Message to Republican maga cult groupie Senator Susan Collins- it is time to "do something"!

Message to all 🐘Republicans especially to Maine Senator Susan Collins.

Senator Collins has more seniority than practically anybody else in the House and Senate; but she is now full cult maga in a frozen kowtow position of fealty to Donald Trump. She is "always concerned but never courageous", she will not criticize Trumpzi-ism.

A message to all sane 🐘Republicans from Gianl1974 on X/ formely Twitter: 

• He pardoned 1,600 violent criminals. You said nothing. 
• He bulldozed the East Wing. You said nothing. 
• He interfered with the release of the Epstein Files. You said nothing. 
• He took over the Kennedy Center and renamed it after himself. You said nothing.
• He accepted a 💲400 million airplane as a personal gift. You said nothing. 
• He threatened Canada, Cuba, Denmark, Greenland, Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil. You said nothing. 
• He tariffed just about everyone but Russia, causing inflation and instability worldwide. You said nothing. 
• He attacked Iran, a nation, during mediated negotiations. You said nothing. 
• His ill-conceived war killed 175 children on day one. You said nothing. 
• He alienated and insulted our allies. You said nothing. 
• His ICE Army terrorized and murdered U.S. citizens. You said nothing. 
• He committed murder on the high seas. You said nothing. 
• He co-opted the Justice Department and directed it to prosecute his political enemies. You said nothing. 

It’s time for 🐘Republicans to start talking❗

#ImpeachTrumpNOW

Donald Trump ugly memes might be his audition for a future career

Echo opinion published in the Florida Sun Sentinel

Bedeviled by the pope | Pat Beall

Pat Beall is an editorial writer and columnist for the Sun Sentinel, focusing mainly on Palm Beach County issues.

I imagine what would happen if Pope Leo took my calls❓☎️

He’d be a nice guy, of course. Too polite to point out that I am likely just one more heathen, bound to spend eternity as smoldering charcoal.

“My child,” he’d say, “I understand you have questions about the Antichrist. You are not alone, I assure you."

Oh, I know. A world leader posting an image of himself as Jesus Christ laying hands on what appears to be either Jon Stewart or Jeffrey Epstein is not automatically horn-and-tails material.

Or is it❓

“I thought it was me as a doctor,” Trump said about the ugly picture in his hideous post.

Doctors❓ Only with bombs bursting in air, twin eagles threatening, soldiers flying, a cloaked Trump healing, handfuls of white light and the miracle of thick hair no longer in need of a combover.

Well. That explains the robed surgeons. The winged proctologists.

“All this is giving off Antichrist-adjacent vibes,” I’d fret.

And so I’d lay it out for the pontiff. The Great Deceiver will have one great secret which he will tell no one. (Epstein Files.) He tricks good people who should know better. (The 77 million people who voted for him.)

He will seem to have a mortal ear wound, but lo, it was healed, and the whole earth wondered at this. (Massive cotton wad on ear.)

But mostly, I worry, the big evidence is that every devil comes with their own imp.  I speak now of JD Vance.  (Yes, the Hillbilly.)

“Pope Leo XIV should be careful when he talks about theology,” warned the newbie Catholic convert, threatening the 267th pope in a religion that dates to 30 A.D.  (Maine Writer:  This quote from Hillbilly Vance gets a "dummy" of the year award.)

And this, we should note, is not the first time Vance has tussled with a pope. Back in April 2025, he traveled to Rome to meet with Pope Francis, a fierce critic of Trump’s snatch, imprison and sort it out later immigration policy.

Vance smiled and nodded and held to his belief that ordor amoris, the “order of love,” requires that citizens must prioritize their families and those closest to them. Maybe other people, maybe later on.

He told the pope he would pray for his health. The pope died the next day.

Trump mourned his passing by posting an image of himself as the next pope.

Vance said he embraced Catholicism seven years ago because he was fed up with “a society oriented entirely towards consumption and pleasure.” Like massive ballrooms with grand stairs leading absolutely nowhere. Or a skimpily clad lady in a gigantic martini glass on the lawn of Mar-a-Lago. Or a 💲300,000, two-story high golden statue of yourself at your Doral golf club.

