Pressing Need
Montauk
March 9, 2025
Dear Editor,
For months, Montauk has been without a working pharmacy — and from the looks of things, it may be a lot longer than that.
Frank Calvo, who served as our pharmacist at White’s in Montauk for years, has been putting his heart and soul (and personal money) into a new venture under the heading of Montauk Chemists. He has approached private investors, local civic groups, and even the Town of East Hampton in order to secure the necessary funding. To date, his efforts have fallen short, and the project is in danger of collapsing completely.
A drugstore in Montauk is more than a convenience. Imagine our hamlet midsummer, with an additional 30,000 people here, and an ailing infant or senior citizen who cannot get the emergency medication needed without a third party making the trek across Napeague and facing questionable wait times. A Montauk pharmacy is really about a pressing social need, which, if not met, will severely compromise our quality of life here.
It’s time for all of us, including elected officials, to get involved and meet the needs of the Montauk community.
Sincerely,
PERRY DURYEA III
Wildfire Chief
East Hampton
March 9, 2025
To the Editor:
Thank you to The Star for the all-too-timely editorials banging the drum regarding wildfire risks, which are now realities.
I agree with their recent editorial suggesting a wildfire chief to coordinate our many municipalities. It would be ideal if the municipalities chose the person themselves. Once in place, we’d want to know if we are putting enough resources — people and dollars — into the project.
Our situation certainly transcends our political divide, and we cannot rely on resources outside of our control. If we go all-in as a citizenry our chances of surviving improve and perhaps we’ll have found a way to work on other projects together as well.
TOM MACKEY
Bustling Forum
Bethlehem, Pa.
March 6, 2025
To the Editor:
Kudos to Hilary Osborn Malecki for her delightfully personal, panoramic March 6 “Guestwords” on Marian Foster Curtiss, who illustrated and wrote popular children’s books in an East Hampton house and a Wainscott playhouse. Hilary’s essay is as charming, in fact, as the playhouse where Mariana worked and lived — for $50 a season! — along Wainscott’s Main Street, a 10-minute walk to the final resting place of the children’s book illustrator Maginel Wright Enright, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s little sis.
Extra kudos to The Star’s associate editor, Baylis Greene, longtime caretaker of “Guestwords.” He runs the column as a bustling forum for distinctive stories, styles, and angles. I’ve enjoyed working with him on a dozen “Guestwords,” ranging in subject from the glories of the old Hamptons Drive-in in Bridgehampton to the miseries of the Cross Bronx Expressway. On his watch, “Guestwords” is what a newspaper should be: a true-blue/red/white/black/gray democracy.
GEOFF GEHMAN
—
Mr. Gehman lived in Wainscott from 1967 to 1972. Ed.
Force of Change
East Hampton
March 10, 2025
Dear David,
A vital person has passed. Audrey Raebeck was an exceptionally kind woman, who with her husband Charlie, spread love and stood for something locally and globally. I consider myself lucky to have met both of them in 1998. I was searching for answers, and, as they might say, “spirit answered.” We gathered at their home in Amagansett for the Soul’s Code reading group. A guidance and friendship grew from there.
After learning about Audrey’s recent passing at 93, Channel 13 happened to be airing a Joseph Campbell show this weekend. He of the hero’s journey and myth. He mentioned how “vital people vitalize others.” And this energy effect of vitalization spreads outward to the whole world. The opposite of hate and fear.
Audrey and Charlie were true vitalizers. Exploring the realms of good versus evil and how we can attune (literally hands above the chakras healing) ourselves and loved ones to positive change. So good. So vital.
In the midst of chaos and confusion, a hero (or shero) is surely what we need now.
I am remembering Audrey Raebeck as a force of change and renewal. And she had the most beautiful, otherworldly turquoise eyes. Thank you for your wisdom and kindness. You will surely be missed.
Gracefully,
NANCI LAGARENNE
Regret Reading
Springs
March 7, 2025
To the Editor,
I just read a letter written by one of your readers named Jeffrey Plitt, which concludes with: “What kind of brain-dead assholes are out there?” I regret reading that far in his letter, as this is about as offensive as one can get. Clearly no community member.
Sincerely,
DANIEL FRIEDMAN
For-Profit Court?
