Tucson Speaks Out: July 12

It’s all over the news: Almost a million folks who bought into Mr. Trump’s meme coins have lost $3.81 billion. That averages out to losing $3,810 per person at minimum — a tidy sum no longer padding a pocket.

Once priced at $75.35 per coin, the value has plummeted to $1.76 as of July 3. Unlike the losses by mere mortals, Mr. Trump himself made $636 million on his own meme coins. But then, he profits whether the meme coin prices rise or fall because if his eager followers trade the tokens, he ends up collecting the returns on every trade. It’s also handy that the President and his administration have restricted regulatory oversight of crypto.

It’s win-win for the President — and lose-lose for we peasants.

Melody Sears

Northeast side

Voucher article errors

I am compelled to point out two serious and misleading errors in the Tucson/Region section article titled "Proposal would Put Voucher Changes on Ballot" published on July 4, and written by the usually accurate Howard Fischer.

First, in the section called "Meteoric Growth in Voucher Spending" on B4, the article says that vouchers now have an annual cost of $1 million. The actual current cost is $1 billion. A considerable difference and serious, misleading error.

Second, the very last paragraph in the article states that "Approval of the initiative would be the first time such a program was eliminated." This statement is flat wrong. The Protect Education Act will not eliminate vouchers. It establishes common-sense reforms. Vouchers will remain available to all families making $150,000 or less annually.

These kinds of errors mislead voters. I believe the Star is supposed to be accurate and unbiased. Please retract the statements, preferably on the front page.

Nancy Smith

Midtown

Time to switch?

Graham Platner has gotten into trouble with his fellow Democrats over allegations of rape and Nazi sympathies. My suggestion is that he switch to the Republican Party, where he likely will be welcomed with open arms.

Steven Brown

Midtown

Pickleball pay your way

For those who are not aware, the pickleball courts at Udall Park were installed with money from the 407 bond issue. This came about as a result of an agreement between the city, pickleball players and tennis players of Tucson. Currently, and for many years, the tennis players of Tucson who use the public parks such as Fort Lowell Park and Reffkin Tennis Center pay a fee to use the courts to help offset the cost of maintenance. What I find interesting is that the many pickleball players who use the Udall courts (again, a Tucson City park) do not pay a fee to use those courts. I've heard the argument that the pickleball players are financing the courts at Udall, but in reality, the major cost for those courts was money from the 407 bond issue.

My question to the many pickleball players of Tucson is, why should you get off not paying for use of the courts? And to the city alone, you can't have it both ways.

Frank Flasch

North side

Ciscomani left us behind

Now more than ever, Arizona needs leaders in Washington who will fight for the people who sent them there. As a resident of Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, I am increasingly disappointed in our Congressman, Juan Ciscomani, who is more focused on appeasing his party than listening to the concerns of his constituents. These constituents are my family, friends, classmates, and larger community, each with issues not being heard or addressed. Since taking office over three years ago, Ciscomani has not held a single town hall.

I’m eager to cast my vote for JoAnna Mendoza, someone who cares and listens to people. She has shown up, embraced difficult conversations, and lives up to the standards that we should set for people in elected office. As a Marine who served our country, she embodies what it means to be a public servant and a leader. She is what we need for Arizona and America.

Lila Smith

North side

Commercials for politics

Did you ever watch a political commercial and wonder what the point is? Business commercials are designed to present only one point of view, but I wish that political candidates would show more integrity and truthfulness. I figured out that I need to stay tuned into the topics that are important to me. Everyone has specific topics that they want at the top of the priority list. Take a minute to think about what traits each elected official should have, relevant to your priorities. For example, consider the office of sheriff. I prefer a sheriff who knows what he is doing and has an exemplary history, unlike what Pima County has now. We need people in office who understand the problems with viable solutions, not someone who is anti-Trump. Voters can fix the problems we have by selecting the best person to fill the position without regard to the party they represent. We need the best leaders, not voters who blindly follow how they are told to vote

Loran Hancock

Northwest side

Corruption in soccer

The U.S. soccer team lost its game against the Belgian team during the World Cup on July 7. Well, that was fair and square; the opponents were simply better. The American players deserve our respect, having accomplished so much until now. Nevertheless, this game was a catastrophe for the United States because we not only lost a game, but we also lost our honor and dignity. Whatever happened behind closed doors, we know that Pres. Trump had called Gianni Infantino, the President of FIFA, on Thursday before that game and pushed him to lift the red card that had blocked the excellent scorer Folarin Balogun from participating in that match. Since when can a U.S. president influence the decision of a soccer umpire? How much money had passed hands in that process? Was it hence divine retribution for this act of corruption that the US team lost? The entire world has observed this political maneuver and now thinks quite differently about the U.S.

Albrecht Classen

Midtown

Socialists and capitalists

In the dictionary, “socialism” is defined as a system in which “government owns the means of production” (factories, businesses, utilities, etc.). By that definition, there are zero socialists in the U.S. Not even Bernie Sanders believes in that.

The enlightened, successful and famously happy governments in Scandinavia are called “democratic socialist,” but they actually just practice a capitalism regulated to make sure that the employees and communities benefit from the privately-owned businesses, not just the CEO and stockholders.

On the Hallmark Channel, the elderly couple who own the factory that employs most of the residents of the American town wishes to retire, advertises the factory for sale and receives a nice offer. But when the handsome young representative of the buyers arrives to sign the deal (and fall in love with the attractive daughter of the owners), they learn the buyers wish to close the factory and move it. The whole town mobilizes to keep the factory there. I’m a Hallmark Channel capitalist.

Brooks Keenan

Oro Valley

What Vance doesn't understand

J.D. Vance was right. By today's standards, Nixon's crimes are one day's shenanigans. Vance misses the irony that this only stresses the true venality and criminality of the current administration. He also misses the fact that it was Nixon's party that dealt with Nixon's crimes. At least eight members of Nixon's administration did jail time; Congressional members of Nixon's own party forced him to resign.

The current GOP, led by Mitch McConnell and Mike Johnson, far from bringing people to account, have been complicit in the administration's criminality. RIP GOP.

Beth Grindell

Midtown

The new LTE policy

The Star implemented a new LTE policy approximately one month ago that limited one printed opinion per month. Ostensibly, this was to ensure that more readers had the opportunity to be heard. I evaluated the results of this new policy for the first 33 days, and the results are as follows: 61% of opinions were Democrat, 30% neutral, and 9% conservative. 70% of the contributors were male, 30% female. The Star was true to its word of one print per month. However, as has been their past history, there was a dearth of conservative opinions. Why is that? Are conservative rednecks so illiterate and brainwashed that they cannot construct an intelligible sentence any better than Kamala Harris? Or, have conservatives just given up knowing they will not be published, even though 42% of Pima County voters selected Trump? Or is the Star just so liberal-leaning that they will not print conservative opinions, fearing that common sense and facts will actually taint the convoluted beliefs of the liberal sycophants?

Loyal M Johnson Jr

Oro Valley