Unemployment
rate is a joke
On Dec. 3, Biden appeared in the White House and read a lengthy narrative from a teleprompter, as usual. He touted November's unemployment rate of of 4.2% being so great. He did not tout the November jobs numbers of 210,000, which was half the 500,000 that had been projected. The U.S. Dept. of Labor, reports there are over 10 million job vacancies in America.
The unemployment rate is a joke. Look around you, businesses everywhere post Help Wanted signs in their windows. The labor shortage is real. Employers are advertising wages way above the minimum wage and still cannot hire adequate staff. On one hand, Biden touts a great the economy, while on the other, says we need Build Back Better.
The non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, released a study this week of BBB and forecast, believing expensive sunset provisions will not expire, that instead of costing $1.7 trillion, it will cost $4.8 trillion, adding over $2 trillion to our debt.
Marcella Mavis
Northwest side
Vaccine mandates
Re: the Nov. 30 letter "COVID mandates."
The CDC states, "Infections happen in only a small proportion of people who are fully vaccinated, even with the delta variant," "when these infections occur among vaccinated people, they tend to be mild." The unvaccinated also remain contagious for longer. Let's be clear, this pandemic currently is being propagated by the unvaccinated. I might add, and the Republicans who encourage them. Having a mammogram is a personal decision. The only one to die from breast cancer is you. Also, for the love of God, please stop blaming all our problems on immigrants.
Lisa Bilek
Bisbee
COVID-19 home testing
What's the deal with over-the-counter rapid COVID-19 home tests? These are available throughout Europe at very low, if any cost. Instead, U.S. consumers must pay out of pocket for these tests, approximately $25 for two at local pharmacies — when they are available. As a registered nurse, I can only see that this practice limits access and is yet another contributor to pandemic disparities.
Patricia J. Kelly
North side
Trump and the loss of America
At an election rally in 2016, Trump advised the audience to knock the hell out of a protester and praised a lawmaker who body slammed a reporter. In 2016, when asked if he would accept the results of the 2016 presidential election, he said we would have to wait and see.
In 2020, he incited a mob to attack the Capitol to prevent a peaceful transfer of power. He refused to accept the results of the election in 2020 and urged state voting officials in Georgia to find additional votes for him.
Recent polls found Trump has an 86% favorable rating among Republican voters and is their favorite to run for the presidency in 2024. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/24/trumps-approval-ratings-so-far-are-unusually-stable-and-deeply-partisan/
Why so many decent Americans continue to support this crude, insensitive, pathological liar is beyond my understanding. Should he be elected president in 2024, America, as we have known it, will gradually cease to exist.
Stuart Sellinger
Northwest side
Jail those who
ignore subpoenas
Come on bi-partisan congressional committee. Don't be a wuss. Don't let those you want to testify get away with giving you the finger or thumb their nose at you as they ignore your subpoenas.
In 1996, Susan McDougal spent 18 months in prison for refusing to testify before a congressional committee. That is what should happen to anyone who ignores a subpoena, refuses to testify, invokes the Fifth Amendment, or otherwise ignores you. Don't spout words like "looking into," "threatening," or anything as ineffectual, when a person is wanted to testify. Just throw them in jail if they don't immediately comply.
After a few weeks of wearing orange jumpsuits in jails in different parts of the country (so they can't collaborate their testimony), separated from families, and no hope that Trump will "pardon" or "bless" them, they will realize that honesty is the best policy, a word they may choke on, being unfamiliar to living it.
Jerry Lujan
SaddleBrooke
Safe for the moment
I was so relieved to receive the news bulletin this morning that Lee Enterprises has rejected the offer of the Alden hedge fund to take over the Star and other newspapers. Readers of the Star should be extremely grateful that they will continue to get strong, local, investigative reporting, as well as support for community events such as the Tucson Festival of Books. Newspapers, their readers and their communities throughout the country that have been acquired by Alden have not been so lucky.
For example, the Chicago Tribune, once a leading national newspaper, is a shell of its former self since its board of directors sold the paper to Alden in 2020. A long time ago, I worked at the Tribune, and it pains me to see what it's become due to the loss of many fine reporters and editors.
Karen Schickedanz
SaddleBrooke
Potential buyout
of the Daily Star
There is one thing Tucsonans can do if they are concerned about loosing the Star. Buy shares in their parent company, Lee Enterprises. If enough Tucsonans own shares in the company it gives them some control over attempts by predatory companies to attempt hostile takeovers.
You will not only help protect the Star but papers in other markets that are threatened by such takeovers.
This is one of those situations you can have a say in things if you make the financial commitment.
Paul Czopek
East side
Where we're headed?
Seems like a daily occurrence wherein any number of public figures whom we ought to be able to rely on for real, accurate, factual accounts of major events simply shape the narrative to fit their personal point of view. Often political.
Classic example is that of the POTUS, his VP, and major network personalities declaring long before Jussie Smollett went on trial that what happened, which 12 jurors decided really didn’t happen, was a “modern-day lynching.”
Set aside that view for the moment and simply address the subject of why are there individuals whom the public customarily looks up to for guidance, truth, or inspiration who want us to continue believing, as they apparently do, that we are a “racist country” and that virtually everything can be branded with a racial label … from the latest “racial math” being taught in our schools to an endless list challenging one’s imagination? Ever wonder where we’re being lead? And by whom?
Don Weaver
Midtown
Alden rebuffed
What a welcome headline, “Owner of Star rebuffs Alden.” What a perfect verb, rebuff, defined as “to reject in an abrupt or ungracious manner.” Echoing the numerous letters lamenting the plight and possible sale of Tucson’s print newspaper, the loss of a strong news source disheartened me. Today’s article mentioned an unexpected profit for the paper, allowing Alden Global Capital’s bid to be rejected by the Star’s owner Lee Enterprises.
Beyond profit, Alden’s motive for the purchase appears to be the eventual elimination of Tucson’s remaining print news service, a dismal prospect for our city and its many readers. I urge readers to let the Arizona Daily Star and Lee Enterprises know of your support and continued loyalty to their publication.
Roger Shanley
East side
