Governor.

► Dear Rep. Clarice Navarro: What in the hell are you doing?

► Congressman Scott Tipton (R-Cortez) and his Democratic opponent, former state Sen. Gail Schwartz, don’t seem to share the same perspective on water regulations in Colorado.

► Donald Trump is getting hammered on his fltippety-floppety positions on immigration reform. You know things are bad for the Republican Presidential nominee when Rush Limbaugh is mad.

Elsewhere in Trump news, this is why His Hairness doesn’t usually stray from media outlets like Fox News.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Come on, now. There’s no need for this nonsense.

► The Colorado Springs Gazette tries to figure out more about this Cameron Forth person.

ICYMI

► Jack Splitt, the Lakewood teenager whose struggles with cerebral palsy helped spur medical marijiana approval in Colorado, died at the age of 15.

► Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper says Climate Change is hurting the state’s economy. Hick is looking at an Executive Order that would require a 35% cut in pollution from state power plants by 2030.

Don’t forget to check out the Get More Smarter Show. You can also Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!