Letters to the Editor: 06.28.18

Gratitude

East Hampton

June 25, 2018

Dear David:

At the next meeting of the Fowler house committee, our first order of business will be to find a way to formally and permanently enshrine on site an expression of gratitude to Ben and Bonnie Krupinski for their skills of heart and generosity of spirit with regard to this project. Without the Krupinskis, the project could not have moved forward.

As the work continues, in the wake of great tragedy, and the shingles have now made the structure a real and renewed historic structure, I cannot wait for such formality. 

It is a part of the enduring legacy of Ben and Bonnie that the people who worked for them are instilled with their spirit and energy to see projects through to completion with the consummate skill, attention to detail, and professionalism for which they are famously remembered. 

My deepest personal expressions of appreciation are stunted by my inability to look into the eyes of Ben and Bonnie to simply say “thank you.” But I can offer my deepest personal appreciations to Ben and Bonnie’s family and their dedicated workers.

Yours, 

JIM DEVINE

Buell Roundabout

East Hampton

June 12, 2018

Dear David,

I watched with great interest the construction of the Buell Lane roundabout this year. At times when I drove around the construction, especially at night, I had the anxious feeling of driving through parts of New Jersey (unlit and unmarked).

Last week it dawned on me what the big picture was to be at the conclusion of the construction: The Trevi Fountain of Rome is taking shape in the middle of the project. Drivers could throw coins in the fountain as they drive by using their right hand over their left shoulder. The money collected from the fountain could be used to subsidize worthy and needy causes in our community.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

CLAUDE BEUDERT

555 Montauk Highway

East Hampton

June 25, 2018 

Dear David,

On behalf of the board of managers and staff of the East Hampton Library, we would like to thank the East Hampton Town Board and special events committee for approving the library’s application for Authors Night and the free children’s fair to be held on the 555 Montauk Highway property in Amagansett. We also would like to thank Assemblyman Fred Thiele for his support as well.

Everything we do at the library is free to the public, whether they are library cardholders or not. For the past 13 years, the library has relied on the funds raised at Authors Night to augment the taxes we receive. These privately raised funds are used for library operations and to enhance programs for the community, including underwriting the annual children’s fair, which is a community event open to all local families, with free crafts, games, bounce houses, entertainers, food, children’s book authors, and more. 

For the past five years, thanks to the kindness of private residents, we were able to use their property in East Hampton Village for Authors Night and the free children’s fair. Now that their property is no longer available, use of the field at 555 Montauk Highway is critical to the financial success of Authors Night, which in turn will be used to invest in the future of our community. We thank the community in advance for their understanding and hope that they will join us at these great events on Aug. 11 and 12.

Sincerely,

SHEILA ROGERS,

president

DENNIS FABISZAK, 

director

Read Along

East Hampton

June 24, 2018

Dear David,

I just checked a local map and indeed Amagansett is part of the Town Of East Hampton. I had to check because several letters to the editor in last week’s Star claimed that the town was wronging its citizens by holding an East Hampton Library fund-raiser on the 555 Montauk Highway property. For the record, I don’t feel wronged, and I’m confident that the vast majority of Town of East Hampton citizens support the event. Can’t we all just read along?

Thank you,

DAVID KUPERSCHMID

Steady and Composed

Amagansett

June 25, 2018

Dear David,

I am a member of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee and was at the most recent meeting where town Board liaison David Lys presented his report. A previous letter to The Star stated that David had a “meltdown” at the meeting. This couldn’t be further from the truth. He delivered his liaison report with purpose and with unbiased emotion and calm. He was on task and on point.

 I have been working with David for the last seven years restoring the Amagansett Life-Saving Station and know him to be focused and have a very serious nature. If you have ever observed him, over the last five years as a zoning board member, you would have witnessed his steady and composed demeanor. David is a valuable addition to the East Hampton Town Board. David did not have a meltdown at the meeting and I am compelled to point out the inaccuracy of last week’s letter. 

Sincerely yours,

MICHAEL N. CINQUE

 

Effort Was Ignored

Amagansett

June 25, 2018

Dear David,

The parking lot subcommittee of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee spent much time and effort studying the parking lot in Amagansett and writing up a proposal. They met with Councilman Lys. All of this effort was ignored by the town board, and the plan was totally thrown into the trash.

What is going on in Town Hall?

