Donald Trump with Speaker Mike Johnson and MAGA Republicans are supporting hate throwing political red meat to dangerous extremits

The horribly tragic political assassination in Minnesota on June 14, 2025, should not be surprising. 

"His crimes are the stuff of nightmares," Thompson said at a news conference as he outlined the "chilling" details.  Vance Boelter, 57, is accused of killing Democratic Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and wounding Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in "political assassinations

Donald Trump’s rally cry on January 6, 2020, fired up a mob turned loose on the capitol. He tried to hide the violence for history by pardoning the convicted criminals who attacked, destroyed, injured and killed.

Echo opinion letter published in the Pagosa Springs Sun a Colorado newspaper:

No Kings peaceful protest sign June 14 2025

Since inauguration day 2025, the talk and the tactics of the Trump administration, its supporters in Congress, and right-wing leaning news, podcasters and influencers have been a steady drumbeat for destroying, demeaning and dehumanizing. Think about wholesale elimination of federal agencies (much of it illegal), broadside attacks on universities, cultural institutions and law firms (also mostly illegal), and brutal treatment of immigrants and protestors, including use of force against members of Congress and local officials in New Jersey and against a U.S. Senator in California. Trump’s objectives are revenge and retribution.

Anyone who disagrees with him is an “enemy”, who, he says should be impeached, jailed, investigated or deported (even if they are U.S citizens. Trump’s moral compass is stuck on HATE.

No Kings peaceful protest sign June 14, 2025

Then, in early June, Speaker Mike Johnson, who holds himself to be a person of deep Christian faith, called for California Governor Gavin Newsome to be tarred and feathered, a gruesome form of vigilante punishment meted out in this country into the 20th century. Johnson’s moral compass is not lined up with his professed Christian faith. IOW, Johnson is a hypocrite.

On June 14, 2025, Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman was assassinated in a shooting at her home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, United States. Hortman, the leader of the state house Democratic caucus, was killed alongside her husband, Mark. 

Trump called the assassinations “terrible” and Mike Johnson condemned them. But, that is not enough. They and the Republicans need to take responsibility for their role in fomenting, i.e, instigating, the violence. It is they that tossed the match and have been fueling the fire every day for six months.

In fact, the legacy of Donald Trump, with Mike Johnson and the MAGA Republicans, is political assassination by domestic terrorists. How can anybody believe they are leading this nation in the right direction?

From Candice Jones

SignalGate stupidity put American military in harms way but incompetent Republicans ignore the dangerous incometence

Letter to the editor: Incompetence published in The Pagosa Springs Sun, a Colorado newspaper:

SignalGate — Encryption Can’t Fix Stupid❗ (Medium by Ash Rust)

Signalgate❗All kinds of theories are floated about how it occurred, who is responsible, and if the text messages were really secret. Outside of the partisan wailing, this is a simple case of human stupidity.

Dear Editor of the Pagosa Springs Sun: My head is exploding with the knowledge that top administration officials were communicating “operational intelligence” freely on an unsecured text app, Signal Messenger, LLC, to which some member of the group had “inadvertently” added The Atlantic Magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. 

To his credit, Mr. Goldberg wrote about the astonishing incident without compromising the security of US Intelligence. 

Astounded, I am beyond stunned at the incompetence and stupidity of the Trump officials/Cabinet members/Vice-President/Secretary of State/SecDefense Pete Hegseth/Director of National Intelligence/National Security Advisor/Chief of Staff/Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy

Now they are trying to “spin” this idiotic breach into a working policy discussion as if it is of little consequence. 

To my mind, this is tantamount to TREASONOUS neglect of intelligence and behavior not in keeping with any patriotic intent. 

In any other administration, these foolish people would immediately lose their security clearances, their positions, and their time in grade. Some might even face prison sentences. 

Pete Hegseth clearly placed American military men and women in harm’s way and could have easily been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of patriotic individuals serving their country in the most honorable of ways. He is clearly unfit for duty. 

All of the Republican GOP Congressmen and all (but one) of the GOP Senators smoothed the way and consented to the appointments of Hegseth, Rubio and others who make up the top tier of Trump’s Cabinet and governmental appointments. They are responsible and should be held liable for this breach of conduct and thoroughly incompetent, unprofessional behavior❗ Donald Trump is trying to cover for the actions of his majorly unqualified crew of moronic minions. 

We are becoming the laughingstock of the civilized world. America can kiss it’s formerly stellar reputation as a world leader goodbye. Who would trust us now❓ Serious question - Is this a violation of any laws regarding exposure to espionage❓ If so, these people should be relieved of their duties forthwith and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I am including Trump as well.  In fact Trump has more than demonstrated he is not fit for the duties of President of these precious United States of America. 

Trump should be impeached and removed from office as soon as it can be arranged. The House and Senate Democrats and any Republicans who can no longer live with the shame of having acquiesced to Trump’s pressure to “go along” with his autocratic regime should make haste and act now to save our country and our democracy before it’s too late. 

