I was hoping to get a reply to my April 21 letter but was surprised to get double bubbles from socialist elites Mr. Rick Bodlaender and Ms. Bonnie Bryan Fletcher, plus a reply from a companion, Ms. Lucille Funk. Rather than deal with the issues in previous letters, the bubble elites raise new irrelevant matters, which I will answer here.

Mr. Bodlaender states that Trump has more bankruptcies than wives. So what? That attempted insult applies to many business entrepreneurs, wealthy or not. It is also a fallacy because it applies to any person with multiple bankruptcies and only one or more wives. For perspective, Western Washington had more than 1,200 bankruptcies in March and more than 300 of them were for businesses. (Seattle Times, April 30, 2017, pg. D2). Logically, some of those who had filed had more than one bankruptcy and one wife.

With regard to Trump’s debt to the casino employees, most persons with any business acumen know that by law, those debts are discharged in bankruptcy proceedings. That process is not unlike the loss of wages by the thousands of employees fired annually by Microsoft and Boeing. I believe the $25 million payment by Trump for the Trump University settlement was not a fine but restitution to the students. The last phony issue the bubble whines about is Trump’s income taxes. His 2014 return was stolen/leaked and it showed he paid a higher percentage tax than Clinton, Saunders and others. He has complied with all election law financial disclosures, so in my opinion, his private tax returns are none of the elite’s darn business.

I find nothing in Ms. Fletcher’s letter but confusion. However, she raises two immaterial points requiring comment. First, Trump did not serve in the military. He did graduate from a military academy. Did her recent socialist heroes serve in the military? Not only did Bill Clinton and Barack Obama not serve, but my son, who is a major general, said they openly showed disdain for the armed services, and that was reciprocated by the soldiers. Second, I wonder which Americans she refers to who value freedoms. It cannot be socialist/liberal Democrats who I believe regularly send black-clad thugs with covered faces, equipped with bats, to attack Republican marchers, or persons paid to disrupt town hall meetings, or Congresspersons who walk out of committee hearings or House sessions to show disrespect for the president. Those people are trying to stifle freedom. All Democrats should be ashamed of that kind of childish behavior. If they value freedom they will instead cooperate to move the country forward.

Edward Bell,

Kirkland