Republicans must stop the litany of incompetent Donald Trump tyrannical actions

When will we wake up❓ Echo opinion letter published in the Vermont Bennington Banner newspaper:

From Linda Putney in Bennington, Vermont

Most Republicans in Congress are afraid and refuse to stand up for our democratic rights against the tyranny of Donald Trump. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska*, a startling admission from a GOP senator: ‘We are all afraid’.

"We are afraid", Senator Lisa Murkowski

Donald Trump pardoned 1500 participants of the January 6th invasion, killings and mass destruction of the capitol building.

Donald Trump stupidly believes that tariffs are the key to making the US richer.

Trump is a president who routinely lies, bullies, recklessly abuses his power, and has 34 felonies and a rape on his record. He is phalanderer.

Our government is being run by incompetent loyalists who kowtow to his every word. The rule of law is being trampled on by Donald Trump and his co-president Elon Musk.

We are told that diversity, equity, and inclusion discriminate against White men.

Trump has done nothing to right the error in the arrest of Kilmar Abgreo Garcia and perhaps others who were not allowed due process and are being held in a notorious El Salvador prison.

We are losing essential services by the firing of over 100,000 federal employees. Donald Trump stupidly believes that tariffs are the key to making the US richer.

This is just the horrific beginning during the second disasterous Trumpzi regime.

Millions of dollars of funding have been cut for critical medical research, and US aid to nations with humanitarian needs has been stopped. But Donald Trump treats Vladimir Putin like a friend and views Adolf Hitler as a hero.

We have destroyed our good relationship with our allies and have deserted the Ukraine.

Most Republicans in Congress are afraid and refuse to stand up for our democratic rights.

Donald Trump pardoned 1500 participants of the January 6th invasion, killings, and mass destruction of the capitol building. Donald trump deems Vladimir Putin as a friend and the views the evil Adolf Hitler as a hero.

Echo opinion letter published in the Vermont Bennington Banner

Donald Trump destroyed our good relationship with our European allies and have deserted the Ukraine.

Repored in the Seattle Times: Senator Lisa Murkowski, the moderate Alaska Republican who has routinely broken with her party to criticize President Donald Trump, has made a startling admission about the reality of serving in public office at a time when an unbound leader in the Oval Office is bent on retribution against his political foes.

“We are all afraid,” Murkowski said, speaking at a conference in Anchorage on Monday. After pausing for about five seconds, she acknowledged: “It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before. I’ll tell you, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.”

Murkowski’s comments were first reported by the Anchorage Daily News.

Republicans and the myth of voter fraud- a destructive fantasy

Echo opinion letter published in the Bennington Banner, a Vermont newspaper.

To the Editor: Republicans across the country are acting insulted by accusations that they are deliberately trying to reduce the number of people who vote for political reasons. 

"No, no", they (hypocritically) claim, their nationwide push to make it harder to vote is merely a noble attempt to combat voting fraud. 

When confronted with evidence that their efforts especially target people of color, they protest that this accusation amounts to “playing the race card.”

How plausible are these protestations? Not very. Not only is there zero evidence of any need to furiously guard against voter fraud, but conservatives have long recognized that suppressing the vote is necessary to maintain and increase their power. Most people have probably never heard what (right wing conservative religious leader) Paul Weyrich* said about voter turnout in 1980: “I don't want everybody to vote….our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."

Weyrich, the cofounder of the Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), is often called the “father of the new right.” He was immensely influential among conservatives. Sen. Ted Cruz recently told Republican state legislators convened by ALEC that a proposed federal law to make voting much easier would prevent Republicans from winning elections for generations. On April 6, Kevin Williamson asked in the conservative National Review “Why should we believe” that having more people vote is a good thing? Why not make sure voters are “qualified” like we do for doctors? None of this is new. In August, 2011, Ari Berman wrote that “As the nation gears up for the 2012 presidential election, Republican officials have launched an unprecedented, centrally coordinated campaign to suppress the elements of the Democratic vote that elected Barack Obama in 2008.”