Vance looked at this bright shiny basket of iniquities and announced: “That’s my guy❗”🙄

So too did Trump spiritual advisor Paula White-Cain, who compared the president’s torments to those of Jesus. “You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused,” she mourned. Also? “To say no to President Trump would be saying no to God.”

Then, because Trump cannot help himself, and also because White-Cain told people not to say no, the president followed up with another bit of blasphemy: an image of Jesus with his arm around him, haloed in soft light.

To further prove his spiritual bonafides and teensy-tiny soul, he stripped Catholic Charities of $11 million to house children.

“A lot of people weren’t understanding his humor,” explained Vance of Trump’s holier-than-thou postings.

“Actually, a lot of people were,” the endlessly likeable Leo would tell me on our phone call.

“He is bedeviling us all,” I’d say. “And I’m beginning to think those big ankles are really hooves in hosiery.”

So, is he, or isn’t he❓

“No, Trump is not the devil,” the pope would assure me.

He’s just auditioning for the part.

Pat Beall is a Sun Sentinel columnist and editorial writer.

Donald Trump gave a State of Delusion speech to Congress. Nothing was said to help Americans pay for health care!

Opinion letter published in Lancaster OnLine, in Pennsylvania:

The Media’s Failure to Correct the Republicans’ Obscene Trumpcare Lies. Trump seems to be focusing on everything but a health care plan.

For years, Donald Trump talked🤥 🙄about his fantastic health care plan. We are still waiting for that plan, but health care is not as important to him as it is to millions of Americans who face rising costs and loss of coverage. 💢

Trump appears to have too many personal items to address before he can focus on American health care. (Like his name redacted thousands of times in the Epstein Files❗)

It seems the American people will have to wait and suffer until Trump finishes his ballroom, his arch and the renovations to what he wants us to call the Trump Kennedy Center.

In addition, Trump needs funding for detention centers to house immigrants and, conceivably, American citizens who don’t meet his idea of being worthy citizens.

Let’s not forget all the tax money- more than was allocated to the United States Marine Corps❗ - needed to pay for U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (evil ICE❗) agents and federal troops who are sent to U.S. cities.

Let’s also remember that Trump seems obsessed about getting his name onto Washington Dulles International Airport, New York City’s Penn Station, naval battleships and a new NFL football stadium.

Everyone has their priorities. But, Donald Trump should put the welfare of the American people first before his own personal interests and his self-gratification.

Who would have thought that a convicted felon and man who has been found liable in civil court for sexual abuse could be such a narcissist❓

From Douglas Groover in Manor Township, Pennsylvania

Donald Trump and maga Republicans must stop their asault on the American people.

Echo editorial published in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, the state of the union is in turmoil.

In little more than a year in office, Donald Trump has assailed the country’s institutions, upset the constitutional system of checks and balances, flouted the law, undermined democracy at home and abroad, and ignored the rising cost of living for ordinary people while lining his family’s pockets.

Under Donald Trump — at the whims of his unelected billionaire buddy, Elon Musk — senseless funding cuts gutted U.S. medical research, led to thousands of federal employees losing their jobs, and more than 800,000 lives lost due to discontinued foreign aid.

Donald Trump's chaotic mass deportation efforts have a body count — including two American citizens — as the nation’s streets are overrun by heavily armed, masked federal agents who routinely use excessive force with little accountability. Meanwhile, the government continues to protect the rich and powerful listed in the Jeffrey Epstein files, perhaps hoping to redact away their sins.

When Donald Trump addresses Congress on Tuesday at the annual State of the Union address, he will do so with a 60% disapproval rating, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. Those abysmal numbers echo those seen after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump followers.

The reproach has been hard-earned by Donald Trump, who has squandered away the goodwill of voters after his undeniable 2024, election victory.

Rather than focusing on the kitchen-table issues that won him a return trip to the White House, Trump ramped up the cruelty of his anti-immigrant policies and ignored the economic pressures many hard working people face.

Instead of presiding over cooling inflation, the president’s obsession with tariffs cost American families an extra $1,000 last year. 

In place of policies that would make owning a home more affordable and bring down the cost of rent, Trump said he wants to keep housing prices high. 

Contrary to what the administration wants people to believe, mass deportations don’t create jobs; they stunt economic growth.

Tax cuts promised in Trump’s signature piece of legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, mostly benefited the very wealthy. The law allots billions to hire U.S🤢. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (aka "evil ICE") agents and build vast detention facilities on the back of steep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance.

That people are roundly pushing back against Donald Trump's upside-down priorities and abuses of power seems to have restored some conservative leaders’ resolve.

The same U.S. Supreme Court that, in 2024, gave Donald Trump absolute immunity ruled last week that Trump’s tariffs exceeded the power of the presidency. 

In December, the justices also blocked Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago, and have been skeptical in arguments regarding the president’s authority to fire a member of the Federal Reserve Board.

In Congress, a handful of Republicans have also rejected Trump’s wishes, denouncing his administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files and the president’s ill-conceived tariffs on Canada. 

GOP lawmakers have so successfully abandoned their authority to Trump that even these limited developments are heartening. (What I cannot understand is how Maine's Republican Senator Susan Collins with her political seniority will not openly criticize Donald Trump.)

When it comes to Donald Trump, perhaps the legislative branch should pay heed to the judicial.

In the same court decision that denied Trump his tariff authority,

Justice Neil Gorsuch, who is part of the conservative majority, laid it out clearly.

“Yes, legislating can be hard and take time. And, yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises,” the Trump appointee wrote in his concurrence. “But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design. Through that process, the Nation can tap the combined wisdom of the people’s elected representatives, not just that of one faction or man.”

The American people and the courts are speaking. If the state of the union is to ever recover, ❗ Congress must listen. #ImpeachTrumpNOW❗

Donald Trump and maga Republicans are controlling main stream media following the tyrants evil instruction manual

Dear  Friends,  Once you begin surrendering to Trump, he always wants more. You can’t appease a tyrant.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they depress.

Producer Alicia Hastey departed CBS News Wednesday, saying the kind of work she came to do was “increasingly becoming impossible,” as stories were now evaluated “not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.”

Echo essay published by Robert Reich in Substack.

Whose ideological expectations was Hastey referring to❓ Would it be impertinent for me to suggest it’s the sociopath in the Oval Office❓

Hastey’s criticism came a little over two weeks after Bari Weiss, the anti-“woke” opinion journalist who became editor-in-chief CBS’s News, unveiled her “21st century” vision at a town hall meeting. Weiss told producers and staff they were free to leave if they didn’t like it.

Since then, at least six out of CBS Evening News’s twenty producers have accepted buyouts.

At that town hall meeting Weiss also named a bunch of new contributors — including the anti-aging influencer Peter Attia. 

In the latest tranche of Epstein Files, Attia appears over 1,700 times, including an email in which he tells Epstein that “p—y is, indeed, low carb.”

In a missive to the newsroom, Weiss declared that “We love America” should be a guiding principle for the relaunch of the CBS Evening News.

Meanwhile, Weiss has replaced Evening News anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois with Tony Dokoupil — who was best known for hassling the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates for his “extremist” belief that apartheid is morally wrong.

In one of his first broadcasts, Dokoupil accepted without question Israel’s justification for violating the terms of the ceasefire when it killed three journalists in Gaza, reporting only that “Israel said it was targeting a group operating a drone affiliated with Hamas.”

Weiss faced blowback in December when she shelved a “60 Minutes” report about Venezuelans being deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, hours before it was set to air.

Sharyn Alfonsi, a long-standing “60 Minutes” correspondent who reported the segment, had accused CBS News of pulling it for “political” reasons. “Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” she wrote in a note to the CBS News Team. “It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”

The segment later aired on January 8, drawing in over 5 million viewers.

The story CBS posted about Ms. Renee Good’s killing in Minneapolis reported that “The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Ms. Renee Good last week in Minneapolis, Jonathan Ross, suffered internal bleeding to the torso following the incident, according to two U.S. officials briefed on his medical condition.”

No identifiable source was given for CBS’s assertion of “internal bleeding.” A CBS News staffer reported “huge internal concern” that the source was an anonymous leak by the Trump administration meant for an outlet they could trust to run it, no questions asked.

Weiss doesn’t exactly report to Donald Trump, of course. Trump runs CBS News the way he runs Venezuela — with a widely-understood threat that he’ll wreak havoc if it doesn’t do what he wants.

