GUEST POST BY DAVE MILLER

 Just the facts, ma'am

Facts… noun. A thing that is known or proved to be true.

Focus on the proved to be true part. It can also be understood as proven to be true. The struggle today is the known part, because so many people, particularly in the US, have decided they are “not sure” about facts.

We have become a country of people who believe the earth is flat, climate change does not exist, facts are fungible and the moon landing along with the Sandy Hook massacre were both staged. This rejection of facts has reached epidemic levels in our country, potentially setting the stage for more damage and loss than we faced during the Covid-19 outbreak, another reality many believe was a total fact free hoax.

Over the last few years as we’ve battled through three elections, I’ve noticed people who once were sure absolute truth and facts existed, inexplicably turn their collective backs on proven information that does not serve their narrative. Interestingly, they don’t argue the interpretations of that information, instead, they argue something much more dangerous.

Using some variation on this statement, “I don’t believe the evidence because I know better”, they choose to reject all levels of evidence and live inside an Alice in Wonderland up is down world.

What would television LAPD Detective Joe Friday say to them if he were around today?

Here is a long list of things prior generations, even if they did not like the conclusions, would have seen as factual, yet today seem to be questioned by many in the MAGA universe.

Joe Biden won the 2020 election, fair and square. No counts were manipulated, no votes stolen, no suitcases of votes brought in under cover of darkness, despite continued conservative protestations to the contrary.

There has been no significant fraud found at a level that would have changed the outcome of the 2020 elections. There has never been any proven evidence the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, despite over 60 cases filed by his subordinates.

Many of Trump’s subordinates, including Rudy Giuliani have admitted in court they have found no evidence of voter fraud connected to the 2020 elections.

President Trump, unlike Presidents Obama and Biden before him, never won a majority of the voting US public in either the 2016, the 2020, or the 2024 elections.

There is no evidence of extensive illegal immigrant voting in US elections at a level that would impact or change any past elections. In fact, the conservative Heritage Foundation maintains an extensive database that confirms this fact.

Trump supported rioters on January 6, 2021, according to the GOP led Senate report planned and led the attack on the US Capitol, “brutally beat” and “repeatedly attacked” over 140 US Capitol Police that day.

President Trump pardoned all the people who brutally beat and repeatedly attacked those US Capitol officers that day.

President Trump lied to the American people when he said in March 2020 “it’s like the flu” and “It's going to disappear one day. It's like a miracle. It will disappear.” He knew, as he shared on tape with WAPO reporter Bob Woodward Covid was "more deadly than your - you know, your - even your strenuous flus.”

The Trump Admin developed the Covid-19 vaccine in warp speed and released guidance in March 2020 recommending mitigation measures like social distancing to slow the spread of the virus. This guidance is what led to the Covid-19 shutdowns.

President Trump stated in March 2020, while speaking about the Covid-19 pandemic, “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine-tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus.” As a result of that “fine-tuned plan”, more than 400,000 Americans died during the Trump Administration and over one million Americans overall.

Vaccines, developed over the last century in the US have been a lifesaver around the globe, are largely safe and according to scientific evidence, do not cause autism.

According to the actual documents from the Confederacy, the Civil War was about slavery, and states rights, the belief that the federal government had no power to force their will on the states. It was through states rights that the south defended their right to own slaves.

The Confederate States sought to secede from the United States and form their own union. They were sworn enemies to our nation.

The great generals of the Confederacy, Lee, Benning, Bragg, Pickett, and Rucker among them, all had US military installations named after them, even though each of them attacked the USA, were treasonous and sought to destroy the union. There are no bases named for the great Japanese leaders Tojo, Yamamoto and Sugiyama, even though they too attacked the USA and sought to destroy the union.

The Confederate Flag is a flag of people dedicated to the end of the United States, just as much as the Rising Sun flag of Japan was the flag of people dedicated to destroying us.. 

Conservatives in America opposed SCOTUS decisions legalizing equal education for all, access to birth control, access to legal and safe abortions, and marriage between two consenting adults, regardless of sex. Recently conservatives, led by Senator Mike Braun of Indiana have questioned the SCOTUS decision on interracial marriage, citing states rights. 

A president cannot do whatever he wants or whatever he says his agenda contains simply because he was elected. US Presidents are constrained by the US Constitution, Congress and our laws and presidents must follow those laws.

Then former President Trump was found guilty of 34 felonious counts of business fraud.

Donald Trump admitted that he and his children had fraudulently violated their fiduciary duties as officers and directors of the now-shuttered Donald J. Trump Foundation. 

As a businessman, Donald Trump has filed bankruptcy six times to get out of debt, avoid paying bills and contractors and shield his business money from his creditors.

Again, these are just facts. 

I present them here, with links, because so many people supporting President Trump and the current conservative MAGA loving movement do not believe, or simply dismiss these facts as hyperbole.

As I said above, each of the factual statements I’ve presented, from the Civil War, to 2020 election denial to Trump’s serial lying, are not believed by many MAGA conservatives. That’s because the current GOP and it’s MAGA base live in an alternate reality where among other things, they believe a president, elected without a majority of support in the US, has a right to enact his or her agenda regardless of legality. 

Another lie.

I have no idea how America deals with people who choose to be ignorant of the above facts and hold a view that a president, by virtue of winning an election has a right to do whatever he wants. It’s yet another lie held by many MAGA faithful.

As I frequently ask when posting here, what has changed in America to make basic facts so toxic?

What makes this rejection of facts rational or good for the United States?