Donald Trump and maga Republicans must defend and support American alliance with President Zelensky in the Ukraine

The United States’ support for Ukraine in its courageous struggle against Russia’s unprovoked war has been abruptly transformed from alliance to hostility under Donald Trump’s misguided leadership and dangerous, self-serving policies.

Echo opinion letter published in The New York Times.

Claiming U.S. national interest, Donald Trump turned to berating the heroic President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for daring to defend his country. But, after years of American support, Trump is abandoning Ukraine to President Vladimir Putin of Russia, whose mission is destruction without compromise.

Incredibly, an American president is collaborating with an autocrat who shows neither restraint nor remorse in bombarding innocent civilians and obliterating infrastructure.

Trump’s removal of punitive sanctions on Russia and his shameless castigation of Mr. Zelensky for continuing his fight signal Trump’s intention to avoid interfering with Putin’s efforts to achieve victory.

For decades the the United States has been a reliable defender of democracy and its values. But, under Donald Trump, our nation has  improbably become closely linked to an autocrat whose determination to absorb Ukraine back into his sphere is ruthless.  Trump’s wrong-minded appeasement is no doubt making that task much easier.

From:  Roger Hirschberg in South Burlington, Vermont

Donald Trump and maga Republicans revise history to suit their own ignorant opinions but they cannot erase the truth

Echo opinion letters published in the Boston Globe:

Whitewashing American history by scrubbing information that depicts the events and personalities that shaped it does not erase it. 

Donald Trump’s desire to portray America’s greatness, while omitting or minimizing the mistakes our nation has made along the way concerning slavery, the genocide of indigenous peoples, and other sorry chapters, is an attack on our national memory.

The facts exist. Scholarly research has laid them out in books, film, and various media that will endure beyond this administration. In 1789, this country established a Republic with a Constitution designed to “form a more perfect union.” The American experiment seeks a perfection that it may never fully achieve. Its greatness, however, lies in the constant pursuit of the lofty principles to which it aspires.

The country has made progress on many of those goals, but occasionally it backslides. Looking backward to a nostalgic, if mythical, past, instead of looking forward, is counterproductive.

A nation cannot move forward if it cannot acknowledge its mistakes, learn from them, and commit to avoiding those pitfalls in order to create a brighter future based on justice, freedom, and a government that acknowledges the worth of all of its people and their contributions to the American story.

From William J. Santoro in  Winchester, Massachusetts

“American history, as edited by Trump” describes a shameful travesty — the denial of the full nature of American history — for which taxpayers are footing the bill. When the wealthiest nation on earth chooses not to maintain programs that support health care, food stamp benefits, and the like, while paying to post signs at the Smithsonian Institution and national parks, among other places, denying the realities of our nation’s history, we are all victims of an effort to implement the trappings of authoritarianism.

From Allan C. Greenberg in Bethel, Vermont

To our Canadian friends please accept our apology because Americans wrongly elected stupid Donald Trump and Republicans will not impeach him

Stupid Donald Trump tariffs are hurting Canadian tourism in the U.S. But let's be honest about the bigger picture. Tariffs are hurting everybody.

Echo opinion published in the Sun Sentinel by the Editorial Board

Canadians aren’t simply staying home because of higher prices caused by Donald Trump's stupid tariffs. Many are deliberately choosing not to spend their vacation dollars in the U.S.  because of how Canada has been treated by the Trump administration: the tariffs, threats, repeated talk of making Canada the “51st state,” and the increasingly hostile rhetoric toward a longtime ally.

Echo letter published in The New York Times: "Something vital is being ignored in the negotiations about tariffs between Canada and the United States — the decades of warm and mutually supportive neighborliness between our countries. I’ll always remember the many Canadians who stepped forward immediately in solidarity after the September 11, 2001, attacks. Before that, their troops fought and died on Normandy’s Juno Beach just as American paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne, including my father, were engaged at Utah Beach.
Canadian travel to the U.S. fell about 25% last year, costing our tourism industry billions of dollars. The decline has continued in 2026 as Canadians choose other destinations. They are spending their money elsewhere," From John Elder in Bristol, Vermont

This should concern Florida especially. Canadians have long been among our most important international visitors. This isn’t simply a tourism problem — it is the economic consequence of alienating people who have traditionally loved coming to America.

If we want Canadian visitors back, lowering tariffs would help. But restoring goodwill and treating Canada as a valued neighbor and ally would help even more. From Andrea Culberson, in Weston, Florida

Extending a sincere apology😢

Canada, please accept our sincere apologies for the behavior of stupid Donald Trump.  I think little Donny failed in the “plays well with others” department and he never developed that emotional skill set. Even though he had 30 dolls, he wanted everyone else’s, too. Thus, he grew up a bully and a sore loser. And when those dolls became real life women, he grabbed them by their private parts, just because he could. I guess it’s all about the power trip.

