Indictments not just about Trump but the future of our democratic system (update 4/2/23)

For some Americans, the indictment of Trump was enough reason to oppose him. The former governor from Arkansas has just jumped into the 2024 primary. https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/04/02/ex-arkansas-gov-asa-hutchinson-running-for-president-in-2024/?sh=4909aad1ba35&utm_medium=browser_notifications&utm_source=pushly&utm_campaign=2845286

Update 4/12/2023:  Trump fawns over Xi and Putin, again,  his inner self on public again display for the kind of government he would like to have in the US. "They are smart because they rule with an iron fist."  Trump Repeats Praise Of 'Smart' Putin, Touts Xi's 'Iron Fist' Rule Of China |

 Watch (msn.com) Hannity Tells Trump Putin Is ‘Evil’ After the Former President Says ‘I Got Along with Him Great’ (msn.com)  and in Waco, he calls Xi and Putin smart. Trump Praises Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping at Waco Rally (mediaite.com)  : Trump Repeats Praise Of 'Smart' Putin, Touts Xi's 'Iron Fist' Rule Of China | Watch (msn.com)

This indictment by the New York DA may not be the last indictment of Trump, but it is the first one. The reaction has already become  a predictable, pre-written script that the GOP would call it a witchhunt, a political act to keep Trump from running in 2024, the weaponization of the system, a shameful violation of his rights, and the Democrats would respond "no one is above the law."   It is far more than just about Donald Trump and suspicions about 2024.  It is about what kind of democracy, if any,  we will have in the future. 

If he gets elected in 2024 in spite of convictions or unresolved indictments and he still can serve as president, it is no short-term impact.; it may be for as long as he lives, occupies the White House, or for future successors like him. We will kiss democracy as we have known it goodbye. If we have learned anything recently from Russia to Hungary, to Turkey, and the events in Israel that is what happens when a strong man takes over and uses his power grab to destroy the opposition.  Once he consolidates power at the beginning of his reign, it becomes a forever position unless a velvet or bloody revolution unhorses him.

A violation of his rights? Where does it say in any governing document he has more rights than you and me?.  Whether Trump is a president, ex-president, candidate, or citizen Trump, he has the same rights as every American. Twenty-three citizen jurors in New York voted there was probable cause to believe he committed crimes and needs to have his day in court. He is innocent until the jury finds him guilty, just like you and me.  If  Trump escapes all of the charges without any serious repercussions to himself, legal or political,  it could inspire and establish the route and precedent for any other wannabe dictator to grab power in the future because Trump will have demonstrated how to get around any rule of law or a prosecutor that may stand in his way.  If voters still support him and think he should run for president  (poll: 74% of the GOP  thinks he should even if indicted) and he wins in spite of the legal jeopardy and judgments facing him, they will get what they deserve: helter-skelter goes democracy to be replaced by the rule of their so-admired autocrat/dictator/strong man and the rest of us, will be fighting hard for our human rights in the face of this autocrat trampling ours. 3/29/23 - Mixed Signals On Trump: Majority Says Criminal Charges Should Disqualify '24 Run, Popularity Is Unchanged, Leads DeSantis By Double Digits, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds | Quinnipiac University Poll

Trump has made no secret of his contempt for the rule of law that threatens his power and his admiration of the Putin style of rule. CPAC and  GOP FOX opinion hosts have fawned over Viktor Orban in Hungary. Trump has already demonstrated on January 6 and leading up to it his technique of how he could overturn any election he did not like.  Once that happens, anyone, Trump, or a future wannabe dictator, will have the blueprint laid out for them, and impossible to unhorse through the ballot. 

