Suffering the consequences
Watergate was a bungled attempt by a bunch of amateur criminals to get dirt on political opponents in order to keep President Richard Nixon in power.
The “insurrection” was an attempt by President Donald Trump to overturn a valid U.S. election in order to remain in office … against the will of 80 million voters. He used lies, deceit and the power of the office in an attempt to subvert democratic rule.
Nixon, realizing he was going to be impeached, resigned in disgrace and fled to his private residence in California.
Trump, incapable of feeling guilt or remorse, agreed with the crowd who wanted to hang his loyal vice president, threatened state level employees to fraudulently claim the votes in their states were illegal and went after opponents who weren’t loyal enough. Trump, apparently, felt no guilt.
Nixon’s crimes affected campaign financing laws and landed some of his close aides in prison. Watergate also eroded public trust in the government.
Trump’s actions almost resulted in a political “coup,” creating a dangerous situation where the peaceful transfer of power and the will of the people were secondary to one man’s desire to remain in power. Public trust in the government may never be fully restored.
Nixon suffered consequences; Trump must as well.
Robert Evans
Murphy
Hazard on Joe Brown
On June 26, neighbor and community leader Nancy Helms was driving home from town on Joe Brown Highway, and just after Shook’s Marina she met a truck approaching her in the opposing lane. At least its full front tire was over the center line, placing the oncoming vehicle at least a foot into her lane.
Helms moved her vehicle to the side as far as permissible to avoid the oncoming truck, but the truck hit her side mirror at full speed. The mirror was severely damaged and will have to be replaced. The truck did not slow down or stop after the incident. The incident has been reported to the police, and a report has been filed.
This is not the first encounter for Helms with a vehicle driving over the center line. For some time, she has been an advocate for the shoulders of Joe Brown Highway to be widened with the addition of a few passing areas to provide improved safety to drivers. Other residents who travel Joe Brown routinely have also reported incidents of opposing traffic driving well over the center line.
Several years ago, the N.C. Department of Transportation placed reflectors down the center line of Joe Brown. However, shortly after their installation portions of the road were repaved and the reflectors were not replaced.
This has removed any opportunity for traffic to have an indication, other than a visual one, for when their tires are on, or crossing, the center line. The DOT has been contacted about replacing the center line reflectors as their absence presents an additional hazard to drivers.
In an effort to increase a police presence along the highway, the Unaka Community Center will welcome the sheriff and his team to utilize the center for breaks and internet while patrolling north of Murphy. The DOT will also be contacted about placing signage along the highway encouraging drivers to slow down and maintain their lanes.
The Unaka Community Development Club is planning to hold a town hall meeting with the DOT to discuss improvements for Joe Brown and provide community input. Details will be forthcoming.
Drivers should be aware of this safety concern when traveling Joe Brown and exercise caution when approaching opposing traffic.
Andrew Ziemann
Unaka
The writer is president of the Unaka Community Development Club; email him at unaka58@gmail.com.
Biden policies led to fiascoes
A letter writer in the Cherokee Scout on June 15 didn’t mention the economy, where practically everything we have to buy to meet our day-to-day needs is much more expansive. It wasn’t that way before President Joe Biden took over. Calling his policies, from Afghanistan to present, a fiasco would be an understatement.
The GOP desperation that the writer wrote about can be equally distributed with the Democrats as well. The Democrats are scared to death that they will lose their grip on Congress in November. A lame-duck Biden and much cleaner swamp sounds pretty good to me.
If the writer thinks only the Fox News channel spews inaccurate info and the likes of NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN doesn’t, I’ve got an oceanfront parcel of land in Colorado for sale.
God bless America again.
L.A. Moore
Morganton, Ga.
Local residents deserves more
I have been told my suggestions on how to increase certain taxes to fund our county won’t work due to them already at a cap imposed by the state , and property taxes being all that is left to increase.
I guess my response is that I wasn’t saying that was the only way to go. I was suggesting that we look for creative ways to solve our problems and not just arbitrarily go after property taxes.
I have to say I was impressed with how the commission worked to bring the property tax increase from 10 cents down to 3 cents, but that doesn’t cover the lawsuits. If they work as hard on fixing the problems, and finding new sources of money instead of spending it we may make it through the hard times ahead.
I agree with the hiring of a grant writer for the county, but please tell me whoever we get won’t need a trainer at $7,000 a month like the county assessor.
These are some of the most important jobs in the county and the people hired should be qualified to do them when they are hired, not friends of a commissioner that will need over six months of training at $7,000 a month.
Cherokee County deserves better. You deserve better.
John Midkiff
Wolf Creek
Supplies low, prices gouged
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Conquest, War, Famine and Death – gallop into the 21st century.
The decision to raise interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, with new rate hikes on the way, will further depress wages, which have stagnated for decades, increase unemployment and personal debt and make food and other basic necessities more expensive. Raising interest rates usually induces a recession.
But the oligarchs are more than willing to extract blood from the working class. Inflation reduces investment returns. It disrupts leveraged financial strategies.
Prices are not rising because of wages. They are rising because of supply shortages and price gouging by corporations and oil conglomerates. U.S. corporations posted their biggest profit growth in decades by raising prices during the pandemic. Corporate pretax profits rose last year by 25 percent to $2.81 trillion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s the largest annual increase since 1976, according to the Federal Reserve. When taxes are included, last year’s corporate profit rose to 37 percent, more than any other time since the Fed began tracking profits in 1948.
Antitrust laws and breaking up monopolies would ease the strain of inflation and lower prices. Rationing would break inflation. So would a wage-price freeze.
Nationalization, reversing the capture of public utilities, the health-care system, banking and other services by corporations would also blunt price rises. But the billionaire class is not about to impose measures that diminish their profits.
They will keep their monopolies. They will keep their grip on what were once public assets. The message from the billionaire class is this: the economy is run for our benefit, not for yours.
Jim Grazis
Young Harris, Ga.