Why is election denial still a MAGA mantra? It is about after Nov. 3

Why is election denial still a MAGA mantra? It is about after Nov. 3 . That is also when the real danger to democracy and the battle to save it begins.  The puzzle is why MAGA keeps on lighting their own smoke bombs, contending the 2020 election was stolen, yet they lose every attempt to prove there is fire?  Recently, they lost again in Colorado as a judge ruled  Trump could not get the state voter rolls.   In Nevada, after the feds claimed, using their own workaround list, just approved by the Supreme Court, that over a thousand who voted were not citizens, they found they were wrong in every instance. Those they claimed were non-citizens voting turned out to be 0. Such has been the outcome for the past six years. Instances of voter fraud were rare and never enough to change the outcome of an election, per both the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation.,  Trump's big lie has never been proved in any court or by any study, even by his own controlled DOJ, which found that fraud and non-citizen voting were extremely rare.   Why do Trump and his MAGA loyalists keep beating their heads against this stone wall? (Polls show in 2026 about 63% of Republicans believe the 2020 election was stolen.)

 Only the 6 justices on the Supreme Court give Trump the benefit of the doubt whenever they could have taken the Trump regime's attempt to control voter outcomes down. (The exception was for now: do not use the post office to police who can vote by mail.) Their recent 6-3 ruling approving the federal attempt to come up with faulty lists of suspected non-citizens voting by validating the SAVE Act is instructive. Whose neck the SAVE Act could help save from an unfavorable vote is DJT's.   

  One would think  Trump would stop trying to justify his "stop the steal" claims, since his regime's claims keep being debunked.  It has served his purposes well to justify and give a pretext to his cruel mass deportations via ICE and his attempt to defy the Constitution or laws to federalize elections and put their control in his hands.  Those who have animus or fears about those unlike themselves and find this a useful, politically correct outlet to express it is a possibility. But that is only a theory that is difficult to measure by polls.

Another explanation that makes sense is that Trump and MAGA  are attempting to lay a propaganda pretext to challenge the results of the Nov. 4 midterms they do not like. The scheme could also be a Hail Mary to throw the election results into chaos, and to give some rationale to seize ballots, declare martial law, or call out paramilitary, ICE, active-duty, and National Guard military should angered citizens take to the streets. No doubt Trump wants to keep control of the House and maybe the Senate or, heaven forbid, get a third term, even if he loses elections. 

Is this implausible? He might not succeed, but he just might try. His egomania is out of control. There is no one around him to just say no and stop him. He is not delusional about his powers.  He controls the levers of power through his loyal appointees, including both Justice's DOJ and the Department of Defense. His cabinet members would never invoke the 25th Amendment, Section 4.. His current Congress is composed of a majority of betas bowing down to the alpha male in charge.  Also at his command is a well-armed militia called ICE and even if the active military does not follow Pete Hegseth's orders to shoot demonstrators or to capture the Capitol, using the pretext lie that the reason Trump lost the House and Senate was that so many "illegals" voted, ICE is standing by.  How will we know he has unleashed a violent coup again?  If he invokes some bogus national emergency and invokes the Insurrection Act. 

 What are the chances the active military would not follow Hegseth's orders? Hegseth has embarked on a historic purge to replace the command brass with loyalists. He has also announced that he is reducing the brass in the Pentagon by 20%.  For what purpose? 

We shouldn't put it past him. Trump is so fixated on becoming a dictator like those he admires, such as Putin and Xi, that we should not take it for granted he would not dare to stage such a coup. It is a trick many wannabe dictators have used successfully to trade democracy for rule by one or a small group. Trump "lit the fire",in the January 6 failed attempt, and he learned much, so he must think he knows how he will not fail again.

While the public is focused on the Nov. 3 midterms,  the real show with democracy at risk  is likely to begin Nov. 4.  

