Are we great again?

Readers assess the fallout from the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki

Intel leaders don’t lack intelligence

TRUMP WAS reported to have tweeted July 18: “So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki.” Let’s ask him: We have no question that you were in Helsinki for a press conference nor that you put on a performance. But, Mr. President, we have questions about the remaining two words you tweeted today: Intelligence and love.

Are the leaders of the CIA, FBI, NSA and the director of National Intelligence, who, in their judgment, felt that Russia engaged in attempts to influence our election, at sufficiently “higher ends of intelligence?” Could you have possibly — “misspoke”?

MICHAEL BARON Corrales

Traitor defies America’s core values

THERE IS AN imposter in the White House. He claims he wants to “make America great again.” His actions are those of one who wants to tear America down. Instead of unifying citizens, he has deliberately provoked acrimony and division. He repeatedly injects incivility and falsehoods into public discourse that wound the fabric of democracy. Rather than defend the Constitution, he has attacked its basic tenets: freedom of the press, rule of law and equality under the law.

He has turned our country from a beacon of hope and bastion against tyranny into a nativist, rogue nation subject to a dishonest demagogue. Rather than defend those who safeguard our freedom, he undermines our agencies of justice, defense and intelligence and sows doubt about their integrity.

He is hostile to the nation’s allies, and embraces those who would destroy our way of life. He threatens our economic stability by needlessly throwing up barriers to trade with established partners.

He shamelessly uses his position for personal economic gain. He is a traitor to America and needs to be removed from his position immediately so that the people can begin healing and rebuilding the greatness of our nation.

DONALD LEVERING Santa Fe

Meddling charges can go both ways

ALL VLADIMIR PUTIN had to say to take the wind out of Trump’s sails regarding getting on Putin’s case for meddling in the U.S. election was, “The U.S. meddled in the election in Israel. The U.S. meddled in Brexit.

The U.S. wiretapped the German leader’s phone. You meddle in our affairs.”

KEN MOULTON Rio Rancho

Remember Hillary Clinton’s dishonesty

RE: “OBAMA gives Trump sharp rebuke in Mandela address,” (ABQJournal.com, July 18) doesn’t Trump know he should have sent Putin a planeload of money and apologized to him as well? It seems Trump will just never learn.

Regarding Hillary (Clinton)’s (tweet, according to CNN Politics): “Now we know” (which team Trump plays for the Trump-Putin meeting and in answer to that question she posed before the meeting in Helsinki), does that mean Obama was on Iran’s side when he sent them the planeload of money? ...

Trump won, fair and square. Why not let him give his term a shot, instead of all the harassing he and his family are enduring? ...

Hillary had her chance and blew it, due to her dishonesty. If she tries to run again, people should remember how she operated an e-mail server on the sly and (allegedly) illegally sent and received classified e-mails. People should remember how she stood up and in front of everyone said, over and over, “I never sent or received

anything that was marked classified.”

Why anyone would pay this woman to make a speech is laughable!

BETTY J. HAWLEY Albuquerque

Journal buried story of summit disaster

“Trump embraces longtime U.S. foe Putin” — headlines July 17

Opened up the paper this morning, looked at the headlines, didn’t see what I expected. Looked some more, found it! Below the fold, small caps, nothing conveying the disastrous facts of the Trump/Putin meeting. Doesn’t surprise me I guess. I was hoping for more real journalism, maybe like “Trump disgraces the United States,” “Trump , what does Putin have on him?” You know, like why did Trump sell the U.S. intelligence agencies down the river and under the bus?” something like that that reflects FACTS! Not the usual Trump lies.

But then I realized, sigh, this is just the Albuquerque Republican.

You will accept the hat Trump is wearing anytime, be it his traitor hat or the serial lying hat he has on all the time, and try to put the good spin on Republican fake news! All Republican, all the time...

I look forward with great interest when Special Counsul Mueller releases all the summons, arrest warrants and hopefully the “perp” walk from the White House he has defiled, to jail. The man deserves no respect, and I have none for (him). Even (Fox) news was disgusted! Wow, what’s that tell you?

DAVID WARDEN Albuquerque

Denial of facts endangers republic

HERE IS WHY the Republic is going to collapse: At a recent campaign rally, President Trump bragged that 3.4 million jobs had been added to the American economy since the November 2016 election. This was not a statistic he made up — he cited the Bureau of Labor Statistics as his source.

I believe it. I don’t like Donald Trump, didn’t vote for Donald Trump, but I don’t decide whether something is true or “fake news” based upon it being positive or negative about someone I like or dislike. If the source is objective and credible, and the BLS is, then I believe it is a fact. Ask any Trump supporter and of course they believe it. After all Trump himself said it.

Now here is the problem. The very same BLS reported that in the year and a half before the election, which of course was under President Obama, there were 3.9 million jobs added to the economy. Now mathematically that is not a huge difference – less than 1 percent per month. But again, 3.4 million new jobs in the 18 months since the election, 3.9 million new jobs in the 18 months before the election, and this coming from the

exact same source. I also believe that is true. Try quoting that latter statistic to any Trump supporter and they will interrupt with, “Fake news from the media haters,” before you even finish the sentence. Trump has also done this with the “failing New York Times,” which apparently wasn’t failing when it was reporting on the booming economy — at least since November 2016. And of course, his legion of supporters believes whatever he tells them.

What happens in November 2020 when the same Electoral College that declared Trump the winner in 2016, declares him the loser, and he denounces it as “fake news” and refuses to leave?

No country can survive when half the population arbitrarily decides that one fact is true and another false based solely upon what they want to believe, even when both facts are coming from the same source.

We’re not going to beat the Romans.

RALPH DOUGLAS Albuquerque