Why election deniers have reasons to keep up the big lie

The importance of continuing the lie that the 2020 election was stolen is that it has become a political strategy key to Trump's re-election.  No evidence has emerged in nearly four years of trying to find it that would have found enough irregularities to result in Trump being re-elected.  By now, rational thought should have debunked the lie long ago.   Instead, more political leaders still embrace the Big Lie than ever before.  Not all of them are so irrational to ignore the lack of evidence. It has evidently become an important 2024 election tool for Trump supporters. 

The brief tenure of Ronna McDaniels as a political commentator on NBC left me with mixed feelings.  McDaniels, the former chair of the Republican National Committee, had been brought on to the network to give news coverage a more balanced appearance, I assume. Still, it ended in heated and on-camera objections from many NBC and MNBC stars. the network brass reversed itself.  In her first appearance, she refused to back down from being an election denier who contributed to the January 6 violent rioters and Trump's attempted coup to overturn the 2020 election results to turn him from a loser to a winner. I would have looked forward to her defending election denying in the face of challenges from other panel members or moderators. The sign of a true believer is to admit that Biden sits in the White House, so he is now President, but never to admit the 2020 election was legitimate.  McDaniels, now a private citizen, passed the true believer MAGA test in her interview on Meet the Press in March, igniting howls of protest that giving a public platform to promote such lies was unacceptable. She refused to agree the 2020 election was fair and referred to all of the "problems" in the 2020 election. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ronna+mcdaneil+meet+press+first+interview

How can one explain why election denials  have such power even in 2024? It makes no sense unless you view it as a cynical political strategy that benefits Trump and the MAGA movement.

     1. One explanation could be that it has value as a strategy and a tactic to give some sort of rationale to justify a second coup, violent or otherwise.  The 2020 election was stolen, so expect 2024 to be stolen again if Trump loses, goes the pitch. Political violence is already being threatened. The chief election official in Colorado is the Secretary of State, a Democrat, and like other election officials throughout the US, she must have 24-7 security protection because of the threats of violence against them. https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/07/politics/threats-us-public-officials-democracy-invs/index.html

Trump has a long history of supporting violence to accomplish a political goal. Even if you think he is just bluffing and bloviating, then learn how he has promoted violence in the past. It is a big part of who he is Promising to free and forgive violent and convicted January 6 protestors is just the most obvious one, but his inciting violence or advocating it has a record. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2020/08/trump-fans-flames-of-violence-yet-calls.html

     2. Another explanation could be that it is also a way to identify those who are true MAGA supporters from those who are not, like a secret handshake to get entry into the Trump club or as a hex sign to warn off a political attack by MAGA party disciplinarians of being primaried or publicly humiliated. Fear of loss of power or livelihood in a primary is a powerful motivator.   Trump's threat of revenge and retribution if he is re-elected is his promise often repeated.

    3. There could be another, darker reason for keeping the Big Lie going. It provides motivation and a rationale to enact voter suppression legislation and call it "voter integrity."  If the system is broken, we should fix it, according to pious logic. The problem is there is no evidence the system was that broken to justify unlawful purging of voter records, playing keepaway from convenient ballot drop boxes, and stopping mail in voting. However, suppressing the vote benefits the Trump re-election efforts by weakening his feared opposition.  What the MAGA "fix" is passing laws making it hard for targeted, presumed potential anti-Trump and pro-Biden voters to vote, all in the name of "voter integrity," based on the presumption that the young and the poorer minorities are the ones to commit voter fraud.  The current crusade is to end mail-in balloting (the fraud-free system used in Colorado by most voters). That is both a race-based approach that appeals to the white nationalist element of MAGA and one that does not stand up to evidence of prosecution records. Furthermore, when the MAGA crowd and FOX media lost millions in losing the defamation suit against the vote tabulating systems of Doniniium, they just kept spouting their unproved theories.  If the solution is to use only paper ballots, the answer is to keep mail-in voting and still provide same-day polling places as Colorado does. Paper ballots kept secure are the best proof in an audit that the computer systems upheld the validity of the count in an audit.   https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/5-egregious-voter-suppression-laws-2021

https://www.lwv.org/voting-rights/fighting-voter-suppression

     4. It supports the continuing rule of autocrats, which Trump promotes and what he promises to be. However, know when an autocrat controls the election system, as Trump would like to do with his appointments. there is no faith that there is any election integrity at all. We just witnessed the Russian sham elections recently, which were neither fair nor free, giving Putin his 6th term with 87% of the vote, the same incredible outcome of voting as in the old Communist-controlled USSR.  Putting MAGA in control, like the fox guarding the henhouse, of counting the vote is about the same lack of faith and credibility as it is in Russia. 