Please❗ I am imploring you to save this country and stop the benign neglect that seems to have overtaken the Legislative (co-equal) Branch of the American Government!

Sincerely, From Eddie Abbott

Donald Trump not qualified to run for any office because he violated the 14th Amendment in the Constitution

America is a country of laws. Echo opinon published in Times-Call a Colorado newspaper.

Is America a country of laws❓ Or, are we a country of Donald Trump❓ In a recent message on social media and in personal appearances, Donald Trump strong-armed various courts in this land implying that he must be on the ballot because there will be bedlam if he isn’t. 

However, the under U.S. Constitution, Donald Trump is disqualified from being president.

Donald Trump’s lawyers, along with lawyers representing Republicans in the House and Senate, submitted documents asking that Trump not be removed from ballots. 

In other words, the courts should ignore the highest law of the land, the U.S. Constitution. (14th Amendment❗)

I do not doubt that some Trump loyalists will cause chaos if the law that disqualifies him from holding federal office is upheld. 

Nevertheless, these cult followers are pledging loyalty to an individualm rather than the American U.S. Constitution.

It is troubling that the likely Republican candidate for president is acting like a strongman and crime family patriarch. However, we have laws in this country, we have a written constitution. 

Donald Trump violated the 14th Amendment!

The Constitution specifies the qualities one must have to run for president. These include being a U.S.-born citizen, being at least 35 years of age, and, as specified in the 14th Amendment, not having participated in an insurrection or rebellion.

The case is simple. It is up to the courts to determine if we continue to be a country of laws or have become a country where an authoritarian strongman is above the law.

John H. Wolfe, Longmont, Colorado

My "thoughts and prayers" are for the Republicans to stop supporting gun violence!

Gun-Loving Republicans Offer Condolences After Latest School Shooting: Thoughts and prayers and not much else, reports Rolling Stone.

Echo opinion letter published in the Summit Daily in Frisco, Colorado: Republicans offer prayers.

Right wing pundits try blaming Hollywood and the left leaning media for the gun violence — how crazy.

In answer to the gun violence, Republicans offer thoughts and prayers and then pass laws to allow for open carry, concealed weapons and for teachers to be armed — oh my!

Instead, look to the right social media which promotes and supports violence. Fox Noise — it is not a news station but an entertainment station, check their license. Look to where so much of the violence is coming from: far right and white nationalists. And look to Trump who wouldn’t know the truth if it kicked him in the shins.

When will we vote out everyone who takes money from the National Rifle Association and vote to stop the sale of automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines that are appropriate for military use but not civilian use. Republicans that support AR-15s should be required to spend time — a lot of time — with the mutilated bodies of the poor children and adults who have been shot by these weapons that were designed only for use by the military.

From: Kari Kronborg in Frisco, Colorado

Republicans must support Ukraine and oppose brutal Russian aggression

Ukraine’s fight benefits US national security. The House GOP is on the wrong side: Echo opinion published in the Vail Daily, a Colorado newspaper, written by The Dispatch columnist Jonah Goldberg.

Unfortunately, the world is entering the 12th month of a “Russian special military operation” that was supposed to be over in well under 12 days. 

Putin's unprovoked Ukraine war is a financial disaster for Russia.

.In fact, the Kremlin even told Russian officers to pack dress uniforms and medals for the intended military parades in Kyiv a few days after the shooting started.

Things turned out differently. By launching the first land war in Europe since 1945 with the expressed intent to stop both the expansion of NATO eastward and the political and economic migration of Ukraine westward, Putin’s adventure is already well on its way to being remembered as one of the great strategic blunders in living memory.

Sweden and Finland — which shares more than 800 miles of border with Russia — are applying to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The process to admit Ukraine to the European Union is underway, and Ukraine’s military is rapidly switching to newer, better and NATO-compatible weapons. Germany, which recently agreed to ship tanks to Ukraine, has jettisoned much of its non-interventionist foreign policy and committed to much more robust defense spending. Putin’s long-standing strategy of using energy to hold Western Europe hostage has largely backfired.

China, which made a big show of its “no limits” partnership with its neighbor, has so far only offered extremely limited support for Russia. It’s almost as if the Beijing government is embarrassed by its ally’s pathetic showing — which appears to have taken the Chinese leaders by surprise.

In short, these are wildly momentous events, which mostly benefit  American national security. But you wouldn’t necessarily know that from political debates about Ukraine. Indeed, there’s an otherworldly aspect to the whole conversation.

For instance, going into the midterms, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California, now the House speaker, settled on the talking point that Republicans wouldn’t give Ukraine a “blank check” the way Democrats had. But that wasn’t happening.

