News & Articles

Could dementia or mental illness explain Trump’s hypocrisy?

It’s kind off ironic that president Trump bombs suspected boats carrying drugs in the Pacific and carribian sea and at the same time lifted tariffs on fentanyl from China.  He condemns other countries for abuse but praises. Ice for the same actions.  He says that he’s going to invade other countries for human rights violations but turns a blind eye to Russia and Israel doing that to Ukraine and gauza.

He gets angry at people who he thinks insulted him but he goes and insults them in person or on social media.
I guess he thinks that he can have his cake and eat it too as the old saying say.  Of course it could be that he has Alzheimer’s or some other mental illness, who knows.
Cecelia Hill
Duluth, Minnesota

It’s all about Venezuela’s oil

If the U.S. starts an illegal war against Venezuela it will be because of oil. Period. If Venezuela’s main commodity was strawberries none of this would be happening. Starting in 1998, Hugo Chavez won a series of landslide presidential victories in free and fair elections monitored by the Carter Center and others. He then used the country’s oil wealth to (gasp!) make improvements in health care, education and income inequality. This was unacceptable to Washington because it posed what Noam Chomsky refers to as “the threat of the good example.” This led to several U.S.-backed coup attempts. One coup attempt against Venezuela, in 2002, was miraculously documented by an Irish film crew in the documentary called, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (available on Youtube.) It’s a real-life political thriller. Venezuela’s economy has suffered greatly since Hugo Chavez’s time in office due to corruption, over-reliance on oil exports (as prices crashed,) US sanctions, and other factors - both internal and external. And its current president has leaned into authoritarianism. But any war against Venezuela will be about oil, and everything else is a bullshit cover story.
David A Sorensen
Duluth, Minnesota

Science trumps ignorance

I recently purchased my fourth hybrid car. Also recently, I saw a picture posted on Facebook comparing lithium excavation that looked like the landscape of the moon compared to a simple oil rig, sitting in a green grassy field with the caption “drill baby drill.” I feel the need to briefly explain the falsehood of this picture.

Yes, the hybrid-EV car is not zero-emmision. In fact these batteries take a lot of mostly not clean energy to build. And yes, building an electric vehicle does more damage to the climate than building a gas car. BUT, the gas car starts to catch up as soon as it leaves the dealer’s parking lot. A traditional car needs mining every day and every time it’s used. The carbon pollution from burning gasoline and diesel is the top contributor to climate change in the U.S.. And there are other costs: oil spills; funding for corrupt oil-rich regimes; the illnesses and preventable deaths caused by the pollution from fossil fuels. And last, battery minerals can be recycled. The same lithium and nickel molecules can be used for many generations of cars - something that can’t be said for fossil fuels.

In other words if you’re still concerned about all of the harms of mining (where we actually get many products that we use daily) do the research yourself. You’ll find if you are really interested in leaving your grandchildren a better place to live you’ll choose an electric vehicle. Thanks to many of you who do your research before you post something to the public.
Mary Meierotto
Bayfield, Wisconsin

Dictator Trump has to go 

The destruction of the east wing of the White House to make way for a privately funded $300 million Russian-style ballroom is emblematic of this administration and the dysfunctional Republican Party. Trump went ahead and ordered the destruction of this historic 1940s-era structure without any review by Congress or the National Park Service. This is not Trump’s house. He is living in government housing paid for by taxpayers. Tenants do not have the right to demolish their quarters simply because they are not lavish enough or do not contain enough crystal chandeliers and tables for their rich supporters.  

Did Trump or any of his cult-like followers even bother to consider that most buildings of this vintage contain asbestos. No, he showed about as much regard for the health of these construction company employees as he routinely does for the American people, which is to say he could care less. Did he think about the national security implications of exposing the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) to foreign adversaries? No, the only thing that matters to Trump is the desire to create a gilded ballroom where he can drone on at ad nauseam about his leadership virtues. Now, every adversary with rudimentary intelligence has the exact geographic coordinates of the PEOC and enough information to know how to decapitate the government in a single missile strike. It is hard to believe Trump Administration could even stop an adversary given the incompetence displayed daily.  

