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Letters

How Trump compares to ‘pretty good’ presidents

To the editor: What do Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan have in common? They are all Republicans. They are former presidents. (They were pretty good presidents.) Does Donald Trump belong among them? I don’t think so. Actually, Trump wasn’t even a Republican until 1987, and he flip-flopped back and forth a few times. Maybe we should compare the Donald to his predecessors. Did Reagan use his presidency as a platform to swell his bank accounts? No, but from the White House Trump has sold MAGA caps, Trump coins and tennis shoes. Did ...

Courage of a windsock

To the editor: U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad was hooted off the stage at an Eggs and Issues event, 8/12/25, sponsored by the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce. In a recent email to constituents (“Finstad in the Field,” 11/15/25), he claims that the event was “rudely disrupted by individuals in the audience who had zero intent to have a conversation, but whose sole purpose was to disrupt the conversation and cause a scene.” Perhaps they were voicing their disappointment and frustration with Rep. Finstad because he refuses to listen to constituents who disagree with him. I’ve ...

Hell hath no fury like MAGA scorn

To the editor: If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is the array of Epstein/Trump scrapbook photos worth? The words coming from the President’s Democratic critics are plentiful enough. But the questions emanating from the president’s usually sycophantic MAGA acolytes are especially angry and positively scathing. Hell hath no fury like MAGA scorned. (Remember their reaction on Jan. 6?) MAGA has embraced and cheered the president’s countless lies that demean his adversaries. However, when he’s lied to them about releasing the Epstein files, his staunchest supporters ...

The truth on crime in D.C.

To the editor: Trump is deploying National Guard troops to D.C. and West Virginia (red) and South Carolina (red) have announced they are sending National Guard troops to D.C. as well. Trump has singled out Chicago, Los Angeles, and other cities in blue states ignoring the crime rates in red states as justification for this action. Here’s the facts. Nine of the top 15 cities for violent crime are in red states. Memphis, St. Louis, Birmingham, Kansas City, Cleveland, Little Rock, New Orleans, Toledo, and Dayton all make this list. New Mexico (blue) has the highest violent crime rate ...

Americans need to call out religion extremism

To the editor: Pete Hegseth has made it clear he believes women have no place in the military. Recently, he expressed  agreement with an evangelical religious extremist, Doug Wilson. Wilson and Hegseth state women should not have the right to vote. These men theorize that males should always be the head of the household and should cast their vote on behalf of the family. This white Christian nationalist view asserts, though there are over 200 Christian denominations throughout the U.S., this is the correct interpretation of the Bible. This sort of extremist thinking is more closely ...

History repeats…repeatedly

To the editor: The current administration is constantly looking to eradicate histories that it considers “woke”...whatever the hell that means. But let me tell you...just because denialists choose to reject histories with which the Right is uncomfortable, doesn’t make these histories any less factual. Ancient civilizations preserved their histories verbally. The present administration is attempting to recreate and preserve its own hand-picked history in real time with its lies that refute what Americans have seen with their own eyes, for instance, on January 6...or any time 47 ...