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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Responding to J.D. Hayworth

Editor:

This is my opinion in response to the piece by J.D. Hayworth titled “Finishing the job for his predecessor.”

I have been an avid political junkie for about three decades. It’s important to study our past to understand how we got to this twisted present where up is down and lies are accepted as truth depending on one’s own version of reality.

Reading Mr. Hayworth’s piece, I fi nd the typical distorted, veiled right-wing projection fantasy regarding President Obama’s intentions and what progressive policies stand for.

Republicans really need to stop demonizing the opposition. Nobody is gunning for the end of democracy. If there is any evidence of that, it’s coming from today’s Republican Party.

When it comes to elections, Republicans were never nice and accepting of anything, Mr. Hayworth. The endless partisan audit we are witnessing now is more than enough proof of that. Also, if anyone has been politicizing the pandemic, it’s the right and its campaign to actually shame people into not wearing a mask or getting vaccinated.

Also, why are Republicans so obsessed with President Obama. It’s like you people lost your minds when he was elected. You blame him for divisiveness when, in actuality, it was the right’s inability to accept him as president. Let’s talk about the Republicans and their polarizing tactics for a moment now.

As your piece aptly demonstrates, the Republican Party has been lying and demonizing Democrats for decades. The reality is Republicans have no choice but to lie. I mean you’re not going to win elections telling working people that your big plan is to just cut taxes on rich people and privatize everything your wealthy constituents see no value in subsidizing.

Then once you raise the national debt due to repeated defi cits as a result of a lack of revenue, you cry conservative mantra against spending and raising taxes. Of course, these cries only show up when the Democrats get elected to clean up the mess.

So, your party lies and pushes propaganda focused on cultural trigger issues and blaming everyone but the wealthy who pull your strings when you’re in offi ce.

Most of us get it. Your brainwashed voters are easily manipulated and triggered but in the minority, and now you seek ways to continue to win. This is born out in the fact that all your recent presidential wins have lost the popular vote.

It appears now your party is seeking ways to obstruct the ability for people to easily vote, gerrymander districts and pass laws to circumvent the will of the voters if need be, all under the guise of voter security and concerns of fraud.

Republicans have been doing this for decades, crying voter fraud and dead people voting. Of course, nothing of substance has ever come to light. It’s more lies to give your party the edge for minority rule. It’s a strategy you’re playing out now in Arizona with that wacky partisan hack audit. It’s a strategy your party conveniently appropriated after Trump screamed “cheaters” because he lost his election.

Trump’s childish sore loser rant went to the limits of treason, culminating in a large group of his brainwashed supporters attempting what amounts to a coup on his behalf. Minority rule is undemocratic, and we live in a democratic republic.

Republicans love to say it’s a republic like it doesn’t involve democracy. It does, though, so that’s another Republican lie, aka talking point, to try to validate their need to rule in the minority. The reality is your party sees the writing on the wall for its demise. This nation is rapidly becoming a diverse majority of Democrat-leaning voters. We understand that your party’s new march to authoritarianism is the only way to maintain power and control.

My question is this: How many of you actually believe the nonsense you push, and how many of you know you’re pedaling lies? Do you include yourself in the opinion that Americans with different political points of view fear the end of the USA as a democratic republic if progressive policies were put in place?

Those are the same policies we had from the 1930s to 1980 that yielded the largest middle class the country ever had, much to the chagrin of the Republicans and their rich benefactors.

If you do share this fear, I feel sorry for you, as you have been conned just like your constituents. This isn’t hard to believe, because I know many who were young adults in the Reagan era and have this distorted view of how this country should be run.

I see these Republicans as the fi rst generation to be conned. Before them, the country knew what Republicans stood for. Before them, the voting public has gone through the great republican depression. Yes, it was actually called that back in the day.

They had your party’s number and knew what your party was about, which is limiting democracy by reducing the middle class to nothing. They and you, for a certain period of your life, benefi ted from the progressive policies Democrats put in place in the

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BRANCH’S OPINION — branchtoon.com

1930s to return the country to prosperity. Those policies you now claim limit democracy actually grew it to a size your wealthy benefactors grew uncomfortable with. Those voters knew the mess your party made, and for that your party didn’t take the house until the 1990s. Your party had to basically wait for all of those citizens that lived in the era of the depression to die off.

The Republican Party has never passed any significant legislation that benefits working- and middle-class voters. Your party has no ability or desire to govern. Your party likes the way things are run now, where the rich have it all and the rest of the country has to beg and borrow on credit and work multiple jobs to survive.