Canada, please know you are America’s BFF and that is one of the few things most Americans can agree on these days. Please know his insane reign will end one day soon, and we will have a real president again — one who works for the benefit of all Americans and our allies, not just for his own wealth and ego.

I have no idea where this animus to our allies came from. (IOW, it is completely idiotic❗)

The Donald actually had a good idea when pressing NATO allies to contribute their fair share. But his personality defect could not let him take the win, and he had to double down. Your leader’s speech at Davos established what inspirational, moral leadership looks and sounds like. Making Donnie look bad (even though it was his own rambling, self-praising, Greenland poking and general incoherence that made him look like a fool) was the unforgivable sin. Don’t abandon us, Canada. We need you and love you. From Tanya Miller, in Hallandale Beach, Florida

Canadian "Liberation Day": A "NO!" heard around the world.

Donald Trump and his incompetent White House staff obviously have serious short term memory loss. Where is Secretary of State Marco Rubio❓

"I’ll always remember the many Canadians who stepped forward immediately in solidarity after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Before that, their troops fought and died on Normandy’s Juno Beach just as American paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne, including my father, were engaged at Utah Beach", John Elder, in Bristol, Vermont published in The New York Times.

Canada Said No to America. It Will Reverberate Far Beyond Its Borders. Echo opinion published in The New York Times 

The NO! (Non!) Heard Around the World 🌍🌎🌏.  

Friday, August 21, 2026, may go down in history as Canada’s Liberation Day. It was the day America came for us, and we said no.

The trade negotiations between the United States and Canada was moving forward in the weeks after Donald Trump first threatened 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods, but just before midnight, Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the American proposal. “Last-minute changes in the U.S.-proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic and called into question the reliability of any deal,” Mr. Carney said in a statement. “Canada will match those tariffs dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses.”

It was a decision made, seemingly, on the spur of the moment, but the deep history of this country paved the way for this one critical gesture — a historic “no.”

But Mr. Carney did not simply reject a trade offer on Friday. He was openly defiant of the new breed of American aggression. “We will not allow any nation to determine our future,” he said.

Trump’s tariffs on some 💲20 billion of Canadian goods began immediately after his deadline passed. For Canada, the choice came down to either accepting severe but temporary economic instability or binding itself to a pseudodemocratic fiscal basket case of a nation whose only apparent foreign policy objective has become domination for the gratification of Donald Trump's slapdash vanity.

It was a unique statement for any leader in Canada to make. The country has long defined itself through its participation in global systems, seeing itself as a node in the larger orders of the world, the postwar trans-Atlantic order and, before that, the British Empire. Mr. Carney is taking Canada in another direction, emphasizing national sovereignty on every front — economic, political, military and technological.

While the prime minister’s approach is certainly new, it emerges from deep reservoirs of the Canadian spirit. For nearly a decade, I was a columnist at Esquire magazine. During that time, one of the greatest discrepancies I noticed between Canadians and Americans — and Canadian and American men in particular — was in their basic idea of what earned respect. 

For Americans, the capacity to project power, the ability to make things happen and to win are the primary virtues. 

For Canadians, on the other hand, the defining virtue is toughness, the capacity to endure.

The difference is subtle but profound. Margaret Atwood’s work of literary criticism that defined 1970s Canadian nationalism is titled “Survival.” The coureurs des bois, the great New French traders who went into the impossible North on canoes looking for pelts, measured themselves by their ability to survive on the bare minimum in the midst of a vast, indifferent wilderness.

These deep-running values, rarely openly expressed, are the undercurrent of Canada’s rejection of America last week. The offered deal, or at least the details that have emerged, veered significantly from purely economic matters. Apparently, one of the final sticking points was an American demand that Quebec undo its French-language laws and French-language cultural protections. French, in Canada, is not a business matter. Its place in our nation transcends absolutely any market-based consideration. It is not something that gets put on the table.

Republicans must wake up to the purpose of Donald Trump's slush fund: He will use the money to bribe fealty from the GOP

Outrage Over Trump’s 💲1.8 Billion Slush Fund

Echo opinion letters published in The New York Times

To the Editor: Re “Risking Wrath of Trump, Some in G.O.P. Push Back” (front page, May 23):

Congressional "Growing Old Party" Republicans may be nowhere near defying Donald Trump’s sweeping right-wing agenda, but the opposition of some senators to the president’s outrageous 💲1.8 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund scheme to finance claims of mistreatment and possibly to support anew the grievances of January 6 felons is a positive departure from second-term blind subservience to Donald Trump by Republicans in both chambers.

For Donald Trump, though, pardoning the felons who desecrated the Capitol, brutalized police officers, defecating in the halls and tried to violently interfere with the certification of a presidential election was clearly not enough. Now, stooping to a new low of lawlessness himself, the president may seek to reward these people by offering them restitution, provided directly by American taxpayers.

With his years long, twisted interpretation of the horrendous attack on the Capitol, Donald Trump has sought to justify lawlessness that he personally orchestrated and encouraged. Now, finally, Senate Republicans — some of whom are taking a firm stand on the 💲1.8 billion fund — have found the courage to openly express opposition to Trump’s slush fund scheme. At long last, it’s a meaningful challenge to Trump's tight grip on them. (Maine Writer- Ya'think the maga cult knows how Trump's slush fund will also be used to keep them in kowtow positions❓)

From Roger Hirschberg in South Burlington, Vermont

To the Editor: Republican senators expressed outrage at Donald Trump’s plan to create a slush fund from which he would compensate cronies for having been investigated and in many cases convicted of crimes. So it seems that these sycophants can, indeed, distinguish between right and wrong.

The outrage was expressed mostly by senators who have either decided not to run again or who have been defeated in primaries. This scenario only underscores the cowardice of elected officials who have abandoned their sworn responsibility to serve the best interests of the nation in deference to their desire to remain in office. Shame on us for electing such corrupt people.

From Bill Gottdenker in Mountainside, New Jersey

To the Editor: Re “Curious Legal Aspects of Trump’s New Slush Fund,” by Adam Liptak (The Docket column, May 24):

Let’s use simple language to describe what is happening here: Donald Trump, aided by his sidekick Todd Blanche, is using a bogus nonadversarial court proceeding, with a too-clever “settlement,” as a fig leaf both to immunize himself, his family and his businesses from federal tax liability and audits, and to confiscate $1.776 billion of taxpayer money to be enjoyed by his friends and allies at the unreviewable discretion of a five-person commission controlled by Trump. A fairly audacious maneuver, one may say.

This travesty is, among other things, an egregious abuse of the federal court system. It is also an impeachable offense. (There has been no shortage of those in Trump’s second term to date.😡💢)

From Newman T. Halvorson Jr., Washington
The writer is a retired lawyer.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans causing Americans to move to beautiful Canada

God bless Americans❗ Thank you Canadians🍁. 
Echo opinion letters published in The Globe and Mail, , in  Ontario Canada. 

Re “Don’t lose sight of the Americans trapped in the Donald Trump nightmare” (Opinion, Jan. 24): My wife (80) and I (81) were born in the United States and have experienced 14 and 15 presidencies respectively. Some were good, others, not so much. However, we have now clearly reached a historic low. 

Therefore, we want to express our profound apologies to our Canadian neighbors. We love our country, but have never been so ashamed of the behavior engendered by Donald Trump and his cult enablers. There seems little we can do to change the brutish, bullying, immoral behavior of the U.S. government led by Mr. Trump other than to protest and hold our breath until the midterm elections in November.

In the meantime, we will visit Canada frequently (if you’ll have us), and spend as much as we can afford. We also encourage our Canadian friends to boycott all things U.S. and hold off visiting us until the stench clears. And kudos to Prime Minister Mark Carney for standing up to the neighborhood bully.

From Bill and Jane Gehring Upstate New York

We in Vermont are requesting that Canada seriously consider buying our state. It is a good deal. For only $647,464, a dollar for each of our citizens, Vermont would become the 11th province of Canada.

In return, Canadians would get unfettered access to great skiing, hiking and boating, a thriving maple syrup industry, Bernie Sanders as an addition to your Parliament, and a population within the only state to defeat Donald Trump in the 2024, Republican presidential primaries.

And, you might ask, what’s in it for Vermonters? That would be the freedom from tyranny and oppression, and a return to the rule of law that no longer exists here.

Oh, Canada❗ Please give this consideration.🙏

From William Gay in Montpelier, Vermont

Donald Trump MAGA cult are hypocrites ignore his ugly vengeful behavior

Why do decent folk back Trump❓

Echo opinion letter published in he Addison County Independent
By Alec Lyall in Middlebury Vermont

Decent individuals with personal stories support an indecent, vulgar, vengeful, self-serving president. How that has happened is a challenge the pundits struggle to answer.

An inflated (egomaniacal) ego, motivated by personal gain, is not something to admire. Expecting an honest advocate from a deranged psychopath, the label applied by his psychologist niece, is wishful thinking at best. Aside from the loss of essential services and world stability, children will learn by example to disrespect the law, social norms, the public good and their parents.

