Republicans gobble up tax cuts but ignore Donald Trump incompetence

Letter echo published in the Santa Rosa California Press Democrat newspaper

Donald Trump is destroying the Republican reputation for fiscal responsibility and free trade

Tax cuts and deficits- only making the rich, much richer.

EDITOR:  "The only reason the US deficits are unsustainable and again out of control is because of the Republicans’ love affair with rewarding the rich with tax cuts. And this has been the case every single time they do it."  Susan Roberts, from Rohnert Park, California

Trump’s ‘invisible fist’ will not make anybody great again!

EDITOR: Led by Donald Trump, the Republicans have repeatedly and wrongly attacked Democrats as democratic socialists. 

But this past week, Trump leaped ahead calling for full-blown Soviet-style state socialism! A few days ago, he tweeted: “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for alternatives to China …” Such core Republican axioms as free enterprise and free markets have been abandoned by Supreme Commander Trump.

Always claiming that he alone can make American great again, Trump has just replaced Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” of competitive market forces with his “invisible fist.”

Where are the Republicans who should be loudly decrying Trump’s embrace of state socialism as he orders American companies to immediately follow his commands? Perhaps those Democrats advocating for more democratic socialism, but not Trump-style command (tyrannical) socialism, aren’t so scary after all.

From John Donnelly, Sonoma California

Trump Tower meeting with Russians- echo opinion letter

Obviously, William Barr misrepresented the Mueller Report because this is what the Office of Special Counsel really said:

Opinion letter published in the Press Democrat, a Sonoma California newspaper:  

Dear Editor: April 20 editorial (“No conspiracy, but no exoneration of Trump either”) began and ended with the (false) claim that Robert Mueller and his team concluded that Donald Trump didn’t collude with the Russians. This is simply not true. 

Here is what the Mueller report "really" said about collusion:

“In evaluating whether evidence about collective action of multiple individuals constituted a crime, we applied the framework of conspiracy law, not the concept of ‘collusion.’ 

Collusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law. 

For those reasons, the Office’s focus in analyzing questions of joint criminal liability was on conspiracy as defined in federal law.”

The Mueller report did cite that, on multiple occasions, the Trump campaign did meet with Russian officials, the Trump campaign sought and welcomed Russian assistance as evidenced by the Trump Tower meeting, and its chairman shared sensitive campaign polling data with an individual associated with Russian intelligence. Collusion did take place, and the report also cited numerous examples of obstruction of justice by Donald Trump. 

Richard Neffson in Rohnert Park

Donald Trump - evidence of collusion with Russia: echo from California

Yes, there was collusion

Sonoma County California, The Press Democrat echo opinion letter

Dear Editor: Your April 20, editorial (“No conspiracy, but no exoneration of Trump either”) began and ended with the claim that Robert Mueller and his team concluded that Donald Trump didn’t collude with the Russians. This is simply not true. 

Here is what the Mueller report said about collusion:

“In evaluating whether evidence about collective action of multiple individuals constituted a crime, we applied the framework of conspiracy law, not the concept of ‘collusion.’ Collusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law. For those reasons, the Office’s focus in analyzing questions of joint criminal liability was on conspiracy as defined in federal law.”

The Mueller report did cite that, on multiple occasions, the Trump campaign did meet with Russian officials, the Trump campaign sought and welcomed Russian assistance as evidenced by the Trump Tower meeting, and its chairman shared sensitive campaign polling data with an individual associated with Russian intelligence. Collusion did take place, and the report also cited numerous examples of obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.

From Richard Neffson, Rohnert Park, CA