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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’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:

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!

As the State House crawls with controversy over parental rights, I, a state representative, am going to be faced with a vote that you might help me with: Which mom goes to jail for egregious child abuse? Here are two real-time scenarios going on in this country, with details slightly altered to protect the innocent. One mother decides that her two sons, ages 4 and 1, are actually daughters and begins to display them as daughters. As she’s a lawyer, and as the young men grow to adapt to the role the mother assigned and to become the best young women they can be, she forces the district to acknowledge her choice as “current science and mandated practice.” The other mother is told by her concerned neighbor that her fourteen-year-old daughter “identifies” as a boy. When asked, the daughter says she’s gone confused to counselors and health teachers at school who taught her that this was normal and that she could be whatever she chose. The mother called the school to complain that her daughter had been “groomed” and to ask why no one had called her. She prepared to find a lawyer to pursue a lawsuit. The lawyer whose two sons were daughters refused to take the case. Is either mom in this scenario an abuser worthy of loss of custody and imprisonment? You decide. Thank you in advance. And, if it really matters anymore, predict each child’s future. This is the 21st century.

Trump delivered Ukraine to Putin, whose invasion caused the worst European military crisis since WWII. Trump’s capitulation shows an eager-to-please Trump blessing everything Putin. Trump’s bizarre claim that Ukraine started the war makes as much sense as saying Ukrainians have brazenly placed their country in the path of Putin’s innocent bombs.

If you voted for President Donald Trump: Are you having second thoughts about some of his policies and/or Elon Musk’s DOGE? Did you vote for cutting off large chunks of staff and programs serving our veterans, disabled Americans, the poor, cancer and Alzheimer’s research, school lunch programs, IRS personnel seeking tax-cheaters and simply responding to calls for help, air traffic controllers, 83% of the USAID life-sustaining food and health work around the globe or 50% of our Dept. of Education?

Gov. Ayotte plans to rein in spending by instituting a work requirement for persons receiving Medicaid. The New Hampshire Senate promoted her plans when it passed SB134 on party lines, 16-8, on March 6. The idea is as old as the Poor Law of Queen Elizabeth I and is found most recently in the Trump-MAGA playbook, Project 2025. In 2019, New Hampshire attempted a Medicaid work requirement only to have Gov. Sununu end it after spending $130,000 because it proved to be onerous and difficult to implement. A court order closed a similar program in Arkansas in 2018.

Last year, 68 so-called “Republicans” voted with 152 Democrats to pass HB 1291. Fortunately, we knew who they were because it was a roll call vote. Thankfully, one senator killed the bill when it crossed over. On March 13, “Republican” anarchists pushed through a number of damaging House bills on voice votes. Is there any state representative who, as an “unapologetic Republican,” would ever have the guts to remove these horrific bills from the consent calendar, speak against them and demand a roll call? Or are they just going to allow themselves to be steamrolled?

“Hide under your desks.” Directions given to students in 1950s air raid drills seem to be our Democratic senators’ response to MAGA bullying and menacing. Their support of the Continuing Resolution (H.R. 10545) passed under House Majority Leader Mike Johnson legitimized cruelty and destruction straight out of Project 2025. By voting with the MAGA House majority, Senators Shaheen and Hassan signaled approval of activity that would transfer Social Security and Medicaid dollars to plutocrats who pay no taxes — and eventually the funding of Medicare — from accounts we built with money taken from our paychecks. For many retirees and disabled people, that’s a death sentence, as even those of us who planned ahead rely on Social Security to meet basic expenses. Without Medicare or Medicaid, we cannot afford even basic medical care. For all their talk about veterans, our senators approved deconstructing the Veterans Administration at a time when many vets need extra services. No excuse is adequate in the face of capitulation to the party of greed, grift and despotism. Only fear explains their votes. Neither party stands up for us at the moment. It’s time for “good trouble,” as John Lewis would say. Attend a rally on April 5. Pick a topic: education, veteran’s affairs, Social Security, health care, environment, science, national security or any other one under attack. Resist! Our senators betrayed us. We have to defend ourselves. The cavalry isn’t coming.

I recently attended public committee hearings at the Legislative Building in Concord on some bills being considered for a vote in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. While waiting for my turn to be called to testify before the committee, I noticed several out-of-state people being called to testify before me. This was infuriating. I asked Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Chairman MacDonald why out-of-state people were being allowed to testify before the committee before me. His response was that there were no rules as to who gets to testify before anyone. This is outrageous. I do not understand why people from out of state are allowed to come into our state to testify and influence our legislature anyway. To me, it’s akin to voting in a state in which you don’t reside. I can understand having an expert in a certain field be allowed to come in from out of state to testify about a bill, but these people were not experts. They were out-of-staters who didn’t like freedom and diversity and who came to New Hampshire to influence our legislators. This should not be allowed.

Long ago, we should have gotten rid of these hordes coming across our borders. A million of these ne’er-do-wells – French Canadians, mostly Catholic – poured into New Hampshire and New England in the late 1800s. Sure, we needed them for cheap labor, but we failed to recognize them, as the New York Times did at the time, as “ignorant and unenterprising, subservient to the most bigoted of Catholic priests [and] caring nothing for our free institutions, civil or religious liberty or the benefits of education.” And we failed to see this Canadian invasion — again, as the Times saw — as a planned effort to create a “New France” as “part of a priestly scheme, fervently fostered in Canada, to bring New England under the control of the Roman Catholic faith.” This was seen as “the avowed purpose of the secret society to which every adult French Canadian belongs.” An invasion a generation earlier brought several million Irish Catholics to New England to fill labor needs. Their shortcomings, too, were clearly labeled: “stupid, apelike, lazy, drunks, criminals, takers…” Their depravity and Catholicism were seen as threats to American nativist culture. As foreseen, the descendants of these hordes have taken over New Hampshire; but unpredictably, they became property owners, entrepreneurs, civic leaders and civil servants. In fact, our governor is a hybrid product of these hordes, a genuine Irish-French Canadian Catholic. What surprises me is her decision to cooperate with Donald Trump’s mass deportation and turn a blind eye on the experiences of her ancestors.