Letters to the editor Aug. 22

Success is the lonely hunter

Antisemitism is on the rise and I don’t know why. There isn’t a group of people in the world who has contributed more to science, technology and medicine than the Jews. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that is democratic and truly functional. They have turned a desert into an oasis and produce food for export. The medical instruments they produce rival the Swiss, and their military is one of the most advanced in the world.

The Muslim countries that surround them produce little besides oil, and if it wasn’t for Western technology they wouldn’t produce that. The U.S. has been in conflict with the Muslims since the days of the Tripoli pirates during the Jefferson administration when U.S. Marines were sent in to stop the seizure of our merchant ships. The Ottoman empire aligned themselves with Germany during World War I and the Turkish empire with Germany during World War II.

Egypt is the only Muslim country that recognizes Israel’s right to exist, and that was only after they were defeated in the Yon Kipper war in 73. If the Western powers had not stepped in to stop the Israelis they would have marched to Cairo.

In 1948 when the United Nations voted to establish the state of Israel, 50,000,000 Muslims attacked 1,000,000 Jews and got their lunch handed to them.

I guess success is the lonely hunter, and jealousy and failure is admired.

—John Hurd, Hungry Horse

Corporate taxation

When specialists cannot agree on corporate taxation, look at results. Is President Trump helping our country? Data says he is.

We know Trump’s focus has been on manufacturing, increasing wages, employment for all and keeping manufacturing and big business in the United States. I know some people believe we are in President Obama’s economy. If this is true, and I’m not going to try to prove otherwise, but then we have to wonder how, because I recall when Trump disposed of all of Obama’s economic policies when he gained office.

So, why would Trump do something like decrease the percentage for corporations if it would harm workers he is trying to help, and data shows he has successfully helped?

States have substantially different corporate tax regimes, including some states that do not tax corporations at all.

A company may borrow in one country and take the deduction for interest there, locate actual production facilities and employ workers in another country and realize profits in a third country by transferring intellectual property such as patents there or by adjusting prices on internal sales among its foreign subsidiaries. There is also the fact that corporate shareholders may live in many different countries, each facing a different tax regime with respect to the taxation of dividends and capital gains. Would this influence Trumps decisions? Hmm?

Trump lowered corporate taxes from 35% to 21% on all corporations. The four top noted scholars dissected the issue of who the percentage decrease helps and harms. There was NO consensus realized. Do workers suffer with lower wages, or, does it all fall on capital? They don’t know if the tail is wagging the dog, or dog wagging the tail.

I’m looking for a reason Trump would risk hurting this nation, especially considering all the hate Trump talk!

—Joanne L Stern, Kalispell

Solution to end gun violence

What we have in place now is not working. All those gun permits, checks, and reports have not stopped even one mass killing. So, scrap it all and start over.

Gun violence passes through society like any disease body, until it reaches epidemic proportions. And like any disease, intervention usually comes in the form of stopping it from spreading. Do that. Stop gun-disease by stopping it from spreading.

In most places you have to appear in front of a judge to get a concealed-carry permit. At a minimum, you have to go before a police officer. Most people have no heartburn with that procedure. So why not make that a requirement for the spread of guns as well.

Understand, no one wants to take away your gun or mine. Society only wishes to control the terrorists, crazies and known felons out there in the world. A requirement to have a permit before purchasing a gun would go a long way in doing just that. A permit to buy or sell can easily replace all other permits currently in use, which traditionally cost less than $100 and last for five years.

As for all those Constitutionalists out there who think the Commies are going to attack San Diego next week, reminded them that a permit to buy does not mean they actually bought one or own one. It only indicates that they thought they might need such a permit in the future. Of course, the NRA will have everything to say about who qualifies for such permits or who doesn’t, and what questions and information the government might ask to issue one.

However, the key here is, “one must appear in front of...” A cleaver state bureaucrat can easily make this application procedure available at the same time one gets a driver’s license. Just as people do now with a state driving examiner to get their vehicle permits. In the future there will be one more stamp on your driver’s license, which says, this person may (or may not) buy, sell and conceal-carry a firearm. In the future, anyone caught giving or selling a gun to some crazy who does not produce such a permit, will be held as an accessory to the fact. And get the same punishment as the perpetrator.

—Ed Dramer, Kalispell