5. The Boss requires it. He has honed the technique over many years. Donald Trump has a long history of denying he lost a contest. It was noted when he was the Apprentice star who failed to get the Emmy he thought he deserved. Election denial was again used to explain the rigging that explained Obama's success, which popped up in 2012, and then, in 2020, it set off a bell in an October presidential debate. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/timeline-donald-trumps-election-denial-claims-republican-politicians/story?id=89168408   At first, it was just a comment made during a debate by Donald Trump in  October of 2016 that set off the first alarm bells. .https://www.npr.org/2016/10/20/498713509/donald-trump-says-hell-accept-the-results-of-the-election-if-he-wins    Some watching the debate thought he was just making a joke, but the joke was on us. He was not kidding. Others thought he believed he would lose, so he was preparing his followers to not lose faith; he never lost anything, and he would do something.   And something he did culminating in the January 6 attempted coup.  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/no-modern-presidential-candidate-refused-to-concede-heres-why-that-matters  

6. The purge is complete.MAGA election deniers have taken over the GOP and many state officials.They got the power and prestige by riding on election denying oratory. The US Speaker of the House is an election denier, and the present and just past RNC (Republican National Committee) chairs are election deniers. Election deniers are in place to administer the 2024 elections in many states.   https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/election-deniers-playbook-2024 

In Colorado, recently mostly blue,   a very conservative and disgusted  Rep. Buck (R)  bailed out of the House before his term was up, leaving the GOP control hanging by a thread. He cited that the lies still promoted by the 2020 election were stolen. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republican-rep-ken-buck-leaving-congress-eroding-gop-majority-rcna143046 His district is ruby red, so he will likely be his replacement who passes the MAGA loyalty tests. The Colorado state party chair, Dave Let's Go, Brandon Williams, the supreme Colorado election denier, is also running for Congress to fill another announced House vacancy in a red district.  Republican state chair Dave Williams wins top-line in Colorado's 5th Congressional District primary | Elections | coloradopolitics.com   

Buck's replacement was picked to run in the primary. Greg Lopez is an election denier, against abortions with no exceptions, with a history of domestic violence, DUIs, and other run ins with the law. https://coloradosun.com/2024/03/28/greg-lopez-ken-buck-colorado-4th-district-lauren-boebert/

https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/local-politics/candidate-lets-go-brandon-nickname/73-cac3b05d-4d57-4ac6-961c-6d308155e2f6

In my own county, the newly elected County Clerk nearly lost to opponents who suspected she was an election denier who would be running elections. She squeaked by winning her election recently after claiming the retiring loyal and much respected GOP clerk was OK, but the rest of the 2020 election, state and national, was a fraud. Go figure.    

Violence is the difference between an Orban dictatorship and a Trump one

 What is an Orban (Viktor Orban of Hungary).democracy? Orban calls it an illiberal democracy. That is an oxymoron. Illiberal for sure, but a democracy in name only. He has seized and maintained power peacefully. What is a Trump plus Orban style of governance? Orban's methods are similar to Trump's proposal to become a dictator, strong man, and autocrat (all the same basic meanings). However, Trump promotes the use of violence to maintain control.

As Trump becomes an apprentice to a European dictator, Viktor Orban of Hungary, in their recent meeting at Mar -A-Lago, Orban touts his illiberal democracy to Trump's high praise. In 2022, Orban was re-elected to his 4th term in an election that even the EU observers reported was marred by the "pervasive overlapping of government and ruling coalition’s messaging that blurred the line between state and party, as well as by media bias and opaque campaign funding." Human Rights Watch stated that the election was "marred by serious concerns about its fairness," while Freedom House described the election as neither free nor fair.["

Media bias in Hungary is an understatement since opposition media licenses are not granted, so there is only one silo permitted in a country whose language is unique to that country. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2022/hungary In addition, elections are influenced by opaque campaign donations, and all the reins of government are in the hands of Orban loyalists. The skeleton and pretense of democracy remain; opposition party leaders are not jailed or murdered as in Russia, and all is peaceful. Peace is helped since 95% of Hungarian citizens are of one ethnic group (Magyar), so minorities do not have a chance, and neither do opposition groups.

Here is what Trump has made public and told how he would become a "strong leader". He only needs to be a dictator on day one to begin the process of becoming one, and use of violence is one of his tools. He has told us and it is no secret. Trump has pledged to use the active military to put down US demonstrations, execute generals who do not obey, and use the DOJ to prosecute Trump's enemies. Trump would control "justice" through appointees and feel free to have total immunity, a license to kill opponents, steal, and cheat, and all of the control of the election process would be in his hands. His plan is to fire 50 thousand federal employees and replace loyalists, including federal law enforcement. He only needs day one to begin the process.

Trump has a long history of supporting violence to accomplish a political goal. Even if you think he is just bluffing and bloviating, then learn how he has promoted violence in the past. It is a big part of who he is Promising to free and forgive violent and convicted January 6 protestors is just the most obvious one, but his inciting violence or advocating it has a record. Meet some of the violent Jan. 6 rioters Donald Trump keeps calling 'hostages' (nbcnews.com)https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2020/08/trump-fans-flames-of-violence-yet-calls.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/viktor-orban-dangerous-role-model-for.html

https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/11/politics/donald-trump-media-tweet/index.html

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/hello-dictator-hungary-orban-viktor-119125/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/01/09/trump-comments-violence-bedlam/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Hungarian_parliamentary_election#:~:text=Hungary's%20incumbent%20prime%20minister%20Viktor,certainly%20see%20it%20from%20Brussels%22.

