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The same media outlets that at best ignored — and at worst suppressed — the evidence of a real recession during the Biden years are now yelling “recession!” in a crowded theater every hour as the market begins a long overdue correction and as tarrifs and DOGE start to bring the industrial base back to America and wean our corporations off of inflationary federal subsidies. This is just a Democrat party in shambles trying to push a narrative and poison the country against it’s popular president. Give us a break.

In 2008 Putin, Russia’s fascist president, replaced his prime minister’s seat with a close ally followed by a term change from 4 to 6 years. In 2020, a constitutional reform allowed Putin to run for president two more times while increasing the power of the president. is this the playbook for the Trump regime? That could happen at a Article V convention, supported by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025’s primary source. Can you hear the laughter all the way from Putin’s expansive desk? A convention was recently and surreptitiously touted in New Hampshire by Rick Santorum and Rep. Moffett as a pathway to “fiscal responsibility.” They neglect to tell you all of Project 2025/Article V aspirations. An Article V convention would allow Republicans to write amendments without compromise from Independents or Democrats! Project 2025 outlines their plans to dismantle protections within two years. Pages 531 and 532 regard the transfer of federal lands/wilderness, national parks and monuments. Page 557 regards civil rights, including abortion, diversity, a plan to dissolve fair housing and civil rights acts. Other pages promote destroying the endangered species act and the National Environment Policy Act, instituting term limits for the Supreme Court and tax reductions for the wealthiest. The dangers are not just lurking in the far distance but are upon our doors to undermine the constitution, democracy and freedoms every enlisted service-member and veteran has dedicated their life to. New Hampshire citizens become informed, resist and make your voices be heard!

It’s said that when you put a frog in a pot and turn the temperature up very slowly, the frog doesn’t realize it’s doom until too late. That is how the New Hampshire legislature is trying to destroy public education in our state. Despite a constitutional obligation to “cherish the interest of public schools,” the Education Freedom Account laws increasingly divert funds for public schools to parents who choose other educational options. At first, eligibility was limited to families who earned less than 300% of the federal poverty level. Then, it was raised to 350%. This year, the Senate passed a bill to expand funding to everyone regardless of income level. Currently, the program is diverting $27.7 million from public schools. Making eligibility unlimited is estimated to cost at least an additional $6-11 million in the next 2 years, and up to $100 million. Who do you think will pay for budget shortfalls in our local schools? Besides diverting funds, the Senate last year passed a bill that allowing the Department of Education to ban books. This year, the Senate passed a “parental bill of rights” that among other things gives parents the right to “direct the education and moral training” of their minor children. Taking money from public schools and creating new paths for parents to dispute how public schools operate is taking us down a path to destroy public education. The water is getting warmer. Pay attention now.

America will be less safe, less prosperous and weaker in the eyes of the world as a result of the Trump Administration’s abrupt and uninformed assault on foreign aid and the USAID. Secretary Rubio has canceled 83% of USAID’s programs, claiming that they do not serve national interests. As a retired Foreign Service Officer who has lived and worked across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, I know he is wrong.

Recently, President Trump, citing information from the White Coat Waste Project, correctly highlighted NIH-funded transgender research on mice. Unfortunately, some have misused this information to incite hostility toward the transgender community. This is both unfair and unacceptable, as the transgender community neither requested nor endorsed this research. Criticism should be directed at those who fund and conduct these cruel and unnecessary experiments, not at any other group of people. Animal experimentation is cruel, outdated and wasteful, and it must end. Just as technology has advanced beyond 1950s-era automobiles, medical research must evolve beyond reliance on animals. Modern alternatives — such as human cell cultures, organ-on-a-chip technology and computer modeling — offer more accurate predictions of human responses than animal models. For example, while some cancer treatments have shown success in mice for decades, they have failed in human trials due to fundamental biological differences between species. Funding should prioritize human-relevant research methods that drive more effective and ethical scientific progress. As President Trump stated, the NIH allocates millions of taxpayer dollars to studies involving animals. Researchers continue to profit from animal experimentation, which, despite being outdated, remains a standard research method. Securing grant money for animal-based studies is often easier than for more modern alternatives. To learn more, visit the White Coat Waste Project online. If you feel frustrated or angry, direct it toward the institutions and individuals profiting from these experiments, not innocent people.

The new Congress is in full swing, bringing with it many fresh challenges and opportunities. This year, I hope our federal lawmakers will harness the opportunity to protect America’s equines, dogs and farmed animals from cruelty and abuse. According to multiple studies, most Americans are passionate about animal welfare, but efforts to pass responsive legislation have lagged. Countless dogs trapped in the cruel puppy mill industry continue to suffer without adequate oversight, while thousands of American equines are still being shipped across our borders and brutally slaughtered. At the same time, industrial animal agriculture corporations are engaging in risky and inhumane practices without proper accountability. And yet, public dollars continue to be funneled to these large-scale operations over sustainable, higher-welfare farms. Past legislation like Goldie’s Act and the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act could help address these issues. I hope my legislators, Sen. Shaheen, Sen. Hassan and Rep. Goodlander, will co-sponsor these bills when they’re reintroduced, and I hope they’ll oppose dangerous legislation like the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act. These actions could transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of animals, consumers, farmers and farm workers, and horse owners. The public has spoken — now it’s time for Congress to act.

I am writing to express my concern with the focused attacks on the rights of transgender individuals, which is happening on both the national and local level. In New Hampshire, there have been numerous bills introduced this year regarding gender identity ranging from requiring school employees to disclose information to parents (SB 96), bills prohibiting “biologically male” students from participating in female designated sports (SB211), prohibiting gender-affirming care for those under 18 (HB377, HB 712), and rolling back nondiscrimination protections by permitting classification based on “biological” sex in bathrooms and detention facilities (HB 148). It is estimated that nearly $215 million dollars was spent on network TV ads targeting transgender people this past election. This estimate does not include additional money spent on streaming and cable ads. Approximately one percent of the U.S. population is comprised of transgender people and transgender rights are not at the forefront of the primary issues that Americans are concerned with. Yet, here we are seeing our trans service members being attacked, restrictions being placed on healthcare access and lifting of anti-discrimination laws for this specific population. Making matters worse, many of our elected officials are not listening to their constituents and recommending “ought to pass” on several bills despite in-person and on-line testimony reflecting the opposite. It is time that NH legislators listened to the people and address issues that matter to Granite Staters and stop just promoting the national agenda.

The AARP told its members that it is “hearing from thousands of older Americans confused and concerned about their Social Security payments, the status of Social Security field offices, and inexcusably long wait times on the phone to get their questions answered.” It also reminds its 38 million members, “Every working American earns Social Security. And after an entire lifetime of hard work, it’s your money.” It’s not the government’s money. And especially not Elon Musk’s and President Trump’s money. The Trump/Musk administration is cutting 12 % of Social Security’s work force, making it more and more inefficient, so that in time, people will give up on it. The end game is to privatize Social Security. Ever since Social Security came into being under FDR’s administration, a segment of the super-rich has been trying to kill it off. Now it appears to have been given a death sentence by thousands of cuts to its infrastructure. That’s why the AARP is asking it members speak up. Nearly 70 million of us get Social Security benefits – and another 30 million Americans are over 55. The vast majority worked hard to receive their benefits in our retirement years — and we vote. Republicans, Democrats, Independents, let’s start calling, going to Congressional offices, emailing, protesting and demanding that everyone in government remember that Social Security belongs to us. We are not about to let a bunch of greedy billionaires take it away.

After a shameful, staged White House spectacle designed to belittle President Zelenskyy, President Trump told Zelenskyy to leave and come back when he was ready for peace. Zelenskyy has been ready for peace since Feb. 25, 2022, the day after Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed their peace. But, unlike Trump, Ukrainians believe in the New Hampshire motto “Live free or die.” Trump believes in the motto “they were suckers and losers.” Viewing a WWII cemetery in Normandy, he said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

Elon Musk claimed his job was to eliminate waste and fraud. He and a bunch of 19- to 26-year-olds have ordered mass firings in departments they know nothing about. If someone points out that those fired were really needed, such as people taking care of our nuclear weapons, they say oops then try to cancel their actions. They cut off money for foreign aid which the Secretary of State had to restore.

