Is the jig up for him?
It seems the cracks in the seemingly impregnable wall protecting the Trump image from effective scrutiny are increasing in size. Are these cracks caused by the weight of guilt for the skulduggery and alternative facts perpetrated by Trump henchmen? Are the leaks of information about communications between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence officers about to become a real flood which may lead to a real investigation, with consequences?
Why haven't Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton joined their colleagues John McCain, Lindsey Graham and others in calling for disclosure of the nature of Trump's relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin? This is not the time for partisan foot-dragging, but the time for patriotic pursuit of truth.
There is a difference between truth and alternative fact, between good publicity and bad publicity, and between real news and fake news. It is high time that our politicians learned these differences, and why and how to choose between them.
DENNIS A. BERRY
Bryant
About that petulance
Mr. Leonard Trovero Jr. has truly been blinded by the right if he ignores the petulant schoolyard Twants (Tweeto + Rants) from D.C. (Donald's Cesspool). The precedent's nonsense answer to serious questions is a pronoun + verb: "I won."
Another very succinct word-mash is malignorant. Malignant + ignorant. It has become an epidemic ... but an apparently intended consequence.
SALLYE MARTIN
Fayetteville
Highly misinformed
Being in the basket of deplorables and dumb myself, I am highly misinformed. Nancy Pelosi stated on national TV that she could not find anything that she could agree with President Bush on. I thought Donald J. Trump is the president.
Now we have Pokie Huntis (Elizabeth Warren) spewing her venom. She was told to sit down and shut up. That was a good thing. She also stated that she would fight to her death for what she wanted. What about what the American people want? Hillary Clinton lost the election and Barack Obama's policies are being phased out.
Now we have this African American lady who wants President Trump impeached because he helped Vladimir Putin go into Korea. I didn't know Putin ever went into Korea.
See how misinformed I am?
LYLE THOMPSON
North Little Rock
Reap what we sowed
What is the reason for the breakdown of the social order in the country of El Salvador? Could it be because the former mercenaries who reportedly were once on the payroll of the United States of America are ravaging the countryside? Too many psychopaths and not enough victims?
Whoever sows into the wind will reap the whirlwind. The United States "sowed" into Syria and into the Ukraine; now we reap the bitter harvest.
JOHN ROACH
Yellville
Role isn't as steward
I object to the language used in the front-page, above-the-fold wire story on our new secretary of Education, whom the wire services described as "steward of the nation's schools." Anti-federalist poppycock!
Her role is advisory at best, with only the power to give money and to withhold it if her advice is not followed. The Constitution gives the federal government no role in public education, and twice specifies powers not specifically delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states and the people.
It seems 50 years of unconstitutional federal interference in education has yielded a generation a large portion of which is so miseducated that they think socialism is a mighty fine idea that would work great this time if only their guy was in charge. I think every vote for Bernie Sanders was a condemnation of public education in the U.S.
I believe we had the best educated and most productive populace in the world before federal interference in education, and now we are not in the top 25. Abolishing the Jimmy Carter-initiated Department of Education entirely would not likely hurt us a bit.
KARL T. KIMBALL
Little Rock
Keys to the kingdom
Your so-called president was at his worst last week. Following what I believe is his unconstitutional, un-American and unjust ban on immigrants, primarily Muslims, he rescinded an EPA regulation so coal companies can dump their waste in rivers and streams. In the heat of the regulatory fever he ended a requirement that investment advisers act in a fiduciary capacity and put their clients' financial interests above their own.
So how is the white working-class who elected this yahoo being helped? Have you always wanted a little coal dust in your drinking water? Do you think investment bankers and stockbrokers are doing so poorly we need to let them sell even riskier investments to retirees to earn higher fees?
Removing consumer safety protection and bank regulations won't create jobs. It will create another era of Wall Street greed and profligacy.
It appears that thanks to the racist, anti-immigrant fringe vote; the anti-abortion, homophobic Christian evangelicals; and direct Russian interference, the keys to the kingdom have been handed to a mentally and unstable, egotistical con man who only cares about himself and his businesses, his rich friends, and his fake tan.
Some 80,000 voters in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were able to offset the votes of millions of citizens from the west and east coasts. Perhaps God will forgive them. I cannot.
DAVID ELI COCKCROFT
Little Rock
Of apples and oranges
Re Dana Kelley's column "Much ado ..." in the Democrat-Gazette last Friday: What a specious argument Mr. Kelley makes as he maligns Sen. Lisa Murkowski's takedown of newly appointed secretary of education Betsy DeVos by comparing the high cost of education in Alaska (Murkowski's state) to its nearest neighbor, Washington state.
Consider the high cost of delivering an education to every child in the Alaskan territory. There are many isolated communities with no interconnecting roads that require extraordinary school construction to accommodate Alaska's extreme weather conditions. The cost of living for food, shelter and supplies frequently depends on airplane deliveries. Let's not forget that one needs to factor in what financial incentives it would take to attract a professionally prepared work force to teach in conditions that many would find less than stellar.
Of course educational costs run much higher in Alaska than in the lower 48 states! Please, Mr. Kelley, get your apples and oranges in the appropriate crates.
DONNA CASPARIAN
Hot Springs
He did keep his word
Mr. Trump said he'd drain the swamp, and he did.
He turned it into a sewer.
ROSE GOVAR
Maumelle
Editorial on 02/17/2017