To the Editor:
Why do people find Trump’s behavior puzzling?
The reasons for it are remarkably clear.
The “stooge” strategy has been a mainstay of mafias since before the Borgias: find a prominent but indebted businessman, bail him out, own him and have him bring your agenda into the mainstream.
The Russian mafia bailed Trump out of massive debts accumulated from his many failed businesses from the mid-90s through 2008, making him a mafia stooge. A mafia stooge does what his mafia boss tells him to—or else. (The “or else” is another old mafia tradition.)
Since before Peter the Great, Russia’s leadership has been obsessed with jealousy of the West. Acting out on that jealousy has occasionally brought them to emulation of the West, but more often it has brought them to try to destroy the West. (They used to paint this effort the colors of ideology until their purported ideology shifted from communism to oligarchic capitalism, whereupon they had to admit to themselves that mafias don’t do ideology.)
Russia does four things well: ballet, aircraft engineering, brutality and goebbelsology. Goebbelsology 6.0, crafted by the (presumably) late Yevgeny Prigozhin, is a masterful set of methods to get any audience to thoroughly believe whatever you want them to believe. Having a stooge with Trump’s prominence is a huge goebbelsology amplifier.
So let’s look at the stooge strategy in action.
Vladimir Putin is sensitive to criticism from beyond the borders within which criticism can be prevented. For example he is irritated by accusations that Russia, unlike other nations, has not outgrown its appetite for conquest and empire. And so he tells his stooge to threaten to conquer Canada, Greenland, and Panama, blunting that criticism. Mission accomplished.
I’m sorry, but is this all not obvious?
What is it about puzzlement at Trump’s behavior? Is it explained by Marshall McLuhan’s observation that “Only the small secrets need to be protected. The large ones are kept secret by public incredulity.” If that’s the case, then perhaps the open, non-secret facts will become more credible when there’s nothing left of the West.
Wes Kussmaul
New Castle, N.H.
Wes:
Exactly. The public record contains a staggering amount of evidence backing up this theory.
A thought experiment for any doubting readers: Suppose Trump was, in fact—whether wittingly or not—carrying out Putin’s agenda of destroying the West. Would he have to do anything other than what he has done?
Noam Chomsky famously wrote about the media’s role in “manufacturing consent.” A fundamental part of that process could be called, “manufacturing public incredulity.” The corporate media have never properly investigated or reported on Trump’s decades-long associations with Russian mobsters. That lets the general public brush off the issue.
Meanwhile, Paramount—owner of CBS News—just paid the President of the United States $16 million in protection money.
Readers, please start saving your pocket change. We may be asking for donations to a bail fund soon.
The Editor
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GOP’s Bill Hurts Their Own
Dear Editor:
Before voting in Trump’s spending bill, hold-out Republicans had criticisms. Sen. Angus King of Maine (R – turned Independent), final vote “nay,” said, “I’ve never seen a bill this irresponsible, regressive, and downright cruel.” New York Times headline: “They Savaged Their Party’s Bill. Then They Voted for it Anyway.” Reps Chip Roy (Texas), Keith Self (Texas), Andy Harris (Md.)—all Republicans—argued against, usually on fiscal grounds (increased long-term national debt with the bill) but voted “aye.” Republican Rep. David Valadao of California “warned the bill’s Medicaid cuts could hurt constituents.” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on cuts for ordinary people, “We cannot be a working-class party if you are taking away healthcare for working class people.” Still voted for it. Sen. Lisa Murkowski gave in, rewarded with special, constituent gifts.
The Representatives’ happily-charged, “U.S.A.!” chanting at the vote’s close [was] hard to stomach. We just saw the devastating, murderous Texas river flooding. According to the New York Times’ coverage, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem commits FEMA help, yet for the drastic cuts that fund the huge tax break for millionaires and billionaires, FEMA’s funding is so reduced that states will be on their own. We enter hurricane season with tornado-damage fresh images—but NOAA, providing weather prediction totally useful to agriculture and just plain householders, is greatly reduced and its Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research cancelled. Will 2026 mid-term election voters remember?
Lynn Rudmin Chong
Sanbornton, N.H.
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Kennedy is All Wrong on Mercury
Dear Editor:
Recently the new RFK Jr. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) announced that it would only support flu vaccines that were mercury free. While that may sound like a very wise decision, it is actually a solution to a nonexistent problem. According to the CDC, 96 percent of all flu vaccines in the U.S. administered last fall and winter were mercury-free.
The use of thimerosal (a vaccine preservative containing a minute amount of ethylmercury) has been a favorite target of anti-vaccine proponents like RFK Jr. for years. Thimerosal was removed from all childhood vaccines a number of years ago to end this perceived risk. However, it is still used in some adult vaccines.
