Ok, says the House GOP, caught us on immigration BS so here's a new tune today

 It appears that last week's GOP talking point that Trump wanted to stop any solutions to the border crisis because he wanted to use the chaos as a plank in his election campaign got called out as cynical, and the crisis was not as important as Trump getting elected. That was not a winning talking point, so today, the tune has changed: Biden already has the power to enforce the laws, so it's his fault. That one has another bit of backfire: it takes dollars, and the House GOP has stonewalled any funding to do it.  Using the dumpster fire analogy, the GOP lit the blaze and then took away the fire extinguisher, and then blamed the empty-handed citizen for failure to act.  The ultimate cynicism is to blame the citizen and put the good citizen in jail with a bogus impeachment trial of Secretary Majorcas.  How stupid do you think people are?  Answer: everyone except the MAGA cultists who believe anything coming from their MAGA leaders is the gospel truth.

It is no secret that Donald Trump hopes the economy will fail, and he is trying to block any attempt to deal with the border crisis.  The border crisis strategy has now spilled over into forcing the GOP Senators to belly up, too, because the boss has spoken..Called the best deal on border security ever by even GOP senators, the Trumpsters are setting a dumpster fire in order to detract from their real purpose...keep border security and fear of brown people their chief racist campaign issue in November. If the problem is fixed, or close to it, they lost their one platform plank left, since the public perception of the economy is on the mend and by November may be a very diminished issue.  Biden called their bluff, giving them that best deal ever, which the GOP House declared dead on arrival.  Give him the money he says, and he will close the border.  If they take the deal, the GOP MAGAs lost their core collection plank, so all of a sudden, the crisis can wait for Trump's election?  

  I also note that Trump's role model and CPAC's as well is how Viktor Orban of Huntary got to be a dictator: it was raising enough fear of hordes of Middle Eastern refugees from Syrians violence were going to adulterate the 99 percent of Magyars who make up the Hungarian population. The trick is to keep the flames of fear fanning and any solution to the US border problem would put a damper on the Trump campaign plans.  The gamble is likely to end up with an open border because if Trump is banking on the House staying GOP by a vote or too, that is a gamble with bad odds, given the issue of abortion and the impact it will have that pretty much ensures any other border solution would be dead in the water now.  The GOP should take the deal now because there will not be a chance later but that is not their strategy: do what they can to keep chaos at the border before voters' eyes to give them a reason to elect Trump in November.

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Blockheads: Congressional MAGA's strategy on border security could easily backfire

Blockheads: Congressional MAGA's strategy on border security could easily backfire updated 2 14 24

It is no secret that Donald Trump hopes the economy will fail and as he is trying to block any attempt to deal with the border crisis.  The border crisis strategy has now spilled over into forcing the GOP Senators to belly up, too , because the boss has spoken..Called the best deal on border security ever by even GOP senators, the Trumpsters are setting a dumpster fire in order to set detract from their real purpose...keep border security and fear of brown people their chief racist campaign issue in November. If the problem is fixed, or close to it, they lost their one platform plank left, since the public perception of the economy is on the mend and by November may be a very diminished issue.  (Update: 2 14 2024: Two special elections, one on Long Island and one in Buck's County PA yesterday with large margins for Democrats hint at how Democrats can light the backfire flames:  aggressively tout the immigration bill Trump made DOA in the House and put the blame on Trump. This is despite opposition from the left who must think strategically. They have and should mute their dissent.  They may have a point, but whining too much may help Trump get re-elected, with devastating results that would toss humane immigration administration policies into the garbage. Democrats need to make a big deal of their support of the original bill the House MAGA  killed before they even read it because Trump told them so. The crisis?  Not so much, it appears.. The solution now and for years? Trump broke it; he pays for it and, as it looks now,  the House beginning in 2025 will flip to blue regardless of who wins the White House if these off-year specials are serious omens).  The loser for Democrats would be if they ignore the concern of most Americans see immigration as a burning problem and mealy mouth the bi-partisan bill. )

  I also note that Trump's role model and CPAC's as well is how Viktor Orban of Huntary got to be a dictator: it was raising enough fear of hordes of Middle Eastern refugees from Syrians violence were going to adulterate the 99 percent of Magyars who make up the Hungarian population. The trick is to keep the flames of fear fanning and any solution to the US border problem would put a damper on the Trump campaign plans.  The gamble is likely to end up with an open border because if Trump is banking on the House staying GOP by a vote or too, that is a gamble with bad odds, given the issue of abortion and the impact it will have that pretty much ensures any other border solution would be dead in the water now.  The GOP should take the deal now because there will not be a chance later.

  Trump demands that all of the GOP to be part of his blockhead strategy and it appears they are answering his call. Why should Trump want to be an obstructionist in chief?  It suits Trump's campaign strategy to paint Biden as a failure so only he, Trump,  can fix it.    He is like the arsonist who lit the forest fire and gets his jollies by calling 911 so he can watch the flames and all of the first responder actions, and then claim to the media he is a hero who called in the fire.

