Dear Editor:
Throughout Donald Trump’s sordid life there have been many examples of actions and words that were despicable and disgusting. The list is too long to cover all of them, but there was, for example, the Central Park Five episode, his mocking a handicapped journalist, and the disrespect shown to Gold Star parents. Unfortunately, Mr. Trump continues this behavior on almost a daily basis, but recently he may have hit a new low for even him, if that is possible. In a Truth Social clip, Mr. Trump depicted former President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as what appeared to be a cartoon chimpanzee and gorilla. The Obamas’ faces were superimposed on the animals’ bodies.
This level of depravity goes far beyond behavior that can be ignored, or accepted by a civilized society. Anyone who tries to justify, rationalize, excuse, explain away, or accept such behavior is no better than Mr. Trump. Yet too many remain silent either out of fear of retribution or in approval. The words and actions of Mr. Trump provide a window into his soul. It reflects a soul consumed by hate, anger, jealousy, and revenge but completely devoid of compassion, sympathy, empathy, understanding, remorse, or any other basic decent human emotion.
All Americans, regardless of their political leanings must loudly and forcefully reject and condemn this behavior. The world is watching and what they see is a country that has lost its moral compass. We are better than this, but we need to prove it.
Rich DiPentima
Portsmouth, N.H.
Rich:
Back in the Gilded Age of which Trump is so fond, “slumming” was a fad among the upper crust. An academic with the Dickensian name of Chad Heap wrote a book about it: Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife 1885-1940. In a 2009 review in the New York Times, Jennifer 8. Lee—yes, that’s her real name, you can look it up—described the phenomenon: “well-off white New Yorkers exploring black, Chinese, gay or poor working-class communities. Popular neighborhoods for this voyeuristic pastime included Chinatown, Harlem and the Lowest East Side tenements, home to the ‘Hebrews.’” That may sound a bit tawdry, but Heap argues that “slumming actually promoted social mixing and reshaped the sexual and racial landscape in what had become an increasingly stratified society.”
Back then slumming was voluntary—on the part of the hoity-toity, anyway. Nowadays—unless we’re willing to abandon our civic responsibilities and go cower in a cave—we are all being forced, every day, to go morally slumming in the overflowing cesspit of #47’s noggin.
The Editor
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Only Snowflakes Need Air to Breathe
To the Editor:
The Trump administration has repealed the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas “endangerment finding.” In 2009, the EPA formally concluded that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health, giving the agency its legal authority to limit pollution from cars, power plants, and oil and gas facilities.
The new rule strips away that foundation, and it is hailed by President Trump as “the single largest deregulatory action in American history.” It is, in reality, the deliberate blinding of our primary public‑health and environmental watchdog at the very moment the alarms are sounding loudest.
Climate scientists now warn that global warming is accelerating, possibly pushing Earth toward a “hothouse” trajectory. They describe a world in which ice sheets melt, forests die back, and oceans lose their capacity to buffer heat, triggering feedbacks that could lock in catastrophic levels of warming for centuries or more. There is no historical guide for what comes next because humanity has never before forced the climate system so far, so fast.
Scientist and author Jeffrey A. Lockwood, in his essay “The Fine Art of the Good Guest,” reminds us that we are “uninvited, but not unwelcome, guests of the planet.” A good guest, he says, asks little, accepts what is offered, and gives thanks. This decision does the opposite: it demands much, takes more, and denies any obligation to future generations who will live with the consequences.
If we took Lockwood’s ethic seriously, we would be strengthening climate protections, not dismantling them. A decent guest leaves a place better—or at least not worse—than they found it. Right now, our government is breaking that most basic rule.
Terry Hansen
Grafton, Wisc.
Terry:
There you go, panicking, just because you’re in the habit of respirating the old-fashioned way. We’ll let you in on a hot tip: Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump Jr. are going to introduce a better way to get oxygen into your bloodstream. You’ll hardly know you’re wearing one of their handy-dandy carbon fiber synthetic air tanks. Invest now in this exciting new venture and you’ll get a guaranteed discount on refills.
Musk’s Space Mirrors are another matter. Unfortunately, everyone, whether they pay or not, will benefit from them. That’s OK, though, in a concession to socialism, they’ll be sent into space on the taxpayer’s dime. By safely and effectively blocking the sun, they’ll control Earth’s temperature through a thermostat mounted on the dash of Elon’s CyberTruck.
The Editor
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Good News and Bad News
Dear Editor,
trump’s billionaires censoring journalists and closing newspapers, it’s not freedom; it’s despotism.
trump giving pardons and government favors to financial contributors, it’s not fair; it’s bribery, corruption.
trump suing the government he controls for $10 billion, it’s not moral, it’s not right; it’s theft.
trump’s military jailing and deporting children without judicial process, it’s not American; it’s evil.
trump’s thugs killing civilians, it’s not protection; it’s murder.
trump’s agents taking control of state ballots, it’s not democracy; it’s dictatorship.
