The Perfect Metaphor

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia - Jeanine Pirro - stated in a court filing that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting pool was the "result of flawed installation by the contractor" rather than vandalism, prompting her office to drop charges against a former Olympic athlete and three other individuals.

Prosecutors noted that they received new evidence and information showing that the peeling sealant stemmed from poor contractor work and a rushed installation rather than intentional cutting by individuals.

Pirro isn't stupid and clearly knows if she pursued this nonsense she'd face disbarment. 

Speaking from the Oval Office yesterday Mr. Trump had this to say, "Frankly, I think she choked because the judge was really vicious.  Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department, and I guess she choked.  I don't know what the hell happened."

The Reflecting Pool is actually a perfect metaphor for Mr. Trump; and he created it himself. He's gonna drain it, repaint it and start over.   All the while expecting a different result. 

You read it here first. 

Any bets the algae makes a a return appearance? 

Oops From The Oriole Ranch

The orioles are making a liar out of me.  Watching the news last evening I spotted a juvenile on the feeder just outside on the feeder.

The bird cam is still on the porch and two of the three jelly feeders were empty.  Empty feeders do not necessarily imply orioles feed at them as other birds like grape jelly.  Nevertheless, I swapped-out the memory card to check on who's been visiting.

And from yesterday afternoon there was an oriole and a house finch and a solo female oriole. 

 

Theology Of The Purloined Election

Who won the 2020 presidential election?

Joe Biden did; fair and square.

Court after court after court agreed; including courts presided-over by judges appointed by Donald Trump.

Republican secretaries of state agreed on the matter.

Donald Trump's own attorney general agreed.

Recounts confirmed it.

Audits further confirmed it.

Lawsuits were settled over it. 

Time and again the stolen election hoax has been tested and rejected whenever it finds its way into a courtroom, a sworn affidavit, testimony or deposition is undertaken to present evidence.

Nevertheless, it remains an article of faith in MAGA World and no heresy on the subject matter is permitted because Donald Trump demands it be so.  Absolute fealty and obeisance to the Dear Leader is enforced.  

Even those Republicans who cannot bring themselves to say that the long-dead Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez was somehow involved in hacking the vote tabulators in 2020 are loathe to distance themselves from the Big Lie.  They'll shuffle their feet, nervously change the subject and suggest that voting by mail during COVID was somehow unfair.

As a general rule I don't pontificate (pardon the pun) about religion on social media.  Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs; and if you follow one of the three Abrahamic religions or something else that is your business.  Not mine.  But I'm acquainted with a handful of individuals who gushingly worship the president.  Some days I think that ordinarily level-headed and rational adults have somehow become spellbound by magical wishful thinking.  It's kinda creepy.

The stolen election has now been elevated to a modern day political New Testament.  It is the closest thing American politics has conjured-up in my lifetime to idolatry.  Yup; and there's a Commandment that addresses this business of idol worship.

The public profession of faith in a thing known to be false because devotion to the Leader requires it.  Yuck.

Managing Pond Scum

Schadenfreude is the pleasure we feel when witnessing the misfortune of others.  While it may seem mean-spirited, and even vindictive; if you feel guilty about the satisfaction you experience when someone else messed-up don't be too hard on yourself.  It happens.  I admit to feeling a wee bit mirthful over the president's ongoing battle with pond scum.

Anybody who has lived on a farm, had a neglected backyard pool, pond, gone fishing or otherwise been anywhere near a body of water knows that algae happens once the weather warms-up.  Where I live excess nutrient runoff can create entire dead zones in Green Bay and close beaches to swimmers.  When that happens both us and our dogs stay out of the water until the danger passes.  Hey!  What about your ponds and creek?

Good question.  All three bodies of water on our property support a wealth of diversity including aquatic plant life to animals.  There is no excess nutrient runoff in the ponds because we don't apply any.  Natural algae growth and protozoans support insects and animals on the low end of the food chain. Which, in-turn, support amphibians and reptiles and birds like cranes, ducks and herons.  I can't speak for runoff in the creek because I cannot control agricultural applications upstream or downstream; but it certainly supports bait fish and crawdads.  Speaking for myself, we use best management practices (BMPs) for riparian habitat.

