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Letters to the Editor: June 29, 2018

Bring the turkey back!

Last week, I read in the News-Register that there will be NO turkey sides or BBQ for Turkey Rama this year.

My heart sank. There is NO Turkey Rama without turkey!

Our family has looked forward to the BBQ every year since 1974. I know many more citizens of McMinnville and Yamhill County have been here more years than us, and looked forward to the turkey, too.

I am so disappointed. When I told my children and grandchildren there will only be turkey legs available, they were also disappointed.
Please bring back the turkeys!

Claudia Spawn

McMinnville

 

Fiery rhetoric rings hollow

North Korean has two areas of vulnerability, military and economic.

Kim Jong Un understands this, as did his father and grandfather before him. He has followed the standard North Korean playbook of establishing military security first, then working on economic security.

By obtaining nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them, Kim has achieved the first objective. The regime is now militarily secure.

As soon as he had achieved this goal, he abruptly pivoted to economic security.

President Trump’s embarrassing performance in Singapore did not change Kim’s perspective. He knows North Korea’s poverty is a threat to his regime.
But he will not look to the U.S., South Korea or Japan as a model on the road to prosperity. He will look to China, a totalitarian country with nukes that has maintained single-party rule while leveraging capitalism to become rich.

Kim doesn’t want to be Donald Trump. He wants to be Xi Jinping.

To get to prosperity, he needs to get sanctions relaxed.

Kim ignored Trump’s threats to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea until he had his nuclear-armed missiles secured. Now he can negotiate from a position of power, a reality Trump acknowledged in his fawning summit meeting.

If Kim can get China to relax sanctions unilaterally, there is little Trump can do but rant about military options.

But is Trump ready to sacrifice the lives of millions of South Koreans to prove his point? Let’s pray not.

Kim holds the cards.

If he really wants a dynamic economy, he’ll have to trade with the West. To accomplish that, he will surrender some of his nuclear capability — on his terms.
If he is satisfied with trade with China only, he’ll keep his missiles. It’s his call.

Trump’s fire and fury has shrunk to mere fuss and foolery.

Scott Gibson
 
Amity

 

Nearman a Trump clone

I consider Trump a fool. In my military mind (Army retired), I have now concluded he is also a sadist. He likes hurting people.

Example: On Trump’s first day, he canceled an EPA rule banning use of a pesticide that causes learning disabilities in the children of row-crop farmworkers. Now he’s caging children, suggesting his hatefulness is endless.

Locally, fate has given us an apparent Little Trump in the person of our purported representative in Oregon’s House District 23. Mike Nearman’s latest claim to awfulness is becoming a chief petitioner on an initiative petition to put elimination of sanctuary designations in Oregon on the ballot.

Sanctuary designations mean local law enforcement officers will not become toadies to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they will report to ICE only immigrants convicted of a crime.

Many law enforcement agencies support sanctuary status, as it makes immigrants more willing to report crime and cooperate in investigations. But there are sufficient racist police chiefs and officers that I’m sure some departments will support the initiative.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was some deliberative body that, after decades of dithering, could come up with a solution to our immigration dilemma? But so long as Trump and Nearman are our point persons, no luck.

If we did have such a body, we could call it a Congress. But we would need to be sure we didn’t elect fools to it.

Fred Brown

Dallas

 

Slipping toward fascism

Constitutional violations since Day One: Lying with impunity. Demonizing anyone who disagrees with him. Blatant corruption and racism. A stolen Supreme Court seat. Kidnapping children.

Trump voters of goodwill, you were taken in by an expert con man. Trump only cares about himself.

The majority of elected Republicans are complicit in all of his atrocities.

Wake up, America, and heed the lessons of history. We are slipping toward fascism.

It’s been said that elections are decided by the people who don’t vote. Unless you want to return to only white men being able to vote, we must all engage in the struggle to defend democracy.

Elections have consequences. Vote in every election.

Alisa Owen

McMinnville

Comments

Don Dix

Scott Gibson doesn't believe N. Korea's Kim was ever afraid of the US 'fire and fury' -- maybe -- until Syria happened. Kim witnessed the real deal, and immediately (2 weeks) changed his rhetoric from threats of worldwide destruction to 'hey, let's talk'.

Kim's choice was clear -- stay on his course and risk total destruction, or make nice (and remain in power). It wouldn't be much of stretch to assume Kim had 'the livin' sh*t' scared out of him by the firm and direct action taken by Trump and the allies.

There are all kinds of speculation about the motives of Kim and what he is up to, but to ignore the precision of the Syrian attack and the effect it may have had on him is foolish. The timeline of events point out how Kim's attitude changed dramatically after witnessing what he might be inviting. 'Fire and fury' is alive and well -- just notice the 'silence' from Syria.

tagup

N Korea has used this same ploy multiple times before....sounds like Kim's agreement (if there ever was one) to shelve his nuclear program is already being violated....and the US has already agreed to stop coordinated training with South Korea and there are no check programs to see that Kim's is honoring his part of the bargin.....Kim's not scared....he just got what he wanted in one day of negotiation.... Trump got played....

Lulu

Wonderful chap, that Kim. Kills his relatives with starving feral dogs.
Maybe the sole reason Trump would hang with him is Kim's hair is actually more ridiculous.

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