Our readers write: Issue of April 5, 2018
Ignores evil in the world
I believe Russia meddles in our elections to create distrust in the process and sow discord amongst ourselves. Columnist Harvey Levine’s March 15 diatribe indicates the Russians have been wildly successful.
If President Trump is half the whack job Mr. Levine claims, why would Putin trust him? President Obama gave him free rein and, for a nominal donation, Secretary Clinton supported a deal giving him control of 20 percent of our uranium production capability. Meanwhile, President Trump is sending arms to Ukraine, sanctioning Russians for attempted murders in England and launching cruise missiles at Putin’s puppet in Syria. And U.S. forces have engaged and killed Russian mercenaries there. Where is the upside?
Speaking of Putin, why does Mr. Levine believe his recent missile claims? Did he believe Putin when he said Russian athletes don’t dope or Russian elections are fair and open? If he did, I believe Putin would be willing to sell him a bridge over the Volga River.
Presidents can do a lot of things in the Oval Office. The can have sex with interns, overlook history by invading countries you shouldn’t and ignore crossed red lines. Launching ICBMs because you are having a bad hair day is not one of them. I respect Mr. Levine and believe he is a good man. But when he ignores all the evil in the world and claims President Trump is the most dangerous man around I must question his credibility.
Tom Drzewiecki
Poway
Obama complaints wearing thin
As a reader of your newspaper, I like the political opinion articles. Everyone is entitled to their own, of course, but if you want me to listen to you, offer some proof to support your statements.
Dick Lyles comes across as a poor man’s Rush Limbaugh, who babbles on with authority, but leaves his listeners with nothing but innuendo while pointing out the evil of the “dark side.” Finger pointing at past President Obama is wearing thin. He has been out of office now for 15 months so give it a rest and stop blaming him for everything bad, including original sin.
I take umbrage at Lyles’ negative comments/accusations against the FBI and DOJ, citing agency “corruption” and “spying” on Trump like he knows something we don’t. Seems to me that he has taken too big a bite out of the apple offered by Fox and the alt-right. Almost all of the FBI employees I have known are so tightly conservative that they squeak when they walk.
Having been in both parties over the years and never missing a voting cycle, I am now a registered independent as I don’t have to swallow a party line and can walk the middle of the road without stumbling into the gutter on the right or left. This from a 73-year-old, conservative, white male, USMC vet with 34 years as an FBI special agent who has “been to town and seen the elephant.”
Weldon L. Keating
Poway
Reads like Fox News
As if in defense of our president, in his March 8 column Dick Lyles brings forth a rehash of the failings of a past administration to explain the troubling actions of the current one. His effort appears more to distract than shed light, and reads like a regurgitation of Fox News.
Lyles levels the implausible and self-contradictory claim that the battle between Trump and the DOJ/FBI is the legacy of corruption at the highest levels of the FBI fostered by Mr. Obama. Mitch McConnell and other Senate Republicans had the duty to advise and consent on Obama senior level appointments. Those included James Comey as FBI Director, who of course did his best to subvert the Clinton email investigation by reminding the public of it immediately before the November 2016 election (sarcasm intended).
A simple explanation of said battle is that the DOJ is doing the Republican Party’s job of vetting Donald Trump for his suitability to serve as president. If a sad Obama legacy is at work here, it is this: After delivering such hopeful campaign rhetoric, Mr. Obama delivered eight more years of the same corporate governance that Americans were increasingly frustrated by. Then he handed the baton to his corporate successor, Hillary Clinton. He thus laid the foundation for the election of Donald Trump. To borrow Mr. Lyles’ words, “Our mistake was in not electing someone more qualified – and with higher moral standards.”
Paul Staskus
Poway
Lyles wrong on firing
More blather from Dick Lyles? Yup: a rambling screed on the Andrew McCabe firing. Since Mr. Lyles claims an in-depth knowledge of “misconduct, poor judgment and mismanagement” by two federal agencies – behavior only evident after criminal investigations of President Trump began, it is fair to ask for his sources. Did knowledgeable officials within the agencies risk careers to spill the beans to one cranky guy in Poway? Did he himself investigate? Where’s the proof?
Or, could his “source” be a TV network that caters to the insecurities of easily-frightened old white folks?
Mr. Lyles crows that one firing foretells “draining the federal swamp,” yet, Mr. Trump’s been in office for 14 months now and McCabe’s the first “swamper” to go. Fourteen months to dump one guy? Perhaps the pace of drainage isn’t all that brisk.
Mr. Lyles tries hard to convince us - again, because he “knows” these things - that political pressure had nothing to do with McCabe’s ouster, even though the linkage between McCabe and the investigation of Trump’s alleged collusion with the Russians is clear. Only Mr. Lyles would state that Jeff Sessions, appointed to his job by Trump, and who lied before Congress about his knowledge of the Russian matter, was an independent and courageous fellow to fire Mr. McCabe.
Finally, why print this drivel? Surely a community as diverse politically as ours has conservative voices who are thoughtful, persuasive and can champion conservative views worth thinking about.
Dave Jacobs-Robinson
Rancho Bernardo
Email: editor@pomeradonews.com