At a time when federal government is being DOGE’d, the responsibility for ensuring that America continues to be a prosperous land of opportunity is being transferred from the federal government to states. This transition is something that conservatives have been advocating for for decades, and now, for better or worse, it is coming to pass. State government has an awesome responsibility to step in where the federal government has stepped back, and we must ensure that New Hampshire remains an amazing place to work, to raise a family, to go to school and to be part of a healthy and vibrant community. Unfortunately, in many respects this awesome responsibility and new reality is not reflected in the Republican budget bill. Rather than step up where the federal government has stepped back, this budget proposes many of the same kinds of short-term cost cutting measures that will have long term impacts to our state. While New Hampshire remains, for now, one of the wealthiest states in the country, that status cannot long endure unless we truly invest in our public education system (including the University system), health care (including mental health care), workforce housing, childcare, transportation, our environment and energy infrastructure. I urge all members of the House and Senate to consider the totality of our social and economic environment and to recognize that cuts to vital services will have real and immediately deleterious impacts on New Hampshire residents, families, small businesses, towns and cities.

As Donald Trump proceeds down a path to abandon Ukraine, I am reminded of the words of President John F. Kennedy spoken to a very young teenager in his 1961 Inaugural Address. “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

Article 6 of the New Hampshire Bill of Rights states: “No person shall ever be compelled to pay towards the support of the schools of any sect or denomination.” Forcing New Hampshire taxpayers to financially support religious education through voucher programs is a violation of our constitutionally guaranteed liberties. This should be sufficient reason for our New Hampshire lawmakers to reject any voucher program that allows even a dollar of public money to go toward religious education. Sadly, New Hampshire lawmakers are more focused on gutting and privatizing our state’s public education system than on upholding the rights of their constituents. Shame on anyone who supports HB 748 or any other program that funnels public, taxpayer funds to religious schools.

On March 23, the governor and council have an opportunity to save public education and potentially reduce our property tax burden by refusing to reappoint Frank Edelblut as commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of (Public) Education. Here is what I sent to the governor and council members: “Dear Gov. Ayotte and council members, I urge you not to reappoint Commissioner Edelblut as the head of the New Hampshire Department of Education. During his tenure, he has done more to destroy public education than any previous commissioners. He has let his personal religion and disdain for public education beliefs cripple our excellent system of education for New Hampshire’s children. In addition, he has continued to re-write history and frighten hard working and dedicated teachers with his “Freedom” legislation and robbed the Educational Trust Fund to give wealthy households access to vouchers originally earmarked to assist low-income parents to pay for their children desiring to go to a different school. Masses of data show that not only is the original intent a failure but it has also further moved the cost of educational services onto towns. As recent school board meetings throughout the state have shown, the public is both angry and aware of the pain he has caused and correctly point the finger at the state for our huge increases in property taxes. Edelblut’s reappointment would show everyone that our state is anti-public education. Please appoint someone who believes in public education, the foundation of our democracy.”

The U.S. president’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Feb. 28 was appalling. After three years of courageously leading the Ukrainian people through a brutal war against Putin’s neo-imperial Russia, Zelensky endured an outrageous lecture on the importance of peace from a president who openly favors the Kremlin. The “leader of the free world” raised his voice at Zelensky and chastised him for “hating” Putin after the Russian despot invaded Ukraine in a war that has killed over 100,000 Ukrainians.

Again, in the Monitor, we are reading about a vigilante group who wants to harass a transgender child at a school sports event. They are calling it “freedom of speech” but this demonstration belongs on the State House steps, not on a school playground. Do these people have no compassion for a minority group who just want to be part of what every child deserves in their school experience. To those in power: Be strong in your resistance to bigotry and bullying.