The new administration
Donald Trump and Elon Musk, not the GOP, own the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and six members of the Supreme Court. And Musk will retire a few with huge payoffs during their term. All perfectly legal now, turns out it always was.
President-elect Trump has nothing to complain about now. He won the popular vote by 4 million. No whining from the losers please. No tedious retrospect. No Kamala Harris should have gotten in sooner. No she should have done this or that. No she should have courted this demographic or that, blah, blah, blah. There was nothing the Democrats could have done. Trump had a lock on this election for two years and no one knew it — not even Trump.
This election, for the moment, is a relief for me. I’m on a strict news diet until January when I hope to learn if President Trump will follow through with these promises and plans; be a dictator. Have a purge. Stock his cabinet with criminals. Free 1,028 convicted insurrectionists. Start deporting millions of people. Let JFK Jr. go nuts on medicine. Let Musk run our economy. Drill and frack in National Parks. Shoot protesters. Use the military for law enforcement. Imprison opponents. Tariff everything. Give corporations more tax breaks. Redo health care. Build a wall. Or maybe it was all just more talk. Until then I’m going to have a great holiday season and be nice to everybody.
Richard Strongoni
Moscow
Sorry to girls and women
I couldn’t sleep last night. Sometimes I get insomnia, and I begin to think, and that makes my wakefulness worse. Last night, as I lay in the dark, I began to assess my feelings about Nov 5. I recognized a feeling of remorse, and an apology formed in my mind. I wanted to apologize to young girls and women. Here I am, a woman who has worked all her adult and now older years for women’s equality, only to wake up daily and realize just how precarious it is to be young and female. I feel I have failed.
There is an opinion piece in the New York Times written by a 16-year-old. She describes how she and her girlfriends were all teary-eyed after the election, and the boys in her school were playing Minecraft.
This feeling of mine is not new. I remember as a pre-teen, marching against the war in Vietnam. Then again when the U.S. invaded Iraq. Each time I recognized my country was going astray and the consequences would be borne by its people. By me and my generation. By the world that we all share.
Giving the control of the might of the U.S. to a self-described despot and his powerful cronies as more than half of the voters did, was not my fault. I need not apologize. But the emotion of sadness for the youth, for those who will be most impacted by what is to come, is real. Gov. Tim Walz said it, we can sleep when we’re dead.
Zena Hartung
Moscow
Chuckles with Chuck
Reading Chuck Pezeshki’s letter (Daily News, Nov. 16-17) criticizing me and four other Daily News columnists of calling readers names, I chuckled at Pezeshki’s labeling us “as big a group of know-nothings that has ever written.”
No. I’m not criticizing Chuck. Just enjoying the humor.
However, his letter merits some corrections.
I don’t write for $25 per column. I don’t know about Brock, Urie, Gier or McGhee (who recently announced that he is quitting), but I write for the sheer enjoyment and as a public service.
The column that Chuck criticized was “Democracy dies when the minority rules” (Nov. 6). He apparently misread the column. I never predicted that Trump would win in the Electoral College, but not in the popular vote. Neither did I predict who would win.
I did believe (but did not say) that the predicted razor-thin margins that were being reported made it likely that the election would be decided in the Electoral College.
Yes, Trump trounced Kamala Harris.
We all should quit paying attention to political polls.
Terence L. Day
Moscow
Trump’s tentative appointments
I voted for Trump. I swore earlier that I wouldn’t do that, but I did. As a practicing Catholic, I took the advice of a certain archbishop, who implored the Catholic faithful, in the interests of national survival, to vote for Trump. So I did. If it doesn’t work out, this hierarch is to blame. (Just kidding.)
As to Trump’s recent appointments for cabinet positions and agency heads: Of course he’s joking, isn’t he? At least two of these folks are ardent Christian Zionists, always exuding pro-Israeli biases.
Pete Hegseth, a Fox regular, has arguably no real credentials at all. Yet Trump selects him as secretary of defense. Trump favors Gov. Mike Huckabee for the ambassadorship to Israel. When Bibi says “jump,” Mike can be counted upon to answer “How high?”
Another lulu, New York Republican Elise Stefanik, tapped as future U.S. ambassador to the UN, is probably more pro-Israel than Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smoltrich.
Then there’s Attorney General designee, Matt Gaetz. They’ll bring statutory rape charges against him before his name ever hits the Senate floor for confirmation.
No, Trump can’t be this stupid and naive. He’s got something up his sleeve. Maybe he speculates that Senate Republicans and Democrats, working in concert, will not confirm all or most of his selections. Then he can appoint truly capable, less ideologically driven candidates in their place. I don’t know.
All I know is that a country can’t survive whose most sensitive and powerful agencies are occupied by zealots contemplating a ‘Secret Rapture,’ or working towards the Millennial Reign of Christ through the instrumentality of Israel and the Jews.
I imagine the Christ Church crowd in Moscow will openly welcome these tentative appointments. They are probably falling all over themselves in anticipation of an America made great again by people of this ilk. Lord help us!
Timothy Moore
Potlatch
Who’s against free speech?
In his Nov. 5 opinion column, Dale Courtney criticizes Democrats for being against free speech. While some of his historical examples of this have merit, it is extremely ironical for him to raise this concern since it is he and his Republican allies who are working hard to prohibit free speech in our libraries and schools.
They would like to eliminate any material that challenges the falsehood that that there are only two genders. They would like to eliminate any material that tells the truth about the systemic racism that has been present in the United States from its inception.
Walter Hesford
Moscow
Gutted by the news
I voted early on Nov. 5 and immediately headed east to a fairly remote log cabin, in Montana, with my dog, Arrow. Communications were optional. Which is why I chose it.
I was in hiding, not wanting to follow any media concerning the election. I returned unaware after two days of solitude, beautiful tamaracks in their full fall glory, sauntering in the forest with Arrow, enjoying the ... quiet. Reading with the comfort of a wood stove. I returned last night. Local friends advised me to avoid “the news”; however, good friends from Zimbabwe, Africa, alerted me to the outcome! I am gutted. And truly terrified of what this may mean for my Haitian family, who came here LEGALLY (thanks, Joe) in 2023.
I ask nothing except that the good people of Moscow fight until it hurts for what will proceed from this current election. Have we learned NOTHING from this odious person’s past? Shame on US. Amerika committed suicide Nov. 5, 2024.
Nancy Maxeiner
Viola
Well-stated letter
Thanks to Bill Tozer for his thoughtful and well-stated letter on the Israel/Hamas situation (Nov. 9 weekend edition).
We appreciate the analysis of the facts, though a tragedy for all concerned.
We read that all the Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim citizens of Israel are living there with “full citizenship rights.” I only hope this is true.
Melinda Dutton
Pullman
