Your views: September 10, 2020

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If Putin wants Trump, should you?

There’s no question who Putin supported in 2016, or who he supports in 2020, but why has Putin favored Trump in both elections? Why did Russia immediately answer Trump’s invitation, “Russia, if you’re listening,” by hacking the DNC? Why was Russia renamed in the newest Intelligence Department and Homeland Security briefings as working to smear Biden in 2020?

If you believed Trump’s endless denials, Mueller even identified the internet protocol addresses of the computers used to hack our elections in 2016 and the names of the Russian hackers. Russian interference is documented fact, not fiction and Trump supporters might ask themselves why Putin wants Trump?

If you watched America’s humiliation at the 2018 Helsinki summit, perhaps you know the answer. Putin’s manipulation of Trump was a disgrace. Trump rolled over in total submission. If Ronald Reagan was still around, he would have cut Trump to pieces and sent Putin running back to Moscow with his tail between his legs, but Trump is no Ronald Reagan. Trump is out for himself. His self interests and egomania makes Trump an easy mark for a cunning predator like Putin. Putin was laughing when Trump took that stage, watching Trump pathetically try to defend Putin’s own innocence as the free world cringed.

Trump is doing Putin’s heavy lifting internationally. Trump opposed new sanctions on Russia drafted in 2019, signing them reluctantly after they received strong bipartisan approval. Trump abandoned the Kurds in Syria and has said nothing about repeated acts of Russian aggression against our military. Trump has echoed Putin’s own propaganda, when it benefited him politically.

Trump soured our alliances with historic allies, once even threatening to abandon NATO. Trump pushed aggressively for Russia’s reentry to the G7, having been expelled from the G8 after annexing Crimea. Most concerning, Trump was warned in a written briefing a year ago that Putin put bounties on the heads of American soldiers in Afghanistan. Trump says he never read it. When the threat was brought to his attention verbally, he did nothing. In his interview with Johnathan Swan in July, Swan asked if Trump confronted Putin in any of their eight phone calls since Trump’s verbal notification and his answer, “I have never discussed it with him.”

Why has Trump never opposed Putin? The answer is, we don’t know but Trump has hidden his financial records from investigators, both his taxes and the details of his many hundreds of millions in loans through Deutschebank that kept Trump afloat for decades. Trump seems to fear Putin and that concerns me even more than Trump’s many other abuses, too numerous to list with just 500 words.

James Messmer

 

Lost in space: Objectivity

I got a real hoot — finally — by the last sentence of James F. Davis’ tome in the Sept 3 issue. Sounding much like you know who, he peevishly declares, “Science has been very politicized. He could have, but with restraint, concluded with “sad.”

Just for laughs, I went through this letter, highlighting all these “facts” he presented. Included but not limited to: “The lefts’ desire to defeat Trump is more important than saving lives.” Did he see the film clip of POTUS at a military graveyard, musing out loud, “I don’t get it — what’s in it for them?” You know, those “losers and suckers” and a perennial favorite,“ Goro used ‘“typical Democrat/globalist/Communist methods,” as defined by who? Then these “methods” discredit the writer and/or the facts presented and proceeds to do exactly that in his issues with Goro. On to protesters which he says are “self-proclaimed,” Marxist BLM and ANTIFA rioters randomly — and so on through “‘leftist media propaganda” and more. Who is he to refer to Dr. Fauci as “alleged expert.” What? Dr. Fauci became head of the CDC by winning a beauty contest? Let’s see your CV Mr. Davis.

I am weary of these long-overused, misused and undefined epithets, descriptions that are merely long out-worn opinions, parroted time after time, slung carelessly into the wind who play fast and loose with said opinions that are used as facts. I have plenty of opinions myself and am only restraining myself with great effort. I’ll leave it at that.

Hattie Sheehy

 

Many paid the price for being ‘stupid’ and ‘losers’

Hallelujah, I have seen the light. For the past 51 years, whenever I have had doubts about myself and my place in the world, I would wonder why I felt this way. It is now clear to me. I was “stupid” and a “loser” because I enlisted in the United States Army. There were plenty of people who thought I was crazy or misguided or on the wrong side of history for joining up in the middle of a disastrous military conflict. Now Trump has blown away the mists of confusion and self doubt.

I was stupid and a loser along with the millions of fellow Americans who have served. John McCain was “stupid” and a “loser” for getting shot down and spending an extra year as a POW because he wouldn’t accept release if his fellow prisoners weren’t freed as well. Poppy Bush was “stupid” and a “loser” because he was shot down in the Pacific during World War II. 

My classmates at North Georgia College were “stupid” and “losers.” One who lost both legs in Viet Nam, another killed almost as soon as he arrived in country. Losers all.

Donald J. Trump, brilliant mind that he is, had his father ferret out a store front doc in Queens who proclaimed Trump had bone spurs and from there a military deferment. Sheer genius.

This same very stable genius who is behind the successful management of the corona pandemic which will eventually just go away. I could write enough pages to fill several volumes of all of Trump’s successes in office but I will just leave it at this, his greatest.

To all of you Trump voters who are veterans, mark your ballot with the realization that voting for him will lessen your sense of being “stupid” and a “loser.” You will feel better for it.

Bill Bagwell, RA 14938302 September 1966 - September 1969 11B MOS

 

Time for a change

I’m not a “political person.” I cast my vote for the person, not the party, so I consider myself neither a Republican nor a Democrat. What I am is a proud American and at this time in this country, I’m a very concerned American. I love this country and it breaks my heart to see it in such shambles. So much hatred, so much anger, divisiveness, insecurity, so much lack of leadership. I find myself more and more seeking advice in First Thessalonians to “pray without ceasing.” I know many others pray too, and although our specific prayers differ, I believe we all have common goals — a better America with moral and ethical values and freedom and respect for all.

This is my prayer for a better America:

I pray for an honest, compassionate, decent person to lead this country.

I pray for a leader who treats all people with respect, including true American heroes like John McCain, freedom fighters like John Lewis, and peaceful protesters asking for equality for all.

I pray for a leader who cares for and tries to protect all Americans including disabled reporters who don’t deserve to be mocked and ridiculed.

I pray for a leader who accepts responsibility for this country, admits his or her mistakes, learns from those mistakes and strives to do better for the good of America.

I pray for a leader to ‘lead” us out of this pandemic, one who doesn’t first dismiss its existence and now its severity with a flippant response of “It is what it is.”

I pray for a leader who surrounds himself or herself with wise, learned, experienced advisors rather than political supporters who’ve never spent a whole day in a public school classroom or smug family members who call almost 200,000 Covid deaths “a success story” and tell people out of work, struggling to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads to just “find something new.”

I pray for a leader who will unite every culture, ethnicity, political party in America, a leader who sees and believes in the good of all people, not just the white and the privileged, that we are truly one nation under God, one nation for all people with liberty for all people, with justice for all people.

I pray for a leader who, with God’s help, can and will restore the soul of this nation.

That’s my prayer — and although I’ve honestly tried, I don’t see any of these qualities in the person who presently occupies the White House. For the overwhelming majority of Americans, he’s done nothing in four years to make our lives better and he doesn’t care. He’s had his chance to “make America great” — and failed. For the sake of the United States of America, it’s time to give someone else a chance.

Marilee Powell