Letters: No proof of fraud, rights vs privileges, reform police immunity and more | May 9

100+ days later, no proof of fraud

Over one hundred days have passed since insurrectionists stormed the halls of Congress intent on stopping Congress from certifying the results of the (2020) election, claiming the election was stolen. State Rep. (Brad) Klippert has his suspicions of election irregularities and Congressman (Dan) Newhouse signed an amicus brief to disenfranchise millions of votes in four states. Claims of election fraud filed in court require evidence, not fanciful thinking.

After bringing some 60 lawsuits, and even offering financial incentives for information about fraud, Mr. Trump and his allies failed to prove definitively any case of illegal voting. Not a single case of an undocumented immigrant casting a ballot, a citizen double voting, nor any credible evidence that legions of dead voters gave Mr. Biden the victory was supported by the evidence.

Trump’s one-time lawyer Sydney Powell claimed that Dominion voting machines flipped votes from Trump to Biden. This lie directly affects Dominion’s bottom line and Dominion filed a $1 billion defamation lawsuit. In her defense, Sydney Powell’s lawyer claimed that her statements were so outlandish that nobody would believe them.

The myth of the stolen election lives on. Proposed legislation in 36 states is aimed at making it harder to vote.

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Rights not the same as privileges

Mr. King is wrong in his letter to the Editor that gun ownership is a privilege (April 25). A privilege is some special favor given someone by those in authority over them; whereas a “right” is due you simply because you exist. Thus the right to free speech, to vote, to have a trial by jury, protection of personal property, and yes, to own a gun. A right can be taken away from you only by a court of law — incarceration, fines, etc.

Therefore, gun ownership is not at all like the privilege of driving a car. So here again we see an attack on our personal liberties by those who do not understand our constitutional rights. 

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Firefighters: Do what your job is

So there is a small (85-acre) brush fire in the center of the Tri-Cities. And the three fire departments say they cannot extinguish it (and) will let it burn itself out in a month or so. So a little smoke never hurt anybody and the wind won’t kick it up and an spread the fire. Good luck with that. Come on, firemen, do your job.

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Small changes add up to big problems

Does a small change in temperature make a big difference? Water at 31.9 degrees is solid while, water at 32.1 degrees is liquid. A big difference for a small change, and that applies to climate change.

We are that frog in the pot getting slowly boiled to death. The frog doesn’t realize what is happening until the water boils and he is cooked. Science has proved that climate change is real and threatens so many things we take for granted. Yet we let our most ignorant and self-serving politicians prevent us from turning down the heat.

We have already baked in a century or more of global warming, but it is not too late to mitigate the worst effects of climate change if we so choose.

The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 2307), the favored legislation of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, puts prices on carbon emissions and returns net revenues to Americans in a periodic check. Lead sponsor of the bill, Rep. Ted Deutch, said that a dividend program is crucial to ensure the cost isn’t simply passed down to hard-working Americans. Certainly reasonable given the enormous cost of doing nothing.

Tell Rep. (Dan) Newhouse to co-sponsor this legislation.

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Time for reform on police immunity

It’s a sad day to recognize that law-abiding citizens can no longer count on help from police when an emergency exists. In today’s world, a request for police help may end up with your arrest for a trumped(-up) charge by the police or death if you are black or brown, as has happened to so many minorities over the past years.

The problem is simple, it’s called “qualified immunity,” which allows police to hide behind their badge and avoid personal liability when they commit acts of misconduct and are not held accountable by their peers or supervision.

It’s called “redaction” under WAC 42.56, which police can use to prevent the release of public information that may incriminate police ... and disclose police misconduct. The “fix” is not so simple and shouldn’t surprise anyone regarding high demand from the public and responsible legislators for police reform.

Right now, federal legislation is again being debated in the House of Representatives that addresses the issue of “qualified immunity” and the effect it’s had on police behavior. Passage of this federal legislation requires support from all 50 Democratic senators and at least 10 Republican senators in order to avoid a Republican filibuster.

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State approach on COVID ineffective

I have had over 10 years of public health service and the management of epidemiological response to communicable diseases. Therefore, I have concerns when I see the state struggle with the closing of businesses due to the rising incidence of COVID-19. I believe that the state’s approach to classification of the counties is not based upon the most rigorous statistics.

A high percentage of people with a positive COVID-19 test are interviewed by the county health departments. The result of these interviews is to identify where the person contracted the virus and who else they have subsequently come in contact with. This data therefore identifies what type of activity was the spreader, such as: workplace, restaurant dinner, school, picnic with relatives, etc. This data is considerably more specific to the spread of the virus than number of positive tests per 100,000.

I hope someone out there is listening as the blind use of numbers of positives or even hospitalizations will never target the actual spreader activities. These can only be identified and acted against with causative specific epidemiological data. This approach is the most effective and has the least financial burden on our society.

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Congress should oversee Facebook

Facebook’s attempt to regulate itself is a complete failure. I know it is because I attempted to explain to my youngest daughter how some things just happen, after she told me she has a very serious medical problem. Giving her many examples of unfortunate happenings, some turning out bad, good, and neutral was my attempt at easing her frantic mind.

Facebook in their infinite wisdom banished me, no explanation given. Facebook and dictatorships are one and the same on the issue of freedom of speech: There is none. Congressional oversight of Facebook is long overdue. Congressional candidates who believe similarly will have my support in any way requested.

This story was originally published May 8, 2021 at 12:24 AM with the headline "Letters: No proof of fraud, rights vs privileges, reform police immunity and more | May 9."