Lara Trump's anti voter integrity proposal is an outrage

The last thing we should want is a partisan "poll watcher" illegally handling of ballots on election day. That is a good example of why election officials need to be elected for their integrity ..to not turn over the process to one or the other political party as Lara Trump, RNC, just promoted. As a former election official myself, I am outraged by this. Poll watchers are strictly watchers, not handlers, for a good reason. https://www.newsweek.com/lara-trump-wants-republican-national-committee-handle-ballots-2024-election-1893517#:~:text=During%20an%20interview%20with%20Newsmax,%22physically%20handle%20the%20ballots.%22 

The RNC is not interested in election integrity. They are interested in the RNC's control of voters and election outcomes. Not only is such action as Trump proposes the opposite of voter integrity, but what the RNC is proposing gives partisans power beyond watching before, during, and after election day. In charge of RNC "election integrity" is Christina Bobb, just indicted in Arizona for her role in the fake elector scheme.  The RNC has been engaged in training "poll watchers" in anticipation that their lie about widespread fraud in 2020 was a reality, never proved in four years, that borders on or encourages illegal election interference at the polls charged with actually "handling ballots", intimidating voters before and after the process. Before is voter suppression. During voting is illegal interference. After the polls are closed whether a partisan non-staffer is given access to the counting process is such a violation of integrity it has landed a Colorado clerk in federal court it is so illegal. 

Trump's outrage is the best case for the Colorado system of mail-in ballots. While Colorado has both polling places and mail-in-drop box and beau coup safeguards to prevent fraud, over 93% of ballots cast in 2020 and 2022 were by mail and not at a polling place.  So few vote at the polls on election day, even if illegal ballot handling or bullying happens, the chance such underhanded techniques would have less effect on the results.

The real danger is also: who is in charge of your voting system at the county level? That is why poll watchers are still needed, but poll handlers need to be staffed, sworn to abide by integrity rules, and supervised by county clerks likewise sworn to uphold laws that Lara Trump and the RNC want to violate.   

 This is an excerpt in italics from  a December 9 posting with additional commentary and updated status of the Tina Peter's federal trial scheduled for Febrary 2024

In Colorado, on December 8, 2023, there was an explosive report by Kyle Clark, KUSA,  a local station,  about threats and politics of election denialists that shows how   MAGA lies are used to seize control of the election processes on a local government level.  . Next Conversation: Head of Colorado's County Clerks Association talks election rigging lies - YouTube  

 This is a prelude to Trump's attempt at the Big Lie again to stay in power if he ever gets elected again, and it is his pretext for Trump loyalists to control the entire election process from registration to voter access, to vote casting, to tabulation, and to reporting at the exclusion of any opponents in the process.  It is the end of free and fair elections if he succeeds is doing this throughout the country, and the attempt is already underway, as this Colorado GOP attempt illustrates.  The message: elections are already corrupt (the Big Lie), not free or fair, so why not put your MAGA buddy in charge. MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: An election denier will now be the Colorado state GOP chair Update 3 12 2023         Note: a critic of the Big Lie, Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), was a casualty himself. He will not run for re-election in a ruby-red district.

The following comments are my additional ones to the December 9 posting.  Note in  Kyle Clark's interview of the executive director of the County Clerk's Association he and nearly all of the Colorado county clerks are Republicans.  As a former county clerk (Denver)  years ago, that was also the case. (I was usually the lone Democrat).  Party ideology then was simple: do the best job to ensure the voting process goes smoothly and accurately and follow the rules.  Those were low-technology processes back then, and voting machines were the lever type backed up by paper ballots.  In every layer of the process in Denver, representatives of both political parties looked over each other's shoulders to ensure that the rules were followed and the process was honest.(*no longer required, though)  In the time of high tech, in Colorado, those paper ballots are still available for any audits if questions are asked, and recounts that are triggered by a percentage in close races, and still are.  Clerks were proud, and most still are  (with several exceptions in 2020) of being accurate and rule-abiding. To have a state party GOP chair threatening to primary any GOP clerk who is not loyal to MAGA and claim the process for which they were proud and took responsibility is outrageous and insulting, but also a threat to clerk's positions to which they were elected after surviving their primaries ..   As individuals, thanks to the threats of their own party chairs, they could not speak out individually, but their association did. on Clark's broadcast on NBC's Denver affiliate, 9 News..

