SOUND OFF
Did you know that the Pottstown-Stowe Lions Club assists with eye exams and glasses for those with financial need? Call 484366-1074 for an application.
—We Serve
I want to thank the workers in gas, electric, water, wastewater and trash collection who could never shut down during the pandemic, who reported to work every day risking their own health and that of their family members. Without their dedication, health care facilities, Walmart and others would never even be able to open. Utility workers are heroes as well!
Will Wood’s opinion piece in The Mercury made me scratch my ear. He compared the United States’ “dismal” handling of Covid to the approaches taken by Sweden and New Zealand. What he failed to mention is that Sweden is about half the size of the state of Texas with 15 million fewer people than Texas. New Zealand is 40% the size of Texas with 20 million fewer people than Texas. Perhaps readers would have been better served if Mr. Wood’s comparative example was, well, more comparatively relevant. Also, Sweden is a strong socialist welfare country and its response to Covid was a complete failure. New Zealand has a strong capitalist economy and its Covid response is viewed as the gold standard of effectiveness. Perhaps
that deserves some more looking into.
—Barney
To a recent comment by Korean Vet — Do some research. The wall that the illegals came through and 13 were killed was a wall scheduled to be replaced by Trump’s new technology walls. Tom Hylton is at it again with the bike trails in Pottstown and Stowe, wasting more taxpayers’ money for 14 bikes a year. It has already devalued dozens of properties in the borough, and he wonders why assessed value appreciation lags behind all neighboring communities.
—Pottstown Tax Payer
I read the article about the illegal children packed into housing and sleeping on the floors because they don’t have enough beds. Inspectors are not allowed in to check on the children so it looks like the Biden administration is doing a wonderful job compared to the Trump administration. We are now beginning to see the results of the election that no one expected to see. Illegals, lost jobs, Green New Deal, Democrats that will vote for anything. I said anything that will make the Trump administration look bad even if it was better for all the people in this country. Hopefully, people will get out in two years and vote and get things straightened out again.
—Veteran
Congratulations to Ken for turning 60 years old recently. The way things are going, does anybody know if Barbie checked to see if somebody changed his gender?
It has been 2 months now since Ashli Babbit was shot inside our Capitol by law enforcement or security personnel. It was the only incident where a firearm was used on Jan. 6. There were no firearms in the hands of the protesters. Ashli Babbit was unarmed. We know she was white. We don’t know the ethnicity of the shooter. We don’t know who the shooter was or who the shooter worked for and we don’t know with 100-percent certainty that the shooter was even a male. Ashli was 5-feet, 2-inches tall and weighed 110 pounds, and there were no members of Congress in that hallway or close by, according to the family’s attorney. The attorney said the shooter had a mask on. So why was she shot and not arrested or Tased? This is one of the only times that I am familiar with that the identity of a “law enforcement” shooter is unknown for 2 months. Where is the press? What is going on here?
—Michael Stern
Responding to @Patriot54, your notion that we should return our checks is ludicrous. We’re both retired in this household and bring in more in pension and Social Security than the average working American and we’re getting the full amount for the third time now. FYI, we’re still spending the first allotment, which came in the form of a prepaid debit card. Our allotment this round is $1,400 per person but the cost on our behalf is over $5,700 per person ($1.9T/331,000,000). Where is the remaining $4,300 of my money going? And I suppose you feel as though the incarcerated in this country should get more than that too. Do you run your household irrecoverably in debt too? We don’t. I figure that you’re all for letting them all in across the Southern border too, how many are you housing? And no, handing me money while running our country aground will not get my vote ... ever.
—MarkC923
Coming to your community on May 1st — “Hunger Games 2021.” A plague descends upon the United States and it’s every man, woman and child for themselves in a desperate struggle to obtain a lifesaving vaccine.
To all you seniors and vets, Harrisburg has forgotten you. If you don’t pay your school taxes, you will lose your home. A flat tax would fix most problems. You can write, email, post on Twitter and Facebook, telephone your representative and remind them your vote will count. Stick together and vote the bums out. My property tax payments are twice the amount of my original mortgage.
