To the Editor:

The “Mandela Effect” is the certain recollection of a thing that didn’t happen or isn’t true, like recalling the “Monopoly Man” of the famous game as having a monocle. Or C-3PO having an entirely golden body, when one leg was actually silver. Or the “Fruit of the Loom” logo having a cornucopia. But what is it called when people hear something of consequence but dismiss it? Or make excuses when reality presents something they don’t want to believe? Or pardon trouncing of civil and (allegedly) criminal laws? Such is the Trump Republican Party.

Presidential candidate Trump doubles down on his boast that if NATO countries don’t “pay up” he will “encourage” Putin to “do whatever the hell he wants to them.” Although he doesn’t have the power to reject the Treaty ratified by the Senate under the US Constitution, Trump would risk world war if NATO countries don’t pony up. Death, destruction, agony, and political instability are nothing compared to the thrills of revenge and ka-ching. Republican comment: generally, nada.
Trump has denied he will be a dictator, “except on day one,” but history proves that dictators don’t give up their power; it must be wrenched from them. He repeatedly gushes over despots for their “strength” and admires their rejection of democratic principles and restraints. Project 2025, the Republican Plan for America under Trump, indicates every intention of altering our form of government. And still, most Republicans dismiss it as “Trump being Trump.”

The “Pootie Love” of MAGA Republicans for the Russian dictator is astounding, even while they call Democrats “communists.” The Repo House voted down aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan because a Senate-adopted negotiated immigration border plan didn’t include every provision it wanted. Putin laughed off GOP-darling and “useful idiot” Tucker Carlson’s pathetically sycophantic interview, and revised history to claim that Poland started WWII by “refusing Hitler’s demands.” Putin’s ally has threatened nuclear war unless Russia is successful against Ukraine. But Republican silence (except to savage each other) and inaction are a pestilent cloud, and the House adjourned to February 28. Ukrainian President Zelensky’s comment: “Please remember that dictators do not go on vacation.”

Putin has expressed a preference for President Biden over Trump in the coming election. Because Trump has expressed enduring “Pootie Love” and MAGA obeys, Putin knows how gullible half of the American electorate is. Worth a try!
Trump is showing and telling the country what he is and what he will do, and somehow the GOP either laughs it off or bends the knee. “You knew I was a fox when you took me in.”

Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca.