Like this cartoonist? Tell us at Martyt@lmtribune.com
Harvesting stupidity
No, it’s not climate change that’s causing the increased wildfires. It’s the harvest of the seeds sown by the ignorance, stupidity and pandering of judges, politicians, government officials, environmentalists and newspapers during the past 30-plus years.
Carbon dioxide levels and average temperatures could drop to 16th century levels overnight and the forests would still burn this hot.
Field foresters, like myself, began warning the public decades ago that with the absence of periodic fires, forests were building up a much higher fuel load than would normally occur and that, if left untreated, the forests would burn in a far more destructive manner.
So we advocated for thinning through logging, precommercial thinning and controlled burns. We backed President George W. Bush’s Healthy Forest Initiative for fuel treatment in our national forests and we caught grief and disbelief from all sides. The environmentalists said that thinning would cause even worse fires. Govs. Gavin Newsom, Kate Brown and Jay Inslee didn’t say a word in support of fuel treatments 20 years ago and this newspaper published idiotic David Horsey cartoons denigrating the president and the program.
You all got what you asked for — no forest management or fuel treatments. Now we have the fires that forest managers said would happen.
To cover your backsides, climate change has to be the problem now since anything else would expose your decades-long total ignorance of forest biology.
These fires are killers and the entire lot of you should shut up and pay attention. But you won’t.
Bob Hassoldt
Kendrick
Never meant to say it
As you are reading this letter, I can’t help but wonder if my comments made at the Lewis Clark Valley Chamber breakfast on Sept. 17 about our airport have become more widespread.
Has the media gone into catch-up or cover-up mode?
It was a comment I never intended to make. The county’s position has continued to be that the Joint Powers Agreement with the city is the governing document and that the county appointees have our full support to deal with these kinds of issues.
The city may have a different view, and that prompted a letter from the airport board. But the snickering and comments coming from a table to the left of me changed my mind. Some people find this funny. I find it disgusting. As I said there, what business would stand for this? Enough is enough.
I really hope by now the media is doing its job, that the full extent of the problems at the airport from the old guard are beginning to be exposed and that the board can move on and continue its good work with the new manager and the increase in flights we are all hoping for.
One sure way to stop or reverse the airport growth is to put the wolves back in charge of the hen house.
Doug Havens
Lewiston
Don’t starve the watchdog
“Newspapers are not like most things. If you decide not to buy a watch or cappuccino, you save money.”
Newspapers occupy a unique place. They do a public service like libraries and police departments. But they cannot accept government money because we don’t want our free press influenced. That leaves them as private enterprises. Private enterprises have to make money to survive. ...
When the local newspaper goes out of business, taxes go up. With no one watching and reporting, some local officials are less honest or careful. Banks know this and increase loan rates to cities by an average 0.1 percent. That accumulates. The average loan to cities in the study was $65 million. That is $65,000 per year for 10 years. Big bucks. Further, if a newspaper exits a local market, voting turnout decreases.
We are fortunate in the valley to have a long-standing local newspaper that is invested in this community. Stop complaining that there might be something in this newspaper that you don’t agree with — that is beside the point. We need a local newspaper. If you don’t support it with your subscription, it could go under. Our community — and your wallet — would be the worse.
One local example may be the racially biased police brutality on Mark Domino. The Lewiston Tribune stayed on this story for more than a year. Finally the unjust charges have been dismissed.
Who bears the cost if no one wants to pay for their local newspaper?
Mary Minton
Clarkston
Reconsider, Cindy
“... Even though there are wild fires all around, I can only see blue sky and smell the pine scent from the trees. It’s my heaven.”
How lovely for Cindy Agidius to be able to sit on her rental cabin porch and ignore the hell on earth as the West burns.
She says in her recent column that she will vote for President Donald Trump, while blaming him, along with what she refers to as “an out-of-control” media, for our national unrest. Trump asserts that the press is the enemy of the people.
We know who the real enemy is — the man and administration who are tearing apart our democracy and planet.
Agidius suggests that not voting for Trump would be foolish, apparently blinded by her obsession with what she interprets as conservatism. She stokes fear herself by claiming that electing Democrats would lead to some sort of socialist nightmare. Absurd.
