To the Editor:
Merriam Webster defines stupidity as acts “lacking intelligence or reason.” A corollary is that stupid decisions reflect a lack of understanding of their consequences. Given these propositions, the torrent of ill-conceived, consistently incompetent, and sometimes illegal appointments, policies and directives emanating from the Trump White House can best be described as a firehose of stupidity. Trump’s recent decisions lack intelligence and demonstrate little understanding of their possible consequences.
Trump’s imposition of a 25 percent tariff on a broad range of Canadian and Mexican goods makes little sense even considering their thirty-day suspension. Even the Wall Street Journal has called the policy “The dumbest trade war in history.” The ostensible reason for the tariffs is to pressure Canada and Mexico to reduce the flow of fentanyl and immigrants into the U.S. Tariffs are an inappropriate tool for doing this. They are a blunt instrument that will bring economic pain to our two largest trading partners and allies while raising prices that American consumers pay. Tariffs are a tax—the question is not whether they will raise domestic prices but by how much. Moreover, American consumers will suffer added losses due to retaliatory tariffs on American goods announced by Canada and Mexico. Trump contends that tariffs will make America richer. This is nonsense and bears no relation to the reality of modern global economics. The policy will impose unjustified economic pain on those Americans already suffering from high prices to solve a problem better suited to more precise and specialized policies.
Trump’s peremptory freeze on federal assistance funding is another example of a harebrained policy. It halted several valuable social programs without evaluation of their merits and disregarded potential damage to participants. The freeze was likely illegal since it infringed on Congress’s Constitutional authority over spending. This action may well have led to a Constitutional crisis if not for a court injunction that led to the withdrawal of the freeze.
Trump’s purge of the federal work force has proceeded on two fronts. His imperious firing of several DOJ prosecutors and FBI directors, as well as the impending purge of FBI agents, was clearly an act of vengeance. It targeted individuals who participated in the investigations of his malfeasance during his first term. A broader effort is the purge of the so-called “Deep State” led by Elon Musk and his minions of puerile hackers. As exemplified by the destruction of USAID, Musk and Trump are taking a wrecking-ball to administrative departments that they perceive as ideological enemies under the guise of increasing efficiency. Few argue against reasonable efforts to make government more efficient, but the willy-nilly demolition of agencies has nothing to do with improving government efficiency and will inhibit the effectiveness of targeted agencies in delivering worthwhile services. Musk seems to be enacting the Silicon Valley imperative to “move fast and break things.” The maxim may be useful for implementing innovation in small tech start-ups, but the U.S. government is vastly larger and more complex than any start-up business. The U.S. government employs approximately two and a half million people and is made up of 15 executive departments and 2,000 agencies that are charged with implementing a bewildering array of laws and executive directives. To identify sources of inefficiency and craft plans to eliminate them without damaging the effectiveness of the agencies requires expert knowledge of governmental systems that neither Musk nor his youthful cronies have. Musk is not reforming inefficient agencies; he is destroying them without any reasonable understanding of long-term consequences.
The issues discussed above include only a small part of the massive flow of ill-advised policies from the Trump administration. The question becomes who will defend the nation against this onslaught? Republican members of Congress have proven to be spineless sycophants for Trump and offer little opposition to his agenda. Democrats appear to be largely disorganized and lacking focus in their resistance. Only the courts offer potential defense against the authoritarian initiatives of Trump, and it is unclear whether they will provide effective, coordinated action. It is truly a perilous time for the nation.
Robert D. Russell, Ph.D.
Harrisburg, Pa.
Robert:
You write that “only the courts offer potential defense,” while (wisely) casting doubt on their dependability.
We probably trust the courts less than you. So, whence cometh our salvation? We turn to Antonio Gramsci, a sickly, hunchbacked, imprisoned Italian Marxist, who wrote, “I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.” We believe that there are enough sensible people in America to eventually prevail over this lot of cretins.
The Editor
–=≈=–
“The Lamps Are Going Out… ”
To the Editor:
Sir, in 1914 just before the start of World War I the British foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey was quoted as saying, “the lamps are going out all over Europe, and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”
In light of the events since January 20th, and up to and including both J.D. Vance and Pete Hegseth’s recent policy speeches, one wonders how many in the U.S., Europe and around the world now have similar forebodings.
David Severn
Portsmouth, N.H.
David:
How many? Not enough, apparently. It won’t be long, though, before forebodings become passé.
We look forward to seeing how people push back once the consequences of this idiocy become undeniable.
The Editor
–=≈=–
U.S. Branded Ethnic Cleansing
To the Editor:
President Trump says he wants to “clean out” Gaza, plus he is ordering the U.S. military to resume sending Biden’s 2000-pound bombs to Israel. Happy Valentine’s Day, Gazans!
