Kind of a drag
Republicans, you must be so proud your chosen legislators have prioritized attacking Public Enemy No. 1 — drag queens. Justine Wadsack leads the charge in Arizona. (Having observed Justine’s pre-election shenanigans and now this, I find her to be rather scary, and I don’t think I’d want children around her.) This attack on drag and LGBTQ in general is a Republican culture war tactic designed to rile the base nationwide. It’s very popular and successful. I wonder, do these Republican drag-phobes worry about children seeing the violent video from Jan. 6th? A crazed mob attacking and maiming police, setting up gallows (“Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! USA! USA!”), desecration of the Capitol, and a bloodthirsty mob going after Congressional members. Surely more harmful to kids than exposure to drag. Oh wait, I forgot! Those violent insurrectionists are great patriots; their violence that day admirable! No doubt Tucker Carlson is working on spinning all that video gifted him by Kevin McCarthy into the Republican fairy tale version. Stay tuned.
People are also reading…
Deb Klumpp
Oro Valley
A thought
Were the ventriloquist Edgar Bergen starting his career today, I wouldn’t be surprised if he named his dummies Kevin McCarthy and Marjorie Snerd.
Larry Gray
SaddleBrooke
News media
Watching the news today as most days I just heard three people were killed in the war in Ukraine, my question is why are three killed there more important than 85 murders and 130 car deaths in the U.S.? Why are we so concerned with deaths overseas but not here? I wonder if they put on their news about all deaths in the U.S.
Thomas R. Crawford
Foothills
Why?
In 1998 the Republican leadership claimed to be so “horrified” by Bill and Monica. In 2016 they embraced Donald Trump who is a million times worse than Bill Clinton. Why?
Now that Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, the GOP leadership is again rallying around Trump. Why?
This is obviously a double standard.
God is NOT working through Trump. Perhaps the opposition is?.
Flora Frederick
Midtown
Rule of law
Disappointed about Trump’s indictment, his lawyer Joe Tacopina bemoaned that he had hoped that the “rule of law would prevail.” Surrender your credentials because, it did, Joe. It did.
Rick Cohn
West side
An apropos juxtaposition
Today (April 4) as I made my way through a Catalina Foothills neighborhood — the same day in which the very first former U.S. president, ever, was arrested and arraigned in court on criminal charges, 34 felony counts to be exact — I happened upon a seemingly apropos juxtaposition which left me agog and agape. In front of a private home, a “Trump Country” flag waved in the breeze high up on a pole. Parked immediately below the unfurled flag was a green, yellow and white commercial mini-van with the following advertisement blaring across its side panel in capital letters: “ PEST ELIMINATION.” Thank you, Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg. You made my day. Pest elimination…indeed.
Stephen Kraynak
Foothills
Hard to believe
I have a hard time rationalizing why hard working Americans would give their hard working dollars for the Trump Defense Fund. Let’s see, he says he is a billionaire, he flies his private plane (Boeing 757) that has a capacity of 228 passengers everywhere, lives in a palatial home and you are giving him money. P.T Barnum was right: “There is a sucker born every minute.”
Fred DiNoto
Northwest side
Pouring water on the ground
Re: the April 5 article “Who should get precious Colorado River water.”
We need to stop pouring Colorado River water onto the ground to grow crops in the desert southwest. Per Tony Davis’ Yuma farm facts sidebar: “Flood irrigation is used on 96% of all irrigated acres.” Nutritionally useful food crops need to be supported but need to be produced with very efficient watering methods. Nutritionally marginal crops need to be devalued as farming in the desert becomes more precarious due to dwindling water supplies.
Water from the river is part of Earth’s natural resources that belonged to all of us before early entrepreneurs legally enclosed part of the commons for private benefit. As Arizona’s population increases and drought conditions endure, we need to open the Law of the River and reconfigure water allocations to better align with all people’s needs.
Donald Ijams
Midtown
Why are we different?
Having worked in six different countries, international friends don’t understand why Americans are unwilling to do anything about gun violence. The fact that Americans carry loaded guns in public is to my foreign colleagues, unfathomable. Some even turned down jobs here because they didn’t want to worry about their children being in friends’ homes or schools having loaded guns.
Most western countries have the same mental health and social challenges we do. Their kids “game,” watch violent movies, follow social media, learn about sex at an early age, are bullied or ostracized if different, have divorced or single parents, live in families with alcohol/drug abuse and suffer mental health issues. Religion has declined; crime increased.
Every excuse used by pro-gun groups is found there. There’s only one major difference between their order-of-magnitude lower gun violence and ours — the number of guns.
So, why are we obsessed with guns when it causes so much tragedy?
Sue Applegate
SaddleBrooke
Really?
Republicans want to protect parents that “…forgot they were carrying a loaded weapon onto school grounds.”
First, how do you forget you are carrying a loaded gun? (Side rant: If you forget you have your gun, you’re missing opportunities to be a Good Guy With a Gun because you forgot ya had yer gun!)
Second, if you forget you are carrying a loaded gun, you shouldn’t be carrying a loaded gun.
Third, you probably shouldn’t be trusted to raise a child, either.
Fourth, what is wrong with the people that vote for these idiots?
David Reynolds
East side
MAGA campaign jingle
Profound apologies to Robert Palmer, RIP.
Your lights are on but you’re not home
Your mind is not your own
Your brain sweats, your body shakes
Another lie is what it takes
You can’t sleep, no, you can’t eat
There’s no doubt, you’re in deep
A one track mind, you can’t be saved
Oblivion is all you crave
Your throat is tight, you can’t breathe
Another lie is all you need
Woah, you like to think that you’re immune to his stuff, oh yeah
It’s closer to the truth to say you can’t get enough
You know you’re gonna have to face it, you’re addicted to Trump
Might as well face it, you’re addicted to Trump (repeat endlessly...)
Rick Cohn
West side
Democracy
Has the Republican party gone completely bat crazy? The Tennessee legislature just voted by that body’s Republican-led two-thirds majority to oust two of three of their members, for what they were elected to do, provide a voice for the citizenry of their districts. Rep. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two Black legislators, were removed. Rep. Gloria Johnson, the one white female legislator at the same protest, was not. When asked why, she only replied, look at our skin color. How horrific. How racially tinged. How undemocratic. See what gun lobby money supports? Can we all now see the authoritarian, only-my-vision of gun laws, abortion, race and gender equality, freedom of the press, and voting rights, among other issues, that the Republican party is espousing? Beware, my fellow Americans. Representatives Jones and Pearson may have been gagged in the Tennessee legislature but they will return, louder and with more support. They have mine.
John (Jay) Van Echo, PE
West side
Follow these steps to easily submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion to the Arizona Daily Star.