 Take some pages from recent events to understand how former democracies lost their democracy to dictators and autocrats. In Ukraine, it was at first velvet, but now it is war. In Byelorus, velvet failed, and now Russia's nuclear weapons reside there, Putin's puppet is in control,  and the opposition is either in prison or in exile. Putin, Orban, and  Ergogan are already in control of all of the power centers of governance and their puppet legislatures rewrote laws to guarantee that they will stay in power for as long as they want. It could be a  murderous regime like Putin's or it could be Putin-light controlled by fear of "retribution".  Will our country then be like Hungary's Orban or Turkey's Erdogan where there is no independent judiciary to hold the president accountable for crimes, corruption,  or extra-legal persecution of the opposition,? In time even the legislature is filled with loyalists as they got there through sham elections and fear of retaliation if they did not become loyal. Will it be like that where the rule of law that existed before the coup or election, has been replaced formally or by interpretation of the boss and selective enforcement, and protestors are made powerless by force, threats, and worse? Will we become what Israel's Netanyahu wants his country to be: Orbanized, so he can destroy the judiciary, avoiding the repercussions of the indictment hanging over his head. Netanyahu has fired any cabinet member who crossed him, and the streets are filled with protestors ranging from civilians to members of defense forces. Either Netanyahu backs down, or he faces this ongoing velvet revolution. That drama, autocracy v democracy, is unfolding before our very TV-glued eyes. 

T

A footnote: The US is not Hungary or Turkey, and it will not tolerate a sustained autocratic takeover gradually or peacefully like Orban (HungaryL84% Magyar) and Erdogan of Turkey (80% Turks)did.  Both govern a country over which they became the autocrat by step by step stealth and cunning. They were able to destroy any checks on their abuse of power by putting their supporters in control of their once-independent judiciary and legislatures. Most of Putin's Russia (71% ethnic Russian )also shares language and religion and Putin can appeal to their nationalism to keep in power as he is did by rallying support when his Ukraine invasion stalled out.  The US has English as a common language though Spanish is now a second one in some areas, but it is far more diverse in many ways.  White people are now about 57% per the US census bureau, and the prediction is that this majority will become the minority in future years if demographic trends continue.    Age and generation will play a much bigger part in shaping politics than racial identification. What is coming down the pike is far more  "liberal".Younger voters are poised to upend American politics (brookings.edu)  The glue holding us together in our recent history is the peace of stability in governance, and liberty to pursue happiness. When it comes to supporting the kind of "liberal" democracy we have now, the future of democracy as we have known it depends on the generations now coming of age. They are far more "liberal" politically than those in power now, and democracy will be in their hands. This "liberalism" stretches across all racial and ethnic groups.  The change feared by white nationalists is they will be replaced by brown and black people. What they should fear is that they will be replaced by a younger generation.    In the meantime, we are in a noisy, raucous, potentially dangerous, and violent place in transition.  A significant part of our country, a minority still, is looking toward autocracy..  They should be careful what they wish.  Autocracy is what the founders of our country revolted against for a reason.  Protecting democracy and containing autocracy (brookings.edu)

Democrats' Witch-Hunt of Trump (mailchi.mp)

https://www.cpr.org/2023/03/30/donald-trump-indictment-colorado-response/

Nashville shooting: My reaction is deeply personal for a reason.

 Once again, it happened. The Nashville shooting: My reaction is deeply personal and close to home.

A person armed with assault rifles (two of them bought legally) crashed a school in Nashville and killed three kids, their teacher, the headmaster, and the school custodian. Once again, some political leaders failed us.

"We aren't gonna fix it" was the response of a Tennessee Congressman to the Nashville shooting. "We have a mental health problem", he says, so fix that. What needs to be fixed is congresspeople like him by voting his fellow travelers out. Another Congressman representing the Covenant school district, bemoaning the killing, claimed there is nothing we can do about it. How dumb do they think people are? Unless the easy access to weapons of war is fixed or truly effective red flag laws are enacted, the mentally balanced will always be able to act out their fantasies, even if they are already under the care of a mental health professional...and many, particularly younger ones, are not. That is the lesson from Nashville where the shooter did not fool the mental health professional but did fool his parents and had the legal ability to buy seven weapons. .

