To the Editor:
Trump signed his “One Big Beautiful Bill” way back in July of ’25. We can look back and ask, beautiful for whom? Corporations and the wealthy got bigger tax breaks. We got bigger healthcare bills. And some of the biggest health-care cuts don’t even arrive until after November’s election. They hope you won’t notice what’s coming. Food assistance cut. Education costs up.
That “One Big Beautiful Bill” added $156 billion for the military. But it doesn’t’ even touch what we’re spending now for this war. Six other presidents did the math and gave it a pass. You see what that’s costing every time you fill your gas tank. Family in the military? Your cost is way higher.
You can see what Trump’s ping-ponging tariffs cost you every time you go to the grocery store. Or pretty much any store. You’ve got receipts.
There isn’t enough money for the things WE need. But ICE can find $10–20 million for electric-shock gloves. Do you want to see those gloves coming to a community near you?
Money collected for our national parks is being redirected to flinging gold over everything in DC that sits still long enough. Then there’s splashing his name everywhere. We paid for it to go up on a building dedicated to another president. The judge said take it down. He can’t take no for an answer, so now we’re paying the lawyers to get it back up. Up? Down? We’re paying.
“Trump being Trump” isn’t free.
We’re being asked to sacrifice. Put aside for a moment what military families are asked to sacrifice. Follow the money. While we pay more at the gas pump, at the grocery store, and the doctor’s office, Trump’s family pocketed more than $1.4 billion from its cryptocurrency ventures last year alone. And that’s just one of their many grifts.
Maybe you’re tired of politics. Maybe you’ve stopped listening. Maybe you’ve stopped voting because you’re overwhelmed. Maybe you don’t think it matters.
People with power have no problem when the rest of us become too tired and discouraged to use what power is ours: our vote.
You can withdraw from politics. Politics doesn’t withdraw from you.
Vote.
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, Ca
***
To the Editor:
Many young people see a duty to defend their country and risk death or injury, or even kill others if necessary, when the Mission is Clear, and the Cause is Just. A deluded, self-absorbed, bellicose old man’s display of jacked-up trace testosterone, no guardrails, and disregard for the lives of others, is not that. Do not enlist Christ to justify Trump’s disastrous War of Choice.
Your explanation for your comment, “as for reintroduction of the draft, I’m all for it,” relied on defense of Selective Service, an automatic process, which was not the issue. The “draft” requires men to present themselves for imminent, non-voluntary military service, whether the war, like Vietnam, is just or not, the mission clear or muddled.
You can’t defend Trump, but you are an ace at excusing him, and here we are. When a president invades foreign countries, demands US takeover of others, or threatens annihilation, and you excuse it as, “bizarre, and not to be taken seriously,” your standards for leadership are “bizarre” for lack of seriousness and reliability. Trump has started a major optional war, caused economic damage to every oil-dependent country, has no clear path to winning it without American “boots on the ground” and consequent, but “unfortunate,” numerous casualties. He dismisses our economic realities and touts the delusional “Golden Age” economy (for billionaires, he means).
Take this seriously: Trump reported, on Truth Social, that he has directed Hegseth to “reduce the scale of scheduled US joint military exercises with SKorea” because they “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile,” to NKorea, which has been “unthreatening and respectful [to the US]”, “as long as Donald J. Trump has been President”, he wrote. Days before, NKorean super-dictator Kim Jong Un had declared the exercises a “threat to his regime,” and promised retaliatory threats. This alarming presidential accommodation also came after NKorea gave Russia thousands of missiles for the war with Ukraine. “God help us,” was a routine response.
At home, Trump advised Americans to get used to paying a “little more for gas”, and revealed that he is considering declaring the Strait of Hormuz “a territory of the US.” The next day, he produced a map so labeled. This imperialist derangement and his delirious attitude toward NKorea, require a major political intervention – now – but the Republican majority Congress is hooked on Zzz-Quil and reveries of futures as lobbyists.
After the Republican Senate capitulated to the Blanche AG nomination, they said they were shocked, shocked! that he immediately signed a DOJ opinion that “executive privilege” will attach to any conversation the president has, with friends, family, non-government individuals, a broker, caddy, or pedophile, if they are “advising” him on anything. Subsequent Congressional Committees would have no investigative power, even over Epstein, and our AG thinks that’s in America’s best republican interests. To amplify, MTPress host Kristen Welker asked AG Blanche, “Can you pledge the DOJ will always act independently of the White House?” “No, I’m not going to pledge that,” Blanche retorted. Welker continued, “So, if the president asked you to do something that you feel crosses an ethical or legal line, would you do it?” “He would never do that,” Blanche responded. “He [Trump] never has. He never will.” Blanche’s pathetic deflection, gag-inducing servility, is a dark window on his character. He knows everything about Trump/Epstein and continues to defy court orders to produce the missing unredacted files, to protect pedophiles, and dismiss the victims. And the Republican Congress knows it.
Trump’s latest money-making offer on Truth Social is selling privileged, early presidential knowledge – inviting market manipulation – to billionaires and possibly foreign governments, anyone wealthy enough to pay $100,000/month. The DOJ has eliminated or neutered federal oversight for fraud and cryptocurrency scams (for which Trump has realized billions while in office). But, so far, the Republican Congress and some of the American public, are allowing Trump to openly grift and grab with both hands, while many in our country ignore growing economic threats and international conflict crises, in one of the most profound episodes of self-inflicted national political harm in history.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca
***
To the Editor:
August 13, 2026
Albert Mendez, Mayor
Honorable Members of the Fillmore City Council
Re: Urgent Request for Special City Council Meeting and Legal Action
Dear Mayor Mendez and Honorable Council Members:
We write to you as our elected representatives with an urgent request that the Fillmore City Council immediately schedule a special council meeting to discuss the future of Santa Paula Hospital and to consider all appropriate legal and governmental actions necessary to protect hospital services for Fillmore and the surrounding Santa Clara Valley communities.
Specifically, we ask the City Council to prepare, in consultation with qualified legal counsel, to pursue appropriate legal remedies—including injunctive relief, if warranted—against the County of Ventura and the Ventura County Health Care Agency should the County vote to close the existing Santa Paula Hospital and proceed with any of the three options presented at the following public forums:
• The Santa Paula Latino Town Hall Forum, “Your Voice, Our Community, Our Healthcare,” May 26, 2026;
• The Health Care Agency Forum at Fillmore City Hall, August 3, 2026; and
• The Blue Ribbon Committee meeting, August 7, 2026.
This is not simply a discussion about a hospital building. It is a discussion about the future of our community, the health and safety of our residents, and whether Santa Clara Valley residents will continue to have meaningful access to hospital-level care.
For more than two decades, Santa Paula Latino Town Hall has actively participated in civic life throughout Fillmore, Santa Paula, and Ventura County, including city, school, and County committees. We have listened to—and participated in—countless discussions about improving healthcare access, mental health services, public health programs, and other social services. We have also seen repeated promises that our community’s needs would be addressed.
In 2019, Santa Paula Latino Town Hall led efforts to reopen the Obstetrics Unit at Santa Paula Hospital and demanded that the County hold community meetings in Fillmore and Santa Paula so residents could have a meaningful voice in determining how their healthcare needs should be addressed. The message from the community was clear and overwhelming: Fillmore and Santa Paula residents did not want a glorified urgent-care facility in place of a full-service hospital.
Following those discussions, concepts were developed for a broader health and social-service campus that could include County services, assisted senior living, market-rate senior housing, and other uses capable of supporting a full-service hospital on property owned by Limoneira.
We also worked to connect community college leadership with County officials to explore a partnership involving the East Campus and a Bond Measure S-supported college center. Such a partnership could provide educational opportunities, high-quality healthcare workforce training, and economic development for the Santa Clara Valley. Unfortunately, these opportunities have not been pursued with the urgency or vision they deserve.
Today, both the community college district and the hospital face significant deadlines and challenges, including the approaching expiration of the 30-year bond. At the same time, both institutions have experienced substantial executive leadership turnover, including the recent arrest of the Ventura County HCA Chief Compliance Officer. This is further compounded by the CA Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) August 12, 2026, announcement of new enforcement actions holding Ventura County Behavioral Health (VCBH) accountable to improve behavioral health access for Medi-Cal members. DHCS will temporarily withhold a portion of VCBH funding and monitor the progress for corrective action. These circumstances raise serious questions about continuity, institutional knowledge, long-term planning, accountability, and the political will necessary to complete major projects that directly affect our community.
An Inequity That Can No Longer Be Ignored
The approximately 10-year disparity in life expectancy between Santa Paula residents and residents in other parts of Ventura County, as reflected in Ventura County Public Health data, should be an urgent warning to every elected official in this region.
We must ask ourselves plainly: Would this level of healthcare disparity be tolerated in Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, or other more affluent communities?
Fillmore and Santa Paula have contributed substantially to the economic base of Ventura County. Our residents and businesses contribute significant property and sales tax revenues while our community continues to experience some of the highest levels of economic need in the County. Fillmore pays approximately 85% of its property tax to Ventura County. Santa Paula has the highest sales tax rate at 9.25% amongst Ventura County cities and of that, 0.25% also goes to the County. Santa Paula also pays 80% of all property tax to the county.
Yet the allocation of public resources has not resulted in equitable healthcare and economic outcomes for our residents.
This imbalance has consequences beyond healthcare. Young people who grow up in the Santa Clara Valley may leave for college, universities, professional careers, or skilled trades. If our community does not have adequate healthcare, housing, employment opportunities, and economic investment, we should not be surprised when they choose not to return. This greatly impacts the economic future of the Santa Clara Valley.
Losing our hospital would make that problem substantially worse. People will die.
The County’s Financial Challenges Cannot Become Fillmore and Santa Paula’s Burden
We are also deeply concerned about the County’s financial position and the financial challenges facing the Health Care Agency.
The County operates a large network of clinics and healthcare facilities, yet it continues to struggle with the cost and complexity of delivering healthcare services. We understand that the County has received substantial grants, incentive payments, and other funding intended to support healthcare delivery and address financial pressures in recent years.
Those resources must be examined carefully.
Before the County asks Fillmore and Santa Paula residents to accept the loss or significant reduction of hospital services, the public deserves a complete accounting of:
1. All grants, incentive payments, supplemental payments, and other healthcare-related revenues received by the County and Health Care Agency;
2. How those funds were allocated and spent;
3. The financial performance of each major healthcare facility and program;
4. Administrative and executive costs;
5. The financial impact of the proposed hospital alternatives;
6. The projected costs to patients, Medi-Cal, Medicare, private insurers, and local taxpayers; and
7. The long-term economic and healthcare consequences of eliminating or substantially reducing hospital services in Santa Paula.
These questions are especially important given the significant turnover in County executive leadership and the concerns that have been raised regarding management, compliance, oversight, and accountability within the Health Care Agency.
Medi-Cal and the Residents Who Depend on This System
Santa Clara Valley has the second largest Medi-Cal population and a significant number of residents who depend upon publicly funded healthcare and social services.
At a time when federal healthcare policy and funding are facing substantial changes—including provisions associated with the legislation commonly referred to as H.R. 1—our communities cannot afford to reduce local access to hospital care.
Potential reductions in coverage, changes to eligibility and renewal requirements, and new administrative or work requirements could result in more residents becoming uninsured or delaying necessary medical care.
That would place additional pressure on emergency departments, clinics, first responders, families, and local government—not less.
The answer to a financially challenged healthcare system cannot simply be to reduce services in the community that already experiences some of the greatest healthcare disparities.
We Have Done Our Part. Now We Need Our Elected Leaders to Do Theirs.
For years, Santa Paula Latino Town Hall has attended meetings, served on committees, participated in forums, provided testimony, volunteered, partnered with County agencies, supported public programs, and repeatedly offered constructive solutions.
We have been collaborative. We have been patient.
We have participated in good faith.
But collaboration cannot mean that Fillmore and Santa Paula repeatedly accept less while other communities receive more.
We have contributed our fair share. It is now time for our elected representatives to demand a fair share in return.
We therefore respectfully but strongly ask the Mayor and City Council to:
1. Immediately schedule a special City Council meeting dedicated exclusively to the future of Santa Paula Hospital and healthcare access in the Santa Clara Valley.
2. Direct the City Attorney and appropriate outside counsel, as necessary, to evaluate all available legal options to protect hospital services, including potential injunctive relief and other remedies if the County proceeds with a hospital closure or reduction in services without adequately addressing the impacts on Fillmore and surrounding communities.
3. Demand full financial transparency from the County and Health Care Agency, including the funding, grants, incentive payments, expenditures, deficits, administrative costs, and financial projections underlying the proposed alternatives.
4. Demand a meaningful community process in which Santa Clara Valley residents—not simply County administrators—have a substantive role in determining the future of healthcare in our community.
5. Coordinate with other affected cities, elected officials, healthcare stakeholders, community organizations, and residents throughout the Santa Clara Valley to protect regional access to hospital-level care.
6. Explore every viable alternative to closure, including partnerships, financing mechanisms, grants, public-private partnerships, healthcare workforce partnerships, educational partnerships, housing development, and other strategies capable of supporting a sustainable full-service hospital.
This Is the Moment to Act
Mayor and Council Members, this is not the time for business as usual.
Once a hospital is closed, rebuilding the infrastructure, workforce, services, and community trust necessary to replace it may take decades—or may never happen at all.
The consequences of losing Santa Paula Hospital will not be limited to Fillmore and Santa Paula. They will affect the whole Santa Clara Valley, surrounding rural communities, seniors, children, Medi-Cal recipients, working families, first responders, and anyone who may someday need emergency or hospital-level care.
We are asking you to stand up now—before a decision is made that cannot easily be reversed.
You were elected to represent the people of Fillmore. This is one of those moments when leadership requires more than attending meetings or expressing concern. It requires action.
Please schedule the special meeting. Bring the County’s proposal into the public light. Demand the financial facts. Consult independent legal counsel and use every lawful means available to protect our hospital and the people who depend upon it.
We respectfully ask you to say enough is enough! We look forward to your prompt response.
In service to our community and with deep concern for its future,
Rick Castaniero
President, Santa Paula Latino Town Hall