As the Hudson Institute’s Luke Coffey noted at the time, most of the dollars “allocated for military assistance to Ukraine never leave the United States,” he wrote. “Funds for military support are not wired to Ukrainian government bank accounts.” We send Ukraine weapons — including, eventually, Abrams tanks — and other equipment, and that money goes toward replenishing our stockpiles.

President Biden has handled things fairly well behind the scenes, but his public statements tend to be weighed down by things he won’t do — like send tanks and other weapons systems — which he inevitably ends up doing. He’s also very fond of insisting — for more understandable reasons — that we will not be sending American troops to fight in Ukraine. Indeed, the only thing that garners bipartisan support regarding Ukraine is that we shouldn’t get into a direct war with Russia, and therefore NATO shouldn’t do anything that “provokes” Putin.

Provoke him to do what, exactly? to invade Ukraine and target civilians by the millions? He’s doing that already. Not supplying these weapons in a more timely manner was what was actually provocative. The dithering encouraged Putin to wage a missile and artillery war on Ukrainian population centers in the hope that he could beat Ukraine into submission before the West realized it needed to send the weapons Ukraine needed.

No one wants a nuclear war, of course. Which is why Russia keeps threatening one. If the policy is going to be, Russia can do whatever it wants because it has nuclear weapons, then make that argument.

But if the strategic goal is for Ukraine to win back its own territory using its own troops, then the tactical imperative is to give Ukraine what it needs to win. Normally, when America sends troops to fight, the refrain from critics is to let the Iraqis or Afghans or whomever fight for their own freedom. That’s what Ukraine is doing.

Mitt Romney was right — and Barack Obama was wrong — in 2012 when he described Russia as our “geopolitical foe.” Enabling Ukrainians to degrade Russia is in our national interest. And, if the new “nationalist” Republicans were serious about the sanctity of national borders, they’d recognize that Ukraine is literally the front line of that fight.

Some seem to think it’s provocative to let Russia believe NATO is using Ukraine as a proxy for its interests. But that horse left the barn long ago. That’s the official Russian view, blared out constantly on Russia state media. Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev recently declared, “The events in Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv — this is a military confrontation between Russia and NATO.” Moscow is “not dealing with Ukraine — we’re past that,” prime-time Russian TV host Vladimir Solovyov announced last October. “We’re dealing with the entire NATO bloc, with the might of its military industrial complex.”

If only that were true.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast.

Lauren Boebert is obscene. Full stop!

Echo opinion from Salon.com:

"(Stupid) Boebert and her idiot right wing side kick Matt Gaetz not only refused to acknowledge the heroism of Ukraine's President Zelensky and his country’s 300-day fight to defend their freedom from Russian aggression, but they ignored Capitol police as they blew past a security checkpoint outside the House floor, refusing to go through the security screening before entering the chamber."

Republican (right wing!) Rep. Lauren Boebert narrowly won her reelection bid against Democrat Adam Frisch this year in an unexpectedly tight race in a Colorado district that was believed to be solidly Republican." The Durango Herald

Laruen Boebert is a right wing Barbie Doll. She is all plastic with no brains.

(Maine Writer- Question? So why were Boebert and Gaetz running so late to get into the Congressional forum with President Zelinsky?  What were they doing to keep them from being on time?)

Now, one of her constituents penned a letter to the editor, published in the Durango Herald, in which the controversial congresswoman is harshly criticized for her behavior surrounding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the United States.

In my opinion, this picture of Lauren Boebert is a pornography advertisement. Just my opion.

Boebert, along with right wing fellow GOP congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida, refused to stand or applaud during Zelensky's address to Congress, according to multiple reports.

The (stupid!) Colorado congresswoman has also been critical of U.S. aid to Ukraine, as it battles against a Russian invasion.

"Mitch McConnell said that sending funds to Ukraine 'is the number one priority for the United States right now.' Funny, I thought he was a Senator from the great state of Kentucky. Last I checked, Kentucky was in America," Boebert (SIASD!) wrote on Twitter.

SIASD Boebert!

According to her constituent, Boebert's behavior has "once again embarrassed her Colorado 3rd Congressional District constituents, as well as the entire country."

"They are among a small group of far-right House members opposed to any future aid to Ukraine and are demanding a 'full investigation' into the aid already sent to help the war-torn country survive," the constituent, Carol, continued.

Lauren Boebert claims that a good party must include alcohol, drugs and guns. "ATF", she said. "Alcohol, tobacco and firearms," the congresswoman continued. "In western Colorado, we call that a fun weekend".

"It's clear that (stupid!) Boebert does not understand the importance of defending democracy in our world and, moreover, she does not care about the wishes of her constituents. 

Clearly, Boebert is on the wrong side of history. Will she never learn?

By Eric W. Dolan

Lauren Boebert is an embarrassment to Colorado: Opinion Echo

Echo opinion published in the Summit Daily, newspaper in Summit County, Colorado: How dumb is she?

