Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, joined at right by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, answer questions Tuesday as the Senate Intelligence Committee holds its worldwide threats hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Witches and lemmings
Yet another witch hunt! Gosh there seems to be so many.
We all watched Trump’s coven sit and lie to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence during questioning on the recent egregious national security breach.
This breach was a damning illustration of the sheer incompetence and lack of cognizance and cavalier attitude of Trump’s “best and brightest” when it comes to national security and critical classified information. Just astounding, but maybe it shouldn’t be, given Trump’s own disregard for classified information. The questionable stability and glaring unsuitability of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was on full display — a precursor of trouble ahead. When The Atlantic published the transcript, the liars were fully exposed. Trump’s response, predictably, was to blame and denigrate the reporter/editor of The Atlantic.
No doubt Trump apologists will keep on supporting and defending these lying incompetents — MAGA lemmings blindly rushing to the edge.
Deb Klumpp
Oro Valley
Tucson Medical Center
I had a heart attack at the top of Tumamoc Hill. My wife and I are visiting Tucson for the winter, and after hiking in Catalina State Park and Sabino Canyon, climbing Tumamoc seemed like a good idea.
After all, we wanted to explore and experience everything the city and region has to offer. Four days later, I underwent open heart, triple bypass surgery at Tucson Medical Center. We are so grateful for the surgeons, doctors, nurses, technicians, and hospital staff who carried us through this trial with their humanity, professionalism, and dedication to saving lives.
Thank you, Tucson Medical Center. Thank you, Tucson, for this amazing and special facility.
Dennis Matthews
Port Orchard, WA
Attack on the First Amendment
One of the founding principles of the United States is the right to free speech and protest as guaranteed in the First Amendment.
We now see how an authoritarian government begins to erode that right. At least five students and academics of color who are in the US on legal visas to study or work have been abducted, sometimes by plain-clothed and masked men from Homeland Security, because they either attended a protest or wrote articles in support of Palestine.
In some cases, their family and friends do not know where they’ve been taken, and their visas have been revoked. These individuals have not been afforded due process.
Regardless of where you stand on the Palestinian issue, freedom of speech is a bedrock of a functioning democracy.
We should all be shocked and appalled at this behavior by this administration.
Gina Chorover
Foothills
Free speech
One of the recent LTEs expressed concern regarding free speech in this country. I find this puzzling.
During the previous Administration, Joe Biden was essentially a mirage, physically unavailable. In his rare and ineffective encounters with the media, he only took questions from preselected media and read the preprepared answers.
His department heads were barely more open, spouting prerecorded mantra.
Compare this with the first 40 days of the present Administration. President Trump has been available to the press multiple times each and every day. The sessions are long, and he takes and answers questions from a multitude of journalists.
He answers each question clearly and directly. One may not like or agree with the responses, but there is no doubt who is in charge. Similarly, the press has unfettered access to the current Cabinet members who respond with direct, unequivocal responses.
Compare this with the previous administration, where there was an uneasy and perceptible feeling that the unelected puppet masters, not the President, were governing the country.
Loyal M Johnson Jr
Oro Valley
Remember when?
I’m old enough to recall when seeing a member of the Kennedy family on the front page of a newspaper made me proud.
Jim Rapp
Southeast side
Vance should stay home
It’s a good thing VP Vance spoke at a U.S. base in Greenland.
Otherwise, he would have been booed and run off the island.
He initially did a good job of insulting Greenland and especially Denmark. He repeatedly insisted that Denmark has failed Greenland in his arrogant, deprecating tone.
It turns out that was just a starter of his insults. He claimed Canada had no cards in the trade war.
He piled onto the notion of Europeans as slackers. It is no small wonder that the “America First” policy is quickly turning into the “America Alone” policy.
Brode Meyer
Midtown
‘Sleepers’ in our government?
With the willful and wanton destruction of not merely our congressionally endowed agencies and federal departments but overt attacks on constitutional rights, one can’t help but wonder if we have “sleepers” (moles) at the highest levels of our government.
Barbara Benjamin
Foothills
Nazism revisited
The arrest of the Tufts University student the other day by hooded, masked, and black jacketed ICE agents looked like a back street mugging or WWII film footage of Hitler’s Gestapo (or as some say, Gazpacho) police, in their big black Citroens, black leather trench coats and fedoras arresting Jews and dissidents and hustling them off the streets.
How many visuals like this or other outrageous attacks on people legally residing here or the relentless attacks on businesses and institutions that don’t conform to Trump’s evil and selfish ideology, let alone his sick need for revenge, are we going to tolerate?
Beginning to look like Nazi Germany in my opinion.
William Muto
SaddleBrooke
Sanctioned homeless campgrounds
I am writing in response to Councilmember Uhlich’s “Helping Huts” proposal to allow homeless camping in our city parks. While I think sanctioned campgrounds with wrap-around services are perhaps the best immediate response to the service-resistant homeless, I do not think city parks are a good place for them because of the negative impact on surrounding neighborhoods and law-abiding citizens seeking open space and recreation.
As Steve Kozachik recommended, a better place for the sanctioned campgrounds would be in industrial or rural zones, not residential or business neighborhoods. Lt. Jack Julsing of the Tucson Police Department developed a comprehensive plan for sanctioned campgrounds when he led Tucson’s Homeless Outreach Team.
According to the latest (2024) point-in-count survey, there are enough shelter beds in Tucson currently for every homeless person. But if you want no-barrier beds for service-resistant homeless populations, sanctioned campgrounds outside of business and residential areas are a reasonable compromise while other longer-term solutions are developed.
Adrian Wurr
Midtown
If this were Biden, what would GOP do?
Yes, Republicans are hypocrites. Stop denying it, all politicians are at some point. It’s in their job description. They are entrusted with secret plans and information that makes any country feel secure. Americans no longer feel that way. These incompetents involved in the Houthi attack conversations, using an unsecured system, are the same people who put Hillary Clinton through nine Congressional hearings, one lasting 11 hours. Why?
Hillary transmitted information from Benghazi as it was received. As time passed, she received updates and presented them, while the fighting went on. Anyone who has seen battle knows, it is total confusion.
That party condemned her “because her story kept changing.” Of course it did! When all accounts were organized, without the battle blazing, a final report was presented.
Today, I ask Republican politicians and their supporters, if any of Joe Biden’s Cabinet members did what Trump’s people are doing — if he had a “vervet monkey” running around like Elon Musk — how fast would a hearing begin?
Sheldon Metz
Northeast side
Huckleberry pie
If only Trump had read the Encyclopedia Britannica when he was a boy instead of figuring out ways to extort his siblings from their allowances, he might know that huckleberries are very difficult to tame and grow almost exclusively on old rotting stumps. So you could say, I suppose, that stumps have a monopoly on huckleberries and make huge profits from the arrangement. That’s where Trump comes in. If he only knew these facts, he could levy huge tariffs on stumps and drive bakeries out of business in a heartbeat. How he missed such a fabulous opportunity is way beyond me.
John E Irby
Southeast side
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