Letters to the Editor: Trump 04.20.17

Not ‘Holocaust Centers’

Montauk

April 12, 2017

To the Editor,

I would like to inform White House press spokesman Sean Spicer that Belzec, Sobibor, Chelmno, Majdanek, Treblinka, and Auschwitz were not “Holocaust centers.” They were extermination camps whose purpose was to murder all of Europe’s Jewish men, women, and children, and others deemed to be racially inferior — political opponents, homosexuals, and Roma. 

And yes, Mr. Spicer, most were gassed on orders issued by Adolf Hitler.

BRIAN POPE

Paid for by You and Me

East Hampton

April 17, 2017

Dear David:

The Star reminds me every week how important it is for our future to get our facts straight now. So a quick note to Bea Derrico, who wrote that she thinks Trump and family are spending his own money. 

No, Ms. Derrico, that is not true at all; you are mistaken. You might want that to be true, but it is not true! Trump is only using our (yours and mine) tax dollars to pay for his life and lifestyle. 

He and his have his Secret Service, jet flights, meals, and all upkeep courtesy of us taxpayers. His jaunts to Palm Beach and his wife in N.Y.C. are paid for by you and me and everyone else, regardless of our political allegiance. 

Meanwhile, his kids hawk their wares leveraging his name while foreign countries and business hustlers curry favor by checking into his hotel. He’s making millions, while we’re footing the bills. That’s the unbiased and unvarnished truth.

Courage,

CHARLINE SPEKTOR

All Those Veapons

Springs

April 17, 2017

Hi David,

Fake News?

D: Dude, Vlady, I’m tanking. My numbers suck. A hundred days: one lousy judge. What should I do?

V: Donny, not to vorry. Blow some crap up!

D: Like what? 

V: Vatch the news about Syria. Something vill come up. I’ll talk with Bashar.

D: Yeah, but you know, I think I said I wouldn’t get involved.

V: Who cares vot what you said? Der’s nutting like some missles and bombs to impress people. Let me see vot I can do. Vye have all those veapons if you don’t use them?

D: I see what you mean. We have this MOAB, never used it, either.

V: Ve know. Big bang. Maybe, Afghanistan? Taliban, Isis? Boychik, tveet!

D: Who do I tell? I mean, how do I . . . ?

V: Donny, you’re the president! Maybe look at the org chart. 

D: Of course. I knew that. You’re a good man, Vladimir.

V: Ve should talk more often, like before.

IRA BAROCAS

Military Alternatives

East Hampton

April 14, 2017

To the Editor:

Sept. 11, 2001, was a turning point in our relationship with the Muslim world. It was remarkable that a few men could alter the trajectory and ethic of the most powerful country in the world, and they weren’t even citizens. We’ve so lost our moral compass and our sanity that when Trump orders a missile attack on a Syrian airfield, he is widely applauded and praised for the action. We applaud children when they take their first steps or say their first words. These are enormous accomplishments. We don’t applaud adults for mindless stupid behavior because we have an enormous craving to applaud.

We are so happy with ourselves that we can finally say that our president didn’t behave like a buffoon. Yet our behavior is as mindless and thoughtless as the president’s. He didn’t rise to our expectations; we descended to his.

The wrong Bush was president in 2001. Our bad luck. As the Gulf War wound down in 1992, our military clamored to continue to Baghdad and take down Saddam. Bush 1 understood the ramifications of that course and wisely refused. He had lived in the world. Gone to war. Understood the complications of geopolitics. Understood the military’s and the American people’s addiction to war and victories, and still walked away — sort of. (We dropped more bombs on Iraq between 1993 and 2001 than in all of World War II despite not being at war.)

Bush 2 never got it. Gave up control and set us on our current path. No one was home with Bush 2, and we lost our minds in the name of something which we can no longer identify.

Cutting to the present and the applause for the president. Appalled by the sight of burning kids in a Fox newscast, he decided to take action. Reversing policy in the face of Assad’s behavior (which has been unchanged since 2013), he ordered a missile attack. Trump’s motivation is sketchy. Everyone who didn’t live in a cave was aware of dying children except Trump. Is this head-up-your-butt syndrome or new awakenings?

To assuage Trump’s blithering disconnect from the real world, The New York Times talks about the increase in Syrian atrocities, essentially normalizing the aberrant behavior of the past four years. Of course, all sympathy and concerns aside, none of these kids would be allowed in the country — because?

Even David Brooks found a reason to applaud the president’s unpredictability, putting Trump in a package with Putin, Assad, and Kim. Excellent strategy for street gangs, but a strange place to lead the world from. Not knowing what’s happening in the world and having no coherent plans to deal with any of it is applaudable in only the most extreme alternative realities.

So, surrounded by military advisers who understand the president’s incoherence and lack of knowledge, it is not surprising that military alternatives are winning the day. We are currently engaged in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and in a proxy war with Iran, and we have neither policy nor short or long-term plans about what we are doing.

So we as a nation struggle with what must be a genetic malfunction. We believe in our hearts and souls the mantra that killing for the right reasons is the best way to save people. We know what’s right. We know who needs to be eliminated. And we know how to do it.

So we anxiously wait to see what the president will come up with after his early-morning cable news adventures. Would we be better off if the president returned to pornography and gave Fox News a rest? It might be the best alternative for saving the world.

NEIL HAUSIG

Putting America First

Hampton Bays

April 10, 2017

To the Editor:

Well, we finally have a president (not a politician) who does what he says. The intellectuals, liberals, and far-left loons must be going crazy.

Thank God we have a man who is willing to stand up for what is right. The community organizer Barack Hussein Obama just gave that great big smile and all would be right.

President Trump seems to have received the backing and respect for his actions in Syria. If the do-nothing politicians had their way, they would be debating what to do, and as usual would put on a great TV show for those who have no interest in life.

What is so wrong with putting America first? Jobs, an improved infrastructure, a higher esteem for our country, less bureaucracy, at some point a better health-care policy and a streamlined tax system. Give the man a chance, he is up against an entrenched system, and if he can’t fix it no one can, and may God help us.

Oh well, that’s it for now, may God bless President Trump and his beautiful family.

Yours truly,

JOHN PAGAC