Bidenflation
A recent letter writer stated that blaming increased prices of gas etc was not Biden’s fault. May I inject a little data and statistics. The U.S. has larger oil reserves than any other country on the globe. When Biden took office he stated he was going to close down the fossil fuel business. He is slowly doing that by advocating green energy and avoiding the fact we do not have enough alternate power to power our economy, it is many years down the road. The elements of supply and demand primarily drive pricing. Inflation is created by the Federal government printing U.S. dollars that have no backing thus devaluing our savings and pushes up pricing. That is where we are now and Biden is the reason. Are liberals so steeped in the left’s narrative that they lack any cognitive ability? It appears so.
Bill Dowdall
Oro Valley
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Theft of votes
I was amazed while reading another fine article by Howard Fischer on the words and actions of Anthony Kern. He and 10 other members of the GOP attempted to replace the votes of 1,672,143 Arizona voters in the 2020 general election.
I am not a lawyer, but it seems reasonable that a group of people executing authority they do not have, is a crime. The AZ Governor, a Republican, had already certified the election results. What in their thinking made their 11 votes worth more than over 1.6 million of ours? They just did not like the outcome of the election.
This group had help from others in the party, Chesebro, Eastman and more concocted a plan to overturn the results by misrepresenting themselves as the true electors. The scammers in PA and NM had enough sense to qualify their slate as conditioned by court approval.
And then Kern complains that Mayes and Hobbs want him in jail. I want him and all the others in jail.
Jeff Rayner
SaddleBrooke
Understanding dictatorship
MAGA extremists are saying that the USA needs a dictatorship. Let’s consider the conditions where a dictatorship might be a viable solution.
When countries have high unemployment, poor healthcare, low literacy rates, archaic infrastructure, corruption and violence, a dictatorship might solve those problems more quickly than a democracy. Dictatorships can bypass checks and balances, curtail citizen rights, and ignore the country’s constitution to reach defined goals.
To succeed, the dictatorship must be benevolent and free of graft. A development plan must be created with guidance from global leaders in economics, education, and public health and safety. When goals are met, there is a transition to democracy, and a transition of power.
The USA does not exhibit symptoms of a country in need of dictatorship. And Trump does not meet the success criteria. He is not benevolent, not free of graft, nor will he adhere to economic programs. Global leaders do not respect nor trust him. And he will never transition power.
Cindy Doklan
Midtown
What are we paying attention to?
The contrast between two concurrent wars, a few miles apart geographically is startling.
The discrepancy between world’s attention and focus on one region seemingly oblivious to another is dramatic.
For example, contrast in attention and focus among the numerous concurrent Middle Eastern wars and the Sudan where about 25 million people — of whom over 14 million are children — need humanitarian assistance and support.
Where are our irate, dramatic, attention riveting headlines expressing compassion and outrage?
Paul Zohav
East side
Continuing Israeli attacks in Gaza
I have read almost daily about the brutal bombing campaign that Israel has been carrying out in Gaza in an effort to root out members of Hamas, but their response to Hamas’ unprovoked attack on innocent Israeli civilians is no longer to my mind justified. This has not seemed to deter Netanyahu, who has indicated that he will continue pursuing his “scorched Earth” policy until, presumably, all members of Hamas have been eliminated, regardless of the consequences to Palestinian civilians. Whether or not this constitutes genocide is to my mind beside the point, as it is horrific by any standard. Lastly, Israel’s harsh treatment of Palestinian civilians will sow the seeds for the generation of future members of Hamas, and the cycle of violence will no doubt continue.
Gerry Maggiora
Foothills
Rancher’s trial
Santa Cruz rancher accused of murder. A mistrial should have been verdict even before jury could not agree. Since when can a judge tell either the defense or prosecutor to “hurry this along” because he had said it would only take four weeks. If it took seven months the suspect is supposed to have a fair trial. Not pushed by the judge to hurry things along.
Patricia Pulido
Southeast side
Are we ready for autocracy?
Re: the April 21 article “Democracy dissed, but are we ready for autocracy?”
Brent Howard described why two-thirds of voters have “soured on democracy.” We are relegated to vote for the better of two poor candidates. Trump suggests a monarchy. Biden is questionable for another term. We would be voting for Kamala Harris. History teaches that an independent can’t win. Our independent choices are Romney, DeSantis, Haley, or Cheney. All independents would have to combine to support one candidate. I propose Haley and Cheney as running mates. Our representatives have bankrupted us. They pay for the wars of other countries, undocumented needs over homeless veterans, and foreign aid; or they print more dollars, which lowers the buying power of our currency. They borrow money in order to give it away. Haley and Cheney have been critical of non-conservative spending. We are at the financial point of being unable to pay the interest on our debt. Rather than voting for a party, let’s combine our support for people who put our people ahead of government.
Bert Stamper
Northwest side
What I am voting for
Re: the April 22 letter “What I am voting for.”
In his letter the writer asks “What are you voting for?”
As a registered independent and a liberal I will be voting for the following:
Sane governing and not the chaos that the former president and MAGA republicans bring.
A compassionate and empathetic leader, not someone who always puts themselves first.
Someone who respects human rights and women’s right and not someone who denigrates anyone who doesn’t agree with him.
Someone who supports democracy here and around the globe and not someone who would rule in an autocratic matter.
A decent, well-meaning leader and not a narcissist, con man, liar, cheater, adulterer, sex predator (I could go on).
Someone who believes in science and climate change.
Someone who wants to pass laws that benefit the lower and middle classes and not just the wealthy.
Someone who supports Social Security and Medicare.
Our country’s future.
Biden, although not perfect, represents much more of what I’m voting for.
John Pierce, PhD
Northwest side
Every accusation is a confession
For the last four years or so, we have been under a constant deluge from republicans about how democrats are rigging elections, fixing votes, and general all around cheating. These outcries are frequently attached to something about following the will of the people.
Republicans even blew a few million dollars to prove the 2020 election was rigged only to fall on their collective face.
More recently, Arizona republicans have floated a law to automatically give Arizona’s electoral votes to Trump before the primaries were even over. In the past few days, they proposed a retroactive change to the rules regarding judge retention after the people of Arizona started a push to remove two judges following a very unpopular ruling.
All this brings to mind a certain Shakespeare quote: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
David Reynolds
East side
Copper World thirst
Pro-mining advocates, trucking industry executives and Hudbay surrogates, keep writing letters downplaying the dangers to our communities from the proposed Copper World mine complex. But they aren’t fooling us.
The one thing that they never mention is the elephant in the room; the fact that Hudbay will pump 4.5 billion gallons of water from our aquifer every year! Tell me businessmen, how do you downplay that danger?
Rick Johnson
Sahuarita
NPR etc. liberal
If NPR, NYT, WPO, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS and AZ Star are considered “liberal” doesn’t that show where the pulse of the nation is? All news outlets live by ratings and adjust as needed.
Liberal defined as open to new ideas.
Donald Plummer
Northwest side
Hard work brings news to readers
Well now, as a letter writer proclaimed, if PBS, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and the Star are all “liberal bias,” what does that leave us? FOX, TikTok and Truth Social? I’ve watched PBS for years. Always do they have a conservative and progressive commentator discussing issues together. And no endless ads! Sorry about one disgruntled business editor.
The Star absolutely prints news facts and views from the full spectrum of political stances. And the Star has star reporters. Tim Steller invaluably reports balanced coverage on so many different socially significant topics to Southern AZ. And how about our water specialist, Tony Davis! With his tenacity in getting the Bureau of Reclamation to open up and answer his questions, Mr. Davis broke the news before any other publication on the cavitation challenges in the outlets of Glen Canyon Dam. Bravo! To all of you at the Star: You work tirelessly for this community, and I and many others are so grateful you’re here and we have regional news!
Nancy Jacques
Northeast side
Opinions
Like many readers, I get frustrated with some of the opinion letters. Just to be clear, opinions are beliefs not based on absolute certainty or positive knowledge but “what seems to be true.”
Disinformation is everywhere and unfortunately, many people are not concerned enough to weed out the false information. To my knowledge, there haven’t been any studies indicating the level of human intelligence decreasing over the last 10 years, but I might be mistaken.
I have, in past letters, offered up the possibility of willful ignorance as a reason for so many people misunderstanding things like the constitution, economics, societal issues, and science in general. Unfortunately, there are no simple abbreviations expressing complex problems which can accommodate the shortened attention spans of modern society.
Sadly, it is impossible to understand all the factors driving world events or the price of eggs via text messages or even 150 words.
George Ball, PhD
Midtown
Biden’s announcement
I was watching the Democrat introduction of the Biden/Harris ticket and had trouble following the plot of the story. I was hoping Biden would tell the story of his uncle being shot down over New Guinea and eaten by cannibals, however, the governor of New Guinea indicated that this was a lie, realizing that this is another Biden story that is without basis. At the same time, they showed a Harris interview where Harris was hyped up on nitrous oxide and the giggling was a repeat of every recent interview. The scary part is that Harris is only a heartbeat away from the Presidency. For my next project, I am going to write a book detailing all of the Biden “embellishments” that have been proven wrong, along with the actual facts, and how many times he has repeated the “embellishment” after each one was debunked. I might have to hire an assistant to help with this one.
Loran Hancock
Northwest side
Party projection
Among the many bad things Trump has brought to the GOP, is projection.
The current effort by the GOP “to bring us fair elections” is one example. The 2020 election was marred by the largest attempted election fraud ever. This fraud was created and conspired on by leaders within the GOP.
Fake news is another projection. The first, obvious clue was the day after Trump was inaugurated, claiming biggest crowds ever. Not even close to the truth. The larger crowds were the anti-Trump protests around the globe. Never had that happened before. Obama supporters over filled the Capitol Mall (Hope vs. hate).
I had not understood how so many bought his lies, until Pecker testified in Trumps’ hush money/fraud trial. If you buy what the National Enquirer says, you will probably buy what the orange blob says. But the mainstream media is biased? Not in my opinion. They report the inconvenient facts. Peckers media did agree to act in biased reporting.
Jeff Rayner
SaddleBrooke
Living Longer
When I look into the future and wonder how life might be; I believe If my taxes go up, I won’t be happy, but I will live. If my democracy goes down, I might not.
Fran McNeely
Northeast side
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