Again, why would decent individuals support an autocrat with behavioral issues, and the inability to read or process information❓

From Alec Lyall in Midlebury

Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are instigating violence to fabricate a crisis in Los Angeles and other places

The Nazi black boot of Donald Trump federal force lands with a thud. 💢💥❗⚠️

Echo opinion letter published in the Boston Globe

As have many others, I have found disturbing parallels between the events of 1923 to 1938 in Germany and current events in the United States. Rather than restate previous analyses, I wish merely to point to the nature of what has taken place in Los Angeles these past few days.

Donald Trump, who wrongly asserted the appropriateness of the actions of January 6, 2021, by subsequently pardoning those who had been found guilty of insurrestion actions, contrary to the law and the Constitution, has now taken steps to further assert the just and legitimate 🙄nature of the use of federal force in defense of … what❓

It seems increasingly clear that this Trumpziism provocateur of tumult is taking actions geared toward a declaration of martial law and the verge of civil war. Perhaps one serious question remains: Will those individuals who have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution keep their word❓⚠️⚠️⚠️

From Allan C. Greenberg in Bethel, Vermont

MAGA cult Republicans enabling the moral decay of America by supporting indecent vengeful Donald Trump

Letter to the editor: Why do decent folk back Trump?

May 15, 2025 opinion by Alec Lyall published in Addison County Independent in Middlebury, Vermont.

Donald Trump Has Started The Destruction of America

Decent individuals with personal stories (nevertheless, wrongmindedly❗) support an indecent, vulgar, vengeful, self-serving president. How that has happened is a challenge to the pundits that struggle to answer.

An inflated (egomaniacal) ego, motivated by personal gain, is not something to admire. Expecting an honest advocate from a deranged psychopath, the label applied by Mary Trump, his psychologist niece, is wishful thinking at best. Aside from the loss of essential services and world stability, children will learn by example to disrespect the law, social norms, the public good and their parents.

Again, why would decent individuals support an autocrat with behavioral issues, and the inability to read or process information?

From Alec Lyall in Middlebury, Vermont

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.

Elise Stefanik is selling her reputation and political soul to former guy Trumpzi

Echo letter to the editor: Rep. Stefanik is failing her New York constituents By Judy Kowalczyk.

Published in the Addison County Independent:  U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York District 21, is unfit for any office.

Anti-Elise Stefanik sticker
Vote New York 21 Blue

Stefanik says the Supreme Court should vote 9 to 0 that the treasonous ex-president be allowed on the Colorado ballot because “that is the American people’s decision to make in November.” However, when Biden clearly won the last election in 2020, Stefanik voted against certifying the election and did not listen to the people’s voices. So, she surely doesn’t care about the American people’s decisions, unless, of course, their decisions match her decisions. 

Stefanik is a hypocrite to the utmost extent: She wouldn’t allow the rights of all voters in 2020, but when it comes to far-right extremist voters, she’ll allow their rights. According to this deluded individual, “American people” only count as American people if they are voting for candidates she supports.

Also, Stefanik lacks education, not bothering to gather the whole truth before making judgments but promulgating conspiracy theories and the right-wing lies. Stefanik supports the greatest existing danger facing the American way — Donald’s sinister autocracy and his pathological lies! The sick, sad people she is among will do and say anything in their desperate attempt to toss out democracy and legitimate votes.

The only thing on which the Supreme Court should rule 9 to 0 is for Donald to be imprisoned for inciting insurrection, election fraud, and every other disgusting crime he has committed, and for you, Elise, to be right beside him in the next cell.

I don’t know who is voting for and following these damaging extremists, or believing their hypocrisy and lies. If it is you, wake up and smell the coffee, quickly, please! (Or find some kind of special Narcan for addicted extremists!)

From Judy Kowalczyk in Ripton, Vermont

Republican clown show led by a weak Speaker McCarthy who is controlled by House crazies

Echo opinion letters to the editor published in The New York Times:

"In the midst of a contentious Republican primary, added to Donald Trump’s legal troubles and culture war fanatics, Mr. (GOP) McCarthy has become a leader of appeasement. This much was evident when it took 15 rounds of voting for him to even become speaker."

Republican McCarthy is the speaker of the clown show!

Re “McCarthy Opens Inquiry of Biden, (in failed attempt) to Appeasing Right” (front page NYTimes, Sept. 13): 

"Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s announcement that the House of Representatives — which he leads with subservience to a vengeful far-right minority and a former president to whom he has sold his political soul — has opened a (fake!) impeachment inquiry into President Biden is clearly a low point in our politics," from  Kevin Li, Basking Ridge, N.J.

The Shakespearean Tragedy of Kevin McCarthy, Prince of Washington

The scheme by Republicans to punish the president, which comes without evidence, is a desperate gasp. It is motivated by former President Donald Trump’s persistent call for retribution and by congressional Republicans, whose only agenda has been one of obstruction, replacing meaningful efforts toward legislation that could benefit the American people.