As Trump told Dokoupil recently in a rambling nearly 13-minute interview, if Kamala Harris had won the presidential election in 2024, “you probably wouldn’t have a job right now.”

Perhaps CBS News didn’t edit Dokoupil’s rambling interview with Trump because, moments after it ended, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt conveyed Trump’s threat that “‘if it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off.’”

You see the way Trump now controls CBS News? Dokoupil is Bari Weiss’s newly-minted anchor. Bari Weiss is David Ellison’s newly-minted head of CBS News. David Ellison is his father’s (Larry Ellison) newly-minted head of Paramount, which is the new owner of CBS. Larry Ellison is a pal of Trump’s, who contributes to Trump’s super PAC. And Trump? He has the power to take the prized Warner Bros Discovery out of the clutches of Netflix and deliver it to Ellison.

Among David Ellison’s first moves at CBS was to gut DEI policies, appoint right-wing hack Kenneth R. Weinstein to a new “ombudsman” role, and appoint Weiss.

I’m old enough to remember when CBS News would never have surrendered to a demagogic president. But, that was when CBS News — the home of Edward R. Murrow (who also revealed to America the danger of Joe McCarthy) and Walter Cronkite — was independent of the rest of CBS. And when the top management of CBS felt they had responsibilities to the American public that transcended making money for CBS’s investors.


America can survive without a “60 Minutes” it can trust, just as we can survive without trustworthy editorial pages of the Washington Post, that Jeff Bezos censored and whose newsroom he just gutted.

But, at some point, as Trump continues to repress criticism of him and his regime, American democracy is compromised beyond repair.

In contrast to Trump's suck-up of CBS News, the courageous CBS News’s Edward R. Murrow, from April 13, 1954  HERE.  https://youtu.be/z6j6iTN7Tkw

Donald Trump and maga Republicans support giving child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell preferential treatment in Federal prison

The Epstein scandal has landed in Texas. It’s time for answers. 

Echo Editorial published in the Houston Chronicle.

Texas lawmakers love to talk about being tough on crime. (Obviously not true when it comes down to sexual trafficking crimes❗) So why won’t they demand answers about Epstein’s accomplice — or sign on to release the files❓

Typically when someone is happy to move to Texas, it's because they landed a good-paying job in an affordable city, not because they’re a step closer to getting out of a prison sentence for child sex trafficking. 

Nevertheless, the weird machinations of the Trump administration, has caused the Lone Star State to become ground zero for the latest rage-inducing development in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Republicans and Democrats alike should be demanding answers about Ghislaine Maxwell’s presence at a minimum security prison facility in our state — and demanding that Congress vote to release the Epstein files.

Here’s the rundown of what’s happening.

In 2021, Maxwell, a Jeffrey Epstein consigliere, was found guilty of child sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

Earlier this year, for reasons that still haven’t been fully explained, the Federal Bureau of Prisons moved Maxwell from a facility in Florida to a minimum-security camp in Bryan, Texas — just a two-hour drive north of Houston. 

In fact, the Texas camp is a veritable “Club Fed,” with no perimeter fencing, dorm-style housing, and a reputation as one of the most comfortable federal prisons.

While the Trump administration hasn’t disclosed why they moved Maxwell, it is worth noting that this decision followed the White House’s refusal to release documents about the Epstein case and a meeting between Maxwell and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal defense attorney.

It also follows revelations by the Wall Street Journal that Donald Trump once sent a personal birthday card to Epstein that included an outline of a naked woman around bizarre lines like: “We have certain things on common, Jeffrey,” “Enigmas never age,” and “may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump denies writing such a letter.

Now a whistleblower has apparently told House Democrats that Maxwell is being waited on “hand and foot” by staff, receiving special meals delivered directly to her cell, private meetings with visitors who have unmonitored computers, and other privileges not allowed for other inmates.

“The deference and servility to Ms. Maxwell have reached such preposterous levels that one of the top officials at the facility has complained that he is ‘sick of having to be Maxwell’s b____,’” according to a letter from Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

That whistleblower also reportedly says that Maxwell is seeking a commutation from President Trump himself and warns of a quid pro quo arrangement.