What America needs immediately is to “clean out” this rogue administration—nonviolently, of course.
We, who believe in the Constitution and the rule of law, must persuade our Congressional legislators to initiate Impeachment proceedings against this rogue president and his sycophants.
Remember Lord Acton’s quote: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Will Thomas
N.H. Veterans for Peace
Will:
Current events make us nostalgic for the days when criminal wars were camouflaged with rah-rah rhetoric.
The Editor
–=≈=–
A Literally Sickening Appointment
Dear Editor:
Despite all the controversy and concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-public health positions, his lack of any relevant medical or public health experience or education, the Senate confirmed him as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). As such, Kennedy will have control over the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and a host of other vital research and disease prevention agencies. This raises very serious concerns about the future of public health and the consequences for all Americans.
In a speech before an anti-vaccination group in November, 2024, Mr. Kennedy stated, “I’m gonna say to NIH scientists, God bless you all. Thank you for your public service. We’re going to give infectious disease a break for about eight years.” This is one of the most dangerous comments I have ever heard from a person who is responsible for protecting public health.
As a retired public health epidemiologist and former Chief of Communicable Disease Epidemiology for the N.H. Division of Public Health Services, who spent over 30 years working on both infectious and chronic diseases and injury, I find Mr. Kennedy’s comments to be terribly frightening. Mr. Kennedy has no understanding of the growing threats of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. We have just been through a horrific pandemic caused by a coronavirus that claimed over a million American lives, and the threat of a Bird Flu pandemic is growing everyday. Mr. Kennedy also does not understand the relationship between infectious diseases and chronic diseases such as cancer and other chronic diseases. Hepatitis B and C are linked to liver cancer, human papillomavirus to cervical cancer, and COVID to dementia. H.pylori is linked to gastric ulcers and cancer. HIV, herpes, Epstein Barr Virus, and Merkel cell polyomavirus are also all linked to various cancers.
Halting research on infectious diseases for eight years is an eternity in terms of science and how quickly things can change in nature and in science. To abandon research on infectious diseases, including the rapidly growing threat of the development of “superbugs” that are, or will become, resistant to all available antibiotics is dangerous and irresponsible. To abandon research on better vaccines, diagnostic tests, better treatments for infectious diseases, and finding new connections of microbes to chronic diseases will result in catastrophic consequences not only with regard to infectious diseases but for various chronic diseases as well. And since Trump is cutting research grants to other public and private researchers, the impacts will go well beyond what Mr. Kennedy’s research moratorium will do.
Unfortunately, Mr. Kennedy is now in charge of our once great public health agencies. If he follows through on his anti-science, anti-public health agenda we will be entering a new scientific Dark Age, and the costs will be monumental, both human and economic. Mr. Kennedy’s comments reminded me of Charles Duell, who was Commissioner of the U.S.Patent Office in 1889. He wanted to close the Patent Office and is quoted as saying, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” Unfortunately, Mr. Kennedy seems to think that everything we know about infectious diseases is already known at least for the next eight years. That is incredibly naive or worse.
Rich DiPentima, RN, MPH
Portsmouth, N.H.
–=≈=–
Ayotte’s Economic Falsehood
To the Editor:
Governor Ayotte proposed a $150 million cut in the state’s budget citing tighter economic times. This is completely false.
In 2023 the GOP controlled state legislature voted to end the interest and dividend tax by 2025—a tax which brought in $150 million a year. This tax was paid by the richest people in New Hampshire. I was one who paid that tax, and believe the State will now cut spending benefiting the poor and middle class, and push more burdens onto cities and towns, resulting in higher property taxes.
When you pay your property tax, remember to thank former Governor Sununu and his party for the annual $150 million gift to the rich paid for at your expense.
Walter Hamilton
Portsmouth, N.H.
Walter:
You broke the First Rule of Class War:
You don’t talk about Class War!
The Editor
–=≈=–
“No!”
To the Editor:
“Five months after being liberated from Spaniards by Americans, Filipinos begin fighting the liberators.” [Tidal Guide, Feb. 4th, 1899, New Hampshire Gazette, January 24th.]
NO—we were not liberators in this stupidly named Spanish-American War—it should be termed the American-Spanish War. Why? We started it! Anyway(s), their independence movement controlled all of the country except Manila. We refused this effort with war. We termed the event an “Insurrection.” Why did we refuse? We were in our empire mode. We now had Guam and Puerto Rico. Cuba became a territory; after independence we dominated the island economically until Castro—as our influence in the Caribbean increased. Our military involvement in the “new” nation of Panama was related to our successful canal effort. Wake, Midway and the American Virgin Islands plus Hawaii were added. Filipino independence? 1946.
