By Megan Nielsen, The World-Herald

Copyright omaha

In today’s edition of The Public Pulse, readers continue to react to Pete Ricketts’ recent World-Herald op-ed. They also chime in on free speech, good men in Omaha, and the latest discussions surrounding Rep. Mike Flood.

Want your voice to be heard in The Pulse? Fill out this form, or shoot us an email at pulse@owh.com.

Is Ricketts blind to unqualified Trump nominees?

In Sen. Pete Ricketts’ op-ed in The World-Herald, Ricketts whined that President Barack Obama’s and President Joe Biden’s nominees were voted in by bipartisan majorities in the Senate.

Does he not realize that they were qualified candidates? Ricketts’ complaint was that no Democrats would vote for President Trump’s nominees, therefore obstructing’ passage.

Has it not occurred to Sen. Ricketts that none of the nominees that Trump puts forward are remotely qualified? Does he not notice? Does he not care, as long as he does Trump’s bidding?

Rebecca Shuster, Omaha

What a Native American parable says about Trump

There’s an old Native American parable about good and evil. It goes something like this:

A Native elder is talking with his grandson and says that in life there are two wolves inside, each of us, doing battle. One, the good wolf, represents things like honesty, kindness and love.

The other, the bad wolf, represents things like greed, fear and hatred. Which one, the grandson asks, will win? The Native elder responds, “the one you feed.”

For the past decade, when Donald Trump first slithered down the escalator, lying about most immigrants being rapists and murderers, he has infected the body politic with the art of lying, stealing and cheating.

He has bullied, intimidated and struck fear in everyone who disagrees with him. As a malignant narcissist, Trump, a convicted felon and sexual predator, demands loyalty only to himself. More than anyone else, he has fed, constantly, almost without interruption, the bad wolf.

Richard S Hargesheimer, Lincoln

An appreciation for good men in Omaha

This past week, when my teenage daughter was driving on the West Dodge Expressway, our car had a catastrophic mechanical failure, causing the engine to shut off.

Panicked, she tried to coast to safety through the rush hour traffic.

Immediately, a young man stopped and single-handedly pushed her car to the shoulder, then left without acknowledgement.

Thirty minutes later, after I arrived on the scene, another young man named Dylan (on his way home from work) stopped to offer further assistance, trying to help diagnose the problem.

Both men were in their early 20s, and both left without compensation, other than the satisfaction of helping a fellow citizen. There are indeed many good people among us.

Nicholas Manhart, Omaha

Woke and cancel culture on the right

Woke and cancel culture are alive and well. It has just morphed into Maga woke and Maga cancel culture where they tell you what you are allowed to think or do or say without being attacked or cancelled or fired.

Free speech isn’t as alive or well. It is a victim of MAGA woke and cancel culture and a weaponized federal government who uses all of it’s resources to threaten, bully, intimidate and extort anyone who doesn’t do or say what they want them to. I would list all of the current examples but the public pulse is only a half a page a few days a week now so there wouldn’t be room.

Why are we going to waste time and money on all of the nonsense and ridiculous campaign commercials and lies for mid term elections?

Congress serves no purpose anymore now that they have ceded all of their power to the president whom they allow to rule by executive order by declaring everything a National Emergency to go around Congress and act like a King with immunity enabled by the Supreme Court. Think of all of the money we could save by eliminating their salaries and benefits and offices and staffs and travel and expense accounts for a job that they refuse to do. Someone should report them to DOGE for waste, fraud and abuse.

For the record I am registered as independent because I don’t have much use for either party or politicians in general but it is really a mute subject now that we have a King who is focused on personal power and on enriching himself and the royal family.

John Walter, South Bend

A message to Flood about free speech

For Congressman Mike Flood’s observance of Constitution Day, here’s a primer on free speech: People are allowed to say hateful things. Other people are allowed to criticize and even mock them for doing so.

Meanwhile, the Trump-Bondi Axis strives every day to strip from the rule of law the inconvenience of due process.

James Reed, Omaha

Flood wrong not to censure Omar

What can Rep. Mike Flood be thinking? Given the opportunity to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar over her egregious comments regarding the Charlie Kirk assassination, he votes with Democrats NOT to censure her.

Does he have any idea whom he represents? Rep. Omar’s comments were reprehensible and Rep. Flood’s vote was likewise reprehensible.

When does this man’s term of office end? He needs to be gone now and replaced by someone who understands Nebraskans and their values.

Vance Wolverton, Omaha