Where’s Sen. Risch?
Where’s Sen. (Jim) Risch? Sen. Risch, head of the foreign relations committee and strong defender of Ukraine, has gone missing. Sen. Risch, Ukraine needs you. We need you to step up.
Linda Edwards
Moscow
Apologies to Zelenskyy
I want to publicly apologize to President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy for the abysmal way he was treated by President Trump and Vice President Vance in their meeting Feb. 28. I am appalled that a leader supposedly representing democracy would treat a democratic ally, who is actively at war defending his country, with such disregard and disrespect. Zelenskyy was bullied, talked over and ridiculed by both Trump and Vance.
Prior to this meeting, Trump met with Vladimir Putin, the aggressor who has invaded Ukraine not once, but twice. He then publicly and falsely called Zelenskyy a dictator and said he started the war. Next he extracted a deal with Zelenskyy to sign over mineral rights to half of the rare minerals in Ukraine. Trump has not consulted with any of our democratic allies, nor has he even said if Zelenskyy is going to be allowed in the negotiations to end the war. I guess this is what Vance was calling diplomacy?
The meeting included a Trump tirade about how innocent poor Putin is of any attempt to spread false information in America. In addition, a staffer from Tass, the government controlled Russian news outlet, was present, in spite of the White House not allowing experienced AP reporters.
Please watch the full meeting on YouTube. My thought is maybe if Zelenskyy would offer to let Trump build a Trump Tower in Kyiv, he would get further.
Sharon Curtis
Moscow
Courtney’s ridiculous claims
Two weeks ago, Dale Courtney wrote a nearly fact-free His View about USAID. Thank you, Wayne Beebe, for fact-checking (and pointing out how easy it is to fact check) Courtney’s ridiculous claims.
As if there were nothing wrong with his last column, Courtney not only bragged about how he drew back the curtain on the wastefulness of USAID, although nearly all the findings of DOGE were found to be either exaggerated or downright lies, Courtney this week (Feb. 25) dove into what DOGE found regarding Social Security. Again, Mr. Beebe pointed out how ridiculous these claims were as well.
Being fact checked, obviously, doesn’t seem to discourage Courtney in the slightest, as he has been espousing ridiculous claims all the way back to before COVID. Time after time he has been taken to the woodshed by true experts, but not only didn’t he take back any false claims he had expounded upon, he instead has kept referring to them as if they were fact for years afterward.
I truly do not understand why Courtney continues to make claims as if they were facts when they are so easily debunked. Who is his audience? Is the MAGA crowd so easily fooled? If he’s going to write on a topic he knows nothing about, he should at least put in a few minutes of research before parroting talking points from Newsmax or Fox News. I agree with Mr. Beebe — why does the Daily News give Courtney a platform to spread his lies and disinformation?
Wade Hoiland
Pullman
Message to Baumgartner
My message to our U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner, based on my email to him:
Have you no nationwide condemnation and world apology for how Donald Trump and JD Vance humiliated Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Feb. 28? And your subsequent call for Zelenskyy’s resignation makes no sense given your statement that Russia clearly started the war and has been the aggressor — on second thought, it makes great sense considering your already evident cowardice in standing up to Trump, Vance and Elon Musk. You certainly lack the spine of President Zelenskyy.
What should you say about the U.S. voting with Russia, and Russian allies North Korea, Hungary and Belarus, against the UN resolution that demands Russia’s immediate withdrawal from Ukraine, and calls Russian aggression a violation of the UN Charter? The U.S. joined only 18 such countries against the resolution that passed 93-18 with 65 abstentions. You claim expertise in foreign policy but your silence on that resolution is deafening.
How can you justify voting for the House Budget Resolution, significantly cutting Medicaid, to finance the continuation of tax cuts overwhelmingly benefitting the rich? Be honest and let people know exactly the amounts of the cuts — an average of $51,140 per year for the top 1% of earners and $930 for the middle class, as reported during Trump’s first term.
Finally, honestly inform your constituents that Trump’s first term added twice that of Joe Biden’s term to the national debt, much due to those tax cuts for the rich.
Norm Luther
Spokane
We must deal with Trump madness
I’m an Idaho native, senior citizen and Republican who wholeheartedly voted for Trump in 2016. Despite concerns about his erratic behavior, I reluctantly voted for him again in 2020. TRUMP, and only Trump, lost that election. His response on Jan. 6 to that loss, his continued lies, disregard for the Constitution, alliance with Putin, etc., convinced me that I could no longer support him in the 2024 election.
Witnessing Trump’s vindictiveness toward anyone who doesn’t bow down to him, I “get it” that Idaho’s representatives in D.C. fear bearing his wrath by speaking the truth to him. That said, the GOP is the people’s best hope to stop this individual and his cronies from destroying America. If we are REALLY ever going to “make America great again,” the Trump madness and his tyrannical administration must be dealt with, regardless of which political party we support.
Patricia James
Garden City, Idaho
A question
I have a question for you. If Russian assets were allowed to control the White House, Congress and perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court, how would the USA be behaving?
Wiley Hollingsworth
Pullman
Cost will be enormous
The Idaho Legislature passed on to the governor tax cuts amounting to about $253,000,000. He has already signed legislation to fund private and home schools. Public schools alone are not currently funded adequately.
Mike “Tax Cut” Moyle must be in seventh heaven. Now that the line has been crossed to help fund private and home schools, that effort will undoubtedly increase in the future. The cost will be enormous. There are many members of the Idaho legislature who would not mind seeing public education go away completely.
Little received 37,437 messages concerning the legislation to fund private and home schools. 32,366 were opposed. (There may be some yet to be counted.)
Please notify Little of your opinion on these tax cuts. Just be aware that he has clearly signaled that he doesn’t care a whit what we think.
Shirley Ringo
Moscow