Wages have stagnated since Reaganomics was implemented. Your party is primarily responsible for the destruction of our manufacturing-based economy and the conversion of the country to a Wall Street-dominated society that generates most of its profits moving money while the middle class toils in low-wage service jobs.

Your rich masters gorge themselves on the wealth your party transfers to them in the form of massive tax breaks, allowing them to play gambling games with their surplus in the financial markets.

Your party has succeeded in removing all the guardrails put in place to keep the wealthy from abusing the workers. Your party has pushed through deregulation of our financial sector, allowing banks to gamble in the markets where they used to be restricted to just providing savings accounts and lending money.

This alone causes violent ups and downs in the market, due to speculators causing booms and busts that you give them a pass on while making the poor working stiffs pay more to bail out the mess.

Your Republican-majority Supreme Court paved the way for the rich to buy off the GOP legislators with their decision that corporations are people and money is speech.

Your party removed the fairness doctrine, allowing your vast right-wing lie machine to broadcast 24/7 and pretend it’s news. So, why do millions vote for your party? A massive media machine that feeds them lies daily, that’s why.

President Obama is actually correct regarding the right and its pension to push disinformation and nonsense. That is because you and yours have fed your voters a load of lies for decades on talk radio, print and television.

Your party’s faux patriotism ideology where you wrap yourself in the American flag and push a narrative that only the conservatives are worthy to be called “Americans” is in exact opposition to what the founders intended the soul of this nation to be.

Progressives see an inclusive nation of everyone working not only for their own benefit but for the benefit of all. Republicans are believers in an exclusive nation that only benefits those who are among the fortunate. Your sad attempt at making the GOP and its voters into victims doesn’t hold water here either.

Your party always plays the victim card. Your comment that Obama is actually telling the GOP to know its place is laughable. Your party was never that timid. Republicans consistently push the bounds of legality, ethics and common decency in the name of strategic victory.

And now your party is pushing anti-vax and anti-mask propaganda, essentially killing your own to make Biden look bad. Your party is made up of monsters who actively seek the destruction of democracy and the implementation of an autocratic ruler to preserve your rapidly fading dominance in a country that becomes more diverse and progressive by the day. My hope is your party is stopped sooner rather than later.

Robert Lukacs Goodyear

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BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ

West Valley View Columnist

One of my crowning achievements as an American is having never watched a single episode of any program involving a Kardashian. I have made a point of this for the past 20 years for three reasons.

One, because I’m not terribly keen on reality most days, I see no reason to watch reality television. Two, Kris and Kim, et. al., have managed to ruin Bruce Jenner and Kanye West, the only humans connected to the Kardashian clan with any discernible talent. Finally — and most importantly — I loathe celebrities.

This is clearly a minority opinion in 2021. At a moment when so many of us seem to take our cultural, political, lifestyle and health care cues from the rich and famous, it feels rebellious to willfully ignore everyone from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to Cardi B.

Understand, please, I’m not saying that celebrities have no right to voice their opinions. They absolutely do. And, in turn, the rest of us have the right to ignore them like a 5-year-old ignoring a plateful of green veggies.

How bad have things gotten?

I flipped on CNN recently to see anchor Jake Tapper seriously ask Dr. Anthony Fauci to comment on a tweet made by pop star Nikki Minaj that “a cousin in Trinidad won’t get the (COVID-19) vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen.”

Minaj went on to encourage her 22 million Twitter followers to “pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied,” when considering being vaccinated.

Said Fauci on the subject of testicular swelling and vaccine-caused reproductive issues: “There’s no evidence that it happens, nor is there any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen. So, the answer to your question is no.”

Nuts, am I right?

The most popular podcast in America belongs to stand-up comic Joe Rogan, who has spent time recently (a) flat on his back after testing positive for COVID-19 and (b) describing his use of ivermectin to treat the disease.

While it’s true the drug won the Nobel Prize in 2015, that was for its use treating the world’s poorest populations for parasitic diseases like river blindness and elephantiasis. In animals, veterinary-grade ivermectin is used to deworm livestock. Is it a miracle cure for COVID-19?

No, says the Food and Drug Administration: “Currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19.”

By the way: “Never use medications intended for animals on yourself or other people. Animal ivermectin products are very different from those approved for humans. Use of animal ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in humans is dangerous.”

