Antisemitism probes: a Trojan horse for bigots
Islandia, L.I.: Of course, the CUNY administration didn’t put a swastika nor advocate for its placement on the Hunter College campus. CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez responded to Rep. Elise Stefanik and the New York Post article that the university had been waiting for an NYPD investigation, and the hateful Nazi symbol could not come down immediately. Councilwoman Inna Vernikov and Stefanik had a joint press conference demanding his resignation.
Stalinism is at work among Republicans. In the USSR, Matos Rodríguez would have been given five years in the gulag, but his resignation or firing is uncalled for. Republican leaders have asked for many things to protect Jewish students but offered no money for more campus security. That was a fatal flaw, but their attempt to attract Jewish voters and money goes on.
This is a city where talk of communism and socialism is heavy in the air. Republicans only talk about Cuba and Venezuela with their talk about socialism even though our capitalism contains socialist elements that helped make our nation great.
La Cagoule, Léon Blum and Marx Dormoy are things for all students and voters to look up online. President Trump goes after socialists and communists, and he blamed Jews in advance for an election loss that did not happen. France in the 1930s was characterized by things we see and expect right now in the United States and other countries. Trump has to be stopped now. Martin Danenberg
Masking policy
Spring Valley, N.Y.: Why are ICE agents and police officers wearing full face masks? I thought they changed it so you shouldn’t be wearing face masks in public unless you have a weakened immune system. Delores McDonald
Dopey dragnet
Union, N.J.: Re Monday’s front-page headline (“Migrant shoots border agent,” July 21): Isn’t this what Trump promised? Isn’t this what he appropriated $16 billion in taxpayer dollars for? Not for arresting/deporting breast-feeding mothers, children with cancer, taxpaying farm and construction workers, men with innocuous non-gang tattoos, people trying to follow the rules and attend court and immigration hearings or people who express concern for Palestinian rights? We the American people are being cheated out of billions in tax dollars by Trump, Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi and the rest. Bait-and-switch is illegal! Lou Alt
Refusing repression
Jackson Heights: I’m writing as a former Iranian political prisoner who survived Evin Prison, a place designed to erase people. I was prisoner 200002. I was beaten, had my nose broken and was held in solitary confinement for expressing dissent and making art. Three years ago, even here in NYC, I was attacked by regime supporters. And I have faced suspicion in the U.S. simply for speaking Farsi. At times, asylum interviews repeated the same accusatory questions I heard from Iranian interrogators. My art confronts this violence. It preserves the memory of those disappeared without graves or names. Through photography and film, I refuse the enforced forgetting that regimes demand. I share my story because the machinery of repression is not unique to one country. Authoritarian systems anywhere depend on silence, fear and erasure. Bearing witness is my protest and my promise: This will be over too. David De Hannay
Maintain dominance
Cincinnati: Re “Seeing clearly on Putin” (editorial, July 17): History is a musty subject. It’s stuff from the past, and we have our eyes on a future of new gadgets, words and ideas. The problem is that while technologies, language and concepts evolve, often at a breakneck pace, human behavior remains the same — motives and responses like reflexes, unable or unwilling to change. But those steeped in the Judeo-Christian ethic and precepts of Western civilization are forever hopeful that history can be changed if only we try harder. So we do, over and over, only to stumble against George Santayana’s dictum that those who don’t learn from history are likely to repeat it. Hopeful talk was blather to our enemies in WWII until we rendered them incapable of further harm by imposing unconditional surrender. I’m not suggesting forever wars, but we must regain superior defensive posture against tyrants who threaten us and understand that handwringing without impregnable defense invites attack. Paul Bloustein
The world’s a witness
Edinburgh, Scotland: Last year, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu in relation to the IDF’s atrocities in Gaza. Thanks to social media, we’ve not had to rely on tamed Western journalism to know that the vast majority of those who’ve died have been defenseless civilians. Palestinian hospitals, refugee camps, news outlets, aid deliveries and ambulances have all been targeted. So why has it taken the slaughter of at least 3% of the entire population of Gaza for the once-proud New York Times to finally take its own gloves off and simply use the appropriate term: genocide? Amanda Baker
Unrestrained violence
Dover, Del.: Why are so many folks confused about the situation in Palestine? The Zionists have the Hannibal Directive, which states that it’s OK to murder your own people to prevent them from becoming hostages. The IDF shot and killed countless Israelis to prevent them from being taken. The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas gave Israel an excuse to slaughter the women and children in Gaza. If only the Zionists would stop invading the West Bank, stop the settlers from terrorizing those unarmed, innocent farmers and families, go back to Israel and leave them in peace. The Zionists are the only ones bombing every nation nearby. Chalky White
A fox in the henhouse
Western Springs, Ill.: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been ordered inoperative by the Trump administration. According to the Chicago Tribune, “The bureau is supposed to be helping oversee the nation’s banks and financial services companies and taking enforcement action in case of wrongdoing. During its 15-year existence, the CFPB has returned roughly $21 billion to consumers who were cheated by financial services companies.” Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill renewed his huge tax cuts mainly to the super-wealthy while cutting Medicaid and hospital funding that helps millions of people. Trump presents himself as a fighter for ordinary people, yet his policies continue to favor the ultra-wealthy like himself, who are often his big donors. Richard Barsanti
This won’t stand
Kew Gardens: With tax reductions to the wealthy being financed by budget cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and USAID, one is reminded of Scrooge, the wealthy but callous Charles Dickens character in “A Christmas Carol.” He preferred to support prisons, union workhouses, treadmills and poor laws. If the needy refused to go to such places, he felt it best that they die and reduce the surplus population. Political leaders should not assume that American citizens will readily accept subservience to the wealthy. If they do, change will come to both sides of the political aisle. Glenn Hayes
Exciting is ineffective
Melbourne, Australia: It looks like there is a lot of coverage of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, connections between them and their possible activities. At present, there is discussion but little released information. However, there is no discussion about me, and I am pleased about this. There is a great pleasure in being boring; no one wants to know what I have done or will be doing. I don’t use social media, so no one can search for any misadventures. In case someone does try to find a colorful past, I don’t have one, unfortunately. Most politicians are actually boring but hard-working. The louder they are, the less they seem to be doing to help their constituents. There is a lot more to come of this past friendship. Dennis Fitzgerald
Noise polluters
Bronx: Will someone please tell me why these dumb people blast their music from their car radios day and night, seven days a week? Jimmy Durda
Cold case
Manhattan: Is it still too early to inquire why the sexual assault on Connie Francis at the Westbury Music Fair more than 50 years ago was never solved? Surely, evidence of a crime was left at the scene. Has it been revisited in the years since, as any other cold case would be? And if not, why? Aydin Torun