And, yes, there is a mental health issue. Even when dangerous potential shooters with mental health problems had been identified an effective mechanism was not in place to prevent them from getting hold of weapons or carrying out their intent. Mental health problems had been identified by parents, administrators, and professionals in Nashville, in Boulder Colorado King Soopers, in the suburban school where my granddaughter cowered in the closet next to the room with the shooter, in the Aurora Colorado theater massacre shooter, and even in New Town and Nashville. There are policies that are ineffective to stop known potential problem individuals, that coddle dangerous students with known mental health threats. Red flag laws difficult to use, easy access to weapons, unwise problem student plans, are not enough. We may never stop all shooters with mental health problems, but we can save many lives if we address these things.

Let us also not kid ourselves about mental health. Parents can be fooled, and even professionals may miss the extent of the murderous intent. Both the Louisville bank shooter and the Nashville shooter bought assault rifles legally, even though professionals and their parents knew they were having mental health issues. The Aurora theater shooter in Colorado was already under a professional's care, and she had spotted how dangerous he was, but reporting it to upstream officials did no good as they ignored her warning, prompting revised red flag procedures after the fact of the slaughter.. Unless assault rifles are taken off the shelves, red flag laws are made more effective, smart wannabe death by cops and future mass shooters will still slip through the cracks, fooling professionals and parents alike. A clinical psychologist I asked about that. Even if the person is in the care of a professional, there is a 50-50 chance they will identify a potential killer, she told me. This is the line still used to divert attention from any solution the gun rights zealots oppose and even now (update 4/15/2023) Donald Trump is using to deflect us from some hard facts that mental health initiatives are not enough. Everything Trump Said About Mass Shootings in NRA Speech (newsweek.com)

Nearly half of Republicans think US has to live with mass shootings, poll finds | US politics | The Guardian

https://www.usatoday.com/.../nashville.../11552258002/

We need to stop the shrugging it off, the lying, the stonewalling of legislation, the promotion of weapons of war in the hands of civilians, and the pious opining there is nothing we can do. Mental health is the problem so these things will happen, they say. The assault gun-promoting congressperson from the Nashville district of the Covenant School. said he was heartbroken and thanked the cops who got to the school in 14 minutes and took down the killer. At least that. Now, Mr. Congressman, do something about it. So, Congressman cut out the sad shrug, stop lying about the 2nd Amendment, his personal promotion of assault weapon ownership, and put kids first over his own self-centered irresponsible obsessions. His fellow apologists said there is nothing we can do. Some even had the gall after Uvalde to say we just have to live with this. Sick. Sick. Sick. Their interpretation of the Constitution is not even supported by Supreme Court jurists. in the Heller decision. . That same Nashville Congressman and his family promoted their interpretations of the second amendment even on a Christmas card assault-weapon-toting family photo just like Colorado's Rep. Lauren Boebert did. Sick. Sick. Sick. The ball is now in Congress' court dominated by shruggers and assault weapon gun lovers. It will not change until their voters act.

