Letters to the Editor: Aug. 8, 2025

Our Mad King

Tyrants can’t handle the truth. They invent their own version, insist their subjects subscribe to it and punish those who refuse to go along.

One of the first jobs of an up-and-coming tyrant is to crush institutions that discern the truth and spread it to the public at large.

Universities, media outlets and government agencies are key institutions that seek the truth and openly act on it. Our Mad King is working overtime to bring them to heel with lawsuits, threats, and firings, and he is gaining momentum.

Our Bureau of Labor Statistics is the world’s gold standard for gathering and analyzing mass quantities of financial data and reporting it to our leaders in the form of monthly reports. Our Mad King didn’t like the most recent jobs report, so he fired the chief a few hours after receiving it, claiming it had been rigged.

He can’t handle the truth. No surprise.

While he sows confusion, distrust and bewilderment, he is getting his secret police ready for a bigger role.

His recent tax bill budgets more money for ICE than for the FBI, DEA, ATF and U.S. Marshal’s Service combined, along with $458 million for concentration camps. Let that sink in.

What are our masked marauders going to do, once they have rounded up all the supposed rapists and murderers in our fields, our vineyards, our nursing homes, our schools, our restaurants, our parking lots, and our construction sites?

They operate above the law, accountable to no one except the Mad King. He will find a good use for them, especially as the mid-term election approaches.

Right now, he’s trying to pick the voters. But he may decide to pick them off instead.

There will be plenty of room for the “traitors” to sleep on the concrete floor. Viktor Orbán is smiling.

Bill Johnson

McMinnville

Palestinian tilt

It’s no secret that the News-Register has a bias against the conservative agenda and thinking. Lately, that bias is on full display against Israel and the Jews.

The News-Register regularly pulls articles from The Conversation, such as the article published July 11 — “Israeli policies are creating catastrophic starvation risk,” by Yari Asi. And Jeb Bladine’s Whatchamacolumn of Aug. 1 is another classic example.

Bladine starts by asserting that “images of starvation in Gaza are at least reminiscent of unspeakable modern-era examples of genocide.”

In fact, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported just 115 deaths from malnutrition between Oct. 7, 2023, and July 25, 2025. Meanwhile:

In Ethiopia, 74,583 malnutrition-related deaths have occurred so far this year alone. This year’s count is currently estimated at 95,000 to 100,000 in Bangladesh and 33,000 to 35,000 in Angola. And in Sudan, at least 520,000 people have starved to death in the past two years.

Bladine’s column goes on to address the possibility of a Palestinian state, using the assistance of ChatGPT AI for support. It continues with a litany of reasons, mostly from the UN and International Criminal Court, supporting a Palestinian state.

Bladine’s article ignores the real reason why what is referred to as the “two-state solution” is impossible.

I encourage all to ask ChatGPT what the Hamas charter has to say about Israel and the Jewish people. That will make it crystal clear why a Palestinian state is unattainable as long as Hamas exists.

Your Whatchamacolumn would’ve been a worthwhile read if you had published both sides of the story.

Steve Sommerfeld

Sheridan

Show us the files

Considering that releasing the Epstein files was the cornerstone of Trump’s winning pitch to his conspiracy base, and that the suddenly awake Democrats say that can be done by an executive order, then why didn’t Biden do it? Or Obama?

Ann Helm

Lafayette