As a Coloradan, were you as embarrassed as I was when (ugly!)

 Rep. Lauren Boebert attempted to interrupt President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech? I thought to myself, “Has this woman no couth?” 

Lauren Boebert redux!

Obviously, she does not understand anything about common manners. She lacks a critical level of decency. But like an unruly child, she knows that her antics will demand and receive attention. 

Ugh! That’s too bad because her outburst only encourages more bad behavior from discourteous, egotistical people like her. What a terrible example she has set for our children and grandchildren as well as every citizen of our state and country! What a black mark she sets for politics and for politicians like her.

I have sat in the chambers of the U.S. Supreme Court. There, no outburst is ever tolerated. One sits charged with the utmost of respect for the proceedings and for the justices themselves. 

In fact, even gum chewing is prohibited. If only the sergeant at arms of the House of Representatives had acted to remove Boebert when she acted out. That would have been fitting.

Admittedly, I know little about how Boebert serves her constituency (❓) (Here's Maine Writer's hint: "she doesn't" because she is a cult follower). I doubt that she is very effective (❗) because of her alienating, self-absorbed style. 

"As a human being, I would want nothing to do with her."

I, for one, am glad that she is not my representative. I would not want myself associated with her in any way. Anyone who cannot muster respect for the office of the presidency and for the mores of Congress truly does not deserve to hold office. As a Coloradan, I was ashamed by her behavior. 

As a human being, I would want nothing to do with her.

From  Rabbi Joel R. Schwartzman in Dillon Colorado

Protect women's lives by supporting pro-choice policy

Women will die as a result of the dangerous reversal of Roe V. Wade by the US Supreme Court!

Roe v. Wade reversal is outrageous; it’s time to vote!

An echo opinion letter published in the Summit Daily newspaper circulated in Frisco, Colorado.

Dear Editor, I was disappointed by the Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade. In thinking about it over the past couple of weeks, however, I’m now hopeful that the court decision will ultimately support the women who vote to uphold their right to abortion and protect them from being forced to carry to term a fetus conceived via rape or incest.

I’m an example voter. I have conservative family members that base their vote solely on the abortion issue. I personally didn’t think Roe would be overturned, so abortion hasn’t been a “litmus test” voting issue for me.

Well now it is!

Going forward, I will verify that a candidate is pro-choice before I vote for them. In Pew research (circa last month), 61% of US adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Reversing Roe will have the net effect of turning a lot of nonactivist moderates (like me) into activists. It is forcing everyone to rethink exactly where they stand and this will ultimately be a good thing for reproductive rights.

Just vote! From Tom Moore in Dillon, Colorado 

Hanukkah: symbolic lights burn against anti-Semitism

Echo opinion by Sue Winthrop published in the Daily Camera newspaper, in Colorado: Hanukkah: A gift of light to the world today.

Hanukkah 2021

Every year at about this time I think about the story of Hanukkah. Though considered a minor Jewish holiday, this year the story of Hanukkah seems to have greater significance. 

This historical event took place in the 2nd century BCE (Before Christian Era). At the time King Antiochus IV outlawed any Jewish practice and defiled the Jewish Temple. A small army of men that were Jewish, the Maccabees, rebelled against this religious persecution and regained control over the temple. The eternal flame in the temple seemed to only have enough oil to last for one day. Instead the eternal flame lasted for eight days, until more oil could be found. Therefore, the eight days of Hanukkah.

It seems to me, this year the story of Hanukkah signifies the survival of the Jewish People. As anti-Semitism and hate crimes are on the rise I think about what we can do as a nation. While our days are shorter and this is the darkest point of the winter, people all over the world are lighting the menorah. Bringing the gift of light into their homes. The lighting of the menorah seems to stand for hope, peace and change.

I hope that this year can be different. That our country will start to heal its wounds and come together. To quit the fighting amongst us over differences in our beliefs and the way we look. 

That leaders in Washington will start setting a better example.

That people in our nation will start thinking about others and put their selfish behavior behind. From Sue Winthrop in Longmont, Colorado 

"When a superior seems bonkers": The Former Guy was fired!

Echo opinion letter published in the Colorado Springs Indy

"... the truth is that when your people don't tell you what you need to know, it's a failure of leadership." Quote by Jack McDevitt

Thank God for General Mark Milley!

"Former Guy Trump’s words and actions during and after the January 6, paramilitary putsch (a violent attempt to overthrow a government) by a murderous mob of Trump loyalists certainly raised this issue."

The United States Constitution establishes a civilian-military Chain of Command with civilians at the top and our military at the bottom.

Even as Commander in Chief and apex of the military portion, the President is the bottom of the civilian portion.

As Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 69, "as commander-in-chief [he is] nothing more than...first General and admiral" of the United States.

As "The Apprentice" repeatedly emphasized, the Boss is the one with the authority to say “You're Fired!"