To the Editor:
I request additional word count this week to first respond to two sentences in your political statement last week: First, “as for reintroduction of the draft, I’m all for it.” Nothing you have ever said has caused me pain until that heartbreaking endorsement. Please, tell me why you are “all for it.” Did you give a single thought to what that means to our young men and their families that we know – or don’t? Especially in light of Trump’s enthrallment with Conquests of Choice? This is what your “Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” meant when he said, “Blessed are the Peacemakers”? Martin, war is what the Marian Apparitions warned against.
Second, “as for Trump’s ‘luxurious lifestyle’ – He’s a billionaire! Do you know any humble billionaires?” The rest of my sentence said, “luxurious lifestyle and grifts.” How is it, Martin, in a paragraph reporting the suffering of people under a bad economy, you thought defense of imperious billionaires was the compelling issue?
I was initially edified that Republican Senators Cornyn and Tillis who, denied reelection by Trump’s Primary disavowal, momentarily discarded their servile Party posture and demanded formal, written acknowledgement that the horrendous $1.8 billion Slush Fund/ IRS Fraud Pass agreements are truly “dead.” But they soon bought off on a “new” agreement, still signed only by Blanche, saying the Slush Fund is “dead,” but keeping the IRS Fraud Pass. It was just another pseudo-virtuous scam/joke that wouldn’t fool a first-year law student.
Blanche again bound only himself, not his Plaintiff Client Trump, or Defendant Client Trump (DOJ, IRS). The full-Senate vote accepted both “deals” (50-49). Trump and family can now commit IRS tax fraud at will, and restoration of the Slush Fund is inevitable. It was a card trick to fool the overwhelmed public; nothing changed. Cornyn, and Tillis, and the Republican Senate, bent their knees to this monstrous legislative gift to Trump of our tax dollars and permission for IRS fraud, or are really, really bad lawyers. Another Republican Senate Profile in No-Courage. The last holdout for Trump’s Slush Fund/IRS Fraud Pass scam, and vote for Blanche’s AG confirmation, was Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), another Trump Primary victim. When he folded, the AG confirmation essentially endorsed all Trump’s and Blanche’s malfeasance, including Epstein. Rather than vote the interests of the American People, Cassidy whined (literally), “I’ll be criticized no matter what I do….it could be somebody worse [than Blanche].” Candidates for Junior High Class Treasurer have higher commitment.
My limited experience in finance makes my opinions on economics nearly worthless. I have to quote respected sources, in this case Britain’s generally conservative The Telegraph. (I’m within quotable limits for prose, Martin.) “The ingredients for some sort of American financial crisis are falling into place, disguised for now – but also compounded – by the AI bubble. The global market no longer has full faith in the management of the US treasury and the Fed.
“The US has stopped upholding free trade and open navigation, switching sides to become the chief instigator of piracy and world disorder. It has squandered much of its arsenal on an ill-planned war that it cannot end without accepting humiliation and that has shown the US to be a weaker military power than we all thought. It has further wrecked US alliances,” which has largely benefitted China. “The disaster is nearly complete. Now we await the US mid-term elections.”
Iran is attempting to further isolate the US from Free World. Last Saturday, it publicized its six demands of the US to open Hormuz, which include US military removal from Hormuz, and vast reparations. No mention was made of nuclear talks.
This is what happens when you misuse the mightiest military as a plaything, and – without allies – attack powers that will call your bluff because the administration of an oil-based economy (Trump seems to not have considered that) is arrogant, threatens with annihilation, and misjudged their culture and resolve. Heedless to the fact that his own country is in danger.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca

To the Editor:
It seems that you are trying to redirect our political discussions into a Man of La Mancha contest between Good and Evil to avoid the “raw political controversy” realities of Trumpian America. Certainty, even in the face of conclusive evidence to the contrary, is your sacred state, politically and theologically, for there can be no doubts or disputes in certainty. I can understand the attraction, but for the possibility of error.
Our disagreements have been about whether current political acts and policies are strengthening our American Constitutional promise, or defiling it, with examples of how that is happening. Being “godless” (in your exclusively Christian definition) doesn’t equate with “conscienceless,” and neither of us qualifies to speak from a pulpit. Differences of opinion on anything – theology, politics, music, art, plastic surgery, etc., are essential to discourse among free people. As long as there is no persecution or force for one view or another, it is a part of sentient life.
American allies are increasingly worried that US inability to use military superiority to produce a more cooperative Iran has shown our vulnerability to the world. Last week Trump declared the US is “locked and loaded” to “unleash power not seen since WWII,” but backed off when Saudi Arabia “talked him down” for fear of dramatic escalation. This is where we are: a murderous Muslim dictator – not WH staff - “talked down” POTUS from a terrible, violent attack, so that Trump would not completely destroy whatever peace remains in the area. His world stature has largely dissolved. He is taking America with him, to a place we did not need to go.
Unfortunately, and tragically, this president is infamously incapable of reconsidering a position or admitting an error. He is still investigating and prosecuting people over his 2020 defeat. I fear what Trump will do, as he appears to have no internal or external guardrails. His power is a plaything for him. He has dismissed war casualties as “unfortunate.” At home, we are approaching rapid economic crises, with no sign of relief because “affordability is fake news”, even as Americans face rising national debt and prices, and proposed new taxes proposed to fund his War. The Military Times reports a new “streamlined” Selective Service process begins in December 2026, that could make the draft a reality.
The NYT’s Nicholas Kristoff conducted multiple interviews with residents of red states about the current American experience. They told him that they struggle to buy necessities, have no savings, have pennies in the bank, and have no health care or insurance. Addressing Trump, one Oklahoman said, “You don’t know how it feels to struggle. Live in my shoes for one day. You wouldn’t be able to handle it.” Almost everyone was furious about Trump’s “luxurious lifestyle” and grifts, and several reported “selling their own blood” as they broke down in tears. They were likely unaware that the Republican “Big Beautiful Bill” will reduce SNAP and Medicaid benefits after the midterms. They had believed his promise for a place at the table of a Great New America. And he plans to not need their votes in November, one way or another.
With the present configuration of Congress, the only current remedy to this serious state of affairs is for the Republican Party to take Constitutional responsibility for its choice, as they have failed to do to date, before even more damage is done. Our Constitution provides legal, non-violent processes to remove a mentally or morally compromised president acting far outside our national interests. There will be a point of no return.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca.