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-promising-supporters-d-second-034039743.htmlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYLT_w_Dd2A

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2023/12/if-you-think-trump-was-kidding-about.html

Now onto the court of public opinion...and a call to action updated 8/21/23

Update 8/11/34  https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/08/11/protective-order-hearing-trump-jan-6-evidence/   Judge clips Trumps' speech wings in order to protect the jury pool

 Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country.  This is a variation of one of the sentences I practiced in learning to type. Now it is a line that suddenly has urgency.  The country in which I have lived for over 85 years is the one I want to aid and which is in peril.  The judicial system will play out in the next 18 months, and Donald Trump's fate will be played out in the court of public opinion in November 2024 whether trials take place before the election. Your voice needs to be raised. Do not rely on the judicial system to do the job for you.  Do not just get angry and just vote. We now need to challenge the attack on our democratic system and rebut it. Use facts and evidence. Do it in your daily intercourse with co-workers, and others who are listening. Do it in social media..Read the indictment. Become knowledgeable of its contents.  Just do not hurl invective or accuse those with whom you disagree as being fools or worse, but deal with the issues being raised and make your case to the jury of public opinion.  Silence is a vote for the end of democracy.  

I think there is more to the story than just a deranged individual, a wannabe dictator, a narcissist, a person with no principles except get the best deal for himself he can transact. I think there is more to the story. Trump may be a trumpet, but he also represents a large body of self-serving and angry right who would like a dictator to get into office again, give them the business and social favors, and access they crave, trample civil rights, and complete his takeover of the executive and judicial branch. It is, whatever you call it, part of a worldwide movement and follows the playbook of others like him. Using the word "fascists" describes it in the correct historical sense of the word and they use the same playbook fascists succeded in the 1930s. How did that all turn out? That is a rhetorical question. The fawning over Orban of Hungary and the setting up of another Jew as the overarching villain, Soros, is part of the same awful playbook. I am not Jewish, but I recognize the history and how effective the Nazis were to play the hand of hyping old hatreds to deflect and rationalize their takeover of power with a constituency that was willing and even fearful.. Where this fascist movement in the US will go wrong is our diversity. Hungary is 99% ethnic pure. However, if the other 60% of US voters are asleep at the wheel, and then wake up after the takeover, the violence and conflict will be very different than Hungary. What we must do is keep the other 60% en garde and actively engaged.. The worst part about being so old is that I see history repeating itself and so many forget the lessons learned.

• Like
• Reply
• 17m
• Edited

There is also a role churches can play, but the Evangelical movement has fed and provided supporters for some of the extremist elements of the MAGA movement. There is the beginning of some important Evangelical thought leaders realizing that there is a crisis when parishioners attack a pastor for spreading subversive lib propaganda when was only quoting Christ's Sermon on the Mount. https://www.newsweek.com/evangelicals-rejecting-jesus-teachings-liberal-talking-points-pastor-1818706

  (SEEING the multitudes, Jesus went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: and he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.)

p. 20

To listen to it read, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk_a_OFXLgY

The text was also downloaded to Kindle, via Amazon.

From the Cornell Law School, the text limiting the Vice President as President of the Senate's role in counting electoral: Clear as a bell: votes:  https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/15

Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, the role of the President of the Senate while presiding over the joint session shall be limited to performing solely ministerial duties.

(2)Powers explicitly denied.—

The President of the Senate shall have no power to solely determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes over the proper certificate of ascertainment of appointment of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors.

It is personal to me having had close encounters with forms of government in which those in power ignore laws and violate human rights without impunity.  Here is my case:  In short, democracy is worth keeping as is the rule of law.  The alternative is chaos and turmoil and ultimately your voice can be silenced by a strong man we call either an autocrat, king, strong man or dictator. Once in power and controlling all of the organs of power by appointment and fist, it is hard to reverse that. It takes a violent or velvet revolution, which is the alternative to the American constitutional system. This is the ultimate element of our democracy,   a peaceful transition to regime change and it is the first time since 1860 it is now in peril. After all of the legal remedies to challenge election results have been decided by an independent judicial system, in a famous case even to the Supreme Court, the one adjudicated or lost, has graciously bowed to the system even if they could not believe or agree with the outcome.. Until now.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCQ6DUxJwYo

 The peaceful transition to power is also the key to economic and social stability, making us "the shining light on the hill" and a thriving capitalistic system where politicians play by the rules and respect the legal system.  Peace and prosperity are words joined together for a reason.Stability, not chaos, is why we invest and the rest of the world invests in America. We have been a dependable, safe harbor until now.  The peaceful transition of power is the first time this element of democracy itself has never been challenged since 1860 until now. For the first time, after the judicial system composed of appointees of both parties,  63 judges concluded there was no evidence of enough fraud to change the 2020 outcome after the loyal staff and the Department of Justice headed by a loyal appointee, Donald Trump attempted actions to change the results to stay in power. These are accusations, per the indictment and evidence supporting those accusations are included in it. The accusation in the indictment accuses Trump of conspiring to set up a fake slate of uncertified and loyalists electors in seven swing states to convince his vice president to rule against certification. There is even evidence that he threatened violence against his "too honest" vice president if he did not violate the provisions of the Constitution. Trump was not accused of causing the January 6 riot or even lying in his public pronouncement, though he tried to use the riot after it ended to use fear of it to get a vote to refuse to certify the election results.   Throughout the entire pre-election, post-election, transition, and post-holding office, Trump maintained the election was a fraud, he won.  It is not this that the indictment accused him as doing. It is that he took action after the system presented its judgment he did not like and began the scheme to change the results in a way that did not represent the actual vote. 

