Mailbag: Anyone else want to start a Grandpa Brigade?
Kudos to the Grandma Brigade for protesting in front of the Costa Mesa Tesla showroom ('Grandma Brigade holds its first protest in Costa Mesa to 'stop the Musk takeover,' March 7).
I'm sure the Raging Grannies of Spokane, Wash.; Eugene, Ore.; Madison, Wis. and other communities salute your efforts. Which begs the question: Where is the Grandpa Brigade? Because I am 76 and about to become a grandfather for the third time, I think it's safe to say I could easily qualify as a charter member. Who's with me?
Denny FreidenrichLaguna Beach
Is MAGA-only library book collection next?
How many times does this need to be repeated? There are no pornographic or obscene books in the Huntington Beach Library children's department. It is illegal for book publishers to sell such books for children.
Puberty books, books about the human body and sex education books are not pornography, no matter how many times the Huntington Beach City Council tries to convince people otherwise. Councilman Chad Williams claims the ACLU is stripping parents of their right to decide what is appropriate for their children, but this is what our council is doing.
They want a 21-person committee of their choosing to have the ultimate say over what books can and cannot be ordered for the library. They want to restrict access to library books they find questionable to anyone under the age of 18. Censorship is censorship. The City Council is not letting parents decide for themselves. They are deciding for them.
Although they had the option, they chose not to accept either library petition, one to do away with the review committee and the other to allow residents to vote before the library management can be outsourced. They claim they have no plans to move forward with outsourcing the library. If this is true, why didn't they accept the petition? Instead of waiting until the next general election, our council has chosen the most expensive option to fight against them. Our city will hold a special election, June 10, at the cost of at least $1 million.
Our city is known to have low voter turnout for special elections. If residents love their library and their freedom to read freely, they need to vote in favor of the library petitions. This is just the beginning of the chipping away of residents' rights. If our council is allowed to continue their censorship of library materials and is given the freedom to outsource library management to a private company without resident approval, what will come next? Residents need to get out and vote. If you are upset now about a MAGA library plaque, wait until you have a MAGA-only library book collection.
Barbara RichardsonHuntington Beach
H.B. City Council's claims of voter fraud nonsense
The Huntington Beach City Council claims that voting is unsecured. I say such claims are unfounded and problematic, and here is why: On Jan. 1, the Orange County Grand Jury published its report, 'Is Voting Integrity Alive and Well in Orange County?' On page 19, it states: 'The Grand Jury's analysis confirmed that the 2024 election maintained the highest level of integrity for OC voters.'
The panel listed its findings:
• 'There was no evidence of fraud or election interference ascertained in the 2024 general election in Orange County; • Voting in Orange County is fair, secure, and transparent;• The ROV communications and outreach programs promote transparency and public confidence in the voting process. Orange County eligible voters can feel secure in knowing that the ROV provided an election of the highest recognized standards.'
Yet, despite these findings, the City Council continues to make unsupported allegations. Show us the data! If there is any, who published it? How many cases of voter fraud have been reported to the O.C. district attorney's office?
On May 15, 2024, I heard Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer address this issue at the office of the O.C. Registrar of Voters. He said that while many claim voter fraud has taken place, they do not provide evidence to that effect.
Clearly, this council is talking nonsense about voter fraud! Now, they want to divert taxpayer funds to run city elections?