To the Editor:
Recently there were 2 similar posts on the Ventura County Lost Pets page on Facebook. Both had witnessed their cats being stolen from their yard.
Any number of terrible things could then have happened to the cats. Both people expressed fear that their precious pets were dumped in the wild area outside the city.
I can’t begin to understand the mind of someone who does something so cruel. I would just like to remind cat owners to keep their pets inside 24/7. Now besides coyotes & cars there is another danger to our pets. evil human predators.
Debby Mooney,
Fillmore, Ca.
***
To the Editor:
I have to say, I’m stunned that the editor of the paper of record for a small town like Fillmore would call one of his readers “godless” because she disagrees with him.
When I consider the Marian prophesies, I ask myself, why would Mary come with that message? Did she come to scare the bejesus out of us? So she could say, “I told you so?” I don’t think so. I think she came to warn us. To get us to do something about it. Not root for the man hell bent on making it happen.
The reality is that seven US presidents, have weighed military action against Iran—Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and Obama—all of them considered military action against Iran. Then they did the math. Even Trump I. They did the cost-benefit analysis and saw the cost was way too high, the benefit way too low. The difference now? Trump got rid of the professionals and put two real estate guys and a talking head with a combined experience of zero to think this is a good idea.
Is this what you think Mary wanted us to do with her message? Let it rip?
I dunno. I think she would have wanted us to fight against it, tooth and nail, until we stop it. Or all hope is lost.
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, Ca.
***
To the Editor:
It is good at our ages (I’m less than a decade younger than you), to prepare for the end of what we know. Some people are assured by Christianity, or another Faith, of the ultimate reality. Others just don’t know but realize that life is a gift we share with other creation, that eventual death is not optional, and that billions have gone before. We don’t have Faith so much as we have Hope, as we fall back into eternity, having done our best to be a decent human being.
One little suggestion, though. You might want to go easy on the denouncement of God Almighty’s other children, whom you feel confident are unworthy. Good Fathers are funny about familial criticisms like that. I’m glad you are comfortably reconfirmed in your beliefs, soothed by your certitude that your Old Testament God will treat as “calamitous rejection” any alternate faiths or religious doubts (except for your own, of course). You apparently have packed all essential certainties, without “the shrewdest logic,” which you hopefully won’t need in the Celestial Garden, either.
Meanwhile, the rest of us have to decipher our complex world, and make political choices which are increasingly difficult. I often write of the actions and inactions of this sitting president and his administration, because of the existential threats their decisions pose to us – as none have before – and to the world. They have proven to be singularly, monumentally arrogant and incorrect about what it takes for America to survive and thrive as a beacon of freedom and Free-World leader.
The 14-point Islamabad MOU is fraught with problems on its face. Article 5, in particular, is poorly written and only requires Iran’s “best efforts” to clear the Strait (whatever that means). It appears to give Iran the rights to control the Strait for 60 days. Even before signature, Trump and Iran were disputing whether the MOU committed to a “permanently toll-free” Strait. Furthermore, Israel, not a signatory, continues to bomb Lebanon in defiance of the MOU. Post-signing, Trump added a verbal provision that all parties must accept the Abraham Accords accepting Israel, a deeply divisive issue which promises rejection. It makes some sense when we know that our side was negotiated by glorified real estate moguls and Trump himself.
If this conflict results in world conflagration, as you repeatedly and almost fervently predict, who will have set the debacle in motion? Russia, China, North Korea? Who will have forced free nations to choose between a bad regime with control over oil-based economies, and America who stomps imperiously and cold-bloodedly over the world, indifferent to the heightened chaos of ally and enemy alike? And Trump now wants $billions more to fight a war of choice, and likely boots-on-the ground, he promised against, while ordinary citizens contend with this administration’s denied, but obvious, disastrous economic and unConstitutional decisions.
I had a glimmer of amusement when you claimed that, “with two major wars to deal with, promising escalation to global scale, raw political controversy doesn’t interest me.” From your commanding promontory, Martin, from where do you think these wars you are “dealing with,” that threaten mass destruction, arise? From the political controversies that don’t interest you. Won’t be your problem; you’ll be taking harp lessons.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca

To the Editor:
Last Thursday, Trump put on another master class in “Magical Thinking” for those prone to mystification and immune to evidence. Another manipulation of reality that defied logic, but he hoped will sell tickets at election time. In an address to the nation, Trump first tested the waters by declaring he was, “happy to report that the country is safer, stronger and far wealthier than it has ever been before.” He clearly thinks we’re all insensate.
Trump sounded the alarm against China for trying to influence the 2018 and 2020 elections, and dramatically released “declassified critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure” (most of which had already been declassified). He curiously omitted mention of 2024 Chinese interference, but if the US elections system is “like that of a third world country,” why would that election result be uniquely legitimate?
Naturally, Trump denounced, and called for sanctions against, China? Negative. He assumed you couldn’t follow the shell containing the pea after his shuffle. Instead, his proposed “cure” for foreign interference is his SAVE Act, a draconian voter ID proposal that is really a voter suppression scheme that would do absolutely NOTHING to prevent China, Russia, or Iran, from electronic interference in elections. The SAVE Act is an attack on the American voter which would order a centralized federal takeover of the voting process, despite the fact that the Constitution gives the states control over elections.
If you weren’t unnerved enough by China’s interference, Trump further warned that thousands of undocumented immigrant votes are illegally being counted. That is a verifiable lie. Only a handful of cases have been identified, but Trump wants you to be more alarmed by false images of hordes of non-citizens voting than you are of an unconstitutional federal takeover of elections and control of your vote. The next day, DHS Secretary Mullin threatened the incarceration of the officials of any state refusing to turn over their voter rolls to the federal government. So, damn the Constitution and the Courts, states’ and voters’ rights.
Trump summarized with one last magic trick, a dire warning that “they” (not China, or immigrants, but now the “deep state”) stole the 2020 election, without identifying who – in his own 4-year administration – had orchestrated or allowed the swindle. Thursday night in an interview, John Solomon, Trump’s long-time staffer admitted, “I only know the intelligence community has zero evidence that a foreign power flipped a vote in 2020, ‘22 or ‘24” Subsequent local audits, and the Courts, found no evidence of measurable fraud from any source in the 2020 election, either.
Voting mechanisms are not connected to the internet. Trump is trying to set the table to steal the midterms in 3 months and the 2028 general election – not by manipulating machines, but by controlling the voting process (including firing elections officials and suggesting DHS presence at polling sites) and some Republicans are all in. “You know, in California, if you even bring an ID to the polling place, they might put you in jail,” chortled Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).
It was notable last week, too, that Trump’s psychotic attachment to his hybrid power/victim persona is so complete that accomplished, grown men undergoing confirmation hearings for vital jobs, went full-on Sycophantic Wimp, and refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the presidency in 2020. They would only say that “he was inaugurated.”
There is no reason, either, to expect that anyone in the WH is honest enough to tell Trump that Iran’s military has not been “obliterated,” and that his war is a growing, world-wide disaster.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca.

To the Editor:
When there are so many daily aberrations from which to choose, “one-subject LTTE” is a challenge in this presidency. This week: some financial and economic issues, the discussion necessarily limited by space. The growing corruption in the WH, and the recognition of this fact nationally and internationally, affirms that the Trump WH has become a criminal enterprise that exceeds even my, and historical, expectations.
Business is brisk in the Oval Office, and the Trump Family (“TF”) is scoring. Financial disclosure statements indicate that their riskless World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency scheme (investors buy high the “celebration coins” from the TF and, when their value tanks, they lose their investment, though TF keeps their sales profits), and this administration has crippled the federal agencies that oversee such abuses.
The shock is that people keep lining up to be hustled (recall all the for-sale trinkets), while swallowing the inevitable grift despite the foreseeable pain in “Trump Reflux Derangement Syndrome,” rather like you see in future disbarred lawyer and whipping-boy, Todd Blanche, when he whimpers, “Please sir, may I have another?” Trump believes he has a right to grab with both hands from the Oval, and he knows that his base will believe, be confused, or ignore it, but in no way impede him, and much of the press is complicit, cowed, or overwhelmed.
However, this week in another clear example of Trump using his office for his own advantage, a US District Judge determined that Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS regarding leaked tax returns was “filed for an improper purpose” and that the “settlement agreement” was void for lack of “controversy”, as AG Todd Blanche had represented both the plaintiff (Trump Family) and defendant (Trump as president). The judge refused to take Blanche’s word that the fund would not be resurrected and invalidated the DOJ agreement for Trump Family immunity from future IRS audits. The judge also sent copies of her ruling to the NY Bar Association, where Acting AG Blanche is facing disciplinary proceedings for misrepresenting material facts in other Courts.
Meanwhile, the competition for grift is fierce in the TF. Ivanka and Jared have revealed their “expedited purchase” of an Albanian island for a resort. Trump’s “boys” have amassed a portfolio of defense tech and robotic battlefield companies with preapproved status for federal contracts. They have bought into a partially federally financed Kazakhstan mine. WH and Pentagon officials – under direct control of the Unitary Executive – have denied that the investments represent a “conflict of interest.” And there’s much more. Poor Hunter Biden was a simpleton, and the concocted “Biden Crime Family” clueless, in comparison. The Trumps are the “Pros from Dover.”
But this epic corruption is not the most alarming reality for our country. The UK and US have a 75-year history of deep intelligence cooperation and Free-World commitment, including the legendary “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance which the UK and Canada have modified since they now know that, in Trump, they are not dealing with a disciplined, principled, knowledgeable, reasonable administration. They are dealing with an encapsulated, unfathomably emotionally needy, volatile and conscience-less individual whose “policies” are determined by his emotional state, quest for financial advantage, and advancing delusions. Britain’s foreign intelligence service, M-16, has reportedly told the Prime Minister that Trump II, “resembles the Salem witch trials combined with the court of Henry VIII.”
Steven Cheung, WH spokesman, countered that the relationship between the US and other world nations, “has never been better.” All evidence to the contrary, if you have the remotest interest in integrity and reality.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca

To the Editor:
The Constitutional Congress anticipated that future presidents – even if they abused truth and democratic principles, cultivated avaricious appetites, or abandoned any semblance of “sacred honor” – would always face the seminal power of this nation: “We, the People.” We have the power to demand the integrity, effort, and commitment from government that our Founding Ancestors envisioned in framing our exceptional American Freedom from tyranny, celebrated on July 4th.
But somebody made this year’s Glorious 250th Fourth of July Birthday Party a scorching forced march rather than a Grand Celebratory Parade: “Your favorite president – ME!” First his 80th birthday party (and “beard” of Flag Day) that featured bloody contests to amuse old, rich donors, then the “Great American State Fair,” funded by donations embezzled from the 2016 congressionally appointed 250th Celebration Committee to Trump’s control. That last fact induced most scheduled entertainers to cancel when they realized the fraud, and sealed Trumpian tackiness of the events.
Trump’s glorious Fair had one Ferris Wheel, a few lukewarm and very expensive eats, videos of ahistorical Americana (e.g., the Salem “witches” were hanged, not burned at the stake); “baptism pools” (bacteria count?), Independence Fireworks that started at the stroke of midnight, July 5; and sparse attendance, except for 400 Confederate flag-bearing masked men on July 4th , marching around DC to “reclaim the country and get rid of immigrants” (one example of why liberals think there are a lot of white nationalist racists in MAGA. If you are MAGA and somehow not racist, my apologies).
To be fair, the nearly 100-degree weather in humid DC may have kept many people home from Trump’s Event. One Republican spokesperson attributed the lack of attendance to, “someone with an extreme case of TDS [who] geoengineered this weather in [the] same way they geoengineered Trump’s inauguration to be one of the coldest in U.S. history.” Just another cabal of liberal, subversive, America-hating, low-IQ but mad-genius, party-poopers.
The culmination of the Grand Event was Trump’s late-evening political rally as master of ceremonies (to replace the declined entertainment). The DC police and APCD warned people to take cover from the elements and protect against the noxious fumes of 850 shelled fireworks. But first, President Bone-Spurs wheeled out several military centenarians, at 11:30 PM in the presence of thunder and lightning, for teleprompted, 30-second war vignettes and, before the honorees could focus, 86’d them back offstage. They got more respect on the beaches of Normandy.
Another holiday option was to lounge around the fenced, non-reflecting Trump Pool and its murky, algae-infested, no bid, 8 times over estimate toxic brew, which Trump emotionally and groundlessly insists was sabotaged by criminal, far-Left “animals” with boxcutters, against whom he demands prosecution for even touching the floating, decomposing sealant/liner over which Trump and his limousine entourage drove just after installation.
Reminder Redux: if you incessantly self-congratulate on your own magnificence – smarter, grander, more charismatic, and tougher than all past presidents, generals, scientists, subject experts, and even the Pope – everyone…even those who smooch your patootie for a living…knows you’re not.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca.

To the Editor:
Martin: I think I may have overlooked what now appears to be your sense of humor. Initially, I thought your response to Pat Collins’ pithy LTTE about denial being exhausting merely exceeded “deflection” and vaulted to your signature “raspberry” retort. But from someone coming off a three-week hiatus with your fingers in your ears, your “get some rest” advice provided a welcome moment of unsullied mirth. The meaning of your comments on my LTTE, however, escapes me. You correctly criticize Trump’s “flawed” peace efforts (ignoring the degradation of our international status, and the many other absurdities he commits), yet conclude, as did Lincoln about Grant, “I can’t spare this man, he fights.” You admire that Trump starts vengeful, destructive fights with predecessors, dissenters, and nations, abandons worthy allies like Ukraine, but struts around making more empty predictions of victory and excuses for failure than General George McClellan? We have two sides to our brain, Martin, and optimally they work together, in concert with at least one of the 5 senses.
I was somewhat impressed when, for one brief, shining moment, several Republican senators joined the Democrats to pass a War Powers Resolution to defy Trump’s usurpation of their Constitutional congressional wartime authority. But then, a furious Trump invaded their lunch-meeting to yell insults and threats, demanded and received a re-vote of support, and branded one steadfast Republican colleague “a horrible person” and not one Republican kitten mewled a protest.
While you offer flaccid congratulations to Ukraine (which may be winning the Russian War, no thanks to “fighter” Donald Trump), our democracy and world status are being dismantled by Trump and his political party, even as he and his family raise corruption to levels never before seen in this country. And this is the guy you believe invaluable to our national interests, whom we “can’t spare?”
Some people find it attractive, even consoling, to focus exclusively on possible future terrors which are far beyond their ability to control, rather than confront the things right in front of them for which they bear immediate responsibility. Perhaps, because time and distance are in their favor. Our beloved country will have many future challenges, but if we are to survive them as a Constitutional Republic and show the world the advantages of Government by The People, we cannot afford such destructive escapism. We must insist on separating truth from the vast manipulations in our world, be willing to question old biases and assumptions, burnish our principles, and defy prevaricating, self-serving leaders who demand subservience from everyone except the rich and powerful.
It is reckless to discount or deny present, internal threats to our freedoms, and cowardice to ignore responsibility for our own unjust actions or inactions, in the hope of passing into history without accountability.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca
***
To the Editor:
I appreciate that Ms. McCloud took up my letter for comment. Unfortunately, it leaves us right back where we started. I pose a specific question about something in the here and now and the response is finger pointing and demonizing those of us unwilling to close our eyes to what is right in front of us.
If we both had magic wands and a wayback machine, maybe we could have a productive conversation about Governor Brown. But that doesn’t address what we need to respond to in the here and now.
To accuse Democrats of weaponizing January 6th, is like blaming the victim of a mugging for filing a complaint with the police. Democrats did not attack the police. They did not smear feces on walls. They did not shut down legal proceedings to overthrow an election. Those of us with eyes to see and ears to hear know what happened. No matter how many times you tell us you “feel” Trump won. Not a single court or jury agreed. And you want us to hand them our hard-earned tax dollars? For the inconvenience for being held accountable for their actions? Because you didn’t get what you wanted from that election?
And I’m sorry Mr. Farrell didn’t recognize the kindness in my letter last week. I heard his exhaustion. I didn’t want to add to his weariness. I know how much energy it takes to deny what is clearly and overwhelmingly in front of us. The corruption, the grifting, the incompetence, and the cruelty are staggering.
The fact is, at this point, Trump isn’t the biggest problem. It’s the timid Republicans in the house and the senate who tremble when he raises his voice. Who go on recess rather than do their jobs. Who sit on their hands while he bombs whatever he feels like and then walks away when he gets bored. Gas prices shooting up. Food prices. Health care—just some of the things he’s sacrificed to give the uber wealthy uber tax breaks. And all the citizens who go deaf and blind rather than fight for our constitution, for the rule of law, Mr. Farrell has said this is all forgivable because of his treatment of immigrants. I’m not sure what Ms. McCloud is getting.
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, Ca

To the Editor:
Denial takes a lot of energy. I hope you feel better soon.
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, Ca
***
To the Editor:
It seems my last LTTE didn’t address a question that I didn’t feel was worth my time to even consider an accurate question. Since the comment in question stated the Anti-Weaponization Fund was a “slush fund” (tag the TDS wording to it). Yet, completely ignore who actually did the weaponization. Gee, just ignore that little fact. Democrats moan about the fund but completely fail to mention their side DID THE WEAPONIZING!!! The faux outrage after years spent demanding the DOJ target people and industries they politically disagreed with. Government abuse was rampant. It was hardly a “slush fund” but actually an attempt to redress real wrongs. Citizens punished by lawfare that is now being exposed. Is that a satisfactory response Pat?
What I responded to was a direct quote and gave you facts. Yes, actual facts. Your rebuttal “.... institutional failure is not an argument against public investment” is lacking the reality of where we are and how we got here. Some facts, in 2012 Gov. Brown (Moonbeam) dismantled over 400 Redevelopment Agencies that were bringing in ‘$5.6 billion each year to address urban decay, stimulate growth, deferred maintenance of public buildings like fire stations, police, libraries, parks, historical and eliminate blight through rehabilitating affordable housing. The program required 20% be reinvested into the fund from the capture of an increased tax base. Today what has replaced it is basically insufficient with poor planning, and the tax gain goes to the state, not local cities and counties. Fillmore, back then, got a lucky break because the State made an error in a tax refund. That error allowed the town to pay off the loans, bonds, contracts etc. and keep the assets while paying back the error at a later date. Many towns weren’t that lucky. The loans were pulled and assets were surrendered to the State.
This month, for the first time, our interest on debt has surpassed our GDP. A redline crossed to financial collapse. Almost $40 trillion in debt!!!! We spend $2.8 billion in interest each day, the fastest growing part of the Federal Budget. Each year we spend more than we take in. We borrow from our future through bonds, loans, credit cards trying to keep a lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to and feel entitled to keep.
Is the “public investment” you mention infrastructure, durable goods. healthcare, snap, education, housing? How do you suggest that be done? Just because someone has blank checks doesn’t mean they can keep cashing them when their account is empty.
Jean McLeod
Fillmore, Ca
***
To the Editor:
In February, Republicans smugly declared that Trump’s “47-years-overdue courageous attack”, urged by Israel, did not require Congressional approval; or providing a definitive public case to Americans; securing allied cooperation for aggressive military action; considering unforeseen consequences; or framing an exit strategy.
Last Friday, the world relaxed when the US and Iran co-signed an MOU, a loose, preliminary commitment that:
- Does not embody Iran’s “unconditional surrender” Trump bragged about;
- Does not require regime change (“I think they have become much less radicalized,” Trump said, all evidence to the contrary);
- Gives Iran relief from sanctions;
- Opens the Hormuz Strait and gives Iran at-will control after 60 days;.
- Makes no mention of a limitation on ballistic missiles or drones;
- Gives Iran 60 days to reinstate the Obama administration’s 2015 “no nuclear bomb ever, with expert inspections” commitment that Trump 45 trashed in 2018;
- Commits that Israel will cease bombing Lebanon, though Netanyahu was not a signatory, and has already resumed bombardment; and
- Makes Iran’s $300-billion frozen or restricted assets “fully available.”
Recall that in 2018, Trump claimed Iran had “laughed at Obama” over the $1.7-billion payment in 2015, calling him “a stupid son-of-a-bitch.” Comedian John Oliver has noted that “Trump is about to discover the Persian word for somebody [over 150] times dumber than that.”
The conservative WSJournal declared that Trump and his administration, “think that we [the American public] are imbeciles” and will believe the MOU is a victory. The ultraconservative National Review reported that, “If the MOU were followed to the letter, the humiliations to which Trump has committed the United States could exceed his critics’ most fatalistic expectations.” Republican Congressionals are said to be privately “going through the stages of grief,” even as some publicly defend the “Peace Agreement.”
The day after the signing, Iran re-closed the Strait when Israel resumed bombing and stated it would never relinquish uranium enrichment for non-military uses. Fox News reported that Trump went “bonkers”, not against Israel, but told Iranian officials, “you close it [the Strait] and you won’t have a country. You won’t even make it back to your f—king country.” Fox also reported Trump’s ”threats to assassinate Iran’s leadership, impose draconian US tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, and occupy Iran with the US military.” Iran responded with counter-threats. Unfortunately, it is a maxim that when you invade a hornets’ nest, the hornets will decide when the attack is over.
On the diplomacy front, the G-7 meeting in France was a disaster. Upon arrival, Trump power-grabbed Brigitte Macron’s hand and wouldn’t release it until President Macron intervened. At one point, Trump had to be guided back to the assembly from which he had wandered after proclaiming, “I am the boss”, insulted Italy’s Prime Minister Meloni with a lie, and was giddily thrilled at being invited to dinner at Versailles, where “the gold is the real deal,” (not glued-on gold leaf). Returning to the US, Trump reposted a statement declaring him “by far the most powerful person that has ever walked this planet.”
Trump’s malignant narcissism, inability to accept responsibility for error or fault, gargantuan rapacity, default dishonesty, and humanitarian indifference, are now augmented by marked physical and mental decline, and he is cornered by his own twisted ego. The tragedy is that Trump is also eroding our American stature as a nation of laws, a beacon of hope, defender of democracy, and respected world power. And, although we have a Constitutional remedy, the Republican Congress will allow Trump to persist.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca

To the Editor:
Thank you, Jean. I agree with you on this important point: taxpayers have every right to demand accountability for how public money is spent.
But I notice that rather than address the question I raised, you shifted the discussion to California’s education system, healthcare administration, and state spending decisions.
My question was simpler and more immediate: when public dollars are available, should they be directed toward the things communities actually depend on — schools, healthcare, infrastructure, fire prevention, disaster preparedness, scientific research, and the everyday financial well-being of ordinary citizens?
You argue that institutions sometimes fail. I would agree. But institutional failure is not an argument against public investment itself. It is an argument for better oversight, better governance, and greater accountability.
What concerns me is the growing pattern of public federal money being diverted toward projects and priorities that do little to strengthen the lives of ordinary citizens: enormous tax subsidies that disproportionately benefit private interests, political spending designed primarily to consolidate power, cuts to essential public agencies while billions are directed elsewhere, and proposals that weaken the very institutions communities rely on in times of crisis.
And when questions are raised about these priorities, too often the response is not to address the issue itself, but to redirect attention somewhere else entirely.
The real question remains unchanged: are federal taxpayer dollars better spent strengthening the systems communities rely on, or concentrated in ways that primarily serve political power and private interests?
That is not a question of left or right.
It is a question of public responsibility.
And it is a question every taxpayer should be asking.
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, Ca
***
To the Editor:
Martin, since, as of this writing, we don’t know what comprises the so-called “peace deal” with Iran, there is no point in speculating about it. It sounds to be a Memo of Understanding (MOU) to identify the status of some issues rather than an “Agreement.” We will know more on June 19, the WH tells us.
What if the President of the US had a huge birthday party, masquerading as a national semiquincentennial celebration, much of it at your expense (government personnel participation, including Secret Service, and other security, and Paramount will take any loss off its taxes) at the People’s House, but only select citizens were invited? Last Sunday, having dug up the South Lawn, Trump and his friends thew a shindig but invited only VIPs. Ordinary folks in DC could watch, by lottery, from the other lawn. Anybody else interested in “Celebrating America,” by watching a bunch of steroidal gladiators batter each other for the amusement of old rich people, were SOL unless they had purchased a Paramount subscription (chief sponsor of the event which recently received DOJ approval for a contested merger with Warner Bros.).
Our carny-barker president tried to call it an “early United States Birthday celebration” (“UFC Freedom 250”). But, since only people who really matter to Trump were invited, no one with a 3-digit IQ was fooled. Fighters were paid in a digital currency called USD1 through World Liberty Financial, co-founded by the Trump family and friends. Earlier this year, Trump purchased stock the UFC parent company, TKO. Trump made money off the bash in branding $12,000 gold-plated coins, advertisers plastered their ads in front of our WH and made money.
A specimen named Josh Hokit won the last “round” and roared a “shoutout to Trump for having the balls to put some sh*t like this on.” In a transient moment of humility, he complimented “Jesus Christ” as being even more incredible than himself. Then he informed an apparently renowned fighter that, “I wanna chama on your mama.” And lastly, “Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?”
There is little that should be said about a man making those comments, except that men of quality do not reflect on interaction with each other’s “mamas.” Spanish speakers can enlighten on the meaning of “chama”, but I understand that it is a term used by women with familiar females, or is a vulgarity used by males about young women. The misogynistic “joke” about Mrs. Obama reportedly drew a smile from Trump. Perhaps this is why she refuses to attend events where protocol requires her to sit next to the jackass.
For some levity: last Sunday morning, the Weather Channel forecast a 60% chance of late afternoon rain, wind gusts, and thunderstorms. The Trump WH did what it always does, it attacked the source of the unwelcome information. The WH declared that the “celebration of America’s [Trump’s] unmatched greatness,“ was just an opportunity for the Weather Channel’s “friendless loser”, who published the forecast, to try and ruin the party.
And this WH is negotiating a settlement with Iran.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca

To the Editor:
The question was asked last week, “Would our tax dollars be better spent on FUSD, healthcare, roads, fire prevention or left in our own pockets for when we fill our tanks?” I would ask, why continue to support institutions that are failures? Especially California’s education system. That’s the biggest and most costly failure! Prop. 98, passed in 1988, presented by California Teachers Association, requires 40% of the entire State Budget to go to K-14 education and has gone up every year for the past 10 years at an average cost today of $28,000 per student for nine months of classes. Second most costly behind New York.
Prop. 98 is based on a formula using State Revenue, attendance and economic swings. It is taken from the General Fund including local property taxes and adjusted to income growth and student enrollment. BUT, today schools are closing because enrollment is down by at least 10% since parents realized how badly our public education system is failing all students. Many families are fleeing California or choosing to not have children. While others have home schooled, switched to Charter or religious schools.
The Teachers Union prevents even the worst of the worst teachers from being removed because of Tenure which is given in less than two years of employment . While the State has made the huge cost of trying to expel or remove disruptive, harmful students from the class almost impossible. You see, it’s all about the money and how to keep the 40% flowing into the pockets of power.
Less than 1/3rd of students (mostly Black and Latino) can read at their grade level. Which is equal to the 70% of inmates in prison that didn’t finish high school. Reading is the most important skill taught in schools. Without it all other academic subjects cannot be learned. But since Phonics is not taught in schools today less and less can read. The ability to understand a language and learn to read is not given priority, money is!!!!
Healthcare is another huge cost, but the mismanagement of those dollars is also ignored especially by the pharmaceutical industry, medical complex and grifter nonprofits. Then roads are mentioned. Well, what happened to all the tax dollars spent so far on the Bullet Train to nowhere?
Fillmore has all three fire preventions within walking distance, City Fire, County Fire, Forest Fire. It’s one of the few institutions that seem to be doing their job.
In answer to your question Pat Collins, I would have to say that I would be better served choosing a much better Administration in Sacramento with accountability for our tax dollars, than to just throw more money at it. But that is what leftist do. They never address their failures, just ask for more money or tell you you’re a bad person if you even try to question.
Jean McLeod,
Fillmore, Ca
***
To the Editor:
Don’t sell yourself short. You appear to have explicitly understood my first paragraph last week, so I will forgo clarification. “Potshots” are taken by people who want to make cheap political points. The issues that I raise are factual and can be checked online. I raise them out of concern that all is not well with our country, and it transcends mere politics.
In 18 months of the Trump II administration, we are not as well, or better, off. Trump rejects “affordability” as “fake news,” insists that skyrocketing food and gas price increases are “peanuts,” has said he is not burdened by domestic economic issues during the Iran War, and is generally crushing the middle class to benefit billionaires. Meanwhile, Trump and his family have openly made billions in grifts all over the world, as families struggle to just “keep up.”
Trump let loose DOGE on our government, handed Elon Musk our private information for whatever purpose, cut services like SNAP, and health and medical facilities, imposed illegal tariffs, but finds plenty of money for ballrooms, massive arches, plans to refurbish the Kennedy Center, reflection pools and putting his name on anything that will stand still. He doesn’t seem to understand that the millions and billions he is spending on vanity projects, with permission from the Republican Congress, is hard-earned tax money we gave the government – not him – for protection, necessities, and general welfare.
He doesn’t seem to realize that, because of his mistreatment of international allies, we are no longer the free world’s “indispensable nation,” and that former allies have been forced to consider China as the reliable superpower of the future.
Trump appears unwell both physically and mentally. He falls asleep mid-meetings, has some concerning wounds to his hands, has an inordinate number of cognitive checkups, and cannot control his impulses. The Iran War is one such urge, with the overlooked consequence of the “Straitjacket of Hormuz.” Last weekend, he angrily ripped off his microphone, yelling at and bullying Kristen Welker, and stormed off from the interview when fact-checked that no court, including SCOTUS, had found that the 2020 election was stolen. It is alarming when a president with the nuclear codes cannot emotionally control himself. To me and others, these are troubling issues, Martin, and I haven’t even mentioned “Epstein.” Some people are unwilling or unable to confront the evidence in front of them, resent others for doing so, and condescend to facts as “potshots.” I understand that. But it is tragic for our country’s future when they say that they are “bored” by it.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca

To the Editor:
I appreciate the concern for society’s moral condition — but moral diagnosis can’t substitute for factual accountability. Before we ask what’s wrong with humanity, we might first ask: what’s really happening with this slush fund—or whatever the grift de jure--and who’s paying for it?
I also wonder how my neighbors feel. Would our tax dollars be better spent on Fillmore’s schools, healthcare, roads, fire prevention — or left in our own pockets for when we fill our gas tanks?
Faith and facts aren’t enemies. But one doesn’t replace the other. And one grift does not excuse another.
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, Ca
***
To the Editor:
The more that’s exposed of the left’s Cloward Piven Strategy and Color Revolution tactics the uglier and more violent they are becoming. That’s a fact. All you hear from their politicians, trying to stay or obtain power is “ I hate Trump, so vote for me”. Pathetic! Have you heard one peep about the billions in fraud? Of course not, it’s the ignore it and it will go away tactic. There is now an advertising push for Foodstamps/SNAP benefits and how much they are needed. Cloward Piven Strategy grift is still alive. There is so much being stolen by nonprofits, politicians and bureaucrat grifters on both sides (RINO’s), but the majority is by the Marxists left. They want power at any cost, yet claim they are there to protect “Democracy” while destroying our Republic. Today it’s a Red-Green alliance. By now you should know who is behind the curtain: Code Pink, ANSWER Coalition. NGO’s, ANTIFA etc along with our Education Department, Media, Hollywood. Funded by foreign billionaire globalists. Yet all their useful idiots to the TDS cult, can say, “I hate Trump”. Think about the years they had to destroy or hide their fraud. Yet they couldn’t get all of it. Biden’s Autopen had a fix for that.
I love that we finally have someone in the White House that has a backbone and a pair of steel sets willing to push back. FINALLY!!!!. The corrupt sick TDS group just never thought they’d get caught. An artificial platform performed by imitation people is hard to keep up or hidden, but there’s always “I hate Trump, vote for me”.
The most valuable things in life are the hardest to obtain. So, the left condones stealing from the other to even out the equity. Our ancestors had the grit and worked hard. They knew they were not entitled to take ill-gotten gains. We could trust and be trusted, Not today!!! Social engineering using race, sex, hate and victimhood has given far too many useful idiots a feeling of entitlement to others labor and very lazy. I’d like to go back to a society that believed they are better than that with the grit to achieve and responsible for a society that everyone trusts.
Jean McLeod,
Fillmore, Ca
***
To the Editor:
In last week’s LTTE, I accommodated your request to raise only one subject. I chose Trump’s $1.8-billion Weaponization Fund Scam, a current and essential issue debated on all news websites and programs. If the Editor can select the number of topics in a LTTE, as well as the actual subject, the LTTE becomes an “assignment.” For me, those days are over. There is no need for me to discuss the Cuba situation this week, as you cherry-picked it fairly thoroughly in last week’s deflective and diversionary non-response.
To wrap up for now the Slush Fund issue, beyond last week’s discussion, be aware that the FL judge has reasserted jurisdiction on the grounds that Acting Attorney General Blanche (“AAG”) may have colluded with Trump to represent fraudulent facts to the court in the dismissal (and subsequent Weaponization Agreement). The judge has put a hold on the transfer of Treasury funds to Trump’s committee and set a hearing for June 12. Here are just a few arguments against the Fund transfer (there are more):
Article I of the Constitution assigns to Congress the passing of laws and appropriation of money. It does not authorize the AAG to appropriate money, certainly not for the benefit of the president to whom he reports and owes his job. And “loves.”
Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution prohibits the president from receiving any emolument (profit) from the United States or any state, other than a fixed salary.
The two-year Statute of Limitations had expired months before Trump’s lawsuit was filed in January 2026, so the leak issue was moot. The AAG had represented to the court that there was a required case or controversy between the president and the DOJ as to IRS liability, but asked for and received a judicial dismissal, so end of story.
Not so fast. Clearly, Trump and the AAG colluded to withdraw his IRS case from judicial review to enter into a separate, private, unreviewable “settlement” with AAG Blanche, though there was nothing to settle. This sub-rosa Fund would simply be a gift of our tax dollars from the AAG to Trump, and beyond the reach of the court (they thought). It is yet another window on what Trump truly thinks of the Constitution, statutory Law, and the American taxpayer.
The 14th Amendment, Section 4, provides that, “Neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.” It is as relevant as it was after the Civil War.
There is no basis to make the gift to Trump a tax-free transaction. Trump would almost certainly have to pay taxes on the $1.8 billion. The fact that he might make the insurrectionists subsequent beneficiaries does not relieve him of that tax burden. CA and other states are considering taxing any award from the Fund at 100% because of the illegality.
The most shocking provision, the fact that the Weaponization Fund Agreement also relieves the Trump Family of any future prosecution for tax fraud to date, ought to scream to you about Trump’s self-serving lack of ethics. But then, this is just “Trump being Trump.”
If you decide to continue with your discussion of Cuba, Martin, I hope you include the context of all the other military absurdities Trump has undertaken, and the way he has done it. For instance, our abandonment of Ukraine, while we arrogantly threaten and voluntarily attack other countries. For the respectful reaction of the Danish Parliament when Trump threatened to take Greenland, see They are laughing #trump .
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca

To the Editor:
Since the Supreme Court’s 2024 immunity ruling already shields Trump from prosecution for official acts, why does he (and his entire family and businesses) need to be protected from any federal prosecution or civil action for crimes “presently known or unknown?”
What’s the Grifter-in-Chief afraid we’re going to find out that we don’t already know?
Aren’t you just the tiniest bit curious to see who gets your money?
Too bad. That’s his little secret.
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, Ca
***
To the Editor:
Very glad to hear that you finally took a vacation. I understand that you make the rules about Realities, and I will try to limit the LTTEs to one issue, but I was disappointed last week that the issue you chose as consequential was Trump’s indisputable groveling reverence for despots.
The WH is “the People’s House,” and was never intended to compete with the golden halls of The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Buckingham Palace, or Versailles, homes of tsars and kings who considered themselves, personally, identical with the government of their respective countries, with taxes spent at the will of the autocrat. I thought we rejected all that in 1776.
The current occupant of Our House has not only tried to emulate the material excesses of bygone potentates, he also considers any challenge to him to be a threat to the country (like Louis XVI, “I am the State”). He and his administration have become the dirtiest swamp in 250 years of our democratic republic, but Trump knows that his base will never admit it or hold him accountable. So, he contemptuously scoops up whatever he can, whenever he can, from whomever he can. I am limited to just one example.
Trump sued the DOT/IRS for $10 billion for an IRS agent’s leak of his tax returns (who was convicted and sentenced to 5 years in prison) in Trump’s first term. The Statute of Limitations has expired, so the lawsuit was worth nothing, so Trump “negotiated” a bogus settlement with his own DOJ for $1.8 billion, to be established as a fund for lawsuit payouts against the government. The “Weaponization Fund” Agreement provides that Trump would have complete Fund control, without public oversight or accountability, through a five-member committee designated by the AG, to serve at Trump’s pleasure. A “slush fund” which amounts to a Trump piggybank constituted with your tax dollars in a fraudulent “settlement.”
Disbursements would be made to anyone “harmed by past administrations,” not excluding the January 6 insurrectionists who injured 140 police officers and invaded the Capitol to overthrow an election, wielding makeshift weapons, depositing bodily fluids and feces throughout, breaking doors and furniture, erecting gallows on the lawn, and terrifying lawmakers. A “tourist contingent.” Those 1,500 individuals were convicted and sentenced but pardoned by Trump. Apparently, the Nation owes them compensation for their self-inflicted butthurt.
Indecent as that grift is, Trump included a provision (Section III.B., and Addendum to make it extra-clear) that prohibits any IRS audit for past tax filings of Trump, his family, and his businesses. The Trumps know what’s contained in those tax returns and want past fraud to be beyond prosecution. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) said of the scheme, “This is just stupid on stilts.” But Trump is hardly “stupid,” though he has often relied on it in others.
At first, Trump strenuously denied he was involved in creation of the Fund. By Friday, he wanted to be thanked for his act of selflessness for refusing a “personal payout”, an “absolute fortune,” to instead opt to “help others” who were “badly abused by an evil, corrupt and weaponized Biden administration.” One X poster remarked, “Not content to just rip us all off, he expects praise for it.”
I’d like to think that the Republican Senate refused to authorize the Fund for moral or legal reasons, or because they finally understood who Trump is. But the revolt was actually precipitated by Trump’s attacks on three of their own. Trump primaried, for lack of 100% Trump servility, Republican Senators Bill Cassidy, John Cornyn, and Tom Massie. Ironically, their absences give Democrats a chance at taking the Senate, too. But, if the past is any indication, upon their return from Memorial Day recess, after Trump has a chance to issue all his threats, they will swallow their rebellion and fold. I could be wrong about that, but am willing to be astonished and gratified.
By the time you read this, we will know more about the proposed Iran Peace MOU.
Kelly Scoles
Fillmore, Ca