Amagansett
March 8, 2025
To the Editor:
Christopher Gangemi’s “Village Eyes a Court” (March 6) is another fine Star article that can use some context. The subtitle begins appropriately with the word “revenue.” This is not a new phenomenon, and it is one that has had problematic elements everywhere: towns and villages regarding their courts as significant revenue centers.
No one views a New York Criminal Court or New York’s four Appellate Divisions or the Court of Appeals in Albany as a source of profit (I hope). There would be huge ramifications for the justice system if they were operated to end each year in the black. Actually, it sounds like an Elon Musk initiative: making the Supreme Court of the United States turn a profit (he and his boss already want the Postal Service to do that).
A village court is an initiative of the Trump-like First Citizen, who is quoted in your article in his usual clueless way (he fails to see any ethical nuance in his words): When out-of-town arrestees don’t appear in court, “their bail money goes to the town court, not the village. We’d do all the work, and the town got all the money.” Read that twice.
Any town or village operating a court for profit is a concern. The First Citizen in charge of one is much more so. I have already written several letters to The Star about his attempts to monetize everything, including the volunteer ambulance, the historical society building, Herrick Park, and the village’s inns. The $64,000 question*: What are the odds of getting a ticket or a charge fairly dismissed in a for-profit court? I can imagine an elected judge who threw out too many cases not being renominated next time. (*Does Gen Z get this reference, or should I retire it?)
For democracy in the Hamptons,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Ask More Questions
Amagansett
March 9, 2025
Dear David,
It’s time people learned where to direct concerns. It’s not always local. We have also have elected officials at other levels, like the county, state. You may even reach out to members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
As the recent weekend events showed us, a fire could happen at any time. If you want to direct your concerns correctly contact Chip Gorman at State Parks and the commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Protection, Sean Maher. Maybe even give Region 1 a call directly at 631-444-0200.
Though you may not have known before this weekend’s event, “controlled burns” had started upIsland. I myself was emailed previously by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. how he contacted Chip Gorman when I suggested the AmeriCorps, which is with the United States Forestry Service be brought in to help clean Napeague State Park. If it was to happen this would be a good time, Mr. Gorman.
The felling could have been done differently, in my opinion, and with the winter not being cold enough. Our local pest in the southern pine beetle will not be going anywhere anytime soon.
If you think that is too much. Has anyone else been reading future pieces of legislation in committee to potentially be brought to vote at the State Assembly? Just me? Okay, I digress.
Do you want Napeague Harbor dredged correctly? Who’s been the holdup? Actually not anyone local. It would be public works. Start focusing concerns to them instead of showing up at a trustees’ meetings. Funding will always continue to be the issue.
Do you want the Cranberry Hole Road Bridge fixed? Well that is the Metropolitan Transportation Agency. Though I did suggest to the town when it shut the second time, after reopening to get a performance bond. Fix the bridge. Go to court with the M.T.A., if need be.
The hardest issue is hearing “no.” But when one door slams shut, ask more questions to another division, agency, entity. How else would I now have a freedom of information request for the Amagansett School in Miami, Fla.? Wait, where? Most peculiar since Washington, D.C., already told me anything would be filed in our state. Guess not.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
Tragedy of Greed
East Hampton
March 10, 2025
Dear David,
Just over 100 years ago, on Jan. 17, 1925, President Calvin Coolidge famously said, “The chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with production, selling, investing and prospering in the world.” Many believe his hands-off, pro-business position during the Roaring Twenties contributed greatly to the onset of the Great Depression, which began shortly after he left office in 1928.
In his first year as Coolidge’s successor, Herbert Hoover oversaw the stock market crash, a steep rise in unemployment, and a run on the banks. His response? He opposed federal relief to the unemployed and believed the best way to bolster the economy was to strengthen business. He broadly raised tariffs, scapegoated and blamed Mexican-Americans for the economic crisis, forcibly removing over one million in a campaign known as the Mexican Repatriation, even though a majority of them were born in the U.S.
In 1953, during hearings before Congress for his nomination to be secretary of defense, the General Motors president Charles Wilson commented that “what was good for General Motors was good for our country, and vice versa.”
Trickle-down, supply side economics was invented during the Reagan years by conservatives during the 1980s to justify massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. Its chief architect, Alan Stockman, later called it a “Trojan Horse,” designed to trick the public into believing these policies would benefit them rather than the wealthy few.