 .  Like a successful wildfire-fighting strategy, anti-MAGAS can also light a backfire if they point fingers at Trump's cynical strategy if they make it an ongoing issue and not a one-day finger-pointing. They can tie it into the way Trump operates not only with this but other popular public policy issues such as health care and abortion in a way that hurts people, not helps them.

 https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/24/politics/mcconnell-senate-gop-border-ukraine-package/index.html 

    Former President Donald Trump says he hopes any economic crash would happen before he could serve a possible second term | CNN Politics 

House Republicans poised to torpedo GOP’s best chance in years to pass border bill (msn.com)

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Watch your health care needs. The GOP has never cared and never will.

 The GOP has never had a plan that would provide the same safety net for those who do not have employer-provided insurance, Medicaid, or Medicare and who are not wealthy enough to pay their healthcare bills, and those who have pre-existing conditions that are uninsurable by any actuarial table. They have been so wedded to the concept of health care as a profit center for business that they have fought Medicare, Medicaid expansion, and any government funding to support them since the 1930s. It is in their DNA, and it is inhumane given the cost of the lifesaving and life extension of modern medicine and the power of the pharma and health provider lobby.  Trump pledges to repeal and replace Obamacare with no plan again. Haley wants to raise the age to qualify for Medicare. It's his same old tune, the second verse.  This is in the face of life expectancy in  the US is declining, not rising. 

  What needs to happen is not only to preserve the gains that have been made but to slap excess profit taxes on the for-profit providers and insurers who are rolling in the dough thanks to unbridled price raising and gouging not subject to anti-trust action that otherwise could provide marketplace competition.. They keep raising their premium prices, and government programs have to either restrict and reduce access and coverage or pass the cost on to consumers and taxpayers.   Obamacare is tied to financial need via the exchanges, a bow to conservatives.

Election 2024: Trump says he would renew efforts to replace 'Obamacare' | AP News

First half of 2023: 7 big health insurers pulled in $683 billion in revenues – largely through taxpayer-supported programs and the pharmacy supply chain (substack.com)

Nikki Haley calls for changing retirement age for Americans currently in their 20s | CNN Politics

FACT SHEET: The Congressional Republican Agenda: Repealing the Affordable Care Act and Slashing Medicaid | The White House

How the GOP Turned Against Medicaid - POLITICO Magazine

11 ways the GOP sabotaged Obamacare | healthinsurance.org

Arc of History Bends Toward Coverage: Policy Crossroads (commonwealthfund.org)

What’s behind U.S. life expectancy decline | News | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Translating Trump and MAGA euphemisms: tell me it isn't true

 

MAGA  and Trumpsters:  tell me this isn't true.  

  MAGA supporters are rarely transparent about why they support Trump because if they did, it would be a really bad reflection on their own values and priorities. Instead, they resort to euphemisms and code words to paper over the ugliness.

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Translating Trump euphemism: immunity from criminal prosecution while or after in the Oval Office:  It is a License to kill, cheat, and steal.

Translating Trump and MAGA euphemisms: When I hear "anti-woke", it means to me it is ok not to include in participation or decision-making in politics, military, or business anyone who is military, women, LGBTQ, brown or black. Corollary: only white men are the most qualified.

Translating MAGA euphemism "border security" means keeping any brown immigrants from coming to the USA and raising the draw bridges in isolationism.

Translating Trump's definition of a "strong leader"..What I hear is " Autocrat" and "dictators like Putin, Xi Jinping, Erdogan, and Orban.

Translating Trump and MAGA euphemisms: When I hear "anti-woke", it means to me it is ok not to include in participation or decision-making in politics, military, or business anyone who is, military, women, LGBTQ, brown or black. Corollary: only white males are the best qualified.

Translating MAGAs are the supporters of democracy: What I hear is democracy and the vote of the people are government controlled by leaders, media, and policies who advance the MAGA agenda and no one else.  

Translating MAGA elections were and will be stolen.  What I hear is that no vote will be respected or honored that goes against Trump and MAGA candidates.  The only way MAGA candidates lose is because of widespread fraud...both in the past and in 2024.  Violence is justified to right fraudulent elections.

Translating Trump, the 2020 election was stolen: Here is what I hear is ..ignore what all of the courts, his AG, and his staff told him that it was not stolen: I, Trump, chose to believe it, so therefore, it is true.

Translating Trump: Biden's a failure.  He's too old and feeble to accomplish anything.  What I am hearing is what he has accomplished is not the MAGA agenda of stopping Biden from being successful. The real failure is MAGA's attempt to stop Biden from succeeding. 

 Biden did more in his first two years in office to help Americans cope with life than even LBJ, while all MAGA has done is take away women's health care, propose to destroy Obamacare, endanger national security regarding Ukraine, and foster fear and hatred of all but those like them. Biden recently called the bluff of MAGA, proposing to close the border and agreeing to most of the MAGA demands. In so doing, he exposed the MAGA agenda: do everything they can do to make sure Biden fails regardless of the value to people struggling in everyday life while giving us the strongest economy in the world..  In spite of the MAGA agenda to take away popular public policies that benefit ordinary people,  Biden has run circles around this political strategy of intentional obstructionism. The Biden record: A nationwide COVID-19 vaccination program and economic relief. A $ 1.2 trillion infrastructure package, the largest in many decades. A program to rebuild a domestic semiconductor chips industry. New aid to veterans exposed to toxins. The first gun safety law in three decades. A U.S.-led coalition to help counter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Authorization for lower prescription drug prices, including insulin, for older Americans. A bipartisan law to protect democracy by preventing efforts in Congress to overturn presidential election results." https://news.yahoo.com/calmes-biden-best-legislation...           On the MAGA agenda:  hit Biden on the economy and immigration because brown people are to be feared.  MAGA has a problem because their crisis at the border is not a crisis:  it can wait for a Trump victory and the economy and consumer confidence are improving and getting noticed.. By election day, it will even become better, in spite of Trump's hope there will be a crash.  MAGA's only success so far is to convince their followers so far Biden is a failure.  The midterms in 2022 showed MAGA did not fool enough voters, nearly losing the House,.

