Letters to the Editor
January 22nd, 2026

To the Editor:
In a desperate attempt to avoid the demise of NATO and the inevitable re-conquest of Eastern Europe by Russia, the Nobel Peace Committee in Norway has awarded the President of the United States the first ever Nobel Pacifier Prize. Delivered in a deluxe Happy Meal (complete with cheeseburger, fries, and a Diet Coke), the 24-karat gold pacifier is inscribed: “Congratulations, Mr. President. Suck on this.”
Art Sandford,
Fillmore, Ca.
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To the Editor:
A recent letter attributed to Trump concerning Denmark, Greenland, and the Nobel Peace Prize deserves attention not because it is shocking, but because it is revealing.
The letter contains basic factual errors. Denmark does not award the Nobel Peace Prize; it is decided by a Norwegian committee. The claim that Trump “stopped 8 wars” is unsupported by any record of wars formally ended during his presidency. He asserts there are “no written documents” supporting Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland, despite centuries of treaties and international recognition. He then concludes that the world is “not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” a claim untethered from reality or established security analysis.
These are not minor slips. Together, they reflect a pattern in which personal grievance replaces fact, international law is dismissed, and national power is spoken of as if it belongs to one man rather than a constitutional system. That raises a serious question of fitness for office. Especially when Greenland has worked well the US for decades and is very accommodating. They just aren’t for sale.
The cost of this does not stop at our borders. When allies and trading partners watch American leadership drift from fact, law, and restraint, they do not wait for elections—they quietly adjust, forming new trade agreements, shifting supply chains, and making security decisions that leave the United States with fewer partners, higher costs, and less influence.
What makes this moment especially dangerous is that the usual correctives failed. After January 6, Republican leaders declined to confront the reality of what occurred. The civil payment to Ashli Babbitt’s family, issued by executive edict rather than through a jury trial, short-circuited the public testing of evidence. The Supreme Court’s repeated interventions shielding Trump from ordinary legal scrutiny have reinforced the message that truth and accountability no longer apply.
Those who believe “this can’t really happen here” should ask themselves whether any system that can no longer distinguish fact from assertion, law from personal will, or accountability from loyalty is still functioning as a safeguard at all.
In any functioning republic, leadership is constrained by reality, law, and witness. When those constraints erode, warning signs are no longer rhetorical. They are moral. And ignoring them does not preserve order; it invites its loss.
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, Ca.
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To the Editor:
You insist that 2025 abuses by the Trump II Administration are in the rear-view mirror, and we should look to more recent events. Still, you discard new subjects in favor of arguing the same old MAGA insurrection talking points on January 6. Even as a Law-N-Order guy, you defend a violent, forcible entry into the Capitol building (even manly Gym Jordan was terrified), and an attack on police defenders who were nearly overcome by the rioters, in order to overthrow a duly conducted federal election (SCOTUS so ruled). Renee Good committed no such offense. As I have noted before, you are quite facile for an octogenarian. You pivot seamlessly, ignoring or overhauling anything that doesn’t serve your political necessity.
Fact: The Babbitt family was not awarded $5 million dollars by a jury. After the DOJ found Babbitt’s death consistent with police protocols for Capitol defense, Trump, in a middle-finger salute to Biden’s DOJ (his digital prowess again demonstrated last week at Ford), ordered “his DOJ” to pay $5 million tax dollars to the family, without a verdict.
Facts: Trump wailed that agent Ross experienced “internal bleeding,” in this case a slight bruise, from charging a moving vehicle from the front, drawn gun and phone in his hands. A video you haven’t bothered with shows agent Ross walking around just fine after the Good homicide. He is now in hiding, the DOJ has declared his “absolute immunity” (a lie) and, within 2 days, the FBI closed the investigation and refuses to provide any evidence to MN police. Another coverup.
Calling the victim of your own homicidal act a “f**king bitch” arises from a grossly intemperate consciousness, one which should be denied official power and a gun. Even Joe Rogan thinks HLS is acting like the “Gestapo.”
Many thought Trump was having momentary imperialistic reveries about Greenland. Instead, he is using “mob extortion tactics” against our ally to seize their land. Trump has placed additional tariffs on Scandinavian and other countries who participate in NATO defense and promises to increase them incrementally until Denmark sells. Never underestimate the combined vacuity and imperiousness of Trump’s character and alarmingly degraded mental state.
Remember that Trump envisions his national or international powers to be limited only by his “own morality. It’s the only thing that stops me.” Not the Constitution, the human rights of others, international treaties or law, or Judaeo-Christian principles. He is so craven that he accepted Maria Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize as his own, and again “joked” about canceling midterm elections.
He is escalating the Minneapolis protests so that he can justify invoking the Insurrection Act. We are in the hands of a thoroughly atrophied conscience with personal power lust.
Our allies now recognize our condescension and disdain for them in “America First” and renewed imperialism, destructive tariffs, miasma of authoritarianism, and loss of once-reliable American Free World commitment. They know now they can’t trust us.
Last Fact: Your comment to Pat Collins’ LTTE, that 4 hours is insufficient time for the act of “insurrection,” attempting to physically prevent a Constitutional process and overthrow a valid election.
Recommendation: First, consult a dictionary to discover that time has nothing to do with “insurrection.” Second, consider that the planes on 9/11 hit within a less than 2-hour period. The Titanic sunk in only 2 hours and 40 minutes after collision with an iceberg. Lincoln was killed with a one-second shot. Christ was on the cross for just three hours. The event clock is not the point. Your “duration” argument is immaterial.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca.