Letters: Crack down on Uber for revenue

While the city of Chicago is in desperate need of money and trying to find ways of raising taxes, it continues to give UberX a free ride. Taxi medallion owners and limo drivers pay for ground transportation taxes, chauffeurs’ licenses, city stickers, insurance policies and stamps fees at the airport. Add that up for thousands of UberX drivers. I have seen suburban cars without city stickers and cars with Uber stickers and license plates from Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota picking up people at the upper level of O’Hare (without purchasing the $4 stamp). A total loss of city revenue. It is time to re-evaluate UberX and make it pay its fair share to the city that needs money.

Nick Flores, Garfield Ridge

Best of times for Cuba, Iran

This has to be the happiest of times for so many of the world’s despots. You know, those guys who run countries where basic human rights are not available to those citizens who disagree with their management styles. These are dictators who perpetuate their power through imprisonment, torture and murder. They generally fall into the not nice guys category.

The foreign policy of the U.S. under the current administration has been very generous to these tyrants. We’re reopening our embassy in Havana even while many innocent Cuban citizens languish in prisons for no other reason than wanting free elections. We’re ready to allow Iran to do what they want with nuclear power and free up billions of dollars in frozen assets. Yet, we can’t get imprisoned Americans freed from Iranian jails.

It seems the general theory is to just give them what they want and they will be nice. That’s like saying the beatings will stop when morale improves. It wouldn’t surprise me if the new show out this fall is Dancing with Despots. We should just be careful with whom we do the tango.

Mike Simon, Glen Ellyn

Takedown for Kelly vs. Trump

For as much as he fulfills our need for a Teddy-Roosevelt-type bull in a china shop, Donald Trump suffers from Ayn Rand’s void of soul and spiritual grounding, notwithstanding their economic brilliance. Donald’s Achilles’ heel becomes apparent in his sexism bordering on misogyny. Yes, he might bully the similarly shallow misogynist Middle East leaders, Putin, and China. However, he cries when faced down by a sharp, tough woman, Megyn Kelly. She beat him up in the debate, and he knew it. Two weeks later he comes crawling back like a third-grader shouting insults at her through the classroom door. Presidential?

It says something is amiss in his soul that he has let Kelly, a brilliant, tough professional woman, so unnerve him, and he can’t fire her. Imagine President John F. Kennedy handling this with charm, grace, and a deft sense of humor. Donald, you are letting Megyn Kelly show you up, and take you out.

Otto Rieke, Overland Park, Kan.

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