To the editor:<\/p>\n
I think I was wrong. I complained that The Breeze allowed letters filled with false information, especially those parroting Trump\u2019s absurd grandiose lies, to be published without fact-checking, ie, as if they were accurate. I guess the price of a free press is equal public access, which includes printing opinions of readers containing inaccurate information. It is up to the public to do their own research to determine what to believe.<\/p>\n
The recent Breeze editorials taking a stand against the conduct of Trump\u2019s personal militia (and his egregiously incompetent enablers) have been courageous, as was publishing Mr. Clasen\u2019s letter (Jan. 30) containing extensive excerpts from 1945 government pamphlet about guarding against fascism taking root at home in the United States.<\/p>\n
I did not serve in World War II (though my dad did) but I am old enough to have been in the military, and to have protested, during the Vietnam era. President\u00a0Nixon was forced to resign (or face impeachment) only because those Republicans were not today\u2019s craven sycophants, and that Supreme Court did not have a corrupt majority beholden to far right special interests.<\/p>\n
The Jan. 30 edition of the Breeze also published a second lengthy letter, by Mr. Biefelt. That letter is a model of misinformation worthy of the Trump propaganda machine. Of course Trump\u2019s favorite target, Obama, is blamed for the immigration crisis today. The writer states the number of immigrants removed from Minnesota as 10,000, more than triple the actual figure, while the number of ICE \u201cgoof ups\u201d is stated as a staggeringly inaccurate \u201cless than 1%.\u201d This letter goes on to repeat favorite right wing talking points since Reagan: Our country has been invaded by \u201clarge numbers of people\u2026 to suck off the teat of our welfare system\u201d and protesters are \u201cpaid anarchists.\u201d The writer inaccurately claims Renee Goode struck the officer who killed her with her car \u201ccausing internal bleeding\u201d and the officer had to move his family into hiding for just \u201ctrying to do his job of ridding our nation of criminals.\u201d That is so far from reality it\u2019s not even wrong.<\/p>\n
Speaking of ICE agents why are they allowed to wear masks and supposedly given \u201cabsolute immunity\u201d? No other US law enforcement agent or correctional officer, prosecutor or judge has either of those \u201cprotections.\u201d<\/p>\n
We are at a tipping point: the 2026 midterm elections will determine the direction we take: democracy or fascism. Trump knows this and is doing everything he can to protect his power. His outrageous military actions abroad have not been just distractions from his participation in Epstein\u2019s activities and his failure to improve the economy for anyone who is not a billionaire donor, they are distractions from Trump\u2019s authoritarian overreach here at home.<\/p>\n
Vote like your life depended on it, because it just might.<\/p>\n
Billy Herman<\/p>\n
Cape Coral<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: I think I was wrong. I complained that The Breeze allowed letters filled with false…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-145678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}