In my own county, election denialism nearly caused the GOP candidate for the county clerk to lose her election in 2022.. It was a squeaker in a red county blushing a bit purple. She was running to fill the vacancy left by the previous Republican county clerk, respected by both parties who chose not to run again for the office. The candidate refused to say the 2020 election was not fraudulent, but when pressed, she admitted her Republican predecessor had run a clean election. It just was that every other county, by implication, was corrupt because she was MAGA..  In the meantime, seizing national attention was a GOP country clerk, Tina Peters, in Mesa County who had fallen for the national party election denialism, broke the rules, and gave the codes to a Trumpster nonstaff member to seize the county machinery and jeopardize the security and integrity of the vote count, ... 

More on the Tina Peters case: Federal trial schedules in February 2024

Update: 12/10/2023  Tina Peters files federal lawsuit to halt investigations, prosecutions (coloradosun.com)  Peters is facing trial early in 2024 after federal indictments for her actions in 2022.

Update: 2/11/23  New information from the FBI delays the Tina Peters election tampering trial. What is interesting is FBI evidence claiming that the "update of computer systems "was not performed by an employee of the clerk's office" as Peter's claimed but by someone else using a copy of an employee's access key.ttps://www.cpr.org/2023/02/09/tina-peters-trial-delayed/

Tina Peters arraigned on 10 felony, misdemeanor charges in case alleging election equipment breach | Courts | coloradopolitics.com

Tina Peters arraigned on 10 felony, misdemeanor charges in case alleging election equipment breach | Courts | coloradopolitics.com

https://www.axios.com/2023/10/11/rnc-election-integrity-2024-election-trump

Trump is unique in many ways

 I hear a lot of whining from the MAGA crowd that Trump is being singled out for all kinds of lawsuits and criminal prosecutions like no other president before him. Unfair? He has brought it on himself.  This is a unique situation in many ways, but primarily, it has to do with the character of Donald Trump that made him the person he is.  His character influenced and enabled his political acts that no one before him successfully attempted. The result: the backlash we are experiencing now is taking place in the courts even more than in the court of public opinion. He has a lifetime of being a scofflaw in the private and personal sectors, and he was never forced to be held responsible outside of losing lawsuits until he entered the public arena.  

He is the only candidate from a major party I recall who has ever planned to violate laws and wants immunity from doing so if he gets elected again.

He was the first to tout the advantages of a dictatorship over democracy, attack the form of government we have had for 250 years, the rule of law, checks, and balances, and try to take away selected civil rights by tearing up and rewriting the Constitution.

He was the first to challenge the results of a presidential election and then try to change the outcome, even after courts ruled against him..  All others before him abided by the results and the process outlined in the Constitution and laws if they had disputes. 

 He was the first to be impeached twice but the first to tolerate, welcome,  or worse, to let a foreign power try to interfere with an election outcome.

He was the first to attempt a political coup, much less a coup with violence. He was the first to be told by those around him that he had lost the 2020 election but to ignore the evidence and lie about the results to try to justify his actions.

He was the first to fully benefit from the culmination of years of nearly total gerrymandering. He controlled the primary process to favor his supporters by making the primary the determining winner in the general election, a loyalist and a supporter. This enabled him to use his favorite tool, threats of fear of loss of power, in a campaign at even a primary level. 

He was the first to endorse the use of violence to oppress opposition to him or to advocate the use of active military instead of the national guard to put down civil unrest. (added later thanks to a reader: since the posse comitatus act of 1878). A fact: Trump refused and delayed even calling in the national guard until the riotous , violent acts on January  6 played out for hours.