There was no public input by the community, and a public hearing is now set for July 5. Now there is a design for the parking lot, which the community doesn’t want. This includes a metered ticket booth at the entrance, less than the whole first row of 30-minute spots requested by the business community and the library, and [they] ignored a request to not have cars ticketed after 6 p.m. and until 9 a.m. 

This lifting of the parking hour restrictions at night would allow workers in restaurants and patrons attending the Stephen Talkhouse or restaurant bars to leave their cars overnight and not be ticketed if they take a taxi home. The town board liaison to Amagansett, Mr. Lys, is a rubber stamp for what Supervisor Van Scoyoc, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, and Councilwoman Sylvia Overby want.

That’s a big problem!

Sincerely,

JILL DANIS

Stood Looming

Springs

June 25, 2018

Dear David,

As a Democratic committee member for some eight years who has diligently and tirelessly worked to elect Democrats to positions in town government because I believed in the integrity and moral value of these candidates, I found myself utterly disappointed by the behavior of Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc at our recent convention. Mr. Van Scoyoc stood looming in the back of the hall as each district member cast their votes with the candidate he chose, David Lys, sitting in front of him while the votes rang out. These votes were cast based on each district total number of votes in the last election of the recent governor. Why, you might wonder, this convoluted means of voting? Because their candidate is a registered Republican. That’s right. This Republican man was chosen by the party bosses to replace Mr. Van Scoyoc, whose seat was now empty.

Mr. Lys can’t even vote for himself if there is a Democratic primary, as his registration as a Democrat doesn’t go into effect until after the upcoming November election. He switched his political convictions from a lifelong Republican to Democratic based on what he read on the internet. He probably voted for Lee Zeldin and Donald Trump. Give me a break! Democratic values based on caring for the other guy and the health of the community you live in, which includes Mother Earth, grow as you grow, not in a minute from something you read.

But there Mr. Van Scoyoc stood watching the voting process, especially those who work for the town or have relatives who work for the town making sure the so-called election came out as he wanted and his connected Republican friend, Mr. Lys, won. This was the man I have worked to get elected over the years? I guess Trumpian politics is catching — like a disease

Sincerely, 

PHYLLIS ITALIANO

To Explore and Play

East Hampton

June 22, 2018

Dear David:

Reading is fundamental to all the residents of the Town of East Hampton. The support of libraries is fundamental to the citizens of our democracy. 

The town is fortunate to have the East Hampton Library. It is a gem that provides free services to everyone in the area, children and adults, whether residents or not. This includes a myriad of programing for children and young adults, including summer reading clubs, a Lego club, a journal program for young adults, and family movie night to name but a few.

As a former children’s, young adult, and reference librarian with over 30 years of experience, I am writing in support of the free children’s fair and Authors Night. The children’s fair is a place where all of the children in the area can come together, regardless of economic status, and enjoy a day to explore and play and develop an interest in books.

I am a proponent of open government and am sorry that the process permitting the use of the 555 Montauk Highway property has been clouded by a lack of participation in the approval process by the citizens of Amagansett. However, that shouldn’t depreciate the value that the fair and Authors Night contribute to the citizens of the town.

I support the efforts of the East Hampton Library, and I urge the town board to allow the plans for Authors Night and the children’s fair to continue as approved.

NAOMI COOPER

 

Community Service

East Hampton

June 25, 2018

Dear Mr. Rattray,

As a teacher at our East Hampton Middle School, I was thrilled to learn that the East Hampton Library’s Authors Night and children’s fair will be held at the 555 property, an ideal site to safely accommodate the families attending. The children’s fair is truly a community event, free to all. Whole families can enjoy slides, climbing walls, carnival games, food provided by local organizations, balloon sculptures, magicians, entertainers, face painting, and crafts. Community information booths are available, and children’s book authors attend to sign books. 

If you visit our East Hampton Library any day after school, you will see that it is indeed a community center for all ages, especially for young people. The children’s fair is another way that the East Hampton Library demonstrates its dedication to serving the citizens of the Town of East Hampton. It is also gratifying to know that our local middle school and high school students will have the opportunity to play a key rolas volunteers at the children’s fair and receive community service credit necessary for graduation. 

Sincerely,

ELLEN COLLINS

 

The C.P.F. Law

Amagansett

June 24, 2018

Dear David,

The town board meeting on Tuesday, June 5, found me sitting next to the library director, Dennis Fabiszak. I asked him what he was doing at the meeting and he pointed to the agenda with approval of the East Hampton Library’s Authors Night at town-owned 555 Montauk Highway, Amagansett, in the long list of items. I have volunteered for the library at this event for the past nine years. When the supervisor moved the agenda item up so that the library would be the first discussion item, I jumped up to support it.

Then I went home and realized that the Authors Night event was going to be on community preservation fund property. And so I took another look at the C.P.F. law. C.P.F. property is only supposed to be used for open space, farmland, or recreation. I went through multiple charts listing properties and there, in the category of farmland, was the 555 property. Now, I was totally puzzled.

When Councilman Lys, the board liaison to the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee meeting, first brought the Authors Night matter to the attention of the committee on June 11, after it had already been approved by the town board, he claimed that the event would fall under the category of recreation. When I asked, “What recreation?” he said, “Reading.” This is ridiculous. Authors Night is not an event at which people are reading. It is a large fund-raiser.

The word is out that the town board is using the library event as a wedge, because of course everyone supports the library, in order to open C.P.F. property for moneymaking events. Councilman Jeff Bragman said that the C.P.F. law is not broken, so why do they want to change it?

At that meeting Councilman Bragman also stated that this was all discussed at not one, but two closed-door meetings of the town board, and that he alone was opposed to the use of this property for the event. Discussions of the use of town-owned property behind closed doors are in clear violation of the State Open Meetings Law. 

As the town board is violating the C.P.F. law by using C.P.F. land for a moneymaking event, and it appears that four of the board members want to make this a regular practice, it is easy to understand why they do not want the public to know what they are up to. But the public’s business must be conducted in public. 

Meetings conducted and decisions made in secret are exactly the objectionable behavior that Democrats complained of during the Wilkinson administration. Now the Democratic supervisor and majority are doing the same thing. It is no more acceptable when Peter Van Scoop does it than when Bill Wilkinson did it.

RONA KLOPMAN

 

Community Exclusion

Amagansett

June 18, 2018

Dear Editor,

Some very odd things are happening at Town Hall. It used to be, not so long ago, that a town board member would go to the various citizens advisory committees to discuss the issues that would affect their hamlet. Such was the case with the community preservation fund purchase of the 555 land where rezoning for 90 luxury condos was proposed and defeated. There were many valid reasons to take the barn down and after many discussions with our town supervisor who was Amagansett’s committee liaison at the time, it was decided, according to C.P.F. requirements, that the site remain as open space with passive recreation. The proposed benches and the large jogging/walking path around the exterior would have been a nice place for a child to learn to ride a bike or for a senior citizen to take a safe walk while enjoying nature. The citizens felt it was their patriotic duty to allow one exception for the Soldier Ride. All was decided and agreed upon so the supervisor took that plan back to the town board.

Apparently the new supervisor and a few of the town board members feel that the “transparency thing” is overrated. They sent their new liaison to the Amagansett advisory committee to inform them that the board had already quietly approved, in executive session, two private fund-raising events at the height of the season on this open field. While the C.P.F. was employed to reduce density, these private town board decisions only increase it. Please know the Amagansett citizens did approve a large senior housing development and a large affordable housing complex right in this area while already accommodating a very busy supermarket, liquor, and fish stores with the possibility of a 7-Eleven to come.

This is illegal use of C.P.F. land. The members of the Amagansett Citizens Committee present were disturbed with the lack of transparency and community exclusion. When the liaison was asked to request that the town board rescind this permit and schedule a public hearing the way it should have been done, he said he would, but at the town board work session he simply said it was a “lively” meeting. 

Instead of dealing with this in an honest and fair way by following the original intent of open space acquisition with C.P.F. money, they decided that they now want to rewrite our C.P.F. code to allow events on all of our taxpayer- funded C.P.F. land! The four town board members are suggesting that we use Southampton’s overdevelopment, congestion, and Nassau County aesthetics as a role model for East Hampton’s future. Any reasonable person who drives through Southampton would not come to the conclusion. 

This idea mostly appeals to investors looking to make money and would result in diminished property values and quality of life for the majority of our residential property owners. Please be aware that there are talks behind the scenes to also follow Southampton’s desire to rezone agricultural land for commercial use and to allow 5,000-square-foot  farm stands sandwiched in between residential properties. 

It’s almost as if we are watching reruns of the “Bill and Theresa” show. The ways that important changes are occurring and decisions are being made without any public input are reminiscent of them.

It is really a shame that the executive session, which used to be a confidential meeting to discuss employee issues and internal procedures, has evolved into a tool for autocratic rule.

