Dear Editor:
There has recently been a great deal of discussion both nationally and locally regarding the duty of military personnel in following illegal orders. Things got more interesting when it was reported that on September 2nd, a boat carrying suspected narco terrorists in the Caribbean was destroyed killing all but two occupants. Then a second strike was carried out to kill the two survivors. Many military legal experts say this second strike was clearly a violation and constituted possible war crimes and even murder.
Since this event came to light there has been a great deal of blame shifting and confusion as to who actually gave the order for the second strike. But what appears to be very clear is that both Mr.Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth are doing everything possible to shift any legal consequences and blame away from themselves and onto those military officers who actually conducted the strikes.
As for the killing of the two survivors, Admiral Mitch Bradley, who oversaw the operation, is now being blamed. In a backhanded compliment, attempting to distance himself from this possible crime, Hegseth stated that “Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100 percent support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made—on the September 2 mission and all others since.”
The message here to military officers is very clear: if you follow illegal orders and it becomes public you will be left holding the bag, not anyone above you who actually gave the illegal orders. If you refuse to follow illegal orders you will face consequences to your career under military law. This leaves any honorable military officer in a very untenable situation. As Commentator Brandon Friedman stated, “Hegseth is very transparently blaming a Navy admiral for his own decision. Let this be a lesson for every other military officer: The Trump administration will issue unlawful orders, then blame you for following them.”
Rich DiPentima
Portsmouth, N.H.
Rich:
Pete Hegseth throwing Admiral Bradley under the boat is shocking, but not surprising.
The U.S. Navy does not promote sailors to the rank of Admiral based on their looks. Bradley, a former SEAL, made it to the top the hard way. Hegseth, on the other hand, auditioned for his position by defending the actions of war criminals on Rupert Murdoch’s propaganda emitter.
Until Hegseth is no longer useful to Donald Trump, he’ll be protected. Bradley, on the other hand, is as disposable now as he was the first time he donned his wet suit with lethal intent.
It’s a time honored military tradition: “Different spanks for different ranks.”
The Editor
–=≈=–
The Danger of a Single Story
To the Editor:
When President Trump labeled Somali immigrants “garbage,” he was weaponizing presidential power to diminish an entire community. As novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warned in her powerful TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story,” power lies not only in the ability to tell another person’s story, but to make it the definitive story of that person.
Yes, some Somali Americans in Minnesota have been implicated in financial fraud. That fact should be reported, but it should never become the sole lens through which we view an entire community—thousands of Somali families including refugees, healthcare workers, business owners and students.
The Somali American story includes triumphs over war and displacement, civic engagement in American politics, and contributions to Minnesota’s economy. When politicians or the media reinforce the “single story” of crime and corruption, they obscure a larger truth.
Adichie reminds us that “stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.”
To honor the proud history of immigration in America, we must refuse the temptation to see any community through one distorted frame. As citizens and journalists, our duty is not to amplify division, but to choose storytelling that recognizes our shared humanity.
Terry Hansen
Grafton, Wisc.
Terry:
America’s origin story used to be all about brave, plucky people, working hard to better their lives, creating a government that was superior to all others, because it was all about certain core ideas—freedom and equality, mostly. Anyone could be an American if they swore allegiance to the Constitution.
At least, so we were taught, those of us who were in primary school when Senator Joe McCarthy’s DTs had him hallucinating about Commies under the bed. Subsequent events—Vietnam, Watergate, Iran-Contra—encouraged a more nuanced view of American greatness.
If any of that greatness remains, we would argue that it can be more easily found amid those brave, plucky people who have managed, against tremendous odds, to bring their hard-working asses halfway around the world to labor in demeaning jobs in the hope that they might live a decent life—here.
In contrast, there seem to be an awful lot of privileged people about who, born here, with great advantage, have nothing better to do than whine about how tough they’ve got it.
The Editor
–=≈=–
Gauntlet Thrown
Editor,
When Israelis shout “Death to the Arabs,” they are referring to people in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and neighboring states, as well as a sizable population within their own state, Palestinians who were not swept up in the Nakba of 1947-8.
Israel is part of the Arabian Peninsula. Zionists should have looked at a map before they decided to migrate from Europe and America to Palestine, as they have proved to be totally intolerant of the native peoples of the region. Instead of killing native people one bomb at a time, perhaps they should return to where they came from, or make friends out of so-called enemies they call terrorists.
