Cherry-picking
Ahh, the sweet smell of deception.
In college, I learned complete information was paramount to informed opinion. Thus, John Webb (March 22) and Frances Rotter (March 15) failed valiantly. Webb wrote, correctly, there were 60.8 million cases and 12,000-plus deaths in the U.S. from the swine flu pandemic 10 years ago.
What Webb failed to mention was the N1H1 pandemic took place during more than 14 months. The current crisis is barely a month old. So before telling us the sky isn’t falling, not to worry or COVID-19 is no big deal, as he obediently wrote, please include all the data. Cherry-picked information is why we’re here.
And the king of cherry picking is Jesus Trump — as are disciples Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell and Bill Barr. Their arrogance has spread even farther with Sen. Rand Paul, a doctor, arrogantly not adhering to common sense rules of avoiding contact with others. Now he, too, is infected.
Which raises the question: How many citizens has Paul infected?
Rotter squawked the usual Republican talking line: Run for your lives, it’s Bernie the communist or was that socialist? Rotter, obviously, doesn’t know the difference.
But, as misinformation goes, you two are spot on.
This must be the American exceptionalism and endless winning that Jesus Trump keeps droning, right?
Jim Roach
Moscow
Keep calm
The country has been fixated on COVID-19, disease and death. Therefore, here are some facts to help us do “comparable analysis” of other risk factors in our lives.
The Center for Disease Control estimates that influenza during the 2017–2018 season caused an estimated 45 million people getting sick, 810,000 hospitalizations and 61,000 deaths.
The National Center for Health Statistics wrote there were 2.8 million deaths in American in 2018.
There are more than 600,000 deaths from cancer every year and 805,000 heart attacks.
Every year, 40,000 Americans die in car wrecks.
There are hundreds of diseases and disorders that can disable or kill us, yet we don’t have those thoughts in our heads all the time.
The CDC website, as of March 29, estimated COVID-19 results for America: “Total cases: 122,653 and Total deaths: 2,112.”
An Associated Press writer wrote: “For most people, the new virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. The vast majority recover.”
French researchers found that administering hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for three to six days cleared the virus from all patients in a study. American doctors have affirmed similar positive results.
The COVID-19 curve is going to flatten.
New data shows the death rate from a COVID-19 diagnosis is getting lower and closer to the flu rate.
We look at obituaries in the Lewiston Tribune but our hearts race when we read of a COVID-19 death. We need to stay calm, wash our hands, practice social distance and quit obsessing.
Jim Emmert
Kamiah
Words to live by
“If they would rather die” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
Those are very cold words from a cold-hearted character in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
And like Ebenezer Scrooge, when it comes down to making choices, President Donald Trump would rather see people die if that means keeping the economy humming along and increasing his chances for re-election.
From the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, Trump has lied to us and dithered on making strategic decisions. He ignored early warnings from his national intelligence and infectious disease experts. He tried to downplay the seriousness of the outbreak at that senior living facility in Kirkland, Wash. He denied dismantling the federal agency that plans for pandemics. He failed to act quickly to disburse much-needed medical equipment from the national emergency stockpile. He failed to invoke emergency powers to force companies to manufacture ventilators and surgical masks. And time and again, he contradicts and goes against the advice of health experts and scientists, all while berating governors if they do not worship and praise him.
Folks, Trump is not a doctor nor an expert. He doesn’t even do a good job of impersonating one. And he certainly doesn’t speak for them. Don’t listen to him and do not follow his advice. The best way you can defeat this virus is to wash your hands, avoid touching your face, cough in your sleeve, distance yourself from others and avoid listening to Donald Trump.
David Abbott
Clarkston
Do something, Democrats
... As we all shelter in place, let us Democrats stop being amazed and outraged by every perceived wrongdoing by the other party, and consider what we as a party can do to not only prevent a recurrence, but also support our government in solving problems.
We Democrats need to take some heavy blame for the present situation. When then candidate Donald Trump refused to reveal his income tax payments, we fumed but took no action to ensure that future candidates could not use this moral out.
