Greenland and national security
President Trump has sparked a fresh row with Denmark after appointing Louisiana's Governor Landry special envoy to Greenland. Trump has refused to rule out using force to secure control of the island.
Greenland's prime minister said the island must "decide our own future" and added "Greenland is not for sale!"
Trump claims we need Greenland for national security, not minerals and mentioned Chinese and Russian ships as potential threats in the nearby seas.
Greenland, home to about 57,000 people, has had self-government since 1979. Opinion polls show overwhelming opposition to becoming part of the U.S.
As with his military and rhetorical aggression towards Venezuela, it indicates Trump is determined to gain greater control over what his recent National Security Strategy called "the Western hemisphere," a sphere of influence that he hopes will cover the whole of the Americas.
Greenland holds vast mineral wealth, including critical elements like neodymium, dysprosium, graphite, lithium, copper, zinc, nickel, gold, iron ore, titanium, vanadium, and uranium, essential for green tech and electronics.
Ronald Eustice
Northwest side
Time traveler
I've been out of town for a couple weeks, missed reading our hometown newspaper. But whaddyaknow? Reading the LTEs today, I think I must have been in a time machine. I really had to look twice, because the same subjects, same writers, same complaints were there. Is there nothing worthwhile happening in our Old Pueblo, or are my fellow desert denizens in the time machine with me? Just wondering! Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año ...
Deby Mantecon
East side
Dark skies
In her Christmas Day opinion piece, “Steps the city can take to remove poverty label”, U of A student Hannah Meltzer calls for adding more streetlights in Tucson.
Ms Meltzer should know that Tucson is a Dark Sky Community, surrounded by world-class astronomical observatories that would be blinded by bright streetlights.
These include Kitt Peak to the west, the Mt. Lemmon Sky Center to the north, the Large Binocular Telescope to the east, and Whipple Observatory to the south.
Astronomy, including amateur astronomy, is an important industry in Tucson and is vital to further our understanding of the universe and our place in it.
Roger Voelker
Southeast side
Israel and Gaza
Mr. Bingham, this was a war perpetrated by Hamas, no one blames them for the starvation and putting people in harm's way. Why do they get a free pass? They gruesomely murdered over 1,200 children and adults in Israel. Took many people hostage, including the dead. Your message only increases hate towards us, please admit that Hamas is the blame. As someone said to me, it was a war, innocents are killed. Our narrative it needs to end, hate begets hate. I know your opinion is your opinion, I don't want Hamas to be martyrs. Where is the outrage of them killing their own after the cease-fire? Hamas was stealing food, where is the outrage? Hundreds if not thousands of those missiles shot at Israel every year from Gaza, no targets, just aimed at Israel. When Hamas protects their flock, like Israel does, war will cease and we will have peace. I truly believe they knew the narrative and collateral damage that would happen. Enough is enough.
Andrew Kunsberg
East side
SB 1070 derangement
SB 1070 is as necessary as a screen door on a submarine. “Senator Jenae Shamp of Surprise” wants to study Trump Derangement Syndrome as a psychological condition.
A complete waste of funds, as this has already been studied as confirmation bias. Confirmation bias, as defined by the American Psychological Association, is “the tendency to gather evidence that confirms preexisting expectations, typically by emphasizing or pursuing supporting evidence while dismissing or failing to seek contradictory evidence.”
I recognize three strains of TDS.
Left TDS: Trump can do almost nothing right.
Right TDS: Trump can do almost nothing wrong.
And finally, Trump TDS: I am the only one who can fix everything because I know what is best for America! Just ask me (or not), I’ll tell you, I am the GOAT.
James Abels
Midtown
The real truth
John Bingham's latest diatribe against Israel is simply more antisemitism and Israel-bashing. Equating the Israel-Hamas war with Genocide is not only historically ignorant but also blatantly false. It is war between Israel and Hamas, who are supported by Palestinians and who preach global terrorism, eradication of all jews, complete takeover of Israel (river to the sea). It's a war started by Hamas. In a wa,r civilians are always casualties as a result. That differs from genocide, which is the deliberate mass execution of men, women and children. Where is your indignation about the hundreds of thousands of civilians killed by the carpet bombing of German cities an WW 2, or Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Only when Jews bomb enemy cities does it become "genocide" and atrocities.
