Letters to the Editor: Jan. 9, 2026
Follow the money
We are watching the biggest wealth transfer in history. Wealth that is moving from ordinary Americans to the richest people on Earth.
Our middle class is the last repository of wealth in America that billionaires do not own or control And they want it all.
Once their King has dismantled the governmental agencies that protect ordinary citizens from the predations of the corporations and the billionaires who own them, the onslaught will be quick and merciless. They have many ways to pick us clean, and they have already started:
n The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is being dismantled right now. Over 15 years, it has returned $21 billion to consumers who were victimized by the fraud and abuse of financial institutions.
n Hedge funds see real estate as a great investment while our housing shortage persists. So they are buying up houses in targeted areas and jacking up the rents.
n Insurance companies are raising rates in areas they define as risky. With no oversight, they can find risk in anything, making homeowners their captives.
n The cost of medical insurance is skyrocketing. Thanks to our feckless Congress, millions of ordinary citizens are now priced out of health care, and medical bankruptcies will surge. Billionaires will benefit again, avoiding the cost and dividing the spoils from the disasters that follow.
The billionaires hired Trump to fracture our society so they could buy the pieces for pennies.
This hostile takeover shreds the social contract we have been working under since the New Deal. Our billionaire class despises regulations that constrain it and protect ordinary Americans.
With a presidential war in Venezuela, the chances of a free election this year become slimmer than ever. King Donald may not need the Insurrection Act after all.
Follow the money. See where it goes. See who gets hurt.
Bill Johnson
McMinnville
Deep and wide
The new year has just begun, and already Donald and his handlers/enablers are wreaking havoc.
The incursion into Venezuela is not about combating drug trafficking. It has always been about regime control and resource plunder.
We’ve seen this movie before. We need only look back a couple of decades to find the last Republican-led imperialist incursion for resource plunder.
George W. Bush, aided by Dick Cheney and crew, lied us into the debacle in Iraq. Bush also tried to take over Venezuela in 2002, but that’s another story.
The characters may have changed, but the overall theme is the same: colonialist expansion.
Didn’t Donald campaign on no more wars? He lied. Didn’t Donald campaign on releasing the Epstein files? He lied.
This Venezuelan fiasco comes, coincidentally, as Don and Pam’s DOJ ignored another deadline in the Epstein files release. And just a reminder, Donald could release all the files any time he wanted to.
In spite of the continuing DOJ cover-up, some new reporting is emerging. For instance, in 1982, Epstein was traveling on an Austrian passport under a false identity.
Then there is the involvement of Billy Bush, George W’s cousin, with Donald and those teen beauty pageants. Also, remember Billy was a participant in the infamous Access Hollywood tape, which captured Donald bragging about being able to sexually assault women simply because he was a “star.”
The Epstein/Maxwell/Trump melange runs deep and wide.
Alisa Owen
McMinnville
No dictator
The adage, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” originated in the 1850s with Lord Acton, a British politician, historian and Cambridge professor.
In regard to our current president, I researched the adage in the Definition of Literary Terms, and it suggests: “An unchecked authority invariably leads to moral compromise and abuse. It isn’t simply that powerful individuals will become corrupt, but that the very nature of absolute power fosters conditions ripe for corruption.”
Congressional inability to control and/or influence presidential actions is leading to that, as we see the investments of Trump and his billionaire partners expand.
His cabinet is full of billionaires who don’t appear to have any interest in primary issues of the average American, only in serving as his personal ruling block. I can’t remember an administration causing so much damage so fast.
We have some congressional representatives doing all they can, mounting court challenges to damaging and unconstitutional decisions.
Many of those decisions should have involved all members of Congress. Are the others abdicating out of fear of Trump or loss of power, money and position?
I hear a lot of negative comment about higher taxes for state programs, but not much about the why. Just take a look at how much state has been reduced by Trump’s administration.
When federal funds are cut, programs must be cut or the difference made up. And that trickles down to cities and counties.
We just added to the defense budget with military action in Venezuela, and it will increase as the president and his cabinet decide how to seize its energy reserves. That has the potential to be our next military action, all without congressional involvement.
The most we can do is support local protests against Trump and his team. I am heartened by the planned “do nothing days” and “No Kings” protests, though I think the term should be “No Dictator Days.”
Patricia Ann Cates
McMinnville
Another perspective
In response to the commentary from Les Howsden, I’d like to list some of the things I am thankful for in 2025.
-- The creation of DOGE, which uncovered fraud and waste in federal programs, saving billions of taxpayer dollars so far while serving to bring transparency and accountability back.
-- The Department of War’s strikes on terrorist drug cartels — strikes that destroyed boatloads of deadly drugs headed for our shores.
-- A border that is finally closed, something the Biden administration claimed couldn’t be done. ICE has deported nearly 200,000 criminal illegal aliens and 1.6 million have opted to self-deport. This is freeing up benefits that should only be reserved for U.S. citizens.
-- The Big Beautiful Bill, which will bring back the 2017 tax cuts for all Americans. And it includes eliminating taxes on tips, overtime and social security for the next three years for many recipients.
-- Tariffs that have brought in $158 billion, serving to decrease the federal deficit. In addition, multiple companies and foreign governments have committed to invest $8.7 trillion in the U.S.
-- A president who, for both his terms, has refused to take a salary. He is also building what will be a lovely ballroom for large gatherings, using zero taxpayer dollars.
These are only a few of President Trump’s accomplishments. I am thankful for him and the fact he puts America first.
Brenda Butterfield
McMinnville
Peace and quiet
It would be wonderful if McMinnville followed Portland’s lead and banned noisy, polluting gas-powered leaf blowers.
Electric blowers are still OK, but Portland will only allow gas-powered blowers in October, November and December this year and next, as a transition period, and not at all after that.
Brad Thompson
McMinnville
Comments
Tyler C
A more accurate perspective
1) DOGE has cost American tax payers significant more that it saved. The main accomplishments of the agency have been to cut internation aid resulting in the death of as many as a million people and shut down legitimate investigations into Musk’s illegal business practices.
2) There is no evidence that the Department of Defense has killed any drug dealers. The only survivors of an attack were sent back to south America and never charged.
3) The idea that Biden allowed “open borders” is a strange fiction that is on its face absurd. If that were true, I’d wonder why Border Patrol and ICE were sitting at their desks for four years doing nothing.
4) The “Big Beautiful Bill” did more to give handouts to billionaires than it did for working people. In fact, the federal deficit has predicted balloon to its highest level ever directly because of the bill.
5) Tariffs are in import tax paid by American people and business. It has not saved the American people any money and has actually been one of the biggest drivers of inflation over the past year.
6) Trump has donated some of his salary but it’s unclear if he has donated the whole sum. Regardless, he makes much more money from selling things like meme crypto currency and selling presidential pardons for as little as a million dollars.
Even people who support Trump know that he exaggerates and lies constantly. Every claim that he makes should be considered in that context and be independently verified.
treefarmer
Appreciate the point-by-point - you beat me to it, Tyler. However, I’ve heard it said that it is much easier to fool someone than it is to convince them they have been fooled. As America continues to shadow the brutal history of 1930s Germany, I often reflect upon the words of George Orwell in his prescient novel “1984.”
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It became their final and most essential command. And when all others believed the lie, then it passed into history and became the truth.”
Surely there is hope so long as not ALL of us reject the evidence of our eyes and ears.
tagup
Ms. Butterfield's regurgitation of the administrations talking points is a sad testament to the lack of effort many trump supporters make when developing their opinions. There are so many uninformed points that it's hard to reply other than a face palm reaction.
Does the author realize that trump's net worth has grown from an estimated 3.9 billion in 2024 to 7.3 billion in early 2025? That's a pretty nice offset to cover his salary of $400k!
Otis
Sounds like some of us are probably confused about who the bad guys are in Star Wars. The rest of us know that it's the MASKED STORMTROOPERS.
Tyler C
Thanks Treefarmer. Unfortunately I don't think MAGA actually reject the evidence of their own eyes. They know what they are seeing and they like it. Blatant and obvious hypocrisy is a feature of their moral Philosophy. They get to do a say whatever they want without reprimand. Consequences only exist to bind the people they hate.