Why is Trump the first president to be charged and found a criminal? Trump has lots of firsts

The most common pitch from Trump and his now-current loyalists is that the entire justice system and democracy are crooked because no other president, past or future, has ever been charged with a crime and found guilty. Maybe we are to blame ourselves for electing a newby to national politics who was not thoroughly vetted by holding a political office before. Most presidents we have elected were governors, senators, congressmen, and generals who had survived public and political opponents' attacks and public scrutiny. 

Trump has a lot of firsts/  One of the most outrageous positions of MAGA is this exercise in nonlogic: Trump was the first president to be convicted of a crime; therefore, ignore the verdict because it was just about politics. The hush money trial was about a criminal coverup of information that would have changed the outcome of an election, Yes, it was about politics. That is not the only thing Trump was first in: We have never had a president or a former president as a candidate for another term

• who in business practices, was found liable in court for fraud twice
•  who waa sexual predator boasting about it on tapes who actually assaulted a woman and found liable in court,
• who caused an attempted violent coup to be a president in an election everyone around him told him he lost, indicted; trial pending..
• who embraces, admires, or sympathizes with dictators of countries who are our adversaries.
• who had no platform for helping Americans cope but whose only promise is to get revenge on his opponents past and present
• or who planned to put migrants in concentration camps
• who thought the law did not apply to him. He has gone to court to ask for immunity from criminal prosecution.
• who wants to replace democracy with a dictatorship on day one with a scheme in hand (Project 2025) to finish the job he sets in motion 

We have had presidents and populations who were racists, who followed political appeasers, isolationists, immigrant haters, and lovers of Hitler and fascism before, who used media to appeal to a large block of fellow travelers.  Presidents in their pre-and-present positions also managed to keep their sexual exploits secret and away from investigative reporters. We used to have a media that also thought that immoral personal behavior, mistresses, for example, or back White House stair traffic was off limits, not for reporters for gentlemen to expose.  We also had an adoring population who kept or were ignorant or knew of a president's darker secrets and ignored them anyway.  

Those who live in Fraser, Colorado (my part-time/full-time home for nearly 50 years), Ike's summer White House, only whispered then and now about what was going on in the fishing cabin on the flanks of the Fraser River Canyon through which the railroad ran. Fly fishing was not his only diversion. That JFK had backstairs White House traffic was an open secret that my friends from college days serving in his administration in high places shared with me. FDR's love affair was learned only years later. We can now even attach names to those participants.  Usually, they were close associates, a movie star, a jeep driver, friends, and sympathetic companions, but never a porn star we know of until now.  If we knew or suspected, we looked the other way, and so do so many, even today, as such secrets are no longer just rumors.

We also have a large body of relatively less educated citizens and opportunist politicians who know better and who are facing the enormous demographic upheaval of racial changes and gender roles in this country and the economic and psychological aftermath of those who endured and survived the threat of death from a pandemic, often in isolation. Timing is everything. Trump's life as an unethical real estate promoter, media talent, and TV star, resulting in national exposure, came onto the political scene at a time of national trauma and change, with so many looking for a savior from the pains of such upheaval.

References to Trump and a mob leader: https://digitaledition.chicagotribune.com/tribune/article_popover.aspx?guid=c310c94c-5767-4e0d-a12a-6480bcea9253. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvExmOUGVoA 

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Why Trump only needs to be dictator on day one to be dictator for years to come update 4 4 2024            (about Project 2025)

Warning to consumers: buyer beware if Trump is elected. Update: 6,/28/24

Today, the Trump Court has just overturned Chevron, 40 years of consumer and environmental protections. It is buyer beware, drinking water, product safety, the air you breathe, cars you drive, and the food you eat will now be unprotected.  This ruling will handcuff any agency like the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Safety Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Financial Consumer Protection Agency, and any other federal agency from issuing regulations to fill in the blanks left unaddressed in legislation.  Instead, like abortion, it will fall into states to do it when clearly the issues cross state boundaries, leaving confusion.  Most states have laws conforming to current federal consumer and environmental consumer laws. 