Kathleen BungeHuntington Beach
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Time Magazine
28 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
Why Trump Has Had Enough of This Republican Congressman
'MAGA doesn't want him, doesn't know him, and doesn't respect him,' President Donald Trump wrote in a lengthy tirade against Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman from Kentucky who has criticized the President over a number of issues from war with Iran to the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill. 'He is a negative force who almost always Votes 'NO,' no matter how good something may be. He's a simple minded 'grandstander' who thinks it's good politics for Iran to have the highest level Nuclear weapon, while at the same time yelling 'DEATH TO AMERICA' at every chance they get,' Trump posted on Sunday. He added: 'MAGA should drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague!' Massie responded with a tongue-in-cheek post on X that the President 'declared so much War on me today it should require an Act of Congress.' Massie joined last week with a number of Democratic lawmakers to raise the alarm over potential U.S. military intervention in the Middle East without constitutionally-mandated congressional authorization. While Massie won't face a reelection contest until 2026, Trump has already unveiled a plan to challenge him and further enforce loyalty within the GOP ranks. 'The good news is that we will have a wonderful American Patriot running against him in the Republican Primary, and I'll be out in Kentucky campaigning really hard,' Trump added, without naming a prospective primary opponent. 'MAGA is not about lazy, grandstanding, nonproductive politicians, of which Thomas Massie is definitely one.' Massie, who is known for his outspoken libertarian views, has survived primary challenges before and told Axios, which reported on the effort to oust him, that 'any serious person considering running should spend money on an independent poll before letting swampy consultants take them for an embarrassing ride.' Who is Thomas Massie? Massie, 54, was born in West Virginia and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering from MIT in the 1990s before turning to local politics in 2010, when he ran and won the race for Judge Executive of Lewis County, Ky., amid the Tea Party wave. In 2012, after then-Rep. Geoff Davis announced his retirement in Kentucky's deep-red 4th congressional district, Massie, who described himself as a 'constitutional conservative,' won the Republican primary in a landslide. When Davis resigned early, Massie won the same-day special election and general election to succeed him, taking office two months earlier than his fellow freshmen representatives elected in 2012. One of Massie's first moves was to vote in January 2013 against party leader John Boehner for Speaker, opting instead to vote for fellow libertarian Justin Amash. (Boehner narrowly won the speakership but would go on to resign in 2015. Amash would go on to not run for reelection in 2020 and temporarily leave the Republican Party after earning Trump's wrath for consistent criticism of the President and supporting his impeachment.) Since then, Massie has made a name for himself by regularly voting against bills, often breaking with his caucus and sometimes siding with Democrats. In 2013, Politico dubbed him 'Mr. No.' In 2016, Massie said he would vote for Trump but do everything he could to 'rein him in' if he acts unconstitutionally. In 2017, Massie tried to explain how the same movement that propelled him into office could also propel someone like Trump, telling the Washington Examiner: 'All this time, I thought they were voting for libertarian Republicans. But after some soul searching I realized when they voted for Rand and Ron [Paul] and me in these primaries, they weren't voting for libertarian ideas—they were voting for the craziest son of a b----- in the race. And Donald Trump won best in class.' During Trump's first term, Massie was among a small group of Republicans who joined Democrats in trying to override Trump's veto of legislation that would block his national emergency declaration at the border in 2019. That same year, he was the sole Republican to vote against a resolution opposing the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement targeting Israel, and he was the sole no-vote across both parties on the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. In March 2020, Trump called Massie a 'third rate Grandstander' and urged Republicans to throw him out of the party after the congressman tried to force a roll-call vote on a $2 trillion pandemic relief package. The stunt earned rebuke from both sides of the aisle, with former Democratic presidential nominee and former Secretary of State John Kerry posting on social media: 'Breaking news: Congressman Massie has tested positive for being an a--hole. He must be quarantined to prevent the spread of his massive stupidity.' But in a U-turn, Trump endorsed Massie in 2022, calling him 'a first-rate Defender of the Constitution.' In 2022, Massie was the lone 'No' vote on a symbolic measure condemning antisemitism, a move he defended as a stance against 'censorship' but critics described as 'performative contrarianism.' Why Trump wants Massie out Massie was once again on Trump's bad side in 2023 when Trump shared posts on his Truth Social platform that called the congressman a 'wolf in sheep's clothing' and said he 'helped destroy the Tea Party and now he's trying to destroy MAGA.' That didn't stop Massie from endorsing Trump in the 2024 general election after previously backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary. But Trump finally had enough of Massie in March, when Massie voted against a continuing resolution to fund the federal government until September as Republicans worked to pass Trump's massive tax-and-spending legislative package, the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' (OBBB). The President took to Truth Social to appeal for a primary candidate to challenge Massie in 2026: 'HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED, and I will lead the charge against him. He's just another GRANDSTANDER, who's too much trouble, and not worth the fight. He reminds me of Liz Chaney [sic] before her historic, record breaking fall (loss!). The people of Kentucky won't stand for it, just watch. DO I HAVE ANY TAKERS???' Massie brushed off the criticism, telling Politico: 'I had the Trump antibodies for a while — I needed a booster.' He said at the time that he had no intention to cave to Trump's pressure and believed the President's grudge would 'blow over.' When Massie continued to voice loud opposition to the OBBB, which is estimated to add trillions to the national debt, Trump said of Massie in May: 'He doesn't understand government' and 'should be voted out of office.' The OBBB ultimately passed in the House in May, when Massie was one of two Republicans in the lower chamber to vote against it. It has yet to pass in the Senate, especially after Massie found a sympathizer to his concerns about the bill's impact on the deficit in tech billionaire Elon Musk. Trump's latest missive against Massie came as Massie has become a leading voice against military intervention in Iran. Days after Israel launched an attack on Iran, Massie cosponsored a war powers resolution with Rep. Ro Khanna (D, Calif.) aimed at blocking the U.S. government from engaging in 'unauthorized hostilities.' After Trump revealed U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Massie posted on X: 'This is not Constitutional.' While some have categorized Massie's wing of the MAGA base when it comes to the war as 'isolationists,' Massie told CBS on Sunday that he rejects the label, preferring 'non-interventionists.' 'We are exhausted,' he said. 'We are tired from all of these wars.' How is Trump planning to beat Massie? Trump is dedicating campaign firepower to oust Massie. Axios reported that Trump's senior political advisers, Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita, will launch a political action committee devoted to defeating Massie in the May 2026 primary. LaCivita said the PAC will spend 'whatever it takes' to defeat Massie, who according to the team's internal polling was lagging behind the President in terms of support. As of now, only one candidate, Niki Lee Ethington, has announced that she will vie for Massie's congressional seat. Other names being floated, per Axios, are state senator Aaron Reed and state representative Kimberly Moser. 'Massie's long-time opposition to President Trump's working family tax cuts—and really anything to do with President Trump—is coming to an end,' LaCivita said in a statement. 'Thomas 'Little Boy' Massie will be fired.'
Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Dan Tully: I trust my fellow service members will abide by the Constitution
Having served as a captain and judge advocate in the Army Reserve, graduated from Stanford Law School and deployed overseas in Iraq, I have thought deeply about military command and the obligations incurred by swearing an oath to the Constitution. These concerns weigh especially heavily as President Donald Trump deploys active-duty military members as a show of force against peaceful demonstrations in Los Angeles and potentially here in Chicago. I want my fellow citizens to know something important. I trust the common sense and decency of my fellow American service members. I have served alongside them, some who consider themselves to be MAGA Republicans. I know they understand how grave and serious it would be to use force against their countrymen and countrywomen. Let me explain why. All service members swear an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.' Enlisted service members continue swearing to 'obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me,' expressly conditioned by, 'according to the regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).' With that condition, the enlisted oath is not absolute; if an order is unlawful, an enlisted service member is responsible not to obey. The obedience language is absent from the officer oath. Instead, officers swear to 'well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.' In short, while all members of the military must act in accordance with the UCMJ, each officer must exercise an even higher level of responsibility, remaining loyal not to a president but to the Constitution. No service member should ever follow a clearly unlawful command, especially when that command is to harm unarmed, peaceful citizens of their own country. It is infuriating that we are even in this situation. Trump doesn't care about members of the military, referring to fallen soldiers as 'suckers' and 'losers' for not escaping their obligations as he did during the Vietnam War. He denigrates the records of patriots such as the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, degrading his war hero status. He has saddled them with an incompetent secretary of defense in Pete Hegseth. Most dangerously, Trump intentionally disregards centuries of the military's most essential tradition of nonpartisanship, eroding American faith in our most trusted institution. What troubles many of us in the military — something I would advise my fellow soldiers and commanders to consider — is the terrifying prospect of an unlawful order coming down from this reckless president. Trump has openly mused about service members using lethal force to control protesters, portraying them as domestic enemies of the Constitution. In fact, it's the opposite: The protesters are exercising their First Amendment right to free speech and assembly in support of the 14th Amendment rights of people being kidnapped and deported without due process. To the extent that there have been acts of violence and vandalism in the vicinity of the protests, those acts are unlawful. Police in our cities are fully capable of addressing the situation. Protests — even ones that include civil disobedience — should not be met with violence unless there is no other option available. But this president believes violence against our citizens is an acceptable first choice because he doesn't value the rule of law or, by his own admission, his duty to uphold our Constitution. American military members are trained and proficient at understanding the conditions under which it is lawful to use force in the heat and exercise of war. They are taught to obey the chain of command, especially on a battlefield. Unit cohesion and effectiveness depend on the obedience of orders. But a service member is not a robot, blindly obligated to fulfill a command received from a superior with no application of context or thought. Especially if that command is given outside the theater of war, with no imminent danger to personnel, and even more so when present on the streets of an American city where the people those soldiers swore to defend are petitioning the actions of their government. American soldiers have misused lethal force in the past, and they have faced consequences. Second Lt. William L. Calley Jr. was convicted by court martial of the premeditated murder of 22 Vietnamese in the famous My Lai massacre. He was convicted because the threshold for disobeying an order is, according to the Manual for Military Courts-Martial and case law, 'a person of ordinary sense and understanding would have known the orders to be unlawful.' With a president so intent on sowing chaos every day, it must be a difficult position for the American troops who have deployed to Los Angeles and are rumored to be on their way to other cities. But Americans stand up to do what's right in difficult moments all the time. We must not forget that there are numerous institutions available to us all to safeguard our rights. Our military, state and federal criminal justice systems are populated with true patriots who believe in the rule of law. This is, ultimately, why I trust that our service members will do the right thing when the time comes. They have been trained well, and they know their obligations to their country. I have sworn an oath to the Constitution three times — as a lawyer, an Army officer and a federal civil servant. The Constitution is not a suggestion; it is the supreme law of the land. Even if our president won't abide by it, I trust my fellow service members will.
Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Letters: How could anyone describe Donald Trump's presidency as successful?
Conservative political activist Charlie Kirk stated that a major split among MAGA could 'disrupt our momentum and our insanely successful Presidency.' I do not know what world he lives in. I don't know of anyone who would describe Donald Trump's presidency in those terms. Rather, I see and hear all but the few who are still trying to rally around this divisive, corrupt, inept, lying, felonious, cruel, finger-pointing, bigoted, sloppy man, to name only a few characteristics. I am feeling truly frightened and agitated. He has embarrassed and disappointed us time and again. He has created a nation and, yes, a world, of people who seem to have drunk the Kool-Aid but don't realize it. Some of us cling to the thought of righting things again in the future — truly making American values a source of pride and leadership that bring respect and calm to ourselves and each other. Albeit, hope is waning. Projection abounds as some people point fingers and assign blame to others when in reality the blame belongs to those projectors. And they know it. They just dig in their heels hoping our existing president will actually deliver on something, anything, of which to be proud. Supplying Israel with more money and arms ain't it, and under our watch, we contribute to wars and even more division among us. When are the followers going to recognize and admit to having backed the wrong horse?China relishes an Iran with nuclear weapons so they both can intimidate and dominate the Gulf States and the West to allow oil to freely flow to energy-dependent China. The U.S. with Israel's help must forcibly neutralize Iran's Fordo underground nuclear site, thereby removing Iranian intimidation goals and starving China's oil hunger while giving the Iranian opposition courage to accomplish a regime change from within. The world must not be threatened by the duplicitous and diabolical tyrants with nuclear weapons and a ballistic missile voters backed Donald Trump in 2024 because he pledged to put 'America First,' believing he would bring peace through strength to the Middle East. Thus, it's hardly surprising that the incipient conflict with Iran has caused a rift within President Trump's base. Already many of the leading lights of the MAGA movement, both in and out of government, have broken openly with the president. Never before has MAGA looked so close to fragmenting altogether. Iran is not currently in active pursuit of a nuclear weapon, which Trump's own intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, reaffirmed barely three months ago. As such, the Iranian nuclear 'threat' should be seen for what it is: an almost comically flimsy pretext for military intervention. In this perilous hour, our nation faces two vital questions: Will the perceived threat of a nuclear Iran really push Trump to war? If yes, will the American public go along with it? There are many factors standing in the way of war at this time. For starters, the administration simply has not done the preliminary work needed to build support for it. When the George W. Bush administration decided to test conclusions with Iraq in 2003, it didn't simply announce plans to invade. It took months of convincing Congress and the public of the need for intervention, laying out the case and presenting intelligence and analysis (some of it, admittedly, inaccurate). No such effort is being made with Iran, despite the overwhelmingly negative public reaction. The idea of sending thousands of soldiers into a country of 90 million people on the slim pretext of destroying a (mostly imagined) nuclear weapons program would be a tough sell even under favorable political and strategic conditions. In this particular case — with no clear war aims, no credible casus belli, and none of the preplanning and operational preparation required to mount an invasion — it's unlikely to fly with a war-weary (and war-wary) American public. The political will for such an undertaking simply is not there. Should the Trump administration actually go through with a quixotic invasion effort, the cost in blood and treasure would doubtless drive a permanent wedge within the MAGA movement. The president must decide whether a war of choice is really worth the price of fragmenting both the movement he built and the support base on which he that time President Donald Trump shared highly sensitive intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office? You can bet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remembers. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Netanyahu hid their plans for their recent successful military strikes against their adversaries from the U.S. president. Smart cookies. Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un are 'smart cookies,' according to our kowtowing president. Now all the smart cookies will keep their plans of attack to themselves while our incompetent boobs share sensitive military strike details on Signal chat texts with their family members and a surprised Atlantic reporter. Our president no longer wants the United States to be the world's leader in defending democracy. He's too busy dismantling ours (and golfing).I have worked for 50 years in rural Honduras, getting to know those whom President Donald Trump calls 'animals,' 'rapists' and 'murderers.' I fear that the president does not understand who these people are or why they come to our country. Most would rather stay home among family and friends. They cannot do so because American CEOs and politicians have together created trade policies that impoverished their country. When I started working in Honduras