How does his character have anything to do with this? 

Aside from even professionals tagging him as a narcissistic sociopath (not the first successful politician to have that profile), he has a unique personality profile of some traits above and beyond that.

He is unique in many ways, but a candidate unfit for a political office as high and as consequential as the presidency in our times has usually been winnowed out after going through any number of candidacies in local, state, or House or Senate. If there is one rule for those in high-profile offices, it is to ensure there are no skeletons in your closet. Instead, he was mostly a TV star based on his business acumen in the private sector. Unlike most others before him who entered the Oval Office, Trump had no political governance of a complex enterprise nor military training afforded to high officers. His management experience was a family business run on the Queens model of a mafia boss. Even those in the New York real estate sector not known for great ethical standards, had a low opinion of him. Apparently, while he had diplomas, he had no education about history or law that "took." Those around him see him as unable to focus for a long time without moving on to another subject or plan or unable to easily comprehend the written word.  Briefings had to be short bullet points, for example. He is a visual and auditory learner.  Learning from the mistakes of historical leaders has no relevance in his mind.  

  With clever use of the legal system, he could skirt and abuse laws or rules that stood in his way his whole life until now.  In his mind, he was never wrong and innocent of any crime. When asked if he ever asked God for forgiveness, he said he had done nothing to apologize for.  At all times, loyalty to him was essential, and criticism of him was always unjustified and unfair. He was always the victim of unfair treatment. Others were always at fault. Fear of his wrath beat down any desire to be disloyal. Only those who tell him how great he is or will carry out his wishes are allowed as staff these days.  I have known people with some of those same characteristics, but he is a complete package and certainly, like none who rose to be President in my long lifetime.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-on-god-i-dont-like-to-have-to-ask-for-forgiveness-2016-1

   

Messing Around Political Name Calling: notes to myself

I am fascinated by the various verbal and media slings and arrows levied at opponents.  They backfire if they are too inflammatory, so some semantic dithering occurs. These are notes to myself to keep in mind as I write opinions that may include criticism of Donald Trump.

 Some verbal combat slogans are justified if, for example, there are actual court findings to back them up. Others are just various degrees of nasty and insulting words hurled at a candidate's personality traits or appearance. Whatever terms are used, they should be precise and tied to well-known, acknowledged behaviors relevant to governing as a president. 

Others are naive about Trump's behavior and character problems but, while ignoring and/or acknowledging these issues, see it in their business as ideological evangelism or political interests to support him. Character will be on the ballot in 2024 to some extent, as well as other controversial issues and behaviors in contention. Those business interests still support Trump because they think he will keep their taxes low,  give them a financial advantage, and keep regulatory agencies off their backs. They have traded their business interests for a con man and sleazeball, a demagogue, a thug boss,  an adjudicated liar, fraudster,  and rapist,  and a wannabe self-admitted "dictator on ( or for) day one." To become a dictator requires being the king of chaos in the short term. That is a formula for strife as he uses and abuses his power and tries to violate laws. and deal with legislatures not yet fully in his control to amass big government, federal, and local political power for himself. His ability to abuse the judicial process is on display every day now, and with more appointments to the federal bench and Supreme Court, it will only be worse in a second term. That is not conducive to a good business climate. However, they see short-term benefits. They are not a naive bunch, but I think since the polls show today that Trump, the supporter of crony capitalism, still has a good chance to win, and they want to count themselves into his crony capitalist club.   

Dictator or autocrat? Trump now owns the word of how he wants to govern: dictator.  He used it himself. Most media prefer to call his plans to take over the executive branch and continue his takeover of the judiciary "autocratic."  It is less inflammatory and implies even one-man rule has its limits, in not totalitarian control over some freedoms once enjoyed,  or is a kind of power grabbing without the ovens of Auschwitz. I prefer " dictator "because that is how Trump sees himself: becoming a strong man above the law like Putin and keeping himself in power by taking control of all the branches of government and the media. He rationalizes why he can get stuff done without significant opposition from either a minority or a majority. That is not a democracy I ever heard of.

