Hypocrisy
I think it is comical how the left fears another Trump presidency and claim he will be authoritarian. Biden has ruled through “Executive Orders”. This is dictator personified. Very little has been accomplished through an ineffective Congress. At least Trump’s policies resulted in creating the best national economy in history. Whereas, Biden’s actions have created record levels of inflation, open borders with millions of illegal aliens, loss of respect on the world stage, men in women sports, and record energy costs. Furthermore, they are trying to legalize killing babies up to birth. These destructive policies are convincing many sensible Independents and Democrats to support Trump as the 47th President.
Ken Wolfe
Marana
Genocide or ethnic cleansing?
People seem to be talking a lot about whether the war in Gaza is genocide or not. I think what is going on is much more ethnic cleansing than genocide.
Genocide means trying to exterminate an entire “race” of people. The Nazis killed 6 million Jews because they were Jewish. The word genocide was invented to describe this. When the goal is not to kill every member of a group but to drive the entire group out of the country by killing and destroying everybody and everything that sustains the community, that is ethnic cleansing.
Of course, both genocide and ethnic cleansing are crimes against humanity and war crimes. But there is a difference.
Graeme Williams
Southeast side
Trump Party
The Republican Party is no longer. It’s now the Party of Trump. And Trump believes in winning — any way possible. Lying, cheating, conning, manipulating, and threatening are perfectly okay if they lead to winning. Lincoln and Eisenhower are rolling over in their graves.
Jim Dreis
East side
Mouthy women speak out in November
Royce White, a Republican who is running to unseat Amy Klobuchar in Minnesota, told Steve Bannon that women have become “too mouthy.” I assume that is like saying he, as a Black man, has become “too uppity.” Hopefully, women voters will remember Roe, the strong-arm tactics of the GOP, and the fact that the Republicans have no problem with a convicted felon in the White House. Let’s really get mouthy and let them know what we think come election time.
Mary Zimmerman
SaddleBrooke
Atheism doesn’t require faith
Re: the May 31 article “Belief in reason and reason in belief.”
Wade Thompson makes a common mistake when he says atheists have faith in their position. Words have meanings. Put an “a” in front of a word and it changes it to the opposite. Atheist merely means “not a theist.” It makes no claims what-so-ever. Atheists simply say they don’t know whether or not a god exists, but since no verifiable evidence exists, the best choice is to act as if one doesn’t exist. To claim this is a belief system is the same as saying a non-stamp collector is a hobbyist.
Al Westerfield
Southwest side
Fighting fascism again
Eighty years ago, brave young men charged the beaches of Normandy knowing that they may never see their homes and families again. They did it for democracy and freedom. They did it to beat back Hitler and his Nazi fascists who had invaded the free countries of Europe.
Most of those who survived that initial attack and the war in Europe are now gone. And in a way, that’s a good thing. It would be terrible for them to see that the fascism they fought abroad has taken root here at home. Trump and his fascist cabal of criminals are threatening our democracy, our freedom, and our way of life.
It’s time for all of us who truly love America to rise up once again, this time to fight the enemy within. And this time, all we have to do is vote for the one major candidate who isn’t a convicted criminal and who hasn’t betrayed his oath of office: Joe Biden.
Steve Godwin
Midtown
Fusion power fairy tales
Re: the June 2 article “Devil is in the details for Copper World.”
Columnist Mort Rosenblum has reporting experience, but he needs to learn more about nuclear fusion. His nuclear neighbors in France have their own dog in the fight, but maybe they could help him understand that fusion is not simply “the reverse of fission.” Fusion produces plenty of deadly radiation. Fusion is in fact what threatens to “blow us all to hell” because modern nuclear weapons all rely on nuclear fusion to dramatically dial-up the power of a Hiroshima-sized nuclear fission device at the core of The Bomb. The fusion experiments that were trumpeted in December, 2023 by Livermore Lab in California are only incidentally related to the fairy tale of commercial nuclear fusion power, a technology that’s been “only 20 years down the road” for the last half century. Those experiments are funded to support the design of new nuclear weapons without the explosive testing now prohibited by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Jack Cohen-Joppa
Midtown
Criminal attorneys
Rotten to the core, Republicans from Kari Lake up to Donald Trump, have not only tried to destroy our democracy. They have directly challenged and abused the legal system, sowing dangerous distrust of our laws and courts across the country. Bryan Blehm, attorney for Lake, has been suspended from practicing law for sixty-one days because of his outright lying to the court. He is only a ‘small fish,’ belonging to an entire cohort of unethical, criminal attorneys working for Trump and his minions (including Rudy Giuliani and ten other defendants). The big fish are the members of major law firms defending the former president in countless law cases, losing them all so far, hoping that they can ultimately appeal to the SCOTUS where Trump has his dubious friends. It’s all money and a ruthless power grab, a cruel mockery of our courts. How long will the last remaining dams hold against this flood of unethical, bullying, and deceiving lawyers lending their hands to the enemies of our democracy?
Albrecht Classen
Midtown
Aha! moment
Trump’s defense hinged on the proposition that the checks given to Cohen were retainer fees.
When cross examining Cohen, lawyer Blanche queried him about a check for $50,000. Cohen related that he was supposed to reimburse IT services for the full amount, but instead, he kept $30,000.
