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In just over two months — from January 20 to March 27, 2025 — rogue judges issued seventeen nationwide injunctions against President Trump’s lawful actions. This level of judicial interference is not only unprecedented, it is extremely dangerous to our constitutional system. Anarchists might be pleased, but both conservative and liberal citizens should be very concerned. For example, federal district judges have blocked executive orders addressing birthright citizenship, immigration reform, federal employment, foreign aid, and military readiness. Executive actions that fall squarely within presidential authority have been frozen nationwide by unelected judges, often before a full hearing on the merits.

When a pregnant woman has a dead or dying entity in her womb, she needs an abortion to remove it to save her from an infection from the dead tissue. One being may be alive and healthy with the other dead in utero. Myriad other conditions could require this remedy to save a woman’s health or life. If a woman were not pregnant and had a festering wound, she would be by law permitted to refuse treatment for it even if it would kill her, so long as she is competent and not under the influence of drugs or other compromising circumstances. If a person is so high on a drug, belligerent,or violent they have become dangerous to anyone else, the police or another person could kill them in self-defense. If a person had a limb excised because of damage to it, he/she would never be required to carry it around on their person until it rotted away. Why are women with dangerous pregnancies refused the only sane remedy? How can any child be born without women who are free to choose to give life? How is rape a crime but forced pregnancy is not? Freedom means being able to say “no” or “yes.”

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump pledged to deport millions of people on the basis of immigrant criminality and/or illegal entry into the United States. Once in office, Trump authorized the start of mass deportations with great fanfare. However, deportation rates fell far short of the numbers that Trump had projected. A concerted effort to stage various photo-ops ensued.

Remember when New Hampshire Republicans promoted fiscal responsibility? Those days are long gone. The Republican majority in the State House has created a budget crisis. They made the current revenue shortfall worse by repealing the Interest and Dividends tax. This modest tax (enacted back in 1923) was paid only by the wealthiest residents – those who could certainly afford it!

The Mayor of Franklin is requesting input from Franklin taxpayers regarding budget priorities using taxpayer dollars. There has been a consistent and small (30+-) majority of like-minded residents at monthly City Council meetings. The priorities of these attendees appear to differ from other hard-working taxpayers voicing their discontent on social media platforms. Social media is a dead-end for complaints. An elected official cannot use that input for more than informal consensus.

#47: Your first 100 days are making history. Your legacy is established. The least popular President in polling history, as recorded by several credible, respected national polls – not fake, and Fox News too!

Sunapee Central Elementary School has long been the town’s educational gem, and Patrick Gordon, the outgoing principal, has made that gem shine. He has led with compassion and fairness, and has never played favorites. He has helped students during tragedies and other difficulties, assisted families facing financial struggles, and guided his young charges through interpersonal conflicts with a steady hand. He has made a difference and will be missed.

This past weekend (April 24–27), wealthy out-of-staters backed by the Texas-based Young Americans for Liberty PAC — armed with millions of dollars — gathered in Concord for a Free State/Liberty Alliance event. They weren’t here for sightseeing; They were here to push a libertarian agenda that doesn’t reflect the values of New Hampshire’s residents. (Read more at https://nhlibertyforum.com/)

Who isn’t haunted by the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the immigrant father of three who, by the government’s own admission, was mistakenly deported to El Salvador’s brutal terrorist prison? Not only did the administration refuse to immediately rectify its mistake, but now President Trump claims there’s nothing he (Mr. “I alone can fix it”) can do to bring this man home.

I’ve been rereading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in honor of its one hundredth birthday. I just encountered the following passage, describing an outburst from the novel’s arrogantly rich antagonist, Tom Buchanan:

Extortion is defined as the use of force or threats to compel another person into providing money or property or using force or threats to compel a public official to perform or neglect an official act or duty. Over the past few weeks, we have seen Donald Trump use his executive orders, the Justice Department and a strategy of withholding funding to get law firms, universities and even the mayor of New York City to comply with his demands. He has issued executive orders against a number of law firms who defended his enemies or whose lawyers worked on cases that resulted in indictments against him.

I am a Vietnam veteran and took an oath to protect and preserve the Constitution. Since January, our government has been ruled by idiots and grifters. The idiots are the Trumpists who fired nuclear weapons security personnel and then had to say “oops.” Those who fired people working on avian flu and then wondered why egg prices were high. Those who fired 10,000 workers working on curing cancer, tuberculosis, dementia and more. The idiot at the IRS who fired 7,000 people in February at the height of the tax season and, then, on April 14th, had to call them back.

We recently purchased several kitchen appliances from Lowes, Gilford. We’d been customers for many years and enjoyed the products and service. A delivery date was scheduled, and we looked forward with great anticipation to our new appliances. When the truck pulled up to our house, we were ready: The doorways had been measured, and the refrigerator was empty. The first deliveryman entered and declared they wouldn’t fit.

Where did you stand when the government man came for the lamb? Where did you stand? Did you raise your voice? Did you make a fuss? What was your choice? Did you fight for us? Did you close your eyes? Did you look aside? Did you act surprised? Did you save your hide? Were you bold or meek, too afraid to speak, when the government man came for the lamb?