J K Folmar I, A.B, M.A., PhD.,
Boy Scout 2nd Class
California, Pa.
J.
Perhaps our use of irony in that entry failed to achieve its objective. That’s OK, though. Thanks for adding background.
The Editor
–=≈=–
DOGE OR DOG?
To the Editor:
This weekend, Elon and his band, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, illegally closed down the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB).
The CFPB needs to be closed because it is too efficient. For every dollar it spends, it has clawed back four and returned them to defrauded consumers. Twenty billion so far. Musk and Trump’s overpaid hatchet crew should lose the E for “Efficiency,” and just be called The Department of Government…, or DOG for short.
The CFPB’s purpose is to protect citizens from becoming victims of financial fraud; the fraud practiced by financial institutions like banks and mortgage brokers that led to the great recession in 2008. Ten million Americans lost their homes in that recession! Almost exclusively because of fraud.
So, why does CFPB need to go? I’ll give you a hint: both Trump’s media company and Musk’s X have recently announced that they were launching financial wings to sell financial products. Sinking the CFPB means they don’t have to worry about following consumer protection laws and they can get away with defrauding consumers. Their billionaire friends are applauding.
Trump’s moves have focused on destroying watchdog agencies, anything that can protect the middle or working class has to go! You should be quaking in your shoes—and fighting back.
Michael Frandzel
Portsmouth, N.H.
Michael:
While they’re shuttering the CFPB, they’re de-funding the IRS. Their agenda could not be more obvious: Rob the poor while giving the rich a license to steal.
Meanwhile they’re doing all they can to impose their purported Christian beliefs on the rest of us.
Self awareness? Zero.
The Editor
–=≈=–
A Congress of Shirkers
To the Editor:
Remember the “giant sucking sound” warned of by Ross Perot? He wasn’t entirely wrong. After President Reagan took office, we might have heard the sound of the oligarchs, who hold the top one percent of the wealth of the U.S. population, vacuuming up at least $50 trillion from the bottom 90 percent if we’d been paying attention. Once the Supreme Court ruled in the 2010 case of Citizens United to allow unlimited corporate spending in elections, dark money poured into elections. Deregulation of various industries was accompanied by tax cuts for the rich. Workers were ignored. Unions were weakened by laws with the Orwellian “Right to Work” title. President Biden, in his farewell address, warned of a developing oligarchy in the U.S.
The current president has ignored Congress and set up his own task force to run outside of the government, ostensibly to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. This group, DOGE, is run by a private citizen, an unconfirmed, immigrant multi-billionaire, who was neither elected nor vetted. DOGE has been given the keys to the heretofore closely guarded government checkbook of the U.S. Treasury, which issues some $5 trillion in payments annually. DOGE also accessed sensitive financial and personal records of U.S. citizens without our permission. How will this information, gleaned with the complicity of our president, be used? Will it be sold? Will it be used to intimidate perceived enemies of the administration?
These illegal acts violate our Constitution, while the U.S. Supreme Court has largely confirmed its support for this administration and Congress shirks responsibility by ignoring the issue. We must demand our U.S. Representatives and Senators of both parties do all they can to halt this back-door coup. Remind them that, should Congress fail to exercise its constitutional powers, it does so at the risk of becoming irrelevant.
Lorraine L. Hansen
Rollinsford, N.H.
–=≈=–
“We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Climate”
To the Editor:
Former Fox News contributor and current U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently issued a memo calling for the elimination of nearly all Biden Administration “orders, directives, rules, regulations, notices, guidance documents, funding agreements, programs and policy statements” related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.
Under the previous administration, the department considered how the impacts of climate change, such as increased heat, wildfires, flooding and drought, could affect roads and other transportation infrastructure.
Notably, a 2020 report on managing climate risk by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission validates President Biden’s climate goals. This document details the threat that climate change poses to America’s energy, water, transportation and communication infrastructure.
For example, it asserts that extreme precipitation, inundation from sea-level rise, extreme heat and forest fires “challenge nearly every element of transportation systems, from bridges and airports to pipelines and ports.”
I also want to draw attention to a remarkable document on climate change and national security. “A Climate Security Plan for America: A Presidential Plan for Combating the Security Risks of Climate Change” is signed by over 20 admirals and generals, including Rear Admiral David Titley, former Oceanographer and Navigator of the Navy, and General Gordon Sullivan, former Chief of Staff of the Army.
