This is Viewpoints for Thursday, June 1, 2017

Investigation should continue

The person who wrote the letter “Where is the common sense,” should follow her own advice. She says “The lack of self control and personal hatred is hurting us.” She says “Our American family must learn to think, speak and act responsibly..” All of this is fine and I certainly agree. However, she obviously did not do any of this herself.

She says that Trump’s ties to the Russians has been investigated enough by the “previous administration appointed FBI and nothing was found.” First, James Comey was a registered Republican, even though he was appointed by President Obama. Secondly, he was fired by President Trump in the middle of an on-going investigation into the possibility of Russian meddling into our presidential election, and the possibility of the Trump campaign being involved in this meddling. This investigation has not been completed so we don’t know yet where it may lead us. Notice that many Republican congressmen are in favor of continuing this investigation. Why? Because they want the truth just as most Americans do.

I would remind everyone that Hillary Clinton was investigated by a Republican Congress nine times, and nothing worthy of criminal prosecution was ever found. And recall that Trump told Hillary in the debates that if he won, he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her and put her in jail. Why has he not done this? Because it was bunk and even he has sense enough to know, after nine previous investigations, it wouldn’t go anywhere. The threatening statement he made was simply political grandstanding.

So I think if we can afford to investigate Hillary that many times and all those investigations came to naught, I think we can certainly afford to find out whether our president may have colluded with a foreign power to get himself elected.

Who is the party of Satan?

Neal Smith’s letter to Viewpoints that the Democratic Party is the party of Satan is ridiculous. Just look at Paul Ryan’s GOP Party platform: Privatization of Social Security and Medicare; federal de-funding of Planned Parenthood and education; increase federal spending on defense by $55 billion; serious weakening of the EPA and CDC in Atlanta; major de-funding of our national parks and monuments; serious funding cuts of federal medical research; federal travel bans on Muslims; Medicaid funding reduced and set-up as block grants to states, and the repeal of Obamacare will cause 14 million Medicaid enrollees to lose their insurance.

President Trump ‘s plan for America is to make our poor worse off and our wealthiest citizens richer. Social safety net programs will be cut or ended.

Were you in a coma?

In “A House Divided” (Letters to the Editor, May 22), Gilbert R. Switzer manages to blame the “radical left” (aka Democrats, liberals, progressives, “Party of the Devil” — according to one letter writer) for a long list of ills from increased drug use to the so-called War on Christmas, but what he really finds as the last straw, I suppose, is what has happened after the election of “The Donald.”

“Gone were the days of civil behavior. It is slowly becoming a pseudo-clandestine government within the nation doing its best to block whatever President Trump attempts to do.” He is not the only letter writer to express such a view since the election. Poor President Trump, why can’t everyone just go along with his plans? For these folk, I have a question.

Were you in a coma during the eight years of the Obama administration? Did you miss the numerous personal attacks made on him both before and after the election? Claims that he was not really a citizen of the U.S. (the scam that gave “The Donald” his political start). Claims that he was not a Christian, but a secret Muslim who hated America.

Did you miss the part about the Republican leadership gathering on the night of his first inauguration to agree that they would not cooperate with any of his efforts? Did you miss Mitch the Charmer stating that the goal of the Republican Party was to make sure Obama was a one-term president?

You must not have noticed that Fox News went after him every day as did the right-wing talking heads and bloggers. Everything he did was criticized, and even “fake news” was created to make him look bad. Vile emails circulated about President Obama and his family.

This is only scratching the surface, but if you could ignore these you can ignore the rest, so try not to get so self-righteous about the treatment of “The Donald.” Unfortunately, civility left the American political scene long before the election of Trump. The shoe does pinch when it is on the other foot, and what goes around surely comes around.

No weed and seed?

Having graduated from Mercer with a minor in journalism, I always read the paper with a critical eye, watching for grammatical errors etc. My instructors preached very high standards for us. In the past few years I have noticed more and more creeping into the paper. I attributed it to the general decline of the work ethic in society. However, when the man at the top fails to do due diligence I had to comment. In his recent column Charles E. Richardson talked about weed and seed. There is no such thing. I’m sure he meant weed and feed. I bring this up because he goes on to talk about his dandelion problem. He says he sprays and sprays and just can’t get rid of them. I chuckle when I see others doing this. Here is the secret: Get some weed and feed and apply it properly with a spreader and your problem will be solved. I guarantee it.

Remaking America?

Donald Trump’s budget proposal for the coming fiscal year directly addresses the two gravest threats to American prosperity; threats that are preventing Trump and the evangelical Republicans (i.e. the party of Jesus) from remaking America into a bastion of capitalism and Christian theocracy.

These threats are (1) the poor are too rich, and (2) the rich are too poor. But with God’s help and the full support of the geriatric white evangelical base of the Republican Party, Trump can insure that the poor are poorer, the rich are richer, and the 50 year old safety net for America’s most vulnerable citizens is just a memory.

This story was originally published May 31, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Thursday, June 1, 2017."