Letters to the Editor | Week of Feb. 19-24, 2024

Protecting presidency

We need new laws to deal with presidential abuse of sacred judicial procedures.

Firstly, there is too much liberty granted to make endless appeals of matters in the dangerous category of high crimes and misdemeanors. Abuse of trust on the national level does not threaten the stability merely of a town or a county, but of the states and nation. Time is of the essence.

We also need a law that prohibits the use of campaign money to finance legal appeals of decisions related to crimes committed while in office. This is like encouraging people to donate matches and gasoline to an arsonist. It allows citizens who benefit mightily from democratic freedoms to participate in destroying them.

In addition, we need laws denying felons, business fraudsters, and sexual predators from running for office. That is only common sense. Furthermore, we need more exacting definition and limitation of the Presidential pardon power and in particular a law prohibiting the president from pardoning himself.

Kimball Shinkoskey

Woods Cross

Comments criticized

Re: your opinion page of Feb. 7: The editorial by The Washington Post, followed by two commentaries, display full control and censure from the liberal left, suggesting a full panic rush to bury any opposing views that differ from their increasing autocracy.

The articles remind us of the Soviet Union’s media efforts to suppress the voice of its powerless citizens. Do these comments meet any standards of “fighting for democracy,” as is so falsely promoted? It’s laughable, but smart Americans are not falling for one-sided propaganda.

A. False accusations by The Washington Post, such as, “Trump has already created a more dangerous world,” are desperate deflections from the fact that this current administration is abjectly failing, making appeasements with enemy countries that have us in great potential war conflicts that Americans don’t deserve nor agreed to. Case in point: The United States spent an estimated $860 billion on defense. This makes our defense budget, by far, the biggest out of all the NATO members. Germany had the second highest-defense expenditure at 68 billion U.S Dollars, with the UK third.

Who is benefiting? Not American taxpayers.

Former President Donald Trump reacts to supporters during a commit to caucus rally, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023, in Waterloo, Iowa. (Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo)

B. The commentary that “Trump is no Messiah,” including the cartoon above it, displays divisive rage, self-imagined misconfigurations and hyperbole. Not in the best interest of unity and real democracy.

C. The last commentary reveals a one-sided story about undocumented students being weaned by the University of Texas at Austin from scholarships. American-born students courageously pursue an education and some don’t qualify for government-paid educations. Their only help is through their struggling parents’ hard work and their own, paid with measly wages. Where is this writer’s empathy for these struggling students? Do they matter at all to him? I guess not in the liberal, leftist America.

Imelda Coronado

Mission

Editor’s note: NATO members are asked to contribute amounts equal to 2% of their gross domestic product. The United States’ contribution is the largest because it has the largest economy.

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