Speak Out is a reader-generated column of opinions. If you there’s something you’d like to comment on in Elgin or beyond, send an email to [email protected]. Please include “speak out” in the subject line.
Worst-case fearmongering: Columnist Ross Douthat is correct in saying we’re losing confidence in the medical experts’ advice. But it’s due more to their paranoid belief in the “worst-case scenario” they always put forth when addressing a new situation. It’s a distressing thing to hear these blowhards shoot off their mouths before they know the details of an outbreak. How can they be believed when they know little or nothing about a disease?
Don’t hold your breath: For those who love prophecy, I’ve got one. Trump will die of natural causes before ever spending a single night in prison.
Hillary’s documents: I’d like to know when the FBI is going to go after Hillary Clinton. How many classified document did she shred? Or is it that we’re just all going after Donald Trump?
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Documents classified for a reason: When President Richard M. Nixon resigned in 1974, he took classified documents and tapes from the White House. Congress realized how dangerous that was and passed the Presidential Records Act in 1978 to keep that from happening. Imagine if a former president took the launch codes to our nukes or the location of our CIA operatives around the globe and decided one day to provide that information to a bad actor for billions of dollars. No president had violated that law until Donald J. Trump did in 2021.
McGrath wrong on pardon: While I normally agree with David McGrath columns, I have to vehemently disagree with his latest saying President Biden should pardon former President Trump. First, Trump would never agree to taking responsibility for the insurrection or accepting the 2020 election results. Even if he did, there are those of us outraged by what happened to our Capitol and with the pandemic deaths due to his negligence, not to mention the documents he took from the White House. He must be held to justice or we will see this happen again in an even more violent way.
New act will spur inflation: The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act imposes new taxes, which leads to more inflation, not less. It contains a tax on petroleum imports, an increase in fees for oil and gas production on federal lands or waters, and it imposes a new methane fee on the energy industry. All these higher costs will be passed on to anyone who fills up at the pump, and energy costs are a major component of inflation.