East Hampton’s favorite Artists-Writers softball umpire, Bill Clinton, used neo-liberal policies to further privatize the public sphere. Increased deregulation for corporations, lower taxes for the wealthy and corporations (which were paid for with cuts in public spending), increased poverty, rising unemployment rates, and a widening inequality in the distribution of wealth were the results. Mr. Clinton’s neo-liberal policies paid off for him personally to the tune of over $240 million, according to Forbes magazine. And those are just the figures up to 2014.
President Obama, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris all championed the same neo-liberal perspective with Mr. Obama earning particular notoriety for his using $700 billion of taxpayer money to stabilize more than 700 banks in 2008 during the Wall Street bank bailout.
Mr. Obama’s bailout policy paid off for him, too: He saw a personal rise in his net worth from $1.3 million at the time of his presidency to over $70 million today.
Last week’s Star letter by Gavin Menu, the Greater East Hampton Chamber of Commerce president, is the same old, same old cheerfully optimistic rhetoric pushed by leaders in the business community and their political supporters over the last century. The previous past president of the chamber, Barbara Layton, in 2024 articles in Dan’s Papers and the Southforker, pretty much echo Mr. Menu’s position with some additions.
Ms. Layton acknowledged that downtown East Hampton looks a whole lot different than it did 30 years ago as a result of the exponentially rising rent costs and a subsequent housing crisis that is responsible for the big box, big name, uber high-end lineup of chain and corporate businesses that have become the majority of inhabitants along the Main Street-Newtown Lane business district. Insatiable greed could easily be added to the list.
Ms. Layton threw in the towel before the fight even began in her search for common ground by acknowledging, “the raw fact of all this is that they’re not going anywhere,” referring to the big money, internationally renowned luxury businesses that had set up shop in the village. “So, the objective is to really narrow the gap with collaboration. We want to encourage a co-curated, locally driven shopping experience. It’s about creating common ground.”
Mr. Menu’s letter contains no such language and in that sense speaks more to the truth of the harsh reality of history between the haves and have-nots in this country. Ms. Layton’s statements were a flight into a parallel, wishful universe. Mr. Menu makes that crystal clear time and time again in his statements. “The conversation [with the mayor] touched on a series of topics important to the business community.”
“The Greater East Hampton Chamber of Commerce is building new energy across the business community in East Hampton Town that will deepen our commitment to serving needs of our business members.”
Even when he speaks of affordable housing or issues facing the region’s immigrant population, it’s within the context of how these issues will affect the village business community’s interests (i.e. — their profits).
However kindly and well-meaning her motives, which are not questioned here, Ms. Layton, in her search for common ground, becomes an apologist for those business interests she expects and hopes will be more socially responsible, caring, and loving to the general community. People over Profits — if you will — she wants us to believe. We’d like to believe her, but the facts tell us otherwise.
The one notable, important, and bright spot in this Greek tragedy of greed has been the establishment of an office at 2 Newtown Lane for OLA — Organizacion Latino Americana — the Latino-focused nonprofit advocacy organization. That’s exactly the type of “business” East Hampton Town needs more of. It says more about the endurance and perseverance of the organization and its founder, Minerva Perez, than some sort of wishful thinking that the business community and politicians have suddenly found their social consciousness.
Whatever common ground gets established comes out of that sort of struggling and pushing — not through some business or political largess. They know where their interests lie. Look at the present state of our village business district to see the results. What will Main Street, Newtown Lane, and Herrick Park look like in 30 years? Hopefully, different than what happened during the last 30.
If not, most of us will find that we won’t be able to afford the same old, same old Trojan horse narrative the chamber of commerce is trying to sell us.
Stay strong,
JIM VRETTOS
Lesson for America
Sagaponack
March 7, 2025
To the Editor,
Dear America: I was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. Even though many will not be able to find Georgia on the map, today she holds a lesson for America. My motherland and my fatherland are going through something almost identical: Vladimir Putin’s influence on Bidzina Ivanishvili and Russia’s Putin’s influence on Donald Trump. Our kin. President Trump is like Ivanishvili on steroids.
In 2012 Georgians believed that Ivanishvili, this only native Georgian oligarch, was the savior — that he would end the poverty. Come 2025, only for most Georgians to realize in that Georgian may never have another fair election.