Concerned about inflation?  Think that Trump cares about consumers? It is back to buyer beware if Trump is elected. He comes with a warning label.  He will be a danger to your health, safety, and pocketbook. If Trump wins in November, it is buyer beware. He is not consumer-friendly, no matter what policy he is selling you today.

 Is the Federal Reserve's attempt to slow down inflation working? If the goal is to cool down consumer spending and demand, which has been driving inflation post-COVID, it is beginning to work. Inflation figures have much to do with the interest rates controlled by the Fed. This is the only effective governmental tool available to keep the lid on inflation. Nearly a year ago, economists predicted the US would go into a severe recession within 6 months. That did not happen, either.  The Fed deserves credit for avoidance of that dire prediction, as well as for tapping the brakes instead of causing a crash landing. It is the only brake available to control inflation and takes finesse and expertise.  

Trump has other plans for the Federal Reserve and consumers, which would be a lasting idiocy. Finesse and trustworthiness are not Trump's strong suit. Developing, selling, and lying about the values of real estate are not qualifications to be an economist. Tinkering with the national central bank, which is the Fed, is not for amateurs or those with political agendas like Trump. So far, the US has the strongest economy in the world as it recovers from COVID-19.  The Fed is not broke, but Trump plans to break it. Trump is working on plans to set Federal Reserve rates himself. https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/trump-allies-federal-reserve-independence-54423c2f  You can trust Trump to do what will benefit him politically in the day's news cycle, but that is not the best basis to make complex economic judgments.  The economy will be thrown into uncertainty dependent on Trump's whims of the moment, and only "Yes, boss" advisors will surround him to give him no shot of reality.  

So far as consumers go, he has promised his oligarch friends who are coughing up campaign money he will lift the burden of environmental consumer and lender protections from their backs. Buyer beware did not work before, which is why those consumer protections became laws and rules in the first place.  It is back to the days of being unsafe at any speed and not breathing the air or drinking the water.  

One advantage in living so long is that I remember those days.  There are few of us left with an institutional memory like that.  It is now like what happened to Roe v Wade. We took it for granted for 50 years, and only when it was yanked away by Trump's appointments to the Supreme Court did we suddenly miss it. We have had a history of the past 50 years of being protected from unfair credit practices and products kept safe by laws and rules.  In the meantime, for all but the profit-craven and uncaringly blind, environmental protections became more than applied to clean water and air, but also to the extremes in climate change caused by man's indifference and exploitation.  We will miss those protections, too, when they are yanked away or subverted by Trump-loyal appointees.

Consumer spending is slowing down after a post-COVID buying binge. This raises the possibility of a reduction in interest rates in the near future. A little pain in these past months of high interest rates has kept us from a financial crash and a rip-roaring pain. 

 Target, Walmart, and Home Depot are seeing consumers shift to buying less, reacting to what they see as unjustified price rises that only pump up corporation's balance sheets. That is what the term "greedflation" has come to mean.   In fact, grocery chain profits are out of sight: https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-regulators-urge-congress-look-into-grocery-profits-2024-03-21/  

So far, Target has reduced price reductions in response, but expect Walmart to roll back and Home Depot to follow. That is how "greedflation" is fought with the free market system. It is a slow process, indeed, but in time it can work. Much of our economy is driven by consumer spending.  At the same time, wages have increased faster than the inflation rate, enabling consumers to afford higher prices on items they buy,  which has offset attempts to cool down inflation. Inflation has been Biden's political Achilles heel. Consumers have just not felt any improvement.  However, the inflation ship is slowly turning around, perhaps enough by November 2024.

So what would Trump do instead of the current Biden approach? We consumers need to brace ourselves for some idiocy.  There is no return to the good old days of pre-COVID, so stop dreaming. Trump is out to upset the apple cart with his plans for a second term.  He pretends to be the friend of those on a budget, but the policies he has promised us would do the opposite. A lesson in capitalism: The government cannot set consumer prices.  That only happens in communism. The government can influence prices, however, by allowing monopolies to set those prices among themselves as they snuff out competitors. Trump has made it clear he is the friend of and a beggar of their campaign donations from American oligarchs who love being monopolies and Trump's policies of keeping their taxes low and sabotaging consumer protections and environmental regulations.  He who pays the piper calls the tune, and while Trump's volatility day-to-day is the rule, he is, if anything, a keeper of political promises to those loyal to him.