The American people can fire a President every four years.

Congress can impeach and fire a President at any time.

The Vice President and a Cabinet majority can fire a President at any time under the XXV Amendment.

The sole issue under the XXV Amendment is whether a President is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” especially since his finger is on the nuclear trigger.

Anyone who has served in our military knows that when a superior seems bonkers, his subordinates have a duty to report to and consult with his superiors and act as they recommend.

Trump’s words and actions during and after the January 6 paramilitary putsch by a murderous mob of Trump loyalists certainly raised this issue.

Reporting to, and consulting and coordinating with Trump’s superiors is West Point 101. Thank God for General Mark Milley and his loyalty to our Constitutional Chain of Command.

NOTE: I'm USAFA 1967, not West Point, but both taught the same duty to our Constitution.  Oath: "...do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and ..."

From Ralph Palmer, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Stop the dangerous Big Lie and remove politicians who falsely support #TFG

#TFG #FormerGuy Trump’s GOP zealots aren’t a nuisance, they’re a menace that must be stopped!

Echo opinion published by the Editorial Board in the Colorado Sentinel newspaper:

#FormerGuy Trump and his dogmatists last week advanced their battle in their crusade against reality and U.S. democracy, signaling the rest of the nation that it must treat the scourge as the menace it is.

Colorado news

Trump appeared to a few hundred devotees at a Republican fundraiser in North Carolina, thrilling the room, and thousands tuned in on live computer feeds, with his relentless lies and disinformation about his winning the 2020 presidential election.

Trump lost the election by 7 million popular votes and 74 electoral votes. His alternative reality is a pernicious lie.

The menace here is that neither the event nor the rhetoric were new for the former president. In fact, it’s the nation’s weariness of the exploits of Trump and his advocates that make his political persistence so perilous.

For the most part, Trump delivered a classic Trumpzi rambling, 90-minute lecture, repeating proven lies and distortions about non-existent voter fraud and unaccountable voting systems in the myriad Republican counties he lost to President Joe Biden.

The charade followed a week where his devotees in Congress fled to right-wing media outlets with baseless claims that Dr. Anthony Fauci was outed as a Chinese sympathizer in a Democrat-led scheme to hide the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The nexus of this new mythology was Trump’s unproven claims — and what real scientists say is a highly unlikely scenario — that the pandemic virus was created and released by a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Trump and his comrades have capitalized on their fan’s mass delirium and the fact that scientists do not rule in nor out information based on political whims.

The origins of the pandemic virus has been the fodder of numerous theories and considerations since it was identified. The case is and has been open from the beginning. Fauci is simply the most recent lightning rod used by tRumpzi and his #Jonestown cult devotees to incite the mass of cultists into yet another dangerous fury.

Vaccine gap exists among White evangelicals

Unnerving, consistent, polls show that as many as two-thirds of the nation’s registered Republicans have been convinced by Trump’s grooming lies, distortions and gaslighting. 

Despite a parade of election officials who are members of their own political party, they choose to believe Trump’s fable, that he was indeed elected president.

For those who either pooh-pooh or dismiss current Republican politics, consider this. A recent PRRI poll reveals that one-in-four Republicans also believe in the Q-Anon myth, that the nation is secretly controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping child molesters.

It begs the question, what other falsehoods are Trump’s followers capable of believing, and acting on?

Last week, lawyers for Jan. 6 Capitol rioters said their clients were misled and incited by Trump and his obedient media backers into believing his rhetoric about a “stolen” election and the demise of the nation.

Clearly millions of his minions still believe Trump’s constant drumming about the pandemic being a hoax, refusing to get vaccinated and jeopardizing a remarkable opportunity to control a virus that has controlled the entire planet.

Lies perpetuated by Trump, and fortified by thousands of Republican lawmakers in Congress and state legislatures across the country, are eroding not only hard-won voter rights, but the reliability and integrity of U.S. elections, the very foundation of American democracy.

The strategy of wearing down or distracting the enemy to advance a battle is tried and true throughout history. Trump and his offensive, imbued in white supremacy, is counting on the fatigue from the rest of the nation.

It’s never been more important to push back against Camp Trumpzi’s rhetoric. In Colorado and across the country, everyone must demand their elected representatives call out lawmakers who either look the other way, in hopes of avoiding Trump’s wrath, or those who willingly join forces with their liege to protect their own power, inviting the peril of everyone.

Donald Trump and the illegal sedition caucus

Letter to the editor published in the Summit Daily, a Colorado newspaper, submitted by Kari Kronborg:  

Shame on those who continue to support Donald Trump!

Trump continued his false assertions that the election was stolen from him and that there was fraud. Sixty courts and judges have ruled that there was no fraud!

Two (seditionist!) Colorado Republicans voted not to certify the election, and Lauren Boebert continues to state that the election was stolen.