—STAR LIGHT not s-light
These are the people who do not want a border wall: Drug cartels, sex traffickers, smugglers, MS-13, rapists and of course, Democrats. Do you want a border wall Jay, Lefty, Clark, DP, Barb, Night L., Jim T.? We’d like your perspective on some real issues.
—Stinger
Who is Q’Anon? Who has been arrested from Q’Anon? Where is the Q’Anon website? Where were the Q’Anon protests? Where are the Q’Anon riots? Answer to all of these is in the minds of the MSNBC and CNN commentators and Democrats who made up this conspiracy. When it comes to Antifa, we have seen the riots, we have seen the violence, we have seen the burning cars, we have seen the assaults on citizens, we have seen the assaults on police, we have seen the mounting death toll, we have seen the helmets, masks and garb, we have seen landmarks defaced and torn down, and we have seen free speech halted by these radicals in the Democrat Party.
—Marie
In response to DP’s comments about Trump’s taxes, you are not correct that President Trump only paid $750 in taxes in 2019, unless you are his accountant since only his tax returns through 2017 were illegally leaked. He did pay millions in taxes to the IRS from 2004-2017 as the illegally leaked tax returns indicate. Amazon is run by a very, very rich Democrat named Jeff Bezos. Did you know that almost all of our tax laws were written by overwhelming-Democratic members of Congress? Oh and DP, I paid more taxes than you did in 2019, now how is that fair?
—Shirley Huck
If the Democrats found out the illegals we going to vote Republican, we’d have a border wall in a week! —Tom Cat
President Biden had nothing to do with gas prices going up. It had more to do with mismanagement in Texas oil refineries and the power grid. But blaming him looks good in Sound Off.
A favorite quote of Dr. Ben Carson: “We’ve been conditioned to think only politicians can solve our problems, but, at some point, maybe we will wake up and recognize that it was the politicians who created our problems!”
—Jim Fitch
Sound Off is an opinion forum to spur dialogue from residents of the communities The Mercury serves on topics of general interest in those communities and the world beyond. We will not publish comments that are potentially libelous, slanderous, mean-spirited, vulgar or inappropriate. Publication of Sound Off comments is at the sole discretion of the editor and submissions are subject to editing for length. Email your brief comment to letters@ pottsmerc.com. Please use “Sound Off” in the subject line of the email.
The technology to make “deep fake” videos and use those videos to cyberbully people, as a Chalfont woman is accused of doing to three cheerleaders who were part of the same cheerleading group as her daughter, is available to anyone with a smart phone, Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub warned during a March 15 press conference about the case.
“All one needs to do is download an app and you’re off to the races. You can make deep fakes to your heart’s content,” he said.
Raffaela Spone, 50, is charged with three counts of cyber harassment and three counts of harassment in the case.
Her attorney, Robert Birch, said on WPVI that she denies the charges.
The three persons Spone is accused of cyberbullying were all minors at the time of the incidents, Weintraub said. The first report involved a Hilltown resident, he said. The case was investigated by Hilltown Township Police Ofc. Matthew Reiss.
The investigation began in July 2020 after the mother of one of the victims reported her daughter had received a text message saying “you should kill yourself,” the D.A.’s office said.
“She also reported that photos were taken from her daughter’s social media and edited to make her appear to be drinking, vaping, and in one photo, her bathing suit was edited out and covered with skin tone color to make it appear as if she was naked. A video was also sent to the Victory Vipers cheer gym, showing the victim vaping,” the D.A.’s office said on its Crimewatchpa.com page.
The three victims and Spone’s daughter all are part of Victory Vipers, the D.A.’s office said.
The charges involving the other two victims were for messages received in August of 2020, the D.A.’s office said.
Spone used her cell phone to manipulate photos of the victims, Weintraub said.
It can sometimes be difficult to tell when photos or video have been manipulated, he said. It also takes a lot of police work to bring the case to court, he said.
“It only takes a couple of minutes to make a deep fake video, but it takes us, as in this case, months to try to investigate and walk back to the source to connect all those dots to hopefully hold somebody accountable,” he said.