Trump's trouble or is it Biden?; DeSantis demerits; overpopulation; solving big problems

We can't abandon allies for political reasons

Is this what our country has been reduced to — breaking promises, contracts, agreements ― because of politics? Has Russia somehow infiltrated our Congress?

Republicans are willing to sacrifice Ukraine to Vladimir Putin for politics? Donald Trump appears to have a symbiotic relationship with Putin, and to please Trump, Republicans are willing to give up Ukraine?

Doesn’t it make Trump supporters nervous that Putin will continue the war until he sees if his buddy Trump is elected? Isn’t Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants "poisoning our blood" reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s push to become an Aryan nation?

If Ukraine is gifted to Putin by Trump’s congressional supporters, our country is lost. No allies will ever trust us again.

What happened to the lessons of history? Remember Britain’s Neville Chamberlain giving in to Hitler, rationalizing and believing Hitler's claim that it was only a part of one country he wanted? Remember how that turned out?

Anne Brakman, Vero Beach

Donald Trump is talking like modern-day Hitler

In his recent column, E.J. Montini recalled visiting the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial, where 4,392 Americans killed near Rome during World War II are buried. Montini “thought of that beautiful, mournful place” after Donald Trump gave a speech “littered with the vile rhetoric of Adolf Hitler.”

Montini wondered why Trump supporters blithely excuse Trump’s steady stream of despicable diatribes.

Trump picked Veterans Day “to spew der Fuhrer’s filth, referring to his perceived enemies as ‘vermin,’ among other things.” I’m opposed to Trump the politician for his emotional dysfunctionality and the abhorrent behaviors it spawns.

His vile rhetoric propels his popularity. Like Adolf Hitler, he dehumanizes those who oppose his reckless disregard for human decency and moral correctness, calling them “thugs” who want “to destroy the American dream.”

Those who criticize his repulsive behavior aren’t “thugs” and “vermin,” but individuals who detest Trump’s moral turpitude.

Can you imagine Trump obeying these instructions: “Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love” (1 Peter 1:5-7)?

For the life of me, I cannot, although my religious instruction encourages me “to love one another.”

Trump declared the blood of America has been “poisoned,” a reference to Hitler’s assertion that the “superior” Aryan race was being polluted by the blood of inferior races that must be expunged from Germany.

During the 1930s, Hitler proposed a racial profile organized into three categories: (1) those of pure German blood, (2) those of mixed-race heritage, and (3) Jews, prioritized in descending order of importance. Hitler argued there could be no contamination of inferior races with that of the Aryans (study.com).

Consider the rhetorical similarities between Trump and Hitler.

Cray Little, Vero Beach

Trump seeks to undermine democratic process

As a child, I grew up on several Air Force bases and went to Air Force schools. Patriotism and devotion to country was a given.

As a young man, I spent seven years in the cavalry. There, patriotism and devotion to country was a given. Thirty-five years later, I still call it my beloved Army.

As a father, I watched my oldest son march of to war as an infantry man in Afghanistan. Patriotism and devotion to country were important to him.

It deeply saddens me today to read the latest news about the latest arrest across several states of these fake electors. The ones in Wisconsin have signed documents, stating that they were directed by Donald Trump's campaign to do this.

Trump's attorney has pleaded guilty to a scheme to submit fake electors and has agreed to testify against the Trump campaign and the fake elector scheme.

The more that comes out in court documents, the more you start to understand the depth of Trump's conspiracy to remain in power. It saddens me for my country.

Never in my life did I think my oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution would involve both foreign and domestic enemies. Fifty states certified their elections, all courts deemed the elections were done legally.

To the Constitution, case closed. Any further action to undermine these election results is a violation of the most sacred law of the land. There must be consequences for this grave criminal behavior.

God forbid Trump should win the next election and avoid prison. But if he does, I will bite my lip, write my letters, and remember my oath. I ask you to do the same if he is sent to prison or loses the election.

Don Whisman, Stuart

Trump is telling us who he is. Just listen.

When Donald Trump tells you that he will be a dictator, but "only on the first day of his next presidency," believe only the first part of his answer. You may ask: "What's to prevent him from continuing on with that mindset for the rest of his term?" The answer is nothing.

Once he is given the power of the presidency, once again, you can be assured that he will usurp as much evil power as possible to alter the future of our democratic republic.

The man has no other objective, at this point in his life, other than becoming a full-time dictator and his minions seem to admire that aspect of his goals. Hark back to the latest softball interview where Sean Hannity gave him every opportunity to deny that he would be a dictator if re-elected to the highest office of our land.

I'm sure that all of you have heard his asinine reply, while the ignorant and unpatriotic audience cheered him on. This man is a proven criminal who should be in prison; certainly not running again for the presidency of our beloved country.

This is a frightening aspect for our citizens as there are, obviously, those of the Republican persuasion who would vote for a rat if it had an R behind its name on the ballot. Do you find that comment to be too harsh?

Consider the fact that a known sexual abuser who crowed about "grabbing them by the (expletive)" was "preferred" over other much more qualified Republicans who ran against him in the last presidential GOP primaries. 'Nuff said. Wake up, folks.

Sharon E. Garland, Hobe Sound

Our biggest problems are solvable, if the will were there

Why is it that so many people in our great nation are feeling that our country is in a failure mode, even considering our many exceptional achievements? We won World War II, put a man on the moon, invented the telephone, electricity, frozen food products, GPS and so much more.

I submit that the politicians are generally not interested in solving problems, but rather in getting themselves re-elected. Their campaign donations include dark money and/or corrupt money.

Lets take a look at three major real problems. We hear a lot of noise, but no real solutions.

Our first problem being the national debt. It is not the expenditures, rather that the federal income has been reduced through tax cuts. This is due to taxes being cut for the ultra-wealthy. Eighty-three percent of the last tax cut went to the top one percent, and most of the rest to the top 20 percent.

We average Americans received little benefit. Trickle-down economics was an all-out lie. If not for the last three tax cuts, our national debt would have been being paid down for the last approximately 20 years.

The problem of illegal immigrants is not unsolvable. Businesses keep hiring them. One solution is fining these employers a sum of $10,000 for each illegal alien employed.

This could eliminate a large part of the motivation for many of them. No jobs, no money, no reason to come. These people cut the grass, milk the cows, pick the fruit and handle many more lower-income jobs.

The third problem would be right to life. Facts are that we have the highest mortality rate among infants, also women dying from complications of pregnancy, children with no shelter and most insufficient food, and also the biggest cause of children under the age of 18 dying is gun violence.

Politicians are mainly concerned about the vote and often willing to do whatever it takes, with no concern about truth or facts.

This makes so many of us fearing the imminent loss of our republic and democracy.

To save our democracy and freedom, you must seek to acquire accurate knowledge.

There is no such thing as alternative truth. Please fact check the lies.

Charles Davis, Stuart

Overpopulation shows need for contraception access

In 1968, Paul and Anne Ehrlich wrote “The Population Bomb,” warning of the dangers of overpopulation, including mass starvation, societal upheaval and environmental ruin in the not-too-distant future.

They underestimated productivity gains due to new technology, such as agricultural advances. However, the world’s population has more than doubled since 1968 and it appears the bomb is exploding, straining the planet’s resources and changing our climate.

We see more frequent and destructive fires; coastal and inland flooding; fast-growing hurricanes; polluted oceans, rivers and lakes; increasing politically inspired hatred; and mass shootings.

The cost to deal with consequences of increasing population growth is manifesting itself in growing government expenditures at all levels, increasing homelessness, shortages, inflation, habitat destruction, extinctions, mass migration/immigration, the rise of demagogues around the globe and the elimination of freedoms.

Meaningful discussions of solutions to our problems and even acknowledgment of science are impeded by the abundance of lies and half-truths, compounded through social media as well as pure selfishness of individuals in trusted leadership roles. It is irrational and irresponsible to claim that God gave us dominion over the heavens and Earth with a brain capable of modern advancements and technology, just to use it to destroy our beautiful planet.

What we need to do, obviously, and should have started 40 years ago, is give women absolutely equal rights and opportunities. Make sure everybody has access to modern contraception. If this included every woman in North, Central and South America and even the entire world, we might be able to stem the increasing flow of migrants. And yet we hear shortsighted politicians saying that contraception should be outlawed.

Shouldn’t the real costs to our world be considered in every political decision?

Frank Wacha, Jr., Jensen Beach

Keep Trump off the ballot? What about Biden?

The Colorado Supreme Court just voted to prohibit President Donald Trump to be on the 2024 ballot for president. The court said that he led an "insurrection."

I don't recall any jury finding President Trump guilty of that crime. Trump told his followers to "march peacefully." And the label "insurrection" is laughable. A rowdy protest with some windows being broken by using some flagpoles and fire extinguishers doesn't exactly warrant an "insurrection" accusation.

The only person killed was an unarmed woman, Ashli Babbitt, by an overzealous Capitol police officer. Imagine General George Washington exhorting his troops to "grab the flagpoles, boys, we're crossing the Delaware tonight!"

If this flimsy criteria is the decision to be used by liberals to prevent President Trump from running, how about looking at some real traitorous acts committed by Joe Biden (I refuse to address him as President). He has allowed the invasion of our border to overwhelm our cities with unvetted illegal immigrants.

Another 9-11 is imminent. His reckless handling of the evacuation in Afghanistan resulted in 13 Americans being needlessly killed. Those two acts alone should be cause for removing Biden's name from any ballot.

Impeachment will go nowhere in the Senate. Let's get our senators and members of Congress to petition the courts to follow through.

Anthony Napolitano, Jensen Beach

Gov. DeSantis' emphasis on 'woke' culture backfiring

Aren’t we Floridians lucky?  We rank as the No. 1 state in the country for two amazing accomplishments: Most unpopular governor in the U.S. and most books banned in the U.S.

As for the governor, Ron DeSantis has turned off so many Floridians with his "woke" agenda, which much of the rest of the country isn’t buying either, judging by his flailing national ambitions.

Maybe some of Florida’s African-American populace can educate him about some of the very apprenticeships passed down from their enslaved ancestors, as he may need a job after this gig as governor.

Banning books fits right into the governor’s agenda of forcing Florida’s public school children to learn only DeSantis’ view of the world as opposed to broadening their world views.

Of course, one of the Moms for Liberty founders who is leading the book-banning movement allegedly has personal habits to which the MFL crowd doesn’t want children to be exposed.What a shameful role model.

Beverly Anderson, Stuart

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Trump's trouble ... or is it Biden?; DeSantis demerits; overpopulation