To the Editor:
Someday, if I am ready to hold my nose while slopping through the muck of Stephen “Voldemort” Miller’s vile statements, I will acquaint you with the facts. You vouched for “the man I know,” but I hope you did it because you are unaware of his character. Stephen Miller is not an “honorable” man, which he clearly demonstrated in his Kirk eulogy. Yet you defended him with the most tortuous argument I have ever encountered, interpreting his quotation from a Nazi war criminal promising complete destruction of his opponents as if it were a stormy-weather report. It is not hate-mongering to quote anyone precisely, or draw conclusions from their consistent words or actions.
You think Trump was “tongue-in-cheek” at Kirk’s funeral about hating his enemies? He was bragging, Martin, distancing himself from Charlie’s principles, not self-deprecating. You are consistently blind to the obvious when it does not support your autocratic approach to life.
The primary shock this week was the Hegseth/Trump call for 800 generals, admirals, and other high-ranking military from their world-wide posts to assemble at Quantico VA. The newly-minted “Secretary of War” strode like a frat-boy Culture Warrior as he hawked his 2024 book, lectured our finest military leaders on weakness and “woke decay” in the Pentagon, declared additional restrictions for weight and facial hair, their military responsibilities, and Esprit de Corps, something they have been living their entire careers. He said that anyone in the room who didn’t agree with his directives “should resign.” Respect is in short supply in the DOD, one place it is essential.
In his 72-minute address, Trump informed the assembly that he’d given an order to create military “quick reaction forces” to “help quell civil disturbances” in “Democratic-run cities” and use them as “training grounds” for fighting “the war from within”, terrifyingly comparing domestic disturbances to threats from foreign combatants. Any opposition to Trump is deemed a “terrorist” act. Anything that offends his sensibilities is a “national emergency.”
Deploying the military for non-emergency civilian law enforcement violates the Constitution and Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. In TrumpWorld he can just declare an “emergency” to militarily invade a city, no matter the lack of evidence or objection of the Governor, completely inconsistent with “Small Government,” “States’ Rights,” and Constitutional protections that traditional Republicans used to venerate.
Our president warned our highest military that, “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future, but you just feel nice and loose, OK?” Putin couldn’t have been more direct. It wasn’t a “joke,” Martin, though followed by sparse half-grunt/chuckles by stunned attendees who couldn’t believe the authoritarian demands they were hearing from a cocky tin soldier and Commander-in-Chief Bone Spurs. He told them to expect orders consistent with his plan to act against American citizens. These military stalwarts have put their lives on the line, and that of their soldiers, in battle for their country’s sake, and their arrogant, ham-fisted superiors threaten them with unconstitutional orders.
Trump’s clean-up comments involved, once again, the Nobel Peace Prize. “We’ll see what happens, but it would be a big insult to our country. I will tell you that. I don’t want it. I want the country to get it.” Like he wants the country to get the princely Quatar jet, the multi-million-dollar ballroom, and the gold-plated everything in the Oval.
This is not a matter of partisan politics. If there was any previous doubt of Trump’s intentions, the Quantico meeting, in the opinions of numerous retired military elites, was an insult to the military and a shocking confirmation of his plans for authoritarian control. Past politicians have hawked what Trump is selling. We are only Free Americans because they lost.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca
To the Editor:
Farms here are the bedrock of this community. Yet ownership and control of this land are quietly shifting.
A new investment platform called AcreTrader, which relies on data powered by AI tools, buys farmland and sells it in shares
to investors. One of its earliest backers was Vice President JD Vance. With AcreTrader, our local fields are becoming pieces
in a much larger financial game.
On paper, it looks modern and efficient: farmers lease the land, investors collect the rent, and everyone benefits. But in
practice, with outside investors, rising land prices make it harder for Ventura’s families and young farmers to buy their
own acres.
Here in Ventura, it means families who have grown oranges, avocados, and flowers for generations may find themselves renting
ground, while distant investors—including foreign nationals—hold the deeds.
Leasing gives less security for long-term investments in soil, water, and sustainability. Profits flow outward, while the
risks—drought, labor shortages, climate extremes—stay here at home.
Meanwhile, Trump administration policies amplify these pressures. Cuts to SNAP and WIC reduce the demand for fresh produce.
Immigration crackdowns make farm labor more uncertain. Cuts to weather services weaken the forecasts farmers need to protect
citrus from frost or plan for Santa Ana winds.
Layer onto that the proposals in Project 2025, the blueprint for this second Trump administration. They include cutting farm
safety nets, reducing crop-insurance help, dismantling conservation programs, as well as slashing SNAP and WIC benefits. For
Ventura’s farmers, that means more risk, fewer supports, and weaker markets—while investors are shielded from loss.
What it really means is that, with the policies of Trump, a very compliant Republican House and Senate, the implementation
of Project 2025, and tools like JD Vance-backed AcreTrader, the risk that our farmers will become sharecroppers on their own
lands—unable to pass their land down to their families—is greater than it’s been since the Dust Bowl.
Is this what we want?
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, Ca
To the Editor:
I’m almost speechless over your last Editorial. Apparently, I again failed to make it sufficiently explicit for you. Erika
Kirk’s plea for clemency, on Charie’s behalf for his assailant, was the most Christ-like statement at the funeral in her
simple but brilliant request for compassion. How is it you revere Kirk, but mock two of the most Christian principles that
his widow invoked in his name, mercy and forgiveness, and opt, instead, for the rages of sin?
Please quote me correctly in future when you try to deflect. I cited Trump and Voldemort Stephen Miller exactly. That’s why
I dare accuse them. You mixed up the quotations. Voldemort, Trump’s Chief-of-Staff, delivered the Goebbels’ Nazi eulogy, not
Trump. I quoted Trump explicitly rejecting Charlie Kirk’s Christian principles: “I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the
best for them.” Google it. These are their own words, Martin, and reveal the truth of who they are, which you refuse to
acknowledge, or with which you agree.
