Trump’s U.N. speech should be major cause of concern
Re: “Trump criticizes countries at U.N.,” Sept. 24 news story
Just over a year ago, we were bemoaning the fact that President Joe Biden’s advisors and the press had not called the question of his mental acuity far sooner than they did. Following President Trump’s United Nations speech, described on the front page of The Denver Post this morning, it is time to raise the question about his mental acuity. His speech was unhinged, often not founded in fact, and rambled badly.
As I volunteer for several groups focused on climate issues, I pay close attention to what the president says and does in relation to that topic. Leaving aside what he has already done to destroy the ability of the U.S. to take a leadership role in the manufacture and adoption of clean energy, his speech called on the world to refer to coal as “clean, beautiful coal,” told world leaders that their countries would fail if they didn’t stop falling for “the green scam,” repeated false information about the cost of renewable energy, and talked about how renewable energy would require subsidies (avoiding the fact that global oil subsidies are far higher). And then there was the rambling, which, I’m sorry to say, we are getting used to and seemingly accepting. Watching the world leaders with their stunned faces reminded me that we can’t get used to what we are seeing; those who have the power to do so need to call this into question.
So who is going to raise the issue of the president’s mental acuity? Let’s start with an editorial from The Denver Post.
Lynn K. Rhodes Fritz, Lakewood
Flavored tobacco: Hold the businesses accountable
Re: “Flavored tobacco: Group pushing to repeal ban outraises supporters,” Sept. 24 news story
It amazes me that no matter what level of government there is, it attacks a problem from the wrong direction. Examples are: Denver wants to ban flavored tobacco because kids get it. But they don’t go after to the businesses that sell it to kids. It is the same for alcohol. Go after the businesses that sell alcohol to minors. The U.S. government is no different. They go after illegal immigrants who are working, but they don’t go after the businesses that hire them.
Leroy M. Martinez, Denver
In his own words …
Re: “Charlie Kirk memorial was celebration of grace; then Donald Trump spoke,” Sept. 24 commentary
David Mastio quotes Vice President Vance, asserting, “Grace is the enduring legacy of Charlie Kirk.”
A sampling of the “grace” Kirk spread:
• “Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.”
• “If I see a Black pilot, I’m gonna be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.’”
• On the Black women Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson: “They’re coming out, and they’re saying, ‘I’m only here because of affirmative action.’ Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”
• The Democrat[ic] Party “supports everything that God hates.”
• “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up new age term that does a lot of damage.”
• “Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor [Swift]. You’re not in charge.”
• “… Leviticus 18 [says, if ] ‘thou shalt lay with another man shall be stoned to death.’ Just saying.”
• “[George Floyd] was a scumbag.”
• “I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”
• “Jewish donors have been the No. 1 funding mechanism of radical, open-border, neoliberal, quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions and nonprofits.”
•“MLK was awful. He’s not a good person. He said one good thing he actually didn’t believe.”
It is unfathomable that Vance sees this as a legacy of grace.
Randy Livingston, Denver
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