Sounding off: Is our Constitution in trouble?

“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”

Lavrentiy Beria, the most ruthless secret police chief in Josef Stalin’s reign of terror, bragged that he could prove criminal conduct on anyone, even those not guilty of criminal conduct.

America’s present-day Beria is Nancy Pelosi, and her proof is the Jan. 6 commission. State terror in business suits combined with Big Tech, big media and a biased bureaucracy, all with a jaundiced eye designed to thwart former President Trump from running in 2024. An impeachment trial by deputation.

Who shows up for a coup d’état but fails to bring weapons?

So, what do you think this left-leaning, double-secret, rigged kangaroo commission will find? The U.S. Constitution and the First, Fourth, Sixth and 14th amendments will not matter.

It is apparent to me that Pelosi never read yet another document, in this case the one she swore an oath to on multiple occasions to preserve, protect and defend — the one called the U.S. Constitution with the Bill of Rights.

Be very afraid, America, because if Pelosi’s surreptitious pseudo court can deny fundamental constitutional guarantees to a former president, what do you think they can do to you?

David A. Scandrol, Lower Burrell

Thinking about what could have been

As Pennsylvania faces the potential disgrace inflicted on Arizona with Republican elected officials pushing yet additional expensive audits of the Nov. 3, 2020, vote and seeking possession of personal information about millions of the state’s voters, does anyone have any uncertainty about why this is happening?

If you do, ask yourself a simple question: Would Republican state representatives and senators be in high dudgeon about the election if Donald Trump had been named the winner of the Pennsylvania vote, or would they have thought that our system of elections worked just fine? The question is rhetorical.

Oren Spiegler, Peters

The risks of disinformation

Following the science, the research, the math — according to Johns Hopkins’ Oct. 11 Covid Mortality Analyses, not one of over 240 countries had a covid mortality rate as low 0.05%, as claimed by letter-writer George Silowash (“I don’t trust this covid vaccine,” Oct. 9, TribLIVE). Laos and Singapore were lowest at 0.1%. The United States mortality rate was 1.6%, leading to 217 deaths per 100,000 people (covid and non-covid included).

The United States has the most reported confirmed cases at 45 million, followed by India at 34 million and Brazil at almost 22 million. The United States has the highest number of reported deaths from covid at 736,000. Developed country? Well educated? Well-informed? Leader of the free world?

Experimental vaccines? I believe America is infected and infested by too many Americans experimenting with their lives based on disinformation and lies, all stemming from Trumpitis. What were the “serious complications” of the writer’s friends? Death? Let me know when we get to vaccine deaths that match the covid deaths and serious complications therefrom.

In a report updated Sept. 16 by Travis Pittman of CBS-10 WBNS: “A comparison of the latest numbers from Johns Hopkins University and 2020 Census data shows approximately 1 in 500 Americans — about 0.2% of the U.S. population — have died due to covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.” But the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and scientists posit that covid deaths in the U.S. by last May might already have exceeded 900,000 due to undercount.

Do you want to be that 1 in 500?

Bruce Braden, Carmel, Ind.

The writer is a Mt. Pleasant native.

Overextending government’s reach

Those attending the Oct. 19 Greater Latrobe School Board meeting were advised that members of the board have been threatened with criminal prosecution if they had failed to enforce Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam’s current mask order.

The threatening of licensing that otherwise has nothing to do with the matter at hand and the overreach of regulatory agencies to gain compliance with the Wolf administration’s pandemic policy is nothing new. We also saw a similar tactic last year under Dr. Rachel Levine, the previous health secretary, when department store managers and gas station clerks were summarily conscripted into the ranks of state law enforcement agents to enforce the mask order.

The mask order then and the mask order now are not the point. How does Gov. Tom Wolf or anyone else not expect that the turning of citizen on citizen in this way will result in turmoil? Some may argue that the danger of a pandemic necessitates this level of societal upheaval. I disagree.

Our politicians speak gleefully of various and plentiful levers of government that they may pull to force our compliance with policies with which many disagree. Is this the way our government is supposed to work?

I would ask you to consider whether the authority that you have granted to our government is being used by the government in the way(s) designed, intended and given.

Matt Pergar, Unity

Destructive Democrats

The Democrats’ lust for power has pushed America to the brink. They pushed a candidate (Joe Biden) who I believe is totally unqualified due to cognitive decline, and a vice president candidate who I believe was selected solely because of race and gender with no regard for qualification to potentially assume office.

We now have borders overrun by illegal immigrants from all over the world, covid deaths on the rise, runaway inflation, serious supply chain problems, skyrocketing energy prices, and labor shortages only worsened by Biden’s vaccine mandate. Do they have any plans to correct any of these problems?

Bad actors the world over are poised to take advantage of this leadership void. Wake up, America. This goes beyond party loyalty. If this situation isn’t corrected soon, you won’t recognize this country.

Ed Davis, Greensburg

Get your vax facts straight

I am responding to all the sophisticated, morally superior people who believe that the unvaccinated citizens of this country are murderers, self-absorbed, stupid Trumpsters. I am not vaccinated because of health concerns. I fear the covid vaccine just as I fear the vaccines for flu, shingles, pneumonia, etc. We are all different. We all have different needs.

President Biden is dividing our nation with the vaxed vs. the unvaxed, and he is hoping we are distracted enough not to see the other disasters he is creating. Biden is also hoping you haven’t realized that immigrants have been transported to every corner of our country.

While you are focusing on covid, the rest of America is going down in flames.

Jeanne Shields, North Huntingdon

Just because someone believes it …

Letter-writer David Cassidy “No one has privacy anymore” Oct. 12, TribLIVE) says that if enough people believe something, it should be investigated.

Let’s pretend a con man has convinced “enough people” that the moon is made of green cheese. Should NASA spend taxpayer money to investigate this claim, even though it has been debunked by experts, science and investigations? Even though the people this con man has convinced seem to be impervious to being shaken in their “belief” by the findings of previous explorations, so no amount of evidence will convince them?

Cassidy also asks that if the vote is legitimate, why would anyone want to block an “audit”?

1. The cost.

2. The danger of personal information being compromised.

3. The precedent.

4. The fact that no matter what the “audit” comes up with, the people being conned will not believe it anyway.

After reading Cassidy’s letter, I’d guess he is a supporter of the congressional Jan. 6 investigation and is in favor of President Trump revealing his tax returns. After all, what are the Republicans afraid of?

Lastly, just because our privacy is constantly under siege, that doesn’t give anyone the right to hand it over to parties unknown on a silver platter, over my objections and for no good purpose (pleasing Trump doesn’t count).

Mary Beth Walling, North Huntingdon