Our President dropped his knickers for 40 minutes over his allotted time at the podium of the UN General Assembly last
Tuesday. It was an unforced, humiliating worldwide display. Speaking to the silent audience, Trump whined at the lack of
universal appreciation for his efforts, complained that allies aren’t backing him unquestioningly, asked why the UN even
exists, and said their countries were “going to hell” because of immigration. He self-soothed in claims of (questionable)
personal achievements in the U.S., of no possible interest to foreign diplomats. Grandpa grumbled that many years ago,
Trump, Inc., had failed to win the bid for UN upgrades, and now it looks terrible.
He ridiculed renewable green energy. “If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail,” warned
Daddy Big Oil. Meanwhile China has established wind and other green energy as a massive industrial priority. Trump has
endorsed genocide in Gaza, waffled on Ukraine, bombed Iran, and threatened Venezuela, yet once again laid claim to the Nobel
Peace Prize.
It’s now close to a year that Trump promised to end the Russian war “in one day. I don’t even have to take office.” Instead,
he is prompting tensions everywhere. He has been rolled and kicked to the curb by Putin, ignored by Xi and Kim Jong-un, and
manipulated by Netanyahu. Foreign leaders wanting his favor know to give him a parade in a gold coach and dinner where he
can goofily gush over a princess, or compliment him on anything, even if he has already self-complimented (you have to be
fast), and he’s yours.
Allies have seen that the objectives of the US President are domination or humiliation of others, self-enrichment, and
binding up his deep emotional wounds from a loveless childhood by demanding extravagant praise. In 9 months, Trump has taken
us from being a highly respected defender of the Free World to a strutting buffoon in clown-face. It worries them, as we are
at a perilous time in history and need wisdom and strength. But, rather than show statesman-like discipline and foresight,
Trump’s lamentation on Tuesday at the UN put a spotlight on his weaknesses. I fear that we are all going to pay dearly for
Trump’s unredeemed childhood wounds, merged with his lust for power and lack of conscience.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca
To the Editor:
Martin, I had hoped to move on to another subject, but so much has occurred that it is still timely. I apologize for the
lack of clarity in last week’s LTTE.
If the shooter, Tyler Robinson, had been raised an ardent Democrat, you would have easily found that fact a “fair” and
significant consideration in assigning motivation for the murder. But, “until a year or so ago,” Tyler was a religious MAGA
gun enthusiast. So, to make the murder of a conservative icon politically useful, the Right morphed the tragedy, with no
evidence, into an attack motivated by Left-wing radicalization, consistent with Trump’s instant decision, without facts,
that it was a crime of “the vicious Left.”
As of Tuesday morning, no such Left-wing connection has been discovered. From the information gathered, it appears the Tyler
was angry with Kirk for his derision of Trans people, of which his possibly romantic roommate was one. Without additional
evidence, his motive appears to have had a personal, and not political, context.
The Democrats have generally calmed down, now that they are not being accused of being evil forces bent on destruction of
the country. Not so the Republicans. Trump’s Chief-of-Staff, Lord Voldemort Miller, announced that Leftist organizations he
presumed responsible for the tragedy were a “vast domestic terror movement.” He promised to “destroy those networks and make
America safe again…and we will do it in Charlie’s name.” Not for justice, for political juice and revenge.
FBI director, Kash Patel, who looked like a cornered warlord without a sword, cockeyed and spewing false facts and
inappropriately released evidence, first vowed allegiance to Trump, then intense retribution for the Left-wing groups
“responsible” for the murder. Facts again immaterial.
At the funeral, Charlie’s Kirk’s widow brilliantly asked that the death penalty not be applied to the assailant, and offered
forgiveness to him, because “he [Charlie] wanted to save young men.” A worthy issue for another discussion. I will follow
her progress.
Trump distanced himself from Kirk’s extolled “capacity to love.” “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie: I hate my opponents
and I don’t want the best for them,” and repeatedly but nonspecifically railed against “nasty” political violence coming
from the “Radical Left.” No sign of presidential responsibility to bring our nation together, or of Christian values.
In a ceremony of remembrance and farewell, Trump’s eulogy was all about his own tawdry, negative impulses. The President of
the United States made it clear that he has no interest in bringing this nation together, or in fairly treating citizens in
a democracy who disagree with or criticize him, and that he will throw gasoline on a national fire to try and warm his
heart. To what dark place are we headed?
Lord Voldemort’s eulogy bore an astonishing resemblance to a speech, given by Nazi Josef Goebbels in Berlin on July 2, 1932, on the death of young Storm Trooper, Horst Stessel, that hailed him as a martyr whose death would initiate a “fire in our
hearts, and that fire burns with a righteous fury that our enemies cannot understand.” “We are the storm,” he plagiarized.
Voldemort used Nazi rhetoric to turn the funeral into a rally for Trump’s war on “the Left.” Charlie’s critics treated his
death with more regard.
I disagreed with his statements of racism, misogyny, and transphobic disdain, etc. But one of Charlie’s firm convictions was
tragically prescient. He insisted that some gun deaths every year, including schoolkids or college speakers, are just the price required to maintain Second Amendment gun rights. His own death, “just a fact of life” in America. But I hope he would
not have invoked the furies of doomsday fascist propaganda.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca
To the Editor:
I am sorry for the length of this LTTE. The issue is important to us all. Thank you, Martin.
Another tragic, senseless and violent gun death. Of someone with whom I almost always disagreed, Charlie Kirk, 31, who was
just doing what he does in exercising his First Amendment rights on a college campus, was shot and killed. But in this
horrifying instance, more than “thoughts and prayers” were promised by some in vengeful vows of “payback.” Before any facts
were known, the Oval Office assessed “Left” responsibility.
