President Donald Trump speaks Wednesday during a televised address to the nation from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House in Washington.
Snakebite
President Trump recently made a claim that 28,000 people die from snakebite in Peru each year. A check of the facts revealed that there have been 10 deaths from snake bites in Peru in the last 15 years.
I'd like to say that it is a slight miscalculation, but it seems that Trump has, like in many other instances, just pulled the number out of the air and claimed it is factual. He not only lies about everything, but he also imagines or fabricates at will. He is simply not able to be truthful for any amount of time. This is the man we tell our children to look up to, who should be a shining example of all that is right and good.
Sorry, but somehow, we have a person who is just the opposite. Please save our wonderful country and get rid of this vile individual.
Philip Reinecker
East side
Christmas concert at the mission
I want to thank the Star for the wonderful Opinion article "A Tradition to bring Preservation" by Miles Green.
For 19 years I sang at these concerts with the Sons of Orpheus Men's choir.
I believe that the heart of these concerts was the harmony between the Sons of Orpheus and the Boys chorus.
The boys sang the soprano and melody parts and the Sons sang the tenor and bass, making for a beautiful unique sound.
This harmonious combination of traditional Christmas music was continued throughout the concert including the recessional with the men singing "Silent Night" while the Boys sang "Peace, Peace."
Most of the years we did a free Monday night rehearsal concert and 6 to 8 concerts following which were sold out. These concerts were a joy to participate in, and raised much money for a good cause, the restoration of the Mission.
I hope sometime in the future we can again hear the Boys and the Men introduce our Christmas season here in Tucson.
Tom McGorray
Northwest side
TEP and the City of Tucson
William Beard's Guest Opinion railing about “Tucson TEP Complaints Ring Hollow”: Was his attempt at hiding the facts of basic math?
Tucson’s utility tax rate increase from 4.5% to 5% will generate an additional $5.25 million in revenue for the city.
What Mr. Beard fails to mention is that TEP’S 14% rate increase to its ratepayers will hit them with an additional $179 million in increased electricity rates.
This is after Tucson faces a $40 million shortfall in revenue because of Doug Ducey’s flat tax, which has caused revenue shortfalls in all Arizona cities.
Facts are so inconvenient for Mr. Beard & The Goldwater Institute, whose only mission is to cut taxes and starve cities of being able to provide basic services to citizens.
Mark Lasater
Northwest side
The president
Help! Our omniscient, narcissistic, and irrational president is losing it with his paranoia reaching new heights over any Republican or Democrat who says something about him in a negative way. Does he suffer from dementia? His hands reveal evidence of injections. Has he had a stroke? He is endangering our country and all Republican election office seekers in the 2026 elections. Does he care, I think not, about his political party? It is time to invoke the 25th Amendment to our Constitution.
Toni Kane
Oro Valley
Trump’s naming is territorial marking
Donald Trump’s obsession with stamping his name on everything is often dismissed as vanity or branding. This is territorial marking. He tags surfaces that would be the envy of graffiti artists.
Territorial marking is simple: Claim space loudly and repeatedly to assert dominance. Trump’s gold-lettered surname functions exactly this way. It is not about achievement or legacy; it is about presence, I am here. This is mine!
He signs hurricane maps. He demands personal credit on government checks. He even adds his name to a memorial at the Kennedy Center. These are not acts of leadership; they are acts of possession. The presidency, to him, was never stewardship. It was territory, his territory!
Perhaps Congress should grant him one final naming privilege. Give him the Bermuda Triangle, rebranded as the Trump Triangle, where facts vanish, accountability sinks, tariffs drift untethered from reality, and misogyny reliably resurfaces. He can rename it weekly. Nothing durable ever survives there anyway.
Lawrence E. Mazin
SaddleBrooke
Trumps honors himself
They say Trump writes his own speeches. His helpers won’t write what he wants. They are too embarrassed. With a limited vocabulary, he makes his points. The President’s last speech before the nation was one for the ages. Clearly, it showed that he is stupid, stubborn, and strange. To make his points, he hollered at the camera, thinking it was the best way to hammer home his whoppers.
He weeds out anything that might sound like the truth. It would confuse people.
Our elected leader is his own hoax. He has even fooled himself. He thinks he is the best thing this country has ever seen. Most Presidents must wait until they leave office to have statues and buildings dedicated to them. Not our guy. He honors himself while he can bask in his own glory and make his people fall all over themselves in disingenuous compliments.
Ron Lancaster
North side
H.R. 4405 is federal law
On November 19, 2025, Congress passed and the President signed into law H.R. 4405, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, legally requiring the DOJ to make public all DOJ and FBI records related to Epstein and Maxwell in a searchable and downloadable format by December 19, 2025. Both the President and the DOJ are in violation of this federal law and in contempt of Congress and in contempt of the American voters who elected them, let alone the victims of the sexual pedophiles who pursued them. Pardons will likely be issued all around but renaming the Epstein files as the Trump-Epstein files is clearly more justified than any of the other public renamings that this president has been forcing on the American institutions.
As MTG finally learned, MAGA is clearly not what its followers were led to believe.
Ed Waymire
Midtown
Data centers
RE: Project Brown
Many salient points have been raised questioning the wisdom of data centers in the Tucson area. I have been impressed by the writings of the educated members of our community.
Yet, I am surprised no one has mentioned the hazards of massive potential e-waste. It is not clear to me what the Board of Supervisors agreed to in this regard. Will the computer trash be going to Los Reales?
Data center technology is highly consumptive of resources and infrastructure has not kept pace. Computer equipment has a relatively short life-span. A server hard drive average life is 5-6 years, if well maintained and refrigerated to 68 to 71 degrees. Technological improvements are occurring about every 18 months, making replacement potentially sooner.
Sadly, only about 22.3 percent of computer equipment is recyclable. If not disposed of properly, mercury and cadmium will be added to the garbage gravy at the landfill.
Poor R.O.I. for Tucson in present form.
Barbara Stout
Northwest side
Climate alarmism or alarming stupidity?
A leading center for earth science research is on the chopping block, says Budget Director Russell Vought, who accused the center of "climate alarmism."
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado is a global leader in weather and climate research, which includes tracking severe weather events and researching how solar activity affects the earth's atmosphere, thus accurately predicting our weather. NCAR's years of research allows forecasters to predict weather days, weeks and months in advance (a boon to farming). The Center developed instruments to be dropped from planes to predict hurricane paths, and studied downdrafts, which led to detection of wind shear at airports that in turn have prevented hundreds of deadly aviation accidents.
Along with some government and National Science Foundation funding, more than 100 universities joined to create the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research to operate NCAR's laboratory.
So called "climate alarmism" is a stupid reason to end a useful and lifesaving institution studying weather and its effects worldwide. NCAR must not be dismantled.
Melody Sears
North side
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