The term executive session is now code for, “Let the public be damned.” Our community should not tolerate this.

Sincerely,

JAMES MACMILLAN

 

Resident Stakeholders

East Hampton

June 25, 2018

Dear David,

I tell the joke that people get elected to public office and wake up the next day believing that they are a lot smarter and more knowledgeable than they were the day before. Unfortunately, it isn’t really a joke. The fact of being elected seems to convince people that their abilities have miraculously expanded to be commensurate with their responsibilities. No such luck.

Here in East Hampton, it would be unrealistic to expect any of the five members of our town board to have any relevant knowledge or experience across the range of difficult issues that the board confronts, from water quality, to beach hydrology, to fisheries, to aviation, to density and land management. If any of the board members had relevant education or professional experience with even one such issue, it would be a fluke.

The problem, however, is not that the board members don’t know what they are doing. Rather, it is that they don’t know what to do about the fact that they don’t know what they are doing. 

Some of the time, they try to get out of the ditch by hiring experts. But then they don’t know how to supervise the experts. The don’t know what questions to ask, they don’t know how to structure the work, they don’t know how to evaluate the results they receive. 

Other times, as with the pressing issue of the easements across town property requested by Deepwater Wind, they choose not to know anything. They have done nothing, not even commission a review of existing scientific literature, to ascertain possible adverse environmental impacts on our town, particularly on the fishing industry. 

With the exception of Councilman Jeffrey Bragman, who has stated publicly that the board should gather the facts before taking action, town board members excuse themselves in this case on the grounds that the board is not legally obliged to undertake any environmental study, because environmental work will be done by and for the New York State Public Service Commission. I disagree. As I read the law, our board is not permitted to take any action before environmental work by the P.S.C. is done and it issues its certificate of public necessity and environmental compatibility for the project.

 Either way, even if our town board were not legally obliged to do its environmental homework before acting, nothing in the law prevents board members from informing themselves and the community. If our board has the authority to act, it also has the authority, as a constituted legislature, to take into account whatever it thinks appropriate as a basis for its action. There is simply no excuse for willful ignorance.  

 We are never going to have in East Hampton a large, professional bureaucracy with the knowledge and experience that the town board lacks. But we do have in our town remarkable human resources. On almost any subject, you can find among us many people who do have relevant knowledge and experience. We could tap that resource by insisting that, on all issues of a technical nature that come before the town board, local stakeholders have the first say. 

 In the case of Deepwater Wind, representatives of our fishing industry, such as Bonnie Brady, who participates in the work of the federal fisheries management committee for our region, and of the many in East Hampton who work on energy issues, Gordian Raacke and Frank Dalene come immediately to mind, should have been invited to work through the issues and make proposals to the town board that they find mutually satisfactory. Those could include specific proposals for matters that demand further study. 

 The chances that any agreement among East Hampton resident stakeholders, knowledgeable, talented, aided, and supported by professionals as necessary, will be both technically sound and respond fairly to competing local interests is infinitely greater than a process that consists of five town board members, without any relevant experience or information, wandering in the self-imposed dark. 

Why don’t we do this? You tell me.

  Sincerely,

DAVID GRUBER

Behind Closed Doors

East Hampton

June 25, 2018

Editor:

Anyone who has watched the current town board and its predecessor, the Cantwell town board, is aware that the board members almost never engage in any public discussion of anything. They react as though they are a blank wall. Generally they listen politely to the public and sometimes, not so politely. In either case, they themselves have little or nothing to say in public on any subject.

Either one believes that despite adopting hundreds of resolutions, many of them of great importance to the community, but the members of the town board never discuss them. It is obvious that they are, in fact, discussing almost all-public business in private, behind closed doors. This is in violation of the spirit, and probably also of the letter of he New York State Open Meetings Law. With very limited exceptions, the law requires that public business to be done in public.

The mask slipped recently when its was admitted by the town board that it had discussed in executive session the proposal to allow a fund-raising event on Community Preservation Fund property. There is no exception in the Open Meetings Law that could possibly allow this. Are we to believe that this is an isolated incident? I, for one, do not.

Democrats complained bitterly during the Wilkinson administration about secrecy by the board. Now the shoe is very much on the other foot. Quite apart from the law, the board’s practice of non-public discussion denies the public essential information about critical issues facing the town as well as about the views of the board members themselves. It must stop.

Sincerely, 

ARLINE COULTER

Fresh Air

East Hampton 

June 19, 2018

Dear David,

Yes, Jeff Bragman proves me right every week. He is a breath of fresh air on the East Hampton Town Board. He is a lawyer, and he kept his eyes and ears open way before he was elected. He is honest, not particularly shy, and you can take what he says to the bank! He represents the previous board members’ intentions and hopes for the future very well.

 For that alone, I thank him.

Respectfully,

PAT MANSIR

Flimsy Arguments

Sag Harbor

June 23, 2018

To the Editor:

Last week I heard a story on public radio about people in the lowlands of Bangladesh who have always supported themselves by farming and fishing, but who are being uprooted because the rising sea levels are making their fields too salty for crops and brackish waterways no longer support the freshwater fish on which they depend. 

At the same time I hear people on the East End opposing the wind turbines using a variety of flimsy arguments. In the 1980s we nixed nuclear power, saying wind power would be better. Meanwhile, we kept using fossil fuel-generated electricity. Now that wind power is a real possibility, the pseudo-environmentalists oppose it in favor of the next big thing, whatever that might be. If and when the next big thing comes along, they’ll oppose that, too. They complain that Deepwater Wind is “in it for the money,” as if there’s something wrong with that. I don’t see anyone handing out free fish at the commercial docks, nor would I expect them to. So we’ll probably stick with fossil fuels and continue to make life harder for those Bangladesh fisher people. But who cares about them?

JOHN ANDREWS

No Shocker

Montauk

June 20, 2018

Editor:

It should come as no surprise that the Trump regime is currently separating the families of illegal immigrants and placing children in cages. This resonates as a partial return to the Antebellum South whereby slaves were sold separately and families destroyed. 

Trump has repeatedly referred to illegal immigrants as ¨animals,” so it should come as no shocker that these people are ending up in cages.  No doubt, in his life Trump has visited zoos and looked at the animals in cages. Although zoo animals are now placed in more ¨humane¨ and animal-friendly environments without cages, it appears that Trump is unaware of these changes.

The Trump policy of caging children is reminiscent of the American policy of creating large geographic cages for American citizens of Japanese ancestry during World War II. They were called internment camps. The Nazis were also extremely adept at caging families, as were the Soviets during the Stalinist regime.

I have no doubt that the Trump regime will continue on its march toward racial purity, nationalistic jingoism, xenophobia, and autocracy. Pence, Miller, Kelly, and Huckabee Sanders will continue to lie. People tell me that a new cabinet position is being created for Huckabee Sanders. In a month she will be nominated to become the secretary of propaganda and cultural enlightenment. The Republican establishment in the Senate and the House will continue its sycophantic silence regarding Trump’s lies. Few have shown a modicum of courage.  Millions of Americans will continue to watch Sean Hannity and believe he is a journalist who actually reports news.

Elie Wiesel once said: “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Wake up America.

Sincerely,

BRIAN POPE

Remembrance

Amagansett

June 25, 2018

Dear David, 

A selective remembrance of a conversation between two ladies “of a certain age” waiting for the Jitney in East Hampton Village:

Lady A: I don’t understand the fuss about the future “browning of America.” I find it far more attractive. 

Lady B: Oh, me too. My latest great-grandchild is gorgeous. One of the earlier ones looked like a plucked uncooked chicken. 

Lady A: How’s it now?

Lady B: Better.

Lady A: Two of my ex-husbands were quite brown whereas the last one was pink.

Lady B: And spotty, right? 

Lady B: What possible human category is number 45? Agent Orange?

Lady A: My first ex-husband was his ex-wife’s acting agent.

Lady B: Did she run the gamut of emotion from A to B?

Lady A: At a stretch.

Lady B: What does your tattoo say?

Lady A: No! 

All good things, 

DIANA WALKER

Moral Majority?

Montauk

June 23, 2018

Dear David:

Where is the Moral Majority? People  have fallen into the habit of sneering at the 1960s, the hippie-dippies, the love-ins, the beads and beards. But where are the Berrigan brothers? Where are the William Sloane Coffin Jrs.? Where are the Archbishop Oscar Romeros? Where are the hundreds of thousands that went to D.C., now that our president is traumatizing babies, and his wife declares publicly, “I really don’t care.” 

Where is the Moral Majority now?

Into the streets. 

Regards,

JANET VAN SICKLE

 

 

Child Abuse

Sag Harbor

June 22, 2018

Editor:

Trump’s cruel and inhuman treatment of traumatizing immigrant children is immoral. He sees criminal detention of innocent children as a solution to his own evil acts. This is malevolence buttressed by incompetence. 

We see examples such as a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome taken from her mother and put in a cage. We see over 2,300 children in cages, many of whose parents have already been deported with no plans to reunite them. His recent executive order did not even try to address these kids.

We hear audio of babies in cages crying for their parents. This traumatizing will lead to development issues for them as they grow up.

We hear from an airline employee seeing a group of immigrant kids on a plane with an ICE agent who said it was a soccer team until caught in his lie. 

Going forward, Trump and Sessions plan to put whole families into illegal indefinite detention. There are over 700,000 cases awaiting adjudication. 

Religious leaders of all faiths (except the evangelicals who treat Trump as a god) have risen up to this injustice. Even clergy in Jeff Sessions’s denomination accused him of immorality, discrimination, and child abuse. Yet Ann Coulter and her ilk have the audacity to say these kids are “child actors.”

Is this the America we stand for? If so, our country is in deep trouble. I fear for the future.

  ED JABLONSKY

 

Show Up

Amagansett

June 19, 2018

Dear Editor;

   Can someone tell me where our congressman stands on the immoral and outrageous treatment of refugees at our southern border? Does he approve, zombie-like, of Trump’s policy of child internment? Also, what does he think about tariffs and the alienation of Canada, England, Germany, etc.? Does he know that tariffs hurt everyone? This is Economics 101. How much longer can he support the buffoonery coming from the White House? Idea: Zeldin will no doubt use the summer months to visit the East End with his beggar bowl. Should we not show up and let him know how we feel? I’m not sure it will do any good, but it may make us feel a bit better.

GERRY PANE

 

Chromosomal Imbalance

East Hampton

June 24, 2018

Editor:

In a New York Times editorial, Republican David Brooks described the Trump presidency in clear and precise detail as the standard recipe for a fascist authoritarian government. Brooks couldn’t use the F word (fascist) but by equivocating between normal, not sociopathic, conservatives, he was able to define it without explicitly labeling it.

Fascism, however, is where we are at and the strong direction we are taking. If one questioned anyone in the autocratic regimes of Mussolini, Pinochet, etc., they would have explained that what they were doing was in the best interest of the country and God and believed every word they said. Fascism doesn’t exist without sociopaths and sociopaths, except for the totally deranged, are always accompanied by a pathological relationship to the truth. When analyzing the popular reaction to this form of government there is always a percentage that finds fascism patriotic and perfectly acceptable.

So, on the issue of separating children from their parents, Trump says it’s the law, which gives his behavior cover. Except that it isn’t the law, it’s policy. The need to believe what they say permits them to refute the sociopath label that accompanies this behavior. The action is completely self-created, but the blame is always passed on to someone else. This behavior is often a function of a chromosomal imbalance in certain cultural groups. White Anglo-Saxon Protestants have historically demonstrated that the empathy chromosome is often missing in their genetic makeup. Witness the different levels of cruelty and indifference between German and Italian fascists, for example.

The missing chromosome in German fascists allowed the war to continue beyond 1943 when winning was no longer an option. Every death after 1943 can be attributed to German leadership’s inability to feel and care about other human beings.

Obama had essentially solved much of the so-called immigration problem with Central American countries. He sent back hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants and had lowered border arrests to the lowest level in 40 years. Trump needed only to continue Obama’s program to accomplish his border control plan. But like the German fascists he had bigger plans that diverged from reality and took a quasi-human direction (missing chromosome). 

By criminally prosecuting immigrants seeking asylum (an illegal act in itself) he was able to fulfill his fascist nature by separating the kids from their parents (inflicting pain) and sending a message that he is a tough mother. Yet, his simple-mindedness in conjunction with his need for cruelty totally screwed up the court system and turned the entire nation (fascists not included) against him.

The entire exercise was unnecessary, fabricated, and deranged. Throwing red meat to his base that is as clueless and insensitive as he is. Freaking the country out because his reality is clouded by his belief in his vision of the world.

Trump’s behavior with the children is very much in keeping with his behavior toward everything else. His fascism is ingrained and consistent. There are no aberrations or misunderstandings. 

David Brooks needs to let the F word out. Sing it on the PBS NewsHour, chant it in The New York Times. Let the world know that he, a lifelong Republican, knows that Trump and his Republican friends are genuine, home-bred, milk-fed fascist pigs.

NEIL HAUSIG