The mere possibility of Trump reducing Maxwell’s time behind bars should have Texas’ tough-on-crime crowd frothing at the mouth in anger — and we’ll be joining them! In what world is Texas content to play handmaiden to this miscarriage of justice? Anyone who cares about holding child sex traffickers accountable should be outraged that a secretive scheme to let Epstein’s right-hand woman off the hook may be unfolding right here in Texas.

The questions keep piling up about what is actually going on behind the scenes. Why would Trump go out of his way to help Maxwell❓ Why are most Republicans in the House of Representatives refusing to support a motion that will compel the U.S. Department of Justice to disclose all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials in its possession that relate to Epstein or Maxwell. So far, not a single Texas Republican has signed on to that petition. Every Texas Democrat has.

The lack of answers only further feeds conspiracies and speculation that Trump’s name will appear somewhere in those files.

The American people deserve the truth. Texans specifically deserve to know why a child sex trafficker like Maxwell is getting the kid-glove treatment in our state.
We all deserve answers. Release the Epstein files. Now❗

No Kings peaceful protests supported by American who value our hard earned democracy and want to keep on loving it

LIVE UPDATES: Hundreds of No Kings protesters march to downtown Houston City Hall.  Echo Houston Chronicle editorial board opinion:

“We love America,” said Jennifer Backo, 82, without hesitation. 

So why then was she standing in the heat at the edge of a Houston highway❓ “We are afraid for our democracy,” she said. “I believe in the First Amendment. People are getting fired in the government for speaking their mind.”


Mike Faulkenberry, 48, attended the protest in an inflatable bald eagle outfit with a red-white-and-blue top hat. 

So, we asked him, as well, do you hate America❓

“We love America❗” said Jennifer Backo, 82, without hesitation. So why then was she standing in the heat at the edge of a Houston highway❓ 

“We are afraid for our democracy,” she said. “I believe in the First Amendment. People are getting fired in the government for speaking their mind.”

Mike Faulkenberry, 48, attended the protest in an inflatable bald eagle outfit with a red-white-and-blue top hat. We asked him, as well, do you hate America?

“No, I love America❗” he said. “I’m prior service. I take the oath I took to protect my country from all enemies, foreign and domestic, especially domestic, very seriously.”

The threat to the country he loves, he believes, is a descent into fascist authoritarianism. That would explain the eagle getup, only Faulkenberry said he’d tried to order a frog outfit first but none were available.

“No, I love America,” he said. “I’m prior service. I take the oath I took to protect my country from all enemies, foreign and domestic, especially domestic, very seriously.”

The threat to the country he loves, he believes, is a descent into fascist authoritarianism. That would explain the eagle getup, only Faulkenberry said he’d tried to order a frog outfit first but none were available.

Perhaps the last one had been nabbed by the woman across the feeder road who insisted on being interviewed in frog character. We asked the bouncy green, giant amphibian whether it hates America?

“No, in fact, the reason everyone is out here is because we love America, and the idea of America, so much that we’re not willing to lose our democratic republic to a wannabe king,” the frog said.

But why the frog outfit?

“The frog has sort of become the symbol of the boogeyman antifa that Mike Johnson is afraid of, almost as much he is afraid of naked bike riders,” the frog said, adding that “antifa is normal, antifascism is normal and anti-fascists are everywhere.”

Is antifascism normal❓ In the northwest suburbs of Houston❓ The area is widely considered a ruby-red stronghold. The local Cy-Fair ISD school board has a six-to-one majority of trustees who were endorsed by the Republican party.

Three of those seats, however, are on the ballot with early voting starting on Monday. The slate of candidates backed by Democrats are all former educators focused on students and support for teachers rather than culture wars. They earned the endorsement of the editorial board.

Meanwhile, Republicans have splintered. The CFISD vice president, Natalie Blasingame, is challenging the board president, Scott Henry, after he did not support pay for chaplains in schools. He also changed his mind on cuts to bus routes after several children were hit by cars.

Another protest is planned Tuesday near an event where Governor Greg Abbott is expected to speak in the area.

“It seems he’s coming into our neck of the woods because he is worried,” said Jennifer Lorenz. She co-organized the Saturday rally for Cypress/Tomball Democrats, along with Indivisible Cypress. By her count, more than 1,500 people attended.