Genevieve Harris-Fraser
Orange, Mass.
Genevieve:
Since this paper runs, more or less, on anarcho-syndicalist principles, we don’t have much in the way of established editorial policies regarding the use of incendiary language. In fact, were it not for its reliance on a few trusted advisors, this particular department might be said to be an absolute dictatorship. If we did have such guidelines, though, we’d consider applying them here.
Generally speaking, telling someone—and not just someone, but an entire category of people—to “Go back to where you came from” is pretty aggressive. But, on the other hand, so is genocide. So, we’ll allow it.
The Editor
–=≈=–
Misusing the Pardons Process
To the Editor:
President Trump is normalizing public corruption by pardoning convicted felons before they start to serve their sentences and indicted fugitives even before they go to trial. The intent of the Constitution’s presidential pardon provision is not to use the pardon process to perpetrate injustice. It is to correct injustice whenever it appears Lady Justice was not blind enough (fair enough) when delivering justice.
Speaking of pardons, encouraging/mandating ICE agents to wear masks so they can’t be identified is essentially giving them pardons in advance for any crimes they may commit against undocumented immigrants or lawful citizens. This is a nifty way of extending the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity from prosecution to the entire MAGA attack force across America! Very tricky, Mr. President.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Kimball:
His pardon shenanigans alone ought to be enough to bounce this guy from public housing. That would require, though, a level of rectitude on the part of Congress that, on its best day, it never approached.
Instead, just to hold our own against the police state, random, otherwise normal inhabitants of this country are going to have to step up our game.
Merely voting is no longer enough. We need to begin asking, if we can’t bring ourselves to videotape ICE raids, can we call ourselves responsible citizens?
The Editor
–=≈=–
Porche’s Magnum Opus
[Mr. Porche apparently continues to think himself above such petty societal norms as salutations on letters. – The Ed.]
Following the shooting of two of our Valiant National Guardsmen, it is now time to discuss the future of our Distinguished American Capitol—Washington DC.
I call on Congress and our Honorable President Donald Trump to declare, by executive order, our nation’s capitol, Washington D.C., to be converted into a U.S. National Park, and reassign it to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
By “Eminent Domain,” the U.S. government will convert ALL Washington D.C. property to “Lease Hold” residences, under administration of heavily-armed Department of the Interior “Park Rangers.”
A 20-foot, colorfully lit, red, white and blue, concrete wall will be erected around the existing perimeter of our new Washington D.C. U.S. National Park.
Our government buildings and museums will remain under current administration and undisturbed, but ALL Homeless, drug addicts and Loiterers will be REMOVED—IMMEDIATELY!
The Mayor and Police Chief of Washington D.C., along with ALL elected officeholders, are DISMISSED from office.
The U.S. Department of the Interior shall assume Command and Control of our new Washington D.C. National Park.
Washington, D.C. residents in low-crime areas will continue to live in their homes, undisturbed, but will be expected to follow NEW U.S. Park Service rules, in order to CONTINUE living in their homes.
There will be a $5 toll booth for anyone wanting to drive or walk into our new Washington D.C. U.S. National Park.
American Veterans will be able to enter for FREE, with VA I.D. or fingerprint scan and verification.
ALL current Washington D.C. Public Sector service employees will be released from employment and replaced by Department of the Interior staff and contractors—at the Department of Interior’s convenience.
“High crime” areas will be “marked” and these residents will be recommended to relocate to public housing properties OUTSIDE of the Washington D.C. U.S. National Park, in the surrounding states or move there on their own, once their official “departure date” is set by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
After all the residents have vacated from the “marked HIGH CRIME areas,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will take over, BULLDOZING all “HIGH CRIME” areas, until nothing but flat land remains.
All demolished rabble [sic] will be trucked to barges for dumping in designated sandy areas of the Atlantic Ocean, to stimulate commercial fishery aquaculture.
The Honorable President Donald Trump is an expert “land developer” and has a network of professionals who can enter at this point, bid on land then construct new commercial and new residential properties, with lots of creatively designed public parking and public restrooms.
ALL of the NEW and old residential and commercial properties will fall under administration of the U.S. National Park Service.
Anyone inside our Washington DC U.S. National Park will either be a “resident, guest, diplomat, visitor, employee or tourist,” who will be protected by our new U.S. National Park Service Rangers, with CCTV monitoring and roving patrols.