The heavy weight of evidence supporting Donald Trump’s multiple indictments has not resonated with the vast majority of Republicans, who are determined at all costs to distract from his legal embroilment by elevating Biden family activities to a level of criminality.

In Kevin McCarthy, House Republicans have a leader whose actions, beginning with his tortuous unprincipled path to the speakership, have been focused solely on a need to preserve his fragile position.

Instead, McCarthy has embarked on a dubious mission in search of a crime, potentially at great cost to the country.

From Roger Hirschberg in South Burlington, Vermont

Witnessing free speech in judiciary January 6 real time hearing

Witnessing the free press action in real time: January 6, 2022 presented in a court room worthy thriller!

Watching democracy expressed in responsible First Amendment freedom!  Watch the YouTube video here. 

This opinion editorial was published in the Rutland Herald, in Vermont:

It was compelling even if the images — visual and spoken — were awful. (IMO- Moreover, the committee presentations have launched Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) to the status of a political rock star!)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/first-jan-6-hearing-draws-20-million-viewers-preliminary-nielsen-data-rcna33046

We saw the aftermath, the carnage. It was surreal that it had happened in the U.S. Capitol. It seemed crazy it happened in the United States at all.

January 6, was unique in modern US history. Five people died, Congress went into hiding, and the country briefly teetered on the edge of a coup d’etat.

We saw firsthand it had. The January 6, 2021 insurrection riot left more than 100 police officers injured, many beaten and bloodied, as the crowd of pro-Trump rioters, some armed with pipes, bats and bear spray, charged into the Capitol. At least nine people who were there died during and after the rioting, including a woman who was shot and killed by police.

As U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards testified Thursday night, “it was chaos.”

By Friday morning, all sides dug in like ticks.

You were either going to defend the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. Or you weren’t. Some Republicans insisted it was old news and that it was ridiculous to place any blame on former president Donald Trump.

But so far, the evidence would suggest that the assault was hardly spontaneous. It was not a farce, with broad implications. The Justice Department has arrested and charged more than 800 people for the violence that day, the biggest dragnet in its history.

“Democracy remains in danger,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chair of the panel. “The violence was no accident.”

In the weeks ahead, the panel is expected to detail Trump’s public campaign to “Stop the Steal” and the private pressure he put on the Justice Department to reverse his election loss — despite dozens of failed court cases attesting there was no fraud on a scale that could have tipped the results in his favor.

Trump defended Jan. 6 Capitol rioters chanting ‘hang Mike Pence

The panel faced obstacles from its start. Republicans blocked the formation of an independent body that could have investigated the Jan. 6 assault the way the 9/11 Commission probed the 2001 terror attack.

The hearings might not change many right wing Americans’ views of the Capitol attack, but the panel’s investigation is intended to stand as its public record. Ahead of this fall’s midterm elections, and with Trump considering another White House run, the committee’s final report aims to account for the most violent attack on the Capitol since 1814, and to ensure such an attack never happens again.

Thursday night was likely the panel’s “greatest hits.” (It was also widely watched!)

WASHINGTON — About 20 million people in the United States tuned in to the first hearing on the House's investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol Thursday night, according to preliminary data released by Nielsen on Friday.

Nielsen noted that while coverage varied, there were 12 networks that carried the hearing live between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET.

But, it is also about what will happen next. Americans must be concerned and forewarned about the uptick in violence nationwide, including the ramped up harassment of marginalized minority groups and attacks on members of the media.

And those willing to harass, threaten and intimidate are unjustly feeling emboldened, like they have good reasons and excuses for acting inappropriately. And they are using social media as both organizer and megaphone.

Much akin to what led to the insurrection on Jan. 6.

In recent weeks, since several mass shootings in the United States, the chatter has elevated to the point of becoming shrill.

According to a report by the Associated Press released Friday morning, White nationalists and supremacists, on accounts often run by young men, are building thriving, macho communities across social media platforms like Instagram, Telegram and TikTok, evading detection with coded hashtags and innuendo.

“Their snarky memes and trendy videos are riling up thousands of followers on divisive issues, like abortion, guns, immigration and LGBTQ rights. The Department of Homeland Security warned Tuesday that such skewed framing of the subjects could drive extremists to violently attack public places across the U.S. in the coming months,” the AP article notes.

These types of threats and racist ideology have become so commonplace on social media that it’s nearly impossible for law enforcement to separate internet ramblings from dangerous, potentially violent people, Michael German, who infiltrated white supremacy groups as an FBI agent, told the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. The problem is: So many false alarms drown out threats, he testified.

We are seeing more references to hate-filled ideologies. Authorities are learning about more coded messaging urging on violence and fear. They are seeing recruitment efforts. (A closer look reveals hundreds of posts steeped in sexist, anti-semitic, racist and homophobic content, the AP notes.)

As a nation, we are seeing compelling evidence — visual and spoken — that are leading to carnage and intimidation.

The concern is that Jan. 6 may have signaled a new normal. That truly does put democracy in danger.

Ukrainian refugees are victims of war crimes

Ukraine says at least 52 people killed in Russian rocket attack on Kramatorsk train station. Clearly, this horror and other atacks are war crimes. #Hague

The following is an echo opinion published in the Addison County Independent newspaper, in Vermont.

The plight of the Ukrainian people  "...news... out of Ukraine over the past few weeks is heartbreaking and discouraging. Ukrainian people and refugees have received support from around the world", Claire Corkins, Addison County Independent.

Refugees from Ukraine are backed

Echo opinion 

April 7, 2022
By Brigitta Lawrence

Ukrainian refugee children

Claire Corkins’s article intimating that the Ukrainians seeking refuge from the Russian onslaught should perhaps sit in the back of the bus and let other refugees, those who are not white, those not as well-educated and well-dressed, be given asylum in the Western Countries, is personally more than disturbing to me.

Obviously, Ms. Corkins never had to pack her belongings, her children, most likely leave her elderly parents to starve to death, or her doggies or cats to hit the road and go into the unknown, all the while knowing their home may be blown up and wondering if they’ll have enough food along the way, a shelter offered, and hopefully not get shot.

Who can imagine what it feels like? I can.

💙💛🌻

In January of 1945, toward the end of World War II in East Prussia, then Germany (now Poland), my mother, along with me as a little child, stuck me in a baby carriage and whatever personal belongings she could carry to join what was known as “The Trek West” in order to escape the Russian occupation of that part of Germany. She didn’t know where any of our relatives were, or if they were still alive. The trek took three weeks on the road in winter weather before she reached a western town in Germany that was far enough away from the Russian troops. Fortunately, the war was almost over and she settled temporarily into what soon became the British sector. Local residents were required to provide a room for a refugee, if they had one to spare. We lived there for about six months. My mother scrubbed the stoops and cleaned for the owner of the house in return for a small room with one cookpot, two chairs, one bed and one table and some food.

In November of 1949, my family, then re-united, did it all over again and immigrated to the United States. They settled in the New York City area.

Well dressed, well-off, educated or not, a refugee seeking safety feels the same terror every other refugee feels. In my opinion, the Ukrainians’ plight is critical. They deserve our help now.

Brigitta Lawrence in Bristol, Vermont 

Putin as Hitler reincarnate: Maybe proof of evil reincarnation

Although I consider myself to be "agnostic" about the possibility of human reincarnation, the personae of Vladimir Putin is providing more evidence about how this belief in "life after live" may have credibility. Unfortunately, evil is the creature that is being revived.

Echo opinion published in the Addison County Independent newspaper in Middlebury Vermont.

There is no doubt that Vladimir Putin has succeeded in achieving one of his life purposes. He has become a vilified world-historical figure. All the world knows who he is, and all the world fears what he is up to; I suspect this applies even to members of his own household. 

He probably enjoys the distinction of being the most hated man in the world. Most likely this pleases him. For the world’s hatred is an acknowledgment of his power, and fear that he will not hesitate to use it to destroy his opponents.

Not since Hitler has anyone emerged on the world scene with such power, with such ruthlessness, without a conscience. And when he’s gone — for death will surely take him someday, historians will preserve his memory. His story will become legendary, and artists will embellish it. He may become the central figure of a great Russian opera of the 23rd century. I have never heard him speak, but in this opera the role of Putin should be sung by a bass.

Right now, Putin is an existential threat to the human race, and a great deal of nature along with it. A nuclear holocaust has become a real possibility. Journalists who have observed him suggest that he is mad, that he has become unhinged. And as the leaders of nations throughout the world consider how to restrain him, he seems like a rabid beast prepared to strike against them.

Madeleine Albright writes how Vladimir Putin has a serpentine personality.

What sort of creature is he? Madeleine Albright, who served as Secretary of State, knew him well. She has written that his appearance is serpentine and his character follows suit. His face could have been that of the clever serpent who tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. For he is no doubt very clever, and of ill intent to anyone in the way of his purposes. 

Putin is the sort of face that one might inscribe on a dart board; a form of immortality he richly deserves.

But that doesn’t give us any useful sense of what we’re dealing with. And I’m speaking not only for myself, or my family, or my friends, or all the inhabitants of Middlebury, but of all people generally. For there is no doubt that Vladimir Putin is evil. He is an evil madman of world-historical proportions. Lord Acton’s comment about power — that power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely — fits him perfectly.

But that doesn’t tell us what we need to know. Hatred is not sufficient to defeat world-historical criminals. Recall what it took to exterminate Adolf Hitler.

So, what sort of man is Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (b. 1952)?

He is a politician, of the sort political theorists classify as a political realist.

And, what is that?

To begin with political realism is a theory that warrants the use of any means of power at hand to promote, secure and defend one’s political interest. The theory also subscribes to a doctrine of moral realism: that human nature is inherently selfish. This fits Putin perfectly. We might even say that Putin is an archetypical political realist, entirely ruthless (which is consistent with his realism), unscrupulous, a nihilist that rejects moral principles.

In this respect, to suppose that he is unhinged and that his actions are expressions of madness may prove misleading, for supposing that he is mentally disturbed, we may be misled by the expectation that he will soon self-destruct. Remember, the serpent in the Garden didn’t self-destruct. It still lurks in the shadows of our minds.

We must rather regard Putin as a very determined political realist. His actions are rational (rational behavior is not always a good thing); we know his interest: secure for Russia the status of a major world power on a par with the U.S. and China; and he doesn’t care about people getting hurt; he has no scruples — but that goes with being ruthless. He’s very intelligent, a skillful politician, and he has plenty of power to use. In this context, you could say that Putin’s aggression against Ukraine is perfectly rational.

Reinhold Niebuhr was a political realist, but not a politician. He was a theologian and social moralist. He saw that political conflict rarely leaves us rational, or better, he recognized that political conflict can unhinge reason, cause it to become demonic, cruelly rational. And were he living now, he would have perceived that Putin’s lust for power has not destroyed his reason, but made it demonic and all the more dangerous, and capable of unrivalled cruelty. He would caution that the nations that oppose him (and right now that seems to include much of the world) must size him up. I believe he would have agreed, Vladimir Putin is a demonic political realist. Very dangerous. And like a wild rabid beast, he must be destroyed.

We must become realists also.

Victor Nuovo
Middlebury

Voting rights and Republican hypocrisy

"The fact that not one Republican senator voted for the voting-rights act, speaks volumes", opinion by John Mandeville published in the Barre Montpelier Times Argus newspaper, in Vermont.

52 Senators allow filibuster to block Freedom to Vote Act, despite a majority of voters supporting the bill.

Majority of American voters, both Republicans and Democrats, support the Freedom to Vote Act and further voter rights legislation.
This is the endgame of what the Republicans have been trying to do ever since it became clear that demographics were against them and unfettered voting would ultimately lead to their demise at the ballot box.

You can't stop racial demographics, but you can change the ability to vote. The first thing they did was getting the Supreme Court to declare the voting rights act passed in the 1960s was no longer needed, so they threw it out.

By making all the absurd and completely debunked claims about voting fraud in the last election and convincing voters that it really happened, backstopped by Trump and his sycophants' never-ending litany that he won and Biden's win was illegitimate, they made it all plausible to the great unwashed.

Now, refusing as a solid block to approve the new voting rights act, they have sealed the deal. Republicans have been playing the long game ever since the late-1960s and Nixon's Southern Strategy, so that the Democrats never even see this stuff coming. 

Now that they even have the progressives, and independents blaming Biden for not being able to pull off new voting rights and BBB, they have not only hit a home run but a (politically gruesome) grand slam one, at that!

John Mandeville, East Hardwick, Vermont

P. S. Maine Writer- Republicans have always supported voting rights in the past.  What has changed their support, now morphed into hypocrisy? Makes no sense but, somehow, just reinforces the underlying sense that racism is now rooted in the Republican establishment.

Democrats are unprepared for the dealing with religious right wing extremism

On Faith: Insurrection and Armageddon, an opinion echo essay written by John Nassivera and published in Vermont's, The Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus newspaper.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nassivera

Writing from Mexico, I just finished watching and reading the U.S. commemoration/discussion of the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Having this distance provides a certain perspective. 

One thing noticeable by its absence is any mention at all of the role religion played in the January 6th events, and leading up to those events.

All one has to do is Google a sampling of photos taken of the participants that day and one will find countless crosses, “Jesus saves” signs, Holy Bible T-shirts, “God bless America” signs, people blowing on rams’ horns (referencing the Book of Revelation), etc., and my personal (Maine Writer note: fake!) favorite: a portrait of Jesus wearing a red MAGA hat.

Yes, we have to remember our democratic processes are under attack, voter suppression is in the works, the counting of votes is becoming a war zone, too many Republican voters and congressmen are still behind Trump, etc., etc. But where is this shift to the radical, angry right coming from, why is it so hard to calm it down, and why is it almost impossible to talk reasonably with the growing radical right?

I’m afraid the answer is because, for so many of them, this is a religious war, not just politics as usual. Living in this country where we had a horrible civil war over the issue of slavery, it is too easy for us to forget that a large number of civil wars around the world now and in the past have involved religious differences front and center. We could be headed for a religious civil war right now. On January 4, Stephen Marche published a perceptive piece in The Guardian titled, “The next U.S. civil war is already here — we just refuse to see it.”

I couldn’t agree more with the warnings being put forth that we have two years to save the U.S. from the threat of our government becoming a one-party autocratic rule system — losing our 200+-year-old (fragile) democracy. But so far I have not seen the warnings are recognizing the deepest and most dangerous origin of this threat. We have to address the root of the problem.

We now have a large voting block in the U.S. that is convinced our government should be/must be a specifically Protestant Christian form of government (a theocracy) and the Republican Party has decided to placate that mindset again and again to secure votes. 

This is a new type of Christian nationalism and Trump let that genie out of the bottle (not because he believes in it, but just because he wants votes!).

The Democratic Party is not talking about the elephant in the middle of the room: a heretical form of Christianity that has become a political party more than a religion. 

If you don’t believe me, see Andrew Whitehead’s book of last year, “Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States,” which won the 2021, Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. 

"Why do so many conservative Christians continue to support Donald Trump despite his many overt moral failings? Why do many Americans advocate so vehemently for xenophobic policies, such as a border wall with Mexico?"

Also see the “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism” by Katherine Stewart, published in 2020. Reactionary Christian nationalism is probably the most serious problem facing our country right now.

If the Democrats want to win the battle, they have to be ready for it and be at the right battlefield. 

So far, they haven’t shown up and they haven’t even practiced. The Republican religious right is already on the battlefield and they consider it the most important battle in human history: For them, this is the first stage in preparation for the Battle of Armageddon — the ultimate battle between the forces of good and evil at the End of Days, which is to occur in northern Israel at Mount Megiddo (as in ‘Armageddon’) — in accordance with their idiosyncratic reading of the last book of the New Testament, The Book of Revelation (also called Apocalypse).

In this apocalyptic worldview, all the problems and immoralities the “liberal elite Democrats” have foisted upon America have been foretold in the Bible — and it is also foretold that these horrible, ungodly people will be destroyed. I am not making this stuff up. This is a real belief system, really held by millions of real voters in the U.S. It has become a major factor in our elections.

And yet hardly anybody is talking about it — except in thousands of fundamentalist American churches on Sunday mornings.

Democrats are now up against a party that is willing to see America become an autocracy and a theocracy. This is a whole new universe for American politics — like nothing before. And yet, so far, I haven’t heard a single Democrat call a spade a spade. Somebody, many somebodies, need to stand up and say loudly and repeatedly that this Republican religious nationalism is not OK, that it is a false religion, that it is the biblical wolf in sheep’s clothing. (By the way, here in Catholic Mexico, nobody gives a second thought to Armageddon and the End of Days — that’s a gringo and evangelical thing almost exclusively.)

I have been studying how the deep currents of religious belief systems influence everyday life and politics for my whole adult life. I never thought I would see the day when so many Christians in America would consider themselves a “persecuted minority.” And further, see themselves at the same time as “the elect” who alone have the truth and the Lord on their side. Because they “know” they have the truth and the Lord, they are 100% certain they are right, “righteous and justified.” On account of this conviction, they have no need or willingness to negotiate, compromise or cooperate about anything.

They have arrived at this position on account of how they have taken Martin Luther’s famous maxim “sola fides, sola scriptura” (by faith alone and scripture alone) to absurd lengths. The 21st-century Christian fundamentalists hold that, if you just have faith and apply your own reading skills to Holy Scripture, God will grace you personally with all the truth and understanding you need to make sense of the Bible and the world. There are no checks and balances, there is no need for assistance from scholars and priests and sacred tradition — in fact, those things just get in the way and cause serious trouble.

And vastly compounding the problem, these new kinds of Christians have now taken the above approach to reading the Bible with them when they read the internet — where they find all sorts of support and hidden truths and prophecies, which are discerned and shared only by the “elect” and the “enlightened.” Mind you, since they believe they have no need of scholarship and guidance, they proceed in this enterprise with neither biblical literacy or internet literacy. That is a frightening combination of ignorance and error — exactly the kind of ignorance and error that leads to blind faith in Trump, autocracy and theocracy.

This is what the Democratic Party is up against today. As Democrats, we haven’t liked, as a rule, to bring religion into political debate — but the rules have changed. The GOP and the radical religious right have injected a poisonous amount of Christian nationalism into our politics. If this is not called out and disarmed — firmly, loudly and often — it will destroy our democracy.

John Nassivera is a former professor who retains affiliation with Columbia University’s Society of Fellows in the Humanities. 

He lives in Vermont and part-time in Mexico.