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-doj-now-0-for-20-after-judge-dismisses-colorado-voter-roll-lawsuit-with-prejudice

/https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/dhs-noncitizen-voter-claims-unravel-in-nevada-as-state-confirms-flagged-voters-are-citizens

https://www.cato.org/commentary/rights-bogus-claims-about-noncitizen-voting-fraud

https://abcnews.com/Politics/wireStory/administrations-focus-noncitizen-voting-led-160-arrests-experts-136667964

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-lit-that-fire-of-capitol-insurrection-jan-6-committee-report-says

What percentage of registered Republicans are election deniers? I askeed Google AI and htis is what it reports:  Polling Data on 2020 Election Legitimacy

The Economist/YouGov Poll (June 2026): Found that 50% of Republicans believe the 2020 presidential election was "rigged". The number jumps significantly higher—to 66%—among Republicans who specifically identify as MAGA supporters. [1]
PRRI Survey: Consistently shows that roughly 63% of Republicans agree with the narrative that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. [1]
CNN/SSR Polls: Have historically tracked the figure between 63% and 69% of Republicans and Republican-leaners who view President Joe Biden's 2020 victory as illegitimate. [1]

Once the US was a model to the world of how democracies should work;. No more.

Something popped up today on a publication I follow to get a sense of how others see us, and it was jaw-dropping. I follow Germany very closely because I see it as key in upholding democracy and stability in Europe, where much of my family lives. Der Spiegel is a centrist news magazine in the tradition of Time or Newsweek, and it posts selected articles and opinions on an English-language Substack.  The Germans have just had a shock with a far right political party, AfD, winning elections in the state of Saxony. Does that mean in Germany the far-right is rising? What to do, what to do? The US was once the model of how democracies should work, but now it is the resistance to Trump that should be the model for Germany of how to preserve democracy. 

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Until recently, and since my junior year abroad in Berlin in the late 1950's, a unified Germany had sought to construct a liberal democracy using the US as a model (though the parliamentary system differs).  Der Spiegel's editorial today was expressing fear that the rest of Germany was just hand-wringing, with no idea what to do.   The new model of how to stop this AfD march to more power was, brace yourself- the resistance to Trump in the USA, and in particular, the immediate reaction of his banning reporters from CNN, MSNBC, and Politico, followed by the boycott of other media in solidarity to even cover the White House.   (Update: last night the judge reviewing the suit filed against Trump by the banned networks temporarily restored their press passes.)

 The  Der Spiegel opinion piece was a shocker to me, too, that  Trump was even viewed in the same category as the AfD, and that instead of the government of the US being the role model for how democracy should be run and act, it was the USA's local grassroots resistance movement to Trump and his policies that was now a model. If anyone understands "far right" and/or fascism, it is Germany.  There is a great fear among many there of its resurgence..

How does Derr Spiegel see Trump and his regime in the US?  "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."  That is a brutal view, but not incorrect.

The  Der Spiegel opinion piece was inspired by examples of US resistance, such as the immediate boycott by unbanned White House reporters also refusing to cover the White House media pool when Trump attempted to ban CNN, MSNow, and Politico, because he did not like how they reported his news.  Also cited as examples of resistance in the US were the local nature of the anti-AI data centers, the Minneapolis grassroots action against ICE, and more.  Der Spiegel urged those in Germany who feared the AfD to go and do likewise. 

I might add that NO Kings Day on Oct. 17 is an opportunity for those in Germany to see how peaceful resistance is done, and to add their moral support to the "resistance' in the US

.https://derspiegel.substack.com/

https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/alternative-germany-afd-party-what-you-need-know

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/10/how-no-kings-affordability-anger.html

A bone to pick with memes and one line slogans. Eventually they fail. Been there, seen it.

I have a bone to pick with memes and one line slogans. Eventually they fail. Been there, seen it.

In 1958 and 1959, I spent my junior year abroad in Berlin. It was 13 years after the end of WWII; I had a front-row seat to observe how the communists were attempting to consolidate their hold on Berlin's Russian-controlled East Sector before the wall was built. One could easily cross zones in those days, and I was in a student dorm in the British sector. I could even walk into the East Sector; I was so close. It was an amazing place for this political science student to be. There were no memes on the internet, no TV commercials to control minds then, but red banners strewn everywhere carried slogans reminding people of the glories that would be given to workers, and similar posters adorned buildings everywhere. Even the poorest, least educated, and unquestioning minds got the message. It didn't work. Reality set in as the East German puppet government became more and more of a police state. Scientists, university students, artists, and skilled workers picked up their backpacks, took the elevated train or walked to the West sectors, and eventually kept on going West. My roommate was one of those. My future husband from another communist country used Berlin for his exit. The brain drain became a gusher, and in August 1961, two years after I returned to Northwestern in Illinois for my senior year, the Berlin Wall went up.

The use of short, choppy sentences with no explanation and plenty of one-line slogans for all to believe and repeat were the memes and repeated mantras and commercials of that era in Berlin. In 2026, like in my Berlin days, these modern memes and slogans, often repeated in commercials or by candidates, will convince only those who want to be convinced and who do not ask impertinent questions. The best way those impertinent questions can be asked on behalf of all of citizens is to protect freedom of the press to ask them.

Dictator Trump? It appears his goal: ban unfriendly media....and a third term?

 The only power left to stop Trump’s march to become a dictator is us…vote Nov. 3 to turn Congress blue. A MAGA congressman has just introduced a bill to give him a third term by a constitutional amendment. Trump's ban of non-loyal (to him)press from the White House is also one more step toward the end of democracy to be replaced by rule of one. person..

.Trump.

Republican Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced a House Joint Resolution (H.J.Res.29) proposing a constitutional amendment to alter the 22nd Amendment, which currently limits presidents to two terms (source: Google AI). This may go nowhere, but if it gains any support, it shows how far MAGA is willing to go and how important it is to nip this in the bud and to send a strong message.

The courts and process will be another route to stop this madness, but the Supreme Court seems mostly in his pocket, and the lower courts are too slow to act.

It is also time for Democrats to stop using the term "autocracy". It is too wishy-washy and intellectual. In plain English, and as Trump's actions indicate what his goal really is, the correct term is "dictatorship"...He wants obedience to what he rules is the law, instead of what the law books, the courts, the legislature, or the Constitution say. That goes for media, too; per Trump, it should report what he opines, with no unfriendly questions to challenge him. To Trump, all unfavorable news is fake news.

It is also time to refer to the GOP as MAGA, instead as the Republican Party: It is totally controlled by Trump and MAGA. There appears to be no room for Republicans who are "normies"...who are traditional, for small government, with responsible fiscal policies, and spreading support for freedom and democracy, and non-crony, non-corrupt capitalism worldwide. MAGA is none of that.

FYI: Colorado's mail in vote system was birthed by the GOP in 2013. Don't blame Dems for this one

I am seeing on another social media Facebook site an attempt by some in the GOP to blame mail-in voting for Colorado's recent shift from somewhat red to blue. Therefore, the inference goes, vote for the GOP candidate who wants to eliminate mail-in voting and make everyone turn up in person. 90% of GOP voters in Colorado vote by mail. In 2013, the Colorado Secretary of State, Republican Wayne Williams, launched the mail-in voting system we use now. The shift from red to blue may have something to do with Colorado's economy shifting from AG and energy to more high-tech, with an increase to one of the highest education levels in the US and the second-highest voter participation rate in the 50 states. The system Wayne Williams devised provides bipartisan scrutiny and integrity. Before going off on some tangent, MAGA, read this: https://www.denverpost.com/.../colorado-denv

 https://www.denverpost.com/2020/08/16/colorado-denver-mail-voting-usps-2020-election/#

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/09/maga-thinks-dems-fear-saveice-at-polls.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/09/one-of-most-fundamental-lies-trump-ever.html

Time for Democrats to begin the 2028 presidential race is now with planks in a platform

 Nov. 3 midterms is shaping up to be, one way or another a rebuke of Trump's policies...economic and military while padding his pockets with epic corruption.  However,r what are Democrats proposing as alternatives?  Disgusted independents and non-MAGA Republicans may register their objections, but that is not good enough for 2028, and  Democrats as a party have miserable favorability ratings now.  

I have ideas to share that are relevant and popular today and for the next two years. They may never get signed by Trump or even be veto-proof, but at least they could be "on the record" for a unified Democratic Party in preparation for 2028. None of these are original ideas to me, but they seem to me to have legs and potential for support from the non-MAGA majority. To make an impact between now and then, the focus must be like a laser and unified.  While so many of these proposals will be stonewalled in the Senate, even if it flips blue a bit,  by presidential veto over the next two years, getting MAGA legislators on the record will lay the groundwork for Democrats' success in 2028.

So much depends on what those elected to Congress Nov. 3 will do in these next two years. Just exposing the criminality, corruption, and inhumanity of the Trump administration in House hearings cannot overwhelm the party if it wants to make itself an acceptable alternative to those same swing voters two years from now. So what are the alternatives with legs, anyway?  Here are my nominations.

One slogan might be to "reform for the better".those Trmp policies which anger the swing voters the most.  Yes, it is reactive to Trump's excesses, and so long as he sits in the White House Oval Office for the next two years, that is the fact of political life and will still be the driver of the 2028 presidential cycle..  

Obviously, what needs to be addressed in the next two years is to come up with a believable plan of "what will Democrats do to improve the cost of living." No pie in the sky, but rolling back the Trump tariffs might be a start. Make the bi partisan house financing bill that Trump nixxed be veto -proof.  Support financing to build affordable housing. Depending on what happens between now and then, get the heck out of Middle Eastern wars...and stop the one we are in now to reduce fuel prices. . For the young people, reduce the debt burden of student loans. Infuse Obamacare ACA with funds to lower premiums and restore Medicaid support to prior levels while planning for Medicare for All (polling very popular these days).  While MAGA may object to all of these, at least get their nay votes on the record in preparation for 2028's attack ads.  One of the reasons the socialists have been successful is that their solutions are generally popular, specific, and doable. That is the page Democrats can take from them while not embracing the rest of their planks.

The next set of issues needing reform is to restore checks and balances of the three branches and fight corruption.. These two issues are related to one another; one enables the out-of-control urge of Trump who sees his presidency as his business opportunity, and it is enabling fulfilling his lust for wealth and power. for himself. That could start with legislation to reverse treating corporate dark money as "people" by forcing daylight disclosure into political funding of even those entities.. The other:  Supreme Court term limits of 18 years, staggered to give a greater chance for both parties to get their approved candidates on the bench. One with wistful thinking is to reaffirm that the president is not above the law and can be criminally prosecuted while in office. That most insane SCOTUS decision the Court has ever made was exempting the president from criminal prosecution while in office. It has made him insulated from accountability, and the pardons he can issue on exit will shelter him in his retirement.  It has turned out to be is the greatest gift any wannabe corrupt autocratic president like Trump could have received. It has greenlit his ability to ignore and abuse any laws that have stood in his way of enacting his epic corruption. and power grabs.   Penalties and prosecution must be strengthened to keep future presidents from taking or making money on foreign investments and gifts, and it must be made illegal for Trump to pardon himself or his immediate family for eternity afrer office holding. 

The next is to stop divisive racial hatred and pass the Voting Rights Act.  Anti-DEI is a thinly disguised policy to restore white supremacy; inclusion must become the norm again. All attempts to federalize elections need to be fought tooth and nail since that is one essential method a wannabe dictator can use to destroy our democracy. Keeping voting in the hands of 50 separate states is much harder to subvert than some national binding policy controlled by whoever has the power in Washington. This should resonate with those who fear some far-left lib in the future could do unto them what Trump did to those disloyal to Trump. What goes around comes around.

"All democrats are communists",per MAGA as Trump cozies up to real communists

 An irony of profound historic significance: While the newest meme/slogan from the MAGA/GOP is that Democrats are all communists, their leader, President Trump, supports foreign policy goals and gives aid and words of comfort to those who are real communists or former ones: Putin of Russia, XI of China, North Korea's communist dictator Kim Jong Un. They are all aiding Iran in Trump's war. Irony may be too kind a word for this behavior: It raises the question of "on whose side is Trump, anyway?"

There is even concrete evidence of ties that bind Trump's to these real communist and communist-like rulers that are in the past and brought to light within this month. This is in addition to Trump's knee-capping dependable support of NATO and dragging his feet in releasing already approved aid to Ukraine. Trump's oft-expressed wistful desire in the past has been to be as powerful a leader as each of them. These are one-man rulers and brutal dictators, communists now or once practicing communists.

Yesterday it was disclosed that Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding reception was funded by a Russian oligarch with close ties to Putin. Within the same week, Donald Trump himself faced the reality of his Iran blunder that resulted in control of 20% of the world's oil and gas being in Iran's hands, as they still controlled the Strait of Hormuz. To deflect domestic US political

fallout, he instead blamed Ukraine for the increase in diesel costs as he urged Ukraine to stop doing drone attacks on Russian refineries. Since 2025, he has continued to blame Ukraine for not giving up territory to Russia in any peace settlement. All of this is dear to Putin's heart.

To attempt to put pressure on South Korea to support his Iran blunder, he then renewed his love affair with the dear leader of North Korea, agreeing there needed to be changes to US policy, and he called off joint military exercises with South Korea.

Trump and XI agreed to a temporary truce to pause tit-for-tat tariff escalations that expire in November. Tariff negotiations are already underway. Xi will make a state visit to Washington on September 24.

At the same time, Trump insults and punishes our democracy ruled allies with tariffs and insults and threats to grab their territory.

For those who still persist in calling anyone to the left of them communists, I recommend you search the dictionary or ask Google for a definition of communism.

  

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/13/business/trump-ukraine-diesel.html

https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-jr-wedding-bankrolled-russian-oligarch-umar-kremlev-putin

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-orders-pentagon-to-scale-back-joint-exercises-with-south-korea

Update: 9/17/26

Continuing disgust with right-wing memes that call Democrats communists: I finally had it with one FB post and responded with: Yeah, all democrats are communists, like all Republicans are neo Nazis

.https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/12/us/white-nationalists-tiki-torch-march-trnd/index.html.

https://www.pbs.org/video/trump-extremism-1749504068/

Update: 

My Facebook reply to those who persist in calling all Democrats socialists/communists: 9/26/2026 One of the strangest memes keeps appearing on this FB page. All Democrats are communists or socialists. Here is my stock reply: When anyone to the left of you is a communist or socialist.. you must be as far out to the right as you can go. Please go to your nearest dictionary and get informed about what socialists and communists believe before making such comments about political ideology.

However, I also attached a response that was a meme. I usually frown on memes, but this one says what I believe best in one short line. Kudos to Karstenprogue for it; and Valerie Budach for posting it on another Facebook page... This is an excerpt

":.....no one in the US or Western world wants socialism. What we have in Europe, Canada, New Zealand, and a lot of other countries around the world, is social democracy, which is capitalism with a social safety net. No one goes bankrupt from being sick or giving birth; everybody can have an education, and no one is left on the streets. Simple Human rights."

MAGA thinks Dems fear SAVE/ICE at polls reveal non-citizen vote; what they don't get updated 9/15/26

 My MAGA friends just do not seem to get it. It's about saving democracy. My message to them:

I see so many comments claiming Dems are fighting SAVE or ICE at polling places because we are so afraid that, finally, it will reveal that non-citizens indeed voted in 2020 and will do it again. Therefore, it is justified that, contrary to the Constitution, Trump's attempt to position that who controls who votes and how should be his and the federal government's, not the states or Congress. After Trump's 6 years of trying and losing every court case challenging the 2020 vote, and after even his own DOJ just released a report that found there were not enough irregularities in 2020 to change the outcome, with good reason, Dems do not fear such a reveal. Despite that, a stated belief in a stolen 2020 election is required by anyone pledging allegiance to MAGA rule and seeking its support.