NEWS.YAHOO.COM

Calmes: Biden has the best legislation record of any president since LBJ. Why can't voters see it?

This is a work in progress....stay tuned.

Some disturbing data in the following opinion piece:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/do-people-want-a-fascist-states-of-america-maybe-so-opinion

Victims of a Trump v 2 would be us, consumers, and the environment: The winners, the powerful bootlickers.

From a Facebook posting 1/22/2024

I just heard CNBC Squawk Box's Andrew Ross Sorkin on Morning Joe this AM opining on the recent CEO of Wells Fargo and attendees at Davos representing world CEOs opine that Trump would win in November, so in public, they said that was the good and bad news or something wishy-washy like that. Behind the Davos scenes, Sorkin e heard some of these CEOs say off-stage that they were afraid of Trump's retribution if they supported Biden. I see that as instructive to the rest of us that if Trump got elected, we could expect the most corrupt anti-consumer and anti-environment administration in the history of the US.

It is not only fear of retribution that drives the DAVOS CEO.. Trump's promise to make all appointees to regulatory agencies loyal to him instead of the laws they are charged to enforce, and if the business needed a favor, they had better start licking his boots now or just shut up.

How could that impact us, the non-CEOs of the world? We consumers will be the victims and so will the environment. I see regulatory decisions to favor the interests of banking, the environment, and consumer protections to favor the political bootlickers with the money and the power. It certainly is not the rest of us.

Including those issues in the public interest that would be at risk in a Trump presidency but fulfilling the corporate dreams would be ignoring environmental objections to pipelines and drilling of fossil fuels, of removing safety requirements on vehicles we drive, and removing the Biden administration initiative to remove junk fees on our overdrafts, to be specific.

More forgiveness of student loans? Forget it. Instead of stopping mergers of airlines and supermarkets whose antitrust action's purpose would be to eliminate competition so they can raise prices on consumers without impunity? Forget that.

That greedflation is not subject to excess profit taxes, as Biden proposes? Forget that, too.

The media that reports the bad news and the good news, would have licensing problems for reporting any bad news coming out of the White House if Trump disapproves of them. He has already threatened that. Most disturbing Trump'plan is the replacement with MAGA appointments to the Federal Reserve instead of those who govern interest charges with skill. He would force them to lower interest rates because it is good politics. So what if it eventually wrecks the economy. So, those whose eyes gloss over when it comes to economics, with a Trump administration both consumers and their pocketbooks, health, and safety are casualties as the favors go to the powerful bootlickers. It is exactly how Viktor Orban became dictator of Hungary, pursuing policies that favored big business donors as democracy died in that country.

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: How Trump election would create chaos in our economy on day one

Additional note: already at risk of destroying the power of regulatory agencies, and leaving the details to non qualified experts, courts and lawmakers, is a case now before the Supreme Court; regarding the long standing Chevron Dictrine. Supreme Court hears arguments in a case that could weaken federal rulemaking : NPR  https://www.npr.org/2024/01/17/1224939610/supreme-court-chevron-doctrine.

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Is democracy on the ballot and Trump wants to be a dictator hyperventilating?

  Short and simple: Is Biden or Trump a dictator?  Is democracy on the ballot? That is hyperventilating say Trump supporters in response to Biden's attacking him for wanting to be a dictator and ending democracy.. Instead of getting tied up in knots in what is a dictator or what is a fascist, just look at what Trump proposes to do while Biden does not.   Those who think he is just blowing smoke know he tried to do most of this when he was in the White House,  but staff advised against this because it was against the law or politically would backfire. In a second term, he has the power to appoint staff of yes men. No team of rivals in is cabinet or staff.  Here is what he promises to do if he wins November, most of which he tried and failed to do when he was in the White House before, and what he plans and would be able to do if he occupies the Oval Office again.  So, if the shoe fits the definition of a dictator, he should own up to it and wear it, and so should his supporters.

 -Make federal employees pledge loyalty to him, not the law; or lose their jobs-\

- primary party opponents use the active military to put down protests 

- ignore and overturn election results he does not like;

- weaponize DOJ to persecute his enemies (with no probable cause or evidence of wrongdoing?

- rewrite the constitution and amendments

- claim immunity from prosecution from any crimes he commits while in office. 

Disturbing data in the following opinion piece.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/do-people-want-a-fascist-states-of-america-maybe-so-opinion/ar-BB1h8W3h?ocid=socialshare&pc=DCTS&cvid=24749d1da7444129ab1c732c089023bf&ei=13

The following is an updated. excerpted version of a prior posting, elaborating the points above..

