Letters for February 13, 2020

With friends like these

The miscreants Trump and Netanyahu seen together, the recently indicted and the soon-to-be-indicted, two peas in a pod. Perfect. Ever notice how Trump is like, tight with all the bad guys? Duterte. Bolsonaro. Kim Jong-un. Johnson, and my favorite: Vladimir (Ras) Putin. BTW, how did a relatively common bureaucrat like Putin get so rich?

Jon Obester

Reno

Fair plan

The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) of the U.S. Forest Service has an opportunity to adopt a balanced approach to winter recreation that is fair to non-motorized and motorized users. Careful planning can mitigate safety hazards and minimize conflicts between users which, by law, the LTBMU must work to do. The LTBMU should adopt the lands along the Mt. Rose Hwy corridor, as non-motorized because 95 percent of the use is pedestrian—cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and family snow play. North of McKinney Rubicon Creek Road to Hwy 267, Brockway, on the West side of the Lake should be open to snowmobile use with small areas designated for non-motorized use. The same for the area south of Hwy 50 and North of Kingsbury Grade, Hwy 207, on the East side of the Lake. This allows for large areas for motorized use while protecting the safety of pedestrians along the Mt. Rose corridor.

Gail Ferrell

Reno

More caucus concerns

I believe the Committee for the Democratic Party for Nevada is anti-semitic. Reasons: they chose the sabbath for the caucus in 2016 and 2020 to keep the Jewish people from attending because it would break their sabbath. Bernie Sanders lost by only 5.3 percent. This year they have four days of early voting, but many sites of early voting are open one day, which is Saturday the 15th—such as mineral county, which leaves the Jewish people out. In other places, they make it highly inconvenient for them, thereby making early voting a farce. Also, the caucuses has no absentee voting—eliminating people who have to work, are too sick to attend, and our brave men and women who are deployed. What is there to keep your delegate voting as you wish?

Richard Davis

Reno

Foundational decay

While wrapping themselves in our Constitution, Republicans have been actively and methodically chipping away at that very foundation of our republic. Bits of that foundation are lost with every Republican-backed voter suppression effort. When the likes of Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove replaced rational argument with character smears and outright lies, a large pillar of the foundation fell. A large chunk was torn away when, to protect a lie, Republicans began systematically attacking the press and used it to out a working CIA asset in their desire to invade Iraq. That chipping away continues, and it's notable that Trump got to play a part when he pardoned Scooter Libby. Mitch McConnell continued the process when he attempted but failed to make Obama a one-term President. With each blocked judge, culminating with denying Judge Garland his constitutionally mandated hearings, large blocks of foundation were removed. And the process continues with every unqualified judge McConnell shoehorns into the vacancies he created. Several large blocks of our foundation were compromised with the Trump impeachment trial. The Democrats took their swings when they cut procedural corners, but the dust got thick from the frantic chipping that happened when Senate Republicans ignored facts and denied truth its day in court. I can forgive the corner-cutting because no matter how Democrats did it, Republicans would create an outrage. But not holding this President and Senate Republicans to any kind of account for their continued assaults on the foundations that keep this republic from becoming something else is not just accepting the damage being done, it's contributing.

Michel Rottmann

Virginia City Highlands

Party down

Apologies to you who work so hard trying to give us good governance. Caucus and political workers deserve praise, but we're running out of time for needed rapid changes. Caucus is not easy, and voting should never, ever be difficult. Some countries have a dozen or more parties in their retrievable-mail-in-physical-paper voting ballots. We're stuck with two dueling behemoth$, and no moderating third, fourth or even 13th party influence. Marihuana Party anyone?

Craig Bergland

Reno