Check facts, show the score

I’d like to commend the letter writer on Sunday, July 28 (“Here’s how the next debate should go”), who made some excellent suggestions for improving the format for presidential debates. Anything that will make them something other than a colossal waste of time would be welcome.

One of the suggestions was to set aside time for fact checkers to review content. When that is complete I would further propose a giant scoreboard for the viewing audience to see for themselves who is lying through his teeth and who is standing with truth.

One more point: Anyone who says they were responsible for the greatest U.S. economy in history will immediately be assessed a misconduct penalty.

— Jack Palmer, Lilydale

We have no desire to pay for all

the things we want

Where are all the deficit and debt hawks? Every 100 days the U.S. national debt is growing by another trillion dollars.

In Minnesota we were overtaxed. A sum of about $18 billion. Local legislators decided to spend all of it — and a lot more.

I heard Donald Trump say we can erase the debt by growing the economy. That is ridiculous folly.

Apparently, Republican lawmakers at both the state and federal levels have demonstrated that they love big government as much as the Democrats. No one is even hinting there will be a very substantial reining-in of spending and a huge cut in the money supply. These strategies are urgently needed to prevent the “Greenback” from becoming extinct.

The party that refunded the last surplus in Minnesota was the Reform Party and Jesse Ventura. I have been working and paying income taxes for about 50 years and that is the only rebate check I have ever received.

The run-along, for decades, deficit spending demonstrates that we citizens have no desire to pay for all of our “free” government stuff. The shame will belong to every one of us should U.S. currency crash.

— Louis S. Baratto, St. Paul

Didn’t just recently ‘turn Swedish’

The flustered man in the interview chair seemed totally confused when he asked with a straight face “so I don’t know, is she Black or is she Indian?”

Pretty sure that anyone who has successfully completed fifth grade would understand that a person whose father is a Black Jamaican and whose mother is Indian knows that that person is … both!

Just as I don’t have to choose only one heritage, having Swedish maternal great grandparents and Irish paternal great grandparents, I am proudly … both. That means that at no time in my life did I “just recently turn Swedish.”

So going back to the flustered man’s original question — it’s really a very simple concept/answer: “She’s both.”

The question need not/can not be answered any other way.

— Pat Cullen, Stillwater

He’s not talking about ending elections

Tuesday’s Pioneer Press (“Trump hints again at ending elections”) is misleading if not blatantly false.

Trump’s quote in the speech referenced was for Christians to vote “just this time,” and he said, “You won’t have to do it anymore. In four years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”

He is not talking about ending elections. He is talking about voting for him this time and things will get fixed.

As in football, I have tossed a penalty flag at the Pioneer Press as Trump’s verbiage was contained in the news story (although the reader had to go to page 14 to see the full statement). But why must this continue again and again with Trump? Will you be negatively misleading the reader with Ms. Harris?

— Thomas McMahon, White Bear Lake

Wasteful diapers

When my babies (now in their 60s) wore diapers, I washed their cloth diapers in my washing machine and reused them (“‘Need never stops,’ so area diaper bank keeps growing,” July 30). Later progress involved a paid service which picked up the soiled diapers and delivered clean ones. Disposable diapers are wasteful, expensive, and bad for the environment. Also my babies were toilet-trained much earlier than is fashionable now.

— Yelva Lynfield, Mendota Heights

Sainted

My husband and I were out to dinner with my brother and sister in law at Rudy’s Rooftop Restaurant in White Bear on Monday, July 29. My husband was feeling a little faint and put his head down between his knees. We could not get a response from him. Our server came over and asked what he could do to help. He brought us cold towels to put on his head, neck, and wrist, and kept them coming. When my husband felt better the staff helped him down to the hotel lobby where we spent a little time to get him feeling better. Eventually they helped us get him in the car and we were able to drive him home safely.

We want to thank all of you at the Rooftop Restaurant for all your help. You were truly a Godsend. Thank you, so very much.

— Kathy and Frank Frid, Coon Rapids

Sainted

The person/people who found my phone who-knows-where at the Roseville Kohl’s on Tuesday and turned it in to staff. I had been shopping for clothes for my 91-year-old mother, taking photos and obviously (stupidly) setting the phone down outside of my purse as I re-folded, re-hung things, etc. I didn’t realize I had walked away from it until I was out of the store, then just prayed fervently that a decent person would see it and turn it in. So God Bless You, whoever you are! Thank you so much. You turned a terrible feeling into such relief. (This is actually the second time that an angel like you saved me under very similar circumstances. I think it’s time to relegate this task to my sister!)

— Tina Appleby, Roseville

Sainted

Sainted to the retired Cottage Grove cop who saw me drive in at the yard waste center with a huge load of brush. He came over and offered to help and was a tremendous help in emptying the truck. Thank you, retired officer.

— DE Follmer, St. Paul

A certain strange mindset

Kudos to Dave Blazek for his very entertaining “Loose Parts” cartoons in the daily Pioneer Press. They are clever, creative and unique.

It takes a certain strange mindset to come up with these weird ideas.

I enjoy his antics in the daily paper. You can too!

— Bill Vilendrer, Lake St. Croix Beach