  Schedule F and implement a plan called Project 2025 , the great purge of 50 thousand civil service jobs (non-partisan and based on ability and skills) requiring proof of loyalty to him, not loyalty to the law, rules or Constitution, or expertise or competence. . Biden plans no such purge or change in civil service employees. 

Trump plans to primary any  GOP legislator or officeholder not loyal to him in the past. Biden does not and has not done it, even tolerating "the squad"..

 Trump plans to invoke the Inurrection Act on day one and appoint loyalists to the Pentagon so he can use the active military to put down demonstrations by opponents. Biden does not.

: Trump and his close supporters had advocated the military in his first term to seize voting machines in states so he could control the outcome of elections He refuses to abide by election outcomes, claiming in advance all elections that did not favor him  or in the future, are frauds..Therefore overturning them by violence is justified (Januar 6) Biden does not.. Biden supports the current election process as has every president has done before him..

 Trump plans to use federal law enforcement to prosecute his opponents. He advocates weaponizing the DOJ . Biden permitted a criminal investigation against him started by Trump to continue without interference.  Trump Says People 'JUST HAVE TO LIVE WITH' Presidents Who 'CROSS THE LINE' (businessinsider.com) 

 : Biden supports the judicial process that protects the accused and gives them civil rights. Trump proposed to replace the constitution. His support includes neo-Nazis and white supremacists, who he calls fine people. Biden's whole life has had a record of being supportive of civil rights. 

\ All regulatory agencies Trump promises to replace with those loyal to him,  including those who could delicence media that oppose him so he can control what the public learns. Biden does not. .

: Trump believes he is not subject to laws. How about control of the judiciary? If Trump doesn't like the ruling, he claims and would claim it would not apply to him. He is above the law.  He should be immune from prosecution if he commits a crime. Biden is law-abiding and complies. Trump Says People 'JUST HAVE TO LIVE WITH' Presidents Who 'CROSS THE LINE' (businessinsider.com). So all presidents should have immunity, he believes, to do whatever they want, even if it breaks the law. ...January 17, 2024 . Trump's lawyers argue that the former president is immune from prosecution (cnn.com). This is not only his defense to the January 6 criminal case, but it is how he would govern if he got a chance again. This one is already on its way to the Supreme Court.

Sources and data:

Trump doesn't have immunity from Jan. 6 civil suit brought by U.S. Capitol Police officers, appeals court says - CBS News.   

Trump had always been above the law, until it turned on him | Rebecca Solnit | The Guardian 

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: If you think Trump was kidding about being a dictator, the joke is on you.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2023/12/what-is-dictator-and-does-trump-fit-it.html

Anti-far right demonstrations break out in Germany of all places

 For those who understand history and fear the rise of the 1930s style of fascism happening elsewhere in the world, but especially in our own United States, take hope. In Germany this past weekend, thousands of Germans all over the country took to the streets to waiving signs such as Nie Wieder 1933, never again 1933, the year Hitler rose to power. We need to be carrying the same signs like these in the US as former President Donald Trump appears to have taken over the Republican Party and shows strength in polls as he seeks another term. Germany’s far-right AfD face mounting protests over plan to deport migrants | CNN

 Whether you call Trump a fascist or not is immaterial. It is what he proposes to do when re-elected. There is an eery resemblance to the rise of fascism in the 1930s: hatred of "others," blame crime on immigrants, a purge of government employees of those not loyal to Trump, for Trump to be immune and not subject to the rule of law, and his acceptance and promotion of political violence. It echoes American Firsters and fascist sympathizers that only Pearl Harbor finally put to rest in 1941.   These policies, similar to the right wing of the 1930s, are what Trump is proposing to do if he wins in November 2024. He has even been using the exact words and rhetoric of the 1930 American and German fascists. (immigrants poisoning our blood), and refusing to honor elections, calling them frauds before they are even held.  

.Last fall, Poland threw out its right-wing government in favor of a pro-Western style of democratic leadership, and now Germany looks like it is in a populist revolt against the rising power of the neo-Nazi party, AfD.    The Germans do not forget history, as Americans tend to do, and they knew what they had spawned with Hitler that led to the near destruction of Germany in World War II and the guilt of the ovens in Auschwitz and Dachau.   The spark that lit the flame of the pro-democracy demonstrations of January 20,  2024, was learning of the November upper secret meeting of the neo-Naies in the suburb of Berlim, Potsdam, to plan the deportation of recent immigrants. It was in the same Berlin suburb that Hitler's staff met to plot and plan the extermination of the Jews.   

Personal notes of my long-standing and current interests in Germany: My interests are not just academic or an interest in history: Being born in 1938, I have lived, and I am still living the result of history, and it is a frequent theme in my published columns and blog postings since 2007.

Having spent a year abroad in Germany as an exchange student 12 years after the end of World War II, I was keen to try to understand how such a well-educated populace had given rise to Hitler, and I came away puzzled. Only later on reflection did I conclude Germans were very much like many in our own USA and it almost happened here had FDR not been the leader he was, resisting American Nazism.. Now, I, too, see the parallels of Trump, rising mostly on the backs of those fearing demographic changes in America.  