Christoper Hedge’s article and podcast about the “Rule of Idiots” describes the Trump Administration exactly (chrishedges.substack.com/p/rule-of-idiots-read-by-eunice-wong ). We have such an incompetent president and cabinet that the United States country will be fortunate to make it to its 250th birthday. This man, who at times, claims to be both a king and president, does not have the intellectual capacity to protect the country, let alone to “Make American Great.” His use of the office to enrich himself and punish his opponents is worthy of removal, not admiration or worship. Trump rampages around like a senile old man with agitation dementia. His private Gestapo army of masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE agents) go around abducting and disappearing people like Pinochet did in Argentina from 1974-1990. This practice is illegal and immoral. How many of these new ICE agents hail from white supremacist groups or criminals who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2020? Trained law enforcement personnel do not have to hide their identities or run around terrorizing neighborhoods in unmarked vehicles. Likewise, Trump and Hegseth’s summary execution of people in boats is a crime against humanity, regardless of how they are depicted by the corporate media. These are people in open boats off the coast of their own countries. Now, Trump and his completely unqualified Defense Secretary are threatening to bomb Venezuela to force regime change.  

Trump and his stewardship of the country is so bad that in less than ten months he has completely trashed the economy with his on again, off again tariffs and demonization of immigrants who do jobs many Americans consider beneath their station in life. We cannot all be ministers, political advisers, pod-casters, or social media influencers like Laura Loomer. Someone has to install roofing, build houses, restore roads, clean airport toilets, work in meat packing houses and work the fields. Gerome Powell, the Federal Reserve Chairperson Trump has repeatedly tried to replace, announced that American job growth was essentially zero. What an accomplishment for Trump and his ideologues. It is no wonder when you have a cabinet whose only job is to praise “dear leader” and to eliminate anyone who dares state the truth. Instead of fawning over each other, the cabinet should invoke the 25th Amendment and get rid of this man permanently.  

The Republicans in Congress and the Supreme Court have enabled this man every step of the way. There is not a single Republican in Congress who deserves to be re-elected. Our Republican Congressman, Stauber, is busy sponsoring bills focused allowing ICE in the Boundary Waters to intercept illegal campers (never mind that there is a 1.2-million-acre wilderness that adjoins the Boundary Waters on the Canadian side). Stauber and his inept colleagues even had the audacity to send a letter to the Canadian government this summer telling them “their smoke” was affecting our summer vacation plans. It would be laughable if these people were comedians. However, they are elected officials who receive a salary from the American people to represent their interests in Washington. Well, Stauber and Tom Tiffany, from northwest Wisconsin, hardly represent the interests of most Americans. They are too busy avoiding constituents and producing excuses to keep the pedophiles from being held exposed by releasing the Epstein files.  

Trump likes to claim he is the victim. Trump is scarcely a victim given that his rich oligarch friends handed him the keys to the White House. Trump then allowed Elon Musk to run rough shod over government agencies in the name of efficiency. Musk and his cult like followers destroyed what took decades to create and refine. Musk had no idea what he was doing and is oblivious to the wreckage to this day. No one should ever forgive Musk for this his crimes against the American people. His companies were only successful because of the succession of business-people, responsible public servants, politicians, and workers who made America a good place for commerce. Regrettably, Trump has followed in Musk’s wake by doing about the same, firing public servants in favor of political appointees and installing people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to help make America a science free zone. America will not be the place it was for 250 years if this senile old man remains to use the full force of the US government on his perceived enemies. Trump needs to be removed and relegated to the dust bin of history as an example of what happens when there are no guard rails left to protect the public from a man whose existence is consumed by privilege, revenge, and petty grievances.  
Lee Fredericksen 
Part-time resident, Duluth and Hawaii