The whole consumer movement began with Nader's "Unsafe at any speed," and Trump would make us sicker and unsafer as protections are sabotaged.  He would also put us at the mercy of unfair loan practices again as he ends the agency that watchdogged it. 

 Trump promises to take the pedal off the brakes of inflation by putting interest rates in his self-serving hands, which would make decisions based on short-term political gains to make Boss Trump look good. That idiocy would take the lid off sound economic principles and throw the economy into chaos in the longer run but benefit Trump in the eyes of his low-information supporters.  The other Trump policy is to raise duties on all imports by 10% across the board to protect US manufacturing and jobs.  Those are no more than 10% taxes on consumers, which will be passed onto all of us consumers used to cheap clothes, furniture, and electronics of imports as retailers try to keep up their margins.  Another Trump proposed idiocy is to round up an estimated 10 million migrants to put them in concentration camps to determine if they had documentation of legality to deport them, which is also inflationary.   We already have a labor shortage and the best employment rates since the 1960s, which has been one of the contributors to inflation. along with the supply chain, COVID-19 caused shortages. 

MAGA has amnesia when it comes to the good old days under Trump just before COVID hit. On December 2019, just before COVID hit, the price per gallon...and Trump was pres...Year Dec2019 2.645 per Google. Today the price of gas average in Colorado is 3.288 per gal.The price of gas at the pump,  is up 65 cents per gallon over Trump days just before COVID hit....and we are dealing with the Ukraine war, too. Let 's not let the MAHA get away with their BS.. 

 Prices at the gas pumps will increase this summer as they always do to take advantage of higher demand by vacationers. Prices per barrel are set mostly by international cartels, which is always an unknown factor. Still, another idiocy aimed at Tumrp's low-information supporters is to "drill baby drill." Under Biden, we have pumped oil so much that we are now the largest producer of oil in the world and are a net exporter.  We never have ever pumped so much. 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-panels-launch-probe-into-trump-quid-pro-quo-with-energy-execs-2024-05-23/ 

More on the subject, some appearing in past postings:

Update 5 15 24  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/live-blog/2024-05-15/us-cpi-report-for-april  

The good and bad news  From Forbes May 22, 2024 "Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, noted in its earnings call that customers are spending more on essentials and less on discretionary categories. Home Depot reported a drop in sales for the third quarter in a row as high interest rates cause customers to defer costlier home improvement projects that are typically financed. " 

Grocery price inflation is cooling down, per April figures; housing and gas at the pump are still inflationary, but signs are good enough that experts think it is possible the Fed will lower interest rates in the fall because the trend lines for inflation are going lower. Another good sign is that the free market system is still alive as retailers realize there is a business opportunity to compete with lower prices. Update: 5/20'24  https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/target-reduces-prices-5000-products-high-inflation-persists    Many of the items are in the grocery department. Look for the yellow tags.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/still-ticked-at-high-grocery-prices-and.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/crony-capitalism-magas-threat-to.html

 https://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/tracking-the-recovery-from-the-pandemic-recessionJuly 2020, CBO published its first complete projections of GDP following the outbreak of the pandemic. They showed real GDP down 11.3 percent in the second quarter of 2020 and still down 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, relative to CBO’s pre-pandemic January 2020 projections. CBO projections made in February 2021 were less pessimistic, showing GDP 2.3 percent below the pre-pandemic projection at the end of 2021. But in data available at the end of 2023, actual GDP generally tracked CBO’s pre-pandemic projections after the fourth quarter of 2021 and was above those projections at the end of 2023.

There is strong evidence the current deficit and debt and future projections are heavily due to the tax cuts for the rich.  Trump is promising to carry on with them. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/tax-cuts-are-primarily-responsible-for-the-increasing-debt-ratio/

Felicia Muftic's resume points to a lifetime of advocacy for consumers. She began as an activist for consumers in the late 1960s and 1970s. Her first consumer project was as a volunteer leader and coordinator to prove Denver's poorer consumers paid more at grocery stores by launching volunteers to survey and collect the data, and then she published it.  She is the author of the Colorado Consumer Handbook and has served as a consumer representative on many boards and commissions. She is a former white-collar crime and consumer protection unit director in Denver's district attorney's office. She has served as a president of the board and government relations staff of the local consumer credit counseling nonprofit agency.