There is, however, a new fear raised by an esteemed conservative retired federal judge, J. Michael Luttig, who thinks that after Nov. 3, 2026, there will be an attempt to disrupt and destroy a vote outcome that MAGA fears most: the House (and maybe even the Senate) flips blue. MAGA will throw the results into chaos and challenges; the newly elected Congress will not be seated in January 2027, and a Jan. 6 coup will be attempted again. The judge fears democracy will be corrupted. That is also what so many of those of us who are not MAGA fear.

At stake is democracy that is of, by, and for all of the people, not just a government that is of, by, and for one person or one ideology: like some Trump and MAGA appear in their social postings to think. For them, it's a legitimate definition of a democracy. FYI: A government that requires loyalty to one great leader or its movement is, by definition, an autocracy, not a democracy.. It is more than quaint; it is self-defining to believe all votes against your great leader and his supporters are because there was fraud and the other side won only because they cheated, or that the only fair and free election is one that goes your way.

Updated: 9/15/26 The long-awaited Supreme Court ruling on mail-in ballots and if the USPS has a legitimate role was handed down after the above post. It does not mean that the issue will raise its head in the future, but at least we will be spared chaos caused by the Trump administration on Nov,3. https://www.npr.org/2026/09/14/nx-s1-5962190/supreme-court-mail-in-voting-trump

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/conservative-judge-warns-constitutional-crisis-205754753.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/09/one-of-most-fundamental-lies-trump-ever.html

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-says-these-documents-prove-his-false-claims-of-election-fraud-heres-what-they-really-say?

Trump's lies about the 2020 elections are a false pretense used to justify voter suppression. tactics

 One of the most consequential lies Trump ever told has become the foundation of his attempt to get and keep himself in power. The lie was that the 2020 election was stolen. It has become a pretense, a false pretense, to justify the suppression of the ability of those voters assumed to be in political opposition to Trump, including justifying threats to put armed ICE agents at polling places in the midterms. After 6 years of commissions, ninjas, special counsels, and his own DOJ-controlled administration using all the powers they have, they never found enough to even show probable cause or evidence to justify more digging to keep keepi the myth alive. A particular case in point: even Trump's administration could not come up with enough evidence, or even questionable evidence by pro-Trump biased researchers, to show that enough non-citizens voted to have changed any outcome. https://www.pbs.org/.../trump-says-these-documents-prove...

Yet it is still a MAGA mantra and Trump's signal slogan, and to repeat such lies is the verification of loyalty to the MAGA cause. An approach, which includes the lie about non-citizens voting, serves two purposes: it appeals to those within the Trump base who are white nationalists, as well as those still approving the SAVE bill who still believe that election fraud committed by Democrats is rampant (lack of evidence be damned). https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/02/white-christian-nationalism-has-taken.html

This lie has become the rationale for ICE excess and mass deportations of even non-criminals, and for threats to put their icy stare and war-grade visages at swing-state polling places to scare off even rightful citizen immigrants from voting or snatch them into custody for even looking like a suspect. For that reason, the Denver Clerk and Recorder and Latina groups are suing the federal government to prevent armed ICE agents at polling places because they would intimidate legitimate voters trying to cast a ballot at a polling place. It would have a "chilling" effect.

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/2026/09/10/denver-sues-trump-to-block-armed-ice-agents-from-polling-sites/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/01/trump-homeland-security-markwayne-mullin-polling

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-elephant-in-room-of-colorado.html

Trump's lies about the election machines causing the election loss were repeated by FOX host Maria Bartiromo and others, and it cost FOX $787 million when they were sued for defamation and lost in court. 6 years later, that suit appeared to have figured into Bartiromo's "firing" when the FOX brass cautioned FOX hosts to steer clear of comments on election fraud and Trump claims...and the memo got back to the Trump staff, with the leak traced to Bartiromo, per The New York Times.https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/business/media/maria-bartiromo-fox-news.html

https://www.denverpost.com/2020/08/16/colorado-denver-mail-voting-usps-2020-election/?