This comprehensive report asserts that increases in extreme weather “can devastate essential energy, financial and agricultural centers that undergird U.S. and global economic viability and the well-being of our populations.” It calls for initiatives to improve the resilience of our critical infrastructure and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and globally in order to avoid “catastrophic security consequences.”
Duffy’s memo is reminiscent of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) signing legislation that erased most references to climate change from Florida state law.
The memo is also consistent with President Donald Trump’s mocking of the threat posed by global warming. Trump once declared, “Global warming is an expensive hoax!”
To counter climate misinformation from the Trump Administration, I encourage reading “The Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticism.” It’s available online and provides an excellent summary of the lines of evidence that have led 200 science academies throughout the world, including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, to conclude that climate change is human-caused.
Consider that the Israel Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran agree on this issue.
If one is serious about examining the issue of human-induced climate change, the place to start is understanding why scientists believe it.
In reality, however, the climate debate isn’t about science—it’s about the role of government. Many conservatives dismiss evidence of climate risk because they fear that acceptance of this evidence will lead to greater government intrusion in our lives. Science is a proxy debate.
Ever wonder why we don’t hear scores of angry voices claiming that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS? It’s because that scientific conclusion doesn’t threaten deeply held values.
In his book, The Constitution of Liberty, Nobel Prize-winning economist and libertarian Friedrich Hayek writes: “Personally, I find that the most objectionable feature of the conservative attitude is its propensity to reject well-substantiated new knowledge because it dislikes some of the consequences which seem to follow from it.”
Climate change poses great threats, such as sea level rise, more intense wildfires and the ravaging of the world’s coral reefs. Conservatives would be unlikely to tolerate this level of risk with regard to national defense or financial markets.
Prudence dictates that we also hedge against the risk of disastrous climate change.
Terry Hansen
Milwaukee, Wisc.
Terry:
Just think: if they didn’t own Congress and the White house, we could impose confiscatory and retroactive wealth taxes on oil billionaires to mitigate the devastating damage that’s coming our way.
The Editor
–=≈=–
What Future for Gaza? For Trump?
Editor:
Instead of planning for the ethnic cleansing of, and proposed land grab of war-torn Gaza, President Trump should be proposing a Marshall Plan for the wartime destruction in Gaza. Yes, Gaza needs to be rebuilt. America bears responsibility for supplying the weapons Israel used to destroy Gaza’s apartment buildings and homes, places of worship, along with its infrastructure, schools, and 11 colleges and universities. Today 16 of the region’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, and many of its medical doctors, nurses, and staff frog-marched off to Israeli prisons where they were reported to have been beaten and tortured.
Following World War II, the Nuremberg trials were held for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries across Europe and atrocities against their citizens. On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) voted unanimously to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Warrants were also issued for three Hamas leaders who were subsequently assassinated by Israel.
If President Trump makes good on his promise to seize Palestinian land in Gaza, bulldoze its dead beneath the rubble and what little remains of its homes, schools, and places of worship, and ethnically cleanse and depopulate the territory, he too may find himself with an International Criminal Court arrest warrant and inability to travel too far from America’s borders, except, of course, to Israel.
Genevieve Harris-Fraser
Orange, Mass.
Genevieve:
A lot of Silicon Valley techbros are obsessed with living forever. While that seems to us like an idiotic pursuit, we can see one potential socially-valuable use for unnatural longevity.
We know of a certain guy whose current age will inevitably preclude his spending enough time behind bars to pay his debt to society.
Let’s lock him up, sentence him to life, and see how long we can make him live.
The Editor
–=≈=–
Mumpsk: Terrifying and Boring
To the Editor:
We’re now into Week Three of the Mumpsk Administration. Apparently, the Executive Orders assembly line is working at top speed to get all those large binders ready for Mumpsk to wield the Executive Sharpie. Somebody could create a live feed of that; somehow, it would be terribly terrifying and boring at the same time.
Congress (formerly known as one of the three main branches of government) continues to meet and deliberate over an array of nominees with dubious qualifications. They question and ponder (some are quoted as “having grave concerns,” but these are likely mostly about their next election cycle) and then approve, so that assembly line is working as intended.
Meanwhile an unelected entrepreneur (also a major political donor), with some unvetted and unaccountable minions, is tinkering with sensitive government systems so taxpayer dollars are used “wisely,” we are told. And the elected figurehead, and assorted minions, are threatening allies, redrawing and renaming geographic locations, and planning a wholesale rebuilding and rebranding of an area devastated by war (the displaced residents of said area are an afterthought).
Somehow eggs are still scarce and groceries are still pricey.
The Mumpsk Team has been busy!! Are we Great Again?
Beth McCarthy
Tamworth N.H.
Beth:
It seems we are if we think we are!
The Editor
–=≈=–
The High Value of Hot Air
Dear Editor,
Does Elon Musk have the proper security clearances for access to agency personnel records and government payment systems? Of course he does.
People have forgotten the new theory of presidential authorization floated up in the classified documents case. Any and every document is declassified as soon as the President says it is.
In today’s federal government, there is no paperwork required, no accountability channels to clear, just the President’s word.
Even sweeping national policies can be enacted in one breath today and taken away in one breath tomorrow. Twenty-five percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico today, zero tariffs tomorrow. An end to TikTok today, back in business tomorrow. Forced and final displacement of Gazans today, a return of Gazans to their land tomorrow.
Land deals are handled the same way. Today the President can “own” great big strips of foreign land with no diplomacy or treaty paperwork involved. Greenland, Gaza, the Gulf of America, and the Panama Canal belong to America, just by the President’s say so.
If you have all the power and all the money, just blow some wind out of your mouth.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Kimball:
Thanks for your restraint in assigning a point of origin for that hot air.
The Editor
–=≈=–
A Bright Future for Oligarchs
To the Editor:
The investors and CEOs of large tech firms are among the most powerful of the capitalist oligarchs. Their influence was in evidence at the Trump inaugural ceremonies as the CEOs of Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and Apple occupied prime seats, but the power of the information age gurus came into sharp focus with the elevation of tech oligarch Elon Musk to “special government employee” and head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk is a creature of a Silicon Valley culture that values extreme individuality and detests government regulation. He is among the tech oligarchs who successfully gamed the wave of innovation in information technology that emerged in the 80’s and 90’s, starting as competition among small tech start-ups and resulting in the technology behemoths of today.
Two maxims characterize Silicon Valley culture: (1) “Move fast and break things,” and (2) “Fake it until you make it.” Both are instructive in understanding Musk’s behavior as head of DOGE. He and his cadre of impudent hackers are certainly moving fast in their effort to eviscerate and dismantle federal agencies but without any transparency or sense of the potential damage they may cause. Musk and his minions have little expertise that would contribute to understanding the inefficiencies of a sprawling federal bureaucracy. They are programmers and software engineers who spend their time creating computer code, not analysts with the expertise to conduct forensic examinations of organizational systems. Their solution to ending inefficiency and fraud is to decimate the agency by firing or suspending large numbers of employees and freezing agency funding. This approach is akin to a physician treating a patient with stomach pain by randomly removing abdominal organs without diagnosing the cause of pain.
Musk has disingenuously claimed that if a beneficial program is cancelled, it can be easily restored. That statement shows either his lack of knowledge about complex organizations or his cynicism. When large numbers of experienced employees are laid off, their institutional knowledge is lost and not easily restored. When complex systems are destroyed, they are difficult to re-constitute. Rather than diagnosing and remedying causes of inefficiencies, Musk apparently is willing to cut effective programs in a haphazard smash and destroy campaign.
“Faking it” is a fundamental element of the Musk/Trump strategy for eviscerating the federal bureaucracy. Both Musk and Trump have trumpeted that DOGE has already found billions of dollars in fraud and inefficiency in federal agencies but neither has provided proof of their allegations. Both are inveterate liars. Their claims of fraud and inefficiency are cover for their real intentions. The first agencies targeted by Musk have been those that have long been anathema to far right conservatives (e.g. USAID and the CFPB). The programs that have been described as fraudulent are overwhelmingly DEI related. The lack of evidence of fraud and the obvious choice of DEI initiatives for elimination are indications that improving efficiency is less of a concern than eradicating programs considered to be ideologically incorrect. Additionally, claims that mass layoffs will result in significant cost savings are overblown. Labor costs are a mere four to five percent of the federal budget. As Fortune Magazine points out, even a reduction in 25 percent of the workforce would only reduce government spending by one percent. What mass layoffs accomplish, however, is to reduce agencies’ ability to implement programs enacted by law and to constrain overreach by an authoritarian executive, precisely one of the goals of Project 2025 (the Heritage Foundation document that Trump knew nothing about).
Trump is less concerned with reducing costs by improving government efficiency than he is in establishing an imperial presidency. By leading DOGE, Musk gains less oversight of his businesses and the freedom to pursue his grandiose ambitions without government restraint. The election of Trump has ceded government to unhinged oligarchs and their far-right minions. The future seems bright for the oligarchy but not for the average American.
Robert D. Russell, Ph.D.
Harrisburg, Pa.
Robert:
It’s a damn shame these greedy, short-sighted knuckleheads are blind to the fact that were it not for mutual cooperation, our species would still be prey to carnivores.
The Editor