Stick to trees, Bob
Bob Hassoldt’s June 19 commentary blaming those darn liberals for all the country’s woes merits a response.
As a forester living in Kendrick, Hassoldt’s credibility might be better if he were talking about trees.
His piece is a mishmash of distorted and unrelated parts, drawing no causal connection between anything liberals actually did and the alleged moral decline of the country.
Incidentally, has he seen late night TV comic Stephen Colbert, an openly devout Catholic?
On the other hand, he offers no concrete and doable fixes. So, absent a fix for society’s ills, what’s not to like about lessening access to a proven and largely unnecessary instrumentality of violence, i.e., guns?
If Hassoldt is a hunter and honest, he would have to admit that AR-15s and 20-round magazines are not hunting tools.
He would also know that a five-shot pump shotgun is the best home defense.
But realistically, AR-15s, 20-round magazines and 18-shot 9 mm pistols aren’t going away.
So, how about making all of us responsible gun owners truly responsible? How about, if you allow your gun to end up in the wrong hands and somebody gets hurt with it, you can get sued?
If you don’t do that — or at least require your buyer to pass a background check — you can’t be sued. It’s simple. And that ought to appeal to all those such as Hassoldt who no doubt acutely feel that obligation to society he finds missing generally.
James M. Runsvold
Caldwell
Waving at the camera
... Television and newspaper coverage of our southern border situation is almost non-existent, leaving many liberals confused. Having Fox News and not afraid to watch it, others see every day thousands of illegals crossing the border. Most wave at the camera, thumbs up and thank President Joe Biden.
Title 42, U.S. Code prohibits entry into the U.S. if there is danger of bringing in communicable diseases. Former President Donald Trump used this in 2020, and negotiated with Mexico for asylum seekers to “remain in Mexico” until cases could be reviewed.
Biden could have continued this. He didn’t.
Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ignored the court order to retain “remain in Mexico” for asylum folks and reluctantly enforced Title 42. Neither of these tools will be available much longer.
In 2020, border agents saw 458,088 encounters. Under Biden, 2021 saw 1.7 million encounters.
Biden’s 990,000 Title 42 numbers were obviously larger than Trump’s.
To date in 2022, there have been 1.5 million encounters on the border, with 239,416 in May. (Numbers are from U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics.)
Biden continues to pay $3 million a day to contractors to not build the wall.
Does Biden really have this under control?
Asylum officers (most left-wing activists can qualify), not judges, will now determine who gets to stay in the U.S. https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/531174900.
Presidents can decide annual numbers of entering immigrants through refugee caps and green cards. Trump’s refugee cap in 2020 was around 15,000. Biden has 125,000 set for 2022.
David Klatt
Kendrick