Pence seizes on Trump's latest indictment as he looks to break through in crowded GOP field (msn.com)

Freedom to us means we have the ability to speak it out with it our opinions and argumentation, lies and insults in the political realm, and to have our desires about our governance and to persuade others. It is reflected in a vote that is counted. It does not mean we have the freedom to attack the system itself, the jury system, the safeguards, we set up over 250 years. It does not mean we have the freedom, or scheme to overturn the system itself,  or to not abide by the rules we have set forth called laws we, through our representatives shaped.  Freedom does not mean defying the judicial system that makes a decision of whether those laws are violated or conformed.  The challenge for those of us who have treasured our system as coming closest to those ideals is that the very system is being attacked as a way to support a political goal and counter an outcome they do not like,  that is divorced from evidence, facts, or even a cogent rebuttal. Instead, when those systems have failed to give power to their loyalty to a strong man, they attack the system instead.  Without this, we will have a government that suppresses and obstructs the ability to be heard or a government unleashed to only provide justice and equal services to those who agree with their leader and who conform to the standards set by the preferences of an autocrat, whether they agree or not with them.

 

Cuban and Venezuelan voters in Florida: do not confuse them with other Hispanics

 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/cuban-american-voters-florida-trump-desantis-suarez-2024-president-rcna94253

Edited and updated: 7/15/23

The influence of the non-Cuban/Venezuelan outside of Florida should be considered separately from  other parts of the US.  Trump's racist attacks on Hispanic migrants and the growing demographics of young Latinos elsewhere played a role in putting Arizona in the blue-purple column recently, as well as Trump's nasty attacks on the memory of Arizona's hero, the late Sen. John McCain.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-suburbanites-latinos-and-the-ghost-of-john-mccain-turned-arizona-into-a-presidential-battleground/ar-AA1jcHYS?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=DCTS&cvid=0ebe0487102d4ec290e853e5d0eaf556&ei=7 

 The media sometimes just does not get it. They are confusing Cuban and Venezuelan voters with a larger body of many other Hispanics.   They are constantly pointing to "the Hispanic vote" that one or the other candidate for a federal position-national election or the current officeholder is supported more or less in the polls of this monolith of an ethnic block. They give verbal lip service to repeating to themselves this block is not monolithic but treat it as a monolith in the next sentence or paragraph.   They then express shock or breaking news when some Hispanics do not fit their pre-conceived notion of a monolith and leave it at that.  It is time that pundits begin to look at segments of the Hispanic vote and report that to their audiences. 

  Miami turned red recently and Florida moved into the deep red column after being purple and led by a governor who tried to position himself to the right of MAGA, Every time polls showing a political shift happens, the story becomes: Democrats are losing the Hispanic vote while polls of the monolithic view show the shift has been localized and intensified.  The polls of the body of Hispanics as a whole show little change but reveal some softening of support of Democrats, giving that party some angst. Poll: Hispanics aren’t flocking to the GOP, but Democrats still have problems (nbcnews.com) 

Democrats rarely ever had more than 60% of the identified Hispanic vote as a monolith in any presidential election, but since 1984, with one exceptional year,  the "monolith" has voted for Democrats 57% of the time, including now.  The question posed for Democrats in the NBC article immediately above is how to stop any perceived hemorrhaging? The first step in reporting the real story is understanding why certain Hispanics zag one way and others in other parts of the country zag another and why.  Man-on-the-street interviews, as this above story illustrates, are fine, but putting this in a context of why and what, and how to fix it takes a more meaningful journalistic approach. 

Culture, heritage, and life experiences explain much. Why did Miami turn so deeply red recently? Here is my theory.  Cuban and Venezuelans were already heavily GOP voters and those sitting on the fence got an added impetus to vote red from DeSantis' cultural wars against gays and a nearly total abortion ban. Religious and cultural beliefs were added to a long-standing affinity with GOP hard-line anti-Cuba policies and gratitude for their ability to seek refuge in the US after Communists took over both Cuba and later Venezuela.   Their views are shaped by communist repressive governments which persecuted the middle and upper classes and forced them to flee to the US.  Their life experiences and culture differ in many ways from Hispanic immigrants with roots in Mexico and Central America who were fleeing violent drug cartels and poverty. Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants, by and large, were once the wealthier elite of their countries and have more in common with Trump, who also considers himself the wealthy elite.  Some even look down on those racially mixed and the poor, including the recent poorer and younger wave of Venezuelans at our borders.. Trump's disdain for "others" confirms that he shares some of those same values. Therefore it is a mistake to assume that even earlier arrivals should support the more recent ones just because they share religion and language.    

 It is more than just which presidential candidate takes the hardest line against Cuba.  The affinity with MAGA runs deeper than that. How should politicians approach this voting block of Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants? Should they even try?    Empathize first and briefly acknowledge how they get the differences. Be respectful, but at least make the effort to make a case for their different views..Changing deep-seated ideas will be a slow process, and until then, the rest of us should not be surprised\ that the Cuban and Venezuelan Floridians support Trump and the right-leaning Desantis  Sadly, for now, it is what it is for the older generations, but the more assimilated younger generations may have open minds addresses issues affecting Florida Cubans and Venezuelans other than foreign policy toward Cuba or Venezuela.  In other parts of the country, the issues and attitudes, and experiences will differ, so remember, all politics are local, but Hispanic views may be local, too.

There are other issues raised by the Cuban and Venezuelan immigrant communities besides hardline foreign policies toward Cuba and Venezuela and DeSantis' cultural wars. They have some views of the meaning of democracy, justice, freedom, and immigration that are similar to the MAGA supporters.

Democracy  v Autocracy. The question that bugs me is how can those who fled dictatorships not be bothered by charges made that Trump is a wannabe dictator? Are they just trading one dictatorship for another?  If so, can Democrats convince them to vote bluer?

Connected to this is the concept of justice which is similar to MAGA views..  Indictments of Donald Trump only endear Trump to Florida Cubans and Venezuelan immigrants because the dictatorial and autocratic rules of Castro,  Chavez, and  Maduro abused the rule of law and the justice system to force the upper and middle class to flee.  The irony is that Donald Trump has often expressed admiration for dictatorial, non-democratic leaders, from Putin to the heads of N Korea and Hungary, yet the refugees from autocratic countries such as Cuba and Venezuela fail to understand or see that Trump has the same instincts as such autocrats, dictators, and tyrants from whom they fled.  Post-President Trump expressed a desire to take revenge/retribution and to use fear of enlisting the government to persecute his enemies if he got a second term.  An explanation for this blind spot and unconcern that Trump is a wannabe autocrat is a mindset that autocrats are OK with these Cuban and Venezuelan refugees if they are "their" autocrats who support their elite class or interests, or lifestyle.  It is an attitude similar to that held by the core Trump American-born followers, as well. 

"New Deal and War on Poverty expansionism is communism and therefore Democrats are communists" is a concept frequently expressed by the Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants. The MAGA views are similar to the anti-social programs held by non-MAGAs, too, but not expressed in such extreme terms as communist.  Life experience could explain why Cubans and Venezuelans in Miami claim everyone left of center is a communist when they advocate social security, health care, and poverty programs because that is how the governments they fled rose to power by advocating and promising social programs for the poor.   There are no shades of gray in their concept.  Government social programs are communist. Expansion of them will lead to communism. Period.  In time, they may realize that there is a difference between the New Deal social programs and War on Poverty initiatives based on the need for the least of these and the kind of class warfare/ persecution by authoritarian/dictatorial governments of Cuba and Venezuela. 

Those who immigrated to Florida from Cuba also have a view of  "freedom" that is shared by the Trumpist crowd.  Freedom for them appears to mean the freedom to live their past lifestyles, but it did not mean fighting for the same freedom for others.  It was a very self-centered view:. It was freedom for them to do their thing, but by implication and inference or even lack of realization, it did not mean they ought to support or advocate the same freedom for those of different socio, racial, sexual orientation,or country of origin backgrounds.  This may explain why  Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants are not bothered by the anti-immigrant rhetoric and harsh border policies of the Trump administration. Remember those Cubans who set foot on our beaches fleeing Castro were immediately granted refugee status and citizenship. 

Trump's unprecedented campaign pitch: Elect me to be your revenge on the government - ABC News

Most Latinos Say Democrats Care About Them and Work Hard for Their Vote, Far Fewer Say So of GOP | Pew Research Center

__________________________________________________________________________________

Personal notes:  So why am I sensitive to this failure to take into account the reasons for the angst or incomplete coverage of the Hispanic vote story? 

 Full disclosure: I had a great-grandmother from Tuero, Spain, who married a first-generation immigrant from France and settled in the eastern Colorado plains in the 1880s. My father grew up in a bilingual Spanish-speaking middle-class family of business owners in Hillrose, Colorado. My admiration for Hispanic culture runs deep, and I was proud to serve nearly 8 years in the Federico Peña administration when he was the Mayor of Denver before he served as US Secretary of Energy and Transportation. Peña is a native of Laredo, Texas. After that, I was a consultant to a local  Hispanic businessman, Mike Shaw, also with Texas roots, helping with his philanthropic projects in the  Hispanic and minority communities. His efforts were recognized nationally. mike shaw first minority dealer to be named Time auto dealer of year - Search (bing.com)

My views, too, are shaped by unusual life experiences. Members of our family and I have spent time in Florida and Miami, some living there for several years, others frequent visitors.  The contrast between the Floridian Hispanics and those  Hispanics in my own community was stark. It seemed even the only things they had in common were the Spanish language and the Catholic religion. We lived for over forty years in a heavily Hispanic Denver reflecting the first Hispanic arrivals from the poverty-struck San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado with inhabitants who can trace their ancestors to the Conquistadors. In more recent times, Denver is dominated by those immigrating from south of the border.  There have been cultural clashes as the south of the border groups became dominant. Both groups share more in common with themselves than with the first waves of Cubans in Florida or the more recent  Venezuelan arrivals in Miami.  

I was married most of my adult life to a refugee from the communism of Eastern Europe, so the plight of refugees is more than just a political or abstract interest. I know firsthand of the differences between communism and the New Deal/War on Poverty programs. One did not lead to another. In any case, the concept of freedom and human and civil rights are colored by their experiences that motivated emigration.  My late husband, for example, was very relieved to be able to say and speak out what he wanted without fear of a knock on the door by police in the middle of the night. However, he was puzzled when not everyone appreciated his opinion (He was a Democratic national committeeman for three terms). I had to explain to him that freedom of speech did not mean everyone had to agree with him but that he did have a right to express it, even if it was not wise politics.  

What both my husband and I and other family members did observe over the years as those who immigrated to Florida from Cuba had an entirely different view of freedom. Freedom for them meant the freedom to live their past lifestyles, but it did not mean fighting for the same freedom for others.  It was a very self-centered view:. It was freedom for them to do their thing, but by implication and inference or even lack of realization, it did not mean they ought to support or advocate the same freedom for those of different socio, racial, or country of origin backgrounds.  This, I think, may explain why the GOP and Trump have such appeal to those who advocate freedom for their followers but not the same freedom or equity for everyone.  The corollary to that is to approve or tolerate discrimination against those perceived as potential or actual enemies. 

No kidding. The real fear facing FOX: loss of audience trust updated 3/11/23

The eyeopeners in sworn testimony and text messages between them showed their contempt for Trump himself and the shared belief that the election was not stolen, while on camera they were promoting the exact opposite views. The reasons they gave were revealed in these depositions is that if they reported what they really thought did not reflect their loyal audiences' misconceptions fed to them by Trump and other media outlets, they would lose ratings.  Their fear was not of being called out as hypocrites; they feared they would lose their loyal audience who had believed what three of the hosts themselves privately called  BS.  Instead, they promoted on air  Donald Trump's version of the truth.  At CPAC he promised retribution against those who did not fall in line with his explanation of why he was called a loser. 

Damning Dominion depositions showed what those opinion personalities and execs themselves in real-time thought about the violence and significance of January 6. In an attempt to justify some FOX  opinion hosts twisting the January 6 riot violence into a peaceful protest, Tucker Carlson this past week attempted to revise history to fit his public views.    Tucker Carlson cherry-picked police videos that depicted the rioters as peaceful looky-loo tourists. With 140 Capitol police injured,  the police defending the Capitol tripped over their own feet? Since the violence was shown live on TV as it took place, I wonder how many who were glued to their TV's that day still believe in peaceful tourist sham.  There were videos shot on January 6 by a variety of videographers. One from ITV Britain entered the Capitol with the rioters. and security cameras were used as evidence in  the January 6 select committee hearings and trials.  One outcome was evidence that the violence was led by anti-government militia members. No Antifa members turned up in any data source.  They were joined by others who were angered by the big lie. An estimated ten thousand breached the capitol grounds on January 6 per the police and AP,  and about 2 thousand of those entered the Capitol there.   Of those two thousand, about 1000 have been prosecuted on a variety of criminal charges. 26 Months Since the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol (justice.gov) Trump, the wannabe dictator, this week also called those who found themselves charged with crimes and/or imprisoned "political prisoners" who he would release immediately if re-elected.  To heck with evidence and the judicial process or the rule of law.  That's just what autocrats do. 

What is driving FOX is fear of losing ratings which translates into advertising revenue.  That was also revealed in the Dominion deposition transcripts.  What FOX did not count on was a release of the transcripts of sworn depositions and text messages to other media outlets. FOX hosts promoted guests they texted privately they considered were nuts,  the ones who claimed the Domion tabulating systems were falsely programmed to favor Biden. Whether the revelation of the lies FOX told their audience that Dominium was the one whose systems stole their election when they knew the election was not stolen would be enough evidence to help Dominium win their defamation suit will meet the high bar of proof required when freedom of speech is at issue will probably be decided by a jury. Settlement before a trial would require FOX to admit some culpability which would be a bad PR move. Better for their reputation would be if Dominion lost the suit.Critical will be proving intentional harm to Dominion. Defamation case law favors the media's first amendment rights. It then could be claimed that the FOX hosts and Rupert Murdoch were off the hook for their hypocritical role. Regardless of the suit outcomes.FOX the bad taste will linger,  that they themselves were hypocritical, fooled their audience, feared rating loss, and took their audience for fools.. Regardless of a trial outcome, the damage has already been done to the trust in FOX  bringing bad news their viewers would not like. 

Private Fox News text messages, emails released in Dominion suit (nbcnews.com)

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Who do you trust for bringing you the news: a plea for critical thinking

 https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/fox-dominion-reach-787m-settlement-220400496.html

Did FOX admit they lied about Dominium's voting systems contributing to  Trump's defeat in 2020?  In effect, they did, but it was not in a sound bite.  Instead, they acknowledged the judge's ruling to move the case to trial because it was "crystal clear" FOX had lied. The trial would have decided on the amount of settlement and rehashing of what was discovered in the pre-trial process. The depositions of sworn testimony made public as part of the civil defamation case leadup to trial were damning, with testimony from those who knew that behind the scenes, FOX evening personalities knew that it was a lie, but still promoted it as truth to their viewers.  This was only the first case to end of others suing FOX for defamation of their company's voting systems are still pending.  This is not only an enormous defamation settlement against a media entity (3/4 of a billion dollars), its significance is that on the public record for history, a  trusted media source lied about the 2020 election was stolen and that their followers swallowed it hook line and sinker and motivated the  Jan.6 rioters. 

