Jan. 20, 2022, Letters to the Editor

Connecting criminal dots

Editor:

Having grown up in Philadelphia I have learned to connect the criminal dots. A deranged armed kid walks into the device. He is detected - then what? If they try to detain him then and there, he opens fire into a very dense population and will harm the most people. The system has to quietly alert authorities and then trained, i.e., police have to do the take down in an appropriate place, not in a pack of people. 

The school has not thought this plan through. Yet again.

Rick Palio

Minden

Grateful for plea to drive sober

Editor:

January is moving along swiftly but it stood still as stone 36 years ago the night of the 11th. Our 16-year-old daughter and sister was abruptly taken from us by a drunk driver. 

I was most grateful for our Record-Courier Editor Kurt Hildebrand’s practical and passionate plea last Dec. 2 that we all consciously avoid this very preventable tragedy from happening to other families. 

Equally appreciated was his Jan. 13 enjoyable “Take” highlighting our ranchers’ witty aphorisms, page A10. Among the concise comments was the ambiguity of the aphorism, “Actions speak louder than words,” which truly hit home: Think before you drink. Thanks. 

Joy Uhart

Minden

Trump deficit adds to inflation 

Editor:

Lynn Muzzy’s response, Jan. 6, to my letter regarding “Inflation, blame is shared” apparently feels the first year of the Biden administration’s spending has been so “outsized” and “recklessly overreaching” with “made-up dollars” that they are solely responsible for “price spikes for food, fuel, and other commodities.”

During the last fiscal year of the Trump administration the national debt, deficit spending, increased in excess of $4.9 trillion. During the first fiscal year of the Biden administration the debt increased just under $1.5 trillion. Trump far out-spent Biden and Muzzy makes no mention of Trump’s far larger contribution to the debt. How is it that the Trump deficit has no effect on inflation?

The sole intent of my letter was to point out that both political parties share in the cause, deficit spending, for inflation and nothing more. 

Muzzy describes the BBB bill as a “colossal budget item” and as “unmatched in sheer scale.” This apparently is intended to indicate the BBB bill would continue the erroneously described “outsized” and “recklessly overreaching” spending rate of the current administration. This supposedly is intended to negate any share of the blame for inflation for the single year Trump $4.9 trillion increase in the national debt.

First let me say, I do not wish to support or refute the BBB bill in any fashion. The BBB bill does represent a tremendous expenditure however Muzzy does not explain that the $1.75 trillion BBB bill is spread over 10 years which makes it a proposed $175 billion per year expense. Even still, if the entire $1.75 trillion was added in total to the Biden first year deficit the total would still be $1.65 trillion less than Trump’s last year deficit. While this is a very significant amount it is not, as Muzzy proclaims, “unmatched in sheer scale.”

Further, Muzzy’s letter assumes that the BBB bill will be paid with “dollars … manufactured out of the ether.” While the government has lied before, the bill will supposedly be paid for by a revamping of the tax system. However, it is assured the current administration will spend “created money” increasing the national debt and thus inflation.

Muzzy’s letter uses many irrelevant techniques known as “strawman,” “cherry picking,” “unanswerable assumptions,” “red herring,” et al. and I have purposely not responded to them. These include such as the following: How many times has the word “trillion” appeared in the media, inflation is at a record high, commodity prices have climbed, Democrats rolling Manchin on BBB, one party running the circus, coming fiscal blowout, buying votes of working-class, promising expensive benefit packages, exacerbate worker shortages. 

Although also irrelevant to my letter concerning inflation, I must add, the treatment of Sens. Manchin and Sinema, as described by Muzzy, was horrendous as certainly was the treatment of the entire Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, although the Jan. 6 “hooligans” could hardly meet Muzzy’s definition of “liberal” for those who assaulted Sinema. 

Ben Justus

Gardnerville

Divisive rhetoric

Editor:

Lynn Muzzy continues with divisive rhetoric, using blame and fear, to make enemies out of Democrats. He would have you believe inflation is at greater risk because of them. He doesn’t talk about runaway greed contributing to inflation with its cascading consequences. Greed, after all, is a human problem without political affiliation. He would rather you to “be afraid, be very afraid” of the BBB plan. He doesn’t want you to pay attention to the fact it’s an investment in America’s future. Or that the plan to pay for it comes, not from printing money, but through closing tax loopholes by which the ultra-rich avoid paying any taxes. 

Muzzy would have you believe Manchin is a victim of Democrats for holding out on voting for the BBB plan. He conveniently omits his position on being unwilling to give up on Republicans. Manchin expects them to do right by our country in passing what Trump himself wanted... improved infrastructure. He refuses to accept the recalcitrance of the Republican leadership which appears to be willing to do anything it can to prevent Democrats from passing something our country desperately needs... something which Republicans supported but were unable to pass when they controlled the House, Senate, and executive office. 

As to the behavior of accosting politicians in hallways and following them into bathrooms, rudeness and incivility should never be tolerated. Muzzy calls them thugs. Does he use that inflammatory language to manipulate your emotions? This is what I think is thuggish: Removing all but one polling place with the intention of making voting more difficult; death threats directed at poll workers and civil servants who are doing their job; attacks by anti-vaxxers on health care workers causing them to fear wearing scrubs in public; threatening judges because they insist on facts, rather than belief, in challenges to the law; armed militia storming our Capitol when they’re disappointed in the outcome of an election or because they’re fed lies so often they’re unable to recognize truth. Coercion should not be tolerated. Neither should lies, disinformation or misinformation. 

It may be fun to cast the first stone at the unacceptable behavior of some Democrats but you would be respected more, Muzzy, if you would take responsibility for what is happening within your own party instead of condoning it with your silence or supporting it with your own divisive rhetoric. 

Joan Costa 

Gardnerville