To the editor:
Section 224 of the National Defense Authorization Act 2027, announced May 23, 2026, is quite alarming. It provides for almost a complete integration of the U.S. military with Israel’s military, meaning the U.S. military data may soon be Israel’s data. In addition, it would shift the funds the U.S. now gives Israel to deep inside the Pentagon, where sunlight rarely shines.
While some will argue that this integration already exists, Section 224 brings this to a new level providing Israel with a level of integration with the U.S. higher than the U.S. has with any other country in the world.
Ro Khanna, in committee, tried to have this provision stripped from the NDAA on June 4th, but in a voice vote, (not roll call, no recorded vote) the effort didn’t pass. Thomas Massie has promised to bring forth an amendment to strip Section 224 from the NDAA when it is brought to the full house for a vote.
Where is the media coverage? If you Google it, you will find Al Jazeera, Responsible Statecraft, and other hits; MSN is about 10th down on the list. Nothing at The New York Times.
Marjorie Taylor Greene posted: “This is what complete capture to a foreign government looks like and there hasn’t been a single shot fired.”
Find out about Section 224 and take action. Spread the word and call your Congress person to share your position on this.
Don’t delay.
Barbara Schult
Goffstown, N.H.
Barbara:
We suffer from a Derangement Syndrome which, when we are reading, gives the letters spelling the name of Marjorie Taylor Greene a shimmering red glow, as if they were illuminated by Jewish Space Lasers. Naturally this phenomenon tempts us to disregard whatever context may surround it. However, even a blind pig may find the occasional truffle.
We checked with a source we trust, the Quincy Institute’s website, Responsible Statecraft. Here’s an excerpt from a May 29th article by Ben Freeman, headlined, “Congress quietly moves to integrate US and Israeli militaries: In the first step towards shifting aid further into the shadows, the House’s 2027 NDAA would all but fuse the two countries’ armed forces together.”
“Buried in the House’s version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released on Tuesday, is section 224, entitled ‘United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.’ The provision would arguably do more to intertwine the U.S. military with the Israeli military than the more than $200 billion (inflation adjusted) in military assistance Israel has received from the U.S. since its founding in 1948.
“Section 224 lays the groundwork for bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and seemingly every manner of U.S.-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation. The U.S. and Israel already work together heavily on missile defense, but this provision would greatly expand coordination to seemingly every area of defense tech, including AI, quantum, autonomous systems, directed energy, cyber, biotech, and many more. It also proposes ‘network integration’ and ‘data fusion.’ In other words, the U.S. military’s data could soon be the Israeli military’s data.”
Congress is reportedly considering Section 224 at the request of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, Section 622 of the Senate Intelligence Authorization Act appears to do for the U.S.-Israeli intelligence relationship what Section 224 would do for the countries’ military relationship.
So, Barbara—thanks for writing.
The Editor
–=≈=–
Just Say No To Massive Military Spending
To the Editor:
The Trump administration has asked Congress to increase the military budget to $1.5 trillion. The 2025 budget was $920 billion. Let’s remember Trump and the GOP Congress cut money for school lunch programs, cut funds for food pantries, kicked people off Medicaid, and made health care premiums for four million people unaffordable last year while still running up a deficit of $1.7 trillion. What would they cut to pay a fraction of the deficit this increase would cause?
Why would the country need to increase the defense budget by $600 billion? The only logical reason is to start wars that dwarf the war with Iran. This is of no benefit to anyone that is not a military contractor.
If we are to increase spending it should be on things that help working families. America would be better off restoring President Biden’s Child Tax Credit which reduced child poverty by 10 percent. We could subsidize the cost of child care. We could restore the subsidies to health insurance premiums initiated under President Biden. We could stop kicking people off of the food stamp/SNAP program when they lose their job or have their hours cut.
If you do not want presidents creating endless wars and cutting spending on programs that help you, tell your members of congress to vote against this massive increase in military spending.
Walter Hamilton
Portsmouth, N.H.
Walter:
Listen… can you hear them? No. We thought not.
We speak not of the peepers, who have come and gone for the year, but of the fiscally conservative Republicans.
For a good bit longer than we have been alive, Republicans invariably sold themselves as the sober-sided, responsible keepers of the nation’s fiscal discipline. Whenever some raving lunatic Democrat suggested that the government might do anything that would marginally improve the lives of those who, somehow, in our land of overflowing opportunity, struggled to get by, up would stand some well-fed Republican to explain why that would be tragically irresponsible. Some have long suspected that that pose was utter bullshit. There is no longer any doubt.