Furthermore, he was the originator of the “birther” movement, which targeted a sitting, duly elected president for his birth certificate. And we did little about that question. ...
Whether the president is denigrating people of color, the handicapped, other nations and their religions, women or even his own staff, we Democrats excel at outrage.
But we haven’t done anything. Rather, we have left action to one or two of our national legislators and hoped for some sort of vindication.
We Idaho Democrats should have risen up in a wave of letters, telephone call, and even personal visits when our own Sen. Jim Risch snored during the Senate impeachment trial of the president. That careless, ignorant act, shown to the nation on television, will forever stain the reputation of Idahoans.
So Democrats, think about what we as a party can do, specifically, to restore our state’s image, our ravaged nation, our gasping climate and our very souls. ...
Frances Ford
Riggins
Betraying the troops
Say, we’re in a war and a colonel or a captain, who is at the forefront of an attack, radios back to the commander -in-chief and says: “We’re running out of bullets. We need 30,000 more.” And the commander-in-chief, in the heat of the battle, says: “I don’t believe you. You’re exaggerating.”
That’s essentially what President Trump did to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. ...
It doesn’t matter what the man in the fight requests. If there is any way on God’s green Earth to deliver what the combat troops need, you do what the soldier in the movie, “1917,” does. You deliver. If you can’t, you be honest and tell the officer so. And then tell him to hang in there the best way possible — that you’re trying your dead-level best to get the ammo for his troops. But if the commander-in-chief basically turns his back on his front-line troops, he is a coward and an evil man.
If you voted for Trump in the last presidential election, don’t just jump up and say, “Hodgin is just a liberal, spewing fake news.” Talk to a combat veteran, Republican or Democrat — there is no difference. They’ll tell you that what Trump did is a cowardly, evil act.
Voting for Trump is dirtying everything I put on the uniform for a half-century ago. In November, you’ll have another chance to make it right. Please, if you have any sense of what it means to stand up for your country, don’t vote for Trump.
D’Wayne Hodgin
Moscow
Agrees with Dugger
I strongly agree with most of Marvin F. Dugger’s column, “Corona pandemic exposes China’s venality.”
Today, I want to talk about a minor point regarding the origin of COVID-19, which was either a government biological warfare lab or the Huanan seafood wholesale market. He said, “Either way, it is a product of their corrupt and incompetent communist government.”
If it escaped from a government laboratory, then that was government incompetence. ...
But if it spread from the globally sourced wholesale market in Huanan, then it’s just business. ...
The kind of government that regulates the market is irrelevant to the basic function of business. The purpose of business is to make money: to find or create demand, then to provide the goods and services to meet that demand. The kind of government back in the capital determines how one works with that government: communist, capitalist or, like here in the U.S., fascist. But business is business, regardless.
I would like to see his thoughts on Ross Perot, who ran for president as an independent, because he was opposed to the Republican and Democrat project to create NAFTA, GATT and the World Trade Organization. It would create “a giant sucking sound” as factories left the country.
... He was simply correct. Those who voted Republican or Democrat were devastatingly wrong. ...
If people want to see global corporations return their factories to the U.S., why do they vote for Republicans and Democrats? Why don’t they set up their own party? ...
Wiley Hollingsworth
Pullman
Mobile market still on
On April 17, there will be a Second Harvest mobile market event held at Our Savior’s Lutheran church parking lot, 1115 13th Street, Clarkston, from 11a.m. to 1 p.m.
This will be the 29th event held at the church. There has been over 237,000 pounds of food distributed by Second Harvest for area families in need.
With the COVID-19 virus, the event has been designed for the safety practices that are required. The food will be prepackaged and in grocery bags. There will also be sanitizing procedures. Please be patient and all will be served.
This event is open to all. Walk-ins are welcome. Thank you to all the people who volunteer and help in making this event a success throughout the year.
Rodger Rawson
Clarkston