Much of the outpouring of grief was heartbreaking, especially from some young conservatives who admired Kirk’s Christian
Nationalist faith and beliefs. Surely, no sane person would celebrate the death of anyone. But some did, some misguided
Liberals who understandably contested, even despised, his views on race, equality, women’s rights, civil rights, guns, etc.
But many on the Right proved Charlie wrong, too: “Why is it that it’s always the leftist activists, whining and protesting…
and us conservatives, we sit quietly when we hear things we disagree with?” A remarkably disingenuous statement, given the
ensuing threats and vows of vengeance for anyone disputing Kirk’s canonization, ignoring that they, too, have Freedom of Speech.
Commenting on Kirk’s death, conservative celebrity Megyn Kelly said, “We [MAGA, I presume] don’t feel like ourselves…We haven’t felt like ourselves since Barack Obama. I just think he was such a slick snake, you know…this affable guy who was like wearing good suits…but was so divisive…He’s the one who started to inject race where no one had been doing it.” How far afield from facts can a person go to gratuitously vent their political spleen?
In the WH, rather than bringing the country together in a tragic circumstance and calling for people to step back for a moment to grieve the loss, and wait and assimilate the facts, Trump immediately took the golden opportunity to churn anger, fear, revenge and retribution against “the Left,” for political points, and called for the death penalty. Facts unknown, but guilt and punishment presidentially determined.
It turns out that the alleged killer was from a steady, MAGA Republican (though assailant Tyler Robinson was “undeclared”) gun family, a Mormon with a youth pastor, an interesting social life, who reportedly did not buy all that Kirk was selling. So, is a gun-loving Republican childhood responsible? Should all Republicans be indicted, as were all Liberals before the facts were known? Is it relevant that Kirk was a firm defender of gun rights, embracing a “few deaths every year” as the price to be paid? What are the lessons from this terrible act and the often-alarming responses?
Like so many shootings, it reveals our increasing national culture of violence, of reciprocal accusations and threats, of venting our worst prejudices, or dividing the country into intolerant, “righteous,” self-wounding armed camps, at a time when the United States is being closely watched by our foreign enemies to see if we will savage each other sufficiently to save them the trouble.
My blood ran cold reading an interview with Trump last Friday, in which he was asked how he was “holding up” after Kirk’s death. “I think very good. And by the way, did you see all the trucks? They just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House.” Once clear that a Democrat couldn’t be flogged for the murder, Trump moved on to more significant matters.
It will take a different way of looking at each other, a lot of restraint, and commitment to “our sacred honor”, to reverse what appears to be our national suicidal inclinations, recognize that anger Is not argument, and to survive together as a nation. It will take something for which Americans used to be known, stand-up determination and action, as a Nation of Laws.
There are dependable studies available on what mindsets are most likely to be open to violence, if that interests you. Hint: it’s the far-extremes of views, not the larger, rational center.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, CA
To the Editor:
Here’s the link to the article about the 29 orders for the National Guard (https://www.rawstory.com/trump-infuriating-29-day-orders/). I also checked it on Snopes, which has no information on it.
Digging a little deeper, I found an interesting thread on Reddit. A writer from Snopes was looking for collaboration of the story. In the replies that follow, no one refutes that Trump is doing this. They do say that, in their experience, this is a common practice, done during all administrations. Frankly, they all should be condemned for it.
I personally am not inclined to assume that the author of the article was lying. He’s got decent credentials. I suspect instead that the grumbling was coming from new National Guard members who had no experience with other administrations. It’s undeniable. The National Guard has never been used the way Trump is using it, and there is clearly some discomfort among many troops deployed against their own cities.
It is certainly in line with Trump’s well-known modus operandi when it comes to paying the people who have worked for him over the years. How anyone can believe he has the American worker at heart is beyond me. How’s he been for the farmers around here?
There is huge threat to the American worker that’s already growing—and that is what AI is going to do to the labor market. It’s already impacting people who write and do artwork for things like store circulars and catalogs. Those jobs are disappearing fast. As are many clerical and entry level jobs. What’s the plan for that? All I see is programs like SNAP, Medicaid and other health programs being destroyed. What are we going to do about all the people who will be out of work as AI creeps into the economy? Surely, if he’s the friend of the worker, he’s got a plan for that?
Or, maybe, when Joni Ernst said, “Well, we all are going to die!” Maybe she was articulating the Republican plan.
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, Ca
To the Editor:
Commenting on another’s looks, as my sainted mother, Dorothy Clifford Collins, reminded her 12 children, is only acceptable if it is linked to an emergency for the other person. Like jaundiced eyes, blue lips, or a peculiar color of the visage. So, with her permission, I call your attention to Trump’s increasing molten hue. Is it a health concern that he has gone beyond makeup and bronzer and resorted to trowel and melted orange crayon, a kind of Oompa-Loompa with the white eyebrows but Jabba the Hutt eyes? Or is it his idea of a “refresh”?
Something is unusually amiss, even for Trump. Beyond physical issues, his hunger games for the Nobel Peace Prize include soliciting nominations (from Vietnam, Netanyahu, Pakistan, etc.), though some declined (Modi of India). Meanwhile, Trump is almost maniacally engaged in overtures of war in opposition to his campaign promises.
To change the news cycle and restore his equilibrium after the meeting with Putin in AK, Trump threatened American cities and blew up a Venezuelan boat without having any proof of contraband, and dispatching a nuclear sub and other military vessels to the Caribbean. For a suspicion. Why did Trump’s “Lord Voldemort”, Stephen Miller, ruminate about the “riches and resources” available In Venezuela? Why has Trump just renamed the DOD the “Department of War”?
On last week’s Truth Social, Trump posted a picture of himself as “Apocalypse Now” Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall), saying, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning.” “Chicoalypse Now” has Chicago in flames, captioned, …”Chicago is about to find out why we [now] call it [the DOD] the “Department of War!” Trump later denied he threatened war and whined that it was “fake news.” I found it on Fox.
