Letters: Power of lies, use fact checkers, Newhouse restores faith and more | Jan. 28

Power of lies has undermined us

The power of lies has turned good people against each other. The lies have been spread on social media sites, in news media, in our homes, work places and houses of worship. They have come from our mouths, our president, our legislators, our news broadcasters, our moral leaders, our friends, our family members and our neighbors. The one thing they have cohesively done is turn us against one another.

The radical fringes of both sides have caused rioting and destruction. The lies have sowed distrust in our elections, even though the courts found no evidence. The lies were perpetrated to make you believe that those with a different ideology are evil and trying to take away your freedoms, your life and our democracy. The lies preyed on those who are patriotic, and those who really aren’t. The lies finally allowed radicals to attempt to thwart our Constitution and elected democracy. People lost their lives.

Yet some still allow the lies to continue. They will be judged. Good people rise to the occasion. Finally, lone voices begin to add their voice to those who have already spoken. Decency and justice will overcome the lies, we will once again learn to trust.

.......

Use fact checkers to assess stories

Catherine Morris’s Jan. 10 letter repeated rumors about Dominion-brand voting machines. She says, “We need to check this out.” Of course it’s important to check out claims of election fraud.

Lawyer Sidney Powell keeps repeating these rumors but hasn’t produced any evidence (even though Fox News asked her for some, more than once).

Snopes.com (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/rumor-alert-dominion-voting-systems-fraud-claims/) checked the facts and reported on Nov. 16: “No, there’s no evidence to support this claim.” The Associated Press’s fact checkers reported on Nov. 19 that the rumors were false (AP FACT CHECK: Trump legal team’s batch of false vote claims (apnews.com). Factcheck.org has checked multiple rumors about Dominion -- all false. Dominion’s owner points out that in Georgia, millions of the paper ballots that its system prints to back up the electronic voting records were recounted by hand. The recount showed that the electronic records were correct. 

Rumors can hurt people. Dominion has lost business. One Dominion employee in Colorado actually had to go into hiding after getting multiple death threats. 

It’s easy to get confused. Please use Snopes, AP News or FactCheck to check out rumors. Or read the “Not Real News” reports in the Tri-City Herald. 

.......

GOP abandoned party’s principles

As a young man I registered as a Republican to counter those radicals and students who felt empowered to spit and curse at members of my family returning from deployment from Vietnam. Coming from a proud military family, those actions were reprehensible to me. 

The Republican platform was that of fiscal responsibility, strong defense and states rights. Since around 1980, the Republican Party has slowly changed its philosophy. Republicans have run up the deficit more the Democrats. Public education and critical infrastructure have been left to slowly decay. To gain membership and voters, they have solicited fringe groups such as Q Anon, Proud Boys, etc. To stack the deck, they have relied on gerrymandering and voter suppression. 

Corporate profits are at an all-time high, which has been the fuel for their success. The problem with this is that with profit comes power. Power to contribute to superpacs which hide donations from legal accountability. Now Republicans have endeavored to deny states rights by filing an amicus brief to negate legal votes from only those states that Biden won. Our own Congressman Dan Newhouse jumped on this wagon and should be forced to resign. His inept attempt at justification is pathetic.

.......

Majority full of hate for Trump

I find it interesting that the Tri-City Herald takes the view of least resistance in agreeing with the majority who are filled with hate of Trump. If you had followed the tapes of all the people at the demonstration outside the courthouse, you would have seen thousands upon thousands of peaceful people and a President Trump who was positive and actually encouraged his supporters to go home and stay away from violence.

There was very little condemnation from Democrats during the “90” days and nights of violence when the Democrats urged on the rioters in Chicago, Portland and Seattle and their respective mayors and governors refused to act and allowed these protesters to takeover a whole building in downtown Seattle. And destroy it: trashing our city!

Both Maxine Waters and Kamala Harris used incendiary speech; Maxine, (if you see these people, you get in their faces and tell them they’re not welcome here, etc.) And Kamala, when supporting the rioters, said they should basically keep it up!

.......

We need to look at Oregon drug law

I’m writing to urge the the Washington legislature to adopt drug laws passed recently in Oregon. As Oregon faces drug problems, it is trying new ways to overcome them. Unprecedented arrest levels during the COVID-19 epidemic have made the drug users more susceptible to death by disease. As Oregon has made a 10-day supply a fine when it comes to hard drugs (including fentanyl), we in Washington state are still struggling with the cider house rules and drug laws that are meant to disproportionately arrest blacks.

.......

Transparency not expected in D.C.

It’s obvious to anyone who has had anything to do with security that the breach in the nation’s Capitol was due more to an “inside job” than to the inability of the understaffed police to do their jobs, except in the case of those “police” who opened doors to let armed terrorists infiltrate the building. D.C. security is normally pretty tight and Secret Service awareness topnotch, so with so much advance notice of this shenanigan, why wouldn’t more protectors be there?

I doubt we’ll ever get a clear answer. Transparency and politics make a cocktail that is seldom served.

.......

Newhouse vote restores his faith

I was pleased and proud to see that (Rep.) Dan Newhouse voted for impeachment. As a longtime Republican, I have been embarrassed and ashamed by the GOP since 2016. Consequently, I have been unwilling to waste my vote for virtually any Republican candidate for any elective office since then. I am pleased to say that now I can at least consider the possibility of supporting Republican candidates in the future.

.......

‘There is a rat’ somewhere in this

In response to your Jan. 17 editorial, “Voting for Impeachment,” I disagree. As I understand it, there was no evidence submitted, and the accused was not allowed a chance to face his accuser. This violates the right to due process. When done by Congress, it is a Bill of Attainder. Both acts are a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Read and study the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. Every item of every article has a good reason behind it. Ignoring the articles that you find inconvenient is an act of cowardice, not an act of courage. Those violations are as much a crime as storming the Capitol Building.

To date, I have seen no evidence that Donald Trump incited a riot. All I have heard are unsubstantiated allegations from political opponents. Although I have seen evidence of Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA members on scene doing some agitation of their own.

In short, “There is a rat behind the hangings.”

This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Letters: Power of lies, use fact checkers, Newhouse restores faith and more | Jan. 28."