The Republican Party states that they are the party of law and order and family values. But, I say, they are, instead, the party of obstruction and sedition. What happened on Capitol Hill was terrorism; it was not a rally. 

People that participated brought with them guns and pipe bombs. People are still being encouraged to go to D.C. on the Inauguration Day and to come armed.

Trump encouraged this behavior on the day it occurred, and it took him two-plus hours to ask people to stop. Had Trump not incited this riot, had he tweeted for people to stop sooner, maybe the officer would not have been murdered by these terrorists and a maybe the second officer a few days later would not have died by suicide.

https://www.summitdaily.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor/letter-to-the-editor-shame-on-those-who-continue-to-support-president-trump/

Republicans will bring up Black Lives Matter and blame them for the violence that occurred this past summer. 

We know that the Black Lives Matter rallies were remarkably nonviolent. 

When there was violence, police or counter-protesters were very often directing it at the protesters. After years of peaceful marches and attempts to work through the legal process, Blacks are still shut out by Republicans suppressing the vote and shutting out people of color.

Trump continues to falsely state that the election was stolen from him. But, full stop...."He lost", period! 

Moreover, Trump should not be allowed to reap the retirement benefits afforded to past presidents. Shame on all supporters for not saying enough is enough. Trump must be held accountable.

Donald Trump ignoroed experts now forced to acknowledge that coronavirus is not a "hoax" but a pandemic disease

Here’s an idea: Consult the experts.https://www.summitdaily.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-the-experts-called-it-but-president-donald-trump-didnt-listen/
U.S. intelligence reports from January and February warned about a likely pandemic.

Echo opinion letter from Larry Opicka from Silverthone, Colorado

Published in Summit Daily a Colorado newspaper

“Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but many in the government were. They just couldn’t get him to do anything about it. The system was blinking red.” (The Washington Post, March 20)

Worldwide threat assessment:

We assess that the U.S. and the world will remain vulnerable to the next flu pandemic or large scale outbreak of a contagious disease that could lead to massive rates of death and disability, severely affect the world economy, and strain international resources.” (Office of the Director of National Intelligence, January 2019)

In 2018, the “pandemic task force” headed by Beth Cameron, Ph.D. * and senior director of global biological policy under President Obama, was disbanded. It was deemed expensive and unnecessary.

Never let a crisis go to waste!

*When you’re in the middle of a crisis and you have to ask for money, you’re already too late.
That’s Dr. Beth Cameron, and she’s someone who should know.
https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/beth-cameron-pandemic-preparedness/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwsYb0BRCOARIsAHbLPhHUoBnJC3j52M38oEHuQygDodNOiaIiKpqk4OOlhfeSlJ_1C6HfAR8aAkJ-EALw_wcB

Tariffs are Donald Trump taxes on American citizens

Where are the free trade Republicans?

An echo opinion letter published in the Denver Post:

Tariffs! A new JP Morgan analysis predicts that the average American family will shoulder $1,000 per year, as a result of Donald Trump’s tariffs with China and the failed (stupid) trade war. 

These are taxes that our so-called lowering-taxes Republicans, including Sen. Cory Gardner, appear to ignore. They do no help to us, and it appears that rural Coloradans — especially our hardworking farmers and ranchers — will be hurt the most.

Apparently, China tariffs already in place are expected to cost the average household $600, per year!  Really, the only ones who have benefited from the huge reduction of taxes and the huge increase of the deficit are the rich, such as Trump himself and corporations. And it appears that Trump and Gardner’s answer to reduce the deficit is to take food assistance (food stamps) away from 90,000, people in Colorado, including about 11,000 children. Trump and Gardner are not working to help Colorado, except for the rich.

Wayne Wathen, Highlands Ranch, Colorado

Colorado- a person who has diabetes will receive life saving insulin thru insurance plans

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/05/23/colorado-insulin-price-cap/

Echo report published in The Denver Post by Anna Staver

Colorado becomes first state in nation to cap price of insulin
Under bill signed by governor this week, diabetics will pay no more than $100 a month for insulin. PLUS- a directive to find out why the cost of insulin has increased so rapidly.

Diabetics in Colorado who use insulin to control their blood sugar levels won’t pay more than $100 per month for the drug starting in January thanks to a bill signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday.

“Today, we will declare that the days of insulin price gouging are over in Colorado,” Polis said in his office as he signed the bill, according to CBS Denver.

Insulin has been around for nearly a century, but the price that patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes pay for the drug has doubled since 2012, according to the Healthcare Cost Institute. 

The cost of insulin can creep up toward $1,000 for those whose health care coverage requires significant cost-sharing.

The sudden spike in insulin prices lead to congressional inquiries and public outrage, but Colorado is the first state to implement a cap on what its residents can be charged for the medication. The law doesn’t limit what insulin manufacturers can charge insurance companies, and it’s expected those insurers will pay the difference.