Our US President is threatening blue American cities with federal military invasion because he rejects the politics of their democratically elected leaders, wants to invalidate states’ rights against federal military intervention, and is establishing military policing of civilians as a precedent. This is divisive and unconstitutional. This is not American. Trump appears to be encouraging civil war, a need for martial law, and a dissolution of our society, just as the rest of the world grows stronger against us. This is not meant to “fight crime,” but to subdue. And many of us are asleep.
So, Trump slaps on more warpaint to hide who he really is and what he intends, confident that his base will believe him for just a little while longer until he completes his plans., and distracts by attacking or threatening Americans cities, other countries, prosecuting his enemies, or tarting up the WH so it looks like a potentate’s palace.
Last Monday, the lewd cartoon in Epstein’s birthday book that Trump denied was his, but was “fake and nonexistent,” and a “Democratic hoax,” was released with his unmistakable scrawl, and refers to “wonderful secrets.” The WH operatives exclaimed that it was a “forgery” and “clearly NOT Trump’s signature.” That’s laughable. Typical Trump Victimization Syndrome.
Why is it that some Americans are comfortable that our president is a chronic, self-absorbed liar and amoral man, to the point that he has been held civilly liable for sex abuse and defamation?
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca
To the Editor:
Martin urged prayers for the Minneapolis children and others killed and injured in church by a gunman last Wednesday, Trump lowered the flags to half-mast, and others on both sides of the aisle urged thoughts and prayers for the victims and the community. What do we call repeating, over and over, the same “remedy,” hoping for a different outcome, when it never works?
How many school-shootings have we had over the last 20 years, after which we thought and prayed?
These are self-inflicted assaults on our children which this country refuses to recognize and confront. The assailant had a rifle, shotgun, and pistol. The two fatalities were 8 and 10 years old. You talk about “saving the precious babies,” Martin, yet you have said that guns are just a “part of life.” In your mind, at what age do living children stop being “precious” and worthy of “saving”? You advocate for the unborn, but as against gun rights, your passion dissipates for little kids.
From ancient times, prayer and sacrifice have consoled and reassured people who invoked their gods for relief and better outcomes. It’s often a comfort to parents, relatives, and those left behind, for prayers for acceptance and strength to go on. If prayer is effective in consoling human pain, if it assuages fear or despair, if it brings spiritual peace, it is doing its job. Do we think God is looking for human direction to decide what to do next, to interfere or not, or to intervene on behalf of one person and not another? How do you explain the Jewish, Armenian, Gazan, and Rwandan holocausts? Those events were either God’s Will or they represent our corrupt exercise of Free Will. Humans were given intelligence and are designed to figure out how to solve our problems. We are making this God’s problem and not our own.
Some Americans, often Republicans, have decided it’s acceptable to trade their Wild West gun rights for the fact that America is the only country on the planet where the leading cause of death and injury to “our precious children”, is bullets. The Republican answer is police in schools or arming teachers, which doubles as early-education for children, parents, and the populace, in accepting gun-based authority in our daily lives (which has already begun). The Second Amendment of the Constitution mentions firearms, but the Founding Fathers had never experienced technology like our modern weapons. Yet, the Trump SCOTUS finds this one exception to their “Originalist” doctrine, so that Americans have access to deadly force on our streets and in our schools, for use at whatever provocation. “Thoughts and prayers” will not solve this.
Reagan’s endorsement of the NRA gun lobby, repeal of reasonable restrictions on waiting periods for gun ownership and use, his endorsement of firearms as symbols of “freedom,” (NRA’s Heston, “from my cold, dead hands”) unfettered a flood of guns into American society in an explosion of gun violence, often on the most innocent among us.
Thoughts and prayers for the slaughter of innocents are performative, and perhaps consoling, but clearly have changed nothing. Action and legislation, the innate American response to threat and injustice is required. But we continue, as if school-shootings are an Act of God.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, CA
To the Editor:
Every now and then a story hits the news that tells us exactly who Donald Trump is. On Sunday, there was a perfect example of the Donald Trump I heard so much about when I did contract work back east in the ‘80’s. Back when he called himself a Democrat. Back when he was pro-choice. Before he needed right wing votes.
Trump is famous for stiffing workers. Puts them through the ringer, using the courts to make it more expensive to be paid than to just walk away. And don’t even get me started on his reputation with women. A complete dawg. Before Mark Burnett plucked him back from multiple bankruptcies and invented The Apprentice character you may believe is real today.
Trump militarized the National Guard and Army to take over cities that he doesn’t want voting in the mid-terms. If he truly was interested in crime, he’d go for the Southern red states with staggeringly higher crime rates than we have. But then, those cities vote for him. Even Ray Charles can see it.
Here’s the story that caught my attention. Trump’s been calling up the national guard for 29 day stretches. Then he waits a few days and calls them up for another 29 days. That means he gets to pay them less. 30 days would mean full pay. At 29 days, they only qualify for reduced benefits while the impact on their lives isn’t reduced one bit. On their wives and children. On their employers. It isn’t even Trump’s money. It’s about giving someone less. A little turn of the knife. Because he can. What are they going to do about it, anyway?
I know it may be very hard for some to hear. He cheats his employees. He cheats on his wives. He cheats at golf. I’ve been watching him for some 45 years. I’m sorry to tell you, there isn’t anyone or anything he won’t cheat. Leopards don’t change their spots.
He is a genius con man. Got to give him that.
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, CA
To the Editor:
In light of the recent stabbing in the Fillmore riverbed, I’m wondering how the homeless encampment grant, received by Fillmore, is being spent, the $1.5 million grant received by the town this past March to combat homelessness. How is that being handled? I haven’t seen much change except for the occasional purge of homeless people by the sheriff’s department. I’ve been told by officers there is a town-by-town competition for who has the least amount of homeless. How is that helpful? And where are they purged to--jail? Also not helpful. I’m told that the waiting list for the Many Mansions low income property at Mountain View is well over 1300 applications and they take applications from outside Fillmore; again not helpful.
