Republican ‘Putin praisers,’ school budgets and other Herald letters to the editor

Putin praisers in GOP ‘make me ill’

During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” on Feb. 27, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said, “It just makes me ill” to see people inside of the Republican Party praise Russian President Putin in his war against Ukraine.

Romney did not identify who he was talking about, but is a prominent critic of our former president, who praised Putin’s Ukraine strategy as “genius” and repeatedly showered the autocratic Russian with praise throughout his presidency. His former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, also praised Putin’s genius, and Fox News bloviator Tucker Carlson questioned why the U.S. should have any concern about Putin’s invasion.

Asked about pro-Putin sentiment within the Republican Party. Romney said, “A lot of those people are changing their stripes as they are seeing the response of the world and the political response here in the U.S.”

At the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 26, our former president toned down his rhetoric with words of praise for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he called a “brave man” for standing firm amid Moscow’ assault, while continuing to express his admiration of Putin.

Despite some current internal confusion, the GOP has always maintained a traditional hostility toward Russia.

William Petrie, Richland

School boards: Be transparent

Our school boards wonder why voters reject their levies. I blame it on lack of transparency.

I received an unexplained hospital bill for $8,000. Asked why, they said, “We don’t know. Just send it in.” That’s about as much detail as the school board levy mailings have provided. Citing “teachers, facilities, and donuts” is not transparency; it’s admission that they have no clue why they need another $50M per year. This top-down approach to budgeting — pulling a number out of thin air (or wherever) — doesn’t fool informed people.

For my much larger Air Force R&D budget, I built my funding requests from the bottom up. I justified each line item (e.g., F-16 navigation systems, donuts, laser weapons systems) based on the Pentagon’s threat assessments, priced it, then added up all those line items to generate my bottom line budget request. When asked, I could support each of those major line items with its own detailed cost and benefit analysis, including the impacts of reduced funding. Because of this degree of transparency and backup, I was the only R&D manager who always got all the funding requested.

Don’t demand; persuade.

Michael Fick, Kennewick

Phasing out gas cars not feasible

Phasing out the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2030, as suggested by the Washington state lawmakers, is not the best idea. The bill plans to ban the sale, purchase or registration of non-EVs from the model year 2030 and later. This also includes cars bought in other states and brought to Washington state. In 2021, only 530,000 EVs were sold in the United States, which was only 9% of passenger car sales. This is compared to 14.9 million gas-powered cars sold. That 9% is not enough to base a policy banning the sale of gas cars.

Most people in Washington state also can’t afford an electric vehicle which, on average, costs $20,000 more than a gas-powered car. The average income of a Washington state resident is a little less than $36,000. The cheapest electric car you can buy is between $28,000 and $40,000. The average person in Washington would not be able to pay for an electric car. Another problem is Washington state is heavily reliant on agriculture. This means that there won’t be semis to ship all our products, directly affecting produce and our economy.

Cole Hiett, Pasco

Tucker Carlson: Sharing blame?

On Tucker Carlson Tonight on March 3, Carlson finally admitted that he’s been wrong about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After weeks of the Fox News opinion host supporting Russia, and defending Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Carlson quit praising Putin or Russia since the invasion began, but also declined to admit that he was wrong until now, despite the Russian military targeting civilians.

He partly blamed his former mistake on the Biden administration. “Why didn’t we see this coming, this total loss of control? Well, because we assumed that if things were dire, serious people would be involved in fixing them,” Carlson said. “But we looked up and we saw Kamala Harris involved, and that reassured us.”

“If the future of Europe and the world hung in the balance, as now so obviously it does, of course, the Biden administration would not have sent Kamala Harris to fix it,” Carlson said, later adding, “That is absolutely not Kamala Harris’s job. That was our assumption. But, as noted, we were wrong.”

Carlson’s use of the words “we” and “our” is interesting. Does he think he is royalty or is he attempting to share blame with other Fox News people, as well?

Rose Petrie, Richland

Picking which laws to enforce

We have been taught the Washington legislature passes laws, the courts interpret those laws and the executive branch enforces them. Right?

Wrong.

Consider WAC 458-02-200(8), requiring businesses to post their business license. This regulation was promulgated by the Department of Revenue but deemed unenforceable by that same department on June 18, 2021. Requests for clarification to our three legislators, that Department and the Governor’s Office have all been met by silence. My questions remain:

1) What constituted an unenforceable law? 2) Who makes this determination? 3) What criteria is utilized? 4) When so deemed, is the law or regulation revised to render it enforceable?

It would seem that deeming any law “unenforceable” obviates the role of our legislature, as it becomes the prerogative of an agency whether to enforce it or not. Additionally, I was told the Governor (via his hotline) lacks the power to direct an executive agency to enforce laws.

Is this really how our government works — to arbitrarily choose which laws to enforce, and then ignore taxpayer requests for clarification? What recourse, as citizens, do we have?

Paul Pigulski, Pasco

Avoid developing the ruling class

“From an evolutionary perspective, it is not the most intelligent who survive, but the least deluded.” – Kakistocracy Blog

A curious conundrum: from an evolutionary perspective, intelligence is most useful at isolating us from the harsh realities of life. Unfortunately, it is those harsh realities that most effectively dispel our delusions.

Corollary: A society has ossified when the ruling class is so thoroughly isolated from the harsh realities of life that some or all of the rules they make are absurdly delusional.

Corollary: Best not to let a ruling class develop.

David Langford, Richland

Police no help to those they serve

Lately there has been a rash of car thefts in the Tri Cities. My Honda was stolen Feb. 20. I was told by a (police) sergeant that people were driving it when the police located it, and that the police could not prove the people driving it knew that it was stolen, so they were not arrested. It was found at 4 a.m. Because I did not respond, they had my car towed and let the tow company take it from there. In a few days, the towing bill was more than what I paid for the car.

The law says my landlord cannot tow a car unless contact is made with the owner or the tenant they are visiting. The form they made me sign said if I didn’t respond they could tow my car. Had I not signed, they would not have taken my report. How was I supposed to go get my car? My car was stolen. If this is how they serve the community, I am underwhelmed. The only people served were the tow company and the people they let go. Time for a different sort of policing. Make over the police...

Sonia Greene, Kennewick