Dictatorship is not some vague danger; it’s a growing presence. Fair-minded, freedom-loving, democracy-protecting, courageous citizens must speak out now and resist in every way we can.
Sincerely,
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont, Calif.
Bruce:
The good news is, your powers of perception are functioning perfectly.
The bad news, of course, is what you perceive.
Nobody sane asked for this mess. Here it is, though. The question each of us must ask is, what am I going to do about it?
The Editor
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The Major’s Gig Line is Awry
[The Major neglects to include a salutation to The Editor, a former enlisted man.]
Our national leaders are heading to recess. Like little school children when the bell rings, they leave their work behind and head to the playground. Of course their playground is fundraising and shoring up their base, while ignoring constituents who are unhappy with the job they’re doing.
Admit it, there is no accountability for those who work in Washington. They do nothing but enrich themselves, perpetuate their political careers by pleasing their party, donor and lobbyist masters. Their constituents are an every two or six year afterthought.
They and their masters have been extremely successful in pitting the people against one another. In so doing they’ve rendered we the people powerless and voiceless.
Imagine if we all rejected the monikers they’ve foisted upon us to divide us. Imagine if we all voted based on their accomplishments.
Remember, “a bee does not try to convince a fly that honey is better than s__t.” Let their actions say everything. Can’t pass a budget, go home. Can’t pass a comprehensive immigration bill, bye, bye. Can’t guarantee one day voting and election integrity, have a nice day. Can’t root out and eliminate the fraud, waste and abuse of the tax dollars we send you, take a hike.
If politicians can’t do their job, give someone else a chance. It’s time to fire ineffective politicians, and replace them with someone who will represent we the people.
It’s time to listen to the bee, and ignore the fly.
Sincerely,
Michael Petruzziello
Major, USMC (Ret)
Wolfeboro, N.H.
Major:
You happen upon one vital truth—politicians are “extremely successful in pitting the people against one another”—but your reference to immigration suggests you may have fallen into their trap. Ditto on election integrity—another phantasm.
Any diatribe this abstract can only be superficial. Perhaps you’re trying to appear bipartisan. If so, that’s even worse. Democrats are certainly not above reproach, but at least they’re not trying to torch the Constitution on behalf of a gilded tyrant.
The Editor
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Causes and Effects of Inequality
To the editor;
Of all the indicators used to measure the condition of the American economy, perhaps the most relevant to our current condition is the degree of wealth inequality. It is important because it shows how wealth is distributed within American society, a measure of society’s egalitarianism. Moreover, an investigation into trends in inequality helps us to understand the economic structures and processes that advantage some over others. This is important to know since wealth in America is arguably the most important determinant of social influence and power. Unfortunately, the current level of wealth inequality in America is at a record level. The top one percent owns an astounding 31.7 percent of total wealth, and the top 10 percent account for approximately two-thirds. The bottom 50 percent are left with approximately 2.5 percent. Although the U.S. has never been particularly egalitarian in terms of wealth distribution, inequality has increased over the past thirty years to the point that a small elite now controls a vast amount of wealth. The U.S. resembles a plutocracy more than a democratic republic.
A major reason for the growth of wealth inequality during the last three decades has been the difference between the return on financial assets compared to wage growth. Since the ’80s, returns on financial assets such as stocks, real estate and business ownership have skyrocketed while wages have largely remained stagnant. Owners of financial assets have prospered while working-class economic clout has declined. During the period of neoliberal globalization, millions of manufacturing jobs were replaced, either by cheaper foreign labor or by robotic technologies driving down blue-collar wage growth. In 1980, manufacturing’s share of corporate profits was approximately 44 percent but by 2025 it had dropped to approximately 15 percent. During this same period, labor’s share of GDP declined by approximately 11 percent while finance’s share increased by the same amount. The financial sector has grown to replace manufacturing as America’s most profitable industry.
The effect on inequality is straightforward. Virtually, all the benefits of economic growth since 1980 have been acquired by the owners of capital while working class wages have failed to keep pace. The wealth of a small number of asset owners has burgeoned while the working class has struggled. Financialization, however, has spawned more pernicious effects. The traditional role of banking in capitalism has been to mediate between savers and investors, distributing depositors’ assets as loans to fund business growth through expansion and innovation. As neoliberal regulators removed constraints on how banks and other financial institutions could use depositors’ money, less of it was used to invest in productive growth in new factories or manufacturing technologies. Instead, the focus became seeking out the highest return in the shortest time through investment in various financial products. Financial engineering became more important than investing in actual engineering. The invention of the complex mortgage-backed securities that precipitated the 2008 Great Recession is a good example. Today, Wall Street banks and private investors such as hedge funds and private equity invest vastly more in financial assets than business growth. The economic consequence has been to hollow out investment in companies that actually make things and hire workers while investment profits are generated by contrived financial assets owned by the wealthy. This decreases American competitiveness in global markets, deprives the working class of potential high-paying jobs and increases wealth inequality.