What the anti-vaccine folks choose to ignore is that there are actually two distinct organic forms of mercury, Methylmercury and ethylmercury, which have different properties and associated health risks. Methylmercury, commonly found in fish, is known for its neurotoxicity and long half-life, potentially causing developmental issues and neurological damage. Ethylmercury, primarily found in thimerosal, is eliminated from the body much faster and is considered less toxic than methylmercury.
If Mr. Kennedy was sincerely interested in reducing the public health risks associated with mercury exposure he might consider addressing the real public health mercury problem; contamination of our food from coal fired power plants.
Coal-fired power plants are a significant source of methylmercury emissions into the atmosphere. In the U.S., coal combustion is the largest single contributor to atmospheric mercury accounting for nearly 50 percent of emissions. (Ground Truth Alaska) The EPA states that 50 tons of elemental mercury are released each year from U.S. coal burning power plants. This mercury eventually ends up in the environment and in our food, especially various species of fish including tuna, swordfish and tilapia. High mercury levels can pose health risks, particularly for developing fetuses and young children. Therefore, pregnant women, those trying to conceive, and young children should limit or avoid swordfish, consumption of seafood and other products.
Unfortunately, Mr. Kennedy will ignore this real mercury threat because Mr. Trump’s agenda calls for increasing the amount of coal that is mined and burned for electricity, thereby increasing the amount of mercury released into the atmosphere and added to our food. Rather than have the FDA increase testing of foods, and provide more health advisories when high levels of mercury is found in our food, Mr. Kennedy will distract us by focusing on a non-existent problem.
Rich DiPentima, RN, MPH
Portsmouth, N.H.
Rich:
Thanks for this clear, informative primer. Too bad such simple, binary distinctions are too much for Kennedy’s wormy brain to comprehend. It will be a cruel twist of fate if there’s a new pandemic on this guy’s watch.
The Editor
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Are Palestinians Human Beings?
To the Editor:
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller claims that, as a result of the U.S. bombing of Iran, “We have the beginnings of a new era of stability and peace and security in the Middle East.”
Similarly, Vice President J.D. Vance stated, “And I think the president really hit the reset button and said, look, let’s actually produce long term peace for the region… . I actually think when we look back, we will say the twelve-day war was an important reset moment.”
Yet no mention is made of the ongoing suffering of Palestinians, who were also excluded from the Abraham Accords, the agreements negotiated during President Trump’s first term that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states.
Meanwhile, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently asserted, “We are disassembling Gaza, and leaving it as piles of rubble… . And the world isn’t stopping us.” Zvi Sukkot, a member of the Israeli Parliament, went so far as to boast, “Everyone got used to the idea that you can kill 100 Gazans in one night… And nobody in the world cares.”
As Jewish American scholar Judith Butler has observed:
“The Palestinians have been labeled as ungrievable. That is to say, they are not a group of people whose lives are being considered as worthy of value, of persisting, of flourishing in this world. If they are lost, it is not considered to be a true loss.”
It’s important to note that the Arab League has repeatedly offered to normalize relations with Israel, in exchange for ending the occupation and allowing the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders—about 22 percent of historic Palestine. This offer is embodied in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
In fact, in September 2024, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, representing 57 Arab and Muslim countries, declared, “I can tell you here, very unequivocally, all of us, right now, are willing to guarantee the security of Israel in the context of Israel ending the occupation and allowing the emergence of a Palestinian state.”
Yet, as Smotrich has provocatively stated, “My life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that equal rights for all people are the foundation for peace in the world. True stability in the Middle East cannot be achieved through military victories or diplomatic agreements that ignore the rights and aspirations of Palestinians.
Terry Hansen
Milwaukee, Wisc.
Terry:
Since the birth of the public relations industry, little more than a century ago, mankind—to use the world’s most ironic noun—has become inured to language that says what it does not mean, and means what it does not say. If that sort of usage were to suddenly become impossible, Israel’s treatment of Palestinians would be easier to understand: “We treat them like this because they are not human beings.”
The Editor
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Blind Voters Need a Veto on HB613
To the Editor:
Please contact Governor Ayotte and ask her to veto HB613. The passing of this bill would allow cities and towns to opt out of having accessible voting systems for local and school elections if voters did not give the towns and cities “sixty” days’ written notice of their intent to vote using an accessible voting system. This bill would put the responsibility on the blind person. Presently, the everyday voter can register on the same day they vote and then fill out a ballot. We in the disability community want the same right without any road blocks.
Again, please contact Governor Ayotte and ask her to veto this unfair bill. Her phone number is (603) 271-2121 and her email is GovernorAyotte@governor.nh.gov.
Jean Shiner, Blind Voter
Exeter, N.H.
Jean:
Some days it seems as if there is no depth to which our Free State legislature will not plumb.
They’ve been working for years to make it harder to vote. Next up will be breathing.
Private industry externalizes costs by dumping poison into the atmosphere. Once it gets toxic enough, one of these bastards will corner the market on breathing devices and jack up the prices, and let the poor suffocate.
The Editor
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Did It Just Happen Here?
To the editor:
Considering the fact that the immigration service (ICE) budget from the “Big so-called Beautiful Bill” was increased from some $4 billion to $70 billion, maybe it’s time to consider paraphrasing Pastor Martin Niemöller:
When they came for the Haitians I did not speak out because I wasn’t a Haitian.
When they came for the employees at Home Depot I did not speak out because I wasn’t an employee at Home Depot.
When they came for university protesters I did not speak out because I wasn’t a university protester.
When they came for the scientists and educators I did not speak out because I wasn’t a scientist or an educator.
Then they came for me …
You probably remember the rest of the last line—“… and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
I write this because I find the possibility of a police state likely and even inevitable under the current administration’s disregard for the rule of law and penchant for raw power. And I find that possibility a hideous equivalent of 1930s Germany.
Barnabas Umbrage
Portsmouth, N.H.
Barnabas:
Watching Trump, Stephen Miller, and the rest of these goons, we’re beginning to think it’s possible to feel nostalgic for a time and place where you’ve never been.
The Editor
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Israel Jeopardizes Its Own Safety
To the Editors:
In gathering words from Jewish friends and acquaintances and others I don’t personally know, a common dream of Israel as an adored and safe space clearly comes across.
But many of these individuals are disheartened by what they perceive as an unjust colonial founding of Israel. For one thing, there was the Zionist push to manufacture a majority. And there were the world’s misguided but good intentions. After WWII, most everyone, including Arabs, wanted to reach out to Jews everywhere. An immature plan emerged; the bugs still needed to be worked out. Yet, with haste a vote was rammed through the United Nations from such a flawed and stupid blueprint, producing no surprises when the tragic consequences began rolling out, bringing into question the intellects of the plan’s architects.
Many of them also saw a healthy pride in Jewish culture cross a line into an extraordinary selfishness, with its perceived advantages and perks, which then devolved into the cruelty reserved for supremacists. A feeling of superiority allowed people to look down on the Other, treating them less than human, opening the door to where it is no big deal to destroy Deir Yassin, use cigarette butts to burn holes in captives, blow apart women and children and journalists and hospitals, install humiliating road checkpoints, make claims that the land was theirs all along, and… well, to bring about all the other atrocities.
Many of them watched their leaders and intellectuals double down with unqualified support for the state of Israel, especially driven by that quest for “safety,” understandably influenced by memories of the Holocaust. The general Jewish population followed suit, reinforced by overwhelming support from American gentiles.
Many of them see that these things are dishonorable. But to admit this, many feel they would be distancing themselves from the cherished heritage within which they grew up, and this would be painful, scary, and unsettling for them. They would sacrifice friendships, family ties, benefits, privileges, and be deemed “not a real Jew.”
But if the end goal is to find safety, and you’re not coming out against this horror, you’ll only perpetuate your own suffering. You’ll be farther from safety.
And you’d be bringing the rest of us down with you.
Thank you to our Jewish friends throughout the world who are resisting Israel’s policies and holding firmly to truth and justice.
William Trently
Stratham, N.H.
William:
The voice of reason.
The Editor
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Four Trumpian Trailblazers
To the Editor:
Here are four authoritarian presidents who paved the way for Donald Trump’s current romp through the mine fields of despotism.
Andrew Jackson, America’s seventh president, is widely acknowledged as America’s first tyrant. Jackson refused to recognize a writ of habeas corpus and was fined for contempt of court. As a commander in the war with the Creeks, he arbitrarily executed six of his own militia men. He made an overzealous campaign for the Presidency of the kind previous presidents believed demonstrated unseemly personal ambition.
Jackson refused to make a courtesy call on the outgoing president, and appointed unqualified cronies to positions in government, thus establishing the “spoils system.” He was the first president to publicly promote a legislative agenda. He also told his appointee to the New York U.S. attorney position, “Go do the duties of your office… but remember you are to be always at my command,” thus setting a precedent for modern politicized justice. He used the veto more than all previous presidents combined.
One government official called Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th president, a “madman” who “betrays his friends for his own ambition.” Roosevelt wrote, “I don’t think any harm comes from the concentration of power in one man’s hands, [as long as] the holder does not keep it for more than a certain, definite time.” Teddy secretly wanted to hold it for a lifetime, so he ran for a third term but lost.