A new HEAVILY ARMED, but polite and professional police presence will patrol the streets of our Washington D.C. U.S National Park and anyone identified as a criminal will be arrested or if ILLEGALLY ARMED, SHOT ON SIGHT.
The U.S. National Park Service will function as a “Home Owners Association,” (HOA), with an IRON CLAD list of rules, deciding who will be “judicially removed” from our Washington D.C. U.S. National Park property, for cause.
Once they are identified as a “problem,” and demonstrate, they do NOT belong in our Washington DC—U.S. NATIONAL PARK—they will be arrested and removed IMMEDIATELY!
All Homeless veterans will be invited to join all other Homeless Veterans in “Veteran’s Villagers,” to obtain food, clothing, shelter, medical care and employment in our Washington D.C. U.S. National Park, if they wish to work.
If they do not wish to work, or cannot work, the “Veteran’s Villages” will find a permanent apartment residence for each American Veteran who requests it, either in our new Washington D.C. U.S. National Park, or “outside” it.
There will be ZERO Alcohol, ZERO Drugs and ZERO tobacco use policy INSIDE the Veteran’s Village apartments, but a designated “smoking area” will exist outside.
There will be ZERO gambling activities on a Veteran’s Village property.
There will be ZERO “non-veterans” allowed to “live” in any of the Veteran’s Villages for any amount of time and all these rules will be enforced by Special “Veteran’s Status” U.S. National Park Rangers.
Once all these conditions are MET, a curfew will be instituted inside our new Washington D.C. U.S. National Park.
U.S. Government employees, medical service or Public Service professionals, identified by badge credentials will be given unrestricted 24/7/365 access to our new Washington D.C. U.S. NATIONAL PARK.
Restaurant employees, Night-time attractions personnel, Club personnel, Gym/Fitness personnel, Food Delivery personnel and ALL other LEGITIMATE, employed functionaries will ALSO be given 24/7/365 Access with remote, scanable necklaced “Badged Credential” technology.
Our visitors and tourists will be given access to our new Washington DC U.S. National Park from 5 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.
All visitors and tourists, outside those hours will be given a $100 fine, with an escort to their hotel or to the Washington D.C. U.S. National Park “EXIT GATES.”
Drug dealers, drug addicts, gang-bangers, thieves, rapists, criminals and juvenile delinquents RESISTING the U.S. Park Service Rangers, will be SHOT ON SIGHT.
In time, this new U.S. City National Park template will be applied to ALL 30+ of America’s crime ridden cities, up to and including: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Boston, New Orleans, Oakland, Portland (Oregon), Cleveland, Cincinnati, Jackson, Miss., El Paso, Albuquerque, Denver, St. Louis, Kansas City, Gary, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Raleigh, Baton Rouge, Memphis, Lexington, Miami, Norfolk, Newark, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, [and] Phoenix. There will be a “Federal Deportation Gate” for ALL “Immigration ALJ (Administrative Law Judge) Court adjudicated” and “Self-referral” immigrant “ejections,” at every major airport with one “outgoing” flight per day, unless more are requested.
Our forefathers gave us all, “A shining city upon a hill,” and now it’s time to protect Washington D.C. as a new U.S. National Park.
Let’s scrub our nation’s capital clean until it shines!
Then we will protect all of our GREAT AMERICAN CITIES, using this new U.S. National Park template, with the Higher Socio-economic stati (SES) people “inside the ring” and everyone else, outside of it, with all rules enforced by a new harsh Draconian code.
To defray the costs of this plan, we will restart “Debtor’s Prisons,” and charge incarcerated inmates up to $225,000 per year, for the first year and then $25,000 a year after that, to be paid after parole release into forced employment with garnished wages.
If the parolee refuses to work or repay his debt to society, there will be a “military service option” or he can “Self refer” to any major airport, for permanent “Deportation” to any nation which accepts him.
We are a “FREE COUNTRY” and everyone is FREE TO MAKE THEIR OWN CHOICES, PROVIDED THEY DO NOT BREAK AMERICAN FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY or MUNICIPAL LAWS.
ONCE LAWS ARE BROKEN, A CRIMINAL’S FREEDOM IS DIMINISHED UNTIL HE “GETS WITH THE PROGRAM” OR “SELF DEPORTS” TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!
IT’S TIME TO “FLUSH OUR AMERICAN TOILET!”