 He is no law and order person, promising to use the DOJ for retribution and persecution against his opponents.  He is for law with oder of corruption and bias and not even a pretense of fairness or protection of civil rights. That just stinks. He supports political violence and suppression of protests using active military.  He has used fear and threats of strong-arm tactics to get himself where he is, calling the shots even from exile in Mar-a-Lago. It works. Bully is not a kind term, but fair.  When bullying crosses over to threats of violence, pardoning violent political acts, and encouraging known violent actors to do his dirty work, as on January 6, that is more like the characteristic of a Mafia boss-style thug. That is a formula for being king of chaos and strife as he uses and abuses his power and tries to violate laws. and deal with legislatures not yet fully in his control to amass big government, federal, and local political power for himself. The trial of January 6, now delayed until after the November elections,  will provide more insight into his role in its planning. However, his words, come to DC, it" will be a wild time," and "Go fight like hell, or you won't have a democracy anymore," are hardly coded exhortations to commit violence. That is a formula for being king of chaos and strife as he uses and abuses his power and tries to get others to violate laws on his behalf risking violating their own laws. (Just find more votes for me in Georgia and Zelensky, go find more dirt on Hunter and Joe Biden, and for thuggish militia leaders to fight like hell to stop Pence from certifying the 2020 election).  The violent thugs ended up in jail (convicted of felonies or pleading guilty in courts of law), and Trump plans to pardon them because he considers them "hostages." Zelensky is paying for his failure or refusal to dig up dirt as Trump tells his minions in the House to vote against aid to rescue Ukraine from a Russian takeover. (Fortunately, he failed when the Democrats and rational and national security-minded Republicans joined hands to fund Ukraine on April 20.)

There are some examples of failures and examples of opponent partisans trying to tie Biden into the admitted actions of a son and then calling it the "Biden Crime Family." Saying it often did not make it true. That one fell out of vogue when the GOP House committee lost its witnesses to any gain or conspiracy related to Biden's avarice.  No, Biden is in no way an accused criminal subject to impeachment or prosecution. Still, Donald Trump and his profiteering son-in-law(given cushy funds management of Saudi investment funds even though he never had funds management experience)after leaving the White House are given a pass by Democrats. Funny how that works.  

Is Trump a liar? He is not the first sitting president to tell a lie. It is not simple to just call him a liar. Political lies are protected as free speech. Calling out and proving lies are the duties of political opponents.  Being unethical is not a crime; not every act violates the law. If it causes damage to someone, it may or may not end up in court, but the damaged party has to have proof and attached proof of the damages. Calling a person a liar is free speech, but whether it is relevant to an illegal act is a different issue. In Trump's case, fact-checkers have a field day, but do voters care? Some do: A classic line that will live forever came from the mouth of a prospective juror in the hush money trial: "I wouldn't believe him if his tongue was notarized." The phrase has a history, but it became a legend in the trial when a prospective juror applied it to her opinion of Trump.  

 Sometimes lies have consequences that lead to court suits and legal actions that find proof of intentional lies and have relationships to other related laws, civil and criminal.  Trump can be called a liar because he has lost court cases lately in which it was judged he lied. The findings in the Trump University were that fraud was involved, and restitution was required.  Trump and his company's real estate have been found liable for misrepresenting property values, and the E Jean Carroll trial found Trump lied and Carroll was truthful, given credible evidence. Do these findings and judgments relate to the ability to govern in a democracy?  In the case of Nixon, lies were a part of the Watergate cover-up that led to his resignation under threat of impeachment. That is the significance of the hush money, January 6, Georgia elections, and document cases. Except for the hush money case, these may not be adjudicated until after the November elections. They all relate to the constitutional provisions of the election process.  If there is a criminal law involved, the proof required is beyond a reasonable doubt that the lie was intentional to break the law. The burden is on the prosecutor to prove it. The advantage goes to the defendant, who does not have to prove innocence.

It is fair game for Trump to be called a con man. That was the significance of both his real estate fraud cases and the Trump University case, where he was found liable. He is usually so convincing with his oratory he could sell coals to Newcastle (the one in England or Colorado coal mining country)."Don't believe what you see on Jan.6; they were just innocent, not violent assaults on police," he tells his followers, who then a close their eyes and tell themselves such tall tales no Constitutional process was nearly upended by violence egged on by Trump. I am not sure whether Trump gets away with it because he is so convincing or if those who believe that are fools or are cynically pledging allegiance to "the Boss," but there is truth to the saying attributed to PT Barnum, an epic huckster," a sucker is born every minute. " Juries have found his business enterprises to be frauds in recent high-profile court findings and have levied crushing fines.  All of this is on appeal, but the attacks are still valid if a jury of peers found him liable, or guilty,  for fraud and lies,  and calling Trump a con man or a fraudster is  fair game 

 Trump so far has been able to delay, delay, and delay the Special Council Jack Barr's two federal crime cases concerning records and Jan.6 with appeals and claims Trump is not subject to any law while in office. Some of the delays have been due to finding a sympathetic or inept judge in Florida, and the other is a sympathetic majority of justices in the Supreme Court delaying a trial on Trump's outrageous immunity claim until it is too late to hold the trial before the November election.  The Georgia criminal case against Trump's actions in 2020 has been delayed or damaged due to the misbehavior of the prosecutor's personal life spilling over into the process.  

There have been those. both professionals and lay people who had worked with him, from Conservative attorney George Conway to his niece Mary, who has called Trump narcissistic and a liar and a sociopath, and others have tagged Trump with being a...hole, an idiot, a dope, a moron.   Calling him that alone must be coupled with why he should not be a president again, such as being a demagogue or a dictator ruling like dictators he admires.  

We have had liars and corrupt politicians aspiring to be president or even occupying the Oval Office before. Andrew Jackson was one, and Nixon was not a truth-teller. Jackson was famous for the corrupt system of spoils, so abusive it inspired the creation of the civil service system. Project 2025, the plan funded and already being prepared by the Heritage Foundation to enact day one to turn Trump into a dictator., wants to replace civil service with the corrupt spoils system, firing all who are not loyal to Trump and replacing them with Trump loyalists. The spoils system is an institutionalized opportunity for corruption. Bribery is unnecessary; loyalty to benefit the boss is reason enough to rule one way or another.  Trump tried that same stunt with an executive order when he was president but failed.

 However, the goal to amass power like a dictator using the demagogic oratorical skills of Donald Trump, and civil court cases ruled against him for being a con man and a rapist, puts him in a totally different class of narcissistic sociopath that is relevant to how he intends to govern as President of the United States if he wins in November.  He will use all means to give himself more power and to control the power centers of government to support his power-lusting quest to claim he does not have to abide by any law while president and is immune from prosecution for any crimes he commits. It is" me, me, me, mine," and "only I can fix it."

  https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-and-the-success-of-the-narcissistic-sociopath  

https://www.britannica.com/topic/spoils-system    

  https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-jurors-hush-money-criticism-b4fe05a61ed566a587523d1120b46a76

https://www.amazon.com/Assholes-Theory-Donald-Aaron-James/dp/0385542038Asshole theory of Trump

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/04/trumps-insults-idiot-woodward-806455

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plan-gut-civil-service-triggers-pushback-by-unions-democrats-2023-12-

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plan-gut-civil-service-triggers-pushback-by-unions-democrats-2023-12-22/

A classic line that will live forever came from the mouth of a prospective juror in the hush money trial: "I wouldn't believe him if his tongue was notarized." The phrase has a history, but it became a legend in the trial when a prospective juror applied it to her opinion of Trump.   https://www.google.com/search?q=tongue+notarized+quote&rlz=1CAJFMC_enUS1016US1016&oq=tongue+notarized+quote&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigAdIBCjIyOTI1ajBqMTWoAgiwAgE&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#ip=1&vhid=6HE2sDKVxk0rGM&vssid=l

