Mash Notes, Hate Mail & Other Correspondence

To the editors: A surplus exists when FICA [Federal Insurance Contrubitions Act] dollars collected via payroll deduction during the year exceed the Social Security dollars paid out in benefits. Any surplus goes into the Social Security trust fund, which does not hold cash. Instead, the cash is used to buy U.S. Treasury Securities, the cash reverts to the U.S. Treasury, and Congress may spend these funds as it sees fit. The securities that the trust fund holds, result in an increase in the national debt and helps to ensure the viability of the program. A shortfall exists when Social Security dollars paid out in benefits …

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Dear Editor, On April 23, NPR reported on-the-ground observations from Gaza. [https://tinyurl.com/546e9ffz]. Rafah resident Ahmed Barhoum’s wife and 5-year-old daughter were killed when Israelis bombed his house. Saqer-Abd el-Aal’s wife and six children were bombed in their home. What happens when a man looses all his possessions, his wife, and his children? His future taken, he has nothing to live for, nothing to build a future for. Perhaps the only thing giving his life meaning is dedication to revenge and retribution. While Israel’s government contends it is destroying Hamas, it is also creating more enemies, dedicated, with nothing else to live for, to Israel’s destruction. …

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To the Editor: A letter signed by 67 Jewish residents of New Hampshire calling for a ceasefire in Gaza was delivered to the state’s U.S. Senators and Representatives today. The statement also calls for halting U.S military aid to Israel, release of hostages, and allowing humanitarian aid to be delivered in Gaza. “We, as New Hampshire Jews, are horrified by the atrocities Israel is committing in Gaza, backed by U.S. military aid. Incessant Israeli bombing and military action has killed more than 30,000 people, the majority of them women and children, and wounded tens of thousands more,” the letter begins. “These numbers don’t count many …

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To the Editor: Seeing the results of the Republican New Hampshire Primary and subsequent primaries, I am horrified that Republicans who voted in those States voted for Donald Trump. This means that most Republicans who voted would like to see Trump as President again—a man who has been shown to be a liar, a thief, a cheat, and a rapist, who aspires to be an authoritarian dictator on day one. He has also told us that he is a racist and a fascist. This is who the Republican party wants to represent the U.S.A. to the rest of the world??? I lived in Europe in …

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To the Editor: It’s beginning to seem almost inevitable, doesn’t it? Super Tuesday has come and gone, and the sociopathic criminal is on his way back to the White House. A bought and paid for Supreme Court and millions of—I don’t even know how to refer to them anymore—have voted to make this happen. And here’s another reality to chew on; we’re just going through the motions for the next eight months because whether he wins the popular vote by a whisker or goes down by 15 million, he will be waddling back into the Oval, fat, stupid and miserable, with his tiny little thumb …

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Dear Editors, In your reply to my last letter you raised two points that I would like to address here. Responding to my assertion that the Gazette was negligent in the frequency and scope of its coverage of the ongoing U.S.-supported Israeli genocide in Gaza, you said that the Gazette could not respond to reader requests as to what should be covered. What you neglected to explain was any rationale for giving short shrift to this historic development funded in great part by our tax dollars. Do you fear being labelled anti-semitic by the pro-Israel lobby? Or do you just think the genocide is something …

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