Among the protesters was 77-year-old retired Cy-Fair teacher Sam Loomis. Does he hate America, as House Speaker Johnson suggests?

“No,” he said, and suggested that Speaker Mike Johnson is “covering up the Epstein files.”

He, too, said he was focused on the Constitution: “I’ve taught history for 40 years. I’ve been teaching the First Amendment for a long time. This is what the First Amendment says: You are allowed to gather and peacefully protest.”

He said book banning by the Cy-Fair board was a “bad look” and that the “gay community is being picked on, brown people are being picked on. It’s got to stop.”

By noon, all the inflatable creatures — three frogs, the eagle, a purple dinosaur, a pink Axolotl and multiple unicorns — had gone home. So had the free speech defenders in wheelchairs.

The Starbucks in the adjacent strip mall filled up with worn-out retirees cooling off. One of the last folks to leave was Backo. She’ll be 83 on Monday, she said.

Across the country, in the downtowns of major cities, including Houston, far larger crowds gathered. No doubt, many of those protesters hold radical views out of step with many Americans.

But on FM 1960, deep in the heart of purple suburbia, we didn’t see or hear a hint of hatred for this great country.

We saw patriots waving American flags. We saw our elders out in the heat. And their message was clear: Now is the time to speak up for the Constitution of the United States.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans must Impeach Trump Again. He is crazy and they know it but power to them is more important than sanity

Echo LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Whether it’s ICE abuses, the rising grocery prices, terrible tariffs, Trump has unleashed chaos | Opinion
Published in the Lexington Herald Leader, in Kentucky.

Our federal government under Donald Trump now specializes in escalated chaos. #ImpeachTrumpAgain❗

ICE rappelling from Black Hawk helicopters in the middle of the night to break down doors and zip the children. Putting migrants on planes to South Sudan. Blowing up Venezuelan boats with no warning. Cancelling federally funded projects in blue states. Proposing to use U.S. cities as training grounds for our military. Creating secret lists of domestic terrorist organizations, based on the groups’ views on family values, religion, race and immigration. 

One action that this administration is unlikely to undertake: releasing the Epstein files.

From Krisia Rosa, in Lexington, Kentucky

https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article312525947.html#storylink=cpy

Republican maga took an oath to support and uphold the U.S. Constitution but instead they obey Donald Trump

Montana leaders need to remember their oath to Constitution

Echo opinion letter published in the Montana Bozeman Daily Chronical newspaper:

Republicans Sen. Daines, Sen. Sheehy, Rep. Zinke, Rep. Downing and Governot Gianforte:

We Montanans are gravely concerned with your support for Donald Trump's authoritarianism, rejection of our U.S. Constitution, rule of law, and due process. The U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section 3, Clause 1 (1789) states: "Treason against the U.S. shall consist only in lobbying War against them ..."

Trump's "Chipocalypse Now" threat against an American city Chicago is an act of treason, an act of a tyrant, an act of a dictator.

Two: Support the release of the full Epstein files. By not supporting the release of the Epstein files, you support sexual predators of young girls and women who deserve truth, justice, accountability, and closure.

Three: Stop supporting the economic destruction of Montana and America by supporting Trump's illegal tariff taxes on all Americans.

Four: Stop supporting Trump's/DOGE's/ (incompetent❗) Robert Kennedy Jr.'s (RFKjr) destruction of our American healthcare system. Today we could not get COVID vaccines because of Kennedy's policies.

You took an oath of office to uphold the U.S. Constitution and were elected to help Montanans not harm Montanans and destroy America.

From Catherine Legge in Bozeman Montana

Donald Trump and maga Republicans hide from Town Halls because they are political cowards

Idaho lawmakers should hold ton halls❗ Here’s what we’d ask them | Opinion published in the Idaho Statesman newspaper:

Idaho’s congressional delegation, from left to right: Representtaive. Russ Fulcher, Representative. Mike Simpson, Senator Mike Crapo and Senator Jim Risch. All are members of the Republican Party. 

The U.S. House of Representatives is on summer vacation — sorry, “August recess” — having skipped town quickly to avoid a vote on whether to demand release of the so-called Epstein Files, which may show whether Donald Trump was somehow connected with Epstein’s sex trafficking of minors. Whatever the reason, Idaho’s U.S. Republican Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher should be back home in Idaho. The Senate is still in session.

