Collateral damage

Well, the hate mongering, fear-filled demonizing of Donald Trump has paid off!! A poor soul believed it, convinced it was true, and killed his family and himself to protect them from a Trump presidency.
Rilla DeBot Opelt
Duluth, Minnesota

Carry on

We froze in our track swhen we heard the news.
We froze in disbelief when the results reached us. Our momentous joy and hope were dashed abruptly and we were left floundering.
We are now digesting the gravity of the situation and what’s at stake for our future.
We know that revenge is a dead end and only exacerbates the dilemma.
It’s normal to feel weary from all the pitfalls, but avoid being dreary, which can easily lead to cyniscm.
We must be diligent and expose the lies and deceptions that will bring us down. The truth cuts through the untruths and schemes and betrayals.
Gerald Norrgard
Duluth, Minnesota

Buckle up!

Now that the inmates are running the asylum, I/m not sure what we are supposed to do. Close our eyes, click our heels three times and say “there’s no place like Democracy?” I’m going to make a prediction that in another year the country will be divided into two separate and distinctive groups: One half with very flat heads and the other half toothless. Trump supporters will repeatedly palm slap their foreheads as the Mongo Mad Man introduces austerity measure after austerity measure. The rest of us will have ground our teeth away from telling the MAGA faithful over and over again “we told you so,” through clenched teeth.

Buckle up. We’re in for a rough ride.
John Sheldrake
Duluth, Minnesota

Lies, conspiracies, sticks and stones!

Although Harris’s loss is often explained by repeating, “It’s the economy stupid,” is that true? Read any of the Fact-checkers I.e. FactCheck.org, Poliltifact, the Washington Post, Snopes, articles in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, or Skeptical Science.org, or even The Wall St. Journal, which all reported that under Biden the economy was having a strong recovery! Inflation went down to 3% then 4%, wages were rising faster than unemployment, Biden permitted more oil wells, and groceries started to come down—but not all –eggs are still costly, (partly due to a previous salmonella outbreak). When I bought milk at Walmart yesterday, it was down below $3 per gallon ( even after going to $5/gal. Gasoline is also in the $3 gal, range. Then too, Vvolent crimes went way down in large American cities, and mortgages began coming down. Etc. Etc.

While all of these positive outcomes grew, The Tribune and other newspapers, published letters from AGW Deniers, and letters from pro-Trump activists who kept telling us that (under Biden) the economy was being destroyed, (even while it was improving consistently). And despite the Tribune’s right to check for civility and accuracy, Dems were perpetually described as God-haters, baby killers, and as allowing rampant violations at the border, even though Biden deported three times more illegal entries than Trump.

Dems were also stupidly portrayed as wanting to end police funding, wanting open borders, and wanting to give immigrants our jobs. Even though close to the election, Dems and Republicans approved a comprehensive border bill which would’ve greatly improved our border problems, because Trump wanted to use the border as a campaign issue. We were also called communists, socialists, traitors immoral, and of course, (radical left-wing Democrats) Maybe because we would’ve raised the taxes of millionaires and billionaires, and believed in regulated Capitalism, not completely unrestrained markets free to do anything it wants. And, while all of Trumper’s negative propaganda was aimed at Dems, Trump previously had six bankruptcies, a history of fraud and corruption, was convicted of 34 felonies, was sued by several women, and bought off many more. But none of that mattered since Trump’s strongman politics convinced voters he’d be better at leading us (again). Also on Jan 6, 2001, he helped organize a crowd of brutal protesters a the Capitol who attempted to stop the peaceful transfer of power, even though Trump’s own VP said that was illegal. 

Like Hitler, Trump lies continually to feed the crowd his mythological heroism like being persecuted by the Justice Department. And the phrase, “They are poisoning our blood” as Hitler said to his supporters), and get this?— Trump’s MAGA hat used the same kind of phrase that Hitler used to control Germany while praising his insane glorious 3rd Reich—except in America we said, “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” as a campaign motto. In contrast, Hitler occasionally used the phrase MAKE GERMANY GREAT AGAIN, in his speeches. 

We can only hope that Trump’s crooked power-hungry ways will not cause WWIII to start. Albert Einstein, when asked how such a war would be fought, said he didn’t know, but that WW4 would be fought with sticks and stones.” So why can’t Trump’s followers see that the economy is not really what defeated Harris—her loss was truly decided by lies and more lies!
Peter W. Johnson
Superior, Wisconsin