As fires raged, Trump briefly visited the West and proclaimed that it will get cooler. “I don’t think science knows actually ...” were his words.
This man is a disgrace and a threat we cannot afford for another four years.
Cindy Agidius, regardless of your commitment to what you refer to as conservatism, please reconsider. To do otherwise, in my opinion, would be foolish.
Greg Meyer
Moscow
Restore America
How many times must we continue to listen to and believe the words that President Donald Trump is spewing? Trump continues to contradict his own health officials regarding the coronavirus. First it was Dr. Anthony Fauci who has advised six presidents on many domestic and global health issues. Now he demeans Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who Trump appointed, by saying about Redfield: “I think he made a mistake. ... It’s just incorrect information.”
Trump does not listen to the medical experts who report the facts. Trump continues to flout local mask rules and supports people who ignored governors in states who tried to impose social distancing in order to help control the virus.
In May, he announced that the U.S. would terminate its relationship with the World Health Organization.
Trump and his administration continue to downplay the virus and are creating an atmosphere of disbelief in the CDC and local health departments.
The virus has infected more than 6.6 million people in the U.S. so far and has killed more than 200,000.
Trump says a vaccine could be ready before the election. He continues to mix public health with politics. We need a leader who will listen to the experts, not make up lies, and who will put the American people first over his political party.
We need Joe Biden to help restore America to the great country it once was. Vote for our country, not a party. Stop the hate. Vote Biden.
Debra R. Allen
Lewiston
Out of date
If you’re going to keep the inmate log on your website, maybe you should try updating it or taking it off because it gets really frustrating whenyou still have it up but have not updated it in more than six months.
Melinda Rustemeyer
Clarkston
Alternative to BLM
Do you want to donate money to help improve the lives of Black Americans? Are you not sure about contributing to a Marxist-led group such as Black Lives Matter, which wants to destroy the nuclear family? So where do you send your money?
Try investigating the Woodson Center. Its goal is to “transform lives, schools, and troubled neighborhoods from the inside out by involving those suffering the problem, empowering local leaders to identify capacities of residents and help them to achieve their potential.”
The Woodson Center was instrumental in forming “1776 Unites,” which is a “movement to liberate tens of millions of Americans by helping them become agents of their own uplift and transformation by embracing the true founding values of our country.”
This came about as a response to the “1619 Project,” which attempts to rewrite American history with the central thesis that the aim of the American Revolution was to perpetuate slavery.
The New York Times and the left are attempting to introduce the Project’s curriculum into every school in the country.
Woodson Center founder Robert Woodson Sr. can be seen in the film “Uncle Tom.” I would challenge all serious voters to watch this movie. “Uncle Tom” features a number of provocative Black conservatives sharing about their lives and their unapologetic love and optimism for our great country.
You won’t find these viewpoints in the mainstream media. You can rent this film by going to uncletommovie.com. It is well worth your time.
Bruce Crossfield
Clarkston
Upside down
With due respect, I’m sure that columnist Marvin F. Dugger is a much better carpenter than a political theorist. As evidenced in “Political correctness has flipped everything upside down” (Sept. 20), it is Dugger’s world that is upside down.
Political correctness is an equal opportunity sport. It is equally engaged in by Republicans as by Democrats.
People have been labeling each other forever.
In the world I grew up in, conservative labels for sexuality commonly heard included “faggot,” “queer” and “dike.” Ethnic labels that I heard growing up in Kennewick included “spick,” “dago,” “beaner,” and “n*****.”
They all denominated someone denied constitutional rights equal to that enjoyed by “whities.”
Speaking of labeling: Republicans have been falsely labeling liberals as “socialists” for 125 years or more. Social Security isn’t socialism. Neither are government medical care programs nor Aid to Dependent Children or any other of a number of social programs operated in capitalistic countries.
As for treating anonymous tips and rumors with no corroborating evidence as fact, excuse me for laughing while typing this response. But Dugger’s complaint is hysterical considering that conservatives don’t demand any evidence at all for accepting President Donald Trump’s daily lies, fabrications and fake information.
Dugger says “Someone needs to stop this before our country descends into anarchy.”
It is the fact that conservatives have resolutely resisted equality for all and feel their world is being turned upside down by efforts to deliver constitutional guarantees.
Terence L. Day
Pullman
Endorses Lamar
As a former Latah County commissioner (Republican), I assumed retirement would mean observing but not participating in local politics anymore. However, the current Republican candidate for county commissioner, Gabriel Rench, running against incumbent Tom Lamar, is a person I not only will not vote for, but someone I’m willing to speak out against.
In his literature, Rench implies the commissioners have raised taxes unnecessarily, shorted funding for the sheriff’s office and have not been transparent. This is not the case.
On the issue of property taxes, I suspect Rench is confusing assessments with taxes. They aren’t the same. Be that as it may, I would be interested in knowing just where the commissioners are wasting taxpayer money. If he thinks the sheriff’s office is under-funded, what would he cut without raising taxes to allocate more to the sheriff?
Property taxes are an unfair and outdated form of taxation. This problem, however, is one only the Legislature can fix.
Sadly, there are times when voting comes down to picking the best of the worst, but not in this race. I served with Lamar four years. We didn’t always agree, but we often did. Lamar was as careful as I was about allocating tax dollars. I like to think I was very careful. We commissioners always shared the common goal of distributing taxpayer dollars effectively.
Tom was never adversarial, but a great listener, always gracious and pleasant. He used good judgment and made thoughtful decisions.
I’m proud to call Tom a friend.
Richard Walser
Viola
Dugger’s misrepresentations
Marvin F. Dugger’s Sept. 20 column was “the gospel according to Trump. ...”
All the points he attempted to make were misrepresentations of fact, goofy interpretations or outright lies.
He represented the McCloskys of St. Louis as threatened, “persecuted honest people,” who were protecting themselves and their property from insurgents. Facts as reported by many reliable news sources show the demonstrators walking by were not a real physical threat to the McCloskys’ lives, as they claimed on Fox.
The real threat was an angry, shouting woman pointing a loaded automatic pistol at people on the street while her husband held an assault rifle.
Obviously, Dugger lies with no fact-checking as does the Republican National Committee. They glorified the lying, non-threatened McCloskys at their convention.
The current prosecution of the McCloskys is based on evidence and is not persecution of innocent, honest people. A little Googling reveals McCloskys’ shady lawsuit “honest” history.
A proper “hands up, don’t shoot” characterization of Dugger and all his Tribune commentaries would be “Heads down, stop lying.”
Dugger’s claims that the prosecutor in the Ferguson, Mo., Michael Brown shooting found no evidence. Again untrue. The prosecutor did not present the grand jury with sufficient evidence to charge Darren Wilson. That does not prove Wilson is innocent.
The cycle of mindless destruction Dugger notes actually describes the actions of his beloved president and the president’s money loyal conservative Republicans. We must stop their push toward anarchy. Democrats, women and liberals — vote. Dugger’s much-loved nihilists must be stopped..
Leonard Ross
Clarkston
End is in sight
In his own words, President Donald Trump said that there will be a peaceful transition of power as long as he remains in power. To do this, Trump is actively working to destroy the system upon which our government has existed — that is a free and fair election.
His cries of voter fraud and Democratic hoax have permeated the soft loam of our national consciousness and have found a secure home in the Party of Trump.
Trump has proclaimed that mail-in ballots are frauds and should not be counted and the only way to ensure a peaceful transition of power depends upon his staying in office.
The paradox in this is that Republicans, who might resist this destruction of our electoral process, fear that same voting power when it is in the hands of Trump’s base, and so refuse to defend our country because they fear for their jobs.
Yes, the end is in sight, the end of our system of democracy, the end of our Constitution, and the end of our once great country.
If our elected officials won’t man-up and defend our country, then we must get off our collective butts and vote. Don’t blow it off. ...
If you won’t vote for yourselves, then vote for those who fought to make this our country. Vote for those who stormed the Normandy Beaches. Vote for those who died on Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima, and vote for those who fought the frozen battle at the Chosin Reservoir. ...
Michael Lamping
Craigmont