To the Editor:
Some noteworthy presidential events of the last 10 days:
Trump again refused to acknowledge the increasing financial crisis in our country, dismissing it as influencing his Iran War policy decisions. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.” It was so stunning that VP Vance denied Trump had said it. The next day, in an interview with Fox, Trump doubled down. “It was a perfect statement. I’d make it again.” Trump knows his base won’t hold him accountable.
Trump has said of Xi, “He’s a brilliant guy. He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist.” Highest praise from Trump. He gushed again on the Communist dictator’s strong will and leadership and complimented him for his “central casting” good looks, noting that Xi, “is very tall, and, especially for this country because they tend to be a little bit shorter.” Xi did not find it advantageous to reciprocally comment on Trump’s physical or mental qualities.
In a later interview with Hannity, Trump lauded his great success in securing an unwritten commitment from China to buy beef, soybeans, and 200 Boeing aircraft, then equivocated, “I sort of, I think it was a commitment. I mean, you know, it was sort of like a statement, but I think it was a commitment,” Trump added. “It’s a great thing. It’s a lot of jobs.” No competent negotiator would consider that “closing a deal.” China has not confirmed these purchases.
The US transcript does not mention Taiwan. However, Xi publicly reiterated the red line of the representative democratic republic, warning that if the Taiwan question is “mishandled by America” it could put the stability of China-U.S. relations “in great jeopardy.” Trump heard him, because on Board AF One he counseled Taiwan to “cool it,” and expressed reluctance to appropriate the billions of dollars in military assistance Congress has already authorized for Taiwan because, “we don’t need another war.”
Trump’s off-handed policy would represent a drastic change to the 50-year US bipartisan commitment to Taiwan, without Congressional consultation, further cementing the idea that America cannot be counted on to keep its commitments. And reinforces that Trump goes all mushy when he encounters Communist dictators. Secretary-of-State Rubio later insisted that China would make a “terrible mistake” to take Taiwan by force.” So, what’s the policy? This is a major issue of honor, economics, democracy, and the administration’s competence.
Trump recently removed thousands of troops from Germany, in a fit of pique at Chancellor Merz for observing that the US apparently did not anticipate the disaster of the Hormuz blockade, or have a Plan B, or allied support, or an exit strategy. This was not a military exigency; this was another self-soothing tantrum. Trump also floated recalling troops from Italy and Spain. Is it coincidence that these moves advance Putin’s dream of dividing the free world?
After Trump’s departure, Chinese platforms, usually circumspect about American presidents, were almost giddy, “America has lost its swagger,” one said, “They’re nothing but a paper tiger.”
It is horrifying and heartbreaking to watch the rapid dissolution of American status, respect and trust, and not just from China, which may never be regained. We have a Constitutional remedy, though the Republican Congress appears to be more afraid of Trump than of Russia, China, Iran and the American electorate, combined.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca

To the Editor:
Trump heads to China this week to meet with Xi Jinping, without the promised peace settlement with Iran, without allied support, after being embarrassed in the tariff war, and having lost the status contest on the world stage. I am very afraid the meeting will not go well, as Trump has dug a massive hole for America. In only 19 months. Two and a half years to go.
He seems to be “not all there” much of the time, either napping or devoting his interests to slapping his name on every structure he can (Kennedy Center, Palm Beach Airport, a class of battleship, etc.) raising a 22-foot gold-leafed statue of himself at Doral Golf Club, making plans for Arc d’Trump which he confirmed will honor, “Me.” And, of course, the now-estimated 1 billion-dollar “ballroom” and now not-so-secret bunker beneath it, the “donations” for which Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) offered “could be spent on place settings and table linens.” It didn’t surprise anyone that Trump misrepresented the whole undertaking, tore down the East Wing without any Congressional authorization or environmental analysis for asbestos or other toxic chemicals, and illegally dumped the detritus on a public Washington, DC, golf club. When discovered, he “unnecessarily closed” the club for “renovations.”
Todd Blanche, Trump’s DOJ hand-puppet, hoping to be the next AG, has turbo-charged attacks on the press, individually and wholly, for reporting things the administration does not want known, be it the ever-increasing cost of the “ballroom or the state of the War. Hegseth has barred the press from the Pentagon. Trump is the same guy that the dearly departed Pam Bondi said is, “the most transparent president in history.”
His War has apparently become boring as he can’t get the upper hand with Iran, particularly since the regime change he wanted has resulted in even more militancy at the hands of the Iranian Guard. In all of this, the Republica Congress has been happy to ignore its Constitutional duties to balance the powers of the president. They are just as responsible for what is happening to our country, nationally and internationally, as is Trump.
I am slugging through the SCOTUS murder of the Voting Rights Act and subsequent state actions on gerrymandering, trying to translate the legalese into real language. It is disingenuous and heartbreaking what the Republican majority on the Court has done.
And what the Republican Congress has not done.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca

To the Editor:
Martin: Thanks to you I did, indeed, examine my conscience as if preparing for the Sacrament of Penance. You know that mortal (spiritually deadly) sins must be confessed, but confession of venial sins is devotional, or optional, but I overlooked none of them, especially in politics. While I found tons of potentially venial sins emanating from my politics (e.g., sharing bad thoughts about “Voldemort Miller,” “Roadkill Kennedy,” “Cockeyed Kash, ”or “Whiskey Pete”), I found none that are not true according to my research, or lack morality as formed by my early Catholicism, or are soul-destroying. Just regular, obvious political stuff that I share with you most weeks.
I will ignore your animated, diversionary attempt to change the subject in last week’s Editorial, by exhuming unrelated, incendiary controversies, like Choice and non-existent Democratic endorsements. There are several international topics that require attention from the American populace:
The JPOAC agreement between six nations and Iran, negotiated under the Obama administration in 2015, produced the “successful outcome” you described, as it expressly included Iran’s renunciation of nuclear weapons, and required regular inspections to verify the lack of weapons-grade uranium. The Strait of Hormuz blockade only became an issue when Trump’s War raised it. But, in his love/hate of Obama, Trump I and II gave that accomplishment the old “86” for “something far better.”
The 1973 War Powers Act (“WPA”) requires that troops, fighting a war conducted without Congressional approval, be withdrawn within 60 days of hostilities (2.28.26), with a 30-day extension to complete the process. Trump and Hegseth argue that the airstrike ceasefire in Iran (4.8.26) tolled the WPA hostilities clock, even as Trump’s threats of destruction persist, warships, warplanes, and troops stand ready in harm’s way, and both parties continue to blockade (an international war crime) Hormuz or Iranian ports. Trump said Sunday that, “Iran ha[s]d not suffered a sufficient price for its actions.”
Trump has said that he does not plan to submit a war declaration to Congress, although the US was the aggressor, not the victim. By now, it should be clear that he believes all power resides in him, despite his oath to the Constitution, and he will not risk possible Republican Congressional resistance, should any be hinted. The other day, from the Oval, he repeated his frequent musing that, “maybe we need a dictator.”
At the beginning of this week, despite his claim of tolled hostilities in Iran, Trump placed yet another dangerous Iranian “bet” and announced “Project Freedom,” a naval operation to provide security for vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz. He is betting that Iran will not fire on an American-escorted ship. Security Expert Robert Pape wrote that, “the US has now assumed responsibility for keeping the Strait open,” potentially in perpetuity. If an escorted ship is attacked, “the burden will shift entirely onto Washington.” Back down, and the world will likely “view it as a humiliation,” and “loss of global status.” Retaliation is likely to escalate and widen the war, in conditions even more treacherous. It is deliberately disingenuous to claim that “hostilities” have been “tolled” for purposes of the WPA.
I hope, for future peace, that there is an as-yet unseen path to a successful outcome, and that Trump’s chosen means are not more war crimes. What Trump is sowing, we will reap. We still have a Constitutional remedy for a different direction.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca.

To the Editor:
How much hate is needed to satisfy the left’s goals? How deep does the TDS go in their psyche? How many more assassinations will it take to fill the left’s power drive? The lack of respect for our citizens or life itself by these deranged people is out of control. There wasn’t enough hate to go around for the SPLC so they paid millions to create it and set up the “There were good people on both sides” SPLC and Biden distorted and used. I can tell you that I personally know the SPLC corruption goes back at least 20 years. They tried to smear me!!! How many supported the Jessie Smollett con job of being a race victim? What evil would do that? One of the worst and corrupt media i came across is PBS who lied and deceived the public. I know that for a fact because I was there and spoke to them for at least 30 minutes, but they refused to report what really happened. Like so many nonprofits/NGO’s they have an agenda.
The Clintons whose goal was money and power, and still is, showed Obama how to take corruption to the next level using race and victimhood. The schools and media were the main mass drivers to accomplish the left’s divide and conquer tactic. The Clintons sold us out (our uranium) while the Clinton Foundation financially ballooned in size. They couldn’t even leave the White House without stealing whole rooms of White House property, then were forced to return it. No, that was not a mistake, they knew it when they DID IT!. This corruption l has been in the making for at least 40 or more years and became highly active under Obama, Obama had some very practiced criminals, the Clintons, as teachers. Obama’s goal “Change”. That became his slogan. But it was actually changed to Socialist/Marxists.
The Russagate conspiracy was promoted by Obama, as we now have proof.. Yet, he’s not been charged. Why? Well, corruption runs deep in both parties and the left works hard to “Ignore it and it will go away” and put something else to the spotlight. The tactic I heard in college all those years ago. Today the media is more than willing to accommodate whatever is needed to grow the hate as jokes about the third assination are considered entertainment. Anything over 24 hours is old news unless the left needs to exploit it..
How did this vigilante ideology take over? Schools and nonprofits, the two institutions society always respected and trusted. Both have a large part in pushing hate.. As it became normal the TDS spread. Just about every week Kelly Scoles spews TDS out to push the hate for our President with her LTTE.. Hate is the prerequisite for violence.
As more of the political corruption that was hidden from the public is exposed with proof of who actually did what, the left and deep state will push the hate and vigilante ideology in a desperate move to change the focus, It will get worse. TDS is real and dangerous. TDS is an active participant and unless there are consequences for those who distort reality for power and gain, it will destroy what our forefathers sacrificed to give us.
Jean McLeod,
Fillmore, Ca.
***
To the Editor:
At the heart of your “outcome test” is the proposition that, “the ends justify the means.” It is generally used as an excuse to achieve goals through any means necessary, no matter how immoral, illegal, or unpleasant those means may be. Or, “it doesn’t matter how you get what you want as long as you get it.” No, I can’t subscribe to your “outcome test” for an unprovoked attack on Iran (or by Russia on Ukraine). And no, again, I cannot tell the difference between success and failure in Iran In Your Mind, which was my original question. So, Martin, what will “success” in Iran look like to you? Are there any means that Trump may choose to employ that would offend your conscience?
I ask, because this administration has done many things that offend my conscience, including cuts to Medicare and food support, withholding subsidies to ACA, letting the likely-insane Musk having access for any purpose to our most private information, decimating of the science and medical infrastructure of America, asserting that “affordability is a scam,” planning to control elections and voter registration on a demonstrably false fraud pretense, etc., ad infinitum.
First, the “end” has to be legitimate and lawful, clearly identified, and just. An internal example of a stated outcome employing excessive, violent, and unintended means, would be that many Americans voted to authorize their president to close the southern border to undocumented immigrants, even those fleeing persecution, and deport the criminally “worst of the worst.”
But the government has wildly exceeded the voters’ designated “end” with cruel, outrageous, and likely unconstitutional means as it conducts a wholesale dragnet of long-term, law-abiding residents, or people who are working through the path to citizenship, or parents or spouses of US military, or who are here legally but say critical things about the government. These people are detained in horrendous, inhumane circumstances, and often deported to places with which they have no connection. Bystanders in MN were murdered. Moreover, this president proposes to de-naturalize citizens who say mean things about him or his elves, and reject the Constitutional provision for birthright citizenship, clearly beyond your “outcome test.”
The same guy is running American foreign policy. Trump has acknowledged that international ends and means are without boundaries, constrained only by “the limits of my own mind. In this instance, those limits are fluid, sloshing from regime change to removal of enriched uranium, and often washing up unconsidered consequences (Strain of Hormuz blockade), and the effects of repugnant, uncivilized threats.
Ironically, Trump’s present demands are remarkably similar to the Iran nuclear agreement (JCPOA) negotiated by renowned Middle Eastern experts (but no real estate moguls) in 2015 under then-President Barack Obama, between Iran and six world powers to limit Iran’s nuclear program to peaceful uses, with extensive oversight, in exchange for sanctions relief. That oversight ended in 2018 when Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and dismissively promised, “a far better deal.” Which now Trump essentially wants to restore, plus renewed free access to Hormuz. I fear that America is flying blindly, hoping that the outcome will avoid a mountain.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca.

To the Editor:
Martin, re last week’s Editorial. Have you noticed that your outcome test applies only to Republicans, particularly MAGA Republicans? Your forbearance has never applied to a Democrat because your test doesn’t originate from a sense of reason or fairness. Your passion for all things authoritarian motivates you, even when Trump embodies the “bumptious and vulgar ‘ugly American,’ ignorant about foreign cultures,” who has declared his right to destroy an ancient civilization and, with Hegseth, has falsely claimed Pope Leo supports Iran gaining a nuclear bomb, and derided and warned the Vicar of Christ not to question the morality of Trump’s War. You can see why Trump publishes pictures of himself as Jesus Christ.
You advocate for wayward mankind to follow God’s command for peace, as revealed in Marian apparitions. Yet you praise Trump for having “the guts” to attack Iran, being “willing to pull the trigger” without immediate provocation and threatening to pulverize its civilization. How is that giddy sentiment consistent with your reverence for Marian revelations?
Note that Trump did not have the gun-happy colonic imperative to threaten to do the same to Russia over Ukraine, because he knew Putin could and would bomb back. Trump mistakenly thought that, without nukes, Iran easily could be overcome. A gross mistake that past presidents had the knowledge and intelligence to avoid.
What is the conspicuous event that you await to signal success or failure? The ceasefire deadline approaches. It’s clear by now that Iran will not fold under Trump’s threats, attacks, and impossible peace terms. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is an entirely foreseeable, unforced international crisis of Trump’s creation that was previously avoided by 70 years of careful diplomacy and military doctrine, necessary, given the world dependency on free shipment of oil along Iran’s coastline.
Recall that Trump recently asserted that only his own mind limits his international power, and that he doesn’t “need international law.” His War in Iran is one result. Trump’s belief that his mind/will and our military superiority will settle all disputes has proven false, and his epithets against our closest allies as “cowards,” and NATO as a “paper tiger,” have revealed that America is not a reliable partner in global security. Then, Trump sent the Three Blind Mice (Kushner, Witkoff, Vance) to negotiate a peace, shocking the Iranians with their ignorance of the issues and ridiculous peace demands.
You are misled that Russia, China Iran and North Korea are in awe of America’s “authority against them.” Those dictatorships are still maneuvering against us, while delighted and amused at our ham-fisted, pompous, and bungling leader. Trump can’t tell the difference between an international foe quietly scheming against him or one laughing at him (think Putin in AK). We have a Constitutional remedy, and time is slipping away.
We have already exceeded maximum fucque-ups from this president.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca.

To the Editor:
I returned from a three-week absence to find our president giving “All praise to Allah” for the human and structural destruction in Iran. And, too, offering to answer questions at the Future Investment Initiative in Miami, “You can ask me anything you want. You can talk sex.” Trump also attacked Pope Leo, who answers to a higher authority, advising the first American-born Pontiff to “get his act together” and curiously asserting that, “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.” Later, Trump posted a picture of himself as Jesus Christ on Truth Social. His incremental dementia is now undeniably without conscience, delusional, and rampant.
Trump’s War continues nearly 50 days in. Still no defensible reason to support it (besides Bibi’s demands,) still no Plan B or European allies, and no retreat plan except to spontaneously declare “victory” and withdraw, leaving the Middle East more volatile than ever. But a new Iranian Toll on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz!
Trump’s “Peace Negotiation Team” consisted of two real estate moguls and VP Vance, whose mission was to make Iran: forget or overlook that Trump has doubled-down on threats to reduce their three-thousand years civilization to rubble and commit genocide on its people, and to release the blockage and oil shipment toll now set on the Strait, making an already terrible government more powerful.
Trump’s reaction to the peace negotiation failure is a retaliatory threat to counter blockade the Strait from the Mediterranean, setting up a crisis when, say, a ship from China wants to fill up a tanker in Iran, an imminent fact he has not confronted. The tsunamic ripples have only begun, but will overtake many lives in many places, including here.
The Republican Congress has shamelessly and consistently enabled and encouraged this grandiose, emotionally critically -wounded president who cares only for his own glory, embraces cruelty, struts like a potentate, and who has surrounded himself with advisors hired to assure him of his wisdom and righteousness. Truth, as always with Trump, is irrelevant. American citizens, and the free world, are at the mercy of this uncontrolled, malignant administration. But there is hope.
The 25th Amendment is a fairly messy, lengthy process that relies only on the Party in power.
Waiting for the midterms is dangerous because, since 2024, Trump has been working to disenfranchise voters (especially likely Democratic voters), trying to take over the election process in the states to “reduce fraud” (the Republican House-passed SAVE Act) for which there is no significant evidence anywhere, even after numerous audits. Trump has actually said that there will be no need to have another federal election (Arizona, 2023). If all else fails, we know from experience that he will conjure up a “national emergency” to halt the election process.
Impeachment is the true immediate remedy and, while the Republicans have shown neither comprehension or courage in confronting Trump on behalf of the American people, the rest of us must, as it as the only immediate survival mechanism for our, and our children’s, free futures.
Martin, wailing impending doom in the fetal position, waiting for heavenly intercession to save us from our own created messes, and refusing responsibility for the cleanup and amends, is not defensible. We have made some singularly bad political decisions with massive world repercussions. Here’s where the critical move toward responsibility, world stability, and peace must begin. As Americans, we alone have the power and means to enlist a Constitutional remedy in Impeachment. Let Congressional Republicans vote and tell us where they stand on our futures.
Vance is a distasteful piece of work and a pro-despot, uncertain negotiator, and craven power seeker, but this is the option we have been given. But he does not appear to be a war monger and, as yet, does not reek of madness.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca.

To the Editor:
I am sorry you did not publish my LTTE last week, as it was a fairly complete timeline of the Iran War, including administration comments thereon. It was, I thought, an accurate revelation of how Trump and his advisors approach challenges commando-style, without observing Constitutional mandates, without advise or consent, and without care what the American public thinks. He can’t be a dictator if he has to get approval.
First, attacking the infrastructure of our government; dismissing experts in fields from science/medicine and counterintelligence; creating a private internal army; creating false emergencies to circumvent the law; declaring real estate belonging to other countries as his; and finally instigating a war, solo except for Bibi an MLB, without explanation or interest in the support of the American public or free-world nations. Now, he is both demanding and begging for help on an entirely foreseeable crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. All the while posturing, lying, and blaming others.
In the meantime, he and his family have been helping themselves to vast “goodies” in other countries. Now, the entire world, friend and foe alike, knows what a self-aggrandizing, mercenary bully he is.
Trump bombed Iran in June to “obliterate” their uranium stores, and then again in February as urged by Israel and MLB for reasons not yet certain, with no exit plan and an indifference to the human cost of his military “excursion” and absolutely foreseeable economic consequences. He has said that the war will end, “when I feel it in my bones.” The war casualties? “Things happen in war.”
He has insulted 80-year friends, haughtily rejected offers of some help (“We don’t need someone to come in when we’ve already won!) and is shocked that those denigrated countries are not anxious to join, on command, an ill-conceived war and an impending economic crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, which now is impassable to oil tankers because of Iranian counterattacks. Trump had been clearly warned by the Joint Chiefs of Staff of such a likelihood. But they were talking to a president who knows everything about everything and is incapable of reevaluation. He must be correct and can never be wrong.
What concerned me about your Editorial was the near-depression you shared in your complete acceptance and assurance of WWIII. As though We, the People, have no method of influencing against that future. The person responsible for this dire state of affairs is still subject to our Constitution, which provides the means whereby a rogue government can be brought to account: Impeachment or the 25th Amendment. The majority of Americans are not prepared to crumble in fear and hopelessness.
We have a Constitution, a Nation of Laws, a long history of both contention and cooperation. We still have the right to vote, unless Trump completely succeeds in suppressing it under the proposed SAVE Act. To this point we have always opposed monarchs and have sought people we believed had the best interests of our citizens at heart as leaders. We can no longer have any level of certainty about that in this president.
Martin, we cannot roll over in grief or disbelief and abandon ourselves to hopes that heaven will save us. Nothing wrong with prayers, but we know from history that God seldom directly intervenes. We were given the intelligence and fortitude to figure this out ourselves. But first, we have to rely on each other as We, the People, to solve this and other future challenges. To acknowledge where the problems are and decide on the best Constitutional means to remedy them. Few people like to see someone else in pain, but isolating ourselves in fear and helplessness is useless and unworthy.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca.