Letters

We're in grave danger

The voters are sick and tired of petty pols whose sole interest is money and re-election.

We now have a last chance to break the stranglehold these corrupt pols have on our necks. They have only themselves to be concerned with, too blinded by power, money, and greed to see the danger they have placed us in.

We are in grave danger of losing what little liberty we have when we have corrupt judges routinely making judgments from the bench overriding petitions for a minor technicality that have the signature of thousands of citizens, and a badly biased Supreme Court. No position should be permanent, lifelong. Far too much power is held by the few over the many.

Never vote for an incumbent. Revive the Tea Party. Renew the draft; all should contribute to the defense of the USA.

ERNIE TWEEDY

Oxford

City makes proposals

Bruce Moore, Little Rock city manager, admitted that, after 37 criminal and civil complaints over the last four years, the city should have known and closed the Power Ultra Lounge. A welcomed, candid admission that lax and uncoordinated city and state regulatory enforcement authorities was a root cause for the carnage. Moore is attempting to improve communication by adding the police department's liaison with state Alcoholic Beverage Control to the criminal abatement committee, whom he meets with every other week. A breakdown in communication dealt with by improved communication makes sense. That's what a manager proposes to address the problem.

Mark Stodola's response is a proposal to require clubs (and other businesses) to install expensive security cameras. Brilliant, Mr. Mayor--require compliant businesses to spend money because the government can't enforce existing regulations. Ignore the problem and trust the same crack enforcement agencies to now ensure that cameras are installed at all the clubs, spreading enforcement resources even thinner. Why would any sane person believe a noncompliant club like the Ultra Lounge, facing the same insufficient enforcement, would comply with another regulation?

No suggestion for addressing the disease, just another regulation to treat the symptoms in the hopes that the next carnage resulting from existing uncoordinated enforcement might be recorded. Inept governance at its best: Ignore existing government faults and add additional regulation at the cost and burden of non-problem businesses, which will then pass that cost on to consumers.

That's what a liberal politician proposes to address the problem.

NEIL DEININGER

Little Rock

Crazy people in power

I'd really like to go one day without having to worry that some crazy person is going to start a nuclear war. All this saber-rattling is making me nervous. Do we need to start building fallout shelters again and stocking up on canned food and batteries? Potted meat, beans, peaches and Duracells, yum.

I'm getting too old for this stuff to be starting up again. I thought maybe we were past dealing with world leaders who just might be psychopaths, but apparently not. I guess we'll just have to keep our eyes on this guy.

Oh, and that Kim Jong Un might bear watching too.

COREY DALE

Rudy

Trump phraseology

A metaphor is a phrase that means one thing but is used to describe a situation that may be similar. Examples would be "a Trojan horse," "priming the pump," "moving the goal posts," etc. Donald Trump's phrase, "drain the swamp," has now expanded to "it's a sewer, a cesspool." Three phrases that apply to Trump would be: "a bull in a china shop," "the fox guarding the chicken coop," and "Donald Quixote attacking windmills, followed by his faithful servant Sancho Panza/Mike Pence."

Cervantes wrote the Don Quixote story over 400 years ago about a delusionally insane old man who roamed the Spanish countryside always getting in trouble. I think Trump is more like Don Quixote every day. His metaphorical barge is now planted in that cesspool and he has invited dozens of crooks to come and take a swim. One example is that mysterious eighth man at the meeting last year where the Russians showed up promising dirt on Clinton. Irakly "Ike" Kaveladze was/is the fixer who allegedly funneled many millions of dollars of Russian money into Trump's properties using hundreds of shell companies and shell bank accounts. Why was he there? Mueller wants to know.

Sen. John McCain puts it well: "Every time we turn around, another shoe drops from this centipede."

FRANK NEWMAN

Huntington

Where the blame falls

Thanks to a great job Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporters Eric Besson, Scott Carroll and Aziza Musa did, we now know how useless Little Rock's little bureaucrats really are. They tell us 37 civil and criminal complaints have been filed over a four-year period against the Power Ultra Lounge. It only took a now nationally infamous shooting that injured 28 before anyone noticed what was going on there.

And thanks must also go out to Warwick Sabin. Shortly after his announcement that he will be running for mayor, it seems the current figurehead, Mr. Stodola, finally woke up and developed a multi-pronged crimefighting plan.

In addition to all these years of ignorance and inaction, we also now get some insight on how the Little Rock Police Department malfunctions. While individual officers are still due our respect, the administration tying their hands looks pretty bad, according to a letter written to city directors by the LRPD Black Officers Association. Apparently, among other issues, the chief and his cronies need not follow the same rules and regulations the rest of the force are reprimanded and disciplined for violating.

I recently moved out of Little Rock, but still spend much time there, and crime is still a concern. While the kind of crime the capital city is experiencing can be identified as cultural, it's still out of control. And a large part of the blame falls directly on those who failed to do their jobs.

WILL COHEN

North Little Rock

Why Trump won race

To John Brummett, the ever snarky Paul Krugman and all the writers who cannot grasp how Trump was elected, I have a one-word answer: Hillary!

This is a wake-up for all.

RICHARD RENNER

Little Rock

Editorial on 08/13/2017

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