In plain English :here is a connection with Trump's threats to vote integrity and kitchen table issues

 

Why does Trump seem not to care about either democracy or the anger many feel about his policies causing them economic pain? In plain English: here are connections between Trump's subversion of vote integrity and kitchen table issues. For many voters, political science terms like autocracy vs. democracy are a bit abstract and separate issues from the cost of gas, groceries, and health care. Here is the connection: Trump's lack of abiding by norms and laws protecting the will of the people expressed in the ballot box makes it possible for Trump to think he can ignore voters' anger over the cost of living.

1. Trump seems to think that he is so powerful and in control of all of the courts, law enforcement, and the military that he can control the outcome of the 2026 midterms, some fear, by seizing ballots and creating such chaos in the courts that he can overturn the results in key contests of the midterms. Therefore, he can ignore the anger of those who feel he betrayed them by failing to reduce the cost of living as he promised.

2. The other factor is that he is a lame duck. He also knows he will still be president for at least two more years regardless of the midterm results, so he can still wield his veto pen and keep accumulating wealth for himself and his family, and build monuments to himself. The vote of the people and Congress turning blue will not affect him, and he has two more years in office to pad his retirement funds or even hold on longer than the Constitution allows him.

Here is how Trump has openly signaled how he will try to control the outcome of the midterms using the power he has:

Repeatedly alleging widespread, systematic fraud in U.S. elections to erode public confidence in electoral outcomes before votes are even cast. The big lie is still alive, and after 6 years of trying to find it, no evidence of this theory has emerged. Destroying public trust in elections is key to rationalizing his power grab that ignores election outcomes.
Pressuring local, state, and national election administrators to destabilize trust and subvert the administrative processes.. The greatest fear recenlty expressed is that he will use his paramilitary forces like ICE or the FBI to seize the actual ballots in key swing districts. He praises the icon of a criminally convicted Colorado county clerk, Tina Peters, for doing something similar as the ideal example of how an election administrator should behave. His message could not be clearer.
He frequently attacks mail-in ballots, drop boxes, and early voting systems to make it more difficult for voters to cast votes against him. He targets voters who use these systems he believes will oppose his loyal candidates. He advocates in-person voting, where his agents can intimidate targeted voters, and backs legislation with unattainable barriers to prove citizenship.
Questioning and challenging the constitutional and legal mechanisms of vote counting and resulting certification. The fear that Trump may try another January 6 is not fantasy. When it comes to actually seating the winners of the midterms to which he objects. Violence was tried then, and he has a history of advocating the use of violence, from shooting demonstrators who object to his tactics in the legs to pardoning convicted violent seditionists.

Like the SAVE ACT? Guess what: your driver's license is not prrof of citizenship needed to vote.

 Ignorance about the SAVE Act and which ID is required to prove citizenship persists. What I hear is," What's wrong. I get to show my driver's license for other services. Guess what: driver's licenses are NOT an acceptable ID per the SAVE ACT, which for many must be a surprise. Got a current passport? Got a state-certified copy of your birth certificate? Those count.to prove citizenship. Driver's licenses do not. If your name changed because of marriage, or other reasons, or you are too old or from a rural area to even have a birth certificate, or too poor to get a passport, you would be SOL if this SAVE Act became law..Those hurt the most by this SAVE act are married women who took their husband's name, the poor, and the rural elderly.. That fits the profile of many GOP voters. The SAVE ACT failed to pass in the Senate, though it passed in the House.

The attack by the GOP on voters' rights has other issues of import than the defeated SAVE Act, with its burdensome proof-of-citizenship requirements with which many in both parties could not comply.. The GOP candidate for Attorney General "Prefers" in-person voting, which means the end of mail-in ballots. The current secretary of state, Jena Griswold, is running for Colorado Attorney General as a Democrat.