Rep. Dylan Roberts, D-Avon, told The Denver Post earlier this year that the projections he saw showed the price of health care plans increasing by “a couple of cents, per person, per month.”

The new law also requires Attorney General Phil Weiser to investigate why drug manufacturers started rapidly raising the price of insulin in recent years, and it tasks the Department of Law with issuing a report of his findings by November 2020.

Echo opinion- Republicans must reject Donald Trump

A call to Maryland's Governor Hogan! Will he lead the Republican challenge to oppose the failed Trumpzi administration?

An echo opinion published in The Washington Post, in the Virginian-Pilot and in the Glenwood Post Independent (Colorado), by conservative columnist George Will.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — America's most improbably popular governor, a Republican beginning his second term in perhaps the bluest state, resembles a beer keg with an attitude. 

Stocky and blunt, Larry Hogan, whose job approval is in the high 70s, has won twice in the state with the highest percentage of African-Americans of any state outside the Deep South. 

Maryland's Republican Governor Larry Hogan

In 2016, Maryland voted more emphatically for Hillary Clinton — by 26 percentage points — than all but three other states. In 2018, Hogan was re-elected receiving a majority of women's votes, and 28 percent of the African-American vote while running against a former head of the NAACP. Hogan won while almost 50 percent of Marylanders were saying they would vote against all Republicans in order to express contempt for Donald Trump. 

So, Hogan won against a huge blue wave in a deep blue state.

But, then, Hogan had ended the "rain tax," which was known as a "storm water remediation fee" until he rebranded it. It forced certain counties to tax everyone, sometimes based on the amount of "impervious surfaces" on their property. All the great and good in Maryland defended this as environmentally virtuous (supposedly helping the Chesapeake Bay). However, all but one member of the Legislature, which had veto-proof Democratic majorities in both houses, voted not to terminate their political careers by continuing to tax rain.

Because in 2016 Hogan was early in saying that he would neither endorse Trump nor attend the convention that nominated him nor vote for him. And because Hogan has voiced barely disguised disgust about the president's comportment. And because Hogan's father set an example of principled insubordination. And because he, Hogan, is term limited and hence has little to lose other than sleep, happiness and friends. For all these reasons, he is being importuned to challenge the president in Republican primaries. He says he is "listening" and has "not said no."

He does, however, have a day job he is reluctant to neglect. And he soon will become chair of the National Governors Association. So, he clearly is not eager to mount a losing challenge — which it surely would be — just to unfurl the tattered flag of recognizable Republicanism. 

Opposing any incumbent president is not a day at the beach, and campaigning against today's uniquely smarmy incumbent would be especially disagreeable. Hogan has, however, undergone, while governor, six rounds of chemotherapy (24 hours a day, five days a week, times six, spanning 18 weeks) to defeat an advanced and aggressive cancer (non-Hodgkin's lymphoma), so has endured something almost as unpleasant as Donald Trump.

Furthermore, Hogan's father, a former FBI agent and a Maryland congressman on the House Judiciary Committee in 1974, was the only Republican to vote for all three articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon. Probably for this reason he lost the 1974 Republican nomination for governor.

It is unlikely that Hogan will gratify those who are offering to hold his coat while he brawls with Trump. Still, this town on the Chesapeake Bay will remain known as the incubator of something else germane to today's discontents.

In 1786, in response to a dispute between Virginia and Maryland over rights of navigation and commerce on the bay, Virginia's Legislature asked all the states to send delegates here to a convention to consider how conflicts about interstate commerce could be handled under the Articles of Confederation. 

Only 12 men from five states attended, but two of them were prodigiously talented, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. The meeting decided that there should be (in the words of Hamilton's report to Congress) a conclave "at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May next" to consider measures to make the Articles "adequate to the exigencies of the Union." The result was the Constitution.

Today, in the U.S. Capitol, 28.3 miles west of where the Annapolis meeting occurred (in a tavern, long gone), a majority of congressional Republicans seem poised to support Trump's evisceration of the Constitution's architecture of checks and balances. 

By opposing a binding resolution disapproving the president's declaration of an emergency, they would approve Congress' acquiescence in the loss of its core power, that of controlling spending. These Republicans raise two questions: Why is there a Congress? And why are such Republicans receiving salaries?

Every Republican who supports the president in this trashing of the Constitution whose creation began here thereby violates his or her sworn oath to defend it and to "bear true faith and allegiance" to it. Voters should expel all of them from public life.

George Will is a columnist who writes for The Washington Post

Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases- rise in reported rates

As sex-transmitted disease rates soar in Colorado and elsewhere, states beg for help

MaineWriter- Many years ago I was working at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, at time where the national public health urgency was focused on finding ways of diagnosing sexually transmitted syphilis earlier and faster, so as to help prevent the spread of the epidemic.  