Make no mistake about why conservatives want — and benefit from — fewer voters. They pursue very specific theories of government and economics. Those theories benefit them and their donors, at the expense of the majority of Americans. They can’t have too many people voting who question trickle-down economics; who are bothered by massive inequality; who doubt that excessive taxation is America’s true problem; who understand that the conservative version of “personal responsibility” is a destructive fantasy; who understand that letting business run rampant results in undrinkable water, unbreathable air, unlivable wages, and something akin to slavery. Republican leaders who deny they are suppressing the vote are quite simply lying.


From Lee Russ, in Bennington Vermont

* Weyrich - An American religious conservative political activist and commentator, most notable as a figurehead of the New Right. He co-founded the conservative think tanks The Heritage Foundation, the Free Congress Foundation, and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). He coined the term "moral majority," the name of the political action group Moral Majority that he co-founded in 1979 with Jerry Falwell.

Russia attacked the US election & our leaders must acknowledge the facts - Mueller Report opinion

Donald Trump lies about his own lies. Indeed, he wanted Russia to illegally infiltrate the Hillary Clinton campaign and now he's trying to make Mueller look guilty for perusing the truth about the 2016 election hacking.

Mueller was clear - Russia attacked us

A Washington Post editorial echo published in the Vermont Bennington Banner

In the political reactions to Attorney General William Barr's 4 page summar (aka #fakeBarrLetter) of special counsel Robert Mueller's findings in the Justice Department's Russia investigation, a key point — perhaps the most important one — has been nearly missing: America was attacked during the 2016, presidential election, and the nation's leaders must work to prevent another such attack in 2020.

Barr's four-page summary states that Mueller's report "outlines the Russian effort to influence the election and documents crimes committed by persons associated with the Russian government in connection with those efforts." The Russian government conducted "disinformation and social media operations in the United States designed to sow social discord, eventually with the aim of interfering with the election," and the Kremlin conducted "computer hacking operations designed to gather and disseminate information to influence the election," in particular by targeting Democrats and publicizing material through the website WikiLeaks.

Among the reasons that the Mueller investigation was not a witch hunt or, as Trump put it on Sunday, "an illegal takedown that failed," is that the inquiry was the calmest and, we presume, fullest review of Russia's hostile 2016 activities the nation has seen. 

Americans must accept the fact that Donald Trump enabled Russia to engage in 2016 election hacking

In fact, the investigation led to the charging of a variety of Russian entities. As important as it is to get more information from Mueller's full report on the question of whether Trump obstructed justice, it is certainly no less crucial to learn what Mueller has to say about the Kremlin's 2016 election meddling. Barr provided few clues in his four-page summary.

We know enough already to be certain that U.S. policy has yet to sufficiently adapt. National security experts have warned again and again that Russia has not been deterred from engaging in more mischief during next year's presidential race. It would be better late than never to apply tougher sanctions that hurt key Kremlin officials and undermine the pillars of Russian President Vladimir Putin's power as punishment for Russia's meddling — and as a warning that Putin would face a high price for future meddling. A president committed to protecting the United States would welcome such measures and strengthen bonds with NATO allies to present a united front against Russian aggression.

Congress, meanwhile, should drive more funding into upgrading and hardening the country's election infrastructure. That means, yes, buying new voting machines that produce paper trails. But it also means setting higher standards for cybersecurity and post-election auditing, which require manpower and know-how in addition to better hardware.

The first duty of the nation's leaders is to protect the country. That should be the top concern on their minds as we await release of the full Mueller report.

— The Washington Post

Secret Putin meetings with Donald Trump - echo opinion from Vermont

Echo - to the Editor of the Bennington Vermont Banner, newspaper:

Donald Trump incredulously met with the evil Vladimir Putin, the Russian dictator, four to five times, and .....secretly---- (!). 

Americans know nothing about what was discussed or agreed upon? In fact, the US lifted sanctions on one of Putin's puppets worth millions of dollars for this puppet. 

Now, we hear the US is leaving a treaty between Russia and ourselves? Another Putin dream come true? What did Trump negotiation with Putin? Is Trump a Putin Puppet? 

Trump is not a deal maker, but a Russia sympathizer 100 percent. Think about all that's been said by Trump about "Rrrussia"? What all the lies about meeting with Russian actors during the presidential campaign?

We are in a lot of trouble when there a Russian agent in the White House. Smarten up America. Two more years of this, I hope not.

Russell Wilber, Bennington, Vermont