US Zombies on Ukraine also awaken

The $61 billion aid package for Ukraine was approved by the House on 4/20/24, and it did contain the authorization to seek Russian funds held in US banks, the "repo" act. The money would have gone to Ukraine's reconstruction, but this vote in the House, certain to be passed in the Senate, enables the reconstruction use as part of the plan. The vote in Congress on the aid was so overwhelming that the message to Putin is: "Do not miscalculate. The  US zombies have awakened. " Now Europe has a chance at stability, and China has been put on notice, too. "Hands off of Taiwan".  

Why did Speaker Mike Jonson reverse his position to alow a vote on Ukraine aid?   Both speculation and his words contain a clue. Johnson is third in line to the presidency and privy to national security briefings. It must have contained some sobering information.  Having a fighting-age son entering the Naval Academy, as Johnson does, is also a sobering thought.  If Russia directly engaged NATO troops, thinking that Western resolve to help Ukraine was so weak, they could also grab the Baltics and or Poland; our sons, daughters, and grandchildren would have their lives on the line.  

The vote was strongly bi-partisan  3 to 1 ratio.https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/house-vote-foreign-aid-bills-ukraine-israel/story?id=109429499. Bi-partisan is a most unusual occurrence in the House. A coalition of the rational and moderates from both parties came together. The majority of GOP legislators still voted against Ukraine aid.   https://ca.news.yahoo.com/112-house-republicans-voted-against-175745760.html

 Part of the deal, it appears, is that the Democrats would also cross over to keep Johnson as speaker if his right-wing nuts tried to oust him. That is what skilled legislators do, and it helps to have a skilled legislator like Biden in the White House. He knows the art of the legislative deal. It and most of the other elements of the Senate bill also passed. 

Now third in line to the presidency and privy to national security briefings. It must have contained some sobering information.  Having a fighting-age son entering the Naval Academy, as Johnson does, is also a sobering thought.  If Russia directly engaged NATO troops, thinking that Western resolve to help Ukraine was so weak, they could also grab the Baltics and or Poland; our sons, daughters, and grandchildren would have their lives on the line.  

Still, there are those who think isolationism is the way to peace or who just oppose anything Biden is for and Trump is against.  They are fools and tools of those who are our adversaries.  Period.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/house-vote-billions-dollarsrussian-government-money-sitting-us-banks-rcna148671

From an earlier blog post: https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/02/message-to-magas-in-house-you-should.html: Plan B: Should Speaker Johnson beat down a movement to force him to bring Ukraine aid to the floor because he knows he would lose if that fails, there may be a plan B to support Ukraine. While this concept was applied to post-Ukraine, assuming it survives this conflict, I wonder if it could be applied to funding military aid. Use of Russian treasure held in Western banks could be tapped. Post-conflict reconstruction was discussed recently by Fareed Zakaria on CNN. Western Nations holding Russian funds should freeze them and set up a reconstruction fund for Ukraine, not only funding Ukrainians from Russian money but also providing a reconstruction fund kept out of the hands of Russia. I am unsure of the legality of this but after I wrote this, I heard the former ambassador to Russia on MSNBC suggest this. He carries enormous weight. We will know the week of Feb. 25 when the House returns to work. and the discharge petition forces Mike Johnson to bring to a vote. Update Feb 25.: on MSNBC review I heard an interview I missed .. Rep Jim Hines believes that will be the ultimate solution. The only question is whether to take the interest of the 300 billion Western banks have in Russia or the principle. If the bulk of it is in Swiss banks, that will be a difficult job, but for the first time in history, the Swiss have been supporting one of the combatants, Ukraine and NATO, instead of being neutral.

https://www.eda.admin.ch/deza/en/home/countries/ukraine.html#:~:text=Switzerland%20supports%20Ukraine%20on%20its,democracy%20and%20strengthen%20local%20governance.