Water policy in secret
“There you go again,” said Ronald Reagan, deprecating what he saw as dishonest claims of his opponents — but now look who’s trying to pull the wool over our eyes regarding water purchase and importation into Arizona. The AZ Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy and Water, by a 4-3 party line vote, has approved moving forward a bill to shield the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) from public scrutiny of their negotiations to buy water from any and all bidders. These are the same folks that recommended a couple of years ago we contract with IDE technologies to build an unbelievably expensive desalinization plant on the Sea of Cortez to pipe water to Arizona, a plan which might still be in the works, for all we know. What new boondoggle will they come up with this time? Only transparency can preserve democracy: Write your senators to defeat this bill!
Suzanne Ferguson
Southeast side
Who has excess
fresh water?
So, the Republicans want to establish publicly what they tried to do secretly under Republican Governor Doug Ducey: create a fait accompli agreement for Arizona to set up a desalination plant in Mexico and have taxpayers pay to subsidize developers for billions of dollars.
After all, from what state can Arizona import excess fresh water for the next half century (the time needed for the bonds to build such an endeavor)? New Mexico with its drying Rio Grande? Colorado and Utah with their billion-dollar plans to take more Colorado River? Nevada? California? Heck, the northern Great Plains and Missouri River basin just went through a winter without much snow. The Mississippi River is lower than normal. The northern Rockies can’t guarantee they won’t be affected by global warming. Mexico needs all their fresh water.
Nope. The whole plan is to get legislative okay to build a desalination plant in the Gulf of Mexico so Arizona taxpayers one day wake up to multi-generational debt.
It’s guaranteed failure, Republicans.
Matt Somers
Midtown
Welcome to the New World
Last night I watched a television program that showed us how certain people are treated when arriving in Brazil.
One man arriving from Africa was pulled aside by the security guards for questioning. When asked how much money he was traveling with, he told them $800. When they opened his suitcase the only thing they found him transporting was food. The only clothing he had were the clothes on his back. The guards found this all very laughable. They refused him entry. They required him to fly back to Africa. The man was totally confused by this, and he asked why, why, why?
I can picture someone who has $800 to his name and coming from a poor country as being someone who might have been considered a “king” there, someone of some importance. He arrives in the “New World” and is treated poorly and refused entry. One can only imagine what he must have been thinking and feeling.
Welcome to the “new” world.
Bill Kendall
Downtown
Where lies happen and what they do
We’ve already had to deal with frequent, blatant, lying by Trump and members of the Republican Party ... not differences in “interpretation”, or “point of view,” ... but outright lying. The most recent event has been Senator Katie Britt’s response for the Republican Party.
Trust is an absolute requirement for a successful society, including and especially from whomever is governing ... or wants to. In fact, truth is no longer dependable from this man nor his political party ... their behavior is now in the hands of very troubled individuals, as far away from trust and truth as democracy is from autocracy.
The media frequently concludes that the ‘”base” believes anything Trump says. Is this who you are ... willing to trade in the thinking you learned from your parents, your church, and in school, to mindlessly worship one individual?
This terribly faulted and un-American person and the party he now owns must be understood for who they were and have become! We the people are the only ones who can fix this!
Frank Parsons
Northeast side
MAGA: A right-wing virus pandemic
People have somehow managed to erase the chaos of the Trump years (2017-21) and who caused it. Claiming to be a republican, like the Pied Piper, he has persuaded mainstream conservatives to go over the edge, just like the “rats.” But where did those children go?
Former republicans, now MAGATES, hear nothing other than his voice. They spread his lies, losing what was once the power they had, by showing, from Trump down, MAGA cannot lead (i.e., the House).
They vote for initiatives and, when push comes to shove, they vote against the very bills they’ve just approved because their greater power told them to. Authoritarianism!
Many call Trump a fascist (mean included). In researching PROJECT 2025 and Marxism, we need a new name for the type of confused politics and philosophies this man projects, other than Trumpism. That sounds limited to Trump himself. That “virus” has spread to the former republican party, killing it from within. Jordan, MTG, Boebert, Gaetz, Comer, Hawley, Vance and Crenshaw.
Sheldon Metz
Northeast side
AZ Senate race
So Kari Lake has admitted in court — where facts matter — that she intentionally lied when repeatedly accusing fellow republican County Recorder Richer that he sabotaged the election that she lost. We all now know that the only real threat to election integrity is the non-stop lying attacking the election and those who ran it by Kari Lake and other MAGA candidates. Outside of court-where facts don’t matter-she continues to whine she is the victim of a “weaponized legal system”. She also continues saying she is not conceding, she wasn’t wrong only making a strategic decision to focus on her senate run. Of course. All innocent people say they are guilty in court. She has admitted she acted with actual malice towards Richer in her lying but the malice is also directed at all citizens and our election. Now Kari Lake is running for Senate. It would seem she has no integrity whatsoever. I will be voting democrat.
William Garrity
Foothills
Cage match, seriously
How can anyone take someone seriously when they want a “cage match,” of two old men debating? Does the writer even understand what a “cage match” is? Apparently he does not. But he’s so in love with our former twice impeached, four time indicted, sexual predator that he believes that listening to these two guys would make you think less of our stuttering president and more likely to take the side of the disgraced and (hopefully) soon to be convicted felon. I’m a little surprised by this letter since the writer isn’t blaming our president for the border issues he’s complained about for the last three years. Maybe he’s read some of the others here that have pointed out how wrong he is about that issue.
John Bingham
Northwest side
Supporting Palestinians
Of late, local rabbis have disparaged Tucsonans’ support for Palestinians as antisemitic. As someone whose Jewish great-grandparents fled Eastern Europe, I disagree.
We should never cry wolf in regard to antisemitism, and I believe that that’s what’s happening here.
Rather than antisemitic hate, I feel grief and rage at a genocide of Palestinians. I am bearing witness to it and trying to stop it. I will not engage in genocide denial or minimize the scope and horror of the atrocity.
I refuse to look away from Palestinian babies — as they are buried alive, burned, starved, amputated, orphaned, and in excruciating pain. I refuse to pretend that the U.S. and Israel are not responsible for this pain.
Jewish identity and safety should not be tied to Israel and its long history of violence. Zionism, a political doctrine, is not a religion. Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. “Pro-Jewish” is not “Pro-Israel.”
Manya Lempert
Downtown
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Trump’s scapegoats
Trump’s up to his usual tricks only this time he’s gone too far. Already suggesting that he might lose the 2024 election for which he himself could never be responsible, he’s setting up Jews as his scapegoat. He has actually said that if he loses the election, it will be the fault of Jews. He also speaks of a bloodbath should he lose. Does that mean that once again he will call on his minions as he did on January 6 only this time the mission will be to accomplish what Hitler failed to do?
Barbara Benjamin
Foothills
