Fishkill, N.Y.: Public shaming used to work to modify behavior and bring about reforms. It ended Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s bullying tactics during the Red Scare. Publicity from the Watergate hearings brought the criminals from the Richard Nixon administration to justice. Legislative reforms followed.
Republican leaders once had a sense of shame. It would attach to anyone who was a proven hypocrite, unpatriotic, a threat to national security or a plain moral abomination. The stench of shame stuck to any who defended such a person. For today’s Republicans, this is no longer true. They are enablers and defenders of a menace to our democracy and our Constitution. Donald Trump admitted his sexual assaults on women and this became just “locker room talk.” Trump’s numerous lies about contacts with Russians, all exposed in the Mueller investigation, became the “Russia hoax.” His incompetent dereliction of duty during the pandemic, with one million-plus dead, became a “Democratic hoax.” His incitement of a seditious insurrection on Jan. 6 became “legitimate political discourse.” His unexplained seizure of top secret documents became a “storage issue” or media hype about an overdue library book.
McCarthy was a lying bully but no criminal. With four major criminal investigations circling Trump, Republican defenders moved to the classic Trump playbook of using deny, delay and distract. We are back to the usual “witch hunt,” “fake news” and “fishing expedition” excuses. When McCarthy was asked in 1954 by Joseph Welch, “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” he was silent. This group of Republicans answered that question with their shameless defense and enabling of a twice-impeached moral abomination. In short: No, they do not! Gerald Browne
U.S. Army counsel Joseph Welch, left, and Sen. Joseph McCarthy gesture as they talk during the hearings of the Senate Investigations Subcommittee in the Army-McCarthy dispute in Washington, D.C, on June 1, 1954. (BILL ALLEN/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Manhattan: This is for Voicer John Lemandri, who is outraged that the FBI did not search Hunter Biden’s laptop: The search warrant on Mar-a-Lago was for the thousands of documents the FBI knew were missing and that Trump stole from the American government. When a search warrant is executed on a physical residence, the entire residence is searched. I have yet to hear any Republican tell me exactly what crime Hunter Biden is suspected of committing that would elicit a search of his computer. The GOP seems to think they can simply will someone to be a criminal while turning a blind eye to proven criminality. Sam Katz
Yonkers: Voicer Janet Cecin obviously has a mistaken notion about the characteristics of donkeys. She states that it is “very difficult to enlighten donkeys.” Not so! Donkeys have been shown to have excellent memories and a great ability to learn, plus being regarded as sociable and calm creatures. In the Bible, they have been associated with themes of wisdom and presented in a very positive light, as Jesus was escorted into Jerusalem on a donkey. Frank Brady
Forest Hills: Now that baseball has banned the shift, I hear that next season, the NBA will require all defenders to stand below the foul line. Alan Hirschberg
Tarrytown, N.Y.: Why would you give Voicer Marc D. Greenwood a prime spot when he has no idea what was involved in the potential trade for Donovan Mitchell? The failure of the trade was about what players the Knicks would give to Utah. General manager Danny Ainge wanted R.J. Barrett plus young players who we’ve drafted during the past three years. An extra unprotected draft pick didn’t kill the deal, and Greenwood made no mention of the difference between protected and unprotected picks. Stay in your lane, Marc, because this was a swing and a miss. Jaime Geiger
Blauvelt, N.Y.: Missing from most, if not all, print and other media stories on the false scare of arsenic in the water of the city’s Jacob Riis Houses is how a potential carcinogen can get in the supply. That public housing project, like so many high-rise buildings in Gotham, relies on big rooftop storage tanks to provide pressure, with water pumped to them from the city mains. Therein lies the potential for any manner of contamination if they are not regularly cleaned, flushed and inspected. Is that done at Jacob Riis? Before the scare, residents complained of cloudy, smelly water, which, as any old-fashioned plumber will tell you, can come from ill-maintained supply towers and piping. Iron in the tanks, for example, can lead to arsenic. Sounds like another case of public housing neglect with residents suffering and taxpayers getting their pockets emptied. Art Gunther
East Hartford, Conn.: To Voicer Robert LaRosa Sr.: We’ve thankfully come a long way from that saying in the old West: “He’ll get a trial, then we’ll hang him.” The reason Clarkson Wilson (”Killer caught on camera,” Sept. 5) is referred to in the Daily News as the suspect is because of a little thing called the U.S. Constitution, which states that all suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty. Newspapers and television news are required to use this term so as not to prejudice potential jurors. And yes, while the evidence of his guilt is certainly there, that isn’t always the case. Video surveillance can be non-existent, evidence gathered can be sketchy as to its origin and eyewitness accounts aren’t always accurate. But the fact remains that this suspect is entitled to a fair trial, no matter how heinous his crimes may be. Jim Miller
San Luis Obispo, Calif.: António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, secretary-general of the UN, tells us we need to prepare for global warming. So tell us, António, what would you have us do? Send more of our tax dollars to your puppeteers? When are you going to China, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia to get the word out, big fella? Because apparently, they didn’t get the memo, seeing as how China and India derive 61% of their energy needs from coal! And Russia gets all its energy from oil and gas. And don’t forget all the South American countries. António Guterres — globalist puppet? Thomas Robert Malthus said that the world would run out of food in 10 years due to overpopulation. That was 1798. Yes, folks, get ready for another well-devised tax heist. Kevin Moriarty
Beechhurst: Voicers Robert Rundbaken and Alan Rosengarten were, in part, triggered by my contention that green is the new red. What I meant is that the Democratic Party is stoking climate change alarmism to empower the federal government to allocate capital with respect to the nation’s energy resources (just one example of creeping socialism courtesy of this reimagined Democratic Party). Curiously, the sizeable Green New Deal component of the wisely paired-down Build Back Better bill will redound to rich and upper-middle-class households, whose purchases of expensive electric vehicles will be subsidized by hard-working Americans. James Hyland
Ridgewood: Re “Spare the Bronx in congestion plan” (op-ed, Sept. 8): The Bronx, especially the South Bronx, is the poster child for devastating environmental injustice, as Rep. Ritchie Torres so passionately points out. Regardless of the outcome of congestion pricing, state policy must address the public health disaster of diesel trucks. Last year, Gov. Hochul adopted the Advanced Clean Trucks rule that requires manufacturers of medium- and heavy-weight trucks to convert to zero-emissions vehicles such that we’ll see a full fleet turnover by 2045. The Final Scoping Plan of the Climate Action Committee must ensure increased charging capability and fleet advisory services to get vehicle electrification going, and to fully electrify Hunts Point. Chandra Bocci
Brooklyn: You are mistaken when you say in “Clear the path” (editorial, Sept. 10) that savings produced by the city’s Medicare Advantage plan will be “reinvested into a fund that supplements care for retirees.” Almost the entirety of the “stabilization fund” goes to support health insurance for active employees, not retirees. And when you say that the new plan’s prior authorization requirements “are not the end of the world,” for retirees whose care gets denied, it sure could be the end. But the worst part of this deal is that it will allow the city in the future to create new tiers of active workers with inferior health insurance. This is a bad deal for all city employees and the City Council should reject it. Robert S. Nelson
Copyright © 2022, New York Daily News
Copyright © 2022, New York Daily News