Venezuela-type
mess awaits us
So you want to overthrow our democracy? You think a socialistic government will replace it? More likely, you’ll be ruled by a dictator. First, know the difference.
Democracy is two Greek words combined — demo means people and crate means rule. With a dictatorship, only one person rules and keeps total, complete control, usually obtained with force. If you want to know how a dictatorship will impact you and me, study Venezuela’s recent takeover. Once the richest country in South America, Venezuela now has 90% of its population living below the poverty line and more than half suffer malnutrition. Rethink your thought that it won’t happen here. Just go to the net. Read all the articles about Venezuela, before and after the dictatorship. We’re already mirroring the Venezuela takeover. If Donald Trump were to become president now, it would be by force. Just that action alone shows he has no intention of presiding over a democracy. Would you stay? Or if you flee, where will you go?
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Cathey Langione
Marana
Crosswalks need
paint touch-up
In March 2021 the crosswalk at Mountain and Fort Lowell where a ghost bike stands was painted after I submitted a request. By May the new paint had deteriorated and I requested TDOT repaint it with a quality paint. They said it looks OK to them as is and that they are only permitted to paint crosswalks once a year. Concerning, especially because there is a school on this corner. This newly painted crosswalk like many others in Tucson and on the Mountain bike pathway is poorly visible. Perhaps, citizens and businesses should adopt and paint crosswalks to help keep pedestrians safe.
Cheryl Kelli
Downtown
Our interests,
our minerals
Because the Hudbay Minerals mining company is so interested in the Rosemont Mine area a simple question arises. If Hudbay is willing to spend billions to mine in the Tucson area why are not any American mining firms (If any still exist!) also wanting to hit this mother lode of minerals. Also, why is most of our in-country major business not being liked by our own billionaire American businesspeople/corporations? It appears that we are too tough on our own interested folks and readily allow Canadian and others to get wealthy at our earthly expense?
We shouldn't be complaining about others when we in America are ignoring our own legal interests in mining. Arizona was built on the mining industry since the early 1800s. Our interests should be our water and other life needs and not those of outsiders who won't fix what they destroy (environment).
Donald Groner
Benson
Water depleted
by liberal horde
Arizona used to be a solid red Republican state. Maricopa County used to be a solid red county. No more. Why is that? Because of decades of hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of liberals moving to the state from the expensive West Coast, and harsh winters on the East Coast and Midwest.
Think of the billions of gallons of water they consume annually. Was there any thinking on their part about water resources in the desert when they moved here? Deserts were never meant to accommodate millions of people. Human beings diverted waters from the Colorado River, built dams and canals providing artificial water sources to the deserts of California, Arizona and Nevada.
It was destined to fail due to the vast expansion of populations. Hundreds of thousands of liberals in Arizona could save the state by doing self-imposed water rationing or by moving out.
Stella Murphy
Midtown
Legacy of fraud
in Pima elections
It's amazing how things change but stay the same.
I am reading Tom Clavins book "Tombstone." It indicates there has been a long history of Democrats cheating in elections.
It describes the 1880 election for Pima County sheriff. The Republican candidate was a "law and order" candidate. The Democrat was tolerant of current criminal activity like cattle rustling. Everyone expected the Republican to win, but when the ballots were counted, the Democrat won by 42 votes. However, an investigation revealed that in the San Simon precinct there were 103 votes for the Democrat, and only one for the Republican. The real strange part was there were only 10 qualified voters in the precinct. No one contested the election, so it stood.
Ken Wolfe
Marana
Sinema, change
your behavior
The U.S. suffered an attempted coup and Sen. Sinema skipped the bipartisan vote to investigate and prevent another from happening? How can she stand alongside Sen. John Cornyn who agreed we need a commission to investigate but, when one was designed to satisfy Republicans, he votes to block it.
The filibuster, your definition, was created to encourage bipartisanship. Hmmm ... Republicans stated priority is to block agendas, not to deal with the huge issues of our time. If Republicans were the majority, the filibuster would've been eliminated already, she knows that, right? She said, "when you have a system that's not working effectively" ... "change your behavior." For the sake of our democracy, she should take her own advice: Change her behavior! True courage isn't wearing a "F-off" ring. True courage is taking bold action to further our goals — justice, peace and promoting the general welfare. Most Americans want a working democracy. We need Sinema's help.
Tamar Rala Kreiswirth
North side
Capital gains
are under-taxed
Re: the June 14 articles "Ordinary workers are right to think something's wrong" and "Outrage over taxes ignores basic facts."
It is of interest to me as a tax professional for years to see the opinions of Jonah Goldberg and Leonard Pitts on the same page. Both of them got it wrong in my opinion. Leaked personal tax information is criminal. However, they ignore some basic facts. Wealth is not taxed nor should it be. The inequities which neither appear to present is the disparity in taxes on different forms of income. Wealthy investors use long-term investments which pay qualified dividends which are taxed at a low rate. They also use the advantage of lower capital gains rates which vary from 0 to 28%. That is their source of income and in my opinion should be taxed at the same rate as any working person’s earned income or my military retirement benefit. And for anyone who would like to be enlightened I would suggest IRS pub. 544 for capital gains and IRS pub. 17 for general tax information.
Gerald Schwartz
Northeast side
Governor again
acts dangerously
Re: the June 16 article "Ducey: Universities can't require masks."
The headline says it all. The man and the party that tried to overrule local authorities on mask mandates, proven measures to protect the public safety of Arizona citizens, and the man that opened bars and gyms at the height of the COVID surge in Arizona, is at it again. This time he's causing the reckless endangerment of our college-age population over the objections of universities that are trying with all their might to protect all of our sons and daughters (vaccinated and unvaccinated). What did we do to deserve this heedless and dangerous man?
Molly Hunter
Midtown
