A bad prisoner swap

Griner for Bout: WNBA star freed in US-Russia prisoner swap | Dec. 8

I hope that everyone takes a hard look at President Joe Biden’s swap of a star WNBA basketball player for a person who was considered one of the world’s most ruthless arms dealer and is responsible for the deaths of untold numbers of people. I hope that Democrats remember this when the 2024 primaries come around. We don’t need him or President Donald Trump occupying the Oval Office one more day.

Tom Craig, Riverview

Call it what it is

Power rates to increase | Dec. 8

The Florida Public Service Commission should change its name to the Florida Power Service Commission, since it’s never seen a power increase it didn’t like.

Beverly G. Isaacs, Seminole

Lesson learned?

Opinion columns | Dec. 8

Thanks for juxtaposing columns by Leonard Pitts and Hugh Hewitt on the Thursday opinion pages. Pitts summed up the last seven years or so, by explaining how we all have succumbed to Trumpism, how it must stop and how we must move on from this enormous lesson learned. Hewitt, on the other hand, wants to replay the GOP debates that preceded the last presidential election to learn more about the candidates and how they would defeat President Joe Biden. But GOP candidates can’t expound on policies — or maybe don’t because they don’t have any — because they are defending themselves against the face, and bully, of the GOP, Donald Trump. Didn’t the GOP learn anything from the midterms?

David Lubin, Tampa

We need the popular vote

Justices are skeptical of elections case that could alter voting | Dec. 8

If the events of the Jan. 6, 2021, wasn’t enough to change our electoral voting system to a national popular vote, now we must endure the legalistic challenges about voting before the Supreme Court — and potentially, how presidential electors are chosen. Electoral voting reminds me reminds me of the football play we see occasionally, where the quarterback laterals the ball to another player, who then laterals the ball to the tight end who throws the ball to a receiver on the sidelines who catches it for a one yard gain if all goes well and the ball isn’t fumbled. If we had a popular vote system in place Jan. 6 may have never happened. Essentially before us we have the choice of the Supreme Court deciding how elections are decided or the decision of actual citizen voters.

George Chase, St. Pete Beach