To The Editor:

Martin, I was going to skip Christmas week and wait for the New Year to resurrect politics and then you “grinched” that idea and wrote last week’s editorial. I’m just going to comment on the first two paragraphs because we’ve all got things to do, but obvious misstatements are an “attractive nuisance.”

You quote President Biden warning that Kyiv can only anticipate 1 billion dollars to the end of the month, and then additional Congressional funding will have to be authorized by Congress. Right. Tell it to the Republican House, many of whose members are reluctant to fund Ukraine’s fight. Biden is not the one threatening to “kneecap” Ukraine in the middle of a war.

It was not just pay raises for the 11 generals that Tuberville refused. It was promotions. The DOD is unable to fill existing high-level openings. General Brown did NOT say there were “too many white people in the Air Force.” He said that of the 12,000 pilots in the Air Force, only a dozen or so are black. He pointed out that “you only aspire to what you are exposed to,” and urged black soldiers to aim higher, and white soldiers to recognize the imbalance. Stating the obvious is not having “a chip on the shoulder,” Martin, and if it is “woke,” count me in.

You characterize the four indictments against ex-president Trump as ex post facto, or “after the fact” persecution (US Constitution, Article I, Section 9). You are incorrect. The allegations against Trump for January 6 are for acts which were crimes then and are crimes now. Criminal conduct, such as insurrection, is “outside the scope” of presidential authority so, while sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted for criminal actions while in office, they can be when they leave office. Having been president is not a lifetime “get out of jail card.”

Trump’s attempt to sway false electors (and now they have it on tape) and interfere in GA’s and other states’ election process, are campaign crimes and beyond the scope of presidential authority.

Stealing, refusing to return, lying about it, and sharing highly classified defense documents, secreting them by moving them from place to place to avoid detection, or “disappearing” one critical document on Russian spies, are crimes which occurred after Trump’s presidency and are well beyond any potential defense of immunity.

SCOTUS’ refusal to grant the petition for certiorari to bypass the Appeals Court on the issue of immunity was strange. The Court can set its own agenda for cases it deems “sufficiently important,” and in the past 3 years has granted 14 writs before appellate judgment. Jack Smith has already filed for an expedited appeal with the Fifth District Court.

Martin misrepresents a constitutional crisis as being about Trump and his base being unlawfully oppressed for lawful conduct. Trump has shown that he considers himself beyond the law. He knows from experience that the can successfully whine to MAGA about his victimhood (a self-proclaimed perpetual innocent, except for the rape conviction), intimidate the courts, judicial institutions, and the Republican Congress. He’s hoping it will work again.

Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca.