Well, they did it. Trump knocked off Colorado primary ballot

 Trump knocked off of primary ballot per Colorado Supreme Court, ruling that Trump did indeed participate in an insurrection, incited January 6 riot, and was indeed an officer of the United States. His incitement speech was not protected by the first amendment. Now on to the Supreme Court. Colorado Secretary of State Griswold said on MSNBC she will abide by whatever decision is on the date of certification which is in January 5. Trump's retort was Jauary 6 was not an insurrection and more. ..Public supports the Colorado court decision: Do you approve or disapprove of the Colorado Supreme Court ruling that Donald Trump can't appear on the state's 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot because his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 takeover of the Capitol amount to insurrection or rebellion against the United States? | Daily Question (yougov.com)      Donald Trump's Colorado Problem Just Got a Whole Lot Worse (newsweek.com)

GAZETTE.COM

Trump disqualified from 2024 ballot, Colorado Supreme Court rules

The Colorado Supreme Court took the unprecedented step of ordering Donald Trump removed from the 2024 presidential ballot on Tuesday, finding him constitutionally ineligible to hold future office.

Prioir post: Nov. 23, 2023

Clarifying the application of the 14th Amendment to a presidential candidate would be the expected result of the legal issue that will now go to the Colorado Supreme Court. Still, the concept that a candidate who tried to engineer a coup to overturn the democratic process should be given another opportunity to destroy democracy as we have known it would be hard to swallow. Running the 2024 race and winning will still be difficult because of the lack of enthusiasm for Biden, so it appears now. Going negative against Trump is his best hope. What is really significant about this is that the judge held a trial and called witnesses regarding whether Trump deserved to be guilty of being an insurrectionist, and she ruled he did. That is the first time such was ruled in a Court process. (Impeachment is a political process, not a judicial one). This article presents experts opining that factual findings are rarely overturned by appeal judges but questions whether the results are in compliance with the Constitution.. This constitutional issue will, without doubt, be decided by the Supreme Court (SCOTUS), dominated by Trump appointees. It is where the issue is likely to meet its fate and die on the altar of the majority. A possibility is that SCOTUS would rule that a decision by the Court is too important of an issue to be decided by the Court, so the decision must be made by the voters in this democracy. and refuse to hear it, leaving lower court decisions to stand in Colorado alone but inviting other states to attempt a suit with other arguments. Of course, the last time the court actually made such a profound and critical decision was when it ruled against Al Gore in 2000 and made his opponent president. They did it once before, and they could do it again. Gore honored the decision and did not attempt an insurrection like loser Trump did in 2020-2021. The Big Lie still persists in the minds of most in the GOP, even after over three years of trying to prove there was enough fraud to justify that belief. It failed in every court decision, and every audit, including "forensic" ones conducted by Trump supporters, is a matter of mass delusion based on wishful thinking. The Differences Between a Criminal Case and a Civil Case - FindLaw

Will Trump be kicked off the Colorado ballot? It is more possible than I thought. Update: 12//19/2023

Trump knocked off of primary ballot per Colorado Supreme Court, ruling that Trump did indeed participate in an insurrection, incited Januar 6 riot, and was indeed an officer of the United States. His incitement speech was not protected by the first amendment. Now on to the Supreme Court.

GAZETTE.COM

Trump disqualified from 2024 ballot, Colorado Supreme Court rules

The Colorado Supreme Court took the unprecedented step of ordering Donald Trump removed from the 2024 presidential ballot on Tuesday, finding him constitutionally ineligible to hold future office.

 

Prior post: 

When the suit was filed, I thought the first issue would be to prove to a court that Trump was responsible for an insurrection. That suit should have waited for Jack Smith to get a guilty verdict. That turned out to not be in question in the judge's opinion. She ruled Trump was an insurrectionist. What is really significant about this is that the judge held a trial, called witnesses, and heard evidence. That is the first time such was ruled in a Court process. (Impeachment is a political process, not a judicial one). This Colorado case was a civil suit, requiring only one side to be more believable than the other based on a preponderance of evidence. Harder to do is Jack Smith's case, which requires a jury to conclude Trump was guilty because there was no doubt in reasonable minds. The proof needed was the "beyond reasonable doubt n effect; it is harder for a prosecutor to win a criminal case than a citizen to win a civil one. A trial finding a defendant guilty could result in jail time. Civil suits seek monetary or remedial actions. To those who think this is a plot by Democrats, get a grip on yourselves. Those who brought the suit are traditional Republicans and independents. For American democracy, upholding this lower court decision would be a good thing; for Democrats, not so much since Trump is an easy target to attack and is a known quantity/quality. Others in the race for the Republican nomination would have to be defined in negative terms to make such a contrast. In the end, it may be the question of women's rights that brings down the GOP and whether the candidate, if not Trump, is for a federal law banning abortions.

Clarifying the application of the 14th Amendment to a presidential candidate would be the expected result of the legal issue that will now go to the Colorado Supreme Court. Still, the concept that a candidate who tried to engineer a coup to overturn the democratic process should be given another opportunity to destroy democracy as we have known it would be hard to swallow. Running the 2024 race and winning will still be difficult because of the lack of enthusiasm for Biden, so it appears now. Going negative against Trump is his best hope. What is really significant about this is that the judge held a trial and called witnesses regarding whether Trump deserved to be guilty of being an insurrectionist, and she ruled he did. That is the first time such was ruled in a Court process. (Impeachment is a political process, not a judicial one). This article presents experts opining that factual findings are rarely overturned by appeal judges but questions whether the results are in compliance with the Constitution.. This constitutional issue will, without doubt, be decided by the Supreme Court (SCOTUS), dominated by Trump appointees. It is where the issue is likely to meet its fate and die on the altar of the majority. A possibility is that SCOTUS would rule that a decision by the Court is too important of an issue to be decided by the Court, so the decision must be made by the voters in this democracy. and refuse to hear it, leaving lower court decisions to stand in Colorado alone but inviting other states to attempt a suit with other arguments. Of course, the last time the court actually made such a profound and critical decision was when it ruled against Al Gore in 2000 and made his opponent president. They did it once before, and they could do it again. Gore honored the decision and did not attempt an insurrection like loser Trump did in 2020-2021. The Big Lie still persists in the minds of most in the GOP, even after over three years of trying to prove there was enough fraud to justify that belief. It failed in every court decision, and every audit, including "forensic" ones conducted by Trump supporters, is a matter of mass delusion based on wishful thinking. The Differences Between a Criminal Case and a Civil Case - FindLaw

MSN.COM

Donald Trump Being Kicked off 2024 Ballot Looks More Likely

Colorado's Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal after the low

Conspiracy theories like the Big Lie depend on ignorance: Colorado election officials to educate the public

 Rep. Ken Buck (Colorado) was right in his refusal to support the two leading candidates for Speaker of the House today  because both have continued to claim Trump won the election of 2020.  The Big Lie is the unproven, unevidenced BS promoted by epic poor loser Donald Trump and his MAGA movement that the election was stolen. Ken Buck Says He Refused To Vote For GOP Speaker Candidates Due To 2020 Election Lies (yahoo.com)   (Ken Buck, R-CO) 

 Three years have passed since 2020 and in spite of every effort made, no evidence has emerged to support the Big Lie.  All voters need to know where the House Speaker of their party still stands on the issue.  It is a litmus test of who in Congress is the most extreme MAGA supporter or who is not. So far as their constituents are concerned, polls show three years after the 2020 elections, 70% of Republicans still think the election was stolen. CNN Poll: Percentage of Republicans who think Biden's 2020 win was illegitimate ticks back up near 70% | CNN Politics  

Conspiracy theories take root in ignorance, and the best antidote to such political strategies is educating voters on how their vote integrity is protected by the new technology and other measures.  The education campaign by election officials is now being conducted in advance of the 2024 elections in Colorado.. Residents invited to observe election machine  'integrity checks,' new ballot box technology | Election Coverage | gazette.com  It is worth the effort, even if the only educated are those in the media This can be  helpful provided media reports what they learned whenever the Big Lie rears its ugly head again. As a former elections official years ago in Denver, I, too, had to catch up with the intricate use of modern technology and practices in Colorado in 2020, and frankly, I had to dig and dig to find much on the subject. Education of the public  of how the process works is sorely needed. 

One reassuring thing I learned in catching up with the election system was in Colorado, new technology is backed up by old-school paper ballots (dropped off or mailed in) so that any "forensic audit" or recounts have the evidence to give a definitive count. Other states also have their methods.  So far, after every attempt by those who claim the election of 2020 was stolen across the US, after innumerable recounts of stacks of paper ballots, audits, and findings by judges who were appointed by both recent and past ideological and official parties,  no evidence has turned up that would have changed the result of the 2020 election. Period.

 Colorado has become the epicenter of election controversies. Colorado Republicans and independent voters were the ones who  filed  a law suit  that aims to knock Trump off the 2024 ballot . The state has had three years of controversy with an election denier leading the state GOP, one Trump loyal county clerk convicted of a crime of tampering the election machinery, and even a candidate for  county clerk suspected of being an election denier who still got elected and is now occupying the office in charge of counting votes..(Grand County MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Is an election denier a candidate for county clerk in Colorado? Suspicions validated (Mesa County).Former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters sentenced to home detention and community service in obstruction case (nbcnews.com)  .  Colorado GOP selects combative, election-denying new leader | AP News

This next segment is also reproduced as a separate blog post on 10/13/2023   This persistent belief the 2020 election was stolen is a danger to democracy. Perpetuation of the Big Lie is central to the  anti-democracy strategy to destroy faith in the democratic process and then use what they themselves had  sabotaged and undermined to replace it with an autocrat who makes sure their MAGAs win by whatever means necessary, including replacing the Department of Justice with loyalists.  

There are advocates in the MAGA movement, such as Steve Bannon,  who see creating chaos as part of the strategy to replace democracy with a strong leader autocrat he favors that would empower MAGA movement to rule over those they disdain,. Claiming democracy does not work is dependent on their convincing the MAGA movement that it does not work for them at the ballot box. They have been very successful since 70% of Republicans still think the election was stolen. The ability of all citizens to choose their leaders via the ballot is the most central and fundamental characteristic of a democracy.     .https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2022/07/politics/steve-bannon-us-democracy and faith in its integrity is essential. Keeping the Big Lie going is how the MAGA anti democracy radicals are trying to damage that faith in order to give a rationale for replacing democracy with  a form of dictatorship (by Trump) instead..

What is now even more critical at stake in 2024 is an election of Trump who does not even support the Constitution, evidenced by the claim by his attorneys that Trump is not sworn to defend it. Trump tells court he had no duty to 'support' the Constitution as president (msn.com)  This lawsuit centers on Trump's failure to support the constitution on January 6.  Trump's frightening comment was revealed by the lawsuit against Trump brought by GOP and independent Colorado citizens seeking to disqualify Trump from being on the Colorado ballot in 2024. The 14th Amendment plan to disqualify Trump, explained - BBC News   The Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, named in the suit, plans to "see the suit through" . Colorado secretary of state calls Trump a ‘liar,’ vows to see ballot lawsuit through | The Hill    Trump's refusal to support the Constitution is consistent with earlier statements that he wanted to terminate or suspend the Constitution and his advocacy of political violence instead of ballots. .  Trump calls for the termination of the Constitution in Truth Social post | CNN Politics

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: America's future, the short and the long, macro and micro, at stake in 2024 updated 9/30/23, 10/2/23

 This persistent belief the 2020 election was stolen is a danger to democracy. Perpetuation of the Big Lie is central to the anti-democracy strategy to destroy faith in the democratic process and then use what they themselves had sabotaged and undermined to replace it with an autocrat who makes sure their MAGAs win by whatever means necessary, including replacing the Department of Justice with loyalists.  

There are advocates in the MAGA movement, such as Steve Bannon,  who see creating chaos as part of the strategy to replace democracy with a strong leader autocrat he favors that would empower MAGA movement to rule over those they disdain,. Claiming democracy does not work is dependent on their convincing the MAGA movement that it does not work for them at the ballot box. They have been very successful since 70% of Republicans still think the election was stolen. The ability of all citizens to choose their leaders via the ballot is the most central and fundamental characteristic of a democracy.     .https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2022/07/politics/steve-bannon-us-democracy and faith in its integrity is essential. Keeping the Big Lie going is how the MAGA anti democracy radicals are trying to damage that faith in order to give a rationale for replacing democracy with  a form of dictatorship (by Trump) instead..

What is now even more critical at stake in 2024 is an election of Trump who does not even support the Constitution, evidenced by the claim by his attorneys that Trump is not sworn to defend it. Trump tells court he had no duty to 'support' the Constitution as president (msn.com)  This lawsuit centers on Trump's failure to support the constitution on January 6.  Trump's frightening comment was revealed by the lawsuit against Trump brought by GOP and independent Colorado citizens seeking to disqualify Trump from being on the Colorado ballot in 2024. The 14th Amendment plan to disqualify Trump, explained - BBC News   The Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, named in the suit, plans to "see the suit through" . Colorado secretary of state calls Trump a ‘liar,’ vows to see ballot lawsuit through | The Hill    Trump's refusal to support the Constitution is consistent with earlier statements that he wanted to terminate or suspend the Constitution and his advocacy of political violence instead of ballots. .  Trump calls for the termination of the Constitution in Truth Social post | CNN Politics

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: America's future, the short and the long, macro and micro, at stake in 2024 updated 9/30/23, 10/2/23