There are few things that are happening in America right now that have already happened in Georgia: Money ties with Russia; Russia is good at long and slow game and creeping occupation; hyper-normalization, years from now grab-her-by-the Trump era will seem the best days of America.
Corporations need steady, calm America. Oligarchs and billionaires need chaos and destruction. In 10 years, if we let it happen, they will burn down all of the American system only to further dominate it. If we are not careful, the America we know today will be destroyed like the natives of this land were. May God bless America, Georgia, and Ukraine.
Sincerely,
GWANTSA CHKHIKVADZE
Our Country
East Hampton
March 8, 2025
Dear David,
Our country is sick! We deny benefits to veterans, destroy government departments that have protected our citizens, including scientists who have kept us healthy. We have terminated employees at the Internal Revenue Service to ensure that rich people will not be audited, all of this to give tax deductions to the moneyed class.
We court friendships with tyrannical governments and brutal dictators while turning our backs on our allies. Worst of all we have changed sides in a war supporting a nation that invaded another country — that invading country targeted the killing of civilians and committed brutal, heinous war crimes.
What has happened to the United States?
ROBERT CARDONSKY
Life and Death
East Hampton Village
March 8, 2025
Dear East Hampton Star,
I want to begin by stating that Donald Trump was legally and properly elected president of the United States, as inconceivable as that may seem. Having said that, I want to add my voice to the growing protest that by his actions, he is not a president but a monarch. What’s more, he’s more like Prince John from Robin Hood, using his power to bully his enemies (perceived, as well as real) and to enrich himself and his cronies. Elon Musk is his sheriff of Nottingham, a lackey with a free license to cause mischief of the kind that makes the poor poorer and threatens everyone’s privacy and peace of mind in a way not seen in this country since the 1950s and possibly since the 1930s.
What baffles me to some extent is why the Republicans are so reluctant to put a check on Donald Trump. Why is Elon Musk even part of the cabinet? It bears repeating that he hasn’t been vetted by anyone other than the president. He has no security clearance to my knowledge, yet he’s allowed into facilities where even the president needs proper clearance to enter, which this president doesn’t have, by the way.
The most baffling piece of news I’ve heard in the past few weeks is that the power of the purse now vests in the White House, rather than Congress. When did this happen? Where was the amendment to the Constitution? Answer: There is none. This is not something that can be accomplished by executive order or even by a normal congressional act.
Democrats are not much better in my opinion. The reaction of the elected officials of the party to which I belong has been much too subdued. I realize that they are in a complete minority in the government at the moment but that doesn’t mean they can’t raise a stink. Republicans have been acting like spoiled children when they don’t get their way ever since the Clinton scandal of the 1990s, while Democrats have been keeping their composure and trying their best to work within the constraints of constitutional law. But, as on the playground, when one side refuses to play by the rules, you have to react in kind or else be left with a bloody nose, two black eyes, and possibly a concussion. I was a victim of bullying when I was younger, and it was only when I finally fought back against a bully who bore a striking resemblance in personality and behavior to President Trump that things changed at all. It didn’t stop him from being a bully, but it did make people take notice and realize that I was willing to fight back when necessary and it gained me a certain amount of respect.
I’m not advocating that violence is needed here. But I do advocate for Democrats to be louder and more outspoken. Present a motion to remove Elon Musk from his unconstitutional position. Call for another impeachment of President Trump — his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky was shameful and against U.S. interests, not to mention all of Europe’s.
President Trump’s insistence on waving tariffs around like a 10-year-old with a loaded shotgun is dangerous and, I would argue, grounds for removal from office due to incompetence. Fat chance of Vice President Vance doing that.
I have to finally state that I am deathly frightened of what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is doing to health care. The man is a snake oil salesman and a hypocrite to boot. Yet he’s been handed the power to abolish many of the most important health safeguards, which have been the product of over a century of progress in medical science. The current measles outbreak is scary enough but what about the new hemorrhagic fever emerging in Africa? This new disease makes Ebola look like a common cold and kills within 48 hours of symptom onset. The research to find a vaccine would have come from the United States Agency for International Development but Mr. Musk has killed that. The Centers for Disease Control could possibly take up the mantle and work on a vaccine but R.F.K. Jr. is an anti-vaxxer. Even if he weren’t, the C.D.C. would need to bring sample viral material into the lab and that means transport outside of the region where it first appeared. This is not to belittle the ability to safely transport biohazards with a low risk of loss of containment but no system is foolproof. And with a disease so new and so deadly any risk is magnified a thousand fold.
In short, I’m angry, confused, and scared right now and anyone, Democrat, Republican, or otherwise, should be as well. This is not just politics. This is about life and death. And it comes at a time when we can’t afford to make these mistakes.
Thanks for reading. Sorry for the scare, but it’s necessary.
Sincerely,
MATT HARNICK
Con Man and Liar
Montauk
March 5, 2025
Dear David,
After listening to Convicted Felon Donald Trump give a rather long and boring speech to Congress last night, it only confirmed my suspicion that his early-stage dementia and paranoia were getting worse, but that his mental derangement and alternative view of truth and reality were as strong as ever.
Tariffs are going to lead to lower prices for American citizens? Duh! Americans are not stupid. I love bacon and eggs.
Firing hundreds of thousands of federal civil servants (including 80,000 Veterans Administration employees, 25 percent of them military veterans). Duh! Thank you for your service! Duh! Thanks for increasing unemployment for hard-working and loyal federal employees who support their families.
Lying about how he actually won the 2020 presidential election. Duh! Convicted Felon Trump knows he lost and even said so to one of his advisers. By the way, the spineless jellyfish Republicans in Congress also know that he lost but are afraid to tell him. They are all toy poodle lapdogs.
Pardoning the 1,600 violent insurrectionist thugs, who at Trump’s request on Jan. 6, 2021, attacked the Capitol Police in an attempt to murder Vice President Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. Duh! So much for Donald Trump’s love for law and order.
Mr. Trump’s respect and love for the evil Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who murders his political opponents. Duh! Mr. Trump loves him because he is strong and loves retribution.
Mr. Trump’s policy of appeasement to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and murder of innocent civilians. Duh! Knowing nothing of history, Mr. Trump should do a little reading about the Munich Agreement of 1938, wherein the British and French governments appeased Adolf Hitler and surrendered the Czech Sudetenland to Germany. Hitler invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939. He then invaded Poland, and England and France declared war on Germany. Appeasement does not bring peace; it brings war.
Mr. Trump’s unconditional love of the American military. Duh! The bone spur draft dodger once referred to military members as “suckers and losers” and was disgusted when he had to acknowledge the heroism of a severely disfigured veteran.
No individual in American political history has been a greater con man and pathological liar than Convicted Felon Trump. He deserves a huge shout-out for convincing a majority of Americans that he and his clique represent working-class and middle-class Americans. Perhaps he will one day hold a huge free-beer party and barbecue at Mar-A-Lago for his MAGA followers. His Bible and gold watches will be on sale at a special discount. However, his ties are no longer available, as they were all made in China by slave labor.
Folks, get ready for a rocky, fascist ride. It is now here in the United States of America.
Sincerely,
BRIAN POPE
Won’t Mince Words
Springs
February 28, 2025
Dear David,
I have wanted to voice my opinion regarding our current president. I was having a hard time putting into words my thoughts, at least so the editors would publish my letter.
Now, after watching the meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, trying to work toward a deal for peace, I’ve decided that I won’t mince words.
President Trump is a despicable human being. He cares not one iota about anyone, except himself. He is a liar. He campaigned on lies. Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. If his voters expect him to take care of them, those with great wealth will be fine. The rest of us will not.
Stephen Miller, Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, JD Vance, Majorie Taylor Greene, among so many others, are nothing more than Mr. Trump: disgusting human beings.
So, to all those MAGA Republicans, there will be hell to pay going forward. Unfortunately there will be millions of people who will suffer the consequences. Those people are the ones who voted for democracy.
DEBORAH GOODMAN
Bad Reality Show
Montauk
March 10, 2025
Dear David,
Where are the Democrats from years ago, the ones that had super ideas and were fair-thinking humans? The new regime of liberal Democrats is an embarrassment to itself, they choose to be obnoxious with their booing to holding up childish protest signs to a sitting member of Congress having to be physically removed from the chamber. This was one bad reality show.
Had anyone dared to show this disrespect to Joe Biden imagine, just imagine what would have happened. Nothing was more disgraceful than when the Democrats refused to stand or applaud when a 13-year-old brain cancer survivor was made an honorary Secret Service agent. On another subject, there were those who wore pink to show support for women, however not one Democrat voted to protect females in sports. They want men in ladies locker rooms, beating women in sports including hurting them (e.g., volleyball female hurt badly by a transgender).
You don’t have to agree with Donald Trump on everything, choose a way to disagree with dignity.For the writers to the editor that stating the heil Hitler arm raising, did you see A.O.C. when she did it? Did you see Governor Hochul in the post picture do it? No, you want to make it Russia, Russia again instead of looking at it differently.
Never to eat crow on Project 2025.
In God and country,
BEA DERRICO
Free Speech
Amagansett
March 10, 2025
Dear Mr. Rattray,
Allow me to follow up on my previous letter which touched on many topics, including the mystery of whether sea gulls ever die in mid-flight over the ocean and the tiny size of hummingbird eggs. I also had a question regarding the possibility that citizens could initiate the impeachment of President Trump. The reality is that citizens cannot engage in the impeachment process. Under the U.S. Constitution only the House of Representatives can initiate proceedings against a sitting president. That would require a simple majority vote, following evidence presented by the House Judiciary Committee of wrongdoing. A highly unlikely scenario given that Republicans have the majority in the House.
And the bar gets set even higher with the next step: A trial in the Senate, presided over by the chief justice, would then require a two-thirds majority of senators to convict. Given that Republicans also control the Senate, it’s basically a nonstarter.
Still, given our daily serving of alarming actions and directives coming out of the White House, it’s important that we citizens participate in our democratic process and not simply shut out the news (as a number of my friends have done). Don’t just shake your head in helpless disbelief! Contact your elected representatives and make your thoughts known. Participate in meetings or protests that reflect your concerns. Which brings me to the final words of that letter in which I remind us of the importance of every citizen’s vote. And how painful it is to realize that less than 30 percent of us vote in our primaries.
You may recall my mention of Frank Sesno, who helped edit the “Uniting the States of America” book. He served as the Washington bureau chief for CNN for many years, including during the presidency of George H.W. Bush. I urge you to view Professor Sesno’s recent interview with Michel Martin on the PBS program “Amanpour and Company.” The topic of the interview, in broad terms, is freedom of the press and the First Amendment.
One of the recent bombs dropped by Trump involved barring the Associated Press from the White House press corps. Why? Because the AP had not adopted the phrase “Gulf of America” in its reporting, in spite of the fact that Gulf of Mexico has been the name-of-record for that body of water for roughly 500 years. The Associated Press, which is not an opinion publisher but a news agency, has been part of the White House press pool since 1881.
Why should we care whether the AP can report from inside the White House? Because this sort of journalistic exclusion is exactly what’s found in dictatorships. All the news that fits what the government wants you to see or hear. Yes, there is a “free” press in Putin’s Russia, but it is subject to censorship and harassment whenever it runs afoul of the state’s official positions. This AP thing feels a bit too much like that. And so does the Republican party’s call to cease holding in-person town hall meetings for fear of “disruption” by angry citizens. Let’s never forget that free speech comes at a cost: the covenant we accept for living in a democracy. You can find Professor Sesno’s brilliant PBS interview on YouTube.
From the Gulf of Chaos,
LYLE GREENFIELD
His Downward Spiral
West Hampton
March 10, 2025
Dear David,
Dear President Biden, Madam Vice President Harris, Members of the Biden cabinet, 99 select Democrats in the House and Senate, and some 150 columnists, opinion makers, editors, national analysts, and members of the news reporting community: All of you blew it! None of you heeded my warnings I mailed throughout November and December to you calling for using the 25th Amendment to create a Harris-Walz-Cheney caretaker coalition government of Lincoln G.O.P.ers aligned with the Democrats to hold a new election two years hence.
Mr. President, you said, “No one’s going to take our Democracy away!” You were correct: You gave it away to a self-proclaimed despot our forefathers would have fought tooth and nail. I cannot put aside my knowledge that millions sacrificed for this nation, willingly, others less so but they still bore the burdens of protecting our freedoms and way of life.
All of you failed to heed my concerns and warnings I shared with you through November and December. For some reason, all of you failed to perceive the danger Donald Trump, Project 2025, and his MAGA denizens are now forcing upon us. What took Adolf Hitler nine years to find, recruit, and organize his followers for eventual power took MAGA 2025 far less than half that time with the help of computers and thousands of willing sycophants suffering from D.T.S. (deranged Trump syndrome), to implement immediately upon arrival, as we are witnessing.
