Economy finds
its footing
On Friday Sept. 4 the U.S. Labor Deptartment released jobs and unemployment numbers for August. A total of 1.4 million jobs were created. Unemployment fell sharply from 10.2% to 8.4%. In June the unemployment rate was at 14.7%. MSN’s Marketwatch ran a headline,“The economy still has a mountain to climb, but it’s digging itself out faster than expected.”
The only people unhappy about the good numbers are Joe Biden and Democrats, who would like to have weak economic growth until the election. The quarterly gross domestic product will be released in the middle of next month and should reflect significant positive economic growth, possibly in the double digits. Before the pandemic, we had a great economy, and not because of Obama or Biden, with the lowest unemployment rates in decades for Blacks, Latinos, and women.
Wages were rising. President Trump will bring America’s economy back again after closing it for two months due to science experts’ projections of 1 to 2 million COVID-19 deaths.
Doug Lawrence
Midtown
Always an excuse
to overlook foster care
Re: the Sept. 7 article “Lawsuit seeks faster services for foster kids, increased likelihood for placement.”
When I read this story about the pending court settlement to improve Arizona foster care system, I sighed: “Here we go again.”
During my 35 years as a Child Protective Services case manager, adoption case worker and Foster Care Review Board member in Tucson, I have seen several of these reforms ordered by the court, only to not be followed through despite the court’s monitoring.
Those previous settlements promised the same things as now: better behavioral services for foster children, better dental and medical care, lower caseloads for workers and more kinship and foster care homes. But these targets were never achieved because the Legislature would not spend the money that was actually needed. Lower tax revenues during the Great Recession were used as the excuse for years to not follow the court orders, even after the economy improved. I assume now the excuse will be the lower revenues due to the pandemic recession.
John Higgins
Southeast side
Joshua tree fires
a warning for saguaros
Re: the Sept. 7 article “Joshua tree forest in California has become Joshua tree graveyard.”
Could we end up living in the world’s largest saguaro cactus graveyard? I’ve treated invasive grass on public and private land around Tucson for more than 10 years. When I read this story on the California wildfire that destroyed 1.3 million Joshua trees, I see close parallels between pre-fire conditions at the Joshua tree forest and our Sonoran Desert today.
In both places, the landscape killer is a fire-prone invasive grass: buffelgrass here, red brome there. These incendiary grasses spread rapidly and fill the spaces between the native plants that are not adapted to wildfire.
Buffelgrass thrives on fire and burns hot enough to melt metal. Its roots survive to sprout ahead of any other plant. After Sonoran Desert foothills burn, we will end up with buffelgrass-dominated hillsides and frequent grassfires that saguaros cannot survive. Think Bighorn Fire, only moving faster, burning hotter and much closer.
Mark Hengesbaugh
East side
Trump no fan
of endless wars
What was the Democrats’ refrain against Republicans like George W. Bush? That they were interventionist neocons who liked to get us into protracted wars. Bush got us into conflicts in both Afghanistan and Iraq costing thousands of American lives and trillions of dollars. Republican neocons despise Donald Trump because he is noninterventionist.
He rebuilt our depleted military, but used military force sparingly with precision to take out Syrian chemical weapons sites, and ISIS and Iranian terrorist leaders. He showed restraint when Iran shot down our drone and harassed our naval ships. He has successfully pressured NATO to pay their fair share for defense.
Trump has gone the extra mile in attempting peace with North Korea and is negotiating a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, where our troops have been for 20 years. You see, Trump sees all of this intervention as a waste of American lives and treasure. He wants to refocus on investing in America. Trump is no Republican neocon and Democrats should respect that.
Alice Moreno
North side
Supervisor candidate
Scott earned my trust
I worked with Rex Scott, a candidate for Pima County supervisor in District 1, when he was the principal of Catalina Magnet High School. Mr. Scott often said to the staff, “If it’s on your plate, it’s on my plate, too.” This is Rex’s approach to leadership: to make other people’s lives better by sharing their burdens and responsibilities. He knows that a real leader is a trusted servant.
Rex and I have stayed in contact since then. Today he is a friend. From then until now, I have never heard Rex Scott say an unkind word about anyone. Rex focuses on the things that he has in common with others.
This is real leadership and it is what we need in Pima County.
Peter Schnittman
Oro Valley
Hate-filled Democrats
cheer on COVID deaths
Have no doubt, hate-filled Democrats and their news media allies, are hoping that COVID-19 deaths hit the 200,000 mark before Nov. 3. That is how sick with anger and hate they are. Blaming Donald Trump for COVID and deaths is insane.
Guess hate-filled Democratic Daily Star readers are ignorant of team Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and many others initially downplaying the virus. Trump initiated historic and unprecedented actions to fight the pandemic, from manufacturing or acquiring millions of masks, gowns, gloves, face shields and thousands of ventilators. There were travel bans, Warp Speed vaccine development, trillion-dollar stimulus packages, pressuring big insurers to waive COVID deductibles and more.
Do blinded-by-hate Democrats know that COVID cases and deaths are drastically dropping in America, for example, in Arizona? Europe has seen major COVID resurgence, India is almost about to surpass us in case numbers, the virus is spreading in Mexico and they ran out of death certificates? Thanks to your hated Trump, a vaccine is around the corner and the economy is rebounding!
Tom Gallaway
Northwest side
Dems rush to judgment against Kenosha police
In a telephone interview with Jacob Blake’s family, Kamala Harris spoke to Jacob Blake and said, “she was also proud of him and how he is working through his pain.”
Wow! Does she even know that Blake is accused of breaking into a sleeping woman’s house in May and sexually assaulting her? At the time of his encounter with Kenosha police, he was wanted for disorderly conduct, domestic abuse and criminal trespass against the mother of his children.
No police officers have been charged in that case yet. But here comes Harris saying she is so “proud” of Blake, ignoring his sexual assault charges.
And Joe Biden is calling for charges to be filed against the involved officer before the investigation is completed. A prime example of Biden/Harris on the side of criminals and rushing to judgment against the police.
Teresa McDonald
Foothills
Don’t normalize
the ‘new normal’
It sickens me to hear the restrictions Arizonans are being forced to live with described as the “new normal.” Nothing about this virus, the way it is being portrayed by the media, the lack of leadership statewide or nationally and the numerous bad decisions being forced on us by way of our governor’s orders or federal executive orders, is at all normal. And the media outlets should be ashamed that they are attempting to convince us that these things should or will ever be normal.
The inconsistencies are maddening. East Coast schools can have children attend class, but West Coast cannot.
I can’t work out without a mask, but the president can hold a campaign rally where he and most of the people attending are without a mask.
Whatever happened to “Do as I do” and leading by example? Don’t go into Fry’s without your mask, but attend Sturgis without one. And when it is proven that Sturgis caused a spike, just deny. It’s the new abnormal.
Kevin Marschke
Oro Valley
Trump has odd way
of promoting calm
In the latest revelations from Bob Woodward’s book, Trump admits he purposely played down the dangers of the coronavirus. His defense was he didn’t want people to panic. His goal was supposedly to keep the nation calm.
This would be admirable, if true. But for the last three months he has been crying like chicken little: “the sky is falling.” Violent protesters are invading your neighborhood. People in the suburbs are going to lose their homes when they invade. Your vote is not safe; millions of illegal ballots will steal the election. Rioters are behind every bush. Be scared, very scared.
So where are the calming words from the president now? Are his words about the protests meant to calm or panic? When he should have cried “the sky is falling,” he lost his voice. Now he is screaming it from the top of his lungs.
John Kautz
Midtown
Ford has proved worthy of Treasurer’s Office
Being a real estate investor, I have had continual experiences with Beth Ford, our Pima County treasurer, for 20 years. Her office is professional, helpful and courteous.
Harvey Akeson wrote, “Democrat Brian Bickel is treasurer of the Foothills Cluster Home Owners Association.” This HOA has 367 lots. Beth Ford manages $3.5 billion!
During the 2008 financial debacle she protected the taxpayers’ money. The treasurer’s position should require a CPA. Brian Bickel does not have a certified public accountant certification.
I strongly endorse Beth Ford for another four years. She has the skills, certification, experience and integrity. She will continue to protect the billions of dollars of taxpayer money.
Jim Stoller
Foothills
We need a president who trusts science
Donald Trump knew full well that a highly contagious, incurable, and sometimes fatal disease was at America’s shores but chose to minimize it for the American people.
Because of his incompetence, the disease ravaged this country much worse than others, and has killed 195,000 people so far. With COVID-19 as well as the climate crisis, Trump and the current crop of Republicans have become masters of gaslighting — telling Americans that bad news is all in their heads.
But facts are real and not to be wished away, and business as usual is a recipe for disaster. We need leaders who are not afraid of science and not afraid to tell the American people hard truths.
Mitch Bunting
Midtown
No more NFL for us
After the disgusting display by NFL players before last Thursday night’s game, we have decided that if the NFL players don’t want us, we don’t want them! The whole Texas team walked off, Kansas City had one player out during the national anthem. We will no longer watch the NFL.
Georgianna and Terry Murphy
Foothills