My year in Germany left me fluent in German,  resulting in marrying a refugee from Yugoslavia I met in Berlin (at that time, Yugoslavia had a Communist dictatorship) and a lifelong interest in fascism and dictatorships.  Part and parcel with that came a parallel interest in the contributing currents to anti-democracy of ethnic hatred and hyper-nationalism.   I spent my final year at Northwestern in independent study trying to digest this, and my antenna has always been out since then to signs of any repeat of the horrible history of the last century emerging.  

My connections to modern Germany via friends and friends of family and extended family have become even more keen since now a close family member is working in Berlin. A peaceful and democratic Europe is central to the well-being of my family ties through blood and marriage in Austria, Croatia, and Bosnia.   For all of those reasons, it has kept me current about the mood of ordinary Germans.  I had become alarmed by what I was hearing, that many had embraced the far right fueled by anti-immigrant rhetoric and a resemblance to what we have called MAGA here in the US.  However, recently, and with the strength of the pushback evidenced in demonstrations against fascism, I am feeling more hopeful that the blessing of being pro-democracy is a message the rank-and-file Germans are getting.   The fear that Trump version 2 would abandon NATO in the face of Russian imperialistic land grabs while using petroleum/natural gas pipelines blackmail. to keep the rest of Europe quiet appears to have caused a shift in mood on both the right and the left of the ordinary people and leadership of the German political spectrum as well. The exception has been the rising strength of the neo-Nazi party, AfD.  For that reason, the size and extent of the pro-democracy demonstrations of January 20 left me hopeful about Germany.  Now, for the US to do the same at the ballot box in November..

Protests against Germany's far right draw hundreds of thousands — in Munich, too many for safety (msn.com)

Why do rural states like Iowa get so much attention in primaries?

Why do the rural states get so much attention in political primaries? Are they a barometer of the outcome of a presidential race?   Why the focus on suburban women and not on others like those in rural-dominated states like Iowa?  They reason: suburban women are key swing votes in the key swing states that will determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.  Most rural states are already heavily red, and their electoral votes are easy to predict.  That is why national polls showing Trump still appealing to many women voters need to be taken with a grain of salt.  The rural population of the US is much, much smaller than urban/suburban residents, however, yet their voices are still heard disproportionately given the electoral college advantage given rural areas over more urban states. There are vast cultural differences and fewer similarities with urban/suburban voters. Lack of broadband and isolation make them more receptive to right wing media. 

The Electoral College and the Rural-Urban Divide - The Aspen

 Institutehttps://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/demographic-and-economic-trends-in-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities 

The most important voters in America, it seems, are the least crowded (msn.com)

Some personal notes. I was born and grew up in......     

A word about rural women based upon personal experience and observations:  I come fromagriculture eastern Oklahoma,  was educated and spent post-high school life in both major urban centers, Chicago, New York, and Denver, but always with one foot still in rural America, part and full time in Grand County Colorado.  Rodeo is my favorite spectator sport (football, second). I've been an exhibitor at Denver's National Western Stock Show, a participant in FFA awards banquets in my PR capacity, and with a daughter who learned sewing skills in 4-H.. Ranch wives are some of the toughest women I know, and they participate fully in every activity their physical strength allows plus mending fences and childrearing, and feeding their families. I've seen them compete in rodeo sports like team roping and dominate barrel racing. They are equal ranch hand partners with their husbands. However, they and indigenous women may not be discriminated against in office or in town occupations, but they are also victims of domestic violence, and a new focus has disappeared. indigenous women's plight recently. Where urban and suburban women differed culturally from their rural counterparts was that they often had to work outside the home to make ends meet or to satisfy their personal goals. They tend to be more educated. Equal pay and on-the-job sexual harassment are issues to which they relate. They have more contact with those of diverse racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds than their rural counterparts. 

. My late husband, an ob-gyn, had practices both in Grand County and Denveer's urban front range, and he was active in supporting non-profit organizations serving victims of domestic abuse and violence, a curse that does not discriminate between urban,   suburban women, ranch wives and native Americans on and off reservations. Domestic violence is common to them all. Rural women are moms and high school sweethearts, where family planning is still important. In rural areas of Oklahoma, I recall it was the "bible belt", now a culture of religious evangelicals. However,  domestic violence is a crime and law enforcement issue where ever. women live, and it is not always a women's rights issue of choice and gender equality that resonates politically...

Bridging the Gap between Urban, Suburban, and Educational History (trincoll.edu)

How urban, suburban and rural residents’ view social and political issues | Pew Research Center

Sexual Violence and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women | RAINN

"Silent Crisis" - Thousands of Missing and Murdered Native Americans: Professor Lewerenz is quoted - North Dakota Law (und.edu)

How is the population distributed among cities vs rural areas? https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/demographic-and-economic-trends-in-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities

About 46 million Americans live in the nation's rural counties, 175 million in its suburbs and small metros and about 98 million in its urban core counties.May 22, 2018

1. Demographic and economic trends in urban, suburban and ...

The value of E. Jean Carroll's defamation trials: dramatizes Trump's disgusting misogyny.

Update 1/25/24 Trump Must Pay E. Jean Carroll $83 Million For Defamation, Jury Rules (forbes.com) 

 The E. Jean Carroll trials are more current and continuing reminders of Trump's disgusting misogyny. Trump's longstanding misogyny, his disdain for women,  also goes beyond E. Jean Carroll's defamation suit trials and contributes to his loss of suburban women's votes. It adds to an already existing anti-Trump suburban vote, already at a high pitch due to anger over his role in the overturning of Roe v Wade. The intensity and the degree of motivation of suburban women to vote against Trump-backed candidates were underestimated in advance of the actual impact of their vote in the 2022 midterms.  Women and suburban voters helped Democrats" avoid disaster' . The impact of suburban women's vote should not be underestimated in 2024, either.  The E. Jean Carroll trials keep Trump's misogyny front and center in 2024..  2022 midterms: Women and suburban voters help Democrats avoid disaster (usatoday.com)

Among Trump's actions of being the chief prime mover via his appointments to the Supreme Court of overturning Roe v Wade and a history of seeing women as a tool for satisfying his lusts, the E Jean Carroll trials are one more black mark in what his record of disdain for women he does not find appealing in subservience and form.  A jury of his peers, not the liberal media as the MAGA crowd is oft to say, found he did indeed rape .E Jean Carroll, and he paid for it in the civil suit, defied that settlement, and now he is at it again defending and  facing paying for his defamaiton a second time.. 

Added to his infamous p-grabbing boast, he could do whatever he wanted to do to starlets, and any number of women who publicly testified carried out his p-grabbing rape to them, it took an 80-year-old woman to carry through in the judicial process.  At that age, his revenge and retribution had little impact on her.   List of Trump's accusers and their allegations of sexual misconduct - ABC News (go.com) 

Transcript: Donald Trump’s Taped Comments About Women - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Donald Trump’s Long Record of Degrading Women - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

He has a record of a problem with  "nasty women", and sometimes the repercussions bleed into international relations, too, as I noted in a column published in the Sky hi News in 2019..  Trump's nasty women problem

A defiant Trump on display in first week of E. Jean Carroll's defamation trial : NPR

Demographics & Group Affinities – Panel Study of the MAGA Movement (uw.edu)

Why democracy v autocracy as a campaign issue falls on many deaf ears.

The Biden initiative to begin attacking MAGA and Trump, their leader, as anti-democracy and pro-autocracy may fall on many deaf ears.  Americans do not even know the blessings of liberty democracy brings because they have never faced a hands-on experience with dictatorships and are ignorant of even the basics of civics and American history. Our education system has failed them.  Biden and his supporters have an opportunity to make the campaign a lesson in civics. There is a rough correlation between those states that fail citizenship tests with the lowest scores and how ruby red they are.  The rest of us in those in all but one state need a refresher course.  National Survey Finds Just 1 in 3 Americans Would Pass Citizenship Test - Institute for Citizens & Scholars (citizensandscholars.org)  

Niki Haley's epic false equivalencies

 One of Nikki Haley's less credible plagues on both Trump and Biden house pitches that both bring chaos.  What? Biden has gotten his agenda through Congress, and Trump promises only revenge, retribution, and rolling back all of Biden's agenda if he has any time left over, not to mention supporting political violence.    Those are epic false equivalencies..  Here is where she especially goes wrong on the issue of preserving democracy.  Her greatest appeal to independents is not her threading the needle on issues like racism, but she at least would not try to destroy democracy.  She will have a hard time being credible in making such arguments. 

The issue of who is in favor or against preserving democracy will not have much meaning in red states that test badly on their knowledge of civics and American history. Some simplistic thinking is that Americans do not know even the basics of the "blessings of liberty" our democracy brings.s National Survey Finds Just 1 in 3 Americans Would Pass Citizenship Test - Institute for Citizens & Scholars (citizensandscholars.org)     

(from a prior posting) 

Short and simple: Is Biden or Trump a dictator?  What Trump proposes,  Biden does not. That contrast alone reveals how Trump proposes to be one:  So what is a dictator? Here's my definition. A dictator rules by fear and favor. Dissenters are not protected by civil rights protections or any amendments. All power centers are filled with loyalists, legislature, executive, and judicial. The law is interpreted, complied with, or passed by legislators as the boss wants it to be or so long as it favors the dictator's attaining and keeping power.   The following is why I think Trump not only claims he wants to be a dictator on or for day one, but he has plans to be one long term. He could pull it off.

. Key to all of this is Trump's plan to change  Schedule F and implement a plan called Project 2025 that would remove 50 thousand civil service jobs (non-partisan and based on ability and skills) requiring proof of loyalty to him, not loyalty to the law, rules or Constitution which all must swear to now. Biden plans no such purge or change in civil service employees. 

Use of fear: Trump plans to primary any  GOP legislator or officeholder not loyal to him in the past. Biden does not.. Biden plans no such party purge or threats of primary and tolerates dissension, including that from "the squad" and his left wing. 

Use of fear: Trump plans to invoke the Inurrection Act on day one and appoint loyalists to the Pentagon so he can use the active military to put down demonstrations by opponents. Biden does not.

Use of favor: Trump and his close supporters had advocated the military in his first term to seize voting machines in states so he could control the outcome of elections. Biden does not..  Denialists are those who still believe the election of 2020 was stolen in spite of every court, state or federal, finding there was no evidence of any or enough fraud to change the outcome and three "forensic audits" run by Trump loyalists. There also would be no fair and free elections anymore, either, if loyal partisans were in control.  Biden supports the current election process.