Blanche pounced on that, loudly proclaiming to the courtroom that Cohen had stolen $30,000 from Trump! Cohen acknowledged that behavior.
Preening over his surprise revelation of Cohen’s theft, Blanche failed to realize that his declaration had just acknowledged that the money given to Cohen was NOT a retainer, but a payoff to be delivered to another entity involved in the scheme. If the money were a retainer, Cohen couldn’t steal it because it was his money earned for legal services provided. Not the “Aha! moment” that Blanche had envisioned, but definitely an “Aha! moment”. That exchange clinched the verdict on all 34 counts.
Rick Cohn
West side
What is an Arizona conservative?
I’ve noticed on those annoying election signs that a lot of Republicans like to tout themselves as conservative. After living for 10 years in Arizona, I’ve finally figured out what constitutes an Arizona conservative. At best, they are willing to put up with bad roads, abysmally paid teachers, climate change issues, and underfunded education in the name of low taxes. At worst, they elect politicians who refuse to do anything for the good of the whole, all the while supporting a convicted felon who wants to destroy democracy. Come on, conservatives. Stop voting against your own interests.
Mary Zimmerman
SaddleBrooke
I-11 will not create Phoenix traffic counts
Building I-11 is not going to create Phoenix traffic counts in Tucson, at least from what information has been released. The City of Tucson, Pima County, and the Town of Sahuarita all voiced opposition to the West Option with good reasons. The loss of already mitigated lands for CAP water is at stake and that land should not be developed.
Paul Mercer
Oro Valley
Jury nullification ploy failed in Biden trial
Hunter Biden’s defense team tried playing the “jury nullification” card during the trial. They were counting on the longtime influence of the Bidens in Delaware, and the Biden family, including the First Lady Jill Biden, showing up daily in court to sway the jury into a not guilty or hung jury verdict. Fortunately, the jury put all that aside, looked at the overwhelming evidence and credible witnesses, not habitual liars, presented by the prosecution, and convicted Hunter Biden on three federal felony counts. Frankly, it was gross negligence and sheer arrogance on the part of lead defense attorney Abbe Lowell insisting on taking the case to trial hoping for jury nullification. What should have happened, was an attempt to do a serious plea deal, not like the farce of the first one. Biden has a federal tax evasion trial set for September, which would last for weeks, just before the election. To help his “pop”, Hunter would be wise to seek a plea deal in that case.
Langhorne Bilby
Marana
Climate change hoax
Re: the May 25 letter ‘The climate change hoax.’
A previous writer tried to inform Democrat readers about the Climate Change Hoax. The bottom line is, there are no actions that you can take that will reduce the current amount of CO2 in the atmosphere that is causing current climate change. Landscape ruining wind turbines and solar panels farms will have no effect on climate. Why? Because current CO2 levels in the atmosphere will last for centuries. Have the leftist climate activists in the White House told Biden about this? Pulling the plug, draining an overflowing bathtub of water will not drain the atmosphere from its current CO2 levels. It might help your great, great, great, great grandchildren. Having stated the facts, why force people into making unwanted choices like buying expensive electric cars, that use batteries full of raw materials derived from environmentally destructive mining? As a previous writer also said, since all of this “green energy” will have no effects on current climate, let us make choices that are free market based, not government forced and controlled.
Darrin Styles
Midtown
Spread the word
Kindness is contagious. So is hatred.
Karen Mckee
West side
I-11
I was chief chemist at the ASARCO-Silverbell mine. Every day, leave I-10 behind, 26 miles through Avra Valley, up the Silverbell Mountains to my lab. Best of all was the end of the day, work left behind, a calm and breathtaking ride down the mountain and through beautiful Avra Valley. A commute filled with beauty. How awful to plop an ugly noisy dirty I-10 clone right across that drive!
Thad Appelman
Northwest side
Left-turn green arrows
There have been several letters regarding the problems with safe left turns. Most writers are concerned with discontinuing the flashing yellow arrow in dual left turn lanes. The main concern seems to be the timing causing long wait times. One reader suggested embedded sensors in the pavement to control the length of time the green arrow is active.
When I left Reno ten years ago, such a system was already in operation, if there is one car in the left turn lane, the green arrow was a blip with just enough time for the car to safely proceed. If there were eight cars in the left turn lane, the arrow stayed green until all the cars made a safe left turn
Can the Tucson and Pima County officials follow up on this?
Art Di Salvo
Northwest side
My worst fear
Why is it that so many of my Republican friends and family members still believe that Trump is the answer to everything USA?
Am I wrong? Am I missing something? Didn’t this man start an insurrection? Wasn’t he convicted of molestation and slander? How about convicted on 34 counts of election interference? Taking secret classified documents and refusing to give them back? Saying publicly if elected he will go after those that he thinks did him wrong? What about that isn’t crazy? Didn’t he say that McCain wasn’t a hero because he got captured and while looking out over a D-Day memorial grave site that those buried there were “Suckers and Losers”? That alone coming from “Mr. Bone Spur” should disqualify him for running but that does not bother the MAGA’s.
If you are a Democrat you are evil and need to be dealt with. I still don’t get it and fear losing friends and respect of family members because, of all people, Donald Trump. Really!
Nick Nicholas
SaddleBrooke
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