I was reading in the Star-Ledger that Russia attacked Ukraine on Christmas Day with a large barrage of missiles, damaging Ukraine’s power grid and a thermal power plant.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent war, started almost three years ago. Not coincidentally, President Joe Biden had been in office for just over a year. He then boasted that the economic sanctions that he was imposing upon Russia would cripple them.
This appears to be just another failure of Biden’s administration. Campaigning in the 2020 election, he said that Vladimir Putin knew better than to mess with him. Well, we see where that has gone.
It’s gone the failure route of Biden’s economic policy, his border policy, etc. Biden’s faux tough-guy demeanor has fooled no one, especially the international community.
Yes, now it’s time to turn the page.
Here’s hoping for international peace at least for the next four years.
Greg McLaughlin, Belle Mead
The wolf, the sheep, and the value of victims
To paraphrase George Orwell, in this “Animal Farm” — the one called America — all animals are created equal but, as bitter experience has taught us, some animals are more equal than others.
A case in point is the extraordinary lengths to which authorities went tracking down the alleged killer of insurance executive Brian Thompson, in essence, a “wolf” who made money for his company by denying the “sheep” access to life-saving medical care.
There were hundreds of cops on the case, extensive use of surveillance cameras to track suspect Luigi Mangione’s movements, high-level press conferences, front-page headlines, and ultimately, simultaneous state and federal charges leveled against him.
Then, we see a minor writeup: “N.J. man sentenced man to 15 years for beating 18-year-old man to death in city street,” about an aggravated manslaughter case from 2020 in Paterson.
The 40-year-old man was convicted last year of beating his victim — one of the “sheep” — Nicolas Reyes, for 11 long minutes. For this, the killer, Tyheem Jones, recently received a 15-year sentence. That’s fewer than the number of years his victim lived. And, Jones will be eligible for parole after serving 85% of the sentence, less than 13 years.
So much attention is given to the wolf, while the sheep’s life is treated as if it were nothing.
If only the sheep realized how vastly they outnumber the wolves.
John Woodmaska, Kearny
Star-Ledger needs self-examination
The Star-Ledger’s Jerry Izenberg is a swell guy and a terrific sports columnist.
But, his recent piece, “The crazy story of an N.J. college that never existed…,” about a prank involving phoning in phony football scores to newspaper sports departments many years ago, lacked awareness and class. The article repeatedly mocked The New York Times for falling victim to the scam by publishing the fake score, but never acknowledging the error.
One could fill a book with examples of how The Star-Ledger has become a pathetic relic of a real newspaper, but I’ll cite just one from the Dec. 26 print sports section: The story on the New York Knicks’ annual Christmas Day basketball game at Madison Square Garden was sourced from the Associated Press wire service.
Apparently, Manhattan is too distant a destination for a Star-Ledger sportswriter.
So, before the Star-Ledger publishes columns that mock other newspapers, maybe it should look at its own.
Ed Marks, Millburn
They’re still gaga for Gaetz
Concerning former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., whose conduct a just-released House ethics committee report strongly criticized:
Although he had won re-election, Gaetz resigned from Congress in mid-November, after he was forced to withdraw as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
It should be of interest that on Election Day, 66% of the voters in his district voted for him over a Democratic challenger.
Either these voters didn’t know about Gaetz’s behavior, or they didn’t care about it.
What does this say about the state of politics?
Carl Singer, Passaic
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