Genocide and atrocity is when you round up millions of men, women and children for concentration camps, mass execution, and gas chambers. It is not warning the enemy of planned bombing. Read a history book, holocaust deniers.
Dennis Abrams
Northwest side
MLK and Kirk
A writer recently whined about Gestapo ICE agents wearing masks for fear of being doxxed. Does he feel the same about college professors on Turning Point USA's "professor watchlist" being targeted, harassed and doxxed for espousing views contrary to TP's beliefs?
To quote one professor on the list, "I was targeted by Turning Point for writing an op-ed about gun violence and not having guns on campus, so for Charlie Kirk to be assassinated by a gun on a college campus is beyond ironic." So true.
Comparing MLK and Kirk is obscene, considering Kirk stated, "MLK was awful; he's not a good person." Kirk also stated the Civil Rights Act "created a beast, and that beast has now turned into an anti-White weapon." Yeah, us white folk have really had it rough. MLK's activism was inclusive; Kirk was white-centric and adversarial. I believe Kirk never came to a debate to "listen." He only came to pretend to.
Hope Gastelum
East side
Nature and nurture?
I read a story today of a newly discovered plant found in a forest outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, called a Fairy Lantern Flower and classified as a mycohetertroph. A mycohetertroph lives a parasitic plant lifestyle, which steals all its energy and nutrients from subterranean fungi to live.
“Most plants form a symbiotic partnership with mycorrhizal fungi, a relationship that stretches back in time about 500 million years …” The article goes on to state, “Mycohetertrophs cheat this system by taking without giving anything in return…”
I am often amazed to see how the community and relational dynamics found in nature are mirrored in human behavior.
Is it that Trump and his misguided sycophants and wealthy donors are merely following the parasitic side of nature as the excuse for their behavior — like the Fairy Lantern Flower?
I fear that their nature is shaped by something misguided over time. We must remain hypervigilant to overcome the inequities they are fostering with their shameless behavior.
Please stay engaged and vote.
Howie Adams
Northeast side
Put the phone down
My family just left our house after a wonderful Christmas party. Kids, grandkids and guests all had a great time. I'm sitting in my office decompressing and watching some local news. A guy comes on the screen saying that you can go to the store and buy QR code stickers to put on the boxes with your Christmas stuff. You put the QR-coded sticker on the box, then take your smartphone, load the QR code in your phone with a description of what is in the box. Dear Lord ... Put a piece of tape on the box and take a magic marker and write what is in the box on the tape. Don't risk someone hacking your phone, breaking into your house and stealing your $5 box of glass balls. Put your phone down. You can put your Christmas ornaments away without your AI smartphone.
Richard Bechtold
West side
Ignoring the Korean War and geocide
I noted Bingham’s ltr dated Dec. 25 ruling out U.S. actions in the Korean War with Israel and Gaza.
During the Korean War, 12%–15% of the North Korean population (c. 10 million) was killed in the war, or approximately 1.2 million to 1.5 million people, which was called “America’s greatest war crime.” General Curtis LeMay said, “U.S. forces killed off 20% of the population of Korea as casualties of war.” The United States dropped 635,000 tons of bombs, including 32,557 tons of napalm — more than was dropped during the entire Pacific campaign of World War II.
The historian B. Cumings called the American bombing of North Korea to genocide. We carpet-bombed North Korea using napalm and destroyed many towns and cities that "ranged from forty to ninety percent." Why are those figures irrelevant to Mr. Bingham? If we apply the same standards to the Korean War as to Gaza, Bingham’s hypocrisy is hard to ignore.
Mark Elliott
Green Valley
A plea for humanity
I admire the politicians and residents who bravely show up and speak out for justice when ICE arrives in their communities, ripping predominantly innocent people from peaceful lives. The detainments and deportations are profoundly immoral, happening only because our president is a bully whose enablers and followers are comfortable with his gratuitous and xenophobic cruelty.
Of course, our immigration system is broken. But why must it be so? Why shouldn’t welcoming and aiding human beings in need be among our top priorities? Speaking as a mother, grandmother and former educator, I see the right of all children to live in a nurturing, loving world as critical to our humanity. We’ve got to design and build a way out of this madness ASAP. Oh, and let’s bring along our love of democracy, our great diversity and our better angels to meet this challenge. Without them, nothing will change.
Vera Pfeuffer
Midtown