On March 11, the New Hampshire House Environment and Agriculture Committee voted to kill HB 152, which would have prohibited the sale and use of adhesive-based rodent traps, commonly called glue traps. The committee disregarded the hundreds of citizens who urged them to pass this bill. They didn’t care about the obscene cruelty of these traps, that the animals stuck in the glue die slowly, in agonizing pain, from starvation dehydration or suffocation. They dismissed the many more humane, non-chemical options available for rodent control. They ignored the advice of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department that glue traps should be avoided. They disregarded testimony from wildlife rehabilitation professionals about the non-target animals often captured in glue traps, including squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, skunks, bats, songbirds, snakes, salamanders, toads, turtles, frogs and even kittens and puppies. They scoffed at the many New Hampshire Statutes and Administrative rules that contradict the use of glue traps, such as RSA 206-19:B, which states that any person who causes a wild animal, fish or wild bird to be tortured or mutilated, either purposely or negligently, is guilty of a Class B felony or a misdemeanor respectively. The members of the committee who voted against HB 152 are: Representatives Judy Aron, Barbara Comtois, Catherine Kenny, Seth King, Laurence Miner, Kevin Scully, Kelley Potenza, Liz Barbour and Lisa Freeman. If you care about animals, please contact these legislators and tell them that torturing and mutilating animals is not acceptable in our state.

Three decades ago, the newly independent country of Ukraine was briefly the third-largest nuclear power in the world. Thousands of nuclear arms had been left in Ukraine by Moscow after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Eventually, Ukraine made the decision to completely denuclearize. In exchange, the U.S., the U.K. and Russia would guarantee Ukraine’s security in the Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine was told at the time that the Western powers — certainly at least the United States and Great Britain — take their political commitments very seriously. This was a document signed at the highest level by the heads of state. The implication was Ukraine would not be left to stand alone to face a threat should it come under one. But treaties, agreements, promises, handshakes mean nothing to #47 (who never served): Those are for losers and suckers, even if their violation means destroying the underpinnings of an albeit imperfect world order that kept a modicum of peace, at least in the West. And we can always argue about who really started the war in Ukraine! Instead of a shining city on a hill for all the world to see, America is revealed as a fair-weather friend, never to be trusted again. Oh, and even if you think we’ve sacrificed enough of our “blood and treasure” for a bunch of ingrates, why would any country or state now engage in nuclear disarmament or not want to become a nuclear power?

Welcome to Trump’s Amerikkka: Experience racism, inequality, hate and violence at your leisure. Fascism is not being called for what it is, but you, too, will have a chance to experience it firsthand. Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for you, your children, your grandchildren and generations to come. The question becomes what we would like to see rise from the ashes.

Since the circus came to the White House, there are so many things happening I can’t keep track. A car show in the front driveway with only one vendor there. I wonder what the other car manufacturers thought about being left out. They’ve been engineering cars and trucks, retooling factories and building battery manufacturing facilities. Why were they left out? Aren’t they also great companies with smart people? I guess not. One question that keeps coming back to me and hasn’t been in the news recently is: What happened to TikTok? Both branches of the legislature passed bi-partisan legislation calling for TikTok to be shut down due to national security concerns. TikTok fought it all the way to the Supreme Court and the court upheld the law agreeing it was in the national interest to remove TikTok. In February, for about 6-8 hours, TikTok went dark. However, through an executive order, it was brought back for 30 days so the “smartest man” on the planet could find a buyer. I haven’t heard if there’s a buyer or even an interested party. 30 days have passed — shouldn’t the law be upheld? This is another example of President Trump thumbing his nose at the other co-equal branches of our government.

It’s easy to overlook the importance of Medicaid until you or someone you love needs it. For our family, Medicaid is essential for our physical, emotional and financial well-being. One of our twin sons was diagnosed in utero with a congenital heart defect, which has led to numerous medical and developmental challenges. Without Medicaid, he would be severely limited in the amount of speech, occupational and physical therapy he could receive. Private insurance only covers a fraction of what he needs. Medicaid ensures that he can see all 14 of his specialists at Boston Children’s Hospital without us having to worry about sacrificing the best care for financial reasons. It covers necessary testing, surgeries and procedures that help keep him stable. Recently, the company I had been working at for over 10 years closed, leaving us reliant on my husband’s insurance. As his employer is a small company with limited coverage options, the costs are unaffordable. I have been searching for work, but it is nearly impossible to find a job that allows me to care for our one child’s medical and developmental needs. If we lost Medicaid for our medically complex child, we would be financially devastated — or worse, forced to sacrifice his health. Families like ours should not have to fight to keep the care that allows our children to survive and thrive. I urge policymakers to protect Medicaid and recognize its life-changing impact.

Stop, stop, stop — this has to stop! The president is trying to dumb down the nation by essentially blackmailing educational institutions at all levels if they do not comply with his orders. His latest targets are the Department of Education and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The benefit of cutting programs is nil, nada, nothing. In New Hampshire, the IMLS survives with federal funding for the InterLibraryLoan services. We need this program to educate readers all over the state. Programs for the blind and disabled are being targeted. We are not a nation of white Christian men and their dependents. The United States is a multi-ethnic, multicultural country that thrives on diversity and welcomes all peoples. The courts, Congress and the legislature need to uphold our freedoms. And the people must speak out and protest!