Very Respectfully,
CTI2 JACQUES PORCHE, USN Ret.
Las Vega, Nev.
Dear Jacques:
Wow. Just… wow.
You closed this, your Magnum Opus, calling for the flushing of the American toilet. Coincidentally, our first thought, as we gazed upon this exuberant slab of text, was to pitch it into the digital oubliette.
Taking a closer look, though, we decided to roll with it, wondering all the while what miracle drug the V.A. pharmacy is dispensing to this guy, and can we get our hands on some? Editing a newspaper requires the constant use of one’s imagination. Over time, one can’t help but wonder if the supply will hold out. Suddenly, here, before us, is undeniable evidence of a brain that is in a constant state of overflow. Just imagine our envy.
Were they alive today, the Bolsheviks of 1917 would, in unison, fling their ushankas into the air in awe of your bold, collectivist vision.
No mere Potemkin villages for this retired Chief Petty Officer! Nosiree, Bob! The entire U.S. Capitol, in the round! Walt Disney was a piker!
You would make the Zionists, from Theodor Herzl to Benny Netanyahu, look like petty, skulking interlopers.
And, considering the sorts of yahoos being hired to police our streets, eventually you would make Hitler look like Mr. Rogers.
The Editor
–=≈=–
Is Bullying the New Patriotism?
To the Editor,
I’ve seen YouTube clips of Coast Guard vessels intercepting, and boarding, often at considerable peril, boats suspected of running drugs. I presume these, often hazardous, efforts are undertaken to confirm the suspicion that prompts them. Videos I’ve recently seen of U.S. naval warships blasting small boats out of the water with no warning, in international waters no less, sicken me. It’s bullying exercised at the highest, most degenerate level. With the federal government modeling it, no wonder the behavior is so rampant in this country at present. I recently read Jon Meacham’s The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels. Pray the battle is still engaged, because otherwise—observing the rampant corruption and irresponsible and malicious activity that passes for governing in this country at the moment—it is lost.
John Simon
Portsmouth, N.H.
John:
On page eight of this issue, in the entry for December 19th, we note that 249 years ago, Thomas Paine wrote of “the times that try men’s souls.” The question at issue then was whether individuals would rise to meet the moment, and participate in the larger effort to achieve something lasting for mankind.
Today, as you point out, the soul of our nation itself is being tried. Our odds look no better now than they did back then. But what kind of pitiful excuse for a human would refuse to engage in a struggle unless it knew it was sure to win?
Right. That guy. Which proves our point: as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The time is always right to do what is right.”
The Editor
–=≈=–
This Again
To the Editors:
W.D. Ehrhart denies that he ever said that Israel is “illegal” and “has no right to exist”: “ I defy Mr. Carine to find anything I’ve ever written that makes such claims.”
In his reply to Roger Rudenstein, Ehrhart wrote “My Jewish friend’s beliefs about Israel, and the nature of what is happening in Palestine today are deeply held, and however wrongheaded those beliefs may be, my trying to persuade him in the course of a morning’s stroll that Israel is an illegal and apartheid state and has no right to exist is only going to leave him unwilling to ever engage with me again.”
I’ll admit there is some ambiguity here. Ehrhart says he isn’t going to try to persuade Rudenstein that Israel has no right to exist—but is this because he doesn’t believe it or only because it will leave Rudenstein unwilling to engage with him? I think the latter is a much more natural interpretation since Ehrhart doesn’t say anywhere that he doesn’t believe Israel is illegal or has no right to exist.
So while I committed the faux pas of misspelling Ehrhart’s name, I think his offense is more egregious since at best he’s blaming someone for taking his words in the most obvious and plausible way, and at worst he’s telling a falsehood about what he actually did say.
Aaron Carine
Dover, N.H.
Aaron:
Mr. Ehrhart is, as he well knows, welcome to respond to this, your latest letter, if he so chooses, or to ignore it. That’s up to him. In the meantime, you have us to contend with.
As a general rule, we try to extend courtesy and forbearance to those who take the time and trouble to write. You have just about exhausted your allocation of both.
Israel is, and has been for years, perpetrating a genocide against the Palestinian people. It is not justified by anything the Palestinians have done. That is the state of things.
Nothing we, you, or Ehrhart writes can make that fact go away. Yet you seem to be trying.
To the extent that we can even understand what it is you’re trying to say, it seems to us that you have taken a few phrases which you admit are ambiguous and twisted them to suit an argument that runs counter to what Ehrhart has actually written.
The most obvious reason to do that would be to throw up a veritable haboob of dust, in the vain hope that it might hide Israel’s crimes.
The Editor
–=≈=–
Yes, He’s Naked, Crazy, and Nodding Off
Dear Editor,
Why has Secretary of Defense Hegseth ordered our largest, most lethal aircraft carrier, with supporting destroyers and guided missile ships, to sail near Venezuela? trump [sic, passim] says it’s to stop drug traffickers, yet, at the same time, he released from prison the Honduran ex-president, who was convicted of massive cocaine trafficking into our country.
The aircraft carrier was moved from the Eastern Mediterranean, near the Ukraine conflict. trump seems to be abandoning our allies in Europe, giving Russia the opportunity to expand its war-stolen territory in Ukraine, while at the same time he’s picking a fight in our hemisphere with fishermen in small boats. Admiral Alvin Holsey resigned in protest.
Is the “emperor” crazy? Are his loyalties truly toward aggressive dictators like Putin? Americans need to know.
China is watching us closely and assessing whether we would defend Taiwan, Japan, and Korea if they pulled a “Putin” in the Western Pacific.
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont, Calif.
Bruce:
We answered your question about the mental state of our emperor in the subhead at the top of your letter.
Probably the more pressing question would be, “how insane are the various fascists, corporate welfare moguls, courtiers, hangers-on, functionaries, and goombahs who hover like fruit flies over the deteriorating suet bag that is our president?”
Our short answer is this: we see no sign that any of them are interested in the good of the country or its people.
The Editor
–=≈=–
Common Man Supporting Ukraine
Dear Editor:
Common Man for Ukraine is now undertaking another mission/trip to that beseiged country. Their website tells the story: commonmanforukraine.org. The organization partners with the Zamosc Ordynacky Rotary Club of Poland. Here in Plymouth, the Rotary Club keeps track of donations. So far they’ve shipped four million tons of food, ten thousand sleeping bags, and hundreds of generators to Ukraine. They’ve helped one thousand children-of-war through trauma counseling—very good deeds at a needy time in a struggling place. I’ve just given Christmas spending money to them.
If only in March, 2014, when President Putin of Russia took Crimea from Ukraine, with no penalty, there had been world-wide notice and reaction.
Pres. Zelensky came onto the scene in 2019, with election results favoring him: 73 percent of the vote. 2022 brought the Russian assault we still hear of most news-days.
Reporting now centers on whether Pres. Trump can call Pres. Putin to heel. Putin wants favored treatment in any treaty-making. Ukrainians want their democratic freedoms and not to be subservient to Russia.
The whole scene shows how no part of our planet isolates from the rest. We daily live on one interactive orb in the universe. We can rightly ask, “Heaven help us.” Common Man Restaurant organizer, Alex Ray, and all volunteers—thank you.
Lynn Rudmin Chong
Sanbornton, N.H.
Lynn:
It’s refreshing to be reminded that good people are doing good things—generally unheralded—every day in this country.
The Editor
–=≈=–
Trump Enshrining Evil Across the World
To the Editor:
President Trump’s newly published National Security Strategy is a dream come true for imperialist autocrats. Vladimir Putin has just confirmed this underlying “spirit” by saying Trump’s vision is largely aligned with Russia’s vision. Trump is effectively ceding in advance whatever land Putin wins in Ukraine, Poland, and even Western Europe. This is like allowing thieves to keep their loot rather than working to restore it to their rightful owners.
Normally, warring parties enter a peace process, where the new spheres of influence among neighboring nations is subject to the ongoing concerns of non-imperialist nations and of international law treaties like NATO.
In its present Trumpian form, the new boundaries established by rogue nations the world over are essentially made permanent without a peace conference and without ongoing international supervision. This more resembles the medieval “right of conquest” of kings. Each king who spreads his own skirts over new land in his part of the world gets to keep it. This gives Europe to expansionist Putin, Asia to Xi, and the western hemisphere to Trump.
This is the peace pipe that Trump is smoking with Putin and Xi today.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Kimball:
If Bill Clinton or Barack Obama had gone to such lengths to accommodate a Russian despot, they’d have been crucified—by the party that now worships our own despot.
If anyone has a better explanation for this bizarre phenomenon than an extensive blackmail operation, we would dearly love to hear it.
The Editor