I truly hope something constructive and tangible comes with the use of the homeless encampment grant, not just words. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Name withheld by request
To the Editor:
Martin, I will temporarily refrain from mentioning women’s self-determination, human rights, and “precious babies,” because that will obviously produce another hysterical defense of your version of men’s purpose and authority. Men and women respecting and promoting each other’s well-being, freedom, and happiness, and protecting their families in the best way each can, is a commendable human experience. But men like you, who insist that women are assigned to “venerated” chattel status, completely miss the point and defy rehabilitation. Perhaps you were imprinted in the 1930’s by, “Me Tarzan, you Jane.”
Whatever your inspiration, how about explaining why you and the Republican Congress are determined to control pregnancies, but once the “precious babies” pass the birth canal, they become invisible, as in the “big, beautiful bill” of which you apparently approve, which reduces nutritional and health support to poor families. Let’s move on to avoid another triggered reaction.
Are you offended by Trump’s statement about the inhumane tragedy in Gaza, “Netanyahu is a war hero…and I guess I am, too”? Trump claimed ownership of that disaster for America, along with Israel. It is not anti-Semitism to criticize Israel’s governance, or anti-American to criticize Trump’s leadership. And it’s hardly “cynical” to point to the truth.
Apparently, no bells ring for you in the fact that Trump is demonstrating here the same undemocratic controls that he so admires in the world’s worst dictators. Trump has Invaded areas on false pretenses to signal power and control of populations, ignored the written lawful rights of people against the government (Bill of Rights and subsequent Amendments), has attempted to pervert law enforcement and the Court System, restructured history to minimize inconvenient truths (reframing the Smithsonian exhibit to advertise slavery as on-the-job training), forbade any criticism of the dictator’s schizophrenic tariffs, defunded world-recognized medical research and health agencies, dumbed down universities so they won’t promote dissident ideas, threatened the Free Press with possible prosecution, and planned and executed revenge on those who have criticized or disagreed with him. Just yesterday, Trump executed an EO attempting to ban mail-return ballots on the advice of - Putin. And Trump II is only 8 months in.
Now the window on Trump’s soul is opening on the Epstein Matter. The question: If he is innocent and no incriminating documents exist, why is Trump making such underhanded, unrelenting, ferocious attempts to conceal the Epstein List and other hidden information on potential high-flying rapists, and giving convicted rapist Ghislaine Maxwell incredibly special and legally unsupported favors in her new “country club prison” closer to her family, with a “work release” exception for which she is ineligible as a sex-offender? Perhaps because in a DOJ interview, she “spontaneously” praised “the president” as “always a gentleman” who never did anything untoward with women. She knew what she had to say.
Trump demands his way by lies and roaring. Putin, with a whisper of a smile, says, “Nyet,” and sends Russian tanks into Ukraine carrying our American flag.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, CA
To the Editor:
Obviously, women will forever be unwilling objects of your paterfamilias veneration and “protection.” Please, keep your pedestal; you may need it when the waters rise. Aside from your lack of respect for women’s self-determination, like many people you morally posture about preserving the lives of “precious babies,” but when it comes to taxpayer support for poor babies and families needing Medicaid, prenatal and post-natal care, nutrition assistance and education, you’ll take those Trumpian cuts, thanks, and those “precious babies” can fend for themselves. Hypocritical, and a colossal “bush biscuit.”
The meeting between Trump and Putin in AK was a humiliating display of subservience. Trump actually applauded the murderous tyrant on a red carpet and under a military fly-over, extending status to an ICC-accused war criminal. All Trump’s puerile threats that he wouldn’t let Putin “mess with me,” and promises of “very severe consequences” without an immediate ceasefire, at the end dissolved into uneasy purring. Trump has placed a steaming, fetid bowl of appeasement before Zelensky and urged him and Europe to swallow.
Monday morning swiftly brought European leaders to the WH, concerned about the extent to which Trump is committed to satisfying Putin. The ceasefire Trump said was essential is off the table, and all Russian demands are front and center. After a lot of nervous free-world happy talk, on a hot mic Trump said, “I think he [Putin] is trying to do a deal for me.” My God, Trump is “twirling his hair” and sighing out the window after Putin. There is no policy at work here. It’s just a resurrected Neville Chamberlain with a crush. Putin is playing for time while he batters Ukraine and toys with a mesmerized American President. It’s unbelievably dangerous, and heartbreaking.
Martin, you can’t recognize or accept that Trump is framing his authoritarian government structure and will succeed if “We, the People” allow it. He has repeatedly expressed admiration for the unfettered powers of Putin, Orban, Erdogan, Kim Jong-un, and Xi. Already, Trump is modeling their dictatorial use of military police power here, against civilians in LA and DC under false assertion of crime spree “emergencies” (everything Trump wants is an “emergency”). If he and his malignant elves can just engender enough fear – of anything – many will suspend analysis and consent to his authoritarian lust. Worked before.
It’s time to familiarize yourself with P2025 and the “big, beautiful bill,” Martin. Listen to the Trump Cabinet’s condescending refusals to answer in congressional hearings, or the reporting on the leaked DOD/DHS militarization memo I mentioned last week. Same guy.
In addition to his growing physical and mental health problems and “wonder of the world” level narcissism, Trump has a Shakespearean lack of introspection, humility, and wisdom to recognize when and what he doesn’t know, and that makes him a prime target for any vicious, steely-eyed, disciplined, cunning predator who is not self-delusional. And the world was watching. This is beyond politics.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, CA
To the Editor:
President Trump has brought peace to six wars to date with one more possible, secured the border, addressed the out of control crime in DC, deported millions here illegally, repair our failing education system, restored faith in our military, dealing with tariffs and so much more. He continues to work harder for us and the world than any president in my lifetime. Yet, the broken leftists are foaming at the mouth with their hair on fire. They couldn’t take a second breath before they regurgitated Epstein, Epstein, Epstein. Yelling “It’s a cover up”. While feeding off the rot their cohorts created and left this administration to repair. Using a tactic so often used by the left; repeat a lie over and over again and it will eventually become real to some listener as they work at overthrowing the president we elected. The evidence and documented truth of who these people really are is now coming forward. Large cities riddled with crime turned into citizen war zones, felonies were lowered to misdemeanors or ignored altogether with no cash bail and socially engineered groups, gangs to hate police creating riots and destruction. That’s who they are. The leftist/marxist claimed to be the protectors against what they themselves created using crime, race, children, sex, class, gang culture, victimhood, open borders, paid and funded rioters/anarchists to grow hate. A view of society they want helped by activist judges and lawfare, NGO’s, our government institutions and every corrupt tactic available to destroy everyone who could expose them. We now know how corrupt a system can become: Clintons, Obama, Bidens, Brennon,, Clapper, Schiff, Rice etc. The list is growing by the day. They fooled and conned millions.
Society listened to elites with their university degrees and ill-gotten wealth for years as they lectured them how the underclass should be handled, organized and directed. But those same elites have never spent one minute of their own life in actual poverty or need, they just regurgitate what they’ve been told and the next fool uses what they’ve been told and stated it as fact because it was by then documented; but most of it was never the truth in the first place. Their goal; to push hate and a boorish attitude against whom the marxist points as the enemy. That’s what passes for being “informed” today. An abundance of emotional wants but a lack of understanding human nature and the balance it requires; especially with an over-stimulated yet bored society groping to be part of anything. The elites are not societies better, not even close.
The marxist/communist/socialists can’t accept that their dirt is being exposed. Not one peep out of them of the hundreds of thousands of missing young children or the hundreds of thousands dead due to fentanyl from years of an open border they created. Or an apology for Russiagate or now Obamagate. All they can do is blather an Epstein coverup in an effort to ignore their hidden crimes while crying “Save our democracy”. It’s shameful. Epstein is their only thread left to sow discontent. Rules no longer pertain to them. Political resistance. raw political power, call everyone a fascist, bigot, racist, xenophobic, Nazi, etc to shut them up. The globalists, who control most of the media, won’t even report on what many are now calling treason. Why is that? The facts are so egregious and probably treason, that it can’t be kept silent in spite of the leftists emotional needs and screaming for an uprising and Bolshevist coup.
Some believe we are already in a civil war. I hope it hasn’t gotten that far. Pay attention to the wording used today by the marxist/leftists and their mouthpieces.
Listen carefully and you will hear their calling for violence. They’re not hiding it anymore. Democrats are losing popularity and the respect of our country’s citizenry. With two assassination attempts on President Trump and the evidence of exactly what was done and by whom still being uncovered, they’ll do more than foaming at the mouth. What they did should never happen again. That’s what everyone should care about.
Russia, Ukraine are a corrupt dog fight Biden started. Gaza elected Hamas to lead them. Hamas was given millions in aid to build schools but instead used the concrete to build tunnels to kill. Now they’re paying the price. Elections have consequences. This country has a far greater enemy, China. And that enemy is already on our soil waiting to move against us. That is our real problem.
Jean McLeod,
Fillmore, CA
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
To the Editor:
Let me get this straight. First there was a cabal of baby eating, satanic Democrats operating out of a basement in a Pizza Parlor. Then it was Democrats on a plane going to Epstein’s island for sex with minors. Trump, of course, was not involved. Despite the treasure trove of photos with him buddying up to Jeffrey and Ghislaine for over a decade. Or the photos and recorded sexual statements from Trump about his own daughter—and as if that wasn’t bad enough, she was underage. He even made sexual comments about his newborn daughter. But it was all Democrats on that plane and worshipping Satan, and if we just elect Trump, he’d sort it all out and put it right? There was a list and he and he alone would make sure we saw it all.
Now that he’s president, the list has disappeared. Trump tried to distract us and get us to believe it was all about transparency—so he sends his own personal lawyer, now supposedly representing the people, to talk to Ghislaine to get to the bottom of it and find out just who was involved in the horror show. No need to talk to the victims. After all, they were just kids. What do they know?
Next thing we know, Ghislaine’s moved to a minimum-security prison—that she wasn’t eligible for according to the rules. Of course, we, the citizens, are going to have to pick up the extra costs of her security there. And now, she’s on work release? Lordy.
Who’s he protecting? The Dems? Or himself?
It’s time to realize that TDS doesn’t stand for Trump Derangement Syndrome, it stands for Trump Delusion Syndrome.
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, CA
To the Editor:
I’m a big fan of computers—made my living with them. I love it when they do tedious work for me, when they calculate
numbers. When they do what I tell them. I was in the driver’s seat.
Not so much anymore. I still love them. I’m not a complete naysayer on AI, but I recognize how much the game has changed.
For those who haven’t been as deeply immersed in technology as I have, I want to spread the word.
As most already know, AI doesn’t just do what it’s told—it learns from data, recognizes patterns, and makes decisions on
its own. It writes essays, fires workers, selects job applicants. It analyzes satellite images for military targets—
deciding who lives and who dies. And it does all this with limited human oversight, at a speed none of us can match.
This is more than just a faster calculator. It’s a new kind of decision-maker—one built by a handful of powerful companies,
trained on data we didn’t always agree to give.
That means AI is being used to decide who qualifies for a loan, whose job gets cut, or when emergency services respond.
It’s important to be aware that this is happening.
Here are three concerns we should all be paying attention to:
1. Lack of transparency. We often don’t know when AI is making decisions—or what data it’s using.
2. Loss of control. AI is increasingly built into systems we rely on, from hospitals to schools to farms.
3. Concentration of power. A small group of companies and governments now control systems that affect billions of lives.
So how do we respond?