This statement appeared on a Facebook site on October 7, attacking her opponent. Note that her GOP opponent prefers "in-person voting," which is a code for ending mail-in ballots that 90% of Colorado voters use to cast ballots, and his opponent also wants ID verification- a vague comment when his party came of with the now-defeated SAVE Act as part of that ending mail-in voting, requiring in-person voting at a polling place. This end of mail-in voting is a loser in Colorado,

"As Colorado’s Secretary of State, Jena Griswold refused to turn over Coloradans’ sensitive voter data to the federal government and has consistently stood up against Trump's attacks on elections. But where does Michael Allen stand? In 2024, he said, “I would prefer in-person voting that includes ID verification.” And he was silent as Trump tried to take federal control over mail ballots. "The end of mail-in voting is a loser in Colorado,

"As Colorado’s Secretary of State, Jena Griswold refused to turn over Coloradans’ sensitive voter data to the federal government and has consistently stood up against Trump's attacks on elections. But where does Michael Allen stand? In 2024, he said “I would prefer in-person voting that includes ID verification.” And he was silent as Trump tried to take federal control over mail ballots.  "I

From a prior post:

SAVE us from SAVE: The radical piece of legislation before the Senate would have at least three particularly obnoxious provisions designed to keep certain groups of people from voting, or would require extraordinary efforts and money to prove citizenship. Particularly harmed by the requirement to provide proof of citizenship would be married women, the poor, and seniors who do not have passports or cannot find or get certified copies of birth certificates, divorce, and name change papers so they match driver's licenses with a photo. ID.. It would expose personal data now held by separate states to partisan centralized federal officials, for suppression targeting methods and dirty tricks. The motivation for this piece of legislation is not to enhance vote integrity but to give the advantage to the GOP in the midterms. Trump has admitted that.

Their whole premise is built on a lie that illegals voted and caused Trump to lose in 2020, for which no evidence has ever been found.

Another excuse Trump likes to make for his loss in 2020 was that there was extensive fraud in mail-in ballots. Therefore, his answer: only ballots received by election day should be counted... cutting out most active military votes or leaving them subject to the whims of the postal delivery service. (A lower court also scotched that postal service role this week)Some states would have to change their already existing rules and laws to conform. In fact, a study taken exposes Trump's claim as BS, and I cannot find any evidence to the contrary. (The SCOTUS 6/29 decision left the status quo in place)

More on the SAVE attack on voters' ability to vote:

1) It would keep married women from voting if their ID does not match their birth certificate names or even passport names. (Estimated 50 percent of voters do not have passports). What does your driver's license have as your photo ID name? Divorce papers would also have to be produced, or legal documentation of name changes would have to be provided.

2) All of your personal information, driver's licenses, Social Security numbers, and personal data held by State officials would have to be handed over to the Department of Homeland Security as they search first for registered illegals, turn out ICE to "protect" their own voting interests at polling places,, and God knows what else it could be used for if say a dictator who may not be one you supports takes over now or in the future.

3) This federalization enables big brother government to manipulate elections to suit the outcome they want by giving them the tools to identify targeting groups or kinds of legal voters that may not support them by voting roll purges and other strategies. The beauty of the current state control of such information is that 50 states can control their data instead of one federal government, in the hands of a party or single strong leader, being able to affect the outcome and votes in elections.

.The premise used to rationalize this legislation is stopping illegals from voting, a line MAGA has swallowed whole without any thought or care about evidence. For over 6 years, proof of the"steal" of the 2020 vote has been investigated, rejected by courts and hearings, and never proved. It is still just a theory to excuse a loss or a suspicion. Never mind, keeping certain voters from voting is a political strategy that MAGA embraces because they see a political advantage for them in the midterms. Heads up MAGA. You may not always be in control of the Oval Office, Congress, or the judiciary. What happens if the shoe is on the other foot, and the people you consider to be political enemies are now in power?

Whose side is Trump on anyway? Worldwide or at home: it is not pro democracy

 While the Trump regime dismantles cybersecurity agencies responsible for protecting the US from foreign intervention in our elections,  it is busy supporting anti-democratic movements and pro-Russian cohorts abroad. From Germany to Bosnia lately, Trump and his close supporters get credit for wins by anti-democratic forces.  The success of the AfD political party winning an election in a German state, Saxony, shook many with the fear that a neo-Nazi-tinged party like AfD (described as a far right party) signaled a resurgence of fascism in Germany. Who did the AfD thank for their win? Elon Musk..  Money in politics in Europe is carefully regulated, and there is no evidence Musk contributed that, but what he did was offer verbal political and moral support, for which the AfD gave thanks.  

In a country I follow closely, Bosnia, a pro-Russia party won in the Serbian ethnic-friendly semi-autonomous Republika Srpska, and gave credit for their win to Trump. and Putin. Trump sent his advisors to help this Putin ally win. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/us/politics/trump-advisers-republika-srpska.html

What the heck is going on here?  The view by a centrist publication, Der Spiegel in Germany, of the US was not only expressing fear of fascism (currently a similarly approved term as the far-right) rising again there, but  it has a brutal view that it has already risen in the US.. From their recent English-language Substack: ""Compared to the situation in the United States, the far right has not made significant inroads in Germany. .... In the US, by contrast, Trump holds the most powerful office in the world – for a second time. He is surrounded by a nationalist circle of advisers, backed by majorities in both chambers of Congress, supported by paramilitary police units, and secure in the knowledge that three of the nine justices on the Supreme Court were chosen by him." 

It is bad enough that Trump has spent the past two years subverting and purging the federal government, the "deep state" of capable civil servants and military, and replacing them only with those who pledge loyalty to him.   His foreign policy has clearly favored the bad actors of the world, the dictators, mostly communists or former communists, whom Trump so openly admires, making it clear he also supports anti-democratic forces elsewhere.  A red carpet for XI and his failure to give Ukraine help are glaring examples. At home,  he is threatening regularly to use the military or ICE to "police" voting in the midterms and to grab as much federal (Trump) control of who and how gets to vote..He has spent the past two years subverting our election system by supporting political gerrymandering and constantly attempting to wrest control of elections from the states he fears lean purple or blue.

Whose side is he on, anyway?  It certainly is not pro-democracy at home or abroad.

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https://www.ajc.org/news/what-is-germanys-afd-and-what-does-its-rise-mean-for-jews

per Google AI: The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is not officially classified as a neo-Nazi party, though German domestic intelligence and courts have formally categorized parts of it—and at times the party as a whole—as right-wing extremist or anti-constitutional. [1, 2, 3]https://www.google.com/search?q=recent+rise+of+neo+fascist+parties+in+europe&oq=recent+rise+of+neo+fascist+parties+in+europe&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigATIHCAYQIRifBdIBCjI0MzUwajBqMTWoAgiwAgHxBYt3eWoP5eg08QWLd3lqD-XoNA&sourceid=chrome&source=chrome.rb&ie=UTF-8

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/09/once-us-was-model-to-world-of-how.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/16/us/politics/trump-election-security-cisa.html

https://thehill.com/policy/international/6074993-afd-wins-german-election-elon-musk/

From Google AI 

Milorad Dodik's pro-Russia Alliance of Independent Social Democrats claimed a decisive victory in Bosnia's October 4, 2026 local and entity elections, publicly crediting U.S. President Donald Trump's return to power and Russian President Vladimir Putin's support for the win. [1, 2]

Key Details of the Election and Speech

The Leader & Party: Bosnian Serb nationalist Milorad Dodik—who was previously banned from holding political office and was not on the ballot—led the victory celebration for his party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD). [1, 2]
The Trump and Putin Credit: In his victory speech in Banja Luka, Dodik stated that thanks to the "new environment" and U.S. leadership under Donald Trump alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, his political movement survived rather than becoming "political corpses".

VOTE NO ON COLORADO PROP 133 REGARDING HUMAN TRAFFICKING

 Vote no on 133. Those who have followed me over the years know that I have been an anti-human trafficking activist, beginning when I helped fund an NGO through a Rotary Grant for the prevention of that horrible practice in Bosnia, only to learn that much of the same was going on in the USA. The Epstein issue was very instructive, to say the least. It may surprise those in Colorado that I oppose Prop 133 on the ballot, which increases penalties for criminals convicted of trafficking. However, the sleeper deal-killer is that it puts an extra burden on the victims because this measure could catch survivors who were forced by their trafficker to recruit minors and trap them in life without parole. The vague "anything of monetary value" language also makes it difficult to prosecute some cases. This position was not without debate, and I am grateful to fellow activists for their research.