Chaos abounds, as was intended. There are no longer any brakes to slow this reorganization of our society. The courts? They’ve no army of their own but rely upon the chief executive to enforce their decisions and he is ignoring the courts. Add to that the fact that the G.O.P. has been stacking the courts with allies at every opportunity. No, the courts won’t do it.
The Congress? The Democratic opposition is in the minority in both the House and Senate. The speaker of the House is in President Trump’s pocket and decides what legislation to allow to be voted upon. The Senate is frozen in place by the filibuster rule. It’s incredible that only 51 votes are required to make a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court but the filibuster requires 60 in agreement to move legislation. Mr. Trump has no need to burn down our Capitol like Hitler did with his Reichstag; it is already controlled by his co-conspirators. While the G.O.P. are cutthroats, the Dems are milquetoast.
The Fourth Estate — our news media — can they rein him in? Many local town newspapers are being gobbled up or withering on the vine for lack of readers. The major newspapers are already buckling under, as we witnessed with The Washington Post for fear of angering the Almighty Trump. Ditto for the so-called liberal media like MSNBC firing Joy Reid for pointing out what President Trump is doing. If they are not already taking a knee, it’s because they are already in on the taking of America.
While FOX had to pay out over $700 million due to its fabrications about the 2020 election being stolen by Venezuelan voting machines, it continues to spew pro right-wing propaganda, along with NEWSMAX, One America News, Breitbart, the Sinclair Network of over 200 television stations, and X. Much of what they are spouting is Russian propaganda talking points. Russia has been fine-tuning its ability to influence elections worldwide. For over two decades Russia has upended elections in a number of countries, including Nigeria. Have you noticed how many African nations have begun cutting ties with us and turning toward Moscow and Beijing?
I’m quite familiar with Russia’s asymmetrical warfare strategies, and they have given us Donald Trump as their willing fool. He was initially compromised in 1987 as a result of being caught in a honey trap with Russian whores. Having him by the short hairs, Mr. Trump began his pro-Russia campaign in 1987 calling for our pulling out of NATO. He was further compromised by the tens of millions of dollars of Russian mafia money laundered through his Fifth Avenue tower and his former holdings in Atlantic City. All of this is known to the Justice Department.
Trump has been salivating for more than a decade, begging Mr. Putin to allow him to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. I wonder how many of Mr. Putin’s American enablers are aware of these indiscretions. By the way, Q (where goes one, all will follow [over the cliff]) is based in the basement of the Russian Internet Research Agency in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Mr. Putin’s career and power grab originated in the same city working with the Russian mafia enabling their drug trade to Europe and the United States.
Will our major corporations put a brake on President Trump’s misadventures? I seriously doubt that. There is money to be made during the coming conflicts he will stir up.
One should keep in mind the enormous power Mr. Trump has been given. You don’t want to get on his bad side, for the coward strikes with a vengeance. As commander in chief of our armed forces, he may already have given orders to the military to plan for the invasion and occupation of our neighbors Canada and Greenland. Any commander who refuses to follow the order can be summarily court-martialed and shot. For all we know, he is not joking about Greenland or taking the Panama Canal back.
I have no doubt, nor do you, that Mr. Trump is going to abandon Ukraine to his wolf buddy Putin and may even give him the green light to use a battlefield nuclear weapon or two (or three) on those pesky people. President Xi will be emboldened to invade Taiwan knowing Mr. Trump will not deploy our forces to prevent him. South Korea and Japan should not rely on promises to defend them. Both, Taiwan included, should stockpile their own nuclear deterrence, rather than rely on the U.S. to defend them. They should do this immediately, if not sooner. All three possess the technology to quickly create their own nuclear stockpiles.
So it’s up to the public — us — to stop his downward spiral into chaos and disaster for all. Stopping him now would require a coup. The violence will be unleashed on his terms.
President Trump possesses full immunity for any violence he chooses to visit upon troublemakers. We blew the only opportunity to constitutionally prevent this disastrous presidency and save our nation and, quite possibly, the world. We forgot that fascists are the piranhas of the political world; be nice to them and they will eat you alive. We chose to do everything by the book. Now all we can do is sit and read until the books are burned (already happening in Tennessee).
Get ready for Gotterdammerung. And good luck!
With best wishes,
LANCE COREY