Letters for March 5, 2020

Taxing issue

If we don't do something about the deficit and the resulting, perhaps inflationary, money printing, the stock market and so on might crash to 20 percent of its current value, for a decade or more. If we double the tax rate for the wealthiest 20 percent, it will raise 1.5 trillion dollars a year. This would eliminate the yearly deficit, while providing enough revenue to eliminate the national debt within five years. The wealthiest 20 percent would still have 47 percent of their income left over after taxes, and the full brunt of this would be for only half a decade, (after which it would be only two-thirds of the increase—so they'd keep 7/8 of what they keep now—and not even that if we balance the budget). We should contact our elected officials. If we get different elected officials before this is done, we should contact the new elected officials.

Alex Sokolow

Santa Monica, California

Integral response

Re “Integral questions” (Letters to the editor, Feb. 27):

Vin, it is silly statements like yours that have created such hatred in America. I am older than you. I have been a Democrat and a Republican and an Independent. Politics is not nice. I draw the line with baseless rants like yours. Always mention the Nazis to make your point! I assume you are an older American. Please grow up.

Charles Wayne Barnum

Sparks

More caucus criticism

Thank God the caucus debacle is behind us. Of the 610,911 Democrats registered in Nevada, only 104,883 bothered to participate in either early voting or on caucus day. What this means is that while 17 percent of Democrats are for the clown-car of candidates currently offered, 83 percent of the registered Nevada Democrats have effectively shouted, “None of the above!” Of course, we actually were not given the option of voting none of the above, like we can on many other electoral contests here in Nevada. Had we held a real primary and the options included “none of the above,” the Silver State could have sent a strong message to the Democratic National Committee and to the nation. That message would have been that Nevada Democrats are against Communism, Socialism and we want candidates who will support and defend the Constitution and promote liberty for our citizens.

Tyler Ballance

Reno

Not feeling the Bern

Democratic primary voters, please do not throw away your vote on multi-millionaire Marxist Messiah hypocrite Bernie Sanders. Vermont's Senator Sanders would be a disaster as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in 2020, which would only assure a second term for deranged Donald Trump against all odds. We cannot afford to roll the dice in November. The political stakes are far too high for that this year. Are we American adults actually supposed to buy into Bernie's B.S. that he has supposedly turned over a new leaf and is now a so-called “democratic socialist,” whatever that's supposed to mean? The fact that revolutionary Marxist socialist Eugene Debs is Bernie Sanders' professed personal hero says otherwise, folks. First and foremost, Sanders is now and always has been a Marxist socialist. There is no question about it. Why do you think that foolish, far-Left communist caricature publicly calls for revolution constantly? Bernie is no Michael Harrington, that's for sure. Sanders is a Marxist socialist of the old-school Soviet Stalinist variety. If Sanders is really a “democratic socialist” as he falsely claims, then why is there so much publicly available videotaped documentation of pro-Soviet Senator Sanders proudly and passionately praising anti-American, totalitarian communist dictatorships? Would you care to answer that simple unavoidable question, Bernie Bros? (No, I didn't think so.) As the vast majority of Americans over the age of 40 are already well aware, the political label “democratic socialism” is basically nonsensical and is every bit the contradiction in terms that the oxymoronic phrases “military intelligence,” “business ethics” or “Stalinist variety” are. Socialism is not democratic! Get a clue, Bernie crew. Socialism is now and has always been fundamentally anti-democratic. Read Karl Marx sometime, if you don't believe me. Bernie Sanders obviously has read and worshipped Karl Marx extensively, which explains Sanders' personal political history.

Jake Pickering

Arcata, California