The Editor
–=≈=–
RFK Wrong About Lyme? We’re Shocked!
Dear Editor:
Last week DHHS Secretary RFK, Jr. visited New Hampshire to promote improved treatment, diagnostics and prevention strategies to reduce the burden of Lyme disease. I applaud Mr. Kennedy’s efforts to improve the much needed advancements in Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment, however, his approach to prevention reflects a poor understanding of the epidemiology of Lyme disease.
In his comments, Kennedy explained that the HHS is launching a “major, new multimillion dollar” program which will see the HHS and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) partner with researchers, to develop and deploy practical strategies to eliminate ticks on wildlife before they can breed on deer. This comment suggests that deer are the major reservoir for Lyme disease. In fact, most cases of Lyme disease result when individuals are bitten by infected ticks that have been on rodents and other small mammals, not deer.
Lyme disease is transmitted by infected black-legged ticks, aka deer ticks. The primary reservoir in the northeastern U.S. for Lyme disease, which is caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, is the white-footed mouse. When the black-legged tick bites an infected mouse, it becomes infected and can then transmit the disease to humans and other mammals, like deer, dogs, etc. As such, strategies to prevent deer from becoming infected would be very unproductive and have very limited value in reducing Lyme disease cases in humans. In order to do so, you would need to greatly reduce the number of mice and other small rodents that carry Lyme disease, as well as reduce the tick population. Considering the huge population of mice and other small mammals as well as ticks, this would be impossible and a waste of resources.
What was conspicuously absent from Mr. Kennedy’s prevention strategy discussion was a vaccine. This is not surprising considering Mr. Kennedy’s history of anti-vaccine activity. We had a Lyme disease vaccine, LYMErix, which was voluntarily discontinued in 2002 due to low consumer demand, negative media coverage and unproven concerns regarding adverse side effects. However, Pfizer and Valneva pharmaceutical companies have developed a promising vaccine candidate known as PF-07307405 (VLA15) which is currently in phase 3 trials and could be released in 2027.
If Mr. Kennedy was truly serious about preventing Lyme disease on a large scale, the most effective and efficient means would be by developing a safe and effective vaccine. As was done during COVID under Mr. Trump’s Warp Speed project, the government, working with private pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Valneva, could greatly speed up the process and have a safe and effective vaccine available next year. That would be a game changer with regard to Lyme disease primary prevention. Currently, our pet dogs get vaccinated against Lyme disease. I look forward to the day when we can also enjoy real protection from this terrible disease.
Rich DiPentima, RN, MPH
Portsmouth, N.H.
Rich:
Thank you. Yet again, our readers benefit from your expertise in this field.
We have not yet heard much about RFK, Jr.’s plan to control ticks on deer. Will it involve reinforcing front bumpers on vehicles and a coordinated plan for harvesting road kill? Reviving the lost art of flea circuses, but using a different species?
Despite our appetite for irony, we are not comforted, for some reason, by the knowledge that among the losers from this misguided campaign will be those Republican stalwarts, America’s ranchers, as their customers become allergic to red meat caused by the Lone Star tick.
The Editor
–=≈=–
Transgender Rights Are Human Rights
To the Editor:
President Trump’s executive order declaring that there are only two sexes—male and female—disregards the lived reality of transgender people. This is not just a policy error; it is a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be human.
Amin Maalouf, in his book In the Name of Identity, shows that every person carries a composite identity: we are shaped by many affiliations—culture, language, religion, nationality, gender, and more—and our sense of self depends on being allowed to live all of them, not just the ones others assign to us.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, declares that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, without distinction of any kind. Transgender people are not asking for special privileges. They are asking for the same basic rights that the UDHR promises to everyone: freedom from discrimination, protection of privacy, bodily autonomy, and the right to live openly without degradation. Denying someone’s gender identity is a direct violation of these rights.
Moreover, an article in the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics states: “Access to gender-affirming care is associated with increased quality of life and decreased rates of self-harm, including 44 percent and 73 percent lower odds of suicidality in transgender adults and youth, respectively.”
Author and philosopher Joseph Campbell’s words—“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are”—capture what is at stake. For many people, the ability to live openly as their true gender is not a political preference; it is the difference between a life of authenticity and a life of forced concealment and shame. When the state refuses to recognize a person’s gender, it is blocking the very possibility of that privilege.
A government that claims to defend freedom should not be defining who people are allowed to be. Instead, it should protect the space in which people can discover, declare, and live their identities without fear.
We must reject policies that reduce human beings to a single category. Real freedom means allowing every person to be who they are, in all their complexity.
Terry Hansen
Grafton, Wisconsin
Terry:
Not only is Trump’s executive order “not just a policy error,” it’s also more than “a fundamental misunderstanding.” By converting his own deluded perception into public policy, he is using the insecurities of his orangeshirts as raw material, and forging them into a weapon. When they wield that weapon against the innocent, the brownshirts are taking part in a perverse parody of the corporate world’s already grotesque “team-building exercise.”
The Editor
–=≈=–
Trump Cares Zilch for Our Future
Dear Editor:
Pres. Trump, unskilled in planning well, has announced $700 million for the first new coal plants in 13 years. NPR reports the steady decline of coal, underpinning Trump’s news. Included in this radio-delivered news was Wyoming governor, Mark Gordon’s voice, touting this as “good for WY.” The Wyoming coal will travel, via California ports, for burning in other parts of the world. Two Republicans of ignorant stripe care zilch for our planet’s future—which ties into being the futures of our children, grandchildren and all the life on our beautiful planet. Scream!
Two anti-science elected power-wielders. For them—“man-made climate change impact” wasn’t in the curriculum when they were in school. End of discussion. When will those who love their families and maybe also our planet’s amazing life varieties show that love when they cast their ballots?
Lynn Rudmin Chong
Sanbornton, N.H.
Lynn:
Trump’s Republican predecessor once said, “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” Bush was telling the truth when he said that, though he probably didn’t consciously mean it. We wish we could say the same about this addled, overgrown Energizer Elephant with whom we’re currently stuck. A dozen times a day, it seems, this know-nothing, do-everything human wrecking ball has discovered some obscure governmental function of which we may not have even been aware, and conjured up some idiotic scheme to render it inoperable. Of course, it’s not him that’s doing it. That would imply that he’s focused and industrious. No, he’s drooling in his sleep as the hangers-on and sucker-fish surrounding him compete for his favor by ruining something new and different.
The Editor
–=≈=–
K is for “Kalamity”
To the editor;
Trump and his minions consistently tout the strength of the economy. The President takes credit for the Dow Jones stock index reaching record highs while scoffing at reports of an “affordability” crisis. Other officials point out that GDP growth remains positive, unemployment is low, and consumer spending is strong. Their praise of the economy’s health is in stark contrast with how average consumers report their experience. Interviews and surveys show a deep dissatisfaction with inflated prices which have strained the budgets of middle- and working-class households. High housing prices have placed the American dream of home ownership out of reach for many. Healthcare and higher education are unaffordable for much of the working class, and day-to-day food budgets are stretched thin by high prices. Recent surveys of consumer confidence indicate that few are optimistic about their economic prospects. What accounts for the difference between the Administration’s views and the public?
A large part of the gap can be explained by the K-shaped growth of the American economy. The term was coined to describe the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in which approximately 40 percent of the population experienced significant wealth appreciation while the wealth of the other 60 percent stagnated or declined. K-shaped growth persists in today’s economy. The wealth appreciation of the top 40 percent is the result of their ownership of capital assets such as equity investments and home ownership. There has been a multi-year surge in the value of equities and a 50 percent increase in home values since the pandemic. Conversely, the wealth of the bottom 60 percent is derived primarily from wages which in real terms have been stagnant since the 80’s except for a brief period following COVID. The cost of housing, healthcare, and education has significantly increased during this period. The wealth effect of asset appreciation has shielded the affluent from inflation while the bottom 60 percent is increasingly squeezed by rising prices. While spending by the bottom 60 percent has been constrained, consumer spending has been driven by capital asset holders. In 2026, the top 10 percent was estimated to hold approximately 70 percent of household wealth. It is no surprise that this 10 percent account for 50 percent of consumption. They are the force responsible for robust consumer spending.
This pattern of wealth accumulation and spending is a direct outcome of rising inequality. In the ’70s, it is estimated that the top 1 percent of households held approximately 20-25 percent of the nation’s wealth. The most recent estimate is that the top 1 percent now control approximately 32 percent of wealth. This is about the same share as the 1 percent held during the Gilded Age. The increasing wealth gap is the result of the disparity between capital asset gains and wage stagnation. Assets have increased in value because they have become more productive but at the price of replacing labor, which has been considered by profit-driven managers as a cost to be reduced. Globalization replaced millions of blue-collar jobs in the U.S. with cheaper foreign labor, but more manufacturing jobs have been lost to technological substitution than off shoring. Labor’s ability to bargain for increased wages has been reduced by both globalization and technological change. Given the corporate bias to substitute capital for labor, the impending AI tsunami is likely to worsen inequality unless government policies intervene. This seems unlikely during a Trump administration. Although government policy could have been used to ameliorate labor’s losses as some European countries have done, the U.S. has chosen policies that benefit capital rather than labor. For example, Trump’s 2025 budget, the Big, Beautiful Bill, provides most of its benefits to large corporations and the financial elite rather than to the working class.
A K-shaped economy is not healthy. Macroeconomic statistics such as GDP growth, or stock market valuations, may appear robust but mask the fact that a considerable proportion of Americans are facing economic precarity. We are moving toward a two-class society where wealthy asset owners prosper, and the working class suffers. As the wealth gap widens, anger and dissatisfaction spread, leading to social and political instability.
Robert D. Russell, PhD
Harrisburg, Pa.
Robert:
The rich and their stooges push a neoliberal canard: the economy is shaped by “the market,” which miraculously allocates resources in the most efficient manner possible. We hold another view, to wit: it’s politics, not some mystical “invisible hand,” that shapes the economy.
Back in the early ’70s, future Supreme Court “Justice” Lewis Powell wrote an infamous memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It was, in a way, the modern equivalent of Pope Urban II’s edict that began the Crusades. Powell lamented that the middle class, since the war, had been rewarded for their hard work with cars, houses, refrigerators, and college degrees. He saw this prosperity as a bad thing, a failure on the part of our corporate overlords to keep workers hungry and scared. He advocated union-busting, privatization, and a large dose of propaganda to baffle the victims. Other factors were also at work of course, i.e., the Military-Industrial Complex’s lucrative war in Vietnam, which threw not just the U.S. budget, but by extension the whole world’s economy off-kilter.
The Editor
–=≈=–
Put America First
To the Editor:
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been under four different indictments for years. Three of the indictments have not gone to trial. He has dragged out the fourth by claiming he is too busy fighting wars to appear in court.
He tried to make Gaza a perpetual war, but President Trump eventually ordered a cease fire. Even so, Netanyahu broke the cease fire as often as Trump would tolerate. Then he talked Trump into bombing Iran while the U.S. was in talks with Iran over their nuclear stockpile.
Less than a year later, Trump was again in talks with Iran. This time Netanyahu convinced Trump that they could topple Iran’s regime from the air in a few weeks. That failed spectacularly. Trump negotiated a ceasefire with Iran which Netanyahu has been trying to sabotage by invading and bombing Lebanon. Each time Trump says we are close to a settlement with Iran, Israel carries out a massive bombing campaign in Lebanon. It has forced more than a million Lebanese from their homes, destroyed dozens of towns and occupied southern Lebanon. Israel is now ordering the major city of Tyre to evacuate.
Americans and the world are paying a heavy price supporting Netanyahu’s effort to avoid going to jail. We should put America first and end this war with Iran.
Walter Hamilton
Portsmouth, N.H.
Walter:
They’re like Laurel and Hardy, if Stan and Ollie had both been felons and war criminals, and at least one of them a rapist. Everyone on Earth, other than them, would benefit if somehow justice’s reach were to extend beyond the ordinary people who so often feel its wrath.
The Editor
–=≈=–
Ten Signs Donald is America’s First King
To the editor:
Monarchy has always been symbolized by luxury in the national government administrative office. Donald has turned the White House into a palace.
Billionaires have become invested with public authority like hereditary Peers.
Our new royalist works hard to establish the pseudo-scientific law of nature that the king can do no wrong.
Donald has announced America’s Golden Age of Monarchy, whereby the once upwardly mobile working class has become a subservient commoner class.
Absolutist Donald is naming historical and cultural markers after himself, and creating graven images on coins, as if, like God, he created all things.
Donald the Despot works to take the place of the Savior of mankind by portraying himself as one who is perfecting all things on earth.
The King eschews democratically-formed national alliances in favor of personal alliances with hegemonic autocrats the world over.
Our new Regent overturns Constitutional law with every new legislative decree he makes.
Our Lord and Master has replaced integrity in personal and public relationships with irresponsible and changing policies and behaviors.
Our Commander in Chief is committed to perpetual wars designed to keep himself on the throne.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Kimball:
It is no surprise an overgrown baby, born with a golden shovel in his mouth, acts as if he were king.
It is pretty shocking, though, to see self-styled, red-blooded Americans line up to be his serfs.
The Editor