Tucson Speaks Out: August 16

Genocide

The state of Israel is doing to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank what Germany did to its ancestry. A genocide. It’s horrifying to see such suffering and heartbreaking to know that no one is stopping it. Our leadership in this country is the worst in Trump and his rotten soul. However, there are millions of people in our country and around the world that despise what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, but the slaughter of innocent children and their families continues ….

A lawyer from Israel stood on the West Bank and proudly said to reporters that one Jew is worth Ten Million Palestinians. For we are the chosen people, he continued. God is on our side! How many times has that refrain been used throughout our history to commit the most heinous acts on another, as Israel is doing to the Palestinians?

Joseph Robinett

Midtown

Parker's editorial response

Thank you, Kathleen Parker, for perpetuating the myth that socialism is evil, capitalism good. However, your message is uninformed. I never heard any Democratic Socialist candidate say they want a complete government takeover of private ownership. I do hear them say the billionaire class should pay their fair share of taxes, as the rest of us do. They advocate that healthcare and the cost of living should be affordable, and that labor unions deserve the means to bargain. But our capitalist policies have led to huge hand-outs for the ultra-wealthy. Maybe you are OK with socialism for the rich. These economic policies created a huge wealth gap, driving the working class into poverty and creating the conditions for a dictator presidency that continues to expand policies benefiting the ultra-wealthy while cutting programs like SNAP, ACA and Medicare. Re Cuba, might the crushing economic sanctions we’ve implemented have anything to do with their plight? Still, you say, socialism is evil, capitalism …. M’m! M’m! Good!

Michael Becker

Midtown

Corporate landslide

After the New Deal, big business endeavored to reverse that plan in various ways. The Taft-Hartley Act weakened unions and strengthened business. That was in 1947, but there has been a relentless push to build business power ever since.

The SCOTUS (Roberts Court) has been working hard to serve their corporate masters, in rulings like the overturning of Chevron v. NRDC, which weakened the regulatory powers of federal agencies, which was a pro-corporate decision. The court’s Janus decision weakened unions and was pro-corporate. The Citizens United decision was a benefit to corporations, as it allowed increased corporate spending on political campaigns. West Virginia v. EPA was another example of a decision that pandered to the corporate agenda. It weakened the EPA, which was long sought by our corporate oligarchs.

When entities like the SCOTUS pave the way for collusion between government and business, we are in trouble, since this is one of the primary characteristics of fascism.

Steve Rasmussen

Foothills

Loopy doom loop

In “Tucson is in a doom loop,” the writer says, “Lack of water for Arizona is the #1 state government policy failure since statehood in 1912.” That, I can agree with. But then the writer continues, “And your #1 culprit is the state’s Land Grant University...” Really? What planet does the writer live on? The U of A does not control state water policy-the Arizona State Legislature does. And who is the “culprit” there? Republicans have been in near-continuous control of the Legislature since 1966. They are responsible for the failure to “find us more water.”

That could change in this November’s elections. Voters need only to flip a few seats in the AZ House and Senate for those legislative bodies to gain the political will to implement sound and sustainable water policies. So, vote like your next drop of water depends on it.

Tina Whitley

Northeast side

Fauci’s fifth

The Republican agenda during Dr. Fauci’s congressional hearing was obvious: get him to say something, anything, which could be inaccurate or mistaken and then go after him for the felony of offensive lying to Congress.

Senator Rand Paul: What time is it, Dr. Fauci?

Dr. Fauci: It is 10:50 AM.

Senator Rand Paul: Let the record reflect that it is 10:49 AM, and that Dr. Fauci has provided false testimony under oath.

It would have been legal malpractice for Dr. Fauci’s attorney to advise him to do anything other than pleading the Fifth to every question asked. Holding the hearing was a farce and a misuse of the congressional hearing process.

Fox News has convinced its viewers that Dr. Fauci, who served under Republican and democratic administrations, was evil. But then again, Fox News could have persuaded its viewers that Mother Theresa was evil, if it had been politically expedient for the billionaires.

Louis Hollingsworth

West side

Encouraged by Giles selection

I've lived in a rural, conservative area of a progressive state, a major metropolitan area of a conservative state, and now Tucson, and I can confidently say that Arizona's political landscape is like none other. Arizona is one of the few states with Libertarians, working-class leftists, working-class far-right folks, compassionate conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and moderate Democrats. When Governor Hobbs selected John Giles, the former mayor of one of the state's most conservative cities, to be her running mate, I felt a swell of hope. For example, Hobbs is personally pro-choice, and Giles is personally pro-life, but he acknowledges that voters decided where they stand on a woman's right to choose by passing Prop. 139 in 2024. We need this sort of balanced leadership in Arizona. Meanwhile, Biggs and Kerr say their far-right positions represent Arizonans' views. What disrespect for Arizona's variety of thought.

Wyatt Kanyer

Midtown

Exceptional heroism

Re: Star headline on Aug. 13: "Trump: Swap made his flight riskier."

Ya can't make this stuff up. The guy just gets more heroic by the minute!

John Barringer

Midtown

Terrible A1 caption

Your Thursday A1 caption beneath a Reuters photo of Trump boarding the helicopter is so bad it nearly defies belief. I quote: "President Donald Trump, scene here boarding Marine One on Tuesday, says but that the plane he ultimately flew on following a secret war in Turkey was still more vulnerable than Air Force One." Why so bad? Specifically:

1. He was not "scene." He was seen.

2. He "says but the plane." Illiterate. How about he "says the plane"?

3. A "secret war in Turkey"? I didn't know about that. But I did know about a NATO summit.

Is anyone in your shop even reading news copy before publication any longer? I suspect not. As a former copy editor at the Star with 40 years' service, I believe I know what I'm talking about.

Ron Solomon

Northeast side

Unprepared for pandemics

No ophthalmologists that I know of have the training (or desire) to manage patients with AIDS, COVID, influenza, Ebola or biological warfare casualties. 

John Halliday, library director from Oro Valley, incorrectly gives Rand Paul's opinions equal weight to Dr. Fauci's just because they are both doctors.

Infectious Disease doctors ask for assistance when our patients have eye issues, but that doesn't mean that ophthalmologists know enough to take over the patient's care from us.

We have decades of experience using antibiotics, managing ICU and general patient care and identifying patterns that allow us to diagnose rare diseases and manage side effects from drugs.

Listening to Paul and Trump spew misinformation also has national security implications. Our enemies with biological weapons know that half of us won't wear a mask or take a vaccine, making us easy targets.

Discrediting ID doctors and destroying our CDC / public health system are actions that threaten all of us.  Please vote against anti-science legislators.

Steven Oscherwitz M.D.

Northeast side

‘Fraud, waste and abuse’

White House luxury renovations are estimated to cost taxpayers nearly $927 million, paid for mostly by channeling money from other agencies. This expenditure is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of the Iran war, estimated to be between $34 and $100 billion as of late June. This, for a war that would not exist had Trump not torn up the JPCOA in 2018. The Administration ran a record-breaking $432 billion deficit for the month of July alone.

So much for reducing fraud, waste and abuse. Every single Republican needs to be removed from office.

Vote Democrat on Nov. 11.

Kathryn Pensinger

Foothills

Perpetuating a lie

The author of today’s lead headline does readers a tremendous disservice. Trump’s claim that “Swap made his flight riskier” is a bald-faced lie.

So tell us: What is the rationale for placing blatant disinformation, in the largest typeface no less, on the front page? Why not write a headline that distills the story AND reflects reality: “To save himself, Trump endangered others?”

Leslie Kanberg

Downtown