"We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false," the Fox statement said.

Fox News and Dominion reach $787.5 million settlement in defam…

www.nbcnews.com/media/fox-news-settles-dominion-defamation-lawsu Murdochs Bet on Fox News Ahead of Dominion Voting Lawsuit - Variety

  lachlan murdoch - latest news, breaking stories and comment - The Independent

No wonder this country is politically split nearly with the edge barely going to the Democrats..  The impact on FOX News either shapes or reflects the opinions of its viewers and nearly 40% of voters get their news from that cable channel.   Pew Research has done the only survey I could find of where Americans get their news, and 39% get it from FOX. It was conducted in 2019 and released in 2020. The other 61% get their news from other sources, mostly mainstream publications, print, TV broadcasts, and other cable channels. The impact of social media, even more important, was not included in their survey. Social media is an amplifying vehicle,  spreading whatever news and/or opinion is out there to those who are already loyal to one side or other of the political spectrum.  In primetime, FOX NEWS opinion hosts garner over 50% of the listeners. Tucker Carlson's ratings even spiked after the Dominium texts revealed him as believing one thing in private and another in public about Donald Trump and the 2020 election, as he attempted to rewrite the history of January 6 by showing video clips only of peaceful rioters.

 https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/01/americans-main-sources-for-political-news-vary-by-party-and-age/

New documents show Tucker Carlson texted colleague he hates Trump "passionately" - CW Atlanta (cbsnews.com)

Tucker Carlson said he hates Trump: Dominion-Fox filing (cnbc.com) . 

Private Fox News text messages, emails released in Dominion suit (nbcnews.com)

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Who do you trust for bringing you the news: a plea for critical thinking

A few days ago, the latest to plea guilty and be sentenced for his actions on January 6 was from Colorado  .https://kdvr.com/news/local/colorado-man-pleads-guilty-to-jan-6-charges/

Defacto appeasement: West's weak response to Russia's aggression in Georgia and Crimea greenlight Putin in Ukraine

Did the West's weak response to Russia's aggression in Georgia and Crimea greenlight Putin in Ukraine? In retrospect, the West's failure to object strongly enough to Putin's advancement and war in Georgia and his takeover of Crimea sent the message that his takeover of Ukraine would be met with the same tolerable slap on the hands.  This defacto appeasement by weak response did not prevent Putin's invasion of Ukraine but only greenlighted him. It contributed to Putin's misconception and an epic miscalculation that the West would not respond to Russia's invasion of Ukraine with a NATO in such disarray. Rattle a threat of nuclear war would be all that was needed to keep the west at bay. Putin had good reason to think that since Donald Trump had done little to object to Russia's grab of Crimea and the 8 years of fighting in the  Donbas region of Ukraine other than a slap on the hand of sanctions on oligarch friends of Putin, supplying anti-tank weapons, and retraining of Ukraine's army. Trump had done what he could to weaken NATO, threatening to end America's support or honor the mutual defense purpose of the alliance. 

Trump attempted to make the case now as he kicked off the 2024 campaign that he alone could end the war in Ukraine that would prevent World War III.  Donald Trump speaking before CPAC said he knows how to end the Ukraine war and "prevent world war III" because only he "can talk with Putin".  He could end the war in one day even before he was sworn in, claimed. If it is appeasing Russia he has in mind, we have seen that scene before both in recent years and  85 years ago. There are those, fortunately still a minority in Congress, who agree with Trump. They are fools and history ignoramuses. 

 If we have learned nothing from history, it is that appeasement does not stop a war when the aggressor has made his intentions obvious, and public, and uses it to aggrandize his own power base. That was true of Hitler in 1938, and it is true of Putin in 2023. Appeaser is a toxic word to pin on politicians to all but the naive and uneducated who follow them. It is time we do some educating about how that has played out in both the past five years and 85 years ago.

Would Trump have his Chamberlain moment if he got his second term? "Anschluss" and "peace in our time" after Chamberlain's negotiations with Hitler that gave him what he wanted, " appeasement", "America First", and "Fortress America" are words that also come from the year of 1938 leading up to World War II. Presidential elections in 2024 could be our 1938 moment.  America First is also a political force in 2023. Appeasement is not yet in wide use in 2023, but it does describe Trump's policies toward Russia. Anschluss refers to Germany and Austria becoming one under Hitler, and Putin does not consider Ukraine an independent country, but part of Russia. The term Fortress America does not yet apply to isolationists, but should, because of the fallacy that America is not interconnected with the rest of the world and we, stupidly, can protect ourselves without the help of allies if we are armed enough because there are oceans on both sides of our continent.  The mentality exists in 2023, but the term went out of fashion with Pearl Harbor. 

• Recently, nearly announced candidate for the GOP nomination for the 2024 presidential race is Ron DeSantis.  He seems to think riding the appeasement horse is the way to go. 3/16/23   Senate Republicans distance themselves from DeSantis’s Ukraine stance | The Hill  

 At this point, it appears that Trump will still win in the primaries and will be the GOP candidate in 2024. Looking at Trump's relations with Russia in his first term, we know what he has in mind if he ever got into the oval office again. Sure, he knows how to end the war in Ukraine. The problem is, if his past predicts his future action, it would put wind in Putin's sails to continue his Anschluss of Ukraine and return of the rest of eastern Europe into satellites again by subversion or invasion.