Does the water on my ponds and creek look like drinking water?   Nope.  Would I drink it?  Nope.  Does it look better than the Reflecting Pool water?  Absolutely.  The biophilia is in balance.  You cannot win a fight against Ma Nature and science.

Algae blooms have long thrived in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool since it opened in 1922.  It is filled with stagnant tidal water from the Potomac River further enriched with excess nitrogen and phosphorus runoff which algae loves.  Mr. Trump's own Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will tell you that the water in the pool is unsafe for swimming, fishing or supporting aquatic life.  It is hazardous.  

The president has insisted that his $14 million renovation this spring would forever banish the cloudy, algae-infested water as a consequence of sealing the leaks, filtering the water and painting the bottom American Flag Blue.   

Following the renovations it was refilled with the same nutrient-rich tidal water (not treated city water), wildlife defecated in the pool, it is shallow, fetid and foul and warmed-up in the summer sunshine.  Summers in D.C. are sweltering and the dark blue bottom exacerbated the problem by absorbing more heat and voilà, the largest algae bloom in recent memory!

Mr. Trump wanted blue and he got green.  And lots of it. 

He looked at the algae and blamed imaginary enemies, because enemies are easier than learning.  In the last five days it seems at least five individuals have been cited, arrested or otherwise detained for poisoning or vandalizing the Reflecting Pool.  I don't believe the Reflecting Pool was sabotaged; because I haven't been witness to mug shots or the drama of  a Trumpian perp walk.  The real cause is usually the obvious; it is simply dirty water, full of food for algae, followed by hot weather and now the bottom is delaminating possibly because of shoddy installation by a no-bid contractor and/or the president's own motorcade driving across it.   

 

The president called it an attack because the real answer is too complicated for him to grasp.  Another excuse from the man who shouts at people but cannot shout science out of the water. I guess he missed the class. 

The toxic Reflecting Pool is actually a perfect metaphor for Mr. Trump; and he created it himself. He's gonna drain it, repaint it and start over.   All the while expecting a different result.

So here we are; the National Guard has been tasked with watching paint peel from behind a newly-installed chain link fence and Donald Trump may go down in history as the only US President to be outwitted by a single celled organism.

You can't make this stuff up if you tried.... 

 

Who Wants To Make A Deal?

Last week a buddy and I were pondering the Iran war, the nuclear deal (or lack thereof) and was Iran cheating when Donald Trump exited from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018.  And for some strange reason a day later it occurred to me that Mr. Trump's situation is similar to that of the popular game show Let's Make a Deal that aired from 1963 to 1976.

If you're old like me you may recall that costumed audience members had to deal with fast-talking host Monty Hall in choosing what might be lurking behind up to three doors or curtains.  Was it a fabulous prize - like an automobile?  Or a lesser prize - called a Zonk?

Unexpectedly called-off yesterday, if nuclear talks resume in Pakistan sometime soon President Trump will be facing a similar conundrum mostly a consequence of his own making.  The President had previously characterized the JCPOA as "a horrible, one-sided deal."   And now he has the opportunity to make a new deal.  Will it be Door Number One, Two or Three?  But first, let's put to bed anything about cheating back in 2018.

Whether Iran was cheating at the time Trump withdrew from the JCPOA is debatable.  At the time, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was monitoring sites on the ground and had confirmed that Iran was staying within the limits allowed for uranium enrichment and stockpile size.  Senior officials in the Trump administration, including Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, testified to Congress that Iran was in technical compliance with the agreement.  Consequently, the consensus among both international monitors and the US intelligence community was that Iran was not cheating.

That the agreement had flaws and shortcomings is not debatable. Everyone knew that; including the Iranians.  Trump's primary argument for withdrawal wasn't that Iran was breaking any rules but that  the agreement itself was fatally flawed including a sunset provision that would allow Iran to pursue enrichment activities after the passage of fifteen years and that the deal did not address Iran's ballistic missile program.

So Trump tore-up the agreement and walked away.

And in the absence of a replacement agreement Iran set in motion an enrichment spree and expansion of their ballistic missile program leaving them closer to a bomb than ever before.  Today, the IAEA tells us Iran likely has a total of 11 tons of uranium at various enrichment levels.  With further purification that is sufficient to build up to 10 to 11 nuclear warheads.  All of this happened in the open and without an inning of cheating.

It is noteworthy to remember that Iran had previously lived up to its pledge under the JCPOA to ship to Russia 12.5 tons of its overall stockpile of enriched uranium.  After which, Iran's weapons industry didn't have sufficient material to build even a single bomb. 

The actions of president Trump have had all manner of consequences; intended and otherwise.  Going back to 2018, ask yourself, was the original deal an OK deal?  Was abrogating it a better deal?  And who owns the results?  

From 2021 to 2025 the Biden administration was unsuccessful in negotiating new limits.  And throughout the negotiations Iran kept enriching and expanding its cache of enriched uranium.

Then, in June of last year, Trump bombed Iran's enrichment plants at Natanz and Fordo including underground storage tunnels and facilities at Isfahan.  He famously declared to the world that Iran's nuclear program had been "obliterated."   

But probably not.  

In very short order, Operation Epic Fury was launched in late February of this year.  Two months later the Straits of Hormuz are blockaded and effectively closed and presently the US and Iran have entered a period of tentative diplomacy.  President Trump has previously dispatched Vice President JD Vance to Pakistan; and until yesterday planned to send real estate developers and senior envoys Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to Islamabad to conduct indirect talks presumably to secure a replacement nuclear agreement. 

A fragile ceasefire has been extended.  The president tells us that the military operation has decimated Iran's industrial base, ballistic missile production, drone manufacturing and sunk the navy.

President Trump's decision to unilaterally go to war with Iran without consulting Congress, the American people or (excepting for Israel) any of our global allies; set in motion a cascade of destabilizing events that have dangerous consequences for global stability, security and the world's economy.

Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, has explicitly ruled-out direct talks with Witkoff and Kushner leaving Pakistan serving as an intermediary shuttling messages between the US and Iran. 

The administration is wise to seek an agreement that permanently eliminates any path to nuclear weapons, including restrictions on ballistic missiles and a cessation of support for Hezbollah and Hamas.

Intelligence reports suggest Iran still has its stockpile of highly-enriched uranium.  The president has to come up with a plan for that and Iran has to agree to it.  

Iran has signaled an openness to discussing nuclear concessions contingent-upon sanctions relief, reparations and a formal end to hostilities.  The missile program appears to be a non-starter.  

I'd love to be a fly on the wall of the Oval Office inasmuch as a rushed-deal (to end the war) has a high probability of being a sloppy deal.  I do not think that Trump has the attention to detail or the patience for arduous negotiations that would lead to a real deal.  I have little faith in Trump getting this right.  I think he wants to save face.  He wants to say his deal is better than Obama's.  He wants to get the heck out of this morass as soon as he can; slapdash deal notwithstanding.  Furthermore, with a decapitation of Iranian leadership and wholesale destruction of Iran's economic base what are the implications for a civil war and expansion of unrest in the Middle East?  Would you agree the situation is disordered and chaotic?

And, of course, the Strait remains effectively closed leaving global supply chains seriously messed-up with all sorta unintended consequences.  So, I'm still waiting on President Trump to improve your and my prosperity and general lot in life.  Along with making the world a safer place.

I sure hope he gets this right....

 

If Only The Dead Could Talk

Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, was killed last year by an ICE agent, with the Department of Homeland Security accusing him of having struck an ICE agent with their vehicle. However, DHS’ account of the incident was fiercely disputed by Martinez’ childhood friend, Joshua Orta, who was present during the encounter and claimed neither had offered any resistance to ICE officers’ demands.

On Saturday, Orta died in an unrelated car crash while driving in San Antonio, Texas, with his stepfather confirming his death to the New York Times on Monday.

 

If Only The Dead Could Talk

Originally reported on Wednesday by Newsweek we learned of another Immigration and Customs Enforcement connection to the shooting death of an American citizen in March of 2025.  A shooting death kept from public scrutiny until only last week.

Coincidentally, and leading up to this, a review of internal emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) indicate that senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were informed of a significant rise in reported use-of-force incidents compared to the previous year.  In this case incidents in early March alone had quadrupled year-over year.  

Now the public learns of 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez shot last March in South Padre Island.  ICE's involvement in the shooting was not disclosed to the public until this last week.  

According to ICE documents, the episode, which occurred around 12:40 AM on March 15, 2025, Mr. Martinez failed to follow commands to exit his vehicle. Martinez initially did not follow officers' instructions but eventually slowed to a stop after receiving verbal commands.  Agents surrounded the vehicle and told him to get out of the car before he accelerated and hit a federal agent who reportedly landed on the hood of the vehicle.  Another agent then fired multiple times through the driver's side window.  

The Department of Homeland Security described the shooting as an act of self-defense, saying the agent had "fired defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents and the general public" after the driver "ran over" a Homeland Security Investigation special agent.

That agent was treated and released for a minor knee injury.  Martinez is dead.

According to Homeland Security Department policy an immigration agent is supposed to use deadly force only if the officer has reasonable belief that the subject poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.  Furthermore, the policy specifically states that officers should avoid placing themselves in positions in which they have no other option but to use deadly force.  

In ICE's own reporting this appears another instance of ICE agents not complying with department policy concerning placement of personnel in connection to apprehended vehicles.  Haven't we seen this before?

ICE has not reported the existence of dash cam or body cam video of the incident and no known public video has come forward.  Martinez had been celebrating his birthday with a friend known since elementary school.  He was employed at an Amazon warehouse in San Antonio and had no known criminal or arrest record at the time of this post.

Some will take exception to my view on this subject but I happen to believe federal agents concealing their faces behind a mask and not wearing identification is a bad look.  They need to be up-front like law enforcement we're all accustomed-to.  A sinister look invites nothing but trouble.  Sure, a few of you will tell me about doxing of federal agents.  But you know what?  If rampant doxing was as big as you might imagine, then all law enforcement everywhere would be masked all the time.  

It's not.  

Where I live law enforcement officers wear a badge with a number, including a name tag and rank, they don't hide behind a mask and produce a business card before we part company.  They're professionals and go about their job like professionals.  They're so good at their job they never, never, ever stand in front of a stopped vehicle.  Even I know not to do this.  Your local LEOs are likely identical to mine.  But I digress and apologize for the cheap shot.

Do you know what is an even bigger bad look than masked federal agents?  

Another of our countrymen gunned-down by a federal agent.  

Naturally, there's that small handful of my acquaintances who will bask in their ghoulish reflected glory over this and crow on social media about how Martinez had it coming and it was all his fault.  Nevertheless, I figure most people reading this are standard-issue citizens who understand that federal agents shooting Americans to death is just, plain, smarmy.  It looks terrible and doesn't poll well.  

Moreover, the image of the best professional ICE agents suffer because of this nonsense.  From the top down the reputation and credibility of the entire department suffers.  If, as a consequence, agency leadership comes-across as evasive or furtive the public will take notice and the people will mutter about it.  None of this is rocket science.  Hearts and minds; it is all about winning in the court of public opinion. Appearance counts for a lot.  

So, what do we know for sure? 

Martinez is dead and cannot speak for himself.  This is conspiracy fodder.

No dash cams, no body cams, no identification or accountability for the shooter.  Unheard-of in the world of professional law enforcement this is sloppy meatball policing for sure.  If this is a deliberate policy to never leave a digital trail; that is a really bad look.  (See about conspiracy above)   

How about the boss?  Yup, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem hiding this from the public as long as she has.  Or is this just another oversize example of garden-variety incompetence?  Both looks are really bad; the former is much worse than the latter.  

Hidden from the public for a year.  Sloppy or deliberate?  Reader's Choice - you pick.  

What are they hiding from us anyway?

Quote Of The Day

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

-Winston Churchill*

 

 

 

 

 

*Attribution to Churchill is questionable.  Still a good quote.  

 

Time Out

Mr. Trump’s willingness to make a near-immediate conclusion about the deadly shooting appeared to be at odds with one of his senior advisers. Tom Homan, Mr. Trump’s border czar, told CBS News that he would not make a judgment call on video of the shooting circulating on social media.

“Let the investigation play out,” Mr. Homan said, “and hold people accountable based on the investigation.”

Homeland Security Secretary Noem commented on the fatal ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis and claimed that the woman killed had engaged in an "act of domestic terrorism" by trying to target officers with her car. 

Ever since this happened is seems I cannot swing a dead cat without hitting someone falling over themselves to get into their respective echo chamber of righteous hyper-partisan outrage.  

 

Keyboard warriors out for blood.  

 

I got no interest in turning-up the volume on this as it is way too early in the process.

I'm willing to wait for investigators to do their job, allow the process to play-out and the conclusions released to the public.  

 

It is abundantly clear that the administration had basically decided-upon the narrative they chose to spin before the deceased had been positively identified.  And with the locals stonewalled in any investigative role that puts the FBI under additional scrutiny to not engage in a cover-up.  Appearances will count for a lot.  I'm willing to give the FBI a fair shot at interpreting the forensics.   

 

Time will tell.

 

And liars, where ever they may lurk, get found-out.  Eventually. 

The Speech

I watched the president this evening and have two immediate takeaways.  Inflation is the low-hanging fruit.

That was singularly the longest run-on sentence I've ever heard.  Great discipline on the teleprompter however.

Recent inflation is not the worst ever in history.  The president is either uninformed, confused or a liar; you pick. 

 

Quote of the Day

 

 

During a Tuesday call in to the “Fox & Friends” morning television show, Trump said his orders have transformed Washington into - 

 

Just an incredible place in literally four days.  Did you see what’s happening with the restaurants? They’re bursting, they were all closing and going bankrupt.

 

It's gotten easier to fact-check misinformation, lies and the president himself with Open AI.

 

And for the record, Washington Post polling reveals the 69% of DC residents want the National Guard to go home.  It's apparently a bad look and impacting local business.. 

 

Pants On Fire

In an email I received last Thursday from the Social Security Administration (SSA) I was told - Nearly 90 percent of beneficiaries will no longer pay federal taxes on their benefits.  

True or false?

That claim is false and misleading.

It does not repeal federal income taxes on Social Security benefits.  Instead, it introduces a temporary enhanced standard deduction—up to $6,000 for individuals (or $12,000 for married couples) - for taxpayers aged 65 and older.  This deduction begins phasing out at incomes above $75,000 (individuals) or $150,000 (couples) and expires after 2028.

The White House Council of Economic Advisors cited estimates that roughly 88% of seniors would, thanks to the larger deduction, fall below the taxable threshold on their benefits.  But that is not the same as eliminating the tax - it simply means my total income (post deduction) might result in a reduced tax owed this time around.

The SSA email implied a permanent repeal, rather than a temporary, income-based deduction.

While it may be true that a significant number of seniors (up to ~90%) might not pay federal tax on their social security benefits that tax will not be eliminated.  It is just temporarily offset by a higher deduction, subject to caps, that expires in 2028.

Call it what it is; a one-off deduction; not a repeal.

The taxation of Social Security benefits adds revenue to the program’s trust funds. The taxation of benefits began in 1983, in an effort to stabilize Social Security’s finances.  According to the Committee For A Responsible Federal Budget this deduction hastens the projected insolvency of the trust fund by another year.

Fact Checking

The European nations together have spent $100 billion, or maybe more than that, less than us.

- Donald Trump 

This is on the subject of Ukraine.  Donald Trump is either lying or confused (you pick) because he's got this turned-around.

The United States and Europeans spent roughly the the same amounts in the year immediately following Russia's unprovoked invasion and assault on their neighbor. 

European aid continued to grow in 2023 while aid from the US flatlined without GOP support. 

President Biden eventually secured a bipartisan aid package in April.

Fact Checking

Americans are being squeezed out of the labor force and their jobs are taken.  By the way, you know who's taking the jobs, the jobs that are created?  One hundred and seven percent of those jobs are taken by illegal aliens.

- Donald Trump

Nope.  It's a vast demographic shift Mr. Trump.  I have blogged on this subject in the past as us retired (and planning to retire) Baby Boomers are the pig moving thru the python.

Unemployment as been at or below 4.1 percent for 30 months.  We have a dearth of workers - not an excess.  The number of native-born American workers has remained basically static since 2019.  And this is a consequence of people retiring.  

Immigrants - legal or otherwise - have nothing to do with it.   Trump is confused or lying.  Take your pick.

Fact Checking

The tax cuts spurred the greatest economy that we've ever seen just prior to COVID.  The country was going like never before.  And we were ready to start paying down debt.

- Donald Trump 

During President Trump's tenure in office the national debt exploded - adding 40 percent to the total outstanding debt.  Nevertheless, if you read the reporting in the link there is nuance to this picture.

The national debt ballooned at a faster clip under Trump.  This was driven by two things:  

• The Trump tax cuts increased the annual operating deficit to $1 trillion in 2019; up from $680 billion in 2017. 

• Pandemic spending under Trump increased the the national debt to $27.7 trillion; up from $19.8 trillion.

At no point during the Trump occupancy of the White House was the government ever in a position to pay down the debt. He's lying.

Deficit spending on this scale by any administration is unsustainable.

 

Fact Checking

What we did was incredible.  We got the largest tax cut in history.

- Donald Trump 

The valid means by which to measure the size of any administration's tax cut is to compare it to the size of the economy at that particular point in time.

Using this yardstick, the tax cuts passed into law during the tenure of President Trump was the eighth largest of the past century.

This puts it significantly behind cuts enacted under Presidents Reagan and Obama.  

I'm old enough to remember and was working pretty damn hard to launch a professional practice when Reagan signed into law the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981.  ERTA - sometimes called the Kemp-Roth Tax Cut - was enacted by the 97th Congress and targeted to encourage economic growth.  It was seismic. 

And remember - The Trump tax cuts favored individuals and large corporations who have significantly more income and personal wealth than you and I have.  Middle America and small business start-ups got the equivalent of sloppy seconds.  

The Reagan tax cut was more than four times larger in scale.  Donald Trump is a liar. 

Nothing new under the sun.

Fact Checking

Our cities are flooded with illegal aliens. Americans are being squeezed out of the labor force and their jobs are taken. And by the way, you know who's taking the jobs? The jobs that are created, 107 percent of those jobs are taken by illegal aliens.

- Donald Trump

Nope.  Undocumented immigrants are not taking jobs from US citizens.  At least in any meaningful way.  Employment for our country's native-born has increased by more than 7.2 million since 2021. 

Furthermore, employment  for foreign-born workers increased by almost 5 million over the same period.  This figure includes undocumented, legally-admitted immigrants, refugees, students and temporary arrivals such as the seasonal workers that you'll find here on the peninsula.

Fact Checking

Tariffs are not going to drive prices higher.  It's just going to cause countries that have been ripping us off for years, like China and so many others.  In all fairness to China it's going to just force them to pay us a lot of money.

- Donald Trump

Tuesday's debate raised this issue.  I have opined on this subject more times than I can remember.  All you need to do is type the word "tariff" in the search feature found in the upper left corner of the homepage for this blog. 

Donald Trump seems to be enamored by tariffs.  He wielded his tariff bludgeon frequently during his tenure as president.  And he continues to express his fondness for tariffs on the campaign trail today. 

Economics 101 - When you subject imported goods to tariffs (a form of taxation) the cost of those goods generally increases by the full amount of the tariff.  Translation:  Consumers pay them.  And they contribute to inflation in our economy.

Fact:  In my first year of retirement we purchased a Kawasaki Mule from a local implement dealer.  Trump tariffs added more than $800 dollars to the purchase price.  

Thanks for nothing.

 

Scapegoat

In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.  Serious fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California.  Why isn't the media reporting on this?  Serious bias, big problem!  I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD.

- Donald Trump

For the very first time, in 2016, a presidential candidate (and winner) made the broad and sweeping claim of widespread illegal voting.  Trump claimed anywhere from three to five million illegal votes were cast to deprive him of a popular vote victory.  Consequently, in 2017 President Trump appointed a blue ribbon commission to find evidence of voting by undocumented immigrants in 2016.  

Without finding any evidence of these illegal votes, on January 3, 2018, President Trump issued an executive order dissolving the the Voter Fraud Commission before it could issue a final report.

A GOP-led audit in Georgia leading-up to the 2022 midterm elections found that while 1,634 non-citizens had attempted to register to vote in the state since 1997, not a single one was able to do so.  Election officials caught and prevented every single attempt.  Further evidence that existing compliance with state elections integrity works. 

Because the false claims of election fraud persist the cost of chasing election fraud falsehoods persists.  It is has already cost American taxpayers more than a half-billion dollars; and it is growing and growing.  

Without any evidence that undocumented immigrants are stealing elections why is MAGA world claiming that this is a clear and present danger to the integrity of our elections?

Occam's Razor suggests that the explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is usually best.  The Trump campaign is setting the table.  If Donald Trump loses the November election it will be illegal migrants who stole it.  Unlike Smartmatic and Dominion voting systems; faceless, undocumented immigrants cannot sue you for making baseless and unproven accusations.

If you think about it, this strategy is sublime.  

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that voter fraud doesn't happen; just not on the scale to invalidate a national election.   

Consider this:

• Non-citizens have been barred from voting in federal elections since 1924.  Additionally, in 1996 Congress made non-citizen voting in federal elections a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment.

• Under federal law a non-citizen who votes illegally can receive a prison term of up to five years and fined up to $250,000 if citizenship status was intentionally misrepresented.  There are also immigration-related consequences.  Casting just one solitary vote gets you deported.  Just being registered to vote can be the basis for denial of a citizenship application.

• Furthermore, there is a paper trail.  There are records of who votes so it is an exceedingly simple task for elections administrators, political parties and activists of all stripes to identify anyone who is ineligible. 

• Detection can also come directly through US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) who can require naturalization applicants to furnish evidence that they have never registered or voted.  Elections administrators are routinely required to produce documentation of compliance for non-citizens going through the process of becoming a naturalized citizen.

• Finally, a non-citizen who votes illegally will add one vote to the final tally.  Considering the penalties, paper trail (including a signature) and consequences of casting that one vote; is an exceedingly inefficient mechanism to steal an election.  Undocumented individuals naturally prefer to fly under the radar of government scrutiny.  This defies logic.
  

Nevertheless, if you lose an election fair and square, the undocumented are your scapegoat.  Your people have already been conditioned to believe it before a single vote has been cast.  

You read it here first.

More of the same old shtick.

____________________________________________________________________ 

Pro Tip:  If you have notice, knowledge or suspicion of election fraud, you have an obligation to report it here.

Fact Checking

The only jobs Biden created are for illegal immigrants and bounce-back jobs - They're bounced back from the COVID.

-Donald Trump

During the Trump presidency the economy generated an average of 182,000 jobs a month, significantly smaller than 277,000 a month during the Biden presidency.  Bill Clinton's average monthly jobs gain happened to be 242,000.

In the interest of fairness to both sides, these figures excluded the impact of the COVID pandemic during the last year of Trump's term of office and the post-pandemic bounce for Biden.