To the Editor:

Martin, in your religious argument for ignoring the Epstein matter and deflection of interest in the subject, not once did you express concern for the young women who were sexually victimized. You have already absurdly claimed that you hold women in such high regard that you advocate denying them their humanity in the control of their own bodies. Here, you would deny them justice as mere collateral damage to protecting political bigshots and sexual perverts.

You once accused me of not giving Trump credit for anything good. Trump is a master at recognizing and manipulating people’s anger, fears, and resentments, and attaching them to “elites” whom he warns are trying to “impose communism” on the country. An epic oxymoron since “elites” are unlikely purveyors of socialism or communism. Trump creates threats and anxieties, then proclaims that “I alone can fix it,” lulling the faithful into ignoring or excusing his authoritarian power grabs. An alarming example:

1. Those familiar with P2025 know that Trump planned to create a federal military police state, unconstitutionally and in defiance of the Posse Comitatus Law and states’ rights, a police first-responder at the will of the president. One political weapon of every dictator who plans to smother democratic impulses. Any excuse will do.

1a. Following the power grab in Los Angeles in July, against the will and refusal of permission by the California governor, and under false emergency pretenses of “invasion by migrants” in LA (then Ventura County), Trump vowed he would “use military power anywhere [he thinks] it is needed.”

1b. Because a DOGE interloper was assaulted by a car-jacker, Trump has committed to federalizing troops to take over police functions in DC, even though it has the largest police force per capita of any municipal force in America, and crime is at a 30-year low. “If DC doesn’t get its act together…we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City,” Trump wrote on social media.

1c. A written memo widely circulated at high levels of the DHS and DOD was obtained by The New Republic. It indicates plans to normalize and expand the use of the military on our own soil, against our own people, and against the Constitution. It calls for expansion of the LA deployment for “years to come” in American cities. It equates First Amendment protest rights with threats from terrorists. It effectively makes the military the private army of the Commander-in-Chief. Meanwhile, the Republican Congress sucks its thumb. What’s it going to take for people to wake up?
On another subject, tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets last weekend to protest Netanyahu’s plan to occupy Gaza and “finish the job.” “Not in our names. We are not our government!” What is happening, right in front of our eyes, is another holocaust. Netanyahu, and those politicians who facilitated this genocide, are war criminals.

Kelly Scoles,

Fillmore, CA