Biden needs to go on the attack on domestic issues against the GOP as he did in Warsaw on Putin

Update: March 31, 2022 Biden's plan to reduce gas prices at the pump, including a huge dump on the market of strategic reserves, the largest in history to increase supply, and levying fees on those with well permits on federal lands who do not begin drilling and pumping.  FACT SHEET: President Biden’s Plan to Respond to Putin’s Price Hike at the Pump | The White House    As Biden said in announcing this, it will take a few weeks before the prices at the pump come down and the retailers work their way through the inventory of more expensive fuel first. 

Biden needs to go on the attack on domestic issues as he did in Warsaw on Putin.  It is a gut thing. and in political messaging gut feelings count. Outrage and indignation count.    

OMG. Biden said publicly what most were saying privately, "For the sake of God, this man cannot remain in power". Unfortunately, that sentence eclipsed the rest of his important speech on March 26 in Warsaw. That was an adlibbed outcry of moral outrage, It did leave the impression that US policy was to encourage regime change in Russia and it did create a diplomatic flap. Biden's spokespersons tried to walk back the regime change implications, but Biden has not walked it back himself. (Later in the day, Biden confirmed "he was not walking anything back"; he was expressing moral outrage.) Maybe he intended to be ambiguous. The use of "cannot" seems awkward and contrived for the purpose of ambiguity; Why not "should not", or "will not" or "ought not"?  Republicans in the US tried to make hay from it as a gaff and used it to step on his main message and powerful delivery, but the fire he lit may have been an appeal to the gut of others as well as sending a message to Putin in terms Putin could understand. It was in the context of a message to the Russian people. Putin got a message indeed and snapped buck by text, that was for the Russian people to decide, not Biden.  Biden's chunk of a lifetime of dealing with Putin is an experience none of us have had. Biden's speech in Warsaw was a passionate attack on  Putin, calling him a butcher and, earlier, a war criminal. It is hard to get more inflammatory than that except to do what Biden did, to send a message to the Russian people themselves, that hit at the core of  Putin's attempt to remain a dictator for life. Biden says he was expressing 'moral outrage' when he said Putin can't remain in power: 'I make no apologies for it' (yahoo.com)

Continuing with the original post:

 As Biden went on the attack in Warsaw he needs to go on the attack  in tone and substance on domestic issues as well,  perhaps  more  explicitly expressed. .There are some opportunities to do so. Painting Trump supporting candidates with the broad brush of Trumpsterism is fair game. Using candidate's own words praising Putin and his "strong man" leadership style against them is a good strategy given the revelation that Putin's war in Ukraine was brutal and the work of an evil mind.   Biden was  on target  about framing the Ukraine war as Putin's, and putting it in context of democracy v autocracy. That is a message that have relevance to domestic politics as well, since Trump spent four years extolling the advantages of autocracy in his bromance with Putin.80 times Trump talked about Putin - CNN.com

Analysis: Donald Trump calling Vladimir Putin a 'genius' was no mistake - CNNPolitics

Updated comment March 30 posted on Facebook: For the third time in Trump's political life, he calls on Putin to help him. The first when he asked Putin to find Hillary's missing emails; the second,, got him impeached when he tried to pressure Ukraine President Zelensky to find dirt on Hunter and Joe Biden, using the provision of Javelin Anti Tank weapons as a bargaining chip, and yesterday, calling on Putin to once again provide dirt on Biden...in the midst of our country giving full support to Ukraine in their resistance to Putin's War invasion.. Columnist Charlie Sykes called him a traitor. I agree. Here is why. Why defend Ukraine? Because it is in the US's national security interest to defend NATO now,, to avoid an eventual World War III by making it clear to Putin we will not roll over and let him get away with such invasions, including his announced goal to re=establish the empire of the USSR>. Trump spent four years trying to defang NATO, refusing to support the heart of the mutual defense clause, saying the Baltic states were not worth defending, and praising the management style of Putin as a dictator while licking Putin's ego boots.. While the US considers Putin an acute threat to the European continent, Trump still looks to Putin for his support, Trump is a traitor with no concern for US national security interests in his obsession to relitigate the 2020 election. The term "acute threat" was clarified by the Pentagon spokesperson meaning" at this time, relevant, a threat to the European continent" in a press briefing March 30.

 While Biden's poll numbers remain dismal, his taking leadership of the free world has added nothing to his popularity,  Historians of this moment will see what he has done as pivotal to the continuation of democracy in the face of autocracy. History may give him praise, but right now, no one seems to give him credit, yet. ,However,.  I have noted a cultural shift in social media postings and in local tones and stories in local press that is not yet showing up in the polls.  Blue collar workers, firefighters, and law enforcers get it and have been quick to donate surplus equipment  and fly the colors of Ukraine.  They understand that Putin is a threat to their way of life in the long run even if they are not inspired by political science theory of democracy v autocracy. It is a gut thing. 

Using the same passionate delivery style as in Warsaw, Biden can lay the groundwork for messaging which can be used by challengers to incumbent Trumpsters running for re-election  in the midterm elections...On a district by district advertising  strategy, Democrats in the general election (and more traditional Republicans in the primaries) can replay opponents' records of bootlicking Putin such as " Putin is so clever and smart and it is a worthy goal to have his one man power rule" with comments that are on the record, to remind voters that  that particular G OP  legislator was a danger to our democracy. 

Soft on crime is another GOP  talking point attacking Biden and democrats that need to be called  out for what it is.  He should turn on his outraged counter attack on this issue, too. Biden's record is not and never has been that, but it is understandable since most of the per capita murders take place in Trump country.  Therein lies a counter attack: Trump supporters ought to pay attention to what is happening in their own districts. That crime increase is due to Democrat's soft on crime policy is a bunch of BS given a study that showed 8 out of 10 highest per capita murder rates occur in states voting for Donald Trump. .   Per The Red State Murder Problem – Third Way

• "In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.
•  8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century."

COViID is fast fading as an issue, at least until this next variety hits us, but there is also a correlation between Trump counties having the highest death rates and those that do not.  Trumpsters have been bad for the health of the ones they love the most in promoting their anti-vax messages.  Counties That Voted for Trump Have Higher COVID Death Rates | Healthiest Communities Health News | US News

Inflation is still a quagmire and hopefully the fed slowly raising rates will begin to take effect and the COVID hangover will slowly work it way through the supply chain and readjustments., Slowly may still be too slow to help by November midterms.  

 It is critical that Biden do what he can to lower the price at the pump . It is a matter Biden cannot fix himself easily, but to claim this is due to his policies is a matter of  ignorance or  of the willfully ignorant spreading ignorance to the more ignorant.  This one is a hard one because prices are mostly set by international cartels seeking to maximize their profits and this  runs counter to self serving interest of producers who do not see it in their interest to reduce prices by increasing the supply by pumping more.  . The US is at the mercy of the international cartels and energy interests who love the inflated prices. They can manipulate supply by refusing to pump more at this time. They love those margins.. Biden has little ability to affect oil and gas prices so long as we are so dependent upon fossil fuels..,  When it comes to Ukraine, the best he can do is to minimize the impact of stopping our Russian imports.  This, too, is a gut thing.. Over 75 percent of those polled in the US like not importing Russian oil and support sanctions and  more complain about high prices at the pump.  Rational thinking is a tough sell in politics, but calling out  BS  in some explicit terms may be the best Biden can do. 

With gas prices high, Colorado oil production is ramping up | Colorado Public Radio (cpr.org)

CBS News poll: Strong support for Russian sanctions even if gas prices increase - CBS News

Poll: More voters blame Biden, not Russia or oil companies, for soaring gas prices - Washington Times

Democrats need to shift emphasis and messaging now

Update: 3/27/2022  The crime increase is due to Democrat's soft on crime policy is a bunch of BS given a study that showed 8 out of 10 highest per capita rates occur in states voting for Donald Trump. .   Per The Red State Murder Problem – Third Way

• "In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.
•  8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century."

In contrast to stupid slogans like "defund police" and "legitimate political discourse", , Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe came up with a smart one, given current polls showing even among the Democratic base and the Republican moderates Democrats have a weakness. They are fighting past wars instead of current ones. Here is what I am sensing.

 By just focusing on racial issues, they are losing both Democrats and independents because the current concerns on the immediate burner are in particular kitchen table issues. Scarborough hit the nail on the head with the Three C's:  COVID, CRIME, COST OF LIVING.  This is critical as we come up to the midterms and so far Democrats are relying alone on "we are not Trump" and "our opponent is".  It is a question of emphasis and whether Democrats are showing "we care about you" more than the other party. Those issues are the fierce urgency of now with more voters. Democrats need now to give priority to issues shared by both Democrats and independents, urban and suburban voters of all races. Arguing over who is rightfully woke or not is unhelpful in appealing to the broader Democratic base and falls into the divisive GOP trap of CRT.  The GOP has seen it as a wedge issue that works. Democrats need to refocus their message on shared concerns. They are preaching to the choir and have already well-positioned themselves working in the interest of civil rights, but they now also need to focus on issues affecting broader constituencies given the fast-approaching midterms.  This does not mean dropping vigorous civil  and voting rights, but also adding to the message with it impacts everyone regardless of any affiliation.  Biden can rightfully tout his bi-partisan agenda success: COVID relief, infrastructure, and Ukraine and that is well worth the appeal to independents and never Trumpers.

 These 3 C's are ticklish issues because the GOP touts individual freedom on mask-wearing and anti-vax, Democrats are against the police so blame the recent crime wave on that, and there in unmistakable daily experiencing of inflation, even though jobs and income are up and it is only temporary  (not true). Just passing the BBB to offset inflation is now a no starter since that one is dead for now.   Instead of solely being defensive (Biden supports better and more police funding, and has his messaging clear). down-ballot candidates need to show what support they would give to solving that problem of inflation, especially the cost of fuel at the pump and dealing with crime in a way that is better and more effective than what the GOP is proposing. " More is not enough; better is also critical? Being defensive is not enough; Democrats should also go on the counterattack.

 It is fair game to attack the GOP for dragging out COVID because of catering to those defying common-sense measures, but even Democrats are removing mask mandates, and Democrats have done their part by getting their shots.  60% of Republicans have not and they are the ones in hospitals and dying. A US News study found that counties that voted strongly for Trump also had the highest death rate from COVID. Counties That Voted for Trump Have Higher COVID Death Rates | Healthiest Communities Health News | US NewsThe GOP seemed" they only hurt the ones they love". It is no longer a matter of mandates. It is a matter of personal responsibility, and the victims now are those who followed the GOP advice to be irresponsible to themselves and others.

.On crime. take the Biden approach. Police funding has not been cut, yet urban crime is indeed increased. . He gets that. It may or may not be a COVID thing.  What should be done is making it even better policing as well as putting more on the streets with the training of how to defuse violence, crafting anti-no-knock rules, and tightening bonding out "catch and release" practices that release those arrested for violent crimes back onto the streets without bonds as they. await trial. This has racial implications since the ones most hurt by imprisonment, even temporarily awaiting trial, are racial minorities, so focus on those charged with violent offenses which is where fear and safety drives opinions...    This is a local by local, by-election-district approach, more than a federal one, except for Feds setting national standards, and criteria for extra funding.  It is not much of a rural issue. It is an urban/suburban one.

These 3 C's are mostly urban problems, but that is where the Democrats are vulnerable because threat is where most of their base is..  Fuel costs are very rural issues, too. (Tread lightly on 2nd Amendment issues for the sake of rural voters but cracking down on gun-trafficking are real urban concerns) These issues in time may be old news in a year, but timing is everything and they likely will be still issues of concern in November. 

Update 4/19/22:  (parts of this posting is included in a 4/19 post: Election integrity means" "Keep your partisan hands off my ballot" Per the publication Colorado Politics, a bill is making it through the state  to senate greater election integrity and to make it harder for anyone to mess with the actual paper ballots and tabulations. It passed out of committee.  It addresses the issue on which Mesa County Clerk Tima Peters was indicted for criminal acts for giving non staff access to the room where ballots are secured.  It would require card access and more than one staffer to accompany anyone entering the secured location.  The bill  has the word " integrity" in its title. On local issues such as the election of those supervising elections, as a former Clerk and Recorder o Denver and past president of the elections board, , this one is particularly close to my heart.  Election integrity means different things to different constituencies. For Republicans, election integrity means put Republicans in control of the rules and compliance and the tabulation. For Democrats, just keep them secure, accessible, independent, with administrators directly accountable to voters and not to a partisan dominated body like a state legislation comprised of politicians who have a self-interested stake int he outcome.   Democrats have got a strong hand in appealing to their base and swing voters touting free and fair elections and accusing the GOP of rigging the vote count and ballot access in ways that are so partisan we cannot trust them.  Forget the Trumpster voters and go for the Democrats and independents on this issue.  Go on the attack. This one is fair game in taking on the likes of Trumpists who want to deprive all but their loyalists of ballot access and control of counting the vote.  This one should be:  "don't trust the GOP to play it fair" They have a track record on this in ignoring the popular vote, laws, rules, and regulations, and overturning the will of the people) Instead, trust administrators pledged to follow the rules, not to circumvent them, and demand paper ballots electronic tabulators kept secure from tampering in case there is an audit (official or "forensic". .  On voter access, a cross-racial/ideological approach would be "GOP wants to make it inconvenient to note, harder for everyone. Convenience affects everyone.   While fair and free elections are keys to a democracy, calling the GOP autocrats and anti-Democracy is just too abstract. Having fair and free elections is not just a racial issue; it is everyone's concern.  Voters should demand their will is expressed through the ballot box, not distorted, lied about, ignored, and are willing to let the chips fall where they are.  Just do not get hung up on who stole what from whom in 2020. Instead, demand proof instead of opinions. (Use "opinions" instead of "conspiracy theories" and no proof with enough evidence has been found the election was stolen. Using "opinion" is less divisive than "conspiracy theory"  when appealing to swing voters)  Conspiracy theory is a bit derisive of those who think that if there is smoke there must be fire. The opinion is more respectful of those who are on the fence. Focus on how trumpsters want to screw with the term "fairness"., making the process only fair to them and controlled by them, not to or by anyone else. This is a state by state, district by local district approach that should work in swing and blue venues.  Ruby red states and election districts have already swallowed the Trumpster cool-aid and see being unfair working to their advantage.

 Colorado is a generally blue state with some enclaves of Trump land.  Some county clerks, known partisans of Trump in Colorado, have been charged with giving the keys and passwords and hard drive copies of the ballots and tabulators to their partisans. They should be called out as the poster child of abuse and one now wants to run (or ruin) Colorado's gold standard system. Republican Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters announces candidacy for Colorado secretary of state (denverpost.com) They were in violation of laws designed to keep partisan hands-off.  Ballot and tabulation machine security procedure is the way to insure they and anyone else are unable to mess with them if and when there is an audit. . "We just can't trust them". Is a possible slogan.  Above all, Democrats should support the election reform laws currently put on the back burner in DC.  It is fairer for everyone.   This is particularly true for Colorado that has an exemplary system in which all ballots cast are paper ballots. How Colorado's Stellar Voting System Was Improved in 2020 (5280.com) " Possible slogan to pin on such abusive clerks : " if it ain't broke, don't break it" 

Update 4/19/22  Per publication Colorado Politics:.. "to fortify Colorado's elections against those with "inside access" to harm themSB 153 increases basic security measures, such as requiring 24/7 surveillance and key card access to rooms where election equipment is stored. In any county of more than 100,000, the bill would prohibit any elected official or candidate from having key card access to a room with voting equipment or devices without being accompanied by someone else with authorized access. For smaller counties, the bill sets up a $1 million grant to pay for the round-the-clock surveillance or key card access."

Update: February 17, 2022

There are several lines of attack by the GOP that cannot be ignored and need to be called out as Bull   Stuff. in House district races.   1) "Democrats are socialists because they use taxpayer money to support undeserving poor people. " The hypocrisy of those who scream the loudest is astounding.  They have their roots in the Southern states who get far more subsidies for their state coffers than they collect and pay back in tax money to the feds. It's the blue states who are subsidizing these red taker states.  Remind their constituents what their incumbent candidate voted against, as well. This is what the GOP calls awful socialism   child tax credit and early childhood education. and this is what your GOP represented/Senator voted against.  2)To " blame the BBB for inflation is equally amazing since the BBB was never enacted or a penny spent on it and it would have been completely funded by raising taxes on the ultra-rich.  3)  When candidates in the GOP cutting ribbons for highway and infrastructure bills take credit for getting the money to their state or districts yet they voted against it, they deserve gold medals for the best performance in hypocrisy.

 In Ukraine, the final scene has not played, but a new twist on the old Reagan cold war mantra of "Trust but Verify", is becoming "don't trust but verify"...and diplomacy backed up by economic threats in the wings   There are always the American Firsters and isolationists hovering in the background of American politics just as there were in the late 1930's in the lead up to World War II.  How did that work out? They forgot history or want us to repeat it with the denial we have economic and defense entanglements with the rest of the world to a much greater extent than the way it was 80 plus years ago. In the face of the Ukraine crisis their voices disconnected from reality are fortunately a small voice. Why is Ukraine important to the US when they are not part of mutual defense NATO.  These, by the way, who applauded Trump's attempt to defang NATO's purpose, a trans-Atlantic alliance to defend themselves against an aggressive Russia and to claim the Baltic states were not important enough to defend in spite of their access of ports to the Atlantic. (The only time Article 5 of NATO has been invoked until now was in 9-11 when Europe came to the aid of the US).  Russia is trying to pick off non-NATO neighbors and if he pays no penalty for that, he will put his sights on those protected by a hoped for weakened NATO. again, if some others like Trump get back in office.  Trump foolishly refused to support Article 5 5, an attack on one member is an attack on all. This Ukraine crisis is due to Russians' naked aggression and Putin's desire to bring back UISSR satellites into the Russian empire, whether they want to be part of it or not.  The biggest threat Ukraine is to Russia is not whether they join NATO but that they make Russia look bad with their free-market economy and freer democracy by comparison, per columnist Thomas Friedman.  NATO only expands to countries who want to join and, Ukraine had no plans to apply. It defies credibility to believe Ukraine is about to pick a war with the second largest army in the world, Russia's, which is the nonsensical line Putin is feeding his media-controlled citizens.  If Putin figured he could weaken NATO and drive a wedge between those more dependent on Russian natural gas, he miscalculated. His plans backfired. NATO has never been so unified since the fall of the Berlin wall thanks to Biden's leadership and Russia's threatened armed and unjustified invasion. Putin's aggression reminded the alliance members of NATO's purpose in the first place...defense against Russian expansion

An unanswered question:  Is Putin a rational actor or not? If threats to ruin the Russian economy if they invade seems not to affect his resolve to take over Ukraine.  On the irrational side, using his own words Putin believes he will be known by uniting all Slavs under the Russian banner, that breakup of the old USSR and satellites jointing the West, was a national tragedy that he wants to reverse.  It is as if the USA decided to march its military into Canada and take it over, divide it, annex it, put quislings in charge, on the pretext that they are culturally the same and speak the same language (Quebec notwithstanding.   It is as if he believes in the "manifest destiny" of his beliefs.  Simply marching in with overwhelming military force to grab another sovereign country or dividing it into half, separating the Russian speaking part from the Ukranian nationalism of the west half (a most likely outcome) , changing boundaries, annexing a part into Russia, went unchecked before in Georgia and Crimea. No wonder he thinks he can get away with it in Ukraine, but this time he may have miscalculated with the reaction from the NATO allied nations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/19/opinion/democrats-biden-voters.html?   Ouch.. A lot of truth in this Maureen Dowd column

to "fortify Colorado's elections against those with "inside access" to harm them, 

SB 153 increases basic security measures, such as requiring 24/7 surveillance and key card access to rooms where election equipment is stored. In any county of more than 100,000, the bill would prohibit any elected official or candidate from having key card access to a room with voting equipment or devices without being accompanied by someone else with authorized access. For smaller counties, the bill sets up a $1 million grant to pay for the round-the-clock surveillance or key card access.