Stay informed. Ask hard questions of our local and federal leaders. How is it being implemented in our schools? By the
city? By law enforcement? Push for laws that ensure AI is used transparently, ethically, and in the public’s interest—not
just for profit or control.
The data that’s been collected by our government has already been exposed to known hackers through DOGE. Google Edward
Coristine aka “Big Balls.” None of Musk’s DOGE workers were vetted. Our data, in the wrong hands, turns us from citizens into a marketable product.
The industry needs guardrails, now. Not 10 years unregulated and unconstrained.
Pay attention. Ask questions. Use your voice. Call your representatives. This has enormous implications.
Pat Collins,
Fillmore, Ca
To the Editor:
Martin, first you attributed to me statements I did not make, and then you said that we have a lot in common. I was
positively verklempt! Then, mercifully, I read that you only meant our common educational ties at the hands of the Jesuits,
who did what they do, introduce differing opinions, and raise a lot of questions on God and the human condition.
Apparently, USF was heavily into Inquisition theology and the alarming view of Christ as a vengeful Old Testament Deity.
Many Santa Clara Jebs were not so inclined but believed that human life is ours to experience with the help of faith, hope,
and charity. Just one question, was Constitutional Law included in your law school curriculum?
It is our business as humans to confront our challenges. If God were deeply involved in our day-to-day issues, how do you
explain the Armenian and Gazan genocides, the Holocaust, even the Crusades, Epstein? The creation of the human animal armed
with intelligence and free will was a curiously risky venture, and sometimes people make really bad decisions.
Unfortunately, ignorance is not a defense.
The reason that my accusations against Trump are serial is that his offenses are serial. Like an unloved and disgruntled
child with Big Bird lodged on his head and a nutrition pyramid with one word: “McDonalds,” he visits revenge on little
insults, legitimate questions, every slight he suffers and accusation he faces. These are “national threats,” “treason,”
“enemies of the people,” if they disagree with him, and all are “hoaxes,” “fake news,” and “persecution.” Most adults have
to be big girls and boys. Everything Trump does is “perfect,” which must surprise the Almighty.
I doubt that the sexual victims of Epstein’s elites will ever get the human justice they deserve. You, who justify
retribution genocide in Gaza, dispatch God to take care of the Epstein atrocities without investigation because…?
WH management of the Epstein coverup is textbook Trump. Every “shiny thing” sufficiently dazzling to distract MAGA is being
waved. Now, Obama, Biden and Jill, Kamala Harris, Jack Smith, every civil servant involved in the civil and criminal cases
against him, the juries that convicted him of sexual assault and fraud, the “rogue courts” that defy his legal arguments
(though SCOTUS is in his pocket), his treatment of foreign dignitaries, his incredibly long learning curve with Putin, his
firing of the head of labor statistics because she brought accurate but unwelcome news about July’s unemployment numbers,
the big beautiful bill, the increasing evidence of his dementia. Do you think Trump has the slightest interest in the
welfare of ordinary Americans? No, really, do you?
My reluctant sense is that, until the economy crashes and Trump blames Obama and Biden, and digs up Jimmy Carter to answer
for himself, people will continue to ignore flashing signs like Project 2025 and the Trumpian march to authoritarianism, past the opportunity to object. But good news! That will give you time to fully decipher God’s Will for the rest of us,
ignore the impending damage to the Republic, and polish up your eternal merit badge.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca
To the Editor:
What the media and Progressives are trying to do, like Kelly Scoles, is to weaponize the Epstein case against President
Trump. They want everyone to ignore the horrors progressives created without taking one bit of responsibility for what is
now being exposed. With statements like “What is Trump’s real reason for paving over the Epstein crimes and protecting
pedophiles.....” she completely ignores, on purpose, the real issues still happening TODAY.
Last week the House Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing revealing the Biden-Harris Administration (BHA) working
with Democrat officials and open border advocates pushed a pro-illegal immigration agenda and placed political aims above
the welfare and safety of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC). A child trafficking industry prospered for four years with
open border policies and young victims still hiding in plain sight.
The Center for Immigration Studies calculated that BHA gave $6 billion in grants to 15 United Nations (UN) Agencies and 230
Nonprofit/NGOs that turned the border into a welcome center with a travel service of planes and Uber drivers to ship
migrants throughout the US interior. Recent reports have upgraded the numbers of missing UACs to 450,000 in the last days
of the BHA.
Through cooperation of Dept. Homeland Security (DHS), Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), BHA, UN and Nonprofits/NGOs
a child trafficking ring was created.. The UN and NGOs were placed along the border and worked as the middleman in a
pipeline of tender-age children into sex trafficking and slave labor. As the UAC crossed the border, they were primarily
handed over to the NGOs by the Border Patrol. They were then delivered to poorly vetted sponsors with little oversight and
failed to ensure proper follow-up or communications for the UACs’ well-being.
Their speed of removing the migrants was important to avoid the bad optics of the thousand walking and sleeping on the
streets due to the volume of overcrowding in certain sectors which still happened due to the overwhelming numbers. BHA
stopped the use of DNA biometric screening of children leaving no way to check who the UAC belonged with, while 70% of the
documentation turned in by sponsors was fraudulent or incomplete.
It was reported these NGOs did little if any background checks on their own employees and if one complained of problems or
raised concerns they were fired; while the executives received substantial revenue, salary increases and bonuses.
In February 2023 the Office of Refugee Resettlement reported 85,000 UAC could not be located. A Notice of Concern hotline
was set up for the UAC to report problems and get help. BUT get this; it had ONE PERSON HIRED TO OPERATE IT. Yes, One
person!!! As a result between Aug. 2023 thru Jan. 2025, 65,000 calls for help went unanswered. Later, in August 2024, ICE
reported they could not monitor all the UACs released from DHS custody. All this open border horror was done for power
(more house Representatives) and monetary gain through cheap labor.