He believed he could do whatever was not prohibited to him by the Constitution, rather than only those things that were specifically open to him. He created national parks by executive fiat, but Congress passed a law saying only Congress could do so.
Early presidents believed they could not veto bills unless unconstitutional. Teddy bragged, “I have the right to veto every bill.”
When one of his judicial appointees acted against Teddy’s position, he fumed that the judge had not acted like “a party man.” Teddy said blacks were “two hundred thousand years behind” whites in evolutionary growth and advocated that they be transported en mass to the Philippines.
Teddy often operated in foreign affairs in complete secrecy and used “executive agreements” to avoid getting the consent of Congress to treaties. Teddy did not consult his cabinet, the Congress, or the American people in militarily taking land for the Panama Canal.
Franklin Roosevelt’s activities while in office were marred by “manipulative duplicity, bald dishonesty, secrecy, corruption, and repression.” He used the Depression and World War II to obtain lifetime power, which precipitated a constitutional amendment to limit presidential terms of office.
Domestic tyranny is a function of vote-buying at election time, expansion of central government power, propaganda in place of information, purging of political intimates, marginalization or repression of populations, illegal use of power, and extension of the time of office-holding. Of these things, FDR was guilty in spades.
He got emergency grants of power from Congress during the depression to implement dictatorial control of the economy. In his first two years in office, Roosevelt unilaterally created 65 new executive agencies. By the end of his four terms of office, he had issued 3,723 executive orders. He exercised the veto 635 times. Federal employment increased fivefold during his lengthy term of office. He vetoed a major tax bill for the first time in the history of the nation in 1944.
Lyndon Johnson’s press secretary referred to his boss of thirteen years as an “American monarchy.” One commentator opined that LBJ “dominated the federal government more thoroughly than had any predecessor. ” He had such great success manipulating the legislature that he had little need to veto bills. Johnson centralized social welfare programs far beyond what even Franklin Roosevelt had done. He introduced sixty education bills and got ahead of even education lobbying groups in pushing nationalization of education.
Before the 1964 election, he promised, “Every teacher (will have) good pay”; “Every slum… gone from every city in America.” He also promised to “drive crime from our midst in these United States,” but in fact crime exploded over the next several decades.
Johnson kept a loyalty score sheet on each member of Congress. He bugged Goldwater’s campaign plane and audited Nixon’s tax records. He ordered the FBI to get the phone records of 1968 Republican vice-presidential candidate Spiro Agnew. He spied on Congress and magazine editors. When someone asked J. Edgar Hoover why he did these things, he answered, “You do what the president of the United States orders you to do.”
Senator William Fulbright said the Johnson administration fell to that “arrogance of power… which brought ruin to ancient Athens, to Napoleonic France, and to Nazi Germany.”
Others belonging on this list include Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson, both using war as an excuse for their misdeeds. After Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton both added to the decline of the presidency and the rise of America’s first emperor, Donald J. Trump.
Robert Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Robert
So, the Democrats are to blame, then? Why didn’t you just say so at the start?
The Editor
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Don’t Sell Mt. Carberry
To the Editor:
As if folks in the Berlin area don’t have enough to worry about with the threat posed by the re-opening of the Dummer Yard Landfill as a home for contaminated soil trucked in from Massachusetts, I write to share my concerns and voice my strong opposition to the very real possibility that Casella Waste Systems of Rutland, Vermont may attempt to purchase the Mt. Carberry Landfill from the Androscoggin Valley Regional Refuse Disposal District (AVRRDD).
With their NCES Landfill in Bethlehem to close by the end of 2026 and no GSL landfill at Forest Lake in Dalton, why would Casella not try to acquire the Mt. Carberry Landfill? Finding itself without a realistic path forward for NCES expansion in Bethlehem, due to overwhelming local opposition, past legal agreements, and the town zoning ordinance, Casella could be homeless in New Hampshire, in terms of owning a landfill with permitted capacity. Acquiring the Mt. Carberry Landfill would solve all of Casella’s problems.
I view the AVRRDD Mt. Carberry facility and its permitted capacity as an invaluable asset, to be protected and preserved, for our benefit, not for the benefit of an out-of-state trash corporation, in need of a new landfill due to its failure to properly and safely maintain and operate its existing one in Bethlehem.
I urge your readers to reach out to AVRRDD, as well as your local and state representatives, to urge them to say NO to any potential purchase offers from Casella for the Mt. Carberry Landfill. The sale of the Mt. Carberry Landfill to Casella would not be in the best interests of AVRRDD’s member communities, its customer base, the North Country, nor the great State of New Hampshire. We don’t want to be New England’s dumping ground, with Berlin as its epicentre, in my opinion.
Jon Swan
Dalton, N.H.
Jon:
Thanks for writing. This had certainly escaped our attention.
The Editor