What a wonderful opportunity to meet with constituents and hear their concerns. Wouldn’t it be great if lawmakers held town halls once again to meet face to face with Idahoans❓ 

By the way, we’re not talking about telephone town halls with screened phone calls and preapproved questions or private events with selected attendees. We’re talking about a town hall that’s open to anyone and everyone to ask questions or express their concerns about an issue.

Town halls with Washington politicians are becoming more and more rare. Senatir Mike Crapo last held an in-person town hall in Sandpoint in 2022, according to Boise State Public Radio. 

We could not find any recent evidence Senator Jim Risch held a public town hall, but he chastised a reporter in 2020, for daring to ask him a question at a public event. 

Congressman Simpson has not held an in-person town hall in over 13 years, according to the Idaho Democratic Party. 

Fulcher used to hold them all the time, with great success and attendance back when he was a state senator representing Meridian and Kuna. Fulcher last did an in-person town hall in 2024, at which protesters shouted him down, which the Statesman opinion editor condemned. 

Remember when then-U.S. Rep. Raúl Labrador was roundly booed at a town hall in 2017, when he said “nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care?”

Maybe that’s why Republican lawmakers don’t want to do town halls any more. It’s a shame.😔😒😞 

Among the issues and questions we’d like to see Idaho’s delegation address and answer: Why did you eliminate funding for public broadcasting❓ We would especially like to see lawmakers visit more rural areas of Idaho, where people are most at risk for losing services and explain how those cuts the Republicans 🐘voted for  are going to be good for them. 😳😔

Someone should ask them if they support cuts to the National Endowment to the Arts and the Humanities❓ If so, why❓ We’d like to see them go to Malad, Idaho and explain why organizers of the Malad Valley Welsh Festival might not be able to bring speakers in for next year’s event. Or Hagerman, Idaho about why a project documenting 435 local military service members shouldn’t get federal aid. Even though the Senate is still in session, we would still encourage our senators to meet with their constituents — all their constituents, not just the voters who support them — the next time they’re in town.

We’d love to see Risch answer the question: Do you agree with cutting funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development❓ You previously spoke highly of USAID and the importance of its work. What changed❓

We’d like to see an Idaho resident ask Crapo about the One Big Beautiful (aka "ugly"❗) Bill. Republican Senator Crapo touts what he says are the many positives of the bill: extension of tax cuts for the middle class, tax credits for nuclear and semiconductor manufacturing, no tax on tips and overtime for tipped/hourly workers, an increase in the child tax credit and standard deduction, money for farmers and small businesses, and a 💲50 billion fund for rural hospitals. 

But someone should ask him how all those goodies, increased spending and tax cuts will affect the budget deficit and national debt. Crapo likes to cherry-pick one “report” from the White House Council of Economic Advisers — a committee stuffed with Trump yes-men — that says the One Big Beautiful Bill will cut the deficit. Are you at all concerned that perhaps, maybe — just maybe — Trump ordered the Council of Yes-Men Economic Advisers to fudge their numbers to come up with the conclusion he wanted? Why ignore all the other myriad studies❓ Why ignore the Tax Foundation, the Congressional Budget Office and the Committee for a Responsible Budget, which have all said the bill will add trillions to the debt❓ We would also urge all of Idaho’s lawmakers to hold town hall meetings in small rural towns and field questions from people currently on Medicaid and reassure them that somehow cutting 💲900 billion from Medicaid over the next 10 years won’t affect them. Simpson should explain, with a straight face to a group of farmers and ranchers in Aberdeen who probably are losing workers, his reasoning behind why he believes Melania Trump🤢 😕deserves to have an opera house  at the Kennedy Center named after her. Or did Trump ask him to do that as a favor? While he’s at it, perhaps Simpson, a trained dentist by trade, could explain his support for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who wants to ban fluoride from drinking water, calling it a “dangerous neurotoxin” that he thinks is linked to arthritis, thyroid problems, bone fractures and cancer and is related to IQ loss or reduced intelligence in children. Finally, since this was the whole reason House lawmakers fled D.C. early, they should answer the question, “If President Trump had ties to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking in minors, shouldn’t the public be made aware of that❓” Statesman editorials are the opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board.