Mash Notes, Hate Mail & Other Correspondence

To the Editor: The right to vote is the most basic human freedom in a democratic society. Yet the N.H. House Special Redistricting Committee has gerrymandered our electoral districts for their own partisan benefit. This will impact our N.H. elections for at least a decade. The Freedom to Vote Act bans gerrymandering once and for all, stops the flow of dark money, and requires that voting machines be made in the U.S.A. In addition, it makes sure that paper ballots are accessible at every poll. It makes Election Day a national holiday so that Americans don’t have to choose between work and voting. Please call …

Read moreSupport the Freedom to Vote Act!

Is It Separatism? Or Survival of the Historic Nations of the Spanish State? To the Editor: The Kingdom of Spain has recently improved its image in the EU by releasing the Catalan political prisoners responsible for the 2017 independence referendum. But, at heart, it is utter hypocrisy, as the grassroots independence movement continues to suffer repression from Spanish ultra-nationalism. Spain is now attacking republican targets, minorities and rap musicians, such as Hasel and Valtronyc, prosecuted for insulting the Spanish crown and saying what is public knowledge: that ex-king Juan Carlos is a thief! A French television news programme gave the biased headline “separatists exit.” This …

Read moreSeparatism? Or Survival?

Dear Editor: A word most of us are unfamiliar with, but will become commonplace in the months and years to come, is anocracy—or semi-democracy—a form of government that is loosely defined as part democracy and part dictatorship, or as a regime that mixes democratic with autocratic features. The Center for Systemic Peace [CSP] has downgraded the United States of America’s system of government from a democracy to an anocracy. I invite the reader to confirm this on the CSP website. The United States dropped below the “democracy threshold” (+6) on the polity scale in 2020 and is now considered an anocracy (+5). In the process …

Read moreWelcome to Our Anocracy

Dear Editor, It is clear that members of the one percent class do not know how to act responsibly with their tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in yearly disposable income. They invest in large corporations rather than small businesses. They invest in American companies who have moved their operations to China. They impose usurious interest rates on the working poor. They invest in news media conglomerates that distort reality, and food conglomerates that sell harmful products and services. They invest in energy companies that do little during the climate crisis. The luxury class invest in industries that are popular with Americans, but destructive …

Read moreThe Rich Can’t Handle Their Money

To the Editor: Do you know whether your town is getting its own dedicated representative in the New Hampshire State House? Fifty-six towns may lose out. The N.H. Constitution, Article 11 states: “When the population of any town or ward, according to the last federal census, is within a reasonable deviation from the ideal population for one or more representative seats, the town or ward shall have its own district of one or more representative seats.” The “ideal population” in the 2020 Census is 3,444 people, and if your town has that population, you should have your own House district with one or more reps. …

Read moreGOP Trampling the Constitution [Again]

by Jean Stimmell I was psyched to see “Unstuck in Time,” a new film about Kurt Vonnegut by Robert Weide and Don Argott. I had devoured Kurt’s most famous book, Slaughterhouse-Five, when it came out in 1969, soon after I got back from serving in Vietnam. As someone who viewed my war as unnecessary, illegal, and immoral, I could identify with his anti-war stance and how he questioned authority. Later, I became intrigued with him for being a wounded warrior, as were my patients, after working in the VA treating veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In  Slaughterhouse-Five, the narrator and Billy Pilgrim, …

Read moreKurt Vonnegut’s Way Of Dealing With The Trauma