Re: “Trump comments on Reiner garner outcry<\/a>,” Dec. 15 news story<\/p>\n I was shocked and saddened to learn the news about Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele. I was totally disheartened and sickened by the president’s vile posts about their deaths. Are there no lows he will dip to as he spews his hatred, only hours after the family learned of their passing? Where are the guardrails on his behavior after sundown?<\/p>\n This constant hateful, vile, disrespectful\u00a0rhetoric oozes night after night. He reached a new bottom-feeder low with his tweets about the Reiners. Does he not think about their adult children and how they might be devastated about the loss and even more about the cruel words?<\/p>\n Who is not taking the phone at night or monitoring what he’s sending? The First Amendment says you have the right to say things, but what about the kindergarten rule — “Is it true? Is it kind? Will it make someone feel better?”<\/p>\n He wants the Nobel Peace Prize … well, he should start acting like someone deserving of it, not like a spoiled teenager mad at the rules.<\/p>\n Cheryl Brungardt, Wheat Ridge<\/em><\/p>\n Please, GOP, get that monstrous lunatic out of our White House. His pernicious desecration of the Reiners after their tragic murder is a bridge too far. Get him out.<\/p>\n Jim Chaney, Denver<\/em><\/p>\n Re: “Take it easy on white-collar criminals,” Dec. 13 letter to the editor<\/p>\n One day in 1980, as a young staff accountant, when I asked our small company\u2019s VP of finance about a wooden box on his desk that said \u201cThe Secret to Success,\u201d he lifted the lid, and inside it said \u201cHard Work.” During an audit the following year, my co-worker and I discovered that the same gentleman had embezzled a hefty amount from our company.<\/p>\n So I take a little different view about white-collar crime in our country: throw the book at these criminals. The opportunity for harm is much more significant. Whether the victim is a person, business, church, non-profit, etc., has no bearing on the type of restitution.<\/p>\n The freedoms allowed by a democratic society naturally also create greater opportunities for fraud. I am not talking about the fake \u201cfrauds\u201d we saw chased down by President Trump\u2019s DOGE unit headed by Elon Musk (which, by the way, has silently closed down), and are of a whole different discussion. I refer to real crimes against real members of American society and the pilfering of hard-earned assets or savings.<\/p>\n Financial penalties and community service, in some instances, certainly are appropriate. However, to impose this type of punishment across the board over more harsh treatment, even at a higher cost to taxpayers, in the long run represents a detriment to how we enforce our laws.<\/p>\n It is an outrage that many such criminals still go free, receive a slap on the wrist, or are pardoned. Tina Peters and Rod Blagojevich set out to enrich themselves, in my view, and justice was fairly handed out; unfortunately, one was let off the hook.<\/p>\n Gary Rauchenecker, Golden<\/em><\/p>\n Every year, I participate in the Colorado Public Radio Classical Carol Countdown<\/a>.\u00a0 This year, for the umpteenth time, “Carol of the Bells” was the winning song.\u00a0For the life of me, I cannot understand why this carol has won so many times.<\/p>\nWhite-collar criminals cause significant harm<\/h4>\n
CPR listeners: It is time for a new old tune<\/h4>\n