Outsmarted by Democrats?
Let’s see if I have this story straight. The Republican Party runs the State of Arizona. The governor and the statehouse are under Republican command. Both legislative houses function with the complete control of the Republicans.
So, tell me how a rag-tag band of recalcitrant, disorganized, minority-party Democrats outsmarted the entire Arizona Republican hierarchy. How in the world did the marginal Arizona Democrats set up a meticulously coordinated strategy, successfully stealing the election for president by more than 10,000 votes? Yikes! Are Arizona Republicans that daft? Nutty maybe, but that incompetent?
The wacky Senate Republicans recount is a national comedy of errors. Once again, Arizona Republicans are a laughable lot in America. However, they did figure out a way to turn their imaginary recount into a fundraiser. Now that makes sense — Republicans and cash. How’s about we give them 11,000 votes, so Trump wins. What good would that do? Would all this Republican machination actually change anything, anything at all?
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Jerry Wilkerson
SaddleBrooke
Are fathers fully responsible?
Recently, Gov. Doug Ducey, signed a law prohibiting abortions based on non-fatal genetic disorders. Furthermore, this new law stipulates that “the father has a say.”
So, I’m wondering, does the new law also stipulate that the father is legally required to provide at least half of the funds needed to care for the raising and nurturing of the baby? Depending on the genetic disorder, that might mean for the life of the child, who theoretically could become a very old adult. Or is the funding of the child’s life totally dependent on the mother? After all, fair is fair.
Sue Thompson, M.D.
SaddleBrooke
The vaccination debate
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), Maricopa County is 27.1% vaccinated and Pima County is 39.4% vaccinated. Vaccination rates are dropping in both counties. According to the New York Times database, on the same date, COVID cases in Maricopa averaged 11 new cases per 100K over the past two weeks and Pima averaged 6.2 cases per 100K. From this I conclude that the vaccines are working well.
Any adult can get a vaccination in Arizona, but many have declined. I suspect that many of the anti-vaxers are the same people who believe that requiring proof of vaccination is a violation of their civil rights and/or that the vaccine causes autism, impotence or hair loss.
We could end this pandemic very soon, but we will continue to pay a dear price in death and treasure until many more Arizonans decide to be vaccinated.
Loring Green
Foothills
IRS needs to be funded
Year after year, the IRS budget has been cut, and employees have been lost. There is no significant new hiring. The IRS Master File computer is 62 years old.
This is not a new problem and has been orchestrated by rich people and big businesses. How? Their connections with members of Congress for decades has provided the necessary loopholes for lost taxes.
For the past 75 years, the IRS has had a system for reaching most people who should be filing and paying taxes. When money dried up and their workforce retired, the system continued to target poor W-2 wage-earners and small businesses.
Thank you, President Biden for wanting to turn this around and start taxing the very wealthy and big businesses.
Janet Pipes
Northwest side
Making Arizona a joke
Just as Senator Ron Johnson made Wisconsin into the laughing stock of America, Arizona Republicans are turning Arizona into the laughing stock of the world. Why are so many Republicans simply nothing more than clowns?
Peter Jackson
Green Valley
The Big Lie of the Trump GOP
Have Americans ever been hoodwinked to the extent that Trump Republicans are trying to achieve with their Big Lie that Joe Biden did not handily win the presidential election? Their allegations of fraud have been turned back repeatedly in court rulings and official state audits.
The sideshow going on in Maricopa County is perhaps the most ridiculous yet of GOP attempts to muddy the waters. To examine 2020 ballots for signs of cheating, Republican legislators hired a firm that has no experience in conducting such audits and whose CEO has been documented as spouting Trump’s Big Lie.
It is clear Republicans are trying to undermine voters’ confidence in the integrity of our electoral process and then use this doubt to press their voter suppression laws. Yes, there is real reason to worry about the integrity of our electoral process, and it is as a direct result of the activities of Trump Republicans.
John Covert
Northeast side
The ‘Fann Dance’
The “Fann Dance” has metastasized into a “fraud-it” of dark money and secrecy. Who vetted these counters? The $150,000 cost has ballooned to $2 million.
Joe Biden won, yet two legitimate audits and certification by the governor — and these whiners want a different result. Remember, these are the same people who stormed the Capitol thinking a few hundred rioters could overturn the victory. Dangerously ignorant, they actually believed Trump’s lies. The naivete of the Arizona Senate Republicans is stunning.
I hope anyone who even smelled tear gas on Jan. 6 goes to prison for insurrection. It was the most disgraceful day for this country in my lifetime. Sadly, these rioters represent the current Republican party, as do the sponsors of the “fraud-it.” Despicable.
Ted Morrison
Midtown
Re-count concerns
There are a number of powerful people who believe that voter totals were inaccurate. The latest recount funded by some politicians and supporters may arrive at a different result than original/other counts. If this happens, then we are entitled to an explanation as to why the voting tallies are different (what was different about the original count process and the re-count process). Assuming that a methodology/process was different, it should be identified and clarified as to why the recount process is superior.
Individual ballots that were tallied differently should be identified and made public, sans names, for the examination of the public.
Vincent Allen
Northwest side
Nothing is free when you work
Conservatives hate the idea that someone would get something for free.
They argue that free tuition is getting something for nothing. Why is giving someone free college not investing in a future successful worker? Why isn’t free or supported child care a good thing because it allows parents to work?
It never seems to occur to conservative social critics, that most people who receive benefits are actually working, and even with full-time work sometimes can’t make ends meet. Or, they, their children or their parents have medical issues that take up all their resources and energy.
Not, incidentally, the working poor pay taxes, too. So, no, nothing is free. But if you work all your life, you should be able to reap the benefits that others in this country share.
Are there people who game the system? Sure, but most agencies that dispense benefits have processes to review questionable applicants and investigate fraud.
Martin Plocke
Southwest side
Maricopa looks like fools
Arizona has quite a collection of vanity license plates, Arizona Historical Society, horseless carriage, Southwest PGA (golf) and Thunderbird School of Global Management. But I did not see one that is definitely needed, Land of the Tin Foil Hats. Maybe it is only available to citizens of Maricopa County.
Mimi Pollow
East side
Be careful what you share
Many news articles state that some people who have taken the first dose of the COVID vaccine are not taking the second.
Some people have used the internet to discuss the negative side effects they experienced after taking the second dose. Some have made the side effects seem worse than the virus. This makes the decision to get the second dose very hard for some.
Should the information concerning the negative side effects of the second dose be eliminated? Of course not. People have a right to know what they may experience if they choose to get fully vaccinated.
I do believe people who post their negative reactions to the vaccine should do so with some caution and understand how it may impact the decisions others make concerning getting the second dose.
Everyone must decide what is right for them based on what information they have available. Good or bad, it’s all we have.
Thomas Fletcher
Southwest side
Demise of the Republican Party
The Republican party is dead, it has split into two pieces. All hail the Trumplican Party, a party that embraces conspiracy theory and fiscal recklessness.
The party that decries “cancel culture” then cancels anyone who voices reasonable concern about an insurrection-inducing president who coddles Q-Anon conspiracy.
What Trumplicans fail to realize is that their extreme view of an authoritarian America is unacceptable to the rest of us. There are more of us then there are of you, thankfully. Wake up!
David Creamer
Southeast side
Protecting gun shops
Re: the May 8 article “Ducey signs new law protecting gun shops.”
I can’t be the only one shocked to see Gov. Ducey’s quick and enthusiastic action to sign a new law protecting Arizona’s vital gun shops.
Statistics from 2019 show an average of three Arizonans died by gun violence every day, but that grim statistic certainly didn’t prompt our governor to sign any laws that might protect us or our loved ones from gun violence.
I wish I could say that I was surprised, but it is truly shocking that the governor of this state is more concerned about possibly alienating the gun lobby and its supporters than passing laws that might protect the rest of us from gun violence.
Kenneth Cohn
Northwest side
The socialism Bogeyman
Re: the May 9 letter “Socialists are coming for you.”
This letter was an epic fail! The letter writer sabotages his own argument when he says, “Get ready to pay more of your fair share of taxes even if you make less than $400,000 per year.” Why is the letter writer against paying his fair share? I predict they will not pass up Medicare or Social Security benefits, both socialist programs.
Maybe they were confused and thought Martin Luther King Jr. was against the rich paying their fair share when he said, “We all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor.”
Too many folks think they are just one good idea from being a millionaire. Maybe the letter writer is one of them. Let’s be clear: The deck has never been more stacked against the little guy. It has never been harder to climb out of poverty.
Can we start educating people on socialism vs. capitalism vs. communism? The ignorance is astounding.
Alison Jones
Midtown
