Letters for Aug. 23, 2023
Godfather Trump
During a 2016 campaign rally in Iowa, Trump said “You see the mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”
Former President Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during the Aug. 22, 2022, deposition before lawyers from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office. The deposition lasted four hours, and the only question the former president answered was about his name. During the deposition, Trump took the Fifth more than 440 times.
The New York attorney general was conducting a probe into the Trump Organization’s business practices. The New York attorney general’s office subsequently indicted the Trump Organization and its CFO on multiple criminal charges including financial wrongdoing.
Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute is more expansive in scope than the federal code from which it is derived. District Attorney Willis has used Georgia’s RICO statute to incorporate charges for a wide array of actions taken by Trump and his allies to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Add to the above the 45-page indictment by DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith of former President Trump and six unindicted co-conspirators for their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
If Trump is found guilty during trial, he needs to be moved from Mar-a-Lago to the Bureau of Prisons ADX Florence facility in Colorado. They will have a resplendent concrete cell ready for the “godfather.”
Mike McCarty
Spokane
Red states using illegal districting
Alabama’s Republican leaders continue to reject democracy and it affects all of us.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently held that the congressional districting map Alabama lawmakers put in place after the 2020 census violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The matter was remanded to the lower court which required a new districting map. Alabama Republican lawmakers have simply ignored the rulings.
Alexander Willis of Alabama Daily News reported that at a meeting of the Alabama Republican Party, legal counsel David Bowsher applauded the scofflaws, saying, “House Speaker McCarthy doesn’t have that big a margin, that costs him one seat right there. I can’t tell you we’re going to win in this fight; we’ve got a Supreme Court that surprised the living daylights out of me when they handed down this decision, but I can guarantee you, if Legislature hadn’t (rejected the ruling), we lose.”
Paul Reynolds, the party’s national committeeman, went on: “Let me scare you a little bit more; Texas has between five to ten congressmen that are Republicans that could shift the other way,” he continued. “How could we win the House back ever again if we’re talking about losing two in Louisiana, and losing five to ten in Texas? The answer’s simple: It’s never.”
Scary, indeed, Mr. Reynolds. The only reason the GOP has its razor-thin majority in the U.S. House is because Alabama, Texas and Louisiana (and likely other red states) continue to use illegal congressional districting maps. It’s time to enforce the law and the democracy that comes with it.
Greg Johnson
Spokane
‘Bums’ and brooms
In his Aug. 17 letter titled “Homelessness is a symptom,” Mr. Dixon wrote, “When I was a child, homeless people were called bums. Life for them was intentionally hard because they were given nothing unless they worked for it. Now we subsidize them with food, lodging and sometimes smartphones and TVs. This leads to more people becoming homeless.”
I’m not a psychologist, but having spoken with dozens of people on Spokane’s streets during the past several years, here’s my take.
These “bums” that Dixon refers to have mental and emotional problems – all of them. Some are genetic, ranging from schizophrenia to bipolar disorder, and others from life in under-resourced foster systems. Other “bums” lost their way in jungles and deserts while serving in our defense or by abuse from people they were supposed to love and trust. Based on all of this and more, the majority are addicts and alcoholics.
The fact is, no one wants to be homeless. No teenage boy ever hunkers down under a bridge at night proud of his day. No middle-aged woman wakes up in an alley eager to engage the world.
Mr. Dixon suggests, “What if we require those homeless people who are capable of working at least four to six hours a day to perform physical labor in order to receive benefits?”
This seems right to some, but behind every “bum” is a story and a life that can benefit from an open mind – not just a broom.
Murray Krow
Spokane
There are limits to everything
“We have met the enemy and it is us” – Pogo
That is the thing about the population of human beings. There are just too many of us on the planet and nobody cares.
Bottom line: There are limits! We are making the planet unlivable! The oceans are filling up with plastic and running hotter all the time!
When I got married, about 45 years ago, the world had less than 6 billion occupants and now we have passed the 8 billion mark! There are limits!
The air and water quality and quantity are being degraded day by day. We take for granted time and space without limits without a real grasp of the future of our environment.
But what is to be done? Probably nothing! The deadlines for rolling back the limits is the business of the politicians. The goals that have been set are seldom met – if ever – and can the world population be organized to deal with the future and the present conditions?
I am 87 years old and have three children and two grandchildren. But are the real limits going to set by a mushroom cloud? Is this all up for discussion, or will we just go on with what life hands us and continue to not even talk about limits? This is not sustainable!
Bart Haggin
Spokane