Stolen/rigged election
I see Cyber Ninjas has collected $5.6 million to carry out the Maricopa election audit. Pretty good when the Arizona Senate thought $150,000 would do the job. This audit occurred even after more than 60 lawsuits were turned down for lack of evidence of election fraud.
I think the money would be better spent by just offering a million-dollar reward, or more, to anyone that helped obtain 8 million fraudulent votes for Biden. It must have taken hundreds of election workers in cahoots to pull this off. Surely there is one or more persons out there that would jump on this kind of money and risk a few years in prison. They could easily “spill the beans” on how hundreds of election boards were duped into accepting the fraudulent votes and certifying their election results. A few million dollars might be the tipping point for someone with a guilty conscience and a yearn for money to step forward.
Antone Hagen
Sierra Vista
State law banning abortions
An Arizona law that will take effect in September 2021 bans an abortion due to a fetal genetic defect. While a number of fetal genetic defects are not life threatening, Tay-Sachs is, usually by the age of 2, while Sickle Cell Anemia is quite painful, causes permanent organ damage and cuts life expectancy almost in half.
Just wondering, have the Arizona Republican state legislators who supported this legislation and the governor who signed it, considered these genetic defects and the extremes of others? And, do they realize that the problems children with birth defects have last a lifetime and typically outnumber their structural defects? Programs that these children need are expensive, and this legislation does nothing to address this issue.
Ginny Williams
Oro Valley
Easy gerrymandering fix
Re: the July 31 article “For the People Act would prevent gerrymandering.”
There is an easy fix to gerrymandering and other political misadventures. It could bring much excitement and fun to an otherwise messy process.
From now on, after each election, citizens from the losing party get to do the redistricting before the next election. If the majority of voters in a given area are registered as independents, they get to do it. Simple. Of course, for the first few years, we’d all need to wear hearing protection to insulate us against the inevitable whining from all the displaced “victims.”
This solution, coupled with a new requirement that all legislators pass stringent mental health examinations and verifiable proof of citizenship before each vote, could go a long way to ensuring election integrity.
There you go. Freedom. Liberty. Power to the people. What could go wrong? How bad could it be?
Bruce Kaplan
Northwest side
Forgiving scientists
I think it’s time to start cutting our scientists some slack. Many of us are clamoring for simplistic, black and white answers to a virus that is unprecedented, unpredictable and constantly changing. Despite this complexity, I don’t hear vaccinated people expressing regret, and though science is not perfect, it’s the best advice we have and certainly better than Republican talking points.
Craig Wunderlich
West side
Well, at least he can draw
Re: the Aug. 1 Editorial cartoon by David Fitzsimmons.”
A hardy finger wave to David Fitzsimmons, whose cartoon depicts an empowered, protective and vaccinated mother (dressed in blue), haloed with adjectives of positivity and affirmation, and a red-neck anti-vaxer, drawn to look as stupid as possible (strangely, dressed in red), and encircled with adjectives that express his ignorance and lack of humanity.
I have many friends who have chosen not to receive the COVID shots. Most are not anti-vax; they’re college educated, kind and generous, and their leanings dot the entire political spectrum. Most importantly, they do their diligent research (from accredited sources) for themselves and their children, rather than blindly follow the CDC and their “Science of the Week.”
Nice job of furthering the divide in this country and applying your obvious prejudice over a huge and varied population. COVID “vaccine” hesitancy is not party-specific; clearly, bigotry isn’t either.
Richard Peddy
East side
So you don’t want to be vaccinated
On July 11, radio talk show host Phil Valentine got COVID-19 that settled in his lungs. A few days later he wrote that he thought he was “on the other side of it” describing the painful coughing, congestion, fatigue.
Previously, from his bully pulpit, he expressed disagreement with mask mandates, scoffed at vaccination because his chances of dying from the virus were “way less than 1%” and claimed the hospitals were never in danger of being overwhelmed. Many of his listeners didn’t get vaccinated because he didn’t.
Meanwhile, Mr. Valentine became critical last Sunday and was helicoptered to a hospital with a heart/lung machine.
How many people followed the advice of a talk radio show host? Didn’t wear masks or get vaccinated or have health insurance? Would be able to afford a helicopter ride? Miss a month-plus of work?
Finally, how many of these people could live with the knowledge that their behavior endangered their loved ones and allowed a dangerous virus to evolve into a more dangerous virus?
Cindy Soffrin
Northeast side
ADU has its drawbacks, too
Re: the Aug. 1 article “Allowing new casitas on residential lots helps home owners, community.”
As usual, I disagree with Johnathan Hoffman. He extolls the virtues of the city of Tucson’s ADU (accessory dwelling unit) proposed ordinance and mentions none of the drawbacks.
Hoffman fails to mention the problems with absentee (often anonymous) landlords, short-term rentals, parking, architectural style, etc. With the TPD not responding to noise complaints, how do these problems get settled with more people living in a smaller area? Nothing in the proposal deals with these issues.
Could it be that Hoffman does not live in a neighborhood where ADUs could cause these problems? Maybe he lives in a historic district or one with an HOA. This ordinance, as it stands, leaves out those areas. Just asking.
Steve Poe
Midtown
Critical Race Theory and cocaine
Re: the Aug. 1 article “Critical Race Theory: What it is and isn’t.”
Michael Schaller is being misleading when he writes in the context of his article the following: “Congress made this worse by deciding to punish one form of cocaine (crack), used predominantly by minorities, far more severely than powdered cocaine, used predominantly by whites. These and related policies resulted in rates of incarceration for Blacks at least five times that of whites.”
What he writes is true, but he leaves out an important fact. It was not white racists that proposed that increase in punishment. It was actually the Black Caucus in Congress and Black ministers who pushed for that law. They thought that by punishing the use of cocaine (crack) more severely would discourage the use of it in the Black community.
It did not have the desired effect.
Mr. Schaller provides many facts for his argument, but I wonder what other important facts he left out.
Saul Rackauskas
Southeast side