Although progress was made at the time, the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases STDs has regressed as per this article in the Colorado Springs news:

A report by Kimberly Leonard and reported in the The Gazette and the Washington Examiner

State and local officials are begging Congress and federal agencies to spend more money to halt an alarming rise in sexually transmitted diseases, which have climbed steadily in Colorado and elsewhere over recent years.

“We are basically all expressing the same concern and expressing the need for urgent action,” said Dr. Nate Smith, president-elect for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. “This is something that is not going to go away on its own.”

More than 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were reported in 2017, say preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That’s nearly a 9 percent increase from 2016 and a higher rate than those reported in other developed nations.

Even more worrisome, syphilis last year caused nearly 1,000 babies to be born with deformities or severe health problems — a 20-year high and a doubling in four years. If untreated, chlamydia and gonorrhea can make women sterile.

Colorado chlamydia rates “increased steadily from 2007 to 2016, with two dips in 2010 and 2013,” reported the state Department of Public Health and Environment.

As of 2016, the most recent year with available data, 25,569 chlamydia cases were reported in the state. That’s a rate of 461.7 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 497.3 per 100,000 people nationwide that year.

By county, Colorado chlamydia case rates are highest in Denver — 908.7 cases per 100,000. El Paso, Adams and Arapahoe counties are among seven others with chlamydia rates higher than 500 per 100,000 people.

Gonorrhea and syphilis rates also have increased in Colorado in recent years. Denver has the highest gonorrhea and second-highest syphilis rates.

“We know what we have to do to respond,” Daniel Shodell, deputy director for disease control at the CDPHE, told The Gazette in May.

“And we’re really focused on testing, treating and encouraging people to protect themselves.”

Dr. Chris Nevin-Woods, medical director for El Paso County Public Health, has said public health funding to address STDs has not kept up with the outbreak.

Over the past 15 years, the purchasing power of federal funding devoted to fighting STDs, which goes to state and local public health programs, has fallen by 40 percent. But because STDs have risen so dramatically so quickly, officials say it’s time to invest more federal money to fight it.

The National Coalition of STD Directors has asked for a $70 million annual increase in STD prevention and treatment and for the Trump administration to come up with a federal plan to coordinate the work of health agencies.

The group also asks the administration to declare a public health emergency for STDs, as it did for opioids. Such a designation would free federal funds that help officials respond faster.

The money would go to STD clinics, to protect babies from syphilis effects and to combat drug-resistant gonorrhea, which can lead to long hospital stays, disability or death. The CDC estimates STDs cost the U.S. $16 billion a year.

Smith, who is also director of the Arkansas health department, said with more money, his state would hire more health-care workers who reach out to sexual partners of infected people and bring STD testing and education to vulnerable communities. Such interactions help people get treated and talk about protection, he said.

State and local officials are meeting with top federal health officials regularly and have found discussions encouraging, said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors.

Before 2013, STDs were on the decline. Now even more common STDs, including herpes and human papillomavirus, which can lead to cervical cancer, aren’t tracked by the federal government. HIV rates are reported separately.

More people are using drugs to prevent HIV transmission, and more women are using long-term contraceptives. But condom use appears to be falling by the wayside, raising STD rates.

Gonorrhea diagnoses increased by 67 percent from 2013 to 2017, nearly doubling among men and increasing by nearly a fifth among women, the CDC reports. Syphilis diagnoses nearly doubled, mostly among men who have sex with men. Chlamydia was the most common condition reported to the CDC in 2017, accounting for 1.7 million diagnoses.

“This is the continuation of a persistent and troubling trend,” said Kyle Bernstein, chief of the Epidemiology and Statistics Branch in the CDC’s Division of STD prevention.

Some politicians are taking note. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, top Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, wrote to to Surgeon General Jerome Adams in October, saying: “I write to ask that you take immediate action to raise public awareness of the problem and engage all relevant federal agencies in taking evidence-based steps to address the problem, with particular focus on prevention amongst populations most at risk of contracting STDs.”

Ahead of budget deliberations this year, 10 Democratic senators and 36 Democratic representatives asked their appropriations leaders for more money to fight STDs. They didn’t get it, but Harvey said advocates hope the money will be in President Trump’s budget request in February. The federal government now spends about $157 million a year to fight STDs.

Experts say the 2.1 million people addicted to opioids, such as heroin and prescription painkillers, contribute to the rise in STD rates, because people are trading sex for drugs.

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration has rolled out a few proposals to deal with drug-resistant bacteria. The CDC has urged doctors to test women for syphilis not only when they learn they are pregnant, but also a couple of times throughout their pregnancies.

The opioid crisis, which claimed 40,000 lives last year, and other public health issues such as obesity and nicotine addiction have pushed the STD surge into the shadows, Smith said.

“If you look at the numbers, it’s really pretty bad… You can’t look at that kind of increase for any transmissible disease and not be very, very alarmed,” he said.

Colorado Politics contributed to this story.