BS, calls Rogan: “The pharmaceutical companies are in cahoots to try and make anybody who takes this stuff look crazy. But what’s crazy is look how better I got! I got better pretty quick.”

In fairness, Rogan often tells his flock that he’s not offering medical advice — while seeming to offer medical advice.

But anymore, what celebrity isn’t offering advice? Social media is full of influencers peddling makeup tips, keto diets and sex toys.

The biggest draw in boxing right now isn’t a boxer at all. It’s celebrimoron Jake Paul, who initially “went viral” doing stunt videos on Vine before starring in “Bizaardvark” on the Disney Channel.

And politics? Joe Biden had a cruise ship full of celebs on his side in 2020, including Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Donald Trump — our first celebrity president! — had endorsements from Mike Ditka, Lil Wayne and Roseanne Barr.

My prescription: If you’re voting based on recommendations from The Rock or Roseanne, how about instead you swallow 24 ivermectin tablets and call me in the morning?

David Leibowitz has called the Valley home since 1995. Contact david@leibowitzsolo.com

15 California recall outcome leaves questions

BY J.D. HAYWORTH

West Valley View Columnist

“As Maine goes, so goes the nation!” Politics provided that boast for the Pine Tree State over more than a century.

From 1820 until 1932, the party that won Maine’s gubernatorial election would see its nominee capture the presidency in November — at least that’s the way it went in 22 of 29 election cycles.

Recently, California has enjoyed a similar rep — not as a political bellwether but as a lifestyle trendsetter, especially for the last half of the 20th century.

Postwar prosperity, pleasing weather, plus the production of films and TV put the rest of the nation on notice that California truly was the Golden State.

The rest of the nation did more than take notice. Many Americans took to the road and moved to California; it became our most populous state in 1962.

But the growth had a downside. The traffic, the smog and the crowds led many to leave in the 1970s. In fact, a neighboring state popularized this earthy request: “Don’t ‘Californicate’ Oregon!”

Sloganeering aside, statistics reveal that California’s growth has slowed significantly, most notably in the second decade of the 21st century. The Public Policy Institute of California reports that “in the past year, growth has essentially ground to a halt.” Why? California’s government has killed the Golden Bear.

Leftist policies that excuse illegal immigration, empower criminals and emasculate police have endangered the law abiding and ended any notion of an idyllic middle-class lifestyle.

Add to that wasteful spending, excessive taxation, plus a housing crisis, and it has put real economic pressure on middle-income families.

So, before California’s middle class completely went the way of the Dodo, a grassroots campaign took root. The goal? To drive Gov. Gavin Newsom to political extinction through a recall election.

Initially, the recall effort appeared promising. Not only were 2 million recall petition signatures delivered to the secretary of state’s office by March; 46 candidates qualified for the recall ballot.

However, two major legal provisions helped protect the incumbent. The first was financial. Newsom was free to raise as much money as possible, but his recall challengers were forced to adhere to campaign finance laws that put limits on their spending. Gavin had the greenbacks — a total $58 million by the end of August. The second advantage for Team Newsom? Like the old saying, they could “mail it in.”

Legislation mandated the mailing of ballots to all registered voters, whether or not they were requested. Vote by mail has been called “fraud by mail,” and irregularities occurred in this recall.

KTLA Channel 5 reported that when voter Estelle Bender arrived at her polling place, she was told she had already cast a ballot.

“They said, ‘You voted.’ I said, ‘No, I have not…’ So as I left, I did the provisional ballot. I was very angry. … If I voted, how did I vote?”

In San Diego, three recall ballots were sent to the address of Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran shot and killed at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6. She was in Washington to protest irregularities in the 2020 presidential election.

Sept. 14 in California bears a certain resemblance to Nov. 3, 2020, across America.

While Gavin Newsom’s victory was overwhelming, and in stark contrast to the razor-thin margins in several swing states last November, some observers are left with this overwhelming feeling: Either we institute common-sense election reforms and somehow restore civic virtue or every American election may end up “Californicated.”

J.D. Hayworth represented Arizona in the U.S. House from 1995-2007. He authored and sponsored the Enforcement First Act, legislation that would have mandated enforcement of Federal Immigration Law in the 109th Congress.

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hold on to them,’” Lynne said.

“Now that the State of Arizona Restricted Bank Rolls are being offered up we won’t be surprised if thousands of Arizona residents claim the maximum limit allowed of 4 Bank Rolls per resident before they’re all gone,” said Lynne.

