Letters to editor of the Pahrump Valley Times

A proper time and place

I fully appreciate our First Amendment rights to free speech and expression.

I am also abhorred by police misconduct and racism. However, I think there is a proper time and place to protest against them.

People go to football games to be entertained. They do not go to have someone else’s political views crammed down their throats.

Speaking as a Vietnam combat veteran, I strongly disapprove of the players who go down on their knees instead of respecting our flag and national anthem. Their grievances, however valid, are unrelated to our country as a nation and its values. Their actions are disrespectful to myself and all of my comrades in arms who go into harm’s way to defend our country, and especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

If these filthy rich game players really want to make a statement, how about doing something that shows real balls.

I’m sure that a bunch of them could ante up a fraction of their huge salaries to charter a jet and fly to Washington. Then they can do their knee thing in front of the White House and the Capitol building. They should do it without requesting a permit, and dare the D.C. cops to try to interfere with or arrest them.

If the cops are stupid enough to mess with them, it would blow the doors off every news outlet in the world and really get their message across.

Of course, they’re not going to do that, and in the meantime, just keep kneeling away and grossing out and disrespecting every veteran and active military man and woman watching the game.

David G. Alexander

Reader: Regarding the Mueller investigation

Mr. Jaronik: perhaps before you critique someone (Mr. Ferrell) else, you should peruse your own “facts.” You claim the Mueller investigation cost over $25 million and was a waste of time and money. The plea agreement between Mueller’s team and Paul Manafort included a forfeiture of somewhere between $42 million and $46 million in cash, insurance policies and real estate. The real estate alone was worth an estimated $22 million. And that’s only Manafort.

The income from the Mueller investigation continues to rise over and above the costs - not to mention the many convictions of criminals. That is NOT a waste of time and money.

As for the president being entitled to the “same legal protections as any other citizen” you fail to mention that the president cannot be charged with any crimes while in office. “Any other citizen” would be charged in a heartbeat. He’s the one who is over-protected.

As for “making insinuations and making statements that, at best, can be considered subjective” you didn’t mention that Mueller didn’t further investigate wrongs done by the president since he couldn’t prosecute a sitting president. They were not insinuations, they were facts that could not be investigated by Mueller but can be investigated, and are, by Congress. “Lock Him Up” will be the new chant.

Oh, wait, you only watch “Faux News”, who didn’t tell you all those things. They do seem to leave a lot out when “reporting” that you wouldn’t be aware of. Perhaps you could watch more than Faux News before you make an opinion that is “backed with research.”

CJ Stevens

Reader responds to letter

In reply to Mr. Ferrell’s letter in the Aug. 14 PVT about how the Democrats will clean our kitchens, I submit the following:

The Koch Food Processing plants that were the subject of recent ICE raids in Mississippi are owned by a Mr. Joseph Grendys, no relation whatsoever to the Koch brothers.

Additionally, a group associated with the Koch brothers did announce plans to raise $889 million leading up to the 2016 elections. However, after the Republican primary, they decided to not donate to Trump’s campaign at all, deciding instead to focus on the congressional races.

Did you ever consider doing just a little research before embarrassing yourself as you did in your recent article in the PVT? Obviously not ….

Perhaps you should get in touch with Mr. Schiff, or the other noted sleuth, Mr. Nadler, as they both seem to be having great success in their investigations.

Ravi Walanda

An off-road racing crew expresses thanks to officer

All of us at flagger point 356 in the “Best in the Desert” Vegas to Reno off-road race last weekend, would like to thank Officer Flanagan for his helping our situation in the twilight, midnight to early morning hours flagging needs of the race.

Thank you sir for your thoughtfulness and compassion for our safety.

Flagger point 356 crew.

L.E. Worthen

The high cost of bickering

I recently read a couple of articles I found to be most interesting.

One of these articles was about the experimental Small Nuclear Reactors (SNR) going to Idaho to be built there. Why would these SNRs go to Idaho when we have the Mercury Test Site here in Nevada, the perfect place to build these SNRs?

The second article I found was the governor of Idaho bragging about all the jobs (approximately 1,000 jobs) that will be going to Idaho for construction of these SNRs. I found this to be very depressing, another golden opportunity Nevada misses out on. For those of us who have lived in Nevada for a long time, can you think of another great opportunity we Nevadans missed out on? The answer is: The Cyclotron. I now wonder just how many other golden opportunities Nevada has missed out on. The answer is: Unknown at this time. Why is it Nevada is getting passed up by these big projects? Can anybody guess?

Let me explain what happened about the Cyclotron. When the Yucca Mountain Repository Site was being built, Senator Harry Reid, supported by some Nevada legislators, put up so much of a stink with all their constant bickering to the federal government, complaining about so many things involving the construction and the use of the Yucca Mountain Repository, the federal government decided to give Nevada no more federal government contracts. The end results of this failing to recognize Nevada and its potentials has cost Nevada and its citizens an incalculable amount of money and much-needed tax revenue, taxes such as sales tax, fuel tax, room tax for those who stayed in motels and trailer courts, etc.

Regarding state revenue, what are we losing by not licensing the Yucca Mountain Repository Site? It can be assumed the state of Nevada is going to charge a very high rate for licensing to the companies who need to get fuel rods recycled with the use of Yucca Mountain, the transportation to and from Yucca Mountain on the highways, and roads designated by Nevada for such transportation purposes, along with the licensing and costs at a profitable rate to recycle these fuel rods.

If anybody has questions regarding what I said in the previous paragraph, I suggest you contact Harry Reid in Searchlight, Nevada, to ask him why the Cyclotron was not built within the Mercury Test Site and built-in Texas instead. Ask him why Nevada is no longer getting federal government contracts. I am quite sure he will answer any and all questions very politically by saying a lot of words and get nothing said, which can be pinpointed as an answer to your questions.

A lot of the legislators, or politicians in Washington, D.C., if you prefer, think of Nevada as an acute pain in the butt because of all the bickering they hear from Nevada. I wonder why?

This great state of Nevada has some issues to deal with. This constant bickering has cost Nevada millions of dollars annually we can’t afford to lose. With Nevada being in such a financially unstable economic condition as we are at the present time, can we afford to not license Yucca Mountain Repository? Can we afford to see other states get the same projects we are not even being considered for by the federal government? The taxes are not just for the construction and installation of these various projects, but, the people it will take to staff these installations. The monies will be generating tax revenues by these employees in years to come along with the initial construction costs.

Now is the time to look ahead to see what we can do as Nevada legislators and citizens alike to encourage such construction programs to come to Nevada instead of looking backward to see what passed by Nevada’s capabilities to other states with lesser capabilities. The best thing the Nevada legislators can do is to support the licensing of Yucca Mountain Repository and ask what Nevada can do to help the federal government, and go from there, then stop the bickering!!! We have nothing to lose and so much to gain.

Perry Forsyth