The Three Stooges

I am so confused. Over the years Donald Trump has called the press, “the enemy of the people.” Michael Waltz, the Trump-appointed national security adviser, has admitted to creating a text chain on the Signal app that contained operational and military information regarding missile strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen. Numerous high-ranking American defense and security officials, including Waltz, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance were on the text chain. Also included was a journalist, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. What is confusing is why a known “enemy” would be included on such a serious military matter.

What is not confusing is the unserious, stooge-like behavior of these officials. In fact, Waltz, Hegseth and Vance’s conduct is reminiscent of the Three Stooges, with one glaring exception. Amongst these three, there is no Moe. Just a bunch of Shemps.

— Robert Aragon, Duarte

An unintended contact

Letter-writer Len Musgrave from Orange is right when he asks, “Who among us has not sent out an email with unintended contact added?” I have. Although I’m an octogenarian who has struggled with Dry MD the past six years. So how careless that these Trump picks did not vett who was included in this highly sensitive conversation. It’s grounds for firing. Passing the buck is to be expected. How ironic — the battleship USS Harry Truman was the Navy ship from which the attack jets launched.

— Bob Ginn. Arcadia

Breaking up with education

What a perfect metaphor for the Trump movement: “Trump launches education breakup” (March 21). Besides acting against people who are not White, people whose origin is another country, women who are not blonde and anyone he or his minions think is smarter than them, or not rich, people with knowledge scare him. He was not kidding when he said he “loves the poorly educated.” They are the easiest for him to con into supporting him, even against their own interests.

As he and his Elon-directed goons work to make all the rest of us less secure, less safe and less able to protect ourselves, he is counting on his enablers to carry out his plans, which includes an ever-increasing transfer of wealth into the hands of those who already have more than enough, and to disable any regulations that would hinder their greedy grasp of riches and results in the desolation of the Earth .

Arguing with this mob of his seems to be pointless. Their support of a convicted sexual assaulter, a felon, and a source of a fountain of lies is total for now. Even the states where his policies have harmed residents the most seem to be an unfailing clump of supporters. One of the clues to this mindless support can be found in many of the columns of the Opinion section. Some of these writers could almost be said to be on Trump’s bandwagon, joining most of the gutless appeasers in the Trump/Republican party. Right now it appears that the average American has a very weak defender in the current Democratic Party. Much of their behavior falls under the definition of spineless.

It looks like the GOP plan is to keep up this attack on the American people, and most of the rest of the world by keeping us as ignorant as they can. My advice is to make yourself open to many sources of news, including some in this newspaper, and stay alert.

— David Gooler, Pasadena

Re “Trump rejects idea Musk should see top-secret China war plans”:

Although Trump rejected the idea, according to the press, his lengthy history of spewing misinformation and disinformation to his MAGA supporters and the press does not bold well for the security precautions covering our military’s top secrets. Trump’s mishandling of classified documents and his loyalty to Putin, along with the sycophants he has surrounded himself with in his second term as president, will make it impossible to know if Trump will not include Elon Musk, who paid Trump over $200 million to be a member of Trump’s exclusive White House Club. We have witnessed how Trump on public television did a commercial on the White House lawn of Musk’s Tesla and cyber truck vehicles, an event never done in U.S. history. Trump’s loyalty is to Musk, not to the military or the republic.

— Larry Naritomi, Monterey Park