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May 22, 2017 12:47 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Monday (May 22)

  • 6 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Happy Victoria Day! It’s time to 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 a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► President Trump is in the midst of his first major overseas trip since he took office (or as Trump calls it, “my big foreign trip“). Trump is in Israel today after spending the weekend in Saudi Arabia, where he put his hands on a glowing orb and generally enjoyed not talking about scandals involving Russia.

But then, Trump being Trump, he made sure to bring up “that Russia thing” in a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As Chris Cillizza explains for CNN:

“Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel’,'” Trump told reporters in Jerusalem. “Never mentioned it during that conversation. They were all saying I did. So you had another story wrong. Never mentioned the word ‘Israel’.”

The story Trump was reacting to was this one, which ran a week ago in the Washington Post. And the thing about that story is that, well, the word “Israel” is never mentioned. Not one time…

…Trump is the denying an allegation that, literally, no news organization made. He’s also implicitly confirming that, yes, he did talk to the Russians about classified information. [Pols emphasis] While the president has total freedom to de-classify material, the White House has urged media organizations — including CNN — not to report on the specific information Trump passed along due to how highly sensitive it is.

In a separate story, Cillizza also notes that Trump is regularly contradicting himself on foreign policy. The Washington Post notes the same phenomenon.

 

► Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is expected to invoke his fifth amendment right to not incriminate himself in response to queries from the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding his interactions with Russian officials. From the Associated Press:

Attorneys for Michael Flynn say that a daily “escalating public frenzy against him” and the Justice Department’s appointment of a special counsel have created a legally dangerous environment for him to cooperate with a Senate investigation.

That’s according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press that was written on behalf of the former national security adviser under President Donald Trump. The letter, sent Monday by Flynn’s legal team to the Senate Intelligence committee, lays out the case for Flynn to invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination and his decision not to produce documents in response to a congressional subpoena.

The letter says that the current context of the Senate’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election threatens that “any testimony he provides could be used against him.”

 

► The Supreme Court has ruled that Republicans in North Carolina illegally disenfranchised African-American voters in the state’s last round of redistricting. From the Washington Post:

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature unlawfully relied on race when drawing two of the state’s congressional districts.

The decision continued a trend at the court, where justices have found that racial considerations improperly predominated in redistricting decisions by Republican-led legislatures in Virginia, Alabama and North Carolina. Some involved congressional districts, others legislative districts…

…In the split decision, Justice Clarence Thomas joined the liberal justices in saying race improperly predominated the drawing of the district. New Justice Neil M. Gorsuch was not on the court when the case was heard, and took no part in the decision.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Supporters of President Trump have come up with a (not) ingenious plan to deal with those big meanies in the media who keep reporting on Trump’s administration: Send a bunch of false stories to major news outlets and shame them when the tips are printed!

Yeah, that’s not going to work.

 

► If you are still intent on “rolling coal,” then you had better take out your checkbook. As the Denver Post reports:

Colorado is riding hard on diesel truck drivers who “roll coal,” the politically charged display of power on the roads that has doused other vehicles, such as environmentally friendly Priuses, and pedestrians, including supporters of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, with sooty black smoke.

Gov. John Hickenlooper this week said he’ll gladly sign into law a bill lawmakers passed that lets police hit offenders with $100 fines.

“Coal rolling is a cruel cut to people with asthma or other respiratory issues,” Hickenlooper said. “We are well to be rid of it.”

Over the past three years, the practice emerged as a way to have fun at the expense of other people, and air quality that is already compromised in parts of Colorado. Diesel pickup truck drivers illegally tweak their engines — tampering with pollution controls and enabling intake of extra fuel — so that by stepping on their accelerator pedals they can blast out spectacularly foul fumes.

 

► Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) held town-hall meetings in Ft. Collins, Boulder, and Denver over the weekend. Bennet had some particularly strong words on Republican attempts to repeal Obamacare, as the Ft. Collins Coloradoan reports:

“I’m not happy to be cutting a quarter of the Medicaid program to fund a tax cut for people that can buy medical services without having to go through the brain damage” of health insurance or health insurance claims, Bennet, a Democrat, told a sympathetic crowd at Colorado State University. “That makes no sense.”

Before hand, he called the new American Health Care Act a “tax cut for the richest Americans.  It’s a $880 billion cut to Medicaid Masquerading as a health care bill.”

 

► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) remains the only member of Colorado’s congressional delegation who has not held a town-hall meeting in 2017. Gardner did find time to speak with Mark Matthews of the Denver Post on health care issues, but you’d have a hard time finding anything even remotely specific in the story.

Elsewhere, Gardner is joining with a handful of Senators in urging President Trump to refrain from cutting research grants to the Department of Energy.

 

► Two members of Colorado’s Congressional delegation — Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Denver) and Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) — are working on legislation to protect legal marijuana in Colorado.

 

► Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler is a rambling mess.

 

► Congressman Ken Buck (R-Greeley) laments that it is difficult to spread all of the “good news” coming out of Washington D.C. lately.

We have absolutely no idea what Buck is talking about.

 

► If you aren’t familiar with the Bradley Foundation, it’s time to get acquainted with the right-wing funding machine that is now targeting Colorado.

 

► Governor John Hickenlooper will not call a special legislative session to address transportation funding concerns in Colorado.

 

► Here’s a story about “Bachelor Ben.”

 

► A group of political activists in Denver are trying to promote the idea of public financing of political campaigns. This is not a good idea.

 

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Scott McInnis wants to increase taxes.

 

► The “Greatest Show on Earth” is no more. 

 

ICYMI

► Colorado’s unemployment rate is the lowest in the nation for the second consecutive month. Republican gubernatorial candidates are busy trying to figure out how to make this news sound bad.

 

Click here for The Get More Smarter Show. You can also Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!

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6 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Monday (May 22)”

  1. Tomorrow, the White House will present it's budget, and it's pitching the plan, in part, as "welfare reform."

    The White House budget, to be released Tuesday, will suggest taking an ax to safety net programs like food stamps and popular family benefits like the child tax credit, in order to achieve the ambitious goal of balancing the federal budget over a decade.

    About $193 billion of the estimated savings would come from controversial changes to food stamps, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, with tighter work rules for beneficiaries and restrictions limiting benefits to people who are authorized to work in the United States.

    Under the proposal, the White House estimates changes to the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit would save $40 billion over 10 years. And changes to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program are expected to save $21 billion over that time.

  2. Of the 85 violent extremist incidents that resulted in death since September 12, 2001, far right wing violent extremist groups were responsible for 62 (73 percent) while radical Islamist violent extremists were responsible for 23 (27 percent).

    Cato reports on a GAO analysis on "Countering Violent Extremism."

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