Readers’ comments: January 23, 2026

Empathy for the plight of the local press
Dear editor:
I very much appreciated reading publisher Peter Weinberger’s comments regarding the plight of small newspapers such as the Courier, even as he wrote about the promotion of Anna Hoy to become the first-ever general manager of the Courier.
As I have reported in the past, my mother came from a newspaper family, her father and all seven of his brothers were involved in the business, as was her older sister and their brother who, together with my father, owned a small newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee, around the time I was born 85 years ago, which failed because of the financial problems faced by such businesses in those years.
Don Fisher
Claremont

Was the lonely A Line worth it?
Dear editor:
Forgetting the president, economic challenges, and other horrors for a moment, I’d like to comment on our local area. The electricity-powered Metro A Line (formerly Gold Line) nine-mile extension from Azusa to North Pomona, which cost around $1.5 billion, was big news for a while. We live close to the MetroLink tracks used by the large diesel-powered trains, and the A Line tracks are just north of those. We endured some five years of construction disruptions not to mention La Verne having lost many of the beautiful, old deodar cedars along the Metro route on Arrow Highway. But it’s for the greater good, I thought. Fewer people in cars.
When the extension opened in September 2025, I was excited to think we have a light rail that goes west to Union Station, East L. A. and even Long Beach. Many apartments have been built on land close to the various stations so people could opt to leave cars at home and go to work on various Metro lines.
Now a number of months have passed and, having been stopped so frequently at various track crossings by the lighted crossing bars, we’ve observed at all times of the day maybe one or two heads showing on the trains as they pass in either direction. They run approximately every 10 minutes and from 4 a.m. to midnight. And the big, noisy MetroLink trains still run pretty much as before.
I’d like to think this is a temporary situation and that soon the trains will be teeming with riders, but the evidence so far seems to reflect just the opposite: a beautiful light-rail extension that dutifully runs on schedule but with hardly a passenger in sight.
Don Linde
La Verne

It’s time for the 25th Amendment
Dear editor:
Boo-hoo, he didn’t get a Nobel Peace Prize. So, he’ll have to use force in taking Greenland. This most ignorant president gives a whole new meaning to the word petulant. Boo-hoo. So sad. So sad.
I didn’t get one either. Maybe I’ll have to invade Andorra or San Marino to get even?
Senator Chuck Shumer yesterday called for the activation of the 25th Amendment, which allows the cabinet to remove a president who is incapacitated. This president is clearly unwell.
One of his late evening posts shows staff and administration officials in the Oval Office gazing on a huge world map propped up on an easel featuring the U.S. flag superimposed over not only Greenland but also Canada and Venezuela.
It is time for NATO to step up to the plate and strongly fortify Greenland with sufficient forces to dissuade the president from this military misadventure. It’s Article 5 time (that article of the NATO treaty which states that an attack against one is an attack against all).
If not, it will be our children and grandchildren from our fair city of Claremont sent off to the most imbecilic of foreign follies. As my button from the 60s said, “War is good business. Invest your son.” Trump’s war machine will gobble them up.
Where is Congress to put a halt to this madness? Are his GOP toadies really okay with all this madness? If so, voters will remember. This November vote like the future of our constitutional democracy depends on it. It does.
John C. Forney
Claremont

Majority rules, but …
Dear editor:
Sometimes the majority can be wrong, therefore, sometimes the majority can pass wrong laws just like the majority can hold onto wrong morals.
Opanyi Nasiali 
Claremont

Calling Dr. Freud
Dear editor:
Trump, a narcissistic sociopath eagerly accepted Machado’s Nobel prize, wearing a Cheshire grin. Nazi poster child Stephen Miller may want to inform him that the Nobel is not transferable from the winner to him a loser. He will never be recognized by the committee. Machado, desperate, thought if she gave him her Nobel he will announce her to replace Maduro. Sadly, she has not paid attention that dealing with Trump is a one way street. You give; he takes!
To him, her Nobel is just another shiny gold object he can hang on his wall alongside the fake Time magazine covers and other self-anointed trophies. This is truly sick behavior, but it doesn’t end there. Trump’s real focus has become crystal clear: how much wealth can I amass? How many structures can I put my name on and how many countries can I threaten and take over?
Here is a short list:
U.S. Institute of Peace, Kennedy Center, Trump Accounts for tax deferred investments, TrumpRx government website, Trump Gold Card, Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, Donald J. Trump Boulevard, watches, Bibles, sneakers, smartphones, and a meme coin named “$TRUMP.”
Future plans include a new line of battleships, a minted coin, the NFL Washington Commanders’ new stadium, June 14th as “Trump day,” the Washington Metro renamed the Trump Train, Dulles International and Palm Beach International Airports also renamed.
Republicans claim Greenland is cause for impeachment, we’ll see.
Heil Hitler, I mean heil Trump!
Sydney Pollard
Claremont

Trump makes ‘wanted man’ feel safer
Dear editor:
I stand at my window and watch the morning sun rise and the traffic go by and realize I am a wanted man. There are countries that want me dead because of my lifestyle and there are people that want me dead because of my religion.
You ask me if I am safer under the presidency of Joseph Biden or Donald Trump and I say “Trump” every time.
At one time the United Sates was an isolated country; but not anymore. An intercontinental ballistic missile can reach us in minutes. Russia and China have expanded their sphere of influence across the Pacific, into Africa and Latin America. The six o’clock news doesn’t tell you this. Instead, they focus on local or national news, injecting their bias, believing we can’t think for ourselves.
I am uneasy with what President Trump is doing with regard to Venezuela and now Greenland. I am uneasy because it is unheard of. It just isn’t done! But do I believe it will make me safer? Yes!
David Stedman
Claremont