Today the Trump Administration, DHS, ICE, FBI, local and state law enforcement are working to locate the children using the
65,000 recorded unanswered calls and rescue the trafficked children which are mostly girls 14 yrs. or younger. So far
13,061 of the 35,000 located, some working in factory farms, had their captors/sponsors arrested. The Trump Administration
has stated locating those children is a priority adding, “We know some of these kids are in forced labor and sex
trafficking and we found some, unfortunately in those conditions”. Progressives like Kelly Scoles claim “shiny things” will
“divert attention” from Epstein. Are children working in sex trade and slave labor just “shiny things”?
Jean McLeod,
Fillmore, Ca
To the Editor:
Martin, after reading last week’s Editorial, I have concluded that it would be best, in the future, that I avoid your
statements about religion. However, I want to clarify one point.
I often use Catholicism as a religious exemplar because it is the source of my entire education, except law school, and
is my religious ancestral home. True, I have relocated since childhood, but I still revere “home” in the message of Christ.
I offered my view of what any religion, at a minimum, should have as its mission. When a religion fails to promote benign,
if not charitable, treatment of others as fellow human beings or as God’s children, I’m not sure what purpose it serves.
The last couple of editions found you blind-vaulting over substantial political issues – which you’ll recall were the
objective of our discourse from the beginning. There is so much happening in this country and the world that will shape our
lives and succeeding generations, so I am surprised and a little disheartened.
A couple of things that deserve attention: The UN and other organizations report Gaza is starving to death. Children and
babies are dying, their parents too weak to tend to them. There is no clean water, no medicines, and very little food.
Israel and their partners in this genocide, including the US, are, in Netanyahu’s recent words, obliged “to allow the entry
of minimal humanitarian supplies” (emph. mine). Trump sniffed that, “we didn’t even get a ‘thank you’ for our contribution”
for those inadequate supplies. That is what he values. This has happened before in history, but this time it’s ours.
Meanwhile, food destined for aid distribution was destroyed at the docks last week, rather than being distributed before
expiration, because poor countries could not buy it from us for even thirty pieces of silver, on Trump’s orders. What
resides in a person’s heart and soul that they would do such a thing? And it was done in our names.
Nearly 60,000 men, women, and children are now detained by ICE in the US, El Salvador, Guatemala and other countries where
there’s little or no control over their conditions. Those detainees who are not citizens may have entered the country
illegally, but the vast majority are not “the worst of the worst” as Trump promised. Whatever their immigration status,
detainees are human beings, and this immigration terror plan is devoid of any consideration of their humanity. This is not
“God’s Will.” We alone own this.
Our President is once again crooning his Greatest Hits on Epstein, including “fake news,” “somebody framed me,” “witch
hunt,” “hoax,” and “I don’t know that guy” or sexually- assaulted woman, or lewd sketch. Having demanded revelation of the
Files during the 2024 election, now it’s apparently in Trump’s interest to protect the perpetrators, pardon at least one if
she coughs up what he wants to hear and ignore the victimized girls and women. If we are still by any chance a Nation of
Laws, the perpetrators, whoever they are, will face identification and prosecution.
Trump delivered a lecture to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in a bizarre stream-of-
consciousness and childish self-congratulatory monologue. This is how America presents to the world. (YouTube.com, then
choose duckduckgo.com, “Trump meets with president of European Commission”).
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca
To the Editor:
Martin, you and I can have fun sometime arguing the history of the Catholic Church, its profound effect on Western Civilization, its positive and negative contributions to the world and the faithful, and divine mysteries, but I don’t see the audience for that here.
Commitment to religious beliefs can only be measured by how we treat each other. You are attached to a version of Catholicism that is a mix of medieval mysticism and ardor for political inquisition which I do not share. We all struggle against making ourselves and our own needs and beliefs the center of the universe, or lulling ourselves with, “we good, they bad.”
If religious practice helps people to become the best version of themselves, it will also remind them that we are all human beings just trying to figure out why we exist and recognize and honor the pilgrimage of others. There are many religious people who unequivocally support our human experience, and many who don’t but invoke “God’s will” as if theirs are the ears into which the Almighty would choose to whisper.
Last week, you declined in deep weariness to respond to any of the raised real-world issues but were re-animated by mystical matters which can be a refuge from reality. We all exist here on Planet Earth, trying to experience and survive what it is to be human as best we can, but Marian prophecies are not, I think, a significant resource for most people.
I’d give Trump credit for any “good things” he has done, if they weren’t wildly outnumbered by the critical damage he is doing to America, average Americans, and our status in the eyes of other countries; by cozying up to Putin (“he fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden, but he didn’t fool me!!” a statement so ridiculous no other comment is needed; by handing a drug-addled, billionaire megalomaniac a license to destroy the government; by toying spasmodically with tariffs; and vilification of anyone who does not do his bidding in the Epstein coverup, including his own MAGA followers.
Trump whined that MAGA who won’t “let it go” are “stupid” and “weaklings,” and sneered that he “doesn’t want their support anymore.” What is Trump’s real reason for paving over the Epstein crimes and protecting pedophiles when he is willing to pay such a huge price for it?
Trump has believed since 2015 that he can sell MAGA anything, and has, but this Epstein matter was such a 2024 bonfire MAGA issue, so filled with political venom, perverted rumors, and avenging promises of “transparency,” that it can’t be ignored. More than one political writer has recalled deviant politician “Lonesome Rhodes” in the film, “A Face in the Crowd, “ who bragged about his constituents, “I can take chicken fertilizer and sell it to ’em for caviar.” Or Bibles, sneakers, steaks, or virtual cards depicting Trump as Atlas, Elvis, and Jesus. The 1950’s film is preternaturally prescient of our own time.
Now will come accusations against past Democratic operatives, the emergence of shiny things “over there,” and Trump insinuating himself into high profile issues to divert attention from Epstein. It’s his MO, and we’ll see if it still works when the issue is protecting pedophiles.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca