August 17, 2017 12:19 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (August 17)

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

On this day 11 years ago, it was 2006. 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…

► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) isn’t up for re-election until 2020, but he has a LOT of work to do just to win back his Republican base. Conservative writer Jennifer Rubin absolutely dismantled Gardner in a column yesterday in the Washington Post titled “Cory Gardner Has a Choice: Voters or Trump.” Here’s an excerpt:

Gardner has sacrificed his integrity and betrayed the confidence voters place in him to be an independent-minded voice. And for what? His reputation has suffered, his profile has fallen…

…It’s Gardner’s moral absenteeism that reminds all voters how unworthy of office are Trump and his go-along Republicans. Anti-Trump Republicans and Democrats should get ready for 2020 — they can and should have the chance to knock him out of office.

Yikes! It has not been a good week for Sen. Gardner. Maybe he’ll feel better tomorrow after he hosts a fundraiser tonight in Denver along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

► President Trump is on a mission to burn every bridge imaginable, and it may only be a matter of time before he is forced to answer his own phones in the White House. As Politico reports, Trump is essentially just an orang-er version of that angry old man down the street who shakes his fist at kids for running on his lawn:

President Donald Trump’s decision to double down on his argument that “both sides” were to blame for the violent clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was driven in part by his own anger — and his disdain for being told what to do…

…The controversy over his response to the Charlottesville violence was no different. Agitated about being pressured by aides to clarify his first public statement, Trump unexpectedly unwound the damage control of the prior two days by assigning blame to the “alt-left” and calling some of the white supremacist protesters “very fine people.”

“In some ways, Trump would rather have people calling him racist than say he backed down the minute he was wrong,” one adviser to the White House said on Wednesday about Charlottesville. “This may turn into the biggest mess of his presidency because he is stubborn and doesn’t realize how bad this is getting.”

That thing about the old guy down the street? We take that back. Trump is 9-years-old. You’re not the boss of me!!!

Never content to let a divisive issue settle, Trump is now raging about the removal of statues that celebrate the Confederate Army. From the Washington Post:

President Trump on Thursday mourned the loss of “beautiful statues and monuments” in the wake of the violent clashes in Charlottesville during a white supremacist demonstration protesting the planned removal of a statue depicting Confederate military commander Robert E. Lee.

Trump’s string of morning tweets made clear the president was not willing to back down over his claims Tuesday that some of the demonstrators had legitimate grievances over the loss of Southern “history,” and that “both sides” were to blame in the mayhem that left a woman dead and at least 19 more injured. Trump made those claims a day after he had belatedly condemned the neo-Nazi and Klux Klan groups that organized the Unite the Right rally. Politicians from both parties have criticized the president for inflaming racial tensions and failing to provide clear moral leadership for the nation.

History may well show that Trump’s Presidency truly did collapse this week. Hell, even Brick Tamland Rep. Doug Lamborn is condemning Trump’s comments about white supremacists in no uncertain terms.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Some Colorado Republicans are very angry about facts. 

► Congressman Ed Perlmutter (D-Jefferson County) may decide within a few days whether or not he plans to run for re-election in CD-7 just months after saying he would not be a candidate for any office in 2018 (Perlmutter was briefly a candidate for Governor). If we were placing a wager on this outcome, we’d put our money on Perlmutter defending his seat (at least) once more.

► Governor John Hickenlooper held a town hall meeting in Aurora on Wednesday, where healthcare was (surprise!) a big topic. From the Aurora Sentinel:

Hickenlooper told a crowd in Aurora Wednesday night he believes his push for a bipartisan approach to fixing health care is gaining some traction among federal lawmakers in Washington.

Most notably, Hickenlooper has been working with Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich on the issue. While there has been a fair amount of buzz surrounding the bipartisan match-up, one attendee wanted to know whether the partnership was making any progress.

“Traction is a word that has a lot of elasticity,” the governor said. “But in a word, yes.”

You can’t spell “traction” without “elasticity.” Or, whatever.

► Kids are back at school in Jefferson County today, and teachers in one of the state’s largest school districts plan on working last weekend’s events in Charlottesville into their lesson plans.

► Jon Murray of the Denver Post reports on plans in Denver to respond to aggressive federal immigration policies:

A new Denver City Council proposal that has Mayor Michael Hancock’s backing would heighten the city’s resistance to federal immigration enforcement in most of the same ways as a previous disputed version, but with one key compromise.

Hancock got his way on allowing the Denver Sheriff Department to continue notifying federal immigration authorities  when jails are about to release immigrants wanted on a detainer. In part, his administration feared the White House might see the cut-off of that communication as an invitation to step up immigration arrests in Denver.

In the new proposed ordinance unveiled Wednesday, the two council sponsors dropped a provision from their previous version that would have ended the jail release notifications to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in most cases. Hancock, meanwhile, agreed to require the jails to advise inmates affected by those ICE notifications of their legal rights and to collect more information to track what happens.

► Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs won’t host a white supremacist conference next year. As the Colorado Springs Gazette reports:

The Cheyenne Mountain Resort announced Wednesday that it is canceling a three-day conference next April planned by the white nationalist group VDARE.

► Governors of Alaska and Washington are pushing back on a letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions about supposed elevated dangers of legal marijuana.

► Independent Expenditure committees that help candidates for Governor avoid contribution limits are becoming all the rage in Colorado.

► As Denver7 reports, there are apparently six Confederate monuments in Colorado.

► You can’t stop the Bustang!

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► A Democratic Congressman from Tennessee says he’ll introduce articles of impeachment to remove Donald Trump from the White House. 

► The White House is refuting reports that National Economic Council Chairman Gary Cohn is planning to resign in the wake of President Trump’s supportive comments of white supremacists.

ICYMI

► Whiskey tastes better with water. It’s science!

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