I have a number of complaints about the current administration:

1. The present talks with Russia’s Putin about ending the war in Ukraine. These talks should have started with Ukraine, not with Russia. Trump knows full well that RUSSIA invaded Ukraine yet he has the nerve to say, “Ukraine never should have started it. They should have taken a deal.” There was no deal to take. Russia invaded Ukraine with no cause of any kind other than to steal territory from Ukraine or take over Ukraine completely. The administration is making a deal with Putin to partition Ukraine without even consulting with Ukraine. Exactly like Chamberlain making, “Peace for our time” in the treaty with Hitler to partition Czechoslovakia without consulting the Czechoslovakian government. How did that work out? Churchill said “They had a choice between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor and will get war.”

2. Elon Musk is wildly firing thousands indiscriminately. Elon Musk was not elected nor was he confirmed by the Senate. He is not even the head of a real department. Only Congress can create a Department and authorize expenditures or eliminate a Department or eliminate funding. The fact that he fired people in critical areas (like our nuclear weapons program and Air Traffic Control) and then had to scramble to rehire them is proof that no thought was given to whether these firings were a proper cost savings or not.

3. Musk has fired 7,000 employees at the IRS And plans to fire thousands more. If the goal is to reduce the deficit, (that is the plan, isn’t it?) then why are they going to fire the people who see that the revenue is coming in? You cannot possibly fire 7,000 people without losing important, skilled, knowledgeable people, the people that make the system work. The firings at the IRS serves to benefit only the wealthy. The average citizen cannot cheat on his taxes because all his income is separately reported to the IRS and there are very few deductions available to reduce that income. The missing employees will mean that audits of the rich will not get done. That is the real plan.

4. The personal data of many millions of people is being exposed to people who have no right to it. This would certainly include the personal data of Congressmen and Senators. There is no need for Musk’s high school kids to have access to this data. What are they going to do with this data? Who will they give it to? They will have access to your own data as well as mine.

5. The Justice Department is being used as a political weapon. Trump and his lackeys are directing the course of investigations on purely political terms. Where is the rule of law? Any prosecution should be based on the facts of the case, “without fear or favor.” The case against NYC Mayor Adams should go forward based on the evidence alone. Mr. Bove said bluntly that he intends to drop the case because he wants the cooperation of the mayor on immigration issues and that if the cooperation is not forthcoming, the case will be reinstated. That is a quid pro quo pure and simple. It is also what anyone would call blackmail.

6. The pardon of the Jan 6 offenders en masse is a disgusting abuse of the presidential pardon power. Those offenses were against the House of Representatives and the Senate, the very seat of our government The perpetrators were either convicted by a proper jury trial or pleaded guilty to the offenses as charged. Many less egregious offenses were pled down to minimal penalties. The pardons are a slap in the face to the police officers who were protecting our Congressmen and Senators. Seven people died as a result of those attacks.

7. Who is running DOGE? It appears that even a Federal Judge can’t get a straight answer to this question. Is it Musk or is it Trump? Or is it one of the high school whizz kids? Does anyone even know? It looks like no one is running it and it looks like that is the intention of the Trump administration so that they can deny anything and everything.

8. The cost savings being touted by DOGE appear to be wildly inaccurate. Real news agencies have questioned the figures put out by DOGE and found that many of the purported savings are nonexistent. A contract figure was off by a factor of 1000 to 1. Many canceled contracts had already been fulfilled.

9. The Trump administration is deliberately and systematically dismantling all the safeguards that the Constitution and Congress have put in place to limit the power of the King. Why are our Congressmen not seeing this and why are they not opposing it?

What is our Congressman Langworthy going to do about it? It would only take 3 or 4 honest Republican Congressmen and Senators to break the stranglehold that Trump seems to have on our government. He uses the threat of a primary ballot against you. What good does it do you to win the primary or the Republican National Committee endorsement if you cannot win the general election?

Daniel E. Olson is a Jamestown resident.