Mash Notes, Hate Mail & Other Correspondence

To the Editor, Trump’s FBI invades the home of John Bolton, a critic of this administration, and where is the outrage? The tepid response shows how much we have normalized the Republicans’ full-steam-ahead transition to fascism that such an abuse of government power is just ho-hum. Our rickety media wants to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, though, by remarkable coincidence, every person being harassed is an opponent or a Democrat (He is even accusing Obama of treason). Taken right from the playbook of Trump’s favorite dictators Orban, Erdogan, Xi and Putin, though, in fairness, they would just toss the offending party into prison …

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To the editor; President Trump has issued his list of “final” reciprocal tariffs which became effective Aug. 7th. They apply to almost all goods exported to the U.S. from sixty countries and the European Union with base rates ranging from 10 percent to 50 percent. Along with previously applied sector tariffs, the U.S. now charges an average tariff of approximately 18 percent, the highest rate since the disastrous Smoot-Hawley Bill of 1930. Trump has levied the tariffs on countries that have a trade surplus with the U.S., making the false claim that surpluses indicate unfair advantage. Trump states that countries with a trade surplus have …

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To the Editor: It’s a familiar cry for those of us who lived through the turmoil of the ’60s. Great things will happen “when the revolution comes.” One reason the revolution never came was money. The people in the street lacked the cash and time it would take to build a unified political machine! On the other hand, for Kevin Roberts and the folks at the Heritage Foundation, time and money have been no object. Years of planning and billions of dollars have been invested in “2025,” and it is quite well documented who the biggest contributors are. All of which led Roberts to arrogantly …

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To the Editor: From 1967 to 1986, Senator William Proxmire (D-Wisc.) gave 3,211 speeches on the Senate floor, tirelessly urging ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crime of Genocide. According to Proxmire: “This is one senator who believes that ratification is not only patriotic, but also good foreign policy and a moral imperative.” The U.S. Senate finally ratified the Genocide Convention on February 19, 1986. Subsequently, The Proxmire Act, officially the Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987, was signed by President Ronald Reagan on November 4, 1988, making genocide a federal crime. In his remarks at the signing, Reagan …

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To the Editor: Why do people find Trump’s behavior puzzling? The reasons for it are remarkably clear. The “stooge” strategy has been a mainstay of mafias since before the Borgias: find a prominent but indebted businessman, bail him out, own him and have him bring your agenda into the mainstream. The Russian mafia bailed Trump out of massive debts accumulated from his many failed businesses from the mid-90s through 2008, making him a mafia stooge. A mafia stooge does what his mafia boss tells him to—or else. (The “or else” is another old mafia tradition.) Since before Peter the Great, Russia’s leadership has been obsessed …

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Dear Editor, Trump says Iran is the biggest sponsor of state sponsored terrorism. It is said that the first casualty of war is Truth. No, the biggest sponsors of state sponsored terrorism in the world are the United States and Israel. Trump speaks of Peace through Strength. Actually, U.S. foreign policy is based on Might Makes Right. The U.S. military has overthrown numerous governments, including a democratic Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Chile in 1973, and numerous others (see William Blum’s Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since WW II). The U.S. Intelligence community under Tulsi Gabbard says Iran was NOT building a …

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