Aerial view of the Santa Rita Mountains near the proposed mining sites known as Rosemont and Copper World planned by Hudbay Minerals Inc., southeast of Tucson on May 11. The flight was coordinated by the Center for Biological Diversity and carried out by EcoFlight. Hudbay is doing grading and land clearing on private lands it owns there and eventually plans four open pits. The site also includes roads that existed before Hudbay’s work started.
Copper is not a critical mineral
There are 92 chemical elements in the periodic table. Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey put 50 of these on a “Critical Minerals” list. In one year, we went from a global supply and demand economy for the chemical elements, to 54% of all the natural elements suddenly being “critical”! And, as a result, you can bet the Mining Industry is making hay while the sun shines. This is an unintended consequence of President Joe Biden’s well intended efforts to avert the oncoming climate crisis.
Does this mean Hudbay Minerals should be permitted to open a copper mine just south of Tucson? In this case there is another option. You can recycle copper, you cannot recycle the land it was wrested from. Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema fought to have copper listed as a critical mineral (Dept. of Energy just did). Well, the good senators can also be recycled!
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Stan Hart, Emeritus Professor of Geochemistry
Green Valley
Fools or criminals?
German playwright Bertolt Brecht said it best — “Who does not know the truth, is simply a fool … yet who knows the truth and calls it a lie, is a criminal.”
Mr. Trump knows the truth, yet his election lies continue. GOP “leaders” and media pundits know the truth yet continue to support his election lies. The Grifter in Chief is raking in millions from those who believe his lies or simply don’t care about truth, integrity, or honesty.
Trump’s lies have destroyed people’s lives. They allow hate groups to thrive and are responsible for the extreme polarization in our country. Those who willfully condone and foster these lies, conspiracies, disgusting rhetoric, political violence, and criminality do not embrace the democratic values and ethics that our democracy requires. Truth and facts matter in a democracy.
Deciphering the fools and criminals in today’s political madness is not that hard to figure out.
Kathy Krucker
Midtown
Tariffs cost jobs
Re: the Sept. 9 letter “Tariffs.”
A recent letter supported Donald Trump’s tariffs, saying imports of cheap Chinese steel forced a Kaiser aluminum plant to close, costing 650 U.S. jobs. “Tariffs are good for America,” the writer says.
Not necessarily. A Cato Institute study says higher steel prices due to the tariffs cost us 75,000 jobs because many U.S. workers are in metal-using jobs.
Now candidate Trump wants to impose a 10% tariff on ALL imported goods sold in America, calling this a “privilege” tax. This tax would be passed along to Americans in higher prices and would prompt our trading partners to slap tariffs on U.S. exports, costing more U.S. jobs.
That’s what happened with our Smoot-Hawley tariffs of the 1930s, worsening the Great Depression. Unfortunately, that bitter lesson is lost on many politicians.
Trump’s plan to double down on tariffs is staggering. Is this really the way Republicans propose to goose the economy?
Tom Chulski
Green Valley
Vaccine or COVID
The latest COVID vaccine is now available. I will get mine next week. FOX news had a commentator warn against the new vaccine as unsafe medication. Here are the statistics. My choice seems pretty obvious based on data rather than false information. In 2020-2021 deaths possibly attributed to the vaccine were 6,207. During the COVID pandemic 1,175,152 people died of COVID in the U.S. Not only is FOX spreading uninformed information about COVID vaccine, FOX is actually dangerous for your health. In reviewing the statistics I’ll take my chances with the vaccine.
John Kautz
Midtown
Sovereign American Citizens (SAC) history
In 1987, TPD arrested an individual for selling hot dogs downtown without a vendors license. This is considered as the first encounter with the Sovereign American Citizens (SAC) in Pima County. They were also referred to as Constitutionalists. To gain legitimacy the name was changed to the Tea Party. In previous presidential elections, several Republican candidates endorsed their belief in destruction of all U.S. governments — starting with the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education and Energy. The Tea Party has since changed its name to gain more legitimacy (Freedom Caucus, MAGA, etc.). In 2018, a HBO news program did a comparison of the Tea Party with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The comparison found both groups shared the same ideology and practices. which included the destruction of the government and plans to replace it with their own version.
Ray Bynum
Northwest side
Young environmentalists
Re: the Sept. 16 article “Protests call to end fossil fuels.”
Globally tens of thousands of youth took to the streets Friday, Sept. 15, on Youth Climate Strike Day to demand that decision makers take action on the Earth’s ever increasing climate catastrophes.
At El Presidio Plaza more than 100 students and other supporters gathered under trees, hydration in hand, next to heat scorched dying cacti to hear impassioned high school and college students defiantly declare their diminishing chances of thriving in and surviving the climate disasters now upon us all. “You’ll die of old age, I’ll die of climate change!” That sign really hit home.
You may not want to be associated with the label “environmentalist” but we are all concerned about the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land we inhabit. Let’s all stand together with these young “environmentalists” and make our collective voices heard!
Marian Fish
Oro Valley
Voting machine ‘problems’ court case
Re: the Sept. 13 article “Lake, Finchem lawyer admits there’s no proof of voting-machine problems.”
In this article, their attorney Andrew Parker left out several other opposing “possibilities” in his arguments — though I suppose he only has to present those that support his clients’ claims. But “what if”: Parker is a space alien in disguise? Or Lake and Finchem are pod-people (a la “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”)? Or that a foreign power used microwave transmissions to affect the decision making of Arizona’s slate of Republican candidates? None of those things are absolutely impossible, and so Assistance Attorney General Kara Karlson may want to include them in her counter arguments. Perhaps the folks at MST3K would be willing to pay Arizona for this side-show, and we citizens could recouped some court costs.
Scotty Dean
Midtown
Family values Republicans hypocrisy
I love it that Republicans that tout Christian, family and society values lack them. Trump’s cheating is well documented as well as sexually assaulting women. Gov. Kristi Noem, who has run as a family values supporter, is accused of an affair with Corey Lewandowski, and then Rep. Lauren Boebert, who’s behavior in a theater included vaping, flipping off security and groping her date. Ken Paxton in Texas used his position to the benefit of his mistress. They obviously believe the rules or for their rubes, not them.
Craig Miller
Northwest side
National debt
Trump spent more in four years, than the first 42 presidents of this country. And no Republican said a word. Go on, you guy’s, gesture for money. What a crazy bunch. Also, what’s up with electing Andy Biggs to Congress? Come on, man, they are all insurrectionists’. All of these people, in the Freedom Caucus, are scarier than the national debt, and that is the truth!
Mary Bradley
Northeast side
High gasoline prices return to Tucson
Gasoline prices in Tucson are at $4.25 a gallon and could go higher. So will inflation. I long for the good old days when gasoline was $2.40, under Trump. I blame President Biden and the far left eco extremists in the White House. Biden was just in New Mexico and gleefully announced placing thousands of acres of land off limits to oil and natural gas exploration for 50 years. He recently placed millions of acres of land and ocean off limits to exploration in Alaska and Louisiana. Biden’s “war on fossil fuels” has placed America dependent again on OPEC+. Saudi Arabia and Russia recently cut daily oil production levels. America could be energy independent and was approaching that under Trump. Biden believes that by 2035 America will be energy independent from wind and solar, both unreliable sources. I believe that is fantasy thinking. Biden’s answer to rising gasoline costs is not to drill more, but to further deplete our nation’s Strategic Oil Reserve stockpile, jeopardizing national security.
Alan Ruiz
West side
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AZ border still a disaster under Biden
Illegal border crossings have increased dramatically over the last two months since Title 42 expired. The U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector made 40,000 arrests in July, the highest monthly total in 15 years. About 45,000 were processed at the Ports of Entry claiming asylum under an online application. I think many of these claims are fraudulent, and the Biden administration is fully aware of it and could care less. The Washington Post reported that in August, the Border Patrol made 177,000 arrests including a record number of foreign national family units. All of this occurring in scorching heat. Over 890 people, a record, died along the border last year. U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics show that as of the end of July, over 2,500,000 Enforcement Actions have been made by the U.S. Border Patrol and CBP Officers. I believe we are still in a border disaster intentionally and cynically brought on by Joe Biden to eventually expand the Democrats’ voter base.
Langhorne Bilby
Marana