The social impact of these economic trends is to separate society into two tiers, a wealthy, asset-rich elite at the top and an increasingly precarious working class at the bottom. The middle class is being hollowed out as income has shifted upward. In 1980, the middle class held approximately 35 percent of wealth; today, it holds approximately 26 percent. The almost 10 percent difference has migrated to the top 1 percent. While the rich elite enjoy extravagant benefits and control the levers of power, the working class finds it increasingly difficult to afford basic necessities. Housing, healthcare, and education are simply unaffordable for many. The trend is not sustainable. A reckoning is due and it is not far off.
Robert D. Russell, PhD
Harrisburg, Pa.
Robert:
Thank you as always for this lucid primer on a vitally important topic. We found the third paragraph to be of particular interest. It shows the “haves” abandoning even the shop-worn pretense of investing in the nation’s future.
If there were more honor in our own racket, our fellow news-mongerers would have called out this trend decades ago, perhaps reducing the general level of carnage. But, no. As a certain bald-headed S.O.B. has recently made clear, practically every influential news outlet preferred to conduct business as usual, the better to feather their own nests.
The Editor
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The Super Wealthy Can Afford to Lie
To the Editor:
What we have learned about the super wealthy, like all those many associated with the Jeffrey Epstein files, is that most lie like a rug.
Among those named in the files are Elon Musk, Lord Mandelson (UK ambassador to the U.S.), Prince Andrew, Richard Branson, Bill Clinton, Steven Tisch (New York Giants co-owner), Larry Summers (former Secretary of the Treasury), Bill Gates, Howard Lutnik (Trump’s Commerce Secretary), Sergey Brin (Google co-founder), and many others.
The worst of them are used to buying or sharing all kinds of illicit things, like young girls, and then covering it all up.
That is what billionaire Donald Trump did to win the 2016 election. He paid off a porn star to cover up his adultery and then told the public he never slept with her. He then lied about who really was trying to steal the 2020 election.
He continues to lie about why he is trying to rid the country of immigrants. It is not because they are criminals, but rather because he is a racist and brown-skinned folks are gaining in the population and may surpass whites before long.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Kim:
You’ll get no argument from us on any of this. Your letter did prompt, though, this supplementary question: to what degree was lying the route to their wealth in the first place?
Of course, the moment that question sprouted in our editorial crania, we thought of Honoré de Balzac: “Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu’il a été proprement fait.”
In English, according to the wonderful quoteinvestigator.com, that line from Le Père Goriot, published in 1834, translates to, “The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.”
The Editor
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Bibi’s Crying “Wolf” Again
To the Editor:
In 2002, Bibi Netanyahu testified before a Congressional committee and urged President Bush to attack Iraq. According to Netanyahu, Iraq was on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb with Iran’s help! It’s now 2026 and it seems the Israeli leader is determined to push the U.S. into attacking Iran!
In 2003, the U.S. attacked Iraq but as we later learned, there were no nuclear weapons there. For over 30 years, Netanyahu has been beating the drums of war saying that Iran was extremely close to creating a nuclear weapon. In a speech to Israel’s government in 1992, Bibi said it would take Iran about three or four years to have the ability to assemble atomic weapons. In a 1995 book he wrote, Netanyahu asserted that Iran’s plans for such weapons would pose an existential threat to global security! And, believe it or not, Bibi said in 2009 that Iran was only one or two years away from actually creating a nuclear bomb.
In 2012, the Israeli Prime Minister spoke at the United Nations, and insisted that Iran was quickly preparing the ingredients for a Weapon of Mass Destruction!
So, here we are in 2026 and the U.S. has sent U.S. ships, planes, and troops close to Iran, and it’s obvious that Trump and Netanyahu have discussed plans for a powerful attack on Iran.
If America and Israel bomb and invade Iran, look for all Hell to break loose in the Middle East.
Will Thomas
Auburn, N.H.
Will:
As we write this, the USS Gerald R. Ford is headed towards the Gulf—which is to say, our war criminal is acting at the behest of their war criminal. Both of them are bent on staying in office by any means necessary, in order to keep from going to jail.