Use of fear and favor: Trump plans to use federal law enforcement to prosecute his opponents. He advocates weaponizing the DOJ . Biden permitted a criminal investigation against him started by Trump to continue without interference.

 Use of favor: Biden supports the judicial process that protects the accused and gives them civil rights. Trump proposed to replace the constitution. His support includes neo-Nazis and white supremacists, who he calls fine people. Biden's whole life has had a record of being supportive of civil rights. 

Use of fear and favor: All regulatory agencies Trump promises to replace with those loyal to him,  including those who could delicence media that oppose him. Biden does not. . Especially frightening is the technique used by other dictators like Orban in Hungary to acquire and keep dictatorial power is to delicense media that reports negative information about his regime.  Biden plans no changes from his current policies or any plans to delicense FOX or others.   

Use of favor: How about control of the judiciary? If Trump doesn't like the ruling, he claims and would claim it would not apply to him. He is above the law. Biden is law-abiding and complies. From Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican: Teddy Roosevelt in 1903 declared, “No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we require him to obey it.”    Is Trump immune from prosecution for criminal deeds done to give him a political advantage while in office? That one concerns criminal prosecution. It is not yet in the lap of the Supreme Court to be decided.    It is waiting for the appeals court to go first.    On 12/30/23, an appeals court ruled Trump is not immune from civil suits in the case of January 6 participants. 

Trump Says People 'JUST HAVE TO LIVE WITH' Presidents Who 'CROSS THE LINE' (businessinsider.com)     So all presidents have immunity, he believes, to do whatever they want even if it breaks the law. ...January 17, 2024

More: MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What's the difference between Biden and dictators? Both throw opponents in jail

Sources and data:

Trump doesn't have immunity from Jan. 6 civil suit brought by U.S. Capitol Police officers, appeals court says - CBS News.   

Trump had always been above the law, until it turned on him | Rebecca Solnit | The Guardian 

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: If you think Trump was kidding about being a dictator, the joke is on you.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2023/12/what-is-dictator-and-does-trump-fit-it.html

Other issues:   What Would a Nikki Haley Presidency Look Like for Health Care? - KFF Health News

FACT: Nikki Haley Is Coming After Social Security and Medicare - Democrats

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/18/politics/takeaways-town-hall-nikki-haley/index.html

What Would a Nikki Haley Presidency Look Like for Health Care? - KFF Health News

Cheer up non- MAGAs : Iowa GOP still believing the big lie will hit a buzz saw

Snapshot January 2024:  Some day in the general election,  2020 election deniers will hit a buzz saw and will learn that they may rule their small roost, but they are only 30% of the total if current statistics hold true.  

Poll: Majority of Iowa GOP caucus-goers don’t believe Biden legitimately won in 2020 - The Washington Post

Jan. 6 poll: Republicans more loyal to Trump, rioters who stormed Capitol - The Washington Post

Trump supporters are FOXated. New poll reveals the sheer extent to which Fox News viewers remain loyal to Trump | CNN Business

Updated 3 17 2024 No court of law examining the question in sworn testimony or "forensic audits" paid for and conducted by Trump partisans found enough evidence of fraud that would have overturned the last election. There is no proof to the contrary other than anecdotal stories that represent enough of such fraud to make a difference.  Voter integrity in Colorado rests on mail-in and paper ballots, which provide a paper trail to investigate charges of voter fraud. The State has also enacted tighter controls against voter fraud in recent legislative sessions.  A study was commissioned in 2022 by the Colorado Secretary of State to examine voter attitudes and experiences https://www.coloradosos.gov/pubs/elections/ElectionIntegrity/20220418NASEDDisinformationMDMPresentation.pdf

One of the puzzles is that voters have less confidence in results in federal elections than they do in their state and local elections.  States use the same methods for all candidates, federal and state, and do not have separate systems or totals in votes cast for federal and another for state/county. This means that the myth that the 2020 election was stolen has its believers, and fear tactics regarding that have been effective. It also means something unusual has happened or could happen in specific elections that rigged the outcome.  Nothing widespread was ever found, but there have been prosecutions in Colorado in specific counties, Mesa, where the local county clerk was accused of giving specific access to her partisans to tinker with the machine's hard drives and now is facing a federal trial for that.  https://coloradosun.com/2024/01/08/tina-peters-federal-suit-rejected/      The conspiracy theories regarding Dominium Voting systems have likewise been debunked, and it cost those who promoted those false theories a bundle of money: https://apnews.com/article/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-trial-trump-2020-0ac71f75acfacc52ea80b3e747fb0afe

Why the GOP is losing older voters. Six good reasons.

Update: 4 8 2024     Let me add one more reason seniors are switching to Biden. It is a generational change, per this piece in the New York Times. My generation, the silent one, has died off, with only 20 percent of us still living (the good news, bad news for me). Instead, it has been replaced by the All in the Family generation, disillusioned with the lies told us about Vietnam and the bigotry and xenophobia exposed in this classic TV sitcom. The silent generation grew up with radio; the one now coming of old age had the visuals of TV with the impact much more visceral than movie newsreels, photos, and just voices. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/06/upshot/older-voters.html

Continuing with the original post:

Aside from the GOP hurling constant insults at Biden for his age (seniors know people's brains age at different rates, and so do their bodies), there is a reason why voters are showing a preference for Biden in a recent Q poll in Pennsylvania. and other polls dating to 2020. As an older person myself and with adult children and their spouses approaching or arriving at 65 years old, let me give six good reasons besides the GOP insulting Biden's age and abilities just because he is 3 years older than Trump. 

  1) We lived long enough to remember what it was like before Roe v Wade and the days when women could not apply for credit without their husband's approval or any political statements made by women in media or in politics were considered not credible because they came from a woman's emotional brain.  Age brings memories of when it was worse.

 2) We lived through Vietnam and the Cold War to see BS when we heard it as BS and to question BS and see Putin and China as the same adversaries as before: all about power, just without the ideology of Marxism as the reason. We understand how dictatorships, communists, fascists, or whatever work and what political freedoms mean.  Age brings wisdom.

 3) W got a good education in civics and American history which the younger generation did not get.'National Survey Finds Just 1 in 3 Americans Would Pass Citizenship Test - Institute for Citizens & Scholars (citizensandscholars.org)

 4) Moral leadership still has value, and Trump is not a moral person. P grabbing and infidelity are not moral.  Lies, in the face of fact and data, are not moral either. There is still something credible about data and evidence.  Age brings us memories of higher moral standards.

5) Civil rights and tolerance of others are a moral value and worth the struggle of the movement. Many old people have moved on to more tolerance on the basis of fairness and acceptance of diversity within their own families and in the workplace, sports, and military service. We remember the violence of the resistance to the civil rights movement...Age brings with it real-life experience.

 6) Policies that take away access and qualifications to Medicare and Social Security are a threat to old people's well-being. Every time the GOP advocates to "save" those programs by cutting access to them, seniors revolt and ask why not give them taxpayer support instead. Obamacare is a bridge to give affordable access to health care until those over 50 with aging bodies and health problems are not yet eligible for Medicare. Hands of Obamacare, GOP.   Aging has special needs, and the government can help meet them. 

Why older voters have stuck with Biden more than younger generations | CNN Politics

Older voters flee Trump, solidifying Biden's advantage in the 2020 race (nbcnews.com)

Biden's old guy advantage with older voters - POLITICO

Forgotten Purpose: Civics Education in Public Schools | NEA

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/americans-oppose-most-trump-policies/ar-AA1mPgWu?ocid=socialshare&pc=DCTS&cvid=b1985bfa8fa14970849a5b58c9d57617&ei=18

https://www.newsweek.com/social-security-changes-planned-if-nikki-haley-wins-election-1859696 

Number of Voters as a Share of the Voter Population, by Age | KFF

        This demographic of voters over 65 is the second largest group of those who vote...a close second to the 45-64 group.  To ignore this group is a political miscalculation.and malpractice.

FACT: Nikki Haley Is Coming After Social Security and Medicare - Democrats

Trump says he could have negotiated the Civil War :Red states losers again in 2024.

Trump says he could have negotiated the Civil War and would have avoided the carnage. :Red states would still be losers again in 2024 for the same reasons..

Just like he said he could end the Ukraine war in 45 minutes, he came up with another one in retrospect. In both, no doubt he could. Just give Russia what they wanted on a silver platter, Ukraine, and just give the South what they wanted: continuation of slavery and their agrarian economy. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-believes-civil-war-could-have-been-negotiated-1858417

Capitulation is not negotiation.

What about now, in 2024, if there would be a civil war and GOP states would break away peacefully, avoiding the carnage? Once again, there is some talk, only from the extreme MAGAs, of a civil war, as if they could threaten with violence to get their way because they failed to do it through the ballot. It reminds me of Ashley iin the early scenes of "Gone With the Wind" as he donned the uniform of the Confederacy, determined to save the slave-based lifestyle of the romantic South. We know how that turned out. The result if it happened in 2024 would not be much different.The economic setbacks and reconstruction of a  violent civil war would be devastating to the losers, and the red states would be the losers. This is likely because this would follow the old pattern of the North, even in 2024, having the resources, educated populations, and industrial base in place'( Likely because the red states are by and large more rural) as well.)

 Assuming there would need to be some contiguous geographic block to make it work, the outlines of the old confederacy would be the most likely. The old South is still the poorest in the nation. (The exception: New Mexico, with its population of Native Americans living more traditional lifestyles). Except for the oil-producing nation-sized state of Texas, federal taxpayers pay more out to them than they bring into the federal coffers. They are taker states who would have to make up the difference themselves or continue their status as poorer still without federal assistance..

This newest Trumpianspeak started an exciting bit of speculation over breakfast in our household.  What if the South had its way, a separate country and slave-owning?.  Would the South have turned out like Argentina, Venezuela, and Mexico and internally conflicted with continued white landowner oligarch governance? Would the northern states be more like Scandinavia or England, democratic socialists,  industrialized? Would the loss of oil resources that Texas brought to the table be offset by even closer relations with Canada? Too much coffee. 

 https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings/poverty-rate-by-state

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: The takers and the makers. It isn't what you think. Why?

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Thinking about secession? Be careful what you wish.

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Why do rural states like Iowa get so much attention in primaries?

The GOP's epic losing streak (axios.com)