Soccer loss: Responses reveal character
Sometimes choosing the people we want to lead us doesn’t involve a lot of hand-wringing about the status of the climate, world affairs, inflation or gas prices. Maybe it’s as simple as the words spoken at difficult moments.
On the heels of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team loss in the World Cup on Aug. 6, former President Donald Trump posted, in part, the following: “The ‘shocking and totally unexpected’ loss by the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team to Sweden is fully emblematic of what is happening to our once great Nation under Crooked Joe Biden … WOKE EQUALS FAILURE … the USA is going to Hell!!! MAGA.”
President Joe Biden released the following statement: “You’ve made your country proud. Congratulations on an incredible run. This team is something special and I’m looking forward to seeing how you continue to inspire Americans with your grit and determination − on and off the field.”
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While U.S. presidents wield considerable power and influence, it stretches the imagination to think President Biden played a role in the soccer team’s loss.
Thank you, President Biden, for taking the high road and acknowledging the courageous and dedicated women who represent the U.S. in international sporting events.
Dorothy Polson, Port Charlotte
Russian collusion hoax and now indictments
With former President Donald Trump’s fourth indictment I think back to my first reaction when the story broke of his supposed collusion with the Russian government. I assumed it was some kind of stupid joke that would quickly fade away since it failed any sort of historical sanity check.
Russian communism has been at odds with Republican capitalism for 101 years, since the formation of the Soviet Union in 1922. It had to be hard for Vladimir Putin as a KGB agent to watch the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
So which is more likely: President Putin suddenly getting over the fact that the policies of a Republican president led to the breakup of the Soviet Union – or that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made up the Russian collusion story to take the heat off disclosure of her private email server?
History of the Soviet Union:It all began with the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Clinton figured enough Americans would buy her Russian collusion story because of their ignorance of history. Unfortunately, she was right and Robert Mueller’s probe cost taxpayers nearly $32 million.
Ben Furleigh, Port Charlotte
Trump used ‘free speech’ to conspire
Don’t be fooled by lies from former President Donald Trump’s lawyers and right-wing pundits claiming the former president was merely exercising his First Amendment right to free speech as he attempted to undo a free and fair election he lost.
The grand jury indictment of Trump on conspiracy and obstruction charges is clear, and available for all of us to read.
Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, said it best: “As the indictment says, they’re not attacking his First Amendment right. He can say whatever he wants. He can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better.
“But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy. All conspiracies involve speech. And all fraud involves speech. So free speech doesn’t give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy.”
Trump’s “free speech” was a serious crime because his words were intended to unlawfully obstruct an official proceeding and to disenfranchise voters.
Trump is not fit to hold office in our cherished democracy.
Laurie Ulrop, Punta Gorda
Deficit up under GOP, down under Democrats
Despite what right-wing media pundits and MAGA officials seem to promote, it is simply not true that Democrats are fiscally reckless.
Here are the facts.
One measure of fiscal responsibility is the extent to which the U.S. deficit is growing or decreasing. One way that economists calculate the deficit is to measure the ratio of the deficit to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Using this index, under former President Donald Trump, the U.S. deficit increased each year he was in office. The 2018 tax cuts, as well as the impact of the pandemic, contributed to these increased deficits.
Since President Joe Biden was elected and began to invest in American industry and infrastructure, the deficit has turned downward again, as it did during the Clinton and Obama administrations.
Sue Krueger, Port Charlotte
https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/opinion/letters/2023/08/25/trump-biden-have-opposite-reactions-to-soccer-loss/70637327007/
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