Meanwhile, aboard the largest, most expensive warship ever built, 4,600 sailors enjoy the luxury of having 650 toilets available for their convenience—except when they don’t work. Last month NPR reported that “Problems with the [ship’s] Vacuum Collection, Holding and Transfer (VCHT) system increased in 2025. The vacuum system was adopted in part from the cruise ship industry. It uses less water, but the system used by USS Ford is more complex. Breakdowns have been reported since the $13 billion carrier first deployed in 2023.
“‘Every day that the entire crew is present on the ship, a trouble call has been made for ship’s force personnel to repair or unclog a portion of the VCHT system, since June 2023,’ reads an undated document provided by the Navy, through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.”
Last year the ship’s engineering department reported 205 breakdowns in four days.
The Editor
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Beware Wallstreetium Corruptus
To the Editor:
Societies, like the people who populate them, can be become quite ill—especially if their condition fails to receive the proper treatment.
Back in 2003, with our nation still reeling from the terror attacks of 9/11, we became quite sick. We fell victim to one of the most virulent germs ever known to humanity, the illegal war virus.
This virus soon had our nation embarking on a disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq, an illegal and immoral disaster that left hundreds of thousands killed and wounded and destabilized an entire region.
George Bush and Dick Cheney initially infected us with this deadly virus. But then, just as we thought the epidemic had passed, a new contagious strain of the virus infected Barack Obama. So instead of trying to finish the virus totally off by quarantining Bush and Cheney in prison, Obama proceeded to bomb Libya and double down on drone warfare. And the virus survived, with a particularly virulent strain that went on to infect Donald Trump, who would quickly deny he had become sick.
But didn’t the American bombing on small boats in the Caribbean, a reporter asked Trump, show that you have most definitely caught the virus? Nonsense, answered Trump, who went on to explain that he only bombed the Caribbean small boats because Obama had already set a presidential precedent for such attacks with his extensive drone strikes in Yemen.
But what about, another reporter asked, your invasion of Venezuela? Didn’t that prove that you have also caught the virus? Not at all, responded Trump. Just following precedent. Didn’t Bush and Cheney walk away scot-free from their invasion of Iraq?
Viruses, of course, haven’t been the only plague on our nation’s health. In 2008, we suffered an attack from the deadly Wallstreetium Corruptus bacterium, a microorganism that flourishes in greedy, secret environments that get precious little sunlight. This bacterium initially attacked only the United States, but the infection spread quickly to many other countries, nearly destroying the global economy and costing many millions of people their jobs and homes.
President Obama contracted this pathogen early on when he took in more Wall Street campaign cash than his opponent John McCain—and then didn’t take any of the necessary steps to neutralize the microbe. Instead of isolating the Wall Street carriers of this toxic bacterium, Obama judged these financial kingpins as too big to fail or jail and left them free to continue incubating one deadly germ after another. Wall Street’s investment in his campaign paid off handsomely.
And now we find ourselves facing perhaps the most dangerous threat to our health of all, our addiction to fossil fuels. This addiction is overheating our entire planet and destabilizing our global life support system. Catastrophe lies ahead.
Out of this fetid, festering, feverish swamp of untreated disease, our body politic, not surprisingly, is now manifesting the ultimate symptom of a sick society. Out of this quagmire a malignant narcissist has arisen. In the White House now sits an old-fashioned quack offering phony treatments for chronic ailments.
We have had in the past, of course, deadly pathogens within our social system. We still suffer from one of the oldest and worst of these: the virulent and highly resistant virus of racism. We once had a leader in Dr. Marin Luther King Jr. who understood how to treat—and beat back—this vile virus. We need to practice, Dr. King taught us, nonviolent civil disobedience.
Dr. King was murdered before his noble cure for racism could go into total effect. But he knew that the path forward to full recovery demanded that we also treat the equally deadly and symbiotic germs of greed and militarism. Let’s heed his legacy and follow his shining example—before time runs out.
Jeff Vogel
Sunnyside, N.Y.
Jeff:
Well, you certainly have wrung that metaphor dry. You left out one particularly nasty case, though. Jerry Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon seems to fit into this pattern awfully well. A few excerpts from Admiral Fowle’s Tidal Guide:
August 1, 1974—Vice President Ford meets with Al Haig for 50 minutes; they talk about Nixon perhaps resigning, and a possible pardon from Ford. It’s all quite kosher, though Haig did sign the official log under an assumed name.
August 7, 1974—Three GOP bigwigs tell Nixon he’s through. Len Garment talks him out of pardoning the Watergate conspirators. Nixon’s man Al Haig meets again in secret with Jerry Ford. Move along; nothing to see here.
The next day, of course, Nixon announces he’ll resign.
The Editor