in the 1970s, many rural people grew their own food, especially corn, selling surpluses to buy necessities. They were poor but relatively self-sufficient. There were few signs of malnutrition. In 2004, Honduras signed on to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which promised expanded opportunities to sell Honduran exports in the U.S. Instead, the country was flooded with cheap U.S. government-subsidized agricultural products. Imported crops, including corn, were now cheaper than locally grown equivalents. Unable to compete, farmers lost their lands. The jobs available in multinational factories paid little and were too few to meet the needs of the growing number of displaced people. Currently, 63% of Hondurans live in poverty; 1 in 4 children younger than 5 are malnourished. Unable to feed themselves or find work at home, Hondurans seek employment in the country whose trade policies impoverished them. Traveling north is dangerous. Since 1998, at least 8,000 migrants died on the U.S. southern border; more perished on the journey to that crossing. Those who made it live in the shadows, working low-paid jobs harvesting our crops, landscaping our yards and building our homes. Immigrants who are undocumented also commit crimes at much lower rates than citizens. One powerful reason is that they come here to earn money, most of which is sent home to support their families and keep their children in school. Committing crimes would only draw attention to them, speed their deportation and ruin their families. Some immigrants do commit crimes. The great crime, however, is perpetrated by politicians and business leaders who created a system that greatly advantages corporations over people. That system drives immigrants northward not to cause us harm, but because they have no choice. Blaming these new arrivals for risking all for the families is cruel and media should be focusing on why Immigration and Customs Enforcement enforcers are being attacked. Could it be that the majority of Americans don't want inhumane treatment of those who are being apprehended? ICE agents can mistreat those they arrest, but those who interfere with such type of treatment are subject to arrest?U.S. Rep. Jesús 'Chuy' García could not be more wrong in his stance on the remittance tax ('Trump's remittance tax is a cruel double-tax on immigrant's dignity,' June 19). If you earn the money in the United States, it should stay here and benefit our economy and our companies. Without this money, other countries would be forced to do better by their people. We're not talking about a small sum. Remittances to just Mexico were more than $64 billion in 2024. Workers who come here need to come here because they yearn to be Americans, not just for using us as their piggybank. I believe it's one of the primary reasons we have so many immigrants who do not assimilate. They see the U.S. as a temporary fix for their financial troubles and never plan to stay in the first place. The tax should be is in response to the letter from Dick DeForte ('Show soldiers respect,' June 20) in which he takes exception to the Tribune providing front-page coverage of the 'un-American' protesters on June 14 and Section 2 coverage of the Army parade of the same day. I was one of those 'un-American' protesters exercising their First Amendment rights in a peaceful manner. I am an Army veteran, and I took great offense to President Donald Trump staging an Army parade that was nothing more than an ego trip for someone who avoided military service and who has nothing but contempt for the political climate encourages extremism, both to the far right and to the far left, and neither functions well in our system of democracy. Our nation was founded on compromise. It took until 1789 to adopt an acceptable compromise solution among the original states and then to build and adopt our Constitution. The only way it got done was through reasonable compromise between reasonable people. Both our far right and our far left today regard their views as the only 'correct' ones for our nation, and they are so different that any compromise is unacceptable to them. This has developed into continuous swings and the attendant turmoil we have today. Neither side is doing any favors for our democracy. What both parties need is moderate leaders and candidates who can work across the aisle and can compromise to come up with reasonable solutions to our issues. Ideally, both sides would experience equal discomfort with any resolution, but the majority of us would find it acceptable. Hopefully, we would also be more stable than today. It's time for moderation. It's time to abandon the idea that your ideas are the only acceptable ones. It's time to recognize the foundation of an effective democracy and begin working together to find reasonable-compromise solutions. Our democracy depends upon my opinion, America was always . Our new directive should be 'Make America .' When you think about the majority of people in the United States as being middle class and lower class, our goal should be to make life for the ones who are part of the growth we've already experienced. This group is the reason why we can produce what we do already. Part of this success has been global trade and immigrants who bring their own talents and personalities to the American table. America is like a mural in which each piece creates a mosaic that is unique in the world. Keeping that mural from disintegrating means affordable housing for all, sustainable wages, and global empathy and compassion, and keeping the world safe through research, communication and environmental security. Everything will fall into place, and all those pieces will become even more beautiful and .
