Letters to the Editor: Trump 11.03.16

Neither Fit to Run

East Hampton

October 30, 2016

Dear David:

A friend gave me a book about Bernard Fall and I am reminded of the simplemindedness of American politicians and the damage that mindset is capable of causing. Fall was the foremost authority on Vietnam and anyone who had read his books or heard him lecture at Howard University would have understood that absolute folly of Vietnam and then Afghanistan and Iraq. The story however, is not about Fall’s brilliance, but a cautionary tale to the American people about the dangers of putting simpleminded politicians into power.

 Donald Trump is a near perfect fit. Not because he is racist or homophobic or misogynistic or has no self-control, but because he is a product of Twitter and lives only within the confines of 140 characters. So he is unable to string together three or four paragraphs without repeating himself on any subject whatsoever, no less a serious policy issue. This need for instant expression combined with an exhausting psychosis and the propensity to lie pathologically turns him into a simpleton every time he opens his mouth. This affliction doesn’t mean that he doesn’t understand concepts and ideas but in articulating solutions and policies he operates with only a quarter of his brain. The textbook case of simplemindedness.

Trump detests everything about the Tea Party. Its obstruction of government, its narrow mindedness in observing its own brand of orthodoxy, and its extraordinary ineptitude in the governing process. He wants all the Tea Party pols to be thrown out as part of his Washington cleansing. Lots of people agree with him, including John Boehner.

Lee Zeldin on the other hand adores Trump. Has no problem with his issues with women, blacks, Latinos, Muslims, Jews, etc. He doesn’t even mind that Trump sees him as a hypocritical blood sucker and thinks that his Tea Party group should fall off the earth. He sees no problem with Trump talking about jobs and better pay for the middle class (white men only) even though he voted against every bill to help middle class workers.

No one questions the racism of Lee Zeldin in his Tea Party role of obstructing our black president on the sole basis of his color. Yet, how does a Jewish vet remain silent when white supremacist groups, inspired by their faithless leader, attack conservative Jewish writers who criticize Trump. Threatening their livelihood and their families in the grossest crudest manner.

And why he is muted when Trump supporters threaten violence if he doesn’t win the election? Does Zeldin not believe in the Constitution and the peaceful transition of power, or is his silence a nod to the violent bullying nature of Mr. Trump? Trump and Zeldin are like peas in a pod.

Much of Fall’s family were killed by the Nazis. He joined the resistance in France at 16. He visited Vietnam six times and died young, stepping on a mine embedded with U.S. soldiers in 1967. He understood how meanspirited stupidity can cause irreparable harm. Neither Trump nor Zeldin is fit to run our government. It is unclear what they are fit for but running our country is not it. The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam have caused millions of deaths and caused trillions of dollars in real and psychic costs to everyone involved. We still suffer from Vietnam today.

There are consequences to our behavior. If we screw this one up, no one can imagine how dire it will be.

NEIL HAUSIG 

Democracy Has Devolved

East Hampton 

October 30, 2016

David,

I host the LTV show “Gung Ho.” I tape it weekly and then it airs the following week in four time slots. Gung Ho is a Marine Corps motto meaning extremely enthusiastic, “can do,” first used by Carson’s Raiders at the beginning of World War II. The Raiders were an elite battalion used for surprise attacks behind Japanese defenses. My current show, running through the election, is about a neighbor, John Chappel, who died suddenly on Aug. 29 and about the last F.B.I. investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails.

I recently retired from the practice of criminal defense law because of several service-connected disabilities, the most debilitating, chronic ischemic coronary heart disease, resulting from exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. I came of age during and serving in Nam as a Marine infantry officer. Learned the hard way about war and human nature. 

I was 22 when I joined the Marines in March of 1966. The first thing we did after volunteering was take the service oath. We raised our right hands and swore to defend the Constitution and our democracy against all enemies, domestic and foreign. Sometimes when someone asks, “Are you a Marine?” I say, “Yes,” then half-jokingly add, “I’m 150 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal. I walked into the jaws of death and walked out with its ass bone.”

Last night, I watched on P.B.S. “Hamilton’s America.” It included a conversation between President Obama and Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of “Hamilton,” the play. They were talking about some of our Founding Fathers, particularly Hamilton, Jefferson, and Burr. They both observed that our founders were incredible men who created our democracy and that it still works. With all due respect, our representative democracy has devolved into an oligarcracy. (Oligarchy and plutocracy combined.) Rule by the rich and powerful based on their greed and their quest for influence.

As I write this letter, Hillary is live on TV making a speech in Florida. One of the first things she said was, “You deserve a full accounting.” Referring to the just-released letter from our F.B.I. director, James Comey, informing Congress that the investigation of her emails is ongoing. Her mess about her emails was started by her. A result of her attempt to be opaque and secret away all her emails while she was secretary of state by using a private email for all her state and personal emails. Using a private email at the Department of State put our national security at risk. Crimes against the United States. Then leaving the State Department with all her emails, in violation of the Freedom of Information Act. These crimes and violations were revealed by Congressional hearings investigating the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, including our ambassador, Chris Stevens. Clinton said that with only 11 days left, Comey’s letter to Congress was “dangerous and unprecedented.” With all due respect, the real danger, and unprecedented, was Comey’s decision in July to give Clinton a pass.

This morning I called John, a Vietnam buddy of mine, a retired F.B.I. agent. We met in Nam in the latter part of June 1968. During a search-and-destroy operation just below the D.M.Z. I was a short-timer: Less than 30 days to complete my tour. We served together for about a month with the First Battalion Third Marines, Home of the Brave. After completing the operation our battalion choppered west to L.Z. Stud. Close by was Khe Sahn, which had been abandoned several months back. 

John took over my rifle platoon and I assumed my duties as the X.O. of Charlie Company. While there the battalion commander radioed down to Charlie Company for me to report to him at the battalion headquarters, a large bunker. When I entered, the battalion commander said, “Lieutenant, your orders came through.” This was two days before my rotation date! I looked at him in disbelief. He said, “Get on the next chopper. Go home.” I said, “Yes sir!” I went back to our company area, grabbed my gear, and headed for the L.Z. With no chance or time to say goodbye to anybody, including John. They would know I was gone. They would be okay with that. I boarded a Huey. It lifted off, heading west, the first leg of my journey home. On board was a good friend of mine, Lieut. Keith Gregory. We came “in country” together and now we were going home together. We have remained close friends.

In the summer of 2008, a good friend of mine, Tom Connors, was looking at some of my Nam photos and said, “I know this guy. That’s Murphy.” He pointed to a photo of John that I took. I asked him how he knew him. He said, “I grew up with him and his brothers in Manhasset, Long Island.” Tom then said, “I’ll find him and have him call you.” Tom did, and John called, in the fall of 2008. We reunited in person and we speak regularly over the phone. In fact, I wrote about him in a published story called “Replacement.”

John told me a long time ago that the F.B.I. had enough evidence to indict Clinton for passing on, through her private email and server, classified, secret, and top-secret information. He also said that if Comey doesn’t recommend an indictment, there will be a rebellion against him within and without the F.B.I. That has come to pass. It is evident now that many F.B.I. agents, on the job and retired, were appalled and angry at Comey’s decision in July to give Clinton a pass. That decision will live in infamy. Comey is now being viciously attacked by Clinton and her minions. But he really has tarnished the reputation of the finest investigative bureau in the world. When you look back at the timeline of the investigation, it is obvious the case against her was politicized, top-down. Bill Clinton met with the attorney general last July, he claims by chance. He knows better — he’s a disbarred attorney.

The meeting created an appearance of impropriety resulting in the attorney general and the Justice Department recusing themselves from the investigation of his spouse. Ms. Lynch then told Comey to decide who would be prosecuted and what the charges would be. Unheard-of conduct. Never done before on any case.

 The F.B.I. is the investigative branch of the federal government. They gather evidence and bring it to the U.S. attorney, then the U.S. attorney decides who to prosecute, and what the charges are. Bill Clinton’s meeting with the attorney general was a crime, “obstruction of justice.” Three days after that meeting, on Saturday, F.B.I. agents interviewed Hillary Clinton for the first time. Three days after that, F.B.I. director Comey, after a yearlong investigation, held a press conference. He detailed all the crimes that Hillary Clinton committed by using a private email and disseminating sensitive information concerning our national security, then gave her a pass. That decision made a mockery of the rule of law. Without the rule of law, we have no Constitution and no democracy. At this time we do not.

Donald Trump, shortly after Comey’s reopening of the investigation, said, “A vote for Hillary is a vote to surrender our republic to public corruption, graft, and cronyism that threatens the very foundations of our constitutional system.” Hillary responded, “Of course, Donald Trump is already making up lies about this. He is doing his best to confuse, mislead, and discourage the American people. I think it is time for Donald Trump to stop fear-mongering, to stop disgracing himself, to stop attacking our democracy.” What democracy? We have two candidates running for the highest office in our land who are not fit or qualified to be our president and commander in chief. We have two pigs in a poke.

Semper fi,

JOSEPH GIANNINI

Central Park Five

East Hampton

October 18, 2016

Dear Editor,

Among his most grievous personal failings, Donald Trump exhibits an inability to ever admit he is a wrongdoer or apologize for ignorant, erroneous, even egregious conduct.

After spending thousands of dollars to advocate the return of the death penalty he described five innocent youths as “not exactly angels” when he insisted they were guilty, even when the correct defendant confessed and his DNA proved that he indeed was the assailant.

 It was also shown that the district attorney’s office in Manhattan knew full well that the alleged confessions elicited from each of the five were hopelessly confused, inaccurate, and taken after hours of intense interrogation with all sorts of regular and irregular police promises to the young defendants. The convictions were unwarranted and finally overturned.

The result was that the so-called Central Park Five, as they came to be called, spent years in jail for a crime they did not commit, but they were finally cleared and acquitted of the assault and rape in Central Park.

Of course Donald Trump, having been in the forefront of those fervently rooting for the death penalty for the boys, continued to rant and rave against them and had gathered one Linda Fairstein, the Manhattan D.A. in charge of the sex crimes division, now a novelist writing fictional crime novels, to predictably agree with him that the original conviction by her office was valid, as does any D.A. when a conviction he or she obtained is reversed.

I wonder if said Ms. Fairstein agreed with Mr. Trump that President Obama was born in Africa, even after the production of his birth certificate.

RICHARD P. HIGER

We Seek Change

East Hampton

October 30, 2016

David:

Time to think. After all is said and done the only real thing in politics that matters is what the people think. 

Because of all H.R.C. lies, half-truths, and now more emails to look into, if elected to the highest office in the country she could pose a threat to the security of all its citizens. 

 If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough it will be believed. (Quote by Adolf Hitler.) This is how H.R.C. thinks. 

As a grandfather with 19 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren I need to know that if any of my grandchildren volunteer to defend our country, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces will have their back in every way — supplies, up-to-date gear and equipment, and the best of medical care.

Hillary has proven she is incapable to be that commander in chief of the rmed forces by her non-action and lies during the Benghazi incident, which cost the lives of four Americans.

The more we take responsibility for our past and present the more we are able to create the future we want. We seek change because we are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I will walk through the doors of perception and down the corridors of uncertainty into the room of self-doubt and open the window of opportunity, and I will vote for Donald trump for president of the United States. It’s your choice to make now.

Once again, I am not a Democrat or a Republican but I sure as hell am an American.

TOM BYRNE