In the wake of East High school shootings, the Colorado state legislature worked to pass a couple of gun safety bills in March> Colorado legislature works through the weekend to advance two major gun laws (koaa.com)  State by-state action is helpful, assuming the wannabe mass killer does not take a quick jaunt to a nearby state.   Colorado is surrounded by many states with more lax laws.  For that reason, the issue needs to be addressed on the federal level, too, by Congress.  For citations of existing gun safety laws in Colorado: Firearm Legislation, Rules and Statutes | Colorado Bureau of Investigation    Can states pass such laws without violating Heller? Yes. 2nd Amendment rights are not unlimited: We could go on for days debating the right of individuals to own weapons of war. The issue has not been resolved, though the majority of the public favors banning them as we have before the ban was sunsetted and not renewed. Thereafter, mass shootings involved more than 4 because of the ability to kill so many in such a short time before there could be any intervention. Citing English common law to say that a person has an absolute right to have such weapons is interesting, but the operative decision here and now is the Heller 5-4 decision on the supreme court. It involved handguns and a too-restrictive law rendering their use useless for either the ability to be part of a militia if needed (police officer for example) and for self-protection and protection of a person's home. Yes, it did establish an individual person who did not belong to a well-regulated militia could keep a handgun for the defense of their home (FYI..I comply and agree). However, the right is not unrestricted; there can be restrictions. I am no lawyer, but this analysis was found on the U of Connecticut law school site." The Second Amendment right is not absolute and a wide range of gun control laws remain “presumptively lawful,” according to the Court. These include laws that (1) prohibit carrying concealed weapons, (2) prohibit gun possession by felons or the mentally retarded, (3) prohibit carrying firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, (4) impose “conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms,” (5) prohibit “dangerous and unusual weapons,” and (6) regulate firearm storage to prevent accidents. Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion. He was joined by Justices Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, and Thomas.

Justices Stevens and Breyer filed separate dissenting opinions. Stevens asserts that the Second Amendment (1) protects the individual right to bear arms only in the context of military service and (2) does not limit the government's authority to regulate civilian use or possession of firearms. He describes the majority's individual-right holding as “strained and unpersuasive”; its conclusion, “overwrought and novel.” Stevens was joined in his dissent by Justices Breyer, Ginsberg, and Souter." https://www.cga.ct.gov/2008/rpt/2008-r-0578.htm

For state by state maps, search Bing for gun safety laws, where I found many.

Know the symptoms: advice for non-professionals for what signs to look for potential... killers  Know The Signs: You Can Prevent Gun Violence and Other Harmful Acts — Sandy Hook Promise

https://www.vice.com/en/article/a35mya/nearly-all-mass-shooters-since-1966-have-had-four-things-in-common

c

I am a grandmother of one grandchild who survived the school shooting in Colorado. She will be haunted by the memory of that moment for the rest of her life, the same as all survivors of such mass shootings. What about their mental health? https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/health/surviving-school-shooting-impacts-mental-health-education-and-earnings-american The armed community relations cop responded, and the shooter shot himself next to the room where she was hiding and before more were killed. She heard it all and was in the last classroom to be cleared and her horror-stricken mother waited in the reunification place. A grandson huddled under his desk for a morning in a neighboring school to New Town/Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

In a Denver suburb, the first and iconic school shooting, Columbine happened, and many kids were killed as cops feared to enter. Not all school shooting involved weapons of war, and sometimes cowardice or lack of training of law enforcement permit a slaughter to continue. In Nashville and Ulvalde, the shooter used these weapons of war. There a more examples of this. The history of the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 : NPR Even in Nashville, 6 were killed before the police took the shooter down 14 minutes after the first 911 call came in. In Uvalde a slaughter of kids continued as the cops cowered outside the door, fearing they were unable to take out a well-armed shooter. In a Denver's East High School this month, two administrators were shot (survived), as they tried to unarm a student. The reason untrained civilians had to perform the dangerous maneuver was because armed community relations officers had been withdrawn from all Denver schools recently (a decision that was reversed immediately). In the 1980's as Denver city clerk I sat in on a city council debate restricting the sale of large ammunition clips and hollow bullets as outgunned cops fought open warfare with gangs. The issues are that old and that new even in a state as blue as mine.

Let us start with saluting the hero cops and helping police become the heroes they are. Then, let us cut out this shrugging and handwringing. Let us stop hiding behind a misreading of second amendment rights (that protects only a well-regulated militia's right to bear arms), get the CRO's back in school, and get the sales of weapons of war banned.

Nearly half of Republicans think US has to live with mass shootings, poll finds | US politics | The Guardian

https://www.usatoday.com/.../nashville.../11552258002/

USATODAY.COM

Andy Ogles, GOP congressman representing Nashville shooting site, criticized for posing with guns in family
Republican Lies About the Second Amendment Are Getting Kids Killed – Rolling Stone

Critical thinking: a misunderstood term that fueled the obsession with CRT

Update: April17, 2023

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: .Anti Wokeness and anti masking: issues come to a blue state county

"Culture war" in Woodland Park schools - A hi performing, spirited school takes a turn for the worst as right wing zealots take over.   

1. Gag orders on teachers, cutting mental health support, operating …

   https://www.cpr.org/2023/04/20/woodland-park-school-board

   Web6 hours ago · Hart Van Denburg/CPR News Mary Ward, who was fired from her support staff job at Woodland Park Schools, stands outside her child’s elementary school in Woodland …

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: .Anti Wokeness and anti masking: issues come to a blue state county

In Elizabeth, Colorado recently half of the school board resigned because of anti CRT obsessions of others fighting the CRT ghost which is not even taught in their schools. It had made it impossible to deal with other pressing issues. Elizabeth School Board resignations over CRT complaints accepted (coloradosun.com)    CRT contains a  word" critical", and so does "critical thinking"" a methodology of research used in graduate level courses on Critical Race Theory..  Anti CRT is, however, a political rallying cry that is fed by ignorance of a graduate level academic and philosophical methodology of seeking the truth. It is not taught at any elementary or high school  but fighting this ghost has had  real life political and public policy impacts as it had in Elizabeth and in Florida..   Critical thinking sounds better but some take it as a green light to hurl insults and name calling.  It is not advocacy of  a one sided "woke". Critical thinking is not the same as "criticizing". I think we agree on the need for critical thinking. We may disagree on the definition. Google the definition before throwing the term around.  It may explain why CRT, critical race theory is so frightening  to those who think it means teaching criticizing White people while advocating the black perception of slavery or the history of the civil rights movement. Because the term "critical thinking" is an abstract concept, it takes effort to understand it is also a  disciplined method for intellectuals and academics to seek the truth. The method has its roots in Socrates. Because of  its abstractness, it has  has become a term politicians could  easily abuse and use as a polite form to an appeal to a racist inclined base without sounding rawly racist.  In Florida with the advocacy by Ron DeSantis, rules, laws and regulations have attempted to control how racial history is taught in response to those who have become fearful of CRT, Critical Racial Theory. CRT is an  academic method of graduate level study using critical thinking methodology and has not been taught in any public school in Florida. DeSantis has made "anti woke" his mantra and anti CRT action is his dog whistle demagogury.    

Critical thinking has many definitions, but all include the use of rational reasons for arguing a point deducted from facts that are available.  It is akin to  the method of published critics of art and music who may feel something in their gut but give reasons liking or not liking the performance or a painting  based on what they heard or saw  instead of just writing "it stinks".  Often, such critics comment on both the good and the bad, but they cite reasons for both positive and negative observations and their conclusion deserving their verdict are expressed sometimes in terms of  one to five stars.   They are practicing "critical thinking".

All definitions of critical thinking have much in common. Critical thinking includes understanding available data and facts, deductive reasoning, and a dose of skepticism.. That is a way of thinking instead of simply parroting back something that sounds right to you or you hope is true..  If you challenge some people to give  their data and facts for their opinions and  all you get back are opinion memes and insults, that is not critical thinking.  Demanding those with  opposing opinions should agree is not "critical thinking", either. Calling those who disagree with you clowns or worse is not critical thinking. It may be criticizing, but it is not critical thinking. 

Update: 4/15/2023

Note: Denver students participated in this program. I think there is no better description of what critical thinking is about and how destructive it is to squelch it. It is appropriate at both high school and college level to look at both sides of an issue, look at the research, and come to conclusions. What a contrast it is with the ignorant and unthinking attempts to condemn CRT in certain states by those who think there is only one side to an issue and become zealots on behalf of their side. The best part of the education I had was not in a classroom but as a debater at both high school (a nationally ranked program) and in college (Northwestern University), where competition required us to debate one round representing affirmative support of a proposition and then in the next round advocate against the same proposition. In the latter 1950s, at the high school level, the National Forensic League was the governing body nationwide of speech and debate meetings, and they set the national topic. I distinctly remember the one in my high school sophomore year that was: Should we have direct election of the president (and do away with the electoral college) and free trade was the topic in my junior year.. The debate of both of these topics are just as relevant now as they were then, and just as contentions and complex as they are now.

https://www.denverpost.com/.../douglas-county-school.../...

ign=denverpost.com-2901340#

Absolutely deserving. This is what happens when the newly elected ideologically tilted school board against Covid mask wearing and bogus claims the superintendent supported CRT got rid of one superintendent to replace him with another they had preferred..

NEWSWEEK.COM

High school debate and America's toxic national discourse

With a live, in-office debate, eight high school students with the National 

DeSantis signs bill banning critical race theory in schools (wptv.com)

The best advice for better messaging for Democrats I have heard

 Democratic activist delivers straight talk to his party on long term strategy (msnbc.com)I saw the interview then and cheered. Please..all. listen to this. Here is my take on it and how I see it being applied. The gist is to look at issues of universal concern to more than one demographic...all Blacks and Hispanics and Whites do not like crime; all want a better living and education. higher paying jobs and small business support, and end the scourge of fentanyl. They all like being treated fairly by justice and government policies..in a democracy where they have a say, free from one-party or one-person ruler edicts. They oppose foreign  governments that threaten our national independence and want to control our thoughts and government policies.They all see that government has a role to play that can make it easier for them to succeed, but not as a suppressor and intruder into their private lives on behalf of some group of religious believers. They all condemn hatred of others not like them, either as being ugly and antiAmerican, or divisive, pitting one group against another.. They all want a better future for themselves and their kids that is safe from gun violence and an opportunity to succeed. In short, the more universal the message, the more Democrats will expand their power beyond their base. The more jargon is avoided (autocracy v democracy as a slam on Trump) and put into words of aspiration and inspiration affecting their lives, the better. .. There is nothing wrong with targeted messages to specific demographics, but those are subsets to the policies that affect across the board of the diverse demographics that make more, including swing and independents, the potential supporters of party politics. What unites these diverse groups is where the emphasis should be. but it gets lost in messages targeted at a specific constituency. It just must be in a more appealing and universal context consistently and not left up to voters to assume there are deductive conclusions that may or may not apply to them.   It seems like the Dems are the divisive ones, and keep messaging by demographic segment. They keep saying: here is what we do for you African Americans..end police brutality and voting suppression. Here is what we do for you, Latinos,, er maybe more humane and liberal border policies and DACA (which are not that popular among a segment of the Latino population). Here is what we do for old people, protect social security and medicare. Here is what we do for younger people: environment and lower student debt. Here is what we do for gay people....oppose DeSantis. Here is what we do for women: support choice. Biden has done a good job of focusing on the big demographics...middle class and less so the poor.   It isn't class warfare, but there is a way to accent the positives, and secondarily make the negatives a  contrast with the GOP policies.  He has done it.

The most beloved GOP fall back whenever any attack on Democrats fail to get traction is "democrats are soft on crime"/  Rep. Jim Jordan tried to damage the credibility of the New York district attorney's prosecution of Donald Trump in the Stormy Daniels saga by holding committee hearings in NYC to paint the DA as being soft on crime.  Aside from Jordan's attempt to make the DA the bad guy, he got the egg on the face instead with a variety of journalists fact-checking disclosing his own district had a higher per capita crime rate than New York. https://pennstate.forums.rivals.com/threads/jim-jordans-rural-district-has-higher-crime-rate-than-nyc.334005/

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