Wrong in thinking Trump just misleading
Yes, I was wrong. When I heard of JD Vance’s claim that Haitian immigrants were eating pets, I laughed in disbelief and derision (just like Kamala Harris did). I labelled these Trumpian claims as willful misdirection. I told myself, “He’s trying to misdirect our attention from the fact that he has no plans to improve life for all Americans.”
Nope. Trump does have a plan, an evil one. According to the “Wall Street Journal, Vance’s staff did actually “reach out to the Springfield city manager to ask about the truth behind these rumors of pets being killed.” So Vance did “learn that the claims were false and [still] shared them [in a public speech] anyway.” Now both Trump and Vance are doubling down on their obviously racist comments about Haitian immigrants.
Why? When Springfield city officials and even Ohio’s governor have repeatedly stated that these immigrants “have revitalized the community” with their hard-working attitudes and interest in local affairs, why persist in telling lies? Evidently, the Trump campaign wants to divide us through repetition of malicious propaganda. Hey, isn’t that exactly what the Nazis did in World War II?
Crystal Kadivar
Hixson
Likes Allen’s stance on U.S. debt problem
Recently, I went to a meet-and-greet for Jack Allen, who is running for Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District. Although Jack is running as a Democrat, he got my fiscally conservative vote when he said he wanted first to work on the nation’s huge — and unsustainable — debt. The interest payments that the nation pays for its already astoundingly huge $35.35 trillion debt was already 17% of the 2024 budget, or $107,000 per citizen. Soon there will be little or no money after the nation funds its basic institutions, Social Security, Medicare and this interest on debt.
Also important to me is Jack wanting to work on ensuring we all have access to quality health care, and to help Congress finally devise ways to secure our Southern border while ensuring a safe legal path to citizenship for those fleeing persecution at home.
Look at the “Jack Allen for Congress” webpage to learn more about him.
Marjorie Pasch
Latest shows Israel the cruelest country
Israel’s technological advantage allows it to be the cruelest country on earth: Walkie-talkies exploded across Lebanon, in another coordinated attack on Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group. The blasts killed at least 20 people and injured 450.
There were fewer explosions than in the Israeli attack on Tuesday that detonated hundreds of pagers. But the walkie-talkies were larger and could have held more explosives, a [New York] Times analysis found.
Israel manufactured the pagers, lacing their batteries with explosives, as part of an elaborate plan, defense and intelligence officials say.
A Times reporter was covering a funeral after the pager attacks when a blast went off nearby. People panicked and ran as loudspeakers ordered them to remove the batteries from their phones.
Israeli officials have not directly addressed the explosions, but the prime minister and defense minister said that the military was shifting its focus from Gaza to Lebanon.
Mourners gathered for the funeral of Fatima Abdullah, who had heard her father’s pager beep in the kitchen and was carrying it to him when it exploded, a relative said. She was 9 years old.
Doris Rausch
Tullahoma