“That’s because after the Bank Rolls were loaded with 15 rarely seen Silver Walking Liberties, each verified to meet a minimum collector grade of very good or above, the dates and mint marks of the U.S. Gov’t issued Silver Walking Liberty Half Dollars sealed away inside the State of Arizona Restricted Bank Rolls have never been searched. But, we do know that some of these coins date clear back to the early 1900’s and are worth up to 100 times their face value, so there is no telling what Arizona residents will find until they sort through all the coins,” Lynne went on to say.

And here’s the best part. If you are a resident of the state of Arizona you cover only the $39 per coin state minimum set by the National Mint and Treasury, that’s fifteen rarely seen U.S. Gov’t issued Silver Walking Liberties worth up to 100 times their face value for just $585 which is a real steal because non state residents must pay $118 per coin which totals $1,770 if any coins remain after the 2-day deadline.

The only thing Arizona residents need to do is call the State Toll-Free Hotlines printed in today’s newspaper publication before the 2-day order deadline ends.

“Rarely seen U.S. Gov’t issued silver coins like these are highly sought after, but we’ve never seen anything like this before. According to The Official Red Book, a Guide Book of United States Coins many Silver Walking Liberty Half Dollars are now worth $40 - $825 each in collector value,” Lynne said. “We’re guessing thousands of Arizona residents will be taking the maximum limit of 4 Bank Rolls because they make such amazing gifts for any occasion for children, parents, grandparents, friends and loved ones,” Lynne continued.

“We know the phones will be ringing off the hook. That’s why hundreds of Hotline Operators are standing by to answer the phones beginning at 8:30 am this morning. We’re going to do our best, but with just 2 days to answer all the calls it won’t be easy. So make sure to tell everyone to keep calling if all lines are busy. We’ll do our best to answer them all.” Lynne said.

The only thing readers of today’s newspaper publication need to do is make sure they are a resident of the state of Arizona and call the National Toll-Free Hotlines before the 2-day deadline ends midnight tomorrow. ■

HOW TO CLAIM THE LAST STATE RESTRICTED BANK ROLLS

FACTS: If you are a Arizona State Resident read the important information below about claiming the State Silver Bank Rolls, then call the State Toll-Free Hotline at 8:30 am:

1-800-979-3771 EXT: RWB2069

Are these Silver Walking Liberties worth more than other half dollars:

How do I get the State Restricted Walking Liberty Silver Bank Rolls:

Yes. These U.S. Gov’t issued Silver Walking Liberties were minted in the early 1900’s and will never be minted again. That makes them extremely collectible. The vast majority of half dollars minted after 1970 have no silver content at all and these Walking Liberties were one of the last silver coins minted for circulation. That’s why many of them now command hundreds in collector value so there’s no telling how much they could be worth in collector value someday.

How much are State Restricted Walking Liberty Silver Bank Rolls worth:

It’s impossible to say, but some of these U.S Gov’t issued Walking Liberties dating back to the early 1900’s are worth up to 100 times the face value and there are 15 in each Bank Roll so you better hurry if you want to get your hands on them. Collector values always fluctuate and there are never any guarantees. But we do know they are the only Arizona State Silver Bank Rolls known to exist and Walking Liberties are highly collectible so anyone lucky enough to get their hands on these Silver Bank Rolls should hold onto them because there’s no telling how much they could be worth in collector value someday.

Why are so many Arizona residents claiming them:

Because they are the only State Restricted Walking Liberty Silver Bank Rolls known to exist and everyone wants their share. Each Bank Roll contains a whopping 15 Silver Walking Liberties dating back to the early 1900’s some worth up to 100 times their face value. Best of all Arizona residents are guaranteed to get them for the state minimum set by the National Mint and Treasury of just $39 per Silver Walking Liberty for the next two days.

Arizona residents are authorized to claim up to the limit of 4 State Restricted Walking Liberty Silver Bank Rolls by calling the State Toll Free Hotline at 1-800-979-3771 Ext. RWB2069 starting at precisely 8:30 am this morning. Everyone who does is getting the only State Restricted Walking Liberty Silver Bank Rolls known to exist. That’s a full Bank Roll containing 15 Silver Walking Liberties from the early 1900’s some worth up to 100 times their face value for just the state minimum set by the National Mint and Treasury of just $39 per Silver Walking Liberty, which is just $585 for the full Bank Rolls and that’s a real steal because non state residents are not permitted to call before 5 pm tomorrow and must pay $1,770 for each Arizona State Restricted Walking Liberty Silver Bank Roll if any remain.

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