 Trump's actions in his first term directly led to Putin's invasion of Ukraine and Putin's miscalculation. While prior administrations also looked the other way as Putin began to use force to grab his neighbors, Trump not only looked the other way at Putin's success in grabbing lands, he cleared the path by subverting NATO's power to block him. He also had a bromance with Putin, admiring his leadership style and trusting Putin's national security folks over his own in an infamous NATO meeting in Helsinki.  No wonder Putin miscalculated. He counted on Trump having a second term and Biden having lost a step in old age, so it is better to strike while he still could. He was wrong in one of the most epic miscalculations so far in this century. To think Trump ends the Ukraine conflict in minutes as he boasted at the early March  CPAC  convention is easy to predict based on his past actions. Speculation is well-founded that he would just hand over to Russia the eastern third of Ukraine and then stand by as Russia continues the march into the leftovers as the west stopped arming Ukraine, any treaty promises notwithstanding. That Trump would even honor NATO'S mutual defense clause is doubtful since he already tried to declare it dead once before, leading to Putin's continued march into the Baltics and Poland for starters, in spite of their NATO membership.  It would only take Trump a five-minute phone call to Putin to start the appeasement ball rolling.   Trump could crow "peace in our time" after that fateful phone call to Putin,  but peace would be short-lived as experience with Putin has already demonstrated and advocated publicly. . His ambitions lie further than Ukraine but to the nine countries bordering Russia.  Ukraine was just the low-hanging fruit, he thought. That Trump could be pinned down to say just how he would end the Ukraine war is a worthy, if futile, campaign attack by opponents, but his silence could also be damning and verification of his appeasement intent.  

To say that appeasement would end Putin's stated goal to reassemble the old USSR's empire or lessen the chances of World War III is at best nuts.  Appeasement did not stop Hitler from seeking " lebensraum", nor would it stop Putin who has staked his continued dictatorship of Russia on hyper-nationalist appeal to a reincarnation of the USSR'S former glory days that is a rallying cry that is quite popular with the Russian masses. Putin's polls have never been higher.  It would also give a green light for President Xi to grab Taiwan and likewise extend the Chinese empire to southeast Asia and beyond.

 This segment on America First and isolationism What is wrong about America First and isolationism. It depends. has been moved to its own separate blog posting: 3/7/23. This subject is a big one. It is not simple as sloganeering would make you think. So what's wrong with "America first" and isolationism?.  It depends if we are talking about national defense or economic interests.  Trump himself sneers at those who support strong military alliances, like NATO, as globalists.  When it comes to national defense and security, isolationist policies shoot us in our own feet by making America first America alone, with defense all by ourselves. National security interests are often entangled in trade and economic concerns, especially when China is involved. That takes a balancing act, targeted tradeoffs, in the extent of reliance on sensitive imports. For more, go to the 3/7/blog posting.

I

 ________________________________________________________________

Why should "appeasement" be a dirty word. If  Trump followers have forgotten history or slept through that chapter in school. here is a refresher course in less than a one-minute read.: In March 1938 Hitler completed joining Austria with Germany,  Next on Hitler's list was Czechlovakia's Sudentenland and a few other smaller areas Chamberlain declared "peace in our time" as he made the deal with Hitler (he failed to read Mein Kampf) re: Czechoslovakia, September 1938. Within a year, Hitler had completed his takeover or placed Nazi Hungarians in charge of all of Czechoslovakia and marched into Poland.  World War II had begun. In June 1940, the Germans took over France. The German blitz bombing of England began in September 1940, two years after the declaration of "the peace in our time".  In June 1941, Germany began its invasion of Russia, betraying a pact with Stalin.  December 7, 1941, was Pearl Harbor, as imperial Japan also sensed our military weakness and devotion to isolationism to hold onto our Pacific dominance.   Its timeline to build an empire began in 1931 and included a treaty with Hitler and Italy in 1940.

Those who think Putin who has declared his intent to reassemble Russian influence in the USSR years over eastern Europe or that Chi in China is calculating US resolve to protect Taiwan from their publicly stated eventual goal are kidding themselves. Neither has made it a secret of their intent.

 Vladimir Putin’s Russia: Trying to Rebuild the Soviet Era? (thecollector.com)

Milley: China Wants Capability to Take Taiwan by 2027, Sees No Near-term Intent to Invade - USNI News

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44852812    Trump in Helsinki, 2018

Japan Builds An Empire | Timetoast timelines

Tripartite Pact | Definition, History, Significance, & Facts | Britannica

Donald Trump claims he would end Ukraine war ‘in one day’ - YouTube

America First Political Action Conference - Wikipedia

https://www.newsweek.com/pro-russia-power-grab-georgia-thwarted-massive-street-protests-1787791?utm_source=push_notification&utm_source=pushnami&utm_medium=Push_Notifications&utm_campaign=fullauto&utm=1678961580051

Senate Republicans distance themselves from DeSantis’s Ukraine stance | The Hill