Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

I consider myself a moderate independent, voting for either Democratic or Republican candidates, depending on who I think is best qualified to intelligently run their office. I am almost 85 years old, and I have been through a lot of politics and presidents. Neither political party has a past record that hasn’t been tarnished with corruption or scandal. Both of them are infested with special interests.

But, I have never seen or listened to such scandalous, bizarre behavior or outright lying coming from a POTUS in my life as now. I am not talking about Republicans in general, but the man himself. About as bad are Sens. Graham, McConnell and Nunns, the extreme right, and special interests keeping him in power.

By his actions, POTUS has proven himself to be on the side of white supremacy, being sexist and womanizing, dividing our nation, ignoring experts and downplaying and worsening global warming, ignoring medical science about coronavirus, ignoring Russian threats, bypassing constitutional laws, abandoning many of our allies, changing or eliminating many environmental regulations and laws, providing poor and inconsistent leadership in the White House, resulting in confusion and mixed policies, put his own personal interests ahead of the country, and on and on.

These are facts; there are no alternate facts.

What good is a Constitution or laws if they are not enforced? POTUS appoints people loyal to him and not to the rules of the office they run, or fires people in position of office who may offend him. One example I am referring to is the U.S. attorney general, whose job is to investigate and enforce the law. This is perhaps the second most powerful position in this country because he pretty much controls the enforcement of matters involving POTUS. Perhaps that office should be filled by vote, the same as other federal elections so that it could not be intimidated.

Fake news is POTUS’ favorite out when confronted by criticism. The sources of misinformation are Facebook, Twitter and most of the other gossip programs as well as the internet itself. I consider tabloids as very bad. On TV, Fox News and MSNBC are half truths. “Face the Nation” and other like programs are iffy. Professional journalists and reporters are bound by set rules of conduct to investigate the sources and accuracy of stories they give. Time, Newsweek and USA Today are good. Most national newspapers like the New York Times and The Washington Post are dependable. On TV, David Muir, Lester Holt and other national news reporters show and tell it like it is. They are usually accurate, not fake news. Use common sense. Compare what is being said to what is actually happening. Don’t nitpick what you come across. Assess all info.

Dennis Rayman

Glenville