Letters to the Editor: May 29, 2026

Crazed and unstable

A slush fund of $1.776 billion to give money to the Washington rioters who wanted to abolish our freedom?

Why aren’t more citizens angry? How can one unstable man, our president, continue to disrupt our country and world with his crazy ideas with so little outcry?

Meanwhile, our health care system is being torn apart. There is a doctor and nurse shortage, so getting an appointment in a timely fashion is almost impossible, and the cost of care is out of sight, as is the insurance to cover it.

Trump, his family and his cronies are making a fortune playing games with the stock market. The world watches in wonder at our lack of courage and our indifference toward taking our congressional leaders to task for failing to perform their duties.

In the meantime, working families haven’t enough money to put food on the table, buy gas, or pay their mortgage or rent.

If we pay attention to his jumbled rambling in the middle of the night on his social media platform, we know his mind and actions are not logical and sound. That is a scary situation!

Biden was crucified in the last months of his presidency for his demeanor. Many are now starting to look askance at Trump for his strange behavior, but few seem prepared to do anything about it.

There are many in the media who are afraid to step forward to ask him the tough questions, then report the incoherent answers.

I recently watched the 2025 movie “Nuremberg,” on the post-war Nazi trials. Yes, it is a disturbing film — one than ends with the warning that what happened in Nazi Germany those many years ago could happen here, or anywhere in the world, if citizens don’t step forward to protect freedom and democracy.

Patricia Rickert

McMinnville

Orwellian

The federal Department of Justice has deleted from its website hundreds of press releases chronicling charges against the Jan. 6 rioters. This, the DOJ proudly says, is part of an ongoing effort to strip out “partisan propaganda in order to reverse the DOJ’s weaponization under Biden.”

Significantly, the DOJ doesn’t say the releases were inaccurate. For this administration, facts qualify as propaganda.

I found this philosophy troubling, so I went to the DOJ’s website for clarification. There I discovered its stated values include “independence and impartiality,” leading it to proclaim: “We work each day to earn the public’s trust by following the facts and the law wherever they may lead, without prejudice or improper influence.”

Really?

Reading the above quote, as well as others on the site, I felt I’d stepped into George Orwell’s 1984. In that classic novel, we’re told “war is peace” and “freedom is slavery,” statements as obviously contradictory as the DOJ’s words and actions.

On the other hand, the book correctly points out, “Who controls the past controls the future,” and “Who controls the present controls the past.” It seems some in the current administration are using the book as a how-to guide.

Stephen Long

McMinnville

The madness continues

Our Mad King’s personal legal firm, formerly known as the Justice Department, has decided that he and his family have been so grievously injured by the leak of his tax returns they should not be investigated or prosecuted for any tax crimes to date. In return for dropping his frivolous $10 billion lawsuit against his own Justice Department, Trump and his family now have nothing to worry about from the IRS.

The cherry on top is that his personal piggy-bank, formerly known as the Treasury Department, is handing him a tidy $1.776 billion to share with folks who have suffered as a result of government “weaponization.” A committee appointed by Trump’s auditioning attorney general will review applications and distribute the funds with no judicial oversight or accountability.

With a little luck, those convicted for a part in Trump’s failed insurrection will each get a spare million for their trouble. That kind of money buys a lot of loyalty, especially when it comes with immunity for potential criminal behavior.

Going into the mid-terms, our King already has-a well-funded private police force with its own private prisons to use when fear and intimidation are called for.

He may soon also have his own private militia of millionaire criminals who are no strangers to hand-to-hand combat with police. Knowing their pardons are secure and that they are unaccountable for their actions, they will be honored to serve the King by keeping the “wrong people” from voting.

This will all be funded with tax dollars. We hear that there’s no money available for social services to help ordinary folks get through the disasters Trump brought us with his tariffs and war games, but there’s plenty for his personal enrichment schemes and monuments, as well as tax breaks for his cronies.

His priorities tell the tale. We don’t matter.

Bill Johnson

McMinnville