Scapegoating immigrants
Is it scapegoating immigrants or scapegoating illegal immigrants? I think it is the latter as my Swiss wife is a naturalized American citizen and I don’t see anybody scapegoating her as well as the millions of other naturalized citizens. In this case, I support a hard line stance against illegal immigration for one reason… its negative effect on our public education system. I have no ill will against any illegal immigrant but the decades of disregarding our immigration laws has put a burden on our schools that is just too much. Let me ask, how many illegal immigrants are taken in by charter schools? And yet our education secretary wants to use public funds for charter schools? Another question… why would we expect state sheriffs to enforce the new red flag laws when cities refuse to enforce immigration laws? The lost left and right extremes seem as nutty as ever.
Michael Ortiz/Lafayette
If not collusion, then what?
Everyone seems to assume the Mueller report found no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Trump, of course, is crowing he’s been “exonerated.” But the language in the Mueller report is overly cautious and confusing; it says Trump and Russia were on parallel paths regarding anti-Hillary electoral sabotage, admits that both parties repeatedly talked together about this; yet, strangely, “the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. … A statement that the investigation did not establish particular facts does not mean there was no evidence of those facts.” If Trump and company were not coordinating or conspiring with the Russians in their many documented contacts, what were they doing?
It’s clear the White House ghost-wrote Attorney General Barr’s summary and directed the extensive redactions in the released report. Barr is no public servant: he’s Trump’s unscrupulous Yes Man. Is it coincidence that his conclusions parrot Trump’s own extravagant claims of innocence? Barr’s obfuscation and refusal to talk honestly about the Mueller report is just more Trump obstruction of justice.
Much more important than election matters are Trump’s business dealings with Russian oligarchs and related parties like Deutsche Bank. If Trump is secretly beholden to Russia or any nation, he’s compromised. It’s a form of treason. Since Trump has chosen to ignore the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which forbids a president from conducting personal business in foreign countries, he’s set himself up for such a damning conflict of interest.
Trump’s response to accusations, criticism or even requests for information is always the same: deny, lie, cover up, legally stonewall and then launch vicious personal attacks against the media and his accusers. We never hear a convincing case for his innocence. After learning of the Mueller investigation, he said, “This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f—ed.” The man stinks of guilt.
It all points towards impeachment. Remember, Trump’s likely treason is one of many impeachable offenses from campaign-finance violations to obstruction of justice to tax fraud to emoluments issues to undermining American democracy to inciting violence against minorities to a closet full of skeletons investigating Congressional investigators are attempting to reveal. Trump hasn’t been “exonerated” of anything; let’s rid our nation of this reckless scoundrel.
Paul Dougan/Boulder
Russia aligns with GOP
Russia offers nothing that the GOP hasn’t been fighting for in decades.
Voter suppression, caging and gerrymandering are well-established GOP ploys that undercut our democracy, a word that you rarely hear exiting their mouths because they don’t believe in democracy anymore. By asserting that corporations are people, Citizen’s United, a right-wing Supreme Court product, gave corporations unlimited advantage to influence voters in our elections. Commandeering votes from the courthouses, porches and mailboxes of the aged and unsuspecting are well established and recently exposed GOP crimes to try to overcome the fact that their message is no longer palpable to the youth, minorities and the educated. Cheating them is not a weakness, it is a necessary muscle used to pry wins away from the rising democratic majority. That Russia is willing to jump in and lend a hand squelches no morals that haven’t already been squelched. “God made him president so we must follow and swallow” are comments I don’t swallow from those who have previously claimed that “Our country has lost its moral compass.” Truth is, Vladimir Putin helped make Trump president because the GOP couldn’t do it all on their own and are now finding themselves desperately without a moral compass. That we are sliding into fascism is OK to the GOP as long as whites only are in control. No more messy voting, women’s rights, minority equalities, religious freedoms or gay rights to consider. All gone for good. Yeah, yeah, what could be better?… Freedom and democracy would be much better but not easier as we were told by our forefathers who had seen the worst in the old country then gave us a template and the vision to realize the importance of always fighting to keep freedom and democracy alive.
Tom Lopez/Longmont
